Geeky a Go Go
Geeky a Go Go
Land of Bad, Trap, American Fiction and More this Week on Whatcha' Watchin'
Film buffs, grab your popcorn because our review segment is packed! We break down the tension and drama in "Land of Bad," and tackle the mixed reactions to M. Night Shyamalan's latest, "Trap." Jeffrey Wright's powerful performance in "American Fiction" sparks a conversation on racial identity and societal expectations. Finally, we couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of the French shark film "Under Paris," which we recommend if you need a good laugh. Stay connected with Geeky A Go-Go on all social media, and consider joining our Patreon for exclusive access and perks.
What’s on your queue this week? Send us a note at mailbag@geekyagogo.com for a chance to have your recommendations shared on the show!
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I was talking to my boss and he says you know, ap, you really need to dress for the job that you want, not for the job that you have, and so I went in the next day as Batman. We're looking for things to do, so I took the kids to the aquarium this weekend. We didn't really stay too long. There's really something fishy about that place.
Speaker 2:That was a good one. Stay too long. There's really something fishy about that place. Ap lives his future nightmare getting stuck at a pop concert with trap, and I fly drones over to the land of bad. On this week's episode of what you're watching, welcome to what you're watching. Presented by geeky a go-go, a show where we dive into what's currently on our screens Big screens or little screens, size matters not here, just the quality or lack thereof of our cues. Anthony and not Eric. We got to hang out on Friday, sadly well, not sadly Eric's on vacation, so good for him. He's on a long vacation, yeah it was nice.
Speaker 1:How long has he gone? For A month, a month, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no good for him. Eric, if you're listening to this, we miss you and enjoy Taiwan. If you want to log in at midnight one of these nights to join us for a recording, you're more than welcome, groggy.
Speaker 2:Eric, I bet is just a treat. I don't think you should phone in with us, I think you should just record something and send it.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it.
Speaker 2:Show us stills and videos of beautiful Taiwan.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, yeah, that would be a great place to go visit. I've never been. Are you going to Japanapan for star wars celebration?
Speaker 2:I'm knock on wood, okay, hopefully everything, all the stars align yeah yes, we are set to go nice, fantastic.
Speaker 1:I'm still out on that one. I'm not entirely sure. I probably should start booking before the prices get completely astronomical.
Speaker 2:I think one of the places is sold out already.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll slum it at a Days Inn in Japan?
Speaker 1:I don't know in Japan, I know in China days in or economy hotels in general in asia. Is that where here in the states they're like economy, budget type of hotels. There I mean there are howard johnson's that are resorts you know like with a thousand rooms and things like you would never think of a howard johnson like in the united states you think of, you know, highway budget, economy lodging there. It can be a resort. It's wild, like the complete difference between how brands are positioned across the pond. So yeah, maybe I'll stay at a luxury Howard Johnson or Days Inn. I'd be totally down for that.
Speaker 2:When I think of Asian countries and budget hotels, I think of asian countries and and budget hotels. I think of the uh, the laundromat dryers, because it's literally like a circle and you have to like slide yourself in, go to sleep and you have like a little nightstand that's like this tall, and so, yeah, that's what I think of budget hotels when you go, but it's an option, right, yeah absolutely, absolutely um cool um let's let's talk about our highlights and lowlights for this week.
Speaker 2:But it's an option, right? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Cool. Let's talk about our highlights and lowlights for this week.
Speaker 2:I'll start right. So yesterday was Not yesterday. Last week was a little bit downer, didn't really do much Hung out with you guys, obviously. But yesterday the family and I we went, we got out, uh and did, uh, went down to woodbridge, new jersey, yeah, and they have a mall there called woodbridge center and uh, so we decided to make a day of it, um, and we did an escape room there. Those are always fun for us, we like, we like doing escape rooms, uh, so the kids had a blast. Uh, the place is a little underwhelming in terms of escape roomdom, is that?
Speaker 2:a word okay, sure, um, uh, it's called all in entertainment. Uh, and it's. It was a a step backwards from what we're used to Usually. What we were used to is like very thematic, lots of decorations. We did one in Ireland when we went back in June and it was like, you know, the kingdom, something or other, or Lord of the Rings, I don't remember it was like themed something, but it was that you went in and you thought you were like in a medieval dining hall, you know, like, so it was one of those things.
Speaker 2:but this was literally a room, right, uh, with minimal props, um and and lots of padlocks right okay.
Speaker 2:So I I mean, if you've played Escape Rooms, you know that's a thing. Padlocks are a thing. You've got to find a key to something, you've got to find a combo to something, you have to unlock things. The more premium experiences are like oh, you've got to set the flags in a certain position or you've got to turn a dial in a certain way. This was like like literally padlock heavy, which is fine, right. So it sounds like I'm knocking the place, but it's actually a very good intro into escape rooms. Um, but, like I said, for us, because we're used to the other type, this was a step backwards for us, but the kids loved it. Okay, it was a very good introduction into escape rooms for anybody that hasn't done them before. Cheap, you know price fairly well. You get what you're paying for, sure, but like I said, for me and Kat, who are veterans, we were like this is it, this is the whole room. And they were like yeah, this is this, is this is it, this is the whole room.
