Episode 172: Night of the Living Dead

[00:00:00] Episode 172, Henry Faherty Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Film Buds Podcast. This is episode number 172. And my name is Henry. And I'm Paul. This week we have another retro review for you. We are going to be reviewing George Romero's Night of the Living Dead from 1968.

[00:00:35] And then a listener was kind enough to send us a question. So we'll get to that. Other stuff we watched, I mean, enough said. Paul, you know? Yeah. So yeah, thanks again for joining us everybody. Well, Paul, how are you doing? Doing pretty well.

[00:00:54] Yesterday was a long day. It was a 20 hour day for me. So yeah, you know, it was all the... Now, what was the time frame? Like when did you start in the day? 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Yeah. Any little breaks?

[00:01:16] Yeah, you know, I had like a dinner break in there. You know, I was trying to take everything that I had handwritten and get it typed. And so for the script that I've been working on, it's pretty much done.

[00:01:30] I'm, you know, a little disappointed that I didn't make the original deadline. But I pretty much have the whole thing done. So I can... I'll probably wrap it up finally Thursday or Friday. Nice.

[00:01:45] So yeah, I had a dinner break, you know, and I had like little periodic breaks where I would just go and kind of do something else even if it was just for a few minutes just because it was, you know, a little brutal sitting there and just transcribing.

[00:01:59] But also doing some editing and revisions kind of as I was going through it. Right. How are your fingers? Honestly, yeah, the hand was a little bit tired like both because let's see, yesterday was Monday, day before Sunday.

[00:02:16] Sunday was when I really pounded out a lot of everything by hand. And so it was like one day of just like constantly writing by hand and then another day of just constantly typing. And so they were a little tired.

[00:02:28] I ended up plunging them into a cooler of ice for a little while just to get a little bit of a rest. Sure. Yeah, well, best wishes with that. You know, I'm sure it'll turn out great. So yeah, thank you. I'm pretty happy with it, honestly. Good man.

[00:02:46] Good. How have you been? What's going on? Not a whole lot this week. Just kind of been working and doing some more physical training for the Air Force. And that's been keeping me pretty busy.

[00:03:02] So yeah, not a whole lot new really or interesting, just kind of a fairly normal week, which is okay. How long do you usually spend per day on your sort of physical conditioning for the military? It can kind of vary.

[00:03:21] I try and do it four or five times a week. It can stretch anywhere from like an hour to about three. Okay. But for like a day that is like talking about three hours, a lot of that could be cardio.

[00:03:34] So I'm not just like in the gym lifting weights for three hours, you know, long or straight. Yeah. So it's been, you know, as things have been kind of been ramping up, it's been getting more and more intensive, you know.

[00:03:47] But it is kind of cool to see the progress that I've made over time. And you know, so, you know, it's not easy, but it's not something I dread doing either. Okay. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's anything else really to mention. Yeah.

[00:04:05] Anything for you, Paul? I mean, we got some stuff to talk about. So yeah, let's just go ahead and jump on in. Alrighty. Well, yeah. Let's get into our review of Night of the Living Dead from 1968 and we do have a clip. So take a listen.

[00:04:22] Well, you used to really be scared here. Johnny. You're still afraid. Stop it now. I mean it. They're coming to get you, Barbara. Stop it. You're ignorant. They're coming for you, Barbara. Stop it. You're acting like a child. They're coming for you.

[00:04:48] Look, there comes one of them now. He'll hear you. Here he comes now. I'm getting out of here. John. All right. So Night of the Living Dead, it's on Amazon Prime currently for anybody who may want to watch it. It's directed by George Romero.

[00:05:08] It stars Dwayne Jones, Judith Odea, Carl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley. That's about it, I think. Yeah. The rest are zombie casting, so we don't need to really go through that. The synopsis is a ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to

[00:05:36] remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the east coast of the United States. So not the worst synopsis. No, not at all. Better written than a lot of them. Yeah. Well, Paul, you suggested we do this. Would you like to kick things off?

[00:05:57] Yeah, sure. So Romero is definitely kind of like an icon for a lot of people. He was never someone who really had all of the budget that he wanted, so he always had to be kind of a filmmaker on a shoestring.

[00:06:12] And he's also the one that essentially really kicked off the zombie genre as we fully know it now.

[00:06:22] There were other zombie films and other sort of zombie stories before this, but there were none that were like this where it was, you know, the bite and the spread and some of that stuff,

[00:06:32] where he also really combined a lot of current topics and current themes and current ideas into what he was making. So I saw Night of the Living Dead in college in my horror class, and I really enjoyed it.

[00:06:47] I thought that was great, you know, it was a little bit a little bit schlocky, a little, you know, you could definitely see some of the, some of the obvious actors missing punches and things like that.

[00:06:57] But I thought that it was a really neat film and I thought that the last few minutes especially are super impactful. And so it was one that stuck with me.

[00:07:05] And I think that it's a really enjoyable, you know, breakout thing that you can kind of go and see all of the roots of it, you know, sort of spreading everywhere. I went and I picked up the criterion version. It was on sale. It still is.

