#75. 'Swan Song'
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The main event is Swan Song (Apple TV+), in which Mahershala Ali plays a dying man who secretly has himself cloned — memories and all — so his wife (Naomi Harris) and unborn child never have to know he's gone, with Glenn Close as the scientist running the operation and Awkwafina as a fellow cancer patient. Sonny, who pitched the movie, calls it essentially a feature-length Black Mirror episode, praises Ali's dual performance and Awkwafina's "toned-down" mode as her best, and gives it a thumbs up as a hopeful film about sparing your family suffering, though he admits he still reached for his phone a few times. JVL likewise loves the grown-up sci-fi ambition and singles out a lovely, near-silent train meet-cute in the opening (a stranger nabs pieces of his candy bar, he only realizes his own bar was untouched after she's gone), but finds the film so dour he questions who wants to spend two-plus hours watching someone die, and he and Vic spend a long stretch picking apart the plot's logic (why can't the clone remember, who pays for it, is it really "him") with references to Blade Runner's replicants, Ex Machina, What Dreams May Come, and the two-Rikers transporter-clone episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Vic runs the quadrants: plot starts at a B+ but gets talked down toward a B-/C as the interrogation continues, duration a D for the slow pacing, action/violence a D for a mostly-wasted fight scene, and sex/nudity an F. JVL also detours into a riff on the current golden age of Black leading men in Hollywood (Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Idris Elba, and more) compared to the thin bench of decades past. The long opening banter covers Vic's Patreon/merch pitch, JVL's gift-certificate-funded winter walkabout into the Shenandoah backcountry (solo, alone, hillbillies notwithstanding), Sonny's viral tweet declaring KFC, Popeyes, and Bojangles fundamentally interchangeable fried chicken, Vic's story of racing an old lady to a better Popeyes only to get dry biscuits anyway, Sonny's son loudly burping mid-popcorn-binge at an Alamo Drafthouse screening of Sing 2, Vic quoting C.S. Lewis on humorless young men, and box office chatter about Spider-Man: No Way Home's dominance and The King's Man's bomb (including its unhinged Lenin-meets-Hitler mid-credits scene). They close by teasing a subscriber bonus on The Book of Boba Fett and floating a possible future bonus episode on Diff'rent Strokes.
From the show notes
JVL's going on a walkabout. Sonny goes to the movies. Vic wants some sherry. Lots of box office talk. Do clones have souls? All that and more in this week's episode!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00So he has everything, even the memories you store deep in your subconscious. Do this with us and let life go on for your family. A clean swap. What's going on, Cam? Can't figure out what the right thing is here.
?00:00:22Thought I had more time, I guess.
Guest00:00:29You have an opportunity here. I'm not done. I didn't say he could go. You're done.
Vic00:00:44Hello 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 subbeacon.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, I'm assuming that tons of people bought all sorts of holiday merchandise for Hanukkah, Christmas, and whatnot. And a big fat check is coming our way.
Sonny00:01:15Yeah, better get your hopes up.
Vic00:01:17Like the kind that I can get, like the classic Cobb. I just want to get a classic Cobb. No, no, I can't get the Cobb.
Sonny00:01:23That's extravagant.
Vic00:01:24Kill Caesar, no chicken.
Sonny00:01:26Uh, you're going to be going to the McDonald's dollar menu.
Vic00:01:29After this, great JVL come up with some new shirts or something. Yeah, that's true.
Sonny00:01:36Really find a way to ring more money.
Vic00:01:38I had an idea and I forgot about it. Uh, happy new year to all of you JVL. Uh, what's going on.
JVL00:01:44So I was given by a very, very generous reader of the Bulwark who, uh, who has become a buddy over, over the last three years. Uh, so he, he is, you know, we, we each have some, some insanely rich friends. This guy's insanely rich. He runs a fund. It is his fund that he owns. Uh, anyway, and so he, he just sent me a giant ass gift certificate to camp saver because he is a great outdoorsman himself and I know what to do with that.
Sonny00:02:19Yeah. Useless. He's friends with you.
JVL00:02:22I am preparing to go on a little winter walkabout.
Vic00:02:26Oh, okay.
JVL00:02:27In a couple of weeks.
Sonny00:02:28Uh, where to Australia?
JVL00:02:31No, out to the Shenandoah mountains, the Shenandoah mountains. I found a couple of places where their campsites, they are hike in back country sites and uh, so you, you know, you park at a trailhead, you hike in a few miles and there is a primitive campsite that will have fire rings and bear boxes. And in many of them, even a vault toilet, which is very key question. Yeah.
Sonny00:02:56So you drive to a place and then you. Walk several miles to sleep on the dirt with your fire ring. Am I just, I want to make sure I'm understanding. I want to visualize this.
JVL00:03:06Sonny, you look so you look green with envy right now. Proper. I know you wish that was you. So I will not be sleeping on the dirt. I will be sleeping on the ThermaRest NeoAir Extreme, which is going to be on, it's going to be on dirt, which is a, which is a, the highest R value that is the insulation value of any sleeping pad made because some rich guy gave me a gift certificate. So I can afford this stuff now and, uh, I will be sleeping in a very nice sleeping bag, which, uh, unimportant, all this important is that I'm going to go out and I'm going to like be alone in the snow for a couple of days. Oh, wait a minute.
Vic00:03:42I didn't know it was just you alone. Okay. That's the idea. You alone.
Sonny00:03:46And like a couple of old porno mag question, hustler question, penthouse question, are you going to bring a firearm to scare away the bears?
JVL00:03:55No, the bears are sleeping and also they're black bears out here. In the east, all the bears are black bears.
Sonny00:04:02I'm sorry. I didn't realize that black bears were just like friendly. They're friendly. Go ahead.
JVL00:04:07No, black bears are not aggressive. Like you gotta be careful, but they are not aggressive. Well, I'll tell you what, and also they're hibernating right now. And, uh, anyway, so I'm very excited. In fact, I am, I'm taping an episode of the JVL show tomorrow with my buddy, Matt Robarts, and I'm going to do a long Q and a, and he's going to walk me through all of the things that I can spend. Money on to prepare for this, this, uh, winter walkabout. I'm very excited.
Sonny00:04:33Robarts.
JVL00:04:35Who's Matt Robarts. Our buddy from the SSEU. Oh, real name is Roberts, but I have always called him Robarts.
Sonny00:04:41God, I was like, Ro I thought you meant like Jason Robarts.
JVL00:04:44I was like, who, anyway, so Matt's gonna, Matt and I are going to do a show talking about, uh, camping gear and winter camping. I would, and I just say, I am so excited. I am so looking forward to this. I can't even tell you.
Vic00:04:57I, I. I would bring a gun, not for a bear, but for Hillbilly Jim. That's my great nuts. That was whenever we went up to the Catskills in the cabin with my buddies, the few was never, it was, the few was not so much the, the bear as it was, or the, the Bob Hyman Roth, but rather not in the catskills. No, like the Catskill mountains, not the Catskills resorts in the mountains. There's nothing there. There's nothing there. Shecky green is going to come down here. Oh, that's right. When we're at gross singers, the thing I worry about the most is, uh, yeah, Shecky. No, uh, it would be like Hillbilly. And he, you know, there was like, um, he, my friends, Steve Richard used to call it Looneyville. Like they, it was like a compound, like a couple of miles away and they had built a fence made of car, old cars. And, uh, one time when it was very cold, I guess they had broken into the cabin cause they were looking for food. That's, you know, but that was, they understood that's okay. My fear is that it's going to, I'm going to be there and I'm going to be sleeping on my stomach.
