Top 5 Underrated Actors  + Movie Review: Civil War + Trailer Park: Fly Me to the Moon

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to share with you my list of underrated actors and their best film. These actors have gone without the praise they deserve for too long, so I'm gonna give them all the recognition they deserve and tell you what movies are theirs.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: You should check out.

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Speaker 1: In the movie review, we'll be talking about Civil War, how it was a really big win for A twenty four and in the trailer part a very controversial movie coming out called fly Me to the Moon about Scarlett Johansson getting hired to fake the moon landing. So thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: And now let's talk movies.

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Speaker 3: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: A man with so much movie knowledge.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: He's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Networks, Movie Mike Movie.

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Speaker 1: I want to share with you my list of underrated actors people I think deserve more recognition. In some cases, yes, some of these actors have been nominated, even won an Oscar a time or two. But I still think at the forefront, they should be leading movies. They should be on the list of the highest paid actors, which is another thing I really considered when putting these people on the list, because a few episodes back, maybe five, six, seven or eight. By now, I did the list of the highest paid actors, and everybody I'm talking about is nowhere near that elite one percent of actors, even though, oh man, you put these performances against those top ten, they are right there pound for pounds. So these are the unsung heroes in my eyes, the overlook talents in Hollywood right now, and I'm getting so fired up. Let's just get right into it with the actor who inspired this entire list after watching Civil War, which I'll get into my full thoughts later and tell you how I loved him so much in that movie. I saw Jesse Plemons in that and he immediately made that movie better.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: And that is what he always does.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: And Jesse Plemons has been added for so long as a child actor. You're a fan of Friday Night Lights, you're probably familiar with his work. He's done a lot in TV, and that's not even what I'm going to dive into here, but he has really become one of my favorite actors. Maybe it's because he's from Dallas, Texas, so there's some hometown bias there, but I feel like, for a very long time, Jesse Plemmons was somebody who I would see in so many movies and TV shows, And oftentimes there are people like that that, even though I'm exposed to their work so much, I don't know their name, and that is unfair of me. And that is why I'm doing this episode today, because there are so many people like that that we appreciate but we undervalue because they aren't the Brad Pitts, they aren't the Leonardo DiCaprio's, they aren't the Kate Winslets of Hollywood. But they are doing the roles that nobody else can.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: Do, the hard work.

00:03:15
Speaker 1: Now, if there was a blue collar worker in Hollywood, it would be these people on this list, because they are consistently in good movies and making things that inspire me, and not only that but giving us all different kinds of looks. The range on these actors is why I decided to include every single person on this list because they can do it all. They can do big dramas, they can do comedies, and that is something that is so undervalued, and oftentimes the people at the top really could just only do one thing really well, and that is what they get paid for. Tom Cruise, he's really great at action. I'm not the biggest fan of his drama movies, but you could argue that the rock is only really good at one thing. But Jesse Plemons, if you look at the list the movies he's done, there are so many great ones to pick from where he looks completely different and acts like a different character in every single movie, where he can do the dramas, he can do the comedies. And the movie that really set him apart in my mind and solidified him in my list of actors I'm gonna watch everything they are in now was Killers of the Flower Moon, which right now is his best role because he commanded the screen so much in that movie, and I really wish he had a bigger role in that, because oh, I feel that way about every single movie he's in. And maybe it's just the way that he talks, the way that he makes me really convinced that he's buying into every single character he does. That is why I love Jesse Plemons. And before that, he was in the Power of the Dog. He did get an Oscar nomination for that movie, which you could argue, how could he be underrated if he has an Oscar nomination. Well, I feel like that movie was kind of up to be a little bit Oscar baby. It didn't end up winning for Best Picture like I thought it was going to. So while I'm still glad he got the Oscar nomination for finally getting some recognition, he didn't win because as great of an actor as he is, he still isn't in.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: That top billing.

00:05:16
Speaker 1: Before that, I would say one of my favorite movies of his is called Game Night, which is a very generic title for a movie and one that I thought was gonna be kind of a waste of time. You also have Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, but that is a movie that has a bad title that doesn't really tell you.

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Speaker 2: A whole lot about it.

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Speaker 1: In any comedy, there's always one scene that I feel defines the entire movie that I could forget all the other plot points, but there's gonna be one scene that sticks out to me. And that scene for me in this movie is whenever Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman get home from grocery shopping, they're gonna have the game night, but they don't want to invite Jesse Plemmon's character because he's kind of weird and they don't want him interacting with all their friends. So they have this iconic interaction.

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Speaker 3: Three bags of tostito scoops.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: I notice there was a special on these tonight.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: Three for one, three for one. Yep, how can that be profitable for Freedo La?

