War of the Worlds

Welcome to the podcast everybody. I am your host sometimes always forever the guest. Welcome back with another polarized podcast episode. It's a war of the worlds. It's a movie that is polarizing according to rotten tomatoes. The audiences and the critics disagree on all of the movies that we talk about here according to rotten tomatoes and the one today is certified fresh 75% by the critics a 42% by the audience. It came out 2005 sci-fi adventure a Spielberg movie.

The worlds are warring each other. First it was stars. Now it's worlds. What if it was war of the stars? Have you seen that movie war of the stars? Revenge of the Sith. It's almost like if Yoda was talking about Star Wars right? Star Wars war of the. These war of the stars. I would like the fellow king of this kingdom of polarization to join me in this discussion as soon as possible because I can't do that. This alone I would never even try. Never thought about it.

But just to let you know I would never do it. And so here he comes. Yeah. He's coming. He's in the wings. Oh, wait a minute. It's about to be a big old mess in here. Wait a minute. Give him a second. Oh yeah. That's all I need. It's me. It's you. It's the great brandini. It's the great brandini. There you go. Hey. Some say you don't need an introduction but I like to give you a good one. Because you deserve it. Oh thanks. Wow. You know what? I appreciate that. Yeah. Hey. How's it going?

This man needs the greatest introduction ever. Oh, pump. Pump me up. Because you deserve it. I love it. My ego is going to just be so inflated I'm going to blast off to the ceiling. Just blow a hole in the roof of my apartment. I've seen it happen. I mean, there's another right before you came in too from something else. In my pants. No, I'm over it. I'm over it. I'm over it. I'm over it. I'm over it. I'm over it. I'm over it. It's weird. Anyways, hey. Hey. Hey. Halfway through that.

Yeah. We are speaking of halfway through. We're definitely halfway through this summer. We're doing, I'm pumped. I'm wearing the throes of it, man. It's where. The Throes of Augie Doggy as one Scott Octi would say. Yeah. The Augie Doggy days of summer are here. First record of August. How are we feeling? and how's the summer going? I'm I'm an I'm an Aki doggy fan. I like moving into the transitional seasons. I like those transitional seasons. I'm excited to transition to the next thing.

It's weird because we live in an area where that doesn't exist at all. Exactly. So when it does happen, it's pretty exciting. It is. Yes. Otherwise, it's a yeah. Nice. It's summer. Summer all all all year round. It's a lot of times, but this reach otherwise. It's just extra extra hot. Extra hot extra toasty. That's how we have our sandwiches in our bodies during this time of year. I feel like it definitely affects me mentally. I feel like I almost yeah.

Me too, man. I'm more than I'm tired all the time. I'll just like fall asleep and wake up in a flop. Sweat. Right. Oh, God. Yeah. That was me last time. God, right? Yeah. It's just been a lot of nights where yeah, at least once or twice waking up being like, wow, I am a hot potato. Big time. Oh, yeah. And you're just, I don't know. I feel like a rotisserie chicken. I'm just all rolling over and just yeah. Yeah. It's a toasty on the other side. You know how it goes.

You know, I'm fucking war of the world, man. I want to have not just you, not just I, but it's an extra special but us day today. Us and them together. Them being the great Blanche is joining us today for yet another space app. There's a resident space advisor space in this. It's spaces the general general. The sci-fi. Yeah. Yeah. Pop goes the weasel. Am I right bitches? Yeah, you said it, man. Pop goes the weasel bitch. That's that's how we're feeling. That's a large thing. No, that's great.

We know, but I'm just stealing it because I love it so much. And I think it's a dirty dog. It's really good for this episode. I mean, every episode. The great Blanche added again. Yes. Back. Good to be able to talk some space to have you. Yeah. Good to have you back. What was Spielberg? Like what's what's some of your Spielberg picks that like? Oh, man, off the top of your head that you that you love. Do a tearless. He does.

He does a little bit of sci-fi here and there is literally my all time favorite movie is close encounter. Yeah. Same thing. It's like literally my favorite movie of all time. So God, yeah, it's yeah. I don't want to bring that movie up too much because when you do this movie looks even worse. I think we actually probably have to go back and check the record, but I'm pretty sure we say that's my favorite movie every time I'm on this. Yeah. I'm okay. The record folks. Where's the. All right.

Let's be surprised photographer. And yeah, we usually bring up like classic sci-fi movies on this podcast that are kind of hailed across the board as like being fantastic. And then we talk about mainly ones that people disagree on here, which is interesting, but it's hard to have a complete resounding opinion on it when it is kind of caught in the weeds of a lot of different opinions for different reasons.

And this one I didn't expect to be polarizing and we'll get into it as we go along, but I didn't expect this one to be as disagreed upon as it is. I don't I guess that's actually critics in favor. That I know. Isn't that bizarre? Yeah, because we are surprising. Yeah, absolutely. Because these big budget action movies is always in the case where the audience loves it because it's fun. You know, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, like a lot of effects and spectacle and summer summer blockbuster and go see it in the in the movies. And I remember doing that and I don't know. There was a lot of reactions to everything and it was interesting even at the beginning, a lot of humor in ways that like the audience was reacting a lot to as well of just kind of the back and forth with this dysfunctional sort of family and and and how they're how they're interacting with each other. But yeah, that surprised me.

Close encounters is is hardcore hardcore classic. We will not be talking about as one we won't be talking about because it's a classic. Everyone loves it. But I mean, even a minority report, I believe came up before this and that's kind of where the relationship there in his his career. But you know, he's done like E.T. in the past as well. And he's yeah, yeah, of course, close and close encounters and we'll we'll eventually do Kingdom of the Crystal School.

Sorry, those are those are interdimensional beings. Those are not those are not yes. Oh, much as these are not necessary. They are coming from above, but they're come as above. So below below. Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, God. I'm like don't you know which one? Which I can't tell the difference between large and brandy. I think that's because the weasel bitch goes away. The way that I like that subversion, you know, and it's done in a way that's yeah, it's it's done in a spielbergian way.

A lot of like a lot of stuff in this movie. Obviously, it all comes out in ways that are set apart from like other like alien invasion movies, you know, it's it's cool to see his take on it and especially when it's coming straight from a text. And you guys saw saw this movie like when it came out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is a huge deal. Yeah. Good Lord. It's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a huge deal for us in our time.

And are you like, yeah, came out in that time of our lives where, you know, going to the movies is the big thing. We're not 21 yet. We're not going to the bars or anything like that. What I actually think is funny. You guys decided you guys decided to do this one now because it's very topical considering all these like congressional hearings that are going on. It's like, oh, yeah. But it's like it's the main one that happened. Totally by accident. Yeah. No, we meant no, we knew.

I was like, no way. You guys got great. You got a great producer there at your podcast. You guys know you're you run a tight ship over there. So I know you guys. I'll tell you you said that. Thank you. Please pass the message along. I'm not too familiar with what the actual hearing like, I don't know was specifically about. I just know generally when it was talked about. What's really funny is it's everything that's already been. I don't know.

It seemed kind of to me underwhelming just because everything has already been more or less talked about. This was just like a place that's now on the record where it's like it's now Congress is taking this seriously basically and it's going to go through the EBSA phone Congress and there'll be like legislation and stuff that'll go in place now that'll affect like military stuff or whatever.

Right. Like I guess specifically, I don't really understand is like what is what is the like desired outcome from these hearings? I get what you mean that there needs to be because that's I'm familiar with that process and a couple other sectors of of like public sectors and whatnot of like you need to establish like.

Terms invalidate research and invalidate like you need to present the facts and then so once we have the facts and we can communicate effectively on what the facts like what this means here or what does you know x equals y whatever and then that way you can then formulate plans. Either like fix that, aid that do whatever.

So yeah, I'm curious what the desire like goal is here to just all of us to say aliens exist or what I know that's kind of the TBR of it all and and it's really like just to give a little context so we you know, it's not take too much time.

