Coronavirus Updates and Favorite Films Roundup

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek in this

episode of Altered Geek we'll be discussing our

top five films right now as well as the social

kind of meltdown from the coronavirus on practically

every event known to man. So joining me in this

episode are Mike the Birdman, Don and Alex from

This Week in Geek. That's right. It is us joining

you from the Great White North, which only has

I think less than 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus

across the country. So go us. Everything is melting.

So it means people are going to get out in public

more and they're going to die. Oh, that's not.

Yeah. I'm wishing that it would go back to like

minus 30 for like another week or two and kill

off anything. Let people like be quarantined

for a few more weeks. Yeah. So there's a lot

to break down with the coronavirus and I'll give

you the most up -to -date information I have

from the Canadian perspective because I do follow

the news cycle on this. Cause I do have a family

member who works in healthcare. Um, so yeah,

this is Interesting. But we're also going to

talk about some other nerdy kind of topics as

well with Steve. What else are we going to talk

about? Or is it just those two main topics tonight?

It's pretty much just those two topics today.

I'm not sure which one you guys want to tackle

first, but let's do the lighter one first. Because

coronavirus, or I don't know, I guess it's topical.

We should maybe talk about the coronavirus for

like just a couple minutes here. So as you guys

know, this thing originated somewhere in China

a little while ago. It has now spread to multiple

countries around the world, though most cases...

are not from human to human contact. Like basically,

you come from an infected area, although certain

countries are closing down schools and universities.

Disney parks are shut down in certain countries.

There was cases in Seattle in the United States.

I think a woman did die in her 50s in Canada.

We have had some cases local. They did travel

to I think it was Iran and Italy. locally, which

is me and Alex are from the Toronto Guelph Kitchener

area. So basically within an hour's drive of

where we are. Yeah. So things are our health

departments are considering it. matter of importance

but they're not freaking out yet there were people

this just happened over the weekend there was

a possibility of people being exposed being because

they were traveling on the same bus as someone

who had a confirmed case of it but they're tracking

them via like um presto cards which is like a

way you pay your fare to get on certain uh public

transit so they're pretty sure they've been able

to get a hold of everybody and they're telling

people to self -isolate if you think anything's

wrong go to the hospital get yourself checked

out but um the world health organization has

pretty much said you should be paying attention

to this it's not a pandemic level yet but Be

cautious, wash your hands, hand sanitizer. I've

been watching social media, particularly among

some of my friends. Some people in my opinion

are acting a little nuts. They're like, Oh, I'm

stocking up supplies and medicine and everything.

And like, okay, it's not the end of the world.

Nobody's it's not the apocalypse yet. It's not

Y2K. Yeah, it's it's kind of interesting, too,

when you look at it, because people are stockpiling

face masks, which actually do absolutely nothing

unless, you know, you physically have it, in

which case you shouldn't be in public anyway.

But then the amount of like bleach and like Purell

and, you know, hand sanitizer and like all this

other stuff is just flying off the shelves, which

is honestly quite humorous because it It again

boils down to the fact that it's just normal

sanitation. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.

Don't touch things. And if you do wash your hands

before you eat, before you stick your hands in

your face, which is general knowledge anyway.

And I saw a meme going around earlier, actually

quite a few of them, some of them not very, you

know, tasteful. Not very tasteful, but one of

them was like, what did people do before this

coronavirus not wash their hands? Like it was,

it was, it was kind of funny on that. And then

I saw another one going around and it says coronavirus

be like, and then it's got a Yakko and it says,

you know, takes deep breath and it's doing the

Yakko's world where he's doing the United States,

Canada, Mexico, Panama, you know, like counting

it all off. and I reposted that one because I

thought it was quite funny. I said, it's not

very tasteful with everything going on. I said,

but nevertheless, I said, it's still funny. Corona

virus has actually hit close to me and Alex.

Surprisingly, this happened last week as of this

recording. GDC, which is the game, which is the

game developers conference, which happens in

San Diego or San Francisco. Um, can't remember

San Diego, I think, or whatever. Um, San Francisco,

I don't give a shit. Um, either way, it got canceled.

It happened in America. It got canceled at the

end of business day last Friday, which means

developers were scrambling, but a lot of the

big developers had pulled out, like Microsoft,

Activision, et cetera. Some people had pulled

out of PAX East, like Sony, Square, NX. Funny

funny you should mention events The the events

are up to 79 now at this point of like bigger

events I did get an email from Warner Brothers

though where they said that they they cancelled

the premiere of the Superman Red Sun Yeah, and

all the actors and everything and they because

they didn't want anybody getting infected But

this person I follow on Twitter Sarah Evans does

digital PR and things like that Posted a kind

of a comprehensive list of conferences cancelled

due to coronavirus So like everything from like

Adobe Summit, you know the f8 for for Facebook's

a lot of the Cisco stuff a lot of all of the

Google different ones that are going around There's

there's all these other basically like tech ones

like all the Microsoft stuff's going they're

even letting employees work from home, which

is You know amicable, you know in this situation

concept. Oh you want to hear something? So my

brother works at Google and he said they've even

publicly announced that like they don't want

meetings of groups of people 200 people or more

in one spot Even in their own buildings. So when

they do Like they do like, you know your regular

company meeting you might meet a certain time

of the month for They're making them meet in

groups of smaller people like and then conference

calling in because they don't want to gather

the whole company together in one spot, just

in case. Why don't they just do a giant Zoom

call? That's the idea is that basically tech

firms like that, larger ones where you're employing

maybe 500, 600 people in a building, they'd rather

you stick with the people you always come in

contact with than have to communicate with other

people. And that's just a safety precaution right

now. They've also, uh, them and other bigger

companies like Microsoft, they've banned all

flights or any business trips. Uh, my brother

was going to go for a vacation down to the States

and, uh, he had to cancel it and he got a full

refund from the, uh, the plane ticket from the,

uh, reservations that the, uh, the hotel and

everything there, they have an actual relief,

uh, for anybody that doesn't want to travel due

to coronavirus right now. I didn't even know

that. They're willing to take the hit rather

than worry about somebody coming from Canada

that might have it. I mean, one of the things

I noticed, the Emerald City Comic -Cons coming

up and DC pulled all their panels. That's pretty

sick. Sony recently said they're moving up no

time to die from April until November now. I

had purchased a ticket on Thursday to go see

it. on Good Friday because we weren't going to

do anything with our family till like Sunday.

So I was like, oh, sweet, early showing of this.

And then I got a letter saying that we have to

refund your money because it's being moved by

several months. Like, what? OK. One of the other

emails I got today, my wife pre -ordered me the

Talking Baby Yoda toy, and Hasbro had said due

to the coronavirus concerns in China with our

supply chain there, we will be unable to fulfill

pre -orders for spring, which means May the 4th,

which is traditionally a very big day for like

Star Wars toys and everything else. They're not

gonna be able to meet the demand for toys that

day and I know there's there's delays with the

Nintendo switch Right now this is going to affect

the Xbox Series X or whatever the hell it's called

PS 5 will be affected. I promise you Things are

happening out there this this is serious in terms

of what's happening, but I don't think people

should still freak out yet Go off on their phone

Yeah, that was the amber alert. Okay, just pop

because I just had to go grab my phone to see

what the hell that was No here. Sorry here here.

We get like snow squalls like all the time and

which is basically just a big cloud of just snow

just Miraculously appears and starts like blowing

over the town Which which that does happen here

but No, I mean, I don't think we're quite at

that point yet, but I do see the precautionary

side of things of how they're, they're, they're

definitely trying to keep everyone secluded.

Now the big talk is, is there is a possibility,

and I don't want to lend any, this may be conspiratorial

in thinking, and you guys know me from my history

on twig. There's a possibility that the Olympics

could get canceled this year. And that is I can

so much money lost. If any country was going

to do it, it would be Japan. They have they're

a very clean country. They want to control everything.

The worst case scenario is they invite everybody

over and they have a million people show up and

they have their island basically completely contaminated.

And then what happens to the high tech world?

Yeah. That's why I honestly think they should

cancel the Olympics this year. Do people even

really watch the Olympics anymore other than

reading the results or seeing highlights? Honestly,

there's big money in advertising. It's still

culturally relevant, but it's not culturally

relevant to us. I could see them running the

Olympics, but just not allowing it to be open

to the public and only having the athletes compete

and have the media there. I think it's too much

of a risk for them. I mean, ultimately we'll

have to wait and see. It would, we will have

a decision by at the latest, I'm guessing May.

Well, when does it start the Olympics? Cause

they'll have, they have to July, August, I think

we'll know. Yeah. It'll be middle of May. We'll

know soon because that's when they're going to

start constructing the, like the, the, everything

is probably already ready for this. Oh God. Everything's

ready to go. Now the only, the only thing that

won't be is May is when they're going to start

building vendor spots. So it's not already done

now. Yeah. Also, he'll tank the hotel industry.