JVL00:05:52I am not concerned about, uh, Hillbillies.
Vic00:05:55I am a man of the people we have, we have very similar political symptoms.
JVL00:05:58Empathies, the Hillbillies and I, and I'm sure that they will recognize me. I'll wear my red hat and I'll say to them, hello, good sirs.
Vic00:06:07If I was, I am on your side.
JVL00:06:10I published a book with Roger Kimball of the new criterion. Surely you would not turn me out and rat me in the ass.
Sonny00:06:19One of your, one of your, one of your, uh, one of the, uh, deadly virtues books is deadly. I can't remember which one, but one of them was, uh, Tucker has an essay in it, right?
JVL00:06:28I could call my friend Tucker Carlson and get a signed headshot for you.
Vic00:06:33If you like good, sir, that and your pretty mouth.
Sonny00:06:37Uh, yeah. I mean, if I, if I was going camping, I'm not going out there. I would be bringing a gun for myself. Oh, to kill you. Put it in my mouth after 24 hours of no cell service and sleeping on dirt.
JVL00:06:52You know what? In all seriousness, I am more excited for this than. Um, like any sort of, if you let me do anything, you said, look, you could have 72 hours to go anywhere. You go to Paris, you go to, this is what I want to do right now. I just want to go somewhere where it's quiet and cold and alone and just sit.
Sonny00:07:16So basically what you want, what you want is, uh, my basement from my, my house when I was a teenager, when I was, when I was 12 years old and just wanted to go. You know, sit in the basement and listen to music with headphones on and be like, leave me alone, mom and dad. That's what you want. But in the woods.
JVL00:07:35I'm listening to Nine Inch Nails down here. Listen to Metallica.
Sonny00:07:38Go away. That's what you want. Anyway.
JVL00:07:42How are you boys? That's fine.
Sonny00:07:42That's fine. I mean, look, I can sympathize with that. This is not what I would do with my 72 hour pass. I would, uh, I don't know what I would do. Go to Vegas, I guess. Just like luxuriate in steakhouses and.
Vic00:07:56Oh, that'd be nice. And play some craps.
Sonny00:07:58Play some craps.
Vic00:07:58I, uh, I always think about that great movie. Something's got to give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. In the end, she goes to, uh, Paris and then he visits her. And then of course she, he, she, he doesn't realize that she's there with Keanu Reeves. And then they go to the, uh, the Brasserie Colbert and it's just gout central. You know what I mean? It's like all the heavy foods and.
JVL00:08:21Oysters and sweet.
Vic00:08:22Oh, I know the, the brandy sniffers and wine and bottles of champagne. Everything's happening. That's what I want. I want to be like. I want to be like Diane Keaton with Keanu Reeves. That's what I want to be like. Sonny, what's going on with you? Uh, and why are you, why are you tweeting about biscuits?
Sonny00:08:38Not a whole lot. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was, I, I, of all of the things that I have tweeted about recently, uh, the January 6th and you know, Trump and whatever, the thing that got people the angriest, the thing that got the people, the angriest was when I, I was, I was responding to some guy who was like, uh, you know, Americans. All American food is shit. And it was like an image of a sad guy taught thinking about American biscuits and then a happy guy thinking about English biscuits. And I just, I was just like, there's no, I tweeted something like Great Britain has never made any food that is better than a fresh KFC biscuit. And KFC makes like average biscuits at best. Like it's not like they're, but like, this is a fact. There is no food that is generated from England that is as good as an average.
JVL00:09:25This is a Brit who is looking down his nose at a burger for food.
Sonny00:09:27I know, that's so shocking. Well, this is a Brit. This is a Brit. See, that's very insulting. And then, and then there was some, there was some.
JVL00:09:32It's like an Italian looking down at us for efficiency.
Sonny00:09:34Right. There was a fucking Russian in my mentions who was like, Americans with their frozen foods think they're so good. I'm like, motherfucker, you eat borscht. Like, that's your favorite thing. So go suck Putin up. So the, anyway.
Vic00:09:50And you grew up in England. You have cred. You have cred.
Sonny00:09:52I have, I have, I have, I've eaten a lot of British food. I actually don't even hate British food, but like, whatever, then the thing that really pissed people off though.
Vic00:09:59Yes, I know.
Sonny00:10:00Follow that up. Follow that up by saying, this may have been a mistake. This may have been choosing violence. But, uh, I, I then followed that up with a, uh, another tweet that was, uh, cause people were like, oh, you don't mean KFC. You mean Bojangles. You mean Popeyes. And this is, this is a thing I really believe. You mean Buc-ee's. KFC, Bojangles and Popeyes are exactly the same. They are all replacement level fast food chicken places. They're fine. They're all fine. Like Popeyes is a little spicier. Oh, they got the Cajun spices.
Vic00:10:32If I laid out, if I laid out like three chicken thighs for you. They're all the same. They're all the same. They would not be the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all fine. They're all perfectly fine. There are some that are worse. There are some that are worse than others.
Sonny00:10:43If I want a real, if I want a real good fried chicken, I would go to like a local fried Yeah, a local place to get real fried chicken. And I would get my, I'd get my, I'd go, I'd go do that. Fine, fine. But, but like fast food fried chicken, like parties, whatever. But you could tell the difference. Throw it all in there. You could tell the difference because some are worse than others.
Vic00:10:58Do you remember, I remember.
Sonny00:10:58People did not appreciate this. Yeah, no. People did not.
Vic00:11:01I read, I read the first part of like, oh yeah, go for it, Sonny. And then I said, what? What did you say? I got so offended. Yeah, yeah. The, even Kentucky.
JVL00:11:09I will not tell the hillbillies that I'm friends with you, Sonny. That's fair.
Vic00:11:13Kentucky fried chicken, even Kentucky fried chicken now versus Kentucky fried chicken for the 1970s is two different, like almost, I can almost say two different animals. But it is, they just stopped, really, because they stopped. They stopped. They stopped using animal fat. And that is the key to everything is animal fat. Because, oh, you know.
Sonny00:11:30Well, this is like how McDonald's switched from the peanut oil to the whatever.
Vic00:11:34They use beef tallow and then they just use vegetable oil. And it's a huge difference because it doesn't have that sort of beefy umami flavor to the fry anymore.
Sonny00:11:42It's like, ah. You need more beef flavor in your mouth. Look, if I'm going in there, I know what I'm getting into. If I'm putting, if I'm shoving things into my mouth, I want it to taste like beef.
Vic00:11:50I made a decision. As soon as I opened the door, I made a decision.
Sonny00:11:54So, did you actually go for it? Did you go and get Popeye's after I sent you that?
Vic00:11:56I did. I went to the, I got in the mood. You put me in the mood, Sonny. I went to, the first one I went to was, the service is so awful compared to places like Chick-fil-A. I'm just saying, no. Now, you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. I don't even, I wouldn't even get into it. But the service there, JVL's shaking his head. I'm just saying. And no, not what you think. Not what you think.
Sonny00:12:16Is it the one down 50? No, Persian.
Vic00:12:17Oh, that's a good one.
