Star Wars Return of the Jedi Review

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one -a -wanga. Should have been day one -a -wingoa.

That's the response to, like... There you go.

There you go. Today, we head once again to a

galaxy far, far away. That's right, we continue

the 12 months of Star Wars Spotlight as we make

our way through the Skywalker Saga. Today, we

will be discussing the final film, Star Wars,

Episode 6, Revenge, I mean, Return of the Jedi.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. The

next chapter in the Star Wars saga, Return of

the Jedi. The battle between good and evil rages

on. Join the further adventures of Luke Skywalker,

Han Solo, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian. Chewbacca,

C -3PO and R2 -D2, and Darth Vader. A journey

to alien worlds. It's a trap! A rebellion against

oppression. an epic of heroes and villains an

adventure as vast as the universe return of the

Jedi coming to a selected theater in your galaxy

yes yes yes yes yes yes what were you doing a

thing or like cuz technically they were Eight

more. Yeah, I know. Hey more they were one two,

three four. There were five more films Yeah,

no, I know but yes, I was did that was basically

saying hey look the buck stops here I can't know

if I said this on the Empire episode or not,

but there was a time there was a Seven there

was a 16 year period where return the Jedi was

the bad one. Yeah Well, it's the good one in

this case. Yeah, I mean, it's it's oh, yeah,

it's It's interesting like as much as I love

Empire Like Jedi is the fun one. You know, I

mean, it's the real high energy And it also got

it also has like a lot of emotional depth too.

It's it's yeah I think it's underrated or it

was underrated. I think now it's now it's a classic

by uh, almost by by default One of the original

ones therefore. It's a classic and it's like

no, it's it's actually a pretty solid film on

its own Well, not on a film, because it builds

off the other films. Well, yeah, it builds off

the other films. So when I watched it today,

I was like, wow, this film really stands up as

it could be, even though it's part of a larger

story, obviously. It has some questions in it

that you'd need answering, but it really could

be a single film. And the only thing... It could

be I'm not saying it should but I'm saying you

could view it as that the questions would be

like Luke and the in the force and the this and

the that and the old training into this training

But they kind of answer that because he goes

back other questions could be Vader and blah

blah blah and sister and blah blah blah and you

had said to me I think it was when we were either

doing the original film that Anakin is the other

yeah, yeah Yeah, and I'm like not according to

them he's not At least not in this movie technical

difficulties, let's move on shall we yeah, I

know like First of all, I didn't I said it but

I'm not the one who made that up George right?

Yeah, and I'm not entirely sure Why? No, not

why, because I get it, because Anakin is the

one who destroys the Emperor at the end. Saves

Luke. Like, Leia didn't do that, Leia's down

on Endor. So the other hope for saving the galaxy,

turns out it was Darth Vader, from a certain

point of view. Yeah. And it's also, it's hard

to tell, and I get it because I write, so I understand

it, but it's also kind of like, Lucas says something

in one moment Lucas has something in another

moment and he says this was supposed to happen

this hat and the thing about writing is Almost

even though some of the stuff he says is contradictory

Yeah, it could be true. Yeah, like cuz the plans

change and things change It's like at one point

the original script was about twins and Leia

was the hero The female twin was the hero and

the male twin was the captive, you know The original

script Anakin was the main character Like I mean

the original script was very close had a lot

of elements in in Had very similar elements to

Phantom ass so but I'm just saying like yeah

He said yeah Leia was the other Anakin was the

other like I think at any given moment Whether

who Lucas said was the other could have been

true Yeah, and I and you know whether or not

the whole thing was supposed to revolve around

Anakin or not from the start I you know because

I mean the whole reason Darth Vader became a

thing is because Ralph McQuarrie said Well, he's

going from one ship to another. He probably needs

some kind of spacesuit Hmm, you know, I mean

Darth Vader in the original script was like a

third -tier Bad guy. I mean he wasn't even the

the main Adversarial enemy. Oh, wow. Oh, no.

He was he was like a minion of us like he was

kind of like He was kind of like he was in Star

Wars But where Tarkin was a little more important

and he was a little less important Right. It's

just, you know. The first Death Star got blown

up and he got more important. Then they built

another one. Yeah. Then they built another one.

Took them a movie and a half to build another

one. No, I don't. In galaxy terms, it's been

like four or five years. True. Yeah. People that

worked on this, directed by Richard Marquand,

Lawrence Kassadin, George Lucas on screenplay,

story by George. produced by Howard Kazanchin

starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher,

Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Pross,

Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, those that are not

with us anymore rest in peace, Frank Oz, the

music obviously John Williams, May 25th, 1983,

132 minutes. That was a school day. I know that

because I had to go to school. I was pissed.

The budget for this movie was 32 .5 somewhere

between 32 .5 and 42 .7 million dollars and the

box office was 482 million dollars, so it made

its money back Yeah, this is my favorite so far

it's always been my favorite but out of everything

I've seen to this point It's definitely the favorite

for me out of the original six film. You know

what I mean when I say I got you. But yeah, this

has always been my favorite. Yeah, like it's

weird. Like I love Empire, but like just I really

enjoy Return of the Jedi. Like I said, it's the

fun one, like as it's because there's no heavy

lifting. You know, you know who Luke, you know,

who is, you know, Han is, you know, all this

stuff. And you're just into the action almost

immediately. Yep. It is by far the most action

movie out of the three original trilogy movies,

I would say. I mean, Empire is action -filled,

but it's not... This has action on every of the

three set pieces that they use. Tatooine, The

Forest Moon of Endor, and space. This has got

the most action. Yeah. This is also, like, in

the original draft, the final act. Like famously

Lucas kind of chopped up the original script

right which in the original final act like they

were gonna be buddies with they were gonna go

to Kashyyyk and befriend the Wookiees and There

was gonna be the big space battle against it

That's why there's a second Death Star because

the Death Star was always the MacGuffin that

they had to destroy yeah, it's just an original

script all that stuff happened in one movie and

like You know, he kind of kept the Death Star

part blew that up. So he's like well I gotta

build another one. Mm -hmm I always go back and

forth on that because it's like on one hand it

feels cheap I mean, you know and and it also

kind of set a bad precedent for the franchise

Where like just like there's tons of planet killing

weapons super weapons in the EU and of course,

you know force awakens We have star killer base.

