Mad Max: Fury Road Review

Hey, this is Steve Blum, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Today on Weekend

at the Movies. Um, that's not our name anymore.

Wait, what? We changed our name? Yeah, don't

you pay attention? But we already did that once.

First we were called NY Weekly, then our name

got changed to Weekend at the Movies. Why would

we change our name again? Uh, have you Googled

Weekend at the Movies lately? True, that's a

good point. I could see how it might not come

across as the most original name. But what's

our name going to be now? Um, let me think. Well,

you are geeks, and you are a part of the Geekcast

Radio Network. But it has to be something to

do with movies, too. Exactly. It should be something

that tells everybody exactly what type of geeks

you are. You're cinema geeks. Cinema geeks. I

like it. But why do you keep saying it like Dan

and I are the only geeks? You keep saying you.

Shouldn't it be we? I mean, you're a part of

this too, Geekette. Alright, alright. Then we

are the Cinema Geeks. Much better. And this week,

we're taking a look back at last weekend's box

office. And giving you our predictions for the

week ahead. And as always, we'll break down the

biggest cinema news stories from the last week.

And we'll each give you a yay or nay on a trailer

from this past week. Oh, don't forget, we'll

break down what we've been watching with our

thoughts on films like Maps to the Stars, Slow

West, Chappy, and Kingsman the Secret Service.

And finally we'll give you our main attraction

with our thoughts on Mad Max Theory Road. All

that and more coming up with the Cinema Geeks.

That's right, it's another episode of Cinema

Geeks and I am one of your hosts Optimus Solo,

and joining me is two people. We haven't had

three people on the record for a little while,

so this is going to be fun. First off is obviously

movie revolt Dan. Hello. Hey, how's it going?

Not too bad. And then also joining us once again

is hard candy Mandy. Amanda, hello. Hola. And

this should be fun. This is the first time that...

We've all three been able to record, so we'll

see how it goes. But before we get into the box

office and the news and whatnot, Dan, I want

to toss it to you and get a snapshot of how your

last seven to 10 days has gone. It's been an

adventure. Yeah. Thanks, you guys, for holding

on the fort while I was gone. My wife and I were

lucky enough to welcome our son into the world,

and it's been a lot of pooping and peeing since

then, a lot of cleaning up diapers. Pete on a

few times. Not poop time? But it's going really

well. You know, lack of sleep, you kind of adjust,

but it's been a lot of fun. Awesome. And I don't

know if you put the name on, I don't know if

you put the name out there or if you're willing

to put the name out there, but what did you name

the little guy? His name is Connor. Nice. So

little Connor into the world and... The question

is, what's the first movie you're going to show

him? That's funny, because it's either Goodfellas

or Aladdin. They're similar films, right? Well,

technically the first one he was around was when

I was watching Whiplash with my wife, which he

did react to the music, so it's a good sign.

There we go. Awesome. All right. Well, as for

us, at least for me, the week's been going pretty

good. I was on a staycation this week. So we

had my vacation to Florida almost a month ago,

and I had one more vacation I had to use before

it ran out. So I did a little staycation, stayed

at home for a week, did some yard work, some

housework, and stuff like that. So nothing too

exciting, but it gave us a chance to watch a

whole bunch of movies. And then Amanda had to

get used to me leaving in the morning to go back

to work now. So she's not a big fan. But as we

start every episode, we will go to the box office.

And it's actually probably one of the more interesting

box office visits we've had ever on the run of

this show. man and i both made some predictions

last week and we were both terribly wrong because

we were talking about if mad max or avengers

would be number one and and how that would all

play out and of course neither was number one

so coming in at number one last weekend was pitch

perfect two with around seventy million mad max

fury road came in second at forty five avengers

dropped all the way down to the third spot with

thirty eight million and running off the top

five was hot pursuit and Furious 7. Dan, if you

were on the episode last week, would you have

set us straight and told us about Pitch Perfect

2 coming in at number one? Yeah, I probably would

have picked Pitch Perfect 2, mostly because I

didn't think Mad Max would actually do it. It

actually did better than I thought it would.

I just wondered if that would have a math appeal,

because every time I was in the theater and that

preview came on, I felt like the entire audience

was turned away from it. And I know Pitch Perfect

has pretty... It had a pretty big audience when

it came out and I think it's kind of gained it

over the years of being on TV so much. I think

it's one thing, you know, you look at how the

first one did and I think that's very misleading

because a lot of people actually didn't see the

first one in theaters. Yeah. It was something

that got more popular as it got released, you

know, to like Redbox and DVD and Blu -ray and

stuff like that and that's when the word of mouth

really started spreading so you can't necessarily

look at that first one and kind of predict what

the second one would do and I guess I kind of

just completely forgot about. how many people

are actually into Pitch Perfect 2. I didn't even

see the first one until last year. Yeah, I made

her see it. We're an odd couple because I actually

like both movies better than she does. Anything

else surprising from this last weekend, Dan,

from the box office? That people want to go see

Hot Pursuit. It's kind of surprising. It's made

$23 million. That is mind -boggling. I don't

understand that at all. I just felt bad if everyone

involved in that movie. I don't know who pitched

that movie and why there wasn't someone in the

room that just said, hey, we did that last year.

And we've done it before that as well. Overall,

for the year now, Avengers has taken the crown.

Not that that's a surprise to anybody, but it

did pass. Furious 7 within the last 7 to 10 days.

So now we have Avengers Age of Ultron reigning

supreme at number one obviously followed by Furious

7 Looking ahead to next week. I was starting

something new here with the box office now that

we got our new name and everything Trying to

make it feel fresh and whatnot, but I'm gonna

let everybody make predictions each week one

official prediction it can be anything it can

be uh... you know something's gonna drop x number

spots something's gonna come in third something's

gonna come in first whatever you guys want to

predict the stuff that we have coming out this

next weekend would be poltergeist and tomorrow

land so dan let's start with you give us a prediction

for next week anything box office related i would

say that uh... poltergeist does not finish in

the top three okay so poltergeist will open not

in the top three. Yeah, I feel the, you know,

the Tomorrowlands and the Mad Maxes and Avengers,

and I just don't think it's gonna, I think it's

gonna do decent, but I don't think it'll, that'll

be somewhat of a disappointment, be my guess.

Okay. Could be way off. Well, we were way off

last week, so you can join the club then. Amanda,

what's your prediction for next week at the box

office? I say I agree with Dan. I don't know

that Poltergeist will come in and do a lot of

damage, but I'm hoping it's at least in the top

five. I think there's, you know, good amount

of hype around this reboot. Craze so maybe I'll

do some do some damage that way. But other than

that, I think Paul Bart's gonna keep holding

Stay right where it's at. Oh Man. All right.

So you guys are both going with with poltergeist

I'm gonna make a prediction and I guess that'll

be that mad man Mad Max Fury Road. I'm saying

that's gonna stay in second spot Yeah, that's

actually nice. I was I was debating that prediction

as well. I could see it Look at that word of

mouth. It's been pretty Great So I'm predicting

I'm not gonna say I'm not shouldn't go any further

with the prediction because that leaves a possibilities

for what comes in first and what comes in third

But I guess in the line of thought here is that

it'll flip -flop with pitch perfect and that

tomorrow land would come in first But I'm just

sticking with Mad Max in second place next week.

We'll leave it at that. I don't care how it happens

All right getting into the news then We'll kind

of go around the news desk as we have in the

past when we have more than two people on. So

since we started with you, Dan, with the box

office, let's start with you for news. What's

one thing newsworthy in the world of movies this

past week? Well, the one thing that kind of came

to my mind was... there was news regarding the

Blade Runner sequel that is occurring, and one

was attractive, but the other, the thing that

actually kind of caught my ear a little bit more

was the fact that Roger Deakins is gonna be the

cinematographer for it, which is great, because

he's one of the best cinematographers out there.

He does pretty much all the Coen Brothers movies.

He did Skyfall, which I think is one of the best

-looking action movies. in recent memory, and

it has me somewhat intrigued knowing that I could

see him kind of taking that world of Blade Runner

and making it look rather cool. Yeah, he did

excellent work with Skyfall, so I'm with you

on that one. I think that adds to the excitement

or fuels some excitement behind the Blade Runner

sequel, which, you know, now we've got Dennis

Villanueva and Roger Deakins, and I know Ryan

Gosling has been tossed around as far as... either

a main star or co -star in the film. So yeah,

I think all that bodes well for Blade Runner.

I mean, if you just said, hey, Blade Runner's

getting a sequel, I probably wouldn't be that

excited about it because I don't necessarily

know if it needed one, et cetera, all that type

of stuff. But when you're throwing these names

around, it doesn't actually make me pretty interested

in it. Yeah, I'm actually more excited that Ridley

Scott's name's not attached compared to... There

you go. Exactly. Amanda, any interest in Blade

Runner sequel? I haven't seen the original, and

I don't know if I've seen any of this guy's work

at all. You didn't see Skyfall? No. Oh, man.

Okay, well that's what we'll be watching next

week. Because that's a sin that has to be rectified.

All right, Amanda, what's your first story that

you'd like to bring up? I thought that the news

about Chris... Pret confirming some more non

-Guardians -related MCU appearances was a little

intriguing. It kind of makes me mad because I

don't like when somebody's in the same cinematic

universe and they try to do more characters than

just the one. I feel like it makes it less real

for me. I don't know if it necessarily meant

that he was going to be doing different characters

or if it meant that just Star -Lord was going

to be appearing in some of the other films. Maybe

I read that wrong. Guardians of the Galaxy films

can do a few more of those and then there's a

couple more that Are not gonna be guardians movies.

So I don't know if it's different characters.

He's just popping up and he's definitely coming

into the Infinity war so maybe he will be a Star

-Lord still but I guess out of his film Yeah,

I guess it's just in the nine that I understand

that there's crossover between all the different

Marvel films I guess I never considered The possibility

which is stupid on my part of some of the Guardians

showing up in some of these other movies I don't

know why I didn't consider that I mean I knew

there was a Guardians 2 coming out That would

get to see more of them, but am I just silly

Dan? Did you ever did you already have that kind

of down that they would be appearing in like

the Infinity War? Yeah, I assumed it would be

especially since they dealt with like the Infinity

Jam in the in the first in their first film so

I figured I figured my assumption was that they'd

probably be in the second Well, I guess the the

fourth movie the second infinity one would be

my guess I I didn't expect him to be like in

anything other than that I mean I could see him

maybe in Miss Marvel because she's kind of a

cosmic character too or maybe even dr. Strange

so Yeah, I would assume if he was in any of the

other films It would have to be something that

has that we haven't seen yet Like it doesn't

make sense to me for him to be in like a Captain

America film or no, you know Maybe I mean maybe

I could maybe maybe Thor but Maybe like I would

it would have I would I would think more of a

cameo than an actual like right like part because

I they're very Considering they're doing ragged

Ragnarok. I don't know right. I see Star -Lord

fitting into that Yeah, I think you're we're

closer on with like things like Marvel or Captain

Marvel or Doctor Strange or something like that

that would make more sense if it's if it is anything

outside of just the you know appearances in the

actual Whatever you want to call and we're gonna

keep going with Avengers 234 or are they gonna

just start calling the different titles? I don't

know But yeah, I mean I think that is intriguing

I don't know why I never even thought of that,

but he's definitely a cool character There's

a bunch of other not to go off on another news

or whatever but other Chris Pratt rumors and

news that were going on there because he was

saying that he was shooting down some of the

other rumors he was rumored to be in a few months

back we talked about the Ghostbusters and He

said that he's not involved in that. I'm hoping

I'm not getting my Chris's mixed up. It was Chris

Pratt that was rumored for Ghostbusters, wasn't

it? It was him and cheating Tatum were rumored

to be in the next, like the, there's supposed

to be like a guy spin -off. Right. And that was

the rumor. In one of the interviews or whatever,

he... He was pretty blatant with it. He said

that's all bullshit. So I don't know, he seemed

to be kind of vague in the other statements he

was making during that interview, but he was

saying that the Ghostbusters is bullshit. He

was saying that one of the other things that

he had been rumored for, he was saying that was

bullshit too. So I don't know if everybody just

likes knowing Chris Pratt's name out there and

he doesn't necessarily agree with any of that

or hasn't talked to him. But if not, he's playing,

he's doing his best poker face. making us think

that he's not gonna be in stuff. But he was definitely

making the rounds with some headlines there.

