Ranking Top 10 Sequels Releasing in 2025 + Movie Review: + Trailer Park: Friendship

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie Podcast. I am your host Movie Mike Today. It is gonna be.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: A lot of talk about sequels.

00:00:06
Speaker 1: I want to rank the top ten sequels coming out in twenty twenty five. The Goonies is getting a sequel. I'll give you what I love and don't love about sequels and the state of cinema.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: We'll get into all that in.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: The movie review. I'll give my spoiler free review of The Monkey, which is the new horror movie from Oz Perkins who did Long Legs last year.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Was it as good as a trailer led on?

00:00:29
Speaker 1: And then in the trailer park we'll be talking about Friendship and why I think it could be the funniest movie.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Of the year.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: And now let's talk movies from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcast. What's Socking Sequels Today? Goonies two is officially a go. Steven Spielberg is on board.

00:00:55
Speaker 1: It was inevitable that this movie was going to happen, and now that it's officially announced, it's in the very early stages of there's not even a director attached to it. They're writing it, so it is that earliest stages, which I don't love when movies are announced this soon because then it takes so long, and I think we live in a world now where we kind of live in these movies for way too long that by the time they come out, it's like, oh man, this feels not even new to me anymore. But with a movie this historic, this bestowed upon just being not only a fan favorite, but if you ask somebody who grew up in the eighties, it could easily be their favorite movie. But none of the original cast as of now, as the recording of this podcast and the history of me talking about this movie in particular, whenever I talk about it, something always gets announced after I record it. But at the time of recording this, nobody from the original og Gouni's cast is going to be a part of it. Corey Felman Kihui Kwan have expressed interest and wanting to do a sequel, And then you think about just how amazing this cast is, with not just them too, but Josh Brolin, who has had a wild career since the Goonies, Martha Plimpton Sean Ashton, Jeff Cohen, Carrie Green. Nobody as of right now is going to be a part of it. And the last episode I did talking about the Goonies was during my episode when I wanted to talk about eighties movies that needed sequels, and I include Goonies on that list. And I still believe that this sequel can work, but I do have a couple of hesitations about it. If these people aren't a part of this sequel, I'm not gonna like it. And that is kind of how I'm feeling right now, and that's why I wasn't that excited once it finally got announced, because I was hoping the announcement was going to come. We're making Goonies to all the original cast.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: Is back, or at least most of them.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: Really hard to get all the original cast, but I think getting most of them, especially the bigger names now who have gone on to have really big careers, I think it's important to get those people back, and that is a reason to make a sequel. We didn't get that. That leads me to believe that it's not going to happen. Because now over a decade they've been in serious discussions about this it getting announced and nobody is a part of it from the original. That is a bad sign. The other thing, when it comes to sequels, I feel like people are getting sick of them, and the state of we feel like everything is a reboot and a remake, and I feel like this doesn't really help because if you take a movie that is so beloved by so many people and you don't bring back any of the original cast, it is really gonna leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. And this is a type of movie that you could ruin the legacy of it is that level of film where the history alone, the memories that we associate with this movie, with the soundtrack, with the cast, with the time that we first watched this movie, if you don't include any of that into the sequel, it is just it's not going to feel the same. And I hate a cash grab, lifeless sequel. And then when you look at the state of cinema for the highest grossing movies last year in twenty twenty four, I know the highest grossing movies were sequels, And I think when it comes down to it, the main thing I'm not a fan of.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: I will watch a sequel.

00:04:21
Speaker 1: I am a fanboy of some franchisees, and no matter how many movies they make, I'm going to continue to watch them. Where I draw the line is when it feels like a cash grab, where it feels like they're only praying on the fact that these movies have been around for so long and people love them.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: Then, no matter what we do, even if there's.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: No integrity in it, even if we just get a random director and just push along a storyline that adds nothing that ruins the movie that came before it. I've seen this time and time again. That is why I'm always hesitating. So I hope they get a great director to do it. I hope they bring back the original cast for Goonies, and I hope it doesn't feel like a cash grab.

00:05:04
Speaker 2: But at this.

00:05:04
Speaker 1: Point in time, I don't feel great about it. So with that being said, let's get into me ranking the top ten sequels coming out in twenty twenty five. By ranking them, I mean at number ten is going to be the movie I think it is going to be the worst, And at number one is what I think is going to be the best sequel of.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five.

00:05:27
Speaker 1: And I'm only gonna do direct sequel, So number twos really anything that the sequel is a two, three, four five. No matter where it lands in the franchise, it is a sequel. But for the sake of this episode, since we're talking about Goonies two, I just want to talk about number twos. So at number ten, what I think will be the worst sequel of twenty twenty five. I'm gonna go with Freakier Friday with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, coming out on August eighth. This movie is coming to us twenty two years after the original that came out in two thousand and three. Jamie Lee Curtis is coming back, Lindsay Loewen is coming back. This time Lindsay Lohan's character now has a daughter and assume to be step daughter. They're about to merge two families together, and then they discover that lightning may strike twice and they're.

00:06:15
Speaker 2: Gonna be swapping bodies again.

00:06:17
Speaker 1: So I would assume that's Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis swapping bodies again, and then Lindsay probably swapping bodies with her new daughter.

