Best Movie Castings of All-Time + Movie Review: Madam Web + Trailer Park: Deadpool and Wolverine

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Today I want to share with you what I think are the best movie castings of all time, because they just came out with the official cast for the new Fantastic Four movie and everybody's freaking out over it. There's a long, weird history with Fantastic Four, so we'll dive into all that. In the movie review, we'll be talking about Dakota Johnson's performance in Madam Webb and oh man, how I loved all the press she did leading up to this movie. Is it going to be a disaster? That is the question. And in the trailer park, we'll keep it in Marvel, except we'll step out of the Sony Spider verse and hop over into the MCU to talk about dead Pool and Wolverine. So thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. Now let's talk movies.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: 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 so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTV Woods glasses from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike's Movie Podcast.

00:01:12
Speaker 1: You finally have it, the official casting for the new Fantastic Four movie, which is coming out on July twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. We're gonna have to wait a minute for this one. Everybody has been speculating, everybody's been freaking out about Fantastic Four. And maybe I'm the only person who doesn't fully get the Fantastic Four movies because I don't really see anything fantastic about them. And I think it's whenever Pedro Pascal was just rumored to be mister Fantastic that I was like, what is the big deal? What am I missing about these movies? And it was at that time that I went back and rewatched every single Fantastic Four movie and I still don't get it. And this is coming from somebody who loves Fantastic Four in the comic books, which is why there's been so much of a demand to make this movie. And when you look at Marvel movies, historically, the movies that got made first were the ones that had the most popular comic books. You go way back into the nineties, and I'm talking even outside of the TV shows that were made, but they wanted to make the big properties have their movies first. That's what we got Fantastic four. There was a movie in the nineties that never came out because it was so awful. But that's why we got The Hulk first, the X Men, and of course Spider Man, because those were the best selling comic books, the ones everybody loves, so naturally you want to make movies about your most popular heroes first. And that is also what led to the history of the MCU, because Marvel was selling off all of their big properties left and right, because they were the Marvel that they are now. They weren't acquired by Disney. They were struggling to stay alive because the movies historically didn't perform well at the box office. So Marvel had to go and sell the movie, right, it's to different studio. They sold movies off to Fox, they sold them off to Sony, and the ones they kept for themselves were the less popular superheroes. So if you look at the MCU, which started in two thousand and eight with iron Man, iron Man was by no means one of their most popular characters, but it was really all they had the rights left to so then they started building their empire, and that's what you had. Movies made with less popular characters. The Avengers themselves all individually weren't the most popular. They didn't quite compare it to all the big heroes. But at the bottom base layer of that, it was always Fantastic for they were the first superhero family. And the thing that really set them apart, and much like a lot of the Marvel superheroes, was that they had flaws. They got put into situations that everybody on the DC side didn't have to deal with. Fantastic Four had to deal with money issues. Their headquarters would be taken away because they couldn't afford rent, and they went through all these real life things and they placed them in New York City, so it felt very real and they had a lot of comedic elements to them. That is why I think young readers grasped onto the Fantastic Four so much. And their superpowers were very elaborate. You have read Richard's aka Mister Fantastic who his body is essentially elastic and he can stretch out and do all these weird things. You have Sue Storm aka the Invisible Woman. You have Ben Grimm aka the Thing, and then you have Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, and the villain is Victor von Doom aka Doctor Doom. And the thing about all these characters is they are so cartoony. They're great in the comic books, but it's such a hard movie to get right because of that. I love mister Fantastic, but when you put him onto the big screen, it looks incredibly cheesy. And the Thing is also very hard to get right with the aesthetic and the look of the Thing. But I would think that they didn't really have the idea of turning this into a live action franchise at the point of conception. So I think that's why historically Fantastic Four has had such a rough go at the box office and when it came to the big screen adaptations. First you had Fantastic Four in nineteen ninety four, which was the movie that never saw the light of day. And just to give you context on how bad this movie was, here is a scene in the movie where Ben Grimm first turns into the Thing, and he sounds like Patrick Starr from SpongeBob. Ben, We're all gonna go get some help. Tell me that doesn't sound like an episode of SpongeBob. I want all of you got to look at it. That's a SpongeBob reference for all you pineapple heads out there. And I would argue that in between nineteen ninety four and all the way to two thousand and five, they didn't improve that much in quality. They still had that level of cheese, which I guess going into it you have to expect a little bit. So maybe that is something that I just fully didn't understand about these movies. But anyway, you had it in two thousand and five Rides of the Silver Surfer in two thousand and seven. In those movies, you had Johann Griffith as Reid Richard's Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, who he would go on to be in another Marvel franchise, The Avengers, and of course Captain America. He had Michael Chickliss as Ben Grimm aka the Thing. And then you had Julian McMahon as Victor von Doom. And the thing is Doctor Doom is such a great character in the comic books, but on screen in these movies, his mask looks terrible, and he is such an incredibly cheesy villain that it almost looks like you're watching a bad soap opera. But you had that one in two thousand and five, follow it up with a sequel in two thousand and seven, which the Silver Surfer is another great comic book hero. And I feel like these movies just came out at the wrong time. If you took this same cast and put it into the twenty and fifteen version, I think it would have been a better movie. But then they tried to get in twenty fifteen. You have Miles Teller this time as Read Richard's aka Mister Fantastic, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, and Tony Kebble as Doctor Doom. This is a pretty decent cast, but somehow they managed to make this movie even cheesier. And I think what happened here is they spent more money and paid more attention to detail on the special effects. That the script in this movie was terrible, And the scene that drives me crazy is how they finally decide to name their group, listen to the level of acting and just poor writing in this clip.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: Come along way since the garage.

