Speaker 1: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another Geek First Review episode.
This is GV six seventy nine. Just two of us here.
We started the Runningman journey. If you subscribed to the
Patreon you would have seen the retrospective of the original
running Man starting the great Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we lost
a couple of members along the way. It's just the
two of us. Actually, you weren't even on that episode,
were you?
Speaker 2: I wasn't on that episode.
Speaker 1: Okay, there you go. See you took the place of
the other. The other two members that were there, they
got executed exactly depraved, deceased, demonic I think was the third,
but I think so. Yeah, this time around we have
the depraved and two deceased end of that passion. Taylor Field,
How you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, doing good, Happy to be here. It
was fun seeing this movie with you and your your
elder father, my.
Speaker 1: Elder, senior Patzer exactly, my village elder. Yeah, it was
the Three Amigos. Our theater had, you know, a decent
amount of people in. There wasn't sold out show by
any means, but it was more more seats than I
had seen when I bought my tickets earlier today.
Speaker 2: There were no tickets sold yesterday when I looked, so yeah,
like within twenty four hours it it spiked.
Speaker 1: In like the big theater too. So I feel like
whenever it's like a day away and it's no seats sold,
it's like, oh man, well we'll see how this goes.
But yeah, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be talking about
The Running Man today. We're gonna be given our usual
spoiler free leading to a spoiler section. We'll give a
spoiler warning going to an ad break and unravel everything
about this movie. But before we get to all that,
just a couple of quick things to shout out. We
had our super successful twenty four hour stream this last weekend.
Lots of lots of fun. We raised basically year to
I guess it wouldn't be year to date, it would
be just lifetime total earnings for BC Children's Hospital, which
are local children's hospital over twenty grand, super super awesome,
lots of fun playing games and just laugh and raising
money and it was so shouts out to everyone that
tuned in for that. We had an awesome Weekly Geek
this week with Taylor Field and Travis snell. I hear
I this that episode myself. I was a little away
that day apparently. And then Dylan and I also did
a super fun side quest this week, and my gosh,
what else we got it? Welcome to Darry? Is that
what it's called?
Speaker 2: You got it?
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that show, but you guys are doing
your weekly Did you do a review episode? Also that
day after the stream?
Speaker 2: No, I I put you to the money.
Speaker 1: Don't blame you, don't blame you at all. That was
I was a zombie that after that day after, Yeah,
lots of things dropping on the feeds. Keep your eyes
on all the feeds there. And yeah, I'll mention our
Patreon stuff after we go. Yeah, after we get a
little bit further than the episode. But let's just jump
right into it. Let's start running on this Running Man review.
Diego in the chat? Yo, how's going?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Here we are, Taylor, we watched Did you watch the
RNY one? Even though you weren't on that episode?
Speaker 2: I never saw it before, but I managed to squeeze
it in yesterday.
Speaker 1: Actually all perfect, nice and not a direct sequel by
any means, but it's nice to kind of have a
little inklean of what's I assume that was your first
time see that.
Speaker 2: Was my first time seeing it. Extremely cheesy. I like
those old school iron'd Swarzenegger roles, and I have to say,
I can't, off the top of my head recall any
role Whereunld Schwarzenegger has like a like facial hair and hm.
He definitely was rocking it pretty good.
Speaker 1: He had a little Conan. I think he might have
a little something in Conan. I'm gonna look, but probably not.
He seems very uh yeah, I know, just smooth, smooth face. Interesting, Wow,
the legend of Conan. What is this? Because it's a
movie twenty director Paul Verhoeven, I don't even know if
this is a real movie. This has got to be fake. Yeah,
this has got to be a fake movie. He's got
fatial hair here, but it looks very AI generated and
there's no dates or anything, so I'm gonna say this
is a real movie. So yeah, I think you're right.
I think there's not a lot of projects that he
has facial hair in.
Speaker 2: No, there isn't. And I think he was rocking it
pretty good. Actually, I was quite surprised, but it didn't.
It didn't last long on that in that movie. But
I digress I right off the hop. I mean, I
feel like this one is definitely more my cup tea
than compared to the original, But it was definitely appreciated.
Little easter eggs and the subtleties and one notable easter
egg in the movie, which we'll we'll mention in the
spoilers review, which definitely cracked me up. But yeah, funny thing.
So when I went to the theater, I got there
maybe ten minutes before, you know, their advertised star time,
which is always in Wrecked, so I've been there. There's
two other keys sitting in there, I know, rookie mistake,
I eating my my Twizzlers that I swiped from my
kids saline candy bucket, and uh there's you know, crowd
starts coming in, and there's a guy that walks in
and he's dressed like he's from the universe of The
Running Man kind of and like on the more like
rich side maybe like even more like borderlines borderlines like
Hunger Games, oh like the Capitol fashion. So yeah, he
walks in and he's just he's all alone. And whenever
I'm in a movie theater I see someone walking alone,
I always just kind of like take note of it,
just because I'm paranoid.
Speaker 1: He walks in.
Speaker 2: That now, yeah, it's in there. So he walks in there,
and I don't make direct eye contact with him. But
then I would say, maybe like fifteen seconds goes by,
and then a girl walks in behind, and the girl
is I don't know, like he's a very tall individual
and the girl is very much like shorter, but I
could tell like, okay, she's walking at a pace that
matches his. They're clearly together, and she follows to wherever
he's going, and I leave it at that. I thought, okay,
maybe she went to the bathroom, maybe she was just
taking her time, whatever reason. So they go in. And
then when we leave together at least Syarah goodbyes, and
I get into my my vehicle and i'm driving out.
Then I see him walking and he's like thirty feet
ahead of her. He's walking and belining it to his
vehicle like just a normal pace. And then I see
her walking and she's walking just very slowly, like just behind,
but like thirty feet away, and I just felt like, man,
it's like he did something like she did something to
wrong him, and he's just like.
Speaker 1: He's living farts. The whole movie.
Speaker 2: Well, it just felt really really uncomfortable. Just seems like
there's some relationships.
Speaker 1: That followed them in the mask. What was going on
this guy cuzy business.
