The Star Trek Episode

Star Trek, Nathan Fielder, and James Bond

Austin Lugo: All right. We are back another week, another movie. What have you been up to, Andrew? Not watching movies. on that Star Trek train? I'm still,

Andrew Harp: yeah, I mean, it's 170 episodes. So Where are you at in

Austin Lugo: the world of Star Trek? I just started season five. Okay. How many seasons are there? There's seven. Oh, so you're quite well into it.

I mean, you're close.

Andrew Harp: I think the last time we talked I was on season three. Yeah. Star Trek is just one of those shows where it's just like, I'll watch several episodes in a night. Lately, work has been like really annoying and really kind of, you know, frustrating . Yeah, and I just haven't really felt like watching movies or even going out to the movies because.

It's just like too much work lately. So there's like no time to like go and see a movie on a weekday, but like when I watch Star Trek, it's like slipping into a nice hot bath. You know? You just can kind of like luxuriate in it and feel it's warmth and comfort. It's so comforting. I love it. And season three was a great season.

Season four, I would characterize as amazing, amazing episodes in season four. Like just like in T n g. There was an episode in DS nine that made me cry a lot. Wow. It made me cry throughout the whole episode. That's wild. I mean, star Trek is that good? Dude, it's a rollercoaster experience. The season finales of like season three and season four are amazing.

Great season finales and season five has been off to a good start. I just love it. Like it's such, just such a good ass show. I mean, this podcast is basically now turning into a Star Trek discussion podcast now. It's like two guys, but only one guy has seen it. Yeah, . Yeah, so it's like not really a discussion, but once again, I love DS nine.

I love all the characters and it's one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. I would say it's about as good as t and g, but they're both very different, so it would depend on a person's preference, even when the show is bad. Which it can be for sure, cuz it's 170 episodes, so of course, right. There's some deads that are like boring or weird or, or inconsequential.

But even when it's bad, it can be kind of fun to laugh at and watch. It's only a 45 minute long episode, you know? When it's done, it's like, well that was only 45 minutes, whatever. Onto the next thing. Yeah. And then the next episode you watch, oh, it's an amazing episode. It's perfect like . So gonna keep powering through.

I don't know what I'm gonna do after DS nine. I'll either watch Voya. Which is the next nineties Star Trek show. Yeah. So there's like three 90 Star Trek shows, there's tng, there's DS nine, and there's Voyager. They're very easy to remember, by the way, because all three of those shows are seven seasons long and they all have around 180 episodes each.

Wow.

Austin Lugo: Wild. That's incredible. So

Andrew Harp: once DS nine is done, I might start watching Voyager. Let's see if that clicks with me. Voyager has an interesting idea where it's like a crew is on like a Voyager class star. I think they accidentally go into a wormhole and they find themselves like hundreds and thousands of light years away from everyone.

Oh shit. They're basically in an area space that's never been explored before, so they have no idea where they are and it would take years to get back to where they were. So they're basically stranded and that's like the idea of that series, which is very cool. DS nine, their thing is that they're on a space station, although lately they've been leaving the space station a lot to go do things.

They're on a space station that's surrounded by a lot of interesting things that I won't get. And T N G is just kind of like the original formula where they're on the Starship and they're traveling around. So I either might go to Voyager or I might try to watch the original series again. Cause if I watch the original series, then I wanna watch all the movies.

There's a lot, there's like what, like five or six original series movies and I think there's like three or four T and g movies. Yeah. Which I've heard are not very good , but I still

Austin Lugo: gotta watch 'em. I've heard most of the movies aren't that good. Yeah. You know the

Andrew Harp: original series movies I heard are, are.

Not all of them , and then the TNG movies watch some reviews of the TNG movies. And it seems like maybe the people that made the movies maybe didn't understand the show. Yeah,

Austin Lugo: well I think it's challenging because it's a economically different and it is also just like story wise, right? You have to tell like entire story in two hours instead of having the ability to, you know, Dozens of episodes to tell a longer story.

So I think it's just challenging.

Andrew Harp: That's not necessarily true though, because the, that's the thing about Star Trek. In a 1 45 minute episode, you can introduce new characters and you can have an amazing story about them in an amazing arcs, you can have amazing stories, brand new characters that are introduced within a 1 45 minute episode.

So when Star Trek, you see it many, many, many, many times. So with the movie, it should be easy to do because now you have even more time. But they don't really do that. They're more actiony, which it's a movie, so it's like, oh, it has to have more action. Right? You gotta pay for all this stuff. Yeah. They kind of lose that kind of the heart of what Star Trek is about, which is not really the action.

But anyway, that's what I might do after I finish DS nine.

Austin Lugo: Well, speaking of great television, I finally watched a show I've been wanting to watch for a long time, which is Nathan Fielder's, the Rehears. , have you seen this yet? Yeah, I've

Andrew Harp: already seen it. Yeah. I'm surprised that it took you forever to watch

Austin Lugo: it.

It took me forever to watch it because when it originally came out, Emily didn't wanna watch it, so I had to find time to watch 45 minute, two hour long episodes by myself, and I didn't want to be like what I do with the wire, which I turned it on when I'm working because. Well, Nathan Fielder is one of the grades I've seen pretty much everything he's worked on or produced or directed, and I think he's an incredible writer and director and wonderful in everything he does.

