#22. 'Godzilla vs. Kong'
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The main film is Godzilla vs. Kong, and JVL is the enthusiast — he reads it as a pro-wrestling arc (Godzilla the heel, Kong earning his redemption, the two finally teaming up against the Mechagodzilla that Apex Cybernetics built). Sonny calls it an okay dumb movie that plays far better on a big screen than at home — he rented out an entire AMC auditorium for $150 to see it with Beth and two other couples (and gleefully chased off a group of teens trying to sneak in) — while peppering it with plot questions (the permanent storm over Skull Island, Alexander Skarsgård mourning a brother we never met, the Hollow Earth "gravity inversion" science). Vic also liked it and lands on a quadrant B. The long hangout is the highlight: JVL's beach-house door bids ($6,000 vs. a "just a crook" $30,000) spin into an Allison Janney–inspired riff about the dollar amount you can spend without thinking (and mapping your whole life by that rising number — comic-book bags and boards, $80 bourbon, appetizers), Sonny's satisfying cord-management overhaul, JVL's five-hour DIY saga of sawing through a mystery load-bearing beam to hide his TV cords, and Vic's harrowing near-catastrophe running five miles with a gathering lower-intestinal emergency. Spirit of the Week: Shibui pure malt Japanese whisky.
From the show notes
The big monkey fought the big lizard, and the guys are here to talk about it. JVL wonders how much it could possibly cost to replace a door. Sonny has cable issues. Vic has issues of an entirely different sort. Plus: the big monkey and the big lizard! And Sonny's spirit of the week this week was the Shibui pure malt, a very tasty Japanese whisky at a pretty affordable price point, in the $60 range. Check it out if you get a chance!
Full transcript
JVL00:00:00These are dangerous times. Godzilla's out there and he's hurting people and we don't know why.
Guest00:00:06There's something provoking him that we're not seeing here. Am I the same opinion? The myths are real. There was a war. And they're the last ones standing.
Vic00:00:30Hello and welcome to another edition of The Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Just a reminder, The Sub-Beacon's now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends and don't forget the Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com where you can get onesies and coffee mugs and headache shirts, whatever those are. One of the most important mysteries of all time, JVL.
JVL00:01:03The most important part of any man's wardrobe are his headache shirts.
Vic00:01:10I have no idea. When do we find out what that is?
JVL00:01:13It's just, I feel like if I tell you, it'll spoil it. Oh my gosh.
Vic00:01:17Okay. It's not, well, it's clearly not tank tops because they have that at the Sub-Beacon merchandise store as well. It's something else.
JVL00:01:25So can I just jump right in? JVL. Okay. So, uh, you know, there are, there are rules for life. One of which is in any situation where you're going to be spending more than some X amount of dollars, you should get multiple bids, right? It's just a matter of course, it doesn't matter how good the first one is, but normally the, the bids are pretty close, right?
?00:01:56Yes.
JVL00:01:57The bids of what? Well, like say you, you, as a, for instance, let's say you need to replace two sliding glass doors. Oh. Just to pick, to pick a, a house project at random. Oh boy. And let's say you're at the beach where, uh, North Carolina state code requires that the doors have high impact hurricane glass. Because of that.
?00:02:25Yes.
JVL00:02:26Okay. Again, you would think that. While each independent contractor is going to give a different price. They're going to be in the same ballpark.
?00:02:35Correct?
JVL00:02:36Yes. You'd hope. Yes. So I had a bid from, uh, from a gentleman today who, uh, who it seems like it's going to be about $6,000 rough for, for both including installation. The other bid. $30,000. What? Um, okay.
Vic00:03:02Does he take the whole wall down? I want to know what's different with the other one?
JVL00:03:10I don't think anything. I think the other one is just a criminal.
Vic00:03:12It's made of Swarovski.
JVL00:03:14The other one is made of vibranium.
Vic00:03:16Um, it's, it, I think it's just crux.
JVL00:03:22It's just dishonest contractors.
Vic00:03:23That's an enormous difference, right? Yes. This isn't like the ambassador.
JVL00:03:29They're off by a thousand bucks or something sliding glass doors. This is off by five X, a five X difference in price between the contractors bids.
Vic00:03:39Did you ask the lower bid about the upper bid and why that was?
JVL00:03:44I didn't. I asked the, uh, the property manager who, who has dealt with both contractors and with the, the five X contractor, he shook his head and he goes, that guy's just a crook.
Sonny00:03:59It's scary out there, but why, I mean, I don't understand why he would put a number out there that high. Why would anybody pick him?
JVL00:04:09Well, because I think there are people who, who don't do multiple bids, right? Cause I, right. Oh yeah. Of course. There, you know, look, it's all for price point, right? I, if I need to get a washing machine installed, which, you know, or a dishwasher installed, which is like a $200 job, I am not going to get multiple bids because for me at the place I am in my life, $200 is not a big deal. Uh, that has not always been true. Right. And surely there are people for whom $30,000 is not a big deal and it isn't worth their time to go to the trouble of getting multiple bids.
Vic00:04:43Right. They're thinking about like re yeah. I mean, if they're thinking about, you know, elaborate renovations to bathrooms and things like that, it's all, it may be in their mind. It's all the same. It's all five figures.
JVL00:04:55Somewhere. Look, if your house is worth $5 million. Right. Right. As some of the homes are near me. Sliding door. Right. And you are in the middle of a thing. Then a contractor comes in and says, you know, you, you pick him out because a friend of a friend said, I used him once and he was good. Right. My uncle's sisters-in-law's cousin's boyfriend told me at 31 flavors that bill bullia construction is good. And, uh, and you know, the guy comes in and he says, yeah, I could do that for $30,000. And uh, you just, you know, you say, okay, because fine to you. Yeah. It's just that 30 grand is like $200 is for me, which is, you know, like, uh, 20 years ago would have been like $20 for me. That's insane. Yeah. You know, I, I remember hearing an interview with Alison Janney who was asked how her life changed after the West wing. And she said, uh, you know, the, the only way in which it has really changed is that I get work all the time now. And I no longer have to sweat out the periods. Between work, because when you're in a working actor, uh, you know, and she was not like the West wing was not her first gig. She'd been around for a long time. Yeah. But, uh, you know, like you're sweating out gigs, right? Like I gotta get a gig, I gotta, you know, one to another, she said, but everything else, you know, the way I think about life is there's always a, a price level at which you don't think about spending the money, you know? And when, when you're a kid, it might be the price of a new comic book when you are a 20 something, it might be a cup of coffee or a latte at Starbucks. Right. You don't really think about it. She said, and, uh, pre West wing, my, I don't think about a price was about 200 bucks. And now it's about like a thousand bucks. So like, if I, I just need a new sofa for, for the living room, what's a thousand, I, I just think, yeah. Okay. Just buy the sofa. And I thought to myself, you know, that's actually a really nice way of thinking about all of our lives in terms of economic progress. Right. Cuz I don't know about you guys, but I'm basically the, the, I can map my life by the, the periods of when, like the highest dollar amount that I could spend without thinking about it. Mm-hmm and, uh, and each time you move up a level, it becomes a really big deal. And for me, the first time I noticed this was when you bought those $30,000 doors, it was comic book bags. And boards. Oh. Mm-hmm so when I was a kid, you know, I would spend, I had precious, precious resources to spend on comic books. And so the idea of spending $5 on a, a, a, a hundred comic book bags and then another $5, $10 total on boards when for that month you go to the three for a dollar bin, that's 30 comics, right? Right. And, uh, and so I was really parsimonious about, I would shove as many comic books into the, the few bags that I had. Double bag? Oh yeah. Double bag, triple bag.
Sonny00:08:03The edges. Which is probably, which is probably about worse for the comics. Even worse. Than if you had nothing.