Speaker 2: I don't know if she was looking at my jeep
or she knew I was, like I was looking at her,
thinking like, what is this weird dilemma going on? It
was just very very weird. But you know, I like
the people watch when I'm at the movie.
Speaker 1: I always love your pre movie stories. I feel like
you've had some crack and fun for just cars not
being you know, properly parking break Yeah around, no parking stories,
got stories around your movies.
Speaker 2: There's always shit going on in the movies. Let me
tell you.
Speaker 1: Was she dressed like the Hunger Games or was he
just the only lone soldier? He was just completely standing up.
Speaker 2: She was dressed like a goths, like a two thousand
and two thousand and nine, two thousand and eight goth girl.
Speaker 1: Okay, shuts up the Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Don't see many of those anymore. I feel like it's.
Speaker 1: I'm not in there. I don't go to where the
goths like watering Hole is. I don't think I'm a recluse.
I don't get out of the house much except for
to go on on a nice vacation somewhere. But cool. Yeah,
what do you think about reunny Man? Yeah?
Speaker 2: This, You know, I was not overly excited with the trailers.
I thought, Okay, I feel like we're kind of seeing
everything that there is to see. But I have to say,
Glenn Powell was absolutely fantastic in this movie. He was
really selling it and he wasn't trying to be overly
comedic at times too, while I'd say the characters around
him were being the comedic ones, some of them more
so than others, like Michael Sarah and whatnot. But for
the most part, he's just playing a very very serious
character and the circumstances are very comedic. But he was
delivering some emotional moments that I was really jagving with
and I was really just getting attached to him as
a character and his progression forward. Really liked it, And yeah,
I think that the universe that they created and all
these different things they had going on was really really
good and well done. It puts it into a funny
perspective the narrative because there's a lot of similarities with
how they treat certain people in this universe compared to
the original film. But man, with the AI sora chat
ChiPT these days. Fuck, I feel like there's definitely a
very it's an appropriate time to release a movie like
this because I feel like you can definitely see there's
a lot of common themes here with present day stuff,
right like when you see the Stephen Hawking videos of
him doing flips at the at the skate parks.
Speaker 1: Yes, among others. I feel like that was something that
blew me away so much about the original is the
original movie had that, and that's from like the nineties,
before we even had stuff like this. So now, yeah,
you go on Instagram and go on TikTok or whatever,
like you just are always seeing these AI videos. But
like in the nineties, when they have like Arnie doing
these fake AI videos to like just you know, reshape
what he's saying, it was like, oh, that's kind of funny.
But then like watching that movie nowadays, like holy fuck,
they're way ahead the curve, like that's exactly what's happening.
Speaker 2: When I was twenty seventeen, right, like ystopian future that's when.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that was the date that was that was
set in that movie. Yeah, you're trying, right, so, but
like to get those videos now, like we're not even surprised.
It's not even like, oh, look at that technology that
was introduced in this movie. It's just like, oh, yeah, no,
that happens all the time every day. We just didn't
see the Sora filter because they paid for the paid
version of the ad or sorry, watermark not filter. But yeah, yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2: But all in all, like I'm I'm excited to break
it down a little bit more. It's a it was
a dan good time. I don't know if I'm gonna
rush to see it again in theaters or anything like that,
but you know, if it pops up on streaming service,
I could definitely put it on to play in the background.
But yeah, I think what I recommend you to go
see it in the theaters. I think it was definitely worthwhile
to see on the big screen because it's got a
lot of really decent action sequences and a lot of
really fun things too that are going for it. But
oh you know what, if you've only got enough money
for one movie ticket this month, I'm gonna say go
see Pright or Bad lance, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Which I haven't seen yet. You should have told me
that before I saw this, right, which, to be fair,
you did ask me if I had seen it yet
before we watched this movie. We were sitting down the theater,
so you did. You did tell me to.
Speaker 2: Do that, do my diligence?
Speaker 1: Cool? Anything else you want to say for the free Nope,
it's all you me, all right? Yeah? No, I I
was really excited for this movie. The trailers. I think
the first trailer really really sold me, like we're off
the gate, so I was like peauk interest off of
that first trailer. Second trailer it was a little bit
more story stuff and it was like, okay, well I
already bought my ticket, Like I don't really need to
see this this trailer the metaphorical ticket tickets I hadn't
gone on sale at that point. But no, I like
Glenn Powell. I think he's very charismatic and a good lead,
and especially like watching the original Running Man, I'm like,
all right, I just want some crazy out of this
world action with just some goofy character characters. Josh Brolin
being like the main one with like his big fake
teeth and like spray tan thing going on, Like he
looks like a Hunger Games type host, and that's kind
of what I was expecting. I think, I think this
movie is really really great. I or let me refra
I I think it's really really good. I'll say I
think it's missing some things to make it really really great,
but it's still a really fun time. I think Glenn
Powell is phenomenal in this, Like he's just such a
good lead in this in this lead role, like some
of the lines around his character, I don't know whether
it was like some of the stuff with his family,
it was like, Okay, this is not the strongest writing here,
but like he's still really great. Like I am rooting
for him throughout the whole movie. He's just a good
lead in these type of action movies. And then I
see like what he's doing with the what's his name,
it's like Chuck Powers or something like that, that football
show that he's doing. I'm just like, man like, like
why are you doing that type of stuff? Like I
guess he's passionate about it. I think he's like a
producer for the show. But it's just like it's just
I don't know, this guy just has so much talent
that I think it was. I haven't seen Scream Queens.
I heard he's phenomenal in that, but Top Gun Maverick
would have been the big kicker for me. That just
put him on my radar. And I really liked him
in Twisters also, like he's just really charismatic, so I
do like seeing him in things, and I think the
big standouts for me was him. Coleman Domingo is just
like exuding charisma in this. He's just like Aura Farming
the whole film, and it's just working for me. He's
just such a cool dude. Yeah, and I love his
line delivery, I love his outfits. I don't know. His
character wasn't like a super major integral piece of the puzzle,
but he was still really enjoyable to have on screen.