00:08:07
Speaker 1: It's fantastic. Say that again, it's fantastic. Yes it is, guys, I got it, And then it cuts to their name. Fantastic for that's how they came up with it. That is terrible, terrible writing. So that is the reason I have not the highest of expectations going into this movie, even though this new one has a fantastic cast, which I want to get into now. Just announce this past week on Valentine's Day, which I thought it was a really cool way that Marvel announced it. They essentially put out this old school looking Valentine's Day card and then you had all the actors in their suits drawn animated. It was a really cool retro looking way and a fun way to announce a movie. Casting one of the best I've seen in years. When I saw it the official casting, even though it all been kind of rumored, I was like, Okay, this actually looks like it could be pretty good, and it's going to come down to how good is the script and how much are they going to pay attention to the visual effects, because you can't have but these visual effects given all of these characters, but also you have to come through with a much stronger story that we've had in the past. So Pedro Pascal is Read Richard's aka mister Fantastic. Pedro Pascal is a really hot actor right now, coming off the Last of Us. I feel like he is somebody that everybody wants a piece of right now. For an actor who's been around a while, is now really translating into becoming a full out movie star. So I feel like him taking on this role, they have to kind of queue him up on the plan that his character has throughout the MCU. I don't feel like he would take this as a one off. I feel like they had to offer him a multi movie deal to connect him in the EMS, so whether it be more Fantastic Four movies or also cameos in the new Avengers movies or Secret Wars movies, which the Fantastic Four are probably going to play a bigger role in those movies given that we don't really have any Avengers anymore. I was just rereading Secret Wars and it really made me excited to see a more refined Read Richards, which is what you have in that Secret Wars. For yes, he is super smart, like he has been depicted in movies, but also has some internal struggles and things going on in his mind, and I feel like Pedro Pescal could be the person to bring that out and read Richards as Sue Storm aka the Invisible Woman. You have Vanessa Kirby, who maybe I kind of missed a boat on her, but it's really been in the last year that I've been more familiar with her and enjoying her performances in movies like Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning. I thought she was really good in that and in Napoleon, even though I didn't love that movie, I thought her performance was great that movie. I could care less about Napoleon. I cared more about her character, which was the wife of Napoleon. So I feel like she's also on the rise right now. And she has shown me in two different types of movies that she can do action and she can do drama. Put those two together and we have her as Sue Storm in Fantastic Four, and then Joseph Quinn, who you would know as Eddie Munson in the latest season of Stranger Things. He is kind of coming on the rise now too. Obviously that has made him, I wouldn't say, a huge star, but it's made him notable, and that show has such a big fan base that I feel like they have him because Okay, you have people who recognize you, now it's time to put you in a big Hollywood movie to see what you got kid. Then, as Ben Grimm aka the Thing, we have Evan Moss Backrack, who you would know as cousin in The Bear, another actor here who has found success in the last couple years and now really cashing in on that. And I think he's a really good actor. He is probably one of the biggest driving forces in The Bear, and The Thing is probably a hard character to play because if you've seen the other movies, you are on screen as Ben Grimm for a very limited amount of time, then your role translates into voice acting. They'll probably have him stand in as the Thing, kind of like they did Mark Ruffalo as The Incredible Hulk. Put some big suit on him, put some tracking on his face, and then use his movements to I would hope impose on the character that way. It has a little bit more of a human feel to it and not just look like a big clump of rocks like the Thing is. So maybe that'll work or maybe they'll just go back and make them as comic accurate as possible. So I like the cast. It looks promising. I just really hope that the MCU isn't investing so much in The Fantastic Four, which is historically not performed the best. And if you're in a situation where you're looking for your new ev you're looking for your new team for everybody to root for, but most importantly pay money to go see in theaters, that has me a little bit worried. Now, let's get into some of the best castings in movie history. Since we're talking about superhero movies, I'll kick it off with a couple that I have at the top of my list, and I think this one might be hands down the most important movie casting of all time, and it is Robert Downey Junior as Iron Man. First movie came out back in two thousand and eight. Jon Favreau, who directed the movie, saw Robert Downey Junior and kiss Kiss Bank Bank and thought his wit, his charm, his depth would be perfect for Tony Stark. And this is back when Marvel was not what we know it to be now, and this was so essential going down the line because at the forefront of the MCU, and really the heart of the entire Infinity saga was Robert Downey Jr. As iron Man. He threw the entire MCU on his back and carried it. If you put iron Man in any of the Marvel movies, it would instantly make it a better movie. He proved it. And not only that, he got paid and they realized that because he made millions and millions of dollars as Tony Stark and iron Man, so much so that if the MCU ever gets desperate again and they need that money, they're gonna bring it back sooner than we want because he is so good at it. And I think iron Man is one of the most iconic and important characters in modern cinema and has made billions of dollars at the box office. And it was also a bit of a risk to cast Robert Downey Jr. Who had had issues in the past and had gone through stuff and was seen as kind of a risky choice to base your entire movie studio on. This is gonna be the guy at the forefront of everything. But it worked out perfectly. So at the top of my list, I'm not gonna rank these all in order, But that is such a big important part of the history of Marvel for over a decade and has left such an impression that without that, Marvel would have been much like it had been before going bankrupt and not being able to catch the check. So Robert Downey Junior as Ironman one of the best of all time. Along