MOVIE REVIEW: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Hey, this is Brian Michael Bendis, the co -creator of Miles Morales, Raby Williams, Jessica Jones, and the Jinx World line. And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 157 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm your warlord of the Citadel and keeper of the seeds, Chris Hacker.

And joining me this week is my Lieutenant birthing physician, dirt expert and former mayor of Gastown, my cohost and BFF, Aaron Knowles. Hi, Mike. Do you have it in you to make it epic? Welcome back everybody to the Oblivion Bar podcast. This week on the show, we are covering the next installment in the Mad Max saga, Furiosa. And Aaron, if I'm not mistaken, This was your most anticipated film of the year, correct?

Yes. As soon as I saw that golden obelisk of a statue during the teaser trailer that was Anya Taylor, it just said Furiosa. Mad Max Saga. I was sold. I was in for it. You know how much I love the Mad Max Fury Road movie. Fucking love it. That's exactly my next question for you. I kind of wanted to know just very quickly before we get into sort of everything else with the show, what is sort of your relationship to the Mad Max?

franchise, I guess you would call it, because I think my love sort of started with Fury Road, of course, like most folks. And then I kind of backtracked into Mad Max and then the Thunderdome and all the other installments. Yeah. Well, I think the one thing that you need to remember about Mad Max just in its entirety is, we don't need another hero. Little Tina Turner. Little Tina Turner. No, I so growing up, I don't know exactly. where it or when it began.

I just remember Mad Max, so Mel Gibson's Mad Max original, like what'd he call? I guess he would be just like a kind of - Post -apocalyptic? Post -apocalyptic. He's like, you're a vigilante of the wasteland. I don't know. Maybe it's just the whole wasteland thing. Maybe I want the world to die and I want us to live in a post -apocalyptic wasteland. And I don't know, like driving around muscle cars and motorcycles and just these.

crazy outfits, you know, just as well as chaps and machine guns, as well as chaps and tires for armor. What's the guitar guy you love do something do for you? Yeah, the do for you. Yeah. Yeah, I would be that guy. And so like, I don't know. It just is so iconic in the series itself is just so far out there and wild. And I don't it's just so cool. Yeah, you know, I agree 100%. It's kind of the gunslinger sort of.

Power fantasy I guess you would say we're a man on the road by himself and nothing with him but his wit and his and his Salt -off shotgun, I guess you would say and his two -headed lizard But yeah, we'll get more into sort of the Mad Max not not only just Furioso That'll be the majority of our conversation, but it's sort of the Mad Max franchise as a whole But before we get there Aaron, let's talk about patreon feels good on the whole it does feel good on the whole What why don't you just call

it operation ass creamy ass I'm sorry. Did you want some ice cream? Yes, I'd love some chocolate ass cream. Perhaps later. Listen, you come to the Oblivion Bar for two things. You come for puns and you come for Austin Powers references because that's what we do here. And then peepee poo poo jokes. Let's talk about how people can support the show. Patreon .com forward slash Oblivion Bar Pod for your support.

You could have access to The Grid, which is our weekly bonus podcast episode transcripts, early access to these episodes you're listening to right now. and a special shout out at the end of each Oblivion Bar episode, Aaron will do here in just a bit. It is the best way to support the show.

And kind of along with that, you also will get, well, actually this is not on the Patreon, you get this for free, but the secret menu, which Aaron works very hard on, sort of our monthly newsletter that the Oblivion Bar puts out, not only sort of recapping what we had done the previous month, but also highlighting things that we either have upcoming or fun activities that we've sort of taken part of. Sometimes we'll do some behind the scenes stuff as well.

That will all be available over on the secret menu. And again, that's over on Patreon, but it is free. But kind of along with that, you can do a seven day free trial on Patreon if you want to kind of see what you can get over on Patreon. That's available as well. A lot of cool ways to support the show. And as Aaron and I always say, it is the best way to support the show. You just get a little bit more total stream of consciousness over on Patreon.

Aaron, is there anything else we need to cover before we get into our news and notes? Brian K. Vaughn is coming on the show, right? That's something that we wanted to kind of talk about. that I don't really even know how to sort of summarize that thought. The fact that we were able to not only A, get in contact with the writer of Saga, Pride of Baghdad, Paper Girls, Runaways, all of the things. I mean, truthfully, Aaron, my favorite writer of all time. Three Seasons of Lost?

Three Seasons of Lost, absolutely. I mean, a lot of his properties have been converted into television shows, but I think most notably Saga is what he's mostly known for. But one of my favorite writers, if not my favorite writer of all time in comics, will be joining us on the show next month. That's a bucket list guest from Aaron. I know that you enjoy saga and you love lost, but there hasn't been a property that Brian has put out that I have not enjoyed.

And it is such an honor because people, I don't know if people know this or not. He doesn't do very many interviews. So the fact that he even, the fact that we even got in contact with him, incredible. The fact that he agreed to come on for conversation to celebrate the return of saga with issue 67 is incredible. I am extremely happy for you. I'm extremely excited for you. I'm scared of, you know, you having to do your, your pant laundry after this interview, a heavy load of laundry. Thank you.

That's right. I like it. And, no, it's going to be, it's going to be a great time. And I'm so excited for, for, I feel like that's going to be, I feel like that honestly, if there was an interview where I just needed to like, let you just do it one -on -one, that's going to be it. You know, and I think we should let the people know at home. I told Aaron that I would love for him to be there and he is sacrificing himself, himself as tribute. to kind of, I'm sure you'll be there.

Like you'll probably be in the background somewhere listening or what have you. But the fact that he's allowing me to sort of have a one -on -one with Brian, that means a lot. And I will do my best to make you and the listeners proud to have a great conversation with the man himself. Yes, I love my best friend. I'll take care of him. All righty. Let's go ahead and get into our news and notes.

and notes. Our News and Notes segment is sponsored by Omnibus, backed by some of the top publishers in the medium. It's really a growing list, so don't just take this for what it is, but Omnibus hosts an extensive back catalog from Image Comics, Boom Studios, Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, Ahoy Comics, Massive Publishing, Titan Vault, and many more. And again, like I was saying, it's growing.

Every time we talk to Travis about Omnibus, he tells us the next publisher, the next publisher, and it's just getting bigger and better. So exciting. Breaking news, by the way, breaking news, Omnibus is officially on Android. Download the Omnibus app on the App Store and the Google Play Store or read it work on your desktop like Chris does. Don't tell his bosses. Make sure you follow them on all their socials at the Omnibus app. Omnibus, by fans, for fans. It's bitching.

Okay, so our first bit of news and notes is pretty exciting, but also, you know, I... I feel like Chris enjoyed the first season of The Last of Us more than I did. And I enjoyed it a lot, but it wasn't like the most exciting thing. I disagree. It was incredible. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He thought it was incredible. But, you know, cool news. And I happen to really like this actor, Jeffrey Wright, who's been just in a ton of stuff. I mean, I know he's been in The Walking Dead, I believe.

Most notably here recently, he was in American Fiction. Yeah. He also was in... What was the HBO series everyone loved for like two seasons where everyone's in the West, they're in the Wild West and they're all robots. What's it called? Westworld. Westworld. There you go. That's where he kind of, that's where he kind of, I mean, he's an actor before obviously, but that's where he kind of gained his, you know, gravitas, I guess as an actor. Yes. I loved him in American fiction.

If you have not seen Jeffrey Wright in American fiction, you are absolutely missing out. But the point is Wright will take on the role of Isaac Dixon. is the leader of the Washington Liberation Front and is described as a quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty, but instead becomes mired in an endless war against a surprising resourceful enemy. Wright is also voice Isaac in The Last of Us Part II video game, so it's very fitting. That's very cool, yeah.

So Wright joins an already stacked cast that includes Caitlin Deaver. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. I think it might be Deaver, but probably either way is fine, yeah. Yeah, Deaver as Abby, Isabella Merced. as Dina or Dinah. Yeah. Young Zeno. Jina or Jina. Jina or Jina. Is it Jina or Jina? Ariella Barr as Mel and Danny Ramirez as Manny. That's a 40 year old virgin reference for everybody just in case you weren't tracking there. Again, they're here for the pee -pee -poop -poop jokes.

Yeah, that's right. This is my favorite edition. Catherine O 'Hara, who I... David. ...love her in Schitt's Creek, but also... as, as you know, Mama Deets in Beetlejuice returning by the way in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Solid trailer for that for Furiosa. Yeah. Yep. And she'll also guest star in a secret role. Don't tell anybody. Season two of The Last of Us is set to release in summer of 2025. This is exciting. I think just based on the fact that Jeffrey Wright is joining the cast. Incredible.

Like that would have been big news by itself. Like you said, Catherine Rivera joining the cast. Incredible. But I want to, I want to give like a special shout out to a couple of people.

Caitlin Dever or Dever again, however, you want to say it really loved her I Really loved her in there was a movie She was in a horror film on Hulu called no one will save you sort of an alien Trapped in a house movie that I think was kind of sort of elite sort of criminally overlooked from last year really good I think it's on my watch list. It's awesome. Definitely check it out. But also book smart from 2019 Aaron. Did you ever get a chance to see that? I don't think so.