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Speaker 1: If I could get a movie quote tattooed in my body, it would be an honor of Jesse Plemons.

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Speaker 2: How could that be profitable for Freedo L?

00:06:25
Speaker 1: A a classic? He deserves all the praise. He is an underrated actor in my opinion. Next up on my list is Ben Foster, who is somebody who acts with so much emotion I cannot believe that he is not more famous. My favorite movie of his is Alpha Dog, where he acted his face off and it's such a sad story. But in this movie, Ben Foster plays kind of a junkie who gets into some trouble with a drug dealer.

00:06:54
Speaker 2: He refuses to pay him.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: This drug dealer or the young guy thinks he's the King of La so he's gonna kidnap ben Foster's character's brother played by Anton Yelchin, who sadly passed away. And maybe that's why this movie still hits me on a weird emotional level, just knowing how he tragically died. But Ben Foster is so ferocious in this movie. Some people would argue that he overacted a bit. I remember when the reviews came out for this movie back in two thousand and seven, they were saying that Ben Foster.

00:07:26
Speaker 2: Was over dramatic in this role.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that is the case whatsoever, because he's playing into his characters so well, and I love it when an actor goes to that level shows you that range of emotion. Ben Foster almost has this patented yell and anger look on his face, and he makes me feel what he is feeling. In this movie. He goes from rage to sadness to fighting Emil Hirsch's character and breaking into his house. So it's my favorite performance of his. Another really great movie that Ben Foster was in was a a western crime movie called Hell or High Water that came out in twenty sixteen, and originally I was interested in this movie because it gave me a lot of vibes of No Country for Old Man kind of shot the same way, has similar cinematography, but was actually also shot and takes place out in West Texas. Chris Pine plays his brother in the movie, and they are going around Texas robbing different banks, and then Jeff Bridges plays a Texas ranger who tracks them down and tries to stop them. It really is one of the best modern day westerns. We don't really get a whole lot of them anymore. And Hell or High Water was a movie I got a lot of praise and a lot of buzz whenever it first came out, but rarely do I hear.

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Speaker 2: People talk about this movie now.

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Speaker 1: So if you're looking for just a fun watch, and also if you are somebody like me who needs a movie to watch what the father figure in your life, that is always hard to do. My dad does not watch movies whatsoever. He doesn't watch TV, he doesn't watch movies. Anytime we want to take them out to a movie, doesn't want to go because he knows he's gonna fall asleep within five to ten minutes. All my dad does is work, sleep, eat, mow the lawn, and drink beer. He has no time for anything, so oftentimes I have trouble bonding with him over any kind of movie. And if I do want to pick a movie, it has to have something with guns, chases, police, and a lot of foul language, because my dad always finds it hilarious when people cuss in a movie. So already thinking ahead for you. If you need an activity for the father figure in your life coming up for Father's Day in a couple of months, Hell or High Water is a great place to start, and you will not be disappointed with Ben Foster performance. That is why he's on this list. Next up my third underrated actor. I gotta go with Regina King. And even though she won an oscar in twenty nineteen for If Beale Street Could Talk, that was a long time coming. She has been acting in movies since nineteen ninety one. Actually made her debut in Boys in the Hood. Of all the movies to make your debut in, what a powerful one to start with, and since then she has been consistently working in Hollywood, not only in movies, but also in television and not only was she in Boys in the Hood in the nineties, she was also in one of the most iconic nineties comedies of all time, Friday. She's also in a movie that Kelsey and I now watch every single Christmas called This Christmas. Has one of the best comedic performances in that the scene with the baby oil and the whipping with the belt. Can't get enough of That scene still funny to me. And she also gave one of the strongest performances in Ray, which I know she didn't win her Oscar till twenty nineteen, but she easily should have won for that role. And what I believe is a hidden gem in comedy is a movie called Down to Earth that she started with Chris Rock. So whenever he dies and comes back in the body of another guy, which is this old white guy, so everybody sees him as this old, rich white guy. Inside he's still Chris Rock and she plays the love interest.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: In that movie.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Now Down to Earth as a movie that didn't do well at the box office, didn't really get a whole lot of critical acclaim but I love that movie. It feels very two thousands, and Chris Rock is somebody who I wouldn't even call him an underrated actor. He's not on this list, but he hasn't really translated his success into film. He's been in some good movies, but I really wouldn't consider him to be a movie star. So he's not on my list, but she comes in at number three on my top five. At number four, I have Andy Serkis, who you would recognize his face. One of his most recent big roles and favorites of mine. He was Alfred in The Batman was Robert Pattinson, which I feel like was a good update to Alfred, making him a bit younger. But where I feel Andy is really underrated is his voice acting and his motion capture acting, which he was Caesar in the Planet of the Ah movies, the most recent reboot the Voice of Caesar, and he also did all the motion capturing. So Andy would put on this suit that has all these little attachments to it that they could track all of his motions, so whenever he does all the expressions with his mouth and his face, that is what you see in the movie. And it's not a new concept, but Andy is somebody who has done such a good job on it that it transcends the animation and you can see him in all of the times that he does this motion capturing. So the argument is, and the reason he hasn't been nominated for an Oscar for this work because he was also the voice and did the motion capture for Gollum and Lord of the Rings. He was also the Supreme Leader in the latest Star Wars reboot, so this is what he is known for now. But the reason he hasn't had a nomination even though he's done it on such a massive scale. I think this is a good discussion to have, and I hope in the future that they change the way that you can be nominated for an Oscar or even Golden Globes, because I think voice acting is such a big part of filmmaking and there isn't an award for that. You still get nominations for Best Animated Film, but it just goes to the entire film. You don't have your individual performances, even though there are such amazing voice actors out there, people like Andy who should be nominated for their work. These movies would not be the same without him, and I think that is so undervalued. I guess the discussion would come down to you, well, do you nominate the person who is doing the voice or is doing the motion capture, or do you nominate the people who actually do the animation and all the technical aspects of that.

