#242. 'Kung Fu Panda 4'
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Sonny, JVL, and Mike all land on the same verdict for Kung Fu Panda 4: harmless, forgettable, and weirdly insubstantial for a premise that should be an easy comedic layup. Sonny — admitting he's never seen a prior Kung Fu Panda — says his brain kept shutting off and he can barely describe the plot beyond a running bit about the panda's confusing "two dads"; JVL calls it "the cinematic equivalent of a rice cake," insubstantial to the point of sliding out of his brain as he watched it; Mike agrees it's bland in a way that isn't even actively bad, though his six-year-old (who initially refused to go, then loved it once Mike promised to feature his review on the podcast) came away quoting "skadoosh" nonstop. The first third is heavy on banter: JVL admits he's in a foul mood and short on updates, Sonny riffs at length on his physical-media habit (Half Price Books, buying used vs. new 4K Blu-rays, and a tangent sparked by Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts owning a 10,000-disc collection) and recaps the recent Oscars (pleased Oppenheimer and Poor Things swept while arguing the Academy is right to reward big popular studio pictures), and Mike walks through his week of solo-parenting his two oldest kids and the negotiation required to get his younger son into the theater. Box office chat notes Kung Fu Panda 4 opened at number one with roughly $58 million, edging out Dune: Part Two's strong second-weekend hold. The back half turns into an extended Jack Black career retrospective: JVL floats his "anti-matter Robin Williams" theory that Black is funniest when reined in around 40% power (Tropic Thunder, Bob Roberts) and grating when unleashed (School of Rock, Nacho Libre); Sonny names High Fidelity as his definitive Jack Black performance; and Mike champions Bernie and Shallow Hal. They close by debating whether Con Air is appropriate viewing for JVL's upcoming solo weekend with his sons.
From the show notes
Violence makes our tummies tingle!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Who's that? The most powerful shape-shifting sorceress, the Chameleon. How do I find this, the Chameleon? I'm gonna lead you right to her front door. Yeah! It was against an army. Dad! Then we'll just have to get an army of our own. What is this place? The best crooks and criminals live here.
Mike00:00:24You're a wanted criminal? You sound surprised. Is it surprising? Now you kids, be careful of those fireworks.
Guest00:00:31Silence makes our tummies tingle!
Mike00:00:44Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I am your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me, as always, are my two co-hosts, the dragon warrior, Jonathan V. Last, and the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. Sonny Bunch. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com where you can become a patron, get first access to new episodes every Friday morning, become a part of the Sub-Beacon community, join in the conversation in the comments, but you've got to become a patron, and you've got to do that at Sub-Beacon.com. We are going to be talking about Kung Fu Panda 4 later in the show, but first let's check out how everyone is doing. JVL, what's going on with you, my man?
JVL00:01:32You know, spiritual and peace are the two words I most often hear associated with Sonny. Well, that's, it just was fitting.
Mike00:01:40That's why I had to give him that. Yeah. That appellation.
JVL00:01:45I got, I got nothing to report. We, we, we got to move past me. I'm, I'm in a bad mood. Oh, I'm in a bad mood. I'm in a bad place. We should just go. I'm, and plus too much dudes chatting.
Sonny00:01:57This is, this is going to be. This episode is going to be like 20 minutes long. Cause I don't know if I have anything to say about this movie. I got to be honest.
JVL00:02:04Jack black.
Sonny00:02:05I zoned out so hard in this, in this movie. I don't know.
Mike00:02:09We'll get, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Okay. So, okay. Fine. JVL. Nothing's going on in your life. Don't want to hear about it. Sonny.
Sonny00:02:16I don't have much going on in my life. Uh, I, uh, again, this, this episode might be very short. Um, uh, no. What, what's going on in my life? I went to, I had, uh, 20 minutes to. Before a movie at the Richardson Alamo draft house, uh, on, on Tuesday, which was nice. So I went to, um, I went to, there's a half price books right next to it. The two best things about Texas that I've discovered half price books, which is like a used bookstore. Uh, and they're, they're all over. It's like a chain of used bookstores. They're, they're kind of all over. Um, and the Alamo draft house. And I, it's my two, it fills two of my, my real, you know, personal fetishes, which is movie theater experiences and use cheap books that I can fill my shelves with question. Yeah. You like used books. Yes.
JVL00:03:08Where are you on used 4k Blu-ray discs? Is it okay to buy a used disc?
Sonny00:03:16I, I will buy used discs. I will. I don't like to buy used discs because not well, because there's there, there, there are always issues of quality. Control, right? I mean, the, you buy, you buy a thing new from Amazon, um, and you get it and it's scratched and it doesn't work. You send it back to Amazon, you get another one, right? Like that, that is, you buy something, you buy something used from, from a half price books or elsewhere. And there's like, you know, it's, it's, it's not a hundred percent chance. You're going to, you're going to get your money back if it's, if it's busted, uh, which is, you know, that's a problem. I don't want to, I don't want to have to deal with that, but I will, if something could
JVL00:03:55it be, when's the last time you had a 4k? Disc that was broken in any way, like it just either works or it doesn't.
Sonny00:04:03Yeah, but they could, they could get scratches. They can skip, they can stop, they can pause. I mean, it happens. I've, I've had scratched discs before. I will say I've never bought a used disc and not had it work. So it's probably a, it's probably just a, a, a, an irrational fear in my own mind. But I also like the other thing about used, uh, the other thing, I mean, the thing about used blueberries is frankly, it, it almost never makes sense to like save the dollar by buying a used Blu-ray versus just buying it new from Amazon. The prices on Amazon, uh, tend to be so good unless, unless something is like out of print or super expensive or you know, whatever, uh, I, I also just like to, I generally just wait until things are on sale. I don't know if you guys saw, uh, do you, are you familiar with the actress, Carrie Coon? Do you guys, you guys know Carrie Coon? No. Big fan. She's a, she's, she was, she was Ben Affleck's sister in Gone Girl, which may be how you guys, uh, best friends. I don't know if you best know her, but she was also the, she was also the female lead on the show, The Leftovers on HBO, uh, which, which I liked quite a bit. Uh, she's on the Gilded Age. She's in the new Ghostbusters movies anyway, but she was on the Today Show, the Tonight Show. She was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and she was talking about how she and her husband, Tracy Letts, the, uh, playwright and actress.
JVL00:05:18I know Tracy Letts.
Sonny00:05:20See Tracy. See, oh, you know, the man in this relationship, but not the woman. That's because you're not interested. You're not interested in the lives of women.
JVL00:05:27Not like some people. These were the best Oscars ever.
Sonny00:05:29Not like the feminists here. Oh, we should talk Oscars. We should talk Oscars. Uh, anyway, um, uh, long story short, she was talking to Jimmy Fallon and she, she and Tracy Letts have a 10,000 strong Blu-ray catalog in their home. Just a walls and walls of Blu-ray. Apparently Tracy Letts doesn't believe in streaming. He thinks it's evil. He's right. He's right about that. He's good. Good man. That Tracy Letts, uh, the playwright and actor.
JVL00:05:56I like the way he thinks.
Sonny00:05:5810,000. Can you believe it? I wish if I had no big, if I won, if I won the mega millions, I think what I would do is become an obsessive completist of this sort.
JVL00:06:09I think I would just like, how would you find what you want? Right? So you, you know, that you want to watch movie ABC. How would you find it?
