Oh is it show die? People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater.
They want cold sodas, pop popcorn, and no monsters in the protection booth.
Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
Cut it off, Doctor Botson.
You can't imagine how pleased I have to see this is doctor Matthewson. Actually that's doctor Buckley.
Oh I'm sorry, Sat.
There are two kinds of people out there with a special gift. Are the ones who really think they have some kind of power and the other guys who think we can't figure them out.
No, Leo, correct your position. You're right, Richard Vargas, I'm calling which as the name of God.
They're both wrong.
So have you been working for mathis amon? Or are you a psychologist too?
Or magician?
Actually I'm a physicist.
So why do you do this?
Investigate big paranormal stuff.
Simon Silver, perhaps the most celebrated psychic of all time, will visit us here in just under three weeks.
There will be a mad rush for tickets.
Are there no real challenges left out there?
Silver is a real challenge.
Silver has already been investigating.
Like thirty years ago.
We should investigate him.
Now work out about Silverton. There's certain things that's better not to know.
He's dangerous to stay away from.
There's only one way, okay, any access to the truth.
You've forgotten lot like, Yeah, looked to get.
What's going on?
Tementing me? Are you pre getting my fower?
So welcome to the projection booth.
I'm your host. Mike White joined me once again. Is mister rod.
Lott you paint?
Don't you?
Also back in the boot? This is mister Ryan Lewis Rodriguez.
Hello, sir, We are working our.
Way through another month of Patreon request with one from James Brummel. Red Lights this twenty twelve film flew under my Radar, written and directed by Rodrigo Cortes. It's the story of a pair of psychic debunkers played by Sigourne Weaver and Killian Murphy, who attempt to show the world that Simon silver played by Robert de Niro, is not
the blind miracle worker he claims to be. We will be spoiling this film as we go ahead, So if you haven't seen Red Lights and don't want anything ruined, track down the movie and come on back after you've seen it. We will still be here. So, Rod, when was the first time you saw Red Lights and what did you think?
I first saw it forty eight hours ago, Like you, this was one that I think I had heard about, but I don't think it ever really got like a full blown theatrical release here. I thought it started okay and I was really into it, and then just kept falling apart as it went on and on. I assume we'll talk about all those things, but in general, the stakes of this movie are just strange to me. They
don't seem rooted in in any semblance of reality. The sheer amount of media scrutiny that these paranormal investigators get, especially that they work at a college, just as outlandish. The movie treats Robert de Niro's characters like Uri Geller where Taylor Swift, their efforts to debuonk not only news but front page news and lead story news at that it's an odd mix. I'd say I'm mix on it, but probably a little more negative than positive overall. And Ryan, how about yourself?
Just like Rod, I first saw this forty eight hours ago because I wanted to keep it fresh in my mind, and that comparison to Taylor Swift, did they Robert Junior A character is very apt. I can't understand why the world would really give a shit this much. It's like being obsessed with Chris Angel. Yeah he does that, he does sure whatever. Okay, about halfway through it makes a dramatic shift, and immediately I was like, oh, this is not okay. Oh boy, Oh we're in for a ride here.
I look forward to hearing about those shifts, because yeah, I totally never had heard of this film before until James requested it. Picked up the DVD which had some extras on there so we could watch those I think what like twenty minutes of extras.
So it's all people saying the same thing. Oh god, Yes, he has such a vision, he said. He's so true to his vision, and he knows how to direct actors, and so you're an actor, of course you're gonna say that.
Yeah. It almost felt like they were all reading from the same three x five card. It was like, oh, and no accent. Rodrigo speaks perfect English and then I don't know were there subtitles on the extras, but English all the time.
Yeah. It's almost as if the camera panned over you saw somebody holding a pistol to their head and then the camera pans back over.
It's so funny that Elizabeth Olsen is barely in those extras as well, and she's probably one of the bigger stars that are in that movie now compared to where it was. And then Killian Murphy. Of course I can't remember did he win the Oscar for Yeah?
He did Openheim?
Okay, all right, yeah, And it always throws me when every speaks with his real voice, because I'm just, oh, yeah, yeah, he's Irish. I forget about those things. But anyway, Yeah, this was an interesting one. It's interesting that this comes out a year before The Conjuring, and I guess like debunking psychics and horror movies was a thing back then. I wouldn't consider this a horror movie. I would consider this maybe a thriller. Maybe it gets in thriller. Yeah, gets
into some creepy stuff and not too bad. There's a lot of dead birds, so if you don't like any sort of bird violence, you might not want to check this one out. But I think they were all stunt birds. I think they were well paid for all their hard work that they did.
They were refugees from the cast of Burdemic a little bit.
Better than that.
I definitely got a conjuring vibe off that opening prologue, which I really liked. I was really into that part of it. I thought the whole movie's like this, it's X files e as well, and especially the title sequences. I was like, if this is Killian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver debunking for an hour and a half, I'm in. And like Ryan said, it's not. It does take a shift, but I definitely got that d and Loring Warren sense about it in that beginning, and it does play out
like that. At first, it does feel like a horror film and then yeah, ultimately it's immediately not one.
Yeah, then my notes, I haven't seen the Conjuring in eight plus years, but that feels better. And those are terribly dishonest.
