Episode 293 - Sacramento, Six Hours from L.A.

[00:00:05] It's time to feel the rage. Welcome to Film Rage where we talk movies, in theaters, streaming and classic films as well. Directors and actors beware as you cannot hide from the rage. My name is Bryce and I'm part of the Film Rage crew which also includes Jim. Hey there Jim. Hey hey Bryce. And also we have the Merman. What's going on Murray? Not a whole lot. Something's gotta be going on. The cop is starting tomorrow and Circle K's are

[00:00:35] now pulling their freestyle soda machines. I'm so upset about this. Are they really? Yes. Oh that sucks. You'll be happy they're replacing with Pepsi. Are they gonna be freestyle Pepsi? I don't know. I don't think there is such a thing. There's a mystery. She didn't tell me that but yeah. That's bull crap. I don't like it. I know it's bull crap. I'm so upset about it. I'm not happy about it either. Did you tell the reason why? Because it was an American machine and it's a Canadian owned company apparently. Hmm. So I don't know. Anyway. Let the terrorists

[00:01:05] war begin. That's right. Thank you. Circle K. Hey you know what? If you're gonna stand by your guns, stand by your guns. Like respect that. Yeah. So the introduction's out of the way. Oh. That's Ray John. Well thanks to all been supporters. If you love our independent podcast please like, subscribe, share and give us a five star rating on your listening platform or support us and join the Film Rage community by joining our membership at buymeacoffee.com forward slash Film Rage YYC.

[00:01:31] If you cannot commit to our membership you can still buy us a movie rental and dare us to see a terrible, terrible, terrible film. It's the only way to play it anywhere in a cinema in the world. We'll watch it. Alright. Let's get to Raging.

[00:01:48] What would the amazing moment predict? What would the amazing moment predict? Will we predict the rage or will we predict the mondo? Will you tell us all what Jim and Bryce saw at the movies?

[00:02:07] Here he comes now. Kids better watch yourselves. Cause Merman is swimming to you. Swimmery, swimmery. Swimmery swim. Swimmery swim. Swimmery swim. Swim all the way to our hearts and little hearts, hearts, hearts, hearts. Way too many movies again this week. Ugh. We only got one come out this weekend. Although we're at a festival this weekend.

[00:02:36] Technically there's two. There's five this weekend. What are you talking about? What? I saw two but I don't want to see either one of them. I didn't see any? I only saw the one. I saw two but I don't want to see either one of them. There's five. Oh no. There's also, yeah, the second one about a wedding. Yeah. Which we're absolutely seeing. Alright. Perfect. I'm going to cup. I don't know about you. Yeah, we're doing that too. Me too. Anyway, by some miracle I actually saw three of these movies.

[00:02:58] What? I know. It seems weird cause usually I see one. Yeah. If we're lucky. The way the week worked out. The way the world turns out. Alright, we got first up the biggin. Is this the biggin? Yes. Well, the big Hollywood one. It's the biggest of the big... The one that's had like a trailer in every five seconds on any of you platform you can watch.

[00:03:22] Six months. Well, that would be drop. No. No. That was also how he played. The amateur. The amateur. Amateur. Yes, the amateur. With Rami Malek. Ah, Rami. How we love you, Rami. Yeah, no, that's not true. Let us count the ways. I'm pretty sure you guys both despise him. I don't mind him. I don't... Jim doesn't despise him. I don't know what he talks about him. But I do.

[00:03:48] It does. So, yeah. I think... Well, we'll hear more about what I think about Rami Malek. Yeah. Double Rage. Double Rage. Double Rage. Alright. And then it's gonna be very... But Larry Fishburne's in it. And the formerly... Larry Fishburne. Undoubted Jon Bernthal. Yeah. Yeah. And the formerly mesmerizing... Oh, uh... Michael Stolberg. Michael Stolberg. For like five minutes. What a frickin' waste. I can't believe this guy was in this movie for that. Anyways. Let's talk a bit ahead of ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, and yeah. I'm gonna get it.

[00:04:18] It's gonna be very boring for the rest of them. Uh, Warfare. Warfare. It's about war. It was about war. Well, yeah. Yeah, it was about... One concentrated little time in war. Yeah. Uh, Double Meh. Alright. Double Meh. Drop. D-R-O-P. Which is a horror movie, which I almost went to instead. Was it a horror movie? I don't know. It was supposed to be. I think it was a suspense thriller. Okay, whatever. Uh, I'm gonna go...

[00:04:46] There was no suspense and there were no thrills. There you go. Or horror for that matter. I'm gonna go meh for Bryson. Maybe Jim give it a mondo. For Drop? For Drop. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. The Friend. Ooh, The Friend. With five minutes of Bill Murray. Which is what I went to see it for. Yeah, maybe. Uh, Double Meh. Double Meh.

[00:05:08] Yeah. And Sacramento. That's in California, by the way. It is. I've never been to many places. It's about a six hour drive from LA. That's right it is. That's why I haven't gone to it. I learned that in the movie. So did I. Is it in the north? It is north. That'd be why I've never gone there. Yeah. I've been to many places in California. Never been there. There you go. Well, because it's Inland Murray. We found that out too. Inland Murray. Yeah.

[00:05:30] We found out so many things about Sacramento. Stuff you didn't even want to know. Things we might not even care to know. So yeah, double meh for that one too. Double meh. All right. All right. Let's just see. We shall. All right. We're gonna talk about Le Amateur with Rami Amalek. Oh, Rami. It's not a surprise that this podcast is not a big fan of his abilities. He has this air of one

[00:06:01] noteness to him that makes it hard to believe emotions he may be trying to portray. I feel he got this opportunity only based on his fairly successful TV show, Mr. Robot, which I personally have never seen. Me either. But here's my take on what roles I think Rami can play. Ready? Go for it. Here's my list.

[00:06:29] Solless. Solless serial killers that have and show no emotion. He's done that. Yeah. That's what he can play. One of my favorite TV shows, Alcatraz. He played just that. That's what he can play. That's it? That's the list. Yeah, that's my list. It's a big list. For him. I think he can play one other thing. Oh, what's that? I think he would be okay as a zombie. Yeah, which is kind of that. Except, you know, that and both of them are kind of well, no, some serial killers are pretty small.

[00:06:58] So, okay. There's two things. I'll take your, I'll take your bait. Plus, but plus as a zombie, we actually don't have to hear him talk with that. Frickin. Yeah. Just drives me. That he has everywhere. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that was my list. Uh, now let's talk about this film. My list is your list, but plus zombie. Well, I added zombie. So now it's the same. Then I have the exact same list as you, Jim. Perfect.

[00:07:21] All right. Now let's talk about this film, which, uh, is a spin on a spy thriller, cat and mouse genre, which if you have seen the trailer and let's face it, who hasn't seen the trailer, it's been playing nonstop everywhere for the last year. You kind of know what happens. And this is all set up in the trailer and it's all you need to know.

[00:07:45] The story starts out and is fairly clever in its style and keeping, um, it feel like, it might kind of be with what really would happen in real life. That's how I felt as I was watching this. As you're watching it, it's like realistic. I thought it was realistic. I thought that, I thought that how they portrayed it, there was, I was trying, trust me. When I go see these movies, I try and go, this is not possible. This wouldn't work.

[00:08:13] That's pretty much what I do for every movie. Yeah. So, but particular in spy films. So, so now keep in mind, I did say it started that way. Yes. Okay. We see that Rami is brilliant and awkward. That's no surprise here. And he is, uh, an amateur at being a killer. When we start, he makes mistakes and he gets sloppy as he starts to hone his craft of operative revenge husband.

[00:08:40] And the story is not a super surprise because as mentioned, the trailer tells us everything, but there is enough in here to keep us entertained. Slowly he gets better at what he is supposed to do. Sometimes by luck, sometimes by his intelligence and skill for the most part. Um, I didn't mind the spy thriller aspect of this, which, uh, where I found the problem is, is that it is way too long.

[00:09:07] And it does start to get draggy. We know, um, what they're doing. We know early who the real foes are in this. Um, there's no surprise at the end, which I don't know, maybe we don't need that in a spy thriller. The question is, did seeing two hours of Rami Malek make this so painful to watch to outweigh, I would say a pretty good spy revenge thriller.

