Star Wars This or That Game and Recent Movie Roundup

The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.

Now get out of here. Today on episode 73 of The

Cinema Geeks, we explain where we've been for

the last couple weeks. We take a look back at

what we've been watching during that time. We

preview what's to come for the rest of 2015.

And we get in the spirit with a Star Wars themed

movie game. All that and more coming up on episode

73 with The Cinema Geeks. That's right. It's

episode 73 of the cinema geeks. I am one of your

geeks Optimus solo and joining me as Usual is

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

Not too bad and hard candy Mandy. Hello And it

feels like it's been a while since we've been

together, but not really because we've Three

of us have still been together in the last couple

weeks, just not under the Cinema Geeks banner.

Dan, what have we been doing lately? Talking

a lot of TV, actually. We had some marathon records

there. Oh my God, yeah. It was like doing, even

though I was only doing one podcast, instead

of two, I was still podcasting more. Yeah, so

for those that don't know or aren't subscribed

to the other feeds on the GeekCast Radio Network,

we've actually been... shifting our focus and

giving our skill set to one of the other shows

as we did the top 100 TV shows of all time countdown,

which was a series of, what do we do it in, four

records? Yeah, four records, one more silicone.

Yeah, so we did a series of four records, counting

25 shows at a time. So because we were dedicating

that time to record that, we decided to take

a little break from Cinema Geeks so that we could

have some type of life outside of podcast records.

And those were some two to three, three and a

half hour records. So definitely still. Put the

time in so hopefully if everybody's been checking

that out if you haven't been I would suggest

going to the the geek cast radio main feed there

and Checking out those episodes because it was

a lot of fun counting down all those shows And

we still have one more episode left to put out

with the wrap -up and kind of our thoughts on

the list overall thoughts on shows that missed

the cut and some things like that so we're still

wrapping that up so there's still a chance to

get involved in the conversations on the website

as well because that has been setting records

for the Geekcast Radio network as far as comments

on the actual episode post on the website I think

every single episode broke the 100 mark notwithstanding

the newest one that still has some time to do

that but we definitely had a whole ton of comments

on the website so I was definitely impressed

with that Dan. Yeah it's good to see people reacting

for a variety of different reasons. Right. But

with that kind of wrapping up now, we do have

a chance to get back to movies and back to the

Cinema Geek episodes. So no fear, we're not going

to disappear on you again, especially with the

time of year it is, because there is a whole

bunch of stuff to cover here still with the remaining

days of 2015. And then like you guys know from

our previous year here, we get... into all kinds

of fun things when 2016 rolls around and we'll

be doing a lot of that stuff again so we got

a full slate of stuff here in the next couple

months so it should be fun should be exciting

we're not going to have a whole bunch of uh i

guess what you would say quote -unquote regular

episodes but we have a lot of fun stuff definitely

still planned for the rest of the year so i'm

looking forward to it hopefully you guys are

as well Amanda is drawing pictures of Christmas

trees and distracting me. That will do it for

sure. So just to give you guys a heads up on

what to expect from us for the rest of the year,

kind of more specifics, obviously we still have

some business to take care of with our half decade

list because we have not quite finished those.

So we have a couple of those records still to

do. We're going to be doing our top 10 actors

of the half decade next, which should be fun.

We did the actresses a little while back, so

we still have the actors to take on. And then

we'll be doing our movies of the half decade,

which should round out nicely. the end of the

year and then of course it gets into the end

of the year stuff with the you know best films

of 2015 and then obviously the look ahead to

the films of 2016 and like you guys know from

last year we do stuff like our box office predictions

our most anticipated films we get involved with

some of the Oscar stuff so there's a lot of that

type of thing those types of things to look forward

to and of course there's a one big movie that

will be coming out in between all that which

is the Star Wars the fourth Is that coming out?

Yeah, that is finally coming out. We don't have

to keep doing the countdown. We're ready to go.

So we'll have an episode dedicated to that as

well. And we'll kind of tease that a little bit

in today's episode as we play a Star Wars themed

movie game. Before we get to any of that though,

I'd like to at least give... Amanda, Dan, and

myself a chance to talk about some of the stuff

that maybe we haven't talked about because of

the other records. Dan, what kind of stuff have

you been watching? Pick out a movie or a TV series

or something that you've been doing in the last

month that you'd like to highlight. It's been

a while, so I apologize ahead of time if I don't

have great detail about what I'm going to be

saying because it's been a long time since I

watched these. But I did get a chance to watch

some of these. probably notably would be, if

people remember, this actually came out because

it was in the theaters for like a week and a

half and went back out again. I did see Steve

Jobs when we talked about our... fall preview

of those like number five on my list because

you know those that listen to the tv episode

will know that i'm a big eric sorkin fan and

you know being the writer of that and loving

michael fassbender having him on my team apparently

i have not let him with good luck because it

apparently did not do very well box office wise

uh but i i ended up liking steve jobs it i it

certainly had the dialogue that i expect from

eric sorkin uh in a lot of ways sorkin is great

at Well, he's notable for always having like

all this dialogue and there's always something

in the background they have to do. Like there's

someone like they have to like really trying

to, you know, cram in this like life altering

conversation when there's something five minutes

away. So it's, you had a lot of that, a lot of

like counting down as they're trying to have

all these different speeches, but it's certainly,

you know, an unique structure kind of getting

away from the tarp. Typical biopic where you

had three separate sections each section kind

of falling in different You know events within

Steve Jobs or different release from the first

Macintosh or whatever. I forget the different

computers names It's been a while like I said,

but I liked it My issue was like it was a little

little underwhelming for the most part I thought

that you know, it didn't suffer from a lot of

the typical biopic things, but also I think in

a way If I didn't know who Steve Jobs was going

in, would I have any appreciation for that film?

And I don't know if I would. I think it really

relied on knowing who he was as a person. Michael

Fassbender is fantastic for the most part. I

don't know if I ever bought him as Steve Jobs

per se. I think I never could get... in the mind

that I'm watching a Steve Jobs -like performance,

but it was okay. I was hoping Danny Boyle as

a director would do more with it, but it didn't

really feel like he did much of anything. He

kind of just let Sorghum do his thing, and he

just point and shooted for the most part. It

was a little bit of a letdown, but I would give

it a mild recommend. I think my, because we obviously

saw that as well. I mean, I think it's hard to

not at least comment on or draw comparisons to

the other Steve Jobs film. Originally, they were

both scheduled to come out in the same year.

Obviously, that didn't happen. And I guess my

issue is twofold. Number one, on the positive,

it's a much better film from a technical standpoint.

from a director standpoint, from an acting standpoint,

like as far as like all the metrics that you

would measure a film by, this one's superior

to the Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs film in pretty

much almost every single way. So that's on the

positive. I guess my only drawback would just

be kind of a personal preference is that I prefer

the more of the early day story more of kind

of the Steve Jobs working with Wozniak and kind

of how it all came to be more so than I I don't

find it as maybe As intriguing or as interesting

the stuff that comes later with going from whatever

version of computer to whatever version of computer

as we kind of inch our way towards the iPod etc.

So it's more so just a personal preference of

which part of the story I like better of his

life That's just maybe more because I like more

of the origin stuff and more of the historical

pieces to it But but obviously in time everything

will be part of the the historical aspect of

it I guess so maybe it's just more so because

that's the more recent time is what we got I

did think it was interesting that they did kind

of instead of doing the traditional biopic did

do the the three different Kind of releases of

those items. It was kind of like you're saying

it was kind of interesting though because of

the fact that they'd be like telling him that

there's like, you know, 10 minutes to go or five

minutes until curtains or 15 minutes. And they

would always make a very much point that he didn't

want to be late. He everything had to be on time.

Yet they would have like a half hour to 40 minutes

worth of dialogue. Yeah. What is going on here?

Their time is notions are a little bit different

than I'm used to, I guess, is what the thought

process was. So I think those were my only kind

of little drawbacks was. more of a nitpicky thing

but I think overall it was a it was a good film

I think like you just underwhelming maybe is

the best word but I don't want to make it seem

like it was a bad I think I'm a little bit higher

on it than Amanda yeah because I don't think

she had a lot of fun with it I was so bored But

I still think it was a it was a worthy film and

it's it was better than a lot of stuff that I've

seen this year I think considering the talent

you would just hope for more. I think that's

what it was You know you had Sorkin you had Boyle

you had Fassbender and that's not even to mention

some of the other Cast members who were really

good It just kind of almost left you thinking

that you're gonna get something that maybe blew

your socks off a little bit and said it was just

a good movie So I think the best Aaron's or Steve

Jobs movie is probably fire to Silicon Valley,

which was like a TV movie, which you I don't

know if you saw that But you it it's with like

him and like Bill Gates and kind of goes in that

story You actually might like that because it

does get into a lot of his early early years

stuff Gotcha. Yeah, I'll have to check that out

for sure. I think I watched that in computer

class in school It's pretty I don't know what

I think no no Riley isn't it if I'm not mistaken

I think oh, yeah, please think he plays Steve

Jobs if I forget it's been a while I didn't know

that guy still did anything after. Come on, he's

in The Librarians. Oh, that's right. I forgot.

