Robert Schwartzman on The Princess Diaries, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola and new ‘The Zombies’ Documentary  + Movie Review: Thunderbolts* aka The New Avengers + Trailer Park: Will The Rock Win An Oscar for ‘The Smashing Machine’?

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Awesome interview coming up with Robert Schwartzman. He has a new documentary about the band The Zombies. We're gonna talk Princess Diaries. We're gonna talk about his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, his famous brother, his famous cousins. In the movie review. We'll be talking about Thunderbolts aka The New Avengers and where it ranks in Phase five. For me, I'm also gonna predict Phase six at the MCU, even though none of those movies have come out yet. And in the trailer park, the question is will the Rock get an Oscar nomination for the Smashing Machine? That is the question. Thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed, shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies from the Nashville Podcast Network And this is movie Mike's Movie podcast. Boat to get into my interview with Robert Schwartzman. He is the director of Hung Up on a Dream, the Zombies documentary, which is in theaters now. You can get tickets and find a link in the episode notes of this podcast. Even if you're unfamiliar with the band, you will know two of their bits. Biggest song's Time of the Season and She's not there. It's a story of how they blew up, how they were the first band after the Beatles to have a number one song in the US that was self written. How after years of touring and a lot of missteps in the sixties, they kind of got screwed over, but eventually got their flowers when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in twenty eighteen. Robert Schwartzman grew up in the movie industry. His uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, who directed legendary movie He's like the Godfather. His cousin is Sophia Coppola, who directed The Virgin Suicide. She also did the Priscilla movie which he starred in The Virgin Suicides. His other famous cousin is Nicholas Cage. And not only that, but Robert's brother is Jason Sportsman. So along line of famous people in Hollywood. So he's a musician in the band Rooney. He is from a famous family. He was also an actor and you might remember him as Michael and the Princess Diaries, where he started alongside and Hathaway. Excited to get into this interview. Let's talk to Robert Schwartzman. I'm fascinated with this documentary, also fascinating with the parallels of the zombies in your career. Talking about music for a second, who gave you your first guitar?

00:02:09
Speaker 2: I grew up in a musical family. My grandfather, Carmine Coppola, was a He played flute for orchestras, big orchestras. He was a composer and a conductor. He came from a long line of Italian musicians who were all a part of big orchestras, played different instruments.

00:02:25
Speaker 3: My mom was a big fan of.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: Musical theater and operas and classical music, so I was around more classical musicians, and rock and roll was seen as somewhat rebellious a little bit in my household. Even though my mom grew up like in the sixties, she also was like, you know, very much a big fan of orchestral music. But she loved, you know, obviously great songwriters. She loved, you know, anything with a melody that has a sense of beauty. I think is like people tend to gravitate towards. So there wasn't like a guitar in my house. There was a piano in my house. So I played piano around my house and then I studied guitar and eventually got an electric guitar.

00:03:02
Speaker 3: And the guitar and started learning to play guitar.

00:03:05
Speaker 2: But really, my brother Jason is the entry point for me in real understanding of rock and roll. And my brother Matthew turned me on to a lot of great bands. And Jason was a very like musicologist kind of a guy who like listened to tons and tons of music and turned me on to really good stuff.

00:03:20
Speaker 3: And he started a band. He was a drummer in a band called Phanom Planet. Yeah.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: Like it was just I feel fortunate to grow up around great musicians, sensitivity to music, melody arrangements.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: Was it true that you played piano in your audition for the Princess Diaries? And at that time were you trying to be a musician or were you really trying to pursue acting.

00:03:39
Speaker 2: When I have auditioned for the Princess Diaries, I was doing my band Rooney, and I was playing shows regularly in LA and I was going to high school and I really wanted to, like I.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: Was loving music.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: I had done a movie called The Vision Suicience, and I didn't really know if I was an actor or anything. I didn't really feel like I'm going to throw my self into this kind of business. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to direct movies. I had my band. I was kind of like, you know, the way you're supposed to be when you're seventeen, right, You're supposed to be all over the place, kind of.

00:04:11
Speaker 3: But I didn't play the piano.

00:04:13
Speaker 2: I don't know if I played the band. I know Gary Marshall directed it. He's an iconic director. He liked me in The Virgin Suicides.

00:04:19
Speaker 1: He wanted me to read.

00:04:20
Speaker 3: I worked on my scenes.

00:04:22
Speaker 2: I gave it my all, and he liked what I did and had me come back a few times, and finally I read. We did a chemistry reading with Anne Hathaway and she didn't have a say and who played my character?

00:04:33
Speaker 1: But I think she.

00:04:34
Speaker 2: You know, Gary saw something in that performance that worked for him. But he knew I was a musician, so I think he liked that angle and liked that I had a band and we played like Blueside in the movie my first single from Brunino, So it was real. I mean, like in the second one, they said I wasn't going to be in it, Like I don't know what happened on that, but they were like they had other plans for the movie. It was set in in another location, but I was on tour with Rooney and they, I think in the movie they said, he's on tour with his band. So weirdly, I was living the life of this character in my real life. But I don't know how much life imitates art art imitates life kind of a thing. But I think Gary liked that I was like truly a musician and it was relevant to the character.

00:05:19
Speaker 1: So you have this musical foundation. Where does filmmaking come in? When you get your first camera and start to be curious about the filmmaking process.

00:05:26
Speaker 2: I grew up wanting to make movies. We would shoot short films as a family. My brothers and I would shoot movies. We'd write scripts, we'd borrow wardrobe, we'd shoot stuff on art but we recreated like a Robin hood, like a short film of like we would make recreations of movies like that were big, you know, in the eighties and nineties. But I went to film school, I studied editing, I shot some fun kind of homemade music videos. When I started in music, I was totally unexpected. I did not intend to.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: Like.

