Guest00:00:00Okay, I'm not the hero of this story. I'm just a stunt guy trying to look cool in front of the director of this movie. That's her who I just so happened to have a major crush on. We need to keep it super fresh. Cool. Do you want to make out? Nope. Cause I don't either. It's not what I'm into right now. Making out? Yeah. What are you into? Talking. Yeah.
Mike00:00:30Welcome to the Sub-Beacon podcast. I am your cohost, Mike Warren. Joining me as always are my two cohosts who have been crying to Taylor Swift. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at subbeacon.com. You can comment, become a part of the Sub-Beacon community. Tell your friends, tell your family. Join us over at subbeacon.com to get new episodes every Friday morning. We are going to be talking about the fall guy later in the show. But first let's check in to see how everyone's doing. Sonny Bunch. What is going on with you, my man?
Sonny00:01:12Not a whole lot. Um, I have a, I have a weird, I have a weird thing that I noticed the other day and I I'm curious to get your guys take on it because you're, you're not, you don't, you don't live the same physical media lifestyle that I live. I I'm, I'm, I'm a weirdo and I just subscribed to a magazine.
JVL00:01:30That comes out twice a year in 11 by 17 format and has no components of it on the web.
Sonny00:01:36Yeah, no, but you don't, you don't, you don't buy movies anymore. Right. You don't, you're not, that's true. So I, uh, I, I do, I do buy a fair number of movies and, um, there, I'm always kind of fascinated by a couple of things. One, there's a, there's a site I read that puts out a weekly report on physical media sales and the chart is always very funny because you know, the world I live in, it's people talking about like collector's edition, blue rays, criterion, four Ks, you know, arrow, new video releases, vinegar syndrome, $60 premium box, blah, blah, blah. But, but when you, anytime you look at the actual numbers of what is sold, DVD sales account for like 60% of sales, 50, 50 to 60% of sales are DVDs. Just actual D the, the original digital video discs or digital versatile discs, whatever you want to, uh, about 30% is. Yeah. Typically blue ray and then 20%, 30 to 35%, 20 to 15% is four K, right? So that's basically what you're looking at. You're looking at a marketplace where most people still buy DVDs. Most people are still buying DVDs. Uh, and the high definition market is kind of split between blue ray and four K. And I think that split is largely just based on what is actually out in blue ray versus four K. A lot of stuff, um, uh, a lot of stuff isn't necessarily getting released in four K, but I mentioned this. I want to set the stage here because I, uh, Paramount, the studio Paramount has started putting out collections, uh, of, of films that include every format. And when I say every format, I mean, I pre-ordered, uh, I pre-ordered the hunt for red October cause I kind of wanted to see what these sets were. The hunt for red October came set came and it, uh, had a four K disc. A Blu-ray, a digital copy, and also a DVD all together, all together in
Mike00:03:37the same package, this one package.
Sonny00:03:39Well, right, right. So this is, so this is my question. So like, it's got all four of these discs in, in one setting and for the low, low price of $11, 11, $11 is the cost of this set, which is cheaper than most. Like that's cheaper than 90%, 99% of 4k discs. It's, it's cheaper than most Blu-rays. Right. So the point. Is these are kind of archival sets. They have a bunch of these, they did one for interstellar. I think they did one for Cloverfield. Um, they, they, they did, they did a bunch of these and I am fascinated by this. I'm fascinated by this because I don't quite understand what the mark, the demographic market is for. We want to sell a set to people who want everything from DVD to 4k, including the intermediate stop in Blu-ray. We got the digital there. People. We want to get that. I understand there, there are arguments to be made for this. One of them is like, well, they just have all this extra DVD stock anyway. So they're putting it in this new package, but I don't buy that necessarily. Cause you, you got to create a whole new package. You got to put it all together. Uh, there, there, the argument is there's an argument that, you know, this is for people who are future-proofing who they're, they're like, I'm buying the DVD cause I'm going to maybe upgrade, but I'm telling there's nobody who is currently buying DVDs right now. That is like, I'm. In the market for a 4k player. Those people don't exist because the people who are buying DVDs now, you know, where DVDs get sold, DVDs get sold at Walmart, DVDs get sold by the truckload at Walmart. They, they are enormously popular still with older, with older do the voice.
JVL00:05:19Which voice wait, which was Cletus.
Sonny00:05:22Oh no, no, but it's not, it's actually not. So it's not, it's not like a redneck thing. It's an old person thing. It's an, it's an old person. So like the, the, the, the, it was funny, you know, Kevin Costner was giving an interview, he's got this new big Western coming out and he's like, and the guy interviewing him was like, so what about, you know, how are you going to make your money back with the death of DVD and everything? And he's like, DVDs aren't dead. And he's right because you know, who buys DVDs are people who watch Yellowstone. You know, who watches Yellowstone is old people. Like it's, it's a, it's, he, he is still like prime position to like put his three hour cut of horizon. Uh, uh, American manifest destiny story, part one of four, whatever the fuck it's called, he's going to, he puts that out and like that, that will be purchased by lots and lots of people at Walmart for nine 99 a pop. That's just a, like that, that, but I don't understand. I just don't understand the, the, the, the, the targeting here for like, have you wanted to get interstellar on 4k? Good news. You can do it and it's cheaper than it's ever been. And you'll also get. Get the Blu-ray that you may already have, and you'll get a DVD and you'll get a digital copy. I just, I find this all very weird. I find it weird. And I'm curious to get your guys take home.
Mike00:06:38It seems to me, it's like, it's like somebody at one of these, somebody at Paramount or whatever, like asked an AI to like come up with an idea for a complete, a completists, like, uh, uh, packages and they like misunderstood the idea. And instead of like. Like every, every, every, you know, iteration of the franchise of planet of the apes or Batman and put it all together in one package. They're like, no, we'll, we'll, the completists really want format, uh, uh, you know, uh, to be format completists. And that's just not a thing, right? Like, right.