Sonny00:06:18Well, you'd, you'd have to have it so long. You'd have to have a horribly complex system that you kept entirely in your head. You'd like, that's, that's, that's how it, that's how it works. Now. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with 10,000. I have a thousand movies. I own about a thousand movies and I know pretty well where they all are sometimes every once
JVL00:06:37in a while. That can't be true.
Sonny00:06:39You can't own a thousand discs. I own about a thousand discs. I own about a thousand discs.
JVL00:06:44All right. So why can't you get to 10,000? Cause to be honest, I, if you have a thousand, then you can get to 10,000. This isn't like I have 400 discs. 10,000 is so crazy. I mean, the difference.
Sonny00:06:58The difference between the Delta between 410,000 and 110,000 or I'm sorry, 1000 and 10,000 is probably smaller on a percentage basis than the Delta between 400 and a thousand. Like I don't, I I'm not sure the, these are not, no, the, the problem, the problem with having 10,000 movies is that you have to have like a place to keep them all. Like I literally just don't have space. Like I have, if I, if I put built in shelving into every one. Wall of the room that I ha have my TV in right now, it would still, I would still probably be like 5,000 disc spaces short. I didn't, I didn't do the math in my head when, when I heard this story at all, I didn't, I didn't sit there and calculate how much wall space I would need down to the last square foot.
JVL00:07:48But you didn't do that.
Sonny00:07:49I did not do it. I absolutely did not look at my wall and imagine it like, uh, uh, what's the. Um, is it house or is it whole? What's the Sherlock Holmes thing where he's doing all the, the one with Benedict Cumberbatch
JVL00:08:03Sherlock. Yeah.
Sonny00:08:05I didn't do that with my wall space. Certainly. Uh, but, uh, but no, but anyway, 10,000 that's it's a goals. If I won, if I won the mega millions, I would tear my house down and I would just build a room. Just one room would be a one room house and it would just be nothing but walls of blue rays everywhere.
Mike00:08:23And here's the thing you could, in terms of finding and having the mental space. Yeah. If you have that much money, it's, you're not working anymore. Like you have the time to just keep that, keep that mental space clear for, for your own.
JVL00:08:37Here's what I want you to think about though. Right? So you have your cataloging system and you've got them all laid out and you get a new one. Does that mean you have to move everything down one to insert into just, you don't say logistically.
Sonny00:08:56Yeah.
?00:08:57Yeah.
Sonny00:08:57Yeah.
JVL00:08:58Yeah.
Sonny00:08:59It becomes totally unworkable. Now you keep a little space on the shelf so you can slot it in.
JVL00:09:01I, I guess I don't understand.
Sonny00:09:05You don't have, you don't, you don't, you don't go wall to wall on every shelf. That's very, that's a rookie mistake right there. If you're doing that with your, with your physical media at home, you've never arranged your physical media before my friends. I can assure you that nobody with any experience in this realm is sitting there packing everything in tight because you run into that exact problem JBL, then you got to start moving everything down.
JVL00:09:28Every time you go now you build a little, you build a little space and you build like a five or six, you know, what you're saying is when you catalog your 10,000 discs, you
Sonny00:09:36actually have to build room for 15,000, 12,000, you want 10 to 20% question, question, question.
Mike00:09:47Yeah. Could you build for your 10,000 blue rays? Could you build a shed out back?
Sonny00:09:56And would you- It would have to be climate control.
Mike00:09:58That was my next question. It would have to be.
Sonny00:10:00Because if you did, it would have to be climate control, right? You couldn't just, I couldn't just build a JBL shack in the backyard. We got to get an update on that, by the way. Oh yeah, that's right. Did that ever get built? Did that?
JVL00:10:11Did that? What's the update on that?
Sonny00:10:13Sorry, you guys are fuzzing out on me. Couldn't hear you. JBL does, did your, oh, sorry, oh. Oh, that's why he doesn't want to- Are we back now? Did the shed get built in the back?
JVL00:10:21You know, it is, we are at actually a very crucial stage in the building process. The building of the shed. Mm-hmm. Would you like to know what stage that is?
Sonny00:10:29Yes. Is it, the things are still in the box and the box is starting to rot?
JVL00:10:32Contemplative. We are in the contemplative stage of building the shed, which is in the exact same spot where the gentleman dropped it off in September.
Sonny00:10:42Sure, sure. Okay. So- In my driveway. You could build like a little, you could definitely build a mausoleum. You could build like a, you know, like a little, a Blu-ray. Shed, mausoleum, but it would have, you'd have to, in Texas, you would have to put like a climate system in it. You could- Right. Cause it's not just, I mean, it's not just the heat. It's also the cold. There are, there are weeks where it gets down to like- Well, that would warp desks. It would, it would be, you wouldn't want, you wouldn't want that. You wouldn't want that.
JVL00:11:11All right. I, I'm sorry.
Sonny00:11:13One more question.
?00:11:14Yeah.
JVL00:11:15Does Tracy Letts and his woman, whose name I don't even bother to remember because she's unimportant. Do they keep everything in the, the original boxes? Or in order to save space, do they take the discs out and have the disc in some other kind of- I, I- Storage conveyance?
Sonny00:11:35I have a hard time to believe that somebody who has bought 10,000 movies and is like an enormously successful playwright and a moderately successful actress, uh, the lead of several shows and movies. I do, I do not think that they are, uh, scrimping for space by throwing away the slip covers and the, the cases and everything. And putting them in like a, you know, the, the binders.
JVL00:11:59Maybe there's a, maybe there's a better way to, I don't know, I, I don't do this for a living.
Mike00:12:04Well, I don't do it for a living, but I'm imagining, I'm imagining the binder. The binder is not good actually for the- No, the binder is terrible for the discs, so yeah.
Sonny00:12:13Well, the binder is fine for the discs. I mean, the discs just mostly sit there most of the time anyway, but for the organization it would be very hard.
JVL00:12:19Here's a, here's a question. If you owned 10,000, let's scale this down of the thousand discs you own. Yes. What percentage of them are unwatched? I don't mean that you've never seen the movie because in most cases I assume you saw the movie at some point in the theater, but what percentage are still in the shrink wrap? Because you, you bought them because it was prime day or something and you knew you'd
Mike00:12:47want to own them, but you just haven't at this point gotten around to doing it.
Sonny00:12:52Well, I actually, so. Part of the organization is I have a little area where I put the ones I haven't watched yet. Ah. A little area. I got a little, it's a little area. And if, let me, let me just eyeball it real quick. Uh, it's not that many, it's like 20, really 20.
JVL00:13:12There's probably, you know, there's probably, so you've watched probably like 9,980 of these
Sonny00:13:18desks.
JVL00:13:19One, no, 900, 980, sorry, 900, 980 of these desks.
Sonny00:13:24I mean, look, there's probably some, look, hold on, let me close my door so I'm not echoing in here.
JVL00:13:29This is amazing content.
Sonny00:13:34There's, there are probably some, there are probably some, particularly from the Criterion sale that have gone in there and been unwatched. I will, I will, I will probably, I will admit to that they, because I had to sort them. So let's say, let's say it's closer to 40. Let's say it's closer to 40. I would say 40 is a reasonable number. Uh. Even if it were a hundred, 960 of the 1000, I would say even if it were a hundred, I would
JVL00:14:01say that is an excellent ratio and that I impressed. Thank you.
