Mike Busts Myths with the Original Cast of Willy Wonka + Willy Wonka Turns 50 + Movie Review: F9 + What It's Like To Rent A Movie Theatre

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to movie Mike's Movie podcast, your go to source for all things movies, spoiler free reviews, interviews with actors and directors. A very special episode today because one of my top five movies of all time is celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and I got to talk to the original cast, So I'll be busting some myths with the cast of Willy Wonka, and before we get into that, I'll just talk about why that is one of my favorite movies of all time. And then I have a review of the new Fashion and Furious movie, which is the first movie I've seen in theaters and over a year and a half also rented out a theater to watch that, So I'll bring my wife Kelsey on to talk about that experience. A lot to talk about today. Thanks for being subscribed to the podcast, and if you're listening on a Monday unreleased day, shout out to the Monday Morning Crew. 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 years of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge piece basically like being audience David, Who's Glass from the National Podcast Network. So will A Wanka and the Chocolate Factory is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. It came out back in nineteen seventy one, is just one of my top five movies of all time. Actually just rewatched it for this podcast because I wanted to talk to the original cast and kind of get them too, put to rest some of these myths you see sometimes online about movies, especially when it comes to older ones. There's all these tales that get told of, like things that happened on the set, and I read about them as like these fun facts, but I always wonder if they're actually true. Sometimes I feel like somebody just wrote these myths up at one point, put them on the internet, and we all just started to believe them. So I'll ask the actors themselves whether or not these actually happened. Which is interesting about this and I only I realized that even though it came out in seventy one, they were also young in this movie. They're only in their sixties now, so it was really cool to be able to talk to them. And I think one of the reasons this movie is my one of my top five movies of all times. First of all, I always identified with Charlie Buckett in the movie because he was dirt poor and he had nothing to the point to where a loaf of bread seemed like a banquet to them. And I just remember that kind of aspect of that movie always kind of hitting home with me. I'm like, man, I always wanted to win these cool contests as a kid because I was broke, and I was like, man, if we could get like these Nickelodeon vacations they give away, or like all these trips I see about on TV that I would be like, man, do real kids actually get to go on those? It just seemed like something like so far out and like not even in reality. And I remember watching this movie and thinking, like, man, somebody like me actually won that contest, got to live out their dream. But aside from that personal level, for me, I think this movie is just a classic, and this version specifically is why I think it held up so well over the years. Um aside from the remake they did with Johnny Depp, is because this one really created a world entirely of its own. And there's a couple of reasons why I think this one is a classic and why it's held up so well over the years, even though when it came out it really wasn't a box office hit. It kind of became a cult classic, and later along the way it really became a movie that we kind of adored. And the main reason is because of Gene Wilder's performance of this which I think he is an entirely underrated actor, and maybe some people just know him as Willy Wonka, but from all the things that he's done, but without him in this movie, Willy Wonka wouldn't have worked. It's the sarcasm that he has when delivering the lines. It's the cadence he gave to the character, even like the little details he put into like when they're first walking into the chocolate factory and he's walking down the stairs and he goes down one and comes back up, and just a little quirks that he put into the character. I think is why this movie held up so well and why people kind of remembered him for that. And I think people don't realize like how much of a comedic genius he was that some of the things he did in the movie were completely improvised from when he first walks out and everybody sees him for the very first time. He's walking with a limp and then does that little front flip and he's all good, Like that was all Gene Wilder coming up with these things can make Willy Wonka this kind of mysterious character. And I was rewatching it and kind of thinking of, like, man, really Wanco now like this kind of way would be a lot creepy to imagine a guy like that, But for some reason in this movie it really makes sense. I don't think so much so in the Johnny Depp remake, and I think Tim Burton tried to make that one a little darker. I don't think it really lent uself to that, because the reason it works is because he is quirky and he is weird, but he also has a really big heart inside of him, and there's a reason he's doing all these