MOVIE MIKE: Are Big Studio Movies Getting Worse? + Movie Review: The Wrecking Crew + Trailer Park: Masters of the Universe

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Play some R's, we start here. And that sound means it is time for another episode of Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host, Movie Mike, joined by my wife and co-host Kelsey, how are you? Surviving, not thriving, in the wake of the ice storm, the injured elbow, the injured tailbone. Yeah, we talked about that here, right? Yes, I think I mentioned it. You're recovering now and- I haven't stepped foot outside the house. Because everything's still covered in ice. Luckily, we did not lose power. Yes, I want to say we were among the very fortunate. Like we- So much so I felt guilty. I felt guilty too. I told a friend that who had lost power and she was like, don't feel guilty. She was like, you can't control it. It truly was for those not in Nashville, a situation of circumstance in which way the trees fell and which trees fell, honestly. Because trees are falling around us. We have one in our front yard that has a branch that's like pretty split and cracked and hasn't fallen. But yeah, I mean, there's ones in our backyard. There's power lines down like across the street from our house. It really was just a matter of, did you have a tree near your power line? But we are good. Your injury is getting better every day. It is, yeah, I'm just, I'm a shut-in right now. But we are here to do our first, best and worst of the month. We're going to combine December and January. Two months that somehow felt like years. In the movie review, we'll be talking about the wrecking crew starring Dave Batista and Jason Momoa on Prime. And in the trailer park, I'll break down the masters of the universe trailer because I wasn't the biggest fan of the animated show, but my brother was, because he was born in the 80s. I remember the old school movie, but I've been excited for this one, except for the fact that Jared Leto is in it. You're a Jared Leto hit it for him. It's just hard to be excited about a movie that he is in right now, but. You've told the story of seeing him on the Lime Scooter downtown, right? Yeah, we just saw him randomly just going down. Yeah, it wasn't even you. You were driving me, you were dropping me off for dinner with a friend. And I was like, was that Jared Leto on a Lime Scooter? And we looked up and sure enough, 30 seconds to Mars was in town. And I was like, that was definitely Jared Leto on a Lime Scooter. I would say I'm not so much just the hater of his acting. It just seems. Just him in general, even better. No, just because I think it's him in any kind of superhero property where they just need a name. And they're like, let's get Jared Leto. Like in Dallas Buyer's club, love him. You could get a lot of other mediocre white men with long hair. In American Psycho, he's great. I think he's a good actor. But I think when he gets plugged into these big franchises, he's not the right guy. They probably asked like 10 other people and it's like, all right, let's get Jared Leto. But that is what we're gonna be talking about. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday morning movie crew. And now let's talk movies. From the nice little podcast network, this is MovieMikes Movie Podcast. A lot of movies to talk about. So let's get right into the list. We watched a lot of stuff. We watched so many things in December. So we'll do December 1st, then January. Kelsey, what was your favorite movie? The best thing you watched in December. This wasn't surprising to me that it was my favorite, but Eternity. Really good. And kind of went under the radar. I do think so. I think it's on Apple now. So if you haven't watched it yet, it's either on Apple at the time that this comes out or coming to Apple. You can, I think you can only buy it right now. Oh. It's $20. I don't know if any movie is worth buying. Yeah, $20 is a lot. It's like, I understand $20 is a movie ticket, but you kind of get the experience of going to the movies. Yeah. I will rent it for $5.99 or $4.99, but that $20 mark still just seems high. If it's still that much, I would have rather seen it in theaters. Okay. Well, it was my best of the month. It is available on Apple if you want to spend $20. It's not, it is really good. It is really good. And I do think it's a movie you could watch more than once. So your return on investment, maybe about a $10 watch, or if you're multiple people watching it, you could break that down cost for tickets. If you look at it that way. I can girl math this so many ways for you. Cause if there was a movie like this that I was going to watch, it would be something that you did not want to watch. And we didn't have time to go see in theaters. That is the only reason I would even look at a $20 movie. And I don't think it justifies just one person, but I forget that it's like a movie night and you're scrolling through movies and you see one of these like four people watching. Yeah, I was going to say, if you have a bunch of girlfriends, guy friends that haven't seen it, invite everyone over. It's kind of a good like Valentine's Day movie. Have a little Gallentines night. Everyone brings their own snacks. If you're already down, like you're not spending $20 on popcorn. Okay, so I just made this affordable. Yeah, there you go. So everyone have everyone chip in. Anyways, fantastic movie. Elizabeth Olson, I love her so much. She's so good. She is so good. Callum Turner, fantastic. Miles Teller, Daveyne Joy Randolph. I will watch anything with her in it. I will truly watch anything. She could be in an infomercial and I'd watch it. I'm obsessed with her. I think she's phenomenal. I thought her role in the holdovers like really cemented her as a standout. Her role on Only Murders in the building. Like she just is fantastic. She can do comedy. She can do drama. She can do dramedy, which was kind of what eternity was. Because it's about two people who die and then you find out, well, it's in the trailer, but she had a previous husband who died. So then- In war. Thought that was the love of her life. And then she married a new guy and now she has to pick one person to spend eternity. They're all in eternity, like in the pre-eternity together. So is it- She has to decide. The husband who died way back in the day or the husband who she spent all this time with and has kids with, has the long life with. It's a great plot. It's a great plot. I love the set too. Like the set design, like the kind of like hotel that they're in. And I figured I was gonna love it, but it's also hard with a movie like that where you think you're gonna love it and you go in like so anxious that it's not gonna live up, but it did. I did see that it will be for free on Apple on February 13th. Okay, I was like, I know it's coming. So right before Valentine's Day. Like you said, perfect Valentine's Day movie. There you go. For my best of December, I'm gonna go with Marty Supreme. Or if we have Juvenile, we called it in this house, Farty Supreme. Farty Supreme. I think in December, that was just my favorite theater experience. One, because from our regal experience, we