Speaker 2:And they're like, yeah, this is just this room and you had to, like, you know, open containers and it was, it was superhero themed, so like they had a couple of props, okay, but it was like, unlock this and then you find like a piece of paper, that's it gives you clues, okay, and you have to like, just solve everything in a certain time frame in an hour, typically it's an hour um, but we had a good time, that's, you know, I think so. Anybody that hasn't done an escape room before and wants to just try it out without being super overwhelmed, all in entertainment woodbridge, new jersey, I think, is a very, very good start.
Speaker 1:Check that out I've never done an escape room before and but I, I and I would love to, but I want to never done an escape room before, and but I, I and I would love to, but I want to go to an escape room and maybe, maybe these are like the premium ones, like you mentioned, but I envision like a big house that is the entire escape room and you go from room to room trying to escape each room to get to the next room, until you get out of the house, like, is that a thing? Or I know there's a horror movie that's about that, but is there a? Is that like a real thing too?
Speaker 2:because that sounds fun so that that's what I'm used to those are the ones that I'm typically used to, and it's not like an entire house, it's more like two or three rooms uh, the really good ones. The other rooms are hidden, right. So like you'll, you'll go through a room and you'll solve like three or four puzzles and then the last puzzle you'll solve a door will just pop open Like a hidden door, and everyone's like oh, that's awesome, you know so. It's like that's cool.
Speaker 2:There's things going on. So, yeah, I mean just to get your mindset of like how to figure things out. You know, like I, you know we could do that, we could. You are, you, eric, and I, we can go do a field trip. We're not allowed to record in these places, though, so fair we can only do a post thing um, but we could try it out and see what you think, and they have difficulty levels, so yeah definitely recommend um, to kind of give it a little bit of oomph the little trip that we did.
Speaker 2:We finished out with Dave and Buster's. Ah so we had you know fun arcade night. Afterwards we ate there. I was reluctant eating there. It was actually pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean in the realm of fast food chain-y, you know bar food type restaurants. You know we're not talking about Michelin stars here. But if you're just taking the family out and you want to have a good time, have some food, you know the food was decent, it was more than good. So staff was fantastic. I was really surprised about this. I thought these people were like just murder me. Now I'm hearing kids scream all day long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no they were super nice, very informed, like day long, yeah, but no, they were super nice, very informed like hey, you'll be right out like awesome people. So david buster, staff at woodbridge center mall, thumbs up, you guys are great woodbridge center mall is never on my radar.
Speaker 1:We always go to menlo park, which is in edison, which is right next door, um, but it sounds like there's some fun stuff going on over there at the Woodbridge.
Speaker 2:Mall. I'll have to go check it out. I haven't been to a Dave Buster's in years, years. My son randomly got a gift card. Oh nice we're like there's no Dave Buster's nearby and then my wife looked it up and that was the closest one. So we're like, hey, we could do an escape room Dave Buster's.
Speaker 1:So we did that and it was really, really cool. I'm surprised Dave Buster's hasn't tapped into the escape room. I mean, gaming is their thing. I know video games and those types of experiences. But we went to a place a few years back it was a work thing and we went to this place called Andretti's in Orlando and it was like this place called Andretti's in Orlando and it was like Dave and Buster's meets a bowling alley, meets an indoor go-kart racetrack and that was fun. It was all self-contained. As we look at these businesses that continue to try to find their relevancy in the world, I'm happy to hear that Dave Buster's is still around. But I'm curious like will they start diving into that the theme of escape rooms, to take advantage of that popularity and other things? But yeah, I'll definitely have to give the escape room and the Woodbridge Commons a whirl.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would only is the. The world of arcade gaming is probably a lot more bang for your buck, uh, versus like if you don't have people in this space, and we all know square footage is very expensive in in new jersey and this part of the country in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you're not like constantly churning out the space in the Jersey and this part of the country in general? Yeah, so if you're not like constantly churning out the space in the room and stuff like that, I think it'd be very difficult to you know, maintain something like that.
Speaker 1:That's fair. That's fair, all right. So my highlights and lowlights Highlight I finally finished this stupid deck, finally finished it and it looks Look it photographs very nicely. But as the maker of it, I know where all the crimes are and where all the bodies are buried, and every time I look at it I'm like, ah, I don't Stop looking at it, stop looking at it. But it looks way better. It's super sturdy.
Speaker 1:My only regret is there's so we had a few years back I don't know if you've ever been in my backyard, but we have this big kind of enclosed garden area that's up against the house kind of, and it's right next to this deck, and we're going to take down this thing next year probably. I wish I had just taken it down now and made the deck like the full length of the back of the house, Just to kind of make the time worth it for me and give us more area to enjoy in the backyard. But anyway, it looks nice. I'm happy with it. It's finally over. I can move on to my next project, which is I'm making my son a race car bed, and so I'm kind of coming up with the design. Now I have all the lumber for it. I made Lyra's bed a few years back and so we're kind of going that Montessori Swedish wood look and so just kind of getting inspiration for that. But that'll be coming soon.
