Off Mike - The Zone of Interest, The Beekeeper, Sexy Beast, 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 peace.

[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. We know you look to Mike and Michael in the movies for all your sports coverage. Yeah. And so that's, that's why we're not going to be able to cover the Super Bowl, because it hasn't happened yet for us. Yeah, we apologize to all the listeners. Exactly. Yeah. What's going on with you, Mike? What's been going on in your life? Not a whole lot, honestly. We're working, waiting for time when I'll be off. Basically, I've got some plans coming up in the next few weeks.

[00:01:41] So I'm ready for that.

[00:01:42] Ready to have not, not work, you know?

[00:01:45] Yeah, fair enough.

[00:01:46] Yeah.

[00:01:46] No, pretty much the same.

[00:01:48] Just chilling, working and stuff. Anything's possible. I noticed he didn't say that one of my people could be out in the lead. Interesting. The real the math outheads could be coming out Mike. You never know. You get a real a real heavy Twitter presence. Yeah, exactly. You have to find a bunch of 60 year olds and get them on Twitter. They can vote in the poll. Yeah, exactly. They'll be your backing. They'll back you up.

[00:03:00] But yeah, so the the Twitter poll is live right now. Go vote in that if you haven't yet.

[00:03:04] And today's episode of Mike Mike is just adventure. And this is them wrapping up. They've ushered in an era of new peace in the world. And one of the characters, the main character Freerin is an elf. So she's functionally immortal. And so the whole show is basically just about her coming to terms with that and like, hey,

[00:04:20] these people that she spent 10 years adventuring to them, it's a majority of their life, you

[00:04:24] know, or like this dragon and save her. Yeah, but they don't have enough. We don't have any time. We've got to some bullshit because they own both of them. Yeah, so I can rant about that for a little bit. I subscribed to Funimation over a year ago at this point,

[00:07:01] specifically so just so that I could watch Dragon Ball.

[00:07:03] Right.

[00:07:04] And so I've been using it out. But yeah, I saw that the other day, I was like, wait a second, what is happening with the Crunchy? I think it's Sony owns both services now. Okay. And so they're just merging them into one and hiking the price up because not please are bad. Yeah, I mean, the merging of them into one kind of makes sense to me just because they're both kind of the same service, they're both just anime, but hiking the price up, no sale, man.

[00:08:21] Come on.

[00:08:22] Fuck off.

[00:08:23] What are you, Google?

[00:08:23] Yeah, exactly.

[00:08:24] But all right, so one of them's on Funimation,

[00:08:26] you said, or Crunchyroll, one of those.

[00:08:27] I think it's Crunch Kung Fu or the Hulk, but with a detective? Yes, so it's, the thing is she's not a detective.

[00:09:41] She's just like a drifter.

[00:09:42] You have to eat it better.

[00:09:43] But she just kind of like gets involved

[00:09:45] in all these shenanigans.

[00:09:46] It's basically, it's a non-narrative passion project for like weird goopy effects. And Phil Tippett I guess got word of it when they were making the episode. And so he sent them a bunch of stuff from mad god

[00:11:01] to use in the episode.

[00:11:02] It's really cool, really fun.

[00:11:05] And then yeah, the finale is great.

[00:11:06] Like the finale like really ties things together back once again for its now third season, although if you have HBO Max, it'll say second season because it's the second season of the revival. But yeah, when the first season of the revival was coming out last year, it really felt like, oh man, they're putting a lot behind this. Like there's been a lot of hype for it. There was a trailer. People were into it. And this time around, it really feels like they just kind of dumped this show.

[00:12:20] You can feel the zas love.

[00:12:22] Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:23] There was no trailer for this new season.

[00:12:25] They put all the episodes out at once instead of weekly and all that stuff. and I don't really know why I didn't keep watching them. I really liked it. It was fun, but I was just, I think it's another one of those like, well, I mean, I guess I need to reevaluate this stance because I was like, well, it'll be there. That's not given anymore. So who knows when something will just be deleted from existence? Yeah, yeah, that is my worry with this new clone hive,

[00:13:41] for sure.

[00:13:41] So we'll see what happens,

[00:13:43] but it's on HBO Max right now

[00:13:44] if people want to check it out.

