Dune: Part Two (Guest: Producer Collin)

[00:00:00] Let's get together and talk about the movies that we saw this week. We'll have discussions, talk film news, we'll laugh a lot and act like geeks. Sometimes we'll have a guest or two, sometimes it's just the two of us.

[00:00:09] Let's crack some jokes and tell some folks to come along and hang with us! Mike and Mike go To The Movies Mike and Mike go To The Movies Yeah! You have chosen wisely. Dune Part Two, more like Part Two of our Dune Discussions episode.

[00:00:32] It's Mike and Mike Go To The Movies. I'm Mike Smith and joining me as always is a man who knows that if you walk without rhythm, you won't attract the worm. It's me, Fat Boy Slim. Yeah! Also known as Mike's Crescio.

[00:00:45] Yes, I'm glad you got the reference, Mike. Thank you. Yes. How are you today, Mike? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, I did not realize that Fat Boy Slim song was a chock full of Dune references until this past weekend when it started going around on Twitter.

[00:00:59] And turns out it's chock full of Dune references and Christopher Walken's in the music video. So there's connections all over the place. The prophecy came true. The real, at least not guy, was Christopher Walken in that video. Exactly. Also joining us is the Quisach Hatterach of The Freeman.

[00:01:17] Did I say the words right? I have no idea. Fremen? Yeah, the fremen. You're right. But yes, you're picking up on the hashtag analysis that they are the freemen. Exactly. Yeah, I figured that one out. Producer Colin, welcome back to the podcast.

[00:01:29] Hey guys, thanks for having me on again. As I said earlier, I promised not to fuck this one up. We'll have a full podcast put out there this time. Yeah, last time producer Colin was a solo guest on the podcast.

[00:01:40] He lost his audio for an episode that he paid for. So we didn't feel too bad about it. The only reason I didn't feel horrible. Yes. But producer Colin, you're back on because I kind of put it out there to all of the

[00:01:54] usual podcast folk, the gang as we like to call them to see if anybody wanted to jump on and talk about Dune Part Two. Originally you said you weren't going to be able to. And then you made the time this weekend to go see Dune.

[00:02:06] Yeah, I was out of town on Saturday, like a magic tournament with a friend. And I was like, I don't know if I'm going to have time for a three hour movie on Sunday. But that's like Sunday morning.

[00:02:15] My girlfriend was like, should we go see Dune this week? And I was like, let's just go tonight. And like an hour after I was like, oh, shit, it means I can be on a podcast. Let's go. Hell yeah. There you go.

[00:02:27] So we appreciate you jumping on Colin. And we also had interest from another part of that group, Nick Wormuth, who I think originally said he was going to be part of it. And then last minute realized he couldn't be. He had plans.

[00:02:39] So it was like a reverse of what happened with Colin. So that's unfortunate. We, you know, Nick says he wished he could be here, but unfortunately he couldn't be. However, we do have a clip from Nick that I'll be

[00:02:48] playing later in the episode to talk about the Dune part two popcorn buckets that tied in with the movie's release. So yeah, Dune part two, it's out. We should we just get into it? Should we just play the trailer and start doing the thing? I guess so.

[00:03:03] We kind of forget how to do an episode like this. We don't do it anymore. Like what do I do with my hands? When was the last time that we put my hands? What was the last time that we did like a new release movie?

[00:03:16] I guess it was Godzilla minus one. Yeah. But that's like the annual tradition kind of thing before that. Well, it was the last time you did one on March 5th. On March 5th? There's like a random day in the middle of the. Oh yeah. Yeah, sure.

[00:03:30] Yeah, I think I think we reviewed spider verse two, right, Mike? That sounds familiar. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Yeah. I think we did that. You know what? I think we also reviewed Mission Impossible Dead, Reckoning part one.

[00:03:40] I feel that was probably the last time other than Godzilla minus one that we did a full on new release movie review. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But you know, I'm thinking like it's got to be a regular version of this

[00:03:51] like pre-pandemic obviously outside of the end of the year episode, where we try to do like whatever big blockbuster kind of thing. Right. But yeah, I guess I guess it would have been Mission Impossible. You're right. I think it was Mission Impossible.

[00:04:01] But yeah, this used to be the norm. This was every other week. It was every two weeks back then. But every other week, me and Mike D would watch whatever the new movie was. And you know, sometimes that was great.

[00:04:12] Other times we were watching stuff like, I don't know, I was going to say Men in Black International. Did we review that? I don't think we did that because I think that was a pandemic thing. Right? That was right before the pandemic.

[00:04:21] But I just like I tried to think of the most forgettable blockbuster that came to mind and that was the first one that I thought was reasonable. I remember the last one we did was Lee Waddell's Invisible Man.

[00:04:32] That was the last one we saw in theaters or I saw in theaters and did an episode on. Right. Yeah, we did The Invisible Man. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes we saw great movies. You know, that was the thing. I mean, a lot of great stuff.

[00:04:42] You know, I mean they were all movies. Like I was going out to the theater for anyway, but we got Mike Diakto at the theater to go see them. And so that was good. Detective Pikachu is our first episode of Mike and Mike Go to the Movies.

[00:04:51] I remember that. That's right. I was here for that one. Oh, yeah. Were you a guest on that one? Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Resident Pokemon expert. That makes sense. Yeah. So it all comes full circle here with Colin talking about Dune Part Two,

[00:05:03] which we are going to get into right now. It's breathtaking. When you see sand here, imagine water. If you dive in, you can't reach the bottom. You dive in. Yes, it's cold swimming. I don't believe you. In the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets.

[00:05:26] But the darkest of them all may remain. The end of House of Treaties. Your father didn't believe in revenge. What if Paula Treaties were still alive? Have you ever had a dream about your first ride? If we all know that, be simple, be direct. Nothing fancy. I understand.

[00:06:39] Nothing fancy. You will never lose me, Paula Treaties. We gave them something to hope for. That's not hope! May thy knife chip and shatter. All right, that was from the trailer for Dune Part Two, the new film from Denny Villanuev starring Timothy Chalamet, Zendaya,

[00:07:33] Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Stella Skarsgard, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Josh Brolin and a lot more. So last week, me and Mike, we talked about Dune Part One for quite a while. We both rewatched it recently.

[00:07:46] And we talked about it for like 20, 30 minutes about our thoughts on that movie. But a quick recap, Mike D, you're in general a fan, right? Yes, big fan. Really loved it in the bag for any any Villanuev, basically.

[00:07:59] So you've been a villain who had from way back from way back. Yeah. So very excited for that. And just really, really into doing even though not particularly a Dune guy. We talked a lot about becoming Dune guys on that episode,

[00:08:11] but just sort of the passing common cultural osmosis, nerd, nerd vicinity of Dune familiarity. So I've never read the books or anything, but I kind of know. Yeah. And so same for me. I've never read the books, although like we've talked about, thinking about becoming a Dune guy.

[00:08:26] I set a goal for myself this year to read one book a month because I was really like deploring my lack of reading for the last couple of years. I was like, OK, one book a month, I can do that. And so far I've stuck to it.

[00:08:37] And if I read six Dune books, that covers out a lot of the year for me right there. That's like 18,000 pages though. That's so many. Yeah. I think the first I think the first one is the longest. It's like 800 pages.

[00:08:48] Then the rest of them are like more reasonable after that. So yeah, I know Dune Messiah is like 300 pages. Like it's a quick read from what I understand. Afternoon. Beautiful. Yeah. So the Dune series, I might become a Dune guy soon.

[00:09:00] But Dune one I saw in theaters thought it was fine. I appreciated the craft behind it, but I wasn't like totally taken in by the story upon my rewatch last weekend was like, oh man, no, this rules. This is great.

[00:09:11] I really, really dug Dune Part One after rewatching it. Got like kind of newly hyped up for Dune Part Two. Producer Colin, since you are the guest on the episode and you weren't here last week to talk about it, your general

[00:09:24] thoughts about Dune as a series about the franchise. If you have any thoughts on the David Lynch Dune, we'd love to hear them. But anything you got. Oh man. Yeah. So definitely not not a Dune guy like going into these movies.

[00:09:37] I just watched the first one a week and a half ago. I think you hadn't seen it until a week and a half ago. I had not seen it. I did try to watch it like when it was on like when it first like hit HBO Max,

[00:09:48] but like full school, I got way too high and could not do that. Oh my God. Yeah. It's the spice melange. And dude, it was it was hard. I was like on my couch, just like staring at the TV. I'm like, no, can't hear for this tonight.

