Underrated Superhero Movies + Battling Movie Reviews: Candyman (In Theaters) vs. Malignant (HBO Max) + The Matrix 4 Trailer Reaction

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie mis Movie Podcast, your go to source for all things movies, and I'm your host movie Mike Distro. Today the topic is simple underrated superhero movies. I got my top five on this list. We'll also do some battling movie reviews to horror movies out right now, Candy Man and Malignant. I'll let you know which one you need to spend your money on. I'll also talk about the trailer for Matrix for all of that on the way on this week's episode, appreciate you being subscribed, to appreciate you listening every single week. Without any further ado, let's get started. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge piece basically like a walking I MTV with glasses from the Nashville podcast Networking Cases Movie Movie Podcast. So I love superhero movies. I think if you listen to this podcast for any out of time, that's pretty apparent. It was actually a superhero movie that inspired me to even start doing movie reviews in this capacity. The first time I went to go see Batman Versus Superman. That was like the first review I did and decided, you know what, I love movies so much. I love superhero movies so much, in particular, why not review them every single time I go watch one. That was kind of the birth of this podcast. So I'll admit, there's been a lot of superhero movies over the years. I think Hollywood has greatly just cashed in on the profitable formula, leaving some of us probably a little bit burnt out on the genre altogether. But I think right now we're seeing the ones being really successful. Are ones have been able to kind of reinvent the formula, especially now that we're coming into two already, I think you kind of have to change how you make superhero movies to keep us interested, at least the people who haven't checked out already. But but by saying that, I also feel there are some hidden gems out there that have kind of been lost in the oversatur aition of superhero movies. So I wanted to share with you five movies that I think are underrated and just overlooked in the genre. Some of these are movies I felt that were a little bit ahead of their time and that if they came out right now would probably be an overall more successful movie. But it started off with number five from two thousand and eight, Hancocks starring Will Smith. This one had a really great premise for a superhero movie, kind of the anti superhero movie, to where it's the superhero who is an alcoholic and he's just kind of a bad superhero. He does save some people, and in his past was probably a greater superhero, but now is just kind of selfish, self centered, doesn't really care about all the damages he does in saving people, and that has led him to have not the greatest reputation overall, just be hated by the public for, you know, his drunkenness and his careless acts. And what I also love about this movie is that it kind of showed for the first time the consequences that you would have for being a superhero. Like, yes, you save a person, but you also took out three bill holdings in the process, or crash some cars. It shows what those repercussions would be like in the real world. I feel like this movie was a little bit ahead of its time coming out in two thousand and eight. We've seen how the success of the TV show The Boys, which is about superheroes that on the exterior appear like they're saving the world, but when you peel back, it's kind of a dirty your business, And just because you're a superhero doesn't mean that you're a great person. So I don't think this movie is particularly a perfect movie, but I do love the different take on the genre, and it's a movie I feel like I would have loved to seen a sequel to, like I feel like Hancock Too could have fixed the problems in Hancock one and made it even better. But I still think it's a really enjoyable movie, a really fun watch. From Will Smith to Charlie sirone you know have Jason Bateman, It's just a great team combined along with a great story. So it's one that I feel just gets a little bit overlooked. So I'll put that one at number five. At number four from t is a movie called kick Ass, and it's a story about a kid who loves superhero so much that he wants to become one despite not having any superpowers of his own, if which I feel highly relatable to as a kid, I just wanted to be a superhero so bad and The only time I've ever come close to having developed any kind of superhero powers was as a kid. I was probably like two or three years old, and I still have this scar on my hand to this day. I got bit by a black widow. Spider almost died, almost took me out, And from that bite, I was hoping that at some point in my life I would develop some kind of superhero powers like Spider Man, but I never did. All we got from it as a result was this scar on my hand and my parents got a very high medical bill. But I would have loved to turn into a superhero at some point. And I think that's what kind of kick Ass does. So is this guy who teams up with these other kind of misfit vigilantes. They go on to fight crime against this mob. And stylistically, I think kick Ass just has a really cool feel to it from the cinematography. But what I really loved and I think really shines in this movie and the sequel is the costume design. Fantastic. Like if I were designing superhero characters, I would make them look