Drew Eller could be a future starter.
For get the f out of here, Tod.
That's serious.
Yeah, so could Kenny Pickett.
No, the traits that Aller. Kenny Pickett was never talked about as a potential first overall pick in the draft. Aler was, and he might and he might have been if he didn't go back to school this past year. He's got a bigger arm than Picket. He's stronger than Picket, he p He's put up better numbers than Picket. He had a more successful high school and collegiate career than Pickett, I think. And they're talking about their reprogramming him essentially.
Did you hear this story there? McCarthy's basically asking Aler to unlearn everything he learned at Penn State because his coaching was so bad there that they're redoing his footwork is like everything, the way he processes. I'm telling you, like, I don't think Awler's ever going to be a future all Pro, but I could see him making a Pro Bowl, and I could see him being a starter in the
league for several years. I mean, from your hold up, less than a fifty percent chance, okay, but definitely more than twenty or twenty five Okay, okay, that's my true come for the Mortal Kombat talk for the Drew Allery takes.
Yeah, all right, good shit. So Mortal Kombat Too is where we're at here. We've both been looking forward to this one. Is that fair to sund Yeah?
I would say so. Yeah.
First one was very fun. It was a COVID release. I remember my biggest gripe. I enjoyed it because like, that's like, what are you going to do when it's a remake of another movie that already came out. What's the first thing you're gonna do? You're going to compare that one to the remake? Now, obviously, the special effects in nineteen ninety seven aren't going to compete with something in twenty twenty one, although I will I don't know the last time you've seen the ninety seven one.
Nineteen ninety nine?
Sure, well there was two, right, yeah, but the second one was atrocious. I'm saying the first one, ninety seven the special effects are actually legit, Like you watch what's happening in that and you're like, you know, it obviously hasn't aged well. But given what they were working with at ninety seven, the fact that this movie has these kind of special effects is impressive and I had a big gripe. So here's here's where I'm coming down on this. The original was PG thirteen, which how do you do
Mortal Kombat Pg thirteen? They had some cool kills in it, but oh, by and large, no blood, no, none of that. This goes for the hard r but it's like CGI blood. It's not practical effects blood, which is not my personal style. I don't even when Kano in the first one is taking a beating from Sonya blade, he spits out CGI blood. I'm like, really, you couldn't have given him a blood capsule to spit the blood out there, like we can't
do it here? But no, it was CGI blood everywhere, and they kind of went that route again with it this time. But I'd argue, other than Mortal Kombat Annihilation, which was just utter trash, they really don't miss with these. It's not like you're watching Citizen Kame, but it's it delivers on what you expect. And I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, and I'd say this one. If you liked the first one, you're gonna like this one.
My concern with these is always like Okay, why did it take five years or six years or whatever it was to make the sequel? Does that mean there there was discord about the script? Was there? You know? Did they rifle through a bunch of directors where they're casting problems?
That's my whole thing. But then you you know, you find out that all the and basically the whole cast came back, right, yep, that survived the first one was back in this one, even the ones that didn't, even that didn't spoiler alerts.
Well they say that in the first one. They're like, just so you know, everybody can come back all the time.
Yeah, So, which I mean do you like that? I mean I just I feel like you run into the Marvel thing and just not even the Marvel cinematic universe, just Marvel comics in general.
There's no stakes, right, you know, if they actually wanted to make this a cinematic universe and like here's the Scorpion movie, here's the sub Zero movie, I would like the way they're doing it, But it would have to have a finite end point because it is the story
in the games. Because anyone who's ever played Mortal Kombat one and then played Mortal Kombat four and then played Mortal Kombat eleven, will realize ninety percent of the cast is exactly the same, and so like, if these people are dying all the time in the story, why am I fighting them again? And there's a reason behind that outside of just you know, the obvious marketability of certain popular characters and whatnot, and this kind of leans into that.
And they say as much in the first one, like, yeah, none of this actually counted, and everybody's gonna come back.
I mean it kind I mean it counts, but you know what.
I mean, I'm being a tongue in cheek here, but the.
And you know, like that, I mean, I don't know. That's like, you know, watching knowing what had happened in the first one, watching the way that this unfolded, you kind of know, and like I didn't know. I'd like, ben, I haven't even looked this up. I would assume that there's a sequel being.
Yeah, yeah, I have to believe you don't end it like that, and uh right.
So, but but so I'm watching it, I'm like, well, why would I care about any of these characters dying at the hands of another character? You know, I guess for me. It's like, I know that they can come back, and maybe the conflict is like, hey, you killed me, you know, sort of like what Sonia did too. Yeah the first one.
Yeah, like that.
Then okay, it's like like an undefeated heavywood heavyweight fighter losing to some guy. Well, then you know you're super pumped for the rematch, right because now this guy who had never lost before is going up against this guy that did beat him and now me, and and now that the stakes are higher because he's trying to get his belt back. So I don't know, maybe there's something
to that with with the Mortal Kombat characters. But to your point, special effects, the ones that come out that came out in the last six years obviously significantly better. I didn't. Did you have a problem, I mean, okay, So, so there is a couple of things. Number one, when Goro falls off in the original nineteen ninety seven, that
was so stupid. Yeah, I mean that that like, that's one of those things where oneself should recognize oneself and understand how this is going to look to the viewers, knowing that they did the best they could. I thought that was Hoki as heck, really, yeah, I did not care for that. See it looks so stupid.
And this is and I'm not putting on airs. I'm not I'm not trying to be difficult, but I'm telling you, I genuinely I had the feeling after the twenty twenty one movie, and I'm having it again now. I don't know which Goro I like better, because I don't like the one hundred percent CGI Goro either.
Like I liked it.
He was like a point dude that like just had four arms, and I was like, yeah, like and he was imposing, you know, and all that jazz. He was scary and like, now it's just like fighting, you know, like the Hulk or something like that. And it just felt different.
I mean, for what it's worth. And I suppose when they when they came out with Prince Goro in the twenty twenty version, they had to understand, like, Okay, if there was a fight between the nineteen ninety seven Goro and twenty twenty Goro, we have to make sure that twenty twenty girl would win and handily. Right, So obviously the twenty twenty one is much more intimidating and as a viewer, more badass. Sure, but you get to kind of play the cards you're dealt and what you can yeah,
what you can't do? Okay. I want to get your thoughts on this. Carl Urban, who we had talked about, Yeah, good a lot in the lead up to this is a fifty three year old. I want to say, is he an Australian actor New Zealand actor?
Yeah? I believe Australian. Okay, I'm gonna double check that now so no one calls me out.
So some of these actors you can tell.
New Zealand fifty to fifty chance, Okay, it's the Kei wei. Yeah, so that fifty to fifty Australia or New Zealand is now.
There's way more Australian actors than New Zealand.
I meant. I meant just geographically speaking, I could have guessed, like I was gethered, Yeah, he's Australian. Fifty to fifty chance, I picked the wrong one.
Go maybe it could have been Tasmanian, you know. Okay, anyway, some of these actors you can tell that they're not they're not an American actor. Yeah, Like because the accent is seen, it seems a little off right, So right away I'm like I'm noticing that, and that's kind of irritating me. But my big thing was, how do you turn a fifty three year old actor playing a character that you remember what Johnny Cage was like in the
in the first in the nineties ones. I mean he was like what thirty, like the thirties maybe, and he wasn't really I mean, was he at the peak of his acting powers? Like the character? Yeah?
It was okay, yeah, he does the movie. This is the part where you fall down and he's recording the movie in the parking lot there.
So yeah, so you're watching.
They actually modeled him after Jean Claude van Dam in THEE. Yeah, so that's what they were going for. I can look that up.
Because I don't think it was a known actor. So okay, let's get back to what. So I was curious, how are they gonna turn There.
Has to be a reason, Lynden Ashby, I never heard of them.
