What's going on, guys? Welcome to the show. Welcome back. It's another episode of Action Movie Anatomy here on a Wednesday afternoon. We are here talking about a movie directed by one of our favorite directors of all time. This is The Accountant starring Ben Affleck, directed by Gavin O'Connor. We'll see you guys in just one quick second. Welcome to Popcorn Talk, featuring movie discussion, news, and interviews. Popcorn Talk. We talk movies. And now, here's Popcorn Talk's action movie anatomy.
Ooh, there it is. Ooh, it's just so sweet. Wait, you can play guitar. Yeah. You gotta learn this. Yeah, it looks very... It's extraordinarily difficult what this guy's doing. Yeah, it looks insanely hard. I think probably this part is more real, like you could do this, because this is just like...
Right. And he's also tapping the guitar for a little bit of bass. I could do all of this. It's when he gets the lead part that would... No way. No way. No friggin' way. It's not my... This right here? Oh. That's just not... It's real clean. It's really clean. It's all picky.
I think he's doing it all with his fingers. It is all with his fingers. What are we talking about today? We're talking about Sweet Folk Guitar. Guys, this is Action Movie Anatomy. We're here back on Wednesday afternoon talking about The Accountant. Our boy Gavin O'Connor, friend of the show.
a new film opening this weekend called The Way Back. The Way Back is a film starring Ben Affleck, a down and out alcoholic on his way back coaching a high school basketball team. He's a former basketball star. We decided to revisit an Affleck movie and a Gavin O'Connor movie from 2016. The Accountant, which we had Gavin in studio talking about Warrior right around the time this movie came out. And I think the idea...
was that we wanted to promote the accountant. That was why we brought him in in the first place. But I think it was late enough that we kind of just went in on Warrior. So we didn't actually get to talk about The Accountant very much. I just remember how excited we were about the idea of this movie, because he told us about it, he told us the premise, and he told us how the shooting had went and all that. And it was something that you and I were really, really excited to see.
I know that this isn't our favorite movie, but it's definitely great. It's really enjoyable, and it has a lot of the things that are... A lot of the things that are our favorite things about Gavin, he kind of repurposes in this movie. He's a really, really, really talented and extraordinarily underrated director. I know. He really is. He's like a guy that if you know movies and you know what you love, you like Gavin's stuff. Mm-hmm.
if you're like a Spielberg guy who like only sees the biggest stuff he's not a name on your radar which is crazy to me because like Warrior is becoming, for most people, an all-time classic movie. Not just us. For us, it's the number one. It's our pinnacle. We love that movie more than anything. But for a lot of people I know, that movie is becoming like a, oh, Warrior's great. I'm wondering what he needs to do.
in order to kind of break through that next level. I wonder if and when it will happen, because I wonder if the idea that he... I think that... He does this thing that we talk about a lot with Warrior specifically is, you know, he recycles cliches, but he does them better. Yeah. You know, and I wonder if there's like this level of respect that he hasn't earned yet because it feels like his movies are kind of like gimmicky or like.
not as serious or as deep because of recycling but they're all so good like the speech in Miracle is amazing I love Warrior you know it's one of our favorites and it sounds like The Way Back from what you said it's great is very good and very like I think like in the industry I think He's totally respected. I think it's more like the average film goer knows Chris Nolan.
They know, you know, but like they don't know the name. And I think that's I think he was going to do Suicide Squad 2. He's no longer doing that movie. Probably what it would take is just doing something like something big. Huge. I feel like James Mangold and Gavin are kind of in a similar class. It's just that Mangold now has done a couple big Oscar movies. Obviously him doing Ford, Ferrari, and Logan back-to-back is like...
He's gotten him a lot of attention, you know, like two Oscar nominated films. One's a comic book movie. That's where I sort of think now Mangold is like, yeah, OK, like he's a top tier. Like he's supposed to take over the new Indiana Jones movie. And what's also interesting about Gavin is he's not actually picking up.
or using actors when they're in their prime or their peak. Sure. You know, like Hardy and Edgerton weren't quite there yet when Warrior came out. Nolte was way on the downswing. Nolte was way on the downswing. Affleck is definitely not top Affleck right now. That was more Batman time probably.
or even a little bit before that. And then you think about Miracle. It's like Kurt Russell's been around forever, but Kurt Russell wasn't like banging when he was starting Miracle. So I wonder if that's part of it too, is the stars that he picks are not like upper A class because it's budget.
Yeah, and he's pretty fascinated with making a throwback style of movie. That's definitely his, you know, again, there's a lot of similarities with Mangold. They're both guys that are very influenced by the 70s. And so that's kind of the story. But we're going to talk about this movie, The Accountant. Obviously, the premise behind this movie is very interesting.
thing you know you have this autistic uh you have this autistic accountant who is basically cleans up bad guys uh is you know effectively he's kind of like he's kind of like an autistic action hero i guess is the best way i think that was how it was described to us and it's kind of a hit man yeah yeah
Autistic action here, I think, is exactly what Gavin said. But yeah, he's kind of a hitman, but he's also this genius when it comes to numbers. He is a guy that is brought in to do the numbers for the cartel and for the mafia. I like the idea. I think the premise of that is really, really cool. It is interesting to see a movie where they focus so much on...
The autism spectrum disorder, I believe, is exactly what it's called. ASD. And we'll talk about that just a little bit more as we get into production development and stuff. Great. So, guys, this is Action Movie Anatomy. We talk action movies on this show. Those action movies adhere to four basic rules. Rule number one, the hero always plays.
by their own rules. It definitely feels like he does. Yeah, he's got these set of rules that he's implemented in his life to keep him dialed. Yep. Rule number two, the hero and the villain are always the smartest people, beings, things, dinosaurs, what have you in the room. And I guess the villain really is Lithgow, but the other villain sort of is...
