Level up or game over for SUPER MARIO GALAXY?

Hey, Mark, you know I'm a really massive techie, right? No. If you saw me at my local coffee shop in Showbiz, North London, you'd probably mistake me for Neo from The Matrix, without the illegal hacking or sunglasses indoors, obviously. What are you talking about? You're having some sort of breakdown. Do you actually even own a computer? What I'm talking about, I'm on it now, talking to you. It's the transformation my web browsing has been through now that I've got NordVPN on all my devices. I use NordVPN to keep my online activity safe with encryption, threat protection and dark web alerts to guard against hackers and to secure public Wi-Fi. Well, welcome to the future, Simon. I've been doing that for ages. And with one click, NordVPN can change your device's virtual location so you can access all the things you need when you're abroad. Unwrap a huge discount on NordVPN by heading to NordVPN.com. With our link, you'll get an extra four months free on the two-year plan and it's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Check the link in the description. This episode is brought to you by MUBI, the global film company that champions great cinema. From iconic directors to emerging auteurs, there's always something new to discover. With MUBI, each and every film is hand-selected so you can explore the best of cinema. Yes, a new to MUBI in the UK this March is the brilliant No Other Choice from Park Chanwook. If you're a regular listener at the show, you will have heard me reviewing the film and raving about it. Actually, kind of struggling to describe it because it's a black comedy, it's a thriller, it's a social satire. It's about a man whose life starts to fall apart and he takes unreasonable measures to correct things. I was absolutely fascinated by it. I thought it was a terrific film. And as I said, it's coming to MUBI in the UK from March the 13th. You can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com slash Kermodon Mayo. That's MUBI.com slash Kermodon Mayo for a whole month of great cinema for free. There really is no other choice. Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday, including bonus reviews, extra viewing suggestions, viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas. Plus, your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, shmeshions. You can get all that extra stuff via Apple podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. There's never been a better time to become a vanguard Easter. Free offer now available wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're already a vanguard Easter, we salute you. The only problem with technology. Actually, there are lots of problems. There's lots of problems with technology. But in general, because we've up the standard of the visual side of this audio production, yes, by giving ourselves high-def cameras. And now that's a terrifying thing. And now I can see that I haven't shaved and I'd forgotten that. So whereas before on the webcam, it was you wouldn't know. So now I just look a shambles. So I, on the other hand, have showered and shaved, but I still look like a shambles. I've showered. Showered. I have standards. Yeah, you showered, but you haven't shaved. Yeah, but I have showered and shaved. That's good. And pomaded my hair. Beautiful. But we've just spent a very sweary half an hour trying to set these new cameras. Are you there too? Yes, but you were doing the swearing. I'm just making that very clear. Much. You're always very surprised when I say you're quite sweary. But I think the last half hour is proof. And anyway, we're all fine. Are we putting that out as an extra? Yeah, all marks cussing. To the tune of All My Loving. All my cussing. Here's the thing. Yes, talking about technology on Blue Sky, social media platform, someone called Nick Hilton posted this. He said he'd used chat GBT as a search tool. Right. OK. But this made him laugh. OK, so I think I can probably guess what made him do this. But anyway, what he asked chat GBT for, what this is a lesson in not trusting AI. OK, OK. All right. He said, who were the first openly gay radio hosts on radio one? Please tell me it said us. The first and to which the answer from chat GBT with the wisdom of the entire Internet loaded into it. It says the first openly gay presenters on radio one were Simon Mayo and Phil Jupiter's. Excellent. And then it says hyphen, but with an important nuance. One, Simon Mayo is not gay, so he doesn't count in this sense. Two, Philip Jupiter is also not gay. I mean, could also add he was never a presenter on radio one. Other than that. But I thought, OK, well, you know, that's it. So it contradicts itself in its own text. That's mad. It gives me and Phil as the answers and then says, actually, no, not them. And then it says the commonly accepted answer is actually Chris Evans, brackets not gay and others hosted the host at the station early on, but they weren't openly gay. So in other words, chat GBT has absolutely no idea what it's talking about. But I did tell you that last week, chat GBT made my made my day by telling me that I was a member of the Panic Brothers. I don't know. Is there anything he doesn't panic brothers? It was just I mean, it's clearly just wrong about everything. What's the capital of Scotland? It would probably say Phil Jupiter's or Phil Jupiter's. Because Phil Jupiter's is going to come up later in our various recordings today, because he was present at the first Pokemon movie, which I went to taking Child One, aged about five. And I was sitting next to Phil, who'd taken his. Child and we were both complaining. And I'd brought newspapers and I wanted. And then, of course, the lights go down and you can't say you have to watch this awful, awful picture. But anyway, apparently it's much loved. So, you know, hello to Phil Jupiter's just in case he's listening. Anyway, you're looking cool and groovy with a guitar over your left hand shoulder. There was a bottle of beer over your right hand shoulder, but that's been moved. I mean, I'm in Ali's house as I've made quite clear. We're having our roof done. And so I'm just so this show in the next one, I've been recording in Ali's house because in our house, it literally sounds like like we're in the middle of an air raid. As the slates come off. What beer was it? Was it a breakfast beer? It's this, isn't it? Ned's Wonder. It's a Wonder stuff beer. Oh, well, it's like a promotional freebie. Yeah, it's what I was trying to say. Ali's a big Wonder stuff fan. So this is Ned's Wonder, four point one alcohol. OK, that's not a breakfast beer. Really, it says a balanced ale with a floral start and a subtle caramel finish. Depending on whether the technology works or not, you could you might want to use that later. You might want to take the time to just consume it all. I tell you what I really want to do. I want to put this on the in front of the webcam. So it looks like this is my holding picture. That's right. I mean, it does. That actually does look like you from last week, I think. And we should say that was Marcus just held up a picture of Elvis cropping his quiff of King Charles, the third in all his pomp. So on the show a bit later on, what are you doing? Honestly, we've got such a packed show. We have reviews of Fuse, which is a London based thriller. We have Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is the latest animated incarnation of Super Mario. We have the drama with Zendaya and our pets. And from the world of television, 2026, with our very special guest. Yes, young Hugh Bonneville reprising his role as Ian Fletcher, who now is director of integrity on the oversight team in Miami for the 2026 World Cup. Except we can't call it the World Cup and you can't say FIFA because of contractual reasons. So they're bleeped out, which is which is actually very funny, hugely entertaining. And in take two, Mark, in take two, we have reviews of what was the 25th anniversary reissue of Emily with Audrey Tattoo and a documentary, McCartney Hunt for the Lost Base, in which they hunt for Paul McCartney's Lost Base. I mean, that could have been about anything, couldn't it? It could be really good. Also in take two, you'll get even more of the good stuff, including the five question film club, three questions to match the available few on Patreon, our intros to Cold War, the silence of the lamb's heathers and the elephant man, among many others. So head on over to Patreon. If you'd like to join the club, plus you get all the other top quality content ad free, although some people love the ads. So you can't say I'm on Patreon, but please can I have these ads? You can't do that because you're either ad free or you're not ad free. That's basically the way it is. We could just do a bonus, which you get if you get the patron. There is just a bonus, which has got the ads in it. Maybe we could do a take three with all the ads, which is just ads. It's just us selling any old hat. And with the release of Super Mario Galaxy, which Mark mentioned, we asked you for your favorite Nintendo themed films in one frame back, assuming that you have some questions, questions in which Mark and I will answer this question, apart from many others, apart from the artistic merit and our pure enjoyment of our favorite films. Do we think these films resonate with us because of the age we were when we first saw them? To which the answer is yes. Did these films capture a fascination with us because of where we were in our life and so caught us just at the right moment? Anyway, we'll do that more detail a bit later on. OK. Who's this? Oh, Clive in London, very long term listener, dear Jelly Bean and Sean Bean, with reference to the conversation about jelly babies. Yes. And the preference for the black, green and