00:06:25
Speaker 2: Freaky Friday was great.

00:06:26
Speaker 1: It came out at a time where I feel like putting music in a two thousands Disney esque movie.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: With a rock band.

00:06:36
Speaker 1: I ate up all those movies because I wanted to be that, And Freaky Friday has a very memorable moment whenever Lindsay Lohan is playing guitar on stage with their band, but it's actually Jamie Lee Curtis's body inside of her, and then you have Jamie Lee Curtis's actual body side stage actually doing the solos. That is one of my favorite musical scenes of the two thousands. And as much as I enjoyed that movie, when it comes to Freaking Your Friday, this just feels like it has cash grab written all over it. So it does make the top ten in it being that it is going to be a movie I definitely got to watch, But since it is Disney, it is giving me more of the vibes of whenever they made hocus Pocus two, where there was no real reason to make a hocus Pocus to aside from the fact that the people who loved and grew up with that movie are now in their thirties and can either pay for a Disney Plus subscription or get their kids to watch it and then be invested in the first one, and then Disney has a bigger product on their hands. That is what this movie feels like to me. Although I'm all about the Lindsay Lohan comeback, I think she has put out some pretty good work in the last few years. I think it'll just be fun to see her and Jamie Lee Curtis on screen together again. But I can only imagine this movie is going to be a big step down from the original. So at number ten, I have Free Your Friday, and number nine I have The Black Phone two, which is a horror movie with Ethan Hawk. It is coming out on October seventeenth. He is coming back as a character described as the Grabber, which is one of my favoritetten masks of the last ten years. It's this pale off, wide discolored mask with these horns, and Ethan Hawk just has a very interesting demeanor and character in The Black Phone, and the movie was about his character, the Grabber, who would abduct kids and put him in his basement, and it was really weird, not exactly edge of your seat scary, but one that you watch and you think, man, what if this happened to me? How would I get out of this situation? Then it has that supernatural element too, with the actual black phone where you can hear the voices of the Grabber's previous murder victims. What the sequel is going to be about, It's expected to follow one of the characters who is now in high school, dealing with the aftermath of the trauma that he experienced with his first encounter with the grabber, who is returning in this one. But I think there's also going to be a new threat and then still having to deal with the voices from the Grabbers' previous victims. It is a really unique blend of a coming of age story with a bunch of horror elements, So I think this will be one that you don't necessarily have to see in theaters. Again, it's coming out on October seventeenth, but if you haven't seen the first one, definitely worth the stream And if you like that one, check this one out later this year at number eight, I have Zootopia two coming out on November twenty sixth. Pretty much everybody coming back for this one. Jason Bateman, all of the original cast. Zootopia was low key one of the best movies of the twenty tens from Disney. And maybe this is just me looking back on the twenty tens now thinking things were great, when at the time I was still like, oh man, Disney still hasn't been good since the nineties, So maybe it's because there's been some time in between now, But at that time, Disney had kind of gotten away. I feel from having movies that really had a message. Came just a factory of trying to create these franchises, and Zootopia was one that left a lasting mark of my brain, even the fact that I was already twenty five years old when this.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: Movie came out.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: And any Disney movie that can really spark a conversation that can make a big statement about the world, but not only that make a really fun and clever movie. It is hard to blend a movie that has a message but it's also just entertaining for the entire family. Zootopia, I feel, is the best example of that when it comes to just a straight on Disney movie, not a Disney Pixar movie, just a straight on Disney movie, which is what this is.

00:10:39
Speaker 2: Disney movies were.

00:10:40
Speaker 1: Always rooted in their early days in fairy tales. In this one not really a fairy tale, but it has some of those characteristics just because it's the animal dynamic inside of the Animal Kingdom has a fantastic voice cast at number eight. Zootopia too at number seven. I'm going with The Accountant to starring Ben Affleck. This is coming out on April twenty fifth. Ben Affleck plays an autistic accountant was also a killing machine named Christian Wolf. John Bernthal is also rejoining the cast and JK.

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Simmons.

00:11:15
Speaker 1: I love the First Accountant movie, which had Anna Kendrick actually not coming back in this one, and this movie left a lasting impression on me. If you look at the reviews for the First Accountant, it got pretty bad reviews, and I don't know why. I think it is a great action movie. This is the type of action movie I love. Well, maybe the acting isn't top tier like The Departed, it has enough grit for me that I enjoy it. I also enjoy seeing Ben Affleck play a character like this who is just a unique person because you see him go from being an accountant, being really great with numbers, being really smart, to then being an all out killing machine. It's just that juxtaposition that makes this movie so interesting. Now after watching the trailer to this, it does have a bit of a different vibe from the first Accounted movie. I don't know if it's because Matt Damon isn't a producer on this one anymore, not that it feels worse than the first one. I just think that it caught you a little bit more off guard in the Accountant when he would go and live his other life that people didn't know about. This one seems to be he is more established and you kind of know what is coming, and it almost feels like in the trailer that Ben Affleck is playing the character a little bit differently and a little bit more dialed into some of the characteristics to make that jump seem a little bit more drastic. But this movie is coming to us nine years after the first installment, which this is a movie that I never really thought would get a sequel, So I think that's why it's also interesting to me his character Launders money for some of his character Launder's money uncooks books for some of the most dangerous people and assassins in the world, so it looks like he gets himself into another bit of a situation. I think the scene at the end of this trailer with him and his brother in the movie getting full on into gear, walking out and just start shooting people up like that as a type of movie that you just go watch and enjoy. So maybe it's because there's not a whole lot of substance and anything beyond that, which is why some people hated it and some people ripped it to shreds. I enjoyed The Accountant one. I'm excited for this sequel, so by number seven, I have The Accountant too, and number six coming out on October twenty fourth is Mortal Kombat two. Video game adaptations.

