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#121. The Substandard on Summer 2018 Blockbusters
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Dudes Chatting — best summers for movies and the 2018 summer preview: The gang does a round-robin ranking of most-anticipated summer 2018 films (Sonny: Mission: Impossible — Fallout, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Under the Silver Lake; Vic: Mission: Impossible — Fallout, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Solo: A Star Wars Story; JVL: Ocean's 8, Solo, Mission: Impossible — Fallout at #1). JVL delivers an extended defense of the Mission: Impossible franchise as the rare action series that tells standalone adventures without origin-story baggage. The guys then pivot to the best movie summers of their lives: Vic makes the case for summer 1986 (Top Gun, Aliens, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to School, Big Trouble in Little China, Stand By Me). JVL argues summer 1997 was objectively great — analyzing it across five categories: must-see sequels, stars in dream roles (Men in Black, Air Force One), big-idea spectacles (Contact, Face/Off, Volcano), surprise hits (Austin Powers, My Best Friend's Wedding), and genuine classics (The Fifth Element, L.A. Confidential). Sonny picks summer 2008: Iron Man and The Dark Knight set the template for the next decade; WALL-E, Tropic Thunder, and Step Brothers round it out. All three conclude their "best summer" aligns suspiciously with a personally great season of life.
Box Office: Avengers: Infinity War continues to dominate at $62M in its second weekend, now past $550M domestic; Life of the Party opens at #2 with $18.5M; Breaking In debuts at #3 with $16.5M.
JVL opens with the latest Cody baseball dispatch: after a dominant two-inning outing, Cody told the opposing coach "hey Skip, you've got a great squad over there" — JVL compares him to Crash Davis at the end of Bull Durham. JVL also received birthday presents from the Substandard Expanded Universe, including Arrested Development bobbleheads and a handmade pottery espresso cup from listener Hannah. The Corrections segment closes with a fundraising ask for Team Isaac and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, on behalf of listener Chris Haberman's four-year-old son Isaac, who has Pompe disease.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Your mission. Should you choose to accept it? I wonder, did you ever choose not to? The end you always feared is coming.
Vic00:00:27Hello and welcome to another edition of The Substandard, sponsored by Quip Electric Toothbrush and Wink Wine Club. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you TheSubstandard is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Just look on our podcast and search for Substandard. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and do leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL, happy belated birthday.
JVL00:00:55Thank you. I want to say thank you to a bunch of our listeners who sent me birthday presents. What? I'm not kidding. So these, I brought them in for show and tell. A bunch of the guys from our Twitter expanded universe sent me like a giant actual birthday package filled with multiple gifts, including Arrested Development bobbleheads. Oh, I get it. How hysterical is this? George Sr. had the ice cream sandwich and he's in his prison jumpsuit and he's got the yarmulke. He's got the yarmulke.
Sonny00:01:23It's fantastic.
JVL00:01:24Another one of our... I don't know.
Sonny00:01:25I guess they sent me Eagles Super Bowl championship socks.
JVL00:01:29Another Weekly Substandard friend, Kevin from Minnesota, sent me an Eagles Super Bowl champion lapel. Just very, very kind of them. And this, Hannah, our beloved Hannah, people may remember her from such Facebook lives as whatever we did, made me an espresso cup. Oh, look at that. She's been taking pottery classes and she made me an espresso cup. That's a perfectly fine cup. Flat-blased. And anyway, so all that.
Sonny00:01:59But I had a quick story before we move on with our weekend.
JVL00:02:02The continuous page of my 10-year-old pitcher who is continuing to wreck the league. After a game the other day in which he went two innings, no hits, no runs allowed. Afterwards, his team's still undefeated. Don't worry. Still undefeated. They're slapping hands with the other kids and the coach from the Cubs, I think. Says to him, hell of a game out there, pitch. My son, who's 10, responds to him in the following manner. He says, hey, thanks so much, Skip. Really appreciate it. Listen, you got a great squad over there. Loads of potential. You guys are going to win a lot of games this season. He has learned to speak in total sports cliches. All that was missing was, I'm just out here to try to help the team.
Vic00:02:51That's amazing.
JVL00:02:52He is like New Clarouche. Towards the end of Bull Durham.
Vic00:02:57It's great.
JVL00:02:57That's all I've got.
Vic00:02:58Victorino, how are you? I'm doing fine, but I'll go to Sonny first, because I don't know how to transition from what Sonny's going to say, because I don't know what he's going to say. So, Sonny, how are you?
Sonny00:03:08Monkey purple fart. Speaking of monkey purple farts. I'm trying to come up with a good transition here. It's been a while. It's been several weeks.
JVL00:03:19Two. It's only been two weeks.
Sonny00:03:21It's been years. It feels like it was yesterday. In a good way. In a good way. Not much going on on my end.
JVL00:03:27Hey, I love the present you sent me, too. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Sonny00:03:30What are you talking about? I didn't send you anything.
Vic00:03:33No, JVL, first of all, how did they know it was your birthday? Did you set out Twitter, hey, Substandard Universe, my birthday is coming up.
JVL00:03:40So, Shannon is deeply involved with the Substandard Twitterverse. She may have said something. Really? Yeah, very. No, you know what it was? She tried crowdsourcing with the Substandard Expanded Universe presents for her to give to me. And she was like, what should I get? Oh, oh, oh. And then they took it upon themselves.
Vic00:03:57I thought you meant like a GoFundMe, please raise money so I can get them. No, no.
JVL00:04:00She was like, what do I get them? Oh. And someone was like, how about a watch? And she blocked them.
Sonny00:04:05Well, if she wanted to get you a watch, you would have to do a GoFundMe for that. That would be the Submariner.
JVL00:04:14The baby is sick again, and she comes down from bath time the other day, holding up her arm like this. And she goes, I, too, have a poop watch. Oh, that's great.
Sonny00:04:25Oh, it happens.
JVL00:04:26Yeah. So how are you, Sonny? What's up? Not a whole lot.
Sonny00:04:30What have you been doing the last couple weeks? I don't know. I'm trying to think. I actually didn't really prepare anything. Tom Wolfe died. That was sad. We mentioned this on the micro. Yeah, yeah. Yesterday. Great author. We're back here now. You know what?
JVL00:04:41Overrated.
Sonny00:04:41Overrated. Totally overrated. No good. Well, it was funny when people were sharing their Tom Wolfe, you know, these are my favorite bubba.
JVL00:04:49Just a conservative neocon nationalist.