Michael Sarah and then the second characters with Michael Sarah
I really enjoyed. I thought it would be like maybe
too much from the trailers, but it didn't really get
there for me personally. I can understand why some people
might have that pullback, but no humor around him really
really worked for me. And then Josh Brolin was really
really fantastic. I think his character was a lot more
serious that I was expecting, which is like I don't know,
part of me was hoping for like a really balls
to the walls Hunger Games type character of like Josh
Brolin gonna be playing. I think, at like the most
he doesn't get like so crazy, but I think it
fits the overall movie, like like he he exudes like
fear but also like not like yelling, Like he just
has like a certain presence where you don't really know
exactly where his mind's and I think he's a good
antagonist of the movie. So yeah, those were like the
big three I would say that that were standouts for me.
And but yeah, overall, I think the action was really fun.
I think there was some moments I was laughing really hard,
others not so much, Like the humor is just not landing.
I think the third act is might be the like
weakest for me personally. I just feel like we're really
trying to jump through a bunch of extra hoops that
like isn't really necessary, Like it's trying to overcomplicate a
certain like just a story. And I found the First
Running Man to be less simple than I was expecting
and maybe hoping, like I was just like, yeah, let's
just do a Running Man story. But like you know,
spoilers for that old movie. He like starts off of
being framed and then he like escapes jail and then
and then it's like this whole big like arc to
get him just into the Running Man game. And I
guess minor spoiler like, like there is a little bit
of story stuff, but like I feel like we get
into the Running Man portion pretty quick in this movie,
which I was totally down for, but by the end,
it just seems like we're doing a lot of extra
things and it just wasn't the cleanest execution for me.
So a little bit jarring there, but I don't know,
jarring seems too extremely a word. It was kind of minor.
Just just took me out of a little bit. But yeah,
the main meat and potatoes was really fun. Yeah, no,
great action. Definitely would recommend this if you're like an
action movie fan, if you like Glenn Powell, I think
that's also like a big one. I just feel like
he's a certain type of actor that they're like, ohh,
I've seen that guy in Twisters and I just love
him like that, or like top Gun Mavericks, so I'll
like definitely recommend it to those types of people because
he is just really good in this. Yeah, I think
that's kind of all I want to say for now,
So leave it there unless there's anything you want to
shoot into the final I got nothing trying to make
a Running Man fun, but I was it was fleeting me.
All Right, we're gonna take our first ad break here
and then we'll just unpack our all of our our
spoiler free thoughts. But before we get to that, we're
gonna quickly shout out our Patreon because that is the
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we got our patron Producers, which I'll shout out now.
We got Aaron Braiden, April of Darkness, Jack Grant, Sam
Super Bad, Mike Good, gud Loves Me sixty nine, Charlie Mandell,
Clay John with No h and Sam Green shouts out
to all you find individuals for supporting us. The highest tier,
I'll just do everything that we love to do and
talk about, you know, various things. And Travis released a
fantastically edited little sneak preview of what our retros are
gonna be looking like for next year, So definitely get
on that Patreon if you want to be first to
get some of those patreoons or oh my gosh, some
of those retrospectives, because some of them don't make it
to the main field. I was looking into your eyes
and I said field. When I say the main feed, yeah,
very intimate. So yeah, go check that out. But until then,
we're gonna jump to our first outbreaks. We'll bear it back,
all right, Taylor of the fields? Where do you want
to go?
Speaker 2: Mmm? My goodness, where to start?
Speaker 1: Big question. I didn't prepare you for this.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna start with. The first East Egg that
made me laugh was the they called it ND bills.
Speaker 1: Right yeah, And I can't remember exactly what they said,
but it was at first I thought it was just like, yeah, yeah,
who is usually like a president, founding member of society.
Does that mean that like he like that same character
as him? Or do you think it's just a funny
Easter egg? He just I think it's the governor of
California is on the one hundred dollars bill.
Speaker 2: I think it's just a funny East Egg. I can't
imagine that character just well, I.
Speaker 1: Mean I thought he was gonna pop up. Honestly, at
some point I thought he was for sure gonna I
don't know, My mind was going all over places before
the ski mask guy got d mask. Part of me
thought he was rolling the whole time. And then I'm like,
they're gonna do some crazy thing where it's gonna be
like Arnie just daged or something. Please don't do that.
So I'm glad they didn't do that. But you know,
he made a small appearance there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I'm glad they didn't do At the age,
that's some terminator stuff that can stay with Terminator. It's yeah,
it was fun at least striking, and maybe it could
be in the long run a scenario where game winners
become and the hunters and all that crazy shit. Right,
So maybe he did become you know, he was a
game former, game player, and he just becomes someone that's
a prominent person, the president in this new dystopian America.
But what it was the quote it's like good people
don't become presidents, they become runners or something like that.
I can't remember what they were how they described.
Speaker 1: It, remember, but yeah, in this movie they dropped that quote.
Speaker 2: I think I thought they dropped it in this. There
was a lot of a lot of a lot of
one liners and lots of stuff from oh my gosh, I'm.
Speaker 1: Forgetting his name Orwellian type stories.
Speaker 2: Why don't I see his name? You're gonna laugh at
me A Coleman Domingo, Yeah, you.
Speaker 1: Can laugh at Oh, okay, he didn't pop Bobby Thomson.
Speaker 2: Be Bobby t Yeah, Bobby tuh. So many things that
he was saying. It was just it was just making
me laugh. And right off the hop when Josh Berlin's
character is kind of doing this, oh, I want to
help your family, consider this like an investment, you know,
into you or whatnot, sign up for running Man, all
that kind of stuff, And of course it progresses from
there and they just get this like, oh, he killed
these people, he did this, he ditched you know, his
wife was this, you know, works at this clubs and whatnot,
ditches his daughter and all this, and it's like fuck,
they just totally spin it around, and that just really
really made me laugh. And that's where it was like
the AI comparison, right m.
Speaker 1: M yeah, I know they're deep faking throughout the whole thing.
