Speaker 1: Welcome Friend podcast podcast Jack Again. They're talking about I'm
Speaker 1: a driver and I'm a flyer that waited a long
Speaker 1: time for a shot like this. What do you think? Well,
Speaker 1: what do you know? You got a line on a ship?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know, guy, he's the best smuggler round.
Speaker 1: I heard a story about you.
Speaker 2: I was wondering if it's true everything you right about me,
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 1: If you come with us, you're in this life for good.
Speaker 1: Might want to buckle up, baby.
Speaker 2: Welcome to a movie film commentary track. My name is
Speaker 2: that son. I'm here with Brian Hall.
Speaker 1: Hey, how's it going, Zachi.
Speaker 2: I'm doing fantastic. I'm really excited about this.
Speaker 1: Me too, Me too. This movie holds a special place
Speaker 1: in my heart with you specifically, So I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to be talking through this movie with you.
Speaker 2: Well, we're here to talk through solo, a Star Wars
Speaker 2: story and a couple points number one. I'm excited because
Speaker 2: it means we're back to our tradition of when a
Speaker 2: Star Wars movie is about to come out, we do
Speaker 2: a Star Wars commentary track.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and we were mentioning this off air, but
Speaker 1: I saw in my Facebook memories it reminded me that
Speaker 1: eight years ago, exactly to this day, you and I
Speaker 1: watched this movie together for the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple of weeks before it came out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. You being a prestigious film critic, you get
Speaker 1: invited to all the early screenings, especially for highly anticipated things,
Speaker 1: and you are generous enough to say, hey, I can
Speaker 1: get a plus one you want to join me? And
Speaker 1: so I drove up to the Bay Area and you
Speaker 1: flew up for this one. You flew Oh, I flew up.
Speaker 1: Oh good memory Indie Indie five.
Speaker 2: That when you drove up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but it was great. It was very exciting
Speaker 1: because there was a lot of anticipation and curiosity about
Speaker 1: this movie. This was when Star Wars was doing kind
Speaker 1: of like new things, theatrically doing well.
Speaker 2: Well up until this movie as a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but I mean this was like a big
Speaker 1: curiosity and highly anticipated and it was really exciting get
Speaker 1: to getting to see this early with you. So and
Speaker 1: I mean, we can get into it when we start
Speaker 1: the movie, but you know, we had our feelings and
Speaker 1: then we saw the world's feelings and that was fascinating.
Speaker 2: The two did not intersect, No, Yeah, as as with
Speaker 2: Indy five, we were able to see it and have
Speaker 2: our thoughts before the discourse took over, which I found
Speaker 2: helpful in both instances. But hey, you know, it has
Speaker 2: been eight years now since this movie came out, and
Speaker 2: plenty of folks have seen it since, and you know,
Speaker 2: I feel like there's lots of interesting conversations to be
Speaker 2: had about about well, shoot, everything surrounding Solo a Star
Speaker 2: Wars story. There are plenty of of making of stories
Speaker 2: about this Star Wars story.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. I definitely went on a deep dive.
Speaker 2: Well, well, I'm looking forward to hearing what you what
Speaker 2: you dug up for me? This was it had been
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but it had been a while.
Speaker 2: I think the last time I saw this was just
Speaker 2: before Rise of Skywalker, so it felt very fresh. This
Speaker 2: is probably the Star Wars movie I've seen the least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe me too, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But if you want to watch along with us, feel
Speaker 2: free to do that. Of course, I got to say
Speaker 2: the best way to experience our movie commentary tracks is
Speaker 2: watching along with us. And with that mind, Brian, I'm
Speaker 2: going to say our Patreon page is the way to
Speaker 2: go there.
Speaker 1: Oh, definitely, if you head over to patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash Movie Film Podcast, you'll find a special feed there
Speaker 1: for only five dollars a month, where you can hear
Speaker 1: all of our episodes and most importantly today, all of
Speaker 1: our commentaries add free. So if you want to play
Speaker 1: this and watch along with us, you won't have any
Speaker 1: ads or interruptions butting in and chopping up the conversation.
Speaker 1: You want have to frequently pause the movie whenever an
Speaker 1: AD starts, and then started up again when we return.
Speaker 1: If you listen to the special feed over on Patreon,
Speaker 1: there we go.
Speaker 2: And so I'm ready to go. How about you, Brian?
Speaker 1: I'm ready all right.
Speaker 2: So we'll do the usual thing. One two three play
Speaker 2: and here we go one two three play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta say, Zachi, I hadn't seen this in
Speaker 1: a while either, but watching it, even right when it started,
Speaker 1: I just got kind of a warm, fuzzy feeling. I
Speaker 1: hear you even this opening here, right, I mean, we
Speaker 1: get the long time ago in a galaxy far far away, but.
Speaker 2: And then we get the crawl without a crawl exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: It is a crawl, but it's not crawling exactly. And
Speaker 1: I remember in this moment when all this new stuff
Speaker 1: was so like unknowable, like, okay, so we're gonna get
Speaker 1: a story that's not part of the Skywalker socker like
Speaker 1: Rogue one I'm talking about, Yeah, is it going to
Speaker 1: you know, open the same way like will it have
Speaker 1: the big star wars and yell letters and then the crawl?
Speaker 1: And then it didn't And that was kind of interesting,
Speaker 1: and so with this it's like what are they going
Speaker 1: to do with this? It was so what a time?
Speaker 1: What an exciting to miss it? Not gonna lie? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think I did really kind of go back
Speaker 1: to those giddy feelings of when this was all fresh
Speaker 1: and new and so much was possible.
Speaker 2: Well, and I think that's going back to what I
Speaker 2: was saying before. I mean, the fact that I have
Speaker 2: seen this one less it it There was that sense
Speaker 2: of like it's all the familiar stuff, but it still
Speaker 2: felt new ish.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, Like I remembered that he had to
Speaker 1: talk to this sort of I don't know, like he
Speaker 1: he being an orphan and he has this woman who
Speaker 1: kind of runs all these orphans doing crimes for her.
Speaker 1: I remembered that that happened in this movie. But I
Speaker 1: kind of forgot what she looked like and the setting
Speaker 1: and things like that. So yeah, it still felt kind
Speaker 1: of new ish fresh.
Speaker 2: So one thing I will say is the movie fails
Speaker 2: to establish the significance of those dice, right.
Speaker 1: Well, it is amazing how many inserts they do of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, it's clearly meant to mean something. And my
Speaker 2: understanding is that there was like a failure of communication
Speaker 2: between this movie and Last Jedi or Last Jedi and
Speaker 2: this movie, and the two were meant to tie together
Speaker 2: in somewhere or force awakened, certainly because there was a
Speaker 2: deleted scene where Han puts the dice back in the falcon.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so funny. I remember that so vividly.
Speaker 1: I forgot it was a deleted scene exactly.
Speaker 2: I mean really, in the original trilogy, the only time
Speaker 2: we really see them clear is in the first film,
Speaker 2: in a New Hope, I mean when Chewy, when we
Speaker 2: see Chewy going into the bridge of the falcon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, I mean, he doesn't like acknowledge them or anything, right,
Speaker 1: They're just kind of dangling like they would over a
Speaker 1: rearview mirror or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no insert shot there, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, by the way, well, no, go ahead, gohad, sorry.
Speaker 2: No, I mean that's all I just it's like, maybe
Speaker 2: just give us something like what they mean to him,
Speaker 2: you know, like, why are they significant?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I yes, I agree with that. I know some
Speaker 1: people give the dice a hard time, you know, where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, all of a sudden, this thing is
Speaker 1: the most meaningful thing that Han owns. But then in
Speaker 1: the movies, we know he just never even looks at them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I just have to say that's never bothered me.
Speaker 1: I kind of like the idea of they caught something
Speaker 1: in the frame of the original movies and you know,
Speaker 1: just added them as texture to the earlier story. These
Speaker 1: are the later stories. I like that idea.
Speaker 2: So so, you know the original Marvel comic books, which
Speaker 2: which are non canon obviously, but you know they were.
Speaker 2: They they were published at the same time as the films,
Speaker 2: And I remember reading the issue of the Marvel comic
Speaker 2: which is right after Return of the Jedi, and you
Speaker 2: have Han going into the bridge of the Falcon and
Speaker 2: and he says, hey, they're still here, the dice that
Speaker 2: I won the Falcon with.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Interesting, So in my head, that's what they always were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, which would make a lot of sense too,
Speaker 1: hanging from the ship and.
Speaker 2: They right, you know, and so they they went a
Speaker 2: different way with this, and that's fine. But yeah again
Speaker 2: it's I'm just like, well, maybe just tell us what
Speaker 2: they why, why they're significant, that's all, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could even have something to do with Kira, like,
Speaker 1: because he hands them to her at one point. That's right.
Speaker 1: I don't know. By the way, this this I forgot
Speaker 1: this creature's name, but I'm getting major dark Crystal vibes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, right right, just this kind of ugly muppet
Speaker 1: puppet looking thing. I mean, it's off putting, but I
Speaker 1: kind of like it.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of what was really exciting in this moment.
Speaker 1: I remember I am gonna pat myself on the back
Speaker 1: a little bit here. When we started the podcast and
Speaker 1: everything was going so cgi heavy, I remember saying, some
Speaker 1: filmmakers are gonna make a movie and they're gonna use
Speaker 1: puppets again and practical stuff, and everyone's going to say
Speaker 1: they're a genius. And then jj Abrams did and which
Speaker 1: was great because it did make a Star Wars sequel.
Speaker 1: Still feel like it was a part of the movies
Speaker 1: that had come before it, well, most especially the original trilogy.
Speaker 1: Maybe not so much the prequels, but I liked that
Speaker 1: with this and the sequels, and in this here they
Speaker 1: stuck to that, and we get a lot of animatronic masks,
Speaker 1: you know, and this big puppet creature that looks weird.
Speaker 1: It looks like a puppet, but it works. It's in
Speaker 1: the room. It feels unsettling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean there there is a physicality to
Speaker 2: it that is appreciated.
Speaker 1: And even in its dangly awkwardness. Yeah, something about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just being in the room makes it work with our
Speaker 1: brains in a way that we almost forgive the awkwardness
Speaker 1: of it because it's there.
Speaker 2: Physics.
Speaker 1: Physics. So we get the thermal detonator here, we get
Speaker 1: a lot of like little things items that we get.
Speaker 2: There's quite a few callbacks, fun little callbacks, nothing too obnoxious,
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 1: See, you know, this is what's interesting. I was going
Speaker 1: to remark on how dimly lit that den is. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: and then I forgot when he throws the thing that
Speaker 1: he lets the light in and it burns the creature.
Speaker 1: Apparently these creatures can't be in light, and it's like,
Speaker 1: oh right, that's like a story thing. However, the rest
Speaker 1: of the movie is pretty dimly lit anyway, that is true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the the lighting scheme is is very different from
Speaker 2: from what we what we expected from Star Wars up
Speaker 2: to this time. I think I think the more recent
Speaker 2: stuff kind of looks similar to this, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean and or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a strange way, they were almost ahead of
Speaker 1: the time of their time, with everyone kind of complaining
Speaker 1: about Netflix aesthetics, you know, like Netflix TV. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: gotta say, it's like here, it looks okay, but there
Speaker 1: are moments where I'm like, this is really really dark,
Speaker 1: you know, like well maybe and muddy looking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, specifically when when they meet Lando for the
Speaker 2: first time. Yes, yeah, I'm not I'm not crazy about that.
Speaker 2: I was thinking here, by the way, this all this
Speaker 2: all feels very American graffiti.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, which seems.
Speaker 2: Appropriate not only for the Ron Howard factor, but also
Speaker 2: the Harrison Ford factor.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah. Well and just Lucas of course, you know,
Speaker 1: just all all the Star Wars films are just filled
Speaker 1: with so many of the things that are going on
Speaker 1: in his brain.
Speaker 2: You have speeders that look like nineteen fifties cars, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that too. That moment I was thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, when you make a movie, it's like it's
Speaker 1: you don't just pick up a camera and point very often,
Speaker 1: like you have to set things up and get lights
Speaker 1: and have a whole crew with chairs behind the camera,
Speaker 1: like it's a big deal. And I love that they
Speaker 1: took the time to have that droid at that stop
Speaker 1: point just to be like hey, wait stop and then
Speaker 1: it gets run over and its head kind of flies
Speaker 1: off like that just feels very Star warsy to me,
Speaker 1: like it makes the world feel very alive and chaotic.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was a like it popped out
Speaker 1: to me as a cool inclusion. Look at this, so
Speaker 1: this seems so good, Like this looks like a real location,
Speaker 1: real explosions, real.
Speaker 2: Knocked over the frame is very lively. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: appreciate that. I you know, I said for a long
Speaker 2: time and as most people did, I'm sure, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: around Howard it would be a great Star Wars director,
Speaker 2: and and I think I think he did. He did
Speaker 2: a great job. It's just unfortunate that like his experience
Speaker 2: is one of like oh and it's this massive flop,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he walked into a really complicated situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so it wasn't like he like nurtured this
Speaker 1: whole thing from the beginning. He kind of stepped in
Speaker 1: and saved the day in a way. But I mean
Speaker 1: he he was offered the gig for Phantom Menace at
Speaker 1: one point, right where it was considered at least I believe, so, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he turned it down, And I thought I read
Speaker 1: that when this was presented to him coming in and
Speaker 1: you know, taking over solo, he wasn't so sure about
Speaker 1: doing it. But it was his wife that eventually convinced
Speaker 1: him something. Maybe it's just one of those things that's
Speaker 1: like I don't know, like do I really want to
Speaker 1: touch I mean again, at this point, this was they
Speaker 1: were still very I don't know that we had very
Speaker 1: many shows at this point, if at all.
Speaker 2: ZO zero shows. Mandalorian was still a year away.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Star Wars was still very very precious, right,
Speaker 1: And it's like you wouldn't want to be one of
Speaker 1: the few people that like ruined it. Now.
Speaker 2: This project was something that from the earliest days after
Speaker 2: the sale was like, oh, and we want to do
Speaker 2: a Han solo origin story, and you know that was
Speaker 2: something Lauren's cast and really pushed for. And I always
Speaker 2: thought it was a good idea. I know, I know it.
Speaker 2: You know, there were people who critiqued it, and there
Speaker 2: was that like, oh, nobody but but Harrison Ford could
Speaker 2: play Han solo. And I never felt that in terms
Speaker 2: of like, well, no, I mean, it's the younger version
Speaker 2: of the character, and it seems fine, you know, and
Speaker 2: at least for me, I I love Alden Aaron Reich
Speaker 2: in this part. I think he did a great job. Yep,
Speaker 2: you know I said this at the time. I think
Speaker 2: I think he manages to become the character with that
Speaker 2: imitating Harrison Ford. You know, there's certain soloisms that he
Speaker 2: works in and and certainly as the film progresses, you know,
Speaker 2: by the time we're up to the showdown with Dryden Voss,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's Han solo.
Speaker 1: You know, I agree. I mean, I guess to make
Speaker 1: it clear right off the bat, I really like this movie,
Speaker 1: and not having watched it a lot and revisiting it
Speaker 1: the other night, this is just a darn good story.
Speaker 1: And like a darn good Han Solo story, like seeing him,
Speaker 1: he's he's got traits that we recognize, but he is
Speaker 1: a little different because the world hasn't beaten him down
Speaker 1: quite yet, you know. But we watch him have all
Speaker 1: these you know, key moments happen kind of all at once,
Speaker 1: and they sort of pound him into the becoming the
Speaker 1: cynic that we know him from, you know, in the
Speaker 1: in the other films, and it's kind of a I
Speaker 1: think it's done really well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it fits very neatly with with
Speaker 2: everything we've seen of the character to this point. And
Speaker 2: and you know, I think both this and Rogue One
Speaker 2: do prequels better in some ways than the Star Wars
Speaker 2: prequels did, because I felt like the Star Wars prequels
Speaker 2: often sort of hit you over their head over the
Speaker 2: head with the the the prequelness of it, like the
Speaker 2: the references, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like like like callbacks and things like, oh this person
Speaker 1: did you didn't know this, but they actually all knew
Speaker 1: one another even thirty years ago, or the yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: their ancestors actually interacted, and.
Speaker 2: Baby Boba Fett is most egregious, and you know out
Speaker 2: and and you know and again one day you will
Speaker 2: be the death.
Speaker 1: Of me, you know.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, sure, I think I think when references are
Speaker 2: a little more subtle or you know, it plays better.
Speaker 2: That's just me me personally.
Speaker 1: No, I'm with you on that. It At one point
Speaker 1: I think in Revenge of the Sith they were going
Speaker 1: to have Han solo in there as a boy right on.
