Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What up, party paper? We're in week two of Leprechaunathon.

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Ah, hell yeah. And this week we'll be covering the films Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4 in space. Then we'll chat about the movies The Bride and Hoppers.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

And for TV, we'll be discussing Monarch Legacy of Monsters and only that.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

That's right. Okay, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

This is We Should Episode 28.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Think that we should watch that with Ashley and Swiss Feel the vibes. It's a night zone.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

We're back again with Warwick D in Leprechaun, the third movie, he loves women and money. Though it's only right he'd end up in Las Vegas on one fateful night.

LEPRECHAUN-A-THON Feature #1: Leprechaun 3 - discussion and review (with spoilers)

SPEAKER_04 1:06

And sure, while that seems like an appropriate place, in the fourth movie, the guy's suddenly in space? Yep, we'll explain that further. And no, this ain't a dream. Without further ado, run that leprechaun of fun theme. It's left with him three times. And this one opens with an absolutely insane Cynthia casino music. Oh yeah. And immediately we're in Las Vegas, which honestly is the perfect setting for a movie about a magical creature obsessed with gold.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Really is.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

It's perfect. And the movie starts with this pawn shop owner named Gupta, who buys a statue of the leprechaun from a shady guy. And of course, the statue has a medallion stuck onto it, which is also is his name really Gupta? It doesn't look particularly Indian, I have to say. So Gupta removes the medallion because you know he wants to sell it, which is an incredible decision if your goal is to immediately ruin your life.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

I mean, he's literally owns a pawn shop, though. He doesn't know any better.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Yeah, it's just uh it's fate. So now this is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Gupta literally puts on a CD ROM about mythical creatures that he just happens to have lying around.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

He very slowly types in leprechaun and the computer shows him a little educational video explaining everything about them. But is it like four-bit kind of thing? I don't know what the terminology is.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

No, no, I just think it's hilarious because it is very much like what it was back then, if I think about it. Like everything had to come to you on a CD ROM if it was a type of reference material, because they had just discovered the medium. They're like, oh, we could start taking books, putting them on CDs and stuff. They wanted to put everything on CDs back in the 90s. I'm just letting you know if you were not there to witness it yourself.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Yeah, everything was at a CD. And what better way to uh do some efficient exposition? You know, the movie's basically like, here are the rules, here's the gold, here's what he wants, and then we move on. And honestly, genius. Now, meanwhile, we meet Scott, who is an extremely stupid college student protagonist. He is very dumb.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Um, and he has brought all of his uh tuition to Las Vegas to gamble, which is a great plan, buddy. And he, of course, right away starts losing money because he's manipulated by the casino employee named Loretta, who keeps encouraging him to bet more and more. Something that we're gonna touch on later. Slowly, we began to realize watching this that Loretta did not have a loose blouse.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Loretta's chest is been touching on something, and by that I mean her waistband.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Yeah, at one point in the movie she leans over and you can see she just has a bunch of like toilet paper stuff in the bottom of her shirt to look like it's boobs at her waist. But yeah, we'll get back to those boobs. Okay. Oh my god. So then also the background of the casino is incredible. There's literally pre-scambling with two hookers, which is the kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

I didn't even get to that part.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I couldn't even get past like the stuff that they were really trying to get right in front of us to think about that.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

I didn't look in the background of anything in this movie. I didn't have to.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

It's a feast for the senses, Leprechaun 3. So eventually Scott runs into Gupta, who has discovered the leprechaun and kind of made a deal with him. So he wishes for wealth, which of course backfires immediately because the leprechaun wishes, you know, they don't tend to go right. And Scott ends up stealing one of the leprechaun's gold coins, which is, as we have learned, the worst thing you can do because the leprechaun is now personally invested in hunting him down. And the leprechaun is absolutely on one in this movie. At one point, he's wandering through the casino, rhyming things like, with all this killing, I've lost me shilling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

He's very rhyme heavy in this. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

It's a really good rhyme movie. I mean, it's a great movie all around, spoiler alert. Then there's also a great scene where Scott happens to see Gupta's leprechaun CD-ROM research, which is how he learns the rules of gold and the wishes. But then things get weirder once the wishes start happening. Scott uses Wish for Good Luck at the casino, which works for about five minutes until the leprechaun shows up and chaos begins. Then we get some completely amazing kills here. I gotta be honest, Douche, I don't know if I can get all of them into the synopsis. So please let me know if I left any out. But there's a guy who wishes for gold. So the leprechaun literally shoves a gold coin into his arm, pulls his arm like a slot machine lever, and gold starts pouring out of the guy's mouth.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, that was one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_04 7:03

And then we also learned two important pieces of leprechaun biology in this. Number one, his blood is acidic, much like the aliens in Alien. And two, he literally poops green. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's also a hilarious Elvis impersonator encounter because of course there is. It's Vegas. And then we meet the casino owner Mitch, who makes a wish and gets exactly what he w wants in the worst possible way. The leprechaun grants his wish by sending a bizarre proto-sex robot woman out of the television who immediately electrocutes Mitch to death. The leprechaun, of course, is rhyming the whole time. Now, meanwhile, Tammy, magician's assistant and a love interest of Scott, gets caught up in the chaos and things escalate when Scott himself starts transforming into a leprechaun. So the transformation scenes are like pretty wild. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

And it's very teen wolf-esque.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Oh my god. That's a perfect way to describe it.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Except it's like kind of extended out. It's not as a gradual thing, not like a in a bathroom thing.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

It's like half the movie. And you know, because he's having all these issues, he ends up going to a hospital where doctors are trying to treat him like a normal patient.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Oh my god. I love this part. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

It does not work. Okay. Electricon, first of all, disguises himself as a nurse, and the doctors are asking Scott if he has insurance while his blood tests literally spell out F.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Oh, he says he has Green Cross.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

Yes, he says he has green cross. That's a blue cross joke. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. There's several insurance jokes. So blood tests spell out F U in gigantic letters. Oh my god. EKG prints are literally images of tiny little leprechauns. Like, yeah. And then at one point, the leprechaun even says, now that's what I call managed health care.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

That was a great line.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

That's so good. And then there's probably, well, one of the most infamous kills in the franchise. So Loretta, who, as we discussed earlier, hey, all breasts are beautiful, man. They come in all shapes and sizes. They're in all places on the body, but hers were hanging very low for much of the movie. So she wants to, and just talked throughout the movie about how when she strikes it rich, she's going to get all this plastic surgery. Okay. But Lorena insults the leprechaun and he curses her with a rhyming spell about her body. And her boobs, lips, and butt start inflating uncontrollably until she explodes.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

And the leprechaun just stands there delivering lines like, What a lovely lass. I had to blow up your ass.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

Oh, poetry. And then from there, the movie goes full chaos mode. Okay. So the leprechaun is slicing people in half during a magic show. He's showing the body parts off to the audience. And then just you know, generally wreaking havoc through the casino. Finally, Scott and Tammy figure out the classic rule the leprechaun can't survive without his gold. They manage to trap him and burn him down to ashes. But of course, this is a leprechaun movie. So someone accidentally throws away one piece of the gold coins, which pretty much guarantees that the problem isn't actually solved. And the movie ends with Scott quoting Casablanca. Because apparently, after surviving a magical murder gremlin in Vegas, the natural thing to do is drop a classic film reference, which kind of feels appropriate since I would consider this a classic leprechaun movie. So Sushi, tell me, what did you think of Leprechaun 3?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Oh my god. I got so many notes in this. So I think this is the movie where the writers just decided to forego explaining things at all. Unlike the first two movies, we don't get any sort of introduction to why the leprechaun is where he is this time around. Also, they just introduced this new leprechaun deterrent in this movie. The amulet with the red gem in the middle of it. But again, like no explanation other than leprechauns hating it. God is creepy as fuck, even before he starts turning into a leprechaun. So I have no idea why Tammy is just immediately cool with him checking out her car, like right at the beginning of the movie when they first meet. Also, the have you blown a rod line was kind of funny. Oh my god. And weirdly, Tammy kind of dials back her sarcasm from that point on. It's it's kind of interesting because she immediately starts dialing it back from that moment towards Scott, but not really anybody else. So I thought that was kind of amusing. Maybe somebody complained about the women in these movies being too mean or something to the main guys. But anyway, uh Gupta ain't Indian or Middle Eastern. He might be Eastern European. But yeah, I love his CD Rob that he uses for leprechaun research. It's an amazingly thorough resource.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

It's great. I would love to have it.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

I got an update.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

The actor who plays Gupta is named Marcello Toubert.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

That is not an Indian name, so refrector.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

The leprechaun is always missing one single goddamn coin.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah, what the hell?

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Jesus, guy. Get a wallet or at least a ziploc bag or something. There's also this thing called crypto now, too.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Me crypto. Yeah. Wait, so Tammy is a magician's assistant that actually wants to become a magician.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

It's the classic story, as seen in the Now You See Me films.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Well, no, I thought that this was just the position for creepy magicians to hire attractive women for. I didn't think it was an actual role that got you further up the ladder.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

Yeah, and I'm not sure if it works that way, but I think she hopes it will.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Yeah. Okay. I didn't realize until the second watch of this movie that apparently Scott isn't 21.