Speaker 1:And another highlight is, for the first time in five months I uploaded a video made by AP, and so it was nice to finally get those creative juices flowing again and get something uploaded on the channel, and it's been received nicely. So that's, that's night. That's really nice. And then low light. It's the end of the month. Expense reports for work, planning, booking all my travel for September which I've been slacking on, and then kind of finding out last minute that your travel is needing to change for whatever reason, so like canceling flights that you already booked to rebook a new flight. It's been a week of like just moving things around and administrative day job stuff, which is just never, never fun but whatever it.
Speaker 1:There's worse low lights to have in the universe, for sure.
Speaker 2:Cool, Uh, I don't want to finish on a low light, so let's, let's. Let me go back and oh yeah, excuse me, finish on a highlight. Uh, we unveiled the uh brand new North Jersey ghostbusters logo.
Speaker 2:yes, um so it's been. It's critically acclaimed, it's been well received by the community. Yeah, so I'm happy about that. I was very nervous about unveiling it. Um, just because I'm not from new jersey, um, I will maintain that, okay, you, and, for everyone's standards, okay, you are from a place when you've lived the majority of your life there. Right? I've heard different definitions. I feel like people have said, oh, wherever you've attended high school, that's where you're from no, okay if you live the majority of your life in a place that's where you're from.
Speaker 2:I have yet to live the majority of my life in New Jersey. So, barring that, okay, that's kind of why I was really nervous about it. I wanted it to be iconic, I wanted it to be something that evokes North Jersey or New Jersey in general and not bump into the other groups that are in New Jersey too. So I hope it's respectful to the state, to the fans, and evokes, like I said, north Jersey, new Jersey, and from the feedback that I'm getting, it does. So. I hope we continue, I hope we grow the membership. I hope people like it as it actually gets unveiled in physical form on a patch or something on people's flight suits. Actually, it gets unveiled in physical form on a patch or something on people's flight suits love it so
Speaker 1:super happy about that and where can people see it?
Speaker 2:uh facebookcom slash search for north jersey ghostbusters.
Speaker 1:We'll leave a link to that in those show notes. Yes, uh, instagram is instagram is easier at nj ghostbusters yes I'm 90 sure that's the link we'll just we'll write them down and put them next to your computer for for future plugs yes, I will awesome all right, all let's dive right in.
Speaker 2:So I'll start off with my. What you're watching and the first movie we're going to talk about here is Land of Bad. Not the Land of Bad, just Land of Bad. It's a movie basically starring Russell Crowe, liam Hmsworth uh, luke hemsworth is in as well uh and uh, milo ventimiglia. Uh, and it's a team, uh, uh, it surrounds a team of delta force or special ops, something or other. I I should know the terminology better and did my homework, but it's this team that basically, is surveilling a compound in the Philippines. I don't remember if it was like a drug thing or whatever. That's not really their territory. It might be a munitions, you know, like warlord kind of situation where they're surveilling this compound and the, the, the. Obviously Russell Crowe is not part of this team Aged Mr Crowe, and in the movie you could really tell like he put on a few pounds, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah he's, yeah, yeah, the. So he part of the team that he's, the role that he plays on the team is. He is a drone pilot, so he's safe back home in the USA yeah, I forgot exactly where, maybe Las Vegas. There's an Air Force base there that has all the satellite stuff and stuff. So, you know, anyone can pilot a drone from anywhere in the world and that's where he is. So, boots on the ground. Delta Forest is in the Philippines and he's doing air support and covering them.
Speaker 2:And then things go immensely sideways. Right, firefight happens. You know the drone is called in to to drop um, to drop, to drop munitions and stuff like that. So it's like like craziness ensues, right, uh, people die, everyone tries to get out um, and russell crowe's character is like I want to stay on this op until I can get these boys out, right, and he's just doing so by providing air support and cover and helping everybody out as much as he can. But like they're doing like 12 hour shifts or something like that, so that the time the time jumps in the film aren't very clear, okay, but you're like, yeah, he was just there for 30 minutes. What do you mean? 12 hours later? So he's, because the thing just gets procrastinated and whatever. And he's like way, like he's done like three shifts in a row now, like he's there for over 24 hours, um, and they get captured and everyone thinks that they're dead and they're gonna drop the op.
Speaker 2:But then, like somehow the delta force breaks out of prison and and and they he, they don't know the number to the base, but they know the number to the to uh, uh, what's his name? I can't believe. I just blanked. Uh, russell crowe. They know his like personal cell phone number so they call him from, like the prison.