John Barenthal. Barenthal is the other smartest guy in the room. 100%. Whereas Lithgow is just like... an evil rich old guy yeah rule number three the movie is driven by police military political or mercenary figure he's basically a mercenary and rule number four the movie contains a minimum of one explosion there's a bunch of blowing up stuff in this movie right i believe so
Did something blow up? Why am I having trouble remembering the explosion? There's got to be an explosion. Maybe nothing blows up. This is where he puts the grenade in the guy's jacket and shuts it. Is that realistic at all? If it's a flak jacket and he zipped it up? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know how that works. It's super awesome. It's awesome. Well, because it's like essentially a flak jacket should be completely impenetrable inside and out. I've seen that happen in other movies.
But he's literally laying on top of you. I feel like the shockwave would at least break a few ribs. Break his ribs or something. Yeah. Maybe he did. Maybe he did break some ribs. Maybe he did. Yeah.
But he's just a badass. He's very tough. He's very tough. He's very tough. Oh my god, the shin scenes. So, yeah. Yeah, so guys, those are kind of the rules of Action Movie Anatomy. If you guys want to follow along, we've got a live chat here. If you're watching this on replay, leave those comments below.
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After the event, which was pretty awesome. And I've talked about this before on our live streams and stuff. I like to hug. Will's a good hugger. Will gives a good hug. He's a good hug. So, Glenn Caesar, Will McClain.
Big, big shout out to you guys. Big time salute. Thank you so much for your patronage. Will's blushing right now. He is. He is. But he knows it's true. Yeah. All right. What do we got coming up today? So, yeah, guys, he mentioned it. We'll talk about some of the other stuff coming up later this week. Be sure to tune in to the Action Industries YouTube this Sunday night.
Action Guys, 5.30pm with special guest Ben Goddard. It'll be the first time having Goddard on the show. I think we'll be talking about something movie related. We'll reveal that subject later, so follow along on social if you want to see the topic. And we'll tell a cool story about when Ben and I first met Ben Goddard.
interesting story it's really cool to see how things have come full circle all these years later a hundred percent so coming up today on the show guys we're gonna be talking fist bump moment we're gonna be talking thesis statement favorite line we're gonna be doing a new segment called worst recast ever which we're really excited for you to see uh yeah so i think we should just
jump straight into things. The very first thing we do on the show every single week is thesis statement. This is your biggest, boldest thought about the film. You know, you see the movie, you think to yourself, well, here's the thing about The Accountant.
And this is your number one thought. You'd say it first at a party, then you'd drop the mic and you'd leave. The biggest, the first, the only, the best, the worst, the last. Should never kind of be loose. Do you have one? Do you want to start first? I do. It's an interesting one because I actually really enjoy this movie. and I like all the people in it. Yeah. But I will say, I think this is probably the worst cast Gavin O'Connor film ever. Interesting. You don't like the cast? I do.
I like Bernthal, and I like Affleck, and I like Kendrick, but I just feel like if you had three different actors that weren't so... themselves sure right because kendrick is always kind of that way she's always a little quirky and a little like mousy and a little you know unsure of herself she's pretty typecast here yeah yeah and bernthal is kind of like either BDE which is a term you can look up on the internet or he's kind of like this just like real cool dialed in like
I'm just going to make you do what I want you to do, and that's the only thing you can do, right? That's kind of what we saw in Ford Ferrari, the same type of character. That one had a little bit more depth. But then also, Affleck, I think he does a good job. I really do. I just don't know if he was the best.
choice for this role so again I like this movie I enjoy watching this movie and I like all these actors but even down to lift out I don't think these people were the right people I think that Jeffrey Tambor maybe Yeah. J.K. Simmons, probably the best cast just because it's like he's good at that. Yeah, he's pretty good in the role. But honestly, I just felt like maybe we could have had...
better people throughout the whole thing. Totally fair. Totally fair. I think it works enough, but it does feel like there are some spots where it misses and it could do a little bit better of a job. And that's why what I said was of...
Gavin O'Connor's films. Because you look at Miracle. How perfect is Russell in that role, right? And you look at Warrior, which is our number one reference. All of them. Everyone in there. Jennifer Morrison. Affleck in the way back is just incredible. Yeah, I'm sure he is. I'm sure of it. And you know that they have such a...
a great relationship. So I don't know. I think that's just an interesting thesis. Again, it's not a knock on the movie because I don't think they really take away from it. I just think it could have been a little better. Yeah.
My thesis is this is the most unfortunately overlooked movie of 2016. This came out in 2016, correct? I'm right about that? Yeah. This is the most unfortunately overlooked movie of 2016. And by the way, 2016 is a year that includes movies that I freaking love. 2016's got Popstar. 2016's got...
That's the first movie you referenced. It's got the nice guys. It's got... 2016 has some movies that I genuinely... It's got Carol, I believe, is 2016. Oh, you do love Carol. The movie's great. Yeah. I mean, that movie got tons of Oscar buzz, so it wasn't overlooked at all. Right, right. But like...
you're saying that this was this is the most unfortunately overlooked movie of the year and the reason is because think about how unique of a premise this is yeah you've got ben affleck who in 2016 he's not like he's not like he is Peaking. He is Batman in 2016. This is his moment. This is his comeback, right? I want to say 2016 was the year that BVS came out. If it wasn't BVS, if that was 2015, then it was Suicide Squad in 2016. But either way, he's Batman in a movie that year.
If only we had an outline here. Yeah, BBS and Suicide Squad were both 2016. That's what I thought. So he's like... As dialed in, and the rumors were not coming out yet that he was leaving. Like, that wasn't happening yet. So, like, when this movie comes out, you should have tons of people flocking to the theaters to see a movie about Ben Affleck, you know, effing people up with...