Speaker 2: Kashik Yeah, which thank you know, but bullet dodged there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a real thing that was concept art for
Speaker 2: so so somebody intervened, you know, yeah, Rick.
Speaker 1: McCollum, perhaps, I don't know. By the way, just this
Speaker 1: scene here again, I mean.
Speaker 2: I just feel like this is just a tight, real
Speaker 2: quick Brian.
Speaker 1: This right here.
Speaker 2: We hear the Imperial March in major key, which for
Speaker 2: the recruiting video, and that as our Star Wars music
Speaker 2: on our show years before this movie came out.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: Sorry, go ahead, No, no, no, I'm just kind.
Speaker 1: Of all admiring. What do we what was this thirteen
Speaker 1: minutes in and just so much has happened already, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't know anyway, I'm just admiring. Well,
Speaker 1: of course it's written by the Kasden's, so we know
Speaker 1: we're in good hands, right, Yeah, But I just a
Speaker 1: little trivia tidbit I thought was kind of interesting. Apparently,
Speaker 1: Ron Howard always puts his wife Cheryl in his films,
Speaker 1: like as a good luck charm, gives her a cameo,
Speaker 1: and she had saught it shot a scene for this movie,
Speaker 1: but it got deleted. And so one day Howard was
Speaker 1: telling the ILM people like, I'm bummed. You know, I
Speaker 1: have this great track record of doing that. It's something
Speaker 1: special between us, and too bad it didn't work out
Speaker 1: for this one. And they're like, oh, well, let's just
Speaker 1: shoot her against the green screen and throw her in somewhere,
Speaker 1: and so they did under the hologram Empire recruitment hologram.
Speaker 1: How funny. Yeah, so she's in there, just kind of
Speaker 1: walking around, and so got to keep up the tradition.
Speaker 2: I like that, and obviously Clint Howard, his brother's also
Speaker 2: a tradition. And yep, now, now the the naming of
Speaker 2: Han solo, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Ellis Island style.
Speaker 1: Now I know this.
Speaker 2: This came in for a whole bunch of criticism when
Speaker 2: the movie came out, and you and I have had
Speaker 2: this discussion before. Well, for me, when I was a
Speaker 2: little kid, I read the Return of the Jedi story book.
Speaker 2: And in this scene after they leave Tattooin and after
Speaker 2: the whole Java sequence, you have Luke and his X
Speaker 2: Wing thinking about Han and he says and it says
Speaker 2: something to the effect of Luke always wondered if Han
Speaker 2: took on the name Solo because he was alone. But
Speaker 2: he's not alone anymore or I'm paraphrasing right, So like
Speaker 2: in my head it was always like like an alias
Speaker 2: because of that book I read as a kid.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Oh okay, okay, so you've had that already.
Speaker 2: Right, so it never bothered me. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 2: even something I really gave much thought to, you know,
Speaker 2: but like it was like, oh, and it's not even
Speaker 2: his real name, and you know, all the critique I
Speaker 2: was like it felt excessive to me. That's just me.
Speaker 1: I can literally go both ways with it. Like there's
Speaker 1: part of me that it's just like, oh okay, you know,
Speaker 1: it's sort of like a young indie and the whip
Speaker 1: and the scar on the chin, like like I can
Speaker 1: chuckle and go okay and just roll with it and
Speaker 1: go to the next scene. And then there's another part
Speaker 1: of me. And I've heard people sort of say this
Speaker 1: where it's like like, so some guy that wasn't being
Speaker 1: very nice to you, just as like a lark, gives
Speaker 1: you this like nickname, you know, like if you're in
Speaker 1: prison and some guard is just like, you know, all right,
Speaker 1: pork chop, you know, and then shoves you in line
Speaker 1: or something, and you're like, well, I guess that's me now,
Speaker 1: Brian pork Chop. You know, like you take the nickname
Speaker 1: that he gives you and put it on all your identification.
Speaker 1: I could see, like I can see why people feel
Speaker 1: that way.
Speaker 2: But well, I'll have two responds to that. Number One
Speaker 2: so is like pretty cool sounding a true h and
Speaker 2: and and two uh that therees me doing like buzz
Speaker 2: from home alone.
Speaker 1: I didn't even catch it. Sorry, I was like half
Speaker 1: this is always the funny thing is like I'm half
Speaker 1: watching a movie, half having a conversation with you when
Speaker 1: we do these.
Speaker 2: No but but but two, the imperial was not being
Speaker 2: that mean to him. He was being actually as imperials go,
Speaker 2: like just like okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could have been like han loner, yeah,
Speaker 1: move along, like what are you doing? Dipshit?
Speaker 2: You know, like he like you want to join okay,
Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, so it's at at at worst
Speaker 2: a net neutral for him, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And he doesn't have a last name and
Speaker 1: he needs one, and maybe at some point it's just
Speaker 1: it's stuck and then it becomes a part of you.
Speaker 2: Solo is as good as any.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. If the prison guy gave me like
Speaker 1: a cool name, like exactly, like, all right, move it's
Speaker 1: skull Crusher, I'd be like, whoa, that's a cool name, right, Brian,
Speaker 1: skull Crusher. Right.
Speaker 2: But if it's like hey, hershey squirts.
Speaker 1: Right right, and you're at the DMV, you don't want
Speaker 1: to be like hershey squirts, Brian. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: By the way, So that battle so basically out of
Speaker 1: desperation because he wants to be a pilot so he
Speaker 1: can get back to Kira. He joins the Empire so
Speaker 1: he can, you know, learn how to fly or whatever,
Speaker 1: or he already knows how to fly, but he needs
Speaker 1: to get a ship. Anyway, he gets uh, he disobeys.
Speaker 1: I guess that's a deleted scene, right, and he gets
Speaker 1: demoted and becomes infantry. Yeah, and so we cut to
Speaker 1: him in the middle of this chaotic battle, and I
Speaker 1: really love how that's captured it's just this, you know,
Speaker 1: insanity like Battle Doaled to eleven where you can't see
Speaker 1: what's going on. There's a laser blasts going past their head,
Speaker 1: everything's exploding, you can't see five feet in front of you.
Speaker 1: Just the chaos and the scariness of that I thought
Speaker 1: was captured really well. Yeah, and his persistence trying to
Speaker 1: join this team Beckett.
Speaker 2: I kind of love that. Throughout the whole movie. You
Speaker 2: never quite know what to think of Beckett.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a great sort of mentor to Han, and
Speaker 1: you know he'll take some lessons from him, some good things,
Speaker 1: some bad things.
Speaker 2: I think it helps that it's Woody Harrelson, and I
Speaker 2: think people have a general affinity for Woody Harrelson.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna ask you, does it take you
Speaker 1: out at all? Having Woody Harrelson in a Star Wars movie?
Speaker 1: That is a great question.
Speaker 2: It does not, because he's done so many different franchises
Speaker 2: that you're just sort of you know, to me, it's
Speaker 2: no different than having like a like a Mad's Michelson
Speaker 2: or something in a Star Wars movie.
Speaker 1: You know. Oh see, I agree with that in theory,
Speaker 1: But for me specifically, Woody Harrelson is so Woody Harrelson,
Speaker 1: like when he's in Now You See Me, when he's
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, when he's in whatever else he's in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like Woody Harrelson is playing Woody Harrelson. And
Speaker 1: so I think he's doing a great job in this movie.
Speaker 1: I think he's very good in this role. But there
Speaker 1: is a slight part of me that is a little
Speaker 1: taken out. I gotta be honest.
Speaker 2: See, I remember back when the prequels came out, people
Speaker 2: saying that about Sam Jackson.
Speaker 1: You're sure, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, well that worked out fine, So it did,
Speaker 2: I think, right. I think after that, I'm just like, well,
Speaker 2: we're gonna see familiar faces in these movies, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well at some point, yeah, you just have to.
Speaker 1: And like I said, he I think he does a
Speaker 1: great job.
Speaker 2: I mean, when you think about it, he's playing a
Speaker 2: character very similar to DJ, the Benizio del Toro character.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, Yeah, you know he occupies that that particular
Speaker 2: part of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love how this this sequence it well, it calls
Speaker 2: back to two things to me. Number one, it's kind
Speaker 2: of like the Rank Corps. You know. Yeah, oh good.
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about that. Yeah, right, tossed into
Speaker 2: the pit, so that the monster deed. But it also
Speaker 2: reminds me of Return of the Jedi when well that
Speaker 2: rank War is also returned to the Jedi.
Speaker 1: But when when Han.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know when he's when he when he's captured
Speaker 2: by Java. Mm, well he's already been captured by Job. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where Chewy has been purchased by Jaba and after
Speaker 2: Han is out of the carbonite, but he doesn't have
Speaker 2: his eyes back, and we see Chewy kind of come
Speaker 2: out of the shadows.
Speaker 1: Anyway, it just reminds me of that it looks very similar. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but this is.
Speaker 2: Fun, right, we can see a bromance is born exactly
Speaker 2: for the ages.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, now I gotta ask. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is the first time I think we've seen a human
Speaker 1: type character speak Wookie. Yeah, like work for you? Or
Speaker 1: does it feel slightly silly? Yes? To both? Agreed? I
Speaker 1: actually I agree, I am very much. I'm always you know,
Speaker 1: ABC or d if D is roll with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it comes to any of those sorts of questions
Speaker 1: with this movie, I'm going to be going with roll
Speaker 1: with it, but slightly silly too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I see, to me, there's something about the
Speaker 2: fact that Han is the only one who who was like, well,
Speaker 2: why don't we just talk to him?
Speaker 1: You know? Yep, yep, And he can't have that sort
Speaker 1: of connection with him he knows a little bit about
Speaker 1: his his uh ways exactly.
Speaker 2: It's it's like you know Chief in that the Simpsons
Speaker 2: that's doing the the one floor with the cuckoos nest thing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, numbers he talks, well, nobody ever said anything
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, sure. They just treat him like a
Speaker 1: beast chained in a little dungeon thing exactly. Wise, and
Speaker 1: he asks him his name. What a concept. Yeah, but man,
Speaker 1: this movie is murky looking.
Speaker 2: I I wish it looked a little more, I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know, like a little more like traditional Star Wars.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I can appreciate it for some moody atmosphere from
Speaker 1: time to time, depending on where they are. But the thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll just speak for myself. I sort of
Speaker 1: complain a little bit these days when people only build
Speaker 1: parts and it has been going for a long time,
Speaker 1: but I think they've taken to extreme these days where
Speaker 1: they build parts of sets and then they fill out
Speaker 1: the rest either through like the volume or CGI or whatever,
Speaker 1: And so there really doesn't feel like there's any depth,
Speaker 1: you know, or or anything to a lot of locations
Speaker 1: anymore in big budgeted movies, unfortunately. And this movie appears
Speaker 1: to have that depth. It has the locations, it has
Speaker 1: the sets that they built, and I kind of hate
Speaker 1: that they're obscured by all this murkiness. But you know,
Speaker 1: that's not to say that I don't like that as
Speaker 1: a style. I mean, I think of The Godfather or
Speaker 1: even Amadais, you know, movies that were lit by literal
Speaker 1: candlelight in some instances, I think it can fit sometimes,
Speaker 1: but even Amideis is more brightly lit than this movie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it looks kind of like the settings on your
Speaker 1: TV got you know, put back to factory setting and
Speaker 1: you need to readjust them or something. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: I mean as I was rewatching, I was monking around
Speaker 2: with my settings just so just trying to figure out, like,
Speaker 2: is my my monitor burning out?
Speaker 1: You know? Interesting?
Speaker 2: So, I know, Brian, you've been waiting to see Han
Speaker 2: and Chewy shower together for a long time.
Speaker 1: So I was so I was like, where's this going.
Speaker 2: I remember, excitedly you were punching my arm as we
Speaker 2: were watching this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I pulled up my Bengo car and crossed the
Speaker 1: little X off a box.
Speaker 2: You excitedly pulled out a scroll of your Chewy Han
Speaker 2: shower fan fix and and rubbed them in my face.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, yeah, I got.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the dice, do you remember that we we
Speaker 1: we I brought up some dice for us when we
Speaker 1: saw this, just to mark the occasion, because I thought
Speaker 1: it was really fun and special, and so I have
Speaker 1: them actually right next to me here in my car. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This is nice, a nice. You know. It's that's another
Speaker 1: thing too, you notice, Like movies, I think as the
Speaker 1: years go on, I mean, I know people have been
Speaker 1: complaining about MTV editing for the longest time, and movies
Speaker 1: have been speeding up. But you know, I've spoken with
Speaker 1: editors and they're like, oh yeah, like they executives, whoever
Speaker 1: the powers that be that ultimately make the decisions. It's
Speaker 1: like they just don't trust an audience is willing to
Speaker 1: sit and listen for very long, right, And so you
Speaker 1: know scenes where two characters are just kind of talking
Speaker 1: and maybe it's not progressing the story, but it is
Speaker 1: illuminating something, you know, it is helping us to understand
Speaker 1: the characters better. It's they get nervous about those types
Speaker 1: of scenes. And I thought about that during that moment
Speaker 1: where Han and Chew we are just standing on that
Speaker 1: little balcony sort of area, just so, what's your name,
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of talking to each other, and
Speaker 1: it it makes their relationship, you know, more believable in
Speaker 1: meaningful later in the movie. So I I admire the
Speaker 1: movie for having the patience for those quieter moments too. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I think this is where, you know, to some extent,
Speaker 2: you know, you can switch up certain aspects of Star
Speaker 2: Wars films, but you are behold and to the storytelling
Speaker 2: approach of of the films up to this time, right,
Speaker 2: And I think that's where it works in this movie's favor.
Speaker 1: Hmmm.
Speaker 2: Sure, you can't mix it up too much. And maybe
Speaker 2: you know, as we record this, we have not seen
Speaker 2: Mandalorian and Grogu yet. Maybe you know that's they're just
Speaker 2: gonna They're just gonna Michael Bay Armageddon, that thing. I
Speaker 2: have no idea, I suspect not. I mean it's John Favreau,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just about to say, yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Know, but but but you know, I think that works
Speaker 2: in his favorite Star Wars is meant to be old
Speaker 2: fashioned in some way.
Speaker 1: M m. That works in his favor. Well, And that's
Speaker 1: what I kept thinking as I was watching this, and
Speaker 1: even you know, by the time it was over, this
Speaker 1: is a very old fashioned story. Yeah, you know, a
Speaker 1: real hero's journey and just lessons learned. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just it doesn't feel like it needs to subvert.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are twists and turns, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to like subvert for the sake of subverting to
Speaker 1: try to get you know, triple fake out the audience
Speaker 1: or anything like. It's just a good, solid story about
Speaker 1: a guy we like and are interested in. And I
Speaker 1: just really admire it. It just feels old fashioned as
Speaker 1: and I say it as a high compliment, confident in
Speaker 1: its story and that we will go on that ride
Speaker 1: and and you know, enjoy going on it with him.
Speaker 2: Well, and and this sequence gets us as close to
Speaker 2: you know, Indie with the whip and the you know,
Speaker 2: sure with him getting his blaster, and I was I
Speaker 2: was thinking, later, you know when you see him wielding
Speaker 2: the blaster, you know, during the Kessel sequence, then later
Speaker 2: like that blaster does a lot of the lot of
Speaker 2: the lifting to give us like the silhouette of Han solo,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of remarkable. It's a
Speaker 2: it's a hell of an iconic gun.
Speaker 1: Definitely, and we get the iconic pose, you know, when
Speaker 1: he's holding people off when there's that robot slave revolt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is funny because when I think, well, no, I
Speaker 1: guess it does happen in the movies. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: I mostly know what I think from promotional materials, but
Speaker 1: that's not true.
Speaker 2: Well, like in A New Hope when exactly when he's
Speaker 2: when he's about to board the falcon and on indoor, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm doing that exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It is interesting though it seems people understand Chewy.
Speaker 1: Maybe they can't speak, well he doesn't, as I said that,
Speaker 1: but other characters seem to pick up on what he's saying.
Speaker 1: Or am I wrong? Well, I I just sort of
Speaker 1: miss it the whole time.
Speaker 2: Han is translating for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but in the other films, I mean, do people
Speaker 1: actually know what he's saying or are they just rolling
Speaker 1: with his mood.
Speaker 2: I think for the most part, they don't direct, like,
Speaker 2: they don't converse with Chewy like Han does.