got the free ping pong ball popcorn bucket. Yes. And the guy taking the tickets gave us this little tip. He was like, you have the app, you should have the free popcorn bucket. But it was just a bucket. And then he goes, it doesn't come with popcorn. But if you tell him that you thought it did, they'll probably hook you up. I was like, thank you, sir. I'm like, I just want the bucket anyway, but thanks for the tip. That was just my favorite theater experience because I got the free item. The guy next to me also had the popcorn bucket. And for a movie over two hours, it went by so fast that I did not want it to end. I had a lot of action and had a great cast. And if it weren't for it being such a stack category right now going into Oscar season, any other year probably would have won best picture. But I just think compared to one battle after another, compared to sinners, I would even probably throw sentimental value in there. Hamnet. Yeah, and Hamnet. There's just these heavy hitters around it that it doesn't stand out as much. Although I think Timothy Shalame does stand out as much. I just think it was so good and entertaining from start to finish. I mean, it also made my favorite movies of the year. So in my top 10, so easily my favorite of December. What about your worst? Family plan two. It was so bad. When you sent me the list this morning of movies we watched, I had to like scan my brain to be like, what was that? We watched it? What was it about? I don't remember anything about it other than that it kind of takes place at Christmas. Sort of, not really. Kind of, that's why I said kind of. Apparently more so in the poster and in the thumbnail for it, they tried to make it look. It's like a Christmas tree. And it's like, oh, a nice little Christmas movie with Mark Wahlberg, a sequel. Maybe I didn't watch the Family Plan One, but very loosely based on the holidays. That was the lowest score for me for December. I give it a 0.5 out of five. It was bad. I think it was tied with that Netflix movie for your lowest score. Oh yeah, we'll run through these. But yeah, for my worst of December, I am going with Five Nights at Freddy's II. I saw it in theaters. I gave it a one out of five, which I think is the lowest score of last year that I've given for a movie. I actually went to go see in theaters. Normally if I go in theaters, the minimum you were gonna get is a two. Because I'm not leaving my house for less than a two. Five Nights at Freddy's II, I really tried to believe in this movie because I did not like the first one. But I feel like it's because I didn't play the game. I didn't know all the lore behind Five Nights at Freddy's. So interesting, kind of the reverse of the Family Plan, because we enjoyed the Family Plan One. You didn't like the first movie this time. And you were like, the sequel is definitely gotta be better. I was like, I'm gonna get it this time. Like I bought more into it. I realized it wasn't gonna be a straight ahead horror movie. It's a little bit campy. I was like, I wanna go into this one and really enjoy it. And I'm like, Josh Hutchinson, I'm gonna believe in you making a good movie. And he was bad at it. He was so bad. Sad. But then I know he's gonna come back for the Hunger Games movie. And I'm like, man, that was my worst of December. Should we do a run through of everything we watched in December before we get to January? Let's do that. First up was Eternity, which I also loved. I gave it a four out of five. The Family Plan Two, I gave a 0.5. What did you give that one? Yeah, you've given stuff a zero. I never go zero. If I finish it, it's a 0.5. The only thing that I've given a zero was Eddington, and I stand by the zero. I'm gonna go also a 0.5. Hamnet. Oh, so good. Very emotional. It's one that I just keep going back to that I wanna live in those emotions I felt while watching it. I wanna rewatch it. It was almost my best of December. Hamnet doesn't have a streaming date yet, but it should be on Peacock early 2026. I feel like before the Oscar. It has to. So February? Yeah, be a lookout on Peacock to watch Hamnet. Jay Kelly on Netflix, which was the movie with Adam Sandler and George Clooney. Clooney and Lurden. Which I thought I was gonna love more because the movie is essentially about George Clooney playing a fictionalized version of himself where he's in his 50s, but he's looking back on his life and thinking, man, all of my memories are movies. I didn't spend enough time with my kids. My relationships are all based in movies. All the things I remember were just things I was acting out with other people on screen. What is my life? Like, what have I missed out on? And he tries to go spend some time with his daughter on this European vacation. And it's really just like a deep dive into his life and about movies a little bit, but mainly about an older guy kind of regretting some of the decisions in his life. And I just thought it was gonna be a little bit more of something that could be nominated for best picture, which I think is what they were kind of going for. You get that many big names on a ticket. And if you get a dramatic Adam Sandler, which he was kind of funny at times, but not like happy Gilmore funny. He's kind of the comedic relief a little bit because he's his manager. But he wasn't full uncut gems, Adam Sandler. And he wasn't like punch drunk love Adam Sandler. He was kind of just- Adam Sandler. Kind of more normal Adam Sandler. But I still think it was worthy of a watch, especially in that third act. It kind of gets you a little bit emotional where it leans more into the life of George Clooney. And you feel like that was a little bit personal for him. I think that was probably the best part of the entire movie. And some of the things where they kind of were showing how movies are made, where you're watching a movie, but they're also showing a movie set. And you're like, oh, that looks cool. Like that looks fake. And then they pull the camera back a little bit and it's just a film set. That part was pretty cool. You know what that reminds me of that came up on my TikTok the other day that I rewatched the ending scene of The Hills. Have you ever watched that? I've only watched that scene. I haven't seen that whole episode, but when they like pull it back and you see the camera- And they're at a sound stage. It was all a reality show. I remember watching that and being like, excuse me? So you didn't know leading up to that because I only know that show primarily because of that scene. No, I had no clue. Not that it was like that scripted. I mean, you have an idea that like reality TV like producers, but not that it was like fully on a sound stage. Yeah, that would have been mind blowing to watch back in the day. It was incredible television. I'm gonna go watch that now. We watched Oh What Fun on Prime. Oh yeah, Michelle Pfeiffer. Which was, I feel like the closest you can get now to a Christmas classic. I liked it. Where I think by normal standards of a movie, not a great movie, but it's very campy, very fun, doesn't take itself seriously, has that fun Christmas family dynamic because it's about her basically saying, I'm not doing this anymore. My family