like this, And it gives me that feeling of me when I was a kid wanting to be a superhero and I would kind of draw my costume of what I would look like, it would look like this. They're very bold, very bright, very colorful, and very fun. So I just love the world that's created in kick Ass. I love the action, I love the commitment to violence, and like Hancock, I also felt like kick Ass was a little bit ahead of its time in twos, which now it's kind of the norm to put out an R rated superhero movie, and all superhero movies now don't have to be made for kids. But at the time, they were in the heyday of The Avengers and Iron Man and all those movies coming out at that time. I think that's why kick Ass was a little bit overlooked. It was in the superhero genre when superhero movies are really only being marketed towards families and kids and teenagers and of course nerds like myself. But now really superhero movies have no limits on who they can appeal to. So I'm putting kick Ass on the list at number four, And the sequel is just as good. So if you end up watching kick Ass, there's also a sequel to it with Jim Carey, whose character I love. In the sequel, both very over the top, but it's very violent, but I think just great superhero movies. At number three is a movie I've mentioned before because it's from director James Gunn, who just did The Suicide Squad. He's also the mind behind Guardians of the Galaxy and there's a movie in two that he did called Super And if you've ever wanted to see Rain Wilson from the Office, who plays d White as a superhero, then well this is the movie for you. And the story behind Super is Rain Wilson plays his character who his wife loves him for this other guy played by Kevin Bacon, and he decides to transform himself into a cost to Vigilanti, much like also kind of the story behind kick Ass. We're starting to see a theme here, But he goes to comic book shops, he watches TV shows to kind of get an idea of what he needs to do to be a comic book superhero. So he's just a normal guy who puts together this costume and then goes out into his town and just waits for crime, waits for things to happen, and then hops in to try and save other people's lives. And in itself, it kind of pokes fun at the super hero genre at the same time kind of bringing it to a real life situation with some very kind of dry humor dry situations, and also, you guessed it, some brutal violence. But I think I just love the idea of a normal guy wanting to be a superhero without any superpowers, and it's a dude whose middle age had some bad kind of luck in his life and wanted to do this. The movie also has a great cast I already mentioned Rain Wilson and Kevin Bacon, but also Elliott Page and Lift Tyler, and I think with director James Gunn kind of gives this movie a feel of its own. It feels very indie and low fi, so it's not your typical big explosion superhero movie, but at the core of the story and through the art of his filmmaking, it makes for a really fun watch. So a fun take on the genre, and one I would put at number three. At number two is one I'm probably gonna get the most hate for, or the one that you are probably going to disagree with the most. But I just love the incredible Hulk and I think he just hasn't been done justice when it comes to having his own solo movies, it just haven't been well received by audiences, and I think it was kind of cursed from the two thousand three version of The Hulk, which no one should watch, Like, just don't watch that movie. I don't love that that movie exists, but I think it kind of left a bad taste in people's mouth when it came to The Hulk, and when this one came out in two thousand and eight, I feel like people didn't give it a chance. And I loved the two thousand and eight incredible Hulk with Edward Norton. I thought they had a fantastic take on the story. I loved what Edward Norton did with Bruce Banner and really kind of made him seem like this tortured individual who really didn't want to be the Hulk. But I think for some reason, people just didn't really gravitate towards Edward Norton, or maybe he wasn't as believable, even though I thought he did a really good job. So I think take this exact same movie and put Mark Ruffle back into it now, I think it would be a hit. And this was very early on in the m C U. This was coming right off of Iron Man, led right into Iron Man Too, and it's the first time they ever mentioned in the post credit scenes anything about the events. So I think it's a very important and overlooked movie in the entire m c U. But I think due to the lack of box office performance and overall just not great reception from critics, it's kind of led to Marvel not wanting to take a chance on another solo movie. He's been a great presence in all the Avengers movies. I think anytime the whole appears on screen, it's a big treat. But for some reason, he just hasn't worked in solo movies, even though I really love this one, and if you haven't seen it, I think it's a worthy watch, and if you have seen it, I think maybe it's worth a second look. All Right, So we're gonna come back here and talk about what I think is the number one most underrated superhero movie also gives him honorable mentions after this, So let's roll through some honorable mentions. Now. I gotta say I think the Toby McGuire Spider Man series is oftentimes the most overlooked and underrated for what the Spider Man movies did when they came out, Like, those movies aren't just great superhero