So good 2019 behind on my movie list I mean this is one that I think you had to sort of seek out a little bit it stars both Devere and then Beanie Felston who was most recently in the Driveaway dolls movie the new Colin Brothers film anyway, I like to describe it as sort of super bad in modern -day like it's two friends in high school just trying to make it just trying to just trying to live right and not really knowing what their places in the world and sort of having to come to grips with

What are they going to do after they graduate high school? It's incredible. It's so funny. And it's actually directed by Olivia Wilde as well. I think she got some acclaim for that as well. But anyway, also Isabella McCann, who you may know from Madame Webb. That's probably what you know her from. But also young Mazzino, who was in Beef over on Netflix. I don't know if you had a chance to see Beef. He also I think he won an Emmy for that as well. No, I need to see that.

It's another thing I'm behind on. I wonder if his. The senior is old Mazzino. Old, old Mazzino. Yeah. Where's elder Mazzino? Where's elder Mazzino? But also Danny Ramirez. So he's going to be the new Falcon. You remember Torres from Falcon and Warrior Soldier. He's going to be in this and he's also going to be in Captain America Brave New World. You also may know him from Top Gun Maverick. He was one of the recruits that was with Miles Teller and Glenn Powell.

Regardless. I mean, I was excited for this anyway. But the fact that they keep announcing these incredible additions to the series, sign me up. I'm, I'm ready for it. And this is one of those things again, as you said, summer of 2025, I will wait a long time for the next season of The Last of Us. Cause that first season really blew me away. So before we move on, I have a real quick question for you.

Yeah. All right. As Ron Swanson, cause you know, Nick Offerman was in season one of The Last of Us. Yeah. I wanted to ask you how you felt about. How would Ron Swanson survive in the zombie apocalypse? Swimmingly. I mean, he would, he's a libertarian for God's sake. The guy has a small armory at his house. He's one of those guys that like, remember in the show he's like, Lauren was supposed to do a paper on why government matters. This is what she wrote. It doesn't. Well said. Is this a joke?

Like he would absolutely kill it. Pun intended in the zombie apocalypse. OK, like he has built for that environment, right? Yes, he could survive on his own for a long, long time. Gold buried around. And it's funny that his character in The Last of Us also survives, but as sort of the complete opposite of well, not really, actually. I think he's very similar to Ron Swanson in a lot of ways in terms of like very self -sufficient. of take care of his own, all the things.

But anyway, let's move on to our next bit of news here. We have Greg Capullo teams up with Jonathan Hickman for a brand new Wolverine limited series called Revenge. So Capullo returns to Marvel after many years at DC Comics and the legendary artist has finally revealed that he is working on Wolverine Revenge, which is a five issue limited series that sees him team up with none other than the iconic Jonathan Hickman. Now here's the official synopsis or solicitation of Wolverine Revenge.

Wolverine Revenge is five issues of pure unadulterated Wolverine action just in time for the iconic character's 50th anniversary. If that's not enough, Revenge will be available as a special red band edition. Like the Blood Hunt event that's going on currently, Aaron, the Wolverine Revenge red band edition will be polybagged for the protection of innocent eyes and include exclusive pages and elevated violence.

Hickman said in an interview, obviously it's a privilege to work with a legend like Greg. Hickman added, when we first start talking about the project, Our number one concern was taking the reader on a high octane, no -hold -barred Wolverine story that has the proper celebration of both the character and Greg returning to Marvel. The bosses over at Marvel cut us loose and the result is an absolutely wild book.

Now, Aaron, I'll sort of ask you, because again, you like to sort of refer to yourself as the residential new reader. I know you're a comic book, I know you're a big Greg Capullo fan, I know you're a Wolverine fan. What's your temperature check on this limited series? I'm.

curious because I mean along with Bloodhunt like at my comic shop they have the poly bagged like Bloodhunt ones and I'm just I don't know like I I applaud them for taking a step out of the norm and creating like an ultra violent you know issue and and you know having more you know putting the work in for both young and old making it kind of accessible yet inaccessible for for each of the demographics this is aimed for so is it interesting yeah absolutely am I I'm not the biggest Wolverine fan.

okay. I don't know why I thought you were. I thought you really liked Wolverine for some reason. You know, I'm Luke warm on him. Sure. If I were to say anything, like he's a cool character. I just, you know, I don't really feel like a super like, you know, like I especially love him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't especially love him. I do think it's funny. However, I've looked at multiple as I was preparing for the release of this upcoming.

Secret menu for our patreon or I guess really anybody can sign up for the secret menu I was looking at the variants for wolverine revenge And it's funny how like they're all like with wolverine and like a dinosaur like they're eating and and if it's if it's like a t -rex He's like in the dinosaur's mouth, which is funny because wolverine is like bite -sized. You're right. Yeah, he's like extra small. Yeah Yeah, I mean i'm i'm kind of in a similar boat.

I like wolverine obviously, but he's not someone that I especially love I'm going to look really quickly at some of the variants here because you got me interested. It looks like they've got a David Nakayama cover, which I know you like Nakayama. You got a John Jang, Mark Brooks. It's a lot of the people we, you know, you know, the usual suspects. Absolutely. Art germ. Like it's the normal folks that do this kind of book.

And to kind of speak on what you're saying, the hyper violence of Wolverine makes sense. I get it. He can kind of live in a couple of different worlds. I think Wolverine is one of the most flexible characters at Marvel. He truly can. do a lot of things. And I love that Hickman and Capullo are teaming up for this. Again, the fact that Capullo has made the jump from DC over to Marvel is really exciting because he started his career over there in the X -Men universe, actually.

So the fact that he's coming back and I would imagine that knowing, you know, knowing Greg Capullo from our work with CSA and just following his work is again, as I've said before, go listen to our Scott Snyder interview from a couple of weeks ago, his run on Batman, the court of owls, his and Scott's run. sort of got me into comics the way that I am now.

And I would imagine that when he decided to make the jump from Marvel, when Marvel offered him the, you know, sort of an exclusive deal, which I don't even know if it's exclusive or not. I would imagine it is his, his sort of prerequisite was like, I want to do what I want to do. Don't try to put me on a fucking squirrel girl book. Don't try to put me on something that I don't care about. I want to work with the writer that I want to work with.

And I want to write the story that I want to draw the story that I want to draw. And I would imagine that when they looked at Wolverine revenge, Capulet was like, I'm trying to cut loose pun intended. I want to be able to make this as hyper violent and as crazy as I want to. And he got his wish because Wolverine Revenge Number One will be your local comic shop on August 21st, 2024. I think the only cover that I might pick up is apparently there's going to be a movie variant.

and so I'll be looking, I'll be on the look with a huge Jack man or yak yak huge yak man. Huge yak man on the cover. Okay, cool. Well, let's get into our last bit of news here. Alrighty, so last bit of news and notes, Godzilla X -Kong director Adam Wingard will not return to helm the sequel. That's a bummer. Owie. I mean, kind of. Maybe. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe. THR reports that the parting of ways is described as amicable and stemming from timing issues, which is... It makes sense.

Yeah, we'll talk about here in just a moment. The timing. We know it's on a lot. So it could be just that they maybe they need somebody to step in. But again, it's also said that the door remains open for him to return for future installments. Legendary recently hired Shang Chi. Excuse me. I said that wrong. Yeah. Remember, we've learned Aaron Shang. We've done this. But yeah, we got to make sure. It's hard to like go back on 20 plus years of saying a name one way.

Yeah. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scribe David Callaham. to start working on a script for the next MonsterVerse installment. At the time of this recording, Godzilla X -Kong, The New Empire is the highest grossing film of the five MonsterVerse movies so far. 522 motherfucking million dollars worldwide. Half a billion. But Wingard has a few projects that he's currently working on, including what I'm excited about, Thundercats movie. This is gonna sound really bad. Do it.

Let's hear it. I used to say like, you know, we go to like sexual harassment classes. And at the beginning they were like, all right, what do you call men? What do you call women? What do you like, what do you want to, you know, they just to get out of your system, like say the things, like say the things to get out of your system. And, you know, and somebody like, we call them, you know, sluts or you call them this or you call them what? And I'd be like, I call them thunder cats.

And he'd be like, and everybody would be like, what the fuck are you talking about? There's one guy that laughed internally. They just didn't want to admit it. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, thunder cats. I said, yeah. Ho. So thank you for going through with that. I got what you were saying and I think the listener may have, but I'm glad you finished it. Yeah. I just wanted to, I wanted to explain it. That's where I used to be as a young man mentally and I've grown, I've matured. I no longer.

I mean, yeah. There's also an adaptation of Metal Gear Solid that he's working on as well as an A24 action horror film titled Onslaught. which my mind automatically goes to onslaught from the X -Men, which will never, at some point we're going to see an onslaught in the movie. 100%. 110%. Maybe we'll see him in, you know, Wolverine Deadpool, which will likely most likely be his next film, which is that 824 action horror film.