those same lines, before there was Ironman, there was Wolverine. Hugh Jackman is Wolverine is incredible and I'm gonna get into the Deadpool Wolverine trailer later. And the crazy thing about this is Hugh Jackman actually wasn't the first pick for the role. Dugray Scott was initially cast as Wolverine, but he had to drop out because he had scheduling conflicts. And then the director saw Hugh Jackman's performance in the stage reduction of Oklahoma and saw how charismatic Hugh Jackman was and also just how strong he was physically. And that is the other bizarre thing about Hugh Jackman is we know him as Wolverine, we know him as being able to do action movies, but the dude can sing and is so classically trained in musicals. I could see nobody else as Wolverine, and I feel like he is an actor that just immerses himself in a role when it comes down to the hair and the wardrobe and the physical attributes to me, he is Wolverine, even though in the comic books Wolverine is a much shorter character. Is this really hard headed compact, dude, But once you put Hugh Jackman on the big screen, it is undeniable. We'll get out of the superhero world for a minute. And also on my list, I have Chris Tucker as Smoky in Friday, which came out back in nineteen ninety seven. The way Chris Tucker got this role the director Gary Gray saw Chris Tucker doing stand up and thought, man, I could use that guy in my movie because he's very energetic. He's so charismatic. I just love listening to Chris Tucker talk with all the inflection and emotion in his voice that it just makes me laugh. And the reason I feel like this is one of the best movie castings of all time is because whenever a sequel gets brought up, everybody wants to know if he's gonna come back as Smoky. That is the sign of an iconic character and an amazing performance. Because they've made a lot of sequels to Friday, but Chris Tucker has not returned. And when they made that movie, the actors didn't make a whole lot of money. It was essentially an indie movie that ended up being such a hit that you think gets crazy that he probably only got paid maybe a few thousand dollars to be Smoky. And they also filmed that movie so fast that for these actors' lives, it was little slice of their year, a little slow of time that has lasted their entire career. But Chris Tucker is fantastic as Smoky. I've watched that movie countless times and he still makes me laugh. One of the best movie castings of all time. We'll get out of the nineties, move over to the two thousands into a holiday movie. Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf in Elf in two thousand and three. And the thing about this casting that is impressive is that Will Ferrell was not at the status that he is now back in two thousand and three when he was cast and this movie came out. John Favreau, who directed this movie another name we've heard on this list before as a director. He was really just a big fan of Will Ferrell from his Saturday Night live performances, so to cast him in this movie, much like we've seen historically through this list, was also a bit of a risk because he wasn't a household name. The studio wanted somebody more recognizable. But Jon Favreau, being the amazing director he is, saw the vision that Will Ferrell is Buddy the Yelf. He has the comedic timing, he has the look, he has what we need to make this movie work. And he was completely correct. So a great move on Jon Favreau's part. But also the reason I consider it to be one of the best movie castings of all time is because it catapulted Will Ferrell's comedic career in movies. So we went from having supporting roles in movies like Old School to having a slew of starring roles in comedies through the two thousands and into the early twenty tens, and this was the movie role that made him undeniable in Hollywood. We'll get out of family Christmas movies and move way back into the eighties. In horror, Robert England as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street back in nineteen eighty four. Robert England just has the look. Even when he's not wearing the Freddy Krueger makeup, all I can see in his face is Freddy Krueger, which I am imagine is both a blessing and a curse, because I feel like he loves the Freddy Krueger character. He goes to comic cons, he does all these things because he is dedicated to the fan base. But I have to imagine that gets a little bit hard because Freddy Krueger is known as being a pretty vile, unattractive characters, so to be associated with that day after day when you go to the grocery store has to be pretty tough. But also you are one of the most iconic horror characters of all times, So I think the two probably outweigh each other. When it comes to how Robert England was cast as Freddy Krueger, Director Wes Craven just saw him in a television mini series and he saw his ability to bring a sinister presence to a character. And he also thought that his charisma and physicality would be perfect for Freddy Krueger, which I feel like is a pretty demanding role based upon the mind frame that you have to be in to do some of the things that Freddy Krueger does. Have that comedic timing as well, because Freddy is a funny character even though it is a horror movie, and then also have the look that makes it believable without being completely cheesy. I could see no one else as Freddy Krueger. I mentioned recently that it's probably time to remake a Nightmare on Elm Street. I'm at the point where I just want to see all of the original horror characters do movies where they are just aging. They kind of did it with Halloween in the most recent installments, do it with Freddy Krueger, an aging Freddy Krueger having a little bit of a harder time killing people in their sleep. Next up from two thousand and nine, I have Christoph walt as Hans and Inglorious Bastards. I think this is one of the best movie villains of all time, and Christoph Waltz just plays a villain so incredibly well. He went on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He is such a great actor. He wasn't even supposed to be a central figure in the movie, but after being so impressed with his audition, Tarantino decided to go back and rewrite the character and put him at the forefront of the film, and it works together so beautifully. You can see it from the very opening scene of this movie, the tension that he brings to the situation that seems not insignificant but almost just ordinary. He takes it up to a level of ten. I just love the way that he speaks in this movie, and that he is so menacing and that you, as the viewer, want to take him down yourself because he is such a driving force and such a great villain an oscar well deserved. I have Christoph Waltz as Hans and Inglorious Bastards also on my list, going back to