It's just like But at the same time, you know,

I mean like why wouldn't you build another one?

Yeah, it's like fun of that fact, but it's like

like aside from that one design flaw Yeah that

you know about now Yeah. Why wouldn't you like

get it? You almost won. Like that was the thing

that always bugged me about like G .I. Joe, the

old cartoon is they always had these schemes

that almost won and then they like never go back

to them. Yeah. It's like, well, just build another

weather dominator, but make it better shielded.

Yeah, exactly. And I like how this is still kind

of under construction. They're still working

on it. They're still this. They're still that.

And I love the surprise that it's fully functional.

Uh -huh. Fully functional. Uh -huh. Yeah. I absolutely

love that because I love Lando's reaction. That

blast didn't come from a starter story. That

thing, the Death Star, that thing's operational.

Like, oh, man. Lando and the Falcon? Look, I

love Han. I really do. Falcon is Han's ship.

We've already been through all this when we talked

about Solo and everything else and all the history

between Han and Lando, but I love seeing Lando

and the Falcon. It's amazing. that's awesome

because it lets it first of all it gets the Falcon

in there it gets the Falcon the screen time it

deserves for the ship that it is and it allows

Han to do stuff on the forest moon that you would

probably never see him do if he was piloting

the Falcon because he would be up in space and

somebody else would be down down there trying

to distract everybody and and you know I gotta

I gotta try and hot wire this thing Oh, yeah,

that was like one little detail like one little

detail that I kind of love about the film is

that r2 Doesn't you know? He doesn't get to be

a deus ex machina and pull a resolution out of

his ass He gets he gets nailed so like they got

to figure out another way to get the door open

Mm -hmm. Yeah, he gets fully electrocuted for

r2 And it's also like 3po actually pays off an

entire film trilogy Yeah, he does something important

and he's useful and there's a reason he's around.

Yep Like it's it's you know, I love how human

the scene is between Leia and wicked. That's

awesome to me You know, I've always heard it

described and and I kind of like the reason I

like wicked is he's like a dog No It's like a

skittish little dog. He freaks out about the

hat but like you give him some food and he becomes

your best friend. He disses people's mamas if

he doesn't like them. It's one of the biggest

points of criticism of that film, particularly

in the 80s, are the Ewoks. And the first time

I saw it, like when I was still about 13, 14,

I loved the Ewoks. And then when I became a teenager,

I was like, whatever. But then I came back around

mostly because they're brutal murderers who eat

people. But they're adorable. So I love that

about them. Yeah. And of course, as I think I

mentioned before on air, they're the Viet Cong.

They're Vietnamese. Yep. Yeah, they unfortunately

are. But that's just the way it is. Yeah, this

movie just moves the this does not feel like

the running time it has There are moments when

it slows a little That you know, if you say have

a bad back and and they're sitting too long,

right? You might notice it a little more. Yeah,

I Will say it was different watching it on my

TV than when I saw the special editions in the

theaters. Okay, I will say When I saw it in the

theaters man the scene in the the Ewok village

between between Luke and Leia Yeah, Carrie Fisher

looked bad Mm -hmm, and she did not look as bad

on my TV. So, okay Yeah, we all know that Carrie

Fisher unfortunately rest in peace, but had it

had severe drug issues at the time. Yeah Yeah,

yeah, yeah and at the time and throughout her

life at the time. Yeah, exactly and Yeah, like

looking at her at this like I mentioned the scene

with with wicked when she takes the head the

hat off As she says it's a helmet. Whatever doesn't

matter. I understand she had to describe it to

him as a hat, which is fine She looks damn good.

But yeah, she had to describe it to a creature

that doesn't speak English as a hat exactly She

looks damn good obviously she looks good in you

know the slave outfit and all that and everything

else but man those scenes with her hair that

what i'm a sucker for long hair i've always been

a sucker for long hair on women that will never

change but it's just one of those things where.

She looked a little rough so i don't know but

the whole thing of. I mean, I've known because

I just haven't seen Jedi in a while. But I remember

this this out of all of them. I remember this

movie the most like this when he and Luke or

when Vader and Luke are fighting. Oh, and sister,

too. You didn't think I don't like. Oh, of course

you know about that. No, he didn't say no about

it. He's like sister. Yeah. Yeah. You have a

twin sister. I mean, he finds out about it. Yeah.

Yeah, and I just absolutely love and I love how

they handle that later with with her and Han

and oh my god This movie is just so fun. It's

absolute Fun, like you said, there's not there's

some heavy stuff here, but there's not too much.

