#301. 'Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
The gang marks the 20th-anniversary theatrical rerelease of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and the trio splits hard: Sonny is a genuine defender, ranking it the third-best Star Wars film behind Empire and A New Hope and praising the operatic Mustafar duel and Ewan McGregor's sold-it pathos as Obi-Wan, while JVL calls it flatly terrible, tearing into the inert Anakin/Obi-Wan writing, the "Sith Lords are our specialty" non-sequitur, the infamous love-scene dialogue (tested live on his girlfriend Favorite), and George Lucas's static green-screen blocking, conceding only that Ian McDiarmid's gleeful Palpatine is the one character worth watching. Mike, who saw it in theaters at 17 as part of a marathon of the first five films, lands in between — thrilled by the lava-battle sequence but frustrated that Anakin's motivations for turning on the Jedi never cohere, and needled by JVL for going full "Vic" by asking the audience to hold two thoughts in its head at once. Before the movie talk, the first third is classic Sub-Beacon banter: Sonny's saga of driving his kids around North Dallas hunting for a Star Wars Unlimited card shop only to land at a pickup-only warehouse; Easter/Pope's-death school closures; a long, genuinely contentious baseball Hall-of-Fame steroids debate touching Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, and Fernando Tatis Jr., with Sonny torn but leaning toward a "wing of shame" compromise and Mike opposed on principle; Mike's traffic-plagued drive back from South Carolina; and box-office chat crowning Sinners a smash and toasting David Zaslav's hits-driven Warner Bros. run. They close with quick takes on Skeleton Crew (a hit with Sonny's kids) and the new season of Andor (which JVL, allergic to Disney's padded-out episode runtimes, isn't in a hurry to watch).
From the show notes
It's the third one in the series!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00"You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness!" "I hate you!"
?00:00:30"I hate you!"
Mike00:00:37Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me, as always, are my two co-hosts. If you're not with them, you're their enemy. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com. Tell your friends and family, if they want to listen to this awesome podcast, they've got to do it at Sub-Beacon.com. New episodes every week. Every Friday, only at Sub-Beacon.com. Join the conversation in the comments. Like I said, tell your friends and family, Sub-Beacon.com. Today, we're going to be talking about Revenge of the Sith, 20th anniversary edition. But first, what is going on? Sonny Bunch, what's happening with you, my man?
Sonny00:01:23Not a whole lot. I had one of these fun days with the kids on Monday. Our kids had Friday and Monday off of school and an early release on Thursday because it's Easter.
JVL00:01:36They were celebrating Good Friday and then... I guess.
Sonny00:01:39Yeah. Well, but, I mean, whatever. It's like a little mini spring break.
JVL00:01:44And then the Pope's death, obviously. They took the Catholic... Right. Dallas schools had the Pope's death off. Easter Monday.
Sonny00:01:49Well, I mean, they were celebrating the Pope's death.
JVL00:01:54I bet the Baptists in Dallas were super... Did they go out and shoot their guns in the air? Pew, pew.
Sonny00:01:59Yeah, I'll show you some white smoke. Pew, pew, pew, pew. Anyway, the... Anyway, so we had Monday off and because I had arranged my schedule to tape my... Or we had... I can't remember. I forget which day this actually happened, this all happened on. I think it was actually on Friday. Friday we did this. So I had arranged my schedule to have completed all of my work by Friday. So I had my newsletters, my podcast, everything. Everything was all done. And I was like, alright, I will take the kids. I'll take the kids. We're gonna go to Strong Fitness. We'll get them out of the house. For you, wife, you can do your work here at the house. I'll take the kids out. We're gonna go to this place called Strong Fitness. Which is like a... It's not like a kids... Do you guys know Kids Empire? No. I've never heard of it. Do you have like the indoor play places near you? Like the big, you know, they're in like industrial parks usually and like... It's not quite like that. It's actually, it's an actual gym. It's like a CrossFit gym. But they realized that there's way more money to be made in setting up like kids, kids CrossFit, kids ninja activities.
JVL00:03:13It's basically just a big play area. Sure. Oh, kids ninja.
Sonny00:03:16Kids ninja. Do it the kids ninja. So, they even have the warped wall. They have like a kid-sized warped wall and like a 30-foot tall warped wall. Anyway, so I take the kids to there. I do some work. They run around. We leave. We go to lunch. I have to, and as all of this is happening, I'm like kind of going up around the counties and towns that are just north of Texas, just north of Dallas, Texas, where I live. So, I start in like, I start in, I don't know, I think, I can't, I don't even know the names of the towns. Addison. I'm in Addison. I go over to Garland. And as I'm doing this, I realize there's a store. There's a store that I have Googled because I was trying to find those goddamn Star Wars cards, JVL. Those are, they're very hard to find in, to buy in person. I bought them on Amazon, but I like, I wanted to go to, I wanted to go to an actual store and like have my kids have the shopping experience of going to a card store and buying packs of cards instead of just having like a box in the house where, you know. So again, I have like, a couple of times randomly, I have Googled like places to do this. And every time I get there, they're like, no, we don't sell those. We, you know, we've got like Magic. We've got like Pokemon. We don't have Star Wars Unlimited. Star Wars Unlimited, not as popular as these other card games. And I, and I, and I have found...
JVL00:04:48It's in its early days.
Sonny00:04:50It's early. It's been out for a year or two now. It's not, it's not that early. Anyway, whatever. You're still an early adopter. Whatever, the point is, whatever. They're, they're enjoying the game. That's all that matters. But the, but I want, again, I wanted them to have this experience. The, the card store experience. And I found a place, found a place called Game Nerds with a Z. It has several locations in the north, in the north of Dallas region. They're, but they're, they're not close to my house. These places are, these places are like 30, 40 minutes away, right? But as it happens, on this sojourn through the wilds of north Dallas, the suburbs of Dallas right above, I happen to be like 10 minutes from one. I realized, I was looking on the map. I'm like, oh, oh, there's actually one of these places pretty close here. So I don't tell the kids. I just like, all right, we're done. We had to go pick up a, we had to go pick up a screen printed jersey for my son. So we pick up the screen printed jersey. It's like two in the afternoon. I've killed five hours of the day. My wife had better really appreciate all of this effort that I'm putting into giving her some free time. But I'm like.
JVL00:05:56Probably the greatest hero of them all.
Sonny00:05:58Some would say. Some would say a man taking care of his children is basically a war veteran.
Mike00:06:05Did you have older women saying, wow.
Sonny00:06:07Yes.
JVL00:06:08Bravo. Standing up and clapping. Having older women say that, unimportant. Yeah, that does nothing for me.
Sonny00:06:15So anyway, so I'm like. It's only the older women who are impressive. I tell the kids, OK, we're going home or we're done with everything. But we're not going home. This is a clever ruse.
