#19. 'Sentinelle'
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The main film is Sentinelle, a French-set (but apparently Russian-produced) Netflix action picture with Olga Kurylenko as a PTSD-stricken commando who goes vigilante after her sister is beaten into a coma and raped by a Russian oligarch's son. The hosts are underwhelmed but not hostile. Sonny's big-boy review pitches it as "the movie Ava wanted to be" — a credible female-led action film whose star is a genuinely plausible physical killer — and admires its lean ~75-minute efficiency. Vic runs the quadrants to a near-perfect A (A-plus plot, A-plus duration, an A for the French-ish nudity) yet admits he was bored in stretches and wanted more killing. JVL is the skeptic: the fights don't touch John Wick, Atomic Blonde, or Haywire (the one standout is the bathroom brawl), the junkie/PTSD subplot is dropped after 40 minutes, and the revenge premise has a logic hole (why frame it as an unprovable he-said/she-said rape when the sister also turned up nearly beaten to death?). All agree it plays like an unaired pilot padded to feature length, and the episode is stuffed with competing "Gene" parody reviews (JVL's "quantum of solace / un-forking believable" being the showpiece). The hangout is dominated by Vic's Georgetown Hoyas storming the Big East tournament and landing a trendy 12-seed (with much March Madness talk and glee that Duke missed the field), a Snyder Cut preview from Sonny — who's marveling at the black levels on his brand-new OLED — and G-Money's Power Rangers logic bomb ("why don't they just do the final attack first?").
From the show notes
The guys were underwhelmed by Sentinelle , a new Russian (or maybe French) feature on Netflix. In theory it's a quadrant-crusher ... or is it? JVL has a review. Vic has a review. Sonny has a review. Does anyone else? Plus: A preview of the Snyder Cut coverage to come. Sonny talks black levels. JVL and Vic have a lot of basketball thoughts. All that and more on this week's Sub-Beacon.
Full transcript
Sonny00:00:00Did you guys see it sent out? Did you see it, Sonny? I saw it. Did anybody else see it?
JVL00:00:17Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm your host, JVL, along with Sonny Bunch and Victorino Matus. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is available exclusively on Patreon at subbeacon.com. We also have a store where you can buy Sub-Beacon merchandise. Just visit tpublic.com and search Sub-Beacon. You'll easily find us, buy shirts, tell your friends to subscribe, and then come hang out with us over at subbeacon.com in the comments section. Victorino?
Sonny00:00:51Somebody literally just left a comment saying hi this week, and I was very happy about that because it means they're listening. They're to our commands.
JVL00:00:59Victorino?
Sonny00:01:00JVL.
JVL00:01:01It is March 18, the year of our Lord 2021, and the Georgetown Hoyas are alive!
Vic00:01:09Hoya Saxa, my friends. I have to admit, I stopped watching.
JVL00:01:16Is Kate walking a little funny this week?
Vic00:01:18Ow, wow.
JVL00:01:20Are you walking a little funny this week?
Vic00:01:23I'm walking a little funny this week to myself. I have not watched them. I haven't watched them play consistently like a full game in maybe three years. Patrick Ewing has had this job now. This is, I think, his fourth season, his third or fourth season. And the first three seasons have been horrendous. And this was not going to be any different going into, I'd say, the second half into this season. They had a weird thing happen where they had some sort of a COVID situation and they were gone for about 10 days or so. They come back and then they won four out of the next six games, including against some ranked teams. And then the Big East tournament begins. But you know how it is. They lost the last game of the season. And so they had to play, I guess it's the Wednesday game, the 8-9 matchup. And then after that worked their way. So the only way, the hope was that they could make a mini run because there was something going on with Villanova. They were missing. They had some injuries and things like that. This guy, I forget his name. So. But that was a possibility. So maybe we'll make it to the semifinals. And then they managed to they beat Marquette and then they beat Villanova by a point. And then and then they beat Seton Hall on Friday. And then on Saturday they made it to the finals. And it wasn't even close, strangely enough, against Creighton. And it was probably an important game for Creighton to win just for getting seeded in the tournament. Instead, we beat them like 70 something to 40 something. It was a trouncing blowout. A blowout. It was a blowout at Madison Square Garden.
JVL00:03:01And Patrick Ewing had eaten Creighton star player prior to the game, though, which is the problem.
Vic00:03:06They were down to four players.
JVL00:03:07He was at the buffet and there just wasn't enough food. And the Creighton team walked in.
Vic00:03:12Because of COVID, the concession stands closed. So he had to eat something for lunch. That was it. It was delicious. So anyway, and he's big, although he looks like he might have lost a few pounds post-COVID because he had it himself, as you know, the coronavirus. And he survived. And if he if he could survive, I think that, you know, I feel good about myself is all I'm saying. So then we get the selection. Sonny comes around and interesting. So we he brought us up to so we won four games in four days. And that brought us up to like 13 and 12 above 500 because we were way below that. And then we get the 12 five seed, which is really interesting.
JVL00:03:52George, you're the 12, which is what you want to be.
Vic00:03:56I always want to be that because. Out of like four or five, 12 matchups, JVL, at least two.
JVL00:04:02At least every every damn year. Yeah, every damn year. And I believe Georgetown is the trendy 12 pick.
Vic00:04:09They are. They are. Dick Vitale was writing about it. And if you go to, you know, if you fill out a bracket on CBS now, it's like cheating where there is a they figure out the stat, the percentage stats for you. You don't like, oh, what are the odds of winning in case you want to go directly from there to FanDuel? So you're like looking. At like, oh, and they have. And even in the 12-5 matchup, Georgetown is favored statistically, which means they probably lose. But here's the thing. Colorado, Pac-12. I don't know what's going on over there.
JVL00:04:39I am looking at a tantalizing Sweet 16 matchup between the mighty Georgetown Hoyas and the Bonneys. Oh, St. Bonaventure, who I believe was for years. My father-in-law's alma mater. For years was on their pre-schedule, right? In the early season schedule. When it was the Mount St. Mary's School from the Blind.
