In the Blink of an Eye with Joey Sims

[MUSIC] >> All we share and all we experience podcasts across time. >> Echoes across time is the tagline. >> I'm surprised there's no IMDB quote page for what I believe holds the record for the most existent film of 2026. >> This is a fun recurring game when I tell people- >> Like movie that least exists that we've covered or- >> No, no, no. >> You tell people that we're covering interest in- >> What are you guys recording these days? I go we're actually doing interest in- >> Oh, that's exciting. So wait, so it's what? >> It's Find Nemo and Wally Wright, John Carter, oh, right. And then what since then? And I go finding Dorian, they go sure, sure, sure. And in the blink of an eye. And they go, what's that? >> In the what of a what? >> Right, and I go he made like a smaller live action sci-fi, we're all connected drama. And they go, what year did that come out? And I go, well, here's a surprise for you. In fact, mere months ago, it premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and went on Hulu, February 27th of 2026. Yep. >> I found myself taking a back all over again literally last night when I looked it up on Wikipedia. I was just like checking something and at the top, it said 2026. And I again had a renewed moment of like, wait, that can be right this year. >> It's not even a, oh, my God, this year's been so long that- >> No. >> In the blink of an eye was 2026. You know, in some ways, this year's kind of gone fast me in the blink of an eye. >> Well, actually, is this the most relevant movie of 2026 because of how fast things move? >> So fast. >> Yeah. February, yeah, yeah, it came out and I rushed to Hulu and then I was like, well, I'm gonna cover it on the podcast anyway. >> So I guess I'll let it simmer. >> Ben and I were supposed to go to the premiere of this film in New York City that did not happen because of the snowstorm. >> Oh, that's right. >> So it was like it premiered at Sundance and then there was supposed to be- >> The cow were so ran close to the subways. >> The proper New York premiere. >> What? >> 20 inches of snow, what's the big deal? >> The following week. >> No. >> And it was like six hours before the premiere we got an email that was like, never mind. >> Yeah. >> The Regal Union Square is closing. The events is not happening. >> Fun fact, on the same day, if we're talking about the same weather event- >> Really? >> Because there were two. >> Yeah. >> But on the same day, I was supposed to attend a marathon play reading session of the five, I think it was five different works of the playwrights, the playwright Tracy Letz. >> Oh, well, well. >> For the end of this show, he has set where you see- >> He has set where you see- >> He has set where you see- late at night, I was actually intrigued by undertone by the first wave of reactions to undertone where people were like scariest movie ever and then there came a second wave. Yes, so interesting how that happens with independent horror films that the first reviews from like user I've been paid money on Twitter is like the exorcist is a fucking baby compared to this. I'm dead. I'm dead. Here's my death certificate. It killed me. Screen dead in the theater. That's screen until you shock underscore XXXXX and then undertone, which is a movie I did not like hate, but it was I found a is a lot of like what was that? A lady in a did I hear something? David is looking behind him and I also made like three million domestic like a one million dollar budget. I don't think it got that far, but it did it's sir. I'm sure it made people money. Like let's see where did it get? It's one team domestic. Okay, it's one of those movies where I was like that didn't pan out and then you see the return on investment and you're like a 24 made it. It was probably like 80 cents on that thing. I said at a fucking table. They had to work over nights. Yeah, right. They had to film it at 3 a.m. when she is of course logically recording a podcast. There is some there's some shoe leather about like, oh, he's in a different time zone. That's how they explain that away. Did you see half a million dollars? So it made 40 times. It's budget. Yeah. Super Mario Galaxy. Did you? My daughter's other family is naming children. Yeah. What are the Christopher's? That's good. Go see that. I don't want to see the Chris. Like you like the Christopher drama. The hot button. Everyone must have a drama nearly made it. What is being put nearly nearly made it to the drama? What happened? I just went back and watched all four seasons of 13 reasons. Why and then because you know, it dealt with a lot of the same. A lot of the same material. Right. Mother Mary. You got to meet mother. You got to meet the mother. No, and I wanted to see that too. But you know, look, Christopher's mother Mary. Look, these are movies that I am representative of sadly the average. The average. Exactly. But we were like, yeah, I want to try to find make try to try to find time for that. And then, but you're going to see more combat too. Well, actually, yes. I saw the first Mortal Kombat in the MC Empire 25, and which is why I believe it's where you're going to see Mortal Kombat too. This is priorities, guys. This is this is the right thing to do. I had a great time. Of course, or being with the air sub zero. So most of the Trump cabinet. I'm having fun. You didn't see Project Hill, Mary. Oh, that's the kind of crazy one. He's got a little rock buddy. Yeah, I don't know if you're familiar with this gentleman named Rocky. Rocky, you know, and then I he was puppeteered by an artist's way. The cow guy who I know well. Yeah, the cow guy, right? He was the cow. He's who did exactly who did. I was the cow guy. He did the into the woods. He was the cow. He comes from the theater world. He did. Um, yeah, Milky white for the into the woods. But the best guy ever saw Rocky was like a Broadway guy before he made his transition to space. Yeah. So Rocky, Rocky operating. Rocky is real. Yes. I know. It's the same one of my good friends with the friend of the pod. Well, they're in heights. Did you weather? I did weather scale. Yeah. I did. Did you marry? I know. I'm just having fun. Can you tell I'm not like that? You're talking about this. The bride when I thought the bride was musical, I was like, well, I got to go see that. As a dash of that. Yeah. There's a dash. They put on the Ritz for 20 minutes or whatever. Yeah. You didn't see it. No. Oh, interesting. Return to Silent Hill. Do you return to Silent Hill? Do you get in the iron lung? I'm just I'm getting deeper now. This is a game I like this time a year. We're recording this episode in May. It will come out in July. Is that correct? So the summer just kicked off. And it means it's the final moment where the top 10 box office movies of the year is still kind of wacky, right? Where it's not like there are movies that can be in the top 10 that were not blockbusters. Sure. So reminders of him is currently the 10th highest grossing film of the year. We love it. Just get another Holly Hoover. That Hoover joint. Yeah. But the drama might overtake it. The drama might briefly be the 10th highest. Because the drama has really been had stayed hold instead. Yeah. Yeah. But right now. Yeah. Super Mario Galaxy Project Hail Mary, Michael Hopper's devil wears Prada 2. Haven't seen. Oh, no. Yeah. I do need to see that. Scream seven goat weathering heights send help. So send. Okay. So you saw two out of the 10. This year's needed Joey in the cinema. You're seeing too many dang plays. March and April is the height of the of the theater. It's a theater. Tony season. But I'm usually not totally absent from the movie theater or something went wrong. You work in the theater district. Not again, not to dox you. You host a theater podcast. I was talking about. It's called House Close. It's called House Close and when we saw theater we saw. Yes. Which I host my friend Connor Skelly. But and we'll talk about that. And we'll introduce what this show is in one second. But because you work in the theater district, you are near the two busiest theaters and movie theaters in New York are like, you know, the M. Samfire, you know, what's on screen 25, baby? Well, this is what I used to do. This is how my life used to be structured when I had different part time jobs in Midtown is that it would be like I'd go in in the morning, do like a shift at one job, go to the Empire. Yeah. You take off your Aladdin outfit. Joe used to wear an Aladdin outfit. It didn't work. You'd ride it. Just I was an Oscar at Aladdin. Did you have like a hat or something? I think you're conflating it with with when I worked in sessions at Elf the Musical and I wore like a a little elf hat, a little a little elf hat. Yeah. And yeah, I wore like a uniform as an usher at Aladdin. Sure. But just like, you know, but you you'd ride the carpet down to the end of the block. Ride the carpet. And then I'd have a few hours before my evening work. So then yeah, I'd slot into whatever was playing in screen 24 at the 25. You know, so that was how I saw a lot of George Watt originated Santa Claus and Elf the Musical. Yeah. That was I my first job in the city was doing concessions at the revival Broadway. The second 20th. Way night was Santa of Elf of Elf the Musical. I would it's not was not a revival. It was just them. It was just the revival on Wikipedia. I guess it is. You could it was basically just them doing the same thing again. Right. Just like a second engagement of the same because it was production. It was this will only run eight weeks a year. It will come back only in the holiday. They bought it back two years in a row. And then they brought it back again a few years. And then like if they don't bring it to Broadway, then it tours over the the Grinch musical was done on the West end for separate time. Yeah. And it was not even set in England. Who was Santa was Santa my just my Santa my for my one for the second one was. Way night. Way night. The great. The only Santa I recognize among the British revivals is the third time. Oh, no, I'm sorry. No, I don't know. I need the British ones. The third time they did it on Broadway, though, it was Sean Aston. Now, do you like getting that call as Sean Aston where they're like, we think you're Santa size now. You know, Sean. We saw like Santa. We saw you recently. Yeah. And sort of Santa age. Are you ready to put on the beer? And George went both have years on him. They do do credit to Sean Aston went and night did the original. The National President original. Yes, exactly. The original Santa track of that show, which is he pops up basically at the beginning and at the end. And that's it. Yeah. So for them, they're like great, easy, good Broadway money, whatever. Yeah. Right. For Aston, they reworked it. So that he had a two-part role in the show that he played for significant bits of the middle. It's your green way. It was the he was like the evil boss. Oh, god. The one who's like the person come back kind of something. It's thematically president. It is good and bad. Yeah. It's a captain hooked Mr. Darling side of the thing. Interesting. No, no, no, not the father. You're saying he played the James Con characters boss. Yes. The Michael learners role in the movie. I suppose that I'm just saying like sort of father figures. But I guess you're right that James Con is more of a father figure, too. Con and Asner are the two big father figures to buddy. They are. But everyone forgets that Academy Award nominee Michael a great actor. Is someone his life played an ordinary boss? I want that buddy. They don't feel like. Do you think Michael learner maybe contributed to a sort of negative stereotype over the years? The amount of bosses he played behind desks yelling. I don't know. I don't know. Listen, this is Blanccheck with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. It's a podcast about filmography's directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given as a reason Blanc checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks are clear. Sometimes they bounce baby. And sometimes they vanish into the ether. They do. And the blink of an eye. Truly. This was a one-blank movie. Blanky night. Yeah. This one blinked. I almost was like, has it left to you? There's like, no, it's there. Okay. Few. It is wild that twice he has had this ultimate get out of jail free card of like, guys, don't worry. Toy Story 5 is coming out in months. Yeah. mere weeks from now. Yeah. I will have one of the highest grossing films of the year. Well, I also feel like John Carter was an actual like much discussed bomb. Whereas this is more just something like, no one never really knew it happened. So it's less. It'll stick to him a little bit. It's an interesting. Right. Is it is it worse to have the most existent bomb in history or a true tree falls in the middle of the woods and no one's there to hear it movie? - Right, I think it's better to have the, I made a movie that didn't exist. - Like Chris Whites, who's been on our show and discussed this, he made the Golden Compass, a movie that bankrupted a studio. Got bus, love you, Chris. And then he-- - Love you new line, Rest in Power. - Yeah, Rest in Power, now you're a single. Went to the great shingle area in this guy. And then he made a frayed, that's how I refer to it. - Yes, a frayed. - A frayed. - You see, you don't even know what happens. - A frayed. - Yeah, he made a movie called-- - I don't even know about these movies because it's amazing. - Exactly, he made an AI horror movie called a frayed, but the AI in a frayed is capitalized. - Yes, a frayed. - Not his title, it had different title. - No, it was called They Listen. - Yes. - And then Sony was like a chima-- - We call it a frayed, a frayed. - And he has cops too, it's non-existence on this very show, he made a movie that didn't exist. - He went to a Barton Fink-esque atonement, yes. - Also, this movie premiered at Sundance and then dropped on Hulu like a month later. - Oh, yeah. - So it's not, so I don't know all the behind the scenes, but that doesn't give a feeling of them being like, oh, we wanna try to get someone