JVL00:06:27Clever ruse.
Sonny00:06:28And of course, they have no idea what direction we're going in. We could be going north, south, whatever. They're listening to the music. They're fighting with each other in the backseat. They're idiots. They're dumb children with no sense of anything. Morons. So I sneakily put it in the little GPS and I'm driving there. And we get there. And it's in an industrial park. It's in like a, you know, the address I go to is in a big industrial park. And it says on the outside of the building, though, because I'm like, this is weird. This is a weird place. But it says on the outside of the building, Game Nerds with a Z. And I'm like, oh, I'm here. OK, good. This must be where it is. So I go and I pull in and there's nobody in the parking lot. There's nobody in the parking lot. And I'm like, OK. OK. Well, let's go. Let's go see what the deal is. So I go in. I go in. I open the door and there's like a there's like an orc statue right there.
JVL00:07:24And I'm like, Warhammer 2059.
Sonny00:07:27Clearly, I'm in the right place. You know, this with this life size orc here welcoming me in. And I have my two children and tell them, like, we're going to go buy the Star Wars cards. You know, you can pick out whatever different packs you want. They're like, yeah, this is so much fun. And I go in and I turn past the orc statue. And I'm greeted by one lady. And. At a window. An open window. And I'm like, hello, where are the cards? And she's like, oh, you're here for a pickup. And I'm like, no, I'm not here for a pickup. I just want to I wanted to take them, you know, let them shop a little bit. And she goes, oh, you want one of our stores.
JVL00:08:12Oh, you. Oh, you're at the warehouse.
Sonny00:08:17You could pick up. You can order on the. Internet and you can pick up here a day later. But you can't. You can't buy up here. You can't shut.
JVL00:08:27You can't want a retail outlet, sir.
Sonny00:08:30And I was like, I was like, you got to be kidding.
JVL00:08:33I was like, all right, well, where are and give her some consideration and see if she would let maybe maybe some slipper cards fell off the back of a truck slipper slipper 20 and see what we see what we can do. No, I was like, some jump to light speed fell off the back of the truck. I would like, ma'am.
Sonny00:08:50Do you have any carbonite additions back there? You could just try. Perhaps.
JVL00:08:54Anyway, perhaps this might jog your memory.
Sonny00:08:58Anyway, so I so I'm just like, you got to be kidding me. And she's like, yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I you could go to one of the stores. They're really great there. And I'm like, I bet they are. I bet they are really great. I sound awesome. They look really they look like a lot of fun in the pictures that I keep seeing on the Internet. And she's like, yeah, yeah. They're all kind of equidistant from here. They're all like 30 minutes from the store. So like it's this this place is like right in the middle of them. But again, it's like I could go 30 minutes north or 30 minutes east or 30 minutes west. And and then and then at that point, I'm like an hour away from my house.
JVL00:09:34I just like I did it on general principle.
Sonny00:09:36And I know I turn around. I went home. I was like, I'm not I'm not doing any more of this. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done with this. But it was it was just it was just one of these things. It was just one of these things where it's like you try real hard and you almost get it like 90 percent of the way. Right. But it's that last 10 percent that's going to get you that it's that it's that last little bit.
Mike00:09:59What's going to happen here, Sonny, is like you are going to be playing this card game in a year or so. And your kids will use that opportunity to remind you of the time when when daddy screwed up. Like this will be a foundational memory for them of like which they will bring up constantly to remind you of of your fuck up. And that's just in your future. That's good. Good to know.
Sonny00:10:27Good. Now, anyway, anyway, it ended it all ended up fine in the sense that like nobody was hurt or anything. It was just like it was just a real it was like it was real annoying. It was real annoying to have a massive waste of time. It was just a big waste of time.
JVL00:10:44And on the other hand, you were just killing time to begin with.
Sonny00:10:47That's the thing. So we serve dysfunction. Yeah. The only reason I'm not upset about this is because I had literally nothing else to do for like four hours that that otherwise was like, kids, let's go to the wall mall and just wander around. Well, there so there is one other there is one other card store that I was going to try to go to that's on. It's if it's on seventy five in Dallas. And I've again, I've seen I've seen like the Google Maps for it. A couple of times. And I'm like, all right, we're going to go there. And then I punched it into the GPS. And there was traffic all up because it's it was the Friday of Easter weekend. It was everybody totally red. I was just like, you know what? We're going home. We're just you can watch you can watch Star Wars on TV is what you can do. I'm not I'm not doing any more of this. So anyway, that was that's what's been up with me.
JVL00:11:35Thank you, Sonny. JVL, what's going on? I have brought a topic for discussion. I am taking my boys Flash and G Money up to Cooperstown. And I'm beautiful. Very excited. Flash has been there before. I have not. G Money has not. I received a text from one Jonathan Podhoretz. Oh, a few days ago, out of nowhere, that just said it is insane that Roger Clemens is not in the Hall of Fame. And I wanted to bring this up for you because I don't know the thing. Three of us have ever had a steroid era discussion about what is the proper response to players such as the Rocket and Barry Bonds. Maybe the greatest hitter of all time. And all of these other guys, Andy Pettit, Mark McGuire. Should they be kept out? Should they be only kept out until they're dead and then be allowed in posthumously? And I. I. I don't know where Mike is going to go with this. I think I know, but I'm not sure. I think I do know where Sonny is going to go. And so, Sonny, to preempt you, because I think you're going to say put them in the hall. I would also ask, would it change your mind if it turned out that in addition to using steroids, they also used BitTorrent to pirate movies?
Sonny00:13:09Well, there is a morals clause, is there not?
JVL00:13:16Slow clap. This is a conversation I'm sure I will have with G-Money this weekend, and I am curious as to where you boys are on the steroid question.
Mike00:13:29Sonny, you want to share, see if JVL has properly identified your position?
Sonny00:13:37I don't know. I'm very torn on it because I am a stickler for the rules, and using steroids was against the rules. And what they did gave them a material advantage over other players who may have lost the opportunity to go to the Hall of Fame because they were better players than they, you know, hurt other players' stats.
JVL00:13:58The steroids, if I could just call back to last week's episode, steroids aren't a 4% improvement. I don't know if you guys remember Brady Anderson. Yeah. He was an off-hitter from the Baltimore Orioles who went on the juice and went from like 11 home runs a year to 45. Yeah. He was hitting 45 home runs a year. So, you know.
Sonny00:14:21He hit 50 one year, I think, didn't he? Didn't he have a 50 home run year?
JVL00:14:25Sure. Why not? Oh, I remember that. Yes.