[00:10:02] This is emerging. It was not. And then like I just I just never like revisited it like I wanted to. But like I'm also a big new fan, like, you know, some of his movies are like my are some of my favorites, like Prisoners and Arrival.

[00:10:15] Huge fans. I was like, I'm going to get back to this. But I just never did. Yeah. And then like this was this the second one was coming out. I was like, all right, it's time to actually do this because the second one looks awesome.

[00:10:27] But yeah, it was like my dad was a big Dune fan. Like when I was a kid, like he had all the books. He read them on an annual basis. So like he would read. Yeah, he would just reread that like the series every year.

[00:10:37] And by no idea what it was about, aside from a sand planet, worms and some weird drug. That was basically all I knew about it. I mean, that's it. You got it. That's it. Crushed it. But but yeah, so you're going to this like Pretty Blind,

[00:10:54] which is which was fun for like one is a pretty well known series, like just kind of go in blind and just like experience it for the first time. Like without any really preconceived notions about it, other than my dad really liked the books. Right. Yeah.

[00:11:07] So not really a Dune guy, but was a big fan of both these movies. And I don't really have. Oh, sorry. Yeah. No out of curiosity, has your dad seen the new movies? I think he watched the first one. I don't think he's seen the second one yet.

[00:11:18] So he my parents are coming up to visit for Easter. So if it's still in theaters, I might it might be like, let's go see Dune. Right. Oh yeah. Fair enough. Don't think my mom will like it. But. Yeah. Yeah. So Colin, your thoughts on Dune Part Two.

[00:11:34] I mean, it sounds like you liked the first one having watched it again this time around. Right? Yeah. No. Yeah. It was a big fair of the first one. And like it is like looking back at it after watching the second one is like slower.

[00:11:44] And it's definitely just like, hey, here's back story. Here's what you need to know for like the shit that's about to go down. Yeah. But yeah, now Dune, Dune Part Two. Fuck's man. That movie was so much like it was so much fun.

[00:11:58] It was like I feel like every everybody in their roles absolutely killed it, like especially Austin Butler. He was incredible, just menacing motherfucker. And and I don't know the movie I found it was just like it was beautiful. It was really well shot.

[00:12:14] It was just exciting and just really tense at times. Just like you just get really into the like personal like this really personal story for Paul, which also we are just named to give a guy this crazy sci-fi thing. It's like his name is Paul.

[00:12:30] His mom's name is Jessica. Right. But like this huge like this big like, you know, almost like interplanetary like all these different houses like being at each other, but just like this one dude's like personal revenge story almost. And it was just a lot of fun.

[00:12:45] I actually walked out of the movie just like kind of speechless for for me. I was like, damn, that should happen. It was a lot of fun. Nice. Yeah. So yeah, Dune part two, Mike D, your general take on Dune 2 having watched it in close conjunction with Dune

[00:12:59] part one. Yeah, Dune part two I think is is pretty incredible. I was really blown away like we are probably all going to talk about. It's just like visually how interesting and incredible it looks. That's that's sort of always been, you know, one of Villanueve's touches.

[00:13:14] And you know, I don't know how much of that is on his DPs. You know, Roger Deakins did a lot of his other reviews and like, of course, those are going to look incredible.

[00:13:21] I don't know the DP on this movie, on these two Dune movies by name, but Greg Frazier is his name, Greg Frazier. It looks incredible. Everything's amazing. And yeah, the story, you know, I think that's sort of one of the things

[00:13:33] about Dune that I've always kind of assumed is like that this is just a dense, impenetrable story that if you're not reading the book where you have the space to expand and wax poetic about certain things and give histories of stuff.

[00:13:46] And I don't know if that's really what is going on in the book, but I, you know, that's what novels typically allow you to do, that this would just be a nonsense plot. And it kind of is, but you don't.

[00:13:55] But like much more vibes, you know, but also like a really intense revenge story and interesting plot and turns for certain characters. And it's all about, you know, the political intrigue and all this stuff. So yeah, on top of just being like a visual feast that

[00:14:11] they like a cinema TM kind of movie, it has just a fucking banging plot. So that's very fun. And I will say I felt like a personal hero when I went to see this movie because it's I saw it in RPX, which, you know, whatever, baby, IMAX,

[00:14:26] whatever didn't have a chance to go see it in the full full glory. But during the trailers, there's a couple. I think it was specifically actually Long Legs. The trailer for Long Legs ends with like the title, the title card, Long Legs.

[00:14:39] Yeah. And I noticed the S was cut off. It just said Long Leg and I was like, oh, hell no. Like, but you can see you can see the like you can see the back curve of the S.

[00:14:50] So like it was just this picture was just off center. And I like was like, no, I'm not going to pay $30 or whatever it is, $28 to see this movie and have it be off center or whatever.

[00:15:01] But for two and a half hours and like so I ran down to the to the lobby and I told them, I was like, yeah, the RPX thing, I think it's off center. And they were just like, what? They were like so scared.

[00:15:12] They were like, that projector is so big. What do you mean it's off set? I was like, I don't know. The picture doesn't fit on the screen. You're like, oh my God. And then by the time the trailers ended, it like the image stopped for a second

[00:15:24] and then came back in and it was if fit. I feel like they owe you a free popcorn bucket for that. Yeah, right? Give me a little unlimited. Come on. So your knowledge of Nicholas Cage has once again saved you in a dire situation. That's what I'm saying.

[00:15:38] If it wasn't for Osgood Perkins and the complete work season one, I would have had a tarnished, a tarnished Dune 2 experience. Those five years finally paying off. Finally paying off. There you go. Yes, there it is. And now I could talk about my tarnished Dune part two experience.

[00:15:54] Oh, no. You didn't run down to the manager like a hero, like Paul Trady himself. Unfortunately, no, I did not. Here's what happened. So we went to go see Dune part two in IMAX.

[00:16:05] We're also playing it at the Roxy and I could have gone to see it for free at the Roxy, technically, I was off of free at the IMAX because I have the AMC Stubbs A-list, you know, all that stuff.

[00:16:13] But went to the IMAX screen at the AMC in my house. I had a few friends with me and stuff. My girlfriend went with me despite not having watched Dune part one. She came with me. Legend. What a hero. She didn't like Dune part two.

[00:16:27] That's besides the point. So we get there. The movie is supposed to start at 125 or the trailers are supposed to start at 125. That's like the showtime start, right? And we get in there like 15 minutes before then the trailers are already playing.

[00:16:40] The trailers have started early and we're sitting there and a few of our group haven't arrived yet. And I'm looking at it like, this is a little weird. Why are the actual like this should be like, you know, pre-show,

[00:16:50] like, you know, movie trivia coming up, all that kind of stuff. Where's Maria Manino's? Where is she? Yeah. Well, I'm at the AMC. We're at the AMC. I wish if I could have that dream combination of Maria Manino's

[00:17:03] in the pre-show and then Nicole Kidman doing the ad afterwards. Who even needs the movie after that? I would go just for the pre-show. I mean, yeah, absolutely. And so we get there, the trailers are already playing.

[00:17:16] We get to the showtime 125 and like there's one or two trailers left. And the rest of my group gets here and I'm like, hey, heads up, the trailers started early. You guys got here, I think just in time. And they're like, oh, weird. The trailers end.

[00:17:29] A message appears on screen. We're in the IMAX screen. A message appears on screen that says this film is not modified for IMAX. What? It is not the IMAX version of the movie to which everybody in the theater

[00:17:42] collectively was like, then why did I pay extra to see it? What the fuck? Like a message came on screen that did that. And then the movie just started. There was no Nicole Kidman ad. There was no like thing after the trailers to kind of like

[00:17:56] transition into the movie. The studio logo came up and the movie just started, but the lights were still on. And so for the first like five, ten minutes of the movie and I saw

[00:18:04] someone a few rows ahead of me like run out as soon as the movie started to tell somebody the lights were still on. So I didn't feel the need to go do it. But for the first five, ten minutes of the movie, the lights were still on

[00:18:13] until they finally shut off, which was crazy. That's insane. Also, feeling they should have told people beforehand that like when they're scanning your tickets, let in. Hey, that's not the it's not the IMAX one just to let you know. We were all just sitting there in confusion.

[00:18:29] Like we're in the IMAX screen. We paid extra for this IMAX screen or everybody else paid extra. I had the same stubs a list. But still, on behalf of everyone else, I was serious.