00:13:41
Speaker 2: Where does the real award go?

00:13:43
Speaker 1: I think a place to start is to give these people behind the voices and behind the motions, because it is astounding to me somebody as talented as he is and is such an integral part of film and movie history, doesn't have a nomination to his name. That is why Andy Serkis is on my list. And next up rounding out the top five is Gary Oldman. You would probably know best as Serious Black and the Harry Potter movies, or Gordon in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. He also played Harry Truman in Oppenheimer most recently last year. Of those top three, it's so hard because Gary Oldman is somebody that is such a great character actor. If you put up on a wall a still of all the characters he has played in all of his movies from one to the other, he can look completely unrecognizable. And it's not just the makeup, it's not just the wardrobe, but it's also his skills as an actor that I feel are so underrated. I mean to be Serious Black and also Harry Truman. That's quite the range just right there. He also played Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, proving that he can transform time and time again. So for his best role, I would have to go Serious Black and Harry Potter, even though I think he said pretty recently in an interview that he did not like his performance as Sirius Black in those movies. So not only is he a great actor, he is incredibly humble and does not get the credit he deserves. So those are my top five. I have some honorable mentions, and I have some that you listed on social media when I asked the question. First up on my honorable mention, I have Willem Dafoe. I think his best movie because I'm a Spider Man fan, is Spider Man One. He also did a really great job and No Way Home Coming Back as the Green Goblin. He's fantastically quirky in movies like Poor Things.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: He can go to.

00:15:46
Speaker 1: Really weird realms in movies like the Lighthouse with Robert Pattinson also does some great voice acting. He was Gil the Tank Leader and Finding Nemo, The Black and Whitefish that helped Nemo break out and get back into the ocean after being trapped into that fish tank. Is also heavily involved in Wes Anderson movie like The Grand Budapest Hotel. He was also in The French Dispatch, even though probably one of my least favorite Wes Anderson movies. And then most recently he was in Asteroid City, and he also is in so many movies that you kind of forget. He was also in American Psycho and those are only listening to the movies where he is a supporting actor, because he's also a fantastic lead in movies like The Last Temptation of Christ and movies like Light Sleeper. My favorite thing about Willem Dafoe is how expressive his face is. When Willem Dafoe gets a big grin on his face, I get a big grin in my heart. Another one on my list is Mi a Goth, and the reason is because I think Jenna Ortega right now gets the crown for the scary movie Queen because she's really dominated that genre and TV shows like Wednesday, but also in the Scream franchise.

00:16:53
Speaker 2: She's gonna be in Beatlejuice two later.

00:16:55
Speaker 3: This year.

00:16:55
Speaker 2: But Mi a.

00:16:56
Speaker 1: Goth, has done such a great job at really a establishing herself in that genre, most famously an Ex and Pearl, but also in movies like Infinity Pool. So I would actually argue that she is the raining scary movie queen over Jenna Ortega. She just doesn't get that credit. I'll run through a few more on my list. I also have John Boyega, who did such an amazing job in a movie called Breaking, which was based on a true story of his character who was a veteran then he stopped getting all of his checks from his fund so decides to walk into a Wells Fargo branch and hold everybody hostage. And it was a movie and story about just this regular guy trying to get what was owed to him and had to go to such extreme links just to be heard. And this movie has a very very limited cast therefore relies so much on John Boyega's performance and he completely crushes it. And you probably know him best as Finn in the Star Wars movies. He was also in a great Netflix movie with Jamie Foxx called Day Clone Tyrone, And I feel like if they were going to recast Jonathan Majors as King in whatever They're gonna do with the Avengers now in that whole King Dynasty, I think it should be John Boyega. I also have Tony Collette, who I was first introduced to in a TV show called The United States of Tera. She's also in one of the best horror movies of the last ten years, Hereditary, which I would consider to be her best and most recognizable role. She was also in Little Miss Sunshine and Knives Out. She is also someone like Gary Oldman who has such a great character actor and has such a fantastic range. And finally on my list, I have Lakeith Stanfield, who in the last few years has earned top billings in movies and has become a really great lead, but I still feel like he does not get that recognition.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: He deserves.