That's not a figment of my imagination. He's

also in Falling Skies, which is actually an OK

TV show. OK. Bouncing off that, another movie

that we saw that was kind of a little bit further

back, and then we'll kind of work our way maybe

towards some more current stuff. But we saw,

obviously, the latest James Bond film, Inspector.

Now, were you able to catch that one too, Dan?

No, which is unfortunate, because it was my most

anticipated movie. Hopefully going, I have like

three days off next week, so I'm planning a day

at the theater and catching up with some stuff.

If it's still in the theater, I don't know if

it will, but hopefully it will. I think it's

in some of them still. Yeah, so we saw that,

and maybe, I don't know if you want to go first

on that one, but because you had not seen a lot

of James Bond stuff outside of like the... Pierce

Brosnan. Turns out I actually have, but fucking

forgot. So we went to sit down and watch all

the Daniel Craig films that she hadn't seen and

she realized that she had seen most of them.

But we obviously watched these all leading up

to the film, so it was all fresh in your mind.

So how did Spectre kind of stack up without giving

any spoilers away in your mind compared to some

of those other ones? I think that I was really

anticipating this film just like Dan. I wasn't...

Going crazy about it, but then once we watched

those films again it kind of boiled them my anticipation

to the surface and I was really excited to see

this and I was super pumped I was in the theater

the first Opening scene the day of the dead stuff.

I loved all the costumes the makeup the feel

the color The action and plus those little bits

of comedy or whatever you want that they threw

in there I think or great the first 20 minutes

had me I I was super pumped and then it just

I started to get really bored, and I was fighting,

falling asleep, and I kept telling myself, like,

this is Bond. Why am I falling asleep? This is

all this action that's going on, but I just,

I got super bored in the middle, and I just could

not stay awake. I think a lot of people did bring

up some issues with possibly pacing and possible

ebbs and flows as far as the action and the entertainment

factor goes. I actually came out of it Liking

it quite a bit. I think a lot of people were

talking about how they thought Christoph Waltz

was underused But I didn't I didn't really get

that I thought he was He didn't even do anything

subtly cool. I didn't I disagree. I liked the

way they used him and I like I like what he did,

I like the presence that he had, the intimidation

that he had, I liked the... But that was completely

unwarranted, the intimidation, like the fear

level, like, oh, he's such a bad guy, was not

warranted. It reminded me of that scene in Puss

in Boots when Humpty Dumpty was telling Puss

how he had been there in every scene, that creepy

montage of when he would pop up in every one

of those little scenes. That was what reminded

me of it. I did not get that, and I didn't think

we were going to get a Puss in Boots Bond comparison

in this episode, but we've gone there. No, I

like the way that it ties together a lot of the

previous films, and I like the way that it kind

of sets it up as maybe an ongoing villain in

a way, maybe not maybe, it's kind of debatable

how you interpret things, but I think there is

at least some... some thought that maybe there's

more to go with this story in a way and maybe

not maybe it's done and maybe it's because a

lot of people also thought that it was wrapping

up the bow on the daniel craig segment of the

bond film so maybe that is maybe it is the last

one with these characters and maybe that's it

um there is kind of an ambiguity there that i

enjoyed and it kind of leaves it open for them

to to go either route but there is kind of a

uh inkling of an idea of maybe they didn't know

what to do because The Bond franchise is usually

something that there's not definite answers as

far as the future goes With different companies

having rights and who's gonna play who and how

many films they're gonna do So it seemed like

maybe the writers might have been just trying

to hedge their bets and make it so that anything

could happen in the future But overall, I didn't

see a lot of the complaints that a lot of other

people did So I definitely would recommend this

one if you're a fan of the Daniel Craig Bond

films I think it works well with those It's a

little bit of a different tone, maybe, than you

got with Skyfall, but I think it pairs with it

pretty well. So, I would recommend that one.

Dan, anything else that you wanted to bring up?

I did also see, which is, it's not new to theaters,

but it actually just came on Amazon Prime, which

is, I don't know if you guys saw it, but it's

Noah Boblock's first film to come out this year,

While We Were Young. I have not seen that yet.

I've heard a couple of different people talking

about it, but I haven't had a chance to catch

up with that one. What did you think of that?

I'm a pretty big Noah Baumbach fan. I really

like Francis Hall. I love the squid and the whale.

This I would say is pretty, if you like his stuff,

it's... pretty good it's like he also did greenberg

with oh my god ben stiller he did he did with

ben stiller he did greenberg and i i think i

like greenberg a little bit more um honestly

the best part of wilder young might be adam driver

who he's like uh very like kind of likable but

you hate him at the same time like hipster douchebag

like new york it's just uh d i had the premises

with uh ben stiller and um narami watch they're

this couple and they kind of befriend M .N. Seyfried

and Adam Driver who are younger and they kind

of, you know, the ideas of trying to kind of

stay young by being friends in this clash of

different lifestyles and, you know, it's interesting.

It's kind of a... If you're a fan of film because

Ben Stiller plays a documentarian and so is Adam

Driver. I guess it made me feel old because I

tend to decide with Ben Stiller on a lot of these

debates on how things go and how dumb some things

are that people do nowadays. But at the end of

the day, I guess it just felt a little aimless.

It would be my biggest issue. Especially near

the end. The ending kind of... let me left some

to be desired, but I ended up really liking it.

The characters are strong. Actors are overall

really good, but it's worth a watch, like I said.

It's on streaming. It's nowhere near like the

top of the year, anything like that, but it's

a solid choice. I've heard better things about

Mistress of America, which also came out this

year, which I'll hopefully catch up with, but

it's, I think, a good wet -your -appetite type

of film if you're curious about getting into

Noah Baumbach stuff. Okay. Yeah, I've definitely

I'm intrigued by the storyline. I'm not a huge

Ben Stiller fan. So maybe that's why I kind of

I'm not either. I say it's a tone down Ben Stiller.

I think he kind of I'm trying to think of, you

know, those actors, those actors that can be

kind of annoying, but with the right like an

Adam Sandler. But if he's with the right director,

he can be kind of good. I think Noah, Noah Baupack

gets the best out of Ben Stiller, at least for

more of a dramatic standpoint. Let's give that

one a shot then. We also saw one that I know

Amanda was excited about and that was of course

the last witch hunter with Vin Diesel. We didn't

talk about this yet? No. Oh man. So what were

your thoughts on the last witch hunter? My boy.

This was one that I was really really anticipating

this year. I think my biggest downfall is being

too excited for movies, because I go in and I'm

like, this is gonna rock my socks off, it's just

gonna blow my mind, and I get in there like,

it was okay. This is kind of one of those. There

are some really cool aspects. I think visually

this movie is pretty sweet. I really liked how

they used magic and showed magic. Visually, I

guess you want to say. I think that the storyline...

Was kind of weak just saying that but it was

a fun fun turn your brain off movie I would have

liked to see more badassery and ass kickery through

the ages And they just didn't have that it was

like back in the day now you're now you're in

the 21st century There was no in -between and

that's really what I was looking forward to Yeah,

I think there was some stuff that could have

been done slightly better than that. I think

Vin Diesel's actually pretty good in it, which

is something I don't usually say. So, I mean,

I think it's his type of moving. Like you said,

it's a turn your brain off if you like that genre

and just want to have some fun with it. I think

there is some cool visual aspects. I think from

a plot and like a directing standpoint, they

telegraphed a little too many of their... their

choices there and stuff that was supposed to

be somewhat of a shock or i think maybe i'm an

idiot because you saw that coming from a mile

away i'm like it was in the whole time like a

scooby -doo moment yeah i For me, it was telegraphed

a little bit too much, so then when they have

reveals and twists and stuff like that, I'm just

kind of like, eh, okay. So I think it's something,

if you really like that genre and just want to

have some fun with something and not expect too

much, then put it on. But if you're expecting

greatness, you're going to be definitely disappointed

with that. Not as much as you'd be disappointed

by watching The Seventh Son or something like

that, but... Hey, Vin Diesel fans out there,

add it to your queue, I guess. And another one

that we saw that we don't have to spend a whole

lot of time on, because people have talked about

it quite a bit, is Beast of No Nation with the

Netflix original film. And I don't know exactly

what your thoughts on it were. I mean, I know

what a lot of the other people out there's thoughts

were. You know, DJ and Brendan had a pretty good

in -session film where they went into it big

time. and I'm probably very close to their camp

on this film, but what was your overall thoughts

of Beast of No Nation? It was so brutal and heart

-wrenching. I don't know if I can say that I

liked it or enjoyed it. I can say that it was

a good film. I think that I'm glad that I watched

it. It hurt me a lot to watch the movie. There

was so much about it that definitely pulled at

your heart and made you feel for this boy, and

you also got a lot of rage from different things

that are happening, and it's kind of like this

emotional rollercoaster that you're stuck on

for a little while. I think it's an eye -opener

film, and I would recommend it to... not everybody,

but... I enjoyed it, I guess. I can say that.

