Off Mike - Poor Things, The Boy and the Heron, Leave the World Behind, 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 have a guest or two, 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 chosen wise. And that's probably the issue actually. It's probably Skype acting up. But my Wi-Fi has been acting weird. And my Wi-Fi has been acting weird the last day or two. And unfortunately it is impacting the podcast a little bit, but we're gonna power through, right, Mike? That's right. We don't have enough energy to fix anything because it's the post Christmas haze.

[00:01:41] And really nothing, I feel like the December 26th

[00:01:44] of January 2nd don't exist.

[00:01:46] And we all know it, but capitalism Mike D's just watching a bunch of random stuff. He's not quite in the 2023 catch up mode yet. That panic that hits him at the end of the year when it's time to cultivate our top 10. But I very much am in that catch up mode and I've been watching a lot of 2023 stuff. Yes, that's right. I'm, you know, I'm still like just kind of scrolling around looking for for new things,

[00:03:01] working on that discoveries portion of the list.

[00:03:03] Because I think the the top 10 of the gang. And pretty excited about that as well. Yes. Yeah, it'll be cool to see the boys get the pod family back together and talk about big monsters. Absolutely. But today we're doing some discussions talking about all the various things that we're going to get into or that we've been watching these through for me. So that was a fun kind of realization, getting that little extra layer of appreciation for those movies. And there was just a rule. And then I also rewatched Tombstone. Because I think one of my friends might have rewatched it, or one of my friends watched it for the first time, this past year or something like that. And he was like, holy shit, I can't believe how good Tombstone is.

[00:05:41] And I was like, yeah, you're right.

[00:05:45] So it was finally that sounds cool. I'm gonna check that out Or long kiss good night. Maybe is what he was talking about. I don't remember anyway Okay long long kiss good night just re-wash recently best movie ever. They're just just the coolest Yeah, I haven't watched that in a long time But I watched it for the first time because of you way back when you share that to me for the first time

[00:07:01] Yeah, and then we were rules and yeah, did bang is about Don Johnson plays this alcoholic

[00:08:03] really sleazy and the action is great because it's John Frank and I were in Don Johnson's awesome just as this scuzz ball guy. So if you're down to watch, you know, Don Johnson

[00:08:09] blow a neo Nazis while being a problematic guy, watch it. It's awesome. Save it, save

[00:08:15] it for next Christmas and watch dead bang. Nice. Yeah, I am glad to hear that because

[00:08:19] that movie sounds incredible. I might give it, and I was trying to remember the context of how I saw it, because like we're talking about that it's like

[00:09:40] not really streaming ever,

[00:09:41] and it's got the out of print DVD and Blu-ray and stuff.

[00:09:44] So I don't know, somebody had it somewhere,

[00:09:46] whether there was somebody pirated it or something. 30 minutes longer. And it like I was reading about what's not in the theatrical cut that is in the director's cut. And I was like, how did you how was this a movie without all this stuff? Like, there's almost the entire like third act is like completely different in the theatrical cuts. Like everything the aliens do the the tidal waves that are about to attack humanity, but then don't

[00:11:01] none of that happens in the theatrical cut from Schrader stuff. He has a haunted past. He writes in a journal. He has an inappropriate sexual relationship with the girl. And like it's just all all the stuff that you would expect from a Paul Schrader movie. And I think Joel Edgerton's like, he's doing something interesting in it, but I'm not sure

[00:12:21] that it's good.

[00:12:22] And I don't know.

[00:12:24] The movie didn't work for me.

[00:12:25] I was not a fan of Master Gardener. going to make another movie. He just can't stop himself. And so the boy in the Heron has been in the works for many years. It finally got released. I saw it in the English dub, which includes voices like Christian Bale and Mark Hamill and the one that's been the most press is Robert Pattinson, who plays the Heron. And he's really great in it. He's so good. And yeah, this is a movie that kind of plays

[00:13:41] like a little bit of a greatest hits of Miyazaki stuff.