yellow ones. This was my preference, certainly. It may be worth noting that I mean, in the pecking order, I would say the green and black are best and the yellow ones just behind. And then the red and orange fit for nothing. And the pink ones you just pass over because they are an abomination. It may be worth noting says, Clive, that the pink and red ones make the other ones taste better, as described by the contrast effect. Quote, OK, a cognitive and sensory phenomenon where the perceived intensity, sweetness or desirability of a sweet item is enhanced or diminished by a proceeding or simultaneous stimulus. The fact that I'm always reminded of whenever I eat Terell's vegetable crisps, where the beetroot and carrot is made all the better by the obviously inferior parsnip, which is definitely true. The only trouble with the beetroot crisps is that you have to remember the following morning that you have been eating beetroot crisps. Because? Because otherwise you might get a bit of a scare. Why? You might think there is blood in your stool, Mark. Oh, my word. So it's a problem with beetroot in general, really, that you just have to remember. But that's interesting. So but the thing is, I would enjoy if they marketed the black, green and yellow without the other ones, I think I would still prefer it. Yes. I mean, I would definitely go for that. I mean, it's the pink ones are the ones that absolutely do my head in. But the black and green ones are fabulous. Go on. No, we're just going to say black jelly, baby. I mean, I love all jelly babies, except the pink ones, but black jelly babies are something very, very special. And the real the really sad thing is if you get a packet of jelly babies and you open them up and you spray them, you there's only ever you've got three of the black ones in there. They are they know that they're the best ones. So they ration them, whereas they just put a ton of the pink ones in. Yeah. Yeah, which is very disappointing. But is there a greater pleasure in life than opening a tube of smarties and tipping them all in your mouth at the same time and then throwing away the tube? Have you done that? I always wanted to do that. And my brother also. And and then, of course, it's a bit reckless when you're a kid. But wait, OK. I think that's very exciting. Shane in Dublin, regarding the ongoing conversation of when the right time is to show more teen or adult orientated movies to your kids. Yeah. As the father of two young girls about to turn eight and 10 this month, I've been wrestling with this for a number of years. I distinctly remember taking my seven year old brother to see RoboCop to certificate 18 by ourselves on our side. But in 1990 and having the usher ask me a 12 year old, hey, are you sure he's old enough and then waving us in while we emerge with just mild trauma, the psychotic foul mouth child. And it was a highlight. I've tried to protect my kids from repeating my mistakes. As I'm an engineer, says Shane, I decided to code my way out of the problem. I built the web app, show my kids dot com for myself to note down films, music and books I want to introduce children to in years to come. Right when I think of it. I get to decide what age they should be. And after each birthday, the app checks what my kids are now old enough for and sends me an email to remind me to take the time to expand their horizons. It also shows you what other parents are recommending for your kids ages, giving you further ideas for great content they might like. Hopefully all wither tainees will find it useful and lead to many more special but age appropriate moments with their kids. Take it easy down with all things orange bloated and full of hot air. So that is show my kids dot com, which is a very good idea. Obviously, this is a very personal thing because what's fine for one eight year old will not be appropriate for another eight year old, but it's always good to have the wisdom of the crowd. Don't you think? I've told you a million times that my dad took me and my sister to see all the president's men because he had he is the root of my Nixon obsession. And we weren't old enough to see it because it was a double A certificate film, so you had to be 14. And my dad refused to lie about our ages. But what he did was that when we got up to the to the counter and the woman behind the counter, she said three tickets for all the president's men. And she said, are they both over 14? And my dad just went. Just gestured towards us like. Right. So the so the gesture that you're that you're doing there is a what do you think? Yeah, what do they look like? Obviously, they're 14. And so he didn't actually lie. He didn't actually lie. He just implied and I remember thinking, wow, the adult world is complicated. Yeah, that's very true. OK, so tell us something that is out and new and interesting. OK, let's start on a high note with the drama, which is a darkly satirical. It's got a non rom com written and directed by the Norwegian filmmaker, Christopher. I think it's Borglé, B.O.R. GLI. So Christopher Borglé, who who made dream scenario. Remember, I reviewed dream scenario, which is the film in which Nick Cage is this kind of shlubby guy who suddenly starts turning up in everyone's dreams and becomes a sort of superstar as a result of it. And then everything goes blackly horrible and wrong. So that film was produced like this new film by Ari Asta. Now, you remember how much you and I love Ari Asta? No, you love Ari Asta. You remember how much fun we quite happy not seeing anymore. OK, well, you know what? What the kind of tone of Ari Asta's movies is like. Yep, you're not allowed to make that noise any more than I don't tell. Don't tell me that this is another one like that. Well, there is a tonal there is a tonal connection. So the new film, the drama stars Zendaya, our Pat from Pattinson, Mamadou Ache, Ache, I beg your pardon, Alana Haim, Haley Gates and Zoe Winters. So Zendaya and our Pat's Zendaya and our Pat's are Emma and Charlie. That is young couple. They were like 30 or something, which to me is young. They're approaching their wedding. We meet Charlie is writing his wedding speech and he's telling the story of how they met. So we see a little bit of flashback. They met in a coffee shop. He saw her reading a book. He hadn't read it, but he was trying to impress her. So he pretended to have read it. He started talking to her. She didn't hear him because she's deaf in one ear and she had an ear pod in the other ear. He found the whole meat, you incredibly charming, fell in love with everything about her, including her weird laugh. One day, one evening, they go out with the maid of honor and her partner, and they are finalizing the food and drink for the wedding. They've all eaten and drunk too much. And they start having one of those conversations in which they start playing a game, which is what's the worst thing you've ever done, which is a full hardy game for anyone. Never, ever play games like that. Never, particularly when you've eaten and drunk too much. So one of them says a confession about something to do with a dog. Another one has a confession about cyberbullying. Another one has a confession that they once locked this kid in a cupboard. But when it gets to Emma, who's in Day's character, she confesses to doing something. In fact, not even doing it, but having thought of doing something that she then didn't do that is considered to be so outrageous that it basically derails everything. Here's a clip from the trailer. So you're saying Charlie is your first love? Yeah, first love or your first crush? Most, I think. What does that mean? I'm thirty. So I want to say this thing about her laugh. You know how it's very cute, but it's also kind of repulsive, even. All right. So before we got married, we did this thing where we said the worst thing you've ever done. I'll tell mine if we all do it. Promise. What did you do? This dog. Beer bottles and porn. You left an hour of an eye. Yeah. That's the worst thing I've ever done. Ice. OK, I. Are you serious? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I. I'm not. Order. Emma, what the fuck? So the maid of honour is shocked. Charlie is so baffled that he starts to wonder whether he actually knows his bride to be. All of them are basically astonished that she could even have thought such a thing, despite the fact that they live in a country where this particular thing, which incidentally she did not do, but she thought of doing, is horrifyingly common. And the rest of the film is this kind of toe curling black comedy in which the rails come off as the wedding approaches zooming towards them. The irony of it all being that the person who's at the centre of it sort of being vilified for thinking about doing something without doing it is actually probably the most reasonable of all of the people. I mean, I thought it was. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know what the thing was. Obviously, it's not revealed in the trailer actually weirdly enough just before I went into the film, which I didn't even know who was in it. I only knew that the title was the drama. And Tim Robie, who's a colleague of mine, said, do you know the twist? And I said, I didn't even know there was a twist. I don't even know what sort of film it is. He said, great, because everyone's been telling me what the twist is. And I didn't. So I had no idea at all. So if you can possibly go and see this just thinking, I like those actors, I, you know, maybe I like the director's previous film, don't find out anything else about it. I thought it was excruciating, but in a good way, although I remember that you and I, you and I have different versions of what excruciating, you know, because it was Bowie's afraid, wasn't it? That the more you didn't laugh, the funnier I thought it became. I thought watching people tying themselves up in knots whilst trying to deal with something that didn't happen was profoundly, I mean, entertaining in the worst sense of the word. I mean, on the one hand, it's a classic kind of bourgeois social satire in the manner of something like, you know, Robert Altman's wedding or that or Margo at the wedding, you know, which, again, it's all these forces sort of coalescing around something in which you have to maintain the illusion of politeness even as existential chaos is lurking. I also think, and this is this may be personal, I think it is rather pointed political satire. There is, in fact, one moment in which the discussion has become very heated. And somebody says, oh, so America is to blame to which I thought, yes, it is absolutely. I think others will feel differently. And I think that one of the things that impressed me about the movie is that the way in which you respond both to the revelation and also to the way people respond to the revelation will depend very much on how you yourself view and contextualize the central revelation. I mean, personally, I was onside with Zendaya's character, but it's the movie is clearly designed to allow you to have a number of different responses. I mean, it helps that the performances are pretty much no perfect. And the script, although the script is outlandish, it never descends into ludicrous character. I mean, yes, things get out of hand if you've watched the trailer. You'll know that the things definitely come off. The wheels definitely come off when it gets to the wedding. But like Bo is afraid, I suspect that I found this a lot funnier than you would find it. But I think that you would you would find that there is a really interesting idea at the center of it, which is, you know, on the one hand, it's how much do you know people? How there's a lot of stuff about when were you going to tell me this? Well, you know, have you do you tell every do you tell every detail of your past life to everybody? You know, if you if you're about to get married, you say, incidentally, there are things in my past that you don't know anything about. Here I am clearing house. And the thing that makes it work so well is that it comes up by mistake at the end of a drunken evening when they are playing a stupid game. And for me, the moment when they started to play the game of what's the worst thing you've ever done, because bear in mind, I hadn't even seen the trailer. I didn't even know they were going to do that. It was like, stop, stop, get up now, get a cab. This will not end well. Now, I think, particularly if the work is not the worst thing you've done, it's the worst thing you thought of doing, which takes it into a whole new category. Precisely, because what was that phrase that you once used? You said there are three sides to anybody, which is this was this was Gabriel Burn. So this is in the Gabriel Burn interview that he did for us. And he talked this is something like you have a public. There's a public side to you. There's a private side to you. And there's a secret side to you. Yeah, something like that. That's right. And also, there's there's the question of, well, you thought about doing it and and you and you you started to think you were going to do it and then you didn't do it. At what point does thinking about something anyway, whatever, I thought it was a really interesting. Maybe I thought it was I was really engaged. I thought the performances were great. And I found a lot of it absolutely excruciating, but in a way that I really enjoyed. Well, if anything is going to make me watch an Ari Asta film, it's having Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Yeah, but it's not an Ari Asta film. It's an he's a producer. So it is it is from as I said, it's from the director of Dream Scenario, but his name is on it. And the moment his name came up, I thought two things. I thought, firstly, that says something tonally. And secondly, I really wonder what Simon May will think of this. But that's interesting. So the two of the biggest movies. So when Robert Pattinson was on, I think then we talked about how every decision he's made since being in Twilight was to make him less of a movie star. Yes. Whereas you can't get a bigger movie star at the moment than Zendaya. She's just absolutely huge. But maybe Robert Pattinson is now becoming a movie star again. Yeah, but but the film plays very much like an indie A24, you know, that kind of film. So coming up after the the break, which is a very entertaining thing, unless of course you're a subscriber. Mark is going to be doing Super Mario Galaxy movie fuse 2026. And our special guest is going to be Hugh Bonneville talking about that TV show, plus the love to lift, which Mark loves very much indeed. The jokes are going to reach new levels this week. Scruciating. Yes, on the way. Hey, sweetie, your mother showed me this car. I'm on a thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. OK, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana, give it a whirl. Love you. So good you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. So your car today on Carvana. Pick up these may apply. Hey, Mark Kermode. Yes, Simon Mayo. When we first started our journey in Wistertainment, did you worry that people might not listen or care about what we had to say? I did. What have we made fools of ourselves? Well, thankfully, it turns out people love it specifically when we make fools of ourselves. So we needn't have worried. That's good because we're very good at that. That said, wouldn't it have been great if there'd been something like Shopify to help us get started? Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, from household names like Heinz and Mattel to brands just getting started. Get the word out like you have a top marketing team behind you and easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. It's time to turn those what ifs into... with Shopify today. Sign up for your £1 per month trial at Shopify.co.uk slash take. That's Shopify.co.uk slash take. OK, so now it's the time to the box office top 10, Mark. Excellent. At number 10, number 7 in America, Scream 7. It's on its way out and not a moment too soon. Number 9, number 26 over there, How to Make a Killing. So this is in its third week, so this is the last week that it will be troubling the box office. I just hope that everybody goes to see kind hearts and coronets and goes to see it. Sees it. It'll be on streaming services and television. And that is the superior film, obviously. More on Mark's attitude to this film later in the show. Oh, OK. Number 8, nothing in America, but number 8 here, Mother's Pride. There it is. Maybe the last week, but pretty well. Yeah, it's, you know, look, it's The Fisherman's Friends of Pubs. And it is exactly the film that you think it is. And that is perfectly fine. Number 7 here, number 5 in America, New Entry, They Will Kill You. So this is a kind of riotously blood splattered comedy horror adventure romp, which I enjoyed. I mean, I enjoyed. I couldn't remember anything about it almost five minutes afterwards, but whilst I was watching it, I enjoyed it. There is, of course, the question of Patricia Arquette's accent, which we played a clip from last week and I said to you, what accent do you think that is? It was apparently Irish. This is an email from Aman. Simon and Mark, a long term list of occasional emergency mailer. I came away more confused than anything else. The main issue is that it never really decides what it wants to be. It flirts with horror, leans into dark comedy at times, and tries to inject a bit of stylized, almost kill, build type, flare, but none of it properly lands. As a horror, it's not scary. There's tension in places, but no real payoff. It certainly didn't pass the six laugh test, and there just aren't enough genuine moments that land. And when it tries to be cool and stylized, it ends up feeling more like a low rent imitation than something with its own identity. It's frustrating because there are glimpses of a better film in there, but it needed a clearer tone, tighter writing, and more confidence in what it was trying to be. Okay. I mean, I enjoyed it more than you did. I mean, I think it's no masterpiece. As I said, I think it clearly takes from a lot of other films, absolutely, and it doesn't rewrite the rulebook in any way. But whilst it was playing, I enjoyed it, and I think it's kind of Friday Night Popcorn fodder, which I've got, there is a time and a place for. Well, Friday Night, obviously. Yes, obviously. Number six here, number six over there is Ready or Not to Here I Come. Rich Ellis says, I enjoyed every minute. It picks up straight after the original and builds steadily to a wonderfully wild finale. Elijah Wood looks like he's having the time of his life. Samara Weaving and Catherine Newton have completely believable sibling chemistry, walking that love-hate line with ease. I appreciated that no one suddenly became super humanly competent and that the self-serving characters who'd sold their souls for luxury were fittingly rather stupid. And as someone who had total eclipse of the heart at his wedding, one sequence brought me particular joy, with feminists of all hair colours, downward Nazis and their cosplayers. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And it's better than we had a right to expect, considering that the original was a while ago and again, was a bit of a surprise treat. So yes, I enjoyed it very much. Number five and four over there is Reminders of Him. Which a reminder that Colleen Hoover is becoming the nicks-sparks of today. And that in itself is no bad thing. I think it's a very baggy, sentimental story that is lifted a little bit by the fact that it's got very good performances that kind of raise the material. Michael Monroe, for example, I think is terrific in it. And number four in the UK, number three in the States, Durand are the Revenge. Now, I said last week this wasn't press screen and then I asked if anyone had seen it to send in an email. Do we have an email? No. Well, there we are. And that's that. Number three here, two over there is Hoppers. Not the best Pixar, but not the best Pixar is still pretty good. And number two is a new entry and that's the Magic Faraway Tree. Which, here's some emails. Can I just say, I liked it very much and somebody forwarded me a thing from whatever Twitter is now called X that apparently Simon Farneby had said that he listens to the show and he was very pleased that we liked it. Well, here is an email from Rosie Grace. Dear Silky and the Angry Pixie, me and Dad went to see the Magic Faraway Tree as our first cinema trip of the year. Oh, fab. Three exclamation marks and we loved it. Three exclamation marks. I was really nervous because I love the books and some in the blind adaptions I've seen are not really good. But I really love this film, three exclamation marks. I didn't stick. It didn't stick the closest to the book, but it really captured the spirit of the book. Five exclamation marks. It was so much fun. Me and Dad laughed all the way through six exclamation marks. My favorite character was definitely Saucepan Man. I laughed every time I saw him and when he misheard everything. And I loved the land of the sweets. And I could have gone down the slippery slip all day. Forget the lands. I'd have just gone up and down the tree all day. I did miss the squirrels at the bottom of the slippery slip to take the cushions back up to the top. But that's just me being obsessed with gray squirrels and the slippery slip. Can I say, although it did look exactly as I've imagined it, it was a really good film, brilliant film. I really enjoyed your review. Thank you. Best Fishes, I mean, Wishes, Two Crying Emoji, Laughin' Faces. Rosie Grace. That's fantastic. Thank you, Rosie. And thank you for all the exclamation marks. One of my favorite cags in the film, I don't know whether it's in the book, is the Saucepan Man. And it says, why are you covered in saucepans? And he goes, because I'm saucepan man. When I did my first adult book, as opposed to a YA book or children's book, the first note from my editor, my very wise editor, was too many exclamation marks. Because you can have them in children's fiction and YA, but fewer, please. Do you think that in the script for Project Hail Mary, Amaze, Amaze, Amaze has exclamation marks? I think it absolutely has to. More of that in a moment. Hugh says, medium term list, the first time you mailed it, excitement was high, the kids gasping at the giant screen, settling into our seats, handing around popcorn, pure joy, just under 30 quid for two adults and two kids, the perks of the Northeast. We all loved it. It has that Paddington Wonka sheen and looks marvellous. It's undeniably silly, but engaging enough that I genuinely cared how it ended. We've been reading the books to my five-year-old, so this was also her first, why doesn't it look like my imagination moment? Thankfully, she approved the design. Some moments were surprisingly moving, and the theme of family reconnecting after drifting into tech-induced distances, genuinely touching. Claire Foy is wonderful, Andrew Garfield hits exactly the right tone, and the rest do what's needed. My two found bits, my two found bits a little scary, but their peril threshold is low. We once had to stop the poor patrol movie for being too spicy. Ooh! A perfect family film, go see it, usual send-offs. Wow, wow, okay. And this is from Nigel, MSC in Mining Geology, and 6 tenths of the way to a 10-meter front crawl badge in 1986, which presumably means you didn't make it. Gnid Blyton, I think this was your reveal from last week, my delight at discovering I wasn't the only child confused by the font on the front of her books. However, I went a step further than Mark and had additional challenges with the why, thus spent many years thinking it was Gnid Blyton. More of that kind of thing later. And number one in the US, and number one in the UK, and clearly it's going to be one of the biggest selling movies of the year, if not the biggest, is of course Project Hail Mary, which I have now seen. Oh, great, great. But first of all, Phil from the Teacher's Trenches in the Church. Dear Rocky and Adrienne, last Friday I was sitting in a packed screening of Project Hail Mary at my local independent cinema, The Island in Sunny Litham St. Anne's, accompanied by Child One when my inner classroom pedant happily clocked in for duty. For context, I am a science teacher of some 26 years, which absolutely does not make me a scientist. If it did, I'd be earning far better money doing some actual science rather than explaining it to year seven on a wet Thursday. Very good. Two moments leapt out. Firstly, early on when the astrophage organism is being examined on Earth, on the warship or in the war room, a scientist asks whether it reproduces by mitosis or meiosis. Unless I've been misleading generations of pupils, nothing reproduces by meiosis. That produces haploid, is it gametes? I think it is. Reproductive cells in animals and plants, so sperm and egg cells, they would be haploid gametes. Anyway, not a new organism. The intent is clear, but the wording gave me a quiet, biological eyebrow raise. Surely the world's best scientists know better than me. Secondly, later aboard the Hail Mary, when Grace analyses material from Rocky and the system identifies xenon, he dismisses it with xenon as a gas, which it is at standard conditions. But in space, at sufficiently low temperatures, xenon can quite happily be solid via a straightforward state change. At this point, I may have murmured a code compliant state change into my popcorn to the mild concern of child one. Having read the book as his standard practice for science geeks, we know the source material gets the science spot on, which makes these little moments all the more enjoyable to spot. It feels very much in the spirit of your excellent wrong hawk, wrong swimming stroke tradition. And frankly, it's one of the most fun bits of the podcast, apart from the excellent redactors laughter lift, tingly tongs and whole fruits, loving that show, Steve, from Phil in the teacher's trenches of the church. OK, wow. So packed screening around the corner, which was great. I don't think I'd been around the corner since James Bond, just out of COVID. Wow. And I quite enjoyed it. Oh, I would say. Oh, OK. That's slightly. Yes, for particular context, I finished the book three hours before I went to see the film, right, which I think is very much part of the way I saw the film. So for me, in the book, the comedy from the main character Grace makes the science bearable because the science is nonstop. As Phil, the science teacher has just mentioned, and it's the juxtaposition of the two that makes the story great. I found the film annoyingly goofy so that when you take out the science, because obviously that rumination is what we don't get. So for example, when Grace, the Ryan Gosling character, takes control of the spaceship for the first time, it jerks around like it's a kid driving a remote control car. That what I just thought, OK, this is I just thought it was goofy when it wasn't necessary. So I'm now going to, unless you censor this later, go ahead and talk about the ending without talking about the ending. OK, sure. In the book, I thought the ending was very clever, appropriate, and nicely and nicely worked out and satisfactory. In the movie, it felt like an episode of the Muppet show. And I thought, oh, OK, that's not quite right. OK, so that was that was that was my take. I enjoyed it as a cinematic experience. Good for it. And Ryan Gosling is great. I haven't read the book. Is the ending of the film substantially different to the book? No, it's almost exactly the same. But when you when you saw it on screen, you thought it was like an episode of the Muppet show. But when you read it in the book, it read differently. Yep. But narratively, the same thing happens. Yes, narratively the same. That's why that's why I said I was influenced by the fact that I just finished the book. Wow. OK. And I thought, you know, I thought it was great and it was well worked, but I was disappointed. I was OK. I was only disappointed just because everyone has been raving about it. Yeah. And and online giving it lots of thumbs down, which is, of course, an in joke, because that's what Rocky thinks his thumbs up. Oh, right. Fist my bump and so on. And I love all the in jokes. Maze, maze, maze. And I could have done with more of that. But mainly, I think it was the fact that because you get less science, it felt too goofy. And OK, that was my take on it. OK. I mean, one thing I would say about this is I went in to see it knowing nothing about it at all and with a slightly heavy heart, because I just, you know, it was a late screening and then I loved it. You went in having had weeks of me telling you how fabulous it was and everybody else telling you how fabulous it was and having just read the book and you were slightly disappointed. And I think that does tell us something that we do always need to remember is the circumstances under which you see a film are significant. I would say, for example, in the case of the drama, which we just reviewed, part of what I really enjoyed about it was, as Tim Roby said, do you know the twist? I didn't even know there was a twist. I didn't even know there was something that I didn't know. In the in the Donald Rumsfeld sense, it was the unknown unknowns. Yes. You know. So that is important. I I just this