I think the heaviest stuff is Yoda dying Well,

I mean Yoda and Darth Vader dying. Yeah The whole

thing is he he's redeemed and he dies, you know

with you know, take this mask off I want to look

at you with my own eyes. I don't want to be a

monster anymore. Yep, you know and the and the

bit about This great subtle bit like where Obi

-Wan had said he's more machine now than man

twisted in evil and in the end fight Luke cuts

his hand off and When the when the Emperor is

gloating he looks he sees like the the severed

hand and the wires and the circuits He looks

down his own hand, which now is in a black glove

Yup. Like that's just, that's good story, that's

good filmmaking, that's good storytelling. Good

filmmaking, good storytelling, good juxtaposition

to just show you that like father, like son.

It's going down the same path. Yeah. Like a movie

nowadays would have Luke say, oh my gosh, I am

becoming just like my father. No, I will stop.

No. You don't need that you just need the subtle

again I've said this on other podcasts and the

live YouTube show Kai dragging media that I do

every Wednesday subtlety in this world Has gone

out the window. It's been out the window for

a few years, but like just the subtlety of anything.

It's like People have just lost their minds and

yeah, no the subtlety of oh He cut my hand off.

I had to replace it with rope and his cuz you

know, it's George Lucas Everybody's hand gets

cut off by a lightsaber. That's how you know

Ray is never gonna be a real Skywalker Oh Boy

folks, it's gonna be interesting when we get

to the the sequel trilogy will it because I mean

like I feel like Those yeah, those movies have

been criticized left and right so it's like right

I'm not even sure what I'm gonna have to say

anymore Oh, it's just like the original one Well,

I I think yeah, so again Remember originally

seven years ago when we did the force awakens

inside rogue one I don't remember what I said

on that podcast whatsoever the only thing I knew

at the time was I was completely wrong about

rogue one back then and I Apologized for it in

the episode that we did whenever we did it a

couple months ago, whatever all that Force awakens

last Jedi and rise of Skywalker Other than the

fact that Force Awakens is supposed to be a modern

version or a newer version of the original Star

Wars movie with Rey as the character instead

of Luke, that's the only thing I remember about

Force Awakens. Last Jedi, I barely remember it,

and I remember nothing from Rise of Skywalker.

I remember watching all of these movies. I actually

have a picture... Think it was the solo movie

probably but I have a picture of Myself not myself

but my monitor my screen at the time a couple

years ago When I finally watched last Jedi and

it's the one where it's the scene where there

are It's all the the 8080s in like the sunset

or sunrise or whatever And I had had I have I

think I still have them the the Funko pops of

Han and Chewie from the solo movie because those

are the ones that I had and I just took a picture

of the two of them in front of the front in front

of the monitor. So I remember watching last Jedi.

I have old man Luke as a Funko pop, so I just

don't remember anything from those. So that's

what I mean about it being interesting because

it's going to be like a whole new watch. for

me because I remember nothing about those movies.

Return of the Jedi, folks. I think one of the

most sympathetic characters in this is the Rancor's

master. Yeah, Malakili. There are two things

that I wanted to mention from the novelization.

Sure. Which I really loved. And one of them is

the whole Rancor sequence. There's this great

interior monologue with Luke where he's talking

about how like the rancor has been, you know,

abused and it's an animal and it's in pain. And

if there are any way for him to be able to do

it, he would much prefer to be able to reason

with it and help it rather than kill it. He doesn't

want to kill it, which is such a Jedi thing for

me. But he understands that this animal has been

hurt and used and he can't save it. He's got

to save himself. Which is just a great moment

and then of course that moment with the rancor

keeper Is just because I mean they they put this

little like dog noise when the when the rancor

dies this whimper And it's like everybody loves

something every you know It's it's it's even

in a galaxy far far away even in this fantasy

universe like people love their pets It's it's

so human. It's it's such a small touch, but so

human and so relatable That it's it's again.

It's just a brilliant little thing that they

put in there. That's really kind of play this

it like Particularly back of the day. I remember

laughing, you know, I think a lot of people laugh

at that the fat guy's crying Yeah, I think before

you lose a pet it's funny the fat guy's crying

Yeah, once you lose a pet you are with that guy

Yeah, I Yeah, I didn't cry then and I didn't

cry now Cry now, but I know no no no but right

right right, but I'm saying like I didn't cry

then because the like I didn't know I'm sorry

I'm saying the wrong thing here. I didn't laugh

at the guy because he was crying then and I didn't

do it now either because Like you said That's

his pet and whatever else and yes, the rancor

is a big hulking monster who eats. What is he

like two or three? He eats Ola and he eats one

of the Gamorreans. Yeah in the course of the

film. Yes Yes, that's what I'm saying and I and

that's the cool thing to me about the practical

effects in these movies and most movies before

1999 because Man that thing is scary when it's

like when he eats her I'm like, oh my god Well,

that's um Like that was one of the the new editions

special editions. Yeah was the whole bit about

her in the pit Yep, like kind of kind of going

back to what I was saying about subtlety subtle

storytelling like in the original movie She falls

down and you hear the roar and you hear her scream.

It's like oh something in the pit killed her,

right? No, how will they know that? She's in

the same year. They actually got the same actress

back. So yeah, that's amazing and She is a twilight

Here's the first Twilight we see. Or second,

because we see Bib first. Yeah, we see Bib first.