[00:13:43] It's a boy that kind of goes on this mystical journey.

[00:13:46] He's mourning the loss of his mother, in the witch, but it's awful. And from what I've heard is other movies are like, not that great. And weirdly, the boy in the heron also kind of about Heyo's relationship to Goro and their kind of artistic choices and stuff. And yeah, it's pretty interesting. So yeah, worth checking out the boy in the heron. But yeah, Heyo Miyazaki had no involvement in Erewigh and the Weech, which is truly one

[00:15:01] of the worst movies I've seen in the last couple of years.

[00:15:03] It's real bad.

[00:15:04] Damn.

[00:15:04] Devastating words from Mike Smith.

[00:15:06] All right. or whatever, I'm not really sure that it infiltrates this sort of terrorist and or insurgency group that is fighting for the rights of AI robots to be like full citizens basically full, you know, participants in the world rather than just like servant robots and He's this freedom fighter thing This is like the first the opening acts and the betrayal double crosses things go wrong and there's basically

[00:17:25] point I was just like totally in and I was like so concerned about every all of the characters and like crying by the end and I'm like what is that? Did I get tricked? What's going on

[00:17:29] with this movie? So I ended up really liking it and I might be talking about it more when

[00:17:33] we do our top 10 but you know it might be right on the cusp so I'm not sure I got a

[00:17:36] like a couple more movies to watch before I'll be solidifying that list but better than I heard

[00:17:42] and had a lot more fun with a creator than I thought so nice yeah here in the creators. So yeah, I'm glad you liked him, Mike. Yeah, I have a lot of fun and like surprise major, air quotes, strong supporting character role for Sturgill Simpson. Like when he's in this movie and he's in the movie for like, I don't know, 10 or 15 minutes. And like at minute 14, I was like, is that Sturgill Simpson?

[00:19:00] And then he's out of the movie.

[00:19:01] I was like, what's going on?

[00:19:05] I sorta had that with,

[00:19:07] Allison Janney is describe this movie. So it stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke and Mahershal Ali and Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are this city couple in Manhattan, you know, and it starts with them talking or Julia Roberts saying like, I couldn't sleep last night. I didn't know what I felt weird. So I rented us a house out on Long Island on the beach and we're just going on vacation today.

[00:20:20] Like it starts with her packing bags

[00:20:23] and she's like, we're leaving right now.

[00:20:24] And they go to the beach and it's cool.

[00:20:25] And like weird things start happening. a Karen basically, just like basically just being racist that like I don't trust them because they're black and like there's no way this is their house, right? And the movie like kind of just textually says that at one eventually, but it becomes this whole thing about like the kind of collapse of society and what would happen to Americans in 2023 if the internet and the TV and the radio

[00:21:40] and just all of this interconnectivity we have

[00:21:42] just vanished in an instant and what would happen?

[00:21:45] And I think Barack Obama produced this.

[00:21:47] It think is based gotta be one thing, right?

[00:23:01] So it makes sense, but like narratively in a film

[00:23:04] when none of that connects and comes together

[00:23:06] in a coherent story, it just feels weird.

[00:24:02] weird niche shit that nobody would know, but because it overlaps so hard,

[00:24:04] it just pulls you right out of the movie.

[00:24:05] And this movie has that because we're from Long Island,

[00:24:07] they just like make up geography.

[00:24:09] They're just like, well, we're going out to the island,

[00:24:11] it's not the Hamptons and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:24:12] And then they're just like looking

[00:24:14] at the Manhattan skyline.

[00:24:15] And you're like, that's not, you're nowhere.

[00:24:17] You're in Queens, you haven't made it.

[00:24:19] Like you've gone 20 miles.

[00:24:22] So anyway, it's just had that weird effect also.

[00:24:25] So yeah, I don't know, leave the world behind us,

[00:24:26] neat, I guess.