Sonny00:04:51And I am a, it's funny. I don't really like. I don't really like his fiction. I'm not a big fan of his fiction. I am Charlotte Simmons, the one that was in Miami, Bonfire of the Vanities. I like, it just doesn't do a ton for me. And I don't know why exactly, because I love his nonfiction. And you would think that his style of writing would work better in the kind of, you know, fictional universe that he is creating. But I just, I, all the curly cues and stuff just didn't, has never really done anything for me. But his fiction, I mean, Radical Chic and Mount Mounting the Flat Catchers. Jouching Sam and Charlie. And I used the occasion of his death to pick up From Bauhaus to the Art House and The Painted Word, which I had not actually read yet. So, excited to do that. Sad. He is gone. One of the greats. Vic, what was your favorite Tom Clancy book? Wait, hold on. Or Tom Clancy, Tom Wolfe book. Has anybody gone the opposite way on Tom Wolfe yet? What are we?
JVL00:05:44No, I mean, has anybody written? No, no, no, no, no. Has Slate published the, actually, Tom Wolfe was totally overrated. I'm sure. Actually, Tom Wolfe is super problematic. I'm sure the nation is working. I'm working on it right now. Okay.
Vic00:05:56I actually have in my bookshelf all the right stuff. All the right stuff. Because you've never read it.
JVL00:06:03All the right stuff and A Man in Fall. Have you read either of those books? So, Margot Kidder died. Oh, sorry. Wrong episode. I had. Have you read In Them?
Vic00:06:14I have. I have read In Them. What is the interesting thing? Who does he dedicate A Man in Fall to? Do you remember this? I don't. I believe he dedicates it. To Dr. Paul McHugh, interestingly enough. Really? Look it up. That's pretty interesting. That's a deep pull. See? I got something.
Sonny00:06:33That's a whole chapter. I got something. That's a whole chapter in the nation. Take down. I'm sorry. No, I'm not.
Vic00:06:37And looking back now, it's a problem. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure. Okay. So, you know where I went recently? Lots of family fun here. Have you done this yet? I know you have not. Port City Brewing. I've done this before. I did this like a year ago. Yeah, you mentioned this before. So, I went again with my father. I went with my father-in-law and the kids. Kate was busy, so I-
JVL00:06:58Is this in Alexandria? Yes, off of Duke Street. I have been there.
Vic00:07:01Oh my gosh.
Sonny00:07:03I went once.
Vic00:07:04Yes, it's off of Duke.
Sonny00:07:05Yeah. Where is it off Duke Street?
Vic00:07:07It's Wheeler Ave. Back. Wait, not Duke, Old Town. Heading out west in the sort of industrial sector.
JVL00:07:13I've been there. I was there with, I took Cody. And we went and hung out with my sister and her babies. Is it west? Oh, there you go.
Sonny00:07:19That's exactly right. Is it west of 395? Good question. I believe it is. I could be wrong. So it's like past, it's like past the total line. We should really unpack where it is, because our listeners would be very interested in knowing.
Vic00:07:33For our listeners who really care, you know where it's near? Is it Wheeler Ave East or Wheeler Ave South? It is just around the corner from the bottom of Quaker Lane.
JVL00:07:41How do you like that? Oh, okay. See? Right around Quaker Lane. Did the DC Slices food truck, was it parked there selling pizza? No, it was Rockland's. But before that, Rockland's was pretty good.
Vic00:07:50But you know what else was good? Basic burgers usually there, but it was Rockland's. It was fine. And they had all sorts. It was like Cinco de Mayo, so they had a special Mexican beer that tasted. It was like a Dos Equis Dark in amber. It was fine. But they had all sorts of interesting games in the parking lot. They had giant beer pong, mind us, obviously, the beer in the corn hole. So like giant, hold on now, giant buckets of like the plastic garbage bins, and you had to throw basketballs in. And there's like six across from each other, and I actually won that. That was a lot of fun. The kids loved it because they're throwing the basketballs in there. So, you know, respect, I guess. Especially, I'll tell you this.
JVL00:08:28This wasn't like carnival games. No, no, no.
Vic00:08:30This is a free-for-all. Who did you beat? My father-in-law. When you say you won.
JVL00:08:36My father-in-law. It was me and Michael versus my father-in-law and Sabrina. You're better than your father-in-law at something. Yes, and he is a three-letter.
Vic00:08:44He was a three-letter jock.
Sonny00:08:46So you beat your elderly relative and your child.
JVL00:08:50Yes, and my child. But not at saving lives by cutting them open and fixing their hearts. No, not really.
Vic00:08:55Or medevacking out of nom. Nobody's going to confuse nom.
Sonny00:08:58But who's to say which is more impressive? Nobody's going to confuse Vic with being a real man. That's not what we're getting. No, no, no. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
Vic00:09:09However-
Sonny00:09:09The good doctor is still the best.
Vic00:09:11However, yes, and JV will answer your question. They had Cornhole. Now, I don't know if anybody's familiar with Cornhole, but it's a pretty good game. Mike Warren loves Cornhole, and he said it's very popular in the South. It's funny, because I thought it was- It was popular in Greece. That's what I always thought for some reason.
JVL00:09:27So you like to play Cornhole with Melissa?
Vic00:09:29I have no idea, but I was unsure about it at first, but then I got pretty good at it. And the key is to just relax the muscles, you know, and just throw it in there. But we were just kind of like free for all, but there's actually a set of rules, points- For cornholing? For cornholing. And I think if you go to a website on Google, you'll probably find that. I'm imagining there should be a site like ilovecornhole.com or something. And that will probably- Cornhole Kings? That'll probably get you there. In any event, it was a lot of fun.
Sonny00:10:03Why didn't you save this for the AEI live show, Vic? Why are you wasting this gold?
Vic00:10:10That moneyed crowd would have really appreciated this. So let me wrap things up on this. Anyway, thank you. I played it against my father-in-law. He hit my cornhole three times in a row. He was that good? It was a crushing performance. Speaking of crushing performances, Avengers Infinity War continued to dominate the box office this weekend with $62 million for a total gross of more than $550 million in second place. Domestic. Domestic. Can we discuss just before you move on,
Sonny00:10:38it also debuted to $200 million in its first weekend in China, which is an enormous number, even for these movies. And it is at like $1.6 billion something right now. It'll easily cross $2 billion. I can't say I'm shocked by this. It's like the logical culmination of the whole Marvel experiment, but still a little surprised.
Vic00:11:06Me too, in terms of people who are coming back. It's not just new people. I'm assuming a lot of people are like, oh, I want to see it again. But what this tells me is that Avengers 4 is going to be even bigger then because people want to see how this thing wraps up. Maybe. We'll see.
Sonny00:11:21I don't know. I mean, it's hard. Who knows?
Vic00:11:23Yeah. In second place was Life of the Party with $18.5 million, followed by Breaking In in third place with $16.5 million. Also, in fourth place was Overboard because people were demanding a reboot. Is that what happened? Reboot. They said, I want... Well, it stars a Latin heartthrob who is...
