Witches, Leave (ft. guests, Zach Cregger & Austin Abrams)

22:32Yes. So there's the kind of the duelling older lady witches.

22:38Chris Hewitt:Yeah. But Sophie herself is also a witch. So it's a film rich in witches, none of which are morally absolute, but none of whom are entirely bad, let's say. They're all kind of complicated characters, and I really admire that about it. I think Spirited Away is the closest we have to a granny weather wax on screen. A little bit, yeah. Yeah. So she has a very big head. I was thinking more Sophie, actually. Oh, okay. But yes. Hmm. Would you put in a shot for Maleficent? She is a fairy. She is not a witch. Are you sure? Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. Because I googled movie witches and Maleficent came up.

23:14No, she comes up, but she's not a witch. Is she a fairy? Yeah. I don't know who she is. Ursula is a sea witch. Do you know what? There are literally two films addressing this subject, aren't there? Ursula is a sea witch. Okay. For example. No, it's not silent, it's sandwich. Oh, thank you. dear god wow my pronunciation really is all over the place today dear god so Ursula yes the evil stepmother in Snow White yes many other characters in Disney yes but not Maleficent because she's a fairy

23:45Chris Hewitt:alright I'm going to throw a couple more in and then we can decide obviously there are yes Dario Argento's Suspiria the only version of that movie that exists as far as I'm aware of yes there are there's a coven of terrifying witches in that. So I would throw those into the mix. There's a 1982 film that when I saw, when I was far too young, I saw this movie when I was about seven and it scared the living shit out of me. But it's by any objective measure terrible. It's called The Witch. Or in this country, it was called Superstition. It's directed by a guy called James W. Roberson. And it is quite chilling.

24:23Chris Hewitt:It's quite downbeat. and has got some quite omen-esque kill scenes. But there's a pretty terrifying witch in that. Do we count weapons? We do count weapons. I was about to come to Aunt Gladys from weapons because that is some witchy shit going on in Saki Kregor's movie. Where do you stand on Aunt Gladys? Big fan. As far away as possible. Yeah, I think that's right. And I say big fan. I don't want to be friends with her or anything. I don't want her to come to my house ever. No, very much not. But yes. But yeah, incredible. Incredible, incredible character. Yeah. None of this, none of this. We've listed a lot of witches.

25:01Chris Hewitt:None of this is getting close to answering the actual question. Remind us what that was, however many weeks ago that we asked it. It was Best Movie Witches, but I want us to come up with a definitive Best Movie Witch. Who are you going for? And if power stakes, it's Wanda. It's the Wicked Witch of the West. If it's like most witch. Influential. Yeah, it's the Wicked Witch of the West. Yeah. in The Wizard of Oz and her little dog too she flew my pretties so the grot bags could grot bag exactly exactly how many of these other witches have their own army of flying monkeys I would submit to you that they do not not enough not enough yeah and I think that's got to count for something that's a call that's a call Jimbo I mean she's the most iconic right I mean Wanda Wanda could fuck her up from without a doubt I mean literally a brief cloudburst would fuck her up so you know some heavy humidity and she's fucked she's quite vulnerable yeah like the aliens in science not exactly bulletproof is she so how was Margaret Hamilton could she handle the high C of divine gravity I feel confident that she could based on absolutely nothing see I don't know because you're saying Margaret Hamilton and that's great but Elphaba is essentially the same character Right?

26:22Well, revisionism, isn't it? Is it?

26:25Chris Hewitt:But she can sing. She can fly on a broom and look cool. Whereas Margaret Hamilton can't sing. That we know of. Jimbo, who are you throwing in? Who's your pick? I'm sticking with grot bags. Movies. There's somebody at the door. Every now and again, I come in here thinking, are our references too dated? What? Rod Hall and Emu isn't the cutting edge of popular culture. Or too parochial. Are they too specific? Americans going, what the fuck are they talking about? Is anyone under the age of 30 going, what the fuck is happening in this podcast? But there you go. Google grot bags. In fact, don't actually.

27:06Chris Hewitt:It might end badly for you. Yeah, just don't. Why would it end badly for you? You never know. You never know what's going to turn up. I'm doing it right now. Don't do it. I'm doing it. Grot bags. I'm Googling it. Oh my God. You never really guessed what happened. A picture of grot bags came up. Fucking hell. There you go. By popular consensus, Grotbags is the greatest movie witch of all time. Who saw that coming? Hooray. Hooray, indeed. It's mostly amusing. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, boy. We've been to Holland back. If you want to have your question read out in the Emperor Podcast, get in touch with me on Instagram.

27:38Chris Hewitt:That's mainly where I'm taking questions from. I am ctah1976 on Instagram. I know it just trips off the tongue, but find me now and again. And I'll put a little ask for questions in my stories. And you can reply to those there. So there we go. Hey, should we have a quick break? Let's. Yep, I need to recharge my broomstick. Bye. All right, folks, we are back from our break. And now it is time to dig deep into this week's movie news. There's not a lot of movie news bouncing around. But thankfully, there are some trailers to talk about. Where do you want to start? Shall we start with The Hunger Games?

28:14Sunrise on the Reaping?

28:16Chris Hewitt:sunrise on the reaping no it sounds so nice and then reaping doesn't sound quite so that's true promising this is obviously Hamish's Hunger Games so this is 50 years into the Hunger Games 25 years before Katniss or 24 I guess before the first book and this is the younger version of the Woody Harrelson character in the original films and his experiences in the games we know he survives that's set that's in the bag yes We know he's scarred for life. That's a lot. And that's also sadly set and in the bag, and it's going to be a question of what exactly happened and what happens to everyone else. I have to say, this is a really good trailer, and it looks extremely exciting.

29:00Incredibly good cast as well. So it's Joseph Zada as Hamich. You've got McKenna Grace and Beng Wong also among the tributes. Jesse Plemons is a younger version of Plutarch Heavensby, who was the Philip Seymour Hoffman character in the original films. Elle Fanning Ciaran Culkin is the younger Caesar Caesar Flickerman the Stanley Tucci character and Ralph Fiennes Elle Fanning's Elizabeth Banks right? Yes as well she's Elizabeth Banks and then Ralph Fiennes is the younger Coriolanus Snow because you know there's no one else who could have played a younger version of Donald Sutherland I guess so I'm actually pretty excited about this after being completely unmoved by the ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Songbirds it was very long but it was fine It was fine, but I wasn't like, you know, I didn't.

29:47Chris Hewitt:I'll be honest, I didn't see that one. And I felt that there was certainly a case of diminishing returns kicking in with the main Hunger Games franchise, especially when they split the final part, was it Mockingjay? Into two parts, which was unnecessary. But this is the same director, Francis Lawrence, who's done all of them except for the first one, of course, which was Gary Ross. and this is interesting to me because there was a clear decision with the original four-part trilogy, anyway, to slowly difest that world of color and this looks like a very colorful movie. Yeah, and I think that's probably a good choice because the whole point is it's pageantry and color and excitement to distract you from the whole, you know, dystopian reality.