It has also been rumored that Wingard is being eyed to direct the next trilogy of Tom Holland's Spider -Man films. So a lot is essentially what we're saying. He has a lot going on for some reason. We liked both Godzilla versus Kong and then Godzilla Kong, the new empire. Again, go back to a couple of weeks ago, we reviewed it here on the show. But I think our consensus of Wingard and his direction was less that it had less to do with his direction of the film, which are sparing at best.

They're skeleton movies that just create opportunities for big lizard versus big monkey fight. Big Liz versus big monkey. Yeah, exactly. So the fact that he's getting all his attention to do all of these sort of, I would say IP driven titles, would you agree? Like ThunderCats, Metal Gear Solid, A24s, I think separate, I think he actually wrote that movie. These are lobs. Yeah, it's like already done projects that he has to sort of, what do they call that? Like they call him like a company man.

He can come in, he can finish a project and it'll make money, right? He's not gonna fuck it up by his vision, right? Like he's a safe choice for. Films that aren't necessarily needing to deep dive. Right. Exactly. Like they're again, IP driven stories that will win you over with again, the outward, you know, marketing and sort of the live actionness of it all, which yeah. Cause if you notice like Thundercats, Thundercats was a big castles, big action scenes, big vehicles.

Okay. Godzilla, big creatures, big monsters, big Liz metal gear solid. Like. Sneaky, but big robots, you know big action. Yeah, you know, it's gonna be like he he doesn't necessarily need to go in and create a you know, thomas crown affair level of depth or you know, like The peak blinders of spider -man movies the peak of like yeah oceans 11. Yeah, you know So I understand where it's coming from there.

They say parting ways but more like Hey, we got a schedule to keep with with Godzilla movies and Kong movies, we got a schedule to keep for the monster verse. So you go do what you got to do. The door is open for when you're ready to come back, but we're going to get somebody else because you're too busy. Right. Which that's, that's it. I mean, it's not like the THR report. It's more, I feel like it's more of a click bait type thing because it's like saying like, we're parting ways.

No, they're not parting ways. They have schedules to keep man. Yeah. And again, especially with the IP stuff, like that's not, that's not some kind of art house film that you can sort of mull over and go over multiple scripts. they're needing these movies to get out quickly because they, you know, the big wigs, the studio suits are looking to make that dollar. Right. And I think Spider -Man is the greatest example of that. I would be very, very upset if they hired Wingard for Spider -Man.

Yeah. Like Spider -Man, of course, is the most universal comic book character in the world. I mean, more so than Batman, Superman and otherwise. And being eyed is a loose, loose term. Sure. Like he's probably being looked at because he's his movies make money. I mean, look at the last Godzilla, last couple of Godzilla movies. Plus apparently he's a hot commodity among IP driven films.

So of course he's going to be looked at, but I would imagine they're going to get somebody with a little bit more of a singular vision to headline the next Tom Holland led Spider -Man movies. So that'll do it for our news and notes, everybody. Thank you again to Omnibus for sponsoring our news and notes segment. Let's get into our review of the Australian wasteland Furiosa, a Mad Max saga. Before we get there though, let's take a quick break and we will be right back.

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Because here at the Oblivion Bar, a nerd culture podcast we've officially switched over to Riverside .fm. Riverside .fm is the easiest way to record podcasts and video interviews in studio quality from anywhere. Bad internet connections don't affect the recordings because the platform records audio and video locally on each participant's device. The audio is uncompressed and the video is up to 4K resolution. Yeah, that's right.

And they also just released a beta version of their new media board, which allows you to upload your own themes and transitions. and include them in your recording on a separate track. So check them out at riverside .fm and change the way you record your podcast. That's riverside .fm and tell them the Oblivion Bar sent you.

Alrighty, let's get into our review of Furiosa. Spoilers ahead, if you have not watched the next installment in the Mad Max saga, please pause this and go watch that on honestly the biggest screen that you can find. Like go get a ticket to the biggest IMAX screen with a fun crowd and go see this movie. Ready, steady, go. That's right, yeah. Aaron, I'm gonna pass the baton off to you. Let's talk about, again, most anticipated film of 2024. What are your initial thoughts? man, exciting.

Yeah. I had a lot of fun with it. There was so many moments where I'm just like on the edge of my seat. I'm going to tell you. So like a Furiosa gave me a lot of what I wanted through after, after watching Mad Max, Fury Road again, it gave me a lot of the things that I wanted. Okay. So I messaged you a couple of days ago and sort of in reference to Furiosa. And I was also excited for this movie. I think it was on my list of. most anticipated films of 2024.

I think actually Fall Guy was the winner of that title. And I've seen Fall Guy. It's okay. It is just fine. Like it is, it's one of those films that is like just very quickly since we didn't talk about here on the show, Fall Guy, it's like fully leaning on Ryan Gosling and his charisma. Have you seen it yet? Have you seen Fall Guy? No, it's a, it's a, it is a two watch ASAP. It is a, it's fun because of Ryan Gosling and everything outside of it is stupid and silly.

But anyway, Furiosa, I will say that, I don't think I could have gone in this movie not expecting something similar to Fury Road. Is that fair? Yeah. That's something I've been mulling over is like, is it even fair to compare Furiosa to Fury Road? Because there's only one Fury Road. Like that is a - Is it fair to compare? Is it fair to compare? That's a new segment on the show. Is it fair to compare? ba -ba, ba -ba -ba. We got some drugs there. Please don't stare.

Don't stare, cause we're going to compare this. I don't, anyway, but the point is I don't know. I don't know if it's fair to compare these two films because Fury Road is a perfect film. Five out of five. Like if we were reviewing movies in 2020 or was it was at 2014, I would have given Fury Road a five out of five David A. Winer's. Believe it or not, I think I would also. Right. I think that would be a five David A. Winer for me. I have yet to give one on this show.

I've given two last week on the show X -Men 97. I gave my second five out of five. Go listen to that review with Bodder. But this movie, I feel I just feel like it's at an automatic disadvantage when you go into this movie thinking that you're going to get anything close to Fury Road because it's not. Truthfully, I don't think it is. Can I tell you a story, please? So I walked into the theater. I was a little bit late, which it's not normally happened. Does not normally happen.

But I walked in and the credit and not credits, but the trailers are still rolling. Movie starts playing and it's not. Furious. what is it? Something called terror. I'm not familiar. I think terrors. It's got the kid. What's his face? From Spider -Man, the guy in the chair. that's weird. I feel like that movie came out a long time ago and you're talking about Jacob Batalon. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't like it was like it started off and it's just like I was like, OK, maybe this is another trailer.

But no, it was like literally like intro credits and they're like around a campfire. No, I'm just. And everybody in the theater, like, people, hear people in New York, they got mad. They're like, this is not it. This is not the movie. It's the wrong movie. Some guys are like, what the hell is this? Everybody like, and then the guy comes in and - I think it was Taro. Taro was the name of the movie. Taro, that's it.

Yeah. So shuffles everybody to the, like the theater down, the, I guess, what do you call it? The screening room down the corridor to restart Furiosa. So that was my, that was my experience walking in. I had a couple of yahoos below me. It was like, At one point I wanted to like lean over and wait, this is like our new favorite segment where we talk about idiots in movie theaters because these, this, it was like two couples. They came in late, you know, in a similar way.

They got, came in like towards the end of the trailer watching, which again, can we talk about really quickly? I'm getting on a couple of sidebars in a row here, but like, why are there 12 trailers in front of these movies anymore? I, and I love trailers. Don't get me wrong, but 12. It's minimum 30 minutes, minimum 30 minutes. Literally. Like give me five good trailers and I'm good. Or like show them earlier. You know what I mean?

Like show them instead of the movie shit, like I go to AMC, don't Maria Manuno's, I don't care about what she's talking about. Let's show a couple of trailers, right? But you care about Nicole Kidman. Nicole Kidman. I've gone full circle with her sort of AMC intro. Dazzling images on a huge silver screen. Sound that I can feel. Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this. Our heroes feel like the best part of us and stories feel perfect and powerful because here they are. AMC theaters.

We make movies better. As long as it's not the, that was it, the regal one where it's like all the movie quotes. yeah. Like, this is gonna leave a mark. Yeah. Hey you guys. But I had a couple of yahoos right in front of me and I wanted at one point to lean over and go, it's like, Are you guys enjoying your first movie? How is it? Like, is it fun being here for the first time ever? Because they were like talking and one woman, there was one woman that was like cracking up.

And this movie had a couple of funny moments, you know, specifically Chris Hemsworth, but like she was like belly laughing at certain moments and they were getting up. And at one point towards the beginning, when they were going into Furiosa sort of origin story as a young child, the one of the women was Snapchatting the first five minutes of the movie. And had she not had her brightness all the way down to the. to the lowest possible, I would have leaned over, I would have kicked her chair.