the seventies, Harrison Ford as Hans Solo in Star Wars, and it's him more so than any other actor in this movie. No disrespect to Mark Hamill, but I think he's not the only actor I could see doing that role. Justice and Carrie Fisher rip is fantastic and iconic as Princess Leia, but I think without Harrison Ford as Hans Solo, these movies would not have had the same effect. And I also just love the story of how Harrison Ford was cast in the role. He really wasn't pursuing acting as you would think to land a role like this. He was already in his thirties, but he was working as a carpenter and he ended up getting an audition with George Lucas. They had worked together on American Graffiti, so we actually brought in Harrison Ford to read lines with other actors who are auditioning for different roles in the movie, and then George Lucas was impressed by how Harrison Ford was portraying Han Solo and thought, that is exactly what I envisioned for this character. He's rugged, he's charismatic, he has the essence of Han Solo that we need. And initially Harrison Ford was a little bit reluctant to take the role again, and he was working as a carpenter for lucasfilm. He wasn't really trying to be a full on Hollywood actor, and then decided to accept the role and went on to become an icon in film. From this, he did all the other Star Wars movies. He went on to be Indiana Jones. I mean for an actor like Harrison four to be not one two but like three super iconic characters in film and get his start so much later in life in his thirties, which is inspiring to me as somebody who was thirty two gonna turn thirty three this year. Just shows you that don't compare yourself to others. Don't think you have to be on some kind of a timeline and think, oh, I'm thirty or I'm forty. Even if I'm fifty, I couldn't start this now. You go through history and see people who made it later in life because they were just good at what they did, because maybe they waited at the right time. I don't always believe that good things come to those who wait. I think good things come to those who go out and try and find them, but also have the patience to take rejection and the drive and determination to keep trying and trying again when things don't work out. So the waiting is kind of the byproduct of all the hard work that you actually put in. But to know that you could be in her thirties and still the greatest things that you will accomplish are still ahead of you is inspiring to me. I see that as Harrison Ford and Han solo and Star Wars. That is why I included him on this list. We'll run through some more a little bit quicker. Of course, I gotta mention Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Night. I don't need to go in extensively. Why I think that is. You've heard me rave on and on about Heath Ledger as the Joker on this podcast time and time again. But it would be a discredit to his performance and not include him on this list. I would also include Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz back in nineteen thirty nine, Alongo Say. I would also have Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in the original movie, because I wasn't that familiar with Gene Wilder and all the amazing work he has done in comedy from Blazing Saddles see No Evil, Here No Evil, just a couple of my favorites, which those movies came out after Willy Wonka. But he is an actor that I feel like a lot of people might not know all of his other work or even in Young Frankenstein. The list goes on and on with how many great movies he has started. And it's because of this role as Willy Wonka being one of the most iconic out of all of them, that if you were just a surface level movie fan, maybe that's the only one you know him for, which is fine. But I also think it's because he did such a great job at portraying that character and making him iconic. And it's because of the wardrobe, but it's also because of his performance and the way he played the character that has this odd charm to it. Also like this weird, sinister vibe, all the quirks that he incorporated in Willie Wonka that would go on to be replicated and imitated, sometimes poorly, with Johnny Depp and Timothy Shallowmey. It's because of Gene Wilder. So the impact he has had on the role is why he is undeniably one of the best movie castings of all time. And then in the two thousands, I'm gonna put Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson both being cast in Harry Potter, which they kind of had similar roads to being cast in these movies. The books were obviously incredibly successful, so casting was extensive of they literally just had open casting calls trying to find kids who could play these characters, and Daniel Radcliffe was somebody who the filmmakers were impressed by not only his performances and some other things he had acted in, but also how he resembled and looked like Harry Potter in the books. It was almost like the best of both worlds because even though he was a kid, he was really smart and articulate and could easily play the role. But he also actually looked like Harry Potter, so he was almost destined to play the character. And then with Emma Watson, along the same lines with Daniel Radcliffe, they were impressed by how confident she was, how smart she was. She had this natural acting ability that aligned with the character of Hermione. Now you probably ask why I didn't include Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley. Again, I think that is a casting that I could see somebody else in that role. I think there's an alternate timeline somewhere where somebody else is cast in that role and it's actually the right person meant to be playing his character, and we're living in the timeline where Rupert Grind played Ron Weasley. I don't even know who Rupert Grint is, but that's probably just me and Finally, let's go all the way back to superhero movies. I have JK. Simmons as Jay Jonah Jamison and Spider Man, and he is one of the only characters in Spider Man who has constantly been the same person. J Jonah Jamison was not only in the Toby maguire Spider Man movies, but he is so good that they brought him back as j Jonah Jamison in the Tom Holland Spider Man movies. He was cast after director Sam Raimi saw his performance in a movie called The Gift and they thought he had the perfect combination of humor and intensity, which, oh man, J Jonah Jamison is all about the intensity and about that incredible haircut. J Jonah Jamison has a haircut they can really set your watch too. But I think the most important thing about him is that big booming voice that he has when he's yelling about Spider Man. JK. Simmons captures that perfectly, and he is always one of the best things out of any Spider Man movie. And to wrap this up, I had more on my