Ep. 88 - Nicolas Cage - SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018)

[00:00:00] My name is Peter Parker. I'm pretty sure you know the rest. I saved the city, fell in love, then I saved the city again and again and again. Look, I'm a comic book, a serial, I get a Christmas album and a so-so popsicle.

[00:00:14] But this isn't about me. Not anymore. Spider-Man swings in once a day, zips up, and his little mask and answers to no one. I love you, Mons. I know that. You gotta say I love you back. Dad, are you serious? I wanna hear it. Look at this place.

[00:00:32] Dad, I love you. Dad, I love you. That's a copy. My name is Miles Morales. I'm the one and only Spider-Man. At least that's what I thought. You ever hear of the Super Collider? You're gonna love this. Dimension opening now. You're like me. That's impossible.

[00:00:56] Alright kid, listen up. What is your universe? It's soggy, it's weird, it's gross. And this delicious normal fry is my universe. So you wanna learn to be Spider-Man? Can you teach me? Yes I can. Time to swing. Good, you do it.

[00:01:11] Double tap to release and flip it out again. Okay. Swip and release. You're a natural swip. Hey guys. Who are you? I'm Gwen Stacy. I'm from another dimension. How many more Spider-People are there? Hey fellas. Hello. This could literally not get any weirder. It can get weirder. Okay.

[00:01:38] We need to get back to our universes soon. Brooklyn is gonna collapse. My family lives in Brooklyn. Miles, what's wrong? This was never your city. It's mine. If I don't destroy the Collider, none of us will have a home to go home to. Remember what makes you different?

[00:01:58] Let's go! Is what makes you Spider-Man. Officer, I love you. Wait, what? Do animals talk in this dimension? Cause I don't wanna freak him out. Welcome to The Complete Works, an in-depth look into the career and filmography of Nicolas Cage.

[00:02:30] My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey into the depths of True Cagedom is my friend, co-host and fellow cageaholic. Mike, how you doing? I'm doing great. How are you Mike? I'm great Mike.

[00:02:42] So we've only got two movies left to talk about on this podcast, which is insane to me that we've come to the finish line. It's almost done. It's wild. Yeah. In next episode, we'll be discussing the last film that Nicolas Cage made in 2018, which was called Between Worlds.

[00:02:57] And I haven't seen that one, so who knows? Maybe it's good, but I doubt it's as good as the movie we're gonna talk about today. A movie that I was pretty breathlessly anticipating as a huge fan of filmmakers

[00:03:08] Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and an even huge fan of Spider-Man. I am of course talking about arguably the best superhero movie of the last 10 years. An animated movie that changed the game for what modern popular animation can look like

[00:03:21] and your Academy Award winner for best animated feature last year. It is finally time for us to talk about Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. The Promised Land again also. But for real though. The huge sigh of relief that you just breathed was pretty amazing. You're awesome.

[00:03:38] Sorry if that blew out anyone's headphones, I mean. But yeah, that's how I feel. Yeah, absolutely. Now what, what about this movie, Mike? Actually first leaks during the Sony email hack back in 2014. Wow. Where, yeah, remember that? Remember those, the glory days, the Sony email hack?

[00:03:56] Yeah, I think we talked about that on our literal first episode of Filmbookcast. Yeah, I believe you're right Mike because the very first episode of Filmbookcast was the interview which was obviously a big subject in the Sony email hack. Yes. We've gone full circle I think, I guess.

[00:04:12] Yeah, kind of for two different podcasts but sure. But one journey, Mike. You know, in alternate dimensions really, which podcast is first? We'll never know. Yes, good point. So in that email hack, that's where it came to light.

[00:04:24] That's Sony was in the early stages of working on a Spider-Man thing with Phil Lord and Chris Miller and this was the same year that the duo was riding high on the success of both the Lego movie and a few months later, 22 Jump Street.

[00:04:36] So this was obviously very exciting news to young Mike, Mike. Because I was big on the Lord Miller train for years. Actually before that even, like I was a huge clone high fan. I was glad I had the chance to meet balls, 21 Jump Street.

[00:04:50] These guys were people that I figured could do no wrong and I bet big on them in 2014 I was telling people, hey, the Lego movie, it's going to be great. And people were like, yeah, whatever, shut up.

[00:04:59] And I was like, no, it's going to be awesome and then it turned out to be amazing. And it was snubbed at the Oscars that year with Lego movie but there was redemption last year when Spider-Verse finally got that Oscar nomination

[00:05:08] and win actually so there was that too. So yeah, were you a Lord Miller fan kind of leading up to Spider-Verse Mike? I mean, I guess like kind of just through cultural osmosis. I don't think I had seen, I mean I saw Lego movie

[00:05:20] but it was one of those things where I was kind of like not really aware of them. I didn't know about clone high, well you told me about it. I'd never seen that. I tell everybody about clone high.

[00:05:31] Yeah, and I don't think I had seen 21 Jump Street at the time by then. Like when 2014 stuff or whatever. So like I wasn't really jazzed about them in general but by now I am for sure. They can almost do no wrong.

[00:05:46] Yeah, so in 2014 it was revealed kind of accidentally that they were kind of working on a Spider-Man thing. In 2015 that's when Lord of Millers signed on to do Solo, a Star Wars story which obviously occupied most of their time. Lord had developed the story for Spider-Verse

[00:06:01] and handed it off to Rodney Rothman to help coordinate the screenplay. He and Miller were still involved but in more than exec producer type capacity while they were deep into doing their Star Wars thing. And then that Star Wars thing did not happen. Whoops.

[00:06:16] Yeah, June 2017 Lord and Miller were removed from Solo a Star Wars story in the middle of shooting and replaced with Ron Howard. Now speaking as somebody who was a big fan of Lord and Miller but has no idea what the movie would have looked like

[00:06:29] this was a pretty bonehead move on the part of Disney Lucasfilm. I still think it's one of the dumbest things they've done in the entire run that they've had Star Wars since 2012 or whatever.

[00:06:40] And it's still a bummer to me that we couldn't see what Lord and Miller would have done with Solo. Very much hashtag release the Lord and Miller cut. But the upside is that the two pretty much went straight back to work

[00:06:52] and got way more involved with Spider-Verse and with Lego Movie 2 as a result than they were able to while they were working on Star Wars. So the result is a movie that feels very much of a piece with what Lord and Miller have done in the past

[00:07:02] but without the two of them actually directing the movie. The movie actually has three credited directors. Credited directors I believe is what I just said. I think that should be a real job title. Peter Ramsey is one of them. Co-screenwriter Rodney Rothman and Bob Parishetty

[00:07:21] who Lord mentions each as having different talents. He called Ramsey the animation guy, Rothman the comedy guy and Parishetty the poet. And I like that description of all those guys. That mix of different talents with Lord and Miller's touch added on top

[00:07:37] resulted in one of the biggest, most bombastic, most well-received superhero movies ever. Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. It's an absolute triumph. Even people who don't like superheroes tend to be into Spider-Verse because of its arresting animation, quick pace, sense of humor, strong character work.

[00:07:53] Mike, we were both pretty obsessed with this movie when it came out just under a year ago, December 2018. We're going to talk about your overall thoughts on this movie but first reaction, come down to the theater, what was your take on Spider-Verse? Just like goddamn.

[00:08:07] When I first saw this, I was very ill. I went to a friend. They do a Friendsgiving party every year and it was just a party sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas kind of thing and it was right around the time Spider-Verse came out

[00:08:24] so like I was already sick and they were like, no you got to come to the party man like you got to come down. So like I went, I was sick, got drunk and then the next day I was hungover and sick

[00:08:34] and then we were like, hey let's just go see Spider-Verse and it just was a solve on my painful body. Just everything hurt and Spider-Verse made everything better for that two hours basically and it was just, it's a blast man, it's so much fun, it's so good.

