#71. 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'
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Spider-Man: No Way Home is the main event, and it's a rare unanimous rave: Sonny puts it right up there with Homecoming as maybe his favorite of the series, JVL says he "loved it in a really deep way" and singles out the script for earning every emotional beat — especially the way Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's returns are woven into real character arcs rather than played as mere cameos — and Vic runs the Quadrant, grading it plot A, duration C ("long, but necessary"), action/violence A+, and sex/nudity N/A (a Marvel movie, and Eternals proved why that's for the best). Sonny delivers his "big-boy review" of the plot — Peter's identity gets outed, a botched Doctor Strange spell pulls in villains from across the multiverse (Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Electro, Sandman, Lizard), Aunt May is killed, and Peter ultimately sacrifices everyone's memory of him — while the group marvels at the film's $260 million opening (second only to Avengers: Endgame) and debates whether Tobey Maguire's Peter should have died. The first third is packed with holiday-week banter: JVL gifts Vic a year's subscription to the bathroom-break-timing app RunPee (inspired by Sonny's bladder-bursting ordeal at The Matrix Resurrections), there's a long detour on Chipotle versus Taco Bell versus "real" Mexican food, both hosts recount driving their kids through Christmas light displays (Six Flags Great Adventure, the Dallas Zoo), and Vic confesses a growing, slightly unhinged compulsion to linger with his father-in-law's coffee-shop friend circle, a bit JVL turns into a running "Vote Matus" campaign joke. They close by ranking the Spider-Man films (JVL puts Into the Spider-Verse on top), dissecting the mid- and post-credits stingers, and spiraling into a tangent about the Friends and Harry Potter reunions and Quidditch's real-world rebranding amid the J.K. Rowling backlash.
From the show notes
When to pee and when to eat. Plus: Spider-Man: No Way Home . Sure, it's the biggest hit in years. But does it ace the quadrants?
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00When you botched that spell, where you wanted everyone to forget that Peter Parker's Spider-Man. We started getting some visitors. From every universe.
Vic00:00:24Hello, Peter.
Guest00:00:30You're not Peter Parker.
Sonny00:00:34I'm sorry. What was your name again?
Vic00:00:35Dr. Otto Octavius. Hello 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 is now available through Patreon. Go to tpublic.com. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe tell your friends and don't forget about the Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. Sonny. Thank you so much for sending over that Royalty check. I I really made the most of it.
Sonny00:01:16What was it? What was it was like $14 and 50 cents or so.
Vic00:01:20I got myself a chipotle steak bowl and chips double steak and normally I know although I saw something else in that in. In one of the containers that looked even tastier, but I don't know what it was. It might have I don't know if it was carnitas. It looked really good. And sometimes you don't know until like, you know, you ever order the meat and then you after you order you notice. Oh, it's the dregs are giving me. It's like I asked the worst.
Sonny00:01:49I don't I don't go to Chipotle anymore because I live in a place that has good Mexican food.
Vic00:01:55How can that be? I can't imagine it being any better.
Sonny00:01:58It's funny. Beth and I were the other. Day just just discussing how like, oh, you know, we drove by a Chipotle was like we haven't been to a Chipotle in I literally two years now and like and and then after that, how does a Taco Bell stay in business down the street from us? There's literally a Taco Bell. I feel like on on the corner of my my neighborhood, you know shopping center.
Vic00:02:22My theory is that you mentally do not think of it anymore. It's trying to be anything like Mexican or Tex-Mex. It just is what it is. And well, it just it for that you okay, it's pure convenience.
Sonny00:02:35It's pure convenience, right? Is that like it's if you are if you are kind if you're drunk and it's like 12:30. Yeah, you're like I need some I want some taco like substances and you
JVL00:02:44could get you could get a lot sit by while you guys slander the bell like this. The Bell is amazing.
Vic00:02:50You could get and you could get a lot for if you're drunk and be willing to spend more than 10 20 bucks. You get one of those trays and it's like a variety $20 in a Taco Bell.
Sonny00:02:59You've got enough food.
Vic00:02:59For six months or me for a night, but one of the other things I got was the chips and know sometimes I get chips and salsa, but instead I got chips and their new queso Blanco because you know the yellow cheese. I imagine you like the white stuff better. Yeah, because the yellow shocked the yellow cheese. I'm sure it's bad for you. Vice cheese though. The white likes advice. So the white cheese the I like the Jack cheese. The Jack cheese is good and I imagine it's healthy. Because it's the Blanco as the queso Blanco is Spanish for like healthier cheese.
Sonny00:03:36So that doesn't that doesn't sound really sure. That's what it I'll let you. I'll let you have to have to get back to that.
Vic00:03:42So thank you for that JVL. What is going on? I got you something who me? I can't tell who you're looking at. Oh, it's you Victorino.
JVL00:03:52Oh, I got you something for Christmas. Oh my gosh, you always do this and you love you. You can barely contain yourself. I am about to change your life. I have an app for your phone. Uh-huh.
Vic00:04:10Your iPhone senior citizen. Yes, your iPhone silver says it's the senior edition se. That's what it stands for.
JVL00:04:16The app is called run pee. Excuse me. This is an app and I swear to God. This is real. I am not making this up. So you go to see a movie. Oh, and you tell it which movie you're going to see. You say I'm going to see Spider-Man. No way home. And as the movie starts you press a button to synchronize it. And at strategic points in the movie when nothing important is happening. It knows 30 seconds before that it vibrates in your pocket to let you know. Now is the time now is a safe. Time to get up to really to relieve yourself. Uh-huh gosh.
Vic00:05:03How do they know that? How do they know that? Oh, so yeah, it can't be a movie.
JVL00:05:07There's of run pee. No, they'd have it with things as they come out. They've already got it for Matrix Resurrection. So they've gone to like a screening and this app app company. They have sat through it and and very carefully figured out. Where are the lulls? Where are where can you get 90 seconds without missing anything?
Vic00:05:27Vic this is going to change your life. I need two minutes. I need two minutes that is going to change my life.
JVL00:05:31You are going to love it.
Vic00:05:34I am getting the amount of discomfort the amount of discomfort. I've had to suffer through, you know, practically making kidney stones in the process.
JVL00:05:40I am buying you a one-year subscription to run pee.
Vic00:05:44That is wild. Thank you. Thank you JVL. Merry Christmas. You know what Christmas miracle? These are gifts that are thoughtful. They're very thoughtful. Sonny didn't get you anything.
Sonny00:05:55That's fine. I could have used that. I actually went to go see the Matrix Resurrection. How long is it? I could have used that because it's two and a half hours long and at the end of it. I was like my bladder was about to explode. Yes, should have just waited to see it at home.
Vic00:06:08It's the kind of thing where it hurts to cough.
JVL00:06:10It's it move. Don't switch your switch your legs simultaneously streaming.
Sonny00:06:15Yes on HBO Max. It's going to be HBO Max and awesome.
JVL00:06:18How good is it? Is it amazing? Wow, who could have possibly predicted that's that's not good. So I need this.
Sonny00:06:28Are we going to do it? It's an episode on the major.
JVL00:06:30I assume we'll probably do a hell. Yeah, it's a resurrection. It's not going away.
Sonny00:06:34I want to I want to I want to do an episode because I thought I always thought JBL had very smart thoughts about reloaded and revolutions. We could talk about that in addition to Resurrections.
JVL00:06:43Do we have to watch all three of them again?
Sonny00:06:45Well, I don't think you have to but you could just read your old reviews. Yeah, wrote you wrote about them either on galley slaves or I remember you know defunct. I didn't watch the old defunct site convinced me not but a ban. It's
JVL00:06:59Now is this is this a case where you were yeah, what does that mean? Was that a clock ticking noise? Or is it just like I'm just making noises now.
Sonny00:07:09I'm just making disappointed.
JVL00:07:10You sounded like an aboriginal Bushman. Yeah, I know. Yeah, is this a case where your expectations were too high because you very foolishly were super excited for this movie.
Sonny00:07:22My ex my expectations were slightly too high, but I mean, I always knew there was like a 60% chance. This was going to be a disaster and why didn't that why is Lawrence Fishburne not in it?
JVL00:07:39Why do we have somebody else cast as a young Lawrence Fishburne look like let's save this
Sonny00:07:44for the Matrix Resurrections episode. Okay, guess save that for the Matrix Resurrections episode.