Speaker 1: I'm like having a moment where I'm like realizing this now,
Speaker 1: sort of like usual suspects, Like I'm seeing all the
Speaker 1: scenes again in my head, like, wait, were they not
Speaker 1: understanding him? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Because if you remember in the Force Awakens, when Han
Speaker 2: and Chewie first come aboard the falcon, Ray is the
Speaker 2: first one to speak to him, and Finn is like,
Speaker 2: you can understand that thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2: So other than Han, Ray is the first one to
Speaker 2: actually speak or yeah to you know, which just goes
Speaker 2: to why she's a Mary Sue, right, Brian, Well, I was.
Speaker 1: Gonna say, I guess that's a really good way to
Speaker 1: immediately make us feel like a character is connected you
Speaker 1: or someone we can trust, right because he becomes her copilot.
Speaker 2: That's a normal reaction, Brian. But we're talking about Star
Speaker 2: Wars fans, so I don't know what the hell you're doing.
Speaker 1: Here, right. I love this sequence, by the way, this
Speaker 1: is great.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, what are great heists sequence
Speaker 2: we have here?
Speaker 1: Totally cool, very western, you know, but like in a
Speaker 1: Star Wars setting, right, So it's this. I love the
Speaker 1: idea of this track, and it's built to go around
Speaker 1: these mountains, so every now and then it'll tilt, you know,
Speaker 1: which creates a great occasional issue for the characters trying
Speaker 1: to stand on top of the train. They got to
Speaker 1: hold on at certain points because the train is tilting.
Speaker 1: So it's great. John Favreaux, I forgot that he voiced
Speaker 1: that pilot character.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is pre Mandalorian, so he just did
Speaker 2: this for love of the game. M They're like, you
Speaker 2: want to voice a weird monkey man and he's like,
Speaker 2: you're goddamn right.
Speaker 1: But you know, a lot of times I'm always pointing
Speaker 1: out visual effects and being like, why does it look
Speaker 1: so flat? Why is it blah blah blah. But this
Speaker 1: looks great. Yeah, I feel like everything blends together. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's real, what isn't. I think there's
Speaker 1: enough of it that's real that these actors are walking
Speaker 1: on that makes it believable to me, Right, that they're
Speaker 1: in this environment and the way that they blend with
Speaker 1: whatever isn't there. I just I think this is really
Speaker 1: exceptionally done.
Speaker 2: It's a terrific sequence. I mean, we get several solid
Speaker 2: action sequences in this film, and that really helps.
Speaker 1: Yep. But you know, I don't know if I want
Speaker 1: to save it, yeah, I'll save it, Okay. Suspense, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, do.
Speaker 2: We want to talk about the absolute shit show that
Speaker 2: went on behind the scenes of this?
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, I mean, I got notes
Speaker 1: whenever we're ready? Yeah, where to begin?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, what's what's remarkable is how it, unfortunately
Speaker 2: behind the scenes chaos sort of came to characterize the
Speaker 2: entirety of Kathleen Kennedy's time in so far as the
Speaker 2: big screen portion of the Star Wars franchise.
Speaker 1: That is a great point because everyone was happy with
Speaker 1: Force Awakens. Yeah, right, so you're saying this, you think
Speaker 1: this was when.
Speaker 2: I mean it started really with Rogue one, right, which,
Speaker 2: like they they kind of snuck that one out and
Speaker 2: and it did okay, so they looked past that the
Speaker 2: the you know, I mean it, what you realize in
Speaker 2: hindsight is how much of it was Frankenstein together, you know,
Speaker 2: And I think to some extent the brain trust that
Speaker 2: lucasfilm got it in their heads, oh we can just
Speaker 2: do this all the time, and and then it just
Speaker 2: caught up to them here, you know. H but you
Speaker 2: had this and what became Rise of Skywalker in rapid
Speaker 2: succession go through something similar, you know, and it is
Speaker 2: what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. By the way, I just want to call it
Speaker 1: that move where Han is going to hit that I
Speaker 1: don't even know what is that little tower as he's
Speaker 1: dangling on the side of the train. So I love
Speaker 1: the way he has to improves where he lets undoes
Speaker 1: his cable so he drops and miss is hitting the tower,
Speaker 1: but then he's got to grab onto the bottom of
Speaker 1: the train. It's just so very Spielbergie and inventive and
Speaker 1: using your environment for exciting action. Yeah, that's great stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well so, I mean this was part of the initiative
Speaker 1: right when they were kicking Star Wars back off under
Speaker 1: the Disney regime. It's like, we're gonna have Skywalker sequels,
Speaker 1: but we're also gonna have these other stories, you know
Speaker 1: that involve other characters, the origin stories of some of
Speaker 1: our characters. And to make sure that they felt you know,
Speaker 1: legitimate and make fans excited, they brought back, you know,
Speaker 1: the legendary people who were involved in the original movies
Speaker 1: that we all loved. Right, So Lawrence Kasden like not,
Speaker 1: you know, you could imagine when they say we're gonna
Speaker 1: do an origin story for Han Solo, people like, uh,
Speaker 1: You're like written by Lawrence Kasden, Right, the guy who
Speaker 1: wrote Empire Strikes Back, co wrote Return of the Jedi,
Speaker 1: wrote Raiders of the Lost Arc.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh, go on.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, And so then Lawrence Kasden was like, cool,
Speaker 1: but I want to do this with my son, right, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: And so they wrote this script together. Lucasfilm's like, great,
Speaker 1: let's make this. And then they brought on Phil Lord
Speaker 1: and Christopher Miller to direct. And they are interesting choices
Speaker 1: because right they begin an animation, they do a show
Speaker 1: for MTV called Clone High, and then they make a
Speaker 1: movie for Sony called Claudie with a Chance of Meatballs,
Speaker 1: which I think, you know, I mean, that was a
Speaker 1: huge catapult for them right where it was this sort
Speaker 1: of it was a book originally that I don't think
Speaker 1: had a lot of plot, and they turned it in
Speaker 1: this really funny, sweet, inventive, clever kids film that I
Speaker 1: remember hearing like, actually, this movie's pretty good. You should
Speaker 1: check it out. And so kids liked it, adults liked it,
Speaker 1: and then they went, I believe did they do the
Speaker 1: twenty one Jump Street movies? Next d did? Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is hilarious because it's like, Okay, the guys who made
Speaker 1: this really cute family movie now, either way, real quick,
Speaker 1: Brian no please? Yeah? Rio right here.
Speaker 2: As he coughs and wheezes the last he says it's
Speaker 2: no good to die alone, kid to hanh And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say, I don't know, maybe dying alone beats getting
Speaker 2: stabbed in the chest by your son, just putting that
Speaker 2: out there, right.
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't even you know what, I didn't even
Speaker 1: think about. We're seeing this young Han and then connecting
Speaker 1: him to his death.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, go on anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they make twenty one Jump Street, which is
Speaker 1: just a completely different sort of thing. Right. They make
Speaker 1: this hard R like kind of improvisation comedy, right, and
Speaker 1: it's a remake of a kind of forgotten nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: TV series that has a very goofy premise, right, where
Speaker 1: these like cops go undercovers high school students, and so
Speaker 1: it's like, what the heck is this? And then it
Speaker 1: comes out and it's hilarious. Everyone's like, oh, this, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. And then it's like, oh, well, now these
Speaker 1: guys are going to make a Lego movie, right, which
Speaker 1: just sounds very like like selling out commercial, you know, like,
Speaker 1: are you gonna make like a toy movie based on this?
Speaker 1: How do you even do that? What does it even
Speaker 1: look like like? And then lo and behold they come
Speaker 1: up with the Lego movie and it's brilliant.
Speaker 2: Everything was awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just a really ingenious story that uses legos
Speaker 1: and it becomes kind of its own thing. And you know, anyway,
Speaker 1: it's all that to say, they have this really unusual career,
Speaker 1: and they also had this knack for taking things that
Speaker 1: feel like they shouldn't work right and then making hits
Speaker 1: out of them that everybody loves. So you can see
Speaker 1: why Lucasfilm might think, hey, you know, would be kind
Speaker 1: of cool like Han Solo, it's an adventure film, but
Speaker 1: he's also kind of roguish and funny, and you know,
Speaker 1: you want to have like a humor to it also, right,
Speaker 1: it's not just action and like what these guys did
Speaker 1: the twenty one Jump Street thing and the Lego thing,
Speaker 1: and they're just very inventive and they know how to
Speaker 1: take things and make them feel fresh and exciting and
Speaker 1: new and have a perspective on it. I could see
Speaker 1: completely why they would bring those guys in to you know,
Speaker 1: at least pitch on making a Han solo movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you do you see that too now or does
Speaker 1: that feel sort of like, well maybe that wasn't the best.
Speaker 2: Well no, it makes it look look at who they
Speaker 2: were roping in at the time, right, like like Ryan Johnson,
Speaker 2: I mean again opinion of last Jedi, notwithstanding he you know,
Speaker 2: he was coming off of Brick and Looper, young up
Speaker 2: and coming right. H Remember Josh Trank was attached to
Speaker 2: a Boba Fett movie for a minute, forgot about that,
Speaker 2: but yes, yeah, right, you know, and so Lord and
Speaker 2: Miller part of that wave, right, m you know, even
Speaker 2: even Vennioffen. Weis right, it's like these these people who
Speaker 2: are coming up who you know, I'm sure the thinking was,
Speaker 2: you know, bring their perspectives, these new, unique, young, unique perspectives,
Speaker 2: these young these filmmakers who no doubt grew up liking
Speaker 2: Star Wars, and let them have their say in it.
Speaker 2: And and so that was the thinking. And obviously the
Speaker 2: way it went is is the way it went, which
Speaker 2: I'm sure you'll talk about more, but I certainly don't
Speaker 2: quibble with the choice to bring them on m You know,
Speaker 2: I would say probably there was there was a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff that was not clarified between the various parties
Speaker 2: ahead of time.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's true because when you say, you know,
Speaker 1: young up and coming with Ryan Johnson, I think you
Speaker 1: on paper could possibly say that about them because they
Speaker 1: hadn't they'd taken some things that felt like underdog projects
Speaker 1: and made them big. It wasn't like they've made a
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings movie or a Star Wars movie
Speaker 1: or anything. At this point, however, they have had a
Speaker 1: lot of success and clearly in their minds they have
Speaker 1: a process that works for them. So you have to
Speaker 1: imagine if they're being brought into something, they're thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do what we do because you like what we do.
Speaker 2: Right, right, and and here's the thing, right, if I
Speaker 2: can plot a parallel look at Joe and Anthony Russo. Right,
Speaker 2: if you would have said, oh, these guys who direct
Speaker 2: you know, Happy Endings and Arrested Development and community, Oh
Speaker 2: they're gonna make this grounded, gritty political thriller, right, like
Speaker 2: it doesn't line up, right, But what you realize is
Speaker 2: that on the producing side, you know, obviously the the
Speaker 2: ship had already been well established, right, So by then
Speaker 2: we're two phases in, Kevin Feigey had already sort of
Speaker 2: standardized how things work there, and people could work within,
Speaker 2: people had flexibility within that, right, right. And I think
Speaker 2: at this point this is not meant to like point
Speaker 2: the finger of Blane at Kathleen Kennedy. I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: like Star Wars being back, and Star Wars in this way,
Speaker 2: it was sort of a.
Speaker 1: Whole new thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so maybe there wasn't that that architecture in place
Speaker 2: to work within.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's a really good point. Well, and then
Speaker 1: that's one of the criticisms that comes up a lot
Speaker 1: about the sequel trilogy is it doesn't feel like they
Speaker 1: had a lot planned out in advance. They sort of
Speaker 1: thought they would bring in exciting people and let them
Speaker 1: do their thing.
Speaker 2: And yeah, well, and that critique will will live, you know,
Speaker 2: as long as film exists, which is, you knew you
Speaker 2: were going to have three You're telling me you didn't
Speaker 2: at least have three napkins?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: With with a plot scribbled on them, you know, right,
Speaker 2: that's just that'll baffle you know, generations to come, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but just real quick, just looking at what's
Speaker 1: on screen, I do want to say I love this
Speaker 1: idea of the coaxium. Yeah, the fuel. It's like a
Speaker 1: great mcguffin that makes a lot of sense in this
Speaker 1: universe that people can lose they need to get it back,
Speaker 1: and it's also rare and highly volatile. Yeah, and what
Speaker 1: a brilliant way of helping us understand that where we
Speaker 1: see this heist and we know it's important, but they
Speaker 1: lose it and it hits a mountain. This train car
Speaker 1: filled with it hits a mountain and the mountain is leveled. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: you do not want to mess with this stuff.
Speaker 2: By the way, real quick, doesn't han we're in that coat?
Speaker 2: Doesn't he kind of look like that that tubby guy
Speaker 2: who played Jaba in the original like deleted scene of
Speaker 2: like yeah, yeah, sure sure, like before they added CG.
Speaker 1: Java. Yeah, yeah, the Scottish actors like sol La Sola.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's smarty. But then I love That's the thing too,
Speaker 1: is when you do a Star Wars movie, there's things
Speaker 1: you want to see that are you know, familiar stuff
Speaker 1: you want to recognize. They keep going back to desert planets,
Speaker 1: and I know that's been a criticism, but also it
Speaker 1: delights me. What can I say? But I like when
Speaker 1: they go to new places too, and see seeing the
Speaker 1: Star Wars version of that. So now we're seeing a
Speaker 1: Star Wars yacht, right, and the version of that is
Speaker 1: it's not on water, but it's this big, elegant floating,
Speaker 1: you know, ship basically, And I don't know, like certainly
Speaker 1: like we have the casino thing in Last Jedi, which
Speaker 1: I know some people are like and some don't. I
Speaker 1: did because I was like, well, I've never seen this before.
Speaker 1: This is it's cool seeing what that looks like, Like
Speaker 1: what are the wealthy? How do they live in Star
Speaker 1: Wars times? Because we're usually not in that world and
Speaker 1: so this to me just I don't know, I I
Speaker 1: like similar to that. I like this. I like seeing
Speaker 1: Han who's probably never been in a place like this before,
Speaker 1: wandering around this yacht and seeing you know, a lounge
Speaker 1: singer and you know, people with serving trays and all
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Yeah, it's a good idea. It's
Speaker 1: a new idea and it's fun this reunion, of course,
Speaker 1: it's very sweet. I love them.
Speaker 2: Elia Clark, She's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well you you've interviewed her and had a great experience.
Speaker 2: Right, I've said before one of one of the best
Speaker 2: interviews I had. She was just just just you know,
Speaker 2: so fun, just very friendly.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I love her smile, you know, like you can see
Speaker 2: why Han is like like, no, Kira would never like
Speaker 2: I know, you know, she'd betray me or you know,
Speaker 2: like because she just smiles and you just you just
Speaker 2: can can just fall into it, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really this story really works for me, the
Speaker 1: two of them, because all he's been thinking about is
Speaker 1: reuniting with her. And how can I reunite with her? Well,
Speaker 1: then I'll join the military. I'll do like I'll join
Speaker 1: these criminals. I'll do whatever it takes so I can
Speaker 1: go get her. And so this reunion is everything to him,
Speaker 1: and I love how she plays it because you can
Speaker 1: see that she's excited too, but she also knows things
Speaker 1: he doesn't know. She knows things have changed. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there is still a genuine joy in her eyes seeing him,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like that conflict and the
Speaker 1: balance that she's trying to the tightrope. She's trying to
Speaker 1: walk through this whole story with him and her relationship
Speaker 1: with him. I like that. It's not like she smiles
Speaker 1: at him and then he away and then we see
Speaker 1: her smile drop and so the whole movie we're like, right, like,
Speaker 1: oh that sucks. She's not with him, you know, in
Speaker 1: her heart anymore. And I think they do a really
Speaker 1: good job of she must do what she has to
Speaker 1: do in this movie, but you can see her heart
Speaker 1: fighting against it the whole way, and that, to me,
Speaker 1: that's makes me I connect with that more. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I totally agree. Yeah, Oh that was funny. By the way, too,
Speaker 1: I do like the when Beck it's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: no one in here is your friend, so don't even
Speaker 1: like look at anybody, like look at the floor. And
Speaker 1: then like he Han literally does that. He's like he's
Speaker 1: like a grown man, but he's like walking through the
Speaker 1: ship just looking at the ground, like, okay, look at anybody.
Speaker 1: Something about that makes me laugh. Well, we should speaking changes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gonna have to hopscotch stories here, but yeah, please.
Speaker 2: Well Dryden boss, I think you're gonna say. This was
Speaker 2: originally played by Michael Kenneth Williams, and then that was
Speaker 2: in the Lord and Miller portion yep. And then after
Speaker 2: the changes in the reshoots, he just wasn't available. I
Speaker 2: think that's what it came down to.