is what I think is most important about it. It is big hearted and kind. And I think right now we could do with more of that. No, absolutely. I absolutely agree with that. I was just given the how meticulous the science is in the book. When when the spaceship jerks around, just because he's driving it badly, I thought, come on, this is that's. You never see anything move in space like that. I mean, I know a lot about spaceships and, you know, the most in another. I know the most about spaceships. But anyway, I'm still glad that it's there. And Ryan Gosling can do no wrong, clearly. Yeah. Correspondents at Kermitman.com. We'll have further discussion on films that have been out for a while in the Overflow Car Park, which is part of Take Two available ad free on Patreon. We'll be back with some Hugh Bonneville in just a moment. As the day wraps up, get the scoop on what's been happening with Here's the Scoop, a new podcast from NBC News with your host, Yasmin Vasugian. We'll take a deep dive into the day's top stories with NBC News's trusted journalist. It's a fresh take that's sharp, thoughtful, and it's informative, bringing you closer to the headlines and conversations that are shaping our world. From the front page to the zeitgeist, here's the scoop from NBC News. Listen daily wherever you get your podcasts. I want to tell you guys about a podcast that is near and dear to my heart. And I cannot believe it already came out a year ago. And you can all go listen to it ad free by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. What podcast, Corinne? Tell us. Oh, it's called Blink Jake Handel's Story. I created it about a man named Jake, who I met, who is the only survivor of a terminal brain illness brought on by heroin use. But there is a lot of mystery and medical malpractice and true crime elements that are very shocking and surprising, and even some supernatural elements. So this is definitely an amazing story. It's very unique. Did such an incredible job telling the story and sharing it with the world. So if you have not listened to it yet, my goodness, where have you been? Because Blink is so freaking good. Thank you. Search for Blink wherever you listen, and subscribers to the Binge will get the entire season ad free. Plus, you'll get exclusive access to the over 60 other true crime stories on the Binge Podcast channel. Hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts or head to getthebing.com. Okay, so it's Hugh Bonneville time, known obviously for his stage work at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and on the West End, Shadowlands until the 9th of May. Plus, of course, Downton Abbey, Paddington, Notting Hill, Mansfield Park, Glorious 39, Breathe, I mean, this is just some of the highlights. Iris, The Monuments Men, The Gold, I Came By 2012, and now, 2026. And that is a clip from the new series 2026. Hugh Bonneville stars again as Ian Fletcher. Hugh, hello, how are you, sir? Very good to talk to you again, Simon. It's very nice to see you. I think the last time you were on the show was for Paddington in Peru, and you were surrounded by ferns and jungle paraphernalia. So this is a lot calmer this time. So Ian Fletcher, back from 2012 and W1A. As Ian would have it, this is the kind of thing he would say, take us on the journey that we're experiencing together on this series. Well, once Ian had risen to the heights of head of values at the BBC, which unfortunately were eventually outsourced so that he had to depart, he did have a patch with the National Abesity Institution, but that didn't really go anywhere. So he's now been, after the very sudden departure of the Director of Integrity at FIFA, he's been parachuted in almost as his predecessor tried to parachute out. And so he's come into really a dead man's shoe, so to speak, and has got to be in big shoes to fill to try and steer the team, the oversight team, to towards the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Football World Cup. I should say soccer World Cup, because that could get confusing, bearing in mind that the three host nations are Mexico, Canada and the USA, who if not yet at war, at least, you know, could be say sometimes are at loggerheads. So it's a very interesting path for Ian to navigate in this current climate. Now, you mentioned the World Cup and you mentioned FIFA. Now, I've seen the two episodes and each time FIFA or the World Cup comes up, it's bleeped, from which I concluded that FIFA's lawyers have made it very clear that they don't want this to be the World Cup or FIFA. Well, yes, I think there are certain parameters which I'm not entirely clear about. I mean, it's beyond Ian Fletcher's remit to understand these things. But I think the over-mentioning of the institution and indeed the whole tournament can get into murky water. So I think probably the executives on the show decided it might be just easier to bleep everything. Right. So it's FIFA adjacent, it's World Cup adjacent, but it's still a World Tournament that's based in America, Mexico and Canada. Yes, you can't copyright that. So, yeah, it's a big, it's a big old football tournament that's happening opening on June 10. I think the opening ceremony is on June 10. So, yeah, the cameras have been following the oversight team over several months leading up to this great opening ceremony. It's a wonderful show and a memory about how painful the previous two have been. The joy of it for me is that the last one, W1A, I had to stop watching because it was too much like real life. Now, it's exactly the same stuff, but now with international actors. So tell me about what it was like doing this show, written of course by John Morton, who's done and has written and produced all of these, but now working with American actors and Mexican actors because it feels a very British show, which has now gone international. Absolutely. And what we were blessed with was a team of actors who loved, luckily, 2012 and W1A. So they were absolutely up for it and knew John's style and his, you know, his writing style and his directing style. What they hadn't quite anticipated was quite how hard it is to do because every umineur is scripted and the pace of the thing as we sit around these boardroom, meeting room tables is quite relentless, added to which we were filming in probably the hottest part of last summer in a studio that wasn't designed to be a studio. It was a form of printing press and so air conditioning was a sort of foreign word and we were just incredibly hot a lot of the time. So the pressure on those sort of meeting room scenes brought an added dimension, but the cast were wonderful. We became a very tight little team. We have Alexis who's, who's notionally from Belgium, he's actually French, and then we have a Canadian, we have two Americans and we have a Mexican and this really does add to the wonderful international, you know, the international joke, if you like, of each country rooting for its own side. Can you compare doing a scene for this show for 2026 and say doing Downton or any other TV show that you've done in terms of learning, learning what you have to say, reacting to the other actors in your scene and just getting through the thing. How does this compare with all of the others? It's a very different thing. I mean, in terms of the sort of energy of the thing, I always used to think of Downton Abbey as a stately galleon and this is a sort of jet ski, you know, whizzing around the bay at full pelt. It's probably that it is the hardest, definitely the hardest job I've ever done in terms of learning because a lot of the dialogue doesn't make sense and you are learning, you know, there's a difference between yes, no but and but no yes, you know, and the little ticks of the ticks of character and the ticks of dialogue that John Morton is so brilliant at skewering. They're really quite hard to get into one's brain. So I was, you know, I've been for some reason doing the show on and off for 15 years now and we in its three different incarnations and it doesn't get any easier the older you get put it that way. Because in the edit, it feels like it's almost in front, you know, it feels though parts of it are improvised. It really does look like that and it and that's that's the that's the pleasure of watching it back. It's it's a bit like root canal when it stops, you think, oh, that's a good job done, you know, but at the time you think what the heck's going on. And it is painful to film, it really genuinely is. I mean, it's I used to have sleepless nights, literally. But when I watched the finished product and it looks so effortless, and it looks improvised and it looks natural, then you know, job done really. But that's down to the skill of the team and and John's brilliant editing. And his you know, he's had this the same editor throughout to who just really is able to make it or stitch it all together, even though we there were plenty of bumps and scrapes along the way. So it's a it's a it's been it's always a tough one to do, but it's always a pleasure to watch. And of course, it's not really about the World Cup at all, in the same way that W1A wasn't really about the BBC in 2012 wasn't really about the Olympics. It's about bureaucracy and lofty goals and all that kind of nonsense that we have to sit through. Would that be fair? I think it's absolutely fair. I mean, they're both all three iterations are, you know, great backdrops against which you see the playing out of, you know, basically management strategies that are destined to go wrong, particularly because your team, you know, has got their own vested interests or indeed wasn't listening when the question was posed, you know, and will you do it by Thursday? And you just know in your heart of heart that that's not going to happen. So I think we've all been