Ever wonder how a movie can make you laugh, grip your seat, and still leave you wanting more? Join us as we navigate the cinematic odyssey of 2023, where we dissect the year's silver screen spectacles, including the gravity-defying stunts of "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1." Our discussion veers through the Italian locations that left us awestruck, blending a rich tapestry of critique and nostalgia that only true film enthusiasts can appreciate. From the personal anecdotes tied to the locations to the challenge of distinguishing this year's gems from last, we promise an episode filled with insightful banter and a relentless quest for the movies that truly shine.
Imagine Tom Cruise scaling another skyscraper in his fifties. We chew over the "Mission Impossible" saga's future and its daredevil lead's career longevity, debating whether the franchise should stick to its spy thriller roots or continue upping the ante. We also can't help but muse on the parallels with other action giants, like the "Fast and Furious" series. But we don't stop there; animated wonders and the web-slinging excellence of "Across the Spider-Verse" are on the agenda too. We pick apart the narrative depth, moral dilemmas, and whether cameo appearances enhance or distract from the storytelling.
Let's not forget the punchlines and face-palms that movies can sometimes bring. We take a no-holds-barred approach to the cringe-inducing dialogues from the "Madame Webb" trailer, sparing no criticism for what looks to be 2024's potential popcorn fodder. From admiration for unexpected comebacks like Brendan Fraser's gripping performance in "The Whale," to the whimsical hopes for a bolder "Mario Brothers" sequel, we cover the highs, the lows, and the laugh-out-loud moments that make going to the movies—or just talking about them—a blast. So, settle in for a ride through the best, the worst, and everything in-between from the world of film in 2023.
Ever wonder how a movie can make you laugh, grip your seat, and still leave you wanting more? Join us as we navigate the cinematic odyssey of 2023, where we dissect the year's silver screen spectacles, including the gravity-defying stunts of "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1." Our discussion veers through the Italian locations that left us awestruck, blending a rich tapestry of critique and nostalgia that only true film enthusiasts can appreciate. From the personal anecdotes tied to the locations to the challenge of distinguishing this year's gems from last, we promise an episode filled with insightful banter and a relentless quest for the movies that truly shine.
Imagine Tom Cruise scaling another skyscraper in his fifties. We chew over the "Mission Impossible" saga's future and its daredevil lead's career longevity, debating whether the franchise should stick to its spy thriller roots or continue upping the ante. We also can't help but muse on the parallels with other action giants, like the "Fast and Furious" series. But we don't stop there; animated wonders and the web-slinging excellence of "Across the Spider-Verse" are on the agenda too. We pick apart the narrative depth, moral dilemmas, and whether cameo appearances enhance or distract from the storytelling.
Let's not forget the punchlines and face-palms that movies can sometimes bring. We take a no-holds-barred approach to the cringe-inducing dialogues from the "Madame Webb" trailer, sparing no criticism for what looks to be 2024's potential popcorn fodder. From admiration for unexpected comebacks like Brendan Fraser's gripping performance in "The Whale," to the whimsical hopes for a bolder "Mario Brothers" sequel, we cover the highs, the lows, and the laugh-out-loud moments that make going to the movies—or just talking about them—a blast. So, settle in for a ride through the best, the worst, and everything in-between from the world of film in 2023.
Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of Movies Worth Seeing. I'm Michael Pishonery and Addy has suddenly become Asian. Funny how that goes. I've been.
Speaker 2:Addy. This whole time it was all a dream. It's always been Addy. My name is actually Addy and I changed ethnicities and only until in the last two episodes that I changed back to my real skin yeah, and my hair and accent and voice and everything, and my height and my clothing and my personality there never was Tyler Durden.
Speaker 1:You always were Tyler Durden, the whole time.
Speaker 2:Sure, I wish I understood the reference you never seen Fly Club. No, I actually haven't. Yeah, I actually haven't watched Fly Club, for somehow, oh God, there's a lot of movies.
Speaker 1:I haven't watched. Oh man, all right. Anyway, jesus man, what a bomb show you just fucking dropped on me. Never seen Fly Club. I had a whole routine that was all based on Fly Club references and you just fucked it all up, you want to see the whole list of movies that I haven't watched.
Speaker 1:It's that, screenshot that I sent you. You know it's interesting. Actually, when I looked up on Rotten Tomatoes the best movies of 2023, like all 100 of them I hadn't seen, the only one I saw was Barbie, which I don't know how that made it to the top 100.
Speaker 2:It's across the spider-verse and Mario movie. Make that list that you were looking at. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:The Mario movie did not make that list because it was based on.
Speaker 2:What is this website? It was based on critic reviews, not audiences.
Speaker 1:So of course Mario couldn't be on there. It was two mainstream. Instead they had to put some French film called La Carrin d'Algance.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, it was the international like the foreign films, yeah, the foreign films always have to be number one. Anyway, we are going to be talking about the best movies of 2023, which was really hard this year, because every time I thought of a movie and wrote it down in my notes, martin reminded me that the movie came out last year. So I put Avatar 2, I put like pages of notes on Avatar 2. And then he was like you know, that came out in 2022,. Right, it's like we did a goddamn review of it.
