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Alex: One of my favorite things about Godzilla is the firebreath and that the beautiful just roar and you know, it it's kinda like the James Bond theme. They just kinda mix it up a little bit, they twist some things, maybe add some reverbs, some bass here and there, but it's just glorious. It it's a continuity that has lasted seventy two years. And Antonio from perhaps my favorite podcast of Back to the Balcony, where you tell two legendary people Surge, you got it wrong, how are you doing today?
Anton: I'm doing great. Thank you for having me on. It is a little interesting that it's just you and me and mom and dad aren't here. Mom and dad being j Justin and Josh. The kids are playing.
Alex: Yup Yeah, I noticed that and now and I was men mentioning to Josh, I was like, I don't think Antonio Vera have ever actually like communicated except through intermediaries. guess you guys get a play date.
Anton: Right. It's like meeting a drug dealer for the first time. It's like I'm not gonna be able to talk to you directly, it's through a friend of a friend of a friend. You're just gonna have to trust that
Alex: Exactly.
Anton: trust me.
Alex: Yeah, and you gotta you gotta go into the garage, you guys gotta hang out for fifteen, twenty minutes, see if the what the what the feel is like.
Anton: Are you a cop? 'Cause if you're a cop, you gotta tell me.
Alex: No, I I I I do have to tell you, I I d
Anton: Ha ha ha.
Alex: No, not at all. but we are actually here to talk about in a franchise that has undergone multiple revolutions. That's right, Antonio. What do you currently think about the idea of either Robert Patterson or Nicholas Holt being the new James Bond? Go.
Anton: isn't it cheating that they throw them in right at the end? It's like they catfished us a little bit with some
Alex: Ha ha ha.
Anton: with some like really interesting ideas, right? Like, okay, I like some of these, you know, like Josh O'Connor
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: and all these guys like that. And they're like, actually, you know, we kinda wanna see what Pattinson and Nicholas Holt have to do with this. I'm like, you know. But o okay, here's the idea. I'll I'll put Pattinson in anything now. I I never was a Pattinson fan until good time.
Alex: yeah. Mm
Anton: And then
Alex: mm.
Anton: once I saw good time, I was like, Okay, this dude can act. He's got chops. And now that he's been in literally everything and shows us that he can do everything, I'm like, Yeah, why
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: not James Bond? sure, make him James Bond. Make him Spider Man, Batman, make him all of I'm fine with it.
Alex: I'm just shocked because it was originally three actors and then a mystery actor that auditioned under cloak and dagger. And all of a sudden it's like, actually, there's two more. No, wait, there's four. No, wait, this person has been cast as the Bond girl. No, wait, this person is is in the runny. And at this point, I wonder if like Amazon is just releasing names and seeing which one gets the most positive vibes and then they won't pick that one. They'll just they'll pick second place.
Anton: Well, I here's the thing with Amazon.
Alex: That's really what I'm thinking they're doing.
Anton: They've got that endless piggy bank, right? they're not worried about
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: a merger. they will absorb studios. They they are Omnicron from the Transformers movies. They'll just eat up everything, right? They can do that. They don't have to
Alex: Exactly.
Anton: worry about Skydance acquiring them. Like they have the license, they can do what they want with it, and they can restart it as many times as they want to. So I think that is the one advantage of Amazon being in charge of that IP. But also, man, like, do you remember like a decade ago when they were already talking about Daniel Craig getting replaced and it was names like
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: Idris Elba or even potentially a female James Bond? Like, I was so much more excited about those rumors than these ones. Like, I mean, these ones kind of seem like watered down when we could have had an Idris Elba James Bond. But now he's too long in the tooth or so.
Alex: I like the Daniel Craig Bonds. I I I do feel that unfortunately whatever was going on with the Broccolys and him and how they kind of like at attached their wagons to each other, that he was there just a little too long. the gaps between the movies started getting untenable. I mean for like the first forty ish years of Bond, you got a movie every two to three years. And that was what with changing actors.
Anton: Well I'll go on record saying that I think every every Bond actor stayed too long. Like Roger Moore was essentially a granddad by the time he was done. You know, Connery stayed too long and came back. Brosden was definitely on too long, you know, and Daniel Craig might have been the most timely exit, but you know, at the same time, it's the 21st century, dude. We're in woke point three. We could have an old man James Bond. We could have James Bond Junior. get silly with it is what I say.
Alex: Yeah, I I really, really liked the idea. I really wish the broccoli's after No Time to Die would have just immediately entered production with just grab w they have to have dozens of scripts just laying around. Grab one of them, throw it at Idris Elba, give us yes, Idris Elba's too old, he's in his fifties, but give him like but at the time who'd been late forties, give him two or three movies, a nice transitional bond, a nice little palette cleanser, something interesting. Give him h give us his swagger and then sure go cast young if you want to do that, but mm-hmm.
Anton: How about this, Alex? How about you get one Bond movie and then on to a new actor?
Alex: Ooh.
Anton: I feel they should have done that with the Superman and the Batman as of late. Affleck didn't need to be Batman three
Alex: No
Anton: times, right? have one Batfleck movie
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: and then have someone else do it. Then have someone else do it. Keep
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it fresh. the problem is, and this is I've been saying this for years. how many good sequels are you gonna get out of a dude? Right? Spider Man two with Toby McGuire is like the rarity in my opinion, where it's like, wow, that was better than the first one.
