This week, we're getting back in the Cage to talk a new horror film starring Nicolas Cage: ARCADIAN! Cage reunites Ben Brewer, director of THE TRUST (and lead vfx designer for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE) on this post-apocalyptic monster story. Is it more than just a QUIET PLACE knockoff? Let's find out!
[00:00:00] Hello, and
[00:00:30] welcome to Episode 113 of The Complete Works Season 1, a deep dive into the career and
[00:00:38] films of actor Nicolas Cage. My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey into
[00:00:43] the world of true Cagedom is my friend, co-host and fellow cageaholic, Mike Scriccio. How
[00:00:49] you doing there, Mike? I'm doing great once again back in Season 1. Yes. Man, don't stop.
[00:00:56] You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Yeah. When was the last Nicolas
[00:01:02] Cage episode we did was a dream scenario, I think. Right, Mike? I think so. Yeah.
[00:01:06] So that was like December of 2023. So yeah, it's been about five months since we talked
[00:01:12] about Nicolas Cage. Yeah, it's not it. It you know, like you said, he will never
[00:01:17] leave. He never he can't stop. He had his second most productive year last year.
[00:01:22] Which is crazy. But I mean, hypothetically, potentially like we talked about on the last
[00:01:28] cage episode, he might be retiring. But they keep announcing more movies that he's in.
[00:01:34] That's the thing. He said that around the the dream scenario press tour is like,
[00:01:37] I might be retiring from film and moving towards TV or something like that. And then,
[00:01:41] you know, every couple of weeks it's like, oh, Nicolas Cage is starring in a horror
[00:01:45] movie based on the life of Jesus Christ. Yeah. Which is a real project. That sounds
[00:01:49] cool. The Carpenter's Son or something like that. Something like that. And you're like,
[00:01:53] all right. Yeah, sure. I guess I'll watch that too. He did. I do remember him saying
[00:01:56] that like, oh yeah, I have like a couple more in contract, a couple more movies that I have
[00:02:00] to do. Yeah. But if dream scenario could have been my last one, I would have loved that.
[00:02:05] He did say that. Yeah. It's what he said. But he just keep they keep coming out.
[00:02:08] He keeps making them. And yes, some of them seem pretty promising. Very excited for
[00:02:12] Long Legs later this year. That's going to be pretty cool. But we have something else to
[00:02:16] talk about today, Mike, a different Nicolas Cage horror movie. In fact, yes, a whole whole
[00:02:20] third other one. Yeah, exactly. So but before we get into today's movie, Mike,
[00:02:25] we should talk about the year 2018. Who can remember the horror times?
[00:02:31] I mean, we had a podcast back then. We were going strong. We were actually we were doing
[00:02:35] the Nicolas Cage podcast back then. That was probably the third year of the cage.
[00:02:39] I was going to say that's your three of season one. Yes, that was before we had
[00:02:43] started season two. We were probably we were probably at that point,
[00:02:50] maybe in like the mid 2000s of Nicolas Cage's career. I would say probably something like
[00:02:55] that. Yeah, because we were doing every other week. So not that is only, you know,
[00:02:58] 25 episodes a year, 20, whatever we were doing. Right. So yeah, definitely not making
[00:03:03] a ton of progress at the time. Yes. But in 2018, John Krasinski, the actor best known
[00:03:10] for playing Jim on The Office, directed a horror movie starring himself and his wife,
[00:03:14] Emily Blunt. John Krasinski had directed a couple of other films before that.
[00:03:18] One called Brief Interviews, the Hideous Men, another one called The Hollers, which were both
[00:03:22] low key comedy dramas that weren't all that well received and didn't really go anywhere.
[00:03:28] So this pivots of horror for John Krasinski was at the time kind of a surprising one,
[00:03:32] although Jordan Peele had just done that a year earlier, too. So a similar like comedic
[00:03:37] actor turned director thing. And like Jordan Peele ended up really working out for John Krasinski.
[00:03:43] We're getting things in 2024 marketed as from the mind of John Krasinski,
[00:03:48] from the imagination of John Krasinski. Yeah. Yeah. John Krasinski's A Quiet Place earned
[00:03:54] very strong reviews, was a huge box office hit. It grossed almost 350 million dollars
[00:04:00] on a 17 million dollar budget. And it spawned two sequels, A Quiet Place Part Two and this
[00:04:05] year's A Quiet Place Day One, which is a prequel to the Quiet Place movies starring Lupita Nyong'o
[00:04:11] in the lead role. An interesting detail to this, Mike. While John Krasinski returned
[00:04:15] to direct part two, the upcoming A Quiet Place Day One is actually directed by
[00:04:20] Michael Sarnowski, the director of Pig, one of our favorite Nicolas Cage movies in the last
[00:04:24] few years. What a pivot for him. Yes. And so that's a pretty exciting thing. I'm looking
[00:04:30] forward to day one. I think it looks pretty solid and Pig huge fan of that. But apparently
[00:04:34] he was not able to bring Nicolas Cage in for A Quiet Place Day One. So Cage had to go ahead
[00:04:39] and make his own quiet place movie. The time has come to talk about Arcadian.
[00:04:47] There are those who believe they came after the pollution of people and they're here to
[00:04:59] cleanse the race. They have to stay vigilant. Do you understand? Yeah. Yeah. All right.
[00:05:13] I'll meet you right here before the sun sets behind that hill. It was good to see you.
[00:05:17] You're late. Sorry, I lost track of time. Are we safe? Yes. Are we secure? Yes. Thank you
[00:05:31] for this food we were about to receive. Thank you for bringing us together as a family.
[00:05:37] I don't want to hide from them anymore. What do we do? Are we not men?
[00:06:03] Trapped us in. They're coming up from underneath us. So break it in a second. You need to trust me.
[00:06:39] So Nicolas Cage appears in Arcadian as Paul, the single father of two boys
[00:06:45] in a post apocalyptic world in which everyone who survives lives in fear of the night because
[00:06:49] there are monsters much like A Quiet Place. Thomas, the more reckless of the two brothers,
[00:06:54] is played by Maxwell Jenkins, who played Will Robinson on Netflix's Lost in Space TV show.
[00:06:59] And Joseph, the more intellectual of the brothers, is played by Jaden Martel,
[00:07:03] who played Bill, the leader of the Losers Club in the 2017 version of it.
[00:07:08] And he was also like the Nazi kid in Knives Out. That's that was his role in that movie.
[00:07:12] That's right. I forgot about that. And then there's also Charlotte. The girl Thomas has a
[00:07:15] crush on. She's put by Sadie Several, who was also in Saltburn last year. So the movie
[00:07:20] was written by Mike Nylon, who has actually been a producer on 10 Nicolas Cage movies since 2014,
[00:07:26] including Rage, Left Behind, Pay the Ghost, USS Indianapolis, Men of Courage and Willy's
[00:07:32] Wonderland. OK, at least one of those. We are fans of Willy's Wonderland, and I think
[00:07:37] we are also kind of fans of Pay the Ghost if I recall. I think yes, that's true at the time.
[00:07:42] Yeah. And it was directed by another past Nicolas Cage collaborator, Ben Brewer,
[00:07:46] who actually also directed 2016's The Trust, which we were also big fans of.
[00:07:51] Big fans made my top 10 of Nicolas Cage ever when we finished season one.
[00:07:56] Yeah, that was like your number nine or 10 in the summer.
[00:07:58] And yeah, but a surprising placement for it. But good movie. I remember that's of all the
[00:08:04] like, you know, late period VOD Nicolas Cage movies. I think The Trust is maybe one of the
[00:08:09] more solid ones of those. Yeah, one of the weirder ones. It's got Elijah Wood.