Sonny00:14:05Absolutely impressed. Thank you. I, I do have, I mean, look, I, the problem is I have, I have movies in there. The ones, the ones that tend to go unwatched are the ones that are longer, obviously for obvious reasons. Cause like, so like for instance, I have, uh, the new 4k, the recent 4k release of Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia is like four hours long. I don't have, I don't have, I, if I'm going to watch that movie, I got to put the kids to bed at like seven and that doesn't happen very often. You know, that sounds like, uh, you know, it's stuff like that. Like Malcolm X, the Spike Lee, Malcolm X. I got that at the, on the criterion 4k again, that's like three hours and 20 minutes or something. It's like a 200 minute movie. It's 200 minute movie. I like, I don't have time to watch. I don't have time to watch stuff like that. Um, but then there, I mean, there are a couple other things that are just, you know, that I picked up and, and haven't had a chance to. Yeah. But I'm getting, I'm getting to them. I'm working my way through the planet of the apes movies, getting ready for the new planet
Mike00:14:59of the when you say working your way through them, you mean not, not all the way back to
Sonny00:15:03Charlton Heston. The new ones, the new ones, they were on sale. It was like 20 bucks for, for all three on 4k. I was like, got up, got to buy that. I can't not own the new planet of the apes movies.
JVL00:15:16I absolutely need to own those because you're going to go back and revisit them so often,
Sonny00:15:22so many times, so many times. I was watching that movie, you know, who's in it is in the first one is James Franco and like James, James Franco has had an interesting career and that it's been totally destroyed. He does. He does not appear in movies. He was in, he was in, I was looking at his IMDb, IMDb, yeah, well he was in those, but he was in, he was, I mean, he was in a ton of stuff. He was in all the Seth Rogen movies. He was in, you know, he was in, he was, but then he was also making tons of indie stuff. Just like there, he would, he may, again, I was going through his IMDb page, he was making six movies a year that you've never heard of. Like Nick Cage style, you know, just like go, but he has made poetry book. He has made nothing in five years.
JVL00:16:02He's not made a movie since 2020.
Sonny00:16:04He got me to very hard because he was, he was teaching like an acting class and like, I, I forget what the exact, the exact sequence of events here was, but it was like he was teaching an acting class and he got some of his female students to be at a movie with him and there was a sex scene involved. They, they're the proper protection was not used on set, uh, which led to, uh, he, him not getting to work anymore to, to the extent that like, to the extent that like Seth Rogan in an interview was like, I love James, but, uh, yeah, I'm not going to be in any more movies with him later. Something like that.
Mike00:16:42It was wild. They were like, including, okay. Including cameos. How many movies feature films was James Franco in, in 2017? The answer is, uh, wait, hold on.
Sonny00:16:55Hold on. I want to actually, I'll guess eight.
Mike00:16:57It was 10.
Sonny00:16:58Okay. See? Okay.
Mike00:17:01Crazy. Less than one a month.
Sonny00:17:03Just five years ago. He was everywhere. Yeah. He was everywhere.
Mike00:17:07He was in everything. Wow. The last thing, the last sort of, wow. The last like non indie movie he was in, he did a voice in movie in 2019. He did a, an animated, a voice in an animated movie I've never heard of Arctic dogs. Sure.
Sonny00:17:21Arctic dogs.
?00:17:22Yeah.
Mike00:17:23Yeah. Um, yeah. You weren't kidding. Jeez. Uh, all right. Well, uh, thank you, Sonny. That was a, that was a wonderful, uh, you know, how are you buddy? Oh, how many DVDs would you say you own? Uh, probably 50 and almost very few of those are blue rays. None of them are 4k. Um, several of them are just regular low DVDs.
JVL00:17:47When's the last time you watched a normal standard definition DVD? Not a blue.
Mike00:17:53Ray. Uh, normal standard definition DVD. Oh, I know when I, before, um, before the Seinfeld show was on Netflix, I watched, I watched the DVDs that I saw. Wow. That's dark. Is that dark?
JVL00:18:12That's dark. Why do you even still have them then?
Mike00:18:15They're just in my car. They've just been following me around.
JVL00:18:18I don't get rid of 'em.
Sonny00:18:19You gotta divest. Gotta keep divest. Mike, you gotta keep 'em. You never know when you're gonna need 'em. You never know when you're gonna need 'em. You know what? You know what I watched the other day? Because it's not available on streaming anywhere. Can't get it on streaming. Doesn't stream. What's that? The movie Dogma. Kevin Smith movie Dogma. That's all wrapped up in rights. You can't stream it. Ooh. Shit with Harvey Weinstein. I have, I own it on DVD and I watched it on DVD. You know what else? I don't watch many DVDs though.
Mike00:18:42I don't watch many DVDs. You know what?
Sonny00:18:44You also can't stream anywhere? If I'm gonna watch something that I own on DVD, I'll usually just buy the Blu-ray.
JVL00:18:47Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. We tried to watch.
Sonny00:18:51We tried to watch that too. Yeah. I'll give the DVD away.
Mike00:18:54Okay. I'll give the, I'll give the DVD away. Pay it forward. Really? No, no. We tried to watch. We tried to watch with our kids last week. The 1994 kids movie Angels in the Outfield, and you cannot stream that anywhere.
Sonny00:19:08That's interesting. It's not on Disney plus. It is not. Is that, isn't, isn't that a Touchstone film? Is that not a.
Mike00:19:15Oh, it is a Disney. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not a Touchstone.
Sonny00:19:18I think it's Disney proper.
Mike00:19:19So.
Sonny00:19:20Interesting. At any rate. So. Did I tell you guys about my kids watching the Sandlot?
Mike00:19:25No, but we almost watched that. What did, what did they think?
Sonny00:19:28Oh, they loved it. They loved it. We almost watched that. They were, they were not super sold at first and then they got very into it and they've been quoting it like all around the house. They've watched it. They've watched it at least one more time since we watched it.
Mike00:19:41It was great.
Sonny00:19:42Never seen it. Oh, it's, it's great.
Mike00:19:44Great kids movie. It's a great, it's a great kids movie. It is like it, it, the Sandlot sort of, it, it feels like. Yeah. It feels like it is representative of like the high quality kids movies. It's like the sort of top tier, the high quality kids movies that they made in the nineties that they don't make anymore.
Sonny00:20:01Um, but there was a run of the, there was a run of great baseball kids. Totally.
Mike00:20:06Oh yeah. So there was the rookie of the year, uh, little big, little big league.
JVL00:20:12What's that? I'm sorry. I've watched rookie of the year in the last three years. It's annoying garbage.
Sonny00:20:16It's not very good. I mean, it's a kid's movie. Yeah. It's a kid's movie. It's a kid's movie.
Mike00:20:21It's a kid's movie, but they were, you know, and then there's like, oh, well, okay. We don't have to go to that. But speaking of the, um, of what you were describing Sonny of, of getting, of your kids weren't that into it. So I've run into a problem and it happened with this movie that we are talking about today on the show, uh, which is my kids, particularly my six year old. They do not like to watch any movie that they don't know anything about. And it's, it's very frustrating. So like they, they get into these ruts where it's like, we, we're just gonna watch the same thing over and over again, whether it's a movie or a TV show. And if you propose, Hey, why don't we watch this? It's like, it's like I asking them to watch the exorcist. It's like the most, it's like the most terrifying that like, how, how dare you like force me to watch something I don't want to watch. And this is the thing I ran into this week because, um, I don't know if I told you guys that, uh, I am solo parenting the two oldest kids this week, um, no, it's great, actually. It's great. It's been, it's been super easy. Um, the, uh, the, uh, the toddler and my wife, they went down to her parents for the week because daycare is, is off this week and so she can work from anywhere. So they went down there. And, uh, it's just the three of us bachelors, uh, you know, batching it up, uh, here in Virginia and it's actually been fine except for, I was not feeling well, six year old wasn't feeling well at the beginning of the week, but everything's fine now, but I tried to get, so, so the, the goal was we're going to go see Kung Fu Panda four, uh, one night after school. And my six year old was just like insistent, I'm not going, I don't want to watch it. And I said, well, we are going. It's for babies. No, no, it's not for baby. It's that it's not that it was for babies. It was that I don't know it. I don't like it and I don't know it. And so therefore I'm not going. And so we, we, we did go, but he said he was going to, um, not go in the theater. He was just going to sit outside the theater. So old strategy got, I know. So I tried everything I said, I, cause I was like, I was just like, I need to go see this broken legs. I don't know. I didn't in there. Not that I didn't, not that I, uh, wanted to go see this movie by myself, but like I, there was nobody else. I couldn't just like leave the kids somewhere or I guess I could have called a babysitter and gone to say, but it seemed ridiculous. I'm going to take my kids to see this kid.