Sonny00:14:29Yeah. Yeah. He hit 50 home runs in 1996. Which was like, look, and again, like, this is interesting to me because there are a lot of people out there. There are a number I because as an Orioles fan, okay, as an Orioles fan, I was weirdly right in the middle of this where you had you had Cal Ripken, like classic plays the right way out there every day, you know, not on steroids, like, like a naturally big guy who was not on the juice, you know, he had his 30 years, 30 home run seasons, his 20 home run seasons, like pretty consistent. Maybe he was on the juice. And that's how he kept stayed on the field healthy. But like, whatever he he had his he had his career and he again, the classic play the right way guy. But then we also had like, Bell, right? And Brady Anderson, and we had Raphael Palmeiro and Raphael Palmeiro is the like, trickiest one of these cases, right? Where Raphael Palmeiro is a sort of guy who theoretically should be a lock Hall of Famer 3000 hit guy 3000 hits 3000 hits that gets you in the Hall of Fame 3000 hits gets you in the Hall of Fame.
?00:15:37Yeah.
Sonny00:15:38Um, maybe not a first ballot guy, but like, like 3000 hits is is the number that that's what gets you into the Hall of Fame. And like, you know, I loved watching Raphael Palmeiro hit he had he was he was just a he was a good, solid baseball player.
JVL00:15:58Rafi big stick.
Sonny00:16:00I love what and at the same time I do. I just sit there and say like, he did cheer. And he lied.
JVL00:16:09He cheated and then lied about it, too.
Sonny00:16:11Well, the lying I the lying doesn't bother me as much as the cheating the cheating himself
JVL00:16:15wasn't he lying under oath? Yeah, he was in that he was among those Yeah, he was in the hearing. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't just like he fibbed to a reporter. Right? Right. He did perjure himself about it. That does seem materially different.
Sonny00:16:29Yeah. And so I don't know, I'm actually very torn on this myself. I don't have I don't have a strong opinion on this.
JVL00:16:37I mean, if it turned out that he was pirating intellectual property, then that would push you over the line.
Sonny00:16:42And you'd be fine on saying no, yeah, no, no, totally. But I mean, like guys like Barry Bonds, or Roger Clemens, who were Hall of Famers before steroid, right use, like, I feel like you, you have to let them in. And if you let them in, you basically have to let all of them in. I like don't I don't, I don't really know. I don't there's no way to consistently draw that line. So I probably lean towards let them in. But I, I do. Like, I've always liked the idea of having like a steroid wing of the hall, where like, it's like the Hall of Fame's like wing of shame, but only over here on this wall, you just segregate them often, you know, it's, it's fine. So like, that would be my that would be that would be the dumb, like, compromise solution, let them in, but like, kind of shame them at the same time.
JVL00:17:34I don't mind that Michael, where are you on this?
Mike00:17:36I am sort of on on principle opposed to letting in the known steroid users. And I, because it, to me, it comes back to the question of what is, what does it mean to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, like, what, what, what is the institution of baseball and the Hall of Fame in particular? What is it saying about the people who are in? Their hall and like, for instance, if you go by what the, the, the, the motto is or the slogan for the hall, preserving history, honoring excellence, connecting generations is the, is the motto. You know, on the one hand you could say excellence is just, it's the people who are the best. But I think there is, there is a, there is a moral component to the phrase excellence. Um, at least I think there should be maybe, maybe, uh, people in good faith could disagree, but, um, if your excellence is achieved through cheating, it, it just doesn't, it, it shouldn't count. It shouldn't count and it can be a shame for some people who had great stats and would have been hall of famers had they not used steroids. You know, that, that, that their careers were such that they were, um, that they, they were excellent on their own, but they cheated and, um, this isn't, you know, this isn't heaven, you know, this isn't, uh, uh, this isn't even, you know, a, uh, this isn't freedom from, you know, imprisonment or whatever. It's just the hall of fame. Um, but the hall of fame should be for excellence and I don't think that includes cheating. And so. I'm sorry. Roger Clemens. Um, I don't think he belongs in and I don't really, you know, in the same way that I don't think Pete Rose should be in the hall of fame.
JVL00:19:44So I, uh, I sort of fall between you guys in that my views at the hall, isn't about the players. Like the players don't have a right to the hall of fame. The hall of fame doesn't exist for the players. Actually it exists for the game of baseball and what all of these decisions should be driven by. What is best for the game of baseball. And I, in a way, I kind of think that exclusions from the hall can be equally important as the inclusions in terms of their teaching function for the game of baseball. And so excluding Pete Rose, it, it doesn't exile it. That is a part of the story of the hall of fame is that Pete Rose is not in it. Yes. And that, that is a teaching function for the game of baseball and excluding guys from the steroid era is also a, like, it's not erasing them. It's not, it is, they are still part of the tapestry of baseball and the fact of their exclusion is part of that story. And so it isn't like that they are owed it. It isn't that they're being erased from baseball, it's that choosing to have them stand out side of the hall is part of the teaching function of the hall for, for helping preserve the tapestry of baseball. Um, I will say as an aside, one of the things I have come to love Barry Bonds late in life, which is weird cause I always hated him as a player. Right. Um, and one of the things I love about him most is that he seems to not give a fuck all about the hall of fame. There's no whining from him about like, Barry is just like the ultimate DGAF guy. Like he did it for himself and he loved doing it and he is confident that he is the best hitter who has ever lived.
Sonny00:21:44He has no desire to be, I get the sense he has no real desire to be a part of the baseball community. Yeah. The community of baseball has holds.
JVL00:21:53Can I say, can I be part of the giants community? This is the other thing, like he is deeply involved in the giants organization still and the players and people. And I just thought anyway, if there's one guy. Who I'd make the exception for it'd be him. And it's because he doesn't want it. He's not thirsty for it.
Sonny00:22:09Yeah. Yeah. Can I, can I be a slightly cynical about this and suggest that it's actually good for the hall of fame to keep them out because it keeps us talking about the hall of fame every so true every year. Like it's actually, it's actually good as a, it's just good as like a general reminder that the hall exists in as a thing people argue about for, for the dumbest reasons.
JVL00:22:30And it, it makes, again, it makes the steroid thing. Relevant because we talk about it. And so it keeps in people's minds, like if you do this, like they're, you know, it's bad. You shouldn't do it. Don't cheat. Right. Um, what do we think about steroid users who get caught and then like do their time on it? So like Fernando Tatis Jr., uh, who got caught for steroids, he was using them not during this. So he was caught while he was on injured reserve. So he never actually played a game under under steroid use, we think. Um, served his time. So if the rest of his career, he's clean and he is hall of fame worthy, which he's a hundred percent going to be, cuz that guy's fucking awesome. Um, do you keep him out or is it, or is the, the problem with the steroid era is that they were using all the way through the era and that there was never accountability until after the fact.
