Off Mike - Napoleon, Godzilla Minus One, May December, and more!

[00:00:00] Let's get together, talk about the movies that we saw this week.

[00:00:04] We'll have discussions, talk film news, we'll laugh a lot, and act like eats.

[00:00:07] Sometimes we'll never guess or do sometimes it's just the two of us.

[00:00:09] Those facts and jokes and tells them folks to come along and hang with us.

[00:00:12] I can't buy go to the movies.

[00:00:17] I can't buy go to the movies.

[00:00:22] Yeah!

[00:00:25] You have me well. There was a, when we talked about buttress crossing on the complete works last week, and we had a bunch of like French nighter as the beefy-to-to-to-shokes,

[00:01:40] you made a comment like,

[00:01:42] oh, I was wondering which one of us

[00:01:43] was gonna do the voice first,

[00:01:44] and after I did the voice,

[00:01:46] and I was like, there's to watch list, at to watch list. At to. So it's gonna be homework time for the pod. Yeah, you're getting ahead of the game a little bit, Mike. Cause normally I've been, you wait until the last week or so of the year before you start really like cramming in movies, right? Yes. Yeah, I try to basically cram for finals. I don't know if I'm gonna watch anything until then, but at least I'll have to check out some movies

[00:03:01] to watch before I'm texting you at midnight.

[00:03:03] Like, oh shit, what do we,

[00:03:04] like when it came out this year?

[00:03:07] Yeah, and whenever you do that,

[00:03:08] I always feel like a little bit. Let's just do a bunch of discussion episodes. Yeah, I think that's totally fair and there is definitely a lot of stuff that we've been watching to talk about. So but in that era home video, and that is a 2002 use panic room. Okay, which I had definitely seen, I don't know, HBO or DVD or something at some point, but hadn't seen it in a decade or so. I was looking through the David Fincher filmography, and I was like, well, I guess why not, they'll pick this one.

[00:05:40] And man, what a picture, you know?

[00:05:42] I don't know, I sort of feel like this maybe gets,

[00:05:44] maybe not maligned, that seems aggressive,

[00:05:46] but like forgotten about, that break in, because they know the family history of the person that you used to on the house and there's a legit floor safe with the inheritance money in it hidden somewhere. And Jody Foster and Kristen Stewart aren't supposed to be there yet. And of course, they are and they lock themselves in the panic room, the titular panic room, and there it is, man. And then it's like, is it 90 minutes?

[00:07:01] I feel like, oh no, it's almost two hours,

[00:07:02] but it feels like a tight 90.

[00:07:04] But you were so gripped by it.

[00:07:05] Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:06] And I have so much fun. Yeah, this has got to be one of the person's stewards first movies, right? If not her first? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I feel like that is correct. She is super young in it. I don't know exactly what I'm trying to see if I can sort letterbox like that, but I don't think you can very quickly, unfortunately. But really, Steve, hold on. It was not.

[00:08:20] Okay.

[00:08:21] It was her third film, her third feature film.

[00:08:22] Okay.

[00:08:23] Or a third theatrical release.

[00:08:24] She was in a couple of, she was in about this movie forever, and I was, it's so funny, like, you know, when you sort of do the, like, becoming a film person thing,

[00:09:41] and you're like, oh, baby, silencing the land,

[00:09:43] it's incredible, right?

[00:09:44] Yeah.

[00:09:45] And then somebody tells you, like, you know,

[00:09:46] there's an other Hannibal movie. for how long they can keep Hannibal in detention in a different room so they can do all that. They have like three hours before he'll get suspicious or whatever and it is just like pulse pounding. Like ever sprinting down hallways, getting into helicopters or running to labs and I've got it. People do it in that whole thing and it's so much fun. And yeah, it made me think about, you know, maybe William Peterson as a season four potential

[00:11:02] complete works.

[00:11:03] I've always seen a couple of his movies.

[00:11:04] Of course I know him from CSI.

[00:11:05] And the like 15 seasons or whatever he's on for that. as Hannibal Lecter in Sounds of the Lambs and in a couple other movies, Red Dragon, like you said. But yeah, obviously, Mads Mickelson played him in the Hannibal TV show, but Brian Cox did it first in Manhunter. And it's such a different portrayal of Hannibal than Anthony Hopkins is. Yeah, yeah, it's also so interesting, like the weight that the character of Hannibal Lecter has in Manhunter

[00:12:22] verse, like how impactful he is in Sounds of the Lambs

[00:12:25] at the other reviews.