I will go with, you guys are stealing all my

news, so I gotta get creative here. No, since

we're gonna be talking about Mad Max a little

bit later, I thought I'd bring up, obviously

there was news immediately about... the possibility

of more films. That's not necessarily why I bring

this new story up, but they did talk to George

Miller about the possibility of sequels, especially

with as well as it has been reviewed and received.

And there was a long delay in bringing Fury Road,

kind of bringing it to fruition. And he has stated

that during that time, he has toyed with a lot

of different ideas. There's apparently at least

one screenplay that's already somewhat written.

from the article that I read and It had been

believed that this sequel was going to be called

Mad Max Furiosa and I know a lot of the podcast

talking about Fury Road where we're talking about

the Possibilities that you know this next film

would give us more of the Furiosa character But

it stated that the film will actually be called

Wasteland Mad Max Wasteland I don't know necessarily

that changes much or whatever, but I thought

the interesting part of the article and the reason

I wanted to bring it up was because regardless

of what it's called or what's in the works Tom

Hardy did confirm that he's actually contractually

obligated to a further three movies if Fury Road

was a success. So I guess regardless of what

direction they go if Fury Road is a success which

it seems like it has been so far that he has

a contract for three more films. What's your

opinion, Dan, on the idea of more Mad Max films

going into the future and creating more of the

whole franchise world? Well, speaking of someone

who hasn't seen Cherry Road, great! Yeah, I mean,

I would be fine with it. I mean, it's... I think

there's a lot to that world that you can kind

of expand upon and it seems like it's... If you

get a second trilogy or something like that out

of it, maybe that could be good. It's the type

of franchise where it lends itself decently to

sequels because based on the original trilogy,

you don't necessarily have to be super connected

to each film. So it gives you some kind of creative

license to do and explore completely different

ideas and themes. Out of all the different things

that are talking about sequels and like a whole

set of films, this one doesn't bother me that

much because it seems like each one at least

could probably try to be somewhat creatively

unique. Yeah, they're just so, I mean, yeah,

like thematically they're very not very tied

to each other. They're so different and I think

you can kind of just keep that going, you know?

Right. Amanda, without spoiling anything, because

remember, Dan, you haven't seen Fury Road yet.

What do you think about the idea of more Mad

Max films? As far as its track record goes, with

the sequels doing well, the music put out, it's

now a reboot, how many can they moke out of that?

I feel like they could go pretty far with it

based on the hype that it's gotten, but I just

don't know if I need more in my life. Does it

need more? You don't need more Tom Hardy in your

life? Tom Hardy can do some other things, but...

You know, he was a minor part of this, so. Yeah,

I mean, I think, I don't know, I'd be willing

to see some more. I'm not burned out yet by far.

I mean, it's just one film. We're used to, what,

there's been 11 Marvel films so far. I'm not

burned out on that. So I think three more Mad

Max films would just be like a drop in the bucket.

So, Dan, what do you got for your second news

story? The second news story is that the rumors,

or the parent, that Robert Kirkman will be...

helping to write the script for the next Transformers

sequel slash spinoff, which has me somewhat.

Hopeful, I guess you know for those that don't

know Robert Kirkman's probably most famous for

his work on The Walking Dead both the comic and

the show He's done a lot of different comics

as well, and I tend to like most of his stuff

So I feel like if anyone could you know get a

good Marvel or get a good Transformers film it

might be him I don't know if he has any experience

with the property previously, but I think he

certainly knows how to He knows that that type

of world and he knows how to write strong characters

so it might be the most bloody Transformers movie

we ever get but I guess as long as They have

actually stronger writers that aren't like, you

know the ones who wrote the other films I think

we might be good and it's I'm just happy to know

there actually might be a script to this one.

So You mean they haven't had scripts on the previous

board I I would assume not I just assumed it

was all ad -libbed, but it would explain a lot

I'm just hoping that at one point in the future

I can use a clip of you saying that you had some

excitement next to the next Transformers film

and see if that comes back to life. More, I should

say, let me caveat and say more excitement than

I did before. That doesn't take much. No, it

doesn't. Yeah, it seems interesting the way that

they're going about the future of the whole Transformers

film verse, I guess we can call it. You know,

because they talked about kind of having that

writer, I don't know what word they used, but

almost like a meeting of the minds with a whole

bunch of different people and tossing ideas out

and coming up with stuff. But I don't know. I

don't watch The Walking Dead, so I can't necessarily

speak to what he's done with that. But based

on what you say, hopefully, like you said, it

will actually lead to something of a plot and

script and some story. and not just shards of

metal running into each other that I can't tell

what's what. Yeah, and to be clear, I don't think

he's written the show verbatim, but he's the

one who created the comic itself. I know he has

a lot of input into the show, but I don't know

how much he is exactly just him. I think it's

a combination of the show running and whatnot.

Right. Amanda, what do you got for your second

news story? Oh, man. Anything left for you? I

guess. There's Jack Reacher 2. Did you see Jack

Reacher? I did, yes. And, Dan, you saw Jack Reacher.

Yeah, I did. And Johnny Courtney. You like Johnny

Courtney. You're one of the only supporters of

Johnny Courtney. I'm gonna hold it down. Okay,

so you're excited for Jack Reacher 2? Yeah, I

think it'll be pretty good. It's adapted from

one of the Reacher novels that came out in 2013,

Never Go Back. So I might have to pick that up.

I know Ed. I'm obviously familiar with Ed Zwick

as a director, and I like some of his work. I

don't think necessarily I liked all of his work,

but I like some of it. So I don't think that's

necessarily bad that he's involved again with

that. Dan, did you ever think you'd get a second

Jack Reacher? No. The first one was fine. I didn't

think it did very well, from what I can remember.

Might have done well enough to warrant a sequel.

I'm sure after Mission Impossible makes a trillion

dollars that Tom Cruise will be a hot commodity

once again. I've never read the book, so I know

there was some controversy with Tom Cruise being

in the role because he doesn't necessarily fit

the character based on the book, but I thought

it was fine. Like like a taken meats like born

identity in a way, but uh I think the what you

said that that's one of the most Heard arguments

I've heard her most common arguments. I've heard

about the film though is that you know people

that know the material Don't necessarily like

the cast you know crews in that role that say

it doesn't necessarily fit So I don't think you're

alone in that opinion. Yeah, it was I mean I

remember like He made it work, though, I would

say. Well, enough. I mean, I definitely think

maybe you could get a better casting choice,

but I don't think it was... The worst possible.

Yeah, it wasn't, like, awful. It wasn't unbelievable

in that way. Right. Was it too far off other

roles that he's played? No. Right. And I can't

comment too intelligently, since I haven't seen

the first one, so... I think it is on Netflix.

Alright, so I need to see the first Jack Reacher,

and what do you need to see? What did we say

earlier that you haven't seen? Skyfall? Skyfall.

That's more important. For my last news story,

I should go with the Star Wars news story because

that would get into the podcast, but we'll just

put that in the show notes. I just wanted to

bring up for those people that are interested.

I know most people might not even need to go

see Terminator Genesis or however you're supposed

to say that, since it's already been shown in

the trailers. But if you are excited or want

to build your excitement leading up to it, apparently

the 1984 Terminator is going to be re -released

into some theaters around the world. You haven't

seen a breakdown of actually where. The article

says 20 territories and over 800 cinemas. That's

not a ton of theaters. So I don't know if it'll

just be in other countries or if you'll have

the release here in America, but it's always

possible. Anytime something comes around like

this, it seems like movies roll back in and try

to cash something in on it. So for if you're

a die -hard Terminator fan, maybe it's time for

a trip to Europe to see the 1984 film on the

big screen or on IMAX or whatever they decide

to do with it before Genesis comes out. I am

super disappointed with the Genesis trailers,

though. I don't know why. they chose to show

what they did in those. Dan, have you seen the

trailer for that yet? Unfortunately, yeah. And

that's everything, so there you go. I was like,

wow, I would have been totally shocked at that

point if I had been seeing the movie right now.

I did not realize that's the direction they were

going to go. They didn't need to hype it up anymore.

It was good. Yeah, the teaser or whatever was

enough. Just knowing that it's Terminator and

who's involved, people that are excited about

it are going to be excited about it. It seems

like they took the most major part of the story

or twist or whatever and threw it out there on

the trailer. Usually it's comedies that are doing

that, but apparently sci -fi action is going

that route now too. So, disappointed with the

trailer, but... I said maybe you'll have an outside

shot to go see Terminator again on the big screen.

There's other news stories that we're not going

to get to, so you'll have to go to our website

page at GeekCastRadio .com and find the episode

post and check out all those other news stories.

One of them is involved in Star Wars, so we'll

leave it at that. But we'll get into our trailer

talk now. We're going to do this a little bit

different. Like I said, everything's fresh and

new today. New name, new logo, new everything,

so we're going to treat trailers a little bit

different this time. Everybody's going to get

one shot at talking about a trailer that's been

released this last week. It can either be a positive

or a negative, a yay or a nay on any type of

trailer. Dan, we've been letting you go first

with everything else, so we'll let you get the

first trailer spot, and hopefully I'll have one

left when it comes down to me. But what's the

trailer from this last week, and what's the reaction,

yay or nay, on it? I guess I'll go with, surprisingly,

the second trailer to Pixels, and I feel bad

about this, but I have... Faith that we might

actually get a good Adam Sandler movie. So I'll

go with I'll go with yeah I'm kind of like liking

what I'm seeing and I like the first trailer

I like the second trailer and it It makes me

worried because you know that Adam Sandler's

track record lately has been pretty awful But

I am guess I think what I like about this is

that it's not a concept That's a kind of dependent

upon him. So hopefully it will it will end up

working. It just I just really liking what I'm

saying Well, I think that's been somewhat of

the universal reaction so far to those trailers

I haven't heard a lot necessarily based on just

the second trailer But it seemed like everybody

once that first trailer for pixels came out was

talking about how it actually looked like it

could Potentially be something that was decent

I thought it right from the get -go just based

on a synopsis for that movie that it was gonna

be something interesting I wasn't sure exactly

what how they were gonna go about it what you

know the questions early on was what kind of

combination or what racial we would have between

live action and the animated parts or how it

was going to mesh. And I think the first trailer

kind of put most of that, any questions about

that at ease as far as if it was going to be

done right or not or cheesy or not. And I think

a lot of people are more excited for pixels the

more they see about it. compared to, you know,

not a lot of people were talking about it at

the beginning of the year as far as, you know,

being something that you anticipate or something

you think is going to do well. I mean, I know,

like you said, it has the Adam Sandler stigma

behind it, but I'm with you. I think so far everything

I've seen makes me interested for pixels. Amanda,

are you interested in pixels? Super interested.

I think it looks like a really cool idea. I think

they're going to integrate the CGI and the live

action really well. I think it's going to be

well done in that. regard and I think it's a

cool cast. Not gonna lie. Peter Dinklage, awesome.