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: But you really can't say that about anything else that's been made in the last twenty years. okay, you're fine. On to the next. I think we're fine with that.
Alex: We get just theme it. We get a sixties Bond movie, we get a seventies one, an eighties themed, and they just have a different actor every time. I like this idea. Because by the time they catch up to it, we'll be with like twenty tens and it'll be fantastic.
Anton: How about this? James Bond brought to you by Leica Studios.
Alex: that could be good.
Anton: I don't know. We're getting off track here.
Alex: Yep. Yeah, let's talk let's talk Godzilla. Godzilla the storied Toho franchise. This is its thirty-fourth release of the Japanese version of Godzilla. Of course you've had some American ones. currently we have the Monsterverse, which the licensed agreement, if I remember correctly, is they have to approve the design. And if Toho wants to release a Godzilla film, they cannot release the same year. Which is why the next Monsterverse movie is not till n next year. But
Anton: Which isn't that weird? is the Monster Verse really that big of a moneymaker? The fact that they've got that many movies and then they've got, what, two monarchs series with another one on the way?
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: is it that big? Are people really into that?
Alex: I was just looking at that. So if we talk the American Godzilla, of course we have the nineteen ninety eight critically panned and reviled Godzilla film, which was the really America's first attempt, but we've had we're gonna have six films in thirteen years, which isn't it isn't terrible for Hollywood these days.
Anton: Am I wrong in saying that that's more than Batman?
Alex: But I mean it I mean right now I mean of course Matt Reeves and you know whatever's going on with family totally
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: you know have support and all that stuff. But it doesn't look really good good that it took like seven years.
Anton: Yeah, we're gonna get the Batman two in twenty thirty one or something.
Alex: I know, and with another director finishing it. That's the weird part. N
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: no, looking at the look at the Monsterverse, it's been a steady four to five hundred million each time. So, I mean, that's enough if they keep the budgets low. But it's not exactly a critical darling. And speaking of, you know, actors, that's that's one where they're just mixing and matching and throwing out actors left and right. No one's been with that the whole continuity.
Anton: I feel like they just grab whoever's popular on whatever T V show at the time. it was Cranston in the first one, and then Millie Bobby
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: Brown in the second one, and just rinse and repeat. Who's on
a critical
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: darling show right now? Let's put in a Godzilla movie. Or I'm sorry, Godzilla
Alex: Yeah, and then we had
Anton: Kong movie now.
Alex: Mm hmm. And then we had the we had the flashback movie where they got Hillston and Bree Larson.
Anton: Okay, that one was good though. I like that one. That one had some charm to it.
Alex: It did have some charm to it. John Goodwin was fantastic in that, but it still was very odd. Mm-hmm.
Anton: John C. Riley, yeah.
Alex: Yeah, but it was still just this oddity of like, let's take two of the biggest actors from the MCU and never use them again.
Anton: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Alex: Yeah, who I'm trying to remember who was in the last one that was really big at that. Rebecca Hall. That's right. They had Rebecca Hall
Anton: that's right.
Alex: in New Empire. And
Anton: He had Kurt Russell on a TV show.
Alex: Yep, Kurt Russell and of course supporting his son, not Captain America, in that film and that show as well.
Anton: It's such a weird IP, I don't know.
Alex: It is. It makes me when they talk about like design by committee films, they needed to do some reshoots, and they would just look over script, get paid a gobs of money. Do some punch up lines, maybe fix a plot or two. You got a gob some money, never credited. the Godzilla franchise feels like. It feels like somebody who's like, Okay, I've got a monster verse idea. And they're like, That's great, that's great, that's great. Who do we got that's cheap?
Anton: Right.
Alex: And then they get the script and they're filming it. Hollow Earth? Okay. next guy in line. We're doing New Empire. Can you tell me well I have this great idea of the pyramids and an evil ape. I wanna do a crossover with with Jungle Book.
Anton: Ha ha ha
Alex: And then th they just toss it off to somebody like, hey, listen, d y keep the Hollow Earth stuff. Don't worry, Millie Bobby Brown's not in this one. Right out write out Tom Hiddleston and Bree Lyerson. They they're really into apes right now. Okay. If you could just throw in a little bit and you get the script, it's an ape with ice powers.
Anton: Ha ha ha. Mm.
Alex: I just I really I I'm I'm just confused by this, but I admit I will go see the next one. I I I'm a sucker for the for I'm a sucker for films. for things like my gosh, you are right. The next film, the star is Caitlin Dever.
Anton: I'm telling you, man,
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: there's a formula. There is a formula to this. So
Alex: Yo, you I'm looking at it. Yeah, Caitlin Dever and Dan Stevens. Yes, you're right. They just and Jack O'Connell. They just pick whoever had like a hit Netflix TV
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: show.
Anton: Telling you, man, they don't even have to leave the house to write these things. It's like three guys in a Zoom chat that
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: are literally watching a show on Netflix as they're zooming their co-writers. They're like, and enter the rugged adventurer played by Dan Stevens.
