‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Is Marvel’s Rock Bottom. Now What?

29:59Feeling good? What was he just in? Werewolves. Did you watch that? I didn't. Okay. See that one, Amanda? Werewolves? No. Okay. There's something else I wanted to talk about here. Who is the president at the end of this movie? Oh, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know. It's not Harrison Ford because, and now is the time to speak of Red Hulk. He, after one hour and 52 minutes, emerges as Red Hulk, even though they've been promoting the shit out of this movie being a Red Hulk movie. They made me wait a lot longer to see that sequence than I expected. He almost becomes Red Hulk on the boat. Yes.

30:33He does it a couple times. He bangs the fists like a few times. Yes. They tease it. It's like Kendrick at the Super Bowl, but not good. Yes, not like us, comes right up to the edge. The edges. Yeah. Well, we were discussing this with a movie like Companion in terms of giving away a lot in the trailers because the studios are nervous that people aren't going to show up and they were nervous about this movie and they want people to come. You got Harrison Ford. You got him to sign up to be Red Hulk. One, do you think it was a good idea that they did, that they put that at the center of the campaign of the movie?

31:07And two, did you think any of that stuff worked? I think that they didn't have a choice because I don't think anyone really is tracking what the Falcon to Captain America plot is. I don't think that Falcon and Winter Soldier was a warmly received show. I think it had some things to like, but I don't think anybody's like, ah, of course, I remember exactly what happened. So they needed some sort of world-destroying thing in the movie that was like, here's why you come. These movies are supposed to be super, super. You know, like you're supposed to see something that you would not ordinarily see.

31:42I don't know if it makes a difference that he... I think it's annoying that it really only happens in the last 20 minutes of the movie. But it's not like I wanted to see Harrison Ford transform three more times. I will say there was a moment maybe about an hour in or 45 minutes in. I don't know. I mean, it was immediately apparent that this movie just did not work. I agree. Within the first scene. Yeah. It's a 10-minute exposition dump about what happened in the Hulk. Right. And then I think, like, I turned to you and I was just like, who wrote this? And you were, like, 45 people. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

32:17But, like... I think it's five story-by credits and three screenplay credits. I think it's, like, four or five screenplay credits. Yeah. Anyway, at some point before, like, my mood really got away from me, I was like, well, this stinks, but, like, at some point, Harrison Ford will be Red Hulk and, like, maybe I'll... Maybe that'll be fun. You know? Like, maybe I'll, like, that. I think I even thought like, oh, maybe they like saved all the CGI money for Red Hulk. They did not. They did not budget anything in terms of energy, time or resources to making that good. And that was a real bummer. I still have a part of my lizard brain that likes watching how two characters with different powers fight.

33:05Like I don't, I was nine years old once, and I thought that was cool to think about. Did you notice that he has as much ease and or difficulty fighting Red Hulk as he pretty much does red shirts that he comes across over the course of the movie? It's true, and it's historically a problem with all action movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger had this issue too, where he would be having trouble dispatching a normal man, but then dominating someone who was twice his size. But in this case, it's particularly egregious. I think part of that could be like, well, that's kind of the charm of Sam is that Sam is not super powered.

33:39Yeah, he talks about not taking the super serum. He doesn't take the super serum. He's a guy, which I think makes him kind of a, he's a good hero. Yeah, but I don't. It's not a good movie. I don't even think that they effectively communicated his powers visually or even how he fights or what his tools are. I mean, Wakanda, he's got wings. He can throw the shield. He can do other things. But the way that they're framing the Hulk versus Sam and some of that is like size discrepancy. Plus, you got like a CGI White House in there. So, you know, there's like perspective stuff. But you just don't see him.

34:18Like, I don't even know how he was fighting. I mean, I guess he was like throwing the shield or like flying around. But you don't. To your point about like, I like seeing people with different powers fight. I didn't really feel like I saw them fighting. Yeah, I think it was, again, I don't, I really don't have to spend time on this. I'm sorry. But it's more just like, what were the ways in which Sam determined Red Hulk's weaknesses? That's like reading, that's what reading comic books is, you know? Because like he just cuts him with his cape a bunch and then he finally gets him to remember the cherry blossoms and walking with Betty.