Oh, yeah. It's gonna be bad. Traveling right

now is not in anybody's best interest. I also

read articles that certain countries are banning.

What's that called? Oh, I'm gonna draw a blank

on it. Were you sleeping in somebody's home?

A habitation? Airbnbs? Yes, that's it. They're

banning it. until it's over like from being allowed

to be run in the country because you can't control

who you can't control who comes to your place

or track who comes to your place yeah that makes

a certain degree of sense whereas a hotel takes

your passport they know who you are so if you

do get infected they can trace it they can actually

call you and tell you to quarantine yourself

yeah yeah and What's funny is I'm supposed to

travel twice during the summer. And so like we're

we're kind of wondering if for work purposes,

we're kind of wondering if they're going to cancel

or have to reschedule things based on the fact

that, you know, you could catch something from

flying in an airplane or you can catch something

from being around, you know, thousands of people.

So is it too far for you to drive sort of thing?

Well, one of them is one of the we're shooting

a thing for for work in Canada. Oh, like north

of you or our way? Like Toronto. So you better

come up and see us if you do get here and we're

not all dead. Yeah, we'll make it. It's not a

wasteland. And then the other one I got to go

to, it's it's like a giant conference of of people

and it's it's in Indiana. Well, that's pretty

neat to hear. That's also. That's the heartland

right so I Don't see it being as bad like I thought

you were gonna say something like you're going

to a coastal city that has like a huge airport

Toronto should be fine Yeah, Toronto should I

would think so because they're like they've only

it's mid -july so they've only received like

Two additional cases in Toronto. So they're up

to like six cases out of five million people

in the area I think it's 15 across Ontario. Yeah.

Then that's basically in nobody's died yet though.

Yeah. In 15, 10 to 15 million people only like

that's what like 0 .1 % or less. Yeah. It's,

it's a remarkably low number and most of those

people are already in the self kind of quarantine.

And the people that are getting affected, like

younger people. The concerning thing is young

people aren't getting like usually really little

kids get affected by the flu like that. They're

not getting affected. Yeah, which is, which is

odd. It's people with compromised immune systems

and the elderly, which means someone like me

would be vulnerable because I have the compromised

immune system due to my amputation and the diabetes.

Yeah. So I'm not going outside for a while. And

that's just more a choice than anything. Here's

the scary thing. So normally a virus like this

if it's on a surface will die within like a day

you know or the maximum like a couple hours they

can't live on metal like they'll touch metal

it'll stay for a little bit with that but without

a human contact it doesn't work they've been

doing tests and the corona virus can live for

multiple days on steel so wow and it's not transmitted

the same way it's not like just through coughing

it's been it's like they believe it can be from

touch So it's but that's what's not been proven

right there. They don't believe it can come from

person to person yet It has to come out of one

of your Like some sort of fluid or coughing and

then if you get that on yourself and spread it

to your mouth or whatever but the idea that You

know a doorknob could have it on it for multiple

days without if somebody leaves that house Doesn't

come home for four or five days and it's still

on the doorknob so when I'm going into the like

stores now, I'm like I'll walk and if I'm walking

out there and I've got a cane or something, I

will poke the wheelchair button and walk in that

way. I'm not touching doors until this gets cleared

up. I think we'll see a major reduction within

probably six to eight. They are working on a

vaccine now, but that can take up to a year and

a half. If we don't see, let's say by the time

May rolls around when we're figuring the Olympics

will either be on or off. We don't hear that

it's dramatically increased in cases in the next

five weeks. Then we'll probably have a beat or

at least significantly contained. Yeah. Like

I, again, take normal precautions, be smart,

be intelligent, only listen to health organizations

like, like, um, the CDC, your local health or

or organizations talk to your local doctor, whatever,

but be smart. And that's pretty much information

is your only weapon. Don't fall down the whole

of being racist. Oh, I shouldn't go near anybody

who looks Chinese. Like you see people saying

or Indian or Indian or, or middle Eastern. They're

all dirty and have the, have that disease stay

away from them. Cause you see a lot of that online

and it's like, yeah, the racism has gotten really

bad. Especially for people when it's like, They're

like, oh, like, I'm Korean. There's no cases

there. And also, I've never been there. Like,

like you have so many people that are born in

the States and born in Canada that have never

even been to where their family came from. And

they're getting hit with the racism over it.

Yeah, like it's terrible. So ultimately, people

just for lack of a better phrase, don't be an

idiot and don't be an asshole. Don't hide so

much. Don't hide behind ignorance. Exactly. Information

is the best weapon. Yep. So so now that we have

that unpleasant way. So transitioning over to

the fun part now that we've kind of destroyed

that topic. Well, with good information, though,

it's our top five films that we're interested

in right now, not necessarily like our top five

of all time or our top five favorite. You know,

it can be pretty much anything. For instance,

you know. I've been watching a ton of movies

lately, or at least trying, some for research,

some for just, I need something to do to relax

my brain at the end of the day. So what are some

of the films that you guys have been kind of

interested in? Well, I guess I'll start to kind

of let everybody gather their thoughts for just

a couple of moments here. I'll probably do my

first couple. Uh, so recently me and my wife,

Blair is part of our anniversary. And plus just

to reestablish that man or that husband, wife

bond, we decided to take a dive, a deep dive

into the Harry Potter franchise. And the main

reason we did that is Harry Potter is her star

Wars. She can tell me what a Wingardium Leviosa

does, how a horcrux works, how the Patronus charm

is done. She can tell me the wand movements.

She can tell me that. I can tell her how an X

-Wing works, what a kyber crystal does, how Kylo

Ren does X. This is her passion. So over the

past couple of weeks, we've been watching the

Harry Potter movies, and I've really discovered

a new love and appreciation of that franchise.

I liked it before, but now I think I love it

on a more deep level. And I dare I might say

these films may be creeping into top 10 territory,

or at least in terms of franchises anyway. So

to kind of kick things off, I probably would

say that... One of the films that's vibing with

me right now would probably be Harry Potter and

the Goblet of Fire. And that one catches a lot

of particular flack because it features Robert

Pattinson in one of his first roles. He plays

Cedric Diggory, who's the champion from Hufflepuff,

who eventually gets killed by Voldemort. But

it also features the relationships deepening

over the course of the year between Ron, Harry,

and Hermione. And you really just see how the,

the John Williams score starts to evolve. The

special effects take a noticeable step up from

Azkaban. You have great performances from everybody

in that movie. I mean, and I used to. be part

of the hate train for Robert Pattinson too. And

I fully own that, but I go back and rewatch that

movie and I appreciate this kid more now, especially

seeing how far he's come with his role in the

lighthouse and more recently, uh, the Batman

that comes out next year. So I've been really

vibing with these movies kind of recently, and

it's kind of nice to find a passion for a franchise

that I haven't necessarily felt. since Star Wars

in the mid 90s when I was really heavily playing

the Star Wars role playing game during high school

at lunch. The passion with the franchise has

become so ingrained in me in the last couple

of weeks in that I've been hanging out on Reddit

a lot like you can find me on the Harry Potter

subreddit at multiple hours of the day and there's

an online publication called The Quibbler that

they publish every quarter and I'm actually submitting

an article for it right now or I'm working on

one I'm probably going to publish during the

summer and I'm approaching it like a college

thesis In so much so, I'm gathering primary and

secondary resources. I have books. I'm interviewing

someone about developing points involving emotional

intelligence and the evolving journey of the

hero and personal self growth over the course

of the series. And I spoke to the editor. of

that today. And they said no one's ever written

anything this in depth for us or talked about

the topic this in depth before. We're really

looking forward to it. And I think that's the

main reason why this has stuck with me so much

has become something that's become my favorite

recently. It's not often I get this excited about

a franchise. I mean, Alex and I have been friends

for years, but you probably haven't seen me care

this much about something in a very long time.

Not since I got you into Stargate and then you

just disappeared out of that after a couple of

weeks of going into hardcore. Yeah, this just

caught me in a different way. The reason you

dropped out is that's when you had your amputation

and then you just never got back into it. Yeah.

So maybe once I write my article, maybe I'll

go back and look at Stargate under a different

eye, because that's something I want my media

to speak to me. Like, like I know we talked about

our favorite fictional characters a couple of

weeks back and it's really got me thinking and

I examined a conversation and I, I don't mean

to throw this person under the bus, but I'm going

to have to for the sake of this example is one

of the people we work with. on geocast radio

occasionally is Blanchard and Blanchard said,

I'm never watching Harry plopper. And if I never

hear that joke a bit again, it'll be too goddamn

soon. But I started to think what was it about

that that drew somebody so far away from enjoying

a story? What's what is essentially about destiny,

empowerment, choosing your own path. Your bloodline

is not determining greatness. And I looked about

and I kind of looked at some of the things he

likes, like with the Marvel movies and everything

else. And I don't see a whole lot of differentiation.