[00:08:13] It's like they're security guards or cops doing a heist. I forget exactly what it is,
[00:08:17] but playing goes wrong. Shenanigans ensue. Exactly. And I believe The Trust is kind of
[00:08:21] what led us to Mandy because Elijah Wood produced Mandy. Right. That's right.
[00:08:26] Are they crime scene invest or like CSI guys or something? There's something like that.
[00:08:31] I think there are more. I mean, it's been so long since we've watched The Trust. This was
[00:08:35] we probably watched it in 2018. Yeah. And I remember Jerry Lewis is in it.
[00:08:42] Yeah, yeah. I think as Nicolas Cage's father, but I don't think they're like CSI guys or
[00:08:46] anything like that. I think they're just like, I don't know, maintenance guys like handymen.
[00:08:50] Yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah. It's been so long.
[00:08:53] We're do a revisit of The Trust. It was a good movie.
[00:08:55] My number eight top cage movie of all time. I can't remember.
[00:09:00] Yes. For reference, I'm pretty sure The Trust beat out like Moonstruck on Mike Deez list.
[00:09:05] Deed out, you know, I don't know adaptation. Was that on your list?
[00:09:08] I think that made my list, but it was like, yeah, I think like it was like
[00:09:11] doggy dog and the trust or like 10 and nine or something.
[00:09:15] I'll find the list. Sorry. Wild at heart, you know, all that stuff.
[00:09:20] But yeah, now The Trust is actually the last feature that Ben Brewer directed Mike,
[00:09:24] but he has been involved in several other projects, including acting as a lead visual
[00:09:28] artist on a little movie that we've talked about on this podcast before.
[00:09:32] Really? Do you want to take a guess what it is on the complete works or the cage season of
[00:09:36] on the complete works, not Nicholas Cage, a different it's either a Goldblum, a yo or
[00:09:40] I guess a very early Roy Scheider as an infant. This man was the lead
[00:09:48] visual lead designer. I don't know. Lead visual effects artist.
[00:09:52] Oh, man. There's so many movies that have special effects that we've covered.
[00:09:56] I can't pick. It's going to blow your mind.
[00:09:57] He was the lead visual effects artist on everything everywhere all at once.
[00:10:01] What's in between making The Trust and Arcadian?
[00:10:05] Ben Brewer did the visual effects for everything ever all at once.
[00:10:08] Made two of the greatest movies of all time.
[00:10:10] And I'll tell you which two by the end of this episode.
[00:10:16] It's these three. These are, you know, our generations, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Spider-Man 2.
[00:10:22] Yeah, which is what we used to say are the three greatest movies of all time.
[00:10:26] Back at Mike, Mike, go to the movies. Yeah, it's The Trust.
[00:10:28] Everything ever all at once and Arcadian are the big three.
[00:10:32] Yeah, so I found my list, my top 10 cage, my 10 dog eat dog, my nine, The Trust, my eight mom and dad.
[00:10:40] What was I doing? What an incredible list.
[00:10:43] You really wanted those VOD movies represented on your top 10.
[00:10:46] To round out the bottom five, seven, Joe, six, The Croods, hashtag The Croods cast.
[00:10:51] Hell yeah. Number five, The Rock.
[00:10:53] I finally got some sense by number five.
[00:10:56] Joe and The Croods, I think are both respectable choices.
[00:10:59] What was the rest of your list after once you get there?
[00:11:02] Number four adaptation, number three, Raising Arizona.
[00:11:05] Number two is I remember this being controversial at the time into the Spider-Verse.
[00:11:09] OK, number one, Mandy.
[00:11:11] Number one was Mandy.
[00:11:12] I'm curious to see what my list is now.
[00:11:14] We did this Nicholas Cage finale like four years ago now.
[00:11:19] Does Letterbox tell you when these things came published?
[00:11:22] Is there a date on these now?
[00:11:24] Yeah, I have no idea.
[00:11:26] I'm scrolling through my own letterbox list now to try to find I'm sure.
[00:11:29] Yeah, Nicholas Cage ranking. Oh, no, an ad.
[00:11:33] Here we go. This is my Nicholas Cage ranking from several years ago.
[00:11:37] My number 10 was The Weatherman.
[00:11:39] My number nine, Snake Eyes, which I just bought on Blu Ray, by the way.
[00:11:42] Very excited about that.
[00:11:43] My number eight was Face Off.
[00:11:45] My number seven was Racing with the Moon.
[00:11:48] Whoa, which is a super underrated movie.
[00:11:51] Number six, Rumblefish.
[00:11:53] Number five, Adaptation.
[00:11:55] My number four. This is my controversial pick was Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
[00:11:59] Yes, yes, yes.
[00:12:00] My number three was Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse.
[00:12:02] My number two was Wild at Heart and my number one was Raising Arizona.
[00:12:06] So yeah, I think both respectable lists in their own way.
[00:12:09] I think so.
[00:12:10] Yeah. And you know, even then, I mean, Red Rock West is my 11.
[00:12:13] I'm like, how did that not make my top 10?
[00:12:15] You know, all that stuff.
[00:12:16] But yeah, I have Moonstruck at 13.
[00:12:18] But I think at the time Moonstruck was like in my 30s or 40s.
[00:12:22] Like I rewatched it a couple of years ago and bumped it up much higher in my rankings.
[00:12:25] I was like, oh yeah, no, this is a perfect movie.
[00:12:27] I yeah.
[00:12:28] Yeah, I think that was 2019 ish when we finished.
[00:12:31] Well, like we caught up to Cage at the time and we're like, OK, we're going to take a break.
[00:12:34] Yes. Yeah, because Goldblum started in early 2020.
[00:12:36] That was that's basically right when we started doing episodes every week.
[00:12:39] It's like, well, it's the pandemic.
[00:12:40] What are we going to do?
[00:12:43] But yeah, so Mike Nylon, producer of many Cage movies.
[00:12:45] He wrote this movie and Ben Brewer, director of the trust, directed this movie.
[00:12:49] Arcadian premiered at South by Southwest earlier this year
[00:12:53] and then got a limited theatrical release on April 12th, 2024,
[00:12:57] where it opened to number 15 at the box office, which better than I expected.
[00:13:03] Yeah. You know, all things considered, not so bad.
[00:13:05] Yeah, it did play near me briefly for like a week, maybe.
[00:13:09] And I didn't know about it until like the last day.
[00:13:12] And I thought about going.
[00:13:13] I didn't.
[00:13:16] Oh, yes.
[00:13:18] Maybe years ago I would have felt that obligation to go
[00:13:21] just like because Nicholas Cage and stuff.
[00:13:23] But yeah, I didn't didn't make it out for this one.
[00:13:26] Unfortunately, opening to number one the weekend of April 12th, Mike,
[00:13:30] was a movie we both saw and we've talked about several times on
[00:13:34] sort of on the complete works and also on the Mike Michael
[00:13:36] the movie's bonus episodes.
[00:13:37] That is Alex Garland's Civil War.
[00:13:39] Yes. Let's do another 10 minutes on civil war.
[00:13:42] Let's let's do some civil war talk around it out with some apes talk
[00:13:46] and then make it in the
[00:13:48] apes cast.
[00:13:49] Hashtag apes cast civil war claim the title of a 24 is the biggest opening weekend ever
[00:13:54] that weekend.
[00:13:55] And I think in total is the highest grossing movie for them in general, I think.
[00:13:58] Nice. That's also kind of crazy to like, you know, a little bit surprised.
[00:14:02] I mean, especially considering how big everything everywhere was
[00:14:04] and how much that was like a big word of mouth hit.
[00:14:06] I'm a little surprised.
[00:14:06] It's like beating it that fast if that's true.
[00:14:08] But yeah, cool.
