Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Next Generation (ft. guests Stockard Channing & Dianne Wiest)

22:32Chris Hewitt:Oh, Chief O 'Brien. Chief O 'Brien. Oh, my God. Is a Gleeson available? Is a Gleeson? We don't care which one. No. We will take any available Gleason. We will, but I'd lean towards Donal. Every episode could have Chief O 'Brien played by a different Gleason. And nobody ever comments on it. It works. I'm bang up for that. I'm in. Okay, so Beverly Crusher and her dickhead son, Wesley. Hey, some of us were of an age where we fancied Wesley Crusher. All right. Show me you're working. Some of us were of an age where we fancied Beverly Crusher. I think that's it. Most edges, to be honest. I was very young alright I was like I want to go in the Starship Enterprise 2 he's got the best job in the world come on I'm so glad the segments happened because now I can cut out the other segments and just pretend they never happened so that's good so this is a good one alright Beverly Crusher the doctor has a will she won't she thing with Picard she has more of a we have and we will again with Picard I know but they never kind of did but they also kind of didn't Jessica Chesney You know, Jessica Chastain.

23:46I think that was broad agreement.

23:50Chris Hewitt:Yeah, that works. But can you see her having sexual chemistry with Mark Strong? I can see practically everyone having sexual chemistry with those two people. Oh, Gillian Anderson. Gillian Anderson. Gillian Anderson has sexual chemistry with everybody. everybody that is accurate that is true yeah oh oh oh oh oh and as Wesley Crusher uh-huh A's at Butterfield I mean it makes a certain amount of sense in a sex education vein in a sex education vein oh I see because of the sex education connection they were mother and son in sex education I'm assuming there'd be fewer wanking montages but but other than that I have few notes I think actually that was one of the few things that Next Gen lacked oh gosh well they did have Jeffrey's tubes and they'd go up and down in them so a series of montages featuring Will Wheaton furiously flogging the bishop is what that show needed.

24:47Polishing the Jefferies tubes as they call it on the Enterprise.

24:51Chris Hewitt:Setting his phaser to stun. One other... Shills up red alert. No. I'm angling the main deflector. You know, honoring the prime directive. It's a miracle none of us are casting directors really, isn't it? Beaming himself up. No, come on. All those things. Yeah. So there we go. Guys, I think we have done it. I think we have done it successfully. I think we've recast the Next Generation cast brilliantly. Guinan. Guinan. Oh, we'd be Goldberg. Yeah, you're right. She's still around. Guinan's still around. Makes sense. Yeah. And Ben Whishaw could play Q? Q. Because he's already played Q. Because he's already played Q.

25:34He actually would be quite good. He'd actually be good. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that.

25:39Chris Hewitt:Hello, Picard. He'd be like that. Woody? Yeah. Woody? No, he's in cheers. Oh, boy. Anyway. Oh, God. Okay, all right. Listen, I enjoyed that segment, and that's all that matters. If you want to have your question read out in the Empire Podcast, get in touch with us on Instagram. I am ctah1976. That's where I'm taking my questions these days. And wait for a panicked shout-out or a slightly panicked shout-out every now and again if you want to do that. All right. Shall we have a little break? Let's do it. All right. Make it so. Okay, we are back, folks. And now it's time to dig deep into the week's moving news, which mainly arrived, I think, in a barrage of trailers.

26:22Chris Hewitt:Lots of trailers for you to see and to consume and for us to talk about here on the Empire podcast. What trailer did you see, consume, and wish to talk about? um there was a sort of mini trend uh in trailers about the shorter versions of the movies okay yeah that wasn't the specific one i was going to talk about the fact that um billionaires and wannabe billionaires are uh perhaps behaving oddly in trailers this week so digger first of all definitely about a billionaire played by of course tom cruise and a shit ton of makeup um basically trying or just not trying to save the world. Much like the billionaires this week who were warning us that AI is going to destroy us all and they're not going to do anything to stop that.

27:11That seems to be the sort of hook. They're like the anti-John Connors. Yeah, that seems to be the hook of Digger as well, essentially. So it still looks like an incredible performance from Cruise and a weird film, and I'm very excited to see it.

27:24Chris Hewitt:I haven't seen this one. What's new about this trailer? There's just a little bit more, I guess, with the interplay between himself and Riz Ahmed as his kind of seems like aide turned whistleblower kind of character. And just quite a lot of him facing off against all the many, many interested parties in, I don't know, keeping the rest of humanity alive. Okay. Interesting. Jimbo, did you see that one? I did not see that one, no. All right, what did you see? I saw the trailer for Remain, which is a new Shyamalan movie, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynaver. And it's like, it's a story by M.

28:04Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks. And weirdly, that seems... I'm sorry, what? Exactly. It seems incredibly obvious from the trailer that it is those two unlikely worlds colliding. So Gyllenhaal plays this... I fall in love with dead people. Right, it's literally that. I fall in love with dead people. So you've got Jake Gyllenhaal, who's kind of this architect, and he's moved to Cape Cod after. And the logline says, after leaving a psychiatric facility, I wonder if that sentence is going to prove important. And while he's staying at this kind of B &B, he meets a mysterious woman who, as the trailer leads us to believe, may or may not be, you know, alive.

28:36Right. Or maybe a figment of his imagination. Or maybe a figment of his imagination. Or maybe probably he's dead, because that would be the only thing that could be a choice.

28:43Chris Hewitt:They won't do that again. M-9 can't go back there again. But that's what I mean. Like, it can't just be as simple as what the trailer makes it look like, which is she doesn't exist. Yes. She's a ghost. Which would be the obvious Nicholas Sparks thing. but like Shyamalan's done that so is it something else is what I'm saying is he dead not her and he's like it's like the others or something do you know what I mean possibly the person you think is the real person is actually the ghost or is the psychiatric institution such a thing and as you say she doesn't even exist it's Shutter Island it's Shutter Island it's Shutter Island yeah exactly that oh gosh so so many ways this could go but I really want to see it what if it doesn't go anyway like it looks spooky from the trailer but the Nicholas Sparks-iness of it makes me wonder if like what if this has a happy ending?

29:27Chris Hewitt:What if the two of them fall in love? His often don't. She manifests. His sometimes don't. Oh, that's true. Look, all we know from the Nicholas Sparks thing is that there'll be two beautiful white people on a coastline, you know, near clapperboard houses and a love story. That's the only thing that guarantees. It doesn't guarantee a happy ending. Impeccable interior decor. Usually, yes. It's not Nancy Meyers impeccable. Don't get me wrong. but it's up there. Yeah. Do you think this might start a trend of A-list directors Oh, I hope so. teaming up with unlikely novelists. Novelists. Yeah. John Woo and E.L.