Yeah, there has to be a reason. And why they pick an actor in his early fifties. There's got to be a purpose here, And sure enough, what do they do? This guy's in the twilight of his acting career. Clearly, you know, there's the scene with the kid in the bar, or not the kid, but the guy you know clearly younger. Oh, I loved you growing up. You know. So this guy is he has no family, at least it doesn't seem
like he his family has no friends. And then what did you make of the hokey like they were trying to be hilarious with the movie scene from his movie or whatever it was called. I thought that was hilarious.
It was well done.
And it's like, you know, watching him, like, God, I hope this isn't the whole Like I hope this isn't what the movies, you know what I mean, like in the back of my head, and I'm like, no, no, they're playing this up. So that's how we end up finding out why they cast the dude in his fifties. It was kind of like you could have made a case that this was the same Johnny Cage we saw in the nineties. Yeah, just twenty thirty years later, whatever.
That swag I still had that, yeah, exactly. And what stuck out to me though, And I do appreciate Carl Urban. I think he is typically good in most things that he does. I found myself and I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Hearkening back, there is a scene I want to say it's in Taken three with Liam Neeson where he has to jump.
Yeah.
Well yeah, I'm just saying, you know, in case people will know it.
Taken three with us.
Yes, But so there is a scene where he's jumping a chain link fence and it sticks out to me, uh so much because I remember I actually stopped. I rewatched the scene and counted because there were twenty seven edits because he's so old that him looking coordinated getting over it couldn't.
Count the edits they were.
It was like edit, edit, Edit, and I had to sit there and I would re I rewound it over and over like it was on.
But you talk about edits, are you saying like, okay, are you saying edits or just they're switching the camera.
Yeah, switching the camera angle.
Okay, so they're covering up.
Then he looks like a sixty something year old man climbing over a freaking chambeling fence.
Right, And.
That is how I felt watching Carl Irvin in this movie. The whole movie, there were a lot of edits. There were a lot of camera changes. However, you want to call it, and I was like, because he isn't known, he's not John Wick, He's not.
Yeah, he didn't really have like, as far as I can tell, he doesn't have like any kind of martial arts, right.
And even when he's being a badass, like when he's butchering the boys, he's not. It's not fighting, it's it's fruit, Yes, exactly, And I think he might have been. I think he did fine. I think he was a little out of his wheelhouse. He is Johnny Cage the actor, Like with the way I'm like, yeah, perfect casting in terms of hair.
Never Yeah, that whole movie was always in perfect spot.
What's ironic about it?
Though, Dude, you would get his ass kicked in this movie. Oh yeah, I need to.
Fit like blood and like just this, I think that was intentional.
Hair is perfectly quiet.
I think that's intentional. But like I remember being in my mid twenties talking about the ninety seven Mortal Kombat and they're like, what'd you think about it? And I said, the movie. The problem that movie had is every person in that movie was either a good actor who sucked at fighting or a good fighter who sucked at acting.
Yeah, that's a good point.
And That is how I felt watching this again twenty something, almost thirty years later. I was just like, man, everyone in here is either acting very well or fighting very well, and very rarely are they doing both. There was some hokey dialogue, but like I expect it, It's not even like it's like old school. It's like Jean Claude van Dayam, like like, you know, one liner's cheesiness and I'm here for it. I gobbled it up. But the acting it left something to be desired with some characters and then
other ones specifically it's stuck out with me. With Carl Urban, I was just like, oh god, yeah, like you can tell your fifty three year dogheah.
And even like the way he would speak, you know, it was just kind of it seemed forced, not forced. It seemed rehearsed, which obviously it was, yeah, right, but it doesn't come across as genuine. Speaking of which, if I ever come up with something, I'm just gonna interrupt our normal yeah, because I don't want to forget about it. So this is something I found out after the movie. I want to say. The dude's name is Ed Zoon.
He was the guy who created Mortal Kombat. He was in this movie twice, only credited for one of them. The one he wasn't credited for was towards the end when there's the fight going on, the three way fight and you hear the famous get over here. That's him, that's the creator. And then the other time he was actually in the film was he was the bartender. Oh, Carl Urban, Yeah, that was the creator of Mortal Kombat.
That's so interesting. I've heard this movie is chalk to the brim with fan service, and some of it is very obvious. If you've ever played a Mortal Kombat game, you'll notice that. But I didn't that stuff well.
I mean, who's gonna I mean unless you are really sure or you just go on the internet like I do. I have not played this game in forever, even when it was out, Ben, It's not like I was playing it a ton. I would play it every now and then, and.
It was always more of a street fighter.
I was too. I like, I like street Fighter a lot better, and I think for me, the main allure with Mortal Kombat was for playing the game. I wanted to play it because of all the hoopla surrounding it in the media, and I was like, I'm missing out. I gotta check this out. And I played it and I'm like, yeah, that's cool, but it's not like blew me away cool or whatever. So so I was never like a big Mortal Kombat guy. And basically the to the level I know, the story and the not the
what do you call this the plot? No, no, not the plot, the backstory. What do you call that. There's a word for it, like a longer word, mythology, the mythology. God, I was trying to remember this song. I was on your show yesterday too, and yeah, kind I gotta quit drinking because I forget you know these stuff anyway, the mythology, most of it, I know, is not from the game. It's from these movies. Sure you know so.
And I told you during that tease it's like the or maybe I even said at the end of the last podcast, the uh. The story to Mortal Kombat is more complex than Game of Thrones, Like if you really start to dive into how it works, like Chao Khan is like four tiers below how powerful stuff gets, and it really does gets very Asian. Oh really, yeah, for lack of a better term, like you get like it gets very animated.
No, no, no, I'm not saying that Shao Khan. There's like four levels above that.
As the story continues going, yeah, it turns out there was like a master of ceremonies overseeing it who was way more power. Okay, and then it turns out that that guy was actually being puppet the NHS. You keep on because it's it's the Marvel problem. Dragon ball Z does this too, right, even Marvel. It's just like, how do you show how bad ass Thanos is? Well, you have him pick up the guy from Avengers one, the bad guy and choke him without even trying, and be
like you spent an entire movie fighting this guy. I killed him in seven seconds. Welcome to the new movie. And it's the same principle.
Did you see the the footage and I think this is real? Maybe I talk to you about this. I can't remember. Some guy was at the cinema con yeah, and he aied what you saw. And there's that scene with the Council of Kang's and then doctor Doom. I'm like, oh my god. You know, like we went from Thanos to like, oh my god. He who remains in Kang is like.
There's a million of this guy.
Well, either're like, he's a million times more powerful than legendary than Thanos, right a decade getting to Thanos or whatever it was. Yeah, and and now all of a sudden you ever moved on past Kang, wouldn't it be the greatest marvel deeck of all time if they just bring Jonathan Major's back. Oh yeah, Yeah, they don't have the balls for that. But yeah, that was yet they don't. They're not desperate enough. Yeah, I did not realize. So they're the opening scene with King Jared in this film. Huh.
And what's his daughter's name, Kitana? Yes? And then his wife's name is like Siren or something, so Sindel Sindel, Yeah, I had no idea. Those were those the debuts for those characters in Immortal Kombat movie. I don't remember any of those three from the previous three movies.
Sindel's in the sequel, Katana's in the sequels. Katana's like the girl that helps Lou Kang in the Annihilation. In the first one as well as Annihilation, there's like, remember the woman, She's the one who puts the bucket of water down and she's like you're gonna need to use this to beat sub Zero and she's like, you can't
tell if she's good or bad. That was Katana and then in Annihilation, Sindel was her mom and she was evil but she was brainwashed and so she was like a terrible actress and she was like, you will die and like that's like the joke is Everyone's like, oh, so you recorded that, you watched it back, you were like perfect delivery.
We're moving on, right, So, so shauk I think it's shau Kan. Maybe it's not Cha Khan, who's the one that is. He's He's this is gonna sound so boorish. He's the main bad guy, but he's not the fighter. He's sort of like this grand wizard type.
That's what I'm talking about. There's like tears too, but I don't know his name, but I know what you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about.