[00:14:10] I mean, I think we're both fairly I think I'm more positive on it than you are.
[00:14:14] But I think we're both pretty mixed on Civil War.
[00:14:16] Yes.
[00:14:17] But civil war was number one that weekend.
[00:14:19] Also opening that weekend was a historical drama called The Long Game.
[00:14:23] Re-release of Shrek 2 and a concert film called Suga August D tour D day the movie,
[00:14:29] which I'm unfamiliar with.
[00:14:32] Also in the top 10 were Godzilla X Kong, the new empire Ghostbusters, frozen empire,
[00:14:38] Kung Fu Panda for Dune Part two, Monkey Man and the first Omen.
[00:14:43] It's crazy that Godzilla versus Kong Civil War.
[00:14:48] Like four out of those five are still at my local theater.
[00:14:51] And it's like, what's going on?
[00:14:53] Yeah, we're recording this like two weeks into May at this point.
[00:14:57] I mean, Godzilla X Kong dispride like did pretty well, like surprisingly.
[00:15:01] You know, it's it was a weird that's a weird series because Godzilla King of
[00:15:05] the Monsters, I remember being like an under performer like it didn't do super well.
[00:15:08] And I think Godzilla versus Kong might have been like the biggest beneficiary of the pandemic
[00:15:13] where it happened to open right when vaccines became readily available and people were like,
[00:15:17] I got to go see these giant monsters on the big screen.
[00:15:19] That was my that was me at least.
[00:15:21] But I think you're right, though.
[00:15:22] That was like a big summer blockbuster.
[00:15:24] The movies are back, baby.
[00:15:25] Yes.
[00:15:26] Feeling and even though it may, I think it even made less than Godzilla King of
[00:15:31] the Monsters, but it like it had like the pandemic training wheels or whatever.
[00:15:35] Like it made enough money where it was like, hey, no,
[00:15:39] people are going back to the movies for this.
[00:15:40] Like, you know, just enough.
[00:15:44] And so Godzilla X Kong ended up being a bigger hit than expected because
[00:15:47] people want to see Godzilla.
[00:15:48] They want to see Kong.
[00:15:49] That's it.
[00:15:49] That's the rules.
[00:15:50] I did read the other day.
[00:15:51] This is the highest grossing Godzilla movie ever now.
[00:15:54] Wow.
[00:15:54] Godzilla X Kong, the new empire, which is a little bit of a bummer because I didn't
[00:15:57] like this movie that much.
[00:15:58] And also it's a Kong movie.
[00:16:00] Like, it's a Kong movie that Godzilla smashes his way through every once in a while.
[00:16:04] But yeah, Godzilla X Kong.
[00:16:06] It's I think it was number two of the box office that weekend.
[00:16:09] I still have to see Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and man, I don't know.
[00:16:15] Again, I sort of feel like a sense of like, I got to watch it.
[00:16:17] It's Ghostbusters.
[00:16:18] But at the same time, like if I didn't make it out that opening weekend,
[00:16:21] I don't think I'm making that.
[00:16:22] I don't think I'm making it out and I don't think I'm going to watch it at home.
[00:16:24] Mm hmm.
[00:16:26] I never saw the last one, which I heard is an abomination, but I've heard.
[00:16:29] I think I heard this one is better.
[00:16:30] See, that's the thing.
[00:16:31] I think Ghostbusters Afterlife, which is directed by Jason Reitman,
[00:16:34] I think if it wasn't a Ghostbusters movie, be pretty good.
[00:16:36] Like it's a very solid like 80s, you know, sort of in a similar vein to
[00:16:41] Stranger Things or Super 8 or whatever.
[00:16:44] But I think like really effectively directed some cool set pieces and stuff.
[00:16:47] But just any time it tries to tie back to Ghostbusters, awful, sucks, hate it.
[00:16:52] Hate it with the passion.
[00:16:53] And the last like 30 minutes are like is where they really go hard on that.
[00:16:56] And it really stinks.
[00:16:57] And they do the reanimated corpse of Harold Ramis literally.
[00:17:01] And it's quite bad, not a fan.
[00:17:03] Weird.
[00:17:04] Frozen Empire just looks like a fun episode of the Saturday morning TV show of
[00:17:08] Ghostbusters, which could be fun.
[00:17:10] But I just I got no I have no real desire to watch it.
[00:17:13] Even though Carrie Coon's in it.
[00:17:15] We love Carrie.
[00:17:15] We love Carrie Coon on this podcast.
[00:17:17] She should be a Complete Works person.
[00:17:19] It would mostly be the leftovers, but still, that's
[00:17:22] three seasons of a great TV show.
[00:17:23] That's true.
[00:17:24] Do it do an episode for every episode of leftovers.
[00:17:26] This could just be a leftovers.
[00:17:28] I'm in.
[00:17:29] In any case, Arcadian did not crack the top 10.
[00:17:32] But here is the plot synopsis for the movie from IMDb, a father and his twin
[00:17:36] teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse at the end of the end of the world.
[00:17:41] So there you go, Mike D.
[00:17:42] What were you expecting from Arcadian?
[00:17:45] What did you hope for this movie?
[00:17:47] And what were your overall thoughts coming out of it?
[00:17:49] Well, going into it, I remember it sort of not like not being on the on my radar or
[00:17:53] not being announced or anything until really a dream scenario came out.
[00:17:57] And then there was like, by the way, in three months,
[00:17:59] there's a horror monster movie with Nick Cage.
[00:18:01] I was like, oh, shit, that's cool.
[00:18:03] So going into it, I was excited for for that stuff.
[00:18:06] And broadly, we've talked about I mean, in the last,
[00:18:09] I guess since 2018, like since Mandy basically,
[00:18:12] Cage is pivoted into much more genre stuff.
[00:18:14] But before that, we I think Pay the Ghost was like the only horror movie,
[00:18:18] only genre thing outside of like crime thriller stuff.
[00:18:21] Yeah, unless you want to count like Ghost Rider or something.
[00:18:23] But yeah, that's true.
[00:18:24] But we charted that for a long time.
[00:18:27] But post Mandy, it's been like, oh, that's he's like kind of really in
[00:18:30] that wheelhouse, which is fun.
[00:18:31] Yeah.
[00:18:31] So I was expecting some more of that stuff.
[00:18:33] I was excited up until basically until South by when it premiered and the reactions
[00:18:38] were like not bad necessarily, but not as like hyped that I was hoping for.
[00:18:43] I think there was a lot of excitement going into it.
[00:18:44] And then coming out of South by Southwest, it was like, well, OK, it's fine.
[00:18:48] You know, yeah.
[00:18:49] So tempered my expectations a bit.
[00:18:51] And I think broadly, I agree with that reaction.
[00:18:54] I think there are things in Arcadian that are really fun and really interesting
[00:18:59] and unique and cool.
[00:19:00] But that makes up like maybe 20 percent of the movie.
[00:19:04] And I mean, luckily, it's saving grace.
[00:19:06] It's like 92 minutes or whatever.
[00:19:08] So it's like it is very short, which is nice.
[00:19:10] Like, OK, I'll forgive you a little bit for that.
[00:19:12] You got some stars on the rating just for that.
[00:19:15] But overall, it's just like by minute 10, you're like, OK, so this is going to happen.
[00:19:20] And then this is going to happen.
[00:19:21] And then this is and then, OK, all right, I got it.
[00:19:24] You know, and it's not that it's like boring or anything like that.
[00:19:27] It is exciting.
[00:19:28] I think the monsters are very cool.
[00:19:29] And that's the 20 percent like the monster design, the monster scares
[00:19:32] and all that stuff is really cool and effective and scary.
[00:19:36] But all the just general plot level stuff is like, well, OK, he's going to do this
[00:19:41] because of a girl is going to get lost.
