Video Game Movie Series Wrap Up

Hey, this is Steve Blum and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to episode 174 of the Cinema Geeks. I am one

of your Cinema Geeks Optimus Solo and joining

me... Today is hard candy many. Hello. Oh, hey,

I'm always here. You're always here for the most

part. Is that true? Until I get drunk. Okay,

movie revolved Dan. Hello, Dan. I didn't know

we were allowed to get drunk. I didn't I was

not prepared. I thought that was a different

podcast. Matt for the set is not with us in person,

but you will be hearing from him throughout today's

episode and today we're doing something that

we've been waiting to do for a long time and

that is put a bow. on this video game film spotlight.

That's right, we're wrapping it up, putting a

bow on it, and hiding it away in a corner never

to be seen or heard from again. And then we're

also going to tease what's coming next in our

next film series here at The Cinema Geek. So...

Before we get too involved in our comments, let's

go straight to Matt and get his thoughts He put

a nice clip together here and his thoughts on

the video game film series What his favorite

films are what his least favorite films are and

what the future of the genre holds So take it

away Matt Hello all you cinema geeks out there

Matthew Fridley sent here calling in from purgatory

to help wrap up this video game movie series

We've been doing it's been quite a ride I think

I was a little more positive at the beginning

than I am here at the finish line And all I could

say is I hope you enjoyed this more than we enjoyed

the trip because You guys took the short way

here in true cinema geek fashion I'm gonna try

to hit all the the points here the highs the

lows the whatever else the honorable mentions

because I think I've got a lot of strong opinions

I think that came across throughout the records

but let's just I don't know take it home here

at the final stretch I think that the worst movies

in this series weren't the the crazy out there

ones like Say a Mario or a Street Fighter which

were real weird But they took a chance and that's

an interesting thing, right? I think the worst

movies in this whole series were the milquetoast

bland ones that Didn't need to happen not that

any of these necessarily needed to happen but

like your Prince of Persia's Dungeon Siege need

for speed these movies don't Work as a movie

nearly as well as the other movies in these genres

and then they don't work well as a video game

like it doesn't come across as a video game movie

and it doesn't come across as a exceptional movie

in its own genre so they just exist you know

adding more films out there for the sake of adding

more films out there um those are the worst offenders

to me like you know you take an ue bowl movie

an uva bowl movie um like house of the dead it's

not good But I got way more enjoyment out of

like the weird splicing in of video game footage

and Here's a person with a gun and then they're

holding a different gun for some reason then

they're holding the original gun and now they're

fighting like Like with the oddities of something

like that that's something so out there is more

entertaining because I can at least laugh at

it even if it's not working on the fundamental

film level, that's still entertaining to me.

Honestly, if I had to say the best movie I feel

is Street Fighter, because rather than just doing

just a... you know, straight to the top or like

a kung fu movie, like something like that. Like

they just went super campy and went with like

a very 60s feel, which is like a huge risk. And

it's clear that either a lot of people didn't

get it or just people got it and hated it because

it didn't do well. It's not well reviewed and

well loved. But I think it's the the most entertaining

movie of all of these just in a standalone sense

although maybe like Alone in the Dark 2 with

the right group of friends could be the one that

is the funniest and the most entertaining because

of that. and you look at all these ones like

some of them are terrible some of them are out

there and entertaining but not good like none

of them are great no one's like this one is exceptional

people point to Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat

as doing a good job of straddling the original

source material while still being functional

and entertaining in their own genre as a movie

but will there ever be one that's like a truly

successful movie will there be an Avengers or

just an Iron Man 1 of video game movies. And

I think we could see that. I think that that

very well could happen. I just think that...

they need to worry about making a competent movie

first and then making sure it's true to its origins.

I think Mario and Sonic, a lot of these classic

ones that would have the appeal for the wider

audiences, they've seen these characters even

if they haven't played the games, but they don't

have huge, well, I mean, Sonic has one of the

most massive and just crazy, spiraling stories

of all time, but. that's not necessary to bring

in. If you look at the early games, there's almost

no story. And then with a lot of these video

game movies, a lot of the earlier ones, like

the story was just in the booklet. Like that's

why I would read those because you don't get

it across in the game. And so that gives you

some pliability to stay within the universe and

make that movie. Like I've got an outline for

a Mario movie that I think would, I mean, I want

to say home run because I'm biased, but like,

I think it would function. I think it'd be entertaining.