list, and I'll go through them in about thirty seconds without a whole lot of depths, but just because I wanted to include them on this list. Here we go. Javier Bardem as Anton Sugar and No Country for Old Men, James Earl Jones as Mufassa in The Lion King al Pacino with Tony Montana in Scarface, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in Terminator, galal Gado as Wonder Woman, Jennifer Lawrence as Catnus Eberdeen in The Hunger Games, Robin william as the Genie and Aladdin, and Henry cavill as Superman in Man of Steel. Well come back, I'll give my spoiler free review of Madam Webb, and in the trailer park we'll talk about Deadpool and Wolverine. All right, let's get into it. A spoiler free review of Madam Webb, starring Dakota Johnson. This is a standalone, quote unquote superhero movie. She plays a paramedic who discovers she has the ability to see into the future, and she's connected with these three other teenagers and they are trying to avoid being killed by this really weird villain who has a long history with the mom of Dakota Johnson. And that is really all the story that is in this movie. Oh my gosh, Okay, I'm gonna compose myself. The thing about this movie, and what I've shared with you on this podcast, is that I don't like to read reviews and I will not seek them out going into a movie. I don't listen to anybody else on TikTok, which I know is probably contradicting myself, because I want you to listen to me, but I don't do it as a reviewer because I don't want my thoughts tainted by somebody else. I don't want to even resemble an opinion that somebody else has because then it won't feel like me. So I still did not read any individual review. I didn't listen to anybody on TikTok, but it was hard to avoid all of the articles and Rotten Tomatoes posting NonStop and just seeing the headlines, which is really all I saw going into this movie. And I feel like my perception of the movie was already tainted because people are calling this movie the worst Marvel movie of all time. They are dragging Dakota Johnson, they are dragging the director, and I feel like when that happens, people tend to pile up and with all these movie influencers and other YouTubers and podcasters. I often feel like sometimes one person who is established has an opinion, and everybody else who kind of runs in that same circle starts having that same opinion because they don't want to look like, Oh, if they had that opinion and I actually liked it, what would that say about me? I don't care about that. If I genuinely like this movie, I would tell you. But going into this movie, I already had this perception that it was going to be so bad, so I was bracing for impact. I was expecting to watch the worst garbage of all time. And in the past couple of years, they have been maybe two or three movies, maybe four, that I've wanted to walk out of, and I was prepared to have that kind of emotion going into this movie. And maybe it's because I had that brace for impact mentality. Then I don't think it was as bad as I was expecting it to be. I was expecting it to be a turd on the screen, and that is not exactly what happened. Did I love the movie by no means was it a good movie? No? But I do think there is kind of an audience for this movie. Bear with me, now, look at me. If you're watching on YouTube or if you're a longtime listener, here part of the movie crew. You know I love Spider Man. Have this entire studio decked out in Spider Man comics. I am wearing my Spider Man shirt today. I think that is who this movie was for now. This movie comes to us from the Sony Spider Verse, not the MCU, which is another big issue. They have hered coda. Johnson herself might have not even known that she wasn't joining the MCU. She was joining the Sony Spider Verse, two very different things. One of them gives us the Avengers, gives us Iron Man all of those, and the other one has given us in recent years Venom Morbius and now Madam Webb. So it is viewed as being the lower tier Marvel. But I feel as a just general movie goo where you might not know that my wife Kelsey, who is as in tune with movies as much as I am, didn't really know the difference. Dakota Johnson herself and all the press she did for this movie, I am convinced she thought she was a part of the MCU. There's this whole theory going on of is the Sony Spider Verse kind of tricking actors into thinking they're joining the MCU, thinking they're gonna be in a Marvel movie and have the same kind of prestige that comes along with taking one of those roles. I don't think that's completely true, because there has to be agents, there has to be managers, there has to be somebody telling these actors, hey, you're joining the Sony side, You're not gonna be on the Disney side. But in all the interviews that Dakota Johnson gave, she was talking about how all the movies are connected. She's not that familiar with Marvel movies. She doesn't really know a whole lot of female Marvel superheroes. One of my favorite clips was somebody giving her an actual comic of Madam Webb and she was like, oh boy, because she is not familiar with the source material. I don't think she's ever watched a Marvel movie, to be honest, And I feel like that's also why some nerds like myself are a little bit hurt, because we think when actors take on these roles, they spend all this time doing research, reading comics, watching all the other movies. At the end of the day, they are actors. They are the elite of Hollywood. They don't watch these movies like we do. They are not nerds like us. Despite the amount of effort that we want them to put into it, they're not going to do it. For some of these actors, it is merely a paycheck and then sometimes just a step to take on another project. I really got that perception from Dakota Johnson, and I like her as an actor. I've come on and defended her and said that she is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, and it's weird that you take on one not so great role and people change the perception of you. I find myself struggling with her right now because I feel like she was trying to just be her authentic self, and interviews and all the promotion leading up to this, I saw a lot of people saying they wanted to cancel their tickets. She was trying her hardest. But if you have hardcore Marvel fans coming at you with the first edition of Madam Webb in the comics and expecting you to know about it, it is going to be tough. I think her team should have trained her a little bit better on how to answer some of these questions, because I was surprised to see how empty the theater was that we went to on a Friday night, a seven o'clock showing. The theater was very, very empty. I've gone to a lot of Friday night Thursday night showings for movies that have been kind of wishy