So, and I think like we might have talked about this the first and not that we ever reviewed the first Mortal Kombat. I'm sure we talked about it before the actor who plays him, And I'm pretty sure I'm not being racist by saying this, because I'm I should have looked it up, but I almost positive the same guy is the guy in Dark Knight who is laundering. Yeah,
it was that he's laundering the mob's money. Right, So every time I see this guy talk, all I can hear is I'm really good at coul whatever, which is hilarious. And then you had Heroki hero Yuki Sonata I can't remember.
Yeah, yeah, he's been in a.
Time John Wick.
Yeah, he's phenomenal.
He was in Rush Hour three, which was great, but yeah, you're oh lost. He was un lost for a couple of seasons too. He was great. That was not him fighting though, that had to be a stunt. Yeah, I have to believe, because that dude's like sixteen yeah something like.
Yeah, and he did the fighting in the first one. But again, for all I know, it was c G. I assisted. I wouldn't. I wouldn't begin to know. But I thought you'd all right, it was a little simpler there, and I'm sure you noticed this as well as I did. Uh, Cole, who was the protagonist of the first one, was really nothing more than like an extra in this one, like he really.
Yes, However, I have to believe again the way that they have the way that they have talked about and the way that they executed this, Ben, this was gonna be you know how like Star Wars did this too. Sometimes you're like a big part in one movie and then you're nothing in the next movie, but then you're like huge in the next you know what I mean. I think that was like it's probably gonna set up where he's going to be back to Like it.
Did trivialize the first movie in my opinion a little bit, with how little they gave a shit about what he was doing.
That's that's my point. Yeah, is like you know he says in this movie, I said goodbye to my wife and my daughter, knowing I may never see him again, and and I'm good with that or whatever. And I'm like, Okay, so we know what's gonna happen now. Yeah, that's the easiest foreshadowing ever. And then I felt nothing. Yeah, I mean I could be because all these I mean, they can be brought back. Did Okay? Was this weird I want to call him a maister, but he's not a master.
This weird guy that's helping bring these these people back to life. You know who I'm talking about with the bake up or whatever. Here reminds me of the guy who brought you know, the Mountain back to like the Game of Throne. Was he ever in any of these
other Mortal Kombats, Not that I can't. So then they basically bring this hand of God in, like, Okay, we're gonna have you bring back all these characters and oh, by the way, anybody who dies in this one, because they well I don't want to spoil anything, but a reasonable person would probably expect him to bring back people
who died in this one in the third one. Now, maybe it'll turn into a whole battle world type thing and it's gonna be epic sure, or maybe it's just gonna be the you know, maybe this is gonna be like the next Fast Furious and it just makes it just keeps going. I don't know, I feel like it has to.
And for the record, just because I want to be clear about this, the sources are split, and I don't know anything about the website Superhero hype dot com. I've heard of it, okay, but the the title of the article that came out two days ago, why Mortal Kombat three might not happen despite the sequel ts Apparently it all.
Dies into the box office that when when I hear a headline like that.
It's it's you think is super clickbaity.
Okay, that's my first initial.
Like they're claiming, it seems destined to underperform at the box office. Sixty three million was was apparently estimated to earn eighty in the opening weekend.
Sixty three Yeah, so, which isn't terrible.
No, I'd argue, I'd be interested. I'm going to try and find the budget for this one.
I mean, you know, one of the things that's always sort of held Mortal Kombat back is a lack of a leading you know, a familiar leading man or woman. Yeah, and I think Carl Urban. Can can we say that Carl Urban is the biggest face that any of these four movies have ever had.
What was the dude's name that was in Highlander he was raiding in the first Yeah, I think that was James Remar, wasn't it. Yeah? I think that was his name. I seemed like, I'm all so like the fact that I can't remember his name means the but he's more popular.
Totally more popular. Remar has always been a character actor, if that is him?
Yeah, And I think it is I want I want to see here Raid in Mortal Combats, and that was.
The other thing. A lot of people, you know, back in the nineties, nobody had an issue with it, but they whitewashed that character. Yes, and obviously they could not do that.
Christopher Lambert, Thank.
You, Chris. Christopher Lambert. How do I know this because I work with a Chris Lambert at my fantasy football company only Chris Lambert. My Chris Lambert is a woman, okay, and people don't know that, and I get all these emails. Oh, Chris is the man that dude's great and they have no idea She's a woman.
That's tremendous. Christ Lambert, I take it back because other than Mortal because I love Highlander. You don't know this about me, but I love the first Highlander, and obviously I love the Mortal Kombat movies. And now that I'm looking at everything else he's ever done, it seems like those were his two biggest movies. It.
I will say, all.
Right, Carl Urban's the biggest name I will I will concede that.
I will say. Ricky Bobby did say he told us that Highlander won the Academy Award for Best Movie Ever.
Yeah, right, exactly, you know, you know, just to go off topic here for a second.
Did you watch a TV show and the movies? Yeah? Okay, but like I was a child when the were they interrelated? Yeah?
And the sequel even brought the characters from the TV show and the movie and tied it all together. Not nearly as good as the first one, but it was actually a pretty interesting endeavor. But what sucks is and like, what's what's even crazier about this is this happened when I was like twenty four or twenty five years old. But I was living in Oakland, which is in downtown Pittsburgh, and.
It's like, oh, yeah, no, congratulations on surviving.
Yeah right, But I had friends of mine there and they were like, I don't know what Highlander is. I'm like, you don't know what Highlander is. I was like, I'm gonna put it on right now. And we found it on TV. We throw it on, Like on demand was just taking off at this point. And it starts off with Chris Lambert fighting another you know, immortal in like a parking lot somewhere, almost like the first scene in
Mortal Kombat. And we were watching it and there's like the cheesiest lightning special effects coming around, and like it was awful eighties special effects, and like all my friends looked at we didn't get five minutes in there, like Ben, we're gonna wait for a remake. And I was like, you know, it's kind of sad, but I agree with you because if I didn't know how awesome this was,
I wouldn't want to sit around for this either. Like it really has just fallen apart in terms that has Sean Connery, that has there's a ton Clancy Brown's in it. Sean Connery, he's playing a Spaniard and he doesn't even try to hide his accent. Oh for cats, it's it's absolutely remarkable.
We have the the racist Spanish facial haircut. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. Clancy Brown's another guy that's kind of underrated too.
I agree.
He's been in a ton of stuff that I that I really like over the years.
Yeah. But so anyway, yeah, Carl Urban probably is the biggest cachet in Mortal Combed.
Right, And now you know, here's the other problem you run into it. So let's say the next one doesn't come out for you know, three, four or five years ago. Right now, Kyl Urban's pushing sixty sixty and that's and so it's almost like you need to kind of recast Johnny Cage a little bit. And if they were the way that they set this up for a sequel, you would think that they cast Carl Urban, or that they cast Johnny Cage as a guy who the actor is
going to be playing him in at least another movie. Yeah, and to my knowledge, they haven't started shooting one all combat three, so it's not like they can shoot these back to back. So I don't I don't, I don't know, I don't know. Maybe it was a desperate thing where like, Okay, this movie is not gonna we're not gonna get it made. We needed to make money. We need some kind of, you know, familiar face to get in on this.
And I brought it up with you last week and I rewatched the first one just to make sure that I wasn't misremembering. The final scene in the first one is Johnny Cage and he's Asian.
He's Asian. So like they were like, all right, we need.
More American audience, Like let's be real, did you notice this? It felt like Cano and Johnny Cage were almost like a hat on a hat. Like after watching this one, I realized that Kano was the Johnny Cage of the first one, and I was like, so, now now you have Kano and Johnny Cage and they're basically doing the same stick. Like if you really think about they're like almost two cocky, but like sometimes they're badass and root to being too cocky, and they have.
Those moan to me is always like he's he's he you know, he projects to be this tough, you know, warrior type guy, but really he's morally corruptible. He's soft inside. He does not he he acts always in his own self interest, not to anybody else's right, So there is a lot to I mean, he's you're you're not supposed to.