is not. Cause all she wants is for them to nominate her for this like Christmas extravaganza for one lucky mom from her favorite daytime talk show. And she has sent them the link. She's even been like, here's the last date of vote for this. Here's the last date of vote. This is all I want. Here's the link. This is literally all I want. And no one in her family does it. Meanwhile, she's making Christmas happen. She's cooking, she's keeping the family together. She's planning events. And then she just decided, you know what? Christmas is canceled. It was funny. I'm not explaining to like it. It was just because really any new Christmas movie that comes out, the bar is low. The bar is low. It's so low. It's like, you gotta be really good for me to want to maybe rewatch it the next year. And I would rewatch that. That is one that doesn't enter the category of we rewatch it every single year. Not yet. But maybe it gets its trial run next year. Watch it again. And then maybe it kind of works its way in there because the one that always makes it that I really enjoyed probably my favorite rewatch this year, office Christmas party. It always hits. Listen, the like raunchy comedies, office Christmas party and Bad Mom's Christmas. And I know you love Bad Santa. Bad Santa, yep. It's not my favorite. But I'll watch Bad Santa because you watch Bad Mom's Christmas with me. Bad Mom's Christmas, when they steal the tree from the Foot Locker, from Lady Foot Locker and they're running across the mall, it's genius. Next up, we watched Avatar Fire and Ash, which was really, really long. This one fell over three hours long. I said it when we reviewed it. I felt like we watched the same movie twice. Yeah. But I gave that one still a 3.5 out of five, although if it wouldn't be for this podcast, I would tap out of the franchise now. I'm gonna give it a 2.75. I'm just not that invested anymore. I feel like- It's a really long time. It is really long. And I would say I would enjoy it more if I were able to watch it in chunks, but I don't think so. I think the only way I can watch this movie is sitting in the theater and not being able to leave or do anything else. Yeah. No, it was too long. So if I didn't do this podcast, I'd be like, I'm not watching these anymore, but because they are still the biggest movie every year that they come out, I'm kinda forced to you, because I gotta figure out what is gonna happen in the next one and then see how it kinda changes, visually still really good. And then it's like, if I don't go see it with you, we don't spend Friday even in the theater. I am there for four, four, three. And that's three hours of a weekend. So therefore, I am also forced. I want you to go watch the SpongeBob movie, which I have to decide, which I have now passed the torch on to the new generation, which I probably should have done like a decade and a half ago, but I just realized that they're not for me anymore. Because I love the 2D SpongeBob and this one is the 3D SpongeBob. It's not the SpongeBob of my childhood. They also make him way more dumb. And I don't think SpongeBob is dumb. Patrick is dumb, but SpongeBob. Wasn't a sentence I expected you to say. SpongeBob is still like a sensible character. He is very self-aware in the TV show, even just has more of qualities of an adult than a kid. And in this movie, he was a full-on kid. So I felt like I was like, that's not my SpongeBob. That's somebody else's SpongeBob who's probably That's not my SpongeBob. Six years old. Talk about the staying power of a theme song. Can sing the whole thing right now. There are very few animated shows I can sing the whole theme song to. SpongeBob is probably top five. And even the little flute at the end. Do do do do do do do. And the bubbles. Yeah, I know the whole thing. But I gave that one a 2.5 out of five. We went to go see the housemaid. Surprisingly liked it. Entertaining. I don't say that it's a good movie. Entertaining. Little cheese ball at times. A little over the top. Dramatic. I could have done with a different casting for a certain role. But yeah. It's one of those movies that I think benefited from us seeing it in theaters because other people were popping off and commenting on things. And it very much felt like a community. I love Amanda Safery truly. She is the best. I feel like underrated and people don't understand just how talented she is. Have you seen the clip going around of her and Kelly Clarkson singing together? One of Kelly's songs on Kelly's talk show. Oh my God, if you haven't seen it, go look it up. It's phenomenal. And it's like, I knew she could sing. But like that? Like she covers a Kelly Clarkson song. And Kelly Clarkson covers other people's songs better than they do it. So for Amanda Safery to sing a Kelly Clarkson song. Phenomenal. I love her. That also gives it away. The recast I would like to see is Sydney Sweeney. I would not be in that. And also just an incredible range to think about, she was in Me and Girls back in the day and then can do a movie like The Housemaid and then can also just flip over and do the Testament of Ann Lee. Like can do it all. We also watched Knives Out 3 on Netflix which I think was really good also. Agreed. We watched Train Dreams on Netflix as well. 4.5 out of 5 for me. Beautiful. I would give it the same rating. Let's move on now to January, your best for the month of January. People we meet on vacation. Based on a book, did you read it? I did, while back. So I don't fully remember the book. I knew the premise of it. So I wasn't one of those people who was like, they changed so many things. I don't know what they changed. Also hardcore like book to movie people make it mad at this. I don't want to watch the exact same thing that I read. A little different? Yeah, that's fine. It's an adaptation. Like take a little creative liberty. Something plays out better on screen than it does in a book. Again, I think different things work better in books than movies. I think I felt about like how the Hamnet movie was better than the book because it's very like cerebral and like emotional. And I just don't feel like the words convey it like acting. Like it's fine if they're a little different. I'm okay with that. I think you are onto something there because I think it is a little underwhelming when you go watch a movie based on a book and it just plays out exactly the same way. You don't leave excited because you're like, oh, this happened. Okay, this is gonna have it. Oh, the whole thing just happened. And then it's over and you're like, okay, I just saw it visually. Similar to how like Harry Potter, the movies don't always include all the details of the book. That's fine. I still wanna enjoy going back and reading the book and I like re-watching the movies. So if they're the exact same thing, then every year I'm watching and reading it like four times at that point. So I think being a little different than the book is okay. And I thought it was really good. It was a rom-com. It was just what I wanted on a weekend. About two people who meet their complete opposites and then the whole movie takes place over 10 years, right? And they get together. Every summer and go on vacation