Which created the ultimate enigma of why are

Twilight girls so hot and why are Twilight men

so ugly? And of course, because I've watched

so much other Star Wars animation since seeing

this movie the last time that I watched it, which

was sometime back in 2010, I guess, I watched

this the last time. Hera and all that. It's like,

Oh, right. That's got you. But I, I, this movie,

man, just, it has everything that you could want

in an action movie. It has, obviously it has

stakes. It has some subtlety. It has even the

special edition, even the, even though they changed

it. And I said to myself, uh, this morning at

4am, I'm like, damn it. I wish I had a VCR right

now that I could hook up to something because

I have an original VHS copy. I have an original

VHS copy of all of them. But yeah, I mean, jeez,

this movie. I just love it so much. And the fact

that it's all about the Falcon in the final battle.

Like, it's not about the X -Wings, it's not about

anything else. I mean, they're there, but the

Falcon is the star. Oh, yeah. So, there's that.

And then the Special Edition version obviously

has the big victory celebration. Across the galaxy.

Uh -huh, across the galaxy. And I did not notice

this, but apparently an unidentified Gungan says,

we -sa -free. Yeah, well, unidentified. It's

supposed to be Jar Jar, right? I don't know that

it's supposed to be. It does sound exactly like

Jar Jar. OK. I don't know. I honestly don't know

if it's I'm at best's voice or not, but it does.

It sounds exactly like Jar Jar. Or very close

to the imperfect human ear can detect. Yeah.

Yeah. There's Jar Jar goes Weezer free. There's

a stormtrooper being crowd surfed. Yep. Yeah.

It's the first time we first time we saw on film

of course out Yeah, absolutely. I actually is

weirdly enough. I like The extended ending I

like the that ending of yes, it kind of makes

it clear that the entire you know Everybody knows

that the Empire's fallen. It was a very definitive

ending for the Star Wars saga of course they

wrote 200 million books and I had three very

mediocre sequels, but Yeah, I mean, how did it

end originally? Basically, it was like they just

celebrated on Endor. OK, it was just the Endor

celebration. It was just the Endor celebration.

The music was more... The celebration song was

started out as an Ewok song. And then as it peaked

at the end, it went into orchestral. Yeah, wasn't

always although I like I like the new that like

that's particular theme from the special editions

the final Yeah, I do too. Yeah They re -released

a couple of years ago They did a remastered versions

of all the scores for all nine films and I have

them on Spotify and I was listening to the Jedi

score after I watched the movie And the only

thing I don't like is the Jabba's Palace Band

song. Jedi Rocks, yeah. No, not Jedi Rocks. Oh,

Like The Meek? Yes, that. Oh well. I do not like

that. And Jedi Rocks is not actually on here,

I don't think. At least not on Spotify, anyway.

That's weird. That's weird, but it is what it

is. Should be the I mean that should be the one

that's on the current soundtrack because that's

the one from the current soundtrack. Yeah But

but yeah, no I this movie is just so good and

Well the other okay, so the other thing from

the novelization that I really love is is during

the end sequence It's just a little it's the

last line of the book, right? You know Luke is

looking at the spirits And Leia comes and put

her hand on her shoulder and pulls him back.

And the way the book ends is she pulls him back,

she pulls him back into the circle of light and

love. And it's just, I like that. We get the

shot of them all together, but it's just this

idea that he's back into the circle of goodness

and love. I like that. Yeah, that's really good.

Knew that Leia was impersonating Bosch, but up

until this viewing and up until me doing the

research for it, I did not know Bosch was an

actual male bounty hunter character that had

been used before. Uh... what do you mean used

before? Well... He was a male he was from before

who were yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the character

exists in canon Yes, but as individual canon

as an individual character, but like he never

appeared in the Star Wars media before return

the Jedi Okay, but that's what I'm saying. Like

I didn't realize that it wasn't like I've always

thought of Leia Yeah, I've always thought of

Leia as Bosch Bosch was her Basically her Batman

kind of like that's yeah, that's what I didn't

realize it was an actual separate character that

had existed Before that's my only thing But yeah

the That and I love the ending to this You know

that the Anakin gets gets redeemed and he's the

one that saves his son and that's what redeems

him and all that and I don't I think I've seen

the original End with the three of them more

than I've seen the new the the special edition

one. I don't really like seeing Hayden in it

Yeah, I don't either. I mean I it's I mean I

get it why they changed it because they want

it to be uniform whatever else But the whole

point is they're all supposed to be old. Yeah

And you're gonna if you're gonna if you're gonna

add Hayden, why not put in? I can't remember

the actor's name. Ewan McGregor. Yeah, why not

put in Ewan? Like if you're gonna do that, it

should either be consistent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's, I mean, and that's just a nitpick

on my part overall. No, I don't, I agree with

you. I've never liked that either. Yeah. You

know, or hell even have, I assume when he takes

the mask off, that is David Prowse, right? No.

It isn't? Who is it? No. He's an actor named

Sebastian Shaw. So even just put him in there.

It wasn't he in there. He was yeah Okay, that's

what there there was an action figure of him

from power the four I think I think they did

the modern version too before he got like before

the special editions change everything but like

Yeah, I there's a whole action like if there's

there's a story about Ian McDiamond and McDiamond

Ran into Sebastian on the set. He's like Sebastian.

Oh boy. Don't tell me they've roped you into

this too That's funny. But yeah, no. Return of

the Jedi, folks. I absolutely love it. So many

different... Man, all of these movies have had

so many different posters and things done for

them or whatever else. It's so fun. I absolutely

love it. I have... I think it was for the re

-release, but I've got the one where it's literally

just like Luke's hands and the lightsaber on

kind of a blue starfield. Yep. I've had that

one since I was in high school. Yeah, the the

wookie pedia says that that was the original

one. Well, it wasn't. I also have the original

one securely locked away, which is a Darth Vader's

head and they're fighting in the bottom. Yep.