watching. Even Argyle had more of an audience in there. It was crazy to me how much of an influence that all these negative reviews had on this movie, because in my heart, I don't think it's an all out just terrible, terrible movie. It has a lot of issues that I want to get into now, but I think a lot of it roots from the eighty million dollar price tag, which Dakota Johnson was paid five million dollars for this role, and the eighty million dollar budget really shows in this film because we were teased in the trailer with all of this action. Sidney Sweeney in the suit. They had her in the promo talking about how she wanted her character Julia to repel because it was iconic. There was very little action in the suits in this movie, and they tried to disguise it with a story that was really just paper thin. You would drop this thing in water and it would dissipate because the story was so weak. It tried to create this mystery with Madam Webb developing her powers of predicting the future and trying to figure out her past with their mom. And it also just teas ues with Spider Man being connected with this story, which I think that is who this movie was said to be for, was hardcore Spider Man fans like myself. We're gonna go watch these movies because we just want any kind of inkling of our favorite web Slinger. And they were just kind of throwing it out there so randomly and so just like here you go, you nerds. And that is exactly how I felt watching this movie that Sony, in association with Marvel thinks that us nerds will just go watch anything. Ah, they'll take it all in and we'll make some money off of it. Throw eighty million dollars. We'll make that money back. It was not the case here, And I want to criticize the coda Johnson so hard for giving a very dull performance. She was trying her all, she was giving it her best effort, but I almost felt like I was still watching her On Saturday Night Live, she gave an interview two weeks before the premiere, saying, I don't know if it's good or not. I was acting on a blue screen for a majority of the film. It felt weird. All of these warning signs I saw going into this film. It was gonna be really hard to come back from that, and that is what you have here. She is trying her all to act her way out of a hole, but she has no tolls around her. The villain in this movie, his dialogue felt so ai generated and I don't know what this villain personality was. Now. I don't think this is one of the worst superhero movies of all time, but it definitely has the worst super villain of all time, miserable. I was watching his performance because it was like a cliche nineties villain that you would make fun of it in Austin Powers movie. It was so bad, and he even had like this secret layer with somebody behind the chair running all of these monitoring systems. It was awful, worst super villain of all time, and the reason I wouldn't call it a worst superhero movie of all time because it is hardly that Madam Webb in this movie is not a superhero. It is all the standalone backstory leading up to the superhero moment, and then it cuts you off. That's enough for you. You're not getting that anything that started to resemble anything from the source material from the comic was left out of this movie except for one detail, and by the time we got to that, it felt so awkward and so off putting that it made zero sense. Probably thirty minutes worth of story spread out over an hour and forty five minutes, maybe a little bit over, and you could tell in this movie it was like they used that editing tool where you stretch something out because you don't have enough material. That is what they did. There were scenes where they were driving, nothing being said, nothing happening, and they just put this very generic score over it and gave about a thirty second buffer to get to the next scene. It felt like they had a script and they were trying to meet a certain word count, Like back in eighth grade when I was trying to write a paper that needed to be three pages long, and I'm like, all right, let's just instead of using contractions, you start spelling out some words that is what this movie was doing, and it was completely noticeable. They thought I wasn't gonna catch it, and I think it goes without saying, but the eighty million dollar budget also hurt the visual effects. So when it comes down to it, this movie was just hard to take seriously because it was soap opera level acting, two thousands video game graphics, and a cheesy story with no mystery whatsoever that I didn't really care what was going to happen to these characters. Nothing heroic happened. There wasn't any superhero action. It was really just to Coda Johnson learning how to predict the future and running away from the villain the entire time. And it was the fact that nobody in this movie questioned anything. They just went along for the ride and then got there and we're like, okay, I guess we're just following to Coda Johnson throughout this entire movie. I kind of feel like my parents whenever they told me I'm not angry with you, but I'm disappointed. It almost just felt worse when they were just disappointed in you. That is how I felt about this movie. Because I'm such a big Spider Man fan and I still don't know why they thought Madam Webb is one character that needs their own movie. They should have just put Sidney Sweeney in the Spider Woman's suit and called it a day. That would have been a more entertaining movie. However, I'll go back to the last bad movie I talked about, which was Argyle. I thought that movie obviously wasn't worth the theay experience, but also wasn't worth streaming for Madam Webb since it got so much hate, and since I still dedicated myself to watching it so I could share my honest thoughts with you. I still think when it goes to streaming, maybe whenever it's available for free on Netflix, just give it a watch to get a perspective on exactly what went wrong here. So if you are a die hard Marvel fan, a die hard Spider Man fan, I would still not recommend. Maybe it's kind of like when you watch something bad to realize how bad it is. That is the only reason I would say it is worthy of a stream because this will be referenced a lot as being one of the worst superhero movies of all time, even though I don't think it's the worst of all time. I've seen some really bad, awful movies. I'm looking at you, DC, and I still don't know why Marvel allows this to put out such an inferior product in association with their name, because people sometimes don't know the difference. That being said, for Madam Webb, I give it one point five out of five. Oh, I don't even care to be creative here. They didn't care to be creative. Let's just do red jackets that Dakota Johnson was wearing awkwardly in this entire movie.