Well, those are based on real people as well, real fakes. Yes, and this is much more in that James Randy the Amazing Randy type of school where it's we're going to debunk these guys, and yeah, to your point, where it had it been an hour and a half of them just going around and witnessing all this paranormal stuff and them and being like, oh, they're actually doing it this way and then show you how everything comes together. That would have been cool. I would have really enjoyed that.
And maybe they come up with the case that stumps them and that's the majority of it, and then they finally figure out, like through detective work or hard work, they figure out, Oh, Okay, it's actually this is what's happening. I would have liked that. I think that would have been nice. But instead that there is and then we'll just say, right now, there is actual psychic phenomenon that's supposed to be happening in this.
Yeah.
I really didn't like that part whatsoever.
Yeah, and by part you mean the last twenty five minutes of Yes, Yes, it's.
The third act of the film. All the debunking scenes I really liked. Those are all up front the first third Killian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver work at this college and they're teaching about psychic phenomenon and basically how it gets debunked. They're talking about this scene, the opening scene in particular, with the way that you can make a
table rise, and I thought it was very nice. But Toby Jones was working in another department, and I guess he's the department that would go out to like Barbara Hershey's house in the Entity and put up all the equipment and just buy into everything.
It feels, yeah, it's very strange that they have these two departments and they have this rivalry. But I did enjoy the part where he starts talking about the psychic that they had and that he was able to read all of these cards and that they're the exact same cards from Ghostbusters, and then you have Sigourney Weaver from Ghostbusters debunking it. I thought that was really nice.
I didn't even think of that. That's actually really cool.
What I didn't like about that scene, and this is something the movie does several times, is she explains Jones that that person cheated and here's how they saw it through the reflection of your glasses, and it should be enough to just let that be, but instead they then cut to Toby Jones taking his glasses of the card to make sure that the audience understands that's how mirrors work or whatever. And I felt like the movie was
constantly underlining the obvious at things like that. We start off with these two and they're debunking this case where it's a whole psychic medium thing, and basically it's the what is it? The little girl and the mom basically don't want to live at this house.
The little girl has almost faked stuff, and then they brought in a psychic and the psychic just exacerbated the whole situation. And they go back to college and then we get introduced to Toby Jones. We also get introduced to Elizabeth Olsen as I guess she's a cipher for the audience, and I never really get a beat on her character, what she is, what motivates her, What do you guys make of the Elizabeth Olsen character?
She really doesn't have a character in this film. She is there to simply relay information to Killian Murphy so that he doesn't have to have a self monologue because eventually, spoiler alert Sigourney Weaver dies and that leaves him alone in his research and he needs somebody to bounce off of, and they find another student who's struggling with his American accent that I don't remember the name of. But but again I have no idea what she is. Is she a
research assistant, is she a fellow at the college. Is she his student? I have no idea.
I think she's a student that he then recruits to join the team. I think he even uses the phrase. And then there's that recurring bit of Sigourney to both of them saying, aren't you too.
Old for him? Isn't she too young for you?
That whole thing. She really is there just to be a love interest slash in turn, but she does almost nothing.
Yeah, I think you're right. It almost feels like she's a psychic projection at times. Is she even real that's.
Not out of the realm of the movie's possibility.
Yeah. And like you said, Sigourney Weaver dies about halfway through this movie, which answers my question when I watched the opening and I said, Killian Murphy gets top billing above Sigourney Weaver because she's not in the movie that long. She doesn't really have a whole lot of stuff to do either, other than to talk about her son who's in coma. How does he get into the coma? I can't remember.
All I remember is when he takes him off life support at the very end of the film. That's literal, and she talks about being visited by a psychic and being told information about him, and that's about it. That's really we don't learn very much on that front, if I remember correctly.
Well, And that's Sam Silver that tells her that the sun was over his shoulder and asking for her to let him go, and that's what really sets her off against Sam Silver. And Sam Silver, of course is Robert de Niro. And you guys probably saw my notes where I'm just like, is something going on with his eyes? Because at the beginning they make this big deal where they show him and then he puts on dark glasses.
I'm like, okay, I had to watch that part like three times to be like, oh, I guess his eyeballs are weird.
He does that almost like the CSI Miami thing with David Cruz. So he comes up playing with sunglasses. He takes them off for exactly three seconds just so you can see the camera lick zooms in so you can see that is like, check out these fucked up contact lens as I've got on to show you he's blind, and then he puts it back on. There's zero reason for him to do that other than just to convey that.
It looks like we got a cold case.
Right, Oh, yep, exactly.
And the second he took his sunglasses off, I'm like, this guy isn't blind, literally, and then takes them off and put them on, Like, why would you need to do that to see what the air looks like. There's no reason to take off your sunglasses whatsoever.
Distract the audience.
Yeah, keep them guessing.