Vic00:05:02No, it wasn't St. Bonaventure. It was probably, it was, I could tell you the team. The Home for the Lost Dogs. St. Leo's, St. Leo's, and then Morgan State. And then there was usually UMBC, University of Maryland, Bethesda, or Baltimore. Baltimore. Baltimore, excuse me. Not Bethesda. I get confused, yes. Bethesda, Baltimore. Very different schools. And then there was, oh, that. I think it was, gosh, I already forget the name of some of these schools there. The ones where some of the old Georgetown players were actually coaching. It was like Bethune-Cookman. Maybe it was Bethune-Cookman. Yeah, Bethune-Cookman. That's right. So all of a sudden, there we are against Colorado, but we'll see what happens. It's exciting.
JVL00:05:44Santino, your UVA Cavaliers are the defending national champions. Believe it or not. Even though it feels like it was five years ago.
Sonny00:05:50Yeah.
JVL00:05:50But I have a question for you. Can you recall another top 50 all-time player? Who became a successful coach? This is not something that happens very often. And to Patrick Ewing's great credit, he has been sitting on the far end of that bench for decades.
Vic00:06:12As an assistant coach of the NBA.
JVL00:06:14He did not just wander into this as a dilettante. Yeah. Like, he's a real coach.
Sonny00:06:19Yeah. I'm sorry. Are you saying, was the question an all-time great player who becomes a coach?
JVL00:06:26Who becomes a coach. Who becomes a good coach. So, I mean, like, Larry Bird became a pretty good coach of the Pacers, right?
Sonny00:06:32I mean, he's a very solid, you know, minor league coach. See how he does in the pros.
JVL00:06:37For now. He's just getting started, Sonny.
Sonny00:06:40Right. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying, like, he's had a very good run in, like, double A ball or whatever the equivalent of the NCAA is. You know, let's see him coach some, you know, actual professional athletes.
Vic00:06:51I wouldn't. I prefer coaching college. I think NBA would be just a giant headache with the egos and everything.
JVL00:06:57Like a trivia question. Why has this been the greatest season in the last quarter century of NCAA basketball?
Vic00:07:06Answer.
JVL00:07:08Duke is not in the tournament.
Vic00:07:12There was even some rumors on the Internet that they might be one of the honorable mentions. Like, somebody's going to get sick and then they'll fill in and then make it to the final against Kentucky.
JVL00:07:22I mean, look, they play the game the right way. God bless them.
Vic00:07:25That's really about how they play it. That's absolutely. Right. That this is very weird. UVA in this tournament. I'm actually concerned about. They had some gone in the first round. Yeah. They're playing against a team that people were talking about that could beat them. But there's some sickness issues going on. There's sickness issues going on throughout the entire out the. You know, all the.
Sonny00:07:49What seed is UVA? I have any. I have watched zero minutes of college basketball this year.
Vic00:07:54I think they're like a two. No, no. I think they are. It's a very.
JVL00:08:00Oh, they are overseeded wherever they are. I'll I'll effort this while you guys Villanova as well.
Vic00:08:05Villanova can lose to Winthrop. That's one of my predictions. And then. Oh, I'll tell you what. I think it's it's like UCSB for four seed against Miami of Ohio. Against Miami of Ohio.
JVL00:08:18I think that's right. Ohio. You know, Ohio there. It's not Ohio State.
Vic00:08:22Oh, no, no, no. It's Ohio University.
JVL00:08:25Oh, Ohio University.
Vic00:08:26Yeah, those are. They. They. They beat Georgia. They beat Georgia. Whatever they are. That was frightening. UCSB. Everyone's excited about San Diego State. Everybody's excited.
JVL00:08:35The banana slugs. Is that UCSB?
Vic00:08:38And then, of course, Houston is back in the tournament as a two seed. Everyone's very excited about Houston, which that was back in the day. That's in the 80s.
JVL00:08:45Slamma jamma.
Vic00:08:47Also, by the way, Iona is in the tournament, JVL. And you know who the coach is? Rick Pacino.
JVL00:08:56So Victorino, what are. You guys doing in your house full of Georgetown alums and future Georgetown alums to mark
Vic00:09:07this great occasion, the beginning of the next dynasty Saturday, Saturday, 12, 15 p.m. Tip off on CBS. I will probably at the tombs with my fellow. No, I'm just kidding.
Sonny00:09:20Wait, there's not. It's not. There's not like a Thursday and Friday round of games, isn't it? Usually now, believe it or not, Saturday, Sunday.
Vic00:09:27It's Friday. It's Friday, Saturday. Now they're doing the first four right now.
JVL00:09:32Yeah. So it's Saturday for happening, right? The shockers just lost Sonny.
Vic00:09:35What do they really JPL? What is happening? The play in today, for whatever reason, the play in game is just today is today.
Sonny00:09:44So the play in games are today and then it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Yeah. Yes. So how's anyone going to get any work money? But remember, I mean, we used to get any work done Thursday, Fridays. I don't like change. I don't, I don't care for change.
Vic00:09:59Do you remember? I, I, I totally feel for you. Do you remember our good friend? Michael Farb had a connection at Fran O'Brien steak.
Sonny00:10:08Yeah. Fran O'Brien's back in the day.
Vic00:10:10And they rolled out some in my mind, their rear projection TVs, but it, you know, that they rolled it out because we were going to have a big lunch there and watch the game and we could only stay for like 20 or 30 minutes. We had to go back to the office to do. A favor for somebody to listen to, uh, like the, the, like the fruit pickers lobbyists and it wasn't, we weren't even doing a story. We weren't even doing a story, something like that. And we just had to do it as a favor and it sucked. Yeah. That's all I'm going to say.
Sonny00:10:43I do remember that. That sucked.
Vic00:10:44I remember all that. I'll tell you all the details after the show, JVL.
JVL00:10:48Wow. It sounds, uh, it sounds like something else. Sonny, how are you? I'm sorry. All that Georgetown talk bored you because as a gentleman who went to Mr. Jefferson's university, you don't, you never had any aspirations of going to Georgetown. Unlike some of us.