[00:19:43] He's going to get lost.
[00:19:44] They're going to have to break all their rules and then they're going to get trapped.
[00:19:47] And OK, I got it.
[00:19:48] Like it's been 10.
[00:19:48] You know, as soon as there's a line in the movie where they're like having dinner
[00:19:52] and he's like one brother is like what's over at that farm that you're always there for?
[00:19:56] You're like, OK, we figure.
[00:19:57] OK, you told me the whole movie.
[00:19:58] Got it.
[00:19:59] Got it.
[00:20:00] Checked.
[00:20:01] So that really deflates the movie a bit.
[00:20:02] But overall, it's fine.
[00:20:03] It's you know, it's like I said, it's a 90 minute kind of ripoff monster movie.
[00:20:07] It's not quite a ripoff, but it's close enough that it might as well be.
[00:20:12] Yeah, I mean, it feels very derivative of, you know, A Quiet Place, which we've talked about
[00:20:17] already.
[00:20:17] But, you know, also like it comes at night.
[00:20:20] Movies in that vein, right?
[00:20:21] That kind of like, you know, people hiding in a farmhouse
[00:20:24] because there are monsters in the apocalypse sort of situation.
[00:20:26] Which the first 10 minutes of 28 years, 28 months later or 20 weeks later.
[00:20:31] What is it?
[00:20:31] Twenty months later, 28 weeks later is the is the is the sequel,
[00:20:34] which I have yet to see.
[00:20:35] It's going to be a Mike makes Mike watch.
[00:20:36] It is Mike makes Mike watch.
[00:20:38] Yes, but it's got that and it's the best version of that I've ever seen.
[00:20:42] Fair enough.
[00:20:44] But yeah, I think it feels very derivative and I think it doesn't really do enough to really
[00:20:49] like kind of innovate that sort of genre.
[00:20:50] Like it feels very like kind of generic, pretty paint by numbers.
[00:20:54] But the monster design is really cool and that does help make up for a lot.
[00:20:58] So whenever the monster on screen, cool shit like it.
[00:21:01] I was like locked in and I think the way they like reveal them gradually is very cool.
[00:21:07] And I think, you know, I did ultimately like this maybe a little bit more than it comes at
[00:21:10] night.
[00:21:11] Have you seen it comes at night?
[00:21:12] I have not, but I remember being very excited just by that poster.
[00:21:15] Right.
[00:21:16] And then everyone being like, it's not that good.
[00:21:18] I was like, all right, well, forget that.
[00:21:20] That was one of those ones.
[00:21:21] I think I ultimately kind of liked it, I guess.
[00:21:24] But it was one of those like it was right when like a 24 horror movie began to mean
[00:21:28] something.
[00:21:28] One of the first ones.
[00:21:30] And, you know, like the witch had already come out and like there was stuff like
[00:21:33] that.
[00:21:33] Like, oh man, like the next horror movie from a 24 and they never really show you
[00:21:38] the monster.
[00:21:39] They never really tell you what it is.
[00:21:40] And it's like very deliberate in doing that.
[00:21:42] But it kind of just feels a little bit deflating.
[00:21:44] And it is one of those things where, like, you know, I really hate this with
[00:21:48] certain indie movies where, like, I'm watching it and this I can like pinpoint the
[00:21:53] second where it's like, OK, it's going to cut here and it'll be an ambiguous
[00:21:56] ending, isn't it?
[00:21:58] And it comes at night has one of those lamb was like a big yeah, I had a big
[00:22:02] issue with that.
[00:22:04] So it's like, yeah, this exactly where it's going to cut and it's going to be
[00:22:06] like, all right, fine.
[00:22:08] Didn't you have a movie where like the power went out in the theater and you
[00:22:11] thought the movie had cut?
[00:22:13] Yes, that was Tully.
[00:22:16] Speaking of Jason Reitman movies.
[00:22:18] Yeah, Tully with Charlize Theron, which like the power went out in my
[00:22:22] theater.
[00:22:22] There's a huge hurricane like that happened while I was in the movie.
[00:22:25] So I had no idea it was happening.
[00:22:27] And then it was like the power cut out.
[00:22:30] The movie stopped and I thought I thought the movie like it was like, oh,
[00:22:33] wow.
[00:22:33] And I was really impressed and I was really impressed with that cuts of
[00:22:36] lack. That's a really good place for the movie to end.
[00:22:38] And then the credits did not start rolling and I was like, wait, what's
[00:22:40] going on?
[00:22:41] And then like, yeah, turn out the power went out and it took a few minutes
[00:22:44] to get back on and turn out there's like five minutes left of the movie.
[00:22:47] And after the movie ended, I was like, kind of wish you just stopped
[00:22:50] right where right where it did.
[00:22:53] I think it would have been better.
[00:22:55] It's so funny.
[00:22:57] So the opposite of that is what you mean.
[00:22:58] Exactly.
[00:22:59] Yes.
[00:23:00] And so, yeah, I think ultimately I kind of like this one a little bit
[00:23:03] more because it is like it comes at night was going for a very like
[00:23:06] prestigey sort of horror movie, I think.
[00:23:08] And this is pretty content to be pretty trashy, I think once the
[00:23:11] monster show up.
[00:23:13] Yeah.
[00:23:13] And that's pretty fun.
[00:23:15] And I think the reveal of the monsters is really effective, I think,
[00:23:18] because you hear about them for a while and you start seeing them
[00:23:21] and you're not really getting a super good look at them.
[00:23:23] And then there's that one scene where Jayden Martell is like waiting
[00:23:26] in the chair to try to capture the monster.
[00:23:28] And you see like the long fingernail just like out of here,
[00:23:32] like start piercing through the window.
[00:23:33] And it's really effective and creepy.
[00:23:35] And then as soon as like you get a full glimpse of the monster,
[00:23:38] you're in like Looney Tunes territory.
[00:23:40] It's wild.
[00:23:41] The monsters have these like giant flappy mouths and they move so
[00:23:45] quickly and so wacky.
[00:23:47] It's really fun.
[00:23:48] It's wild that like the monster design and stuff is like the most
[00:23:52] unique or exciting part about this movie.
[00:23:55] But like also is derivative a little bit like it looks like
[00:23:58] Ratma.
[00:23:58] Do you remember Ratma from VHS 94?
[00:24:01] I think.
[00:24:01] Hell Ratma.
[00:24:02] Yeah, of course.
[00:24:02] But like also critters, too.
[00:24:05] Sure.
[00:24:05] Yeah.
[00:24:05] Well, so I was reading a little bit about it.
[00:24:07] And so Ben Brewer designed the monsters himself, you know,
[00:24:10] lead visual effects artist on everything.
[00:24:11] Everyone wants.
[00:24:12] So yeah, he's got experience in that.
[00:24:13] But he designed it apparently based on Goofy, like the Disney character.
[00:24:18] Yeah.
[00:24:19] And yeah, he like did an interview with IGN about it and talked
[00:24:22] about it.
[00:24:23] Yeah, I always found Goofy kind of creepy as a kid is like as his design
[00:24:27] and sort of like took inspiration from that and kind of like
[00:24:30] used Goofy to create the monsters.
[00:24:32] Which I thought was very funny.
[00:24:33] That's amazing.
[00:24:34] As soon as you say that, like, yeah, 100 percent, especially the
[00:24:37] like, oh, man, I can't remember what they're called.
[00:24:39] They're like, I think Gooby maybe is like they're really
[00:24:42] like shitty, poorly drawn meme version of Goofy looks actually
[00:24:45] a lot like this.
[00:24:46] Now, you've said that that's wild.
[00:24:48] Yeah.