things, not just for the sake of being weird. I think a side of the Willie wantonness that Jean Wilder pulled off, he also brought in like a heart to it at the very end of it. And the other thing about the original one is the music in the movie is so great that I kind of don't realize that I'm watching a musical, and I think some people don't even really consider this movie to be a full on musical, but it really is. And whenever they remade it, I felt like that was a big part of me not liking that one is because the songs in the first one are such class six and they're so good on their own, maybe aside from Cheerup Charlotte, which I don't like, but I think aside from that, all the songs are amazing, and it's because of the womballoom B because the Gene Wilder. I think that's what really made this movie memorable. And I could probably sing this song all day. If you want, of you Paradise, simply look around. I'm doing anything you'll want to do it. I want to change the world. There's nothing that's my jam. But yeah, I think that is why this movie has made it into my top ten movies of all time and just kind of stayed there. And I just rewatched it. And because they are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this week, it is available now on four k U h D, so you can buy it and own it and watch it really in a different way. I know. Sometimes you see these re releases come out and like, oh, it's digitally remastered and restored. It really makes a difference. And it kind of makes me think of like, this movie was filmed way back in the seventies and I'm watching it and realized like just how cinematic it was, and you kind of realize how important, like good cinematography is for a movie like that to be shot and filmed then. But watching it now and it looks like it could have been sean maybe just ten years ago. It's that good. I think it just really brings to life movies you remembered as a kid when they get these four K treatments, and I think it's really worth it. And I'm kind of a stickler for quality, Like I won't watch anything that's on a old DVD or VHS tape. I gotta watch it in the best quality. Especially with something I'm going back and kind of rewatching, I kind of want to see it in a different line again. So so if you're wanting to watch this movie again, maybe show it to your kids. I highly recommend checking out the four K version. So that is why this movie is one of my favorites and I was very excited to get a chance to talk to some of the original cast. So coming up, I will talk to Peter who played Charlie Buckett. I'll talk to Paris who played Mike TV, Julie who played Arucas Sault, and Michael, the actor who played Augustus Gloop. And I just want to ask him about some myths I read online over the years about Willie Wang and the chocolate factory and find out whether or not they're true. Let's get into this interview. How are you all? Great? Great to see you are great to get to talk to you all. First of all, what's it like to see everybody again for the first time in a long time. It isn't the first time in a long time. We have actually even in during Clavid We've caught up a couple of times. We've done a couple of social calls because we are kind of a weird famine. So but you know the fact that we are still here fifty years later, that's the that's the extortion. That's great. Well, I have some myths I've heard about filming and I wanted to get what really happened from you guys. So the first thing I heard of is that some of you experienced some pretty crazy nightmares after filming that famous tunnel scene. Was that a real thing? Keep on rowing? And they're certainly not showing any signs. No, no nightmare here, Yeah, not exactly nightmares. I think it was more of a living nightmare while we shot it, rather than something we dreamed about later. Um uh, you know, they wound us up with some flashing lights and some uh scary footage that they projected across the wall, and then of course Jeane did his crazy read uh and so we weren't really prepared for that. So it was it was nightmarish to shoot, But I don't remember having a nightmare after the fact, So it was after the fact. What was it like being there when he's giving this performance that you had really no idea what he was gonna do. It was just like, all right, here it is, here's Jean wild. They're kind of going a little mad. They didn't tell us. I mean, we've read the scripts, so we knew what he was going to do. We just didn't know how he was going to do it. And that was the scary thring And there's that it was kind of sweat and sit flying, very attractive, really crazy. So yeah, that was a little scary, but no last thing. So the other myths I heard was that, I know a lot of the candy was you know, fake props, some of it was made out of wood, some of it was just plastic. But the chocolate river was that real. And by the end of filming, what did that smell like? Horrible? The smell of horrible. Actually it was thinking water and it was not any taste of profit at all. It was there for a beets and uh it was not freshly made, so not no fun stump in this and you had to actually be in there? What what did you go in here? Was it a stunt person? What happened? You know? I had to stump in this thinking water and it was very swallow, and I had to hit h a hole that was shasta square