So I needed to be able to focus on just this, and luckily this week Emily worked a lot, which means I had some free time outside of watching movies to watch the rehearsal, and it's fucking insane. Oh my God. Yeah. It's a really good show. The first episode. Follows the sort of original premise, which is what I assumed the show was gonna be about, which is every episode he kind of finds a person and basically rehearses whatever a scene, and he basically does.

The sketch. He did a Nathan for you at the bar where he Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hires a bunch of actors to like repeat a scene over and over again and first episode's great. He finds just like the strangest human beings, he's really good at it. His ability to utilize Craigslist is wild. Like the things that people will do is insane.

And the first episode's funny and touching at the episode, you're like, oh, that was good. That was fun. Like I had a good. But nothing spectacular about the first episode. I mean, it's good in itself and it's creative, but, uh, nothing to cry home about, as it were. And then in the second episode, He starts what becomes the entire show, which is the rehearsal of raising a child, which is just the wildest idea I've ever, it's so funny.

Andrew Harp: It's so funny. It's so funny, so involved. I love like them, like moving the kids around and stuff like as they age.

Austin Lugo: It's very funny because of course when working with child actors, especially babies, they can only work for a very limited amount of time. Right. Nathan Fielder being Nathan Fielder. He makes it the most involved process it can be.

So he does it all in secret, right? He's like secretly handing them off and all this shit going through Windows and I mean, he gets like 40 real child actors to fucking, yeah, it's fucking . It's wild. And he finds this woman who, again, just a. However he finds people. I don't know how that process works.

Andrew Harp: It's just like a crazy person.

He just finds the craziest

Austin Lugo: people. Yeah. I guess you could describe these people as crazy. I mean, yeah,

Andrew Harp: I'm being kind of, I'm exaggerating. Yeah. Yeah, he's crazy. Nathan Fielder's crazy. That's the point of the show, is that he's crazy.

Austin Lugo: And of course he plays it up, which if you hear him like talk about in interviews, like he's not, I mean he's an awkward individual, but he's not to that extent.

That's

Andrew Harp: what I figure. He's playing a character. It's a reality show. Like And Nathan, for you, he plays a

Austin Lugo: character like Yeah, exactly. I remember he once had a conversation with, Someone else who was doing something similar, they were making a show that was basically about themselves, but the idea was what if we just like went to 10 on all of your anxieties and fears?

Like what if you were just like the most version of yourself, which is kinda Nathan Fielder's whole thing in all of his shows. Like he's being just like the most version of himself in all of the bad ways I. And he starts this process of raising a child and so involved and so insane. And the episode ends.

I'm like, well, that doesn't make sense. Like almost nothing has happened. Like very little happens in the episode. I'm like, like, how is that the end of the episode? And of course you learn that in all the subsequent episodes, Nathan Fielder decides to be personally involved in the rehearsal. Yeah, it's so funny.

And the woman agrees, which she doesn't really. And you can see like when she, when he's not around, that she doesn't actually care about the process much. Like she just wants to kind of live in like this really nice house in Oregon and not have a job or do anything. Yeah. She's there for like a super long time.

I mean, it's probably like months and months and months that she's there, like, yeah. Fucking forever. So, you know, she dedicates a good part of her life to just living at this fancy house, not having a job, just being there and. I'm really intrigued by the power dynamic and Nathan Fielder kind of points us out cause he is like, I am in a place of power, like this is my show.

And so like when he asks her, she says she doesn't care. But I feel like part of her is like, if I want this to happen, like I kind of have to say yes cuz like, what would happen? She said no. Yeah. And Nathan Fielder seems like a, a nice human being and I'm sure he would just go on with it, but it is an awkward place to be in.

He kind of recognizes that, but at the same time he kind of doesn't recognize his place of power and you kind of watch him devolve into taking over this rehearsal. Yeah, that's pointing the show pretty much. And my favorite scene is when he has to call all of the parents and explain to them the situation because with child actors there's a lot of legal complications that go with it, and a lot of permission you have to get from a lot of different people.

So you have this five minute segment where he's just calling every single parent. Mm-hmm. . And he goes like, through this like decision tree. It's very interesting and it is just this very powerful moment where you're kind of watching him realize what's going on. And one of the challenging things about the work that Nathan Fielder does, He is playing a character, but the best moments in these shows is when he's willing to be vulnerable and I think in the rehearsal he can be extremely vulnerable, especially towards the end.

And he does a couple other rehearsals. There's the great episode with the Fielder method, which is probably one of my favorite episodes. cuz he goes to Los Angeles. And he basically convinces a bunch of actors to attend his class, as it were, which is silly in itself. But then he starts to recreate and relive one of the actors, and he just goes full out, right?

He does the whole nine yards. It's not just like he attends the first day. He attends the second day, and then he takes a job, but then he also does a rehearsal

Andrew Harp: at the

Austin Lugo: rehearsal, and then he comes back, and then he basically starts the rehearsal over, which is again wild that the woman agrees to be part of.