Sonny00:07:20No, I mean, there's not. Now I will say there are movies that I own on DVD and I own on 4k that I've kept the DVD for because they're in a different aspect ratio or they have like extra features. That I'm like, I, that I kind of understand, but if you're just, if it's just the same movie and same collection of features over and over again in different iterations, I don't give it out. The one thing I saw somebody suggest on Twitter that made some sense when I mentioned this was you keep the DVD copy for your car, for your car entertainment system. And the kids watch that. I'm like, I guess, but like, are you showing your kids interstellar and the hunt for red October in the backseat? I, I don't know.
JVL00:08:01So let me, let me business school this for you. Sure. Yes, it is possible that in the world of physical media sales, somebody is a B testing, whether or not you can get more sales, if you are giving the customer more things, even if they're things that the customer isn't ever going to use. And so perhaps what is going on here? And this is. What I would do maybe if I was in charge of physical media sales and I was looking to try to extract every ounce of this before it disappears is I would say, all right, well, let's try a couple different kinds of packages of movies that we think are going to perform similarly, right? One we'll do 4k only one will say I'll as 4k plus digital download. And one will sell as 4k plus digital plus DVD, the price for us, the manufacturer is like a five cents difference, right? But that lets you play with price point in terms of what you're offering them for and then see if it has any effect. And maybe it has no effect. Maybe it has some small effect, but you know, it's a, it's measurable, right?
Sonny00:09:15Right. Maybe, maybe that's it. I mean, the other, the other argument I could see, if this was being done by Sony, here is what I would think. If this was being done by Sony, here's what I would think Sony is trying to teach. The segment of the population that still buys discs, there are better versions of these discs that you can buy. They are saying like, okay, you, you, you, maybe you just want this on a DVD or maybe you just want it on Blu-ray, but there's also this 4k disc. Think about how much better that's going to look. You know, what you could really use as a Sony UBP 700 XM 4k disc player. And that would be, but it's not Sony, it's Paramount.
JVL00:09:55Yeah. I think you're overthinking this and this is all about trying to find ways to move more units and to help with price discovery discovery is hard.
Mike00:10:06That makes more sense.
JVL00:10:07JBL that, that seems like I have a Kevin Costner question for you, Sonny. When he sells a DVDs of his horizon in Walmart, will there be, will those be additions without any black bars on the screen so the old folks can get all of
Sonny00:10:21the picture they deserve and it would be funny if they did like a full screen version, a full screen pan and scan of a stick, the old people.
JVL00:10:29Be so happy.
Sonny00:10:30Well, no, I mean, the thing is, well, so you know, so this is a real thing. Obviously this is why pan and scan exists because you, once upon a time you would have square TVs, you'd have four by three TVs and people did not like black bars.
JVL00:10:42I want my full picture.
Sonny00:10:44People hate black bars. They wanted, they wanted the, they wanted the full screen. They're full 20 inch low res screen filled up with the image. So pan and scan exists because they would zoom in on the picture and move it around. It's the worst thing that's ever been done. To movies. Um, but that, that's why pan and scan existed, but the, uh, but it's, it's so funny that you say this because now the opposite problem is true, uh, so right. So if you watch, if you watch citizen cane, you watch citizen cane on your high definition, all TVs now are rectangular. All TVs are 16 by nine. There's that's there. You can't get a square TV anymore. So if you watch a, an academy ratio, that is a four by three screen on those, you get the black bars on the side and people hate those. People hate those too. They hate, they hate the black bars. They're like, I want a, why, why is this happening? And this came up, uh, this came up with, um, the old people
JVL00:11:40watch things stretched because you can do that. You can, you can do this zoom on your, on your, on your remote TV remote. There is an input, which will stretch the picture to fit the screen. If you're an animal, you can do it and you don't want, if you're going to do that,
Mike00:11:55leave the motion smoothing on, just don't even turn it off, kill yourself.
JVL00:11:59Leave the motion smoothing on, make it look like, uh, a telenovela that's got everybody stretched wide.
Sonny00:12:08That's good. But this came up, this, this, this came up recently because now like filmmakers, uh, some filmmakers now are making movies in essentially the boxiest IMAX ratio ratio, which is something like 1.6 to one. It's not quite the three to four. It's, it's like 1.66 to one or something like that. Uh, this happened with the Snyder cut of justice. Like it was, it was, uh, the, the IMAX, the biggest IMAX ratio and, and people were, people were so mad, they were like fucking Zack Snyder would just be, he's got, now I've got bars on the side of my TV. Why isn't it filling my screen? And these are like, these are, these are like, these are people who would reasonably, you would suspect to be like smart consumers of media, the sort of person who would make fun of the idiots who wanted the pan and skin now they're like, ah, why is he making it like this? It should take up my whole screen. And I'm just like. I want you all to die.
Mike00:13:01Is that just, is that just, is that just literally like I'm losing picture off my TV, like my TV should be filled with, with picture. And then if it's not filled, it is a waste of my TV.
Sonny00:13:15Like what is the reason? I guess they're, I don't know what their reasoning is. The reasoning is they're fucking idiots who just like, they see black bars and they're like wasted screen, it should be bigger.
JVL00:13:24Here's the Holy grail, Sonny, the Holy grail.
Mike00:13:28Is an 80 inch OLED that has its own masking feature so that it understands
JVL00:13:39the aspect ratio and then it has little curtains that come in from the side to cut off those sidebars or like this so that the picture, whatever the aspect ratio is, is perfectly framed.
Sonny00:13:53That would be, that's actually, I should invent that. I should, you, you like a $6,000 system that you could sell. I could sell like 10 of those. I could, I could easily sell one of those.
JVL00:14:02You, me and Tony would each buy one.
Sonny00:14:03We'll just, we'll just, you, you, I went to, I went to a theater, I went to a theater the other day that actually had a proper masking system and I, my mouth almost dropped open.
JVL00:14:13They all have them. They just don't use them.
Sonny00:14:15They don't all have them anymore. They just don't install them in, in lots of, or when they're broken, they just don't fix them. They just like, they, because they just, it's like, nobody actually cares enough anymore. I care. I care. I care. Well, no, I was at, what was that? Where was I? It must've been the Angelica where I saw this, where like the theater, this, the curtain actually lowered to the proper aspect ratio. I was like, ah, that's nice.