Sonny00:11:41Apparently. ...who has his own kind of audience and niche that shows up.
Vic00:11:47It is like an Anna Faris.
Sonny00:11:50An Anna Faris.
Vic00:11:51So she's there in fourth place and her husband is... In first place, Chris Pratt.
Sonny00:11:56Well, they're not funny together anymore.
Vic00:11:58Oh. Really?
Sonny00:12:00Awkward.
Vic00:12:01Oh, no.
Sonny00:12:02Well, that is awkward. I don't know if they're officially divorced or what, but they are definitely not together anymore. Thank you for...
Vic00:12:09You learn something every time you come on the show as a co-host. She couldn't handle his massive success.
Sonny00:12:14I mean, that's the... You know, she started off as the big movie star and he was just the little TV guy. Who left whom? That's the question. He was in that movie with Jennifer Lawrence. And yada, yada, yada. Now they're not together anymore.
Guest00:12:29Oh.
Vic00:12:30Oh, right. Yeah, the spaceship one. Passengers.
Sonny00:12:33Passengers. I love that movie, by the way. Really? That movie's great. And I really recommend it to everyone who listens to us. If you haven't seen Passengers, you should go see it.
Vic00:12:42So, does Marvel outdo Marvel next weekend in terms of who's going to be at the top of the box office? Well, Disney. I mean, these are... Oh, Disney, right. Well, I guess...
Sonny00:12:51Wait, what's next weekend? Well, there's... Next weekend's Deadpool. Next weekend is Deadpool and then the weekend after that is Solo. Right. So, it's not... It's not Disney. It's Fox. Although, I think... Well, there's some sort of Marvel partnership. I don't know. It's weird. It's hard to keep track of. But do we expect Avengers to continue?
Vic00:13:09Like, how long are they going to continue? No, Deadpool will. No, Deadpool's going to gross an enormous amount of money.
Sonny00:13:14$175 million or something.
Vic00:13:15It's like the superhero for grown-ups.
Sonny00:13:17It's R, though, right? It's R. It'll be the highest grossing R-rated debut ever. Well, the first one was, yeah.
JVL00:13:24No, but this is going to bring... It's going to break.
Sonny00:13:25I expect that this will break that. I would be surprised if it did not. Yeah. It seems to be tracking very, very well.
Vic00:13:31You know, there's no actual other really big movies, obviously, that came out the week after Avengers. Everybody was too scared. They were scared off about it. But we are going to brush up on our summer blockbusters in this episode. But before we do that, we need to brush up on something else. JVL.
JVL00:13:50Oh, gosh. That's right. Ah. The truth is, most of us are brushing our teeth wrong, not for long enough, and we forget to change our brushes on time. That's because most brands focus on selling flashy gimmicks rather than better brushing, but not Quip. So what makes Quip different? For starters, Quip is an electric toothbrush that's a fraction of the cost of bulkier brushes while still packing just the right amount of vibrations to help clean your teeth. Quip's built-in timer helps you clean for the dentist-recommended two minutes with guiding pulses that remind you when to brush. Next, Quip's subscription plans are for your health, not just convenience. They deliver new brushing heads on a dentist-recommended schedule every three months for just $5, including free shipping worldwide. Quip also comes with a mount that suctions right to your mirror and unsticks to use as a cover for hygienic travel whenever you go anywhere. And finally, everyone loves Quip. They were on Oprah's O-List, named one of Time's Best Inventions, and is the first subscription toothbrush accepted by the American Dental Association. Plus, they're backed by a network of over 20,000 dentists and hygienists, and hundreds of thousands of happy brushers use Quip every day. Quip starts at just $25, and if you go to getquip.com slash substandard right now, you'll get your first refill pack free with a Quip electric toothbrush. That's your first refill pack free at getquip.com slash substandard, spelled G-E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com slash substandard. Terms and conditions may apply. Thank you, JVL.
Vic00:15:30Thank you. Should I go down really quickly the list of what's coming up, and then we circle up?
JVL00:15:36No, we should just go and surprise people. Okay. So, as you know, this is the summer...
Vic00:15:41Yeah, sure, why not? This is Summer Blockbuster's 2018 episode, and there are some big movies here. The question is, what are we looking forward to, and perhaps what are we not looking forward to, JVL?
Sonny00:15:54Wait, I just want to say, the movie that I'm most looking forward to is definitely Chav King Arthur 2. It's coming any day. It's in development. Universe of the Chav King Arthur movies. I'm sorry, JVL, go ahead.
Vic00:16:08It's right up there with Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.
JVL00:16:10Well, no, what do you want to...
Sonny00:16:12I mean, do you want to rank them? Do you want to all rank together?
JVL00:16:14Because we had a debate about this. I listened to our version of this show for last summer on the way in. Refresh our memory.
Sonny00:16:21We had a debate. This is great for the clip job part. Could you do a... Could you do a scorecard of how we did on that show? We did very badly. All of us managed to do very badly.
JVL00:16:30Oh. But it's not about scorecard. It's not about that. But what I was saying is we had a debate as to whether or not, because we each gave our most looking forward to most anticipated movies and then our least anticipated movies. And there was a question, do we go round robin style, like number three, number three, number three? Or do we each get to build up a head of steam where we start and do our three, two, one list and then the next person does it? We selected the latter format last time. Do you want to stick with that? Or do you want to go to the round robin?
Sonny00:17:00So we did three, two, one last time. Each of us individually. Right.
Vic00:17:03Yeah, that's fine.
Sonny00:17:04I think we should do round robin this year. I think we should change it up. Let's do it. Let's do it.
JVL00:17:10Sonny, number three most anticipated.
Sonny00:17:13Go. My number three most anticipated movie is Mission Impossible Fallout. That's the third most movie that I'm looking forward to this year. It's directed by that guy, right? Mr. McCorry? That's who it's directed by? I'm messing with you. It is number three on my list, but I did my list by chronological order. So this is not a true most anticipated. So this isn't a list at all, then?
JVL00:17:45So this isn't a ranking, it's a list.
Sonny00:17:47It's a ranking. My number three is... It's a ranking. I rank them chronologically.
JVL00:17:52Can I just rank them? Because I'm the only one who did the ranking.
Sonny00:17:55You clearly have this in mind. No, we're doing 3-3-3, then 2-2-2, then 1-1-1. That's how it works. Okay, Sonny, go. So Mission Impossible Fallout. That was my number three.
Vic00:18:05I just wrote that on July 27th.
Sonny00:18:08Okay. It's also, and I like Tom Cruise. I like the Mission Impossible movies. It looks fun. I'm excited for it. And it's got the best Superman, Henry Cavill. Is he a villain? Hard to say. We don't know.