We can get back into the actual movie, but like it's really they are there are just like it's a congressional committee that's basically being established and the desired outcomes from this committee are going to be like certain legislations or things that are written into rules that are basically like allowing witnesses. So like especially a lot of the people that are I don't really know what to call it like testifying. It's not really testifying because it's just like a hearing.

It's like a committee like the people that are witnesses. Yeah, that's a lot of like Air Force pilots and a lot of that there. There's a lot of bias that comes with like wanting to actually report something that you do see. It can come with like, you know, credibility issues with your job, like all of this seem like a crazy person to say that there's a lot to it.

So one of the desired outcomes would be like, oh, now there's like rules and regulations where you have to report this and there's stuff that's like document like stuff that you have to fill out now. And this is taken more exactly and it's taken more seriously and it's documented more clearly. Cool. Okay. It's just like more like, okay, these people can now feel more comfortable with seeing these things reporting them. And like we can get to the bottom of like any more information.

So it's like that's kind of the PLDR that all I think there's a lot more to it. There's like obviously more things, but that's like a big main thing of that they want to. Is there anything about burying a tripod's underground? Yeah. What's the what's I'm now I'm like, what's the procedure there? And I'm worried about that again. I'm like, TBD, TBD, they need to address that. I hope they are. So, you know, and it's thing. Oh sorry.

Well, just that's kind of what happened in fucking the other movie we talked about tomorrow where I feel like aliens are already here. Yeah, absolutely. More ice caps and shit. Right. We do. God, we talked about that collectively together, right? That was a movie for us. A long, long time ago, man. Yeah. With a JK with good old JK Sims. The aliens were inside the house all along. Yeah, absolutely. They were in the polar ice caps, right? It's a quick way to melt and then the aliens come out.

Right. It's a quick way to just have aliens, you know, like not having to go through a lot of fluff. You can just like, look, you know, we got that classic case of infest already here or we even got here already here. Class of case of already here aliens. Yeah, just really like all the Korean everything. It's just like, oh, they're among us. They're among us. They're shapeshifters. Yeah. Body snatchers. If you go. Yeah. But that's the fucking seismic scientists or whatever.

Don't know what they're doing. Why didn't they pick that shit up? Yeah. Yeah. But that's so one of the questions I was going to ask and it relates to the very beginning of war of the worlds. And it, it's basically about like who. Well, I guess it's not, maybe it is jumping a little bit ahead of the game. But again, let's go for it. It's when they, it's when Tom Cruise is seeing the, the lightning strike into the ground. Right.

Are you talking about that scene where he's standing in front of it like he went, oh, he's standing in front of it. Just that long walk and talking situation. Yeah. Very New Yorkers, but he just does not have an accent and doesn't. Yeah. Doesn't. So one of the things I wanted to ask, ask you guys about that scene is at what point are you guys getting the fuck out of that? Oh, almost immediate. Well, especially when it's start.

Okay. The very specific point for me would be when the ground starts to break. Okay. Okay. Good. Cause there's a lot of, I, I want to think about that cause there's before Tom Cruise actually starts running, running. Yeah. There's a lot of time. It's like elastic. The thing comes out of the ground like pretty slowly relative to this. Oh yeah. Cause it's, it happens in phases, right? Like first everybody walks up into, up, up to the lightning bolt, um, like spot, then it starts to break.

And then that's a circle. Then that circle gets bigger and breaks, like snaps through a building. And then even at that point, they, he's just kind of backed up and backed up, but just can't take his eyes off the fact of what's going on. And just to sew an emmer by, you know, this whole thing. That shit dude, I wouldn't even go near like, Oh, the lightning striking like 27 times or whatever the, the Robbie tells us.

We can't, it he's like, okay, you say here and he's like so mad about him taking the car. And he's just like, yeah, I'm going to go check it out and leave my kids alone. You know, whatever. So is that your answer, James? Is you're not even going to go check it out? I'm kind of in that same already what I've seen is weird and I don't feel like I need to stick around. I'm like already probably going to decide. Yeah. You're right. That's a good point too.

Let's talk about this, this part of the movie because I like this part of the movie. I don't, I don't mind this part of the buildup. It's a cranks. Yeah, exactly. In these movies, I like it like the disaster stuff. I'm dreading as like, like the characters in the movie are dreading, you know, dreading, you know, when they find out what's happening, but like the establishing the characters and getting like the glimpses of like something's off and all that buildup is so nice.

And the cool thing is that's what all close encounters is. It's just like all of those things. It's so great. And like nothing like, you know, besides little subtle nuances and then all of a sudden the band aids like ripped off and you're like, oh, shit, this is real. Yeah. We're a rival is another good example of that.

A rival though kind of flips it, flips it on its head in to degree, but just does it so much like with grace and effectiveness because with a rival, they do come, they come down immediately. But all of the tension is because I mean, to your guys's points to like a part of the, you know, what's built into the discovery of this like cause of disaster is all the different approaches because it just makes your mind real and like, how would I tackle this?

You know, how would I, you know, pack up, get ready, get out of there, prepare for this, all of that stuff, which is just a really, you know, fun, enjoyable, like thought experiment to be presented with, which I really enjoy as well. And yeah, it's fun that you just, you know, James, you put close encounters that way because totally that is what that is, that movie is and it's great for it because yeah, it's not even necessarily about what the aliens are, what they look like or what they want.

It's just how do we as human beings handle this situation that presented with it? And that's honestly more interesting than what the aliens are. Obviously you could make the argument for both, but you get what I mean is like you, you can make the argument that our handling of it is far more interesting than whatever, you know, the aliens are bringing or what have you. So, yeah, this is, oh, sorry.

I was going to ask you, I wanted you to clarify something, James, because you said you were talking about the buildup. Like that's the one part that you enjoyed. So was it like, was it like a pretty gradual do you think it like was very subtle and then it actually kind of was a rip the band-aid off?

It's the Spielberg stuff where it's like, you know, it reminds me of Jurassic Park with like, there's, there's some Jurassic Park in this movie in a couple of ways, but the, like the even, you know, when you see like the drops and stuff like on the Jurassic Park when the dinosaur is coming, I feel like it's things like that.

I'm trying to think exactly what it was where even as he was going in as the, you know, the storm was one thing and even representing the storm and the wind was like the clothes on the laundry line and everything was establishing the wind and that I like that. And even like just water spraying out of fire hydrants and things like that were practical effects that are very Spielberg Spielberg kind of stuff too.

That was like incorporating that with some, some practical effects or sorry with some special or CG effects, which there's a definitely a lot of in this too. But what was specifically your question again? I guess just like all those like, it's unnerving too.

Then everybody is like outside looking at something and being so kind of unsettled collectively, which really just sets is such great mood, you know, that's where it gets into very obviously this is inspired by the fallout from nine, 11 and everything that happened in New York with, with everyone taking that in and and witnessing that as it was happening like on the ground and the chaos that ensued. It just really spoke to Spielberg dealing with that and all the dust and shit and everything.

I think. Yeah. That's a good point. I didn't even think about that about the people dust, the vapor people dust being on them being kind of like the dust of concrete and buildings from nine, 11. Everyone knows. Yeah. And then you see people that, you know, and, and running away and all, all that stuff. But I thought the, yeah, the curiosity that people in the crowd work within this movie was, yeah, it was really well done and, and that's something that's difficult to do.

And a lot of, yeah, a lot of people in these, in these crowd shots, which is, yeah, God, the movie just gets right into what the aliens look like and here they are and their mean and, you know, they're out to get everybody very clear. I am very clear. I don't know if I love that, but I'm curious how you guys feel about the design of the tripod. Do you guys like it or how many strong feelings about it at all?

