Summer Movie Preview 2026

The year is 2026 and this is our summer movie preview. Hello everyone and welcome to Unspooled. Yes, welcome to Unspooled, a podcast about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must-sees, and incase you miss them. We have covered the AFI Top 100 and now we are checking off movies from three major lists. The Letterbox Top 250 films with the most fans, the IMDb Top 250, and the New Heart Times 1000 essential films, except today we're not doing any of that. We're doing films that maybe you might make on it someday. We're just talking about what we're excited to see this summer. That's right Amy, this is our summer movie preview where we just, I don't know, embrace the anticipation of the summer to come. I'm Paul Scheer, I'm an actor, writer, director, and a person who would sit down with a premiere magazine and look at their summer movie preview and get this feeling, I guess similarly to when you might find like a Naked magazine when you were a kid. Like that's how I felt when the summer movie preview came out because I wanted to know, I wanted to look at the stills, I wanted to, I wanted so much, I wanted so much from these movies. And I love that now we can do it professionally, just break down these movies before we know that much about them. See all their potential. It's true. Hello, hi, I'm Amy Nicholson, I'm the film critic for the Los Angeles Times. And yeah, this is like mapping out the rest of my year. What am I going to be talking about? What am I going to be seeing? What's going to be occupying my entire brain? What's going to make me do yet another Jackass rewatch of everything, which is something we've done a lot on this show. I've done it, I've done it. Hey, everybody, one of my favorite podcasts talking pictures is back for another season. You know this from TCM and HBO Max. It's a podcast all about movies and memories hosted by Ben Manquitz. And he gets to sit down with some of Hollywood's most influential actors and filmmakers to discuss the movies that inspired them. I've been on the show. It was the most fun. And this season he is talking to people like Edgar Wright about pacing and montages in film and Rosie Perez about her acting career and how it kind of just began on accident. He's also talking to Pat Nozwald, Susan Sarandon, Hera Mariah, who is a director who did a lot of Atlanta and the great new show Widows Bay, Sally Field, Tony Goldman and so much more. This season, Ben and his guests are on camera so you can also watch talking pictures on HBO Max and Spotify or listen wherever you get your podcast. And I want to talk about last summer before we talk about this summer because last summer was pretty exciting. We had Mission Impossible, the final reckoning that kind of kicked us off. We had a John Wick spin off. We had, you know, like little art hits like materialists coming out. 28 years later, F1, a big Oscar nominee. Sorry, baby, right? A lot of interesting films. Megan 2.0, Jurassic World, a lot of movies that went all over the map. I felt like it was overall a pretty successful summer last summer, right? The birth of the DCU with Superman. You know, I was in the theater a lot last summer. Me too. I was at the theater a ton. Yeah, I'm hoping for more of the same. I'm like looking ahead and getting that sinking sense of, oh no, that weekend has too many good movies. Oh no, that weekend doesn't have enough good movies. But it is like mapping out your life, you know? I mean, one of the things I'll just start with is I'm genuinely curious and excited to see the Supergirl movie that's coming out because last year when we had that Superman relaunch, we got that little little taste of Supergirl right at the end when Millie Alcott comes stumbling in, hung over from some interplanetary Bacchanal. And I was like, oh, even if this film was just a trailer for that film, I'm really curious to see what she does with this. Hey, I was just touching base to see when you think you might be coming back. You know, I'm just worried that you're not going to find your stride here if you keep going off world all the time, Kara. I'm worried you're not going to find your people. Yeah, well, that's the same clerk. I have no people. Now, if you're a comic book fan like me, you absolutely loved Tom King's Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. It really reinvented this character for me. And I know that this movie is heavily based on that Tom King version of Supergirl, which is a fun Supergirl. She, you know, primarily is in outer space, getting drunk, going on missions. It's very Midnight Run, or at least that's how I took Woman of Tomorrow. Midnight Run is your highest place. Midnight Run is Paul's Hamlet. No, but you know what I'm saying? It has like a really fun road movie in it and a space road movie. So I am equally excited. So far, everything I've seen has been really good and truly exciting. Yeah, you know, I feel almost guilty that I started off with like a superhero film because honestly, when I look at what's coming up, there's not a ton of them weighing down the entire summer. The way that there have been. There's a few. There's like one or so every month, we got a new Spider-Man with Tom Holland, which I think will be very good because, you know, that one also new director taking on Tom Holland as Spider-Man. And I think that everything that I've seen from that feels like it's going to be a more grounded Spider-Man, more of a neighborhood Spider-Man. They've, you know, if you're not up on the Spider-Man franchise, basically everyone has lost their memory of Tom Holland as Spider-Man. So now he is kind of alone. You don't remember me, but we used to know each other. Something bad was going to happen and the only way to stop it was to make everyone forget about me. Because I'm not just Peter Parker. I'm... You know, he's teaming up with like John Berenthal's The Punisher and, you know, and we're just going to get more of the neighborhood Spider-Man, which I think we've, I think people have wanted and I love the way Tom Holland has been doing this, but, you know, I think as the movies got bigger and bigger and had to tie into the MCU, it was harder to keep him a little bit more localized. I mean, I think brainwiping this universe is a way of the superhero movie itself is trying to brainwipe and get rid of having to carry all of this weight, which I'm down with. Well, yeah, I think it's important. Yeah, I think, you know, that's the benefit of having comic books. You can kind of start new storylines, but I'm also excited because I think we've talked about this in the past, but Michael Mando is somebody I really