Pretty great supporting people. Bernthal's having a great moment here. Yeah, Bernthal's having a big moment. So is Kendrick. And also, it's not one of those things where you're like, oh, but it's a Gavin O'Connor film. Because again, he is respected. Maybe he's not well known, but he's not like someone that you look at and you're like, oh, well, I'm not going to say that. It's not like a McG.
No, and even the premise of the movie, in the promotional materials it was made pretty clear, but it's not like, oh, this is a movie about an autistic character who kills people. That doesn't sound interesting to me. I'm not going to see it.
The promotional campaign for this movie didn't really lean that hard on it. It really was just like an action movie starring Ben Affleck, and if you saw the movie, you learned something about this subject. This actually taught you something. And, like, that's why when you watch this movie, yeah, not every part of this movie hits it out of the park as much as I would have liked.
But talk about a unique film, an awesome movie, a really, really cool idea, and one that really more people should have seen because that's a unique and original idea. These don't happen that often. Yeah, and you know, like I was going to say, or like I was saying at the top of the show, we'll talk a little bit more about the ASD and its portrayal in the movie.
movie because while it doesn't do a completely excellent job it's definitely flawed as most films are flawed like you said it's still bringing light to a topic with an anti-hero that is something that hasn't really been done before so at the end of the day it at the
At the worst case, you can pick apart things that they maybe do that are a little too cliche or maybe things that don't paint ASD in the greatest light. But on the other side of it, you've got to think about maybe the millions of people that now are more well in tune or at least more aware of what this might look like to be on this.
Also, I just think when you talk about representation and you talk about representation in media, it's such a major topic of discussion nowadays that when you represent something, it's like, yeah, you want to have... all genders you want to have all races you want to have all classes all ages you know you body types like you think about
somebody who's on the spectrum who watches this film how often are they going to really get to see something in a movie that they connect to like i'm seeing something that makes me feel okay about this thing that the world has probably not made me feel that great about you know and that's a lot about what this movie is about so that's why i think it's just it's
such a bummer this movie got overlooked in the way that it did didn't make as much money as they wanted they were talking about a sequel but it didn't quite get off the ground now they're saying it's now maybe happening right TV show maybe is what they're saying you know Affleck in the interviews for way back was talking about it so I think that's that's really an interesting thing
you would be in it? Say what? Affleck would be in it or no? You said you would be in it? And you would be in it? Yes. Ewan? I'll be in the film. Is Affleck supposed to maybe be in the series? I would bet not. I feel like there's... I would bet he would... EP probably, but I don't think he'd be in it. What about Gavin? Do you know if he's... I would have to imagine in both cases, maybe Gavin directs an episode. Like an episode or starts...
I heard, like, it's a... But, again, like, you hear this stuff all the time. Who knows if that'll ever happen. So... I love seeing Fernie in this. Right? Yeah. It was almost my fist pump. Just because I love seeing Fernie anywhere. I, like, didn't remember when I watched Fast Five.
other day i remembered him being in it but i didn't remember that he has like a couple scenes that he's got real lines yeah he's in the movie with real lines i love fernie man he's the best he's a legend he's a legend all right so um anyway guys we're gonna continue moving through the show here we're gonna get the next part which is fist pump moment yeah something happens you kind of look around you're like are you seeing this right now this is so awesome
this movie's hype I get to watch the rest of this right now I can't wait you know you got a tall tall beer a glass of scotch maybe you're sober maybe you're drinking ice water but either way it gets you hyped yeah what was I drinking during this you want to call your buddy so I think this movie has some sweet fist bump moments I definitely... I have a bunch. I'm going to go with...
when he's out and the guys try to take out, like, the farmer couple. You knew as soon as those people started to mess with the sweet old farmer couple, they were so done. They were so dead. Yeah. They were so dead. And, like...
Affleck's out there just, like, shooting with his long-range weapon. Just, like, such a badass. Yeah, what does the old guy say the first time? He's like, mile out, not on my best day. No way. He's like, the only guy that could do that would be Mark Wahlberg and Shooter. And even that would be a stretch. Bob Lee Swagger. Bob Lee Swagger.
And so they look out, and he's not there. And you're like, oh, man, this sweet old couple. You better not touch them. You better not hurt one of them. You better not hurt a hair on her head. We cannot pull a Logan here. You can't kill the sweet family.
And then the guy just gets lit up. Done. Just lit up. Like an explosion of blood on the porch. A woman starts screaming. I gotta say, there's not that many movies that have done the thing where a long-range, like, heavy artillery weapon hits a guy through a window. It happens in Wind River. Yes. And it's, like, one of the best parts. It throws him.
It's one of the best parts of the whole movie. Yeah. If it gets overused, it will no longer be awesome. But the fact that I haven't seen that many movies that do it when it does happen, it's like, God, that's just so savage. It's so sweet. I'm trying to think of the movie where... They do the same thing with the Breda 50 Cal, I think is what most people refer to it as. But it's like a...
where they start shooting at the helicopter and it just takes... Do you know which movie I'm talking about where they pick up the long range assault, like the same rifle, and they just shoot down a helicopter because it's so strong?
I can't remember what it is. Maybe the chat I'll remember. I'm pretty sure it's a movie that we've covered, but it's sick. I love... That was... close to my fist bump because i knew it was going to come like you saw him you saw him practicing at the beginning of the movie you're like oh man he's gonna ruin somebody yeah oh 100 so so and also like
Oh, yeah, just him with that thing. But so anyway, he like lights the guy up and then like the real big dude's running around and he's like, I'm getting these people out of here. I'm going to get out of here. You're not going to get out of here. You're done, dude. And like Affleck, like.