Vic00:18:23Okay. You know what? I remember how much I loved the first Mission Impossible, right? It's unbelievably awesome. There's one moment, there was one false note, and it's Ethan when he's telling Emmanuel Barrett that everyone's dead. They're all dead. I thought that was terrible acting. But other than that, that stuck with me. Other than that-
JVL00:18:42You're forking crazy.
Vic00:18:43Great movie. But then I was so disappointed in the follow-up with, who was the villain? The John Woo one. The guy who almost played Wolverine and didn't.
JVL00:18:52You remember him? Something gray. Yes, yes, yes. Great.
Vic00:18:55That's right. There were a lot of, they had all the disguises. I didn't like that. I think that's a cheat. Terrible. But that's the only bad Mission Impossible. Right. And then the ending, they're in a fair or something.
JVL00:19:04It was balloons. Okay. I would argue to you that the Mission Impossible series is like Fast and Furious, but for grownups. It actually delivers on grownup action movie notes consistently across years now. I mean, decades, right? The first Mission Impossible. The first Mission Impossible comes out in 1996. So 30 years. 22 years. 22 years. And with one bad entry into the franchise, which was the second one, everything else has been good to great. The last couple have been maybe the best. And they do this while executing something which drives me crazy about comic book movies. There are no origin stories. None of these were origin stories. And there is, in fact, a sort of saga happening in the background. But each one is just a standalone adventure. You can just tell stories that are standalone adventures. Not everything has to be the birth of or the death of or part of some giant world pivoting to some new configuration. And the fact that they're able to bring back old cast members and teammates, introduce new ones, and do it all within a flow seamlessly while still having an established universe without ever going to the things, oh, it's an established universe. It's so good. It's so good. I love it.
Sonny00:20:24So this is the third most anticipated movie for you as well?
JVL00:20:28We'll get to where it is in my ranking when we're done. I'm just commenting while we're here. And plus, Imagine Dragons. Come on. The Imagine Dragons in that trailer, right?
Sonny00:20:39Is Imagine Dragons doing the theme? In the trailer.
JVL00:20:42Friction. Is it remixed for the Mission Impossible theme? I don't know if that's what it's going to be in the movie. I'm going to take... Never mind. This is off.
Sonny00:20:50I have no third most anticipated movie.
Vic00:20:53Top ten. What did Simon Pegg join the team, the new group, right? Because I think that's a whole new set of Mission Impossibles with Ethan.
JVL00:21:01Was he in the fourth one? I believe he's in the fourth one. Maybe the third one. Which is J.J. No, he's in the one...
Sonny00:21:07But he's in the one after... The J.J. Abrams one was the Philip Seymour Hoffman one. Yes. And he's in the one after that, I think. I see. Right? Or was he in... He might be in that one, too. I can't remember.
JVL00:21:16But unimportant. And the other thing these movies do is they mix high drama with comic relief and humor. So I was watching the other day, because I was catching up on my Mission Impossibles, and I pulled up the last one, Rogue Nation. The set piece that is done in the opera is one of the, I don't know, one of the best action movie set pieces I've seen in the last decade.
Vic00:21:44Question, what city was that in? Vienna. That's funny.
JVL00:21:48I hadn't seen Rogue Nation.
Vic00:21:50Believe it or not, I've spent a lot of time at the Vienna Opera House when I lived there.
JVL00:21:54You haven't seen Rogue Nation? No, I saw the one before, which is great. You would effing love Rogue Nation. It's so good.
Vic00:21:59What fascinates me is how a lot of these movies, espionage movies like Mission Impossible, you know, despite the fact that most of the news today involving, you know, global terror is taking place in the Middle East, they're still drawn to the classic spy locations of Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, I think, is in the upcoming one. Budapest. Budapest is in there. But, oh, good, at the Staatsoper.
JVL00:22:24Very nice. You should watch Rogue Nation. It's so great. You would like it. Okay. What's your number three? My number three, Ocean's 8. I, you know my feelings about meaningless gender swapping reboots. Ghostbusters. Lady Ghostbusters. Lady Ghostbusters, or there's another one that's being planned now. What's the other one that we were making fun of? It's like Lady A-Team or something like that. But, see, this, this version gets exactly right what it is that we care about. The only reason we care about the Ocean's 11 movies. Is because it was a chance to put two gigantic movie stars together and have them be, so,
Sonny00:23:00who's the third? Three. I mean, I would say that Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon. I would say Matt Damon was not yet, and still doesn't have the charisma that Clooney and Pitt do. Well, I, I mean, I agree that he is a lesser, like his star wattage is lower, but also he was in the Bourne movies by then. Yeah, he was in the Bourne movies, but I don't think of him as the sort of charming, debonair,
JVL00:23:21Love Matt Damon. I'm just saying different. Class of actor. So, it's putting those two guys together and just having fun with them because they're so magnetic. Cate Blanchett and, and, uh, uh, help me because I'm blanking, having a- Sandra Bullock.
Sonny00:23:38And Sandra Bullock.
JVL00:23:38Having the two of them together, it's the, it's the same concept. Like, two phenomenal movie stars who are just electric to watch. Plus America's Sweetheart, Anne Hathaway. Plus Anne Hathaway in the, I think she's the villain.
Sonny00:23:50Whoa. Um, so, that's fine. That's interesting.
JVL00:23:53Anyway, it just- It looks great. I'm all into it. I'm a little concerned that the, the voice that Cate Blanchett is using, because it sounds like four packs a day for 20 years. You think it's- Have you heard? It's kind of- It is- Man, what she's doing with her voice for this is, like, husky. Either that or that's really what it's become.
Vic00:24:11Uh, it looks great. I'm so into it. I hope- Do you think there'll be a tie-in at the end where one of the original Ocean's Eight, you'll see them at the end of the movie? If it is, I hope it's Elliot Gould. Uh, yeah, I was- I'm hoping it's Bernie Mac.
Sonny00:24:23I hope it's Andy Garcia. I think Bernie Mac died, sorry.
Vic00:24:26Okay. Aw. You know what? Inappropriate. Inappropriate. I love Bernie Mac. Uh, speaking of Andy Garcia, this is- By the way, this is a quick segue here. He's in this movie that we're not discussing, because it's not part of Summer Blockbusters, the book club, okay? The ladies' book club, with Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, and they're reading Fifty Shades, and Craig T. Nelson's in it, and Andy Garcia. And they're pairing Andy Garcia with Diane Keaton. Keaton. Because Diane Keaton. Because Andy Garcia's old. But keep in mind, in Godfather III, he played Michael's son, so it's like, they're actually quite separated years. It's been bothering me, and I had to get that off my chest now. Thank you. On the show. Okay, so- Number two. Okay, number two. Sonny.