I did laugh in that scene though, it's like and
his wife is working at the filthy whatever bar or
whatever the hell they labeled it. The luck it's some
sort of starian Yeah, yeah, there you go, the Libertarian
And just the way that he said it, especially like
Glenn Pale was already getting heated at the idea of
that earlier on, definitely struck a nerve that one. That
line definitely got me. But Coleman. Coleman's fantastic, and it
was cool to see him in a role where like
you can really just chew up the scenery. That's where
like I just wish he was in it more, even
even for Josh Brolin, Like I think he's fantastic, and
like for the version of the character that we got,
I think it's okay to have the amount, but like,
I don't know, I think I still would have taken
some more scenes of him, like like I don't know,
just like actually behind this behind the scenes of the
running man, uh, just sequences, like just seeing a little
bit more of the planning and what's going on there.
But still, yeah, he was still great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, for sure, Josh Brolin definitely could have
been in some more scenes I agree. I think he
I enjoyed everything with him at the end and the
and everything and him taking control of it and him
spinning the different dynamics and and scenarios and all that
kind of stuff. And what was that one scene? Uh
he he they were live and he said something because
Domingo passed the torch to him. Uh and so he
uh because Bill killing killing killing your Killian Killian, Yeah,
go kill in dank Dan Killian.
Speaker 1: So Dan.
Speaker 2: He was just like, oh, you know, you're a great man.
We're gonna give you the new show, The Hunter's number
six and all that. Welcome to the network. And quickly
he Glenn Palell's character says something really quick and then
you hear the audience member go what he'say, like fuck
you Dan or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. A lot of those little humorous point
moments really really hit for me, just like the little
sidelines colding. Domingo had the one really good one too,
and it's like if you check article forty two, clause
six of my contract, and the guy's like looking because
because like the way that he sees, like holy fuck,
does he have U is here? He'll tell you a
fuck off and then he just walks away. It's like, man,
this guy's just badass. I love it. I don't really
know why they wouldn't have just popped him right there.
It just seems like it's such a shady crew. But
still they're a little inconsistent on their severity of of
ditionelle punishment.
Speaker 2: It seemed mm hmm oh for sure. Yeah, And again
that's just one of the many storylines where Glenn Powell's character,
I don't feel like he's being himself very humorous or comedic,
which I'm glad. I'm glad that they stuck him to
just being this straight up, simple emotional and character, very angry,
very angry, very very angry. And you know, is it
two dimensional?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: What I want to say is it's very He's a
very simple character and he didn't have a lot of
layers to him. And I'm happy about that because it
just kind of made it an easy story to unpack
with him, and it easier narrative to kind of get
point A to point B with him, whereas everything else
around him could be sae and he can be serious
emotional and can also be comedic, like him watching the Americanas,
which is just this weird reoccurring show man there, and it's.
Speaker 1: Clearly a spoof of the Kardashians. That's what I thought.
I only know that because Shae watches that show out
of like just hate watching, and uh it's like literally
the exact same same intro. And then they had like
just a spoof of Chris Jenner walk in, which is
just yeah that that was kind of goofy, like in
a good way. I thought it was.
Speaker 2: So No, why do you think the reason is for
them to be displaying that? Is it just I think
it's like still like a wire people watching this bullshit, Like.
Speaker 1: Why do these people have power in the world? Right,
Like like like what like these types of people that
are just they're just all about themselves and just just
chewing up, uh drama And like even the line right
where it's I'm not even gonna paraphrase it, but it's
just something along yeah, no, I'm not even gonna paraphrase
it's just like the line between the two of them,
and then it's just they're just so like characters of themselves.
That's how it felt, because a lot of the movie
is like it's steeling like social commentary on just the
whole classism and like the corporation, there's like a lot
of like you know, good or bad. There's just a
lot of like yeah America, fuck yeah, like in this movie,
but like the overall health of the nation seems to
be like really dystopian because and even the original Running
Man had that right, like they emphasis. I think there's
like a like a crawl at the start of the
movie kind of telling you about the just just how
much control the government has and it's all tied to
the networks and something like the Running Man is just
it's literally like the I mean they even mentioned in
this movie, like the Roman Colisseum, how it just like
keeps public order in check of just having people watch
violence and everybody just loves it all together. So I
don't know that stuff. I feel like there was moments
where it felt a little too forced, but also for
the vast majority, it didn't really feel too out there,
like it didn't seem like they were doing I don't
know more than what would fit the narrative of the movie.
I felt like everything that was spoken about fit the movie,
even if it is unfortunately uh also relating to some
things in real life. And yeah, no, so I thought
the overall balancing of that was was done pretty well,
could have been much worse.
Speaker 2: M h, yeah, I agree. Uh, you reminded me of
another scene that maybe laugh. I don't want to highlight here.
I want to say. His name was Tim. He was
one of the other one of three of the running people.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and uh, I can't remember his last name,
but yeah, Tim.
Speaker 2: Holy fuck. Like not that I sense like a sense
of like relate relateness to this character, but because I wouldn't.
I don't think I would ever do this shit that
he did. But there's just a simplicity to it that
just really fucking cracked me up. And he reminded me
of like Vigilante from Peacemakers, because he's You're all supposed
to be hiding and going under ground doing all these things,
but no, he's in this story.
Speaker 1: It's just like, hey, you ever see that short running man? Yeah,
that one got everyone in the theater laugh and oh yeah.
Speaker 2: And it's just it made it even better because they
filmed it from the perspective of like you're a viewer
watching the show, you just have you have Domingo's character saying, oh,
our hunters are moving to get him. He's just like,
I'm gonna come back later and ask you this question again, Like,
what the fuck is he doing? What a goofball?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Pretty much a nothing character, right, Like they just
have him in there for humor. I can't remember if
the three different runners, like including Glenn Kyle were shown
in the trailers or not. I thought it was just him,
but like even in the original they have multiple runners,
so that would make sense why they do that. I
was kind of expecting more out of out of these three,
like I'm fine if this guy is just like, yeah,
he's just the quick death. But like, specifically for Katie O'Brien,
I really enjoy I've seen her in I think she's
really great, so I was really bummed that she is
just kind of a nothing character in this, Like she
just fucks fucks off. She doesn't work with Glenn Pale
at all. I was expecting like some sort of team
up at some point, and unfortunately didn't happen. She was
just partying and then it just cuts to her being
burnt alive, and I was like, holy fuck, that's it. Okay,
We're just done with these characters. They're absolutely nothing. So
a little bit disappointing. Not so much for Tim. Yeah, okay,
I'll take the quick, easy death that that was. That
was funny. But then when they go to Katie just
being burnt alive by these children with flamethrowers, it was
not so much funny and just kind of disappointing because
it's like, oh, okays, she's a better actress than this,
and I kind of want to see more of her.