Like there's some great stories in Marvel. There's

a great story in Harry Potter. Yeah, J .K. Rowling

is definitely a problematic figure within her

own fiction because she says some controversial

things from time to time, and it's not exactly

good for the community around it. So say what

you will. People don't want to change or learn

or listen. That's the reason. Honestly, first

impressions, apparently to some people can be

everything. And if you've gone into it with a

negative thought initially, nothing will change

that person's mind no matter how good it is.

And there'll be bullshit explanations as to why

they don't like it. But it boils down to, I said

I don't like it, so I never will. See, I didn't

see the big issue with the movies themselves.

For me, it's more of a personal taste thing.

So I enjoyed them for what they were. I understood

the stories. They were good. The acting was good,

especially after they swapped out the Dumbledore

actor later after the first couple of films.

And and then after that point, it was it was

really good. I just I kind of was like, OK, I'm

over it. I've watched it. It's it's not bad.

But like I really gave it a watch. You tried.

Yeah. Well, that's the thing, too, is I'll try

anything just about once. And then for the most

part, I memorize the movies. And so I never have

a reason to go back unless I really like the

movie or unless I forget it. And that wasn't

one of my go -to films, so I probably won't revisit

it. But to me, that being said, I gave it a chance,

whereas Blanchard and I'm not trying to throw

him under the bus, even though it's going to

sound that way. He also still associates Ryan

Reynolds with Green Lantern and Van Wilder, which

I enjoyed both of those movies for what they

were. Yes, Green Lantern was utter garbage, but.

it was the gateway to getting him to play Wade

Wilson. It's what I was saying about first impressions.

Blanchard is somebody who once he sees something

once, that's all he ever wants to learn or hear

about. He wants no more change. That person is

forever that one thing. And that's it. Unless

that person also happened to be in something

from the 1980s. If that person did something

in the 1980s, it's okay for them to do anything

from now on, even if it's garbage. They'll still

like them because... You mean like Dallas? Yeah.

Yeah, and like the main reason I brought that

up... You got cancelled because I said something?

Yeah. The main reason I bring up that example

is the fact that I was able to go back and rewatch

these movies with a fresh pair of eyes, be willing

to accept someone's passion as my own. And I'm

thankful that I went back and did that because

not many franchises have ever done that to me.

I mean, I, I mean, I love Ghostbusters, but I

can fall in and out of love with that year to

year, depending on what the fandom does. And

with Harry Potter, I saw them. movies in there.

I've seen every single one in theater, and I've

only ever seen them once or twice afterwards.

But going through these movies again, I actually

had moments of self reflection, and I was willing

to look beyond them. And so much so I was looking

at the philosophical elements, the journey of

the hero, and just learning be willing to look

beyond what was on the screen look to intent.

And I think great art does that great art. forces

you, asks you great questions, asks you uncomfortable

questions, and does things that the art is transformative.

And I can't think of many movies right now that

have done that to me, and they're not just simple

kids' movies, because if a kid has the emotional

and, I guess, self -awareness, it can teach some

things too, like hard work. pays off. You are

not the circumstances of your birth. You choose

your own path. And I think there's something

very empowering about that. And I think it's

a very healthy message for kids to learn too.

Also, it helps that there is a cohesive vision

for the show or like for all of them. Like they're

infinitely better than any of the Transformers

movies. Any one of those movies, and any one

of those movies is better than any of the Transformers.

Even Bumblebee. Bumblebee is good, but the Harry

Potter movies will stand the test of time. They're

just not even subjective. They're just objectively

better made, better written movies. And when

somebody says, I will never watch something on

principle, that's when I have a problem with

them and they shouldn't have the right to even

have an opinion because they refuse to even watch.

You should be willing to assimilate new data.

I'm not trying to throw them under the bus, but

you don't get to have an opinion and your opinion

doesn't matter if you refuse to even watch. Or

if you watch out of spite and refuse to give

it any praise because you want to just make your

point. It was a fun movie for what it was. So

that's the last I'll say on that, because I heard

that Harry plopper thing incessantly, and it's

like, but why? And it gets thrown back at us

with the whole, oh, everybody just makes fun

of Nickelback because they're popular. But that's

the reason you said you made fun of Harry Potter.

Well, the other thing is the Transformer movies

are really bad. They're not going and they're

just they're just a bunch of their blockbuster

movies. They're just a bunch of grinding metal

slamming around like 86 is, you know, it's OK.

It's secret. It's going to show up on my list.

It's one of my favorite movies. It's still a

bad movie. Like it's just it's not still animation

errors everywhere. Well, and it's not a well

written movie. It's not a well executed movie.

It's higher budget than anything they did. But

like. I try to judge each movie on its own merits.

I like the Harry Potter movies. I've never seen

them since I saw them in theaters. I recommend

you go back and watch the director's cuts, especially.

Yeah, I haven't seen the first two movies' director's

cuts because I made the mistake of reading the

second book before I saw the movie in theaters

when I was in grade 10, I think, and I watched

them. That's not what happens exactly because

I remember reading the book and my favorite parts

weren't in the movie So I refused to ever read

a book before the movie came out ever again And

then I never actually went back to read any of

the books because I just let myself enjoy the

movies as they came But yeah, so that's your

that's your first one. Yes. What are the ones?

The other one. Um, it's gonna be kind of a dual

entry or I could almost lump these together,

but I'm going to consider it a dual entry. And

it was it part one and part two. So these are

the movies that came out adapted from the Stephen

King book of the same name that came out in the

late 80s, early 90s and further upon the ABC

mini series in the 90s with Jonathan Brandis,

Seth Green, et cetera, et cetera. So it takes.

the story of it, this creature from another planet

or plane of existence that feeds on fear, kills

kids every 30 years in the town of Derry, Maine.

And these group of kids team up against it, eventually

kill it. Or so they think it goes to sleep, but

things start happening 30 years later, the town

wakes up and they got to come back and kill this

thing. And what I liked about it is Stephen King

adaptations. They're either really good or they're

really bad. And depending on who you get doing

the property, like Frank, uh, Darabont did the

green mile Shawshank redemption. He also did

the mist, which are three really good adaptations,

the pet cemetery remake from last year. nobody

talks about, but I thought was really good. And

Doctor Sleep, a lot of people slept on, I think.

And Castle Rock's great. And Castle Rock is great

too. So with the It movies, it's one of those

movies that a lot of people had a lot of, is

this going to work? Because seeing Bill Sarsgaard,

I think that's his name, who plays Pennywise

the Dancing Clown, you have to nail the look

of the monster. And they got this creepy guy,

the right look, the right deranged appeal to

him. And the strength of the actors, both in

young and old, is fantastic. I'd say the first

part's better than the second. The second one's

probably a little too long by probably about

20 minutes. And it has terrible CG. Yeah, God.

But it sucks you in. Like it gets you like peril

like the first movie I'd like you it's no big

secret. I'm a big A big horror movie fan here

on the show. I jumped I'm like Jesus I jumped

out of my seat as much as I possibly could blared

the cover her eyes for a second biting my arm

off as scary as hell Oh, yeah, because you don't

see it coming Especially because you're expecting

it to be like the ABC miniseries with like Tim

Curry Children don't usually get murdered on

screen. No, I haven't seen a child that many

child deaths in years. And same thing happens

with Dr. Sleep as well. How sadistic and brutal

it is, like something you would never have seen

in theaters back then. It would have had to be

a director's cut. Yeah, like there was something

that these movies are tapping into what makes

the Stephen King movies scary. Some of it is

some right downright unpleasantness like in it

too there's some pretty open homophobia and racism

and that's pretty brutal and kind of sick unnecessary

yes to a degree but it's an ugly reality um and

I just think how well Stephen King's works are

being treated now I'm excited to see what's going

to happen with the stand because the last time

it was made was in the 90s with like Gary Sinise,

Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Dauber from Coach,

stuff like that. So we're going to see it remade.

Yeah. If they could go back to the 90s TV movies

and really give them a good budget on theatrical.

I was terrified as a child of the Langoliers

and I laughed my head off when I watched it a

couple months back and went, this is so bad.

So incredibly bad. But my little, not my little,

like my nine year old brain or whatever it was

when it came out, freaked the hell out of me.

And I had nightmares. So if you could take that

and actually do it now, the idea of the Langoliers

of everybody wakes up on a plane and they have

to land it and they're an hour behind everybody

else. and time starts to eat away at itself.