Speaker 2:Don't you remember With me Luke Ages yourself? You know, December, man, Come on, I couldn't remember it. You felt like a 2023 movie for you.
Speaker 1:It did, because it was so like right at the end of the year, that I would have seen it in January, but that happened twice. There was another film that I don't care.
Speaker 2:I'm going to bring it up anyway because it was such a good film, but anyway, let's give some praise Well whilst you're at it, then you might as well bring up Citizen Kane there, you know, because that also was a great movie. Oh yeah, I've also got.
Speaker 1:Terminator 2, the Godfather Charlie Chaplin. Oh yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:The Three Stooges. Bring up any Buster Keaton movies here, you know, yeah, because they're all good movies, let's group them into 2023, just to wash this year.
Speaker 1:This year of shite, like Noah's Ark, like we were just sailing in the distance in a sea of shit.
Speaker 2:Hollywood just needs to clean slates and just like wash away the sins of our forefathers.
Speaker 1:We need a tsunami to just fucking come and destroy all the garbage.
Speaker 2:Okay, we promised, before the cameras were rolling, that we would make this all positive, that for every positive, we wouldn't relate it to a negative event in 2023. And, like so far, how are we doing on that score? My tally counter is already up to like the thousands of something in terms of, like, how much negativity that we've brought into an episode of positivity. Okay, but we were endeavored to bring positivity into this episode.
Speaker 1:If you want to bring positivity back in to this discussion, then let's start with Mission Impossible.
Speaker 2:Dead Reckoning Part 1. I was going to say Sound of Freedom, but because that's such a positive film.
Speaker 1:Oh God, Can you say oh, I'm dark man. Let's get to Mission Impossible. I loved Mission Impossible. Dead Reckoning Well, it's not the strongest in the franchise. It was a fun experience and the real unique thing for me is that I watched it in Italy and a lot of it was filmed in Italy.
Speaker 2:Did you also happen to go to the actual towns, like the specific parts?
Speaker 1:Oh, did they have the Colosseum in?
Speaker 2:one of the car chases. So was it mainly in Rome. And did they go anywhere else in Italy? So it was mainly Rome, Italy.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a scene that's in Dubai Airport.
Speaker 2:Am I saying? Isn't that the 2011 movie where they climbed the Burj Khalifa?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this one was set in Dubai as well, just for the airport and coincidentally I had to stop over in Dubai to get to Italy. So I got to see, I was like, oh my God. It was like when I went to the Dubai airport I kept thinking to myself, man, you know, I would make this freaking airport better if you just had Tom Cruise running through it and running on the rooftop and shit. And lo and behold, I got to see that in Mission Impossible, dead Reckoning.
Speaker 2:That's actually not that far off from people transiting at the Dubai airport, you know, because they have to make it to the next flight. It was a lot of running and so actually for us Aussies traveling to Europe, yeah, dubai or Qatar is like the stopover sort of airport, so it's actually not too uncommon that you'd be stopping over in the Middle East and so on. So did you watch the movie after you had to transit via Dubai? So that's when you saw, oh wow, like I was just there, like sort of you had that moment, like I had that moment.
Speaker 2:Me and my partner traveled through the oh, look, that's the terminal that we just like walked through. They filmed there. Yeah, pretty much it's like months ago, and then Tom Cruise ran here.
Speaker 1:Like we did the Roman Coliseum, like three days before. I saw the movie and was like, wow, it's all right there. And then there's the Spanish Steps. That was in the car chase. The cars literally go down the Spanish Steps and I was like we were just there today. This is incredible. I've never watched a movie because no one films movies in Sydney.
Speaker 2:Sydney is like a cesspool of that's just avoided, apart from Four Guys, which is coming out with one of the Ryan's, ryan's something. What's his name? The Handsome One, not Ryan Renn. Gosling yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, they're both pretty handsome. It's not like Ryan Reynolds is an ugly fuck, not that Ryan the good looking one. No, yeah, four Guys, yeah. It's like saying like, oh, not that Brad, the other, brad the ugly Brad. Which Brad? Brad Pitt the good Chris?
Speaker 2:The actual Handsome One, the muscular Chris, not the dorky one yeah Movie.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I'm glad to hear that you. It's a good time to taste the men.
Speaker 2:Oh well, you know, variety is the spice of life. I don't discriminate against any. Okay, they're all good, you know.
Speaker 1:Nice, you mostly. Yeah. Anyhow, I'm engaged.
Speaker 2:We can't do this anymore Did you just reveal a very big piece of information to the public.
Speaker 1:You want to maybe make public? Oh to what? Or four subscribers of our channel. Come on man.
Speaker 2:Don't say yourself short.