Sonny00:25:12Uh, my number two, and I'm kind of, I'm as surprised by this one as you guys are, uh, is Sicario II. I knew you were gonna say that. Sicario Day of the Soldado. Uh, and, uh, I, I have to say that, like, every time I see an ad, every time I saw a preview for this movie, it looked to me like, you know how they do terrible straight-to-VOD, uh, or straight-to-video sequels of, like, semi-popular movies? It looked like one of those, like, right down to the title, except they managed to get all of the actual actors to come back. They, it's got Josh Brolin, it's got, uh, Benicio Del Toro. Not Emily Blunt. Not Emily Blunt. She's, she's not in it. Uh, but, uh, like, it has, like- The stars, and it's got other good actors, and the whole thing just looks kind of ridiculous. I mean, like, it's, it's about, it's about terrorists teaming- Question. Yes.
Vic00:26:03Uh, same director?
Sonny00:26:04No, so Denis Villeneuve is not- Your guy. But the writer is the same. The writer is, who, uh, who directed, um, uh, the, the movie set on the, Wind River. He directed Wind River, and he wrote High, Hell and High Water.
JVL00:26:18Question.
Sonny00:26:19Yes.
JVL00:26:20Is this part of the Sicario expanded universe?
Sonny00:26:23Well, I don't know. I don't think it's this expanded universe. It's just a straightforward franchise at this point. It's like, uh- It's dark. It's like Fast and the Furious or whatever. But, but I, like, everything about the first trailer was kind of dumb and silly. Like, down to Benicio Del Toro, like, putting his finger- I don't know if you guys have seen it, but, like, there's a scene where, uh, Benicio Del Toro has, like, a handgun. It's got, like, a Glock. And he, like, puts his finger in it kind of sideways and, like, jams it back and forth like it's a machine gun. Except it's a, it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It's, like, a really inefficient way to shoot somebody. Guns don't work that way? Uh, guns don't work that way. Uh, but, uh, but anyway, uh, the, the second trailer came out and it was actually really good. There's, like, a family element and he's got to protect a little girl. And it's a, I, I like these movies. I like the first one a lot. I love the first one. That's a dark movie. That's a dark movie. Um, so I'm, I'm, I'm strangely excited for this. Okay. I'm my number two. Okay.
Vic00:27:15Uh, I'm gonna say Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. I'm sorry, but I, yeah, I know, Jonathan just closed his eyes and gave me the finger. Um, I think Chris Pratt is great and, uh, let's wrap this up. I get the sense that this is going to have elements of the Lost, uh, Lost World book. And they're gonna blow, cause they gotta blow up the island finally, right? Or at the end of the Jurassic Park novel, which I actually did read. I mean, you know, I'll get to Bonfire of the Vanities some other time, but really, um, Jurassic World, uh, where they have to blow up that. So that's my sense of it. It looks, I don't know. You look real. The dinosaurs look real. I'll give that number two. Okay.
Sonny00:27:56Beth and I watched that for the first time, or she watched it for the first time. I had seen it before. Which one? Uh, Jurassic World. The first Chris Pratt one. And the movie's bad. It's bad on, like, on every storytelling level, it's bad. Mm-hmm. But, but I will say that it is a reminder that Chris Pratt is the best of the Chris's.
JVL00:28:13You, no, you reversed yourself after Wonder Woman. Chris Pine. After Wonder Woman. Somebody said Chris Pine. No, excuse me. I've been on Chris Pine since day one on this. I bet you have. And you were first field.
Sonny00:28:25Yeah. After Wonder Woman and said JVL is right, I take it back. No.
JVL00:28:29Chris Pine is the best of the Chris's.
Sonny00:28:30Chris, Chris Pine is the best actor of the Chris's. Chris Pratt is the best movie star of the Chris's. Oh, good distinction, Sonny.
JVL00:28:39That's closer than the actor called, but maybe not.
Sonny00:28:42Chris Hemsworth is the funniest of the Chris's. Yes. Chris Evans is the worst of the Chris's. I like Chris Evans. He's the most serious. He's fine. I mean, he's fine. I like Chris Evans. He's fine.
JVL00:28:53I like all four of them. What's your number two? Procrest. Number two, God help me, Solo. You know what it is? Do you know what it is? I've seen it.
Sonny00:29:03Do you want me to tell you what happens? Does that disqualify you from- He doesn't die at the end of it. Are you allowed to say that? I don't know what I'm allowed to say.
Vic00:29:12What about Chewbacca?
Sonny00:29:13They all die. They all die. Lando dies. Chewie dies. Han dies.
JVL00:29:18What got me, finally, is the score from the trailer. Sort of Texas, twangy, western vibe going on to it that almost sounds like it's out of way of the gun. I was just finally like, okay, fine, I'm into this. Donald Glover looks awesome.
Sonny00:29:37They just announced that the next spinoff movie will be a Lando movie.
Vic00:29:41Is that right? Well, there you go. So, I know I'm going to be disappointed.
Sonny00:29:45I know I'm a sucker, but I'm into it.
Vic00:29:47Good. So, yeah. Okay, what are you looking forward to most? Sonny Bunch. No, number one.
?00:29:52My number one.
Sonny00:29:53And again, this is mostly just in chronological order, is a film coming out called Under the Silver Lake, which if every, it's a smaller movie. It's by the guy who made It Follows, and it looks like kind of a, it stars Andrew Garfield as a guy who was living in an apartment complex, and he has like a nice little night out with the girl who lives next door, and then she disappears, and he goes down this kind of Pinchon-esque, Pinchonian, I don't know, Thomas Pinchon. That's good. He's a novelist. He's just like Tom Wolfe. He writes these dense kind of thriller, paranoid thriller type books. But he, that's actually not even, it doesn't matter. Point is, it's like, it is a movie that is about kind of trying to decipher the symbols in the world so the world makes sense to you, which appeals to me on a number of levels. And it's from a director who I like, who again made It Follows, which was one of the better horror films of the last three or four years. And it stars Andrew Garfield, who I like a lot, even though I don't think his Spider-Man movies were very good. So there's a lot going on there that I like. I have to say that the reason, one of the reasons this is number one is because this is an abysmal year for blockbuster movies. Looking at the list of what was coming out over the next few months, just everything looks either bad or boring or both. I strongly disagree.