love and loved him since Better Call Saul is playing Scorpion in this. And yeah, Mark Ruffalo is coming back. So it should be good. It should be good. And it is directed by, what is it, Destin Daniel Crichton, who I thought was behind one of the best, well, I mean, best superhero things to come out in a very long time, which was Wonder Man. If you have not checked out Wonder Man, it's completely different than any MCU show you've seen. It was written by Andrew Guest, who is a writer for like 30 Rock and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's great. And, you know, obviously, Obviously, he's a short-term 12 guy, too. I was going to say, yeah, and Glass Castle and Just Mercy, you know, so he's been in a lot of good stuff. Obviously, also Shang-Chi, but I think it's going to be good. I think it's going to be very, very good. It is. And you know what? I'm glad that that's about it. Like, we checked off those two. We've basically checked off superhero movies for this summer until you get to Labor Day and like Clayface, which I'm looking forward to. Oh, right. That's coming out much later. But I think what I like about Clayface is it's a straight up horror and people were really reacting negatively to it. Yeah. So I kind of was going to stand on my high horse, but it's in October. So I don't have to do that just yet. Oh, yeah. That's basically it. I mean, Yeah. There's like a couple numbers after the ends of some of the titles that we've still got ahead, like Scary Movie 6, Toy Story 5. But there's just a lot of fresh stuff in here. Super Trooper 3. Right? Insidious, whatever. I don't know. Well, can I ask you a question about a movie without a number that might need a number? Yeah. Because I will tell you right now, I don't know. But I've heard a lot of rumblings that Steven Spielberg, who has come into summer with a brand new movie, it's called Disclosure Day. This is a secret sequel to Close Encounters. No. Oh. Really? Big time. What did you steal? Secrets. The day that they paid me to protect. Are they people? There's all these breakdowns of they're using the same sets. There's a lot of stuff. So the idea being that I've heard online is that he doesn't want anyone to know that until they actually The Disclosure Day? Well, yeah, until they see the movie. Until he discloses it at the theater? Yeah. Wow. So that's kind of what's going on there. So I don't know. Everyone seems to be very tight-lipped with it. Huh. I mean, I'd be happy if it was. I'd be happy if it wasn't. I don't mind the idea that aliens are coming back and forth. I don't know if I need like a Richard Dreyfus walking out like, hey guys, it's me. I don't think it's going to be that. I don't think it's going to be like the non-Helen Hunt walk out that we didn't get in Twisters. Like, you know, like it was clearly written for Helen up, but she didn't show up. What about the mashed potatoes? Is somebody going to eat mashed potatoes? There's got to be mashed potatoes. No, I'm excited. And I'm excited for Spielberg whenever I see him just continually try to do stuff. You know, hearkening back to the Spielberg that we know. I mean, he has definitely been going out on a tour about aliens and UAPs. I mean, I didn't know that this was something that fascinated him as much as it did until this press tour. I mean, I just really like the cast, honestly. Because like after Emily Blunt, you've got like Josh O'Connor, Eve Huston. Do you know Eve Huston yet? No. Okay. She is, oh God, she's one of their kids. Bono's kid or the Edges kid. Pardon me for not knowing. I think it's Bono's kid. That doesn't really matter. I didn't know that until I saw her in this movie, this musical called Flora and Son. It's one of those John Carney musicals. Oh, yes. John Carney is always making musicals. I think he's got another new one. You know, like once in beginning to get in St. Street. Yeah, she was the lead in that. And I was like, this actress is incredible. Oh, this actress is like, you know, related to you too. Fine, whatever. But I've just been waiting for her to pop off because she's so interesting. She has just like kind of a, that, that actor quality of cutting through the screen. And you're just like, oh, she's real. She's like right there. She's prickly. She's interesting. She's funny. She's really magnetic. And I've been looking forward to seeing her in more stuff. Also, Coleman Domingo. I always love Coleman Domingo, except when he's in, in chasing Oscar Coleman Domingo mode. I like fun Coleman Domingo. Well, Coleman Domingo apparently is Steven Spielberg in this movie. They said that they like as close as you can get to the questioning and the excitement that Spielberg has about him. And that Spielberg has about aliens. That's how Coleman Domingo's character is written. Coleman encounters. Hmm. I will say that what I'm excited about is the secrecy. Right. We haven't had a movie that feels like, I don't know anything about this. It's coming out in just a couple of weeks and it's been really like tightly kept. Like what, what it's about. And then, and I think that that makes going to the movies even more fun. It's like, all right, I just trust this cast. I trust this director. I trust this idea. And let me go in and enjoy it. That does feel more like the premiere magazine nostalgia you're talking about. You have a picture and a title. You're like, whatever that is, I'm going. Well, now I know that, you know, there's a lot of kind of celebrations and kind of look backs, right? Because if we're looking back to close encounters, I guess there is one franchise that apparently is coming to an end. And that is Jackass. Jackass best and last. Welcome to the first day of our last film. What are you feeling? I'm sad. Does it make you sad, Chris? No, I'm not in touch with my emotions. The whole crew is back again for apparently the last year. Apparently the last Jackass, which is a mix of classic footage, things that they couldn't actually air or they have reedited plus new bits. I was on set for a Jackass best and last I got to visit. And what I saw really made me happy. I saw a bit from beginning to end that was shot in like 20 minutes. And it to me felt like one of the most quintessential Jackass pieces I've ever seen. And it was so great to be there. They're bringing back some of the new people. They're also bringing back not just Jasper Dolphin. I thought it was so funny, but Dark Shark. Dark Shark is great. That's Jasper's dad. Now, I will tell you, there's some clips around from the new trailer that just dropped of the opening that Spike Jonze has directed. And I watched that being filmed pieces of it because it shot