together as platonic friends. So I thought it was really good. Yeah, a movie I wasn't expecting to enjoy. Like I kind of said earlier about Christmas movies, when it comes to Netflix rom-coms, the bar can be really low. But I think it's because the source material was probably pretty good. Emily Henry, I love her rom-coms. She does a new one every year. Like four out of the five of them already have options for books or TV series. She's great. Yeah, I thought the two actors had great on-screen chemistry. Yes. And by about 20 minutes into the movie, I was like, I'm in. I might've been more invested than you. You were just invested because then you decided you didn't want to fall asleep. Yeah. Because we watched it like a Saturday night. I was like, well, watch it. If I don't end up liking it, I'll pass out. And then I was like... I look over and I was like, are you enjoying it? And you're like, yeah, so much so that I'm fighting to stay away. I was like, okay. But I watched the whole thing and never fell asleep. For my best of January, I'm going to go with no other choice, which we did talk about in the Oscar episode. It is about a guy who was working at a company for over 20 years, thinks he has his whole life figured out until he gets let go from that company. And he's struggling to keep his family from losing their home, struggling to put food on the table. And what he decides to do is essentially go on LinkedIn and find other people who are applying for the job that he wants and take them out. Yes. Because he thinks, okay, if I can eliminate the competition of people who are trying to get the job that I'm trying to get. That will make me the only candidate. Because they're more qualified. If I take them out of the equation, then I am right up there. So he determines like who he has to take out. I think the thing I was most surprised by, I thought it was going to be a little bit darker because of the subject matter. I thought it was going to have more of like a horror movie feel to it. It was a dark comedy. I appreciate it. It leaned way more into the comedy where there was some violence, but it wasn't glorified and it wasn't too hardcore and bloody, which you do get a little bit uncomfortable with some of those things. Yeah, the worst part was like it involves teeth. Yeah. That was a little bit. Like that was the only honestly gross part. I mean, that wasn't even necessarily gory. But some of the scenes had more of a comedic tone than I was expecting, where they played even some lighthearted music that kind of contrasted what was actually happening. So it didn't really feel like a guy going on a murderous rampage. It felt more like a commentary on how your company can just kind of kick you to the curb and you feel like an expendable employee. How you're just a name to a company and like an employee number and when they don't have use for you anymore, there you go. It also featured two really cute golden retrievers. Oh yeah. I love when a movie has cute dogs. I also found that because it was in another language, it really allowed me to focus in on all the dialogue. I'm glad that we saw it in theaters. At the Bell Court of course. With the original audio of the language because I cannot watch a movie where they translate it to English. Like dubbed over. It loses all emotion. I feel disconnected from it. The only time I feel differently about that is if it's an animated movie because when they do an animated movie from another country, the US version, oftentimes they'll get real American actors of the quality who actually take it as a movie role and learn their characters and deliver it in a way that matches the emotion. So it's not just somebody just kind of over tubbing something. They'll get like Christian Bale to actually be a part of the American voice cast. Yes. But in any other situation, if I'm watching a movie like this, I wanna watch it in the language, the way it was intended to be seen because I think the emotion comes out. And even though I don't understand the language, when I hear it spoken in the way that the actor on screen is doing it, I feel it. And sometimes you just have to feel that emotion through the words, even though you don't know what the words mean. Also subtitles keep me engaged. Yeah. I don't have any reading. I mean, even now with things we watch in English sometimes, anything in the UK, sometimes you still need the subtitles. We are watching a show right now from the UK. It's a different dialect a little bit. You're like, I need some subtitles here. I also know a lot of people who are just like, I'm at the age where it's like subtitles on all the time. I saw a TikTok where somebody was like, I wish audiobooks had subtitles. And then they were like, I gotta get off the internet. Cause somebody was like, so that's a book. So that is a book, which was then turned into audio. It's funny when we go so far one way, we think, like, oh, we'd meant some noon. No, that's the thing we... Made a circle. Yeah, yeah, we made a full 360. All right, you're worse for January. The rip. The rip. Yeah. How is the rip? It's like the best Netflix movie in a while. Get it out of everything we watched in January. Again, worse doesn't mean a bad movie necessarily. It's the worst for you. It means that I, it was the least enjoyable to me. I wonder if like the bar has been set so low that we think the rip is a really good movie. Or if it came out... I didn't think it was really good movie. Cause I really enjoyed it. I didn't say it and enjoy it, but it wasn't like, what bit in my best word? But I think all my enjoyment came from the fact that I think the bar for original Netflix movies has been set so low that we accept the bare minimum that it being a little bit more dynamic, the story actually being compelling, the acting being pretty good. It kind of falls apart a little bit in the third act. Has the bar just got so low that a mid movie like this, or it would have been a mid movie any other year outside of the Netflix era? And with any other actors. Yeah. I think the names that they put to it. Listen, I love that they struck a deal and like everyone who works on the film, if the film does well, because I do think it was worth a watch. Yeah. It just was my least favorite of the month. I also didn't watch as many movies as you this month. So I'm going off at just the movies I watched. The other things I watched were stronger. I will say that did motivate me a little bit more to watch it. The fact that they struck this deal, which is a new thing because the thing about streaming movies is what they normally do is just give you a big chunk of money. And there's no money to be made on the back end, which is where a lot of people got rich from movies where it's like, okay, if it does well in theaters, you have these incentives. You don't really have that in streaming anymore. And then working out this deal is monumental because it hasn't happened before. And really only two actors with their name could make that possible. So I think that did motivate me a little bit more to watch it knowing that Netflix is so much more focused on, I think they had to watch at least five minutes of it to kind of kick in. So