00:05:54
Speaker 2: I wasn't like, oh, I'm going to start a band and become a musician full time. That sort of came out of nowhere. For me was always to direct movies. That was like where I wanted to be. Of course, it's like very nice and natural when you get to be a musician who's directing a music movie.

00:06:09
Speaker 3: It's very close to home for me.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: So the fact that I get to tell stories from a band that I love, or I'd love to make more music documentaries in the future, or even do a film even, that's where music is really central part of it. So but yeah, I started off really wanting to direct films. It wasn't about scripted movies or documentaries. It was just like, I want to tell stories, and I think music for me was storytelling. Music was getting to write songs that were like short stories.

00:06:40
Speaker 3: Really, songs are stories.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: They have a beginning, middle and an end, and they and they hope they leave you with a thought and an emotion. Films are kind of the same way, so they feel so for me, it feels very close to home music and filmmaking. Getting to edit a movie is just like making an album, Like you're stuck in a room in the dark all day, daring at a computer screen, you know what I mean.

00:07:00
Speaker 3: So it's the same thing for me.

00:07:02
Speaker 2: You develop a certain kind of attention span that can like slow down your mind and just focus on what you're doing, and that's sort of like making a movie.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: Really, when did you realize how cool your uncle was?

00:07:12
Speaker 2: I think I'm every day I'm learning how cool he is. I mean, like I just was with him and he gave this great speech with a bunch of film students and it was like very moving. The whole crowd erupted and stood up. It was all these young filmmakers.

00:07:23
Speaker 3: He's cool. I mean, there's a different.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: Time, Like filmmakers had a different way of making there was a different experience to package a film and the risk he paid for He took crazy risks as a filmmaker.

00:07:36
Speaker 3: I mean, when you put your money where your.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Mouth is, as they say, like, that's what he did, and I think there's something really beautiful about that because he made some incredible films that are going to be a part of our lives for a long time.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: It's a lesson in taking those chances.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: Did you learn anything from him that you applied to this documentary.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: I'm always learning something new, and I don't think it matter, you know, whether it's from someone close to you and your family who also works in the same profession, or there's always something really exciting to learn.

00:08:04
Speaker 1: I think I'm always I think.

00:08:06
Speaker 2: My uncle one of the biggest takeaways islays it's always the idea of just doing the things you love or telling the stories that feel important to you, you know, because I think that makes it more personal. If it's something that really feels personal to you, the more personal you can make it the better because it's really then it's yours, you know. But you know, I'm telling a story about the zombies with this film Hung Up on a Dream, it's different, it's a documentary, it's a totally different kind of format, but regardless, it's still a film, and you still want to give the audience something that really brings them in. You're still telling a story, right, So that's the biggest thing, is just telling telling stories that feel like you know, comfortable to something that means something to you, you know.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: So the few things that blew my mind about the documentary, I think the biggest thing I took away from it was them not realizing that they were successful until until they were in their seventies, because they're like, man, we didn't know until we didn't know that we were famous in our twenties until we were in our seventies. Finally getting to see them get their flowers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they're often labeled as like this underdog band. How did that underdog narrative influence how you structured the film by.

00:09:18
Speaker 2: The way, that is, you know, in talking about the Hung Up on a Dream now that it's coming out, you as a filmmaker, you cause you make a movie in phases, and it gets hot, it gets cold, right, there's peaks and valleys to this process. But you fall in love with it all over again when it's coming out because you're talking about it so much, and you're also getting the opinion of other people that are seeing it, so you're kind of learning new things about your own movie, you know, around this time.

00:09:46
Speaker 3: Which is really I find really exciting.

00:09:47
Speaker 2: But you're absolutely right that moment Chris White said that you found success later in your career, Like it is such an amazing part of that story. And that's what I think I love so much about this film is that how humble they are, how lovable they are, like such genuine, lovable, humble, good people who made such timeless, iconic music. Like sometimes you think you have to be a tortured artist or you have to hate, like you know, have a total nightmare experience to like do anything sometimes worthwhile. But here you have these guys that really never gave up, and some of their big, biggest successful moments they weren't even a band anymore, and then they got to revisit themselves and find success into their eighties, right, like Collins turning eighty and he's still out there on the road. So I know, there's something so magical and so unusual about that. And I think people are learning so much about this band whose music they've known for so long, but they never really knew what happened to them. All these pieces of the story that they find so influential inspiring.

00:10:50
Speaker 1: I think what you said there was they felt like just regular guys kind of figuring it out. At one point in the documentary, Colin talks about how he was selling insurance at the time time of the season went number one, and what kind of blew your mind, like the biggest surprise you had while doing this documentary about the band.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I love the Zombies so much. I started a bank called Rooney because of listening to bands like the Zombies. They started much more like, way earlier than I got into the world of music. But that's the beauty of music is you can keep music exists in the world. We live in a time where you can access music really from anywhere, so it's really our job to keep passing things on to the next generation. I fell in love with the Zombies and other bands of the British Invasion movement through older you know, people around me sharing that music with me. So with this film I get to pass it on. But so just being sitting there with Rod and Colin for the first time interviewing them. We built a set in New York City on a stage where we created that She's Not There music video setup, which is where I did a lot of the interviews, which is that white room with all those props.

00:11:55
Speaker 3: That was sort of built to look like.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: That she's not there set if you picked up on that, but people, it's a little easter egg that people start to like realize.

00:12:03
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was the big pinch beam moment.

00:12:06
Speaker 1: You mentioned your band Rooney, and that was another parallel I saw between the zombies in your life where they were kind of had their first pop whenever George Harrison was on that TV show and the clip of their song was played and then went on to be a huge hit. I remember before TikTok, whenever a song got played on the OC that was like, oh, everybody knows that song now, And when Rooney was featured on that, That's kind of the parallel I also found in this documentary. How did that spot for you on the OC kind of change your band's trajectory?

