S8 Ep9 The Mummy (Cut 5): guys, welcome back to Interior Analysis. my name is Angel Michelle. I'm Evan Westman. I'm Jelani T. Kelly. And today we have a very special guest from the Film Nuts podcast, our very good friend Taylor D. Adams. Say hi Taylor. Hi Taylor. What's up guys? I knew I knew as soon as I said it. I knew I'm like I'm setting him up RNA so well. I teed him up so well, but it was worth it. It was easy. Yeah. Good to be here, guys. Yeah, good to have you back. For a non- Wolverine episode this time. We were talking about Wolverine with him. Yeah. yeah, because you only did you did Logan and Deadpool and Wolverine, right? Mm-hmm. I've only ever watched two Jackman movies. he's he's really expanding. So you didn't watch tonight's movie? No, never seen it. I'm going in blind. So he's dead, right? Right? And he's Egyptian. probably really old. Actually, Hugh Jackman was in the movie, he was in the sarcophagus that they didn't open. So cameo cameo unseen cameo, yep. So you've clearly missed one. Let's hear your reaction though, Tay, because this is like we I don't think we had this on the list at all. But like we're doing this because you were like, we gotta do the mummy if I'm coming on. At some point. Yeah, I love this movie. this is my like number two of all time. And I say that in all seriousness. I think this movie is so much fun. I think it's a blast. If it's a high piece of cinema, it's definitely up for debate, which is kind of why we're here. But as far as me having a good time every single time I watch it, the it's batting a thousand. I think it's high cinema, personally. It's one of the most rewatchable movies I've ever seen, and I don't know how it took me so long to see it. I think I actually saw the third one when I was a kid and only that one. And I don't know why. It was probably on TV. And then I watched this like two or three years ago and I've seen it like seven times. Like it's insane. That's what Yeah. I've I've watched it at least twice this year at this point. Like it's just it's so much fun. Fraser is great in it. So is Weiss. The whole cast is awesome. It is the quintessential adventure movie. It's got everything. I love it so much. So which of us is gonna bring down the rain cloud first? yeah, I was waiting for Unless you're not done, Angel. I can spend two hours singing his praises and not give you guys any time. But however, this isn't if Taylor was done. Do you have more more initial thoughts or I I have I have plenty more thoughts, but I could keep going. So if you have like history with this, like go ahead. Absolutely. I gotcha. So way back when. yeah, so this movie came out in nineteen ninety nine. Like one of the best years ever for film. I saw this opening weekend. Also happened to coincide with my birthday. So I think I mean a bunch of friends went saw it for my birthday. I think it was turning yeah, I was twelve. And I don't know why I wanted to see it. I probably just saw like cool action and kind of like what? Hold hold on, Taylor. You you saw this when you were twelve? Yeah. And this is a PG thirteen movie. I know, such a rebel. MPAA would be so disappointed. There was an adult there. Like so we went and saw it. Did you know the adult or was it just an adult? it's my dad. okay. We stood outside the movie theater and like started offering grown ups money just to let us into the movie. works. Yeah. no, this was great. Like I again, I don't know what made me and my friends want to go see it. I don't remember like Seeing a trailer and being like, that looks cool because of XYZ, but like looking at it, knowing what I was like at that age, I was like, okay, I like movies like action. I like things that are like somewhat mythological, even if it's like true or completely false, that's fine. And then I like going to movies and happened to coincide with like my birthday. And I was like, cool, let's go see this. I think at another time too, I think I saw the first Spider Man opening weekend because it came out on my birthday, May 3rd. So it's kind of like in that same vein, even though that movie came out later. Be having a May birthday is a good time for like getting big, wowed Early May? That's the start of like the summer blockbuster season. It's it's incredible. Yeah. But yeah, I don't remember my movie theater experience. Right off the bat. I can't remember like I was wowed by like one particular thing or whatever. But I've seen this movie many, many times. I have a blast every time I watch it. I think it is I mean, we we'll get into this a little bit with our our topics, but I think it is a rare blend of a bunch of different genres that I feel like shouldn't work with all the things going on, but for me it personally does. It's in this like fun adventure realm with really great cast chemistry. And for for the time, like the visual effects were like pretty cool. I do remember seeing that at theater, like seeing Mmo Tibbs like big sand face and I was like, that's kind of cool. I watched it just this week. I was like, okay, you know, it doesn't hold up, but also this movie is now over 20 years old, almost 30 years old. So it's kind of cool to to look back and check that out. But I I will sing this movie's praises forever. I watch it multiple times with different people each time as well. It's just a blast. Well if I can jump in, I know at least one of the times that you watched this was sort of with me. 'Cause I was introduced to this a couple of years ago at one of your movie Mondays. I'll let you explain that if you want, since it's your thing. Yeah, sure. So I I attempt every Monday to watch a movie. Most of them I haven't seen or ones that I haven't seen in a while. But either way, semi-host it on Discord because in my attempts to try and stream things on Discord, it just doesn't it's just not as fun. It just doesn't look as good. So In any instance, a bunch of us hop on Discord channel. We go three, two, one together and hit play, and we try to watch a movie together the best we can. So I don't remember the occasion for why we were doing this one. Maybe it was an October film for like, you know, spooky season kind of thing. I think I was at that one too. I think it might have been like a like a spooky film. Nice. Yeah, I don't I couldn't tell you the occasion either. I also like I I love doing those when I can. I haven't gotten to one in a bit, but Sometimes it's not the best for like paying attention because sometimes we're just having fun in the chat. Which this is a good movie to do that for as my topic exemplifies. But because we had done it, and I think at one point, like I think I I gave up paying attention somewhat quickly. I like left it on and went to the bathroom, which is not a thing I would normally do. But like just I was like, I don't need to interrupt everyone else's night. So I think because of I'd be ready to fight if I'm if I'm showing somebody a movie and You get up to use the bathroom and I go to pause it and you tell me don't pause it, I'm following you to the bathroom. It's disrespectful. I'm never inviting the same room. I'm with you there if we're like all in the same room. That's a different thing. This is on Discord. It's it's a I didn't wanna like pause everyone else's night or whatever. There's no accountability, but now I'm just gonna think you're gonna do that all the time, Evan. No, because usually Evan's actually only in the bathroom when he's watching. It's all on my phone. As the filmmakers intended. As they intended. But because of that, I kind of had assumed that like I had maybe missed some stuff. So I like I this time I was sitting down, and I think that was a couple years ago, so I'd forgotten a lot. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna properly watch it this time. And I I'll save a lot of it for my topic because it gets into it. I I apologize to Taylor, Angel, all millennials, and apparently from what I've gathered, I have to apologize to like all bisexual people. Because my experience with this movie was mid. I'm I'm really sorry. I I'll just say just to clarify, somehow I've gathered through like every time this movie comes up is like people saying, I saw this at whatever age and that's how I know I'm bisexual. I I don't know how much I can comment on that as a straight dude, but I've just I have seen that proliferated a lot. So that's why I extend that apology. Just look at Brendan Fraser's hair. Honestly. Sure. That's all you need. It it's a part down the middle. Okay. I I I don't see it. I'm sorry. He's not They're talking about Benny here. That's who they're talking about, actually. Okay. Maybe him too. Or Mhotep. His shirt off is off for a lot of the movie. It is, isn't it? Jonathan. Sure. He's he he everyone's got a type. Jonathan might be somebody's type. I find that a lot of people do like this and I am a little surprised. I don't Think this is bad, but I mostly find it to be like a lesser version of Pirates and Indiana Jones or National Treasure. Like, I I think this is the recipe that Pirates perfected. But I was thinking back, like, to to give people credit, especially people who saw it like you did, Taylor. Like the movies that came out when I was 12, 2011 was that year, and my favorite movies of that year were like. Paul W. S. Anderson's Three Musketeers movie, Pirates Four, Tower Heist, not quite in that same genre, or like Transformers 3. And all of those I have some nostalgia for. Like, I think if I'd had a similar experience, like I was wondering if I saw this at 12, like maybe I would have the same kind of nostalgia for it. Because I was really into this kind of thing. Like adventure movies like this were like everything to me at that age. So Seeing it for the first time at like 25 was probably just not the best way for me to do it. Angels kind of disproving that, having had a similar experience and still loving it. Well, we're also not the same person. Like it like it's okay to like not be like we've talked about I'm very positive when it comes to most movies. It takes a lot for me to like vehemently dislike a movie. Is there any that we know that you dislike? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did promise I'd give it another shot just for you. my god Evan's got everyone's opinion of that movie just on his brain. No, I I will do I will do it, I swear to God. When I was gonna do it, they took it off HPO, it's not my fault. You're entitled to your opinion, and it's okay if this just didn't hit for you. To counter a little bit of that though, I will say, like, as much as pirates may have perfected this formula, the mummy was the original. That kind of did this in a lot of ways. Like it has a lot of originality. Like, it's one of the first ones to like really nail a lot of this stuff. And like the movies you were naming after that, like, I love those. Like Pirates, National Treasure. National Treasure, especially. I'm gonna talk about that in my topic too. But like those came after. But Indiana Jones came before. That's true. Like I would be with you if that wasn't true. But Indiana Jones, though, is a little bit different, I think. I think that this leans a lot more into the humor and the comedy and the action. I think a lot of Indiana Jones is like way more classic adventure and way more of like, look how cool this guy is. I love Indiana Jones too, but it feels like a different kind of movie. It's doing something different. You know I know which flavor I prefer though. And like it's fine to like both. What was it? Chocolate. well I heard someone say chocolate. If Indiana Jones is chocolate then I guess no, he's he's vanilla. He's vanilla. He is vanilla. And the mummy is chocolate. Do we really want to continue this metaphor? I mean, maybe you don't. I I don't think I do. Let's keep going. Like let's I want to see what Evan builds with this. I want to see Evan build on the metaphor. Let's go. Yeah, Evan's Evan's the best person to discuss this. I agree. I will say in praise of this. Rachel Vice is good. I think she's like one thing that those other movies I named don't have is like a character like that where she has a lot of enthusiasm and I think that's great. It makes her a lot more fun to watch. Also, good practical effects. And like Taylor, you were saying VFX doesn't hold up. I agree. It looks old. But like for 99, sure. That's cool. I watched a clip from the Scorpion King after finishing this because I'd heard things. And holy crap, does that not hold up? Wait, wait, wait, wait. The the Scorpion King or the appearance of the Scorpion King in the Mummy Returns? Whichever one has the really bad Dwayne Johnson double where he's like it's his torso on a scorpion's body. That's the end of the Mummy Returns. Yes. I I haven't seen the Scorpion King, but I do not think it's better. The Scorpion King is an action film, and that's all it is, and it's dumb. and it's like cool. Like I'm I'm here for just like the rock beaten up people. They also made like four more of them that didn't have the rock. But it's the same character, right? Like I think it's the same guy. I have no idea. I didn't know they made four of them. They were like direct to D V D sequels. 