Like, that's a really cool idea. Although they

showed up and they were basically like these

like Pac -Men. Screen saver monsters. They look

like the web creature from Reboot. With teeth

that were like saw blades that were eating up

time and it looks so bad. if you did it now where

you didn't show the monsters you just showed

like empty void where they should be and like

yeah and the void getting larger and larger and

larger and and like closing in on them you could

make a really good movie like it'd be the kind

of thing where you could do it on a low budget

have the people that are redid the invisible

man and the Blumhouse picture stuff and have

them do it you could do these things and it's

proven that you can do them on a decent budget

Yeah, I mean, like that's, like I said, that's

why these movies are vibing with because people

are finally, not even so much finally, the technology

and the directors are here now to take the work

seriously. And I'm glad they did. I think that

more people should check out. the Stephen King

adaptations that have come out, especially in

the last couple of years, the stand is one to

keep an eye on, especially when the trailers

come out for that within like a year, presumably.

Now, that being said, the Dark Tower was terrible,

which is unfortunate because it was based on

a pretty popular book series. So well, and I

know there was like a TV series scheduled, but

it got Shikan. Dark Tower should have been HBO

series, if anything. Yeah. So that's unfortunate,

but it is what it is. Um, another movie I really

caught and I caught this, um, in, uh, Oscar season

and I don't know which one to go with. So maybe

Alex, maybe you could help me out here. Cause

I know you've seen both. I can talk about either

1917 or Jojo rabbit. I didn't, I didn't see Jojo.

Um, but I've heard okay. It looks really good.

I know a lot of people have seen it and like

it I would say 1917 Here's my idea of favorite

movies are ones I can watch more than once I

Don't know if I could watch either of those multiple

times. Maybe Jojo more I think 1917, I might

go back and revisit every so often because the

main reason as Steve had, this is what's vibing

with us right now. 1917 is one of those movies

that every couple or every at least 10 years

or so we get some iconic movie that portrays

a historical event in the nineties. We had saving

private Ryan. We had Titanic in the two thousands,

despite what people may say. We had Pearl Harbor,

right? In the 2010s, which just passed, we had

1917. In 1917, the story boils down to two soldiers

in a regiment are sent to deliver orders to a

company of soldiers that's cut off and they're

walking right into an ambush. And eventually

a series of mishaps happens along the way and

it gets down to one guy. But what follows is

the journey, how he has to deal with being alone,

cut off. It's very intense. It's very gripping.

And it's seen as one seamless shot, more or less.

There are very few noticeable cuts. It's no wonder

this won multiple Oscars this past year. It's

just, it's so well put together that you feel

like you're with them. Like you're walking around

with a hundred pounds of equipment on your back

with your five round rifle in your hand hunting

down these German soldiers. And it's something

so intense. I can't think of another war movie

that has touched me much like say Saving Private

Ryan, which was good, but was spectacle. the

one I was saving private sorry go ahead sorry

if you were gonna point to one there's been a

lot of war movies in the last 10 -15 years like

there was Miracle at St. Anna uh uh there was

uh Inglorious Basterds and all the only one that

came close to this feeling was Fury the Tank

one with uh uh Brad Pitt Shia LaBeouf who didn't

shower the entire time he filmed for realism

apparently Wow It's like Johnny Depp not brushing

his teeth during Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah,

it's it's a world. God. It's a world war two

tank movie and That in that movie the I saw in

theaters and it was that sort of feeling where

you're like, oh my like you're so engrossed it

was so intense that I was sitting near the front

and There was an elderly man. He had to be like

90 something and he was there and the movie's

over And he's still sitting there and he was

sobbing uncontrollably watching it because he

was probably there. You know what I mean? And

an usher comes in and sits down next to him and

is just sitting with them, letting him cry because

of how, how he, how he was like, it was so real

that he couldn't take it. And had like my brother

and I, you know, noticed it, you know, few seats

down from us, we would have sat next to him and,

you know, helped him out a bit. But like, apparently

he had been like that for a while. And the only

times I've heard of that sort of thing happening

was when when that came out, you heard of all

the people having PTSD after seeing it that had

been in the war. And I can feel like 1917 is

so long ago. There's nobody alive that fought

in the war anymore. But I feel like had this

movie come out, let's say 25 years ago, that

old man could have been like that. That's how

intense it was, like how real that world was.

So, yeah, I can say out of the two, probably

1917, I could see being one of the better ones

of your pick. It's just not the most rewatchable

one because it's one of those stories that stays.

So intense. Yeah. Probably won't forget it. So

you don't really have a need to watch it again,

unless you're watching with new people. Yeah.

I mean, it's definitely something you're not

going to talk during, which is kind of nice too,

because it's just, it's so intense and it's such

a memorable story with such great actors, performances

all around. And it's not spent like saving private

Ryan was good. But it was spectacle at the same

time with like a sniper battle, Tom Hanks versus

a tank, or it's not full metal jacket where the

first half is them training on Paris Island to

go to Vietnam, which was social commentary at

the time. And then the battle against the sniper,

um, which was more. This is my opinion on Vietnam

and it sucks. This was a story about two people

and. that it became a story about one person.

I guess to move on to my next pick, something

a little bit more lighthearted, but this is a

biopic. Came out last year, Rocketman. Rocketman

is the life story up to a certain point of Elton

John. And Elton John's a musician that I've always

enjoyed. I've always liked his music. I've heard

like Saturday nights, all right for fighting.

I'm still standing. Everybody knows candle on

the wind. Can you feel the love tonight from

the frigging lion King? Everybody knows who Elton

John is. His big goofy glasses, his dumb outfits.

But regardless, I didn't know a lot about the

man. So seeing it through this musical history,

this experience. really spoke to me. And I had

some genuine moments of just feeling like crying.

And at the end of the movie, he's facing his

drug addiction and his alcoholism and how it's

driven him apart from almost everybody. And he

starts and the movie ends with him in rehab and

he's walked off stage is in his costume. And

he's telling them, my name is Elton John. And

he stands up and he starts doing the dance from

I'm Still Standing and the walls pan out. And

then he breaks into the glorious I'm Still Standing

song. And it's just enough of a different arrangement

that it struck such an emotionally resonant chord

with me. that I cried because that song has always

been to me about surviving heartbreak surviving

hardship and basically picking yourself up from

the pieces that someone had hurt you so badly

it broke you apart and rocket man gave me just

a lot of hope and just some of the music was

just fun the music was just engaging and I can't

think of many movies like musicals that have

really hit me like that. Now I still haven't

seen Bohemian Rhapsody or Blinded by the Light

or Yesterday. Blinded by the Light I'm really

curious about because that's the Bruce Springsteen

one where the like Middle Eastern kid learns

about Bruce Springsteen during like the 80s.

So I'm really curious to see that one. I'm trying

to think of another movie here that really kind

of hit with me. Oh, man. Well, I guess the easy

one, because you said you're going to mention

Transformers 86. I'll mention my favorite movie

of all time, so I'm going to re -watch it endlessly.

Aliens. Recently started thinking about James

Cameron, the very famous Canadian director. And

I started thinking about what's his best sequel.

And it came down between Terminator 2 and Aliens.

And I think Aliens is probably the film that

I like the most. I like the journey of Ripley,

who started out in Alien as a victim who became

a fighter, not by using brawn and weapons, but

did it by being smart and clever. And then in

the second movie, Aliens, she goes out to face

her fears to challenge what hunted down her and

her friends aboard the Nostromo. And then she

meets Hicks and Hudson and the rest of the Colonial

Marines until only it's her, Hicks, Hudson and

Bishop left. And I just really like the Ripley

character. I've always admired that strong female

presence in Hollywood. And when she says, get

away from her, you bitch, and fights the alien

queen with the power loader, I can't just...

to help it smile because it's so cool. Or when

she's walking through the alien hive just wasting

them with the pulse rifle flame thrower combo.

It's cool. It's one of the best action movies

I've ever seen because it knows enough when to

let scenes percolate. It gives you enough of

the universe to make it interesting. Like you're

not wondering how does it work. You just know

there are freezers in space. It takes an incredibly

long time to cross distances. Corporations in

the future still suck because Weyland -Yutani

sells out an entire colony to harvest these alien

samples. And they did it because they wanted

it for bio weapons research. And this little

girl has been surviving on her own for weeks

at a time, months even. And she's watched her

brother, her mother and her father die to become

alien drones. And she has PTSD. I think that's

incredible. So, yeah, when I think back on this,

as much as I love T2 and the action scenes in

it, I think Aliens is a better story. But Terminator

2, however, can make me cry because when the

Terminator lowers himself into the steel and

says, I now know why you cry, it's something

I can never do. That scene tears the heart right

out of my chest every single time since 1991.

I guess those are my top five, right? That's

five movies. That's about five right there. Okay,

so good luck following that up. I got my list.

I had it written since the beginning. Good boy.