30:05James. Why? Fifty Shades of Hard-boiled. Fifty Shades of Killer. Any of that. Yeah. Absolutely that. Then you've got the sex, you've got the violence, you put them together. I don't know that John Woo does sex. I mean,

30:20Chris Hewitt:I think he has children. No, in real life. On screen. On screen. The sex is usually, if it's there, it's metaphorical. So gunplay, not foreplay. I was going to suggest Gaspar Noe and Sarah J. Maas. I know one of those people. Perhaps that's two on the nose. Sarah J. Maas. Is she the... Romanticist. Very porn. She's the very porn person. Yeah, yeah. Okay. That would be unreleasable. But yes, it would certainly be interesting. Who would you team Chris Nolan up with if you were to team him up with an author? You're both well-read. Woodhouse. I'd have to be alive. PG Woodhouse is not generating new material.

31:02Admittedly, fine. Steven Spielberg and Bronte, because he loves dinosaurs.

31:10I see it. Because she'd be a Brontosaurus. No, we've got the Brontosaurus fund. I think he's just complained about my writer not being alive. You've chosen somebody even longer ago. We're fantasy casting.

31:22Chris Hewitt:I think it's fine. Of course, Chris Nolan just teamed up with Homer, of course. Of course. What about the two Stevens? Could King and Spielberg come together? Oh, my God. That'd be amazing. To do something in the horror? I feel that Spielberg's horror is probably too tame for Stephen King, I would say. I don't think he'd be prepared to push the boat out quite that far. He's pushed the boat out pretty far in the past. Do you think? Yeah. All the way out to seeing Jaws. I mean, that's fair. But Jaws is frightening, but I don't think it's quite King level of Twisted. Of Gnarly. But they both have that small-town Americana thing.

31:57They do. That's very true. They could lock into that very, very well easily. That is very true. They speak the same language. They'd go pretty damn well together. But then Stephen Spielberg's talked about wanting to make maybe like a proper Western. So maybe someone like Stephen Graham Jones who wrote The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. I haven't just had a stroke. The word hunter is repeated. It's a hunter of buffalo hunters. You know? The Buffalo Hunter Hunter yeah okay so incredible book actually very chilling actually kind of horror but also kind of old west kind of a western sort of set right so they'd come together

32:30Chris Hewitt:to do a new western to do a new western yeah yeah yeah okay what about Louis L 'Amour is he still alive no no he's very dead okay but why are you allowed dead writers we're not because I can't think of anyone else okay alright okay so I thought the trailer would be pretty good obviously, Endless Shyamalan these days, it's a coin toss, isn't it, as to the quality of the film, it feels, but, but when it works, it really works. When it works, it works. You know, Trap was fun. Yeah. Enjoyed Trap. Was that his last movie? I think it was. Was that gosh? Yeah. It's been, it's been a while. It's been a minute.

33:08Chris Hewitt:yeah. So there were, talking about billionaires being dickheads, Artificial, the trailer for Luca Guadagnino's Artificial, which is the kind of, the story of, of, well, the rise of AI and the people who are seemingly locked in a race to develop AI, even though they suspect that it might have bad consequences. Yeah, they fully believe it will. Anyway, this is Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman in a story about, as you say, the rise of ChatGPT and the rest. I am really struggling here. I don't want to see these fuckwits. I don't want to see them in real life, and I don't know that I want to see them in the cinema.

33:51And I think Guagnino, while he has done incredible films in the past, maybe has to re-earn some trust after his last one, after The Hunt, which I thought was not good. And I'm slightly worried that he doesn't have a sure hand on the present moment sort of politically after that one. So I really hope that this will be good. But it certainly looks like a bunch of sad little dweebs who have delusions of grandeur and are being given more money than God to develop something. And that could be, I guess, an interesting drama. I've just asked ChatGPT and it says it's going to be great. Well, there you go.

34:35Wow.

34:35Chris Hewitt:True story. Somewhat connected, there is a new documentary coming out called You Can See Everything. It's too late. starring Mark Strong as Patrick Stewart and this is a documentary from Lance Oppenheim who also directed Primetime which is the RPAT as Chris Hansen the host of To Catch a Predator Predator Badlands which is coming out very very soon very very busy guy and he's teamed up with Nathan Fielder to direct a documentary which the early reviews because I think it's screened at a film festival, or it's about the screen at a film festival. Telluride, I believe. Telluride. So some people have seen it already.

35:19Chris Hewitt:It's nearly three hours long, and it's about Elizabeth Holmes. And apparently it is extraordinary, this film. Yeah, jaws were on the floor. And even the little clip here is incredible. So Elizabeth Holmes is the person who was convicted following her attempts to launch this startup called Theranos, which was all about, like, it basically said... She wanted to get six stones of incredible power. And then snap her fingers. And the idea was that you could, it was like a blood test kit, but they made all these grand promises like from a single drop of blood, we can basically diagnose you for like 16 million different illnesses.

35:56And of course, it never worked properly. It never worked, but she kept telling people that everything was cool and it was all working and everything was going great. And she kept getting more and more and more startup money and eventually fell foul of the law and was being sent to prison. And Nathan Fielder went to spend the last few precious days with her and her young family, young children, before she went into prison. So she invited this documentary crew on purpose into her home for those last few precious days of freedom. And Nathan Fielder, the master of cringe comedy, the guy who lives and thrives off awkwardness in the way that the rest of us require oxygen, appears to be genuinely discomforted by this weird, weird woman.

36:40So I'm very intrigued by this trailer. I'm very intrigued by the early reviews for this. and even though all of these people are awful I'm interested to see how this one turns out

36:50Chris Hewitt:well Nathan Fielder is not awful no but I'm talking about the tech people those tech types yes I'm sure there's nice ones let's not tar them all with the same brush sure yeah okay theoretically that seemed to go down well with him infinite universe that's good everything's possible one last trailer did anyone see the Street Fighter trailer yeah I didn't have any emotional connection to it or knowledge of what's going on but yeah It's one of these films where I am absolutely confident it's going to be terrible, but I really want to see it.

37:24Chris Hewitt:I don't remember much about Street Fighter, but it seemed to have all the things in there, people with terrible hair. All of it. I keep confusing it with the other one we had earlier this year. Mortal Kombat. Yeah. And I do feel a little bit like the problem for both of them is that if I want to watch a martial arts movie, I'm doing it because I want to see extraordinary people do extraordinary things. Yes. but I don't necessarily want them to do the extraordinary things with the help of CG. Do you know what I mean? So I kind of struggle a little bit with these films because I'm like, well, ultimately, I feel short-changed a little bit by the fighting.

37:55Well, the games do have an awful lot of superpowers. No, I get that. It is absolutely necessary to be... I get that. I'm not suggesting they're doing anything wrong with it. It's what the fans want. It's what everybody wants but me. I just... I don't... I don't care about the games. You don't want to see E. Honda do his hundred-hand slap on someone. Is that... I get it. Is that the thing he does? It's the thing he does. Now I'm a bit like, maybe I do. I mean, that sounds kind of fun. That's a very Honda Civic of him. Hey.

38:25Chris Hewitt:Come on. But of course, the original Street Fighter, the original version of Street Fighter, the original movie, is famously one of the worst movies ever made. Yeah, I've seen it. So this is already a step up. And it's got a decent cast. Noah sent Zaneo. Jason Momoa is in it. Is he in the trailer? Yes, he's Blanca. Okay. Is he in the trailer though? He is in it. We've seen the footage I've seen. Okay. Andrew Koji. David Dasmalchen as M. Bison. M. Bison. M. Bison. Cody Rhodes. Not Vega. Yes. Cody Rhodes as Guile with the terrible hair. Eric Andre is in it. Ah, yes. So, yeah. Kalina Liang as Chun-Li.