So a little bit bummed out by that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean she's been rising up lately in different
projects and whatnot, so it is it is quite shocking.
And when I saw her, I thought, oh shit, yeah, okay,
we're gonna get some team ups. We're gonna get some
some some stuff.
Speaker 1: It was bad because even like in the opening credits
I saw her name, I'm like, oh fuck, I forgot
she's in this. That's never a good feeling. It's like, Okay,
I can't wait to see more of her in this,
but no, nothing really even William H.
Speaker 2: Macy too, Like I knew he was in it in advance,
but I kind of was hoping that he'd be a
little bit more of a bigger role in here, but.
Speaker 1: No, he just got meat grindered. Yeah, I wasn't ready
for that.
Speaker 2: No, I saw you turn your head Ice. I think.
Speaker 1: I think it was that in the eyeball thing he pulls.
Speaker 2: Yeah behind me, screamed don't Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, he was vocal, he was like, ah fuck, I'm
pretty sure that's that's what he said. The guy behind us,
What was I gonna say next time?
Speaker 2: Could you? Bryan Willie Macy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like the other kind of side characters. I'll
mention here the one guy named Bradley who was kind
of like the internet personality guy who was like criticizing
the whole games. He was the one that helped out
Ben Richards the.
Speaker 2: Apostle or the Michael Sarah character.
Speaker 1: No, the Apostle like the guy that has like the
get up and does like his YouTube videos to hide
his keeps his anonymity, but but helps him out there.
I like his character. I liked how there is just
different people out there that like realize that like, Okay,
just because you have a dollar value on you, like
that's not really gonna help us out, Like they'll probably
just fuck us over, find as guilty doing something. So
like it's not just like straight okay, this guy is wanted,
so therefore the whole universe is after him, like there
is some awareness of just the classism that's going on
in the world and then the corruptness of the network.
I kind of like that, just that little bit of
world building there, So that character was was interesting. And
then yeah, I was gonna go to Michael C. Hall
and yeah, him and his his mom, Michael Sarah, Michael Sarah,
not Michael. Okay, I guess we can go there. Angel Batista, Yeah,
I guess we mentioned that cameo really quickly because he's
easing it even less. But yeah, I was not ready
to see Angel Batista here, coming off the big success
of Dexter. H It's not new Blood was the new
show Resurrection Resurrection, especially that I like, just finished Dexter
and I'm like, hey, I'm never gonna see these characters again,
and then here he is just popping because I don't
think I've seen this guy in anything other than Dexter.
Maybe maybe without really knowing, but still, Yeah, it was
this funny scene in there. He has the little uh
like hr guy I don't even know. He's like a
manager in this factory shop, kind of cold blooded, you know,
no sympathy, really for this guy and his sick child
with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kirkling off guard ladies and gentlemen. He was reacting.
Speaker 1: Soon Batista, God, we gotta turn that video down a
little bit. That's learn Yeah.
Speaker 2: Seeing circle back to the Apostle character. There his his
story popping in with his little brother helping him out.
I really really like that a lot. I thought it
was great. And then Glenn Palell's character was just like, Okay,
I'll help your sister out and all this stuff. And
then like he was showing the mom that he was
a good person, and the mom sees one thing on
TV and totally it's just like, Okay, you're out of here,
Get out of here. Because when he's like, oh he was,
Glenn Palell's character was so invested in his message, and
this is before he knew they were going to distort
the truth. We're like, oh, the network is giving kids cancer.
And then he sends his tape him and then when
they play it and Glenn Powell his characters like those kids, Yeah,
I fucking killed their parents, those kids, and the mom's like,
get it out of my house. It's like, how do
you not how do you believe in this ship? Right?
Speaker 1: Like, hey man, there's people that believe crazier things. It's true.
Speaker 2: That's true. That is very very true. Oh my god.
But yeah, that that cracked me up. And that's when
you get your first daily dose. It was just okay,
they're just like during drinking the kool aid and changing
up the narrative and everything like that. And then yeah,
with Batista's character, I was laughing because that just caught
me completely off guard. Uh, and again I feel like, okay,
he's he's a decent enough name, I'd say. I mean
maybe only I'm saying that because I've watched.
Speaker 1: Nobody would fucking know this guy. If I asked my dad, hey,
you know who that is, you'd say, fuck, no, I
have no idea who that is.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess that's yeah, that's fair. Why he's not
any more scenes or anything.
Speaker 1: He's riding that resurrection wave, man, he is. Yeah, let's
take another break here and then we'll be right back
to keep going. All right, we are back. Anything else
on Batista or the Apostle, I was gonna go to
the Sarah realm not Michael Sarah. Yeah, this was one.
I was like, I was semi interested, but like kind
of worried in the trailers because it just seemed like
he's gonna be just so goofy and like that he's
gonna be a whole character, and spoiler alert, he kind
of is that. But honestly, it fit like it just
hits so much better for me watching the movie versus
the trailer. I think the biggest part about it is
the inclusion of the mom because there's just so much
chaos going on in the sequence. And it's funny. How
you you mentioned that team character remind you of Vigilante.
I agree, Michael. Michael Sarah's character also kind of reminded
me of Vigilante when when he just wants action, he
just wants to kick ass, especially when they go, you know,
in the newer season and they go to the other
realm and he's just ready to fucking take down the authorities.