Yeah, yeah, there is no doubt in my mind from the very first moment I see him that he's not blind. And that's the whole thing is, Oh my god, this blind guy is doing all these things. No, he's not blind. So Sam Silver is to your guys' point from earlier, he's like Uri Geller mates Taylor Swift, and he's coming back. He had retired all these years ago after someone died that he had had a rivalry with or didn't like this guy, and this guy dies, Oh my gosh, was
a psychic killing. No, it wasn't psychic killing. And we really never ever find out what's going on with that guy who had died and why he went into retirement or why he's coming back. But he's back now and the world is going fucking crazy. It's amazing how people are just going nuts about this guy who's on tour and we barely see him do anything while he's on this tour. I really don't know what his show is like.
I think sitting through one of his acts would have been really a smart idea for this movie.
The least played a few tracks off of Evermore. That's a deep Taylor Swift reference for all the Swifties out there in the audience.
The venn diagram of Swifties and projection booth listeners, it's almost a solid circle.
So de Niro's silver character and in retire for thirty years is when a journalist had a heart attack in his audience and I thought, oh, we're going to get in like some Scanner's type of situation. We never did, But that thirty years exactly lines up to Sigourney Weaver's character saying early on that she hasn't seen a single miracle in her thirty years of doing this. And that's really important because the camera zooms in in pauses for her to say that line, in thirty years, I haven't
seen a single miracle. That those timeframes are not accidental. Every time there's something that the audience supposed to take away as viewers you get that zoom. He's very fond of the zoom and pause.
You do get a nice montage of the young days of Simon Silver, where you get all this photoshop of young Robert de Niro punching the Cassius clay. The old pose of him because he was traveling in all the best circles and looking so much like Lenny Bruce in those photos as remarkable.
There's no shortage of young de Niro footage that they could have used the photo shop in on that. I don't get why he looks that way.
It still looks better than the Irishman.
It comes on.
Let's let's admit things. That's a brilliant film, but it looks a lot better than that.
I don't really know what all Silver can do. And it feels like Sam Silver is the combination of all of these psychics they'd mentioned, the twisted spoons, the bent spoons, and we even get Sigourdy Weaver. At one point she lifts up her spoon out of her coffee and it's been bent, and I'm like, was he there or what's going on? No, we don't get an answer for that one. We get him shots of him making objects float. We get a sequence where he is projecting images onto polaroid film,
which I'm really glad. There's a podcast that I have to recommend to people. It's called Richard Adams Paranormal Bookshelf, where he goes through and he talks about a lot of paranormal books.
Is that the creator of miracles, Richard Cattel.
It is the same person that created miracles. Yes. The book he talks about with a psychic who is able to project on the film is called The World of Ted Cirios. He could do it for a little while and then he stopped and we never get back to it again. But yeah, I'm like, this guy can do everything. And then the only time we really do get to see him doing a show, he's floating around and moving all around the stage and I'm just like, Okay, how are they going to debunk this? I'm just waiting for
that to happen. We spend a lot more time with this Argentinian psychic who basically is a miracle worker. He's a faith hailer, and so we get that whole thing and I'm like, Okay, I'm immediately thinking of Nightmare Alley and the whole code stuff, but this is much more modern. They're just using radio to transmit to his ear piece and he's able to pull people out of the audience after they do minimal detective work on some of these people that are coming to the show.
Yeah, it's not even cold reading. It's completely assisted.
And de Niro he's floating like Magneto and X Men, which that's true.
Oh Bazar.
But the whole debunking like live debunking, which is still with the movie for this, But the whole time, I'm like, why are they doing? Is this a hobby? Are they getting paid through the university to do this? Do they fancy themselves like some mind detective squad because they're like undercover and taking photos from like doing surveillance, and they never really talk about that. And then the Argentinian guy ends up in prison because reasons, because it.
Feels like they cut like a ten minutes subplot out of there and they're just like, yeah, no, I don't notice, and it's fine even prison now, okay.
Today he'd have a Netflix series. He would not beat in prison.
It would be a documentary first, and then he would have the actor playing him.
It's likes miniseries that was one of the worst things about the movie. I think, just story wise, how it's unable to pay off what it's building too. And this occurs what maybe halfway through this subplot, and I think the prison part may be in the second half, but I was just like, wait, why is he there? I don't remember a scene about this. It's just he's exposed and next thing we know, he's in prison. Like they ever throw anyone like that in prison.
Now they just give him infomercials.
Yeah, thinking of all the faith healers that were on TV in the eighties. That was such a prime time of the seven hundred Club. And then that was the guy. He had this amazing like gray kind of flat top. He looked like he was maybe like Indiana me was, isn't it was?
I know who you're talking about? Yeah, Hamberg's name that I know exactly who you're talking about.
I didn't even get the whole thing with the because they make a second stop and they go see this little kid who is apparently an artist.
But it has an automatic painter. And that's the line I was referencing when you introduced me, that you paint, can't you write?
You?
Because that's the way the mom screams to the kids, the kids are supposed to do his thing, and wouldn't that just be painting. I don't understand what automatic painting is. I don't get it either. They so poorly explain that. And then after they turn on the music really loud, which is supposed to help him, before he even does anything, they cut to them in the car laughing about it.
I'm like, what did I just miss? And yeah, it feels very shoppy. This whole film does feel like there is a lot of stuff missing.
Which is ironic considering that Rodrigo Cortez edited the film as well.