It wouldn't be the Mario movie we got. Like it

doesn't take those risks. Not that like any of

it's a risk because I'm just a dude writing a

exec throwing millions of dollars at it. But

I think that like it could easily be spun into

a serviceable movie that would entertain fans

and non -fans alike. But I mean, do we need that?

I don't think we do. I struggle to think of a

reason why we need any video game movie. And

this isn't me saying, like, oh, I've watched

all these video game movies, and they typically

do a bad job, so we don't need more of them.

I just think that video games are structured

in a way that they take, that they're interactive.

They take a long time, or they don't. I mean,

you know, some amazing games can be beat in an

hour or two. Classic games, Contra, I think,

can be, you know, like, just playing it can be

beaten, like, 50 minutes. But, like, why, why?

Like, why would we need to take, you know, a

Mass Effect that might take you 60 hours and

try to condense it down into a two? Like... why

take, you know, maybe a down well, which doesn't

really have a story, but it's kind of fun, like,

make that an entertaining movie. Video games

are made to be interactive, and movies are made

to not be interactive. They're two different

types of media that just don't need to cross,

and, like, the crossover barrier is a lot larger

than, say, a comic or a book. Like, comics and

books and movies are way more similar than video

games are. Even though video games might seem

since you know, they've got the the sound they've

got the moving pictures that that comics and

books don't have But the way that a story is

structured is entirely different like I think

maybe you could take a video game and Maybe work

it like into a TV show But like again, why would

you you don't need it? Like the world doesn't

need that and it still takes away the interactivity

even if it could solve the problem of length

So, I don't need more video game movies. I mean,

we're gonna get them. We're always going to get

them. Like, we've got, what, like, five in the

last year or two between, like, Angry Birds and

Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider. I don't need

to list them. You guys all have Google. Like,

they're gonna keep coming. I'm not saying stop.

And if you enjoy them, great. Like, I'm glad

you can find media that you enjoy, but we don't

need them. Like, and I'm not gonna push for him.

Especially after this, right? Like, right? Like,

oof a bowl, give him the money to make movies,

no one else needs to make them. I'm rambling

a bit, so I'm gonna toss it back to you guys

at GCRN Studios. I cannot wait to hear what you

all have to say about these good, good video

game movies. All right, so Matt, interesting

thoughts here. I think most of us are gonna agree

with most of what you said there, but we'll see

how it goes here. Obviously, Matt had mentioned

that his... Worse movies were not things like

Mario or Street Fighter because he said even

if they couldn't be taken serious at least they

were Taking some chances and doing some things

maybe from a unique standpoint, etc He thought

the ones that he liked the least were more so

what he called the the milquetoast bland unnecessary

Films like Prince of Persia Need for Speed and

he mentioned Dungeon Siege as as well He said

even something like House of Dead he could at

least enjoy for its unusual laugh, kind of laugh

at the film with a group of people entertainment

value where he couldn't, he didn't feel like

he could do that with Prince of Persia and Need

for Speed and the like. So before we move on

to what films he liked and the genre, let's get

your guys' take on the worst films and if you

agree or disagree with Matt, Dan, we'll start

with you. What is your take on what was kind

of the worst of the worst that we saw? For me

the worst of the worst and I kind of agree with

them a little bit but the one movie for me that

bucks that trend that Wasn't necessarily boring

was just god -awful in every way possible was

postal Legitimately now I have an answer to the

worst movie I've ever watched before I had a

few now. It's definitely just gonna be that it

was it was just aggressively bad and The worst

part was it was like trying to be edgy and trying

to be like this UA bull, like getting back at

its critics, but in trying to be offensive, but

it was at times inoffensive or so transparent.

It was just plain awful. I never had any intention

of seeing, I can't think of his name right now,

but the guy from Talk Radio and... Kids in the

hall naked ever I didn't know a desire to see

that ever so that that to me was far the worst

I Thought like the ones that I that I enjoyed

enjoyed the most Were the ones that that took

maybe didn't execute everything properly But

I had at least interesting ideas like I thought

Silent Hill out of all the movies that we went

over there was problems with it But there were

pieces within within it. I thought like Impressed

me more what it got right like it actually you

know isolated was impressive amongst just the

craziness But I don't disagree that there are

those those movies that are so Just bland and

forgettable like I forgot we even talked about

ring wing commander like that movie I remember

nothing about except for the scene where it's

like they're unnecessarily killing someone that

they could easily help I just it's just so forgettable

but I So yeah, so I kind of agree with her or

a few that that go against it for me that are

just so bad like that they're not that uh Even

in their blandness or just overall like house

of the dead. I thought it was again There were

just moments in that that just hurt me to my

core Similarly with blood rain. I can enjoy them.

