Kevin Schaefer, Andy Walsh, Christian Ashley, and Evan Garcia dive deep into their top five films of 2025, a year that brought a mix of blockbuster hits and indie gems. Right from the jump, they emphasize how this year has been a wild ride in cinema, filled with both massive spectacles and heartfelt stories. As they each share their favorites, they reflect on larger themes like mental health, nostalgia, and the evolution of beloved characters, all while throwing in some witty banter and personal anecdotes. Whether it's the resurgence of classic superheroes or fresh takes on familiar genres, the gang aims to celebrate the art of film and the impact it has had on their lives and the culture at large. So grab some popcorn and settle in, because this episode is all about the movies that made 2025 unforgettable!

The final show of 2025 from the gang at Systematic Geekology is a treasure trove for film aficionados, as they dive into their favorite flicks of the year. Kevin, alongside his geeky companions Andy, Christian, and Evan, kick things off by reflecting on the cinematic landscape of 2025, which was chock-full of big-budget blockbusters and hidden indie gems alike. The discussion ranges from the blockbuster trio of Superman, Jurassic World, and Fantastic Four to the surprise hit, Barbenheimer, which ignited a cultural phenomenon. They touch on themes like industry upheaval and the sheer volume of films released due to the pandemic's ripple effects, leading to a year that felt more like quantity over quality for some. The guys jump into their honorable mentions, where Evan lists a mix of sequels and fresh IPs, while Christian shares his personal favorites, sparking lively banter and laughter among the crew. Each host shares their top picks, and as they critique and celebrate the films, they reminisce about the magic of cinema and the connections formed through shared stories.

As they wrap up their reflections on 2025, the hosts transition into what they’re looking forward to in 2026, revealing a mix of excitement and skepticism about upcoming releases. From superhero films to original content, they ponder the future of cinema and the ever-evolving landscape of film. Andy shares his anticipation for Project Hail Mary, based on the beloved novel, while Christian and Kevin express their hopes for new entries in the MCU and the revival of beloved franchises. The concluding remarks are filled with gratitude for the audience, inviting listeners to share their thoughts and favorite films from the year. The episode encapsulates the joy of film and the connections it fosters, leaving viewers with a sense of community and excitement for the cinematic adventures that lie ahead.

Takeaways:

1. The crew of Systematic Geekology gathered to discuss their top films of 2025, showcasing a mix of blockbuster hits and indie gems that defined the year in cinema.
2. Kevin Schaefer shared his excitement for the new Superman film, highlighting its positive portrayal of the character and the emotional depth it brings to his story.
3. The discussion revealed a consensus on the importance of character development, with movies like Thunderbolts and Sinners emphasizing mental health and the complexity of relationships.
4. Evan Garcia's nostalgic pick of The Goonies resonated with the group, sparking conversations about the impact of classic films on new generations and the importance of shared viewing experiences.

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Be sure to check out our merch, find extra content, and become an official member of Systematic Geekology on our website:

https://systematic-geekology-shop.fourthwall.com/

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Listen to the rest of our film review episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/6a01e00d-cfd7-4041-a7a4-1fd32c545050

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Don't miss any of Andy's episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/c86f7a67-357b-4324-bf95-e42cedb9932a

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Check out other episodes with Evan:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/db75189a-04f3-4129-9a5d-ade41cf863b5

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Listen to every episode with Christian:

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Check out other episodes with Kevin:

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So, Andy, Christian, Evan, how are you guys doing today?

Very well, thank you.

Great day.

Doing good in this void between Christmas and New Year's. It's.

Yeah, right, right. It really is. Yeah. And hey, if anyone is watching live, I appreciate y' all for hanging out with us on New Year's Eve. And when I don'.

I. I don't know if that's sad or, you know, celebratory that, like, you could be going and partying right now, but you're hanging out with us. So, hey, we're awesome.

Who wouldn't want to be here with us?

But. Yeah, yeah, Right, Right. I mean, yeah, it. It is.

I mean, and like, I mean, I cannot say I'm going anywhere today because the Stranger Things finale drops tonight. So I will be home watching that and also seeing it in theaters tomorrow. So I already have two plans to.

Well, we have a lot to discuss on changing things in another episode, which we will be doing. But. But first, we're going to talk about all the things in movies this year. So a lot of big heavy hitters.

And in place of our lightning round, today, we're going to do our. A lot of honorable mentions. At least I have a lot. And just talk about kind of the year as a whole.

I got guys to start off, like, what were some of your thoughts on just, like, the movies as a whole this year?

Like, was there anything really surprising about any trends or, you know, of course there's a lot of industry upheaval right now, but were there any kind of, like, trends or themes you saw this year? Or was it pretty all over the place?

The, the, the, the trifecta.

Superman, Jurassic World, and Fantastic Four was fun again, you know, I don't think he lived up to the hype of Barbenheimer, but it was fun to have that, to have that sense of community almost. And they feel more like that it.

Is like, I mean, ever since Barb and Heimer, the the term was coined. It was like, that's been a thing of like trying to replicate that every year with a back to back or triple feature of interrelated blockbusters.

And you know, of course I've got it in my. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see if you're listening to this audio later.

Because beyond that, yeah, there were a lot of like big films I think that came around at the same time. But that was a very, you know, trio of blockbusters that we did episodes on. And that was a lot of fun for me.

It seemed like it was kind of an overstuffed year. We had a lot of things pushed back by the strikes from. That would have come out last year and so.

True.

Yeah, there were just, it. There was a lot going on, but I don't. Not sure anything really stood out. Like it seemed like it was a quantity over quality here.

That's fair. I, you know, I mean I definitely think there were some big quality things. Like I said, I had actually a hard time making a top 10 list.

I were going to be sharing our top five. But I've got a lot of, A lot of honorable mentions and you know, but it's absolutely.

That was a factor of everything getting pushed back from strikes and, and even, I mean, I know like, you know, Covid's out in the Distance, but there's been a lot of factors in the past years that there was a massive amount of movies this year. And as someone who goes to the theater at least once a week, there was stuff I even missed that I wanted to see and I haven't got a chance to yet. So.

So with that, let's do some honorable mentions because I think there's a lot to talk about. Does anyone want to start?

Yeah, I'll go ahead. My honorable mentions, in no particular order, Predator, badlands, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, K Pop Demon Hunters, Zootopia 2, and Black Phone 2.

As you may notice, most of those are all. Well actually except for one, all old IP K. Pop Demon Hunters is now going to become an IP and that they've already announced a sequel.

But I really enjoyed all those films.

You may notice there's not going to be a mention of A certain Brave New World because unlike a certain someone else on this show, I'm not that big on it.

Fair enough. Like what's funny is my nephew got figures from the movie for Christmas and I. And like I'm kind of.

Well, if he ever asked me like can we watch the movie that this. These are in? I'm like, oh, because he hasn't seen really any MC movies yet and I don't know if I want to start him with that one.

Oh no, because it's quite a mess. Yeah. But I mean it was, it was a year for Marvel. I, I did really enjoy Thunderbolts as well, but. But yeah.

Christian, anything else you want to say on those before I can share mine? Next.

I mean, I had a difficult time paring these down. It's like my list is going to sound very. I, I hesitate to say the word Normie, but it. I didn't know outside of a couple films.

I didn't really branch out too much this year, most that being due to a lack of funds. But what I did see, I went to see stuff that I knew I would really like.

Sure, sure. I think, I mean I think there was a range of genres to choose from and like types of movies. So I, you know, there.

It was some, it was cool stuff and, and now more is coming to streaming and speaking of that, some of my picks here are available streaming now. If you haven't seen them, highly recommend the First Real Quick Life of Chuck. I really want more people to see this movie.

I thought it was phenomenal. Directed by Mike Flanagan, based on a non horror Stephen King story. It's a wonderful experience.

There were really and justifiably so a lot of comparisons to Its Wonderful life in terms of the narrative structure and themes of it. Highly recommend that movie. It is on Hulu now. Friendship is the hardest.

I've laughed in the theater in a while that I'm so glad I got to see it there.

Tim Robinson's comedy, while not for everyone, is very up my alley and this was a perfect blend of his very cringy humor merged with horror elements and I loved it. Eternity is the kind of fantasy rom com they don't really make anymore and I thoroughly enjoyed when that comes to streaming as well.

Definitely recommend Marty Supreme. I just saw.

I'm not even a big fan of uncut gems and while there are a lot of comparisons to this movie being from Josh Sefte as well, I liked this one a lot as still that very adrenaline fueled rush of a movie while also being a deconstruction of the sports comedy. Really liked it. Definitely recommend seeing it in Theaters Companion was one of the best horror movies I saw this year, a lot of good horror ones.

And it was really hard condensing. I also love weapons. I love 28 years later. Christian, I know you weren't a fan of that.

We need to do an episode on that and because with the new one coming out. But I loved it though that was hard not putting in my top 10. And then I Thunderbolts was my favorite.

Not just my favorite MCU movie of the year, the only one I liked. Sorry to Captain America and Fantastic Four but both were disappointing for me and yeah, so I could even go on more.

But there were a lot of movies that really resonated with me this year. Andy, what about you? What were some of your honorable.

Yeah, so for me I went with House of Dynamite, which might have even be in my top five. But since I talked about it at length on a what's News? I decided to just give it another shout out here.

A very well done, well constructed movie, very suspenseful on a very timely topic of nuclear disarmament.

And if there are no women in the Oscars directing category again this year, you know, Kathryn Bigelow definitely directed an Oscar worthy or you know, put in an Oscar worthy directing performance. There may be other women who are worthy and if that and if they get nominated, that's fine.

But there was definitely at least one woman who should be nominated for directing in the Oscars this year. Black Bag. I'm a big fan of Steven Soderbergh when he does deep dives on people being competent at their jobs.

And Black Bag is people being competent at intelligence operations and subterfuge. And I also that it's almost kind of a rom com in the way that the main characters are putting their skills to use in keeping their marriage going.

And I really appreciated that. Even if it's a bit morally dubious. There's. There was something to that. That charming Nevertheless Fantastic Four, a film I enjoyed like 95% of.

I felt the ending let it down just a little bit and that's why it didn't quite crack the top five. F1. You know, excellent visual experience, fun ride.

And as the theme of a middle aged man exploring his passions on his own terms, really spoke to me in ways that perhaps we can explore on another episode on a different topic.