34:48Which are so ugly. The cherry blossoms? The fake cherry blossoms are so ugly. The ones at the end are deeply fake. I was just really upset. I do like a cherry blossom. I love a cherry blossom. And even by the way, like. That writing is terrible. A real life, like a practical fake cherry blossom, like made of like silk or, you know, materials or whatever, like can be very beautiful. But the CGI ones, two thumbs down. I tried to go back through my head and be like, what did I like about this movie? Like where was some stuff that was cool? Julius Ona, who I really don't know what to say about him as a filmmaker because his last two movies, I think, are this and the Cloverfield Paradox, which I remember.

35:30He made one in between called Loose. Okay. Which is a very strange and confrontational drama about race Okay. that I liked but I'm not sure was fully thought through. Do you remember this movie? I do remember it. I did not like it. I think what I remembered is that Octavia Spencer is in that? Octavia Spencer and it's Calvin Harrison Jr. It is. Who I think is doesn't usually work for me, the performances. Tim Roth and Naomi Watts play the adoptive parents of Kelvin Harrison Jr. That's right. And it's unclear if he is being singled out because he's a young black man with white parents or if he actually is up to trouble, basically.

36:20And the movie is a bit strange. I think it's an adaptation of a novel, but kind of it's kind of like kind of like the Cloverfield Paradox I'm like I don't what does this tell you about point of view I think Cloverfield Paradox also like got taken away from it at a certain point I only remember that because it was the night the Eagles won the Super Bowl it's when Cloverfield Paradox came out I remember at your house at your old house so I do think that some of the stuff that's like in quote unquote DC in the beginning of the movie with Isaiah Bradley's Manchurian Candidate moment and all that stuff with like the song and the flashing phones and the assassins is cool.

36:59And... Sort of, but even there, it's like... I mean, it's not... It takes them literally an hour and a half for someone to be like, it's mind control, which is like literally, that is a direct quote. You're so right. It's horrendous. And it was like, no shit. I heard the song the first time. Like, I've seen a movie before. Yeah. And I guess, you know, in a different world, like Ross's relationship to the leader, Samuel Stearns, right? Tim Blake Nelson's character, and him being like, I was going to die. I needed to stay alive so that I could be forgiven by my daughter. But then I double-crossed this guy and now he's feeding me poison and making me into the Red Hulk.

37:37It's kind of cool. It's not, it's really not well done. Yeah. It's really not. The idea though of like a president being beholden to a shadowy figure. Yeah. I think there's a lot of on paper stuff, as I said, that like we're doing Clear and Present Danger with the Hulk and a guy who can fly is, for me, I'm like, I would love to see that. Sure. They didn't make that movie. You know, they made a movie where Harrison Ford is the president and he embarks at people, but it doesn't really have any of that. And a lot of it goes to some of that physical production stuff that doesn't work. A lot of it goes to the fact that like the Mind Control one in particular, like the whole movie theater groaned when that happened.

38:13People were just like, are you serious? I'm deeply fascinated by like whether or not because a lot of these shows suffer from the same kind of like this feels like it was reshot or this feels like they had to like stitch this together. we are pretty much since the end of the Avengers run in this stretch of Marvel product that kind of is substandard professionally or falls short of ready-to-be-released kind of standards. Yeah. And I'm not like, you know, if you could get into like, are we sure Kevin Feige is the right person to be running this? I mean, relative to the bar that they set. Why can't they just like make a two-hour movie?

38:50Like, I don't understand why that's so hard and I don't understand why... It's payback for all the success that came on the first wave. The genius of the first 20 movies is that they somehow created this Jenga tower of movie storytelling, which had never been done before, where all the pieces fit. And it culminated in one of the biggest movie going experiences ever in the Infinity War and Endgame thing, which I was like, they fucking did it, man. This is super cool that they did this. And now they have to pay the piper, which is that every story that they do now has to be interconnected and has to make sense.