[00:07:22] It's like 23 bucks, I think. Not too bad. No, and it uses a 4K restoration that was done for the MoMA. So it's a really beautiful image, especially for a movie that's so old that was so damaged. And so I really enjoyed it still.

[00:07:39] I thought that it was a great time. My wife hadn't seen it. She very much enjoyed it. I think that even though Romero wasn't necessarily according to him trying to put too much politics in there,

[00:07:51] I think that he ends up creating this very interesting movie that has enough ambiguity to it that you can read a lot into it. And I think that it's a great little horror film. Well, Paul, first of all, I mean, they're really spoiling us with that 4K restoration.

[00:08:06] I mean, the criterion. So that's good stuff. Yeah. So I think I saw this in college as well on my own. I was bored one night and I just rewatched it last night. And I've liked George Romero since I first got into his films around that time.

[00:08:28] And this one I had kind of forgotten a lot about. And overall, I enjoy it. I wouldn't say it's my favorite Romero film, nor would it be one of my favorite zombie films as it might be for some. Mm-hmm. I love how it's shot in black and white.

[00:08:49] You know, it came out in the 60s. It didn't have to be black and white, but I think the cinematography, it makes it feel like it came out or it was made in the 20s or 30s in a really cool way and in an authentic way.

[00:09:02] And I think that just it really helped to popularize the zombie apocalypse concept or archetype in a lot of ways. And you know, you can kind of see how it's influenced many sense. Mm-hmm. And so all of that I really liked.

[00:09:22] I liked its simplicity and I liked its almost procedural aspect of boarding up the house and, you know, strategizing all that stuff I liked. I think even so my main issues with the movie, and I think it's partly because of the time it came out.

[00:09:38] I think that the leading lady, that the character is a bit tiresome. Like, yeah, it's for the first half she's hysterical. She's screaming all the time. And then in the second half she becomes basically silent and immobile and becomes like a non character almost.

[00:09:59] And so that whole arc, especially with her fate at the end of the movie feels she was only there because she started the movie or she got a plot in the gear.

[00:10:11] So that kind of that part doesn't really work for me and I do find it's a small thing. I do find the score to be really overbearing. But again, that's kind of partly because of the time it came out though. It's just the way it was.

[00:10:24] So I mean, I can get past that. But otherwise I think the rest of the cast is very good. I like the dynamic between the main guy and the husband. I think that works really well. And what's interesting is because the main character, what's his name?

[00:10:45] Is it Ben? Yeah, so Ben, the main actor who's kind of supervising everything in the house. He's saying no, we should stay in the house. There's many ways out, all of that and trying to be very practical.

[00:11:02] But then the husband is wanting to go into the cellar once everybody to go into the cellar. But there's only one way out.

[00:11:13] So it's like, you know, to these two different options and I like how in the end both options kind of work and they also kind of don't. Yeah. And so like the husband wasn't totally wrong.

[00:11:26] He was in some ways but also Ben, the main guy was also wrong in some ways. And so I like how it kind of comes back in a circle in that way. So yeah, overall I like it.

[00:11:40] I don't love it as some might but I still enjoy it a fair bit. No, and I definitely get that. I agree with you about Barbara. Yeah, she is easily the worst. I honestly completely, I had completely forgotten about Barbara.

[00:12:01] Like the thing that I really remembered from this movie was Ben, the dad. You know, I remembered all of that stuff way more than I remembered Barbara. I even remember her sort of malcontent brother. Yeah. More than I remembered dear Barbara and you're right.

[00:12:20] It's kind of a total waste. She's there in the beginning. Almost at that point, what of the first one killed? Like just she got the narrative going and then she hands it off nicely to others who were more interesting.

[00:12:36] Because pretty much after Ben just pops off and just punches the ever-loving hell out of her. Which like she had it coming. She needed to be hit before then to be honest. Someone just needed to like smack her a little bit and be like pull it together.

[00:12:50] You know, like that scene of the woman who's hysterical in airplane. Perfect. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, where you know, everyone's just lining up to hit the woman who just can't get it together. George Romero really missed that opportunity. So she's a pretty worthless character. I really enjoy Ben.

[00:13:11] The next most useless character is probably the young guy's girlfriend. Right. Who decides to come out in the middle of the whole thing. So now there are definitely, you know, some plotting issues, you know, in terms of just like, you know, how certain characters' journeys play out.

[00:13:31] That definitely do really hold the film back quite a lot. I think the movie was made on like a hundred thousand dollars or something like that.

[00:13:45] And so I think that that's probably one of the reasons that it ended up being a black and white is just because color at that time was still so expensive. But I think that it really works for the film more than being a hindrance for it.

[00:13:56] I'm trying to think. The one thing that I really enjoy is that, you know, you were talking about the cellar versus the upstairs narrative.

[00:14:02] You essentially have two characters who are, you know, contrasting ideologies of essentially like, you know, collectivist sort of approach, you know, to kind of stay alive. And we see this a lot in zombie stories, right?