it's more about completion rate to Netflix than if you enjoyed or not. Which also makes me feel weird about movies in the streaming era. Is it just content? Is it just like how many people click on it and watch for a certain amount of time? Well, the fact that they've even said, like you kind of have to like repeat and have a hook in the video game because people are multitasking. And you notice that more and more, and not just Netflix movies, but shows, you get one big boom at the beginning, like boom, dead body, boom, here's why you should watch this movie, blood and guts up at the beginning, or if it's something romantic, here's a bare butt, something that entices you in. And it just feels weird because it kind of feels like a TikTok. Like you got to get that hook in the first five seconds to keep somebody from swiping up. It's kind of weird when that's applied to things that are more long form. And movies are about sitting and enjoying something and building up to something. When you start putting in all these little tricks and tips to get people just to watch more, rather than creating the movie you intended to create, which again, it's a business at the end of the day, but it just feels weird to me that probably movies that came out in the 90s or early 2000s wouldn't have a chance in the streaming era because people have short attention spans. Yeah, they do, myself included. But for my worst of the month, it's the movie I reviewed last week, Mercy with Chris Pratt. I think that could enter maybe my top 10 worst movies of the decade in the 2020s. And they're bits of bad ones. Movies are subjective too. Somebody commented on your TikTok that they love it, kept them on the edge of their seat. And I'm like, you know, there's a movie for everyone. It kept me in my seat from not leaving the theater, but not the edge of my seat. I really had to sink into it to not do the SpongeBob meme. Like, all right, I'm out of head out. But I could see if you really love Chris Pratt, or you just really love this genre. Because there's something about the plot itself that is enticing, but I just think overall, it was just really slapped together. And it just had nothing to say that hasn't been said a hundred times in a movie like this. For the other things I watched in January, We Buried the Dead with Daisy Ridley. It is a zombie movie, but not like a zombie movie that you would expect because it has a little bit more emotional depth. It's about her essentially trying to go find her husband after a zombie outbreak. And it's not just her running from zombies. The zombies are kind of secondary. It's more about her and her relationship with their husband. I also watched Primate in theaters. Absolutely not. The Killer Monkey movie, I gave a three out of five. People we met on vacation, I gave a four out of five. The Rip, I gave a four out of five. 28 years later, The Bone Temple was probably my runner up. I gave a 4.5 out of five. And I think that's all the movies for January. Kind of a slow month because not a whole lot comes out. You also don't want to come out when there could be potentially crazy weather that keeps people from going to the movies, which happened with Mercy. What happened? I think it made like $10 million opening weekend. I don't know that that many people would have gone to see it with that money. Yeah, it wasn't a lot of hype in there. All right, we have gone a little long here, but we can do our TV show. I can do book? Okay, we'll have to go quickly. So rude. Okay, fine. I have two, fiction and a nonfiction. The fiction would be the sequel to the last thing he told me, which was made into the Apple TV show with Jennifer Garner. Oh yeah. The sequel just came out and it's called The First Time I Saw Him. And I wasn't expecting to enjoy a sequel that much, but I loved it. I couldn't put it down. And I'm curious, it looks like the second season, which comes out in February, is gonna kind of follow the sequel, but maybe differ a little. So I'm excited to see what they do there. And then nonfiction, my book club read The Carpool Detectives, which is about a group of moms in California that during COVID kind of had like an existential crisis of like, what am I doing with my life? And they team up and they literally solve a cold case in California. Okay, those are my books. I didn't read any books. I'm still working on the Hail Mary project. It's Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary, same thing. It's close enough. Okay. But I'm getting there. You are. My TV show, we did watch his and hers on Netflix, which that show was frustrating to me. Why? All the characters were doing things that I thought nobody would do in real life. I know it's based on a book, right? Correct. It just felt like it was perfectly written, but when you see it play out in a show, it didn't make sense to me. A lot of plot holes. Yeah. A little bit over the top, two over the top. But still one of those shows you watch and you think, man, I gotta figure out how this ends. My TV show is gonna be heated right, Lori. I was a little late to the game and I waited until like January to watch it just because I had so many other shows I was finishing and I wanted to give it the full attention it deserved and it did indeed deserve my full attention. Is it getting a season two? Yes, it is. It's the only show I've heard about recently that people have rewatched this season. Oh, more than once. Everyone has rewatched it like three to four times that I know of. I can't think of a show in the last even 10 years that I've rewatched. That's the weird part about TV shows. We don't really rewatch them anymore. I still rewatch ER. But a show that comes out now, because I feel like so many more shows right now are mini series. Like his and hers that we just talked about. Who's gonna, if they love that show, who would go back and rewatch that? I don't feel like that's a genre that's like really rewatchable though because you already know the twists. Heated rivalry is more of a romance, a bit of a drama. I feel like that's more, you're not waiting for something to like the twist to click or like the plot holes to be fixed or the plot to thicken. Like you're just kind of watching a story. I guess the only show that I still wanna rewatch is Stranger Things that's been from the last 10 years. Yes. Which you said you would still watch it with me? Yeah. Okay. We got a lot of things to watch. But that is our best and worst of the month. I'll come back and give my spoiler free review of The Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of The Wrecking Crew starring Dave Batista. Jason Momoa, directed by one of my favorite directors, I'm Hen Manuel Soto, who also directed Blue Beetle, which I believe is such an underrated superhero movie. And I know I'm saying that with a Mexican bias because that movie I felt was made for somebody just like me. One of those movies I go back and watch once a year and it really connects with me. And I believe Ankil has a way of making an action movie that does exactly that connects with the audience. Where when it comes to The Wrecking Crew, if any other director did this, it would just be another run of the