Speaker 1:To all the 10 viewers, including my mom. This is the first time announcing that I'm engaged.
Speaker 2:Yes, Bravo, where's the?
Speaker 1:applause sound first. Yeah yeah, my fiance was like I when I proposed.
Speaker 2:No, not me, Not me. I'm not the fiance. No, not you. We're not announcing our engagement. Spoiler alert it's not modern.
Speaker 1:We're not trying to pull off a plot twist.
Speaker 2:Let's go bloody ink Like marry someone else.
Speaker 1:Yes, hate to offend or, no, disappoint the gay community, but I am not gay. But yeah, I proposed to my partner and she thought to herself I've always wanted to marry a struggling YouTuber. So of course I'll say yes, really, you got. I gotta stop talking shit about myself. And the self-deprecation is strong in this one.
Speaker 2:Another negativity in an episode about positivity. Anyway, yes, I'm glad you enjoyed that movie, but apparently it didn't do the numbers. Yes, I've always got to bring in the whole like glass, half empty aspect into it, but apparently because of the whole competing with Oppenheimer for IMAX screenings, it had a limited IMAX screenings which meant that they couldn't rake in as much box office numbers as Tom Cruise would have wanted. So initially he was a bit pissed off about that, but then it was okay with it afterwards.
Speaker 1:But it didn't do as well financially. He probably wasn't going to show it in interviews and shit and be like no, I'm fucking popping.
Speaker 2:I'm a shit, yeah, but behind the scenes he really was like trying to push for that. Yeah, I remember it was like Hollywood report and variety and stuff and like I think, pissed off about Barbie. Well, I don't know if pissed off, but like the pressure was on to really rake in the profits and the box office numbers. I think, especially when Co-Sing along with the momentum of Top Gun Maverick, that he really wanted like two back to back like big hitters. That's under the Tom Cruise moniker.
Speaker 1:Don't they look at the release date schedule and go? That's also true, like because outside of Barbenheimer there wasn't any like major big releases that could steal the spotlight.
Speaker 2:I think people are saying that technically, Barbenheimer aren't like on a definition basis, they're not considered as like summer blockbusters, Like they're still big releases in their own rights. But yeah, it's like a case of cannibalized sort of sales season and it's kind of like oh wait, I should be reserving for this for the next episode. But it's kind of okay. I'll use another analogy rather than a movie. Do you remember a video game called Final Fantasy 16? It came out this year.
Speaker 2:And even though it was a good game, the problem was that it was releasing very close to like other big hitters like Tears of the Kingdom and whatever else also came out around that mid-year May, june sort of time period, and so you can have a very good movie like Mission Impossible, dead Reckoning part one, but it's kind of just has its oxygen sucked out by like all the other like bigger hitters. So yeah, that's what I'm saying it's like. So I'm sure if it was released some other time it would have like made the big numbers like the previous Mission Impossible did.
Speaker 1:Dude, now would have been an awesome time to release it, because there is nothing to watch. I'm not watching Aquaman 2.
Speaker 2:There's no rush to have to release it now. It's like you can just put it on the shelf and release it some other time, like maybe during an off-peak season.
Speaker 1:I think they already had it on the shelf for a while because of COVID.
Speaker 2:Ah, and that's where he had the whole like shouting at the crew, with the whole like social distancing and stuff, wasn't it? Yeah, where he got really angry.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it was this movie, but yeah, he wasn't happy about it.
Speaker 2:Okay. So yeah, that begs the question why did they have to release it so weeks before Barbenheimer, just to have you know it's box office potential be snuffed out?
Speaker 1:Dude. It's such a shame, because what was the rush? What was the rush? I don't know.
Speaker 2:They didn't have to, and if they waited so long because of COVID. They could afford to wait a few more months, couldn't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and like it's funny that you had this fun action film going up against a movie about dolls coming to life and a movie about a nuclear bomb and somehow it got annihilated by those two. Such a shame man, because, oh God, I will get into it in the other episode, but man.
Speaker 2:Oh, again, there was no rush to have to release it so close to other big hitters, just as you say now like in December could have been a good time to release it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was such a breath of fresh air watching it too, was it Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it was just a simple Like there was no politics, there was no bullshit, there was just straightforward, fun action. There were some one-liners in there, you know, at times it took itself a little too seriously with its plot. That was just like. Even though the plot was about AI and stuff like that, I mean it felt quite relevant given the current climate with AI and chat GBT and new AI tools coming out so much this year Like every. I mean right now we look at it and we're like, oh, people just use it for speeches and shit. Like I've been to like two or three weddings where a guy has said I promise I didn't use chat GBT for this wedding speech. Dear all human homo sapiens. Pause for laughter. Yeah, so there will be a point where AI will destroy us and not just be helping us get through public speaking events, and Mission Impossible touched on that and I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 2:I actually was going to ask if you think that the premise of that movie is kind of like a theme that's going to become irrelevant a few years down the line, like if the issue with AI has been de-escalated years down the line, maybe it becomes a little more irrelevant with the issue with movies like Don't Look Up and, for example, they just tackle issues that are way too current for the time and in a few years time they kind of become a bit outdated.