over five days. It's awesome. Like, I felt like I got to watch a master getting to like he had two sound stages set up for this, I assume, opening of the film. And wow, wow, wow, wow. If you've seen the footage of the guys in like a white room, that's what I'm talking about. And I can't wait. I don't want to spoil anything about it. I'm not looking at a single frame. I don't want to single thing until I get down. Yeah, it's I only would mention it because it was in the trailer, but it's that's I'm keeping it. Okay, fair. Oh, I mean, based on that idea of like anticipation and mystery. I have been waiting for this movie Backrooms to open for years. You know, Backrooms is coming on the end of May. Yes, I fought hard to get in this movie. Oh, well, after I see it, I want to hear more about that. I found something in the store. Okay. What did you find? The place. I don't know a ton about it. I've seen a little bit of K. M. Parsons work on YouTube. I know that he was the youngest director, I think, to ever get like a feature filmmaking deal like this. And then I saw his cast come out and I'm like, choose a AG for Renata Ren's Bay, Mark Duplass. What is happening? I mean, first of all, if you want to get ready for Backrooms, you got to watch the series on YouTube. But I'll tell you that the way this all started is pretty interesting. It's like based on this like Internet urban legend and the origin of this legend began with this 4chan post in 2019. And it was like an image of a yellow room with a text underneath that read, if you're not careful and leave reality, no clip in the wrong places, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where there's nothing but the stench of old damp carpet, the madness of mono yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum, and approximately 600 million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to get trapped in. God help you if you hear something wandering around because that thing has surely heard you. Now, after that, a bunch of people on the Internet expanded that story by creating various rooms and entities in different levels. And came Pixels, the director, you know, he just, you know, he had been creating music and animations in Blender, and he was only 17 years old when he did this, and he decided to create this YouTube series about Backrooms, but from his own perspective and vision, and that became so popular that it caught the attention of A24, and now this is a movie. So watch the series because I think it does tie together. But this is what I've been waiting for. You know, like I have been waiting to see that next generation of directors rise up. You know, the people who have been trained, honing their skills on YouTube, where I think the benefit of becoming a young editor, director, writer, scripture, the people who are creating these YouTube's are kind of doing everything. They're wearing every single hat. Not only are they learning how to do every single hat, but they're getting that just immediate real-time feedback of what works, what doesn't. What do people want to watch? What do people not want to watch? What's getting? What's surprising? And so I've just been so excited for this generation to start getting their projects off the ground, you know? I totally agree. And I guess it's interesting that we just talked about Jackass and Backrooms back to back because, you know, it's like in the other day, like Jackass would have been the most popular YouTube series, right? It's the same idea. It's these people who were young making dumb shit to entertain each other, sending around like these videos, right? And there's a really interesting idea there. Like they went through the bigger Hollywood system and, you know, MTV and then movies, and it created this other thing, but they were creators. They were doing it. They were just taping themselves on cameras, you know? Yeah. And I think that's why, like, I've really been interested in following the career of those two brothers from Australia, the Filipou brothers, who did, like, bring her back. And, um, oh, the one about, like, holding your hands, was that? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just think they're really interesting and that's how they rose up, too. And so just, I feel like this movement will explode, right? Talk to me, if that's the name of it, yeah. But I also think it's like what you're getting is movies like Olivia Wilde's The Invite, which is something that she pretty much did on the down low, you know, not self-financed, but really just put it together on the side and made this movie over, I think, the course of like seven to ten days, or even very short schedule, um, and just made something that she couldn't get made anywhere else. It's really good The Invite. People have been raving about it, you know, it's she directed it, it's with her, Rogan, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton. Um, and I'm just... It premiered at Sundance, and we all just like, what is this couple, these two couples in an apartment? And it's just their conversation, it's wonderful. And I love that idea that, like, just go make your thing. And I'm excited for that, you've already seen it. Uh, I also say that just go make your thing is coming out in a big way. And these are the older first gents. You know, it's like Gail Dottray in the celebrity sex pass. That's David Wayne coming back, uh, and making something that is incredibly indie that feels like what hot. I saw this, I saw the first screening of it. So I know it's changed a lot, but even at that first screening, it was like, wow, this is something really special and different. And I'm so happy he's making this. You know, it has a younger cast in it in the leads like Zoe Deutsch, but it also, and Ben Wang, who is great. Oh, Ben Wang is amazing. I fell in love with how he is his next director, seeing Gail Dottray at Sundance too. Just like, who is that kid? He plays an assistant at CAA. He was also the next karate kid. Oh, I don't think I saw that. Oh, I really liked it. I thought it was for what it was, it was kind of perfect. But he's very good in that. So I'm like, oh, I love that these that people are coming back and making, you know, kind of going outside of the system to make their movies. Doesn't mean that they have to be like the biggest things, but it's like, oh yeah, people are just going to make their stuff. And I don't know if this gets put in that camp, but I think somebody who's been working outside of the system incredibly successfully is Boots Riley. And I know that you love I Love Boosters, right? I do love I Love Boosters. I mean, I've been looking forward to Boots