[00:13:46] Yeah, that's the TV So I decided to try to watch as many of these Buster Keaton movies as I can to catch up with the podcast before I get to the episodes. And so as a result, I have now watched six Buster Keaton movies in the last couple of weeks. I watched three ages, our hospitality, Sherlock's Jr., the navigator, seven chances and go west.

[00:15:02] And of those six, Sherlock's Jr., I mean, that's the consensus choice for like among

[00:15:07] the best Buster Keaton movies. Stunts, it's really like wild to watch some of the stuff and be like, wow, I can't believe he didn't die from that. And then there's stuff that I'm still like, you know, a movie that's like 100 years old with Sherlock Jr. And I'm like, man, how did he do that? Like, how did he do those things? There's a moment in Sherlock Jr. where he jumps into a guy's chest and like shows and that appears in like the wall, like on the other side of the wall behind him.

[00:16:21] And there's no like real like noticeable cut there.

[00:16:25] There's no like moment where you're like, oh, well, Iizons can of things. So that's very exciting. And yeah, they're all for free available to all of us. So go watch them, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I also was like, I'm more of a chaplain guy. And I think chaplains are better like introduction to silent film, I guess. Like it maybe feels a little bit more modern and like that it goes for bigger laughs.

[00:17:40] Cause I think a lot of bus to Keaton stuff is funny,

[00:17:42] but it's also like, it's also aiming to tell

[00:17:44] like a fairly dramatic story a guy carving the word lost into a dead tree stump.

[00:19:01] So like a guy, when comes behind them, they they're already gone wrong. When the movie starts, but you know, things start to get worse. But I mean, I guess it sort of makes sense that it gets worse to a realistic degree.

[00:20:21] Like it doesn't, it never goes over that like level

[00:20:23] where it's like, I don't even know how to describe

[00:20:25] what I'm talking about, but you know what I mean?

[00:20:27] I think doesn't turn films in Ryan Beck. And I went with my buddy who really did not like the movie. Amazing. But I really enjoyed it and thought it was really interesting. And it was one of my first kind of slow cinema sort of movies like something that I got really into. And I remember very specifically that it was a packed theater.

[00:21:42] Like it was like really crowded in there.

[00:21:45] And I remember the theater employee like running

[00:21:47] up to the front before the movie and my friend really hating it.

[00:23:01] And then for some reason, like recommending it

[00:23:03] to my family, because I had talked about it.

[00:23:05] And so my dad got movies from the theater? Yes, and actually speaking of moments where I have to tell the audience that this thing is supposed to be like this. The zone of interest, which speaking of slow cinema. Yeah, this is the new film from Jonathan Glaser,

[00:24:21] which we are playing right now at the Roxy,

[00:24:23] the Anitator near my house from Missoula, Montana,

[00:24:24] where I also work.

[00:24:25] And yeah, Jonathan Glaser, director of Sexy Beast, as well, having just a wild year. Big year. Yeah, exactly. And you're just watching them live their lives in mostly like peaceful, idealistic situations while atrocities are happening just right next door. Like, you know? And so there's shots where you're just watching the family like, you know, play in the pool and like in the background,

[00:25:40] you can see all the towers from Auschwitz

[00:25:42] or you can see smoke coming out of it,

[00:25:44] like all that kind of stuff.

[00:25:45] And I wasn't sure if I was liking the movie for a while,

[00:26:41] It's a movie I've been thinking about a lot. But I will say, the movie starts with,

[00:26:44] I think three minutes of a black screen with just audio.

[00:26:47] And so much like Meek's Cut-Off,

[00:26:50] there have been many complaints from the audience

[00:26:53] of people thinking our screen is broken.

[00:26:56] That makes sense.

[00:26:58] And so we've had to put up a sign being like,

[00:26:59] no, there's no one who's supposed to be like that.

[00:27:01] All right, just go back inside.

[00:27:04] Because it is meant to be like kind of lull you

[00:27:06] into like the sort, I've seen the poster, I'm sure. Yes. So I had no idea what it was about, and I just saw stuff online, when it was first in its limited release and stuff. And then I was talking about like, wow, one of those harrowing movies, you must see kind of thing to deal with

[00:28:20] our modern times kind of stuff.

[00:28:22] And then I saw the trailer for it,

[00:28:23] and I was like, holy shit,

[00:28:24] this is what this movie's about,

[00:28:26] like totally blown away.