Yeah, maybe he needed somebody else to edit this, because yeah, it feels like we're missing a lot of set up and payoff through this whole thing, because yeah, why would they arrest the face healer unless maybe he wasn't paying us taxes something like that, But then again, he's a man of faith. He doesn't need to pay taxes.
Sex scandal, yeah, but something.
Yeah, and I had never seen anything of the directors except for Buried, which I'd like, I've thought that was really well done. But this is the only other film of his I've seen.
I think if Buried is good. It's probably because the guy needs restrictions to make like a really good genre movie, Like he needs to have all the trappings stripped away so that you basically get to be the core essence of a thriller. I still haven't seen Buried, and I'm less less compelled to watch it now that I've seen this, but I still do want to see it.
Yeah, it's even though it stars Ryan Reynolds.
It's good.
Oh, I can't get over that part. Never mind, I don't want to see it anymore.
Make quips through the whole time when he's buried.
Keep looking at the camera. Boy, am I buried?
There is a slightly better play on that concept in a movie called Break that had Stephen Dorif of all people in it, and that one I think is actually better. No one's heard it, but if you're going to see a movie of a guy trapped in a trunk, I would see that.
I would recommend the two part CSI episode that Quentin Tarantino directed.
Great Danger before the Bride Got Buried. If memory serve, it was his trial run there?
It was after?
Was it?
That was two thousand and five? Okay, the year after Volume.
Two oh wow, gosh.
I'll only remember because it came out the day before Star Wars Episode three. The first time I sat in a theater saying I hate this during a Star Wars movie the very first time it to keep that one. I was a little kid when Phantom Menace came out. Give me a break.
Yeah, that was me with the e Walks back in nineteen eighty three. Sound that was when and when I saw Boba Fett die, I think I said, I hate this. It's a well shot film. It looks good, it's got that whole drained out of the color thing. It always looks like very overcast, even when you get to see the opening of the Faith Healer part where everybody has balloons. I don't know what's going on with that. I guess
they're treating this like a carnival. But I found it so odd that all of these people were walking around with balloons before this big faith healing activity that's going on. And yeah, I don't know, Maybe I'm just out of touch, but I wasn't aware of just how big these faith healers and psychics are that are coming around. Yeah, does Chris Angel is it like a big deal? When he goes on tour or something, and I like how they even name drop Chris Angel at one point.
I like this, it's not usually it's relegated to revival tents. Now people handling rattlesnakes. That's the kind of stuff that usually this stuff corresponds to. But it this takes place in a pair of universe where all the stuff that you don't care about matters very much.
And makes literal headlines on the top above the fold right name of the newspaper.
Oh the scene when Simon Silver's beginning his next show. They panned over from people doing the news, and it's literally it's one person says one sentence and then the next news person will carry on from whatever they said last give the next sentence, and it just keeps on going like that round robin for six people and one sustained shot. And I was like, Okay, he's not that popular, right, give me a brick.
Was even on a television show at one point, and I'm like, she looks like she's supposed to be Oprah basically, and again she had a bunch of Charlatan's on her show over the years, so it makes sense. Doctors ros our new Surgeon General.
I speaking of the TV and alter reality, there's that one show actually, the show that makes the news headlines where Sigourney Weaver's character is debating against not Silver, but Silver's agent played by Joe as if the person's agent would be on this meet the press type show, like they would ever want someone like that. This movie is bizarre. Just the choices it makes is next level bonkers.
Almost. Yeah, it was very odd to see Burne Gorman on that show too and be like, this guy is bigger than this role, or maybe he just got bigger, but I think he would have been on like Torch would by this point. I can't remember when.
Definitely the Strain at the same time.
Yeah, and then when was Pacific rim Out the first one of those, because he was fantastic, Yeah, so same year, and I don't know, it just felt very odd that he was just relegated to such a small role in this one. And yeah, the four people going around in the round robin, I'm like, okay, this is that's a very odd thing. And just the way that Killian is watching and no, don't do this, and oh she's gonna do that, And that's the moment when I believe Elizabeth
Olson's how do you know she would do that? I'm psychic? And then we get that during the fight Club montage at the end where we get to see everything again and see he's.
Been saying this the whole time. He's actually a psychic. Okay, yeah, I could have figured that one out. In fact, I did figure that one out well beforehand, as soon as electrical equipment started fritzing out like crazy. When he goes off Rogue and tries to debunk Silver at one point and the windows are exploding, everything's exploding.
It's just some child. I'm like, all right, I guess there's a real bad electrical short or for whatever reason, his psychic powers are just going insane at that moment.
We need to have a moratorium. On the last minute mont explaining everything that you've just seen. It needs to come to an end because it treats the audience like infants, insulting. If you're smart enough, you can just look at one little example like the coin and go, ah, I get it. There you go. Didn't need to be told, but I was told anyone.
Yeah.
That goes back to what I was saying about how they're constantly underlining got it? Did you get it? And early in the film, the Sigourney and Killing Murphy characters are constantly explaining to one another what they already would know. And I get that's just exposition, but added on to every other weird story choice this movie makes, it just makes me question the entire enterprise.
It's a television technique in that people are coming in, probably watching the first episode for the first time, and you got to catch them up by having each character tell each other exactly what they already know.