00:13:32
Speaker 2: Are huge right now.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat doesn't have the richest history of being movies that push the boundaries, but they are just fun movies. And I just love Mortal Kombat characters so much. From Scorpions, sub Zero, Goro, Luke Cage, there are so many great Mortal Kombat characters, some fan favorites making their debut. This has been a movie I've been waiting for since the first one came out in twenty twenty one. Not the original ones from the nineties, but the reboot this so it is a direct sequel to that one. I guess it's part of a bigger franchise, but I'm still including it on this list and number six. I have Mortal Kombat too at number five. I didn't do this on purpose, but I do have Five Nights at Freddy's, which is coming out on December fifth. And this was a movie I didn't fully get when it came out in the theaters. I reviewed it in everybody on YouTube let me know how much of an idiot I was, and I think it's because of the culture surrounding the video.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: Game, and people love this one.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: It was a really big hit for Blumhouse, and I feel like I just kind of missed it. I want to revisit it. I want to give it a second chance. But now I'm a little bit more excited going into the second one now that I kind of know what to expect. And I think even up toil last year, I was still kind of in the mindset that every horror movie needed to be scary, and I don't know why, and I think it's the way some trailers sell some movies that I thought this one was gonna make me feel that, and I'm kind of eliminating that now from my criteria of horror movies where I want to focus more on the world that they create and the feeling that it gives me and the elements of horror that still exists without them being like, ah, it's gonna make you scared, which is not what the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise is. Another really lasting effect of this movie is I recently heard the song Talking in Your Sleep by The Romantics, which is featured in the first one, kind of the theme song of the movie in a way tells you the plot of what was happening to the character in the original movie. And I heard it on the radio and I immediately associated it with the movie. And it's been a while since that's happened for a movie to take a popular song from a while ago reput it into a movie and it kind of have a second life. And now I will forever associate Talking in Your Sleep with Five Nights at Freddy's, much like also last year Dead pulling Wolvere did with the Madonna song.

00:16:02
Speaker 2: So a lot of these pulling inspiration from the eighties.

00:16:04
Speaker 1: But I just love those movie and music moments in films that leave an impression on us, because music and movies should be more deliberate, in my opinion, use it at just the right time to really connect with the plot of the movie, connect with that moment of what your character is going through. That is what makes lasting impressions. It's a lot different than just slapping a popular song into a movie and saying, oh, yeah, that song was in this movie. That's not as memorable. You can take you a good song and put it into a movie, but if you don't really fit it into the story and play it at the right time, then it's not gonna have that same effect.

00:16:44
Speaker 2: But that song did it.

00:16:46
Speaker 1: I'm understanding more the lore of Five Nights at Freddy So that is why I have this movie at number five. At number four, I have Nobody Too coming out on August fifteenth. Bob Odenkirk is returning in this movie twenty twenty one. This was one of my favorite action movies in a long time, and he plays a retired assassin force back into action to take on this Russian mobster. So that's kind of a theme of a lot of the action movies I like. I love action movies where it's somebody who's been retired or out of the game for a while and something has to suck them back into the game. But Nobody had really great fast paced action and fighting sequences where characters broke bones.

00:17:32
Speaker 2: Bob butden Kirk's.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Character was bloodied up, a lot of shootouts, a lot of fighting, a destruction of an entire house.

00:17:39
Speaker 2: This movie had it all.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: There are very few movies that I feel comfortable with showing my dad because my dad does not watch movies, doesn't care for him. I'm not sure the last time he has completed a movie. But Nobody is a movie that I could put on and be like, oh.

00:17:54
Speaker 2: Man, this is good.

00:17:55
Speaker 1: I love he loves shoot him up action movies, and he would say, I love this.

00:17:59
Speaker 2: That is the type of movie.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: That feels nostalgic for me in a way because those are the only types.

00:18:05
Speaker 2: Of movies that me and him could pond over.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: So the fact that we're getting a Nobody to maybe I could convince him to go to the theater to watch it. Highly doubt it. But as far as new action franchises go, this is it. If you like movies like John Wick, Monkey Man, you gotta check out Nobody if you haven't seen it yet, and Nobody to you again this summer.

00:18:27
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a banger at number three.

00:18:29
Speaker 1: Here's when we get into like the top tier, top tier stuff. Megan two point zero coming out on June twenty seventh, which is right around my birthday. This movie made so much money back in twenty twenty two, one hundred and eighty one million dollars. I would argue was probably the most viral movie of that year where it's hard to get a movie moment where even people who had no idea who the Megan character was knew it from either the Sea song and how viral that was on TikTok.