[00:08:51] So yeah when I came out of it was like wow I needed that I didn't know that this would have saved my soul basically in that moment. Yeah I mean I was really looking forward to this movie for a long time

[00:09:02] when the first trailer came out and I saw what the art style was and what the sense of humor there, I was like oh my god this is going to be amazing. Like I was hyped for this movie from minute one

[00:09:11] and then when the review started coming out this movie weeks before the actual movie came out they started screening it for critics a while before it was actually released because they were so confident in the final product they realized they really had something special in their hands here

[00:09:24] and so they started screening it for critics way in advance and I'd been hearing nothing but non-stop praise for this movie leading up to its release and it was starting to win like different awards and these kind of things here and there

[00:09:34] it was getting a lot of top 10 lists and I was like oh my god I can't believe this animated Spider-Man movie is supposed to be this good. And then I saw it and I was like yeah no I get it it's really fucking good.

[00:09:45] Yeah I saw it on its opening night here in Missoula, Montana at the AMC Dine and Theater I was alone because I had just moved here a few months ago didn't really know anybody and I think I had a theater of like maybe 15 or 20 people in there

[00:09:56] like it was a Thursday night show opening night kind of thing so it wasn't a huge crowd or anything but I was completely blown away by it and then I saw it again I flew back to New York for Christmas a couple days later

[00:10:09] and ended up seeing it again with my family over Christmas break and kind of solidified it as like okay yeah this movie is awesome and then I bought the Blu-ray had not watched it since then though I had not gotten the chance to watch the Blu-ray

[00:10:21] like I hadn't gotten around to it and then I re-watched it for this podcast still fucking great genuinely like when I saw it I was like okay this Spider-Man 2 still the best Spider-Man movie but Spider-Verse very close second and now I'm like their neck and neck like they're...

[00:10:39] I have long said that Spider-Man 2 is the best movie ever made Mike as you know and if something were to defeat that then that movie would by default be the best movie ever made and it seems ridiculous that it would also be a Spider-Man movie and yet

[00:10:54] and yet Spider-Verse so the real question here is Mike where does Nicholas Cage fit into all this? This is a Nicholas Cage podcast we've got to talk about the Cage well the conceit of this movie is that a bunch of different Spider-Men from alternate universes have all been

[00:11:12] transported into this one occupied by Miles Morales just as he first developed Spider-Powers and Nicholas Cage is one of those alternate Spider-People he plays Spider-Man Noir a black and white Spider-Man from a world stylized with old Noir movies from the 1930s

[00:11:26] Cage is doing a Humphrey Boat Guard impression just like a dog eat dog it's amazing. Do you remember you knew going into the movie that Cage was in it right? You were aware. Yes, yeah I remember the kind of lead up to this movie

[00:11:38] where it was like oh man it's gonna be alternate Spider-People there's all these other ones and then I remember them announcing like oh it's going like who it's going to be and then the other characters I feel like is how it went first

[00:11:52] it was like oh yeah like Spider-Gwen's going to be in it and Penny, Spider-Ham and all these people and then they started announcing the voice cast and it was Nick Cage as Spider-Man Noir and just like wow. And I think we both had this kind of

[00:12:04] we both had that reaction of like oh my god I can't believe that's happening because you know we haven't even kind of touched on this yet but back we went to college together back in like actually in 2014 when we did that interview podcast

[00:12:16] in 2014 that's when the Spider-Verse event comic series was happening in Marvel Comics and I was obsessed with it. Like I was all in, I own every single comic that was published during the Spider-Verse run like every tie-in comic there was probably like 30 ish comics out there across

[00:12:32] all these different series I had all of them I was deep into Spider-Verse I remember explaining to you what Spider-Verse was a lot Yeah at least once. Yeah there was a couple times when I was a little bit older because I wasn't reading comic books at the time

[00:12:46] and you told me about it and I was like that is fucking incredible that's fascinating tell me everything and you just like sat me down and were like okay so there's multiple universes and like you just explained the whole story

[00:12:58] and then like every couple weeks or once or whatever I'd check in and be like what's up with Spider-Verse and you would give me updates Yeah I just go through this long tangent I was obsessed with it and I think I might have been like two words Spider-Gwen

[00:13:10] That's all I heard You kind of got into comics a little bit afterwards and you got into Spider-Gwen specifically like you were really into that comic for a while too So yeah so this movie coming out

[00:13:20] it kind of had stuff that appealed directly to the both of us which was great and of course the fact that Nicholas Cage was in the movie didn't hurt either but beyond Cage this movie is just completely stacked with one of the best cast

[00:13:32] you're ever going to find in any movie released in the last few years I mean it's insane the level of voice talent that went into this movie So in the lead role of Miles Morales you've got Shamik Moore who plays his roles in the movie Dope

[00:13:42] and the TV series The Get Down Mentoring him is Peter B. Parker the Spider-Man from another universe and he's played by Jake Johnson of course best known for his role in New Girl and then there's your favorite Spider-Gwen Gwen Stacy played by Hailey Steinfeld here

[00:13:58] who has recently been doing some great work in The Edge of Seventeen and Bumblebee and yo true grit I don't know I feel like nobody remembers that she was in true grit I feel like anymore you know what I mean I was her debut film

[00:14:10] that's what I was going to say yeah that was her debut film she was 14 years old or whatever or 12 or something but now she's in I think because the more people who know her now know her as more of a pop star she had a hit song

[00:14:24] and she was also in the Pitch Perfect movies so I think they know her more for that but yo true grit she was in a Coen Brothers movie at day one that's incredible so yeah Hailey Steinfeld plays Spider-Gwen and that's kind of the main trio of heroes

[00:14:38] in the movie and then you've got a terrific supporting cast two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali who actually won that year for Green Book which we don't talk about plays Miles' uncle Aaron Davis aka Prowler Brian Tyree Henry from Atlanta plays Jefferson Davis Miles' dad

[00:14:56] and Luna Lauren Villez from Dexter plays Rio Morales Miles' mom and Aunt May also pops up in this movie voiced by Lily Tomlin and she plays the first role in the Aunt Bully which makes this a cage reunion wow didn't expect an Aunt Bully reunion

[00:15:12] when you entered this podcast did you Mike? I did not see that coming, not at all no one ever expects an Aunt Bully reunion it's like a Spanish acquisition now she introduces the gang to a few more Spider people including Nicholas Cage as Spider-Man Noir

[00:15:26] plus Kamiko Glenn from Orange is the New Black as Penny Parker aka SP slash slash DR pronounce that so I won't and John Mulaney comedian John Mulaney one of the best comedians working today is playing Peter Parker slash Spider-Ham who also has a short cartoon on the Blu-ray

[00:15:44] and it's delightful I don't know if you got to watch that I did not actually I was going to watch it anyway and then like the movie ended and the credits went through and then it just started automatically playing

[00:15:54] the Spider-Ham short and I was like hey this is great nice yeah it's like four minutes long recommend it I got a chance and I'm not done Zoe Kravitz is here as Mary Jane Watson Katherine Hahn as Olivia Octavius Lee F. Schreiber as Wilson Fisk's Kingpin

[00:16:10] Chris Pine plays the Peter Parker from Miles Universe who dies early in the film Spidey Bells for Life one of my favorite songs Lake Bell from Children's Hospital is Vanessa Fisk Wilson's Kingpin's wife Yorma Tacone from the Lonely Island is here as the Green Goblin

[00:16:26] and he also plays Spider-Man 67 in the post-credits sequence Marvin Jones III from Black Lightning and Waukeen Koiso from Quantum of Salas play Tombstone and Scorpion Post Malone as a cameo in this movie is a Brooklyn bystander he's the guy who says I think it's a Banksy

[00:16:42] and he also wrote the song Sunflower which plays throughout the movie it's like Miles' favorite song Oscar Isaac appears as Spider-Man 2099 in the post-credits scene and Greta Lee from Russian Doll voices as AI Lila Stanley of course Stan Lee has a cameo in this movie as well