Adam Sandler, okay, whatever. I'm still always

down for an Adam Sandler movie. And that guy

from The Wedding Ringer, what's his name? Which

one? Josh Gad? Yes, Josh Gad. And then, okay,

Kevin James. We're all hating you right now,

Kevin James, for the crap you just put out in

Poplar. But you better redeem yourself in pixels.

I'm excited. Yeah, I like Josh Gad, so that's

probably the cast member I'm most excited about

in that film. All right, so we're all excited

for Pixels 2. So that's Dan's yay for his trailer.

Are you doing a yay or a nay, Amanda? Let's do

another yay. For which one? Pan. A yay for Pan.

Why? A yay for Pan. Hugh Jackman is a villain?

What? He looks awesome. I think he'd be really

cool. I think the changes in the storyline are

going to be pretty interesting. I think it's

much better than giving us just the retold Peter

Pan story. Yeah, it's a retelling it looks like,

definitely. You could see where Hook was like

helping Pan instead of being his enemy in this

one. Maybe, I don't know if this is more of like

an origin story or retelling or what, but whatever

it is, I'm excited. It took me at least three

shots of Hugh Jackman before I came to terms

with the fact that that was Hugh Jackman. At

first, I did not recognize him in the first couple

shots. Later on, it became a little more obvious

when you looked at him, but I thought that was

a heck of a costume, design, makeup, et cetera

for him to turn him into something that we're

all so used to just seeing him as Wolverine or

something like that. I thought it was very intriguing

as far as his angle. I don't know if I'm... I'm

not the biggest Peter Pan fan in the world. I...

You know, the Disney Peter Pan film is not necessarily

my top 10 Disney films. I've never liked any

of the other Peter Pan films. I'm sorry, Hook

fans. But it's just not something I usually get

excited about. But I'm somewhat intrigued on

this one. It's going to take more than that to

get me excited about it. But I'm intrigued about

it. What about you, Dan? Yeah, I'm I don't know.

I so much I'm not a huge Peter Pan fan. I mean,

I just remember. Man I just I I don't this whole

like you know live -action fairy tale thing I've

not been I've not had a lot of good luck with

I mean I haven't seen a few of them like I haven't

seen Cinderella yet so I can't speak to that

one but I guess I'm a little hesitant I am I

do you think the idea of a You know Hugh Jackman

playing a villain character like this could be

a lot of fun so that has me Intriguing I do you

think does it seem like there's a lot of like

talented actors involved so you know hopefully

it can be better than hook We're both hating

on Hook. Visually, it did look like it had some

impressive stuff going on in the trailer there.

So I think at least from a visual spectacle,

it should be something fun to watch. And sometimes

that can be somewhat of a saving grace for some

of these fairy tale turned live action, is that

at least they're fun to look at. But like Dan

said, some of them haven't necessarily hit all

their marks, so we'll have to wait and see. So

two yay so far. A yay for Pan and a yay for Pixels.

I will go with a yay as well. I guess we're all

being boring. And nobody's going to be hating

on this one. But this one might not be as expected.

I'm actually going to go with a yay for the Steve

Jobs teaser. It wasn't necessarily a trailer,

it was more of a teaser. Now, I did see the other

Jobs film, which originally they were going to

come out the same year, I thought, Dan, but that

did not happen. That's like, what, two or three

years ago now since that last film, where we

got to see Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs. And

everyone at the time that both of these were

being talked about was more excited for this

one. And then the other one came out, kind of

got mixed reviews for the most part. And what's

making me say yay on this one is really centered

mostly around the cast and actually seeing them

in the roles. I didn't pay attention to what

the actual internet reaction to Michael Fassbender

was at being Steve Jobs. I don't know if it got

a positive reaction or a negative. I missed that.

I must not have been on Twitter that day. But

I actually think he looks like he could pull

this off pretty well from the teaser. Maybe I'm

in the minority here, but I think he looks like

he could pull it off well, and I think the supporting

cast around him is interesting. And I guess the

reason I'm most interested in this film is because

I've seen the other one and wanting to see...

Usually I wouldn't say that. If there's two films

about the same topic, I'm not usually interested

in either one, but I'm interested to see the

comparison now as to how they depict it. and

what differs between the depiction in this one

compared to the depiction in the Ashton Kutcher

film. So, maybe I'm just glad for punishment,

but I'm actually gonna give yay to Steve Jobs'

teaser. Dan, did you ever see the Ashton Kutcher

one? I did, yeah. Yeah, it was, Josh Gad was

pretty good. Right. It was fine. It wasn't, it

was honestly, it was, Kutcher did a better job

than I expected. Right. But, yeah, for this one,

I... I'm hopeful and see how it can be a you

know as Michael Fassbender's on my fantasy team

I hope he does amazingly well and wins an Oscar

there you go it's interesting because that movie's

gone through so many different directors and

and whatnot and I know those people are wondering

if it was even coming out this year so I'm curious

and hopeful but uh I was actually I kind of I

thought when they released like it was like a

promotional poster of Fassbender like uh like

in like an old like apple ad and i kind of bought

in then so i think he could do it it does seem

like fast friends are such a huge presence he's

such a like a in jobs is such like more much

in you know uh more you know uh undersold and

stuff so i wonder if it does seem like it it

doesn't seem like it fits his personality per

se but could be just a chance for him to do something

new right in that You always take risk if you're

going to doubt on Fassbender. So I think this

could be something that could be pretty impressive,

actually, if he pulls it off. Like you said,

he's got a pretty big presence, pretty big charisma

behind him. And is he going to be able to pull

off a very much more kind of behind -the -scenes

character like Steve Jobs? So I think it's going

to be interesting to see how it all plays out.

But I'm hoping that it will be better than the

other one. And like I said, I'm just more interested

in how they tell this tale and what. what angles

they go for compared to the other ones. It's

more of an intrigue just from the storyline standpoint

and not necessarily if it's going to be a good

movie or not. But I'm going to give a yay to

that one. There's some other trailers that will

be on the website as well. I know everybody is

dying to see the trailer for the second Maze

Runner film. Looks better than Virgin and Surgeon.

I actually will somewhat agree with that. I think

it looks way more legit. At least it's interesting.

I don't know what's gonna happen in it whereas

the other ones I feel like I've already seen

that story three three or four times But I don't

know if you want to you want to talk about the

scorched trials trailer or watch it. It'll be

there There's a couple other ones as well on

On the website so we're gonna take a quick break

And we will be right back to give you a rundown

of what we've been watching before we get into

our main review Of course of Mad Max Fury Road

so stick with us. We'll be right back On the

simplistic reviews podcast we talk movies We

talk TV We talk trying to make our spot sound

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All right, thanks for sticking with us. Like

we said, it's time for us to break down what

we've been watching, and it's been a while since

Dan has been on the show, so it's the theme of

the episode. We're letting Dan go first on all

things. So Dan, what's one of the things you've

seen over the last little bit or that you haven't

had a chance to talk about on air? Yeah, I've

not been here for a long time yet. I haven't

seen very little, unfortunately. I did get a

chance to catch up with two 2015 movies, and

I know you guys have talked about these already

on the podcast. But I've been interested to hear

what your take is on them, so I'm all ears. I'll

start first with Kingsman. The movie came out

earlier this year. directed by Matthew Vaughn

and the guy who brought his kick ass in X -Men

First Class. And I was highly looking forward

to this. I just didn't get a chance to see it

in theaters and was finally glad to check it

out. And I know there was, I guess, overall positive

reviews and I ended up really enjoying it myself.

Only thing like I didn't really, was not a huge

fan of was Samuel L. Jackson's take. I just thought

the character of the Lisp got a little bit...

Got a little much by the end. I was like, I don't

know if I needed that choice, but uh, that was

a lot of fun I thought it did hit that humor.

Well And it definitely could tell it comes from

a Mark Millar comic just based upon its gratuitousness

and it's like high violence level I did think

at times I wondered if it was maybe going a little

too far I know that the notorious church scene

has turned a lot of people off or it's you know,

people loved it per se and it was Not what I

was expecting because I heard a lot of people

talking about the church scene I'm like, what

exactly is this and then I came on I'm like,

whoa, that is that is a lot of people dying I

don't think anybody was ready for that scene

unless you've had the whole movie told you or

spoiled. But you're right, a lot of people have

either liked that or hated that or that served

as a turning point for a lot of people. Either

they loved the rest of the film or they hated

the rest of the film after that. I know Brendan

from In Session Film absolutely hated the church

scene if I remember correctly. Did you think

it took a took a turn downward from there on

or did you did you I would say I like the training

sequences stuff more I didn't necessarily think

it It it was It degraded itself too far. I thought

it I still enjoyed what came after I just I felt

like I guess I just like the training sequences

more and like what they were doing and It felt

like the I guess the issue with it became like

I didn't I wasn't a huge fan of Samuel Jackson

but the villain character as a whole so it it

when he became more of a focal point in his like

app that he was trying to come i just i thought

i wasn't as interested in that and just i was

more interested in in the story of the main character

and even like his relationship with his like

his father and his mom or not his father but

his like you know pseudo stepdad and his mom

i kind of like that story a little bit More I

almost feel like you could have this story without

like the the Samuel L. Jackson character might

even even a little bit better But I still I still

thought it was a lot of fun. I thought the action

was well choreographed and I mean some of the

pop cultural not pop culture but like the meta

references to like James Bond and and why not

we're at there sometimes I thought okay. I don't

necessarily think you needed there, but I thought

it was Apped for what they were doing Right,

so I thought it made sense and Yeah, I'm looking

I mean I hope I don't know if they're doing I

think they are doing a sequel right? I think

that was enough. I believe so. I'd be curious

to see more and I thought it was one so I'm actually

gonna agree with you on just about everything

you said mainly the main two things which I kind

of said when we reviewed it as well was I too

like you could have could have dealt with some

longer training sequences or Even if they weren't

extended just some more of them because it seemed

like it you know that they started to tease that

a little bit they went through a few of them

and then all of a sudden we jumped way ahead

and I was enjoying them too much so I actually

would prefer like you to have see more of that

part of the film and I can definitely see what

you're talking about with Samuel L Jackson's

character I get that maybe you know what they

were doing and why they did it but the question

for me became it was taking me at times out of

the film a little bit it was a little distracting

to listen to him. Whether you agree with them

going for that angle or not is besides the point.

Not even just the lisp. I always thought what

he was doing just seemed a little bit... It was

almost as good as the villain plot from Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles last year. Kind of. I get

that it was meant to be kind of ridiculous to

go along with the Roger Moore type of James Bond

villains which had ridiculously moronic plots

for taking over the world. I felt like it was

trying to do that a little bit too much and went

the obvious route of like... using technology,

I think maybe they could have done something

a little bit more creative. I gotta ask if you

had, because there was a specific part that Amanda

really, she loved 99 % of this film I believe,

I'm not trying to speak for her, but she had

a big problem with one scene towards the end,

so what was your reaction to the jail cell sequence

that they did? with the boy and the queen or

the princess or whatever. Oh, like the last shot,

basically? No, well, yeah, just the boy. The

whole motivation, the promise of something of

that nature can motivate somebody to now save

the world and then they have to show that last

scene. I could have done without that hole. Yeah,

I don't necessarily, yeah, that definitely felt

like a Mark Millar joke, like just kind of going

for just the gratuitousness. I, yeah, I didn't,

I didn't, it didn't like... turned my stomach

or anything like that it just felt it was kind

of juvenile um and it did seem kind of just like

a ever a little bit far -fetched like it is very

uh like that seems unnecessary and uh don't think

you need to go all the way with it i kind of

you kind of subtlety can go a long way you know

and uh right had none but you didn't take advantage

of that Yeah, like, I'm kind of the same way.