And then, you know, I've been a big fan of The The Chris McQuarrie Mission Impossible films and this one I felt like was the least Mission Impossible, but still had some very impressive stunts that were. That were awesome to see on the big screen. And if that's it for. For this particular arrangement, you know, I think that that's.

We got a nice run of films there. I'll also highlight. It was one of at least three films that I saw this year, and that made me feel like I was watching comic book footnotes.

Mission Impossible, Happy Gilmore 2, and oh, Spinal Tap, this is Spinal Tap 2, all heavily featured. All heavily featured flashbacks to, you know, films from 30 years ago.

And visually they just really didn't gel the way that, you know, that just such a different quality of filmmaking or production and the cinematography and so forth, just very different styles. And so they just didn't match. And so it was very jarring. And it was just kind of funny that three different movies did the same thing this year.

And yeah, like I said, it just.

Maybe it never before had I felt like I was watching the little comic book footnotes of, you know, check out issue number 305 of Amazing Spider man for this story kind of thing. So that was an interesting trend from this year in film. And that's it for my honorable mentions.

That's a really good thing to point out. It was. I mean, I love Mission Impossible and particularly the McQuarrie movies, but I was a little disappointed by this one.

And I think that did really take me out of it.

The like, overt recaps and stuff like that and try and tie everything in because I had just watched rewatched the entire series before seeing the new one, and it was a little jarring. I'm also glad you picked Black Bag, because that was another. That was a really good one. Excellent screenplay and excellent direction.

But yeah, good pick. Sandy, Evan, what about you?

But one and two, because I realized I never saw the first one, so I wanted to see that before seeing the second one.

And.

And those were they. The first one definitely lived up to the hype. The second one was more of a. Like all the other Adam Sandler films. Just, Just.

Just a reason to get people together, you know, So I thought it. I thought that was fun. Other ones are the Minecraft movie, the Friendship, that was one that I was looking forward to, but it didn't quite.

It didn't quite make my. My favorite movies. And the Where Am I K Pop Demon Hunters, that was a nice, fun surprise that me and the whole family Liked.

So, so, yeah, that's, that's really interesting. You've never seen Happy Gilmore. I just, just because, like, like, oh, my gosh.

It was that the, it was like the holy trilogy of Adam Sandler movies of Happy Gilmore, Water Boy and Billy Madison. But I actually, I always liked Water Boy, Billy Madison a little more.

But yeah, the, the, the second one, like you said, it was, it was a way to bring everyone back together. It was, it was fun enough as a background watch, but yeah, yeah, awesome.

Well, great picks, guys, and I'm really excited to hear everyone's favorites. And before we do, again, if you're tuning in on YouTube, thank you so much for joining us live here.

If you're listening to this later, please rate review. Subscribe. It really helps the show. And if you want to find out ways to support us, please click on the description.

Like, click on the link in the description and you can find out how to become a member. And that will give you all the information, ways to support the show. And if it's your first time here, welcome. I hope you enjoy.

Tell your friends about it. And if you're a longtime listener, viewer, welcome back. So. Well, guys, let's get into it. I'm really excited to hear everyone's.

So we are doing top five movies of the year, and we're going to go starting with our number five pick and getting eventually to our number one favorite movies of the year. So let's do it. So, Andy, who are we? Which member is sharing?

Yeah, just to explain. Right. We'll start out kind of going round robin through our top five and then top four and so forth. But at some point they overlap.

And so I had to make a decision about how to group things and sort things. So I just gave points, you know, one point for fifth place, two points for fourth place and sorted things so that, you know, there's a.

The top film got the most points. So if there's any confusion about the order, that's, that's what's going on and hopefully it'll be clear as we go.

And first we have Evan's number five pick.

Right. I completely stumbled upon it. It was a hidden gem of a film and, like, so. Surprised? No, no.

So this was a film that, like I said, in the void of this Christmas and New Year's, my son wanted to watch A movie last night.

And he.

I couldn't sleep, you know, so I said, you want to watch the Goonies? And he was sure. So, so we. We threw it on. And I remember, technically I've seen the film, but.

But it was on a bus with no sound on the way from South Florida to Orlando for a rock the universe. So I. So I. So yes, I saw it, but I didn't really see it, so I kind of just always put it on the back burner. And with all the.

With the 80s revival of like the last 10 years or so, I've always been wanting to see it. And. And when I. When I finally saw it, I was thoroughly surprised. And how fun. And just a sense of fun, adventure and the. The characters and a scene.

Everyone in their. In their young form and, and. And I will never forget the face on my son's face when I told them that that was.

That that was Samwise Gamgee from A Lord of the Rings. He was like, what? And. And it was funny because I saw this movie and. And another film that.

That is on my list here that had the same person in it, so I thought that was ironic. I saw them both in the same night. So. And.

And seeing this film with the passing of the YouTuber Adam, the Woo was very special because he loved this film and he went to a lot of filming locations for it. And when I finally saw the film, I saw him in it and, And. And it reminded me just. Just of the fun that he brought to his YouTube channel.

And so that's my Goonies.

Yep. Evan, thanks for sharing that. And I. I do want to give a shout out to your friend there. That. And, um, yeah, especially it hits, I think, when a.

When a fellow YouTuber podcaster passes too, that you've been following for a long time. So, yeah, that's. And Evan, I have to ask, did your son also recognize Thanos in this movie?

No.

Did you point that out?

No.

They are young. John.

No, it's a little less purple.

Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

But no, I also, Andy, I love that you put in the slide here because it's also been a Kwikwan renaissance in the past few years. Even though I did hear that the movie Love Hurts was terrible. But it's. Regardless, I'm excited to see him in leading roles again.

I don't really care if he's in. I mean, he was. He was amazing in everything everywhere, all at once, and I hope he gets another good movie soon. I did not see Love Hurts.

So I can't really talk about it, but I just. I heard it was. But it was.

It was decent. It wasn't terrible.

He was a little bit let down by the material, but I was just so happy to see him getting a chance to be in a leading role and being an action star after his, you know, experience as a stunt performer. So maybe, maybe I was a little bit rose colored glasses watching it, but sure.

I mean, who doesn't like him? He's just like one of, like nerd icons and just one of the greatest people, you know?

And if you pass the Harrison Ford test, you've got to be a solid guy.

Right? Right. I mean, if you. I mean, that's. It's a distinguisher right now, but yeah. Awesome.

All right. Yeah. The Long Walk. I was really surprised by this film. I wasn't expecting it to be like the greatest or anything like that. And it's not the greatest.

But you know what? It made me feel, it made me enjoy these characters. The general premise being we live in a dystopian America. Something happened some unknown time ago.

There's been a divergence in the timeline, and America is not as democratic, shall we say, as we would like it to be.

And what they do as a form of entertainment is every year they have what is known as a long walk, where you go from this location to another location, traveling at three miles an hour, if I'm remembering correctly, because I think they moved it down a mile an hour from the original book because they're like, well, this is a little more manageable for human beings to do. And follows a bunch of boys. You get a prize at the end. You get one wish that they have to give you at the end of this.

So why would they go on this journey? What is it about the world right now? How does it need to change?

And like, I can't remember another actor's name, but I know my Mark Hamill when I see him. And that man plays a great villain. And as he's done for years in voice acting work and now as you can see in live action.

Well, actually, got to see him in live action being a great villain in the Last Jedi. But that's its own thing here. You see him as a wonderful villain, as the General. He's perfect. I love this movie so much.

Christian, Another actor here is the lead, Cooper Hoffman. He's the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Oh, yeah, he was in, like, Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza is excellent. That role.

And yeah, I was wanting to see him again at some point, but. Yeah, but it. But. But Mark Campbell also starred in two Stephen King movies this year because he is also in the Life of Chuck.

Yeah, that one I didn't get the chance to see. But, yeah, I don't know actors names that well. Obviously I recognize Mark, but the rest, they did a phenomenal job here.

Did you, Christian, when you saw it? Because I saw that there were screenings where the audience could be on a treadmill the entire time while the movie was playing.

I think obviously only in a handful of theaters they did that. Or maybe it was even just one. But did you try running while you were watching this movie?

Absolutely not. I'm fat and old.

But, yeah, it was. It was quite a year for Stephen King. I mean, I know. Not that he's ever been in some, like, realm of obscurity by any means, but like.

Like in recent years, they started making really good Stephen King adaptations again, and he just, you know, and I mean, we can talk about. Welcome to Dairy. There's. There's so much. But. But this and Life of Chuck came out very close to each other.

And I haven't seen the Running man yet. I've heard mixed things, but eventually I'll get to it.

I'd say it's worth watching. It was, you know, like, not anywhere near as good as other Edgar Wright movies. As Andy called it, Edgar Light, which was a beautiful pun there. And.

And I love Edgar Wright. I think he would laugh at that. But. But yeah, I think it's still worth seeing, though. Awesome. Excellent pick here. Yeah.

So, Andy, what is next for us here? All right, my number five. So this is a tough one to put at. Like, it almost feels weird putting it number five.

Like, I had a really hard time picking my favorites this year because there were some bangers. And as far as Frankenstein, So, like, my relationship with the book goes back to college when I read it.

Then my relationship with Guillermo del Toro and his work goes back to middle and high school. He's always been one of my creative heroes and inspirations. He's one of my all time favorite filmmakers.

I love both his more like, action flair like Hellboy, and also his more art house stuff like Pan's Labyrinth. And I think Crimson Peak is actually pretty underrated. But Frankenstein absolutely blew me away.

I got to see it in theaters on Halloween night, which was the perfect way to see it. I Watched it on Netflix again, you know, about a week later when it came there. And actually, you know, I kind of go.

Went in knowing I would probably love it. I mean, it would have been really hard to disappoint me here.

But what was really cool was I saw with one of my best friends who we used to podcast together, and when he came out of it with me, he said, okay, now I get why you like Del Toro so much like that. Like, it changed the perception of his work for him. This movie is.

While it takes creative liberties from the source material, I think it is very faithful to the spirit of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Yes, it has plot changes, but. And it obviously goes into the sympathetic creature motif that Del Toro is famous for.

All of his protagonists in his movies are Shape of Water and Hellboy and, oh, so many other. Like, I mean, Blade. Like, I mean, he. He likes to deal with more horror icons and monsters and make them sympathetic. And this is no different. The.

And, you know, that may polarize some sort of Frankenstein purists who wanted to see, you know, the evils of the monster on full force. And, you know, and it really.