And then he starts rehearsing, having conversations with the other woman in the rehearsal because it's a very, yeah, weird relationship between the two, as it would have to be. I mean, it's, it's a very strange situation. He starts rehearsing that and by the last episode, or before the last episode, the second to last episode, cuz he decides to raise their pretend child as Jewish, even though she.

As many people point out, she might be a bit anti-Semitic a little bit. Yeah. She's still one the best she can. I never wanna be curled to any human being, but she may have some problems with the Yeah. Jewish faith. Yeah. One of the episodes it's called Apocalypto, cuz of course her favorite director, . It's milk Gives, which is disturbing for so many reasons.

He's my. Yeah, it's true. So she leaves, which makes sense because he basically starts the whole process over and she's probably been there for like fucking, I mean, months and months. And then the last episode, he explores the very problematic nature of child actors, which is something. When I was in film school, that was a really big conversation.

There weren't a whole lot of conversations. We talked. Safety on set and that sort of thing. But when we had those conversations, the big things were making sure everyone is safe, and then also working with child actors because there's some very ethically complicated things about working. With kids because I mean, they're kids, their brains aren't fully developed.

They don't quite grasp the world in the way adults do. And you see that with one of the kids who doesn't have a father. You can make the

Andrew Harp: argument that like maybe kids shouldn't, uh, be actors.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, I mean, I've had discussions with other filmmakers and, ugh. I don't know how I feel about it necessarily. I think it's, I mean obviously this is extra complicated and maybe I can understand why Nathan Fielder feels so guilty and he should be forgiven, but also maybe what he did wasn't the best thing.

I mean, it's one thing to hire child actors and you know, pretend to be their dad, but, and you can see 'em kind of face. Accounting for maybe not hiring child actors who don't have a father. . Yeah, . I mean, he had a ton of 'em, right? There's like 40 kids. So you know, one of them not having a father I guess was almost inevitable, of course.

But I don't know. I'm pretty split on the issue of child actors. I mean, at times it does seem rather exploitative, especially when we're talking like sitcoms and that sort of thing. We've seen so many examples of child actors whose parents just fucking steal all their money and basically live off their kids' funds, which is really shitty.

But on the other hand, I mean, if a kid loves participating in these kind of things, you don't want them to not do it. I mean, it can be a, a very fulfilling thing for kids or anybody. So, I don't know. I mean, I've never worked with kids on a set before. All the films I've done and worked on have not involved children.

No, that's not true. Your baby's

Andrew Harp: sister , which doesn't count Well,

Austin Lugo: sh I took a picture of her. She's not even in the film. Yeah, . That's a good point. Yeah. She's in a picture. She doesn't act in the film. And then the only other set I worked on that did have a kid in it, I was the ad on it, so I didn't direct the film, so I never directed anything.

I had a kid in it and I don't, I don't know if I ever will. It's like a toss up. It's like It is. It's

Andrew Harp: complicated. You could talk about it all day, every day, and there's really no right or wrong

Austin Lugo: answer. Yeah. A long story short, strongly recommend rehearsal to anyone who hasn't seen it. Yeah, it's a good s show.

How to John Wilson. Always great. How to is also good. Is there gonna be another season of how to Probably right? I think so.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. I hope so. It's good. I think it's successful enough. Mm-hmm. , you didn't finish the Wire? I'm

Austin Lugo: on the final season of The Wire. Wow. Almost done. I'm almost there. I mean, it takes a long time cuz they're 45 minute episodes.

Well, no, they're closer to an hour long episode. And then there's 13 episodes per season and just a lot of shit goes on. Season four is good. Yeah. I still don't quite get why people love it so much. I mean even, yeah. I'm on the final season, so

Andrew Harp: we didn't talk about season four. I think you were on season three when we last talk.

Austin Lugo: So season four is all about the children. It's all about the kids. It takes place in the school. It's very. Interesting and intriguing. And one thing that is very impressive about the Wire is how well researched it is. I mean, they clearly do a shit ton of research and they understand the legal system and the school system to the nth degree, and I'm very impressed by that.

But sometimes that can be a little boring at times. Yeah. Mcn. Is almost not in the show at all. He's maybe in one episode, but they've basically cut him out of the show and it spends a lot of time with kids. Kids are actually almost the entire season. Funny enough, it's almost all kid actors. Yeah.

pretending to sell drugs and, uh, murder people and all that kind of shit. That's cool. . But it's definitely my favorite season so far. . I love all of just the complications that come with schools and kind of the shady ways in which schools participate in things. Yeah. A lot of different perspectives. You see kind of perspective from like child psychologists, from school attendance, from teachers to the mayor is still like a big part.

Like you have the guy who's, uh, running for office at the beginning of season and then wins halfway through the season and like just the complications of. A city, mayor of a city like Baltimore has to deal with and how they basically, whatever decision they make, like someone's gonna hate them, like no matter what they do,

Yeah. Like there's no good decision ever. It's just a like series of bad decisions they have to make. And that's just the job, as it were. It's good. I like it. I just started season five yesterday, so I'm only on the first. just started it. I know the final season's about the press, which seems intriguing.

I'm looking forward to it. Uh, there were no wire taps in the fourth season. By the way. They've kind of abandoned that entirely. There's no, I don't even think there's a wire tap in the third season. They're over wire taps . Yeah. There's not even like, In the fourth season, there's not really any investigation taking place.