in those meetings. And as I've said before, you know, everyone has been on either a parish church council or a or a footsie 100 boardroom, you know, will recognize the dynamics of of, as you say, big ambitions and but always having to manage one's expectations, particularly when there are other agendas of, you know, a foot, you know, for example, in the opening episode, we're trying to decide where the one of the where the semi finals are going to take place. And there's a lot of back and forth about that. And then of course, suddenly, it's just decided from overhead from above our heads, it's been decided by someone higher up the food chain. So all that work and all that stress and energy is has been, you know, has not has been wasted in effect. But there are big ideas, you know, there's a whole sustainability thread again of, you know, if we could just use more toilets in the stadiums, they could be carbon neutral. And that sort of thing. So there's some lovely absurdities that John Morton is very, always very good at picking up on this sort of dotting us of life. And but actually, you know, let's be honest, you could not have written. I mean, if he'd written an episode in which the football organization gives a peace prize to one of the presidents of one of the countries, they would have said that's too ridiculous, we can't do that. And presumably, that's why this show will work here. And I think it will having seen two episodes is that although this is a fraught with problems, the World Cup is fraught, you know, we all know about the kind of person Trump is, we know about the what's happening, you know, we're current, there's a war in Iran at the moment, we know about the tariffs. But that is very much in the background, that's not really what you're what you're dealing with. And who whatever happens in those difficult areas, this show will still work because it's not really about them. Absolutely. No, I mean, there are references to the real world, obviously, and to, you know, iconic footballing characters, we know, are referred to. But as you say, it's not really about the real world, it's actually about the interaction of characters and the sort of hierarchy within within the team. And it even down to which desk Ian Fletcher sits at, and that becomes a little ballet of its own when he realizes that he's been plonked by his supposedly junior, but actually turns out to be his effective senior, you know, plonking him at a desk that's in the middle of the bullpen, if you like. And so Ian has to navigate his way to a desk that's got a bit more prominence, as far as he's concerned. So it's all those minutiae of office politics, there's, you know, how to use the coffee machine, who gets to use the coffee machine, whose biscuits you're allowed to use, you know, who gets the better biscuits. So I think, you know, we could all have fun identifying, you know, those characters. Ballet is a ballet is a very good word as well, because even the excruciating meetings where you feel as what you want to bash your head against the wall, that's what it is. It's a ballet, isn't it, with being performed by a group of people with various solos, gippying in. That's right. And they're and the and trying to make it all appear effortless and intentional, where of course, there's usually various wheels coming off as the machine rolls along, interrupted by a very, you know, willing assistant trying to bring in coffee, it becomes about it becomes about a battle of who's got the better coffee and whose assistance is better at bringing it in. So again, all those little details while the main motor of the show is running, I think, you know, delicious little observations about office life and office dynamics. What does the director of integrity actually do? Oh, God, I think it basically hurts cats, you know, it's his it's his role to try and streamline all the objectives, you know, be it discussing if a problem comes up with a potentially a problem with a with a Chinese chip in an American football, how to how to swing the PR on that, right, you know, if when there when there's a confusion over who is going to be the ambassador, the sort of public figure, public facing ambassador for the tournament. And it seems that two people have been contracted and only one can actually do it. So there's a bit of an issue there is trying to so basically just streamline any wrinkles that appear in the in the pitch, if you like, the pitch of life. Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think we're speaking to you. I think you're doing Shadowlands at the moment. I am. Yes. Yeah, that's right. At the old witch. Yeah. So your head is somewhere else, really. It is rather yes. Yes, my head is certainly in the world of C.S. Lewis and Narnia in the evenings and and then dipping into 2026 at the moment to ahead of its launch. Yeah. Yeah. I saw Nigel Hawthorne in the lead. Oh, wow. A couple of decades ago, an interview at Anthony Hopkins as well when he did it. It's an astonishing, it's an astonishing piece, isn't it? It's a beautiful piece about love and loss and grief and coming to terms with with with all those things that we we all encounter at some point in our lives and we can't escape it. It's going to happen to us. And it's a it's a beautiful story, you know, based on the true story of C.S. Lewis falling in love late in life and and then his his beloved contracting a terminal illness and how how they navigate how they navigated that. But it's it's about, you know, challenging one's own faith, one's own resilience about how you cope with with with loss. And in C.S. Lewis's case, it was it was devastating. He actually wrote a book called A Grief Observed, which was a sort of memoir about his own passage through grief, which he published anonymously. And people kept giving it to him saying, I think this might help you in your in your journey. And of course, it was his own work. So it's a it's a it's a thoughtful and beautiful piece. I wish I'd seen Nigel. In fact, I'm probably glad I didn't see Nigel Hawthorne because it would even I know how brilliant it was. And he was he was absolutely wonderful. In the week that we're speaking, Hugh, the hereditary peers have finally been kicked out of the House of Lords. Just wonder what the Earl of Grantham would have made of that. He said, oh, he probably said, I will I miss the steak and kidney puddings, probably if he if indeed he ever went to the Lords, I don't think he ever saw him do that. But oh, well, a new era. Well, I'm sure it'll be a vastly improved system now. I can't even remember what's happening now in terms of the elected peers. So as we look forward to to 2026, and the fact you describe doing it as like having root canal surgery. Dare I mention the 2028 Olympic Games, because it's kind of coming down the tracks. Oh, my gosh, I can't imagine that. But, you know, as as Ian Fletcher often says, you know, every problem is just a solution waiting to happen. And I'm sure the LA Olympics in 2028 will offer a huge solution to everyone. Hugh, it's always a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed for your time. Love you to chat all the best. Hugh Bonneville. I thought it was fascinating because when he started talking about C.S. Lewis, really came to life. He was really, really, really, I mean, that's, as he said, that's where his head is. That's what he's doing every night. And that's going to dominate your thoughts. Yes. But might I point out that I thought it was almost un-gentlemanly of you to say, well, I saw Nigel Hawthorne doing the role and I interviewed Anthony Hopkins about it, which is a bit like, so what are you doing? I mean, I would like to have seen it. But the thing about that interview with Anthony Hopkins that I remember is that there is a bit in the movie where C.S. Lewis breaks down. Yes, it's one of the most famous scenes from the film. Yeah. And I just asked him about it, wondering whether he had a particular process or, you know, whether he thought of sad things or whatever. And I just remember him sort of being utterly disdainful about the question because it was just acting as far as he was concerned. It was just something that he could do because he is Anthony Hopkins. But it is an astonishing scene and it's a great role and I'm sure Hugh Bonneville is perfect in it. And there's good. Every bit is good. Yeah. It's just, you know, I remember when I stepped down from being film critic at the Observer, I said, if there's one thing that working at the Observer taught me, it was don't step into the shoes of somebody who everybody recognizes as having been probably the very best in the world. So I took over from Philip French. And when I left, there was a whole bunch of tributes to Philip French from a number of filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, who used the word irreplaceable. Okay. Well, next time I won't make that. I think he was fine. I think he was okay. He was good. He was good. Yeah. About it because it's an extraordinary play. Anyway, he was on to talk about 2026, which is on the BBC. Yeah. So did you enjoy it? Yeah. Well, like you, I've seen two, the first two episodes, like you, I had that really strange experience of W1A of thinking, I almost can't watch this because it is too close to being. I mean, I know people always say that as a joke. You know, it's not a comedy, it's a documentary. But we've said many times on this show about the time in which we were hauled into a meeting in the BBC, in which somebody showed us a graph and said that on this particular axis, we were doing well because we scored 32. And we said, out of what? And they said, well, no, that's not how it works. It's just that you've scored 32. And most other shows on this graph are 26. We went, yeah, but 32 out of what? And then it became