00:18:52
Speaker 1: One of my favorite movies of his as a sci fi movie called Sorry to Bother You. But he's also done great supporting roles in Uncut Gems, Judas in The Black Messiah, Get Out, Knives Out. I even enjoyed him in The Haunted Mansion last year, which kind of went under the radar, maybe shouldn't have been made, but there were still some fun parts in that. But I think My favorite role of his is outside of movies and in TV. One of my favorite comedies of the last ten years is Atlanta, which was such a unique show and probably not for everybody, but it has Keith Stanfield, of course, Donald Glover, and Brian Tyree Henry, who you could argue all three of those actors are underrated. Some of the actors you guys sent in on X and Facebook and Instagram were Walter Goggins, who right now I am really invested in Fallout, and I think Walter has had a little bit more of a career in TV shows than movies. So I tried not to get heavily into TV underrated actors, but I could see where that one could make the list. Big Will Oakley on X said TJ Miller. TJ Miller was crushing comedies for a really long time. He was almost on pace to become the next Seth Rogan. But I almost feel like TJ. Miller maybe upset some people, and to me kind of feels like he got black balled in Hollywood, maybe unfairly. Kind of seems like a dude that would walk that line of being canceled, which I think he was for a bit, But I did really enjoy him in office Christmas Party. Javier on X also said Hugo Weaving was probably best known for movies like The Matrix, v for Vendetta, and then probably at the top of that would be Lord of the Rings and then Erica on Facebook said stan Lee Tucci, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I mean, he was great in The Hunger Games. I also liked him as the dad on Easya. His less of the movies goes on and on, so he is a great addition to this list. Today, you have a bunch of actors you need to check out more of their work. We'll come back talk about Civil War, and in the trailer park we'll get into the new Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum movie. Lit me to the movie. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of Civil War, a review I've been itching to do because this is a movie you're going to watch and no matter who you are, you're gonna have an opinion on it, whether it be you love it or you hate it. This is a movie that is going to make you feel and I feel like A twenty four just put out one of the most significant movies of the year for that reason, and this is their most expensive movie to date, costing fifty million dollars. They spend a lot of money on promotion, which I haven't really seen a twenty four do on a massive scale, throwing the trailer everywhere, getting people talking about this movie, and what they really sold to us was a story about a second Civil War in a post apocalyptic America where.

00:21:55
Speaker 2: Tensions are grunning high.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: You have a story that when we saw the trailer first, it very much echoed what is happening in the country now. And I think that is why this trailer in this movie had so much impact, because it's something that we see and we think, oh, we're about two steps away from that actually happening, and it very much felt like it was going to be a very sci fi dystopian war movie, and just it being an A twenty four movie, I am instantly sold. Have been a fan of the studio for a very long time. They have earned that right for me. Anything they put out, I'm gonna watch it. It might not be first run in theaters, but eventually I'm going to watch every A twenty four movie. It has been that way, probably for me since twenty nineteen and this is a movie that I do think everybody should give it a chance and watch it. But the entire time, I was expecting a different movie, and it's because of the trailer, and even though I read what the plot line was going into it, I still had those initial impression from the trailer of.