Mike00:14:38Well, now that we've turned off pretty much all of the audience who is not a physical media nerds and masking, uh, uh, JVL, what's going on with you?
JVL00:14:48Got a quick shed update. So, uh, I may have found an answer. Flash had a couple of his buddies over this weekend. One of whom, uh, his father is a contractor.
Sonny00:15:08And so I texted, is he working at the Esplanade right now?
JVL00:15:12I texted his dad, explain my situation. I said, what do you think? Do you know a guy? And his response was, you know, I think the boys could do it. Ah, so the. The boys flash and his two friends are in the process of putting together a bid for the job. And once school is out, they think they're, I mean, if their bid is competitive, they're going to try to take this on and as flash said to me, you know, if, uh, I pay cash, they can give me a better price. And what's funny is when they said this, his flashes friend, whose dad is the guy, the contractor. It goes, Oh, that's so funny. That's what my dad does.
Sonny00:16:02I was just like, of course, of course.
JVL00:16:08And so, uh, I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Hiring three 16 year old lunkheads to build your shed for you.
Sonny00:16:18I mean, are they going to bring all their own tools? Are they going to bring their own nail guns and the such?
JVL00:16:23I mean, I'm assuming they're going to price that into their quote.
Mike00:16:27This is this. This is a great JBL. This is a fantastic learning experience for everyone involved. Really? Oh, I'm expecting to learn quite a lot.
Sonny00:16:37It's going to be especially fun for you to learn the quickest route to the emergency room.
JVL00:16:42Thought about that. We got a hospital and an ER very close to our house. Perfect. Uh, and I feel like having a misshapen rickety haunted house, like shed that I will be able to look at and think, like fondly about how flash and his buddies who both of these kids, I really like, like how they spent a week one summer building it will actually make it more poignant.
Sonny00:17:09It will add to the value. That's right. Absolutely.
Mike00:17:11Are they, are they bonded and insured? You should definitely check that to make sure.
JVL00:17:15Got to ask, got to ask if they're bonded and insured. Um, also probably should check to see if I have to, you know, grease anybody's palms, make sure that they're,
Sonny00:17:25I assume there's no, there's no like electrical, work or anything here, right? It's just, it's just wood and nails and wood nails on a little bit of glass
JVL00:17:34because there's a couple of windows.
Mike00:17:35Well, look, I mean, I friend and, and listen to the show drew knows that he and I he'll remember that we were, uh, we were brought in when we were in high school to do some work on the basement of my house, which we were finishing, which my dad was finishing. And, uh, we did the tile work for it. And I have to say flash and his buddies are getting a better deal out of this. Cause we did not submit a bid. I don't even remember agreeing to do it. I just remember at some point during the process, my friend and I were on the ground laying new tile, uh, by ourselves, uh, for this basement, which we then for the next few years got to enjoy, you know, watching movies and hanging out down there with our friends. But, uh, Um, it, it was character building. So I think this is, uh, you know, they're going to get a lot out of this. JBL. I like this idea.
JVL00:18:35Yeah. And maybe they'll even emerge with all their fingers.
Mike00:18:37No, but they don't have to cut anything. There's no sawing involved. Yeah. It's literally just up to hammer stuff. Yeah. It's just assembly.
JVL00:18:44Yeah.
Sonny00:18:45Yeah. This is going to be great.
JVL00:18:46What could possibly go wrong?
Sonny00:18:48One nail in one fleshy part of the body is probably fine. You smash a finger with a hammer. That's not a big deal.
JVL00:18:55Of course. So that's what I got. Michael. What was your cavalcade of wonders?
Mike00:19:02My cavalcade of wonders. You mean my weekend away from my kids?
JVL00:19:05Yes.
Mike00:19:06Yeah. It was terrific. We had a great time. We were at a wedding, uh, in, uh, my wife and I were at a wedding in beautiful Chattanooga, Tennessee, which I will say is a beautiful, uh, city. It's if you've ever been there, uh, it's this, is it a city? Oh yeah. It's the fourth largest city in the state of Tennessee. Um, okay. I'm sorry. Is it a city? Yes, it is.
Sonny00:19:29What's the fourth? Is the fourth largest city in South Dakota a city or is it like a real state?
Mike00:19:35No, it's got, it's got skyscrapers and, uh, real industrial past. And, uh, I wouldn't even say that the fourth largest city in New Jersey is a city. Okay. But this is your bias as a, as a, now, now you're a New York guy. Yeah. The city to you is the largest fricking city in the country, but you know, there are other cities, you know? Uh, JVL, you, you've seen that New Yorker cover, you know, the New Yorkers view of the rest of America. This is, this is your, you are living this out now by, with your, with your turning your nose up at the city of Chattanooga. I don't think so.
JVL00:20:11I'd say Cincinnati is a real city. Sure. Right. I mean, you, you should probably have a professional sports team if you're going to qualify as a city. Sure.
Mike00:20:20Uh, no, that's not true. There are cities without professional sports teams. Name one. Chattanooga is one. Okay.
JVL00:20:28But again, not a real city. That's your, your like Louisville isn't really a city. Like Louisville is a lovely town.
Mike00:20:35Louisville is a city. Are you kidding me? This is, this is the most ridiculous.
JVL00:20:39I, I, I, I, I put my foot down and argue it is not a city. Okay.
Mike00:20:44Okay. How many people do you think live in Chattanooga? How many, no, let's, let's back this up. How many people does it take to live in a city to make it a city?
JVL00:20:56I mean, I'd have to go. I'd have to go and look and see whichever city in America has a single professional sports team in it from one of the four major sports. What's their, whatever their population is. That's what makes it a city. So Oklahoma city, Oklahoma city has Buffalo.
Sonny00:21:11What about like, what about like Columbus? Columbus has a major league soccer team. Is that a, I'm sorry.
Mike00:21:17Major league soccer doesn't count. No. Columbus has a, Columbus has an NHL team. Oh, they do. Oh, yeah. Columbus is a city. Yeah. Buffalo. Okay. So Buffalo has, okay. Buffalo has 278,000 people living in the city. Chattanooga.