[00:17:00] the first Stanley cameo that came out after he died which just made it all the more poignant sitting in that theater watching Stanley again and since he was also in Teen Titans Go to the Movies that technically makes this a Caged reunion also

[00:17:12] so the movie was written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman who also worked on 22 Jump Street and directed by Rothman Peter Ramsey who had previously directed Rise of the Guardians of Dreamworks and Bob Parishetti who co-wrote the Teen Stop Motion movie The Little Prince

[00:17:26] on a budget of 90 million dollars it made about 375 million raked in countless awards and they just recently announced a sequel which should be hitting theaters in April 2022 is what they're saying so I'm very excited about that kind of a ways off but

[00:17:42] given the amount of time and detail that went into making this first one it makes sense it would be that long of a wait but it's going to be worth the wait I think on December 14th, 2018 and if you weren't seeing it like some kind of dummy

[00:17:56] you might have seen the Peter Jackson produced Sci-Fi Mortal Engines or you could have seen Clint Eastwood get in front of the camera for The Mule which I saw it's decent, it's fine and it features Clint Eastwood having two separate three way sex scenes at age 90

[00:18:14] wow it's wild shit he also directed the movie Does he have trouble with the curve in that or no that was a joke specifically for you and EJ that was a good joke alright Emily, IMDB Plot Synopsis for Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse Reads

[00:18:36] Teen Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man of his reality crossing his path with five counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities so Mike, what are your overall thoughts on Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse Spider-Verse is just perfect on every level basically, it's really the only way

[00:18:54] to sum up my thoughts on this movie like I said before I came out of it and I felt better even though I was very sick and definitely should not have been at that party the night before but yeah it's just a great movie all around

[00:19:08] it's just fun, it's heartfelt like a couple almost tear-jerking moments while all of the coolest shit that I would have ever wanted in a comic book movie just like happening which is so funny compared to end game well end game hadn't come out yet but Infinity War

[00:19:26] hadn't come out earlier that year and all the Marvel stuff like the big tentpole MCU stuff and here comes this little animated movie that just I mean I don't know it's so interesting we talked about on our Joker episode Mike and Mike go to the movies

[00:19:46] we talked a little bit about the animated DC movies a little bit for Batman Joker and stuff like that and those movies don't really matter that much usually they just happen in their direct video or they have a fathom event kind of thing and they play once

[00:20:00] and this was a major theatrical release animated Spider-Man movie and it just fucking crushed it and everything about it is great as a result of being in the Dungeons & Dragons Twitter family you see a lot of there's a lot of artists and animators

[00:20:16] that do a lot of like D&D fan art and stuff so like I have my toes in animator Twitter I guess and just to see that world completely lose their collective minds about this movie was so much fun because on top of being an incredible movie

[00:20:32] like a story and awesome characters and all that it basically revolutionized how animation can be done so watching people just lose their fucking minds over that was so much fun and just like the cultural experience of Spider-Verse is equally as fun as the movie which is wild

[00:20:48] I don't know if you feel that way also I also feel that way, I mean the animation this is absolutely insane it is probably the most visually dynamic animated movie in America at least has come out in the last like 10 years I can count on like one hand

[00:21:02] the amount of movies I think are equal to Spider-Verse in terms of like their animation quality like maybe Kubo and the Two Strings that might be it, like it's genuinely like those two the animation is so cool and it's so unique and it just feels so effortless too

[00:21:16] that's the thing, it's completely changing what is possible in modern animation and it's so fucking casual about it it's just so cool it's so much fun to just watch and like I've mentioned I'm a huge superhero fan, I've seen basically every superhero movie that has come out

[00:21:32] in my lifetime I would guess maybe not every single one's come out in my lifetime but like every major Marvel movie, every major DC movie I've seen all these movies right Spider-Man has always been my favorite character Spider-Man's always been my favorite

[00:21:44] there was maybe a two year period after Dark Knight came out where I was like nah it's Batman, he's awesome but then I went back to Spider-Man and this movie I think gets to the heart of the character and embraces the ideals that Stan Lee and Steve Dicco

[00:21:56] and countless other writers and artists have brought to him over the last 50 years it's just such an amazing accomplishment like watching it again, I was like holy shit I knew the movie was great I didn't forget that the movie was great but I forgot how great it was

[00:22:10] and you know watching it genuinely like I think I mentioned right before, did I mention this already on the podcast or before, off mic when I watched it on Thursday night and then I was thinking to myself

[00:22:22] as I was writing the notes for this episode of the podcast I was like man if I could get back from work in time I might be able to rewatch Spider-Verse again before we start recording just because I was getting myself so hyped up writing stuff about it

[00:22:36] that I was like, yeah Spider-Verse is great it's just so good, it's so much fun and it is one of those things I think it's easily one of the best superhero movies ever made and I think better than anything that's come out since The Dark Knight

[00:22:48] and I don't think it's had purpley I think it's just fact, as much as I enjoy the MCU stuff and I think the interconnected universe is really interesting and cool and fun it's just this movie is on another level

[00:23:00] every other superhero movie has done over the past 10 years it's really incredible yeah, I would agree with that just thinking of animated movies that I don't know if revolutionized the landscape but like the Lego movie using animation to just be Lego blocks

[00:23:18] which is interesting that it's for Lord Miller again just casually changing the game twice in like 5 years yep pretty cool it's just a great Spider-Verse man let's just do a Spider-Verse cast and just watch it every week because

[00:23:34] I feel like we might be happier people if we did we might be, I think instead of watching every direct to video cage movie cage has done in the past 10 years if we just watched Spider-Verse instead of every single one of those movies that would have been awesome

[00:23:48] and one thing I also love about the movie is it's also constantly moving there's zero fat in the story of this movie there's nothing I would trim out but I think it's either like an exciting action set piece or a terrific character beat

[00:24:00] or a really satisfying dramatic moment it's one of the funniest movies in years but it's also like really dramatically satisfying too there are scenes that genuinely bring me to the verge of tears while watching this movie partly because some of them are dramatic scenes

[00:24:14] some of them are exhilarating and super in scenes or I'm just like move the tears by how much fun I'm having almost but it's great, it's so good Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse it's an awesome movie what you do need us to tell you

[00:24:26] is how is Nicholas Cage in Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse so Mike, what do you think of Nicholas Cage in this movie? I think he much like the movie around him is perfect in this movie yeah I say that as half as a joke

[00:24:42] and half but no actually though because he's just doing the noir like the Humphrey Bogart impression and it makes sense in this movie for his character I mean it kind of made sense in Dog Eat Dog in the sense that like there's a dream sequence

[00:24:56] and somebody's like hey you know who you look like Humphrey Bogart or whatever they set it up, it's weird you're right it doesn't really make sense but it's great in that movie I would defend Dog Eat Dog to the death you like that movie too

[00:25:10] I don't have to defend it from you but you're right, he's actually playing a noir character so it makes more sense to do the Humphrey Bogart impression yeah just seeing all the spider people hang out is just so much fun and you can tell

[00:25:26] all of the voice cast is having fun I know I think it was part of the promotional material they put out where it was like video of them recording a lot of their lines and of course the best video yeah the best video was Nicholas Cage

[00:25:38] recording his lines also which was him in the booth going nuts like oh that's great yeah it doesn't even say at one point he's like oh you want Nick Cage and like he like or says you want Full Cage I forget he uses like the meme phrase

[00:25:54] you would hear the day before hey you're gonna work with Nick Cage tomorrow but then you'd walk into a room and Nick Cage would be there that alone was amazing Spider-Man noir he's probably the edgiest of the Spider-Man think Raymond Chandler think Paul Kane

[00:26:08] those great old detective novels he had a take on the character he was funny if you made adjustments in his performance he would make them way better than you even thought I'm talking hard boys real biscuit boxers can you fight them all off at once