Speaker 1:Well, right, I mean, like when you oversaturate with a particular theme or you know, like we're seeing nowadays, like the woke shit will be in that time capsule of something that we'll look back on. But also, multi-versus is something that's been done to death so much that everyone is spoofing it, like South Park is spoofing it. It's so mainstream, it's so abundantly clear to people that it's a cliche that everyone is talking about it. So I do think it will be, but there's always going to be room for innovative ways to challenge those themes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is all subvert expectations.
Speaker 2:Part one you know, maybe part two. I don't know if you're looking forward to subverting expectations in part two or if you want more of the same, or I don't know. Do you think future of like Mission Impossible? Do you maybe want something more back to old roots sort of thing, where the first movie was like more spy thriller, more there was more of that like tension in the movie where you weren't sure like no one had plot armor or have they elevated the action so much that it's too hard to then go back to something more subdued and grounded? It's a tough call.
Speaker 1:I think that mission about subverting Mission Impossible is kind of like fast and furious, but just it's not at that level of stupidity yet. It's not Vin Diesel like jumping out of a tank and landing on a car and just being like, oh, lucky the car broke my fall, playing rocket leagues with like Dodge cars and stuff, yeah, like it's not at that level. It's still at the fun, but like there's consequences and people die.
Speaker 2:They're still derailing trains and jumping off huge rams and climbing birch califers, though, so it is still almost comical, I think, because Tom Cruise actually does the shit.
Speaker 1:It gives it this impressiveness that you actually look at it like whoa, like in the trailer, that moment where the bike goes off the cliff.
Speaker 1:You know that Tom Cruise did that and when you're selling that when you look at the behind the scenes, he didn't just do it once either. He did it like multiple takes. So when you see it you have this gasp of like I can't believe he actually did it, whereas when you see that crap in fast and furious, you're like, well, it's obvious, it looks fake as and you know that Vin Diesel definitely ain't jumping off no cliff with a bike.
Speaker 2:I wonder what his next impressive stunt will be. But I just wonder. This is his 100th life, Whatever the phrase is, defying all odds, kind of like stunts where it's maybe the 15th time he does it. It's still impressive, but it's people kind of maybe will write it off as oh, it's just yet another thing, the magic sort of worn off, Just yet another daredevil stunts. It is in a bid to try and rake in the audience to the theaters and so on.
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe it's like a sort of John Wick effect, where and people sort of bored by, it's like well, you can only do the all these impressive stunts and choreography so many times.
Speaker 1:Well, this is where it all blur, this is where it gets to the point where you go. And it's funny that you bring up John Wick, because I actually feel like John Wick ended on such a good high note. If the next mission impossible is the last one, then that would be great, because then it's like, yes, just right off into the sunset, never come back, but it was a good franchise. You had your like one movie that was not good, but out of like seven, eight movies, that's pretty solid.
Speaker 2:It's been going on for 20 years or something.
Speaker 1:Yes, since like since 96. Since I was like one year old, yeah, and you weren't even born.
Speaker 2:I wasn't even born yet. I was born like the 97. Yeah, but like ever since, like the first movie, with like the amount of action, it just keeps escalating and so, as we were saying like it, maybe it's harder to then bring it back to old roots or to sub-vote expectations, and so maybe then the solution is, after part two, that reckoning part two, that's when they like end the franchise on a high note, because after that it's starting to reach maybe a point of diminishing returns.
Speaker 1:Then how many, how much more stunts has he got in him, how much more can audience be bought into the spectacle of it If it was anyone else, I'd say yeah, but because it's Tom Cruise, I'm like nah, he's going to go to space and then he's going to free flow from a rocket ship and then just fucking crash into the earth like a get up.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe he does a reinvention of his acting career in the way that emulates Jackie Chan's, where it's like after the golden age of Hong Kong cinema he's like he can only do death defying stunts for so long before the magic wears off and there's only so much that body can take. Maybe then they go more into dramatic arts and stuff, because Tom Cruise actually has acting chops and comedy chops as well, and like tropic thunder and so on.
Speaker 2:So maybe after that that's the trajectory he'll take, his sort of acting portfolio into, so maybe that will be interesting to see after that reckoning part two, that actually would be a good way of him writing off.
Speaker 1:Into the sunset. He just retires the franchise and goes. You know what I'm going to do? Comedy or I'm going to get back into serious dramatic stuff, kind of like Robert Downey Jr. After yeah, after Endgame, he started doing stuff where, like he got back into dramatic roles. He was in Openheimer yeah. He can do stuff where he's not even recognizable, reinvent himself, yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you fun way to like. Spend your like later years after doing so much the twilight of your acting career. You get stuck in just doing action for so long. Maybe you start forgetting, like the roots of you know what got them into acting in the first place. Something more slow, Bernie, I don't know, maybe he could be doing that, I mean the twilight of his career would be like the peak of a normal person's career. Oh, yeah, doing like a 500 million dollar movie.