[00:09:33] So yes, he was repulsive throughout this entire film, but I didn't hate it. I, um, I thought his interactions with Morpheus, AKA Lawrence Fishburne, enough to still keep this a low, low, I'm saying it's very low, man. I didn't hate it. I didn't walk out of this movie and say, I really hated this film. So, um, Rami, I would suggest please stick to, I originally had written one role, but I'm going to say the two roles that I truly think you could be.

[00:10:03] I know there's another zombie movie coming out. You can easily pick up that role. No problem. And there's enough serial killer movies out there. Like he could have been in hard eyes. I don't know. Maybe. I don't want to, I don't even really want to see him as a serial killer. If he's actually, unless he's, unless he's like a mute and doesn't talk. Well, if you'd like to see him as a serial killer, he was in the TV show Alcatraz as an escaped convict. Does he talk?

[00:10:33] Not much. Okay. Well, if he talks, I don't want to see it. I can't remember if he blows up people or he does someone, he has a, he has a gimmick, but yeah, he's one of the escapees from Alcatraz. It's a sci-fi thing. It was a good show, but one season, but yeah, he was in that. He played a serial killer. All right. All right. Well, what did you think? Um, I'm going to say the fan of Rami Malek from this podcast. Oh, me? Oh, yeah. No, he, we know he's not the fan. Okay.

[00:11:01] As I previously said, the spy thriller is one of my favorite movie genres. Oh, and you must've liked this. Uh, Jack Ryan, Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, James frigging Bond. I like the Bourne. The Jackal. Austin Powers, baby. Yeah, that was good. You know what all of these have, all those have in common except for maybe Mr. Powers? Spy training. Mm. All those guys train hard in combat.

[00:11:31] Even Jack Ryan, who was an analyst. Mm-hmm. They're shooting guns at the range and, you know, hand-to-hand combat. They had to all go through basic training, but apparently not this one. He sort of did. This movie had none of that. No, he didn't. He just wasn't good at it. I know, but just, yeah. Before you get into this thing, even if you're an IT guy, you should at least go through some basic training. He did. He turned with Larry. He did. No, that was after he's already working for them. Yeah, okay, so. Okay. I think he trained the secretary.

[00:12:01] And he was there for five minutes. He shot two guns. And, oh, look, I can make bombs. I didn't. That was pretty much his only talent. That's because he's smart. He's a genius. That's why they call it the amateur, I guess. This guy is CIA analyst like Jack Ryan, but without the training. Right. Has to track down the people that killed his wife while being hunted by his own agency. Which he's supposed to be really good at. Because he dared to blow the whistle on his crooked boss. Yes. As for the action, if you've seen the trailer, you've seen it.

[00:12:31] The four kills in the movie, they're in the trailer. At least three of them. Yeah. Rami Malek's character sucks at firing a gun, but apparently he can build bombs like crazy. Different skills. And he eludes the highly trained CIA guys trying to kill him. Lucky for Malek, he's got Lawrence Fishburne. Except he goes from training him for five minutes to trying to kill him to being his friend again at the end.

[00:13:01] And the big bad guy at the end of this, formerly mesmerizing Michael Stahlberg. Stuhlberg. Who is completely wasted in his five minutes of screen time. It's true. I don't know why he agreed to do this. I don't know either. Money? The first hour or so of this film was way too slow. Oh, taking forever to move things along. The last 30 minutes, by comparison, felt really rushed.

[00:13:27] I mean, by the end of the first 90 minutes, he's only killed one of the four people that he's after. Yeah. So you know the running time of the movie. You knew, oh, there's only 30 minutes left. Well, where's the rest of the story? They just all threw it at once. After, it felt like they were trying to wrap things up in a hurry to get under the two hour mark. Then it just ended. Now, I don't hate Rami Malek as much as you guys.

[00:13:53] But I think if somebody else was at the center of this film, it might have been a lot better. I would agree. Like, if he had cast anybody else as a character, he wanted to produce it, that's fine. But if he had cast anybody else as the actor, you probably would have liked it a lot more. Yeah, it's a rage. Not a hard rage, but still a rage because I like my spy movies and this was not it. All right. Yeah. I can't get past Rami Malek. I am Rami Malek.

[00:14:22] This is what I sound like when I'm happy. This is what I sound like when I'm excited. This is what I sound like when I'm mad. It's just like, he's a freaking robot. He is a robot. That I robot. Mr. Robot. Whatever the hell it was called. I mean, was he a robot in it? I don't even know. Maybe he is a robot. I never saw Mr. Robot. Maybe he's an actual robot.

[00:14:52] He won Emmys for that role. Like they've got something secretly hidden in Hollywood. Now that he is one best actor in it as an Oscar. But little do they know he's actually a robot. I don't think he's a robot. I think he's one of the worst actors on the face of the earth. And I don't understand why anybody casts him in anything. Well, Fishburne, Bernthal, Stuhlbarg, completely wasted in this. They were and they were all good in their roles. But then I go back and I go, OK.

[00:15:21] And I did like Murray. I'm like, well, if I was to take Rami Malek out of this and put someone else in this role, would I have liked this movie? And the answer is still no. This movie wasn't good anyways. And Rami Malek just made it worse. It was complete. Like, why are you putting this Jon Bernthal? Like, just the stupidest crap just got me going in this movie. Rami Malek's already making me, like, angry. Then all of a sudden we got Jon Bernthal as the guy that he's helping out here. And then they insert him later in the movie.

[00:15:50] For what reason? He had absolutely no point. He did nothing. He wasn't part of anything. He just shows up in frickin' wherever the hell they were. I don't even remember where they were. I think it was Russia. Yeah, they're in Russia. He shows up in Russia and he has a coffee with him or something. He goes, hey, look out. And that was his whole point of being... Because he was there to warn him. Because he was there to warn him. He was there to warn him. I thought he was there to kill him. This was a completely waste. Like, there was no reason for him to...

[00:16:19] That just made this movie even longer. There was absolutely no reason for him to be in this movie. And then right at the end, you got Michael Stahlberg. Just out of nowhere. And that's the whole thing. And then you get to the end and I'm already irritated. And I'm like, oh, thank God. We've at least got some Stuhlbarg coming. I am so excited now. Let's bring it on. Bring it down. And the most just nothing. Yeah. He sits there and does his fake Russian accent. And he does it well. And he's very good.

[00:16:48] But at the end of the day, it's like, why is he in this movie? It's a nothing role. You've got one of the best actors in Hollywood. Why are you reducing him to this? Write something meteor. Take that bloody Bernthal crap out of it. Extend it by 10 minutes. And put him in and do something with him. Everything in this movie made me angry. And I'm sorry.

[00:17:17] Nothing made sense. It was stupid from the get-go. I hated this movie. It was a rage. Shocker. You know what? The reason I'm not giving it a rage. I mean, I should probably, obviously. But the reason I am not is because I could see. Okay. Did something happen? No, I'm listening. Oh. You can see something. He has no control. It doesn't matter what he does. Yeah, he's lost control of everything, including his bowels. Yeah.

[00:17:47] What I felt as I was watching it is that this was like a person who doesn't have any skills trying to find himself. And for me, I enjoyed that part of the story. Yeah. That part of the story would have been great if it was written well and it was acted well, but it was neither. He stuck to his tech stuff. I had no problem with it. But yeah, out on the field trying to like, yeah. What was that? Did he get into a fight with somebody near the end there? And I'm like, oh my God. He has no fighting skills at all. No, because he's...

[00:18:16] He was getting his ass handed to him. Yeah, he did. Yeah. That's what made it good. Didn't even teach him that. That's why I liked that part of it. I thought that was... I thought that the fact that he was kind of incompetent, but he did have... The skills he did have, his particular set of skills as we Liam Neeson it, was that he could do things that they couldn't. Okay. Sure. Okay, then. Trust me, I... It's not like... You found a reason to hate it, but you didn't... Yeah, I didn't hate it.