Speaker 1: You, right, Unfortunately, Yes, yeah, he scheduling made it so
Speaker 1: he couldn't work with Ron Howard, but they did rethink
Speaker 1: his character and.
Speaker 2: He was supposed to be kind of a cat looking
Speaker 2: thing or something, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I actually have a quote from him. It
Speaker 1: was going to be a motion capture character and he
Speaker 1: says it was half mountain lion, half human. Okay, just
Speaker 1: reading his quotes here, he says he was extremely sophisticated,
Speaker 1: very rich, he'd been around the world, older guy. And
Speaker 1: it was sort of a love triangle between Emilia Clark's
Speaker 1: character and the young Hans solo. He said it was
Speaker 1: not necessarily a love triangle, but he said it was
Speaker 1: a pissing contest for her attention. Hmm, very different, right,
Speaker 1: And I think the thinking was, if there is going
Speaker 1: to be this possible love trying, I don't know that i'd
Speaker 1: call it a love triangle, but yeah, it certainly is
Speaker 1: the attention of Kira, right. You know, you can see
Speaker 1: your attention and feelings, as different as they may be
Speaker 1: divided between Han and between Dryden and having him look
Speaker 1: a little more human like versus a cat, I think
Speaker 1: helps sell that, and you know, it makes it feel
Speaker 1: like more of a threat to Han.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, well, it's like, first of all, I think,
Speaker 2: I think Paul Bettney's great in this movie.
Speaker 1: I really like him. He's perfect because sometimes you kind
Speaker 1: of he puts you at ease and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're good, We're good. I mean, I know I'm not
Speaker 1: in the best situation here, but he's being kind of
Speaker 1: like friendly to me. But then he'll turn on a
Speaker 1: dime and you're like, oh, he's gonna kill me.
Speaker 2: That's well, he kind of lulls you because he's He's
Speaker 2: Jarvis for goodness sake. You know, you get you get
Speaker 2: pulled in by his voice. So he's great. However, you
Speaker 2: know the fact that we missed out on ever having
Speaker 2: Michael Kenneth Williams and Star Wars is such a shame.
Speaker 1: I agree. I mean, his energy would be amazing right
Speaker 1: in any of these movies. So I agree we're never
Speaker 1: gonna have that opportunity again. Unfortunately, you know, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: he passed away. Also should note I didn't know this
Speaker 1: until I did the research, but Dryden scars on his
Speaker 1: face are cgi added in post. Really is that nuts?
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. They look really good.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what's cool is when he gets angry they
Speaker 1: turn more red.
Speaker 2: So is that something they decided on later, like, oh,
Speaker 2: he should have a look or was it something they
Speaker 2: decided from the beginning. Oh, we'll just do it in post.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I can imagine like, Okay, we'll
Speaker 1: have this human character, but like, maybe that's not exotic enough, right,
Speaker 1: you know, because if you have a room full of
Speaker 1: humans talking, does it still feel Star warsy? So like
Speaker 1: giving him something not just scars, but scars that change
Speaker 1: colors with his mood, like it just adds that little,
Speaker 1: you know, fantasy part to it. See.
Speaker 2: I think we should have scars that are just moving
Speaker 2: around the face like Rorshak's mask, you know, yeah, right right,
Speaker 2: just to mix.
Speaker 1: It up a little, and we should call it too.
Speaker 1: He has these sort of artifacts and relics and things
Speaker 1: in the background, and one of them is the fertility
Speaker 1: idol from Raiders of Lost arc Yep, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: not even like hidden. You can see it like pretty clearly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right there over Hans shoulder, yep. And that skull, which
Speaker 1: I guess could be like a crystal skull, but like
Speaker 1: it reminds me of the uh, the thing from Temple
Speaker 1: of Doom with the stones in it, that skull.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well apparently that's that's a tie in to
Speaker 2: a one of the Old Legends novels.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Yeah.
Speaker 2: There was, there was There was several like young Han
Speaker 2: solo novels m hm written. Well there's a few, but
Speaker 2: but there were some by by Brian Daly, who also
Speaker 2: wrote the Star Wars radio adaptations. M HMMI, which are
Speaker 2: a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: You've listened to those, right, I've probably heard bits of
Speaker 1: them on YouTube, but I haven't really heard the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Those are.
Speaker 2: Those are fun, Like if you're if you're looking for
Speaker 2: something to listen to on a drive, you know, mm hmm,
Speaker 2: just put those on, you got. I mean, it's like
Speaker 2: the Star Wars radio play is something like like ten
Speaker 2: ten episodes, so it's like five hours, you know, so
Speaker 2: they really expand it outward, you know, so it's like
Speaker 2: before and during and uh, the Empire Strikes Back adaptation
Speaker 2: is terrific also, and Mark Hamill is in is in
Speaker 2: Star Wars an Empire.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, they actually get the actual actors.
Speaker 1: Well doesn't the Star Wars one or New Hope have
Speaker 1: like deleted scenes right, like where Luke is seeing the battle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, deleted and like added scenes. So like you've got
Speaker 2: like the whole sequence where it's like, uh, Leah and
Speaker 2: her and and Baylor Ghana are like planning like the
Speaker 2: lead up to what happens, you know, the with the
Speaker 2: blockade runner and stuff. It's really interesting. It's like an artifact,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: That's cool. I love that.
Speaker 2: And and and apparently Lucas because they were on NPR,
Speaker 2: Lucas gave them the rights for a dollar. Oh I
Speaker 2: love that, right, And he gave them use of the
Speaker 2: music and sound effects everything, you know, and it was
Speaker 2: just a way to like help out NPR.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, that's great that.
Speaker 2: He's you know what's funny is he's he's so perfect
Speaker 2: as as Lando and and just doing doing that Billy
Speaker 2: d Williams is you know yeah, yeah, yeah, just that
Speaker 2: that swagger and you know, I I remember an interview
Speaker 2: he gave where he talked he met with Billy d Williams.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, he's like and he's like, you know, he's
Speaker 2: like does he do this because of this? And like
Speaker 2: trying to dig into his history, and Billy dy Williams
Speaker 2: said something to the effective I don't know what any of
Speaker 2: that is. Man, just just just he's just cool, you know, right,
Speaker 2: and he just went with that.
Speaker 1: You know. Hey, well Donald Glover's got swaggered too, So
Speaker 1: that's kind of perfect, like melded together and you get
Speaker 1: his interpretation. I like it.
Speaker 2: I mean it. I think both of these guys, Aaron
Speaker 2: Aaron Reich and Donald Glover, they do a good job
Speaker 2: of playing characters who feel like they become those other guys.
Speaker 1: Totally, Totally. I did want to call that out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when they're having that meeting with Dryden. I love that
Speaker 1: Han speaks up in meetings. Yeah, like, hey, I got
Speaker 1: an idea. Yeah, you know, I'm a great pilot. It's
Speaker 1: like the cockiness, but a different version of the cockiness
Speaker 1: that we will know later, right, you know, Like we
Speaker 1: see him get humbled and hurt over the course of
Speaker 1: this story, and so he's still like kind of smug
Speaker 1: and cocky later, but he doesn't speak up like that anymore, right,
Speaker 1: you know which I love. I love seeing the early version.
Speaker 1: It resembles Han, that's right. It's not quite the Han
Speaker 1: will know yet and we'll see gets there.
Speaker 2: And then And that's tricky, right, Like the comparison I
Speaker 2: made at the time, and I think it's still apt is. Uh.
Speaker 2: It's like Chris Pine playing Captain Kirk, where like he's
Speaker 2: not doing William Shannon impression and when I when I
Speaker 2: see him, I believe he's Captain Kirk.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2: I think Aaron Reich is doing something similar, where again
Speaker 2: it's not you know, he's not you know, who is
Speaker 2: that guy? You know, everybody was like, oh, he should
Speaker 2: play young Hanslo what's his name? You know we're talking
Speaker 2: about he does he doesn't. Oh, yes, he does yeah
Speaker 2: videos on YouTube and he does Ruber that's his name.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doesn't. Excellent. I don't want to say impersonation
Speaker 1: because he is playing him in as a role in
Speaker 1: a bunch of these sort of short films that are
Speaker 1: on YouTube. But he's he's definitely got like the eyes
Speaker 1: right and kind of the crooked smile and the and
Speaker 1: certainly the voice like he and as a really good job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and you know, I don't know how he
Speaker 2: would have been, but like to me, I think the
Speaker 2: hope was that we would have several of these films.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's what Disney was hoping for. And so
Speaker 2: to some extent, you you need to disconnect the actor
Speaker 2: and the character. It can't be like a slavish imitation, right, uh.
Speaker 2: And that's tricky. I mean, I mean, look Sean Patrick
Speaker 2: Flannery and River Phoenix as younger in like you know
Speaker 2: that again, I think both of them have aspects of
Speaker 2: Harrison Ford.
Speaker 1: Neither of them.
Speaker 2: Certainly, River Phoenix was not imitating Harrison Ford.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just certain he would do like certain affectations, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't doing a Harrison Ford imitation exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that guy, you know, as good as he is,
Speaker 1: and he's very very good, he is kind of imitating.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And that's you know, I think if you lean so
Speaker 2: hard into imitation, then it's hard to I think it's
Speaker 2: hard to bring in naturalism to it, completely, agree, because right,
Speaker 2: you can't make the character your own. You're playing Harrison
Speaker 2: Ford playing Han solo.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, that's exactly great point. What's his name again?
Speaker 2: Anthony and Kruber?
Speaker 1: Okay, he also does a very good Robin Williams. Have
Speaker 1: you seen that yet? Well?
Speaker 2: I saw the video.
Speaker 1: Was this the one? Was it?
Speaker 2: Or maybe there was somebody else?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: It was at the video where it was like from
Speaker 2: a playing like when Robin Williams find out finds out
Speaker 2: that John Blue she died.
Speaker 1: Oh, that might be what I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was was that him?
Speaker 1: I am well, now I'm gonna be on the record,
Speaker 1: so I'm thinking I am pretty sure. I feel like
Speaker 1: I remember seeing him do Robin Williams in a scene
Speaker 1: like it was like a short film or something. So
Speaker 1: if it wasn't that, it was something very similar to that.
Speaker 1: You know, talk to me about that.
Speaker 2: I think you're good when we talk about becoming characters.
Speaker 2: You know, we were talking about the Star Wars radio plays.
Speaker 2: I just want to mention this real quick. In the
Speaker 2: Empire Strikes Back adaptation, John Lithgow does the voice of Yoda.
Speaker 2: Huh and right, And you say, well, well, why wouldn't
Speaker 2: you get Frank Oz right? I mean, yeah, it's just
Speaker 2: the voice, right, But frank Oz was like, I only
Speaker 2: do Yoda when I'm doing a puppet. Oh literally, He's
Speaker 2: like it for me, Yoda is the perform The performance
Speaker 2: is the puppet and the voice.
Speaker 1: Fascinating.
Speaker 2: Isn't that interesting? Yeah, And so that's why that's why
Speaker 2: Litgo did the voice.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting. In a big coincidence. Last night,
Speaker 1: my friend Ched and I we went and saw an
Speaker 1: American Werewolf in London. It was playing at the theater
Speaker 1: by our house and our houses, I should say, and uh,
Speaker 1: frank real quick, real quick. Uh.
Speaker 2: The actor who did that Robin Williams thing I was
Speaker 2: talking about. His name is Jamie Costa. So that was
Speaker 2: not Anthony River.
Speaker 1: Okay, just to be clear anyway, No, go on for
Speaker 1: the record, Yeah, no, I'm glad. I'm glad. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: frank Oz is in American Werewolf in London and just
Speaker 1: this very brief cameo. And it's funny because he shows
Speaker 1: up and you're like, I am like ninety percent sure
Speaker 1: that's frank Oz, and he's like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: And you're like, oh my gosh, yeh, yep, that's frank Oz.
Speaker 1: That voice is unmistakable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's a cameo in in Blues brothers.
Speaker 1: Also, Yeah, yeah, the land is connection I guess.
Speaker 2: All right, So so Phoebe wall or Bridge.
Speaker 1: Yes, uh, kind of hot off of Fleabag, probably in
Speaker 1: this moment at this moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and uh one one of and there's Clint
Speaker 2: Toward by the way, Yeah, one of one of two
Speaker 2: Lucasfilm characters that passed completely without comment or contrabs.
Speaker 1: Actually, as I was watching this, I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's She's been in both major franchises for Lucasfilm. How funny.
Speaker 1: That's right. That effect looks very good, by the way, right,
Speaker 1: I guess that's her wearing.
Speaker 2: A suit that that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with some like you know, green stockings and things
Speaker 1: to hide her neck and whatever.
Speaker 2: But this kind of a kind of a jar jar effect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's perfectly blended into that environment. It
Speaker 1: looks amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So you definitely you definitely see Phoebe waller Bridge's personality.
Speaker 1: Oh definitely.
Speaker 2: This is the most the most personality droid in all
Speaker 2: of Star Wars, I think very much.
Speaker 1: Yes, right, well let's see here, so I have I
Speaker 1: have so much It's like, how do I even keep
Speaker 1: track of all this stuff to talk about? So there
Speaker 1: was a Jonathan Kasden, co writer, was on Twitter and
Speaker 1: talked about some of the original ideas that Lord and
Speaker 1: Miller had for this okay that ended up remaining in
Speaker 1: the movie even after they left, okay, And I think
Speaker 1: part of that was developing.
Speaker 2: The character of l three interesting Okay.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I guess Lord and Miller were the ones
Speaker 1: who came up with her being sort of this I
Speaker 1: don't even know what you'd call it, like just her
Speaker 1: personality and you know, waiting for droid rights and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: So that was a Lord and Miller edition, yeah.
Speaker 1: Or something maybe they like workshopped with her or that
Speaker 1: was developed. But I mean this sounds like something that
Speaker 1: the Kasins were aware of and incorporated, sure, and kept
Speaker 1: in there. So but it does feel kind of like them,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Yeah, as long as we're talking about this stuff,
Speaker 1: other things that came from Lord and Miller that they
Speaker 1: kept the opening land speeder chase through the streets of Karelia, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see their plan for Han and Chewbacca's first meeting
Speaker 1: stayed the same. Lord and Miller came up with the
Speaker 1: idea of Hans speaking Wookie, which feels right. Also, yeah,
Speaker 1: they came up with the idea of Han and Kira
Speaker 1: kissing in Lando's cape closet. Yes.
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, real kick right here where we
Speaker 2: saw Yeah, you know there's there's the essentially the the
Speaker 2: falcon has a you know what I say on it,
Speaker 2: the boots it's been booted. And so I remember when
Speaker 2: Lando initially he's like, I want fifty percent, and they
Speaker 2: talked him down to twenty five, and then to take
Speaker 2: the thing off, talked him down to twenty. You might say,
Speaker 2: this deal keeps getting worse all the time. That's hilarious.
Speaker 2: Would you have been up said if they had had
Speaker 2: him say that, you know, I would have been okay
Speaker 2: with that, even though that's just his thing. He's always
Speaker 2: in deal, like you never learned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, then we realize like, oh, maybe he's always on
Speaker 1: the losing end of things.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just always just really bad.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: By the way, we talked right past the fact that
Speaker 2: they found like an in cannon explanation for why Billy
Speaker 2: d always calls him hand yes, very funny, right, which
Speaker 2: is just initially you're like, oh, well that's just you know,
Speaker 2: that's just what he calls him. I guess you know,
Speaker 2: it's like, no, no, he Orlando's being a dick to him,
Speaker 2: and so that's like, yeah, their banter.
Speaker 1: I kind of love that. Yeah, I like that too. Also,
Speaker 1: speaking of when the deals getting worse for Orlando, I
Speaker 1: love where he's just kind of quiet for a second.
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't like it, I don't agree with it,
Speaker 1: but I accept it. That's a great line.
Speaker 2: That's mistaken. That might be the first use of the
Speaker 2: word ass in Star Wars.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, it popped out to me too. I
Speaker 1: think it might be. Also, it's kind of funny because
Speaker 1: they don't, yeah, use a lot of English curse words often. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so when they do it, it's always like, oh, fascinating.
Speaker 2: Actually, you know what I stand corrected in in the
Speaker 2: last Jedi podammer and talks about the big ass door.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels right.
Speaker 2: No, right before, right right after the yo Mama joke
Speaker 2: that which also passed to that controversy. I believe nobody anything.