[00:28:27] Like this is what they're doing. 30 minutes and it's really impactful and is amazing. But then it's just that for another hour and a half or so. And they were kind of like, I get it, but like we got to elevate. You got to do something else. Which seems very interesting. That's also an interesting reaction to it. So yeah, I think that's sort of maybe where I'm at actually with it too. Yeah, it absolutely makes its point.

[00:29:40] I get it.

[00:29:41] Yeah, it's just a very difficult movie.

[00:29:42] Yeah, that's the thing.

[00:29:43] Which is fine.

[00:29:44] Yeah, hey, that's movies.

[00:29:45] So I do want to see that within the span of two movies. You know, I mean, I don't know anything about birth, but he goes to under the skin and has that kind of stuff. And then also, like we said with, so I'm interested just kind of mics the house, but sexy beast is about Roy Winston is a retired criminal gangster person.

[00:31:02] You don't really, they don't really explain

[00:31:04] other than that.

[00:31:05] Like he has, he's survived him the story of how he got the job, like how Ben Kingsley got involved. And it's like, it's him relaying the story and then it's cutting to the story. Like you're seeing the story as Ben Kingsley's relaying it, which is him being relayed a story. And so like it goes like three or four layers deep and it's cutting back and forth between all of them. Like just, it's amazing, it's beautiful.

[00:32:20] And then Ian McShane is also in this.

[00:32:21] He's like the guy in England that is putting together

[00:32:24] this job so like he's in it, but not in a ton,

[00:32:26] but he's in it there.

[00:32:28] And yeah, then it's like becomes like a heist thing Kinetic stuff, which is bananas when you think about Zodavitra. Nice. I do know. So John Glaser also used to be a music video director. He used to do that for a lot more sets, actually. Yeah. I was directed a few radio head videos and stuff. And I saw there was an interesting stat. That was just a funny tweet, really, from Emily Vanderwerf, who said that, you know, John Glaser was nominated for Best Director at the MTV Video Music Awards twice, but didn't

[00:33:43] win. have also watched a new documentary that just hit Netflix, which is called The Greatest Night in Pop. And this is a documentary about the making and recording of the We Are the World benefit song, which is really fascinating. I had, you know, everybody, I've obviously heard the song and like seen the video and like a passing pop cultural knowledge of this event. Sure, yeah.

[00:35:00] It was in 1985 where they recorded the song to raise money and awareness for a famine in Ethiopia and Bette Midler is there, which is crazy. Dan Acaroid is in there, which isn't that's. And that's the one thing I wish like one of the biggest names in pop music. I wish they explained how or why. I mean, I guess he's a blues brother and stuff, but it's just like he's standing next to Harry Belafonte and oh, I forget he's on the other side of him, but it's just like, what's going through Dan Acaroid's mind? You know?

[00:36:20] And yeah, and then it's also has a lot of talking head interviews

[00:36:25] with like a pre-string scene in U.E. Lewis and Kenny Loggins

[00:36:27] and Lionel Richie is sort of like the main guy But it's from what I've heard it has a similar vibe to that because it is just flying the wall in the room while it's happening kind of situation So yeah, I had a fun time with it And it's and it's interesting and it's cool to see all these people be terrified of having to sing whilst it like Huey Lewis has a very funny Thing about like Prince was supposed to come but of course he's Prince So he's like I'm only coming if I can do a guitar solo and they're like okay, bro. No

[00:37:43] So they have to give his line they give it to Huey Lewis I heard they talked about this on film cast podcast about this was like a Sundance premiere at the live or the like in person section of it. Okay, yeah. And there was like some, some consternation about this already having distribution and it is on Netflix a week later. They were like pissed that like you basically used Sundance as like a just a promotional thing. Right.

[00:39:00] You know, it's like as opposed to the indies movies

[00:39:02] that are trying to get bought and all this stuff

[00:39:04] and I don't know, interesting film stuff.

[00:39:07] Yeah, there? Sure. You know, I don't know if the plot of the beekeeper is really what we're there for. All right. So Jason Saytham stars in the beekeeper as a beekeeper.

[00:40:23] Are you with me so following?

[00:40:23] No, I'm not. So he is a beekeeper that tends to the bees and like also and all that kind of stuff. And so yeah, he's basically like this virus is a scam for this old woman. He is taking advantage of her. He ends up wiping out all of her money. And she has like millions of dollars in a charity that she hated like invested in or whatever. And he like takes millions of dollars away from her. She's left with nothing. And when she realizes what happened, she kills herself.

