Emoji Movie Review! (preview)

[MUSIC] Hello and welcome to another episode of Bass News Network. This is going to be a Patreon episode. So if you're listening on Patreon, thank you for supporting. And if you're listening on the free platforms, enjoy the preview and you can listen to the full episode on Patreon if you want to. Anyways, I'm Pucka Felicia now, aka Kyle, here is Sophie aka Jonah Varca, and we're going to be reviewing a deep, we're going to be doing a deep dive of the emoji movie, the 2017 classic. You didn't think it was possible, you didn't think it was possible, but we found a way. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> The emoji movie, who's we? >> Who didn't think that was possible? >> Well, some have written the emoji movie off as being superficial, too heavy on the product placements, but there's a real substance to it. So, my favorite genre is science fiction comedy. [BLANK_AUDIO] So this movie is already, I have a lot of good feelings watching this movie. All right, so let's just start by talking about the fact that it has, was like a three point something on IMDB. >> It's not a bad. >> A three point four on IMDB and a six percent on Rotten Tomatoes. I think that's kind of an under, that's like too low, though. >> You think? >> Sophie, you were laughing. >> I was laughing, okay, but why was I laughing? >> Well, the hand character was kind of funny. >> Yeah, he was funny in a, like, it's James Corden, I don't know. I don't think the film has a lot of merit in terms of what it intentionally brought forth. >> You're a very different person when we hit the record button than you were into the movie, Sophie. >> I enjoyed it, I didn't think it was like a genuinely good, like, you know what I mean. >> Okay, but I agree, I gave it a two out of five, which is like a four out of ten. So that's what I'm trying to say, it's like, it has a three point four out of ten when it deserves a solid four out of ten. >> Okay, we can get in semantics later. Can you explain, like, more about the Moji movie, like, what is it about? >> All right, well, I mean, not really, it's, I'm just really not much to say about the movie. I don't know how we're going to do a whole hour long podcast, but it's about, okay, so it's about emojis. And in every cell phone, apparently, there's like an emoji universe, and emojis are hired to do one job, which is make the correct emotion when the time comes and someone presses on that emoji. And there's one emoji that has like a bug or a glitch or something, and he is able to do any freaking emotion he wants. And he's hired to do the meh emoji. >> I thought he was born a meh, like, aren't they born like a certain emoji? >> Yeah, yeah, exactly. He was born to be, he was, yeah, that's exactly right. >> Yeah. >> But I think the thing is that everyone can change their emotions, they're just repressing it. >> I think the poop emoji is stuck as a poop emoji. >> Well, clearly they didn't think out, think the plot out much or like the details of, like the actual logistics of this idea out well, because I don't know, there's certain emojis. It's like, it's an apple emoji, like, what are they going to do? Like, you know, I mean, change a different fruit. So, like, there's a little bit of questions, I guess, so they didn't really think the whole idea through. >> So, he was born a meh emoji, and he was supposed to do the meh emoji, but he had some genetic disorder or something that made him capable of being able to do any emotion he wants. And he gets hired to do the meh emoji, and one of his time comes, and the kid who owns the cell phone, presses the meh emoji, he gets anxious, has a panic attack, does the wrong emoji, and then the emoji universe decides they need to kill him. >> Yeah, I basically like delete him off the phone or like replace him with a functioning meh emoji. >> They're going to kill him. >> They're basically going to kill him. >> No, they're not, they're not basically going to kill him. They're going to kill him. >> Well, they're going to kill him, but they use language that is a little more sanitized. >> I felt like it was, yes, they, okay. They use language as a little bit more sanitized, but I felt like it was really scary. They were going to kill him. The thing that I think kind of makes it a little fun though is the boy who presses the meh emoji and then gets the wrong emoji, he's like, oh dang, my cell phone's busted. I'm going to go to the Apple Store and get my phone wiped and restart my phone. And this is going to kill all the emojis. So the emojis are mad at the man emoji from messing up because he's going to get everyone in the emoji universe killed. So they're going to kill him as punishment. >> Imagine you press an emoji and it's the wrong emoji and then you decide, okay, I'm going to the Apple Store and I'm going to get my phone wiped just permanently. >> Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of fun because it kind of makes you feel guilty now whenever you get a new phone or break your phone or get your phone restarted or something. >> I've always felt that way. >> Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. You really have Sophia. We've talked about this, you give these little inanimate objects feelings. And this movie really plays in my computer stuff. >> Yeah. >> That was really upsetting for me, so. >> Yeah, so this movie is getting kind of heavy. It's like, it's life or death for the entire emoji world. So the movie, that's basically the plot, is this emoji is running for his life. And then he tries to get cured or something, I don't know. But it turns it to like, they're hopping from app to app while he's trying to figure out how to get cured. And it's kind of like just every single app he goes into is just basically an advertisement for that. >> Yeah, like Candy Crush, what other one do they do? Dance Dance Revolution, I think they did. >> The most atrocious one was Dropbox. >> Oh yeah, I forgot about that, that was insane. >> Because no kid, no one who goes to see the emoji movie wants to think about Dropbox. >> That's for the parents, I don't think the kids know what Dropbox. >> Dropbox, you associate with the least fun tasks you ever have to do at work. Which is transferring large files, it's like a pain. And then this