'Cause 'cause that used to be a thing. And th those can be really fun. I don't from what I heard, they were not fun this time. I have no desire to watch the Scorpion King. I'll stick with the mummy movies. Jelani, your turn. Yeah. Okay. First time watcher here. I watched it on YouTube. Shout out to that. It was free with ads, so for me it was just free, allegedly. I even updated my letterbox after this and I realized I've been watching movies with my brother every Wednesday, so I started logging the ones as far back as I can remember, I added this to the list as well. Man, this shit was so mid. And it's okay to be wrong. Well then half of us are wrong. He's just trying to hurt our void. I'm annoyed 'cause I don't like being in the middle of the road when it comes to movies or TV shows. I didn't dislike it. But I didn't like it either. The effects were gnarly. Not great or believable, the VFX. But gnarly. I had to look away from the mummy when he was in his third stage. I don't like seeing holes in human skin. Triggers tryphobia. Makes me like uncontrollably itchy. So when he had the holes in his face and God. And watching this, I would have rather played Uncharted Three, one of my most replayed games. I'll I'll just start with that. I really get into my issues with it in everybody's topics, so I I I'll wait. But I I didn't have the worst time and I didn't have a great time either. Okay. That's why I said I I felt so bad that Tay really loves this. I don't want to take that I feel bad too. I I'm not here I'm not here to take that away from him. It's just my enjoyment of of this is It's perfectly valid. Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be critical, but like this I'm I wish I liked this along with everyone else. Like it's the I can tell it's a good time for people. Like there's I can see the things that are there to enjoy. I just don't as much. I'm gonna split off and start my own podcast just about the mummy. I'm gonna be honest with you. Okay. Go you go do that. So let's get into topics then. Probably start with Taylor's topic. And also it's polite because he's the guest. so Taylor. Why don't you introduce your topic? Sure. This was actually a little tough for me because I I have as it's well known that I like this movie. I have nothing but good things to say about it. So it's kind of hard for me to pick one. And so I could very easily see me like we do we go through around the topics and then actually I go, actually I have one more thing I want to say. But the thing that I want to bring up, I mentioned to you earlier, is kind of like this blending of genres. Cause I think the past couple times I have watched it, I've tried to Better articulate why I like it. That has a lot to do with how many genres are kind of stuffed into this thing that for me they still balance really well, like a good recipe or a good cocktail. And I think one of the things that, not to go all the way back, but the original The Mummy, which came out in the 1930s, is a very different different film than this. It is very sad. it is very much just about. character that Boris Karlov plays. I can't remember it's actually Emoteb or if it's another name. I think it is. I was looking at quotes from that this week. Yeah. And it's very much just about this guy. It's about him. It's a it's about the fact that he has come back to life and all he is looking for is his long lost love. There isn't so much of a visual backstory of like, here's what happened to Emoteb before he died. Like that kind of thing. It starts off, he's just like they These archaeologists uncover this mummy. And then the whole film is him trying to figure out a way to get back what he lost. And it's actually very sad. It's also a shorter film. I think it's only like sixty minutes, maybe. It's pretty short. Well, it came out in like 41, right? Like that that was kind of the 30s. Yeah, in the 30s. But I think that's what's really cool though, is like you have this. This is a remake. This this movie that we're talking about right now is a remake of a film that came out. Over 60 years prior, which I'm like, that's how long we should wait for a lot of these. because then we have an opportunity to do something completely different. Like, you know, we talk about reboots and all this other stuff, legacy sequels, prequels. But like, if you have such a large gap, why not when you remake something, figure out a way to make it not the same thing? What can you do? And I think the genre stuff really works here. I also think it's a pretty like classic four. Quadrant film. Like it appe it appeals to every age demographic for a variety of reasons. I think what turns a lot of people off with this film is the amount of silliness because they either want more of it or they want none of it. And my in chatting with people about who they might not like this film. I think the silliness is really well balanced, especially in the dialogue. Like to me, what really works, it's like Quippy without like referencing some kind of Marvel movie. It's like these lines they have, these actions they have, they are a direct result and of a previous action and a cause for the action right after that. And a lot of the stuff comes from a lot of these silly mistakes or these silly lines that happen come from what I think is desperation. Like we're watching, you know, our heroes, you know, of the film. They are stealing from an ancient Egyptian tomb. However, they are the heroes of the story. They don't really know what they're doing. And they're trying their best to like they end up in a very sticky situation and they try to figure out their best way to get out of this. And they're they don't have the answers, they're just trying a bunch of different stuff to see what works. So when you have silliness of like when juicy emoteb fresh out of the coffin is like cornering Evie, and Rick comes in to try and like save her, notices it's a mummy, and yells at him, like that's so silly to me. But it really works because it's a response to this like monstrous growl that Emotib lets out. Brendan Fraser's character then growls back at him, yells back at him, and shoes him with a shotgun. I mean, that's and they run away. And of course he's like, I got him. No, you didn't. Like these are all people that are like they're trying to do what's And then he says it again. And he's like, No, I got him. They're like, No, no, I got him. No, trust me, I got him. It's okay. I got him. And the us as the audience, no, you're like, No, you didn't. Yeah. Yeah. It that's the appeal of his characters, that sheer competence. Yeah, there's a lot of that there. One of my favorite scenes also with this this same vein is when Benny gets cornered by Emoteb and he goes through the different prayers with all the religious trinkets that he has. I think that like because the first one he does is the crucifix. So he's doing like a kind of a Christian prayer. And then he pulls out another thing. And it's it's a hat on a hat situation. Like it's it's a yes and of praying. And I love that so much because it it's like this is a silly moment until it works. Like he's desperate. He's doing these desperate things to try and figure out how he's gonna survive this encounter with Emotep. You had this comedic aspect that I like. I think there's also a fair amount of romance in here because you do have, you know, a bunch of hot people together and like there's a little bit of romance, but it's not necessarily putting it in the forefront. Like it's not a romantic film. It's not like there's a meet cute, which is kind of interesting, but at the same time, there is they go through enough stuff to me that I feel like the romance at the end is kind of worth it because it's like. It's crazy shit that they go through. It's not like they are together for, you know, a couple days and mundane things happen to them. Like there's a lot that goes on in this. I'm trying to figure out at what point do I shut up about this, but I think there's just so much I think there's just so much going on. the horror elements really work for me as well. There is like legitimately scary stuff in here. And I don't necessarily mean like jump scares, but there's stuff that makes people feel uncomfortable, like j like. Jelani, when a d when a mummy's trying to get his full body back and he's not quite back, he's got a bunch of holes in him. The when Emoteb kisses Evie, that's like you can, you know, like nope, nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. The scarab scene still creeps me out so much. And I I still think it's actually one of my favorite scenes. Is like, I think the actor that plays that character, I forgive me, I can't remember his name, but he nails that role so much is kind of this little like slime ball who you know he's gonna get comeuppants at some point. But the fact that you remember like he doesn't actually have a scarab in his skin. So he has to act like there's a scarab crawling up from the his foot into his brain is just phenomenal to me. Like there's there's fair amount of like scary horror elements that they go along it's like the horror horror goes with the adventure, which goes with the humor, which goes with the romance. Like they kind of to me they piggyback off of one. If we're talking about the Indiana Jones reference, or not references, but just, you know Comparis. Indiana Jones existed and this exists. Like they can both kind of exist. The one exists because of the other in a way. The main difference for me, if we're gonna go down Indiana Jones and Jones comparison route, is this is about more than one character. It's not about Indiana Jones. It's about these group of characters. And their chemistry is so good. Like that's what really keeps me coming back is I'm watching. These people, I mean, they're not having a good time. But I'm having a good time watching them because they're bouncing off each other so much. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they're playing around in so many genres. Okay, I think I think I'm putting a period on right there. And then we can Yeah. I've been going on for a while. No, it's all good. No, I mean this is the way it goes. You tell us what you want to tell, then you throw it to us. No, that was great. Honestly. I think that summed up a lot of stuff really well. I wanna go back to what you were saying about the comedy, honestly, because that's something I really love about this movie too, is like my problem with a lot of the Marvel movies post like I'd say like Avengers One. There might be a couple after that that don't do this, but like I always feel like it's like a start stop comedy. Like they will stop to make jokes and that's why it doesn't land. I think Age of Ultron is probably one of the worst offenders of this 'cause I was rewatching it a couple of years ago. And I just flip it was just quips every two seconds. Like the jokes didn't make any sense in the context. It was just them constantly joking with each other. And it wasn't about their chemistry. It wasn't about like the situations they were in. It was just to have the jokes in there because they think that's what people want. All of the comedy in this is situational. It feels very organic. There's the body comedy, there's like, you know, the reactions to things. Even Rick doing things like screaming at his enemies for like seemingly no reason. It fits so well with the character because when he doesn't understand something, his thing is like, Well, I'm just going to try something and I'm gonna see if it works. And if it works, that's awesome. If it doesn't, he's like, Like there's literally a moment where he screams and then they scream back at him, he's like, Nope, and he runs away. Like that's just perfect. And it fits so well with the comedy of the movie. The comedy in this does feel very organic and I think it's something that not a lot of movies can