Speaker 1:I'm now doing a 300 million dollar movie. Oh, what is?
Speaker 2:he Sixty, sixty something. Yeah, gosh, he doesn't look a day like over 30 or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, dude, that fucker can run Like he could run circles around me. Yeah, absolutely I got tired just watching him run in this, in this.
Speaker 2:Anyway, boundless energy. So that's a debt reckoning, part one which, as we said, it's like, despite you enjoying it so much, it could have done with a more delayed release so as to really reach its full box office potential. Not that we should be just concerning ourselves with the goodness of a movie based on how much profit it made, and not a numbers guy.
Speaker 1:but you know, timing is everything it is funny, though, because a lot of the worst movies correlate to box office bombs.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that is also true. It was also like the timing of when you release a movie also plays into a public perception of how good or bad something is. It's before we beat a dead horse.
Speaker 1:Now, the next two movies I've got here are both 20 22 movies, so I'll just skip that. Oh, john Wick 4. John Wick 4 is definitely.
Speaker 2:Why do you like John Wick 4?, Like after there's been three previous movies already. How have they reinvented the wheel? Is the Donnie N effect? Is it?
Speaker 1:it's not really reined.
Speaker 2:How do you keep the audience like engaged?
Speaker 1:fourth movie in introducing new characters, introducing new legendary actors and stunt performers into the mix, giving the film. It was more like the way it ended just having the ability to just end a franchise on like a final full stop and be like, yeah, we're doing it. Where, like every other franchise that I've seen, is she like you're watching Indiana Jones 5.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say it seems like James Mangles could take a page out of John Wick 4 and just like learn the different. Well, I shouldn't. Not James Mangles, but the studio.
Speaker 1:Whoever, whoever wrote that piece of shit?
Speaker 2:they could learn the difference between, you know, just like letting a franchise, just like come to a definitive full stop, versus just tapering off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like this, john Wick 4 feels like Indiana Jones 3 in that it's just the perfect ending. Let's bookend it. You know, you're just happy with that and you don't feel. I mean, I could be wrong. I don't know, maybe in 10 years time they resurrect him or say that it was all fake or some bull crap ending but John Wick, zombies. It was just refreshing to just be like yep, that's it, that's the ending and like no, like no sequel, post credits, bullshit. Well, that's good, just like no, that's it. John Wick would return and it just felt, yeah, john Wick will return in Live and Let Die, or 007, spectre or some shit. Yeah, and it's a fun movie. It's a really fun. It's similar to Mission Impossible when that, like you're traveling the world going all these different exotic locations, Always.
Speaker 2:You can't go wrong with like a globetrotting adventure movie, right, yeah yeah, Something so timeless about it. You know just seeing, you know it's the Indiana Jones effect of like seeing a red line going across the world map. You know you're seeing this globetrotting adventure of like chasing an artifact or what have you going after? A villain? I mean, I haven't seen this, I don't know what.
Speaker 1:Also, that's the deal. There's like an authenticity to the way that Keanu Reeves performs in those movies. But how do you?
Speaker 2:mean Well similar authenticity.
Speaker 1:Similar to Tom Cruise. Like you know that he's very invested in the role as far as stunt choreography, fighting, the shooting, the way he's reloading, the way he holds weapons and stuff like that. You know that he's done proper training and he's not some fucking actor that's just rocked up and was like I'm going to hold my pistol like this because it looks cool, not just a stand in or a stunt double.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you feel like it's him Okay.
Speaker 1:Fully in it, fully immersing himself.
Speaker 2:And you're saying that translates well onto the big screen. Yeah, and that's good.
Speaker 1:And the other thing with John Wick is, even though there's like few moments where it's a bit too much to handle, where it's too unbelievable, it's still like John Wick is he and Fast and Furious is he. It's over the top. Even when it starts to, it never gets to that level ever A Fast and Furious or a superhero movie. You still feel like it's somewhat grounded.
Speaker 2:He still has some mortality in him, like they're still like. So you're saying there would be some moments where they start to like eke out onto the whole, like metahuman levels of strength and invulnerability for John Wick, right, but he still bleeds, he still stumbles, that sort of yeah unlike Fast.
Speaker 1:X, where they just brush off an injury and maybe it's just because all the other action movies are so terrible at this but like just basic stuff, like selling an injury when an actor gets stabbed or something and they start limping. If it's like a typical superhero movie, it's just like they get stabbed Because they pull the knife out and just drop it on the ground.
Speaker 1:Pull the knife out and then it's fine or Fast and Furious. They get stabbed and the knife just stays there and at first they're like eugh. But then the next shot he rises, he stands up straight. Oh shit, that's what I get for making fun of.
Speaker 2:Vin Diesel. They just get up out of it and be like, oh, that was itchy.