I guess a little bit ironically I I going back

at mortal kombat. I think it was a lot more forgiving

of that Due to nostalgic purposes, but there

were some films that ended up being better than

I remembered like Viewing Street Fighter. It's

more as a comedy I ended up enjoying it a little

bit more because you realize it was not even

though John -Claude Van Damme was taking himself

seriously I felt like the rest of the movie wasn't

But yeah, I don't know I kind of rambled there

But you have basically my thoughts ultimately

for me The best was pulse the worst was postal

and the one that was at least the most interesting

to watch was Silent Hill I think you guys both

hit on a couple things for me it came down to

like almost compartmentalizing when we're going

through this because it's like they're all none

of them are great so when I'm trying to like

break it down for me there's kind of four different

groups of films or three I guess but there's

the like you guys talked about there's those

you've able films that are just Beyond explanation

like There's no way they're good in any way But

you might find them entertaining if it's like

bad movie night or something of that nature So

you have those types of films and then you have

like the the cheese factor that we get from like

a double dragon a Super Mario Brothers Street

Fighter, maybe even some Mortal Kombat So you

have like that group and then you have those

films that seemed like they were trying to take

themselves serious as like the third group and

then you within that group you had ones that

mildly succeeded Maybe and then you had those

that were just awful and was we're still taking

themselves serious and to me It's a toss -up

between those movies like House of the Dead Alone

in the dark and blood rain, which are just awful

films But you're not sure if they were really

meant to be good. I mean, I know you've able

thinks they're good but like Nobody could really

take those serious and then you have those like

you guys are talking about like Need for Speed,

Doom comes to mind. I remember I was not expecting

to dislike Doom as much as I did. Like that was

the first one I think that we came across that

I was like, this is not one of those like just

ridiculously bad movies because it's poorly made.

This was legitimately trying to be a good film

and it is awful in almost every way possible.