It didn't necessarily negatively affect my viewpoint

of it, but I can kind of see, you know, why someone

would have a problem with that scene. It didn't

affect me one way or the other. I know some people

probably loved it. Okay, put it in the middle

of the movie about something else not as important.

Okay. It was more because you were saving the

world because of it. Yeah. It just seemed kind

of like, yeah, I mean, I know... Going like again

like speaking with the Roger Moore stuff like

Roger Moore's era had like was notorious for

their their puns and they're like they're Innuendo

and that wasn't Innuendo that was blatantly just

saying Maybe just a tad bit more Innuendo and

a little bit less This is exactly what we're

doing. So Right. All right. So we got to ask

you then Dan now that you've seen Kingsman What

would you give a final score and just so everyone's

aware like I said, we're doing everything fresh

and new today All new look and everything so

we're gonna change our grading scale. We're gonna

take a page out of the true romance Playbook

we're gonna switch our skills I've been talking

about it kind of for the last couple weeks about

how it's hard for me to wrap my head around a

one through five Scale so we're gonna go full

-on one through ten so Dan Kingsman What score

out of ten I would go probably like seven Seven

like, you know, it's solid, you know, it's it's

not groundbreaking by any means or I think it's

not nearly It's, you know, middle of the road

for Matthew Vaughn, and I think I like Kick Ass

more, and I still, I mean, I love First Class.

It's probably my favorite film of his, so I think

Seven is my overall goal, score, right? Excellent.

That's definitely a good score for that, and

I think we were pretty much in agreement for

the most part when we did our original look at

that. So we'll go next with a film that both

of us saw, and then we'll give you a chance to

talk about your other one. So... We both actually

had a chance to see, we'll start with the oldest

thing we saw, which I believe would be the first

Hellboy. I had never seen Hellboy. It had just

been one of those things where I just never could

get interested in. It's almost like The Incredible

Hulk or Superman. It just takes a lot more for

me to get interested in those things compared

to like Spider -Man or Batman or X -Men and that

type of stuff. But I don't know, Hellboy just

from the images. I wasn't interested, but I actually

enjoyed this film. I got kind of wrapped up into

it. We started watching it and we had to pause

it or stop it at one point and I was actually

looking forward to continuing it on and seeing

what happened with this. I don't like you to

kind of use the phrase that Kingsman wasn't necessarily

groundbreaking or earth shattering or anything

like that. I don't think Hellboy is either, but

I think if you're a fan of superhero films or

if you're a fan of comic book films or if you're

a fan of Gizmo, then... then this is definitely

something you should check out if you're... I'm

probably the only one that hasn't seen it. But

if there is someone else out there that hasn't

seen it, if you like any of that stuff, you should

watch it, because I think it is enjoyable. Gizmo

as in Guillermo de Toro. Yeah, because I can't

say that name. Thanks for pointing that out.

Not from the Gremlins. Not Gizmo from the Gremlins.

But, yeah, I enjoyed Hellboy more than I thought

I would. I enjoyed it enough to check out the

second one at some point here. But, I don't know,

like... I don't know if I'd put it on, like I

said, on the grounds of a lot of the other comic

book films we've seen, but so I'd probably be

closer to like a 6 out of 10, which is still

a positive, slightly above average. I'd probably

go right around 6 for me. But you love Hellboy,

so what would you give it? I'd give it probably

a 7 .5, not too much higher than you. I think

it's really solid. I like the look of Hellboy.

I don't think he's too cheesy. He's pretty cheesy,

but not that cheesy. Ron Perlman, awesome in

anything, and he's in everything. I think, actually,

my favorite character was Aquaman. Aquaman? Abe

Sapien? Yeah, Abe Sapien. That was my favorite

character. I liked that guy. He was hanging upside

down most of the movie, so that was fun to watch.

I think it's really visually striking in some

places, and I do like the little creatures that

pop up, and I liked it. Yeah, I think they did

well with a lot of the creatures and the monsters.

It was a fun watch. It's a good storyline. It's

not been done before. Dan, you've seen Hellboy,

I take it? Yeah, I have. You like it or dislike

it? I like it. I remember just not being a huge

fan of the ending. I felt like the climactic

battle was kind of a letdown. really enjoy the

second one actually a lot more. Okay, so now

I'm even more interested to see the second one.

I tried to get him to watch it last night, but

he didn't want to, so I stayed up and watched

it without... I've seen it plenty of times, but

I like... She literally left the bedroom to go

watch it. on her own while I slept. So that's

interesting. Dan, what else did you get a chance

to see? The only thing I saw was another 2015

film that I caught up with and another one that's

kind of, I think this was a little bit more polarizing

I would say and that's Chappy. I get to see Chappy

and you know from Neil Bromkamp, the guy who

brought us District 9 and... Elysium, and I was

highly anticipating this movie. Mostly because

Hugh Jackman is in the fantasy league, so I was

hoping for the best for it. I kind of capped

a bit on that one. Are you saying he's not the

best part of the movie? I'm saying that with

not making a lot of money and doing poorly critically,

it's gonna hurt me. So, Chappie is intriguing.

There's some stuff I really, really like about

it. Like, I love the character of Chappy. I find,

like, his, you know, the Charles C. Copley's,

like, portrayal of him and kind of, like, his

progression a lot of fun. Like, you know, the

idea of, like, an infant, like, an AI is an infant

and it kind of progressing and seeing that adjustment

throughout. I thought that was an intriguing

idea. I just feel like... I wanted I felt like

underwhelmed. It was like the the key that it

kind of like especially I felt like they didn't

go as far as I was hoping with with the idea

of artificial intelligence and and Neil Blomkamp

I think is like a great at tracking action and

he has a lot of intriguing visuals and for this

one I thought there were times what was good

but it just other for the most part it didn't

it didn't have those wow moments I was expecting

for someone like him. Maybe I just my expectations

are too high. and like I thought like Hugh Jackman

I thought it'd be fun to see him in like a villain

type role and he was just his character just

to me seemed kind of a little bit ridiculous

and there were a lot of like logical issues I

had just with things going on I did say like

I heard a lot of people who didn't like the the

n -word people I think I think I said their name

wrong I don't even know ninja yeah ninja and

the one girl and I like Yolande there you go

and I know like people like other people thought

their acting was awful. And I didn't think, I

thought they were fine. They're not fantastic.

But honestly, like if I didn't know going into

it, I would have thought they were just general

actors. Like I would never thought they were

unprofessional actors. I thought like those characters,

they felt like they were playing characters.

And I don't know much about their actual music,

but I... I assume that's not like they are in

real life. Maybe it is. So they are. They're

totally like that. Are they? That scares me a

great deal. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I wasn't thrown

off by them at all. And obviously, I wrote a

somewhat opinionated review about this one, because

the thing I had a problem with when this came

out was people... I just thought they were being

too hard on it. And I'm not saying it's the best

film of the year or anything, but I just think

people were crapping on this film a little too

violently and calling it the worst film of the

year and this type of stuff. And I just didn't

see that same issue. I really enjoyed the Chappie

character. We actually quote Chappie at least

once every three days. So we at least got that

out of it. She does a perfect I Am Chappie thing.

Eww, I tried to put her on the spot. Like you

I would have liked to have seen more of that

and even if it was more of just the angle between

Patel's character and Chappie In relation to

ninja and Yolande in that group I think that

would have been fine and we could have got a

good enough movie out of that I don't think we

even needed Hugh Jackman's character. Yeah, and

I really wish there was like the whole like,

you know maker of the Patel Character I feel

like he just went away too much and I thought

like right there was it Don't know. I felt like

there was a movie that was like never could get

its complete footing at times like I felt like

it was Like getting to something it was like

oh, okay We're getting to something eventually

and then like Hugh Jackman showed up and with

a gigantic robot and killed everybody Yeah, and

it like mmm that was my like I thought they make

it to more and then the ending itself like where

we get to I just like I mean like I was I don't

know. I felt like I was trying to say something,

but I don't know if it did end up saying anything

or I just didn't. I wasn't picking it up. I just

for me, that was so like, you know, obviously

probably based and so, you know, trying within

like the idea of artificial intelligence. I don't

know if it really did anything, if it really

used that to. thematically in any way. I just

felt like it was just a means to an end. Not

much resonated from that, really. But like I

said, I did really like the character of Champy

himself and the overall idea of a robot as a

baby basically kind of growing and reflecting

from humanity and stuff like that. You don't

think that is thing! And I thought there were

some legitimately funny moments. Yeah, I just

questioned the fact that we have this high -tech

facility with top secret and very important technology,

and it just seemed like anybody could get in

that place. There was no security measures. You

have literally robot police, and yeah, nothing.

It's like anybody can walk in this place. You

can take the chip out. You can walk in. You can

even just borrow this for a day, take it home

at night. If you're Hugh Jackman, you can bring

in your side arm to your cubicle. Yeah, I was

always like part of me wondered too is that if

there are certain cultural things with them being

being so based in South Africa if there are certain

things that like implications I was missing yeah

like with him being bringing a gun to work and

like is that like a thing they can do? Everyone

that watched it there had no problems with that

part. If you wear those shorts, you can bring

your gun. Those shorts and that haircut. Get

it. Alright, Dan, what about a score for Chappie?

Man, that's tough. Part of me is like 5 or 6,

so I'll probably say like 5 .5. Like I said,

there are things I liked, but overall I just

was not... I felt like it was a step down compared

to even Elysium, which I had issues with, but

I thought visually I found it was a little bit

more interesting. Yeah, and I think we've been

pretty much on on par with all of all of our

Blomkamp stuff so far I think you like maybe

district 9 a tiny bit more than I did But we

were pretty much in line with Elysium and I'm

pretty much with you on this one I I don't think

it's the worst film that we that you know has

been made over the last year, too I agree with

you feel like like they got a lot of hate and

I I mean I could see some of the issues but I

don't know like the I Don't know. I felt like

it was just piling on. I don't know if I was

just I think someone said it, I can't remember

who said it, but somebody said it right and I

listened to podcasts over the course of the year,

I get them all mixed up, but I think what they

said is the reason it was getting so much hate

is because too many people went in not just expecting

it to be a different movie, but just wanting

it too badly to be... Something that it was never

trying to be like they wanted like they wanted

district 9 or they wanted something like in that

exact vein And I just think that was hard for

them to to come to terms with the fact that that's

not what was intended Yeah, like it's not I don't

think it's ever it ever desired to be a serious

movie I think people thought it was gonna be

but it I think it was it was more tongue -in

-cheek than I expected well, then maybe people

expected so Okay, well we'll get into one because

I've been waiting for a few weeks or maybe a

month or so to be able to talk about it and It

was good because it almost took that long for

for me to actually watch it. So the homework

you gave me a long time ago which was the Okay,

I'm gonna get the country wrong now Norwegian

Norwegian film headhunters. Yeah, and I would

tell you who it's starring The guy from Game

of Thrones. Yes, we had a Game of Thrones watcher.