[00:24:27] Okay, yeah, I've got a few more 2023 movies to get through here. First of which, want to give a quick shout out to our friends in the Adams family, John Adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, Lulu Adams, because of course they directed the Hellbender

[00:25:41] a few years ago, and we loved that movie, Big's Family stuff, it does feel like them kind of pushing themselves beyond their limits. Like, okay, we have more money to mess around with now. What's the weirdest shit we can possibly make? And they made it, man. They really did. They did it. It's good stuff. Yeah, I enjoyed it. So where the Devil Roams is on VOD right now

[00:27:00] if you wanna watch that?

[00:27:01] And I also watched Return to Soul,

[00:27:04] which is a movie that got a lot of notice

[00:27:06] at the end of the movie. It's really about this like self-destructive woman blows up her life at the drop of a hat in multiple times throughout the movie. And the movie takes place over several years, which I also didn't expect.

[00:28:20] Like about halfway through, it drops like a five years later title card.

[00:28:23] You're like, whoa!

[00:28:25] And I found it really engaging.

[00:28:27] It's really positive about it. So I watched the first extraction and then Netflix cut off its password sharing.

[00:29:40] I didn't have Netflix anymore for a few months.

[00:29:44] That's ultimately what happened.

[00:29:45] And I thought the first extraction was fine.

[00:29:46] I enjoyed it.

[00:29:47] I thought there was a seamless and cool and all of the action that is insane and violent and so much fun. Also, Idra Cell wasn't this movie and that was pretty fun too. Yeah, Love When Deja Cell just shows up in a movie. Yeah, hell yeah, get in this franchise, boy. Yes. But yeah, really, so I really enjoyed Extraction 2. I thought it was a really solid action movie. Again, if I cared about the characters at all,

[00:31:01] I think this would be like an action all-timer.

[00:31:04] Like I think this would be like an all-timer action movie.

[00:31:06] The action itself is incredible. Alpichino plays a producer for 60 minutes, and it opens with him, like with a bag over his head going to meet maybe somebody the leader of Hezbollah or something. And like, so you know, he's like a conflict reporter kind of it and all this stuff and what's his name? The guy that was the original Dumbledore Michael Gambit Richard Harris. Oh, okay. Maybe it's the second Dumbledore that I don't remember Okay, Michael Gambit. Yeah, I haven't seen the insider. I haven't seen Ali. I haven't seen the keep. I don't know. I haven't even downloaded. I'm ready to watch it, but I am afraid to play. Nice. And I still haven't seen my any vice, which I've heard that it has a culture around it for sure.

[00:35:00] Yeah. So yeah, but I'm very excited for Ferrari though.

[00:35:04] I'm going to see that this week, I think.

[00:35:05] And then yeah, I got into color film as it goes on and it looks great. It looks really, really good. I think, I don't know. It just kind of feels like, I felt like I was missing something. I feel like, you know, going into it, like I know a little bit about Leonard Bernstein, but I don't know like a whole lot.

[00:36:20] And I feel like coming out of the movie,

[00:36:22] I was like, I feel like I still know about the same amount

[00:36:24] of stuff that I do about Leonard Bernstein.

[00:36:26] Like I don't, I know there was a Limitless TV show, like shortly after. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, I forgot all about them. That's crazy. There was a Limitless TV show, and I believe Bradley Cooper made a cameo on the show. Like he popped up in an episode or two. So he was involved. He was there. So the story has continued in other forms.

[00:37:40] But yeah, Maestro, it's pretty good.

[00:37:42] I did enjoy it.

[00:37:43] It's worth watching.

[00:37:44] It's on Netflix right now.

[00:37:45] And most importantly of all bad. But, but, but especially Thomas McKenzie's Boston accent, like truly atrocious, one of the worst I've ever heard. It kind of slips in between Boston and German, like from word to word. It's really weird. But it is a pretty solid, like kind of

[00:39:04] twisty, turny thriller. I think Anne Hathaway is and she was almost done. And she left work that day to finish the book and then come watch the movie. But when she came back to watch the movie, she still had like 50 pages left of the book to go. And so she hadn't gotten to the twist. And so she got to, she read the book and got all the context for everything with the characters and then got to experience the twist fresh with the audience.