[00:24:48] Also, when they throw the monsters down the hole, you hear them go.
[00:24:54] Oh, man, they're they're playing that song from the Goofy movie.
[00:24:58] What's the song?
[00:24:59] I can't remember.
[00:25:00] I to I is that the yeah, the by band song power line.
[00:25:04] Yeah.
[00:25:04] Yeah.
[00:25:04] Yeah.
[00:25:05] Yeah, there was a great there was a really good episode of Atlanta in like
[00:25:08] its last season, which is just about a Goofy movie.
[00:25:12] It's like a fictional, like making of documentary about a Goofy movie
[00:25:15] and like the one black artist who tried to create the movie.
[00:25:17] And it's so funny.
[00:25:18] It's so good.
[00:25:19] Anyway, we're not talking about a Goofy movie, although Goofy related
[00:25:22] Arcadian.
[00:25:23] Yeah, I think the monster design is awesome.
[00:25:24] Like I really, really loved the monsters in this movie and that saved
[00:25:28] it for me.
[00:25:28] But I think the rest of the movie is pretty like, you know, not great.
[00:25:32] I think it's fine.
[00:25:33] It's fine enough, I guess.
[00:25:35] Yeah, it's it's not poorly made.
[00:25:37] It's a little bit of a disappointment because I like the trust so much.
[00:25:40] And I was hoping for another like kind of like, you know, solid B picture
[00:25:43] from from Ben Brewer here.
[00:25:45] But it's like the monsters are awesome and everything else just feels pretty
[00:25:48] generic.
[00:25:49] Also, you know, for a Nicolas Cage podcast, Nicolas Cage gets knocked out
[00:25:53] after 30 minutes and then the rest of the movie he's like nodded until the end.
[00:25:56] Then it's kind of a bummer.
[00:25:57] Yeah, I think that's like truly the movie's greatest sin.
[00:26:01] Which happens a lot in these VOD Cage movies, we should say.
[00:26:04] It does, especially recently.
[00:26:06] Yeah, I mean, he's he the first 30 minutes or so, I think, even if it's
[00:26:11] not the exciting monster stuff yet, like is fun, is interesting just
[00:26:15] because it is Nicolas Cage.
[00:26:16] Like there's a part of the movie that I was like, is this sort of just
[00:26:19] going to be like a slice of life drama about this family and this
[00:26:23] situation and this apocalypse and like the other people down the
[00:26:26] valley and like, you know, the whole whatever like that whole thing
[00:26:28] was teaching his kids how to drive the cart and like those.
[00:26:30] Like, wow, this is actually it's just like the power of Nick Cage acting.
[00:26:33] Right.
[00:26:34] That's like it's interesting and fun to watch.
[00:26:35] And it's it's a fun natural evolution of the roles we've seen Cage
[00:26:39] play so far.
[00:26:41] But yeah, and then the monster stuff starts and he gets sidelined
[00:26:44] and you're like, well, what about Nick Cage though?
[00:26:46] Yeah.
[00:26:46] And then he pops up again at the very end.
[00:26:48] He finally wakes up at the end of the movie and he sacrificed himself
[00:26:51] to save the kids.
[00:26:52] Right.
[00:26:52] Like they burn the house down and monsters go with it and all that stuff.
[00:26:56] But yeah, I don't know.
[00:26:58] It's like when Nicolas Cage is there, like he's pretty good in it.
[00:27:00] And I think he is a solid presence in the movie and he definitely has
[00:27:04] more presence in the movie than, you know, the two younger actors
[00:27:07] who are fine.
[00:27:08] They're not bad, but it's just like, yeah, you got Nicolas Cage here.
[00:27:10] He's got presence, you know?
[00:27:12] And, you know, he gets a couple of monologues and he's like the
[00:27:15] stern father who is just trying to keep his boys alive in the apocalypse.
[00:27:19] You know, very similar to Johnston's get Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place.
[00:27:23] Although that feels like a more like, I don't know, conventional family,
[00:27:26] I guess.
[00:27:26] Like a more loving look.
[00:27:27] There's more love towards them and Cage feels like a more stern father figure
[00:27:30] to these two boys.
[00:27:32] Yeah.
[00:27:32] Yeah.
[00:27:32] I mean, it's like it starts with the like during the apocalypse, right?
[00:27:36] It's Cage.
[00:27:37] The whole world is like mostly already collapsed.
[00:27:39] And it's him scavenging in the city or something and running out,
[00:27:42] making it home to his like infants or babies at least.
[00:27:47] And then it's just like 15 years later.
[00:27:48] Okay.
[00:27:49] Skip all that shit.
[00:27:50] You know, which is fine.
[00:27:51] It's definitely more of a like we need to survive kind of relationship
[00:27:54] rather than a we need to make this as normal as possible thing.
[00:27:57] Like in A Quiet Place.
[00:27:58] Like in A Quiet Place, there's like, you know, they're playing
[00:28:00] Monopoly with like softened pieces or whatever.
[00:28:03] And yeah, I don't see that happening in this family.
[00:28:08] But he is like always talking about like what the world was like before.
[00:28:10] He's always holding out hope for, you know, what the future of humanity is.
[00:28:14] And he has like the kind of monologue that I think he gives to Jayden Martel maybe
[00:28:18] about how, you know, they don't they don't really know how many other survivors are out there.
[00:28:22] They know there's like this one household that they go to with the girl and all that stuff
[00:28:26] that like they trade supplies for and all that kind of stuff.
[00:28:29] But, you know, Cage has a monologue where he's like,
[00:28:31] I got to believe there are still people out there.
[00:28:33] And, you know, one day they're going to come around those that hill
[00:28:35] and well, let's call them heroes.
[00:28:37] You know, that's right.
[00:28:38] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:39] You know, that whole monologue.
[00:28:40] And so, yeah, he's sort of beaten down by the apocalypse,
[00:28:43] but not completely like taken out.
[00:28:45] He still holds out hope for the future of humanity.
[00:28:48] Yeah, and I think the interesting thing the movie does is like never really tell you
[00:28:53] what's going on or the apocalypse wise, I mean, like because the kids play that game,
[00:28:57] like I forget, like 10 second apocalypse or whatever,
[00:28:59] or you like have 10 seconds to explain what happened.
[00:29:01] But they're like clearly making up stories and they tell different versions of it and whatever.
[00:29:06] It's like some mystery that's like pretty interesting.
[00:29:08] And like I said, you don't you don't like see the collapse at the beginning of the movie.
[00:29:12] It's like Cage running out of the city.
[00:29:14] So like there's that and like what are these creatures?
[00:29:16] There's like bugs or something.
[00:29:18] And they like do this like cool like Nosferatu shadow thing with their really long fingernail
[00:29:23] and then they like retract their fingernail.
[00:29:24] And now they're right in front of the kid.
[00:29:26] Like they got into the room through that.
[00:29:28] Yeah, so that was neat.
[00:29:29] So like there's stuff like that going on.
[00:29:30] But but then outside of that, it's just like, okay, post post apocalypse farm thing.
[00:29:35] You know, like the kid, like you said, the kid is always going coming back late later
[00:29:39] and later because he wants to spend more time with the girl.
[00:29:41] And as soon as the brother says that, like, okay, he's going to get trapped.
[00:29:44] He's going to get stuck out at night.
[00:29:45] They're going to have to go save him.
[00:29:46] Something's going to go wrong.
[00:29:48] They're going to whatever.
[00:29:48] And you're like, okay, I got 45 minutes now, you know, whatever it is.
[00:29:53] So I think that's the thing that hurts the movie.
[00:29:55] But there's a lot of cool stuff going on.
[00:29:57] Sure. Yeah.
[00:29:57] And all the cool stuff going on involves the monsters, I think.