Speaker 1: Now this excuse me. This is when they started using
Speaker 1: I mean, guess now we call it the volume. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if we knew what it was called
Speaker 1: at this point, but they had yeah, they had these
Speaker 1: enormous screens, so they didn't have to put in green
Speaker 1: screen effect of the light speed, right, and so you
Speaker 1: can actually have the actors looking at that and reacting
Speaker 1: to what they're seeing and having the light dance on
Speaker 1: their faces. And I think it's amazing, the perfect use
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: I mean, imagine being those actors. You're sitting in that bridge,
Speaker 2: You're looking at that porthole, and you're seeing that effect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my gosh, how could you not have like
Speaker 1: a grin on your face that you just couldn't conjure Otherwise.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, Nerd Boner, but I like your away.
Speaker 1: I forgot what that game is called. But the game
Speaker 1: table here with the holographic pieces of funny, you can
Speaker 1: see how discolored the ship becomes.
Speaker 2: I know, man, they really let it go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because here it's all new and white and shiny,
Speaker 1: and now at this moment is kind of nice.
Speaker 2: Did Jarik by the way, did Jarik?
Speaker 1: Niceeah? This resembles the moment with Han and Lea Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Honestly, which is an interrupted kiss on the falcon.
Speaker 1: I love it. It rhymes.
Speaker 2: That's like boch well, well, well, speaking of that, this
Speaker 2: moment here is one of the one of the the
Speaker 2: moments where they were shooting and George Lucas came to
Speaker 2: visit the set so he watched them. He watched them shooting,
Speaker 2: and one of his bits of direction ended up in
Speaker 2: the film.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what it was? I remember that anecdote,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember what it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right there where we saw Hans take the cape
Speaker 2: and just toss.
Speaker 1: It to the side instead of laying it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, Han wouldn't hang up Lando's cape?
Speaker 1: It does feel more Han.
Speaker 2: He's like, you guys are ruining Star Wars already, God
Speaker 2: damn it. And then he stormed off, and so as
Speaker 2: a courtesy, Ron Howard is like, I guess.
Speaker 1: We should do what he said. Yeah, Now see, I
Speaker 1: like this. I like that they are both in this
Speaker 1: moment together. Yeah you know what I mean, because.
Speaker 2: It just makes like like he doesn't have to push
Speaker 2: her too much, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, yeah, like she misses him too, and it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, bringing something back for her also, and
Speaker 1: it just makes it more tragic that it ultimately doesn't
Speaker 1: work out. Yeah, but if we knew from the start
Speaker 1: that she was a little removed and just kind of
Speaker 1: leading him along. It just wouldn't play right for me.
Speaker 2: See what I wonder about is what is the end
Speaker 2: of the Han.
Speaker 1: And Kira story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, because I have to believe that that's
Speaker 2: all done with before he meets Leah.
Speaker 1: Right right, right, definitely, yeah, you know, because I mean
Speaker 1: he gets his heart broken at the end of this one,
Speaker 1: and that is plenty. Like I can work with that.
Speaker 1: I can run with that and bring that into the
Speaker 1: other movies. But I think this you have to assume
Speaker 1: this was a planned trilogy, that's right, and so they
Speaker 1: must have had an even bigger heartbreak coming somehow exactly.
Speaker 1: But we do get her, you know, whether she wants
Speaker 1: to or not having to leave him at the end,
Speaker 1: and it hurts him, and that's at least we get that,
Speaker 1: so we can take that with us.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Donald Glover the anything I can get you
Speaker 1: and she's like equal rights and he's.
Speaker 2: Just just size and walks off. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing the kessel run, right, We're going to
Speaker 1: We're going to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So in that sense, this is a feature length
Speaker 2: version of the beginning of Indie three, right, Like it's
Speaker 2: it's like, what are all the Han solo things that
Speaker 2: we need to cram in? Well, good one crazy noon
Speaker 2: for Han, right right, right, right, He's got to get
Speaker 2: his blaster, he's got to meet Chewi, he's gotta do
Speaker 2: the Kessel run, he's got to get the falcon. I
Speaker 2: think that's basically it.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, okay, So now now I have a
Speaker 1: question for you. How do you feel about Lando having
Speaker 1: a possible romantic relate relationship with his joint.
Speaker 2: It's it's a choice, right, It's a choice.
Speaker 1: I I remember at the time trying to like roll
Speaker 1: with it a little bit like okay, but it's just
Speaker 1: like enough for me, or I'm like that seems kind
Speaker 1: of silly. Yeah, I leaning more silly than I'd like.
Speaker 2: I don't really understand it. It doesn't it doesn't strike
Speaker 2: me as necessary, but Zachie, it works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, I agree, I mean that to me,
Speaker 1: And I don't know, we don't know exactly what Lord
Speaker 1: Miller did and what Roun Howard did, but that feels
Speaker 1: like a Lord and Miller like let's try this and
Speaker 1: that'd be kind of funny, you know, and then why
Speaker 1: not It's I don't know to make you laugh. Well,
Speaker 1: then it works, you know, kind of a thing, whether
Speaker 1: or not it feels like it ultimately makes sense.
Speaker 2: Well I okay, so this gets to to essentially, like
Speaker 2: what led to the their parting of ways, right, is
Speaker 2: that Laton Miller have a more or had I should say,
Speaker 2: because we're speaking in the in the wake of the
Speaker 2: stratospheric success of Project Hill Mary, which I think the
Speaker 2: word people would use to describe it is earnest mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, so clearly they have the ability or they have
Speaker 2: since learned to navigate tones more more judiciously. But what
Speaker 2: what came to the fore here is that their their
Speaker 2: process involved a lot of improvising and a lot of
Speaker 2: foregrounding comedy and a lot of oh that's funny, go
Speaker 2: with that type of.
Speaker 1: Thing, or let's try this, why don't we try that,
Speaker 1: Let's try this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so sort of Judd Apatow school, you know, And
Speaker 2: that that led to Alden Ehrenreich going to the higher
Speaker 2: ups at Lucasfilm being like, I don't think this is
Speaker 2: working for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I don't remember if this quote
Speaker 1: came from him, but in one of those reports someone
Speaker 1: said at sometimes it felt like con was acting like
Speaker 1: Ace Ventura, like very muggy and goofy and strange, and
Speaker 1: that it was making a lot of people uncomfortable, like
Speaker 1: they were becoming concerned. Fascinating, right, But yeah, so now
Speaker 1: I'm starting to look at like articles I had read.
Speaker 1: Apparently Kazin's pretty diplomatic in his quotes, but according to.
Speaker 2: This is the senior Kasden.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yes, Lawrence Kasin, but according to reports, he
Speaker 1: was getting pretty angry at like the screwball tone and
Speaker 1: sort of free wheeling approach they were taking to the
Speaker 1: script because he wanted the film shot the way it
Speaker 1: was written, right, let's see. According to a quote here,
Speaker 1: this is from the Wall Street Journal, unnamed actors from
Speaker 1: the film told the paper that Lord and Miller's approach
Speaker 1: exhausted and frustrated some of the solo set, including experienced
Speaker 1: crew members, who pressured the directors to move faster and
Speaker 1: then this right, and then this is well. They would
Speaker 1: shoot dozens of different versions of scenes strength from what
Speaker 1: was in the script. There's another quote then, Lawrence Kasden.
Speaker 1: This is him talking about realizing that the vision their
Speaker 1: vision wasn't matching his own. His quote says tone is
Speaker 1: everything to me, That's what movies are made of. But
Speaker 1: this was a very complicated situation. When you go to
Speaker 1: work in the morning on a Star Wars movie, there
Speaker 1: are thousands of people waiting on you, and you have
Speaker 1: to be very decisive and very quick about it. There
Speaker 1: are a million split second decisions to make each day.
Speaker 1: You are committing to a certain tone. Should any of
Speaker 1: the producers raise an issue, you're going to have trouble.
Speaker 1: So and then he says nobody was happy about what
Speaker 1: went down. Ultimately it was agony. So and then Emilia
Speaker 1: Clark has a quote here saying that the Lord and
Speaker 1: Miller this is the quot, seemed to be figuring it
Speaker 1: out as they went along. So well, I'd like.
Speaker 2: To believe that their experience on this led them to
Speaker 2: the success they've enjoyed on Projectail Mary.
Speaker 1: I wonder, you know, like like you said, like maybe
Speaker 1: they learned some lessons from it, like how far to push? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and but then again, who's to say in
Speaker 1: the end they might not have found that place. They
Speaker 1: just seem like they want to experiment. They want to
Speaker 1: play around and capture a hundred different things and then
Speaker 1: find it in the edit right, right, and so maybe
Speaker 1: they would have been like, oh, we thought that would
Speaker 1: be funny, but when we see the whole, you know,
Speaker 1: all of it put together, it doesn't quite work like
Speaker 1: we thought. Don't know, but Kasin and Lucasfilm wasn't willing
Speaker 1: to take that bet, you know. I think.
Speaker 2: Look, I mean the fact that they shot this movie
Speaker 2: twice in essence as part of the reason why it
Speaker 2: would ended up being such a money pit, you know,
Speaker 2: I think, I mean, look, the original Star Wars films
Speaker 2: were relatively speaking, low budget compared to what we have now, right,
Speaker 2: And and that worked in the those movies favorite because
Speaker 2: you were you were you know, the sky was not
Speaker 2: the limit in terms of what you could accomplish and
Speaker 2: what you could spend, and having limitations to work within
Speaker 2: is a good thing, you know.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: By the way, I wanted to mention real quick Beckett
Speaker 2: wearing you know, the prison guard outfit that Lando wears
Speaker 2: later in Return of the Jedi. I kind of loved
Speaker 2: that Lando just had that sitting in a closet, just
Speaker 2: waiting for the right opportunity one day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like his his disguise.
Speaker 2: He's like, now's my time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, if we could revise Return of the Jedi,
Speaker 1: he might be like, oh faithful.
Speaker 2: Like like they're they're making the plan and Leah is like, Okay,
Speaker 2: uh Lando, we're gonna need you to and she like
Speaker 2: turns around and he's already like got the mask.
Speaker 1: On, right, right, got it right? But anyway, so apparently
Speaker 1: there was some break when they were moving from one
Speaker 1: location to another, and uh, let's see, a bunch of
Speaker 1: people reviewed the footage and didn't like how it was
Speaker 1: coming together, and so they decided to fire Lord and
Speaker 1: Miller and they had to bring someone in to not
Speaker 1: just finish the movie, but reshoot a major chunk of it.
Speaker 1: And so they got Ron Howard.
Speaker 2: I mean luckily he was available to you know, to
Speaker 2: come aboard.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That by itself is remarkable because he's a pretty busy guy.
Speaker 2: H And I mean he's he's a he's a journeyman, right,
Speaker 2: like we've talked about before, Like he doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 2: a distinct authorial stamp.
Speaker 1: M right.
Speaker 2: I don't know what makes a Ron Howard film, right,
Speaker 2: except that they tend to be watchable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's about it, you know. Yeah, So he I
Speaker 1: just I like this, by the way, so now we
Speaker 1: have well they're on Kessel, right, the Spice Minds of Kessel,
Speaker 1: which is we hear referenced in New Hope.
Speaker 2: Only spoken of in hush tones up until now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we get to see what that is. And
Speaker 1: I guess spice in the Star Wars universe is kind
Speaker 1: of like a drug.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's obviously when Lucas came up with it,
Speaker 2: it was a little bit of a reference to Dune. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but now it's its own thing.
Speaker 1: Yep. So they're busting in to go get some unrefined
Speaker 1: coaxium to replace the ship Meentod they had to drop
Speaker 1: that got destroyed, and you know, l three basically goes
Speaker 1: in there and inspires a robot to rebel, and then
Speaker 1: she basically gets a whole droid rebellion going on. That
Speaker 1: just creates a bunch of casts, that's what we're saying.
Speaker 1: But I love as they're escaping now that Chewie sees
Speaker 1: some other Wookies being used as like slave labor, and
Speaker 1: he just can't let it go. And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: we gotta go, we gotta go, but chew He's like,
Speaker 1: I can't. And I love and I love the Hans
Speaker 1: like okay here and like gives them a weapon, you know,
Speaker 1: like go do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's like, hey, you know, I hope I
Speaker 2: see you around yep, like he's never expecting to see
Speaker 2: him again.
Speaker 1: Yep. I just love that. I mean, this is just
Speaker 1: such a great mcguffin. It's just so understandable. It's cool,
Speaker 1: like we see it in this state where it's it's
Speaker 1: stable and it's bright and it's kind of this cool
Speaker 1: white looking, you know, whitish blue color. But then later
Speaker 1: when it's becoming unstable, it's like looking like inky and
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, that's not good, right, you know
Speaker 1: it's it's hilarious the Lando Chronicles or the Calarisian Chronicles. Chronicles,
Speaker 1: So anyway, Ron Howard.
Speaker 2: This by the way, real quick, he's referencing a story.
Speaker 2: There was also a series of Lando novels. Oh really yeah,
Speaker 2: so he's he's just like the Shahnu or the Chahroux
Speaker 2: or something like that. That's like one of the Lando
Speaker 2: Calrisian novels.
Speaker 1: Oh that's hilarious. I love that. That's great. If you'd
Speaker 1: read those books, you feel really seen. Yeah exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I also like by the way that Lando is wearing,
Speaker 2: Like that's the same shirt or color I should say
Speaker 2: that he wears in Rise of Skywalker.
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't even remember that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wears like the mustard colored shirt.
Speaker 1: How funny. Yeah. I just think this is a great
Speaker 1: set piece. And then it's like, you got all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but the difficulty of getting it out. But then because
Speaker 1: they helped the Wookies, then the Wookies, you know, helped
Speaker 1: push the stuff out. I don't know, it's just well done. Chew.
Speaker 1: He still got us back. Mm hmm. So all right,
Speaker 1: going back Ron Howard, he's brought in. This is from
Speaker 1: an interview he did with Vulture dot Com. It's a
Speaker 1: little lengthy, but I'll try to read it.
Speaker 2: Was the interview contemporaneous to the or is it after
Speaker 2: the fact?
Speaker 1: After the fact. I think this was a little portion
Speaker 1: of a longer interview about his career. So, uh, this
Speaker 1: is Ron Howard. He said, I like Solo a lot too,
Speaker 1: but that also underperformed and was affected by behind the
Speaker 1: scenes drama. I'd always been curious about Star Wars, and
Speaker 1: Solo landed in my lap when I didn't have another
Speaker 1: movie set to go. My wife, Cheryl and I were
Speaker 1: vacationing in Paris. I went to London to see Hans
Speaker 1: Zimber play at the O two, and I reached out
Speaker 1: to Kathy Kennedy just to say hi, and she said,
Speaker 1: do you want to come and have breakfast? Can you
Speaker 1: imagine like she gets like a little text from Ron Howard,
Speaker 1: She's like, hey, come over. I said, okay. John Kazden
Speaker 1: eventually showed up. They basically said, we've reached a creative
Speaker 1: impast with Lord and Miller. Would you ever consider coming in.
Speaker 1: I looked at some edited footage and I saw what
Speaker 1: was bothering them. There was a studio that liked the
Speaker 1: script the way it was and wanted a Star Wars movie,
Speaker 1: but there was a disconnect early on tonally, and they
Speaker 1: weren't convinced that what Phil and Chris were doing was
Speaker 1: working effectively. I couldn't judge that because I didn't see
Speaker 1: enough of it to know, but they were sure. Once
Speaker 1: I said okay, I think I can do this script,
Speaker 1: and I think I understand what you want of this script,
Speaker 1: they said, we'd want to reshoot a lot. I looked
Speaker 1: at the whole movie and then pointed out some things
Speaker 1: that I thought were great, and Phil and Chris were
Speaker 1: incredibly gracious throughout that process. They were just seeing two
Speaker 1: different movies. So I came in, I had a blast,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing personal about that whatsoever. It's still just
Speaker 1: a shame. I can't wait for Phil and Chris's next movie.
Speaker 1: And then the interviewer says, what did George Lucas tell you?
Speaker 1: And Ron Howard says, I talked to him once early
Speaker 1: when I was just thinking about doing it. He wasn't
Speaker 1: active on the films, but he said, just don't forget
Speaker 1: it's for twelve year old boys. So pretty diplomatic, but
Speaker 1: also I think, you know, and interesting glips.
Speaker 2: I just I mean, I mean, honestly, it feels like
Speaker 2: that foul up rests with the producers.
Speaker 1: That's me.
Speaker 2: Because there should have been clarity well before cameras rolled
Speaker 2: about what parameters the directors were playing within.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially if you are familiar with their style of
Speaker 1: every movie they've made before.
Speaker 2: Right, because because if you're Lord and Miller, you're like, well,
Speaker 2: you hired us because you've seen our reel, you know,
Speaker 2: And so their assumption, unless they're told otherwise, is just
Speaker 2: do your thing, you know, and keep in mind I
Speaker 2: mean this was the same year, you know, a few
Speaker 2: months after this movie came out, was into the Spider Verse,
Speaker 2: all right, which Lord and Miller.