JVL00:23:13You could have just faked your way through the show.
Mike00:23:15I could have. And maybe I did. You don't know.
JVL00:23:18Um, it would have been easy to be honest. Exactly.
Mike00:23:21Yeah. But I will tell you what eventually convinced him to acquiesce, which is, I said, you know, guys, I do this podcast, which my older son knows what podcasts said. I do this podcast and that's why I go see these movies so that I can talk about them on this podcast. So we are going to talk about the movie that we're going to see right now on this podcast. And I need your help to tell me what you think of it. Do it. Yes. Like a switch. It was like, Ooh, Oh, okay.
JVL00:23:57Plus parenting.
Mike00:23:58Mike Warren. Well, I wish I had, I had come up with it before I promised all this other stuff that I ended up having to deliver on, um, uh, to get him to come. But anyway, uh, so yeah, so we went and of course, literally five minutes into the movie, he loves it and he's like quoting it all the time now and it's like his favorite movie.
JVL00:24:18What is there to quote?
Mike00:24:21Uh, the, well, we can get into that skadoosh violence, violence, violence that I can see.
Sonny00:24:29I could see that. Yeah. My kids were very into the violent bunny rabbits as well. Um, uh, wait, so you went to see it at a draft house, right?
Mike00:24:38I did.
Sonny00:24:39Do they not, are they not into like the whole seeing movie at the draft house and getting the popcorn delivered to the seat and everything like that?
Mike00:24:46My, my nine year old is my nine year old's like down for it all. Um, he was not the problem with this. Like when I say like they have a problem going to see me, it's like, it's normal. It's like on movie night at our house. It's like, Hey, do you guys want to watch, can we watch something other than like the, the Ninjago movie that we've seen 30,000 times and it's like, no, that's really good though. Hmm.
Sonny00:25:07That's really good though. You know, you know why this is right. You, you know why this is. It's because of streaming. It's because they don't watch, they have never, they've never been subjected to the, the vicissitude, the vicissitudes vicissitudes. Uh, they've never been subjected to the vicissitudes of basic cable where you would just turn on the TV and you would have to watch whatever was given to you and you just learn to roll with it. And you're like, ah, okay, this is fine. You talk yourself into things like, yeah, sure. Tremors is a good movie. Uh, because that's why it's on USA. It's on the USA network 700 times a week. So I better get, I better like this movie because if I don't, and then look, I like tremors. I like tremors. It's a classic. It's a basic cable classic, but there, there's a reason we have that term. Basic cable classic. It's because through force of repetition, you are going to like this movie one way or
Mike00:25:55another, you know, and, and, or the wonderful world of Disney or like any of those other
Sonny00:26:00kind of watch it because it's on TV or like, or like kids cartoons, right? Where like things would come into, things would enter the syndication rotation and other episodes would fall away and it would be like, you would see the same things over and over again. This is how, this is how certain Simpsons episodes became classics and others didn't is because they would enter heavy rotation and syndication. You would see them over and over again and be like, I know all the lines from this.
JVL00:26:23The truth is all of our tastes were determined by backroom deals that had to do with intellectual property rights. 100%. That's the way it should be. Editorial taste discretion. That's the way it should be. Just rights negotiations.
Sonny00:26:35Yes. That's, and that's the best, that's the best thing that has ever happened to this country. It's how we became a cultural and economic powerhouse is by you had people behind the scenes saying that you're going to watch this movie 5,000 times and if you don't like it, you can go fucking kill yourself.
JVL00:26:48Because we had a really bargain on the deal for the rights to the second season. Soundtrack. You can negotiate the contract for the soundtrack.
Sonny00:26:54You can go jump off a fucking bridge if you don't like it because this is what you're getting. You're not getting anything else. And our kids don't have to deal with that. Our kids don't. Our kids don't have to deal with that. They, they have, they ha I don't know about your, my kids, uh, my kids watch Disney plus and a little bit of Netflix, not, not a ton of Netflix, but they watch Disney and they, they watch, I, they watch like the same six shows over and over and over again. And, and I don't like this, I don't like this, but I also don't like, I feel weird complaining about it cause it's like, here's, that's the thing it's you got it here and it's not like, it's not like cables any better now because if you turned on like Disney channel, you know what you watch is you watch bluey for like three hours cause that's, they just play it. They play it on a loop. Uh, or the, you know, the spider man and his amazing friends. It's like all this, it's all the same things they're watching anyway. And most of the stuff they watch, I don't, I like, I don't, I don't have a real problem with shows like Phineas and Ferb. Like that's fun and it's kind of smart and you know, it's clever and catchy and whatever. Uh, I don't, I don't have an issue with it, but I, I do, I do think it's a, I think it's a problem for their intellectual growth and their ability to, uh, uh, to broaden their taste horizons.
JVL00:28:06Put it that way.
Sonny00:28:07I think you're right. I think it's, I do think it's a problem, but it's also not one I really want to fight too hard against. Right.
JVL00:28:13Cause I'm, I'm so lazy. You are living in a, you are living in the past because you may think it's important to broaden their taste horizons. The world they are entering is a world where nobody's going to have broad taste horizons and it's going to all be determined for them by algorithm. Right. So this is, you know, what they are force fed is they're going to be force fed by the algorithm in everything they do. And so they might as well get used to that.
Sonny00:28:38Yeah. But we should train them to be better than why? Yes. I, I agree with you.
Mike00:28:43What benefit is that going to give them?
JVL00:28:45It makes them, it makes them more well-rounded people, JBL better than get used to the robot world they're entering.
Sonny00:28:51I think we're so much better off in a world where some, some guy in a pit stained dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up was pushing the buttons in the, in the room that turned on the shows in the syndication tower.
Mike00:29:07It was like, ah, this one, this one, this one, because there was a guy like that choosing what was in syndication. There was a guy like that choosing what was on the grocery store shelves. There was a guy like that choosing who the presidential candidates were.
JVL00:29:20Better world. It was just a better world, but that world is gone.
Sonny00:29:24Smoky back rooms. That's what I will bring them back, bring them back, bring back the smoky rooms.
JVL00:29:30Might as well fight the ocean, man.
Sonny00:29:32Uh, I punched the ocean once or twice. Yeah.
JVL00:29:36Yeah. This is, this is, this is the, I don't believe that there was sand there. You wouldn't have risked.
Sonny00:29:41Oh, why do you think I was so angry? Why do you think I was so mad and punching oceans?
Mike00:29:47That's the, that's the spiritual leader of the value of being right there.