39:20and it's not feasible when they've gotten so big with all of the TV shows and all of the movies and they won't let a movie stand alone because the audiences won't accept that anymore. They will not accept a standalone story. But it's going all the way the other way where I feel like audiences are like the sort of it's hard to describe the atmosphere in that movie theater as people sat through all those credits and like the page after page after page of VFX artists salute to you guys. Sorry. Like I'm not trying to be disparaging. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're just like I can't believe I'm just so trained that I have to sit here and wait for this cutscene and then the stinger comes and it sucks so bad and it's almost like fuck you guys for waiting like you guys sat here for 10 minutes to see Anthony Mackie talk to Tim Blake Nelson about an unexplicit you know at least like when it happens in Doctor Strange like Charlize Theron shows up and you're like god damn Harry Styles showed up once and we're like alright well that was amusing at least and okay that brings me to my next point of discussion because this came up immediately after the movie ended which is that you guys started talking about how Madam Web was better or at least you liked it more I liked the experience of seeing Madam Web more than watching Brave New World you know last year was a really tough year for comic book movies there were three different Sony related Marvel stories Spider-Man related Marvel stories all of which were very bad and there was Deadpool and Wolverine which was a huge hit and the conversation that we were having was, is it better for a movie to be awful while accidentally amusing like Madam Web and to a lesser extent Craven the Hunter and the Venom movies or to just passively move the ball forward but be actively unfun to watch?

41:06Like, I was like, when is this going to end when I was watching Brave New World? Brave New World. So, it did give you adamantium. It did clarify the Eternals thing which was completely bizarre it did I guess close the book on Incredible Hulk it does how did it do that? why did I ask that? by making it clear that Thaddeus Ross is imprisoned and that he but he has closed the emotional loop with his daughter and they did give us a Red Hulk moment which even if it didn't come off that well is something that is like comic book lore and is exciting and then I think also doesn't explicitly state but makes it clear that Thunderbolts is an offshoot of a lot of the vision that Ross had as a leader because he brings to Mackie I want to restart the Avengers and that's clearly what's going to happen in Thunderbolts is they're going to restart the Avengers with all of these vigilantes.

42:05Presumably Sebastian Stan loses his congressional race. So the Thunderbolts will then become the new Avengers. Yes, but they're going to seem really B-team up against Fantastic Four and eventually X-Men and all the other characters were going to come in. Didn't you guys say on the watch at some point that they're going to then redo all the timelines so that the original Avengers can come back? I think they'll come back in different I mean, obviously, Downey's playing Doom, but I think they will bring Chris Evans back in some way because it's the same thing that happens in Deadpool and Wolverine where it's like, oh, here's all these different portals of reality that you can just have a constant kind of cavalcade of guest stars.

42:45Yes. So also say like they did a bunch of stuff that got you thinking about the future, which I guess is cool for you. I don't. I. It's not even cool for me anymore is what I'm saying. I get stopped being cool for me five years ago. But to your question of is it better to be like a bad but sometimes enjoyable movie that doesn't move the project forward versus quote unquote moving the project forward but not having any fun. I wholeheartedly vote for Madam Web you know because at least you get Dakota yeah and like Dakota Johnson being like dead eyed there's not anything weird in this movie or like personal at all nothing personal I mean there's plenty of weird just the character of leader is such a weird character but they didn't even like lean into that they almost seemed like they were like well we don't really know if we want to do this it's played straight if it had been a James Gunn movie it would have been like he would have had a fucking huge brain and it would have been sane and it would have been funny and these movies aren't funny anymore.

43:47The special effects are not good. The fight scenes are kind of dull. There's really no consequences to 80 % of the action set pieces. It's tough, man. I like these movies a lot. I used to like these movies like a fair amount and it's just sort of strange. I just, I wonder how long they can hold because when do you lose the essential 40 % of your audience? It's like, I don't really understand And I'm just going because they're fun movies. Well, we watched this happen with the TV shows, where the TV shows kind of started at a high, right? Where it was WandaVision, Loki, and this show to a lesser extent.

44:22And it was like flawed, maybe a little too long, but well-made for the most part, felt contained but with consequences. And then slowly but surely, they started just like clearly losing anybody who could be described as less than a super fan. And I stopped watching them. and I waited my whole life for this shit to happen and I just don't care I don't watch any of the shows anymore at all and I'm still in like you know I'm a more engaged elevated person there's a whole rung of people beneath me that is probably somewhere between me and you right you know where you probably if you were not doing the show wouldn't see one out of every five you would have maybe gotten seen like Endgame and Infinity War I think Phoebe I think my wife saw one yeah Eileen came with us to see Endgame yeah and I think I think they went and saw Logan it was sort of like the same way no Phoebe and I saw Logan they were kind of Barbenheimer-esque like everyone's seeing this we at least gotta go see it thing but once they start losing everybody below me the business is in trouble and now like they're in they're in danger of turning off the Midnight Boys Ringiverse squad because they're like this looks like shit yeah can we talk about that for a second like when does when does the production value and the like when does that break because it I thought this was the worst yet It is so noticeably awful.