[00:12:26] Right. also adapted at some point. Having never watched the show, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they did that at some point. Yeah, no, Brian Cox, super cool in Manhunter. And there's a great sequence. I haven't seen this movie in a very long time, but the Inagata de Vida sequence. Oh my God. Chef's Kiss, beautiful, incredible. Amazing. Yeah, Joan Allen is so good in that scene. As the blind film editor or photography developer

[00:13:43] or whatever she works like in the darkery or something.

[00:13:44] Yeah.

[00:13:45] And yeah, she sort of is like starts dating

[00:13:47] Tom Newton's character, air quotes. people like who saw Black Hat in the theater when it came out. Interesting. It was me and no one else. And I didn't like it that much. Yeah. But I would be curious. I know there was a director's cut that has come out in the years since that is now available on a beautiful arrow, Blu-ray. And so, yeah, I hope to check that out again at some point. Maybe a revisit will change my mind.

[00:15:00] Yes.

[00:15:01] Yeah.

[00:15:02] Yeah.

[00:15:03] I've got a couple more in that like, you know, late 90s and mid 2000s era that I have some absolute home run movies. But his batting average isn't really that great. It's not super great. But there is always, I think there's always something of interest in a Ridley Scott movie. I think he is somebody who is really, really attentive to production design and creating the most compelling image he can and does not seem to know what makes a good script or not.

[00:16:22] So when he chooses a script, he's like, yeah, whatever, I can make cool images.

[00:16:25] Yes.

[00:16:26] And so that has resulted in some amazing movies.

[00:16:28] That has resulted in some not so great movies. And then when the director's cut came out, people were like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. I think I put that on my Let's Rank alternate cuts even. I think it was, yeah. Yeah. Which I remember seeing that movie in theaters and not really, I don't remember my reaction to it at the time, but that director's cut, man. Holy shit. It's so good. And so I was looking forward into Paulie and especially because anytime Ridley Scott kind of goes into historical epic territory,

[00:17:41] that's usually pretty good.

[00:17:42] Sometimes not, Exodus, Gods and Kings awful, terrible movie.

[00:17:46] But I think he's hour or so really starts to feel maybe a little bit rushed or like it's kind of just kind of running out of steam a little bit, whatever it is. Like there's two hours missing in between. A little bit, yeah. I kind of felt like maybe there's going to be a lot more fleshed out here in the director's cut. So I did really enjoy Napoleon.

[00:19:00] I think it's well worth seeing, especially if you can see it

[00:19:02] at the theater, it looks so good.

[00:19:04] But yeah, it's pretty solid stuff.

[00:19:06] It's no less dual, but it's like, okay, Robin Hood, not very good. Prometheus, kind of good. I like Prometheus. I like Prometheus. There's some good stuff in there. What a counselor, I like the counselor. True, I never saw that, but I know how insane it is and how much you like it. It's a wild movie, some cool stuff in there. And then it's Exodus Gods and Kings, which I think is, I think the worst release

[00:20:20] got movie I've ever seen.

[00:20:21] Wow.

[00:20:21] I haven't seen this whole filmography.

[00:20:22] Here's a lot of movies.

[00:20:23] But that is definitely, it's a rough stuff.

[00:20:27] But it's still an interesting movie got a lot of acclaim over the years, but I've not seen any of his other movies. A fire is really, really, really great movie. About these two friends, one of which is a writer, one of which is an artist. They go out to this kind of cabin in the middle of the woods, there's a beach nearby, and they go for this sort of writing retreat. This guy who's a writer really needs to get working on his book, like kind of turn something into his publisher so that he can be successful,

[00:21:43] all that stuff. And he's having a really him like, yeah, this book really sucks. You should work on something else. That's amazing. And yeah, this guy is, it kind of revels in how insufferable this guy is to everyone around him. And yeah, I had a really good time with this movie. I think it's really, really terrific. And it's awesome. It's on the Criterion Channel right now.

[00:23:01] Nice.

[00:23:02] Yeah, I've seen that on there.