[00:18:45] Oh, I don't know how you couldn't hate this. It was unwatchable. It was absolutely unwatchable. I didn't know how to say that, but... And I saw it on IMAX, so it was even better. Yeah, I had to pay VX on Cheap Tuesdays, so yeah, I didn't get a discount. And yeah, I had a bunch of noisy old people in the theater, and... That would have made it better for me. I would have been listening to the old people. A whole row of handicapped people, actually. Oh, thank God. I actually had to move. I wish you were in my screening and I was in yours, Murray, because I would have been so much... No, it was full. I would have been at home in yours. Tuesday afternoon. It was full.

[00:19:15] Old people love the Tuesdays. They do. They save the money. All right. Well, I think people who are going to see this... Are going to hate it. Are probably not going to like it as much as they probably should have. I know! And I went to it like four years after it came out, so... The sad thing is it's going to make money, and they're going to come back and make a second. Oh, they are not. Oh, yeah, they will. Because Rami produced it, and he's probably made money because it's already... It's not happening. ...the biggest draw at the box office. Amateur 2 is not a thing, Jim. We'll see.

[00:19:45] Remember Liam Neeson? Taken 3? That's all I want to say. All right. Warfare! Yeah. Okay, so... I find it a little hard to label this movie. I mean... All right. It had actors in it. That's true. And it was shot on film. It was. But it's probably more closely called a reenactment. You know, like the Americans like to do... Yeah. Like the Civil War reenactments. No, they reenacted, and they twisted to their... Yeah, it was... So their guys were heroes.

[00:20:15] Yeah, it's kind of... But, okay, so... It had to do with a lot of money. I'm not saying that's what happened in this. No, I'm just saying that's what they usually do. It is a real-time event of an armed confrontation in the Iraq War. The realism is what I imagine would be what everything would be. Garland does a brilliant job of having us feel what everyone is feeling as they go through this.

[00:20:38] From the initial introduction to the team, as they watch what seemed like a 1990s aerobic porn on their base, to their capture of an Iraqi home, to establish their base. Warfare is for... The first portion of the film is made up of a lot of talking and comms and saying, Bravo! And Alpha! Etc. Etc.

[00:21:04] This lasts for the first 25 minutes until the assault on Americans happened. And then, all hell breaks loose. This kind... Kind of, and I say kind of, felt a little bit like Black Hawk Down on steroids. But maybe not really quite exactly. But it had the same sense of urgency and intensity that Black Hawk did. Again, it's hard to treat this like a traditional movie. It's... I'm not even sure I understand why they actually made this.

[00:21:34] I mean, the event was... Like, it wasn't a major event that people would have known about that I could see. But what I think it was is to give the viewer the idea what modern warfare looks like. It shows that in these moments of combat, how each person gets affected differently. Because almost every single one of the people was affected differently. It also doesn't paint the Americans in that great of a light.

[00:22:04] As per se, I mean, they literally destroyed this poor family's home. We also get this... Like, from the final scene in the movie, when they come out of the trauma that these poor people were put through. And you see them going through their home. Like, you feel... Those are the people I felt most for in this movie. Yeah, the innocent people. The Iraqi family that was there. Yeah.

[00:22:31] I personally was not looking forward to seeing this originally. And I wouldn't say it was a great film. But I did get connected to these characters. Or at least a couple of them. The one that I was most connected to. Which is the one I thought had the most integrity and valor. Because I'm kind of an anti-war person. So, I think for what it was, I think it accomplished the job it was meant to do. I felt that...

[00:22:58] I think Garland and Mendoza wanted me to see and feel what this would have been like. I didn't hate it. And I was squeamish with all the war gore at times. I think it was mad. I liked the yellow helmet guy. I really connected to that character. Because his kindness and his ability to pull through the whole situation.

[00:23:23] I think this is as close as you could get of an actual live documentary footage as you could get. With a lot of screaming injured vets and a lot of war gore. I want to say hashtag war gore. I'd call it war porn. War porn gore? War gore porn? It's war porn. War porn. Yeah, there you go. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Bryce is looking at me. I guess I'm up.

[00:23:52] Truth is, I don't like movies about war. At least recent wars. I liked Saving Private Ryan. 1917. Dunkirk. This film was no Saving Private Ryan. I definitely don't know 1917. I also don't like movies with a lot of guns. I'm very anti-gun. A lot of killing of guns and movies that glorify war. Guns and killing.

[00:24:22] And so this movie was definitely not for me. You know who loves all those things? Right wing NRA. Gun toting. Trump loving Americans who go to gun ranges and join militias on the weekend. This movie is for them. I don't know if that's true. I don't think it is, Marie. I don't think it is. I don't think it is, Marie. I would agree with Bryce on this. So if that's what you're into, good for you. I hope you enjoy the film. Even with that in mind, I don't know if this film portrays Navy SEALs in the positive light.

[00:24:51] Again, I'm no expert. And the big problem I had was what the hell are they doing there? It doesn't tell you what they're after, who they're after. They just, you know, stomp in the middle of the night, take over somebody's house. Then they train their, you know, sniper rifles at this, you know, food market across the street. It doesn't tell you what bad guys they're actually going after. Pretty much anybody who has a turban, I guess.

[00:25:15] At the beginning of the film, they basically say they're there to support this other armed assault. But it doesn't, if they had actually explained at the beginning why they're going into this town, because there's a high value target in there, I may have not had a big problem with it. That's not what it was. Yeah. And it was dropped, we were dropped into a situation that happened. Yeah. Which, again, I have a lot of problems with those wars.

[00:25:41] But, again, this film drops these ass-kicking soldiers in the middle of a small Iraq town. They weren't really ass-kicking soldiers. Well, they had enough freaking weapons on them. Okay. And a pair of scissors, apparently. Did you see that? They had a pair of scissors right in the front of their chest. All of them did. Yep. Which they had to use, apparently. Scissors is always a thing you need. After they raided a building with two innocent families and set up their snipers, they stake out what is basically a grocery store.

[00:26:10] After a very boring half hour watching these guys sit around, suddenly guys with guns appear out of nowhere and surround this building with gunfire. Conveniently, they lose their air support. I don't know why the air support left. They got pulled towards another thing. And I did check, Jim, there were drones back then. 2001 is when the military started using drones. So there was the technology that could have used drones, but they didn't in this movie.

[00:26:42] I have a lot of problems with this, primarily how the entire town knows they're inside the building and why they don't have any other troops spotting from the distance to let them know trouble is coming. Like there's nobody overhead, nobody seeing all these guys on the roof firing at their troops. Again, I also wonder why there wasn't any military drones to take out the bad guys on the roof. This is based on a real incident, as indicated by all of the real life photos at the end of the film.

[00:27:10] I just find it hard to believe these highly trained soldiers are this incompetent. Like they just dropped in the middle of nowhere and they have no reconnaissance. They did no research about this. Again, I know nothing about war or soldiers. I want to repeat that many times. As far as the action goes, this was really well done. Camera angles, the explosions and the realism was pretty good. But again, not as good as Saving Private Ryan. You know what is a good movie about Navy SEALs? Navy SEALs!

[00:27:40] No, it's not. Yes, it is. I know it's 80s and cheesy, but it's got Michael Bane and Charlie Sheen and Bill Paxton. And that black guy with the deep voice from 24 and Major League and all those Allstate commercials. You just took all your credibility away. That's right! And it's a lot of fun, like playing polo with golf carts and crashing into the lake and stuff. Yeah, that's war. Um, this film had its comical moments. Talking about the new one. Though most of them I think were unintentional.

[00:28:09] Is it supposed to be funny when a guy gets his leg blown off? We were laughing at it. Like, yeah, I guess it is. I didn't laugh at it. Uh, yeah, a lot of people did. Anyway, despite the funny moments and the realistic action scenes, I just really didn't like this film. Yeah, it was a rage. I hate war films. And this was not a good one. All right. So, yeah, no, I'm going to take this at face value that what happened is what happened. Because the guy who's directing it is also the guy. Legitimate.