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: And there's a musical number. Have you heard this guy sing?
Alex: yeah. and then the casting director is is literally just looking at the IMDB sorry, Netflix's top ten right then.
Anton: Yep, that's it.
Alex: Which is gonna be great when you have Paul Hollywood show up and they're like,
Anton: Ha ha.
Alex: Why this guy's a baker? Why is he on here? He was in the top ten for eighteen weeks.
Anton: It's all about metrics, guys. Metrics. boy. But Godzilla, yeah. I was like, Godzilla minus
Alex: But the Japanese Toho, let's talk so
Anton: zero doesn't have worry about that because they literally just took anyone that survived the first one and threw them in this one. And be damned if we need any new cast members. Let's just keep the exact same crew from number one.
Alex: Yeah. Alright, so their adoptive daughter is just that whiny again. All right.
Anton: Yep. Yep. No, I thought the same thing too. Cause I was like, okay, it's only a two year difference between the two movies, but
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: is is is again, like, I don't want to sound culturally or racially insensitive. However,
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: I swear I've seen that little crying girl in like 40 movies. It's not the same
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: actress, it's the archetype, right? It's it's the
Alex: Yes, yes.
Anton: bangs. I'm not even going with the ethnicity. It's the bangs, it's the outfit, and the high-pitched whiny voice. Rinse and repeat,
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: man. I've seen that character in 40 movies over the last 40 years. And I had to really like double check my phone afterwards to make sure it was the same actress and it was. But yeah. So Godzilla minus zero.
Alex: Okay. She was okay, sorry. She was she was born in two in twenty twenty. She is like five five or six years old. It is the same actress. So she was like one and a half when they filmed the first movie. She
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: has twelve credited roles already.
Anton: Yeah?
Alex: That is insane. I want her agent.
Anton: It's different out there, man, though. they
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: they they almost work like in the classic studio system, almost like a repertory where
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: y you don't have a big agency. Did you ever see that movie? what's it called? not instant family, rental family? The the
Alex: Yes, it was so adorable. I loved it.
Anton: Yeah, great movie. But that's how it is. It's just like the same rotation of actors that they just cycle through the same thing, over and over again. They that's why like Korea does it too. Watch a Korean film, it's
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: the same five Korean actors and everything. Jackie Chan movies as well, Hong Kong does it the same way. The and again, I I talked about
Alex: Mm. Well, look at the UK.
Anton: yeah, well, we talked about this on the Godzilla minus one episode, I think. I'm not sure if you were on that one. I think you were, but we talked about like, yeah,
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: when you're kind of a communist socialist country and it's not really a capitalistic attitude. You can get away with
a lot more by just using the same people for no money over and over again. I know Japan's not quite as socialist as other countries in Asia are, but I feel like they do exploit their actors and their effects guys. I mean, this movie had a $19 million budget, and it looks like what a $300 million budget movie would look like in these states. There's a reason for that.
Alex: First off, how dare you? It looks like a $500 million movie that actually
Anton: It really does.
Alex: had time to bake.
Anton: They didn't they
Alex: They they're
Anton: they didn't stop after the first render, is that what you're saying?
Alex: Yeah, no no. Okay, so I noticed I w I saw the NyMax and there was a moment or two where I like, Okay, that doesn't look right. That's fine. Yes.
Anton: The plane, the plane stuff. The plane stuff was sh jittery. Yeah.
Alex: Yeah, but I will hold that shot against anything in Doomsday when that comes out in, you know, five weeks. I guarantee
Anton: Right.
Alex: you that worst shot will probably be as good as Doomsday's best shot because Marvel is still filming that thing.
Anton: yeah, no, that that thing's gonna come out like with a wet center man. It's not it that
Alex: Hey.
Anton: th that's how those movies work. I finally watched Supergirl and I was like, Wow,
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: they did not finish this movie all the way through or
Alex: No.
Anton: they were just like, Yeah, it's fine. Most people are gonna watch this on streaming anyway, they don't give a shit.
Alex: Yeah. Which I to to your point of the different ethics and stuff like that, the Japanese animation and effects studios are very much known for just fifteen hour days and you don't go home until the boss goes home thing.
Anton: Right.
Alex: I d I'm assuming that's very much similar culture that they had here. especially since the writer director is also credited as the effects supervisor. Yeah.
Anton: The effects dude. And he was in the first one too. Yeah.
Alex: Mm. But from what I understand, they film this they had a script before they filmed it. So that does give you a head start.
Anton: we don't do that in America. We'll shoot the
Alex: No, why would we do that?
Anton: end before the script is finished.
Alex: Yeah yeah. Yeah. I'm starting to have I'm starting to feel more appreciative for the Odyssey suddenly.
Anton: Ha ha ha.
Alex: Mr. Nolan, I'm sorry that I said you don't that that I said it was only nearly okay. Now that I'm thinking of the the movie that I am gonna watch in five weeks, you're rising in my esteem so much right now. Matt Damon was a great casting choice.