I mean, there's involvement with like the police, but there's no like big investigation. They've kind of abandoned that, and I think that's with the fifth season too. Like they're, well, I don't know, they might go back to it, but. because the thing about the first, second, third season is like at the end of the season, you know, they, each season they have a different office.

At the end of the season, they'll like gather all their boxes, you know, of all the reports that they made and they'll turn off the lights and they'll step outta the room. Yeah. But, uh, they don't do that in season four. There was no big investigation that season, which I liked better, honestly. And season five, I mean, this is it, this is the final one.

I'm interested to see how they wrap it. I probably never would've watched the show if it wasn't on in the background. I wouldn't say I don't recommend it to

Andrew Harp: people. Would you even watch the show if it wasn't considered one of the greatest shows ever made? You know,

Austin Lugo: no. I probably never would've turned it on.

I mean, getting through the first season and even second season, it's such a slog that I question if it's worth. . I mean, honestly, you could probably just go to the third season and it would take some time to figure things out, but I don't know. Maybe there's something there. I think it could be done. I think if you're like, I kind of wanna check this show out, but I don't know if I like it.

Maybe just start with the third season and see if you like it, because the season's like, yeah, it's the same characters, but you really don't need to watch them in order. I mean, if you watch them outta order, it's not that big of a deal. So if someone was to skip the first two seasons, I think you'd be fine.

I think you'd have a little catch up to do, especially at first, but once you figure out who everyone is, like, eh, I think you'd be fine. Yeah, I don't know. Okay. It's okay. Yeah. I don't have a whole lot to say about the wire, honestly. I mean, I, it's fine that it's on probably. , but it's definitely overrated. I think my next watch is probably gonna be Seinfeld because I want something funny.

I want something short. And even though I watched Seinfeld a lot as a kid, I love Seinfeld. I probably haven't actually seen that many episodes. Like I never sat down and watched We, we Seinfeld, we started

Andrew Harp: watching it again when they put it on Netflix and uh, we, we kind of stopped. There's never a bad time to watch the

Austin Lugo: show.

Yeah. I feel like it's a great show to have in the background. Cause it's a pretty, I mean, it's a talk heavy show, right? It's, it's mostly a talking, I mean, is a

Andrew Harp: Yeah, it's sitcom. That's right. Yeah. Um, you've never seen Curb, right?

Austin Lugo: No. Haven't seen Curb yet either. Which I know you've talked about a lot and we've talked about the podcast.

Yeah. I talked about before. Yeah. Curb is really good. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Curb, I don't know. Your Seinfeld curb would be, For sure if you don't wanna laugh, track

Austin Lugo: Curb is good. I know that's, that's part of the reason that I haven't gotten to Seinfeld before is Laugh

Andrew Harp: Track's annoying, but it's still a good show. Yeah, despite the kind of anti antiquated

Austin Lugo: of it, antiquated, getting the left tracks is is hard for me.

Life tracks can really put me off a show, but I know how great everyone says Seinfeld is. I know how much you love. It shows so

Andrew Harp: fucking good shows. Yeah, it's so funny. lot. I'm more age don't like it. I've met a lot of people our age that just really do not really care about the show or hate it. I think it's lame or cringey or something like that.

And I completely disagree. I think the show is still, I, we we'll watch it sometimes and I mean, we laugh so much. Like it is such a good, funny show about really stupid idiots. Like that's really what, it's really just like, it's really just like a show about like stupid people. And Kir Beer Enthusiasm is, is a show about a stupid person

Um, and it's just, yeah, I, I lo, I really, really like those.

Austin Lugo: Larry David. So I'm gonna get into it. I think it'll be nice because the last couple of shows I've had on in the background, breaking Bad Better Call Saul The Wire, are all very serious shows. I mean, better Call Saul a little bit less, but even still, I need a show that's less serious.

I need something a little bit lighter. It's too much seriousness to my. . I just need to,

Andrew Harp: there's probably no other sitcom that's worth watching than Seinfeld. I can't think of another show show like that where I'm like, yeah, you gotta watch it. I mean, like, there are shows that are similar like Aesa development and stuff like that, that are great.

But I mean, which 10 10 Perfect show. We've, we've, we've all seen these shows, you know? Yeah. So, uh, . Yeah.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. I don't know. I feel like Seinfeld is definitely a big empty spot for me. I mean, obviously you can't be a kid. Raised in the early two thousands and not have seen that show. I mean, yeah, like my dad love

Andrew Harp: my dad's a he loves that show.

Yeah. He would have

Austin Lugo: a all on all that. Yeah. Every dad does. I don't think there's a dad in the world that does every, that

Andrew Harp: show. Every, yeah, every dad love. Yeah. It's a dad show for sure. Oh my God. I love that show. . I, I need, I should get back into it when I get the chance, but yes, once again, I'm Star Trek

Austin Lugo: build.

Star Trek .

Andrew Harp: Yeah. There's probably like a Star Trek episode in Seinfeld that I'm forgetting.