I would have done something to like notify her to get the, you know, stop. So all that to be said, and I want to ask you what sort of your viewing experience was outside of going into the wrong movie. I saw this on an IMAX screen at AMC 17 here in Indy. It was the biggest screen, I guess, technically the second biggest screen here in Indy behind the, or the IMAX at the museum that I've seen a lot of movies at.

I almost went to go see it at the IMAX, but they weren't showing Furiosa until Saturday. So I wouldn't have been able to see it in time to sort of review the movie, but great viewing experience. I'll say overall in terms of like the scope and sort of the best viewing experience possible, but to kind of bleed into my sort of initial thoughts is that to compare it to Fury Road is not great, but also this just didn't live up to a lot of what I wanted from this movie.

Like you go to the Mad Max saga for practical effects, which there are some in this movie. I think before I kind of get into like my long list of things I don't like, which we can talk about throughout this review, I think it's important to note that all of my complaints come with caveats. Like I wanted more practical. There is that. And we'll talk about one specific scene that is like very practical.

But like there's also a very, let's say there's a disturbing amount of green screen in this movie to the point where I was like truly bummed out. And I think sort of keeping in line with the Mad Max of it all, Furiosa, Anya Taylor -Joy barely speaks in this movie. Again, very similar to Mad Max. But I think it sort of plays against character from the established character of Fury Road, where she talks quite often.

Like, why are we changing up her character compared to who she is eventually in Fury Road? It's small complaints like that. I have an answer for that, but. Please, go ahead. Well, my answer for that specifically is because obviously growing up in this world, she's an escapee, she's on the run, she's hiding in plain sight. She cannot speak because obviously she's gonna sound like a girl, she's gonna sound weak, you know, there's things like that.

But also, she becomes a praetorian, the praetorian Fereosa at the end of this movie, which then she obviously speaks more. So because she has that status, she's not going to be attacked, she's not gonna be turned into a wife, she's not gonna be turned into a milk or a breed or whatever. So she can actually speak and do her job. Like, because of what she survived and her loyalty to Immortan Joe and his cadre, She has earned their respect.

So she's able to speak without being kind of like taken down a few notches like she's above war boys But below the family sure.

Okay, that's a good point Yeah, I guess I you know, I guess it was sort of just a jarring difference because again just like you I went into this movie Watching fury road to prepare for furiosa and well, I feel like sorry go ahead No, I was just it's just wildly different and again I'm still burning over the idea of trying to compare the two because it'd be like comparing Van Gogh to a Monet like they're just wildly different or I guess a better comparison be like comparing an early

version of Van Gogh to a later version of Van Gogh you're like like they're just different and it's to compare the two would be to diminish the work that was put into Furiosa so I'm I'm very Conflicted with this movie because there are elements that I really love But it didn't hit the same way It didn't hit the way that I wanted to and it obviously did not hit the same way that Fury Road did yeah, I feel that but let's We're getting slightly ahead of ourselves. Let's get to it.

We haven't talked about the summary, the budget. Like, let's get into that and then we can hit some of those hot spots that we definitely want to criticisms of parts of this film. But thoroughly enjoyed it. But so the summary snatch from the green place of many mothers. Young Furiosa falls into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementis. Sweeping through the wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by the Immortan Joe.

as the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home. So in July of 2010, Miller announced plans to shoot Mad Max Fury Road back to back with a live action prequel film titled Mad Max Furiosa. But during pre -production, it was decided to only shoot Fury Road.

In November of 2017, Miller's production company actually filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers over unpaid salaries, which delayed the production of any additional entries in the franchise. Wow. I mean, shocker Warner Brothers out here just doing the absolute fucking worst possible situation like color me surprised here. I guess that water tower is not filled with money. Yeah, exactly. So the film was originally scheduled to be released on June 23rd of 2023. So slightly behind.

Yeah. Yeah. But was delayed to May 2024 after rising covid -19 cases in Australia caused production delays, which OK, that makes sense. And then according to Miller, Furiosa probably takes place after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985, but the Mad Max franchise has no strict chronology. Yeah, I think that's widely known at this point.

And I think folks who sort of fixate on the fact that Mad Max is different, you know, not only in Fury Road and in the original trilogy, but also in the video games and some of the novels, it doesn't matter. Like, and they even kind of tackle this in this film is that. It's the legend, right? It's the story. This is a story being told and being passed down through time. So we're getting unreliable narrators. We're getting things lost to the ether of time.

We see that very specifically with Chris Hemsworth Dementis, where sort of his outcome and how he is eventually killed by Furiosa in the film is sort of left to speculation and is only apparently being told by the narrator of this film who we'll get into here in just a bit. One of the characters who is very Max -esque, you know, which I really liked that they had included this character is almost following the representation of who Max or the legend of Max might be in the Wasteland.

Could very easily have been Max and there's no way of knowing, right? Like outside of the fact that in Fury Road, they don't know each other until down the road, obviously until they start working together. Well, I feel like again, it's like Max is almost, you know, as I've said this before, and it's the theory, it's theorized in the Mad Max like history that It's a title. Mad Max is a title. interesting. OK. Yeah. You know, so or a mantle almost. So did you you said budget was one sixty eight?

We haven't gotten to it yet. One sixty eight, which is obviously the most expensive Mad Max film to date. And I think those will just continue to get more expensive. What are your thoughts on this budget in terms of like the way the film looks? Because again, with the budget of Fury Road being, I think it was 140 back in 2014, I guess adjusted for inflation would probably cost around the same amount of money.

I still, again, and I'm going to keep harping on this and maybe I shouldn't, but Fury Row just looks so much better than this movie, in my opinion. Same. I think so. One thing that Mad Max and Furiosa had in common for me, I didn't give a fuck about the, like, the, like if it was CGI or not. sure. Yeah. Like the entire time I'm watching it, like I'm just like, I was immersed. Like Mad Max, every time I can sit down and I can watch it and I can think, yes, this is probably all CGI.

But at the same time, I absolutely. don't care what I'm looking at because it looks amazing. Same thing really fit with, you know, Furiosa as well for me. Yeah. I think it's just because again, at no point during Fury Road, do I ever think this is CGI, even though it very clearly, I mean, it is a very CGI heavy movie. There's one time, you know, they get trapped in the, in the quarry. It's like a quarry at the bullet, bullet farm.

Yeah. Okay. The gate is shut and then they, they escape and basically, There's like a scene where, where in order to get out of the pit, Dementis has to drive his like monster truck up this ridge. And it just, it just looks like the, the, the, the truck just goes straight into like a CGI moment where it just kind of like ridiculously goes up out of the, and that was the only time I'm like, that looks like shit. You know, that was like the one time for me.

I think the majority of the, the first scene with a furious his mother and them sort of escape or them chasing after the, the crew, the biker crew to get to. Furiosa, I think a lot of that looked pretty bad, unfortunately, until they got to the camp where Dementus is. But I think the whole chase up to that, and again, I feel like I have to keep sort of giving prerequisites to this.

There are scenes that look good because there are obviously some practicals in this where they're on top of a sand dune, right? But then they'll go into a chase scene and it is very clearly green screen, right? And that kind of bummed me out. So let's get into the box office here. So Furiosa is projected currently. to be around $40 million in its four day Memorial Day opening weekend. That's domestically.

It is projected to gross around 40 to 45 million just outside the US, which tracks it to be almost identical to the opening weekend of Mad Max Fury Road back in 2015. I think I said 2014 earlier, it is a 2015 film. So currently it is looking to make around the same amount of money as Fury Road. My only hang up with that I think is that Fury Road gained somewhat of a voice of, you know, like it gained a garnering based on word of mouth. I'm not sure if this will garner that same thing.

It's got a negative word of mouth. I'm just going to, I'm going to cut you off and say, cause like I had multiple people. I can, I have another story to tell you, but I had to go into my comic shop, which is right next door to the theater. I saw this in and I told my buddy John and he, and he was like, you're going to go see Figueroa. So might as well just go, you might as well just see Garfield. I don't believe all that. That's, that's hyper bowl right there. It's definitely not.

I watched Garfield a couple of days ago and it's not great, but. This movie, and again, like this movie is, I probably should have said this at the top. It is a technical marvel for anyone to accomplish this, any other director. And this kind of bleeds into the director of this film, which is George Miller, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Maybe one of the, probably, maybe possibly the greatest action director. It's like him and James Cameron, maybe. You know, of all time.

If anybody else, if there's any, just insert another name instead of George Miller into this film, and this is their best film, right? But I think I just expected George Miller, and maybe that's not fair. Again, I keep going back to it, but maybe it's not fair for me to expect so much of the 79 year old man to continue to make film at the level that he has made it over a long career.

But George Miller, again, director of this, it came out in 2017 that he and co -writer Nico Lothoris have finished two additional post -Fury Road scripts for the Mad Max series. Tom Hardy has remained committed to the next sequel and it is currently titled Mad Max The Wasteland. And again, as I just said, George Miller is 79 at the time of this recording.