Sonny00:21:33That's a big town.
Mike00:21:34Chattanooga has 181,000. You're telling me. That's a lot less.
Sonny00:21:39You're telling me that 100,000 fewer people. That's two thirds as many people.
JVL00:21:43That's ridiculous. It's like 40% less. Okay.
Sonny00:21:47Chattanooga sounds like a very nice. It sounds like a lovely town. It sounds like a nice little village. All right.
JVL00:21:53Well, you've, you've thrown me off my point.
Mike00:21:55The Hamlet of Chattanooga. It's the, uh, it used to have two, uh, newspapers, two daily newspapers.
Sonny00:22:06Used to. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't have now.
Mike00:22:08I mean, how many actual big cities have two major daily newspapers or even one? So, all right. But we had a lovely time. It was great.
JVL00:22:16Uh, Chattanooga has got like 17 sub stacks. Uh, this is how you judge a city.
Sonny00:22:24How many McDonald's does it have?
Mike00:22:25I have no idea. I have no idea. So you, you want me to go through the, all, all of the stats for the city of Chattanooga. It's a lovely place to be.
Sonny00:22:33I want you to pull up the Chattanooga almanac.
Mike00:22:36Oh, Chattanooga chamber of commerce. I've got it. I've got it all right up here, baby. I know everything there is to know about Chattanooga. Um, it does have, it has a, uh, it has an aquarium. Uh, the Tennessee aquarium is located in Chattanooga. Uh, it's got all kinds of, so, so when I grew up outside of Atlanta, Chattanooga was this place where, uh, you could go on a, like a weekend vacation with your family and see a bunch of stuff that when you're a kid sounds awesome. But when you're an adult, it's like, oh, that's like kind of kitschy. So there's things like rock city, uh, which, uh, is at a rock city is advertised.
Sonny00:23:16It's an actual city. First off,
Mike00:23:22rock city is a place. It is, it is basically like a bunch of like granite rock. Formations that you can go walk through. It's, it is, it sounds like natural bridge.
Sonny00:23:33Have you ever been to?
Mike00:23:33It is kind of like natural bridge. It is kind of like natural bridge. Um, it's got, you know, like a lookout, like a lover's lookout thing, you know, and it's whatever, um, but it is the reason anybody cares about it is because. All over the Southeast and particularly in places like Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, there are, uh, barns that are painted on the roof with the phrase C rock city. And you can even buy like, like it's such an iconic image. It's like red barn, black roof with white lettering C rock city. Like people have, you know, uh, bird houses made of barns that say C rock city or, or, or Christmas tree ornaments. Um, so this is like a whole, I'm sorry.
JVL00:24:16I don't understand like learning about the lost bonobo tribe of the Amazon.
Sonny00:24:20So, so in these people wear shoes, so wait, so, so you buy a barn and the barn has a prefab roof on it that says C rock.
Mike00:24:30No, no, no, no, no, no, no. These are barns in, in, in it throughout the area that have agreed to be painted to advertise rock city.
Sonny00:24:42Gotcha.
JVL00:24:42And it says, what does that run them?
Sonny00:24:44What does that, what sort of repository information about this rock city pay for this, or do the people like pay less to have their roof painted, but with that on
Mike00:24:55it, so I don't know, but my, I venture. To guess that it initially was like a thing they actually paid for.
JVL00:25:01And they're painting the roofs. They're not just doing this in shingles. Can you paint a roof?
Mike00:25:06Of course you can paint a roof.
JVL00:25:08You can paint on top of asphalt.
Mike00:25:10All right, hold on, hold on. I will, hold on. I will effort this, uh, because we're getting way down a rabbit hole here. I know this is ridiculous.
JVL00:25:15We actually have two episode ever.
Mike00:25:17I know. Um, but bottom line, so there's places like that. There's places like Ruby falls, which is like a cave. You take an elevator down and you can do a short hike and see these falls that are colorful. Um, it's also extremely lame. Um, the incline railway, which is like exactly what it sounds like. These are all places that like, uh, as a kid, you're like, oh, we're going to go see this at, but like your parents like have to like trying to fill out a relatively inexpensive weekend, like did this, um, and, uh, I liked seeing Chattanooga as an adult this time where it's actually become quite a, kind of a, a foodie city, uh, for the region. Um, lots of great. Restaurants and tons of possum, what's that?
Sonny00:26:01Can you get hardtack?
Mike00:26:02I don't know what hardtack is.
Sonny00:26:05How about possum?
Mike00:26:07Yes, you can get, yes, you can get very nice possum and venison.
Sonny00:26:10Uh, hardtack is like what you would carry in the civil war. Oh, that yes.
Mike00:26:13Like, yeah, it's like, it's like bread. Yeah. Yeah.
Sonny00:26:15Can I get fat back?
Mike00:26:16Yeah, you can get fat back. Um, but, uh, the other thing that was going on in Chattanooga this weekend for this wedding was an iron man, uh, event.
Sonny00:26:27I had no idea how many iron man, Tony Stark or iron man triathlon, iron man, triathlon.
Mike00:26:35Okay. Um, it was like a huge deal. And like the number of people just like everywhere you went throughout, like the city, there were just all these iron man competitors and, um, but like, they're like, it's a, it's a huge deal. This whole, like, you know, it's one thing to do a triathlon, but the iron man is like, it's like the next level. Um, and, uh, and I guess you just like go around. It's like any of these races, I guess. Right. You go around and you find events that, that you want to go to and you travel to them and like at the hotel we're staying at, people are like carrying their bikes on and off the, uh, the elevators. It's just like a whole other world to me of like people who spend their time and money, uh, exercising competitively. Wow.
Sonny00:27:20I, uh, did you, did you guys have an iron man time X growing up? I definitely had an iron man time X that was like my five of them. It was great. It like, I could start and stop the timer.
JVL00:27:31They're great.
Sonny00:27:33Great watch. All right.
JVL00:27:35Okay. All right. Well, let's see any guys fall while you were there.