The machine, like the, yeah, the way that the tripod looks like we could talk about the aliens too. Once we get there as well, the look of the look of them. But what do you think of the, to me, they're tied together because I think, I think the. Yeah, I'm literally, yeah, and I almost have to bring them up together because the, I think the overall design of the, the ship or the, the tripod itself was accurate in a way to this story and it, him very clearly wanting it to be a tripod of some kind.

I thought it was imposing. I thought it was scary how it was used and the sounds that it made and, and like it's all tendrils and tentacles and stuff. I think it, I think it's kind of funny how like the actual aliens are also tripods. I think that's kind of funny because it's like, I don't know. I'm just trying to think of us like by, by pot bipedal creatures just. It's like making a mech suit. That's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah. It'd be like making a mech suit.

Yeah. So you're like, I just thought it was funny. They're just like, no, obviously. Yeah. This is the best structure in existence. So why not just make it larger and made out of, you know, not, yeah, metal or whatever. I just, I don't really love, you know, the. The tendrils, like that kind of fluidity, you know, the way that the, whatever. Type of tendril that is whole, that is the laser beam thing. I don't know if I really love that because I, I'm trying to articulate it where.

I'm just thinking about like in Independence Day or in like a James Cameron type of way where. I don't know if I, because it's so CG. I just, I kind of wish that it was like a part of the machine that would be like a laser would come down on, you know, hanging from it and shooting out. And it's not so much like these CG kind of flowy arms or whatever. It was kind of clunky.

That was going to be my critique of the tripod is it seemed like there was a lot of gadgets like it has, like you said, you mentioned there's like laser tentacles. There's actual like the three legs. Right. And then there's like in the other scenes where they're like later in the movie, they're like going through and actually picking people up. There's like, you know, dozens and dozens of them. And those seem just like little mini arms. So it's like this whole.

Are they two different types of things too? Cause I just, I don't remember seeing the cages, which children could easily fall out of. It's not like the, you know, they're like tight metal, like latticeing that's really holding them in there. I mean, if you just kind of like, you know, it's not ideal to just drop a child from, I don't know, a fucking 10, 50 story building. It's like, it was like little baskets.

Yeah. Rather than, you know, think they have like alien intercoms in those cages that are like, welcome to the alien tripod. Hold up your children as they may slip through. Inside the vehicle at all times. And be careful. We'll be with you to mutilate you shortly. When we were about to pick someone will tilt it over just a little bit. So there's no escape for any of you. And I really hope Tom Cruise isn't in any of these. Cause that guy is a nuisance. Oh, we're going.

Yeah. So I don't know guys, but yeah, I just, I don't really like, and also to the, the snake camera situation didn't love that either. Cause it's so CG and it has like this fluidity to it. I'm like, it just kind of drove me a little nuts. Like why couldn't, I understand that it would be more work, obviously. So it's like kind of a, you know, just a cost effective measure or whatever. Or just maybe, obviously, cause.

You know, it's well documented that Steven Spielberg had just such a horrible time with the shark. Animatronic and all that. So like given, you know, an opportunity to have the, you know, a similar kind of vibe where it's like hiding from this thing that's chasing you in a, you know, that type of way. BCG was probably a welcomed, you know, like ability, you know, welcome technology to be able to leverage instead of making them like a big mechanical, almost like tentacle thing.

But I just, yeah, all of that stuff does have a lot of, like tentacle thing, but I just, yeah, all of that stuff doesn't really work for me. I wish it was more in the aliens too. I wish they were just scarier and bigger and were more like brutalist, like almost like a Harkinen looking aesthetic to their ships.

Instead of having this kind of like, yeah, I don't know this just like big, slowie octopus kind of, you know, everything looks so like really washed out in the effects of this movie and not like almost like out of focus and it's not terrible, but as far as, yeah, conceptually and putting it all together and the reveal of the aliens doesn't do a lot for me, let alone that whole kind of scene with Tim Robbins in the, in the basement is obviously the

movie slows down and it takes its time up there, but it also kind of, I think doesn't work, doesn't work super well for me at that point. It picks up again a little bit, but the amount of time that they spend in that basement had me questioning it a bit and I haven't read the book, so I don't know. Plus you're not, you're not, you can't tell me that that thing doesn't have like heat vision, like you can see thermal. Or that it wouldn't even give a shit about three people in a fucking

basement. Why is it, why send four aliens in there to check it out to you. A bunch of aliens out of the ship to check out and then it comes back a second time to you. And then I guess this is just where they're really spreading their, their bloody seed. But this is this is the other product that reminded me of Jurassic Park as well, where it's essentially the same thing as the

scene in the kitchen with the Raptors or everything. The movie slows down, they're all kind of trying to recoup and then like there's these kind of stealthy things kind of come in and they got a hide in the kitchen and it was just like, oh, this is like the same, same beat as that, except yeah, like a worse. I, it, I agree. There's some, there's some sort of disconnects

with it. And then the whole back and forth with Tim Robbins was just kind of like, yeah, a man slowly losing his mind, but I feel like he needed a little something more attached to his character that wasn't doing it for me. It seemed like he need, there's a little more at you attribution to using an EMT and was losing his mind and kind of almost seemed like doomsday at a prep or a bit or something, but I don't know.

No, no, that's a totally fair thing to say. Cause yeah, like, especially if he is a first responder, like why is he losing his mind so quickly? Cause I mean, the like, this is this whole situation, like we're probably at like day four or five of this, right? Oh man, timeline in this movie seems very hard for me. It's tough. I've seen this movie. They spend one night at the mom's house and then they spend the next night at Tim Robbins.

Is our whole day in the name. See that's what, cause that's where I'm like, so he sleeps on the car ride, I guess as well. Yeah, that's that whole thing that's right. It's from the mom's house. They go on that road trip to the Hudson River ferry and then that goes from day to night because you're right. The son who lets, we got to talk about how much he sucks. Now he's like just such a drag every single time he's ever on screen and is like, like, yeah, go, go get yourself

killed. Please get out of this movie. No, let's talk about it. Cause like that's, I mean, that's that the way the scenes, this scene kind of slows down and a lot of the stuff that has to do with him kind of just is confusing and it's, and it's interesting to see everybody else in the movie react to how I'm reacting to him too, where he's like begging the military to like, take me with you. I want to fight. They're all looking at him like, what the fuck is your problem and get out of the way.

You're going to get run over and, and, and Tom Cruise is just like, yeah, what's your problem? And Dakota Panning is like, why are you leaving me? You need to take care of me. He's like, fuck you guys. And then he, and then he, when he's running over that hill, it was, I like started laughing this, this time. See, I've seen this movie a fair amount of times and I was just like laughing at this point because he's like, he, he's telling me, he's like, like, why are you doing this? Like, he's

got no weapon. He's got you're just going to run straight in there. There's a lot of people running to what is the deal with that? See, there's a lot of people running towards the fire and all the fighting. And then there's a lot of people running away. There's just a lot of chaos, but I don't know why there's so many people were like, yeah, it's fine. And there's all this like shooting and firing everyone. There's all these people walking towards it. And I'm like, why are we all headed

this direction? It looks like it's like supposed to be some like rural area where maybe it's just like a farm town like farmers. But then there's like hundreds of people that are like running away. They're all like, gather this one spot is like the aliens land like right in the center of town. And that was just over that hill or something. That's what they set up set up shop. Yeah, it's there's a there's a there's a chaos to

this movie that is effective. And I think, and that I think Spielberg does well where yeah, that buildup is is well done. And then when it actually the curiosity about what's in the ground and then when it does take effect that reaction, I think it's something that everyone running and and and all of that is good and him looking in the mirror at the dust and is is great. It sets it apart from from some other movies. But oh yeah, we were talking about Robbie at first like

yeah, his motivation. Yeah, I mean, just to close it on him. I mean, his just his motivation and just to fight and everything just kind of is confusing and weird. And then him coming back at the end is supposed to feel good. Then yours kind of like yeah, why? I don't know. Can I just pause at this? Do is like, in my mind, the movie is trying to do this is that the son stereotypically is the

result of Tom Cruise, the father, right? And so in Tom Cruise confronting his son about what it means to be a good family member and to be part of a family, you know, he is confronting him as they're like embracing on the hill or whatever about like you can't go just do what you want because you have people that you have to take care of, which is self reflective of him because that is I would argue poorly been set up with him or maybe not poorly, but it's just so

ham-fisted about how bad of a father he is. Because you don't necessarily know like why it's just such a general like because he's a guy. I don't know what your problem is. Father is I got a few women who'd like to tell you. Because you're a drinker. No, it doesn't seem like it because you just you're kind of a sexaholic. I don't know. We don't see that. It's not like he's trying to, you know, fucks a bunch in this movie. And like, so what is he a bad father?