[00:23:03] And I think it's one of their,

[00:23:04] it's not a Criterion original movie,

[00:23:05] but like the Criterion streaming premiere

[00:23:07] or whatever the thing list. Yeah, it's like pretty solid. I thought it was fun. I think it's almost as good or about as good as Thor Ragnarok. I don't know. I think it's fun. Those breaks, Mike. Yeah. But I've also never been as big on Thor Ragnarok as a lot of people have, you know? But I like take away T.T.A. a lot. I think he has made a lot of very good movies that like what we do in the shadows

[00:24:21] or hump the welder people I think is great.

[00:24:22] And like I said, I thought the 11th thunder was fine.

[00:24:24] It was pretty good.

[00:24:25] I had a good time with it.

[00:24:26] Next goal wins, man.

[00:24:28] It's a swing bit, yeah. And it really does feel like maybe the movie should've been more about her, or at least like flesh that out a little bit more or something, I don't know. It just, it didn't work for me, which is a bummer. But it's a new Tugaway Tootsie movie. I feel like Tugaway Tootsie. I don't know, go see it. It's an okay time.

[00:25:41] It's not awful.

[00:25:42] It's not a bad time, necessarily.

[00:25:44] But I went and I really liked this movie. I don't know where I was trying to go with that. That is Bottoms that came out earlier this year. OK. And that is the one that I was saying is sort of influenced by David Fincher, specifically Fight

[00:27:00] Club, specifically Fight Club, which they name check

[00:27:02] a bunch of times in the movie.

[00:27:03] And yeah, I saw I had the first five minutes, you're like, okay, this isn't earth. What's going on here? You know? And that was so much fun. I feel like, I don't know, it felt so refreshing in a way. I feel like I haven't seen a movie, and I can't really put my finger on this and name another movie that feels like this, but like where you, that like exists in its own world, you know?

[00:28:20] Like all the Marvel show.

[00:28:21] And yeah, yeah, yeah, all that, the blah, blah, blah.

[00:28:22] But like all those are going for some kind of

[00:28:26] versatility with actual reality. But I kind of was like, oh, this is almost like, almost going full anchor man. It's not quite full anchor man or not quite full like, well, how to American summer, but it's like, it's close, you know? Yes, yeah, I think those are both great like name checks for what this movie sort of feels like. And yeah, I had a blast. Marshall Lynch, what a revelation, you know? Honestly, he's great, he's super funny in it. He's so funny.

[00:29:40] He was really funny on his episode of Welcome to Murderville

[00:29:43] also with, we'll learn it.

[00:29:46] Yes, remember that show on Netflix?

[00:29:48] That's very funny. Bottoms would really reward additional watches because every scene has like something going on a throwaway visual gag going on in the background They're like yeah out of focus. There's there's one scene where they do like a therapy session basically with the the fight group fight club instead of fighting and like Marshall Lynch has this like really big emotional thing and Then that ends and then this, here's a bunch of recommendation. I can just put a bunch of shit on my watch list and stuff. And this was one of them. It is co-directed by Timo Tahante and Kimo Stambo. Timo Tahante directed The Night Comes For Us. And a couple, one of the VHS segments in 1985.

[00:32:21] I think in 1994.

[00:32:22] 94, I don't remember.

[00:32:23] I've seen that one.

[00:32:24] It was like the one with the like robot guy.

[00:32:26] Yeah, it was like a robot thing.

[00:32:28] Yeah. And you're like, how are these two stories connected? Kind of thing. And then somebody informs the crime lord, like we got a tip off that somebody from your past is at this hospital. And somebody sends his henchmen. And one of them punches the character that I was playing called Ishmael. Punches him in the head and like, whoosh, it all comes back to him. And he was part of this gang and was betrayed

[00:33:40] and this whole double cross thing.

[00:33:42] And they kidnapped the doctor that was caring for him.

[00:33:45] And then it just is like, okay, we have another hour

[00:33:47] of just revenge. I should watch this. Sounds awesome. It rules. It's really fun. And it's nice. Yeah. It's just one of those things where like every fight scene, you're like, no, like it's like every time a finger or something gets broken, it are smashed through a wall or whatever. It's just good stuff. Nice. All right. And then actually speaking of action movies, I have a new one to talk about from a Maestro himself.

[00:35:03] And that is John Woo's Silent Nights.

[00:35:06] Nice.

[00:35:06] Nice question.

[00:35:07] Nice question, Mark.

[00:35:08] Yeah. It's right around Christmas time. He's out with his wife and kid. And this gang shoot out, like drive by thing is happening. And a stray bullet hits his. No. And the red balloon that his son is holding goes up into the air. Oh my God, is it then broken by glass punched by Mike Tyson, like it bam? It does not happen like that.