[00:18:39] So it's just like a little image on a giant screen or it was like blown off. Yeah, it was it was just the normal, like theatrical presentation of Dune. But like, yeah, it just like there was the top and the bottom of the screen

[00:18:51] just had nothing on them. It was just the normal screen. Yeah. Wild. Yeah. So that was a little ridiculous. All all that said, I did really enjoy the movie. I liked it a lot. All right. So there was that, but it was just very jarring those first

[00:19:03] couple of minutes like I'm trying to focus on whatever Florence Pugh is saying. And I'm kind of like seething in my seat, being like the lights are still on. Yeah, that's bullshit. But in any case, really enjoyed it.

[00:19:14] Yeah, I think it is about on par with the first one. You know, I think it's it's obviously like Mike D said, just a visual like, oh my God, I can't believe it looks like this and how good it is.

[00:19:23] And like, man, it's just it's nice to have a blockbuster that looks like it has this much craft behind it and this much care behind it. And I think it's adapting the story in the most cinematic and best way possible.

[00:19:35] Again, I haven't read the book, so I'm not like totally sure about that. But from what I watched myself and from what I gather from people who have read the books, it seems like people are pretty positive about it in general. And yeah, I really dug it.

[00:19:48] I think it's it's continues the story in a really interesting way. And all the new characters they bring in are really, really great. I think Austin Butler, like you said, Colin is terrific in this movie

[00:19:58] as Fade Rafa, which is the role that Sting played in the David Lynch do. What? Did you know that? I did not. Have either of you guys seen the David Lynch doon? I've caught parts of it on TV. My girlfriend sent me like a clip of it

[00:20:13] like a couple of hours ago of like the training fight between Paul and I forget his name, like from the first movie, like when they're just like training before Josh Brolin. Yeah. And that is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Yeah, incredible.

[00:20:30] It's like genuinely terrible, but really funny. Sure. Mike, Dave, you've seen David Lynch's doon? I have not because I've always heard that it's like the bad David Lynch movie. But like I'm interested anyway. So I've had it on my like list to watch eventually at some point,

[00:20:47] but I've just never gotten around to it. Yeah. It's worth watching. I've seen I saw it a few years ago. Like before these doon movies came out, I watched David Lynch's doon. And I didn't really understand any of it.

[00:20:58] It's a movie that was like famously difficult to follow. It's a movie that the studio really fought with David Lynch on and certain things. Like the whole thing was kind of taken away from him. But like when it came out, like the studio actually issued to theaters

[00:21:08] like pamphlets that explain the mythology of doon because it's not there in the movie. And it's really hard to understand. Amazing. Which is very funny. But it is worth watching. I mean, Kyle McLaughlin plays Paul Traities, which is cool.

[00:21:20] And it's a lot of like David Lynch people that pop up. Like I believe it's Everett McGill playing the Josh Brolin role in David Lynch's doon. I know also Jack Nance is in there.

[00:21:29] David Lynch himself pops up as a for a cameo during the spice run, which is very fun. And then yes, Sting is in it. He plays. Water. Amazing. But the weirdest thing is that if you watch David Lynch's doon,

[00:21:40] like that movie is about two hours and it covers the entire book. It's the entire thing. Whereas now we have these like two two hour 40 minute movies that like have they cover the book.

[00:21:51] The doon part two is pretty much at the last 45 minutes of the David Lynch movie. Like it's just like it zooms right through all this. Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah. And so you get a lot more as far as the characters go in this movie.

[00:22:04] And it really like ups the first one in terms of the action and the spectacle involving all the kind of warships and all that stuff is really cool. And yeah, it's good stuff. I really enjoyed doing part two. It's it's really engaging and fun.

[00:22:18] And also like it's I think it has a stronger sense of humor than the first one did, which like these movies aren't like terribly funny all the time. But like this one has a few laugh moments, which is nice.

[00:22:30] Usually involving Javier Bardem, who is great as a still guard in this movie. That's what I was going to say that he's like, I mean, he's always been great and he's always been amazing. And I've always been a huge fan of him.

[00:22:40] But it's just like, oh yeah, Javier Bardem, like what a revelation he is in this movie. He's so fucking good. Absolutely. And then what I also kind of appreciate about this one, too, is that,

[00:22:49] you know, I've heard people talk about the Dune books and how it is like this, you know, chosen one story, but it's really kind of like an inversion of that. And it's about this guy who comes to power and then like Polish Rades.

[00:23:01] And then in the books, like eventually becomes like sort of a space Hitler kind of guy, like he's like that's sort of the trajectory of it. And it's like, you know, kind of an upending of the white savior narrative in a little bit in certain ways.

[00:23:13] And I think this movie does a lot to do that. I think it really like plays into that in really interesting and fascinating ways. I mean, from the outset and I can't really go into too many specifics

[00:23:23] without going into spoilers, but you know, it's very clear early on that, like, oh, Lady Jessica is like, you know, manipulating all the like the Fremen behind the scenes to get to what she wants and like using the prophecy that her ancestors built many years ago

[00:23:35] to like fulfill their all that kind of stuff. And so to that end, I thought the movie was like really interesting and like in like in that way. Yeah, without getting into spoilers of it all, I think the kind of broader, you know, Twitter discourse reaction to

[00:23:51] Deune Part Two really just establishes or proves that media literacy is at zero. Like because a character doesn't literally turn to the character and say, I have now become the villain. Doesn't mean the movie isn't telling this that, you know? Like, yeah, it is it's there

[00:24:08] just because they don't say it overly. It doesn't mean it's not there. Like, I don't go to the movies that think, OK? I guess that's true. You know, I guess if you wanted to think you'd read a book like dude.

[00:24:22] But yeah, so I think I do think the movie does a lot of like laying that groundwork for that. For sure. Pretty pretty obviously telegraphed turn that may happen in a couple of movies from now or whatever.

[00:24:34] And I was laughing pretty hard, you know, to myself about our discussion last week, Mike, we were like, oh, you know, my reaction to Deune One on your rewatch was that like, I know I'm going to get the conclusion of the story in part two now.

[00:24:45] So maybe I'm a little higher on it. And then as this movie ends, I'm like, what's Mike Smith's reaction going to be to this one? Yeah, without going into specifics, this movie does kind of have a fairly open ended conclusion.

[00:25:00] You know, more of a conclusion than the first one does, I think, which is nice because this is actually like the end of that book. But it's very clear that like Villeneuve is planning on making a third movie, which would be problem, which would be Deune Messiah.

[00:25:13] And maybe with elements of like Children of Deune, which is the third book only because I've heard Deune Messiah is just it's a very thin book. And there's not a lot that actually happens in it. Interesting.

[00:25:21] So it could be like kind of a mix of those two books or whatever it is. And then I don't really know what the plan is going forward from there. If there is one, I think Villeneuve is really just focused

[00:25:30] on doing Deune Messiah and it sounds like he would be done after that. But there are six Deune books. Like there's a lot of Deune out there that you could adapt. But from what I understand, like Deune Messiah and Children of Deune kind of are

[00:25:42] like, you know, that first three, that's like the original trilogy. And that kind of ends the story for a lot of characters and all that. Again, I'm going to become a Deune guy sometime this year and I'll learn more about it and report back.

[00:25:54] We're just bringing in the nice just six month updates. Yes. Of the Deune books. Yeah. Six months from now, you're going to see me like, you know, like to shovel and like, you know, just having showered in days, like pouring over like blue.

[00:26:12] But yeah, so it is very clear they're kind of trying to set up a Deune Messiah or at least maybe they would call it Deune part three or whatever it is. But yeah, it's very clearly leading into that movie.

[00:26:22] But I think this one does have like a satisfying conclusion on its own. So there's that. Yeah, I think I saw who is it? Hans Zimmer, right? Is the the composer for these? And I think he said that like, while he was composing this one,

[00:26:34] Danny Villeneuve came in and like gave him a script for Deune Messiah. I was like, we're not done yet. It was like, that's insane. Or maybe the book Deune Messiah or something. I don't know. So yeah, I don't know. We'll see where that goes.

[00:26:44] So that would be interesting. Yeah. They've been kind of like they haven't like officially green lit Deune Messiah yet, you know, and it's sort of the same thing when like Deune part one came out. There was like, there's no official word yet.

[00:26:55] If we're actually doing Deune part two, they were kind of waiting to see how Deune one did. But Deune two is doing better than Deune one did. So I would imagine Deune Messiah is around the corner. It would also be wild to not make a third one

[00:27:07] after like a certain person shows up for a very brief amount of time. If that's all they do with that character, that would be insane. Yes. All right. We are dancing around a lot of various spoilers for Deune part two. So we should just get into it.

[00:27:22] It's time for spoilers for Deune part two starting right now. Don't stop in front of me. You're spoiling everything. All right, it's time for spoilers for Deune part two. Now anything in the movie is on the table to talk about, including speculation about the future.