Dan, this one's available on Netflix, obviously,

as the big deal was. Have you had a chance to

catch up with this one? No, I tried, but even

though my son's only six months old, I was like,

I probably shouldn't have this in the background,

so I stopped watching. Yeah, I think that's a

good call. I really, really enjoyed this film.

Like, this is probably... Near the top for me

or at least in the conversation for me as I'm

trying to come up with the best films of the

year The the performances on it are fantastic.

The directing is fantastic I think maybe for

some people it might be a little bit too intense

and you know especially people that watch movies

for more of an escape and more to kind of get

rid of or go away from the problems of everyday

life. Maybe this isn't a film for you but that

tends to be the types of films I like the most

so it kind of was right up my alley. I know a

lot of people have been raving about performances

especially from the child actors in this and

I do think they're fantastic. I know some people

also said that maybe they're not as believable

or they're a little bit too detached in certain

segments of the film and I think that is discounting

what these children have been through. I mean

it's not a spoiler the topic of this film is

obviously children that are basically being used

as soldiers in an unnamed African country and

I think you have to understand that when you're

exposed to and not that I can speak from personal

experience because I can't at all but you were

never no I was never a warrior when I was seven

years old but you got to try to put yourself

in that place and when you're exposed to those

types of atrocities and forced to do the things

that they're doing at a young age, you are going

to be emotionally detached in general to a lot

of things. You're not going to have the proper

emotional upbringing or evolution of your feelings.

You're not going to have the tool set to deal

with emotions the same way someone can. that

was brought up outside of those types of conditions

so I think the criticism of them not reacting

to certain things or being emotionally detached

in scenes and claiming that that's unrealistic

or or not authentic is a little bit silly but

I think if you can kind of get into terms with

what they've been through and what they are exposed

to then it makes perfect sense and I think the

acting from these child actors is absolutely

fantastic. I'll agree with the people that have

been touting their praise. I think this is definitely

worth a watch for people that don't mind this

topic or this graphic content and the intensity

of it. But if you're someone that doesn't shy

away from that, then this is definitely something

that you should watch. Idris Elba is amazing.

What it could mean? I mean, it could be the first

Netflix movie to Garner some attention. We'll

see but I would definitely go check this one

out. Dan. What else have you been watching? Like

something else I can maybe touch upon are to

actually TV series, but they're worth mentioning

One being Jessica Jones. I don't know if you

guys have watched it at all We have seen the

first two or three episodes so far. Okay. Yeah,

I I've liked it. I actually I finished it my

watched it over Thanksgiving break and I I know

a lot of people saying it's the best thing Marvel's

done. It's getting a lot of praise. I still think

I like Daredevil more, but I think it's quite

good. It's interesting because it's barely a

comic book series. It's barely a superhero series,

really. The Purple Man is one of the best, certainly,

villains that Marvel has had. I mean, these Netflix

series have really been able to... Show what

a good comic villain villain could be because

they can like bring him into the fold But it's

it's I thought it was quite good cast all around

was really strong. I I guess my only my only

Letdown was I felt like it It kind of peaked

early like it peaked about episode 10 and the

ending was a little bit of a letdown not a huge

letdown but I guess I wasn't I was expecting

a little bit more but I ended up really liking

it overall it was intense it was certainly went

in some dark places for a Marvel series most

adult series they've done to this point by far

But I'm really liking what they're doing with

these. I actually more excited for the Netflix

stuff that I am for the movies for the most part,

because I feel like they're really able to kind

of get into some more intriguing places with

these and kind of like the gloves are off and

I'm kind of enjoying it. And the other one real

quick, I've not watched, I only watched the first

two episodes, but it's The Man in High Castle,

which is on Amazon. That is at the top of our

list. Yeah. I've only watched the first two episodes.

I want to watch more, but I haven't got a chance

to. And I watched the pilot last year. and I've

been waiting for this to come back for such a

long time because I really like this idea but

the premise it's Philip K Dick story based upon

a Philip K Dick story so it's for those that

don't know though the idea is that it's kind

of an alternate universe where we lost World

War two and United States has been split up between

the East Coast is controlled by the Nazis West

Coast by Japan and the middle is kind of like

a they call it like you know it's a kind of free

zone basically where You know, it's kind of the

old Wild West in a way and I'm So far, the best

thing about it is the premise. I'm still waiting

for some of the characters to kind of better

develop. The first two episodes are kind of starting.

But the really cool thing, though, is that there

is, like, being Philip K. Dick, there's a little

bit of a science fiction element somewhat. So

you're curious about, like, what exactly is going

on here, more so than you may realize. But I

ended up really liking it, and we're looking

forward to seeing more of it. So I don't know

if I'll finish it by the end of the year, but

I'm hoping. Yeah, those are definitely the probably

the two TV series that are highest on our list

to watch I definitely have enjoyed what we've

seen of Jessica Jones so far even though we're

still very much in the early stages and The other

series is definitely one that we the first time

we both saw the preview for it We were both in

so we're definitely looking forward to seeing

if that lives up to our expectations as well

There's been a few other films that we've seen

so we'll try to hit those real quickly I know

a lot of people have talked at nauseam about

Hunger Games already but Mockingjay 2 obviously

came out did not fare quite as well as some of

the previous Hunger Games did at the box office

at least up to this point and if they don't make

a whole bunch of money in the next couple of

weeks they probably won't so I'm interested to

see Dan eventually when you watch this one where

you fall on it but there's definitely some polarizing

views on this one I didn't expect this to be

as polarizing as It has been, but there's either

people that love this film or people that hate

this film, and I'm not seeing a whole lot of

people in the middle. Amanda, you were a special

guest on the True Bromance film episode that

covered this, so obviously you kind of went into

depth with Barry and Hiro over there, but just

kind of sum up your thoughts overall just as

quickly as you can on Hunger Game Mockingjay

Part 2. Having the bias of a reader of the books...

How many times did you read the books? I think

three. Okay. Maybe the fourth time out of the

way through. Every time a movie was going to

come out, I reread the books in entirety. I think

I always wanted more is what my problem was.

I think that between part one and two of Mockingjay,

I think that Mockingjay part one Dragged ass

and it was a little hollow for me. I was bored

with it Still enjoyed it, but not not my favorite

of the series and then number two I felt like

they cut corners and kind of sped things up too

fast and left some things out that I Really needed

yeah It just seems like from a screenplay standpoint

that this was not planned out well because they

decided to break this into two movies And I know

in the book it splits it a certain part and,

you know, you can either go by that or you...

but you don't have to. And it just seems like

you had two movies to tell this story and they

tried to stretch everything out so much in the

first one and then they tried to jam pack everything

they possibly could into the second one to a

point where they left important stuff out. So

I don't understand what the decision -making

process was to not... Basically, they could have

included about the first 20 minutes to a half

hour of Mockingjay Part 2. into the first Mockingjay

and made it a better film and then not had to

cut corners with what they did in the second

film. You're agreeing with that, right? So I

mean, I think that's probably one of my major

problems is it just seemed like and I haven't

read the books, but just talking to Amanda and

seeing what kind of stuff that they left out,

it seems like I would have enjoyed the films

a lot more if they had included some of that

stuff because it would have made the relationship

building better. It would have made some of the

character development and some of the character

interactions make more sense. And I just think.

there were some poor choices made in that and

then of course like everybody has said the Lord

of the Rings style uh... final thirty minutes

is uh... tad bit on the ridiculous side of the

epilogue and the fourteen different endings are

not probably necessary so i i i think there's

a lot of issues that people that like the Hunger

Games series are just being way too forgiving

on and i understand that The series is probably

put on a pedestal because it definitely outshines

almost all the other YA material that we've gotten

in the same amount of time that The Hunger Games

has been released. Definitely way better than

the Divergence series, better than the Maze Runner

series, better than a lot of the other ones that

have tried and maybe not even gotten to the final

movies of their series, one and done type stuff.

So it's way better than those, but I don't think

that necessarily means that we can just forgive

everything, all of its shortcomings. I like the

first movie and for the most part like the second

one, but these last two have fallen flat for

me and I'm with you and Barry and Hiro that I

just can't get behind this one. I think there

was a good movie here and there was a good movie

to be made between the two films. I just don't

think they made that movie. So that's my main

issue with it without getting into spoilers.

Yeah, I think JD's wrong on this one. It's not

an A plus movie. regardless of if Jennifer Lawrence

is in it or not. She can take her puffy lips

and do something else because... I never noticed

that. Oh, the puffy lips. She's got some puffy

ass lips. Her whole face is generally puffy.

All right. But yeah, I just have the same problems

between her and a couple of the characters that

I had in the previous film. So I would rate that

one probably middle of the road, honestly. I

think if you're a fan of the series, go for it,

but don't expect too much as far as... Critical

eye on the movie from like an objective standpoint

And then we saw a couple more we saw spotlight

which again won't go into too much, but it's

about the obviously the Boston Globe investigative

piece on the Catholic Church in Boston and kind

of trying to uncover the scandal that is you

know there that was about the priest and the

molestation of the children and This one if you

guys haven't seen this or if it's not on your

radar, please put it on your radar Please seek

it out. This is easily one of the best films

I've seen this year and if Mark Ruffalo doesn't

get at least some attention For his performance.