[00:28:38] Is legitimately the lead character in it. Ray, in the movie, played by DeFaro Wunatai, is actually playing the guy who's directing this movie. So, um, him and Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland co-directed this. Um, it's a hard movie to watch. I'm not a big war movie guy either. We get dropped into a, you know, a situation. Um, you don't really need any backstory of anybody. That wouldn't do you any good anyways.

[00:29:08] There's obviously no character development. No. Because we're just in it. You dropped in. You're in it. And, yeah, there's a lot of... And when the action hits, it hits hot and heavy. Just as I suppose would happen in war. Um, it's a very well shot movie. Um, it's... The acting's good throughout. Um, I don't know what to feel about this movie. It's hard.

[00:29:36] I'm with you where I'm like, what is the point of this movie at the end of the day? It is... It's absolutely... In a way, it is war porn. Because, man, you're getting in there and you're getting the guts of war. Like, literally, you're getting the guts of war in this. And... Uh, I mean, I guess... And that's the point, I guess. They're trying to show that war is ugly. Yeah, war is a war. I get it. But...

[00:30:04] I think they put a filter, just to add to your point there. Yeah. Is they didn't realize... Sorry. They didn't put a filter on here is what I'm trying to say. The Americans look bad in this. Yeah. And... And... Um...

[00:30:33] Just because it is so well made. I mean, this is an expertly made film. And they... For what it is, I don't believe they could have, in a million years, done it any better. No, I think you're right. It just wasn't for me. Yeah, it kind of... So, the big question is, I'm just wondering why they chose this particular event. That's the thing. And I haven't really... Well, I'm guessing that this was...

[00:30:59] Because, I'm guessing Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza... Are friends? Well, they are friends. Because Ray Mendoza was the guy who was his... Whatever. Your expert on civil war. To like, you know, how is it going to happen in war? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, him and Ray Mendoza have a relationship. So, I'm guessing this is the big thing that happened while Ray Mendoza was there. And Alex Garland said, you know what? I'll tell your story. Let's tell your story. Let's do it right.

[00:31:29] And I believe they probably... They did it right. But did it need to be made? I don't know. Yeah. I don't think we needed this. But I will say, to date, this is by far the most... Like, when I talked about Black Hawk Down, up until seeing this movie, I thought Black Hawk Down was the most realistic film that I'd ever seen. This felt genuine. This felt like I was in that war. Yeah. And it doesn't pull punches. It doesn't put any smoke screens up.

[00:31:59] It is what it is. And war is hell. Okay. So, can we talk about the yellow helmet guy? I mean, it's obviously identified for him. But the one guy who's, in my opinion, is the heart and soul of this movie. If there is a heart and soul of this movie. Sure. Well, didn't you think so? Like, he's the one. Yeah. He goes out to pull the guy in. Yeah. And, you know, he's protecting the guys and he's sitting there with them.

[00:32:28] Like, maybe he's the... I guess the... I mean, there was not a specific medic in there. But as far as... But then why... Maybe he is the medic, but he had a lot of other skills. Because he was also... Yeah, there was no medic. The engineer as well or whatever. Right. So, yeah. Anyway, I was really connected to that character. I thought... Huh. I thought he did. Yeah, I wasn't connected to any of the characters. Okay. Well, there we go. All right.

[00:32:57] So, so far, we're just keeping track. We've gone through two movies. We have no unanimous decision. So, this is a great week for us. Absolutely. I have a feeling, though, that the next movie, we may get a unanimous decision. You think? Maybe. All right. So, I have a random bunch of thoughts about this film. Let's drop, by the way. Yeah. Drop. Yeah.

[00:33:25] So, as opposed to having a cohesive opinion on this film. Because as much as there is some suspense in this, there is also a bunch of things that are completely annoying. Here is my... I'm going to put unfocused and uncontrolled thoughts on this film. First off, I'm not sure how the murder dude is sending messages to her through an app called Diddy Drop. Diddy Drop. She has... She's on a date.

[00:33:53] And she still accepts the request to get direct messages from this person. And she's an abuse survivor. So, like, if you're an abuse survivor and you're on a... I don't even understand what Diddy Drop is. But apparently, if everybody's in the same space and they're all on Diddy Drop, then everybody can see who's around them in Diddy Drop. So... What was it called? Diddy Drop?

[00:34:23] Diddy... I don't think it was called Diddy Drop. It was... I'm pretty sure it was Diddy Drop. Was it Diddy Drop? I don't know. I don't think it was. It's something Diddy... It's something I think... Was it Diddy? Maybe it's P. Diddy Drop. They weren't going to call it Diddy. I'm pretty sure it was Diddy Drop. It couldn't have been Diddy Drop. Well, look it up while I'm talking. I've got my computer... So, I don't understand somebody who is a survivor of abuse is going to be anywhere involved in a Diddy Drop.

[00:34:53] I get it. She wants to date. But that part... I couldn't get past that part. So, she's on a date and she accepts the request from this message chat where this guy's randomly sending message to her. I've never seen an app that does this, by the way. Which kind of put me off on the... Apparently, Diddy Drop does it. Diddy Drop does. Diddy did it. Diddy did it. Diddy did it. They're at one of the best restaurants and they...

[00:35:21] Apparently, this restaurant that's so exclusive hires a dipshit as their waiter. Even if it's your first day on the job. High-end restaurants do not hire dipshits. And I think he was supposed to be the comedy relief. I think he was. I think he was. But first off, it doesn't work. You're in a high-end restaurant. The person should have been played by Alan Cumming or something. Like, it should not have been played by Douchebag the Douchey.

[00:35:47] How did the bad actor dude did not see the $20 bill? And you know who I'm saying about the bad actor dude? A.K.A. Brandon Sklenar? Sklenar? Sklenar. Been recently newly added to my repulsive list. Standing right next to Rami Malek, who has zero talent in acting.

[00:36:09] If you put him and Rami Malek beside each other and said, I need you to act out this particular paragraph in a sentence. You wouldn't be able to tell them apart because neither one of them have no emotional content whatsoever. True, but they deliver it in different ways. Well, it's true. Rami has a cadence and this guy has no cadence. He's just talking. He's like, hey, I'm super cool. I'm super hot. You should probably just look at me with my eyebrows. Look at me. Look at me.

[00:36:39] That's exactly what it was like. Hey, how you doing? The killer is on her to kill him. So every five minutes he's like, okay, you got to kill him. Kill him. But then we get 15 to 20 minutes where he's not annoying him at all, which happens midway through the meal. And back to bad actor dude, didn't see the $20 bill that's sitting in her salad. It's just like nothing. Neither one of them sees what's happening to each other through the whole movie.

[00:37:08] And I'm just like, what? Yeah. So back to boring and bad actor dude, takes a bullet and then had the strength to pull her up from hanging over the edge of a building. That made complete sense. After he takes a bullet? After he takes a bullet. Nice. Yeah. And he's almost bled out first. Like you almost think he's dead. Yeah. And then she's hanging from the top of the building by a tablecloth or something. So he's a curtain. A ripped curtain.

[00:37:37] And I didn't know that, I guess if buildings are high enough in the sky, they'll suck you out when, I didn't know that was a thing. I thought that was only in airplanes. I don't think it's a real thing. Because I think, yeah, it's definitely not a thing. There's no way that that's happening. Yeah. I mean, you might get pulled towards it a little bit, but it's not just going to be like an airplane and suck you out. Yeah. Again. Because you're stationary. So you're not going to have this wicked pressure. Exactly.

[00:38:06] And then the killer shoots the sister once. That's all I want to say. He shoots her once. He does. But he still has bullets, Bryce. Yeah. He's there to kill them. Yeah. But he shoots her once in the shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just so I know this. Then does not take the kid as leverage. When the mom comes home, he runs downstairs to get her. When his job was to kill the kid. He's spoiling the whole movie. Well, because the movie's a spoil. Maybe it should be spoiled. It is. It should be spoiled.

[00:38:35] And like, what? Is this just so he can have time? Like, I don't understand the whole sister kid thing. It didn't make any sense. But then, you know, the gun delivery by the little kid was truly funny because of how stupid it was. Then she keeps the app. Again, this is a woman survivor who's now survived two forms of abuse. And she still fucking keeps this app.