00:43:44
Speaker 2: It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor, Paul.

00:43:49
Speaker 1: Because the MCU needs saving. That is the question. I've been a fan of the MSU for a very long time. I've stood by them through thick and thin, and I've been critical of their work at times, but at the core of my being, I still have always believed in them. I don't necessarily think that they need saving. What I expressed was they needed to slow down and really focus on putting out just one or two movies a year until we can get rid of all these people saying they're superhero fatigue and how quickly Marvel fans are generally to just turn on the MCU because just last year, we were given one of the best movies from Marvel with Guardians of the Galaxy three, and everybody was raving about it. And then they put out the Marvels in November and everybody's like, ah, it's all over, It's all over. And now that the dead Pole and Wolverine trailer has dropped, everybody's like, ah, the MCU is back. So what side are you on. I've always been on the Marvel's side, but as big of a fan as you are, you always criticize some of the movies you don't love as much. But getting into dead Pool and Wolverine, there are so many things to be excited about, and if the MCU did need saving, this would be the movie to do it. Not only just this film alone, but I think it's gonna set up an entire storyline in the MCU. So I'm gonna get into all that. The movie is coming out on July twenty sixth, and initially I thought this movie was just gonna be called Deadpool three. Now that it's dead Pool and Wolverine that hasn't been even more excited because he's gonna play such a bigger role in this movie. Where I thought it could have just been a cameo. But now, oh man, there's a lot to dive into. So before I get into more about Deadpool and Wolverine, here's just a little bit of the trailer. Waite wolfin Who's asking whoa whoa?

00:45:47
Speaker 2: Whoa? Whoa? Whoa? Whoa? Whoa? Whoa?

00:45:48
Speaker 1: Whoa whoa? Is that supposed to be scary? Pegging isn't new for me, friend, though, but it is for Disney.

00:45:54
Speaker 2: Wait, you are special, Zeel Chompson, to be a hero among heroes.

00:46:04
Speaker 1: I smell when you're stepping in sense your little cinematic universe is about to change forever.

00:46:12
Speaker 2: I'm the Messiah, I am Marvel Jesus.

00:46:22
Speaker 1: So this trailer had everything I was expecting from Deadpool. You have the humor, you have the naughty language, and you have the violence. And I think for me personally, the comedy in Deadpool is wearing on me a little bit. I know that's what people love about the character, his sarcastic humor, which was greatly reflected in the comics, and Ryan Reynolds does an amazing job at doing it. But I don't really want to go into another Deadpool movie to laugh. What I really find the most entertaining about these movies is the R rating and the commitment to really gory and really brutal superhero violence, which we don't really get anywhere else. I think that's what made the first movie so groundbreaking, was it showing blood and guts and being able to go there. And this is Disney's first R rated Marvel movie now that Deadpool is no longer a Fox property, and it's Deadpool's introduction into the MCU, which is the other thing that Deadpool plays into a lot is the total medi quality of all the movies and being so self aware. We see it in this trailer because what this movie is going to be about that we heard there. Deadpool is going to be traveling through the multiverse. He finds himself in a situation where he is dealing with the TVA, which, if you are not familiar with the Disney Plus show Loki, they are essentially the guardians of the timeline. So when you have all these superheroes and people traveling through all the timelines, the TVA is the one who regulate that and keep things from turning into chaos. So I think that's an interesting way to connect Deadpool into them mainly because this means that they can really play around bringing back characters, which is what we see in this trailer. You have characters coming out the Wazoo, from Fox, Properties, from the MCU, and it's all going to be combined into one movie to create an all star list of characters, and Hugh Jackman returning as a more comic book accurate version of the character. So, going back to talking about how meta this movie is going to be, you have the TVA going after Deadpool. It seems to be he is retired. He is just trying to live a normal life. And the opening part of this trailer you don't see him in the Deadpool costume. You see him in this weird wig and just hanging out with all of his friends, and then they come to him with this plan of inviting him to join the ranks of all the big Marvel superheroes. When looking at the TVs, you see Captain America, you see Hulk, you see Thor, it seems to be something that Deadpool has dreamed of of maybe being a part of the Avengers. And then instead of saying that he's good to do that, he calls out saying that he is ready to be a part of Marvel. You even get a glimpse later in the trailer of the twentieth century Fox logo in shambles now that that is no longer a thing. So I think the fun in this movie is going to be Deadpool traveling around different timelines in the multiverse and all the characters he is going to interact with. You get glimpses of what could be a Professor X in this trailer. You also see Pyro. You get a line of Aaron Stanford saying, god, I love this part, which he played Pyro in X two and X Men in the Last Stand. So Deadpoole obviously has