JVL00:07:49I something tells me the plus that actually is unless that actually is Lawrence Fishburne, which is the best de-aging they've ever done. Oh, they they will have taken. This and and change the game ahead and change the game in much the way they did with bullet time photography, which they invented for the original Matrix save it for next week. We won't even outstanding show and and you needed pee time. I'm sorry right now.
Sonny00:08:13I was I was man. I was my bladder was about to explode. I was like I was like getting to the point where I was like I'm going to have to I'm going to have to crawl over these people in front of me with like 10 minutes left in this movie. It's gonna be really embarrassing. I'm not going to be able to come back to my seat. I'm just gonna have to like watch from the door after I come back because I will be so embarrassed but luckily I was able I was able to like I I bore through it. I got got to the end of the movie.
JVL00:08:41You know what? I'll get you a subscription to now.
Sonny00:08:43I don't I don't need one.
Vic00:08:44Thanks.
Sonny00:08:44I almost never I it's never it's never an issue for you.
JVL00:08:49You know what? It's almost an issue until it is sometimes the greatest comfort is just knowing that it's there. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing. I don't understand. Refrigerator if you have a full refrigerator, you know, what if you don't have to go out to you by Runpee?
Sonny00:09:03Oh, what if you don't really have to go when it vibrates then you just don't go but what if you what if you like kind of you have to go a little bit, you know that in like 30
JVL00:09:12minutes you're going to have to really well, but I believe they are molten. I have not used this product myself. I have only been told about it by other people and I who do who are users and I went and looked and it's really it's as real as it gets and I believe that there are multiple points. It isn't just like there's only one.
Vic00:09:28Point they they'll tell you judgment call to though.
JVL00:09:32That's what it is and they give you the if you want to look as a heads up, it'll tell you look there. There are four opportunities to break there roughly at X Y and Z and you can before fully customizable you can tell it. I only want only buzz me at the second one or you know what buzz me at all three just in case it tells you if there are any mid credit or end credit scenes to stay for it's
Sonny00:09:54a it's an amazing that's useful that that's a thing that's actually so it's
Vic00:09:58it's run P so run P do they do they have another app like run crap or no, they don't run C.
JVL00:10:05I think that that really that's only useful for Netflix movies. There's only Netflix movies often have enough time to drop the kids off at the pool. Why are you gonna surprise pause?
Sonny00:10:16You know? No, you just let it.
Vic00:10:18Or you don't.
Sonny00:10:19Or you don't. Yeah. Yeah. Why would you bother?
Vic00:10:23Yeah, you're not gonna miss not gonna miss a whole lot. Well, thanks. That's all I got. Sonny, what's happening? Other than the matrix?
JVL00:10:28I got I really don't have I don't really have a whole lot going on in in my do you
Sonny00:10:34guys do this thing? Do you guys do the thing with your with your family where you your kids are a little bit older? Well, I guess I don't know. Maybe yours aren't trivial. I don't know. But we get to a point in the Christmas season when they've been at home for a few days that we just load everybody up in the car and we go on a drive to look at the Christmas lights. And it's a it's an excuse to have everybody kind of strapped into the car.
Vic00:10:58Do that. I know people do that. No, no, no, no. Like 30 minutes.
Sonny00:11:02I drive around. We look at Christmas like, oh, look at these Christmas lights.
Vic00:11:05What? There are certain streets. There are certain streets that people look to check out.
Sonny00:11:09That's true. Yeah, I've definitely hit that point in the Christmas season where it's just like, here's how we're going to get to bedtime without without any time.
JVL00:11:20We've absolutely done that. And Victorino up by you up in Jackson, New Jersey. Oh, yes. That was our famous six flags. Yeah. No, it's six flags. So six flags. Great adventure for their because there's nothing you can do to make money in the winter. They do a Christmas light show and you pay like fifteen dollars per car to drive through the park and they have arranged it. And that is a hell of a way to kill an hour.
Vic00:11:45You know, they have it is now open in the during the winter. Great adventure. We have that on select days. I went there because my kids, my my niece invited my kids to go with them. I went with my sister to, you know, sort of babysit them. And it was freezing.
JVL00:12:03And luckily, not in the haunted house, I thought, don't go to the haunt ever too soon.
Vic00:12:08Don't go too soon to say that it wasn't it wasn't going on at all. Yeah. I don't even make jokes about lightning. That was dark. I don't even make jokes. I don't make jokes. But lightning loops.
JVL00:12:18Sorry, Sonny.
Vic00:12:19Yeah. I don't have any tragedy.
JVL00:12:21You go on lightning loops and you can lose some weight real fast, you know, just cut you right in half.
Vic00:12:27We're in rapids. We're in rapids. Another one. And then there's. Oh, free fall free. Yeah. Get a haircut on free. Oh, wow. Wow. You're really on a roll here. A deadly roll. Sorry. So thank you. Thank you. It was. Thank you, JBL.
Sonny00:12:43Go ahead. They there's something we have something similar to that in Dallas is Dallas Zoo lights where like they put they put lights up all over the zoo and you drive through the zoo, which is interesting. Like you drive through the actual zoo and the best part of it is it has nothing to do with the lights. It's driving past the flamingos at like, you know, seven p.m. at night. It's dark. Yeah. And the flamingos are all like, what are all these assholes doing?
Vic00:13:06It's going to say at my house must be so disorienting to the animals.
Sonny00:13:10Why are they driving around right now? They're just like kind of milling about. They're like, God, this sucks. Go away, people.
JVL00:13:16They have that at the National Zoo, but it's walk through.
Sonny00:13:19It's like the zoo lights.
Vic00:13:20You walk through the National Zoo lights must be some way to kill time.
JVL00:13:24Sunny, do you do you feed your children in the back of the car? While you drive around? Because if you're going to be doing that, you might as well get through a dinnertime
Sonny00:13:31too. No, no, we usually get rid of that thing. Usually this is post dinner, pre bedtime, that stretch where there's like an hour to kill.
JVL00:13:42You can you can wrap those two bitches up into one thing.
Sonny00:13:44I don't want them eating my car. I don't want to stretch it out. You have a meal is one thing.
JVL00:13:49Have you held that line that you're sure you drove cross country with your children? You hold a line about no eating in the car.
Sonny00:13:55It's very rare. It is a very rare occurrence when the kids eat in my car.
JVL00:14:00What are you fucking Captain Von Trapp?
Sonny00:14:03No, I just don't. I don't want I don't want to have to clean that shit up.
JVL00:14:07That boy, you should see our car.
Sonny00:14:10They can eat. Yeah. Well, no, I can eat when they get there.
Vic00:14:13It's a mess, you know, over the years and accumulates over the years. Oh, man.
Sonny00:14:19The kids eat in your car, Vic. I try to tell them, no, I tell them, no, we just say no.
JVL00:14:25I remember in the minivan. The first minivan we had, I remember looking up one day and seeing over the the roof over the section, the ceiling of the section where Flash would sit was filthy. The the ceiling, the ceiling, the ceiling. Yeah. And I look back at him. This is like four year old Flash, five year old Flash. I was like, what have you been doing? And he was eating like Hershey Kisses and was like, I don't know. It's just what? Yes. Wiping his chocolate hands. Not even on his chest or on his shirt, wiping it on the ceiling of the car. Why not? Why not?
Sonny00:15:04It's just the car rule. You just have to have a rule.
JVL00:15:06And that's why you always leave a note. I should have had the one armed man from development.
Vic00:15:10That's right. From rest of development. That's right. They'll have the window down in the air conditioning.
Sonny00:15:14I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that they've never eaten in the car before. Occasionally on, you know, a cross country drive. We have like, you know, the the little snack cups with the goldfish in them or whatever.
JVL00:15:25Don't. Don't. They count the number of goldfish first, like in surgery, how they count the number of spreaders they use. You don't like accidentally. So one into something. Yeah, that's right. They have to do that. You have to count 15 goldfish in here. And Katie, you're going to eat every one of them. Don't you drop them between the seats?
Sonny00:15:40Because if there's a goldfish between the seats, you can never get it out.
JVL00:15:44No, that's not how it is in your family.
Sonny00:15:47No, not like that.
JVL00:15:49Thank you. Victorino, how are you, buddy? I'm okay. I have Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Are you twinging? Yeah. It's been a week, hasn't it?