Full-on action hero. This is the most action hero part of the whole movie. Oh, he's just sprinting? He takes off sprinting after a moving car, jumps in the back, knees through the glass, pulls a 300-pound man who's driving the car out, gets him out of the car, they fall...
over it they get on the ground and you're like now this dude's gonna think he can take on affleck and he's wrong the guy pulls a knife and what i wanted him to do but he wouldn't because it's not his character but like classic action movie guy affleck would like he would like smirk smirk yeah you know like like smize him real quick he's like it on yeah
Okay. You want to do this, huh? I love... My favorite part of that exact moment is when the dude, the bald guy, after like 10 seconds of getting his ass kicked, he's just like... What the fuck? Yeah. That would be so horrible to get in a fight that you realize to the death and then just like after two seconds realize like, oh, I'm going to die. You're like, there's no way I'm going to win this. This guy's not an accountant. No. I was misinformed. I was misinformed.
They called him an accountant. I was ready to rip him to shreds. So then Affleck pulls the belt off. He goes Jason Bourne. Now, I know Jason Bourne pen fights and he magazine fights. Does he belt fight at any point? I don't think he belt fights.
I know I've seen belt fights. Maybe Cruz belt fights in a movie? Yeah, Cruz might belt fight. That sounds correct. Belt fighting is sweet. He, like, whips him first, and then he turns it into, like, yeah, and then he, like, chokes him. Savage. Savage fight. That whole fight was just, like...
This is the most, like, there's zero to do with the subject matter of what makes this film interesting that is required for this scene to work. This literally could exist in this movie or it could exist in any other movie. It has nothing to do with him being an accountant, his autism, nothing. And then I love, I love what he's...
like choking him out and he's like yeah i'm gonna say names of your employers you're gonna say yes he's like practice okay you're gonna die uh so my fist pumps in the exact same scene it's literally all the things you just talked about my
Actual fist pumps is when the first moment when that dude grabs the old couple. He's like, all right, dude, we're going to go to that car. We're going to get out of here. And then you hear the car just get blown up by the two shots. And then what happens after is he runs out and then shoots the truck in the engine block. Think about rifles.
With, like, two shots taking out an entire car. Yeah. Like, blowing it up. I was just like, oh, you're so screwed. You're so done, dude. And then he, like, just, like, when he comes back from shooting, he, like, wraps it up in a carpet. Just, like, walks into his trailer and just leans it against the wall. But there's, like, an entire arsenal on his wall.
I love that. Savage. Also, I do have to say the flak jacket grenade thing was really sweet. Super sweet. I was really into that. Yeah, it was a little distracting because I didn't know how real it was, but it was super cool. So let's continue moving through the show here, guys. We're going to get into star profiles, talk about the two stars of the film.
We went with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick, which I think is pretty fair. It does feel like they're the two the movie focuses on the most. So Affleck is in his – this is in his comeback moment. So like his career kind of prior to this, I think it's worth noting. Really takes off in the late 90s. Goes really well to the early 2000s. He has this moment by about 2003 where he's Daredevil and he's with J-Lo and it's like...
It's not happening. The world's like, we're not really into it anymore, dude. And he falls off the rails for a few years. He has the he has the George Reeves Hollywoodland comeback. He directs Gone Baby Gone in 07. And it's right around the time he does the town that like. the full comeback is now happening. Yeah, because right before that, he does State of Play and Extract in 2009, which are kind of...
kind of coming up. He's good and stay to play. But then it's The Company Men in 2010, The Town in 2010, Argo in 2012. It's like he's fully back in it. And then Gone Girl in 2014. It's the directing career that really gets him back on track. Because he stars in, the second movie he directs, he stars in 2010.
And then in 2012, obviously, he's, you know, he's in Argo and it wins Best Picture and that whole thing. And so he's right back on the map. And so that's when obviously they cast him as Batman. And it is interesting how it's like he earned respect. Yeah. It wasn't just because it's like because not a lot of people. talk about the town, even though we love that movie. It's kind of like the same effect as Warrior where people talk about it more now. But then in Argo, it was like, well, shit.
If he's just going to direct a Best Picture winner and star in it, how can we ignore him? Totally. But the weird part is that he gets all the respect by doing all those good things, and then this is the period where he's not really doing the best things. Because Gone Girl in 2014 is great, and then it's basically after Gone Girl.
Most of what he does is kind of subpar. This is like one of the highlights, honestly. Live by Night's not particularly good. Suicide Squad's not very good. Batman vs. Superman's just okay. Justice League's bad. Triple Frontier's not good.
So now he's taken on all these projects. The Way Back, I think, kind of marks a little bit of a way back for him. I think people are hoping that movie's good. I really liked it. I'm excited for you guys to watch it. It drops this weekend. So if you haven't seen it, go see it in theaters. Again, it's just like The Accountant.
the kind of movie that we need to pay our dollars in a theater to go see because we need these movies to make money. We need movies like this to keep happening. Otherwise, studios just won't budget them. We just will only get blockbusters. Yeah, so, you know, Suicide Squad in 2016.
BVS, Donna Justice 2016, and Gone Girl in 2014 for Affleck. Kendrick is a really interesting actress because she works so much. And no matter how bad the projects are that she works on, it doesn't really seem like she falls that far down in her. stardom. She did The Hollers in 2016. get a job in 2016 and Mike and Dave need wedding dates in 2016. I don't know what the first two are. I know Mike and Dave. Yeah. Cause that was when, uh, what's his name? Adam, whatever was blowing up. Uh huh. Um,
Zac Efron. Yeah, but it's just so interesting with Anna Kendrick, right? Because she's been in... She's 34. She's been in 59 credits. But, like, there's not a lot of great in there, but there's some really, really good. Well, she's, like, the best friend in Twilight. Yes, that's how she starts. And then she gets the supporting actress nom the next year for being up in the air in 09. Uh-huh.
so there's a moment right then and everyone's like okay anna kendrick on the scene she's like she's cute she's quirky and she's really talented it's kind of she's kind of in the emma stone
class they're kind of like they're a little bit on each other's corner yeah and but then emma won an oscar yeah i mean kendrick did do pitch perfect that's her that's her that's her biggest moment i think is the pitch perfect moment that kind of feels like it's been the career defining role for most of her since then But she, I would say Pitch Perfect is her career-defining role at this point. I think so. I don't think she has another one that's quite as big.