JVL00:08:07Not, not even anything. Crammed in there. But I remember finally hitting the stage in life where I was like, yeah, I just, I, I have to have, look, I'm buying new comic books. I need to have bags and boards for it. And when I hit that, I thought to myself, Hey, I have made it. In life. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Vic00:08:28It's in making it, you know, like I've arrived, I was 29 by the way, uh, for me, I do it in terms of drinks. Maybe Sonny can relate to this as well in terms of the, you know, the $4, the $4 beer, the $7 pitcher. Then suddenly it's a $14, I mean, suddenly it's a $14 pitcher or for example, I remember
JVL00:08:49$35 martini.
Vic00:08:50I know that's not 35 yet, but you know, it's about 17, 18, maybe 20, I'd say 20 is about a high. It's high end for a martini Sonny. What do you think? Uh, I mean, I, I remember when $10 is a big deal for $10 for a cocktail.
Sonny00:09:06I remember 10 or $12 being my first like eye opening, like, well, having, having one drink tonight. Yeah. That's right. Uh, yeah. $20 is still kind of a lot for one drink.
Vic00:09:18I am going to assume it's going to be 17, 18. Uh, it's, it's a lot more when you're paying for it.
JVL00:09:24So bottles of wine, right? Yes. That must have been a big thing. It was a good wine for you, right? Do you remember when you moved on? Yeah.
Vic00:09:31Yeah. 12. I love 12, 12 to 15, 12. It's a great deal. You get a good wine for two. You could still get a good wine. You get it for, if you get it for $8.99 at like Vache, you know, in Cleveland park. Oh my gosh. That's an amazing Valpolicella or whatever. And then now it's like, Hey, that's only $36. Hey, it's only 43. You know what? If you get six, if you get half a case, then it's, you know, down to maybe only 41, 51, 51 50. And then I, and I've done, I've, I used it. I've used the calculator. I'm looking at the calculator right now on my screen. I hope that times six versus times five, you know, it's like, oh, that'll come. That comes out to a savings.
JVL00:10:06When was the first moment that you, you remember buying something and thinking to yourself, holy crap, the 22 year old version of me would think that I was doing Brewster's millions. Okay. Like that. I, you know, like would the 22 year old version of me would look at me now, because probably never happened to you growing up with the same doctor.
Vic00:10:27That's a, it's, it's, it's a good, it's a good question. Uh, uh, wow. I don't know. Uh, Sonny. Pass.
Sonny00:10:38I don't know what the answer to that is. I mean, I like, uh, I, I think the moment for me has also a technological component to it, which is the rise of Amazon. When I got to the point in my life where I was not like, can I really afford to buy just this regular book? Like just, you know, just like a 12. Or $14 book or whatever, and could just like go to Amazon and be like, yeah, okay, that's fine. Um, that was, that was a big, that was, that was big for me. Uh, you know, Amazon changed and like it was, and like part of that is the ease of it as well. But, uh, you know, uh, I don't know what, uh, I remember once I do remember once when I was, when I was young, when I was, when I was, uh, you know, uh, assistant editor at the, the weekly standard, I remember reading in an Esquire. I bought a bottle of bourbon. It was the William LaRue Weller. And that, that at the time that bottle of bourbon was, I think, $80 a bottle. And I was like, you know what? I like Buffalo trace. I like Weller one Oh seven, you know, the old Weller antique, uh, this, this is, this is an interesting bottle. If I see it, I'm going to buy it. And like, I swear to God, the next week I saw a bottle, uh, at the, the, the store that I used to go to. And I was like, ah, 80, $80 for a bottle of liquor. Uh, and I, I went ahead and did it now that bottle today costs a thousand dollars.
JVL00:12:02So I should have bought a case and just like, and kept them as investment vehicles. But, uh, but it was silly me. I did not.
Sonny00:12:10Uh, but like that, that I remember, I remember thinking at the time, like, this is, this is a big deal. Don't drink very much of this. $80 a bottle is still, it's not cheap. But I would say that like, I, it's not the sort of thing that I would like mark down
Vic00:12:27in my calendar that I was buying a, you know, I would say for me, it's probably, if not for booze, it would be in terms of, um, hotels or restaurants. And definitely like when you go to a fancy restaurant, you just want to go to the fancy restaurant, but you don't want to order a lot. And then there's a turning point when it's like, you know what? Get whatever you want. It's great.
JVL00:12:48It's fine. I mean, when you were a college student, you had to stay at like the Omni or something or the Parker and it wasn't until you were 25.
Vic00:12:57I would say the Ritz Carlton, the Ritz Carlton sweets and sweets. Uh, yes.
Sonny00:13:02Uh, I remember, I would say that that is a good one though, the Vic, the, the, the moment when you're like, yeah, I'll get an app, I'll get an appetizer. Cause why not?
Vic00:13:11I know what I get at the tubes. It was always Buffalo wings. That's the meal is the Buffalo wings.
Sonny00:13:16It'd be crazy if you got like, yeah, but I mean, in addition, now it's like the moment in your life, the moment in your life when you're like, I would like to have food before the rest of my food.
Vic00:13:25Right. Now the difference is, can I handle it? Well, like a couple of years ago I did some thing for CN and went to Pittsburgh. I was so excited when it stayed at the, uh, the, I think it was the, I forget the name of the hotel. It might've been the William Penn or somewhere out there and, and I got so excited, uh, and I got there the night before, went to the bar and I ordered myself wings and I just went crazy. I bought, I ordered the pound, the pound of wings. I said one pound of Buffalo wings and it's not so much that the amount of chicken meat as it is. It's the salt and spices, spices, if I can handle the spice, but it was the salt overloved. Like I can't handle this. Whereas, you know, if I were younger, I'd be splurging. I'd be able to splurge and then be able to actually physically handle that. That's the thing. But I'd say for me, it's definitely something in the realm of restaurants and, and I remember, you know, the first time making that decision, like, you know, get whatever you want. It doesn't matter what the bill is, um, because I'm expensing it. So I just felt bad for the company, but just sunny. How are you? What's going on?
Sonny00:14:25Uh, I'm fine. I'm fine. I, uh, I, I don't really have anything special to talk about. I like, I have a very boring story, uh, that, that will, that will, uh, not rivet anyone, but I, I, I changed my whole cord set up here in my office.
JVL00:14:44I bought, I bought, I bought all new cords of the proper size for my office. It used to be that. So basically, uh, before I had everything set up essentially, uh, to work in the free
Sonny00:14:55beacons podcast studio. So my cords were all like 18 feet long. It was like, I had like the ex, I had the CB ones, right. But the ones with like the extra long cord attached to it. And I had the, I had a, I had a, what must've been a nine foot, uh, USB cord for my, for my mic. Um, and, uh, the other, the other day I just got fed up with, with cords being everywhere. And I was like, you know what I can spend, I can spend $10 on Amazon and, uh, get a whole new set of cords. And that's what I did. I, I bought, I bought a lamp that has a, that has like a battery charger for the iPhone in it, like one of the cordless battery chargers. So now I can just, I can put my, I can just put my phone right up here and it'll charge. Uh, so I got, I got rid of one cord entirely. Uh, and then I, uh, and then I, I just shrunk all the rest of the cords. Let me tell you guys, uh, for the listeners out there, if you wanna, if you wanna improve your quality of life, don't just get the six foot or nine foot cords. Cause you're like, well, it's 60 cents more. And you can always use more feet. Of course, get the cords that are sized for your room. All of my cords now are under three feet long and everything is so much tidier in this little space. I don't have a ton of room here. I have a ton of space, so I need to economize it. And I, I've done that.
JVL00:16:12And my life is, my life has never been better in the same way that there are people who care about loading dishwashers correctly and people who do not, there are people who care about cord management and people who do not, well, there, there, I mean, there, I'm not,
Sonny00:16:27I'm not a Nazi about this. I'm not one of these people who would like buy a cord box, which is literally just a box that you put on top of your cords and like power power to hide them from everyone
Vic00:16:39for the optics.