meter and yes, was very anxious that I wouldn't get the hole hit my head on the bottom of the That's crazy. So, Peter, I had another mede for you. Um, I heard that at the start of the movie and throughout the movie you were going through puberty, and that your voice is higher at the beginning of the movie and lower at the end. Is that true? Oh maybe, I mean I think I think we were all going to but yeah, I don't know. I guess it's a little higher. I don't know, Deally, what do you think. I don't know. I was just thinking, and I was thinking, actually, you know, maybe that was something to do with the piano whiles when you were in the right exactly exactly, I think I would have answered that question as follows. Sure it was lower, that it went low. At the end of the my dress was getting shorter because I was growing growing. Would do your hair though, but your hair? I hair, yes, yeah, and my hair my hair well, actually my hair shrank because we had a crazy hairdresser woman that back in the day everybody was the first was split in. That was the thing back then about you know girls you have slidden and you would twist your hair into a rope and run a candle down it to burn off the spit suns, and it just is this terrible smell of burning hair. That all was happening was she was burning my hair. It was getting shorter. There was a scene where I go, I go out of the inventing room and then into the nicable wallpaper and it's visibly to Shorter, Well, I appreciate the time, thanks for helping put all those miss to rest, and thank you so much. Sorry, have a good one. I'm gonna get into a movie review now, talking about the new Fast and the Furious movie F nine, which we just saw in theaters. I don't know why I talked like Chandler right there in theaters. You did, Chandler. But my wife Kelsey is here now, who watched it with me. We'll talk about our experience watching the movie, but first we'll give our review. And if you haven't seen the trailer by now here's just a little bit of F nine. Y'all ever thought about wild missions we've been on. We've taken out planes, trains, takes. I'm not going to even think about the submarine, and now we got cars flying in there. Whizzy Jacob is Tom's brother, all right, So I think we got exactly out of F nine is what we were expecting. And have you seen any of the Fast and the Curious movies? Yeah? I think I've said on here before, didn't I think I've said that I went to see another one on a date with someone else. That's why I blacked out of my memory. But I think we were talking after the movie, which will give our whole experience of what it was like watching a movie in the theaters for the first time in a while. I think they probably got really ridiculous after the last one that Paul Walker was in. They kind of just turned into superheroes, and I think now they are full on just soap operas. Yeah, they're soap operas. They're ridiculous. That they're self aware, now that's a new thing. That's a new thing is they're self aware of how ridiculous there, which I think adds to you know what, you're getting it out of it, Like it's just you're paying to go sit there for two hours and it's like mindless. You don't really have to follow along, although I did ask you one point. I was like, what's going on? What is the plot of this? And I don't want to reveal the plot of it because I don't want I don't really feel like you can spoil this movie really because I think the movies are supposed to be so big and so cheesy and it just action packed. You're basically going on a full on roller coaster when you're watching a fast and the furious movie. You go in for the excitement. You're not really there for the dialogue, You're not really there for the plot line. You're just there to watch something completely ridiculous. It's big Hollywood explodesion that you can get at a little bit follow along with the storyline, but you want to laugh, you want to enjoy it, you want to hang out. I think that's also why I decided to pick this movie for the birthday party. And I was going to say, we can talk more about this and again into like the experience of renting a theater. But it's one of those where you could like talk during it, or like kind of zone out for a minute and tune back in and you haven't missed too much. Which I will say, I did not get up to have to compete during the movie. Yeah, so I could have gone and come back and still it would have been fine. I think it would have been good. I think it's, yeah, like you said, a movie you don't have to play, pay entirely attention to the entire time, and just hang out and have a good time. But what I felt from it, I'm rating it on the scale of entertainment value. It's not going to have the same scale of any other movie that I've watched, because it's really just a popcorn movie, and I'm rating it kind of on the scale of how fun it was to watch and also how it comparis to the other movies in the franchise. So I thought this movie had like too big, Like I'm comparing it to a roal a coast through. The first kind of drop in the movie was the most exciting part, I thought, where they're all trying to they're basically running from bad guys, and it's all the ridiculousness of like it's the most over the top opening sequence really, and I thought that was a lot of fun. I think that's what everybody