SPEAKER_04 13:54

Oh, right. He got snuck in.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah, and apparently that's why he needs Tammy to get him into the casino. Oh my god, Loretta's tits are a whole ass saga in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

They don't mention it for the first half of the movie. They don't have to mention it.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

They're just ever present and it's just like so in your face. And it's almost like, hey, hey, you see how it doesn't look right? Just keep looking at how they don't look right. Because you're gonna have to remember that for some other part of the movie.

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Check off saggy tit, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Oh my god. The great Fazio not only sucks as a magician, but he's creepy as fuck. Actually, everyone who works with Tammy is just awful in at least one kind of way. I can't believe Scott blew fucking$23,000 in 1995 money. Oh, yikes. That's nuts. And this is coming from an Asian who's been seen at the local casino until that weird hour overnight where they gotta kick you out to clean the place. It was just so strange, but it it was amazing. Uh, I wonder how much money they save from filming this movie in Vegas. Thinking of 1995, this is probably one of the few places where I'd assume the city wouldn't shut down to film, and most people wouldn't stare at someone dressed as a leprechaun. Oh, true. Yeah. Fun fact though, if you pay attention to the part where the leprechaun pauses outside of the Fremont casino, you do see some Asian guy kind of smile and stare at Warwick David's playing leprechaun. So that was pretty hilarious. There's a few conversations between Tony and Art that are just so normal, but because they're so normal and put in a movie like this, they are just so weird.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

Just some henchmen slice of life. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Yeah, like one of them, they literally talk about men's underwear in their opinions of the different styles.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

It feels like the director just told these guys to kill time and just improv. And that's what they did. The whole Scott having the blood of the leprechaun, like how it got into his bloodstream and somehow ended up turning him into another leprechaun needs to be spun off into its own leprechaun film, really. Like, don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate it being included in this movie because it eventually led to the final Leprechaun versus Leprechaun confrontation. But that's a pretty huge concept that I think could lead to other future movies in the franchise or at least provide maybe some substance for what they like to call an interquo. Oh the wish situation in this movie is just getting absurd. Uh we went from getting three wishes in the last movie to just anyone getting a single wish for getting a hold of the coin in this one. Even though I usually love continuity, I can't be upset for them making this change because it probably allowed for them to have maximum regrettable wishes as a result. I mean, it gave us the scene with Mitch and the scary sex robot and where Loretta explodes. So, you know, it can't be all that bad, I guess. So far, I think this movie has the best rhyming lines.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

It is pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah, sure. A lot of them are pretty simple, but they're all pretty timely at least. Not like you needed any further indication that nobody is taking this movie seriously. But when Scott is in the hospital, the doctor asks for his encephalogram, which for some reason just says fuck you, and I'm not even saying like fuck you as in like the word you, like it's fuck, and then the letter U. And this is written in green shamrock stamps.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

It's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

And then his EKG, uh, for some reason is just stamped with green leprechaun silhouettes.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

So that's yeah, yep, yep. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

All right, pots of gold enjoyment rating. Okay. 4.5 out of five.

unknown 18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

And my end of the rainbow favorite moment was actually a tie between one, when the leprechaun shoves a coin in Art's mouth and then pulls his arm down like a lever. I know he says, like a slot machine, but really it actually gave more Asian lucky cat energy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what I was feeling from it. I like it. Uh, and then the second favorite moment for the tie was uh just the overall commitment from Caroline Williams and playing Loretta with tits down at her waistline for what felt like at least half of the movie. Yeah, man. That's a long time.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Yeah, that's good, man. So for my pot of gold, I gave it also a 4.5, man. Oh, yeah. This one is awesome. I mean, it is uh just a barrage of nonsense. It is a feast for the senses, yeah. It is maybe the leprechaunniest of the leprechaun movies thus far. Um so for my end of the rainbow moment, number one, it's gotta be the sex robot murder.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

So this guy is hoping he's gonna hook up with a pretty lady, and then uh uh Cinemax type actress type starts talking to him from the TV, crawls out of the TV, is you know, uh making out with him, gearing towards consummation. And then you see the leprechaun giggling and and rhyming, and it turns out it's this like janky ass sex robot. And I sex robot is really um a generous way of describing it's like a partially latex covered sex machine, yes, it's more of a machine, yeah. And he gets he gets zapped. I just loved it, and then my tie would actually be the henchman underwear banter, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

That was really good.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Just was like, what it you got this on top of everything else? You got these two guys talking about their incredibly specific underwear.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

But it wasn't like the real conversation that people have, like it wasn't, it didn't seem like contrived. Do you know what I mean? Like that that is how people would talk about that type of stuff if they were in like their you know, the privacy of their own home or hanging out somewhere together as friends.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Especially like that's the kind of conversations people had at boring jobs before we had cell phones, you know?

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Yeah, and I mean, I guess this would be a boring job.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Yeah, exactly. So and it's a classic. I am just constantly delighted by these films. Oh, yeah. All right, I'm ready to head into leprechaun four. Do you have any last words on three before we head out? Are you ready to I'm ready?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

I'm ready to jump into four.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

Are you ready to blast off into four in space?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Colon in space. I'm surprised you didn't say colon.

LEPRECHAUN-A-THON Feature #2: Leprechaun 4: In Space - discussion and review (with spoilers)

SPEAKER_04 21:31

I love a colon. So leprechaun for colon in space, it opens with something that already feels like a warning sign for the franchise. We're suddenly in the far future on some deserted planet in outer space. And the leprechaun now he's got bigger ambitions. Not only does he still want his gold, but the movie adds a new goal. He wants to possess. Yep. He wants to. Marry a space princess, not just for love, but so he can become king. So that is the new information in this one. And honestly, the first shot of him is wild because his head kind of, oh God, it's just the prosthetics in this movie are something else. Okay. And anyway, the leprechaun has captured an alien princess named Zarina because if he marries her, he'll become ruler of her planet. And the movie immediately cuts from outer space battle stuff to this bizarre scene in a cave with a belly dancing Zarina and the leprechaun, which is when you realize the tone of this movie is going to be just fucking insane. Just absolutely off the wall. Then a squad of Space Marines shows up to stop him. Ooh, do I smell an alien reference? I think so. And these guys are basically horny drunk soldiers who somehow have a full nightclub in their spaceship.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yes, that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

It was nuts. It was complete with strobe lights and a bar. And apparently, I don't know, that's standard equipment for space marines in the future. Who knew? So their mission is to rescue the princess and kill the leprechaun. And honestly, they almost succeed because yeah, they blow him up with a grenade. But of course, in this leprechaun movie, uh, death is not death for him, at least. Everyone else, they die for real. Him, no. So a little later, one of the soldiers. Oh my god, it's so nuts, guys. I love it. So he's about to hook up with the single lady marine, and he has to go take a piss. And so he ends up peeing on the leprechaun's remains, which okay, class act, buddy. And that somehow allows the leprechaun spirit to like travel up his pea stream into his deck. Because eventually the leprechaun, he's about to constant yeah, he's about there's some coitus in, you know, that's that's uh forthcoming with this Lady Marine. And eventually the leprechaun just regenerates inside the guy's body and explodes out through his crotch, delivering a line about always wearing a prophylactic. And is this one of the most deranged moments in the entire franchise? Yeah, probably, definitely up to this point so far. And meanwhile, on the ship, we meet, oh boy, we meet this scientist, Dr. Mittenhand, which is already just an incredible name. You got your mitten, where you put it, in your hand. Um, and the guy is unbelievably creepy. The camera keeps zooming like he is on a monitor talking to the Marines, and the camera is like right up in his face. It's like, you know, when you're on Zoom at work and you have that one coworker who just puts who doesn't understand. It's like their face takes up 70% of the screen. That's what's happening. Yeah. So mid in hand, he has his own evil plan because he wants to use Princess Zarina's regener. So stupid. Okay, he wants to be the movie's so dumb. He wants to use Princess Zeren's regenerative alien DNA to rebuild his own body. Uh, because y'all, it turns out he's got okay, so you've seen the Robocop remake, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

So in that movie, basically, they show Robocop without the suit, and he's just like a plastic bag full of spine. And that's sort of the vibe you get from Mitten House. He's sort of like his skin is sort of like oh my god, mittenhand. Fucking mitten hand. Ironically, he's missing one of his hands because one of his arms is not there, and he's it's not even in a mitten, damn it. I know he's just got all his flesh like stapled onto a box, which is roller.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

It's not even stapled, it's like uh like a thumbtacked.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

Yeah, it's bad. And yeah, he's very creepy. So now the movie has two villains. So you got the leprechaun running around murdering people, and this mad scientist doing bizarre things, and the ship also has this ridiculous shrinking machine, which is exactly like the kind of device from Charlie and the chocolate factory, you know, it's perfect. Ant-Man technology, yeah, Ant-Man technology. Uh so the leprechaun keeps terrorizing the crew. At one point, he oh my god, he cuts off his own face, he lights it on fire, and he sings Danny Boy, just as a way to threaten them. And it's an incredible amount of effort just to intimidate someone.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Then there are also ridiculous magical attacks where he literally conjures dynamite onto someone's body, which is honestly impressive magic usage. Uh, then eventually the leprechaun turns his attention to Mitten Hand and mutates him into a horrific spider monster called Mitten Spider. Yes. Which is exactly what it sounds like, man. He's now the crew has to deal with both a killer leprechaun and a giant cyborg spider scientist running around the ship. Come on. Then things escalate even further when the crew accidentally blasts the leprechaun with Mitten Hand's experimental growth ray and turns him into a giant ass leprechaun, stopping through the spaceship. At this point, the surviving soldiers manage to open an airlock and blast the giant leprechaun out into space, where he finally explodes, as he is wont to do. A princess Zerena basically shrugs and delivers the most royal response possible, saying something like uh, the king is dead, long live the queen, which is honestly a great line after watching a magical goblin try to marry his way into intergalactic power. You know, what else are you gonna say? But the movie isn't done yet. The final moment, someone looks out of the spaceship window and sees the leprechaun's giant severed finger floating in space, flipping them off, which is genuinely the most appropriate ending for this movie where a leprechaun tried to conquer space while singing Danny Boy while lighting his finger on fire with a mitten spider jumping out of a dick. It is beautiful. So, sushi, what did you think of Leprechaun 4?