[00:38:59] I'm like, in no world universe that's created would this woman ever keep this app. And yet, you know what? We still had the app at the end of the movie. Yeah. This was boring. Like, extremely boring. And ludicrous. Even though they tried, like, they tried really hard to try and legitimize. Kind of like you could watch it and go, okay, maybe that could happen.

[00:39:28] But ultimately, this is a huge rage. I don't know how many times they go to and fro the table. It's like, at some point, someone's got to go, what the fuck is actually happening here? Like, they were never at the table long enough. And then when they did, it was like, you know, we better have a 15, 20 minute conversation where the killer guy isn't saying, you should be killing him now. Yeah. It was horrible. I hated this. It was a rage.

[00:39:57] So, if you're trying to kill somebody, like, I don't even get the concept of this movie. You're going to take someone's date and you figured this all out that he's going to have this date with this person ahead of time, obviously. And you've got this grand, elaborate plan to do this airdrop stuff. WikiLeaks or Wiki, what is it? It's called airdrop. Diddydrop. The real one. You're doing the diddydrop. Yeah.

[00:40:29] And so, like, what? Why would you do it this? This is the dumbest way to kill somebody. Yeah. Like, why are you going to kill them this way? Why wouldn't you just hire someone to just walk up and... Well, because did you hear what... Did you hear? Yes. That they did that because she's already killed a man once. Yes, I understand. She had a reason to kill them. So, she's a man killer. Yeah. Well, here she comes. It made no sense whatsoever.

[00:40:58] Just, you know what? Just go hire someone if you're not going to do it yourself. And just, this was just silly. Like, the whole concept from the beginning. And yeah, they... What... She... How did she... How did her husband die? She killed him. No, but how? I think it was with a gun, wasn't it? Was it? I don't remember. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't like... I thought it was an accident. Oh, no. He killed himself. That's what it was. Yeah. He killed himself. Yeah. He killed himself. Okay.

[00:41:28] So... I kind of didn't care at that point. So, it's out there that he killed himself. But he got blamed because her fingerprints were all over the gun. But her fingerprints were on the... Yeah. It's like... So, then you're making the connection that she's going to be a cold-hearted killer now. And if you put her family in danger, she's just going to kill this guy. That's a big, big leap of faith. I don't understand. I can't even get past the initial concept of this movie because it is so dumb.

[00:41:54] You're not just going to get a stranger and expect them to carry out a murder for you. Nobody's that stupid. But apparently, whoever wrote this movie thinks that someone's that stupid. Well, if their child is threatened, they might. I just don't... That's the only logic I can think of. Yeah. I mean, there's been a lot of movies like that. Let's face it. If they're holding a gun to her kid's head, then yeah, I can see her having to do it. But... Yeah. Again, I didn't see this movie. Yeah. I didn't understand it at all.

[00:42:24] I just sat there just not getting it. Well, because it was boring. It was very boring. It was very boring. I may have fallen asleep at one point. You did, but that's okay. I wasn't going to say that. I'm glad you did. Because I kept looking over at you. I'm like, are you awake? And then I... I was awake for most of it. Yeah, she admits it. I woke up when innocent dude that was having the first date ended up being the guy that was doing the drops in the restaurant. Yeah.

[00:42:53] And I guess he's the one that hired the guy that's in the house with the kid and the sister. Yeah. I hated this movie. It's a rage. Yeah, of course it is. All right. There's a button you can press if we finally agreed on something. Oh, yeah. I guess technically you did. I can 100% guarantee we will not agree on the next movie either. No, you probably won't. No. You don't think so? When I say I, I mean we, because you also saw this one.

[00:43:22] I also saw this one. You don't think we're going to go three for three on this? I don't think so. Oh. No. All right, Murph. The friend. Yes. Okay. Bill Murray. Yeah, he was in this. He's a writer with three ex-wives and a best friend slash former lover who seems to be a lot of fun. Then he dies like 10 minutes into the film. People are sad and his best friend, Naomi Watts, is left with his dog.

[00:43:49] A gigantic Great Dane that she can't have in her pet-free New York City apartment. There. That's what the movie's about. But as these guys know, I love me some Bill Murray. Hey, he's got a great name. So why wouldn't I? So of course I wanted to see this. Either I missed it in the trailer or I was misled. But Bill isn't in this film a whole lot.

[00:44:19] In fact, like I said, he dies in like the first 10 minutes. There are a couple of flashbacks, but not enough. What we're left with is Naomi Watts as a grieving friend slash former lover and a really big dog. Great Dane to be exact. That doesn't do a whole lot except lay around and look really sad. Like 24-7. So sad. Even so, it was a great dog. And I took a liking to it instantly.

[00:44:48] Made me think back to my first dog. German Shepherd named Scotty. That was my best friend. Also made me wish that I had a dog. And then I thought about Baxter. And all the obedience classes and all the walks. But look at him now, Murray. Baxter's fascination with eating plastic. Look at him now, Murray. Yeah, but eat plastic. That was a big thing to get over. Yeah, well.

[00:45:15] But look at what a good dog he is now. A year later. So yeah, no, I don't really need a dog. Plus, Baxter loves me anyway. Exactly. He does. As for this film, Naomi Watts was phenomenal. As usual, I always liked her. There was a good balance of supporting characters, all the women in Walter's life. That's Bill Murray because I didn't mention it. Some good, some bad.

[00:45:39] I had to laugh at one of his ex-wives who actually thought she would take the dog and owned expensive furniture in an expensive Manhattan condo. Like, she really had no idea. Oh yeah, you gotta go in the furniture with a $10,000 couch. I'm like, well, why are you bringing a dog in then? Good point, Murr. Yeah, she didn't know what she was in for. I got things to say about that, by the way. It was sweet to see Naomi Watts' character bond with the dog. This movie was kind of slow, not really my kind of film.

[00:46:09] But Naomi kept the story moving along, and the final scene between her and Bill Murray was absolutely worth the wait. That was my favorite part of the whole film. Now, I went to this film expecting to see more of Bill Murray. I think if he had been in more flashbacks, it may have gotten to a mondo. But the emotional performance by Naomi Watts and Apollo the dog still made it a decent man. I didn't mind it.

[00:46:40] Alright. Okay, so the story of a dog and a woman who are grieving from the death of their best friend. That sounds good. It does sound good. Yeah, I wish that was what this movie was. But this is underpinned by the backdrop of what I'm going to call a traditional New York film. And if you watch enough films shot in New York, you should know exactly what I mean when I say this.

[00:47:09] A film filled with pretentious, annoying characters that seem to not understand how the rest of the world exists. Where our lead character walks around New York with the dog. And where, because you need a place to store your dead friend's dog, you should be able to do whatever the hell you want. In any location you want. Although, that's like most people with dogs. They think or feel everyone should love their dog.

[00:47:34] And they should impose their thoughts and beliefs on everyone around them. Those people are the worst. They are. They are absolutely. But everybody loves Baxter. No, they do not all love Baxter Bryce. They all do. No. They do. Yeah. So I found this. No, they do. Yeah. I found this boring because I couldn't relate to the character and found the story predictable and uninteresting.

[00:47:58] It was a, also, way too long and a terrible, okay, I got more to say. And what did make this even worse is the dog gets allowed to stay in her. And this is like something we are all supposed to celebrate in her building. Is this supposed to be a win for her, for the dog?

[00:48:23] The people who had to interact with her, yet another pretentious New Yorker who cares nothing for anyone else's or themselves. Her building is, strictly says, no dogs. So when she was bringing it into the building at the time, the front end guy should have said, No, the dog doesn't come in because this is no entrance building. There was one funny line in this whole movie. Otherwise, I absolutely hated this film. And I mean hated every single thing about this.

[00:48:51] What it was standing for, what the message was, which was, you know what, if you complain enough and you just have a big dog and walk around New York, you can just do whatever the fuck you want, which is absolutely not the right message. The message should have been, she got the dog and she took it back to her place in New York. And then they said, no, you can't bring this dog in here. Go live at a Howard Johnson with your dog until you figure out how to deal with it. And then the whole time she's running around New York, it's just like, oh, I want to do a beautiful shot of this in New York.