[00:14:17] Someone who wants to be a collectivist who wants to, you know, sort of do what's for the common good and thinks that you should go out of your way to help other people and things like that versus a guy who is a bit of an isolationist who's, you know, me and my own, you know, close yourself away.

[00:14:35] If you're not sure that it's worth the risk then why should you do it? Right. And I think that that's actually always a very topical theme.

[00:14:45] And I think that that's what makes this movie weirdly timeless is that some of their themes and ideals are so iconic and so ingrained in culture that a lot of the themes carry on and allow the movie to sort of transcend further than it would have normally.

[00:15:03] Yeah, yeah, I agree. No, I think all that stuff works. And I think that one thing talking about my criticism of the score, you know, so they're locked in this house or boarded up.

[00:15:17] I think that I would have really enjoyed if there had been more silence in the movie. Just them, you know, boarding the house up, not even talking just kind of moving around because that would kind of make you think, okay, are the zombies outside?

[00:15:30] Are they coming in and like it'll give you a little bit more ambiguity and mystery there? Whereas I feel like that, you know, the score it's constantly like, hey, you know, I'm here and it never really goes away.

[00:15:41] And so I found that kind of a bit of a hindrance. Now in terms of the actual zombies themselves, I think it was great. I think the sequence towards the end of them trying to go get the gasoline is amazing.

[00:15:57] I love it and really reminded me of the second season of The Walking Dead, the finale of that. And I think all that's really well done.

[00:16:06] And I think especially for the time where the zombies are eating the guy and the woman as well, I think is pretty impressive, you know, for the time period. And I think even now it's pretty gross. Yeah.

[00:16:20] When we were watching it, you know, especially all cleaned up and shiny and new looking like right after the scene. I looked at my wife and I was like, I don't know what they were eating, but it looked disgusting. Yeah.

[00:16:34] I don't have a clue what these people were actually consuming, but it looked awful. Yeah. And I think that they use that high contrast to also really help their makeup be as simple as possible, but also as effective as possible. You can actually see this movie in color.

[00:16:55] Oh, really? Yeah. And I think like the 80s he released it or there is a released version of the movie in color. I think that you can rent it. I also think it's on YouTube, but I don't know if that would get me in trouble.

[00:17:08] I don't think I'd be able to find it on YouTube. Who knows? So one thought that I had also while launching it was that I felt very much like I was seeing the Touchstone movie for Sam Raimi. Sure.

[00:17:24] You know, with the canted angles and the dramatic lighting and the random bits of more sort of handheld stuff, you know. Very evil dead. It really did have that feeling.

[00:17:36] And again, my wife and I were talking about this movie and there are so many older movies that feel like they're sort of borrowing from the theatrical tradition of, you know, a location or a few locations where I was watching this movie

[00:17:52] and I was like, I could convert this into a play. Yeah. Probably with pretty minimal effort. Yeah, totally. And now one thing, I mean, it's kind of like a very typical Henry thing.

[00:18:05] But I honestly kind of wish that based on the cinematography of the movie and how zombies look in the daylight, I wish it had actually taken place during the day because I think that the silhouettes of the people, you know, in the field and all that looked great.

[00:18:23] And while, I mean, again, having it be at night is effective in a lot of ways and I like that. I think that whenever they would cut to daylight shots, I think it looked incredible.

[00:18:34] And because that's kind of what took my eye from even just seeing stills of the movie. It was those daylight shots. I was like, that is amazing. But obviously that's not what the movie is. So it's okay. No, yeah. Yeah. Can't do anything about it.

[00:18:49] And I guess getting into, you know, a little bit into, well not a little bit. It's also from 1968. I don't care about spoilers. You know that ending for me was still pretty chilling.

[00:19:04] You know, Ben ends up getting killed by this roving band of law enforcement that are out there with dogs, you know, which is very evocative of a lot of different imagery related to the civil rights movement. And then slavery or law enforcement.

[00:19:20] And they end up seeing him, you know, in this arguably very broad daylight kind of shot and then they end up killing him. And then you watch through the credits as he's like pulled throughout the house with meat hooks. Yeah.

[00:19:35] Through the series of still images and then his body is thrown on a pyre. And it's pretty, you know, I don't know if he was Romero claims that he was not intending to do any of that. But it feels very... Yeah, I don't know George.

[00:19:52] I think you're fucking with me, George. It feels way too intensely pointed. And going off of that, this movie is one of the things that helped or was a touchstone for Jordan Peele when he was making Get Out. Okay. Hmm.

[00:20:11] Yeah, no, I think the last scene is pretty effective as well. And that's you're not really expecting that necessarily, you know, you're expecting him to be like, Hey everybody, it's, you know, it's me. I'm okay. And then, you know, there you go. Oh, the scene.

[00:20:29] I really like the scene where the daughter kills the mother with the spade or whatever it is. It is very reminiscent of Psycho in the way that's shot and edited, which is okay.