00:23:01
Speaker 2: It being a war action movie.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: And the more I ran into how they were promoting the movie and going back and reading the synopsis, which i'll read it now, a journey across the dystopian future America following a team of military embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House. In my head, it's still going to be an action war movie, even though right there in the description it says it's about journalists racing against time, and that is exactly what this movie was, and it took me a little bit to get used to that. If I wouldn't have seen that trailer and had those feelings of it being a war movie, this movie probably would have been a five out of five for me. So it's almost a movie I need to watch again because I had a much different perception of it based on all the promotional materials, which is what a trailer can do. It wants to get the butts in the seats. That is the point of a trailer, and through editing, choosing what parts of the movies you use, because they use some parts that sell it that way, almost out of context. And I'm not trying to rag on the movie here. I'm not trying to rag on A twenty four. Just for me, I thought that is what it was going to be. And if you would have just told me, or even changed the title to Civil War Journalism, civil War Reporting, the New Civil War Reporting, something along those lines, I would have had a different feeling going into it. It would have been enough to tell me it's an a twenty four movie about journalists and here is the dark side of reporting on very awful things, which is what the movie does. Kirsten Duntz is a seasoned war reporter photographer, and the question she brings to herself to her and Kaylee Spiney's character in the movie, is at their job to ask questions or are they just there to photograph the war and send the photos home and let the people at home answer the questions? So what does their morale as journalists as press play into this because you are taking pictures of very awful things, but is it just you providing that service to take those pictures? At times it reminded me of Nightcrawler with Jake Gillenhall, and the entire moral of that movie was if it bleeds, it leads, and how far will you go to get that blood on the screen to get viewers to watch and how much is really overstepping the bounds. That is what these journalists are struggling with because they are trying to get to DC, to get to the president before these rebel factions, as the description says, get to them first so they can get an interview, and they are documenting everything along the way, and they're very awful things. There are very intense moments in this movie that will just have your stomach and nods, and I like movies that do that. The last movie that really had my stomach and knots like this was another a twenty four film.

00:26:00
Speaker 2: Uncut Gems.

00:26:01
Speaker 1: I love being on the edge of my seat, feel like I'm about a puke everywhere because of the anxiety, and I'm already an anxious person.

00:26:08
Speaker 2: I already drink way too much coffee.

00:26:10
Speaker 1: So I love kind of living in that, I guess, and when a movie can do that, I'm just, oh, that is my favorite experience because I rarely go into a horror movie and experience the fear. You have to give me something that makes me feel anxious.

00:26:25
Speaker 2: So if you don't like.

00:26:25
Speaker 1: Those types of movies, I don't think this is the movie for you. Because Kelsey watched it with me. She does not really like movies they give you that anxiety, and there were moments in this movie that were very hard for her to watch because they are so shocking. Some of the action style is very blunt when it comes to the actual war scenes in the movie and all the people fighting against each other, and those moments are few and far between, and it took me, i would say, the better half of the first act to really realize that they weren't going to dive so much into what caused the Second Civil War, why exactly everybody was fighting. They really almost make that the b story. This Second Civil War just happens to be happening, and really what they are looking at and discussing is the morale of these journalists. So they kind of give you little clues here and there with some of the other characters, revealing different things about why they are fighting, revealing why everybody hates the president, why they're going there, and why it has gotten so bad. It's also a commentary on how different people accept or don't accept the Second Civil War. Some people are engaging, some people are fighting one way or the other, and some people are choosing to believe, like the saying the trailer, that nothing is happening and then everything is good. Once I got into the idea of okay, this is really just a movie focusing on the morales of journalism. And also it's really just a road trip move not so much a war movie, because there are these war sequences and battles that happen, and they're there with the soldiers documenting that and seeing some very brutal things. But it's really just them traveling to DC hundreds of miles and bonding as a group and going through all of the kind of tropes that you would see in a road trip movie. And I love me a good road trip movie. Wasn't really expecting that here, so I don't want to say it was a little bait and switchy, but it just led me to believe that it was going to be all action all the time. Now, if I watched this movie a second time, knowing what I know now, I think I would completely love it anymore. No knows, because it is a powerful movie, although I do feel like at times it's a little bit pretentious Alex Garland, which a lot of people were kind of defending, Oh, you're going into an Alex Garland film, you should know what to expect. But I feel like at times he sacrificed making an entertaining movie just all the way through, making it a fun ride and really giving us characters we could bond with and grow with and feel for, which I think the movie did miss a lot of opportunity with character development. Wagner Mora in particular. I know he's a good actor. I watched Narcos. He was great as Pablo Escobar, but I found him really unbelievable in this role, to the point that it really took me out of it and almost like it was stuck in second gear. That I was really waiting for it to ramp up a little bit more, a little bit more.

00:29:33
Speaker 2: And it never quite got there. Even at the very end.

00:29:36
Speaker 1: I feel like it should have been way more satisfying and exciting and exhilarating. For as much as our characters have been through, it didn't really feel like they grew as people.

00:29:49
Speaker 2: And then the.

00:29:49
Speaker 1: Outcome was kind of just oh, all right, all right, we'll see you later. It just felt like it really kind of went out like if you were just kind of blowing out of what because you and at the very end, it just like like that is how this movie left me feeling.

00:30:05
Speaker 2: Needless to say, it was still a.

00:30:07
Speaker 1: Very entertaining ride, a lot of ups and downs, and it did have those moments of tension. I know it probably sounds like I hated the movie, but I feel with an A twenty four film, with an Alex Garland film, I'm gonna be a little bit overcritical, mainly because I think a movie like this is just fun to discuss, because I love movies that create a conversation among people, that divide people, that make people want to see it more based on some people hating it. So I think, no matter what, I was gonna have a little bit more of a heavy hand on some of the criticism just because I thought this was gonna be.