Yeah, it's just kind of like some they don't like him and he's kind of just it's a presence thing. I think is what he at Robbie actually says. He's like at that scene. I think he actually specifically says he's like, he's like, you want to basically take us to mom so that you can pawn us off on her. Yeah. And then you can only worry about yourself is exactly how you want it. That's like to me, I would have what like Robbie, that's why he

was like a bad dad. That was the whole right between them two. But they don't you're right. They don't like there was no free work on that at all. It was just like, Hey, by the way, they're divorced. He's supposed to be a bad dad. Aowyn. How could you? I mean, they didn't is pissed. I know what you mean, though, it isn't even with the Tim Robbins

thing, there's no specific attribute. And that that's kind of been maybe maybe there doesn't need to be maybe that makes it too stereotypical of a generic sort of character trait or something. But it's like, it doesn't seem like there's a distraction besides just being like lazy and not attentive and maybe absent and not fully, you know, fully catering to their needs, you know, having their their bedroom still so the same

and stuff like that. And the engine in the kitchen and a pinball machine in the class. The ball machine in the class. I mean, I mean, I mean, he's living his best life. Come on. All the condiments you need. So I prefaced this yesterday and to you guys so you can think about it. So speaking of his apartment and that and relationship and all that is so he really has a hard time with hummus and this and I wanted to ask you guys on like, is what is

the hummus of our of today? If this movie were to have been made today, instead of hummus, what would it be? I think you still have to clarify this question more a little bit for me because I've been okay, so okay, so this is so let me just say this is told that she needs to order food for the family. I know you typically orders hummus or was it just because it's just that hummus is all that was left over. There was probably no. So the problem that Tom Cruise has with it is

he even says that it's not even to him. Not it's not real real food. Okay, gotcha. So he looks at it as like a like it's it's kind of the way that somebody who doesn't eat health food would react to something being like you're eating grass like you know

that energy about it. Like I don't understand why you would eat a piece made of garbanzo beans when you should have ordered burgers and fries like what are you doing eating this weirdo food, you know hummus, a weirdo food like because even at the time that was hummus this at that like in reference to your question like is is hummus even that at this time? Especially New York City. Is it saying in New York City like he hasn't he hasn't been around hummus before like there's

no medicated places. Yeah, any Israelis, any Lebanese like any Middle Eastern people like in his entire existence that have been I don't know what you mean though. Like this is a this is a trope you're talking about in movies where somebody is like and it happened with sushi and you know I like as well like oh raw fish. Oh no. And people react in like in movies in the 80s and shit like that. So yeah, I'm just not sure if that trope of a

book works as well now. Decide besides highlighting a fault in that person that's eating it or something or like yeah that like kind of how you said like it's some sort of hipster weird, you know, health thing that they're like a care like another character that's not used to like like an impossible burger like I want real meat like that sort of character distinction of that's what I was gonna say highlighting that in a tropey sort of way

like it what is this shit give me real meat you know that sort

of thing. 100% yeah no the impossible me would be good. It's just the I would just pause I mean I don't mean to yuck you're yum here but like impossible meat can be a burger right like if anything you could trick somebody in the eating an impossible burger from face value right it's the same and then you have that Chris Farley clearly like that's a no where it's like oh that'd be great especially like oh this is good like excuse me sir did you know that you are actually eating impossible

burger what son of a bitch. Actually then so it probably have to be like a black bean patty or something that it was like something like that you know where it's like very obvious that it's not tempeh it's tempeh you know what is this it's a temporary cheeseburger. Jack fruit well yeah.

Hey it's all good all good to me I just yeah that's for interested me yeah that just doesn't hold up and it's like you know he's he's the per he's the guy who did the chilled monkey brain seeing you know so it's like he's he's this is not his first rodeo of doing we're talking BG3. I J2 IG TOD.

But you know that's that was something that he used in that movie to show it you know just it's very cultural insensitivity exactly and I think that's exactly the reason why it's not being used you know how that's like hold up anymore either. Yeah absolutely it is funny to think about the point you made James of like is hummus even weird at that point.

I know right because it because now from where we're sitting in this at you know in 2023 it just seemed so it stood out so much to me where somebody is like really can't understand hummus like it's such a foreign concept to him of like what yeah it could be it maybe it's like they're yeah talking about how weird how weird he is rather than how weird hummus is it could be more like how weird he is and how ignorant he is to the world around him and how it makes sense why nobody wants

to be with him but he's just loves his car he fucking loves his car it's a great car he's got his engine maybe he's just spent his all time all of his time in that car and playing and playing pinball and wanting to just live life how he wants to live it his frustration as Tom Cruise and being like kind of failing is kind of funny where he's Tom Cruise is such a winner yeah and he's just kind of like fucking up you know and the whole when it like culminates in that peanut butter sandwich

thing and he just throws it at the window and it just that reflection of the Peter motor sandwich with his like kind of tearful face was like worked really well I don't know that some of that and I remember in the theaters do like people just kind of chuckling at that and there's just something that is probably speaking from experience as you can see over as probably it seems like a dad and also his issues with his own father as well probably coming coming through but there

you know very like themes that a lot of themes that have been in his movies like in the familial sense and everything but you know that there's there's some highlights of this movie I mean like there's the train thing that where the fucking train on fire going by that that was like quite the effect they're them rolling in with the car and everyone taking over the car and the gun and crazy before that the plane cry like how the plane that plane crash was pretty pretty intense it was

still very trippy to me again from the whole time perspective because like right so that was like right after the peanut butter you know that you just like that plane down already is well well I mean I I have a lot of issues with it's like when they can hear let's let's do when they can hear the plane falling and all of those symptoms of a plane crashing are going on outside it still just seemed like nah I'm like this seems like the longest crash ever right like fair I'm just listening

to plane sounds like go I'm like how long and how like from how I feel like I thought about that this time to it would be so quick further away like it should have been a louder sound further away coming into like directly over it was very loud and like shaking this plane just hovering over it wouldn't be shaking the building it would be like boom where yeah building hit right so that whole part I'm just like I don't know and of course yeah yeah yeah and then they appear to sleep spend

the night because it was nighttime they go down to the basement and then they hide in the weird shit happens shit wait what's that oh yeah they're sleeping and then that happens and they got to go where all the pipes are for the rest of the night yeah and then just sleep though to Mike's point is really weird and then they go back to sleep and then he wakes up and he goes outside he's like oh my god he's fucked all right good night don't forget to set your alarm

yeah it's a bit yeah I mean if the plane should have been like no power like no power to anything the plane should have been done so like right with everything else unless it was just like lighting around for for a bit or something but it that scene when they're leaving is like and obviously besides that being able to like just you know drive away and be like oh there's a perfect path for my car to like this area which is great actually fun side story I got to work on the planet because

they fixed the solenoids or whatever the fuck yeah the car the mechanic you know the most New York guy in the movie yeah but but a fun side note is I got a universal touring that set yeah they still do it they still do it they still do it they still do it to mine all of the last time I was there it's still going yeah because it's an amazing set and I see why they're like we fucking ripped apart an actual 747 like a this and not in use and service anymore it's getting decommissioned