Sonny00:29:49Kicking water. Yeah.
Mike00:29:51I can't believe I'm here. All right. Uh, so should we talk? Is there any, should we give any talk to, uh, to Oscars?
JVL00:29:56Let Sonny, let Sonny spike the football because he got his best Oscars, uh, the Greta Gerwig got nothing and liked it. And uh, so Sonny can feel spiritually fulfilled because the lady movies didn't do well and the man movies did great.
Sonny00:30:14Well, poor things is a lady movie and that did, it was the two, the two best movies of the year were Oppenheimer and poor things. And that, and that's a movie about, you know, is poor things good.
JVL00:30:24I, I honestly, I'd never heard of it before, um, before the day after the Oscars.
Sonny00:30:29I did not care for it really. Uh, but I will say, so it's a very strange movie cause it's, it is, it's, it's a Yorgos Lanthimos movie and if you've seen the lobster or the favorite, um, you kind of know what that means. Lots of fish eye lenses, lots of weird exaggerated performances. The killing of a sacred deer is also like this. Uh, and there's a lot of that. And I, I, I don't generally love that from him, but I will say that, uh, Emma Stone's performance in that movie made me laugh out loud, like seven or eight or nine or 10 or 12 times. Like she, she, she delivers, she delivers her lines with this kind of straightforward, uh, child like quality, which makes sense because she's a, she's a grown woman with the brain of an infant who has been implanted into her and she's learning her way around the world. Um, it's, it's a weirdly messed up movie in a lot of ways. Um, uh, and it's weird and it's, I, I, but I, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't like it because it's incredibly didactic. It's like, it's just a, it's a, anyway, neither here nor there. It did, it, I did enjoy certain things about it and I was fine with her winning best actress. I thought she was very good in the role. Um, and I was fine with it winning the costume design and set design and stuff like that because the person who did, who designed the costumes and the sets on that movie did, really good work. I mean, it's a, it's a really, it's a, it is an interesting looking movie if, if nothing else. So, but Oppenheimer won all the big awards, uh, except for adapted screenplay, which it should have won because the adapted screenplay for that is much better than the adapted screenplay for American fiction. And, uh, all is right in the world. Christopher Nolan is finally a best, best director winner. Uh, Oppenheimer wins best picture. It's, it was the, it was this, I'll put it this way. This Oscars did what the Oscars are supposed to do. It celebrated a big American studio picture that was enormously successful with the population.
JVL00:32:28When's the last time that happened?
Sonny00:32:29I mean, honestly, I was trying to remember. You could make the argument that Argo is kind of falls into that category because Argo made a hundred and Argo made $140 million. It was a big R rated history, but really it's like return of the King return of the King. And that's 20 years ago. I mean, um, uh, return of the King is the last proper blockbuster Hollywood movie. That won a ton of awards, including best picture.
JVL00:32:54That was just a makeup award. And that was fuck didn't deserve it.
Sonny00:32:57And that was, and that was, and that was like a, that was a lifetime achievement award for the series, right? Because, but the best of those movies, I mean, I don't, maybe you guys disagree, but the best of those movies is fellowship. It's correct.
JVL00:33:07It's not close.
Sonny00:33:08It's by far, by far the best of those movies. Um, but, uh, but that one didn't win and this one did. So, but, and then before that, you got to go back to like Titanic.
JVL00:33:16Titanic was, you know, if I could just say for a moment, um, I, I take the, the bill Goldman line on the Oscars, which is that properly understood. It is a trade show for an industry and it is insane for this trade show to not reward the best, most popular thing that it puts out. It would be like the Detroit auto show finding some exotic three wheeled concept car, uh, not even kind of like an exotic three wheeled. Uh, electric scooter to give its automobile the year award to, instead of whatever the, the best selling Toyota of the year or something like it just, this is your job as the business and giving it to movies like parasite and crash and all these other little, little, you know, nomad land, these tiny little movies is just insane.
Sonny00:34:17Yeah. I mean, I would say I, I, I agree. Look, there's, there's an argument to be made that, well, so it's, it's very interesting. Uh, you know, this is, I think the first time since they expanded to 10 or up to 10 best picture candidates that the highest or second highest grossing film on the list, one, one, the category, I think I would have to check what one last year I would have to check on everything, everywhere, all everything, everywhere, all at once.
JVL00:34:50Um, that's not a bad choice, right? It was, it was, it was, it should have gone to Top Gun Maverick, but everywhere. I think it was a, is it okay choice?
Sonny00:34:58It was, it was not a bad choice. It was a good choice. I liked that movie a lot. That was my favorite movie of the year. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with that winning. Uh, and, and again, I have no, like the, there, there's this idea that the Oscars should be about awarding the best movie and like, that's a nonsense concept. The best movie is that that's doesn't, that doesn't exist. It's as much as I like to talk about. Now I am objectively right about all things and I am, but that doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, my, my, the, the, the parasite one's interesting because that was the same year that once upon a time in Hollywood was up and once upon a time in Hollywood should have won. Cause you know what, once upon a time in Hollywood was, it was a big American picture from a big American studio, uh, that was put together with big American stars and it made a ton of money.
JVL00:35:44And the problem is, and it was good and everybody loved it.
Sonny00:35:46That was good. And everybody loved it. The, the problem is, look, the, the simple fact of the matter. Is that you, there is a legitimate dearth of big studio movies that were both good and that everybody loved, right? All of the, all of the blockbuster oxygen has been sucked up in recent years by comic book movies. And some of those have been very good. Some of those have gotten best picture nominations and that's great and everything. Um, but you know, the, for the most part. So that, that whole, the big blockbuster portion of the box office has been eaten up by franchises and sequels and, and, and comic book movies and like that, that sort of stuff does not get nominated for best picture generally, all the more reason that Hollywood should
JVL00:36:37be promoting and boosting the few of those movies that do check those boxes, right? Try to give them, and I, I said boost them for purely for the purpose of help them make more money, which is what the point of the best picture Oscar is. Yeah. Anyway, that's the whole point of it.
Mike00:36:55By the way, best Oscars ever short, so, so, um, I was looking back through the recent best picture. Did you know that? I forgot that Bohemian Rhapsody was, uh, nominated for best picture, like, like really, like
Sonny00:37:13I, I, I don't, it won like five or six Oscars too. I think it went, it won a lot of awards.
Mike00:37:19It's such a garbage movie.
Sonny00:37:21Yeah. It's terrible. Anyway, I didn't, I didn't care. That's an aside. But you know, you know, who did like it is audiences. Audiences love that movie. That movie made almost a billion dollars worldwide. It made some insane amount of money, made $800 billion or something. It's huge, enormous hit people. People really loved it. People love those movies.
JVL00:37:38All right.
Sonny00:37:39I can't wait till the Michael Jackson version of this comes out where they making a, they, they try to, I don't know if you guys saw the story in puck, but, uh, the, the, uh, the short version, I will paraphrase here is that the script that is, it was, is attached to this movie that is being shot right now, directed by Antoine Fuqua, um, uh, essentially casts Michael Jackson as the victim in all of the pedophilia investigations. Like there are scenes of him being stripped naked by the police and photographed and S and you were meant to take that as him being the victim of these, so I am very curious to see how that all plays out. That's a choice.
JVL00:38:21It's a big choice.
Mike00:38:22That's a choice. It's a choice, particularly because it feels like the, the popular or the sort of, uh, conventional wisdom about Michael Jackson in the last 10 years has solidified around the fact that he's a pedophile.