Mike00:23:25To me, that's, that's, there's the rub, like right there is the mo there's the problem with the steroid era is that it was widespread. Because, uh, there had been no accountability while they were playing and it, and it warps our understanding of that era of who did well, who was playing their best. You know, I mean, it, it warped so much. I think that to me, it's, it's that it was widespread and it went on for a long time. Um, is, is part of what makes it so such a problem and Fernando Tatis. If he stays clean, I mean, you know, we we'll see, uh, I, I think for his own sake, he should, uh, because I agree that he's, he's an incredible player. He doesn't need performance enhancement. Um, so, uh, I'm on, I'm, I'm with you on that JVL.
JVL00:24:22I went to a, to a game when the Padres were town in town in DC and flash and I showed up extra early just to watch, cuz we were sitting right behind the third base dugout. We just wanted to watch. So he's warm up and the, I don't think I've ever seen any human being as athletic, but just naturally athletic as he is watching his just, um, just his warmup routine. Every single movement is like a fucking ballerina. Like you just get the sense that he, he can make his body do literally anything that he wants. He has such absolute control over every muscle. That's awesome. Okay. Yeah. That's all. That's all I got. I wanted to ask you guys.
Mike00:25:10How are you, Michael? I'm fine. I don't really have much to talk about except that, um, we made our trip back from South Carolina, back to home in Northern Virginia by taking just one single stop on the drive in, uh, which like relatively early in the trip, uh, just to get gas, frankly. Um, and, and yet it still took us like an hour and a half extra time because of fucking Virginia traffic.
JVL00:25:44So it's like the Kessel Run in five parsecs.
Mike00:25:47Totally. Um, but I, I want to, I, that's really all I have to say about that because I want to
JVL00:25:51move on so that we can talk about, yeah, we've got to talk about box office and the box office
Mike00:25:56talk. Exactly. Center is number one.
JVL00:25:59Yes. Maybe don't release a movie called sinners on Easter weekend.
Sonny00:26:04Yeah.
JVL00:26:05Seems to not hurt it. Frankly. I, excuse me. It was projecting at third at 40 and you were like way over, way over, and it did like 45,
Sonny00:26:13right? 48. It did. So I, I, it was projecting 40. I thought it would beat projections and do 50 to 60 based on word of mouth. It did 48, which is 20% better than the projections. Not quite 25% as I, as I had thought, however, uh, I do think that I, the, the, the mid week holds have been insane. On this movie.
JVL00:26:35They should, they should have waited a weekend. So it wasn't on Easter Sunday when everybody's thinking about saints and no, because if you
Sonny00:26:41wait a weekend, then it's a weekend before Thunderbolts. Uh, and the, the whole point though, well, this movie is also very much about that movie
JVL00:26:48is DOA.
Sonny00:26:49Right. I don't think so. I don't think so. I maybe, maybe it's getting, it's getting pretty good buzz. People seem excited anyway. No sinners, sinners, uh, sinners outperformed projections by 20%. It got an a from cinema score, um, audiences. Which is the, the only time any horror movie has ever gotten an a from cinema score. Wow. Impressive. Now you can, there's some, there's some category monkey. Is this really horror? Is it action?
JVL00:27:19Get out wasn't an a?
Sonny00:27:20Get out was a minus. Yeah. I thought, I thought get out was an a, but a get out was an a minus and get out did I think had a 5.5 multiple, something like that. So this movie, this movie did $48 million. It is holding incredibly. I have seen. Suggestions that it will drop as little as 20% in its second.
JVL00:27:37Wow.
Sonny00:27:38Wow. Which would be an enormous hold. It would put it over 110, 115 million, something like that. Um, uh, which, uh, I can't remember, I can't remember if I said this to you guys or just to somebody in DMS, but when I was coming, coming out of the theater, um, from seeing, seeing sinners, uh, with the preview audience, I said that this could do Oppenheimer. Numbers domestically, big difference between domestic and foreign movies without getting into the fraught racial dynamics of it all, uh, movies, movies about, and by black people do less well overseas than here in the United States. Um, but, uh, but like, uh, and I, I don't think $330 million is in play necessarily, but I do think like two 50 is, and that's, that's an, that's an enormous, that's an enormous, enormous number for an R rated. Original R rated movie, uh, that is, you know, uh, like you don't see that the biggest, the, the, this, this movie had a, the biggest, uh, this had the, this had the biggest opening for an original film since I believe us, uh, which came out in 2018, something like that. 2018, 2019, that movie, that movie opened to like $80 million. It did a huge, it was the. It was the followup to Jordan Peele's get out audiences were very excited for it. Um, uh, so this is the best movie since that. I don't know, man. I think this is going to be an enormous hit. I think it will hold very well week to week. I think we could be looking at a multiple of five, maybe six. I like, I could see this movie doing two, two, I can see this movie topping out at two 20. I could see it topping out at two 80. I mean, like it's, it's just, it really is. It really is. Dynamite one, one mild question is whether or not it drops a lot of the audience after it moves off of the premium large format screens after it's not on IMAX anymore. You know, I don't know, maybe, but, uh, but I, but audience, the audiences, uh, so I, I, I went and saw this at, uh, the it's playing an IMAX 70 millimeter, which is very, very rare format. There's only eight theaters in the country. They can play it. One of them is here in Dallas and I went to see it, uh, in Dallas. I also saw interstellar on.
JVL00:30:04IMAX 70 millimeter here, slightly different audiences, slightly more, more talking to
Sonny00:30:12the screen on centers than there was for interstellar. I'll just, I'll leave it at that. That's, uh, that's, that's all, that's all I'll say about that. But the audience again was like incredibly into it. It was like, it was like a party being at this, this screening and it is, it is just going to, it is going to clean up.
Mike00:30:29I mean, it is no chicken jockey moments, no people throwing, uh, no chicken jockey
Sonny00:30:34screens. There's not, there wasn't popcorn everywhere. Just a lot of, just a lot of like, Oh, I bet he's a vampire now. You fucking figured it out. Sherlock. Good job. Uh, but the, uh, anyway, it was a fun, fun movie. People seem to really be enjoying it.
Mike00:30:49Question. Can, is there any sense that you have from that, from the projections that you're seeing and that you're making here, Sonny, um, that this movie has exit velocity outside of black audiences? Because I. Will say that, um, to the extent that it was both on my, uh, radar and more interestingly, my wife's radar, she's like very familiar with this movie because, um, many of her black friends on like social media, we're talking about it. Um, and it, it made me wonder, does, what does that, what is the sort of racial audience look like if, if the projection is what you think it might go?