a deep connection with the X Men, and I think that is what a lot of MCU fans have been really wanting to see in the MCU. So it looks like we're going to get a lot of that. You also got a glimpse of a character that appears to be Doctor Doom, but if you really take a look at it, it's really more of a Doctor Doom inspired outfit. I don't think they're ready to introduce him just yet. The thing that has me the most excited where a couple of Easter eggs in reference to Secret Wars and the last scene of this trailer, whenever Deadpool is lying on the ground, you see to the right of him a copy of Secret Wars, the comic book, laying next to him, kind of cuing us out thinking, Okay, this is going to lead to something much bigger, either the next Avengers or the next Secret Wars movies, and thinking that Deadpool and Wolverine could be a part of that is one of the most exciting things to come of this. And I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves and thinking that this movie is going to crush therefore setting up a lot of other things, But that just has me really excited thinking about all the characters that could be coming together on screen for one new, amazing movie that we really haven't had that feeling since Avengers Endgame. So that's probably the thing I'm the most excited about from this trailer as far as things to come. But other things that this movie could contain. There are some little glimpses and maybe rumors of the Hulk being in this movie. I don't know what Hulk in particular is going to be, but with them going through the depths of the multiverse, I mean, the easy answer would be Mark Ruffalo, although he did come out recently saying that he is not going to be a part of Captain America four. I would really push for it being Edward Norton's Hulk, who I feel got the raw end of the deal in the MCU. I have a deep love for that movie, even though it is seen by so many fans as one of the worst movies in the MCU. I just love the character, the incredible Hulk, and I just think he needs his really good introduction on the big screen. That for me, I would hope to lead to another solo movie that they get the character right. So there is some evidence in the trailer that we could have a whole cameo. You see some glimpses of thor Ragnarok, which hlpe was a big part of that movie. But I think the one scene in particular is there's a moment where it is panning to a Wolverine sitting at a table. You get a real quick glimpse at him and he's wearing this white tuxedo, which that is a reference to Wolverine Issue eight from nineteen eighty eight, where it's Hulk and Wolverine teaming up together, and the cover feed them both in white tuxedos leaning on each other. So I think that would be an awesome thing to incorporate. And that is really what I love about this trailer in this movie. Is it really honing in on the source material, which whenever that big article came out last year from Variety stating how bad of a shape that the MCU was in along the lines of me saying that they needed to reduce the amount of films, I said, they needed to talk to some nerds and go back to the source material. And that is what it looks like they did in this trailer, just with all of these references. I mean, putting a Secret Wars issue in there is exactly what I'm talking about. Putting references to iconic comic book covers in the trailer. That is what I need more of. And then we get another small glimpse of Wolverine in the suit, which when that first image came out, I was not a big fan of it because it looks like a motocross suit. I get they're trying to make him look similar to Deadpool and it's supposed to be the most comic accurate version Wolverine. I guess I wanted to look a little bit more cartoonish and they're going for a little bit more of a sense of realism. And I was hoping to have a full suit reveal in this trailer, but I guess they're really trying to keep that a surprise, which I'm okay with. You really only get a glimpse of the back of it and action just a little bit after Wolverine brandishes his claws and then kind of scoops up Deadpool there, but then it cuts to the title. So there are a lot of things to be excited about when it comes to this movie. I cannot wait to see it on July twenty sixth, mainly so all the Marvel haters will have nothing else to say but retreat back to their basements.

00:53:38
Speaker 2: And that was this week's edition of Movie by Tramer par.

00:53:42
Speaker 1: And that is going to do it for another episode here of the podcast. Before I go, I gotta give my listeners shout out of the week. How do you get a listener shout out of the week? Well, you can DM me on Instagram, comment on my TikTok facebook page, or tweet me on X and I have an email address as well if you ever want to comment on something about the show or send me a possible topic, Moviemike d at gmail dot com. I also have a YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro where I post individual movie reviews, and this week I just want to shout out the director and editor of Sometimes I Think About Dying, which I reviewed on the podcast last week. They both reposted the real I made about going to see that movie and send me some really nice dms. So shout out to Rachel Lambert and Ryan Kendrick for confirming that they enjoyed the question I asked at the end of that Q and A. If you miss that review and miss me playing the audio of that moment, just go back one in the feed or go check it out on my YouTube channel. Hope you have a great rest of your week, and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.