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Good lord. I thought the last movie was crazy. Uh and yeah, then I saw this movie. But yeah, Brian Trenchard Smith returned to direct this one. Which I think is the only movie in the franchise, actually, where the director returned in the following movie. Looking into the other movies he's worked on, apparently he's known for directing made for TV and direct-to-video movies, so it makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

I found out this movie had a budget of$1.6 million. Oh. And you can pretty much confirm that less than three minutes into the movie by how shitty the VFX, set, and costume design are. Yeah. This is probably the first time since we saw Jennifer Aniston in the first Leprechaun movie where I actually recognize someone other than Warwick Davis. In this movie, I spotted Miguel A. Nunez Jr., he plays six in the movie, but I recognize him from playing DJ in the 1994 Street Fighter movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme, also a crazy ass movie in its own right. The whole partnership between Levercon and Princess Zerena was hilarious. I love how she goes from a victim to a collaborator once she realizes she has the opportunity to be rich. For a moment, I was almost wondering why we needed a Princess Zerena in this movie, but it's almost like uh I'm right about these movies having horrible female protagonists. Because even though she kind of ends up turning into an antagonist, she initially starts as a protagonist. I think my biggest and maybe my only complaint about this movie is regarding Jessica Collins. It's almost like either she wasn't really sat down and told what this movie was going to be, or she just doesn't know how to give a minimum effort or not try because she puts entirely too much effort into her acting. Like this is gonna land her a golden globe or something. I forgot until I saw her in IMDB, though, that she played Jackie Denardo on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the news reporter that Dennis fantasizes about. So I guess Collins does have a sense of humor, but for some reason she just didn't really channel it in her character for Leprechaun 4. Maybe it was because I noticed it was her first movie role when she had pretty much just been working on soaps and other TV series at that time. What else? Uh did George Lucas ever see this? The leprechaun literally is a size appropriate lightsaber type laser sword in the trunk. It's pretty wild. It just it never gets used again after one scene. Yeah. The leprechaun's leaping on a dude's dick. Oh boy. Remember to never pee on a leprechaun, I guess, even if it's a severed limb.

SPEAKER_04 32:23

Yeah. You live and you learn. Well, you don't live in this case.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Uh yeah, that's true. I think maybe the fact that the last movie took place in Vegas kind of blinded us from any creepiness from the male characters, because I'm so much more aware when that stuff returns in this movie. Like when Harold, Dr. Mittenhand's assistant, starts smelling on Zarina's interving on her when she's in the med bay passed out. Um I love how bad this movie uh wants to beat aliens. But actually, if you can look past how low budget and goofy this movie is, you gotta admit, they didn't do the worst job, right? This is probably the first movie where there are clear moments where some of the other characters aside from the Leprechaun really contribute to the craziness in a huge way, I would say. Like Dr. Mint Hand and Metalhead, in some ways, are even crazier than Leprechaun because he's literally a mythical character. But these are two guys that are a doctor and a military squad leader, which are real life things. I know these movies are supposed to be ridiculous, but I honestly think out of all the movies so far, the leprechaun is a bit overpowered in this movie. Oh. Like he literally regenerates after being blown up, and apparently, from what we've learned from the dick scene earlier, he can literally exist as like atoms or whatever that can reassemble to create him and hold.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

That also reminds me of Willy Wonka.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

This movie is kind of gross when it comes to horror makeup stuff. And I'm definitely not saying it because anything seems too realistic. I think the grossness more comes from the dirty, slimy state of things and an abundance of squelching noises.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

Ah, true.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah. This movie goes so off the rails that we somehow get a drag performance in it by Metalhead.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Oh, that's right. Oh my god, that's right. Yeah, and Metalhead, he's also got his flesh stapled onto a weird thing. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of flesh stapled in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

I think he's also got some thumbtacks, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

There is just so much that happens in this movie that you keep telling yourself it can't get more nuts. But eventually you get to the point where the mitten spider happens.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

And then you kind of just give up because it's so random. I don't know if this is the only movie in this franchise to feel this way, but I honestly felt like somewhere within the last 20 minutes of the film, I could also kind of feel like the writer being like, uh, I have no idea how to end this. Because they just decide to make the leprechaun big for the laziest way of killing somebody in space to finish them off, just sending them out the airlock. And that's not even the end of the movie because we get a whole ass scene where three characters make multiple attempts to guess a password to shut down the ship's auto-destruct sequence, which is really just a setup so we can see Lebrachon's giant severed hand drift by the window and flip them off. Love it, love it. So, for pots of gold enjoyment rating, I give this one a three and a half out of five, mostly because Vegas is just so good. This one, I can't say it's not hilarious, but it's just not as consistent, you know? And I feel like they literally just didn't know what to do at one point, which is hilarious, but if I'm trying to be honest about consistently just hitting the mark, definitely Vegas does a way better job at it. So yeah, three uh 3.5 out of five. And then for my end of the rainbow favorite moment, it was the moment where uh you realize this movie is flying by the seat of its pants when Leprechaun sends a metal platter flying at Harold. Oh my god, yes, ends up just flattening his head out like a cartoon. Just wow. Oh my god. Like they just don't, I mean, I get not adhering to certain aspects of reality. Like this guy's it was yeah, he was slanting somebody's head and it's like still active.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

Wow, wow, wow, wow. Well, getting into my pots of gold, I was shocked that you gave this a 3.5 because this is a five for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Well, I imagine that uh leprechaun in the hood and leprechaun back to the hood are are probably going to be even crazier. So I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

But yeah, I gave this a five because you know what I really want, or what I've learned I want in a leprechaun movie, is to be constantly surprised and baffled and confused. You know, like I want it to be just like, wait, what's that? Why oh my god, how did they come up with this? What is this? So that's what I'm looking for, and that's what this movie delivered for me. And for my end of Rainbow moment, I gotta tell you, I was gonna do the the leprechaun coming out of a dick, but I have to go with yours as well. The uh guys, you should really do yourself a favor and look up this scene.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Yeah, the platter thing is so weird. It just I knew I wasn't expecting it at all because it's like so off the wall, even with everything else happening. It's it's not like, yeah, because the other stuff is not as cartoonish, but this is literally a cartoon.

SPEAKER_04 38:29

After his face gets flattened, it looks like he was made out of play-doh.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Yeah, and then just got pancaked.

Movie Review: The Bride!

SPEAKER_04 38:36

And then he got pancaked, but his face is still kind of moving. It was beautiful. I sent it to one of my good friends who loves B movies to get her on board with the leprechaun movies, and it was a hit. So yeah, Leprechaun for in space. It was a wild ride, my friends. Yeah, and with that, uh, I will bid this segment uh top of the podcast segment to you. No, how did I say? Yeah. Guys, this movie has made me loony. I don't know what to do. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

We gotta do this movie.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

All right, all right, all right, guys. So getting into uh somewhat more serious tone, we have The Bride exclamation point. It is uh a gothic monster movie written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhall, which is and you know Yeah, I mean it's a pretty wild swing after her debut, The Lost Daughter, which is I have a bit of a Pearl Jam song?

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Oh no, that's dope.