Jacob Elordi's performance, which is phenomenal, but Jacob Elardi's performance and the writing and the vision of this character is very sympathetic, that you never really are demonizing the monster. But also, what I found fascinating was it didn't make. Make Victor a one villain either. He was very nuanced. He was very like.

The way that it explores that relationship and the way it culminates in the finale I thought was beautiful. And it is a gorgeous film to look at it.

You know, this is the kind of movie that Del Toro wanted to make since he was a child, when he first saw the James, well, Frankenstein movie and described it as a religious experience. And then he read the novel around sometime around the age of, like, 12 or 13, and then he's been chasing it ever since then.

And I'm so glad this movie finally got to come to fruition. It's just an exhilarating experience. It's wonderful to look at. It's. It is so rich in character.

And again, even with the changes from the source material, I think it still very much captures the essence of the book that while there have been a million Frankenstein adaptations, a lot of them have not captured that same essence and that same trait. So, yeah, this is just easily one of my favorites. It was hard.

I'm not putting it, like, number two or number one, but I had a lot of favorites this year. So, you know, my top five almost kind of run together in ways. But, yeah, if you have not seen Frankenstein, highly recommend.

And I, of course, can't wait to see what Del Toro does next.

Yeah, this was an excellent film. I forgot to put it in my honorable mentions, and it would definitely. I had a hard time placing it anyways.

And I love what it has to say about forgiveness. And, yes, it takes a lot of liberties with the source material. It's a reimagining. Understand that's what Del Toro is doing.

But I actually got into an argument with a friend over the end. It's like, well, I would never forgive him. Well, yeah, you became the monster if you had not forgiven. That's kind of the point of the film. Yeah.

Victor doesn't deserve it, but at the end of the day, he also gave life to the creature, to Adam. I don't know if they ever call him Adam in the film, but I don't think so.

But at the end of the day, like, it's breaking that cycle of revenge and bitterness and pride and arrogance and learning to forgive someone. And I think Del Toro did an excellent job with that message.

I really gotta see this.

Absolutely. And I think it was so well paced, too. And it never felt like that that storyline was forced or anything.

It was just like, I almost tear up at that final scene there when they do, when there's that forgiveness and. Yeah, it's just. It's gorgeously shot. It's. It's just a wonderful journey.

How was Christoph Walton? And. Because him and. And adulturo seemed like a perfect match.

Oh. I mean, I. I would love them to collaborate again. Like, I mean, he played, like, he wrote that role for the movie, like, not in the book, but.

Yeah, no, there's some. I mean, he's sort of in the kind of toward the end of the first act and part of the second, there's some great scenes between him and Oscar Isaac.

Yeah, he's great. Mia Goth is fantastic.

Of course, Charles Dance plays the overbearing, strict father that is the catalyst for Oscar Isaac's journey and, you know, wanting to prove himself and everything. Yeah, I just want to see, just for fun, like, Charles Dance, to play, like, a nice guy, just to see what it's like.

But, I mean, I know he's going to be typecast, like, as long as they have roles available for him, but. No, it's a wonderful cast all around. Yeah. Gorgeous cinematography and effects was so worth the budget.

I mean, I'm so glad I got to see it in Theaters. But you know, if you watch it at home, just try to see it on the biggest screen possible. Turn the lights off, really immerse yourself.

It's, it's a wonderful experience. So that is my number five. All right.

By process of elimination, that's me. All right, so I went with K Pop Demon Hunters at number five. The movie sensation of the year.

Every time I'm on Netflix, it is still in the top 10 movies. I think it's been there for like six months or something crazy like that.

I, I watched this movie partly because I wanted to be able to have a conversation with my 8 year old niece who is, is in love with this movie. And yeah, it just, I was, I was kind of not sure about it at first, but it charmed me partly through the, the text. Avery of it.

All right, so there's a, there's a bit where, yeah, one of the, one of the trio, the, the lead trio is impressed with the abs of another character and to reflect that her eyes turn into corn in the cob and then that corn in the cob stops popping, starts popping into popcorn and then her friend starts collecting that popcorn in a bowl and eating it. And I, I was just, that was, that was a solid gag.

That's great.

Pushing, pushing out the boat that Tex Avery, you know, launched so that I appreciated that element of the film.

And then, yeah, you know, when we start getting into that, you know, the demon hunting aspect of it all and the, the part demon, you know, lead character and all that, you know, I wasn't sure. I wasn't really interested in a movie that was going to make me sympathetic towards demons.

And I was a little bit worried that that's where we were going, but I liked it.

In the end, they, where they went was that, you know, the sort of demonic influence was trying to hide everything to, to not be truthful to yourself or to others about, about yourself.

And that the, you know, the counter point to that was, you know, confession and accountability and being open and honest about, about your past and your present and your hopes for the future and so forth. And so yeah, you know, it's not a, it's not a perfect film. It's not the most profound message.

You know, it's definitely aimed at people like my 8 year old niece more than is like me. But it was, it was a fun time.

And if you're one of the three people that somehow has managed not to see it yet and you have a young person in your life, you know, I don't think you would be ashamed to or you would waste an hour and a half checking out. Plus, you know, there's some fun action bits. You know, it's definitely a. A poppy popcorn kind of movie with, you know, with smash sequences, some.

Some fun songs that have also been, you know, in. In the top of the charts for an extended period of time. And, yeah, just more. More fun than it needed to be.

More kind of quirky and intriguing than it needed to be and with a. With a better message than I was expecting going in. So that was. That was how it got into my top five.

This. This is an excellent film. I mean, if you've been in the genre, you're going to see cliches abounding from the other things it's building off of.

But I don't mean that. That's not a negative critique. Like, it's building off of them. It's not reinventing the wheel. It's just fun.

And it has plenty of good things to say about, you know, like you said about hiding things away and what we shouldn't be doing with that, but also what it means to actually be a team, people you can trust in your life. Excellent film. Great choice.

The only thing I did not like about this film was that it's holding up production for the last Spider man across the.

Oh, my gosh. When are we going to get this?

Come on.

But, yeah, fantastic film.

One of these days.

Fantastic.

But I do love everything that, like, this era of Sony animation does, like as they also made the Mitchells versus the Machine years ago. That was one of my favorites of that year. So, yeah, no, I mean, I love that. I mean, hey, put out more original stuff like this.

But, yes, give us beyond the spider verse, please. I need it before the world ends, please. Awesome. Well, great pick, Andy. So let us get to Christian's number four here.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. Predator Killer of Killers is an animated film they released within the Predator universe.

We go very anthology style over different periods of human history where predators have come to ear to try and find the ultimate hunt. And we get some really great moments here. We start off in Scandinavia. We've got our Viking shield maiden.

I think her name is Ursa, as she's trying to get revenge against the man who killed her father. She's got her young son with her. But then the Predator comes in and things all go to hell.

And eventually she is able to kill the monster after losing pretty much everything. Then we go forward to our next segment where we are in Japan around, like, the 17th century, early 17th century.

If I remember correctly, we've got two sons who used to be under a like warlord. They get messed up in a duel early on. One gets flees from the clan and later on he comes back to get his revenge.

Then the Predator comes in and they have to work together. Brother and brother once again have some tragedy again and the Predator is killed. Then we go to.

Actually, I think my favorite segment here is the last one as far as the. And the original anthology part goes where we've got a young man who is drafted into the army, Torres who becomes a fighter pilot.

They're in the middle of the Atlantic about to head into the North African campaign and that's when a Predator ship comes in and starts loosing hell upon everyone. So we don't get a, you know, on the ground fight, we get a dog fight with a Predator spaceship. Does it make logical sense?

No, but you know what, it's fun, it's great. And he is eventually able to, you know, take down that Predator ship.

And then they put you all in an arena fighting against like the Predator king. And we get our group actually working together here to escape and that's where we kind of leave where they're able.

Like this kind of the Bolivian army ending of do they escape? Do they not?

And we also get some really fun segments of seeing past Predator victors, including Prey and predator and predator two of them being in Cryosleep 2, leading for obviously sequels along the way if they choose to do so. I loved this film. Everything you care about the Predator universe of them.

Like the things people have been saying for years, I want to see a Predator in this time period doing this. Well, guess what, you got three in one. And they do a spectacular job with it. I love this film.

So I really need to see this one.

I did love Badlands and like I commend Dan Schattenberg for really reviving and committing to this franchise and making people care about it again because I, I mean Prey was fantastic. And then no, I've heard great things about this one. I need to watch it. But, but yeah, I mean Badlands was great.

And I mean as someone who I love the original, I never really cared about any of the sequel spin offs really. They were just like, they never really hit the same bar, but this is one where it's just a match made in heaven.

He understands the lore and the mythology so well. You know, sort of Mattel, great stories and yeah, I mean Badlands, especially for me was just such a wild ride where they made something that way.

A PG13 Predator movie with like him and Dakota fanning along the side and like they had humor in it that I feel like in the hands of anyone else, it could have been terrible and he knocked it out of the park. So I, yeah, I'm very much looking forward to this one.

I'd only ever seen Prey and I had a good time with this film as well and it made me excited about Predator Badlands. I don't know if I'm a Predator fan or a Dan Tractor Dan Trachtenberg fan, but that was a good time with the movies.

And they have all the ingredients now to make a good AVP movie if they want to. And I hope they do give him the reins and like, and I like Daily and Romulus.

I would be like I said there was a talk about like the two of them teaming up to make an AVP movie. I'm like, hey, go for it. So we'll see. But great. Take care. Yeah. Evan, did you get to. Are you into Predator stuff at all or to get to see either?

Technically, yes, I am, I am into it. I just don't have the time for it. It's on my list this and like you said, Romulus and the. I seen some of the show, the most recent show.

But I'm just glad that Dan's beginning work again because Ellen, because he, I, I, I remember him from back in the day on the old like film forms and stuff like that. It's cool to see him getting good work and, and doing so well from, from what I see.

Absolutely. Yeah. Great pick here. All right, Andy, what is we have next here?

It's me again.

So this, you know, and as I was alluded to before, A House of Dynamite is probably a better movie than this and maybe a more consequential movie than this. But this movie just charmed me so much that I had to throw it in here somewhere.

So this is a love story between an orbital satellite and a data collecting buoy in the ocean. So it is that sometime after most if not all of life on Earth has gone extinct.