30:40So if you make it a dystopian reality too much, visually speaking, it kind of defeats the purpose. I guess it made sense a little bit maybe for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? Serpents? Anyway, because that's a little bit closer to the end of the war and the sort of this rebuilding phase or whatever you want to call it. But by this point, this should be the Hunger Games in their pomp, really. And it should be all razzle and dazzle and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain who's controlling everything. So that kind of makes a lot of sense to me and it just also makes it more visually interesting.

31:18So I'm here for this and I thought this was a really good trailer.

31:22Chris Hewitt:And I think also the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes did not do that well at the box office. So in that sense, I guess Fair Play, The Lionsgate, for really backing this one to the extent that they seem to have, although it is one of their only franchises, so I guess they are going to try and flog this thing until there's nothing left. But the fact that they have gone behind it to this extent, it looks epic, it looks big. Jimbo, you seem unconvinced. No, do you know what? I'm actually quite looking forward to this one. I was a bit like Helen. I was like, it's fine, the prequel. Nobody really needed an origin story for Coriolanus Snow, but sure, whatever.

32:01Coriolanus to his friends, not Anus. But this one, as you say, it looks more colorful, it looks more interesting, it looks more akin to the original Hunger Games I mean the people who love these films are going to absolutely lap it up so I suspect it'll do very well that's the thing they didn't lap up the last one well it wasn't too bad it was 361 at the box office I mean compare that to what the other ones yeah but also look at the subject matter and the length I'm not hugely surprised I don't think it was playing to the right audience that I think they were trying to branch out and be a little bit too clever I mean obviously based on the book but whereas this feels very heartland for Hunger Games so because it's literally just the Hunger Games

32:35Chris Hewitt:again so It feels like this might be... If this doesn't perform, this does, for example, 361 again, there won't be another Hunger Games movie. Is there another book? I would say. There probably will be at some point. Probably at some point, but I don't believe there's one on the horizon at the moment. Okay. Is that what it's called? On the horizon. Hunger Games. On the horizon. So there we go. Can I say, who did we decide was our best witch, by the way? Was it just Grotbags? It was Grotbags. Grotbags is going to want to watch out because Vin Diesel is back as the last witch hunter. did you see his Instagram post oh yeah it's the film that nobody wants it I don't follow Vin Diesel on Instagram frankly you're missing out you really are so he has not only revealed a picture of himself again as Calder the witch hunter in an extremely sexual repose with a really well it's kind of weird it's hot if you're into kind of animal skins anyway 103 million followers yeah fucking hell who doesn't want the latest updates on Fast, whatever we're at.

33:37Evidently me. The sequel that we've all been crying out for to The Last Witch Hunter is going to be called Calder the Immortal Dash the Lion's Oath. Oh, Jesus. Oh, yeah. Did you know that Calder, the character he plays in The Last Witch Hunter, is based on his longtime D &D character? I didn't know that. I am so unsurprised I cannot even tell you. It's very on brand for him, but I had no idea that was it. So, Chris, I think perhaps Vin Diesel will invite us to join his game. Perhaps so. Perhaps.

34:03Chris Hewitt:Yes, please do. Please do, Finn. I'll follow him on Instagram. I'll DM him. I'll slide into DMs. I'm sure he'll reply to us. So the picture that he shared, he's lying down with a woman. I don't recognize the woman. Do you recognize the woman? No. The wolf looks familiar. The wolf looks familiar. Who is that? Who is that? It's not the woman from the first one because that was Rose Leslie. That's not Rose Leslie. It's not Rose Leslie. It might be Leslie Rose, but I don't think it's Rose Leslie I don't know and there's him with oh and there's him with Morbils and then there's him with Holding the Sword Up as well and this is a film that is happening it's a film that's happening do you know what's throwing me like it or not he's got hair well he always had he always had like you know that little weirdy mohawky thing and beardy combo did he?

34:51Chris Hewitt:I don't remember called us quite her suit I do not remember that at all but if we're going to make a sequel to a Vin Diesel movie in which he had hair find me guilty is right there folks Wasn't there a modern day bit of The Last Witch Hunter? Yes. Or am I mixing it up with one? Yes, where he was wearing a lot of thigh-length coats. And did he not have his hair shaved in that one? I think so, yes. Okay, so that's maybe what's confusing us. It's the flashback. It's the historical Calder. Okay, so that seems... And this is the one which is getting Michael Caine out of retirement. Yes, and there's some talk that it might be a youth Michael Caine.

35:22Oh. Okay. Oh, that sounds terrible. No, thank you. Yeah.

35:27Chris Hewitt:That's the thing that's put you off this film. I was on board completely and utterly up until that point. No, I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'm going to have to hard pass on that one. Unless, of course, like with the first one, they asked me to host a premiere, in which case I am fully on board. I'm 100 % locked in to see it. Like, it's not even a question. I'm so there, but I don't have high hopes of its, you know, greatness. I think that's fair. All right, let's talk about something else. Let's go back to trailers. What else was there? Oh, hey, before we talk about the Ghosts trailer, which I think we all want to talk about, don't we, Jimbo?

36:04Chris Hewitt:Mr. Irrelevant. Yeah, this looks really good. This is a story that I know nothing about because it's about American football, and really, it's not even a real game. Come on. So this is the John Tuggle story, and that is a real name of a real person who lived. And John Tuggle was drafted by the New York Giants in 1983. he was the last person drafted on the last day of the draft. So Mr. Irrelevant is a tag that is given to that person. To the person in that year. Rude. In the NFL draft. It is pretty rude because they still got to the draft. Like they're clearly a good footballer. And sometimes those people can go on to greatness.

36:42Chris Hewitt:For example, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback at the moment, Brock Purdy, was Mr. Irrelevant, but he's made his way to becoming the starting quarterback for the 49ers. And I'm just thrilled about that. Thrilled. So anyway, so John Tuggle was that guy. He is played here by David Cornswit and, you know, he was determined to make the best of it and sort of live down this tag and make his mark on the team and everything else. And then he faced major illness as well. So he had to basically battle with major illness as well as trying to battle against the Mr. Irrelevant title. You've got Michael Shannon as his coach.

37:16Isabel May plays a love interest for him in this story. and it's kind of about his struggle with illness and also football. But it just looks quite charming, sort of, you know, inspirational, fighting against the odds kind of a thing.

37:32Chris Hewitt:Yeah, this is the movie. It's directed by Jonathan Levine who also directed things like 50-50. And this is the movie, I understand, along with his pitch for Days of Thunder 2 that got him the gig on Days of Thunder 2. Interesting. So, you know, this is being touted as a potential Oscar contender as well. It feels like one of those movies that is going to get you by the feels. Maybe it'll get the Academy by the feels as well. And it's interesting to see Corn Sweat do something that isn't super manny also. Good for him. So yeah, exciting stuff. So that's exciting. And then Jimbo, you're very excited about the ghosts, the possession of Button House Treader, which of course is the big screen version of the beloved by all BBC sitcom, from ghosts, from the Horrible History slash Yonderland team.

38:21Chris Hewitt:Tell us about this trailer, Jimbo. It's definitely a trailer. It was definitely held up on Helen's phone just before the podcast began. There appear to be some people in it who are not entirely alive. And there's a plot. So that's good, and I'm pretty excited about it. We should say that we have pioneered a new technique of watching trailers. It's questionable. Helen stands literally six feet away from us and holds her phone up while we peer at the screen. To come over here and watch it. I could not be arsed. And I'm going to love this movie unreservedly. I'm going to tell you that right now. Yeah.