Anton: Ha ha
Alex: As was, I'm assuming, one of our future our future James Bonds, because people keep saying Tom Holland auditioned, and I'm like, he's he he's he's 30. He's too young. But then I remember Seeing him in the Odyssey and going, You're not twenty four. Stop pretending
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: Matt Damon is not your papa.
Anton: no no no no in in ancient Greece we call him dad because that's how it is in the movie. Dad.
Alex: Yeah. That's right. And stop crying for a daddy you didn't even know.
Anton: Yeah, there you go.
Alex: Okay, so back to Godzilla Minus Minus one. It was Josh and I's pick of the year. We loved it, adored it. Fantastic. I'm glad they kept the same writer-director who bravo for this person having the time of their life in their 60s
Anton: Right.
Alex: for for this kind of thing. I went through their filmography, no idea who the I I I don't know if I've seen anything they've done. but that's that's on me. I consume Japanese anime, not live action stuff. But as you said, they literally just brought back anyone who survived for the first film and said, What can we do with this? And Just to go, full full spoilers, not to ruin anything. It's merely solid. Yeah. It was good. It wasn't as great as first one. It it it had moments where it made me go, You could have taken a second pass to the script. There's a few moments where I'm like, okay, I'm not sure where you're going with this. And no, that was there was no payoff, but okay. It was fun. It was it was it was alright. Yeah.
Anton: Yeah. I yeah, I enjoyed it. it was like what just a a tad over two hours and I saw it on Godzilla Day, which was like the Tuesday before release, so I got the sneak preview on the IMX.
Alex: Hey, me too.
Anton: Yeah, it was great. It was fun. I there was a full audience, you know, and it's one of those things where you can enjoy the movie for what it is during your watch and then deconstruct it later. Because
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: there are some movies where I'm gonna deconstruct this shit five minutes in because I'm not being entertained. No, I was entertained, but you you hit it right on the head when you said that Godzilla minus one was your guys' pick of the year. I agreed, it like my favorite film of that year. And that terrified me for this one because I'm like, it's it's like the Shyamalan curse. are you gonna shit the bed on the second one?
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: Because the first one was so good. And no, it didn't, but it did have this is this is my my honest opinion of the movie. This is what I put in my letterbox review. Everything that worked in the first one, they doubled down and emphasized for the second one. So it didn't really feel like it was doing anything new. Even with the introduction of a a new kaiju and probably the kaiju of kaijus. Even that didn't feel that exciting because just like the first one, they're like, Well, we're not gonna have it all be Godzilla. Like, we need to have a movie in here and not just Godzilla. And I felt like they took that to the extreme with this one. They're like, well, here's a smattering of Godzilla and here's let's say eighty-five minutes of family turmoil, right? And government turmoil and espionage. And that's all fun and good, but at the same time, don't forget yet you are making a a Godzilla movie.
Alex: Yeah, I completely agree with that because the first one worked, I think
because it it was a tighter film. and the part of the reason why I love that was the family drama and it had something to say about post l war, found family, you know, fears, the community that
Anton: Community. I felt like
Alex: you build up.
Anton: the community was
Alex: But
Anton: lacking in this one.
Alex: Yes, instead I think it would have been stronger had they focused more on I'm trying to remember the person's name. Was it Muka Murikami? The biologist who survived yeah.
Anton: Biologist. You're right.
Alex: That is I felt would have been a better point, a better heart of the film if they would have focused more on him and removed a little bit more out of Kochi and Noriko's storyline. Remove that a little bit, but pull us back away from them. We don't need to see him, you know, getting back into the plane again. And we know he's gonna go back into the plane. We w explore what happened why Noriko is alive a little bit more. Remove a little bit of the family stuff. Let them let us know that they're together. But it was a little overly stuffed and to me the most powerful part of the film was the flashbacks that then informed us of why there is a plan in place for the biologist. That was
Anton: Yes.
Alex: the most powerful pieces of the film for me. And it felt disjointed because we didn't spend enough time with him because then we're exploring weather patterns and
Anton: well it felt
Alex: i and is are the Americans doing evil things,
Anton: Yeah. I almost felt like they were trying to nolen it up a little bit. They were trying to throw some science-y shit in there like he did with Inception. Like it just felt like a a little bit different movie than the first one because there were so many side stories that we were supposed to follow, but a lot of them didn't really go anywhere. You know, like it just always goes back to the the family, the trifecta. If if I'm gonna say there's one thing that the American version got it right, like the Legendary Studios one, is that y the the sequels are almost entirely new casts. That could have been this. I feel like yes, they did leave us with a cliffhanger at the end of the first one with Nariko's, you know, infection, you could say. But I felt like the you said it perfectly, the Morikami i his story was the most interesting. It was the most fascinating, and I felt like it was only teased and not fully brought to a a conclusion the way I wanted to. In a way it's cheap how they end his character, and they just kinda hand him off. And it's just like but that was the real meat of the movie. And we didn't
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: get that because we still had to go back and have the the melodrama. And I'm fine with the melodrama, but it was the same melodrama from the first one.