I would be a little bit disappointed because

I think he was amazing in this at one point I

thought in my head, like, oh my god, Mark Ruffalo's

amazing in this. And I turned to Kevin to say

it to him, and he said it to me before I could

get it out. I'm like, that's what I'm saying.

But he's just one of the many characters, obviously,

in this film, from Liv Shiver to Rachel McAdams

to Michael Keaton. Even the side characters were

really awesome. This is just a great... Telling

of this story and they're not trying they it

seemed like it was a pretty straightforward telling

of the story without Without beating you over

the head but also without doing the typical Hollywood

things of trying to make things more dramatic

or hype things up it was it was pretty straightforward

it was pretty intense still and Man, there's

a segment at the end of the film that I would

just say leaves you speechless And it just hit

home so much for me that it was just like, even

with the knowledge that you have of what's going

on in the world, didn't prepare me for what was

put on the screen and just kind of floored me.

But this film is definitely worth seeking out.

I would score this one very high and say if you're

forming any type of end of the year list, try

to see this one first because it's kind of flying

under the radar a little bit, but it's definitely

worth a watch. The final two that we'll talk

about is we saw Creed and Victor Frankenstein

in the last couple weeks So Amanda start with

Victor Frankenstein real quick thoughts on this

newest adaptation of the Frankenstein story with

James McAvoy and your boy Daniel Radcliffe What

did you think my boy the Radcliffe? Creepy looking

dude super creepy. It's always been a creepy

And when he has a shirt off, it just extracreates

me out. I feel like I should not be seeing Harry

Potter with his shirt off and his pasty body

and his creepy little nipples and his hairy face

and chest. It just grosses me out. But besides

that, I think that James McAvoy was a little

too over the top in this. His spitting was outrageous.

He had like a fountain of spit every time that

he got a little excited. What I really liked

was how they did the monsters in this and how

they show the production of the monster, how

they made this creature. I think that was the

only thing that was really well done in this.

I mean, it's the same age -old story with a little

bit of twist. I did really, really like Igor's

backstory. I thought that was an awesome twist

and I liked... their relationship in this. Yeah,

I think I was fully on board for probably the

first half of the film and really liking what

they were doing with the backstory like you said

with Igor with the kind of the instead of going

straight to the creation of Frankenstein kind

of showing the steps leading up to that and kind

of the trial and error of them getting to that

point but then I think they get to a certain

point and it's like okay we're already You know

an hour hour and a half into the film or whatever

it is and we still got a lot to tell So then

it's just like skips major chunks and it's like

okay. We're here already or okay We're here without

necessarily paying attention to some of the steps

that it takes to get to that point Which is interesting

and odd at the same time because they they paid

so much Attention to those details in the first

part when they're doing some of those trials

to skip them in the actual main creation seemed

a little bit odd. The visuals are really good.

I think there's a lot of problems that you can

poke in, especially for probably the last third

of this film. And yes, James McAvoy does fit

a little bit too much when he talks in this film,

to a point where it becomes somewhat comical.

But I think from a visual standpoint, it was

cool. I think they had some interesting artistic

choices. And I think it's a fine installment

of the Frankenstein movie. franchise I guess

if you want to call it that but I think it kind

of to sum up the same way Dan kind of said about

Steve Jobs it was a little underwhelming yeah

I agree that and I think that had they gone a

little darker I think they mildly alluded to

it but I think if they would have gone more heavily

on like the grave robbing and the darker side

of the story I think it would have added some

more grit and Taken away from Taking it taking

it away from what it became like he's had a little

comical with With the James Mack voice spinning

and whatnot. I think they it really would have

benefited from a little bit more grit Yeah, and

then the last film we saw was Creed. I Don't

need to say much because everybody's in agreement

on this one. This is a pretty great installment

Apparently to the Rocky franchise, which I can't

speak to because like I outed myself on Twitter

I've never seen a single Rocky film until this

one. So I'm gonna watch them all backwards I'm

gonna go and watch Rocky 6 now or Rocky Balboa

and then start going Reverse order and see how

that works out. But no Creed is great. Michael

B Jordan is ripped out of his mind. He's awesome

He's he definitely fits that that role. I think

if there's any nitpicks There is a love angle

in this movie that might not be handled the best

Because they kind of Develop it up to a certain

point and then just completely put it on a shelf

and never go back to it And it just becomes kind

of background side material so I think that was

handled a little bit poorly and then of course

it is Hollywood boxing so if you're a boxing

purist the boxing that happens in the movie is

beyond ridiculous and unbelievable but if you

can suspend that and just kind of take it for

what they're giving you I think it's definitely

an action -packed exciting thing to watch as

long as you're not trying to compare it to real

-life boxing and probably the best thing about

the film Never thought you'd say this but Sylvester

Stallone acts his ass off in this film And I

didn't even know he could act to the level that

he does in this film And it was really moving

really touching he has some humor he has a serious

side And it's I think the best way that I can

describe. This is how Hiro said it from true

bromance, and it was basically doing everything

you could to pay homage and respects to what

came before it, but with like a new coat of paint

a modern painting on it to kind of give it a

fresh look and a fresh feel and they did that

through symbolism they did it through the music

and obviously some of the character work so I

think if you're a fan of Rocky you definitely

need to go see Creed and I would not be surprised

if there's another Creed down the line I think

that it had a lot of heart I think that's what

it was not lacking whatsoever was heart and In

all aspects except for the little love angle,

I think they could have totally scrubbed that

and been fine because that's the only emotional

part of this movie that I did not believe whatsoever

or give a shit about everything else. Especially

between Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone.

Yeah, and that's what really kept me in it. And

I was crying, Sylvester Stallone made me cry.

I think that it was super well done and I couldn't

have asked for anything better than that. Alright.

Dan, anything else you want to bring up before

we take a break and then get ready for some Star

Wars style movie game? I got nothing. Alright,

well we're going to take a quick break then,

let you guys digest all that mental vomit that

we just gave you from the last month of movie

and TV viewing, and then we're going to be right

back to tease what's coming up with The Force

Awakens. Hi, this is Greg. This is Chuck. And

this is Dan. And we are Talking in Circles. Because

the world needs another podcast, we are here

as Geekcast Radio's newest edition. And, as the

title says, each week we get lost in conversation

about a wide range of topics including movies,

comics, games, art, TV, and even occasionally

sports. We play games and discuss pivotal topics

like who would win in a fight, the Kool -Aid

Man or Tony the Tiger, and examine the hot button

issues of the world of Geekdom. We keep things

fresh by taking timeless topics in new directions.

We are simply three friends having a fun time

talking about life's most fascinating foibles.

Stay connected with us every Tuesday on iTunes

or at GeekCastRadio .com Trying to make our spot

sound more exciting by adding explosions. Yeah,

I'm pretty sure you could have got the point

across with sound effects, not the real thing.

Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. Hey guys, it's Dr. Masolo and Hard Candy

Mandy. And we just wanted to let you guys know

about another podcast out there that we both

think you would all enjoy. It's one of both of

our favorite shows to listen to, and it's none

other than the True Bromance podcast. True Bromance

is a movie podcast hosted by longtime friends

Hiro and Barry, and if you like to smile, laugh,

and just be genuinely entertained while listening

to movie talk, then this is definitely the right

show for you. Each week, the guys break down

a recently released movie, and not only do they

tie in the movie that week to the beers that

they are drinking during the show, but they also

tie it into a real fun top and bottom five list

associated with that movie. It's a blast hearing

both sides of these lists and it definitely makes

them unique amongst all other movie review podcasts.

So we definitely want to recommend all of you

guys to go check out their show. Just search

out the True Bromance podcast on iTunes, Stitcher,

and all other podcast platforms. And if you listen

via iTunes, do us a favor and leave them a five

-star review. And don't forget to let them know

that the Cinema Geeks sent you. Obviously people

are probably aware that a little movie called

The Force Awakens is coming out very shortly

now that we are in the month of December and

instead of doing what all the other podcasts

out there are doing and just review the previous

installments of this film franchise. We're going

to bypass that. I would direct you to In Session

Film, First Time Watchers, and True Bromites

because they've all done some in -depth looks

at the prequels, at the original trilogies, and

they probably did it better than we could anyway.

So go ahead and listen to those guys do that.

Plus, we are already giving you guys a bunch

of Star Wars content on the main GCRN feed. We've

done our top 10 characters. We did a Top 10 Star

Wars film moments and a top 10 Star Wars quotes

or lines So those are all already out plus we

have a couple more still coming So there is plenty

of Star Wars content being handled by the Geocast

radio network But since we are the movie podcast,

we got to do something Star Wars related So we

thought why not do a little bit of a game that

we had done in a previous month and do a little

Star Wars this or that Amanda You came up with

the idea to do this or that for this. So, where

do you want to go first in asking Dan and I these

tough Star Wars related questions? Oh my god,

mine are going to be so lame. Bring on the lameness.

Super freaking lame. You're talking to two complete

geeks. Mine are really obvious though. Super

obvious. Let's go to the first one. Everybody's

dying to know. Luke or Han. Luke or Han? Mm -hmm.