Sonny00:31:34Uh, in the United States, I think it will be, it will be, I think, I think it will play more heavily with black audiences than with white audiences compared to the general skew. So what's, what's interesting about audience breakdowns is that black audiences are already overrepresented in movie audiences from the, from the general population. Like I think like something, something like something on average, something like 20 to 23% or something like that is, uh, of a, of a new, of an opening weekend audience is African-American depends on the movie depends on, you know, whatever, but African-American audiences and Hispanic audiences over index in terms of, uh, audiences that show up for these things for sinners. I think the opening weekend audience was 50% black, which is a, which is obviously even, you know, even, even bigger skew than normal. Um, I, I. I think this is a movie that will play beyond, uh, black audiences, but I do think it will be a pretty heavily African-American audience and it is like in, you know, this movie is not going to play overseas. It just isn't, uh, because it is very explicitly an African-American film. This is a movie about like the blues and sharecroppers in Mississippi. Like it is, it is not a movie that, that will probably resonate. With lots of audiences in like Europe or China, China, the Chinese audiences are not, not lining up for centers. I don't think even beyond the racial dynamic though, with China, like the, what's interesting is like in China, you have a very hard time getting movies about the supernatural made like movies about the supernatural movies about, um, like, like viscerally violent, grotesque, grotesquely violent movies have a hard time getting. Getting past sensor boards there. So like this movie was never going to, this movie was never going to open or play there, but I, like, I have a hard time seeing the audiences in like Spain, you know, showing up for this. I don't know. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong.
Mike00:33:48Yeah. All right. Um, any other box office thoughts? Minecraft movie keeps chugging along here.
Sonny00:33:54Um, that, that is a huge hit around the world. I mean, that's, I think it's 750 million worldwide, something like seven 20, seven 27 worldwide right now. So that movie. That movie is going to make a billion dollars. What we, you know what, you know who we should, before we get to revenge of the Sith here, we should really pay homage to one of the great film executives of our time.
Mike00:34:16Sure.
Sonny00:34:17David Zasloff, David Zasloff, uh, the, the Warner brothers head. Who's taken a real beating in the media, taken a real beating in the media, but you know what he's done? He has spearheaded. Autor driven movies. That have really, you know, he makes Bong Joon who he signs off on Bong Joon. Who's a Mickey 17, right? That movie doesn't work, but you know, you take chances. You take chances. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. He made Napoleon dynamites, Minecraft, uh, Jared Hesse's Jared Hesse's minecraft.
JVL00:34:51Did that lose, uh, Oppenheimer and lose Christopher? No, that was, that was Jason.
Sonny00:34:58That was Jason Kilar. Oh, that was just, that was before Zasloff. Yeah. He, he is the one who signed off. On the, the, you know, put everything in on HBO max. Right.
JVL00:35:07Gotcha.
Sonny00:35:08Now Zasloff has his own issues. Zasloff has, but he signs off on Ryan. He spends $90 million on Ryan Coogler's, uh, vampire movie. He, he, he gives him the copyright back after 25 years and unheard of, unheard of deal for, and, uh, and it's paying off. It's paying off at the box office. So David Zasloff, you know, your big win for you earning that $55 million. Man of the man of the artists is what your man of the arts arts for art's sake. That's David Zasloff's motto is artists.
Mike00:35:44All right. Uh, okay. Well, uh, I think we can move on then from the box office. Cause we have a lot to talk about with this, uh, movie of the week. Revenge of the SIF. It's 20 years, 20 years guys. Can you believe it? 20 years makes me feel like the crypt keeper. Yeah, exactly. Um, burning up, uh, Sonny, do you want to give us a, uh, uh, overview review? Maybe of star Wars, episode three revenge of the SIF.
Sonny00:36:15Revenge of the SIF star Wars, episode three, revenge of the SIF war. Isn't that how that's how they're heroes on both sides. I love, I love George Lucas is both sides thing here.
JVL00:36:28Um, I, uh, no, one side is composed entirely of robots or any of those. Evil robots, heroes.
Sonny00:36:37What about general Grievous?
JVL00:36:39Isn't he a, he's like Roger, Roger, the robot who says Roger, Roger, is he a hero?
Sonny00:36:44What about the, what about the JVL JVL?
Mike00:36:48We're going to, we're going to get there JVL.
Sonny00:36:50All right. So, uh, no, it's 20th anniversary. It's back in theaters. It's going to be, it's a big, big hit in, uh, is, is what it is looking like. Then the projections on this number are on this movie or like. Somewhere at 25, $30 million, something like that. Like audiences are showing up for revenge of the set. They really want to, they really want to experience Mustafar on the big screen.
Mike00:37:11Uh, I, uh, what is it?
Sonny00:37:19I don't know. I was, I was doing, I was doing the birthing robot. Um, uh, anyway, revenge of the Sith. I don't, I don't. I don't know how you guys feel about it. Uh, I, I rewatched it this week ahead of the, the, the re-release. Uh, it's on, it's on Disney plus, you can watch it there. Um, and you know, look, it has all of the problems that the prequels have, which is that it was all, all of the interior scenes were shot on terrible green screens and it, it just like the lighting is all off on all of them. George Lucas did not have a handle on that side of the technology and a lot of the CGI, CGI with like humanoids, the, the clones still kind of dodgy. It's a, you know, it, that shows its age. Um, I will say I, I have always, I've always had a soft spot for this movie. I've always enjoyed the kind of operatic, like operatic emotion, silliness, uh, but like the big swells have always worked for me in this movie, the opening, the opening action, uh, swooping. Down into the battle is like, is, is a great sequence. Um, and this is the thing is that this movie has a number of really good sequences, even if the whole thing doesn't entirely work because Hayden Christensen is not that great. You know, Natalie Portman is saddled with the worst dialogue of all time, et cetera, et cetera. But like, uh, my heart, but, but that the, the, the, it all culminates in what is genuinely one of the great sequences. In 21st century filmmaking, which is the big battle, the big lava battle on Mustafar, which is just, just iconic and explosive. And it has this brother versus brother, uh, uh, battle in it. And I, I, I, man, I tell you the, it only, it, maybe it only works as well as it does because Ewan McGregor is a great actor. He sells Obi-Wan. Sells the pathos in Obi-Wan who feels torn, who feels betrayed, uh, who is, has seen his life's work crumble around him. Um, I don't know, man, the, the movie still works for me. It still works. I like it. I like this movie. I've always liked this movie. Uh, I think it's probably the third best Star Wars movie after, after, uh, Empire, New Hope, Empire, New Hope, this, Rogue One, I guess.
Mike00:40:03I don't know.
Sonny00:40:04Yeah. Okay.
Mike00:40:06Return of the Jedi. I, I have a sense JVL.
JVL00:40:09Can you top, can you top Sonny in your praise for this movie?
Mike00:40:12Cuz I know you want to.