[00:36:20] No.

[00:36:21] But yeah, so his son is killed.

[00:36:22] And also Joel Kidneman is also hit in this thing.

[00:36:25] And he gets into the hospital and he loses his voice box.

[00:36:28] He like can't, you know, he's lost the will to live. He can't speak. And you know, he lost his son and everything. And then when he finally like builds up his resolve, he takes a calendar out and he circles December 24 it nearly as much as a lot of people did. And I think it's kind of an interesting experiment from John Woo. So there's that. Cool. Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely interested in seeing it. And maybe I'll wait for it to be on streamer with beers and stuff and it'll be like a fun

[00:39:00] kind of thing.

[00:39:01] What if it, that is a little disappointing, especially I remember that trailer got a

[00:39:04] lot of hype, not that I watched most of it.

[00:39:06] Trailer looks pretty cool.

[00:39:08] And it was attached to Saw 10. Maybe takes place right after World War II, like post-war Japan. It's mostly in like 1947. And your main character is this Kamikaze pilot who did not get to fulfill his mission as a Kamikaze pilot because Godzilla wiped out his whole troop. And so he goes back to his hometown, which has been destroyed by the war. His parents are dead.

[00:40:20] He meets this woman.

[00:40:21] Her parents are dead.

[00:40:23] And this woman's taken care of this baby, not you know, yeah, there's Anthony Ramos, there's Dominic Fishback, like they're the humans in the Transformers movies. There's a ceiling on how much I can care about them, you know? And I feel like that is mostly my attitude with a lot of Godzilla movies.

[00:41:43] But I really cared about the human characters in this movie.

[00:41:46] This movie does a really good job of has, it's Godzilla Kong, like it takes place in that universe. I believe Godzilla does appear in the show though. I'm sure, yeah. And I think I watched the first two episodes like sort of in the background while so we're watching it. Okay, yeah. And they definitely reference, I think that like G-Day or whatever, like when Godzilla attacked San Francisco and like it's like, you know, in the mix with all that stuff.

[00:43:02] But as far as the first two episodes,

[00:43:03] which is all that was available at the time,

[00:43:05] Godzilla did not show up yet.

[00:43:06] But yeah, Skull Island nine years in between Mad Max Furio and Furiosa, so yeah, that's something, right? There's that. Yeah, only George Miller would be able to do that.

[00:44:20] Pretty much, yeah, that's effectively how that works.

[00:44:23] But yeah, Godzilla minus one,

[00:44:24] it's out in theaters right now,

[00:44:26] and a huge hit at the, I think way bigger than like Michael Kennedy, okay, letterbox put literally everybody else in the crew before him, directed by Tyler McIntyre. It's like the writer's struck for nothing. Exactly. Who looks like directed one of the segments in VHS 99, the only one that I recognize on here. But yeah, this is the star.

[00:45:40] Elson has Joel McHale in it, which is really funny.

[00:45:42] Justin Long is like the, I think doing like a Trump I wasn't alive. I want to be dead kind of thing. Yeah. And she's in a town where she never existed, you know? OK. And then it's a wonderful life, but a horror movie, a slasher from there. So that's the first act. That's the setup. And then, yeah, and then it's just fun, slasher stuff, but mixed in with wonderful life, Christmas-y things.

[00:47:01] Lots of movie references.

[00:47:02] One of the characters works in a movie theater,

[00:47:04] and they're like, always talking about, like, well, this is just,

[00:47:06] like, what, you know, they're like, gone out the movie and stuff.

[00:47:08] So that's really fun. never bothered to look it up. But yeah, he directed this movie called Christmas Bloody Christmas. Oh, yes. Yeah. I remember that with like the robot Santa goes wrong kind of thing. Right. You saw that. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of anything apocalypse now on Shutter, by the way, oh, really? I think I saw something you tweeting about that or some people tweeting about that. Yeah. I've been banging the drum on that movie for a long time.

[00:48:21] Do you ever see it, Mike?

[00:48:21] I do not.

[00:48:22] I remember when it came out and you were like, oh, it's this.

[00:48:25] And I was like, I've got a fucking watch that we did.

[00:48:27] I just never, never did.

[00:48:28] You should.

[00:48:28] Yeah.