That is not what I was expecting. What? I have

a different one involving maybe one of those

characters. Dan, I'll let you go first. Are you

more of a Luke fan or more of a Han fan? Oh,

easily more of a Han fan. Come on. I think Luke

doesn't really get cool until, like, the last

emperor, you know, the return of the Jedi, and

even if you want to, like, say the Expanding

Universe stuff where it becomes, like, ridiculously

powerful, but yeah. Come on, Han. I mean, my

screen name is Optimus Solo, so I will go with

Han Solo. I mean, there's no question here. Harrison

Ford and Han Solo was way more of a draw than

Mark Hamill was in those early films. Like Dan

said, he gets way better towards the end of the

original trilogy and then becomes a badass in

films that are never made yet. But it's Han Solo

the whole way. What about you? Uh, I think Luke

was a whiny little bitch. Yeah. I mean, I think

that was intentional, but yeah. God, I just wanted

to be like, why didn't your mom spank you when

you were a little... Um, did you forget what

happened to his mom? She's kinda killed. Yeah.

She kinda didn't have that option. Somebody was

like... So it happens when you're with your aunt

and uncle or whatever, they're not gonna spank

you, they feel bad, no. What happened? Well,

I will go with since you did that I'll do this

the one that I had that's very similar Because

you bring up how he's whiny which definitely

compares him to another member of his family

So I will ask the question then Luke or Anakin

Skywalker in a battle of the skywalkers because

Anakin as a little kid little whiny Luke is a

teenager pretty whiny They both play a part in

bringing the temporary balance back to the force,

Dan. So who was the better character and who

meant more to restoring balance and bringing

things back? Luke, easily. Come on now. Like,

Anakin Skywalker was intolerable for two movies

and kind of got okay near the end. He didn't

get tolerable until he started killing a bunch

of children, so... Yeah, well, you know. His

best moments are every time he kills things.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, you became a badass when

you killed children. You did the thing at the

end where you actually killed the Emperor. So,

like, you just kill things. That's what you're

good at. Yeah, I'm not a fan. Plus, man, Ken

Anakin is awful. So I'm going to go with Luke.

Peter Anakin's not much better. No, no. No matter

what hairstyle he has. Amanda, what do you think

on Anakin or Luke? I want to say, don't hate

me. Um, Anakin. I had a huge crush on him since

I was younger. That's why they cast him in that

role. For people like you. I think that Anakin's

whininess worked for me because he seemed smart.

even though he was super cocky and an asshole

and where Luke was just like, I just want to

go buy spirit parts with my friends and be super

cool and just whine about everything because

I don't do my chores. So I could deal with Anakin's

whininess more than Luke's. Alright, interesting

take there. Um... Man, it's hard. No words, no

words. It's probably Luke just... Because of

what he becomes and and you know like Dan saying

more of the return of the Jedi and what happens

after that I will give Anakin credit though because

you know he does He is the one that can kill

the Emperor. He is the one that that Kind of

redeems himself in the end so I mean I could

see that argument But I think from an overall

standpoint especially if we're looking at the

film franchise and and the actors and etc I think

you got to go Mark Hamill over Jake Lloyd slash

Hayden Christensen. So that's where I would sit

with that one. Dan, what's the first one you

want to go after? I'll go a little different

direction and say force lightning or force choking.

God, I have that on my paper, Dan. Get out of

my head. Yeah, that is a tough one. Amanda, I'm

going to let you go first so I can think about

it more. So would you rather be someone that

could have the power to force choke someone or

shoot lightning out of your hands, or which one's

more impressive in your mind? Could probably

figure out how to make a grilled cheese sandwich

with the force lightning but Man maybe force

choking I Could see that I think I'm gonna agree

with you I think I'm gonna go with force choking

Because when you're forced choking someone they

really don't have much of a defense against you

As we saw in the prequel trilogy, when you're

shooting lightning and someone else is holding

a lightsaber, sometimes that can come back to

bite you. So it didn't work out super well for

the Emperor at that exact moment, even though

most of the other time it worked out well for

him, but I never saw Darth Vader force choke

someone and have any type of repercussions from

it. So I think it's a safer... tool to just stick

with the controllable choke than the uncontrollable

lightning, as it can be. Dan, what do you think?

I feel like forced lightning, you have more options

of what you can do with it. Though you could

also use it when you don't want to, like you're

taking a shower, and you're like, oh, that's

not, I didn't mean to use my forced lightning.

That's a bad time for lightning. I don't know,

I think it would be... As a party trick force

lightning would be a lot more a lot more fun

I can like I can choke someone if I wanted to

I guess I can't I can't strike them with lightning

so I'm gonna go force lightning That's that's

a hard one though for sure. I was I was debating

with myself on that one Amanda. What do you got

next? Oh, man I know this is weighing all on

your minds. I'll be one or Qui -Gon You keep

coming up with periods. I didn't even think of

Obi -Wan or Qui -Gon? I will go Obi -Wan on this

one fairly easily. Liam Neeson is a badass, yes,

and Qui -Gon does master the ability to kind

of exist after death, so to speak, but with Obi

-Wan, not only do you get the Ewan McGregor...

kind of badass Obi -Wan that we get in especially

in episode three and a little bit in episode

two but then you get the Alec Guinness old wise

Obi -Wan from the original trilogy that's just

as a badass in a completely different way and

probably one of the best characters from the

prequel trilogy and one of the best characters

from the original trilogy so for me it's an easy

slam dunk for Obi -Wan what do you think Dan?

Yeah Obi -Wan might be one of my favorite Star

Wars characters bar none. So Qui -Gon Jinn is

good, but he doesn't have Like I guess it's maybe

not fair because he doesn't have much material

to work with You're asking me quite, you know

Obi -Wan from episode one versus Qui -Gon Jinn

from episode one Maybe Qui -Gon Jinn, but from

the entire series of going Obi -Wan What about

you Amanda? Um, I like young Obi -Wan but I think

Qui -Gon seems more of like this just hardcore

smooth badass. Like I feel like he could just

go in and wreck anything even though Darth Maul

fucked him up. I always had this feeling that

he was the ultimate badass. Alright, I think

for my next one I am going to go with If you

were having to choose a time to exist in this

Star Wars world, in this universe, maybe even

specifically if you're a Jedi, what is the better

time to live, Dan? Would you rather be present

during the Clone Wars, specifically as, you know...

Order 66 is happening and the Jedi purge when

you're being specifically hunted. Or would you

rather live under a time when the Empire is fully

entrenched in their rule and you're more having

to just live in isolated spots or have the fear

of showing your face and just being hunted down?

Like, would you rather live during that, you

know, kind of the end of the Clone Wars period

or during the Empire? I think I'd go Empire because

I'd rather know who my enemy is than kind of

be not know, I guess, you know, like kind of

be consistently on just on the run. But at least

I would have it established like, okay, I know

where I can go because they're not here. They

don't care about this out of room stuff. So I

think I would go with that. Plus you have more

of a like a force fighting against the Empire

at that point where they're less organized at

the end of Clone Wars. What do you think Amanda?

You'd rather be a Jedi when they're immediately

hunting you down and the clones are turning on

you and shooting you in the back and trying to

find your way to safety or live like Obi -Wan

and Yoda did when you're kind of a hermit for

10 -15 years living in kind of hiding and seclusion.

Oh I would go do some cool shit and hone my skills

and come back and just murk people with my forceness.

Oh, man. All right. Dan, what do you got next?

Would you rather hang out at Jabba's Palace or

Mos Eisley? You're in my head. Oh, no. No, that's

awesome, because I didn't actually write it down,

but it was one of the thoughts I had, and I was

like, I don't know how to articulate this the

best, I guess. Jabba's Palace is an easy way

to say it. Man, the wretched scum of villainy

or amongst the smelliness of Jabba. Both places

probably smelled equally terrible. uh man that's

tough because you could just be kind of like

minding your own business in Jabba's Palace and

like accidentally get bumped and fall into the

pit with the rancor or you could be in Mossett

Isley Cantina and accidentally bump into someone

and spill their drink and they'd shoot you in

the face um that is tough i think Amanda, what

would you do? I would probably take Bullseye's

Lee. Bullseye's Lee? I think I could probably,

you know, if I just got a corner table and just

could drink something in peace and just observe

what was going on, I could probably stay out

of trouble, I think, for the most part. Jabba's

Palace? I think I'm probably at some point gonna

get eaten. So I will go with the Cantina as well.

What about you, Dan? I'll go with Bullseye's

Lee because it's got better music. Especially

the updated version of With that, you know the

additional song which is pretty awful. So I'll

go with I'll go with the most easily I Had forgotten

that existed until you brought it back. I apologize.

That's all right Yeah, so a trio for Mos Eisley

Cantina Amanda. Do you have any left on your

list? I have quite a bit. All right, what's next?

Would you rather be frozen in carbonite? Or take

your chances with the Rancor? Um, am I a Jedi?