always do, especially movies that try to imitate stuff like this or Indiana Jones, like Pirates is another good example. All of the comedy in that pretty much, except for like maybe some of the later movies, feels very situational. And I think that's why it works. It's based on character dynamics and also character quirks. And like they do so much of that here. There's a lot of CGI, but at the same time, like the CGI works within it. One thing I loved was I didn't even realize that Brendan Fraser didn't have like stunt doubles in there that they like CGI'd over when he's fighting them to like save Evie from the table she's tied to. You see him like hitting stuff, throwing a sword around, and like it legitimately works so well, I had no idea that he was just like hitting nothing, essentially, until I watched some behind the scenes stuff. It's really good. The amount of like imagination and like focus as an actor you have to have to do this. And the scarab scene's another example. Like to the idea of like he's watching it go up through his skin. He has to pretend that's happening and imagine that level of pain. That's really good acting. Like it's difficult to do. Not everyone can do that. Like there's plenty of examples of people that they're talking to CGI animals and you legitimately feel like nothing's there. Or people talking on green screens and then they put them together in a movie and you can tell they're not in the same room. Their heart's just not in it. Like the whole cast's heart is in this the entire time, and I think that's why so much of it works. One thing I also want to point out is the awesomeness that is Evie's first scene where she knocks over all the bookcases. I love that. That was impressive. There the it was a really good effect. But not just that, you have one shot to make that work. Right. Right. And if it doesn't work, you're you're kind of screwed. It's like It's not on the same level, but the hospital scene of Dark Knight was another one. They actually blew up that hospital when the Joker blew it up. Like they had one shot to do that. Anything where you have like one opportunity to do something, you absolutely like need to nail it. And they nailed it. Him hitting the remote was legit, right? yeah. Yeah, because they hitting the remote to 'cause it actually malfunctioned. So he he just improved that entire thing and it wor and it worked. Yeah, yeah. But like the same thing here if they didn't get the shot right the first time, imagine having to reset that whole thing. No. Scheduling wise it would not work. But it did. And also, why did they arrange the bookshelves like dominoes? They were asking for that to happen. And yet he was still all libraries all libraries are like that though. Yeah. Well when the library closes for good, when you're like, okay, we're shutting down, you need to push it over. That way you don't have to do all that cleanup. You don't have to move the bookshelves, you just knock all over. Well, rent is expensive, dude. You you gotta you gotta be efficient with the space. You're not counting on something like that. That is a great that is a great scene, though. That's one of those examples where like if you know the the conversation sometimes I have on on my show is if this was remade now, you know, in five years, what would that look like, feel like? And it's like do you couldn't they they wouldn't dare to try and do that library scene. They would they would not dare. It would be CGI. It would be entirely CGI and it would make me sad. Every single book would not be an actual book. Y'all are making it hard to argue. Good. 'Cause like no, it's it's it's a lot of like we're turning him. It's supposed to be it it's supposed to be a no, no, it's supposed to be a two V two, but you guys are talking about subjective things and it's and it's like is there anything that's objectively good or objectively bad and we all agree with the the practical effects. We all agree that the that the VFX are are dated. And it's like shit, well, I guess it really all just comes down to opinion with this. And I don't think every movie we discuss is like that. It's strange. I think that's part of that conversation though. You know, like if you you have like you know if you let's say you look at this from you know a structural standpoint and structure's not my forte. I'm not gonna pretend like yeah it works well because act one goes into two and three. There's something going on here that it's not gonna be without its like technical or technical flaws or like Something from a flow or a narrative standpoint that couldn't be improved upon. You know, those conversations are, you know, that's kind of why we're here to discuss this. And I'm sure other people smarter than all four of us in the room have done discussions like this. But when you have some things that can supersede some technical or structural elements, I feel like that's when a movie really succeeds at like touching you, like like making you feel something. and I didn't give consent. As soon as you hit as soon as you hit play on YouTube or your pirated version, th that you sign that waiver. There's just something that says do you feel safe? Well, you you are allowed to turn it off whenever you want. That is true. There's nothing that's preventing you doing that. You can start saying no at any point. Yeah, but I'm I'm saying in the past when we had like bad movies or good movies. We we we tend to like break down why it's good or why it's bad. But like you said, there's not like we're not I don't think any of us are like breaking down this this works because well you you guys it's more subjective in our approach when it comes to this. Well I'll give you one exception to that in terms of episodes we've done because kind of combining something you were just saying Jelani and something you said a few minutes ago Angel I think something that falls into a similar basket, follow me with this, is Scott Pilgrim as something like that is definitely No, I think I know what you mean. I think it's authenticity. Or that's not the word you use there, Angel, but it's it's something like that. Like it's a genuine tone. Everyone is trying for like to hit the same tone. All the actors are there. They're committed. Like nothing here feels like a studio note, which I think is the difference between like you were comparing to Age of Ultron and I think that's one of the comparisons. Focus maybe is another one. Yeah, what I was talking about is like the focus of the actors and like the dedication to it, I think is like what you're talking about. No, I as soon as you said that I'm like, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. I think the word I'm gonna use is vision. Like I think you have a cohesive vision here from the director and like all of the actors are on board with it. And that's why I bring up Scott Pilgrim. Because that's something that like Jelani, that didn't really work for you. It really works for me. And like I don't think there's anything wrong. And I think that's that's a movie that is often brought up in that context of like for some people, like I think that's in my top five, maybe top ten, depending on the day. Like I love that movie so much. I and I acknowledge some issues with it. There are actual story problems that I have that I wish were better. It's still insanely goaded to me because like Edgar Wright's vision is just so crystally like projected in every single second. Like every sound cue is so perfect. I don't have that here, but I do think there is a vision that like feels really authentic here, especially in the comedy. Like it doesn't hit for me. I don't think the quips are that great personally. But they don't feel like somebody was going, Well, you gotta make it funnier because the kids are like that these days. Like it felt like something that they really wanted there. And I I do have to respect that. Because you can tell when it's fake. or when it's like, we ha we got a note from somebody being like, Well, this movie just came out and made a ton of money, so we we gotta make it more like that. And nothing here, like even what we've been saying and I've been saying like it's too much like a lesser version of Indiana Jones. Yeah, I can say that, but I don't feel like somebody was going, Well, make it more like Indiana Jones. It feels like there's a genuine love here. It doesn't feel like it's trying to be Indiana Jones as a thing. It does feel like and like there's other movies that have come after it, like we were saying, like National Treasure or Pirates that d emulated a lot, but you can kind of feel like They were trying to capture a little bit of that maybe, and they did it really well, which is why it doesn't feel that way when you're watching it. But like the mummy feels like its own thing. Like it doesn't feel like it's trying to do anything but be itself. And I I'll I'll use this this is almost a criticism that I have of it, but I'm gonna kinda twist it into a point of praise. As I was watching this, I almost got a sense that like this feels more like a bunch of tropes stacked on top of each other. Yeah. Than a story. Hmm. I kind of say that as a criticism, but where I don't think of it as a bad thing is it feels like it comes from a place of love. It feels like the director was like, here's a bunch of stuff that I like, and I'm gonna try to put all of that in here because I like it. And again, like to compare to the more just cash grab kind of side of that, I I think a lot of twenty ten's blockbusters, especially I I wish I could remember where I heard this from. There's this idea that you're not trying to sell a genre movie anymore. You're just trying to sell a movie. I think especially in like around 2015, with stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy and I guess Deadpool might be another thing that kind of kicked this off. Was like, this is something that kind of does everything, or at least it feels like it. It's doing a lot of action. You have a romance subplot. There's a little bit of a horror scene, maybe, and there's a lot of jokes, but it's generally like Primarily built as an action movie and you can pull it off. And I think it's kind of impressive that this movie does. Like it didn't make it better for me, but it is pulling it off. The horror stuff, there's not a ton of it, but where it is, it's like, yeah, the mummy looks scary. Like that's a weird ass looking dude. And I don't like looking at him in a good way. I d I don't like his grin. He he grinned so often. How many times did he grin? He was just pleases him or tep. I man, he has a great He's got the like lower chin, like his his eyes are at like the top of his eyes. He's so good at it though. Like it's like it's yeah, like you you see him do that, you're like, that that's a look. That's it. Yeah, yeah. He's instantly recognizable. And and yeah, it's all on purpose is is the thing. You get that performance, and I think the performance is from everyone, like Brendan Fraser is so genuine. And I think I guess that's why people love him, is because he's committing so hard. And it doesn't feel like I'm gonna bring him up because he's an easy punching back. It doesn't feel like when Chris Pratt is put in everything. Like he feels like he's the guy that checks all those boxes. And that's why I don't like his movies, because he's the perfect guy that the studio heads are like. Well, we need somebody who's handsome, funny, and kinda jacked. And white has can and white and can make a lot of money. Hmm. Who checks all those boxes? Chris Pratt checks all those boxes. Alright, let's get him in everything. And I think Brendan Fraser is like the purer version of that. I have that in my notes too, actually, about Chris Pratt. Like I heard a lot of people say when Jurassic World came out, like he felt inauthentic because he felt like he was playing a guy, playing an action hero. And that's kind of how he feels in a lot of his action roles, except Probably Star Lord. I Star Lord's the one where he feels right. I think everything else, he feels like he's pretending to be something else. Whereas like Fraser and like other actors in movies like these, like, you know, Harrison Ford, never feel like they're pretending to be anything. They just feel like they are embodying whatever that persona is. And like there's so much of that now with some of these modern blockbusters that are like trying to do the same thing as this. It just doesn't work. Yeah. There are different flavors of that. Because