And, but before, before we went away, we apparently put these satellites in orbit that are there to explain to Any aliens that come by in the future, what, what Earth was all about, what had happened in the past and how it came to be uninhabited again and, you know, a little bit of a potted history of, you know, human culture and so forth. And so that satellite is just zipping around waiting for somebody to show up and the oceans have frozen over.

And so the, this data collecting buoy that I think is actually a real thing or at least inspired by actual buoys that we've deployed for monitoring climate change and so forth.

Anyway, the ocean's thaw, this buoy reactivates and starts talking to the satellite that's been waiting to send its message to somebody and makes a connection with this buoy and they start talking.

And at first they're just, you know, playing their sort of prerecorded messages at each other, but eventually they start to develop personalities and they start to explore what it would mean to be, to have personhood and how they want to represent themselves.

And they go through sort of several stages of trying to figure out how to present themselves to each other and they, you know, learn how to be human by watching silly YouTube videos. And it just, I don't know, it was just very charming. These two actors just kind of going through, learning what it is to be human.

And, you know, I don't say this is a criticism, but especially with Kristen Stewart, like, I can believe that she needed to learn how to become a human and I mean that in the best way possible is, you know, a compliment to her performance. And yeah, it just, I also appreciate, appreciate it. It's a movie that is really interested in deep time.

It starts with a sort of montage, a time lapse montage of the Earth forming, you know, from the, you know, cooling of, of different asteroids and rocks and things that coalesced and formed the Earth and the formation of the moon, the collision that forms the moon, if I remember correctly, like, it goes all the way that far back through, you know, the emergence of life and the emergence of land and land animals and land plants and so forth up to the present. And then, you know, because these, that our main characters are, you know, electronics, they are, they have a much longer lifespan.

So it explores deep time into the future as well. And they have a different sort of relationship because they exist for a much longer period of time than humans.

And yeah, I just, I really thought it was, it was an interesting, an interesting film to contemplate and a very different story than I was seeing anywhere else. And so I just wanted to give it a Little bit of a shout out.

That sounds really cool. I really want to check this out.

Yeah, I remember seeing the trailer for this one because I've not watched the movie itself and I remember at the end of it saying, no, that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. But that's also the most brilliant thing I've ever seen. So I'm glad someone went out there for an idea like this and I'm glad it worked for you.

I don't think I'm ever going to watch it, but like I said, I'm glad someone's willing to experiment with such an idea.

I definitely want to check this out. Andy, you always have really good deeper cut recommendations. So I. This sounds fascinating actually.

And likewise, I think I. I commend filmmakers who go through. Go for really out there ideas.

Right.

And Right. And can, you know. Ambitious there.

What comes to mind is something kind of absurd almost is. Is Swiss Army Man. So I'm wondering if that's any kind of the basis for it almost or like a pairing of it. It seems like something like that.

That's one of the strangest and most exhilarating movies I've ever seen, you know, and that, I mean the. The Daniels then went on of course to do everything everywhere. So that. Yeah, but that. That's a great movie with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano. Yeah.

Good pick. Awesome. Well, Andy, thanks so much. This is a great pick here. I love it.

What do we got next?

Let's see. All right, my number four. So this is another one that. Well, this one was really interesting.

Like when I think about Frankenstein and some of the others, like even before I saw those movies, I kind of figured they would be like, they would have to be really disappointing for me that them did not be favorites of mine.

Eddington written and directed by Ari Aster this was a surprise for me in terms of how much I liked it because I am, even as a big horror horror fan, I'm not the biggest fan of Hereditary and then Midsommar. I like it a little bit more, but his tone is almost just too depressing and nihilistic for me.

And it's set in a fictionalized town in New Mexico, so, you know, right at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic. And Joaquin Phoenix plays the town sheriff, who I would say is Sort of like libertarian.

He's, you know, grown up there, he knows the community well, and he's getting pretty frustrated with government mandates and, and doesn't really believe that the virus is as big a deal as some others.

Whereas Pedro Pascal, in the Year of Pedro Pascal, where he was in everything, plays the mayor who is very progressive, but while not necessarily a villain or inherently bad, he's sort of a performative liberal. And the movie really does an interesting job explain exploring both of their, their personalities, their characters, their conflicting ideologies.

And it never boxes either of them or any of the other characters into stereotypes. It really gives a more nuanced portrayal, but. But more so than that, this is a film that is about how we consume information in the modern day.

And Ari Aster even said in interviews that the Internet wrote this movie. He, he had written a version of the script years ago because he wanted to make a modern western. And that's ultimately what it.

It's a dystopian western and satire. It's hard to put into one box. And I like that about the film that it's, you know, not easily categorized.

But he wrote this Western years ago and then, and then his filmmaking career took off and it kind of was put in the back burner. So he met Hereditary and Midsummer and Beau is afraid.

And what he's crafted, I think is a mesmerizing experience in terms of, like I said, satire, genre defying aspects, but again, really about the ways that information is constantly fed to us. And we get all these conflicting ideologies, but also we're not really good in modern age about identifying sources and verifying information.

We just get it, you know, fed to us in constant social media posts. And, you know, this ideology is trending today, so we should latch onto it and it examines all of that. It does not have black and white characters.

Like, as far as who's the hero and the villain, that's not really as much the question. These are very flawed, complicated characters and I never knew where it was going. I was enthralled the whole time.

I was laughing in a very, I mean, it's very dark humor. I'm not gonna say it's light by any means, but it was funny in the way it was meant to be. The cinematography is phenomenal.

So this was the first Ari aster film that I really loved. And, you know, I hesitate saying that films like this are enjoyable, but it was just a visceral experience and I, you know, I.

It's gonna elicit a lot of different reactions than it already has, but I think the people that have responded well to it are share similar thoughts as me in terms of, you know, the way it presents these characters, their viewpoints. And again, you never know where it's going next. And right down to the very ending, I was like, what is going on?

And I've seen it twice, Highly recommend it. I'm really glad I got to see it in theaters.

And it also, it may have been another reason why I was even more disappointed by Fantastic Four, because I saw this on a Thursday night and then I saw Peter Pascal in Fantastic Four the next day. He's great in both, but.

But I just came away from this mesmerizing original movie to what I thought was a very underwhelming comic book movie, in my opinion. But this is one I highly recommend. One of the most original, exhilarating experiences of the year. Also some great supporting performances by Deirdre.

Deirdre o', Connell, Emma Stone, Austin Butler. Yeah, this is just a, this was a truly great modern western and satire. And yeah, I, I, I.

And again, even for people like me who weren't as on the hype train of Ari Aster previously, this film brought me into his fan base.

So, yeah, yeah, I haven't seen this one.

I do intend to, but without seeing the film and hearing you talk about it, what I can truly appreciate is someone attempting to not make you agree with why someone would think a certain way, but help you understand why they think the way that they do, which is a lost art in the world. You know, just because I do agree with disagree with a lot of people doesn't mean that I despise them. And I want them to be downtrodden.

I want to understand why they think the way that they do so we can actually work on stuff. So, like, that's a very noble goal. And I'm sure there were plenty of people who said he sold out when he did something like that.

Actually, I think I remember seeing an article somewhere of someone saying that about him.

Oh, wow.

But yeah, without seeing the film, it sounds like he succeeded. If you're praising it as highly as you are.

Yeah.

Oh, I remember when, like, when the trailer came out and I was looking at the comment section on YouTube and one of them was like, oh, I'm sure this film's Gonna go over well on Twitter. Like, I'm not even on Twitter anymore. But like. But yeah, I mean, it's. It's a. But I like movies like that. That Elizabeth.

Very strong reactions for better.

I mean, I don't think anyone will dispute the visual quality and the performances here, but as far as how you react to the story and the characters, everything, that's going to be very divisive. And I appreciate that. It was a really bold film to make. I really want to see my number four. Yeah.

But I do want to point out the. The poster that we're looking at here. That's a beautiful poster.

Right. And they don't make like that anymore. Yeah.

Yep.

Poster making is another lost art. Yeah. Which.

Oh, oh, we lost the great Drew Sturzon and, you know, made some of the most iconic film posters of all time and they make just slop now that. That you like, almost makes you not want to see a movie. So I appreciate when they do a great poster like this. Yeah. Awesome.

Well, and that is on HBO Max, if you want to check it out. So. Yeah. Yep. Cool. All right, Andy, well, what is next here?

Or back to me. This is the problem of picking movies that nobody else.

Oh, cool.

So my number three is a documentary film called Wicked Pain about, as you might guess, the making of the John Wick films. It's mostly focused on the first film for. For much of its runtime, but it does go all the way up through John Wick number four.

And, you know, I was a late comer to the John Wick films just because I wasn't sure about the level of violence and so forth.

But, you know, I've been following the 87 Studios folks, the stunt performers, Chad Sahalski and David Leach and their crew that have, you know, that formed sort of their own independent stunt company and filmmaking company after working on the Matrix. Chad Sahelski was. Was kind of Reeves stunt double on all the first three Matrix films. He actually appears in the.

In the fourth film as a clever gag with that. And. Yeah, so. So they've been kind of doing this stunt business where, you know, they sort of drop in and. And provide stunt services for.

For a lot of films. And so a lot of the.

I remember at one point going and looking through IMDb and going, oh, yeah, all the movies that I remember going, oh, that was a cool stunt sequence. That was a cool fight sequence. They were all pointed back to one or both of those guys and their 87 studios.

So they eventually got to the point where they were able to make their own film. And that was John Wick and then the subsequent films.

And yeah, this is the exploration of that and it just, you know, it is an encouraging and uplifting story about, you know, following what you think you're following your passion, following what you think is, is important and worth doing and worth doing well, working hard to learn how to do something well and putting in, you know, putting the effort and the pain and working through the pain to get through it.

There was a lot of physical pain, obviously, that they had to go through to make these John Wick films because they're so stunt heavy because of the possibilities for injury and so forth. Fortunately, there are no significant, you know, like life altering injuries that happen as a result over the films, to the best of my knowledge.

But, you know, there's obviously little things that people have to deal with and also the emotional and sort of psychological challenges of making a movie that nobody was really sure about and nobody really believed in. And you know, at one point, John Wick wasn't going to get made.

They started filming it and they, they got to a weekend where they weren't sure that they were going to have money to pay people on Monday and they kind of scramble through the weekend to come up with more funding so they could finish the film.

And yeah, so I just, I appreciated the insight into the filmmaking process on various levels and the celebration of the folks who do the stunts that are often so invisible in a lot of films.