00:19:01
Speaker 2: You probably saw a clip.

00:19:02
Speaker 1: Of this even though you had seen the movie because of that moment that this movie had so a big hit For Blumhouse, who we've talked about already on this list when talking about five Nights if Ready's but.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: This is kind of their formula.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: They spent only twelve million dollars on the original movie and gross those one hundred and eighty one million dollars.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: This is their model.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: They spend a little bit and hope that through word of mouth and through marketing and through creating a character like Megan who is so interesting that they could get a crazy return on their investment, and Megan has now become one of the new modern horror icons, which you don't really get a whole lot of those anymore, but she's coming back. The movie is also getting a spin off which is coming out in twenty twenty six, so they're really building out a world for Megan. She could be the new Chucky as far as the formula of you have your Megan one, two, and three, that's probably your initial trilogy, and then you start doing more side quest When Megan as a kid, Megan gets older much like Chucky did, and I compare her to Chucky because she is a killer AI robot much like Chucky was a killer doll, and you can have a lot of fun with that. She also borrows a little bit from the comedy of Child's Play, where even though at moments in the movie it does feel a little bit sinister, but then at moments it does get a little bit silly. So I still hope they hold on to the great tension and actual horror elements that the first one had, because there were some moments in that movie that were not chilling, but for a kind.

00:20:39
Speaker 2: Of slasher horror sci fi.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: Movie, it had some intense moments that costs for some good showdowns. I hope it doesn't get too into the realm of Oh people like Megan because she's a little funny and sassy, So let's add some more comedic moments into it.

00:20:55
Speaker 2: Save that for part three.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: Make part two a little bit more sinister, and I think we're in good hands here. Megan two at number three, coming out on June twenty seventh. At number two, I have Happy Gilmore. And I know this might contradict what I've been saying about what feels like a cash grab in every way, I feel that Happy Gilmore too is a bit of a cash grab. It's coming out on Netflix. The official date still isn't out. I've seen some early images and stills from the movie. The only thing aside from that that I feel it's a little bit cash graby is this movie is gonna be really heavy with the cameos.

00:21:36
Speaker 2: First one wasn't like that.

00:21:38
Speaker 1: This has kind of become Adam Sandler's marketing strategy and kind of how he makes movies now is he includes a lot of celebrities now to pop up throughout them, and I feel like that takes away from the art of Adam Sandler, which his early movies didn't rely on that. I think it's kind of the model he created with the Grownups movies. And I think it's because Adam Sandler is at a point in his life where he just wants to create fun sets. He wants people to come onto a set and have a good time while making a movie, often filmed in tropical locations, so I think that is why he does this now. He's just trying to have a good time, which I can't hate on him for. But I think it's just the fact that it's Happy Gilmore one of the best movies of his career. When you talk about top three movies of Adam Sandler that he's ever done, they all go back to the nineties. I mean top two is easily Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. For me, those are the quintessential movies I think about when I think of Adam Sandler. Maybe it's because they came out around each other. I also associate them with having the Two Pac DVD back in the day. I feel like those are his two best movies, even though I think on any given day, Big Daddy could also be my favorite. But throwing all those reasons to win the fact that Travis Kelsey is in it, Bad Bunny is in it, You have Shooter mcg we have in returning, Julie Bowen is returning. It does have the pieces of the original. I think to me, it's also just thinking of the way that Netflix movies look now, where they.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: Don't really look like movies anymore.

00:23:13
Speaker 1: They look really glossy and bright and colorful, and doesn't really have that same warmth of a movie from the nineties that I think a sequel like this needs. So I feel like it's a weird thing to complain about, But I think the cinematography isn't going to match the tone of the humor of Happy Gilmore.

00:23:31
Speaker 2: I hope that it does, but I'm.

00:23:33
Speaker 1: So excited just to see what the plot is and to see how this plays out, and hoping that he wasn't lying and saying we have a really good script, that this movie is actually.

00:23:46
Speaker 2: Going to be good.

00:23:47
Speaker 1: So I ranked it so high because my hopes are so high. The last time though my hopes were this high an anticipation for a legacy direct sequel like this was back when they made Dumb and Dumber two, and I was so disappointed in that movie. Don't do me like that, Adam Sandler. But my hopes are staying high. At number eight. I have Happy Gilmore two coming out on Netflix later this year. How surprising that they're not going to put out this movie in theaters? Is that another indicator? Because I think if you had a really good movie on your hands, oh, I do want to get that thing in theaters. But Netflix pays them so much money, and that's going to be number one on Netflix for like two to three weeks, so they're really paying for that. But at number one coming out on November twenty first, it is Wicked for good. We have Alfa Banow in full control of her power. She has declared the enemy of the state and turns into well a full out which hunt.

00:24:40
Speaker 2: The thing I love knowing.

00:24:43
Speaker 1: Going into this movie is the fact that they already told us what happens to her character at the beginning of Wicked. It starts with her dying, and if you've seen the original Wizard of Oz, you already knew what was going to happen to her character.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: Regardless to me, in.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: My head, I I just can't see it getting there because I love the character of Alphabet so much.

00:25:05
Speaker 2: Cynthia Reewo does an amazing.