watching it had the most fun and laughed at the most because it's so kind of ridiculous and just out of this world what they do where they're basically full on superheroes now. And then I thought, probably the middle action of the movie was the other kind of big, like, Okay, this is like as good as it's going to get. And then it kind of event it could have been a little bit earlier for me. Yeah, I was long at one point. I like the other thing about being in a private movie theater, you can take out your phone. I took out my phone and was like, well, what is the run time of this, because like we've been here for a while. Yeah, I felt it could have been shorter, Like I get the idea of it kind of having the same run time as like a superhero movie, but at one point I was like, there's nothing crazier that they can do it to make this, you know, bring the energy back into it. So I felt it could have been a little bit shorter. Not comparing it to all the other Fast and the Furious movies, I kind of think the Fate of the Furious was a little more of like a it had a little bit more action. I think this one maybe had a little bit more comedy. Yeah, I laughed, they Yeah, they joked a lot more in this movie, I felt. But I felt like that kind of epic saga that I was looking for of like, you know, all this big battle, I don't feel like I got it as much in this one. There were some cool race scenes and cool fighting scenes, but I thought the other ones were a little bit more big and out there. It's also no I don't want to spoil is it a spoiler if I say, who the other You'd say that's on the trailer, Okay, no one can hear, so I just mouthed to him it's a big part. Yeah, John cenas in this movie. And it's just kind of funny to see like Vin Diesel and John Cena together in like a screen, Like you're just just a lot of like muscle, not a testoster, a lot of meathead. I say that. I think about The Fast and the Furious movies, is this is really the only movies that all these actors are in, Like they're not in other movies. Really die, they don't need to be. This is probably paying them fine, but like ludicrous t Tyrese Jordana Brewster has been another stuff. I feel like this is the main their main hub though what was Michelle Rodriguez almost unlost? She wasn't lost on Lucia. I was like I know her from something. Yeah, But I feel like this is like they're big, Like alright, movie, we don't have to do a whole lot of them there. They do just fine. So if I had to rate F nine, I would probably give it a solid three out of five. Like I think it's right in the middle of all the Fast and the Furious movies. It's not. I don't think it gave me anything more than I was looking for. It was just a very like satisfying That's kind of what I came here for. I was able to turn off my brain, hang out with everybody, and watch the movie. Um, the plot line wasn't much to follow, and I just needed a little bit more action. But it was pretty funny. They had some funny parts, but it's also laughing at how cheesy it is. I would give it the same. I was going to give it a three out of five, three out of five. So for this one. We did this for my birthday, which was a big part of you kind of like, hey, we gotta do something to celebrate your thirtieth birthday. I didn't really want to do anything. Yeah, one, it was your thirtieth too. I I love birthdays. I love celebrating other people's birthdays. I just think it's like a day to just show people how much you love them. And I've loved birthdays ever since we first started dating. I remember telling you, so we started dating and what like May of twenty thank you, and your birthday was like a month and half later, and I was gonna get you a birthday present, and you were like, I hate opening presents. I hate Yeah, I hate opening presents in front of other people. So you made it through that one, and then the next year we celebrated with your family, um, which was fun. And then last year we did nothing because the world was still locked down, and so I was like, this year, we have to do something with like all of your friends. And you know, you're hard to surprise. You don't like surprises. You would have known something was up, so I was like, I'm not going to do a surprise party. I was like, I'm just not even gonna try that. But I was like, I'm going to do something for you. So like I think we're gonna go to dinner to top golf. I was like, pick something celebrating you, and you picked a movie party. Yeah. I felt it was an easy thing to have everybody come and do. And then I remember during the pandemic they were allowing people to rent out theaters, which is something I always want to do something with a kid, and it's suddenly kind of affordable. I know, for like a if you want to watch an older movie like a rant like Back to the Future, that costs bucks to do, and you can bring up to twenty people and for a new movie, which I mean it's not cheap by any means, but if you're having a birthday party, I feel like if you go out to dinner or go do something else, like it's gonna be the same, because I mean that evens out, it's actually cheaper than going on to dinner for like twenty people spends out to ten dollars a person, and I feel like you go bowling, go to top golf, you end up getting up there in those numbers. I was like, I love movies. I