Sonny00:38:41But I also think, I also think that like people also don't entirely care. Like if, if you, if you turn, if you turn on the radio and Billie Jean is on, do you turn it off? No, I don't. If you turn on the radio and you heard R. Kelly, would you turn it off?
Mike00:38:55Uh, which R. Kelly song I would. Remix to Ignition. No, I would not turn it off.
Sonny00:39:00I would not turn that. I'd turn it up. Be like, you know what this is, this is college baby woo.
Mike00:39:05All right. All right. Uh, okay. Should we move on here? We're going streaking. Should we move on here really quick to box office talk because number one at the box office, finally, because we finally have a kids movie. Kung Fu Panda four, number one at the box office, 50, nearly $58 million, uh, with, uh, just, uh, edging by about, uh, $11 million Dune part two in the number two slot number three imaginary. I don't know what that is. And number four Cabrini, which I've heard a lot about from my, uh, Catholic mother-in-law who went and saw Cabrini. Oh, that's interesting.
Sonny00:39:43Did she like it?
Mike00:39:44Uh, I haven't talked to her about it, but she went with a bunch of, a bunch of other
Sonny00:39:47ladies. She's from, uh, angel studios. That's the sound of freedom guys. Did she pay it forward? Did she buy a ticket for somebody else?
Mike00:39:54I have no idea. All I know is like in, in all my general Catholic world, people are talking about Cabrini.
Sonny00:40:02What about you JBL? Are, are your people into Cabrini?
JVL00:40:05Never heard of that before.
Sonny00:40:06Five seconds ago. That's interesting.
JVL00:40:08Interesting. Uh, and I'm the one whose kids go to like the crazy traddie. Right. Right. Right. Cool. Yeah. Uh, I have a question. Yeah. I would love for comment about Kung Fu Panda's opening weekend numbers because that's Warner brothers is money from coyote versus Acme.
Sonny00:40:28No, no, no, no, no. Coyote versus Acme would not have done $58 million, uh, in its opening weekend. I, that I, I look, I understand what, if that, if that had been a $58 million opening weekend sort of movie, it would have been in theaters. Um, uh, I, I, I think I understand why Warner brothers is skeptical of that movie. It's kind of a high concept. Your kids don't really know the, you know, whatever this is. This is a, a known franchise that has had many multiple popular, uh, entries. So, but I agree, look, I've made this argument for, it's such, they should be in theaters. They should have been putting it out there, making money off it. Um, coyote versus, uh, I'm sorry, uh, uh, Kung Fu Panda doing almost $60 million over-performing is. Yeah. That's, that's entirely a function of there not being much for kids in theaters. Uh, the more interesting thing to my mind is dune two, which drops 44% is a great hold, uh, $46 million in its second weekend. Uh, and that comes, um, after a $82 million opening weekend. And do you know what else grossed $82 million or so in its opening weekend and $46 million or so in its second weekend?
Mike00:41:45What? Oppenheimer.
Sonny00:41:47Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer. It's almost the exact, almost the exact same figures. Now, uh, Oppenheimer is, is further ahead at the same point in terms of total gross because it opened during the summer, there were more, more opportunities to go see it during the week, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, but, um, this is a, this is, this is a, you know, it's, it's, I would say it's headed towards 275 to $300 million, uh, which is a big number. We'll see what, we'll see how it holds this weekend. Uh, cause if it drops. If it, if it does like a 30% drop or something, you know, and it, and it, uh, comes in at 32 million, something like that. It could be, it, it, it, it could, you know, possibly be number one again, it'll, it'll depend on what Kung Fu Panda's drop is.
Mike00:42:36Um, but we do have spring breaks coming up.
Sonny00:42:38Um, yeah, we got spring break. It probably won't.
JVL00:42:41I mean, it, yeah. But the weather's nice. The other thing is this, this, this was the final weekend of winter in America. Right? Yeah.
Mike00:42:49That's right.
Sonny00:42:50That's right.
Mike00:42:51So. All right. Um, well, uh, we talked about it being number one at the box office. We should talk about Kung Fu Panda for Sonny, you want to give us a big boy review of this big boy movie?
Sonny00:43:03I, uh, Kung Fu Panda, I, um, I, I, I have a confession to make. I've never seen a Kung Fu Panda movie before either. So there, there were things that were happening in this movie that I found very concerning. Very confusing at first, for instance, Kung Fu Panda has two dads and I, and I'm, I'm sitting there and I'm thinking to myself, this is weird. I feel like this would have been a much bigger cultural flashpoint, Kung Fu Panda having two dads. But as I'm like watching the movie, I think I pieced together what happened, which is that Kung Fu Panda was adopted by the one dad and then by the goose he was, he was, he was abandoned. He was adopted by the goose. And then I think the other dad shows up later in the series.
Mike00:43:52I think you're right.
Sonny00:43:53And they become, they like team up in a, in not a, my two dads, my two gay dad sort of way, but my two dads, like the 80 sitcom with Paul Reiser sort of way. Yes. Is that it?
JVL00:44:05It is. It is full house.
Sonny00:44:07Minus one. Is it Paul Reiser?
JVL00:44:09Are you telling me that the goose and the Panda bear aren't fucking each other?
Sonny00:44:12I don't think so. I wouldn't say that.
Mike00:44:17Judging by the text, you cannot rule it out, but there's also no text saying that. Judging by the physics, you could rule it out.
Sonny00:44:25I, I look, love comes in all shapes and sizes. So I, uh, I, I don't want to, I don't, I, I, but anyway, I'm just, I'm just throwing that out there as an example of things that were happening in this movie that I didn't I didn't understand, I didn't understand, but I came to understand through context clues as the movie was going along. So for instance, uh, the plot of this movie is there's a, there's a red Panda. There's a raccoon, whatever that Panda is. He is the old master and he's telling Kung Fu Panda that some other guy is like, you can't be dream warrior, dragon warrior anymore. You got to give that up to somebody else. I didn't understand what any of that was. I didn't understand what his staff was, but again, I kind of pieced it together through the, the, the most exciting thing was when Ian McShane. Shane showed up at the end. Is that tiger? Yes. And I was like, oh, I know him. It's that's Ian McShane. Good for him. I'm glad he's still getting work in these movies. I didn't see the first ones, but I assume he was very good in them. Um, okay. Uh, so Kung Fu Panda is told he can't be the dragon warrior anymore. He's got to pick a new dragon warrior, but he doesn't want to pick a new dragon warrior because he likes being the dragon warrior.
JVL00:45:38So he goes on an adventure with Aqua Fina who, because 60% of all movies must have either Aqua Fina. Or Anya Taylor joy in them.
Sonny00:45:48The signature, the signature piece of legislation in Joe Biden's presidency has been the Aqua Fina full employment act. She must be, she must be in as many productions as possible. If you cast Aqua Fina in a role, you get a hundred million dollar tax credit. That's that's. That's what happens. So every movie now, uh, every, certainly every animated movie, uh, migration too. All right. So, uh, Jack Black and Aqua Fina team up to stop a chameleon who is, I don't even know what the chameleon wants to absorb all the powers of the Kung Fu masters. Yep. Uh, and they go to a city and it's full of crime and they made some cute murder rabbits guys. I gotta be honest. I totally zoned out in this movie. I, I did not, I could not, I was dying to see how
JVL00:46:46you were going to try to give us a review of it.