movie is like, we need to get to the Dropbox app because the Dropbox, it's secure and you can trust that whatever's uploaded to Dropbox is going to be so loud. >> No, and they said it like that, which it isn't out, but they used basically like ad copy while they were like, they were like speaking like it was a commercial. With like emphasizing how secure it is and it was so funny. >> So going back to at the beginning of our episode, Sophie. >> When I was kind of teasing you for enjoying the movie. And then you come on the podcast and say it's a bad movie. It is a bad movie. >> I know it's a bad movie, I know it's a bad movie. >> No, you're right, you're right. But I think we need to do a little bit of defending here of the movie on the podcast. Because because It was really entertaining. It was. It was. I've heard a lot of criticism that it's like it's bad and boring and there's elements of that are true but there's just so many like funny moments that are like because they're not not intentionally so. Wouldn't you say this is better than the finath movie? Oh yeah actually I didn't even think it was possible for like a movie to be worse than this like it's for as like an animated kids movie besides those like knockoff ones but the finath movie was way worse than the than the emoji movie and I got shocks me to say. Yeah yeah that's what I'm saying is like like the emoji movie is like a 4 out of 10. So everyone's like saying oh my god the emoji movie is the worst movie ever it's like it's really bad but at least with the emoji movie you can kind of get like a laugh out of oh my goodness they really put an advertisement in this movie well the finath movie you don't get any of that so yeah no it's it's not it's not so bad it's good it is definitely bad and boring but it's also sometimes it's so bad it's good sometimes it's so bad it's good. Yeah yeah I would agree I think I think what was happening is they were trying to do what the Lego movie did they were trying to do what like bracket Ralph was doing you know what I mean but just way way worse. The funny thing is I'm looking at this movie the stats here on Wikipedia its budget was 50 million five zero million they should have put that money somewhere else but the box office was 217 million. Wow I mean that's what happened with finath like finath is really yeah that's true profiting it's horrible though. So we as a society are sending a signal to movie studios to keep making this junk because we will give you we will give you money. Well it's funny you bring that up and I kind of want to discuss something that is not the emoji movie just briefly because that reminds me of something that I've seen. There are two films coming out soon by the time of this episode it might be out already but Wonka starring Timothy Chalamet I believe it's a prequel to Willy Wonka and the Mean Girls movie like new remake both of which are musicals. Did you know that Wonka was a musical going to be a musical? Wonka with Wonka with Timothy? Yeah that's going to be musical. Wow I didn't know that. Why I'm bringing this up is that neither of the like advertisements for the film a little bit with the Mean Girls One but not really and they're not being advertised as musicals because apparently the studios found or the market research has found that that actually discourages people from going to see the movies. So what's gonna happen is a lot of people are gonna go to the Willy Wonka prequel without knowing it's gonna be a musical and then it's a musical. You know what I mean? So like they are doing anything possible to make money even if it means like leaving out crucial details in the advertising of film. So I think it again just to your point it goes to show that they will put out bad content or they will mislead audiences as long as it makes them money. So I'm reading that this movie had. I don't even know what this means. Maybe someone. I don't know what it is. It's on the Wikipedia. I'm just gonna read directly from the Wikipedia. Review embargoes for the film were lifted mid-day July 27th. Only a few hours before the film premiered to the general public. In a movie considered among several tactics studios are using to try to curb bad rotten tomatoes ratings. So they basically. I don't know exactly what that means but it sounds like a lot of times before a movie officially comes out. Movies will let critics see the movie early. I know they do that. I know they do that. But I guess for this movie they anticipated it was gonna get bad scores. So in order to make the most money they could they didn't do that for this movie. There was review embargoes. Whatever that is. I don't know how that's enforced. Well I think it makes sense from the name what it is. Yeah. And then I guess at last minute once they finally released the movie then they obviously lifted the review embargo. Wow. So that's pretty cool. I mean that's pretty that's pretty that's pretty radical. Yeah well one movie I saw early that was that was like with like it was in a it was like in a screening where like there was like music movie critics there was dumb and dumb or two. And I loved dumb and dumb or two. I've never seen the first one or the second one. I haven't really seen the first one from start to finish. But like dumb dumb or number two. That has a 30% of Ron tomatoes. So it was like critics didn't like it and it's so good. It's it's spelled dumb and dumb and then two is T.O. No just T.O. I thought the set the first one. I think dumb and dumb or two is awesome. And I actually saw it again. I saw the movie twice in theaters. Can we watch it? We should probably watch the first one because I haven't seen the first one. Anyway go on. Well I was just I was just thinking like that's a movie that probably should have had a review embargo. Yes before they figured out that was a good idea. Yeah because that was definitely back I don't know. Well I feel like that should be like stopped immediately. It feels like and it's not false advertising so they can do it but it feels it feels shady. And as someone who likes movies I want to know beforehand what the general consensus is. I don't let that dictate my choices. I like a lot of movies that have terrible um Ron tomato scores but it's a good like litmus to like it's a good way to just