[00:30:01] And yeah, we've mentioned that scene a couple of times now.
[00:30:02] But yeah, that scene where you have the fingernail thing and the
[00:30:05] it turns out that the kid is like he's pretty smart and he's actually figured out
[00:30:10] a way to trap the monster is is a pretty fun twist on that.
[00:30:13] And then you get the the for the reveal of the full monster when Thomas comes back
[00:30:18] and he's like, oh, you capture one of these things.
[00:30:20] We got to check it out.
[00:30:21] And like the Jayden Martell wants to study it for science.
[00:30:24] Right. And Thomas like, no, we got to kill it.
[00:30:27] And then they kill it.
[00:30:28] But they like unveil a thing like it's in the cage.
[00:30:31] And it's just like this crazy creature, like with its mouth flapping up and down.
[00:30:34] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:35] It just it's really fun.
[00:30:36] And that whole sequence where they had to kill the monster is also pretty fun.
[00:30:40] And then, yeah, and then it becomes sort of a home invasion movie
[00:30:42] where they go to the farmhouse where the girl is and her family to,
[00:30:46] you know, try to take shelter, try to keep Nicholas Cage safe
[00:30:48] because he's still knocked out.
[00:30:49] And then the monsters show up and they invade the house
[00:30:52] and they're fighting off the monsters.
[00:30:53] That's fun. Yeah, that's cool.
[00:30:54] Yeah, I liked all that stuff.
[00:30:55] Basically, the last 20 minutes or whatever is fun and cool.
[00:30:58] And it's just a monster movie by then.
[00:31:00] Yeah. And then they go there to the house to ask for medicine
[00:31:03] or can they like can we stay here till he wakes up?
[00:31:06] And they like throw them out, basically.
[00:31:08] They let one brother stay because like they trust him or something.
[00:31:10] I don't really know why they let him stay.
[00:31:12] But what he tries to steal medicine and go back to his brother
[00:31:17] and they catch him and yeah, and because they're like evil, violent men,
[00:31:20] they leave the door unlocked because they're distracted with beating up this kid.
[00:31:23] And that's how the monsters get in.
[00:31:24] So that's fun, I guess.
[00:31:26] And it's like really violent, actually,
[00:31:28] like once the monster stuff starts happening.
[00:31:30] Oh, yeah, this is cool.
[00:31:31] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:31:32] How do you think this fits into the Nicholas Cage roles
[00:31:35] we've seen so far, Mike?
[00:31:36] Well, we've talked about we've been charting, you know, generally authority figure.
[00:31:40] Now it's just like fully father figure roles a lot that he's playing.
[00:31:44] So there's that, you know, mom and dad, I guess.
[00:31:48] Other other things like that.
[00:31:49] And then just sort of the genre stuff that we referenced earlier in the movie
[00:31:53] or earlier in the episode where it was just Pay the Ghost for a long time
[00:31:57] was like the only like horror thing.
[00:31:59] And then Mandy, Clara Space and now he's doing a lot more stuff like that.
[00:32:03] Yeah. Yeah, this fits in pretty squarely with the VOD Cage era, I think.
[00:32:08] For sure. Yeah, definitely.
[00:32:10] Definitely. Especially, you know, just was it 20?
[00:32:12] I forget, was it 2018 or something where he had eight movies?
[00:32:17] Yeah, one, two, three, four, five.
[00:32:19] I'm seeing seven here.
[00:32:20] I think 2019 is when he had eight movies.
[00:32:21] OK. Well, I was going to say just in the last like five years,
[00:32:24] that's like 40 movies because he keeps doing
[00:32:27] like eight, seven, six to eight movies a year since 2018 or 19.
[00:32:31] Yeah. So he's got a lot of movies that this kind of feels right in the wheelhouse.
[00:32:36] Yes, absolutely.
[00:32:37] And I think, you know, he is trying to slow down a little bit at least,
[00:32:40] but the man can't stop.
[00:32:42] He simply simply cannot stop making movies.
[00:32:45] So I know there's at least two movies coming out this year beyond Arcadian,
[00:32:49] which are Long Legs, which is definitely coming out in July.
[00:32:52] And there's another movie called The Surfer, which I guess that's going to premiere
[00:32:56] at the Cannes Film Festival in just a couple of weeks as of this recording.
[00:33:00] This episode will be out after that.
[00:33:01] So we'll see what the reaction is to that.
[00:33:03] I'm curious about that.
[00:33:04] I feel I feel like I heard about that movie, but I don't remember anything about it.
[00:33:07] I think it's about a surfer.
[00:33:08] You know, probably is a safe bet.
[00:33:10] That's my guess.
[00:33:12] Yeah. There's another movie that's in post-production called The Gunslingers.
[00:33:15] So yeah, there's some cage coming up.
[00:33:17] And plus, of course, there's this now horror Jesus thing that he's got going on.
[00:33:22] That's exciting, I guess.
[00:33:24] Yeah, definitely.
[00:33:25] All right.
[00:33:26] Any other scenes in Arcadian that stood out to you, Mike?
[00:33:28] Anything you wanted to mention?
[00:33:29] I think it's interesting that the monsters are sort of from hell or something.
[00:33:35] I don't know.
[00:33:36] There's this not really, but there's a scene where the kid is running back and forth.
[00:33:40] They keep showing him running back and forth between the farms.
[00:33:42] And he's jumping over this little crevice or whatever.
[00:33:45] And one day he stays too late and he's not being careful.
[00:33:47] And he slips on the thing and falls down this crevice.
[00:33:49] And that's sort of what kicks off the whole movie.
[00:33:52] But yeah, they're weird, burrowing ratma looking motherfuckers.
[00:33:56] I don't know.
[00:33:56] I just make me really just want to go back and watch that.
[00:34:00] Hail Ratma.
[00:34:01] Sure.
[00:34:01] A short for VHS 94, I think.
[00:34:04] Yeah, that's 94.
[00:34:05] I think the director of that directed something else recently too
[00:34:08] that's posted pretty good.
[00:34:08] I forget what it is.
[00:34:09] Cool.
[00:34:10] Anyway.
[00:34:11] Anyway.
[00:34:12] Hail Ratma, I guess.
[00:34:13] Hail Ratma, yeah.
[00:34:14] So yeah, I don't know.
[00:34:15] And then the monsters have this intelligence to them,
[00:34:19] which is what makes them kind of interesting.
[00:34:20] They're not just bloodthirsty monsters or whatever.
[00:34:23] Joseph is I think Joseph is tracking how they're testing the doors and stuff
[00:34:28] to get into the house.
[00:34:29] They remember.
[00:34:30] They remember.
[00:34:31] They're like burrowing under supports and stuff to make the house collapse.
[00:34:34] Like they're like they got thoughts and plans, which is interesting.
[00:34:37] Yeah, that is interesting.
[00:34:38] I mean, because you compare it to A Quiet Place,
[00:34:40] which I feel like it's sort of a quiet place knockoff.
[00:34:44] Like absolutely unavoidable.
[00:34:47] Unavoidable.
[00:34:47] But you compare it to that.
[00:34:48] But I think the aliens in A Quiet Place,
[00:34:51] I think are like sort of just mindless, crazy aliens.
[00:34:54] Right.
[00:34:54] The monsters, like they're drawn to sound and that's it.
[00:34:57] That's about as much as development was we get.
[00:34:59] I never saw it too.
[00:35:00] So maybe there's more.
[00:35:02] Two is pretty good.
[00:35:02] I like two.
[00:35:03] Yeah.
[00:35:03] Oh yeah.
[00:35:04] Yeah.
[00:35:05] I'm surprised you never saw.
[00:35:06] You were a huge fan of A Quiet Place.
[00:35:07] You were better than that movie.