Alex: Exactly. The ending didn't wasn't fulfilled enough for me, and that's the part that bought that sat with me the most. I still wasn't sure what the Americans' plan were. obviously post World War Two with, you know, a demilitar demilitarized Japan with American oversight. There's gonna be some tension. But what I needed more from that tension, I needed more from the plan, I needed more fulfillment. I I feel like there's a stronger movie in here, which is not to say this is a bad film. Like the first one was like a 10. This is seven or an eight. There's somewhere in there. It depends on on rewatch how impacted I am by the biologist's story. Because those moments sat with me and haunted me and reminded me that yes, post-World War II, there were people who survived, there are people with aggression, there are people with hatred who just had to get on with their day seeing or interacting with the people who've defeated them. And And I wanted more of that.
Anton: Well, what I wanted more is and I talk about this all the time with Justin on Back to the Balcony, is like I feel like you can get away with being a subpar film if you give the audience a series of beats to follow. And the first one did that perfectly, where like you had the beats from the beginning where we're introduced to Godzilla before the radiation makes him huge, you know, as like kind of like a cryptid on a on a n a a POW island essentially. Then you
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: then you've got the action beats of the amazing fishing boat scene. that scene to me was pretty much what made that movie. Then you have the beats of how they're going to use science to get him out of the water with the big air cushion thing. Like there's a series of beats that followed. This film, the beats weren't there in a in an order that made sense. The beats were sporadic and they try to fill it with a little bit more, let's say, I'm not gonna say cultural insensitivity, but they they try to rationalize someone's motives by showing what a terrible thing had been done to them and how they were going to like find retribution. That's great. But where are the beats that allow us to do that? Where's where's the minecart chase from Temple of Doom? Where's the Where's the part where the stakes really matter? It's like we're leading up to the stakes, but then they go a different direction. And so it doesn't give us the beats that an audience needs to stay in tune with the movie. And the first one, I felt did it perfectly. And this one is just, like I said, too scattered, which it shouldn't be, because they literally consolidated the characters down to this group of people, this handful of survivors from the first one, with maybe two new additions that don't really do anything, So that's my biggest problem is it looks so good. It sounds so good. But the flow of the film just doesn't work as well for me.
Alex: you're right, because they're introducing Godira they do a very similar thing, which is this beast arrives, they have to fight it. It they follow the same pattern, but you're right, the f the they're not waltzing the same. Everything's
Anton: Right, right.
Alex: a a a step behind. And then once
Anton: And
Alex: we actually get to the joy,
the f the fun of monsters, that is where it seemed to me to where it found itself again. The last thirty minutes of the plan and then the fight are great. But then the last two minutes of wrapping it up is as you said, it's the same beats, it's shortchanging. the moral that they were going for to give us the beat and the cliffhanger again.
Anton: Right. her getting the the G cells, the the Godzilla infection, they use it as a plot point and they use it as part of the way to get to the end. But also like I feel that it was so teased in that first one. And I guess now there has to be a third one because I guess the idea is now is whether it's the Japanese military or the American government that want to find her so they can exploit these cells even more. I feel like we were robbed of a cooler plot point following those. Like what's gonna happen? Like if we electrify her, is she gonna turn into a kaiju as well? Like that's what I was hoping for,
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: because that's kind of what they teased in the first one. And instead it's more of like a an ESP kind of thing where they're gonna be able to lure the beasts with her her resonance essentially.
Alex: Yeah, that part is also to me just sadly felt a little under baked because I wanted to know that if if if Godzilla's blood, whatever, if you survive and you get this infection, you have G cells and you cannot handle the regenerative ability, but she several years on is handling it, but it's starting to show some signs of the people who died really quickly from it. W and then they do that sonic amplifier thingy, which to use her as a human lure. I was wondering is is that gonna make is that gonna accelerate it? Is that gonna make it worse? that is something that I felt with with Kenji, Nado's character, that they explore a little bit backstory that hinting that he's a he has war had done war crimes. and there was just a big emotional moment of she submits herself to be used as a weapon. So what are we gonna see her pain her agony? Instead, they just kind of brush past it because they I think they saw the sacrosine ending, which admittedly, it got me. I'm a I'm a wuss. The thought
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: of them abandoning of abandoning their child and then The joy on her face as they ride off into the sunset while the parents are like looking like in there in deep agony of my god we're screwed. That got me. It did. I was crying. I was like, dear lord. But I wanted more of what does this mean? Even if they had like hinted or shown like the scales had gone further up her neck or s the or like her eye glow something, you know.
Anton: Hoping I was hoping for like in the year of Resident Evil we were gonna get some kind of like shocking transformation. Okay, here's a question for you, man. Were you like anticipating at what point is this movie going to earn its R rating? The whole time I'm like,
Alex: Yes.
Anton: where is the R? Where's the R rating? Is it violence? Is she gonna turn into like a crazy
tentacle monster? Is she gonna be like a resident evil creature? It has to be with her. And at the end of the day, I think it's just like the heavy themes of war, the nuclear blast scene, which granted was kind of awesome. But yeah, I I was waiting for the R-rated moment and I don't think I got it. And that was sad for me because I was like really thinking that it was going to be bold and do something that we hadn't seen before in a Godzilla film. And I was let down.
Alex: see, I thought it earned it when it when they showed the the the Blast Fantasy. Because that was disgusting. It it you didn't think it did? okay.