39:05Chris Hewitt:So, yeah. Oliver Richter's. Olivia Richter is rather, who was the guy who beat up Reacher in season three of Reacher. He's playing Sangeef. Oh, yes, I thought I saw him in the trailer. It's a Russian wrestler. So, you know, could be good. Could be good. Could be good. Every day is Christmas Eve. Looks fun. Doesn't look unwatchable like the last one. So that is good. Good news indeed. There was one weird trailer. Well, not weird, but just unusual that hit this week, which was four guys getting into a car and driving off. and this caused a big kerfuffle on the internet because those four guys are the in-betweeners.

39:46Yes, I saw this. Who saw this coming? I guess their accountants, presumably. I had no idea that it was coming. They must have been paid quite a lot. But yeah, it's the original crew back together again. I'm not a massive in-betweeners fan, but I've seen all the films, I've seen all the episodes of the series. It's got a massive following. I'm fascinated to see what we do with them now in middle age, but fuck it.

40:09Chris Hewitt:Fuck it. Fuck it. Yes. Let's do it. They're back, back, back. They are. The Inbetweeners 3 is filming right now and unlike the previous two Inbetweeners movies, both of which were huge hits, by the way, this is going to be a Netflix jobby, which is really interesting because again, the aforementioned Inbetweeners and The Inbetweeners 2 were huge hits. So, how has no studio got this, like a traditional studio got this because it seems like a license to print money, doesn't it? It seems very, very strange to me. But this is the Inbetweeners and I really, really like both of them. I'm just a big Inbetweeners fan, but the Inbetweeners 2, I know this is an unusual opinion, but I thought it was hilarious and was just a gag machine.

41:00Chris Hewitt:And so it's Simon Bird returning as Will, James Buckley returning as Jay, Blake Harrison back as Neil and Joe Thomas as Simon. Damon Beasley and Ian Morris, the creators of The Inbetweeners, have written this. Ian Morris is directing it. I'm cautiously optimistic about this. Because there's no reason, I know you're going to be cynical and say bucket loads of cash, but there's no reason for all these people who are all successful independently of The Inbetweeners to do this. Apart from the aforementioned bucket loads of cash. So I've got to assume that they have a way in. I've seen a lot of people going, but aren't they old now?

41:41Chris Hewitt:Yes, they're all 63 now. No, they're all in their 30s and 40s now, I guess. So Simon Bird is 42, yes. So they're all around that age. So this is obviously going to be about them, I guess, navigating middle age, parenthood, all that sort of stuff. That could be fun. And are they still the same collection of idiots? Jay, for example, James Buckley's Jay, he can't be that same clunge-loving, lying dickhead. There's got to be a change there in him. Have you met men? I mean, you know, not to rule out the possibility of development, but it's entirely possible that he has not grown up at all. What's this going to be?

42:30Like, they're lads, lads, lads. They're going on a... I don't know. They probably, yeah, one can only imagine it's some sort of stag do or like a last holiday or something.

42:40Chris Hewitt:Maybe it's close point blank. Maybe they're all going down to Dover. Ten years, man. Ten years. But I'm excited about that. I think that could be potentially good. So, nah, there. Take that. Yeah. No one's arguing with you. Okay, good. I don't like them, but I get that they're loved. I just assumed an argument. I could feel an argument coming, but I headed it off at the pass. Quick draw once again. Just a couple of very, very quick things. There are a couple of projects that are in very early development in Hollywood, but they are of note. One is that Paul Feig is apparently circling a sequel to The Italian Job, not the good one, the bad one from 2003.

43:27It was fine. I mean, it's not good, but it was fine. Was it? It was of its time.

43:35Chris Hewitt:It certainly was. Good cast. And they're kind of all pretty much still around. They are. But I don't think they have contractual obligation bringing Edward Norton back to the gig. That's true. I don't know if he... Did he die in the last one anyway? He probably did. Or ended up in prison or something. But Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham, there might be a tussle for top billing at this point because the staith the staith wasn't the staith yeah he was just he was just he was just guy in movie but now he's huge yeah still handsome oh he could play Picard he would be a terrible Picard I know engage make it so it'd be pretty actually it'd be amazing

44:23Chris Hewitt:yes anyway anyway yeah Yeah. Charlize Theron. Apparently the best driver in the cast, they all said during the original press tour. I don't know why I remember that, but I do. Yeah. Is that because Mark Wahlberg couldn't see above the wheel? Anyway. Yeah, it's happening. Cool. All right. Let's see. There we go. James, you excited about this one? You a big fan of either Italian job? Yes, within reason. I'm with Helen that the second one actually was all right. It was fine. It's fine. Yeah, I had a good time with it. But the first one's a classic. Yeah. Yeah. But do we need this one? I don't know.

44:56Chris Hewitt:We didn't need the other one. Well, you don't need any films, really. No. So let's just give it the benefit of the doubt. Yeah. Okay. But Paul Feig is circling it once he finishes The Housemaid's Secret, which he's filming with Sidney Sweeney right now. And Kirsten Dunst. Cool. It's exciting, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah. Not really. Okay. Other exciting news. John Mulaney. Yes. is apparently in early talks to star in a remake of Get Smart. I'm open to that. I have no emotional or physical connection to the original TV show, nor really the Steve Carell film, which I thought was a little bit underwhelming, if I'm honest.

45:40There's a couple of good gags in it, but really meh. So yeah, by all means, let's give him something like that, because I think he could do that sort of, he's very good at channeling that kind of mid-century energy you know if you watch kid gorgeous or something like that and you should all watch kid gorgeous it's incredible um i i think he's he's he's really good at just like that kind of old-fashioned character and i would really like to see him in almost maybe in even as a 60s set get smart i thought that would i think

46:09Chris Hewitt:that would be fun i like john mulaney i'm surprised that he hasn't done more movies because i know he's not an actor but he is working at it and he is getting better at it and I think if you can hold your own in something like The Bear then you can probably hold your own on the big screen anyway shall we have a guest? Let's shall we have two guests? Oh my god shall we have two ruddy legends? Let's shall we have Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest who are two of the stars of Practical Magic 2 which is returning which is returning Practical Magic 2 which is in cinemas as of this week a long awaited sequel of course to 1998's Practical Magic which saw Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play Witchy Sisters who felt that they were cursed that they couldn't fall in love and this is right Hellspells they couldn't fall in love if they fell in love with someone that someone would die that's basically the story it wasn't like they felt like they were cursed they were cursed they were 100 % cursed alright so obviously Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are the stars of Practical Magic and Practical Magic 2 but Diane Wiest and Stockard Channing are fantastic in the first movie as their aunties as well who are along for the ride and they are legends, absolute legends Diane Wiest has two, count them, two Oscars.