Sonny00:11:04No, I had no, no, no desire to go to Georgetown. Why would you step down? Too expensive. Like, why am I going to spend 35 grand a year on that?
Vic00:11:1335 grand a year. Now it knows what it is.
Sonny00:11:17I was, it's funny. Uh, it's funny. Beth and I were watching John Mulaney. So we've been, we, we watched like John Mulaney has three specials on Netflix and we watched all of them. And like a weekend, cause we had nothing, we had nothing else to do. Uh, cause we're at home all the time. Cause it's, yeah, that's how we live now. Um, uh, but the, but it was very funny. There's at one point he's talking about how he spent like 30 grand a year to go to school and get a English degree and how it was like the worst financial decision of his life. And he keeps like going on and on about it. And eventually, uh, uh, Beth looks up where, where, uh, he went to school on her phone and sure enough, Georgetown.
Vic00:11:53Oh, you know who else, you know, uh, oh, what's his name? The other, the, uh, the, the, the old fellow who, uh, what the, uh, Jim Gaffigan from the eighties. He's also Georgetown as well. There you go. Mulaney wrote all the, the, the bits for, uh, the, uh, um, the Stefan bits for Bill Hader on Saturday. Oh, he did. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. I didn't know that. Yeah. So he would, but, but Bill Hader would not know on the, on the teleprompter.
Sonny00:12:17Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. And that's why he would always break because it would be the most ridiculous things. Right. Right. Be the most ridiculous. That's very funny. I, uh, I did not know that, uh, Mulaney. Funny guy. People should watch those standup specials. They're, they're very good. They're on Netflix. They're very funny. Funny guy. Funny guy. Funny guy. That John.
JVL00:12:32So Sonny, have you watched, uh, have you watched it yet?
Sonny00:12:36Uh, have I watched Sentinel? Yeah. I watched it on Wednesday night. Uh, like 75 minutes. I can't believe we're, I can't believe this is a feature film that we're talking about on the show.
JVL00:12:46Did you, did you watch the Snyder, the Snyder cut yet?
Sonny00:12:49Did I watch, did, did I watch the Snyder cut? Yes. I watched the Snyder cut. I watched the Snyder cut. Cause I'm going to be writing about it in my newsletter, uh, all night after we finished taping this, uh, on Thursday night, I watched it from, uh, basically one in the afternoon till five in the afternoon. Cause it's four hours long. And then you put your, it's a no joke, four hours long, uh, program. So I'm excited to write it. I'm excited to talk about it with you guys. I know JBL, you're going to love it. You're going to love every, everything that Zack Snyder does in this, uh, this, this feature, this feature film. Vic Mattis will not be confused at all by anything that happens.
Vic00:13:30I watched the first hour this evening and it made very much, it made a lot of sense to me. There are three Tesseracts that they have to get together. Otherwise, uh, then, uh, Thanos comes back and destroys everybody.
Sonny00:13:45Thanos was a ripoff of Darkseid. How dare you?
Vic00:13:48You are disrespecting Jack. Thanos or Steppenwolf? You are disrespecting Jack the King Kirby. Steppenwolf or Darkseid? Who's who? What's happening here?
JVL00:13:54I am getting the same vibe off of this as when you started talking about Tenet in the day after you saw it, which is the third best movie of the year, which is the third best movie of 2020 when you started talking about that after coming out of the theater, I thought to myself, Holy crap, I got to readjust my expectations because this movie must be terrible.
Sonny00:14:16I look, I like, I, I like the Snyder cut a lot, but if you do not like Zack Snyder, if you think Batman versus Superman is a bad movie, uh, you are not going to like this. You are going to find it painful. Um, uh, it is, it is like 80% shot in slow-mo, uh, with like kind of dirges underneath it from, from time to time. Uh, in addition to, I mean, like it's a, it's a million times better than the theatrical cut. We talked about the theatrical cut on the show and what a disaster that was. It's, it's, it improves upon that in every way at four hours long, it's 30 minutes too long. At least it's, you know, it may be 45 minutes too long.
Vic00:14:52It had a real Lord of the Rings feel to it.
Sonny00:14:54Well, that's the thing is that it's actually like, this is actually like a big, it's like, it's like an, it's like a, it's like a fantasy, uh, epic, except about a space invasion with Superman. Right.
Vic00:15:05Like that's what you have to do together with the elves.
Sonny00:15:08And that's what you got to think about when it, when it, when you're adjusting your expectations, this is not a superhero movie. This is a fantasy epic transported.
Vic00:15:15Did you find it too video gamey in terms of the graphics at certain points?
Sonny00:15:21Yeah, you could definitely tell, uh, that some of the, some, I mean the, the, the fight between stepping, we'll talk about all this next week. We should save this for next week. I do think, I do think that we're going to do this next week, right? This is next week's show is going to be, I got three more hours to go. So I guess, yeah, you got a long ways to go. JBL, you're going to be able to watch it. Maybe you can watch it at two times speed.
JVL00:15:42I'm going to have to break it up. I don't not believe that the max gives you that.
Sonny00:15:46That's right. That option. Because they respect the creator. They respect the creator and they don't shit all over his beliefs and his ideas. They let him show his movie in four by three. So you got letter boxes on the sides instead of on the top. But I will say that I really, I, this is the first thing that I watched on my brand new OLED.
JVL00:16:05This is the first thing.
Sonny00:16:07This is, this is the first, it's not quite the first thing. I actually watched the first five minutes of A New Hope just to test it out, to make sure that my settings were all right.
JVL00:16:15Did you put the calibration Blu-ray in?
Sonny00:16:18I did. Well, no, I didn't do that. I, I, I have been messing around. They have like 7,000 settings. I honestly don't, I, there's, so there's a filmmaker mode. You put it in filmmaker mode and this is the Christopher Nolan approved version of the image that you're seeing folks. Filmmaker mode is the real deal. But I, uh, but it, it's, uh, it, I, I, so I turned on, I turned on filmmaker mode.