[00:26:22] I'd heard that after his first recording session he did a few lines the director kept making notes and then Nicholas just turned and he was like oh you want me to go Full Cage is that all you got you're gonna fight or you're just pumping gums

[00:26:34] you hard boiled turtle slapper he brought the cage but yeah it's just so good and he's noir and who doesn't want to hear Nick Cage talk about fighting Nazis in 1939 or whatever in 1933 or whatever year it is yes that's awesome I'm biscuit boxers and Nazis or whatever

[00:26:50] yeah it's kind of like inspired casting that made me jump when I saw the news I don't remember how far back it was that they announced that Nicholas Cage was in this movie I feel like it was earlier in 2018

[00:27:02] I saw the news that Nicholas Cage is playing Spider-Man noir and again I was obsessed with Spider-Verse I knew who Spider-Man noir was he had a big Spider-Verse issue that they put out and I have that I knew Spider-Man noir from before that

[00:27:14] kind of like a whole noir miniseries thing in the early 2000s late 2000s something like that and Spider-Man noir had been a character in a couple of video games and stuff like that so yeah I knew Spider-Man noir and I loved the characters

[00:27:26] look and design and everything like that and once they said that they were playing it I was like this is perfect this is amazing like A, I couldn't believe I was going to see Spider-Man noir in a movie in the first place right and B, he's Nicholas

[00:27:40] fucking Cage like come on that's incredible and then you add the fact and then you add on that John Mulaney is playing Spider-Man and I was like that's it my mind is destroyed like I can't even handle this amount of leg insanity

[00:27:52] that this movie is about to throw at me so I was pretty confident that this movie is going to be amazing for a long time and I feel like I was fighting people about how this movie was going to be great

[00:28:04] which again same thing with the Lego movie like when I was like oh guys Lego movie is going to be great and I was like oh you're crazy it's just some stupid Lego movie I was like no it's going to be great but with Spider-Verse I remember like

[00:28:14] I had friends who were into superheroes but who didn't want to see it because it was an animated movie it wasn't like a live action thing and that kind of thing actually our good buddy Vin

[00:28:24] who was on the podcast might come and go to the movies every once in a while he just subbed in for you recently when I was on the double tap review when the movie first came out he did not see it in theaters

[00:28:32] he didn't want to go see it he was like I'm just not interested and we both had him on at some point we were like dude go watch fucking Spider-Verse it's great what are you doing and then eventually he watched it

[00:28:44] and he was like oh yeah I watched it like six times since you talked to me it's incredible it seems like everybody who watches it becomes like a convert to it but I feel like there was a lot of people who were really skeptical about the movie beforehand

[00:28:56] because they didn't want to go see an animated kids movie or whatever but anyway back on the subject of Nidlis Cage S. Spider-Man Noir and he gets some of the best lines in the movie I think a lot of the funniest lines come from Spider-Man Noir

[00:29:10] the running bit with him with the Rubik's Cube is great he's trying to understand the different colors that are on the Rubik's Cube he has the line where he's describing his backstory and he's like sometimes I let him mash but not my fingers just fucking feel something anything

[00:29:26] and then he doesn't feel anything but I think honestly my favorite line in the entire movie is when all these Spider-People are kind of ganging up on Miles asking like hey what can you do this can you do this and Cage is coming at him

[00:29:38] can you close off your feelings so you don't get crippled by the moral ambiguity of your violent actions it's just so fucking good I thought you were going to talk about my favorite line in the whole movie which is the most hard boiled Noir line ever

[00:29:52] is when they all square off in Aunt May's house and he's like we don't pick the ballroom we just dance and I was like yes that's so good after she's like oh you guys go outside he says it's the best yeah that's incredible also

[00:30:10] he has so many great lines in the movie also when he first shows up his cape is blowing in the wind hey fellas is that wind what's going on wherever I go the wind follows and the wind smells like rain and like that's

[00:30:26] the extent of all of his lines in the movie but they're all perfect every single line he says is the best line of all time in any movie that's ever been written it's just science people correct and again he is very much a supporting role

[00:30:42] mostly there for jokes he's like 95% jokes he's a part of that one kind of dramatic scene towards the end right before they had the big battle where they were like telling Miles hey I lost my uncle Ben I lost my uncle Benjamin

[00:30:56] and that kind of thing where everybody's kind of a part of that but outside of that Kate is mostly there for jokes and he's great at it there's also the one they're trying to infiltrate the ballroom and he's like he sees that the other

[00:31:06] waiters are dressed as Spider-Man and he looks down and he's like it can't be that easy can it and they walk in and they're just walking in their normal costumes like oh it can't be that easy but yeah he has a great job

[00:31:16] with those jokes I think one of the great strengths about this movie is I would follow any of these characters into their own adventure after this movie ends there's a whole series of Spider-Verse movies like and spin-offs and things like that

[00:31:28] and like I said they're working on the sequel which will come out in 2022 if there was word last year they were going to work on like a spider women spin-off that would be like Spider-Gwen and possibly like actual spider woman and silk and stuff like that

[00:31:40] so I would be all about that because I was super into silk like that character in that comic after the Spider-Verse event happened but yeah so we'll see what happens with all that right now all we know for sure that Spider-Verse 2 is happening in 2022

[00:31:50] but yeah I would follow any of these characters to get to their own thing especially a whole movie set in like the stylized 1930s where Nicholas Cage is playing Spider-Man that's just the kind of thing I need in my life right now

[00:32:00] yeah but I didn't know I needed but Phil Lord and Chris Miller gave me and now I need more right and that's their whole MO I feel like everything Phil Lord and Chris Miller do it's like okay this is an idea that should not work

[00:32:12] and then they're going to make it work now you're like okay this is my new favorite thing of all time alright you know that's why people weren't into the Lego movie like that whole idea of a 22 Jump Street or a 22 Jump Street

[00:32:22] and that kind of thing but every one of them was great you know also go watch Clone High it's awesome it's so good but again I feel like we are praising Phil Lord and Chris Miller a lot and they definitely had a huge hand in this movie

[00:32:32] but there's so many people who worked on it like all the directors Peter Ramsey, Bob Parishetti and Ronnie Rothman and all of the various animators and stuff like that like I was watching some of the special features on the Blu-ray a little bit

[00:32:44] just kind of looked at a couple of the brief featureettes but like you know every one of them has like one that's just kind of like describing all the Easter eggs in the movie or some of the Easter eggs because there's so many

[00:32:52] there's like hundreds of Easter eggs in this movie you're never going to catch all of them and they have like a short like four minute feature where it's kind of pointing out some cool things here and there and like Brian Michael Bendis is in it

[00:33:00] and a couple of things like that and you know there's like the Stanley cameo and then there's also like other Stanley's throughout the movie that are kind of like in the background of scenes and things like that and all the stuff there's so much stuff to dig into

[00:33:12] and there's so much like cool background detail and there's like you know hundreds of people who worked on this movie incredible just like watch that on the screen being like this is like man that's nuts I remember there was like one Twitter thread

[00:33:22] from one of the animators in the movie I forget the guy's name but he's the guy who animated the Spider-Gwen drum sequence where so every time they introduce a new character they do like a quick like intro thing and it's like a recurring bit throughout the movie

[00:33:34] it's like alright let's do this one more time the characters comic gets thrown down and you get to see like their quick origin story and what I love about that is like every time the characters comic is thrown down and stuff and it's like the Spider-Gwen comic

[00:33:46] it's Jason LaTour and Robert Rodriguez it's like those are the guys who wrote the Spider-Gwen comic it's incredible I think it's actually their first appearance but it's an actual comic book cover which is awesome yeah exactly they show the Spider-Gwen comic

[00:34:00] and they do the whole Gwen Stacy intro thing and there's a quick bit where she's like I joined a band and it shows her drumming along and the animator who did that like did a really detailed Twitter thread about the creation of just that