would love everybody to come hang out in a movie theater. We have it all to ourselves. I think it's worth it. My thirtieth birthday, when am I ever going to do something like this again? I was all into it and it ended up being pretty fun. Like we got there. You had made these goodie bags for everybody. I did. If anyone here is listening that works at Regal, I did not sneak in six bags of candy and my toe bag. Why would I do that? That's rude. Um, But if you don't work for Regal, yes, I snuck getting sixteen bags of candy. I made a goodie bag for everyone in like a cellphone bag, and then I folded over and I sealed it with a movie Mike's movie podcast sticker and a little promotion there. And they were a big hit. Everybody loved that. It was cool just to go in and sit down and have the entire tire theater to ourselves. That was nice, Like we were just able that you were passing out candy. Everybody was hanging out. You could have your phones out if you wanted to. I still feel like everybody pretty much stayed off their phones, but we had that option to to do that. And also just it's a movie that you wanted to be able to talk in between and laugh at it, and it would. It was perfect. We made fun of Ray because he got that one squeaky chair that like they're the reclining chairs that when you put it down at it sounds like somebody's just farting. Yeah, yeah, tuting, Yeah, that was funny, and then we're just saying, yeah, just hanging out. I thought it was great. It's fun. My only complaint is that, um, this is the three gold they've switched to pepsi products and I just nobody goes to a movie and wants to diet pepsi. But that's my personal um soapbox. But I would say I would recommend it if you could afford that, or even if you want to go in like with a group of friends to run an entire theater. It was fun. I thought it was really great. Yeah, it was nice to just be able to hang out with everyone. It was like a cool, like group setting, And it feels I liked the private aspect of it because it was like you just got to like hang out with your friends and you're not in there with a bunch of randoms. Somebody's not like coughing and sneezing opening You can open your candy at an inopportune time and somebody's not gonna get mad at you. And then I think among our end group that went it was everybody from the Bobby Blone Show. So if you had to write that movie experience, what would you give it ten out of ten? Oh you went on the ten scale. Yeah, it was a great Friday night with all of our friends. Yeah, it felt like the experience I never had in high school of going to a movie with friends on a Friday night. I think I liked it too, because this was the first time that we've really gotten to do something with everyone because we were long distance for so long, and when I would come to town, like it would just be you and I getting some time together since we only have like forty eight hours, and then last year obviously nobody really did anything. So now it's like, oh, I feel like I'm a part of the group. It's fun to get to hang out with everyone. There's a lot of fun. So are we now back to having we got our big like return to the movies under our belt? You down to go to more movies? I Am down to get to more movies. Yeah, I'm excited to have that back. It feel it felt normal again and felt fun again, and I'm ready to see more movies. Maybe I'll just sneak in my own beverage next time. If you can do that, I'd be very impressed. Watch. Okay, let's talk about some movie news. Now. A movie trailer that a bunch of people were tagging me in because I said I was one of the ones I'm most excited about was the new Halloween Kills trailer. And it's a very in dense trailer. If you haven't seen it yet. I'll give you just a little bit of it because it is so I almost want to say gruesome. But here's just a little bit of that trailer dies tonight. I'm not just gonna sit and watch another innocent person die. If you track Michael's victims, that's a straight line. The Michael's child's at home. So I think why this trailer was so kind of out there this week is because it featured the most kill scenes I've ever seen in the trailer. And you're looking at me with disgust right now, because you hate any kind of horror movie, and this is what I This is the kind of movie that I love. It's not so much the like supernatural element of like horror movies, but it's like a full on slasher movie. And I've never seeing a trailer like this that kind of showcased all of the killing that happens in a movie within the trailer. Absolutely awful. I think there was maybe like over ten, maybe fifteen kills shown in this trailer. I will not be seeing that with you. That's a that's a strong negative. Why I think this is such a strong marketing thing for them is because knowing that they were willing to put so much of that in the trailer, I can only imagine that the entire movie delivers on a higher level, because it's kind of like when comedies will put all the funny parts in the trailer and that's that sucks, that's a bad movie. But I feel like, if you're like, hey, should we really put this many like intense, gruesome scenes from the movie, if you know people are gonna watch and be like, oh, you showed everything in the trailer, I feel like there has to be a lot more. And I really like the way