Riley making another film after Sorry to Bother You. Since Sorry to Bother You, I've just been waiting. Like, come on, come on, where's my next? His Amazon series was really great. The one about the giant. Yeah, I'm a Virgo. I'm a Virgo. It's so fun. It's visually interesting. It's a surreal mini series about like this giant. It kind of defies expectation, but it's a coming of age story told really beautifully and interestingly. And I think that the cool thing about Boots Riley is he is constantly playing around with the perception of what you expect him to do and the way that he wants to do it. Like it's visually always so fascinating. And this one, just from the trailer I was blown away, I can't wait to see Don Cheadle and him working together. And of course, LaKeith is back in it. Yeah, I mean, the setup of I Love Boosters is that Kiki Palmer is the head of this like tiny shoplifting gang. There's also like No Miyaki and Taylor Page. And there's three girls they love fashion. They can't get a leg up and making their own clothes. And so they keep stealing clothes from this corporate billionaire fashionista Ty Cood who's played by Demi Moore and then selling them for cheap. And it folds and folds and folds and folds out into like a gazillion different places. Together, we empty out every single natural design in the Bay Area. We got to take what's ours. We should coordinate. What are we waiting for? It is so breathtakingly ambitious and weird and strange and funny and fast paced and just completely, completely unhinged, completely unhinged. Every single scene there's like completely different costume change that it's amazing. It is just dazzle. You know how I'm sorry to bother you? Tessa Thompson had those awesome gold earrings? Yeah. People are just like, oh, whatever those are, I want those earrings. This whole movie is like that. You just want everything that people are wearing. There's an outfit in there that is like the clueless yellow plaid outfit on steroids. Oh my gosh, I cannot wait. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand. Marketing tools that get your products out there. 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I don't know, Jesse. Toys are for play, but tech is for everything. But I'm like, didn't we? Haven't we? I feel like we've closed this toy box five times. Like, well, why am I going back to it? I don't understand. I don't know. And I know they're introducing like an iPad leapfrog. Yeah, there's like, probably, and Conan O'Brien have roles now. I don't know. I'm like, look. Why? Every Toy Story works on me. I think it's great. I just, I feel like they did such a beautiful exit for some of these characters. And now my fear is, do we need to go back? I don't know. Do we need to go back? And here's the thing. Clearly, they didn't need to go back. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, they didn't need to go back. After Buzz or Lightyear, you know, maybe Pixar wanted them to go back. But I feel like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, well, especially Tom Hanks, doesn't have to. And maybe he is really brought in by the creative. I hope so. I hope, I hope it's good. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. And I'm, like I said, cautiously optimistic. I guess, yeah, I just don't understand. Like, I can't cry again at the end of this because I don't believe it anymore. It's like when that band goes on a million retirement tours. I know, I know. Well, the other movie that I'm also cautiously optimistic about, but also nervous, is Scary Movie 6. I know you're going to say Scary Movie 6. Can we hug? I really want to, but I'm a Republican now, so I'm supposed to be racist. Oh girl, I think all white people are racist anyway. Come here. Okay. Oh. Oh. Look, I love Anna Farris and Regina Hall to me is one of the funniest fucking actors, people. I love her. She's the best. I'm so excited they're back. It's directed by Michael T.D.'s, I believe his name is, he's been directing a lot of the Wayne's Brothers films. I don't know. I don't know. So I mean, my issue with these Scary Movie films is it just becomes a montage of, like, remember that? Remember that? Remember that? And, and I think that that's like been the death of the franchise. And I think what was so interesting that the first of this series was that it was actually, you were still connected to it. There's still a movie there. And we talked about airplane and we talked about naked gun. There's stories there and just not like a montage of scenes. The trailer has not assured me that that's not what we're getting. But where I'm going to give it the biggest benefit of the day to say that Anna Farris and Regina Hall are pretty great. And we put them together. I want to see that relationship. I want to see them together. I don't know. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I will go see it. I just don't know yet. Yeah. I mean, I'm always excited to see Anna Farris do comedy, which means I will be there. I, the poster, that's all I've really seen of it, that they're kind of leaning on nods like Art the Clown from the Terrifier series. So they're very aware of how horror has been changing in the creepy margins of the Terrifier series, which I have still not yet really brought myself to watch yet. Because they just seem so horrific. Yeah. But I must, I must, I must, I must. If Terrifier has now made it to a scary movie, then I have to actually get used to this and go watch it. Can I tell you the one that I am, you know, I try not to have any emotions about a movie before I see it, right? Like this is a really intense thing for me. I try not to get my hopes up for a film because then I feel I can be harder on it. I can be more let down or I try not to go into a film with a negative attitude. Although sometimes when I do, then I really wind up liking the movie. I'm like, oh, I was not expecting myself to enjoy myself as much as I did. But I still, neutral is possible, neutral is possible. I'm really trying to stay neutral as possible for Masters of the Universe, which in no usual conceivable world would I be at all even interested in seeing Masters of the Universe, probably. However, the person they have cast as human is Nicholas Galatcine, who I am incredibly curious about as an actor. Did you see Red, White and Blue? Or he was in Bottoms. He was like the really dumb jock in Bottoms. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I think this guy really has something. He's like funny, weird, strange, smart, like so fine. I'm a little annoyed that he's been out of theaters forever playing Masters of the Universe. Like, come on, come back from He-Man, make some other things. But if he's in Masters of the Universe, I'm going to see his He-Man. Well, this is what I kind of like about it, is the trailer is different than what I thought. We already know what a bad He-Man movie is that already happened. But I do think that this could be something interesting. Right? I believe the plot of it is that Prince Adam returns back to Eternia, where he discovers that Skeletor has destroyed the kingdom. He's got to kind of save his family in the world, which I think is a fun way to introduce or reintroduce the world. And I think the movie starts on Earth and they kind of bring him back. Like he was kind of, he left Eternia and came back. So it's kind of, there's a great premise of a movie that I know that was bounding around for a very long time. But it was like a spin on Narnia, where it was like, what if you didn't actually save the day on Narnia? So this kid goes into the closet and he's like, oh, fuck it, I can't deal with this. He gets out of the closet and then years later coming home to visit his parents, like he gets sucked back in. There gets your fault. Fuck you. Like, and it's like, so it's like in my mind, it's like a Ben Stiller dealing with like all these creatures that hate him because he left as a kid and didn't save the day. And I love that idea. I mean, obviously this is not it, but I like that idea of, you know, coming back to a world this way. Well, I'm in. I'm ready. Why not? The cast is interesting. Like you've got like Alice and Bree and Kristen Wiig and Idris Elba. Is Jared Leto playing Skeletor? Yes. He is? Okay. Fine. Here's what I will say though about the director. Bumblebee is a good movie, right? Bumblebee is like his take on the Transformer franchise and A plus movie that people I think were sick of Transformers, but it's very, very good. And I'm a fan of him and I know he did like Kubo and what did he do in the two strings? Like I have faith in this director. That's kind of why I'm feeling about the death of Robin Hood because I'm like, oh, a dark Robin Hood movie. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. But it's directed by the by Michael Sarnowski who did pig. Okay. The Nicholas Cage, Kelly Perry and I Jovey. And so with that, I'm like, okay, fine. I'm very curious about the death of Robin Hood, Hugh Jackman, Robin Hood, Jody Cormor and Noah Jupe who is the, he was in Hamlet. He was the older. Yes. He was the older version of like Hamlet on the stage. People speak of Robin Hood. Tell his stories. They're all lies. He was not a hero. You were a murderous brigand. We were monsters. Yeah. I don't know. I'm like, this feels like one that could either be like complete rotting pumpkin on the ground or maybe great. Like it's the Michael Sarnowski that all that has me curious. Well, you know, I think what's interesting about it is or what I've seen is it's a thriller. Right. It is not like it's not like a traditional like Kevin Costner Robin Hood. Yeah. I think I'm so burned by that. Like that's my like, oh, yeah. Don't you just feel the heaviness of a bunch of too many trees? Well, I think there's, it's, I feel like, I don't know. I'm, I have no allegiance to Robin Hood as far as like, well, it's got to be done like this. I think it's based on a really interesting book. It's, you know, hey, look, it's using these three words that we love, or I guess two words in a hyphen, a dark reimagining of Robin Hood. He wasn't, and look, the hero, you know, it's like the poster says he was no hero. And they're like, uh-oh, I didn't get that. I didn't know this Robin Hood, you know, but it, you know, shot on film, which is cool. You know, I feel like there's going to be some art here. I'm excited. I'm ready. I'm ready to, I will see it. I will see it. But it's a movie that is very low on my radar until you gave me this research. I didn't even hear of it. Okay. What about minions and monsters? The minions are back with a touch of mystery. Mmm, buddy. Oh, Humphrey. Piñata. Carbonara. Lasagna. Now in Minion Vision. I'm always in. I'm always in for a Minions movie. I'm not always in for a Despicable Me movie. How about that? Minions. That's what I'm at, too. I'm like, this is a Despicable Me. I think I skipped the last one. I don't know if I feel like catching up to understand it, but this seems like a. Minions is funny. Like, I don't know. I think Minions always works. Like they're, because it's like slapstick. Yeah. And I think this is like a prequel to the last Minions film. Like it's going back to like classic Hollywood where the Minions are in classic Hollywood. So whatever that is. It takes place in the 1920s and or something like that. Like, and they're just trying to make a movie, a monster movie. Like the Minions are directors. So I'm like, all right, cool. I mean, anything 1920s and moviemaking is one of my favorite personal things. The Babylon of it all. So if this is like Minion Babylon. I mean, I think that's I think it's like Minions actually working with real creatures. I don't know. I don't care. I want this to be like Minions having orgies and there's an elephant somewhere. I'm in. I'm in on a Minion movie where I'm not, you know, that's obviously animation. Another movie I didn't really bring up that I'm really nervous about is Moana. And who I feel like we already had five Moana's. I know there's another Moana. Thomas Kale is a good director. And I think that there's definitely a world in which you get your past to go make something else. If you make a good live action of an animated film. But I don't know what I think of this because I'm like, why do we need it? Why do we need it? Why do we need it? I'll say one more time. Why do we need it? I don't know. I don't know. That's how I feel about pretty much every live action Disney movie with the exception of I finally came around to the Simba movie that came out last year. Two years ago, the one that Barry Jenkins directed. Oh, OK. You like that. OK. I weirdly came around to that movie just because I liked the music so much from Lin-Manuel Morena. Like I listened to that music nonstop. Honestly, there are some absolute bangers on that soundtrack, like dark and weird and funny and like Mads Mickelson is singing. That is the only, I believe live action Disney movie I have ever enjoyed. I tried to tell Barry Jenkins how much I liked the music at a Sundance party and I'm not sure he thought I was being serious, but I was being very serious. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, here's what I'll say. I was a big fan of Lilo and Stitch did not think I was going to be a fan of it. I found it to be incredibly charming, really cute and really well done. Made me cry and yeah, I didn't see it actually because I came out as it can. I really, I really liked it. It's fun. It's it really is fun. So let's see. Let's see what happens. I'm going to like again. This is another moment where let me give the benefit of the doubt to a great director. Thomas Cale directed Hamilton, you know, and the not the the Broadway musical and also is directing proof right now on Broadway with Cheetle and, you know, his one Tony Awards. I feel like he's got the goods. So, you know, I just think that like it looks it looked CG to me in a way that I did not like. Yeah, I haven't figured out how these movies should even look in the first. Yeah, you know, do they want them to look like the old movie but live or not? It just feels like they add a bunch of fur and they can't figure out what else to do. Now, I need to talk about a movie that's going to I think going to be the big movie of the summer. And it was a movie that when they played the trailer for it before Avatar, the newest one, I was like, this is the worst thing you could have possibly done because everything in this six minute long trailer. Is better than everything I'm going to see for the next three hours. And that is the Odyssey Nolan, baby back with the Odyssey and I didn't know how I felt about it. Obviously, I'm going to go see Christopher Nolan movie. But whoa, when I saw that first six minutes or whatever that six minutes was with the Trojan horse. Don't tell me anything. Don't tell me anything. I'm going in blind. I mean, all I saw was six minutes with a Trojan horse and you understand the Trojan horse is a part of the Odyssey. So I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Cast is amazing. I'm soaked for this just in that I love the Odyssey as a book. I love that. I worship the Odyssey. I mean, I had to teach like a class in, I was a TA for a class at USC in classical mythology. So getting to even teach the Odyssey, like later after loving the Odyssey as a kid, I'm just, I adore this story. I kind of went to like bad schools. I feel like most of my life, but for some reason I had to read the Odyssey twice, like once in middle school and then once again in high school. And then I had to teach it. So just like loving this book as much as I do. I'm very stoked to see how this exists. And I'm just excited that, I don't know, it's nice to see Nolan, anoint Greek mythology as important in a way that isn't maybe like hokey. I buy that. You know, like, can he actually make this cool again? Because when I think about the films that have been made about Greek mythology, I mean, okay, I enjoy anything that has like Ray, Harry, Hasen skeletons. But other than that, I'm thinking of like Troy and Brad Pitt sulking around. Like I want to see the Odyssey be made to feel immediate, you know, like not just a bunch of people playing costume, but like immediate. Yeah, exactly. Like what could be? Yes, I am down. I am like, I mean, I'm down. I'm like, of course I'm going to see it. It's a Christopher Nolan movie. Yeah, all of the hours. Yeah, I mean 100%. Listen up. Huh? That means you. Yes, you. We know you're pointing at yourself. When it comes to party power games, we've got a place made for all sorts. From the experts to the drama queens. It's me, the JC. The finance bros. Look at those stalks, lads. We'll stick with slots. It's what we're good at. And not forgetting you. Yes, you, the one listening. Because at party power games, we've got all sorts of games for all sorts of trickles. Eligibility rules and terms of conditions apply. Please come by responsibly. ATEMPLUS.COMOLOWHERE.ORG. Welcome to the realms of peril and glory. Explore the mechanically magical vistas of veil, the paranormal mysteries of liminal London, and the cyberpunk chaos of cyborg. The odd by our incredible guests from familiar shows like Ox Venture and No Rolls Bard. Search realms of peril and glory to find out more. You win. Unswold. I will say that we've kind of covered a lot of the very big summer movies. But where I find summer to be the most interesting is the August releases. The August releases to me are where the good stuff lives. Because you're trying to, you're saying, hey, we're not, we're not getting out there for Memorial Day. We're not even getting out there for the July, but we think this is good. We think you will like it. And maybe we can like scooch out into like September. And there's two interesting comedies. I'm going to talk about them together because I don't know much about them. One night only directed by Will Gluck and Spa Weekend directed by John Lucas and Scott Moore. Looks like two big comments. Spa Weekend feels to me like it's going after a bridesmaids kind of like just heavy hitters in a comedy movie. It's like Lezman, Isla Fisher, Michelle Boutot and Anna Faris. Great. I'm super in for that. I think Michelle Boutot has been so funny every time I've seen her or anything. And we already just like raved about Anna Faris. And then this other one, one night only is really interesting because like, what do you know about this? All I know is the one line premise of it, which is that it's a world in which it's illegal to have pre-medal sex except for one night a year. So it's basically like the purge, but for boning. Yes. This night's insane. I just want to find like a good guy to finding true love on the least romantic night of the year. We're going to go slow. We're going to make good choices. Allie, this is Tayshawn. Hello. We met in line for the bathroom. What? Yeah. No, no. Can I get a whiskey? I am fascinated by this. I mean, it's a rom-com, right? Yeah, a high concept weird rom-com with Monica Barbaro. I'm like, okay, all right, yeah. And it kind of feels like the purge meets like the Richard Link letter before Sunrise movies right away, right? It's about this one night. Yeah, it sounds just strange. And like, you know, the director is Will Gluck who did EZA, which I think is absolutely a modern classic. So yeah. Um, you know, I think that there is something about this where I think the concept is like, we were talking about can you do a Richard Link letter movie where it's about a couple of kind of falling and, you know, talking and doing all this sort of stuff. And I feel like this is the high concept way of doing it. It becomes a rom-com. It's like, it's not because it's not like you can go fuck anyone one night or maybe you can't. I don't know. Maybe you can't. But I don't think that's what this movie is. It seems to me like a talking movie. I mean, I'm curious. Like in the cast is interesting. You've got like Maya Hawk. You've got Julia Fox in