[00:27:38] So yeah, Colin, you're of course referring to Anya Taylor Joy making a cameo appearance here as Timothy Chalamet's or Paul Traides' sister who in the movie is not born yet. She is like an unborn fetus inside Rebecca Ferguson's womb who sometimes has telepathic conversations,

[00:27:56] which is just one of those like weirdo details that I really enjoyed about it. It's really fun in the book in Deune one and in the David Lynch movie, the sister is actually born like she's already born. And you have in the in the David Lynch movie,

[00:28:10] she's played by Alicia Witt, a child actress playing her who would then pop up and like she's I think she's in she was unjustified for a little bit and all that stuff. I was going to say crank, but that's Amy Smart.

[00:28:20] She's she's not the one in crank that is Amy Smart. Yeah. But Alicia Witt's in a lot of things in any case. She's also on Twin Peaks. She plays Donna's younger sister on Twin Peaks. She played the piano in one episode and then disappeared.

[00:28:30] But then but then return for Twin Peaks to return. And she she is in Twin Peaks to return despite Donna not being in Twin Peaks. They're amazing. Classic David Lynch. But yeah, so that character is part of the first book.

[00:28:46] And then I think Deune Messiah, I believe takes place many years later. Or I think the end of Deune, the book actually has like a significant time jump that allows the characters to be older. And I know there's there's the moment in Deune part two,

[00:28:58] where Timothy Chalmé drinks the juice and like, you know, fall like seems like he dies and then gets water of life. Mike, get it. It's the juice. Is it? I'm not a dude guy yet. Once I'm a dude guy, I'll know these things.

[00:29:12] He drinks the water of life. He fall he falls and it seems like he dies and then he gets resurrected like five minutes later. I know in the books he's like out for weeks like that like that kind of thing.

[00:29:21] Like a lot more time passes in everything in the book. And this movie like really condenses that into a much shorter amount of time. And so yeah, I think with Paul's sister's character, that's something that, you know, they kind of were able to kind of work

[00:29:34] in her and a vision, but it seems like they're setting her up for a much larger role in Deune Messiah. Yeah, that was one of the things that I saw people talking about on Twitter. And I think it might have just been like one or two threads.

[00:29:45] So like, you know, I don't know how like widespread this is, but that people were like bemoaning the fact that they don't do that or like they don't set up enough to explain who On You Taylor Joy is in that vision that he has.

[00:29:57] And I was like, how much more could you have asked them to do? I am your sister, Paul. Like what are you talking about? Yeah, I feel like it's pretty evident from the movie. I had seen the On You Taylor Joy was in it right ahead of time

[00:30:10] because she was at like the premiere like a month ago. And so she showed up at the premiere. Yeah. You know, so it was kind of online already and stuff like that. But they hadn't said what character she was playing.

[00:30:18] But like just from those visions and I was like, oh, yeah, Rebecca Ferguson's been talking to this unborn fetus the entire time. That's her. Right. That's just what I'm talking about the media literacy.

[00:30:26] Just by the fact that the nature of the way movies are tells you who she's playing. But yeah, I guess in the book that her character is like born with a full adult intellect or something like that.

[00:30:38] So she's like two or three years old, but like can talk and has full conversations and stuff. And I guess is the one that actually kills Baron Harkonnen. Yeah. I saw that too. And I was like, that's a pretty stark difference from book to movie.

[00:30:52] But how what would you expect them to do? Like, of course they're going to. That's how adaptations are. I have a three year old kills. Yeah. Kill still in Skarsgard. Yes. Also, I think Villain you've had talked about kind of adapting

[00:31:05] that part of the book and adapting specifically like the decision to keep her like unborn for the entire movie. Right. And he had talked about it as, you know, wanting to give more agency to Rebecca Ferguson's character, Lady Jessica.

[00:31:17] And like, you know, the idea of like her being a pregnant woman for the movie's run time is like, oh, we don't get to see like pregnant women in power all that often. And so that's something to consider also. But also Rebecca Ferguson killing it in the sleep.

[00:31:29] She's so good. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah. And that and that's a big part of, you know, what the movie is doing in terms of like, you know, showing you very early on that like, oh, the the Atreides may not be

[00:31:39] the best people after all, you know, what Lady Jessica is doing like kind of, you know, creating a space for herself within the Fremen and, you know, manipulating her way into the being Jeserite or what I feel. I'm mixing up a lot of words right now.

[00:31:54] And so you can be there. There are all that stuff. But man, she was like every time she was on screen, like she just had like such a presence. It was like borderline medicine. Just like yeah. Every time she's like, she didn't even need to speak.

[00:32:09] I was like, she's just it's unsettling. Just like watching her just infiltrate everything. Yeah, absolutely. And it did feel like watching Dune Part One, like, oh, it's a really weird like relationship that Rebecca Ferguson and Tim Thichial may have.

[00:32:23] Like they don't really feel like Mother and Son or they feel like, I don't know, if it felt odd to me. And then I think this movie kind of plays into that and like, oh, there's like more evil machinations that are

[00:32:31] going on behind the scenes here, specifically with Lady Jessica's character that then influences what Paul is doing throughout the movie. And I think, you know, Paul is, you know, he's having these visions and he's having these visions of a holy war that

[00:32:43] like kills billions of people all across the planet. Right? And it's because of him and he sees those visions and he's like, we have to do anything in our power to not let that happen. And then by the end of the movie, he's going to let that happen.

[00:32:55] He calls for the holy war and the Fremen and he it's sort of an inversion of that like kind of messiah idea, the idea of religion and hope and all that kind of stuff, like, you know, turning it into violence.

[00:33:09] And yeah, it's I think a really effective way to show that with the transformation of Paul kind of throughout the movie and the way he like kind of falls in with Lady Jessica in terms of like her manipulations and what she's doing to the people.

[00:33:20] And he sort of unconsciously at first is also doing that to the people. And then he kind of fully becomes part of that. Yeah. Yeah. He spends the first part of the movie and the most of the first one, part one, like rejecting the idea

[00:33:34] that he's the least and all guy. He's not the Mahdi, right? Or he's not the chosen one. He's not, which is that scene is actually hilarious when Javier Bardem is like, the very fact that he renounces the further proof that he's the Mahdi.

[00:33:48] She's like, I think straight out of life of Brian. Of course he says he's not the Messiah. So but yeah, like as soon as he gets a taste of power, he ultimately decides him being in charge is more important than the billions of people

[00:34:03] that are going to die in the Holy war that he's about to start, right? Like he immediately turns to power. And I think that is the point where, you know, the movie doesn't have to have him look at the camera and say, I am now the villain.

[00:34:15] Like he's done it. He did. He showed us what he's done. Right. Exactly. And yeah. And he has betrayed Chani Zendaya's character who has a lot more to do in this movie than she did in the first one. She's a major figure here and has he betrays her

[00:34:28] at the end of the movie and, you know, defeats Fayadratha and, you know, basically has Christopher Walken who is the Emperor of Dhu and like dead to rights. And, you know, he decides he's going to marry his daughter played by Florence Pugh and start this war.

[00:34:40] And yeah, it's intense. Yeah. I liked there's a visual moment that it's like a visual reference or whatever. It's a part one where Paul has a vision at some point when he's in this huge battle and he's got this like gold medal armor or whatever.

[00:34:54] And it's like this huge battle scene. But then in this movie, Chani Zendaya's character does that. Like she's the one in that armor fight. It's not the gold medal armor, but it looks with the same helmet like down to her brow.

[00:35:05] And it's like she's doing all the same movements from that vision. And I was like, oh, this is good thing. I just rewatched that movie two days ago. Yeah. But I think that's it's really interesting that their connection between it and Paul's alleged love for her,

[00:35:18] even though he's like he turns to her before he fights Austin Butler's character and says like, you know, I'm always going to love you. And then turns around and it's like, now I'm going to marry Florence Pugh. Yeah, like wait a second. Heartbreak. Yeah, devastating. Yes.

[00:35:32] And I like the movie ends in a shot of her. It doesn't end in a shot of Paul. It ends with her. It reminded me of the first movie. Well, it reminded me of the ending of one of my favorite movies of all time, Mike.

[00:35:41] And that is Spider-Man 2. Oh my God. Which also very similarly ends, you know, that's a movie that ends with, you know, Mary Jane getting back together with Peter and like accepting him as Spider-Man. And then he hears some danger in the distance

[00:35:56] and he goes off to fight it. But then instead of ending on that shot of Peter swinging out the window and going through all that stuff, it ends on that shot of Mary Jane Watson looking out the window like looking like,

[00:36:06] oh shit, what have I gotten myself into? And it had a similar kind of ending for Chani. I think it's not quite the same sentiment like what have I gotten myself into? It's more like, what am I going to do about this?