Uh, are you? Because if I'm a Jedi, then maybe

I'll take my chances with the Rancor in any other

situation I'm gonna have to pass on that. And

Han seemed to survive the carbonite... But you

have buddies that can come rescue you or not,

you know? I probably don't have any buddies out

there, so I don't know. I'm still gonna go ahead

and freeze me in carbonate. Eventually someone

will get to me. What about you, Dan? Um, wow.

Didn't they say something? I remember mistakenly

thinking there's a big chance that you actually

don't survive the carbonate. Yeah, there is that

chance. That's why BoboFett was worried. Man,

if Bobo Fett's worried - There's a chance you

don't survive that Rancor, too. Yeah, it's a

huge, gigantic monster. Oh, man. I think I would

go Rancor. Just, you know, hope for the best.

Still rock and hope I have a shot. At least you're

gonna know your fate right away. You're not gonna

have to, like, wait. Yeah. Would I rather be

eaten to death or frozen to death? Man, that's

a choice to have. That's terrible. That's like

drowning or burning. That's a no -win situation.

Amanda, what do you think? I'm going to take

my chance with the rancor. I'm going to kick

it in the leg. I'm the only one getting frozen.

Yeah. Man. All right. You guys are braver. More

brave than I am, apparently, is the situation

there. All right. I got to ask if you think,

I don't know how you want to answer this, how

you want to approach it. Maybe it's just which

characters you like better, which you think are

more of a threat or which you just think are.

Something you like better. I don't know but I'm

going with Jawas or Tusken Raiders, Dan What

are the what are the more? Important characters.

What are the more badass characters? Which one

do you like better? I don't know which ever way

you want to go with that, but I feel like the

threat I'd be more the Jawas or not. I was with

the Tusken Raiders a little bit more Little more

of a threat. I feel like Jawas are just kind

of annoying. They're more like I don't know like

space gypsies that kind of just come around and

steal things. So I feel like I could hold my

own against the Jawas. So that's kind of, what

was it? Was the Jawas in Who? The Tusken Raiders?

Yeah, so I would say Tusken Raiders are more

of a threat. What about you, Amanda? You afraid

of the brown people that you can't see their

faces? Sounds bad. I rephrased that. The brown

-caped people that you can't see their faces

and just have their little glowy eyes or the

the the Mummy wrapped up horn Tuscan Raiders

shooting you as you try to drive a podcast through

their podcast I would love to see a podcast in

the Star Wars universe, you know. Darth Vader's

thoughts on, uh, yeah. No, it would be that one

guy, the announcer guy, that has two heads and

he's more arguing things off. Is that the Sand

People? Is that the same thing? Yeah. I'm scared

of those little fuckers, but... Even Obi -Wan

was like, we need to get out of here. I scared

them for a second, but they come back. They come

back like roaches. With numbers. Yeah, Tusken

Raiders. Way more scary. Something about the

jawas always freaked me out as a child. I don't

know what it was about them because you're their

size They could take you away, but now you're

like I'm gonna put it where they were rich freak

They were not treating some of those droids too

nicely in there. It was kind of traumatizing

but yeah, the Tuscan Raiders are I mean Anakin

Skywalker didn't struggle too much with them

I'm just kidding. But yeah, I think they're the

bigger threat there out in the wilderness. I

don't want to come across them. I'd rather come

across the Jawas and try to just barter with

them or kind of fool them into leaving me alone

or something like that. Dan, what do you got

next? We talked about Obi -Wan already, but how

about young Obi -Wan, Ewan McGregor, or old Obi

-Wan, Alex Guinness, who's a better Obi -Wan?

I'm gonna go, I like Ewan McGregor better. You

like Ewan McGregor better? Yeah. But I am a product

of the newer Star Wars generations. Yeah. Man,

it's tough because I love Ewan McGregor so much

in episode three. But Alec Guinness is... He's

a straight pimp. Oh, he is? I was unaware. He

could get all the ladies if he wanted to just

with his Jedi mind tricks. I did not get the

whole... I mean, he's mastered the Force by that

point, whereas he's still somewhat young and

unpolished maybe a little bit in the Ewan McGregor

days. But he's still probably more of a threat,

I guess, in Ewan McGregor days, because he's

a little bit more... I mean, we saw the lightsaber

skills of Alec Gannis in the original trilogy,

and it doesn't seem like it was that impressive.

I'm still going old, Obi -Wan. He's wiser. He's

more in touch with the Force. I'll go Alec Gannis.

What about you, Dan? I think I'll go Ewan McGregor.

It's a little unfair, but I think he just has

more of a... a plot of seeing him kind of develop

throughout the three films. So Alex Guinness

is great, no doubt, but I just always... Hugh

McGregor got me through those three films, so

I think he had more of a challenge ahead of him

than Alex Guinness did. Yeah, that's true. Amanda,

what do you got next? Okay, let me see. Jango

Fett or Boba Fett? I'll answer that one first,

and that is Boba Fett. only because he was my

favorite character when I was a child and Django

Fett well he was obviously the you know the first

of them and you know he has the he's the OG yeah

and all that but Boba Fett I think if you can

take into account more than just what's in the

films and read between the lines or what's in

some of the books or you know expanded universe

that type of stuff to see what's going on with

Boba Fett from the time we see him as a child

with Jango Fett until we actually see him in

the original trilogy he probably has a more interesting

story he's definitely one of the most feared

bounty hunters in the universe at that era in

the galaxy at that point so i think i'm gonna

go with Boba Fett not saying Jango Fett doesn't

have his worth but i'm just i just like the the

story of Boba Fett a little bit more dan what

do you think i think The color scheme on Boba

Fett is better, so I'll go with Boba Fett. Which

one dies like more of a punk? Amanda, what do

you think? I'm going to say Jango Fett just because

he had some balls. He was like, you know what?

I want to clone. All these motherfuckers are

going to be cloned after me. They're perfect

little soldiers and win this war for you. I just

think he was... cockier and I'm just gonna go

with him because you guys had bull with it so

I'm gonna play the devil's advocate. Alright

for my next one I guess somewhat of a well I'm

gonna go planet -wise if you had to live in one

of these two planets which one would you choose

your choices are Mustafar Planet that is featured

with the Obi -Wan and the Anakin fight the lava

planet that doesn't seem to have a lot of safe

places to stand or Halt as far as the ice planet

that we get to see at the beginning of the Empire

Strikes Back Which one you have to deal with

ice or lava where would you rather live Amanda?

Uh, I'm gonna say Ice, because I can play hella

hockey, like all day. Oh, I should have known.

As you freeze to death. But, so hockey wins Hoth

for you. What about you, Dan? I'll go with Hoth

because they had the at -at walker, so at least

I get to see those. That was going to be one

of my other questions, was would you rather pilot

the AT -AT that's in Hoth or the AT -ST like

that you see on Endor. But they're both pretty

cool. I'm gonna join the club and say Hoff, because

I would hope at least I could... Watch Amanda

play hockey, right? Yeah, so I could watch Amanda

play hockey, and this is if there's at least

one bunker or place to stay somewhere on the

planet. If I have to live inside a Tonton, that

sucks. You know how warm those are? I guess they're

pretty warm. They're lukewarm. Oh, I walked right

into that one. That's the best joke of the day.

Dan, what else do you got? What's a better action

sequence? Either the battle of Hoth or the ended

battle of the Death Star in New Hope? I'm going

to go with Hoth only because that was one of

the favorite levels for me to play in one of

the video games. And I love the idea of trying

to get the... find a way to combat the AT -ATs

and trip them and do this or that but you also

had you know the escape pods going out there

so you had the chance for you know some aerial

stuff even though they didn't really go too far

into that but just everything that's going on

as those vehicles that we've never seen before

coming at this base for me was a was a more exciting

sequence not to say that The Death Star run wasn't

exciting, but it was more akin to stuff that

I'd seen in other different franchises or different

universes, movies and stuff like that. So Hoth

was something that I'd never seen before. So

that's why I would go with that one. What do

you think, Amanda? I think I tend to like the

land battles a little bit more than the space

battles. So I like the on -planet stuff a little

bit more. Alright, what about you, Dan? I'll

go with... Death Star mainly because I found

I kind of gained new respect from it when I realized

or learned that it's actually based on a Real

-life World War two mission that they kind of

based most of that the the process of it and

like a lot of the dialogue so it's Kind of it's

kind of cool knowing that it's actually Has some

historical context in real life, so I'll go with

that one Amanda that brings it back to you Blaster

or a lightsaber? Oh, I'll take a lightsaber any

day of the week. Okay. Dan? Do you need to answer

that? A lightsaber, yeah. I mean, I can find

my keys with it when it's dark out, you know.