00:25:07
Speaker 1: Job in the first one vocally and through acting, say with Ariana Grande, but in my head, I couldnt see her character getting to that point, and I'm thinking to myself, like, maybe they changed something, maybe they rewrite history, maybe there's some kind of magic that happens in between that that doesn't happen to her character because I'm so invested and I love it so much that I don't want to see that happen to her. But I also think that there's gonna be some kind of a shift in Wicked for good. And this is me have never seen Wicked. I've never seen it, I've never experienced that. I for that reason, have not looked up any spoilers on what happens in the musical because I don't want to know.

00:25:51
Speaker 2: So this is me pure speculation.

00:25:53
Speaker 1: What I like to do about movies is figure out what they're gonna do, So you might already know. This is just my theory, But I think there's gonna be some real shift in her character where you see that rapid decline and maybe we see ourselves not rooting for her as much as we have been, and we do see this wickedness come out in her where she really starts to change. People around her go from defending her to being in fear of her. And then we ultimately do see your demise and it makes a little bit more sense, or we see the opposite of her still being kind of a good person and she sacrifices herself.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: Because this movie was also split into two parts.

00:26:35
Speaker 1: It was originally going to be one movie, and they had so much story to tell, so much content, that they split it into two. I am glad that they are releasing it one year after the first one, so we don't have to wait a whole lot. I think it's also smart for them because if you missed Wicked one in theaters, even though it's about to be on Peacock on March twenty first, they could have those double features sold out as well, where you show Wicked one and it rolls into Wicked two. Yeah, you're gonna be at the theater for like five hours, but I could see some people doing that. Then you add in some singlelong screenings as well, and that is great for movie theaters and taking this thing full circle. It is movies like that that create that experience that get people into the theater, and that allow theaters to keep their doors open, and I will always be for that. So I'm not anti squl, I'm just anti wasting money on things and wasting our time on things that feels like they weren't really made with the same quality as the original movies. So that is my list of what I think will be the top ten sequels of twenty twenty five.

00:27:41
Speaker 2: I'll come back.

00:27:42
Speaker 1: I'll give my spoiler free review of The Monkey. I Need the Trailer Park, we'll talk about the new twisted comedy Friendship.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of The Monkey not to be confused with Monkey Man, not to be confused.

00:27:57
Speaker 1: With Better Man, which also has the Monkey not to be confused with God Diliver versus Kong, not to be confused with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It is a big time for monkeys right now. If you put a monkey in a movie, I'm gonna go see that movie.

00:28:10
Speaker 2: And what this movie is about.

00:28:11
Speaker 1: It is based on a short story by Stephen King, So it's about a boy named Hal. He finds a monkey in his attic that belonged to his dad, and every time the monkey plays its symbols and plays its drums. Somebody around hal dies. I love that the movie really doesn't give a whole lot of backstory, because sometimes when it comes to horror movies, whenever there's some object that can't be explained, they get into too big of an exposition of where this thing came from.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: I don't really care.

00:28:35
Speaker 1: About that hops right into It feels like a bit of a Twilight Zone episode or Simpson's Treehouse of Horror episode.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: It is pretty violent and brutal.

00:28:44
Speaker 1: Because all these people die in a very interesting way, a lot of them in ways I've never seen on screen before. There were some brutal kills. I've never been to a Habati restaurant, but now I'm never going to never. Nope, I'm good on that. This movie is very inventive. It is from director Oz per Perkins, who last year directed Long Legs, which I loved, and Long Legs had a much different feel to this movie to me. Long Legs felt more sinister. That movie was more of a crime drama to me, and this one was a little bit more fun. And I love that it was different than Long Legs but still felt like it was in his world. Oz Perkins is a director I feel just has his hand knowing what he wants to do and how to execute it, and that is important. And for a movie like this that I thought was going to be a little bit more comical, which at times it was, it wasn't overly comical, which I thought they were going to really lean into the campiness of the way.

00:29:36
Speaker 2: Some of the characters died At times.

00:29:38
Speaker 1: It did get a little bit lighthearted, but at its core it still felt like it had that integrity of trying to make a real twisted tail and it kept me entertained from beginning to end. The movie is only ninety minutes long, so to me, it didn't really waste a whole lot of time once we got going. The first act was solid, which is all about these two brothers who are twins.

00:29:59
Speaker 2: They don't like like each other.

00:30:00
Speaker 1: They're pretty much complete opposites, and they have this monkey come into their lives after finding it in their dad's attic belong to him. They're curious about it. Once they pull it out of its box that has this really weird inscription on it, it just starts killing people, and that is what you kind of focus on in the first act. Of this movie, and then the rest of the movie is them twenty five years later. They've been a strange they haven't been in communication with each other, and the monkey is back and it starts killing people again, so they have to find a way to defeat it. THEO James plays both twin brothers, which I enjoyed seeing how he could do two completely different characters. And it wasn't just a wardrobe. It was the way each of them spoke to me. I think that was the highlight of this movie, the fact that I actually believe that there could be two of them. And anytime you have a movie where it's one actor playing two characters, I'm always waiting for that one scene whenever they both have to appear on screen, because whenever I watch a movie, I'm always looking for that stunt double in any action scene, I'm like, oh, stunt double right there.