Anton: Yeah. I I I thought it was intense, but I feel like we've seen I think we've seen worse in like a a Terminator film, you know? Like those last handful of Terminator
Alex: Ha ha ha.
Anton: movies were PG thirteen and they showed some like nuclear aftermath and stuff. Like I don't know.
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: I feel like I feel like it wasn't again, like it's that's cheesy sci fi. You can get away with it 'cause it's,
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: you know, a little bit tongue in cheek and this was supposed to be like the realization of it, you know. Where it's like, hey, Madison Avenue admin and their little Fedora hats are getting melted on the sidewalk. that was that was pretty intense.
Alex: Yeah, I can see that. But It's really for me, it's really hard to really bag on a movie that it is is fun too, but when a movie is good but not great that is slightly disappointing. But even so, I'm thinking of like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If we had the if for some reason we had the production and depth of the two towers first instead of The fellowship that is what I think the fellowship sucked. Because when you have something like minus one, which is so good, and then this one is a significant step down, I'm not gonna discard it, but I do wonder if like because it was three years between these films being released. What if we had four? But then again, you know, I don't know. Maybe it would get worse.
Anton: Well, I also the other the other problem is, is that Lord of the Rings already had its blueprint of how to tell a story. It was already a three part book series that they would turn into a three part film series. It knew where to go. When you're playing jazz with a film that doesn't necessarily have i its its sequels lined up or the idea of where the story's gonna go, it's risky because you don't know where you're going, so you just keep leaving open ended It's it's like lost, man. they didn't know how lost was gonna end, so they just kept making shit up and then not looping back around to close off the gaps. I feel like they were kind of doing the same thing for a while with the Star Trek sequel series. You know, apparently like the prequels there was another there's a blueprint, but the last three Star Wars films there wasn't really. They were just playing jazz with each different director, and that's why that series feels choppy and incomplete. This has the risk of doing that, where you introduce so much information in each film, but then okay, you want to move on to the next, but you don't have a closing point. If there is a third one, which probably there will be, they they really gotta, in my opinion, take their time, go back and make sure they close off the loops. So it doesn't feel like just this endless hodgepodge of, you know, movie salad that we're just waiting for a the good ending for.
Alex: I I completely agree with that because I do want a third one because I I want the resolution. I want to know what the theme is that I'm being told. Because the first one I embraced and understood them all. This one I felt they were trying to mix and match. They were trying to give us a happy a happy moment, but then also remind us of darkness, but then also, you know, the perseverance of of the fam of a found family unit and how you must embrace your role. You cannot aband yeah that was a big one, you know, the whole you cannot abandon your honor. You cannot abandon your people. You must pick up the sword again. You must remember what you're fighting for. I get all that. But I need to know
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: what your ending is. What is the final statement of is, you know, because the first one kind of explored is Godzilla some kind of punishment, some kind of divine retribution. And this one T said maybe it's from the stars. So and
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: got the possibility of Godzilla being the anti-hero. But what does that mean? And what does that mean for Japan? That's a big thing, is I want to know what it means for Japan, because this movie. really is digging into Japanese culture and feelings of their rebirth after World War Two. And I want to know what the final message is.
Anton: it could be a significant time jump, it could go from the forties to the sixties, some
Alex: that would be amazing.
Anton: you know, like who knows? And bring pop culture into it. Again, like I think that their their best effort, in my opinion, would to be to really just think it through before they do a third one of how they really want to close it off and and
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: have just a little bit more closure to the characters. And again, like this wasn't a bad movie, it's just When you do such a good job on the first one, you set a series of expectations up for the sequel. And this one just didn't didn't
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: live live up to it. Well, I'll tell you what the annoying part for this movie is right now for me, is again the paid influencers and I guess just the people who are like following along in the footsteps of same same influencers. This isn't a five-star movie and it's not better than the first one. I 100%
Alex: No
Anton: support everyone's subjectivity to a movie and they can like something better, but there's also like, you know, an an an apple's an apple and or is an orange is an orange. This is not better than the first one. Y it's okay if you like it better, but it's
not better.
Alex: No. I and I I'm okay with it. But you're right. I I am really starting to get annoyed at people not realizing that for the last fifteen years early reviews are always going to be glowing of anything. They f fly the people out there, the influencers out there, or they show them special screens in their In their hometowns where only them and their family gets to show up. And you s and especially Disney. Disney's so atrocious about this since especially with the Star Wars films. They fly you out there, they have you sitting with the cast and crew, you're at the Dolby Theater, you're it's put up in a nice hotel, you do a QA beforehand, you have an after party, you dancing with the the faces from Disney. And then you're expected to give, just a an uninfluenced byline, please. can put a two-sentence little your thoughts and feelings right now. And so it's like greatest movie of all time while you're being hugged by Starlet.
Anton: Or remember when they released the final Star Wars sequel, you know, the last whatever Skywalker one, and there was that dude who
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: was like dying, and they let him watch it like three weeks before it came out, because he was gonna die, and that was like
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: his final thing was to watch it. And I was just like, That poor dude, it probably just put him out of his misery. Fucking rise of
Alex: Can you imagine that?
Anton: Skywalker. my god.