Without that, I would have been like, still don't

know anybody in this film. But definitely an

interesting film about, I don't even know how

to sum this up though, about a guy who is living

beyond his means, who is basically stealing art

to help not even make... full payments on places

you can't afford to live isn't the most ridiculous

um i don't say that in a mean way or a bad way

but i'm saying like the thought process behind

someone who can afford like literally stole a

painting spoiler alert um but it happens right

at the beginning but steals a painting that's

worth i can't remember what it was or if it how

it translates to us but it was a lot of money

like to steal that just to make a quarter I think

he said it would pay like a quarter of the year's

rent for the place he was living like it just

is so unfathomable first to see someone else

living like that like you stole that much money

leave that house He was overcompensating. He

was only 5 '6", that's right. But anyways, it's

a story about him. He's stealing art and that

type of thing to help try to, you know, fund

this lifestyle that he can't possibly keep up

with to keep the... I'm gonna call her a trophy

wife because I think that's kind of how he sees

her. Because he's afraid that she'll basically

leave him otherwise without this lifestyle. Which

obviously thematically tells you a lot about

how in touch he is with... with his wife and

with his surroundings that he thinks those types

of things but without trying to get into spoilers

too much obviously stuff happens to the point

where they have a heist planned a big heist planned

and things go awry for multiple different reasons

and there's a lot of action and a lot of bloodshed

that that follows and it almost in a way Dan

I don't know if you got the same vibe or not,

but it had some elements that gave me kind of

reflections back to Gone Girl in a completely

different way. I mean, we're not dealing with

like a wife that's completely off the rails like

Rosamund Pike was in that film, but in a similar

situation where you just find, you know, this

person finds himself completely out of his element.

and trying to do things that, I guess if you

combine Gone Girl with Blue Ruin, where you just

have someone completely out of their element

dealing with people that are acting in completely

psychotic ways up to a point. But I thought it

was an intriguing film. Obviously it's in subtitles,

so some people won't like that, but I didn't

have a problem with that at all. I don't know,

I think I like this a little bit more than you

did, Amanda. Is that correct with that? Only

a little bit more. I don't know, I found it intriguing,

especially the last... I don't know if it was

the last third or the last quarter of the movie,

the last act where he's trying to find a way

out of this situation and make everything right.

I thought that was super clever and intriguing.

I don't know how believable it would be or not,

but... But I don't know, I thought it was an

intriguing film, so I'm glad you gave it to me

as homework. If I myself was scoring out of a

10, I'd probably be right in the seven range,

maybe six and a half, seven for me. I think the

only thing that threw me off was how hideously

unattractive this gentleman was. And there were

some scenes in here that I actually had to almost

turn away. But the worst scene for me that I

actually had to turn away the most is when he's

actually shaving his head. Oh, really? I thought

it would be like the Porter Potty scene. Oh,

that too. That gave me like bad memories of watching

Holocaust films back in the day. I do question

how any human being could do what he did there

without completely flipping out at first or during

the entire time. Like, to keep that calm in that

situation was ridiculous. But when he's shaving

with no... aid of any types of products and taking

somebody that had long hair for a long time and

just going completely bald like the way he's

doing it just made me shiver. Like that's gonna

hurt, that's gonna burn so bad, stop it. But

yeah, I enjoyed this film. What score would you

give it, Amanda? I know you're not as high as

I was. Based on the fact that everything kind

of came together in the end, I thought it was

pretty cool that... It turns out he was a little

bit smarter than you could see at first with

his decisions. Right. I thought that was pretty

cool, so I think that bumped it up a little bit

for me, but I'm probably at a five. Okay. And

I do like that there was even some details that

you might not have even paid attention to as

you're watching the film that come back to be

important details. So I thought, like you said,

there's some clever ways to do that. So five

from you, and like I said, I'm probably at a

six and a half, seven from me. We have just a

couple other ones we'll talk about real quick.

We'll try not to go too much in depth because

a couple of them are 2015 films that we don't

want to necessarily spoil. The one film that

wasn't 2015 that we got a chance to catch up

with finally was the movie Selma from late last

year. That was probably one of the last ones

on my list of shame for 2014 that I hadn't got

to yet. Being the history person and kind of

being in that world for years, teaching that

same time period and that type of stuff, I really,

really enjoyed it. I knew, I kind of had a feeling

I would enjoy this film. It would definitely

be in my top 10 for 2014. I have to completely

revisit that list now that I've seen everything.

So I don't know where it would fall, but it would

definitely be in my top 10 for 2014. I thought

amazing performances, especially from Chadwick

Boseman. I got the right person, right? That

is Chadwick Boseman, right? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah Which one you talked about the guy who played?

I'm sorry. No, no, not Chadwick Boseman. Denny

O 'Yellow. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah I can't say his

name either because it's O 'Yellow. Oh, yes.

I said it right. Excuse me. He I thought he was

phenomenal I don't know if you could have possibly

found someone Better to cast as Martin Luther

King I thought that was nice. And this has been

talked about a lot, so I don't want to go too

far in depth to it. But just the fact that they're

not necessarily portraying him as this saint,

they're not necessarily portraying him as someone

who had all the answers. They're showing a little

bit of the underside, the not so pretty parts

of his life. And I, too, appreciate, like a lot

of people said, that they're not trying to focus

on his entire life. They're taking just one segment.

And I thought that was a good choice by them.

So I think this should have got a little bit

more love when it came Oscar season. I think

the snubs definitely, I would agree with that

now in retrospect. So really high on Selma myself,

I'd probably put this one at probably an eight

out of 10. Eight, eight and a half, somewhere

in there for me. You liked it more than you thought

you were going to, didn't you? Two words, the

feels, definitely. That's what I got out of this

movie. I cried. She got the feels. Yeah. It was

really touching and moving and I'm glad that,

like he said, that they made him look like a

real person and not just the sainted man who

had, you know, all the answers and stayed on

the right path all the time. So I like that.

I think I'd give it probably like a 7. I think

I also like the connections they made to the

other movements that were going on back then

because I think too many times the conversation

or films that are dealing with civil rights act

like these all were happening in a vacuum. if

it's a movie focusing on the Malcolm X side of

things or the Martin Luther King side of things.

Sometimes they try to make it seem like that's

all that was happening in the country when you

had all these different factions. You had people

that thought it should be done this way or people

that should... He's competing with Malcolm X.

He's competing with some of the youth organizers.

And I like the way that the movie kind of portrayed

that all of this is happening simultaneously.

It's not something that was just this street

and just that street that were fully separated

from each other. So really enjoyed this film.

Dan, you saw that and you enjoyed Selma too as

well, right? Yeah, I did. I liked how one thing

that stood out to me was how they talked about

how the importance of media was for their movement

and how they broke that down and how the... Please

screwing up basically was key for them be being

successful So I thought that was that like I

enjoyed that scene and like you said the the

acting and whatnot was it was all pretty phenomenal

even Oprah I thought what did a really good job.

So yes, she can take a hit But yeah, I like that

like you said this straight Inside look at the

strategy that's going on to it all the different

meetings and that kind of the the you know Even

when they're all just around not necessarily

in a meeting But you know there's one scene where

they're just sitting around a house and they're

all kind of bounced off ideas it And you know

what's the most important thing and why this

won't work and why you have to focus on this

aspect instead of this aspect I thought some

of that was really intriguing so Yeah rave review

for Selma, and then we'll just kind of briefly

touch on a couple 2015 films because we got to

at least give our scores out there. We're not

gonna Like I said, I'm not going to try to spoil

anything, but we did get a chance to catch up

with Maps to the Stars. Good Lord. I had to because

my girl, Julianne Moore, on my fantasy team,

who I accidentally took way late in the draft

by mistake because she was in 7th Sun and Maps

to the Stars. But I had to catch up with that.

And I know JD gave a pretty favorable review,

I believe, on In Session. And I'm not seeing

it. This is bizarre. This is a film from David

Cronenberg about kind of the Hollywood lifestyle,

I guess, and the darker side of being involved

in, you know, Hollywood and the movie world and

that type of thing. But I don't know. This was

just too bizarre for me. And Rob Henson basically

being the same character that he was in Rover.

You know what I mean? hardly saying anything.

You don't know if he's intelligent or if he's

not. He didn't sing in the car. But I don't know.

I can't recommend Maps to the Stars. Maybe I

should like it more as someone who likes film

because he does have a lot of commentary on film

and casting. kind of the behind the scenes type

of stuff, but I just think it was a little bit

too extreme in a lot of the examples it was trying

to make, and I just couldn't get behind any of

the characters. There literally is not... My

major problem, and what I said to Amanda right

after we watched it, was I have a problem with

a movie if I cannot find one single character

that has one redeeming quality. It is literally

about... 10 even the side characters you could

you could take like the the 10 characters that

get the most screen time and Every single one

of them is void of any type of redeemable quality

Carrie Fisher Carrie Fisher makes an appearance

that would make anybody that has not seen Carrie

Fisher since Star Wars probably Have a heart

attack. She looked more like job of the hut It

was not a good time. It's another rare appearance.

Tim, for first time watchers, drafted all these

Star Wars and Avengers actors on his team, and

we expected all of them just to have one film,

but we've already had Mark Hamill show up in

Kingsman. We've had Carrie Fisher show up in

Maps to the Stars. Obviously Harrison Ford was

in Age of Adeline, so he's getting more appearances

than he should have. That wasn't worth it for

the two minutes that Carrie Fisher was in there

for him to get points for that. If I was rating

this one on a scale of 1 through 10, I would

probably sit somewhere in the 3 to 4 range on

this one. I'd guess maybe a 4. What do you say?

I'd give it a 1 .5. 1 .5, a rating review from

Amanda for Maps to the Stars. And then the other

one that we... I wasn't expecting to see this

many films, but this one came up on on -demand

and I didn't realize it was going to be here

already. So we had to... take the chance to watch

Slow West starring your boy Michael Fassbender

and again I know this just got released on video

or on demand and to some of those types of services

so I'm not going to talk much about this at all

because I know a lot of people are looking forward

to this. I have mixed feelings on Slow West.

I like parts of it a lot and I have some issues

with other parts. They definitely titled the

movie correctly. It is slow out there in the

West. Pacing may be somewhat problematic for

me, but I know a lot of people that doesn't bother.

And it wasn't the fact that it was a little bit

slow at times, especially towards the first half.

I think my major problem is that the slow times

weren't involving characters that I cared about

enough. I guess I'm just not a fan of Cody Smith

McVie. who is the boy that Michael Fassbender

happens upon. And I think if it was somebody

else playing that role that had maybe more to

offer for me, more appeal or more charisma or

something, maybe I wouldn't have had as big of

a problem with the slower parts. Michael Fassbender

plays a good role. I wish he would have even

been and had more to do maybe. But there's definitely

some interesting things. It's a very crisp, very

visually stunning look at the West. I think they

did, it seemed like my TV advanced somehow. I

don't know what number my thing is. I don't know

if it's 1080p or whatever it is, but I feel like

it jumped a couple hundred when this movie came

on. It was just super clear and super good to

look at from a visual standpoint. I like Michael

Fassbender's character. I do like some of the

things that they're saying about the West. For

me, there wasn't enough to chew on. I would have

liked even more to kind of digest and more to

think about from a thematic standpoint. I do

think there's some cool sequences. There's a

cool thing they do towards the end of the film

that I'm not going to say or not going to go

into, but just from a shot standpoint that I

thought was very kind of interesting and unique.

I'm torn on this one. You like this one better

than some of the other stuff we watch. Where

do you sit on a grade for this one? I would probably

give it a 5 .56 maybe. Yeah, and I think I'm

right in the same boat. I think I'd give this

one like a 6 out of 10. It was slightly disappointing

because I was really looking forward to this

one. I thought I would be a little bit higher

on it, but it's not a bad movie, so I'm still

going to give it a 6 out of 10. I was waiting

for some more cool gunslinger shots or something

like that. There is some cool gunslinger shots,

but I don't know. I don't have a problem with

any of the actual things that happen. I just

wish there was something more to think about,

something more to... some type of commentary

they were having more than what they did. And

maybe that's just me wanting something that they

weren't even trying to do. But I feel like they

were. With some of the narration that goes on,

they were trying to give some type of commentary

about life in the West and what not, which I

think they do to a somewhat of success, but I

just, like I said, I would have liked something

more to it. I just felt like I didn't quite get

as much as I wanted. So that means all that's

left is our main attraction, which will be Mad

Max Fury Road. But before we get to that, we're

going to give Dan a chance to attend to his new

fatherly duties of attending to his newborn son.