I think my movie that I love that's like this is the first couple of pirates movies. I think they also pull that off. It's just more in my chest. Mm-hmm. But I don't think you're going to have like the same kind of love for something from 2015, Jurassic World as an example. I don't know. What help me try to think of something from the past couple of years. A any MCU movie's a good example, but I'm I'm trying to pull from something other than that. A lot okay, I shouldn't say any, but a lot of MCU movies are guilty of this. We'll throw Ultron under the bus. Nobody's gonna be too mad at that. I I do think it's something that I see a lot and I roll my eyes at it because and Avatar can I I think what is it? Avatar Avatar. I I kinda wouldn't say so because I I have problems with Avatar, but I don't think it's trying to do too many things. Well, okay, it is. But not in terms of like tone and genre. Yeah. I don't think it's trying too hard to be funny. And like, sure, the the romance subplot doesn't really work, but I'll give it to them. Like, it's not they're not biting off too many things. They're not trying to check too many boxes in terms of Well, the kids want the Yeah. That is not one I would put in this category. For what I've heard of Aquaman, I feel like that might Fall under it. I I shouldn't use that because I haven't seen it. You don't need to. I would kind of agree. There's elements of that other good, but it it does kind of feel like what you're talking about in most of it. Yeah. It's the sin of imitation and not as like a form of flattery. It's like it's it's riding the coattails, it's chasing the trends, rather than like I have this idea and I want all of these things here. And you can also commit the sin of trying to do too much. Taylor used the word balance before. Like I think this does balance all of it. Like it's not trying to be I'd say i if you had to stack these genres in terms of like what it's doing most to what it's doing least, like adventures on top, then I'd say comedy is next. I don't know if I want to throw disaster in there, but that's somewhere horror and romance probably vying for third and fourth. Like I could see either one taking that spot. I I think it does prioritize and like y you were saying for the romance subplot, like I I'll buy it more than a lot of others. They at least have a few scenes where they're talking to each other. Yeah, I I boug I I bought it in this. It felt it felt earned to me that the romance. I'll I'll give it that. Their chemistry was great and there was at least work put towards their relationship. So it's not like it it it's not like they had two scenes together and then at the end he kisses her 'cause she's the girl in the movie. Yeah. I did roll my eyes at the line, like I don't know, I'd say I found something, but then Jonathan rolls his eyes at it, so was like, okay, at least they're not like owning that line. They know. Yeah, they recognize they recognize the cheesiness of it. Yeah. They build upon the romance in the second one pretty well too. Like the second one has so many issues, but it is pretty fun, and like romance-wise, like you feel like they're a real cop. It only ends in the third one when they replace her actress with somebody else, but don't change her character, which is weird. It's okay, she's coming back. One thing that gives me a lot of or I guess I give a lot of grace with is that I don't wanna say that this movie like is a hundred percent in the clear. I'm maybe not the best to judge that, but like Evie at least feels like a real character here, which like a frustratingly small amount of action movies do that with female leads, like Even as much as I love pirates, like I'd say Elizabeth is better drawn. Will is not well drawn. I have no no reason to like Will in that. So maybe not the best example for like a bad female character, but like she has a personality, she has skills, she has enthusiasm, like she's nerding out half the time. I think maybe she edges toward like being a manic pixie dream girl trope, but like I don't think she's even offending that trope. Too badly. I don't know. I saw her as I I kind of saw as I'm not like other girls type of thing. Like when she started like winning the race with the camel and Brennan Frazier was looking at her like a dumbass. I was just like Alright, bro. I'm okay with that one because they're both like at least enjoying each other during it. Like she's just having fun with it. I I think you're fair to call that out. But I I found that moment at least like somewhat endearing. I think the the not like other girls thing, I think I I see that, however, it doesn't come across as like, I don't really know the right way to put it. But I think there's something about Evie's character that very much make it it's a combination of a lot of different tropes, I think, inside of one character. So there's a little bit of like Damsel in distress, there's a little bit of not like other girls. There's a little bit of Manificers Dream Girl. And then there's just like a competent person who is who has many moments to shine. And so I feel like that's what works. Like the whole camel racing scene. Like, I think what works is like is is is her. Like it's it's not necessarily that she's not like other girls. She's like, she's a person who's having a really great time on this adventure and has the right. touch to race camels well. When the other guys like trying to race horses and they're all being like Malian like trigo fucking camel, you know, and she's like, no, she makes this little like cute sound to get them mushing and it works. And it's like these different approaches to things. Now then again, she then goes and opens the book of the dead, which is a huge no no. But it's like it's the part of that enthusiasm that you talk about. I almost thought of that as a character assassination. Like she's supposed to be like this Aerudite person, then it's just like doop de do whoops. But that's the fun part is like she's like she is On she's only she's only been scholarly this whole time. She's only been academic. She hasn't had like field experience. Because that's a part of her backstory is like trying to get into these programs to like have more field experience. And this is the field experience that she gets is accidentally racing dead. And you gotta remember, she's very enthusiastic about all this stuff, but she doesn't believe in any of like the magic or the curses or any of that. To her, everything is logical. Probably because Yeah. She hasn't seen all the shit that all of these people in the field have seen, especially Fraser's character, because like I mean, the beginning he has a supernatural experience. So he is like on board with all that shit. She's not yet until she sees that part. Until she actually does something and she's an active participant in that. Like she's allowed to make that mistake. And it doesn't feel I in my opinion it doesn't feel like it goes against her character. I also appreciate that her motivations really have all everything to do with her and what she wants and not anything surrounding like Fraser's character specifically, which I think is a plus because I feel like a lot of the time, especially because I do think in the second half a little bit, she goes a little more into that damsel in distress role, but her motivations at least don't change, which I do appreciate. I think that's unfortunately a product of the nineties. But her motivations still feel like they're hers and it everything still feels natural to her, if that makes sense. I think it was a good moment where she She's the one that decides she n needs to go back to to stop the curse when Fraser's trying to run. She keeps saying we, which was kinda funny. But that's a that's a good addition to your your point, Angel, where it's like, yeah, I I agree there. Yeah. And she's gonna go anyway. She just she wants him to go with her. That's the thing. Like she knows they're a team and they work really well together and she does think it's both of their responsibility. So she's pushing him, but If he doesn't go, she's just gonna go herself. And ultimately she does make that decision, which is good. Because I feel like a lot of time they just kind of defer to whatever the male lead wants to do, and I don't love that, but they don't really do that here. Everybody's got their own thing going on. Tay, did you have more on your topic there? Are we still online? Jesus. I I think we're probably outside. You had a good topic, dude. No, no, no. I I I mean, like I said at the top of the show, like I could talk. I could talk for two hours about this thing. so no, but I I I would like to move on because I feel like, you know, the the genre stuff has lended a lot to a lot of discussions about character, about structure, about plot, about comparisons and homages and, you know, other films that have come before and after this. So yeah, let's let's move on. Do we want to move on to a negative space? I'm ready if we need to. yeah, yeah. We we have we have Evans topic next. We have Evans topic next. That's gonna be ooh, very fun. So my topic is do adventure movies need plots? Yes. Okay. I I'm kind of in agreement. I think we're gonna get Let's move on then. Yes, cool. Quick episode. Thank you. Let's do a fun topic. Yeah, so this movie does have a plot. I'm not gonna like throw that big of a rock at it. I I think there is a plot here. It doesn't really seem to care about it. And what I really noticed this time, and this is why I brought up my like first experience, was like when I do something like a movie Monday watch or when I'm with friends, I probably expect that I'm missing the connective tissue. This time I was paying attention and I was like, Wait, they just skipped over like, okay, why is Rick at at war at the beginning? Never explained. How does he end up in jail? He's just there. Like somebody says, like, he wanted to have a good time. Well, I guess he had a good time. What does that mean? That tells us that really doesn't tell us anything. And then as they keep going, it's like there's no connective tissue for like how did they travel from here to there? What is their plan? There is never really a plan. They get rid of the map, like we have MacGuffins, sure, but they're not really set up. The mummy's powers aren't really set up. Go ahead. About the powers, okay, man. Why the hell would cursing someone to a live burial give them superpowers? If they were to come back to life. Please make that. And why would you bury him like that? I made a note of it. If there was a chance of that happening, why do it? That's something I love we brought up. Like they tell us in the opening monologue that it gives I don't remember the exact line, but something about blah blah blah, superpowers, cursive, and The plagues of the earth and You're giving him the ability to be immortal. Why would you do that? Did you think he would just stay in there the entire time? You knew this might happen, but also you've never You've never done this before, so you don't know this is gonna happen. You just think it's gonna happen. I'm gonna I'm gonna lock this door and then I'm just gonna hmm, where's a good spot for the key? okay, just right here. I I really hope nobody opens this one drawer to get the key out, guys. Like Also, old boy giving them a day to get out of a day to get out of the desert and in that night they open the thing and get the mummy out. It's like I I I forget his name, but he was like the protector, the leader of the protectors. He's awesome. Honestly, I like too much. So lenient. So lenient. That and him being hey, I don't like that. Him I don't you know, i was merits for you guys. Why was he cool with them at the end? All of his people were dead. He needed their help at this point. They were all working together to stop the mummy. They had a common goal. I mean he might as well damp them up by that point, 'cause Yeah. Like he lost He's in the next one too. He lost all of his people. Bro, like they're the reason the dude came back and he lost all of his people. So why is he? So he needs he he needs new friends. He he needs new friends. That's what Well, it feels like a thing that this movie is leaning on really hard is like e especially the line you know, the break into act three, Rick just says something like, All right, well, the plan is kill the bad guy, rescue the damsel, save the world. It's it's kind of the same, like but you know how it goes. You don't care, we don't care, let's just like