[00:20:43] I mean, I thought I thought it worked well, but I do like how it again partly because of the time it's just kind of cool to see that the quick turn of people when they become zombies, you know,

[00:20:57] it feels like you something that would have come out yesterday, you know, without the same kind of thing. And so I think that still holds up really well.

[00:21:05] There are a few points in the movie that kind of drag for me where they're in the house for a little too long. Yeah.

[00:21:12] But otherwise no, it's a cool movie and it's worth watching, especially if you like either film history in general or zombie movies just to see where a lot of things came from. No, for sure.

[00:21:25] I think that, you know, it's one of those movies that'll clarify a lot for you and is also just a good watch. You know, there are much worse ways to sort of spend. It's like an hour and 36 minutes. Yeah.

[00:21:39] No, I think that it's a pretty smartly done movie. You know, he used his budget really, really effectively. He used what he had very intelligently, very much also like John Carpenter did with like the first Halloween movie and stuff like that.

[00:21:55] And this is also why horror is a genre that so many people who are would be filmmakers go to, you know, early on is because it's actually much more effective than you would realize on a certain level to have less of a budget than more of one.

[00:22:12] No, I think it's pretty good. The zombies are a little bit mighty crafty and intelligent how they use some things like that. Yeah. Like they're able to like sabotage a car and all that stuff. So, and yeah, and pick up things to hit the doors with. Oh, yeah.

[00:22:28] Breaks a window open. Yeah. Yeah. All that stuff, you know, I can see why a lot of zombie films since have kind of lost that you're either like a walking dead kind of zombie or you're a super zombie where it is, you know, kind of more warranted.

[00:22:41] I love talking about Romero's effects. I love the scene where the guy is hacking at the zombies hand with a knife. Yeah. And you see the fingers coming off amazing stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's good. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else, Paul, about Romero in general?

[00:23:04] What's your favorite of his? You know, sadly, I think that I got to say Don of the Dead. You know, it is probably his most seminal work. What about you? Probably that too. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:18] You know, he's done great stuff and even some of his movies have gone on and been remade decently well. You know, Don of the Dead is a pretty good remake.

[00:23:26] The crazies, even though it doesn't do anything like all that elevating to the medium is a pretty solid remake. It's got Timothy Oliphant in it, so there are worse things. Yeah.

[00:23:38] The only other thing that I was going to say was that the reason that the news broadcast feels so great in, like grounded and real is because they were done in part with local Pittsburgh newsmen. Hmm. Interesting.

[00:23:51] So, like one of those guys is a legitimate old like TV radio announcer. And so that's why it has that level of authenticity. And that's also why I think they were able to get the actual like K.O.V. helicopter for the end of the movie. Wow.

[00:24:06] That's cool. Hmm. All right. Out of five stars, Paul. Honestly, I'll go solid. I'll go solid four. Same here. Yeah. All right. I guess we can move on. I don't really have much news. Paul, anything come to mind for you?

[00:24:26] No, I felt like there was something, but now I've lost it. Yeah. Well, it's been kind of a slow news week, I guess, you know? Yeah. So cool. We'll skip that. Save that for next week. But we do have a question sent to us from a listener.

[00:24:45] So the Film Buds podcast at gmail.com is where you can reach us at also Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at film buds and at the film buds.com. And all that stuff is in the show notes if you need it, any clarification.

[00:24:59] And so if you're a new listener or if you've been listening for a while to send us a question, a hello comment, anything like that, anything you'd like to see more of less of. So we'd like hearing from you.

[00:25:13] This one came to us on Twitter from gets tonsils out. There you go. Are they a dentist or like some sort of oral surgeon of some kind? Didn't specify. Okay. Yeah. You'll have to let us know. And they say Cruella seems to have the makings of a hit.

[00:25:38] But yet again, it's just another unnecessary origin story for a character that didn't really need one parentheses. I braved the theater this weekend. Oh, yeah. Now fans are wanting an origin movie for the little mermaid Ursula character. Is this continuing trend in Hollywood permanent?

[00:26:01] Or do you think that there's something that can be done? Thanks for the dynamite show each week. Hey, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So Cruella, I guess it came out Friday. Friday. Yeah. And it's I think it's doing fairly well.

[00:26:20] And yeah, I did see a post that people are wanting an origin movie for Ursula from the little mermaid. Paul, you're very anti this kind of movie. I think a lot of the time.

[00:26:37] So yeah, no, that's a that's a fair sentiment just because I think gets tonsils out sort of hit it on the head. You know, you have to you have to ask an essential question, which is if you're going to reboot, rehash, do something with it.

[00:26:55] You know, what is it that you hope to achieve with it? Not not, you know, oh well, we just want to restore the IP and make some money. And it's a quick thing, you know, how are you hoping to what what do you like about this thing?

[00:27:11] What are you hoping to elevate from it? What are you hoping to remove from it? You know, I think that too often people just sort of go and do it to refresh it. And so that way they're it's always in someone's brain.

[00:27:25] You know, it never really gets down to this sort of quintessential thing of what's this movie about? How do I take that and retell that? So I I originally when like Maleficent came out, Cruella was announced pretty shortly thereafter.