JVL00:40:14It's better than I remember it by, by like this much. Um, and I, you know, I sort of, I hate a little bit, um, but it's a, it's a, it's a terrible film. It's, it is a terrible film. And at. There are so many stupid things about it and bad things about it, but at the heart of everything is it's a terrible film because of how Anakin and Obi Wan are written and we can take the acting away. I mean, has any actor ever delivered less on their promise than Ewan McGregor? Cuz as a young guy, you know, it was like, oh, Ewan McGregor, that guy's pretty good. No, no, he's not. He's not a good actor. Could not possibly disagree more, uh, but the character of Anakin is never likable even
Sonny00:41:12once in all of the prequels.
JVL00:41:15He's not likable as Jake Lloyd. He's not interested. He's it's not even like, he's not interesting. He is boring the entire time. Anakin Skywalker does not become an interesting character until James Earl Jones is voicing him in episode four. Everything before that is boring. And you, the only reason any of us care about that character is because we know eventually he's going into the suit. That's a problem. That's a, that's a deep, deep problem. Uh, Obi Wan's character is as is as different from the Obi Wan of a new hope as, uh, Gandalf, the gray is from Gandalf, the white they they're, they're like two totally different characters. There's none of the wisdom. None of the intelligence, uh, young Obi Wan is an idiot and a sad sack and, uh, he's stupid. My God, they are both so stupid. These characters make bad decisions over and over and over again. There's a scene early in this movie where Palpatine says, uh, you know, well, master Jedi that we're talking about a Sith Lord here. Obi Wan says, Chancellor, Sith Lords are our speciality. No, they're not. You guys have fought Sith Lords twice before. The first time he cut your fucking mentor in half and the second time your ass got kicked from here to eternity until Yoda showed up. What does that even mean? Sith Lords are our speciality. If that character hears that after the experiences we have seen, his reaction should be, fuck, can we get back up? Right? This is, it makes no sense.
Sonny00:43:06But this is, this is the whole point is that the Jedi are overconfident. They're an overconfident, decadent order that needs to be burned to the ground.
JVL00:43:15Totally, totally understand. None of that scans with the version of Obi Wan we met in episode four, though.
Sonny00:43:25Well, he's chastened by his years of failure.
JVL00:43:28Yeah. I mean, does he seem chastened at the end of Revenge of the Sith? Because it doesn't seem all that chastened. To me, like, he still seems like an idiot. And I that the lack it's not just the lack of chemistry between Hayden Christian and Natalie Portman. I, by the way, I showed favorite that the love scene because she and I were talking the other night and she's never seen the movie and she she was like, how bad is it? Really? I said, let me show you one. Let me show you one minute and five seconds. And so I queued up the because I'm so in love with you know it's because I'm so in love
Sonny00:44:02with you.
JVL00:44:03And and it ended and she said, let us blinded you and favorite says to me. That can't be real. I said, oh, oh, it's real. She goes, that's not a that's not a YouTube parody. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's in the movie. It's not just that chemistry. It's the lack of chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. Like this is it's like they're in a buddy comedy where they. They both hate each other and annoy each other, and but not in a fun and entertaining way. They annoy us. You don't want to spend time with either of them on to honestly, the only character in this movie that you want to spend any time with is the Palpatine. Right. He's the only he has clear motivations. He has a character arc. Everything he's doing basically makes sense is laughing all the time. He's laughing all the time. He's an actor. He's having fun. Like, you're like, can we get back to him? Can we get back to that guy? That character is interesting. And instead, we're saddled with these two leads whose characters are just nothing, nothing. And I think that's a big problem, in addition to all the other problems. That's the problem, which is at the heart of why this movie is so bad. It's not just the story. It's not just that they filmed everything in front of a green screen. It's not just the plot. Holes. It's not just the the weird tonal problems that Lucas has, where we were doing slapstick with the droids in in one frame, and then we cut to a beheading in the next frame. We're like, wait, I'm sorry, is this a kid's movie where we're laughing that R2 is spraying oil on droidekas? Or is this a dark movie where we're beheading people? Which is it? All of those things could be overcome. If at the heart of it, the characters were were written better and conceived better. And they're not. They're not. The red letter media guys make a point very early on that there was a moment in the opening sequence where Anakin says as they're making their way towards the General Grievous's ship in the big giant space battle, which is absolutely weightless because nobody has any idea what's going on. We find people that in A New Hope at the end, we are told that there are 24, 24 X-Wing fighters making an assault on the and we wind up with like, well, launch the 15 TIE fighters. And so with a grand total of 50, 50 space fighters in, we have unbelievable tension by putting 5000 things up on screen and we have no idea who's good and who's bad and what's happening. You relieve all of the tension and you make it weightless and meaningless. So dense. It's so dense.
Sonny00:47:05Every frame is pecked. But that's again, you're just describing the themes of the film being represented visually. We have no idea what's going on and who the good guys are, the bad guys are.
JVL00:47:17Let let me continue. So there is a moment then where one of the 50000 clone trooper ships is in trouble. And Anakin is like, I'm going to go back to save him. The only possible reason. To include this. And this is again, the red letter media guys make this point is to try to convince the audience that Anakin's a good guy. Sort of. Yeah, that's the that's the only it makes no sense, except it's almost like a studio note after the fact. Like, you know, Anakin's kind of a dick. Is the audience going to care about? Can't you make him like a tiny bit heroic? Like, oh, I guess we could ask him to save a clone trooper.
Mike00:48:01Show that he cares about some cannon fodder.
JVL00:48:03Yeah. I anyway, it is an absolute mess and it's horrible. And I just I disagree with you on every single. Every single point, Sonny, and there is, in fact, a single iconic lightsaber duel in this. And it's the Phantom Menace Qui-Gon Jinn. Yeah. Duel of Darth Maul. Duel of the Fates.
Sonny00:48:28That is also very good.
JVL00:48:29Also very good. That this this one is the worst part. One of the worst duels in the history of the franchise. It's utterly idiotic.
Sonny00:48:37Again, I just disagree very strongly with it. My the worst duels are any of them with Yoda doing his CGI. Also terrible. Those are those are also terrible. And this is and like the whole like duel in the halls of Coruscant is like I like that part of it. I don't I don't care for it. None of that works. Again, CGI Yoda has never really worked for me. I will just say I. Well, Mike, why don't you go? Because I want to get your take on this because you're you're this is closer to your. So you are what? Like 16?
Mike00:49:13I was 17 when I came out.
JVL00:49:15So in fact, you've been sexually active for nine years at the point.