Speaker 1:And then he just like stabs a five inch stab wound. No, vin Diesel, just he, just like, pumps out his chest and the knife bounces out of his body and stabs like three guys at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yep Disregarding how, in real life, a stab wound would be followed by months and months of physio appointments, and so Bro, if I bend over the wrong way, I fucking end up seeing a physio for a couple of months. And then I just fall down the stairs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, man like John Wick was fantastic Great fight, choreography, fulfilling story, excellent creativity, the franchise. Just what do you mean by creativity? I think it got to a point where I was like, wow, I am just not getting tired of seeing John Wick kill people.
Speaker 2:There's not that right repetition to it. I've sort of seen this sort of thing already. There wasn't that.
Speaker 1:No they found interesting simple ways, like things that you wouldn't think are creative, but I don't know, like that for example, there's a fight scene that happens on, like this long staircase outdoors and just the way they incorporate the stairs into the fight sequences, and then having John Wick like fall down the stairs, like it's just like simple things that they do, but that throw it into a whole different direction.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you like creativity in the originality of the fight choreography.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, I think it was that one that had this fight scene in this giant like kind of glass room and there was just all these glass cabinets everywhere and shit like that, and that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Well, I also, like you know, I've seen this scene where they have the top down camera to really emulate that hotline Miami. Look where he was shooting those incendiary Ammo's and you could see all the individual rooms. So that's like kind of blending video game aspect into the cinematography. I totally forgot about that. So this, so you appreciate it, that's four movies in. They still could find original ways to capture this and the long takes. There's no cutting, is just all in one thing, that was four movies in. They're still able to do that.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought, because when I originally went into that movie, I went in with no expectations. I was watching it on the plane trip to Italy and I was like I'm finally going to give it a watch and I thought it's going to be the same tired stuff. I was like I feel like the third movie could have been the ending to the franchise. Did it really have to get a fall?
Speaker 2:But no, it earned its place and it's okay Good.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Justified. Well, that's good, man, because C colitis man, that's a very real thing, you know.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's just so unique nowadays to see a franchise just be like wrapped in a little bow and be like no, that's it. And that might be what I'll feel when Mission Impossible dead reckoning part two comes out, Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Have they filmed that, or are they?
Speaker 1:I think they've already filmed it.
Speaker 2:Finished. Okay, I think I could be wrong. I don't know. I think I could be wrong. I don't have a third movie.
Speaker 1:The non 2023 movie that you include in the 2023 year. I don't have a third movie. Oh you don't. I legit will like movies that I want to see. After doing research for this, godzilla minus one is apparently very good. Yep, yep, yep. And then there was a whole bunch of movies that I had no idea existed the iron claw I'm a massive wrestling fan. I watched that and, seeing Zac Efron and that dude from the bear, I forgot his name, but that guy's a beast of an actor. He's in everything nowadays. Yeah, that movie looks great. It's got a very like Darren Aronofsky Aronofsky yeah, that's the right, yes, darren Aronofsky, who directed three times. Darren Aronofsky directed the wrestler.
Speaker 1:Another movie I love with Mickey Rourke, the whale, came out last year For some reason. I thought it came out this year and it was one of the movies I had written down. And then I was like fuck, can't mention it because it came out last year. But fuck, that movie is good.
Speaker 1:I hate that, like anyone doubted Brendan Frazier as someone who grew up always believing in him and just been like waiting for that time when he was just going to rise above the ashes because all he needed was the right movie and a new agent because for some reason he kept doing these duds but he was always still standing out as, like, the best thing about it, even in shit movies, there was this love that you had for him. The sympathy is just a very endearing actor, is very good at playing likeable people. He's got that charisma, that charm, and in the whale he just carries that whole movie to. Yeah, there's lines in that movie that still ring out to me because of how much emotional weight he puts in his delivery, how much emotions you feel behind it.
Speaker 1:And well, it's a very similar film to the rest line that you're watching a very tragic figure who you know how it's all gonna end, but you're really hoping it doesn't end that way. You want them to fix their life, but you know there's a possibility, a strong possibility. It's not gonna work out. So, yeah, man, honorable mention to Mario Brothers, just because it was fun. Yeah, and that's my colorful. I don't give a shit if it makes me sound like such a teenage boy. I'm like the bright colors were awesome, but fuck it. It was good to see an animated movie that wasn't made by Disney.
Speaker 2:My glass half empty. Take on that. Yes, it's my top movie of 2023. It's like this and across the spider-verse. But, like we were discussing in our spoiler review of the Mario Brothers movie, is that just a few tweaks to like the dialogues could elevate the movie from just possible to a movie that actually had something to say. They actually had a message that it wanted to convey, with something that's universal and people could get behind. Yeah, just something. Just some positive message. Maybe, as we said, like maybe if in the ending, the star power like ran out of juice or something and then he had to bring up the power from within or something.