[00:49:21] Oh, it's like it was trying to be a Woody Allen film from the 1970s. And it just isn't written well enough. And so here's the funny line from the suicidal people line. Yeah. The more suicidal people there are, the less suicidal people there are. That was the only line in this was worth retention. Otherwise, this movie was a horrible, horrible, horrible rage. I hated this more than any movie. I hated this more than drop.

[00:49:47] I've sat through the whole movie thinking this is the stupidest movie and people in New York are gross is what I thought about this movie. If they're going to give her an emotional support animal rating and then people can now just bring dogs into buildings they're not allowed to be in. I hated this film. What do you think, Rex?

[00:50:07] I am just trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Scott McAgee, I can't even say his name, and David Siegel, who wrote and directed this, were the force behind Montana's story. What? Like, how do you go from Montana story? One of the greatest character stories ever made. To this, where it's just like little snippets of New York.

[00:50:32] And once again, just like you were saying, just pretentious, just people that I hated. I did not like anybody in this. No! Everybody was just a whiny little bitch. Even, yes! Thank you! It's like, what is going on? I loved Apollo. Apollo was great. The dog was the only thing in this that I liked. But this is just, this was not a good movie. This was just not a good movie.

[00:51:01] It wasn't well edited. It wasn't well written. It was too long. It was over two hours long to tell a nothing story. Yeah, the story is one sentence. At her point, at the end of it, she skirts the system so that she can get the dog. Like, it's like, really? Like, why do you have this giant Great Dane anyways living in a cramped apartment in New York? Like, right there I was annoyed. Yes! Like, what in the bleep is wrong with you?

[00:51:31] Go find this dog a good home. Yes! She tried. Anyway. No, she tried to give it to a place that would take it. She didn't try to give it to a home, Marie. She didn't try that for one second. This was just, this was not a fun movie to watch. It wasn't an emotional movie. It wasn't informative in any way. It was nothing. This movie did nothing for me. This movie is a rage. Oh, I'm glad.

[00:52:00] I thought I was going to be the only one that hated this. I did not like this movie. And I went into it thinking I was going to. I was like, how can you go wrong? You got Bill Murray. You got a giant dog. This is going to be great. Yeah. It was not. It was not good. It just, it just, no, it had nothing to do with it. You could have had Bill Murray all the way through this. You had Bill Murray all the way through. It didn't take, did do anything for the rest of the writing. The story was just so horrible. It's, yeah, I did not like this movie. I didn't mind it. It wasn't great.

[00:52:28] But I mean, I also like Turner and Hooch. So I, Hey, I'll watch Turner and Hooch on fricking loop for the next seven days rather than watch 10 minutes of this ever again. Don't you think they were trying to, I don't know what they were trying to do. Woody Allen or something. They were trying to be Woody Allen. No, it was a total New York Woody Allen movie. There wasn't a sympathetic character in the bunch. No. Like, who am I supposed to root for here? Or who am I supposed to hate? I didn't really root for or hate anybody. I hated the situation.

[00:52:57] I hated the fact that they were doing this to this poor dog. But other than that, I didn't, I didn't think they were like horrible people. I thought they were pretentious snooty New Yorkers. And if that's what you want to make a movie about, great. You could have picked a better subject. The dog could have at least been a chihuahua. That would have made it better right there, to be honest. Still would have made it a horrible movie. It would have made it still horrible. Yeah. It was not good. I, and I'm, I'm shocked because I, as I say, I don't know how you go from Montana story to this.

[00:53:27] Because apparently they go to New York instead of Montana. There you go. All right. Okay. Sacramento, which is only, which is only six hours only from Los Angeles. So from one set of pretentious annoying, from one pretentious annoying. Is it the capital? I don't know. That's, that's a good question. I know it's not LA. It might be. It might be the capital.

[00:53:57] I'm not sure. I think it might be actually. You know what? Who knows? If we have any LA listeners, let us know. All right. Sacramento. Two awkward, neurotic, and for the most part, unlikable childhood friends take us on a road trip from LA to Sacramento. One is about to become a dad and is suffering from OCD and panic attacks played by the always fabulous Michael Cera. Yes.

[00:54:24] The other is dealing with grief and abandonment issues played by Michael Angarano, who also wrote and directed this. Sure did. The writing in this is funny. The writing in this is funny as these two try to reconnect from being estranged for a long while. We get some very funny and great performances from both these main actors. But this is a road trip buddy movie.

[00:54:51] And as much as it was funny and there was some great tender moments, I can't help but compare it to another awkward buddy road trip movie of the last year called A Real Pain. Yes. But in that case. We're slung some Oscars. Yes. And I don't care about that. But in the case of the characters of that film, they are much more likable. And in this one, I just felt to Bryce's point about the last movie we just talked about.

[00:55:18] I just felt like slapping them both and saying, quit being so helpless, you little bitch and grow up and be a fucking grown up. These seem to be written by the I'm victim generation where the entire cast of men are idiotic, self-centered, unlikable people, which also made the two main women characters get questioned as to why and in what world would either one of you like these two men? Yeah.

[00:55:48] You women deserve better than these two idiots. So even though watching two very funny, unlikable people for an hour and a half, I had a good time, but this was mad. I had some more unpacking to do, but made sure to write this down as instructed in one of the support groups. One of the characters attends. Anger is just sadness with nowhere to go, which is kind of how I felt about this movie.

[00:56:16] And I got some unpacking, but what did you think about Sacramento? I mean... Weren't they slappable? They were very slappable. And it's one of those movies where you're watching it and it's not even... I mean, the movie is okay and you're laughing a lot. Yes. But you kind of feel empty when it's all over.

[00:56:44] Yes, I did grow as a person watching this movie. And you're like, how do these two even get through their lives? Like, how is this even possible? Yes. Other than the fact that they've clung on to these far superior women. Yes. I will say Kristen Stewart is so good in this. Yeah. She is really good in this. I mean, she didn't really have that. Yes. She didn't have a lot, but she had that stoic. And she nailed it. Which was different for her. It is. I think she did a good job.

[00:57:13] She played a different character in this and she was very good. Actually, all the performances were really good. Yeah. The performances were good. It's just that, yeah. Yeah. You know, it's about these two guys. And as you mentioned, neither of them are likable. At the end of the day though, I mean, you can pretty much put Michael Cera into any role and it's going to get a minimum of a meh from me because if I'm watching Michael Cera, I'm just happy. And it doesn't matter what's coming out of his mouth.

[00:57:41] I know he's going to deliver it in a way that's going to make me happy. Yep. And that's kind of what he does. He's kind of the, you know, if you're having a bad day, put on a Michael Cera movie because it'll probably make you happy. And it doesn't matter if it's, you know, you know, Nick and Nora's infinite playlist or if it's Scott Pilgrim versus the world. It doesn't matter what it is. If Michael Cera, if it's super bad, Michael Cera is going to make you happy. He just is. So. Or Juno. Yeah. Or Juno. I tell you.

[00:58:11] Two Canadian icons. But back to the movie at hand. It's a hard movie to talk about because it doesn't say anything. It's about a couple of unlikable dudes that have some funny, funny lines throughout. I mean, I can see that this Michael Angorano can, he can definitely write comedy because there's some real funny bits in this movie. Oh, totally. And I'm kind of looking forward.

[00:58:40] I'm hoping that he's going to grow as a writer and maybe create something just a little bit better next time because it doesn't have to be that much better. She's got to be a little bit better. And if you put Michael Cera in it and it's a little bit better, it might get to a mondo for me. So, so, you know, could you imagine though, if he took this story and gave it to Jesse Eisenberg to write it? Yeah. Oh, exactly. If he gave it to Jesse Eisenberg to write it. And I think that that's the whole thing. I mean, it became his passion project.

[00:59:10] He wrote it, directed it and, and starred in it. And sometimes that's a little much for, is it his first effort? I'm guessing it's his first effort. Um, that's, that's just a little much. He's going to see him do some other directing. Has he? But, um, I'm going to look it up. But at the end of the day, this is a man, it's an enjoyable man, but it's, it's, it's like empty calories. You're not going to get anything out of it. You're not going to, you're not, you know, it's, it's, it's a bag of potato chips is what this movie is. Yeah.