JVL00:16:42It makes all the dialogue muddy and hard to hear.
Sonny00:16:46It brings curtains down on the sides to make sure that every, uh, but the, uh, so I, I like I said, I turned on a new hope and the image was so clear and, and the blacks were so black and the motion was so, uh, non juddery that I thought, I thought despite having turned on filmmaker mode that the like motion smoothing was on. And I like furiously went into my thing and I was like, where is it? I got to turn off this true motion flow, smoothing shit. Got to turn it off. And it turns out, no, this is, this is just how good it looks. This is just how good it looks. It like looks so good that it almost looks fake. I get used to it pretty quickly. Now it's like, now it's like the new normal for me. Now, every, now the real world looks a little bit dull.
Vic00:17:35Frankly, when you open your eyes, how are we going to, how are we going to, how are
JVL00:17:39we going to make it through the day now?
Sonny00:17:41I honestly don't know. I might just, uh, I might just like, I might hook my computer up to this new screen so I can look at everything on that screen and just, just, just live my life that way.
JVL00:17:52I respect that.
Sonny00:17:53I just get like a little drone to follow my kids around as they grow up so I can watch them grow up in 4k.
JVL00:17:58Oh, that's much better. Well, the black levels will be better. Let me tell you about watching your children through the mediating force of the OLED.
Sonny00:18:07Let me tell you about the black levels on this thing. I could, I, there were, there were moments in, uh, justice league in the Snyder got of justice league where it was almost hard to see what was on the screen. Victorino, I'm sorry.
JVL00:18:19Hold on Sonny. When we talk about black levels, we are not getting canceled. We are discussing the way in which the color black is rendered on the screen.
Vic00:18:27When Sonny said the blacks were really black, I thought this is it. It's over now.
Sonny00:18:32On OLED, every pixel is individually lit. So when it's, when it's off, it's a pure black. It's like, it's like, it's like cold.
Vic00:18:40I have a, I have, you know, when I got my Sony flat screen thingamajig here, I, I wanted to make sure I knew as little as possible, like on, off and volume. That's it. That's it.
JVL00:18:53That's beautiful. Uh, good. I can't wait. This is a good tease for next week, but we have a good show this week.
Sonny00:19:00I, uh, before we do this, I'm going to talk about it.
JVL00:19:03I, I, for the first time ever, G money showed a tiny bit of cultural sophistication. He has been deep into the mighty morphin power Rangers expanded universe.
Vic00:19:18What is this on TV or you mean comic book?
JVL00:19:21On Netflix, on Netflix, there is the normal mighty morphin power Rangers. There is the mighty morphin power Rangers beast mode, mighty morphin power Rangers, ninja steel.
Vic00:19:33Uh, question, question. Yeah. Would this be Haim Saban's mighty morphin power? Yes.
JVL00:19:39This guy's getting a check for every one of these things. And it is worse than I remember it.
Vic00:19:47Oh, is it filmed the same way as the old original show is where it's like.
JVL00:19:51Yeah, basically. Yes. So it's, it's, and then at the end, yeah, so it's then the monsters are guys and creatures and putties anymore.
Vic00:20:00It's like, um, was it Ultron or one of those?
JVL00:20:02Yeah. And at the end of every episode, the bad guy who has been defeated five times already giganticizes and they got to come together suit. And then the, the other power Rangers come together with their Zords and, and, uh, and it, every one, every single episode culminates. With the power Ranger team saying time to do final attack. And they assume their positions and they spin their Ninja stars and they say final attack form of, you know, gee, money looks at me last night and goes, he's only four years old. Why don't they just do the final attack first, dad, you know, great question. That's a, that's an excellent question. He goes, no, but I'm serious because none of the other attacks. Hacks ever work, but the final attack always works. Why don't they just start with that?
Sonny00:20:57Then they'd have to call it first attack.
JVL00:20:59I was going to say, did you tell him? Well, there's a thing called commercials. I said, well, they do have to have a show is the problem revenue. I would say no pink Ranger in this.
Sonny00:21:10No pink Ranger.
JVL00:21:12I mean, there is a pink range, but it isn't, isn't, there's not the freeze on the way that
Sonny00:21:17the pink Ranger who I think for you is probably the original Hermione Granger.
JVL00:21:20Um, basically, am I wrong about this? You had a thing for the pink Ranger once upon a time.
Vic00:21:26I'd never watched this after my time. I never watched the Power Rangers. Amy Jo Johnston?
JVL00:21:30Sure you did.
Sonny00:21:30Was that, was that her name?
JVL00:21:32I don't know who she is. No, I never watched the Power Rangers.
Sonny00:21:34So Power Rangers was like, I, I think I was like a year too old for Power Rangers. Like when that came out, that, that was 93 or 94, maybe 91, 92. I don't know.
JVL00:21:47You know how these kinds of B and C. Great TV shows are always filled with the dregs of Hollywood, right? Like the, the single worst people showing up for the auditions.
Sonny00:22:00I always thought the cast members on this show are so bad. Oh, I can't even understand.
JVL00:22:05I'm I just think to myself, nobody else showed up for the audition for this. Are you kidding me? Well, are they all doing Shakespeare in a park?
Vic00:22:13Like is, is, is, is our, is our, is our society, well, he's on off-Broadway right now, he's off-Broadway.
JVL00:22:18Is our society so decadent? Yeah. Is it even our starving actors don't need work enough so that they can be picky and choose not to do power rangers beast mode.
Sonny00:22:27Well, they also, they have to, they have to get a certain kind of actor, right? It has to be not just an actor, but somebody who can also do like martial arts. Like gymnasts.
JVL00:22:37No, because the people who put the, that's why they have the helmets so that you can not see the people, these people are not doing their own gymnastic stunts.
Sonny00:22:45But they're still doing, they're still doing like, you know, karate and stuff before the actual fights.
Vic00:22:50So not really. Sonny, you remember in stranger things, Billy, the, uh, the rebel brother who, uh, is the, uh, the mean brother of the, uh, the girl, uh, Billy and he has a thing for the, uh, the, the mom, right. Former actor is a former power ranger.