[00:48:28] It's really great. driving me to December because I was too young to really remember that. Fair enough. I remember that name. I feel like I was... I know the name, but I don't know what it is. It was like a thing in the 90s. But basically May, December is loosely based on the story of Mary Kay LaTerno. Julianne Moore essentially plays this woman who many years ago got into a relationship

[00:49:41] with a 13 year old boy, like her students.

[00:49:43] Right.

[00:49:44] You know, and it caused a huge scandal.

[00:49:47] She went to jail, all that stuff. because the idea of his character is that he is basically like mentally stuck, like he never grew up essentially. He's like mentally stuck as like a teenager because of all the weird traumatic stuff surrounding him and his relationship with Julianne Moore. And so casting this guy from Riverdale, hey, this guy is fantastic, he's so good. But you have this guy who played a high school student

[00:51:01] for seven years, right?

[00:51:02] Who was already way older than a high school student.

[00:51:05] Like he's, I think at movie was very good. I feel like I didn't love it as much as I expected to, but it might just be because it was a Netflix movie that I turned on at 11.30, like PM on Saturday night. Like it was, you know, it was late.

[00:52:20] Yeah.

[00:52:21] So who's to say, but I did really enjoy it,

[00:52:24] and it's well worth checking out.

[00:52:25] Yeah, I've been hearing this I think it was always meant to be just like a Showtime movie, like a movie that was going to premiere on Showtime. But and there is other versions of this movie before like there's like a 1960s version like the Kane mutant. I think is what it's called. But the Kane mutant equal Marshall is just a rock solid courtroom drama.

[00:53:43] And truly the entire movie is just the core case.

[00:53:47] Like you like wow. And yeah, it's just a good showcase for a few different great actors doing great work. It's pretty unfussy, it's pretty in and out. It's like an hour 45. It sort of feels like a TV movie at points, but I think it does do the job. It's a really effective courtroom drama. It's solid stuff.

[00:55:00] Nice, yeah, this is one of those movies

[00:55:02] that in freakin's final movie,

[00:55:05] and it just is like buried somewhere.

[00:55:07] I mean, I remember is Fargo season five, which of course Fargo based on the movie Fargo from Joel Nathan Cohen, the TV show created by Noah Holly.

[00:56:20] And I think you were actually the one that convinced me to watch Fargo back when it was

[00:56:23] first really mirroring first three seasons. And I was kind of excited to see, oh, Chris Rock in a different mode. And that one had Tim with the olefant. And Jesse Buckley was in that season. And I think I got like five episodes into season four. And I didn't consciously stop watching it, but I kind of just never got around to finishing it. Yeah.

[00:57:40] And so that's the thing.

[00:57:42] So that said, I don't know how the season's gonna go,

[00:57:44] but based on the first episode of Fargo season five,

[00:57:47] I'm back in.

[00:57:48] I really enjoyed, first episode of Fargo Season 5, I'm into it. See where it goes. Nice. Seems cool. Yeah, I've heard good like that. Season 5 is like a return to form kind of thing. So, and the cool thing about this show is that it's all anthology stuff, as far as I understand it. So like, you know, I could just go back to five,

[00:59:00] start with five.

[00:59:00] I don't need a lot of three and four.

[00:59:01] Exactly.

[00:59:02] Yeah, I feel totally comfortable just starting

[00:59:04] having not seen the back half of season four.

[00:59:06] I feel totally fine. They're in the bag of money from the movie, right? Yeah, I think that's how, maybe that's the supermarket thing. Get the money, they find that bag of money and invest it in like a supermarket and become like a magnet or whatever. And that's like where the family has their money. But yeah, they find the money that Steve Buschami buries with the, the, the,

[01:00:20] the skyscraper in the movie.

[01:00:21] Yeah, absolutely.

[01:00:22] So yeah, Fargo season five, it's airing right now.

[01:00:24] I've only seen the first episode,

[01:00:25] but I think three episodes are out right now.

[01:00:27] So yeah, that's right. With a special guest, Nick Wermeth. It was his idea and he's not doing any 50 bucks.

[01:01:40] He's just, he pitched it to me and he's like,

[01:01:41] okay, come on, we can do it.

[01:01:42] Yes.

[01:01:44] Yeah, let's rank Cohen Brothers characters, not movies.

[01:01:47] We're ranking the characters.

[01:01:48] The characters.