45:42And, you know, I don't care for, like, the comic book aesthetic. You know, it's never going to look like beautiful, fine art to me. But it's just, they can't make it work. I mean, it's just gone down. I mean, if you go back and look at, like, Iron Man 3 looks like the fucking conformist. Totally. And the fight scenes at least, like, made sense. and you believed that someone, you know, they were connected to the story. Like, I just, if you're only going to these movies to see Red Hulk and Captain America fight, like, at this point, I don't even think the movies are delivering a positive experience, like a positive, like, fight.

46:24It feels like they're, it almost feels like there's a story right now about Disney realizes that they may be overpricing their parks experience, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're addicted to finding new ways of squeezing a hundred, a thousand or whatever out of people by offering like fast pass lightning scheme or whatever. And they're just like, we have to keep cranking it. Like there's no way to come back off of it. And when you watch this, you're kind of like, did you guys just decide we're all so stupid? We'll go see it no matter what. So why pay money for someone who's like, I have a point of view.

46:58This is what I want. I need you to build this set. I don't want to shoot in Hungary. You know, I want to shoot it in. I'm just, let's go, let's even like the slightly nicer version. It's not even that they're like, well, like maybe we don't have the ability. Like maybe, maybe like technology is not there what it is. It's not what it is. No, like at the scale that they're talking about. Watch Jurassic Park in 1993. I mean, I guess so. That's true. To me. Watch Rogue One 10, like 10 years ago. You know what I mean? Like it's like we can't make Disney can be. But at the scale that they're trying to do it.

47:26Yeah, I think there's. But the amount of time and the amount of stuff that they, like. It's really, really hard. and I don't know at what stage the previs and then having to close the effects relative to the reshoots. Because the reshoots are built in, but this was more reshoots than usual as I understand it. But whether or not the reshoots compounded on them to the point where there was just not enough money left to get the visuals. Just as a point of conversation, the directors of the Phase 4 movies are Kate Shortland, Destin Daniel Cretton, Chloe Zhao, John Watts, Sam Raimi, Taika Waititi, and Ryan Coogler.

47:57Regardless of what you think about those movies, that's a lot of directors with strong visions not all of those movies work all the time but there are images even CGI oriented images like the black and white stuff in Thor Love and Thunder which is a movie I think is terrible that stuff looks amazing you know there's stuff in the Raimi movie that is really cool this movie has none of that it doesn't have a shred of vision it doesn't have a shred of like wow or pop or daring like there's just nothing in it that makes you go like well at least there was a person who had an idea that was different from what we've seen in the other movies.

48:31I mean, I think there's shots in this where it looks like, and it's not a shot at him. It's like, I think Ford's reading off a prompter. Like, you know, he's like standing with Mackie here, but he's like not looking in Mackie's face. He's kind of looking over his shoulder. I'm like, I think he's probably... Or Mackie's not there. Yeah, and he's got to read a bunch of stuff that's like, all right, you guys just gave me this page, so I have to talk about what I decided to do in Harlem in 2008, The Hulk. is Harrison Ford outside at any point just when he gives the speech oh like the Rose Garden yeah but even that is like a set no he's in that the Japanese president's like palace for a second they're outside in that garden yeah you're right the whole idea is he's got to go into this bunker because there's been an assassination right so but he's like he is in the bunker for most of the time in one location yeah in one set that they built in like his trailer outside of 1920 whatever?

49:30I don't know. I think it's entirely possible that this is a speed bump and that things recover with maybe not even Fantastic Four specifically, but that the Avengers movies, because they're so too big to fail and the Russos know what they're doing with these big, you know, erector set movies where like all this stuff has to make sense together. I mean, they've done it. They've literally already done it before like multiple times. but it's also possible that they don't and that they don't do it fast enough to salvage all this new terrain that they have potentially to ply with the Fox acquisition which I never would have guessed.