And the thing says revenge of the Jedi. Mm hmm.

I have that one. That's the original one. Yeah,

oh the other one is just like a big It's a big

collage of people. Yeah, it's the so again according

to wikipedia it says under the thing that The

the one with the lightsaber and the moon and

it's all blue like, you know It has a thing under

it that says original movie poster and then it

goes down, you know if I scroll all the way down

here it goes to the The 95 VHS edition the 97

special edition the 2004 DVD edition the 2006

unaltered edition which the unaltered edition

is very similar to the original poster or the

original VHS cover with Luke and Han and Leia

with the Death Star There there's one 2005 blu

-ray steelbook, which is the Emperor the 2019

re -release cover which is all green and Luke

and Han and Leia with Yoda and Java and everybody

and then there's the Oh, 2023 40th anniversary

theatrical run poster. That's interesting. I

don't remember seeing that I'll have to look

at that. But yeah, the one I remember is the

one where it's Where it's Vader behind them With

the Death Star above him and it's Luke with the

blue lightsaber, Han, Leia, Wicked, Lando, and

everybody else. The one that everybody remembers.

But yeah, I love, I actually love that blue poster.

That looks really cool. Yeah. Looks very cool.

You know, all these posters were just iconic.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. It's weird.

Like I almost didn't even look at posters today.

They're just always kind of Generic and boring

but like those Star Wars posters were like and

then the Raiders ones too were yeah just iconic

like those images I Got to find out who did the

I'll have to see if I can look in the in the

world Yeah, yeah, yeah drew right but I'm saying

like the new did he do the 40 the new 40th one

Don't know if he did. I don't know the fourth

one. I know he did. I think he did some of the

new Disney ones I'll send this to you in Skype.

So you should be able to see it and I will edit

this part out But that's the one that I don't

know. Yeah, see that's what I'm wondering if

if drew did No, that doesn't look like this.

I don't know. I don't know but that looks really

like I like There's a cut. There's somewhere.

I don't know if they have Jedi. There's some

other artists that we'll talk about Larry I know

the posters for all of these movies are so great

and the and like you said Drusen did a lot of

posters Way back when for all mood not just he

wasn't just you know, yeah No, yeah, I get that

but And it's just so fun. Anything else? Anything

about the plot? Anything about the effects? Anything

that we need to discuss further on Jedi, sir?

I think some of the effects don't necessarily

hold up all that well. I think the stuff that

was revolutionary in 77 was starting to wear

a little thin. The point is you almost don't

care Yeah, because because you're into the movie

you're into the storytelling that you don't you

know, yes Peter bike stuff doesn't really look

You know doesn't look like they're really zipping

through trees on a speeder bike or even are being

shot outside but like they do the job I don't

know like I Think aside from that. I think everything

else holds up really well And I was just kind

of thinking about like why does this one work

and like rise of Skywalker doesn't and it's like

It's because every this this one is everything's

paying off right all the heavy lifting like even

the new characters like the Emperor and Jabba

have been set up Mm -hmm, you know, like it's

all set up It's all like the like the the new

characters that you don't know are like not really

that important like Moff Jar Jar He's just some

some dude And whereas with Rise of Skywalker,

it was doubly handicapped because they were tap

dancing at triple speed to try to fix everything

that had been screwed up in Last Jedi. Yeah.

So that whole film is just like a cramped mess

of stuff. Geez, that's not good. But yeah, it's

just so weird that like you go back and you watch

these old films and it all seems so... Easy,

so I mean, I know it was a hard work to make

that film, but like they did that in 1983 Yeah,

you know, it's like like you think about like

they went to the moon in 1971 Yep, and like,

you know It and it's just like I and it's all

about storytelling the thing that holds up is

the easiest thing to do and yet just most movies

nowadays are just not like Actually almost not

watchable. They're just They're just lame. They're

quickly processed junk that you can just consume

and throw away without even a second thought.

I mean, not that there aren't things that are

good, but most of them are just kind of junky.

Yeah. Well, Hollywood and we've talked, you and

I haven't talked about this, but I've talked

about this on other shows. Hollywood is broken.

Hollywood is all about that intellectual property.

Yes, you have we have Star Wars we have Marvel

we have DC we had in DC is Going to supposedly

be writing the ship now, but we've got that we've

got transformers We've got don't even I don't

want to mention GI Joe because that's a whole

other nightmare fuel thing We have all these

intellectual properties that the companies Want

to keep up and like we've got Beverly Hills cop

for which finally thank God because you know,

we've been hearing about that for years and we

know why it wasn't made for years up until the

point of where Eddie Murphy always said I will

not do a fourth movie unless it is really really

good and we are finally going to be getting that

at some point this year on Netflix The other

one that was just announced. What the hell was

it? the fourth film for something oh what was

it damn it i forget i'm old uh but yeah i mean

like that's what hollywood's relying on hollywood's

relying on as much as i love nostalgia and i'm

all about the nostalgia they are relying on it

and they don't give i've said this thousands

of times nothing is given a chance nothing like

television shows specifically but You tell them

the television has almost always been that way

where you get very short file run as you don't

make like There was a rare period. I know in

the 80s were like Brandon Tartakov Oh, yeah,

like like fought for certain shows that he liked

Which is how we got seen elsewhere and I think

how we got Cheers But yeah gentle gentle because

these things are so expensive. Yeah, they're

expensive to make so you got it like And that's

I think that's another part of the problem is

the the Marvel movies skewed The the formula

because you know, once you make a billion dollars

or something suddenly you want to make another

billion dollars But it costs money to make those

movies, you know, so you're spending two three

hundred million dollars on a movie Like if they

don't make a billion dollars, you're in trouble.