mill, Amazon Prime movie that gets thrown up on there. We watch it and then forget about it in a week or so. But there was just something from the very beginning when I hit play on this movie that it felt different. And I knew it was made with a director who had a vision, who knew this movie had to be more than just two really big, muscly guys running around, blowing things up and fighting bad guys. So what this movie is about, Dave Batista and Jason Momoa play brothers, but they're estranged, but their dad dies. And there are some suspicious details to his death. The authorities say it was a hidden run. But if you look at the details, it's not quite adding up. So Dave Batista is now working in the military, at the very beginning of the movie, he is in this training where he is underwater, just sitting there for a very long time without breathing. And all these other guys he is training are down there with some kettlebells holding their breath. And that crazy visual of seeing Dave Batista, who is so ripped up, I don't even think he is human. He's not even just a big guy with muscles to me. He is just like a chunk of brisket. And I think the hardest thing in this movie is believing that he is a real person, believing that Jason Momoa is a real person, because they look so unlike any other human that they stand out so much, that the two of them were destined for the star life. Dave Batista obviously coming from a wrestling background. And Jason Momoa, where I first saw him in Game of Thrones, went on to be Aquaman. They are both from Hawaii, even though the movie was filmed in New Zealand. Looked amazing by the way. Jason Momoa is living in Oklahoma, working in law enforcement. But because of the death of his dad, he comes to Hawaii for the very first time and a long time after, well, a lot of crap happened in his childhood and we learn all about that. So the stage is set, and then you see all these bad people after the both of them, the Yakuza, like it was in the trailer, show up to Jason Momoa's house, and he takes him down in nothing but a towel, which I think was such a great action sequence, even though I kind of already knew what was going to happen because of watching the trailer. But the full fight had some really great choreography. People getting sliced in ways that I had not seen before. But I think the thing that really stood out that made it feel like a unique action sequence was the fact that Jason Momoa did the entire thing in a towel, made some jokes with his wiener, which are a continuation throughout the entire film. But I think out of everything that really gives this movie a unique profile is the setting of Hawaii and all the people in the cast that just gives this movie an entirely different flavor. It gives it some authenticity. It makes it feel unique. It makes it stand out. Much like when I watched Blue Beetle, where that cast in a superhero movie to me has never been done before. So automatically sets itself apart in the genre. I got the same thing here. I felt like it was there in Hawaii, even though they filmed it in New Zealand because of all the pieces around Jason Momoa and Dave Batista. And then just sticking out so much on screen where I felt this movie would have done and played really well in theaters up until about the third act, where some of the action sequences get a little bit bigger, you get more explosions, you get more gunfights. I feel like it wasn't until the third act where I started to see, okay, this is where maybe the budget was restricted a little bit. It didn't have that big summer blockbuster feel to it that most movies like this would have. So all up until that point, I thought, why was this movie not out in theaters? Because you had two great characters where Dave Batista is very serious. He talks in a very low tone, almost monotone. Jason Momoa cracks a bunch of jokes saying, I don't understand what you were saying. They're complete opposites in this where Jason Momoa is drinking all the time, making jokes, causing a ruckus, breaking things, being the comedic relief. It's like the odd couple on screen. So that entire dynamic worked really well together. And above all, this movie was a story about two brothers learning to be around each other again, showing that they still love each other, even though they are half siblings and haven't spoken to each other in a very long time. That is what the root of all the emotions were in this movie, a story about two brothers, learning to come together and figure out who killed their father. The only thing I didn't like about the backstory that they created is very early on, they just start telling you all these details for no reason, saying people's names, where they live. It just felt a little bit like they were over explaining it in the beginning to really set the stage, which I think it didn't need to do that because it did a pretty good job at showing you everything once we all got going. But I feel like this is almost a streaming movie device that everybody uses now. We've been talking about on this episode where you have to call out things. You have to be so deliberate now in all the details where I feel like that loses a little bit of the art of filmmaking, where you know somebody is watching this movie on their phone, on their tablet, or not paying full attention to it, that you have to state details like that so much in the beginning because you look up and you're lost. That part of it I did not enjoy. If this movie would have been made not in the streaming era, probably wouldn't have happened, but that really stuck out to me in the beginning where they kept going on and on about all these details to make sure you really knew what was going on. It just felt like they were over explaining things. But aside from that, I don't feel like the movie sacrificed too much to cater more towards a streaming audience than an in theater experience audience. I think the only thing this movie really lacked were a couple of more plot points where I was so invested about 30, 40 minutes in, and I was waiting for obstacle after obstacle, new details unraveled that would really keep this story moving along because it is a crime thriller, or at least it tries to be, and you don't really learn a whole lot of new details. You have a little bit of information that you learned early on, and all these trails that they try to follow and these clues, and then it just takes so long to get there. To the point that by the time it does get to that final battle, it feels like you haven't taken that much of a journey with these characters, and that was the only thing I really felt that it lacked was a little bit more development as far as creating more action, more momentum to really move this story along, to really feel that by the time we got to that final battle, the stakes were really high. And that final battle was pretty good. They had some extra fighting sequences in there that I thought the cinematography really stepped itself up, but it just lacked a little bit of impact because of that failure to develop all of these characters. And also, I just had an issue with the villain. It just felt a little bit too generic bad guy. I've seen this