comic book movies, They're just great movies on their own. And I think, aside from Batman in the eighties and nineties, that's really what set the stage for Marvel to have success later on. Those are the movies that really kind of set the stage for Marvel to have his success later on with the X Men and then the Avengers. And I know everybody loves Tom Holland now as Spider Man, but I really think Toby McGuire is an underrated Spider Man. Another honorable mention I want to say is Batman Returns. I think Handsdale Michael Keaton is the best Batman and I think this is his best Batman movie. I thought Tim Burton did such a great job on this movie to create the larger than life comic book feel. I like how he put his kind of eerie stamp on it where it has a little bit of like a a spooky feel, Halloween type feel, but still feels like a comic book movie at its core. And this one has one of the greatest casts out of every Batman movie, with not only Michael Keaton, but Michelle Peiffer as Catwoman, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Christopher Walkin all just nailed their performances in this movie. So I know we give all the credit to now Heath Ledgers Joker as being the greatest villain in any Batman movie. I just think Catwoman and the Penguin or Overlooked and that of every Batman movie, this is probably one I've rewatched the most times, so I gotta give it to Batman returns. And then another honorable mention I have is a movie from twelve called Chronicle, and this was during that trend of all the lost footage movies. And what I mean by that is there was a whole period of time to where these movies would come out and it's all put together by footage taken from like video cameras or old VHS tapes. We saw it with movies like Paranormal Activity clover Field, and Chronicle was one of those as well. But this was a lost footage movie based on these teenagers who accidentally stumbled upon superpowers. And it's this teenager who's this just socially awkward kid, but now has this ability to flow and crush things with his mind. And it starts out with them all just having fun and doing, you know, things you would do as a teenager when you discover you have superhero powers to suddenly becoming a bigger, bigger issue as they become more powerful and their lives start to, you know, spin out of control. So it turns pretty dark. But all of this is done through the lens of the main character who just always filming everything. So it's them and they're telekinetic powers, and one of the teenagers is actually Michael B. Jordan's So it's a really fun movie and not a full on superhero movie, but when I feel that people don't really talk about So if you haven't seen Chronicle and that sounds interesting to you, definitely check it out. So those are my honorable mentions. Let's get to number one. Now. It's a movie I actually just recently watched on HBO Max and kind of inspired this entire list because I loved it so much and I think it's, without a doubt, one of the best movies that d C Comics has ever made, and you can actually watch it now on HBO Max and it's called the Death of Superman and fair warning it is animated, and I don't know why I feel the need to warn you about that, but I think one of the reasons I waited so long to watch it because it was animated, and I thought to myself, why am I gonna sit down and watch an animated movie. I'm not going to be interested in that. I'm not gonna be entertained by that. But within about twenty minutes into this movie, the whole idea of it being animated kind of went out the window because it's done so well that you forget that you're watching, you know, animated characters. And it's weird to say, like you associate animation with being a kid's movie when that's not the case anymore. With Animal just being so well received now, I think a movie like this should have had a lot more attention to it, especially when it comes to d C. And you know, really the hate, sometimes unwarranted hate that they get on their movies just overall not being the best. I feel like I would have put this movie like at the forefront of like, but look what we made here, Like DC should have done that. And why I think the animation works so well this movie is because it lends itself perfectly to the story. I feel like the downfall DC has sometimes they try to do too much with their movies, whether it be too many layers to a story or the overuse of special effects and c g I to where it just becomes very apparent to me that I'm watching these actors that are just basically behind a green screen the entire time, and it really kind of keeps me from connecting with a movie because I'm so distracted with all the c g I computer generated graphics. But when it comes to the Death of Superman, the animation is pretty basic. It is what it is, and the great thing about that it allows you to focus in on the characters, focusing on what's going on, and really just makes for an easy watch. Also, since it's animated, it's less than an hour and a half, so it doesn't even feel like an over commitment to watching a usual DC movie. That's probably to twenty. And my favorite thing about this movie is the title and the movie poster, because I love that it essentially spoiled itself with the title and the image in the movie poster, because you know exact actually by reading it what the movie is going to be about, and what's ultimately going to happen. Like, that's not a spoiler in me saying that the Death of Superman is about the