But like, you know, I mean, this is a big movie. It's only a few years ago. So she's continuing to show up and stuff. And I think actually that in general, she's pretty good. I like Anna Kendrick. Yeah. I don't have the thing where most people like there's this weird hate for her out there. Yeah. Have you seen it where it's just like people just don't like her?
standard they think she's annoying or too squirrely or too like whatever it is but i think she's great yeah for the most part i really i really like i really like her in 50 50 i love that movie oh yeah she's the girlfriend right yeah she's like the she's his therapist i watched half of that the other day
She's not the girlfriend. Bryce Dallas Howard's the girlfriend. She's the original girlfriend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's the love interest. I didn't get to the part where she's in it. Oh, really? She's the therapist. Yeah, like for his dealing with his cancer. I actually watched Mr. Right the other day. Do you know that movie?
Don't remember it. It's Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick, and he's like a hitman, and she doesn't know it, and it's like a rom-com action movie. Interesting. It's amazing how many movies we watch, but still how many movies there are we've never seen. It blows my mind sometimes. I start watching... Click the other day for the first time.
It's great. It's good. It's going to make you cry. It always does. That's what people say. It always does. Yeah. All right. So talking a little bit about filming. You know, this started in Atlanta, Georgia in 2015, in January of 2015. And it... You know, they shot a little bit of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and it wrapped in April, so just a few months there. The action sequences in the film feature the Indonesian martial art Panak Salat, or Pen...
whatever it is it's the one that we saw a lot of in the raid you know really really popular there and it's basically where um it's an umbrella term for indonesian martial arts that focus a lot on striking grappling and using your entire body to uh to attack not just your hands or your legs
depending on what martial art you're more familiar with. It was written by Bill Dubois, who wrote The Family Man, The Judge, and Ozark. You love The Judge. I do like The Judge a lot. I'm a big fan of that movie. I actually have never seen... Is it A Family Man or The Family Man? I feel like it's The Family Man and it stars our boy, Jared. And I've never watched it and I've always wanted to watch it. Oh, wait, is that The Company Man? I don't know what A Family Man is.
I'll look it up. You keep talking. Okay, okay. So, yeah, and then obviously Gavin O'Connor, who you guys know, we've talked about him tirelessly, endlessly on the show with Miracle Warrior and the encounter, kind of his big wins. But, you know, I was looking at the chat a little bit ago, and Jarvie, Richard Eric Jarvie, our boy.
was talking about how um he has a lot of misses in his filmography yeah so i want to take a look really really quickly i was right about this yeah it is it's it is uh what's his name what's that jared Jared? Yeah, I listen to the soundtrack of this all the time by Mark Isham. That's not weird. He's right about Gavin. That's the funny thing about his career. Because if you go and watch, Pride and Glory is not very good. No. That movie misses the mark pretty hard.
So he's got... Oh, wow. He's directing The Green Hornet. Yeah. That's announced. I didn't see that. So he's got Comfortably Numb, Tumbleweeds, Miracle, Pride and Glory, Warrior. And then Jane Got a Gun and The Accountant. Everything else has been TV series or TV movies. And Jane Got a Gun is not actually his movie. Yeah, there's a whole crazy story about that one. He came on to finish Jane Got a Gun. That movie's not his. So, like, take that one out.
Pride and Glory has good intentions. It just doesn't come together all the way. Which one is that one? Is that the cop one? It's the Norton Colin Farrell one. It's the one where Colin Farrell holds and threatens to shoot a baby at one point in the movie. That's good. I bet it won people over. Yeah. It wasn't great.
Not a good moment. And then I do want to read Alex Shashek sent over Commander-in-Chief. Commander-in-Chief Alex Shashek of Call to Action. They're almost at a thousand subs, by the way. Their YouTube channel. Oh, yeah. Guys, go subscribe to Call to Action. They've been doing insane... Shows on there. I mean, the other night I was looking at their live chat. They had 150 people in there. 150 people. For Shmo Bates? For Chill. With Roka and Smets, I believe. Incredible.
That's insane. It's more than we get in a lot of times. Yeah, it really is. So Alex sent over this article on psychiatryonline.org about the accountant cinematic take on ASD. And I don't want to read the whole thing, but I do want to read this last paragraph. It says...
Overall, The Accountant is a flawed film, not quite succeeding in striking the balance between entertainment and clinical reality. It often errs on the side of sensationalism, perpetuating the stereotype that the only thing redeeming in autism is savantism.
which is very true. It also does disservice to the ASD community by linking violence to it, especially against the backdrop of Sandy Hook and the Umpqua community college shootings around the same time. She says, however, while the movie falls short of its goal, I commend the effort and applaud it for its greatest... Which I think they do a really good job of that part of it because, you know...
really only the moment at the end with Bernthal when he says he's happy and he kind of smiles and he kind of like turns into a child again. Yeah. It's really the only time you see him because he never really connects with Anna. No. Because he has the... He's ASD. You don't have it. But he does care about her in a way. He wants to protect her, but it's not like...
If they added in the romance angle, it would be so bad. It would have been horrible. Because it wouldn't have made any sense. No sense. He sends her the Jackson Pollock. And it's also, I love the moment when she says, why are we staying in this hotel? And he's explaining the towels.
And he's like, and I and I wanted you to like it. And that like that's a great that's like one of the greatest moments of the movie, because it's literally one of the only like moments that he peeks out into like, I like you.