But before we let him go, we've got to revisit,

since we're back together finally, and do some

homework tasks for our next episode. So Dan,

it's the theme of the episode. So you go first.

So what do you got for me? Well, I'm going to,

I guess... Go a completely different route because

I gave you kind of like a foreign action film

I'm gonna not gonna lie. It's just not the most

uplifting movie, but I think it's quite good

And it's on Netflix currently streaming and small

indie film definitely One that kind of flew under

the not necessarily the radar for a lot of people

I would say and that's short turn 12 Okay, it's

about basically these people who run a home for

suicidal tween teens. I think it's quite good,

so I've been curious to hear what you guys think

about it. Okay, absolutely. We will definitely

search that out and watch that for the next time.

I have one that hopefully I haven't checked to

see if it's available on Netflix or Redbox or

what. So if you go searching for it and you're

not able to find it, I can give you a different

assignment. But I've been curious about this

one since we did our top 10 of that year. pretty

sure last time I checked that you had not seen

it, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it made my

top 10 back in 2013, I wanna say. Hopefully I'm

not getting the year wrong, but that would be

the film entitled The Book Thief. And you did

not see that, right? I have yet to see that,

no. Okay, I think it's one of those films that

I'm pretty sure I'm like. the sole fan of. I

have like probably a half dozen films that I

champion that no one has ever even seen or no

one likes so I won't be surprised if I'm kind

of on an island here but I would like to see

your take on it just to see maybe what I'm missing

that was negative about this film because I'm

not hearing enough praise so I'm guessing I'm

missing something that's bad about this film

so hopefully you can educate me on that. But

I'm pretty sure it was 2013 that it made my top

10, and I think it was even in my top five. I

think it's on Showtime or HBO On Demand, so I'll

have to take a look. Perfect. All right. So I'd

be interested to see your take on that. So those

are the homework assignments for next time. And

then, like I said, we're going to let Dan...

go to more important duties than talking movies

with us for now. But it's been great having you

back here for the new reveal of the new show,

the new name, the new logo, everything is new.

So hopefully people will enjoy hearing your movie

thoughts and we'll get to talk more movies coming

up. We do have a quick teaser that we do have

continuing our look at the half decade so far,

the 2010 through 2014. We do have some more episodes

of that coming up, so don't think that we've

forgotten about that. We've already given you

our top 10 fantasy, sci -fi films and our top

10 superhero films. So next up on the list will

be our top 10 animated films for the first half

of the decade. So definitely look forward to

talking about that. Dan, is your list already

good to go? I have like two films I need to catch

up on and then I think I'll be good. Alright,

so that'll be coming your guys away, so that'll

be next up in that run. Anything, Dan, that you

want to leave us with before you take off? No,

I got nothing. Are you seeing Poltergeist or

Tomorrowland? I'm hoping to see Slowest and maybe

Maggie. I'm gonna be championing Odd Demands

as of late. I might go to the drive -in. We'll

see how that goes. We'll see. Alright, we'll

look forward to whatever you see, whether it's

2015 in the theater on demand or just the homework.

So we'll talk to you next time. Talk to you guys

later. Alright, that means there is only one

film left to talk about and that would be, of

course, our main attraction this week. which

is our conclusion of our Mad Max marathon. We

started way back with the original Mad Max, then

we gave you an episode with the Road Warrior,

last week we gave you our thoughts on Beyond

Thunderdome, and now to conclude that, we jump

all the way here to present day where we can

talk about Mad Max Fury Road. So, Amanda, first,

before you went to the movie... gauge your level

of excitement for Mad Max Fury Road? Because

some people have been freaking out. We may or

may not know a fellow podcaster that was counting

down the days to Mad Max for at least it seemed

like 100 days. So we've got at least 100 different

tweets that said it's 76 days till Mad Max, it's

75. I know you're not that scale, but what was

your level of excitement before going into the

theater for Mad Max Fury Road? Were you interested,

intrigued, you didn't care? What was it? I was

pretty stoked. Just seeing the trailers really

got me hyped up for it. Seeing the crazy, intense

action sequence that was provided in the trailer

definitely had me on board. Okay, I got a question

because we have the secret weapon here at Cinema

Geeks because we have a cinema geekette and none

of the other podcasts have a regular female host

that we listen to. So, I listen to guys talk

about movies all the time. Every day at work

I get to listen to guys talk about movies and

what seems to be a universal truth amongst guys

is that there is what seems to be a true romance

for Tom Hardy. Everybody seems to love Tom Hardy.

Is that a guy thing or do girls like Tom Hardy

too? I don't think Tom Hardy is on my scale super

attractive. Is he good actor? I like him, but

I've seen him in some stuff where he looks pretty

funky. But we already know that your scale of

what's attractive is completely off the charts

because you think I'm attractive. Alright, but

as far as Tom Hardy's movies, you know, and the

different things that you've seen him in, are

you a big fan of him as an actor or you're not

as much as all the guys that we listen to? All

the dudes. Including me. Um, I'm definitely not

hearing in any of my chick circles, oh Tom Hardy,

and you know, I got posters of him in my room.

No, they're not doing that. So I'm not really

sure, but I don't hang out with a whole lot of

chicks. So, um, not sure how that stacks up gender

-wise, but um, I liked him in Inception a lot.

I think that was my favorite role of his. Um,

and - Did you like him as Bane? I thought he

was a little bit, just how he sounded, I could

not. I loved how he sounded. I could not wrap

my head around it. Not all I can think about

though when I hear him is DJ doing the voice.

DJ, you ruined it for me forever. I'm never going

to hear the Bane voice and not think of you.

Thanks a lot for that. Alright, I will say that

my level of excitement was probably a little

bit higher than yours maybe. We're not talking

Star Wars level here because I'm about to start

a countdown for Star Wars and you know We've

only got what 200 days left or something I will

not do the tweet though guys. I will not start

tweeting about Star Wars every day I actually

already follow a Twitter account that gives me

a daily update and it's like 212 days till Star

Wars and then it gives some type of Star Wars

news trivia Article or something so I already

have that so I'm not gonna copy that but I'll

find so I'm not sleeping in the shed But it's

nothing's gonna equal that level of excitement

that I have for that film or the level of excitement

I have Damn, you haters for the minions movie.

I don't care I heard recently heard someone on

the podcast ripping on the minions trailer, and

I that person is dead to me Because I don't care.

I love those little guys Don't comment I was

yawning! There's a few other films that I'm probably

a little bit more excited for than Mad Max, but

it was definitely one of the ones for the year

that I was definitely looking forward to, to

see where they went. It's interesting, given

what we've just been through with the other three

films, and the very loose connections, the loose

timeline, the loose... as far as way, one's more

of a... a post -apocalyptic film as far as in

the vein of Chaos like almost like what you were

talking about with Rover or something like that,

you know with the connections to the road warrior

You get more from the first Mad Max that is almost

in line with Not Robocop, but something more

similar to where you know stuffs falling apart

But it's not there yet and then of course Thunderdome

is all kinds of different craziness and they

went to a completely different route with that

Apparently you and I are in the minority though

with liking Thunderdome More than all the other

films because everybody else likes road warrior

more. There's no our word in it So I'm a big

fan of that. I think that It has a lot more parts

that I found appealing a lot more aspects than

than the other two Yeah, I mean so haters be

damned. We like Thunderdome. So stop hating on

it But obviously if you're trying to compare

Fury Road to any of them, it's going to compare

most with Road Warrior. Very similar as far as,

you know, the action scenes being on the road

with the cars. I mean, obviously that's a theme

in both the first two films. You don't really

get that as much in Thunderdome, but I think

it relates most closely to Road Warrior. And

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

I think that's maybe one of them that had the

most potential. to kind of tell more in that

vein and obviously that's the one that's most

well received. So we know what the excitement

level was going into it. Your first reaction

coming out of the theater, was it positive or

was it negative? I would say it was pretty positive.

I think I was thoroughly entertained and I got

out of the movie what I wanted. Okay. I too was

thinking pretty positive on this one. I don't

have a lot of gripes on this one. I know some

people might have problems with some of the pacing.

Some people might have problems with what the

focus of the movie was and you know obviously

it's built up like you know this is Mad Max and

this is Tom Hardy. Like we're getting Tom Hardy

as Mad Max and we're gonna get a whole film about

that and I think there might have been some people

that were disappointed with the fact that spoiler

alert he's not doesn't come across as really

the person that gets the most screen time. This

isn't a spoiler because it's been said pretty

commonly here that this movie almost seems more

like it's about the Furiosa character than it

is about Mad Max and Charlie's throne obviously

did a pretty darn good job in that role. Were

you disappointed that it focused more on her

than on Max or were you fine with it? I did want

to see more of Tom Hardy as Mad Max. I think

that in the opening scenes I got the feel that

that's what the movie was going to be about and

it kind of took the turn when we were introduced

to Furiosa and I was a little disappointed in

that because I liked where it was going in the

beginning, you know, with him as the center and

seeing things kind of through his eyes in a sense.

Like you said, I think Charlize Theron did a

pretty good job of that, you know, taking those

reins, but that's what I am disappointed in in

this movie. Yeah, and I can kind of see that.

It didn't bother me as much, but I can definitely

see people thinking that maybe the advertising

and maybe the way they thought the movie was

going to go ended up being slightly different.

If we're going to break down some of your favorite

things about the film, things you like, things

that stood out in a positive way, what were some

of the things you liked best about Fury Road?

The vehicles were so badass. I thought those

are really creative and really well done. I think

the guitar player, the war... The blind guitar

guy. Yeah, the war parties, they all have little

drummer boys and things like that and this is

just the larger scale and I really liked it.

I think it was, it reminded me a lot of the opening

to Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I can't remember

which one it is. I can see it being somewhat

of a WTF moment. Yeah, I just said that. For

some people where all of a sudden it happens

and they're like, what is going on? with this

guitar player but I think like you said and like

some other people said it makes sense because

you know it kind of harkens back to any type

of war party where you have that bugle player

you have that drummer you know you have that

flute player whatever it might be you know kind

of leading the charge so I think it makes sense

I mean it does obviously is bombastic but we're

talking about Mad Max everything's over the top

everything's supposed to be crazy what other

things did you like about Furia the most? I like

the direction that it went in to where the how

the earth was was how it was and how sick these

people actually were based on all this you know

fallout and and I liked how they showed that

it was more you know post -apocalyptic than the

others did as far as what really would have happened

if that would have That's something that the

other three films didn't necessarily do as much.

I mean, it sets it up with the opening and closing

narration in some of the early films that we

basically have a loose timeline of things that

have happened. We have a nuclear or some type

of nuclear scale war or bomb or something that

happens. We've seen that through the other ones.

But in Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome, they

never really touch on some of the fallout besides

the fact that We kind of have a desert -like

wasteland that we've been left with. This is

the first time I think that they've actually

done a decent job addressing that there is an

actual, you know, reaction or actual nuclear

fallout. Like there's gonna be some repercussions,

whether it be in the water, whether it be in

the genetics, or something that there's gonna

have some effects. So I think that was a good

touch that they did some of that stuff. I think

one of my favorite things about the film, was

maybe it was just because we had just recently

watched the first three films, but there was

so many nods to those other films. And that's

one thing that I haven't heard a lot of people

talking about on the other podcast is the number

of, of whether it be references, homages, you

know, whatever it is, little winks back to some

of the other films. And I think that's something

that you might get more in like a second watch

where you're actually trying to look look for

him and pinpoint him, but there is a ton of stuff.

And not just the obvious things, obviously the...