[00:40:20] Amazing.

[00:40:21] And she enjoyed that experience.

[00:40:23] She had a good time.

[00:40:25] So yeah, Eileen, it's out right now.

[00:40:28] People should watch it. that they like steal from the rich and give to the poor kind of thing, but like they only do stuff to protect the community, right? The big opening action sequence is them like going into this orphanage that is revealed to be like harvesting the kids' organs for transplants, and so they bust in there and kill everybody and free all the kids and it's this whole thing, but nobody, you know, like don't reveal our identity. Win-quink to all the kids and they're like all

[00:41:42] give the thumbs up and stuff, you know, it's like one of those kind of goes into a lull a little bit I think. There is a lot of action throughout but in this whole middle section it's very slap-sticky and the big four are like the greatest assassins in the world kind of thing. So there's a lot of them like accidentally destroying people like this like kind of thug henchmen hold up somebody and he's like no please and the

[00:43:00] big one the main guy is like slapping them but they're just like and dying and

[00:43:04] like it's all this crazy I mean it's funny it's silly that kind of thing and comes for us. That movie was awesome. Yeah, but yeah, I actually had no idea the big four existed. I saw your letter box logging and I was like, Oh, wait, he had a new movie last year. I had no idea. So that's exciting. I hope to watch it soon. Yeah, and definitely, I would like to do the night comes for us at some point for inferno danger. I think they're really cool. But we will see what happens there. Put in the

[00:44:21] panel for now. I actually saw, sorry to cut you off because I

[00:44:25] got into with the delay. I actually saw them too much out how that all works. Okay, cool. All right, that's the big four. And then I have a few more movies to get through here before we can wrap this episode up, I think. First, which is Ennis Men. And this is a movie that I was on my radar earlier this year. And I think we were trying to get it at the Roxy maybe and we never ended up being able to. But this is an experimental folk horror film that is available to stream on Hulu right now.

[00:45:42] I actually just kind of stumbled upon it on Hulu

[00:45:44] and I was like, oh shit, this is here.

[00:45:45] I gotta catch it.

[00:45:46] I gotta watch this.

[00:45:47] I totally forgot this on a couple of horror podcasts and stuff that I listen to you in the conversation with things like Skidimmering and what's the other one?

[00:47:01] The Outwaters, I think, which is a movie I didn't see,

[00:47:04] that kind of was a, what's that found footage thing

[00:47:07] that kind of dropped in the end of the movie, she saw it and said, like, you know, I think I thought it was okay. I wouldn't recommend anybody see it.

[00:48:22] I was like, okay, that's the most positive thing I've heard so far.

[00:48:23] And then it was like the last day that we were showing it.

[00:48:26] And I was like, you know, I'm gonna do it.

[00:48:27] I'm gonna go see Saltburn on this last day. for free on Amazon Prime right now. And so this is a movie about this kid played by Barry Kegan, who's a student at Oxford University, who's kind of an outcast, kind of a weirdo, you know, just an awkward, socially awkward kid. Barry Kegan. Who then becomes friends with, yeah, exactly Barry Kegan. Who then becomes friends with this like kind of more popular kid played by Jacob Elordi.

[00:49:41] And it turns out Jacob Elordi is mega rich,

[00:49:44] like just unbelievably wealthy.

[00:49:46] And he invites Barry Kegan to stay with him and his family I have never seen a more divided response to a movie in a recent memory that I could think of where either it's like gonna win best picture or it's literally nothing. And I was like this makes no sense what is going on. Yeah. Okay, so maybe I won't spoil the actual twist, like the surprise at the end.