[00:35:08] I don't know what it was that I just maybe never get around to it.
[00:35:12] It came out June 2021.
[00:35:13] You weren't going back to theaters out there.
[00:35:14] That was it.
[00:35:15] Yeah.
[00:35:15] That was probably it.
[00:35:15] But even it's been on VOD since then.
[00:35:17] Yeah, I don't know why I just haven't bothered.
[00:35:18] But yeah, I just I remember that one shot in Quiet Place 1 where it's like the newspaper.
[00:35:25] It's like they came from space or whatever is like the headline.
[00:35:28] Yes.
[00:35:28] There's a lot of that in A Quiet Place.
[00:35:30] So funny.
[00:35:31] Yeah.
[00:35:31] Like just the blackboard in the basement.
[00:35:33] Like what is the weakness?
[00:35:35] Yeah.
[00:35:36] Underlined, underlined.
[00:35:37] Yeah.
[00:35:38] Very funny.
[00:35:39] Which is very good.
[00:35:41] But yeah, I think the monsters in A Quiet Place are weird because that movie
[00:35:45] and kind of tells you exactly what the monsters are.
[00:35:48] They're aliens from space.
[00:35:49] They know they are attracted to sound and that's I mean, it's all you really need to know.
[00:35:54] But that like gives you info and Arcadian kind of tries to play it a little bit like
[00:35:57] mysterious with like where the monsters came from.
[00:35:59] Yeah.
[00:35:59] And like what they want other than just to eat people or whatever.
[00:36:02] Exactly.
[00:36:03] Yeah.
[00:36:03] I did want to mention one other scene too, which is early in the movie,
[00:36:05] which is when the two kids come home and Cage has like made them dinner
[00:36:10] and they are like the kids are arguing a little bit like about something.
[00:36:14] And then Cage like whips out his knife and throws down the table and says,
[00:36:17] are we not men?
[00:36:19] And then that's like their thing.
[00:36:21] And so the two kids both have to take out their knives and jam them in the table
[00:36:25] and go, are we not men?
[00:36:27] Are we not men?
[00:36:28] And the entire time I was like, we are Devo.
[00:36:33] Yeah, I don't know.
[00:36:34] Are we men or dancer?
[00:36:37] They never explained that.
[00:36:38] And you sort of get the idea that Cage is like a little bit of like an academic
[00:36:42] before this, right?
[00:36:43] He's got that book about like chess, famous chess games or whatever.
[00:36:47] And Joseph is trying to play it against his brother with the incomplete chess set
[00:36:51] and all those things.
[00:36:52] And so like, yeah, you get the idea that they had some sort of or Cage had some
[00:36:55] sort of like academic or well read backgrounds, but that felt very like
[00:37:00] Shakespearean or something.
[00:37:01] I don't know what they were doing.
[00:37:03] A little bit weird.
[00:37:04] And then, yeah, he has this big self-sacrifice moment at the end,
[00:37:08] which Cage finally wakes up in the midst of all the craziness going on.
[00:37:12] The monsters are attacking and stuff.
[00:37:14] And then he's able to get the like the kids are able to get out of the room
[00:37:17] and he locks himself in with the monsters.
[00:37:18] The house is burning down.
[00:37:19] So that's you know, the kids have time to escape and the monsters will die.
[00:37:23] Yeah.
[00:37:23] Yeah, they literally like jumped the fridge in this movie.
[00:37:26] They stole it.
[00:37:26] They get they locked themselves in like an ice chest and blow up the house.
[00:37:29] Yes.
[00:37:30] So they get ejected and and survive.
[00:37:33] Yeah, which I would say a good scene in Kingdom of Crystal Skull.
[00:37:37] I have always liked the Nuking the Fridge scene.
[00:37:40] Yeah, I got to watch that again.
[00:37:41] It's been I guess since it came out.
[00:37:43] I haven't watched it since then.
[00:37:44] Yeah, but they do it in this movie.
[00:37:46] Yeah, they yes, they do.
[00:37:47] Yeah, they do.
[00:37:47] And then the movie ends with you know, they there's a tree that is shown earlier
[00:37:51] in the movie that's you know, the the girl I forget her name,
[00:37:55] but the the girl that Thomas is a crush on is like, oh yeah, my family used
[00:37:58] like this was like the limit to where my family would allow me to go.
[00:38:01] Right.
[00:38:02] And said I always had to be like touching the tree and like as I couldn't go any further.
[00:38:05] So she created like a thing where like, oh, I have like a rope with a bunch of flags on it
[00:38:09] that I'm touching that's tied to the tree so I can go further beyond the tree.
[00:38:13] And so there's a nice little moment at the end where they get to the tree
[00:38:15] and they take the rope with them.
[00:38:16] So it's like they're still touching the tree.
[00:38:18] Yeah, cute.
[00:38:20] Symbolism or whatever.
[00:38:21] Hashtag symbolism.
[00:38:22] Yeah.
[00:38:23] I thought it was really funny too.
[00:38:24] They're like like they they like it's not really funny,
[00:38:27] but it's one of those things where you're like, wait a second.
[00:38:29] It's the post-apocalypse.
[00:38:30] The apocalypse.
[00:38:31] Everything is gone.
[00:38:31] Society doesn't exist.
[00:38:33] It's all these sort of like insular farms that are nearby each other.
[00:38:36] But presumably, there's no like, I mean,
[00:38:38] maybe the families would have taught them the children like religion
[00:38:41] and like what funerals would be because they like bury their parents with the crucifix
[00:38:46] and like eulogize them and stuff.
[00:38:48] It's like that's a learned societal thing.
[00:38:50] Nobody would just know to do that.
[00:38:51] Like, I don't know.
[00:38:52] It was just such a weird took me out of the movie for a second.
[00:38:54] Yeah.
[00:38:54] I mean, that is these kids grew up in the apocalypse.
[00:38:57] Right.
[00:38:57] Because they were babies.
[00:38:58] Yeah.
[00:38:58] Yeah.
[00:38:58] I guess there's also a difference between this and A Quiet Place is that A Quiet Place,
[00:39:01] I think takes place like a year or two after the the aliens first show up.
[00:39:05] Yeah.
[00:39:05] I don't remember, but it seems newish.
[00:39:08] Yeah.
[00:39:08] It's it's I think there is actually like it shows you like day 400 or something.
[00:39:13] Yeah, I think you're right.
[00:39:13] Yeah.
[00:39:14] Something along those lines.
[00:39:15] It's been happening for a couple of years, but like the kids in A Quiet Place knew the
[00:39:19] world before the apocalypse.
[00:39:20] Right.
[00:39:21] Except they have like a newborn baby that gets born during the movie,
[00:39:24] which is one of the most tense sequences in A Quiet Place.
[00:39:25] I watched that again.
[00:39:26] It's a good movie.
[00:39:26] It's a good movie.
[00:39:27] Yeah.
[00:39:28] And like weirdly, I think a surprisingly influential movie.
[00:39:31] I don't know.
[00:39:32] I think I mean, you have the sequels obviously,
[00:39:34] but then you have movies like Arcadian.
[00:39:35] I remember Bird Box came out around the same time too.
[00:39:37] A year later and everybody's like, this is just a quiet place, but with eyes.
[00:39:43] Anyway, weird.
[00:39:44] In any case.
[00:39:46] Yeah.
[00:39:46] Any other last thoughts about Arcadian before you start rapping the sudden
[00:39:49] fun letterbox reviews?
[00:39:51] You know, it's fine.
[00:39:52] It's OK.
[00:39:53] It's not as good as I was hoping for, but I don't think it's like terrible and
[00:39:57] a complete waste of time.
[00:39:58] So if you're like us, you know, obviously, if you're a cage completionist,
[00:40:01] you got to do it.