there. Callum Turner. So okay, okay. All right. No. It seems to me like a, you know, an August, an August movie, you know, but the one August movie that to me, you and I both have seen and I've been so excited about a movie that almost never made it to screen. Coyote versus Acme. Yeah. The movie that was killed momentarily or it felt like forever, just like Toy Story felt like it was over forever. And then it got back. Directed by Dave Green, it mixes live action and animation will forte John Cena and Wiley Coyote. Have you been horribly injured by a product made by the Acme corporation? It's not your fault. There's probably someone to blame. Name of the case is Coyote versus Acme. I've now seen this movie twice. You see it again? Oh man. Yeah, because I hosted the... The Comic Con last year and they showed it to you again? Yes. I actually watch it with my kids, too, which is really fun. And it's really, I think it's really well done. We talked about Roger Rabbit a lot on the show and it has that sensibility to it. It's a world in which real people and cartoons seamlessly are seamlessly integrated. It's got a really fun story about this Coyote who never gives up in the face of so many reasons, too. And about a guy who always kind of takes the easy way out when we'll forte. And I think this is going to be... I hope it works. I really hope it works. I really hope it works. Hopefully all of the lawsuits have just been nothing but at least free publicity. People have to be at least aware of it, right? Yeah, I hope so. But it's kind of fun. Now that I'm really looking at this August, I usually think of August as like a couple of weird dumb action movies, a superhero movie or two that they're not sure is going to work. And then maybe one or two interesting horror films like last year we had, I think, weapons came out in this slot. There's a lot of comedies here in this August. And I think that's very cool. Well, the other one that I'm very excited about as well is this Kristen Stewart, Dylan Meyer movie, The Wrong Girls. Yeah, it's like a stoner comedy, right? Yes. Like a female stoner comedy? It's Kristen Stewart, Alia Shockat, Seth Rogen, LaKeith, Camille, Zach Fox, Tony Hale. I'm excited about it. I think it's a very specific movie. I've talked to friends who have seen this and really loved it. But it's a stoner movie, just a straight up stoner movie. Let's go. I wonder if they're going to start making more stoner movies just because it's so much easier to be high all the time. There's also the idiots coming out or idiots. I think it does have the idiots. Idiots to me. Idiots to me, I'm so like that's another one. August is holding all the movies I really want to see. Idiots is, it feels very much like the last detail to me. Yeah, it's like a dump stone Irish movie with like Dave Franco and Oshay Jackson Jr. But it's also about them taking like a delinquent kid across country for like a rehab thing or something like that. That's like, that's the, I mean, that's the last detail of it all. Like where they are tasked with like just transporting this kid. I mean, the main run of it all. Yeah, to bring him to a rehab. So anyway, I don't know. And it's got a great cast, you know, Peter Dinklage and Nicholas Braun, Killer Mike, who I love from Run the Jewels. But yeah, like originally it was called the shitheads, which I loved. And then it was like, it is a weird thing because I remember it was originally announced that was Luke Wilson and Tracy Morgan. And then I heard that like Ron Funches took over and it was like Luke Wilson and Ron Funches. And then I heard later than like years later, it was like Dave Franco and Oshay. So I'm ready. It was at Sundance. What was the, what would you hear at Sundance? I didn't get to see it at Sundance. I showed up five minutes late to get in and I was very grouchy about it. That was back when it was still called the shitheads. Yeah, but I mean, I was, I was really curious about it from the Mason Blair because I just think he's really, he has like a lot of kinetic energy in his movies. But now can I ask you the movie? I feel like one person has come out of the gate and I'm like, where has she been? But now she's like, oh, I've been here. And that's Anne Hathaway. Anne Hathaway is in this movie where she plays a pop star. She's now in Devil Wears product two. And at the end of the summer, she's doing the Pedro Pascal of this season with this, the end of Oak Street, which I, when I saw that trailer, I was like, wait, hold on, what? No, the hell is that even possible? Oh my God, Ron! Yeah, I don't know anything about it. So don't tell me, but it's by David Robert Mitchell, right? And he's the person who did it, it follows. Yeah. Yes. It had like, I saw the trailer trailer gives me nothing that more than it made me perk up and go, I'm on board. It looks really cool. You and McGregor and Hathaway, I'm ready for this one. This again, I don't want to know much. And I try to, you and I are both very similar in that we don't want to know too, too much. But that one, the trailer did a great job. The kid in that though, because they're like parents, right? With a family, I think the kid in that is Maisie Stella. Okay. Oh, it was in My Old Ass, which. Oh, okay. My Old Ass was so good. It was this comedy from a couple of years ago. Yeah, the, yeah. It's like her and Aubrey Plaza. Yes. She is dynamite. Like Maisie Stella is just all capitals on my list of people to watch out for. So, yeah. Okay. I'm ready for that. And we got in, you know, and so I guess here we were talking about a movie that on its surface, we have a little bit of everything. We didn't even mention that like Eli Roth has a horror movie coming out. Greg Rocky is doing like a very sexually charged film, which I'm like, I, he's never fully my cup of tea, but I appreciate that he makes movies and I'm always. Oh, it's so fun. Yeah. It's called I Want Your Sex. It has a Olivia Wilde as Cooper Hoffman's boss. And she's like this like mean, nasty artist who's just like parted up and cruel to him and sexually harassing him. Like all of, yeah. Oh, very, very fun. When I go to Cannes, one of the things that's major on my list is seeing the new Jane Shownbrunn, the teenage sex and death at Camp Miasma. Nervous about that? I don't always love a Jane Shownbrunn film. You know, they did, we're all going to the World's Fair. They did, I saw the TV glow. Oh, yes. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they work on a vibe that is not quite yet my vibe, but I'm trying to understand the vibe. I just keep watching Jades Phillips, trying to figure out when I will get it. I think there's something in their movies that is so deep into the cult of fandom that makes me nervous and I can't understand it. Like I only want to go so far into the cult of fandom because I don't like being fans of anything. I got it. I got it. All right. Well, you know, I'm different. I like being fans. So I will forever be a fan. I just feel like being a fan is dangerous. But then I guess that I saw the TV Glows about that too, being a fan is dangerous. I don't know. But you know, I think it's like, it's only dangerous if you don't have any, if you can't like be honest, like being a fan to me doesn't mean that you can't be honest about something. Being a fan to me doesn't also mean that I get to make the thing. I am the fan of the thing. I may not like it, but it's not mine to dictate what I think is good or bad. You know, I can say I don't like it, but it's, you know, you are the fan. I was talking about this. I was doing an interview for George Lucas, 50th thing. And this is what I said about George Lucas. And it really articulated something to me that I felt like I never said to myself, which is God bless him. Let him do what he wants to do. He is the artist. He doesn't think that the thing is done. He gets to go do it. He doesn't like, I love that he doesn't give a shit. Like he's not afraid to like put a big blotch of yellow on a painting that everyone thinks is one of the best paintings in a museum. Right. Like that's, there's something bold about doing your work for yourself. And I never really articulated that to myself. I'm like, this guy, let him do it. Let him. He's the artist. Let the artist do it. I think that there's a power in that too of just like, I'm not going to, he's not making it for me. He's making it for him. And if we like it, then great. I think that's totally fair. I think, yeah, artists make what they make. We see it and we're like, oh yeah. Right. Isn't that just a trade off? I think that that's it. You know, there's a great quote from Rick Rubin in his book where he just basically says, you know, once you make something, it's no longer yours. And I think that they can go the other way too, which is like, yes, just because people grabbed onto it because they liked it doesn't mean it's theirs. You can't control how people appreciate it or what they want from it. But at the same time, it's not theirs either. Yeah. I mean, I think there is no ownership over art in a way. There's only how I view the art myself. Yeah. Which I guess is a weird thing for a film critic to say, but yeah, I think that is true. Well, Amy, I'm excited. We have a great summer, I think, lined up and I feel like, you know, we should, I don't know, embrace this. I think we should, I think that we may be on the verge of even a better summer than last year. I don't know. We'll see. Project Hail Mary brought the movies back. Super Mario Brothers blew it out of the water. Devil Wears Prada is tracking in an insane way by the time we're recording this. And the Billy Eilish movie is right on those heels. Yeah, we are on. It's exciting. It's exciting. Like we want to get people back in the theater and I feel like these movies are going to do it. I hope they will. Did I tell you that I got to tell a person who works for AMC, like a higher up AMC to their face, you really let me down on Barbenheimer weekend when the female bathrooms are out of toilet paper. Please don't do that again. I was like, when people show up, you've got to be ready. You know, I have a theory that the surprise movie of the summer. Might be that movie that we just talked about a second ago, one night only. I feel like the purge and sex might bring out an audience that is there for the rom-com and there for the horror. And that is an interesting audience to kind of mix. I think that that might be the one that we're not talking about too much right now. But when it comes out, it might be that kind of special hit that the super bad, you know, that kind of one where we, yeah, sure. It looks interesting, but whoa, it's going to get us. I would love to see that. I would love to see that. Oh, and I forgot another movie I should mention, actually. You know, talking about people who just like have an idea, get it done, get it across the finish line. There's a really, really tiny indie movie that played South by last year in 2025 called Fuck Toys. Finally coming out at the end of May. It's doing that sort of hundreds of beavers. Yeah, it's doing the hundreds of beavers thing where nobody, according to what I heard, nobody could buy the movie because they she refused the title, the title, the star and the director and the writer are the same person, this person and a Pernas free room. She's playing this sex worker who thinks that she's cursed and is trying to like run around getting money to lift this curse off. It's really weird. It's really funny. It's so strange and like kind of vintage pop 60s, but also feels like totally weird and new. Anyways, yeah, people have been not willing to release the film with the name Fuck Toys. So I think they're just placing it themselves in hundreds of beavers way, taking it around the country, showing it off. It is so weird. I cannot wait for people to see it. All right, I'm excited. I mean, I still have to see Fuck My Son, which has been hard to find. Amy, we'll see you when you get back from Cannes. But in your place, I have invited some of our friends to come on to the show and talk about their favorite films. It is going to be a completely random choice as long as we have not done it on the show. I have so far not rejected anyone's choices. They've all been very diverse. And our first one up is the amazingly talented Ed Helms, you know, from the Daily Show and the Hangover. He has chosen a Zazz movie. One that we have not done. Val Kilmer's Top Secret. So we're going to be talking about Top Secret with Ed Helms next week. A great rewatch. And as you know from our Naked Gun and Airplane episodes, I am a big proponent of this film. So we get a chance to dig in deep into Top Secret. And make sure you check out our sub-stack each and every week to go a little bit deeper on the movies that we talk about here. It's always free. So join in the conversation. Unspooled is produced by Amy Nicholson, Paul Shear, Molly Reynolds, and Harry Nelson. Sound engineered by Corey Barton, music by Devon Bryant, episode art by Kim Troxall, show art by Lee Jameson, and social media production by Zoe Applebaum. This is a Rome production. See you next week. Bye for now. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. The mystery of mystery. Fall in love with our core cast. 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