[00:51:00] But I will say the twist doesn't land for me

[00:51:02] because it hinges on like showing you information

[00:51:05] about a character that like you like, it was 2020. It was a new movie that came out. I liked it. Like, I don't know. I don't know. It was like an angry movie in 2020. And we were all pissed and everything. Yeah. Yeah. I remember with promising young women the same thing, like from what I'm hearing from Salt Bird and stuff and sort of what you were talking about, that it sort of like trips over its own feet

[00:52:20] regarding its like message in point.

[00:52:23] Like kind of gets in its way about that.

[00:52:26] So I've heard that too about like what Salt Bird and that, what happened in the pandemic, because promising woman premiered at like Sundance or something in like January, 2020, it was supposed to come out in April. Like it was supposed to come out in April, 2020, and then obviously got delayed, right? It didn't come out in April. And then it ended up getting pushed to like September, October, and ended up, and you know, just released on VOD, ended up becoming like an Oscar player. Like it was an awards movie suddenly.

[00:53:41] When I, when I, when if you watch that movie,

[00:53:43] it's like really weird that it was an awards movie.

[00:53:45] And if it was released in April,

[00:53:46] I don't think it would have been, you know,

[00:53:48] but because it was it, they all came away being like, but you should probably still watch it. Like they all said like you should watch it.

[00:55:01] So I was like, oh, all right.

[00:55:03] So I did and yeah,

[00:55:04] I think I might have liked it more than a few of them,

[00:55:06] but I was still of looking forward to it, even though I wasn't big on the DC movies or anything. But I love James Wan. And I was like, hey, James Wan's making a new movie.

[00:56:21] I'm in.

[00:56:22] And just yeah, I was not really a fan of the first Aquaman, but I know there are a lot

[00:56:26] of people who are. So this movie does have Jason Momoa as Aquaman, who is good. He's fun. And it brings back Patrick Wilson as Orm the Ocean Master. And the movie is very much about their relationship. There's a new threat from Black Manta, who is in the first movie. And Jason Momoa has to break Patrick Wilson out of prison because he's the only person that can help him. Nicole Kidman's back, Dolph Lundgren's back, and that's fun.

[00:57:43] And Amber Heard kind of back.

[00:57:45] I think there was theories about like,

[00:57:47] are they gonna kill her off I think the last third kind of falls apart a little bit. The Birds of Prey movie, there's stuff that I liked quite a bit in the DC universe, but I think it never really escaped the shadow of Zack Snyder, the Snyder element of it all. And honestly, actually the Snyder Cut of Justice League, one of the better things in the DC universe, I would say. Psycho.

[00:59:00] Yeah.

[00:59:00] But I was just thinking about just the other day,

[00:59:04] just this past weekend, fresh reboot at this point. With the exception of like maybe keeping Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but like otherwise it just feels like, you know, what's the point? Why are we doing any of that? Yeah, let's see what's the point. Yeah. But yeah, I'll come in and I'll ask kingdom. It's out in theaters right now. And yeah, and it bombs. I think it is also a sign of like a sea change happening in

[01:00:22] consumer tastes and what people want to see at this movie, and a few others. But yeah, Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, who is a woman who, it's a very difficult movie to describe, I'm gonna try to. But basically she is sort of this Frankenstein creation.

[01:01:40] And basically there's this woman, Emma Stone's character,

[01:01:43] who killed herself, Willem Dafoe, and she was pregnant.

[01:01:46] She killed herself and he delivers, it's great. Yeah, I know I really enjoyed Porte Things, I think the performances are great, I think the concept is really wild and weird and out there, it's really

[01:03:03] funny and really sharply written, the production design is ago or so, and I liked it. I thought it was pretty good, and I was like getting prepped to watch Paddington 2, and then never got around to it. One day, I will watch Paddington 2, but I did watch Wonka, and yeah, this is a prequel telling the story of a young Willy Wonka that doesn't really go into any kind of like prequel-y stuff. It is just like, you know, meant to be a pretty fun,

[01:04:22] trically movie musical, and this movie is a musical.