check beforehand. It's a general rule with the emoji movie. It sorry. Okay so with the emoji movie it did make a lot of money the opening weekend and then the second weekend it made way less money. So very clearly what happened is when the movie came out lots of people went and saw it and then everyone found out it was bad and then the next weekend no one went and saw it because it was so bad. So obviously the like the quality of the movie and the review embargo like we're playing a role it wasn't just for nothing. Yeah they know what they're doing. Alright so what what was so okay so there we talked about the ads in the movie. What was so bad about the movie besides that though? I just didn't think their logic made any sense if that you know what I mean like the fact that the premise is feels super dumb. The fact that some emojis can like hypothetically change their emotions. Like I don't think it's a genetic thing. Maybe it's a genetic thing where he's not like as able to repress his emotions but I think all of the emotion emojis are capable of changing their emotions because some of them do at the end of the film. I just remember that I believe they did they did like the dad the dad was like the dad and mom you can see throughout that they're really struggling to actually suppress their emotion like they're trying to always be meh when they're not meh and I think by the end like near the end they start to show a different like a more of a range of emotions. So yeah I think they can change emotions but then it's also it's also weird too because there are some emojis that aren't emotional emojis. Like for example jailbreak which I found amusing of course. jailbreak is like the kind of like edgy girl who's like you know a hacker so you know pretty cool. She has blue hair. She literally has blue hair and pronouns. Anyway like we find out like in the like near the second like the end of the second act that she's actually a princess emoji who wears a wig. So I guess like some of them can't change unless they like actually wear different clothes to like change how they like it just doesn't the logic is really you know what I mean because not all emojis are created equal you know I mean like their purpose is different. Wow yeah no it's kind of just doesn't make any logic it just doesn't make any logical sense to me like it's not like streamlined not everything has like a clear explanation. It's a. well, I think. This is getting kind of deep. - Well, I think they tried to get deep. Like, I think they tried to be like, make a movie about suppressing emotion or just not fitting in. And like, it's actually okay to like, not do what your parents want you to do. It's okay for you not to conform to how you look when you're born or what position you're born into. That's okay. To do, it gets, I think the fact that their emojis just really takes me out of it. I just can't take it seriously. Like, take them trying to do this like message seriously. - I'd completely disagree. - Oh, okay. - I don't know. I actually, I don't even know what I'm disagreeing with. I don't know, yeah, no, you're right. It's, yeah, no, for sure, for sure. Yeah, no, you're right. It's, it's, they really shouldn't have even tried to do anything with this movie. They really shouldn't have. One thing that I thought was kind of funny though, and this is another thing I think kind of fits into what you're saying about how this movie doesn't really have logic, is how the eggplant emoji was categorized. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah. The eggplant that emoji was categorized into like the forgotten emojis that no one ever uses. That does not, that does not the case. Don't even, don't even pretend that that's the case. - The movie was trying to gaslight us into thinking no one uses the eggplant emoji. - I almost think that was an intentional joke for the parents because any parents who are like weird, kinky parents who use the, okay, side note. If anyone, who is using that, maybe they're right, but like who is, who is using the eggplant emoji? Like I know people do, but it's like it's cringe, you know? I find it to be very extremely cringe if people actually use the eggplant emoji in that way, but regardless of that fact, like I feel-- - I don't know what that is. - Okay, okay, yeah, anyway, like, I'm assuming that I almost think that was a joke for the parents because the parents would be like, hey, like, adults use that emoji all the time and they're like, oh, that's the joke. Because if they actually wanted to like pretend like that emoji didn't exist, they just didn't have to have the character, you know what I mean? But by putting it in that like category, they're calling to attention to that idea which is like completely wrong, you know? So I feel like it was an intentional joke for the parents, which I almost respect. See, the more we talk about this movie, the more you realize it's good, like, we're peeling the layers of the onion back. One thing that's really funny thing about this movie came out in December of 2016. So Donald Trump had just been elected president, right? No, he's been president for-- wait, yeah, that's right. Wait, when did he take office? - They take office in January, so be January 2017. - January 2017, okay, so the election is in 2016. So this is, yeah, this is when people found out that Trump had won, but he hadn't taken office yet. - Wait, Kyle, it premiered July 23rd, 2017. - I'm so sorry. So it came out in 2017, but it was an, it was the trailer came out in December 2016. - It should have just been a trailer. - So in December 2016, our society collectively knew Donald Trump was about to become president and the emoji movie was about to come out soon as well. So in December 2016, we were just all in a haze of like, we're really turning the page into a dystopia right now. - And then what better way to like announce that or celebrate that with the emoji movie? - All right, that's the end of this episode's preview. If you wanna hear the rest of this episode, get access to all of our Patreon content and most importantly, support our show. Head over to patreon.com/basenewsnetwork and join us for $5 a month. We really appreciate the support. Thanks for listening and we shall see you next episode based news network.