SPEAKER_04 39:58

Don't get Pearl Jam stuck in my head. Okay, but uh it stars Jesse Buckley as the bride. Christian Bale is Frankenstein's monster, who just goes by Frankenstein in this. Frank. Frank, yeah, Frankie, Frankie Boy, and also has a stacked supporting cast with Annette Benning, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, who happens to be married to Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jake Gyllenhaal. And it basically reimagines the classic Bride of Frankenstein story, but set in 1930s Chicago, where the monsters convinces a scientist to resurrect a murdered woman to be his companion, which of course doesn't go well. It's a very ambitious movie that takes a lot of big swings. Do those big swings land? Uh, let's get into it. Okay. So going in, my expectations were kind of mixed. Okay. The first time I saw the trailer, I thought, okay, interesting. This could be cool. But as more trailers came out, I started getting the feeling that this movie was taking itself um very seriously.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

And the more I read about the concept, the more I thought, I don't know if this is gonna be for me, you know? And spoiler alert, it wasn't. Uh, this is the first movie we've reviewed where I really wanted to walk out within the first five minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

We separately had, we didn't mention it until after the movie, but yeah, we had both separately experienced moments of wanting to walk out of the movie.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

Yeah. If we weren't reviewing it, I would have. And that feeling honestly never went away. I spent much of the movie encouraging myself to sit there and finish it. One of the highlights to me of the movie was when I broke the straw on our soda. So I got to leave the theater to get a new straw. So, okay, now the biggest problem for me with this movie is the central concept. So in this version of the story, Mary Shelley isn't just the author of Frankenstein. She's somehow a literal presence who can jump into the bride's mind and start speaking through her.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

So it brain attack in her brain attack.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

God damn it. So it starts in black and white with Jesse Buckley playing Mary Shelley, who, from what we're watching, it seems that she's been in limbo for like 100 plus years, and she's losing her mind, and she wants to retell Frankenstein. And the way she's going to retell it is by just ruining this lady's life by jumping into her reanimated body. Okay. So that's a lot. That's a lot. And so sometimes the bride suddenly starts talking like Mary Shelley is possessing her. Other times she's herself. And every time the film cuts back to Mary Shelley, it completely kills the pacing. More broadly, I think the movie just never decides what kind of a story it wants to be. Um, sometimes it's very literal. There's a police investigation happening with Penelope Cruz's detective. And then suddenly it'll shift into surreal art film territory with like symbolic dance scenes and underground clubs blasting modern music, even though the story is set in the 30s. And then there are all these strange Mary Shelley monologues. And it just keeps flipping between metaphor and reality without really committing to either approach. So the whole thing feels really incoherent to me. Um and the movie also clearly wants to say something about feminism. And this was a little hard for me because feminism is something I cared about. Deeply about. It's something I've read about a lot since I was a little kid. You know, it's something that I think is a serious concept that is worthy of a lot of thought. And I think that the way that those concepts are touched on here seem pretty shallow. For the first thing, so it's like the script stacks the deck. Literally every single male character is terrible. Which, hey, I get it. I'm a woman. I know there's a lot of terrible men. But by making all of the men's stereotypical, superficially horrible, and that's including Frankenstein, they're all right.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Yeah, and can I jump in for a moment? Yeah. I just want to say this too. It'd be one thing if it was consistent. Yeah. So like even in the example you're talking about with Frankenstein, when he has his moment, his outburst, I guess you would call it, the one that you can probably point out in contrast, because it's much more about like his relationship with her. Yeah, it's just comes out of nowhere. Because that's not his point of concern, or anything that he's really bothered with. The point that he makes is not something that he seems concerned with until that point. And it doesn't seem like it was brought into it for any reason other than to illustrate in that moment how he's a horrible guy.

SPEAKER_04 45:21

Yeah. And again, I'm not saying there aren't horrible men. I think there's a lot of horrible men. I think it's a systemic thing where men are encouraged to behave in a way that is abusive in varying degrees. But by making every single man sort of a flat stereotype of evil, it really loses any kind of the complexity that really goes into gender dynamics and the systems that maintain them. Also, I think that central relationship undermines its own messaging about female empowerment and feminism. Frankenstein's monster literally creates a woman to satisfy his own needs. He goes to the doctor played by Annette Benning and basically says, Hey, I've got a male loneliness problem. I need to get laid. Make me a woman who can be mine to own, you know? So that's something that's problematic. They touch on it, but then the film still tries to frame their relationship as a tragic love story. And I didn't see an ounce of love between the two of them. I saw a relationship where she was troubled and he protected her to get what he wanted from her. But they still try to make it this ideal love story. And it actually reminded me of a criticism that people had for the 2016 movie Passengers. So in this movie, Chris Pratt wakes up Jennifer Lawrence early on a spaceship because his cryogenic whatever wakes him up early and he wants a companion. And the movie portrays it like a love story. She's upset when she finds out, but it's still a love story. And when that movie came out, people were really pretty pointed in how they talked about the ethical issues that were messed up in that dynamic and how the movie played into basically his side of the story, much more. And I think the premise is arguably even stronger in this movie, but it's treated as a romance.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Well, probably because also there's not going to be that much for people to talk about. They're never going to get to that point before they hit the very surface level type stuff, like how it looks and like be very uh uh extra acting, you know.

SPEAKER_04 47:51

Yeah, and it's very shallow, it's also very on the nose. There's points in this w movie where women start yelling, me too, you know, and again, that's not to diminish at all anything in the me too movement. It's extremely powerful. But this movie just feels like it's throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

And I think that that sucks because there's a lot of ideas here that if they were explored more clearly and focused on, like, say, one of those ideas that she had, then it could be much, much stronger. But the way the messaging is so sporadic and inconsistent, I think really undermines any kind of idea of a message. Now, to the movie's credit, there's clearly a lot of really great craftsmanship here. But the costumes are very cool, the cinematography is beautiful, and some of the choreography and the dance scenes are really interesting. My favorite moments actually in the movie were the black and white Hollywood musical sequences that Frankenstein watches at old movie theaters. So there's Star, a silver screen legend played by Jake Gyllenhaal. And I think those scenes looked fantastic and really captured that Hollywood vibe. Those were the moments when I felt like I could relax watching this movie.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

That's because he's good at him making that corny ass face.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

He is, he's great at it. Um, I also liked Penelope Cruz's detective, even though she doesn't seem to be particularly good at detecting. She's got fabulous outfits, she's having fun. She is genuinely a terrible detective. Um, but I think that investigation storyline was the most grounded part of the movie, but even that is kind of out there ultimately, though. I think the tone and the writing just really didn't work. Even the dialogue, there's oh my God. I'm gonna be pretentious now, Sush. Watch out. So in Commedia dell'arte, the Italian clown theater art, um, there's a term called Lazzi. It's like a recurring bit, a recurring theme or phrase or movement that happens during a work of art that reinforces the themes and is like a guiding point through the work. This movie tries to do that, but to an insane degree. There are scenes where people say the same dialogue over and over and over. I forget my name. I don't know what it is. Do you know what my name is? I don't know what my name is. I forget it. Can you tell me my name? What's my name? It happens at least five times. And then there's also something that I think was intended to be an iconic fabulous statement. I'd rather not. You know, they ask things of her. She says, I'd rather not. I'd rather not. I'd rather not. I'd rather not. But they say it so often that it loses all meaning and becomes eye rolling to me. And it's a shame because I think there's a lot of interesting pieces here, but overall, it's extremely unpleasant and also disgusting. There's a lot of oozing in it, guys. There's a lot of oozing flesh. And I think that maybe this might land better for younger audiences who haven't seen the influences that she draws from. You know, obviously 1930s films, there's a very, very direct Bonnie and Clyde scene, like lifted straight from Bonnie and Clyde. But I think that for someone who hadn't seen those movies, maybe this could be a gateway to them to see more interesting cinema from here. Actually, when we saw it, it was interesting. When we were walking in, there's a group of teen girls, and one of them was dressed up in I think what was like a 1930s look, and they were taking photos and they're opposing by the opposite. And that was pretty cool. Because as a former dramatic teenager who wore costumes and cared about feminism, you know, it's nice that there are movies that somewhat touch on that. But I think that the way it's delivered so undermines its messaging that it almost is anti-the message it's trying to portray. Um and yeah, I mean, watching it, I felt I felt physically uncomfortable, frustrated, embarrassed, and honestly, I felt like it was a little insulting. Um which is a shame because I love dramatic over-the-top stylish movies. But yeah, I just I just was really disappointed. Soosh, what'd you think?

SPEAKER_02 52:47

I think uh first of all, before I get into my thoughts about the movie, I should inform everybody that Ashley isn't just talking out of her ass when she's talking about stuff that has to do with acting and film, because she actually did go to Emerson College and graduate from there. So she knows what she's talking about, unlike myself, where I I literally am just pulling this out of my ass.

SPEAKER_04 53:13

You know stuff.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

You don't play it. Um, yeah, I think actually that helped to have a lot more context. Because I knew I felt a certain way about this movie, and like the only way that I could really put it, which I'll probably phrase it exactly in this way, is uh it was poser garbage.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

Oh yeah, I feel that.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

First of all, my thoughts before I even saw it, I knew that Maggie Drillenhall was an actress, but I haven't seen many of her movies at all. And I know of her directing, but I've been told, based on my usual taste, that I should probably avoid anything she's directed.

SPEAKER_04 53:55

You and not like the lost daughter, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

I've been meaning to see Hamnet for Jesse Buckley's performance, but I hadn't seen anything with her otherwise. But then I found out that she actually was in the HBO series Chernobyl, which I did see.

SPEAKER_04 54:10

She is a great actress.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

Yeah, and Christian Bale I've seen in several films. As for source material, I haven't seen The Bride of Frankenstein, pretty much only read Frankenstein in high school, seen bits and pieces of older Frankenstein films. But I think most importantly, I did see the Aaron Eckhart film, I Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Which you're honestly watch again over this movie. But anyway, I was whatever about the trailer. Oh, but Jesus, this is definitely one of those trailers they've been showing for months now. I've basically groaned at them since I've started seeing them. And if I want to be a hundred percent honest, from the trailer, it just felt like something written by someone who was an uncool teenager years ago and later gained some popularity as an adult, then thought it was their best opportunity to finally subject everyone to their definition of edgy, rebellious, and cool. The strongest evidence of this being that the long form version of this title is Here Comes the Motherfucking Bride with an exclamation mark. I've seen marketing for this movie probably for months before it actually came out. The worst, though, has been this non-stop social media marketing campaign that absolutely has been driving me crazy. The worst part is they really, really, really want you to think this movie is cool and edgy. And you know I'll definitely have more to say about that. So, before I continue dunking on this movie, I'm going to pull a shitty boyfriend move and use Ashley as my basis for being able to criticize people in film. Again, did you know she went to Emerson College? Oh. If not, she did. So there you go. There's my backup.