Speaker 2:I'm like what, like they don't have any radios, like it's like this, just like craziness ensues, right somehow, and then like they're about to be like literally annihilated, like bombed by fighter jets, so like heavy munitions and stuff like that, and so like he, at the last second he calls them. And then, like russell crowe is like trying to call the base, but everybody's focused on watching these sports and they turn off the telephone and I'm like this would never happen in real life, no way. And and and anyway, that russell crowe gets to the base and saves the day, and and they get extracted and you know, they get to come back home. Uh, with some minimal, with some, you know, minor losses or whatever, some people die, but some people get to get home. I mean, I think I explained it well enough.
Speaker 2:This is a ridiculous military movie like in the reign of Rambo.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Right, like you're just. You're like, okay, one guy's not going to take out an entire town's police force, right, right, I mean, maybe he could sure. But it's one of these things where, like it was a fun military film Okay, I don't know how better to explain it that way so it was good-ish, right, it wasn't accurate in my opinion. I mean, they tried to be accurate, they tried to be respectful, the positions and stuff like that, rankings and yeah, all these things, um, but I think they did a decent job, uh, so again, not an academy award type of film. I think they did a fun military film and, um, I don't, I don't even know, I don't even know where to go with disco balls with this. I'm going to give it three. Okay, I'm going to give it three disco balls. In the reign of military-type movies and stuff like that, it's not meant to be a serious, serious saving private Ryan kind of situation. It's.
Speaker 2:I think it's maybe. Maybe they wanted to do that, but it didn't come across that way.
Speaker 1:Got it. Okay. That's the worst way. When, when, when a production wants to be the next saving private Ryan, but the audience receives it as oh, this is funny, this is. This is interesting. Oh, this is funny, this is interesting, very curious, what the production company was expecting out of this.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't do it. You know what? Let me look Tomato meter and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:While you're pulling that up, you got me thinking what would be an interesting. Have you ever seen the movie with I think it's with Jake Gyllenhaal, where he plays a 911 operator?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the entire movie takes place in the 911 center. And, yeah, how interesting would it be to have a movie about drone operators and the entire thing takes place just in the drone operation room and and all the things that they're hearing and the targets that they have to do and the struggles, like, because there has to be a psychological component where I mean, obviously there's a psychological component when you're boots on the ground, you know, sent on a mission to kill somebody, but when you're five thousand miles away, in essence, playing a video game, that is actually killing someone, like just the psychological component and and things that you're dealing with there, that could be a very interesting. That could be an interesting kind of single set type of film.
Speaker 2:um, I think I think this film does that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, okay, to a point right there I mean there has part of a drone operation, I think is support you know for for for what? For basically boots in the ground in this film. So I don don't think it. I don't think what you're saying can be done very well. Okay, there are drone films that do that same thing. Okay, where they they bring that pressure? I can't remember. I can't remember the name of the film, but I think I'm pretty sure Helen Mirren was in it Actually, and it's very boring, right.
Speaker 2:It's because a lot of just decision-making fly here, fly there. You're looking at satellite images or drone imagery and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I think this film actually does what you're saying in that because that 911 operator wasn't purely in the call center. There were other parts I I think that they added in. Like you know, like hey, I'm on location, I don't, I don't remember exactly, but I think, gotcha, there were like other parts like cut in at points, um, but yeah, this, this one, I think, does what you're saying, got it to an extent maybe I'll check it out when is it?
Speaker 2:streaming. I don't know if it's streaming. I saw it on the airplane. I saw it back in June, but I'm talking about it now. Land of Bad Streaming Netflix.
Speaker 1:Netflix, always Netflix.
Speaker 2:Good old.
Speaker 1:Netflix Never disappoints until it disappoints. Actually, google is telling me Netflix. Let me just double check that. It's on Netflix. Always Netflix, good old Netflix Never disappoints until it disappoints.
Speaker 2:Actually, Google is telling me Netflix. Let me just double check that. It's on Netflix. Yes, it is on Netflix.
Speaker 1:Nice, okay, I'll add it to that too.
Speaker 2:Tomato meter yeah, 60% or 7%. What's the score? The left one?
Speaker 1:The left one is the tomato meter. The right one is the tomato meter, the right one is the audience meter.
Speaker 2:Popcorn meter. Okay, so the tomato meter is 67%.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And the popcorn meter is 94% Wow. So audiences really dug it Right, so that's what I'm getting at is that I was conflicted. I'm like this is a fun type of shoot-em-up kind of tense situation. Type of film Interesting.
Speaker 1:Okay, I definitely will check it out because it sounds interesting. All right, and you said three disco balls.
Speaker 2:I'm giving it three disco balls. Yep.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, anthony. What what you watching? So I watched this a little while ago, but we've been so busy with so many other things, uh, that it hasn't been high on the priority list, but I'm going to talk about it today.