You know all these movies aren't and yeah doesn't

seem like they're And also like I feel like I

mean, I've been hearing a lot Personally, I'm

getting a little burned out on nostalgia But

and I and I've always I've really kind of felt

bad these last couple of Years like before the

particularly before the pandemic Because like

I think about like a kind of movies my mom would

like, you know And they're not the Avengers,

you know, I mean, yeah, but like, you know Our

stuff kind of took over I feel bad that that

generation the Millennials and the Generation

X or Generation Z, don't really have their own,

like they're getting force -fed our stuff. Same

way that, with us it was music. We were always

getting the 60s music stuffed down our throats.

And they don't, like the one original franchise

that's really come out in the last 10 years was

John Wick. And they've had four of them. You

know, it's like they get one kind of original

thing and it's just run into the ground immediately.

Well, I don't think that John Wick has been running

to the ground. They had four movies, Mike. Yes,

it had four movies, Dave. I understand that.

But they were good movies. Okay, I can't say

anything about the fourth one because I haven't

seen it yet I want to see it eventually and we

are eventually gonna do it on the shows at some

point or another But a buddy of mine Michael

Powers booth ninja 81 he had said He that's how

I first turned out about John wick and I he was

like, yeah It takes place over like whatever

the timeline is in the first three movies. I

forget what it is, but like Takes place over

this certain set of it. I'm like, oh, that's

interesting icon and it's Keanu Reeves. I like

Keanu Reeves fine Obviously Lawrence Fishburne

comes in at one point or another etc, etc And

I like the first three movies I yeah, I really

i've only seen the second one once and I I don't

necessarily remember it super well and the third

one I felt kind of got a little out of it started

getting messy started getting like Spread out

all over the place and yeah, the first one was

very simple and cool and and you could relate

to it and then they were like It's all world

-building and it just got complicated. I like

the most reason I like the fourth one is because

Donnie ends in it Right basically playing the

exact same character from Rogue one. Oh Yeah,

they had me on board on that one. But uh But

but again, it's like there's that there's fast

and the furious Like, those are the only real

new franchises in the last... Again, if you're

gonna say that 10 movies didn't run that one

into the ground, I'm gonna... I was gonna say,

hopefully that's done. Yeah. I don't even remember

watching 9 and I haven't seen 10 yet. I have

only seen a bit of the opening of part 2. So,

yeah. But it's just, like... I feel bad that

these people don't have their own thing. And,

you know, cause, you know, like... At some point,

I might not even like it very much, but as a

nerd who grew up in the 80s, that's the thing.

Science fiction TV shows, you got maybe two episodes

and then it was cancelled. It's not like it is

now. Now I've got all the stuff I could ever

want. I don't know what the kids these days want,

but I kind of wish... I kind of wish we could

all live in a world where I get my good Star

Wars movies and my good science fiction things

and my kind of exciting fantasy films and whatever

the millennials and the Zoomers want, they could

get a film or two like that and everybody could

get a film or two a year of what they want. But

Hollywood basically is like, people know the

name Star Wars, but the kids these days don't

really like Star Wars. So what we're going to

do is we're going to call it Star Wars. But we're

gonna make it for the kids these days who don't

want Star Wars They won't want to watch because

of Star Wars and the Star Wars people want to

want to watch it because it's not like what George

Lucas made Well, this is genius. This will not

lose us billions of dollars every year We will

do a Star Trek but we won't do a thing about

like exploring new worlds and and understanding

new cultures and and and kind of learning about

our own foibles it'll be this weird relationship

drama thing and just Well, we'll call it Indiana

Jones, but it'll be about this old man Who's

not very action oriented and about this the snippy

young 30 year old who basically makes him feel

like garbage to the entire film It's genius.

It'll appeal to no one It'll cost 400 million

dollars Yes, I am trying to find Out why and

you'll probably be able to tell me this because

I don't know but I'm like as you're talking I'm

scouring the internet here. Why in the hell did

JJ not direct Last Jedi? He was only supposed

to do one. Oh, okay. It was Abrams. It was um.

Johnson. Brian Johnson and it was Colin Trevorrow

from the Jurassic World movies. Okay. Supposed

to do the third one and Abrams and Trevorrow

were kind of working together and coordinating

and uh ryan johnson was off by himself yep and

going we and like we'll get to that movie when

we get to that movie yeah oh yeah no no i know

i know i know i know i know i'm trying to say

that to myself yeah because so you don't go aspect

of last jedi that i love right but gotcha problem

is when i saw that film for the first time i

was laboring under the belief that everybody

had talked to everybody else. And there was a

plan. There's no plan. There was no plan. And

that's why Rise of Skywalker is a mess because

it's Abrams trying to fix everything that Rian

Johnson broke. Once again, folks, is why I say

when we get to that sequel, it's going to be

an interesting set of podcasts because holy crap.

Like I don't know I have like JJ Abrams is a

great casting director He's not a good storyteller

and I think that's the problem like like all

his films are really well cast But like I mean

that first film is just Star Wars all over again

you and That's one of the things I loved about

last Jedi like the thing I love about last Jedi

is Brian Johnson took all the toys Put them on

the driveway and backs car over them. Mm -hmm.