to put this in theater. - That was always the exact plan and he has been transparent about. When they greenlit this movie, they were like, it's going to Hulu by Hulu. Hulu original, I think the Sundance premier, if anything was sort of a gesture of goodwill or a kind of like-- - Correct. - But you can be at a festival, that's cool. - Yes, it was right. That is the way to give this movie a launch. I don't know how much of an effort they would put into a traditional marketing campaign, if not for, we could go to Sundance and you could do a bunch of interviews and a screen with a lot of press there. - It can happen that the film debuts at Sundance and people are like, we don't like it. - Sure. - In the metal, that's bad. - But I know the date was set for when it was dropping on Hulu before it went to Sundance. In my memory, there was sort of an all-in-one announcement of this will premiere at Sundance and go to Hulu on February 27th. It's called In the Blink of an Eye. It's a film made by Andrew Stanton, whose films were covering and amazes were calling Pod Seat. - Oh. (laughing) - You like it? - Joey's kind of-- - I don't want to do real the series. - It's gonna look really good. - It's gonna be far along too. - It's gonna look really good in the process. - We've probably got one or five left, right? - Yeah, yeah, so you better like it. - Joey, I-- - So we've done, you guys have done John Carter, a little bit more. - We leaped across that one. - Yeah, of course. - Who's the John Carter guest? - That's him. - The great math singer. - Great episode. - Are you a John Carter fan interrogator? - Are you Joey Sims of Mars? - Yeah. You know, I re-watched a chunk of it ahead of this episode. I didn't, wasn't able, I didn't have time to get through the whole thing. It didn't play as well to me as the first time I watched it. I remember watching it a few years ago and being like, this is kind of like a glorious mess. Like, wow, this is like a crazy. Like, obviously this doesn't work, but what ambition? And I thought I would be revisiting that feeling. And then I watched it again and was like, oh Jesus, it's just like, just the way it starts is like so rough. - I think the book ends are tough with that one. I think there were some notes on that from me in the episode, the non-Mars stuff. - Yes. - Yeah. - This is a similarly ambitious movie. I mean, this is not like a-- - That's true. - Yes. - It's less, right. Like, the scale of it is more suggested than shown, but right. - But it does, it is, I would say, narratively and emotionally ambitious and it does feel like on paper a high-risk movie. A, if you don't get this right, it's gonna be embarrassing kind of movie. - Right. Who's our guest? - Our guest, as I said, Joey Sims, host of House Closed, which I googled to make sure I was getting the name of the podcast correct. And are you aware, Joey, that there is another podcast hosted by a man named Joey Sims? I assume not you. I assume you're not doing double duty, called Healing Word. Join Joey Sims as we are challenged by studying the Bible to grow in our relationship with God and encourage to apply God's Word in our life. It sounds like right material for a J. Ferguson sitcom. - Yes, House Closed. - Yes. - Peter, we saw with Sims and Scully. - Big two. - My co-host, the big two. My co-host being the lovely Connor Scully, a theater producer. And we see, yeah, I'm doing my plug. - Do your push. - We see two shows together. Sometimes the guests will also have seen the same two shows that are either currently running, like Broadway off-roadway, off-roadway, whatever. And then we talk about those two shows. Or in our latest episode, the fourth episode that we just did, it was three shows. So we're four episodes in and we already broke our format. - You people are so. - Sorry. How many of your episodes have been MJ The Musicals over? - Well, we're saving MJ The Musical. So over the summer when things slow down in the theater world, we'll do a 10 episode series, analyzing MJ The Musical, all of the decisions that happened there. - Will you, during the slowest months, like check in with more long-running shows? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're trying to figure out like over the summer, like what like fun things can we do. Like we wanna do like perfect crime, you know? - Yeah. - So there's been running off-roadway for a million-- - Shall we? - You know about perfect crime. - I have been really tempted to go see perfect crime. And in fact, Zach Cherry, very recent guest on the podcast, most recent guest on this podcast-- - That's right. - He and I have been strategizing to go see perfect crime together, 'cause he didn't know about it and I told him, and he's fairly obsessed now. - New York's longest-running play. - I haven't seen it. It builds itself as New York's longest-running play. It is this like god-awful murder mystery that's been running at-- - Oh, dear one, what if it's good? - The theater center-- - It says here, it's perfect. - Right, right. What used to be the Snapple Theater? - What used to be the Snapple Theater Center? - But that used to be the fantastic. - Yes. - Many years ago. - Right, yeah. - And the venue is owned now by the lead actress, right? - I guess, I believe she owns the venue. Yes, that is correct. Content-warning suicide. - This sounds dark. - Well, that's a spoiler. - And she has a beard. - She starts in the show, produces the show, like hands out the playbills, you know, like one of those, she's been doing it since it started. I think she claims she's never missed a performance. I'm not sure if that's true. - No one's checking. - No, they're dark on Wednesdays, though, lazy. And they were uninterrupted, you know, up until-- - Until the pandemic. I know she's like griped about that a lot. But there's also-- - Oh, she didn't want it close. She was like-- - But she's like missed family members wedding. - Oh yeah. - And there was a point. - That the children don't know her. - There was a point that she was appearing in another play at the same time and she was still doing perfect murder. Like, for crying a lot, how dare you talk about the best show on Earth. - But she would like do her walk on in the other play and then run over to the Snapple Theater and do, let me know when you actually make plans to go see it 'cause I-- - It has done 15,000 performances. - I've been really eager to go and I need the kick in the butt. - It's been running as long as I've been alive essentially. - It started a year after I was born, probably in my honor. - I should clarify, their performances were interrupted one other time by a very iconic event. I remember this press release so well, so I was just pulling it back up to remember. Off-Broadway's perfect crime and the office, the musical 'cause the office parody musical runs in the same building. Holt performances due to theft of pipes at the theater. - It was just those of copper pipes. - So nice. - I just wanna find the burglars, broke. - Fix your pipe's voice. - The burglars broke into the vacant restaurant below. Made their way to the basement of the building, disconnected and then stole every piece of copper pipe they could find. - Every-- - The quoting from the press release of the show put out, leaving the building without any access to water. The criminals returned in the early hours today, smashing the front doors. They've not yet been able to blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so they were also interrupted when all their copper pipes were homeless. - Well, what year was that? - We're worthless. - That was in 2022. And I don't know if these hoodlums were ever identified. - Did you know that after the end of the show, you are given a two-page answer sheet to explain the show because it's complex? - Yes. - Is that 'cause people were complaining, like, "I don't understand the ending." - Here are some other facts. It's run in eight different theaters since 1987. - Right, eight veneers. - Beared off-broad in the West Village at the court yard playhouse. - In November? - It may not exist anymore. - 2016 Gary Busy spent two weeks in the role of Lionel. - Too fantastically. - November 2016, kicking America while it was down. (laughing) - Why did he do that? - I don't know. - They've starcast other people. John Snyder was briefly in the perfect crime. - Reason why. - Reason why. - One of the dukes of hazard. - Perfect politics. - Wait, isn't he the one who, isn't the other one worse? Or are both dukes. - No, it's Snyder's pretty bad one. - Is Snyder the one who was in Smallville? - Yes. - Yeah. - Right. - She's never taken a sick day. She's missed only four performances, Catherine Russell. The last in 1995 to attend her brother's wedding. That was the last time she was willing to go to a wedding over doing the show. - So the Snapple has two theaters. - Two stages. - No longer the Snapple. - You used to be a falsified snapple. - It's eternally the Snapple to be called Snapple. - Well, no, because there used to be this big. - It was the Snapple sign. - The Snapple sign. - I remember the caps that would go around and around. - I scaled the building to try to see the fact underneath 'cause it wasn't facing the street. I think that it was like, "Perfect crime, $60." (laughing) Come on. - Don't steal our pipes. - You're right, the pipes, not for sale. (laughing) - And they took 'em off. - They took 'em off. Now it is just. - Well, do you think they're like, "Hey Snapple, "do you want to sponsor the theater?" - They were like, "We sponsor a theater." - I mean, I will say, if you go to the Wikipedia page for the theater center, the image that shows you immediately is Snapple. - Yeah, you can't shake that. - You can't shake that. - But I know that one of the theaters is the Jury or Buck Theater after the Great Jury. - That's where. - And that's a friend for many, many years, yes. - Yes, he was in the original kind. - And that's where I guess the office musical is. - The An-Elevis. - I know that I go every night. - Yeah, right now they have "Perfect Crime," the office parody musical, and they have one other parody musical going right now. It looks like they also have friends, the An-Authorized Musical parody. - There we go. - And Sing Feld, which is an An-Authorized, Seinfeld parody musical. - Wow, wow, wow. - I saw also a sadly now closed love actually parody musical at the same venue. It was actually not long after theaters re-opened after COVID that I went to see that show. And we're happy. And my main memory of it was that the Alan Rickman character was performed by a guy who was in full, like, snake garb. And like, any time anyone would talk to him, he'd pull out his wand and you get it. It was kind of funny. - Expecto adultery. - There you go. "Perfect Crime opened, it reopened April 2021. It was the first show in New York City to get approval from actors' equity to resume performances. You just imagine the "Catham Russell" was like - Yeah, De Blasio. - So fraction of her thighs for 14 months, like digging her nails and being like, "When can I get back on the fucking stage?" - De Blasio appeared at their first performance. I think he, like, made a little speech. - There's Fierrollo the Musical, of course, which is about La Guardia, right? It's the famous Broadway musical. When will we get our De Blasio musical? - Bill. - Is there a tall Bill? - I was gonna say, who's the tallest musical theater actor we have right now? - Tommy too. - Like, do we have to put Norman Leo butts on stilts to do the blood? - Fuck. - Who is the tallest, a tall, tall actor? - Oh, just Google it. Who is the tallest? - Who is the tallest? - The Broadway actor. - Yeah. - You bring me on. - Well, Tommy too did come up. - For exactly this type of insight. - Harold McGillin, I can tell you. - Sure. - Who is a long time Phantom is six, four. - Pretty good. - I'm the tallest Bill, who's six seven. - Tommy too. - And then six. - Timothy Hughes, that's the big man from Haiti's town. - I was thinking of the big guy. - Now he's more of an ensemble player. - He's, you know, very hot. - But I remember that with the Haiti's town where there was the one big guy. - Yeah, the tall. - 'Cause they've got all the guys with the big hammers who are like, you know, in industrial hell. - I mean, you're also saying he's more of an ensemble guy. This is maybe his breakout. This is the thing that makes him a leading man. - I mean, De Blasio. - You know what? Get him out there. - Yeah, you know, first act, De Blasio is mayor. Second act, De Blasio is horn dog. - I was gonna say, in tiresome, second act is just sitting down with the New York Times for that piece. - Just like De Blasio, like on the apps, you know? - It's just like De Blasio being like field, eh? - I don't get a match, one of these days. - Even if they hire someone like this Hughes guy, they should still put the actor on stilts and make him so tall that his head is not visible in the perceived- - That'd be good. - It should be like police squad style. He's out of frame. - You know, this one came out in the blink of an eye. - Yeah. - So, look, look, look, look, look. There was nobody out here who was like, when are you guys covering it in blink of an eye and can I be on the show? Literally, nobody. - Nobody. - Joey has a new show. He's a new podcast. It's a show. A show about shows. He's my brother. - And as I mentioned in the credits, long time brother. - Long to be your son. - Hey, and uncle. - And he is my uncle. - He's a wonderful uncle to my children. - How are my kids doing? - One of your younger sons has some anger issues, but he's got a lot of good for all they're doing great. - He's got a lot of rage. - It's rock-steady. - No, b-box. - Oh, they have names too. - Well, yeah, it's so funny to watch him do the math. - To do the math, yes. It's why I tee him up every time. 'Cause I like that he has to seriously remember the can and he's maintaining. - Yeah, so you were like, I'd love to plug my show and the podcast, I'm like, what's coming up? Like, Scorsese, could I do Hugo? And I'm like, Hugo's a 2027 episode for us. - Yeah. - This is gonna be a while away. - You know? And I was like, look, you know what's coming up in the blink of an eye. - I got an empty spreadsheet cell right here in front of me for a much more recent episode. If you'd care to fire up HuluHULU.com, it felt sort of in keeping with my, you know, some of my appearances so far on the show. - Lost space. - In my first, was Lost in Space. - A great way. - As a siblings choice. - Yes, right. - Ratatouille. - And right now, actually great movie. - Yes. - Ratatouille and actually great movie. - A double sibling episode. - Yes, but then polar express. - A cancer you infected us with. (laughing) - That one I requested. - Yes, and now David has seen that movie, like 80 times and has like fucking Stockholm syndrome. - Yeah, I kind of like it. Never left, never left. - It is fun. - It was fun in theaters. - I was thinking about, you know, the era of the siblings choice. I think where we needed to fill slots on the schedule and we were like, what are fun ideas for episodes? Both of my siblings choices got 20 years later, legacy goals. - Right, that's a good point, right? We just had Romney on the show, because we're always proud too. - It's proud too. - Space Jam, of course got the perfect and we're all remembered. - They started a new legacy, yes. - And how'd you rhythm up too lately? - So running from 20, 20, 28 public denominations. - I was gonna say, he's the entire cabinet. - Greenlit Michael, or he's selecting the Catholic. - Oh, how'd you see space from a new look? - No, this is the Don Chitolay, I think. - Yes, his name is Al V Rhythom. - You know how to do rhythm. - Conor Ratliff has a running bit where he insists on calling that character the king of content, even though he's never seen the movie and he won't be corrected on it. - Yeah. - And I was like, oh, what are the chances we get at a loss in space like a sequel? And you're like, they're actually zero. We got the Netflix series, but I think with hurt dead. - Oh yeah, that's the top reason. - That's the top reason. Who's gonna bring the hurt, if not Big Bill? - Goldsmith is after a massing power in Paramount. Goldsmith is like calling up the exact, he's like, listen, I wrote a draft of loss in space too. - Wait a second, David, I think I know what you're gonna say. - Well, I mean, I was trying to point to one. I was trying to point to our president, Red Hulk, he's over there, but we're-- - The bottom you shell. - We're remodeling the office. I'm not sure where president Hulk is right now. Do we know Ben? - Okay. - I'm not, I'm not certain he was, he was, respectively stuffed away. - He was our president! - So, yeah. - And I did salute him. - Let's say he's visiting Camp David. - Yeah. - I want to see the blossoms. - Lift Tyler, where are my pills? - So, are you suggesting that-- - Fucking re-cousers. - Harrison Ford. - This is a lot of him there. - Be like, we got Ford, we got Ford. Everyone else is back, Mimi Rogers. - Yes. - Matt Leblanc, Lacey Shabair. - The fucking kid who played the kid. - Leblanc, they're all back. - Jared Harris, we don't let him talk. - We were on Harrison's top. - Yes. - Jerry Oldman only inspired her for. - Yes. - Heather Graham. - Heather Graham? - She's probably the most, like still looks like herself of all the people I just mentioned. Like she's aged into. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's still Heather Graham. - She's doing the new white lotus season. - Is she on that? - I think so. - Did you see our friend Max Miguel was on it? - I did see that. - Well, well, well. - Well, well. - Checking, checking in. Ding, ding, ding. - But lost in space too. I'd love to see it. I does seem unlikely. I also feel like Stephen Hopkins has not worked until late. - Yeah. - What was his last film? - I don't think he did any more. - Stevie films. - Didn't he just retreat back to television? - No, you are wrong. And I remember his last film, of course, because it was Race. - Oh, right. - The Owens biopic that came out 10 years ago that has a lot of Lenny Reefenstall. Like you watch it and you're like, this is gonna be a Jesse Owens biopic. And they're like, yeah, sure. He ran the race. Lenny Reefenstall though. Played by Karees Van Halten. It is like a big part of the movie. Because, of course, it's about the 36 Olympics. But like, it's maybe a little too concerned with her, probably because she's a fascinating figure in history. But you're kind of like, isn't this the Jesse Owens movie? - Well, they have a little bit of a will they won't they? They think of it. - Talk about it in the same photography though. Dangerous game. Nightmare and Elm Street. - Right. - He was a solid genre director. - Credit or two judgment. Right, blown away. The ghost darkness. - Blown away. - And leveling up to like a bigger scale genre thing. - Then lost in space is like you get to do a big fucking special effect. - This is a giant special effect studio movie, right? You know, his new line, but still, you know. - And then under suspicion. - Never seen. - Of course, the big three. - Hackman Freeman Baluchee. Then the life and death in Peter Sellers HBO movie. - Which is like not bad. - Yeah. - The reaping. - That's the Hillary Swank. - That's the Hillary Swank 10 plagues of the Bible move. - Correct. - Where she's like, "I have two Oscars, "and I like them, why are you fighting locus?" (laughing) Hillary, that is a brutal retort. - You know what I mean? 'Cause why are you fighting locus? - It's not like all about Steve, where it's tangible. 'Cause like, "Look, I filmed this right before I wanted us." It's like, it's three years after a million dollar bet around like, you have two Oscars. - Yeah. - You had to do the reaping? - Yeah. - And then race. - And then race. Yeah, then there's nine years between the reaping and race, and he hasn't made a film since. He's made some TV since. (upbeat music) - You're here to discuss the interesting things in the blink of an eye. I want, this came out February 27th. Then I thought, "Oh, leap day." And then I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no, leap day is February 29th." Then I had the thought, "What movies came out on February 29th?" 'Cause that's rare. - Oh, sure. - I found three. - Okay. - You wanna hear 'em? - Yep, please. - "Semmipro." - Yeah. - February 29th. - Okay. - 2008. - Not a good movie in my memory. - No. - You know, "The Berlin Girl." - Also February 29th. - Okay. - 2008. - Same year. - Yes. - Here's the most important. Well, 'cause it's so, every four years, oh yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Here's the best one. - Yeah. - An extremely goofy movie. - Okay. - February 29th. - That was pretty funny. - Yeah. - It was, it was, it was direct. - But that's a wonderful film. That's it. That's it. And it's a pretty excellent picture. - Yeah. - Ask me. - What if it's, it's goofy movie back to school? - Oh. - It's like, finally, I get to move out and be my own man. - Right. - And goofy's like, oh, you're, oh, I'm so in an old Dean. - He decides he wants to take classes and bring disco back. - Oh, of course. - Yeah. So there's a lot of shake your groove thing in that movie. - BB Newworth plays a hot beatnick love interest for goof. - Uh-huh. - Yeah. - Max, have a love interest. - He does. I'm trying to remember. - Okay. - It'd be pretty awesome if they'd done that. - It'd be pretty awesome if in the year 2000. - Fucking get over it. - I'm trying to remember who voice. I'm sure it was like someone who was on a fucking fox or WB drama at the time. In the blink of an eye came out this year. - I'm seeing here that Vicki Lewis is the charismatic your right. - And BB Newworth is a librarian, just let you know. - Okay, so Vicki Lewis is the beatnick who is Max's love interest. And BB Newworth is the librarian. - I thought that sounded odd. - Page wise, but I wasn't in the same thing. - No, I'm here to tell you that Vicki Lewis plays PJ's love interest for the fuckers. - PJ is the best friend. - Forgive me for not remembering who PJ is. - Yeah, of course. - He's Pete's son. - Oh, he's the chunkier one, the bigger boy. - Okay. But then wait a second, does Max not have a love interest? - He's an in-sell. - Okay. - He starts looking at the portion. - I can't believe that I'm doing this. - Okay. - Okay, we're about 45. - Oh, that's all right. - You know what, this is gonna be a 90 minute episode anyway. So let's talk about it in the blink of an eye. I do have a dossier if you want me to open it. - Yes, incredibly JG did research on this move. - This is pretty astonishing. - It's a feature film. - It's sciencey. That's true. I'm sure they built sets and stuff. They didn't just make it in his backyard. 2016 Andrew Stanton made Finding Dory. 2026, he made it in the blink of an eye. So that's 10 years. - Yeah. - What did he do in between? - Many things. - Live action television. - Yes. - I think basically post-dory, he basically was like, I want to make live action stuff and there's lots of TV and like it's a way to do it. - He did a recent interview leading up to Toy Story 5, where he said that he intends for Toy Story 5 to be his final animated film. And he said, it's just that these movies take so long and I love animation but I was never primarily an animation person. I grew up working at an art house theater in high school and that's when I really fell in love with film. And I'm into all different types of movies and it's been a great blessing to work at a place like Pixar and have that sort of freedom and leeway, but you can get a lot more done in live action. And I think there was a hope that while Finding Dory resets the board a little bit from the stink of John Carter and now I will try to make a smaller, budgeted live action film. And there are many scripts that he has-- - What are those options? - I'm sure it's find up for. But to sort of get his reps in meanwhile, he did a tremendous amount of live action TV. - He directed episodes five and six of the second season of Stranger Things. I haven't seen them because Barb's not involved. So obviously my stance on Stranger Things is no Barb, no David, my barbarist. A Barb absolutist in fact. - Yes, yes. - You watch Stranger Things. Do you remember Andrew Stanton's work on Stranger Things? - I mean, Stranger Things has a pretty solid like established visual style that I feel like even even when you're bringing in like Stanton or even place a frame there inside of him. - Is it Vecna or fucking, what is it, the Will to Beasts? - Yes, it's Vecna, Demogorgam. - Vecna, Vecna lives on top of that tummy floor. He lives in the tummy. The tummy is Vecna's home. That was the twist. Joey, I have never watched Stranger Things. I believe just because I try to keep tabs on Stanton stuff. He directed the 11 like punk episode. - Oh, did he do that one? - Yes. - That one that they kind of, well, it was like a, - Did he? - A second season. Yeah, like almost like failed backdoor pilot thing. - A little bit of a kind of one off self-contained episode. - You know, he didn't direct that one. - He didn't, okay. - That was Rebecca Thomas. - Interesting. - He directed episodes five and six and I can tell you like hopper, hoop for hopper. - Hopper? - This is season two. - Yeah. - And that's all he did. - Yeah, he got lost in a tunnel and, you know, - Yeah. - Some 11 appears to be involved. - I'm sure he did a good job. You know, I got to say the only ones that I ever remember noticing like, oh, there's a bit of extra flavor here was when Darabon directed a couple episodes in the last season of Stranger Things. And you noticed a few things where you're like, oh, okay, that has a little swish to it, but. - Now, this is show I never stuck with. I only watched the first season, but I know you watched pinata, the sixth episode of the fourth season of Better Call Saul. - It's an excellent episode. And Better Call Saul is a show I adore. - Yes. - I think it's a big fan. I know. - Yes. - I think it's like a masterpiece. But that's a very good episode. He directed an episode of Legion. - Legion? He did the fourth episode of Tales from the Louvre. He did four total episodes of a show. I love Cole Ferrell mankind on Apple TV, including in my opinion, it's best ever episode. - Wow. - He did the third episode. It's the one where fucking, I mean, I don't remember the names of the episode, but like where Joe Edgerton, I mean, not Joe Edgerton. Joe Kiniman. - God bless. There's a lot of Joel's out there. - Robert Cobb. - Where his adoptive daughter decides like she wants to be an astronaut, they have this huge fight. Oh, or she wants to be in the military. What, you know, like following his footsteps. And if this huge fight in a living room, him and his wife and the daughter and the camera like sticks with it, moves all around. And it's so good. And it's so beautifully act. It's the show that it's be. I mean, that show. - I gotta start watching this show. - It's falling off a little, season five's a little. It's kind of like guys, I think you're dumb and, you know, full of ideas. - And our friend, it's so good. - It's so good. - In a text, recently revealed to me that they are about to launch a spin-off show that is retelling everything that's happened on for all mankind so far from the perspective of the Russians. They're just-- - This is correct. - It's the same city. It seems like a, I don't think it's gonna run five seasons for that way. - Yeah. That's just a wild idea to be like a triumphant run. We're wrapping up, by the way, the spin-off is starting in three months and it's just going back to-- - That's the first point of the story. - I'm like, we know what happened. So what do you-- - Right. - Like, what do we, anyway, whatever. Who knows? It's also in English, despite all the Russian scenes in the show being in Russian in the main show. But clearly, they were like, "Well, the whole show can't be in Russian." And I'm like, "Well, then what are you doing?" "Wait, wait, wait, wait, maybe don't make it." He also directed an episode of Three Body Problem and he wrote two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. - A show I recently watched for the first time and I will admit, I think is quite terrible. - Quite bad, but he's like, the credits on that are like, he's like one of like a million names. - They're very qualified people. - Who knows who. - Who knows who. - Those Star Wars shows have a lot of wacky credits attached to them because at one point, this person was supposed to do this or this was supposed to be a movie. - Hey, if you would like put him as an example, put Stanton in charge of like, "Hey, you are like guiding vision for this show, "maybe it would have been better." But I don't think it was that. - No, it's odd because, right, he gets credit as a writer on two episodes, but I don't even think he's a producer and he didn't direct any. And it made sense. - And it just feels like you like stumbled into a writer's room for two weeks and then you were like, ugh, fuck this. - But it's also wild 'cause it's not like he worked in a writer's room on any other shows from the time he started. - No, but like, I feel like that's kind of like what being in the Pixar brain trust is. - A little bit. - Yes. - They just don't get credited that way. - Totally, and I also think it makes sense that that moment, Obi-Wan is where they're really starting to widen the aperture of like, maybe we're gonna make a ton of stuff for Disney Plus. If I'm gonna understand, I'm like, I just want to get in the door at Lucasfilm. I want to fucking talk to them about Star Wars shit. - I don't think a lot of people who worked on the Star Wars TV shows were basically like, I'd like to do something to do. I'd love to be on a set with a lightsaber. Like, it would just be awesome. Like, I grew up with Star Wars. Like, this rock. - I mean, obviously he makes sense. - He does, I have done something. - And a show that made sense was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a perfect mini series that made sense. - Sense. - I assume I will have griped about this. - Everyone would look down the camera and was like, this makes sense. - And Grogu episode, but it is astonishing to me that almost all of the Disney Plus Star Wars shows are about a person with a child being chased by someone. - Yes. case by the. fourth most important evil Jedi adjacent dark side guy like in this sector they present someone Grace even sent RIP God bless them show something and he's like and I'm also not a stiff yes, but I kind of like him and I'm not a giant neither, but I have a light saber and I'm like, well, what are you? He's like, I don't know. I was like, how are these all the exact same premise where you're like semi stoically lead younger, more vulnerable sort of like under the wing, you know, they have to protect. They're looking for something and someone else is chasing them and the person who's chasing them is established as really evil and the longer things go on, you're like, they're only kind of half evil. They're all that safe for Andor. Which is probably the best one. I mean, it's so close to me. Is anyone from that that that take out? That Andor's good. People are like, then we might want to put that out just because the microphone's on fire. You've watched a sugar, right? Asoca. Asoca. I watched a soca. I'm going to watch season two. Why not? I love punishment. Yeah, I want to see what happens with them. What's that? What the hell's the blue guy who like? Yeah, Thron. I think Asoca is so fascinating because I swear to God, they're like, get ready to meet the scariest villain in the world. He's fucking Joe Biden in that show. He's so quiet. He's like, but I just the end of that season one is so wild to me because it's flown you basically being like, I am setting up this Thron guy. As like, this is it. This is the new guy. Because the show mostly has other smaller villains that she's dealing with. No, no, not just in the show. To me, it felt like it was just like, we are, this is your new bad. He's going to like, the star wars, he's going to other shows. I want to make movies and I'm sure he probably does want to do all this, but I'm watching it and I'm like, there's no fucking way that's happening. So what the hell is this? I don't know. Do we have to watch season two for the group? You don't have to do shit. Well, I know that season two hasn't happened and won't come out. Yeah, it won't come out by next week. Thank God. Because that's your season two here. It doesn't even have it. Yeah, it doesn't even have it. But it has been filmed and every McCann replaced Ray Stevenson. Yeah, I mean, the man died. Look, I mean, we shouldn't say we're not the problem. Exactly. Actually was the best part of the show. He was the best part. And he was, you were kind of like, there's something to this idea. There's something right, you know, to like the idea of what he's playing. Obviously, the big problem with the Shoka, Asoka. Asoka is just like, she's a non-character. She's a non-character. And like, I know in the cartoon, she's like a spunky teen who's like, I'm a rabble, but by the time the show like, now that she's a grown-up, she's just like her vibe is she's serene. Every character is like that. I mean, that's yes. Yeah. I mean, they're all kind of just like we are your friend. Okay. So we haven't seen Mando and we haven't recorded yet. So I'm going to burn some of these takes here and just remind me to not make these complaints in the Mando episode. Okay. My takeaway watching Asoka was like, this feels like watching children perform Shakespeare where they don't know what they're saying. And the only direction they're being given is play it seriously. And say it slow. Yes. So everything is like your character motivation is serious. And I think that is partially that Filoni ran these cartoon shows. I have not watched much of Clone Wars, but I watched the majority of Rebels, which I really liked and was a show that was fun and had defined characters. And so much of Asoka is him being like, I'm bringing all my Rebels characters into live action and then zapping them of any personality because I'm trying to fight the perception that these are cartoons characters. So everyone is just like saying things really slowly and quietly. Even fucking like Ezra shows up who's been built up as by the way, you can't have a character called Ezra. No, it's ridiculous. But he shows up and he's been built up as like, oh, oh, oh, for a crazy wild Ezra, he's so fun. And then he's just as pretty much just as dead eyed as the rest of it with Winstead, who I always love. I think basically never misses. And we've talked about David like she's someone who can single handedly elevate dog shit. Totally. And in this she is so boring and lifeless. Everyone is bad. The whales. The whales are fun. The whales are good. The whales are good. But everyone had told me the whales were good. I skipped the show when it aired years ago. And I remember at the time people being like, the whales kind of feel like classic Star Wars magic. I got to the whale sequence in the season. And I was like, that was good. But if you're telling me that's the high water mark and I have four episodes left to go, I'm terrified. I agree with you. The whales are like the one chunk that I felt a little something. Anyway, that's my, that's my Star Wars ran over. Also, so it's like basically not the lead character that she's not because she has them for half the season. Not dead. She's not in between the Anakin verse. Right. She's in the limbo, the Anakin verse. It's just everyone being like, we got to find has her. As a reminder, if you want skeleton crew yet, I'm watching it. That one at least has energy. What? Did they renew skeleton? No, no, that's a one of them. That was one of them. That's basically the only thing that's coming back. When they've announced, and that'll be the end of it. It's over. And then Filoni will be shot in the middle of time. So probably everyone forgets, but they announced that Filoni was going to direct a movie that was the culmination of all the Filoni. I think he thought that was happening. And I think there was a little bit of we've changed our priorities. Let's just put Grogu on a screen. Right. See what happens. John directs that. We're sorry. We'll let you make a Soka season two to wrap up those threats. Yeah. I honestly think they should just let him just not for theaters, but like in Disney, but let him make whatever crazy fucking movie he wants to make where he brings back all of them through AI, like, you know, Luke, Leia, Con. No, he wants to do this. Let's be real. And he wants to correct everything that he thinks they did wrong in the sequel series. Of like, these guys should have been fighting together. And they should be fighting, throng, I guess, like, let him. Oh, good shit. Yes. Right. Like, like, just a YouTube fan movie. It's in on the DC plus epitons in a garbage can. You have to like, lift up the lid. And they're like, really? And you're like, yeah, what's in there? They're like, all right. We'll get it out for you. It's like, covered in banana peels. Press play. The fucking FBI break down your head. It's just a spinning wheel. It just turns into a question mark. And it's like, come on. I don't know. So you just had to watch the phone. You watch the phone movie and in the blink of an eye. What's going on? We will talk about this. I'm like two months prior to this. But yeah, I do wonder if they have like a Hail Mary guy, like the James Gunn DC thing. Kathy has retired. Philoni. He's gonna go to some cartoon world. Philoni is in charge of the whole thing. I know. Yeah, but it does poorly. Do they go like, I don't know. We want a new steward and it's, but then I don't know who the answer that question is. I mean, I think I know the answer, which is it's, they already announced Simon Kimberg is sort of like overseeing. That ain't it, my friends. I don't do it again. But they're like Philoni is in charge of operations, which I also think is partially being like maybe, maybe you don't write and direct the stuff as much anymore. Right. And that Simon Kimberg is the guy who's sort of like, you got to figure out the movie problem. Everything's really good. Anyway, in the blink of an eye. So it does all this here. I know the two movies that he came close to making. The one was revolver. Is that correct, Sam? All right. Well, let me, let me just go. Phil is off. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Stanton, just to note, he is on the Pixar senior creative team. He was the narrative guru for literally credited as the narrative guru for Ralph breaks the internet. Okay. Okay. Good work. Because this is where once Disney has bought Pixar, they start to send the Pixar brain trust out to other projects of the other tendrils to give advice. Toy Story 4, he is a writer on side Stephanie Fulsome. So he created Forky. So obviously, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for that work. It was in that same recent piece. Toy Story 4 was originally announced as a John Lasseter movie. Weirdly enough, Rashida Jones was writing it with her partner Wilbur McCormick writing partner. It was the Woody Bo Peep reunion movie, but a very different version of it that didn't work for years and years and years. And they kept pushing it back. And then Lasseter steps down, hands off directing, Lasseter, lots of hug and Lasseter is pushed out of Pixar entirely. And they basically go to Stanton. And they're like, can you take a crack at this Toy Story 4 is a disaster? And we cannot cancel it because there was so much money tied up in the idea of marketing and merchandising and the promise to our shareholders that we will have another Toy Story movie. And as he put it, he like, you know, locked himself in a room and within like six hours was like, I think I know what the movie is. That he is the the Toy Story genius and he is the one he knows that's what he and Joss Whedon did all those years ago, right? When the first one was a disaster and then they locked themselves in a room. Right. And Joss Whedon was gone after like a week and then he continued to just fix everything. And that yes, he came up with Forky, right? And he went to the novel. I mean, his first big take was like, bow coming back. And okay, if three was the end of Andy's story, should four be kind of like, well, then what does Woody do now? The other thing he said, which I think 'cause this is real genius, but the Toy Story stuff is the problem they kept budding against with Toy Story 4. And I've read at least one or two of the scripts that have floated around for the canceled Toy Story 4. They were like, "Well, we want to tell love story. We want to make a rom-com. We want to make a movie about like bow and boydy getting back together." And people kept writing movies where they were like, this has nothing to do with them being toys. You're just writing a romance between two characters who happen to be toys. And Stanton's always been like, "You have to start from the perspective of what are the experiences that are unique to them?" And he was just like, "Well, like how do woody and bow-peep gets split up?" What is uniquely traumatizing about that that would be connected to them being a toy? Oh, bow gets donated because the sister has a different relationship to her toys than Andy does. Yada, yada, yada, and then the story comes from there. (upbeat music) May 2020, he was attached to something called chairman spaceman, which is an adaptation of a Thomas Pierce short story that was published in the New Yorker that he was going to do for, well, Simon Kimberg's genre films for searchlight, which is about a corporate writer who renounces his wealth and signs up for an interplanetary mission to colonize the solar system. I don't know, sounds somewhat interesting. It sounds like in the blink of an eye is sort of like the other heady sci-fi script that he then got going. Correct, so he jumped to that one. Yes, and obviously, Hulu Searchlight, all owned by Disney, who, oh, stand for the billions and billions of dollars, he's made them. Right, but he put it as like those were the two things I was really serious about and in the blink of an eye came together a little faster. Revolver is revolver. A romantic coming of age comedy starring Ethan End, Maya Hawk, written by a stranger thing writer, Kate Treffrey Treffrey. Sure, she's the one who ended up writing the Stranger Things Broadway play. Ah, of course, in which we saw the first shadow. Right, first shadow, that's right. And to explain the floor thing in that one? (laughing) Well, stages traditionally have a floor. Exactly. Does Vecna live in a theater? Is it Vecna inside your stomach? There is a kind of Vecna, there is a flat floor and people are just walking around. Hardwood, yeah, exactly. A wall to wall carpet. Be careful, the spikes. Oh, there's spikes, 'cause there are spikes in the time. The tummy spikes. They'll get you right in time. You watch this and how they killed it. Right, they got Vecna. That fucker, throw 'em into it. What did Vecna do? Vecna picked Vecna. Recession? Recession happened. What do you do? It was with the craziest fucking things in the world. He was in a big fan of gay people. So that was why he was after, that was why he was after Will all those years. And I am, that's barely a joke that is basically what they imply in the last season among many other things. It is so insane that people dislike that ending so much that within a week they were like, no, no, no, no. There's another episode. The ending's bad on purpose because it's an augmented reality experience. It's metatextual and there's a secret episode that's coming out. They would never just with this, this hard earnestly. And Revolver, it's a 60s set thing in which Maya Hawk is a teenager in Anchorage, Alaska, and a flight from to Japan carrying the Beatles is forced to stop in Anchorage and she decides to fuck George Harrison. That is the plot of the movie. That is her goal. She, Santa wanted to make that for like five years and actually it just never happened. Now, Colby Day, the writer of this movie, who also wrote Space Man on Netflix, right? Yes, a movie I like a lot. Yeah. He starts writing in the blink of an eye when living in New York in the mid 2010s. He goes to the planetarium, heard of it. And I hate the planetarium, it means natural history. And they've got a big map of the timeline of the universe. It's a cool place to go, big bang and blah, blah. And he said, it gave me an existential crisis, which that can happen when you start thinking about the vastness of the universe. So he's like, I think when you start to zoom out and you think about what does it mean to be here for not that long, you start to find the meaning of life. He wanted to talk about the idea that even if we don't get much time, the things we do ripple through it. So he's trying to reassure his own anxiety. That's really what the movie is about. Yeah, yeah. So he's like, you know, initial concept is just that he wanted to write about time. So the initial story began with the big bang, the first thing in time, right? Kind of the ultimate prequel. He also was much more rigid about moving from past to present to future in that order. But I think Stanton pushes it more to like, be fluidly jumping between them all, you know? Yeah, not like his three segments. This movie was in development for years. It also, you know, from the time that Stanton came attached to the script, was it a blacklist script? It was on the blacklist. So that's like 2016, I want to say. Uh, yes. It was on the blacklist in 2016, number six. But, you know, you get put on the blacklist, everyone comes to calling, but they're also like, by the way, we have to change everything. Right, you're whatever. Stanton read the script years later though. Mm-hmm. And was like, I'm jealous of whoever wants to try and make this, realizes no one's making it and decides to jump on board. He calls Colby and says, you love cloud Atlas as much as I do. And Colby Day says, yeah, I do. I love story circles. That was my goal was doing a kind of a cloud Atlas e thing. Stanton also loves the fountain. Another movie I would say that is trying this kind of thing. Um, and he likes a triptych, he says, he's like, you know, you go to the roots of all that and there's something deep and all of us connect to about trifectas. Of course, he might be thinking about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know. Famous trifecta. Father Son Holy Ghost. So he starts revising. I don't know. I mean, this is going to, I'm going to be honest with you. Obviously, obviously it's super cloud Atlas fleet, cloud Atlas e. Yeah, it is kind of like a, the, a very small scale, if you could call it that or not small skills, right? But he's like a very, a more intimate version of cloud Atlas. It's like, what if we did what cloud Atlas is trying to do? But we really, yes. Let's turn it down to just these like, like three or so, like core relationships and a kind of really clean line of cause and effect. This is sort of one narrative thread that's touched in three different eras. Yes. And very, just very small lives, like in each of these, I mean, yes, he is placing them in a canvas where it's like, look how huge they're the impact of these small lines. Exactly. That's in the contrast. But they are, you know, the three stories, little stories. Modest is a good way to put them to put it. This was announced in October 2022. It was shot in 2023. And then just sort of was in stasis for three years. I've obviously wanted to do state and forever. So from the moment this movie was announced, I was like, well, when this comes out, we'll cover him. And then it kept on getting like knocked down the schedule. And it is ideal that this and toy story five are coming out so close together and we can do a series that doesn't end on this movie. And that has the contrast of both of them in the same year. I did not like this movie went to Sundance and was I would say critically ravaged and then has gone to Hulu with basically like no impact whatsoever. I had, you know, after the snow storm cancel the premiere, I was like, words not great. I'm going to have to watch this for the podcast. If I watch it now, will I even remember it by the time we record? Let me just hold off until it's actually time to do this episode. And so I've been dreading it. I did not dislike this movie. I cannot say I liked it, but I felt a little more neutral on it than I was expecting with how negative the word was. I think Joey, you and I are maybe in a slightly similar space of like nothing really works for me. But there wasn't anything I bumped on too hard and I like what it's trying to do. Even if I don't think it gets there. It's a fart sandwich, but it's a sandwich. This is Ben's review is that it's a fart sandwich. Ben's a fart sandwich. Yes. But he's just upset that he didn't get to voice the AI friend. I think the movie would have been a lot more fun if Kate McKinnon's AI friend had been voiced by you. Ben would have been very good. Ben voiced the AI. That was not an indirect answer. It's the whole movie for some reason thinking that some narrative connective tissue they were doing was that the AI was voiced by Rashida Jones, not Rashida Jones, it's like some random actor. It's a little confusing. But although I don't, yeah, I don't know what that would have meant. Anyway, my experience was like, and the first 20 minutes or so, especially the very start of the movie, I was like, oh boy, because it starts with like the Sylvia Plath quote, you know, remember, remember, this is now and now and now and you're like, oh boy. And then we open in, you know, like 45,000 BC with cavemen making sparks. And again, you're like, all right. Obviously, if you're going to be invoking 2001, a space Odyssey, you got to be careful. That's the best science fiction film. So you're inviting quite a comparison there, if you're going to be doing that. Well, so obviously, so intensely. So you're starting with that and then you're going into these two other introducing us to these two other stories, the Rashida Jones and. David Diggs in the present day and she's a research scientist and they're flirting at college and then she's a doctoral candidate in anthropology. She'd do bones and then Greg question mark from statistics. Two actors I like a lot. What is that face you're making? I'm trying to think what I like Rashida Jones and like hopefully I like her in this movie. Yeah, she's all right in this movie. Sure. I mean I found this movie just kind of inert. That was my like I was not like raging about this like oh my god. This is it but it just felt like low energy. I mean, it's going to play my thought. I'd like to play my thoughts then you're introduced to the middle and then you're introduced to Kate McKinnon in the future and she's on a spaceship and she's on a mission to like save humanity by taking all of these like new babies in a bag babies babies in a spaceship to a new home. And I think for the first like 20 30 minutes, you're like wow, this is like like you said, this is very low energy. This is very inert. It's crosscutting between all of them really quickly. Right. And you're like you are taking right into crosscutting between three stories and they all seem pretty boring. It's got a little bit of of the aspect of like it feels like the tone of this is quote unquote serious. Right. And I also think it's not even you know cloud Atlas opens like this where you're weaving between all the really quickly as they're setting it up. The cloud Atlas has twice as many threads and they're further apart. They're not as thematically linked in in a parent way from the get go. And then after the first like three or four minutes, which is also more symphonic and stylized, it settles down into like we will focus on one for time. Right. And then go to the others to situate the first like 25 minutes of this just continue to just keep ribbing in a way where you're like the energy and the pacing are pretty low and slow. Well, it's like you're going to okay, you've gone right into we're jumping between these, but you never, but you didn't first establish you don't feel like you're like grounding or about. Yes. And if and like right, the the prehistoric one is like you know, it's it's nonverbal. They speak in. It's very much him doing like a hot hot to knees, but it's like a quest for fire, you know, it is it is actors in prosthetics. Yeah, because they're Neanderthals. Right. So they, you know, or they're Paleolithic people of some sort, but it's about the meeting of right. Yes. Chromagnon and yeah. And right, then there's the the present sets graduate school section. But I was going to say I like both of these actors a lot. It is an interesting casting choice to hire two people who are decades older than the characters they're playing. Yeah, you know, I was just watching the Wizard of the Kremlin, the the hottest movie of 2016, which is a movie where big that begins with Paul Dana playing like his character when he's like 18 years old. And he's like, I'm at college. And I was just like, just just don't show me this. Like I just I can't buy this and it's taking me out of the movie right away. It's the LMK thing for me where I'm like case a recent example where I'm like, as we know, we're all teenagers right now, and you're like, okay, I love. But also it's like cast, cast for the age the character is going to spend the most time. Yes. This movie jumps ahead eventually. We get to a point where to be big and Rashida Jones are playing their own age. But I'd say it's a pretty short chunk of the movie. Yeah. And it's by that point that movie is moving along time wise quite fast. And then it even goes beyond that to them with old age makeup. So you're like, you know, 60% of their screen time is them in their 20s. Yes. And they are 44 and 50. They are. I mean, look, I know they're good looking people. They're good looking people. They've aged really well. And I thought the graduate school. But I didn't totally buy Rashida Jones. They're like, I'm just getting started in grad school. There is like my bone. I think what is actually pretty fucking effective CGI D aging on the two of them that I noticed was very subtle. And a lot of that is they're two people with very good genes who have aged very well. But there is like an energy thing of you just feel the two of them playing 20 something in a way that feels a little school play at times. It makes it confusing how much time is going cried. It does because I couldn't really like hearing you say she's in her 20s makes a lot more sense to me now. Well, because also it's like you can obviously be in your mid 40s and go to graduate school. So you watch it and you're like, I'm not immediately rejecting that Rashida Jones could be in this program. But the longer it goes on, you're sort of like, I think she's supposed to be like 27. You know, there's sort of context clues that develop. And then there's the the Cape McKinan section, which is right. She is on a spaceship by herself with an AI brand year 2417. Right. So it's like 400 years in the future. And yeah, she's got an AI that is pretty rosco pretty. I would say like, personable is not a how is actually like conversational and feels friendly and human in its tone. It's demeanor. But she's basically an isolation. It's it's a very kind of walley setup of your alone on a spaceship looking for the planet that is inhabitable where where life could restart. There's no like and this is deliberate, but there's no like great tension to her mission because I believe they've identified the planet. They know where she's going. They're terraforming. They're terraforming it. They have a whole plan. She's just got to get there. It should be done by the time I get there. But that's happening. That's not my dealing with a yes, she is dealing with a problem, which is that there's something's gone wrong in the in the ship's systems, but it's all played pretty all played pretty low key. And they are also very they really drip out the information in a way that I actually kind of liked about like what her deal is. I was going to say, right, the big mystery is like, how is she alive? And like because she's she's not going to go in hypersleep, like how is she going to just think is though as I because they keep stressing like she's doing this for a hundred and blah years. I've rewatched it and it flies over your head. You rewatched this? Well, I'm saying I just get to see the intro of each character. It says longevity enhanced pilot. Oh, does it not? I don't know. I just I mean, one of her first pieces of dialogue is something about like, oh, how many years do I have until we get there? Right. And with the suggestion of the way she's saying it of like me, you know, not like my kids like me. So you're like, okay, there's something going on with. So you with you. I'm just going to let's just say the thing, right? This movie is about humanity identifying basically the truth to death, right? Like scientifically identifying aging. Yes. But not like you're immortal. You will venture. She will. Yeah, we see her getting old at the end. You will eventually die very beyond right, curing illnesses. We have like identified a way to combat the gene that causes the degradation of aging, you know, and to slow it down and everything works out. Crawl. Well, well, I mean, so the movie is very sketchy about a lot of details. And again, in a way that I didn't entirely, hey, one of the things that is kind of left to our imagination, unless I miss something is that she is doing this mission to find us a new home because our current home, presumably Earth is no longer habitable. But what is left vague is did that just happen naturally? No. I got the impression is because people stopped dying and that created and that created population. And that created like havoc. But they don't really get into it. But she says like we decided that people should not actually stop age. Like when she's talking to the kids about it, it's definitely the most interesting scene in the movie. I think everything about that scene, I first, I think McKinnon's goodness move. She is. I think she's yeah, she's she's yes, yeah, she's I was the assignment. I there were moments with her when I was moved by like on I the first moment in the movie after it was kind of going by very glacial. And I was like, oh boy, the first moment where I like locked in a little bit is when she has to turn off the AI her AI friend. And she's like turns it off and then you know, she's like, you were my only friend and then it's like sad about and I don't know just because she played it so well. I was like, oh okay. But this is my I'm feeling something. I agree. This is my biggest take with the film and I understand you know, this whole movie generates from thinking about the big bang and the ripple of time and the story circles and you know, all of that. And like the whole movie should have been McKinnon. I'm like, this is the interesting story. And actually the reveals that are interesting within her story are deflated somewhat by the other two narratives. That's it. You're right. You're right. Because like the other generators just are pretty juiceless. They are. They just are. They really are. And they're you know, they're little moments. They're little flourishes and touches. But when you actually step away from the movie and especially when it doesn't really connect all of its threads until the end and go like, this is what's fucking been going on the whole time. The fucking nut. The acorn. The acorn. I would possibly get the nut out of here. But you're just sort of like the whole interesting story is the Kate McKinnon thing. And actually, if you remove the other two narratives and you're slowly realizing what's going on with her, the same doling out of information gradually, but it not being supplanted by the other two. That's the movie that feels like it has a little more intrigue to it. I like this implication that it's basically like. watching sort of the turning point of humanity, the sort of notion of the two species and one outlived the other, and this was the merging of them, and this is sort of the missing link sort of moment. And then Rashida Jones is trying to, she has discovered the remnants of this missing link. What's the character's name? It's not Thorke or Thaw. It's Thorne and Hira? Yes. If you look on IMDB is something I really like is Thawne is played by someone who is primarily like a stunt performer and a physical performer. His photo on IMDB is just him as a power ranger. His face is not even visible. It's fucking awesome. And tonight a baby who's an actor, it's an awesome picture. It's like it's just a full body power ranger. We need power ranger. Yes. Tonight a baby is an actor I really like, who plays his wife. But yeah, you're seeing this sort of like this is where humanity kind of starts, right? The Rashida Jones has recovered the remnants of this guy and believes like this missing link might help us understand where we came from understand our own DNA more in a way that could lead to the breakthroughs of curing diseases this and that. While this is happening, her mother is dying rapidly from a very aggressive form of a terminal cancer. She's starting this sort of relationship with David Diggs who clearly is all in on her and she's kind of keeping him at arm's length a because she's so focused on her work and b because she's got the burden of caring for her mother. And she's sort of like, I don't know if I can take this on and you're watching this developing relationship where she's keeping him at a distance. Then she drops out of school to go be with her mother. So the relationship is mostly happening over zoom. You know, she's an isolation there and he's committed to her and eventually, you know, they he comes, he moves in with her, they get married, they have kids and you realize that their son, who they homeschool and they raise in the grand tradition of science is able to build on his parents work and what she studied to actually crack the code. - To cure death. - To cure death. So the whole time of this of their story, you're a part of you is wondering like, what the hell is this? Because like nothing is happening. When you get to the end, you're like, okay, the overarching idea he is like here is that she and she's especially but and David are like, they were just one another little step along the chain. And she has the moment, can you believe we made him? - Yes. - The guy who cures death. - There is something as as their relationship, the Rashida and David think like as I gradually settled into, I was like, okay, this is just what this is going to be. - Yeah. - The whole movie, this like very quiet, you know, - He's the most patient understanding. - The whole mostly over video calls, which is kind of a crazy choice for a movie. But as I settled into it, I was like, okay, there are some nice moments. There's a very lovely moment where they're just sitting together on the phone silently while she's sitting by her mom in bed. And it's a wordless scene. And like there are little moments where you're like, okay, that was good. - It's a very good visual storyteller. And even in a movie like this, the can't quite find itself. There will be moments like that where something kind of interesting and specific is conveyed. - Right. And where you feel a sense of what he's going, what they're going for with their dynamic of like, they're so in love. And like despite all these problems they have in the fight she has, and like at one point she tries to break up with them, it just kind of like doesn't come to anything because he's just like, no, like you love me. I love you. Like we're going to be together forever. - I think that's kind of fun when she's really trying to break up with him because she's just like, this isn't fair to you. It doesn't matter that I'm in love with you. And then he starts laughing. And he's like, oh, it's been a fun year. I love with me. - Speak to the weird writing style of the movie that in that particular scene is kind of charming where it's like, you think this is about to be a dramatic moment. And then it's not because it's just like, no, enough of that. - The key thing here is kinda, kinda, kinda. Now let's say I just want to say something right now. - Or hey, Vargas, Blake Bradley, aka the Navy Thunder Ranger in Power Rangers Ninja Storm. - I'm glad you've been doing a deep dive on this one. - Right. - So when I talk about the movie, who is the blue Ranger? But it's just funny, huh? Like at the start, they were like, yeah, we got a blue Ranger. We got a green Ranger. And now they're like, he's the blue, the Navy Thunder Ranger. Like we said, we have dead like kind of land's end style colors description. - Yes. - But he's in 36 episodes. - Hey. - Like, and it's him. - Yes. - Like his human face is seen too. - That's all. - I don't have any more. Do you want me to get more news for you on Ninja Storm Rangers? - No, what I was going to say is, maybe I will anyway, though. - If you remove the other two plotlines and just sort of unpack like this is what happens in the Kate McKinnon plotline, right? She is a woman who is on a spaceship by herself. Her only connection seems to be this AI robot. And she's like holding on to hundreds, thousands of embryos. - Yes. - In bags. - Right. - You grow them in bags. - That she is trying to protect while also having a sort of sunshine-esque green room to be able to provide oxygen for the ship. There is a fungus breakout. There is not going to be enough oxygen for her to get to the planet that's being terraformed. There's sort of the mystery of like, why is this one woman in isolation carrying so many embryos to repopulate humanity by herself? And you know, you have this sort of, I don't know, a bit of a trolley car problem, but not really of, there's not enough oxygen to get her there. She's like, I should kill myself. Your AI, you can handle the mission on your own. All that's important is that the embryos get to this planet and you can sort of activate everything. And the AI sacrifices itself to be like, you need a human being with like, reasoning and feelings and the X factor of human experience. You know, it shouldn't be done by a machine. And so, the AI basically convinces Kate McKinnon to deactivate it so that they can use the extra room to plant more to create a second supply of oxygen. Because they have to isolate the, have a separate room with the plant life isolated so that it doesn't also get disease. All of this is kind of like a run around where I was sort of like, the fuck, where are we going with this? Until the moment, as you said, where I think McKinnon plays really well, the loss of like, oh, this was the only connection she had to something that even felt like humanity was speaking to this computer. And now she's got to do the rest of this mission alone. And she activates the one child that she can like, raise and have her relationship with. And she starts talking to her. And then you realize like, this is the last human being alive. We like, killed ourselves with overpopulation. She is functionally, if not literally a mortal close to it. And as she's raising this child, she explains this thing, but I think is the best thing in the movie that both in terms of being well performed and well written, but also the ideas of it being so interesting of, we solved the thing that felt like the great tragedy of humanity or own mortality. And in fact, we realized this is not good. It's not good. Not only did it just like fuck us up infrastructureally as a species, but also like people shouldn't live this long. It actually sucks. It's a curse. And it's a burden. And we're restarting humanity. You will age normally. We're going to go to a new planet. We're going to try to get it right. I'm the last freak alive trying to like reset everything. It is important, though, that the company that did this to us is also the company that is now in charge of the ship. Right. This is where the movie trips up and also is very like not built for for this moment is that it has this lands in this very optimistic play. You could argue about whether it's optimistic because, of course, the the happy ending that we see is preceded by like the collapse of civilization. Well, you're watching the sun's breakthrough as he gives the press conference to reveal that he's cured death at the same time as Kate McKinnon is basically explaining this was a mistake. It fucked everything up. And now we're trying to reset everything back to how it was. And so you have like David Diggs and Rashida Jones being like, can you believe it? Our sun changed the world. And Kate McKinnon being like the world's in nightmare. And now I have to try to do a hard reboot. Right. But then they're trying to the mood of the thing. This is what you're saying is that that is all at a disconnect from the mood. The mood of the thing is very much like, but we figure it out. You know, like we figure we realize we made a mistake. And now we're pulling back. And you know, we figured out a new way. And that's what you're seeing with this, uh, Kate McKinnon storyline. And then alongside that also she has this lovely AI friend who is like really nice and like helps her with everything, but and who and who the AI gives voice to like no humanity is the most important thing. And like having you having your X factor of being a human dad is the most important thing more important than me. And not to like place other things that are like going on in the world right now onto the, but you do you can't avoid it. And I'm just watching that scene. And I'm like, well, that's a little bullshit. Like that's not what that's not like a reflective of that is not what we're learning and seeing about how these technologies operate. That's just you fantasizing. No, in fact, about like maybe one day it will be like that. We have the opposite issue, which is like AI convincing people to kill themselves. Not AI being like I should deactivate. So So humanity can persist. Right. So I was just like, it also, I mean, it's, it's the whole, like, and Stan was out. I read an interview with him where they were asked about this and they were like, it takes a very like optimistic view and his answer was just like, well, what else can you do? But, but just have hope and have optimism. And I was like, well, that's a lame answer. I find his real view really interesting in general because it feels like he is a guy and I related this really hard where he is, like, there is a constant fight between like an overriding cynicism and like an attempted optimism that he like doesn't want to drown in the cynicism, even though it's a Nate state. And there is a sort of like, sappy emotionality to him that he's a little bit embarrassed by, right? And I think that's a lot of like the toy story magic comes from that sensibility. It feels like this movie puts the thumb down too hard on the optimism. Even when it's doing something that is a little bit ominous and it's trying to like create the friction between like, well, here's this amazing accomplishment and human existence that we have this breakthrough, but also we're watching the business end of what was a mistake by it. But then the optimism is, but, but they're going to fix it eventually and you're like, so, but that's why the end of the movie is really odd with like, wow, I can't believe we made him. And I'm like, history's greatest. Right. Like, it seems like he maybe was. This was a mistake and this was a curse. And I'm like, I sort of don't even to know about that guy. It's more interesting to just spend time with Kate McKinnon, the one person who's the representative of why this was a mistake, you know? And especially her doing that nice. But it's also like, it's interesting to be I also think, I think like, there was a review I read at Sundance that was critiquing her casting and saying like, her sort of what they described as her finger guns, comic energy is an ill match for this movie. And then I was like, oh, is she going to be doing like Ghostbusters? No, not at all. No, I think she's giving like a good dramatic performance. But I think her being a little sedate like, it's like, she gives her more energy than any the other performers in the movie, even though she's playing it straight. She has a little bit of that off wire energy, which I think helps. I think it could have helped to have more of the casting be on those lines. I think if you're going to have a character in the future, make him talk weird. She loves shit like that too. You mean like to a cloud out? That's the true true. Yeah. Come on. She's kind of doing her like cowboy kind of, you know, Kate McKinnon sort of thing. Here's what I can tell you. Yeah. Ninja Storm was the 10th. Okay. This is how a Ranger series. Uh-huh. Now the one before was Wild Force, which I guess they turned into like animals like lions and eagles and stuff. And the one after a one we all know well is Dino Thunder, where they were just like, fuck it. They're dinosaurs. They can. I guess. I don't know. Because the originals are kind of dinosaurs. Ninja Storm though. They were ninjas. Ninjas. I tell you. Are they ninjas? Dinosaur? No. Just regular old ninjas. That's kind of interesting. There's a more interesting. And I was like, do they have sort of and it's like, no, they have a sensei who gets turned into a guinea pig. So it's going into GeForce territories or it sounds possible. I think there's a more interesting version of like passengers in this with her activating the one embryo, so is not to be alone and go crazy. And I think I even really clocked if you're reading us, right? That that was a thing where she like was going against the mission or anything. I thought that was just part of the mission. The other part of it is like now she needs help because she doesn't have the AI. Right. I think that was some part of the plan. Yes. But then it's like she's forming this emotional relationship that wasn't part of the plan because she needs that and in raising a child now and actually like kind of being a mother in a way she wasn't supposed to be. And this movie ends with a scene I think Kitten can also perform as well of like her holding the funeral for this child on the reborn earth and she has barely aged, you know, she looks like five years older and it's like crinkles and she's seated in the mission. But like her curses that she also now has to like just to watch her kids die. Right. And she's like, it lived along. She wasn't really my child. You know, I'm not technically her mother more so than any of you but she's the one I felt the most connected to. These are interesting, heavy ideas. Yeah. I feel like the movie shies away from ever getting too emotional, getting too kind of like worked up about any of it. And so at the end I was kind of like, yeah, okay. It's just the one idea I like is yeah, if we, if we could live forever, it would suck. Sure. I'm, it would cause a thousand problems. My favorite show, New Amsterdam, and they're like Costa Waldo, remember? Yeah, of course. He was old. Yes. But young. He was also a different go on gruffet one where he was, that one was where every time he dies, he wakes up in the East River or something, and he's still, and it was called like eternal forever. Right. Uh-oh. It was called uh-oh. It was that he would like ground hug day, but the next day, it was called forever. It was called forever. Yes. Right. I can tell you. The day wouldn't reset. He would do just like these in the East River again. So I guess it's a little being John Malk of it where they would just spit him out. But I liked about New Amsterdam was like in the pilot, he like meets with like an old man who's his son. And he's, the old man's like, wow, you really don't fucking age. Shoot. And he's like, yeah. It's my thing. I'll have to solve a mystery. Because that's the best thing about old network shows. They're like, he's immortal. Fascinating. And he solves mysteries. Everybody's like, don't worry. He solves mysteries. Don't worry. He solves mysteries. There's an engine. Yes. Uh-uh. Yeah. You know, the ideas are interesting. I just, I also find the design a little bland of the spaceship and all that. Like where I'm just like, it's just got this kind of big appley. Yeah. I sort of look to it that is not very distinctive. Uh-uh. Her clothes. Right. Just like boring. It was another thing that caught watching that movie Spaceman, which Colby Day wrote. Yes. Has a very different look. Has a look. Like I found that movie also a little sleepy, but like that, that movie at least was very heady. Yeah. Looking. I like that movie a lot. I, I think rewatching Wally for the first time in a while, it was interesting because that did feel new. The whole visual design language of Wally, both the sort of busted, rusted, old, by and large stuff. And then when you get to the axiom and making everything that apple influenced, you know, it's a year before Star Trek, which does the similar and a redesign of like the enterprises now kind of Apple store coded and all of that. Now this has just sort of become the default language for what spaceships look like. And it's not interesting to do and it feels like someone needs to like shake up the formula again. I mean, everything about the visuals on the movie. Nothing is bad. The movie looks fine. But it's all just very like default and all very, I mean, that is all really all kind of summed up by the fact that for a score, they were like, I know Stanton has worked with them before. It's just number one. They were like, call up Thomas Newman and have him deliver the same thing that you've heard a million times. I've ever seen a quest for fire or clan of the cave bear that I recently watched clan of the cave. Tell me about it. Because I'm trying to watch. It's not very good. Okay. And I'm trying to watch every 1986 film for the big. Oh sure. Our inevitable. Yeah. And I got to this point where I was sort of like, you know, at this point, I've probably seen most of the major films of 1986, but then I was like, all right, well, what was nominated for an Oscar? Oh, sure. That I haven't seen yet. The answer was one was clan of the cave bear, which got it a makeup nomination. It was a gigantic bomb, that film, a huge huge bomb. It's Darryl Hannah plays a cave woman. Yes. It's great stuff. But coming off of quest for fire, being a surprise hit, exactly like we'll keep it with the caveman. Uh, you've also, I also watched Franco Zephyrelli's adaptation of the opera Otello, which I'll feature as plastered a Domingo in makeup. Uh, I was playing that one at work on my iPad. And then I was like, I might have to turn this one off. And I also watched crimes of the heart, which got three Oscar nominations, Bruce Barris were filmed. Fucking saw. Yes. What were they doing in the 80s? Bruce was, it's a weird career, at least based on a play. Yeah. Uh, how does, how does any of what we're talking about right now, how did we transition into a movie? He has a bit of a clan of the cave bear, right? I mean, at times of the hardest, a lot of Southern bells going like, oh, my, my, my, never love me. I lost the, there was an 80s micro trend of, we're going to try to make caveman movie that are ostensibly a little more, quote unquote, accurate. And no one's going to talk, and it's sort of like a dramatized nature documentary sort of vibe. I mean, sometimes this movie in a negative way feels like a 30 minute film you would watch at a planetarium or something. Yeah. But it's very, very hard to do any version of that caveman thing that isn't that, especially if you're going to decide to be accurate about it, like it's just, it's hard to, uh, see them discover a whistle. Yeah. And be like, whoa. Oh, yeah. That own whistle. I don't care. They should be doing caveman movie that's like Chris Nolan doing the Odyssey where they're just like, hey, what's up? I'm Homer. Like, you know, like daddy, can I, sorry, one more tangent. I just watched the movie whistle. It's a hard movie. Oh, you blew the whistle. That's it. Don't blow it. Great tagline. That was the tagline. That's actually really fun. And it's just like, we're in a high school. I'm Jam Daphne Keane from Logan. I'm, you know, I'm a little, got some drama, bisexual, maybe, blah, blah, blah. What's this? That's death whistle. Don't blow the fucking whistle. Like, what if I blew it? No. Don't do it. I just love any movie where it's like, there's a scary whistle. I'm Mike. Don't tell me someone blows it and they're like, oh, no, they blow it all right. Yeah, there is it was not very good. Quest for fire then leads to conquest iron master. Iceman and clan of the cave there were like five of them. Iceman wasn't about Bobby Drake. Not yet. We were too afraid. That's a Timothy Hutton Fred Skepsy movie. Of course, the big two, yes. But that's that's more than I've ever figured out that I have a nervous tick where if anyone says two names on this podcast or three names, I just say the big two immediately because I think it's always funny. It's always funny. That was a he's Timothy Hutton following up the Oscar win is the caveman who discovers fire and then he is frozen and then he is revived. It's like serious and seno man, but it was there. This was like a big trend for the era and these movies were popular. Quest for fire certainly was a very well as a plan of the cave mayor was such a huge bomb and probably ended the whole thing. I would say the cave is really dared to touch this in 30 years. It's a good point. So this has caveman stuff. Yeah, are have there been any other recent caveman dramas? This I'm looking on Wikipedia. The two recent ones they've mentioned are there's a French movie called A.O. The last hunter literally A.O. Coal in the last hunter and then there was the I forget which Hughes brother directed it Albert Hughes Alpha. Oh, that's right. McFee and a wolf right for the listeners. I hope Joey and I just shared a look. Yeah, I'm going look. Yeah. As you were don't forget the crew is tangent. Oh, and then they had a new awakening. What was the crew's crew's sequel subtitle? The January 6th. The crew stormed the capital. No, I don't know. Crews was one of those movies where it like a new age a new age. It came out on Drive-In's only in like 2020. August 20. They were like there's a crew's movie and Cuomo was like theater staying close. It's a great opening for that. The crew's a new age might have come close to Titanic's number of consecutive weeks at the top of the box office because it had like four months where nothing else was coming out like Florida's open. Right. The crew's racked up another robust $5,000 to be number one. At the box office this weekend. Yeah. Look, in the blink of an eye, you said I found the caveman stuff like unsuccessful. I thought it's yes. That was the least successful. Again, as with a lot of the other elements, as with the other three elements of the movie, it like it gets to a thing right at the end where he's like where there's a baby that's been born. Right. It's like, no, it's not the dad is like, oh, he's like, has this happy moment and then he dies. And again, it's hitting at that same idea of like he was just a link on the chain. And it's like, okay, all right, I get that's I get it. And that's sort of like the first man being born, the first modern, right. But I'm like, but you, but that was all for that. I mean, again, I admire in a way the smallness of it. I'm like, you know, this is not the type of screenplay that exists anymore in that sort of in that smallness. But our buddy, Bill got a good review of this movie and he was sort of calling out like how much he admires the ambition of it. But when you make a film like this, you're like drawing those comparisons directly to 2001, which is a challenge, right? Like I said, and he said like the other one this movie like really draws a line to is the tree of life in this sort of like, you know, the small interpersonal drama of today is linked to our origins as a species and whatever. And there is something a little mathematical in the structure of this screenplay down to just what I'm saying of like, maybe this movie should just be all Kate McKinnon of like the need to have the prehistoric section be an equal third of the story. It feels like a mistake to me why I'm like, this could be three scenes and it's an interesting addition to the movie. It doesn't need to have 30 minutes of screen time divided across the film because what's interesting about it can be conveyed very quickly. And it's the same way that like tree of life is like you get one dinosaur scene and it kind of shakes your system where you're like, whoa, there's a dinosaur scene in a Terence Malik movie, but he's not like, well, the dinosaur is an equal lead with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. These are the three narrative strings of the movie. It was actually even a moment early in the movie where our main, I think he was our main like a guy from from the earlier times, whatever the Navy Ranger, uh, yeah, the Navy Thunder Ranger. Navy Thunder. He like, he falls as he's climbing, yeah, and he like lands on a rock. And it's like, dunk. And then it cuts away from him. And I was like, did he just die? Like, was that the end? Well, because I thought for a second, I was like, was that like the point of that being in this movie was just like, sometimes it's just like that you're a guy living in it. Live in it. Live in it. Live in it. You fall, you dead. That's it. Yeah. But no, then he gets up. Uh, right. He actually gets hit by a bus later in the script where they cut that. I have to go to therapy. We should play box office game. Great. And Lord knows I need it. You do? Yeah. You say therapy. The things have been changing. This is crazy, Griffo. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. You got to keep it on. No, it's a one-off thing. No, it's usually Thursday. It's not like I'm playing fast on loose. Well, the box office game, of course, this film did not actually premiere in theaters, but we can still cover the box office of February 27th, 20th, 20th, 26th. It's a bad weekend. A lot of theater closures because of the snowstorm I imagine was this the week after that. This might be the week after that. I can't remember. Who knows? The important is the number one of the box office is a giant hit. It is weathering heights? No. Oh, fuck. That can be. Right. Valentine's Day, of course it did. Of course it is. No, it stars your friend and mine. Timothy Hitmaker's Simon. I think he's the lead role. I haven't seen it yet. It's a sequel. It's a horror film. It's Screen Seven. Of course you didn't see Screen Seven. I didn't make the screening for reasons I can't remember, but probably my boss was like you're not reviewing it, so I was kind of like not that motivated. And then their views are really bad and I just was kind of like I think I might be waiting for Paramount Plus on this one. Because I quite enjoy five and six. I like the screen franchise, but because this is actively rejecting five and six. Sure. I wasn't too pulled in by like we've got Nev Campbell. I'm like, yeah, I've seen her in a screen movie before like this isn't like oh she's been missing. She wasn't in one of the. Well, congrats on not being a scab. Yeah. Sure. Timothy Simon's no kidding. I assume isn't he like a professor and they throw him out of windows, like I haven't seen it yet. Sounds good. That sounds fun. Big hit. Did you see it? Joey Simpson? No, I felt the same as you and I was also like, yeah, fuck them. Who directed that? Oh, Williamson directed. Yeah. Yeah. Also not an incredible size. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Oh, go. Go. Go. Go. I was thinking about the ball. Roar? Roar ball. Roar is not the name of the movie. The Tatum O'Neill movie where they live with Ty. To be head, Ron. To be head. To be head. To be head. To be head. Where they were like, there were 10 to 12 wide falling. Yeah. Most movies have a camera ball. Well, I've had like half his scab. Yeah, it was because I had a production with a wild success. It only took five years and a minimum of three scalping. It's the most insane film I've ever made. No, I was thinking so much about Roar Ball. The movie's weird. It's weird. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. No. The film was goat. Yeah. Joey, you didn't see? Goat. No. Made $103 million domestic. It was very solid hit for Sony. A movie I really enjoyed. I've seen it a few times. I liked it. Yeah. He plays basketball. No, he plays Roar Ball. Joey is very different. It means that sometimes the court is ice and sometimes it's lava. That is true. Number three, the box office or romantic drama annotation of a novel. Is it the Colleen Hoover? It's no, come on. You said it was no reminders of you. No, no, come on. You said weathering heights. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. A film that I quite like. I do too. And our buddy, Alison, we know that has the exact take I have on the movie, which is it's an adaptation of a 15 year old reading the book in high school. Yeah, I quite like that. Yeah, I have not stopped thinking about the shot where she goes back after her, her awful dad dies. And like I'm saying his like Mark is dead body in the chair, and there's just like an insanely high pile of bottles of MD out of do alcohol. I don't know what did him in. You know, it's hard to tell what the movie is saying there. No, I was just like the excess of it. I was just like hell, yeah. That's what I wanted to meet with people like the truth over the top. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's going for that. Yeah, that's sort of the idea. No, like you're in high school and you read a great book, you know, one of the one of the most important works of literature and says like she walks in to find her father surrounded by bottles. And you're like, if you're 15, you imagine, oh, it's 8,000 bottles. There's a bowl. There's a bone temple. So what if number three, sorry, four at the box office knew this week. Yeah. He's a concert film centered around a band. I confess, I didn't know this existed. Was this the BTS movie? No, no, you didn't know this existed. Is it a band? I would know by name. This is a real band, a real band. - Possibly, I think so, they're famous. - Is it a K-pop band? - No, they're like a rock. - I don't know, are they rock? - Yeah, alternative rock, electro pop. - It's not Imagine Dragons, it's not that. - No, it's sort of like that. - I mean, they imagine 'em. - I'm just a man. - I'm trying to just pick what this is. - Oh, fuck, I don't think Imagine Dragons, anyone said Ben, Ben, Ben, what is this band? What is it? Tell me what they are. I know their name, but I don't actually know what the kind of music is. - Wait, I can't see it. - Oh, for crying out loud. - Come on, Ben. - Ben is going over and-- - Like, what, I don't know what their actual deal is. - Jesus, I have no idea. - You just can't either of us have no idea. - All right, so the band is 21 pilots. - That's very close to Imagine Dragons. - I think it is, I agree with you. I just don't really, what is their vibe? - Ben laughed at me so much for saying Imagine Dragons. I was scared to guess 21 pilots. - You should have guessed it. - They're a little bit more of a fun period. - The movie is called 21 pilots. That's more than we ever imagined. - Okay. - It made $3.7 million and it's opening weekend. - I would describe their vibe as-- - Put that in your pipe and-- - Imagine Dragons. - I'd say what they're really-- - I mean, what their song. - I don't know. - I just know that there's a band called 21 pilots. - That's where my knowledge ends. - Same. - And number five is another concert film, sort of, not of a recent figure, but a deceased figure. - Is this epic, epic Elvis Presley in concert? - An incredible title. - Which I did not get to see, but I was told was kind of rad. - Yeah, I've heard you will cover on Patreon whenever we do Buzz Lerman. - You've also got number six, a movie that I wanted to love and thought was, okay, crime 101. - Oh, sure. I need to watch that. - Find 101. - Yeah. - That was your letterbox, truly. - Yeah, it's pretty good. Probably did numbers. - Here's the twist. I'm gonna let you finish the episode. - Okay, you know what? I'll see you later. Get out of here. Go away. - Well, I'm gonna go. - I'll tell you the next. I can only imagine two. - Yeah. - What's that? - That's based on a guy wrote about his dad, not being nice. And this is the sequel where the songs are hit. The dad's like, I just don't know if I want to be a nice guy. So that's pretty good. I'll check it out. Number eight, Sam Remy's great scent help. But you saw that. You saw that, right? - Of course. - Of course, great movie. - Number nine, how to make a killing. The fairly bad, a 24-glin' powel remake of Kind Hearts and Cornets. Kind of Hearts and Cornets. And number 10, Zootopia 2. Hanging out for it's like fourth month. - I was grossing from 25. - I was grossing from a 2025. Yep, you've also got Solo Mio there. Number 12, that's the Kevin James wants a wife movie. Yeah, Gerv's going to therapy. He is going to therapy. He's out of here. - Wow. - Maybe Joey should take over. What should we do, a coup? - Sure, I mean, we could try it out. - We could try it out. - Before I've done it before. - This has never happened. Or because we went for four hours about fucking cabbage patch kids or whatever. - Sure. - But I don't think Griffin's ever left before. - There was a time he threw up. - Yes. - But he came back. - Left, threw up, came back. - No, he's normally the one who makes it too long. - Makes it too long. - Shows up late. - Yes. - Let's, you know what? Let's hear some grievances. - Let's talk about it. - What else we got? So this is kind of, yeah, a unique position. We've never been here before. - Yeah. - I have to see Mortal Kombat 2 in an hour. - I'm going later this evening, but I'm very excited. Do you have work? - Talking to my brother. - No, I'm, I have a few hours. I'm going to maybe try to hang out with Lane, Lane Montgomery. - Lane Montgomery! - Friends of the show, composer of the theme song and prior past future guest, your former roommate. - My former roommate. We've been looking for a time to grab like a late lunch. So I'm gonna see, but he may have been held up at work. It's unclear. So no, and then tonight I'm seeing Giant on Broadway. The play. - That's the role of Donald. - The role of Donald. - Not so nice, bro. - Donald. - And I said, my journalist go play. - Yeah, excited? - Yeah, that one. - Do you sound excited? - Yeah, Matt won in. - Did he get the nod? - Yeah, I'm excited to see him. We love to see John Liff Goe take on a big mammoth role on Broadway, who doesn't. The play from what I've heard is, I don't know, I'm not that excited by them. - Yeah, but Trumpty Dumpty. - Right, so it is. After the giant concludes, then we all remain in the theater. The doors are locked and John Liff go. - Yeah. - He reads the entirety of Trumpty Dumpty. - Then do you know about Trumpty Dumpty? - Are you aware that that Don Liff Goe wrote a New York Times bestseller called Dumpty, which was a series of comical nursery rhymes about Donald Trump. Then he wrote a sequel called Trumpty Dumpty wanted a crown. And my guess in that one, he turns around. He says, Trump not so bad. Wait, you're telling me he doubles down on how Trump is bad? And then would you, would it shock you to learn that there's a third book called A Confederation of Dumpty's? - Who's that for? - What do you mean children? They love John Liff Goe's Hectoring poetry. (laughing) - And I think it's still, he only needs to write one more, which hopefully he's working on in between shows, and then that's gonna, that's gonna do it. - Then Trump will be like, he got me. (laughing) - He's rhymes. - I didn't think you'd do a thing, he's rhymes. He's spitting out fire. (laughing) - All right, Jay, Jayce, one more plug, of course, for your podcast. - Yeah, so my podcast, thank you, theater we saw, which I don't know what episode we'll be on by the time this comes out. As I'm talking about it, it's very new. It releases bi-weekly. We talk about two shows each episode, two new shows, but maybe we'll do some fun episodes as I, as I mentioned, such as about the pipe robbery at the perfect crime. - And we have guests on occasionally. - We have cool guests on, we just had Grace Walker, who's a great theater tiktoker on, we're gonna have more cool people on, including non-theater people. Oh, a big hope of ours going forward is to start having some people who are not theater-specific people, but like comedians who are into theater, because many of them are, whether they proudly admit it, or not. So we're hopeful to have lots of different types of guests on. And yeah, it's fun. Give it a listen. - There's a link in the episode description. And wait, this is also a first. You have to take us out. - Oh, okay. Yes, so in the Bunk of Anaya, listen to Joey's podcast, next week on the show is Toy Story Five. - Toy Story Five. - Toy Story Five. - Course, which at this point has already come out because the Stanton series premiered a little later, but we have yet to see. But I'm told there's the night path. So that's next week. And then we will be starting our series on some fuck called Martin Scorsese. So, listen forward to that. And as always, well, no, you got to rate reviews. - Oh, yeah. - You got to rate review and subscribe. We have a Patreon. - Yeah, sure. We got, okay. We got some extra features. Yeah, thanks to the special features. We got, we're starting our Resident Evil commentary series. - Bond. - We're gonna watch the Resident Evil movies, called W.S. Anderson, his universe of six movies, and then the Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City. And then I guess we will touch on the Zach Quaker movie, as well, at some point. I don't know. Like, yeah, we'll talk about it. That's patreon.com/blankcheck. We also have the newsletter on Substack Checkbook. It's a weekly behind the scenes look. That's the world of blank check. I think we've done all we need to do, as far as housekeeping. So, and as always, David, as always. - Do something about the nut. - Yeah, there's any corn. - Golden nut. - That's a golden acorn. - Even the nut. - It comes for us all. (laughing) - Blank check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas and our associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithy, research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell, artwork by Joe Bowen, Holly Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Middick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon blank check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social @blankcheckpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by blank check productions.