00:12:36
Speaker 3: That's it interesting.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: There were so many things that were so like it was kind of scary at times. How there were things that just felt so familiar to me making this movie about the Zombies. I was, you know, we got signed. I started my band as a teenager. I started with my schoolmates. We just love going to shows listening to rock and roll music. We sort of won the audience over by performing around LA and building up a fan base that got us a record deal. We went through a lot of ups and downs with managers and label stuff and drama, and it was just like you get to a point where you're like, wow, I haven't really I'm like twenty two and I haven't even I don't even really know. I haven't even seen anything else in this business, Like I need to try new things. So that's what I think they were going through is just like they were young, They've had number one hits out of nowhere, and they're like they didn't really even know themselves in some ways musically because they'd only worked together. Argent talks about how he had never written songs for anyone else's voice in mind. So yeah, that was very, very similar. But I just I relate to it because I know I felt the feeling of going out there, putting yourself out there and really, you know, doing everything you can to get noticed and try to cut through the noise and get people that care about what you're doing. Jukebox Jury George Harrison says She's not there is going to be a hit. Rooney was invited onto a successful TV show called The OC at the time, and they wrote in a up so that had the cast coming to one of our shows. So yeah, I mean it's true, like there are these moments in your life or your career that could be like a defining moment, and I can relate to how you're a hungry young band trying to find those moments.

00:14:14
Speaker 3: And it's something the universe, you know.

00:14:16
Speaker 2: I don't know how spiritual you know, people get when they think about these things. But sometimes things just work in mysterious ways the world we're in, and things just happen and find themselves for time of the season, to go in to number one two years after its release after the band had broken up is a very unusual thing to have happened to them. So things just work in mysterious ways. And I think that's the beauty really of music is if something's good, the hope is someone will find it eventually. You know, you could have something that becomes a hit like thirty years later, or a movie that like didn't work in its day but becomes like a sleeper cult hit. Why does that happen? Like it's so bizarre, right, it's crazy, But sometimes you can't write it any other way. It's like you're just grateful that people care.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: Talking about being able not to write things any other way. Whatever moment of this documentary where you thought men and this feels like somebody is pulling strings here as far as like, how do I make this believable of the crazy things that have happened to them, like getting screwed over by them playing these massive shows and not getting any money for it.

00:15:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't even.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: I think it's just the time, Like we live in a different time right now where you can I mean, there would never be a fake Zombies today, Like you could never fake to be a band.

00:15:20
Speaker 3: All we have phones.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: You can google the name of an artist and see what they look like. Back then, you barely you just knew songs. You didn't even know what the band looked like, probably right, unless you got like a maga, unless they got like featured in a magazine. But maybe like three months later that magazine was out not being sold at a store, and those fans didn't see it, and they didn't know, and someone could take advantage of it. I think people get taken advantage of all the time, the idea of being of like the price of what they were paid being different from what they understood it to be, and a manager taking money and all these things. You hear it from you if you watch the WHO documentary, the Beatles documentary, the Brian Wilson's dad sold us publishing from under him. There's always like a story like this, which is unfortunate, but I think it's the nature of artists aren't always watching everything, nor should they be. Like, you're there to make, You're there to create and throw yourself into your craft. And I think it was totally bizarre that these guys showed up in the Philippines to an arena show sold out over many days and paid and they each made like ten pounds or something ridiculous. But they were young, maybe they weren't. Maybe there were other things that were really exciting for them that they weren't thinking about every dollar, you know, until it really settled in. It's crazy, But again, like they kept going and something beautiful like happened, you know.

00:16:40
Speaker 1: So I have two final questions for you, which another funny thing that you included in the documentary was you searching zombies in the Disney movie Coming Up before you could even find anything about the band. I thought that was funny, But is the hardest thing about making an independent movie, letting people and getting people to know that it exists.

00:17:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, I mean getting anything out there is hard, even if you have a gazillion dollars or whatever. Like, there's also just consumer behavior today that we're up against, right, Like are people even watching movies? Right?

00:17:13
Speaker 3: Like, forget a doc, forget an indie doc.

00:17:16
Speaker 2: Just the movie format keeping you engaged for ninety plus minutes an hour over an hour straight?

00:17:22
Speaker 3: Are people wanting that?

00:17:24
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of things we've got to figure out as an industry. But I'm a big believer in the indie world. I love the indie world. I started a company called Utopia. It's built to support indie films. Like that's why we created it. We distribute really cool indie films. We are starting to produce really cool indie films. The more places we can get, the more outlets we have to create an opportunity to make films and release films, the better it is. I think for the industry as a whole. And you're gonna have a lot of sides to this business. You're gonna have big studio films that serve a certain purpose. You're going to have indie studios that are going to serve a certain purpose. So I think we're all here to do the same thing, which is bring an experience to people, bring something moving to people. And I hope that's the goal that I hope we're trying to. Hope we are achieving so far, but we need people. You know, it takes the village, right, It takes word of mouth. You need Usually when movies snowballs, because everyone's talking about them. It's like whether it's big or small, they somehow capture everybody's attention and everyone's kind of whispering about did you see blah blah blah.

00:18:27
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a movie called Shiva.

00:18:28
Speaker 2: Baby that we released that I thought had that great word of mouth.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: Naturally, the movie rad we've released every year, the.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty six BMX bike movie cult classic. It's got great word of mouth, kept the movie out there for a long time, and now it's really back and rader than ever. No pun intended, but we're pun intended. But yeah, doing our part. We've got a long way to go as a world culturally. I need people to realize that everybody counts. Every time you click on a movie, it means something every time you rent it. It means every time you buy a ticket to the theater. If a movie's in theaters, go watch it in theaters. If you like the cinematic experience in theaters, the theatrical, leave your house and buy a ticket and see the movie. Like the price of like shrimp Lowmane is more than a movie ticket. Even when I go on tour with Rooney and we try to th side how much tickets are going to be our ticket to see my band sometimes is less than like ordering dinner for one. Just literally, like a bowl of shrimp low Maane is more than a ticket to see a band play sometimes, and.