get into it. You know what's gonna happen. Let's have fun. And I can respect that as a creative choice. I will say that. Like 17-year-old me would have been pissed off to no end by that when I was in my like first couple years getting into writing. I'd have been like, but they broke every rule. Like I would have been furious about it. I've come to appreciate stuff that like leans into genre appeal a a bit more. But You do lose something is the overarching point I'm gonna make with this topic is like sure you can choose to leave that behind and just go for genre appeal. Like we we've even talked about that with a few things. Like nobody cares about whether the mystery include is airtight. We're we're there for the jokes and the jokes are good. If the mystery's good, who cares? Nobody's paying attention. I think that's fine, especially in stuff like comedies. Some people go to horror movies just for the jump scares they could give a shit about. like does the plot make sense or anything. I I think it's okay in some cases. I wanted to frame this topic around genre though, because I think with adventure movies in particular, you do lose something. I kinda wanted to know more about like it just give me something. It wouldn't have necessarily knocked up my score that much. Poor phrasing there, I'm sorry. what to your score? That's worse than I meant it to Phrasing. But I wouldn't have bumped up my score that much. But I think it does give you so like you you just kind of need those eat your vegetable scenes. They can be quick, they can be fun sometimes, like if you really bring the sauce with it, or you can just check the box. But like it is worth something for us to know how the McGuffin works, to have a look, we barely even get a look at the map. Compare that to like National Treasure or Pirates or Indiana Jones, where like we get scenes early on that are like, here's our like first MacGuffin that will like get us to the main one. Here's our map, here's like the one clue that we have, something like that. And I think that's part of the genre appeal is going through that, solving the puzzles with them. It's satisfying at the end of the first pirates movie when the curse is broken because we've had the setup for it and same with some of the other ones and even like this is kind of a mguffin light movie for how how many McGuffins you could have and they kind of have more than they need, like we barely get any setup with it. It's like, here's one book. here's also a second book for some reason. Why not just make it one? I don't know. But like we barely know anything about it before we open them. And it it seems like they don't care. And again, I respect that as a creative choice, but I think it's worth cautioning like what do you lose when you cut out those boring scenes? What's also strange is nothing surprised me about this movie. Like every bit was predictable to me. I like once they told us well one we knew he had to come back. The movie's called The Mummy. It's not a surf Dracula situation. I don't know if you guys know what that is. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've brought it up on a recent episode. It's okay. Evan will edit in the definition down there so we don't have to so we don't have to define it for you. Hey, don't give me more work, bruv. Come on. Evan will also give me CGI devilhorns. Yep, yeah, wait wait on those. Okay. nothing surprised me about this movie. Every bit was written. Well obviously dude had to come back. Once it was established that he needed the to suck those four people dry that opened the book. That's in their words. Like I knew he was gonna kill all four of them 'cause none of them were main characters. I was wondering why these cowboy dudes were in the movie at all and then I was like, well they can't have the main characters open the book 'cause then he would never get to his full power. That was predictable. Obviously the two leads were gonna die. I didn't expect Jonathan to die. Everybody else, yep, I expected to die. Only one that No, I was just more like I did like a little fist pump when I saw the leader who lost all his people, the protector, when he came back. And I was like, Well, I didn't see him die on screen, so he's probably not dead. And then he came back and I was like, Cool. Cause I liked him. He w he was chill. A little too chill, like Evan said. But as I was able to just predict everything that would happen. I wasn't really along for the ride. The comedy didn't land for me. And I was looking for something redeemable, if if if that makes sense. Like I wanted to find something to enjoy about it and I didn't. I also it it wasn't offensive to me like the Green Knight. Nowhere near the Green Knight. yeah he really hated the Green Knight. Surprised didn't I need to catch any strays in this episode? It did. It deserves all of the strays from me. We're gonna make you watch it again. No, you're not. Yeah. hey, you're already going through a war movie binge. I I I could. I know I was saying it off air, but I'll say it on air. We could make you redo Dunkirk just because. No. Well, even I won't rewatch Dunkirk. Okay. that's another one. I didn't Dunkirk that much. cool. It was okay. So yeah, I wanted to find something to like latch on to the the horror we've mentioned, like any of the five genres, they didn't really hit for me. Like I said, the romance was was cool. Like I didn't I don't think I rode my eyes any point, except at the end with the brother. I was just like, god. But like Evan pointed out, you know, they understood the cheese at that. But The action, I at least wanted the action to be good, and I just didn't. It was very it's basic. It's basic. I feel like it was basic. Also, they had infinite, but I mean, holy crap. They did not reload at all in this movie. Yeah. Dude, I I will I they had a bunch of six shoes. I will exist and I counted anywhere from eight to ten out of one gun at one point. Whenever they had whenever they were Dual wielder and I'm like there are six Remember the guy that was on fire that they had to shoot like twenty-five times before he died? Love it. I love that. But I see why. Yeah, no, it was great. Yeah. I love he's on fire and he's still he's still on he's still on mission. He's still stopping him from getting the key. Like he's gonna die at that no, you're you're fine. But yeah, I wanted to like like Evan said, the action was was was basic and I was trying to think like was it the time? And I was like, no, because there were better action movies definitely after this, but before this as well. I don't think I fully saw both of these, so I can't attest to these like fully, but Blade and T Two were before this, I think. Or Blade was was Blade the same year? Blade is the same. No, Blade was ninety-eight because I remember watching it and I'm like, this is a lot this is a lot like The Matrix. But then I realized the Matrix came after it. Yep. So there's a lot of like this time I feel like was when they were kind of trying to figure out like a how do we do good CGI action between like this Phantom, the Matrix, probably a couple other things. It's like we're trying. We don't quite know where it is yet. Even the the gunfights between like the groups, like the treasure seekers and and the protectors, like my eyes glazed over. I was just like okay. Predator was eighties, but Predator was before this. That was awesome. Yeah. Mission Imp I I don't remember whether I like Mission Impossible's action or not. I remember loving the suspense. The first one doesn't have a ton of like straight up action. Yeah. It's a lot more than I remember really liking that part of it. Yeah, I remember enjoying the suspense. Also, to add to your question, Evan, do adventure movies need good characters? Yeah. Rick was to me. Like I said, Evelyn to me felt very much like a I I think I'm more I think Taylor convinced me she's more of like a a a collection of tropes more than I'm not like other girls. Jonathan was I I like that he at least wasn't Another coward, because that would have been a repeat of Benny, just a good version of Benny. Yeah. He was at least comedic relief. And you know, when he was standing ten toes, that was kind that I think that was like one of the four moments that made me chuckle. When he he was standing side by side with Rick and he was like, Yeah, me too. I've been through this. or I I've been through worse. He was like, Yeah, me too. And Rick just looked at him. He was like, Yeah, I got you. he he just commits to every bit that he does, which I think is is what makes him a great character. Like that's what makes him not unlikable, because he's a slime ball, but at the same time he's not the kind of slime ball where like the warden is. Like the prison warden where he's just like completely detestable. He's like you understand why people are charmed by him. It's almost like he's not a threat, really. So people kind of overlook him a little bit. Yeah, but everybody else, like Benny, he you History of this show, you guys know I cannot stand cowards. Stupidity and cowardice are neck and neck for me. stupidity actually gives me a headache if I have too much of it at once. I have a physical reaction to stupidity. I'm not joking. And and cowardice, like Benny, my god. He's a survivor though. He's a cockroach. Yeah, with Rick trying to cockroach, but he's a survivor. With Rick trying to save him at the end. We haven't talked enough about Benny. Benny gets some of the best Like the the dynamics with Benny. He gets some of the best when when Rick's like, if it isn't my little buddy Benny, I think I'll kill you. And then he holds the gun. He's like, Think of my children. Okay. I love it. I really love it so much. It's a good scene. I I I think the reason it it works is because he commit everybody commits so hard and he commits so hard to being a coward. And for whatever reason, he makes it until he does it. And then everybody else was just like the Cowboys were the same copy and paste character except for the the British guy who was I don't know. And then there was the guy who was like, We have a secret society. What? What? What did that where did that lead? You there's two members of this secret society, we don't hear from anybody else, and then he dies. What? Yeah it's not that you don't get how candles work. It's that you were trying to burn the map on purpose. Right. Did he even admit to that? You didn't I don't think there was a lot of I don't know. I think it's I think it's implied. Yeah. I think it's implied, which I think is fine. I think that's better. There's a lot more implied, like like Evie's motivations and like her discovering the book and everything, like that's something that they show you through the character actions and the things that are happening instead of explaining to you like, this is why she made this mistake. They they don't do that here. I'm gonna be a little less generous and say they don't explain it because they know you've seen other movies and they're banking on it. I I I think that's kind of like what they're going for. I I I'm not gonna say there's nothing of what you're pointing out. Maybe not in that specific instance, but I think it's true of a lot of this. Is just kinda you've seen other stuff and like we're not gonna do the work. Because other people have done it for us, so why would we? We'll play the hits. And the villain. I mean He had his grin and that's about all he had going for him. To me, he wasn't like I said, the graphics were were icky, but that had nothing to do with like his character. Yeah, I could we could've at least like it's it's the mummies, so like we could have had something with him, but he didn't speak English. And they didn't have subtitles for him. Yeah. Like that was annoy I when I was on a a different alleged alleged side I didn't have subtitles. I didn't either. I was watching on YouTube. He has subtitles. Well, that's well, that's a problem. You need to watch it again. He has lines. No, he has subtitles. I was wondering about that too, because I was like, where what is he talking about? I like, they're having full conversations and it's just saying ancient Egyptian. This is this is a a brief aside is that like a lot of streaming platforms don't support original subtitling from its ri it's it's so weird, and I can't find an answer as to why this happened. You don't watch this legally. Like this was a mental copy that I watched. Your hands are up for the police. It's on YouTube for free. That's how I watch it. Yeah. Same