47:31Chris Hewitt:Ordinarily with a movie like this it has these big big name stars, we would go we want the big name stars please and sometimes we get them and sometimes we don't, that's fine that's the way it is and then if we don't sometimes studios will go do you want the other members of the cast and most of the time we'll go no we don't want them because then you know they're just co-stars but not all co-stars are Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest exactly so I just said to myself you know what let's do it let's do it let's get three legends in a room and by three legends of course I mean Stockard Channing Diane Wiest Helen O 'Hara enjoy Joy.

48:11One of these things is not like the others.

48:14Chris Hewitt:Well, I was trying to be kind. I mean, I have to ask, did you have it in your contracts that you had to have the best costumes before you would agree to come back? Was that a condition? Yes, absolutely. It's the first thing we did. We voted on line one. We have the best and most beautiful costumes. Yes. We certainly did. We did. So, I mean, did you ever expect this? Has this been talked about through the years? Because it's been 28 years. No. I mean, it's not even talked about that I knew of. No, once in a while, some stranger on the street would come up and say, we hear there's going to be another practical magic.

48:47Is that true? And I said, I'm sorry, I don't think so. No, it's not true. Yeah. And then you hear it, and then you hear it more and more and more. And then my agent, I think, called and said, they're really talking about doing practical magic too. He said, you're kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Stockard said it better than I do, but the fans made it happen. This completely comes from the people who have watched and talked to other people who have watched this movie over the years and how that process actually happened, I really don't know. But it's the first stuff I've ever heard of in all these years that I've been doing this in this business.

49:27That the fans have made the movie. Manifested it into being. It's quite witchy, actually. It is quite witchy. There were books. I mean, there's some problem with books. There was a plot line or something. but you know this really is the power of persuasion of these wonderful people that have seen it so many times over the years and are still seeing it I suppose yeah I guess yeah so I mean what are your memories of the first films that was Griffin Dunn obviously directing but you know very much the same sort of quartet at the heart of the story yes at the heart of it exactly um there were more women in it in the community that was the plot line that that I sort of we sort of missed them because we became friends at the time.

50:08And there was that. That was slightly different in the atmosphere. What's his name? Burying the evil by all those women who we needed to cast a spell. Right, right, right. And we don't have them this time. And this time it's dangerous. It's really. I think this time the magic is being exposed to the outside world. Yeah. To the evil in the outside world. If it doesn't work, we will be hurt. Yes, yes, absolutely. I feel like, you know, even though you're right, there were more sort of supporting women in that film maybe than this. But at the same time, it's still quite unusual even today, never mind in 1998, to see a film centered so much on a group of women.

50:48Like it's still, you know, I think, I don't know, but your experience is all the way through your career. But like there have been times, I'm sure, where you were the only woman in a cast or the only woman in a principal role on set. And it feels quite refreshing. Including the crew. Yes. You know. Yeah. Transportation, there's no women. And I don't feel like we get that many stories about sisterhood, about, you know, aunts and nieces, mothers and daughters, in the same way that, you know, every guy has a father complex in every movie. Or a mother complex. True. With an old mummy. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

51:23No. No, this is different. It's different. It's unusual. Yeah. And it was so, it was like putting on a cozy sweater to go back into it, even after 30 years. Because we, although our lives have taken us various places, up and down and stockered, and Nicole and Sandy, there are huge changes in their lives, but they're still the same person. And so you look in her eyes, and there it is, and you're home. You know, there's not much acting required. No, and we just slid back into it, and we were all very happy, I think, to see each other. Yes. And happy to have the safe place. We were from the outside world.

52:19What was it like filming in the UK this time? Did it feel different, or was that kind of? Well, the crew was different, I suppose. Yeah. I live here now, so for me it wasn't a big switch. I honestly couldn't say it was different. No, I love it here. I just love, I'm an Anglophile. I just love the crew. I love everything about being here. I was so happy we shot it here. That's awesome. And you get to go out and do London while you're here and see everything. Right, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, amazing. So where does this rank in terms of what you get stopped and asked about in the street? Like, you know, is it the West Wing?

52:58Is it Lost Boys? Is it, you know, your theatre work? Where does practical magic sort of come in terms of that? It would pop up more frequently. It's a very strange timeline because when it first came out, I had a little bit of lip, but a lot of critics didn't quite understand it. I didn't really read them, but it would pop up and I went, oh, that's too bad because I really had a great time. That's too bad. So what I really don't understand is that why now? I think it's an accumulation of viewing and the technology involved. Absolutely. But there's a lot of films out there in this category. Why Practical Magic?

53:34I have no idea. I'm the last person to answer that question. I wish. But the only people that can answer it are the people that were so crazy about it that they persuaded Warner Brothers to do a sequel. So what an interesting phenomenon. But in terms of being very rarely, but then it would pop up more frequently. You know, and it's almost like with everyone that would ask me, did that represent 10 ,000 people who saw it? I have no idea what these numbers even mean. Yeah. I just, I find it, I do find it really interesting because I think you're right. I think I feel like it has, its profile has risen in recent years.

54:12I don't know if people are getting a little bit woo-woo and kind of getting into their magic a little bit. I don't know, but it feels like it has kind of raised itself. I think it has something to do with the feeling of being outsiders that has increased with our technology, with our loneliness, that the Owens women are outsiders and despised by the community, even the community that they heal, that they help. They're despised. But when you are an outsider, you really cling to your sisters. you really because that's about all you have your family and maybe there's some connection between the loneliness and being an outsider in the film and trying to conquer um evil that's a very good point because it might be about just trying to reconnect again with family but also like this is again maybe me being a bit woo woo but like reconnect with nature and they're very They're very grounded.

55:15They're very sort of connected to the gardens and the house and the place. I mean, Nicole's a botanist, you know. Yeah, the healing process of it. But it is also, even though whether there are not, I mean, I think sometimes we pick our families. Yes, absolutely. And so any bond between people, male, female, doesn't matter. That should be reinforced and returned to over time. It reminds me who we are as human beings, you know, And that kind of humanity that is in this film, you know, it happens to be in an extended strange family. I mean, you know, Nicole and Sandy are not our children. They're our nieces.

55:55And even the whole thing of the curse going back generations. That's our bond that we choose to honor and we have. And it's also a – but basically that's it. There's connections between human beings as opposed to greed and avarice and destruction. They represent healing. And that is a very admirable aspect of humanity. It's reinforced. I mean, I don't think it has to do with gender or sisterhood or that. It's about humanity. And they have an enormous amount of humanity and a bit of a sense of humor going along with it. I wanted to ask also about the newcomers, about Joey and Maisie coming in. It's nice to see that kind of generational love, generational respect.

56:41It's not just about, you know, the younger generation fighting with the older generation. There is that sense of community between all three kind of layers here. Yes, but also a very important plot point is that Sandy's character is not comfortable with her witchery heritage. and has not necessarily informed her children of what is in their blood, as it were. So that comes back to bite her in the horror course of the thing, which is another very interesting plot point just about what we have to, how we have to educate our children, how they have to deal with the world, in her case, a very specific aspect of their world.