The thing I like about the John Wick films themselves is that they've elevated those stunt performers to being able to either perform as themselves or to get to make their own movies the way that they see fit. And the documentary also puts a lot of names and faces to stunt performances that even still you might not know who was behind them.

And so I appreciate that as well, that they get the stunt guys to come on and talk about what their job is like and their contributions to this film and their skill and their artistry.

Andy, is this streaming somewhere? Because I'm a big John Webb fan.

Yeah, I believe that. I saw it on Netflix. It is also, you know, had a very limited theatrical release and then went to like Video on Demand pretty quickly.

And then, yeah, I think it, I think it turned up on Netflix, but it was definitely streaming somewhere.

I'll definitely check it out. I mean, I love the John Wick films and like you said, it's the, the craftsmanship that goes into them is phenomenal.

And, and hey, if you need a reason to get through the violence it's just a understand that the catalyst is that the bad guys kill his dog in the first film one. So spoiler alert. But. But that's all you need to justify everybody's violence.

And there's a lot of discussion of that dog sequence in, In Wicked Pain. Nobody, nobody liked it, nobody wanted it in the films.

Everybody thought it was, it was a terrible idea that can't hurt a dog that, you know, you're going to, you're going to lose your audience.

And obviously, famously, it has turned out to be, you know, the thing that, that makes people sympathetic to John Wick that is made, you know, the films be something that people can engage with. There's also just an adorable sequence of, you know, so obviously they didn't murder a real puppy. There.

There's an adorable short little sequence in the documentary where they show taking. So there are points where Keanu Reeves is basically cuddling a stuffed animal as he's grieving the death of John Wick's dog.

And then to set up that scene, they took the stuffed dog and like walked its little paws through, through the fake blood and made little fake blood footprints on the floor with the, with the paws of the stuffed animal.

And it's just so, so sweet and funny to see these, you know, big burly stunt guys making their big burly stunt movie that involves, you know, walking a tiny little stuffed animal along the floor.

Oh, I love it.

That's why these are so great. Looking at behind the scenes stuff like this, I didn't even notice released like you, Andy. I got into the film super late and I enjoy them.

I couldn't tell you anything that happens outside of the first one, but I mean.

Oh yeah, they're just nonsense on top of nonsense.

Seeing like. Yeah, seeing like why did we decide to film it this way? Or the scene you were talking about the, about the dog.

Like I'm not one of those people with the dog dies. Like everything's ruined for me. You know, not that I hate dogs or anything like that, but like, you know, 50 people just died in the last scene.

But we're grieving over a dog. I'm gonna go human over animal but to see like why they had such a struggle with that. I like watching the behind the scenes stuff like that.

So I'll definitely check this out at some point in time. Thanks for letting me know.

I love that he rides all. He rides a horse in one of the other movies and then he, and then him and Donnie Yen fight. That's. Yeah.

I vaguely remember something like that.

I, I, I have a funny story about these films. When the first one came out, me and my high school friends, we reconnected on social media because we were like, guys, have you seen John Wick?

We're like, yeah, because John Wick is basically the films that we were making in high school.

And, and, and the funny part is I vividly remember us in our TV production class going over the, the story beats and the limpetus of our film was gonna be a death of, of the main character that sends them into, like, a violent rage. And we made four films about it.

But the funny part is that that one of our options for the impetus of his story, of this story was the death of his pet. And we were like, nah, that's too silly. That's too silly.

Lo and behold, you had. Yeah, that is so cool, though. But, but Evan, lo and behold, you could have created, right, the John Way franchise.

It's there. It's. It's the. Pretty much the same films that we were making. They're so just exaggerated and just creative, cool fight scenes and stuff.

So we, we won a honorable mention at a film festival for one of the films.

Are these visible anywhere?

One of them is on my YouTube channel if you want to go find.

Yeah, oh, 101 of them are viewers. You have an assignment.

Go for it.

Super cringy. So. But they're fun. But they're fun.

Very cool.

That's what every creator says about that work.

Same.

It's super cringy.

You shouldn't watch it.

Don't look.

Don't look.

Don't look. Yes.

Awesome. Well, Andy, excellent pick here. I'm definitely checking this one out. So what do we have next here?

All right, Weapons.

This was another one that I don't want to say it surprised me so much as it exceeded expectations spectacularly after once again, really only watching a lot of things that I knew the IP behind it.

I knew Cragger's work, obviously, from what he's done before, but there was that hesitancy of, like, am I gonna spend my money on something that I don't know? I'm guaranteed to like it. Well, guess what? I took the risk, and it was well worth the risk.

This is a fantastic film of, you know, dealing with, you know, the threat of a, you know, small town losing their children after one night. At the same time, they all run away. Naruto. Running as they do to a place where no one knows where they went.

The teacher of their class is under suspicion.

Even though there was no Logical way she could have been behind anything, but, like, it doesn't matter because it goes behind the paranoia of such things. Can you trust the people watching your children from the administration down to your teacher?

How well do you know the parents, the children in your son or daughter's class? And the paranoia that exists in a town where everything's supposed to be fine and everything has never been fine.

But you maintain like there is this normalcy, even though you know it's not.

Even though you know that there are people in the community that aren't as well off as others, that aren't as mentally as well off, as better as other people. And yeah, when we go into the fantastical later on the film, like, it doesn't break anything.

Like the explanation of someone who loves when people explain things versus making them ambiguous.

I love when we get the reveal here of what actually happens and how the perpetrator behind these events has done what they've done and why they would do what they do. But it also doesn't spell everything out for you. And Kevin and I, we talked about this a while back on a what's new?

It trusts its audience enough to not, like, here, let me shove this in your mouth. You're gonna eat and feed everything that I tell you. But like, no, there's enough. There you go. Oh, let me connect the dots myself.

But not enough for me to go. I had no way of ever explaining that myself. I think Crager does an excellent job of giving you enough to make this film even better. When you.

When you feel like you've been rewarded for your efforts for watching the film and paying attention.

It's a great movie. I mean, I love horror like this. This was really hard not to put as one of my favorites. But again, I had a lot of favorites this year.

But no, it's Zeger's direction, Craig's direction is phenomenal. It's. I really love the narrative structure of this movie.

Also, Josh Brolin looked a little different here than he does in Gooney, so I thought they were the same year, but. But, yeah. Oh, and fun fact, too, is that I know everyone talked about how Peter Pascal was in everything this year.

This was the one time where he couldn't be everywhere, everywhere all at once. He was going to have the Josh Brolin role originally, but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts. So. So, you know, we got. He.

He saved some room for another actor here, but. But yeah, this is a great movie. Wonderful gas, wonderful execution. I'm so, like, I am so excited to see what Zach Kker does next. I know he is.

His Resident Evil movie is actually coming out later this year. And then I, you know, I want to see him do IP stuff. I wanted to see him do a more original.

This in Barbarian was just a back to back, like excellent original horror movies.

Oh yeah.

This movie helped crystallize for me part of why I didn't respond to the ending of Lost as much as I wanted to. You know, so this movie was very much marketed as a, as a mystery and constructed as a mystery.

And when the, the answer to the mystery is something made up and therefore arbitrary, for me, that was. That's unsatisfying as a solution to a mystery, you know. Was the movie very well made? Yes.

Is it, is it interestingly constructed so that it unravels all those things in the way that you described? Absolutely. But yeah, for me that just like that was unsatisfying as the answer to a mystery of.

Oh well, yes, it's a arbitrary made up thing that has all the, the features that it needed to explain the mysterious things. Very nice. Okay, good job. But that could have literally been anything. But yeah, I could. So I can get why, why people responded to it the way that it.

Because yes, it is, it is very well done. But yeah, I realized that that's.

I appreciated that the movie helped me to understand something better about myself, about what I like and don't like in, in mystery storytelling.

Andy, I'm, I love when you go contrarian, not just because you want to be provocative. Like this is legitimate feelings on the matter because this is how you've thought through it.

Like it's, it's nice to have someone say I love this film, it's this. And say, well, this doesn't work for me because. And you actually explain yourself. So thank you for that.

Absolutely. No, and I like it. And Andy, I, I have heard others share that. I think it was really, this movie comes down to the ending, how people felt about it.

Like, I like, I think. And I, I do think part of it too for me was the performance of the villain was so good. That had a lot to do with it.

But yeah, no, I mean, because there were. I talked to others who were like, pretty underwhelmed by the ending. I think everyone likes the execution of it up until that point.

And the ending is going to be very hit or miss and it worked for me. But I like Christian said, I very much like. I like how you state your opinions and give reasons as to why you respond to this or Didn't.

Yeah. And it's absolutely an aesthetic thing that, you know, I can understand that other people would respond, Respond in the exact opposite way.

No, this movie was a spoiled for me and some memes. But I could, I just, from seeing that, I felt the same way as you, Andy. I was like, oh, really? Oh, oh, oh. I, I guess. Okay.

Like, I do think Barbarian is a better written film and it really is like, packs a bonkers ending there, but. Yeah, but I still really enjoyed this one. Like I said, I, I really want to see what Cracker does next, so. Very cool.

All right, Andy, whatever we have next. I know. Okay. My number two here. All right, so one battle after another.

Yeah, it looks like my, my number three will be talking a little bit because that overlaps with several others, but. But one battle after another is my number two pick. I know I talked about this in a what's news episode.

This is, you know, the big Paul Thomas Anderson action new American classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infinity, Teyana Taylor. This is another one where I just was exhilarated the whole time.

This tells the story of an ex revolutionary played by DiCaprio who gets back into action when his daughter is on the run from his old nemesis. And, and what was really interesting, I've talked to a lot of people who love this movie like I did from the beginning.

I talked to some friends from church who, they turned it on and they got really bored after the first 20 minutes because it, it has one of the longer intros in recent movie history. It does this entire prologue involving the past with DiCaprio, his wife, and the revolutionary group they were a part of. And for me, I loved it.

I, I thought it was a great way to introduce, you know, them in this younger era of the revolution and introduce Sean Penn's villain. Who Sean Penn. It gives a tremendous performance. I don't even like Sean Penn as a person.

He's probably one of my, like, least favorite people, but phenomenal actor. And he absolutely decimates in this performance as one of the most sinister villains I've seen in years.

And you know, for that I would be okay with him getting an Oscar. I don't, you know, I, I, he's not ever someone I would want to. And that, that became solidified by interviews I read with him.