So again, I say all that to say that, are we starting, and again, not to make a pun here, but are we starting to see the wheels sort of fall off for George Miller and his directing with, because his previous film that came out before Furiosa was 3000 years of longing, which he wrote, directed and produced was not well -received. People did not like it whatsoever. So. I'm curious if this was any other film outside of Furiosa would George Miller still be able to sort of perform at the same level?

Let's talk about this. Okay. Let's just real quickly go over his filmography. It is wild. Please like go down the list because I it is just a mix mash of craziness. Okay. So just wave tops again. We're going to talk. So 1979 Mad Max 1981 Mad Max 2 1983 Twilight Zone the movie. Okay. So I'm going to add in a little like banger or or Bomb. Banger or bomb. Every song I download has to pass a series of rigorous tests to answer one simple question. Is it a banger? Okay, so Mad Max, banger.

Mad Max 2, banger. Twilight Zone the movie, banger. Beyond Thunderblom, banger. Witches of Eastwick, kind of a banger. I believe that's the one with Jack Nicholson and some of the Academy Award -nominated. Yeah, for best original screenplay. Lorenzo's Oil, never saw it, so I can't tell you. Same. Babe. Babe? Banger. Banger. Banger, yes, but what? Yeah, exactly. 40 ,000 years of dreaming? Never. No, I don't know. So not familiar. Pig in the City? Bomb. Bing bong.

I don't think that one did really well. I don't think it did either. Maybe it did. Yeah. But Happy Feet? Banger. Banger. Happy Feet 2? I don't know. I'd say bomb. Bing bong. Obviously not as great as the... Nothing's gonna... Happy Feet set in motion, environmental fucking... Yeah, work. Yep. You know, Mad Max, fear your road. Bang, bang. Three thousand years of longing. Bomb Bing, bang. Furiosa TBD. I would say banger still like personally, I'm leaning towards banger myself.

But yeah, you know, you would banger. I hardly know her. But, you know, that is such a weird we go from Mad Max to sort of art house, creator own storytelling, babe. Question mark. Yeah, happy feet double question mark back to Mad Max It's just a weird winding road for George Miller. It's living his best director life. Yeah, I respect it.

I respect it Yeah before Fury Road swept the 2016 Academy Awards winning six of ten nominations Miller had only won one Academy Award for drumroll, please 2006 happy feet Miller has been nominated for five other Academy Awards best original screenplay for 1992 is Lorenzo's oil Best Picture and Best Adaptive Screenplay for 1995's Babe, and then Best Picture and Best Director for Fury Road in 2015. So. Fucking wild. Yeah, insanity. And why don't you talk about the composer here?

Because I'm curious to hear your thoughts on how you thought this movie felt and sort of sounded. So Tom Hulkenborg. Hulkenborg is a disciple of the Church of Hans Zimmer. And his company, Remote Control Productions, and has worked on movies like, OK, Brace Yourself, Mad Max Fury Road, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Deadpool, Tomb Raider, Alita, Battle Angel, Terminator, Dark Fate, Sonic the Hedgehog. Again, let's go down the list. Banger or bomb?

Mad Max Fury Road. Let's play our favorite game called Banger or bomb? Banger or bomb? Mad Max Fury Road. Banger. Banger. Zack Snyder's Justice League. Music. Yeah, I'll say music is a banger. Yeah, music is a banger. Yeah. Okay. Deadpool. Banger. Banger. Tomb Raider. I haven't seen it. It's a banger? Thrice. okay. Rice no, I mean it's a it's kind of a terrible movie, but I it's you know, it's Angelina Jolie man.

Yeah, yeah Alita battle angel I'd say that one was pretty I'd say banger pretty yeah I mean, it's a it's still got some some some following behind it for a seek for a sequel. So yeah We shall see Terminator Dark Fate bomb being buying. Yep, Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequels banger banger banger Well, we don't know the third one, but probably banger Probably banger. Yeah. So Hulkenberg was asked to remix Elvis Presley's 1968 single, A Little Less Conversation.

For a 2002. If you grew up in the 2000s, you know what song we're talking about. Liney note. Little Less Conversation. Yeah. So for a 2002 Nike World Cup commercial titled Secret Tournament, the occasion marked the first time Presley's estate had granted permission for any of Presley's material to be remixed. The song reached number one in 24. countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and Mexico.

Yeah. Yeah. Again, if you grew up in the, if you grew up in the internet, the sort of the AOL internet era of the two thousands, you know exactly it's been used many, many times, both in film and television. So the runtime two hours and 28 minutes. So just, just under two and a half hours, which is of course the longest Mad Max installment. Aaron, did you feel that while watching the movie? Did you feel like this was the longest Mad Max film? No, it's mostly didn't. I think I sort of felt it.

there at the end. I think this kind of is a sort of a nice way to bring in sort of that finale a little bit. I want to talk a little bit about that finale where Furiosa finally gets her hands on Dementus. And I felt like that was a little draggy, a little draggy, right? Like just go to it turned into what it first it was sort of this headstrong, dirty, grainy action film leading up to the end. And then it became sort of a 1990s Shakespearean adaptation. Yeah, that's a perfect. Perfect metaphor.

They're like yelling poetics at each other I just I didn't like like I like what they were saying and I enjoyed the sort of the sort of the through line But the delivery I just didn't love real quick. I gotta ask this Do you remember like the part where like he wakes up his water bottle slash the tires gone? Yeah, he sees somebody in the in the sand. Mm -hmm Was that Furiosa or was that like supposed to be like a ghost?

I would say that's Furiosa Yeah, I would say that was just her sort of like looming over him sort of playing with her food a little bit in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. Let's get in the cast, Aaron. It's a big one. There's a lot of folks and a lot of names you're going to recognize. Okay. Anya Taylor Joy, Furiosa. A Lila Brown as a child teenager Furiosa. Chris Hemsworth as Dr. Dementis, warlord leader of the biker horde.

Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, commander of the Citadel's first war rig. Lechi Hulme as Immortan Joe, warlord leader of the Citadel and enemy of the biker horde. Holme also portrays Rizdale Pell, Dementes' lieutenant. That's the guy with the one eye. Yep. Yep. George Shevstov as the history man, an expert in history, science, and technology who serves Dementes, also the film's narrator. He's basically covered in like tattoos written and like, you know, his clothing, everything.

He's just a writer. John Howard as the people eater, Joe's advisor and military strategist and the future ruler of Gastown. That's the guy with the thing over his nose, the gold thing. Yeah. With the weird foot. and really bad, I think that he has like really bad diabetes or something. Angus Sampson as the organic mechanic. I love that guy. Dementesis and later Joe's personal physician. Nathan Jones as a rictus erectus, Joe's muscular but dim -witted son.

I'm not gonna lie, this next one I audibly laughed, stupidly loud. Josh Hellman as Scrotus. Because he looks like just a ball sack. They might as well call them like, You know laser face or something. Yeah a razor face Charlie frazier as mary jabasa furios's mother elsa pataki as mr Norton a deformed survivor who joins the biker horde i'll be honest I didn't make that connection.

So mr Mr Norton obviously has that weird sort of like upper lip missing throughout the film and it's sort of demented But that's the person that furious's mother at one. So at one point Furious is stolen right by the biker team. and then Furious' mother goes after, at one point she has a partner with her. And that partner is Elsa, whatever, Mr. Norton, essentially.

So whenever they, when they eventually find the green place, they apparently abduct Mr. Norton and sort of inherit him onto Dementia's team. So, yeah. Anya Tyler -Joy revealed that once the film was completed, she flew home to Los Angeles. The same day she arrived, she got a call from Denis Villeneuve, asked if she wanted to fly to Namibia for a secret cameo as Alia Atreides.

in Dune Part 2. So near moments after concluding this film, she hops on a flight and goes and films her cameo in Dune Part 2. So in March of 2024, it was revealed that Lucky Homay would portray a younger, a more than Joe in the film, taking the role over for the late Hugh Keyes -Byrne, who portrayed Joe in Fury Road and passed away in 2020. Just like Keyes -Byrne in the original 1979 film playing Toecutter, Homay plays a eyeless Riz Del Pel. in Furioso, who again is the lieutenant of Morton Joe.

When casting Furioso, Miller sought to cast a younger actor for the role rather than using de -aging technology for a Shaliz Duran. Duran admitted that the decision was a little heartbreaking for sure, but understood Miller's rationale. Edgar Wright, the director of Last Night in Soho, told Miller to do yourself a favor and jump at this opportunity to work with her. So I'm pretty sure there's like that one scene where... she walks up and she's like, I need wheels or like I need a vehicle.

I feel like they used Charlize Theron's voice in that one scene. It sounded like it, yeah. I know exactly what you're talking about and I agree. It sounds exactly like her. Yaya Abdul -Mateen Aquaman watched in TV series was slated to play Praetorian Jack, but had to drop out last minute for a scheduling conflict. Again, that would have really changed the character for me had they put Yaya in that role.

And then Tom Hardy stunt double from both Fury Road and the Revenant Jacob Tamuri all appears briefly as Max Rockett, Rockett, Hanski Tamuri is also the stunt sequence coordinator of the film. That's pretty cool. What was your reaction when you saw Max sort of overlooking Furiosa in that moment there in the film? I was like, I see it. That's interesting.