Sonny00:23:08Look at that. See, he's a, he's a success.
JVL00:23:11He's a huge star, huge star.
Sonny00:23:13None of these kids are going to be, there was a girl who went to my high school was the pink power ranger for a time. And I cannot remember. That's two examples, Aaron, something Aaron, something I, uh, so the funny story about the power rangers that I learned when I was reading, uh, uh, Abraham Riesman's true believer, who I interviewed for, uh, the board goes to Hollywood, um, he, uh, in, in his book about Stan Lee, um, he mentions that Stan Lee pitched the pitch, the exact show that power rangers was like 10 years before it was on the air. Like he, he was like, we're going to take these. We're going to take it. We're going to take this. Show this Japanese show with the fighting monsters and stuff. We're going to reshoot it with, uh, with high school American kids. And then we're going to, we're going to make that the show. That's going to be the show he pitched this like 10 years before power rangers became a thing and nobody bought it. Nobody bought it. It wasn't until Haim Subban came along that, that it, that it happened.
JVL00:24:10Now, the other, the other funny thing about this iteration is that whenever we have interior high school scenes, the extras genuinely look like 17 and eight year old, 18. Year old kids and the leads all look like they're about 29 or 31. And so there is a sort of, I don't know, like the, all the power rangers kind of have the beginnings of crow's feet around the eyes. They don't really look like they belong in the cafeteria.
Sonny00:24:36So it's like Beverly Hills, 90210, 50, a little bit grease, like in
Vic00:24:40Greece, like Stockard Channing.
JVL00:24:42Yeah. So we're not talking about them. We're going to talk about a show with really great action. A show called sentinel. Did you guys see it?
Sonny00:24:50So did you see it Sonny? I saw it.
JVL00:24:54Did anybody else see it?
Vic00:25:03Ooh, la la. The Sentinel is a French thriller that stars Olga Curlenko as Clara, a soldier who blasts her way through the French Riviera and that's just a bed. She takes a kick in, but keeps. On licking Clara and her sister go to a nightclub, but get split up. The sister goes off with some Russians and Clara makes a friend. The two get really lubricated with drinks. What happens next? My lips are sealed, but not theirs. And that's the movie. I give Sentinel four stars.
Sonny00:25:47Just four. I thought this would be like a 13 star movie.
Vic00:25:50Well, he got really sleep. I think he took a nap after that scene. Yeah, I mean, obviously, we don't know how it ended.
JVL00:25:56Here's the thing. I was so afraid that that Vic wasn't going to come through for us for this.
Sonny00:26:03Did you have a gene review as well?
JVL00:26:05So have a gene review dueling pianos.
Sonny00:26:08Wow, boy. Wow. OK, it's like the Capitol steps here.
JVL00:26:12Sentinel is the explosive story of Clara, an elite French commando who returns home after watching a young boy blow himself. Up Clara comes back to Nice looking for a quantum of solace, and she finds it while out for a night of clubbing with her younger sister. Clara meets an atomic blonde. But while the cat's got Clara's tongue, her sister goes home with a Russian playboy and she turns up two days later, beaten into a coma. I guess you could say, oh, no, never mind. Clara falls into oblivion while searching for her sister's attacker and finally finds him. He's a white Russian, but not the white Russian you thought, dude. When a hit woman comes for Clara's sister, this French pastry shows she's no cream puff. And the big finale is un-forking believable. Sentinel has it all. Action, a shower scene, suspense, another shower scene. But best of all, at 80 minutes, you can drink all the soda you want and butter your own popcorn. I give Sentinel one hundred stars.
Sonny00:27:24That was too much. It's funny, I was so worried that neither of you would come up with a gene review.
Vic00:27:32That's can't be true.
Sonny00:27:33That I have done. I did one myself.
Vic00:27:43None of this is planned, by the way, guys. Sonny, tell me that's real.
Sonny00:27:46Sentinel. It's about it's about a lesbian. The end. No, I didn't do one.
Vic00:27:55I thought, you know what? While JVL, while the other genes read, you could have quickly come together with a few things. Mounds of I came up with that.
Sonny00:28:04I came up with that while he was doing it. I was like, all right, this is it. This is all I got beating around the.
JVL00:28:10I come on. Quantum of. So I feel like I really, I really do. Do you put a lot of effort into it?
Sonny00:28:16You put a lot of effort into it.
Vic00:28:18I a forever you didn't get my blaster away. Through the. Oh, we got it. We got it.
Sonny00:28:22When you were doing, especially when you were doing the hand motions in the window. You get premium listeners. Listeners won't understand that necessarily get the video to see the blasting.
JVL00:28:32Clara has car trouble, so she checks the oil. Victorino. Yes. Would you like to do the big boy review or should Sonny do a big boy review? And then you do the quadrant review because this is I will do the quadrant. The Citizen Kane of Quadrant. It is.
Vic00:28:50This is really is.
Sonny00:28:52I, I can't imagine a film that does better on the quadrants than this. Such a film does not exist.
Vic00:28:57Okay. I'll tell you this. I did a double take when I saw 120. I go, maybe it's 120 minutes long. No, no. It's an hour 20. I mean, when I looked at the number, I thought that maybe I missed that. There's no way that there's not even a move that cannot be a movie like. All right. We'll do that.