villain before in so many action movies. I haven't seen these two leads. These two characters felt very unique. Dave Batista and Jason Momoa playing brothers is one of the best casting decisions in the streaming era, but when it came to the villain and the wrecking crew, it just didn't work for me. It felt so generic and lackluster, where you have these two brothers who have gone through so much and they're trying to figure out what happened to their dad. You have this big connection between their families and the island and the people of Hawaii. And then you have this very generic villain that feels like he was pulled right out of the 80s, which is maybe what this was trying to be an O2 at times, but everything else felt so new and modern. The villain just didn't work for me. The other things that stuck out to me was the girl who played Lilo in Lilo and Stitch was also featured in this movie. The other kid in the family had some of the best punk rock t-shirts I've ever seen in a movie. He had a bad brain shirt. He had an Operation Ivy shirt. I'm like, who is giving this kid this amazing music? I would have killed for those shirts at his age. That was another cool little detail that I loved. You had a lot of classic rock in the opening of this movie to really give you that aesthetic of who Jason Momoa's character was of just wanting to party, wear leather jackets and ride motorcycles and go to bars and get in fights. And I love the setting so much that the Wrecking Crew has now made my top five movies that take place in Hawaii because at number five, I have the Wrecking Crew. At number four, I have Forgetting Sarah Marshall. At number three, I have 51st Dates. At number two, one of my favorite childhood movies of all time, back in the golden era of Disney Channel movies. Give me Johnny Tsunami at number two, which is also where I learned a lot of Hawaiian phrases that when I was watching the Wrecking Crew, I was like, that's what Johnny Tsunami's grandpa said. Johnny Tsunami was such a core movie of my childhood that at the time I didn't realize that was representing a culture that at that time wasn't really well represented in film that it took more than 20 years after that movie to get another centerpiece like the Wrecking Crew. So at number two, I have Johnny Tsunami. And at number one, I have Lilo and Stitch, the best movie set in Hawaii. Give me the animated, give me the live action. That movie made me want to go to Hawaii that when I did go for the first time, I felt like I was right there inside the movie. I actually stayed at a Disney resort and they had a Stitch U and they had a Stitch U. Well, that kind of works. A Stitch Statue is a Stitch U. They had a statue of Stitch that I still go back on my phone and find that old picture I took with it. But hands down, the number one movie that takes place in Hawaii, Lilo and Stitch. So now the Wrecking Crew is in my top five. And I think when it comes to an action movie like this, the max score I could give it that I think it could earn if it was just the best at a best is a four out of five. This movie gets pretty close to that. I just wanted some more clues. The ending just fell a little bit flat for me. So for the Wrecking Crew, I give it 3.5 out of five film drives. It's time to head down to Movie Mike's trailer par. And action! I have the power! I am trying to limit my excitement for Masters of the Universe because as much as I want to fully buy into it and think this is going to be a great movie, they're finally going to get it right. There are so many things that are red flags to me. One, Jared Leto, and he is not in this movie as himself. He did the motion capture and the voice acting for Skeletor, who is just a fantastic villain. But the thing about Skeletor is I love the version in the animated show from back in the 80s, who is sassy, who has given people the business, cutting people down with these insults. That is the Skeletor I love, this Skeletor. Like that meme is hilarious to me, or him just rattling off insult after insult. The only time I've ever heard a animated villain refer to someone as a boob and it gets better. But there's no way to take that energy and put it into this movie. It feels completely different than the animated show, feels completely different than the movie from the 80s, with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man that came out back in 1987. In this movie, it's about He-Man on Earth, named Adam Glenn, later to be known as Prince Adam and He-Man. He is living just a normal life, working a desk job in corporate America until somebody finds his sword and he gets to go back home because he is obsessed with all of these things that people are telling him are just in stories, with talking tigers, castles and spaceships. And he knows someday I'm gonna go back home to where I belong. And then he gets to go back home because it's under attack, Earth is going to be under attack and he has to be the hero. So I don't know how I feel about that version of this story, of putting him on Earth with normal people. It really feels like Minecraft to me. So to me, that feels like it's gonna have a little bit more of this is a movie safe for everybody. When I think a Masters of the Universe movie could be so much more hardcore. Skeletor deserves to be so much more hardcore. But before I get into more, Masters of the Universe is coming out on June 5th. Let's take a look at the trailer. Why did you send me away? I wanted you to be safe. So I sent you to a place I need that they never find you. There is. This obsession with nerd stuff and sword things, it's not a good look for human resources. I know it sounds crazy, but that sword is gonna show me the way home. I have the sword! Sounds pretty good. He looks really good as human. Nicholas Gallitzine plays Adam Glenn slash Prince Adam slash He-Man. I know him primarily from the Amazon movie, The Idea of You, where he played alongside Anne Hathaway. He was a pop star who was much younger than her. They meet at Coachella, they start hanging out together. But when it comes to his filmography, that is the movie I know him for the most. But he looks completely different. He was eating 4,000 calories a day, hitting the gym, heavy weight lifting, all those things to put on an incredible amount of poundage gained to be He-Man. And he looks fantastic. And to me, he looks only second next to Skeletor. I really believe that they spent the entire budget making sure they got Skeletor in his look downright. Where once you see his face, it has the right texture. Because in the original movie from the 80s, it looks like paper mache, it looks really fake. And that takes you out of it a lot. But here, you have that same concept of design when it comes to his face and his wardrobe, but it looks good, really good. And I just don't know if the performance from Jared Leto is going to match that. Because you don't get any of his dialogue in this. You see his face, you see a little bit of him fighting He-Man at the end, but they have not given us any glimpse as to how he is going to approach his voice. So is he going to be like this at all? I can remember when I've had a more pleasant day. Ha ha