Yeah. Like because obviously he was in the area, you know, and had to be kind of like into that because it had to kind of like tie in the timeline that he had to be in the area during that period. Yeah. Yeah. 100 percent.

Yeah, you know in terms of the cast I thought the true standout was Chris Hemsworth as Dementis like he is Vile and he is hilarious Maybe one of the best villains in the Mad Max saga currently, you know I'd say he's up there with a Morden Joe now officially and I will say it was like a very welcome sort of I wasn't sure that a Morden Joe and sort of the Citadel crew were and you know The war boys and all that was gonna play such a big role in this film I was like purposely

staying away from that sort of you know, you know, spoilers and whatnot. But it was a very welcome surprise to know that he was such an integral part and to kind of show like the progression of how we got to Furiosa being under sort of the tutelage of Immortan Joe and how, and I think this is sort of a larger compliment towards the Mad Max saga is that there are no good or bad people. There are good people who do bad things and there are bad people who do good things.

Like Dementis at one point, we see him save Furiosa from some of the Immortan Joe folks. there towards the beginning of the film when he tries to sort of infiltrate the Citadel. In a very similar way, a Mordenjoe notices that Furiosa is not the child of Dementus and takes, and I think it's sort of for selfish reasons, but he decides to save Furiosa in that sense from Dementus in that moment. Exactly. And that's what I was talking about earlier.

Like, Furiosa gave me a lot more of the Mad Max background, or Fury Road, excuse me, Fury Road background. that I really wanted. Didn't give me everything, didn't give me Doof warrior's background, you know, visually. We do see him, we've seen him for a moment. But we do see him and I learned off from the movie previously to seeing the figure of what his backstory is from Miller himself. But the things that I wanted was I wanted to see the bullet farm. Yeah. We saw the bullet farm.

I wanted to see more of Gastown. We saw Gastown. I wanted to see the kind of like underbelly and the inner workings of, you know, the Citadel. Which we did, and exactly what you said, like during Fury Road, when we look at Immortan Joe and him giving water to his people, we think that he's just kind of like satiating and trying to like lure them to be loyal to him.

But he doesn't need those people, which we find out in this, like there's no reason for him to need these people to be loyal, which is interesting because we actually see them a little bit more up close this time and they're like. They're crazy. They're cannibals. They're eating each other. They kidnap Anya Taylor Joy and almost like, like, we'll make it peaceful for you. You know, like, we see the crazy aspect of it.

We don't just see the fact that they are people under the thumb of a Morta Jo, which they're not. And the war boys, the war boys, we see the level of loyalty that he's raised in his, you know, war boy army and how dedicated they are to him. So like, I really got a lot of the aspects of the Citadel that I wanted to see and these other fortresses of the wasteland. So I absolutely love that. We also see the decline of Dementus.

Yeah. You know, and we see him as this ultimate leader, this like, but at the same time, it's not really like he's trying to build what's what is like he is a warlord, but at the same time, he's not like a controlling warlord. He's got like this, this nomadic tribe of motorcyclists. And I got to throw it out there. I love the fact that he has this. motorcycle chariot. Yeah, exactly. That's just like the most ridiculous thing ever.

Keeping in line with just the absolute ridiculousness of all of these vehicles and all of this. Exactly. You know, like the engineering that has to go into some of this stuff is incredible. The evolution of the vehicles of this, like the Octoguy, you know, and his like squid spinning parachute, like like the fact that he was on a motorcycle with like. machine guns on the front of it and it flies and he can still ride it as a motorcycle was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

And then the war rig as well, you know, like all that stuff. Like, what was it called? What was the thing called on the back of it? I don't know. The spinning. Yeah. Yep. Bobby knocker. Bobby knocker. Are we doing the Bobby knocker now? You know, I will say that like kind of speaking on both a Morden Joe and Dementus. What I find really interesting and I think what the film does really well is that it adds context to why these two folks are leading.

I think for a Morden Joe, to kind of speak of what you're saying with like the people within the Citadel, sort of the cannibals and all those folks that are down there on the bottom part of the mountains, I think he reveres being revered. Like I think he wants to be worshiped in a way. And I think as long as people know that he's in charge, he is willing to do what he needs to do in order to continue his lineage. Like I think there's a very specific.

goal with him, which is that he wants to sort of Genghis Khan his way through history and make sure that whatever sort of succeeds in terms of humanity going, going into the future has him tied to the core of it. Like he is like the root of the next wave of humanity. Right. But he's also doing it in a way that's really interesting. Cause like, again, you, yes, you see the, the, the two styles of leadership. You see a more than Joe who is very much class system.

He's got his family up on the top, close to the green. close, you know, having the water, access to the water. Then he has the war boys, which obviously are like, you know, he treats them well. He gives them, he gives them like a purpose. Like they, they come to him because they, they almost revere him as a God. Yeah. Their way into Valhalla where again, you have Dementis and like, he gives a guy an order and like, but they're following his like mid -level guys.

So like, he's not, he's not really above them. He's trying to maintain like, Hey, like I'm your leader, but I'm also at the same level, which is not necessarily where it's like, you can't be a leader while having friends. Right. Well, and I think it shows the power and sort of the strength of charisma in this world where like, if you have the ability to get people to follow you, you can take over an entire nation. Yeah. But I would be a dementist because I would fuck it up.

I think I would just do a Mad Max thing and just go off on my own, truthfully. Or I would be like a pretorial Jack. Like I would just I would know my role. I would do it to stay alive. I would make sure that I was good at that thing. And then I would, I would eventually find my out when I eventually got there. Speaking of Praetorian Jack, I want to say that I love the fact that this movie did not feel the need to put in a romantic sub subplot.

It's sort of heavily hinted, but it's not outrightly. It's like inferred, but also not necessary to the storyline. Sure. Yeah. Because I mean, it's obviously like a, there's a, there's love there. There's a relationship, but you know, it could also just be like mentor to mentee. It could be like, you know, like, again, like coach to just to teach her student. We don't really ever see that. But again, it's not necessary. You can you can take it how you want it.

But the fact is, like he looked after her. He made her like he built her into what she is. And again, I think that's also perhaps why she's like kind of took a shine to she also took a shine, but she also kind of kept her distance from Max because he almost. It like kind of put a link there. He like he reminded her of Jack. Yeah, 100%.

And again, I think that speaks to how Furiosa sort of enhances if nothing else, it enhances the viewing experience of your of your road like a movie that is already incredible and is already near perfect. You could watch this film in a world of prequels where a lot of times you have to watch the prequels post the movie that it's prequeling. You could watch this movie pre Fury Road.

go right into Fury Road and it all sort of through line makes sense and you don't have to know anything in Furiosa to understand the dynamics of everyone. It just sort of enhances everything in Fury Road. Yeah, I want to speak on Anya Taylor -Joy's acting in this movie though. Sure. And I want to say that I think that she did a really good job being kind of like a smaller frail like character and really like portraying like quiet, timid, angry.

Like all this stuff like she does a lot with her eyes. She does exactly. Yeah. Yeah. She's acting with her eyes. If there's an actor that there that can play with her, that can act with her eyes. Yes. It is Anya Taylor -Joy those giant eyes that she has. Yes. The one thing that was the stupidest thing, though, that I did see was the fucking. her little her her little like arm like her little snipper arm that she used to cut the chains like that was so unnecessary.

Yeah. I see what you're going for, George. I get it. Like I like the swing, but doesn't work. Doesn't really play my friend. But it was so stupid. Let's get to our fun facts here. Unless Aaron, do you have anything else you want to sort of talk about with the movie in terms of are there any scenes that you really loved or are there any anything you want to cover before we get into fun facts? I think there's only a couple of things that I would put out there.

It's like I didn't really like the chapter titles. Interesting. OK, yeah. I don't think like this, like that made it feel almost Quentin like Tarantino ish. Sure. I didn't really feel like I understand like they wanted to kind of like break up the movie and like kind of like those, those are kind of time jump. I think that's exactly what the purpose was to sort of showcase that there is a time jump here, even though Anya Taylor Joy looks the same in part four, there's a difference.

Like part five is further in the future somewhere. I think that might've been like my only gripe again, kind of like what you were stating earlier about like the ending part where she's like playing with her food when she's like, Like you said, almost Shakespearean, like back and forth with Dementis. Like that was really the only thing that kind of like took me out of the experience. Cause I'm like, eh, like I don't really need this. Like kill him.

Well, you know, do you have it in you to make it epic is what I want to know. You know, this is true. That's a great line. I'll be honest with you through all that. I'm like fucking hell yeah. I think, I think it was a great way to give a little bit of context to Dementis and his character. Yeah. Sort of shows his rationale as to why he does what he does. He knows that he's a bad dude.

And yet he sort of rationalizes it in his head because he knows that if he doesn't lead and if he doesn't rule with an iron fist, even though he is bad at it, that someone worse will come along and do a far worse job. Exactly. Yeah. Well, yeah, similar. I mean, I think overall, again, we'll get into our sort of our final thoughts here in just a moment. I think that the finale was again, I'm conflicted.