Speaker 1: Did, yep, which also, you know, based on reports, has
Speaker 1: a very free willing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, actually because this the third one, you know,
Speaker 2: is just it went from oh, it's coming out in
Speaker 2: six months to you'll see it when you see it,
Speaker 2: shut the hell.
Speaker 1: Up exactly yep. But yeah, but you can also kind
Speaker 1: of imagine, especially in this moment where like we said,
Speaker 1: we didn't have the shows. Even the scores at this
Speaker 1: point are still trying to sound like John Williams, and
Speaker 1: I think they've given up on that now at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of things in Star Wars felt sacris saying
Speaker 1: you know, that's right, and so they probably thought, well, like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to hire Ryan Johnson, we're gonna hire Lord Miller,
Speaker 1: We're gonna hire these people. But you're gonna make Star Wars.
Speaker 1: You're not making a Lord Miller movie. That's well that's
Speaker 1: not a defense, by the way, but I'm just imagining
Speaker 1: that's what was in their heads.
Speaker 2: No, I get it, you know, I just think that,
Speaker 2: you know the sense of like, oh, We've got all
Speaker 2: the money in the world. Oh yeah, we got to
Speaker 2: reshoot the movie again, no problem, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they reshot seventy percent. Yeah, that's how much
Speaker 1: Ron Howard shot seventy percent of this movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's part of that is like necessitated by
Speaker 2: guild rules, so that, you know, determining who gets credit
Speaker 2: for a film. Well, that's that's that's kind of amateur hour,
Speaker 2: you know, like how do you how do you not
Speaker 2: figure this stuff out ahead of time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I wonder. I mean, I'm a Kathleen
Speaker 1: Kennedy fan because she has produced not only some of
Speaker 1: the my favorite films ever, but just some of the
Speaker 1: greatest films of the like last forty plus years. Right,
Speaker 1: And however, she has worked with world class directors.
Speaker 2: Like I was about to say, right, Like right, I
Speaker 2: think you take for granted when like Steven Spielberg is
Speaker 2: who you work with most of the time, you know.
Speaker 1: Like, yes, who have very clear voices and know exactly
Speaker 1: the movie they're making, right yep.
Speaker 2: And when you think about it, I mean, the the
Speaker 2: It's interesting how depending on the film, the role of
Speaker 2: a producer or director can be flipped right, Like when
Speaker 2: it came to the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas was
Speaker 2: the director. Rick McCollum is the producer. But Rick McCallum's
Speaker 2: job was to do whatever George Lucas wanted. But when
Speaker 2: it came time to the sequels, the onus shifted because
Speaker 2: it was the producer's job to really make sure this
Speaker 2: entire thing was coming together, you know, and it was
Speaker 2: the director's job to execute the producer's vision, right right.
Speaker 2: I like how in this sequence when we see the
Speaker 2: starter stories, we hear the the Empire music from a New.
Speaker 1: Hope which never comes back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think we hear it in a rogue one, sure,
Speaker 2: but yeah, you know because once, once Williams came up
Speaker 2: with the with the Imperial March for for for Empire
Speaker 2: strikes back. Well gosh, it was so good that they
Speaker 2: had to adopt it in Universe.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right, that's right. That is literally the Empire's theme,
Speaker 1: and I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the Kessel Run, you know, famously, this is like,
Speaker 2: uh it all it's all born of of what I
Speaker 2: have to imagine was just a mistake in the original film,
Speaker 2: which is.
Speaker 1: Why I made.
Speaker 2: The Kessel Run in less than twelve parsex and you say, well,
Speaker 2: a parsec is uh, you know, a distance, not time.
Speaker 2: And so Lucas, I mean I remember him talking about
Speaker 2: it in the commentary for a New Hope. He's like, well, no,
Speaker 2: because you have to plot the course. And so if
Speaker 2: you plot the course and you know, it's all your
Speaker 2: your skill as a pilot is how skillfully can you
Speaker 2: plot the course? And I'm like, bro, that's like all bullshit,
Speaker 2: but I give you all the credit in the world.
Speaker 2: That is like impressive bullshit. So so golf clap for
Speaker 2: your bullshit, right right, right, Jedi Master Lucas, you know,
Speaker 2: and and so you know, I don't think he ever
Speaker 2: thought it would have to be you know, actualized. And
Speaker 2: it's all a bunch of Hunker Morker anyway, it doesn't
Speaker 2: make a look of sense. Whatever, It's fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is uh speaking of like the music, kind
Speaker 1: of the greatest hits. M yeah, yeah, we get the
Speaker 1: New Hope music and then when we've got.
Speaker 2: Their dog in the asteroid field later, yeah.
Speaker 1: Exactly, I will say I do yeah real quick.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know when you look at the falcon with
Speaker 2: the with the escape pod in the mandible, yes, right,
Speaker 2: and and I was thinking, I like how the film
Speaker 2: makes clear to say that that itself was a retrofit
Speaker 2: that Lando made. Hmmm, because if you remember, we see
Speaker 2: the millennium falcon in Revenge of the Syth and it looks.
Speaker 1: Like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: It looks like our falcon.
Speaker 1: You know. Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 2: I didn't think about that specifically, say no, that was
Speaker 2: a change that Lando made, so it happened after that.
Speaker 1: Is really funny. I remember when this movie was coming out,
Speaker 1: they created a life sized falcon that looked like this
Speaker 1: with the pod up front on Hollywood Boulevard for the
Speaker 1: premiere really and so I was working at Puppy Dog
Speaker 1: Pals at the time, and this other writer, Gene, and
Speaker 1: I were like, we got to go see it, and
Speaker 1: so on like a lunch break or something. We got
Speaker 1: in a car, we drove down there and we got
Speaker 1: high up. I have pictures of us. It's it's magical,
Speaker 1: Like you're just standing next to a life size millennium falcon.
Speaker 1: It was amazing.
Speaker 2: That's surreal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 2: That's what That's what there is in galaxies Edge.
Speaker 1: Now, right, that's true. Yeah, I guess I think I
Speaker 1: especially have those feelings because that was before that, so
Speaker 1: that was like the first time I got to stand
Speaker 1: next to the falcon. But yes, they have a recreated
Speaker 1: Millennium Falcon at Galaxies Edge and it's so.
Speaker 2: Cool, really amazing, so that you've been there, Yes, you
Speaker 2: can't go inside.
Speaker 1: Uh no, it's it's like a big prop. I mean
Speaker 1: it looks very very good. But then you know there's
Speaker 1: a ride. I forgot what the ride's called. But you
Speaker 1: get to pilot the falcon and go on a mission.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so you do get to feel like you're
Speaker 1: walking through its halls at one pass and sit in
Speaker 1: the cockpit. I see, I see. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it just going back to what we were
Speaker 2: talking about earlier, the whole Lando L three thing, like
Speaker 2: his emoting over her death struck me as odd because
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, it's a droid. I mean, like, don't
Speaker 2: don't they repair droids all the time in these things? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well I guess see, yes, And what they end
Speaker 1: up doing is they take her I don't know what
Speaker 1: you call it, her hard drive or something, and they
Speaker 1: plug it into the falcon falcon so they can use
Speaker 1: her maps to figure out the quickest way to get
Speaker 1: out of this situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that she was forcibly enslaved for the rest
Speaker 2: of her existence, just like she would have wanted.
Speaker 1: It's great. Yeah, it's like that Black Mirror episode where
Speaker 1: the people's consciousnesses are put into like a hard drive
Speaker 1: somewhere and it's like, are you really alive or you
Speaker 1: just like in some sort of weird hell. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, especially for L three, whose whole thing is
Speaker 2: like droid freedom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, Oh what this is a terrible story.
Speaker 1: That's like an O Henry story for her.
Speaker 2: That's right. She instigated a robot rebellion only to be
Speaker 2: enslaved for all of existence.
Speaker 1: That is kind of like tragically beautiful in a story sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't love it. That's not the ending
Speaker 1: I want for her, but like kind of works as
Speaker 1: a dark tragedy. But to your point, Lando could be
Speaker 1: putting up a more of a fight about doing that
Speaker 1: because that and she's never coming back. Ah see, Oh
Speaker 1: that's good, right, Like maybe there is the hope that
Speaker 1: it's like okay, okay, I mean she's really messed up,
Speaker 1: but maybe we could repair her. It's like now we
Speaker 1: need her maps.
Speaker 2: But really, see this all works out because because you know,
Speaker 2: they're trying to save Lando from himself. Also, right, they're like,
Speaker 2: there's a guy he's sticking his wiener and toasters. We
Speaker 2: know what he's doing. This is this is good for everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got a nice human girl we can introduce
Speaker 1: you to like maybe you know, like when you're ready,
Speaker 1: when you're ready, Morton, as long as you need. So, okay,
Speaker 1: part of me, I've wondered why I'm doing that, that
Speaker 1: Fred Armison thing that Sean always accuses me of. So
Speaker 1: the one of the thing about that, well, let me
Speaker 1: begin with what I'm trying to say is I think
Speaker 1: this movie has been reappraised. Sure, you know, in the
Speaker 1: years after it's come out.
Speaker 2: See I would argue it has been appraised because it
Speaker 2: was not watched.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, Sure, but people were a little like mixed
Speaker 1: dish kind of positive on it, I think when it
Speaker 1: came out. But I think people now are like, you know,
Speaker 1: this is like a great adventure. Yeah, And I've always
Speaker 1: felt that way, you and I both. But I do
Speaker 1: think maybe one of the reasons that this movie hasn't
Speaker 1: stuck as much as it could have is it's a
Speaker 1: good story. But I don't know that it has like
Speaker 1: the punchy set pieces that some of the other Star
Speaker 1: Wars movies have. Yeah, and I would mainly point to
Speaker 1: this one, which is I don't understand what they're doing
Speaker 1: or where they're going.
Speaker 2: No, I would agree, I think this is the least
Speaker 2: interesting of our set pieces.
Speaker 1: Which is terrible because this is the Kessel run, Like
Speaker 1: this should be the set piece, right, I mean, the
Speaker 1: train set piece I've already said I think is amazing
Speaker 1: and well executed, and like everything I was praising about
Speaker 1: that set piece does not apply to this one. I
Speaker 1: don't know where they are. I don't know where they're going.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what it are. They in a
Speaker 1: cave like it seems kind of like that at the
Speaker 1: end when he has to turn the ship on its side.
Speaker 1: But all this is just real what we talk about,
Speaker 1: that sort of cgi gobbledy go. I think it's.
Speaker 2: Meant to foreground Hans skill.
Speaker 1: Which I think is on display. Well here this I
Speaker 1: understand where this whirlpool sort of situation.
Speaker 2: And I gotta say whether it's on display or not,
Speaker 2: I would not know, but for the fact that earlier
Speaker 2: in the movie, right before Rio died, he said you're
Speaker 2: one hell of a pilot, and I said, now, I
Speaker 2: know if that had not been said, yeah, I'd be
Speaker 2: totally adrift, right right right. In Star Wars, you have
Speaker 2: to say somebody is one hell of a pilot. Otherwise
Speaker 2: it's just lost.
Speaker 1: How do we know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's just like basic language and Star Wars.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But you know, like to me, it's just too much.
Speaker 2: It's too much, becomes too much, and and it going
Speaker 2: back to what we were saying earlier, it feels a
Speaker 2: little bit like box checking because I personally I don't
Speaker 2: really care about ever seeing the Kessel run. To me,
Speaker 2: just hearing about it is enough, right, Yeah, So it
Speaker 2: feels like, well, we got what we got to show
Speaker 2: the Kessel run, so we're doing it.
Speaker 1: You know. But even if you call it whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, I mean, when they're trying to
Speaker 1: evade the tie fighters, they're literally just in like indistinguishable
Speaker 1: cgi gobbledygook. Yeah, And this is where I think it
Speaker 1: finally comes together, where they're like, there's this whirlpool or
Speaker 1: what do they call it, like a black hole well
Speaker 1: or something right that is pulling them down as something
Speaker 1: is closing ahead them and we just know they need
Speaker 1: to get out of that poll and they can use
Speaker 1: the mcguffin that they've gotten. Like that makes sense. That's
Speaker 1: the only part of this that is understandable to me,
Speaker 1: and that's why the ending is very exciting. But I
Speaker 1: wish that I don't know, maybe they're navigating like a
Speaker 1: really narrow trench and they've you know, he's got to
Speaker 1: be really good at maneuvering or something like something that
Speaker 1: I can see and understand. I think would make that
Speaker 1: whole seconds better better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I once, once you just have a bunch of
Speaker 2: cgi gleap clop, I tend to start being like, okay,
Speaker 2: let's move to the next thing, you know.
Speaker 1: And it really makes you appreciate the asteroid field sequence
Speaker 1: from like almost forty years earlier, right right when they
Speaker 1: had so much less to work with. But you can
Speaker 1: see it's more right, and you can see the danger,
Speaker 1: and you can see the falcon whoa going right? Whoa
Speaker 1: bank left? You know, and we see the danger with
Speaker 1: the tie fighters colliding into those asteroids, you know, and
Speaker 1: as the falcon swoops past them. So I just it's
Speaker 1: amazing that something forty years older kind of works.
Speaker 2: No, I guess say now, now this is a callback
Speaker 2: slash call forward that I do like, what's that?
Speaker 1: I hate you?
Speaker 2: I know, I know that's great, that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it, and I do love seeing the
Speaker 1: ship all beaten up and yeah we got like a
Speaker 1: real love hate thing here now with yah han.
Speaker 2: See, this is where I would have liked to see
Speaker 2: more more adventures of these two you know one.
Speaker 1: You know, by the way, did you know how Alden
Speaker 1: Ehrenreich was discovered. No, he was discovered by Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 1: He was wow. Yeah, he was fourteen years old and
Speaker 1: uh he was in like a home movie that he
Speaker 1: and his friends had made that was being shown at
Speaker 1: a bot mitzvah and Spielberg was there and was like, hey,
Speaker 1: who's that guy and got him an agent and launched
Speaker 1: his career. Well look at that, and he has a
Speaker 1: pretty insane start. I mean, his first couple movies are
Speaker 1: with Francis Ford Coppola. He was in tetro and TwixT,
Speaker 1: and then he was in Stoker, and he was in
Speaker 1: Blue Jasmine Woody Allen movie before you know when people
Speaker 1: are still watching them, and he's in the Coen Brothers
Speaker 1: Hail Caesar, he's in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, He's in Weapons.
Speaker 2: He has had a pretty solid post solo career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not someone I feel like he's really broken through,
Speaker 1: but he's been in a lot of it. Impressive.
Speaker 2: You're working like again, he got Oppenheimer on your resume.
Speaker 2: You're doing okay, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, especially with Nolan, who seems to
Speaker 1: have a company that he works with, you got to
Speaker 1: feel like when he brings you in, you're like.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, yeah, maybe maybe he'll be one of the
Speaker 2: sirens in the Odyssey.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Uh. He Also he was in iron Heart, uh, the
Speaker 2: the Marvel series, Okay, and he's quite good. He plays
Speaker 2: the son of Obadiah Stain Ah.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, and he was good in it.
Speaker 2: That show was good. It didn't get talked about very much,
Speaker 2: but it was good.
Speaker 1: I kind of remember you saying that, Yeah, yeah, here
Speaker 1: we go desert.
Speaker 2: There's something to be said for for actual locations, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's there's something about Star Wars and sand
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but it just feels right.
Speaker 1: It feels right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, like you said, you know, the plan.
Speaker 2: The whole p had been maybe not the plan to
Speaker 2: be like to have this film stake out a lane
Speaker 2: for more dips back into you know, character origins and stuff,
Speaker 2: and it really sucks that this one underperforming just made
Speaker 2: them COI bos the whole thing because you know, you
Speaker 2: and I we talked about this before. Obi wan Kenobi
Speaker 2: should have.
Speaker 1: Been a movie.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, it would have been better for it, you know,
Speaker 2: h so and fits nest here. You know, up to
Speaker 2: this point we're thinking of as a rival gang or
Speaker 2: what have you.
Speaker 1: But it's the.
Speaker 2: Progenitors of the Rebellion, which I like a lot. I
Speaker 2: think it's smart, you know, h it's very funny. He's
Speaker 2: like that that that feels like a Lord and Miller moment,
Speaker 2: doesn't it. Where he's definitely I'll give him a signal
Speaker 2: a com and then right then the falcon takes off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like the thirty armed men just ready to
Speaker 1: come out of my order and then it takes off.