Mike00:49:20Good Lord, I wish. So no, in fact, this story will demonstrate that I was not so. Well, my friends and I in the on the occasion of this movie being released, we held a Star Wars movie marathon in which we watched all of them in chronological story wise chronological order. So we we woke up early in the morning. We all went to my friend's house and we watched episode one and two on DVD, and then we went to the theater, watched episode three in the theater, then came back. And I believe we finished Return of the Jedi at like eleven forty five that night. Not not a lot of girls joining us. I was going to ask how many girls were in that posse of yours. We had a couple we had a couple of couple of girlfriends like jump in for like a movie and then they're like, this is awful, we're leaving. So so, yeah, so so but I don't think that was the last time I saw this movie, but it was not much longer after that. That was the last time I saw it. So I came to it sort of interested to see how I've seen the red letter media review of many times. I find it much more entertaining than the movie itself. And but I was like, let me come and see this. I was also watching it with an eye to letting my boys watch it because it's the only one of the first six that they haven't seen. It's PG 13. It was just, you know, it just it's a question for me. And I came away, by the way, thinking they're not ready for it because I can't let one watch it and not let the other watch it. And it's too it's too much.
Sonny00:51:07You mean the part where ashes burns to death in in the lava river on the bank of the lava river is is a little too intense.
Mike00:51:18But like I have a I have that in my memory, but like it wasn't until I watched it, which I will. This is where I will agree with Sonny, like that whole sequence. You know, if I was had my arms crossed for much of the movie, like I was at the edge of my seat for that sequence because it's it was thrilling. It was exciting.
JVL00:51:34It's great. In spite of myself, I had as much dramatic tension as playing Donkey Kong Country.
Mike00:51:40All right. Well, you know what? I play Donkey Kong Country JVL Donkey Kong Country was a game of mine. And so it's so like when that moment happened, I was sort of like I like recoiled physically. I was like, oh, like, that's that's hard to look at. And then I thought, there's no way my kids can get to watch, can watch this and not have nightmares. OK. So that part, that whole scene, it's fine. I mean, even then, it's weighted down by like the Lucas way of like of shifting to show what's happening concurrently and, you know, with Yoda and Palpatine and, you know, and then like some of the dialog in that scene is clunky, like only a Sith deals in absolute like, oh, give me a break. But I also just came away with like so frustrated. And thinking about I could have written a better screenplay. I could have written like this movie made this movie a thousand times better. And I'm like, I don't know how to write a screenplay, but like I know I could do better than this. And it's not just in the plotting and the writing, it's the in the actual filming. So there are multiple. Yes, the Red Letter Media guys have sort of pointed this out ad nauseum about the sitting on couches or walking in hallways slowly as like it's like every single scene is like this. And there were there were moments that there's one scene in particular that like where it stuck out to me where I was like, like, does George Lucas realize he's making a movie as in like in the visual medium where like you visually show tell a story through this like thing we have called like actors and sets and cameras and that can you could do stuff with that to tell the story. So this the scene near the end that that stuck out to me. I've written a lot about this about like it's emblematic of what's so bad about these prequels. Order 66 has happened right all and actually like that scene where where they sort of wordlessly show all the Jedi across the galaxy being killed. It's done. It's like I think that's actually done pretty well. And Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda are the only survivors at right and they figure out they sort of connect with Jimmy Smith's and they figure out okay, let's go I'll go meet on Jimmy Smith's ship and like regroup figure out what's happening and figure out what we're going to do next. Okay. So those are the stakes right they can't reach any of their fellow Jedi. They don't know what's going on how this has happened and they got to figure out what's happening next. So how does the movie like get us to that conversation? It's a cut to a very familiar ship, right? It's the same kind of ship that liaison at the beginning of Star Wars. And they're walking abreast slowly down the hallway and talking in this very calm cadence like oh, all the Jedi are gone. What are we going to do now? Oh, we will we must figure out blah blah blah it's like so fucking boring and all I could think of was like as I'm sitting here watching this here's how you make this seem better. Jimmy Smith's and Yoda like watching as Obi Wan ship docks to this ship and like Obi Wan out of breath because he's so out of his mind about what's happening like stumbles out of the ship and and sees Master Yoda Master Yoda what's going like with some you know this thing like a sense of urgency in his voice and in his acting and you have like this dynamic scene where people are like moving and showing in their body language and in the way that speaking and in the questions that they are asking and in the way that they are answering them you tell the story of what's just happened and then maybe you finish up with a walk through the iconic hallway of this thing that's like that that demonstrates you know you gives the little member berries a little bit right like that's clearly what Lucas is trying to do but like every single scene is like this where it's like the any little bit of thought and effort that could be put into like telling the conveying the information and telling the story in an interesting cinematic way is just like like throw it throw it away flush it down the toilet let's just have a wide shot on a green screen and then close shots showing the people talking to each other and I can't really blame the actors for not having any emotion in their voices because what are they what they don't know what's going on they just have a script they're just being told to talk it's awful it's terrible last thing I'll say and then I'll shut up I do think the Scots both the Scots in this movie are great both Ian McDiarmid who is just I just love him in this movie he's so he's having such a good time in this movie like he's great and I and I do think Ewan McGregor it does does a terrific job when he's given the opportunity so that's those are my thoughts do with them what you will no I mean I can't even I can't
Sonny00:57:10even really dispute any of that I don't think that's wrong I mean the big problem the big problem with the whole series the big problem with the whole series is that it has an Anakin sized hole at the center of it as JBL mentioned and the the Anakin sized hole is we are told repeatedly he is the best he's the best fighting Jedi he's the best star fighter he's he's he's the he is a hero of the of the the Clone Wars and he is out there doing and he's saving people and he's he is rightfully frustrated that he has not been given the rank of master because he deserves it because he's such a great hero and all we ever see is him getting his fucking ass kicked in this series like we that's that's like I mean the pod race whatever he's fine like like a child Anakin does more to impact the outcome of any of these movies than uh grown Jedi Anakin but like we don't we we we see him he gets he gets his hand cut off uh by by Dooku um yes he does eventually execute Dooku but like okay that you know that that's just to really keep things moving forward gets killed by almost killed by uh by Obi-Wan toward the end he isn't able like again it and he's everybody's pawn and he's and he's an idiot right he's like totally he's totally used to manipulate it but like okay he's a kid and he well he wasn't given the proper training he came too late to it you know whatever um but the uh but no like the the problem with this movie is we we don't really see him be the big heroic hero that he needs to be for us to believe that he deserves what he needs to be for us to believe that he deserves what he needs to be for us to believe that he cures a little bit i haven't watched the clone wars i don't like it does not cure that people people i'm also not watching a cartoon not not not not episode two the the show the cartoon i say the the the cartoon supposedly you see him you know leading ahsoka around and she well if you