Sonny00:29:14We'll do the quadrants in a minute. Sonny will come to. So Sentinel stars Olga Curley. Alinko, who is one of the one of the better Bond girls from the the Daniel Craig run. She the way the way I saw this movie pitched on Twitter, and this isn't exactly right, but it's it's kind of close is that it's it's basically a Russian John Wick with a lesbian super killer instead of instead of, you know, John Wick. And that's that's close enough. That's close enough to to to work that the action in this is not as good as in John Wick. There's no scene in this movie that's as good as as any single action scene in in the whole John Wick franchise. But it's pretty solid. It's fine on the on that front. But it's as as we learned from the Gene reviews, Olga Kirilenko plays this soldier who is suffering from PTSD. She comes home and her sister, while they are out, you know, on the town doing up the clubs, gets beaten and raped by a Russian oligarch, a Russian oligarch son. We we are we are led to believe. And so she has to kind of figure out how to take revenge for for her sister. Again, short, sweet to the point. It is 75 minutes tops with credits. It it is it is well done in the sense that, you know, I didn't there was no there were there were there was no fight scene that I laughed at and was like, this is dumb and bad. It was it was a perfectly acceptable movie. And what I found myself thinking as we were watching it was this is the movie Ava wanted to be. This is the movie that the Jessica Chastain movie Ava wanted to be about a kind of broken woman who is excellent at fighting and killing and, you know, doesn't really feel conflicted about the fighting and the killing. She just wants to protect protect people around her. But it's it's more compelling in every way from the from her portrayal of somebody struggling with addiction to her her actual physicality in the scenes like Olga Karolinko is just is a much better cell as a physical actress than Jessica Chastain is.
JVL00:31:29This could have been the prequel to Ava. Right, it's like this is- This could have been the movie which showed how Ava became an assassin.
Sonny00:31:36But it's still it's still I mean again, it's like it's it is I I think it's it is a much better movie than Ava. I just like that is the the movie that came to mind while I was watching it. I liked it a fair amount. I mean, I it was okay. It was perfectly okay. It was it it was it was just in and out and done really quickly. I mean, I like admire the efficiency of it more than anything else. It is an exceptionally efficient movie and you know in a world of bloat in a world of four-hour superhero movies. Yeah, it's it's it's kind of refreshing just to be able to sit down and knock out a you know, quick action thriller in in 75 minutes. Did this movie feel like I texted you guys this question? Did this movie feel like a backdoor trailer or a backdoor pilot episode to you guys? Like it feels to me like there is an there's an entire universe of sentinel stories to be told after this like there was any backdoor in it. There's a lot
JVL00:32:37I'm trying going through my head. I mean, it just feels like a pilot. It feels like a pilot. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes
Vic00:32:46Other things going on It might have never mind You don't know about the oligarch you don't know what the old guys are gross
Sonny00:32:56Anyway, it feels like the sort of show this sort of movie that is like somebody somewhere was like we're gonna put together a pilot And then the pilot doesn't get picked up So they're like we got to get like 10 or 15 more minutes of story in here so we can sell it as a feature
JVL00:33:08That's what it felt like to me. Well, which is fine. It's like French cinema works, right? Was this French or Russian?
Vic00:33:15Yeah, you know if you look at I am I know it's set in France DB a lot of the cast who are the French has supposed to be the French soldiers are Russians
Sonny00:33:23I think it's I think it's actually a Russian production not a French production. I mean she lives in France, right? But she is Russian the villains are Russian like everybody in the actors who are supposed to be French if you look at IMDb are Russians Quadrant
Vic00:33:44The plot is an a-plus you're like it can't be this straightforward. Oh it is
Sonny00:33:49She's just gonna go after him. Okay. There's one very minor twist and like
JVL00:33:56What's the minor twist well just the the actual son says that he didn't do it. Oh, yeah, not lying. Okay, that's right. Okay
Vic00:34:05Duration is an a-plus. I haven't seen a movie this short in ages
JVL00:34:10Not since Capone
Vic00:34:16The worst part about Capone by the way is the only Thing I remember is the bed scene is of course, but you'll remember that for forever, unfortunately Action violence. I actually give it just a B+ because what what yes There's not actually I expected more action. She gets you know, she gets you know, there's a lot of it We got a fight about this. She's got a lot of in-between there could have been more of all what is now?
Sonny00:34:39It was definitely like there was a 30-minute stretch at the beginning of the movie where I was like We could have used a random. Yeah, give me something here puts a knife through a guy
JVL00:34:49Throat at the end at the end, but I she shoots a guy in the eye like Moe green
Vic00:34:54She has there's a there's a bathroom fight in this scene That she could have rivals any bathroom could have killed more people and the fork murder at the end
JVL00:35:05I'm sorry, by the way the gene unforking believable. I can't believe I didn't get more for that because the final
Sonny00:35:18Yeah, you're not missing much. That's why I see it most underrated Bond movie ever
Vic00:35:23Well, I mean maybe I don't like money bond movie sex nudity a-plus. It's been a long time since they showed up But again, it is French ish Russian ish. So, you know that that's refreshing so it overall gets a score of an a But did I actually like something?