ha ha. Probably not because that does not fit the vibe of this movie, even though it does feel a little bit just like Minecraft, which we just watched. A video game adaptation that felt very big, larger than life. Bold, colorful characters, which you have Battle Cat. The green cat really just stands out in this trailer. All of the supporting cast in the Masters of the Universe are very unique designs that really pop off the screen. So it just kind of has that same feeling that I don't think it's going to have that emotional depth, that level of intensity that I would want and be excited for in a Masters of the Universe movie. So I am kind of just limiting my excitement, going into it thinking it is going to be a fun popcorn movie this summer. It's going to have that big screen action. And I still think it's going to be better than the original. There's no way it can be worse because I think Jared Leto is not the star of it. If he was he, man, no way. I wouldn't buy into this at all. And I want to enjoy this movie. The character designs look good. Idris Elba looks good. I was surprised to see him in a movie of this caliber where he is just crushing it right now. He can do anything he wants. He's hijacking planes. He's hijacking anything over on Apple Plus. And to see him take a role like this leads me to believe that the script has to be good. I can't imagine he would just take a paycheck right now where I feel his career is at such a high point that he's not going to do a movie just for the money. At least I am telling myself that. And I do believe though that they spent a lot of money on getting Scalator right. So much so that I feel the set design and the world they are creating here doesn't look as good. Castle Grayskull looks pretty good, especially in the scene where they cut to and it's covered in blood. But outside of that, all of the buildings and some of the extra characters that you can tell they just kind of replicated in the background looks a little bit too flimsy. It doesn't feel concrete. They think we'll just fill in the background. Who is going to care? You know who is going to care? I am going to care because that takes me so much out of the experience of going to see a movie in the summer in theaters. I want to be fully immersed. I don't want this weird trick that they do with blurring all of the perimeter of the screen to get you to focus on just the character in the foreground. That is cheap to me. And I see that here in this trailer. Hopefully maybe they're finishing up some things on the special effects department, but I don't want to see that. I want to be immersed in this world. I want to feel like I am walking up to Castle Grayskull myself. Aside from that, everything else looks pretty good. I would rate the CGI in this, maybe a B plus upon my first impressions of it in this two minute trailer. Just looks a little flimsy to me. And I don't want it to remind me anything of the original movie. Also in this cast alongside Jared Leto, Idris Elba, you also have Allison Brie as Evelyn. I think she's the most underappreciated character in this trailer. You really only get one quick frame of her. And that is what worries me about this movie. What is the final product going to be? Can you hype it up with all these actors involved in it with this very slick trailer, really giving us a great snapshot of what we're going to get out of it without revealing too much? We get that final frame of he-man yelling out, I have the power and he's totally ripped. You have the sword, all those things are there. But what is going to set this movie apart from every other 80s adaptation? Because the 2020s have been so focused on reviving things from the 80s, from Beetlejuice, from The Running Man, remakes and sequels and prequels, all the things from the 80s are being made right now. And an alarming rate, what is going to set this movie apart? I still don't know what it is by the look of this trailer. But hopefully by the time this movie comes out on June 5th, we will know. And if this movie comes out and I rate it at least a 3.5 out of five, that is a major win. Anything below that, a waste of time, a waste of bringing back this franchise, a waste of what could have been 3.5 or more, we're good. I'm happy, that's all I need. Anything below that, it's going to feel like a failure to me. So again, Masters of the Universe comes out in theaters this summer on June 5th. And that was this week's edition of Movie Mike's Trailer Park. And that is going to do it for another episode here of the podcast, but before I go, I got to give my listeners a shout out of the week. This week, I'm going over to my YouTube channel, which is youtube.com slash Mike DeSherow. If you want to go watch individual movie reviews, maybe a movie came out in theaters a couple of months ago that I reviewed and it just came out on streaming. And you want to go back and find my review and my thoughts on that. You can find those really easily on my YouTube page or you can always find the link down in the episode notes. This week, I'm going over to the comments on my 28 years later, the Bone Temple video and shouting out John Dee, who said, "'Best in the series?'' question mark. Nah, I would rank them in the order that they came out. First of all, John, thank you for watching on YouTube. Thanks for the comment. I could see that, John. If you are somebody who loved the original format that was created in 28 days later, where 28 weeks later, the sequel to that feels very much like a continuation and the same format of that movie, where 28 years later, the movie that came out last summer could almost be not even in this franchise, just because it has the name. It doesn't have that much connection to what happened in those first two movies, aside from the rage virus and the origins of it. But as far as the characters and where the world is, you could actually change the name of this and it would still work. It doesn't really need the connection to those two. So while one and two very much feel like they have the same formula, have the same DNA, I feel like 28 years later and the Bone Temple feel like a real refresh. They also have two entirely different directors. So even between these last two movies can also feel completely different from the movie that preceded it. So John, if you were somebody who fell in love with 28 days later and wanted more of that, I think that is why you would rank them that way, because one and two match so well, and then three and four feel very much different. But for me, I'm going the original, then the Bone Temple, and then 28 years later, they came out last year, and then I'm going 28 weeks later. So again, sometimes even just explaining these is a little bit tough because they just don't really match up. Kind of like the Fast and the Furious movies. They go Fast and the Furious, Too Fast, Too Furious, Tokyo Drift, Fast Seven, Furious, you know, they all just kind of go all over the place, but appreciate you for watching and commenting. Thank you right now, wherever you're listening, and until next time, go out and watch good movies, and I will talk to you later. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.