57:19To avoid repeating the same mistakes, essentially. Yes, yes. Absolutely. So how about Joey and Maisie coming in? Did they fit into the gang immediately? I think so. Of course, they're much younger and this, that, the other. But, you know, I mainly was working with Maisie and it was delightful and incredibly professional and adorable and wonderful. And I thought, but, you know, so it's almost this, as you've seen, it's like two movies. They sort of overlap and interact. But, you know, movies, we don't make it all straight the way through. So I didn't have the pleasure of working with any of the men, one young man, but only one out of the three, whatever.

57:56So my personal experience, whereas I don't, but you, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah, no spoilers here. No spoilers, though. Is it true that you all, or some of you at least, got drunk on bad tequila in the first movie? Is this the case? I don't think it was bad tequila. It was good tequila. It was very good. Yeah. Very good. And did you celebrate on this one with Midnight Margaritas? Did that become a part of the wrap party for this one? Was that key? No, not for me. No, we didn't really have of it because the way the structure of the shooting was. We were separate. Of course, yeah, yeah. You've got it.

58:34Oh, that's a shame. Or maybe it's a blessed relief for your headaches in the morning. I don't know. Again, I'm not getting to any kind of spoilers, but there is a prequel series in the books. There's prequel stories in the books about your two characters. Did you ever hear anything about that? you were never asked to like, I don't know, they were talking about a TV series at one point. Were they going to get you to narrate or do anything fun like that? I don't know. I don't know. I've never heard of that. Okay, so we maybe need to get the fans to manifest that now as well. They want a TV series.

59:03It's up to them. They'll do whatever they're told. Warner Brothers will do it. They have to put it in motion. Yeah, the fans have the power. I mean, Suzanne works on TV as well, right? We can pull her up. We can get her to do that. She's brilliant. She's brilliant.

59:17Chris Hewitt:Okay, that was Talker Channing and Diane Wiest talking to Helen. How are they, Hells? Delightful. Yeah. Absolutely delightful. Amazing. I look forward to listening to it. I look forward to editing it. I'll cut all your bits out. Is that okay? That's fair. Excellent stuff. Should we talk about Practical Magic 2 now that we have reached the reviews section of the show? A lot of movies to discuss, but this is the biggest game in town this week, isn't it? I feel like this is probably the one on widest release, yeah. Yeah. So, and certainly on every bus stop in London I've noticed the last week. This is the return of the Owens sisters who are Sandra Bullock Sally and Nicole Kidman's Jilly.

59:51So they are back. And by now, Sandra Bullock's or Sally's two children, who are now played by Joey King and Maisie Williams, are growing up and beginning to live their own lives. Obviously, the aunts, who are the Stalker Churning Down Waste characters, are getting on a bit in years. Still spry, still wonderful. And basically, some things happen that make it clear that the curse that they thought they'd lifted on their family, where every man who falls in love with an Owens woman dies is still very much in play. And this becomes a particular matter of pressing importance when Joey King's character Kylie falls in love for the first time and her boyfriend is left in a coma because the curse.

1:00:34And so she must find a way to save him.

1:00:36Chris Hewitt:A Sandra Bullock movie with someone in a coma. I know. Luckily, she's not in love with a guy in the coma, so it's fine. And Bill Pullman is nowhere in sight. although I would be open to her while you were sleeping too. I don't know what would happen in it. Absolutely would be open to that. That would be cool. Yes. Anyway, so Kylie basically goes off looking desperately for ways to, you know, save her boyfriend's life and then her mother and aunt go after her to try and find her, rescue her before she starts messing with dark magic and they recruit Lee Pace's Ian Wright. Professor Ian Wright. Ian Wright.

1:01:11Ian Wright. I assume this name must come from the novel because otherwise, I mean, this film's shot in the UK and somebody would have said, guys, I think you might want to reconsider his name, which is going to be wildly distracting for all the UK audiences. Anyway, they recruit Ian Wright to help them track down Kylie and basically save the day. And you will be shocked, shocked, I say, to know that romantic sparks fly there as well. Well, she finds Mr. Wright and romantic sparks fly, surely not. I know, it seems so unlikely. This is, I would say, pretty much exactly as good as the first one, and you can take from that what you will.

1:01:51I think there are moments of real loveliness. There's a whole thread about sisterhood and relying on your family and stuff that's really, really nice. There are still far too few films about women's relationships with each other, about sisters, about aunts and mothers and daughters and that kind of thing. So all of that kind of stuff I was into. I'm kind of into some of the witchiness as well and the woo-woo, you know, oh, let's light a candle and wave some sage around. Like, that's fun. I'm sort of here for that. And they all look incredible. No woman in this film ever wanders into a patch of bad lighting.

1:02:24Like, every single... They are glowing.

1:02:28Chris Hewitt:Right, yeah. Glowing at all times. So all of that stuff I loved. And you know I'm very partial to Lee Pace. So I say this with love. You're very partial, yes. I say this with love when I say that either it's bad acting or bad scripting or possibly both, but almost all of his scenes are terrible. Genuinely bad. And really, somebody should have taken an axe to the script and just sorted some stuff out there. An axe to the script? Wow. Some of these scenes are all unforgivable. The writing is bad. You know, Sandra Bullock can sell a lot. She is a very charismatic person. Lee Pace can sell a lot. They are not selling these scenes.

1:03:08they are straight up terrible terrible scenes

1:03:11Chris Hewitt:so we should say that this is directed by Suzanne Beer yes who I was about to get to so she does I think they wanted to you know with love and respect to Griffin Dunn who made the first one they wanted to bring in a woman's voice on this film they both worked with Suzanne Beer before Bird Box of course your beloved Bird Box James I do love Bird Box and she worked with Nicole Kimmon on I think The Perfect Couple was that the one from Netflix so she has she's clearly really comfortable with both leading ladies and I think it's really nice Nicole Kidman in this one gets to essentially be the comic relief a lot of the time.

1:03:41And Sandra Bullock is trying to be all uptight and straight and play it very sensible, but also her character like makes mistakes and gets annoyed with herself and stuff.

1:03:50Chris Hewitt:You know, they're a double act, but it's Sandra's movie. Yeah, I think it's the same here. I think like Nicole is very much the supporting role and they've kind of done that dynamic again because it works so well. But when you bring in Ian, when you bring in the daughters, when you bring in, you know, the ants, it gives them something to play off. And they generally do it pretty well. But I do think the script is not great. And I would have really, especially the romantic scenes, they needed. They badly needed another pass. There's also a scene that got real titters the other night where Sandra Bullock discovers custard for the first time.

1:04:24She's visiting the UK. And the custard just looks bad. It's lumpy. They should have given it a bit more of a whisk. I quite like lumpy custard. So anyway, we've given it two, which I think is a little bit on the harsh side because I definitely had at least three stars worth of fun. But at the same time, you know, I can't really argue with that.