So I kind of went back and forth on those as

far as which ones were worse. Is it worse to

be intentionally bad or worse to be like seriously

bad and It's like if you ask me I have to watch

like I have you know You give me a choice of

watching Wing Command or sorry like Double Dragon

or Prince of Persia Prince of Persia is I think

objectively probably a better movie It's more

competently made but Double Dragon is such an

oddity of a creation that just watching it is

more intriguing because its failures are or so

out there where Prince of Persia is just a generic

movie, ultimately. So I guess it all depends

on like, if we, for the love of God, this not

to happen again, but if we had to be watching

any of these, I think I would be more inclined

to watch something like that and watch some of

the more just like. ones that weren't super bad

but just were just ultimately forgettable. Well

for me let's try to make a weird comparison because

I like those. Like if you put some type of random

sandwich together like you got like stuff that's

not sandwich material like you got bread and

then you have I don't know candy and like some

other random nonsense in between the two slices

of bread and you eat that sandwich like it's

not gonna be good because It wasn't composed

right, you know what I mean? Like those things

don't go together, so of course it's not gonna

taste like a tasty sandwich. But is that worse

than having a food that could be good, like a

steak that's just terribly cooked? You know what

I mean? So it's like, the one's not supposed

to be good, so of course it's gonna be bad. But

the other one, like, probably angers me more

because it has the potential to be good, and

it's just not. So, I don't know. I'm with you

Dan though, if I had to pinpoint my... Number

one least favorite film out of all the ones we

covered it would be postal Amanda agree disagree

on what people like or didn't like I mean in

the video game films Yeah, I think I can agree

on most of that but and if I feel like for me

personally The ones that I enjoyed were ones

that I had already seen and liked I don't think

I saw One that I hadn't viewed before that I

ended up liking going. Oh my god I really like

this movie, but the ones that I do like I've

seen several times, and I would continue to rewatch

them, but some of these definitely I don't even

one in the house. What was worse for you, the

UVable House of the Dead Alone in the Dark type

stuff from Postal, or was it more Need for Speed,

Doom, Prince of Persia, that type of stuff? I

think Need for Speed was just ridiculous, but

the other movies, as bad as they were... Think

postal like definitely being the worst house

of the dead coming up pretty close after that

doom I was just like bored with like it it didn't

look like crap and it But it also didn't make

a ton of sense either. So it doesn't pull it

away much from some of the UA bowl movies So

I don't know it's hard to tell I liked it the

bigger production ones for sure Okay, so which

ones would you have had in your top like your

top one two three films? Whatever it might have

been I'm gonna say Mortal Kombat, Silent Hill,

Hitman. I like Max Payne and like Mario Brothers

and that good stuff. Okay. Dan, I know you mentioned

Silent Hill. Would that be your number one and

what else is near the top for you? Yeah, Silent

Hill would be number one. Hitman is also two

for me because I thought that was just like it

was a fine little like action. film had like

the had at least a decent fight sequence where

they Had that like sword fight in the middle

of a subway that made no sense But it was kind

of cool. And I'm a I liked him the often so Mortal

Kombat again is up there just because I really

liked that as a kid and I think it It captures

a lot about what that the game I enjoyed even

though the tournament didn't really make sense

It's like Doesn't understand but you know and

also dead or alive like that ended up being it's

it's weird and it's strange but that one I thought

like it was at least kind of fun. It was one

that Knew what it was and and didn't take itself

too seriously like some of the other stuff had

some like awful things in it like some The worst

CGI, but it kind of like embraced it in a way

so I think and I liked him a little bit more

than you guys mostly because I thought you know

making The Rock the villain. Spoiler, I guess,

for a bad movie. I thought that was at least

intriguing. It was maybe the choice didn't fully

work. But yeah, like I mentioned, the worst for

me would be Pole Soul, House of the Dead. Although

we didn't cover it fully, Mortal Kombat Annihilation,

because that's just awful. And then Wing Commander.

Wait, D .O .A. was that crouching tiger -hidden

white girl movie, right? I think, yeah. They

were like, it's where Kevin Nash played like

the dad. She's already put it out of her mind,

apparently. I'm gonna be very similar to you

guys. Most of, if I was to list off my top four,

three of them have already been mentioned, so

my number two was Mortal Kombat, my number three

is Silent Hill, and my number four, like, Dana,

I thought DOA was way better than I thought it

was gonna be. I didn't think it was good, but

it was maybe the most surprising film that we

watched, because I was thinking, like, DOA and

Postal were both gonna be garbage, and one of

them was, and one of them I ended up... up liking

a little bit more for some reason. I don't know,

I thought DOA was like the poor man's mortal

combat, I guess. I don't know. But my number

one was actually Resident Evil. I thought that

film succeeded with what it was trying to do

for the most part. I thought it had enough to

separate itself a little bit from stuff like

Prince of Persia, Hitman, and Tomb Raider, which

I guess would put somewhat in the same thing.

And I'm not really someone for the more, I guess,

the horror -ish type of genre when it comes to

video game films, but I have Silent Hill and

Resident Evil both towards the top. Amanda, you're

giving me a weird look. This is your legit rankings

right here on the screen? No, this is not finalized.

I'm just using that as a reference. Because I

was going to say, if you have Street Fighter

above Mario Bros. Oh, I do have Street Fighter

above Mario Bros. Yeah, and above double dragon.