Alex: you imagine you're sitting there with like you know, Ben Solo and and you're watching this with them and
Anton: Ha ha ha ha.
Alex: they're like doing their whole like meet and greet kind of thing with you, and the movie and the the film ends, and you're just sitting there going like shit.
Anton: Ha ha.
Alex: Exactly.
Anton: Ha ha ha
Alex: it's kinda like I feel okay, I feel bad referencing this, but it's you hear the someone was petitioning to have like their dad play an early build of Grand Theft Auto Six because they had terminal cancer. And I have no idea if Rockstar allowed it or not. But I can you imagine you you playing through Grand Theft Auto Six and I have no idea what the campaign is, but what if you're sad? What if it wasn't worth waiting fifteen years?
Anton: Right. I tell you what, man, I'm 45 years old. I'm in my boycott era. even things,
Alex: Boycott error.
Anton: my boycott era.
Alex: Okay.
Anton: things that I used to like love or was impatient for, now I just don't even waste my time. You know, like, okay, so this game I've been waiting for for 13 years, I gotta buy a new console that's $800. And there's no physical copy of it. It's download only. I'll never own the disc. They're pulling all sorts of tomfoolery. It's essentially the whole size of your hard drive. So you can only play that game and nothing else. No. Boycott. I don't care. Like I'll watch I'll watch the kids who are gonna make fortunes off of clipping the new Grand Theft Auto game on YouTube. I'll watch their shit on it instead and just enjoy it that
way. I have zero desire to invest in a whole new system and all that garbage to to play a game that I waited thirteen unnecessary years for, in my opinion. that's where I'm at.
Alex: So
Anton: I'm that way with movies now. I'm that way with TV now.
Alex: Ha ha ha.
Anton: You know? Like I I'm I'm only this close to being like, you know what, season three of Severance, don't care. If you're gonna make me wait like four years for it, don't care. I'm over it. Boycott.
Alex: I swear somebody watched The Good Place and that joke about British TV about it was really popular. It got twenty six episodes over thirty five years and went that's a great idea.
Anton: It's true.
Alex: Yeah, but I I I'm with you. I so I have never played World of Warcraft and I am now playing WoW Forever because I have a friend who gave me a free code and he's I'm starting a new server, you know, with guild and all this stuff, and it's like classic WoW when it came out twenty years ago. And so I'm, you know, playing the trial account that he gave that he gave me the the code for. I'm put it's a twenty year old game. And I'm having so much fun with it. And I have no interest in playing Grand Theft Auto 6 because all I can think of in my head is, you know what? This is more fun. This is polished. There's no bugs. I can play it on my computer that has an older graphics card. I don't need to boot it up and have it playing on my TV in my living room where I'm wondering. How long do I have to go to unlock the next part of the city just so I can have the cops chase me around for thirty-five minutes so I get the thrill of getting five stars? I'll play WoW forever.
Anton: Dude, I'm playing through Kirby's adventure on the NES with my daughter,
Alex: Nice.
Anton: right? That game's forty years old and it's fun as hell and she's having a blast. I'm having a blast and it's like practically free. So Yeah.
Alex: Okay, that r that reminds me, so if you ever play the Ninja Turtles for the NES, you know there's that stupid section with the electrified seaweed, right?
Anton: the dam. yeah. Every
Alex: Yeah. So
Anton: every Gen X slash older millennials nightmare.
Alex: Mm-hmm. So I got that as a free bundle. I got to that section. I did not get past it. I uninstalled it and I it I it was as satisfying it was more satisfying to uninstall that right then, knowing that it was gone off my console than when
Anton: Ha ha ha.
Alex: I was a kid and I'm just staring angrily and then the whole angry shoving the cartridge and slam it down and hit play. It was
Anton: Yeah.
Alex: so No, I really wish I could have told you I finally beat it. I did not. I did
Anton: Yeah, because it's it's cathartic. And then you you what you go do after that? You get on YouTube and you watch someone beat it and you're like, huh. they did it. Ha!
Alex: No, I don't want to know what happens after that. I did everything around there. I drove I drove the the turtle mobile everywhere I could. And that was like the section that was
locked in. That's like, hey, you have to get past this to continue the game. And I went, you know what? No. This this is this is I am no longer Sisophist. Mm-hmm.
Anton: I'm I'm living here. This is where I live now. I live in this part of the game.
Alex: Yeah, I I felt I was really hoping that it was going to be one of those experiences where it's like, I was seven years old. I was an idiot. I couldn't get past this. Now I'm an adult. I got past this. This makes sense. No. So it couldn't. And you know what? That's okay. I'll be in the retirement
Anton: It's fine. Yeah.
Alex: home, eighty six years old. Somebody be like, I got you a game from your childhood. You can play it on this floating invisible phone that costs seventeen hundred dollars that folds out into sixteen other phones. Do you want to try playing this? Nope.
Anton: No. Boycott. That's me, man. In my eighties in the nursing home just saying boycott to everything. It's
Alex: Yeah.
Anton: chocolate pudding day, boycott.