Vic00:15:59Yes. Well, which is why we're taping so early, because you never know, I might be on the floor somewhere tomorrow at this time. We don't know. We don't know where I'm going to be. But there were some false alarms. I'll just put it to you that way. There were some false alarms. And I haven't been able to run as much. It's too cold for me to run. I'm sorry. It's too cold for me to run. And so it's just like there's only so much that planking pushups and lifting could... It's not the same as running for an hour, it's just not. But there are a few false alarms. So I've been more... I've been mindful. I really think it has nothing to do with my diet. It's just maybe it's just been in one position too long. I think that's the issue. But I do... I have to make... I feel like I have to make a confession here about... I have a compulsion and I need to... It's very weird, but I'm going to share it on the show with you and our listeners anyway. So here we go. So in the morning... JVL is getting ready for this one. I bring my son to a bus stop in the morning, it's about 15 minutes away. So when I go up there in the morning and it's early, a couple of times we've come across my father-in-law in his car and it's like, "What's grandpa doing at this hour? This is really weird." And I figured out he's going to a morning mass because he's a daily. So he goes to the morning mass. I said, "Okay. It ends at the time after seven or whatever. So he must be going to get some coffee." So after I dropped my son off, one day I figured, I said, "I bet you he might go to this coffee shop I drive by. There's his car." So I decide I'll pull in anyway. I'll get a coffee for myself and if he's there, I'll say hi. This is like Mulholland Drive.
JVL00:17:46Is there a crazy animal man behind a dumpster?
Vic00:17:49No, no, no. Right. Yes, yes. How did you describe her, Sonny? She was a crone, a crone. A crone. A crone hiding behind a dumpster. Almost a crone. No. So I walk in and I'm about to say hi and I notice he's sitting there with all these other parishioners just holding court and it's his world. It's his world away from my mother. They need their space. They need their space. I understand this. And he's a coffee guy. He has the same situation going in Connecticut, in Westbrook. He's got a coffee where everyone knows. It's like Cheers for him where everybody knows him there and it's like the same thing here. And I stop. I don't think I want to walk in there. I might be cramping his style, you know, like, oh, interrupt whatever's going on. But we made eye contact and he's like, oh my gosh, look who's here. Come on over. Meet everybody. So I meet everybody and I say hi to everybody. And now whenever I drop my son off, I have this urge to go in there just to see everybody now, even though these are all new people who I don't really know. And one time… Vote Matus. One time… Vote Matus. Last week, I walked in. He wasn't even there. And it was these ladies. They're like, oh, come sit with us anyway. And I did.
JVL00:19:04And you thought, this is my moment, without the doc here, I can be the king of this social circle.
Sonny00:19:12What am I doing here? These are my people now. What am I doing here listening to these? Yes. I'm sorry. What sort of establishment is this again? It's a coffee shop. So it's just like a… It's like a coffee shop. It's a really nice coffee shop called Star Nut. Is it a restaurant? Yeah, kind of. I get food there, too. Is it like a… Or is it like a Starbucks?
Vic00:19:29No, it's better. It's nicer than a Starbucks. It's nicer than a Starbucks.
Sonny00:19:33Okay. So you just wander in there and you sit down with them?
Vic00:19:38Yeah. Yeah, because I met them once before and I don't know why I'm doing it. Why am I doing it? I can't get it out of my mind. In the mornings, I'm like, oh, you know, they're meeting there right now. A group of people who don't know me and like me yet.
JVL00:19:50Your office is open again, right? It is open.
Sonny00:19:52The Free Beacon is open. It is open. The Free Beacon office is open. So it's not like you're starved for a coffee. It's company.
JVL00:19:57No. No. It's new. Sonny, you know what this is. It is. It is a social circle that he is not yet the most popular member of.
Vic00:20:06And I'm working. And I'm campaigning.
JVL00:20:08The campaign is on. It is on. I can't stop myself. Question. And?
Vic00:20:14Vote Mattis.
Sonny00:20:15I don't know why I'm doing this.
Vic00:20:16Question.
Sonny00:20:17Sonny. Is it possible to get your face on the wall of this restaurant?
Vic00:20:22It would be the only one. It would be one face. It would be mine. It would be my face on the wall. It's a very nice place. Genteel. It's very genteel. Okay. Here's one other thing to add to one other note to add to this and we can move on, which is twice now they have said to me, oh yes, we saw you at mass the other day. And I'm like, I don't go to your church. This is somebody else. They keep on mistaking me for some other person. And anyway, must be some other good looking Asian. I assume. Simulu. Yes. But speaking. Okay. Go ahead.
JVL00:20:58Go ahead. This is fine. I don't. I don't endorse it, but I don't condemn it.
Vic00:21:03However. Okay. Yeah. Fellowship.
JVL00:21:07It's fellowship. If you show up to one of these things and they say, you know, we're going to get together tonight for a, for a party and bring your keys, bring your keys. If they invite you to a ice storm, like key party, cause they are of the age when that
Vic00:21:21was the thing back in the, in the late, in the late sixties, early seventies.
JVL00:21:25Don't do that. Because you'll think to yourself, oh my God, I will be a stallion among these people. I'll really get their vote.
Vic00:21:33I'll really get their vote.
JVL00:21:34Go do some deep polling.
Vic00:21:36Yeah.
JVL00:21:37Wow.
Vic00:21:38That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Okay. Oh, I had a transition there somewhere, which was, uh, speaking of mistaken identities, uh, over the weekend, Spider-Man. No way. If you don't like that one, I got a, here's another one for you. Uh, after the movie theater came out to the parking lot, it was packed. I said to the kids, there's no way we're getting home. No way.
JVL00:21:57Getting home. Oh, okay.
Vic00:21:59Okay. How about this one? Okay. How about this one, Sonny? Uh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Speaking of sticky fluids over the weekend, Jay, I knew JVL would like, I just tried to sell Sonny. I knew JVL.
Sonny00:22:10I had, I had JVL on that one, but I can't just say, you can't just say speaking of blah,
Vic00:22:14blah, blah. Thank you. That's why I said, blah, blah, blah. I don't know what the, I don't know what the lead up was. And I didn't have it.
Sonny00:22:19Well, I, you just had a whole story about the old ladies. You want to bang at the coffee shop. I can't get it. You can't get on. You can't get it. You can't get a sticky fluid joke out of that. Come on. The weekend. Slip in. Slip in.
Vic00:22:33Slung it's way to the top of the box office with $260 million. And in a close second was in Conto with six and a half million and in a very close third and a very close third was West side story with 3.4 million. How's that as a hold Sonny?
JVL00:22:52Box office loss. It was down 68% or something.
?00:22:55Uh.
JVL00:22:55Hey, wait a minute, hold on. Who on this podcast said, I wouldn't be surprised if it made $250 million. Yeah. Oh, that guy right there. He's raising his hand. He's that guy.
Sonny00:23:06I think it's, I think it's important. I think it's important just to highlight the fact that my initial like overestimate, uh, like kind of jokey overestimate, uh, it was almost exactly dead on. It was, I, I am not, I am not, I am not shocked by this. I am not shocked by this number again. Uh, if you would looked at the tracking, it had, it was up, like it was up like the hockey stick chart, uh, the last like three or four weeks, people were, people were very excited for it. Um, and the, again, the audience I saw it with was through the roof. I mean, just, uh, just they were people, people were super into it. And like on top of all that, you could just tell by the fact that all of the theaters were adding screen after screen after screen. I mean, I, it's one of these situations where it was like, again, I haven't seen anything like this since Avengers end game.
JVL00:23:57Um, it would have made more money if they could have found more screens for it.
Sonny00:24:01It probably would have. It probably would. I mean, if they could have, if they could have, especially if they could have manufactured more like IMAX or Dolby Atmos screens or whatever, because those, those, those were all sold out. But even at like my local draft house, every showing was sold out, uh, all three nights of the weekend. Yeah. Except for like two showings had like one ticket. Yes.
JVL00:24:20Same on Monday.
Sonny00:24:21Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a, it's a big, big hit. I mean, it, it is, it is such an astronomically big hit. And, uh, again, I, I haven't seen anything like this since end game, but like the rest of the top 10 combined, uh, no way home out gross them by like 12 times, like gross 12 times more than the rest of the top 10 combined. You don't, you don't really see things like that all too often. Um, and this was, this was a huge hit. It wasn't just a huge hit at home. It was a huge hit abroad. It grossed almost $600 million worldwide. And its first weekend without opening in China. It probably won't open in China and it will still probably gross a billion dollars.