Speaker 1:Uh, m night shamalans trap. Okay, so the the synopsis onten Tomatoes and IMDb is a father and teen daughter attend a pop concert where they realize they're at the center of a dark and sinister event immediately are exposed to the fact that the that Josh Hartnett dreamy Josh Hartnett is, the, is the serial killer that the cops are out to get. Everything about this film is revealed in the trailer. That's all I'm going to say about it. Everything is revealed in the trailer. I sat for, I guess, two hours waiting for the M Night Shyamalan Brace yourself, chris, I'm going on a rant. I sat waiting for like two plus hours for the famous M Night Shyamalan. What happened to come about? And spoiler alert, and it's been out long enough. You can actually, I think it's available to purchase on streaming now. Spoiler alert. And it's been out long enough. You can actually, I think, it's available to purchase on streaming now. Spoiler alert. There is no twist. The twist is revealed in the trailer. The twist is revealed practically at the beginning of the movie.
Speaker 1:Disappointed at the end of this movie that there was no classic. I see dead people or the village is just this little town hidden in the backwoods of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. There was nothing, nothing, and I think they even may have tried to do a twisty thing, but it was so flat that there was just no. There was no jaw drop at the end of this. So why was this movie made? It was to give M Night Shyamalan's daughter a platform to shine as a Taylor Swift wannabe. She's young, she's beautiful. I think she wrote all of her songs and I think she performed all of her songs, and I think she performed all of her songs. And so what this movie gave me as a father? It gave me the mental preparation of what to expect when my daughter wants to go see the next big Taylor Swift and the nonsense that I'm going to have to go through. But this really was. This was a way to feature his daughter. There were no surprises in this film.
Speaker 1:It's nice to see Josh Hartnett working. I think he. I mean, the last thing I remember seeing him in was an episode of Black Mirror and that was the first time I'd seen him in forever, and so it's nice to see him. He plays creepy, he plays affable dad. He did a really wonderful performance. The girl that played his daughter played young, excitable daughter very well.
Speaker 1:But yeah, there was, just there was not a lot in this movie. When I first saw the trailers and they had revealed that he was the serial killer that the cops were staging this event for again, everything is in the trailer I was like, oh, then there must be something even bigger at the end of this. But there wasn't, there was nothing. It was such a letdown and I mean I'm looking at the tomato meter 56% tomato meter, 65% popcorn meter. So it's, I mean relatively yeah here critics consensus an arch thriller. Given some grounding by Josh Hartnett's committed performance, shumlin's trap will ensnare those who appreciates its tongue-in-cheek style, while the rest will be eager to wiggle out from it. Okay, yeah, it was. It was a big nothing burger for me. I will give this one disco ball. I am that annoyed by this movie.
Speaker 1:Box office Office Mojo Worldwide 72 million, which is actually a pretty decent showing. Domestic 39 million, international 33 million Came out July 31st, so it's got a month under its belt. Yeah, not a fan of this one. M Night Shyamalan has. His last few movies have not been that great. He also did Old, which was an interesting premise. Did you see that one when there's this beach that people just get stuck at and they advance age like super quickly.
Speaker 1:I heard about it. It yeah, it was an interesting premise, but then the ending of that was a big nothing burger. I feel like. I feel like he peaked and now he's trying to relive some of his magic and it's just kind of falling flat. Um, that being said, I believe his daughter also wrote and directed the Watchers that came out this year I can't reach my screen to verify that and I saw the trailer for that. It's available, I believe, on HBO Max now and that does look interesting. But yeah, trap, one disco ball very disappointed. Did you see Trap?
Speaker 2:I did not ball very disappointed. Did you see trap? I did not. Uh, I'm just I'm, I'm stuck on that, the, the, what we've known m night shamalan to be, which that's surprise twist ending kind of director. Uh, I vividly remember, uh, how pissed off a lot of people were for the village and lady in the water right, yeah, um, I like both of those films, uh, especially lady in the water, um, because lady in the water is a film about making films and you know the, the hero and the whatever, and all these, all these characters coming together.
Speaker 2:You know it takes place in a, and all these characters coming together. You know it takes place in a motel, I get it or like an apartment complex, but you know, like just the I don't know if it was critically panned or audience panned or whatever the case may be, but just like, those two films like kind of like, set the tone for people to be like we're tired of this, whereas I'm like no, I like these plot twists, even though he's basically lying to us. The entire film. Yeah, sure, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what gets people pissed off is like you're lying to everyone for the entire day of the film and then at the end you're like, boom, here you go. And then you play back like, oh no, I wasn't lying to you, you just weren't paying attention. But that's not how people watch things, I think, and I think he lost a lot of people when he messed up the last Airbender.
Speaker 1:Oh I forgot he was involved with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, brender, oh, I forgot he was involved with it. Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, I just I don't know, um, but he, I mean he hasn't. Like he, he, he does what he wants to do. You know what I mean? Like he's it's not like he's pumping out movie after movie after movie after movie, like I'm looking at his film filmography and basically like every two to three years he's doing something. There's a little, you know, a couple of splits here and there, but uh, ha pun intended because he did the movie split, uh-huh, but like, like I liked, uh, after after lady in the water, he did, uh, the happening, uh oh, right, yeah, uh I don't remember the happening too much.