same for me. Guys, I have it on Voodoo. I own it. You should have told me. I would have just given you my my login. I have a physical copy. I could have ripped everybody something. That's true. Yeah. Funny enough, there I just brief there's another Brendan Fraser movie, Bedazzled. Have you guys seen Bedazzled? I saw a poster for it today for the first time. Okay. Okay. Anyway, yeah, it's it's it's a comedy. it's really funny. But there is a entire scene in that film in which Brendan Fraser speaks Spanish. I watched it a couple of years ago d on the streaming service. Zero subtitles. I was like, No, there's subtitles in this movie. I've seen this at least twice. So it's that's it's a whole I don't know what the answer is. I don't know whose problems. It happens sometimes. We pay them all too much for that. To slip through the cracks. What the hell man? That's absurd. Our price just went up. You don't get subtitles though. I I've had quite a few movies where that's happened to me where I've like, or like, I think I was watching God, what was I watching? It was a TV show that had just come out, and I literally stopped watching because I knew there were supposed to be subtitles. And they just I think they started to have them, and then I think it reloaded, and then Netflix like the subtitles were just gone. And I knew they were supposed to have subtitles. I couldn't finish the show because They were speaking like three or four different languages throughout the show. I couldn't follow it because I didn't have subtitles and I couldn't turn them back on. It made no sense. That's disappointing. I'm keeping this in just to call out the insidification. Yeah. This is this is bad. This is what will ch make it change is four dudes complaining about not being able to watch a movie because they speak one language. with all thirty views that were like how many people on the planet speak ancient Egyptian? Probably a handful. Benny does. Yeah, I don't know if that would have I don't know. I mean, based on my opinion of this movie already, I don't know if he could have if he was dropping bars in ancient Egyptian. Like I wanted to at least enjoy the villain, but me not being able to understand him and clearly not read what he was saying could have made it a better could have made it a better experience. I don't know if he was just speaking generically, like you will be You will be one with me again, my love, or you know, saying basic stuff like that, or if he was really dropping heat in ancient Egyptian, giving us a hot like sixteen. Tail the flesh off her bones. So God That's not I didn't have the full experience. I mean, I mean, to be fair, like he we're not supposed to get a ton of depth about The villain. This is like kind of your your going back to your classic, like, we don't do need to over-explain the villain here. Like, here's his origin story. He did a bad thing, but he was in love with this woman. And then the rest of it is him like trying to be reunited. And he does stuff where, you know, he he's convinced that Evie is on an Oksuna moon, his love. and then there are like lines here and there. None of them, you know, no nobody's gonna go out and like buy his mixtape, but there are things in there that are like That are integral to his motivations and like one of the things is y you know, when when Benny is on his last prayer with the star of David, like it triggers him triggers Immotep to like, that's the language of the slaves. I I ha I can reward you with treasures. That's wondering why he spared Yeah. Yeah. Language of the slaves. Completely missed. Yep. Yeah. Well, he's basically like, I might have use for you. And I figured that was just because, like, we There is a language that both of us speak, so I can use you to translate for me because I know they don't understand me. That's what I got. Didn't know that. I mean I kind of had to surmise it as best as possible, but I done know what was being said. He's not saying anything super unique, I will say. Like he like none of the lines are super iconic, none of them are super special. They are a little tropey and stereotypical, which is fine. I think it works. He gets a little more depth than some villains do, I think, in movies like this. But it's not anything super unique. Like Taylor was saying. It's like a little stereotypical, but it's a little more heartfelt than I think some villains get. Like he doesn't just want to destroy the world. Yeah. Exactly. He's he's not out for like global domination. All he wants is his he w he wants to get booed up again. Like he just wants his girl back. Like that's all he really wants. And just all these other little colonizing shits are in my way. So I gotta do something about it. Yeah. And he never turns mustache trollly either. His motivations don't just change to like, well I didn't get what I want. I'm gonna I'm gonna destroy the world anyway. That's true. He doesn't have any hair at all. Yeah. Dude is like a seal. Just smooth. Honestly, I would not be surprised. He is a very smooth looking man. Is that the first time he said that sentence? I hope it is. He's like a seal? No, no, no. He's a very smooth looking man. It's not the first time. I want to throw the question of of this topic to Taylor and Angel, because we've we've been going in a lot on just like how much doesn't work for us. So I I think we both would say, me and Jelani, yes, this movie would be better with more care put into the plot. And character. Do you guys agree or disagree in characters? Yeah, we'll throw that into to this question. I I'm fine with the plot as it is. I can track from point A to point B, and honestly, that's kind of all I really need. I don't need a whole lot of pre setup as to why Rick is there. I get a satisfactory answer. He has some exchange. I can't remember who it is with. there's like he's he was with his his soldiers, his troops. So he felt like he was leading lead he was leading a command. Garrison, that's the word he uses. The entire garrison and him broke off because they heard about treasure at Hamanoptra. And so that's kind of like that's all I really need. I don't need to I don't need to know why an American is there. It's just kind of like, okay, that this is what we're doing. And then from there on out, I was fine with all the plot points. Could there have been more work? I'm I'm sure. You know, it probably, you know, would maybe benefit as well, but honestly I was fine with it. But character wise, like I've I've sung the praises enough. I think the characters are what keep this movie alive and going. And like again to a point I'm pretty sure I brought up earlier, like if the plot is kinda like standard fair, your characters can elevate the whole movie experience. And I think that's what this does. I agree with that statement, except that I don't know that these characters elevate it for me. It's okay if they do for you. Yeah. For it for me. For me, I think everybody's like effort towards each of their characters does really well, if that makes sense. Like the actors are doing their like their damnedest. but the characters like on paper, like for me Brendan Fraser's charisma carries Rick's character. I don't care about Rick like as a guy. I just think Brendan Fraser's doing his doing his job. I mean it does. I mean but as as a character though, he his character is his role, like in their their Egyptian heist, basically, is like he's just gonna be the guy that gets us there. But then I think like, you know, when shit goes sideways, like he falls into a little bit of a leadership position, you know, by default almost. And I think that's where he kind of shines a little bit. But yeah, I g I got I get what you're saying though. Like there's These characters check boxes that have already been written, but the actors are crushing it. And that's what really that's what really sells it. Absolutely. And that's what I think I've seen praised from a lot of people. Like when I ri read through letterbox reviews from friends and like the top ones on there, it's all Rachel Weiss, Brendan Fraser, O Oded Fair. Oded Fair. He's got great hair, man. Yeah. Yeah. Like everyone's praising their performances and being like, Damn everyone's hot in this movie. Damn everyone's given good performances. Damn their charisma's so like incredible. And nobody's praising the writing, as far as I can tell. They're just like, this is a great time. But and and that's still worth something. Cause with like I I think we've also seen something like this without all of the actors bringing their A game. maybe in the sequels, from whatever, because nobody seems to like the sequels very much. Or We have yet to bring this up and but I think it was inevitable to some extent. I have not heard anything good about the twenty seventeen version with Tom Cruise. Okay. Not tied to this at all. I'll cut it out. When you said inevitable, I thought you were gonna bring up Remy. No. No. no. And I won't take that bait either. Angel How how do you feel about the does it need plot? Does it need characters that like are stronger? Yeah, so l I kind of agree with Taylor. I do not think that it would hurt it, but I also don't think you necessarily need it for the movie to still be good or okay at the very least. Like I always think of it as like a movie can be really fun and I would appreciate if they all had like really solid character work all the time, really like, you know great action, like all these things, but like just because those things are not elevated to the level that I would like does not necessarily mean that the movie is mad. Which sounds like I'm dunking on the movie, but we all know that I'm not. It's just that like one thing I thought about that I didn't think until you were talking about it earlier. I don't remember how it got brought up, but basically about how like, you know, there's not a lot of like clues laid out. There's l not a lot of like mystery like to follow. It's a lot of McGuffin stuff. And they're like very like minimal MacGuffins, right? I think that's good if that's kind of what you're looking for in this movie. Like I think to an extent you're looking to with a lot of these adventure movies, especially like Indiana Jones, you're kind of looking to discover these things along with the characters. But in this movie, the first thing they do is basically explain to you everything that's going to happen in the movie. You have the entire opening monologue, and the reason that I think that makes it work is because it tells you literally everything about the curse and the backstory, everything about the villain, everything about how he's gonna come back and what he's gonna do. And so I think doing that kind of sets us up to just have fun with it. Because we're not looking for anything as we're watching the movie. We're not trying to see like, well, how are they gonna defeat him? Well They kinda told us like the that these books are a thing. We can kind of figure out that it's gonna be one of the books. And, you know, he basically just has to get like the curse has to get undone. That's pretty simple. And after that you're just allowed to have fun with the characters, the situation, the set pieces, which I will admit, other movies have more impressive set pieces. Like there's a couple of really cool ones, like I really love the Sandstorm. I'll give it that. There's not the set pieces. Especially the When when it's all collapsing. It yeah, no, th there's some good stuff in here, but like there are some movies that do it. I I I won't even say better. I think a little bit more a they're a little bit more elaborate. They seem a lot more like set pieces. Most of the stuff in this doesn't feel like we're stopping to do a set piece, which I think is different from stopping to do a joke, because one is distracting. Stopping to do a set piece feels like we're we're going in for something like grandiose. And like fun. Like you we know you've been waiting for this. Let's finally do the fun thing. This feels like they flow it into each other like a little more simply, and I think that works here. But yeah, I think that letting us just sit there and have fun with what the situation is and letting us flow with just the character dynamics is what makes this movie so good. And if you're not looking for that, that might be why it doesn't work for you. And I think that's okay. I think Scott Pilgrim is kind of a similar example. It's one of those movies. That it's either really gonna work for you or it's really going to not. And