It doesn't begin like a TV show, not in a bad way, but that title sequence I mentioned it's very X Files like and pack. If this had been a limited series, I would have watched it based upon the way that opens. But the movie is shot in what I call seven vision because they do that overcast, bleary thing. It doesn't look bad at all, but it's just an odd I don't know. It just doesn't seem to match the level that the story's working. Genre wise, this is
not chasing a serial killer. It's the stakes again, are just so low and insignificant. It doesn't call for that when it looks best.
It's the fake educational short that Toby Jones is producing. That's the one thing that actually feels authentic. I've been to science classes in college. I probably failed all of them, probably didn't shove up to most of them most of the time. But I do know that I've seen that type of industrial short many times in my life, and it is very faithfully recreated, to the point where I was like, I don't like this movie, and then that scene started as like I kind of like this movie a little bit.
Now I wish it were longer. They show yes saying that I wish it were longer, And at least that does give a reason for them doing all those things on a set that looked like Hannibal Lecter was going to be in the cage in the middle or something. Just is overblown set wise, but at least that gives it a reason too.
And if the whole movie had.
Been that a mockumentary sort of through an educational film, that would have been awesome.
It's a serious what we do in the Shadows.
Yeah, there's the moment in the middle of the film. I think it's right around halfway through where Killian Murphy encounters this homeless woman on the street and almost runs her down. He's like the worst driver by the way. I think it's because he's driving on the right and he really wants to drive on the left, but he's trying to follow to Niro's entourage or a caravan, and he keeps fucking up, and then he almost hits this woman.
She disappears then, and then she shows up next to the car and says, roll down the window, makes this little circle gesture. She rolls down the window and she spits on him, Like, what the fuck is I mean, does she recognize him as being a psychic threat or something? I just didn't even They bring that back at that end montage too. I still don't understand this. Guys. Maybe you can do like another montage inside of the montage to explain this part of it.
And what was he expecting her to do?
I was expecting her face to change into a demon. I was channeling Jacob's ladder at this point.
The way Ryan called for a moratorium on the ending montage, I would say the same for anything where driver takes their eyes off the road for any ridiculous amount of time because he's scraining his head to look get Jodie Richardson on the street or whatever, and you just know. It's like the cheapest method to manufacture tension. Okay, he's gonna almost hit someone, almost get in a wreck, and sure enough, that's exactly what happens. I didn't have spitting.
They were gonna spit in his face, but that down. But hate that in any show, any movie, and it happens all the time.
Do we get a double dream wake up in this one as well? When he's trying to me, he wakes up, but then we find out he's really not awake and he has to wake up a second time.
I don't remember that. But then the one that I can't stand, Yeah, that's a bad one as well, even just one, oh, just a dream that alone is cheap.
But yeah, the only good one is an American Werewolf in London.
I was just about to say that I completely agree with that one, but ever since then, it's, oh, come on, guys, we've seen this done so well in American Werewolf. We really never need to see it again. No. Yeah, And I guess the whole idea of the title red lights, which are things that are there that aren't supposed to
be there. Had this movie bin shot in colors that could represent the color red I might have looked forward a little bit more, but everything's so drained, so often every outside shot is in that blue tinted kind of thing. And I think, to your point about the educational film part, at least that looks really decent, because otherwise it's drained out and we're like, okay, it's very overcast here. Yes, they are living in the same city as seven. It's dry period.
Yes, that educational short it looks so clinical, and that's what this movie needed more of, because there's just an eeriness, just an inherent eeriness of that sort of way to tell a story that it could have used, where the rest is just so conventional. So audience, it's insulting. Your intelligence is lower than I'm gonna give you credit for. It's just it's not well done, and the dialogue can be really awful. There's two lines in particular that made
me grown. One was when was it Elizabeth Olsen popped up and he's Oh, I'm so very pleased that you're here. And the other was when Robert de Niro says, we'll see each other again, long pause, Oh, yes, we'll see each other again. That's like high school play type of stuff.
Is that in the Bizarro scene where he goes to visit Simon Silver and he's in that hallway and there's those two people on the bench and the guy hisses. I said, I was not expecting Robert de Niro to be behind that curtain and or behind that line of salt. And I'm like, what are you saying with this, Because when it comes to a line of salt, I'm like, that's how you keep the demon at bay And I think they even addressed that. I'm like, what is going
on here? Does he have people coming in all the time and doing readings or I didn't get what that was, And just it seemed like a very odd time to have him show up and that set that he's on, behind that line of salt. It almost looks like Frank Booth and the boys from Blue Velvet are going to show up in that scene.
And also just him going in the apartment building reminded me of Mickey Rourke going to see De Niro at the end of Angel Heart. Oh Gifts so much dain style of way was shot and set up. I don't know if that was intentional, but it certainly got that feeling. I talked about the lack of rain in here, but I forgot about the rain and the end part of it.
And it's that whole sequence you're talking about, Ryan, where it's the one reporter or two reporter, three, reporter four, and they're all saying the same thing as you pan across each one of the reporters, and that is I guess, it's this whole idea of these two powers are finally going to face off against each other, and it becomes almost this fight of the gods or something, because it just you know, there's thunder going on, there's lightning happening,
and it's just like, this is it the final confrontation between Killian Murphy and Robert de Niro in this final big scene, and it's all.