Austin Lugo: Probably. Yeah, I'm sure there is. I doubt there's not. Did we talk about, uh, Pinocchio on this? No, we didn't. Cause I didn't watched the last time I was here. Right. No, I didn't see it. It's very Gu del Toro. I mean, there's a reason it's called Gui de Toro's Pinocchio.

He, he gets all of his weird creatures. Yeah. All of his, uh, you know, mystical sort of things. It's a very mystical film. It's pretty long. It's two hours. It's pretty long for an animated. I'm terrified of puppets, and I don't think if you are terrified of puppets, you should watch this movie because everyone looks like a puppet.

And Pinocchio looks well. He is a puppet. Scary puppet. He is a puppet, yes. But even when he turns into a real boy, still a puppet. Very scary. It's. not a children's film. I would not describe this, I would not show this film to children. No, I don't. I I think if you showed this film to children, they would be scarred for life.

It's got a lot of fascism. Is it in it? Uh, yeah. A lot more fascism than I expected. Mussolini is in it wouldn't expect that. Well, even the

Andrew Harp: original Pinocchio is

Austin Lugo: kind of scary. Oh yeah. Quite scary. Original. Pinocchio is terrifying. Mm-hmm. , but not, this is more terrify. More people dying. More scary creatures, more fascism.

I mean, the movie opens with a boy being brutally murdered by, uh, a bomb, just a bombing drop in a boy in a church. It's like the opening scene of this movie, . Oh yeah. It's children. It's got all of the Del Torah moments. I mean, it takes place during World War ii. It's got all those mystical creatures. It's very.

Animation's very good. If you love stop motion, you're gonna love this. As I mentioned in our regular podcast, it is created by the people who did fantastic, Mr. Fox. So it does have all of those great vibes in it looks very good, very sad. I mean, it's a really good film, . It's a very good rendition of P Pinocchio.

It's a terrifying film. If you have children, please do not show this to them. They will be haun. But I enjoyed it. Well, enjoy is probably the wrong word. It was a good experience to have . Okay. I mean, I guess it's, I guess it's a good ending, but the ending's also pretty sad. It's all sad. It's just a lot of, that's cool.

Sad

Speaking of something that isn't sound, as you know, I've been going through all of the Daniel Craig James Bond movie. Has been my main focus. I don't know why, but once I saw all kiss, I was just obsessed with seeing all of the Dan Craig James Bond movies. And just a few days ago I finished the series. I watched No Time to Die.

So since Relax talked mm-hmm. . I watched Skyfall Specter and No Time to Die. Yeah, quantum Sauce, sky Fall. Oh yeah. I also went to K Sauce quo. is worst, I think. I think

Andrew Harp: the directing in that

Austin Lugo: movie is bad. It's the worst one. . There's nothing memorable about that movie. I genuinely don't remember almost anything that happens in that movie.

It's just very prototypical. James Bond. You know, I get some martini, although Jeffrey writes in it, so there's that, which he's not in. Is he inspector? He's not in Sky Baller Spec. No, he's not in Sky Ball I Specter, which is. I think you should be in all of 'em cuz he's the best. I love, he's good. Uh, Jeffrey Wright in these movies.

But quantum salla, other than Jeffrey Wright's performance, it, nothing really happens. It's a very left wing movie.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. . But it, it just happens to not be very good at all. It's, it's left winging comparison to like the other James Bond movies, which are very reactionary . Yeah. You know, . . But, uh, yeah, quantums Hall is just, they, their directing is bad, if I remember

Austin Lugo: correctly.

Like it's just, yeah, the action scenes are just okay and it doesn't look that great and nothing really happens. Underwhelming experience overall, I mean mm-hmm. , if you're gonna watch, I, you're gonna watch all of 'em. You still watch,

Andrew Harp: I think it's a, I think is Quantum Salsa the one with the Radiohead song?

Austin Lugo: I think it is. It must be because Skyfall is Adele, right? Beter is, I can't remember Sam Smith. And No Time To Die is, yeah.

Andrew Harp: Then, then, yeah. So it has to Quantum. I like the Radiohead song. I like Radiohead

Austin Lugo: song. Yeah. The, the song's good. If nothing else, it's the

Andrew Harp: Sky

Austin Lugo: Fall. , I love, I love, uh, sky Fall. Opening song Classic and, and number songs a blast.

The opening James Bond. I saw this movie, credit thing. Skyfall. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: I didn't watch any of the other

Austin Lugo: movies. . So you had no context coming into this

Andrew Harp: movie? I, I didn't see Casino Royale. I didn't see Quantum as SOAs. . I didn't see, I was just like, I didn't, I don't even think I really even like knew that there were other movies.

Austin Lugo: Saw, I mean, I guess you could see Skyfall on its own. I

Andrew Harp: think I went on a date, I think I went on a date. Um, okay. To see Skyfall. Um, and you know, I don't remember this story, but I do remember it looked amazing. It's, I, I, it's a very luxurious movie, if I remember correctly. And Sam Mendez, I don't really care for that guy, but I think he nailed a movie, ,

Austin Lugo: if I remember.

Well, he is working with Roger Deacons, so whenever you, I,

Andrew Harp: another part I remember is him, um, Who's, who's the bad guy in it? Benicio. No. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: Who's it? Uh, let me see. Let me look right now. It's, uh, I, I just remember villain, Javier. It's Javi den.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. He, when he ha when he meets him, like in the really big, spacious room.