Yeah, I think those three are equal cheese But

I think I like Street Fighter to the most out

of the three of them because Mario Brothers I

was just so confused at the entire time So did

you see it as a as a kid though? Yes, but none

of that. I had no memory of it. You know like

Resident Evil No, I love that movie. I've seen

it a thousand times. I was just checking I didn't

know I was supposed to be ranking them. Do you

serve ranking? I'm just just Which ones you like

what about the genre going forward Matt said

not necessary? He said there's no great films

currently in the genre he questioned Could there

ever be something that did what? The first Iron

Man did for kind of like the Marvel Cinematic

Universe as far as setting up a genre and kind

of reinvigorating interest in there But he really

didn't think that that would be something that

would be It could happen. Yes. He's not gonna

you know rule out the possibility, but he kind

of mentioned that video games just in Their core

are not the right type of structure not the right

type of medium to turn into a movie You know

a lot of these games take you know 30 40 60 hours

plus to go through But some of them don't necessarily

have a lot of great storylines. It's necessarily

or if they do it would take too long to unfold

because they're based on you interacting with

the game itself and you don't interact with the

film so he questioned why this would be even

something that is being attempted and he said

basically you know we don't need video game films

he's not going to be yearning for video game

films and he's not going to be excited about

them when they come out Amanda what do you think

are you still exciting and holding out hope for

a good video game film eventually or should the

genre die I mean, I was excited for, like, Assassin's

Creed and even Mildly for Warcraft are some of

the latest ones we got, and they were crap. Not

good, dude. Like, Assassin's Creed could have

been so much more awesome than it was. And Michael,

frickin' Fassbender. And I thought that would

have been the type of game that would have lent

itself to a movie because of the story aspect.

Yeah, it didn't go... go anywhere with it so

when the next film comes out that's based on

a video game that you recognize or remember from

your childhood are you going to be excited about

it or are you going to say that's going to be

crap um i'm probably like that's gonna be crap

dan what do you think is there any hope for this

genre or should it go away forever what's kind

of weird is that like we've had good video game

movies but they just haven't been based on actual

video games like Ready player one like it that

very much is everything about that. I mean, it's

not like I wouldn't call that a great movie But

it's better than any movie we talked about so

far today record Ralph like it taking those elements

of it so it's like if those movies can do it

well and they're inspired by it's weird because

ready player one is inspired inspired by video

games, but also movies and similar with record

Ralph I think it's a possibility, but I feel

like we've gotten to the point like there might

have been a period of time where it made sense

to make movies about video games because there

were like things movies could do better than

video games at that time. But I feel like we've

overlapped that where video games are just as

capable of doing stories and storytelling as

much as movies. Even, you know, they're massive.

They, you know, can have these, you know, interlocking

stories that go on through different games and

genres and things of that nature. So what is

putting it in a movie do like what what is it?

What is it? What would be the purpose of taking

a video game and making a movie out of it outside

the hope of making money? Does that medium lend

itself to tell a story in a better or different

way? And I don't know if it can anymore like

can you I don't I'm so out of video games I don't

know what the big video game is but like I know

fortnight or not for tonight, but yeah, what

is that? Before nights of video puts them the

The game they're all is that for night the game

they're playing now or that that's like the battle

royale or whatever Like that's that obviously

is a game that probably wouldn't work unless

they made it crazy But I think it's possible.

I mean it was a very it was a very long time

where comic book movies weren't good we know

we had Superman and Batman 1989 and that was

about it until 2000 so If it could possibly happen,

I don't know if we need it to happen or what

that video game would be to make it work. Maybe

it is like, you know, there's this Halo TV series

that's being rumored. Maybe that could lead by

itself. But I don't know. I think if it would

work, it would just be one of the more simple

games like Immortal Kombat. That's just your

basic taking your cues from the general setup

and in doing it but like at one point in time

video games are trying to emulate movies and

now vice versa like movies are trying to be like

video games so then i don't know like i feel

like it's not really pertinent but maybe it could

happen i'm just not holding my breath yeah i'm

definitely not holding my breath either it's

it's weird too when you think about it because

a lot of it works the other way i guess you can

make a make a decent video game out of a movie

and for some reason video games do they translate

better to a cartoon like a cartoon or animated

series I mean I know there's been a lot of awful

cartoon animated series based on video games

as well but I feel like you you've had more luck

there I don't know if that's a better format

for it because whatever reason but maybe they

should stick to that like or try it going a TV

series route or something because I don't I just

feel like the constraints of a two to three hour

movie or one and a half hour movie or whatever

it might be it's just it's just not enough or

else they've just the times that it seems like

it should have worked they didn't have the right

person calling the shots or they just drop the

ball, it seems like. So I'm definitely not holding

my breath. I'm surprised they never made a Grand

Theft Auto movie, I guess. But I don't know what

would work either. But in the in the racing phase

of like Need for Speed and Fast and Furious,

I'm surprised they didn't like try something

like that. But I can't think of a specific movie

like I would have thought Assassin's Creed could.

And I'm not a big Assassin's Creed player and

I'm not a big gamer at all. But I thought just

with the way that their kind of story went, that

that would lead to some cool things. But again,

they dropped the ball on that one as well. So.

I'm done holding that hope. I thought Warcraft

would be the one that changed it because you

had a good director or at least a person who

made a good movie. He's not had much luck lately.