I'm like, I don't like this guy. But, but great performance and you know, it helped that he was playing such a despicable villain. I didn't have to root for him.

But, but yeah, this is just a whirlwind of a movie. It's incredibly well directed. I, I mean Paul Thomas Anderson, when I think about like my favorite directors, he doesn't immediately come to mind.

Like, I mean I love you know, some of the films certainly, but I'm not like an Anderson connoisseur. This one really catapulted him to, you know, consideration for one of my favorites. And I love the stylistic choices he makes.

I love the way he works with actors. It's just a wild ride and it's in like Eddington in many ways. While not as dark there, it's very funny in a way.

I mean this was even labeled as a comedy.

In many ways it was one of the funniest movies I've seen in this year because despite the subject matter of you know, white supremacists working from inside the government and these revolutionaries fighting back against military who is cracking down on immigration, which is obviously very timely for today despite all of that and the heavy handed themes here, it also very much and not even made an effort. It just did it, you know, intentionally as a satirical look at all this. And it's funny, it's riveting, it's wildly entertaining.

If anything I, you know, I've heard some criticisms and I kind of agree with this that I would have liked. I think it would have been interesting to have the movie almost entirely from Chase Infinity's character's perspective as the daughter Willa.

I think she has the most interesting story.

And while it was funny watching DiCaprio playing this bubbling middle aged ex revolutionary and it leads to some of the funniest moments in the movie. I think her story was the most captivating because she was one who.

She's been told her whole life that not to do this, this and this and you know, and not have a phone and, and be very careful and she doesn't even know whether her parents revolution in the past was real or not. I think that would have been in some ways a more interesting narrative to explore. And Chase Infinity gives a great performance.

But nonetheless I still love how this movie came together. It's a riveting soundtrack, it's riveting cinematography. Just a wild experience from start to finish and I cannot recommend enough.

And it's one of those where I don't judge people if they don't like it. But I'm just like, I almost like interrogate them. Like what is it you don't like? I just want to know. I need to know that because I.

It Was one I've seen three times and yeah, has become just a new classic and is already making a lot of people's lists of not just best movies of the year, but best movies of the 21st century. And yeah, I don't think I would dispute that. I had a great time with this film.

Certainly impressive. I haven't watched this one, but it does sound like the film my dad, brother and I would just.

If we were just on Netflix or whatever trying to pick out a movie, we'd end up on this one.

You've got a chance. It's on HBO Max now. Just dropped like a couple weeks ago since you asked.

Both, both this and Eddington were movies that I was really vibing with for most of the way through.

And they both, in different ways, take some, make some plot choices in the final, like 15 or 20 minutes that maybe I just didn't understand what was going on thematically. But to me they felt like they were either at odds with or muddying the themes that the movie had been developing otherwise.

And so, yeah, I would say in both cases they were like 90%. And I said something similar about Fantastic Four, I guess, although a very different way, but like 90% of a movie that I, that I enjoyed.

And then at the end kind of went, well, wait a minute, I'm not sure I understood. And again, it might be me.

Maybe I didn't understand what the movie was saying with those, with those plot choices, or maybe I misunderstood the themes leading up to that point. But yeah, there were just. It, they took some left turns that I, I couldn't quite follow.

It is quite an ending. And I do think this film in particular is rewarding with multiple watches.

There's a lot more to get out of it because the first time you're just kind of experienced this big action adventure, epic and satire. But I, I agree. I think it's particularly the ending. There's a lot to take away from it on rewatches.

But I think it, what for me, what it has to say without spoilers is that like the new generation inherits the problems of the past and there is this like, hope of hopefully they can make a better world and learn from the mistakes of the past. And it's not a pro violence film by any means.

I saw some, like, particularly like conservative commentators say that and I disagree, but I really like the ending, particularly with the letter. I won't spoil who that's from and who it's directed toward, but that was really powerful scene for me. So.

Yeah, but, but it is kind of worthy of really dissecting and watching multiple times to see really what you think of how the themes come together or don't.

Yeah. And I would agree that those were the themes that I was getting from it, but then I didn't understand what.

Why the Christmas adventurers played the role that they did in the plot.

And I felt like if the main characters had had more to do with the resolution of certain storylines, that it would have made more sense to me thematically than having the Christmas adventurers play the role that they did. And that. That's my attempt to be. Not entirely spoilery, but hopefully you understand what I'm saying.

Yeah, I know I do. I think without spoiling, too, I'll just say my takeaway is that it points to the.

The stupidity of fascism and with the, like, inviting there and, like, their own roles, that. That's kind of my initial takeaway. I'll have to think about it more, though. But good point. Yeah. Yeah. So awesome. Well, Andy, what do we have next?

I know that was my number two.

Yep. So now we're up to my number two and Evan's number three of thunderbolts. Do you want to say some words, Evan?

I'm just glad that this film exists in the capacity that it does. I was very surprised in this, you know, this mental health, a positive friendship, positive film and a superhero film, you know, and I'm just.

Yeah, I wanted to put it a little bit higher on my list, but I'm glad that there wasn't.

Yeah, I. I will echo what you said, and, yeah, I like that the way the film resolves emphasizes de escalation. As much as I enjoy an action sequence and a. And a stunt sequence and a fight sequence, as much as anybody else, I.

You know, thematically, I thought that was a good. A good place to go to explore the. The value of de escalation. And like I say, the. The value of mental health, support and friendship and all of that.

It also felt like, you know, the MCU doing what it does best, bringing together different characters that hadn't been together before and sparking new kinds of dynamics and new relationships, as well as building off of, you know, existing good relationships or good dynamics like the Yelena Red Guardian dynamic. And I don't fully understand why they haven't done more of that. It. You know, it seemed like that was a good.

A good thing that came out of the, you know, the Infinity Saga was the way that all the different characters crossed over and interacted, and I think that's the biggest thing that's been missing in the post endgame mcu. So it was nice. It was nice to see here that they. They were bringing together some different folks, giving.

Giving a spotlight to folks that maybe had been underused in their previous appearances. Hello, Ghost and Taskmaster. Although you could make the case the Taskmaster was underserved yet again.

And I. I would not argue with you on that point. But, yeah, I. It was just a lot of fun.

You could say that she was ghosted.

Uh, you. You could say that and you would be, uh, making a double entendre. And well done for you.

There we go.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Yeah. Sorry, Kevin. This film surprised me in a good way.

After hearing about more reshoots and other deadlines coming up, I was like, oh, please, can we not have Brave New World again? Because that's what plagues that film immensely and destroys the messages it's trying to bring. And you know what I think.

And the other thing I was like, how are these fools supposed to take on the sentry? This is where you introduce him and you make him like a villain for film. Was like, I came in this film expecting it to be bad. And you know what?

I got one of the better MCU films we got this year. I would put Fantastic Four above it just slightly, but I think that's more. Because I jive with them a little more as characters.

But the Thunderbolts did a great job of bringing these misfit idiots together, establishing why they wouldn't work as a team and yet why they also would work as a team after everything they've gone through. We get good introduction for the century, then we get all the machinations of Valentina as well. That, you know.

Yeah, she doesn't get the repercussions she would have in a different movie, but the repercussion is that she's forced to work with people she doesn't like and she tried to actively have murdered. So it's not like she's one at the end of the day. It's more like a mutual.

Like we can both blow each other up thermonuclear war, as it were, if we want to expose each other's secrets. So I enjoy this film for what it is.

Yeah, likewise. I mean, I know we did an episode on it earlier in the year where I get. We dive deeper, but I really enjoyed this one.

I mean, like, like Christian said, I mean, it was concerning with all the behind the scenes stuff they had, but this was a great director. It was a Solid script.

I, I really, these are probably some of my favorite characters in the post endgame world and I really, really glad they got to come together. It's just, it's well done. I wish they would make more kind of like self contained but a good team up.

Movies like this where you don't have to do a ton of homework going in. You can just kind of go ahead and watch it and yeah, it had a message. It's on mental health. The action was really well done. Yeah.

In an era of MCU that's very clunky and not a lot of hits, this was by far this and Daredevil Born Again despite its flaws were my top MCU things this year.

Yeah. And I would agree with Christian that I think I vibe with the Fantastic Four characters more.

And like I said, you know, most of that movie was probably, I probably enjoyed more than than this but this one just felt like it was more complete or more consistent all the way throughout that its ending matched what it, what had been doing leading up to that.

Whereas I felt like the Fantastic Four just kind of we could have done better than and then we, you pull the oldest gag in the book on Galactus and shove him a little bit.

Good stuff. Yes, definitely. Check out Thunderbolts if you have not already. Like even if you've been kind of checked out of mcu.

I, I, I, I think this is a good one. Awesome. Well Andy, what do we have next here?

All right. Yeah, apologies but that was just how the, the sorting worked out. You want to start again, man?

Wake up dead man. It's the third anthology almost right for the Knives out films and the themes and the setting and the, the characters.

I just related so much to this film. It was so well executed, solid mystery thriller where it wasn't. It was kind of Scooby Dooish but in, but in it, but in a professional way in a sense.

And it was a tie between my first and my number two. I couldn't, I could not, I, I could not choose which one I like the most. So, so just for sake of placement I put it at number two.

But, but this one was right up there those the themes right off the bat of the two parts of Belief and non Belief co trying to coexist and in the end they can coexist in a way that, that's beneficial to you and to and to those around you was a theme that really resonated with me and I love that that it's a Rian Johnson joint. He's one of my Favorite directors out there.

So, yeah, I mean, this was, you know, there might be some. Some recency bias. And then I just watched it and had a good time watching it with my family. But same.

You know, I just felt like this was in a movie where there were a lot of. In a year, rather, where there were a lot of movies that. That I thought were good and I enjoyed.

This was one that stood out as a really great film as a. As somebody who's still figuring out his own relationship to his evangelical upbringing and evangelical present.

Right.

You know, I appreciated what Rian Johnson was exploring here.

Appreciated that we get characters who are, you know, sincere and religious, but in a way that is depicted positively and constructively and, you know, as. As a mystery. You know, for me, again, as. As I alluded to before, because the.

The resolution of the mystery involves things that make sense to me and that I can see where they were coming from. You know, I didn't. I didn't work it out in advance.

I won't claim that I had solved it before, before Benoit Blanc did, but it was satisfying in a way that I could see where all the pieces were coming from. I could see that the pieces had been in place. You know, Chekhov's Lazarus Door was put on the shelf in the first act and so forth.