[00:41:40] Okay.

[00:41:41] Okay.

[00:41:43] And so Jason Statham has to go get revenge

[00:41:46] and take out these crypto bros He is the son of the president of the United States. It goes all the way to the top. It goes all the way to the top. And in fact, he used the illegal funds that he took from scamming people to fund his mom's presidency. Oh my God. And it's such an insane thing. And so the end of the movie is Jason Statham infiltrating not the White House, but like a sort he, but he's like an ex beekeeper. And so the people from the, his old life are sending a beekeeper after him to try to get him and stuff. And there's one guy who shows up, he's like, I'll kill the beekeeper once. And I can do it again. And he still got a metal leg from when he tried to kill the beekeeper the last time. Amazing.

[00:44:20] It's great.

[00:44:21] It's a good time.

[00:44:22] And Jason state them locked in in a way

[00:44:24] that like he hasn't been in a few years.

[00:44:25] Like it's been a while since we've had like,

[00:44:27] I think a proper Jason stateater to Mass, from the Montana where I also work and I host in front of No Danger. And I showed The Last Dragon from 1985, which I had never seen before, and had a great time with. It's really fun. Are you familiar with The Last Dragon at all, Mike? I am not, actually. I don't think I know the plot of this movie. I don't think I've heard of it. Okay, so The Last Dragon is a movie from 1985, produced by Barry Gordy.

[00:45:40] The Motown Cut?

[00:45:41] Yes.

[00:45:43] It's actually called Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon.

[00:45:46] Incredible.

[00:45:47] And it is half black exploitation action movie, in love with Time Act, who in Fong Love with Bruce Leroy. And they get involved with like, there's this record producer who's trying to get his girlfriend's video on the show, and she's not letting him on. And so he hires show enough to attack her and kidnap her and stuff. It's a wild movie. And every once in a while it stops to be a music video. This is where a debarjous song, Rhythm of the Night comes from. Oh.

[00:47:00] Oh.

[00:47:01] I know that song.

[00:47:01] Yeah, so that was a pretty fun discovery too.

[00:47:05] And yeah, the action itself, is there. Like all of that. And then also the Last Dragon. Like all those people crossing over is fascinating. And then that would have been like, we are the world was in 1985, right? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Last Dragon was 85, but would have been happening at the same time. That's bananas.

[00:48:21] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

[00:48:22] It was DeBarge, I'm looking at the other performers here.

[00:48:25] DeBarge, oh, Smokey Robinson has a song on there.

[00:48:27] Amazing. movie on your list, right, Mike? Yeah, one more movie is just a rewatch, which is Whiplash. Yeah, my friends and I that I'm always talking about in the Discord, hanging out, watching movies. We've started a spreadsheet as one seems to always do. And as we've got a tab tracking what movies we watched and who was there. And then we've got a tab for requests for movies, you know, what we want to watch together.

[00:49:40] And somebody put on Whiplash and we were just like, Oh, we're here now.

[00:49:44] So let's just watch Whiplash, you know, because we try to say like who requested

[00:49:46] it. And if that person's not there, my claim, I like every Damien Chisel movie. I think Babylon is his worst, but there's still a lot of really good stuff in there. It's perhaps a bit self-indulgent, it had three hours and 10 minutes or whatever, but yeah, no, I think there's a lot of really good stuff in there. It kind of wears out its welcome a little bit.

[00:51:00] I haven't seen Babylon yet, but.

[00:51:01] I think it is sort of worth watching.

[00:51:03] There's interesting stuff.

[00:51:04] There's some really great moments,

[00:51:06] I think especially year, I think I did name Lala Lam, my number one movie of the year. You might have, I don't remember. I think I did. I think since then it's kind of gone back and forth between that and the nice guys, which came out the same year. Really just a banner year for Ryan Gosling. Every year is a good year for Ryan Gosling. But that was a particularly good year.

[00:52:20] In particular.

[00:52:21] But yeah, I think Lala Lam is still great.

[00:52:24] Actually, I haven't re- Doesn't make sense. Yeah, no. And so, yeah, the two of them still live together. They're in Los Angeles. They used to live in Tucson, Arizona.