I think if I have an overall feeling on this movie, I think confliction is sort of just the way that I feel overall. Like, There are parts of the movie where I'm like, only George Miller could do that. Only the Mad Max saga could do what it just did. That is top tier action. And then there are other scenes where I'm like, man, and again, I know art is hard. Filming filmmaking is hard. I get it.

But like if anyone can do it, if anyone should do it, it should be George Miller is carrying that torch. And I just feel like he may have stopped right before the finish line on this one. So let's get into our fun facts here. So I'm sure Joy only had about 30 lines of dialogue in this film. Speaking to the New York Times, Taylor Joy said that she would often spend months on set without having spoken one line, explaining, I've never been more alone while making a film.

I don't want to go into it that deep, but everything I thought I was going into, or everything I thought was going to be easy was hard. So, and again, that sort of aligns with sort of the leading Mad Max figure in all these films is that, you know, Furious, as we said earlier, that Aaron, you had a great point with, has very little dialogue and has to say a lot with their actions and has to say a lot with their eyes.

Again, Tom Hardy does an incredible job with that as Max in Fury Road and Mel Gibson as well in the previous set of films. So the 15 minute action sequence in the film known during production as the stairway to nowhere, the sequence marks a turning point for Furiosa. It took 78 days to shoot and close to 200 people working on it daily to succeed. So of course that is where Pretorial Jack and Furiosa team up to go to Gastown for the first time and they're attacked by all of those.

What would you do mentors? I don't know what you would even call them like they're the ones flying around on You know parachutes and such paragliders and such. Yeah. Yeah, I would say they they're like the yeah Dementesis troop, but I didn't they know yeah Dementesis troops, I believe so well I think they're part of the Dementus crew that he inherits from that crew. That's yeah in all black.

Yeah Yeah, I'm sure Joy doesn't have a driver's license despite learning how to do a j -turn on her first day of stunt school But that was pretty interesting. Yeah, I saw that she had learned to drive well on this on this role. So this movie features both Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataki. They are married in real life. Interesting. Pataki you may know as the girlfriend to Vin Diesel or Dom in the Fast and Furious movie. She's the cop that he dates while Letty is mind controlled. Really?

Yeah. Did you not know that? I didn't know that. That's interesting. That's funny. In the last part of the movie, Furious has offered a beaten up car by a peculiar character. This is Chum Bucket. who made his first appearance in the 2015 video game Mad Max. Anya Taylor -Joy wanted to shave her head like Charlize Theron did for Fury Road, but her modeling contracts required her to keep her hair long. Furthermore, George Miller himself felt that Anya's hairstyle was far too iconic to shave it.

Yeah, so Chris Hemsworth previously auditioned for Max Rakitonsky in Mad Max Fury Road, but lost the role to Tom Hardy, obviously. And at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the film received a seven -minute standing ovation. Okay. I got to say something about this real quick. I keep hearing. I know what you're going to say. And I agree. Please go ahead. I keep hearing stuff about seven minutes, seven and a half minute, eight minute, like standing ovations coming out of can. Why? Like why?

Why do they keep doing this? What's? Yeah. I mean, maybe seven minutes like mean something. I think they did the same thing for Metropolis with Francis for Coppola. Is it Megalopolis? Megalopolis? Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like they, they they're like, You know how if everybody gets an award, no award special. Exactly. Yeah. That's my thought. Yep. Yeah. Alrighty. Let's get into our final thoughts here. And what are your final thoughts on Furiosa, a Mad Max saga?

Again, I really, really, really enjoyed it. I had a fun time with it. I was really immersed from the first step, you know, from... I want more. I do. I still want more. Like, I want more of this green place now. I want more of... I want more Max. I want more Tom Hardy as Max. You know, I want more lore.

This movie, again, kind of fed a couple of little hungry little beasts that were in my brain about like wanting to know more about, again, the different citadels and the fortresses and the characters. Like, I still really want to know what's going on with Immortan Joe and that like breather on his neck, like in his face mask. Like, I want to know where that comes from. Maybe we'll get in a Morden Joe, you know, like storyline at one point. That would be exciting. So for me, this was really fun.

I do really like what you said about the ending and how it kind of needed to be epic. And she really, she was paying attention. Like she was clearly watching Dementis the entire time she was in his care and clearly learned some things because that's what he was about. He was about the flare. He was about that. Make it epic. You know? You know, he really set an example for his for his motorcycle crew and really like, like put a message out there. So I, I see where it plays in.

And I think, again, this is another time, another one of those times where the conversation that you and I have, definitely like, you know, puts in some more information, put some things into perspective for me. So I appreciate that. I'll let you give your thoughts and then we can give our ratings. Right? Yeah, absolutely. Again, as I said earlier, Confliction is sort of my central pillar of this film. The central view of this film is that there's a lot here to love.

You know, again, it adds context and it gives sort of weight to a lot of the things that happen in Fury Road and sort of in the Mad Max franchise. Anya Taylor -Joy is great in the role. I really liked her as Furiosa. I was again, slightly nervous like most folks were in terms of sort of her portraying this character other than Charlize Theron, who did an incredible job in Fury Road. Chris Hemsworth, again, probably the greatest villain in the Mad Max franchise up there with a Morden Joe.

A lot of the practicals when they were doing practicals, they were incredible. This is a marvel in terms of action. for any other director that's not George Miller. But I think that bleeds into sort of my cons, which is that just a lot of green screen, man. And I'm okay with green screen if it bleeds together. Like it should enhance a scene. It should not overtake a scene. And the moment it becomes noticeable, it is jarring. And I really don't like that.

And I think all of that aside, I think overall I had a really, really good time in this movie. I said it at the beginning of the review and I stand by it. I don't know if it's appropriate to compare Fury Road to this. even though they are so intrinsically tied to each other. Can we make a definitive decision right now, Aaron? Is it appropriate to compare the two? Should we compare Furiosa to Fury Road? No. No. Even though they are in direct connection to each other. You know what?

Yes. Because same director, same director, same storyline. So, yeah, same characters. You know, it's a lot of the same. It's actually I don't think I have it here in the transcript, but a lot of the crew came back for this movie. So. In that sense, and that's why I've been so conflicted is that I think it's okay to compare it because it's the same crew. It's the same folks that worked on that incredible movie that came out in 2015.

So that's where my hangup is, is that it just feels like a slight downgrade from, from Fury Road. So let's go ahead and rate this thing out of five David Wieners. Of course, David Wieners is our favorite documentarian, Lord and savior. We've had him on the show many times. Aaron, do you want to give your rating first? Do you want me to give my rating first? I will give mine first. I'm going to give it a 4 .5. Okay. That's pretty high everybody for Aaron. That is a, that's a good rating. 4 .5.

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to give, I've been really close, man. Like it's, it's been burning in me since I left the theater. I left the theater at a 3 .5. I came home and I watched some, some people that I respected. I re you know, I listened to their thoughts and everyone loved it outside of me. So I was like, maybe it's a four. Cause like, again, some of the marvels that they, that George Miller and company accomplished in this movie and Chris Hemsworth and on you to their joy. Is it a four?

It's not a 4 .5 for me. I'm going to give Furiosa a four out of five David A. Winer's. I think it is worthy of that. I think it is a slight downgrade, but again, Fury Road is a five out of five. So what's a slight downgrade from five out of five? I'll say a four. I think it's, I think it's in line with some of the best films that's come out this year, but it's not, it's just not quite there. I think I have it behind like Dune part two. I have it behind.

I saw the TV glow, which we'll talk about here in just a moment. Spoilers. I have it behind civil war over day 24. And I have it behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I think it's at number five for me in terms of the overall year. What about you in terms of what you've seen in 2025? Because it is your most anticipated film of the year. Is it? Yes. Is it the best one thus far? It might be better than Dune Part 2. No. OK, is it close?

Dune Part 2 is definitely like number one thus far this year. Yeah. well, when do we watch Minus Zero? That was in 2023. OK, so never mind. So yes, yes, 2024 for Dune Part 2. This will be like probably a close a close second to that one. Okay I respect that and then just briefly before we get in Aaron's arcade Could you rattle off?

You know the Mad Max saga off the top of your head where it ranks in terms of all of that Fury Road is definitely is number one for me Okay, so number one Mad Max for your road I'm gonna go with Furiosa next And then I mean just pretty much go slightly back in time. So Fury Road Furiosa Beyond Thunderdome Mad Max 2, Mad Max 1. Okay. I think mine is fear. I'm going to go backwards. So at number, well, no, that's confusing. All right. I'll just go from the top. Like you did. I'm going to go.

Fury road is number one. We'll do Mad Max 2 is number two. Furiosa is number three. Beyond on the Dome is four. And then Mad Max is number five, which is no damn nation to Mad Max. It is a classic action film. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. It's a Marvel for when it came out in 79. But, I think that it's just, it's, it's like, it's like the evil dead franchise. Like, There are no bad, evil dead entries. It's just that some are better than others. Exactly.