[00:27:45] And I was more interested in the notion of a whole bunch of live action Disney remakes if they were going to be like very villain centric stories.

[00:27:54] But the problem is obviously they ended up just doing a whole bunch of live action remakes and also they kind of have the same problem that Han Solo has, the solo movie, which is I know who you are. Did this movie actually make you that?

[00:28:10] You know, I know where I met you. Did this story leave you with the doorstep of who I knew when I first met you? Right.

[00:28:19] And I think that very few of these stories do that either, you know, and and the problem is that's because it has to be a story downward, you know, for some of these characters. Han starts as a scoundrel and has to become like a good guy again.

[00:28:33] Cruella is a villain, you know, a horrid villain, you know. You look at Ursula, you know, villain, obvious villain.

[00:28:44] So the problem is also you would have to then commit to doing a series of movies that were about characters on a downward trajectory and no offense to Bob Shepik or Bob Iger, but neither of those were going to be people that were going to, you know, allow Disney to go down that path.

[00:29:03] And that's why in like Maleficent 2, stupid. She's now fighting an evil or witch like fuck off, you know. So unfortunately they're here to stay sadly even the guy that's recently taken over Pixar. His name is going to come to me in just a little while.

[00:29:25] He was talking about whether or not we were going to get sequels to a whole bunch of Pixar films, whether or not they really needed it or not. And he was like, oh, well sequels and reboots and rehashes are just part of the money making model Pete Doctor.

[00:29:40] And so it's baked in especially at the house of mouse. Sure. And again, unless Bob Shepik has some surprises for me, I wouldn't expect anything else to change anytime soon with it. How do you feel? Yeah, it's well said. It took the words right out of my mouth.

[00:30:05] Yeah, I mean, yeah, like with Cruella, it's for me, it's a really case by case basis. I don't I didn't need this movie. I kind of I haven't seen it, but I do dig some of the designs in it.

[00:30:18] But even so, I'm like, OK, there could be another movie made instead of this. The one that would have more purpose.

[00:30:29] And I think as you were saying in terms of characters becoming doesn't make sense for the character in these these origin movies to then become the ones that we know in the originals. And like that's really a good point.

[00:30:45] And also, like with solo the Han Solo film, I don't see how anyone could like rationally come up to Bob Iger or whoever and say like, we need to know how Han Solo got here because the thing is with him, especially we know who he is.

[00:31:04] He's an archetype. He's a broad, you know, like, you know, anti hero rebel in a way and we know that. I mean, the, you know, a five year old could see that and that's the point, you know. And so that movie really serves.

[00:31:19] I mean, there are moments in it, but it doesn't really really serve a purpose. And in this again, I haven't seen Cruella yet, but it feels like the same thing.

[00:31:28] It's just that at least in that case, they're kind of going a little crazy and indulgent with the designs and everything. But for sure.

[00:31:36] But Cruella, I think also is a character, especially when you go back even to the live action adaptation of 101s or Dalmatians that we already had.

[00:31:46] You know, so one this is even almost a leftover of leftover, but also that movie, I think in particular is where they are leaning into this ultra high fashion icon grand grandiose visuals is because

[00:32:01] they've also already done that before on a certain level, not to like denigrate any of the design of this movie. But I'm sure that a lot of those people were probably really inspired by those older movies, you know, by the Glenn Close Cruella.

[00:32:18] So, you know, I think that it's even harder, I think for me to especially now that I've really put a little bit more thought into it, justified this movie existing, especially since we've already had a live action adaptation of it.

[00:32:33] You know, this is it was an animated film with like some sequels then to live action adaptations were in the second one they even turn up the dial on Cruella. You know what I mean?

[00:32:45] She's even more of a focal point in the second one because Glenn Close like stole that whole movie. Right. So, no, you know, it's it's hard to to find places to take stories after a certain point.

[00:32:59] Yeah. But and Paul now getting back to the question here, can something be done? No, we're lost. We're lost. Can something be done? Yeah. I mean, people could probably stop going. Yeah. Sorry. Get your tonsils out. You blew it.

[00:33:19] Not to not to come down too hard on you, you know, like I've given money to movies that I don't want to give money to. Sold your soul. So it's one of those things that happens. You know, I saw the Twilight movies and theaters.

[00:33:36] Not because I wanted to because someone that I know wanted to and I dragged that person around to things that they don't want to see. Because that's what love is making people watch things that they don't want to. Pretty much because it will make you happy. Yeah.

[00:33:52] So, you know, I think that it is a phase at some point it will start to trickle off and die. But also part of the problem is is again tied up in content culture, you know, where it's like, you know, we need something just bring back whatever.

[00:34:08] Because my wife and I were talking just the other day about rehash, reboot, sequel, late sequel culture, things like that with stuff like Fuller House. Right. And like this and how so many of those sitcoms premises never really actually allowed themselves to come back.

[00:34:27] And so we were talking about a show that did have, I think, like an allowance to come back, which was that 70s show.