Speaker 1: But that also feels very hon it does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's very cartoon like, isn't it. By the way,
Speaker 1: him stepping away from the line and then having to
Speaker 1: slowly step back like, sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: That's very funny. Yeah, but yeah, I think this is
Speaker 1: a good twist and it goes a long way and
Speaker 1: helping us understand Hans's character. You know, Kira says it like,
Speaker 1: you know, I know something about you that.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, an fis nest is a look a
Speaker 2: cook a girl. That's the look on Hans's face right there. Now,
Speaker 2: this is Aaron Kellyman playing basically the same role she
Speaker 2: would play like two years later in The Falcon and
Speaker 2: the Winter Soldier. She was leader of the flag smashers.
Speaker 1: I forget got all about that. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: It's just basically that that's her deal. She's just like
Speaker 2: the the misunderstood revolutionary.
Speaker 1: You know that's so interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's got she's got a laying after herself.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, this does look good though. You can see
Speaker 1: real wind blowing things.
Speaker 2: I mean that's what was so so desperately out of
Speaker 2: whack in the Obi Wan Kenobi Show. Speaking of which, right,
Speaker 2: like that was the first time where I was like, guys,
Speaker 2: knock it off with the volume.
Speaker 1: Holy shit. Yeah that movie looks very cheap that same
Speaker 1: movie series yeah, series, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like yeah, low budget and stretched out, which
Speaker 2: is weird. I'm like talking past myself here because I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know, low budget can be good sometimes, and I
Speaker 2: think there there's like a middle ground between you know,
Speaker 2: shoot everything on a sound stage and have a bunch
Speaker 2: have a couple of crates in front of the camera,
Speaker 2: you know, and infinity dollars. I feel like there's like
Speaker 2: a middle ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all about the blend, that's right. Blend.
Speaker 2: So I'd like to believe that Warwick Davis is playing
Speaker 2: the same character he was in Phantom Menace.
Speaker 1: I read that he was, but I can't confirm that.
Speaker 1: But I saw that somewhere.
Speaker 2: You know, what if that's my head? Can I think
Speaker 2: timeline wise that works right because Phantom Menace is like
Speaker 2: twenty years before this, right, Like what is it like
Speaker 2: Phantom Menace would be? When would that be?
Speaker 1: Actually?
Speaker 2: This is this is this is see I this is
Speaker 2: where like the Star Wars nerds listening are like, goddamn it,
Speaker 2: Mbby or whatever the hell. I think it's about twenty
Speaker 2: years after Phantom Menace. I think that checks out right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: just go with it, Like I know this is about
Speaker 2: ten years before Star Wars right, because so that that
Speaker 2: that gave him about ten years worth of story to
Speaker 2: play with before we're supposed to meet him in most
Speaker 2: icley right right.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 2: I think to your point that you were making about
Speaker 2: about Woody Harrelson, I think I just think of Woody
Speaker 2: Harrelson as a great actor, you know, and he does
Speaker 2: have a persona, but he also I mean, like he
Speaker 2: was in the Planet of Apes movie like a year
Speaker 2: before this, remember, and he was a great villain, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I mean I hope I'm being clear, Like he
Speaker 2: does work for me, I do Harrelson. Just admit it,
Speaker 2: Just admit it. You've never liked him, You've always resented
Speaker 2: his success.
Speaker 1: That's how deep it goes. Yeah, Like I personally hate
Speaker 1: it's not his performances, like I no, but I I
Speaker 1: don't know. Sometimes it's hard for me to lose myself
Speaker 1: in it occasionally, but he is doing a very good job.
Speaker 1: So that's just the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think he is the exact actor
Speaker 2: you want to play a character like Beckett, where he's
Speaker 2: just likable enough where you like, maybe he's like one
Speaker 2: of our scoundrels, right.
Speaker 1: Totally, And even if he does fire at you with
Speaker 1: his weapon at some point and misses, and he goes,
Speaker 1: can you know, can't blame a guy for trying, You're
Speaker 1: like you, you know what I mean, He's one of
Speaker 1: those people that can kind of pull that off.
Speaker 2: That's a short list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe maybe you gotta with Loody Harrelson.
Speaker 2: I remember when I when I talked to Stephen Weber
Speaker 2: on the Nostav's Theater show like many many moons ago,
Speaker 2: and you know, we were talking about when he was
Speaker 2: on Wings and how Thomas Hayden Church played like the
Speaker 2: lovable dufus on that show, right, And I talked to
Speaker 2: him about how it's funny how like to Thomas Aden
Speaker 2: Church on Wings and Woody Harrelson on Cheers, we're both
Speaker 2: kind of doing that, right, and both of these guys
Speaker 2: are like two of our great actors.
Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, yeah, it's just weird how that works, you know.
Speaker 1: I do remember it was strange when Woody Harrelson did
Speaker 1: Natural Born Killers, because up to that, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was like White Men Can't Jump, where he's still playing
Speaker 1: kind of a charming guy with a drawl and doc
Speaker 1: Hollywood charming guy or a drawl, you know, but then
Speaker 1: playing this sociopath in that movie was like, what, it doesn't.
Speaker 2: Compete that that helped, you know, turn the ship of
Speaker 2: his career to some extent, totally totally just up for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, cocky is and just some more self assured
Speaker 1: and vocal He vocalizes so much, and I love that.
Speaker 1: We know that Han won't be like that later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, youthful, youth is wasted on the young Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 2: said that, did he really say that? No, no, no, sorry,
Speaker 2: I was trying to make a bad joke. And then
Speaker 2: I picked someone that sounded too credible. Sorry about that.
Speaker 2: That does sound like something he would say, right, I know,
Speaker 2: I picked a man who was full of good quotes,
Speaker 2: like an idiot or Mark Twain might have been in
Speaker 2: the same vein where it's like Mark Twain, I could see,
Speaker 2: yeah like Twain Lincoln.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, see, I just love this friendly, ominous energy
Speaker 1: that Dryden gives.
Speaker 2: That's what's great, right, Like the whole thing where he's like, oh,
Speaker 2: just open it up. You're like, oh shit, I don't
Speaker 2: know what he's doing, but he's doing something. Uh huh,
Speaker 2: I just bring it here, the show me what I got,
Speaker 2: you know, Like it's yeah, Paul bettney Man. He's such
Speaker 2: a good actor.
Speaker 1: Yes, very effortless. And this whole triangle situation is very
Speaker 1: interesting here because we've seen Kira genuinely you know, on
Speaker 1: Han's side. Yeah, and we know that she is also
Speaker 1: loyal to Dryden. This is just a lot of complicated
Speaker 1: dynamics happening here and double crossing, and it's I just
Speaker 1: this is really rich.
Speaker 2: I think that what becomes clear is that Kira when
Speaker 2: when she leaves at the end, that's a sacrifice that
Speaker 2: she's making, yes, not a betrayal. Yeah, right, Like I
Speaker 2: think that's important. And that's what I mean when I
Speaker 2: say I would have liked to see the culmination of
Speaker 2: that storyline. You know, it's a shame, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I agree. Also feels very hard to bring this
Speaker 1: stuff in. He's like Crates with the goods inside and
Speaker 1: then the bad guy. He'd be like show me, and
Speaker 1: he's like show you. You want to see him? Sure,
Speaker 1: But then it also feels still feels very hard for
Speaker 1: him to lift the lid so the camera can see
Speaker 1: he's got a gun hidden in the lid. Yep, he's
Speaker 1: thinking ahead.
Speaker 2: I remember when Alden Aroon Reich was out You know,
Speaker 2: doing the making the press rounds for this and you know,
Speaker 2: Ron Howard brought in Harrison Ford like behind him to
Speaker 2: surprise him during one of these junkets, and it was
Speaker 2: just you know, they had obviously spoken before, but having
Speaker 2: Harrison Ford right there just being like, I'm so I
Speaker 2: loved it so much. I'm so proud of what he
Speaker 2: did and the choices he made. Like can you imagine
Speaker 2: being this young actor and here's Harrison Ford telling you
Speaker 2: you did you did great with my character? No, Like,
Speaker 2: what is that? You know what I mean? Like, like
Speaker 2: you can see the footage of it, and you can
Speaker 2: just see sort of all a whole a whole panoply
Speaker 2: of emotions going over Aaron Reich's face.
Speaker 1: You know, that's great. I just thought that was really cool.
Speaker 2: Double crosses, double crosses, and then and then the double
Speaker 2: crosses of the double crosses.
Speaker 1: Exactly by the way, just kind of looking at my
Speaker 1: notes again. Uh, we haven't talked about the fact that
Speaker 1: John Williams wrote a theme for Han Solo. Finally, after
Speaker 1: all these years for this movie.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about how for for Solo and for
Speaker 2: Obi and Kenobi he came back and wrote themes for
Speaker 2: these characters and and then you hear them and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: of course that's the Han solo thing.
Speaker 1: Mm hm oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh and I asked the Obi wan kenobe theme. It's
Speaker 2: always been the obi wan kenobi theme, you know.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's just that's the master still at work, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yep. Yeah. And I guess Ron Howard had worked
Speaker 1: with him once before on Far and Away. Ah. Yes,
Speaker 1: kind of a forgotten movie.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I had forgot about that movie.
Speaker 1: I remember liking it, but I haven't seen it since
Speaker 1: the nineties.
Speaker 2: That's the I mean, Unfortunately, I feel like that's like
Speaker 2: many Ron Howard movies where you're like, oh, that was good.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it, you.
Speaker 1: Know yeaheah, sort of like backdraft and that's good. It's
Speaker 1: been a while. The paper, the paper, Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good one. Paul thirteen, which I hadn't seen in
Speaker 1: a while till we did the commentary and then we
Speaker 1: rewatch it and I'm like, this is amazing.
Speaker 2: Ron Ron Howard's best, I would say, is.
Speaker 1: A Paul thirteen.
Speaker 2: That's me agreed, you know, Yeah, now that I think
Speaker 2: of it. He worked with Paul Bettany on diving code,
Speaker 2: which is probably how that you know, that's how he
Speaker 2: got into the Rolodex.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or was it a Beautiful Mind? Was that the
Speaker 1: first one.
Speaker 2: Was da Vinci code after Beautiful Mind? Oh it was, yeah,
Speaker 2: Beautiful Mind was like two thousand.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, sometimes I forgot.
Speaker 2: I forgot he's in Beautiful Mind.
Speaker 1: Another one where I'm like, I think that one's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it in two thousand.
Speaker 2: He's the imaginary friend, right right.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's where Bettany met Jonnifer Connley.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna. I was like, that must be
Speaker 2: where they met. Yeah, yeah, that bastard he wins at life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, right, jeez. Yeah, this these.
Speaker 2: Creature is kind of what you're talking about. You can
Speaker 2: tell that it's it's prosthetic, so maybe some digital enhancement
Speaker 2: on it. But it looks great.
Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: The old ways still work just fine.
Speaker 1: Mm hm. H Han Han had a plan taken out
Speaker 1: Dryden's guys.
Speaker 2: See, I think you know this is this is a
Speaker 2: conversation you and I have had before about how Han
Speaker 2: Solo has become such the archetype of like the rogue
Speaker 2: with the heart of gold, right, and it you know
Speaker 2: so many characters since you're like, oh, it's like a
Speaker 2: Han Solo type, right, and it's like, well, there had
Speaker 2: to have been one before Hans Solo, huh, But I
Speaker 2: can't think of one on the top of my head,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: I know. It could be that phenomenon that we talk
Speaker 1: about where the stuff we grew up with somehow has
Speaker 1: never gone away, right, just keeps being remade or sequels
Speaker 1: are made for them, whereas the influences have not you know,
Speaker 1: carried forwards for something. Yeah, so yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: some careacter that Lucas had in mind. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: was inspired by, right, something he watched when he was
Speaker 1: a kid, but I'm not sure who that character is.
Speaker 1: Could be someone he knows.
Speaker 2: See, I always thought he had a ham salad and
Speaker 2: he was like ham salad, Ham salad, and then and
Speaker 2: then you know, that's how.
Speaker 1: We got.
Speaker 2: That's that's my Bohemian Rhapsody style biopic movie of yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well that did actually happen a
Speaker 1: lot to him, right, But that's where R two D
Speaker 1: two came from.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, someone talking about a reel of sound like it
Speaker 1: was real too. Dialogue too he's like, say that you
Speaker 1: r two D two. Yeah. And then in the movie
Speaker 1: TX eleven thirty eight, an actor had a friend whose
Speaker 1: last name was Wookie, and so he like improvised a
Speaker 1: line where he's like, I think it ran over a
Speaker 1: key or something like that, and Lucas was like, say
Speaker 1: that again. And so you know, I mean there's a
Speaker 1: lot of the George Lucas in Love parody you know
Speaker 1: that happened in like ninety nine, right, was like a
Speaker 1: riff on Shakespeare in Love where he just all these
Speaker 1: things happening around him at usc Inspire, the Star Wars films.
Speaker 1: It's kind of true. So I love it.
Speaker 2: Ham salads, that's that's my origin story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, but anyway, yeah, all this this
Speaker 1: dynamic here and now here's got Han pinned and but
Speaker 1: she's gonna eventually take out. Like I just all this
Speaker 1: just works for me. Well, I love that.
Speaker 2: Like you look at Emilia Clark's face right there, and
Speaker 2: she looks sinister, right, like she might kill him that right,
Speaker 2: and yet she's just able to navigate both lanes so
Speaker 2: effectively because when she smiles, I mean, you just feel
Speaker 2: yourself melting, you know. I also think. I mean, Paul
Speaker 2: Bettney is you know, relatively wiry, you know, yeah, and
Speaker 2: yet he's able to come off as like physically intimidating.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah.
Speaker 2: This, by the way, you should mention this. This martial art.
Speaker 2: It's Terraskasi, which which I remember from the video game
Speaker 2: Masters of Tarras Cossi. Oh interesting, which is like Star
Speaker 2: Wars Street Fighter.
Speaker 1: Oh funny. When was that from?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, late nineties. I want to say mid nineties.
Speaker 2: It's like it has that blockie like you remember Virtue
Speaker 2: a Fighter, Yes, where it's like, you know, it doesn't
Speaker 2: look like it's not it's not Street Fighter, Immortal Kombat.
Speaker 2: It's kind of blocky.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was like that.
Speaker 2: But it's like, oh, you want to have like Boba
Speaker 2: Fett and Han Sol will fight each other martial arts styles,
Speaker 2: and so that was Star Wars.
Speaker 1: That's so funny. There's just so much to draw from, Yeah,
Speaker 1: all these movies, right, And I talked about this when
Speaker 1: I worked on Young Jedi. You know, we had a
Speaker 1: low person in every you know, story break who's just
Speaker 1: their job was to know everything about Star Wars. There's
Speaker 1: just so much to know. So if you are going
Speaker 1: to go to a certain sort of planet or if
Speaker 1: you want a certain well this person is a great fighter.
Speaker 1: You know, they could be like, oh, well there's a
Speaker 1: special sort of version of martial arts that they would
Speaker 1: then be trained in. You should call it the right thing,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of nice. Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 2: I mean in the nineties, I'm going to say, like
Speaker 2: you know pre yeah, like before the prequels and everything
Speaker 2: started getting standardized, you had this It was like a
Speaker 2: you know, when did Air did the Empire come out?
Speaker 2: That was like ninety one, I think, right, So, okay,
Speaker 2: we had like an eight year run where Star Wars
Speaker 2: suddenly came back and they were just doing all kinds
Speaker 2: of stuff mm hmm. And that was a lot of fun,
Speaker 2: you know, because it was you know, they had the
Speaker 2: Shadows of the Empire all of that. They had the
Speaker 2: video game and everything, and you know, they had they
Speaker 2: had the Super Star Wars and super impressed for the ans, right,
Speaker 2: and they were stupid, like you had Luke running through
Speaker 2: the deserts a tattoo and shooting scorpions and stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm so dumb, but I loved it, right, Like it
Speaker 1: was the closest thing to feeling like the movies, playing
Speaker 1: the movies.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, right, It was like that was
Speaker 2: that was a fun era where it was just kind
Speaker 2: of just putting it all out there, you know. So
Speaker 2: this this uh stuff with Darth Maul, Honestly, they they've
Speaker 2: largely left it, left it to wither on the vine,
Speaker 2: with the exception of the Mall Shadow Lord series. Now
Speaker 2: mm hmmm, so it took them a little while to
Speaker 2: circle back to it. But uh, it's a shame because
Speaker 2: this part, this this mall part, is the only thing
Speaker 2: that seems to be gesturing towards a cliffhanger in this movie,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like everything else, you can
Speaker 2: just sort of be like, well, we don't need to
Speaker 2: see another one because you know, Han and Chewie have
Speaker 2: the falcon and off they go, you know. But this here,
Speaker 2: it's like, well, this demands some kind of follow up,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, it was nice that they got ray
Speaker 2: Park back. Yes for him, that was a solid nineteen
Speaker 2: year wait to reprise the role.