Mike00:27:40Uh, I did not, uh, bad transition JVL, but I appreciate the effort. Um, no, but cause we're first the transition. It was, I, you know, folks, I didn't ask him to do that. Um, the, no, but we got to talk about box office first because, uh, moving on to the box office, number one at the box office this past weekend is if. With $33 million in its first weekend in the box office, it's a kids movie. So we should expect that number two falling to number two kingdom of the planet of the apes number three new this week, the strangers chapter one horror film, I assume, uh, and then, uh, number four, the movie that we're talking about this week, the fall guy falling number four, uh, it's. It's now up total gross total, uh, just under $63 million. Any thoughts on box office before we move on gentlemen?
Sonny00:28:37No, not really. I mean, not surprising that if his number one, since it was the new movie, uh, it, I don't know, it, it did it slightly worse than tracking, uh, probably because it looks like a streaming movie because Ryan Reynolds is a streaming actor now. That's what he does. Uh, I don't know. Um. Uh, kingdom of the planet of the apes held. Okay. You know, I don't, I don't really have anything interesting, but I have a box
JVL00:29:04office thought JV, if this fucking movie can't make a ton of money, then none of this makes sense. Totally. It's like we're living in a world where the laws of physics don't apply. Like sometimes gravity is 9.2 meters per second. Sometimes it's like 3.5, you know, it just sort of depends. Sometimes the sun comes up and it's like, Oh my God. And the East, sometimes in the West, sometimes not at all. I just, I don't know. I do not understand people because this is a great fucking crowd pleasing movie. And yet, which was advertised well, which has movie stars in it, which delivers the goods over and over, which is as one of our friends said, maybe the greatest date movie ever made, not the greatest movie ever made, but the greatest date movie ever made. Like, I don't, what more do you people want?
Sonny00:30:01They want to be able to sit at home and watch it.
JVL00:30:04They want to sit and watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at home? Like, I, I, also at home, like, if you're already at home with the girl, you don't need to go out on a date.
Sonny00:30:18That's a good point.
JVL00:30:19You go out on a date so that you can take her home.
Sonny00:30:22Oh, hey, I'll see.
JVL00:30:24That is the point of the date movie.
Sonny00:30:26But also, you could, like, this, this thing, I could take a splash to this.
Mike00:30:30I could take favor to this. Hold on. I, I disagree with you on the point of the date movie. The point of the date movie is to do something together, but before you feel like you can, you're up for, stop it. Before you're up for that. Before you're up, before you're up for, like, you know, the, the conversation over dinner. It's like, it's like an ice breaking. It's like an ice breaking date. I don't know. I haven't dated in like 20 years, so I have no idea. But, um, that's the point of the date movie. And this would be great as a date movie. I totally agree.
JVL00:31:06I don't understand anything. I don't understand anything. I don't understand people. I don't understand movies. I don't understand Hollywood. I don't understand the box office. I don't understand how a movie like this could fail.
Mike00:31:18Well, then let's, then let's share our expertise as we talk about the movie, The Fall Guy. Sonny, you want to give us a big boy review of The Fall Guy?
Sonny00:31:27The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers. He's a stuntman who is working on a project on which Jody Moreno, who's played by Emily Blunt, is the camera operator. He is the stunt guy for Tom Ryder, a Tom Cruise-like figure played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, who is working with a longtime partner, producing partner, Gail Meyer, played by Hannah Waddingham, on this film. And in the midst of filming this big stunt where he jumps off the side of a building, he crashes. And he breaks his back. And he gets out of the stuntman game. He's like, I'm done with this. I can't do it anymore. And he goes to work for a mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant. And 18 months later, he gets a call from Gail, who says, we need you to come to Australia. We need you to come to Australia and do some stunt work on this movie. You know who's the director who has been promoted from camera operator to director, which is a thing that happened, is Jody Moreno. Jody, she wants you. She wants you here to do the stunts. You've got to come do the stunts. We're doing a big stunt. Car stunt on the beach. You've got to roll the car eight and a half times. That's a world record. And he goes out there, and he finds out she doesn't actually want him there because she's heartbroken that they broke up and did not get back together. And she wanted to nurse him back to health, but he didn't want any part of that because he felt useless. He felt useless. He didn't want to be an object of pity. And when he gets to Australia, he finds out that Tom Ryder is missing. He's gone missing. He's dealing with some shady characters. And those shady characters may have done something to him. And then he stumbles upon a dead body. He stumbles upon a dead body in a hotel room and then gets sucked into a world of intrigue, and he has to use his stunts to solve the mystery. So that's long and the short of it.
Mike00:33:11Most of the long.
Sonny00:33:13Oh, that was too long? That was too much? Go ahead, Sonny. Sorry. That was too much plot for you? You want less? You want less? No, so that's the fall guy. And that is basically... But the reason the movie works, to the extent that it works, is because Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling are extremely good on camera together. They are just deeply charming and deeply appealing. And this movie has a lot of issues. It has storytelling issues. It has some structural issues. It has the problem that a lot of David Leitch movies have, which is that he is very good at doing fights. He's very good at doing fights, but he is not... He's not great at big, broader stunts. They're a little lifeless on the screen. They're all shot at a distance. But his fights are very good. So I...
JVL00:34:07People, please understand, you can't see Sonny, but I can. And all of this is schtick from him. It's not schtick. Because he's going to be contrarian.
Sonny00:34:14It's not schtick. I like this movie. I like this movie. JVR hand. I gave this movie a positive review. I said it's fantastic. I want people to go see it. I'm just laying... I want to lay the groundwork here. Because I think there were things about this movie that don't work. But the thing that works, the thing that makes it work, the thing that makes it fun to watch is the only thing that used to matter for a movie like this, which is Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are great on screen together. And Ryan Gosling is great with everybody in this movie, on screen with. He's great with Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is playing, you know, the stuck-up action hero who's like, I do all my own stunts. And he doesn't actually do any of his own stunts, right? He's great with Winston Duke, who plays the stunt coordinator. I'm this ridiculous movie that they're making, Metal Storm, that is just like the absolute worst kind of crap and has a very funny... The movie is very funny as a parody of Hollywood movies. And it has this great musical sting to it, the like Dune score that they stick on top of it when they show it, which is like, it's just perfect. It's just a perfect little joke because these people think they're making a good movie, but they're actually making a very bad movie. Anyway, I got distracted. Again, I don't think this movie is perfect, but it's very fun to watch. It's very charming. It is a great deal of fun. It's just a pleasant time at the movies. It's just a fun, nice, pleasant movie. And like JBL says, nobody wants to go just see a nice, fun, pleasant movie. I don't know what they want anymore. They don't want Marvel movies anymore. They don't want DC movies anymore.