JVL00:25:03Uh, did it force awakens in domestic three day? I think it did. It did. It did.
Sonny00:25:10It's only astonishing. The second, it had the second highest, uh, the second, the second best, the second best opening weekend of all time, uh, after Avengers end game, which did a hundred million more than this. I mean, as good as this was, like people forget that Avengers end game. Gross. $350 million opening weekend. It was a crazy, it was a crazy, crazy number. Uh, so yeah, I mean, look, it's a big hit, uh, people were super excited for it. This is the thing that, you know, every, everybody was kind of hoping that maybe Shang Shi or black widow or internals would do numbers like this. And everybody was kind of surprised when venom, it was actually the highest grossing opening weekend of the year before this, because it, uh, just as the original venom kind of surprised, uh, box office watchers, the, the sequel surprised as well. Uh, but people, people were super excited. They, they all showed up, they kept adding screens. People wanted to be their first opening weekend. Big fear of spoilers that that was a big reason that people showed up. They didn't want to have to hear about people talking about it on Facebook and Twitter or whatever. Uh, tick tock Instagram. It's because it's all out there now, because if you haven't seen it, you've probably been, you, you probably know the big, the big surprise.
Vic00:26:23Well, I was going to say spoiler alerts don't, if you haven't, if you haven't seen it yet, you should see it.
Sonny00:26:30If you haven't seen it yet, we're going to, we're going to talk spoilers here. There's not going to be any, there's no, we're not holding back. You're going to, we're going to, we're going to, you're going to hear all about, uh, the appearance of Miles Morales as a Spider-Man. Craven. Ben Affleck as Craven the Hunter.
Vic00:26:47Yes.
Sonny00:26:48The sixth member of the Sinister Six.
Vic00:26:49I like the fur he wears. Sonny, is it possible that.
JVL00:26:53There is some correlation between this box office and the quality of the movie since you mentioned Shang Chi and the Eternals and Black Widow, all of which were varying degrees of not great.
Sonny00:27:07But that's, but the problem is that that only works after the first weekend. I mean, first weekend is a number that happens pretty much irrespective of quality.
JVL00:27:17Does it anymore though? It does.
Sonny00:27:19I mean, again, well again, look at, look at, look at the, the movie that before this had the highest box office gross on a weekend, it was Venom 2, right? And Venom 2 is much, has worse Rotten Tomatoes scores than, uh, Eternal, even Eternals I think, but Eternals is close, but it's Shang Chi, Black Widow.
JVL00:27:37It's a better movie than those other three movies.
Sonny00:27:40Venom? Isn't it? I haven't seen it. No. No, it's not. It's no. Venom, Venom 2 was not very good.
JVL00:27:47Okay. Well, nevermind. I mean, look, I, I do think I, yes.
Sonny00:27:50Shang Chi is good. Yes. I mean, quality matters and like, if you have a movie that's 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, like No Way Home is, uh, you know, it's, it's, it, it has that- Who are the five fuck nuts who didn't love this movie? It is, it's the seal of approval.
Vic00:28:05So. Cause I want them dead. With their heads on pikes. I mean, it's so good that what you're seeing now are people who want to see it again versus like, I never want to see Eternals again.
Sonny00:28:13Right. Well, so this is, this is the big question on the, the second weekend. I will be very curious to see what the, what the drop on this is, cause I mean, I like, I assume it'll be in the 60% range cause it, you can't maintain numbers like this. Uh, just, just on, just, you can't, there's no, it's, that's not how it works, but, uh, I will be curious to see if it's even steeper than that just because, uh, you know, everybody wanted to see it the first weekend and the repeat business might not be as good because of COVID.
JVL00:28:45I was gonna say that really depends on whether or not we have the data on to what degree and no way home was a super spreader event.
Sonny00:28:55Uh, we would never, we're never gonna have that data because we don't have tracking.
JVL00:28:59This is 100% going to be a super spreader event.
Sonny00:29:02Probably. Well, I, so I, I will say, I will preface this by saying that I, I have always said, and I think this is largely true that for the most part, theaters are very, very safe. But when you're dealing with all of these, uh, sold out, uh, w when you're dealing with a bunch of sold out theaters where people are like whooping it up, whooping is, and nobody's wearing. Yeah. Nobody's wearing masks anymore, et cetera. I mean that, that's like you're, you're, you're gonna get some, you're gonna get some infections there.
Vic00:29:28Luckily, luckily Omicron seems to be pretty, it would be like if you're getting a mild cold, I'll get it to see this movie. That's fine.
Sonny00:29:35Yeah. So that's what that people have finally decided that they have, they found a movie.
Vic00:29:38They're willing to risk their lives and the lives of their elderly was caused by Spider-Man. Okay. It was what, it's what took it. I have a question actually, the budget, uh, I mean, because it did so well, not the budget, but because the box office is so big. What does that mean for, um, do we assume like, do I, I don't know anything about the business you guys do, uh, but for people like Tom Holland, they get points right on this. I mean, so is this make them know nothing you're shaking your head, no, no.
Sonny00:30:03So the way, the way I don't know for sure, but the way my understanding is that the way most of the Marvel contracts are structured is that you get, you get, you get, you get a bonus after you hit a certain percent, uh, you get, you get a bonus after you hit a certain level of box office and that's about it. There's not, they don't have like gross points. Okay. Or anything like that.
JVL00:30:23I think the only, the only unless your person, Robert Downey Jr, the only person who did
Sonny00:30:27was Robert Downey Jr and that's because they only signed him for either a one or two movie contract. Uh, and then to get him to be in, uh, uh, Avengers, he got, he got an enormous payday. He got like, uh, like a 50 million or like $200 million payday or some, some insane astronomical number.
JVL00:30:46But certainly Tom Holland, I'm certain had to sell his soul to take this role. And just was, I'm, I'm sure willing to take whatever Disney required of him in terms of lockup and he'll make all his money in other movies after this.
Sonny00:31:00Yeah. I mean, he still will probably get, uh, I would guess he gets a low eight figures number off this performance, like, you know, 15 million, something like that. I would guess.
JVL00:31:13You know who else I'll do? Zendaya.
Sonny00:31:15Zendaya. Zendaya. Zendaya is super, super popular. People, people, uh, sleep on, on. Her, but the, uh, somebody, God, I was, maybe it was either the ankler was either Richard Rushfeld's newsletter or, uh, Matt Bellany's newsletter. But somebody was saying that they, when they, when they were asking, uh, the, the kids in their college class, like, you know, what, who, what female star are you into? Zendaya was the number one answer, uh, by far.
Vic00:31:42Is she a singer or anything? Is that what she is?
Sonny00:31:45She's a Disney kid.
Vic00:31:46She's a Disney kid. So she does some singing. She does some fashion. She's a child star. What was she in, in Disney? Was she, was an in Descendants?
JVL00:31:54Was she? I don't know. No. Um, she's great though. Like she's multi-talented. She has weirdly, her face is such that she can play very young and pretty old. Yes. She can play all the way down to like 15. And I think she's also believable as like 30, you know, where she, I'm sorry, I, maybe
Sonny00:32:17I should have, excuse me.
JVL00:32:20Victorino, would she pass the 15, 15 year old muster with you? You're a good judge of these things. Sonny. How about a big boy review?
Sonny00:32:26Spider-Man no way home, uh, picks up right where far from home left off. Uh, Peter Parker has been revealed to be Spider-Man by J Jonah Jameson slash Alex Jones. Uh, and he, uh, as a result is, is a pariah. Nobody wants anything to do with them. Colleges won't accept him, but they also won't accept his friends. Uh, Mary Jane. Watson. Actually not married. Whatever. I, uh, MJ. Uh, and, uh, uh, Ned, Ned. Thank you. Ned Beatty. Uh, and, uh, so Peter Parker, uh, decides to go to Dr. Strange and he asked Dr. Strange to rewrite the fabric of reality, uh, to help him and his friends get into college. And Dr. Strange, after a warning from Wong was like, yeah, sure. I'll do that. Why not? Let's give it a shot. Uh, so they do the spell and the spell goes wacky because Peter keeps asking. He keeps asking for, you know, different exemptions to the rule. Um, and, uh, as a result, a bunch of villains from previous Spider-Man movies come through. There's green goblin, the Willem Dafoe, one doc, Oc, Alfred Molina, uh, Jamie Foxx as Electro, uh, Thomas Hayden church, Thomas Hayden church, a Sandman enough respect. Right. Reese. I.