SPEAKER_04 56:26

Hey, I'm not I'm not an expert, you know, but uh I've seen some things.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

You graduated, didn't you?

unknown 56:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

Anyway, the direction writing for this movie was mostly horrible. It honestly felt like Maggie and Jalen Hall got the most annoying theater people together, and they just crowdsourced and put every idea that was mentioned in the movie as it was mentioned in such a mess. Jesse Buckley and Christian Bale's characters to me were pretty insufferable. Yeah. But even with that said, I think they did a great job acting because I assume uh much of how extra these characters are was down to the writing, and I don't fault good actors for dramatic interpretation of the roles they're given, unless they go way outside the bounds are provided, which I don't think was the case for this movie, because Maggie Gyllenhall seems like the type of person who would write something like this and want it this way. Weirdly, the actors that I think worked the best part of the plot, who I can't even recall seeing in the trailer, which, sorry if this is a spoiler, was kind of a side plot where Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 57:37

I honestly can say that the two of them had some of the best acting in the movie. Which was at least partially down to them being probably some of the only somewhat consistently realistic and likable characters in the film. Set costume and makeup were undeniably unique and complex. I'd say they're some of the most positive aspects of the movie, and at least give this movie credit on the visual experience, even if it sometimes feels like they've just, for lack of a better word, puked all of these ideas up on screen at the same time. But I guess if you're gonna see puke, see it in IMAX. For a movie that seemed like it was being pitched as a horror romance, it almost feels like this movie and some others lately are starting to repeat 1990s superficiality and handling both of these genres. Like they want to deliver prestige horror, but they end up just delivering disgusting gore and body horror, seemingly for the sake of being able to meet the criteria. And it feels like they want to deliver an epic romance, but they end up delivering at best a confusingly lustful fling between a dead guy made of parts of other dead guys who gets lonely and decides to have a mad scientist reanimate a potentially already possessed dead woman so he's not lonely. Called me old and cynical, but to all the young people out there, please be aware that this is a movie by a 48-year-old white woman that was born into a family of Swedish nobility.

SPEAKER_04 59:09

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Yeah, so I can comfortably say she probably has little to no genuine first-hand context to the evils and depth of any atrocities, nor the fight against them that this movie tries to portray or deal with.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

Well, being a woman, we do deal with some shit, but yeah, not to this level.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Not to the degree I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 59:29

Yeah, it's an absurd degree, yes.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Yeah, she's not hanging out.

SPEAKER_03 59:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

Is what I'm trying to say. So for rating, I gave us a one for enjoyment and a two and a half for quality. To put this as bluntly as possible, this is poser garbage. Props to Peter Sarsgaard for being a good husband, and Penelope Cruz for working with him to make this movie somewhat palatable. I mean, she literally doesn't do anything but smoke and watch things happen. But it's probably more tolerable than a lot of what else is in this movie. Uh, if it isn't clear enough, I didn't enjoy this movie, and I'm pretty sure I've already provided the details as to why, and I honestly dislike this movie so much. I don't even want to bring those details up again because I just want to prevent any chance of going off on a tangent.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

Yeah, it's hard because I hated this movie, you know? But I also really want to balance this by saying that I think everyone who made it is very talented. It's just it didn't come together in a way that worked or was appealing. And um I it just wasn't, man, it just wasn't for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

Well, yeah, I want to say uh the quality I think was strong for visual elements, even if I didn't entirely enjoy them conceptually. The VFX and cinematography were solid and didn't seem in any way out of place for the movie they were in. Costume and makeup were obviously very extreme and dramatic, but they did go with the feel of the movie, so I can't say that they felt too out of place. But yeah, in closing, I just wanted to say if you want to see a movie that's more palatable, uh, of an edgy adaptation that has an overly dramatic romance and actually acknowledges its campiness, then maybe watch the 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Julia with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire D. Because I kind of got that vibe of like, hey, it's like really trying really hard to be something like that, but it's just nowhere near as good as that was. That movie knew what it was trying to be, and it knew that there were only certain aspects of it that could have been taken seriously, so it didn't take certain things as seriously as it took some other aspects of it. It's it's all about balancing of how the elements are, and I just don't think it worked for this movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:01

Yeah. Yeah, you know, so I gave it a 0.5 for enjoyment, which I just had to be honest about, and that there's stuff, there's conceptual reasons why I didn't like it. But it it honestly was visceral for me. You know, we do enjoyment and quality scores for a reason. Because just because something is technically good in a formalistic way doesn't mean you're gonna enjoy it. And this one was really I kind of wish I hadn't seen it. For quality, however, I also gave it a 2.5. I think that visually it's beautiful. I think all the actors are doing the best job they can. And again, you know, I didn't touch it too much on the acting, but you know, Jesse Buckley has a lot to juggle. She's playing a jaded sex worker, a resurrected corpse with no memory of her past life, and is occasionally possessed by the voice of Mary Shelly. That's a lot to handle, you know. And Christian Bale is playing hundred-plus-year-old monster with uh borderline incel tendencies in like a more modern time, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

Who's trying to be in the 1900s?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

Yeah, he's trying to support a deeply traumatized woman while also being incredibly jealous and unreasonable. You know, it's just it's just kind of a mess.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

But yeah, it's a puke.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:36

But everyone is doing the best possible. Uh uh there's craftsmanship here. I think I said that earlier. I really believe that. So it's not at all an insult to any of the individuals. It just really, I think maybe Maggie Chillen. Well, to her vision, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:57

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

You know, not to her personally.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

No, definitely not to her personally.

Movie Review: Hoppers

SPEAKER_04 1:04:02

But yeah, so that's what I gave it. I would say for people who are interested in a movie that's about feminism and rebellion and beautiful over-the-top visuals. I would say see the Indian film Sister Midnight that came out last year. It's a gorgeous movie and a strange movie. It's very stark in his portrayal of early marriage and loneliness and the search for identity and purpose and boredom. And it takes some really strange turns. So I think that there's movies that have the energy that maybe they were looking for when they made it, that I think, for my taste, at least do it better. So that is the bride exclamation point. All right, let's move on to something in a completely different mode. Hoppers. So Hoppers is Pixar's big original animated movie for 2026, uh, directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews. And it's got really great voice casts, including Piper Curta, Bobby Moynihan, John Hamm, Kathy Najimmy, Dave Franco, even Meryl Streep shows up. And the story follows Mabel, who is a very stressed-out college student who's obsessed with nature, and she gets access to a weird experimental technology that lets you hop into the consciousness of robotic animals. That sounds complex, but here's how they describe it. We take this, they point it at brain and put it in that, pointing at a robot of an animal. Okay. That's what you need to know.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:56

They put this in the net.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:00

Into that. So Mabel ends up living, hopping into and living inside a beaver trying to save a forest from being destroyed, which means that the movie's basically Pixar doing this mashup of environmental adventure.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

It's avatar.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:16

Yes. It's avatar, baby. You've got so when she hops, she's able to talk to the animals. You've got sci-fi body swap comedy as Mabel starts interacting with the animal world from the inside and accidentally kicks off a whole uprising in the process. Okay. I was really excited for hoppers. The trailer cracked me up. The premise alone is hilarious. They they put this little pointer on your head again, aim it at an animal, then it's in your like aim it at your head and then aim it at an animal. That's all you need to know. It's a goofy, clever setup that, you know, I was right away on board for. And of course, it's Pixar, which has an incredible track record. So this is one that I actually the both of us were really excited to see. And I immediately loved Mabel, our lead character. She's this stressed out kid who really cares about nature due to this sweet relationship she has with her grandmother, who shows her, hey, you've got a lot going on. Life is stressful. Let's sit on this rock and just look at nature, watch the animals. And so her whole motivation is to save a group of animals that are being displaced because a bridge is going to be built through their habitat, which is a really strong emotional starting point. And uh the hopping technology, hopping technology.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Hopping technology.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:43