I have a couple honorable mentions that I'll

just say first and not really go into them because

I was like, how do I add these in? Videodrome

is one and that's just sort of because I love

Kronenberg movies and it's sort of just the quintessential

one. Cool, that's why throw away also me myself

and Irene It's probably very my favorite Jim

Carrey movie It's the other ones. I'll laugh

at scenes here and there but it's the only one

I laugh the whole way through probably because

it's such a cruel dark comedy which is like way

up my my style like like just the ridiculousness

of it like where he's When he has his Hank his

his evil half take over And then like, he's like

in, I don't even know what I should say because

so many things he does are so bad. Like he's

in the shopping, you know, in the grocery store

and he sees a baby breastfeeding. And then the

next thing you hear the baby crying, the woman

looks down and he's sucking her boob. Like, just

like, basically it's everything that, every evil

thought that comes into his head, he just does

as Hank. or his neighbor's dog always comes over

and poops on his lawn. So he just one day snaps

and pulls his pants down and takes a dump in

the front of his neighbor right in front of his

lawn, or just the ridiculousness of it. I love

when something is so over the top, which fits

my personality. So it has the funniest scene

I've ever seen in a movie, which is the scene

where near the end, they're on the bridge. And

he's like, just put the gun away. Just put the

gun away. And then he gets his thumb shot off.

And he just starts crying. Where's my thumb?

And just the way it's so dark, which is so me.

So that's my honorable mention. It's not one

of my favorites all the time. It's just one of

the ones that I can go back to whenever I want

something ridiculous to put on. That and Anthony

Anderson playing his son who's like an astrophysicist

genius is hilarious. hearing him swear and talk

talk like he always talks in every movie only

he happens to be brilliant which is it's great

um but my five these are probably my five favorites

overall like i'll go through a phase where i'll

like a movie a lot and that might enter my list

but these are my five go -to's probably forever

until i find something you know That I can watch

a hundred times in a row and still like these

are all movies that I've seen minimum 10 to 15

times some more Like so I'll just start off with

transformers 86. I've seen it probably three

to five hundred times I Have my beta cassette

still on my shelf here from when I was five years

old Can you quote the movie without having your

monitor on? Oh, yeah. I can do all that sort

of stuff. Me and Alex did that when we saw the

movie together on the big screen. We turned off

the audio and we were reciting the lines as they

were going to happen and then even did the sound

effects. So, yeah. And I cried during the touch.

Like a bitch. What's funny is Blanchard had his

monitor go out about three years ago and he was

sitting there listening to the movie and live

tweeting it. Wow. That's next level. It's my

go -to. It's like, you know what? I need to kill

half hour, turn my brain off. I watched that

movie on my beta cassette every day after kindergarten

and grade one. So that's about 180 times minimum

that year or those two years. And I watched that

beta cassette until our beta machine died in

like 1997. When I was like 11 or 12 years old,

my parents got me the VHS. which I watched until

the tape died. That's funny, the beta cassette

lasted like several hundred views, and it only

has an error when it gets to the part where Unicron

explodes. It sort of has a tracking error. But

that's it. That tape has lasted over 30 years.

Over several moves and last time my grandparents

still had a beta cassette machine like five years

ago I popped the tape in and it still worked

after watching several hundred times So it's

really too bad beta didn't take over because

it was a way more impressive than VHS dying,

you know VHS tape would die after like 20 uses

if it wasn't stored properly I have it on beta

VHS. I had the Rhino release at one point. I

had the Was it the Sony release where they put

it on two discs? Yep. I have the Blu -ray. I

also have the UK Blu -ray that I imported when

I was in high school when that first came out

when I was in grade 12. I also have the official

Chinese release. It's not pirated. It's the official

release for the region in China. Is that the

one that came in the wooden box? Yes. Had that

too. I have the wooden box and I don't have the

box anymore I have just the plastic in inner

part and it has everything and it includes headmasters,

too Oh my god here. Wait a minute. That has the

English dub of headmasters on it. I Never I haven't

even watched that in like 15 years. So yeah,

so I've got the the English dub Like I guess

it's the Singapore dub or something So so yes,

anyway, that's how much I've liked that and that's

I have it basically in every format available.

I had a VCD at one point too. So that was interesting.

Basically watching a VHS on a CD. So not much

more we can say about it because we've talked

about it forever, but that's one of my go -tos.

It's just, it's got to be on my list because

it's one of the most influential things on my

life. Number two, Boogie Nights. Good movie.

Fairly enjoy that. My favorite drama, I think,

pretty much of all time. I'll have a few others

pop in and out now and then where I I'm like,

I really like that movie. That's a really solid

movie Like I really like the movie the game Michael

Douglas, I also really like pretty much anything

that The alien 3 director has put out except

for alien 3 because that would venture right?

Yeah, pretty much everything he's put out has

been amazing girls dragon tattoo everything but

I would say my go -to for dramas, as far as like

super high quality is I like Tarantino, but his

movies aren't the greatest. They're they're fun

rides, but they're really not fantastic movies.

Anything Paul Thomas Anderson does, though, with

Boogie Nights. He did Magnolia. What else? There

will be blood. Few other movies, but like that

Boogie Nights is probably my favorite drama of

all time. It has every element that I like it's

based in these of the 70s of the 80s in this

case both great music Great ensemble cast interesting

story. It's about pornos It's it's hey it has

the touch in it he sings it or tries to sing

it it has very memorable scenes, there's William

H. Macy going crazy? William H. Macy going crazy.

Dr. Octopus as a gay movie producer who has a

Chinese slave boy that uses fireworks in his

house. And they try to do a drug deal with him

and he wants them to smoke crack, but they won't.

So then the Punisher tries to rob him and gets

blasted with a shotgun. Thomas Jane? Yes. Wow.

Yes. It's my favorite Scene in any movie ever

is the coke and cash scene, which I will send

a link There's a YouTube video of it. It is the

most tense scene ever seen and it actually has

there's part where Mark Wahlberg Like looks like

has this dazed look at his face when he's there

like, you know questioning. What am I doing with

my life? That wasn't intentional. He forgot his

lines So he sat there and they kept the camera

on him for like 30 seconds until they just moved

on to something else and they didn't want to

redo the take because he actually looked like

He ended up looking like they wanted him to look,

but they paused at him for so long because he's

just like, you can see he's panicking because

it was only his second movie. Uh, before that

he had done a big hit, no fear. Oh, okay. And

that he did this and the big hit was the year

later. Okay. So, uh, it's also, it's also that

not only is it like a a look into the porn industry

of when things went from being they tried to

make real films but have them be like erotica

to moving into the video you know sleaziness

that happened in the 80s and 90s when it went

to being just a you know basically cash grab

cash grab horrible no acting no safety standards

all that sort of shit when it was actually in

the 70s for a while you could go to a regular

theater and they would show pornos because it

was like a prestige thing also It's basically

the story of John Holmes. Because in the movie,

they're making movies that are the Johnny Wad

movies. So if, Mike, I know you've had a fascination

with that. Wasn't there a documentary about?

Yes. And it's incredibly well done and so many

good interviews. Yes. So about him, it's basically

that. It's the story of that mixed with, you

know, Hollywoodism and everything into it. So.

It's got all these fantastic actors. It jumps

through, uh, you know, multi points in time.

It touches upon everything that I like in a nostalgic

style movie. So it's always on my list of favorite

movies. I watched it on VHS when I was like 14

and it became my favorite movie for like the

longest time. Uh, third movie Starship Troopers.

Good pick. Very good pick. I like Paul Verhoeven's

movies, pretty much every one. Hollow Man used

to be my favorite Invisible Man movie, but the

new Invisible Man movie is way better. But Starship

Troopers has everything I like in a sci -fi movie.

Space battles, huge elaborate sets, over -the

-top tongue -in -cheek extreme violence. Political

satire. Political satire, Michael Ironside. Misunderstood

with the media. It's got everything I like. Also,

it has Doogie Howser using psychic powers to

talk to a slug. And a ferret. Correct. Cyrano,

go get mom. And it has the it has the Kurgan

as a drill sergeant. And who else? Casper Van

Dien. Yes. And you get to see Dina Meyer's boobs,

which I'm very happy with at the time when I

saw it. I saw the movie when I was 12. She was

such a great part in that movie. She was a great

supporting character. And you know, she's underrated

too when she was in Nemesis as the Romulan that

helps them out at the end. Oh, yeah. She's the

captain. Yeah. And she's she's been pretty good

in almost everything, but she sort of like disappeared

for a long time. Yeah, a lot of smaller television

now. And it's the it's one of the only it's one

of two movies that I actually like Jake Bucian.

That and the frighteners. So hardcore agree on

that. Pretty much it. So overall, and it was

like good cast. Probably it's the peak of the

Paul Verhoeven political satire. Like he had

moments in Robocop. He had moments in his other

other properties like Total Recall. But I feel

like this was where they gave him the most freedom.