JVL00:33:43Yeah.
Sonny00:33:44Yeah. As the, as the lizard, um, am I missing anyone? That's all the villains. No, that's all the villains. That's okay. Uh, and, uh, the Dr. Strange is like, you gotta send these guys back. And Peter, our Peter Parker's like, no, I can't do it. Cause if I send them back, they're all gonna die, which is true. That's how they all got here by dying, fighting against Spider-Man. We'll get to that in a second. I have a question there, but the, uh, but, uh, blah, blah, blah, uh, green goblin kills aunt may. Oh no. Great power. Great responsibility. I have one minor issue here. Yeah. Which is that the great power, great responsibility. If you criticize this, I'm coming through the screen at you after it, it happens after he's done the right thing. Usually the great power with great responsibility speech comes after he like shirks his duties. Ben, Ben, uncle Ben gets killed, but this time he's trying to do the right thing and may gets killed. It doesn't matter. Neither here nor there. Um, uh, so, uh, he goes off to pout and his friends are like, we gotta find Spider-Man and they do some magic. Yeah. With the magic hands. Guess what? And they show us Peter Parker and then it's Andrew Garfield and my audience in my theater is like this.
JVL00:34:56They never, they never clapped for him the first time. No, they did not.
Sonny00:34:59I think that's right. Poor guy. That's right. That's right. And then they're like, you're not the guy we're looking for. Let's find, where's Peter Parker, Spider-Man and then it's Tobey Maguire and that was, that was, that was, uh, the moment when everybody got very excited in my theater was when Tobey Maguire showed up. Andrew Garfield was like, okay. But, uh, but Tobey Maguire shows up. Everybody loves him.
Vic00:35:22Um, it makes you feel better.
Sonny00:35:23So they go, they go find, they go find other Peter and their big fight and everybody goes back to their respective universes. But what's interesting is the end of this film, essentially the way they end this film with everybody, uh, Peter Parker has to make a huge sacrifice. He decides that the entire world has to forget who Peter Parker is to save all of the universes from collapsing into his universe. And that means that, uh, MJ won't know who he is. Ned won't know. He is none of the Avengers will know who he is and he does it. And then he goes off and lives in a little, you know, one bedroom efficiency and he makes a, he makes like a kind of traditional Spider-Man outfit with his sewing machine. Uh, and, and that's, so nobody knows he was in the Avengers. So none of the Avengers know who he is. They don't, none of them, none of them know who he is. So the, what, what is interesting about this is that it. It essentially strips him out of the MCU. Now he has no, like he could, in theory, essentially be doing non MCU, non Avengers related stuff. It could just be Sony, Venom, Morbius. Don't forget, we got a Morbius movie coming, uh, adventures from now on. Wow. That's it. That's, that's, that's the big boy review. I love, I really enjoyed it. I love, I, uh, I liked this movie a lot. Um, I, uh, I, I think that all of these Spider-Men are very good in it, but also like Alfred Molina is great in it. Willem Dafoe is great in it. Um, Marisa Tomei is great in it. Jon Favreau is great. I mean, like every, every performance in this movie works. I haven't even mentioned the fact that daredevil is in it because it's such a like quick throwaway moment with Matt Murdock and daredevil that it's, that was a problem. You had a problem with that. I thought it was, I thought it was great because it was just like, he was daredevil.
Vic00:37:17Daredevil. But I didn't realize, cause I didn't watch the dare, the daredevil series. I didn't know it was the same actor from the, although I already knew because he's a blind lawyer.
JVL00:37:24So that's, that's Matt Murdock. I got that. That's the difference between a TV actor and a movie actor.
Vic00:37:28Oh.
JVL00:37:29Oh. I'm sorry. Oh. You wait till he's in the movie. You wait. He's in the movie for like 30 seconds. He's fine. He'll be great in the movie. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Vic00:37:41Nope. You look at him and he has the stink of Netflix on.
Sonny00:37:43Oh. Oh, come on. You just hate now.
Vic00:37:46Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the same comparison about, uh, Jillian Anderson. Is it when she played Maggie Thatcher in the crowd?
Sonny00:37:54No, that was me. She was that.
Vic00:37:56I mean, that is like TV actress and yet she won the academy award Sonny for the academy award for TV shows. Okay. Uh, JVL.
Sonny00:38:08Anyway, I love this movie. I thought it was great. I, I was, I was with my audience when they were cheering, uh, I, I, uh, have liked all of these Spider-Man movies. Um, it's right up there with homecoming, which I think is probably, which is maybe my favorite
JVL00:38:22of them. Go ranking. No, I'm not right. Too soon.
?00:38:26JVL.
JVL00:38:27Before, before I go really just, but you have a lot of thoughts stripping off all of my armor and letting myself be vulnerable here, I need to hear what the people think. Ah, this is interesting. Because I don't know how, how candid I'm going to be about this movie. Oh, what?
Vic00:38:50Why do you, why do you say that?
JVL00:38:54Because if, if you come in and you're like, Oh, so long, I don't need another CGI battle.
Vic00:38:58You be candid. You should be. You should say what's on your mind.
JVL00:39:01No, no, no, no, no. I am not going to be able to reveal to reveal everything that's inside me on this.
Vic00:39:09The man inside me. Yeah. I assume so to speak, uh, I would say, okay, you're going to be surprised. I gave this plot today. Right?
Sonny00:39:18Because it, I got it.
Vic00:39:19You could follow it. Yes. I got it. I said, they create these little time wormholes and people are walking through them and that's how they were able to bring in the old Spidermans in one. They just solve the problem and there's like, they should do this with, they could do this with like a, they just, it reminds, it's like you see it right on screen.
Sonny00:39:36You accept it solved.
Vic00:39:37Just remember they made a joke about this at the end of one of the dead pools, right? Where he goes back and he fixes it because of course he played different P you know what I mean? He makes that problem. Same thing here. They did it. They brought him in. I understand about the, um, the, uh, multiverse because this has already been something going on in other movies. So I didn't have to worry about like, what are they talking about? Obviously. And I, I try not to think too deeply about it. So that was fine. I give it an a duration is a C not a D it's a C because it's long, but it was necessary.
JVL00:40:10I thought, you know what I said? Yeah. Okay.
Vic00:40:13Here we go.
JVL00:40:14I see what's coming.
Vic00:40:15The intention of violence is a plus that's some good stuff going on and the CGI was not bad. It was not bad. I thought it was just fine.
JVL00:40:24The, the captain America shield on the statue of Liberty, your eyes.
Vic00:40:28That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Uh, and get ready for this sex nudity. I give it an N a it's an N a because it's a Marvel movie. You can't have it. And when they did do it in the eternals, it was awful. So lesson learned. Good for you, Marvel JVL.
JVL00:40:45I, I loved it. I, I absolutely loved it. I loved it in a really deep way. You know, the, the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire, how old, when was that?
Vic00:40:58And where, where were we post 2001, 2002.
JVL00:41:01That is a post to that. That is the first giant hit of the nine 11 era. And that movie meant something to people. I don't quite know why I didn't love it. I thought it was okay. The one with the green goblin. The first one. Yeah. The one with the UFO, Tobey Maguire, but people like people went just gonzo for it. There was a connection. And I think this movie has hit people in exactly that way as, as part of the pandemic. I think people will always think of this Spider-Man movie as conjoined with the pandemic. And the first thing that everybody has embraced as a mass cultural event.
Vic00:41:45This thing. That's right. I think that's right.
JVL00:41:48I think that's right. Uh, I, so they've been linked. I, I have a lot of things to say about it, but the, the, the biggest is that I, it's not a perfect movie. There are a couple things I didn't like about it. Uh, Tobey Maguire should have died. When Tobey Maguire stabbed by green goblin, uh, and he, when he pops back up, I would bet anything. The first draft, he dies that the, the first draft of this script was, and he's dead. And it was, you know, the studio was like, oh, I'm sorry, you can't kill kill Peter one. Uh, but, uh, so I didn't like that. There were a couple too many like fourth wall jokes, uh, like Tobey Maguire complaining about his back, which is right. It was part of his negotiations with Sony when he wanted more money after Spider-Man two. It's like, well, my back hurts real bad. I can't play Spider-Man anymore. And so I don't even remember that Sony called Jake Gyllenhaal in for screen testing. And Toby was like, nope, I'm all better now. I can do Spider-Man. I don't know if you guys remember this for the record.