1:04:44Chris Hewitt:Maybe we were influenced by the title Practical Magic 2. So they just meant Practical Magic 2 stars. I thought you meant the magic bit. No, no, no. See, that's a mistake. That's a mistake. If you want your sequel to have a good review in Empire, get the number five in there somewhere. Practical Magic 5. Yes, call it Practical Magic 5. And then who knows what will happen. That's a shame. that is a shame although honestly you've sold me on those bad scenes I want to go and see this movie now to see two people seriously struggle what is it do they not have romantic chemistry what's the deal what's happening I just thought that the lines were literally laughable like there were titters around me in the cinema it wasn't just me I've seen it twice I saw it with a really packed house the second time and not laughing in a ha ha this is peak comedy this is peak romantic comedy way laughing in a what the fuck are they saying kind of a way yeah i'm afraid so okay sounds good uh ian wrong more like there we go boom boom boom pick up lee pace two stars two stars and for practical magic two now there are two movies out uh at the moment that you would be forgiven for getting confused one is called the runner and doesn't star jack reacher the other one is called Runner and does star Jack Reacher now Jimbo got confused and watched the wrong one how long were you into The Runner which is directed by Kevin Macdonald and stars Gal Gadot before you realised that Jack Reacher wasn't showing up a good 90 minutes and I'm not even sure it's 90 minutes long so it was it was a surprise to me it has to be said I kept waiting for him to turn up and then he got to the end I was like oh maybe he's in the post-credit sting turns out no No?

1:06:31Chris Hewitt:No. With Sting in the post-credits Sting? Funnily enough, yes. You've got to run. That's my Sting impression. Really? Sounds like Dobby.

1:06:41Chris Hewitt:I've got a message in a bottle for you, Harry Potter. But we didn't cover The Runner last week, and I had to watch it, so we should definitely cover it now. This is maybe a reason we didn't cover it. Okay, I'm going to do this really quickly. It's Gal Gadot. She's running. It's like Forrest Gump. She spends the whole film running because Damien Lewis has kidnapped her son and she has to do a thing for him, otherwise he'll kill her son, and that's basically the setup. And how much effort would you say Damien Lewis put into his performance? Look, I think that was a really, really difficult afternoon's work that he put in for this particular role.

1:07:17But he's largely on the end of the phone. I mean, to be fair to her, her cardio is off the chain. She spends this entire film fucking running along. But, I mean, look, if you're looking for a film that gives you a walking tour of North London, This does it. You get to see Primrose Hill. You get to see Kentish Town. You get to go all the way through Camden. It's nonsense. It's not very good. The ending is maddening. Don't watch it. He's a badden. He's a badden.

1:07:40Chris Hewitt:Damien Lewis is a badden. He's kidnapped her son. She's a lawyer. So the whole point is that she is a lawyer. There's an important trial. Someone's about to go down for murder. Multiple murders, in fact. She's the defense lawyer. So she has access to a key witness. So he takes her son to try and make her kill the witness. That's the plot. Okay. And she has to run there. for whatever reason and this is genuinely brilliant she's like how am I going to hit that because you're going to run and she's like can't I just take a cab he's like no no I'm going to make you run so that I can monologue to you over your headset over the next 90 minutes actual land island that sly dog she got him monologuing it's extraordinary Helen saw the other the other runner the other one the one that has Jack Reacher in it this runner is two stars by the way this runner is two stars oh yeah okay Hell's Bells yeah you saw the other runner I saw runner you saw runner which is not called The Other Runner it lacks the definite article yes but it does have Jack Reacher it does once again going by his nom doctor Alan Richson no no no and he stars as Hank Malone who is an American of course ex-military dude who's now living in Brisbane for reasons and you know he's a loner he's sensitive he's wounded but he's trying to get it back you know back to himself back on his feet as it were and he's working as a delivery guy and he does difficult or complicated or sensitive or whatever deliveries around town.

1:09:01For example, he picks up a very expensive bird belonging to a billionaire to deliver to his ex-wife, that kind of delivery, right? So he is hired to go and pick up a human organ, which is being transported by courier Ben Bishop, played by Owen Wilson. Bring this desperately needed organ to a very sick young girl who is lying sympathetically in a Gold Coast hospital and with her single attractive mother with her. And yes, Jack Reacher, sorry, Hank Malone and Ben Bishop very quickly find themselves targeted by ne 'er-do-wells.

1:09:41Chris Hewitt:No, not ne 'er-do-wells. I know, I was as shocked as you are. Rodrigo Santoro's kind of, quote-unquote, cartel boss, they don't really get into details, is working with a local biker gang to try and steal this human organ, which belongs to a very rare blood type. It's a very hard one to get. It's come all the way from Hawaii. The clock is ticking, time is running out, and they must get this human organ to this small child. You don't need to see the rest of the film. You know everything that's going to happen. I did, however, quite enjoy this. It's absolutely business as usual for Rich then, Reacher.

1:10:21Reacher. He is, you know, he's giving it a little light and shade. It's not literal Jack Reacher. He's a lot better with people, but he's still gruff and monosyllabic as much as he can get away with. Owen Wilson's being Owen Wilson and being very charming and loose and relaxed and chatty and everything else. Classic kind of double act stuff. And then, of course, oh no, people are chasing us. Woo, car chase. Woo, guns. Oh no, I can't believe it. But this is quite an effective MacGuffin, I think, for an action movie. The idea of, you know, there is literally a ticking clock

1:10:53Chris Hewitt:on organ transplants. There's another movie coming out soon with a very similar ticking clock. There you go. So it kind of, like, it's very stupid and very basic, but it kind of worked. The action was decent. Directed by Scott Waugh. Yes. Father of Rick Roman, former stuntman. Responsible, of course, for The Expendables 4. Yes, he is. Yeah, yeah. But he escaped from movie jail. He's out now and he's made this. And I think it's totally fine. I do feel like, though, there is one thing I will say. I feel like setting action movies like this in Australia rather than America, I think, runs a little bit into the same thing we have when they're set in the UK, which is like, our police don't feel ready for this level of carnage.

1:11:38And I kind of got the same vibe from the Australians. Apologies to any Australian police out there who are absolutely ready for carnage. Maybe you are. I don't know.

1:11:46Chris Hewitt:I'm ready for carnage, mate. but it feels more like they're out there writing parking tickets and then this kind of craziness happens. Do Australian police have guns? Because obviously British police don't. Well, Northern Irish police obviously do but British police don't. Yeah. But do Australian police have guns? Well, I don't think they need them because there's so much poisonous wildlife or venomous wildlife. They can just pick up a spider or a brown snake and just throw it at someone. But they have them in like a little holster. Yeah, like a snake holster. Oh, yeah. Snake holster. I've got a cockbiter here, mate.

1:12:12Chris Hewitt:I've got a cockbiter. There you go. It's a tip nipper. Put the bag in the ground or all bloody cocked by you. I didn't see that in the film, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. All right. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, three stars for this one. I wrote the review, so three stars. Three stars. Helen agrees with herself. Geographically, both films? It feels like there was more running in mine. No, but geographical fidelity. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was 100 % on point with her. She wasn't in Camden one minute, then Kenton to the next. I mean, to be fair, but she runs very fast. So she covered a lot of ground.