50:08I just never would have guessed who would have gotten to this point. This could be seen as a wild overreaction to one really bad movie or not. I think it's the culmination of a kind of like there was a bunch of different places where you'd be like, well, it was COVID. Well, it was the strikes. Well, it was a changing of the guard and you got to like build up these new stories and they've had circumstances come in, Jonathan Majors, like all these things that have like affected how they were maybe trying to build things. But for me, I think it's repeated offenses of there just being too many cooks in the kitchen or like the directors or writers being removed where you're just like, the most nefarious cynical idea I have about this is that they are like preparing American audiences to accept AI versions of this stuff.

50:53and that they are essentially like, we are going to build an expectation. You guys have such low expectations of this that we can literally manufacture Sam Wilson stories like every three months with like digital. You might be right. He's right. You read the list of directors from phase four, all like people who know what they're doing. And we talked about no matter what, you know, there was something to hold on to. And my instinct was like, but does like, do Disney and Marvel want that? Like, do they actually want any individuality? did the experiment of hiring cool directors to like put their spin on these things yield what they wanted or do they just want more like gruel to feed out to people who are like yay comics it's so tricky i mean i think they just got really high on their own supply of thor ragnarok and black panther both being risky choices to go with taika waititi and ryan coogler and those movies being two of the best movies that they ever made and both huge hits for B-tier characters.

51:54So then they were like, we're feeling ourselves. We know what we're doing. We can do this over and over again. And now all of a sudden, it's Matt Shackman and the Russos and Daniel Destin Cretton coming in because John Watts doesn't want to make a fourth Spider-Man movie. So I think they've definitely tired of that strategy. You know, okay, let's pull back just a little bit before we close this. Cinematic universes has become something that did not really exist 20 years ago was not really a way we thought about movies. We did have like sequels to individual movies. We never had this thing where you'd have multiple characters crossing over and these huge skyscraper-esque constructions of storytelling.

52:36It's kind of infected and infested lots of different kinds of movies. The Fast and the Furious movies. Den of Thieves. Den of Thieves is aspiring to a cinematic universe. It is. It is for sure. Is this sustainable? It's obviously not really good. It's not really good for movies. It has been quite destructive for even the idea of sequels. It's kind of fucked up the idea of a fun sequel. Is it sustainable? Do you think it will continue to exist in the way that it does? Yes. Just because it's easier to get people's asses in seats with this? Yeah, absolutely. And also because I think for people who are making these things, and by the people who are making these things, I mean the corporations and not the filmmakers.

53:18like do they really care at some point whether they're giving you I mean I guess they sort of make more money from a movie but like maybe not and maybe it's easier to just like you know make 15 really inexpensive tv show type things that you can watch on your phone you know they they just want widgets right that they can slot in so movies are still a thing that when they work have the highest payout. I definitely think you're onto something here. I was thinking about this with Ballerina a lot. The John Wick story where you're just like, man, the first Wick is perfect. They never thought they would make a sequel.

54:00The sequels are cool. The fourth one is where they've just... But the fourth John Wick movie looks so beautiful compared to these movies. I think I would be way more open to the cinematic universe stuff if they put any emphasis on the cinema part. Yeah. And not everything on the universe. That is like the response to the like, why does it, maybe we don't have the technology question. It's like, you do. You just have to like kill Keanu Reeves in the process of making the movie to make it look great. And they're not going to do that, obviously. I find it to be very dispiriting as someone who is in this professional seat.

54:33And I used to wonder when I was a kid and I would read interviews with film critics and they would be so despairing. You would watch Siskel and Ebert talk about Halloween 5 on their show and they were miserable. They were like, I can't fucking believe I've got to choke down. Now it's fun to go back and watch that shit. I know, because that stuff seems quaint by comparison. But they were so mad at how American movies had been just completely diluted and reduced down to the stupidest fucking thing for a 13-year-old. They were so mad. And I was like, these guys don't get it. Like I'm 13. They don't get what's fun about going to the movies.

55:15And I'm in my 40s and I'm thinking about it. And you know what? I'm sure there's a 13 year old who's going to be like, Anthony Mackie is my favorite actor. And I love, I love that this guy came back. Yes. And I'm not taking that away from any of those kids. But in my position now, I'm like, so another 10 years of Marvel for me? Really? Yeah. And I'm sure you feel even worse. I mean, in some ways I don't feel as bad because for a long time, it's been like, do I have fun at one of these things or do I not have fun at one of these things? And most of the time I don't, but every once in a while, you know, they pulled it off and that's just going to be more of that.