Sonny00:16:40My, my, uh, my, my, my cord situation for the TV area is, is still pretty neat, but not like, I mean, there's definitely a nest of, of cords back there. Uh, once you, once you kind of poke your head behind the, uh, the, the, the TV, but like, and I, I, I never. I never used to be like this, as you can tell by the fact that I've been here for a year now and I've been using these ridiculous oversized cords. I never used to, but I, I eventually, I, one day, uh, two weeks ago, I just got tired of it. I was like, I gotta, I gotta make a change to my life. I'm gonna get rid of all these cords. Have you ever. And now I feel better. Feel better inside.
JVL00:17:15Have you ever, uh, have you ever run cords through a wall to hide them?
Sonny00:17:19No, I've not. I, I thought about, I, I strongly.
Vic00:17:24I wouldn't either cause I believe that involves a drill.
Sonny00:17:27Interestingly considered in my, in our last house, when we remodeled the basement for like a couple days, I was like, what would it, what would it, what would it cost to get speakers built into the walls? Just what would it, what would that, what would that rub me? That was my $30,000, uh, patio door moment. I was like, nah, that's still, that's too much. That's there.
Vic00:17:51You know, if you had somebody do it for you, if I had somebody do it for me, I was not,
Sonny00:17:54I was not going to do it myself, but they were like taking drywall down. I'm putting drywall up. So it was like, it would have been like, it actually, it would have made sense if I was ever going to, if I was ever going to do it, but it just still was like too much money with, with the, the, the speakers itself and the wiring and all that.
JVL00:18:09So I, I, uh, down here at the beach house when we bought it and I, it, the previous owner, cause when you're at the beach, all furniture conveys and the previous owner still had a tube television, which was amazing in one of the ocean giant. And, uh, like TV hutch things that was like eight feet tall, six feet wide. And I, I, I, there's probably a VCR in there too. Anyway. So I, I just went and got the cheapest flat panel I could find. And I was, I was like, I'm going to hang it on the wall and I'll do it myself. And I did it in the cords were hanging down. I couldn't, I could not abide it. And so I thought, why can't I just do this myself? Oh, right. Why can't it look so? Because it's drywall, right? You find where the, you find where the, uh, the, the studs are, right. The going, because, because the way walls are framed, you have vertical two by fours or two by sixes now, I guess, two by fours every 18 or 24 inches. And so long as you are just popping the, you know, cutting a hole in, and then going straight down in a straight line, then you're fine, you're fine, right? It's easy. You, you go to Lowe's you buy, uh, they
Vic00:19:26Sonny is shaking his head. You've already lost him anyway. So I, it's not worth the labor. I spec this out for labor.
JVL00:19:34I spec this out and I figure that basically this is like a $25 job in terms of materials and that there's no reason I can't do it within 15 minutes. And, uh, and I, so I, I start going, so I mean the, the, the burning, you know, the burning of the boat section is when you start with the drywall saw cutting out a big, you know, two by four section of your walls. And once you've done that, you're like, oh, I guess we're going forward. There's no going back. So I, I do that and there is a, for some God knows why reason, there's a horizontal beam right where I want to be dropping. So, so yes, across the studs, across the studs, some extra reinforcement. And so I'm, I'm sitting there and thinking to myself. Okay, now hold, hold on now, I should say I did not discover this until I had cut both holes, both the top and the bottom hole. And I was trying to fish things down through it.
Sonny00:20:36And it's not going through cause you're, you're like, where's this core? Why isn't it, why isn't it going through?
JVL00:20:40It's just coiling. And so I'm, I'm trying to, so I finally think to myself, maybe I could just go get a, a, a hole saw, right? You've, you've seen those, right? A hole saw.
Vic00:20:52It's like a, a circular it's imagine a.
JVL00:20:56A soda can that you pop onto your drill, but the edges of it are, yeah, right. So you can cut like say a four inch diameter hole in something. But then I was like, could this be here for a reason? I understand this place was built in 1980 and construction in the 1980s was just fucking garbage. Yeah. And so I went through this like elaborate, well, what's on the other side of this wall, well, the other side of the wall was really just the deck, like there's just, I don't think there's anything load bearing going on, just do it. So I run back out to Lowe's and I get the whole saw and a telescoping extension because I've got to go down through, like at an angle through the whole I've cut. The, and as I'm doing this and we're now in like hour five and, uh, and there's like smoke coming up out of it. I'm thinking, geez, I hope I'm at an angle so that I can, and when it went through, there was a moment where I thought, oh God, the whole fucking kid. That building is going to come down. Isn't it? But it didn't, it was fine. And now you can't see any cords.
Sonny00:22:03Wow. It all worked out.
JVL00:22:05It all worked. And the horizontal beam remains a mystery, it's a mystery, but it's got a giant hole in it.
Sonny00:22:12Is it, I mean, is it a function of like just, just hurricane proof building? Yeah. Like, do you, do they need more, more reinforcements like that?
JVL00:22:21I mean, I like, I don't think this place was built to be hurricane proof, to be quite honest. Yeah. I think hurricane proof stuff is very recent vintage in terms of building code in North Carolina. I think in 1980s it was developers just like, ah, slap it up. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Anyway, it's enough, enough talk. Victorino, how are you, buddy?
Vic00:22:40I am, uh, doing much better. I had a close call this morning, so, you know, I still run, um, the FBI was right there on the doorstep, huh? Two to three times. They were. Two to three times a week. And I, I do a little over five miles now. My ambulance have vanished. I don't know how. It just did. So doing, uh, I took a couple of weeks off and then it, and then it was much better. Um, the big thing I always worry about is when I cross, um, uh, the major, like intersection like for me, it's Washington Boulevard. And so you have all this and I try, I, I don't like standing. I don't like, I don't like, I don't know, maybe other runners are like this. I don't like stopping cause it messes up my time. And so I tried to just run down and wait till there's an opening and dodge. Right. And you make it through. You know, thank God I, I obviously haven't had any incidents and I try to be careful. Look both ways. That's usually what I'm afraid about when I say close calls today was a different kind of close call. Uh, I was about a quarter mile to a half mile in and then I started to get a stomach ache. Has that ever happened to you guys and that would, do you make a decision? You have to make an executive decision. Do you retreat?
Sonny00:23:51Because this would involve running. Oh, that's right. So you've, you've made mistake.
Vic00:23:55Number one. Okay. Thank you Sonny. He's, he would never find himself in this position. What JVL?
JVL00:24:00Kind of stomach ache. It was kind of crappy.
Sonny00:24:02Or was this more of a lower intestine-y kind of thing?
Vic00:24:05Yes. Yes.
JVL00:24:07It was lower. Or was this like, oh, my tummy hurts. I, I ran too soon after eating.
Vic00:24:12I'd say I thought it was my tummy hurts, uh, and, uh, I had already, you know.
JVL00:24:18Or was this like, oh boy, we're crowning.
Vic00:24:20It was, it was like the turtle's head. Start turtle walking. The turtle's head is about to pop out. It was, it was, it was, I gotta get to a ditch. I, I, I drank, I had a bit to drink the night before and sometimes it has an effect on me, you know, the alcohol. And I said, okay. I, I, but I, but I went to the bathroom, but sure enough, the effect was happening. So the first one I thought it was stomach. No, it was lower. So I said, oh, maybe it's, you know, going through the, you know. I think I'm fine. I said, I think I'm fine. And, and so.
JVL00:24:50Yeah, sure. You know. What's the worst that could happen? You shit yourself on Washington Boulevard. Tell me this.
Vic00:24:56You and your neighbors. Isn't it true? Isn't it true?
Sonny00:24:59Runners have done this JVL like marathoners, like competitive marathoners, a hundred percent.