[00:59:39] I'd say that there's, um, go ahead, Murray. Uh, so he directed Avenues. Avenues. Yeah. I don't think I remember. Back in 2017. Okay. I don't think I were, I either didn't see it or I don't remember it. Well, it's on Tubi, so you can watch it anytime you want. Tubi. Tubi.

[01:00:04] Um, yeah, the scene, there's a scene in particular that made me laugh for, I want to say the entire scene. I'm going to call it the projecting gaslighting conversation. So good. That, that movie was worth the price. That scene was worth the price of admission. And it's, it's funny. If you showed me about 15 of the little comedy bits and just ran them back to back, I would say, how could that movie be anything but a mondo?

[01:00:31] Because there was some really funny stuff in it. Yeah. But it's, as I say, it's empty calories, man. I got the opinion, like, I mean, it takes place in California and you know, California can be a little bit flaky at times. We all know this just like Canadians can be. But, um, we get these two men that I think obviously grew up with participation badges for everything they did. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[01:00:57] Like the fact, to your point that the fact that they even can still be alive because they're so incompetent at everything. Yeah. It's just like, I couldn't piece that into. And kind of thriving, really. Yeah. Well, but I mean, Michael Cera's character is like, he's just beyond like bonkers. How Kristen Stewart was able to stay with him without murdering him. It's just like, I almost need a, I need a prequel to this so I can feel like, how did that happen? Yeah.

[01:01:26] How did that happen? And then we'd get more Kristen Stewart. Yes. Yeah. All right. Well, that's enough of that. That's enough of that. All right. We are about to watch The Friend with Bill Murray. I was asked what my favorite film of his was. Yes. Since I love him so much, there's a lot to choose from.

[01:01:53] I'm sure I've done this segment before, but it's worth another shot. Because he has new movies. Uh, yes. Spoiler alert. The Friend is not on this list. No. Keep in mind, these are films that I've actually seen. I have not seen every Bill Murray film. I have. Yet. I could have made a separate list of just Wes Anderson films. Yes. Bill Murray has been in 11 of them. Yes. And they were all good.

[01:02:23] And he is amazing in all of them. All right. Let's start with The Dead Don't Die. Especially Steve Zizou. I mean, come on. Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Caleb Landry Jones, Carol Kane. Iggy Pop. And it's about zombies. Yeah. Ah, this one might be a shocker. Wild Things. On second watching, I enjoyed it more than the first time. Well, that's good. That's good. Uh, next up, Wild Things. Okay.

[01:02:52] He isn't in the, he isn't the star of the film. He's barely in it. Barely in it, but he's the best part of it. The star of the film is that hotel scene. There you go. Denise Richards, uh, big boobs and bad acting aside. This was a great thriller. So many twists and turns. And Bill Murray as a shyster lawyer was priceless. He was. Next up, another one you won't like. Scrooge. Yes. That is true.

[01:03:18] Next to Charlie Brown Christmas and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, this is easily my third favorite holiday film. A modern retelling of A Christmas Carol. Tars Bill as a TV executive. Oh yeah, wait, I used to work in TV. Uh, and he has a Grinch sized heart. He's backed up by Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, and many others. The mesmerizing Carol Kane. Directed by Richard Donner, one of my favorite directors. Oh. Then we have Caddyshack.

[01:03:48] Though Bill Murray doesn't have a big role in the film, he holds his own against other legends like Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, and Ted Knight. And that Scottish dude with the thick accent. Good old Scottish dude. Scottish dude. Uh, St. Vincent. This is another film with Bill Murray and Naomi Watts. I forgot they were together before. Maybe their first one. Uh, Bill plays a crotchety old guy with a gambling problem who has, and has a single mother

[01:04:16] and her son move in next door. The kid takes a shine to Vincent and changes his life for the better. I'm not really a big fan of Melissa McCarthy, but she was good in this. Naomi Watts as Vincent's Russian hooker friend was a nice choice too. Stripes. 1881. One of Ivan Reitman's best. The ensemble cast in this film is just crazy. Bill Murray, Harold Ramis. My main man, John Candy. Dan Larroquette.

[01:04:46] John Larroquette, sorry. And Sean Young. Another Ivan Reitman masterpiece. And then, Lost in Translation. Easily my favorite dramatic role of Murray's. That I've seen. Uh, he was dynamic but understated as a fading Hollywood star on a trip to Japan to revive his career. We meet the newly married Scarlett Johansson that is bored when her husband leaves her for hours every day. Much as I hoped these two crazy kids would get together at the end, it's better that they didn't.

[01:05:17] I absolutely love this film. Finally, Ghostbusters. This was a tough choice, but I still have to put this at the top. Wow. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, directed by Ivan Reitman. Yes. Have I mentioned I freaking love this man? I can watch this movie over and over and never get tired of it. I did leave out Groundhog Day because I'm not a big fan of that film.

[01:05:46] Maybe because it's always on TV. I don't really need to relive that film every six weeks. There are so many Bill Murray films I could have put on here. There really isn't a movie of his I don't like. So there. There you go. Get old Bill. That's my list, not yours. I remember when Bill used to be mesmerizing too. I still like him. Yeah. So do we. Just not as much as me. Temperature rising. That's true. Vision blurring.

[01:06:17] Rage. Take him. Over. My rage this week is... I had a few different things that were going to be my rage this week.

[01:06:44] But the one that's going to make me, I guess, rage the most is that I've never seen a trailer more than I saw The Amateur. It literally played... And it could be the streaming services that I have because I've been watching a lot of Disney Plus. But if you watch streaming services like Disney Plus or Prime, it literally played almost every time there was a fucking commercial. So that's my rage this week is that can you please spread this around?

[01:07:13] Like we even talked last week that there are some great, great movies that people are not even going to see because they didn't get trailers of it. Because they didn't pay for the advertising. I got to see The Amateur... Freaky Tales. Like a hundred million times since it started playing. Go watch Freaky Tales. You'll never see a trailer for it anywhere, but... You should. I never heard of it. Everybody should see that movie. Yeah. So my rage is just stop beating people to death with the same fucking trailers and in The

[01:07:42] Amateur in particular because it did ruin a lot of the movie. I didn't see drop as much. I saw a lot of drop. There was a lot of drop trailers. I don't know why you... Maybe just when I was streaming. I guess it's because you're streaming as well. I'm just talking about in the theaters. We saw both of them. We did. Yeah. Like a lot. And they were both not very good. They were both awful. There you go. They're rages. That's almost the level of testing a movie.

[01:08:12] The more they promote it, the worse it is. The worse chances it's going to be. The worse it's going to be. Butts in the seats. That's why they oversaturate it. Hmm. My rage is very simple this week.

[01:08:38] It's the same as it will be for every single weekend that I have to watch one of this guy's movies. My rage is Rami Malek. He needs to not act anymore. He needs to be... Nobody needs to cast him in anything. Especially if he's going to have a speaking role. If you want to put him in the background looking creepy, go ahead. But do not let the man talk. This will be my rage. I guarantee this is my rage every single week that Rami Malek is in a movie. Well, he's not in a lot of movies.

[01:09:08] So... Well, that's what... So he's going to be my rage once or twice a year. There you go. But Rami Malek, until he's gone forever, that's my rage. Maybe he'll be back to TV. Maybe. We can only hope. Come on. Because Bryce doesn't watch TV. Come on, Senior Robot. Come out with Season 12 or whatever it is. Nice. Senior Roboto.

[01:09:31] Last week on Rage or Dare, Jim and Bryce decided, well, it actually was fate that decided when they played The Pick of Destiny. And no, not like Tenacious D.

[01:10:00] And the universe, in its infinite wisdom, chose the Stallone-Schwarzenegger flick, Escape Plan. This week, it's Bryce's turn to rage or dare. And I'm not even going to say anything because you know what I'm going to say. But I mean... Really. I don't think it's my turn. Come on, Bryce. Okay, let's find out how many minutes it took before the boys had to put on the subtitles to try and understand our two leads. Well, you can actually probably only need it for one.