00:30:45
Speaker 2: My next favorite movie.

00:30:47
Speaker 1: Didn't really land into a top tier film for me, but it was still a really fun watch.

00:30:52
Speaker 2: I saw it in thirty five millimeter, which.

00:30:55
Speaker 1: Means that most movies you go see in normal theaters chain theaters, they're usually all digital now, which is really all the same. But for me sometimes I just like watching something in thirty five millimeters, which means they actually have the film real that they load up, put it on a projector, and for me.

00:31:12
Speaker 2: It just gives like that extra level of warmth.

00:31:16
Speaker 1: You can see some of the flickers on the screen, you can hear it going in the theater during the quiet moments. But I will say that seeing it in a theater with the big sound, being able to experience it with other people did add another level of enjoyment. A movie that creates tension and makes you feel stressed, I think is best experience in a theater. But if you are somebody who is a little bit squeamish doesn't like feeling like that, I would say probably wait until it's streaming. That way, you can hide underneath the cover, underneath a pillow or something, or even just turn it down a little bit whenever those moments happened, because it does get really loud, really quickly, so once I got into the idea of the story, I really enjoyed it because I love an a twenty four film, obviously, I love a road trip film. Kirsten Dunst is amazing, and I'm glad to see her in a role like this, where she was out speaking recently of saying there was a time in Hollywood she was only being offered roles that were sad wife, sad mom. So I loved her at the forefront of this movie. Her husband, Jesse Plemmons was also in it, and like I was saying earlier, such an underrated actor, and he just makes a movie instantly better. The only thing I really wish they did differently was give his character more screen time, because when he was in the movie, oh, it was great. You get a glimpse of it. If you've seen the trailer. All you have to do is throw Jesse Plemmons in there, and it makes any movie better. I'll stand by that all day. But overall, I am just glad that this movie is succeeding. Made twenty four million dollars it's opening weekend. With that debut, it became A twenty four's biggest debut of all time, So that proves that all of that extra marketing they did the trailer it worked. It got people into the seats, it got people talking. It did what they needed it to do because it cost them fifty million dollars to make, which is their most expensive film to date, and just by comparison, before Civil War, their highest opening weekend was Everything Everywhere, all at once. That only made five hundred thousand its opening weekend, so huge for them. Again, A twenty four is still a smaller studio, and you see the twenty four million dollars and things, that's kind of a flop. Other movies come out and make fifty million dollars. Easy Done doesn't wake up for less.

00:33:39
Speaker 2: Than eighty million dollars.

00:33:41
Speaker 1: I mean, just four or five years ago, a big movie would make one hundred to one hundred and fifty million dollars.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: But for that previous.

00:33:48
Speaker 1: Opening that was their highest for it being kind of the start pre sum are blockbuster season. This is great for them, and this is what they are trying to venture into more of creating these movies that feel like two hundred million dollar blockbusters, which is what all the other studios are able to do.

00:34:08
Speaker 2: They don't have that kind of money.

00:34:09
Speaker 1: Fifty million dollars is a lot for them to spend on one movie, But they are looking to create more movies like this, more action, big franchises is what they are looking to do to make their studios sustainable because they always put out movies that are unique that audiences really identify with that we feel like we're not just getting a remake, We're not just getting the same thing we've seen a million times.

00:34:37
Speaker 2: So they really value the.

00:34:39
Speaker 1: Relationship they build with this cult following that is the A twenty four fan base. But obviously you need the money to back it up because you can't continue to sustain that unless you are making these movies that are grossing more at the box office. You make a movie that is able to generate this and it's able to fund all the other projects, which I think is what they are.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Trying to do right now.

00:35:01
Speaker 1: So overall, I think it is a very noteworthy movie. Just know, if you haven't seen it yet, change your expectation a little bit. If you've seen the trailer and just know it's not going to be all action all the time, and it might not be for you if you don't like movies that induce anxiety, although I do think seeing it on the big screen does take it up another level that's not for you. It is definitely still a watch at home movie. I think everybody should give this movie a shot, and for that reason, I give Civil War four out of five photographs.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: Look at this photograph. It's time to head down to movie Mike.

00:35:47
Speaker 1: Trailer, Paul, so many of you sent me this trailer. I remember when this movie was announced with Scarlett Johansson called find Me to the Moon. I thought it was gonna be interesting, and I will watch anything Scarlett Johansson is in. I kind of forgot this trailer was coming out, and then everybody was saying, oh, you got to check out this trailer. You got to talk about this trailer, and I think I know the reason why.