[00:40:01] But in general, if you like sort of sort of cool monster movies with,
[00:40:05] you know, that kind of take a violent, exciting, scary turn in the last act.
[00:40:08] So I think it's worth it.
[00:40:09] Yeah.
[00:40:09] If you're going to watch a Ben Brewer movie, I would say watch The Trust.
[00:40:12] Yes.
[00:40:12] The Trust rocks.
[00:40:13] It's really fun.
[00:40:14] And yeah, I mean, even though Arcadian didn't really do it for us,
[00:40:17] he did the visual effects for everything ever all at once.
[00:40:19] It's pretty cool.
[00:40:20] That's that's pretty cool.
[00:40:21] That's solid.
[00:40:22] I was like, oh, he must have won the Oscar for that.
[00:40:23] I was like I was looking to see if I could find his acceptance speech.
[00:40:28] Turns out movie nominated for visual effects, which was surprising to me
[00:40:32] because it was nominated for everything else.
[00:40:36] But that was the year that Avatar, The Way of Water won visual effects,
[00:40:39] which is OK.
[00:40:39] You're not going to beat that one.
[00:40:40] That's that's just to give that one to Avatar kind of situation.
[00:40:44] But yeah, Ben Brewer visual effects artist and everything ever all at once
[00:40:47] also directed Arcadian.
[00:40:48] So that's neat.
[00:40:49] Here's some letterboxes used for Arcadian.
[00:40:51] Mike, we got a three and a half star review from Drew Clark.
[00:40:54] These motherfuckers fighting some Studio Ghibli ass monster.
[00:40:58] You know, now that you've said that.
[00:40:59] Yeah.
[00:41:00] Yeah, you can see it.
[00:41:01] Especially the like mouth flappy thing that they all do.
[00:41:04] Yeah.
[00:41:04] Right.
[00:41:04] Yeah, that's got big, big, surprisingly scary Studio Ghibli moment.
[00:41:08] Yes.
[00:41:09] Kind of vibes.
[00:41:09] Absolutely.
[00:41:10] Here's a four and a half star review from Kev Flicks and chill.
[00:41:13] This movie fucking rips went into this completely blind with the
[00:41:16] exception that someone has said the trailer looked like in a quiet place
[00:41:20] clone derogatory in their eyes, a compliment in mine.
[00:41:23] I think most will come away thinking that is partially that
[00:41:26] with a healthy dose of I am legend mixed in.
[00:41:28] I'm trying not to divulge too much information because the thrill
[00:41:31] of not knowing what to expect is what I loved so much about it.
[00:41:34] Are there werewolves, monsters, bugs, aliens, zombies,
[00:41:38] irradiated humanoids, wild animals or perhaps nothing at all?
[00:41:41] Terrifying this family on a farm and that tension ratchets up to 11
[00:41:45] as the sun starts to go down and we get the sense that danger is on the horizon.
[00:41:49] I honestly don't want to say any more except that I had a really awesome time
[00:41:52] with my two oldest kids in an otherwise empty theater.
[00:41:54] Hell yeah.
[00:41:55] Yeah.
[00:41:55] The review could have been written by Nicholas Gage,
[00:41:58] his character in the movie actually.
[00:41:59] It's true.
[00:42:00] Yeah, good point.
[00:42:02] Here's a three and a half star review from not Anna Faris,
[00:42:04] which makes me think that it is Anna Faris's burner account.
[00:42:07] You can easily compare Arcadian to a quiet place and it comes at night.
[00:42:11] But come on, we're getting caged here.
[00:42:12] We need more pizzazz.
[00:42:14] Throw dog soldiers, critters too and Joe into the mix
[00:42:17] and perhaps that terrifying 20th century toy
[00:42:20] and don't saturate the vibe with too much talky talky,
[00:42:23] but instead give it a moody musical score and don't skimp on creature design.
[00:42:27] Now that's something we can get caged about.
[00:42:29] This person knows what they're talking about.
[00:42:32] I'm glad that somebody else named critters too for you, Mike.
[00:42:35] They inexplicably form a giant ball and roll down the hallway, Mike.
[00:42:40] Yeah, that is true.
[00:42:41] I didn't make that connection, but I will say I saw critters too
[00:42:45] at a trash vault screening at the Roxy like two years ago
[00:42:48] and it was one of the most fun times I've ever had watching a movie.
[00:42:51] Critters too is incredible.
[00:42:52] I'm so happy.
[00:42:53] All right.
[00:42:53] Got one more here is a two and a half star review from Bella.
[00:42:56] This is what it comes at night should have been.
[00:42:58] Not like it was much better than that, but still mediocre at best.
[00:43:02] Whatever those creature things were though definitely gave me the heebie jeebies.
[00:43:05] Sometimes that's all you need in a monster movie.
[00:43:07] You just need a scary monster that'll do the job
[00:43:09] and that is what Arcadian provides.
[00:43:13] I don't have anything to say to that.
[00:43:14] It's such a good wrap up.
[00:43:15] Yeah.
[00:43:17] All right.
[00:43:18] That's going to be the end of this week's episode of the podcast, Mike Dees.
[00:43:20] Where can we find you online this week?
[00:43:22] You can find me at MD Film Blog on Twitter, Letterboxd and Blue Sky.
[00:43:27] If you would like to donate, support the show, you can do that on our Ko-fi page,
[00:43:30] which is ko-fi.com slash Mike and Mike Pods.
[00:43:33] And if you want merch, we have merch available on our Redbubble,
[00:43:35] which is Mike and Mike Pods dot Redbubble dot com.
[00:43:37] That's right.
[00:43:38] You can find me online at Msmith Film Blog on Twitter,
[00:43:40] Mike Smith Film on Letterboxd, Radio Mike's Sandwich Instagram.
[00:43:43] Thank you so much for listening to Complete Works.
[00:43:44] I'm Mike Smith.
[00:43:45] That's my decree show.
[00:43:46] Don't forget to rate and view the show on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast app.
[00:43:49] And if you want to contact us, you can hit us up at Complete Works Pod on Twitter.
[00:43:53] That's no O in the word works.
[00:43:54] You can find the rest of our podcast on Rapture Press alongside many other
[00:43:57] podcasts, all kinds of comp books and movie news and all that good stuff.
[00:44:00] Our theme song was created by Kyle Cullen, who you can reach for your own podcast themes
[00:44:04] at kylespodcastthemes.gmail.com.
[00:44:06] And our logo for the Complete Works Season 1 was designed by Jacob Honeycutt or
[00:44:10] at Jacob Honey on Twitter.
[00:44:12] Now the Roy Scheider season is going on right now.
[00:44:15] This episode will come out a few weeks into the season,
[00:44:18] so as not to disrupt it too much.
[00:44:20] But our next Nicolas Cage episode will likely be Long Legs this summer,
[00:44:24] which July 12th that comes out.
[00:44:26] So get hyped, get ready.
[00:44:27] Can't wait for that.
[00:44:28] Some Oz Perkins goodness.
[00:44:30] Yeah, I wonder unless how fast the turnaround on that con movie is.
[00:44:36] Yeah, Long Legs most likely.
[00:44:37] Long Legs most likely.
[00:44:38] It would be really funny if the surfer comes out in June
[00:44:42] and we do an emergency cage episode.
[00:44:44] And of course, check out Mike and my go to the movies,
[00:44:46] which is now being released in the form of bonus episodes on this podcast feed.
[00:44:51] Off mic discussions.
[00:44:52] Thanks Mike.
[00:44:53] Watches and just various other stuff is going to be right here.
[00:44:56] So yeah, check those out.
[00:44:57] Thanks so much for listening guys and thanks for getting in the cage.