The music box. Well, that's one of the more details,

but I'm talking about like obvious from a standpoint

of, you know, having the same actor that was

in, you know, the original trilogy play. To Cutter?

Yeah, having To Cutter be the same actor that

is a... A Mortem Joe? Yeah, so that was a that

was a clever thing like you mentioned the music

box that we see Mel Gibson play with that that

makes it here Obviously, there's some some parallels

with the vehicles and stuff that you see through

that Yeah, but I think there's even some on the

same jacket I believe that that he's wearing

but I think there's some even some more subtle

things that aren't as obvious as you know Oh,

this has a music box and that has a music box

even the the war boys or whatever they call them,

the war pups, you could definitely make connections

to that and the kids from Beyond Thunderdome.

The one kid, the ghost face killer lost boy.

The ghost face killer lost boy that was in Thunderdome

with basically the white face and the black circles

around the eyes because that looked very similar

to what we see in the war pups in this film.

And there's other things too, like take the Master

Blaster from Thunderdome, and then the fact that

you have a little person who is one of the main

people at this kind of, I don't know what you

want to call it, at this oasis, where Immortem

Joe is. Like you have that guy, like... It's

one of his kids, I think. Looking in the telescope

and doing that type of thing. And you could almost

make a connection where he's... Playing the role

of master and then that his his one son who is

for sure a son That has the the problems with

them. That's riding on the war party could be

blaster I mean, I know some of those might be

more stretches, but there's that's just a tip

of the iceberg. There's a lot of other parts

that You can kind of see parallels to Little

subtle winks or some not so so and I kind of

enjoyed seeing those things and kind of being

able to to remember the connections between those

I think one of the main questions that a lot

of people have asked though, going off of the

fact that I got a lot of enjoyment from seeing

those references is, is this a standalone film?

Can this be enjoyed for just what it is? Or do

you really, is it a prerequisite that you have

seen the other films to enjoy this? Because I

think a lot of people have pointed out that the

flashbacks that Tom Hardy's character is having

throughout this film would mean absolutely nothing

to someone who hasn't seen. the previous Mad

Max films. Do you think that this one suffers

a little bit because it requires you to see some

of those films or do you think just some average

person that's never seen those films could walk

into this one and get the same amount of enjoyment?

I think both. I think that you definitely benefit

from seeing the original trilogy just so you

get that backstory and you can know Max a little

bit more what his motives are driven on. And

as far as it being on its own, I think that somebody

not seeing those films before can come in and

glean a good amount of entertainment from it

as well. Because, I mean, those visions, those

flashbacks, whatever you want to call them, I

think they can speak for themselves. Fair enough.

Which kind of transitions into me allowing, or

allowing me to kind of address something that

I was kind of having some conversations with

some people on Twitter, and if you're not following

us on Twitter, you need to do so so you can be

involved in these conversations, Hard Candy Mandy,

Eyes Not Wise, and Optimus Solo. You like that

plug? It did. All right. But one of the conversations

I was having with JD and Brendan from In Session

Film was about the chronology of the Mad Max

franchise. And I didn't want to necessarily address

it to them. right there because it's too hard

to address certain things on Twitter limits without

the Twitter webs without abandoning all sense

of formatting and punctuation and stuff like

that but I brought up that I do have a slight

issue with the timeline here but Not what you

probably think by me saying that because I realized

that the timeline is supposed to be kind of abstract

and These are all kind of their own films and

they all have very loose connections to each

other and there's not none of them are reliant

upon the timeline like You don't really need

to know how much time passes between Mad Max

and Road Warrior or between Road Warrior and

Beyond Thunderdome or where this one fits in

amongst those obviously in In George Miller's

minds there is not a, there is not a timeline

that you have to adhere to. It can all just kind

of be their own stories. And I get it from the

standpoint that if you're saying that, you know,

Mad Max is a legend, it's kind of like this folklore,

this person that's talked about. So these could

all just be kind of offshoots of this legendary

tale. And so they can all go in completely different

ways. He did say, you know, if he had a gun pointed

to his head that this would be taking place after

Thunderdome. And I know a lot of people after

seeing it would say it happened between road

warrior and Thunderdome And I don't think it's

important where it happens. I don't think it

matters where it goes but the reason I have an

issue with it is because I Don't necessarily

it has nothing to do with the movie. This does

not take anything away from Fury Road It doesn't

add or subtract anything from the movie. This

is completely outside of that as a creative mind

I would have problems Coming to terms of the

fact that I do not have a strict idea of when

events happen in my own story like I don't like

the fact that I I don't mind if he doesn't say

if he doesn't say like this is when this happens

and this is when this happens or if he says that

they're all Just offshoots of this folklore,

which he hasn't said. I was just making that

up as a conjecture, but If I'm creating this

person that I've now made four movies on I have

an idea in my head, in all the stories I've written,

the timeline of events. And the fact that he

doesn't even know, and he would say you'd have

to put a gun in my head and then maybe I would

say it came after this one, just seems weird

and bizarre to me from a creative standpoint.

Does he just not care? That's what I'm saying.

Like, is it just not important to him? Or does

he not care? I mean, obviously he's put a lot

of work into this. He's dedicated a lot of years

of his life to make these movies. He's written

this one. I mean, this was a long time in the

works. He's written other ones. He has, you know,

comics that are, you know, prequel, sequel comics

and stuff like that. So it seems like somewhere

in your creative mind, you should have a map,

a guideline, an outline of what's happening when.

I'm not saying you don't need to know, like,

this happened 7 .5 years after this. Like, nobody

needs an exact timeframe, but you should at least

know if it comes after or before events of a

different movie. So that's kind of my problem.

I don't think it takes away from Fury Road, and

I don't think, you know, you need to know when

Fury Road happens, but... I think just trying

to kind of assimilate all the different stuff

you're getting, even if they are all legends,

I would like to be able to play some somewhere.

Like be able to say, you know, whether it's 10

years or 15 years that this is happening after

this or this is happening before this. And I

think there are some spots in the movie where

it does kind of get confusing on the timeline

because you are having, and this is going to

be somewhat of a spoiler alert if you haven't

seen the original Mad Max, I guess, but you're

seeing these flashbacks. That are I assume clearly

intended to be flashbacks to events that happened

in Mel Gibson's Life in the first three Mad Max

films, you know You have him dealing with the

fact that you I mean you you have an arc with

this character You have the fact that he was

a cop. All right, that system was falling apart.

He had a wife and a child All right, that's all

facts and that the wife and the child are killed

Alright, whether it's because of decisions he

makes or whether it's just happenstance, that

happens. And that creates the character that

we get in The Road Warrior where he's kind of

distanced himself, he's become a loner, he's

off doing his own thing as a wanderer, but he

also doesn't have any connections to anybody

or anything to worry about, so he's on his own,

so it kind of makes him a little bit more dangerous

as well. And then that clearly leads up to where

you get in The Thunderdome where he is... kind

of forced into a position where he comes into

contact with kids again. And at first he wants

nothing to do with them, you know, almost the

same as the Pharaoh kid in the Road Warrior where

he's kind of had a couple instances here where

he's been exposed to kids and he's not wanting

anything to do with it. And by the time Thunderdome's

over, he's basically been their savior. He's,

you know, led them all, sacrificed himself in

a way to lead them all to safety, and then it

returns him to this wander state. So when you're

having flashbacks and now all of a sudden the

flashbacks are of a child that's What age would

you put that child at that's in those flashbacks?

Yeah, like six seven eight somewhere in that

time frame, you know first second grade age It

makes you think you know is Is that supposed

to be a flashback to the child that he lost and

how old that child would be now? Is it supposed

to be a flashback to some other child that he

came across along the way that he wasn't able

to save? Is it just in his mind? You know, it's

hard to say because obviously it's all his own

visions and his own flashbacks what you know

and over Whether it's 10 to 20 years that have

happened in this whole time span what could have

happened but Stuff like that. Or if it's his

own standalone film, is that the age that his

child was when it was taken from him? Or, you

know, how does that go? Yeah, so I mean I just

think some of those things, it would be easier

as a viewer to kind of put them all in your place

in your head if it matched up. If that would

have been a flashback to a baby. It would make

complete sense. The babies couldn't say anything.

No, but I mean if it was a flashback to a child

of some sort and they had changed the actual

context of the flashbacks or if it was a flashback

to like a 12 or 15 year old which makes it seem

a little bit more realistic that that much time

has passed but I don't know I just had some issues

with the fact that Not within the movie, but

just the fact that George Miller himself apparently

doesn't know when these events happen And maybe

that's me selling him short. Maybe he does know

and he just doesn't want to say Maybe it's because

he's 70 and he's about to die. So that's why

I made the comment that I do have somewhat problems

with the chronology of this franchise. Not because

it matters to the movies, but just because as

a creative person I would hope that you have

an idea of when stuff happens. Obviously a lot

has been made of the female angle in this film.

Whether it be people hating on the fact that

there's strong females or that it's a female

-led civilization. How I feel about that? As

a female, get over it. It's not a big deal. It's

a chick being a badass. I don't understand why

we don't have more of this. It shouldn't be a

big deal. Yeah, I think that's a... It's like

anytime when you watch your news and they're

making a big deal out of something that's nothing.

If we didn't have a random male chauvinist group

that's trying to cause up a stir, would we even

be talking about it? I don't... When Terminator

came out, did people make a big deal about Sarah

Connor? When Aliens came out, did people make

a big deal about Ripley? That's the right character,

right? Yeah. This just seems bizarre. Only in

our day and age where we're fueled by people

that can make a stink over the internet or over

Twitter or over random messages to message boards

or whatever. Like, gotta stop the future from

happening. Like, this would have never happened.

If this movie came out 15 years ago or 20 years

ago, nobody would be making this stink. So let's

just put that behind us. On the side note, what

did you feel about those woman characters? They

were pretty badass. I think it really tries and

make them out to be super badass, but I felt

like those old ladies were bad the old ladies

Badass, but the wise I feel like they're really

not badass. They're really whiny and I'm like

shut up. I felt Really bad I felt more For the

older mothers or whatever you I don't I think

they were calling the mothers right right um

Those bitches were hardcore. They they were getting

it and I felt more when they died in their death

scenes I did when when splendid died I think

splendid her name was like splendid or whatever

all the names of all the people Cheeto something

cheeto and splendid. It's all different food.

Oh not splendid. Um Yeah, I think they I think

they pulled it off pretty effectively and I don't

think Think it set up a good dynamic there where

you know they had the connection to Furiosa's

character where they somewhat knew at least the

lineage there You know and they were good shots

and they added an element to to the whole thing

Were you surprised at all at I? Guess well another

thing that has come up is did you feel any stakes

in what was going on like did it was there any?

Did you feel anybody was in danger did you feel?

Because some people have said that basically

they couldn't buy into the fact that there was

anything at stake because it just seemed like,

oh, they're going to go here, everything's going

to work out. I mean, there is people that die.

There's multiple characters that die. Did that

help raise the stakes for you, or were you in

the world no matter what? I feel like right from

the get -go you have this feeling of gotta run,

gotta go. There's nowhere in particular that

you really think you're gonna make it to. You

just have to go somewhere. You just have to keep

going. Like his instinct is run. And I do feel

like that drives the movie a little bit. Gotta

keep going. Keep going no matter what. Keep trucking.

And I know that they do have a couple locations

that they're specifically trying to go to, but

You know, as each one comes to pass and the movie

keeps moving along and their direction keeps

moving, I feel like that's what I got out of

it. That's what the stake was. You can't stop

or you're gonna die. Yeah. I didn't have any

problems because I was... I mean, obviously you're

pretty sure that Max is not gonna die. That Mad

Max is not gonna be one of the ones that... succumbs

to this whole journey, but I've had no clue who

else was gonna survive. I didn't know which bad

guys were gonna die or which ones of them might

survive to lead up to a second movie, which one

of the wives or which one of the mothers were

gonna live or die, whether Furiosa was gonna

survive the film or not. I was not necessarily...

buying that all of them would survive or would

not. So I mean, I felt the stakes. I mean, I

would have been completely shocked if Max would

have been killed. But outside of that, I think

I thought everybody was fair game. So I didn't

have a problem getting buying into that part.