Alex: I saw I saw a meme, and I think it does explain why millennials and Gen Xers are in a bad mood. You made us buy music on cassettes, and then sold cassettes that only had like the singles on them, and then you had to buy cassettes that had the full album. We had to upgrade those to CDs. Then we had to upgrade those to MP3s. And now you bastards are telling us that we can't even own it. We have to pay you $8.99 a month to stream our music. With that. Yep.
Anton: With ads. And then in the meantime, if we want to go backwards, it's more expensive because it's all like collector's items now. You know?
Alex: Final is eighty bucks.
Anton: It it blows my mind, you go to a record store and the starting price for a new album on vinyl is like forty dollars.
Alex: Yeah, I have a box in the basement. I have a box of VHS and DVDs because as I was building my DVD collection, I would be like, okay, cool. So I I'm so I would like to move the VHS to the basement. And then of course, because of Blu-ray, I was then doing the same thing where I was just, okay, I have a Blu-ray of this now. It is in fact restored and very nice. I'll move the DVD to the basement. I'm pretty sure that box right now is worth more than my house.
Anton: I went through and priced on my VHS the other day. I have a I have two copies of the Streamline Akira from nineteen eighty eight or eighty-nine. And I kept
Alex: Ooh.
Anton: both of them because that's my favorite dub. The new 4K
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: that came out has got all the dubs, including that one, so it's cool. But those are both worth like $150 each. So yeah. There's stuff that you've got in your collection that's probably worth some money, bro.
Alex: Yeah, I but you know what? I'm not getting rid of it. Because
Anton: No.
Alex: because you wanna know why? Because of disc rot.
Anton: Ha ha ha.
Alex: Because now that $50 Blu-ray for that limited edition Gone with the Wind that I bought may not play because they use inferior quality on some other crap
and it may in fact be worthless. So no, I'm gonna keep my four VHS.
Anton: Yeah. I believe in disc rot,
Alex: Perhaps it's like
Anton: but I've got almost four thousand discs in my collection. I've only had disc rot on one of them and it was a Clint
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: Eastwood movie that I don't care about. So like
Alex: Yeah. No. I I haven't found anything that has it. But all I all I'm thinking is like I'm mad. I'm I'm mad at you guys. this is I understand this is the plan, but you know what? You're not gonna get me because I'm gonna follow Antonio's plan of boycott. Yeah. All right, Antonio.
Anton: Boycott, right? And then someday I'm gonna upload my consciousness to the cloud. I'm gonna go around and I'm just gonna screw everyone's shit up.
Alex: That's right. You know we're you're gonna do you're gonna give us all a free U two album that we're gonna be pissed about.
Anton: We go.
Alex: all right I
Anton: You're all getting the what's it, the the YouTube pop album. It's going on there.
Alex: Yep. yeah. Nope. It's a step down,
Anton: Cool. Alright, so d do we have anything else to say about Godzilla?
Alex: but it it's not terrible, so go see it. Support foreign cinema.
Anton: Yeah, talking smack like your talking smack score, I mean
Alex: yeah, yeah.
Anton: I I I'm gonna say it's a must see, but only an IMAX. Like IMAX made all the difference in the world for me for this movie, you know?
Alex: I agree with that. It's a must see in IMAX because they filmed it for IMAX. Th this director knows how to give you shots where you feel small and insignificant.
Anton: there are shots of Godzilla's face and King Gitter's face that fills up that entire IMAX screen while it's going at you.
Alex: Mm-hmm.
Anton: And I felt it. Like, yeah, this is a movie. This is a IMAX experience. I'm not sure if I'd feel the same way at the little screen at the end of the aisle, you know.
Alex: Yeah. Yep. So there you have it. Two must see an IMAX.
Anton: My C and I Max.
Alex: I love that bass at the end that just said, mmm. All right, Antonio, where can where can they find you?
Anton: Hey, come find me over at the Cult Worthy Cinema Podcast at the Cultworthy.com for my main show, which is me talking with a guest pretty much every other week about cult films, cult worthy films, hidden gems, undiscovered treasures of films. But the film podcast that has been getting a lot more traction these days is Back to the Balcony with my co-host Justin Henson, who's frequently on Talking Smack. And that one we go and critique. The critiques of Siskel and Ebert. So we watch a film they watched on their at the movie show, and we discuss the film, and then we discuss whether or not their critique holds up. The one that we are releasing this next week is going to be on the film Streets of Fire, directed by Walter Hill. After that, we are doing Don't Be a Menace to South Central while drinking your juice in the hood, which is a very interesting
Alex: That remember when I was a kid.
Anton: film. critique. One of the critics thought that it was the funniest movie he saw all year and the other one thought it was racially insensitive. And those are the best episodes where it's like, wow, I actually agree with this guy on this one. So yeah, check it out.
Alex: Ha ha. Alright. And of course you can get catch talking smack every Wednesday. Thank you to Bebo for our original avatars, Virtual Studios for our Ricky Avatar and Leo Allen for our musical themes. And that's really it. We'll be back next week. what are we doing next week? that's right. Matt and I are gonna catch up and do a little bit of what you're doing. And in fact, I shock of all shocks, he invited me to his house. Not that we're gonna film there, no. Hell no. I only film for my bedroom.
Anton: Watch Star Trek.
Alex: Hell yeah, you knew your job.