Or I care about you. I want to in some way make your experience good. Also, I love when he's like, my treat. And you're like, you have like... pieces you have like rembrandts and pollux in your home i know my treat like i do love you could probably buy the hotel i love the painting aspect yeah i think it's really cool that like for payment a lot of time he's just like no i'm just gonna take these priceless pieces of art yeah i think so the
comment about savantism is really interesting because one of the things i did find myself thinking while watching was like it's a it's a construction of a character that's like sort of a bit cliche which is a little bit of a hallmark right that's like gavin likes to play with those because they're they're
He likes to take these big swings. I think when we call them cliches, what I think we really mean is he takes big swings because generally speaking, the big swings are the things we've seen before. Yeah. So in Warrior, the structure of that movie is so perfect because he's taking the big swing with the way it builds up, with the fight.
with the matches and even on a smaller scale we talked about this on the way here the belt fight that we just talked about is literally just pulled from so many other action movies but he does it in his own way yeah and so I think when it comes to the stuff with when it comes to the stuff with the savantism it's like there is an aspect to him being like
just like brilliantly dressed savant of classic art who listens to classical music, but also listens to like death metal while he hits himself with a piece of wood. Also, that was my other fist pump is when he breaks that piece of wood over his shin. Yeah. The idea of how bad that would hurt so much. Yeah.
And so there's a level to that stuff that is a little bit of like... The reality of this character would, I feel, be much less exact. I don't think he would be this sort of perfectly robotic... person who also like do you know what i mean yeah i mean so it's tough because like i my experience with asd is uh i have a good amount of experience on a surface level like one of my people in my improv group that i performed with for years yeah uh
was on the spectrum yeah and he was hilarious and he was amazing but he also would do things at times that you had to remember like this is just who he is yeah you can't take it personally or you can't you know so um i think that there's moments in this movie like again the cliches it's like you knew the moment that you heard that he had autism there would be some sort of
routine that he has with his breakfast and his toast. You know what I mean? There's that stuff in there that you're just like, I'm waiting for this. But it... It does kind of take away a little bit because now it's just like, oh, yeah, I understand ASD. You know, you're really good at math and like you have to have your eggs symmetrical to your toast. Right. You know what I mean? And it's not like the thing about it. I think where to me it's like.
yeah like this is cool but it's also like how different is this really than like denzel being ocd and the equalizer and laying out his tea bag where you're like there's a lot more to this there's a lot more to this than just your eggs like
And that's the part of it that's like, yeah, this is really cool and I like this movie, but it doesn't totally knock it out of the park in the way that I think it could. One of my favorite moments is the flashback, and it's when the guy is talking to the parents about how kids don't have a disability.
They have a different set of skills, and it's about learning to hone in those skills to, like, excel. That is actually probably one of my, like, maybe my favorite line because I just can't remember all that he says. But that's a moment where you're like, there is a different way to look at this, and that's really the most important.
thing about it and yes they will have you know they will excel in certain parts of like in certain skill sets and then socially they'll probably struggle a little bit yeah i just thought that that was a really great if there was a way to like take that moment and make that the whole movie right a real look on asd Probably wouldn't have been as interesting of an action movie, but it would have done a better service. Yeah, and there's also, I mean...
They make some really great choices in the construction of his character at the flashbacks. I would actually argue that in a lot of cases, the flashbacks are the strongest parts of the whole movie. A lot of the stuff, when they have the flashback moment to his mom leaving, it's actually probably... the most unexpected turn of the movie because the way the movie opens with the dad, you're like, oh, he's going to be the angry father that pushes him to be violent and hate life.
But in reality, it's the mom that can't deal with it. She leaves. The dad is like, you're going to need to be tougher because the world's not going to be easy on you. I'm going to train you. And then like when they go to see the mom later, obviously, you know, his dad dies.
That's all very heartbreaking stuff. It's good. And then I do like at the end when they bring it back around and Bernthal's like, why did you go? Why didn't you call me? Why'd you call him? The whole thing is really well done. I do want to talk about that just a little bit because people were talking about it in the chat.
chat about the brother reveal. How do you feel? We haven't talked a lot about Bernthal in the movie. Um, I, so I actually on rewatch, this is the second time I'd seen it. Same. And, um, the Bernthal reveal, the brother thing feels largely unnecessary. Yeah, it doesn't like this is Sandy on the phone. It's like if you think about writing the script for this movie, right, you think about writing it and like, OK, so if I want to make this movie, there are two things in the story that.
kind of need to be so right the asd component of this film is what gets this movie made you can't make this movie without like that like that's the pitch because otherwise there's not that much going on in this movie it's just a straight down the barrel action movie about a hitman and the way you have to wrap the story back around
is that Bernthal has to show up at the end and you have to find out that he's his brother. Otherwise, kind of a lot of the backstory stuff of him even having a brother is irrelevant to the movie. He would just be an only child if he didn't have to have the Bernthal thing at the end. But I don't know, like... Again, we say he doesn't need to be in the movie. I'm sure from a script writing standpoint, he does. I'm sure if you're reading the script and you read 25 scripts in a week...
And you read the script and it doesn't have the Bernthal character and he is an old child and the hitman at the end is just some random guy. Or like he does have a brother and they just never acknowledge it again.
it's not good enough. And so to get this movie made, there has to sort of, you know, like, screenwriting is not nearly as random as I think a lot of people expect. Like, you can't just, like, reinvent the paradigm. Like, most of the decisions that get made in the screenplay are pretty predictable because, like...
storytelling is storytelling. There are beats you need to hit. So you had to have this beat to connect and show some probably, that was his breakthrough moment at the end. It makes more sense he'd break through with his brother than he would with Anna Kendrick. Yes. Right? And it feels, I think honestly the thing, the... The thing about the brother reveal that doesn't work for me the most is just when they show all these flashbacks, they focus so solely.
on ben and his dad and not really the brother that he doesn't really have any character development there's a lot there that i think they could have added in just even a couple lines in each flashback that would have made you care about the brother or at least understand their relationship a little bit more so when he shows up it matters at all
It matters at all. You know, because there's a moment there where he's like talking to me. He's like, what does he call me? He's like, you fucking weirdo or whatever. And you're like, why didn't they show me more of that when he was a kid? Right. Because that is a moment where he's literally just.
going right back to being a kid and saying probably what he said to his brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's just a couple things missing on that connection that we could have cared so much more about the reveal of Bernthal, but it was necessary. I do agree. Yeah. So let's talk a little critical in box office on this one.
brothers releases this film it opens on october 14 2016 44 million dollar budget makes 86 domestically which is pretty good there was a decent advertising campaign behind it so they probably spent quite a bit of money but then the foreign was another 68.9 which i think is largely on the strength of like in his Batman moment.