And then it just didn't click with audiences

back then. There's a great video. It's done by

Joe blow and they talk about what happened with

this movie and they talk about a lot of studio

Interference happened, but they let Verhoeven

pretty much do what he wanted and that was a

bonus and a detriment to it because they said

I remember this movie being very heavily advertised

with with blurs song too. And it wasn't advertised

as a set as a satire was advertised as a straight

action movie, which it is to a point. You have

to look into the movie beyond. This is big monster

fights. There is something very entertaining

going on here, but it's deeper than that because

the, um, the United citizenry or the United federation,

whatever it's called. Well, exactly. If you look

at the movie, the best part is, if you watch

the movie... Fascists! It's not a good place

to be a part of. What you end up with is... Paul

Perhova does political satire like nobody else.

Just a blow up bug, stupid action movie. But

when you watch it, and you're watching with all

the little videos, the little pop -ups that happen

on the screen, all of the story is really told...

through not what the news is telling you, but

what the news is not telling you. That's the

actual story. So they're like, the bugs started

this attack. Did they? It's like, they attacked

our new colony. Why? Doesn't matter. They did.

So we have to go to war. Or when they're showing

people being executed for protests. The protest

was just questioning whether or not we started

the war. and they're getting hung and on public

executions. And it's just like, you're supposed

to enjoy watching it. It's just a part of life.

For instance, or when, when the Klendathu drop

attack is, you know, horribly goes wrong, you

know, and all these people die. You know, if

it had been anybody, you know, in the regular

soldier that did it, they'd be executed. But

what happens is the person at the top says, I

am sorry, steps down, shakes the hand of the

replacement and nothing happens to them. They

literally let thousands of people die and their

punishment is they shook hands and stepped down

and then later on in the you know sequel movies

and that it's it's revealed that like the people

that stepped down they ended up becoming like

Pop stars singing songs like it's ridiculous

the people at the top don't get punished the

people at the bottom end up You know being destroyed

really really good movie I literally could not

agree more. It's one of my favorite feel -good

movies. If I haven't guaranteed two hours to

kill, it's one I'll always put on too. Amazing

soundtrack. Cost $105 million to make, made $120

something, made its money back, but was considered

to flop. It's probably the most money Paul Verhoeven

will ever get to use to make a movie because

he's in his 80s now. I just wish he would come

back and do one more American movie. He'd be

a guy I'd invite back to do... another RoboCop,

especially with today's political climate, it

would be very interesting to see how that would

turn out. I would like him to take on something

like, you know, look at what if there's a popular

sci -fi or, you know, book that came out in the

last little bit, you know, maybe a political

satire type thing, have him take on a new property,

just, you know, start it off, do one. I feel

like he's been away long enough. Like his his

last American major movie was Yeah, that wasn't

like oh one or oh two and then He did black book

which was well in English, but it was a Dutch

movie about World War two And then he's done

a couple little ones here and there he did a

French movie I think in like in French even and

He basically moved away from Hollywood in 2003

yet. He's probably one of the best directors

of the 80s and 90s It's just too bad. He's not

doing anything My next one is one that you recently

saw with me, Grandma's Boy. It's my go -to comedy.

That is my go -to put on for an hour and a half.

There's plenty of other comedies and especially

like, you can put on the American Pie movies,

you can put on 80s comedies, like you can put

on things like Uncle Buck or Plains Trades and

Automobiles, but I'll usually end up watching

those for specific scenes. This is the movie,

Grandma's Boy, that I'll put on to watch the

whole movie straight through every single time.

And it's not had a blu -ray release. It's only

had a DVD releases It's like four bucks if you

find it in a bargain bin. It's basically Dude

works as a game tester testing Xbox games Everybody

gets high and then they got one really annoying

guy that that's thinks is better than everybody

else exactly and And who thinks he's in the matrix

basically yeah, and it's the most ridiculous

stupid comedy. It's one of the best Happy Madison

movies that's ever been done. It's the closest

Happy Madison ever got to doing the Judd Apatow

super bad style of comedy. It has like the same

sort of banter that they would have in that.

And the other one that I could have flipped into

this place would have been beer fest. I've never

seen that movie. I've always been curious. We'll

watch that next time I come over. Okay. it but

like this is probably the one where I laugh there's

not a single scene that goes by that I don't

laugh at and it's very rare for me to like a

movie that much or like every part of a movie

and it didn't do well in theaters and it didn't

do well you know critically initially I feel

like it's it's it's better than most comedies

that come out now for sure I feel like I feel

like the hangover ruined comedy Probably. I think

the first hangover was good, but after that the

formula became very tight. It was very stupid.

Well, I don't mean that the hangover itself is

bad. I mean that first hangover ruined comedy

by making every movie think they had to do the

same thing. The only other movie that really,

other than maybe putting in Beerfest that I had

thought about putting in this place, other than

Grandma's Boy, was Tropic Thunder. Yes, because

nobody talks about that movie now. It's funny.

Yeah. It's a dude playing a dude, playing another

dude. It's probably my, those three are probably

my go -to comedies more than anything, but Grandma's

Boy is probably the quickest watch because it's

the shortest one of the bunch, I believe. It

also has more jokes per minute and more jokes

that actually land. And if you are a super, you

know, nerd, uh, you know, and we covered, we're

basically in gaming media, right? So we cover

gaming. So this is a funny peek back into 2005,

2006. Yeah, it's right on the nose. It's right

on the button because this was right when we

were starting twig like 2007, 2005. So the errors

were pretty close. Me and Alex were sitting there

looking at the scenes and grandma's boys saying,

I've seen that in GameStop. I've seen that in

GameStop. We've seen that come through our offices

at some point. Like it was a such, it was such

a unique slice of the two thousands that no other

movie of that particular comedy genre has really

captured. It's out of maybe super bad and super

bad was like, Oh, seven or whatever. I feel like

this was the end of that run of, of that style

of movie that started with American pie and like

the teen comedy, the stoner comedy, um, like

It's, to me, better than the Harold and Kumar

movies as much as I like them. This holds up

better. Some of those movies have better individual

scenes, but it's a more consistent film. Yes,

agreed. And my final one is John Carpenter's

The Thing. It's my favorite horror film. Good

pick, very good pick. I could have picked any

of his movies. I really love Big Trouble in Little

China. I love pretty much everything he's put

out, but that is my go -to favorite horror film.

Still has in my mind the best special effects

to scare me that are practical that I've ever

seen. There are other movies that have done really

good ones, but I feel that it has the strongest

cast I've ever seen in a horror film. Yeah, it's

definitely the best on ensemble. They're great

interactions, minimal score. It works. And it

really plays with that sense of isolation, which

you don't get from too many horror movies where

you get the sense because like the setting for

the thing for those of you that aren't familiar

happens in the Antarctic. They find something

in the ice and it basically starts picking them

off one by one. You don't know who's a friend,

who's a foe. And there are people to this day

that analyze the script, analyze the video, every

frame of it, watch it over and over, back and

forth, even rewind scenes that try to interpret

at what point you find out who is the thing and

who isn't the thing. And then try to interpret

the ending because it ends on what might be the

most bleak ending I've ever seen. You have you

know, spoiler, we're 40 years in. It's two people.

You follow the entire movie for the most part.

You follow Kurt Russell's character and the sort

of the antagonist sort of rival of his is played

by Keith David. And they get separated when they're

destroying parts of the thing. And at the end,

they're in the snow and they don't know if each

other is a thing or not. And they've run out

of fuel because they were burning the things,

or you could prick your finger and try to burn

the blood, which has probably the scariest thing

ever happened in film, where you see that piece

of blood fly up and try to run away. But they're

stuck in the snow, not knowing if each other

is a thing, and they're starting to freeze. And

they have their weapons, but they don't want

to burn each other if they're both human. And

they just say, how about we just stay here and

take a break for a bit. And the camera just zooms

out as they're staring at each other freezing

in the snow. So if anybody finds them one of

them is either the thing neither them might be

the thing it's also possible that they're both

the thing because the thing tries to protect

itself to the point where Once it starts to duplicate

it parts of it can be separate it copies memories,

too Yes, so it so they it might not even know

it's the thing until it's threatened so there's

a pie but but if they're both the thing they'll

just freeze dormant till somebody finds them

and if neither of them is the thing, then basically

their story goes untold and they all die. Lots

of analysts have gone in trying to figure it

out because it's a remake of a 1950s movie that

wasn't very good. The 1950s movie was good for

the time, but this was, this is a story that

you could do now and they tried to remake the

thing or do a sequel to it where it's about the,

or is it a prequel? It's a prequel. They go back

and find the research station where it was originally

found. And I refused to watch it for one reason.

It's terrible. It was going to be entirely practical

effects. They even had it budgeted out for it.