Yeah. And uh it's from her professor, Dr. Sam, voiced by Kathina Jimmy, who invented the system. And she's great. I mean, obviously a genius, but the way she explains it is very funny and the technology itself incredibly silly. So many opportunities for ridiculousness, as Mabel and then Dr. Sam's colleagues jump into animals. Now, once it Mabel hops into the animal world, that's where the movie really takes off. I think one of the smartest things is about how they focus on how animals would actually think differently for from humans. Like, for example, oh my God, animals treat death so differently that ends up being surprising and funny. A lot of their attitudes come from their pond rules. The voice cast is great. I loved, loved, loved, love Bobby Moynihan is George the Beaver, who becomes this wise almost parental figner figure for Mabel. And I love how he's fascinated by how much she cares about things like justice and helping others, which, you know, they're not exactly priorities in the animal world. And I think John Hamm's really fun as the corrupt mayor who knows Mabel by name because she's constantly like showing up and protesting him. I think Dave Franco's actually one of my favorite. So funny. And the animation's gorgeous. You know, one small detail. It's a small thing, but I couldn't stop staring at Mabel's hair. Like the way they gave so much life to her hair when she's moving around and just everything had so much um texture and character and fun. Uh, and there's a lot of great little jokes, you know. A lot of them I probably can't mention because of the spoilers. But one silly one that cracked me up is that the animals try to use a cell phone to communicate with the human. And when they do that, the animals just start pressing the emojis for the animal that looks like them over and over and over again. And the voice is a very good thing. Yeah. It's so cute. And underneath all the comedy, there's like a nice theme about community and how different groups are stronger when they come together. And reminded me a little of Elio, which we really loved last year, which was Pixar's movie 2025, because it's also about someone who struggles to connect with people but ends up finding their place in an unexpected community. And I think this is a movie that pretty much anyone could enjoy. When we saw it, the audience was all ages. There were kids, older couples, and yeah, we were sitting next to an older couple. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:36

By themselves.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

Definitely. They were having a great time. Yeah. And the only thing I would say is it might be a little scary for like little, little kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:46

Um but I think there's a lot of great themes here and a lot of fun to be had. And yeah, I thought it was awesome. Creative, heartfelt, kind of thing that you want from a Pixar movie. So yeah, what do you think, Sush?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

Oh, I love this movie. Um before I saw it, I didn't recognize the director, writer, Daniel Chung by name. But I've known and seen a few episodes of We Bear Bears, which he created. And apparently he's also worked on like a few Pixar releases, but mostly shorts. But I think the most interesting credit of his for me anyway was that he was an additional storyboard artist for my favorite animated Thanksgiving movie, Free Birds.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:33

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:36

Uh, like with most animated movies I see, I did not look up the voice cast until after, so I'll have more about my thoughts on them later on. The trailer for this movie really did its job because I think the biggest selling point of this movie for me were the mind transfer and animals reclaiming their habitat from humans' angles. Plus, the animation was so adorable, and I think at least 15% of the cute animals portion of my Instagram feed is baby beavers. So I don't know. I was probably the target audience, at least for the adults, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:11

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

But yeah, I really did love this movie and I was looking forward to it so much that I saw it at an early screening. Um, so I've kind of been waiting for this moment to really talk about this. Because uh while I personally feel like the direction and writing for Pixar movies was kind of spotty following up in 2009, I really feel like the studio has made some effort to sign on directors and writers lately who have at least attempted to bring something that feels a bit more current to the table. I know I'm probably not the target audience for this movie, but this movie did make me feel good about kids these days that might be a bit like I was growing up. Uh and by that I mean like an Asian American kid that was labeled as a troublemaker. Even by my own parents. Though I felt like I always had the best intentions that I just wanted me believed. Uh, whenever I see a movie like this or some other movie where I felt uh like, hey, this would have been awesome to see growing up. Uh I'm at least happy that other Asian American kids are seeing themselves represented more genuinely than ever before. So yeah, that was a big upside for me for this movie. Uh into the cast, uh I haven't seen anything with Piper Curta who voices Mabel. Uh haven't seen anything she's either voiced or been in otherwise, but I'm definitely familiar with the rest of the voice cast. Bobby Moynihan, I think he did a great job as King George. I love pretty much everything he's done in SNL.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:52

Yeah, he cracks me at.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:54

But I really think he did a great job, not only being funny, but playing the more heartfelt side of George. The voices are actually pretty easy to ID in this movie. And even if I haven't seen a lot of the talent to voice acting before, I think the majority of them suit the characters that they voiced fairly well.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:15

I love the design of the movie. It was cute and fun, but not overly adorable. I think my favorite design aspect is that they have a distinct look to the cat animal characters, but depending on who they're communicating with in a given moment, there's a slight contrast in the design and voice.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:33

So cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:34

That's really as much detail as I could go into without really moving into spoiler territory. But yeah, I think overall uh the movie felt like I thought it was going to compared to what I saw in the trailer. And going into my rating, I gave this a five for enjoyment and a four and a half for quality.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:57

I love this movie, and I think it'll probably be one of my favorite, if not my all-time favorite, Pixar movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Uh, I enjoyed everything in this movie, from the moral lessons and challenges that Mabel goes through to especially all the random grown-up jokes in this movie that never had to navigate into potentially seedy or questionable references. Some other family films I've seen lately might have. Like all the jokes and references are clean, but they're hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:25

Oh my god, the arrow.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:27

Yeah, the arrow thing's great. It's just like the way that they deliver certain things that think just adults can relate to. So right.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:36

There's that the arrow moment is there's a spider web, and they made an arrow in the web, and it's a woman spider, and her husband comes up and says, What's that? She goes, It's an arrow, George. It's an example of just like some of the very uh funny and very yeah, like relatable humor. Yeah, relatable humor.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:59

Yeah, but animation was great, and I think it did a great job fitting the mood. The characters were pretty much in line with how they looked in the marketing material for the most part, but did look appropriately exaggerated when the story called for I don't really have any real recommendations unless you really want to see another recent Pixar movie we enjoyed and haven't, and that would be Elio. I would definitely rate that movie lower than this one, but I honestly feel like any criticism I had of it was probably tied more to the issues with the development and production rather than the movie itself. So just keep that in mind. But yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:41

So for my enjoyment, I gave it a four. I really loved it. Honestly, I love it. I think the only reason I didn't rate it higher is because when I was thinking about recent animated movies, I thought of uh the wild robot that came out.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

That was really good too.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:59

That's one that I think would be a great companion to this. And I think that one just uh put me a little more in my feels, as they would say.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:05

No, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:06

So I think that that's the reason I would give that one a bit of an edge over this. That being said, this one is much funnier. Um, and for quality, I gave it a four. I mean, I think it was gorgeous. I think that the voice work was amazing, the jokes were funny. You know what? I'm gonna bump it up to a 4.5, y'all. I'm bumping it up to a 4.5. I think it was just really beautifully executed. And really the only thing that keeps it from being a five for me is again just a little bit more emotion. But I loved it. I expect that we will be re-watching it.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:41

That's a quality entertainment award, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:43

Oh, hell yeah. Awesome. Wow, we've been all over the spectrum with movies today.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:49

Wow.

TV Episode Recap: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - S2E2 - "Resonance"

SPEAKER_04 1:17:50

Excellent. All right, well, let's see what we have going on over in TV. Hey Seosh, what do we have going on with Monarch?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:02

Well, we're on season two, episode two of Resonance. As I mentioned last week, I'm gonna be doing these recaps, splitting them down the middle between the two timelines or storylines or whatever. So we start this episode with the modern day storyline picking up right where we left off at the end of last episode. Again, we see Kong head towards the water, pausing to sneer back at our humans and their monarch copters as he pursues Titan X. Shaw looks exhausted, experiencing the space-time bends after leaving Axis Mundy. Keiko mentions seeing the Titan at some previous point in her life, which surprises Hiroshi, but not Shaw. What else isn't a surprise to Shaw when he finds out that Monarch is somehow involved with causing more Titan problems as their helicopter approaches outpost 18 along with a stowaway bug creature from Axis Mundy? In Outpost 18 command, we see that leadership responsibilities are suddenly being thrust upon Tim after Verdugo's untimely demise. He tries to deflect them onto others who he believe should be next in the chain of command. But given that communications are down, everyone's looking to him for their next course of action. As Tim seems to exhibit a freeze response, Shaw bursts into the command center demanding to speak to the person in charge, with everyone looking to Tim. They take turns blaming each other for ending up in their current situation, but Shaw seems to make a stronger point that he at least has a plan regarding what to do next. Tim ultimately accepts this truth, and the crew pursue Titan X at a safe distance. Elsewhere on the ship, we see the bug creature sneaking through the hallways of Outpost 18. We then see Hiroshi blaming Kintaro for the rescue that ultimately led to Titan X escaping from Axis Mundy. But this timing's horrible as he mentions uh Kate's involvement right as she passes by the door. Adding to their already complicated reunion. Kate takes off angrily and accidentally bunts into one of the crew members. The camera follows the crew member, and unfortunately, we soon find that he's the first victim of the stowaway bug. Shaw meets with Tim in private, addressing him as captain, which Tim immediately laughs off. While Shaw initially might have thought they were going to butt heads. He soon finds out that Tim really doesn't want to be leading the ship and in fact may have accepted that Shaw knows best as he reveals Command basically asks him to carry through with pursuing Titan X as Shaw wanted to, but rather than turning him in as he's been instructed to do, he thinks he'd rather ignore it so he can allow Shaw to do what he does best. Meanwhile, Kate seems to be shouldering the blame for being the one to press the button on the portal machine, and as a result, allowing Titan X to escape to Earth. But May tries to get her to realize that they all basically pushed that button with her, given that they were with her to help rescue Shaw.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:05