The total gross on this movie is $155, which for a $44 million budget is fine. Yeah, it's making over three times its budget back, which means you're essentially breaking even plus some because of advertising. And I think, generally speaking, you can assume that there's going to be 25% to 50% of the budget.
spent on advertising so this movie probably ends up costing them more in the 60 million dollar range 65 to get out there so then they make 155 back it's it's really interesting how These totals and the way this looks, it reminds me kind of a little bit of Edge of Tomorrow, where they spent a ton of money, made enough money back, but...
who knows how much over the actual advertising budget, right? Like not enough to just make the sequel where it's like, yeah, but we could do this or we could just like, you know, adapt a children's series, make a cheap horror movie or another superhero remake and, you know, make 10 times our investment because that's what those do. And we're a movie.
We need to make our money back. That's why I think this movie didn't get the immediate sequel that they were trying to do. I also think probably by the time this movie came out and people were talking about the sequel, we were getting into late 2016. Correct me if I'm wrong. Was it that summer that the Affleck is out on Batman? I know I said earlier I thought it was the next summer, but it actually might have been. Might have been.
Because that's where it might have been 2017. Maybe the early 2017 at Comic-Con when people were saying he was out because then Justice League probably came out in the late summer. Lucas Shashek says, and so does Jarvie here, and this is actually something I was curious about as well. He says, the Brothers thing as a plot point hits a little differently now that I've seen Warrior. And Jarvie responded, he goes, yeah, it feels cheaper, doesn't it? Kind does.
Because it's the same thing that he did six years ago. It's the brother thing. The brother thing. Like two brothers fighting each other at the end of the movie and you don't know that they're brothers until the end of the movie.
And he's kind of like the abusive dad that also forms them. The mom's not there. All the same things. There are a lot of themes and hallmarks that are consistent with the two films, but they just don't land in this one. And then Kendrick is kind of like the Jennifer Morrison.
like the supportive like she's not as quite as strong of a rock because she has to play but it's interesting it's like the exact same formula but with a hitman instead of a fighter so you know we were on the way over here and we were thinking about games for the show we used to do this thing called Master Recast
Yeah. You know, big shout out to Brian Hurst out there. OG Hurst. OG Hurst, who I believe is the one that coined that name. But we're thinking, what about the worst recast ever? Right. We've got a guy that's got that's that's ASD.
And maybe just some of the characters that could have played it as well that are very good with numbers. It's like the number of guys that would come in. I'm thinking, what if this movie couldn't get the budget? What if Steven Seagal was like... what's asd and like he comes in and he's like i've eaten there yeah you know steven seagal coming in like like
Just like, I can't move my arm to get my hand up to my face. Is this jacket smaller than anyone else? Is it hot in here? I've been told many times that I'm very good with numbers. I'm an assassin. I can take anyone down. Yeah, I think Seagal, to me, is, like, he's the pinnacle of, like, the terrible... Because, like, imagine... Okay, let's say you're, like, a... Think Arnold. Arnold in...
Arnold in Batman and Robin. I'm very good with numbers. I did the math. I can't do it. Yeah. You know, I'm really good with numbers. You know, I've been practicing for a long time. I'm very good with numbers. Let's do some improvisational comedy. These are all real bad. I don't think any of these would be good. Who do you think would have been... Can you think of a good recast on this? I mean, I'm just good with numbers. No, Tom would have been horrible. Let me take off my belt.
Arnold as Aflac is probably my favorite. Yeah, I was actually thinking about this with my thesis. Who would have actually been a good recast for this? I think Fassbender would have been phenomenal. I wanted to say that. I always feel like I say Fassbender. It would have been real good. Because he kind of does... In jobs, he does a lot of the similar things. He actually is on the spectrum. At least I'm not aware if he was. His inability to...
Connect. Connect emotionally. He's so direct. Yes. Right? So I think he would have been able to play this character really, really well. That would have been really interesting to see.
I think also you could, because he's very handsome, very traditionally handsome, so is Affleck. But what if you were to go with a way more off-the-wall looking guy? What if this was Andy Serkis? Yeah, I know. I was trying to think of someone a little bit less... A-list, like, you know, like, even like a Cillian Murphy, you know, but I don't see him as being badass enough, but I want something like that, like a Guy Pearce kind of, but Guy Pearce is too douchey looking, you know.
Hold on. What else? What else is there? There's got to be someone else that we could do that. It's like, I got these because of the towels. I hope you like it. I don't know. I wanted you to like it. I wanted you to like it. I care. I don't know. Anyway, guys, we're starting to wind down on time here. Yeah, we've got five minutes left here. So we are going to talk critical in box office. This movie ended up with a 52% by the audience, a 76% by – no, sorry, the other way around.
52% by top critics and a 76% by the audience. This does feel like the classic kind of movie that would be far more enjoyable to an audience than to general critics. Yeah. I'm just very good with numbers! Pacino? Yeah, I mean, and again, the tomato meter in Rotten Tomatoes is always done by the... It's just whether you liked it or did not like it. I am a little surprised that critics...