[00:34:12] like brief two second flash and the amount of work that went that two seconds of Gwen Stacy drumming is like insane it's absolutely insane and it's one of those things that you just pass it by so quickly you barely even notice it and that's the entire movie

[00:34:28] the entire movie is like that yeah there's the whole thing about the frame rate too with Miles I'm sure you've heard of right where in the beginning of the movie he's animated I think at 12 frames per second instead of 24 frames so like subconsciously he's a little choppier

[00:34:44] than Peter B Parker and then by the end of the movie when he like comes into his own Spider-Man he's animated at a full 24 frames so he like figured out his whole thing and it's like that's fucking insane one thought of that and then two they did it

[00:34:58] and it's beautiful and works and like it's all just for a subconscious effect you don't realize this is how it reacts and all the different just kinds of animation that are happening in this movie seamlessly blended in together there's like computer animation 3D stuff

[00:35:12] then you have like these kind of quick 2D flashes they turn into like paintings for a second and they come back when Miles is blood, I show Miles as Bloodstream after he gets the Spider-Bite and it's all like 2D cartoons yeah

[00:35:24] then like Cage like this monochromatic black and white thing and then there's the anime inspired Penny Parker and then the Spider-Ham where it's like a Looney Tunes cartoon and it all just kind of blends together and it all looks good that's the amazing thing about it

[00:35:36] it like this could have been like a disastrous mess like this could have been hard it could have been like one of the most visually ugly movies of all time they managed to pull it off and it's really incredible to watch that kind of thread being handled

[00:35:48] in this movie so we got it off the topic about Cage how do you think this fits into the roles that we've seen Nicolas Cage playing with the movies Mike? it's the natural progression no yes for real though I feel like we've had a couple voice roles

[00:36:02] you know Crews Cast stay tuned for our next episode of Crews Cast Crews 2 is still dated for December 2020 by the way here we go but like I feel like Cage has a potential to have a like long robust voice acting career if he ever chooses to stop

[00:36:20] like being on film I don't think he ever will but he's incredible like in the last couple years like the you know of his you know outside of GeForce I guess you know post GeForce he's been great he's given a really good voice performance in GeForce

[00:36:36] I'll go to the back of Cage in GeForce Peggy Sue got married voice coming in there it's great that's a really easily durable voice exactly I mean but that's actually what I was gonna sort of talking about like we've always

[00:36:46] noted like what voice is Cage using in a lot of his movies when he uses silly ones and he's known for that I think so like I could see him if he ever like you know gets too old or feels like he can't do the action whatever

[00:36:56] you know I was like I hope he kind of just becomes like this like voice actor that's in a ton of movies because he's amazing in them he's so much fun you know yeah I mean that might be a more enjoyable podcast

[00:37:06] if we got to watch a bunch of animated movies of Cage in them as opposed to like a bunch of like really bad low budget VOD movies that Cage is in at least the animation you'll have something like fun to look at you know

[00:37:18] like no matter how bad the movie is but anyway yeah so yeah I think that's definitely a fair point and you just mentioned Teen Titans go to the movies play on the animated superhero twice in the same year Superman that movie

[00:37:30] Spider-Man in this movie I think it was actually the guy who played Spider-Man in the PS4 video game kind of noted that online right he was like you know imagine the year Nicholas Cage is having where he gets to play Superman and Spider-Man

[00:37:40] in the same year like that's insane yeah I'm not sure anybody's ever done that before that's one thing that Cage has over anybody else they are voice roles but they are still Superman Spider-Man yeah what about you Mike why does this movie

[00:37:52] fit in what do you got yeah so there's that Teen Titans go to the movies and obviously the movie is a little bit more of a dog-eat dog is definitely a factor in there too this is his first time being in a Marvel

[00:38:02] property since the Ghost Rider movies oh yeah I wanted to mention that although kick ass was based on one from icon comics which is an imprint of Marvel so it's like technically a Marvel movie but technically not and I'm sure Marvel as a studio has no

[00:38:16] association with the no with kick ass that does not fit their image at all unless we forget you know Nicholas Cage did do a pretty great movie with the Red Rock West yes which is pretty great movie too and I don't think he does his Humphrey Bogart

[00:38:30] impression in that movie which is a shame because he totally showed oh my god that's one movie that if we ever were in our last episode or our bonus last episode or whatever we do like a recap I gotta go back and watch that movie

[00:38:44] it's been I forget everything about it other than I think it was really cool yeah I mean it's a it's a really cool movie it's got Nick Cage it's got Donna from Twin Peaks yeah I forgot Donna from Twin Peaks it's got Dennis Hoffers in that movie yeah

[00:39:00] it's really good stuff that's right yeah so Red Rock West that is one like we're gonna we're gonna do our big top 10 episode after our between worlds episode and part of me wants to rewatch a few of my favorite Cage movies just to

[00:39:12] make sure solidify my top 10 if I have the time so we'll see what happens I probably won't end up getting to do that but you know but like Red Rock West we watched like three years ago so it'll be great to rewatch it just to

[00:39:24] like confirm if it's on my list or not you know alright any any moments or scenes in Spider vs. The Suit Out To You and you can't say the entire movie so pick something else so the part between the opening credits and the end credits because

[00:39:38] the entire movie just that whole section right there I mean the my favorite scene I think it is the whole or like one of my favorite scenes especially with Cage is the scene at Ant May's the like introduction to everybody we get all the intros at once and

[00:40:00] you know and there's the funny bit where he's like it's kind of a long story and then it's like okay maybe it wasn't that long I forget what the actual joke of that is yeah and all the way up till

[00:40:10] when Miles leaves so that's the scene where you talk about where you mentioned where he's like can you close off your feelings so you don't have the moral ambiguity what are your violent actions and like that whole thing and just everybody beaten up on Miles

[00:40:20] it's just like the emotional core of the movie right there I think yeah no I think you're right that whole sequence is great and that's great like you know look at the Spider layer there's a whole bunch of like background Spider references from various things

[00:40:32] the Spider mobile is pretty prominently featured in that shot and you can see like a whole bunch of like classic Spider-Man costumes kind of in the background too which is pretty cool that whole thing with the Spider suits and stuff like you know that's the whole

[00:40:42] thing of Spider-Man the PS4 game like you can unlock all the seats and like these came out at least the same year or was that the game before? it was the same year the Spider-Man PS4 game came out like a month before this movie came out I think

[00:40:52] yeah like wild it's just like weird serendipity thing that they all happened at once which as since I watched the Easter egg bonus feature on the Blu-ray they point out the Spider-Man PS4 video game costume is in that oh really?

[00:41:08] player thing yeah it's like all the way at the end which is a pretty cool touch and I didn't notice that when I watched it probably because I played with that costume for like an hour and then switched over to something else as soon as I could

[00:41:20] because I mean it's a fine costume I actually played most of the game as the classic Steve Ditko Spider-Man costume with the kind of the kind of associated one that was the one for me

[00:41:30] I was like oh shit this makes me feel like it's an account but it's great nice if you haven't played Spider-Man the Spider-Man PS4 game do that too 2018 was a good year for Spider-Man it was just nice you know yeah that was the year that

[00:41:42] Spider-Man was in like a huge great video game who's in Spider-Verse and Infinity War also having a very significant role in that movie actually 2018 was also a really rough year for watching Spider-Man die on film yeah tough times because he dies in Infinity War and then

[00:41:58] the Chris Pine Spider-Man dies in this movie too so there's a little bit of that too spoilers for Infinity War I guess if you haven't seen it you haven't seen it which I would imagine anybody listening to this podcast probably seen Infinity War but

[00:42:10] and I would imagine if you haven't seen Infinity War you probably don't care about the spoiler anyway yeah but yeah there's so much cool stuff happening in this movie I think one of the things I really noted this time around