38:56Chris Hewitt:I adore ghosts. You are the ghost head. I adore the team behind ghosts. They are all amazing, amazing people. And this is absolutely right up my street. It looks great. But I didn't want to walk over there and watch the trailer. Yeah. Just to set the scene for people. And I really encourage you to watch this trailer because I think it looks really good. So Scott Ellis Watson, who you may remember as the young character, the young John in I Swear last year. Fantastic young actor. No, the other film. Anyway, he plays a young boy called Jack who, along with his friends, goes to Button House, which they've heard is haunted, and does a sort of Ouija session and gets possessed by the ghost Julian Fawcett, played by Simon Farnaby, who then decides, ha ha, I've got a body now and basically runs off to have adventures and go and find Alison and Mike, the human heroes of the show who have moved away.

39:51Played, of course, by Charlotte Ritchie and Kael Smith-Bino. And this obviously causes problems because poor little Jack is left behind his kind of ghost or soul or whatever has been pushed out of his body to make room for Julian and now he is kind of fading fast and the other ghosts are trying to keep him calm and find a way to fix the situation. So that is the setup. And honestly, this looks so fun and so funny. And so in keeping with the show, while taking it out of Buttonhouse, doing something a bit bigger, doing something on a bigger scale. I think I was excited already. I was going to watch it already, but I'm more going to watch it now.

40:29I'm more going to watch it.

40:30Chris Hewitt:I'm going to watch it in a cinema. Okay. And I'm going to get the projections to hold the screen up and stand six feet away from me. Do it. I love it. It's so good. It's so good. It's the way everyone should experience everything. Yes, I was on set of this movie. No, I'm shocked. I was very, very excited to be on set of this movie. I visited Button House. West Horstley Place is what it's actually called in real life. It's in Suffolk. Sussex? Suffolk or Suffolk? Suffolk. Hang on. It's in a county in England. It's about an hour's drive from my house. I see. So that's all I knew. I went to Zatnav and it went, take me to this place.

41:08Chris Hewitt:typed in button house that took me there and I saw the end of the film so I can't talk about that oh boy but that's exciting so I know how this film resolves itself amazingly they all die well everybody does according to the trailer yes indeed this looks great I love these guys it is written by as well starring six of them the core gang who came together in horrible histories and then moved through yonderland and Bill that Shakespeare comedy that came out a few years ago and then Ghosts of course which is their piece de resistance if you will or piece of the resistance if you don't speak French and it is absolutely amazing they are of course Simon Farnaby Martha Howe Douglas Matt Bainton Jim Howick Lawrence Ricard and Ben Wilbond they're joined by Charlotte Ritchie Kyle Smith-Bino and Lolly Adafope who is in it as Kitty and as amazing and oh my god I'm so excited about this movie.

42:09Chris Hewitt:Yes, please. Five stars. She's about to be O'Mary on stage, I think. She is. And that's going to be amazing. She'll be incredible. She was sitting two seats in front of me at SNL UK, but I was too shy to say hello. Enough about my social awkwardness. Also news, kind of peripherally related to film. Quentin Tarantino's written a book. He has. Yes, it's called The Adventures of Cliff Booth. I really struggled over that. Certain names are not your forte this week, are they? Cliff Booth. You were like, Cliff Boo. Who's Cliff Boo? How do you think he came out with the title? I don't know. This is going to come out on December 8th.

42:48So after the release on IMAX of The Further Misadventures of Cliff Booth, which is the movie from David Fincher that Tarantino wrote. But before it drops on Netflix. What? So you can go and see it in IMAX. then you can read the book, which, judging by the book of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will be peripherally related to the movie and might skip the entire third act. And then you can go and watch it again at home on Netflix.

43:17Chris Hewitt:It's exciting, isn't it? Are you excited, Jimbo? Did you read Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? I did not, no. Helen, what would you... You didn't miss much. Oh, I was about to say, what would you rate it out of five? I'm sensing two. I enjoyed it. On my Goodreads account, I gave it a solid three and a half. Did you really? No, I don't have a Goodreads account. I do have a Goodreads account. I thought you just shocked me. Once again, you have fallen into my trap. I don't think I rated it, but I also didn't rate it. I just, I find it meandering and I get that he was going for a pulpy style and a sort of like pastiche of those kind of...

43:49Chris Hewitt:Like some sort of pulp fiction thing? Almost like a pulp fiction. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Okay. I do get that, but he couldn't stop himself from going off on large digressions about movie history. And again, respect that. respect that he can do that, but also find it distracting and you know, not conducive to enjoying the narrative, ultimately. So, um... Mad love, mad respect, but also... I do appreciate, though, that he made this really good film and then just completely threw out that structure for the book. Like, I mean, that's... So he's crashed the story together with, like, film history.

44:26So maybe this is a learning experience for your follow-up to Women vs. Hollywood. you could have like a big old adventure in there as well to help, you know, sell the concept. Uh-huh. Well, I mean, I mentioned, I talked about it in a Quentin Tarantino dictionary. So, on shelves now. But I don't think it helped. I don't think it 100 % worked for me, is what I'm saying. I appreciate both halves of the book, but didn't feel like they fit together.

44:53Chris Hewitt:I just had a lovely time. I had a lovely time reading it. It was fun. It was like, oh, this is a Quentin Tarantino, you know, written. yeah it's a Quentin Tarantino joint this is fun and if you've ever read his screenplays this is one where it's all properly spelled so that's good and the punctuation's all in the right place very good love it we're going to finish the movie news section with some very very sad news we lost a giant of British cinema this week the great producer Jeremy Thomas at the age of just 77 passed away I mean this guy was a giant not just of British cinema, but of independent cinema as well.

45:31He was a guy who could get films made that shouldn't have been able to be made, essentially.

45:40Chris Hewitt:He was a force of nature. He is the guy behind Crash. Not that one. The other one. The good one. Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor. I met him just once. and it was on the set of Ben Wheatley's High Rise, which is another kind of unfilmable book that Jeremy Thomas helped get to the big screen. And he was a man of impeccable taste and he was a man who chose collaborators very, very wisely indeed. Some amazing director collaborations over the years and he just knew how to get very interesting, challenging, transgressive movies off the ground.

46:24Chris Hewitt:And cinema is so much richer for his presence. Absolutely. Things like Only Lovers Left Alive as well, which is one of my favorites. Yeah. But yeah, really incredibly impressive career. Was working since the mid-70s. In fact, I think it was 50 years this year as a producer, as a lead producer. So what a body of work to leave behind. The great Jeremy Thomas, who passed away this week at the age of 77. All right, shall we have a couple of lovely guests? Let's. Let's do it. So, Zach Kreger is one of the hottest horror directors around at the moment, which is saying something, given how hot horror is right now.