00:19:29
Speaker 1: The exilience will last much longer than the shrimp.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: I know.

00:19:32
Speaker 2: If you can like order that, certainly you can go see a band see a movie like.

00:19:36
Speaker 3: There's no excuses really, so I'm.

00:19:38
Speaker 1: All about it. Supporting independent film, supporting every film. Well, Robert, this has been great to get to talk to you. I hope everybody goes to watch this movie. Skip skip the shrimp and go pay tickets paid for a ticket to watch the movie.

00:19:50
Speaker 3: Yes, you're right.

00:19:51
Speaker 2: Let's let's get out there and support and be a part of the experience. Let's be engaged, let's support films and support music.

00:19:59
Speaker 3: It's like it's part of it.

00:20:00
Speaker 2: Like it's it's we do our part as an audience to show that we're grateful for the creations of people that are out there.

00:20:06
Speaker 3: And if we just sign.

00:20:07
Speaker 2: Up for a service and just expect everything for free, it doesn't quite always pencil out for the people making the stuff in the first place.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: So we all can do we all are like we get it. People get it.

00:20:17
Speaker 2: Like if it's like nine bucks a month or five bucks a month or unlimited whatever you can watch, I mean, how does it really ultimately going to work out?

00:20:25
Speaker 3: Right? So clearly when you rent a movie for six.

00:20:28
Speaker 2: Ninety nine or seven nine nine, or you buy a T shirt to show you see a band play, or you buy a movie ticket, clearly that's more meaningful than just being sort of like a data point for a subscription company, which are great. Thank you for being out there all these companies, because you're helping keep the lights on in some ways. But let's not lose sight of the experience of making a film. I mean, when you mix in color grate a movie or doing it in a theater, it's so surprise. I'm not doing it for my iPhone or my TV. I'm doing it for a theater. So we're making these films for the theaters for a reason. We should be watching them in that environment, because that's how they are intended to be viewed, and then downstream watch them on your TV watch. But I don't that part doesn't matter. But if you have a short window to see it in a theater, it's a great experience. So hung Up on a Dream the Zombies movie opens up in theaters, so I hope.

00:21:14
Speaker 3: You see it.

00:21:15
Speaker 2: If you go to hung Up Dot Official dot film, you could see all the theaters the movie is going to plan.

00:21:21
Speaker 3: That's hung Up Dot Official dot film, and you could see all the theaters are in.

00:21:25
Speaker 1: I'll also put it in the episode notes of this podcast. And I think you've also convinced everybody listening right now to buy not one, but two tickets. I love that.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely bring a friend, spread the love. The zombies are the best.

00:21:37
Speaker 1: Man.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: I hope people really fall in love with their music all over again.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Robert, Thank you guys.

00:21:41
Speaker 3: Take care.

00:21:45
Speaker 1: Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of Thunderbolts aka The New Avengers. That is why I waited to do this review, because I knew it was coming. I knew when I saw that Asteray next to Thunderbolts at that Aime was going to change. Knowing about the comics where Marvel is going, I knew that eventually they were going to rebuild the Avengers. I didn't think it was gonna be the Young Avengers. So I saw this coming, went to see with Kelsey's family. Nobody there new, but after opening weekend Monday morning, Marvel starts rolling out on the socials. Sebastian Stan goes out onto the streets, changing the posters, and that is how quickly they spoiled their own movie. I have a theory now. I think Marvel is trying to capitalize on those opening weekend ticket sales and make their movies an event again, so much so that if you don't go watch their movies now on opening weekend, you're gonna have it spoiled. And them doing that so fast, I think they're saying, hey, we used to give you a week two weeks before they would turn off comments. Now when you have all the actors posting about it on the official accounts, they changed it, and that was a turning point in the movie. But now everybody knows, so I think what they're trying to say by doing that is, hey, you have to go see this opening weekend if you don't want it spoiled. That contributes to their opening weekend numbers. They get a big pop. It starts to become like a sporting event, and I love it. I'm out here for it. And the reason I even do this podcast now is because how much I love superhero movies. How invested I am in the MCU. Even when everybody was jumping ships saying the MCU is dead it was over after endgame, I stuck around. Has it all been great?

00:23:36
Speaker 4: No?