Sonny00:42:57I think that was just a, him being the oldest of them, Joe, uh, and, and there's even a
JVL00:43:03joke about the lost James Cameron Spider-Man script because in James Cameron's Spider-Man right. He, he, there's a whole scene in which, uh, this Peter Parker has some wet dreams and turns out he's jizz and web fluid. And when they are asking, asking Toby McGuire's character, like, does it come out of other places? And then just re that's all like James, you have to be deep into Spider-Man nerdery. And I think there's probably a little bit too much of that. I also question, does this stuff mean anything to people who haven't seen those other movies? No. And I, I don't know.
Vic00:43:41I think you, I think you th th there's this weird nostalgia when peop. I don't know about you. And I, I guess the answer is I do know about you because when I saw Toby McGuire, and by the way, they all play their Spider-Man very well. They're all very distinct, th th different things he's Toby McGuire is the, is the wise one. Andrew Garfield is like the, the most insecure one. And then, and then Tom Holland is the kid. But when you saw Toby McGuire, it made me, it made me feel old looking at it, but it was like this guy, like, oh man, you know, and, and, but in a, in a, in a, in a sort of very poignant way.
Sonny00:44:13Well, the movie really gets, gets to three generations of comic book movie fan. I mean like the, the Raimi McGuire Spider-Man were, you know, you know, young gen X or old millennial, right? That was like their, you know, their teenage Spider-Man. And then Andrew Garfield, I, from what I, I have heard this from people, I don't know how true it is, but you know, I have heard that there is a, there's an entire cohort of young millennials who are like super into him because that was the Spider-Man they, they grew up. They loved EDM skateboarding Spider-Man, uh, that the, you know, the, the Sony hack kind of revealed, uh, was going on with that, that character. And then of course the zoomers have Tom Holland and Zendaya and they're like, they're totally into, into them. This is like, this is weirdly a cross generational event.
JVL00:45:02Yeah. And, and here's the thing, while it's not perfect as a movie, the emotional core of it earns every single beat. Oh yeah. And you know, when I, when I say that. What I mean is, you know, so there's a movie without villains, right? There are no villains in this. The villain is life, right? Life is complicated and messy. And when Peter decides to, to save these villains, that sounds like a plot choice, but it's really earned, right? Because aunt may is working on the shelter and Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn comes in and he's a crazy homeless guy and he does it so well. He does it so well.
Vic00:45:43So well.
JVL00:45:44Yeah. And, and when may says to him, like, look, this is what we do. We help people. It is a great reminder to Peter, to the audience that we think of Spider-Man is that he fights crime. No, Spider-Man helps people. And most of the time that means fighting crime, but not always. And so that's what this movie is about. And so we believe that choice, it earns that choice, right? He's not the Ronan totally. And then it earns the moment, uh, at the end, it really earns. So, so this is me at the very end when he is with, when he decides to go to strangers and yeah, just wipe my memory, right? In a lesser movie, again, there's just a plot choice, right? Why is, why does the character do that? And the answer is because the story needs it to happen, right? The movie is ending and we need to, we need to, to just get there. And I think it is very earned because everything we know about the Tom Holland Spider-Man character is that as Spider-Man go, this guy has had an amazingly easy ride. You know, he gets the girl, he's Tony Stark's surrogate son, he has all the tech, he doesn't work a crappy job for Jano, Joma Jameson, right? This is, I mean, he has had a very atypical Peter Parker life and when he then at the end has to, has to sacrifice all that, you buy it, right? It's, it's tough and anyway, it just earns all of that emotion.
Vic00:47:11Yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't try to convince. Convince them. Hey, you're not going to believe this, but let me try to explain it to you. You know, I am and we were good friends. I get, I always get sad with movies that involve amnesia, memory loss, and this goes back to when I was a kid, I think one of the first, the first movie I ever saw like this was Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty and you know, as he decides that, oh, he can be, he's going to be put into another, his soul is going to be put into another person's body. James Mason who plays like the angel guy says to him, you know? The Joe, Joe Pendleton because, but Joe, you know, when you go into this guy's body for your second chance or third chance, whatever it is, you will have no memory of who you once were or that you were in love with this woman and this whole thing. And it's so heartbreaking. They give you a little bit of a thought like, oh, maybe there's a chance.
Sonny00:47:59All right. Vic, Vic, here's, here's, all right. That's a very cute and touching story, but we all know the real reason you were crying at this. He decides not to be friends with someone.
JVL00:48:10It's like Vic's personal nightmare.
Sonny00:48:12He has. He sees somebody who he knows, loves him and is like, I can't be friends with them.
Vic00:48:17And it was, you know what? No wonder. I kept on going back to the coffee shop now because.
Sonny00:48:21Niagara falls, Frankie Angel.
Vic00:48:24It was no wonder I've been going to the coffee shop with these people. The coffee shop again. That movie touched something deep inside of you. You're like, I have to. I'm just feeling it now. I have to make friends with them. This is a flood of emotions happening to me right now. Like FJ and Deb. No, they just seriously, because when they do these in movies, I think if you go way, way back, people could tell me if I'm wrong about this with old movies, because I'm not that good with them. I think the movie The Bishop's Wife is the same way with Cary Grant and and the woman will not remember. And then and they you know what? The end of fan. Why did I watch Fantastic Beasts? I don't know, but I saw the ending of it. And it's the same thing where, you know, his memory is going to be erased. But that's a cheat, because in the end you see that the memory comes back. They don't. And I was waiting for the cheat. No cheat. So kudos to them.
JVL00:49:14You know, can I can I say another thing about the writing? Because this is again, I thought everything about it was very nice. I was nicely directed. It was nicely acted. But the script was really what got me. And you could see a world in which with a lesser writer, this script is derivative, right? It's a belated origin story. This is just the the, you know, third where the third Spider-Man movie, but now we're doing the normal, proper Spider-Man origin story. It's leaning on six movies that came before it. It's introducing the Spider verse, which is something we've seen before. But yet at the same time, it's remixing all of this in such a way that it's actually telling a completely new story and it's telling it about a totally new version of Peter Parker. The Peter Parker we're seeing is very new and we care because the story cares. And I. I just think I just think it was fantastic.
?00:50:15Sorry.
Sonny00:50:16Is that okay?
JVL00:50:17No.
Vic00:50:18Yes.
Sonny00:50:19Like I don't need to be. That's great. It's fine to like things.
Vic00:50:22It's fine to like things. It is. But that's going to be it for a long time. Well, not in this culture. It's going to be it for a long time because it's rare that we all really enjoyed a movie. It's really rare. How other people can go back. I always thought it would be great. Nobody has the energy to do this. If you did a chart of every movie we've ever done and thumbs up, thumbs down from the all three of us, it'd be really interesting, but. They're not a lot.
Sonny00:50:41I think somebody. I think you did that for a little while and like it, it, it eventually kind of fell to the, to the wayside.
JVL00:50:47You know what I did? I took G money with me. Oh. So G money is a little bit young. He's only five, but he's my superhero kid. Like he's the one who's just full on and all things, comic books and all things, especially Spider-Man.
Sonny00:51:02Oh. Is this his first movie, superhero movie in the theaters?
JVL00:51:06In the theaters? Yes. He has seen other movies in the theaters and he's seen the Marvel movies all at home. Not all of them, but he's seen most of the Marvel movies at home and he loves them. Loves them. Loves the Tom Holland, Spider-Man. So he's fully. Yeah. And watching him, man, that he was so into it. So he's over, he's like, great dad, that was the best movie that they've ever made. You know what kid? No lie. It's pretty good.
Sonny00:51:31Yeah. Pretty good. A plus, A plus from CinemaScore audiences, uh, which is I think only the fourth, uh, live action superhero movie to get one. Uh, the others were the first Avengers movie, black Panther and either infinity war end game. One of the two.
JVL00:51:49And now this. Yeah.