1:12:45Chris Hewitt:She is a wonder woman. Yeah, in the 90 minutes or so that this film lasts, I would have probably made it from the top to the bottom of Camden High Street, and that was about it. She covers much more ground than that. And there was a bit where she outruns a train. What? A tube train. Someone nicks her train at one stop, and the door's closed. And so she runs and heads it off and gets on when it reaches the next stop. That is impressive. You can do that between Manor House and Camden Street if you're very, very fast. Manor House and Camden Street. Yes, but you've met us. Yeah. We are not going to be able to do that.

1:13:13One theoretically could do that. Gal Gadot can do it. She's a one woman.

1:13:17Chris Hewitt:I imagine you don't have a lot of speed, but you have a lot of stamina. Stamina. Yeah. I hope. I have neither. I've got two halves to do this weekend, so fingers crossed. You put those together, you get a whole. That's true. That's true. Not in the sex way. Keep them apart. Yeah. And I've got 100 half marathons. 100 half marathons. Same. Or 50 marathons. Just do 50 marathons. I've got 50 marathons. Easy. They're called Snickers now, James. Damn it. All right. Three stars for runner. two stars for The Runner. Yes. What else? There's lots of movies. Pressure. Pressure? Pressure. Oh, yes, the film about weather.

1:13:52Do not knock the film about weather. This is, of course, Anthony Mara's film based on David Haig's stage play, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say Helen has seen at least once. Have you? I actually didn't know. That surprises me. Well, anyway, this is set in the kind of weeks, then days, then hours, and the lead up to D-Day. And it begins, interestingly enough, with a title card which talks about Exercise Tiger, which is a thing that is actually taught in schools now but I think most people have no knowledge of which is the dry run for D-Day in which 749 American servicemen were killed due to a colossal amount of fuck-ups involving friendly fire and then Germans and all sorts of stuff and they managed to keep this classified for years but anyway this sort of sets the scene for this film because a lot of shit has gone down and they are very very keen for reasons of the war that Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings be a success and it all comes down to the weather So you have Andrew Scott here playing Captain James Stagg, and he's been brought in.

1:14:45He's like the chief British Army meteorologist, and he's a very kind of abrasive, difficult, not particularly likable man, but he knows his fucking science. He knows his weather. He is, if you will, the John Ketley of this film. Then, of course, you've got Chris Messina, who plays Colonel Irving P. Crick, and he is the American meteorologist, and he's a bit more sort of fast and loose. He's like, yeah, it's going to be great. The sun's going to be shining. You'll be fine. Captain Stagg, however, says, no, you won't. It's going to be raining. This is England. There are going to be problems. Then you've got Brendan Fraser here as General Dwight D.

1:15:16Eisenhower and Damien Lewis, who plays the terribly brassy field marshal Bernard Montgomery. Is he phoning it in from the same room? I think he nips away at one point and I'm pretty sure he does the runner during that 20 minutes. Yeah, just quickly phoning in his lungs. But the whole point of this is, genuinely, this entire film is just what is the weather going to be like in June in Normandy? That's the whole plot. is the weather going to be okay are we going to be able to land our troops are we going to be able to take the beaches at Normandy and obviously we kind of know how this ends right like we know when D-Day happened and but but that aside I have never been more invested in weather than I was in this film it is incredibly tense there's lots of pouring over meteorological charts and calling people at distant fucking pressure gauging things and them wrangling over sort of historical weather documents and it sounds incredibly dry and on paper I think it really is it is very stagey it is a stage play but it's it's great performances I think Brendan Fais was really good in this I think but Andrew Scott it's all him he is so forthright and earnest and unmovable and when he stands up in front of them kind of speaks truth to power there's kind of part of you it's going go on tell him about the rain son it's great like so I had a really good time with it obviously you know how it ends but it's a lot of fun getting there so yeah yeah you do forget during the film that you know how it ends a little bit it's like oh yeah we did Big D-Day actually went quite well do you Because the other thing about this, I think what's fascinating is Andrew Scott is not, or Stagg, is not going up against them from a position of certainty.

1:16:50He's actually refusing to say he's certain because he's not. He's like basically in 1944 or 42 to suggest that you could accurately predict the weather. They're looking for three days in advance was very much on the limits of what was even theoretically possible. So he's very much couching this in, I think this is going to happen, but I can't guarantee it. Whereas Crick is all like, look at these charts of what's happened in the past. This is definitely fine. And so it is all about uncertainty and it is all about fidelity to the facts and it is all about integrity as well. And it's a really fascinating movie in that there is no antagonist.

1:17:31I mean, Montgomery can be a bit of a dick at times to pretty much everybody. Cumulonimbus. Yeah, the weather is probably the antagonist. Yeah, that's true. But apart from that, it's not like Hitler doesn't feature in this. You don't see any Germans in this. It's really all about a bunch of people with the same aim trying to figure out how to get there. And I think it's really well done. We have mentioned Kerry Condon, who plays Eisenhower's loyal aide, Summersby, who plays a key role in trying to slightly, I guess, broker peace or find a way for these guys to talk because they are just not communicating well.

1:18:07Yeah, and it is, of course, based on a true story. Yeah, very much so. Is it? What happened? There was a whole landing thing. Troops, Normandy. It was a whole thing.

1:18:15Chris Hewitt:Many beaches. So this is a prequel to Saving Private Island, of course? That's exactly right. It is, actually. All right. I am very, very surprised, I must say, because when I first heard that they were making a movie about someone predicting the weather, I thought, nope. Ian McCaskill, A Life. Two hours of people talking about the weather should be the biggest movie in British history. I genuinely think in this country, it's going to kill. Out the door. It's going to absolutely slay. All right. We shall see. But we gave us one? Four stars. Four stars. Now I'm wondering why we didn't start the review section with that instead of talking about the bad films.

1:18:52Chris Hewitt:But anyway, yes, four stars in for pressure. Hellspells, there's pressure of a different kind in Oasis, Don't Look Back in Anger, which is a documentary concert film about the reunion of Liam and Noel, the Gallagher brothers, last year. We know how this one ends as well. But there's pressure because they're so combustible. You're watching this movie going, when's Liam going to fuck it up? And he doesn't. He does not. Yeah, spoiler. Right, look, if you went to the concerts last year... I didn't. Well done, you've got more money than we do. I mean, you just spent lots of money to... I did. to see Stevie Wonder.

1:19:32Chris Hewitt:Yeah, I did do that. So you've got as much money as I used to have before I bought tickets to Stevie Wonder. But like, look, if you went to see it last year, this is a film you're going to enjoy, first up. If you wanted to go last year, this is a film you're going to enjoy. If you are in any way an Oasis fan, I think this will be quite fun. If you're Gallagher agnostic? But if you're looking, if you're Gallagher agnostic and or if you are looking for the inside track on really anything, this is maybe not going to be satisfying because I'm going to tell you straight up, this does not address why they fell out or why they came back together.

1:20:11It starts on the first day of rehearsals for the tour and there is a bit of tension, there is a bit of pressure about, is Liam going to turn up and what's it going to be like when he does? And then, and they get through that and then it sort of gets into, okay, and now we're basically on tour and everything just kind of clicks into place and they seem to find a groove again together, the brothers and the whole band, and they just have, frankly, a whale of a time. And then it's about people who have been estranged for over a decade kind of finding their way back to each other. It's really actually lovely at times in terms of them appreciating what each other can do.