00:36:11
Speaker 2: I will get into all that.

00:36:12
Speaker 1: But the movie is called fly Me to the Moon. It's coming out this summer on July twelfth. It is an Apple Original movie, meaning it'll come out in theaters and then in a month or so it'll go on to Apple TV. Plus they should take a while because Argyle came out at the beginning of the year in February and just now came on Apple because they're wanting people to go into the theater to watch these movies. But by the looks of this trailer, it is not what I was expecting. The movie is about Scarlett Johansson's character who is assigned to NASA basically to make them cool. The movie is set in the nineteen sixties. She plays a marketing executive hired by NASA to film a fake moon landing in case the real mission fails. And I think that is the reason so many of you sent me this trailer is because on the main show I work for the Bobby Bone Show or I'm a head writer there, the topic comes up a lot whether or not the moon landing was real, whether it was fake, whether we ever went to the moon, whether anybody can go to the moon. So I'll address those conspiracy theories and how I think it is working into the hype being built around this movie, which so far there have only been a couple real defining Apple originals, one being well the one for them that won Best Picture CODA and last year I would say Killers of the Flower Moon. Are there two real pillars of movies, and they've been putting them out consistently, but still just really haven't had one that has been a success in the theater run as well as a success once it goes to their streaming service. So could fly Me to the Moon finally be the movie for that? We'll see before I get into more about who is all in this movie, more about the story. Here's just a little bit of the fly Me to the Moon trailers.

00:38:01
Speaker 2: Say marketing specialists, Man, you are them very best.

00:38:05
Speaker 3: What are you doing?

00:38:06
Speaker 2: I tracked you down because I felt me in a connection. What I'm joking. I'm working here now to sell the movie.

00:38:14
Speaker 3: This is not something that you sell.

00:38:15
Speaker 2: The jingle and a slogan and undone those men are gonna be bigger than the peoples. We can't afford to lose to the Russians. We need to shoot backup version of the moon land. You mean to fake it.

00:38:34
Speaker 1: So let's break down first the voices you heard in that trailer. Of course you heard Scarlett Johansson. She meets Channing Tatum's character. It looks like they go to a diner because the movie you said in the sixties. She sets her dress on fire. He puts out the fire by throwing his jacket on the flame. And he's an astronaut. The next day he shows up for work and Scarlett Johansson is there. So right out the bat, what I was not expecting from this movie is that it is is a comedy drama, almost of the rom com variety, and I think it really plays into this story really well because it could have just been a traditional historical.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: Piece, which Apple loves.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: There are two things they are really into right now, historical dramas and anything with space. They have TV shows like For All Mankind Constellation, which I started Constellation and I love things about space, I love things about aliens, but I just couldn't quite get into that show. But I think this one kind of bridges that gap of you have the A list stars with scar Joe and Channing Tatum leading this movie, and then you have a little bit of sci FLI influence, not so much, but anything that has any kind of spaceship or rockets Apple just loves. And then you have a little bit of history. And the movie is clearly playing into all of the conspiracies that revolve around the moon landing, and that is what people have been saying for years, that we fake the moon landing. The whole thing happened on a set. If you go back and watch the original footage, you can see the wires hanging down from people, you can see the camera tracks. All these theories go around the moon landing. So I love the idea of making a film of saying, Okay, here's the reason why all the conspiracies exist. Because in the trailer of this movie, they talk about wanting to beat the Russians to space and they're gonna do it, and they bring Scarlet Johansson into make people care about NASA, to turn these astronauts into rock stars. So they have all this hype going, and they're saying, by building up this hype, by creating this aura around NASA, now we cannot fail.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: So just in case, for some reason we get.

00:40:44
Speaker 1: Up there and our equipment fails, we need to have this all filmed and ready to go. We can just push in a tape, hit play and tell everybody this is live, whether or not we go through the moon at all. So movie will probably get into the ethics of that. It looks like Channing Tatum's cariacter is going to be highly against hiring actors and faking this.

00:41:05
Speaker 2: But what I was saying.