[00:36:18] But it does seem like she's going to have a bigger role in Doomsday as well. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was very funny, just the way we talked about last episode. Like, oh, there's going to be a conclusion. And I think the last line of this movie is,

[00:36:29] this is only the beginning, or the first movie is this is only the beginning. Yeah. And I think like the last line of this movie is like the Holy War just began or something like that. Like it's like the same sentiment. Not a lot of endings, only beginnings.

[00:36:40] No, yeah, yeah, only hooks for sequels. Yeah, but it's like in a different way. Like this feels like a complete package. I mean, Dune 1, that was my major criticism of that movie was like this kind of just stops. It doesn't really end. Yeah.

[00:36:53] But Dune 2, I think does kind of end and then it does have that hook for the sequel. Like it has an idea of like where this story is going. And I appreciate that a lot more than what you get in certain like incomplete cinematic universe movies

[00:37:08] where it's just like, all right, now here's like 15 teases for things that might happen in the next map. Yeah, I was really happy, in retrospect, the fact that I didn't finish watching Dune like two years ago. So I feel like I would have been a little

[00:37:20] just like annoyed at the end of it. Be like, all right, I gotta wait. I gotta wait an hour or long to get to like see like the next part of this instead of just like waiting like two weeks to go see it.

[00:37:31] Yeah, and that was part of why I think it played a lot better for me than watching it this past weekend. Cause I was like, I know there's more of this. I can go see it. Back then that wasn't something we were certain about.

[00:37:42] Like we didn't know if they were gonna be able to do part two, but I'm glad they did. Yeah, that's good. Other thoughts guys, what do you guys think about other things in Dune part two? And sandworm writing really dope. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

[00:37:55] That was just like, yeah, the scene where Paul just rides the worm for the first time is one of the coolest things. I think I've seen a movie a long time. It's a great build up to that scene too. It really feels like a, you know, it's visually

[00:38:11] like we already know what the sandworm looks like but it just like builds up to the appearance of it like really effectively and you have everybody watching Paul and Paul's like getting ready to do it. And then the sandworm finally arrives and you have your right.

[00:38:22] Em's like, that's the biggest one I've ever seen. Oh shit. Like we maybe this isn't a good idea, but he does it successfully. And yeah, that's like the proof of concept that like, oh he is there Messiah sort of. Yeah.

[00:38:37] And like, I also think that seems like kind of cool. Sounds like the two sides of the Fremen, right? The Southerners who are the like the religious type and then the Northerners who are like, that's all bullshit. And like the scene, they felt really like

[00:38:47] to serve both of them like, you know, both those communities like in a different way. Like the, the religious people are like, yep, that's our Messiah. But then like the Northerners like he can actually be part of this group. Like it was actually a rite of passage

[00:38:58] like actually accept him as part of like the Fremen. And just like it's kind of like this almost like turning point of like which way are you going to go Paul? Right. Yeah. I mean, that's it made me think of that scene

[00:39:08] in Nope when they high five on the porch and it's just like the single coolest thing and you like want to jump out of your chair. That's how I felt when Paul like stands up on the worm

[00:39:18] and they show all the Fremen and they all jumped to their feet. It's like I was like ready to get out of my chair and start cheering also because it's just so fucking like exalting. It's the coolest thing ever. And apparently like in the books,

[00:39:29] like it Herbert doesn't actually describe how they ride the sandworms just that they do it. Oh, interesting. So they had to like, Villamoo had to like come up with a way like how this was actually going to work for riding the sandworms, which is really interesting.

[00:39:43] So what they came up visually looked awesome. Yeah, I love the later on once they like, they like, you know, because they hinted this, that's like the very last shot I think of doing part one is the like the Fremen in the distance riding the sandworm.

[00:39:57] What? You could do that, right? And then in this movie, once Paul does it, they're just like, it's no big deal. Just like we have entire cities on the back of these sandworms moving across the like to the Southern Hemisphere and stuff. It's so funny.

[00:40:09] Just take it in the subway. Yeah, exactly. It just becomes so casual immediately. I love it. Yes, also shout out to the mac and cheese party I went to this past weekend where I created a Dune themed mac and cheese, which I called Paul Atreachies.

[00:40:27] And our friend of the show, Mike Edmonds, he gave me a brownie tray that was zigzaggy. So it looked like a sandworm. And so I was able to get the mac and cheese in a sandworm shape and I put like 11 different spices in the mac and cheese

[00:40:42] to kind of creates the Dune sensation. And yeah, it was super fun. And that's how Mike's birth got everyone at a party very high. Yeah, I should have put something else in the mac and cheese to simulate that sensation but that's the simulation you get with the spice.

[00:41:01] That would have been good next year. I'm gonna consider it. Yeah, I'll go with two of my, hey, this is this is the safe one. It's the one if you wanna, if you wanna have a good time. Yes, but yeah, sandworm scene rules really, really terrific.

[00:41:14] Other stuff there's the one like scene where the airship is attacking both Timothy Chalman's and Dao, which I really dug. That one's really cool. And then I mean the introduction of Austin Butler as Fade Ratha is like the movie kind of just like stops for like 20-ish minutes

[00:41:30] to like have this whole other thing with Fade Ratha and like showing you who this character is and like what his deal is and like, oh, it's his birthday. Here's a big tournament that he's killing people at and all that stuff.

[00:41:41] And yeah, the visual language, the movie changes. Like it goes from the very colorful like desert of Arrakis to this almost entirely black and white section of like Baron Harkonnen's world or whatever. I think it's still Arrakis. I don't know. It might be a different planet.

[00:41:55] Yeah, they're on the Harkonnen or Harkonnen planet or whatever. For you to wait what it's called. But yeah, that's the section I wanted to highlight too. Just one, I didn't see Elvis but I don't really know anything about Austin

[00:42:07] but I can't like name a movie that I've seen him in but he's probably been in stuff. He's in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He plays a Tex the guy who the leader of the group that attacks him at the end. That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:42:19] So like I can't say that I like think he's a good actor in any way just from like the stuff I've seen from Elvis. I was like whatever man. And the whole like his accent is stuck that way. Like fuck off.

[00:42:33] But seeing him in this, I was like, holy shit. Like that was all my lead up to you. I was like, whatever. But like seeing this is like, oh my God. But it's also hilarious that he's like doing a funny voice also in this movie.

[00:42:44] It really it's sort of his Elvis voice. I think he I think his accent actually is kind of stuck that way. So amazing. Well, I didn't look at like the cast of this movie. So I do like who was in it from like the first one.

[00:42:55] But anybody who was new to this movie, I was like just brand new. So I wasn't very, it was like, hey, Florence Pugh. That's really fun. Right at the beginning of the movie. But like, so when he shows up and like he talks,

[00:43:07] the first thing I heard was Pennywise from the new it movies. Well, yeah, he's like also sort of doing a still in the guard, which makes sense. And like, I looked at him, I was like, I don't recognize who you are.

[00:43:18] I also like also you're like very clearly heavy makeup and like your brow is like, obviously, like they did something up there to make it his brow, like super big balls. Like, right? Do we have two scars cards in this movie? Like, because you really sound like Pennywise.

[00:43:33] Yeah. Yeah, no. And selling scars guard also just crushing it, man. It's Baron Harkonnen. He was so fun. Yeah, it was that whole sequence on the Harkonnen planet where you're getting introduced to Austin Butler. You know, like I said, my girlfriend came to the movie,

[00:43:47] had not seen doing part one and it was very like, you know, I invited her cause I was like, oh yeah, it'll be fun to just go out as an outing with friends and all that kind of stuff. But like, I don't think you're gonna like this movie

[00:43:57] all that much. I was correct. But she was able to follow most of it pretty well, despite that she had read the plot synopsis of Dune part one like five minutes before he ends. Okay. And so like most of the stuff on Arrakis with like, you know,

[00:44:11] it's pretty easy to kind of like kind of get in there. Like, okay, Shala maze the hero, hero quote unquote of the movie, Zendaya's his love interest. Like you kind of get a sense of that, right? And then it cuts away to the Harkonnen's planets

[00:44:22] and it's using a lot of the lore from the first movie where like they have the gum jabar and like the box and all that stuff. Totally lost. She had no idea what was going on. Why is this character in here now? All that kind of stuff.