Sonny00:12:18That's a very good one. Because I know that one.
Vic00:12:20Yeah, that's excellent. No, this is the one on Pershing. Must have been in the middle of cashing out or something, but they just, you know, they just, they're just, you're standing in front of them and they don't acknowledge you. And then finally, this other manager comes in and says, sorry, let me take your order. I'm in the middle of talking and he just walked away. And then he's tied in. There was another guy came in and then he said, hold on. Well, no, I can't. And then I turned to the lady behind me. All this trash. And we both decided, it was her idea. This old lady behind me said, I'm going to go to the one on 50. I said, me too. And so we went and I actually beat her there. And we went. Two different ways.
Sonny00:12:55Did you trip her to make sure that you would get to the restaurant first?
Vic00:12:59No, because she said.
Sonny00:13:00You knocked her down. So you, all right. So you, you assaulted an old lady so you could beat her to the Popeye's on 50. She did. Get your order in before her. I knew I would get it. So you don't have to wait.
Vic00:13:10I knew I would get it because she said, oh, I'm good. Yeah. The one off Patrick Henry, she says. And it's not really off, but I say, if she's going that way, I'm taking 50. It's going to be faster. So sure enough, I'm there. And she goes, how'd you get here so quick? I said, well, I just took 50. And I said, I knew you went the local road.
Sonny00:13:25I said, because I broke your head. That's how I got here. And it was good. But I'll tell you this.
JVL00:13:30Did you treat her to dinner? I hope.
Vic00:13:32No, no, no, no.
JVL00:13:33Some sweet old lady on a fixed income who you have just shared this moment with. You didn't spend the nine bucks to buy her dinner.
Vic00:13:40I thought we were going to become friends because you know how I am. You should buy him dinner. Yes. Because he won. Because I was already ahead of her that, you know, I did. But I'll tell you this. The biscuits were terrible. Like they forgot to put them. Yeah. Popeye's biscuits are notoriously bad for you. I mean, because they're just dripping with butter and oil. This was like dry as dry when we got home. Yeah, you don't want that. What happened?
Sonny00:14:03Oh, yeah. You know what? So what you're saying is I was right that my mediocre KFC biscuit. Well, the biscuit comment is basically the same. I think that's accurate.
Vic00:14:10From what happened to me it was. Okay.
Sonny00:14:13So the other thing that happened this week. So we took the kids to go see Sing 2. To see Sing 2 at the Alamo Draft House. And once again, I've talked about this before. But the three-year-old will just eat. Eat popcorn like the whole time. He's just eating and eating and eating and eating. The six-year-old will watch the movie. Well, actually, we'll order something to watch. But the three-year-old just eats popcorn in his mouth. Just like constantly.
Vic00:14:43Does he wait until after the trailers to start eating?
Sonny00:14:45No. As soon as the bowl of popcorn comes, he does not stop. They get you refills at the Alamo. And there's refills at the Alamo. And it's like he just does not stop. And at one point, at one point during the evening, he did stop. He, like, stopped and was sitting stock still and was, like, staring at the screen. And Beth leaned over and was like, Charlie, Charlie? And he, like, doesn't move at all. And she's like, Charlie! And he, like, he, like, kind of, like, looks over and is like, what? What? And then the loudest burp I've ever heard in my life came out of his, because he had just shoved popcorn. Pockets of air in there. And it was like, I literally laughed out loud in the middle of the theater. I was just like, and this was not a kid-friendly Alamo screening. This was a, this was, now that, that, it was nothing but families in there, so nobody cared. But it was one of the, so. Nobody raised their card to complain about you. Jamie, I don't know, have you gone to any of the, like, kid-friendly? Yeah, yeah. So, you know how they have, like, a different intro? They have, like, they have, like, the, you know, it's like the happy dog. And, like, don't, don't make noise. Be polite to people. And at the adult one, it's like, brrrr, now we are a silent auditorium, and if anybody talks, you're gonna die. Like, we got that warning, and I was like, oh, shit, I got, I got tickets to the wrong one. We're at the, we're at the, but luckily, it was, again, full of, full of kids, and lots of people were making noise, so nobody, nobody cared that much. But it was very, very funny, because my wife thought that my youngest was, was choking to death. I know, when you were, your wind-up had me very worried. In his mouth.
Vic00:16:22But fortunately, he is, he's fine. Porn is a tricky thing sometimes, so that's why.
JVL00:16:26You know, one of the other, the other things Alamo will do for kids that I really like is what they call the Alamo for All screenings, where not only are you allowed to, like, talk, but they will have the lights turned up a very, very tiny amount, and they will winch the sound back, like, 10%.
Sonny00:16:43Yeah.
JVL00:16:43So it's not as loud and overpowering, and it's not, like, super dark, and it's a really great way to take young, young kids and ease them into moviegoing. Yeah. It's great.
Sonny00:16:55Or, like, yeah, and my, my, my youngest definitely, like, sometimes during the loud parts, he, like, puts his hands over his ears. Yeah. He's like, that was too loud. Yeah. Yep. But, uh, but yeah, no, it was, uh, it was, uh, it was fun. It was a lot of fun, and it was especially fun when I thought my, uh, my son was choking to death on the popcorn. That was, that was.
JVL00:17:12It was very scary.
Sonny00:17:13But, I mean, it's, but it was hilarious. As soon as he burped, he went right back to shoveling popcorn in. He was like, ah, I gotta, I, I'm not done yet. Not done yet. He, he must have gone, he personally went through at least, like, one of the, he went through a bowl and a half of, like, the big. That's a lot. Aluminum bowl. That's amazing. That's a lot of, that's a lot of popcorn. I, I, I've never seen him eat like that. He doesn't eat like that ever at home. He's growing. He does not, he doesn't, no, but he doesn't eat like that at home. He'll have, like, a plate of mac and cheese or whatever, or he'll have, like, two little, he will, like, put a frozen pizza in, and he'll have, like, two slices of it, you know, and that's it. But at, at the draft house, he will, he will put it away for, like, two hours straight. That's right. Just right. No rules.
Vic00:17:50No rules.
Guest00:17:51Just right. That's right.
Vic00:17:52Victorino, how are you, buddy? I'm doing fine. I, I did want to point out that, yeah, you know, I just come across all these various tweets from Sonny, but you also tweet, this is very, you'll find this interesting, JVL. He was tweeting from a passage from C.S. Lewis. I find that really interesting. Don't you, JVL? Hmm. Hmm. I, I wonder if he's, I wonder if he's reading GK, I wonder if he's reading GK Chesterton. That's around the, yeah, Orthodoxy is just around the corner. What?
Sonny00:18:19Keep talking. Keep talking.
Vic00:18:21Okay. So, uh, you were, I see he's getting the, yes, no, so. Is that what's happening right now? He was quoting about, uh, C.S. Lewis talking about, you know, basically kids these days.
Sonny00:18:32I read, I read Chesterton. Yeah, look at that. I read Chesterton.
JVL00:18:35Like, uh-huh.
Vic00:18:35Graham Greene. Take note. I've got, like, my Graham Greene novels. Take note, dear listeners, especially listeners of The Cloth, take note, it's happening. Um, so, uh.
Sonny00:18:43You have to know what your enemies think.