Like him, no, but I mean narratively, I guess they both are the same person, like in terms.
Of kind of yeah, there are some.
It's like if you watched a horror movie with six college kids in a in a cabin trying to survive some kind of thing there, and two or three of them were stoners, you'd be like, wait a minute, there's only supposed to be one of this kind of he's redundant. And that's how I feel watching Kano and Johnny Cage both kind of like, ah, well, we only needed one of you, Like they should have made Kano way worse as a human because I'm like, well, obviously.
Yeah, crappier version. And he turned on him in the last one.
Yes he did, and he is a bad guy, Like I don't understand why they're doing this shades of grace or like, you know, like almost like John what's his name, Jack Sparrow kind of like here's he Well, who's he going to side with here? Like he's a super evil dude, Like they should just lean into that, right, And.
And and the other thing too in regards to that is, you know, I don't know, I think we're meant to laugh at some of the things that Cano says, yeah, rightly, but it's it's still weird, like right that we're laughing, right, you know, like we should be. And and and Carl Urban to me like this, Johnny Cage just I don't think I don't think he ever knew what was going on, even in the very end. I don't think he fully grasped everything that was going on. The Other thing I
didn't like about this, and maybe this is a me thing. Uh, that was a tournament that we watched, Yeah, and it didn't seem like it right. No, that this this is a tournament that is anti spectator, which is weird because it's for the fate of worlds and realms. Yeah, people should be watching this and be able to watch it happening. Yeah. And like these fighters, I mean they don't they don't know who they're fighting, they don't know where they're going
to to fight. I don't know. I felt like the nineties one did that one a little Yeah, did that a little bit.
It was it was more like it was just like, here's five minutes of story and a fight. Here's five minutes of story in a fight, whereas this it was a little bit more than that for sure.
And I like the build up too, Like you know, like how pro wrestling does it, They build up storylines between two fighters or whatever. And I think that they built up the goro thing in the in the nineteen ninety seven one really well. Yeah, because then you're like, okay, this is this is this is significant here. Then the way Johnny Cage beat him, it's just that's that's another thing. But but this one, like you, you just you didn't
know who was fighting who. There's with the special exception of a couple of fights in here, there really was no real you know. Jerry Seinfeld. To bring it back to Seinfeld has this stand up about he always thinks it's so weird to see a professional boxing match. Why would you want to see two guys knocking the hell out of each other and they don't have any beef
with each other? There's He's like, why don't you get two people into a traffic accident, you know, and then throw them in the rings where there's actually emotions involved. And while that's funny, you know you would think that in this film, Yeah, the emotions are high because you're fighting for earth, realm or you're fighting for whatever, but at the same time you have no Yeah, there's no rivalry there.
Yeah, I agree, it felt especially for a second maybe and maybe that's just me wanting I don't think I'll be real with you. It's one of two things. It's either to me, it's a I think it's sloppy filmmaking to a certain extent, and B it's almost like there's enough characters that it almost would be serviced better as a TV show, like a series than a movie, because.
You know, and then you know what you wouldn't need. You wouldn't need this frontline actor that you're paying all this money. You can build up stuff over. Of course you can make it. And they never made a Mortal Kombat TV show. I mean there's probably a cartoon.
They made them. There was a it was a sub Zero Legacy show. I did not watch it.
It was like live action.
Yeah, and but like it premiered on like a streaming service you've never heard of, Like I don't know what it's called. Like it was very very because I ten years ago or so went down a rabbit hole and I was like, I want all the Mortal Kombat content that I can find, and I found it's like sub Zero Legacy or something.
Like, oh you know what, that does sound familiar?
And yeah, because the games and the movies, these ones do a little bit better. But like the main thrust of Mortal Kombat is the competition between sub Zero and Scorpion. Yes, that is the main thrust of it. The first movies didn't give a shit about that. Now the first one in this one kind of does like it dove into that, I think pretty well a legacy thing. They created a descendant of Scorpion who nobody liked, and obviously they made that clear in this one.
But what do you mean nobody liked?
Well, otherwise he'd still be the lead.
Oh you're saying audiences yeah, oh okay, yeah, I thought you meant.
Like, oh no, no, no, yeah, they were fine with him. But but yeah, I mean the audiences were like, nah, I want what I'm here for. Give me the people. I know we should do this right now.
Look up. I think his name is Lewis Tan. He played Cole Young? Is that is that his name Cole Young? And this Cole Young, I feel like that's like one of the guys on my minor league, yeah, prospect team
of my fantasy baseball squad. Right now, look up Lewis Tan and look at the stuff he's done, because I think that there's there's stuff on If I remember looking at this correctly, there's gonna be stuff on there that you might be surprised by, like oh that was him, you know, not realizing like oh he was in this and he was in this safe house.
I wouldn't have guessed. And I've seen that movie before. I have not seen that, so that's what Denzel and uh I think Ryan Reynolds was in it.
Oh that one, okay, yeah yeah.
Cobra Kai which I never watched by Nick Nick Nick and Alice, which just came out like three weeks ago, and I watched it. It's interesting. I was into it about Fate, never heard of it. Wildcats, wu Assassins, Fistful of Vengeance.
That was it.
Yeah, I thought there was more.
Okay, well, anyway, it's it's not really the point. Oh, Deadpool too, Yes he was, Oh god, uh he's one of the villains. And I thought he was in Deadpool and Wolverine too, as one of the people in the the void or whatever they called it. Is that what they called it? Yeah, yeah he was. I thought he was one of the characters there too. But maybe I'm making that up.
Yeah, I'm looking it up as you're talking.
If he wasn't, he wasn't part of X Force, I don't believe. Yes he was.
He was the he was Shatterstar. He had the red hair. He's one of the people that dies. Yes, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think that's who he played.
In Well, if he was in Deadpool Wolverine. Maybe he wasn't. Yeah, but that would make sense that if he was in that one too. Okay, all right, so do you think that it was a case of audiences not liking Cole Young, yes, or do you think it was a case of, hey, we if we're gonna make Carl Urban the star of this movie, we gotta make Carl Urban the star of this movie, and we have to lessen you know who the previous because he was the star the first one.
Was he not yep? You know yep? So I mean they they basically made him a bit character and I and maybe that's that was something that Urban and his team said, Okay, listen, we have final script approval, and if we don't like you know, we don't want to be competing for a lead. But you know, take it back to the nineties one. Yeah, lou King was like the guy or whatever, and in these movies he's hardly
any guy. And they make a point of it, like it was kind of hokey, well not hokey, but it was kind of like very meta that he there's a moment in this movie where he kind of realizes, oh yeah, I'm not the guy. Which is which was very cool. But it's just weird how you can play with because none of these you know, we talk about our favorites with Goro and Johnny Cage and Jack. Some people love Jack too, But you can play you can kind of make any of these characters the star of whatever movie,
you know. And and I think obviously when you get a guy like Carl Urban, who his wallet is thicker than anybody else's that's in this movie, you had to let him explore and do whatever he wanted.
And I will say that this might be a little touchy, but like, these are the kind of things I noticed. Especially for the soup that I swim in, there was a long theme and like that's part of why I wanted to do this podcast with you. Yeah, because the theme. Oh no, with this stuff, it's probably you know, yeah, everyone has it, but I'm sure it's like, you know, believing in yourself or some tum bullshit. I really looked into it, but like this sticks out to me, and
I'm just gonna say it here. I think you bring in Carl Urban because there's a certain percentage of the population that gets really, really really mad when white characters aren't focused on. In the first one, you had the lead Asian Sonia Blade was the second you had Jackson there, and then the closest thing was Kano, who was a fuck up. He always was making mistakes. He was kind of petulant, and that was the representation of the American audience.