1:20:51I think there's a lot of acknowledgement of what each of them brings to the kind of Oasis equation here. And members of the band as well. There's a lovely bit with Noel paying tribute to Bonehead that I actually really liked. Where he was going, we spent years looking for this sound after he left. And I didn't think he had a thing, but it turns out he really did. And that's what it was. So there were great moments. It's very feel good. The two of them are funny fuckers. They really are. And that will give you a lot of entertainment out of this film. And the music is still like, there's a lot of bangers here.

1:21:24But I was really frustrated because I wanted a little bit of meat from this. I wanted at least to know a little bit more about what went on. I have now decided my personal headcanon is that they fought over the pettiest shit imaginable and the reason they don't talk about it is because it would make them look stupid. And that is now my personal fixed headcanon and it is partly because they have left that gap for me to fill it with. How does this measure up against Matt Whitecross's Supersonic? I think Supersonic is actually a lot better in terms of getting really into the nitty-gritty of what Oasis was and what they did when and so on.

1:22:01This is really a glorified concert movie, but it's a pretty glorious concert, like, don't get me wrong. So I did have a good time watching it, but I think if you're looking for depth, you know, insight, I don't think you're going to get that here. The only thing that I think this is really insightful into is this newer, happier relationship between them. And that is kind of lovely to see, especially for two total fuckwits who spent years feuding I think it is genuinely lovely to see them in this more sort of like growing up, maybe enlightened, maybe just back to themselves kind of a place. And I think there is there's real charm in seeing them kind of come back together as a team.

1:22:42And like there are bits when Liam speaking and Noel's just sitting there looking at him like, this is amazing. Who are you? My God. It's lovely. Liam just word salads his way through life and he will start a sentence sometimes and he'll say something daft.

1:22:57Chris Hewitt:and then profound, and then go back to daft, and then maybe profound again in the space of a sentence, and it's absolutely wild head-spilling stuff. Also, this will be on Disney Plus one day, and the cavalcade of c**ts that is unleashed in this movie is phenomenal. I love that this is going to live on Disney Plus next to Mickey's Christmas Carol, which held the record previously for the number of C-words, of course. I really love this. I take on I think I'm a bit like you with the Odyssey you can take on all the criticisms and all the arguments about this movie but I had such but still love it and I had such an emotional reaction to this I'm a big Oasis fan unabashedly unashamedly unironically I'm an Oasis fan and I didn't go to the concerts when they reunited because I had my Oasis experiences at Slane Castle in 95 and Nebworth in 96 and I couldn't afford it also but i regret not going now having seen this and i was genuinely tearing up at several points during the documentary the bit where liam and they all walk out on the stage and carded for the first time i thought that was incredibly moving these two brothers the rapprochement after all these years of being at each other's throats 15 16 years yes i'd like to know more about who actually made the first move how did they get together again what was it like in the room when they were discussing the rehearsals.

1:24:23Chris Hewitt:Liam turns off the rehearsals in this, but how did they decide where the rehearsals were? What songs are we going to do on the set list? All that sort of stuff. I'd love to have seen that, but we didn't. There's footage of a young Oasis fan after the Cardiff gig who's just sitting there and he missed all of us. He couldn't have been really alive. Well, he was alive, but he couldn't have been cognizant of really what was happening when Oasis split up in what was in 2009. And then all of a sudden he's just there at this gig and he's stunned by it and he's in tears afterwards and i found that incredibly moving and there's various things i got throughout the movie so i loved it on that level i think the music is terrific liam has lost a little bit of his upper register over the years but he has worked on his voice and he sounds incredible he doesn't sing these songs he snarls them but they have such power still i'd like the set list to be a bit more varied and if they come back uh which i believe they are for more gigs soon i would like to see them incorporating something from album three and beyond but you But still, just nitpicking.

1:25:22But I had a great time with it.

1:25:23Chris Hewitt:We gave a four. I would concur with that. We only have a couple of minutes left, so we're not going to talk about Guy Ritchie's In The Grey. We're going to leave that for next week. Is there anything else you want to say real quick? Fall 2. Fall 2. Fulham nil. Very quickly. This is a sequel to the fall where people fell off the thing, and then there were heights, and there were scary, scary heights. Incredible, yes. So this is the sequel. It's directed by the Spirit Brothers, and stars Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas, Thomas as two girls, one of whom is the sister of one of the girls from the first fall, who go to a mountain in Thailand with one of those incredibly rickety plank walks around the mountain.

1:26:01And they're going there, you know, to process trauma from everything that happened in the first movie. And wouldn't you know it, there's a rock fall. They're left sitting on a plank on the side of a mountain. And the whole thing happens again. If you're afraid of heights, don't see it. I'm terrified of heights.

1:26:16Chris Hewitt:Do not see it. Even sitting in his chairs giving me the shits. Yeah, don't. Oh, no. Gross. Don't do it. But also, I think it's fine. You know, it works as a little scary movie. But I don't think it's not adding anything. I think what was unusual about Fall was it was so tall, so precarious, so skinny. They were on this basically just like a spike in the desert. And it was kind of a bit unusual and weird. And this just feels like a climbing disaster. My understanding is, having known someone who's read the Wikipedia entry, is that there's a lot more plot in this. there is a bit more but it's not ill-advised yeah it's not necessary or really helpful I think that there is a bit more plot and it really that only comes in at the end of the movie the sort of last act I don't think you needed it but also you know it's fine it does what it says on the Tim but it's not going to change the world we give it three stars three stars then for fall two alright exciting stuff and on that note folks on that bombshell that is it for this week's Empire Podcast join us next week for more film-related fun when we'll be joined by the director and the star of Resident Evil.

1:27:27Chris Hewitt:Resident Evil. Sorry, I should say the director and the star of Resident Evil, Sack Kregger and Austin Abrams. That is very, very exciting. It's Austin Abrams battling against all the odds to stay alive season. We've got Resident Evil next week. We've got Wellfall in October. this is an exciting time to be hopefully alive so there we go those are our guests next week but until then until we meet again until a suspicious occasion it is goodbye from my two colleagues of such lethal cunning goodbye to you James Christopher Dyer how are you Chris? oh god he got me gotcha I got him subscribe to the Pilot TV podcast who have we got on the Pilot TV podcast this week Chris?

1:28:09oh oh oh can I guess? yeah I don't care okay who was it? oh well in fact I have someone speaking to Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan at this very second.

1:28:19Chris Hewitt:Ooh. Yeah, for Mobland. Really? Yeah. Are they doing a bad air sex? It's very possible. To be sure. Oh, dearie me. Is it Tom Hardy? Have you heard Tom Hardy's raps? We'll get into it next week. We'll get into it next week. Goodbye, Helen. Toodaloo. And it's goodbye for me. I am off to get Ant and Dec together for the perfect Star Trek fingering salute. Oh, no. Thanks for listening. See you next week. Bye-bye.