Sonny00:35:39Happening here. I feel like there's no crazy pills. No universe in which the violence in this movie gets a B+ I feel like An a even this should be this is an a plus plus movie even there's every quadrant is an a plus even in an hour
Vic00:35:5520 I felt like I was bored at stretches here. Wow sauntering around the
Sonny00:36:01Lucky, I understand where you're coming from this is again where we're like the idea that this is a this is a you know a Pilot that was turned into a feature kind of comes into into play because I do feel like there was an extra 10 minutes or so They're at the beginning where she's like like, all right, we get even 65 minutes. We're you're a junkie Junkie go do your drugs junkie. It's fine You bum's had your time here
JVL00:36:27So I think Vic is reacting to Is that it actually isn't a good movie even even taken on its own? terms so when the original thing that made us decide to do this was somebody tweeted that it was like Russian John wick and It is not anything like Russian John wick The the fight sequences are not Anywhere as good as either atomic blonde or haywire or born identity They are much the the best of the fight sequences is the bathroom And it is that's a great sequence, but it's an old-school fight sequence where she might as well just be a guy She's not fighting differently. She is, you know trading punches with these He's got like there's nothing There's nothing especially interesting about it. And then there's there were two things that really bothered me about the plot and the first is that The story spends a lot of time on the idea of her being a junkie And then after 40 minutes, we never hear about it again
Sonny00:37:41Well, there's the there one of the sergeants or the lieutenant is like you got to stop getting high. Yeah, well
Vic00:37:48I have a huge see it again. I have a huge question for you guys. Yes Did you watch it dubbed or with subtitles? Subtitles I had you switch my when I originally played it it automatically put it into dubbing mode. Yes
JVL00:38:07Yes, Netflix wanted it dubbed and I had to turn it off. That's the exact hurting my ears. Yes but the the the big problem, which is a big problem for the overall motivation of the plot is that the reason she Goes for to seek revenge on this Russian oligarch So what happened is her sister goes to the club that meets these Russians disappears turns up on a beach in a coma two days later because she has been beaten to a pulp and also raped and Olga Kirilenko's character Clara is first wants to Go after these guys just because the sister has been raped But then when the sister comes out of her coma now and also because the police say to her Well, you know these rape cases are very hard to very hard to prosecute and when the sister comes out of the coma the sister Says I'm not gonna press charges because I mean, it's just my word against his and who will ever believe me. I thought to myself Doesn't that ignore the deadly assault? Sure, I guess the rape could be a my word Against it, but she did not but she did show up in in in a coma I mean when you see her in the hospital She is like, you know her face looks like she's been in the ring with Mike Tyson or something They found her too. It's and it does not strike me that that becomes a he said she said we're you know What the guy the motion oligarch says, you know, oh, I you know, she come to my house. She drink my vodka
Sonny00:39:43What are people down? Oh, I should thought to myself. No that all of this is This doesn't make sense. And the other thing that doesn't make sense about it is that she's Sunny you'll have to bleep this. I'm sorry
JVL00:39:57John wick, maybe if she's John wick because everything she does fails Like she just she just goes from one failure to another she loses every fight. She gets captured the first time she walks in
Vic00:40:11She gets beat up and I appreciate that but I just I feel I felt like all right. I expect great She it's realistic. She could get beat up, but I wish she would do more killing while getting beat up
JVL00:40:21But she's got she's not really a super soldier. Like I just None of that is earned. I don't know. I I just thought to myself. This is a property in the hands of a filmmaker Who doesn't know what he's doing? And I bet that the Luc Besson version of this Would be really entertaining, right? Right. I mean you take the exact same conceit Just do three more drafts of the script And shoot it with the same actors for for all I care. I actually like all the curry Linko I think she's an interesting actress and she's not perfect for this part, but she's she's perfectly good enough and And you could have had a real, you know B+ movie
Vic00:41:04I also feel like they had they were working on a very limited budget I mean in terms of the setting in the scenes There was not I mean again if it was a bigger type of action movie, you probably have some more interesting Car sequences or things like that and wherever else but it just felt very limp. It just felt very limited to me
JVL00:41:25It's the French military so cool that when they See one of their comrades perched on a balcony Lining up to snipe and kill civilians on the boardwalk. They just think yeah, you know what Clara over there? She's a little tightly wound We'll just tell her to settle down because one things that happens over and over is that She has such severe PTSD She's about that she will like pull out her her gun and start sighting on civilians and then the other finger goes the trigger She's just ready to take him out to myself. I did not realize the French military was still I understand during the Algerian campaign It was different. I didn't realize that they were still Such notorious hard asses that this was looked at as just you know something that happens
Sonny00:42:11Wow hard to judge gotta gotta be in their shoes
JVL00:42:17I guess I guess I can't kiss honey. Can you believe that he would get an A?
Vic00:42:24Just an a I was really excited expected more from the action
JVL00:42:28And I mean she got a lot to a disney's of the nudity when she is it really was like a soft core porn Well, I don't go that far But when she's in the locker room and they just she peers around to see the fellow soldier stripping down to go into the shower That is like something from an 80s man
Vic00:42:46It was very don't have things like that very it was very brief also like ashes walking. Who is it? We don't know but just in how unnecessary it was even even that doesn't have like it's like three frames when you fast when you Not much to work with their
Sonny00:43:05Netflix used to Netflix used to release every year what the most paused movies were come on and The last time I remember seeing this this It was a basic instinct
Vic00:43:21Okay, interesting Yeah, hmm. No, I I Mean, I just felt like there could have been more done With this. Yeah
JVL00:43:33Wanted softcore porn, so that's that's where you know, like I need a pump and don't
Sonny00:43:40The sex scene in this movie was absolutely like a softcore board it was like it went on for like 90 seconds
JVL00:43:46and they were they were just like there was when you've been doing browsers for 15 years the way Vic has this doesn't even register a
Sonny00:43:54Disney channel, this is maximum
Vic00:43:56It's basically maximum bratsers bratsers Yeah, so there was that and oh, here's the thing. Ah, you know, it's like oh she's surrounded after she somehow somehow she manages to escape to Make it out of that compound before he goes off to back to Russia wherever he is and then she makes it in there and That you just jump forward three months and then she stabs him with a fork How did she how did she escape the other place? I love that. I love that. I actually love that
Sonny00:44:30It was just came out of nowhere
Vic00:44:31I mean, I like I like it reminded me of in casino with the pen when Pesci jabs the guy with the pen and the net But like I'm like, okay. How did she get there? I'd like to have she's become an assassin
JVL00:44:43She is now she is Ava now she's