evident that nobody in the room understood what the graphs meant because 32 out of 40 is a pass and 32 out of 100 is. It's not doing so well, which was why it was very funny when you said to him, what does the director of integrity do? And he burst out laughing because obviously in 2012, he was head of deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission. And in W1A, he was famously, and I think this will go down in his head of values. Which is absolutely a role which probably does exist. Probably does exist. And I suspect that head of better exists as well. So it was really interesting hearing him talking about just how almost pinterest the dialogue is in terms of the ums, the urs, the rs are all absolutely scripted. And I think the phrase he said was that there is a difference between um, but yes or but yes. And that is exactly what anybody has ever studied or watched. Pinter knows is that every single pause, every single stumble, none of it is improvised at all. It is down to the very last detail. It is specified when William Friedkin made a film of a Pinter play when he did the birthday party. He showed the first cut to Pinter and Pinter said, well, that's not my play. And it turned out they had switched two words in it that they then had to go back and re-switch in order for it to be done. And I think it's, and I think it's, we've always had this, um, this thing about the more fun people have making things, often the less fun people have watching them. And I think in the case of this, it is entirely fitting that it was very, very painful to make very, very hot and very, very hard to remember this stuff because that all that pain pays off on the subject of not mentioning FIFA or the World Cup. I actually think that's one of the funniest jokes. And even I'm whether or not FIFA or the World Cup actually had any legal restraint on the use of it. The fact that every time David Tennant and God bless David Tennant as the narrator, because he is just fantastic as the narrator in this, as you're returning the writer, every time he says, and then it's bleeped and world, and then it's bleeped, I laughed out loud because we all know what it is. And also there is just something about a word beginning with F being bleeped. But it's the joke about not being able to say FIFA or World Cup is consistently funny. And from my point of view, you know, one of the reasons I'm not particularly looking forward to the World Cup is because it's run by FIFA. Yes. You know, who are just so, who are just so appalling. So, um, yeah, um, I think, as opposed to W1A, where you kind of might wish the organization well, or which we do, which we absolutely do, at 2012, where you kind of hope that it was going to be great as it turned out, as it was, it was absolutely fantastic. Here you're just thinking, well, the basic organization you're defending is appalling. Yes. So who knows where that fits. But I think on the basis of two episodes, it's going to be another, you know, another wonderful and painful experience. I mean, I'm enjoying it very much. He's absolutely right. Of course, it's really, it's not to do with football. But then of course, FIFA isn't really to do with football, is it? It's to do with a whole bunch of other things. Um, I think I was very, I was delighted when Will turned up because I didn't know that Will was coming back. So, yeah, no, no, yeah. And it does miss Jason Watkins. I do think he's fantastic. And he's, I don't think he's in this series. He's certainly not in the first two episodes. But you know, it is, it is a very good cast. When you were talking about Harold Pinter and changing two words and not recognize it in his own work, I went, I remember the interview that I did with Martin McDonough for the Banshees of Inno Cheren. And how he famously, you know, he won't, he won't allow anything to change because he says, I'm the best screenwriter on set. So even if Colin Farrell was to say, can we change this, the answer is no. And if you write to him saying, you know, we're, we're putting on one of your plays for a school, can we change it? The answer is no, you can't. I have written it like this and this is how you will perform it. For a purpose. And also, I mean, I have to say the writing here is very good. I laugh out loud at VP optics and narrative, just because it's one of those brilliant phrases. The thing when, when they accidentally kickstart the power of poop campaign, which is just, which is just ludicrous enough to be possible. The meetings in which people just talk endlessly about nothing at all. And then the, this isn't spawning anything, there's a whole thing about climate and about how hot it is and whether or not it is safe to do it in this heat. And they start trying to fudge a graph by turning a line into a zone. And then Humana Ville's character suddenly gets this whole speech about how this could be the moment that will, that will reframe the narrative and reinvent the story. And you go, yeah, we've all been in those meetings. It is funny, however, how with W1A, I know exactly what you mean, because there was, there were times when it wasn't funny because it was too close to home. For me, the nice thing about this is it's far enough away from home and I have enough contempt for the organization that it is involved in to just find it funny. Yes. One of our neighbors who's very high up in one of the most eminent museums in the UK always said how much she loved W1A because it was just like working in museums. It's funny because it's true and that's what it is and people recognize it. Okay, so that is new and that'll be on BBC and it'll be on iPlayer. Time now as if that wasn't funny enough to furiously press the up button and step into the best love part of the show, the laughter lift. Which starts unusually with an email from Jeff in Mexico. Mark has a particular disdain for the phrase elevated horror, yet surely the laughter lift is elevated comedy disgust. Hey, though we could be going down. Yes, and in many ways we are. Yes. Hey, Mark, a dogmatic theology joke for you first this week. I know how you love those. Where do you find a cat that's half good and half bad in Schrodinger's? No, I don't know. Perga tree. Oh, I thought he was going to be Schrodinger, but it's not. Okay. Hey, Mark, I went to the doctors a couple of weeks ago with a bit of an embarrassing condition. Doctor, I said, I can't help. I can't stop letting one go. Every time I float an air biscuit there, silent, with absolutely no smell, but I've let out 20 trouser trumpets in the past five minutes. She gave me some pills and told me to come back the following week, which I did. Doctor, I've been taking these pills as directed for my excessive cheese cutting. The fizzlers are still 100% silent, but now they absolutely reek. Great says the doctor. We've cleared your sinuses. I booked you in for hearing test next week. It's a long, a long setup. It was. It was. But I just enjoyed all the euphemisms for farting. Well done. Some of which I'd never come across before. You've obviously never read Viz Magazine. Well, I was a strip in Viz Magazine, so it wasn't. Were you? Yeah. Simon Mayonnaise or something like that. Okay. Yeah, I was Mark Commode's movie bloopers. What's still to come, Mark? Reviews of the Super Mario Galaxy movie, which is exactly what it sounds like and fuse, which is a thrill on the way. Infamous is the gossip show that's smart. We talk about Tyra Banks and bringing down top model. We talk about Jenna Jamison and how she dominated the 90s. You know, she's horny and she's in charge. She just was very smart about marketing herself. We talk about celebrities who maybe shouldn't be celebrities like the Beckham guy. Brooklyn is their first kid. He's had a little bit of the Nepo baby curse. We investigate orgasm cults. A woman's erotic power can unlock many other powers in her life. And of course, we discuss people who have gotten into lots of trouble. My name is Molly McLaughlin. I am one of Jen's Shaw's many victims. She was defrauding the elderly and her tagline was the only thing I'm guilty of is being amazing. Listen to Infamous, the gossip show that's smart. The show is called Infamous. Welcome to Crime Scene, the new weekly show from the binge, where we tell you the stories behind the world's most unforgettable crimes. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. You may know me as the host of My Fugitive Dad or Dear Franklin Jones, watching you. I'm an executive producer of The Binge, the true crime podcast network where we bring you a new series on the first of every month. For Crime Scene, I'm joined by my producer and cohost Cooper Mall, the reporter and voice behind Fatal Beauty and the crimes of Margo Freshwater. We know there are a lot of true crime podcasts out there. I think what makes Crime Scene different is that Cooper and I have boots on the ground. We're investigative storytellers and so many of the stories that come across our desk, we haven't been able to share with you until now. So if you're one of the millions of people who have flocked to the binge for riveting storytelling, deeply investigated true crime series, think of this as all the things that you love about those shows in a single episode. Join us every week in the Crime Scene office wherever you listen to or watch your shows. This is Crime Scene, available now. Okay, got an email here from Aula who's in Ireland, which is a little vague, but there's no specific place. It's just Aula in Ireland. Aula, thanks for the email. Mark and Simon, a long time listener, first time writing in. I was introduced to your show during lockdown by a friend whose film knowledge rivaled that of Mark's and who loved sharing it with anyone who would listen. Also like Mark. He had a real instinct for cinematography and storytelling