it you have to be looking for what the movie is doing, but it always fully commits to it. It's not trying to please everybody, it's just trying to please the people that are also looking for that thing. And I think that's fine. And I do respect the choice to not try to please everybody. I think that is a trap a lot of times that especially big budget movies fall into is like Taylor, you brought up the term four quadrant at the beginning. And I think that's the danger of a four quadrant movie. It's like, well, we have to be for everyone. And I think it's okay. Like, I understand why studios feel that way. Because if you're dropping $200 million, it's like, well, you can't really afford to alienate anyone. But I think it's okay creatively to say, like, no, this isn't going to be for everyone. We don't care about and I I do sort of respect the choice, like. I think it would probably make me more upset if they half assed the plot more. Did you respect the Wolverine for that? no, because I think Ryan Reynolds is somebody who I think falls into the half assing trap a lot because he feels like like okay, I rewatched Deadpool two recently. Really? And it made me realize yeah. I in like a c a couple months ago, I think. It made me realize something. There is a half decent drinking game you can do with the Deadpool movies. If you just take a drink every time Deadpool changes his motivation, you're not gonna get blasted, but you will get drunker than you should. Because like it happens so often in the like you're gonna get a decent buzz going just from how many times he just like switches up what his goal or his motivation is just because the plot needs him to go do a thing. And I kinda hate that. I I kinda wish that's a case where like I almost wish they committed less to the plot because they clearly don't care. And I do have some respect for the mommy for not doing that. Where like they don't care and they're owning not caring, which is almost better. Like I I do think it makes the experience worse that they don't care. I wish they did care. But the fact that they don't it makes it more okay that they're just leaving it by the wayside. Cause I think if I think that maybe is where Other stuff falls into this trap of like we want plot as a priority, but it's like our fifth priority. So it's gonna get disserviced pretty badly and it's gonna work in service of other things and make our characters like feel really inconsistent in the process. How much is this made for? Eighty million, I think, which probably translates to a lot more today. Yeah. But yeah, I'm trying to definitely I feel like I s saw all of budget on screen. Yeah. For this. I'd agree with that. Like yeah, yeah. Like they were cutting corners or like I I feel like they they put their all out there for this. And it made its money back pretty well, it was successful. Good. So yeah, I I'll give it that. And I will say like I I am not a an advocate for like the plot has to be airtight. I'm not gonna cinema sins ding every plot hole. Like I can excuse that. in a lot of cases. Like earlier on in my criticism time like high school into early college, I would have come at this a lot harder for like the plot doesn't make any damn sense. You guys need to write better. But like I I can appreciate not doing that i if something else really hits. And according to you guys and obviously many many other people because this is a very popular movie. Obviously stuff works here. But I guess that genre appeal is like again, I I frame this plot thing in terms of genre because I think adventure movies, that's kind of part of the genre appeal, is that sense of discovery. And they obviously don't care about that here. That's okay, but I just wanna send home that like you do lose something when you decide not to journey to the center of the earth. That's another Brendan Fraser adventure movie. I don't remember it. I forgot about that one. I saw it one time. I actually am gonna mention that my topic a little bit about why Brendan Fraser is so great. Well maybe we can get into that if we're ready to. That's a good transition. You mentioned the movie that I'm gonna mention. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I guess yeah, to move on to our final topic. It is Rick O'Connell and why he is both larger than life but vulnerable. I think that what makes Rick such a great character I didn't want this topic to be entirely about Brendan Fraser, but it's kind of about Brendan Fraser and what he brings to kind of every role that he's in, because I think what we've we've talked about a lot already, he commits himself so completely to every role, no matter how ridiculous it is. And I love that so much. It's why he's one of my favorite actors, and why actually when I was thinking about, the Uncharted movie was not good. But you know w when it would have been good was back in two thousand seven, when Brendan Fraser was making movies like this, he could have been a really good Nathan Drake. Not an exact one to one, but he would have, I think, felt as unique on screen as Nathan Drake does in the game. A big part of the reason for that is like they're not trying to make him like a suaved or perfect person. I I I I talked about this with Chris Pratt a little bit in Jurassic World, how he feels like he's kind of pretending to be an action picture. I did talk to Chris Pratt about Just take it out a lot. Chris, Chris, listen. I was talking to us this morning. But yeah, no. What what I was saying before about Chris Pratt and how they'll kind of form him into this perfect action hero in a lot of these, and they're doing that with a lot of actors now too. I think one of the worst examples to me is The Rock. One of the reasons that I'm not as big of a fan of a lot of his movies is that like They try to make him like the coolest, most awesome action guy ever. And I don't think they're trying to do that with Rick. I think that what they let Rick do is make mistakes, be kind of a selfish dick, but not in a way where he's like completely unlikable. Like he has a sense of confidence to him that is not exactly overconfidence, but it's sort of a lack of hesitation. And I feel like somebody else has pointed this out before. I don't remember who. But yeah, I think it's that lack of hesitation whereas he's like, I'm just gonna try all this stuff, and something is going to stick, and if it doesn't, I guess I die. And that's kind of like the way that like he's committing to every bit of himself, and I think that's really good. And I think it's what really makes a great adventure protagonist, is like that sort of sense of like they think they're really they're really great, but they're not narcissistic about it. And It l it shows a sort of vulnerability to them. I think Indiana Jones is a really good example. Obviously, that's a huge inspiration for the mummy. But if you really watch the originals, he fumbles his way through a lot of encounters. He gets lucky a lot. And I think he knows that he's doing it, but he never lets us know that he knows that he's doing it. Nathan Drake is another one. He's a good example of somebody that they've formed that is like he is very competent in some things, but he is not necessarily competent in others. He also kind of fumbles his way through gunfights and through all of these different encounters with bad guys. He gets lucky a whole lot and that makes him like very relatable, but he also makes a lot of mistakes, which I think is cool. The fact that they let Rick be this like imperfect person, and part of his character arc is sort of learning to be a little bit less less selfish and sort of look out for the people around him. Like He almost doesn't have a people at the beginning. And by the end, he sort of does. And I think that's really cool. And like his whole motivation isn't necessarily Eevee. He also wants to protect Jonathan. You know, he does at some point want to stop Imotep from taking over the world. Like he he learns to care about other things besides finding treasure. But even during all this, he never comes off as like an asshole. I feel like Taylor will agree with me, and I feel like Evan and Jelani will not agree with me at all because We I mean that has been the pattern today. I I think I'm here for a Brendan Fraser appreciation chat. Absolutely. I'll actually bump a little bit against his arc within this because I don't actually think he changes that much much because he is already the leader of a military unit. And so he already has this kind of like mentality to take care of the people he is responsible for. And granted, the whole reason he's at Hamanopter in the beginning is because of treasure. And so he is in that moment, his whole battalion's there. They're motivated by treasure, they're motivated by greed. So that is there. And then he's like, you know, shit, something spooky's going on here. I don't want anything to do with this. Ends up in jail for whatever reason, because he tried to have too good of a time in a place that he doesn't belong. Whatever that meant. Which I I mean, I I I didn't read too much into it because I think our our warden is so good at delivering those lines. I was like, Yeah, I believe it. A very good time. I think a very good time. But by the end of the by the end of the movie, Rick hasn't changed. And not necessarily in a bad way. Like he still he still he was someone who feels responsible for people. And at the end, he's still someone who feels responsible for people. Maybe a little bit of the only change is that he's like limited his greed. Like instead of like going into Haminatra, being at Haminatra in order to like, you know, pillage or whatever's going on. Like at the end of the film, he's like, all this sh all this is not worth this, but I'm gonna take like one bag full of stuff. Cause it's like the last thing you see in the movie. It's like the sun's glimmering off the stuff that they've taken. And it's not a lot. And I don't necessarily I'm not reading into any kind of messaging of like everything in moderation or some other thing like that. I just don't think Rick has actually changed that much, but I think that's okay. Because like it wasn't really about them. If anything, Evie has evolved a little bit more. but only because but only hey hey, but only because of the experiences that she's had. Like she's still the same person, she's just had more experiences. So I think we we're dealing with relatively, you know, not flat flat characters, but like little baby curves. Like I don't think there's a whole lot going on, but I think that's absolutely fine because they're doing what they're supposed to do in this movie, and think it works for me again. I I can definitely see what you're saying. I obviously disagree a little bit about his arc. I'm trying to think now if I feel like he would have made the exact same decisions at the beginning of the movie that he does at the end, especially when it comes to like other people. I I see what you're saying, because I think that ultimately, as many times as Benny betrayed him, he always tried to save Benny. Like up until the end. Like he's never gonna le he's one of those guys, like he's never gonna leave anybody behind. I do think the beginning of the movie, his motivation is basically entirely to find the treasure. Like he's not doing this like for his group or for other people. Like he's not like a leader rallying people together to be like, look, all of us can get rich. He is doing it for himself. And I think by the end, a lot of his motivation turns into like, well, I need to get Eevee back, but I also like need to protect the people like that are in my unit or whatever, like in my group. And I think yes, he would have done that early on, but I think his focus shifts to the point where he probably doesn't care too much about the treasure by the end, if that makes sense. It might not be the largest character arc, but I think there is a little bit of change there. And I'd actually say a little bit of the opposite with Evie. I think Evie is absolutely the same person that she was at the beginning. But like you said, like she just she's had more experience. She understands more things 'cause she's seen more of the world, but her outlook does not change. She's just as happy to be there as she was before the mummy tried to sacrifice her to bring back his dead girlfriend. Okay, so no there's no character arcs. There's no character. I don't think there are there's no character arcs. That's fine. Character speed bumps pumps. Speed bumps mounds. Character mounds. Character mounds. Like it's a little bit of a change that kind of brings them into like a new version of what they were before. Maybe a slightly more enlightened version. Which I really appreciate. I really like. And I think like Fr again to go back to Fraser and how great he is. He is kind of a master in selling a lot of that. I've seen a couple of movies that he's been in where like if you really just look at the movie, it would have been super forgettable had he not been in it. Most of what I remember from those is for I have not actually seen that. I need to. I haven't seen the first one. CI Joe. In like two or three scenes. I don't even remember his character's name, but I'd I I can't agree with you there. I don't know if I don't think the I think the movie would have been the same without him there, Angel. But he's in like two scenes. That's not the same where he's like lead of a movie. You didn't say that. Yes, I d I basic No, actually This is when Jelani leaves the leaves the podcast. I understand your point. I'm still right. yeah. So to go to go back to a different point Jelani made, I wanted to bring up Journey to the Center of the Earth because that's actually one of the last like Big adventure movies that I remember him being in. I feel like that was the last of like an era for Brendan Fraser. I remember watching that movie so many times as a kid. I think it came out when I was like twelve. Yeah, I so yeah, so I would have been about eleven or twelve. 