So I was very much reminded of that when he's
got all his booby traps and he fucking hits the buzzer,
like he like stops his mom from doing it, and
then it's like we're gonna get action and he just
hits it. That was that was pretty funny, And but man,
I love this, like deranged mom character that's deaf, and
there's just so many shots of them, like going around
the house. You just hear her like death cackle from
down the hall, she's watching whatever. It's like, Oh man,
I wish I could just have that character like a
like you know in the war zone days, get that
operator skin where you just get that crazy laugh when
you're doing your execution or whatever. Like it's just it's
just such a funny. Character reminded me of the the
Great Grandma and in Legion, which we always are remembering.
So uh yeah, that that was a really fun sequence
for me. I I think I thought he was gonna
die like really quickly, like after he gets stabbed, but
then they kind of fast forward he you know, he's
he's in like the car chase scene and then he
just gets domed. I I think he, you know, he
had his use. He didn't really overstay as welcome. So
the Michael the hemoseet it again, the Michael Sarah appearance.
I ended up liking a lot more than I thought
I would.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, uh yeah. I I I feel like he
did not over day is welcome. He was in there
for the right amount of time. I thought he was
gonna die sooner when he got killed, like stabbed in
that hallway. But it just caught me up guard when
he got sniped in the head. Uh gave him, gave
hi Glen Powell instructions and where to find this bunker
and it's just a fucking developed areas totally irrelevant now
I'll dug up. So that was funny. But yeah, when
he's introducing Powell and like to his house and just
showing him in, and the moment he walks in and
you just hear the cackle and you see Glenn Powell
like Richard's on the TV on the network, and the
mom is watching it and she's.
Speaker 1: Like, I hope they get that fucker and then kill
What the fuck?
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Everything about that was just so good.
Like when he wakes up in the morning and I
was actively like I was checking the hallway light to
see if it was on. He could see. Oh, he
steps out and the light turns on, and she's like
halfway creeped up, like I knew you were fucking in here,
Like Jesus Christ, this one is a whole fucking ten
right now. It was so funny. But yeah, when Sarah
got just so he got so absorbed in his mission
to like redeem his dad, I guess, and it just
it pulled me out a little bit. But it fits
with the zaniness of the universe too, so I can
let it slide with him being the one to slap
that that button and be like, oh, Ben Richards is
in my house. Uh, And then all the goons come
and he's just having a hell of a fun time
just taking them out with like electrocuting the floor and
the staircase, like it's a whole fucking Kevin McAllister house. Yeah,
like amped up. So I was getting the kick up that.
It was really really funny. Yeah, yeah, So I think
he did a good job. And apparently again with the mom,
that's just what really made it that much better. And
I'm glad the mom wasn't in the trailers because that
was a really and funny surprise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that was That was a great moment. Definitely
probably the funniest for me in the whole movie. Just
those death those death laughs. Man, it's just so terrifying,
like put yourself in Ben Richards's shoes, were like like yeah, okay, Michael, Michael,
Sarah's like, oh, she's deaf, like totally fine, the lights
are off here, totally fine. But then like every moment
she had just like we're gonna fucking kill this motherfucker.
It's like I'd be a little bit nervous too, and
then of course when she confronts him, So yeah, that's fantastic.
A side character that actually got a lot more piece
to the movie, which I was not expecting and didn't
really care for it. Just like nothing against the actress
or anything, but it just was like, where did this
even come from? Is arly? The Actus's name is Amelia Jones.
She played I'm a Emilia Williams or whatever you would
say that name. She was the one in like the
self driving car that he like hijacks and then he
just keeps her like hostage the whole movie. And then
she has like a hero turn and like helps him
out and is like with him to the end. You
know she jumps out of the plane, I guess. But
just like, like why not just have like a character
we've already been introduced to in this role was kind
of my thought on it, just because like it just
seemed like really quickly to be introduced as character. Okay,
she's like a snobby higher up, so blind to the
fact that what's really going on in the world. But also,
you know, play my own devil's advocate. Maybe they wanted
a character like that. It's a showcase like the people
that are well off that are just completely oblivious to that,
because that definitely happens. You know, people get so caught
up in their day to day that they don't really
think about just how others are not doing so well
as them. So yeah, I guess it defend I'm defending
my own point to a certain extent, but still it
just seemed I feel like that was also the part
of the movie where we just had a lot of
stuff going on, like adding on so many extra layers
to like the idea of the running man. Okay, just
survive thirty days and that's it, Like that's really just
what I want. I just want high octane action thirty days.
Let's do it almost like a crank style, like we
don't need any extra juice. It's just these are the rules.
Go fucking play. And then it's just like, oh, but
now we're gonna make you the hunter. You're gonna get real,
Like there's just so many extra layers to make it
more complicated, and I think that's where I just I
wasn't checked out of the movie by any means, but
I was just less gripped by the story and uh
and what was happening there, And because I was going
through those moments, that's when you get introduced to this
Amelia character that I wasn't necessarily vib with no shouts,
no shots against her. I think she was really good,
but just a weird thing to just have in the story.
So it's my little piece there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I feel like if there's a character like
that was introduced earlier on, then it would make sense.
But at the point where she was introduced, it was
definitely like the cusp of the ending of the second act.
Going into the third act, it's like, Okay, here's a
new like main character. She's getting a lot of a
lot of scenes, and she plays a pretty important role
with Glenn Powell's mission here at the end. But yeah,
then they just send her out in the parachute and
she has one last line into the TV like stop
fucking filming me. So it was definitely like she came
as she left as quickly as she came. So yeah,
but I appreciate that they were able to showcase and
maybe it was supposed to be like a foreshadow showing that, Okay,
people can change. Once people kind of break off and
they stop watching that garbage and they kind of just
like get a little bit more taste of reality and
they see things. They see things with their own eyes
instead of watching the TV and being told they're seeing
something in real life and making a decision based on
that information that they see for themselves and how they
interpret it. Which, you know, the network didn't want any
of these public head haun shows to go in there
and get the kills right. It has to be done
on network TV has to follow this certain certain code.
So uh yeah, yeah, I liked I like, I liked
her for the most part, but it definitely story wise,
it was kind of out of place.
Speaker 1: Agreed. I guess the other thing we didn't talk about, actually,
let's talk about the Hunters here. We have like some
character Hunters. I think they have like a set number.