and while we couldn't get to the cinema during lockdown, we worked our way through your back catalog of recommendations, which was the perfect tonic. His passion for life went far beyond film. It showed up in music, art, brewing, boating, and in the way he brought people along with him. He was endlessly curious and made everything feel like an adventure, living life to the last drop. His name was Alex and he passed away last week. I just wanted to share this because your show was part of our friendship and those memories. They say those who shine brightest sometimes burn out quickest, but his warmth is still very much with us. Thanks, Evert, for what you do, Aula. Aula, well, thank you very much indeed for telling us about Alex. We really appreciate that email. Correspondents at kerminabay.com. Okay, there is something else that is out and I'm not sure that I want to go and see it. The Super Mario Galaxy movie, which is the animated sequel to the Super Mario Bros. movie, which was based on the 2007 video game Super Mario Galaxy and the sequel and stuff. If you remember when I reviewed the 2023 Super Mario movie, I liked it enough, not least because I am old enough to remember the live action 1990s Super Mario, the Bob Hoskins one, which although you remember that, right? Yeah. I mean financially successful, but absolutely awful in every way. And so the animated version was better. I mean, it wasn't great by any means at all. I mean, it was peppy and nippy and empty and very bright and shiny and obviously closer to the game than the live action version. Feature the voices of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anja Taylor, Joy Jack, Black, Keegan-Michael Key, all of whom return in this new movie with new cast members, including Benny Saff, the Donald Glover and Brie Larson. So the other one was it was okay. What it wasn't was anything above okay, but okay was enormously far above the previous installment in the series. So as with the previous movie, the new Super Mario Galaxy movie produced by Nintendo and Illumination. And because it is made by Illumination, that means it starts with an illumination gag with minions in it. Okay. So it started well. There's a Minions gag at the beginning and I laughed and I laughed because I find the Minions hilariously funny and also because I understood the gag because the gag made sense, which is more than can be said of the rest of the movie that followed. Now, for clarity, I'm going to tell you the official plot synopsis, okay, of the film because there's literally no way that I can make any sense of this. So Mario and Luigi, the twin plumbers, apply their let's go attitude to solve everyday problems all over the new home of the Mushroom Kingdom. As they support Princess Peach and work to reform a miniaturized imprisoned Bowser, they meet a new companion Yoshi. Princess Peach's birthday party sparks a galactic adventure, sending the brothers into space to stop Bowser Jr.'s wicked ambitions and save Rosalina. Got that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. It sends, it sends great good. He's a clip. My Koopas, your king has returned! Mom, live the king! The Bowser name shall be feared once more! Oh no! Everyone calm down! Toad, pack our things. Let's go. It's a goal! Oh, Princess, you're going to regret that. So that kind of over-cranked hyperkinetic thing is pretty much the tone of the whole film. And I remember talking about the previous animation saying, look, it's not the Lego movie and it's not the Minions movie, but it's okay. But the thing about the Lego movie, for example, is the Lego movie was good for everybody. I mean, I think the amazing thing about it was, heard it was happening, it was just like, how is that going to work? And then it was, it was absolutely great. The previous film had Easter egg jokes for people who are immersed in this world, which isn't me, but that's fine. In the case of this, they have leaned right into those jokes. And I only know this because people I know who would understand those Easter egg jokes have told me that they were there, not least my friend Van, who's a film critic, who I saw the film with, who does know all those things. And then after the screening, said a whole bunch of words to me that literally meant nothing to me at all. So it's leaning towards a younger audience, absolutely. And that's fine. Although I've seen films aimed at younger audiences that I've got something out of. I mean, for example, the Magic Far Away Tree right now, this is PG for Mile Violence and Threat. But it's loads and loads of sort of fan service Easter egg stuff. Now, okay, that's fine. But I think that for any of these movies to be actually good, they have to do that stuff and work for those people. But they also have to work for the broader audience. And I have to tell you flatly that in the case of the broader audience being me, it didn't at all. And it didn't at all to the point that I confess, and I'm ashamed of this, because it's not something I'm proud of at all, but it's something that happens to older critics. I started to drift off because it just became noise. And my friend, Van, sent me a text, which I got, which I'll read to you and you may have to bleep a word in it. I'm not entirely sure. But it said this, it said, Hey, Mark, I have to ask, because I noticed you nodded off during a part of Mario Galaxy. Wow. But when you woke up, did you feel like you were tripping balls? And that, I think, was Van's way of saying, on the one hand, I noticed that you were just resting your eyes. And on the other hand, when you were not resting your eyes, what did you make of all that madness? And I think the issue here is that if you're going to do this properly, you do it in a way that makes sense to people who aren't immersed in the world. And I understand the thing about fans, though, is boy, I'm a horror fan. I know about horror fans talking to horror fans. And I understand that there is a market for that. And I also understand that it's a big, shiny, you know, glimmery, explosive animation movie that for the, for the particularly ill discerning or undisserting, you know, it'll, it'll tick all the boxes and it'll probably do very well. It's not good. And certainly, if you're not in, in any part of that, it is like that thing, as I said, I've used the phrase before about being shouted to sleep. And it was the middle of the day, as well. So it wasn't even like it was kind of at that, at that critical period. I just found it really spectacularly unengaging, which is not to say that there aren't people who are going to get stuff out of it. If you get all the Easter eggs, if you're in that, well, if you're, or if you just want shiny, bangy, crashy stuff, that's fine. And there were a couple of moments when I did chuckle, but I confess it just was like being banged repeatedly in the face with a candy floss machine. It's kind of fun every now and then, but not for the length of a movie. Correspondents at codermode.com, what else is out? Well, a completely different film, Fuse, which is a Sky movies crime thriller written by Ben Hopkins playing in cinemas, but also on Sky and Now. And honestly, I presume that Sky and Now will be its primary platforms because it does look oddly television, despite being directed by David McKenzie, who's the Scottish filmmaker who CV includes Young Adam, Helen Foe, starred up, Hell or Highwater, which I think you and I both love. And most recently, Relay, which was that kind of twisty thriller with Riz Ahmed, which I really liked. So Sam Worthington was in that, Sam Worthington's back here, co-starring with Aaron Taylor Johnson, Theo James, Gugu and Bartor Rohr, who we really, really like, have liked since, you know, back in the days of Bell. So Aaron Taylor Johnson is a bomb disposal expert who is called in when an unexploded World War II bomb is uncovered on a busy construction site in the centre of London. So they find this bomb, they have to lock everything down, have to evacuate everything, and they have to turn the power off, which as anyone who's seen Die Hard knows, is the perfect cover for the kind of heist which can play out furtively in the middle of a lockdown when they turn the electricity off. Here's a clip from the trailer. And you've got a bad feeling about it for very good reason. So look, this is, it's lively, watchable fare. It's got plot twists, which are outlandish as the range of accents that are employed by the various cast on screen. It's one of those films in which double crosses turn into triple crosses and everyone is pulling the wool over somebody's eyes and there's lots of moments in which it's, oh, you didn't see that coming. Maybe some of it you did, maybe some of it you didn't. It is solid, if unremarkable fare. It's perfectly entertaining, a Friday fare, although my own feeling was I can't imagine many people rushing to the cinema to watch it. I think it is something that's probably best viewed from the sofa, but as such, it's perfectly decent and I enjoyed it. And that is it for this week. This has been the Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team, Jen, Eric, Josh, Heather and Don, we're back to Simon and Paul. If you're not following the pod already, please do so wherever you get your podcasts. Come and join us on Patreon for all the good stuff. Mark, what is your film of the week? By A Country Mile. My film of the week is The Drama. Back next week with Brian Cox, the actor, not the scientist. We'll be talking about his new film, Glenn Rothen. I shall bestow a year's ultra membership to Science Teacher Phil, who wrote to us about Project Hail Mary, about his Science Teacher quibbles. With the film, Phil, you have a year's ultra membership. You can get in touch. Correspondent to Curb Your Mayor.com. Thank you for listening.