00:23:36
Speaker 1: I think for the majority, the movies have still been good. TV shows are a different thing, but I try not to focus on too much of that. But I think that is what they are trying to say now that Phase five is completely closed out. But I think that's why they did that, and that's why I waited to do this, because I feel like I could have expressed all my things without them putting that out there, although I'm still surprised they did. But I also think that by doing that, they create more of a conversation, because I think the whole thing going into Thunderbolts is nobody really knew these characters. People were kind of confused by it. Oh, it's just another Marvel movie. But now by calling it the new Avengers, people know what the Avengers are. They love the Avengers. It's gonna peak more people's curiosity and want to go see the movie, especially with it getting great reviews and me going into Thunderbolts, I thought it was gonna be average. I didn't really love the trailers leading into it. I love Florence Pugh, her character was I just think overall the black widow storyline hasn't been my favorite in the EMCU, but up until this point, we haven't had that well rounded of a black widow. So I think going into the thirty sixth movie in the MCU, there is that fatigue for the general audience. I don't really think I had fatigue. I would take a new Marvel movie every single week if you could give it to me. But what Thunderbolts did essentially was recreating what the Avengers did back in twenty twelve. You take your B team and you build your new franchise, and I think that is what sometimes people forget when it comes to the mcu is. Back in the nineties and early two thousands, Marvel was selling off all their characters. They were almost bankrupt, And the reason the mcu is successful is because they didn't have their big characters. So Iron Man, Captain America were not their top selling comic book characters. It was the ones they sold off. It was X Men, Spider Man, Fantastic Four. So they built the Avengers with characters people really didn't know, and did such a good job at it that now those are the household names. But now they're back doing it again with Thunderbolts. But what the Thunderbolts are is a group of heroes. They've been hired by Julia Luis Dreyvis's character, who sends them on covert missions doing a lot of shady things for her, killing people, blowing things up, all under the radar. All of them have done bad things in the past, and for the most part, you won't recognize many of them except Sebastian stan who has been in the Avengers movies, who has been in the Captain America movies playing Bucky Barnes. You have Florence Pugh, we first saw her in Black Widow as Scarlett Johanson aka Black Widow's sister. We have Wyatt Russell who plays John Walker, who debuted in the Captain America Disney plush show. We have Ghost who first appeared in the second ant Man movie, ant Man in the Wasp, a couple of characters from the Black Widow movie, task Master, and also David Harber's character of the Red Guardian. New character introduced is played by Lewis Pulman, who plays a guy named Bob who I feel is the new breakout star in this movie, and he also happens to be Bill Pulman's son. So they all get sent on a mission. She's trying to cover tracks. She's about to go to prison if they start finding all this evidence and all of the thunderbolts are loose ends. So she sends them all to this very remote location in this vault where she's keeping all of her paraphernalia and all the things that could incriminate her, and they are the human things that really could incriminate her, and she gives them the task of killing another person in the group. So one person arrives, then the next person arrives to kill them, then another person arrives to kill them, and pretty much they're just realizing that, oh, we were all sent here to kill each other. We got to go back and fight against Julie l' redreyfis because she's evil. So then it all backfires on her because now she sent this group of mercenaries to go kill each other, and now they're all coming for her. My favorite thing about Thunderbolts is we are back to having great action. My biggest problem with the last MCU movie, Captain America Brave New World is the action felt so stale, because when you remember back to those Captain America movies and what made those great. They had great choreography, they had great pacing, the fights actually meant something, and in Brave New World it was just kind of filler. Not the case with Thunderbolts, which brings back that energy of oh, there are some fights going down where there's actually something on the line. They're choreographed well, they use their powers well, and it just doesn't feel like, oh, we're just gonna throw this fight scene in here to fill time. Each one is actually important, and I think all the characters in the Thunderbolts all have unique abilities that distinguish themselves from one another, which is important when you're trying to build a new team. You have to have clear roles, you have to have clear ways that people fight, and things that make each of these characters unique to really make them stand out. And I think the action was overall top tier in this movie and really sucked me in. Within the first hour, I was fully invested, and a lot of times when I go watch a movie, especially a Marvel movie, I'm really dialed in. I'm thinking of it analytically, I'm thinking of it in regards to how I'm gonna do this podcast. For the first hour of The Thunderbolts, I didn't think that way at all. It just flew by because I was so engaged and interested in this story, which I wouldn't say reinvented the MCU formula, but it definitely gave me something to root for. Again. It also didn't lean too much into the comedy, which sometimes the MCU gets a little bit cornball with the superhero humor. There are some moments of that. I think David Harber is probably the biggest piece of comic relief, But aside from that, the movie didn't take itself too seriously, but it took itself seriously enough to create a tone of this doesn't feel like your typical Marvel movie, which I think for some of the films they started playing to a younger audience, dumbing it down just a little bit. But I think the best MCU movies are ones that they can say, Okay, we're gonna make a movie that doesn't talk down to maybe the kids. We are trying to inspire, trying to build a new new fan base in new MCU fans, because you already have the older people like me in their thirties who are heavily invested and are probably gonna be so critical of an MCU movie at this point, but they're still gonna go watch it, they're still gonna talk about it. You're still gonna get their money. But in order to keep a franchise like this alive, you got to put new blood into the fan base. And how do you do that. You give them something that doesn't talk down to them, same way you did back in twenty twelve with The Avengers. This is what it is. Some of it's gonna be a little bit more gritty, even with the language. They're more generous with their S bombs and their I don't think there was an F bomb in this that I remember, but they are just talking more like these characters would in real life and not really cleaning it up for the sake of thinking you're gonna alienate the young fans, because at this point, what's a car squord? And when it comes down to it, we just got back to great storytelling and also having a lead that can carry a movie. Florence Pew is that, and I think that is why some of the