death of Superman. It's in the title. You can't be mad at me for spoiling the movie. The whole time you're watching it, you know what's going to happen, and you're kind of waiting for it to happen. But that doesn't take away from the ending. It makes it, if anything, more impactful. So the movie is based on a comic book, and it stays pretty true to what happens in the actual comic book, with a few key changes. It's about Superman in the Justice League basically meeting their ultimate match. This big alien creature that's very powerful falls into Earth and just starts wreaking havoc, like just straight up killing people limb from limb, and they show all that. Of course it's all animated, so it's all just cartoon blood, if you will. But that's the kind of movie it is. And I just think that's such a great villain. It just comes never says a word, but through his actions you know exactly that he's here to mess things up, terrorize things. Almost wanted to curse there, but I won't. And there's no overcomplicated evil plan. It's just this creature that wants to destroy things and kill anything that gets in its path, and it just so happens to be the Justice League and Superman, and I felt like this was just the most fleshed out real life version of Superman that I've ever seen in any movie. There's no origin story needed. They do assume that you know some things about Superman, and it really just made me excited for the character again, because oftentimes I just felt like Superman was overrated superhero and just happens to be one of the most popular ones because that's the one that's just most recognizable. But this movie kind of made me realize how cool his superpowers are and how much of a force he is, and it kind of just makes me sad that all of his movies haven't been the best and it took this animated one to really make me a Superman fan again. So one of my favorite superhero movies from d C that I've seen easily top five, if not top three, And I just feel kind of the same way about animation that I do about subtitles like don't let That stop you from watching a movie like this because at its core it's really good. So there it is. Those are my top five most underrated superhero movies of all time. If you have one you want to suggest or think I got something wrong, well let me know in a d M on Instagram at Mike Destro or send me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com. I'm gonna get into a couple of movie reviews now. I'm doing battling movie reviews this week too, horror movies that are out now, and I want to tell you which one you should spend your money on, because there's two different ways to watch these movies. I feel like right now we're getting back into wanting to watch something scary as Halloween approaches, which I have a bunch of ideas planned for next month with Halloween and all that kind of scary movies. And I wasn't really in the mindset yet to watch something scary, But these two movies came out and I was like, all right, I'm gonna step my foot into the horror genre a little bit earlier than I wanted. And I think these movies are a little bit ahead of like people wanting something scary right now, unless you're a big horror fan. So I myself love a good scary movie. I feel the idea of horror has changed a lot over the recent years. These two movies are a perfect example of that. So let's get into these reviews, starting first with Candy Man, the brand new version, picking right up from the old n movie. If you haven't seen the trailer for this one yet, here's just a little bit of that. And the legend is if we say his name five times while looking in the movie, we could summon f summon the candy Man. Candy Man, Anthony knows. I don't want to get creeped out in my new apartment before the candy Black people don't need to be summoning, you see, is candy Man. I was really excited about this movie one because it's written it by Jordan Peel, who was the mind behind movies like Us and get Out. And I know he didn't direct the movie, but just by watching the trailer, I felt like he gave me the same vibes to some of his movies. The trailer I thought was thrilling in itself, so I was like, all right, I'm not gonna watch anything else going into this movie, I want to see if it's actually scary. Now. I do think that the idea of candy Man itself is bigger than this movie has ever been. Because you probably remember the old saying of if you say his name five times, he appears in the mirror. I think we probably all tried this out as kids. That idea alone, and that scary concept transcends the entire movie itself. The movie is what it is, the original I'm talking about, but I think that whole idea is scarier than the idea of candy Man himself. This movie, I felt like, took it a bit further in I just didn't really feel like it was a scary movie. It's a horror movie, but I don't think you should go into this movie wanting to be scared. What I think this movie is. It's kind of a drama with horror elements. I think that's what this movie is, And maybe within the first half of it, I was a little bit disappointed in a way that I wasn't as scared as I was expecting to be. But once I kind of realized that the message this movie was trying to get across and what it was going for I found myself enjoying it a lot more. You won't go into this and be like, oh my gosh, that's the scariest thing I've ever seen. And I jumped out of my seat a lot. I did it. I really didn't. But through this telling of this story, which is