JVL00:25:05You'll see at the high levels, uh, cause diarrhea is a frequent side effect of, of long, long distance running. And you'll see with it, like running down the backs of their legs, but you know, these
Vic00:25:16are often people contending for metals and I'm not, I'm not, I'm just doing my, I'm just trying to stay alive. I'm just trying to keep my weight even as you know, because of my lifestyle. Uh, so. So it went away and I said, okay, good. I, you know, you can sort of convince yourself, you know, you're like, no, no, it's not what I think. No, no, it's not that. And then I'd say about 10 minutes later it came back and a little bit stronger. And then after that it went away or the sound effects were a little bit, but it was really, the weirdest thing was I managed to put it off, but it's like your body knows. So I managed to head, head towards five miles and then I was heading back, but it's like your body. Um, knows when you're close to your destination and all of a sudden it was happening and I got, and I was, it was like cold chills, five miles and I'm having cold chills and, and I'm like, and you're, and I would say this, it was a sub 10, it was a sub 10 average because I ran really fast that last, that last stretch. But it is a thing. Do you run too fast and then make it up? Yes, sonny.
Sonny00:26:22Were you getting, were you getting the contractions doubling? I was, no, I was.
Vic00:26:25Okay. I was dilating. I was dilating. I was, they were at about four centimeters apart.
Sonny00:26:32That's always, that's always the worst is when you're like, ah, right now it is, it
Vic00:26:37was a fear that, you know, like I'm like, I thought about, you know, do I run into my wife's cousin's house cause he lives down the road and I would happen to be running by the neighbor. I just knock and say, Hey Kevin, I really need to use your bathroom. This is embarrassing, but I need to use it or, or what, and then I decided not to. And then I had this awful feeling after like maybe the second or third time it came back, it would be like, you know, what would happen, you know? And all of a sudden, you know, like it would be like, yeah, like you said, league highway, there would be like, you know, lane closure or something, you know, WCOP traffic report
JVL00:27:08scenes from Vic's life. Uh, him waking up while sitting on the pavement outside Cava after having thrown up limping along Washington Boulevard, having crapped his pants, your life is not all that similar from that of a very tragic homeless person.
Vic00:27:27Yes. No, I, I borderline, I bore a line with my reckless behavior, but I just want to assure you that the good news is I made it in the nick of time. But speaking of enormous monsters over the weekend, Godzilla versus Kong took in 48 and a half million dollars at the box office. I was hoping, I was hoping that this, uh, it was a bad, I was hoping I didn't like the movie that I can say, speaking of monster dumps, but anyway, uh, speaking of fire and fiery explosions, uh, and box office, does that mean we're back to box office talk? What's I went for the first time in ages to box office mojo because they had now it was 48 and a half for a five day quote weekend, but everything below it is about 2 million and 1 million. Yeah.
Sonny00:28:13Yeah. What's going on? Uh, I mean, I, I don't know that we are back exactly. I will say that what this, what this shows is that there is a certain pent up demand for a certain type of movie, which is the. Kind of big, awesome movies. There's a pent up budget.
JVL00:28:29There's a pent up demand for amazing cinema.
Sonny00:28:32Sure. Sure. Exactly. Uh, there, there's a, there's, there is a, there's absolutely a, uh, a portion of the audience that is ready to get back. I mean, I saw a lot of sellouts, uh, you know, granted these are theaters with 30 to 50% capacity.
Vic00:28:51Oh, sorry. So you went to the theater.
Sonny00:28:53I saw it. So I saw it in a theater. I rented with, uh, it was me and Beth and, uh, four other people.
JVL00:29:01So two other couples, um, that we know, we know here from Dallas since you're renting the whole theater.
Sonny00:29:08It was, it was, it was, I don't know that the screen, this may be one of the AMCs where the screen, the masking doesn't really work. Let's be honest. Uh, but the, uh, but it, no, it, I take that back. It actually was masked correctly because the, uh, the, the trailers were in the, um, you know, the, the letterboxd format. The screen had come down. It was, uh, it was, uh, it was in proper, you know, what did it cost to rent out the
JVL00:29:30whole theater?
Sonny00:29:31It was $150. Um, it was, uh, it was $150 deal and at, and, and with six people, that's not that much beyond the actual cost of a ticket.
Vic00:29:44I mean, it's, it's, no, it's not in concessions.
Sonny00:29:47What was it certainly paying a premium, but it's like, it's, it's a couple extra.
Vic00:29:50Was it hard to get a time slot for that or no, is it like, well, we, we, we got it.
Sonny00:29:55Uh, like four weeks out, like as soon as the, as soon as my friends, my friends are very, very into like, uh, the Godzilla King Kong universe and I was like, yeah, they're into the Kaiju thing. I'm sorry.
JVL00:30:09How did that go? Can you say that again?
Sonny00:30:11It sounds like something you drink, uh, uh, but it was, it was, it was great and it was very funny too. It was very funny. So we were sitting there, we're watching the movie, the movie, uh, you know, the movie, the credits, uh, start the opening credits start going and the, the movie is beginning and right as it began, this group of like five kids with all their popcorn and stuff come into the theater and start to go to take a seat and we went, get out, wrong theater, wrong. You get out, get out of the theater and we yelled, we yelled at them and they like, they were like, ah, and ran out and I, they were, they were trying to pull something. They weren't. Exactly.
Vic00:30:56Get off my lawn, get out of my theater, get out of my theater, get out of my, get off my plane.
Sonny00:31:02Uh, and I, like I, I assume I like, I, again, I'm, I would be willing to bet they knew exactly what they were doing and uh, they were trying to pull one over on us on the assumption that, you know, we just wouldn't say anything cause you know what, what, but we said, we said a bunch of things in very short order. They got, they got out of the theater, said some beautiful things.
Vic00:31:25Uh, when you, when you have our theater all to yourself, Sonny, even though you're with friends, do you insist on sitting alone in your own aisle, your own row?
Sonny00:31:33We socially distanced, we, we socially distanced. So we were, we were in three separate rows just kind of like staggered.
JVL00:31:40Did you get the key? Did you get the key seat? Like that? Who got the dead center seat though?
Sonny00:31:44Oh, I got, I, we got the dead center, that center, like the ones where you can put your feet up on the rail. That's a good one. Yeah. Those are the best seats.
Vic00:31:53Those are the best. We took those. Those are the best seats.
JVL00:31:56Those are good. Honestly, I think IMAX 3d tickets are $22 a piece. Yeah. So this is really an extra 50 cents more to own the whole theater and talk as much as you want.
Sonny00:32:09It was a, it was a, it was not an IMAX theater. It was like a standard, you know, theater, but it was like, no, no, totally. If we were going to, if we were going to IMAX, it would essentially have been five more dollars
JVL00:32:23a couple. $150 because you only had six people, it was $150 and you could have brought as many people as you wanted.
Sonny00:32:31$150 you could bring up to 20 people. That's amazing. So if you had 20 people there, you're like actually saving money.
Vic00:32:39Did you have, did you have a choice, a selection of movies you could watch or can you just bring your DVD?
Sonny00:32:45No, no, no. It's a real thing. Okay. There's like a, yeah. AMC has a whole program where you, you, they have like a list of the movies and the price points are different. Like you can rent a theater. Uh, I don't know exactly what they're showing right now, but you can rent, you could rent for a while. You could rent a theater and watch like Jurassic park on the big screen or the matrix on the big screen. And it was like, and it was, and it was less than that.
Vic00:33:08It was like a hundred dollars with Maria Menounos.
JVL00:33:11Do you still get newbie with Maria Menounos?
Sonny00:33:13You still get, you still get newbies because I would pay extra to get, you've been watching
JVL00:33:19newbie.
Sonny00:33:20I'm Maria Menounos. You still get all the, all the trailers for 200.
Vic00:33:23She actually shows up at the theater. It does the show.
Sonny00:33:26Yeah.
Vic00:33:27Hologram. And she does. Yeah. And she does it. She now, she also appeared in the gas station by the way. She's a, you know, when you fill up gas, she appears on screen.