[00:34:34] I thought you could have done at that 90s show where you brought them back and they were the parents and it was the younger generation because the whole thing was about, you know, sort of riffing on a generational thing.

[00:34:43] It would have been the right time gap for them to then be sort of the parents age. But that that nothing can be done about it right now.

[00:34:54] Because also people just don't give a shit, you know, people don't care about the movies the way that they used to. And that's also just a fact. So yeah. Until until someone starts to care.

[00:35:07] And it's going to have to also be top down, you know, the thing is we do have some powers consumers to go and change things, but we would then have to rally in a big, big way.

[00:35:18] Since I don't think people are going to rally in a big, big way for movies of all things. It's just going to have to come from inside the apparatus or or something is going to have to come along and disrupt.

[00:35:31] Again, in a way like Netflix did, but then not end up just becoming, you know, whatever the fuck Netflix is now. I have total faith in that happening, Paul. So essentially we're just going to have to ride it out. Is it eventually going to pop? Yeah, probably.

[00:35:50] You know, at a certain point you can't tell me the same story a third time in my lifetime. Sure they can. You know, so. Well, Paul, you must be excited for the gossip girl reboot. No, I mean, I like I like the writers of gossip girl.

[00:36:11] The original series they were also the people that wrote Shuck. Oh, yeah. And I don't think a lot of people realize that that show started out as parody, whether it ended as parody. I think is up for debate. So, you know, of course it's coming. Why not?

[00:36:28] We got a 90210 reboot. I think the OC is coming back. Frazier Frazier Frazier. Everyone listen to me. Frazier is coming back. Look, I love I love Frazier, but for the love of God. Don't bring it back. I love Frazier to death, but please no.

[00:36:51] No, you know, 30 Rock bring that back before you bring back Frazier bring back community before you bring back Frazier. Yeah. Yeah. So, No, it's it is too bad. I mean, but of course I, you know, I'm part of the problem as well.

[00:37:10] I keep on seeing a lot of these things as do many, but, you know, only human here. I wish I wish it were different. Yeah. You know, it's it's tough, you know, and I guess the thing is like I'm not even against them doing it.

[00:37:31] I just need them to do it better. Yeah. I'd love to go and watch a dozen great fucking Disney remakes as long as they were actually great. Yeah. I need them to be better. Yeah. If you're going to do it, do it well.

[00:37:51] Otherwise get the fuck out of the way. Yeah. They need to do more nutcracker in the four realms more like that. You know, at least not a masterpiece. At least they were doing something different. Yeah. More like Kieran Hightley-esque characters. Yeah.

[00:38:08] So let's take weird bites, you know, let's get a little bit more out there if we're going to do something with it.

[00:38:15] And that thing went all the way back to what the source material was and tried to like weirdly combine, you know, sort of two disparate versions of it into one thing. Did it work? But that's definitely on a taste basis. Yeah. Some did, some didn't.

[00:38:32] But no, I agree. If you're going to do it, just do it well and you can be like, well, they're trying their best. No. No, they're not. Because objectively, you know the difference, right?

[00:38:48] And a lot of people are like there's no such thing as an objectively good movie or an objectively bad one. There is a difference between a movie that was made with intent and a movie that wasn't. Right.

[00:39:01] Yeah, I mean like, you know, looking at Star Wars, there's a difference between, you know, Empire Strikes Back and Solo. Yeah. You know. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:39:13] And I'm not saying that you can't even prefer Solo but on a, as someone who knows the rules of the art form because we have to remember this is an art form. And it has rules. Right? There are, they're not hard and fast, but there are structural rules.

[00:39:32] It's like any art. You know, you can tell the difference. You can feel the difference. You can see the difference. I'm not saying that you don't prefer Solo over Empire.

[00:39:43] But I'm also just saying as someone, you know, who is looked at films enough and looked at art enough. You can tell the difference between art and a product. Yeah. And now also in terms of being able to like see, see the difference.

[00:40:01] Like, you know, an example, it's a sequel. It's not a reboot or something, but Blade Runner 2049 is amazing. And someone could, I mean, to me at least, someone could argue to me that Blade Runner 2049 is better than the original and they could be justified.

[00:40:19] And then both of vice versa. And that's a very rare thing, but I think people were kind of blown away that this sequel, you know, 30 years later or whatever was really good. Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's because it was a movie that had something on its mind.

[00:40:39] You know, and because Denis Villeneuve is is a committed craftsman who knows who knows the rules and what he can and can't do and what rules are.

[00:40:49] What rules to break and what rules not to break, you know, Jurassic Park breaks some rules, but it knows what rules to never break. And that's why Jurassic Park is a piece of art that is also an incredible, entertaining crowd pleaser that has stood the test of time.

[00:41:07] Whereas Jurassic World, the fallen kingdom should have been fucking burned. Yeah, it is brutal. Awful. Yeah, yeah, everything. I mean, we'll have to review it at some point, but everything is like a callback to another movie. The whole the whole thing. Movie.