decommissioned yeah and then brought it over and and tore it apart and you drive through it and your and best right there the tram ride you do the tour of the set like the behind the scenes and everything and awesome you drive through it and it shows the scene as you're driving through yeah it's weirdly smaller than but that's just like movie magic it is yeah but like you have the zoomed out perspective but like when you actually see these fill in so much of the background

of like to add perspective of like the neighborhood and all that stuff but yeah still fucking so cool I think I read it was like it was cheaper to do it that way than to have built an airplane like replica or whatever right yeah just to have one so was it money saving just to have a decommission on the lot instead of wherever planes go to get decommissioned yeah and I'm sure it'd be more expensive to move it as well rather than just make it a part of the right that's the way exactly

yeah just leave me out just cool alright then that's a man I love that yeah really so fun fucking turn lemons into lemon eight every which way I feel like it's that's like a lot of my gripe with this movie I think is really it's like everything is really shot well and like a lot of it is just like similar scenes to get to the this this Spielberg bread and butter where it's like really pretty visual shots really set up well right like like it gets you get you get a lot of

those like just pretty frequent in the film so and that's why I think I really like it because it's like his bread and butter and he visually makes things look so good and like it really brings you there which is cool but then if you actually start paying attention to the movie is whether it's like a little bit of a oh yeah it really is some holes yeah we get the problems with Ravi and yeah he builds attention so well and the disaster thing is not something that appeals to me anymore

the rolling number stuff you know I don't know it's not really my thing and this is a version that that puts it together and then and entertaining overall sort of way and yeah I think for me would it would be some of those character moments don't fully hit and don't fully flesh themselves out enough and some of the yeah some of the designs can be a little wonky and stuff but yeah there's some cool camera work that shot when they're driving down the way is where it's going

and like 360 around the van the whole time as they're driving and like in the car out of the car and stuff and very cool there's and there's a lot of the dialogue working with within all that and then it assumes back out and even just watching all the extras point at the car like hey how'd they get a car and all that stuff is just tuned tuned in really really well yeah or even that intro we didn't talk about it much but the very very beginning of the movie book and being on the

yard right like in the yard and him you know the shipping containers off and that was really that's really good to see that at scale and from that perspective it was really cool to see someone up there like in that window operating the big crane and I was like I established the city and like a big shop but also like hey we're going to go in here and this is where he's at and doing the yeah that that job seems like a cool character trait and his his boss being like you're the best

you gotta stay like I'm busy and it's like it seems like he's making time for his kids that's good but yeah he's got the New York camp and then his Robby's got the Boston cap such a little shithead some some humor right there and then Robby like calls him out and then like right before he throws a bag he's like that's why you're such a little asshole when you come over here or something that just breaks the window like I don't know there's some the tension there's and Dakota Dakota fan

and we haven't really talked about her and how great she is as a child actor actress like you know let's change that because she deserves she's probably my favorite thing in this movie absolutely every scene with her is pretty much the best she handles so and then like what she's like you're not you're not going to get through to him that way you know yeah kind of stuff is wise about her views delivers those lines really well even when she's like I have to go to the bathroom like there was a

pause there and she took it in like she didn't brush anything and very thoughtful actor like I was impressed again watching it this time yeah I agree I like to yeah I mean also too I noticed this time around how much her anxiety her screaming adds to the tension well it doesn't it continues to just really keep momentum going and like fear and the anxiety that it's trying to elicit like it keeps talking specifically that freeway scene or throughout just in general I mean God she

she really like her being afraid you know happens all throughout the movie and I think it adds yeah and doesn't you know I think it adds to the tension because I read some of the reviews and some a lot of people find her annoying but I I don't know I can see that being the case but I just I think that is to her credit that she is you know she is a frustrating character but it's a kid in this situation it's going to be hell it's going to be very frustrating because every which

way especially at her age yeah you would need to like they're always questioning why are we doing things you know all of that stuff and yeah it's super frustrating but yeah again I think she that it is weird to have a gripe about like you know it got she's so fucking annoying it's like yeah she hits that's like an 11 year old when you got Robbie right there yeah she hits that stride pretty early on in the movie too because in that freeway scene I think they do they

transition it pretty well into going from the shock and off seeing what Tom saw right and going in the car and being like Dakota's freaking the fuck out right and like the you know the music's intense they're going somewhat fast on the freeway right and Robbie was like calmly asking but then there's that Dakota in the back where she's like take me to my freaking the fuck out so yeah I agree again yeah establishing that like dichotomy she just really kind of fizzles out after

this right is it or is there other another career like it ends her for a little bit um and this is definitely the the big one in in my mind as as far as like some other some other big stuff it's been a lot of her her sister I feel like lately but yeah I am Sam was 2001 War of the World 2005 man fire was 2004 that's right before this and then secret life of the one for secret life of bees 2008 never saw that that's the Jerry Seinfeld one right that's the sequel I'm

actually not not sure either but it's not the B movie is a based on a novel in 1964 a teenage girl in search of the truth about her mother runs away to a small town in South Carolina and finds a family of independent women who can connect her to her past is the IMDB description Dakota family Jennifer Hudson Queen Latifah um and what are some other things Twilight saga Eclipse and new yes that I'm she was the voice of voice of Coraline which is a fantastic

movie 2009 uh yeah there's she's there's there's movies here but um I think this the Please Stand by movie I know that was big Oceans 8 once upon a time in Hollywood uh she was at the ranch if you remember her for like in the room like proceeding Bruce seen Bruce Storn or whatever weird weird scene person yeah kind of yeah um that's I mean still doing it bringing people's careers back for you know for moments for for bright moments um and then yeah I'd like to at least

before we move on to reviews and everything just mentioned like those bookends with Morgan Freeman because I feel like this was at the at a time to where it was before that was like a almost a joke anytime you hear now it's like a parody because no one actually like he doesn't do that anymore if he's getting old of course yeah but like uh if you were to do it now it's almost like as a joke because it was just done so much uh with like Mark the penguins I'm not sure what

you're that but uh this too I think was when that was still uh a thing that was like oh we can transition him to voice overs and make it uh very epic off off the bat which was interesting watching the trailer was a different narrator doing the exact same thing to footage that was not even in the movie so that was just a very early teaser in my mind where they didn't have everything flushed out um but even you know as far as not everything flushed out goes you are

you guys satisfied with the bookends of this movie with how they not only introduce it but how they wrap it up with uh I am not wildly unsatisfied I think it's very stupid I I thought I had misremembered how how quickly you're rapid and I was like oh no yeah it's fucking quick yeah oh yeah and it just is so weird to the the way it's plotted that Tom Cruise blowing up one of them seems to like weirdly coincide with all of them not working again because it's just the way that it's

like one happens after the other so quickly but they're really have nothing to do with each other it's just these aliens are morons by and large yeah like because there's it's not like they were in a rush to invade us they apparently set up stuff you know before humans were even really humans and then decided on this day and they couldn't plan out that I just it's so they don't have a microscope I'm sorry I'm I'm it's so dumb they uh yeah I it's it's 100%

contradictory because in the prologue you know he says like specifically states it's like you know while we were pursuing mundane like human whatever the fuck right they've been watching and studying right and it's like how how much studying have they been doing if they were not ready for the test and they haven't seen like a hospital they haven't seen all the humans dying of like you know disease and all that stuff yeah all of it like it's just so funny how quickly how

quickly you think about it just in a nanosecond you're like oh this is very stupid and they didn't come up with a solve for this or it's like happening level you know like in a shaman sort of way and like level twist that just doesn't really yeah and I feel like they didn't want to spend too much time explaining it because then it would have yeah fallen apart even more or just not really been as satisfying as as you wanted it and having those bookends just seemed like a cheat and I