[01:04:24] It's been hiding the fact that it is a musical

[01:04:26] in the trailers, but it at what it is now. I haven't seen Bones and all yet. That's what it is, yeah. Bones and all, he's very good in that. But then, other stuff that I watch him in, I find him kind of flat, like Dune. I don't think he's all that great in and all that kind of stuff. But this movie, I did think he was kind of flat,

[01:05:41] but also he's doing like, he's not quite Dune Gene Wilder,

[01:05:45] which I don't want him to.

[01:05:46] I would want him to have his own take on the character,

[01:05:48] not just do a Gene Wilder impression. Yeah, absolutely. It was one of the things, it was Christmas Eve, we went to go see it, and me and my girlfriend were kind of just not doing anything, and my girlfriend's sister wanted to see it, and hadn't yet, and we're like, okay, well, I'll still go to the theater, go see Wonka together. And so we did, and yeah, it was all kind of like, that was fine, I guess, I don't know. I was like, begrudgingly a little charmed by it, maybe,

[01:07:03] but it did not do enough to melt my heart

[01:07:05] and make me enjoy it more.

[01:07:07] So fair. but I'll let my nostalgic glasses tell me you it's great. Yeah, there you go. That's the way to do it. Did you watch any Christmas stuff over the past couple of days? Any Christmas movie traditions or whatever that came up? Did we watch anything other than die hard? No, I can't think of anything that we watched. That was Christmas-y. I mean die hard counts. Die hard counts.

[01:08:20] I also watched die hard.

[01:08:21] I'm trying to think.

[01:08:22] What did we watch?

[01:08:23] No, that was really it.

[01:08:25] Yeah, no, I watched Die Hard at the Roxy,

[01:08:27] which is always a great time. Thanksgiving or being my dad watching everything. But we also put the like, you log on. That's on like, I don't know, like CBS or whatever the hell on Christmas morning for like five hours. Yeah. And after the you log thing ended, it just started playing March of the Wind and Zolders. And we were like twice in wood year. We get to like my mom was like, no.

[01:09:40] But I've never talked to another human being

[01:09:43] that's watched that movie.

[01:09:44] So I was just like, let me ask, let me ask Mike Smith.

[01:09:49] Yeah. Correct. But there you go. I think that's gonna bring us to the end of this week's episode, Mike. Yeah, we talked about a lot of stuff for all of our technical business. We certainly did. We did a pretty long episode. Yeah, yeah, I would say so. Yeah, we talked about a lot of stuff. There's gonna be more stuff that I'm gonna be cramming in in the next week or so that I still gotta watch

[01:11:01] and I'm sure you'll be doing the same, Mike.

[01:11:02] But yeah, next time you hear from us,

[01:11:05] we're gonna be doing our in-person review our red bubble, which is mikeandmikepods.redbubble.com. Yes, indeed. You can find me online at M Smith Film Blog on Twitter, Mike Smith Film on Letterbox and Radio Mike Sandwich and Instagram. Thank you so much for listening to Mike and Mike go to the movies. I'm Mike Smith, that's my decree show. Don't forget to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast app. And if you want to contact us, you can hit us up on Twitter at Mike and Mike Pod.

[01:12:20] You can find the rest of our podcast

[01:12:21] and wrap your press alongside many other podcasts,

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[01:12:25] and all that good stuff.

[01:12:26] Like we said, next time you hear from us, but apparently Jeff Goldloom is in one of the episodes of What If or will be in an episode of What If? Yes, yeah, and I think he was in one last season too. And yeah, I think we did not cover it then. We might have like referenced it in our Thor Ragnarok episode, but yeah, I would say since he's not main cast of What If, we don't necessarily need to cover it,

[01:13:40] but yeah, it wouldn't be against it.

[01:13:41] I did watch the first three episodes of the new season so far.

[01:13:45] And yeah, it's pretty fun.

[01:13:46] There was a die-hard episode actually, which was really pretty fun.