Studio overruled them and said, no, you're spending

more money on visual effects. And they gave them

more money and said, you have to spend it on

CGI. And then it looked terrible. They were actually

told not to use practical effects because the

studio has this budget set aside for special

effects to use in this movie it's one of those

things where a studio gets tied in with an effects

company and the effects company says we won't

do this many movies until you've paid for this

many movies so basically to get them to work

on some other movie they then have to give them

the contract for this movie it's a whole bunch

of bureaucracy and crap they get uh you know

stuck in which is why so many movies now don't

have practical effects because they're basically

beholden to ilm uh to weta and to any of these

companies that do special effects so there's

a whole bunch of bullshit backstory that basically

the director washed his hands of the movie anyway

so i won't even watch it and apparently there's

a game literally directed but isn't it literally

directed by alan smithy which is they that's

what they do when they take their name away from

it right they yeah that's what i thought the

the guild will let them do that So it's one of

those movies, I think, where they did that, where

it's like, I'm so disgusted with what the studio

did to my movie, I don't want my name attached.

Now, there have been several games based on the

thing, and I think one of them is actually OK.

I think the one for the original Xbox is all

right. Yeah. Is that the one where it's like

constantly with the circuit breakers over and

over again? I don't remember. I've only played

it once. But yeah, fantastic story. Still my

favorite horror film. So that's that's sort of

the gamut. I love action movies. You see me talking

about Van Damme movies and all that over and

over again. I can watch these things. But these

are my five that are my go tos that I've seen

the most. I've seen the thing probably 20 times

in its entirety and certain scenes, you know,

more than that. Grandma's Boy about the same.

Starship Troopers about the same. Bookie Nights

I've seen probably 20, about 20ish. And then

Transformers is like, I don't know, 500. Now

I feel like a hipster from my choices. So for

mine, I'm very imaginative on on them overall

because I've watched some recently that have

kind of revitalized some some old memories. Of

course, I've gone through and rewatched like

every Star Trek film recently just because of.

Picard even though not all of them have anything

to do with it, but just so I could watch them

sequentially Other than the Abrams films I have

not rewatched those recently, but I don't really

care either So one of one of my favorite films

in that series is Star Trek 6 the undiscovered

country it's one that that's always kind of stuck

with me because even when I was a kid I had the

VHS tapes and That was the one that I watched

90 % of the time. And I still continue to watch

that film. I just like the overall premise. I

love the Enterprise A, I like the, you know,

the joining with the Excelsior kind of showing

up. The whole conspiracy behind the scenes. And

it's the final send off of the original crew.

Same token, I also like Star Trek Nemesis, but

for... a similar reason because it's the send

-off of the TNG crew even though it wasn't a

great send -off. You had so many different powerful

moments with Picard facing demons and in the

same parallels of Data doing the same with another

Soong -type robot or android and the possibilities

that Data could live beyond it even though they

have kind of squashed that in Picard as far as

we know. So so those are kind of neck and neck

in there the police academy series Is is another

one that kind of resonates with me because when

I want a really stupid comedy that Is fun but

entertaining I go to that series. I rewatched

the first two recently And my favorites are definitely

the first the third and the fourth Because once

they lose Mahoney, which is Steve Gutenberg after

episode or the fourth film They get another guy

that kind of takes his place and I can't remember

his name, but he's in a movie five six and seven

What's that One of your arch nemesis Mike Isn't

over one of Mike's arch nemesis from him saying

he got in a fight with him on Twitter Yeah, I

wanted to fight with him or you wanted to get

into a fight with them over something work Yeah,

I was sorry I've only just I've only ever seen

I think two scenes out of any of those seven

or eight movies I saw like where the girl gets

naked in one part because I was like 12 I've

seen the first four naked scene and I saw a part

where it was doesn't the one guy get Wasn't the

old guy get blown when he's gonna be first movie?

That's all I've seen I've never actually it's

funny because I'm gonna because Mahoney or Steve

Gutenberg he's he's working in a car lot in parking

cars and He more or less has to go to police

academy and they won't let him drop out So he's

kind of stuck there and has to take the training

and everything but he drags along Michael Winslow

Who does the sound effects and he's like, yeah

what you in here for and then he's he pulls up

a speaker thing he goes Like that, you know like

machine gun inside of a police station and they're

like what you stop that and So like he manages

to tackle him into the police academy, too But

I also like, what's his name? He plays Lieutenant

Harris in this movie, becomes Captain Harris

later, but I like him better than Mauser. Mauser

is the one that they kind of jumped to when he's

not there. And he's kind of very Weasley, but

he looks like a discount, like Fat William Shatner,

is a weird way of putting it. So it's funny in

that sense. But no, I overall enjoy the series

because there's a lot of stuff that goes on,

a lot of funny things between actors and characters.

And you definitely get some of the iconic voice

actors from the series, too, that kind of jump

over to animation shortly thereafter. Although

most of them haven't done diddly squat since

leaving the police academy. Um, a few of them

have actually died too. Yeah. Yep. It's been,

it's been 35 years or more for some of those

films, right? So yeah, they came out in the eighties.

Um, but yeah, I mean, overall, I, I really enjoy

that series. Um, another, uh, that I enjoy is

the national treasure films. Oh yeah. Yeah. Modern

day Indiana Jones. Yeah. Modern day, but I like

it because specifically it's Nicholas cage. in

his weird mannerisms and ways of doing things,

it comes out really entertaining and fun. And

then they, unfortunately, at the end of the second

one, they leave it on kind of a, that they could

wrap it up or that his mission, you know, his

journey kind of continues for search treasures.

And he's talking with the president, you know,

of, you know, did you find what I asked you to

look at on page 17? And he's like, yes, and I

think I can help you with that. you know, then

they go wandering off and you don't even know

what's going to happen next because they were

going to intentionally do a third film and then

it just kind of never came up. Well, there are

rumors that it's going to happen. No, I just

look right here. It says, uh, in July, 2018,

turtle thought reiterated that the script was

possible. Third film was close. Disney was not

completely sold on the idea. And January, 2020,

it was announced that Chris, uh, Bremer, the

writer of bad boys for life would write a new

script for it and that they made, they're deciding

whether or not it's going to be a theatrical

movie. or if it's going to go on to Disney Plus.

Hmm. Either way, I'd be excited to see a film.

I would love to see if they did a series with

the cage needs something that's not direct to

video. Yeah, really. It would be cool to have

him do like a 10 episode season of National Treasure

or if they maybe do it the style that they're

doing the was. Aren't a couple of the Marvel

ones gonna be six episodes? Yeah, so why don't

you make I think why don't you make it instead

of a third movie? That's two hours long make

it four hours and make it like Five or six forty

minute episodes that tell the story so they can

take their time They could turn out better. Honestly

either way. I would be really excited to see

National Treasure come back with Nick Cage This

this is kind of tied for me. This is the last

one here that I've got because it's Jim Carrey.

So fun with Dick and Jane, which is actually

a remake. And it's got Jim Carrey plastered all

over it and kind of how he how he acts and playing

this guy who loses his job working for this big

energy trading company. And then they kind of

joke and tease at the end of the movie, the end

run thing. And so he basically does a whole heist,

you know, stealing money from banks and from

wherever you can get money to keep paying for

his bills. And miraculously pulls all this stuff

off and then does the same thing to his boss

who laid him off. And he's like, you know, I'm

just tore up about it. You know, it's Alec Baldwin

playing the boss and. He says, I had to sell

my beach home and, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And he's got like four other houses and he's

got like, oh, and I saved 200 million in a in

a fund for myself. And so they basically liquidate

the fund and give it to all the unemployed workers.

And then the the boss looks like the the one

that did it, even though he got screwed. But

the other movie I like is Ace Ventura. I love

a, I love a good heist movie too. Oh yeah. Like

Oceans 11 is my heist movie. Um, really good

underrated movie is the Jason Statham movie,

The Bank Job. Really good. It's, it's, it's not

an action movie. It's an old school, but you

know, dig under the bank to heist movie. Those

are all, those kinds are always great. But yeah.

And then my final one's Ace Ventura. but for

obvious reasons, because it's fun. Original or

by nature? Second one. Yes, the one that everybody

hated at first, but kids loved. You must be the

Monopoly guy. I saw that one in theaters like

three times. I'm sorry, is there something in

my - Look, the mother rhino's giving birth. That

is one of the most ridiculous scenes. Yes, it

is. He's trying to eat his way out. What I love

is when he lands on the ground, he lands and

he just goes gasping for air. Mommy! And then

he'll run away. And then he's driving the monster

truck. Nobody wants to play with me. When he

gets hit with a dart and he's like, huh, starts

running. Four darts is too many. And every part

of his body turns to rubber. Or when he loves

every animal on the planet except for bats Yeah,

what runs into he finally goes into the cave

and he's like I'll be safe as long as I've got

my torch Something screeches at him take that

wing and spawn of Satan and he throws it And

he goes I'm okay, and then it's just him screaming

as he runs out there in my hair. They're in my

hair. It's so funny. We're getting the The dude

from Tommy Davidson from in living color with

him is the miniature fighter and he throws the

The spheres in his knees It's in the bone Well,

what's sad is this they were gonna do with that's

the only time like Jim Carrey did a sequel up

until he did dumb and dumber to or dumb and dumber

or And it actually landed really well. But when

he did the Dumb and Dumber sequel, that movie

was such garbage. I totally get why he never

did sequels after Ace Ventura 2. And they tried

to get him back for a third one, but they did

Ace Ventura Junior and had basically his son.