guess the timing of it all is like yeah it took what for for three to five days for them for all the water and oxygen and all the shit to affect them enough to just be like oh wait this isn't this isn't gonna work but I guess we'll never know because we just get the Morgan Freeman from the moment they started drinking our water and breathing on air yeah right I'm so curious though because it's like it's weird to me that I don't know like I feel I feel like to as a viewer of the

movie and I'm trying to think more along the audience side of it or you know a little bit disagreeing yeah and this must be a big part of it is this ending yeah right it has to be right because I feel like if you're gonna humans don't like generally just being a human being we don't like the idea of like being taken over and exterminated right so if you're gonna put us through that stress emotionally then I feel like when you wrap it all up that way where it's just like oh it's so satisfying

you're like oh we didn't meet and it's like we could have done different like I feel like why isn't the government are doing like why can't we say oh let's all shelter in place or do something because you know we can be smarter about instead of like going and trying to fight like every scene that the government was involved in the military was involved it was like that citing you know the the aliens which I'm like it's a normal response I guess but once you fill out find out all

the technology you can't kind of treat I feel like you got as there's alternate methods that you would go about and it happens in such a short amount of time that just there's yeah as far as of anything of consequence within that time on either side doesn't really nothing really happens there's nothing we could have done differently that would have changed the outcome and same goes for them besides just studying up a little bit more and it's just funny to think like okay let's get our attack

going yeah this is going great okay wait and then you just like dying just like kind of funny and then just like I don't because it's thinking of just like launching a big attack and then just like falling over and dying like in the middle of everything is almost like humorous and weird yeah well because the whole time I'm like I remember it's like it was so hard for us to fight them that I'm like what are these scenes of us citing them accomplishing like what is stopping

or if we're setting up a line of tanks right where Robbie is doing his whole ego I'm going to save the world and run towards the danger right like what is stopping the alien advance is it the tanks actually affected are we just throwing everything we have at them and they're just like okay our resources are being built up from just trying to like I give a tour for all this attack you wanted the B movie sort of like the army army versus the alien sort of imagery I'm sure is a big big

thing that he he wanted to and so on all of it but there was no they made it clear I guess the communication between countries or it was really just boots on the ground like what was going on in Tom Cruise's world and the way that did it out information was just through his eyes and so taking it almost taking advantage of the audience a little bit that way where it's just like oh you're just going to see them fighting in the background in a lot of background stuff but that's never

going to be fully explained because Tom Cruise is too busy taking care of you know just surviving and and and living and none of that stuff really needs to be explained and it almost just comes across as just experiencing a really fucked up event and then just having to be like fuck man okay I was I guess well that happened and yeah now it's over and I didn't have anything to do with it any but I guess I just had a fucking deal with that and yeah it's it rings a little

hollow but you know what it is I know I just reminds me again of like 9 the 9-11 sort of mindset of just kind of like dealing with a very traumatic fuck fucking event having to bind together at the end and realizing you know you have your you know your family and everything there and even seeing like all the American flags you know like lining up to to emphasize the wind as well you know that's another yeah again like it's it's these these interesting fun ways practical

ways to highlight effects they almost had JJ Abrams write this movie but he was busy making lost I think was yeah it was one little tidbit I saw this probably you know what that would have had which in this movie then if he would have done that is what would the MacGuffin be there has to be something we need to get an object to a person in order to you know be able to overtake the aliens or whatever there could be a good version of that there could be a really

really good version of that too so I don't know better version I'm not sure this movie you can't pull off this kind of narration of like and that's how the cookie chrome it's like that's the way it is yeah yeah I'll do a live TV trivia now when I'm thinking of it when aliens are investigating the junk in the basement one of them plays with the bicycle wheel this is a reference to the original book the main character observes that with all the advanced technology the

aliens possess they do not use any wheels and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel one scene shows Ray running out of the house to find Robbie while dozens of people are right outside his house photographing the lightning storm to film the scene producers hired people in the street to come to the street at the time of shooting the camera and film so they can get pictures of Tom Cruise for free while filming nearby Tom

Cruise along with 20 member entourage including Spielberg visited a Lexington visited a Lexington Virginia Dairy Queen cruise saw a jar on the counter with a photo of Ashley Flint and her story Flint had been in a go-kart accident a few months earlier earlier leaving her family with a mountain of hospital bills cruise put $5,000 cash into the jar you just had $5,000 cash on everything in my wallet just $5,000 what a guy yeah during the filming of the underwater scenes director Spielberg

played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing a dramatic music from Jaws through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage that's fun what a fun thing playing pranks God what a what a movie that is to remind everybody it is a 75% by the critics a 42% by the audience I'm gonna go through some reviews you guys want to take a break or anything are we good to go I'm okay okay yeah cool all right so we'll go through some positive reviews from the critics Kenneth Turan from LA

Times gave it a 100 they say working in the spirit of his predecessors but with the kind of uncanny special effects they could barely dream of Spielberg has come up with an impressive production that is disturbing in the way only provocative science fiction can be from Hollywood reporter Kirk Honeycut gave it an 80 might be too realistic for its own good the film takes perhaps a little too much glean its ability to manufacture mayhem that being said the ride is extraordinary

let's do the New York Times a 70 Dana Stevens acting is not really the point of this movie which seems to arise above all from Mr. Spielberg's desire to reaffirm that he is along with everything else a master of pure action film making and God they meant that the acting is not strong in this movie yeah I agree let's check out some audience opinions from the negative side of 42 percent from them let's see from a Kelly a one star out of five title just know

Tom Groves does his usual great job with the script is awful and the ending is such an insult to our intelligence that it reads like we can flip the bird watch edge of tomorrow if you want to see Tom in a movie with a solid script other viewers have discussed all the irritants in this movie including the kids I haven't seen anyone specifically mentioned ending this will constitute a spoiler if you care the last scene is of the most ridiculous family reunion

everybody else on the planet these either dead or struggling to survive covered with filth their homes destroyed but hey look the townhouse door opens and there's the whole family all dressed nicely including grandma and her prim little outfit and the teenage boy who could not have survived now he was he was not dressed nicely he was still yeah he was still ripped up even more so all of them looking like they haven't been through anything more strenuous than

card games around the table made me wonder if this was supposed to represent that none of them survived and that was the afterlife that's the only way to be rationalized but that's too subtle an explanation when everything else took place was ham-handed nonsense I guess if you just want to watch Tom Cruise run through hollering then knock yourself out there there are better movies for that really as I write this my advice is that you save

yourself I feel like my brain is a little damaged by this movie yeah brain damage from Bill from one star titled Tom Cruise in the most unlikable role in his or anybody else's career most unlikable role ever I actually I kind of side with that a little bit I sympathize I get it not like someone who's playing a serial killer or something it's more unlikable you're right yes I get in comparison no I yeah it just it's he's so like he's a stinker Bill says I actually moved the film to the

end after watching just 30 minutes why anybody would make a divorce man such as show such a little caring for his kids as the hero of the film is beyond me so far special effects are interesting but I'll likely turn it off before it ends because I'm already hoping the hero will die soon well and you're already at the end of the movie because you skipped it isn't that what he said at the beginning you watch 30 minutes and then went right to the end I mean you might as well finish it at that

point the movie the movie's only 35 minutes long I'm trying to watch it in reverse and see if it's any better no I'll report back none of the characters are making any sense or speaking English but the world's a better place at the end that's nice that's nice yeah from Leon M. Shondris one star out of five titled nothing like the book first off this movie has absolutely nothing in common with the book with the exception of the alien invasion so if you're looking for a good film adaptation

of a novel this is not the film for you second I would argue that this film although dark is far happier than the novel because most of the major characters live and some aren't affected at all as for the film itself it's terrible as a film it doesn't make much sense the acting is atrocious and some of the scenes are pretty gruesome also each of the characters are given names in the film which wasn't the case in the book oh this guy did not want any names in this movie about the case