47:03Chris Hewitt:He hit the ground running a couple of years ago with Barbarian, which was terrific. If you haven't seen Barbarian, check it out. It is very, very freaky and twisted. As was Weapons, of course, which was huge last year. Big, big presence at the box office. And, of course, won Amy Madigan an Oscar for Aunt Gladys, the fourth best movie witch of all time. just behind Grot Bags, Walter Maximoff, and the Wicked Witch of the West. And he was already, when that movie came out, working on his follow-up, which is Resident Evil, which is, in case you hadn't guessed, the latest adaptation of the classic survival horror video game.

47:44Chris Hewitt:Now, this is a loose adaptation, as indeed, I guess, was Paul W.S. Anderson's adaptations of these movies, which got closer and closer to the games and brought in more game faithful characters and concepts as that franchise wore on. But this is a very loose adaptation of the source material. It stars Austin Abrams as a medical courier called Brian, who is entrusted one night, one snowy night, with taking something very important to Raccoon City. but as he does so he seems to arrive just in the middle of a terrible outbreak of zombies and things and stuff and the interview you're about to hear is me talking to Zach Craig and his star Austin Abrams who of course also was in Weapons and I had only seen the first 30 minutes of this movie this was the policy Sony employed for the junket that they only showed the first 30 minutes of the movie ahead of the interview.

48:44Chris Hewitt:So that's mainly what we talk about in this interview, which I did in a meeting room here at Bower Towers, which is why I don't think I'm on the best form I've ever been in this interview. But thankfully, Zach Craig and Austin Abrams were an excellent form. So that's what you're about to hear. Focus on them, not on me being an idiot. Enjoy. How are you both? What's up? Doing well. How are you? Not too bad. Not too bad. I've just seen 30 minutes of your movie. And it shit me up. Yeah. By your tone. Got bad news. Yeah. I've just seen 30 minutes of your movie. Unfortunately, it was completely out of sequence.

49:24Chris Hewitt:Yeah. I loved it. I loved it. I'm guessing that the other 60 minutes of Resident Evil is like a kind of my dinner with Andre style. Yeah. Basically, he gets right after what you see. Very, very easily. It's over. And it's about healing. and I've always felt that stories of healing are more interesting than stories of terror makes a dinner, makes a beautiful dinner for himself, you know, the mac and cheese by the fire reads a book, a lot of it is me reading a book directors don't have the balls to have their protagonist read read a book, he does different shit which is what I love about him so much and not out loud either, just read it no, no, no, no and not my face, it's mostly on the book mostly on my hands on the book.

50:09When I turn the page, that shit is wild.

50:12Chris Hewitt:I can't wait to see the rest of it. I'm kind of angry that it stopped at the point that it did, because I need to know more. I need to know what book you're reading. But it was awesome. It was incredible. I jumped in all right places. Oh, good. I laughed, Zach, in anticipation of what you were setting up. Sure. I can just imagine you and Shay Hatton cackling as you wrote. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times when you're writing, it's like I'll write a scene. I feel like this is a dirty trick, you know, and that makes me really happy. Like that scene in the cop car where, you know, he's doing the radio and then the thing happens.

50:53You know, I'm like, this is unfair. And I like that, you know, or when he's like sees her in the field and I have that open door next to him. And, you know, that happens. I'm just like, this is just I'm like punching below the belt. and I really like that a lot. What's great too is I feel like it then translates, it's not from just when you're writing, but I feel like it also then translates to when we're working. I feel like so often we're cackling at new ideas or something like that. Jan said it's very much like... And then coming up with things that we would never film because it's way too absurd.

51:31Yeah.

51:34Chris Hewitt:There's a really lovely sense of being off balance you brought up the cop car sequence for example there's about four or five different things that could happen and you have the sense of being off balance as a viewer because you're expecting one thing to happen with someone who's maybe hanging upside down there's another element that's off screen at that point a million things could happen in this car yeah uh in your screen play are you writing are you pointing out elements to the to the readers i think or are you Is this all in your head? No, it's definitely in my head, but I'm hoping that I'm doing a good enough job of laying out the possibilities to the reader.

52:14You know, I like to think that that is in there. I should reread that scene so I know if I'm right or wrong about this. But I think we are, I am leading the reader to believe that Homeboy Upside Down is going to be, you know, the main thrust of the scene. And then hopefully they will understand the subversion of the scare when it happens. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to do a jump scare on the written page. But what you can do, oh my God. What you can do is you can kind of let them know what you're thinking. So they'll recognize it. Yeah.

52:53Chris Hewitt:Austin, what was the experience like of, first of all, reading the script and then shooting a scene like that? Do you see a jump scare on the page as you're reading this? I mean, I see the words. I mean, yeah, man, I read it really fast, which I've done with everything that I've read of Zach's. It just is a way of writing that just like and same with his movies that just like really grabs your attention. And, you know, maybe you have something else planned or something, but you just end up reading the whole the whole thing right there. um but uh yeah and then you know with the uh with the jump scares when we're doing it like a lot of it comes down to uh to timing too you know because sometimes that that'll help help you out if he kind of like triggers something to like be done at a certain time so um for you to like actually get some adrenaline going um but uh yeah i don't know if that really answers your question Brian is really interesting and we're only just getting to know him in the beginning of this movie.

54:00Chris Hewitt:One of the things that really struck me was in the early scene in the hospital, he's squeamish. Every time he sees someone with blood, he goes, oh, no. And given that I know that you were covered in blood for Liz. I like blood, admittedly. Has that changed your relationship with blood? Are you a squeamish person? uh geez i don't i don't think particularly one way or the other i mean you know i prefer not to be covered in it uh um but um yeah i i wouldn't say i'm like i don't whatever particularly there was a scene where he cracked his head doing uh one of the one of the stunts in this movie like busted his head open he was he was covered in his own real blood okay i didn't know i was squeamish until I came running up the stairs because they're like, can I come running up and I'm looking?

54:54He's covered in blood. I had a reaction that I had never had before. I got a little dizzy in the moment. Oh, really? I definitely like my stomach dropped and my mouth went dry. So I learned about myself and my relationship with blood. It's cool.

55:12Chris Hewitt:Austin, what happened to that moment? Can we talk us through that? Because if you cracked your head, you might not be able to. It's gone. Yeah, totally gone. honestly i don't even know where i am they just kind of put me here yeah yeah talk to this one thank you sir yeah can i eat now no uh yeah man you know it's just a stunt that happened hit my head and i kind of he was riding an elevator cable and he had to leap from a cable so he's going up an elevator shaft he had to leap onto an through an open door onto a landing and he went up a little too high so as he leapt, he hit his head on the top of the elevator door, which was sharp, and he said he just like scalped himself a little bit.

55:55Just a little bit. Okay. Sorry, did you tell that story? I don't know why you're reluctant. I don't know why I am either.

56:02Chris Hewitt:I don't remember. In terms of writing this movie, it is clearly a relentless ride, apart from the fact that you stop off and read a Chilton's book for about the last hour of the movie. Yeah. You talk about that decision to hook the movie to one character and just do this kind of, I know you've talked about Mad Max Fury Road being an inspiration. So where did that come from? Yeah, you know, I think that's just part of the games, right? You know, when you're playing the games, a lot of the games do kind of share perspectives, but mostly when you're playing Resident Evil, you are a person moving from point A to point B and solving problems and getting attacked along the way.