[00:44:33] He eventually like makes his way in towards the end of the movie on Arrakis. And it's like, okay, I'm like she was getting it more. But yeah, that was a, if you haven't watched Dune part one, there is a lot of like mythology stuff in there

[00:44:45] that was covered in the first movie that you just completely lost if you have not seen that first one. But I loved all that stuff. And I think the scene with him and Leia Sidhu is really, really good and funny.

[00:44:57] Leia Sidhu who's also part of the being Jesarit and like seduces Austin Butler. Like he has this whole thing where he's like, oh, I will never sacrifice myself for like these people and like, you know, she offers to have sex with them. And he's like, well, okay.

[00:45:11] It's Leia Sidhu. What can I do? You know? And she becomes pregnant with his baby. And so it kind of continues the fate of Ratha bloodline which is another tease. Like it seems like another setup for something that will happen down the line, right? Yeah.

[00:45:24] I think it was just another, or I don't know. I think it's actually like one of the first explicit examples of just like the Ben-A-Jesarit like influence and power like other than just like the stuff with Paul and Lady Jessica and like the kind of implied things

[00:45:37] and the hints at in the first movie, the hints at like whatever this myth and this prophecy that they laid the groundwork for 10,000 years ago and all that stuff. But in this, with this, with fate Ratha it's just like, yeah, okay. This is what he's weak to.

[00:45:50] He's like, you know, easy to manipulate sex and revenge and also I'm pregnant and it's a girl like we requested it be like they can control the sex of their children and stuff. So it's like very, very fascinating. Just like really building out all that,

[00:46:05] the extra power, you know, the power that the Ben-A-Jesarit have. And also that's all the stuff with the Florence P also, right? Her whole arc is like, are you prepared to do it? You need to do with Paul Trani's. She's like, yes. Right?

[00:46:17] Like she knew that was coming that he was gonna request to be her husband or whatever. Right. So even though it seems like a victory for Paul and Lady Jessica at the end of the movie, it is still the Ben-A-Jesarit that is sort of pulling the strings.

[00:46:29] Is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I interpret it, yeah. Yeah, I kind of just operate under the assumption that the Ben-A-Jesarit are involved. It's like happening how they want it to. Right. Right, like you have these people who can just they just straight up manipulate people

[00:46:43] just by speaking at them in a weird voice. Right, use the voice. So yeah, if they're like nearby, I'm like, yeah, this is just exactly what they want. Everything is going to be according to their plan. Yeah, so at the end, I mean there's this huge knife fight

[00:46:57] between Paul and Fadaratha, which is really terrific, really cool. Really dug that. And I liked that, you know, there is a lot of like big spectacle as armies chasing after each other and you know, spaceships shooting at things and stuff. But I like that the final like

[00:47:09] the climactic moment of the movie is just like a one-on-one fight between two guys. That's cool. I like that. And it gives like more personal stakes to it all. Kind of reminded me of the ending of Avatar the Way of Water, which did a similar thing

[00:47:20] where suddenly it was just Jake Sully versus Sam Worthington, Colonel Quarish, right? And the let's get it done moment. Really terrific. So cool. And we should finish like I watched Avatar the Way of Water today. Not a chance you make it to that whole movie

[00:47:37] before you fall asleep. Not a chance. It's longer than Dune Part Two, you know? But yeah, it kind of reminded me of that. And yeah, I think it's a really terrific fight and the end of that fight where Paul eventually wins, kills Fade Rafa.

[00:47:50] You know, it's basically like that's like the moment where he's like, okay, now I can do whatever I want. Like based on our terms that we agreed upon, now I am the emperor. And you know, Christopher Walken is like if he doesn't want to be killed

[00:48:00] he has to do what Paul says and Paul will marry Florence Pugh. And then also I think Lady Jessica is placed as like the head of the Ben Adjessor, right? I don't know. Something along the line. The Ben Adjessor are there

[00:48:11] and they seem like disturbed by Lady Jessica's like actions or whatever. Yeah, well Paul- I think Paul is not, Lady Jessica was not supposed to train Paul in the Ben Adjessor ways, right? They're always women. So like when he uses the voice on the head

[00:48:27] of the Ben Adjessor, she's like, shock it's like the first time it's ever happened to her. And she says like, abomination or something like that, right? That he knows the ways kind of thing. So but yeah, I don't know. I don't know if Lady Jessica is in charge

[00:48:39] but it seems like she's gone above and beyond whatever their plans were. She's, they've like gone rogue, like you said. Embrace. Yeah, there you go. And then yeah, it kind of just leads you into the, Paul's about to, like the other houses are not happy

[00:48:52] about this like usurping of power for Paul and Lady Jessica. And so war is declared and the Holy war that Paul has been seeing in his visions is coming to pass now. And it's a really bleak ending for this like large scale blockbuster movie. Yeah, true.

[00:49:09] Also there's like the end of the fight where he gets stabbed and like, if any of you think he's one of these, like nope, just kidding. We're going to keep going. But he pulls that knife out of his shoulder and it just keeps going. It's so big.

[00:49:21] Just keeps going. I was just like, cause it was like, oh you got stabbed to the shoulder. Like that probably hurts a lot Bob. But like obviously it wasn't going to stop you. Yeah. It's like, oh you got, you got stabbed, stabbed. Yeah. All right.

[00:49:36] And actually I did want to also bring this up too. So Mike D, I feel like we've talked about this a lot on the podcast over the last couple of years. The lingering question like is Timothy Chalamet? A good actor. Right? This comes up a lot.

[00:49:48] Shorting your actor, yeah. Yeah. And he's somebody who I have struggled with. Somebody who I have often thought was kind of flat in certain things, but he's impressed me a couple of times over the last couple of years, like in the French dispatch especially, in Bones and all.

[00:50:03] And when I first saw Dune part one, I was like, well, he's kind of boring. And when I saw Dune one again, I was like, you know what? He's kind of flat, but in a way that allows everyone around him to really pop.

[00:50:16] And like, I think that actually does have some kind of value. And I think in Dune part two, it's similar, but I think he's giving a better performance in this movie. I don't know where you guys at with Timothy Chalamet? I agree.

[00:50:27] I think in part two, he really sort of becomes, you know, the arc of his performance seems to fit Paul's arc, right? The first one, he's really flat. He's unsure. It feels like he's not confident. He doesn't know where what his place is and all this.

[00:50:41] And I feel like he starts that way in this movie a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I think it's the different, like this movie really has an arc for Paul. That's what I mean. The first one doesn't really, you know?

[00:50:51] Or it's, you know, it's the first half of the arc for Paul. So it's like, it doesn't really feel like it's completed. Right? Yeah, I feel like basically from the moment, I guess it's after the sandworm when Stilgar gives him like his fremen name

[00:51:04] and he like the Maudib and Usel or whatever his names are. Like after that, he sort of has this like swagger and confidence to him that I think that Chalmé like actually pulls off pretty well. And I was like genuinely,

[00:51:18] he's pretty frightening in that scene towards the end when he like interrupts the like Holy Council or whatever where he's like not allowed to speak and like sort of accepts like fully embraces the position of Lisa Nelgayi, right? He's like issuing them orders

[00:51:31] when he's not allowed to talk and all this stuff. And he like is telling them what their dreams are about and like all this shit. So I feel like that scene was like, oh wow, actually, hold on, wait a second.

[00:51:39] This is a Chalmé guy, he might be onto something. Like, you know. But yeah, so I was pretty sold on him. I definitely think part one I was like, I don't know. He's okay. But I think by the end of this one,

[00:51:52] I was kind of in the, he can act. He can do it. I don't know but he can act. He has the capability of getting on a movie screen and putting on a performance. Correct, yeah, engaging in a movie. Yeah, I mean that's one of those things.

[00:52:07] I saw him in Wonka a couple months ago and like didn't care for him in Wonka. I thought he was like, he's giving April. Did you see Wonka? Are you pro Wonka? You don't remember our Godzilla episode? We did but had Colin Seed at that time?

[00:52:20] Yeah, yeah, me and Nick were the pro Wonka guys. Nice, fair. I thought it was just Nick on a solo front on us. No, no, no, I'm probably pro Wonka. The movie's very fun. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I mean maybe I need to see it again.

[00:52:33] Maybe my cold heart needs to be melted a little bit more by Timothy Chalamet's chocolate or whatever, I don't know. It's leaving HBO Max in like three days so. It's leaving HBO Max? Or it's coming to two days. It's coming to two days, yeah.