about this guy who essentially is working on an art project and he goes to study this neighborhood and learns about the history of candy Man, and through his kind of artwork, he inadvertently brings back Candy Man. So this movie is kind of just his fall into madness, if you will, and him trying to convince his girlfriend that Candy Man is real. And I thought the horror scenes in this movie, the kill scenes were pretty graphic. It's you're pretty straight ahead slashing and killing and law of blood. But what I think this movie did a really good job of It had a stylistic edge going into it, and it made it really just intriguing to watch. And why I feel this movie works over some other horror movies with the same kind of concept, the same kind of idea, is that the storytelling was actually really well done. In this movie. You go all through the steps of seeing this guy learned about Candy Man, and they kind of retell his story in the back story I think really well, which made you kind of connect with him as a character. So I found myself actually caring about this guy and caring what happened to him. But I would say it's more of a thriller, more of a very intense drama than it is a straight up horror movie. So this movie is not going to give you nightmares in any way. But I think if you go into it knowing at least that much about it, you will enjoy. It's a really good movie. There's nothing bad about this movie. I think I just had different expectations of it going into it. And the way the movie is kind of packaged up with the trailer and the whole thing behind Indie Man, you go into it expecting something different, so you could be disappointed in that aspect. And I like the way they took the original film and really modernized it and made it look just beautiful. The special effects and this are great. I love to costume design on Candy Man. So if I had to give it a rating, I would give it four out of five hooks easily. So that's first up in our horror movie review Battle. Next up, I'm gonna talk about Malignant, which is a brand new movie from director James Juan, who has also done movies like The Conjuring, Insidious saw An outside of horror. He's also done Furious seven in Aquaman, So I think there was a lot of hype going into this and him kind of going back to his horror roots. And I saw a lot of people excited about this one. Take a little convincing for me to watch it, but it is in theaters and on HBO Max. If you have that before I get into this review and let you know which of these movies is better. Here just a little bit of that trailer. As they're happening, he says, his name is Gabriel Best. Whatever happened to you before you joined our family hurt you in a way that I can't even imagine. So what this movie is about because woman living in Seattle with an abusive boyfriend, she's pregnant, and she's having these really dark, violent dreams that she thinks are just dreams. But it turns out that this serial killer in her dreams is actually real and the things aren't just happening in her dreams are happening in real life, so it's her trying to figure out why she is cursed, what is actually going on. And the entire movie kind of tells all the backstory and you find out what the killer is all about. And I think this movie was a little bit overhyped. And I think it's because the director, James Want has had so much success in creating some really great horror movies and this was an original story for him that I was expecting a lot more. And I felt like, first of all, the main character felt a little holl oh to me, and it was just something about the acting and this I felt like I was watching a soap opera. And everything about this movie I wasn't impressed by. I felt it was a little bit uninspiring. Now, the serial killer in itself was a scary villain. There was some you know, creepy things going on, but it was almost too weird and wanting to be so like kind of twisted that I didn't really find it scary. I found it kind of cheesy. I didn't find myself at any point thinking, man, this is a really scary movie. I was just like, this feels like a horror fairy tale soap opera that I don't even really want to finish watching. So it's not scary at least to me. And there was nothing in this movie that really made me care about it. I didn't care about the characters, but I also didn't care about the horror itself. And I think that's what you have to do in a good horror movie. You either have to make it really scary and over the top and you want to just see all like the violence go down, or how creepy you know, the killer appearing again get me interested in that, or make it so fun to where it's kind of cheesy, which I think is kind of the reassurgence that we've seen a little bit of movies like Fear Street to where it is a little campy, it's a little fun. You gotta like want to be in the mood to watch something like that. This is really neither of those things. I think it kind of for me missed on both of those fronts to where I didn't find it scary at all, but also didn't find it like cheesy enough to appeal to me in that way. So this was an easy battle to me because I only give him Alignant one point five out of five Violent Nightmares. The only thing Malignant has over candy Man is that it is available on HBO Max as well in theaters, So if you already have the HBO Max subscription, you can watch it for free. Candy Man, you have to go to the theaters to watch it right now. It will be available soon on video on demand at home. But