And, yeah, so it just. The mystery element of it, I enjoyed it went some places that I didn't expect, but in ways that made sense and that were satisfying.

And, yeah, it's just a pleasure to watch Daniel Craig inhabit this character and to say things like Scooby Dooby Doo and surprise us with. With the layers of his. His character as well.

And that he, you know, doesn't have a, you know, a huge change of heart, but he does go through his own journey and deals with his own relationship to belief in things that aren't necessarily empirical. And so, yeah, I appreciated just about everything that this movie was doing.

Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I did get to see it in theaters because Friend, who is a huge murder mystery buff, we've seen all the Knives out movies in theaters.

And, yeah, I thought this was the best. Like, I think it was definitely the best of the three.

For me, the other two are funnier, but this one, like you said, I mean, it was just the most interesting in terms of exploring the religious themes. And I was really engaged by the mystery element. Great cast. Brian Johnson films are just always fun. Sorry, Christian, but.

But yeah, this one was just, like, so much to dissect here. I know we could do A whole episode on it. But yeah, it was another one.

It was hard not making my top list because again, a lot of favorites this year, but I did really love this one.

Yeah, I'm behind on this film series.

I haven't watched Glass Onion yet, so I'm eventually going to get to them because I did enjoy Knives out ultimately at the end of the day, but it's not like high priority.

But it is good to hear because I have heard from other people that the religious themes that explorers here are well worth like checking out this film for. So it's. It's on my list.

And the Star wars reference is. Is beautiful.

Crazy. Knows nothing about that. He hasn't.

The greatest thing these films do is prevent him from making that trilogy he wants to make for Star wars allegedly, along with the 50 other films they announced that never going to happen.

True. Yeah.

I still want to get to the.

Which I question making that a movie. But you know what, they can do what they want.

Yeah. Yeah. Sweet. But yes, another Knives out movie. Good. Really great stuff.

But I recommend Starfighter, the other one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Oh, I know you're referring to. Yeah. But yeah. Well, Andy, Evan, great pick. Anything else you want to say on it?

I think that's it.

The music was. The music choices good. In the background, there was some Larry Norman in the bar and stuff like that. Like some.

Some real deep cuts, if you know where to look. Oh, and I would like to push the supporter of this show, Trip Fuller. He did a. He did a talk with.

With Rian Johnson about this film and the themes behind it and the oranges behind it. And it's a great talk, a great talk with him.

That was pretty awesome that he got the interview. Right?

Right.

Yeah. Sweet. Awesome. Well, Andy, what do we have next? I know we're. We're going way over time, but I figured this would be a packed episode.

So as long as we're not super hungry right now, you may or may.

Not be glad to know that we're done with my picks. So we're on to Kevin's number one and a movie also on Christian and Evan's list.

Perfect. So, yeah, like, we're gonna do my number one because that's my number three. Also overlapped with some.

I mean, it was the DC movie and Superman movie that I've been waiting so long for to see. They finally got the character right. It's a joyful experience.

And, you know, they made a Superman who is unabashedly kind and good hearted and not ashamed to be so. And the relationship between him and Lois is stellar.

The casting of them and Lex and Jimmy and then the Justice Gang, which I still love that name, are all right. Pulled right out of the comic books.

And for me, on a personal note, I think, which is why I keep coming back to and why I've seen it so many times, is like, you know, I mean, it's a, it's an emotional experience.

And I, you know, for me this year, like my grandfather passed away, I had other friends pass away in the past years and, and there's like, particularly the scene that gets me every time is between Clark and Pa Kent. And it's a beautifully written, beautifully acted scene. The music adds an extra touch there in the background.

And it just gets to the heart of why I love the character so much.

And it's someone who, yes, he has all these powers, but he still is wrestling with a lot both about his identity, what his purpose is and dealing with loss. And that all just came together so well. And so I thought this was the one that James Gunn was born to make.

I mean, love the Guardians movies and everything. And I love his horror stuff, but this is the one he really poured his heart and soul into, as well as all the other creative team here.

But it's got heart, it's got humor. I love the action sequences. Yeah.

When I just think about, you know, the, the most fun and exhilarating time I had it at the theater this year, this immediately pops number one. I saw it. Not just that, I see it three times in theaters.

I saw it three times in a single week and then have watched it multiple times at home on Blu Ray and on streaming. So, yeah, it's just again, are there flaws in it? Of course. But is it my favorite of the year? Without a doubt. Yeah.

I'm struggling to think of something that I haven't said on other shows because I've talked about this movie at least three or four times across, not even our own network, but others. It's just fun. You'll believe that a man can fly. Again, this is a fantastic. I use that word multiple times over.

I don't care because, you know, that's how I feel. This fantastic. It embraces the source material in ways previous Superman movies have utterly failed to do.

From the opening crawl, we get, this is a lived in world. This is dc, baby. You know, wacky and wild and stupid things are happening.

Take all your Golden Age and Silver Age and Bronze Age and more nonsense, throw them on the scene together and we have a fun film with characters once again. And I thought this was going to be so bloated when other characters like, you know, Hawk and Mr.

Terrific and Guy Gardner were going to be in the film. Like, oh, we're setting up for Justice League in the first movie. That's what they did forever ago in the the Snyderverse. And I can't do nothing.

No, can you give me more? Because you actually write these characters and love and appreciate who they are. And I'm not saying Zack Snyder hates Superman. Don't be.

Don't at me there. I'm saying he didn't get him because GUN gets Marvel, he gets dc, he gets Superman.

And I know there was some other stuff we had talked about before, like, Andy, you had said you weren't as big on in the film, but I, I mean, I can't agree in that regard. But I understand where you're coming from. Like, I'm here for this movie and I'm here for the rest of what he has to offer.

I don't know what else to say because like, you guys, we talked about it before. This movie just got me so hyped. I saw it three times in theaters. The third time is because in the second viewing, my son had an asthma attack.

So we leave. So but once he, once he cooled down and we went right back to the movies and we went to go watch again to finish it, but.

But watching it at home, I didn't see the parallels to James Gunn's journey as a filmmaker in the sense of he was very cynical, he was very, he was very kind of dark. And.

And then his cancellation from social media, from Disney, and now he's making these stories where you try to balance those two sides of yourself and to be honest with yourself. And he just executed it so well. Here it was this. And the thunderbolts were tied for me.

So good stuff. And yes, Andy, like we talked about earlier, I. When you have a contrarian opinion, I totally respect it because you back it up well.

And like, wow, I Disagree, I think. I mean it was, it was a great point you brought up on like from your perspective and how this handled things. But. But yeah, so that I don't know.

There we again. You can go in for our very in depth discussions on Superman back in the summer.

And I do encourage you to because I'm pretty proud of, uh, the episodes we did back in the summer, so. Awesome. Well, we're all punk rockers.

I was gonna say that soundtrack too.

Yeah, the Gun delivers on soundtracks every time, but yeah, so yeah. Sweet. Awesome. Andy. Well, I know we're running short on time here.

Might not be so obvious, but we're actually up to our last movie. The highest ranked film of the year of this group is Sinners.

There we go. There we go.

Yeah, this was another one, kind of like weapons.

I was almost hesitant to show up because, like, it wasn't an easy one to get into as far as, like, I knew I'd be getting into something good, but I kept hearing good things and when I finally watched it for myself, like, this is money well spent. This may be my number one film.

And I didn't know it was recency biased then, but now after time has passed, I can say, yes, this is my number one film.

Sinners is a phenomenal take on, you know, vampires on, you know, the history of America, you know, the Great Depression period, you know, the African American community. And not even just them, like you know, the white community, the Asian American community.

And you know, at that time Irish people weren't seen as white.

So to see them too, we get the Choctaw showing up as well and all the blending together, these different people from these different walks of life that's already complicated enough. And then a bunch of hive mind vampires show up and ruin the day. What do you do with that?

Well, with this film, you're going to see some awesome stuff. You have some great characters here with Michael B. Jordan to the point where my dad didn't know that he was playing separate characters.

He thought the manic guy looks really like him. And you know what? There were times he fooled me too, even though I knew better. Like he did a great job at pretending that he was someone else.

I mean, that's his job. It's really good when someone can do their job job well. And like this, this cast is stacked. Like I don't know names that well.

The only one I recognize off the top of my head is Haley Stenfield. That's because of other MCU stuff, but like, I can't name Their characters.

I can't name the actors, but I can tell you these people are worth watching and they're worth, like, cheering for even when we know bad things are going to happen. Because, you know, I don't expect good things to happen in a vampire film that much.

I mean, this isn't full, like, From Dusk Till dawn as long as it takes for you to get to the vampire stuff. But, like, it does a great job with them. I'm here to hear what everyone else has to say.

Oh, I'll say. Well, Christian, on the actor's note, so, like, Delroy Lindo should have been a household name, an Oscar winner years ago.

And it's still like, because he's, I think, one of the greatest living actors and doesn't get, if you really want to see, like, he's working a lot of Spike Lee stuff, but in Defy Bloods, he's phenomenal there. But in here, he, like, even though, like, even if he only had one scene here. One of my favorite. I mean, there's. There's so much in this movie, man.

Like, so much spectacle and everything. But one of my favorite scenes is early on when Smoking Stack are kind of going around recruiting people for the juke joint.

I forget if it's Smoker Stack goes to him, but they, but he talks to him about getting beer and, and having him play at the juke join and they have just this great dialogue and this great is. He just gives. He has amazing screen presence and it's just. It's such a wonderful performer.

But yeah, I mean, this is another one I. I know I've talked about in previous episodes, but it's just what a ride it is from start to finish. I mean, when I first saw the trailer, like, I didn't even need a trailer.

When I saw Ryan Coogler and horror and Michael G. Jordan, I'm like, I'm there. I don't need to know anything about it. But I saw it three times in theaters and watched it at home since then, got it on 4K. And yeah, it's just.

I keep saying, you're probably tired of me here saying things like exhilarating and mesmerizing, but I don't know how else to describe it.

It's just when I came out of this movie, not that I wasn't already a big Ryan Coogler fan, but when I came out of this one, I was just like, give him whatever he wants to do going for. I mean, if he wants to do Star wars, if he wants to do D.C. if he wants to do another original, like, I mean, I am there.

Whatever he wants to do now remake on Black Panther 3. Oh, my gosh, yes. That would be perfect.

Why not?