Chop, chop wood or cut a sandwich. Cut a opening

in the door to get through if you need to. There's

multi -purpose in that. Blaster, half the time

apparently they don't have very good aiming.

targeting things anyway so you're going to miss

whatever you shoot at anyway. They might as well

be turning it to the side doing the kill shot

and those things. Most of the people that had

blasters weren't very accurate so I think I'd

rather take my chances with the lightsaber. I

got one here for you and maybe a different way

to look at it but I'm interested to see especially

Dan what you think on this one because I can't

remember how you rank them but Return of the

Jedi or Empire Strikes Back? Oh, Empire Strikes

Back for me. Yeah, it's an unfair one to you

to go with Amanda because she hasn't seen the

ending yet of Return of the Jedi so I'm not gonna

ask her to rank it. So that one's more just for

you, Dan I don't hate I mean, I like them all

obviously, but I always preferred mainly because

of the Battle of Hoth and I've always enjoyed

that one more so can I can I flip it to the other

side and It seems to be the ongoing debate from

a lot of different people that are doing podcasts

on the on the prequels Dan, which one's worse,

episode one or episode two? Oh, man. That's a

slowest choice. I go episode, what's worse? Yeah,

what's the worst? Oh, man. That's so, I'm going

to say episode two, but also just because when

I think episode one, I think Darth Maul. And

yeah, that's exact. It gets me through. At least

I can kind of like hold out hope for that sequence

where I mean. The Clone Wars has the Yoda sequence,

but it's not nearly as good as Darth Maul's.

So that's only looking at the positives, and

I think that episode one has a little bit better

of a positive than episode two. And I guess I

would have to... I mean, it's a lose -lose situation.

I'll use a similar logic, and because Darth Maul

was the one that made you choose episode one,

I would say that you could make a similar argument

and say that Jar Jar Binks... is the reason that

you could say episode two. It depends. It has

the best character and the worst character it

seems like out of those two. But also has the

love relationship with Hayden Christensen and

Natalie Portman. That's bad. Only like you did

on Abu. Bad memories. Amanda, which one did you

like least, episode one or episode two? Episode

one. Damn, that means it's your turn. Well, we

haven't had this, but we can go. We can say,

what about the original versions of the films

or the updated edited versions, whatever edited

versions, because there's like three different

edited versions. But do you like how they were

or do you like how George Lucas meant for them

to be? For multiple reasons, I'll go with the

original version. And it's not necessarily because

I... hate or disagree with maybe what George

Lucas was trying to do or what maybe his intentions

were or Kind of his original vision. It's more

for how it was executed and it's so Blatant With

what he did. I don't I guess I would have to

ask someone watching at the first time if they

could see What is added? Because I was telling

Amanda as we were watching them like this wasn't

the original but you could tell too I wasn't

sure if it was just because I've seen the original

so many times and then you see is something different

it stands out more but it just seems from a Technical

standpoint that they're they don't gel with what

else is going on in that scene. You can totally

tell visually that it was different. I mean,

some worse than others, but a lot of the times,

especially when they put creatures in with the

different animals, different creatures that they

showed, those were very easy to tell. I think

with Han Solo stepping on Jabba's tail, there

is... That's terrible. I mean, I know a lot of

people, too, with like the spirit of Hayden Christensen

showing up, had problems with that. That one

doesn't bother me quite as much because at least

to me, it didn't look as jarring as some of these

other... Comical ones, but I gotta go original

the original versions for me a hundred percent

just for how Awfully it seemed like it was from

a from a company that is so great with visual

effects and technical stuff It seems like they

should have been able to blend those things a

little better. So Amanda, what do you think?

Oh the original version too. Yeah, you can I

think it's really distracting you can see that

and I knew that they added those scenes in in

the Cantina there whole other song that Dan was

talking about too with the Yeah, I mean I knew

about that so I could tell but Of course the

infamous extra shot between Greedo and Han Because

originally there's only one shot. It's just That

funny dude with the the green face Dan what do

you think? yeah i'll say for the you know episode

four five and six definitely the originals but

i i think for the newer for episodes one two

and three though they don't have oh you know

since they're newer they do have some changes

mainly well primarily in episode one changing

yoda to the cgi version i think actually was

better than keeping it the muppet because it

didn't like it was such a decrepit muppet tends

to using the same one so for the episode one

two and three i would go with edited I can see

that. I guess I wasn't thinking about that. But

yeah, I can see that too. The edited versions

don't bother me as much for once. You're not

messing with much. You're not messing with me.

I agree. I'll admit though, when they first came

out, the edited versions, like, you know, was

it 97? I forget. 95? I don't know. Yeah, I was

I was I was younger so I liked them like I I

thought it was cool seeing Java In episode one,

you know It was mostly cool cuz I got to see

Star Wars in the theater cuz they we released

him in the theater When they when they did that

but right but you know as an adult, I'm like,

what was I thinking? It looks so bad Yeah, all

right time for one or two more rounds here I

think so Amanda. What do you got left that you

want to get out there? so if you We're making

your army, doesn't matter what side you're on,

clones or droids. That's a good question, I didn't

think about that one, but I think an easy answer

for me, I will go with the clones. Just because

the droid army that they present in the original

trilogy seemed like they were pretty pathetic

for the most part, at least the regular basic

battle droids, obviously the more complex one,

the destroyer droids and stuff like that were

a little bit more to mess with, but with the

clones you get, obviously their capability -wise,

because they can think and they can... do so

much more and obviously they're the ones that

that win the day so I will go if I have to have

an army I would rather the clone army be on my

side Dan what do you think see I think I'll go

droids because I would I don't have to worry

about the droids turning on me like I would that's

a good point with the clone troopers and that's

why I would have been shot in the back damn it

that is a good point you don't have to worry

about someone flipping a switch and everybody

getting killed Dan you win the day on that one

Amanda which one you going with I was thinking

along the same lines as Dan. I don't want to

Have the chance of mutiny I mean that the all

power that you have the droids is pretty cool

But also you can see somebody can get in there

and flip your switch and all your dudes are down

at once so you're kind of screwed. I think that

I'm going to take the clones here just because

they have the ability to advance in battle sense.

I mean they can think and they can use more strategy

that's going to have that human element. I like

that. True. I guess both things can be changed

by a switch in some way shape or form. I'll take

an army of Jedi. There you go. I changed my answer.

Alright, for my next one, I am gonna, it's gonna

be, I guess, a three -part this or that, and

I am going, Dan, with would you rather have the

basic lightsaber, the double -bladed lightsaber

of Darth Maul, or the curved ergonomic, whatever

you wanna call it, lightsaber of Count Dooku?

Hmm. Interesting. Can I have the one of the new

one with the cross? Am I assuming if I had a

double -bladed lightsaber that I'd have the skills

to use it, unlike I do right now? You can answer

that any way you want. I'll say I'll go with

double -bladed if I had Darth Maul skills to

actually wield it. Plus, I guess if one end gets

damaged, you still have the basic lightsaber.

Or maybe you could just go around and not use

the other side for a while. What about you Amanda

the the curve double -ed well when me and my

cousin played light zippers back in the dizzy

I always had the Darth Maul double -ended one,

but I Definitely think that you know busting

out the the second blade there is it's like when

you have a shotgun you wait to cock it until

you really want to scare the people that You

haven't pointed it out. You don't just cock it

right away. You have to wait until you can capitalize

on that scare effect. Yeah, I mean, I think it's

an easy one with the double -ended lightsaber,

but also probably ten times more likely to hurt

myself with it, so. Now that you've got Darth

Maul skills. But I guess if I cut my hand off,

I can just become more powerful like everybody

else in the film franchise that does that, so.

And like I said, it is basically a basic lightsaber

if you want it, or the double -lighted lightsaber,

so I guess no love for Count Tufio's lightsaber.

Dan, you got another one on your board? Yeah,

I guess if you're gonna be a Jedi, would you

be on the light side or the dark side? Dun dun

dun, Amanda? Dark side. No! You didn't even have

anything! I'm gonna have my lightsaber shotgun,

and... That's gonna be coming up in episode 7.

Just wait. It's like the post -apocalyptic Mad

Max lightsaber. I don't know though, because

when you use the dark side, you get all fucked

up, and I would definitely not want to look like

that. Could I use the force to do plastic surgery?

Yeah, make your eyes not go crazy. I will, I

guess, hope that I would be able to... withstand

the temptations of the dark side. You're one

of those straight -laced people I know. There's

no way that you would be on the dark side. Alright,

I like that. You marshmallow. Alright, I don't

know what any of that means, but I will, uh...

I will gladly take my spot amongst the Jedi then

on the light side. Dan, what about you? Part

of me wants to say dark side because they have

the cooler powers, but every time I play like,

Night of the Republic or any of those games where

you have a choice, I'm almost too much of a wimp

to ever do the bad stuff. So I'll also be the

light side because I'd be lying to myself if

I said otherwise. I can live in some seclusion

for a while and hone my powers. I got no problem

with that. I'm going to go and work a bunch of

same people. That's why I'm going to go back.

Then I can also be a space ghost, so that's good.

There you go. You live on. Amanda, one more?

Two more? One more? One more. Okay, here's a

good one. R2D2 or C3PO? Slam dunk for me because

I found C3PO almost as annoying as... No, he's

nowhere near as annoying as Jar Jar Binks, but...

You gotta love R2, man. He spits oil at people,

sets them on fire, flies randomly in the prequel

trilogy, and then forgets how to fly in the original

trilogy. But I liked R2. I always liked R2, so

that's an easy one for me. What about you, Dan?

Yeah, R2, yeah. He, you know, he, like, how many

times did he save their lives? Like, how many

times, you know? Exactly. He, he's got the Austin

Pete boop boop stuff. He looks like a trash can.