Vic00:18:46Nice try. But, uh, he was complaining. He was complaining about kids these days back in his time who were, no humor. Is that the whole thing? Yeah. They had no humor. Um, and, but one of the lines was, uh, uh, about, uh, the kind of guy who is, uh, the young man in a, in a, what, a manse, the son of a manse, the son of a manse, uh, at.
Sonny00:19:09Here's, here's the line. Here's the line. We, we are breeding up a race of young people who are as solemn as the brutes. Smile from reason, smiles from reason flow. As solemn as a 19-year-old Scottish son. Of, of the manse at an English sherry party who takes all the compliments for declarations and all the banter for insults.
Vic00:19:27And I, and, and I read that and I thought I would like to be at an English sherry party. That was my takeaway from that. That was, you were just like, I want some sherry. I want to be the, I want to be the son of a manse.
Sonny00:19:36Sherry, sherry isn't even, sherry's gross.
Vic00:19:39No, I got into it and it's pretty good.
Sonny00:19:41Ah.
Vic00:19:41Yes. It's sweet. I, I gave my father for Christmas a Pedro Jimenez and I was curious about it. And I'm the kind of guy, as you know, who will. Gift you the bottle and say, Hey, why don't we find out? Hey, how about you go? Merry Christmas to you. You might, let's just, let's just see what it's like.
Sonny00:19:57I'll have half the 20 year McAllen.
Vic00:19:59I'll have half. Oh, Hey, how about now? Uh, because I'm that kind of a guy. And I'm, I tell you over the holidays, I, the one thing I avoided was beer. And because of that, I had only like, I had my, my dad got me actually a nice Scotch, Dalwini, a 15 year old and my brother-in-law.
JVL00:20:19You do love. I love 15 year olds.
Vic00:20:20Oh my gosh. Scotch Scotch and, uh, my brother-in-law had to build a great bourbon. What was that? What did you say?
Sonny00:20:31I miss that. Speaking of licorice, it doesn't matter.
Vic00:20:35What are we doing that one? I'm ready to do it.
Sonny00:20:37Well, we can do it next week. Speaking of reasons after JVL is walkabout. Oh yes. Okay.
Vic00:20:43So it's going to be a few weeks. I'm not going this weekend.
JVL00:20:46All right.
Vic00:20:47Uh, okay. Well, anyway, uh, but. Sorry, did I interrupt your transition? That's where I was going. Have I blown it all up? Oh, sorry. Let's pretend it didn't happen. I felt only the slightest twinge. So I'm really feeling unstoppable right now, like Rasputin. Speaking of which, over the weekend, the King's Man landed in third place with $4.6 million followed by Sing 2 with 20.2 million. And once again, perched atop the box office was Spider-Man No Way Home with $56 million. That's not good for the King's Man. Is it streaming? Is that why it's so low?
Sonny00:21:22No, it's just because nobody wants to go see it. Oh, man. The King's Man is a very interesting movie. I assume we're probably not going to end up doing it just because nobody's going to see it.
Vic00:21:30You know, the trailer looks so interesting. I'll watch anything with Ralph Fiennes in it.
Sonny00:21:34Well, so here's the thing. So I can't remember if we talked about the King's Man movies. We did? Yeah, but I really like the first King's Man movie, which is like a very, it's a weirdly reactionary movie. And I mean that in the like kind of, you know, dark enlightenment, let's return to the monarchy sense. But like, but it's, but it's very good. It's like kind of stylish and entertaining, funny. And I like Matthew Vaughn a lot. We all like Matthew Vaughn. The second one, I didn't like as much. Second one had some problems. Just the biggest, the biggest of which was that they needed, they decided they needed to bring Colin Firth back. So there's like an extra 30 minutes of movie in there that doesn't need to be there.
Vic00:22:16Which, by the way, the reveal of the trailer too. So it's like, I feel. Yeah. It was so dumb.
Sonny00:22:22The third one. So the King's Man starring Ralph Fiennes is a prequel and it's set during World War One, during the outbreak of World War One. And it has like almost no action in it until an hour into the movie. Like they have a couple, a couple small sequences, but it is not, it is not an action movie like either of the first two. It is not stylish like either of the first two. It is, it is almost, it is almost a. I don't want to say it's a dour film cause it's not a dour film, but it is, it is, it is a movie that like, it's like somebody started making it and they were like, oh shit, we're making a World War One movie. We can't have it be like funny and ridiculous like the other one. Like it has to be like kind of serious and that is, and that's kind of, and it is, but it's, but it's, but it is still, it is still a ridiculous movie.
JVL00:23:10It has to be a World War Two movie like in Glorious Bastards if you're going to have it be ridiculous and funny.
Sonny00:23:15You could have, you could have a World War Two movie, but like a World War One movie, again, it's like, it's like they got halfway into making, we're like, wait, what are we doing? We have to be serious here. Like the only World War One combat is this, it's, it's a, it's like a, it's a fight that takes place in the pitch black of night that is essentially hand to hand combat between like six, six Germans and six Brits. And then it, it, after, after the Brits are victorious during this, well, I don't want to spoil it. There's, there's, there's, there's a, there's a, I don't want to spoil it for people who want to see it. There's, there's just like, they do a thing, they do a thing after that sequence that like, just like sucks the life out of the film. Oh. Um, but also, but it is, it is also insane and ridiculous. I will spoil this. There's a mid credit scene that, uh, so like part of the plot of this film is that like a secret cabal of villains is like coming together to, uh, rule the world and they want to, they want to, they want to sow chaos and whatever. And like, part of it is they, they introduce, um, uh, they, they introduce Lenin by having Rasputin basically like, uh, or like Rasputin's helper or somebody like, uh, you know, here's Lenin. He's taking over for the Tsar. Like he's bad. And then the end of the film, I, I like, I, I can't even, I can't even talk about this with a straight face in the middle part of this film. They're talking about how the left hand has been so successful. They need somebody to arise from the right hand to combat him and, you know, continue sowing chaos in the world. I swear to God, I swear to God, there's a mid credit scene where they bring Lenin back out and, uh, and, and, um, it's, it's, what's his name? It's, it's, uh, the guy from, uh, Falcon in the winter, Baron Zemo. It's the guy who plays Baron Zemo. Actually, he's, he's the German, uh, I don't know, German bad guy. I'm sorry. I'm rambling, but the, there's this Baron Zemo. That's just, I'm going to call him Baron Zemo brings Lenin out. And he says, I said, the right hand was so strong. We had to bring up the right. And here is the right hand meet Adolf Hitler. Come on. And it's like Lenin and Hitler they're meeting and they're shaking hands. They're like, we're going to be evil together. It's like, it's like they took, it's like they took the shared universe concept from comic book movies and are, it's the pitchest black satire I've ever seen in my entire life. They're just making fun of it by being like, what if, what if Hitler and Lenin were comic book villains? It's the, it's the craziest thing I've ever seen in a movie. It's genuine. The craziest thing I've ever seen in a movie. Sorry. I didn't, I got, I got sidetracked there, but anyway, it's not, it's not, it's not a terror. I like it. I actually like this movie. I think it's doing some interesting things within the world of the Kingsman.
Vic00:26:03What was the reaction when people in the theater, was there a reaction with their gasps? I mean, I went, that's what I did.
Sonny00:26:12I don't think I was alone.