other Marvel movies have struggled a little bit, is because we're focused a little bit too much on the characters as far as how they play you into the entire story and thinking, Okay, it makes sense for this character to carry on this line of the story. But when you think about it as a movie, you also have to pick somebody who is gonna get the butts in the seats and going to be able to handle it. And Florence Pew, with that she is in phase five, is probably overall the best actor who could do a role tomorrow and get an Oscar nomination, but also come to the MCU and really bring another tier of acting here and there were so many parallels between this movie and Avengers One. There's even one scene where they're all fighting and it very much mirrored Avengers One. Whenever you have them fighting in New York, it has that revolving camera swoop around them when they're all back to back forming the circle. We had that again here in The Thunderbolts. I don't know, and I wouldn't really compare Florence Pewed to a Robert Downey junior, with her being pretty much the leader of this group. I think a lot of people are comparing her performance as the New Black Widow to Scarlett Johansson's, which I think is kind of unfair because unfortunately, Scarlett Johansson got her movie too late, and when they introduced her character, she was very one dimensional. In the Iron Man movies, when she was introduced, it was essentially, oh, here's this sexy character. Oh she can fight, oh wow, And you kind of learn about her past all through these little details that leak out about her having blood in her hands and all the awful things that she's done. You get to know a little bit more about her. They try to humanize her a little bit. In Age of Old Tron with a relationship with Bruce Banner that never really banned out. That whole thing is kind of interesting, kind of one of the weirdest plots in the MCU, but we never really got her story until it was too late in Black Widow, and really that was more her setting up Florence Pew to have the career she is having now. In the MCU, I really think they're trying to recapture that energy of the early twenty tens even now with the directors, they're picking, focusing people who maybe it's their first or second feature film. Jake Schreier, I think did an amazing job with this, but this is his biggest credit to date. And I think Marvel always bringing in those two are a little bit unproven, but knowing they can give them these parameters, which is probably hard as a director in the MCU because you want to put your spin on it, you want to put your trademarks and creativity into an MCU film, but there are guidelines. It is much like if you work in animation, you can't go too far off of the character model because all the scenes have to look the same. You can't draw Homer Simpson differently because you want to add you your own unique artistic abilities to it, because Homer Simpson has to look the same in every single episode, season to season. That is exactly how it is directing movies in the MCU, where you can put things in that make it your film, but it also has to line up with the structure and flow and look of what is coming after it. But I think Jake did a fantastic job with Thunderbolts and really gave us something to root for. And the moment this movie had that I've been looking for for a very long time in all the MCU movies is that moment of triumph to have a villain that is beating down your characters to the point of you saying, I don't know if they're gonna make it through this. I won't say what happens to these characters, but it has that oh yeah, that satisfaction factor of these characters actually go through something. They have struggles, they have things that look like they're not going to pan out for them, and you have to watch the entire movie to really find out how it's gonna end. You're not predicting it by act one, and that is really inspiring to me at this point in the MCU. For the Thunderbolts, I give it four point five out of five boxes of whedies. But we're not going away just yet. Thunderbolts wraps up phase five of the MCU, So let's rank all six movies. At number six, I have the Marvels, which I gave a two point five out of five, and I think that is generous. The Marvels had great characters. I love Captain Marvel. I don't love the story anything with the scrolls, anything that has anything to remind me of Secret Invasion. Just take it away. It's like if you burned a pizza in the oven. You're like, I can salvage this thing. I can eat around it, I can pick out the parts that aren't that burnt. You're not saving that thing that is a burnt pizza. Don't take any piece from that and try to build out some new creation. That is what I felt what they did with the Marvels. I have that one bottom of the barrel at number six. I won't even rewatch that one. At number five, I have Captain America Brave New World. I do not like the direction that they are going in with Sam Wilson. He just doesn't feel like a hero to me. He's still over here, like, oh, he'll never be Steve Rogers. I'm not Captain of America, dude. Just do you You've already been battling this since the TV show on Disney Plus. Just be you in that final fight scene with Red Hulk is probably one of the worst final boss fights in a third act in the MCU. That was pretty bad. I gave it a three out of five. At number four, ant Man in the Wasp Quantum Mania, which I gave a three point five out of five. I don't think this movie and the entire ant Man series deserves all of the hate that it gets. My biggest problem with Quantum Mania is now that it feels like it's going nowhere, with the whole Kang storyline being scrapped. Everything that movie set up, Although I do feel like the entire third act and final battle in that movie was kind of a slap in the face to Kang to begin with, so in one sense, I am kind of happy that they're not carrying on with that, because if what happened to him in Quantumnia was a sign of things to come, I don't think he was ever going to be that Thanos level threat that we're looking for now. So Quantum Mania is at number four. At number three, Dead Poll and Wolverine, which I gave a four point five out of five. This movie was a lot of fun, maybe a little bit two fun at times, because I don't know how much rewatchability is gonna come from dead pulling Wolverine now that you know all the gags, now that you know all the cameos. That was a big part of the excitement leading into this movie. So maybe that is a little bit burned at this point, but it was a big moment for the MCU. We got Channing Tatum back as Cyclops, hopefully not the last we see of him, and overall really brought that Okay, MCU is not dead energy back in twenty twenty four. And even though right now I'm kind of cashed out on Ryan Reynolds, I would still take another dead Pulling Wolverine at number two. That's where I'm putting thunderbolts. We're rebuilding the team, rebuilding the MCU. Great action, great acting, great directing. Just a really solid and fun movie that's inspiring. But at number one, I have Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, which I gave a rare five out of five back in twenty twenty three. This movie almost doesn't even fit into the MCU. Guardians one through three is not only one of the best trilogies in the MCU, it is one of the best trilogies in all of film. What James Gunn did with the evolution of all these characters from one to three was so inspiring. I have never thought in my life that I would cry over a raccoon, but I shed tears during Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three. It was so heart wrenching and powerful and colorful and vibrant, and really closed the chapter perfectly on the Guardians. The only bad thing about Guardians three is that was James Gunn saying goodbye to the MCU, and now he's jumped ship for the other guys in DC. So no more Guardians movies. I'm my ranking of Phase five in the MCU. We also have Ironheart coming out in June. But now I want to predict Phase six because we have four movies announced so far, Fantastic Four, which is coming out on July twenty fifth, Avengers Doom Day, which is coming out on May first, twenty twenty six. Then we have Spider Man Brand New Day coming out on July thirty first, twenty twenty six, and Avengers Secret Wars coming out on May seventh, twenty twenty seven. I got to keep myself alive until twenty twenty seven. MCU has really kept me living because I can't leave this earth without seeing Secret War. So four movies in Phase six. None of them have come out yet, but these are my predictions of what is going to be the best in the MCU. At number four, I'm going with Fantastic four First Steps. I love the fact that this movie is set in the nineteen sixties because so far there hasn't been a great Fantastic four movie. Don't come at me with the two thousand's Fantastic four. You're just nostalgic for those movies. They're not great movies, fun for the time, but they're nowhere new on the level of what Marvel was putting out at the time. It's not X Man, it's not Spider Man. Chill out. Fantastic Four just doesn't have their defining cast yet, and I think this cast could be it. At number three, I'm gonna say Avengers Doomsday I think it's gonna be great, but I don't think the Russo Brothers are gonna put all the chips on the table in Doomsday. I think this is gonna be a big building movie. We are getting Robert Downey Junior as Doctor Dooman this movie. That is gonna be the main focal point. But as far as what is gonna be building, I think that is coming later. So I think Fantastic four is gonna set up a lot of big things and we're gonna get some of those in Doomsday, But what we really want, what's gonna blow our minds, is coming later. So I have Doomsday at number three. At number two, I have spider Man brand new day. Tom Holland will become the first actor to get a Ford Spider Man movie, and I have major bias. Of course, I have spider Man tattooed on my arm for crying out loud. But I didn't put it at number one mainly because I'm not ready to say goodbye to Tom Holland as Spider Man and this movie it just has to be what is going to close out his character, because I'm surprised that we're even getting to a fourth film. No Way Home ended with me getting my heart broken, So I can only imagine what is gonna happen with this character in Brand New Day. And I'm hoping that all those post credit scenes with Tom Hardy, we are gonna get Venom in the MCU. If not, I'm rioting, But Spider Man Brand New Day at number two. At number one, I have Avengers Secret Wars. I think this is where all the good stuff is gonna be. I think they're gonna bring back old Avengers because we saw some things teased and Deadpool and Wolverine. What was the wor crying at If you have read the Secret warst comics, what happens is all the superheroes disappear from Earth. They get sent to this planet and essentially are all pitted against each other. So you have the X Men fighting the Fantas for fighting a version of the Avengers, and I think that is what we are building up to. It is my favorite run in comics history. I have Secret Wars number eight on this wall for that reason. But yeah, the first appearance of the symbiote Spider Man in that issue. They have to work that into this movie. I mean, you have whole Captain America, Cyclops, Wolverine, the Lactus. All the characters are in Secret Wars, so that is what they are building up to. So for me, Secret Wars is gonna have that endgame level hype and hopefully on that same quality. So that is my ranking of movies that haven't even come out yet. At number four Fantastic four, three, Doomsday two, Spider Man, Brand New Day, and at one Avengers Secret War. Everybody listening, I hope you're all alive with me on May seven, twenty twenty seven, so we can see this thing through. It's time to head down to movie. Mike trailor Paul, we finally have a movie where the Rock is not playing the rock. Sometimes you think, man, do you have to see what people write about them online all the time, because he gets pounded anytime a new rock movie comes out and everybody's like, oh, it's just a rock playing the rock again. And I'll admit I kind of turned on the Rock growing up. He was my favorite wrestler. I love the Rock, but when he comes to his movies, it always just feels that anytime he's in a movie, it's just a rock showing up on set. Dude, he's Busy has a lot of business ventures. For some reason, he has a line of hair products even though he has no hair, although in this movie it looks like at the beginning of the movie he does have hair. So I just feel like, when you get to a level of being so famous, having so many Instagram followers, just constantly feeding that Instagram algorithm, you get to a point where the things you do start to become a little bit of an afterthought. When you become this big brand, this big entity, with a huge probably roster of people that he supports. But I think the Rock wants to leave a legacy behind. And even somebody at his level still reads the comments that we all read. I read them here on a very small level, just looking at YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Now that I have that back by the way, somebody hacked that. If you missed that, I still can't change my full username. But even somebody at his level, I believe, still reads comments and thinks, man, people are making fun of me. People are saying I play the same character in every single movie. Maybe I should do something different. And whenever this first was announced, I thought, Okay, at least he's working with somebody that he hasn't worked with before. In this case, we have director Ben Safti, who it's his directorial debut as a solo director. He is most known for directing movies with his brother, the Safti Brothers, movies like Uncut Gems, Good Time with Robert Pattinson. They have a really raw and gritty approach to making movies and I was very excited about that. And it's also a huge deal for A twenty four, which is still a smaller studio but responsible for movies like every Everywhere, All at Once, which one of a lot of oscars. They have one of the most fantastic libraries of original movies, and I would say it was last year where they really made stright to have a big box office impact with Civil War, even this year with A twenty four's Warfare, but now with having The Rock in an A twenty four movie, that is huge for this studio. So what this movie is about. The Rock transforms into UFC fighter Mark Kerr. This is in the early days of UFC where it's nowhere near what it is today and he is one of the best of all time. The movie also stars Emily Blunt as his wife, It's the first time they've teamed up since Jungle Cruise, and I gotta say this looks much better and way different than Jungle Cruise. The movie is coming out this fall on October three. Before I get into more about the Smashing Machine, here's just a little bit of the trailer. Probably looking in my eyes? How that happen? Well? Have you ever heard of the Ultimate Fighting Championship the UFC? That's the bloody thing they're trying to ban.