00:41:06
Speaker 1: Earlier about Civil War putting out movies that create a conversation. That is exactly what this movie is going to do, because you're going to have the people who have been saying for a long time, all these conspiracy theorists, saying, this is how they did it, this is why they're making this movie, and this can become your foundation and your argument, even though this movie isn't based on anything factual. I'll also commend them on not using the Frank Sinatra song in the trailer. I'm sure the urge and the idea was there, but maybe that was a little bit too on the nose, or it was just really expensive to license that song, or maybe it's because this movie actually had a different title when it was first announced and being worked on. It was originally called Project Artemis, which that gives me an entirely different feeling when I read that. That sounds more like the boring period piece. And Jason Bateman, the actor, yes, was actually directing this movie first. He eventually left and they brought in Greg Berlanti, who also did a movie I really like called Love Simon, And the part that went to Channing Tatum was originally being played by Chris Evans, which honestly would have been cool to see that version Black Widow and Captain America teaming up again in another movie. But I have to say Channing Tatum does not get the credit he deserves when it comes to comedies. He is actually a really great comedic actor with really great timing. The first time I really had that perception of him was whenever he did the twenty one and twenty two Jump Street movies. And I feel like he's always been type cast as the good looking, muscly guy. And some people are saying that he looks a little out of place in this trailer because it takes place in nineteen sixty nine and he doesn't really look like somebody living in that time period. But I would just say that he feels out of place really in every movie that he's in because of how good good looking he is, how many muscles he has. He is always just gonna stand out in any single film except maybe Fox Catcher. So unless he's playing an athlete or dancing, he's probably gonna look a little bit out of place. But I still found the delivery of his lines in this trailer to be pretty comical. You also have Woody Harrelston Ray Romano Jim Rash who you might not be familiar with his name, but he plays the dean on Community and I am still deep into my community rewatch, because the entire joke on that show was they're gonna get six seasons in a movie. And now it was announced that the script is done and they're gonna film the Community movie, and his character is such a big part of that, and they're bringing back a lot of the original cast, So hopefully this movie is a big success for him and carries on that momentum over to that Community movie. It kind of reminded me a little bit of Air that came out last year, which everybody said, how are you gonna make a movie about a shoe? And what we got actually was a movie about the marketing of the shoe, and how dramatic that was. I thought that was going to be the similar treatment for this movie, and I did not expect that part to come in there at the end of them saying, oh, we're actually gonna fake the moon landing. So it goes from Scarlett Johansson trying to market NASA to suddenly being in control of one of the biggest historical events in American history. This movie has a budget of one hundred million dollars, which is pretty substantial. I think that's primarily due to the level of cast that it has, but also Apple really doesn't cut corners when it comes to cinematography and production, so that is always what I have to look.

00:44:41
Speaker 2: Forward to in an Apple movie. I know it is going to look great.

00:44:45
Speaker 1: So after Argyle, in my head, I was thinking, I'm just gonna wait for Apple Movies to come out on the streaming service before I go see him in theaters. But this trailer left me feeling pleasantly surprised. So this is a movie I will be checking out on July twelveth and buying it to the conspiracy theories. And that was this week's edition of Movie b Framer Bar And that is gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta give my listeners shout out of the week. How do you get a listener shout out of the week. All you have to do is comment on one of my videos on TikTok or Instagram. You can go over to my Facebook page, Facebook dot com slash Mike dstro comment on.

00:45:23
Speaker 2: A post over there.

00:45:24
Speaker 1: Try to keep all that up to date, or you can follow and subscribe on YouTube, where I post individual movie reviews. So if you ever miss a specific movie that you're thinking of checking out, just go over to that YouTube page and find it all individually, watch it and listen to it there. But this week I'm going over to Instagram and it's actually a comment I got two months ago and have been holding onto. This week's listener shout out of the Week goes to Brian Lott we Left to comment back on the review I did for Madam Webb, and Brian wrote, I hate when people describe a movie as cheesy and you it every single episode, and I commented back, I wasn't angry. I love constructive criticism. I can take it. I can even take the negative feedback because I get it all the time. Just look at the YouTube comments. Everybody hates me over there, so go subscribe and help me out, because oh that's a rough place. But I saw this comment and I thought about it. I went back and listened to some of my reviews, and I always like to switch up how I say things on this podcast. A big thing that I try to avoid saying is movie all the time, even though there are only so many words you can use to describe a movie, a film, or a picture.

00:46:34
Speaker 2: But if you listen.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: In the last few weeks as well, I've also tried to switch that up because when I do cut these clips, I realize that I say words weird.

00:46:41
Speaker 2: I am not the best talker.

00:46:43
Speaker 1: You should hear me edit some of these episodes because I cut out a lot of things that I do mess up.

00:46:47
Speaker 2: But I took this one to heart, Brian, because I'm.

00:46:50
Speaker 1: Always interested to hear what you guys want me to do differently, So in the last two months, I have not said the word cheesy on purpose, and there have been times where I've said and I've gone back and restated what I meant to say by using a different phrase because I was.

00:47:05
Speaker 2: Thinking of Brian.

00:47:06
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be annoyed listening to the podcast hearing me call movies cheesy. Even though some of these in the last two months have been I found other ways to criticize them, Brian.

00:47:15
Speaker 2: So that was all for you.

00:47:16
Speaker 1: Thank you for those notes, thank you for listening, thank you for being subscribed, And until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.