I remember that scene as

Austin Lugo: well. Yeah. Skyfall is definitely the best looking of all of the films of the Daniel Craig films. It's beautiful. I mean, Roger Deacon. One of the great cinematographer, he nails it, I mean, only cinematographer to ever be Knight. So yeah, clearly knows what he's doing and him and Sam Mendez working a lot of films together, they're best buds.

So it looks great. Starts off really great. Love the song. I think this film's definitely one of the slower ones. There's a lot of time where not very much happens. I, I

Andrew Harp: just remember him being like, in the tropical area and for no, you know, it's like him, like doing nothing. Right. It's just him kind of like meeting women and stuff, which I guess is like a typical James Bond thing.

Classic James Bond thing. Well, once again, I don't remember too much about like the, the movie story-wise. It was over 10 years ago. ,

Austin Lugo: I mean, yeah, 2012. It's been a hot minute, but it looks spectacular. Three movie Arc of Judy Dench is wonderful. And it's very clear that Skyfall, when it was made, was made to be the finale of a trilogy.

Yeah. Which, so I understand why like Deon Craig was angry. They'd have to do two more films after this because this does wrap everything up pretty nicely. I mean, if they just made these three films, I don't remember the ending. That'd be fine. Uh, Javier Bardi kills. , Judy Dench and himself, they're, they're like going through the ice and then there's like the fog, and then they go to the church and, uh, people die.

Yeah, it looks great. It's probably one of my favorite endings because one of my big complaints with James Bond movies is the final action sequences are usually pretty lame. Like the final ax. I'm never a huge fan of, Except in Casino Royale. I mean, that's fucking insane. No one's cool fucking, it's great.

It's great. Fucking building. Just collapses and they're fighting through it. But definitely Komala. It was lame. But S Sky Falls is good. Beautiful film. Definitely a touching ending if it were to be a trilogy. But then there's Specter. I haven't seen Specter, and I haven't seen no time to die. You should skip spec.

No, I'm gonna honestly

Andrew Harp: watch it. I don't care. , no, I'm still gonna watch it. I, I, but I know, I understand though that maybe it's like the, it's either, I understand that Specter is either the worst or second to worst movie,

Austin Lugo: so, okay. You'll have to, if you wanna watch No Time Die, you'll have to watch Specter because Die No going to Yeah.

Does deeply involve all of the other films. Like You Cannot Go. It's the only one that you cannot go into without seeing the other films because it is deeply ingrained in the other films and it will not make any sense. You haven't seen the others. Spector, Sam Mendez. I mean, I, it might be my least favorite.

It might be worse than Quantum Solace, not necessarily because the action scenes are bad. The action scenes are fine. The opening credits are fine, but it is the most James Bondy in the silliest way. Because basically the whole idea of Specter is like there's this great world order and everyone's connected.

Nice. Um, and it's

Andrew Harp: called Specter.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. Called Spector. It's cool. And, uh, I mean, Christoph Waltz is like the main villain, which is fun, you know, he's great as always. They get good villains for all these,

Andrew Harp: they get good villains for all these movies. These movies,

Austin Lugo: the villains are always great. They, theyre the best actors.

Yeah. .

Andrew Harp: Absolutely. They get the best actors. Well, except for, well, except for maybe Malik, but I don't know. You can, I haven't seen it, so I don't. We'll talk

Austin Lugo: about that. We'll talk about that, but, okay. Specter is the silliest and takes his self way too seriously and is kind of lame. I mean, the action sequences are fine, but one of my big complaints is every love interest James Bond has, other than his love interest in Casino Rael is fucking stupid.

They're. They're lame as fuck. Uh, there's just no chemistry ever. I don't know why. I don't know if Daniel Craig is just incapable of having chemistry with a, a female human being, or just something about people can't seem to write women in these films. I don't know. I mean, there's some good like female characters, like Judy Dench is great, but all of his love interests, especially inspector because she's also the love interest in no time to die.

Not a fan. It's uh, NA, Naomi Watts. I don't know how people feel about Naomi Watts, but I think the performances she gives are not my favorite in the world. I think there's a, and I don't know if that's necessarily her fault or the writing or the plot or a lot of other things, but there's not much good to display about Spector.

The last sequence is pretty cool. It's basically. The sequence of Casino Oriental, but it's a bigger building. It's a building that collapses and he has to save someone. But this time he does it though. This time he does save her instead of not saving her. So it's a little redemptive, but it's the same scene except not his gut , but a bigger building.

So, I mean, you have to watch Specter because it's deeply ingrained, uh, with the other movies, but probably Miley's. And then there's no time to die, which I can see why they had to postpone this movie because the , the Bad Guy's Evil plot. Rammy Meek's evil plot is that he is going to release a virus. Let's go.

Dad is going to kill. Yeah. Predicted it. Predicted

Andrew Harp: the It predicted it, bro. Boobs are real life .

Austin Lugo: Lifeing aren't my friend, so I understand why they pushed it back so long. Cause I didn't understand, at first I was like, why do they keep pushing this movie back? Like at some point I have to release it. It was definitely because the, uh, relationship to Covid is disturbing.