Sonny00:46:48I could not pay attention to any more than about 10 minutes of this movie at a time. I just like if, if I hadn't been in a draft house, I would have been on my phone the whole time. Instead, my brain just kind of shut off for peers. I couldn't imagine having to review this movie. If I had, if I was like watching this to review, I would have, I would have been in real trouble because I literally just could not even describe most of the plot beats to you because it was all the other thing about it is that even paying. Even with 3% of my brain, I could tell exactly where all of this was headed, that the Aquafina was going to become the new dragon, uh, warrior because they're, she's learning lessons. And I was just like, oh God, this is, this is not funny and it's not entertaining. My kids loved it. They had a good time. So I, it doesn't, it doesn't matter to me, but whatever, whatever JVL, what did you think
Mike00:47:43of Kung Fu Panda four?
JVL00:47:46So I, uh, a couple of weeks ago I saw migration and I was actively offended by it, not because it was bad, but because it was so aggressively mediocre, like it was so like not even accidentally mediocre. It was as if they were trying to be as mid as possible and to just like jam it up your ass. And I, I chafed at that. I didn't like it. The Kung Fu Panda four. For me. It was so it's, it's like a different quality in that it is insubstantial and insubstantial to such a degree that it was sliding out of my brain pan as it was happening. I really did. There were huge chunks of the movie that I just zoned out for and we just sort of looked at my kids and look, gee money and looked around in the dark theater and thought about, uh, you know, like, is that exit sign new? I don't, I don't know. And, and the truth is all of the Kung Fu Panda movies are like that. I've seen them all at one point or another, and I could not tell you a blessed thing about any of them. And it's not that they're bad. It's not that they're mediocre, but they are of, you know, like, I don't know. I've, I've seen a lot of animated kids movies over the last 16 years, a lot of them, and some of them are quite good. Like the puss in boots or frozen. Or, you know, like, and some of them are terrible, like the, the stupid, but, you know, light year movie and whatnot. And some of them are mediocre, but the level of insubstantiality that the Kung Fu Panda series has from what should be an irresistible premise, right? It should be like Ninjago with animals. It should be funny. It should be incredibly easy for it to be funny. And there's just nothing there. It's like the cinematic equivalent of a rice cake. Yes. Did you feel the same way?
Mike00:49:54Uh, absolutely. It was, there was, it was bland and sort of it's blandness was bland, you know, not even bad, right? No, no, no, no. It's just like, it's just like a thing that happened. It was, it was a thing that had colors and. Sound and it, and it proceeded through it for the 94 minutes of its duration without stopping. And that's kind of all it was or, or did. Um, I mean, my kids were laughing. My kids had a great time. Like I said, they were quoting it. They're going violence, violence and other stuff. But like it's. I it's, it's, what's also strange about all of that. It's like, as you say, JVL, the premise of it, it seems ripe for easiest layup in the world. Right. And like, but then I'm thinking about like, but there's like colorful things in the movie to interesting things, the, the, the potential for interesting things to look at, you know, these different cities and kind of an interesting world, right? Cause there's all these different animals and they're all different species. But they live together and it's like, and, and yet the, the whole is so much less than
JVL00:51:21the sum of its parts paint by numbers, this entire, so here's, here's my, my theory, this entire series only exists because Jack black himself is like the human incarnation of the idea of a Kung Fu Panda, but Jack black is this incredibly rotund, but ultimately gentle and beloved presence who also is like weirdly physically agile and you've seen this throughout his, his movies and he's also funny in a way and can do childlike stuff. And it's, it, that's, and so it's like, Oh, he is the Kung Fu Panda. There's no real reason he should be, right? It's not like, he's not like the greatest voiceover artist in the world. Like nothing, nothing about this makes sense except the Jack black. Looks like he, like if I said there's a Hollywood actor who is a Kung Fu Panda, you would think for five seconds and then go, are you talking about Jack black?
Mike00:52:25Yeah, that's it.
JVL00:52:26And that's why this series of four films, which I hope has bought him like six or seven gigantic mansions, uh, exists. And that's the only way. And DreamWorks needs animation content.
Mike00:52:39That's it. That's all it is. Speaking of all of this though, I will say even the. Song that plays over the credits, which is tenacious D Jack Black's band covering Britney, covering Britney Spears, the best thing in the movie. But like, I don't, between that and there is a, there's like, I, I don't know if it's tenacious D or if it's just whoever's doing the score in the film, they, they cover crazy train.
JVL00:53:08There's like, like during the chase scene through the city, it's like, gee, money turned to me during that. And he was like, cause there's no lyrics. So it just says, Oh, that's crazy train.
Mike00:53:17Yeah.
JVL00:53:18I was like, yeah, that's my kid.
Mike00:53:20But like, it's, it's just, it's, it's like, Oh, that's such a, but it's, but it's actually kind of nothing. It's like in one ear out the other. And, and it's just, it's weird. Is this like, well, I don't know.
JVL00:53:33I wanted to, the reason I asked us to do this, uh, a, I knew I needed to get our children out of the house and go to the movie theater. Uh, but B that I was interested in talking about Jack Black because he is. Unbelievably ubiquitous. He is one of these guys like James Franco, who's been in everything. He's got like 190 credits on IMDb and you know, a lot of them are video games and shorts and animated voiceover work. And there's this whole tenacious D universe of stuff he's done. And I just, I, I find him slightly interesting, but also like Robin. Williams in, in the way that there are modes of Jack Black that I personally enjoy, but most of the modes of Jack Black, I don't like they're not for me. And I was curious as to what your thoughts were on Jack Black as a commodity. Sonny.
Sonny00:54:35It's interesting because I, in college, I definitely liked tenacious D tenacious D isn't amusing. It's like, I feel like it's pretty perfectly pitched towards like, are you a 20 something who likes rock?
JVL00:54:45Like lonely Island, but with rock instead of pop.
Sonny00:54:50Um, so I, I like, I like that kind of, I like it kind of, but I've never, I've never been a huge tenacious defense. Honestly, the thing, the thing I liked him most in the thing I have always liked him most in the, the movie that is still like the a number one Jack Black performance, uh, for me is, uh, high fidelity where he's the, he's the, the, the guy working in the record store. Who's like, you know, kind of an annoying. I mean, like that, that, that is, that is like his a number one mode for me.
JVL00:55:25Um, you know, I, I, he's, I think he, I think he's mostly harm.
Sonny00:55:30I've never really liked him as a leading guy. I didn't really like school of rock. A little Jack Black goes a long way, I guess is what I'm saying. A little Jack Black goes a long way. Um, and, and, uh, I don't know. I, that's, that's kind of how I feel about him, I guess. Um, what about you, Mike?
Mike00:55:46I, I, I liked school of rock. Um, it, I was in high school when came out and, uh, I, I love, you know, I was, I, I was an AMM, you know, amateur musician. And so like it, it kind of hit me really perfectly. Um, and I think it's, it's a cute movie, but it's also like a legitimately funny movie as well. Um, and I think he does fine in it. Um, but I do agree with you that in general. Uh, a little does go a long way. I loved, um, that like sort of like from the early to mid two thousands, really, really the early two thousands. Like he was in a, a string of movies kind of between high fidelity and school of rock. So he was in, um, he was in orange County, which is like this bizarre, like kind of funny movie that hits you when you're in high school. It's very, it's very appealing where he plays just the main character's brother. Who's like a total slob and, and drugged out, uh, funny guy. Um, he was also in that movie. Um, uh, I guess he was the star of the one, uh, what was a shallow how, which is, which is became kind of a cable classic, which is Gwyneth Paltrow. Yeah.