[00:41:27] We could do a bonus show of all of them. Yeah, like have some respect for yourself. You know, golly. And yeah. So it's, yeah, it's a complicated situation. Yeah. There's no quick answer. And that's the that's the sad truth, you know. Yeah. Anything else about this poll?

[00:41:54] No, I guess, you know, if you if you really feel that strongly about it, then try and inform the people around you and, you know, maybe try and find a way to be a vocal consumer.

[00:42:08] You know, if you want something to change is squeaky wheel gets the oil. If you don't believe me, look at Rise of Skywalker best backtracking on last Jedi. So you just have to be the loudest wheel. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well said. So. All right.

[00:42:28] Thanks again for the question. Tonsils out. And so again, the film buds podcast at gmail.com is where you can reach us at and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at phone buds.

[00:42:42] So follow us there if you haven't and you can find out more information on the podcast at the film buds.com and rate the show if you haven't yet. And thank you to those who have always like reading what people have to say. All right. I guess Paula.

[00:42:58] Unless you have anything else, I guess we can end off with some pics of the week. Yeah, sure. What the hell? I watched lately. Yeah, I just honestly suddenly had like a question of like what if I watched lately?

[00:43:10] I've been in like the haze of writing that I'll that I'm okay. I've got I've got a list right here. All right. So what have you been watching? I actually have a big handful of things that I'll just kind of burn through.

[00:43:25] Do you want to go first or shall I just get trying to go through them? Yeah, go for it. Okay. So keep keep up pace everybody. I watched rewatched alien covenant which I still enjoy a fair bit.

[00:43:41] It's by no means as good as Prometheus, but I still like it for a lot of reasons. And Ridley Scott's sci-fi aesthetic is amazing. I love the look of Prometheus, especially I mean this movie not as good looking,

[00:43:57] but there's something about his eye for science fiction that I think is great. Then rewatched men in black the original and it's you know still a classic as it always was love the whole cast love the concept incredibly funny and still holds up very well.

[00:44:15] Rewatched Transformers Age of Extinction, which is the fourth Transformers film and there's not a real really irrational way to review that film. It's it's you know objectively no it's not very good, but when I was rewatching it in some form I enjoyed it. It's offensively yeah.

[00:44:39] It's offensively long, but there are some sequences especially towards the end in terms of action that are fantastic action sequences as much as people hate on Michael Bay.

[00:44:51] There are some scenes in there with the scale the chaos this that you know the cinematography that are pretty amazing and even the talking about the special effects.

[00:45:01] So not a not a masterpiece, but it's so ridiculous that it is enjoyable to see how much money was put into that movie. That's solidly one for me that goes to the place of being bad enough that I find it worth watching. Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:18] So that was that was nice to see and I've kind of been dabbling with some of the other films in the series, but just bits and pieces.

[00:45:25] Then I rewatched Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, which I think is okay. There are parts of it. I enjoy Hayden Christensen is brutal in it. It's just the biggest issue with that movie and really the whole prequel trilogy is that I just find them really boring.

[00:45:44] You know, it's so long and I really like Anakin's arc but everything else around it is not so good. Yeah. Then I rewatched Mergruber, which is one of the most underrated comedies in my opinion. It's hysterical with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig.

[00:46:04] Amazing. Check it out if you have not seen it yet. Then I watched The Accountant for the first time. Oh yeah. Did you ever see that Paul? I saw that at the now closed May it Rest in Peace arc light theaters out in LA.

[00:46:19] Yeah, I saw it at the arc light that was attached to the Sinarama Dome. Nice. This has been Affleck and he's this almost a naturally intelligent person but he struggles with social situations and he kind of keeps to himself.

[00:46:37] But he works as an accountant and it turns out that he's been helps to cook the books for a lot of different like cartels and assassins, people like that. And it's all about that kind of unraveling and it's very kind of Jason Bourne-esque in style.

[00:46:53] And I thought I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's got some issues but I thought it was at least somewhat different. One thing though, I love John Berenthal.

[00:47:05] He is such I love him as just a great character actor and so I think he's very good in this. Yeah. Then I rewatched Anchorman 2 the the super sized version which is okay two hours and 20 minutes.

[00:47:21] Yeah, and there are parts of it that are funny but it is just so extended and just too long. It's okay to have on in the background like look up every 1015 minutes but sitting there and watching it and nothing else is going on. It's pretty grueling.

[00:47:37] And then I lastly I rewatched iRobot which I think is amazing. I love it. That's it for me, I think. That's one of my favorite Alan Tudyk performances for sure. Oh yeah.

[00:47:52] Alan Tudyk is one of my favorite actors and I really wish that you saw more of him but he's wonderfully visible and invisible all at the same time. Yeah. When I get a great Alan Tudyk performance, you know, am I aware that he's there?

[00:48:10] Sure but it's just because he's given a great performance. Have you seen Death at a Funeral? Yeah, love him in there. Which one? The first one. Okay, the good one. You can say it. Okay, no yeah. I adore him in that movie.