Vic00:26:14But the, I mean, because the Germans are, you know, they, they, the Germans were responsible for. Releasing Lennon back to the Russians, right? When he arrives at Finland station. Is Taika Waititi playing?
Guest00:26:23Oh, throw that on top there JVL.
Vic00:26:27Just like, you know, the little cherry on top.
Sonny00:26:29So anyway, I'm sorry. I went off on a tangent there. But no, the King, the Kingsman is bombing as hard as I've seen a movie of this size bomb in a long time.
JVL00:26:39This is another movie which has been advertised for a year and a half, two years, right?
Sonny00:26:44Just get pushed back, pushed back.
Vic00:26:45I feel like I saw a trailer. Every time I went to the theater, that trailer was on.
Sonny00:26:48But I mean, it's also, it's also, this is kind of interesting. It's also one of the movies that Disney picked up when they acquired 20th Century Fox, right? So in a three-week stretch, Disney dropped this movie like four days after Spider-Man. They dropped West Side Story and they dropped Nightmare Alley, which was another, it was a Fox Searchlight pickup. They dropped all three of these movies within 10 days of the biggest movie of the last three years, which they haven't done in a long time. Which they have a financial interest in, it should be noted. And I am like, I'm still like, I'm, I'm still vaguely flummoxed by how this decision-making process happened.
JVL00:27:30But I wonder if it has something with participation payments due to certain people that they just
Sonny00:27:35It's either that or they wanted to get it off the books before the end of the year or whatever. But like the, there has to be an accounting reason for this. There was no reason not to release Nightmare Alley before Halloween. Around Halloween. Do it around Halloween. You, you, you sell it to people as a scary Halloween movie, even though it's not that, but you sell it to them like that. And like that movie would have done, you know, five times the box office. It has done, which is, I mean, it has it even, I don't think it's gross $10 million yet. West Side Story, you know, I don't, I think that was always going to be kind of a tough sell because it's a musical aimed at old people and they're not going back to theaters. But like, I don't know.
Vic00:28:14But this, you know, and it's disappointing to hear that because the trailers, it looks like it's all action. It's all action. Jimon Hunsu.
Sonny00:28:21Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, I'm branching a lot of green screen. Every action scene in the movie is in the two and a half minute trailer. I mean, it's. Those are the worst ones.
Vic00:28:33The worst ones were like all the jokes are in the trailer. Those are the worst ones.
Sonny00:28:36And it's like, it's, it's a two hour and 15 minute movie. It's, it's a mess. Well, but it's, but again, it's like weirdly interesting. I liked it. I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. It's, it's a movie that doesn't work, but I still kind of admire what it was doing. Um, yeah, but anyway, Spider-Man whale still enormous. I sure it'll probably be defunct to be dethroned by Jessica Chastain's a new action movie coming out this weekend. The three five five. You know, I haven't even seen that yet. Is it going to be as good as Ava? Yes. Wow. It looks like it's about as good as all.
Vic00:29:12I still thank you for reminding me. There's like somebody, you know, what's the line and lethal weapon about the, the, the torture he's, he's forgotten more. A pain than you can ever, you'll ever, you know, where I will ever know. Yeah. That's, I feel like with some of these movies, uh, that's depressing. You know what else is depressing? The movie we're discussing this week, swan song on Apple blue, uh, Apple TV plus, please. Thank you. That's right.
Sonny00:29:33You have to, it's Apple, Apple TV plus on Apple plus the flax are very, the flax are very insistent. That's really, when they send the releases out, please call the service by its full name. Apple TV plus.
Vic00:29:45I noticed this when, uh, on occasion, uh, pop. We'll, uh, review something on Apple TV plus, and I could tell it's very much. And you had mentioned this before. You have to say that a cheery uplifting movie, the feel good movie of the year. Really? Uh, Sonny, uh, this movie was, uh, yeah. Okay. Uh, how about a big boy review?
Sonny00:30:04Uh, so swan song stars Mahershala Ali as a cartoonist and illustrator, uh, an artist who, uh, we learned relatively quickly on is dying. Uh, he's dying, but he has not told his family that he's dying and he has not told his family that he's dying because there is a treatment that can save his life kind of question mark. It's not really, uh, that's not really what's going to happen. And, uh, apparently Glenn Close can clone him and put all of his memories into the new Mahershala Ali and that Mahershala Ali will go back to his family and live with them for, for the rest of, uh, for the rest of his life. He will not know that he is a. Clone with the memories of somebody else who has died and they will be none the wiser and they will, the family will be none the wiser. That's the only way this works. So, uh, the, the whole movie is essentially a, uh, a big philosophical question, uh, about, you know, what matters is that your memories or is it, is it your actual physical person? Um, some might talk about the soul, not me.
Vic00:31:11I would, that's not good, but, uh, but, uh, you're really flummoxing our listeners.
Sonny00:31:18But, uh, but yeah, so, so it's basically, imagine, imagine a almost two hour Black Mirror episode. That's what this is. It is essentially a Black Mirror, um, uh, Netflix is kind of, you know, questions about ethics and the future and technology and all that. It is essentially a feature, a feature film version of a Black Mirror episode. Um, the big draw here is Mahershala, Mahershala Ali. Uh, he is a two-time Oscar winner for Green Book and the Terrorist. Terrible Green Book and, uh, Moonlight, uh, the movie Moonlight, which is really good for the first third until Ali leaves the film and then it's kind of a disaster. But whatever, they both won Best Picture. So, you know, what, what do I know? What do I know about anything? Uh, he is very good in this as the kind of dual role. He's playing both his, you know, he's playing himself and the clone. Uh, and it's, it's very, but I, I, I mean, this is the sort of movie that you could write an encomium, an encomium to the theaters and say, this is the sort of thing that used to be in movie theaters and now it's on TV channels like Apple TV plus. And that's a, but I gotta be honest, this is the sort of thing that is probably better off being watched at home in, in the comfort of your own home. Your solitude. You don't, you don't need, you don't need to, you don't, as long as you keep the razor blades away. I think, I think we have, I think we have trained people well enough that they no longer feel the need to see this sort of thing. In movie theaters. And I don't think that that's necessarily a huge loss, except, except for the fact that I did find myself, and this was a movie I was going to review. So I was like, I was trying to pay more attention to it than I otherwise might have. I still found myself like reaching for my phone a couple of times and wanting to, you know, check in on what was going on in the world and, you know, kind of zone out from the, from the, the movie a little bit. It's very good. It is, it's very, it's, it is not a lighthearted movie exactly, but it is kind of hopeful just in terms of, you know,
Vic00:33:20If only our listeners could see our, you know, I mean, I'm skeptical about video for these podcasts, but they would have really enjoyed that one.
Sonny00:33:30How to, how to, how to survive a tragedy and keep your family from suffering.
Vic00:33:37Yeah. Which is the whole point of life. JVL, JVL. This is, this is, this, okay. Sorry. We'll all have turns. Sonny, continue anyway. Or are you, I don't know.
Sonny00:33:47I mean, I'm done. I'm done. I, like, it's, it's, it's, it's a middling movie. It has a really good performance by Mahershala Ali. Great perfs, great perfs. I, I really, and I liked Awkwafina in this. Awkwafina is very hit and miss for me, but she's very good in this as another, she's another cancer patient who, you know, she's toned down in this movie, which is her, her best mode. Her best mode is when she's at like a seven instead of a 10, because she can get up to a three or like a 12.