Speaker 1: Right. It is kind of funny how just in case
Speaker 1: you're not entirely sure who that is, he has to
Speaker 1: like have his double bladed.
Speaker 2: Although what's interesting is they made sure to pay attention
Speaker 2: to Cannon because that's the that's the double bladed lightsaber
Speaker 2: that he has in Clone Wars and Rebels and not
Speaker 2: in the original movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, good catch. But you know what I mean
Speaker 1: just sort of like you got it, like this is
Speaker 1: my thing that you know, it's me. I'm going to
Speaker 1: do it during my phone call right now.
Speaker 2: What's interesting is that that sequence that we saw with
Speaker 2: Maul originally was shot with Peter saraph Inowitz doing the
Speaker 2: voice or not shot. It was like he had originally
Speaker 2: recorded the voice. He did the voice in episode one,
Speaker 2: but it was replaced by Sam Whitwaer, who does the
Speaker 2: voice in all the animated shows.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, why is that? I guess they just.
Speaker 2: Figured they want to be consistent with the animation instead
Speaker 2: of like that's an interesting choice, is my point? Right?
Speaker 2: Like I feel bad for sarah Inowitz because I know
Speaker 2: he was kind of upset about that.
Speaker 1: Oh really yeah, well maybe yeah, if that's what in
Speaker 1: the animation currently what most people were hearing, they were like, well,
Speaker 1: this is what people want to they'll connect with, so.
Speaker 2: Here first, Yeah exactly. I think this was the moment
Speaker 2: when Lucas stormed off the set was the right thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I go, you asshole, and then he just left.
Speaker 1: But you know what I love about it is that
Speaker 1: Han shoots first. But it's like a real uh like,
Speaker 1: you know, have your cake and eat a two moment,
Speaker 1: because Beckett's just like, I'm glad you did that, kid.
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 2: I'm proud of your son, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, it's okay, right, guys, he's looking at
Speaker 1: the audience. It's I'm okay with this. Hans shot first.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, I didn't mention I like how
Speaker 2: Chewy has the double bandolier on this action figure or
Speaker 2: I mean this in this movie.
Speaker 1: Wait, what about it?
Speaker 2: He's got like the double strap, you know, so that
Speaker 2: you can distinguish which which toy you're buying.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious, like Malibu Stacey and her new hat exactly.
Speaker 2: This is this is double bandolier Chewie.
Speaker 1: That is hilarious, by the way. But I think they
Speaker 1: do a good job of though. Is you know, Beckett
Speaker 1: does have his finger on the trigger. He's gonna shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, so Han does have show.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean anything if he doesn't say m clunky, Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is great. This is like a real This
Speaker 1: is Han becoming Han, that's right, having to kill his
Speaker 1: mentor and seeing the love of his life leave him
Speaker 1: and that that heartbreak on his face as he watches
Speaker 1: or Go, and then.
Speaker 2: Chewy is his best friend for life, yep, putting his
Speaker 2: paw on his shoulder. And I love Han and Chewy,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, two of them together A what a pair,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And obviously from the movies that we grew up
Speaker 1: watching and that's why we feel that way. It's great.
Speaker 1: But I feel like that moment is a real potent
Speaker 1: connection for them, Like I feel the same feelings from
Speaker 1: the other movies in that moment, like Chewy's gonna be
Speaker 1: always be there for Han, and I don't know Han
Speaker 1: realizing the chew He's going to be there for him,
Speaker 1: maybe the only person who's going to be there for him.
Speaker 2: Well to me, you know, I mean, there's always something
Speaker 2: extra heartbreaking about Chewie's scream when Han gets stabbed in
Speaker 2: the chest, right yeah, because here's his friend for all
Speaker 2: these decades gone, you know, yep. So what I love
Speaker 2: about this is in essence, Han is like, you know,
Speaker 2: he's like an early adopter of the rebellion. He's like
Speaker 2: an early investor. Yeah, but nobody knows, like, which makes
Speaker 2: it extra funny when Lea is like, your reward is
Speaker 2: all you care about? And he should be like, woman,
Speaker 2: who do you think pay for all this?
Speaker 1: But again it's it's he also wants to have this facade, right,
Speaker 1: you know, he's like trying to create his own mythology
Speaker 1: a little bit about even just the way I love
Speaker 1: that when she invites him and he just gives that
Speaker 1: silent nah kind of headshake that he's not going to
Speaker 1: join them. But Kira says earlier, you know, I know
Speaker 1: something about you, literally no one else knows, which is
Speaker 1: you're the good guy. He's a good guy. You're the
Speaker 1: good guy. He doesn't maybe even believe it about himself,
Speaker 1: but he is.
Speaker 2: See, if nothing else, I would have liked a sequel
Speaker 2: so we could explain why Chewy loses that second Bandalier.
Speaker 2: I just wanted like two hours of that of Chewy
Speaker 2: like scratching, like it's like uncomfortable, and he just keeps
Speaker 2: wrestling with it, right finally tears it off, and I
Speaker 2: was like, so that's why he doesn't happen right right,
Speaker 2: right now, I get it. So, Brian, is it just
Speaker 2: me or did this movie just fly by?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Yeah, this is like two hours fifteen minutes. But
Speaker 1: I thought about the time once.
Speaker 2: I'm like, holy shit, we're already here. He's about to
Speaker 2: win the falcon again. I love by the way, that
Speaker 2: that when he said fair and square. You know, the
Speaker 2: implication that we now realize is that Lando is a goddamn.
Speaker 1: Cheat, right, Yeah, we see it in the middle of
Speaker 1: the movie. Yeah. Yeah, he's got cards up his sleeve,
Speaker 1: but Hans wise to it now plucked it out of
Speaker 1: his sleeve, and he does win the falcon fair and square.
Speaker 1: By the way, is this the first time Peter Mayhew
Speaker 1: has not played Chew Bacca for like a full film?
Speaker 2: I think, if I'm not mistaken, the last time he
Speaker 2: played Chewy was Force Awakens, Okay, and that was only
Speaker 2: for a portion of it, right, and this this is
Speaker 2: a finish actor.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say his name incorrectly and I apologize, but Eunice.
Speaker 2: It's Yonis Suatomo.
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, he was a professional basketball player. He's six
Speaker 1: foot eleven, yeah, and I guess he was a Yeah.
Speaker 2: He shared he shared it with Peter Mayhew in the
Speaker 2: first one in Force Awakens, and then he took over
Speaker 2: after that.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, he does a good job. I mean, you
Speaker 1: you don't think about it, but the physicality really does
Speaker 1: convey a personality, and I feel like he does feel
Speaker 1: like Chewbacca. I agree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's it's tricky, you know. I mean I said
Speaker 2: before that it wasn't until I watched Rogue one that
Speaker 2: I realized there were certain parts of that performance that
Speaker 2: were unique to David Prow's.
Speaker 1: M m yes, visa b Darth Vader, you know.
Speaker 2: So it is. It's it's not as simple as just
Speaker 2: a toll guy putting on a suit, you know.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: So here we go off to Star Wars Solo too.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, never mind.
Speaker 1: Ah, man, make make the the limited series, come on,
Speaker 1: do something.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know they were talking about doing Orlando
Speaker 2: something or other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's even written.
Speaker 2: I mean, don't you know. I hope some of these
Speaker 2: projects do end up materializing. I think it's a very
Speaker 2: big galaxy, far far away that I would love to
Speaker 2: spend more time. And I think as we record this,
Speaker 2: of course, we're on the eve of Mandalorian and Grogu
Speaker 2: coming out, and if that movie performs, then hopefully we
Speaker 2: see more, you know, yep. If it doesn't perform, then
Speaker 2: well we'll be we'll be coming back on Mike and
Speaker 2: very sheepestly explaining why we well, never mind, but you know,
Speaker 2: this is this was this was fun. I have to
Speaker 2: say that brief window shortly after Disney made the purchase
Speaker 2: and it was like, oh and We've got all these
Speaker 2: stories we want to tell. I mean that was exciting.
Speaker 1: Mm hm, you know.
Speaker 2: And then to some extent the fact that this movie,
Speaker 2: I mean, you must have the access to the numbers, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, what what did this cost versus what did
Speaker 2: it take in?
Speaker 1: Well, estimated budget was two hundred and seventy five million.
Speaker 1: Who knows in the US it gross two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirteen million, so not even to make it special back
Speaker 1: in the US. Yeah, and for a Star Wars film
Speaker 1: in that moment, I mean, The Force Awakens I think
Speaker 1: is the highest grossing domestic movie of all time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at almost a billion. So for this to only make
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirteen million in the US not great.
Speaker 1: Just two years later yep, and worldwide gross is three
Speaker 1: hundred ninety two million.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I mean that's a catastrophe. There's there's no
Speaker 2: way to spin that.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So I mean, what what do we chalk that up to?
Speaker 1: That's a really good question. I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you and I will show up for all of it.
Speaker 2: So I well, I was thinking about how this came
Speaker 2: out a few weeks after Avengers Infinity War, which was
Speaker 2: sucking up a lot of the oxygen, and then you
Speaker 2: had Gadpool two just before this or just after I
Speaker 2: can't remember, but you know, I think most folks don't
Speaker 2: go to movies every week. Yeah, yeah, and you have
Speaker 2: to figure that an Avengers movie is not it. That's
Speaker 2: a family thing, that's like the whole clan goes mm hmm. Right.
Speaker 2: So let's say you're spending one hundred plus dollars to
Speaker 2: take your family to Avengers Infinity War. Do you want
Speaker 2: to do that again three weeks later for a Star
Speaker 2: Wars movie?
Speaker 1: That and also, pretty much up until this point, not
Speaker 1: counting Rogue one, Star Wars was always like, well we
Speaker 1: got to see what happens next. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And this wasn't something that was leading, you know,
Speaker 1: coming off of something or leading into anything next. It
Speaker 1: just felt like this random thing floating around, So maybe
Speaker 1: there wasn't an urgency for it. And on top of it,
Speaker 1: it didn't have any of the faces you associate with Star.
Speaker 2: Wars, right, So that bet that this character you love
Speaker 2: will be enough to get people in the in the
Speaker 2: door that was That was a mistake. We also have
Speaker 2: to reckon with the fact that the last Jedi had
Speaker 2: certainly a polarizing response being generous and oh and this
Speaker 2: came months after That's what I'm saying. This is the
Speaker 2: shortest gap ever between Star Wars movies. It was like
Speaker 2: six months I remember that now, yeah, right, or five months, right?
Speaker 2: I think you know all those factors. I think it
Speaker 2: was like, well, we just saw Star Wars. We didn't
Speaker 2: like the last one that much anyway, you know, I honestly,
Speaker 2: I think Disney got greedy just with the whole the
Speaker 2: whole assembly line nature, where we're just going to be
Speaker 2: cranking these suckers out and dropping them every year. I
Speaker 2: think they overestimated the willingness of of average folks to
Speaker 2: keep showing up. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, spacing it out would have helped a little more patient.
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is like the eternal question. Well, if
Speaker 2: they had released it in December of twenty eighteen instead
Speaker 2: of May, would it have done better? I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I would place money on that.
Speaker 1: Yes, when in case you were wondering, because I was rogue.
Speaker 1: One made a billion at the worldwide box office and
Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty two million North American and that's
Speaker 1: coming a year after Force Awakened. So everybody likes Force Awakens.
Speaker 1: We're high on Star Wars. Waited a year and we
Speaker 1: get another one and you make a billion dollars. But
Speaker 1: at this point we had received more. Like you said
Speaker 1: last Jed, I was a little polarizing. This came out
Speaker 1: just months after. It doesn't have any recognizable faces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so you know, I mean it's at this
Speaker 2: point it's all academic, but I think it's very possible
Speaker 2: it was like four different factors all working in conjunction
Speaker 2: to make people not want to watch it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I don't think it was even like, oh like
Speaker 2: that looks like crap, I don't want to see it.
Speaker 2: I think it was like I'll watch it when I
Speaker 2: watch it, you know, yeah, sure, And you know this
Speaker 2: gets look Marvel was enjoying a very good run at
Speaker 2: around the time this movie did not do well. But
Speaker 2: even Marvel obviously has had its lull, right, And I
Speaker 2: think it just look, everything that goes up is going
Speaker 2: to come down, right, And and you know, scarcity is
Speaker 2: not the worst idea in the world when it comes
Speaker 2: to these things, you know, Like, I think these companies
Speaker 2: need to realize that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, if it if.
Speaker 2: It's something you start taking for granted, I mean we
Speaker 2: talked about this before, right, There's there's been more Star
Speaker 2: Wars content from twenty fifteen to now than our entire
Speaker 2: lives up to that time.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Right, Like there's five movies plus just hours and hours
Speaker 2: and hours of shows, which I know you have not
Speaker 2: seen the majority of not.
Speaker 1: A lot of it. Well, no, right up to a point,
Speaker 1: and then I kind of dropped off. But I was
Speaker 1: watching everything for a while, sure.
Speaker 2: Right, But that's my point. It's not like you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: if this is too much, You're just like, it's just
Speaker 2: a lot. I don't I'm losing track, right, yeah, a
Speaker 2: little bit. And and your fandom of Star Wars is
Speaker 2: not diminished, but it is like I'm you know, I
Speaker 2: don't have time to watch everything, you know, and that's
Speaker 2: that's where a lot of people are. And I think
Speaker 2: that sucks.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't like I missed the days of it being
Speaker 2: a big effing deal when there's a Star Wars you know,
Speaker 2: yea that that was the case for us, you know,
Speaker 2: during the context of the special editions. That was the
Speaker 2: case certainly when the prequels came out mm hmm, like
Speaker 2: like or dislike the movies, and you know, there was
Speaker 2: this is something else, right, there's there's this retroactive thing. Now, Oh,
Speaker 2: the people didn't hate the prequels when they came out.
Speaker 2: That's just made up, like uh, And now people are
Speaker 2: saying that and I'm like that, that's bullshit, like that
Speaker 2: that is factually untrue because I lived it, yeah, and
Speaker 2: not only did I live it, I'm at best lived it.
Speaker 2: And Jake Lloyd lived it yeah, and freaking George Lucas
Speaker 2: lived it.
Speaker 1: Great point, great point. Right.
Speaker 2: So that's this new thing, like because because you know,
Speaker 2: now we have the sequel haters, and so we're gonna
Speaker 2: go through this whole cycle and then we'll see, let's
Speaker 2: touch base in ten years and see where that is.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't even care at this point, but you know,
Speaker 2: it just goes on and on, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But all of this is to say, like, scarcity is
Speaker 2: good because because you want to you want to savor
Speaker 2: the build up. And you know, you and I, over
Speaker 2: the last six months we've had many a conversation about
Speaker 2: how excited or not we're feeling about the Mandalorian and
Speaker 2: Grogu And I'm not gonna speak for you here, but
Speaker 2: I'll speak for me. I'm finally at a point where I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, you know, I'm ready for this, me too. Yeah right, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it took a while, but yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't one of those things where I
Speaker 1: was counting down the days, no since like a year
Speaker 1: ago or anything like that. But now that it's approaching
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait, I think you'll see a new
Speaker 1: Star Wars story in the theater, right, like, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1: So that's that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So anyway, hey, let us know your thoughts about solo
Speaker 2: a Star Wars story, and hell, any of the other
Speaker 2: Star Wars stuff we talked about. I mean, Lord knows
Speaker 2: you and I we don't need much of a nudge
Speaker 2: to start talking about Star Wars.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I want to hear it all. I want
Speaker 1: to hear everyone's opinions. So let us know.
Speaker 2: You can email us at Movie Film Podcast at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com. You can knows I hit like on our Facebook,
Speaker 2: Facebook dot com slash Movie Film Podcast and message us there.
Speaker 2: As always, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review,
Speaker 2: leave a star rating. Every little bit helps. And if
Speaker 2: you are listening to this show on YouTube, please hit like,
Speaker 2: hit subscribe, and leave a comment because we do read
Speaker 2: all of those comments. Hey, we also have a Patreon page, Brian.
Speaker 1: That's right. If you head over to patreon dot com
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Speaker 1: we also drop bonus conversations about twice a month, topics
Speaker 1: and things we like to riff on, and trailer talk
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Speaker 2: And with that on behalf of my partner Brian Holme.
Speaker 2: My name is Zachie Ason. This has been our movie
Speaker 2: film commentary track for Solo, a Star Wars Story. We'll
Speaker 2: catch you next time. Thanks everybody,