All righty, well that'll do it for our review of Furio. So hopefully you go out and see it if you haven't already. For some reason, if you listened to this and didn't see it, go check it out. Again, biggest screen that you can find it, because it's an incredible watch in terms of just scope. So let's get into my favorite segment of the show, Aaron's Arcade.

It's time for Aaron's Arcade. Welcome to Aaron's Arcade brought to you by G Fuel. Whether you're a casual gamer, content creator, an everyday Joe or an Esports pro, G Fuel sugar -free antioxidant and vitamin fortified focus enhancing and high performance energy products will give you the edge you need to feel your grind. While stocking up at gfuel .com use our code OBP at checkout for 10 % off your entire order. Actually, if you use OBP this weekend, I believe it stacks with their...

Memorial Day weekend sale. So that's OPP. Way after the fact. That's true. That's true. But no, that's for 2025 going forward. Anytime there's a weekend where you want to get some G fuel or there's a there's a sale going on. OPP stacks. OK, so this week I'm talking about a book. My man, I want to tell you a little story about young little Aaron, little a just little little a we didn't talk about. We didn't talk about little D, but we'll talk about a little a was a big reader.

OK, I was when he was a kid. Lil Ed was a bookworm? He was total bookworm, total bookworm. And he read this book, okay, and owned this book and then at some point lost this book and could not remember. The only thing that he remembered was that there was an ogre on the cover, that there was a boy on the cover and one of them was holding a teddy bear and it was in the corridor of what may have been a castle. Okay. So he spent years, years looking for this book. Years.

Okay. And the only day he's talking to his wife and he thinks I should look for this book again. And he Googles it and he finds it. He even thinks about asking Reddit it. And I found it. Guess what? It's Bruce Covill's Goblins in the Castle. Bruce Covill, if you recognize that name, he did Space Brat. My teacher is an alien. Books like that. Kids read these things all the time. You got a scholastic book sale in your school. You probably saw Goblins in the Castle. So guess what? I found it.

I bought the damn book. Where'd you find it? Walmart .com. Nice. And I went and like I had to specifically find, I had to find the cover that I could not get out of my brain because I had this vision in my brain. I'm like, I remember a kid or an ogre or somebody carrying a teddy bear. And here it is. It's a fucking kid with an ogre carrying a teddy bear in a, in a castle with goblins around him. Hence the goblins in the goddamn castle.

Did Dementus carrying around his teddy bear, did that remind you of this at all? Or did you? It might have. It might have, actually. So I'm going to read the synopsis. Discover this chivalry treat. You know, a funny, fantastical adventure from the bestselling author of My Teachers and the Alien and the upcoming diary of a mad brownie.

OK, toad in a cage castle was filled with secrets, secrets such as the hidden passages that led to every room, the long stairwell that wound down to the dungeon and the weird creature named Igor, who lived there. But it was the mysterious night noises that bothered William the most. The strange moans that drifted through the halls of the castle where he was raised. He wanted to know what caused them. Then one night he found out. Dot, dot, dot. Okay? So I'm gonna read this book.

I'm gonna give you guys a synopsis later on. I'm gonna let you know. It's only 161 pages. So you could earn a free Papa John's pizza. Really? By earning 20 points for reading that. Just like, remember those, remember those reading, maybe the reading. Yeah, the reading list and challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Summer reading lists. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I'm excited.

Have you ever had a book like that, Chris, that you just like could not get out of your head, could not remember the title, could not remember, just like maybe like a vision in your brain about it? Not, not a book, but a movie. So there's a, there's a horror film from when I was a kid that I used to see at my mom's friend's house. It was a VHS that he had this long list of just like shitty.

schlocky that's where my love of like schlocky horror came from was and there was this one movie that I always wanted to watch my mom would never let me watch but then one day he let me watch it when she wasn't there which was night of the demons 2 which came out in 1992 and I would love to cover as a Halloween special eventually but yes that cover it has like this demon vampire woman with a like a skull sucker in her mouth and that image stuck into my brain as a kid and eventually down the

road as an adult I went and found it and now I own it on blu -ray. I have one like that and it's like these people drink this milk from this village. I think it's called like goblins. Okay. Or it's called like, you know, something I'm obviously on a goblin's kick right now. but it like, they drank this milk and it like, they started puking green like goo.

And when I was a kid, like that's the one that's like, and I finally added it to like my watch list on like IMDB or something, but yeah, it's just a very, very like schlocky like.

old school practical effect, you know, summer camp look. It costs $10 million to make. Yeah. Yeah. So cool, man. I'm glad. So I'm excited. I look forward to talking about this book. I want to try and start talking about more books and get back into reading. I found a couple of really cool authors who I might see about bringing either on the show or at least bringing their books on the show. And we'll talk about that going forward. But I appreciate you listening to my, you know, Aaron's Arcade.

And let's go into my favorite section of the show. Chris's Corner. It's time for Chris's Corner. Alrighty this week for Chris's Corner I went and saw a film a new a 24 film called I saw the TV glow directed by Jane Schoenberg stars Justice Smith who you may know from detective Pikachu and he's done a couple things.

He's actually done a lot of things in Bridget Lundy pain now before I get into the summary here Aaron I have to tell you I walked to this movie extremely frustrated like very angry at myself and maybe the film a little bit too because like most a 24 films. but this on a much higher scale, it sort of leaves a lot to be interpreted. It leaves a lot for you to sort of decipher on your own. It doesn't tell you at all what this movie is supposed to be. And when I left it, I just, I had no grasp.

I could not find any through line of what anybody was trying to do in this movie. Like it just felt like a jumblation of moments. That sort of reminded me of what it was like to grow up in the late 90s early 2000s, which I think is what this movie is sort of trying to Discuss with its with its audience.

So here's the summary that we'll talk about a bit So Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his class eight Classmate introduces him to a mysterious late night TV show called the purple opaque which offers a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own in a pale glow on the TV on the TV screen Owen's view of reality begins to crack so What you get here is basically Justice Smith playing this very sort of socially awkward teen who, you know, without

spoilers, sort of later hinted that he may have some sort of mental condition who sort of latches on to this TV show from the 2000s. That's very, I would say, very like Buffy or like Disney Channel, you know, sort of a young adults supernatural show. I'm trying to think of an exact. Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of the dark is the example? Yeah, exactly.

And what it sort of discusses, I think, is sort of our attachment to nostalgia and sort of how how rose colored colored glasses and how like youth can trick us in ways. And I think it just it has a lot of elements that I sort of there's a lot to chew on, I guess is my best way of saying this. I was sort of spending my wheels trying to figure out how I wanted to show, you know, showcase my views on I saw the TV glow. I think it's something that people should watch. I saw it with like four people.

It was like me and two other white dudes in the middle of the day on a Saturday to go see it. This is the first movie that I saw post my first session of chemo. So I wanted to go out and see a movie and I saw this and it just frustrated me to know to no end. And I really had to sort of decipher what I thought of this. I think one of the more frustrating parts about this movie is that while I think it would reward upon rewatch, it is not a movie that you want to watch multiple times, you know.

Like most 824 films, it is very bleak. It is very angry in certain instances. It has a lot to sort of discuss with the audience in terms of like hard subjects. But the imagery is incredible. The acting is great. I think this is going to be one of the most polarizing films of the year. And I would really love for people to go out, seek this out at some point. I think it'll be on max eventually.

I would love to hear people's thoughts on it because this is something that 10 people could watch and 10 people could get different things from. I've been wanting to watch it. Yeah, I saw the TV glow. and again, it's currently in theaters. I would imagine that it has a very small release window because a lot of smaller age 24 films do. So check this one out. Yeah. And that'll do it for Christmas corner. So is it one that you need to see in theater? Not necessarily.

I think it's got a lot of great visuals and it has like a, the cinematography is incredible, but I don't think it, it's not something that you definitely have to go see in theaters in the same way that like Furiosa you have to see in theaters. I think, you could definitely see it on at home. It may even enhance it at home. So you could pause it and think about it or discuss it with someone or what have you. So that'll do it for Christmas corner.

and that'll do it for episode one 57 of the oblivion bar podcast, Aaron next week on the show, we were joined by the legendary artist, Michael Avon Oming to talk about his brand new dark horse series, William of Newberry. And this is a, an anthropomorphic raccoon that, is like a raccoon that is sort of a night in a way. We've only read the first issue, Aaron. we actually have not talked to Michael quite yet, but I'm excited to sit down with him.

and talk about all things comics and all things about William of Newberry. So that'll be episode 157, or sorry, that'll be episode 158. Aaron, go and take us out of here. Okay, so subscribe to our podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio, wherever you listen to your podcasts, that's where we are. Your favorite podcast, that's where we are.

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Thank you, Fantasy Shop for sponsoring the show. Don't forget to tip your bartender 20 % or more. And that's it. That's the way the cookie crumbles. -huh. -huh. -huh. I like it. All right. Everybody, we will see you next week for episode 158.