56:38And that just felt like such a clean cinematic device that it was exciting for me after making weapons and barbarian, which are movies that are leaping, leapfrogging perspectives and doing all kinds of narrative tricks to have a movie where the only trick is that we are glued to one character in almost real time. And the real challenge of this movie was, can I floor it five minutes into the movie or six minutes in whenever that event happens? Can I step on the gas and keep my foot on the gas all the way for the, for the next 84 minutes. So that felt like a new kind of challenge. And I really enjoyed it.

57:20Chris Hewitt:And filling in character beats as well. So, you know, Brian is is trying to desperately fight for survival, but given us enough information about the character, growing the character as well. Yeah, I've got six minutes with him before shit pops off. And in that six minutes, I've got to kind of establish who he is and the world around him and what he's doing and where in his life he's at. And, you know, it's a very small amount of time to set up like this guy's relationships and his current, you know, blah, blah, blah. So that was definitely a fun challenge, but a challenge. So Austin, talk me through building this character and finding this guy while at the same time running for your life almost every single day on set.

58:06Chris Hewitt:You're in these great scenes of peril. Yeah. But hooking into the character at the same time. Yeah, man. I mean, like what Zach was saying about building it so that you do care about this person. I mean, that was like a really important piece because you can't, you can't just, obviously, you can't just have it be just like someone that you, you need the story of what the person's going through. You need to like, identify with them, you know, you need to understand like what they're struggling with. And so like, that was really important of honing in on like, you know, the thing that you saw of he's dealing with a girlfriend that just got pregnant and, and kind of the like the terror of that that he's experiencing and like the kind of and then him kind of as he's going through this like gauntlet, like, I think, starting to really realize like what really matters to him in his life and stuff like that.

59:06I just feel like those character things are really important, you know, and they're really important in like tethering you and keeping you like solidly like with the character throughout the story, you know, because if you don't care about the character, you're not going to be interested in the action stuff. You know, I feel like that's what so many action movies can can get wrong, you know, when you're it's just they go like full into the action, but you're not caring about like the character yet. And so it was really important to like develop that and then also to develop like certain things like putting a little bit of like weight on.

59:44I felt was kind of interesting just because I wanted it to be someone that really was not equipped for the situation that you could like look at and it just looked like they weren't like going to the gym every day. It didn't look like they were like running. You know, that'll help me out story wise to just convey this person is in trouble in this situation. You know, and it just ups Annie for that. so I feel like kind of all those things together were important Sin made this decision without talking to me at all to pack on some pounds so he showed up in Prague looking so different than last I saw him.

1:00:23Last time I saw him was on Weapons right where he's like skeletal and then he shows up in Prague and he's like hey buddy I was like what the hell it was great I mean honestly it was the best decision for the movie it was awesome

1:00:35Chris Hewitt:I think it really works as well for the character because I really found myself not just rooting for Bayern, but relating to him as well, because I think it's fair to say that he makes a couple of interesting decisions that could be perceived as boneheaded. Hang on now. I think what you're talking about is deciding to save a woman's life that he hit with his car. Not that one, Zach. What are you talking about? It's ladder related. Oh, yeah, that was dumb. oh yeah it's wrapped up in the moment you know yeah man you know you're freaking out it's just like you know fair enough fair enough yeah but i like that because it makes them it was i felt like i was watching myself yeah yeah and something you would do and i think that's like a really important part of the story in a really smart way that you went about writing it is like it puts you in the story you know i think that is like a part of video games is you're in it you know you're playing the person yeah and i think if this was a more well-equipped character it would you would be it would be much more uh passive in watching this movie i think because the guy is uh doing flawed and doing things that you as the audience would do uh you're more engaged you know you're relating more in it and then it has more of that like game kind of feel yeah doc do you do you put yourself in the shoes of your protagonist so as you're writing the screenplay or oh yeah are they making decisions that Olita Patagos would make or are they making decisions that Sarka Krager would make?

1:02:07I think a lot of this is what I would do and what I would say in decisions that I would make, for sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't pretend to be the smartest guy. And in a survival situation, I have like zero skills, you know? So I would be panicking and fleeing my way through this movie just like his character is. So, yeah. Yeah, it's fair to say.

1:02:31Chris Hewitt:Today, they just dropped another clip from the last hour of the movie in which a bunch of things jump from buildings and Brian has to run the gauntlet. And Austin, I was really taken by your screen. Yeah. During that. Yeah, yeah. Talk to me about finding Brian's screen. You know, you watch me find it, my man. Yeah, I do. Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, you know, look, it's, uh, it's, you know, it's always a little funnier that way, but, um, it just kind of what ends up coming out in the moment. Yeah. It wasn't like, I'm not, yeah. For that particular circumstance, I'm not sitting in my hotel room.

1:03:15Like,

1:03:20Chris Hewitt:you know, some people would, some people would be like, Oh, let me try. I'm going to try a screen three. A look, it's kind of like, what is the fucking saddest, just like most embarrassing, you know, screen popsicle. That's kind of, and then you go for that. But I love that as well, because again, a lot of actors wouldn't necessarily do that because they want to look like the tough matcher guy all the time. And Sack as a director, were you encouraging that sort of thing, that sort of behavior? You know, we had a shorthand on this where it's like we figured out kind of early on that like his baseline is like Marty McFly from Back to the Future, right?

1:04:00And then there are moments where he's a little more badass. And so we would call that John McClane. And then there's moments where he's like super like little bitch mode. And that would be Kevin McAllister. So we would go, am I McFly, McClane, or McAllister? And so that would be a fun thing for us to kind of calibrate together before we take like, let's go full McClane on this one, you know, or let's stay. Don't get, you know, anyway, you get it. That's how we calibrate it.

1:04:26Chris Hewitt:I feel like you guys go, but you know what you should do? You should do screens of the movie where there's like a sort of meter on screen. And we could like tick it out. That would be a great idea. Yeah, there you go. That's a DVD sorted. On that note, Zach, Austin, it's been a pleasure. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. It was nice to talk to you. Thank you. Likewise. Take care. Okay, that was Zach, Kreger, and Austin Abrams talking about Resident Evil, or more accurately, the first 30 minutes of Resident Evil. I have not seen the other half because I was unwell this week so I wasn't able to make it to last night's screening Jimbo I believe you did make it there now Zach Craig and Austin Abrams told me in confidence that the last hour of this movie is a nice relaxing hour in which Austin Abrams Brian just reads a lovely book is that the case that's literally the case oh there we go they ruined the film for you that's actually really shit wow yeah it's kind of strange This has absolutely no DNA in common, mutant or otherwise, with Paul W.S.

1:05:27Anderson's series of films, or with the Welcome to Raccoon City thing that we had relatively recently as well. So it's a completely different beast, as I'm sure they outlined in your excellent interview. But this takes the kind of broad mythology of the games and kind of runs with it in a different genre and a very different tone. So yes, Austin Abrams is Brian, and he is a medical courier. He takes organs for transplant. He's kind of a little bit of a goofball. He's kind of slightly haphazard. He's not what you would class as particularly competent. But, you know, his heart's in the right place.