It's like the five Hunters. I feel like they're making
Glenn Pall the sixth. A lot of emphasis on on
Lee Pace's character Evan McCone. Apparently that was his name,
I don't know, the Ski mask guy. I had a
lot of yeah, as I already mentioned, just theories of
who was gonna be behind the mask. I feel like
when the reveal happened, I was just like, oh, okay,
Like I don't know that like should have should have
had a bigger effect maybe, like maybe they should have
shown like I did like the reveal that he was
the original runner from season one that made it twenty
nine days kind of had one of those thoughts bounce around.
I'm not gonna say I figured it out, but it
just seemed like a likely scenario, especially when it wasn't
Arnie or you know, it wasn't Josh Brolin. It's like, okay, yeah,
this guy's probably just the og runner, which he was.
I don't know. I found their boss battle to you
like a little bit anti climactic, but it was okay,
I guess for for the overall story. Yeah, yeah, I'll.
Speaker 2: Say it was climactic as well. It definitely was just
you know, it was on a plane, and I thought
it was clever to him doing the parachute stunt. But yeah,
it wasn't anything to really write home about.
Speaker 1: Remind me of like Alien or like Alien four specifically
when like the hybrid gets sucked out in the space. Yeah,
I was waiting for him to just get sucked out,
but no, they didn't have that. Yeah. Something else I
was gonna say was what was I gonna say?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Uh, the other your Hunter character, the one that stabs
Michael Sarah and he's like, I'm slash your achilles. Yeah
you mind him? I like, okay. It's one thing for
Ben Richards to want to like say fuck you to
the network, like I'm not going to execute this guy
in front of the camera, like for your own show.
So he turns and shoots the camera. It's like a
big cool moment there. But like at the same time,
if he kills his hunter, doesn't his family get like
an extra like ten grand or something like why would
he not just do that if this guy's already chasing
him And then literally like three minutes later they have
this like fucking a Night's Tale jousting match on the bridge.
It's just like this is so bizarre to me, Like
I don't know, like he's already killed so many people,
just fucking execute this guy who's like already like a
psycho killer. He's hunted him down all the times. It
just seems so unnecessary for him to not kill him
there and then to just kill him afterwards with the
giant pipe bombs and the jeep.
Speaker 2: I'd say circumstances changed. Michael Sarah gets killed at this point,
and so maybe there's a few things to just kind
of change change for him. But I do agree.
Speaker 1: They do try to like build up that he's like
a hero character. You know, he's been he's been fired
because he saved a guy on like the oil offshore
oil rigs that like fired me because they broke the harness.
Just just like oh yeah, just grimy fucking business deals.
But like at the start, when he's going to training
day essentially, and he's like in the lineup and this
guy just like coughs up blood passes out, and he's like,
we had a fucking doctor over here. Like it just
seems so random that this is happening, and they just
they just and this guy's just immune to electricity. He
just fucking palms all these electric batons and like they
just beat the shit out of him. He's like back
to the line and that's all that happens. So it's like, Okay, yeah,
that was a necessary little detour there. Uh it was
kind of goofy to me, but I guess they're putting
the point across. He's a hero. He's a good guy.
But yeah, he's no problem killing many people after the
fact there, which I guess wasn't all his fault. Right
when when they're in the house that explodes, he's like,
he takes a quick moment and say stop shooting. The
house is gonna blow. It's like, hey, these guys are
not fucking listening to you, like they're they have fucking
memories bring back memories in their air pods as they're
just mowing down with their giant machine guns in this
house right now.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Man, I heard that song the other day in the wild,
and I was like, I kind of forgot that was
a real song because I just think of the fucking
Venom Venom three outro. But yeah, memory memories bringing back you.
Speaker 2: I won't forget you, buddy.
Speaker 1: What's so echoey?
Speaker 2: It's because we got the two previews going on, so we.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know it screws with you. I won't forget you, buddy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I mean we're kind of just bouncing places
to places I'm going I'm gonna keep bouncing here. Uh.
I didn't really talk about too much the opening with
his family. I I thought him and his his his wife.
Jamie Lawson is the actress's name. Who is she in Marvel?
Is she a Marvel character? Like? Is she like Photon
or whatever her name is? Spectrum?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 1: Let's she looked really familiar.
Speaker 2: She's in The Batman, She's in Sinners.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's see. So in the Batman she's the president.
So we just saw her in Sinners. But I thought
there was something else.
Speaker 2: We just saw her in The Woman King.
Speaker 1: Okay, she's really good. Not a lot of stuff for
her to do in this movie, unfortunately, but yeah, I
don't know. I thought they still a good chemistry. And
this is where like, Okay, it's pretty quick for him to, oh,
my child's sick, can't do too much. I'm gonna go
do the Running Man, and like there's so much emphasis
on like, oh, I'm not gonna do the Running Man.
I just do a different game show, which was reminding
me of White Men Can't Jump and Woody Harrelson's girlfriend
in that movie. That's like all about the wheel of
fortune that they just give me that vibes because he's
like studying the games. But it just seemed like one
of those things where it's like, Okay, the movie's called
Running Man starring Glen Palell. We know he's gonna be
the Running Man. Why are we fucking doing this dance?
Just get him on the Running Man. So I even
though he was short, I still was like, man, this
isn't short enough. Just give me the Running Man. I
felt similarly to the original one and this one. So
that's just my thoughts on the structure of the Runnyman there. Nice. Nice.
Speaker 2: I don't think I have anything really else to that,
to be honest.
Speaker 1: Any big action set piece scenes that stood.
Speaker 2: Out to you, ah, my goodness.
Speaker 1: I did like the scene when he's he gets like
the hotel and then he flees like boss or something
gets the grimy hotel and there's like that homeless guy
out by the like the mailbox is just going crazy,
and then he just like keeps looking up in the window.
That was a pretty freaky little moment there. And then
he goes and checks again and it's buddy, it's emin
him just looking at him in the window. Uh. He
was just really selling it. Man, he was. He was
fucking crazy. He was, he was pulling it off.