Speaker 2:Uh, I, I probably did see it, but I don't remember what it was that's where, like the wind, takes over and kills everybody okay, yeah the wind yeah, um, and and after earth, is that the? Uh, yes, it was. It's the terrible, terrible, um will smith movie, um, so, yeah, and but so I I liked unbreakable right, great movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, and then split and glass because they're all part of the same series, right right, although split was not marketed as all part of the same series, right Right, although Split was not marketed as being part of the Unbreakable series. And I annoyed the crap out of it because I'm like, yeah, whatever, I don't care. And then I found out someone said, hey, you know, that's like our sequel to Unbreakable. And I was like what, yeah, yeah. So shame on Universal Pictures, although the first one was Buena Vista. So technically, one's a Disney film, unbreakable's a Disney film.
Speaker 2:And the other one's a Universal movie. Maybe that's why they did that.
Speaker 1:Maybe, but they're tied together so loosely too. I feel like when the third one came out, they're like oh, we have a trilogy now, but Split. I think the connection doesn't come until the very end. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:The extreme end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's like wait a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh so his daughter, Ishana Nights-Shamalan, who does play? Does she actually? Why am I not seeing an actor credit for her In Split?
Speaker 2:In Trap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it was because I see her credits. So she directed and wrote the Watchers. She was second unit director for Old.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking at the cast for Trap. Yeah, however you say this I'm sorry for mispronouncing it salika knight shamalan, oh lady raven.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, so it's not ishana, it's, it's his other daughter who he's giving a stage for. So so look great that you have a talented family. One's going into the directing and producing and writing business. One wants to go into the acting business Fantastic, fantastic. But this movie was gratuitously a platform for his daughter, salika. As Lady Raven, she gets, I think, more screen time than Josh.
Speaker 1:Hartnett does it feels like, because you literally feel like you're in a Taylor Swift concert most of the movie, and then there's these moments where he disappears to go, try to escape the venue or create diversions and things like that, but yeah, it was a one disco ball wonder for me. Okay, don't pay for it. Wait until it's streaming for free somewhere on Quibi or Tubi, oh wow. You're going that far, I went that far.
Speaker 2:Don't subscribe to Netflix to watch this Get this on.
Speaker 1:What was it Crackle? Get it on Crackle.
Speaker 2:Free TV. Whatever the free TV is when you buy your television.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly On that. Anyway shall we go to round two?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, let's keep it moving. So for me, the second thing I watched again a little while ago, but I put these films on my list because they were nominees or winners of some kind of Academy Awards last year. So I just said, well, Anthony took the time to watch this stuff and we're basically hosting a podcast about film and stuff. So I should watch good things every once in a while, especially Academy Awarded or nominated pictures and stuff like that. Pictures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So this film is American fiction starring Jeffrey Wright, Love, Jeffrey Wright, Fantastic actor, no matter what he does, and a bunch of other people that I don't really really know but I've seen in many projects. So this is I guess it was a book, Because it won Best Adapted Screenplay yeah, and I'm going to read the tagline here. What's the tagline? Um, and I'm going to read the tagline here. What's the tagline? Uh, Jeffrey Dean Wright plays Jeffrey Dean, right. Jeffrey Wright plays Thelonious Monk Ellison, uh, as a well-read African-American upper class writer and professor in Los Angeles, right. While his novels receive academic praise, they sell poorly and publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being black enough air quotes for people listening and not watching.
Speaker 2:And so he. What I gathered from the beginning of the film is that he gets really pissed off about people what do you call it? Falling into the stereotypical tropes of again, air quotes, blackness, um, and. And decides to stick it to everybody. Decides to stick it to everybody by writing a book under a pseudonym is that the right word? Yeah, um, that that literally panders to black stereotypes, right, and it becomes like a bestseller.
Speaker 2:So it backed me like what he wanted to do, and it backfired on him Like he was trying to prove like this is ridiculous and actually makes a ton of money off of it. But then obviously everybody in the publishing industry knows it's like once you like have a hit, like you have to start going on tour. It's just to get that cash cow going, right. So not only does he write this book, he writes it as an alter ego and has to play this person in person, in real life, and it just becomes this comedy of he's going through some stuff with his family. But then he has to like, put on this facade of like playing this fake author who wrote this book about living in the ghetto or something like that. Uh, the title of the, the fake book now is uh wees lives in the ghetto. I mean, fantastic, I, I liked it a lot. Um, I, I think and correct me if I'm wrong, anthony, because I think you said you didn't like it too much. I didn't like uh, it lost me at the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, because the film ends basically um, he, he's rounding out his story but then all of a sudden, as he's rounding out his story, like it cuts and they're talking about how he should round out his story and so the ending changes, and I think that's where we lose the whole thing. It's like because, like, is what I, what I is all of what I just watched? Yeah, a complete work of fiction, as the, as the title of the film is called, or the book, is the whole thing a work of fiction? Right, where now we're like a box in a box is this like an exception thing? Where we're, we're, we're, we're watching uh, someone who's writing about his life, but writing about an alternate life within that life. So it's like that.