[00:42:20] is the kind of parallels between the beginning and the end of the movie the Miles has walked through the neighborhood in the beginning is like directly parallel with the end of the movie when he's as Spider-Man and kind of doing the same thing like hey I'm Spider-Man, haha

[00:42:32] walking through like doing the thing it's like basically the same kind of walking through the street and I love that like symmetry between that is really cool yeah I really like the speaking of the symmetry stuff between the way Chris Pine Spider-Man slingshots his way to the top

[00:42:52] of the room in the Collider Room is the same way Miles does it at the end when Gwen and Peter B Parker are like we taught him that right that's right yeah I just like that there's stuff like that if you're paying attention

[00:43:06] you can see all the symmetry stuff exactly yeah it's awesome let's do this one more time I think it was so much fun Chris Pine has the first one at the beginning and then Jake Johnson is like shortly after that one

[00:43:18] and they both incorporate imagery from other Spider-Man movies especially the reigning movies Chris Pine even makes a direct reference to Spider-Man 3 at one point and I did this it's like the dancing sequence we don't talk about that as somebody who has hardcore defended Spider-Man 3 for a long time

[00:43:34] I'll still say it's a pretty funny sequence that's good but yeah so that's always great and you know Spider-Gwen's intro when Spider-Gwen shows up which is about how like Gwen Stacy appears earlier in the movie but you don't like it's not revealed

[00:43:48] that it's her she's like pretending to be a guanda I think is what she calls herself you know there's the big sequence where they're infiltrating Alchemyx trying to get the computer codes or whatever the flash drive and then like they're being chased through the forest by Octavius

[00:44:00] and the whole like scientist Alchemyx and Gwen Stacy shows up the guitar distortion kicks in like the rock soundtrack and it's just the coolest fucking thing of all time yes there was a couple I was watching this movie again alone in my apartment

[00:44:18] and I was like cheering at several different scenes they're like yeah it's so fucking cool and that is definitely one of them for me like when Spider-Gwen first shows up and like you know it's just in full costume and I was like yeah from the beginning of Spider-Gwen

[00:44:30] I read that comic I have Edge of Spider-Verse number two which is when Spider-Gwen first appeared and I read the whole Spider-Verse and I read the first several issues of her solo comic before I ended up not buying comics that much anymore because they were really expensive

[00:44:44] but so it's just cool it's just so cool to see Spider-Gwen in this movie and to see her as well realized as she is it's really awesome yeah that was really cool I wasn't really sure what to expect but Spider-Gwen's the one comic book that I really followed

[00:44:58] until recently last couple months or so so like when they do the whole thing where it's like oh you know her like okay this is my story thing and like oh yeah you know she saved her dad and she couldn't save Peter

[00:45:12] and that he was the lizard in her universe and all that shit and I was like oh my god it's the real thing they're doing it like it's the actual story which was so cool and yeah just that whole punk motif thing that she has it's just like

[00:45:24] wow it's so good it's so cool yeah I mean I really hope like I'm sure she'll be in the Spider-Verse sequel but I really hope that Spider-Women's spin off does come to pass at some point because it would be incredible

[00:45:34] also we kind of mentioned Doc Ock is in this movie but we didn't really say like how Doc Ock is in this movie because the reveal that Doc Ock is in this movie is like I remember seeing that in the theater and like

[00:45:44] having my mind explode behind me and like hit the people behind the seats behind me it's incredible so it's Olivia Octavius it's a woman this time voiced by Catherine Hahn and she's like a scientist and it's like just revealed like she's

[00:46:00] just I don't think they gave her name for the entire first half of the movie like she kind of introduced them like a video that Miles is watching at school and then they're at Alcom X and they might call her Olivia at some point

[00:46:12] but they never actually say like her full name yeah I noticed it on this watch in that scene when Miles walks in on the video and the teacher pauses it and he blocks it says her you can see on this bottom it says Dr. Olivia

[00:46:24] and he moves over and you can see Olivia oh but he's blocking the screen so you never get the full name until like when she it's revealed who she is that's why I don't see that if you're paying attention you might be able to figure it out

[00:46:36] I guess but I didn't notice it till like my fourth watch which was this time right so and I would imagine most people wouldn't have that either but yeah that reveal is incredible when she's being like she's just sitting there

[00:46:48] watching you die and you kind of have this like what is she talking about and then like the arms are coming out and it's like people wouldn't call you Doc Ock by any chance would they it's like actually my friends call me live

[00:47:00] my enemies call me Doc Ock which is great because later on in the movie Aunt May she shows up at Aunt May's house and Aunt May calls her Liv at some point like oh great Liv's here it's like what does that mean what is going on

[00:47:12] and I know like fans have taken that and been like oh Aunt May and Olivia Octavia and kind of like weird sexual relationship at some point and like that's extrapolating a lot from that scene but like they're like who knows

[00:47:24] I think it's applying that they knew each other at some point so yeah it's kind of nuts but yeah that whole reveal is incredible and just one of many great reveal moments throughout the movie and just so many cool background jokes

[00:47:38] the bagel joke man I laugh every time because it set up so well like when Spider-Man is like describing his plan and saying like okay these are the steps that plan number one go in there number two do this number three you're gonna find

[00:47:50] the head doc the head scientist and Miles is like oh that lady over there is the head scientist and you see Pete like the cartoon Peter like in the map thing kind of like look at like he's looking at a guy and then he like kind of turns

[00:48:00] over to the lady and he's like oh okay step three I reexamined my personal biases and then like step four grab a bagel from the from the lunch room step five take my escape and then like they actually do all those steps

[00:48:14] including grabbing the bagel from the lunch room and then somebody shouts he took a bagel and they start shooting at them and then they throw the bagel behind them and it hits a scientist in the background and it's like

[00:48:24] you know way way in the back of the frame it hits the scientist in the back of the head the same scientist who shouted he took a bagel and then you see the word bagel flash on the screen like bagel exclamation point but it's like just in small

[00:48:36] way in the background it's amazing and it's one of those things where it's like like you didn't need to go the extra mile for that joke like you know you could have just said I'll take a bagel and that could have been the end of the joke

[00:48:46] but there's like four different like steps to like that joke and that payoff and that payoff is something that like you know most of the people watching it for the first time are not going to get like they're not going to see that joke yeah yeah it's incredible

[00:49:00] it's so good that's one of my favorite things about this movie and the animation style and everything is the incorporation of just comic book format like you know Miles's inner thoughts popping up as text and stuff like that and you know like people

[00:49:14] when they punch stuff it does like the action lines of their hand like the impact lines or whatever they're called so it's just so much fun I love that and especially the scene when Miles and his uncle or he paints the like no expectations graffiti thing

[00:49:30] when he gets first bitten and just like when he's spray painting like the spray of the spray paint like bounces back onto the screen and like all around the frame and the edge and stuff I don't know just so they play with the format so much

[00:49:42] it's awesome absolutely and you mentioned the voice thing where like the inner voice kind of comes in and he's like why is my inner voice so loud and that kind of thing and that's the whole scene where Miles is running around school being chased by a security guard

[00:49:52] and he ends up in the building and also one of my favorite one of my one of the funniest moments in the movie is when he when he shows up and he's like Miles where were you and the voice like play dumb it's like who's Morales

[00:50:04] and he runs off this whole movie is good Mike I don't know if you've noticed it's just yeah I feel like that's all like you know when I said like any scenes to that studio I knew it was just going to be like a laundry list of like

[00:50:14] the scene is great and this scene is great and this scene is great and it is but yeah also just wanted to give a shout out to Leah Shriver as kingpin who is like maybe like he's probably 10th down or something

[00:50:26] on my list of like great performances in this movie because there's so many just great performances but the way he's like early on in the movie the way he says like oh it's a hell of a freaking light show you're going to love this

[00:50:36] I just I really like it I think it's just for really fun line reading you had a couple this year of just like the way somebody says a word and so I'm glad this is one of them yeah I love that