And I was like, I guarantee you some producer was like, we'll do this sequel, but we will get the Wokeness crew will absolutely slam us if we don't get this a little bit more. Not the Carl Urban's American, but you know a little more americanized for the sequel here. And I genuinely when I saw they cast it, I'm like, this is why they're doing That's why Jason Statham's in the meg It's why there's just certain elements. It's like, we got to put this guy in here. The American
audiences don't show up. So if you wanted me to guess, that's probably why.
Carl Urban just I mean nothing that I want to turn this into the Carl Urban podcast. But he's an interesting choice because of the age obviously, and maybe they had that script in that backstory with for Johnny Cage already written and they or maybe they built it for when they when they cast Carl Urban. If you look back at the stuff he's done and you kind of touched on this earlier. Obviously the boys he was he was an asset in uh the I can't remember which
Born movie it was. It was one of them, maybe the second one. But even then he wasn't there weren't there wasn't these butt kicking scenes, right like it was car chases, it was shootouts.
You know, he was in a freaking thor movie. You barely saw him fine.
Right, and and he hardly fought in that too. So it's just it's weird that you, I don't know, like it's you can't you really can't have lu Kang and an Asian Johnny Cage, Like I don't think that flies at tox.
I'm saying, yeah, you can, like, but I just I don't know. You talk about whitewashing, that's the inverse because Johnny Cage is a white guy, like in the game he's a white guy. He was the white guy in Moral Combat, and.
Uh, is that what they call it? There's got to be a term for inverse of whitewatch.
Yeah, right, Yeah, I don't know what it is by the way desperation and survival, the o your overarching narrative centers on dark escalation. Earth Realm is outmatched in the tournament shifts from an honorable martial arts competition to a desperate struggle for survival.
That's the So how often, because you have the way that they set this up, if you lose ten tournaments in a row or now? Yeah, okay, so that's the other thing. I don't understand. How many realms are there?
Yeah, I don't know. I think it doesn't it goes.
Are all the realms fighting in every tournament? Right? So how was Earth Realm up for grabs in this one? Because obviously only one realm can win each tournament? Right? So what happens to all the other If you take second place in nine straight tournaments? Aren't you on the chopping block right next?
I don't understand how that bulky I'm gonna I'm gonna let all of our listeners know here, if you're going to see this movie, turn the brain off, because if you try through any of this, do we know.
How often these tournaments are?
Is it like once every I'm sure they said it, but if they like I think they even say it in some of the originals. And what's funny is there's four movies. Three of them focus on tournaments. Even the most the twenty twenty one one is sort of like a brocast tournament and they cheating everyone, like the people never.
Follow the rules, and it's just like, so the rules are irrelevant, but it's always the bad guy trying to circumvent like he wants the the like, okay, what so technically murdering contestants prior to the tournament, right, is morally wrong, right, but not against explicitly the rules of the tournament. Like there's nothing that says that they can't come in and start murdering Earth Realms champions, so they never have a chance to That's actually the point from twenty twenty one.
They attack Cole like when he's like working at the cafe.
Or wherever the hell he was. But didn't they do that in the first one, wasn't they the first one absolutely where they're trying to preemptively, which is weird, Ben, because if you win nine straight tournaments, okay, and you're constantly beating up on this realm, why do you have to sink to nefarious reasons to I mean, you're you're probably gonna beat him straight up. You just did it nine times in a row. I don't understand that.
It's just and then even Shall Khan in Annihilation, like if I remember correctly, that ends with him like getting put in like the zod box.
Yeah.
I think they folded up because he cheated and there was like a Grand Council and they were like, bro, you can't cheat that bad.
So how did they cheating? The how did he cheat in this?
I don't remember like.
That one, you remember there was there was something like that though it's got a.
Four percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so God, that should something.
You know, which I mean, this is just guilty pleasure stuff for me. I don't know, but I enjoy watching these even if it's not great cinema. This will never win an award.
I'll be honest with you. I have no faith in the street Fighter movie that's being made right now, but we'll obviously see it when it comes. It's a it's a big name cast, it's a big name, but it's like all people I hate.
Isill Holland, is Jake chillen Holland.
I don't think, OK, it's Andrew Schultz, who's a podcaster slash comedian is in it. Is one guy as a fighter as a fighter.
Do you know who he is? No? Okay, yeah, but you say YouTuber comedian? Right, it doesn't fit. And it's just like like Pete david said being what's his name in suicide.
Exactly, but at least Pete Davidson's entertaining, like the people, the people that are in this. I'm just like, oh, this is going to wait?
Is it do to come out this year? Are they still filming it? Or I didn't even know this was a thing.
Oh yeah, let's see here release because I hope it doesn't send me October of this year. Okay, all right, yeah, live action. Let's see here if they have a cast already, and hopefully because there's one with like the guy who played Gomez in the Adams Family movies from like nineteen ninety four, Jean Claude van Dam plays Guyle in it.
Who's Blanca's That's all I want to know in this one?
Yeah Momoa?
Oh really? Yeah, dude, Jason Momoa has now been Blanca Lobo Aquaman. He's this weird kind of flufy villain in Fast Than How Good is it to be Jason.
Momoa, Fitty Sense Ball rog Okay, Roman Reigns is a Kuma here, Hirouki Goto is I Honda. Cody Rhodes is Guyle. So there's a lot of a lot of progrest a lot of pro wrests. I'm telling you the cast, I'm just like, ooh, I'm glad they're doing this, but this is gonna suck. Like this is good. Like I enjoyed both of them and even said I like the game street Fighter more. I think it's more of a real game. But I have a feeling these movies, the Mortal Kombat
movies I think are gonna go down. I don't know about noticeably better, but I think this is going to absolutely bomb. Like this this Moore of Combat's gone eighty eight by audiences. People love it, Yeah, people absolutely love it. If there's anything to give you hope for a third one, it's that everyone who's seeing this. I told you, my friend was like, this is the best video game adaptation, And if you really think about it, maybe the Sonic movies.
I don't even know, Like it's probably so many. There's so many video game movies that I didn't see. And by the way, I think, in order to make that comment, and I'm sure your buddy is qualified, you not only have to see a bunch of superhero movies, you had to have played.
The video game movie video game. Yeah.
You not only had to see the video game movies, you had to play the video of the games back in the day too. There is a live action legend Azelda.
I think that's coming out. Yeah, they're working on that.
That'll be interesting.
Missed opportunity. By the way, they could have done a Nintendo universe like Marvel and had the Mario stuff, because that's making a billion dollars a movie. You could have tied it all together.
They did that. Do you remember the show Captain and the Game Master, No, Ben, Oh my god, Saturday Mornings was on at nine am. This is I think I told you this before. I used to get up at
six okay, and well a little bit it was. I used to get up at like six thirty six forty five, get myself a bowl of cereal, and I'd have this radio it's tape recorder, radio, cassette and radio, and I would put the microphone on the thing up to the speaker of my television and I'd record Saturday morning it's the audio version, because then when I go to sleep at night, i'd listen to nice.
Yeah.
So seven o'clock it was a pup named Scooby Doo, which was like the Scooby Doo prequel, and they're all kids. Seven thirty was Camp Candy, which is like this summer camp but John Candy is the head counselor it's a cartoon. Yeah, it was great. It sure sounds Eight o'clock then was Captain and the game Master, and then we get into like after that it was like teenagemting Ninja Turtles. It's not important to this eight o'clock. Maybe he's eight thirty.
It's this guy who's he's he's sort of just like you and me, but he gets sucked into this world and he has allies that are all characters from Nintendo games, but the enemies are from from Nintendo games as well, so like it's like him. I remember him and Mega Man and kid Icarus were all like they're all like allies or whatever. I can't remember who else he had, but they'd fight Mother Brain from Metroid and and then these other villains or whatever.
So it was just almost basically a straight up advertisement for Yeah, and it was awesome that.
I mean, like, and so you're you're all these characters from all these different video games are combined to a thirty minute.