Sonny00:51:51So that's right. It's a, it's great. Audiences love it.
Vic00:51:54I think it's going to have real legs. What did you think about this whole? Me too. What did you think about the, uh, the, the pushback on, you know, the audience reactions, all the audience reactions, which are now all over YouTube anytime you put it up.
Sonny00:52:07Sure. I mean, look, there's, there's two, I think two different things. One is I do. I do like being, I like being in a theater where there's some like, you know, gasps and people, people clapping.
Vic00:52:16That was my theater.
Sonny00:52:17My theater was that fine, but it was limited. It was not like, that's, that's fine. That's totally, that's totally understandable. What does get a little bit obnoxious or the people who were like hopping up into hooting in a hollering and they're just like, you know, making tons and tons of noises. I don't, I don't, I don't care for that. I mean like the, what care?
JVL00:52:41Full?
Sonny00:52:42I, I mean all the videos of, uh, I think you're saying, I think you're trying to make this a racial thing. All the videos I've seen of people doing that are white.
Vic00:52:50I mean, so is it happening because they know they're being recorded? So they're, yes, I think that's it.
Sonny00:52:55So I think, I think, I think a real, I think a real part of this is that there, the, the video of, uh, the video of the audience reaction to Captain America getting the hammer right in, in end game was so went. It's so viral and was so beloved. People were like, yes, this is, this is a real emotional moment. We're all celebrating it. I think that everybody is now kind of trying to, to ape that in, in, in some of these reaction videos. And I, I like, I find it, I find it performative, which I dislike. I mean, again, like naturally being like, oh yeah, you know, like I, I get that. That's fine. But like, again, like the people, like they were showing videos of people like jumping up and down and like shaking each other. Okay.
Vic00:53:42Guys, calm down. You know what it's like? Uh, and if pod is listening, uh, he might agree with me, which is it, it's turning, it turns into a happy days situation, which is like by later seasons, anytime anybody walked on to the set, every, the whole audience goes crazy, you know, and then Fonzie comes with woo, you know, and it's just this thing. And then, you know, and again, they're, they're playing it up, you know, as you say, it's performative.
JVL00:54:03Did you guys know? I believe I saw the film undercover brother at union station. Oh, that would have been good. The union station AMC. And I gotta say that was, I loved undercover brother, but I'd loved it probably five times as much because the audience was so into it. Yes. Yes. I could see that. I could see that.
Sonny00:54:25Also, you know why now you're making, you're making a different point than I was making. Am I Jonathan, Jonathan V. Last, do you know why I liked that movie?
Vic00:54:34The director, he went to Georgetown anyway, uh, did you guys know it's true? He did.
Sonny00:54:39He did. I'm in there. That is.
Vic00:54:42Did you, did you guys, I assume you guys know, but I didn't. Did you know that Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire were going to be in it until you saw it? Oh, you did. Had no idea.
JVL00:54:55I mean, I told you, he called you, Toby said, Hey, guess what son?
Sonny00:54:59I'm in it. There were some set visits. There were some set photos that leaked. I mean, I I'd seen them on, on Twitter and stuff. So I had, I had, I had a pretty good idea that it was, I'm glad that JVL didn't know.
JVL00:55:09Cause I figured it out. Well, what I was shocked about was that they weren't cameos because we've been conditioned that when this happens, it's like, oh great. It's member berries. But then they wrote them into the third act to make them integral to the story and not only to the story, but to the emotional impact. And they gave these characters their own arcs within the movie.
Vic00:55:32Yes.
JVL00:55:33Andrew Garfield saving Zendaya to complete his thing. Right.
Vic00:55:37This is again, so much care being taken at the script level. When Andrew Garfield dives to save Zendaya and he says, are you all right? And then she looks at him, she says, are you all right? Did you get a little teary eyed? How did you feel?
?00:55:49No comments.
Vic00:55:50It was really something. It was really something. It was a little bit.
JVL00:55:54It was a little bit of Omicron in my eye.
Sonny00:55:58I'll put it, I'll put it this way. They handled that much better than they handled the actual Gwen Stacy storyline in Amazing Spider-Man 2, which I hated because they just. They took one of like the most integral Spider-Man stories and it was like a throwaway C-plot at the end of the Electro adventure. I was like, ah, I'm mad as a nerd. I, the whole movie should have been this.
Vic00:56:25I think it's so impressive and it's so rare that something could be kept such a secret to a lot of people in this day and age with social media that, and Sonny, you said some pictures leaked. I didn't hear anything about this. I know in interviews they, you know, denied it and things like that. I just think it was really, it's, it's a real treat.
Sonny00:56:46Well, they did a great job and they, and I think, I think critics mostly played along and...
Vic00:56:51It's like, it's like, it's like, and it won't work. If you go to see it now, it won't be the same and the reaction might not be the same either obviously than it is when it, you know, on opening weekend. But it, it was probably the same thing like, you know, going to see Empire Strikes Back and finding out in the first weekend that, you know, Darth Vader is Luke's father, you know? It's like, what? No.
JVL00:57:12And nobody had talked about it beforehand. I, I just want to, again, this is not cheap sentimentality. It's really, it's a very successful, very successful piece of storytelling. Yeah. I fucking loved it. Really? Really? Boy, I'm tearing up right now. I know.
Vic00:57:30No, I'm telling you, you think about, and, and, and I, again, and they all played their Spider-Man so well. All right.
Sonny00:57:36Let's rank the Spider-Man.
JVL00:57:37What did you guys think about? Rank the Spider-Man movies?
Vic00:57:39No?
JVL00:57:39No, no, no, I'm sorry, Sonny, you, you were asking a question.
Sonny00:57:42Well, what do you, uh, what did you, what did you make of Aunt May's exit? Because I, I, again, I like when I, I loved it. I thought it, I thought it, I thought it worked within, within the text of the film. But then like, again, as I was thinking about it a little later, I was like, ah, this is
Guest00:57:58not quite.
JVL00:57:59I love it again because it's a twist on the canon, right? He, he doesn't, he's already been Spider-Man. He's already done all of these things and given himself what she's doing is, is explained like, again, this is why we do care and why we make it our business because we're here to save people.
Vic00:58:15Right. And this is, it, it, ah, I, you know, even, even dying, she was hot and eyes on the elderly woman. She, you know, she's not elderly. And in fact, I bet you there's a script somewhere where in fact Aunt May didn't die. And in fact, she became a stripper at some strip club in New Jersey and she's dating an ex wrestler, a retired wrestler. Hmm. Randy, the Ram.
JVL00:58:41Thank you.
Vic00:58:42Hmm. Ah, anyway.
JVL00:58:44All right. Rank the movies. Yeah.
?00:58:47Rank the movies, boys.
JVL00:58:48I didn't see the Andrew Garfield ones. I can't help you. And I only really saw one. I won't, I won't do the full thing. Cause there's too many of them, but I, I will go, I'll give you top top fall, uh, top four. Number one into the spider verse. Number two, homecoming number three, no way home. Number four, Spider-Man two.
Sonny00:59:07I would go Spider-Man two. Homecoming, uh, Spider-Verse, no way home. Spider-Man one, probably far from home, uh, amazing Spider-Man one, Spider-Man three, the Sam Raimi three, and then amazing Spider-Man two.
?00:59:32Hmm.
Sonny00:59:33Is that all of them? Did I get all of them? Yeah. Did I miss Spider-Verse?
JVL00:59:38Spider-Verse. You had it way too low. Spider-Verse is the best Marvel movie ever made. I can't, I can't, because it's a cartoon, I can't compare it.
Sonny00:59:48It's okay. I liked it. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked it a lot. It made, it made my top ten list the year it came out. Uh, I, I, I do like that movie quite a bit, but, uh, I, I think, I mean, I think Vic is right that there is a degree of difficulty with the live action that kind of makes me bump those up a little bit.
Vic01:00:05Also, it's too fresh for me, so I, I, I, otherwise right now I'm gonna say it's, uh, no way home, but just because I just saw it.
JVL01:00:11And so no way home followed by homecoming, maybe then followed by the one with Dr. Octopus and then the, I am, I am open to the idea that I may flip homecoming and no way home
Vic01:00:21that no way home, but they pulled, they pulled off, they really quite, uh, they really pulled off something here by incorporating it now that they've settled their issues with Sony and Marvel. But you know what I mean? To bring them into it.