And I was like ha ha now What are you gonna do

in the next film? Because you don't have your

x -wings and TIE fighters and Admiral Ackbar

should fall back on you're gonna have to do something

new Yeah, and basically it was like somehow Palpatine

returned. I'm like I don't have a problem with

Palpatine coming back. Yeah, but it should have

been from the first film on it shouldn't have

been introducing this new guy and then Like oh,

no, he was really nothing. Don't worry about

him. He was just a I've got a tank full of those

guys Yeah, I guess it's like look there was no

coordination. Yeah, that was For something you

spent four billion dollars on you you think you

would like have a freaking plan. Mm -hmm I mean,

what's what's funny? Just one more thing. What's

funny, which I could probably say this during

the force awakens thing But it's okay. I guess

one of the original drafts one of the original

concepts for force awakens Sounds very much like

the plot of the acolyte Oh, I'm wondering if

they kind of recycled that a little so yeah,

uh, we haven't talked about that yet Yeah, the

trailer We're gonna talk about that right after

this cuz holy crap Return of the Jedi folks for

me. It's five out of five. I can look I can know

I can overlook very the various things that are

Quote -unquote wrong with it because I just had

so much fun with it. What about you? I'm curious

what you think is wrong with it Not much My only

issue is in retrospect with return of Jedi which

is that Lucas doesn't pay attention to things

So that there's that scene about like like Padme

basically. They're talking about Padme. They

say your mother Yeah, and Leia has very distinct

memories of her mother And Luke doesn't. Right.

It literally the only one that Padme like actually

touches after giving birth is Luke. And he should

have the memory. It should be Leia that doesn't

have the memories. I always wanted like someone

to go, oh, wait, I'm sorry, we got these mixed

up. You know, one of those little alien dudes

that deliver the babies is like, oh, wait, the

boys are the ones with the things that hang out,

aren't they? This one's the boy. Sorry. Mm hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. I first of all, I thought you were

going to give this whole usually do the whole

explanation of the star system. But Yeah, I'm

comfortable giving it a five. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I would hope by now people know that they

can go to geocastrator .com and the link is in

the show notes every episode. It's never stopped

me before! Yes, okay. I hear the old man shaking

the stick at the sky here. I think most people

in 2024, if it's a five... star rating, they

know five is good, and one or zero is not so

good. Yep, that's why I said five out of five.

The little tagline I gave this to start up my

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you doing this? Go away. Go to sleep. I'm aware

that we're... Jesus! What? Apparently we're recording

today. Did you know that? Yes. My phone wants

us to know that every five minutes. Turn off

the alarm and said hey, you got this thing day.

Sorry about that Alright folks we are back here

inside Syria 2009 I Just will probably do this

next because we've got stuff in between we're

not going directly to the sequel trilogy folks

So it would be Mandalorian Yes, exactly. So the

next part of 12 months of Star Wars is Mando

season one, season two, Boba Fett. Oh, God, that's

going to be horrible. And then Mando season three.

But yeah, so those are the next Star Wars things

for us. And like I said before, next episode,

Dave and I are going to do Raiders of the Lost

Ark and Jurassic Park, The Lost World or Lost

World Jurassic Park, however the hell it's pronounced.

But I did want to quickly just say about JJ he's

He's got some I can't believe he hasn't actually

directed any films since 2019 Rises Skywalker

was that well, okay. Well And his TV stuff The

only thing he's got is something called Duster,

but that's TBA. But I mean, the man has a, I

mean, between Felicity Alias and Lost, I mean,

there you go. And, you know, you count Fringe

and some other things that he's done. He's got

a good, decent career as a creator, director,

writer, whatever. But yeah. Any final thoughts

from you sir on return of the Jedi or where we

are in the Star Wars Canon as of now? I Think

looking back There's there's been some high mode

there's been some highlights since return of

the Jedi, but I almost Chicken since Lucas kind

of owned it himself and didn't necessarily have

to give into the the Hollywood pressure of keeping

things going I almost wish it had kind of stopped

I think there's something to be said for a satisfying

ending and walking away. Yeah. Absolutely. My

final thoughts are, man, the person they got

to direct this thing for Return of the Jedi?

Holy crap. Unfortunately, he only lived the age

of 49, but Richard Marklond was the director

and he directed... films such as 1978's The Legacy,

1979's The Birth of the Beatles, 81's Eye of

the Needle, 83's Return of the Jedi, 84's Until

September, 85's Jagged Edge, and 87's Hearts

of Fire. And he actually passed away just before

his 49th, 50th birthday in September of 1987.

Well, you know who Lucas was trying to get to

direct Return of the Jedi. No Well, I mean first

of all, he wanted Spielberg Right, but because

the Star Wars films do some dude do that thing

with no credits in the front. Mm -hmm that Spielberg

didn't want to get Dutch with the Directors Guild

and then he reached out to David Lynch. Oh My

god, this movie would be so weird if it was Lynch.

Yeah, but I guess and there was something about

like Lynch was working on a project in one part

of England and Lucas wanted to come up to another

part of England and Lynch was just like now I'm

not gonna yeah, there was an interview with him

when he talked about like blowing that off and

McQuann was basically chosen Like technically

he directed the film Lucas was much more involved

with return of the Jedi than he was Empire Because

he was not happy with the way Kirschner Directed

Empire, right? So yeah Huh, interesting. McQuinn

is usually kind of, viewed as kind of a puppet,

kind of doing what Lucas wanted. Right. Like

I said, I think the movie overall is very good.