And I'm sitting here looking at the animation from it, and it's just like makes me feel like I'm watching the Saturday Morning cartoons. It's awesome. It's a good look. I can't believe when I think it was just before so it's eighty nine to ninety one, so I would have been like four when this was happening, so I was probably jumping on right after that. It was.
It was a great show. And this is coming from a guy who didn't play. Like my big thing. My parents would let me rent a Nintendo system for my birthday weekend every year. I didn't even have a video game system, yeah, at all when I was a kid. They didn't. Now, I played a ton of computer games
like Wolfenstein and do It. I played all that, but Nintendo, like that was the only time I got that until I turned I think like fifteen or sixteen, and I bought myself a Nintendo sixty four and then that was like, finally I have a video game system. When it was great. I don't know how I got on this.
Didn't you rented the system for your birthday every year?
No, this is way before that Captain and the Game Oh he's talking about the Nintendo.
Nintendo University said that. Yeah, and there was his right. I just said, there's an opportunity.
Yeah. Well and by the way, link it was one of the allies on Captain and the Game aster too. Yeah. So, and I don't know if the Mario brothers were on there at all. I mean I would think they probably were.
But do they need the marketing? Like this feels like kid ick or it's like who knows what kid icker is?
I didn't know who any of these, you know whatever, But I watched it. You know, it was it was that was a lot of fun.
Absolutely, But I think it says to a larger point, this stuff used to be laughable. Like the Resident Evil movies are basically forgettable.
Pop. Did you did you see the trailer for the new one? Hell? Yeah? Yeah. I actually the first good one that's a commission said that I work with. He's like, this is great because it's the first one where they're not well. According to him, it's like they're not basing it on the game, right, Like this is just like another like it's called Resident Evil, but it's a totally different kind of story and it's got I want to say his name is Austin Abrams is the star in it,
and he's been I mean, he was on Euphoria. He was on Walking Dead for a couple of seasons as well, so he's been climbing up in the world too. That's and has that come out this year?
Yeah?
I think it does.
Yeah. And uh, Sonic two and three clear to billion dollars, the most recent Mario Galaxy movie cleared to billion. So maybe when Mortal Kombat sees one hundred million and they're like we we blew it, like there's an opportunity, Like maybe they have unrealistic expectations because a lot of these video game movies mean business. Now it's so jam Craft freaking set the Internet on fire.
But when you're talking about Minecraft and you're talking about Super Mario Brothers and Sonic, those are all kids movies. Mortal Kombat is not. And they did R rated Like that blows my mind.
Yeah, that blows my mind because I won an I want an R rated Mortal Kombat society. I don't know how many people clearly enough, but you know how many people are like, you know, it's kind of it's not embarrassing, but like this is supposed to video games are technically for the youth, even though I gain plenty of people my age game, but like, its exactly it's a it's a ballsy maneuver in my opinion, to go art because
you're exactly right. You bring Jim Carrey on, you bring you know, Sonic, You're like, oh, it's a fun there's some jokes for adults, but it's primarily for kids. Here's your fun movie. Whereas this I would have been at Mortal Kombat as a tach year old, I'd be like, Mom, take me to moretal Kombat.
Cool, we're going yeah, and like h but a lot of kids I know don't live that life, do you? Yeah? They don't. They definitely don't, do you. Are they making new games based on these movies? H, Mortal Kombat? No, like Sonic and Super not based on the movies.
But they're still making Sonic games, They're still making Mario games all that shot.
So I guess what I'm what I'm saying is, are they coinciding the release of these games with the Okay, there hasn't been.
The last major Mario release was in twenty seventeen. It actually pisses me off because I would like a new Mario game. So it's nott a while.
So the other conversation we had about this when I was on your show was you made reference that gamers are are kind of keeping this franchise alive.
Yeah.
Right, And I think that's true to a point. But I also think it's true of like, you know, people with and I said this, and you I know I'm repeating myself, but people listen.
Syeah, it's not the same new audience that.
It's. It's it's kids with that have become adults with adult money now and and now they have this what do you call the income when it's extra disposable disposable income to spend on whatever. Hell yeah, they're gonna go see Mortal com Y. You know, not everybody, but but they're going to. I said, Nostalgia is a big part
of this. Nostalgia sells. And and you know, you think about I one of the best feelings in the world is having something happen to you, seeing something smelling something that you have not smelled or tasted or seen since you were like ten or something, and then you're like, oh my god, I'm forty six. I forgot about this. Yeah, thirty six years in between great experiences. So so just y, I'm getting to a point here. So when you can recapture that in any way, that is going to keep
people coming back. And I think a huge subset or demographic for this movie is people in my in their mid forties, in their early forties and their late thirties that experienced this back in the day that have them like, yeah, hell yeah, Mortal Kombat movie. Yes, yeah, I haven't played the game in forever. They've come out with one movie in the last you know, twenty five years about.
It, right, and that movie came out during the pandemic, in the pandemic, so you couldn't even And so that's what you jogged my memory for. And it goes to show you. I think this sequel is being hit by the law of diminishing returns a little bit, even though there is no box office for the twenty twenty one one. Because Pennsylvania took their lockdowns pretty seriously. They extended for a while and a lot of my friends aren't gamers, and the first time we got together in COVID America
was when HBO Max released the Mortal Kombat movie. We rented a projector and did an outside party and there were probably forty of us at a time when no one was socializing. It was the first real social interaction I had in months, and it was all of us at an outdoor projection screening. Hello, probably forty people all in there at that point early thirties. I was probably thirty two, thirty three years old when that was happening, and everybody showed up. Everybody was into it. Not everyone
loved it. Like I was sitting there like why is the blood cgi? Like I was the thing there, but like we were all into it, watching it, having fun, and it wasn't even some of it was nostalgia.
For me.
It was like, oh my god, the first more will combat and it's R rated. This is gonna bang. But other people were like, yeah, give me anything to do. And there was just like a very positive atmosphere around there, and there wasn't any of that hype around this release.
So like, you know, honestly, it's kind of making me want to go back and watch those, even though the second one was terrible, but ye watched the first one for thirty seven and then like, you know, because there were parts of that that were really cool.
I'm telling you, when Lizard comes to life, when you see it, you're gonna be like, oh, that looks stated as hell, but that's awesome that they made it look like that ninety seven because he's like, you'll you'll see it and you'll be like, I would rewind it and see how they hit him in the background, and like then you know, you're like, oh, that's so cool. Why haven't I seen that again? Like you know what I mean.
You're gonna have to help me out on this one. Mortal Kombat? Was that ever an arcade?
Like?
Could you have played in an arcade? Okay? So I think I did that, although I don't remember it all that.
That's how the shit hit the fan was like, because obviously the parents who would never allow that in their house didn't allow it in their house. It was when you went to the arcade, it's a player and you're like, did that guy pull his head off? Is that his spine? So?
Was it dedicated to Nintendo only in the home? So you could get it on Nintendo. Yeah, you get it on Sega, and I don't think you get it on Atari. What was the other was there another big one PlayStation? I guess yeah, that was you know year lact So it was like Nintendo in Sega.
Right in the nineties. I had the original Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis and Mortal Kombat four on and so that shows you the uh range there.
So I guess when I'm getting back at this, so I when I think about video games from the nineties that I was playing, so I would go to the Foxer Room all which sure you know where it was, but you never attended when you were a kid. It was totally different back then. Man, all mast right were you could you could smoke inside there nice that there there were restaurants, not in the food courts like there'd just be a there's a random.
Hearties in one of the way yeah, hell yeah.
And the best part And you would do this when you were a preteen because you're it was weird because your parents wouldn't let you do this when before you were preteen because you were too young. And then you get older and you get a car and you don't really want to hang out at the mall anymore. You want to do other stuff. So there's this little slice of your life that fits in this and the foxer
them all amazing food court. They had movie theater in there, which there's a ton of screens, right, and one of the best days of my life. This was years later when I wasn't all about them all anymore. But I saw two movies on the same day, m HM with a bunch of different people. I saw Scream, the original Scream, and then I went to pocket Change, which was the arcade that they had there, which is long since been and then I saw Beavis and butt Head do America Nice.