'Cause I saw it right after I moved to Illinois, which was in eight. Military kid, I remember things like that a little more precisely than most people just because of where I was. Fair totally fair. Yeah. But that's one of those movies too where like I I kind of remember the plot, but I don't really remember the plot that well. I remember nothing. Was there a dinosaur? There is a dinosaur. There is a dinosaur in it, yes. there's giant bugs too. Yeah. mushrooms. I was looking up stills and there's a lot of big mushrooms. There's a lot of big mushrooms. They shoot up a a volcano in a dinosaur skull, which is pretty cool. Like it makes no sense, but it doesn't need to make sense because the movie is fun. He sells that movie so much and I think there's like a like like I said, there's a vulnerability and there's like an authenticity to the way he delivers each line. Like you feel like as confident as he is, there's something in some of his characters that's like a little bit sad under there and is like really pushing him. Like one of the lines that I like in that movie is like no hesitation. He's just like very matter of factly, Josh Hutcherson's character is in trouble. And the woman asks like, Where are you going? He's like, I'm going to get my nephew. That's it. That's like he d like it doesn't need to be explained. Like you fully feel like this is exactly something that he would do and you can't imagine a world where he would leave any of those people behind. And I think a lot of Fraser's characters fall under that category. Like he's just so lovable and I think he is what sells a lot of these roles, and especially Rick. He's so good. To be a little reductive, I think he's a himbo actor, and he does it well. I I think it's unfair to reduce him to just that. But like Well what about the whale? I haven't seen it either. He's he's very good. He's very good in the whale. We I read the I feel like I read the play. We we read the Angel, I think you and I read the read the play and I We did, we read the play. Yeah. right, you didn't. But I I actually yeah, I actually enjoyed the film. Well one of our friends really liked it. I think one of our friends really liked it. But he also writes plays. So I think that's what it is. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. He Br Brandon Fraser was good in The Whale. I mean, I think everybody's right. I think there's like something going on here where he is someone who is acting so earnestly in everything that he's in. Like I think he actually understands what these characters need, and he also brings a part of himself to that in that earnestness. Now, granted, if some of those characters happen to be like More well written than others, he still brings that earnestness. And sometimes it's not really gonna it's not a catch-all to save the deal. You know, it's not gonna save the movie, it's not gonna save the role, but he's still him in in the roles that he is in, I think. Yeah. And I I'm wondering now, because like I I missed a lot of the like Brendan Fraser era, but I wonder if that's why he kind of went away in the 2010s, because the 2010s was a little bit allergic to earnestness. Like maybe that's why eight, nine. That's yeah there was a lot of unfortunate there's a lot of unfortunate things that happened in his life. So one of the things was he was hurt hims hurting himself by trying to stay in shape so much. like he because he had been he was cast in the action comedy guy, George of the Jungle, like the dude is ripped, and it's like he so he felt pressured to maintain this physique and it was detrimental to his actual And then there were some other things that happened to him that I don't I don't feel like I need to bring up on this podcast, but you guys can look it if you're curious about it, that really hurt him physically, emotionally, and mentally. So he took a step back from acting for a while. And so now over the past five ish years or something along those lines, like we're now seeing him kind of come back into the limelight. And from everything I've seen him in since he has come back, I'm like, I'm really glad he's back. I really missed him. People do seem to really like him. And it I didn't know about All of that, but that's that's good to hear because I feel like more often I hear the story of somebody continuing down that destructive path and burning out. It's nice to hear that he found some better balance, at least it it sounds like maybe he did. I did just wanna drop this news probably to you guys because I only saw it just earlier today. Apparently, the mummy for the book of the dead is. Is dropping exactly a year from today. We're recording on October fifteenth. And that is the day a year from now that they're gonna bring the series back with the and go watch it. Angel, let's take Evan and Zulani to go see this movie. Absolutely, yes, let's do it. Yeah. But we have to make them watch the other the other two first. They have to watch the Money Returns and Tomb of the Dragon Emperors. Yeah. Yeah. I did make you guys watch The Hobbits earlier this year. I I suppose I do sort of owe you back for that. So I can't really say no. But I'm not gonna spend a lot of money. Well, cross separation when we come to it. We gotta be. I know. Okay. well in that case I guess I don't really have any excuses. I need a I need a FU movie. I need a like you guys are watching this movie series. So Angel has the mummy, Evan had the Hobbit. I need an FU movie series. Ooh. The Hobbit was for for academic purposes, so I don't know if that makes it that make it better for you guys, I guess. But that was a lot of work. It was a lot. I that was asking a lot of you guys. And as I said, I stand by the problem like that again. But that doesn't mean that you guys can't. I still think it's it's so f it's so funny that my favorite of those three two became my least favorite after watching them again. Like I loved the second one when I first watched it, but then I watched it again. I'm like, this is actually the worst one, isn't it? Five Armies is not that bad by comparison. But they're all bad. So anyway, thank you Taylor for coming back on. I'm sorry we We're at least partly critical, but thankfully thankfully we did this when Angel was here. That is why I am here. Like if this was just a gab fest, it would get real boring real fast. So I'm glad we had some opposing opinions on this film, even though I love it so much. I really appreciate you guys sticking through and watching it. And I I hope we can have you back for something that we are a little bit more complimentary. At least I that I am more complimentary of. The next one, all three of you are gonna love it. I'm gonna fuck. And that's why we'll have you all. That's why we're there. That's what our guests are about. We're watching we're watching the whale, but we're watching the play. because he hates the play. Perfect. We're gonna go watch the play together. Honestly, I probably wouldn't bet reading the play was not fun, but Okay. So we're gonna watch Taylor we're gonna make Taylor read the play on stream. Then watch it. Live. okay. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Do you want to plug your podcast before we get into the boilerplate? I would love to plug my own show. Thank you so much. so yeah, hi. thank you guys for listening to this episode. I host a show called Film Nuts, where I talk with people about their favorite movies and TV shows and what they mean to them. It's all about diving into why we love what we watch. I'm on my sixth season right now. It's a lot of fun. The sixth season's been a little bit More work than the previous ones, but I am really happy with the guests I've had. I'm really happy with how everything looks. As of the day we're recording this, I've dropped an episode on Lonesome Dove with a filmmaker here, local in North Carolina, who that's his like favor one of his favorite pieces of media. And I had never seen it and I really enjoyed watching it for the show. And I'm really excited that I'll be dropping our episode on The Batman with all three of you jokers here later this month. Yeah. And w I I won't tease what we talk about. I will just let listeners know before they see it. Tay went above and beyond. He like he did much more than he had to for that, and we really appreciate it. I just want to shout that out here. The production value is well above what we can do. Yes. I I have never been as well lit. not in like a weed sense, like a literal lighting sense. I have not been as well lit as that. I think yeah. I fully agree. in a weed sense, he has been more I mean. Probably not actually. They wouldn't they wouldn't let us bring weed into the studio, so not that kind of podcast. that's called a podcast. Yeah. There we go. There it is. Yeah. We love it. That's my time. Thank guys so much for having me. Yeah. yeah, thank you for for having thank you for coming on. we'll Definitely have you back at some point for something else. We'll figure out what. Upcoming episodes. actually I don't know if I want to announce our next one 'cause I'm we don't have it scheduled, so it may not be soon. But we have another guest lined up. Good one. And that hopefully My next pick you can say. yeah. We'll be doing Jolani's next pick is Under the Red Hood, which I've never seen. But I know it's a thing. Such a great such a great film, honestly. I've seen it's it's like one of my top I think it's like in my top three Batman films. And I like animated Batman. And that's why I love this movie. You do hate Batman. I'm really surprised that you love this movie so much, man. It's because of Red Hood. It's because Red Hood also hates Batman. Yeah. He gets it. Okay. yeah, so that will be coming up, and we have our socials. You can follow us there. We're on Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky at INT Analysis Pod. Do all the like, share, subscribe things on the YouTube channel. Also on the video essay channel, I just since our last episode dropped a video about Black Panther that's out now. We have our Patreon for one dollar a month. And I am on letterboxed Instagram and blue sky at f underscore wes. Where are you guys at? Tay, we'll maybe save you for last on your socials, but do make sure we get in. I'm on Instagram at Jelani T Kelly and Letterboxd as updated as I could get it. Right. The second Jelani T. Kelly as well. I'm also an actor, so hire me. Please. Thanks. Put in things. I'm on Letterboxd also at Serenity Cinema. I'm on Instagram at angelmisheli.film, so you guys can follow me there. I'm not an actor, so please don't hire me. that would be weird. okay. And you guys can find me. I am on Instagram and letterboxed at Tay D Adams. You can follow FilmNuts on Instagram and TikTok as well, at Filmnuts Podcast. And go check out our YouTube channel as well. All right. Thank you for coming on for this, and we'll see you guys next time. Yeah. Thank you so much, man. You've been great guests. Thanks, take. You guys rule. This is great. This is awesome.