JVL00:59:21read the books from the expanded universe exactly no and that's what that's what all that that
Sonny00:59:25sounds like i like i i agree i totally agree that there's a giant anakin-sized hole in in this movie uh but also i is that i this thing hangs together for me in a way it clearly does not for the two of you granted i spent most of the movie watching at this time like just kind of looking at my phone during the non-actions i just that's always a good good mark of a good movie any padme uh anakin scenes i'm just like what's going on on twitter you know it's that
Mike00:59:57was that was me here's here's the other thing real quick is the like i do think the motive is so confusing here for anakin so like is he he's not being treated fairly by the jedi and so he's sort of being driven into palpatine's arms by the jedi who won't give him his due or is he afraid well he's afraid of what will happen but like but it to me it's it's confusing uh it's not it's it's i mean there's so many things you have to have two
Sonny01:00:32thoughts in your head at the same time and your brain can't handle it you know what you know what
Mike01:00:37i'm not gonna let you vic me here on this okay i can hold i can i can deal with complexity in a movie but i do think it can it confuses the motivation because so like palpatine gets in his like gets to him right because you're afraid your wife will die you know i can save her only i can save her life just like you should your your mother's life should have been saved blah blah blah and like that's what drives him but then he's in in in but but we don't actually get to see that at work because what actually gets him to kill mace windu or sorry that's so that's what gets him to kill mace windu but the whole reason he's in the room and when samuel jackson is arresting palpatine is because he told the jedi that he was that palpatine was bad so like it's it's confusing to me about why he's in these places and in these positions and makes the decisions that he does in those moments because his motivations are not spelled out more in depth anyway sorry that just
JVL01:01:46annoyed the shit out of me he is also just at a fundamental level not interesting yes and the character at the center of your trilogy needs to make us want to spend time around him and watching him and maybe that can be done through great writing maybe that can be done by having a really charismatic actor like Harrison Ford but or maybe you could just do it by putting him in great settings where we're just like wow this is you know like Avatar where you know we don't really care about the whoever the lead is in Avatar because everything around it is so amazing you know why we care about Luke Skywalker
Mike01:02:23is because when he's looking out at the two sons and the music gives us a sense that he is longing bigger than where he's at and that shot is where everybody falls in love with Luke Skywalker it's that moment oh Sonny it is it is where it is where it happens um and there's nothing like that with
Sonny01:02:44Anakin oh I was just the idea of falling in love with Luke Skywalker whining a little bit with the character come on all right I this is and this is the other thing that like people forget how fucking whiny Luke was in that first movie yes he really was yes he was totally but Luke is being
JVL01:02:57pulled along by all of the interesting characters around he's being pulled along by by Han and Obi-Wan and then Leia right and then it's only at the end that Luke sort of emerges as yes like a hero like it is a very but it's a hero's journey for him there isn't really any journey
Mike01:03:16for Anakin like he's always well it's all the fait accompli of of of the machine of of going
JVL01:03:22into the mask like he's gonna be in the suit so you have to care about him right why I mean look
Mike01:03:28at the marketing for Phantom Menace right the member the the the poster where uh little Jake Lloyd is is walking along and then the shadow the shadow it's like it's like guys come on like give yourself some give yourself a little bit of space here but I last question before we get out
JVL01:03:44of here Michael at 16 17 what at 17 what was your experience of the movie like what did you when you
Mike01:03:54walked out of the theater at 17 with your buddies what did you think so to answer that question I reaction to the attack of the clones because uh three years earlier my younger brother and I had been uh dropped off at the mall to go see it on our own um and we were so excited and we walked into the theater like just can't wait to see the new star wars movie and we both walked out of the theater um jaded and older and wiser than when we walked in in many ways you could say attack
JVL01:04:30of the clone turned you into it turned you into a man
Mike01:04:32yes in so many ways um i mean natalie portman's outfit um but uh it was like it was like oh they don't it was like very clear to both of us they don't know what they're doing so like my expectations were low and i do think that i came away very much the same reaction that i had after watching this 20 years later which is like that's better and i enjoyed it more and there was no dexter jettison
Sonny01:05:02dexter so it's a win your anti dexter jetster prejudice uh has been a long-running theme on this i i think i've made it clear working alien on coruscant just trying to get by no i like the problem the the thing about revenge of the sith is that it does have the benefit of coming after the worst star wars movie yeah that's true attack of the clones is the worst of the movies i like i i've long argued this phantom menace has its moments uh and it the force awakens is at least kind of like competent and entertaining and the last jedi again like we can argue about what the last jedi did but it still has good sequences like attack of the clones everything about that movie is the worst of the franchise like the worst effects the worst the worst battles the worst plotting the whole thing is just
Mike01:05:52not good oh one more thing before we go the over-reliance on the stupid backward talking from yoda like i went back and looked at the script for empire like he he i mean maybe this is just the the benefit of uh of what's his name writing the screenplay for for um uh for that movie but like yoda does not talk in backward talk all the time he doesn't do the right he doesn't like it like weaves into his into his dialogue but it's like it has very light touch and it's like the kind of thing that you go oh like yoda does talk in funny interesting backward ways and this it's like you can't even you really can't understand what yoda is saying half the time because it's like uh you know up with which we will no longer put uh these these things we shall not like what what was the subject of that of that break me a fucking give all right that's all the time i think sorry i did commandeer those last 20 minutes uh all the of attack of the or wait no uh revenge of the sith 20 years later in the comments over at some beacon.com tell us what you think of any of them uh and uh we will talk to you next time
Sonny01:07:12you're breaking my heart anakin i will say so i've been we've been watching a skeleton crew with the kids because they wanted they wanted to watch it uh and it's it's a perfectly it's what's that what is that it's a it's a disney plus star wars show it's basically like imagine like goonies but star wars it's for the kids it's aimed it's aimed at kids it's got like a kids and it's it's totally fine it's it's it's fine i i like i wouldn't uh be watching this without them but the kids are very into it they like it a lot they like the they like the kid adventure they like the the droid who is sm33 smee get it because they're pirates is what the thing is anyway they're very they they they quite enjoy it so you know um yeah andor has just uh released
Mike01:08:11uh the first three episodes of this of this season i'm where we are excited to watch that i do enjoy
Sonny01:08:16that show jbl is not excited to watch andor i know he's not but i can't i every i am sorry
JVL01:08:23but it is the case that every single one of these disney series is seven minutes of plot in a 30 minute show and there's a lot of that the bloat is it feels you know it is it feels like personal disrespect to me that disney wants me to spend 23 minutes more than is required for atmospherics no just you know it's not all just it's not all just
Sonny01:08:56art is more than just the plot this this is not to bring back to
JVL01:09:02Barry Lyndon right this is this is not uh quibi quibi yeah you know like this this is this is not stanley kubrick i am sorry uh you you do not have to do anything more than tell the story and i i can't give that much time to these things i'm sure it's fine
Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →
Comments
Loading…