It was awesome at the but I think about like when I was a kid, and I would just go, like, you know, my my parents would give me money. They usually wouldn't give me money. I'd use my own money. And then I go into pocket Change and I'd play whatever. And I was thinking, I couldn't really remember playing a whole lot of Mortal Kombat. I played a lot of Street Fighter. I played the teenage Mutant Ninjas Hurdles game quite the Simpsons every now.
And own that the Simpsons like stand up arcade game. I bought one really Yeah, it cost me like five hundred bucks Disda's house. But it still works. You plug it in the whole day.
Yeah, so I'd play that, I'd play.
I actually own that. In Golden Ax if you remember Golden Max Golden Acts, you could either play as a warrior, a valkyrie, or a dwarf and you just kind of yeah, it was. It was a big one.
But I played Running Gun, which was are not Running Gun? I played NBA Jam. Yeah, and there's one that I'm forgetting about Our Tribals. Did you ever play familiar? Dude? Our Tribals was like this bastardized did you did you play Running Gun at all? Okay, so Running Gun was like this. It had the NBA two K like behind the back. It was basketball behind the back.
A million years would I have guessed that was a basket.
Basketball game, but it was all But it was, dude, It's like all fast breaks and ship pointers and dunks at a time when the real NBA wasn't doing it. Absolutely loved it. Right, played NFL Blitz, which was again like a really violent version of the NFL and then our so our Tribals getting back to that it was like NBA Jam, but it came up before NBA Jam. They didn't have any light sing agreements, but you could, you know, like you could tell who the Lakers were.
You could tell, and they had the bad boy this like bad Boy pistons there. So like the fights happened all the time in this art Rivals game and bad fouls cheap falls or so I played that a lot too. And then I don't know if you remember this one. I don't know why this turned into like what media games, but there's an Aerosmith game and I don't.
Yeah, hell yeah. It was like a shooter, but you weren't shooting guns. It's like you were shooting like paraphernal yet something.
No, no, no, no, you were like you would have to shoot albums or records ease or whatever it was, and Steven Tyler would be singing and like doing like you know this boy. It was stupid and I loved it. I thought it was like where else Aerosmith Shooter game was great but like some of the best times. Yeah, and and maybe like this is sort of where I want to come back to the nostalgia aspect of this. Yeah, it was cool that you know you'd be able to
finish it and rip as had office. But for me, it was all about like I am hanging out with my friends yea, at an arcade without my parents here, I'm being independent and free. There's a certain feeling you have that and then you just naturally associate it with you know, Aerosmith or our Tribals or NFL Blitz or you know. And so I think even though the movie was not a ten out of ten, even though we had a lot of issues with certain aspects of it, it still is so enjoyable from the aspect of what
it makes you think of. And I think that's part of the reason. Why did I mean, granted they're hoping for eighty, but why did sixty three million at the buckle?
And I looked it up worldwide, They're over one hundred. So they should just shut the hell up and take their money and go.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I get ready on that third one. Yeah, I'm here for it. I know you are too.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I'll tell you right now. The day I see it on HBO Max, I'll watch it again.
Speaking, I don't know what I was gonna say it with HBO Max, did you see the second trailer for Lanterns.
Yeah, oh that looks great. Yeah it does good show. Yeah, I'm optimistic. I don't know a lot about Green Lantern, so I'm looking forward to just kind of jumping into that a little bit.
It seems like it's like it starts off as like this buddy cop because it's like a it's like sci fi detective story. This is the way they're billing it, and it seems like it's buddy cop. But you can tell from the trailer that Kyle Chandler seems to be an antagonist in this suff Yeah, this show, So I think something's gonna develop there. I think it's fun.
I will say, but as we're wrapping up here, the one thing you just kind of took me back there with your malls and arcade conversation, And it's funny because I was sitting there. I almost interrupted you because I was gonna be like, don't tell me any of your friends actually knew how to do the fatalities, because what's left out of that entire conversation is the Internet. Like there's something about not having that and like this movie, I hate that we're old enough that like the nostalgia
can just like wreck you like that. But there is something about Mortal Kombat, like the first time scene someone like turns scorpion into a penguin and drop an egg that explodes. You're like, wait a minute, what just happened, right? And then he goes animality and you're like, that's not a thing that happens in.
This game, and uh, well do you do you remember the other thing too, like.
Which, by the way, Mortal Kombat one he turned into a penguin and dropped an exploding egg, and Mortal Kombat four he turned into a scorpion, which thematically makes more sense. But for my money, give me the Penguin's I'm wired.
Do you remember? I mean, like I think it was contra the cheat code like up down whatever, Konami code, the Konomi code. Yeah, and you know it's sonny because you say that now the Konami code is referred to as something else in fantasy football. Okay, it's the Konami code. Is these quarterbacks that are not only skilled passers, but they they're skilled rushers as well. So you say, oh, Kyler Murray's got the Konami code. Yeah, so that's that's so now, that's what I think. That's how we evolved
or whatever. But but back in the day, dude, pre Internet, that was passed on by word of mouth, right, like we're blanking Native Americans passing you know, like we're passing down the stories of our ancestors by word of mouth. You know that wall is fake.
You can walk right through and looking.
Yeah and and uh you know, and then it spreads obviously, like oh, I have a cousin in California, That's where I heard it from. And then it would hit Wisconsin or not that he hit Wisconsin, because like, just no, it hit Wisconsin. I'll get it. I know, I'm just saying that, right, I'm all over the country or whatever. But like but like yeah, economic, oh yeah, I know about that. Yeah right, But that's how we spread stuff back in the day. Was was all word of mouth.
It's it's it's so weird to think about. I know, God, I adn't think we're going to get on the pre internet team.
Yeah, I dig it. I dig it though, But I feel like we've said what we need to say. Here's what's crazy. My rating isn't going to mesh well with what we said because I'm going to be in like the five and a half to six range, but I'm very excited to watch it again. Like that's my attitude.
I probably shouldn't give it a six and a half, but I'm going to. I feel like I gave six and a half. Like, let this like third straight week of six and a half. But I'm gonna give it a six and a half because number one, it's hard to completely screw something like this up.
I agree. Number two, it was Mortal Kombat Annihilation as a four, but go on.
But you know what, I'd still watch it again even though I know it's trash. That's the thing, So I think you have to factor that into it.
Sonia Blade fighting what's her face in the mud, Like I was just discovering myself at that point, and I'm like, hmm, you know what, this might be all right, this movie might be okay now that I think about it, and and and.
And and then obviously adding for the first time, like an actual real life leading man in this in this series was kind of cool to see as well. Again, I don't think it landed perfectly. Maybe that was the intent as well. I don't know, but but it was very cool. This is a cool movie, uh, for sure. And I'm excited for the next one in twenty thirty one. Who the hell when I'll be in my fifties.
I hope they take a little bit that they goes like the twenty twenty year and twenty twenty one makes everything feel fake, Like the fact that that first one's almost a half a decade old kind of blows my mind. So I mean, hopefully they get their ass and gear here a little bit. But freaking Batman Part two is gonna be five years old by the time comes.
It's so weird, like, and what's the reason for the delay on I got nothing, man, because it's still Matt Reeves. They haven't switched directors, right, I don't know if it.
Was all the flux with the James gun hiring and whatnot. That Clay face, Oh my god, dude, that's gonna be so good.
Yeah, I was gonna have we talked about that.
I don't think so. But you guys are just gonna deal with this tangent. But how goods like that? Looks like they're going to do straight body horror with that. Yeah, And it's and it's a character that I know a bunch about but most of America doesn't clay Face.
Like how we've seen Clayface, right, It's been basically cartoons only Yep. There's never big brown thing. Yeah, huge, like Solomon Grundy huge. And so now we get this, we get a backstory with By the way, is this comic book accurate this backstory?