Speaker 2: But yeah, and I like that scene. I like that lot,
and definitely freaky, considering that just at any point they
can just fucking get you. And how they were just
lighting up outside his door. He noticed that they were
coming and everything like that, And yeah, him just being
but ass naked and hanging off the y up on
the roof and him going down trying to get back
into his room and get his gear, like he learns
as he goes. But even staying at that fancy hotel
for as long as he did that, I was just
freaking out thinking about that, like God, damn, you gotta
you gotta keep moving. But he played it smart, like, oh,
sign me up for three more days of this hotel.
But every time he didn't send a letter, they were
always on him when the show was about to start streaming,
right our show was about to go live.
Speaker 1: Because I had to do them daily. So that tells
me that he wouldn't have missed one. I don't think
he did.
Speaker 2: But the last time he did one, we didn't see one.
After he went he's supposed to go to the bunker
and he was in the development and he put the
envelope down. He's like, you nail it for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's the last one that he did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a good little moment there. Uh. It
seems like such like a hard thing to do, like
because people could just fucking camp the mail boxes, you know, and.
Speaker 2: I think that's what they do, right, and they's already
aerosol thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's already so like so hard. It's it's literally
like playing Warzone and you get the most wanted bounty,
you know, and then you're just running till you till
your squads revive. Like that's that's literally what this game is.
The cards are not in your favor. But yeah, that
that was an added step where I'm like, fuck, this
is hard enough. Yeah, hey, what's your strategy? You don't
have to, you know it, give deep specifics, you know,
if this is really real and you're trying to keep
it close to chess, But have you thought about it?
You get twelve hours head noticed. I think they gave
you the change of clothes and all your gear that
you need to do your mailing videos.
Speaker 2: Twelve hours. I could make a dent for sure. I would.
I do the pre recording stuff, and I would find
someone I could trust to drop these things off.
Speaker 1: I think that's the play boxes, getting people to drop
them for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just got to make sure you can hold
out somewhere for thirty days, which I've got a couple
of places that I know too where I could I
could hold out. But uh, yeah, it's getting the layers
in the mailbox that's gonna be the most hardest part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like I get it, he like lives in
the city, so like he's he's going off city strategy strategies.
We're pretty spoiled here in the BC Wilderness. I'm like, fuck,
I could just go in those deep woods and no
one's gonna fucking find me. Sam squanch is gonna find
me before these fuckers find me. I'm gonna come out
of the woods my billion dollars and my my bigfoot
Pelton and uh we'll be rocking because it just seems like, yeah,
you just go to somewhere super isolated and you're totally fine.
But key thing is, uh get those mail boxes. And
we all know Canada Post is striking every fucking day
here up in Canada, so my mail probably wouldn't even
get delivered. And I probably won't get any money, but that's right. Yeah,
and I will say too, like the little training montage
I did enjoy. It was a little like Wipeout and
Fuse with some MXC and fuse with some like squid
game type type things where they have like their get ups.
I've found it funny how they like going to get
their track suits and it just has like the game
show that they're going on, like on their on their
jackets on the back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I did like that portion of it, the
little training montage sequence which he was killing it. You know,
he would be the running man. He won like every
competition I think they showed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he sure.
Speaker 1: Did all right. Closing thoughts Taylor.
Speaker 2: Closing thoughts paralleling what I said at the start. I think, yeah,
you could see this in theaters, but if you only
have enough money to go to one movie this month
in the theaters, I go see Right or bad Lands.
I think Glenn Powell was an absolutely knockout in this movie.
I think he was definitely bringing.
Speaker 1: He's looking fine too when they had him in that bathrobe. Shreds.
Speaker 2: Yeah and yeah. Shout outs obviously to Domingo and Josh
Brolin and then all the other characters and cast members
in here, because I think that they definitely were able
to do a good job at building this universe iuort
of building this world and really selling it while it
being a bit zany and dystopian, I still really enjoyed it.
And yeah, I think my only con really would be
the what was my con that I had earlier?
Speaker 1: Sorry, I don't remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't remember either, but I know it's there.
I know there's a con. Yeah, I would say if
you could go see it in theaters, like I said earlier,
but this is one I'm not going to be revisiting
in theaters. Is the one I'm gonna wait and probably
put on the background is just some filler noise or
something when it comes to streaming, or I'll put it
on and I'll get it, get a watch it with
my wife whatnot, because I think there's parts of it
that she would enjoy. Obviously there's a lot of gory
parts that are graphic. But in terms of rating, I
think I would go a seven and a half out
of ten. I feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, seven and a half very reasonable. Oh gosh,
I think I'm gonna go seven point seventy five here,
not quite to an eight might be a little bit lower,
but uh and I said this, there's like a good time,
really solid, good action flick like like like nothing that
really brings down other than like the third act, and
I think across the board there could have just been
a little bit of extra pizaz to it. I don't
really know what that is. I think just a little
bit more flavorful uh script, maybe as blanket as that sounds,
not very specific there, but yeah, I just wanted more
of Rolin, more of Domingo, more like maybe less of
the family, and like more of some other stuff. So
I think I just needed some rearrange of things, even
though I did like the overall pieces that were there,
and by the third act, when they were just really
trying to over complicate things, like I don't need this,
Like you could have literally just have him doing the
running Man and then he just he just gets more
cohorts that help him out to the point that like
he still has his little revolutionary thing that's like brewing
as it's going on, and it's it's not you know,
the fucking fighter jet that's going into the building and
then they say they're gonna defend it with a miscule,
and then it just cuts to black and then he
just survives somehow and it's like the Joker to or
something where he just has all his revolutionaries everywhere. Yeah,
it just seemed way too much for not really a
good payoff there, So I think that's why I'm I'm
down in the sevens but still seven point five, you're
seven point five. We definitely both enjoyed it enough, and
uh it's good theater flick, good popcorn movie, and uh yeah,
I'll definitely put this on at some point in the
future when I get it on streaming. It's just there's
some fun moments in it for sure. Nice already, folks.
That is all we have today for The Running Man
spoilers GV six seven nine.
Speaker 2: Sacks, some sacks.
Speaker 1: Episode seven nins. I don't really know what we have next,
so until then we will see either. Bye.