And it seemed like, OK, you're basically doing

a fantasy story Lord of the Rings S element.

And I think part of that movie could. Did somewhat

work, but a lot of it didn't So I I don't know

if it and it wasn't that like the director didn't

care about the property wasn't you know? He certainly

had a lot of admiration for it. So it had everything

up to it It just it just ended up failing. So

I don't know what exactly it it is What's holding

it back if it's just the it's you know, the curse

of video game movies, but you know that you could

have nailed something there though because it

could it be a situation where If you have someone

that's very passionate about the property, they're

not a skilled director, and if you have a skilled

director, they're not passionate about the property.

Could that be something that's causing so many

misses? You know, have we had a really competent

director that's also been very well -versed and

passionate about a video game property? I have

to go back and look, but I don't... I mean, I

think Warcraft is the one that I would think

would... come to mind. I mean, I will say what

we're talking about it, but I do kind of like

the Resident Evil franchise. It's not a great

film and it gets away from the video games a

great deal. You know, they're kind of trashy

fun. But I don't even know if you would qualify

them as video game movies, because by the second

movie, by the third movie, it was, you know,

very, very different. So yeah, I don't know if

we feel like, you know. Martin Skorsky's he's

doing a Joker movie. So maybe Christopher Nolan's

like, you know what? I'm gonna take over and

do The Half -Life movie maybe that could work

who knows if that would actually happen, but

it's possible like if you get the right director

who Has you know, I don't we're getting a lot

more directors now that are growing up and had

played video games as kids Where maybe that?

in video games that could actually make into

movies. So maybe that will change in the next

decade or so. But I don't know. I mean, there's

been some good shorts, like the shorts he did

for, what was that movie with, with the portal.

They did a portal short. That was really good.

So who knows? Yeah, that's true. Amanda, are

you just glad that we didn't cover any of the

sequels? I have no room in my life for sequels.

Video game sequels or Disney sequels, which is

worse, I don't know. Some of those Disney sequels

I like. Alright, we're going to take a quick

break. When we come back to the break, you're

going to hear Matt one more time, and he's going

to be going over his thoughts on the poll options

that we have as far as our next video, or not

video game, our next movie series. Don't ever

let me say video game on this podcast again.

We're going to have four different options for

you guys to pick from to be our next series.

So I'm going to let Matt introduce that, and

then we're going to react to the four choices

and kind of outline them a little bit better

for you guys right after the break. Where do

we go from here, right? We've enjoyed ourselves

so much watching these video game movies. We've

got to find something to fill that entertainment

void. And we've discussed these four. We've discussed

so many more than just the four options we're

polling, right? We've thrown around so many ideas,

and there are so many things we wanna do, we

wanna bring to our crowd. But if we put up 60

different options onto a poll, the one that wins

is the one that gets two, three votes. So we

set on these four. And honestly, if I'm being

perfectly honest, and this will probably come

as a surprise to absolutely no one, Of the four

there's one that I have experience in right like

I've always been an anime fan for you know As

long as I've been a fan of things So I've seen

a lot of a lot of anime like you know well before

Miyazaki entered my life. You know, I'd seen

things like Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion

and other, you know, classic staples of this

genre. But like Western movies, you could probably

count the amount of Westerns I've seen on my

fingers. And silent movies, you don't need fingers

to count them because I don't think I have seen

a single silent movie. I have seen... Nosferatu.

I bought a dollar copy of Nosferatu with a like

instead of whatever the classic backing track

was or you know whatever they did inside of the

movies because I'm not gonna pretend that I truly

know. They had put type O negative which is like

a metal band's music over it and it was just

so disjointed and weird I could not make it more

than 20 minutes into that. I mean you know, the

AFI Top 100, like, I think everyone knows I haven't

seen any Disney movies, so what makes you think

I've seen Ben, Her, or Citizen Kane? I mean,

that's number one of number 100, I haven't seen

either of those. And I'm sure I haven't seen

85 of the ones between them. So, like, if we

watch... any of those other three categories

it's going to be entirely new experiences for

me and I'm gonna you know enjoy it hopefully

I mean you know no no promises and if we go with

the anime one then I'm gonna be real comfortable

I'm gonna be watching movies maybe for the second

or third time or watching movies for the first

time that I already know key points of because

they've just you know I just have sat in that

space before And it's hard for me to just like,

you know, back one of these horses. They're all

so different. But I think, just purely for my

comfort zone, I'm gonna go and back silent movies.