[00:53:40] They moved out to L.A. and one of them is unemployed.

[00:53:42] One of them, neither of them have boyfriends.

[00:53:45] They create a whole new persona for themselves. with it. So yeah, worth checking out if you haven't seen it. And I got to watch it in a pretty packed crowd. So yeah, it was a delight. Yeah, that sounds good. I'm, yeah, there's a lot of those. What, what, did you do that come out? I feel like it's in the 90s, right? That was 97. Yeah. And actually recently, as you know, I'm behind them, most of my podcasts, as I said before, nine months behind and almost all my podcasts, except for screen drafts, we're about three years

[00:55:00] behind, four years behind. And I just listened since, whatever it is on streaming, it's usually not streaming for very long. And I don't think, is there any kind of good physical media release this movie, or is there a blue ray? I think there was one, I might be at a print now, but I feel like there was something announced recently.

[00:56:21] I don't remember off the top of my head,

[00:56:23] but I know I've seen in particular,

[00:56:25] Justin and the Liberty talking about this movie too hot for the convents. Two sexy. Two sexy. Throws the entire convent into a tizzy, and Vanessa Redgrave starts accusing him of having sex with everyone and stuff, and it creates this whole fearr where the entire convent loses their minds and loses their souls to the devil, right? And yeah, it's really good. I had a good time with it. It's a weird one.

[00:57:40] The movie opens with a text on screen

[00:57:43] that says this is based on true events.

[00:57:45] All of this actually happened.

[00:57:46] And then you're watching it,

[00:57:47] and you're like, I for his sins of lust. While in the background there just like it's an orgy going on. And you're like, yeah, Ken Russell, I get it. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:59:00] So yeah, really enjoyed it.

[00:59:01] And yeah, it's available on Criterion Channel now.

[00:59:03] So if people have not seen the devils

[00:59:05] and wanna see it before it leaves there

[00:59:07] and maybe won't be available for a couple of years movie rules and I think it's William Hertz's first movie and he's just like an Adonis in it so. All right, but yeah the devil's on criteria in channel right now and then also on criteria in channel wanted to mention that I watched this a woman under the influence from 1974 directed by John Casavetes starring Gina Rollins and Peter Falk Colombo himself bringing it all full circle because we talked about poker face earlier. Yeah are you

[01:00:22] familiar with the woman of the influence Mike?

[01:00:24] Not I've never seen it but like Wow, she's unbelievable in this movie. She's so good. Yeah, it's there's so many weird facial texts that she does, so many different like kind of pitches to her voice, but none of it feels like affected. It all feels very organic.

[01:01:42] And it feels like there's so much going on Earth on Criterion channel, which is a Jim Jar Mooch movie from 1991 an anthology movie with like five different stories that all take place in in taxi cabs Like it's just about like taxi taxi drivers and their passengers

[01:03:02] Mm-hmm like in different places on the earth on the same night and the first segment is Winona rider and Gina Rollins

[01:04:01] It's all coming together. All right, Mike D, where can we find you online this week?

[01:04:05] You can find me at MD Film Blog on a Twitter and Letterboxed and Blue Sky.

[01:04:09] If you'd like to donate support to the show, you can do that at our Ko-Fi page, which is

[01:04:13] Ko-fi.com slash Mike and Mike Pods.

[01:04:15] You can also donate $50 on Ko-fi.

[01:04:16] Pick an episode, make us talk about anything you want.

[01:04:18] We double-dogged air you.

[01:04:20] And if you want merch, we have merch available on our Redbubble, which is Mike and MikePods.redbubble.com.

[01:04:24] Yes, indeed.

[01:04:25] And you can find me online at msmithfilmblog on Twitter, Mike Smithfilm on Letterbox and happening next week. In the meantime, the complete works, season four poll is live right now. We have a few days left, so go vote in it. And campaign, tell your friends, Nicole Kibman, Walter Mathau, Kirsten Dunst, Roy Shider, one of those four people will be the subject of the complete work season four. Yes, I'm very excited to see who that is. This lingering question hanging over our heads.

[01:05:40] Well, the great national nightmare will be over.

[01:05:42] Exactly.

[01:05:43] And finally, we can rest.

[01:05:46] Yes.

[01:05:47] That is the end of this episode of Mike and my Go To The Movies.