Sonny00:33:35It's a great deal. And it works for the theaters too. Cause I mean, you know, this is the first time Beth and I have gone out, you know, like without the kids in eight, nine months. So we bought, like we each had two beers at the theater for like a total cost of like $40. You know what I mean? It was like, it was.
Vic00:33:55It would be like double the cost of renting.
Sonny00:33:57We got popcorn and beers and like that, that basically equaled our share of the theater. I mean, it was crazy.
Vic00:34:04It's very exciting. How about a big boy review?
Sonny00:34:06Uh, Godzilla versus Kong, Godzilla versus Kong. It's about a big monkey and it's about a big lizard and they're punching each other because there can only be one alpha Titan.
JVL00:34:16If only there was a giant werewolf Vic.
Sonny00:34:18You can't, you can't have two alpha Titans.
JVL00:34:22It's a rampage joke Vic.
Vic00:34:23You remember rampage? It was a great, it's a, it was a great game, but then you're like, eh, okay, go ahead.
Sonny00:34:29We saw the movie rampage.
Vic00:34:31I didn't see that one. Again, there's a movies that we all skipped and that was one of mine.
Sonny00:34:36Uh, I, I, I, I don't know that it makes a whole lot of sense to do a proper review of this film. I had a bunch of questions, but I'll leave, I'll wait for Vic to do his questions. But basically the long and the short of it is Apex cybernetics, which is run by Damien Miller. Uh, I was, I was hoping it was to be run by a Joe Morton again, he, uh, Apex cybernetics is being attacked by Godzilla, uh, after years of silence and, and hiding from Godzilla and nobody is quite sure why. And so the Monarch, the semi governmental agency, I don't exactly know what the deal is. There, um, decides to take King Kong into the hollow earth through an entry point in the Antarctic, uh, through a special. Uh, uh, gravity defeating ship that can go through the gravity inversion in the center of the earth.
JVL00:35:33Yeah.
Sonny00:35:34Well, it's where you flip from being in the gravity on one side, the whole planet's gravity is on you at that point. Yeah. Obviously.
JVL00:35:41Or something. Oh, I'm sorry.
Sonny00:35:43You don't know anything about science, Sonny? Is that what this is? Makes sense. A lot of science in this movie. I am not a science or math major. So this was, there was a lot of confusing things that happened in this. Um, uh, and, uh, the, the, the long and the short. Of it is that King Kong and Godzilla fight and then King Kong and Godzilla fight again, and then King Kong and Godzilla fight for a third time. And then they have to team up and fight against Mecca Godzilla, which is what apex cybernetics was building. And I, uh, I have to say, uh, I, I, I didn't, I, I clearly did not love this film as much as JBL did. Uh, but I did enjoy it more on the big screen than I did on my, my fabulous television set. Uh, because it is, uh, it is a movie that is designed to be seen. On the big screen. You should go see it on the big screen. Um, I, again, I, I like, I have a bunch of questions. Uh, there were a lot of things in this movie that felt like they should have been callbacks to other things and did not make sense to me. And I've seen all of these movies, so I know, I know basically what's going on, but why was, why was skull island covered in a permanent storm? Why was the King Kong living in the Truman show?
JVL00:36:46Oh, to protect him from Godzilla.
Sonny00:36:49No, but, but there was like a storm on the island. Where did that storm come from? Why was that there? I think the movie just happened to happen.
JVL00:36:54Yeah. During monsoon season.
Sonny00:36:56During monsoon. Yeah. No, they built, they built it. It took over the whole island. They talk about how the little girl's family had been killed in the storm when it took, when it took over the island in quotes. I mean, that, that's a thing.
JVL00:37:06Maybe that's a remnant from King Ghidorah. Remember there was a big monster hurricane, almost like a sharknado.
Sonny00:37:11I guess. I guess. Uh, second question is when, when, um, uh, what's his name? Uh, uh, Alexander Skarsgard is talking about his brother who led a mission into the middle of the earth.
Vic00:37:25I assume this was in the movie Kong Skull Island, which I did not see.
Sonny00:37:28That's why I assume. But he definitely was not, it definitely wasn't. He was going on a, on a, on a scientific mission into the middle of the earth and he dies apparently. And it's this like big emotional beat in this movie and we have no idea who he's mourning. No idea who he's mourning.
JVL00:37:43I thought it was just me. I believe that that beat is there to help us understand that we can like that character and that we don't have to be creeped out. To think that he's a bad guy because if you only evaluate what he says and does, you would think to yourself, huh, maybe he's a villain.
Vic00:38:04I thought, I thought I was waiting for that to happen.
JVL00:38:06Yeah. And so we, we need to have the look, he really loves his dead brother so that we shouldn't let go and say, oh, okay.
Vic00:38:14Or that I assumed that he was going to be used as a pawn and then killed.
Sonny00:38:18Okay. Question. Why are there statues of giant monkeys, uh, beneath the earth? Who built them?
Vic00:38:25It's the Kong family, Sonny, the Kong family. I don't know where the Kong family went, but obviously they were there because those built them. They made them. They have opposable thumbs. They can build and Kong's family built the Kong palace.
Sonny00:38:39Did they also build the magical ax?
JVL00:38:42Yes. And they make tools. They are tool using primates. They have mastered language, look, they can have full conversations with people because these are not. Normal gorillas, these are straight out of Kong really. They're a very advanced race of Titan and they had their entire I'm sure they had song and music as well.
Sonny00:39:05I was waiting for armor and helmets question like Gorilla Grodd.
Vic00:39:11Yeah. Like really?
Sonny00:39:13Yeah. Like Gorilla Grodd. If, if King, if Godzilla can sense any Titan on the planet and go to it, for instance, the Titan, that's not even actually a Titan. Uh, the Mecca Godzilla, why is he not able, which is underground and in a whole bunch of bunkers and whatever, not even a fully assembled. It's not even really assembled until, uh, until halfway through the movie. Why can he not sense where King Kong is because of the Truman show, they have special shield
JVL00:39:47deflectors in there to keep the vibranium energy.
Sonny00:39:51But how, how, how does that not work? How does that not work at Apex cybernetics? Why are they, how is he able to send through all the shielding there?
JVL00:39:58I mean, clearly they wanted him to come there. They were luring him there and, uh, and I, I have to say that, uh, also understand that Mecca Godzilla is in fact one of King Ghidorah's heads. Yes. So Mecca Godzilla isn't just a robot. He becomes possessed by the ghost of one of King Ghidorah's heads. King Ghidorah. Yes. Which, which, okay. Uh, that's why he turns bad and tries to kill Godzilla.
Sonny00:40:31Right. I mean, that was, that was, that was silly, but at least I was like, okay, I can buy that. And like, as far as the logic of this movie goes, King Ghidorah's head taking over the body of Mecca Godzilla was like the most logical thing that happened in the entire movie. It's like, I was like, oh, okay, that's, that's actually kind of clever.
Vic00:40:49It's not like, no, it's like that hand movie with Michael Caine where he has the hand transplant killing people.
Sonny00:40:55Yeah. It's not like, it's not like environmentalist villains came in and like hacked Mecca Godzilla and they were like, you know, we're going to destroy the world now to, to save it. It was like, oh, it's like, oh, okay. Yeah, sure. King Ghidorah's psychic skull. And not only that.
JVL00:41:07Not his brain.
Sonny00:41:08And not only that.
JVL00:41:09His skull, just his skull. It's actually kind of a, an interesting beat. It's an interesting plot point. It's not something you have seen before or heard before. It's not a rehash. It's true. It's true. So Sonny, you liked it so, so, but had questions.
Vic00:41:21I liked it. I liked it fine. It was fine. JVL. You loved it. Tell us about it.
JVL00:41:27I fucking loved it. I fucking loved it. All right. Why? It's probably the best Godzilla movie I've ever seen. It is certainly the best Godzilla versus King Kong movie I've ever seen. Correction.