But, yeah, I would be down. But no, it's like you said, it has so much to say about the history of America, about.

And, like, merging racial history with vampires and horror and doing this big, sweeping epic. The music is just phenomenal. And I know everyone talks about it rightfully so.

The scene when in the juke joint where they do a culmination of years of black music musicians and merge those different eras into one scene, it was just. You can't take your eyes away from it. The performances are great. Yeah. I mean, this was a big contender for number one. Really. I just.

I had a hard time picking, like, with my top three here, but they're almost interchangeable. I love this movie.

Yeah. This and a Wake Up Dead man are almost equal in my book.

But with a Wake Up Dead Man, I could kind of vocalize why I liked it, why it resonated so much. But with this, I don't know. I just sat in that movie theater like, whoa, I.

And the words that came to my mouth was, I'm glad I'm alive when this movie came out. And it sounds kind of cheesy and stuff, but it's. I don't know how. I just don't know. It's just. I don't know.

It's just worked on so many levels, this film. So many levels for me. And I had to trick my dad into it because he hates horror films. And he goes, yeah, but I saw the trailer and.

And.

And it's about zombies, right? I go, no, it's not. It's not. It's not about zombies. But. But.

But I kind of kept the secret of it being about vampires kind of a secret, so he could watch it and we could talk about it. And he goes, thanks for tricking me into seeing the film because I loved it.

And, Evan, I love what you say there about. It's almost hard to vocalize. Like, I remember when I came out of it. Well, it was.

I saw it on Good Friday when it opened, and I just post on my Instagram story. I was like, I just said, hallelujah, What a movie. It didn't even need, like, where it was just like, go see it. Go see.

I think the last time I walked out of a theater feeling that way was minus one.

Oh, cool.

I'm sure there's other things that might be close, but, like, I Just saw cinema.

Yeah. Yeah, man.

I'm eager to hear your thoughts on this.

Yeah.

I mean, if the question was, you know, what are the best, well, you know, most well made movies that I saw this year, Certain Sinners certainly, you know, deserves to be in that conversation and you know, near the top, you know, is it dealing with important themes that we need to still grapple with because we haven't fully, you know, come to terms with them? Absolutely. And you know, I, I applaud Ryan Coogler for, for going there with, you know, some, some nuance and some, you know, bravery.

You know, if, if we're talking about movies that I enjoyed watching, apparently I'm the sort of person that would rather watch a satellite fall in love with a buoy than to watch vampires kill people. I don't know what that says about me, but, you know, that's really kind of what it, what it comes down to. There may have also been a little bit of.

I know everybody else, you know, really liked this movie, so I want to, you know, shout out some other things. But yeah, I mean, you know, very well done.

If I, if I had to quibble, there were maybe some decisions in, in the horror movie tradition of, oh, why did you do that? That was clearly not a good idea. But you know, that's, that's partly part of the, you know, part of the genre.

And you know, I hardly think this movie is the worst offender in that regard. But yeah, the decision, if I'm, if I'm remembering correctly, the decision to kind of let them all in at the end felt a little bit of a.

Well, the plot needs that. The film needs the, the final climactic action sequence more than that character maybe needed to make that decision. But.

And you know, as somebody who was a fan of the particular Irish folk song that gets used in the film as the sort of anthem of the villains group prior to the film coming out, that maybe didn't. It didn't thrill me personally. Right. You know, that it wasn't, it didn't make my heart sing. Exactly.

But, but, you know, was it a valid artistic choice? Absolutely. Do I, you know, do I think that Ryan Coogler hates Irish people? No, I don't think that.

And I don't think that you, you know, I think it's clear from the, the text of the film that, that he has more to say than something that banal.

But, you know, for talking about personal reactions and personal taste and so forth, you know, that maybe didn't quite, quite resonate with me in the same way that it might have other people. But yeah, I don't really want to criticize this movie. I really don't think that there's anything wrong with this movie.

It just was not as much of something that I enjoyed perhaps as appreciated as much.

Oh, and Christian, also on the cast, one Mimosako, she was the TVA agent in Loki. She's great as well.

Yeah.

And she was okay.

Yeah. And she was in a crime series with John Bernthal. I'm blanking on the name, but that was excellent too. It's on hbo. She's phenomenal as well.

But yeah, that's another thing where I'm just like, give Coogler if he wants to, you know, a big, another big complica, you know, stars movie or something because he can handle an ensemble so well and he knows how to like give them each other satisfying arcs and you know, proper screen time. Like Michael B. Jordan. This is his movie. But there it's a great ensemble cast here.

I do want to say, Andy, I appreciate you putting his name there twice.

That's perfect. As it should be times two.

You do twice the work, you get twice the credit.

Awesome. 100%.

Hope we got paid that way.

I think he made a pretty penny on this one. I'm going to guess. I don't think Michael B. Jordan, starving for finances right now. Yeah.

What a renaissance. From fan force to.

Right, right.

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad he died. He's not going to be remembered for that.

And from, from Killmonger even, like he really raised the bar on his characters.

Yep. He's got, I mean, they're a match made in heaven. Jordan and Coogler, they've worked together now for years and movies together.

And oh yeah, Fruitville Station.

Oh yeah, Fruit Valley Station. Creed, you know, I mean, they, they're. He's in all his movies and they go way back.

And I, I mean it's, it's a, it's a modern Scorsese De Niro and I, I hope it will continue for years to come. Awesome.

Nice.

All right, guys. Well, that was what an episode here.

I am so excited at the prospect of a Christopher Nolan Odyssey film, especially knowing that back even before Batman Begins, he was originally attached to direct Troy before it went to Wolfgang Peterson. And then he went. He did Batman.

But, you know, I mean, a huge knowledge fan and I'm a big fan of the big, you know, historical Greek epics and stuff like that. I was also in a production of the Odyssey in high school. I was the voice of the Cyclops. So I know the story. I'm really looking forward to that.

Others are Spielberg's disclosure day that, you know, reuniting him with screenwriter David Cope, who he wrote Black Bag Andy. So he's also had. It's really good stuff come up in recent years.

But I'm always down for a Spielberg Alien movie and then, you know, project Hail Mary, Supergirl and MCU wise. I probably. I mean, of course, like, Doomsday has me the most like, what is this movie going to be and how is it going to turn out? If.

If I had to say which one I'm more excited for is probably Spider man, because the director of Shangchi is doing it. And I don't have to worry about all the. I hope not all the multiverse shenanigans with that movie as much. I just hope it's good.

Doomsday, we will see how it turns out. And then, of course, Dune, there's some others there.

Oh, and then right off the bat, in January, 28 years later, the Bone Temple I'm very excited for, as well as send help, which is the new Sam Raimi. So there's a lot coming out. But. But what are you guys, like, most excited for out of these.

Spider man, obviously, he's my guy. Ride or die. Some of the leaks that have come out that look really good. Questioning why Punisher and Hulk are in the same movie. But you know what?

Maybe they can surprise me again. I'm up for that. Sounds like we're gonna get a montage of him taking down some lesser villains too, which I'm always fond of.

Then, of course, you know, Doomsday comes out. It's like, it's hyped up.

It's not as much hype as, you know, we had the first time around with Infinity War and Endgame, but I'm still in it to win it. Like, they haven't lost me yet. And Supergirl's coming out.

I'm really eager to see what Gunn does with her and adapting that story because I got to read that graphic novel. I was at Will's place a couple months ago and I really enjoyed it. Dune Part 3 comes out.

Werewolf eggers, always loving what he's going to be ending up doing. So those are me.

Oh, also, Clayface is like, I'm almost even more excited by that than the superhero ones. While I'm looking forward to those that. That I'm really excited for.

If anyone could be the anti Sony, I think it could be in the Gunverse. And we can have a hero without the. Excuse me. A villain story without the main hero inside of it.

And Mike Flanagan wrote. Mike Flanagan wrote it. That's what's really.

Oh, yes, Flanagan, yes.

Yeah, yeah. He couldn't direct it because it's scheduling conflicts, but it's his script, so that I'm fair excited for Evan. Andy, what about you guys?

And I'll just say, you know, I went with movies that had posters available, plus I had to throw in Spider man because I know Christian's a Spider man guy, and I'm excited about Spider Man 2 and, you know, destined in a Cretan. And Jackie Chan was on set to bless the proceedings, so that's always a positive sign. Yeah, it was.

And, you know, it's a handsome, funny microbiologist saving the world with his microbiology skills. So personally, it's hard not to love. And that's before you get to, you know, Chris Lord and film.

No, Chris Miller and Phil Lord having their, you know, their hands in this. I have a lot. I've enjoyed a lot of what they've done before. I'm with Kevin. I have no idea what to expect from Doomsday.

I will obviously be there when it comes out, but, you know, I've, you know, the sun Cost fallacy. What's that? I've seen all these MCU movies. I'm here for the next one. And, yeah, I'm excited.

Andrew Koji was excellent in Warrior, a TV series based on a concept that Bruce Lee put together. And so I'm excited for him to be on the big screen as Ryu in the Street Fighter movie. I have no idea if it'll be any good or not.

I have no idea if he will get. Get his proper moment to shine in that film or not. But I hope. I hope for all the good things on that front.

Yeah.

That.

That Street Fighter film looks like it's gonna be bonkers in a great way.

I hope so.

Looks fantastic.

Yeah.

But I shared the same sentiments on all the comic book films and, and with the Odyssey and I'm super excited to. Even though that is not a like episode film, but we are getting Star wars back on the big screen.

Like that just kind of fills a hole in my heart that nothing else will. So. And, and I completely forgot about, about Toy Story 5. I'm super curious to see that.

To see that film and see what how they take the characters and stuff. Because.

Because without four ended.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, I'm really looking for.

I'm overly cautiously optimistic about that.

Right.

Yeah, same.

That's one that it should have ended with three, but four was better than it had any right to be. So we'll see. But oh also since you got it up here, the Bride from Maggie Gyllenhaal. Very excited for as well.

I've seen the trailer that looks really interesting. So. So a lot of good stuff on here and yeah, this was a jam packed episode. I hey, if you've watched with us the whole time, I really appreciate it.

We had to do, we had to do a big end of the year banger of an episode and we succeeded. So thank you guys.

Yeah, but thank you for giving me my, my watch list for the next for the rest of the week while I'm really doing nothing at home.

Absolutely. I love it. Well everyone, thank you so much for listening watching. If you're new here again, please rate show rate subscribe share.

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