55:53So to the 13 year old, I would say this isn't even fun, you know? And I guess if you're 13, if you're 13 and you have fun, like life's, life's hard. Good job, you, you know, for, but, but if you're like mostly interfacing with things as vertical video and you're like, you know what I mean? Your attention span is like... This movie really gets your attention with the five foot two Mossad agent in the film. What the fuck, dog? What happened there? Ruth aka Seraph. An Israeli born widow. Not widow, like in the widow program, the Rachel Price program. Yes. In the comics, she is a mutant and she is very clearly like an IDF soldier.

56:35And in this film, sort of retconned into being part of the widow program, I guess. Yeah. But like, what the hell was that character? Why does that character even in this movie? It's like the president seems to have two head security agents, right? I don't know. Because Rokamore plays the other one, right? But like, she was Secret Service. I guess she's like head of the Department of Defense detail. Again, like another thing where it's like, why is this character here? Yeah. No idea. What did it accomplish in the movie? Nothing. I mean, I guess they needed to have a woman in there. That's what it was.

57:08Yeah. Checking boxes. There's all these movies where you'd say your mileage may vary. There might be a person out there who's like, this is awesome. And maybe there is a 13-year-old out there who's just like, Sam Wilson is my favorite Avenger ever, and this is so cool. But man, I kind of wonder with this one whether people are going to be like, this just didn't do anything. This just didn't do anything for me. And I like these movies, and I want these stories. and I make it my business to know all about what's happening in these things and they're just like, just on a bare bones, like, fundamental, like, was this movie assembled well and put together well and did it look cool and did the action sing?

57:48And it's like, no, man, it didn't. I don't even think that's up for debate. Any closing thoughts? I think if you're 25 and you thought this was fun, I want you to ask more for your life. I think 13's okay, 25, you're still in a phase of discovery in your life but I think we could discover more I'll be very curious to see whether there's any like what's the delta between like a critical reception for this film and the box office and like is there just enough of a of a sustainable engine of like interest in these movies no matter what they are to go and like these are regardless of what you say familiar faces there is a Hulk there is Falcon who's been in these movies like people will probably I anticipate Bucky Barnes making an appearance.

58:34Like this is a little bit of old sheet music. So I'll be very curious to see what this makes. But if there's any justice in the world, I don't think it'll make a lot because I'd like them to get better. Deadpool and Wolverine is a movie that I felt very comfortable saying is borderline dangerous to the future of Hollywood storytelling. But as you guys recall, because we saw it together, I laughed the whole time. I was like, this is really funny. It's stupid. Bone density. that was also a film that they let Ryan Reynolds make exactly to his own specifications that was the point I was going to make was I was like they didn't fuck with that too much there were certain things that they probably didn't let him do ultimately but he got to do his thing and he's mostly gotten to do his thing now I don't think Ryan Reynolds should get to do his thing all the time see 2025 news cycle but you know what I honestly I he's I don't I guess I'm not team Ryan basically listen listen, he just yelled at him.

59:33Yeah. You know? Okay. I think we need to have a little more, a deeper critical lens on what he's up to. Sure. And also is trying to like ruin this guy. Well, listen. Well, it goes much deeper than that in my opinion. Oh, okay. But I don't have any evidence to support those claims. So I will just say, examine the text and then think of the subtext. Did you examine the text? Did you read a lot of the court filings? I have read a lot of them and I wouldn't want to be texting with him, But I just like the basic, I mean, like the text that Justin Baldoni claims is like, oh, he's so nice to me. It's like the most like obsequious, annoying, like fake obsequious, annoying, trying to get what I want, like Hollywood thing of all time.

1:00:14So that's not a conversation I would want to be having. And I am taking no one's side in that circumstance. I'm just saying that there are powerful forces at work. Yes. What do you think about that? like Thunderbolt Ross akin to Red Hulks certainly Chris thanks for coming on board this train with us I thought it was going to be funnier I thought I would be funnier about it but then I got depressed this was a solemn and angry episode of the big picture I told you we should have flipped them yeah I know we couldn't listen we were pre-taping time and schedule and all sorts of things supporting Robert Wagner and his ability to participate in a draft episode which is coming next week um Also next week, we'll be talking about Paddington in Peru, and I'll be talking about the desecration of that cinematic universe.