It's so funny to say the least. I love it. So strange. But it, no time to die is great. Okay. Everything about it is great. I mean, it definitely wraps up the series. In a great way. Everything's very involved. There's a lot that has to do with Casino Royale more than anything else. And his love with Casino Royale and his love insurance with Naomi Watts from Spector Gray Action Sequences.

Oh, I didn't mention the one good thing about Spector. If there's anything good to say about Spector, the opening sequence of Specter is a very long winter. It's probably like a four or five minute. In Mexico City or somewhere in Mexico on d Delo, DIA de Los Motos. And it follows James Bond as he like walks through a crowd and goes into a hotel and stuff.

Only good thing I can say about Spector, it's a really cool winter. The rest of the film is trash, but that's a really cool winter. So you could watch the first five minutes and then you don't have to watch the rest. Just watch the winner .

Andrew Harp: Okay?

Austin Lugo: Anyways. No time to die. Has some really cool car sequences.

they bring back the car from Skyfall, the like silver, I think it's an Aston Martin or something. It's got the guns on it. Yeah, really cool car. Favorite James Bond car. They're driving around. They go to all these cool places, cool venues. Rami Mallek is actually in very little of the film, I would say of all of the villains.

He is in it the least of any James Bond villain, and I'm not exactly sure why. He's also, he. The least fleshed out of any of the villains, I think. I don't think his plan is be, well, he doesn't seem to have a plan, to be honest. Like he wants to release this virus in the world, which I get that part, but there's no reason like all of the other villains have a reason to do what they do.

Even like Christoph Waltz, I guess sort of has a reason, but there's no like reason he wants to kill all these people. It doesn't. Clear to me why he wants to do it. He just, he's evil. Evil, I guess. I don't know. So when people complain about running Malick's performance in it, I don't think it's necessarily his fault.

I don't think he was given a whole lot to work with in this film. But other than the villain thing, I think this movie does really well. I, I think it's a great James Bond movie. I think it wraps everything up very nicely and he dies at the end of the movie. I never thought they'd kill a James Bond. Nope.

but they kill him. They kill James Bond. I didn't think he could do that. James Bond's supposed to live forever. Forever. No, he died. I was, I was, uh, surprised by it. Even though this movie's come out. You were sur you were surprised. I didn't know he died. He never dies. And no other James Bond movie does he die?

It's the last

Andrew Harp: movie. I I, I, I figured he was gonna die and of course I was spoiled that he was gonna die. But I mean, I don't.

Austin Lugo: There's like 50 James Bond movies and he is never died in a James Bond movie before. This is the first James Bond movie where he is died. Well, cool.

Andrew Harp: cool. He's dead. He's finally

Austin Lugo: dead.

They obviously, were trying to set up another James Bond movie, so I'm interested to see if the next James Bond movie they bring back. Most of the cats, cuz basically in each movie they introduce a couple of new characters and bring back a couple old ones. I like the guy who plays q I don't like, I think Ralph Finn is a good actor, but I don't like him as m I think Judy Gen is better.

M and I don't think they should have killed her. That's just me. I'm, I'm gonna

Andrew Harp: stick that. I'll eventually watch 'em all. I need to like, uh, reus guy, Paul, and then watch the rest. Yeah. But, uh, I think at the end of the day, I think we can agree that, um, probably Casino Royal is the best one.

Austin Lugo: Yep. If I were to rink it, my final ranking sync.

Yeah. Casino Royal Skyfall. No Time to Die. Quantum Solace, I Specter. There you go. It's the definitive list if anyone asks. That is the definitive. That's the

Andrew Harp: definitive one. No one, you know, . That's probably, yeah, that's probably how it's, yeah.

Austin Lugo: Yep.

and that's pretty much it. That's all the movies I watched this week were James Black movies. I

Andrew Harp: did, I did watch like three other, I do watch three movies. This. Oh, these past two weeks I did. I did. So we decided to go and see the new Brandon Kronenberg movie, infinity Pool. Mm-hmm. . But before we did that, we went ahead and watched his other feature films.

He only has two others. We saw antiviral and then we saw Possessor. Mm-hmm. . Um, and then we went and saw Infinity Pool and uh, um, antiviral is a, is a interesting debut. It's a future in which everyone is super, it's a, uh, celebrity's. What a concept. What does that mean? And it, it's like, you know, like, uh, I'm, I'm copying, uh, film writer and Critical Sloan.

Okay, gotcha. And, uh, he, he, he, uh, talks about like the politics. What a concept. Movie . It's like a stupid, it's like a dumb movie about like, wow. Politics. Wow. You know, democracy. Isn't that crazy? This is like that. But with celebrities, it's like celebrities what a concept. . And it's a world in which people are so obsessed with celebrities and they're so wrapped up in.

that there are these, like mil, what I, what I'm assuming are multimillion dollar companies that are clinics where people go in and they're given, um, a disease or like a virus. Mm-hmm. from a celebrity. So like if celebrity had like, had or has like, um, like herpes or something like that, they're giving it OK to make 'em feel even closer.