[00:50:50] so much and this movie has a lot of those for me especially with Cage also with Cage and Milani yeah it's fantastic we mentioned dead Peter's spider lair we mentioned Aunt May who was a badass in this movie by the way she's great yes

[00:51:04] the whole fight scene also in Aunt May's place there's so much chaos going on and it's all visible if you can actually see everything going on the split screen and there's different things going on I think one of my favorite things in the movie

[00:51:14] is when they show like these different corners of the screen with different things happening and spider him and it's the last one and just smashes a plate on his own head yeah it's great it's so good and his like big touching moment

[00:51:26] before he goes back to his universe he gives Spider a Miles Morales like a big wooden mallet and he's like it'll fit in your pocket it's the big moment yes I love that there's a couple of those like that like Spider-Man Noir

[00:51:40] is like big like moment as he's leaving I don't understand this thing he's holding the Rubik's Cube but I'm going to right which is great also I love the moment during that scene where you know after like Miles is showing up and he's like saving everybody

[00:51:56] and he's like Miles you're doing it I'm so proud of you do I want kids everyone has such a good arc in this movie I know yeah that's really fantastic we haven't really mentioned what Peter B Parker is going through but like he's like this over the hill

[00:52:12] like 30 something Spider-Man he's overweight he's in sweatpants for most of the movie yeah you know his marriage with MJ has like collapsed cause he didn't want kids and she did and that kind of thing and he's like this universe has passed away long ago

[00:52:26] and all that stuff and so like the way he goes from just like the shrubby kind of like over it Spider-Man into you know hey I'm actually teaching this kid and I'm mentoring him and he kind of gets his Spider-Man mojo back through this relationship with Miles

[00:52:40] it's great it's everything about this movie works on every level it's actually insane to me how good this movie is I think I placed it as my number 4 on my 2018 list last year and I feel like I maybe underrated it

[00:52:54] like I should have been a little bit higher up wow but yeah Spider-Man the Spider-Man is so good we're going long we're almost at an hour here so we want to kind of quickly rattle through a few things here Mike unless you have

[00:53:06] more stuff that you want to throw in there I mean I'm gonna agree with every scene you mentioned so just go ahead alright fair enough okay just real quick the scene where they're infiltrating Alchemyx and they get there and Miles is like invisible on his computer

[00:53:20] and the computer pops up and there's files everywhere and it's like clean up your desktop lady it's great and there's the scene with Miles tied up in his room and unable to answer his dad as his dad looks his heart out after Uncle Aaron dies

[00:53:34] yeah it's so good it's so powerful it's so emotional you can see Miles struggling to kind of get out of his binds and he like you know his dad can see his shadow moving in the door and it's so great it's so nice

[00:53:46] and then right after that is the big sequence where Miles finally comes into his own gets his Spider-Man costume it's just fucking stellar shit right there it's so good just the way he jumps off and I mean the upside down shot where Miles is like rising

[00:54:00] as he's falling like it's the rise of Miles Morales even though he's like kind of dropping downwards I mean it's incredible it's so good I feel like I've said that a million times this is gonna be absolutely it is so good it's so good

[00:54:14] and you know there's the moment where Miles like shows up during the big final fight he jumps in Doc Ock like he first survives there like he's doing the invisible thing for a bit he's like what is going on and then he jumps out

[00:54:26] and the background color just flashes for a second you know what I mean where it's like it completely flashes then goes back and it's like oh man I cheered I like I cheered watching again I was like holy shit that's incredible but yeah otherwise

[00:54:38] also this movie made me miss New York a lot like I will say no watching it again like I feel like this movie really evokes the spirit of New York in a way that a lot of movies don't really do as well anymore

[00:54:50] I don't know I feel like you know there's like the 70s movies that were really New York-y and like you know since then New York has become a lot more gentrified and things like that and like it's a different kind of vibe that New York has in movies

[00:55:00] and that's fine but this movie felt like New York to me in a way that a lot of movies try to capture but don't quite hit the mark like the train of sequence where he's like just kind of latches onto the subway and like he's

[00:55:10] you know flying through and he's at the dead Peter park like the quote-quote dead Peter kind of dropping and then they fall down to the floor and everybody in the streets just walking around them not paying attention

[00:55:20] to them and he's like hey if you guys just step around and nobody does anything it's like alright thanks New York yeah that's great there's the especially the one moment I forget he's riding the subway like as smiles and there's just like the

[00:55:36] announcement it's like stand clear of the closing doors I was like that's like I think he got the actual recording from the subway because it's so perfect and it's like I wouldn't surprise I wouldn't even think about it but that's

[00:55:48] a thing like you know I lived in New York for most of my life I recognize that voice immediately like that's stand clear of the closing doors please but you know I live in Montana now that's not a thing that you hear out here you know it should

[00:56:00] and so I feel like if you're not from New York that won't mean anything to you it's a very weird like New York specific thing which is kind of cool also part of the movie takes place in the Hudson Valley which is where I lived in New York

[00:56:14] so like that's kind of cool too I like that they call it like a town or it's like you know it's from Hudson Valley New York I think it might actually be a town in the Hudson Valley called Hudson Valley I wouldn't surprise you

[00:56:28] I'm not 100% on that but the Hudson Valley is not known for being very creative so I say that as if it's not it's a bull string film industry what am I talking about but also I flew back to New York earlier this year

[00:56:42] and I spent the day in Brooklyn back in March which was like a few months after I saw Spider-Verse and like when I was in Brooklyn I kept like internally shouting Brooklyn the way Miles does in this movie it's great and you know just the level of details

[00:56:56] and saying like you know also I just wanted to quickly point this out because I noticed this time around this time around watching the movie during the scene in Alcamex I noticed that Miles' shoe is still untied from earlier in the movie really? right exactly but I didn't

[00:57:12] pick up on that when I first saw the movie back in theaters and so I saw it this time on Brooklyn and I was like oh my god it's been like almost an hour since that happened and the shoe is still untied

[00:57:22] but yeah also quick shout out to the post-credits scene which features Oscar Isaac a Spider-Man 29-9 who will theoretically be in Spider-Verse 2 we assume and you know it's basically a gag which is kind of interesting like hey 29-9 tier 2 like amazing like that's great

[00:57:36] and then he travels back in time or he travels to his universe that's Spider Earth 67 it's the old animated Spider-Man TV series and it kind of does the meme thing where it's the two Spider-Man pointing at each other and that's a delight too, that's also great

[00:57:50] also Stan Lee plays J. Jonah Jameson in that clip oh that's right any other stuff about Spider-Man and Spider-Verse you want to throw out there Mike, before we start wrapping this up we're getting on to a lot of box reviews it's good

[00:58:02] that's all I want to watch it forever basically tell me what the letter box people said I genuinely want to watch it again as soon as we finish up a reported episode did you watch it in alternate universe mode by any chance I did not

[00:58:16] I've commuted too because that's like like deleted scenes and different animatics and stuff it's incomplete stuff that we're kind of working to show you this kind of early cut of the movie and I've read a little bit about what alternate universe mode is

[00:58:30] and there's a lot more stuff with Miles' roommate for example and that kind of thing so I am interested to watch that, actually maybe that's what I'll do after our finished recording episode there we go but yeah that might be a thing

[00:58:42] any final Nicholas Cage thoughts before we get on to letter box reviews Mike because we kind of went off topic in Cage because Granted Cage is in like conservatively like 15 minutes of this movie maybe yeah final Cage thoughts is that it's good he's great

[00:58:56] it's so much fun in this movie and I genuinely this movie made me excited for the possibility of a late career voice acting like move for Cage, I hope he does it he's great in this, he's great Crute's too coming out eventually maybe possibly in 2020

[00:59:14] yeah so I hope he does some more of that stuff because he is a lot of fun in these late stage voice roles absolutely and this is like you know we had Mandy earlier this year that's like two pretty incredible movies that Cage was in in 2018