[00:52:45] Gotcha, and then leaving four days later. Probably. Colin, what's your general Timothy Chalamet take? What's your consensus on Chalamet? He's fine, the things like, yeah, I think I've seen him in our literally the dude movies in Wonka. That's it, you haven't seen Lady Bird

[00:53:05] or I haven't seen Lady Bird. I remember him, don't look up. So I guess that's the Chalamet problem. Yeah, yeah. I mean he's playing a similar character in Lady Bird than Annan, don't look up. He's playing like a douchebag kind of boyfriend.

[00:53:17] Although don't look up, he's kind of like revealed to be kind of fun or whatever. Okay, yeah, yeah. So like, I mean, I think that's the problem. Like there's like a kind of problem with him is I don't remember him.

[00:53:26] A lot of things are less like I just saw it but like in the dude movies, I think yeah, like the first one, it's the first one's more about just like everything going on like in setting a scene. So it's like Paul doesn't need to be the,

[00:53:40] like he is like that's who we're centered on but like there's so much more going on that Paul's just kind of like, I'm here, I'm absorbing everything. And then the second one feels like gives him a lot more to do than the first one.

[00:53:51] And I think he does a pretty good job in the second one. Like I was engaged with his performance the whole time. I will say I think like if it wasn't for the, just like the setting, like the costume design

[00:54:02] of like having him be out in the desert and have to be like all like in this like crazy like get up that like makes him look like a slightly bigger person. I wouldn't really buy him as like this leader of people.

[00:54:14] Put him in a suit of armor, he looks kind of cool. Exactly, exactly right? Like I think everyone in this movie looks kind of badass. So like, so like I buy this, yeah. Yeah fair. I think that is also a weird thing

[00:54:29] about the Dune movies too, where it is every part is like a pretty big actor, like a pretty like well-known Everybody. Big actor, usually a younger actor too. Like it's, I mean, it's Timothy Shalemans and Daya and Florence Pugh and all that.

[00:54:43] And I don't know, it makes the movies feel like weirdly modern, like when it feels like it should have like this like, you know almost inscrutable sci-fi element to it. But at the same time, I think that's maybe why they work because the book has long been considered

[00:54:59] like an unfilmable thing. Like you can't do a true adaptation of Dune in a movie because it's just too weird, it's too inscrutable. Like the sci-fi, it's too hard sci-fi. And I think having a cast of like very attractive well-known actors who are all giving it

[00:55:14] like who are all taking it very seriously, you know is a key part of why it's working, you know? Yeah, I think the mix of the different generations of like having the main cast mostly be like the kind of young new hotness

[00:55:27] and then having the supporting strong supporting characters be people like Stellan Skarsgard and how you're a part of him and Josh Brolin and all that stuff. And Christopher Walken for the two scenes that he's in. Christopher Walken hasn't been in like a real movie in like 15 years

[00:55:42] and it's very exciting to see him pop up and do in parts. For sure. It's awesome. Yeah, also when Josh Brolin returns that's also a very fun moment too. Baby. That whole scene just is so awesome. And just like every time that like the Fremant

[00:55:57] just like jump out of the sand just to start attacking. I'm just like wanting to get like jump up and cheer. I'm like, fuck you, let's go. Hell yeah. Maybe we will. This whole time I've this dune hype

[00:56:10] is maybe really want to play the dune board game again. Yeah. Which I played with Colin before but. That was like my other experience with dude but like the only thing I really remember about that is Chris betraying me and being attacked by a sandworm. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:56:28] If everyone was listening. I feel like the game would end for most people is just being attacked by a sandworm. Yeah, the dune board game is very big on alliances and we played it with five people

[00:56:37] and you can only make an alliance with one person at a time so it's... Being the odd person out really sucks. Right. But it really like effectively captures from the, just from the movie like the vibe of the dude is very interesting

[00:56:53] that like everybody has like special rules that only apply to them because they, I think it's the Harkonins or somebody who ever is playing the Harkonins controls this like auction for the cards with the special abilities. And they're the only ones allowed to have a notepad

[00:57:07] and take notes. So they can track who everybody's cards and who's bought what and they can tell what everybody's full hand is and then they can sell that information to the people that are at war with each other

[00:57:18] and you can be like, I'll tell you what cards this guy's got and it's like all about, it's got all that stuff wrapped up into the gameplay of the game and it's fascinating. So if you want a really long war game

[00:57:28] to play with your buddies, get the Dune game. I think they just released it a couple years ago. It's like a really fancy addition now. Yeah, I bought it for one of my other friends for his birthday. There you go.

[00:57:37] This has been board game talk on Mike and Mike Go to the movies. There you go. You don't usually get to do this. I don't. I should play more board games. I got the Jaws board game a while ago. I heard that's really good actually.

[00:57:48] I've been meaning to play it. I got that and I won the die hard board game a while ago too in a Roxy's Secret Santa swap like two years ago and haven't played it. I have no one to play with.

[00:57:59] You got a whole movie theater full of people to play with. That's a good point. You can convince movie theater people to play movie themed board games. That is a very good point. Yeah, one of these days,

[00:58:09] get the die hard board game going and the Jaws board game. Yeah, or if you guys want to come out to Missoula, we could just play the die hard game together. There it is. That'll be the live episode this year for Christmas.

[00:58:19] Just do an actual play of the die hard board game. It's like a four hour just live recording of us playing the die hard board game. I think that would rock. We would do numbers with that episode. I think you're right. I think that'd be great.

[00:58:32] And then you guys just... The issue on Twitch should be huge. Just full on switch to a board game podcast after that. All right, any other thoughts about Dune Part 2 guys? Any other random scenes that you guys want to bring up?

[00:58:42] Yeah, the trailer should have a silo of nuclear weapons. I think everybody does. I think that's the thing there. Yeah, they all do. Meets back up and then it's like, hey, why don't you go see your family's dukes?

[00:58:56] I think one of my favorite parts about just the aesthetic and everything of Dune is the whole weird retro futurism thing. It's the year 10,000 whatever. That Florence Pee says in the beginning of the movie. But they all fight with swords still and they don't have computers.

[00:59:13] They have people that can compute math that fat, right? Stuff like that. And everybody has the family atomic sort of whatever they call it. So yeah, I don't know. It's just such an interesting combination. And you know, that whole... I don't even know when Dune was published actually.

[00:59:26] 1964, I think? Snipes. 1965. Damn it. I was so close. Oh, close. Although, although, okay. It was serialized from 63 through 65 and then the actual novel version came out in 65. Okay. I'm gonna count that as a win. That makes sense. There you go. You're in the ballpark. Yeah.

[00:59:46] But that whole mid-60s retro or future thing they got going on and this is fucking awesome. Yeah, definitely. I also want to give a shout out to Tim Blake Nelson who filmed scenes for this movie and was cut from the final product. Trying to... That's a bummer.

[01:00:00] As an undisclosed character. So nobody knows which character he played. Apparently Villeneuve saying he's not gonna release any deleted scenes or anything. He does not believe in them. Once they're cut, they're cut. So unfortunately we can't know who Tim Blake Nelson played

[01:00:14] unless they bring him back for Dune Messiah. You never know. Could be a thing. If it's possible, yeah. Yeah. Anything else? Any other random Dune Part II scenes that you guys want to give a shout out to? Sandworms, cool. We already talked about that.

[01:00:26] But that scene at the end, what is the three sandworms and that shit rules in the big fight with the Emperor's troops, whoever they are. I forget. Sardikar, I think they're called. Sounds right. Sounds right. Yeah, Dune. Maybe I'll be a Dune guy too. Go to the library.

[01:00:42] Let's both be Dune guys. Yeah. Do you like a Mike and Mike book club where like every month we talk about the Dune books? Could be something. That could be an episode. That's content right there. That sounds patriarchal. Yeah. All right.

[01:00:56] So yeah, I think it's gonna wrap up this episode. But first, before we do that, I gotta play the clip that Nick sent us. Oh yes. Nick Wermuth who wanted to be in this episode but could not be, sent us a clip detailing his experience

[01:01:10] with the Dune popcorn buckets. So it sounds like he actually bought the bucket. I was in the theater on Saturday. I went to go see it. I did not see any Dune popcorn buckets. I did not see the one in concessions. Didn't see anybody holding them in theater.

[01:01:22] Did you guys see the Dune popcorn bucket out in the wild? I saw a Dune popcorn bucket, like a week or so before when we went to go see Lisa Frankenstein, but then on the day we want to go see Dune.

[01:01:32] That seems like an oversight on the theaters. No, I did not see anything. Were they AMC exclusive? Or was it? It's a regal by my house. They might actually be AMC exclusive. Yeah, that would make sense. But I was at an AMC. I didn't see them.