the case the DVD came in was your typical case the colors were sharp and vibrant but there was a small chip in the corner so it either wasn't shipped well or made well hard to tell which he's just upset about everything he's going to production line issues man a lot of people complaining about the Blu-ray quality and on all Amazon reviews is kind of funny see if there's maybe one or you see how shitty the CGI is it's kind of it's like kind of blurry I like maybe that's it

yeah that's not good doesn't look good yeah it's I think we're pretty much set I would like to move on now to some opinions of our own Blarge you are welcome to kick us off if you want to go first yeah I think as we like kind of discussed it more because I was leading I've seen this movie like a lot me too like I've seen this movie quite a bit I was telling Brandon I was like I don't think I'm going to rewatch it just because I could probably like shop for shop or site yeah I had this

idea I watched a lot too I did rewatch it and it had been a while since I had seen it so it's kind of good to see it and it got me a little bit excited like I was kind of at first very like that the first 30 minutes I was like kind of on board but as you get through the movie you start just finding a lot of these like plot holes which kind of then takes its toll on the acting right because I'm sure some of the actors maybe like had trouble connecting with some characters

like why am I wearing my yeah right which may have translated into the audience is like unease especially when it comes to like Robbie probably because I didn't think maybe the audience was not a fan of him as much as included because yeah he's exactly the only positive side or like the only happy moment with him is at the very end every other moment is like he pissed and antagonistic towards I did enjoy that moment that he has with Dakota Fanning where he's helping her get to her safe

space I thought that was a good character moment but yeah those are so few in far between yeah you see glimpses so I think yeah I think I did kind of mention this already that it was it's more so about letting Steven Spielberg like you know get through his paces and and there was a lot of filler stuff that was just getting to really good shot and really good like cinema right but not good script and not good like story and acting so like yeah visually I really do like the movie but

when it comes down to it in like terms of like actually liking a movie I think I'm more like with the audience so I probably give this one probably a little bit better of a score but I'd say I'm like more middle of the road at like a 53 like a 53% like I do really enjoy yeah I'm a big Spielberg fan and I anything he kind of touches I'm like hey this was movie quality stuff but yeah they can all be like bangers when it comes to script and that can only take you so far you know good cinema

so yeah I think it's a good enough film but yeah a lot of holes in there that kind of let you just fall off so I think a 53 is a solid I agree that is a yeah perfectly respectable score for for this movie Brandon you want to go next sure yeah um you know something that resonated with me Mike and what you were just saying is that you know Steven Spielberg going through the paces and I think this is an example of such lazy like laziness because you know within comparison to a

movie that he done you know close encounters of the third kind there was so much attention paid to and it's also part of his style just by and large is like Steven Spielberg likes to fill his movies with these like random characters you know that color of the film and such a like such a wonderful collage of society you know loving all of the yeah it's like a stereotype to the at this point of these characters that will pop up in his movies that maybe have only like a line or two in there but

they're just you know very unique and yeah provide something to either the mood or to the plot and yeah it just blows me away that this movie has zero to do with you know another thing that resonated with me that you said earlier about the like what what what do you think the mission was for the tanks going in like what was the conversation there because the way it was being presented in the movie is that they're just like well we got this shit that blows shit up so we got to go figure it out

that's not how the the military works they're not just going to be like let's go blow stuff up first and then figure out if it works like that's not how the shit works at all that's not and it just you know it's crazy to me how this movie doesn't have any like what what's going on with the military or like what's going on with the government or you know any interior into the greater like collective trying to work through this obviously

global issue it just comes off to me as being lazy because it isn't far simpler way to shoot like from the just the logistics standpoint to just say no we're going to just focus on Tom Cruise we're never going to go outside of Tom Cruise we're just going to stick with him you know and you can pitch it as being kind of interesting like you know so like through somebody's eyes so on the ground you know perspective right and never really shying away from that and getting to zooming

out too much and getting lost in the saucer or you know getting to a burden by you know how inner workings of geopolitical stuff would happen but yeah just I think the movie suffers from it because it's just incredibly difficult for me not to be like well you made a movie that is near perfect and I'm not saying that every outing has to be perfect but there's just so much this movie that seems so lazy to me even though that there are like really well set pieces it's just there's a lot to it

though that just seemed that just comes off as like he's not really that interested in what he's trying to say and it's just let's let Tom Cruise do whatever he wants to do and it's going to make money and that's all that it kind of needs to be sure it's it's not yeah at times things don't need to be totally saddled up with our burden with having effectively communicating interesting point of view sometimes movies can just be fun but there's also a lot of stuff in this movie that isn't that fun

like it's crazy how much of a halt everything comes to in the basement with Tim Robbins where I you know a lot of my notes was like wow this movie is like cranking along and I'm really enjoying the fact that this movie is unencumbered to a degree it's not cutting to like what's happening at the Pentagon you know or some shit like that which could be cool and interesting and keep the movie cranking along so I don't want to just say that

you know going outside of Tom Cruise's again out of his purview would be would slow the movie down but it's just so crazy how this movie has this pace and then it just screeches to a halt and gets to a point where it's really uninteresting because you don't really know these characters and the movie is not even spending time to provide you with it like I don't know why Dakota Fanning would have do you I mean do you guys get a sense of like why she would have picked I had to look up this track

that she was singing to herself hushabye mountain like what it oh yeah no like where does that come from like it was just I thought it was like a reference to the book or something I have no clue what I know but so weird because it's like even in a moment where it should be so like let's get into what these characters stand for who they are what are their passing all that it like it's just a bunch of bullshit jargon about like they're up there we're down here let's go get them and it's just

a lot of that and then it goes right into you know the kind of horror element of the snake a light thing was kind of fun yeah I thought that was fun yeah a little dooscoop yeah he would he's just so good like cars it's just every fiber of his being has to be somehow related to cars yeah a little dooscoop yeah so I mean this movie really sucks for me at the latter half but I will give it credit that the beginning half of it with the sound design for the

lightning the tension that all the unsettling you know stuff with before the tripod like is actually shown on screen I thought was really really good it hooks you yeah it hooks you hooks you pretty pretty amazing stuff so I yeah I there was a part of me that wanted to go pretty low on this because I just really really didn't like the back half of this movie but I mean in talking to you guys and this happens more often than not I would say is like after talking to you guys about it

you know I come around a little bit on it just acknowledging it successes a little bit more and building those up so I'm not going to give it like a super crazy low score which I kind of was feeling going into this because there were parts of this movie that I did like but I'm going to go like about a 40 I want to say 46 but there's a part of me that wants to say 42 and I think I'm going to go with the lower honestly I'm going to go with 42% okay yeah I think this story is something

that was important to him and it was something that yeah it meant a lot to him to do and he wanted to do it in a certain way and he was given every license to do whatever he wanted I just have to say I think the original like thing is such a fascinating thing like or the world's like the like Orson Orson Wells did the radio thing of of war the world's and the people thought it was real and sort of freaking the fuck out and I just thought that was cool and maybe I can take this

time do you and I want to ask you guys a question do you think that is possible today can you do a war the world's type event in today's world in any sort of medium of communication whether it be social media or something like on the internet can you manufacture an event that doesn't really happen you can I just I think the like the leg of it that like the amount of time before it is very short like I think it still could be a fun and effective like marketing tool because

that's kind of like a way to entertain people is what you're getting at right yeah like that's a good way of looking at it I was almost thinking yeah like when whoever put it those like monoliths all over the world and shit and people were wondering if the deal was with those yeah that's like actually out there I'm trying to think like you hear about something and assume it's really happening or something like that absolutely happens a lot recently like something that comes to mind is

somebody used AI generating are to make it look like home goods was selling satanic statues in it there you go yeah which is pretty funny and people just you know because it looks so real these statues inside of home goods you know immediately hopping online and being like you believe that home goods is selling satan statues like man the woke mobs really gotten to them or whatever and then people just prattle on into oblivion yeah if anything it's almost all over