In command, Tim is updated that Titan X is heading towards a group of civilian vessels. Shaw had tried to give Keiko a heads up that Monarch hasn't changed for the better since she's been gone. But now she's experiencing it firsthand that she asks Tim what the organization stands for now, to which he answers, Discovery and a Defense. In a time of monsters, Keiko tells Tim that through their experiences, they had found the only way to truly defend themselves was through discovery, which ultimately motivates Tim to give the command to move in closer to Titan X. Shaw asks Tim what weapons are available on outpost 18. Okay. But unfortunately, the ship isn't equipped with any weapons. Luckily, even though Tim thinks he's going to point disappoint Shaw when he informs them the drones that are available to them only have video monitoring and sonar capabilities, Keiko reveals that in their previous run-in with Titan X, they found that it responded to sound. Hiroshi overhears this and offers the help in making any necessary adjustments to the drones to benefit the plan that they've now managed to concoct. Hiroshi and Keiko share a tender but very brief mother-son moment as he's stressed out, trying to make the proper adjustments to the drone, leading him to bite his nails. Keiko reprimands them in a rare moment of motherhood. She then remarks on how much Bill would have loved to uh be with them on this pursuit of Titan X. However, we find that Hiroshi doesn't share the same fond memories as her, remarking sarcastically that he did seem to choose work over them. They return to control as we see Tim has the drone sent towards Titan X. The drone operator can't seem to get close enough to affect it, so Shaw takes over the controls and makes it move closer, but accomplishes nothing other than getting the thing whacked away by one of Titan X's tentacles. We catch up with the stowaway bug again, navigating the hallways, unbeknownst to anyone on the ship, leaving a trail of blood behind. We see Kate return to her bunk, and before she closes the door, see the bug scurry across the wall facing her doorway. Kate hears something, goes to investigate, finds the trail of blood left by the bug, and tries to sneak off to the nearest phone to call for help. Unfortunately, no one answers, so she ends up having to grab the nearby fire extinguisher, preparing for the worst. Luckily, Kentaro may happen to find her. Just as the bug's about to attack her, Kentaro shoots it with a couple of rounds of the flare gun before it looks like it's about to die. He's about to give it one last shot to make sure it's dead, but this results in the bug sending out a sonic signal. The good news? The signals cause Titan Nex to turn away from the civilian ships. But the bad news? Titan X is headed directly at them. Kataro and Kate are able to call up to control to notify them that one of the bugs has gotten on the ship. In control, they're able to locate the bug, and Shaw deduces that Titan X isn't coming at them, but rather coming for the bug creature and rushes to get onto a speedboat and off and away from Outpost 18. In the end, Shaw is able to get far enough of a distance to release the bug to keep Titan X from colliding with Outpost 18, narrowly escaping the tsunami left by its abrupt step. Moving on, so from the initial stowaway bug attack on Outpost 18 in the modern storyline, we transition to the flashback storyline. We're in the cave from the previous episode. And again, showing the fossilized remains of the bug creatures and paintings on the walls. Followed up by a great scene, again highlighting the differences and the priorities of like the three of them. We see Bill eagerly approach Shaw and Keiko on the pier as she's analyzing water samples. Bill says he's found a map and has a plan to beat the Titan to its next destination, but they need to leave immediately. Keiko refuses, arguing that she wants to continue with her scientific research to reveal more about the creature they're dealing with. As Bill is about to agree to each of them pursuing their leads independently, Shaw jumps in to remind them that they should probably stick together, given the threats from the locals. While the differing POVs between Bill and Keiko may initially make us wonder why they're even together, Shaw soon witnesses how the differences are ultimately the forces that attract these two to each other. We see Bill on the boat and assume Shaw and Keiko have followed him, but as Lucia stares at the boat from the pier and one of the locals approach her to find out if they've left, we soon realize Keiko and Shaw have remained on the island. As Keiko continues to research and Shaw tries to make sense of her relationship with Bill, her past life with Hiroshi's father is revealed, ultimately leading to the answer that she's with Bill because losing Hiroshi's father made her realize how she wasn't living for herself, but perhaps also implying that this independence each of them have may be causing Keiko to feel lonely. Shaw still feeling discouraged, knowing that he basically has no chance with Keiko because of the complex bond that she has with Bill, seems to misunderstand when Keiko asks if he feels anything. And by that she means actual physical vibrations from the ground, and he responds as if she was referring to their conversation. As Keiko and Shah are packing up to leave the cave, the man we saw approach Lucia earlier approaches them. They apologize about overstaying their welcome, but the man at least gives the impression that he doesn't mind and that some of the locals may have been acting out due to some old superstitions. We see Lucia show up, and while we initially believe she's there to help them leave, she ends up asking them to stay for their celebration, which seems strange given how determined she was to try to get them to leave in the previous episode. At the festival, Lucia tells Shaw and Keiko the legend of the god of the sea. As Lucia is about to answer Keiko's question, whether the locals still believe in the legends, the man from the cave interrupts them and invites them to toast to the celebration. We see Shaw and Keiko joining the locals as they dance, but soon come to realize that they've been drugged. Meanwhile, the locals begin a ceremony where they sacrifice a huge fish as tribute to the god of the sea. And while it's creepy, it seems like Shaw and Keiko are being left alone. Unfortunately, after Lucia tells them she tried to warn them, we soon see that they're being left to fend for themselves as a creature who we now visually confirm is Titan X approaches them, with a swarm of the bugs rushing towards the shore to greet it. With the Titan that is now arisen to the surface. Shaw is eventually able to break into a shed for last second shelter as Titan X swipes and destroys it with its tentacle, and the episode cuts to black. So ask me what you think of this episode.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:18

I liked it. I think this episode did a good job of building on character dynamics and also kind of upping the mystery. You know, when we were talking about hijack, one of the things that I found frustrating was I didn't feel a sense of momentum from one episode to the next. And I didn't feel like they were building on things in a consistent way. And I think already in season two of Monarch, they're doing that. We're learning new things, we're seeing new monsters, we're going to new places. It's telling the story and it's progressing.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:53

Yeah, I agree with that, but I kind of see a problem with it still, but I'll get into that when I when I talk about stuff later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:01

Yeah. In terms of like character development stuff, I liked, I thought it was cool to see Tim's how he's taking on the new responsibility so begrudgingly. Um, I think that's very fun. That's a dynamic you don't see a lot in shows like this. Usually people are hungry for power and he's exactly oh boy, I don't know. And uh it's cool to see the reverence that he has for Keiko and the respect he has for Shaw. I also liked the moments between Kate and Kentaro. So Kate, you know, overhears him saying to Hiroshi that we should have never pushed the button.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:42

She assumes that he's angry with her. Right. Um and that she has done something wrong, that she's being blamed. And she runs off and she's worried that it's her fault. You know, she feels the weight of what's happened. But I think it's cool. Hiroshi really tries to reassure he's like, you know, I did all of this by running away and not telling you what was happening, and you hunted me down. So, you know, blame me. It's my fault. I don't want you to feel pain about this. And it's not resolved between them at all, but I think it's complicated in a way that makes sense for an estranged father and daughter. I also really like Keiko's storyline. I found it really interesting that scene where Keiko and Bill split up to work on their two different projects, and Shaw really interprets it as, oh man, he's abandoning Keiko. I can't believe he would do that. And it is more complicated, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:41

Yeah, it's very complicated, I think.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:43

Yeah, because for a woman in that time period to have the kind of interests and ambition and curiosity that she does, and to really have that drive her, was not really accepted. So, yes, she may be lonely sometimes, but what she gets from Bill is she gets respect for her curiosity, her mind, all of that, and the freedom to do what she wants to do. Yes, she is lonely sometimes, but that that respect and that love is so strong. And I thought that was really cool too.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:23

Yeah, no, I do agree with that, even though I know that uh they also showed the other side of it, which is that she has the balance and he's type of loneliness. I think it's interesting how they present the complexity in that it's in a way, like kind of a tribute to Hiroshi's father, because it's like she doesn't want to remember that he's dead per se, but she wants it to be a situation where this horrible thing that's happened has allowed her this other opportunity in her life. Yeah. You know, also in doing that now, she's realizing that it doesn't always work out a hundred percent the way that you might want it to.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:06

And also, I thought it was interesting that she mentions that the marriage with her uh first husband was arranged by her parents, and I think that too also sort of uh supports the theme of sort of not having freedom or not having choice and now having a massive amount of choice, you know, given to her and how that that comes with uh pros and cons. I also really loved, oh my god, I loved the scene with her and her older than her son, you know, Hiroshi. It's very tender. There's this moment where they sort of lean each other's heads on each other, and it's so sweet, and the actors do such a good job of finding that mother-son.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:54

Yeah, even though it must be really just strange, yeah, like having vision.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:01

Yeah, it's like doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:03

Yeah, it's gotta be wild.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:04

And I think the actress playing cake goes fantastic. I think when when Hiroshi has that a side that, like, well, yeah, dad always did prefer being at work, and the look on her face, you know, it's funny, it's a face that I've seen in parents many times that face of shock, but trying to hold it in.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:23

Yeah, like you don't know how to react.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:25

Yeah, to not upset properly kid or to not or still thinking about it. I think that was really cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:31

Totally.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:31

Uh, I also I like the monster stuff, man. You know, um so I think I saw somewhere online someone called the monster scarabs.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:41