So he's got, yeah. I'm gonna go with R2 -D2.

Which makes it not quite as annoying sometimes

as it can be. Amanda, what about you? I'm gonna

say C3PO just to not do a three -peat here. I

think that he had some pretty witty banter going

on with himself because you never knew what R2D2

was really saying. So he had to pull off both

characters' dialogue, really. I think that he...

had a tough break, too. He is a bad rat. Like,

he's got a bad attitude sometimes about stuff,

but I think it's because he gets shit on all

the time, and nobody appreciates him, and everybody

makes him do all the heavy lifting and stuff,

and he just doesn't get enough credit. And I

think that if somebody just sat down and told

him how much they appreciated him, he'd have

a better attitude. So I'm gonna say C -3PO. I've

never heard such staunch defense for C -3PO in

my life. Alright. I want to get two more in,

so I'm going to cheat and do two more, because

I have to. All right, my first one is, if you

could choose which one you could have as your

fun little vehicle on the side, would you rather

have a pod racer that you could just take out

and take first bit any time? Or, and I guess,

Amanda, you're going to have a little bit more

trouble answering this one, because you haven't

seen this part yet, unless you can remember it.

Or the speeder bikes that are featured on Endor

with the Ewoks. So a speeder bike, Dan, or a

pod racer? I'd go speeder bikes. I feel like

they're more reliable than the pod racers that

tend to just explode. Yeah, I think you're definitely

more reliable to hurt yourself in a pod racer.

They seem to have more combustible components.

Amanda? Do you know what I'm talking about with

the speeder bikes that they had? I do. When they're

going through the forest stuff, yeah, I'd be

all over that. I'm most like a motorcycle and

I dig it. I mean, you just gotta watch out so

you don't hit trees. Yeah, but don't they have

them in the prequel ones? There's multiple versions,

kind of styles. There's different... Whatever

I'm taking that one. All right, and then the

other one I have to get out there because I think

it's a group It's an interesting question and

I don't know what either one of you is gonna

answer So we'll go one more character one for

me and then I'll be done and that is Padme or

Leia Padme or Leia which character do you like

better? Which one is better? However, you want

to take it Amanda. Which one do you like better?

I think that back in the day I would have said

Leia. I even had some velcro shoes in elementary

school that had like a hologram of or holograph

whatever you want to call it of Princess Leia

on the side and I thought she was super cool.

I wear my hair kind of like that even to this

day and I'm not ashamed of it but I think Padme

was more mature and I feel like she I see it's

hard to tell which one actually took more action,

but I feel like Padme got in the shit, too, so

I'm just gonna say Padme. All right, one vote

for Padme. Dan, where do you go? I'll go Leia.

Like, I felt like, you know, from... She kind

of... went toe to toe with Darth Vader, you know,

the first thing kind of like yelling at him,

which was something to do. When she was getting

rescued, she kind of like took charge and grabbed

the gun and started firing herself. So I found

it a little bit more take charge than Padme.

So and she put herself out there and unlike Padme,

he was kind of like hid behind her. Well, it

wasn't her choice, but you know, I think I like

Leia a little bit more. I think you do have that

point, though, and I know you probably forgot

about it because it is an episode two, but where

Padme goes on her own and climbs up that pole

and tries to fight whatever beast that she was

fighting in that arena so she did have a little

bit of kind of go get her in her I think at that

point I don't know what she hooked up with Darth

Vader she did do that Yeah, I guess she's the

reason Luke exists, so you could give her that

vote. You could say that she's the queen and

Leia's only a princess. I don't know. I think

from an acting standpoint, I would rather have

Natalie Portman than Carrie Fisher. Outfits?

Let's just go with outfits alone. Outfits are

crazy on both sides. I think they both have some

crazy outfits. And you do, Dan, to go to your

point, Leia does take on Jabba the Hutt, too.

She does. And she is the infamous Slave Leia

uniform, which if anything is inspired cosplay

for like 18 every every con you go to there's

always a thousand Leia Slave Leia costumes. Right.

I mean, who doesn't want to jump on the chance

to wear a metal bra? I don't But yeah, I mean

I think the majority probably take Leia I think

from just a general character and acting standpoint

I like Padme a little bit better, but I think

you do get a little bit more probably character

arc with Leia and Maybe a little bit more badassness

like you're saying so alright Dan last one. What

do you got? Kind of a random one, but would you

rather play Space Chess or whatever it is with

Chewbacca or make a bet with Jabba the Hutt?

Amanda, you betting Jabba the Hutt and taking

your chances or are you going to go toe -to -toe

with Chewbacca? I'll take Chewbacca any day because

I don't want to be anywhere near Jabba the Hutt.

I feel like he's just, he's nasty, he's gooey.

Even when she was choking with that chain, I'm

like, God, don't touch him. Don't touch him.

He's not quite as gross as Pizza the Hutt. He's

just close, man. I mean, I just, I feel like...

He doesn't eat himself. Chewie at least maybe

would give you a hug afterwards. I'm gonna go

with Chewie for that reason because as much as

he's got the big bark and whatever and the threatening

thing I think in the end he's not gonna hurt

me because I'm on the light side like we talked

about so he's a big teddy bear. He's not gonna

let you win. He might not let me win but the

most he's gonna do is give me like a noogie or

something. Or rip your arms off. I guess if that

happens. uh... damage what you're going to do

uh... who i'll go with that job but they can

always run away from java she's not but that's

true you have a good chance of getting away but

then he's with them like seven hundred bounty

hunters after you but uh... i think too i guess

with java with that's new you're the one making

the best so as long as you're like clever enough

you have a better chance of winning but with

shubhaka even if you're winning you're probably

gonna lose there's no winning against shubhaka

Yeah, so that's interesting. I guess unless you

like you said let the wookie win and just lose

on purpose but Alright, so that is some Star

Wars talk for everybody to hopefully wet your

appetite a little bit for the upcoming Film which

is right around the corner. We will be giving

you guys a full review of the force awakens I

can't guarantee what day that'll be we might

be a couple days late on some of our upcoming

episodes just to give us a chance to see films

and get the records done. But we will definitely

be bringing you our thoughts on The Force Awakens

as it was clearly my most anticipated film of

the year. I think we disqualified it for a lot

of the 2015 episodes that we did since it would

have won a lot of different things as far as

box office and most anticipated. not a film I'm

looking forward to more, so hopefully it can

live up to the hype. I don't know how any film

could possibly live up to the amount of hype

that this one has though, so it's gonna be an

interesting movie going experience nonetheless.

Dan, any thoughts that you want to get out there

before we close out today? No, just, I mean,

there's a lot to get into before the end of the

year. December's fully packed with stuff, so

it's kind of like, it's exciting. I feel like

December's becoming like a... Like another summer

almost, the way with all the people coming out.

And there is a lot of stuff coming up for sure

to kind of fill your movie going experience with.

I mean, I think you can skip out probably on

this week because you're probably only getting

Krampus in your theaters. Which I'm going to

go see tomorrow. But the rest of you can probably

skip that. I didn't know it was a real thing.

I thought it was just a reference to the league

and I was... Like really they're gonna alright,

but now it's actually a real thing So and we

were at the video store yesterday or the day

before and there's like other Krampus movies

Okay, I saw that too. I'm like, is there is this

a remit? I was really confused. But apparently

yeah, I didn't know what was going on I didn't

know I was confused on the whole thing. I know

there was such a huge Krampus Bluff fest like

that's like there's like this folklore and this

like story about this creature that's They act

like it's been around for years, yet nobody has

ever heard of it until this year, so I don't

know. It's like Baba Yaga. Yeah. If you're lucky

enough, you might be able to check out Life or

Macbeth or Youth this weekend. It's a very limited

release for those. And then obviously we have

In the Heart of the Sea coming out. We have,

you don't want to forget Alvin and the Chipmunks,

The Road Chip, of course. Sisters is the one

that also competing against Star Wars The Force

Awakens You have Son of Saul which is getting

the limited release this month, which has been

getting a lot of buzz Will Smith doing a whatever

kind of Performance you want to call that in

concussion coming out on Christmas Day along

with Joy? The Jennifer Lawrence joint point break

the hateful eight and the revenant so there is

a ton of stuff coming out So you will have plenty

of stuff to watch? During the month of December

for those that are able to watch some of those

limited release ones for sure so like Dan Yeah,

there's a lot to get through still Amanda any

thoughts before we leave just excited to go see

Krampus tomorrow. Yeah, I'll let you know how

scared I am Alright, so that's going to do it

for this week at Cinema Geeks. Dan, how can people

keep in touch with you on Twitter? Uh, I am at

Nuviravolt. Amanda, your Twitter? HardcandyMandy,

eyes no eyes. The show Twitter is CinemaGeekCast,

mine is at OptimusSolo, and as always the best

way to get in touch with us, or kind of give

us feedback, is to go to geekcastradio .com,

find the episode post, comment, we will comment

back 100 % of the time. So that is it for us,

be sure to check in next week for another chance

to listen to The Cinema Geeks.