Vic00:34:14No, she's good at a three. Yes. I'm with JVL.
JVL00:34:18I, so I feel bad because I believe I suggested this to you guys. But the reason I suggested we do this movie is because I had not seen it yet. And, and because of something you said in your review, Sonny, which is that shouldn't we champion grownup science fiction? Shouldn't we champion somebody not making a derivative Marvel cinematic universe? This is, it is a sci-fi movie, right? And it has an idea to it and it's made for grownups, not for 13 year olds and all. And so I agree with all of that in principle. And there's, in practice, there's stuff about this, which is wonderful. Mahershala Lee's great. And the opening scene has him riding a train and there's this fabulous little bit. So he's sitting on a train and he buys. From the concessions robot, a bar of chocolate and a cup of coffee. And people get on the train, people get off the train. This very, very pretty woman sits down opposite from him on the train.
Vic00:35:32By the way, where is this taking place? Because I've never been on a train with a robot like that.
Sonny00:35:36The future, Vic. It's taking place in the future.
JVL00:35:39For the benefit of the listeners.
Sonny00:35:40And you're going to get the. What? What? You have it. Oh, shit. JBL. Nobody's told this, Vic. That he's a replacement. Oh, no. That the gout got to be too much. The gout killed normal.
Vic00:35:54You can never tell the replacement.
Sonny00:35:56Oh, no. Oh, I'm sorry. He just fritzed out.
JVL00:36:01It's just a great bit where this woman reaches across the table and opens up the candy bar and takes a piece. And he looks at her like all of a sudden like it's a Seinfeld moment. Like, you just took a piece of my candy bar. But he decides to play along. And so he. He reaches over and takes a piece. And she's very funny, flirty thing where they're each taking turns, taking pieces of this candy bar and smiling at each other. And it's lovely. And then her stop comes first and she gets up and she takes the candy bar and they smile and she walks away. And he is very, very proud of himself with how cool he's played this. And he reaches down to his pocket and discovers that his candy bar is still in his pocket. That was hers. The whole. Time and he feels like the weird, the biggest weirdo in the world. And the whole thing is done almost as a silent film. And it's lovely and it's great. And it's everything that I want us to champion about movies. But on the other hand, I just this thing is so fucking dour and dark. And I don't know who in the world wants to give two hours and 15 minutes of their life to watching somebody die of cancer. I'm sorry. So, uh, quadrants, uh, they did not do.
Sonny00:37:18Well, but he doesn't, but he doesn't die though. He lives forever.
Vic00:37:23Don't fool yourself. Okay. Let's get into this in a second.
Sonny00:37:28He doesn't have the one little mole. That's the only difference.
Vic00:37:31Get into this into a second.
Sonny00:37:32Is that where the soul lives?
Vic00:37:34First of all, yes, Sonny plot plot. I gave a B plus. I got it. You know, it's disturbing, but provocative. I got it. Yeah, I, yeah, I did. No, don't, don't quiz.
Sonny00:37:48Me now you realize he doesn't have an actual twin that he's not, he's, that's not his twin brother.
Vic00:37:54First of all, I understand there's this robot looks just like him. Okay. Duration is a D it felt the pacing. I mean, it was very slow. Okay. Action and violence. Also a D I was hoping this was going to turn into total recall. Something's going wrong. Something's gone wrong up to a D. Oh, thank you. I could have given it an F. I was trying to be, I was being a little bit generous, but Oh, I'll tell you why I got the D because. They actually struggled with each other and the special effects in that brief struggle were so good. It was like David Hasselhoff versus himself in the Goliath episode of Knight Rider, which you'll know what I'm talking about.
Sonny00:38:29If you subscribe to the show, you got to listen to the bonus episodes to get that one.
Vic00:38:33Yes, I was, I was a wasted opportunity. Cause I really was hoping I was waiting for some Tark turn. When's the action going to happen? I had no idea. This is not Gemini man. Yeah. Oh yeah. Another one. Much better. Uh, sex nudity is an F you know, I thought he was going to, there's one scene at the end where he sneaks into the house. I thought he was going to walk into himself doing his wife and it would make a little sandwich. No, no, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't, that'd be too crazy, but it would be like watching a sex tape without the tape. It was just like crazy. So anyway, you know what I mean? You're just watching it live. You're watching it live.
Sonny00:39:04He's got, he's got those contacts.
Vic00:39:06Yes, they have the kind of watched himself that and tit and then recorded it. Um, I, I, I love Naomi Harris. I think she's great. The accent is just French, French and English. I don't know why. She speaks French so well. I don't know. I don't know her background. She's obviously fluent, speaks wonderful there.
Sonny00:39:24Her scene where some people know more than one language.
Vic00:39:26Yes. Like her and me when, uh, when she shaves, uh, Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, very hot. And this was a disappointment. So, uh, okay. Uh, how I feel with, uh, uh, it's very sensual and it's also risky because there's a blade involved. It was very scary and hot. Um, I'm with JVL this thing.
Sonny00:39:47What movie are you doing?
Vic00:39:48Casino Royale. Remember she comes in and she shaves. She's not in Casino Royale.
JVL00:39:51It's a, I think it's, uh, Skyfall. I think it's Skyfall or Spectre. One of them.
Vic00:39:59It's one of the stupid, one of the bad ones. It's one of the, it's one of the middle two. Listeners, let us know. Um, uh, again, I'm sympathetic to a certain degree. He, he feels, he knows his wife is very fragile. I don't know if we mentioned this. Uh, you know, she loses her brother. She suffered. She loses her brother. She lost her twin. And he knows that, you know, what, and she went through a very dark. And she's pregnant. And she's pregnant.
JVL00:40:25Destroy her. She's pregnant.
Vic00:40:27So he thinks the best thing to do is to deceive her by having her live with a robot the rest of her life. Um. It's not a robot. You don't.
Sonny00:40:34It's just, it's the same, same person.
Vic00:40:36I thought maybe he would be able to transfer himself into the clone.
Sonny00:40:41That is what happens. No, no. He just doesn't remember. No, it's not what happens. He just doesn't remember. No, my gosh. The transfer. Because it would break his. It's too insane. It would break his. Break his brain. It's too insane. He couldn't, you couldn't handle it. You have to think. Look, if there's anything we know about clone technology, it's that you have to never know that you're the clone. That's just science, man. You get, you know, it's.
JVL00:41:02Here's a question. Let me blow all your minds. What if the doc had told him, him being Cameron. After he was wiped. No, no. Told him, Cameron, that he was going to have his consciousness transferred into this clone. And so he's not going to die. So don't even worry about it. But in.
Vic00:41:22When it fades to black.
JVL00:41:24When he, he, they're just transferring his memories. But if he's told that he's going to be transferred his consciousness and then he dies, maybe he really is transferred. Who's can, who could say? Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
Sonny00:41:35Yes. If you don't remember, it didn't happen. Okay. Memories are the only thing that matters.
JVL00:41:40I'm going to, I'm going to keep that, that little cone close to my heart when I'm up doing my winter walkabout and the hillbillies show up. If I don't remember it, then it didn't happen. It didn't happen.
Vic00:41:50That's right. That's right. Exactly.
Sonny00:41:52The brain is a wonderful thing. You can forget all sorts of terrible traumas.
Vic00:41:56I mean, I understand because you remember.