[00:48:31] I think that that movie is hilarious. I think that's one of my favorites. That's a British comedy that manages to transcend, I think, just being a British comedy. Yeah. No, that was some pretty good picks. Thanks. What about you?

[00:48:49] Honestly, again, I haven't really been watching all that much. I've been watching a little bit of Samurai Jack in the background while I was doing some writing. I haven't really engaged in like anything new-new because a lot of the time I was just honestly focused on doing that.

[00:49:03] I wanted to watch something that was going to be distracting. Nature documentaries, some stuff like that. There's some pretty good ones on Disney Plus. There's a great one about whales.

[00:49:13] So as far as movies go, the only movies that I've seen since sort of Army of the Dead and stuff like that. And one of the last times that we recorded is my wife and I did Captain America Civil War. Nice.

[00:49:28] So I can't remember what it's up against in the bracket. I think it is sadly up against... Oh, it's up against Spider-Man Homecoming. So it's probably going to move on. We did watch Spider-Man Homecoming as well, actually, and I really enjoy that one.

[00:49:44] I think that movie has some issues for sure. The further I get with that movie and the more times I watch it, I'm not sure how I feel about the MJ reveal at the end. I think that it's more interesting in concept than it is in full execution.

[00:50:06] And then I'm not sure where exactly that character goes in a certain sense in the next one. Like, I know that she's still there, but also she doesn't quite feel the same.

[00:50:17] And I think that it would have been a more impactful and easier move if they had just made the main love interest of the movie MJ. Right.

[00:50:27] And then it could have been the issue of, you know, which happens all the time in the Spider-Man comics of someone in Peter's life blames Spider-Man for something. You know, and we could have applied that to MJ and I think that could have worked. Oh, one thing.

[00:50:43] I do like Homecoming a lot, but I always kind of am torn because I think in Far From Home, Jake Gyllenhaal is so good in that film that I feel like I would almost...

[00:50:56] That almost is like my favorite, I think a lot of the time over Homecoming just because of how much I love Jake Gyllenhaal in that film. I get that.

[00:51:07] For me, I think and maybe I'll have a different opinion when I watch Far From Home next, but for me, I really enjoy the journey toward Peter realizing that what he actually needs to do is enjoy being a teenager a little bit.

[00:51:21] You know, and that, yeah, it's good to be aware and it's good to be involved and it's good to want to help people.

[00:51:29] But you also have to keep sort of perspective on a certain level and it's a move toward responsibility in the sense of knowing that you're young and accepting some of what comes with that. And I think it's a really good movie.

[00:51:44] And then also on top of that, a goofy movie. Nice. The 95 Goofy movie, which is a sort of a musical. There are a few musical numbers in it and I really enjoy that movie. It's cute. I think it holds up. I think it's sweet.

[00:52:06] Is it maybe a little bit longer than it should be on a certain level? Yeah, you know, we could probably trim it a little bit. It's a long movie, but there are maybe a few moments that are a little dragger than they should be.

[00:52:18] But for the most part, it's a charming, lovely, enjoyable movie that I still remember fondly and still works for me when I go back and launch it again. All right. Yeah. Anything else, Paul, about anything? No, I don't really think so.

[00:52:39] I keep on telling people that I'll tell them more about the script once it's done. I will tell you this. There is a vampire minotaur in it. That'll make more sense later. Yeah, I had the honor of reading the treatment and there are some pretty crazy characters.

[00:53:03] And so it's going to be something. The second act really takes a deviation from what you read. Okay, cool. Yeah. Well, all right. I guess that is about it for the show this week, sadly.

[00:53:20] Now next week, Paul, I had mentioned to you because of Memorial Day about potentially picking a couple military films for next week. But obviously, I'm not set on that. Is there something that is catching your eye?

[00:53:33] No, I think that that sounds like a good option for next week. Just out of curiosity, what's the oldest movie that we have an official review on? Because I was like 68 pretty far back there. We have reviewed Psycho. Okay.

[00:53:52] I think way back when and so I think I believe that's the oldest. Okay. There might be one more. Yeah, I believe Psycho is the oldest so far. Okay.

[00:54:04] Let's do the war thing next time, military movie next time and then at some point I think that would be fun for us to figure out something to do where we go far, far back. Oh yeah. Yeah, I would love that. Yeah. Let's see.

[00:54:22] We have reviewed Doctor Strange Love. No, that was 64. Yeah, I think so Psycho. Yeah, that should be it. That'd be awesome. There are a lot of even just talking about like silent movies.

[00:54:34] There are a lot of cool ones that we get to talk about and yeah, so that'd be that'd be awesome. So yeah, we'll fill you in later in the week on social media about what we're picking.

[00:54:44] I guess we'll do at least a couple and so keep an eye out for that. And yeah, well, I mean Paul's always thanks for taking the time. Best of luck again with the rest of the script. I hope it all goes well. Yeah, thank you.

[00:54:59] Again, it should be honestly by the next time we record it really should be for reals this type guys done done. Nice. All right everybody. Well yeah, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we'll see you next time.