I think touching back on the fact that, you know,

with Furiosa being the main storyline of this

movie, I guess you'd say, and the fact that she's

a woman, they make her so... Manly, I mean she

completely emasculates every everybody that she's

around Get the shaved head grease all over her

face You know the mechanical arm. She's she's

not She's not a weak woman character, but she

she doesn't come across as a woman the whole

movie either I think that's that's an important

thing that I I really didn't like either So a

lot of people talked about Furiosa being more

of the centerpiece, maybe, like you said, maybe

needing more Tom Hardy. Matt Hardy, that's a

different person. But overall, between them,

between all the mothers, between the villains,

between one character that we haven't talked

about, Nicholas Holt's character, did you have

a favorite person that you were drawn to during

the film, or a favorite character? I think at

first it was Max, but as he kind of faded...

Into a side character almost I think Nicholas

Holt I was always really interested to see what

was going on with him and his character Yeah,

I seem to be the most The one with the most redeeming

qualities I'd say well I think one of the most

impressive things that this movie pulls off is

it is it is like I said Bombastic might be the

best word to possibly that I can think of to

describe this film and it is action full till

no holes barred crazy ludicrous Futuristic apocalyptic

action like like you said with the guitar guy

on the car with just craziness going on cats

Yeah people with deformities people with mechanical

things people with all kinds of different weaponry

all kinds different vehicles It would have been

easy to be just this fast -paced action thriller

But it's also able to pull off the fact that

there is multiple characters on both sides that

they actually develop somewhat. You get a feeling

for Nicholas Holt's character. You get a feeling

for Furiosa and Mad Max. Obviously those are

the main three characters. But you get feelings

for more than that. You get a feel for some of

the moms that are with Furiosa. You get a feel

for some of the mothers that they meet up with.

And some of the bad characters as well. Joe's

character and... some of the people in that outpost.

Like they do a little bit to kind of give you

a little glimpse into some of those characters.

Now obviously they can't explore all of them

like in depth, but you kind of get like the caricature

of each one. You get like the idea that they

kind of have this personality or they kind of

have this motive or this backstory whether you

know it or not. So I think that was impressive

that with as much action and as much fireworks

as going on that you still had multiple characters

that you could kind of at least see a little

more than just the surface. Like the bullet farmer.

Right. And what was the other one? There was

the bullet farm and then the... Something about

the gas. Was it gas? Gasoline. Gasoline. That

was another nod that we did. Another nod to the

old films. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and even like

the... Yeah, I mean, there's just people all

over the place that you can kind of feel connections

with. And, you know, everybody had their different

arcs. I think maybe most is Nicholas Holt's arc

in this. Obviously, he makes the most changes

from the beginning to the end. But I think, like

I said, that's just another impressive thing

outside of the action. But even if you're just

in it for the action, you're going to be in for

a fun ride. I don't think anyone can deny just

the visceral appeal of the action and the pace

of some of those chase scenes and just kind of

the music and everything behind it. No matter

where you're looking, you're going to be seeing

something. crazy going on I feel. I think a couple

people have brought that up too that this is

going to have some re -watchability because there's

no way you can see everything that goes on with

one viewing. You could watch this movie probably

two, three, four times and still find yourself

seeing things that you hadn't seen before because

there's so much going on in the background, the

foreground, you know, from side to side. whether

you're looking for nods to the old films, whether

you're just looking for details, you know, crazy

costuming or parts of cars or weaponry or whatever,

there is a lot going on. And I think maybe one

of my favorite scenes is in and this is not a

spoiler because it's in the trailer, but the

scene where they're in one of those chases and

the guys are on those long poles that are that

are going back and forth. But even Max at one

point is going back and forth on one of those.

Those were some impressive scenes because it.

It's just crazy that that would even be something

that was going on like some of it and it's clearly

some tried -and -true tactics by some of these

people like they've been in these situations

before and I think that's something that the

original Mad Max films did well too is it wasn't

like this is their first rodeo doing these things

like they've Adapted to their surroundings. Yeah,

they've organized but they've adapted their surroundings

they've they've come up with ways to do certain

things and they have like different tactics and

It's fun to see what those are, whether it be

the Polkats or whether it be whatever. Certain

ways that they shape their cars and they drive

them or whatever it might be, like certain defense

mechanisms and certain attack mechanisms I thought

was very interesting. Anything you didn't like

outside of the fact that you thought maybe a

little bit more time on Tom Hardy's character?

Any negatives that you'd like to bring up to

draw back against the movie? Nothing I could

say without spoilers, I guess. Well, everybody's

seen it by now. We're the last podcast to talk

about it. Um Like I said, I don't really have

much outside of like I said I would have liked

my my creative mind to have a little bit more

of a concept of when stuff happened But that's

just a nitpick on the outside of the movie as

far as the actual movie goes I don't really know

if I have much of a nitpick I think there was

a couple times where the pacing got a little

slow in the in the vehicle with Mad Max and and

what was going on like I agree with JD at times,

you know, for that first whole act you don't

really get to hear much from Mad Max due to his

situation and it kind of takes him out of the

movie for a little while. So I mean, I didn't

necessarily have a problem with that, but I thought

there was... The garden tool that was attached

to his face? Yeah, but I thought there was some

pacing within the vehicle as they're on their

run down Fury Road that at times could slow down

a little bit, but I think the action is so fast

paced when it is happening that you almost need

those times to catch your breath. So I don't

really have too many nitpicks. I thought the

baby scene disturbed me quite a bit. The baby

scene was disturbing, and that is for sure. I'm

just glad they did it as subtly as they did,

even though it wasn't so subtle. Yeah, I was

not expecting that to quite happen like that

did. It was a little shocking, but like you,

I'm glad they didn't get to see too much of what

was going on with that. Any last thoughts about

Mad Max Fury Road, or a grade out of 10? Think

touching back on a morning Joe, I think and when

they accordion neck the accordion neck I thought

that was kind of clever look cheesy, but I mean

it was clever I guess I think just seeing the

effects on his body and Him more so than the

others I guess just because it was so Dramatic,

I guess I thought that was a pretty cool touch

to kind of set up What you know his character?

But as far as a grade goes, I think I'll give

it an eight eight out of ten That's a high score

on the Amanda scale unless you're an animated

film. I You know, I had my final thought like

I said Not only is it a fast -paced action film,

not only do you get some characterization that

you don't usually get in some of these summer

blockbusters, but I think, too, there's some

thematic things that were important that it was

touching on, you know, in humanity and the drive

to survive that they have here, and just kind

of some human elements that I'm not going to

get into any of those because I think some of

them would spoil things, but just kind of this

whole journey on survival and trying to basically...

create a new situation, kind of rise up against

the status quo and make a better land for you

and your offspring. I think there was some touching

stuff on that as well. So I think there's multi

-layers to this that can be enjoyed, or you can

just. being in it for the fun ride. And I'm with

you on this one. I think I'll give it the exact

same grade because I don't want to argue with

you about it. So I will say 8 out of 10 for Mad

Max Fury Road 2. Definitely probably going to

top a lot of people's mid -year list here in

the next month when they're recapping the first

half of 2015. I can see this being in the top

3, 2, or 1 for a lot of people. 8 out of 10 for

Mad Max Fury Road. If you disagree or agree with

us, please go to GeekCastRadio .com, find the

episode post, and let us know what you agree,

what you disagree with, as far as our points

that we brought up with Mad Max Fury Road. Or

if you agree or disagree with any of our thoughts

on the other films we talked about, Hellboy or...

Headhunters, or Selma, or Slow West, or Maps

to the Stars, or any of the other things that

we talked about. As far as looking ahead to tomorrow

and the weekend here, like we said, we got Poltergeist,

we got Tomorrowland, or the film I know Amanda's

looking forward to on demand, Human, Centipede

3. Cheese, Louise. No? Chocolate City. Chocolate

City. Chocolate City. Chocolate City. That's

what you're watching, some Chocolate City. Black

Dome Crack. I didn't say that. And then as far

as next Tuesday coming up on Blu -ray releases,

oh my goodness, two of the most huge hits of

the last six months are being released on Combo

Pack. The Loft, starring I believe James Marsden,

or Jason Marsden, or somebody within the last

name Marsden I believe. Or, I know you've been

waiting for it, the Combo Pack for The Seventh

Son. So if you missed Seventh Son in theaters,

You can pick it up on Blu -ray on Tuesday. I

wish that I had missed it in theater so I could

still be excited for it and not as disappointed

as I am. So nothing to buy this week on Blu -ray

unless you want to get a special Orson Welles

set since we've been celebrating an anniversary

of such with him, I guess, this year. So save

your money for Tomorrowland and all the films

that are about to hit your theaters. Don't waste

it on DVDs of The Seventh Son. Just take our

word for it, it's not worth watching. Alright,

next week's question has to deal with, I knew

I could find a way to tie that Star Wars story

back in, but I didn't bring it up in the news

section, but there was a news article about Lawrence

Kasdan, who is one of the main writers for the

original Star Wars trilogy that has been obviously

involved with Episode 7, and he had an article

come out this week that was talking about movie

runtimes, and he was saying how he doesn't understand

why... these summer blockbuster films can't tell

their story in less than three hours, like most

of the Avengers and that type of thing. It seems

like we just keep running longer and longer,

which I don't have a problem with long movies,

but he was making a comment basically that, you

know, you should be able to do your story in

an hour and 30 minutes, hour and 45 minutes,

and why do we have to keep getting longer and

longer with these movie runtimes? So I was interested

as far as a question goes as to what everybody

else thinks about movie runtimes because I don't

really care I don't care if it's an hour and

a half. I don't care if it's three and a half

hours I can sit 15 hours of Lord of the Rings

just fine But maybe everybody else has a different

opinion. So are movie runtimes an issue with

you? And what is the ideal runtime of a film

in your mind? If you're going to the theater,

what is the ideal length that that film is? And

does it change depending on what genre it is?

Anything about movie runtimes. Are they too long?

Are they too short? Or what do you wish they

were more like? And we'll answer those thoughts

with our own thoughts next week. Get a little

feedback from your responses there, and we'll

find out what Amanda thinks about. movie runtimes

and if they should be shorter or longer. I'm

just a glutton for punishment. I don't care if

it's bad or good, I'll sit through a longer one,

preferably. All right, so thanks as always for

joining us here on The Cinema Geeks. You can

contact us in the following ways. You can email

us at feedback at GeekCastRadio .com. You can

visit the... main page there, geekcastradio .com,

and click on our episode post where you can comment

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you can interact with us on Facebook by searching

out Geekcast Radio Network. TFG1 Mike will keep

you updated with every type of podcast that the

network puts out there. So if you're not just

a movie fan, you can keep up to date with stuff

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TV, video games, whatever it is. We always have

something coming out at you each day of the week.

If you want to directly interact with us, You

can do that via Twitter. Yours is? Hard Candy

Mandy with I's, no Y's. If you want to interact

with Dan, obviously his Twitter is at Movie Revolt.

Mine is at Optimus Solo and be on the lookout

because coming soon will be our show Twitter

which will reveal hopefully as soon as I set

it up. So something to do with Cinema Geeks.

So hopefully that's not taken. Alright, that's

it for us. Be sure to check in next week for

your next chance to listen to the Cinema Geeks.