they've kind of brought the scary element back into the Michael Myers movies, unlike they did with the Rob Zombie reboots. With this kind of version, it feels kind of more more intense than before and kind of like that original kind of classic that made those chilling that made Michael Myers seem like a really creepy guy. Like, I think this is one of the first movies that really gave me nightmares, aside from maybe like the first Chainsaw Massacre. But I kind of feel like I might have that feeling again going to watch this movie. So I'm really excited for this one. So what you're excited to go see a movie that's going to give me nightmares? Yes, great, because it's that's what I mean. A really great horror movie could do that. Cable don't wake me up when you get nightmares? Okay, well, but yeah, I'm excited for this one. The other piece of movie news, we're talking about F nine just a while ago. It's kind of the biggest blockbuster in a very long time, making about sixty eight million dollars this weekend. It's also the only like really big thing that's come out in theaters like in a while. That's true, but I feel like this is the opening up of all the big summer blockbusters to return, which we've been over a year without having one. A Quiet Place kind of had that with the numbers, but I think now with Fast Interfurious comes out makes a lot of money. I think the next one up is a Black Widow to come out and make a bunch of money, which I kind of feel now they made the right decision on that one. I know for a while it's like, just put it out on Disney plus we just want to see it, but I'm not doing both so straight in their theaters, So they changed their minds again. Yeah. Where was I when that happened. I don't know, but I think that's probably the right move for them, Like it's gonna make a lot of money and kind of put us back in that mindset of going to see Marvel movies in the theater again. So I feel like this whole summer blockbuster season is back on the schedule. I don't see anything getting delayed anymore, which is exciting. I can't wait for that one now. But that'll do it for movie News. Before I hop out of here, I got to get my shout out of the week, which I do every single week to anybody who sends me a d M on Instagram, tweets me at Mike Destro, leaves me a comment on my Facebook page, which is just Facebook dot com slash Mike Destro. This one is actually an email I got sent into movie Mike d at gmail dot com and it's from Jill. She said, Hey, Mike, I love the podcast. Out of all the show podcasts I listened to, movie Mix is first. That's amazing. There's a lot of great Nashville Podcast Network podcasts and for mine to be first on anybody's list, um, that's amazing to me. So appreciate that, Jill. She said, I don't always agree with your opinions of movies, but I still enjoyed the podcast. But I'm probably closer to your wife's point of view. I love rom comms. There we go, So you are that kind of I mean, I get my opinions and my thoughts on movies are a little weird, and I feel like you kind of bring me back to being like, no, this is probably what most people think. I just humanize you in general. There you are, that's as you do. I felt like once you came into my life, I became more of like, I admit that I am weird, and you made me less weird. Of like, I felt like you took an alien and made them into like a human being. Your social skills have gotten better because they're there. Yes, they're they're they're they're they're in my head. Although today I did have to go up and say that you were missing part of your meal on a restaurant. Yeah. I don't like confrontation. I don't like going and addressing other people. I will if at a restaurant, I will not send anything back. Or I also just accept the fate of something being gone okay, but you helped me out with with that a lot. So thank you for being in my life. You're welcome. Where's my um, Where's my wife? Shot at all the week for making your thirtieth birthday so awesome And my final shout out is to my wife for making my thirtieth birthday enjoyable and fun for me. And I think it was just really cool to see kind of how with like I don't like getting gifts, but that everybody kind of put the movie aspect into like, oh, you are really thoughtful gifts, and I don't know, for the first time ever, I've enjoyed a birthday weekend Like it was fun, not so much of like hey, everybody like focus on me. It was just getting everybody together and doing something fun. I think everybody had a good time and there was a pokemon cake Pokemon cake we I think one of my favorite parts was after the movie everybody hanging out and just talking. Afterwards, we all stood out there for like thirty minutes. Yeah, kind of what we just did now talk about our favorite parts of the movie. I think at one point Amy was like, you should just hit record now, and he's part of your part, it was like, we have everyone here and this is just one giant podcast. Should have just went around and got a one word review from everybody, but everybody just hanging out outside of a work setting I thought was a lot of fun. So for that, thank you, and for everybody listening right now, Thank you for being subscribed and listening every single week. Means the world to me and I will talk to you again next week, but until then later