Oh, it was terrible. And then wrote him out by

having him lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Yeah,

no, the first one as a kid, I only saw briefly.

And it didn't really get it's much darker in

its comedy not as much for kids obviously Like

the first scene is he gets a payment in blowjob

Yeah, and like she goes like I can give you the

money or how about I take your pants off and

he's like well Let me think about it. I'm sure

and that's like that's how he gets paid in that

Literally what he does and then he's holding

on to a bar as he's swinging his body around

wildly and you can only see him from behind You

hear the zipper and everything. Yeah, exactly

or or just Well the entire roof like a horn is

a man Yeah, and like which doesn't fly as well

anymore in today's society of like the entire

Everybody has everybody has kissed horn at one

point and then they realized that she's a man.

So they all start barfing. Yeah It's still funny,

but it's but it wouldn't fly I think for a Jim

Carrey movie anymore. Oh The second one is more

silly, and I think people didn't like it, but

it probably holds it better. It also has the

most stupid joke in the history of the world.

Bumblebee tuna? No. Everybody loves a slinky.

Yes. The opening gag of putting a slinky down

all the steps. Go, slinky, go. And he's trying

to get it to go down like 7 ,000 steps and it

stops. And it makes it all the way down to the

second to the last step. And he goes, oh, and

he's getting ready to go back up to the top and

start it over again. He's like, do we have time

to do it again? yeah like yeah that and and just

oh when they're the airplane where she's like

you know peanuts and he's like no i think i'm

doing rather well right here or whatever and

she says no peanuts and he goes oh yes no just

or the the when he meets the chief and he finds

out how they how they show their appreciation

for each other is a hawk a loogie yeah and then

he's like well then and they just hear him going

there he goes and really and then like they have

to like zoom out they don't even they cut away

and they walk out and they're just slimed from

head to toe all of them yeah But again, it still

adds a little bit, just a little bit of that

humor from the first one, like how it ends. But

it's super stupid, like funny. Yeah, like the

ending, like the only sexual joke really in the

entire thing is at the very end when she's finally

back and she's getting married. And then they're

like, he's saying that she's not a virgin. He's

like, they can tell that. And he's running away.

So obviously, at some point in the movie, he

had sex with the princess. So and that's how

the movie ends is him running away from them

So I overall it is the better of the two, but

at the time it was critically panned like really

bad Which is probably why he never did another

sequel. Well, if you look 1994 to 1995 He did

ace Ventura 1 ace Ventura 2 dumb and dumber And

the mask all in in a 16 month period Yeah, which

is funny because those are some of his best movies

Yeah, and the ones that hold up the most are

are by far dumb and dumber and a century or two

I think I like a century or two better, but dumb

and dumber has probably the more memorable Movie

over people. Well, they're just the quotes alone

but But I think that about wraps this episode

up Yes, yes indeed. Yeah, we you can see by the

movies We picked kind of what our personalities

are like notice that we didn't all pick as many

sci -fi or space ones as we thought we I figured

we would have Well, I did but now mine was comedy

though, too. Yes anybody here entirely predictable

I Don't think so. No, you're more predictable

because you're you You wear your movies on a

sleeve like publicly all the time. I knew there

was going to be an alien movie. I was expecting

a Harry Potter right now because you put a contemporary

one in there. But I knew I knew for sure there

was going to be some form of alien and some form

of Ghostbuster and or one of the two. I figured

you would have had an X -Files fight the future

in there. I was thinking about either putting

that one, Transformers, 1986, or Goodfellas.

If I had to replace one, I would have put Goodfellas

in there. I am surprised you didn't have Ghostbusters

1 because you said that that's your go -to. You've

seen more than anything whenever you felt down.

Yeah, but it comes and goes. It's weird. The

more I watch the movie, it's not so much that

I notice different flaws in it or anything. It's

just... I wonder if my fandom is waning with

it. It'll be interesting to see what happens

when the new one comes out if it brings you back

into the fold. I think. Yeah, exactly. I think

the girl one did irreparable damage to a lot

of the community. Yeah, it definitely split the

community. I mean, like for me to stay in the

Ghostbusters fandom, it's always been the comic

books have really helped and IDW has done a fantastic

job with it. Speaking of which, this may be of

interest to Steve. I don't know. They finally

put out the trade paperback for the Ghostbusters

versus Transformers. So you can pick that up

now. Interesting. Yeah. If I did have to replace

something, I might put Goodfellas on this list

because I saw that movie a lot in the hospital,

but I really liked it before. I think Alex, you

showed it to me for the first time a couple of

years ago. And it just probably if I had to put

one that was like that kind of movie in, I wouldn't

take Boogie Nights off, but I could take Starship

Troopers if I had to off and I could put Casino.

That's the one I like the best out of the Scorsese

crime movies. As much as I really liked the new

Irishman and I also like Gangs of New York. And

I also like that part is I feel that casino was

my favorite of that batch So I don't think mine

would have been too predictable except for transformers.

That was probably gonna be at some point Yeah,

I Don't think you guys didn't say hey, where

the hell's RoboCop You fluctuate though. Well

as much as I love RoboCop Yeah, as much as I

love RoboCop if I'm gonna pick a Paul Verhoeven

movie Starship Troopers Don't think anybody was

gonna peg me for boogie nights or the maybe the

thing but as I have said that's my favorite film

I would say boogie nights and grandma's boy You

wouldn't know to put on there unless I well mine

you would know because if anybody listened to

M wire back in the early days like the first

year of the program I had great fun editing those

episodes so I always want my changes and my taste

to be ever -changing, ever -evolving as I learn

new things. One of my favorite movies I didn't

include on this list is... I'm a big fan of documentaries.

Like I forget the name of it, but I love the

subject matter was there's a documentary on Canon

films that came out like years ago that I really,

really liked. Electric Boogaloo, the totally

something, something story of Canon films. Yes,

I really enjoyed that. Um, in search of darkness,

which was the eighties documentary we did this

past year on twig with the director, David Weiner,

uh, never sleep again. Crystal Lake memories

would have been like hell. I could make a top

five doc documentaries. Really? Well, you pull

it up. I can give you mine right now. Uh, the

ones I like, uh, heart of darkness. That's the,

I believe that's the one doc, the doc on, um,

Apocalypse Now. So there's one I would say I

really enjoyed. Well, the one I recently just

saw actually for review, I have to have the review

out soon is Paris Is Burning. That's the documentary

on basically the start of of voguing and like

transgender culture in New York City in the 80s

when that was like really underground. You see

like how New York City was 30 years ago. Um,

and those, those two are probably like at the

top of my mind right now. I do like the ones

like you like that are ones on genres and that,

but I also really like ones where there's just

like, let's just focus on a person, somebody

I've never heard of or, or or a topic or a subject

that is so out of my wheelhouse of what I know

and understand, which is why I like the Paris

is burning. It's like, it's a world that I have

nothing, you know, nothing invested in that I'm

like, Oh, I would have never known that without

seeing this. And I also like the ones where they're

like showing how bad, uh, you know, a movie came

together. There's a really good one for Highlander

two, where they show off, uh, how bad the production

was in Argentina. And that's, uh, those are probably

my top three. I would say Bowling for Columbine

would definitely be on my list because that movie

was very influential on how politically active

I became as I went into college. Never Sleep

Again and In Search of Darkness would be my top

three. Cool. And yeah, we rambled on enough.

Yeah. Sorry, Steve. I don't know whether you

have a top three docs or anything. But yeah,

so. I think that about rounds it out. So until

next time, you can get a hold of us on you guys

at ThisWeekendGeek .net. Yep, of course. We always

answer email, which you can get us a hold of

at feedback at ThisWeekendGeek .net. Either me

or Alex will reply or at our Twitter at ThisWeekendGeek.

Once again, me or Alex will reply. Alex typically

maintains the Twitter these days as I'm taking

sort of a a less role on Twitter right now. It's

kind of a mental break sort of thing. I'm more

posting just cute animal pictures. You managed

it for 12 years. I can take the reins for a bit.

Exactly. And I appreciate it. So and you get

a hold of me on the Twitter's at Altergeek or

at SCP 21. You can email us feedback at Altergeek

.com. So until next time, get altered, get geeky

with the Altergeeks.