I think the direction is done very well. And

what I love about going through all the Star

Wars stuff is, seeing how much or how little

George has involved into it because it's his

own thing and Seeing who they get to like Yes,

it's all about the writing yes, it's all about

the story Yes, it's all about how the actors

act out that story But if you don't have somebody

that's really good at the helm as the director

then the ship won't sail and I love seeing all

the various Nate like Just love doing all that

kind of research with all these old movies and

stuff like that I just absolutely love that kind

of stuff. Well, I mean like the the prequels

are the most pure George Lucas Star Wars movies

because with the original ones there were always

compromises He had to make you know, the first

one nobody it's not the first one He didn't really

he wasn't George Lucas yet. He was you know,

he had to check or he had a American Graffiti

under his belt You know he people knew who he

was but he wasn't you know, George Lucas Hollywood

icon He couldn't do whatever he wanted And frankly

if Alan lad that hadn't championed the project

he wouldn't had a film at all right and then

with Empire I know He he wanted to do that by

himself But he it would just started to cost

too much. So he had to go to the studio. He had

to go to 20th century Mm -hmm, which he hated

doing he hated writing with the studios And then,

you know, because he had a heart attack, I believe,

he had to get Kirshner to direct for him. And

then his world behind the scenes was falling

apart, which we don't need to get into. And then

by Jedi, you know, again, it was more than he

could personally bankroll. So he had to go to

the studio again, and someone else had to direct,

but he kind of was always over his shoulder.

So with the prequels, those are pure... Lucas

finances himself and he directed all of them

and he wrote all of them. They were they were

110 percent George Lucas. Right. Which is why

I'm always kind of like I'm always interested

in the other guy like like when you have these

iconic figures like Lucas or like Roddenberry,

there's always the other guy, even even even

Lynch. There's always the other like with with

Star Trek. Almost everything you associate with

classic Star Trek is from a guy called Gene Kuhn

He created the idea of the Clint Klingons He

didn't create the Federation. I don't think he

might have created vision, but I know he did

the Prime directive Like like there's always

this other guy who takes the idea and refined

it Like Kazdin what kind of was with Star Wars,

you know it's you know and Then then once Lucas

got like complete control of everything and could

do whatever he wants. Then you get the prequels

Then you get okay people in the old -timey movie

People in the old -timey movies that I like to

watch, they always were kind of very dramatic.

So just broadcast to the back seats, please.

Don't show too much emotion. Because in the movies

I like, nobody showed a lot of emotion. There

was always this funny character who was like

a crook or something else. He was never the white

guy. But he was always very funny and very cowardly.

And that's what you're going to be. Yeah, you

know, that's not gonna play in like the 90s right

you you you get that it wasn't a coincidence

that he wasn't the white guy Yeah, I know he's

a pink alien. So so nobody's gonna be offended

Yeah, okay George Okay, George, that's right.

Okay, George. Yeah, there's a lot of okay George

like there's some great behind -the -scenes footage

of Okay, George's, you know, what was that guy's

name? Gene something gene Kuhn gene C o o n g

e n e c o n Okay Interesting yeah, we I'm gonna

have to look into him because I mean he wasn't

wasn't involved with next by I think he's probably

dead by next generation, but Like that first

season next generation. That's pure Roddenberry

Yeah, July 8th of 73 is when first Star Trek

movie is pure Roddenberry yeah, and and what's

fascinating is I know this isn't the subject

but If you really think about that first Star

Trek movie, it's next generation the original

cast Oh, yeah Like down to instead of Riker is

Decker instead of What's her name? Troy? It's

Ilya, right? The I had a relation the younger

guy who's the second -in -command who had a relationship

with an alien girl with empathic powers and and

now they're back together get on the bridge and

That's a holdover from phase two. Yeah, absolutely

But Return of the Jedi, folks. Return of the

Jedi. I guess it's a great film. It's a classic

film. If you haven't seen it yet, and you like

fantasy films, like space fantasy films, you

should see it. Absolutely, absolutely. All right,

folks. We are going to get the heck out of here.

Thank you for joining us. Here inside the studio

if you'd like to get contact with us to leave

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Join us next time when we will be Going through

the Raiders of the Lost World. We are doing a

double feature folks because I've never seen

either film Raiders of the Lost Ark Jurassic

Park the last lost world or lost world Jurassic

Park, however, they want to say it But Dave was

kind of shocked. I'm like I was nine When last

crusade came out last crusade for me as a kid

was the only Indiana Jones movie that mattered

I Mean bro. I was not born when Maltese Falcon

came out or gone with the wind came out or Aeroflint's

Robin Hood came out or Captain Blythe like Dude,

that is such a weak ass excuse, particularly

in the modern age. I was too young. They got

a single video. Like my mom, literally at one

point when I was a teenager, rented most of these

movies I just listed. And, you know, because

she realized I had never seen them because because

they weren't around when I was a kid. So I sat

down one day and watched all these classic movies.

Just like a gloss world, I can understand, because

like that's not that's not everybody's thing.

Yeah. Raiders come on man. That's a classic.

I Don't deny. It's a classic. I'm just saying

I I've never had any until now any real reason

to go and and and watch it because Don't you

love yourself? Don't you don't you want to expose

yourself to good things? Yes, and that's what

we're doing Next episode then you had a reason.

Well, yeah now I did 81? Yeah, for the last 43

years. I have not had it until now. I have not

had a good reason to watch that movie. Besides,

the Big Bang Theory spoiled it. Okay, well that's

another reason I hate the Big Bang Theory. Stop

it. So many. For now, I'm TFJ Mike with... I'm

David Raper. Y 'all hear us back in the studio

soon.