1:05:59So he takes a... Yeah, it's in the cooler. Yeah, literally. A heart is in the right place. He takes what could be a heart or a liver or a spleen or something in his car to Raccoon City, which, as you may or may not know, is the setting for most of these games. And honestly, that's probably all the setup you need because it's not a very plotty film. He's basically gone to Raccoon City. There has been an outbreak. it's you know what it is the nature of it what happens with that that is the nature of this film um what surprised me about this and i guess it shouldn't because you know having seen craig's other work you know it's it's shot through with humor all the way through this is as close to just full comedy as i think horror gets like it's genuinely very funny and i think a lot of that is down to abrams who is just delightful in this role he he doesn't have a lot of dialogue but he has a lot of kind of monologue he he kind of uh articulates aloud to himself about situations that he's in and it is never not funny like he's genuinely a joy to be with and and it doesn't feel too put on it either is the kind of stuff you would do to yourself like like what the fuck what is oh my god you know there's a lot of that going on it uses i would say game grammar but it uses it sparingly and it uses it subtly yeah there's a there's a gag about typewriter which of a Resident Evil fan you will obviously get.

1:07:16There's a couple of first-person shooter type-y moments, but again, they feel quite organic. They don't feel forced. And the actual grammar of the way the film is laid out, again, feels like it could very easily be a game. And I think in this film, that's kind of for better and worse. So I think it kind of adheres to the whole Resident Evil kind of ethos. I think fans of the game are going to like it. If you've never played the game, if you've never heard of the game, if you're not, for whatever reason, they're fan of Paul W.S. Anderson, I don't think you lose anything from this. Like, it's genuine kind of just a fun film about some goofball guy who gets in way over his head.

1:07:48And there are a lot of fun scares in there. They are fun scares. They're largely jump scares. They largely come out of nowhere or they're slightly absurd. And they're always scary while also being distinctly funny at the same time for whatever reason. Some of it's quite gnarly and funny. Some of it's shocking and funny. But it's always consistently funny. It's a tight 90 minutes, which is great. It's beautifully shot. If I have a criticism of this, I think that having the kind of single POV, very little interaction thing where he's largely talking to himself, it works really well for the first half an hour to 45 minutes.

1:08:23And it continues to work, but I think some of the luster comes off it as it goes along because it's not the plotiest film. There's not a lot of narrative to get into. There really isn't a lot of story at all. It's more about the kind of, it's set piece after set piece and encounter after encounter. And they're all fun, but I think there's a lot of diminishing returns I found for this film. so I had a lot of fun with it I think it was great I just would have liked to have maybe seen it engage a little bit more with narrative at the end so I felt a little bit more fulfilled there were definitely moments I would say in the latter third when my attention wandered a little bit but all in all I think it was good definitely the best Resident Evil adaptation that anyone has attempted hands down I don't care about the game I don't love the other films I laugh at them quite a bit the virus dried up the rivers get to fuck anyway did you know how anyway but this i really enjoyed i i find it like like you say very propulsive very pacey um just one thing after another i didn't particularly feel any drop off in the second half harry also we went to see it together and he was complaining he didn't think the middle act was good i again didn't get that i was in it i had my coat up over my mouth and nose like i was breathing into a paper bag ready to pull over my eyes at a moment's notice and it because it is real scary real tense if you are a wimp like me like this is this is gonna freak you out um but so much variation between like you say jump scares and tension scare and and just gross what the fuck scares um that it kind of keeps you on your toes that way and and i like that you know i've said for years that the best video game adaptations are not based on actual video games and what this one's done is it's it's made itself feel like one of those like it's made itself feel like it's taken the grammar and the ideas because it's not slavish without at all at any point feeling slavish or fanservice or anything else there's maybe one two-word line that felt a bit fanservice and that's it in the entire film to me um but again i was missing probably references right left and center so but i just really really enjoyed it so pacey so scary so funny didn't let up I actually really enjoyed the last act I was pretty sure I knew where it was going and I was almost right but I enjoyed that and yeah I think Austin Abrams is fantastic in it See Alan I just assume you bump on the fact that though it's ostensibly about the T-virus from the early Resident Evils the actual creatures themselves look more reminiscent of the Las Plagias parasite from Resident Evil 4 Yeah Yeah

1:11:05Chris Hewitt:that's kind of where I stopped playing Resident Evil Resident Evil oh yeah and of course we gave this three stars three stars it should have been four I think I would have gone four do you know what I've gone backwards and forwards on this I kind of saw where Harry was going because I think he had the same where he felt I think it ran out of steam a little bit as well I'm somewhere between a three and a four I think upon reflection I probably would have gone four just because I think it's so much fun I think it engenders an innate amount of goodwill where you're just smiling you just have a good time with it so I think even though it's not the most narratively coherent I think do you know what yeah that first 30 minutes I was having the best time it's fantastic the best time so good like five star time because I was just it was gleeful I articulated this very very badly to Zach Craig in the interview because the setup was not good I was wearing little shitty headphones and I had a little microphone and I couldn't hear myself and anyway I'm you know maybe it's better than I remember but they were great I was shit anyway I was trying to express to him how delighted I was by some of the ways that he was toying with the viewer and setting up our expectations so putting Brian into situations where something can jump at him but there's like four or five different points where the thing can jump at him and and just gradually just turning the screw in this guy and turning the screw in the audience and I was just cackling with glee in the screen room at the end the security guard went you enjoyed that I mean I certainly did I certainly did and I'm disappointed slightly to hear that in your opinion the last hour tells off see what you think because this isn't well you know Craig has talked about this I don't think it does Fury Road was his template for this and it's just like you start and then once it starts it fucking doesn't stop until the end of the movie and I am so excited about that the thing I would argue that's different there is Fury Road is not a horror film and I think of course what differentiates it and this is a problem that every Resident Evil game I would say pretty much has had is that they all start brilliantly and they run out of steam before the end because by the time you'll get into kind of the sterile sort of scientific halls of umbrella facilities it's no longer scary because you're not hiding anything everything's for you you've seen it it's too late you've seen everything and I think sometimes what you want is you want that obfuscation you don't want to see what's out there you want the mystery and the build up that said the final acts of this and what they do with the umbrella stuff I actually think they do that stuff actually pretty well and there's some really fun elements and ideas Lift Shaft that they save and they're actually genuinely inventive and feel fresh and good there was a sense of fun and invention and gleeful cackling invention in that first 30 minutes I cannot wait to see the rest of it I think Zach Craig is brilliant and I'm very very excited by this indeed we've given a 3 because we are curmudgeons and just generally dreadful but you know hey listen I have not seen the rest of the movie but I would go eight stars eight stars for the first 30 minutes Harry was you know he was high three like he was between a three and a four so he was on the cusp okay but crucially went three which is of course a recommendation it is a recommendation we said all the time so we're saying to people go see Resident Evil especially I guess compared to the other ones it is like it's like the model Ten stars Ten stars in for Sack Craig's Resident Evil.

1:14:31Chris Hewitt:Hells Bells. Hi. Tell me about film. Would you like Shaun the Sheep or Bad Apples? Hmm. You choose. Well, let's start with Bad Apples then. So this is a film from Jonathan Etzler, and it stars Saoirse Ronan as a well-meaning, hard-working teacher in a primary school in England. And she is driven nearly to distraction by one of the little boys in her class, a kid called Danny, who's played by Eddie Waller, who's a really, really breakthrough young actor here. And one thing leads to another, and she ends up with him locked in her basement. Okay. Look, she goes to go to his house one night. She's looking to have a chat with his dad to tell his dad that he's been excluded from school for a day because of some bad behavior the day before.