Only half the critics like this movie. I would have thought this was 64. Yeah, I'd go a little higher. That's like where I would have put it. I haven't even said a 7.3. That seems a little more... Yeah, that seems a little more fair, a little more accurate. I think if this had been a 7.0 on IMDb, I would have been okay with it. 7.3 is a little high, actually. It's probably a little high. It feels a little high. Yeah, yeah, for IMDb, definitely, because that's...
Yeah, you know, mid-sevens is not an easy thing to accomplish. So we don't have an AMA question. Do you have a favorite line? So I was thinking about a favorite line, and I... I should have just written down everything that guy said because I'm pretty positive that's my favorite line is when he's talking about, you know, the way that you really like observe.
uh, you know, the kid that is ASD, um, and like the way the parents look at it and the way that his mom looked at it, you know, the guy kind of spelling it out. That was definitely my favorite moment where I felt like a really connected and understood matter. Yes. Also the, what the fuck?
Yeah, I love the what the fuck. The one that the one that I loved was at the end when Lithgow comes in and he's like and Bernthal and Affleck are sitting there and like your one instinct is like, is a hitman guy going to walk out or is Bernthal or is Lithgow going to walk out?
shoot Bernthal because I was like that feels that feels like one thing that might happen right now he connects to his brother then he dies and he's like you know lone guy on the road but that doesn't happen Lithgow just comes out and he's like what are you doing and he's like
I do. I help people. My company helps people. I change lives. Do you know what that's like? And Affleck's just like, yes. Yeah. No, it just takes him out. Perfect headshot. Perfect headshot. Yes. Because, like, he doesn't connect to people. He lets people finish. He doesn't say much.
He's like, I'm here to finish my task, which is to kill you. So I'm going to let you finish your sentence. Then I'm going to shoot you in the head. Say one line and move on. Hands down, without a doubt, if I was lift out, I would have had a panic room and I would have hidden in it. Yeah.
Because he's supposed to be a billionaire or whatever. What are you doing going out there? Walking out there. The guy's there to kill you. I guess you're thinking you're a guy. But then you're watching him. I think that if I'm him, I look and I go, one of those two people is going to kill me. 100%. Maybe both of them.
what was I going to say? Oh, the other favorite line I had is the first time that you see Bernthal talk to Lithgow, or no, the second time you see Bernthal talk to Lithgow's ex-partner in the kitchen about the accidental overdose. So that's a good scene. And the two decisions you have, because it's like...
the way he says it he's like you violate your wife i'm just kidding we wouldn't do that but i wouldn't pop her in the brain or whatever he says like the brain brain yeah the brain pan and it's just like Thinking of those moments in movies where you have to make those decisions, it's like I can either try to survive and die and then my wife dies or I just kill myself and my wife gets money. It's horrible. Yeah, Bernthal is like...
He might be my least favorite part of this movie, to be honest. Not because I think he doesn't do a good job, but I think because a lot of what he's asked to do in this movie and a lot of the way he handles himself feels like... Just very, very Bernthal. He's not doing anything. And the character is not really interesting. He's like, show up and be cool.
Right. Be kind of badass. Kind of be friendly with the people you're killing. His character felt as cliche of a character in a movie like this as there is. You talk about how unique Ben Affleck's character is trying to be. They're not even attempting. No. most like stereotypical he's like good looking well dressed you know uh he's not he didn't come off as aggressive or mean no he's just doing his work yeah we've seen that guy a million times a million times so
There are three action movie categories, guys. Totally ridiculous, totally legitimate, and ridiculously legitimate. Which category does this movie fit into for you? I think... This is tough. Yeah. This is tough, right? Because it doesn't really feel... At any point in time, it doesn't feel overtly ridiculous, but it also does feel sort of cliche and silly.
What about like when the kids are getting their ass kicked by that like older dude and the dad's just like, oh, I know their limits and all that. Like, do you think that the childhood training at all is a stretch or is that that's like what we that's like what has to happen in a movie where this guy's this badass is an adult. There has to be a reason he knows how to wreck people. Yeah.
Yeah, I think this movie probably just because of the subject matter, it has to lean into totally legitimate, but I think probably it more accurately is the middle category. I think so as well, and I think the way you said it is probably the best.
It needed to take itself as seriously as a movie that was totally legitimate. Yeah. But not everything landed the way that they'd anticipated. And, you know, again, there's just parts of it that don't work for us on all levels. So I agree. I agree. I'd say middle category with really leaning into totally legit. Yeah. So, guys, there's one last thing left to talk about on the show. It's called The Peach. That was sick. That was a good one. That was an upgrade.
Really good. So we're going to be covering The Way Back next week, guys. This is the film we were talking about. It's Gavin's next movie. It stars Affleck. I was lucky enough to see it this week. It opens this weekend. Go see it. It is a sports film about deep, deep, deep dark alcoholism. So enjoy it. Go spend your money in the theater. We will be talking about it next week on the show. We're really excited about it. Be sure to tune in this Sunday night.
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We do the rewind, and it's so much fun. It was really fun. We had a great time. There's funny stories. We were really bad back then. We were really bad, and our characters were so douchey, and they had the weird accents. It was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. It was a good time. So we're going to be doing that, so get excited about it, guys, if you want to be a part of it.
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He hacked the system. He hacked the system. He managed to get above somehow. Five-star generals. We got Cody Seal. It's a new upgrade. John Getz, Mac Ryan, Oscar Romo, and another upgrade of Steven Anderson, as well as Pauly DPLD, the man, the myth, the legend, Danuzio. Big salute to you guys. guys, and our generals.
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From producers Maria Menounos, Kevin Undergaro, and the entire Popcorn Talk Network, we would like to thank you for tuning in. For questions or comments, be sure to visit PopcornTalk.com. I'm Sir Richard Wentworth, and this has been a presentation of the Popcorn Talk Network.