00:30:58
Speaker 2: The posture looks different, looks different. This dude is bulkier.

00:31:01
Speaker 1: I am annoying to watch a movie with because I always like to point out the stunt double. And whenever you do a movie where it's one actor playing twins, there's always that scene where they have to appear on screen together. And you're getting like the back of one character in the front of the other character, and you can tell that it's two different people.

00:31:18
Speaker 2: In this case, it wasn't as.

00:31:19
Speaker 1: Awkward whenever they're both on screen because this movie did a really great job with the visual effects, so those scenes weren't that distracting. And I think when it comes to an Oz Perkins movie, it very much has this unique look to it that I've really come to love. These great close ups and interesting framings that really make this movie feel like its own thing. It feels like you're living in an Oz Perkins world when you watch the Monkey, when you watch Long Legs, And I think that is something that not only a great horror director needs to do, but any great director. And when it comes to a horror movie like this, you have to walk that line of how serious are you gonna take yourself? And I think that's why a movie like this works, because the tone was just right. It took itself seriously enough that you actually cared and were rooting for some of these characters, rooting against some of these characters. You felt an emotional connection to his character when he was a younger kid, when he grows up and it was that attachment that you really needed. So it had that sense of taking itself seriously enough. But then also when it came to some of the horror elements and there came time to have some fun with some of the ways that these people died, it didn't take itself as seriously, And I think it always comes down to that tone and the performances from the actors in a.

00:32:33
Speaker 2: Horror movie like this.

00:32:35
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel that characters get a little bit too serious on what they find scary in a horror movie, where they oversell it a little bit and they're trying to convince you how scary it is, and sometimes that.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: Loses me a little bit.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: And it was the way that the characters reacted to that that made it more believable, and the fact that they didn't take themselves too seriously is what really sold it. This movie also had really great writing. There were some lines of Diet that really stuck with me. The movie centers around the theme of deadbeat dads, the relationship between you and your brother, so there's that sibling bond also those feelings that you have when you don't really get along with your siblings, and then later the theme shifts whenever one of the brothers becomes a dad and then has a son not wanting to be like his dad. And there is a line that is discussed in the movie that really stuck with me that I wrote it down. Death is the only thing that happens to all of us, yet we're all surprised when it does. I thought that was pretty profound, because, like I was saying earlier, at times, this movie is a little bit campy, but then you have some lines like that, the themes that they try to drive home when it comes to these relationships, and that one just kind of stuck with me, so proving to me that this movie had more depth than I was expecting. I thought it was just gonna be ridiculous death after ridiculous death, which it did have. That there were some great stills and moments in this movie that I was like, that's a great death, that's a great shot. That is a great way to show how this monkey is wreaking havoc, and the monkey itself look phenomenal. I wanted to get out and touch that thing because it looks so cool. So that was another great piece. I feel like that is gonna be another great movie artifact in the horror genre. And I think the thing I love now about os Perkins that he's becoming a director that I'm gonna start investing my time in, and anytime he puts out a movie, it's one I'm gonna take note of. It's because the movie is so effortlessly interesting and it's so uniquely itself, and it was the only time I had seen a horror movie like this where I actually thought maybe they could make a prequel because they don't spend a whole lot of time focusing on the origins of this monkey, which I think was great.

00:34:34
Speaker 2: That would have been a waste of time.

00:34:36
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like horror movies always explored that a little bit too much of like where did this monkey come from?

00:34:40
Speaker 2: We must find the source, or sometimes in.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Really cliched horror movies, there's this big, drawn out moment where they find somebody living in some remote hut and go ask them about the questions of this ancient artifact, and then they get the story and then they had to go rush to save somebody. They didn't have that at all in this movie, and I was glad they didn't do that.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: So for that reason, I give the monkey four out of five symbols. It's time to head down to movie mics, Traylor Paul.

00:35:10
Speaker 1: Tim Robinson is my favorite comedian right now, and he's not really a stand up comedian.

00:35:16
Speaker 2: I think the word comedian has changed.

00:35:19
Speaker 1: Especially with the rise of TikTok and how big is Show I Think You Should Leave has become not just from people watching it on Netflix, but from clips.

00:35:28
Speaker 2: And memes, memes of all things being posted.

00:35:33
Speaker 1: On TikTok, where you might not know the name Tim Robinson, but if you saw his face, you'd be like, Oh, it's that guy who's screaming in the drive through. Why can I take your order?

00:35:43
Speaker 3: With the progress prize Spithing by Taco, snifty by Pie sinthy by hun hundred pieces, one hundred tenners, hundred peoples, one hundred coffee with the Wye Smithy, my Sex, my Pastapnything by Pepperton, one hundred fifty my taters.

00:35:57
Speaker 2: Okay, that'll be six hundred and eight dollars.

00:35:59
Speaker 1: Okay, who I've seen on a lot of memes, you would recognize him.

00:36:02
Speaker 2: You sure about that? You sure about that? You sure about that?

00:36:07
Speaker 1: And when it comes to what a comedian is to me, it's just somebody who makes me laugh. I think people think who's your favorite comedian, it automatically is a stand up comedian. I don't think that's the case anymore, especially in a world where there are so many different ways to make people laugh. You could be funny on YouTube, you could be funny on TikTok, you could just be a funny person who writes things on Twitter.