1:15:24Right. And she can't find the dad, but she does find Danny and he attacks her and she tries to subdue him and she accidentally knocks him out. And you know what? She puts him in the car to bring him to the hospital. And then he starts making a fuss about, I'm going to tell everybody you attacked me. Your career is going to be ruined. And she brings him home and locks him in the basement. Anyway, the problem for her, well, one of the many problems, I guess, is that once she's done that, everything in her life gets better. so now she has a moral dilemma on her hands well it shouldn't be a dilemma but she makes it one do I keep this child locked in my basement and have my life be a breeze or do I do the right thing and let the child out of the basement well she doesn't do the right thing at least not immediately so that is basically the setup for bad apples um honestly it's um it's kind of great.

1:16:19It's very, very, very black comedy. This is very, very wrong stuff that we shouldn't be laughing at. Wow. But it is also like, you know, it's very sympathetic to the pressures that teachers are under and the work conditions that they're in and how one bad student really can disrupt the class. Yep. It also, I think, you know, points out that there are sometimes reasons for people to be badly behaved and actually a bit of investigation, a bit of attention, a bit of care might actually

1:16:48Chris Hewitt:empathy and understanding empathy and understanding might do the job and if not locking them in the basement maybe as a last resort that you maybe shouldn't just leap straight to I would say don't do it I would say don't do it that's a strong position Chris thank you I admire it I admire it yeah this is kind of like almost like if you've ever read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas which is the Ursula K. Le Guin short story this is kind of that as a movie so this is like what if you know everything's better except for one person is that okay? Obviously I've read that book It's a short story Yes the short book I don't have limited comparison points but which which reach your novel would be most similar to in your estimation?

1:17:34Yeah I guess it would be Killing Floor Killing Floor Interesting

1:17:37Chris Hewitt:Anyway I just find this wonderful it's a great Saoirse Ronan performance like Maria her character Is that like a surprise at this point? No, not really. But it still bears repeating. I don't want people to forget it or anything. And this is her audition, she said, to be a sort of Bond villain. This is, you know, it's been a little while since she played somebody who might be a bad guy. And while she's an immensely sympathetic bad guy in this film, you know, ultimately, don't prove locking kids in the basement. So, yeah, it has to be bad guy. Don't do it at home. Don't do it at home. Also features Jake Banderson, James, from our beloved Interview with the Vampire.

1:18:13Yes. Love him. Some good supporting cast in there. But yeah, really, this is the Saoirse Ronan and Eddie Waller, I guess, show. And they're both fantastic. So yeah, funny, smart, worth a look.

1:18:27Chris Hewitt:Sounds good. What did we give it? We gave it four. Four stars. Which I would entirely agree with. Excellent stuff. Well done, everybody involved with that one. And Bad Apples, four stars. Jimbo. Hello. Up next is a film that appeared without warning last week on Prime Video. Genuinely without warning, despite the fact it is directed by Guy Ritchie and stars three very famous people. Yeah. Henry Cavill. Yeah. Isaac Gonzalez. Yes. And Jake Gyllenhaal. Indeed. Is there a fourth very famous person in that as well? There's Rosamund Pike. Rosamund Pike. All right. So this knockdown changer release is called?

1:19:06This is called In the Grey, which is not a sequel to the Liam Neeson wolf-punching film. It is, in fact, something very, very different. It's just in the same oeuvre as a lot of Guy Ritchie's recent output. So think of it as, I guess, the successor to the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with a little bit of Operation Fortune, Ruse de Guerre. Two stars in for In the Grey. For good measure. But actually, weirdly, I think it's probably more fun than both of those. Three stars. Indeed. So, I mean, Guy Ritchie has mastered the kind of three-star action romp a little bit. But this sees Eza Gonzalez as essentially a debt collector for large financial institutions.

1:19:42So if you borrow millions of dollars and you don't want to give it back, she will come knocking with her little crew of people who comprise a little band. But the main people there are Jake Gyllenhaal's Bronco and Henry Cavill's Sid. And they get stuff done. Now, she speaks to Rosamund Pike, who works for this big investment company. And they've lent$1 billion to a very unsavory character. played by Carlos Bardem, called Manny Salazar. And Rachel, who Eza Gonzalez plays, has set out to get that money back. So what this essentially becomes is like a military heist, essentially. They set out, they go to visit him on his island, and they work out this incredibly elaborate escape route of how they're going to get off the island.

1:20:24There are zip wires, there are quad bikes, there are motorbikes, there's misdirection, there's pitfalls, there's explosions, there's all of this sort of stuff in there. and then it becomes a slight cat and mouse game where she turns the screws on his finances. There's all sorts of quick cuts and weirdly drink recipes coming up on the screen. But it's quite fun and it's quite good-humoured and there are a few little plot twists and sort of surprises in there. But really, as with all these kind of heist things, like the Ocean's movies, it's watching the dominoes fall. Like, they do all this planning.

1:20:53It goes slightly awry, but watching them pull off this incredibly competent operation is kind of a delight. It's also a relatively tight runtime as well. So I think it's quite funny. I think it's quite enjoyable. And I had a pretty good time with it. I mean, it's definitely not more than three stars. But as far as Richie's recent oeuvre goes, if you're not counting, you know, The Gentleman and Mobland, the TV shows, then yeah, this is all right. Yeah, I could feel myself forgetting it as I was watching it a little bit. It's exactly what everyone thinks it is, going in, right? Yeah, exactly. And it did feel like, weirdly, it did feel visually so Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, despite the fact that it's set in a completely different time period, like totally different.

1:21:37There is an information dump, an exposition dump at the beginning that I could feel my eyes glazing over. I find it a little overly familiar. I feel like he is going back to this well too often. While I love, as you know, competent people doing things competently.

1:21:54Chris Hewitt:Why are you on this podcast? I did find this a bit been there, seen that and didn't buy the t-shirt because I've forgotten the first time as well I've seen Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre I couldn't tell you a single thing about it It's definitely better than that Like Ministry of Ungeneral Army Warfare at least I remember that Reacher was in it It's true Making Henry Cavill look like a normal sized man I remember that I don't remember a single thing about Operation Fortune I think Cavill and Gyllenhaal and they actually have a really good chemistry and that's one of the highlights of it. This is one of those things where if this was a theatrical release, you'd be like, oh, am I recommending people go out and see it?

1:22:33Maybe not. But since it has actually just dropped on streaming, it's like, should you watch it? Absolutely. This is a brilliant, I've got nothing to do on a kind of Friday night. Watch it. Go for it. Because it is, you know, it is a giggle. Will you remember it the next day? Probably not. But it's fun. Yeah, that's fair. Sounds good to me. Three stars? Three stars. Three English stars. I don't think they're official. I don't think we've officially reviewed it. I am giving it three stars.