Sonny00:41:58Other parts of your body won't forget, but your brain could forget. Yes.
Vic00:42:01Yes. You won't feel sore about it, but other parts of you will. The, remember the movie, that terrible movie with Robin Williams is sort of phase of very serious. No, no, no. What dreams, what dreams may come, what dreams may come, which was so. So serious and so important. And, but, but remember what happens after he dies, his wife, Annabella Shiora commits suicide and then he has to go through to find her in hell. So he doesn't want her like, you know, in this movie, in Swan Song. Yeah. Sorry for those who haven't seen. We're just about to watch what dreams may come.
Sonny00:42:38It's on my queue.
Vic00:42:39Let me tell you something. That plot was an F. How did the sun turn into Max von Sina? What's happening? Cuba Gooding Jr. What's happening here?
Sonny00:42:46What is Cuba Gooding Jr. doing here? What is happening?
Vic00:42:48He doesn't look like his son at all. Okay. So the, in Swan Song, I understand his intentions, but as we say, the road to good intentions, you know, the road to hell is paved with hell. Thank you. It's paved with hell. The road to good intentions is paved with hell.
Sonny00:43:02It's paved with hell the way I phrase things. Would you guys die?
Vic00:43:05Yeah. No, I would die because you don't know.
Sonny00:43:08You wouldn't, you wouldn't do the robot thing?
Vic00:43:09You can't interfere. You cannot interfere. And there's sort of just, there's just no, there's no acknowledgement of any sort of redemptive suffering. And, and. And it's just like the whole point of life is to avoid it. Everybody's supposed to live the happiest and most wonderful and perfect life.
JVL00:43:24But he does, he does suffer though. Let's not introduce the redemptive suffering stuff to Sonny. That's what you slip in.
Vic00:43:31That's how I turn him away.
Sonny00:43:33Yeah.
JVL00:43:33After they bought into the, oh, I get to live with Jesus, my friend.
Vic00:43:38And then we get to the redemptive.
Sonny00:43:40This is what we're talking about with the plot. Vic, he does have to suffer. He has to sit there with the knowledge. What is going on without him? He has no, he has, he has, you know, he loses, he loses, he suffers, he suffers silently so that his family will not suffer.
Vic00:43:58Somebody should mail the family a letter like 20 years from now and say, oh, by the way, this guy that you think your dad who just had a, you know, who died of natural causes at age 100 in his sleep happily with a smile on his face because they're programmed to die with a smile on their face, you know, which by the way, was a real, real, real robot.
Sonny00:44:20He's not a robot. He's a, he's a clone. It's just the same. It's the same person. It's not like there's no guarantee.
Vic00:44:28There's no, he's not his body.
Sonny00:44:29His mind isn't going into a car where he can like magically change the cards on the poker table. Like it's a, it's, it's another reference to a subscriber only episode being used as
Vic00:44:41part of the clone wars. Yes. No. So, I mean, no, but, but this, this, this, this other guy, which Boba. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. We're going to be talking about that in the next. Yeah. You got to subscribe to listen to that. It's a good one. You know, the other guy could then walk down the street and get hit by one of those driverless cars.
JVL00:44:59Yeah.
Vic00:44:59You know, and then think about that. And then what?
JVL00:45:01And what did you get? There are no guarantees. I have questions.
Vic00:45:05My first one is, I am surprised. Is this, is this, is, is his body actually like, is it pure flesh and blood? Did she create that?
Sonny00:45:15It's literally the same exact. It's a body. It's a human being.
Vic00:45:20I think we got to.
Sonny00:45:21Imagine.
JVL00:45:22I think we got to reconsider that B plus that you gave the plot.
Vic00:45:25Yeah. It's going down to a B minus right now. Maybe a C.
Sonny00:45:29Vic, I have a question.
Vic00:45:30This is a serious.
Sonny00:45:31Did you watch Star Trek? The Next Generation?
Vic00:45:33No. TNG? No, I didn't. No, not into that.
Sonny00:45:35Okay. Well, there's a, there's a Star Trek. The Next Generation where there's a, there's a transporter accident and Riker is, is a double. They double. There's a Riker. There are two Rikers. There are two Commander William T. Rikers. And that is basically what has happened here.
JVL00:45:49So they do double penetration on Deanna Troi. Yes.
Vic00:45:51Oh, come on now.
JVL00:45:52What kind of a show is this? That's not.
Sonny00:45:55But that is, but that is essentially what is happening. Just, just imagine two William T. Rikers, but it's two Mahershala Ali's.
Vic00:46:01How long did it take her to create this human being?
?00:46:04I don't.
Sonny00:46:05And how so? How long did it take them to come up with the brain technology to transfer the consciousness?
Vic00:46:09So he also, also how much she says, she goes, you know, soon this will be the few, there's three of you out there and soon. This will be like the future. So the future will be populated with humans and, and, and who don't know that they're living with robots and perhaps other robots who are living with other people who are all they don't even realize it. This isn't Westworld. Cause that's what I think they are. You can't, they're not robots. So, and the other thing is. They're human beings. If this is the future, how much does this cost? What kind of a few, how much do you think that costs for him to do? Cause he almost reneged on the contract.
JVL00:46:41I'm sure they sell, I'm sure they make many of the clones and they sell the organs of the ones they're not using. To pay for the procedure. Oh, thank you.
Vic00:46:51Like the island. Yes. It's like the island, a happy ending. So I just don't, I didn't.
Sonny00:46:56Well, you guys shouldn't have any problem with that since these are soulless robots. Where are they?
Vic00:47:01Is this like, this is a Scandinavian resort too. I don't know where they are. They never tell you where they are, but I was waiting for a sinister turn. And I think Glenn Close, I think there's a dark side and they kind of reveal it a little bit in the movie. Am I right? From little bits where.
JVL00:47:15I think that is one reading of this. Yes. Is that she's lying the whole thing and he's being brought into a cult or something.
Vic00:47:21Do you know how, do you know how she said, remember how Awkwafina says, oh, you had the same cancer doctor that I did. And it's her, this woman.
JVL00:47:28It's like, I care too much or I care a lot or whatever.
Vic00:47:31You know what it is? It's nothing like that. It's nothing at all like that. It's like the movie. You guys are crazy. It's like the book and the movie coma. And I have to say the movie, cause I didn't read the book, but you know what I mean.
Sonny00:47:40No, the movie, the movie, the movie that calls to mind the most is Ex Machina, the Alex Garland AI movie. That's, that's the movie.
JVL00:47:47That did very well in the quadrants.
Sonny00:47:49Oh yeah. You got to see. Okay.
Vic00:47:52I'll look at our daily motion after the show. Um, okay. So, so that, that was it. So there was, there was, there was a lot, did I pick up or not? Was there a blade runner reference when he's looking at the, uh, um, what's the word I'm looking for? The, uh, the robot. No, the, the, the, what do you call it? I can't, I'm just, I'm blanking out on it right now. The, you know, what did the Japanese paper thing?
JVL00:48:17You like, uh. Origami.
Vic00:48:18Origami. And it reminded me of the unicorn scene when, uh, when Harrison Ford looks up. Oh yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking about. Yeah.
Sonny00:48:25Uh, I, I, I thought something similar, but I don't, I don't think this is like replicants or the, this is very close to a replicant really more than a robot. Yes.