Right, it's the final fight in the Matrix revolutions. It's Burnley brawl between Agent Smith and Neo.
The show doesn't feel like that.
I never saw that one because I didn't like the previous one. You made the right choice. It's deflating the whole climax. Whatever it could have turned into Scanners or Brian depalm, was the Fury or something.
Oh what I wouldn't give to see John Cassavetti's explode oh, i'd be wonderful spoilers for the fury ladies and gentlemen. But that's what happens at the end, and it's glorious.
Oh it's so good, and especially the quick edits onto him before he explodes. Oh that's so nice. Yeah, in the stakes of this movie, I'm just like, okay, So at the end, it's the fight between the psychics, or
like the big confrontation. I guess he's going to finally unmask Robert de Niro, even though he is without the knowledge of his student, that is, his student and Elizabeth Olsen, his students, who are looking at this footage of de Niro who's been given a test, and that so reminds me of the there's a Columbo episode which is almost exactly the same, one of those ABC Columbo episodes, and you go, oh, okay, so they're finding out that he's
really not psychic. BFD. We kind of all knew that watching this, And if that's a surprise to anybody in the audience, please write in and let me know if you're surprised, because I was like, yeah, of course he's not psychic. Powers don't exist. This whole movie has been teaching me that, and they're telling me how to debunk all of these fakes, so of course there is no
real psychic power happening here. And then they're cross cutting between the student calling Toby Jones and Toby Jones who's about to sign off on this research, to say, this guy's legit. There are psychic things, and he's imagine how popular their debunking department basically is going to be after this, and it said, yeah, actually that's true, so maybe go ahead and sign this. You could be making Killian Murphy a lot of money. Now he's going to have plenty
of things to go around and debunk. This will be great. But yeah, they're doing this cross cutting and it's oh, he doesn't know this, and I'm like, all right, nor does he really care? And then we have to have a big fight in the bathroom as well. I'm just like, all right, and am I watching one of the Mission Impossible movies where they're just beating the shit out of each other, especially Killian Murphy. That he's even able to want afterwards must prove that he has some sort of psychic powers.
And some very breakable porcelain. Have you tried to break a sink lately it is not easy, and much less a toilet. Oh my god, those things are indestructible. Help my front teeth are made out of porcelain. I still haven't broken him, and I'm a terrible dental hygienist.
That bathroom fight, it did precede the Henry Cavill tongue cruise bathroom fight and that mission Postplesigle, but it did remind me of that. The bigger question is what kind of psychopath goes into the bathroom and goes straight for the middle urinal. Maybe they do that in Ireland Killian Murphy. But here you either go to the far left or the far right. You don't go to the middle.
Now, that's a real dick move, and especially with your guy standing there already, because if he was, you definitely go to the outside one. Now the guy came in afterwards, Oh yeah, don't tempt fate. Yeah, just go to one side or the other. And if that guy pulls up next to you, you're just like, okay, quick shake and I'm out here, because who knows what kind of weirdo that guy is. But yet they beat the shit out
of Killy and Murphy. He's literally covered with blood, completely wet because his head was in the toilet, and he just walks out during the middle of Sam's latest performance, and no one stops him. There's no security. No, there's no one like says sir, can we see a ticket or anything. They just let this guy walk in and start mouthing off to Robb Tenttiro and I love how there's the guy in the audience who's I can't lower
my arm? Is yes, you can, and then the guy lowers it and it's all right, what is he telling me? You don't believe everything they tell you? And he's, oh, okay, I can put my arm down. Come on, that was so dumb.
That's the moment when the movie goes completely googo bananas. He starts raising in the air and I'm like, okay, so his wires attached to him? Is that what's going on here? Nope, No, he's literally being lifted by the power of psychicness. I don't know exactly what part of his powers he's utilizing in that moment, but because they seem to shift, he seems to have multiple powers, but only uses them at specific times.
Usually a psychic has one ability. It's the guy who can put the images onto film. It's the guy who can bends spoons with his mind. It's the guy who can make something float off of a table. It's the person who can do psychic surgery. They have a psychic surgery scene in here. It's the person who can do X, Y and Z. But to have the guy who's got all of the powers, it's pick a ling first. But
like he has all of these powers. Maybe that is why he's as popular as Taylor Swift, or almost as popular as Taylor Swift.
Start a religion, all those powers. Start your own cult. My god, you would be a god.
Because usually it's just the one thing. And then James Randy comes in and says, oh, you know, there's Talcolm powder here or whatever it is, and they tell those things that they have. The whole thing about keep the person's arms back against the wall and put cards behind them, and then if card falls, you know that they've moved their arms. You need to have all of these tests
in place. And it's really irresponsible to have Toby Jones running this whole department when he's so easily duped by having his glasses on and having the reflections and his glasses.
The head of the department and never figured that out.
Yeah, that big showdown between the two between Silver and Killian Murphy, it's okay. Other than like the Star Trek shaky cam thing to show that stuff is happening and a lot of explosions, it really comes to nothing. There's no real revelation of this guy as a phony. They never really show. Oh you shouldn't believe this guy, and Killian Murphy leaves. Everybody else is still in the theater. What does the show carry on? Does he just go all right, well, my next trick.