Of course, there's even like a, it, it's really weird and and there's. , there are butchers that genetically modify the meat of celebrities and people eat them. So it's like, yeah, it's just kind of like really kind of exaggerating how people, I don't know, wanna feel close to celebrities that they get, they get their diseases as if they've been near them and they want to eat their flesh or whatever.

Uh, it's a little ridiculous. I admire the, the tenacity of it, , just kind of how, uh, its ideas. It's very awkward, but I, I didn't mind that too much. Um, you know, Brandon Kronenberg, of course, you know, in all of these movies, he definitely, uh, takes a little bit after Daven Kronenberg, but in his newer movies, I think David Kronenberg also takes something from his son.

Interesting. Um, antiviral was cool. I went. Sort of recommend it. Um, I w I don't know if it's like a fun movie, but it's definitely an interesting one and , there's some fun, there's some good stuff in it. Uh, it's kinda like a mystery story too. There's some really cool stuff in it, honestly, as well. Um, but I think his best movie is Possessor his second movie.

They came out a few years ago. That movie's really cool, that movie's about, um, a person, um, who. Is an assassin. But what happens is, is that what they do is that they put a thing in a person's brain. Mm-hmm. . And then this person can go inside of this person's brain and take over their body and then, and then while they're in that body, they will kill someone, a target that they're being paid to kill.

I see. Um, And, uh, she's on a job and the assassin and something goes wrong, essentially like uhoh, something is wrong with the technology and things aren't paying out, panning out very well. Um, pretty simple story. Um, really good movie, really solid. I think it's his best looking movie. I think like the idea and the story is really good.

I think it's really scary. I think it's quite scary. Oh shit. Um, I think it's a good looking movie. Yeah, I think out of all three of his movies, that's his best one. And then we went and saw Infinity Pool, which was kind of a disappointment in my opinion. I thought it was decent, but I didn't think it was anything that special or crazy.

It's just a movie where this couple goes on vacation in this made up country. That's really weird. It's like a weird country. Sure. Um, and it kind of, infinity Pool kind of reminded me of Crus of the Future a little bit. It looks like it's almost seemed in, it's, looks like it's almost filmed in some of the same locations.

Probably , uh, probably, yeah. and, and, um, I'm not gonna spoil like the idea, like the main kind of like Sure. Kind of a like, kind of like aspect to it. Like the, the, the main kind of like idea. Sure. But I didn't find it very engaging or interesting. Okay. It was a little interesting, but there was something kind of missing about it.

Um. And I don't know, I didn't find it a very, like, exciting movie. I didn't find it particularly scary. Um, I wasn't super moved by it. Um, I thought the acting and actors were just okay. You know, Mia GOs in it. She gets really annoying by the time the movie ends. I find her performance, I found I her performance was really annoying.

Wow. Um.

I don't know. I've seen some really positive reviews of it and I, I, maybe I'm being a little hard on it, but I don't know, there's something kind of missing. Uh, the, the, the thing about all these Branden Kronenberg movies that, that I think it's an unfortunate quality of them, even though they are, I think, pretty good overall.

There's something kind of like, there's, there's kind of like something kind of soulful missing from them. Yeah. Um, do David Cronenberg's movies, one of my favorite directors. . His movies are weird. Yeah. But they still kind of have like a very human, soulful, kind of heartfelt like aspect to it. Sure. Yeah. Um, all of his movies I've seen and these movies, they just feel a little bit too empty.

Hmm. Um, even though they are cool . So yeah, that's kind of my main kind of crux with these movie. They're kind of frustrating, but I don't think any of them are terrible. Um, you know, especially possessor.

Okay.

Austin Lugo: So I'll have to check 'em out. Yeah. I've been a bit skeptical. I mean, would you describe his films as, do you think his influence from his father is a little too much?

Andrew Harp: Well, that's the thing. It's like, I think like especially an antiviral and possessor, his ideas are cool. Mm-hmm. . , even if they are influenced from his dad, I don't think they're necess, I don't think that's the problem. I just feel like, okay, there's just something missing from like, there's just like, there's like a connection an an emotional brain un, you know, undefinable connection that's missing.

Right. While David Berg's movies, he does it ef effortlessly, I almost effortless effortlessly to help me establish some kind of like link with it outside of it just looking cool and being, having a cool kind of like science fiction idea, right? , I don't. . Yeah, but I, I mean, you know, if you like Dave Kronenberg, I mean it's more kronenberg stuff.

Yeah. You know? That's cool. So ,

Austin Lugo: okay, interesting. Yeah, I still need to watch more. David Kronenberg. I think the only Kronenberg, I've only seen two Kronenberg films and one of 'em was for the podcast, so, yep. Obviously you wanna watch the Fly and some of this other stuff, but

I'm

Andrew Harp: approaching seeing almost all of his features.

I think there's a few I haven't seen. Damn.

Austin Lugo: He's got quite busy. He have like, he's quite a few,

Andrew Harp: doesn't he? He at least has like a few dozen. Yeah. . Yeah, .

Austin Lugo: That guy's been doing it forever. Oh, I guess it's St. Crans future too, of course, but, yep, yep. That's, that's pretty much it for me. That's all I got too. Cool.

Yeah. That's the movies. That's it. . That's it. All right. Thank you all for listening. Thank you.