00:36:28
Speaker 2: There are so many avenues.

00:36:29
Speaker 1: Now to be funny that I don't think you have to be a standard stand up comedian to make people laugh. They're just podcasters who aren't necessarily comedians, but they have comedy podcasts where they can have funny conversations. So for me, that person right now is Tim Robinson. He has created what I believe to be the most innovative comedy, bringing back just very dumb, slapstick things. He was at one point a writer and cast member on SNL, which that didn't pan out so well for him and is now viewed as like, oh man, SNL really let one slip through the cracks with him as he's become more successful, and he has a very unique approach to comedy where it's very awkward and he has characters that get hyper focused on one thing to make something awkward and then just fully commit to it, keep doing it through repetition, doubling down on awkward situations, and creating really bizarre, outlandish moments. He's known for screaming and just very unique delivery that I came to love from watching his clips on TikTok then going to watch You Think I Think you should leave on Netflix. He also has a show called Detroiters that was on Comedy Central back in like the twenty tens, that had two seasons but then got canceled. And I think he's always just been committed to the bit, committed to this character, and committed to the style of comedy. It's great to see it actually starting to work now. And it's so funny to me that I think it's at that level that if you don't find it remotely funny, and I know comedy is subjective, and I always am hesitant in recommending any type of comedy for that reason, and I get that it is so dumb and acidine at times where it's like, oh, why do you find this funny? And in this moment, I don't care to defend it. I don't care to put any kind of prerequisite on this. It's just somebody that I can irrationally say that if you don't find them funny, then I don't know what you do find funny.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty.

00:38:37
Speaker 1: Five, where I feel like we are afraid of weird when anytime there's any kind of weird comedy, we put it in this different category that just because it's not your straight ahead here's a joke, here's a punchline, here's a setup, here's a punchline, or taking that to movies of like, oh, here's somebody doing something and then they said this, and oh, that's funny, and then they fall down that comedy has to have some kind of formula or have some kind of standard and can't be weird. That is just destroying any kind of innovativeness when it comes to comedy in a genre that needs it. And I think Tim Robinson is doing that. He is bringing back what I used to feel in like the two thousands watching Family Guy for the first time, where I was like, I'm never gonna find anything as funny as this ever again. He is doing that for me right now where I feel at times so dead inside when it comes to find anythings funny, even movies that now I watch and I was like, oh, that was a funny movie.

00:39:38
Speaker 2: Rarely do I laugh out loud.

00:39:41
Speaker 1: But when I watch his stuff, I am actually laughing out loud repeating his stuff. That is how I feel about him. And in this new movie he stars in it with Paul Rudd. It's an a twenty four movie called Friendship. It is kind of what is being described as I Love You Man, which also starred Paul Rudd Buffer Sickos. It is Tim Robinson's character who keeps to himself. He's kind of nerdy, and he forms a friendship with his neighbor, who is like the coolest guy played by Paul Rudd. Doesn't really want to be friends with him at first, but his wife kind of sells them money. He hangs out with him, they become friends. They're really close for a minute, and then Paul Rudd decides, I don't want to be friends with you anymore. And then the trailer takes a bit of a turn where it goes from this kind of warm slapstick comedy to being kind.

00:40:31
Speaker 2: Of a thriller, kind of a.

00:40:33
Speaker 1: Horror movie, which I really loved that flipping this trailer. So before I talk more about it, here's just a little bit of Friendship, which is coming out this summer.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: On May ninth, Monny, the.

00:40:43
Speaker 3: New neighbor invited you over for a drink. It Hey, tonight, I said you'd go.

00:40:48
Speaker 2: You don't know my schedule?

00:40:50
Speaker 1: You sit there every night.

00:40:51
Speaker 3: It might be nice to have a pal, you know.

00:40:53
Speaker 2: A bud. Hey, guys, this is my neighbor, Craig. He's the best book. We had a couple of really nice hangs. I think the best that we go our separate ways. I don't wish to continue this friendship. You all accepted me way too fast. You can't do that. You made me feel too free. People need rules, you said, Bedad, you psych the.

00:41:17
Speaker 1: Just in that clip, you get kind of a taste of his comedy if you're not familiar with it. For me, it's the interaction with him and his wife of her volunteering to go hang out with this guy and he's like, you know know my schedule? Like I love that, just that little line, I love that, or then him yelling at.

00:41:33
Speaker 2: The other guy like who are you?

00:41:35
Speaker 1: It is those types of deliveries that I realize that sound crazy saying that those are my favorite. But it's that type of humor that I just have an attachment to, very awkward, very situational, and it's something that I feel is becoming a part of him and a part of the characters that he plays that all kind of have this similar style to them, which is something that is working. But it's it's interesting now watching this trailer hearing that of how much it sounds like characters he has already played. So I think he is kind of playing into that where there are some comedic actors like that who start to just kind of play themselves. You think about Michael Sarah, you think about Ryan Reynolds, where they put a lot of their personality into their characters and they kind of have this theme going. Some people will say they become typecast because they can only play themselves, but I think if you're that funny and that unique and it works in movies, continue to do it. Ryan Reynolds has made a career off that, and every comedy is basically the same character now and if you see all that he has going on now, well, I'd rather make me laugh than make me cringe at what's going on in the news right now. But the tagline to this movie is men shouldn't have friends all because he tries to befriend his charismatic new neighbor and it soon threatens both of their lives. I guess the comparison is made because I Love You Man does star Paul Rudd. He's getting married and doesn't have a best man, so we be friends Jason Siegel and they try to make that work.