I think maybe, you know, the top 100 would be

a better thing for me. You know, I've never seen

The Godfather. And, you know, it becomes almost

like a list of shame because there are so many

I haven't seen. but I think that silent movies

is the furthest from what I know and so I think

I'm gonna I'm gonna vote for that one I think

that's gonna be the most different like I think

none of us you know feels super comfortable in

that space like I you know doesn't come up in

conversation much so I think if you want the

most interesting and wildly off topic and weird

one I think that's where your vote should go

but I mean like I mean what do you guys think?

Right, thank you Matt for your thoughts on the

different poll options and as you heard, let's

run them down real quick and then we'll react

to our choices there. So we have four different

film series that are up for your vote. You get

to decide what we do next. Alright, first one

as Matt mentioned would be non... Hayao Miyazaki

anime film. So we went through the whole Miyazaki

spotlight. We enjoyed it overall. Most positive

reviews on almost all of the films. So that kind

of whetted our appetite a little bit and now

we're curious about what other anime films are

out there that we haven't seen or that we haven't

seen recently. Some of us may have more blind

spots than the others on those but there's definitely

a lot to choose from there. We obviously have

the likes of things like Let's see, Akira, Grave

of the Fireflies, Secret World of Ariety, The

Tale of Princess Kaguya. So there's a lot of

stuff out there that we weren't able to cover

because it wasn't done by Miyazaki before. So

that's one of the poll options. Second option...

as Matt mentioned, would have been silent films.

So most of us outside of Dan have very little

experience with silent films. So turning back

the clock and seeing what that genre had to offer

and another way for a lot of us to kind of fix

some of our blind spots and expand our horizons

a little bit with that. Third option that we

discussed was getting into westerns a little

bit because a lot of people might not have the

knowledge of some of those more classic westerns

and there's a lot of different routes we can

go back through there with more modern westerns.

We have the spaghetti westerns and there's a

bunch of different kind of sub -genres in there

so maybe picking a few here and there and exploring

that a little bit. And then the last option everybody

always talks about and we did our recently last

year our top 100 films, personal films of all

time, but what about the critics list of top

100. So specifically we're going to look at the

AFI America Film Institute top 100 and kind of

go through there and highlight ones that the

majority of us have not seen. and see if they're

as good as everybody says they are. So those

were kind of the choices. You heard Matt say

that maybe the easiest one for him to do would

be the Nami Ozaki anime film, but the one that

he was most intrigued about was the silent films.

So Dan, what are you thinking about those four

options and kind of, are you pulling for people

to go one way or the other or which ones do you

have the most and least experience with? I would

think the one I probably had the most experience

with was possibly silent films. I don't know.

I think I've watched a decent amount of the AFI

Top 100. There's still some in there that I have

yet to see, but mostly the stuff there at the

top. My own accord tried to do that one year

and didn't get very far, but I think the one

I'd be most excited about, maybe silent films,

I think just to talk to you all about them and

see because there's a variety of different ones

and seeing how well they hold up. I think that

would have a lot of potential. to talk about,

but I think that the benefit of doing the Top

100 would be we would be able to get different

genres, different directors, so at least provide

the most variety. So that would also be interesting.

And the other thing that we might want to think

about is which one's going to provide us the

best films so we can get as far away from the

video game film genre as possible. Amanda, are

you excited about one? Are you trying to pull

people to vote for a certain one? And what's

your various levels of experience with each of

those? To be honest, I'm not a big fan of silent

films, so it's gonna be hard to keep Amanda awake

in those. The AFI films, I think Dan makes a

good point that we'd have the most variety, and

that's always a plus. My personal fave, I think,

would be Westerns. I'm really hoping for that

one, to be honest. I have some... you know background

in western does that's like all my grandma watches

so growing up there i got to uh be witness to

to some some good ones um and as far as the anime

goes i'm kind of like sick of it at this point

not like sick like i never want to watch it again

but i still want to break for a little while

i still want a little bit more of a break from

the miyazaki trek Yeah, and that makes sense

since we just did the Miyazaki one. I can see

some people wanting to talk about some other

stuff and we could always keep that for future

reference. I'm intrigued by the Western one because

it's been a genre that I've always enjoyed but

for some reason haven't explored it as much as

I should have or would have liked to. So it would

give me an excuse to kind of dive into that a

lot so I could definitely be happy with going

that route. I know I definitely have some blind

spots on the AFI list so I'm intrigued with that.