Yeah, I'm assuming they do, though there's there's actually two versions of Clayface, and so they can take it either way. But to me, for my money, the one where he's an actor who loses himself in rules, which is just you know, the symbology there is fantastic.
Yeah.
And and.
This is something I mean because Clayface was just sort of like a an NPC for lack of a better term, in all the other things that we've ever seen them before. So now we're actually getting, i mean, not only a backstory, but a pretty serious like human conflict isn't the right word, but something like like exploring the human psyche and what happens to you when all you know and all you're good at is taken away from you, and and how that twists your mind.
Yeah, seems like they're positioning him as an anti hero instead.
Of I would even I just I would just say anti no.
I mean, I think he's going to have a redemption arc. I think he's not going to be full blown bad guy in this.
I don't know. I don't know.
You could be right, they're going to take the But.
You think about two Face too, and and like how you know, mythologically, how he changed when that accident happened mentally, and and I think we'll see that with with Clay Face.
Yea's I say all that to say they're taking too long with some of these movies.
Well, I mean I don't know, like there's a lot that goes into it too.
Yeah, they say that, But then I'm like, well, how does pizza movie get made?
Something? Yeah?
Right exactly, And like like honestly, I think it was about five years between Batman begins in Dark Knights and then it was four years until Dark Knight rises. So I guess that's the normal break there is there There.
Is something because you know the other thing two is if you take too long, And by the way, that's not normal for for four years. I don't think that's normal.
I mean normal in the Batman world.
I think that was the longest it was in the Batman World from Dark Knight to the Dark Knight Rises.
Well, I mean Batman begins Dark Knight was roughly the same time period.
I thought it was closer together.
No, I think it's O three to eight and then all right, I think I.
Will take your word for it on that. Okay, do you want to look ahead at Yeah?
Yeah, there's a lot out now, and like you might disagree, So let's pick one that we can both get behind. There's a lot of horror here, yeah, or or, And I know it might not be your kind of movie, but there's a chance that it's a banger. But Boots Riley's new movie, I Love Boosters comes out this Friday, which is what I was going to propose. Not that we have to, but like I'm definitely gonna see them.
Okay, Now, Boots Riley was sorry to bother you. Yeah, okay, Yeah. Keiki Palmer's in this one.
Yeah, it doesn't seem like my It's about women that go and rob luxury brands and sell them at a discounted price to people that can't afford them.
So there's like a fashion forward philanthropy is what they call it.
Yeah, and they spell philanthropy wrong. I see I've already seen the commercial. They're like, yeah, I know that's not how you spell it, but it's called branding. I'm like, this is going to be a good movie. I can tell just from the trailer.
I am fine with that.
But there's other options. Well, I'd see Passenger, I'd see Obsession. There's probably other ones.
That I maybe we should do Obsession. I'd see it. I'd see that because that's been out for a while. Yeah, and I've had two people ask me if we're going to do Obsession.
Let's do Obsession, all.
Right, because the rest of these, we can get to the only one that I mean, I'll see whatever obviously, Yeah, but the one so I guess I won't because the one I don't want to see is Mandalorian and Grogo.
Only because I don't want to watch the show.
Okay, Yeah, I would be lost on it. Yeah, I haven't seen it.
I'm actually kind of glad because that's the first one up on releases. I really hope he doesn't want to see Mandalori.
Because I don't watch the show.
I dated a girl when I first moved out here who loved that show, and we spent a Saturday and watched the entire season. We just sat on the couch and watched the entire I'm like, this is a really good show. Yeah, never never turned it on again. I don't know. I just yeah, I just didn't no I obsession.
There was there it something in that movie. I'll have to look it up. But something in that movie tied into one of the other movies that we had done, if I remember correctly, So we'll have to take a look at that. But yeah, I've had two people see it and then they're like, hey, are you guys gonna do this on your on your podcast. I'm like, ah, we'll talk with Ben. But I do think it's interesting and it seems it seems unique.
And it's well that's because and how long do I don't want to drag you guys out. Yeah, we've been going for a while. That's all right. We can take some of the cold open up.
I didn't realize it is being recorded. Yeah, I didn't say anything racist.
That is one of four movies it's coming out in like a two month stretch that is directed by a YouTuber, which is a really new trend because the back Rooms, which is an Oshkosh based horror movie is it was directed by a YouTuber coming out on the twenty ninth, so that's really yeah, And there's like four horror movies that all came out like bang bang banging. It was like, why does horror feel so new right now? It's like because you're getting a perspective that you've never gotten to.
And like these YouTubers made shorts that were scary, so they would do like a two minute short, and someone was like, I'm gonna give you five million dollars to do something, and like whether or not it hits or not is going to be in the eye of the beholder and on a case by case basis, but I'm always for I think that's why Jordan Peeled and Get Out felt so fresh. I think that's why Boots Riley and Sorry to Bother You felt so fresh. When you
get these new faces. Steven Spielberg is obviously going to do a good movie. He always does it. You know how he's gonna shoot it, you get well, you know what I mean? Yeah, okay, yeah, you know it's at least gonna be technically sound. Yes, whereas this you can be like, why why did they make this decision? Like they could do something to other why did they think this was the right move, and like that it could suck or could be like, oh how neat and so
like obsessions. One of them though, which caught my eye, and I will be pitching the back rooms to you, okay in the near future. Yeah, Iron the intern taught me what they are.
And it's like some gen z.
Bullshit, like this sounds thought you've taught you about what what the back rooms are because this is like a ten year old like it's like a yellowish room. I'll show you a picture after we get off the air, and it's basically like the back rooms the back office.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on, is this the one where it's like seemingly that you go in the back room and it's just endless. We are totally doing that because I saw I saw a trailer for this and like, my god, this looks unbelievable. I didn't realize. Okay, yes percent, and then like the cast is decent, Yeah it is, yeah.
And it's a it's a YouTube director who did YouTube shorts about the back room.
That's messed up, and so I'm excited. Now when does that come out?
The next Friday.
Okay, perfect, so we won't be waiting long. Yeah. There was one other thing I was gonna say, Oh, I think you told me this before. Horror Is that the cheapest to make genre?
Yeah? Okay, Blair Witch kind of opened the door to like, wait, we can make how much money with eight thousand dollars?
Like that? Was that kind of I think there's something to be said of, like, you know, different things creep different people out.
Yeah, so like you could be creeped out.
By something that you're seeing, sure at somebody else's not think about. But comedies don't work that way. Dramas don't work.
That now they don't know they don't And like, think about in the early two thousands, the two biggest highest grossing horror movies were the Saw franchise and the Paranormal Activity movies. And the Saw franchises you needed all of these prosthetics and gore in special effects. And the Paranormal Activity movies you need a camera in the corner of the room and you'd tie a string to some blankets and you'd yank the blankets and like, both of them made a hundred million dollars.
And think about this too, how fast could you churn out those paranormal actors like we saw? I mean, yeah, the physical opsicles are there, But at the same time, dude, the multi layered storylines that went into saw. Oh my god, paranormal activity. It's a ghost and they're probably evil. That's enough, you know, I'm good. We don't, we don't. You don't need anything else other than that.
Yeah, but that's why chances get taken in horror, and I'm all about taking chances. So yeah, it's good stuff there. All right, we got an agenda here. I think we're good to go. That's Mortal Kombat. To check it out. Won't uh won't change your world, but uh, be.
Honest with you, if you're listening to this podcast, you've probably already seen it, you know, Like like I I don't think we're gonna sell anybody of Mortal Kombat too.
I think that, Like, yeah, you're if you if if you're a fan of this, if you're a fan of Mortal Kombat, you probably already saw it or planning on seeing careless and no matter and Ben, I'll be honest, honest with you, I don't even care if they keep making these I don't even care if they if they if they suck, I'm just gonna keep seeing.
I'm right there with you, man. There's a couple of series like that that I'm just like, just do it till I die. I'm fine with that, all right, guys, thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next week.