JVL00:35:56They don't want porn.
Sonny00:35:56They don't want horror movies. That's not doing well. Audiences just don't want to go to the movies anymore. Movies are over. Movies are done. We're a dead format. We've got to move on to the next thing, VR or video games or something. TikToks. I think movies are just dead.
JVL00:36:18Queeby was just three years too early.
Sonny00:36:21Ahead of its time. Anyway, Fall Guy is a lot of fun, and like JBL, I am kind of shocked that it is not a hit, and I think people will enjoy it once they finally catch it.
JVL00:36:32Michael, you love it, right?
Mike00:36:35Oh, I loved it.
JVL00:36:36It was fantastic. Do you want a man of the people first? Go man of the people.
Mike00:36:41Be man of the people. Well, clearly not man of the people, since the people don't want to watch this movie, but I loved it. I thought it was... I thought it was... There were so many layers to what was going on. While I agree, it has that kind of lightness, the feel of kind of a... just a fun time at the movies. I mean, there's action, there's romantic comedy at work here, there's a kind of screwball comedy elements of it, which may be related to the romantic comedy. There's a real satire of Hollywood at work here. There's almost a kind of... I mean, I was struck by how much this movie is a love letter to the workaday crew of movies and a kiss off to the talent of movies, a kind of F you to the talent and the actual real people who put in the work of the ugly mechanical stuff of movies are the sort of the real heroes. And so it had that almost kind of David and Goliath aspect to it. So all of it was terrific and it was just fun and funny. I mean, there were little things. There was a couple of... There was kind of a running gag in the movie where Ryan Gosling's character is like misunderstood through some kind of wordplay. There were like a few times where this happens where he tries to say something and... and somebody mistakes his... I can't remember the examples of it, but it happens like two or three times. And it's just... It was like a nice little addition to the script. I...
JVL00:38:38What was the running gag with him trying to get a cup of coffee?
Mike00:38:40That was great. Another one, yeah, terrific, where he's... And then he's got like... He has the coffee and he even does like a sort of incredible action move where the coffee remains in the mug and then like two seconds later, it spills. That's terrific. I agree with you, Sonny. The chemistry, the on-screen chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is just... It's so enjoyable to watch. They feel like real people. You just want to spend time with them, right? Totally. I thought Emily Blunt does something really terrific in this movie, which the way she plays her character as a first-time director who is working hard, believes... believes in what she's doing is kind of handling everything pretty well considering the sort of the balance of all this doing this in Australia and all this stuff. And then having Ryan Gosling's character kind of plopped in front of her after 18 months of not speaking to him and playing the bewilderment of seeing him and having to deal with their personal relationship, which then reveals that not everything is well even with her management of the movie itself. She's doing a lot of work in that. And so I just thought she was, I thought she was fantastic. The music cues are great. The action is pretty fun.
JVL00:40:10Best use of Taylor Swift drop ever in a movie?
Mike00:40:13Definitely in a movie. I would say the only better drop was in the second season of The Bear, which everybody who watches
JVL00:40:22that show knows about.
Mike00:40:23So yes, terrific. I love the use of the kiss song at the end. All fantastic. It's like the best satire of Hollywood since Tropic Thunder, which is a high bar, but it does a great job of satirizing Hollywood without feeling like it's a love letter to Hollywood. It is kind of like a bit of an FU again. It's a love letter to movies. It's a love letter to stuntmen. To stuntmen, yes. But also to crew and also to like all that. So anyway, so that's that's what those are all my thoughts.
JVL00:41:00The scene first scene on the beach in Australia where Emily Blunt's character is putting together the shot is one of the funniest things I've seen in years. So it begins with her being spoken to by her prop master who's presenting this laser rifle and is explaining that in this laser rifle looks like an electric guitar explaining that this other long piece on the end is the bayonet and
Mike00:41:32Emily Blunt says
JVL00:41:34but but do we need a bayonet because you just shot someone with a laser. Do you need a bayonet? The prop designer's response is oh, it's absolutely critical to which Emily Blunt says, well, how many of them have you made? And when she gives her the number, that's when Emily Blunt is like, okay, because like this is the decision has been, you know, it doesn't matter that it looks ridiculous. Well, there's a great
Mike00:42:01payoff with that at the end of the movie.