Speaker 1:They need what they need. They need a writer from Disney to help them with the second movie and just be like, are you?
Speaker 2:sure you wanted to bring in anyone from Disney.
Speaker 1:No, because we want the good old movie. The second movie's whole thing should be White People or Bad Sure. Write it down, Nintendo Come on take a page from Disney's book. Let's do it. White People or Bad.
Speaker 2:That'll sell Present, company excluded and the Mario Brothers, I suppose let's insult our target audience, that'll work right, disney. Yeah, because it worked out so well for them this year.
Speaker 1:Let's hope that 2024 we get like Disney just fucking making normal movies, like everyone just making movies to entertain people.
Speaker 2:We might have a few things to say on that topic in a different episode, but no, yeah, the sequel could be more bold with its storytelling. It's still ranking like 9s out of 10s with a lot of people. What is the Mario Brothers movie?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the audience is lover.
Speaker 2:Critics don't, but audiences love it yeah no, objectively it could still do a lot more in the story department for sure, and it's too safe for my liking now that I've watched it, you know. But I understood why it had to be saved. Maybe not push the boundaries too much for the first outing after so many decades you got to warm into it, man.
Speaker 1:I mean we had Mario just hijacking cars on Rainbow Road and taking people out, like he's John Wick, like that's always going to be awesome, even if the story's non-existent or nothing. And you got Jack Black just doing a great job as Bowser. Beaches, beaches, beaches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's classic.
Speaker 1:So yeah, man, fuck it. Oh, I admit it, mario Brothers is in one of my best movies of the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, could objectively have some better story improvements in terms of, like, actually having a positive message that people could get behind, but like, still, on the surface level, have all the pretty visuals. You can do both, you know. You can objectively do both, you know. And then my other honorable mention is like across the spider verse. Again, my glass half empty perspective on that is oh, I had it. I forget that.
Speaker 2:My glass half empty perspective on that movie is, after hearing all the like poor working conditions, that I hope they take their time with the third movie. And again it's, even though it's quite phenomenal of a movie, it's still feeding into the multiversal burnouts that the general audience is feeling right now Because, remember, it's not just Marvel fans that are making Marvel money, it's also just the average consumer that's not totally bought into the whole premise of multiversalness Because, yes, when everything is multiversal, things feel inconsequential. Why should I empathize with this variance of Miles Morales when an literal infinite number of other Peter Parker's and Miles Morales, some have better outcomes in their life than others? Why should I care about this one version so?
Speaker 1:I think they use that to their advantage, to be like yes, there is still massive consequences despite all the different multiverses. That was the thing that was bringing me through it all.
Speaker 2:Is that you had?
Speaker 1:Miles still making this massive choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now that brings me to my glass half full perspective on it, which was they actually found a clever way to incorporate the whole multiversal narrative into, like that make it central to the lesson that Miles had to learn, which was and it all stems from that one conversation he had with his mom about just like sort of being above the fray, like against all odds, like with everyone doubting you, they've made a whole room full of spider men and spider women realize the errors of their ways, that they had compromised their ideal, going against the whole like. You know that what's wrong is that you know something bad's about to happen and you choose to do nothing. That's the real reason why you allow evil to perpetuate. It's the whole reason why Uncle Ben died is because he saw the guy the would be killer like run past him, like in the Tobey McQuire movie and in that moment he chose to not do it, and then he paid the consequence for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah across the spider verse has just a huge moral dilemma. That engages people, engages audiences, and there were so many great moments. There were meta moments, there were meme references.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:There was a good villain that, like you, could understand his point of view. He wasn't some generic Marvel villain.
Speaker 2:He talked about the spots or Miguel the vampire stuff, because I feel like no one's necessarily like the villain, Like yes, they are villains, but like the spots as someone that's more a consequential sort of villain. He's just a product of things rather than he was an antithesis of him or something.
Speaker 1:I was thinking more of the Spider-Man, who's like the leader of the multiverses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's more conflicted ideals, because he's the one that's really conflicting with Miles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the most compelling villains are the ones that parallels the protagonist in terms of what they disagree on, in terms of ideology. Or maybe it could be a case of Magneto versus Charles Xavier, where they both want the same thing, they both want what's best for the mutants, but they have different methods. So those are the really compelling dynamics all the time, all those timeless features. But here, even though the spot is the villain, he's the one that is going to be bringing a threat to Miles as well, but it felt like he was more out of the picture and the focus was more on the moral dilemma of it, which made for a very engaging watch. And then, within that is where they incorporated the multiversal aspect of it, instead of just being a cameo fest to then make a really sort of thought provoking point. How do you block out, like everyone else telling you otherwise, how do you stand for what's right and have integrity? It?
Speaker 2:gave Miles this great chance to stand out as an individual and for us to the cameos were used to show that he was above the fray, not just oh wow, this is the Spider-Man from that game and that universe. They were used to actually show that he was above that.