Vic00:41:37The answer is the best Godzilla movie is Godzilla 1985 starring Raymond Burr. Continue.
Sonny00:41:43Is that the one with Jeff Bridges? That was with Raymond Burr. I mean, look. Both Bridges. Look, we could. Wasn't one of the Bridges brothers in it?
JVL00:41:51Not that one. We could, we can talk about the mise-en-scene. And the auteur's vision behind this. But I just want to just tick off three things that happened in this movie. And then defy you. Dare you to tell me it isn't awesome. First of all, they use a fancy spaceship as a defibrillator on King Kong. And he wakes up like he's Uma Thurman getting an adrenaline shot in Pulp Fiction. Amazing. Secondly. Is that.
Sonny00:42:22Wait. Question. You go. Go ahead and finish your thoughts. I have.
JVL00:42:27I have a thought in his battle with Godzilla. King Kong's shoulder is dislocated. And when he gets up, he like Martin Riggs before him, like he slams it into a building and uses a building to pop his shoulder back in. And third, when when Mechagodzilla and Godzilla are battling Mechagodzilla does a Superman punch like he's the second coming of Roman Reigns. I'm sorry. Every every human being since the dawn of time, since we crawled out of the primordial pits and made fire, has wanted to see a gigantic robot Godzilla do a Superman punch on a four hundred and fifty foot lizard in the middle of Hong Kong. It was amazing. How could you not be? Are you not entertained? Yeah, no, I was fine.
Vic00:43:21I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. I was really. I had very low expectations for this movie, and I rather enjoyed the first gorilla king, the gorilla. That's his name, right? King Kong. His first punch against Godzilla. It was like a rocky punch.
JVL00:43:38Yes.
Vic00:43:39Yes. It was really impressive.
JVL00:43:41That's how gorillas fight. Yes. Gorillas fight. Basically, like MMA superstars. That's right. That's right.
Vic00:43:47You know, whereas in reality, King Kong, the first thing we've done is, you know, rip Godzilla's genitals off. That's the way ... Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you, J-Ville.
JVL00:43:58You were talking about that. No. Look, I mean, we can talk seriously about the movie because I do have some serious thoughts about it. Well, let me get my stuff in first, then. But then you do your thing. I loved it.
Sonny00:44:11I loved everything about it.
JVL00:44:12Okay. All right. And to me, this is a pure ... Look, you're either into Godzilla or you're not. And if you're not, then of course it's stupid, right? Flash was picking the plot holes apart, where he's like, "Where was the sun coming from in the middle of the hollow Earth?"
Vic00:44:24That was ... Okay. Well, you could tell him. Great question. I literally have that on my list of questions. Great question. Where is the light?
JVL00:44:30What is that light? I have a better question. Basically ... I said, "I have a better question, big guy. How does a 450-foot lizard shoot nuclear lasers out of his mouth?" Because let me tell you, if you can roll with that, then we can figure out some sort of explanation as to why the magma core looks like sun or something.
Vic00:44:49You got to help me out on the sun. You got to help me out with the magma core. You either buy into ...
JVL00:44:52The magma core. The magma core. You either buy into Godzilla or you don't. Right? If you buy in, then this is a great ride.
Vic00:44:58I can buy into Godzilla, but there are just things. Okay. First of all, the quadrant score is a B because ... Well, plot is an A. What? Hold on. Because if I'm taking everything in, plot is an A, obviously. I found it very easy to understand. Okay. This is what's going on. They're going to fight. Duration. I don't know. I didn't check how long it was. It felt like it was just the right amount of time. Was it a two-hour movie?
Sonny00:45:27Less? About an hour, 45 minutes.
JVL00:45:29Wow.
Vic00:45:30That's exactly right. Fantastic. Fantastic. A plus, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just give it an A. Violence in Action, of course, was an A. Of course, Sex, Nudity, if I'm not doing the N/A, if I'm being honest here, it's an F, although I found ... What's her name? Extremely Hot. Rebecca Hall. Rebecca Hall, I'm talking about.
JVL00:45:51I knew you were going to say that. I thought to myself, "Boy, this is going to get Vic in lots of trouble." It's a trap. That is a trap.
Vic00:45:58It's a trap. Okay. That's bait. First of all, why ... That's bait. Okay. Here are my things, and then we can go back. I think people have talked about this before, how King Kong keeps on getting larger and larger, whereas he once scaled the Empire State Building, now he's the size of the Empire
JVL00:46:14State Building. They actually have an explanation for this. It's preposterous, but the point is they cared enough to ... Which is what? If you go through the history of this, the original King Kong was supposed to be about 24 feet tall. Peter Jackson's King Kong was about 55 feet tall, I think. The Kong of Skull Island Kong from this MonsterVerse was 105 feet tall, but they made a point of saying in the movie, which is set in the 1970s, and he's just an adolescent. We have no idea. We have no idea how big he'll get. Here we are 50 years later, and now he's 400 feet tall. Admittedly, 4X is a pretty big ask in terms of believability and growth, but the point is they went to the minimal plot lengths necessary to just give us something, so not just like, "Hey, look.
Sonny00:47:17He's supersized." Yeah. This is one of those things that does not bother me at all. This is the hollow-er. Earth, sun, nuclear fire. If you're going to believe that these two things are going to fight each other and it's going to not end in 20 seconds because Godzilla is three times the size of King Kong, then they have to be the same size.
Vic00:47:35It's fine. We touched on the sign language thing. I'm glad they kept it to the, "Okay, he'll make certain gestures to express his feelings," and they didn't do the full Congo. You know the full Congo, which is as soon as they strap the device, then he's like, "I am sad."
Sonny00:47:53I'm scared. Amy, scared. Thank you, Sonny.
Vic00:47:56Go home.
Sonny00:47:57Go home. Yes.
Vic00:47:59I'm so happy they didn't do that. Here's an interesting thing. Godzilla is kind of like the Predator in the sense that if you're armed and dangerous, he will fight you, but if you're not, then he won't fight you. That was one of the moves they did when they decided the fleet would just be dormant, right? Well, he has to be the alpha. That's all.
JVL00:48:22Yeah. He's here to protect us. He's here to protect Earth, and so he's just got to be the alpha on Earth if he's going
Vic00:48:29to protect us. You know what, Mike? I know he's concerned about the environment between him and Kong. The amount of bathroom issues I would have ... I thought mine was enormous. That is enormous, the amount that they have to use the bathroom. It's a lot.
Sonny00:48:44Jameel, you weren't a little bit sympathetic to Apex Cybernetics wanting to create a weapon to protect us. To protect us from Godzilla. Mechagodzilla.
Vic00:48:55Right, Mechagodzilla, the whole point of Mechagodzilla is to protect us from.
Sonny00:48:58Because Godzilla is actually a terrifying thing that we need ... Look, I take the Batman versus Superman point of view on this, which is that if there was an actual enormous building sized lizard that could shoot nuclear fire breath out of his mouth ...
Vic00:49:15It's pretty scary.
Sonny00:49:16We need something. We need a silver bullet of some sort that would be able to take him out, take him down, if he ever freaked out. I don't disagree.
JVL00:49:26I don't disagree. And you know what, having a robotic Godzilla whose spines along his back detach and shoot out like missiles, and whose tail has a laser spike on it, and has rocket engines on his
Vic00:49:44back. Yeah, I wish there was more. I wish somehow he could have lived longer. But at the same time, thinking about this, I thought there was no way Mechagodzilla could exist. There's so many moving parts. I mean, it's a robot. Something's going to go wrong. And sure enough, it did. In fact, I actually had it written down here, "Is the real hero Mechagodzilla?" So there you go. I had another question.
Sonny00:50:08How did they- Well, he's not the real hero because he's taken over by King Ghidorah. Right.
JVL00:50:12Oh, he was possessed.
Vic00:50:13He was possessed. He would have been the real hero. Yes.
Sonny00:50:16But the Apex Cybernetics, their heart was in the right place.