Vic00:31:23Movies are going to be on July 20. Mamma Mia. Here we go again. I think JBL just had a stroke. Actually, I think you know who's probably looking forward to that movie. Okay. I will say mine is, my number one is Solo, coming out May 25. But I guess we can't, but you've seen it already. So I'm not going to discuss and get into the details because I've already asked your opinion outside the studio, the deets, a little bit about how we felt about it. So I'm not going to get into it, but based on the trailers, I'm beginning to think Alden Ehrenreich might be able to hold his own. I like Emilia Clarke. I asked Sonny questions about her. Can't discuss it here. Can't discuss it here. Needless to say, I'll be a little bit disappointed in this movie, but you know, because she's not flying a dragon. That's what I was going to say, because she's not flying a dragon. But that's what I was looking forward to. John, JBL, number one. Mission Impossible Fallout, obviously.
JVL00:32:20I'm so, so into it. I, I'm sorry. There's a line in Rogue Nation where Alec Baldwin describes, describes the Ethan, the Ethan, wow, got to bleep that. Wow, that was. The Ethan Hunt character as, he is like manifest destiny made flesh or something. It's, it's so great. It's, it's, go bleep that. Sorry, guys.
Vic00:32:44That was, but that was a slip. That was a, that was a genuine slip. That was a genuine slip. Okay. Rise of the Hunt. We were talking about sort of looking back.
Sonny00:32:56It would be one thing if his name was Jack, like Jack Hunt. Yeah. You know, or Mark. Big. Mike.
Vic00:33:03Oh, you don't want to say that. Okay. Ethan? Mike, Mike.
JVL00:33:09He's sitting here talking about Emilia Clarke. Just leave me alone.
Vic00:33:12Ethan, bleep. Do you, do you remember, do you, Mike Hunt is a joke from Porky's, if you remember, because he gets the crank collar.
Sonny00:33:21I think you should probably bleep that too. Remember, there's a, there's a, there's a. I was going to say his name is Michael. There's a, there's a. David Skinner would say Mike's place. There's a great bar here in town called The Big Hunt.
Vic00:33:28Yes. No, no, absolutely. Okay. But I think you're absolutely right about the lineup, Sonny, of, of summer blockbusters per se. They're not going to age well. You know, it's not going to be like a fine wine. But speaking of fine wines, with online ordering, quick shopping, and personalized recommendations, the only way Wink could make discovering wine you love easier is if they drank it for you. Introducing Wink, spelled W-I-N-C. Wink makes it easy to discover great wine, because Wink's wine experts select wines matched to your taste, personalized for you, shipped right to your door, and starting at just $13 a bottle. There's nothing like coming home to a delivery box of delicious Wink wine selected just for you. It's the best day of your month. Just fill out Wink's palette profile quiz. Answer simple questions that your average store clerk wouldn't ask or translate into a recommendation. Questions like, how do you take your coffee? How do you feel about blueberries? Then Wink sends wines curated to your taste. The more wines you rate, the more personalized your monthly selections. Each month there are new delicious wines, like the insanely popular Summer Water Rosé. No membership fees, skip any month, cancel any time. Shipping is covered, and if you don't like a bottle they said you, they'll replace it with a bottle you'll love. No questions asked. I just had, in fact, the Summer Water Rosé on Saturday. It was 92 degrees outside, and that bottle went quick. It was delicious. Discover great wine today. Go to trywink.com slash substandard. You get $20 off your first shipment. That's spelled T-R-Y-W-I-N-C dot com slash substandard for $20 off. trywink.com slash substandard. So we're talking about how, okay, there are some big movies, but it's not like a great summer. Oh my gosh, we've got to see these movies. You have thoughts of other years past, Sonny, of other summers that you really remember, that you really, like, oh, these are... You know, great movies I wanted to see. That was a good summer. Anything like that or no? Do I have anything like that? Yeah, do you have anything like that? Do I have any?
Sonny00:35:28Well, Vic, no, but do you have anything like that?
Vic00:35:32That's so funny you should ask that, Sonny. Awkward treats.
Sonny00:35:36Why would you just say that? I actually thought you had. I do, but I don't know why. Since you're the one who introduced this topic to us, you're like, I really want to talk about this year in movies because I... I did, but then I thought everyone was going to throw up their own... Yeah, I'm going to throw out a list. Do you want me to go first? Why don't you go first? Because you're the one who wanted to... You're the one who wanted to talk about this. You brought it up.
Vic00:35:55If you guys don't mind.
Sonny00:35:56Ridiculous. Your shenanigans, well, the people need to know. The people need to know about your shenanigans.
Vic00:36:01What's going on behind the curtain? I will always look back on the summer of... I will always look back on the summer of 1986. I was 13, and it was a great year in movies. So here's just a brief taste of what came out that summer.
JVL00:36:17Who was your girlfriend that summer?
Vic00:36:19Oh, I didn't have one. I didn't have one. Yeah, I didn't meet Kate until college. Oh, boy. I wasn't even playing cornhole. Okay. So Top Gun comes out that year. That was big. And that was huge. And that started the summer was Top Gun. It's like, oh, my gosh. So that was like early. It was like April. It's like, oh, my gosh. Can anything get better than that? And the answer was yes. Aliens, the James Cameron Aliens came out as well. And then John Hughes came out with Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I was in New York City with my sister. We'd go visit. My aunt for two weeks. She worked at Mount Sinai. So during the day, you know, in 1986, we just roam around Manhattan. And I remember we stopped into an RKO theater on like near 86th Street and Second Ave. And my sister wanted to go. She was more familiar. She was 16. So she's more familiar with the John Hughes oeuvre, like the Breakfast Club and 16 Candles. And so I said, sure. I had zero expectations. I did not know what to expect from this movie. And it was it was great. I mean, it was one of those great movies where you. You just came out feeling fantastic and that and it holds up also back to school. Ronnie Dangerfield's back to school came out that summer and still to this day has so many great one liners dear to my heart. Like when he is talking to the girl and asking her what her major is. And she says poetry. Remember what he says? He says, oh, maybe you can straighten out my long fellow.
Sonny00:37:46And I said, this is my guy. This is my guy. This is the Vic Mattis origin story. That's what we're hearing right now.
Vic00:37:52This is the, you know, there was a that's what I call marine biology. I mean, he had all these great lines. It was fantastic. Ruthless People was out that year, too. And that was a great movie for Judge Reinhold. Let me say that. And about last night, which was so controversial at the time, because obviously it's 80s. There was a lot of there were sex scenes and nudity. And this is pre-plastic surgery Demi Moore. It was really it was it was great, though. It was it was great. And it was controversial because they were living together in sin. Right. But but the funny thing is, at the end of the movie, you know, they spoiler alert, 40 something years later, they they they break up and they realize it was a mistake to live together. And let's try to do this again. And they at the very end of the movie, it also stars Jim Belushi, who, for friends of ours, reminds me very much of our friend Mike Goldfarb. But everybody has a Jim Belushi friend. He's fantastic in this. The weird thing about it is it's. Classic, you know, movies that took place in 86, if you look at the fashion, people look back and they try to, you know, when they do movies that are retro like this and they have them all dressed up and a little bit over the top. But look at the fashion. It was some of that stuff was really, really terrible. Demi Moore at the end of about last night is wearing a denim overall. I mean, it's like a giant baby outfit. OK, big trouble in Little China. Also that summer and at the very end, right before school started, was Stand By Me. It was just fantastic. At the end of the year, by the way, came out, after school started, Crocodile Dundee, Hoosiers 3, Amigo, Star Trek 4, The Name of the Rose, The Color of Money, and Platoon. Solid year.