JVL00:48:35Okay.
Sonny00:48:36Replicants. Yes. Uh, indistinguishable from humans.
JVL00:48:38Well, except for the superpower. Yeah. They have a lot of strength. I mean, they have a lot of strength.
Sonny00:48:43And they've got little, you know, barcodes and stuff on them.
Vic00:48:47Um, so that's.
Sonny00:48:47In the DNA.
Vic00:48:49Those were my thoughts. JVL, you had, uh, other thoughts about.
Sonny00:48:52Yeah, I just, I just want to quickly say that.
Vic00:48:53Because I thought the performances were great, by the way.
JVL00:48:55I, I think that we are living in a golden age of black leading men in Hollywood. I think it's really cool. If you go back, we had like a 40 year stretch in American cinema where the complete list of black leading men was Denzel, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and Lawrence Fisher.
Vic00:49:18And I wouldn't say Danny Glover's not even a leading man.
JVL00:49:21Morgan Freeman, maybe, but he's much more of a character actor than a leading man, but sure. More of a supporting actor. But now we've got this, you know, Michael B. Jordan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, Yaya Abdul-Mateen, who we talked about last week is the best thing in the terrible Matrix movie. Daniel Kaluuya, Marshal Ali, John David Washington, Donald Glover, Keith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors. It's just a huge number. It's a huge number of guys all around like 30, 35 years old. Some of them older, like Idris Elba and Chiwetel Ejiofor, slightly older. But all these guys are like really legit movie stars.
Sonny00:50:02And they're all doing different things. Yeah. And it's not like, it's not like when you had, you know, Sam Worthington and also, oh, who's, I'm just, I'm blanking on all of the random white dudes. Sam. All the Sams. All the Sams. Yeah.
JVL00:50:20And anyway, I just think it's, it's interesting to note and I think it's great. And I think probably this is a product of the good kinds of diversity, right? So when, when people talk about like, hey, we need black filmmakers, what does that mean? It means that you need people like Ryan Coogler to do something like Black Panther, where you create space for a whole bunch of people. A whole bunch of actors to prove that they are movie stars, you know, and, and that that's really cool and winds up being a net positive for everybody. And I just think it's.
Sonny00:50:59Or Get Out. Right. Or Get Out. Right. And. Widows. One of the best movies of that year.
JVL00:51:05Yeah. And, and Jordan, you know, having Jordan Peele. And these guys making movies and creating, creating parts and roles. For black actors to, to show how great they can be. And it's great. I like it. That's all.
Vic00:51:27Do we. Sorry. Is that okay? Yes. I think it's fine. I think that's all the thoughts I have on this. You have other thoughts on Spawn Song or anything else? No. Okay.
Sonny00:51:40I liked it. Thumbs up from me. Across the board. All these naysayers.
JVL00:51:46Because for you, it's a happy movie. It's a happy movie about getting to live for forever. Yes, that's right. Because, you know, God forbid.
Sonny00:51:52I genuinely don't. Look, you know, here's, oh, here's a terrible illness that you have. We're going to take it away. And you're going to get to keep living with your family. You're not taking it away.
Vic00:51:59You're not taking it away. You got it. I'm telling you, there's something else going. There's going to be a sequel to Spawn Song 2 where they find out that they actually didn't die.
Sonny00:52:09What they should do is immediately after the brain is transferred into the new body, put a bullet in the old one. Be like, boom, done. New guy. You're it.
Vic00:52:17There's no, yeah, I really was hoping that there would be like something's going wrong. And then there'd be like a whole other, like a second act.
JVL00:52:23By harvesting the organs of the guy. There you go.
Vic00:52:29Spirit of the Wee. Anything? You drinking anything? I'm not drinking. No, I'm good right now, too. I'm taking it easy right now at this moment. Healthy sentence. Okay. Corrections, shout outs, anything? No? Quiet. No, I got nothing. All right. All right. Well, we got a big bonus episode coming up. So on the book of books. Boba Fett. So stay tuned for that by subscribing.
Sonny00:52:51If this was too much of a downer. Yeah. If you were like JVL and Vic and you're like, oh, living forever would be terrible.
Vic00:52:59Physically in this world. Curing all the diseases. We do live forever, Sonny, in a different way. And that's all the time.
Sonny00:53:04Curing all the diseases would be so bad. There's no cure.
Vic00:53:07And how far in the future are we here? What do you think? What do you think? How far is this? 50? 50 years?
Sonny00:53:12I don't know. 30 years?
Vic00:53:13They do a nice, it's a light touch on the future. I will give them that. It's a light touch.
Sonny00:53:17It's very, it's very believable. Yeah.
Vic00:53:19The only scary thing is the driverless cars. That was very scary. Okay. That's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at SonnyBunch, at Victorino Matus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patreon. Go to SubBeacon.com. We're there. Tell your friends. Until next time.
Sonny00:53:46All right.
Vic00:53:47What are you?
JVL00:53:47I just want to put this here for people. We talked about this in text, the three of us. I think we should do a bonus episode on different strokes. I realize that Sonny has no idea what that is, but I think the Knight Rider episode was a huge success. I think it was a huge success. It was awesome. I don't know how we measure that, but I feel like it was a huge success. Did we have fun? We had fun. I had a load of fun.
Vic00:54:12So much fun that I watched the other episode. It was like it was a two-parter.
JVL00:54:15If we could pick two episodes of different strokes, they're 20 minutes long.
Vic00:54:21We could do one of those two-part specials. I would say, you know the one-
Sonny00:54:26Is this the one with Archie Bunker? No. Is that the one?
Vic00:54:29Oh my gosh. No. You know, this came about. It's great. This was NBC.
Sonny00:54:34Is it the one in the taxi stand that Danny DeVito was in? Is that what different strokes is?
Vic00:54:40He's trolling us, man. He's such a child. I know. It's great.
Sonny00:54:44I'm sorry, Grandpa.
JVL00:54:45This is the one at the bar in Morocco. It's the one at the bar in Morocco where the guy is there and the Nazis have taken over. He's trying to figure out how to get his old girlfriend out.
Sonny00:54:56Oh, it's in the bar in Boston. Different strokes. I get it. That makes sense.
Vic00:55:01I think one of the shocking things would be when you watch it, when you watch Different Strokes, that whole family, that the only living member of that whole family is Todd Bridges, who plays Willis.
Sonny00:55:12Is there a curse of Different Strokes?
Vic00:55:14Well, they all died. Everybody died, except for Willis. That's crazy.
Sonny00:55:19Is it like Poltergeist?
Vic00:55:20Yeah, well, again, future episode. We'll figure it out. I don't want to do them. I always joke around about doing the episode with Mr. You know, it's the child molestation. Yeah, no, I don't want to do a very special episode. The one with the actor, Gordon Jump, with Gordon Jump. And I don't want to do that one because that's too much.
JVL00:55:38What about that crossover show that Dana Plato did outside of Different Strokes?
Vic00:55:42Again, you talk about that. You know, I'll tell you this. You know what? There was a lot of crossover. There was a lot of crossover with Facts of Life and Different Strokes because that's where Charlotte Ray. Remember, she she went over there from she was she started off Charlotte Ray as the nanny in Different Strokes. And then she went over to the dietician. Yes. And Joe and Joe both. Great. OK, well, I guess I'm sure that'll be fine.
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