Yeah, they don't see the coin. No, they don't know what the hell he did?
Was a coin at him? And you would think if you're pretending to be blind for thirty years that you would maybe have had someone throw something at you and you just have learned to not react.
But no, he's like superpowers himself just in a catching it. I mean, that's a really good throw too, in a great catch. I was not surprised at de Niro's character not being blind, and I was not surprised at the reveal that Killian Murphy has psychic powers. But still I felt like the Killian Murphy one was a total cheat
of the screenplay. I'd love a good twist, but I don't feel like that's a twist, even though it tries to say, look, all the information was there before with the montage showing you all these things, but it's really, I don't know, it's recontextualizing those things.
And he mentions that he never told Sigourney Weaver's character because he wanted her to figure out on her own that psychic surreals. He has a son in a coma, be a decent guy and tell her there is such thing as magic in the world. Trust me, this is real. You just saved her so much grief. She died not knowing. That's the most tragic part about all of this. She died not knowing any of this about her son.
The revelation of him being a psychic at the end really feels like a slap in the face. When you're watching this whole movie about people that debunk fakes and about this fake psychic, and then you find out that one of the two debunkers is really a psychic, and I guess maybe he knew about it, But again, what are his powers other than making birds fly at windows and making electronical things, Fritz out. It doesn't seem to have a lot of stuff going on.
It would be like ending the Conjuring with a text block that said Ed and Lorraine Warren were completely exonerated in any fraud doing and are still the most successful paranormal investigators on planet Earth.
I guess he has telekinesis because there's that scene where Elizabeth Olsen is at his place and I guess they're a couple now, like gloss Over that they go outside because he thinks silver's there, and they come back in his places in tatters, like everything's been turned over. There's papers all over the place. And if Killian Murphy's character has psychic powers, then I guess he's the one that did that, right, he would have had to have done that.
So he's also misleading this new love interest as well. There's a great relationship on a wonderful art buying to your partner. The way they frame it's like there's an analogy of I don't know, like he's coming to terms with his sexuality, like he's been in denial all these years. I don't know. That's just that's too much for a maybeody like this. Those two things are not the same.
Did you guys stick around for the extra scene at the end of the film.
I didn't know there is one, as a Curtescene.
Yes, I couldn't get it at all.
Well, you were talking about the destruction of his loft or his apartment or whatever, and I think that's a shot from that scene. And it's basically just windows with yellow curtains and an air conditioner and the winds blowing and the curtains are moving, and that's it. That's it.
There's no person in the scene. It's bizarre. It's like when you used to tape stuff off TV and a VHS and after the movie if you'd forget to turn it off and you'd have some static and then something else would play that you had taped over. That's it makes no sense.
It's not a post credit scene. If Sam Jackson doesn't show up and invite somebody to become part of the Avengers.
You would think you would invite Killian Murphy to be part of the Avengers.
I mean, Elizabeth Olsen is an Avenger.
True, yeah, and she seems to have better powers, at least more control over her powers. And I know she went a little nuts there, but that was only because two imaginary children had disappeared.
I really did not get that extra scene. I didn't get the hairdresser line. At the end of the prologue, when they're leaving the home of the haunting that wasn't really a haunting, they make a line about get a new hairdresser or something to that effect, and I didn't get that.
But I got that one. It's when he introduces himself to that woman who is running the seance. He says, I'm a PhD. Or I'm a scientist or something like that. He introduces himself in a very odd way, and then eventually I think she says, oh, I am two or something, and then eventually she's I'm just getting I'm a hairdresser. So that's where the hairdresser line comes from. I miss that, but you didn't miss much. That's on me, Mike. Sorry,
it's okay. Of all the things in this movie, there are a lot of confusing things.
So I do have to point out that I watched this on Peacock, and the subtitles early on when they say sidekicks, the subtitles put sidekicks sidekicks.
I also watched this on Peacock, but I didn't put on the subtitles, and now I'm so disappointed that it didn't cauld. I remember I watched Hollowman on Amazon Prime and the subtitles were from the television version instead of the actual movie. The scene where Kevin Bacon is turning invisible and he's going, ah shit, ah fuck, it says, oh geez, oh no, and I'm like, this is officially the greatest movie ever made.
These did not look like AI subtitles either. These looked like real deal farmed out to somebody.
But yeah, I cracked up, and I'm like, Clyde kicks to me, Okay, write it down, Billy Mary Joe sidekicks. That happened again, wasn't.
A Chuck Norris film, his family film?
I never saw it, but yeah, there's the kid does karate and I think he dreams of Chuck Norris or something, or like imagine Chuck Norris's or a friend or it's like Last Action Hero, but with Chuck Norris and minus two hundred million dollar budget.
I mean, you know, Leewright dreamed of Bruce Lee. So I guess maybe it's a convending piece to Last Dragon.
Maybe, Oh that'd be awesome if it was in the Last Dragon Cinematic Universe ELDCU.
That's where Sam Jackson would come in and be like, I'm putting together a team. Can you imagine how.
I need a guy who eats popcorn with chopsticks?