[01:10:30] The one from Austria actually has a pretty good diction. Let's face it. Who actually can watch a film with Sylvester Stallone without subtitles? What's the over-under, folks? One minute? Any takers? What say you boys? All right. You want to go first or you want me to? Well, I don't know. I mean, Escape Plan from the get-go, I'm like, okay. Like, the opening scenes and stuff, I'm like, well, this is kind of far-fetched.

[01:11:00] And then he gets into this weird prison and then it just keeps on getting sillier. And they do a bunch of stuff that I guess, I don't know. Maybe there's some science behind it. I highly doubt it. But the thing that really got to me was, like, when he went in, there was this, like, room that he went into and it, like, fills with water and then apparently just flushes him into the ocean. And this is towards the end of the movie. And at that point, I'm like, well, this can't get any dumber.

[01:11:28] But then this helicopter that's, like, flying away because it's being shot at. And, you know, all of a sudden, Schwarzenegger just looks down. Oh, he sees Stallone in the ocean. It's like, okay, number one, you're flying away. You're not going to even notice Stallone. You can't hear anything. And the whole thing is just stupid. It's just a god-awful movie.

[01:11:53] And Jim Caviezel is just so annoying in this movie as the warden. I hated everything about this movie. This was a complete and utter rage. The stupidity is just, it's dumbfounding. Like, it's like, why? How they came out with a second one after this. Like, why? I think I already watched the second one for a rage or dare. I got you to get that one.

[01:12:22] Okay, well, let me tell you about what I thought of Escape Plan. I could understand Stallone, by the way. I didn't have to put the subtitles on it. Okay, so for me, well, in my opinion, Casey was right. I could only last about a minute before I had to turn on the subtitles. I can't fucking understand a word that man says, no matter what he's saying or where he's saying it. You just gotta pay attention. No, I don't want to pay attention because I can't stand the man. Like, all heist or escape films.

[01:12:51] You have to be, like, zoned in if you're going to understand them. You have to be in a Stallone zone. It's a Stallone movie. And just like Stallone movies, this is also a horrible film where none of it would actually happen. And it's another macho bullshit film from Stallone. He's a professional escape guy from prison guy who likes to mansplain everything, but mostly just obvious things.

[01:13:21] Look, the story is stupid and simple, and trying to understand Stallone is what I found most annoying. And how he's been able to stay in film. Like, your point about Rami Malek is the same thing I'm going to put out for Stallone. That if he's okay, if he's in a background part or he doesn't have any speaking parts, how he still gets roles, it's completely beyond me. So the film, he agrees to do this escape. But don't forget, he also writes stuff. Yeah. Working man! Which is also horrible.

[01:13:51] He agrees to do this escape where he's hired by the CIA where his team can't find where he is. And he is locked in a supposed foolproof prison. Surprise! It's not. And we have to watch for like an hour and a half as we are bored to death by horrible dialogue. Again, from Stallone, where you can't understand what he's saying.

[01:14:16] And then, as expected, everything on top of being boring is also predictable and stupid. So, as per usual, Sly Stallone delivers a rage-filled film. Unless you like movies where... Excuse me. Arnold and Sly stand around looking at things suspiciously in a prison. Yes. There's a lot of that. Sitting around staring at things suspiciously. I do remember Schwarzenegger said something that made me laugh at some point.

[01:14:46] There was a line. I wish I could remember it. Because it was hilarious. You know what? Maybe this wasn't a rage. That one thing from Schwarzenegger. From Schwarzenegger. Yeah, it was pretty funny. You know, just having Schwarzenegger... This was a rage. Yeah. Because it's horrible. It's terribly horrible. Oh, but... Oh, I had something I was going to mention. Where did it go? Where did it go? You know what? It doesn't matter. Because this movie is a big waste of time.

[01:15:14] And if I see Stallone is in a movie or wrote a movie or is directing a movie... Directing maybe not so much as long as he's not in it. Well, the whole premise of the movie, though... I don't know why I'm talking about the movie still. But the whole premise of the movie is this warden dude actually has Ray Breslin's book about, like, you know, how to make an impenetrable prison where you can't break out. And these are the reasons why you don't do this. And he's got the guide.

[01:15:43] He's got the book that Stallone's character, Ray Breslin, wrote. Because he's an expert on this stuff. And that's why he made this prison. And yet there's still, like, so many ways to get out of the prison. Because Schwarzenegger got out one way and Stallone got out the other way. So there's at least two ways to get out of it. But he had the book that was supposed to be so that you can't get out. Yeah. So apparently Ray Breslin's an idiot. And his book is bunk.

[01:16:14] And that just makes the whole movie stupid. Well, the movie was stupid. Yes. And boring. Don't forget boring. But Schwarzenegger did say something funny. I remember that. He always does. You'll have to watch it again just to remember. He always does. All right. So, Bryce, you will be choosing for when we come back. So we're going to be covering Calgary Underground Film Festival for the next couple weeks.

[01:16:41] So we're not going to be back with Rage or Dare until a little later in May. So when we come back. Bryce. Is it really my turn or was that a joke? No, it's your turn. I think it was my turn solo the week before. And then. All right. Why are you giving me your bag? I get to choose. Well, so here's the thing I think is that we, you and I should choose from those. And we should have to choose each other's.

[01:17:11] Is that going to be a rule now? I think it should be a rule. Okay. Let's have it as a rule. Because you and I can stay committed to it. Now, if you don't do your job for six months, I'm going to be pulling from those other bags. This is a motivation for you. Okay. Whatever. I've got plenty in there. So I'm good for a long time. We're good for a couple years, I think. Okay. So that's the new rule. I choose from it. And then when we're choose together, we choose from either Murray or Casey or the audience. That's right. All right. You know what? That's actually the first. Smart thing I've ever said.

[01:17:41] Not the first smart thing, but in a long time. Because that actually makes a lot of sense to me. I think that's actually a good idea. All right. Plus, that means that every time you watch one solo, you're going to be watching a god-awful movie instead of some wonderful thing that the audience has chosen. If I can get another Tom Green film, dear to me, I am on board. Yes. Daddy, would you like some sausage? Daddy, would you like some sausage? What will you be seeing when we come back from the cuff? I don't even know what this is.

[01:18:10] Let's have it. It is a film from 2015 called Super Fast! Exclamation Point. Sounds like a parody of something. So it's super fast! Super fast! It's like Exclamation Point. Nice! I don't know what Super Fast! Exclamation Point is, but it's got Alex Ashbaugh in it. Oh, wait a second. No, what the hell is this? Is this a movie? Yes.

[01:18:40] This isn't a movie. It is a movie. Somebody, nobody, this never was in a theater. Yes, it was. What are you talking about? Worldwide gross, $2,075,000. Is this like a spoof on the Fast and the Furious? Well, you're going to let us all know. But I can tell you're going to get to watch this super fast. I don't understand.

[01:19:10] Yes, it is a spoof on Fast and the Furious. Because he loves those movies so much. He loves spoof movies, so it's going to be... Well, it did get reviewed by Los Angeles Times and Variety, so I guess it probably got a release somewhere. It did! In LA, probably. It made $2 million. There we go. All right, super fast. Off the $20 million budget. Super fast. How bad can it be? It could be super bad.

[01:19:38] Oh, that would be awesome if it's that good. Because super bad was funny. Everybody check out CalgaryUndergroundFilm.org to see what's playing there. And if you're in Alberta, get your butts into Calgary. Well, thanks, Ragers, for listening. Thanks to the Extended Film Rage family you can find in our show notes. Thanks to Casey from the Nerdy Photographer, the voice of Rager, Darren, our god of rage. Find us on social media everywhere at FilmRageYYC.

[01:20:04] Check out everything Film Rage at FilmRageYYC.com, including our merch site for Redbubble and TeePublic. We're always going to make this a raging blast for all listeners, so please comment, like, and subscribe, and send us emails to FilmRageCalgary at gmail.com. Dares to see terrible movies to fuel our rage, but no matter what you do, please, please, please, pretty please, please, please make us a rage. That's it for this week, Rage. Rage on. Rage on.