JVL00:39:35Platoon, one of your favorite childhood movies.
Vic00:39:38We missed the first half because I had to wait for my friend, Stevie Starris. They were always late to movies. And so I missed the first part, like the first 15 minutes.
Sonny00:39:46I would not have. I would have just gone into the theater. Just been like, sit by yourselves.
Vic00:39:50And that, you know, it was so much harder back then because of that. Everyone had to fend for themselves. Okay, JVL, you have movie thoughts.
JVL00:39:59What is it that makes a great summer movie slate? Unlike you, Victorino, I put some category level thought into it. No, I'm doing memories. And it strikes me that you need five things on a good summer movie slate. One, there has to be a sequel or two that you are insanely excited for to attract you to the summer movie slate. Whether or not the sequel turns out to be good, there has to be some dangling sequel out there that you just think, man, I got to see that thing. Two, there have to be some movies that are with huge stars in it in roles that you have always wanted to see them play. Number three, you have some big idea or special effects movies, some movie that promises you the idea of seeing something that you've never seen before. Number four, you need to have some huge surprise hits that come out of the summer that nobody's looking for, but that everybody loves, and most importantly, are actually good. It can't be just a surprise hit that just sort of catches fire and turns out and blows. And five, the summer needs to give you at least one or two legitimately great movies that turn out to be classics. I offer to you that 1997 had all of these. The giant sequels, The Lost World, Speed 2, and Batman and Robin, all three of them wound up being terrible. But prospectively, you were excited. In March of 1997, you were excited for the summer movie slate, because look what's going on here.
Vic00:41:27Okay, Speed 2 over to the other one, Speed 2.
JVL00:41:29Lost World, Batman and Robin. The second category, stars and roles you've always wanted to see them. 1997 had Men in Black, Will Smith doing a comedy sci-fi thing with Tommy Lee Jones. I remember who I saw that with. Air Force One, Harrison Ford as the president. Everybody's always wanted Harrison Ford to play the president. And Conspiracy Theory, which has... We had Mel Gibson playing a crazy person, right? Big idea slash special effects movies. We had Volcano, which is great. Plus it had a great moral at the end. We're all the same. We're all the same color. Contact, one of the great sci-fi think movies of our time. Okay, so how many of these movies did we see together? All of them. And Face Off. Face Off. Great. John Woo. Which is a weirdo classic movie. Surprise Hits, category number four. 1997 gives you Austin Powers, the original Austin Powers, and My Best Friend's Wedding. Two monster surprise hits, which would change things. And then, in our legitimately great category, the fifth category, The Summer of 1997 gives you The Fifth Element and L.A. Confidential, which sneaks in at the very end of the summer. Case closed. Good summer.
Vic00:42:49That's like 80% of the movies we saw together, I think.
JVL00:42:53You know why? Why? That was my first summer in D.C. And you and I went to the movies together basically every week.
Guest00:42:59Sweet.
Sonny00:42:59It's funny. All three of us are skipping ahead about 10 years here. Because I'm going with 2008 as my best summer for movies. I mean, 2008 sets the template for the rest of our lives, basically, in terms of movies with Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out. Iron Man and, like, underrated. But noteworthy, The Hulk came out a couple months after Iron Man. And they had just kind of tacked on the Tony Stark scene at the end to make it, like, clear. Remind me which Hulk, Ed Norton? This is the Ed Norton Hulk. They kind of tacked on the Tony Stark, Thunderbolt, Ross scene at the end to give it the whole mixed universe thing, that whole feel. And that is, I mean, this is the rest of our lives are Marvel movies forever until we're dead. That's true. And The Dark Knight kind of shows how you can. You can make a good version of this movie with an auteurist sort of feel. Along those lines, you also have Hellboy 2 that summer, which is Guillermo del Toro's, I think, actually last great movie. Or at least the one I like of his the most that has come out recently. But then you also have kind of deconstructions of the comic book genre. You have Hancock, the Peter Berg movie, where Will Smith is playing angry hero. And also. Wanted, which which is based on the Miller books and Miller books and there is is about villains. You know, they tweaked the movie too much, I think, to get away from that concept. But you have a great kids movie or a great movie that works for kids and for adults in WALL-E, which is, you know, one of the probably three best Pixar movies. And and they're in it. It was a great summer for comedy as well. You had Step Brothers, which is like kind of taken its place as like one of the great comedies of the aughts in the last few years. People have really glommed on to this and they were right. I was right at the time. I was right now. And Tropic Thunder, which is I which is the a movie that you could not make now and is probably probably the most savage critique of the kind of media industrial complex. That's right. That that that has come out in in recent years. It's savage because it like actually was mean and kind of hinted at a lot of things that are now more real, more real. But but that was a great summer for movies. I thought I thought it was there was there's a lot of dross in that summer as well. There was a oh, God, what was the there's there's a lot of bad movies in that summer, but but a lot of good ones, too.
Vic00:45:49So it happens like that with, for example. Uh, music and we look back on favorite. Oh, God, you know, 80s music is so great. And if you actually look back at like the Billboard Top 100 for 1986, whatever, there's some awful stuff in there, you know, and we just don't remember it anymore. All you remember is the good stuff.
JVL00:46:07So were we unknowingly each just listing the movies from the best summers of our lives? And it's interesting to us. It just tasted like the best movie slate ever. Because summer 97 for me, I mean, being out of college. And never having to go back to that hellhole again. And being and living on my own and having a job that I loved at a magazine I loved with like cool friends like you, who I'd never had cool friends before, really. It was literally one of the greatest summers of my life.
Vic00:46:36I hope this doesn't get too personal, but I almost did not make it through Men in Black. Do you remember that?
JVL00:46:43I do remember that. It was a hot dog, I believe, that you had. I remember. Let's just say it was like food poisoning.
Vic00:46:52It was food poisoning.
JVL00:46:53Oh, my Lord. But what was, and I assume that summer was a, the summer of your 13th year was a particularly great summer for you. It was great. It was right before freshman year. Was 2008 a big deal for you? Was it like a particularly wonderful summer?