You got me, sir.
It's a very specific mission. We're about to go, oh red and backer, guys, is there anything else we want to talk about? Red Lights?
I'm glad it wasn't Red One.
It's a bad title overall, a bad movie that starts out with a lot of promise. I wouldn't say it's poorly acted, but the dialogue is awful. Yeah, more we talk about though more I'm like, Wow, I guess I didn't like this.
Movie at all. I think I was okay while I was watching it, but yeah, in discussion, I'm like, yeah, this doesn't really add up too much.
When Sigourney Weaver's characters dies, the movie loses a lot because I really like her. I liked her character. I thought that the inner play between her and Killian Murphy was really what made the movie work for me in the beginning. And it's Abbott and Costello when they went their separate ways and it was just Costello like, it just doesn't work. The same doesn't work. The person who requested this, I'm curious, I wonder if this is a favorite of theirs, or did you get any indication of
why this was chosen? No?
No, I had to ask which movie is this? When he said Red Lights and got the IMDb link and that was about it. Yeah, I feel awful. Whenever I review a Patreon request and don't like it, I'm always like, oh, no, it looked for the good things, and it's just like, yeah, this is tough. There was a moment early on where Sigourney Weavers in front of the classroom talking and I'm just like, oh, this kind of reminds me of Copycat, the Her and Hunter and Harry Junior, Harriet Coonic Junior,
and I'm like, I'd much rather be watching that. That one seems that one's probably an awful piece of shit as well. But I remember really liking it, and it just made me want to watch that. It made me want to watch other movies that I like more than this one.
That one has squirrel covers. This one does know it squirrel Covers. There's a line of that Harry Conic Junior's prisoner says to I can't remember I it's Holly Hunter. I've only seen that movie once, but something about squirrel covers, which are his word for panties. Okay, I just remember that line getting a big laugh in the audience.
So theatrically, Wow, that's better than me. I just saw it on cable. I just saw the poster you need to Stay Away. I was nine at the time, so it probably would have been let in the theater. I don't think that I'm going to have an interview with the director on this one. I've been trying, but yeah, he's got a new movie coming out very soon. We'll see. And I think he is going back to making Spanish language stuff. I think his next one will be one
hundred percent Spanish. That may be for the best. It might be it's called escape, or it could be pronounced a Scott Bay. All right, let's go ahead and take a break and play a preview for next week's show. Right after these brief messages.
The lunches of snow that fell over the whole weekend and the blizzard is called.
Ditch it. The old Man's Did I see this shows?
Because you're reading well, missus chance, I have no alternative but to inform you that this house is now close.
Indeeds, you have resided here, you have no legal right to remain. You'll have to move out. Fine, let's say tomorrow.
I don't understand move out.
This is terrible. Sorry, hope you're not badly injured.
We'll take him to a house.
You know, why don't you come to our house and we could take care of you there.
My husband's been very ill.
The doctrine the nurses are staying with us.
Are you planning on making any sort of claim against the lands?
You need a secretary.
He is different, isn't he right?
I can't breath, mister Preasure. I want you to meet my very dear friend, mister Chauncey Gardner. Mister Garder, do you agree with better? Do you think we can stimulate growth through temporary sentence?
Thank you for joining us on such short notice and filling in for the Vice president.
To be a truly peaceful Thank you, Ben your focus to Gardner.
As long as the roots of industry remained firmly planned in the national soil, the economic prospects are undoubtedly sunny.
That's right. We'll be back next week talking about al Ashby's being there. Until then, I want to thank my co host Rod and Ryan. So, Rod, what is going on with you?
Sir?
I still am findable on the internet at flick attack dot com reviewing genre film. There you can get my book, Flick Attack Movie Arsenal Book one, which came out two years ago. I'm midway through lay out the second volume, so that'll be out in twenty twenty five. And you can find me on Instagram Flickotemic as well.
Very cool and Ryan, what's happening with you, sir?
I have two podcasts, the first being One Track Mine, where every other week myself and a guest analyze film through the prism of that film audio commentary. We're big into physical media there. We're trying to keep it alive because God knows, the studios are trying to kill him.
Mike has actually been on twice and I look forward to having him on for a third time, so you can join the three timers club and you can find it on Instagram at one that is the Numeral One Track Mind podcast A one Track Mind on Blue Sky. We're on Podchaser, on Facebook, Patreon, dot com, Slash One Track Mind podcast where you can get literally three hundred hours of bonus content because all the previous podcasts I recorded before starting One Track Mind are now Patreon exclusive.
And then I have another podcast called Reels of Justice where we have a fake court of opinion. We're in a prosecutor, defender, judge, and jury try to conclude whether or not a movie is guilty of being a bad movie. And you can find that on anywhere you listen to podcasts. It's on Instagram, on Facebook, and on x at Reels of Justice.
That sounds fun. I'm listening to that.
Thank you so much, guys for being on the show. Thanks to everybody for listening. If you want to hear more of me shooting off my mouth, check out some of the other shows that I work on. They are all available at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. Thanks especially to our Patreon community. If you want to join the community, visit patreon dot com. Slash Projection Booth. Every donation we get helps the Projection Booth take over the world.
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