Vic00:44:46Make that jump and then I like to see some stuff about how she got in Because I'll send up she's there pretending to be and an Emirates stewardess
Sonny00:44:55Yeah, but but then it's but then it's a 95 minute movie instead of a 75 minute. Nobody wants that You know what and I did appreciate this movie would be better if it was longer that does not strike me as the case
Vic00:45:05I thought I thought the sister was doomed. I was watching with Kate and I said, oh my gosh, you know when the The the fake nurse came in to kill the sister. I said she put she pulled an omen On her do you remember in the omen the the the wife of Gregory Peck's? It plays the British ambassador and it's the most horrifying one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever seen especially as a kid so the the wife of course is Paralyzed because she falls from a balcony because Damien had knocked her off her, you know ladder which was fixing something she falls down and So she's paralyzed in the hospital and I believe it's mere Mia Farrow Who comes in pretending to be a nurse and then she injects like an air bubble into your body? And you see it traveling and then all of a sudden slowly and she can't do anything She can't move and then finally it goes in to her veins and then causes the embolism and she dies and that was like Oh my gosh, and it was awful. So I thought I just assumed I just assumed growing up
Sonny00:46:07That's how I was gonna die like from from some nurse wasn't gonna like flick the needle apparently that's gonna get an air bubble
Vic00:46:14Apparently right and apparently that's been fixed You know back in like 2015 when I was in the hospital for a week I would have you know I was on I I was on an IV for a whole week and the From time to time I know should come because of these these darn air bubbles She would say and like with tap on it and all I could think of was like the omen of like oh no It's coming for me Amazingly, it's an oh, no, don't worry. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah
Sonny00:46:38All right spirit of the week. I liked I I just want to defend the bathroom fight in this in this movie I thought I thought it was actually a very good
Vic00:46:45I thought it was a very good sequence. I wanted more violence. I feel like in my mind it was like four or five
Sonny00:46:50Sequences. She wasn't like, you know, it wasn't straightforward fisticuffs. She was like going for ankles and stuff It was the best of the it's not as good as it's not as good as the bathroom fight between Henry Cavill and Tom Cruise in whichever Mission Impossible. That was the last fallout. That's the last one
JVL00:47:07But that is one of the great
Sonny00:47:10Bathroom fights of all time is that is absolutely one of what are the other bathroom fights? What are what are some other? true lies True lies. Yes
Vic00:47:19Early on I was like, oh my gosh, that's fantastic at Georgetown Park the fight inside the bathroom at Georgetown parts Okay, I lost my train all right now sorry spirit of the week
JVL00:47:30So I needed a little extra time today because I was taping a bulwark Thursday night live stream Prior to this and I cracked open for myself a can of hardy wood Baltic sunrise. I like hardy wood
Vic00:47:45They're Richmond is it is what is this? Is it a lighter?
JVL00:47:50No, it's a porter. Oh and I I 40 minutes into the live stream I it just hit me like a freight train and I could barely put two Two words together. What's the alcohol content on do you know?
Sonny00:48:06four percent seven percent
JVL00:48:09Seven percent. I don't know when it's a big can and I don't drink much. I was fucking looped so I needed an Extra five minutes to dry out a little bit before how down Have you guys been drinking anything at all? I haven't seen anything. I got a coffee
Sonny00:48:24I got a coffee cuz I got to be I'm gonna be up late tonight Writing my review of Snyder gut. So I just have one Victorino with water. Yeah, all right
Vic00:48:35Shoutouts corrections additions. I got a big correction. I did it again on the again on the last episode I Said shakedown for Beverly Hills cop 2 is Michael McDonald. It is not Michael McDonald I know that it's Bob Seger, but I keep on getting mixed up. So thank you for reminding me yet again What is the Michael McDonald's already thinking? It's sweet freedom from running scared. Yes. It's like the same Yeah, it's like the same movie feel it was Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines And yes, you can go on to YouTube Not only can you get the Michael McDonald video see that one but you can actually see the clip from writing scared where they play the song sweet freedom and you're like it's it's weird to see Billy Crystal in the role of like a Cop like, you know, like an acting thing like, you know, where I mean he does his comedy shtick, but he's also like this leading Well with Gregory Hines, it's very action an action Billy Crystal But that's a sweet freedom song. So anyway, thank you. I can't get out of my head now
JVL00:49:39Excellent Sonny. You have anything? No. Okay. That's all the time. We're giving to this episode Questions comments complaints compliments tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Mattis or come hang out in the comments. That's a beacon calm We're there. Tell your friends until next time
Vic00:50:03This is like the sentinel of episodes it's a short one it's a short a short Much to say about in the olden days. I think our episodes were about this length and then
Sonny00:50:15It out for you know for cut I mean the problem is it's it's not a very good movie, but it's also not interestingly bad Which which makes for a tough episode. Sorry folks. Sorry if you're disappointed don't well
JVL00:50:26You know we'll make it up next week with our next hours at Snyder episode
Vic00:50:3017 hours of Snyder cut actually gonna leave for like intermission should we do it a half should we do it?
JVL00:50:36I'm this is a serious question. She's part one. It's a part one part. Yes. We did that The first part then we do that for Avengers There are six parts there's six chapters right, but I'm saying we do the chapters one through three for an episode in the chapters I think that's exactly because I hope the other thing is I actually think if we don't do that There will be too much stuff to talk about yeah
Vic00:50:59If you can
Sonny00:51:02Answer answer in the answer in the comments. Yeah, what do you think?
JVL00:51:05Let us know your gene this week because I think my writing was Victor's performance was better Obviously I I'm I'm a gene come on Come on, you did make gene, but I think my bit was that I maybe I need to take over the writing
Sonny00:51:20I think my bit made both of you laugh harder than either of your bits made I don't know man. I think I might we in the comments this week. You have an assignment listeners You've got a you got a first off. You got to tell us Should we do one episode on the Snyder Cutter should we do two or should we do six? And then the second thing is who had the best gene bit was it? Was it me obviously the best judging by JVL's falling over laughing at my off Off-the-cuff joke was it JVL's excellent forking joke, or was it was it Vic's whatever lasting?
Vic00:52:01Kicking but keeps on licking
JVL00:52:03Come on, so let us know in the comments so before we go I Sent you guys a little video of what my life is like now that flash has purchased for himself an ant
Vic00:52:14Oh, hey
JVL00:52:17And a number of things have occurred to me first of all I'm preparing for the HOA no noise complaints because that's coming Secondly this is gonna be the soundtrack of my life until he goes away to college For the next six years. I'm gonna have him in the garage Just doing all the Guns and Roses All the a CDC all the rage against the Machine like a good little commie
Sonny00:52:51Thirdly
JVL00:52:53The parents of Woodbridge ought to lock up their daughters Because two years from now this kid is gonna be throwing 90 miles an hour and playing lead guitar in a band Man oh man
Sonny00:53:07I'm sure it's fine
JVL00:53:10And you'll be there we've like
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