the place more than ever and yeah anyone else can do it for yeah a short amount of time to just enrage people or just an idea that's they want to other people to have but I just always thought that was like it's for for Orson Wells to be able to to do that and the effect that it did have and not even looking through the history of a little bit today and like someone tried it and somewhere in South America and it had such an effect that there were riots and like seven people

the announcers to announce that like a couple of his family members died as people freaked out so much and yeah just the power that that has and the effect that it can can have on people I thought was just very fascinating it is I agree but to move on to my review I think it was worth talking about this movie for something that I'd seen a lot and then hasn't seen in a while very much like you guys are expressing and revisiting at this time the things that stuck out to me yeah

we're definitely the Tim Robbins thing and then how it comes together at the end were the glaring things that I I had thought I had misremembered and realize that's essentially how it goes is it's just is wrapped up with that narration which is just so short change to the audience and not effective at all and if it didn't have those bookends like this movie would be incomplete and that's feels kind of icky because it's like that you should be able to tell the whole story without just

removing this one like one little like 30 second like blur of just like oh and then this is how it happened okay see you later by really affects you know your your mood walking out of the movie I can understand a little bit more from from the audience side like we're trying to figure out the the different different points of it all disaster movies in general not really my thing not really my bag baby so that's definitely gonna like lose some points from like even from a subjective

side of things like it's just not something that I'm I'm looking to watch and I haven't rewatched the movie in a while because of that yeah beginning I love the the lead up to it even with like Jurassic Park and stuff like all of the build up to Jurassic Park and everything getting to the dinosaurs and you're getting to when it actually reveals everything is like a Spielberg trick that is always very sometimes more effective than others but I think that he is a

master of tension in this movie it still entertains me in a lot of ways when a type of this disaster porn movie like this movie like wouldn't really do in a lot of other ways but it is just depressing and and and down like when they steal a car and then everyone's like you know he steals in the night guy gets shot and everything they're sitting in the diner I just remember thinking like man this is just rough and then the train on fire goes by and then the thing on the ferry and then

the but the boat gets taken over and they're just looking at from the hillside everything everybody just can mess up it's like it's effective in what it's trying to do but it's also a bit of a counter of a movie like you just you feel like kind of down and then the moment when you feel like you I don't know there's some sort of triumph isn't really earned so on the surface I think it does effectively does what a director in a lot of ways should do for the substance of the screenplay

and where Spielberg's mind was at that time I think affected the way that that too just doesn't hold up as well as some of his other movies even namely being like Minority Report which came out at a similar time which is yeah it's kind of scythe he's in the neck AI I guess was kind of another scythe movie around this time and it's just not something that I would revisit again and again anytime soon I'm feeling very like Luke is warm on it but I'll I'll go I'll go 56 I'll do 56 it's so

like you know pretty like man but I commend the build up and the action and the ability to still remain entertaining and to ride the line between tonal shifts and some of the humor I think is like pretty pretty well done which is I think can be a good thing to do sometimes is instilling that that humor is weird and dysfunctional as it is with the family of the overall the yeah I don't know Tom Cruise is a blue collar guy whatever but I think he's he's just electric on screen I don't

know like whatever about whatever about the guy he's he's you know weird dude but he's electric on screen and Dakota

Fanning and a good performance. Yeah, and then yeah I just want to play a quick game of magnetize if you if you guys want to jump into I think there's a couple movies that we have not I'm not thrown out to you yet so let's get into a little a little game if you guys haven't played or played or heard you out there haven't heard of this game before I'm going to give these guys movies that have the exact same rating from audiences and critics on rotten tomatoes as

opposed to polarized or magnetized they were the same score. They they have to figure out what the score is for these movies that I'm going to give them so the first one will go to our guest. We will start with another Spielberg picture Jurassic Park. Same score from audiences. You're picking one one pick a number and then they're close. It's

either a really good score or a really bad score right. It's up to you it's just going to be the same from audience and critics so whatever you think what do you think they both agreed upon score Jurassic Park. So Jurassic Park is going to be a ninety one ninety three percent we're going to go ninety three percent ninety three okay I'm going to go ninety eight ninety eight and I'm not doing prices right rules so it is a ninety one Mike you freak me out because I'm like you said

you got to go with your gut. It was a ninety one so you take the first first first point here moving on to round two we're going to go with a movie called Glass Onion a Knives Out Mystery is that how it's a glass and a knife out mystery yeah. More recent movie to you. I go yeah it was knives out and then Glass Onion correct knives out and then Glass Onion. It's the second one. It's just a glass onion. Okay. Knives out or glass onion. I'm going first or Bardini is

Bardini. Oh my bad. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. Okay. See I was going to go way lower but then you said eighty one. I'm going to go with seventy four seventy four it is a ninety two percent for really higher than Jurassic Park. Higher than Jurassic Park kind of work one out one out people love the drama they love the drama love it they love

it they love a mystery. It's more run tomato scores maybe at this time too but I am still people I thought for sure the first one was better but okay. Yeah I like the first one more than the second. Well let's move on to our final round. This is for for all the marbles. I have this jar of marbles that you guys one of you will be taking home. It is a very new movie. I hope you have at least heard of it. It's Ari Astor's newest film I have not seen but let's see if we

can guess it. It's magnetized. Bo was afraid. Bo was afraid. Okay. Wow. Bo was afraid to large. Okay. Are you aware of this movie. Yeah this is what is I forget I'm blanking on the actors. Yeah. Walking Phoenix. Thank you. Ari Astor is the guy who's doing everything right now. Napoleon. Okay. Who's the director of this movie. Ari Astor. Ari Astor. Okay. Redditary right. Mid summer. Mid summer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is why this name does not ring a bell because I

have purposely erased it. Remember. Bo was afraid. Okay. I'm afraid of the summer. I'm literally trembling as I'm thinking. You got this. Bo is afraid. I'm gonna say this is 84 percent. 84. Okay. I'm gonna go 72. 72. It is a 70. So it will go to Bardin. It's the marbles. Gets all the marbles. Here you go. I've been looking for some marbles. You lost them.

Yes. Seize the day. I appreciate you guys joining me for yet another journey into the polarized verse where we talk about polarizing movies where we will be doing again next time. We're talking about a sequel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Kisses to give your kisses to Blargy. We appreciate you man. Anytime we go and blast off into space again or underground we'll make sure we give you a call for underground. Let's do it. Let's do it. Hell yeah. For next time it will be bad boys too.

From 2003 it is a 23 percent from critics. It is a 78 percent from audience favored heavily by the audience. I'll read the movie info here on Rotten Tomatoes. The drug ecstasy is flowing into Miami and the police want it stopped. Police detective Marcus Burnett, Martin Lawrence and his partner Mike Lowry, Will Smith are just the men to do it. They track the drugs to a Cuban smuggler Johnny Tapia who is also involved in a bloody

war with Russian and Haitian mobsters. If that isn't bad enough there's tension between the two cops because Lowry is romantically involved with Burnett's sister. Oh yeah. Gabrielle Union. Join us please for another journey into Michael Bayverse. I have been James the James the forever guest. This has been I'm Brandini the Rizzler. Brandini the Rizzler. Also check us out on Prodpod or other podcasts about producers. We just talked about the Max Martin Swedish producer who's created many pop

hits and we've done a few quite a few. We've done like five episodes so far. Pretty new. We just talked about music producers and their history and their effects on us and pop culture. Jimmy IV next. Reach out to us on whatever X fuck man. Fucking who knows. Man polarized pod polarized the pod at GMA.com. Just email us. Send us a line and twitch.tv slash polarized pod. We stream live if you catch us there and there's a YouTube channel polarized pod that throwing some

some stuff on there. If you if you prefer to listen that way we appreciate you all so much and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.