I don't know if that's oh yeah, they do look like scarabs. So yeah, that works.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:45

So yeah, with the scarabs, first of all, they're sort of cute and gross. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:50

I thought it was very fun and silly when it reminded me of like aliens or something, when there's a critter roaming around, you hear like scampering noises or something. You see you're you're focused on characters that don't matter that much to the plots, and you know they're gonna die.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:08

Actually, now that you bring that up, uh just a spoiler for anybody who hasn't seen Predator Badlands, it reminded me of Predator Badlands because these tiny things, at least for me, think that they might be like small versions of what Titan X is. Yeah. Because they kind of have the same basic structure, they're kind of like a pod looking, you know, like a pod bug looking thing with some tentacles off of it. Titan X looks like a bigger, scarier version of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:37

That is so true. And I thought it was so interesting that at the end, when Shaw is he's creating a distraction to sort of lead Titan X away from the boat. What he ends up doing that to get him off his trail is he throws the scarab in the water. So he knows that those two creatures have a very strong relationship. I don't know if it's a symbiotic relationship, if it's like a child of Titan X. I'm not sure yet. But I thought that was interesting. And also, I forgot until we started talking about it that the name of the episode was Resonance, which makes a lot of sense. Because of the sound, yeah, because of the sound. And it seems to me that Keiko and Kate both have an ability to hear the animals in a way that others can't.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:29

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:30

Because several times in the the past and in the present, each of them is like, Did you hear that? And people are like, What? You know, sort of like when Keiko says, Did you feel that? You know, right, exactly. Um, and then it gets louder and louder, and then other people can feel it. So I think that's interesting, and I'm really curious about that connection that the two of them have with the creatures. I'm wondering what the origin of it is, if it's just that they're just so attuned, or if maybe Keiko, because she had an interaction with them in the past, I don't know, maybe maybe somehow her and one of the creatures like imprinted on her or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:13

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:14

But I think that that's something that we'll be learning more about and pretty curious about. So yeah, fun episode. I'm I'm excited to see what happens next.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:24

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:25

So I want to hear what your uh bone to pick with the episode is. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:30

Well, I mean, actually, I think it was another great looking episode. Um and while I'm on that topic, I I think it's a strong example week to week of how polished the effects are on Apple TV series. Oh my god, other streaming studios. Uh again, it's gotta be the Mac Pros, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:36:49

It's gotta be, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:50

Yeah, but seriously, I appreciate that Apple continues to prioritize doing at least one thing well with most, if not all, the movies and shows I've seen from them. At a time where it seems like so many other streaming studios are trying to check off all these boxes, like uh next to all the executive demands instead of creating movies and shows with substance. So yeah, it just drops the Apple TV for that stuff. Oh yeah. Um, but yeah, as far as the story goes, uh I like that we finally learned a bit more about Hiroshi's father. And while I think that Keiko telling the story to Shaw may have held some truth as far as like what motivated her to end up with someone like Bill, I appreciate that the writers felt the need to write some complexity into the human characters, like I was saying before, especially given how one of the common criticisms of the Monster Burst movies has been the lack of development when it comes to the human characters. So I like that Monarch is very human focused, but not only that, they they do a really good job at that aspect of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:54

Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:55

I'm interested in seeing Bill's response to what happens to Keiko and Shaw. Like, is he going to actually be concerned? I mean, in like the past the flashback uh storyline, or is he going to be more interested in what they found out or what was revealed? Or even that he was able to find something, you know, if anything. Right. Uh I just feel like these writers have to get somewhere close to as unlikable as the build that was portrayed in the movies by John Goodman. Yeah. Because it seems like Anders is still somewhat likable regard.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:30

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:33

I think it's funny that they tried to make the ceremony for Titan X seem creepier than it actually ended up being.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:40

No human sacrifice, you know? I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:42

I was really expecting it.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:44

Yeah. Basically, they just get drugged to prevent them from being able to what knock on doors and ask people if to give them a place to wait out the seagod visit. It kind of seems silly given that Lee is eventually able to physically break into a shed or whatever at the last possible second. So I thought that was kind of funny and weird. Something I wanted to highlight that you actually did highlight.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:06

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:06

How Kate and Kiko both seem weirdly sensitive to vibrations from Titan X. I don't know if this is just that they're more sensitive than most other humans to it, or if there's some genetic reason for this, though maybe if so, it's probably isolated to the woman since I don't recall Hiroshi or Kintaro being affected similarly.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:28

Is that true?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:28

Uh, but I think it's an interesting angle that I hope ends with some crazy reveal or connection between them and the Titans beyond any role in the monarch organization. So yeah, I really do hope that they explore that a bit more. Like I was mentioning before, I'm starting to get the feeling that we still haven't really gotten to the central plot of this season.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:48

Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:49

Because we spent the first episode reuniting Keiko with everyone else and saving Shaw. And this episode trying to keep the Titan that escaped from Maxis Mundy from killing civilians, which they seem to successfully do. So now what? Like I watched some recap video of all the Titan encounters from season one last night. So I definitely hope that we're not just going to spend all season just dealing with Titan X. But at the same time, I just feel like this season has so far been floating in this weird limbo between a serialized series or a literal monster of the week thing. So I just hope it gets somewhere more settled soon, you know, because I don't know what the direction is supposed to be. Like I don't know if we're supposed to go from Titan X into a completely different Titan that appears for some other reason, or if they do more investigating into Titan X, like physiology or maybe finding out more about Titans in general through it. But yeah, I just uh hope whatever direction it takes, we kind of get an idea of uh of more so it's not saying that like I haven't been enjoying it, it's just I'm just kind of not sure what's happening.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:03

So I yeah, I can see that. I mean, for me, I think the reason why I'm not worrying about it so much is because the character development stuff is very interesting to me, and I think it's building and building. And uh I don't know if it's just gonna be tied to the city. Yeah, I don't mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:20

I I like the human aspect of it, don't get me wrong. It's just more the big picture stuff. Like, I don't know where it's going with that. Like it's cool to have two timelines going on, and we're seeing these people at different points in their lives, uh, mainly Keiko and Shaw. But yeah, with that, we don't really know what's happening outside of that kind of filling in the the blanks and everything for like them and like the other characters.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:46

Well, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a better picture of that next week, just because that first episode was doing some of the yeah, capping off stuff. Capping things off, also reminding people where we were at in the first season. This one, I think, or or the way I interpret it is that it's the start of the story about Scarab and the tight next, and that it's gonna follow that. And I wouldn't be surprised because I the way they're talking about Bill makes me think maybe we'll catch up with who he becomes, where he ends up, and where he ends up is an island with a shitload of monsters.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:26

So yeah, and and actually now that you bring that up, it almost makes sense too because they're showing you Bill kind of drifting away from Keiko, maybe also deals with the thing I was talking about before, where they have to get this character to a place where he's like the John Goodman version of the character in order for continuity to be correct. So maybe this is something that they're doing towards that. Maybe certain things will be revealed where Keiko starts questioning like, is this the type of guy who I want to be with? Obviously, we know that things happen that don't really allow her to make that decision herself. Yeah. But up until then, it'd be cool to kind of see if there's any telltale signs that this was going to happen with uh Bill as a character later down the line.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:14

Now, I I can't quite remember, and this is potentially a spoiler for the the films of the last like 10 years or so, but I believe Bill has died in the present day of the movies. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:29

Yeah, he's dead. He died in one of the monster verse movies.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:34

It was a modern day timeline thing, so okay, it was after island that he died, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:40

I believe so, or it might have been part of the events for that, or maybe even like directly preceding that. Okay, yeah, but I can't remember, but I just know that it happens, it's the John Goodman version of him, so it would be like the Kurt Russell version, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:43:56

Right. Yeah, so yeah, that's how I'm trying to think if there's any way that the two of them would see each other again because in the show, I think we're the present day is really only 2017 or so.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:09

Yeah, that's true. And then in the movies, I think they're a little bit farther ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:13

Yeah, yeah. So that'll that'll be interesting to see.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:16

Yeah, but we'll see if they do anything with that. Cool.

What We're Watching Next

SPEAKER_04 1:44:18

Yeah, I'm sure there'll be lots of family drama and monsters awaiting us next week. Hey sushi, what are we watching next week?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:30

Oh man, I'm totally caught off guard because I don't usually do this part, but um for movies, we will be seeing Slanted, which is basically the girl version of my teenage years, but with less reconstructive surgery and uh reminders of him, the latest Colleen Hoover film adaptation, which apparently we have a love-hate relationship with, and by that I mean we just love to hate them.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:00

That's right, and for TV, we are going to be checking out some monsters with Monarch Legacy of Monsters, episode three, entitled Secret.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:12

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:16

All right, and with that, guys, we have the end of our episode. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:26

Yeah, and make sure to subscribe, rate, and review positively, unless you want us to rate you poorly, like the bride.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:35

Oh no, I feel a little bad about it. But man, I didn't like that. So whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:40

I'm just but yeah, follow us on all the social medias TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Other than that, thank you everybody for tuning in. We will be back next week with the third week of leprechaunathon. Until then, take it easy and uh have uh happy St. Patrick's Day. Watching leprechaun movies and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:06

Yes, watch the leprechaun movies. Bye guys.