[01:01:49] You barely saw the movie. But yeah, so we did not have the Dune popcorn bucket. Or at least I didn't see them selling them. We got popcorn. Like we got popcorn and I did not see an option for the Dune popcorn bucket.

[01:02:03] For those who have not seen the Dune popcorn bucket, it is a bucket that is shaped like a sand worm. Air quotes shaped like air quotes shaped like a sand worm. Although when you actually see the bucket, you know, it looks like something else.

[01:02:16] And so here is Nick Wormith, frequent guest of the show and defender of Wonka talking about the Dune popcorn bucket. Hi, this is Nick Wormith from various episodes of Mike and Mike Go To The Movies. And while I was unfortunately unable to attend the Dune 2 movie review,

[01:02:34] I was given the ability to review one of the many movie tie-in products. Movie merchandising is not a new thing. For as long as I've been alive, there's been Star Wars backpacks and t-shirts, cereal boxes with pictures of the Avengers on them and things like that.

[01:02:46] There's some more notorious examples like the Darth Vader burger at Burger King, which had the unfortunate reputation of turning your bowel movements to a very irregular color, as well as the condom tie-ins with the Zack Snyder Watchmen from 2009. That was not a joke, you could look it up.

[01:03:02] One of the newest additions to this canon and one that took the internet by storm was even featured on Saturday Night Live is the Dune 2 popcorn bucket. To describe this item as form over function is an understatement. Aside from acting as a siren song

[01:03:16] for those who wish to self-gratify, this thing is damn near impossible to eat popcorn out of. As a five foot seven man, my hand can just barely fit into the open maw of this sandworm and it's hundreds of rubberized, baleen whale type teeth

[01:03:30] do everything in their power to knock the popcorn right back out of your hand as you're trying to exit. I'd say you're better off just removing the lid altogether, but there's a 90% chance that it's gonna just fall off in the process

[01:03:40] because of how hard this thing is working against you. While I can't say I'm unhappy, I spent nearly $30 on something I can't really use. It's a good display product and maybe at some point I'll make some profit on eBay in the next few years. Who can really say?

[01:03:54] Thank you, Mike's, for letting me send in this clip. And while it's still pretty early in the year, there's a high likelihood you may be hearing me talk more about Dune 2 during our Best of 2024 review. So stay tuned. May thy popcorn bucket chip and shatter.

[01:04:08] All right, that was Nick Wormith talking about the Dune Popcorn Bucket. Thank you, Nick, for giving us your experience with using the Dune Popcorn Bucket. Sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth, probably, realistically. But there you go. All right, I believe that's gonna wrap this episode up.

[01:04:24] Producer Colin, thank you so much for joining us this week. Yeah, thank you guys for having me back on. I confirmed my audio is still recording. Got through it. Good. I was about to ask. Yep, no, we had messed it up this time.

[01:04:35] All I have to do is successfully stop it, download it and send it. And I'm just pretty good at that part. Nice. Good, good, good. All right, so yeah, producer Colin, where can people find you online this week if they want to find you?

[01:04:45] You can find me on Twitter at Smudlap9, I think. I don't remember my Twitter. Yep, that's what it was. You can find me on Letterbox at C-Styles1991 and that's pretty much it nowadays. Did I know you were on Letterbox? Do I follow you?

[01:04:59] I don't think you do yet. I did, I have on the Godzilla Mites one episode, I did say I was gonna log every new watch I have in 2024 and I've stuck to that for over two months now. So really cool. All right, so what is that?

[01:05:13] Like six, seven movies? What are we talking about? It is, it's much more than that. I know that much. Okay. It is. Colin's a big movie guy. I am a big movie guy. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

[01:05:26] eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. Twenty-eight movies so far. Not bad. That's pretty good. C-Styles1991 or 91? 1991. Okay, I'm not see, I'm looking for you and I can't find you but I'll look for you later. Okay.

[01:05:45] But yeah, all right. So yeah, you can find Colin there. Mike D, where can we find you online this week? You can find me at MDFilmBlog on Twitter and Letterboxed and Blue Sky. You can also donate to support the show at our Ko-fi page which is ko-fi.com

[01:05:58] slash Mike and Mike Pods. We can donate $50, make us watch an episode which someone recently did. Yes. Shout out to David for donating $50 to make us watch Star Trek First Contact. Yes. And so that's going to be beginning of April.

[01:06:13] We're going to be doing that one to coincide with the anniversary of Star Trek I think. There's some kind of Star Trek date in there. No, it's the when the first contact happens in Star Trek. Oh, so it's part of the movie? Okay. I think so, yeah.

[01:06:24] Haven't watched it yet, I wouldn't know. Can't wait. We got to give Mike time to catch up on his, to become a Star Trek guy. He's got to finish. Yeah, I got to be a Star Trek guy, I got to be a Dune guy now.

[01:06:33] You've got a lot of guys to beat. I'm never getting late again. You contain multitudes, Mike. Yeah. But yeah, Star Trek First Contact coming up soon. Yes, in the next few weeks. And then also if you want merch, we have merch available on our Redbubble,

[01:06:51] which is mikeandmikepods.redbubble.com. Yes it is. You can find me online at msmithfilmblog on Twitter, Mike Smith Film and Letterbox, Radio Mike Sandwich Instagram, also on Blue Sky, and msmithfilmblog. Thank you so much for listening to Mike and Mike Go to the Movies. I'm Mike Smith.

[01:07:03] This might be a decrease show. Don't forget to rate, interview the show or on Apple Podcasts, which I have now because I had to update my iTunes. I was still using it. Or any other podcast app. And if you want to contact us,

[01:07:12] you can tweet at us at Mike and Mike Podd. You can find the Rest for our podcast and Rapture Press alongside many other podcasts, what kinds of com books and movie news and all that good stuff. Next week, Mike D and I are talking about the Oscars.

[01:07:23] It's happening on Sunday. I'm excited. You know, it's going to be, we're going to have our annual Oscars viewing party at the Roxy, the Indian Theater and Urban House, Missile Montana where I also work. And Lily Gladstone, who is up for Best Actress,

[01:07:36] used to work at the Roxy. So there is a lot of hype around that one. It's going to be a crazy room to be watching the Oscars in, which will be fun. And Mike D, we'll be watching it at home, I assume. Yes, correct. Like a normal person.

[01:07:49] Are you going to do the brackets and stuff this year? You do that every year, right? At the Roxy? We'll be doing the ballot. Yeah. We'll be doing the Oscars ballot. We'll be doing trivia. I can't actually win anything because I worked there.

[01:07:59] But I can win bragging rights, which in some ways is more prestigious. Also, I think we're placing bets on certain things that happened at the Oscars. We did that last year and that was a lot of fun. There was like a bet on like,

[01:08:11] how long it would take for them to make a joke about the slap, like all that kind of stuff. Yeah. We'll play some bets throughout the night for the Oscars, which will be a good time. So we're doing Oscars next week, probably some light discussions as well.

[01:08:22] In the meantime, the Complete Works just posted an episode on the Tiger's Apprentice, which is certainly a movie. It really exists. Colin, got any thoughts on the Tiger's Apprentice? It sounds like you both really loved it and I will probably never watch it. Yeah.

[01:08:42] A straight to Paramount Plus animated feature featuring Michelle Yeo in a villainous role. We posted that episode this past week and we are gearing up for the Roy Scheider season of the podcast. Colin, who did you vote for in the season four poll? Is that a curiosity?

[01:08:55] Kirsten Dunst. You were a Dunst fan. I really thought Dunst was going to win. I thought Dunst had it in the bag. There's two reasons why I voted for Kirsten Dunst. One, I wanted to hear you guys talk about Spider-Man 2. Sure. Which we just did. Mission accomplished.

[01:09:11] That's fair. But you can do it for like a whole hour plus. Oh yeah, I can fill up two and a half hours on just Spider-Man 2. But then also when Mike and I were in college, it was like our freshman or sophomore year.

[01:09:25] Our friends found one of those celebrity doppelganger sites. Oh my God. We were putting everyone's picture to see who would come up and mine came up as Kirsten Dunst. So you just have this spiritual bond with Kirsten Dunst. Yeah, at least Harrison calling me Kirsten

[01:09:44] for a solid like nine months. True. I got to tell you Colin, I don't see the resemblance. I don't either. I do not. But the internet said so. Okay, that must be true. Alright, so that's going to wrap things up.

[01:09:57] Colin once again, thank you for joining us on Mike and Mike Go to the Movies this week. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. Yeah, alright. And that is the end of this week's episode of Mike and Mike Go to the Movies.

[01:10:04] We will see you on the other side.