if I would have paid money to go watch Malignant in theaters, I would have been very disappointed. So those are some early horror movie reviews right now. I think coming up in October will have a lot more to talk about. But if you're just that eager to watch up Ding Scary right now, well that's what I think about those two movies. All right. Let's get into some movie news now. I want to break down what I think about the new Matrix four trailer, and I'll say right at the top of this that I never really got into the whole Matrix trilogy. I've seen all the movies, but I was never one to be like, oh, they need to make another one of these. I thought the trilogy was fine. I like the first one the best, but I think it's kind of Keana Reeves reassurgence with movies like John Wick that maybe there is something there for Matrix four. So if you haven't seen the trailer for this yet, here's just a little bit of that. I've had dreams that weren't just my crazy. We don't use that word in here, have we met one? So what I do like about it is, of course Kiana Reeves is back, and they've also brought back some other main characters that you see in the trailer. The one that I was kind of I knew because I read before that Laurence Fishburn wasn't asked to be back in Matrix four, but seeing them kind of bring back a newer Morpheus was a little bit weird to me, But I think the movie will still work without him, And the trailer doesn't really answer a whole lot of questions about what this movie is going to be about, but you see him kind of going back into the Matrix. The Blue and the Red Pill have returned. The cool thing about it, though it doesn't look like it takes place right after the original trilogy, it looks like it was like now in modern day, what he would be going through now. The whole idea of the Matrix is in his head and he's like struggling as a human because of it. So I actually think this one looks pretty good. And I know when Hollywood just goes back and adds on a fourth movie to a franchise that was already successful, oftentimes it's not that great and it adds nothing to the trilogy because it already stands as what it was. Movies like Toy Story four, I feel like that was kind of an epilogue to Toy Story. It was a perfect trilogy, but I needed to make some more money wanted to write up another story. I don't think Toy Story four was necessary. So when it comes to the Matrix, I don't think they'll add a whole lot to what that trilogy was because that was years ago already. I mean the first one came out, so I don't think they were really making those at that time for like, oh, we'll make a four twenty years later, Like I don't think that's gonna happen. But the other thing that kind of excites me about this trailer, I realized how ahead of its time the Matrix was to come out in the special effects, and now they're just so much better that you can take everything that happened in that one and just make it look steamless. So I think one really kind of lend itself better to the world of The Matrix. So visually, just from the trailer, it looks pretty amazing. If you're bringing back all the same kind of action, I think this movie will work. I think, without a doubt it's gonna make a lot of money at the box office. But I think what you're playing with here is the legacy that the Matrix has. The other thing I kind of worry about is the title Matrix Resurrections. I feel like that's a little bit uncreative, and anytime you put resurrection or resurrections in the title, historically it's not that great of a movie. Halloween Resurrection comes to mind, and that's probably the worst or one of the worst Halloween movies. And I love Michael Myers. I'll watch any Halloween movie, but it just feels a little bit kind of uncreative or kind of boring. But I guess it's a step above just Matrix four. Yeah, I'm glad they brought that carry in Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and you have Neil Patrick Harris in here, so I'm excited to see this. It comes out on December two of this year. We'll see how it does, all right, So that's gonna do it for movie News. That will do it for this week's episode. Appreciate everybody for listening being subscribed to the podcast. Before I go every single week, I give a shout out to one of you guys listening, and some people ask, well, how do I get a shout out? It's really easy. All you have to do is send me a d M on Instagram. You can tweet me at Mike Destro or comment over on my Facebook page Facebook dot com slash Mike Destro, or send me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com. I'm getting a lot of emails over there, some of you even inspiring me with some possible topics that I'll do later, some themes I'll do later, so I always appreciate those emails. So this one actually comes to me from Instagram. I got tagged on Instagram story from at Sweet Eats by v. It was a screenshot of the Top five Disney Soundtracks episode and said I literally l o lad, I'm convinced this movie doesn't exist anymore. And that was a reference to the Top Gun sequel being delayed again, So appreciate that that's from Vanessa. Actually looks like her business account. She makes some sweet Eats over there, so if you're living in Long Beach and want some cookie cake or cake pops, you can go over to sweet Eats by v And know that she is a fellow movie Mix movie podcast listener, so I appreciate that if you're listening on release day, hope you have a good rest of your week and until next week. Later