Speaker 2:We're a third layer down, mm-hmm, and then just goes into creating another film or movie or something like that. Yeah, that also panders to unquote again, the blackness it's. So it's, it's multiple layers there and I said, like it, the steam was going and it had a good ending, I thought. And then they changed the ending to like make it better to serve to audiences. So so I think the message was there. I think they did. I think they did a really good job.
Speaker 1:Um, I think there's that the steam of the ending was kind of like punched out of you a little bit by doing what they did there at the ending yeah, I, I and I've tried, so it's been over a year since I've seen it and I had to watch it for award season because it was, it was nominated, and so was it nominated or I don't remember. Yeah, it was, it was nominated, and so you know to to vote for it. I wanted to be educated and so. So I think, yeah, the ending. I wasn't a big fan of the ending, to your point, it felt a little complicated. I have to go back because I don't, I don't a big fan of the ending, to your point, it felt a little complicated. I have to go back because I don't remember a lot of it.
Speaker 1:The commentary about, you know, he wasn't succeeding as an author because he wasn't writing black enough quote, unquote was really interesting, really interesting and I and so I, you know, the pivot to him creating this alter ego and pseudonym and then having to bring that to life. I mean, it was. It's definitely a dark comedy with a lot of obviously social commentary attached to it. I, yeah, I don't remember specifically what I didn't like about it and I think it had to have been the ending. That I just felt was kind of a throwaway ending and, as you're kind of verbalizing. You know, could it have been? Could the whole thing have been fiction play into it? Well, now I feel like I have to go rewatch it so I can remind myself of why I didn't like it. But yeah, it was an interesting film and would you say it won Best Adapted Screenplay. Re-watch it so I can remind myself of why I didn't like it. But yeah, it was an interesting film and would you say, it won Best Adapted Screenplay. Was that an Oscar for it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was nominated for five. It got five noms. Sorry, nominations, I'm not making lead, speak here, right? So it received five nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, for right, and it won. The writer and director, Cord Jefferson, won Best Adapted Screenplay.
Speaker 1:Okay, and Jeffrey Wright's a fantastic actor. We were talking about this before we were recording, but I was introduced to him for Westworld and he was just wonderful in that wonderful in that and so it was nice to see him in something different. But, yeah, maybe I'll go rewatch it. Look at all this inspiration for my cue you're giving me. I've got this drone movie to start with. Now. I'm glad I listened to the Ge geeky, go, go what you're watching podcast thank you, chris.
Speaker 2:Uh, so yeah, disco balls. Uh, I'm gonna give it four disco balls nice okay four disco balls for american fiction far out cool uh and anthony, why don't you round this out with your last pick?
Speaker 1:Alright, because I'm so one-dimensional. It's another horror movie. Maybe that's why I didn't like American fiction. There wasn't enough blood in it. Then it would have been American reality, okay. So, ooh, ba-dum-bum, psh.
Speaker 1:So next up is streaming on Netflix. It's called Under Paris. It's a French film and it is about this woman who is a shark researcher and she's tagged sharks and there's a big incident at the very beginning of the film and and and she kind of pivots her career a little bit and and takes a job at a university, I believe in Paris. But as she's kind of kind of going through her, her stuff, this, this group of, I guess like shark heroes, like people who feel that sharks should live free, and blah, blah, blah find her and let her know that one of the sharks that she had tagged is actually now in the Seine and it's lurking in the Seine. It's a bloody shark film. That's really all it is.
Speaker 1:If this wasn't in French, this would be a made-for-sci-fi-channel film. Like it's that level of writing and goofy and visual effects Although the visual effects for these kind of made for sci-fi channel movies it's gotten better over the years Uh, but that's kind of like going into it and you start getting that vibe that's a made for sci-fi. Um, there's not a lot of depth to the storyline. Um, you don't fall in love with the characters and and and to get myself out of the sci-fi channel trap, I even watched it in French, because when you watch it with subtitles, I don't know what's wrong with voiceover actors who do subtitles for movies, but, like, the overacting that gets attached to these things is awful. It's awful and it just distracts, like it's amazing. I don't know what's wrong with Netflix and it just distracts. It's amazing. I don't know what's wrong with Netflix. They can't find good voiceover actors to do the translations of these or read the dubbing of these, because it makes it so much more a sci-fi channel movie. So, anyway, I watched it with French on I'm sorry in French language To kind of get myself into the right frame of mind and even with that, it was pretty, pretty bad.
Speaker 1:The the big story arc is that you have this power hungry mayor of Paris who's putting on a triathlon in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics and she wants to prove to the Olympic Committee that the Seine is clean and that Paris is ready to host the Paris Olympics, and so you have hundreds of people diving into the Seine and, at the same time, you have this group of people who are trying to convince the city government that the Seine is filled with sharks and they shouldn't be doing this. But you know, politics rule as well as budgets rule, and they're like no, no, we're putting on this event because we need to prove that, uh, the olympics can be held here. And, as you can imagine, when you have hundreds of people jump into the sen, that shark infested, uh, things, things don't go so well. And and the ending, the ending of this film. So so, at the very beginning, there's the, the Sen police, the river police, and they find all these on, isn't when? Isn't uh fired on, I guess, maybe unused anyway? They find all these like big shells from world war ii that are just sitting in the sen, that have been unused, but they're still live rounds technically. So we got that kind of at the very beginning. Well, at the very end, as the snipers are firing at the sharks in the Seine, a bullet hits one of these crates of unspent munitions and literally blows up the Seine and you pan out at the end of the film and Paris is underwater because this one crate.