Vic00:50:20Their heart was in the right place. How did they get to Hong Kong so fast in that tunnel? What was that tunnel they got into? Great question.
JVL00:50:27I didn't understand that. They went through the Hollow Earth. That's what that tunnel was.
?00:50:31Oh.
Vic00:50:32Oh, really? The Hollow Earth, by the way- Without having seen Hollow Earth, per se, they just took it. They just took it. It was like an express. Yeah.
JVL00:50:40The Hollow Earth is basically the Savage Land from DC, right, Sonny?
Sonny00:50:44From Marvel.
JVL00:50:45From the X-Men books. DC has a version of this with Kandar, the first human, and somebody will yell at me about that.
Vic00:50:51So you're telling me, so the Peter Jackson King Kong has nothing. No.
JVL00:50:54Nothing at all to do with this King Kong.
Vic00:50:55No. Different universes. Okay. So the beginning of this series, shall we say, was Kong Skull Island for Kong? No. No, the beginning of the series was Godzilla.
JVL00:51:03Or was it Godzilla? So it goes Godzilla, King of the Monsters, King Kong, which was not Kong Skull Island, and now this. Okay.
Vic00:51:12Right. What happened to Matthew Broderick? Because he was in this. Oh, sorry. And that awful actress. Okay. You want to get serious, JVL, tell us. You want to get deeper. Sonny, deeper thoughts. JVL, deeper thoughts.
JVL00:51:27I do have deeper thoughts as to why it succeeds as a movie. And the reason it succeeds and is satisfying is twofold. Did you guys ever see the original King Kong versus Godzilla?
Vic00:51:41No. What do you mean the original? Remind me.
JVL00:51:45The first, there's like a 1972 or 1968. There's a long ago King Kong versus during the Man in Suit years. Yeah. And it ends, I mean, I remember seeing that as an eight year old and being so jazzed. That's wild. Right? Because one is Japanese, one is basically an American. And dying to see it because who doesn't want to know who would win in a fight? King Kong or Godzilla. And the movie ends with the two of them fighting and falling under the water together. And that was the biggest cop out. I remember being angry as an eight year old. Oh, so they both? Right. Being like both and neither. And so in a movie like this, you need an answer. Right? The film cannot cop out on who would win in a fight. It has to tell us that answer. But it also has to tell us that answer in a satisfying manner. And what they do is they structure this movie like a wrestling arc. So like the arc that was the fight between Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan or something like that. So they meet at first and Godzilla just totally overpowers King Kong. And so we establish Godzilla as the heavy. The second meeting, Kong dominates him because he's got his special magic axe. And then in the third meeting, we then have a rubber match where it's really going right at each other. And you think one guy's going to get the pinfall, the other guy's going to get the pinfall. And then Godzilla wins. But we get the satisfying finish where they show respect to each other. Right. And the one guy walks off. And then we redeem King Kong as a heavy himself when he takes on because Godzilla can't beat Mecca. Right. Mecca. Godzilla is even better than Godzilla is. And it takes King Kong and Godzilla working together to be and that's become the mega power. They become the mega powers. That's exactly it. So the point is that this is it's a very narratively appealing and satisfying. Story, and they rely on the tropes of professional wrestling to tell it. And I the whole time I was watching this, I just felt like I could hear in my brain the nerd conversation between the whatever the pre storyboard version is like pre first draft previous trying to figure out who would win, because when you think about it, right? Well, how is King Kong? I'm going to be Godzilla. He he doesn't have armor. He can't really bite anybody because because his mouth is and even though he's even though
Vic00:54:33he's large, that fire burns and he does not.
JVL00:54:36He cannot shoot nuclear lasers from his mouth. That's the big one. Yeah. So what does he have going for a big drawback? So he so he has a temporal cortex, right, which allows him to formulate strategy. He actually is. He does a thing where he distracts Godzilla, right? He grabs the thing off of one of the shiny thing from one of the buildings and throws it and Godzilla goes after it because he's got a puny lizard brain.
Vic00:55:00All right. So King Kong is smart. He's smart.
JVL00:55:03He is. He's able to smarter than problem solving his tools. He's problem solving. He used to use his tools. But you know, he's got opposable thumbs, which, let's be honest, are a very big, big advantage.
Vic00:55:13It's a big change.
JVL00:55:14Yeah. But you can imagine the two nerds sitting there going, oh, I mean, like you'd need like a plus six ice sword or something. Everyone's going, what if would have King Kong had that act that Thor used in in Avengers Infinity War? Same act. Right. You know, like Stormbreaker. And then these two guys got to go rub it out together because give King Kong Thor's axe from the Avengers movie would be amazing. And it's basically what they did. It's a magical, a magical axe made from a broken spine from that can both absorb the nuclear lasers. And shoot the nuclear lasers. I don't know. But it's amazing.
Vic00:55:56You know what I liked? I liked that Kong, his strategy was also to shut Godzilla's mouth to prevent him from firing. Yeah. The very smart birdie. I was like, oh, that's good. And you know what? It's great.
JVL00:56:11This is going to sound stupid, but I thought the story does a really nice job of making Kong the audience surrogate. I mean, the audience surrogate in this movie is actually not any of the human characters. Yeah. It's Kong.
Sonny00:56:29And from the very opening moments where he's like getting up and scratching his butt and like right walking into the shower of and we're with him and we're, you know,
JVL00:56:38and I look, is it all stupid? Is the idea of Kong suddenly shrinking from his 405 feet to be able to get into that little tunnel going into the the hollow earth? Ridiculous. Yes. Is the hollow earth, which is. Again, the savage land by way of the crazy cities in Inception, where the cities are both like on the sky and on the ground with why does it have sun? Why is all that ridiculous? Yes. But on the other hand, as a piece of storytelling, it's actually pretty efficient and it does what it needs to do emotionally. So much as a movie like this needs to do anything emotionally.
Vic00:57:17Did it did it help to have seen Kong's go island to see this?
JVL00:57:22Do not. You do not need to. Absolutely.
Vic00:57:25Constellation is a garbage piece of I assume that some of the characters were from that movie. That's why. But no. Okay. No, it's absolutely useless. I actually. You know what? I you know, this was probably now three years. Oh, goodness. Three years ago, maybe four. When I was at Universal Studios, went to the conks gone Skull Island ride that had just opened and there was no line. It was it was right before Easter spring break. And so you just. But it takes forever to get to the ride because they assumed at some point there was going to be a long line anyway for this ride. And it's like all the new rides now, which is partly an actual physical ride. But then the rest of it is 3D. And then you move on your ride again. And it was pretty good because he just appears. He fights a dinosaur. And I would say the scariest part were the giant centipedes that they spray venom on you and it's like water water because you have to wear a thing, I guess.
JVL00:58:20Five D. Yeah.
Vic00:58:22Victorino, did you not love it? I didn't know. But I liked it. I liked it.
JVL00:58:27I mean, I don't love it.
Vic00:58:28I know. I'm getting tired of CG. I'm just getting tired of the CGI.
JVL00:58:32That's all. I know if you like God Jira, you like Kaiju. Like I don't know that there's anything better than this. The only thing I like that a lot. The only thing that could have been better is if the Shogun Warriors had showed up.
Vic00:58:46Do you remember the Shogun Warriors, great, great Mazinga and one of them was called Dragoon. I think he had like this. He looked like a red Statue of Liberty. Yes. But he had fired. Gosh. Like a rocket fist or something. Rocket fist or something. Right. Yeah. Great Mazinga had guided missiles for his fingers. They were so good. And they fought Godzilla. Did the Shogun Warriors fight Godzilla? Yeah, because I had the Godzilla and he had a fist that flew. Obviously, that makes no sense. And like a rubber flame tongue, but you had a little lever and the lever broke because they always break.