Sonny00:47:04Sonny was 13, too, when it was 2008. As a 13-year-old boy in 2008, it was a, no, I mean, it was, what was going on in 2008? Nothing, really. I mean, I left The Weekly Standard, got out of here. That was a, that was a, no, that was. Highlight. Well, I guess that was the first, the first review that I did for The Washington Times. For a while, I was a film critic at The Washington Times, was The Dark Knight.
JVL00:47:34That was your first? That was my first. That's a lousy, lousy movie to do as your first one, because after that, it's all down. It's all, everything you've got to review. It was funny.
Sonny00:47:44I only, I think I only gave three or four movies four-star reviews at The Washington Times. Mamma Mia? I don't know what you're doing. The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil Wears Prada and Transformers 2. But that was a, but yeah, but I mean, like, everything else had to kind of live up to that in one way or another.
Vic00:48:01So they had the star, they had the star system at The Times. Yeah. And you or your editor determined, I mean, you, you determined yourself. I did, yeah. And so, did you have a, did you like, because if it was like Gene, like, everything would be like four stars, you know, but if it's like you, were you like very careful about, or do you think you were too cautious in giving a lot of things?
Sonny00:48:20No, I mean, I, I. I, I cheated a lot and gave a lot of two and a half star reviews, because those can go kind of either positive or negative. The half. You got that. Yeah, on a four star, on a four star scale, two and a half is a dividing line between good and bad, and you can actually go either way with it. Like, there are some two and a half star movies that I don't necessarily recommend, but. Secrets of the Trade.
Vic00:48:39Okay. That's pretty good. That is good.
JVL00:48:41All right. Corrections, additions. Sonny, do you have anything? No. JVL. Not a correction, but I have something I want to talk about, and this is, I, I asked you guys permission to talk about this, and you very sweetly said yes, and this is not something I'll ever make a habit of doing, but one of the, in The Weekly Standard, Weekly Substandard, Expanded Universe Online, one of the guys I've become friends with, his name's Chris Haberman, and last week I learned that Chris and his wife Megan have a son who last year was diagnosed with a very rare neuromuscular disease, it's called Pump A disease. They're a little guy, his name is Isaac, and he's four, and thank God there's a little treatment for it, and so Chris and his wife have to take Isaac out for enzyme infusions every two weeks so that he can get an enzyme that his body can't make, and this is what's keeping him alive and giving him a pretty normal childhood, and there are some treatments in clinical trials right now that offer even greater hope, and I'm hoping it all works out. I mention all this because the Haberman family and Isaac are trying to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. What Chris has told me was that not only does the MDA help fund research for the MDA, but for neuromuscular diseases, but they do a lot of work helping families manage the treatment regimes for these things, because it's incredibly complicated. You've got just armies of doctors and appointments and treatments to get through, and they help you organize all that stuff. I think it's not too much to say that when something like this happens to a kid of yours, it is as if it has taken over your entire life. So I found out about Isaac last week, and the Team Isaac thing, they were trying to raise money for him. I went and gave some money. I really hope that everybody else listening to this will as well. It's Team Isaac, the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I'm not going to give you the URL, because it's too long, but I will tweet it out, and I think you guys will tweet it out, and I'm going to do show notes. You could put it in show notes. I'm going to do show notes this week, just so that I can have the long URL and link in there, and I hope that if you like the show and you enjoy the show, you will consider going over to Team Isaac and giving a donation and throwing some money his way, because God knows the kid deserves it.
Vic00:50:52Sounds good. Thank you, JVL. That's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus, at Sonny Bunch. At JV Last. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in Substandard on a podcast, and we're there. Leave a review. Tell your friends. Until next time.
Sonny00:51:19You know, one thing we didn't discuss in the summer. Our movie preview was what we thought was going to gross the most and the least. And we did that last year, right?
JVL00:51:28We did. Yeah, we did the most. We did the most. And then, like, the most surprising.
Sonny00:51:33It was a very yearbook, superlative section.
JVL00:51:36Was it? Hard and fast rules.
Sonny00:51:37It was a, it was a, what do we think is going to gross?
JVL00:51:39You thought it was going to be Spider-Man Homecoming?
Sonny00:51:41Yes. But that was not right. It was.
JVL00:51:44And my big surprise was Baywatch. Yeah, we were also not right. Also not right. Spider-Man Homecoming was close, though. The two movies. I said I was most looking forward to The Mummy, Chaff King Arthur.
Sonny00:51:56Oh. Boy, you really, you got.
Vic00:52:00Yup. Awkward. I'm going to guess Solo is the big blockbuster. I think that's the same.
JVL00:52:05No, Avengers is the big blockbuster. No, no, no, coming up. I mean, yeah, I mean.
Vic00:52:09We're already past the big.
Sonny00:52:10Nothing's going down.
Vic00:52:11Gross. Nothing. Oh, you know what else, though? I don't know why. I should have added this to my list. Incredibles 2. I think it'll be good. Do you like the Incredibles? No.
JVL00:52:20Pixar. Ant-Man and the Wasp. Has, not jumped, Pixar has regressed to the mean. Not jumped the shark. Pixar has regressed to the mean. They are no longer the special place they were. John Lasseter has transferred all of his magic to Disney animation, which is where they tell interesting, complicated stories now, and Pixar has become a sequel factory. Interesting. I mean, which is fine. No big deal. You know, I was going to bring this up during the How Was Your Weekend, but I was a little. Please. So, I only had two children this past weekend. Oh. And the things you can accomplish. And you have two children. Oh, look at that.
Sonny00:52:53Look what I built.
JVL00:52:55Now, it's only halfway done. That's only 840 pounds of stone that Cody and I used to build that. We built a, we're building a set of tiered garden beds, raised garden beds in the backyard. And it's coming up pretty well. The key is the leveling. Leveling each stone on all three axes. So that it's. Is a pain in the ass.
Vic00:53:18I could only imagine, and literally I could only imagine. We had, Sabrina's first communion was passed. I know your daughter's was earlier. And we had family over. And my, so my family's over. My brother-in-law's there. And we were complaining about a Verizon cable that cuts across the backyard, but it's too low. And he says, oh, I could fix that, he says. And he's 6'4", giant Dutch construction supervisor. And so he gets on the ladder, and he's working on raising it. And with duct tape, and there's all these wires. And then he just says to me, Vic, could you, do you have pliers? Can you give me pliers? And that's it. And I said, oh, sure, I got a toolbox. Let me go get it for you. I go into the toolbox, and I just, I said, I come back, and I said, I couldn't find any pliers, but I got this wrench. And he takes it from me, and he goes, these are pliers.
Sonny00:54:07I'm sure that's fine.
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