00:43:03
Speaker 2: And that's a good movie to me.

00:43:04
Speaker 1: It reminds me more of that episode of The Simpsons whenever Homer and Ned become friends and Homer becomes the obsessed friend who wants to hang out all the time. He's coming over when he's not invited. He is chasing them in their car because they locked up all the doors and try to get out of town without him. That is what it reminds me of more because I feel his character becoming more psycho obsessed in the fact that he gets cut off. And this is the trailers that I watched and I thought, I don't know how this movie is gonna end. Some trailers I know everything about it in those two and a half to three minutes that I'm like, I just watched the entire movie right now, This one no idea, and I love that, So maybe it's me. I kind of think of when I got to that point where I was partying pretty hard, at drinking a lot, where it started to take a lot of beers for me to actually get drunk. To anybody young listening, don't drink beer to your twenty one of legal age. But back when I was in college and I would drink beer, I got to a point where I was like, man, I.

00:44:01
Speaker 2: Need like a twelve pack to really have a good time.

00:44:03
Speaker 1: And I think that's really why I don't drink so much anymore, is because I'm not a drink one or two type of person. I'm like, I'm either having none or I'm having every beer in this house. So I got to a point where it did take a lot more adult beverages to get me to that level. I think I'm also on that point now when it comes to movies, where it takes something so at a left field in the comedy realm to really make me laugh, to become a movie that I feel becomes a part of my comedic DNA, which is hard to do.

00:44:34
Speaker 2: Now.

00:44:35
Speaker 1: There are movies that I have enjoyed in the last five years. I mean even just this year with one of them Days Bottoms Babes. Comedy movies like that that I have enjoyed, but they haven't really absorbed themselves into my comedy DNA that I feel now it is what Tim Robinson is doing, and I hope that this movie does. So. If you like slightly off comedies that are absurd, chaos and deeply awkward, then hopefully you and I will both love Friendship again. It's coming out on May fifth, and the fact that they got Paul Rudd to be a part of this movie too gives me hope that I'll get more eyeballs on it.

00:45:12
Speaker 2: And that was this week's edition of Movie by Framer par Ken.

00:45:17
Speaker 1: That is going to do it for another episode here of the podcast, but before I go, I gotta give my listener's shout out of the week. I felt myself starting to lose my voice a little bit in that last segment, so I needed to jump into an entirely different voice to reset it.

00:45:33
Speaker 2: I think we're good now. Do I have my voice back? Yes? I do, all right. Before we go.

00:45:38
Speaker 1: Every single week, I got to give my listeners shout out of the week. This is episode two hundred and sixty five, and I'm pretty sure I did this on the very first episode. I think I made it a point to shout somebody. I couldn't have done it on the first episode if I didn't have anything to reference yet, so maybe I did it on the second one. So maybe this is the two hundred and sixty fourth shout out. But this week's listener shout out comes to us from YouTube shout out Manuel Hernandez, who commented on My Captain America a Brave New World review and said a lot of Marvel movies have just been fine. People seem to look back as if they were all masterpieces. And I think that is a great point, Manuel, that we do forget that in phase one. Maybe not so much phase one, but phase two. In Phase three, we had some real turns in there, Thwar, the Dark World, ant Man in the Wasp. There were some missteps there in Marvel that I think, like I was mentioning earlier in this episode, sometimes when you get ten years past something, you look back with these rose colored glasses, thinking, ah, everything was so good back in the day. But I remember even feeling during those first few phases leading up to Age of Ultron and then even more so leading up to Infinity War, that it felt like there were some filler movies in there, and movies that felt that they were just pushing the narrative and pushing along the storyline to get us to those big Avengers movies that now looking back on everything before twenty nineteen think oh it was all gold. Everything was good then not the case, and a lot of people felt that I was too negative even with my spoiler review of Captain America Brave New World, and I was just trying to say that it is gonna be one of those pieces much like we had in those other phases that just felt like, Okay, this is good for right now, but it's not gonna be a movie you look back on in those ten years and want to go revisit, much like thor The Dark World or Aimin in the Wasp. Gonna be good for the time being. I'm glad that it made a lot of money, because at least to that, you can't say the MCU is dead when it's still making millions of dollars. But I just don't think this is going to be anybody's favorite movie in the MCU of all time, which is fine, not every movie has to be that. We just have that higher standard now since Endgame. But thank you Minuelle for that comment, thank you everybody for listening, and until next time.

00:47:55
Speaker 2: By the way, if you did miss that.

00:47:56
Speaker 1: Spoiler version of Captain America Brave New World I did. That was at the end of last week, go back one in the feed and check that out as well.

00:48:04
Speaker 2: You had time to catch that in between now and then.

00:48:07
Speaker 1: But until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.