JVL00:42:03Yes, and that that joke is then paid off and they've got a bunch of pyro and, you know, she's her assistant director is too hard and she's second guessing her assistant director and they've got some of the maniac, right? It's like they're doing tests and they're like, you know, we only have enough for two takes. They're like, they do these tests like one take. We have enough for one take and it and you know, her screenwriter comes up to her, you know, I have an idea for the third act. Okay, what is it? What if she breaks fourth wall and talk straight to camera? It's like, oh my God, you see her soul dying inside of her. It's just it's great. Yes, it's it's so funny and the the action is fun and the movie just has a lot of heart and. It's just fun. It's a this is a fun movie. I haven't seen a movie this fun since Maverick. Yeah, I mean Top Gun. I have seen better movies, but I have not had this much fun in a movie theater since Top Gun
Mike00:43:08Maverick and and it's so much I would say it's so much lighter than Maverick and and and that adds to the fun. You just feel like I mean there's there's something of of like of romancing the stone or the first Brendan Fraser mummy where you're just you just kind of feel like this is a ride there that the people are I'm watching are sexy and fun and again perfect date movie perfect day movie
JVL00:43:37the other so we're on set and he's getting set on fire and this is you know, it's his first day on set after coming back and she she is behind the camera talking to him at a bullhorn and is trying to get him to like do more takes is explaining what the movie is about and that's when you realize this whole movie is like her post breakup movie that she has made and it's ridiculous because of that and then he tries to have conversation. She has a bullhorn brought to him and then like they're having this like we it's like can we talk in private? She's like no, it must be spoken in public and then you sort of have having
Mike00:44:15their having their argument about their failed relationship in front of the entire crew. Yes over bullhorns it's and then there's the
JVL00:44:23dude in the alien costume. Right? Who's like, you know motioning and wants to talk about I forget like in his wife leaving him or something. He left it. Yeah,
Mike00:44:31exactly. It's it's amazing. It's so
JVL00:44:33great and there's little bits of business. They have this long split screen conversation where they're on the phone with one other and Emily Blunt is wearing gigantic rubber monster hands for the entire thing. But yet it's never spoken of she just is you and the whole it's such a great piece of business
Mike00:44:53like I didn't even even I would say that the to to take Sonny's side here and talk about some of the some of the kind of plot problems like right it's it's obvious what's going on like pretty early in the going in terms of what what what the what the twist is and and yet like I didn't care. I was like having too much fun to care about it. So
JVL00:45:18yeah, I don't I just I loved everything about it. I laughed out loud involuntarily many many times in the theater. So did everybody else. So it was not a crowded theater. Yes there's like 15 people in it but all 15 people there just the movie killed with them. Yes and does this not have like an a plus cinnamon score like I
Sonny00:45:41think it was an a minus
JVL00:45:43yeah, I think it was an a minus and I just like what well who who could sit through this and say no, can I just say
Sonny00:45:49I again, I think I agree with most of this my one my one big problem with it is that the the whole the whole thing with the star and the producer none of it none of it works and none of it is paid off properly there. There's there's a version of this movie. That's like 10% tighter where it is very explicitly a stuntman's revenge movie and what I mean by that is like at the end of the movie cult essentially kills Tom Rider by having him do his own stunt and the movie the movie keeps kind of fainting at that like it's it's like but it doesn't go all the way. It's like it's like it's like David Leitch who again is a stunt man like his training his background is in stunt work got nervous about going that far with it and instead the stunt the the movie star guy who's played by Aaron Taylor Johnson ends up like dying of his own because he wanders off into a minefield or whatever and like and and there there there's a version of this movie where Colt Seaver gets payback for what we find out was uh Aaron Taylor Johnson intentionally getting him hurt on set by having him by like putting him in the car to do the jump and like bailing out and be like you say you do your own stunts do your own stunts bitch bye and like and then and then he dies and then like again it's like it's it's a it's it's a cleaner more narratively um satisfying payoff
JVL00:47:24out of character for Colt though Colt is too nice a guy
Sonny00:47:28I'm just telling you it just this there's there's a version of this movie that is better that is I'm sorry there's a story of this movie that is better there there is a there is a more satisfying thematic bow that everything gets wrapped up in and
JVL00:47:44that is I think that's part of what
Sonny00:47:46audience I think that's part of what the audience hesitation toward this movie is for it does not the drama does not pay off satisfactorily I'm sorry it does not that said again still very fun to watch it's a great it's a great deal of fun but you get from that a minus to that a or a plus by having it pay off like Maverick
JVL00:48:08pays off yeah look fair enough maybe the payoff at the end isn't enough I don't think killing Tom Rider works because I mean you have to then change Colt's character in ways that are less appealing
Sonny00:48:21he taught or he talks him into doing the stunt on his own and he gets and he gets I'm not saying like I'm not saying Colt should like put a gun next to his head and pull the trigger or anything but like he has to do something that gets the actor who has spent the whole movie saying I do my own stunts when everybody knows he doesn't do his own stunts to do his own stunt and die in the doing of it like that is how that is how the movie pays off narratively and they were they were obviously very very scared to do that well can I
Mike00:48:50suggest in a kind of dark depressing reason why maybe that wouldn't have worked maybe that this even occurred to them and they didn't is is the is the rust shooting on on Alec Baldwin but then he blows himself
Sonny00:49:04up but then he blows himself up in a way that's much more reminiscent of rust then frankly then frankly it would be for him to like crash his car into a mountain or something you know all right
Mike00:49:17okay all right well any other thoughts on the fog did you JVL did you watch the TV show when contemporary you know I
JVL00:49:27I dabbled in the fall guy when it was on but I was such a six million dollar man partisan that I did not want to see Lee Majors without his superpowers right and so I as a kid viewed the fall guy as boring because it would have been like watching any of the movies with Christopher Reeves where he's not Superman like I know what I like Christopher Reeves because he's Superman I want to see him as Superman you know like six year old me didn't want to see Lee Majors not as the bionic man right the six million dollar six million dollar the bionic woman
Mike00:50:03right right okay this was a this was just a show that was not on my radar at all I feel like I'm very familiar with you're too young old television though like but it turns out I'm mostly familiar with like old sitcoms which work in reruns in a way that like it's you know those kind of action shows don't
JVL00:50:26so the fall guy was murder she wrote but with a stuntman right
Sonny00:50:29I literally had no idea this was a TV show when I when I started seeing trailers for it I like I just had no I had no I to the extent that we did we did an episode of across the movie we were talking about like original stuff that was coming like not and I included it because I was like oh yeah the fall guys like a fun turned out turned out nope based on based on IP but but this again this gets to part of part of the Hollywood problem right which is that like they only green light this thing because oh it's based on a TV show well people know it's got some built-in awareness nobody knows what this is nobody nobody has any idea what the fall guy is