[00:59:26] which was a better batting average than he's had in a very very long time so hopefully he can keep that going I mean 2019 I don't know I feel like there's the stuff that I've heard I haven't really followed

[00:59:38] like a ton of the reviews for some of this stuff too closely here it not great things but Color Out Of The Space comes out pretty soon which I have heard pretty good things about and that comes out in February 2020

[00:59:48] so looking forward to that definitely going to check that out when it comes out in theaters or if it comes out in theaters around here or VOD or whatever but yeah very excited by Color Out Of Space and we will cover those movies at some point

[00:59:58] when they become more like easily available to us I think maybe we'll wait a year and then come back and do that thing but until then we got one more episode after this and then our big top 10 episode and then we're going to be wrapping up Complete Works

[01:00:12] which is insane to think about but alright Spider-Verse, Letterbox Reviews let's do it Mike here we go a 4.5 star review on Letterbox for Spider-Verse I'm so overwhelmed what do I even say that hasn't already been said could go on about the colors, the animation, the action sequences

[01:00:26] the everything really but for now I'm just going to process the fact that Nick Cage shows up twice in my top 10 list this year which was the same for me last year too Mandy I think was my number Mandy I think might have been my number 5

[01:00:40] and Spider-Verse was my number 4 last year I'm pretty sure and upon further reflection I feel like Spider-Verse should have been like number 2 maybe here's a 5 star review of Spider-Verse which reads, it's a very short one the G in LGBT stands for Gwen I mean I'll allow it

[01:01:02] there you go, here's a 4 star review which reads took them nearly 20 years but someone who actually likes comic books for their uniquely expressive textures, rhythms and colors finally made one of these movies which is true again this movie

[01:01:16] feels more like a comic book than any other comic book movie that has come out and ever probably then like some comics even yeah that's also true here's a 4.5 star review for Spider-Verse which reads anyone are you okay? me I'm fine, my brain

[01:01:34] into the Spider-Verse you can see a billboard for the play High Hello, a parody of the real play Oh Hello with John Mulaney's name but the title as Miles is a teenager living in a universe where John Mulaney apparently exists

[01:01:44] especially as he lives in New York he must be aware of New York based comedian John Mulaney surely he would have recognized Mulaney as a very distinctive voice coming from Spider-Hem does John Mulaney exist in Spider-Hems universe 2? what if Spider-Hem was actually John? then it cuts off wow

[01:02:00] which I'm impressed by that one because that's the kind of thing that I would think about quite a bit actually we mentioned there is a lot of background jokes and gags and stuff like that but in Times Square specifically they cut back to it a lot

[01:02:12] of different billboards of stuff that's like our universe but just slightly different High Hello which is a parody of Oh Hello there's a Bridesmaids poster in there but it says a baby shower or something like that there's a Seth Rogen movie called

[01:02:24] Hold Your Horses which just has Seth Rogen on a horse yep that's great here's a four star review from Patrick Willems YouTuber who I really like he said by the time this movie turned into animated Bill Senkowitz painting I had to stop myself from screaming

[01:02:38] holy shit I love this so much I'm gonna have to scream wow which is also fair here's another review which has no rating but it says the best Spider-Man in all the Spider-Man I've never seen anything like that needs a theme park ride now all the stars

[01:02:56] PS, Kathleen Kennedy wishes she could go into Lucasverse where Phil Lord and Chris Miller are still directed solo what a mistake I will never get over it all the meta and none of the smugness that usually comes with it they always get to an extremely earnest place

[01:03:08] and they're taken down the fourth wall entirely I imagine L-Film thought a meta solo wouldn't be digestible but these guys have such a talent for not undermining the universe they're exposing it's how we consume art on the internet and they're the only ones bringing it to the screen

[01:03:20] so succinctly yeah that's the end of the review which to me there was a bit of like I feel like it was just a little bit of a shot in front of it that Spider-Verse came out the same year as solo

[01:03:34] a Star Wars story and then Spider-Verse went on to be this huge critically acclaimed hit it made four times its budget it went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and solo did not do super well in the box office and generally would kind of like

[01:03:46] fizzled out like nobody really even the people who liked it were like yeah it was fine like it wasn't anybody's favorite Star Wars movie of all time or anything it was kind of like what could have been with Phil Lord and Chris Miller solo

[01:04:00] could have been something really special but instead they took that special kind of brought it over to Spider-Verse at least you know we got this and that's what matters exactly yeah we got Spider-Verse and we have like a movie too which I really like a lot too

[01:04:12] actually like I was going through my like top you know my movies of the year like a movie too did not make my top ten still like in my top 15 right now I think it's great it's so good I feel like that's a movie people slept on

[01:04:22] we reviewed that movie and I feel like you know you were not as positive on as I was but I also feel like because that movie came out so shortly after Spider-Verse people weren't like people are still too hyped up on Spider-Verse to appreciate uh Lego Movie 2

[01:04:34] at least that's my take on that but anyway it's great also my alternate Oscar picks for right now Not Evil from Lego Movie 2 which is the best original song as of this moment not the end credit song? no not the end credit song

[01:04:50] I mean the end credit song was good too but not evil which is the one that Tiffany Haddish sings yeah it's the crown jewel in the movie alright and here's a and finally I got one more it's a four and a half star review from a pilot veroes

[01:05:00] she said wow the only bad thing about this movie is that it didn't exist when I was 10 that's pretty true yeah I mean I wish like this is the kind of movie like I'm obsessed with this movie now like if this movie had come out when I was 10

[01:05:12] I wouldn't have left the house like I would have skipped school over and over again just to watch Spider-Verse you would have worn that VHS out for sure exactly alright so that is Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse a great movie I think it's a great movie

[01:05:28] Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse a great Nicholas Cage supporting performance and a pretty incredible movie and one of the all time great superhero movies so yeah that finally I'm glad we finally got to review that we wanted to review it when it came out last year

[01:05:42] we were talking about it like man we got to talk about Spider-Verse but we knew Nicholas Cage today we got to save it we got to save for the complete works and then we ended up talking about it like 15 minutes on a different episode anyway

[01:05:50] but you know the important thing is we finally got a full Spider-Verse review in almost a year later and we're great for that listen to us recount a year old movie for an hour it's gonna be great alright Mike where can we find you online this week

[01:06:08] you can find me at mdfilmblog on twitter and letterbox and you can find me online at msmithfilmblog on twitter Mike Smith film on letterbox and radio mike sandwich on instagram thank you for listening to the complete works I'm mike smith that's my decree show

[01:06:22] and don't forget to rate and review the show and if you want to contact us hit us up at nicholascagecompleteworks at gmail.com and you can find the rest of our podcast on rapturepress alongside their reviews at podcast about comic books

[01:06:34] and movie news and all that nerdy stuff now our next episode of complete works will also be our last movie review for a while like we've mentioned we'll be talking Nicholas Cage in the 2018 sci-fi film between worlds

[01:06:46] I really hope it's good I want to go out on a strong note man it's so like I was thinking about something the spider-verse must have been the last movie Cage came out with in 2018 it came out like the third week of December how could he possibly

[01:06:58] have squeezed in another movie before the new year he did it he managed so yeah between worlds we'll be talking about that movie and then after that we do our big top 10 Cage episode it's gonna be a lot of fun

[01:07:12] plus you can keep an eye out for the next Mike and Mike go to the movies where we'll be discussing one of my most anticipated movies of the year the new Ryan Johnson who done it knives out which I am seeing tomorrow night very excited about that movie

[01:07:24] Mike yes yeah I can't wait it's one of my favorite directors doing one of my favorite genres like what else do I need yeah with an incredible cast a spider-verse level cast if you will what if this movie is a secret spider-man movie the entire time

[01:07:38] I'll be mad if it's not I'll be mad if it's not now that that possibility has been thrown out there you will accept nothing less correct alright thanks so much for listening guys and thanks for getting in the cage