JVL00:59:19I was. Let me tell you how into this movie I was. I was so into it that at the end, when Godzilla and King Kong decide not to go at each other again, they are in many ways like Rocky and Apollo Creed. And then they. With respect, I would have bought it had they done sign language to each other and just had done like respect. Godzilla has no idea.
Vic00:59:46Godzilla has no idea what's going on.
JVL00:59:47I'm just telling you that had they done that in the movie.
Sonny00:59:51I still would have bought it. The end of this movie is the end of Anchorman. Remember? Remember in Anchorman? Yes, he talks. The dog talks to the bear. Remember in Anchorman when Baxter jumps down and he's like, no, Katojo, these humans are friends. Sonny, I thought it.
JVL01:00:06That the little girl is the dog. The little girl is Baxter.
Vic01:00:09I thought the same exact thing.
Sonny01:00:10No, I mean, it's the same exact point. It's the same exact point.
Vic01:00:13He's not the enemy.
Sonny01:00:14He is. The little girl jumps down and she's like, no, King Kong is friend. Godzilla is friend. You need to be friends. That's the enemy. And it was like, it's, it's basically Anchorman. Anchorman set the stage for the whole Godzilla vs Kong universe.
JVL01:00:28Yeah. Okay. I, I don't know. I loved it. And even the human stuff, while I was always anxious to be done with it, it never got to the point of being annoying.
Sonny01:00:39Oh, you weren't annoyed by the podcaster subplot with Eleven from Stranger Things and all that?
JVL01:00:47I was annoyed, but not every time I got to. Yeah. Every time I got to the precipice of being like, come on now. We got away from them.
Vic01:00:56We've gone to a different scene. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't actually see a lot of them. It was more Kong based than it was like the Godzilla character, like the people from, from the previous movie, which we did see. And I do like the father. And again, you didn't see a lot of him though. Kyle. Kyle Chandler.
JVL01:01:11Kyle Chandler. I like him. Coach. Yeah. That too. Coach from Friday Night Lights. Yeah. Like we don't, we don't need him, but that's okay. I will say I miss Ken Watanabe. It is a shame that he had to die.
Vic01:01:21I thought he was, well, he died because he was controlling Mechagodzilla using the mind thing.
JVL01:01:27Okay. You know what? The, the Filipino guy said that. Not us.
Sonny01:01:32Filipino.
Vic01:01:33Oh, by the way, the friend, the friend of 11, isn't he the kid from Deadpool 2 with the special powers that he had? No. Is he? He had that accent. I think it sounded like him. I don't remember. Okay. Anything else?
JVL01:01:50Yeah, it's great. Everybody should go see it. Here's a real question, Sonny. Why does, why is it that we care about the theatrical experience? Why is it that people like you and I have been bleeding on and on about this for 18
Sonny01:02:00months? For movies like Godzilla versus Kong.
JVL01:02:02Because I can't imagine how much of a nothing burger this would be on a 65 inch screen at home.
Sonny01:02:08Yeah. I mean, I watched, so I watched it at home, uh, you know, on my, on my 65 inch TV and it was, it was fine. It was like, it like, it wasn't that good, frankly, it was like, okay, this is big, big and dumb. And I, you know, it's, it's fine. And it was, it was much more entertaining just to watch in the theaters. It's not a good movie still. I, no offense JBL. It's not, it's not like I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it's not like Independence Day, which is a, a great, uh, dumb movie. This is an okay, dumb movie. Um, but, uh, but it was, it was, it was, I mean, there's no reason to watch this on anything other than a theatrical screen.
JVL01:02:47Does, does any gigantic robot do a Superman punch onto a gigantic lizard in Independence Day?
Sonny01:02:55No. Okay. So no, it's not as good. They, they upload a virus from a Mac to a, a alien mothership. That's how good it was. That's how good it was.
Vic01:03:06That's how good it was. All right. Uh, do we have any corrections? Shout outs? Anything like that? No.
Sonny01:03:12All right. I got a spirit of the week.
Vic01:03:14Hey.
Sonny01:03:15Me too. Let's hear it. Spirit of the week. Uh, spirit of the week for me this week is the Shibui pure malt whiskey. Uh. A Japanese whiskey.
JVL01:03:22Whoa.
Sonny01:03:23How does it pronounced again? I.
JVL01:03:25Let me see that.
Sonny01:03:26I'll show. I don't know. Let me see that.
Vic01:03:29Uh, but it's, uh.
Sonny01:03:30Look at that. It is literally a sample. Very. It's yeah. It's like a sample size. It's they sent it. They sent a sample size and it's, it's very good. I, I have like, I have become more enamored of the, uh, Japanese whiskeys as I get older here. Uh, and, uh, I will say that, uh, this, the Shibui pure malt whiskey, uh, it's very good. Um, it's like 60 bucks. A bottle.
Vic01:03:52So it's not cheap, but it's, you know, it's, so it's not part of Hibiki or Nika.
Sonny01:03:56No, it's not Hibiki or Kaio or Marziway or any, uh, uh, it's its own thing. It's its own thing. It's good. You should check. If you can, if you can find it in your stores, uh, highly recommend checking it, checking it out. Send me, send me pictures. They, uh, they, this is not spawn con, but they did send free samples to me. Uh, and I am, I am, uh, very, uh, I was, it was tasty.
JVL01:04:19Did you drink it while you were watching the. Kaiju? Movie?
Sonny01:04:23No, I did not. I did not because I was, we were at the, again, we were at the theater, so I was drinking like, uh. Did you put it in a flask? Just a little. I was, no, I was drinking, uh, I was drinking, you know, keep it in a gun holster, just like anchor steam or whatever. Wow. The gun holster reference.
JVL01:04:40I'm drinking Coco Loco Porter is a Northern Kelo heavy Northern North Kakalaki brewery. Uh, it's fine. It's a Porter. Okay. Yeah.
Vic01:04:52All right. I like it. Good. Wonderful. Uh, that is all the time we're given to this episode. Questions, comments, tweet us at SonnyBunch@VictorinoMatus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patreon, just go to subbeacon.com. We're there. Obviously, if you're listening to it, you're there, uh, tell your friends until next time. So, uh, if you don't have anything. I do have, uh, one thing. Bring it. I went to the dentist for my six-month checkup, right? And first of all, I have a couple of things, issues. They're always adding more tests to these things. Before it was just the cleaning, right? And they take pictures every other time. They'll do x-rays. Of course it happens. Every time I go there, I feel like it's every time. And they do that. And now they do the, the, the oral cancer screening, right? And so they're touching all over, feeling your glands and your neck, and then they have you. You move your neck and you move your tongue around, you know, they have to do a little thing and they're checking everything inside, outside, underneath your tongue, it's terrifying. And then, and then while they're doing this, oh, and then they decide they want to take your blood pressure. And so they, blood pressure, they use like a wrist device for it.
JVL01:06:09Yeah. This is a liability thing.
Vic01:06:11I believe. Oh, and I'm like, and my blood pressure is normally pretty good now. It's like 107 over like 70 is like really good. It was like 137 over like 80 something. You're at the dentist. Exactly. Exactly. It's like, oh, hold on. We're going to get this drill. Oh, right before we drill, let's take your blood pressure. Really? Okay. So there was that. And then, and then they ask, they really are. And then they ask, um, are you feeling anything or whatever? And I said, well, it just, the one thing is I might have like excited, a little sensitive on one side. Oh, they look over. It could be like, you know, it's like a receding gum, things like that. But the other thing, cause I'm old and then the other thing is I said, it feels a little weird on one of my teeth where I have a crown and, and, and then the doctor, the doctor the dentist says, oh, you use a mouth guard, right? Oh yeah. And you probably, oh, right. And he says he, he thinks it's because the mouth guard was molded before I got the crown. So it feels weird. But the way he, he remembers me as a patient, he said, oh, right. He says, you're a clincher.
JVL01:07:06I said, what, how did he know that I was just running and I, I was running and I was in a lot of trouble. So I had to clinch it tight. I'm sure it's fine.
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