And silent films, I would be intrigued to do

that as well because I have very little experience

with that. I think I've seen a few but it's been

a long time so that would be interesting as well

to just kind of try to see things in a different

way and and go back to when movies were about

something different than what you get sometimes

with just Plethora of visual effects or where

people are concerned more about that than the

actual storytelling and they do so much storytelling

Through the body language and those that it would

be intriguing to watch some of that and kind

of get a lesson in that So I'm intrigued with

most of them, but I can see I can definitely

see people's argument for each of the four So

I'll be happy either way. I'm not I don't have

like a Front runner, I guess better vote for

Westerns Amanda saying Western so maybe I should

say that But we have sounds like two people very

intrigued on the Westerns two people intrigued

with the silent films But we'll let the fans

decide so you guys can decide What we're gonna

do next and then we'll pick like I said a variety

of those films that we haven't decided exactly

how many yet It won't take as long to go through

hopefully as the video game film series so that

we can add some variety in there But that's what's

headed next with the cinema geeks. We're also

obviously going to continue and round out our

Kevin Smith retrospective we still have a few

Kevin Smith films maybe the non -traditional

Kevin Smith films I guess when you think about

it that we could go through is funny I was walking

through Target the other day maybe a couple weeks

ago and they don't usually have movies on clearance

but they've been doing this massive like remodel

in our area where they're trying to get more

stylized or whatever so they've shrunk their

movie section drastically which is unfortunate

it's gone from like five aisles to like one and

they had a clearance section and there was literally

a two -pack dvd that had clerks two and zach

and mary for like seven bucks and I thought it

might be too high still, so I didn't pick it

up. But yeah, so we still have a few Kevin Smith

films to get to. Dan, do you want to let people

know what's going out lately in your other endeavors

and what kind of content topics you're covering

with the Comic Concierge? Sure, yeah, so Comic

Concierge. I actually went on a little bit of

a break with vacation and things like that, but

I'll be going back in full force very soon with

different podcasts. talking about a variety of

different things. On Mondays, I do weekly wrap

-ups and on Thursdays, I do a deep dive with

a special guest. Also, I've been putting out,

partially because why there's been less Comic

-Con series is because I've been putting much

more video content at the GeekCast Radio YouTube

page. We're trying to catch up with all these

millennials and all their video stuff. So if

you go to the GeekCast YouTube page, you can

subscribe. You might be listening to the YouTube

page as of right now because all of our podcasts

are... are on there as well, but I've been doing

comic book calls, comic book reviews of new stuff,

old stuff, original graphic novels, superhero

stuff, stuff from, you know, everything in between.

So if you go, I think it's Kikath Radio or our

channel. So you can check it out there. Awesome,

awesome. We also have some stuff that you might

want to keep an eye out for. If you are a wrestling

fan then we're going to have some interesting

wrestling content coming your way in the next

couple months. So we're going to have a GCR Wars

tournament which is going to feature the best

wrestling tag teams of all time and that is going

to be setting the stage for later on in the year

when we go to our top 100 list for 2018 which

is the top 100 professional wrestlers of all

time. So if you're a wrestling fan get ready

because there's going to be a lot of content

coming your way here in the second half. Amanda,

anything you'd like to say before we close this

out? Dan, I'm a horrible friend and I still have

not read the Sabrina comic. I blame my computer.

It's not my fault. I beat it every day. I will

force her to read that on my computer. Alright,

so that's going to do it for this week for the

Cinema Geeks. If you'd like to talk to any of

us, ask us a question or tweet to us in any way,

Amanda, they're going to tweet to you by doing

what? You can hit me up at Hard Candy Mandy.

Eyes, no eyes. Dan? I am at Movie Revolt. I am

at Optimus Solo and if you'd like to hit up Matt

and talk about his clips and what his opinions

were. Tell him how much you love him. I don't

think that was anything to do with anything.

You can reach him at Fridley's set. Otherwise

you can tweet the show as a group. at Cinema

Geek Cast. That was hard to get out. I was gonna

say like en masse but then I was like is that

how you say that word? But at Cinema Geek Cast.

So that does it for this week. Tune in next time

for another chance to listen to the Cinema Geeks.