JVL01:00:33It's so should, should Tobey Maguire have died?
Vic01:00:37Do you guys agree? I thought he was going to die. I expect. His character arc should die here. I thought he was going to die, but I don't see, I don't see a reason why he needed to. And I like him. So I was okay with it.
Sonny01:00:47I think I, I mean, I, uh, I, I don't think you need it for an emotional punch at the end. I, I think it, I think the movie works without.
JVL01:00:56Oh, okay.
Sonny01:00:57It also could have felt cheap. It also could have felt a little cheap.
JVL01:00:59Like, oh, we're just, we're getting rid of, you know, I just thought that that's, that's the logical conclusion of his arc within the movie, right? He's there helping these other two because he's basically figured. Things out.
Vic01:01:09Yeah.
JVL01:01:10Except he hasn't gotten right. You know, I was like, oh, I'm trying to do better.
Vic01:01:13Did you have thoughts on the, the first, not the last thing, which is just a trailer, but the first stinger. So I didn't say for either of them, cause gee money needs the bathroom.
JVL01:01:21Sure. Yeah. Sorry. Well, I was not able to use run before. Yeah. Well, so what happens? Sonny.
Sonny01:01:28Uh, so, uh, the, uh, in the mid credit scene, uh, venom is at a bar in Mexico. For grace. No venom. That's good. The Tom Hardy is at a, and he is, he's asking the bartender to explain the universe that he has found himself in. And he's like a man flying in a tin suit. That's crazy. Cause of course, you know, the, the universe he comes from doesn't have iron man. None of this makes any sense to me, none of, none of what happens in this stinger scene makes any sense to me because, uh, we already know that Morbius Michael Morbius, right? Morbius movie coming with Jared Leto. And that movie has pictures of Spider-Man on the wall, uh, with murderers slash splashed across it and, and Michael Keaton's vulture is in it.
Vic01:02:19We've seen, we've seen him in the trailer that into this verse.
Sonny01:02:22So Morbius is clearly in the homecoming universe. It's the same thing, but, but venom is in a parallel universe that doesn't have Spider-Man. Yeah.
JVL01:02:32That's, that's what, that's what is happening in that random spidery, uh, white marking on his chest. It's uncanny.
Sonny01:02:40It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's a coincidence to Rorschach. So dumb. Yeah, that's all it is. So dumb. That's all it is. And then there, the, the, there was a post-credits thing that was basically just a teaser trailer for the new doctor strange movie.
Vic01:02:51It wasn't even, it wasn't even like a, no, I felt like I was ripped. That was, I felt like it was ripped off by that one.
Sonny01:02:57It was literally just a trailer, which I was kind of surprised by. They haven't done that since I think captain America, the first captain America, captain America, the first Avenger. Had essentially a teaser trailer for Avengers. At the end of it. Um, and I, I think that's the last time is it, is it because the trailer hadn't been
Vic01:03:17released anywhere yet until you went to see the movie? Like it's not out.
Sonny01:03:20Yeah. I mean, well that was, that was why they, but it, it just, it feels, it's weird within all of the rest of these movies that have like actual built in, you know, like actual
Vic01:03:29scenes, even if they're not good bits, I was, I was kind of surprised by that.
Sonny01:03:34Part of me wondered if it was part of me wondered, frankly, if it was the deal between Sony and Marvel, because the, it was, it was interesting again, watching it while it was playing at the bottom, there was a copyright Marvel notice or copyright Disney or something. It was, there was like a, the C Disney or C Marvel or whatever, Marvel studios or whatever it was. And I was like, oh, that's weird. That's that's it's weird to have that branding right on, right on the thing as it's happening. So I like, I think part of it, I think maybe it was part of the deal between them.
Vic01:04:06I don't know. All right. And Jamie Foxx, by the way. I like him. He's just, he's great. He's good. We haven't talked about him at all, but he's, he's very funny in this. I know, I know. Not enough Jamie Foxx. And, and of course he was okay. So were they all, how many of them were you, uh, what do you call de-aged? All of them, Tom Satan Church looked, looked pretty good.
Sonny01:04:24I don't, I don't know, actually. I don't, I don't know. I think there was some de-aging with Alfred Molina. There was definitely some with Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, maybe not. I honestly don't know. I don't know.
JVL01:04:38That guy is ageless. Yeah. Well, he's got half a percent body fat.
Sonny01:04:41He's been craggy. He's been craggy since like 1980. To live and die in LA.
Vic01:04:44Yeah. He's been. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, on that note, I guess we can move on. Uh, that good episode, fellas. Good episode. Uh, uh, spirit of the week, corrections, shout outs, anything?
JVL01:04:56Hardy wood gingerbread stout, baby.
Vic01:04:58Oh yes. That is so good. Merry Christmas. You went back.
JVL01:05:02You went back to the, you went back.
Vic01:05:03Oh, so good. Okay. Um, I got a, a nice gift from our, our, my friends. Friends at the distilled spirits, council writers, tears, Irish whiskey. Thank you. Maggie from discus.
JVL01:05:13You can't drink that. You just gotta keep it on your desk at the office. Yeah. Yeah.
Vic01:05:19Like liberal tears facing the editors, the writers as you edit them. Yeah, that's right. The writers come into the editor's office. That's what happens. Writer's tears. Uh, so thank you, Maggie at discus. Uh, and that is all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Mattis. Again, be sure. Uh, sure. To subscribe to us on Patrion. Just go to sub beacon.com. We're there. Tell your friends until next time. So, uh, I don't know if you have anything. I just, I just wanted to tell you, I got a, a, uh, a great email, an invitation, and I never thought I would get it, but I got the invitation in the, in the email and it says welcome to. Hogwarts is here. Oh, congratulations.
Sonny01:06:09I got that today too.
Vic01:06:11The two of us really?
Sonny01:06:14I didn't get that.
JVL01:06:15Oh, you know, I just thought to myself, why are there 30 year old women at Hogwarts?
Vic01:06:20All right. Somebody explained to me, cause I don't have the energy to do this.
JVL01:06:25This is the friends reunion.
Vic01:06:26I was going to say, if you want to do a friends reunion, we could do a bonus episode. Cause it wouldn't, it would, how much of it, what percentage of this reunion would be depressing?
JVL01:06:36All of it.
Sonny01:06:36Well, the first one, the first one came out 20 years ago, right? Is this the 20th anniversary of the release of the first film?
JVL01:06:45Is that what the, is that what the of a film series, which is so bad that it made, honestly, probably 25% of what it could have made at the box office and why they don't, why they don't remake that shit right now to cash in and why would they, are you saying what could have been improved JVL everything literally everything that series is dog shit from the first frame of movie one to the credits and movie eight and I, I look at it and I just think to myself, they left so much money on the table, but now you can't remake it because JK Rowling is so toxic that it's not even invited to the reunion. You can't even go to the reunion. The Quidditch. Do you know, did you see this this week? So the, the, the. The Worldwide Quidditch Association, which is the, I don't know, does it even count as LARPing if you are playing a fictional game for real as if it's a real, right? So people running around on brooms pretending they're flying. They've renamed Quidditch because of the, the, the horrible politics of JK Rowling.
Sonny01:07:57Let's not, let's, let's not give that too much credence. The real reason they changed it is because they couldn't monetize it. They couldn't sell ads on. Quidditch, you know, nobody would sponsor them. So now they, now they have like, Oh, we're doing this. We're doing this for, cause she's, she's so anti-trans.
JVL01:08:15Are people going to really advertise on Quidditch?
Sonny01:08:18Is this where DraftKings is going to, the DraftKings, MGM Sportsbook, sports and whatever, all sorts of nonsense. So I have no doubt that like cornhole, if you can get money for cornhole, I don't
JVL01:08:33know if you know this, but many, many, uh, Catholic girls, middle schools are going to be sending up their own Quidditch teams. And, uh, if you know that we're going to need people who are going to scout talent and, and help them figure out the draft boards for the women's Quidditch league.
Vic01:08:52I, I, I, I, I do have a restraining order to a certain, so I'm not sure if that applies to quit to real fake sports. I have no idea.
JVL01:08:58I don't, I don't believe that, uh, that's valid in, in, in Hogwarts, in the wizarding world. Excellent. Excellent. I'm sure it's fine. Bye.
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