1:01:03Do you want to come tomorrow? To the movie? Yeah, with Mia Knox. I think I'm going to M.J. Lenderman. Is it the same time? No, it's at 345. We'll also talk about another extended cinematic universe, Bridget Jones 4, Mad About the Boy. Yeah. That's the fourth film in the Bridget Jones story. And we're going to try. Christopher, have you read Bridget Jones? No. I don't know what you think you're doing where like men of a certain age have read Bridget Jones. I don't know a single man who's read that book. But Chris is like enlightened, you know? No, he's not. Chris watches Lioness and jerks off. What are you talking about?

1:01:44Chris is not reading Bridget Jones. This is my brother. This is my literal brother. I don't know, but you know, he's an Anglophile. It's like, it's very charming. I'm sure you're right. I don't want to take anything away from what they've accomplished. It's the most apoplectic that you've been since you came back. Have you ever seen a Bridget Jones movie? No. What in the fuck is wrong with you? I'm sorry. I just haven't. I haven't. I haven't. Remember how you'd never seen Singing in the Rain until you watched it with Knox? Yeah, that was great. Okay. You know, that's fine. And you want the third chair.

1:02:17I think you have really weird expectations of men. It's something we should explore more deeply in the future. I don't know whether it's like... are they weird or is it how everyone should be? And it's like, you're not. No, it's your fascistic tendencies that rise to the surface where you're like, this is how it is and I will accept no other truth. Because I'm dealing with an entire society of men being like, this is how it is all the time. No, over here, this is how it is. We're doing an episode about Bridget Jones, are we not? A secret. And you couldn't read the book. It's very light reading.

1:02:50It's breezy. I didn't read whatever this Captain America movie was based on. He's reading The Odyssey and Vineland. I am rereading Vineland. Book Club Vineland? Sure. But also, you could read Bridget Jones. You could read it tonight. You could read it yet. No. Okay. But we will talk about the movie on the show. And we're going to try to do something that might be a horrible idea and that might actually be offensive to Chris. But we're going to try to build the American-British movie canon. That's okay. I feel like you guys are really well-suited to do that. What Americans think are great British movies in the 21st century.

1:03:28I'm sure also that all of our British listeners will be thrilled by this. They'll want to assassinate us, but it's okay. We'll have fun. Well, don't spoil it. But that's what we're talking about. Yeah. American guys being like, snatch is really good. That's the thing. That will be like what I can contribute. But I think Amanda has a lot more text. I think also American women being like Bridget Jones Diary starring an American. I want you to know that I respect them. in my administration, they will have a seat. I just think you would kind of be charmed by the book. I think I would be too. It's not like, I'm not trying to be a dick.

1:04:02I literally barely can make it through like Mike Sandoz's six takeaways from a Super Bowl victory by Mike Sandoz. It's written in diary entry form. Like you actually could get through this. Yeah. I think the Turner Diaries is written similarly. Oh my God.

1:04:19I appreciate - I went to this fucking Marvel movie 40 minutes early because you're an idiot. And I didn't even say anything. I was like, I guess Sean is going to be a psycho. The one time you piped down and you should have said something. I was trying to be supportive. I was meeting you. I was very surprised that you weren't like, let's get a dessert. Where you were. I know, but I thought he was like being so crazy. I just didn't know. I got invited to Wood Ranch. Like this is like Sean's time. I'm going to do it. I don't understand why you can't meet me. Wood Ranch was Chris's idea. It was a good idea.

1:04:52I don't like, that's fine. so I met you where you were what does it matter if I read Bridget Jones just don't be a dick you guys should save this for the Bridget Jones episode well Yassi will be here so we won't be this fervid oh you guys don't really fight in front of Yassi we're working up to it I mean it's new work you know so okay well great job everybody thanks to Jack Sanders for his work and for staying till 4.49pm on a Wednesday Jack thank you this is a double session this is all time you get back tomorrow brother Thanks to our producer, Robert Wagner. What's future Jack going to do with his life?

1:05:27Maybe he should check out an early screening of Captain America Brave New World. Thanks for listening along and watching this show. And have you been watching The Big Picture on YouTube? Yes. And what do you think? Good experience? It's a good experience. Did you know The Watch is on platform, on video, on Spotify? I did because I listened to The Watch. We are coming to the Spotify platform soon. Okay. I can't say when. Join me. It may be... The Spotify Cinematic Universe. How does that affect my data saving? I don't know the answer to that question, and I won't even try to answer it. But we will see you next week.