00:46:04
Speaker 2: With Jock.

00:46:04
Speaker 1: Here's the best he has ever seen. Do you hate each other when you fight? Absolutely?

00:46:11
Speaker 4: Not?

00:46:12
Speaker 3: Winning is the best feeling there is.

00:46:14
Speaker 1: It's forty thousand PM.

00:46:15
Speaker 3: When they're cheering you on.

00:46:17
Speaker 1: There's no other highlight it no more.

00:46:20
Speaker 4: So.

00:46:20
Speaker 1: The movie we'll focus on Mark Kerr's rise to fame in uf see, also his struggles with addiction and injuries that we get a glimpse of here in the trailer where he's going to the doctor. He's down for the count. It looks like at one point he starts the trailer with hair and he ends the trailer without here. It will also dive into his personal relationship with his wife Don played by Emily Blunt, and will also touch on the brutal and unforgiving side of Mma, which was also the subject of a two thousand and two documentary also called The Smashing Machine. First of all, I am blown away by the transformation of the Rock in this not only physically, which he looks a lot different. It looks like they have some prosthetics to give his face a different structure. Aside from the physical attributes, it's also the fact that he's actually acting in this trailer. When is the last time we saw the Rock act actually have emotions, actually have flaws in a movie. That just doesn't feel like he was cramming it into his jam pack day in between workout sessions. This looks like something he actually put his heart and soul into and I can't wait to see it. The other thing that really catches my eye about this trailer is have you ever seen that clip of Harry Styles talking about don't worry Darling, and He's like, my favorite part about the movie is it really feels like the movie.

00:47:38
Speaker 2: You know.

00:47:38
Speaker 4: My favorite thing about the movie is like it feels like a like a movie. It feels like a real like, you know, go to the the film movie.

00:47:49
Speaker 1: I think I know what he was trying to say in that description of don't worry darling, even though it just sounded really weird. I think I felt that way watching the trailer for this that it had a film like quality to it. And they actually shot this movie on sixteen millimeter film, where you can see that grain in some of these shots. And I can't remember the last time I saw The Rock in a movie that wasn't filmed digitally, and it adds a layer of authenticity to it. And that also adds to showing us The Rock in a way we haven't seen before. It's almost like taking a picture of a really famous person on a polaroid. The question I have to ask myself is The Rock going for not only an Oscar nomination, but an Oscar win. Think about the subject matter of this movie. Playing a guy who loves to fight, wants to win, will do anything in his ability to win, will take pain, medication, will fight through all that. I feel like that runs parallels with the Rock because he does have the fame, he has the fortune, but he doesn't have the critical acclaim. I think that's the only thing that he is missing, and probably why he took this role, why he worked with a smaller studio with a director who had that critical acclaim didn't do it for the paycheck. Probably was happy to take the pay cut like a lot of big actors do, to work with a twenty four to get people talking about him in a way they haven't talked about him before. The movie is also coming out in the fall, in October, right around Oscar season, so it will be fresh in the memory of voters' minds, which, by the way, that article that came out that a lot of Oscar voters don't even watch the movies that they are voting on, that story just boiled my blood that they are setting new rules that you actually have to watch the movie because a lot of people were just clicking on them and leaving them just running on a browser on their computer to count as their watch for that And that just infuriates me. As somebody who covers the Oscars, heavily watches all the Best Picture nominees, pays my own money to do it. Ough that really just angers me. I feel like the Rock will probably have the hardest time convincing those voters that he is worthy of a nomination, and we've seen people be snubbed in this category playing a similar role zach Efron for The Iron Claw received no nominations. That is a travesty in itself, and zach Efron gave his all to that role. Made me cry, made a lot of people crying. There was so much emotion in his performance. The fact that he didn't even get a nomination speaks volumes. So he set the bar pretty high. But I think The Rock could do some campaigning for this. He is a very likable person, so if the quality is there in his performance, which we do get glimpses of it here in this trailer showing a much different side of himself, I think he could get that nomination. I don't think he would get the win. And I know I'm saying this very prematurely, as I've always seen the trailer haven't watched the film, but I kind of know how these things work. I know the mechanics of putting out a movie. At this time, I do think this is him flirting with getting a nomination. So again, I'm really excited for this movie. I don't remember the last time I've been excited for a movie starring The Rock. After last year I drug red Wood straight to Hell. Maybe a little bit too hard on my part. This time, I am all behind him, and if he surprises me really doing a good job, maybe my entire perception of the rock when it comes to his movie roles, because I think the last movie that just left that bad taste in my mouth that it's so hard to get out is what he did with Black Adam. But again, The Smashing Machine is coming out on October third. Head That for was this week's edition of Movie Li Tram or 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. This week, I went over to my YouTube channel, which is YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro if you ever want to find that, so you can go watch full spoiler free reviews that are all isolated. I put them up individually. I'll put up bonus clips there as well and interviews. So go subscribe to my YouTube channel hit that link in the description of this podcast. But this week's listener shout out goes to Rusty's Reality ten ninety one, who commented on my review of The Accountant Too and said, I totally agree. I was overall disappointed with the movie. I thought it was just man, nothing really draws you in to keep your attention. Sad to say, I think the best part is when John Burnhalt throws his brother's sunscreen from the top of the airstream. That was a good part of the movie. That entire conversation they had on the airstream, which was really diving into their relationship as brothers and how one of them was hurt the other one was like, Okay, I'll do better, and again that kind of played into the story being more about two brothers trying to repair their relationship. Also, in that scene you're talking about Rusty is them winning more into the comedy which I just wasn't a big fan of. That dance scene still burns a hole in my head of why they even decided to include that and why they change the character of Christian Wolf so much from part one to part two. So thanks for watching that review on YouTube. Thanks for commenting. Hopefully you're subscribed over there on the channel. Hopefully you right now listening are subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts. I always appreciate that tag me in your Instagram story if you enjoyed this week's episode. We did have an interview, so I will be posting clips over on my social media. Like I mentioned earlier, my TikTok was hacked recently. I do have access back to it now, but I haven't been posting a whole lot over there because I haven't been able to fix my username yet. But this week's secret emoji is the zombie, so just comment with that send me a DM. You can also email me Moviemike d at gmail dot com and I'll pick someone who replies with that as next week's listener shout out, which, by the way, I will be sitting down with the directors of Not Just a Goof on Disney Plus, which is the documentary about a Goofy movie. If you haven't seen that yet, highly recommended. I did an episode maybe three or four weeks ago talking about that, talking about how much of an impact a Goofy movie made on me. So we'll be doing that next week. Really excited about that one. So thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.