Speaker 1:It's so bad. It's so bad, yeah. And so you just pan out and the entire, like the Eiffel Tower, is like half of it's a submerged. It's a goofy movie, it's a bloody blood fest. If you like shark movies, give it a watch. Tomato meter 61 61 on the tomato meter, 31 on the popcorn meter. So clearly it has not resonated with audiences, um, but yeah it's uh, it's not shark lato love uh level shark film it's, it's, it's, it's uh sharknado adjacent.
Speaker 1:Only because it's it's in french, that elevates it just a little bit. But yeah uh, if, if you're into shark movies, um, it's, it's a fun watch, it's a bloody watch. I mean it's like yeah, it's, it's not sharknado goofy, it's probably more like Jaws 3 goofy.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, but Disco Balls, I'm going to give it another Wow, one for one. I'm one. Another one Disco Ball. I really need to. I'm going to go watch American Fiction. I need to watch some quality entertainment, damn it.
Speaker 2:Why do you do this to yourself? Some quality entertainment, damn it. Why do you do this to yourself? You just choose these bad films over and over again.
Speaker 1:Oh, just wait until next week's episode. I watched something last night that's whew interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so yeah, one disco ball for Under Paris.
Speaker 2:You spoke of something that I remember watching, not recently, but watched a little while ago. Do you know the YouTuber, tom Scott? No, okay, he made a video titled why Don't Subtitles Match Dubbing? So just give that a watch. It's very interesting what they do, because it's like the actors and actresses and stuff like that they don't. They try to fit things into mouth movements.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:So if you could say, like, if I could say something with one word in greek but takes like three words in english, uh-huh, or I think the germans are very like, known for that of like combo words, where like it's a really long word, but it's actually like five words put together, but it's it's said as one really long word, sure, um. But if I'm saying that in german I could probably spit that out really quickly, but if I say it in english, I have to like pace myself. So then, like when someone's doing the subtitles, they're doing a literal transition, whereas the dubbing person is trying to match. So yeah, the video is really cool, it's an eight minute.
Speaker 1:Watch you don't have to watch the whole thing yeah, definitely, tom Scott.
Speaker 2:Why don't subtitles match dubbing? That's what I was thinking about when you were talking about the French. I've lived that experience too. I need to either turn off the subtitles or I need to watch this being dubbed. Almost always, I always just leave the subtitles on and watch it in the original language, because I it's just something's weird about that, like they can't get the emotion. It's overacting is done and oh yeah yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't know why anybody watches anything dubbed. It's just ridiculous plus.
Speaker 1:Don't you feel it, plus, don't you feel smarter when you're watching a foreign film in its natural language? It's like, yes, I'm an intellect, I'm watching a French film and that makes me a better human being. No, okay, it's a me thing then. Okay, I get it.
Speaker 2:I got it. Why I do that is occasionally, uh, and probably only and mostly with the romance languages. I can because I, you know, I took spanish, although very poorly took spanish. Uh, I know greek, so, like a lot of the european languages, I can pick words out. So like when I hear them speaking, yeah, um, I can. I can pick the words out and like I can get by with like extremely basic conversation, like if I needed something like hey, where's the bathroom? Or something like that. I was like I can remember I heard that in a film and this is how they asked it, and stuff like that. That's why I watch it, duh, not because I'm a superior intellect person.
Speaker 1:Secretly, you might be, could be.
Speaker 2:Secretly, you might be, could be.
Speaker 1:Be cool like me. Watch things in French.
Speaker 2:One star, one disco ball. Jesus Christ with you, man.
Speaker 1:I know. I know I really need to up my game. I have some things on the list that we haven't talked about yet that are at the higher level. I don't know why I chose these ones, but it was. I'm glad I got. Look, I got them off my plate. I've talked about them. I can now move on with something better, so great.
Speaker 2:So want to take us home. Sure, a quick, happy Labor Day to everybody. By the time this airs, we'll be Monday, september 2nd, which is Labor Day here in the United States. So happy Labor Day to all the laborers around the world. And going into the outro here, do you want more Geeky A Go-Go? Make sure you're following us on all the socials at Geeky A Go-Go and share with us what you're watching. Want cool stuff? Want to connect with us on a higher level, like on our discord channel? Head on over to patreoncom, slash geekygogo and support the show. You'll get awesome swag and other perks. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're following the show on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. Thanks so much. Peace out everybody.
Speaker 1:Bye, bye, bye all right, I think we should all learn that dance and do it as a promo for geeky gogo, I'm just gonna photoshop my face onto deadpool's body, nice, nice.