1:22:57Chris Hewitt:Three unofficial stars then for In the Grey. Hell's Bells, one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, hits its third part this week. It is, of course, Shaun the Sheep. It's Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep, the Beast of Mossy Bottom, the latest Aardman enterprise. So what do we make of this? Is this continuing the hot streak of the Shaun the Sheep movie? And, of course, Shaun the Sheep, Farmageddon. I love Farmageddon. Just gag machines, these movies. They really are. So this comes from Steve Cox and Matthew Walker directing. And it is, of course, the continuing adventures of Sean. So this time it's coming up to Halloween.

1:23:39And Sean and his sheep buddies have been growing giant pumpkins to decorate for Halloween. And all is well until their secret pumpkin patch accidentally gets destroyed by the farmer. And obviously, like the little baby sheep, is it Timmy? is very upset by this. And so Sean decides, I'm going to sort this. And he turns to mad science to sort it out. And he comes up with a formula to regrow the giant pumpkins just in time for Halloween. But wouldn't you know it, the formula goes awry. And before you can say, what's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? There's a monster, a beast, if you will, of Mossy Bottom, if you will, coming over the hill.

1:24:27And things have gotten very, very complicated for Sean and his buddies. And he's kind of, they kind of hold him responsible. So Sean has to kind of redeem himself by undoing what he hath done.

1:24:38Chris Hewitt:Oh my God. And yeah, dealing with this beast. Meanwhile, the farmer is trying to impress a new lady vet in town. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. There's a little bit of romance going on there. He wants to invite her to the Halloween hoedown. Wow. I'll say. It does. And yeah, so that's the setup. Look, it's completely delightful. The details, the texture, all the little built-in jokes around the edges are just gorgeous. There are tiny references to other Aardman movies there. If you look around. This feels quite curse of the were-rabbity? It is, yeah. If I had a criticism, it would be that the beats of the formula are very were-rabbity.

1:25:22It is not a rabbit. the monster like just to put your mind at rest there they haven't gone back to the same beast as it were but there is there is a where rabbitiness about it yes but at the same time you know it's Sean the sheep and his buddies trying to trying to save Halloween and and or each other and or the farmer and and that's kind of cute

1:25:41Chris Hewitt:in case you don't know what Sean the sheep is I apologize for the last five minutes of that review because you will be lost but it's a Aardman kids show starring Sean the sheep who was introduced in which Wallace and Groll Close shave. Close shave. And he doesn't speak. No one speaks. No one speaks. The farmer makes noises. Everyone makes noises, but no one speaks. And it is so fucking good. It is so... It's so cleverly done. And they get around the complete lack of dialogue just so beautifully. Like occasionally there'll be somebody will do a drawing or something to kind of explain something.

1:26:15But you can understand this if you are a tiny toddler or if you are, you know, a grown-up person who also likes to read things. You know, it works across all age groups.

1:26:27Chris Hewitt:You might enjoy it, Jimbo. You might. Do you like Shaun the Sheep? I like a close shave. I like those classic wrong trousers, close shave, those classic Wallace and Gromits I love. Yeah. I watched a Shaun the Sheep movie. I want to say it was the first one. Might have been the first one. Yeah. Farmageddon had an alien. Yeah, I didn't watch that one. Yeah, it was the first one. I watched it five times in one day because we were trying to keep my small nephew happy while his parents were off giving birth to his sister, or at least his mum was giving birth. And so we just put it on. That's all he wanted to do was watch Farmageddon.

1:26:59And we were like, whatever keeps you happy, that's what we're going to do today. So I have a huge amount of affection for Farmageddon in particular, but this one is objectively of the same standard, I think.

1:27:10Chris Hewitt:Four stars then for Sean the Sheep, the Beast of Mossy Bottom. And very, very quickly, I'm going to talk about a film I've seen. Wow. I know. I can't believe it either. I staggered backwards in amazement. It is called Pulp. What we do for an encore. I don't know. Music documentaries featuring beloved Britpop stars. Gosh, it's been ages since we had one of those. It's like buses, isn't it? You wait ages for one and then two come along at once. Last week we had the Oasis documentary. Don't Look Back in Anger. This week, it's Pulp. What we do for an encore next week, it might be Kylie Minogue. You don't know.

1:27:52Chris Hewitt:Kylie Minogue, what happened to the rest of my surname. It's Minogue. Oh God, is it? I'm so sorry. Anyway, so this is very, very quickly. This is a concert film, but also a documentary about Pulp, which of course is the Sheffield Band fronted by Jarvis Cocker. This is directed by Garth Jennings, who is brilliant. The guy behind the Sing movies and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Son of Rambo. very very inventive director we love Garth Jennings and this is playing for one day only in cinemas and that is Friday Friday September 18th and then it's going to go to Mubi that's where it's going to live as of next week the 25th of September but if you are of a pulp bent and you feel like they are a different class then maybe you'll want to go along to the cinema and see this because this is really really good this is a fantastic concert pulp recently reunited but also So it is in very pulp style, unorthodox.

1:28:49So then it becomes also a walk through the history of pulp

1:28:53Chris Hewitt:narrated by Jarvis Cocker himself with some great archive footage as well. So it's kind of concert film. It's kind of music documentary. It's all cop. It is really good. I enjoyed it. I don't know if we have an official Empire review. I'd go four stars. And if you're a pulp fan, like a really, really, this is hardcore pulp fan, then maybe I spy five stars. I wish I thought about it. they could have had more pulp references than that with you. I know, but not quite as many. Do you remember the first time I did a pulp reference? Oh boy. There's another one. Wow. The common people will get that one, I think.

1:29:26Common people. That's good.

1:29:28Chris Hewitt:Anyway, on that note, that is it for this week's Empire Podcast. Join us next week for more film-related fun. We'll be joined by... I believe it's David Ayer, who is director of the Brad Pitt Surviving with a Dog movie, Heart of the Beast which is out next week. Anyway, until then until we meet again until that auspicious occasion it is goodbye from my two colleagues of such lethal cunning James Dyer, goodbye. Goodbye Chris. Subscribe to the pilot TV. Oh my god.

1:30:02Chris Hewitt:He's realised now if he makes me laugh I won't cut it. God damn him. He's learning like the raptors testing defences. Clever boy. We clocked to James Dyer at 32 miles an hour. It's goodbye from Helen O 'Hara. Toodaloo. And it's goodbye from me. I am off to prepare for my big birthday bash this weekend. You guys both coming? I'll see what my calendar looks like. I might be able to swing by. Yeah? It's going to be fun. We're going to be screening a comedy, Jane. Oh, you never said it was a comedy. Yeah. This, you deliberately left that out at the invitation. Yeah, no, it's not, actually. It's not.

1:30:34Chris Hewitt:It's not a comedy. It's not. I'm doing a mystery screening. I know you're doing a mystery screening. You are, yeah. A mystery screening. It's Chris Hewitt's Secret Cinema. Yeah, yeah. What are your... Okay, guess. real quick we got like 45 seconds guess what you think I'm going to be screening for my birthday Halloween 3 Season of the Witch that's a good good call Halloween 3 Season of the Witch Prayer of the Roller Boys well I wasn't going to but now I feel like I have to not least because I don't know what the fuck it is and I'm excited to find out thanks for listening see you next time when I'll be a little bit older oh god bye bye You