Speaker 1:And the struggle for individuality. You could feel it, you could sympathize with it, oh man, and also the Cliffhanger.
Speaker 2:But I would say again, I have to go glass half empty. I remember when we both watched it it was my second time watching it, but your first time watching it. Throw up the spoiler alert Andrew Garfield makes an appearance. When he makes an appearance you sort of looked at me and was sort of like chuckling. And then that made me think maybe some of those live action cameos from Toby McGuire and Andrew Garfield it kind of their sort of star power presence, sort of took away from the gravity of the message that McGuire was trying to convey, which was the whole like canon event has to happen, and so when they just show a big star like Andrew Garfield, people would be too distracted by the cameo appearance to then sort of absorb the message that they were trying to say to people.
Speaker 1:I couldn't even remember that he was in it Really.
Speaker 2:You didn't remember that how?
Speaker 1:did that happen?
Speaker 2:They had a close up of his face. Man, when Captain Stacey died, thingo, they had a close up of his face. You don't remember that. And across the spiderverse, yeah, yeah. And then you looked at me and you sort of like chuckled, you don't remember. You actually don't remember that. But yeah, it's to my point. Yeah, it probably was distracting people from the message that they were in the middle of trying to convey. So that would be my one.
Speaker 1:That could be a similar thing to no Way Home, where it was like riding a bit too much of this fine line, where it's like fanfare and nostalgia with also creating its own unique story. That's a tough thing. That's like juggling a bunch of balls while you're fucking on a unicycle. It's such a balancing act. It's this business. Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:But yeah, there would be, like my main gripe with, across the spiderverse, which is otherwise a pretty spot on movie, it executes every aspect of it minus the overworked VFX writers. So that's why that ending scene where Gwen recruits the original cast from the first movie, that was like a very last minute addition and if you know animation you can't just add in shots. That takes months of prep work and shot listing.
Speaker 1:It would have been pretty funny if that scene was like right, the scene was like really badly animated, like just fucking paper and black and white drawings.
Speaker 2:I wonder if when they have those glitch effects, that's their way of like hiding poor animations, or if they say that all these poor, like pen sketches are actually part of the aesthetic. But actually it was just from us being overworked. We didn't have time to finish that render and we're just going to say it's part of the spiderverse filter.
Speaker 1:It's like taking a life of its own. And scratchy and poochy from the Simpsons. Find that clip to add to this Poochy I hadn't heard of Poochy. Oh my God, it's the funniest. So the Poochy character.
Speaker 2:Is this like a Treehouse of Horror episode? No, no, I can't believe, you don't remember. Poochy, it doesn't ring a bell Anyway, they decide to kill off the character.
Speaker 1:Right, poochy, poochy. The actor Homer is doing the voice acting for the character and he refuses to do the lines of saying that he's like going to fuck off and go into the distance and just leave. So when they play the episode, someone else is voicing it and he's like I have to go now, my planet needs me, and it's just like the picture going up Like it's not animated at all and then like a piece of paper, just says like Poochy was actually from another planet, he was an alien. And then Bart and Lisa like whoa, I didn't know, poochy was an alien, subverting expectations. My God, that would be funny if that happened in across the spider verse. Anyway, oh, by the way, thanks for joining me for the Ninja Turtles review. That would have been great, because guess what? That was on the hundred list of awesome movies.
Speaker 2:Again. I just feel it would be lost on me. You know the fandom of it all.
Speaker 1:I never grew up with TNMNT, so if you want to know why there's no review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, blame Martin. You mean the Asian Addy? Oh yeah, whatever you prefer. Asian Addy, all right guys.
Speaker 2:So, to conclude, yours was Mission Impossible, debt Reckoning, part 1, john Wick 4, if you want to group that into 2023. Mario Bros, oh, mario Bros, and for me Mario Bros is number one. And then across the spider verse is pretty close second, both just being like okay, across the spider. First because of it being so objectively a good movie Coming from Sony of all places. Yeah, what do?
Speaker 1:you mean.
Speaker 2:Sony DeMorbius. Oh yeah, that was one of the movies of all time. We all loved the hell out of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, and we've got Madame Webb coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, try to get through the trailer without cringing at that one line.
Speaker 1:Future Martin. Insert clip of Madame Webb from trailer oh my, God, I'm just thinking of that one line.
Speaker 2:It's so cringe they set it with a straight face. Are you thinking of?
Speaker 1:the one where she's like oh, my father researched spiders before he died.
Speaker 2:Yes, that one Holy crap. They set that with a freaking straight face, like as if it was a serious. That's a line that someone wrote. That is a line someone wrote and made it to the trailer.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily Maybe, maybe. Yeah, it almost sounds robotic, in terms of just doesn't help that the actor delivering the line since that was like a robot.
Speaker 2:Wow, anyways, good that this, this next 2024.
Speaker 1:clearly All right guys. Well, if you enjoyed this video, please leave a like, share and subscribe.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, this way, because it's a positive episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah.