Prepare to be spellbound as Johnny Spoiler, and the horror aficionado Jordan Savage, dissect the enchanting world of fantasy films. Could this really be my final chance to reveal those delicious movie secrets you crave? Strap in for an adventure through the latest and quirkiest in TV and movie news, from the contentious whispers about "Euphoria's" latest season to the nostalgic excitement for Fran Drescher's comeback in "Spinal Tap 2." And for those with a taste for terror, we've snagged a juicy Chucky movie tease straight from Don Mancini himself!
Journey with us to feudal Japan as we unsheathe the history behind "47 Ronin" and its cinematic counterpart led by the ever-mysterious Keanu Reeves. We don't just stop at Keanu's samurai showdown; we venture through the film's plot, analyzing the code of loyalty and the delicate dance of CGI and practical effects that make mythological battles come alive. The ronin's tale isn't just about vengeance; it's a master class in character dynamics—from Kai's struggle for acceptance to the surprising intricacies of samurai culture and mythology.
As we wrap up our cinematic quest, Jordan and I serve up our "binge now" and "binge never" verdicts on movies that range from timeless to forgettable. Ever wondered about the character arcs in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or the common threads in dragon depictions across different films? We're breaking it down and even paying homage to "Willow," with casting trivia that bridges generations. Remember, your likes, subscriptions, and spirited comments are the fuel for our fiery discussions. So, keep that engagement coming, and let's continue to revel in the rich tapestry of fantasy cinema together!
Drop us a voicemail https://bit.ly/VOICEMAILTHEPOD
Say hi? host@bwpodcast.com
Partner with us? host@bwpodcast.com
Prepare to be spellbound as Johnny Spoiler, and the horror aficionado Jordan Savage, dissect the enchanting world of fantasy films. Could this really be my final chance to reveal those delicious movie secrets you crave? Strap in for an adventure through the latest and quirkiest in TV and movie news, from the contentious whispers about "Euphoria's" latest season to the nostalgic excitement for Fran Drescher's comeback in "Spinal Tap 2." And for those with a taste for terror, we've snagged a juicy Chucky movie tease straight from Don Mancini himself!
Journey with us to feudal Japan as we unsheathe the history behind "47 Ronin" and its cinematic counterpart led by the ever-mysterious Keanu Reeves. We don't just stop at Keanu's samurai showdown; we venture through the film's plot, analyzing the code of loyalty and the delicate dance of CGI and practical effects that make mythological battles come alive. The ronin's tale isn't just about vengeance; it's a master class in character dynamics—from Kai's struggle for acceptance to the surprising intricacies of samurai culture and mythology.
As we wrap up our cinematic quest, Jordan and I serve up our "binge now" and "binge never" verdicts on movies that range from timeless to forgettable. Ever wondered about the character arcs in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or the common threads in dragon depictions across different films? We're breaking it down and even paying homage to "Willow," with casting trivia that bridges generations. Remember, your likes, subscriptions, and spirited comments are the fuel for our fiery discussions. So, keep that engagement coming, and let's continue to revel in the rich tapestry of fantasy cinema together!
Drop us a voicemail https://bit.ly/VOICEMAILTHEPOD
Say hi? host@bwpodcast.com
Partner with us? host@bwpodcast.com
Crack open a cold box of wine or pour something cold on ice, because it's the Binge Watchers Podcast. Wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 2:This might be the last time I get to spoil movies for you peoples. Only the universe can tell. We'll find out if it's the last one ever, last broadcast, ever. It's a show called binge watchers podcast with yours truly, johnny spoiler. I spoil movies I love. I make fun of ones that I don't. George is always by the savage scream queen horror movie aficionado totally crushing it for 24-7 Jordan Savage.
Speaker 1:That's me.
Speaker 2:Her name says it all folks and listeners and gagglers and ooglers that actually watch it as a show as opposed to just listen, the ones that are really consuming it, like those little beasts in the middle of the night, binge-worthy binge-watchers out there Consume, consume. What I love about fantasy movie vibes is in fantasy movies things can get settled with a little bit of magic and if you got beef, you can take out a magic sword and do something about it. I kind of feel like what a great way to go about things Not leaving your fate necessarily to chance. I kind of feel like what a great way to go about things Like not leaving your well, not leaving your fate necessarily to chance, or modern politics or circumstantial things like what kind of class system you're born into, where you're born, what kind of job you have or don't have, or whatever you're going through. If you live in the world of sword and sorcery, like, hey, man, I'm going to take my chance with my battle axe, right, I love it.
Speaker 2:Why do people, especially middle-aged, displaced millennials, why do they love fantasy movies so much? Because they would love the chance to jump into an anime universe or or fantasy movie. They love it as much as almost, almost trying to will it to manifest those worlds to be real, like the comic cons, the cosplay, you know, writing those books or or enjoying those movies. That's what it is the longing, the desire to change your fate, based on a set of skills that don't necessarily take place in the real world but they take, take place on a movie screen somewhere, or actually now it's the comfort of your home, home on a magic streaming service or something. But anyway, that's the whole point of it. If anybody ever wondered, that's the long and it's a long version um home video headlines. A report came out that suggests that euphoria's third season delay had something to do with the scripts being really bad and the main stars and I had not liking them. Then she pitched alternate versions of these scripts and hbo didn't like what. She pitched them back.
Speaker 1:I had read this really long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was reading these stories on, like um, I don't know. I actually I should have wrote down the website that I yanked that story from to reference it, but I don't remember. It was like cinecast or screened something, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, maybe it's Hollywood Reporter who knows, or Deadline, or something like that. But, um, I was kind of fascinated by that because I thought, oh, that's interesting, like, and part of that story was that she was going to be a private detective, that the story was jumping like five years later and she was going to be a private eye. I'm like that's what she was recommending.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know if that's the studio side or if that's her alternate take on what should happen to her character.
Speaker 1:But I can't wait to go sleuth the internet after this, and figure out what the deets are I'm not a die hard euphoria fan.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's not made for me whatever. But I thought that was kind of silly because to me the episodes that I have seen it seems like a super grounded drama.
Speaker 2:You know, it seen it seems like a super grounded uh drama, you know like it takes place for in like a kind of like a pseudo real world setting and it's kind of a dark and dingy like. It's like dealing with people's emotions and just, uh, I mean people in real life. They don't really become private detectives and solve true crimes, so so, you know like and realize you know private detectives screw over divorcees. You know what I mean. So I don't know where the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that just seems like a stretch from like what it is and what it would be, but whatever.
Speaker 2:If you like comedies, fran Drescher is going to reprise her role as the publicist Bobby Fleckman in the upcoming sequel to 1984's. This Is Spinal Tap, which right now is titled Spinal Tap 2, which is like creating a genre. If anybody knows, spinal Tap was like the first fake mockumentary or fake documentary comedy. You know, mockumentary Anyway. So that's cool. If I remember correctly, she's scathingly annoying in that movie, but it but it was funny.
Speaker 2:Um don mancini appeared on the scream dreams podcast, which is hosted by another scream queen, barbara crampton. You might know her from all the 80s and 90s and she's still going strong. Actually, she was just just in another movie recently. What was that movie? The one with Heather Graham called the Skin of Flesh or something crazy like that, I don't know. During the show, dawn said to her I'm actually in the early stages of working on a new Chucky movie. As everybody knows, chucky evolved from Child's Play and has his own show right now on SyFy slash USA or whatever. Anyway, it would be cool to get a new Chucky movie. I don't know where they're going to take it.
Speaker 2:People are making jokes that he should go to space. Who knows why. Not Chucky's great because he's one of those franchise killers. That has developed a sense of humor over the course of the sequels, right, so it's kind of like to hate him, or we hate to love him, you know, kind of thing. This is just for you, jordan, I pulled this up and I'm hoping that you like this. There's a movie coming out called Primitive War, which pits soldiers against dinosaurs, in 1968. Per Deadline movie coming out called primitive war, which pits soldiers against dinosaurs, in 1968, for a deadlinecom report. The sci-fi horror film was lining up a robust cast. The dino horror film will follow an elite recon unit known as the vulture squad who in 1968, at the height of the vietnam war, are sent to an isolated jungle valley to uncover the fate of a missing greenberry platoon. And then they discover guess what, we're not alone dinosaurs loose in the jungle wild are you happy about that thrilled I guess yeah, I forgot to say.
Speaker 2:I came across an image on instagram of a girl playing with like a dinosaur toy. I was like, oh, I should send this to jordan, but blinking you miss it. You know instagram reels, they're like gone oh, yeah, absolutely um anyway.
Speaker 2:Okay, let me back it up a little bit. If you're not in tune with the dinosaur fetishism on this show, jordan really likes dinosaurs, which we've maybe mentioned on three or four episodes, so I guess I should lay it out again, in case this is the first time they've heard about it I, I do like dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are pretty cool she dreams about becoming them in alternate realities and also she loves Jurassic Park movie series.
Speaker 1:I do have some really weird dinosaur dreams, now that I'm like it's all flooding back. Yeah, my dinosaur dreams.
Speaker 2:If you pull up our episode on Perfect Blue Anime, which was done last year, but we just did a recent blog entry about it to refresh everybody's memory about a great episode, go back and listen to that one about anime, and then that's where we talk about the dinosaur machine gun thing Anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is dinosaur espionage, Like to a D pretty much.
Speaker 2:Dino espionage. Yeah, oh man Dang Rambo Rex.
Speaker 1:Like what?
Speaker 2:Rambo? It has to be something. So, oh, yeah, but rambo, it has to be something. So, oh, let's see. Tonight's movie is called 47 ronin. Guess what it's about? 47 ronin, 47 samurai. Plot, revenge against the evil warlord that is responsible for the death of their master on turning them into ronin, which means masterless samurai. Yeah, it's got. Keanu reeves.
Speaker 2:Have we already made the joke that it's like john wick, time traveled? It's like pre-john wick. Or it's actually a comic book called berserker. What Keanu Reeves? Have we already made the joke that it's like John Wick, time-traveled? It's like pre-John Wick. Or there's actually a comic book called Berserker, where Keanu Reeves is an immortal warrior, and so it's kind of like if you follow the path of his character, 47 Ronin, he could end up being John Wick. If you're following this idea of like, it all exists in the same universe and he really is just some immortal combat dude but uh, reincarnation, you know he could be, they're like, oh, how can you play an asian character in a movie about japanese pseudo history or whatever, or real history, as jordan is gonna lay out for us?
Speaker 2:um no, he's actually half asian. I mean, he's like part hawaiian and part chinese actually, which is so like. I mean, if you're like a japanese nationalist, you might be upset that a Chinese person played a Japanese character. I don't know. But generally there's like a network of what is it? Pan Pacific Asian actors or something. So they're all kind of in the same club now and I think historically you can't differentiate, like Korean American actors versus Chinese American actors and Japanese American actors, korean American actors versus Chinese American actors and Japanese American actors. I think, like before, when they weren't getting a lot of credit, they were all just kind of lumped in to play the what Asian ethnic character in the movies or whatever. But uh, I mean anyway, if you I mean we I guess we could talk. I don't know, do we have to talk about his John Wick skills Like we?
Speaker 2:It's safe to say, if you know Keanu Reeves, you know he has some fight training and his screen fighting is, you know, like he's trained in Kendo. What is he trained in? A bunch of things. I mean he like he's trained in hand-to-hand combat. He kind of lives it as a lifestyle. It's more than a freaking just movie Shakespearean battle. It's part of the mystique. I feel like I'm trying to make an argument about why he's alright to be in this movie, but I don't think I have to, because if you just look at his skill set, Also Keanu Reeves.
Speaker 1:I mean he just also keanu reeves, you know. So I mean he's like do you have some savage stats mixed in with a little bit of historic telling of events for the movie? So, as 47 ronin director carl wrench revealed, the movie was always inspired by a real japanese story. This is a tale of an actual group of 47 masterless samurai who once used to serve the like feudal lord.
Speaker 2:See that's that's crazy to me. Like I had to stop and like was looking up stories online to try to like figure this out. Because, um, I was like I heard, I know about the historical dramas and there's like a bunch of movies, but like I didn't know, I didn't know it had any kind of like. Because to me it's kind of like a king arthur thing, like nobody can. Nobody can like lock down if king arthur was real in england prehistory. So I was like, oh, it's the 47 ronin, like japan's version of like the King Arthur Camelot type thing or whatever.
Speaker 1:But anyway, yeah, so right. There's some elements that seem to be consistent throughout history. The Lord, lord Asano, had attacked an influential core official who is named Yoshinaka Kira in a fit of rage. The Dishonorable Act had compelled the feudal lord to perform the ritual of seppuku, where he, you know, just pretty much committed his own life, like right on the spot, like honorable suicide.
Speaker 2:It's like something that they've. Really it's only their culture. I don't know if that exists in any other culture.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it anywhere else so then, essentially, the masterless samurai had elaborated a plan to avenge his death about a year later. The 47 warriors achieved that by killing kira um, and this is what essentially helped them achieve their master's honor. And it is a little bit date-wise, it goes kind of back and forth when it actually had happened. So, based off of like which scholar you believe, it either happened in 1702 or 1703. And it's also believed that the attack against kira, where the 47 ronin avenged the death of their feudal lord, happened or carried was carried out on january 13th, but japanese uh people commemorate the event every year on december 14th, except uh, no confirmation.
Speaker 2:If it involves demons or witches or trolls or al, demons that live in a cave will have magic. So you know what I mean. Like we don't have you know a little bit different there yeah, I mean like different from the movie.
Speaker 1:The movie takes some liberties with the story, you sure do um, you mentioned that there's a lot of movies, and it is true. This is actually the seventh cinematic adaptation of the 47 Ronin incident. To name a few, the 47 Ronin 1941, the loyal 47 Ronin 1958. I'm going to do my best. You know what's really funny.
Speaker 2:So, like we found the story because I was trying to I kept going back and forth before the show about whether or not there were facts that supported whether or not the 47 Ronin happened. And then, like I found a note by the director, I gave it to Jordan and then, literally at the top of the show, I was like all you really have to say is that, hey, the director said it, it happened. But Jordan's reading the whole note she's reading the whole note.
Speaker 1:Well, I do find it. You know, this is kind of fascinating, but this is literally the first Hollywood cinematic adaptation. But there's like six other movies which is pretty cool. Yeah, the filming was first done in Japanese for the sake of supporting cast, which I find pretty cool, and then it was done in English.
Speaker 2:I didn't know. That is actually really cool. Shoot the whole movie or shoot each take in Japanese and then shoot each take in English. It's cool.
Speaker 1:And there was a lot of reshoots done. The essentially executives at universal had seen early cuts in the film and they were just concerned about the story and the order of the script. So they made like they pretty much had to sleep another week of shooting and made keanu's character more a part of the finale of the actual movie. Um, but yeah, they pretty much did a like bunch of radical re-edits which had ballooned the budget a bunch because of the complex reshoots and lengthy post-production period. So um wasn't a success in movies but it did really well um outside of that dvd, blu-ray and you know we're here oh, I'd also read.
Speaker 2:the studio was like trying to make it Lord of the Rings epic scale, but the director was trying to make it more dramatic, like Gladiator or Kingdom Come, like more pseudo realistic, like romantic dramas, you know, historical dramas with magic or whatever.
Speaker 1:I also saw that it was supposed to be. What did they call the term? Like an art? What's the word I'm looking for? Um, it's, I think it was like a specific time type of maybe like film.
Speaker 1:I'll have to figure it out, but I think it was supposed to maybe like not have an agenda, but it was like supposed to be really beautiful and then I think that they did decide to go against that and make it, just like you said, a little bit more dramatized by adding, like a love story and more of the storyline between the characters in the film well, if you want a good deal, well, we'll be right back to the podcast after these messages.
Speaker 2:If you want a good deal on some sparkly cat litter that changes color based on your cat's health, you can go to prettyleadercom forward slash binge, watch. And if you decide that you you're going to eat that colorful cat litter, then you can go to zocdoccom forward slash spoiler and like, ask a doctor if you're feeling poisoned because you ate the cat litter. And if you really love movies and you want a box of movies sent to your house, like it's like the Blockbuster days, if you go to their website, lovetogetmediacom, forward slash binge. It actually it's a movie subscription service where you get a box of DVDs or Blu-rays sent to your house. You can do it every month or one time or hit their bargain bin, but the website kind of looks like a blockbuster store. You go there and they have dvds. If you use our code binge, you can get 15, 15 off your first order and also I think you get entered for a chance to win like a gift card to the, the movie website.
Speaker 2:Anyway, um, now back to the podcast already in progress. We're not skipping too far from our favorite bits from 47 Ronin, let's see if Jordan has 47 favorite bits.
Speaker 1:I probably do. I could sit here all day and talk about this movie. The witch is definitely one of my favorite characters. The first scene essentially what's happening in the movie is that Kira is trying to drive a wedge between you know the, the lord, and he's got this witch. Essentially who's helping drive the wedge? Um, the first scene where she essentially like goes into his room and her silk kimono is just like fluttering in the wind she essentially can, which spoiler alert we'll find out later is actually dragon skin.
Speaker 1:Which is actually a dragon skin.
Speaker 2:I wrote that too, that she's pretty captivating. I was like I wrote captivated by the witch. What a great character. She's like the best character in the movie. I also agree. And you know she's coming for you because she has two different colored eyes.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:What do they call that? Like heterochromia or something? I think is what it is. Yeah, it's way to go with the science. Jordan like wrong podcast science talkers.
Speaker 1:But I just love the whole scene, especially when, like, she's like kind of flying down towards, I feel like floats and her hair moves like there's no gravity. Yes, yes, it almost feels underwater-esque. Yeah, it's really cool the way that they had done the effects and, I said, her hair like snakes. I thought that was pretty cool. Also, the men in this movie had sold the tears to me when Basho, he's like the friendly Ronin.
Speaker 2:Oh, the chubby samurai. I got that too. Like every time the chubby samurai dies, it's sad Every time you watch it. Doesn't matter if you've seen the movie twice or three times. It gets you every time.
Speaker 1:Oh, just made me like. It just literally got me in the feels for sure. And when Kai is given Basho's sword by the like one, Ron, who like refused the longest to accept him into their group, and then he's given basho's sword because yeah.
Speaker 2:So basically it looked laid out like this there's a there's a jealous samurai who hasn't liked keanu reeves the whole time that they've grown up together. And then there was another chubby samurai actually was a bully to keanu reeves's character when they were children and used to throw stones at him. Grown up together. And then there was another chubby samurai actually was a bully to counter reeves's character when they were children and used to throw stones at him. But countering his character turned the other cheek, so to speak, and never called out the chubby one for being that mean to him and he forgave him on his deathbed. So it made the jealous samurai suddenly realize that he should be accepting of the half breed. They're calling Kai's character the half breed through the whole movie, cause he's supposed to be half Japanese, half English or half Dutch. Uh, you know, and he doesn't fit in. He doesn't fit in in the colonist world, he doesn't fit in the samurai world. Come to find out who was fostered by demons.
Speaker 1:So he has a demon sword technique that will show up later. Yes, anyway, I would say the last one is the blood record. So essentially the blood record. Essentially like that's when all the 47 ronin are committing to essentially make the attack on behalf of lord asano's you know death and they like write their names and then commit their blood from their samurai sword onto the document and then they have to hide it.
Speaker 2:Blink and you miss it. I never pay attention when they go full blood brother and make a blood pledge.
Speaker 1:I loved it.
Speaker 2:That's right, after they get the swords, after they tested it on cutting the trees, and after the ambush. After the ambush, okay, ambush, okay, yeah, um, what? There's like a shogun connection, a big time shogun connection, to the new shogun mini-series, also the old shogun mini-series and the time period, because, like the shogun overseeing everybody in this version of the 47 ronin is the same shogun that rises to power in the Shogun miniseries. Hmm, now, and here's the crazy, like six degrees of Kevin Bacon type connections Hiroki Tsunada, who's like an amazing sword fighter and he's like a super famous Japanese actor.
Speaker 2:He's playing the leader of the 47 in this movie. He's the one rising to power as the Shogun in the new Shogun miniseries. Interesting, the rival who you call Kira in this movie is another actor whose name is like and I'm going to butcher this one his name is like Totonoba Asano, another great Japanese actor, who's in like Ichi the Killer and he plays one of the three friends of Thor in the Thor movies. But he plays I think his name is Yoshibiro who is a rival to the Shogun in the Shogun miniseries but is like one of his lieutenants. So I feel like half the cast of this movie of the 47 Ronin is probably in the new shogun uh series, which makes sense, right, because it's the same kind of oh oh I wrote.
Speaker 2:The perfect balance of cgi and practical effects in this movie should be a playbook for hollywood movies, right like right like right now, like fans and studios are groaning about one the cost of CGI and how the CGI is becoming more like because they're trying to meet budgets and deadlines and whatever. The CGI is coming out real rough these days and like not believable. If you go back and look at this movie, the CGI holds up and it blends perfectly with all the practical sword fighting and the background.
Speaker 2:So you, the practical sword fighting and the background, so you know the tone of the movie is really cool. How about the underground fighting pit on the Dutch ship where there's like an unregulated or unsanctioned fight club or whatever happening? Oh, so I wrote I called it a limit breaker, because I don't know what to call the special move. I called it a demon sword technique earlier.
Speaker 2:So the Tengu is probably in Japanese mythology just like the Kappa, which the Kappa is like a loosely. The Kappa is like a foolish demon turtle who, like the Ninja Turtles, are like, maybe roughly based on, but like the Tengu are these like bird face looking, cave dwelling demons that supposedly raised Kai's character and taught him some magic sword technique, which I'm calling it a limit breaker because I don't know what to call it. But anyway, I'm glad that they established his technique before the final fight when the witch turns into a dragon, because I also don't like the witch's final form because I loved her in the fox, so I thought her final form was going to be more like fox related or even spider related, because she was using spider magic earlier to poison the, the master's mind, you know um and like anyway.
Speaker 2:So the final fight, he does this thing where he like bends time and space and can just move faster than his opponents, or something like that so he can do a critical sword strikes. But they showed it to us a couple of times so it kind of hinted the technique, so we, we kind of buy into it. If all of a sudden he just developed a magic technique out of nowhere, even having a magic sword, like because you don't want like a a god level, thinglevel thing, like you call it, like deus machina, basically like a movie where the heroes can't win and then God comes down and the heroes win because God helped them. It's like the same thing. You have a magic sword, it's so magic, so don't worry, you were going to lose, but because you have the magic sword, the magic saved you.
Speaker 2:Same kind of problem, right? But his thing was like no, he learned how to do it. He had to learn how to do it or he would have been killed if he didn't learn it correctly. You know what I mean? That's what it seemed to be. If you didn't learn it correctly, in that cave you're just gonna be dead. And he almost did, because he has scars right, so clearly he learned the lessons the hard way, but uh.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of crazy too, kind of a warped father-son scene where he goes back and meets his demon daddy. He's like ah, can I get the?
Speaker 2:magic sword, dad, you know, only in a fantasy movie, you know, adopted by like living, breathing demons that are just hanging out like like buddhist monks in a way, even though they're demons. I mean, obviously there's a lot of excited talk. I mean the tone of this podcast has been pretty, even even though we're talking about fantastic things. I don't think I've been that excitable until maybe right now when we're talking about the favorite bits. But I think you can figure out which way I'm leaning with the ratings. We do this thing where we have an overall rating of the movie. Binge now got to watch it now, binge later get it on the list. But you don't gotta watch it tonight or tomorrow or even this year. Uh, binge never, which we've gone back and forth this year. I mean, jordan had a mind blower, you know, like six episodes ago, where she's like black hole. Guess what? There is no such thing as a binge never, because even if you don't like the movie, you're gonna think about it forever you might watch it again.
Speaker 2:We felt the tears in the universe but then it came full circle because then, like four episodes ago, jordan's like I don't ever want to watch this ever again. That was so bad. Anyway, it goes back and forth. Um, I mean, it's probably a giveaway. I mean I'll just throw mine out there because it should. I feel like it's obvious, because I'm rambling and getting excited as I ramble. It's a binge now for me, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And actually this is the fourth or fifth time that I watched the movie and it freaking holds up, like I thought it was, that I thought it was going to look worse because it's been out now for like a decade. I thought the effects weren't going to hold up. I thought the story was not going to hold up. It's a little bit slow, but the set pieces, the colors, like the artistry it's makes up for the pace. Yeah, it's an amazing looking movie. So like it doesn't. Yeah, exactly, the pacing doesn't necessarily bother me because like it's almost like every 45 minutes they reset to like some like major story arc with lots of colors and action. So, whatever, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, it's almost like you have like two and a half movies in this one movie yeah, it was a binge now for me as well, like it was just I watched it twice in the span of two days.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so you missed some of the magic, or so you missed some elements like literally just like okay, I'll just start over like it was definitely like wait a minute. That dude was wait, wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Remember I was at in the fire and you're like, I feel like this would definitely inspire me to like go down a whole like rabbit hole or a whole journey of movies that could be, you know, similar or yeah, so I liked it a lot. And Keanu, I mean, I'm a fan for sure, so didn't upset me. Um, go put it at the top of your list, watch it tonight nice, nice fan service.
Speaker 2:Someone commented on a video, a reel from like a year ago.
Speaker 2:We did a short run of a handful of werewolf movies remember that a couple of spring times ago we did like a spring time for werewolves and they're disagreeing with me about how Oz left the Buffy show. What's Buffy? Buffy the vampire slayer? It was a movie, it was a show. This teenage girl gets the power to kill vampires and she's the sacred one to do it, and she gets allies. One of the allies is a witch who later finds out that she's into girls but was previously dating a werewolf named oz, played by seth green.
Speaker 2:They wrote oz out of the show, kind of because they didn't know what to do with this character, and they were also, like I said, having the other girl discover her feelings and they went to college and she fell in love with another girl. Then they brought oz back to do like the classic love triangle argument, like teen angsty thing, but then like they made him like super aggressive like I know he's a werewolf, so aggression is kind of like part of the deal but they made him almost like uh, they made him almost like uh, gay phobic or like, uh, abusive, like they made him like physically abusive to his the girl he was supposed to love. So I felt like they crossed the line, because before that he was like uh, like, if there was a such a thing as a good werewolf right he was like locking himself in the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he was.
Speaker 2:But he was never an abusive boyfriend, douchebag. And they made him in the college years. They made him come back and he was an. He was never an abusive boyfriend, douchebag. And they made him in the college years. They made him come back and he was an abusive douchebag boyfriend. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So once they made him a stereotype, I was like that's not how you end his character, because you know, after that he doesn't appear again, right, you know, you know what I mean and and like. So that kind of bummed me out, like that was the point of my reel. Like hey, we're watching werewolf movies. I don't like how they wrote off oz, the werewolf out of buffy. And then like it's really funny that like 12 months later somebody would chime in and disagree about it. But point taken, dude, like you, you from their perspective, they thought, um, that there was a moment of redemption. I don't think there was, which is really funny now to have to explain it on a podcast in so much detail, because I'm like I gotta set the stage and tell you what the comment is about.
Speaker 1:Well, because it was so long ago too. So that's what I'm saying, dude, it's so freaking dang dude, it's so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, it's like it's literally maybe a year ago, maybe maybe even two, two wait, yeah, because we did spring breakdown, which was about horror movies, last spring. Yeah, it's like two years ago yeah, but at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ridiculous yeah, so funny. I don't I remember there being conflict, but I didn't remember what the conflict was. So I was like I like, didn't you know? I'll have to go back and watch a string of episodes I mean for?
Speaker 2:I mean for the sake of how memory works. Maybe I'm exaggerating the things that I think made him a douchebag, but I felt like they made him kind of douchey on his way out of the show Right, which also means that, like what the guy said, there was no redemption in your eyes If you of course, only remember the conflict.
Speaker 1:Then the redemption wasn't made, whether how big or small it was.
Speaker 2:Definitely rewatch is required. Yeah, it's like season four. Is season four, the college year? Yeah, I think season four is when they're in college anyway. Um, staff picks. If you watched anything else that you want to drop on the audience to recommend, you got something this week I've watched a couple of fantasy movies over the last several weeks.
Speaker 1:Um, I watched willow, so and that was my first time watching, hell yeah yeah, um, I actually didn't finish all of it.
Speaker 2:It is the route you know what's unnerving, though? You can't watch the disney plus willow 2 miniseries because they've just they've, they've, like they've like made it.
Speaker 1:They've tried to erase it from the earth yeah, but but willow is an amazing. That's like in top three all-time fantasy movies, you know yeah, um, and so that was one of them obviously fantastic. I watched one that was a little do you like sorsha?
Speaker 2:do you like the um, the princess who goes?
Speaker 1:good, see, and that's like right here where I have to pick it back up is because what's the um like the sword, swordsman's name a famous sword fighter played with val kilmer mad mardigan, mad mardigan, like mad mardigan's like under the spell of the fairy dust and he's just like in love with her. You know, and he wants, yeah. So I'm like right there where I gotta finish it, so super good there's like a disclaimer on that fairy dust.
Speaker 2:Supposedly in that movie it reveals your true feelings. So instead of them just being, like you know, under ecstasy somehow that is supposed to be real, it's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2:Star-crossed lovers.
Speaker 1:I love that. I watched Damsel. That was kind of something.
Speaker 2:So did I. I watched Damsel as well. It's got the girl who plays Eleven? Yeah, I wanted to be better than it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Good story with concept, with the story with the dragon.
Speaker 2:I thought that was they threw away angela bassett, like if you're like, if you think that her, uh, performance as the queen in black panther was like oscar worthy, as the stepmother turned good or whatever, like usually in the fantasy trope, like cind Cinderella, it's an evil stepmother. But this whole movie is about like reversing roles, right, so the damsel is the hero, doesn't need anybody's help, and the stepmother is actually a friendly ally, right? Instead of somebody that's trying to destroy your life. But to have Angela Bassett in your movie and to just kind of like have nothing for her to do except get stabbed on a boat in the third act.
Speaker 1:You know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like oh spoiler alert she gets stabbed um. She doesn't die. So it's kind of like you don't even really buy her a little uneventful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, you're like why did they do that?
Speaker 2:so you know what I mean. It's like unnecessary, yeah, um, it was nice that the king shows back up because, like you think, the king is throwing away his daughter for some gold to restore his kingdom and she's gonna get eaten by a dragon who lives in this cave and just eats princesses all day long he did have a little redemption yeah, I mean the dragon kind of looks like I don't know if you notice this like dragons in Western movies have started to look kind of the same and it goes back to even before Game of Thrones.
Speaker 2:It goes back to Dragonheart. There was a modern looking dragon made in a movie called Dragonheart and then the Game of Thrones dragons kind of look like the dragon in Dragonheart and then the dragon in Damsel kind of looks like the game of thrones dragons, because game of thrones is like the modern gold standard of what the right nasty dragon should look like. Right, totally. Um, yeah, it's a letdown. Uh, if we had to put that on our rating scale, I, I like I watched it because I was like should we maybe do, because it's a modern fantasy movie and we get through it in the lineup, but it's not worth 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:You know to review, not to talk about. On the podcast, yeah, not as the main course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Tell your friends to like subscribe, comment where you find us. Rate us a bit if you like, if you're on a podcast app somewhere and there's a song called the Gambler by Kenny Rogers, that goes know when to fold them, know when to hold them and know when to walk away.
Speaker 1:uh, by the way, I love willow so good yeah I was like this is john's golden standard fantasy movie.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely playbook yeah, you could paint by numbers. You could, like you know, if they're gonna have ai write the movies you'd be like, okay, just take the willow script and just insert whatever you know, paint by number his little wife.
Speaker 1:Oh like, it was just the like. Family unit was just so perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Dang, Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang. That's it. Willow is played by Warwick Davis, who also plays the famous leprechaun from the leprechaun horror movies. He also plays the most famous Ewok from the star Wars movies wicked and uh and his daughter. Here's some trivia. This is what's also sad about Willow 2 not being available to watch anywhere is that his daughter played the grown-up version of Willow's daughter in Willow 2. Oh yeah, who's a little hottie? If you're into little women, you know, go shout out to a. I don't know what her name is, but you know we'll just call her Miss Davis, because I forgot her first name. It's like Lily, or I don't know if it's a Lily, I don't know. Anyway,