Mike00:51:07yeah it's like yeah totally agree it's like having another it's like making a movie based on heart to heart you know or some some like Remington Steel yeah there you go exactly all right well any other thoughts on this movie that we we uh we went kind of short
JVL00:51:26i uh i just i love it i hope people give it a chance on video yeah it's really really fun and it's it's this movie is all heart this is the other i mean
Mike00:51:38so david they're all having fun right making
JVL00:51:40they are all very clear fun and you know so the i got the the the pre roll where david leach and uh ryan gosling are saying you know this is our love letter to stunt men yes but it really is though like that's the like it's it's a heartfelt love letter by people from people who love movies to stunt men and it just that just comes across in every frame of it totally
Sonny00:52:09i uh uh question jbl uh the fall guy greater sign or less sign than the nice guys
JVL00:52:21greater sign and i like the nice guys a lot yeah i like the nice guys a lot this is i think this is better
Mike00:52:29but they're both a great use of ryan gosling right like this like comedy
JVL00:52:33action is there a bad use of him i don't think so like i just the guy he's like uh he's like the new the new jack owen wilson like you can put him in anything
Sonny00:52:45interesting interesting comparison maybe but you know i mean look i think part of the reason this movie did not pop off at the box office is because ryan gosling is not
JVL00:52:55a movie star question mark i mean
Sonny00:52:57like that's the that's the problem here is that like he did he you know barbie did very well and he was the best part of barbie and like you know that that is is what it is but people are just like not interested in the ryan gosling experience which is i find kind of fascinating yeah and he and it's fascinating because hollywood occasionally does this thing where they try and make a guy like the next big star right like sam worthington or uh joel kinnaman or like you know like replacement level action star guys and and like ryan gosling is basically i think ryan gosling is a cut above all them in terms of in terms of charisma etc etc but he is getting the same exact response that all those guys got which is basically indifference right from mass
Mike00:53:49audiences yeah and the other big difference is gosling has already amassed like a a career of you know just like great movies all like in all points of
JVL00:54:01yeah all genres i i would say a little different he feels more to me like i i believe he is durable as a as a movie star but he's like a second level movie star because he's been at this for a long time and he showed that he's versatile there is some audience that will follow him maybe not a 200 million dollar audience uh and he feels to me a little bit like Keanu Reeves pre matrix so like you know a guy who'd been around the block who had had uh speed really blow up and he was well regarded right you know i'd been part of a bunch of movies who people liked as a presence who was versatile
Sonny00:54:49devil's afghan yeah he's so ryan gosling is in the chain reaction part of his career is what you're saying well no
JVL00:54:55because he's making great movies and maybe he never gets to the level like Keanu got to right i mean i i don't know
Mike00:55:03i mean he was in barbie
JVL00:55:04like the biggest movie last year but he didn't open it you know but anyway i i don't know i don't know he's
Mike00:55:11great though he was also when he was also in you know la la land like he was just like i don't know he's
JVL00:55:15i feel like he's i don't think you can compare him to sam worthington or any of those guys like he's not a josh hartnett no no i
Sonny00:55:21i agree that he is better than them i'm just saying he's being met essentially the same way
Mike00:55:26i suppose
JVL00:55:29maybe maybe all right
Mike00:55:30all right well that is all the time we're going to give to this episode check us out at sub beacon.com leave a comment join the conversation and we will talk to you next time
Sonny00:55:39so the
Mike00:55:47woman who plays the uh the producer yeah who is she she's like
Sonny00:55:53she's you know her from ted lasso she's from ted lasso i've never i've never seen ted lasso she's the owner of the team on ted lasso and she is a
JVL00:56:00british stage stagehand and she's
Mike00:56:05she's terrific she was terrific
JVL00:56:06and she can sing too oh man she can sing she's uh she's just great i mean she
Mike00:56:13she had this she has this cruella deville uh error to her i just like a very specific kind of british villainous she was terrific i loved her
JVL00:56:25yeah and she plays nice equally well didn't she i'm sure i'm sure
Sonny00:56:30she was uh yeah she was like one of the evil nuns on game of thrones yeah um yeah no she's great i like her uh and and again one of the interesting things about this movie is the the portrayal of what amounts to a tom cruise paula
JVL00:56:47wagner paul wagner she is paula
Sonny00:56:49wagner yeah yeah but like evil
JVL00:56:53what do you mean but evil yeah
Sonny00:56:55well that's that's the i mean again i would i really i would like to watch this movie with tom cruise because i would like to see the steam come out of his ears and also then like have him trans transfer that into like rigorously breaking down the plot points that are wrong because here's the thing i i like i come at this thing and i'm like here's why it doesn't work thematically here's where like the whole thing with the the assistant stephanie shoe shows up in this movie like out of nowhere and i love her and she's she's fine in this but like she shows up out of nowhere just like in the middle of the movie and it's like oh yeah she's been here this whole time
JVL00:57:36she's been here to produce her credit
Sonny00:57:38and and it's like but it but it just doesn't it doesn't work it like she just parachutes into the movie fine it's not fine it's not fine no it's not fine and this is why it has an a minus cinema score i'm telling you you give tom cruise you give tom cruise no shut up shut up mike warren i you give tom cruise you give tom cruise this script a month before shooting starts and he sits down and he points out all the things that are wrong with it and how to fix them and you get he gets it up to an a plus and that's why he's an evil genius that's why he's an evil genius not because he's a oaf who says i do all my own stunts like that's that's the real that's i guess you know that's another problem this movie the the i don't appreciate the treatment of tom the tom cruise
Mike00:58:21stand-in so be nice just just so i understand you son yeah audiences go to this movie with an idea of what the movie should be they come out of the movie and talk to the cinema score folks and give their grade and what they think is you know what stephanie shoe was a little shoehorned into this movie no
Sonny00:58:44a minus no because audiences don't understand any of this but exactly like tom cruise do understand it tom cruise again like a i i i i don't know if i can tell this story or not uh i know a guy who worked on a movie that tom cruise uh had some tangential relation to he wasn't technically a producer he was just uh he was helping out and he sat down with the screenwriters and walk them through point by point you gotta do this this character is fine but we need to introduce him this way and they're like oh shit all of this is exact like everything he is saying right now makes perfect sense because he intuitively understands the things that you see on screen but that don't work audiences don't understand this intellectually but they do understand it intuitively they feel it and it feels wrong again this is a this is a movie that is a lot of fun to watch i think everybody who sees it is like oh this is so much fun but a movie like this should have an a from cinema score maybe not an a plus but at least an a the fact that it's an a minus suggests that there's something that they're feeling that's off and they're right you know what it is it's stephanie shu
JVL00:59:52I'm sure it's fine
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