Sonny00:57:08That's the one where Gwyneth Paltrow is fat, but he sees her as thin and he, and he falls in love with her. And then he finds out she's fat and he has to. Learn to love the inner beauty.
Mike00:57:18Exactly. Exactly.
JVL00:57:19So there is always a lot of inner beauty. People always say that about her.
Sonny00:57:23Well, that's, I mean, that's where it's because she puts the gems up there. Right. Their energy radiates outward.
JVL00:57:30Well, you are throwing rocks tonight.
Sonny00:57:32That's what you go to goop and look it up. You go, I'm not making this up, but there are, there are two, there are two Jack Black
Mike00:57:45that, uh, I love and sort of like, uh, I just think they're, they're both of his speeds, uh, uh, sort of perfect examples of his speeds. So the first is I love his, even though it's kind of a side role, I love his role in Tropic Thunder that the, uh, the initial, um, the initial trailers at the beginning of Tropic Thunder where Jeff, Jeff Portnoy plays, he plays the actor, Jeff Portnoy. And it's like a clump, uh, uh, the clumps movie where they're all farting. What do they call the fatties or whatever it is that, that is, it's fantastic. And he plays all the characters. Um, and then, uh, you guys may disagree with this, but, uh, Richard Linklater did this, uh, terrific movie. Oh, Bernie.
Sonny00:58:31Yeah.
Mike00:58:32Which is a, uh, it is about a real murder in Texas. And the movie is both a fictional narrative with, um, with Jack Black playing the main character and Shirley McClain playing the woman that spoiler alert, he ends up killing. Uh, and I think Matthew McConaughey plays the, the, the sheriff who's investigating.
Sonny00:58:57Yeah.
Mike00:58:58Um, but then it's also interspersed in classic, like Richard Linklater, um, with interviews with the actual people who lived in the town where the murder happened. And it's, they're like the best part of the movie. Actually, they're, they're, they're so funny and so real. And they all, um, like the arc of where they start in the movie, uh, Bernie was just the nicest young man. Like, Hey, he was just wonderful. And where they end up, uh, like where they're, you know, once we've kind of find out what he does, it's terrific, but, but Jack Black is great in it. He's it's, it's, it's, I love that. So, um, I'm pro Jack Black. I think he's basically coasting now, like for the past, like 10 years or so, just doing animated movies and buying bigger and bigger places for his kids to live in. So, but he's harmless. So I, I, uh, I said this to you guys on our, our text thread.
JVL00:59:56Um, I think of him as the anti-matter version of Robin Williams. So I, I really enjoyed Robin Williams as a manic standup comic. Yes. He's a joke thief and all that stuff. But I think you stand up just as a performance piece. Really, really good. Oh, insufferable. What was serious and restrained Robin Williams and with Jack Black, the, the manic Jack Black, like the school of rock or nacho Libre Jack Black. I just, it's like nails on a chalkboard for me. But when you get Jack Black winched in and running at like 40% power, which is Tropic Thunder or, uh, Jumanji where he's, you know, he's, he's a. Garnish and the w like he's, he's being forced to do funny at like 40% energy. I find it much, much funnier and, uh, I much prefer, I will say though. And I, I noticed him in his very first role. And so Bob Roberts, yeah, which is people who don't remember this. Bob Roberts is a Tim Robbins commie movie. One of Tim Robbins is most commie in all Tim Robbins movies are essentially commie movies. And Bob Roberts is basically like, uh, what if Mitt Romney was a secret neo-Nazi? Right now, this is all like way before Mitt Romney, but the idea is there is a, a Republican Senate candidate who is played by Tim, Tim Robbins, who is a nice and normal, like not a weirdo, scary guy. He plays a guitar, but he's, you know, he's got conservative values and whatnot. He's running for Senate and he actually is a Nazi. Uh, and Jack Black plays, he's only in like two scenes, but plays a TP USA style high school kid. Who's all I, I forget if it's like an actual Manson style swastika in his head or not, but he's obsessed with Bob Roberts and thinks that Bob Roberts. Is the great, because he, he is a, he knows that Bob Roberts is the secret Nazi and he is so there for it. And, but it's all, again, it's very restrained and he's funny as shit in that movie. And again, he's only in like two scenes and he's really, really funny. Uh, and I, I only later on, he was cast in that because he met Tim Robbins while they were both at UCLA together. And so they were, they were UCLA buddies. Tim Robbins was there for grad school and Jack Black. Jack Black was their undergrad. Um, so he's an interesting guy. He seems by all accounts to be a nice guy. People like him. I don't know that there are a lot of stories out there about Jack Black being a secret asshole. People like him.
Sonny01:02:58Yeah. My, my understanding is that he is very much a, like, uh, I, I, I, I don't know. I, I, I get the sense he is very good with kids for instance, and is, is always willing to like basically stop and like. Not in a Michael Jackson sense. Do not, not in the Michael Jackson. Okay. But like, he's always willing to like stop and do shtick with them and like, you know, uh, but, uh, you know, who knows? Who knows? I, I, I don't know any of these people.
Mike01:03:27So do you want to know some, some interesting trivia and then we'll sign off here. Um, some interesting trivia about Jack Black. So his, he's comes from a very, um, science based family.
JVL01:03:40Yeah. Um, his mom was deep into like JPL stuff, right?
Mike01:03:45Uh, yeah. Yeah. And she, um, JPL, I don't know what that means.
JVL01:03:50Jet propulsion lab. Oh, correct.
Mike01:03:53And, and yeah, exactly. That's like, that's how they were. That's how they were in Southern California. Um, and I believe his, his, um, his brother or his half brother or something is like a, is like a computer scientist. Um, I don't know what that, like, it just, if, if I were to tell you that, if I were to say, was Jack Black's mom, a, a, a, a. Astrophysicist or an actress, like you would, you would pick the actress over, uh, over the astrophysicist. So I just, I always love that those kinds of details. So anyway, uh, okay. Any final thoughts? Okay.
JVL01:04:31I won't, uh, any other final thoughts on Kung Fu Panda four? No, but I'm looking forward to, so Sonny is the Oppenheimer 4k disc out yet?
Sonny01:04:42Oh yeah.
JVL01:04:43Okay. Are there deleted scenes with. Awkwafina in them.
Sonny01:04:48See, I might have to delete this too now.
Mike01:04:51Uh, all right. Well, that's all the time we are giving to this episode. Go to sub beacon.com. Check us out. Uh, and we will see you next time.
JVL01:05:07So I got a question for you boys before we get out of here.
Sonny01:05:09Yeah.
JVL01:05:10Yeah. So I, uh, I got a bachelor couple of days coming up with my boys as well. Oh yeah. Flash and G money. I've been thinking about movies we could watch together. What about con air? Do you think that is a good time movie? Cause it's, it's not like the rock, like the rock has some intense moments in it. And you know, like there's real good guys and real bad guy. Con air is just a masterclass of ridiculousness and it's funny action and right. It's fine. It's got all sorts of great. Actors and fun actors in it.
Sonny01:05:49I mean, I, that's close.
Mike01:05:51I would say it's, if it was just, if it was just you and, uh, and flashed, then I would say definitely.
Sonny01:05:58Yeah. G money. I don't know.
Mike01:06:01Maybe wait for G money to go to bed. Do you guys like con air?
Sonny01:06:04Oh, I love con air. Con air is great.
Mike01:06:06Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. The rock con air. They, they don't, I'll tell you, they don't make action movies like that.
Sonny01:06:10You know, that's what we do face off instead. I'm sure it's fine.
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