3rd Annual Oscar Preview with Grant Pearson

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? I've just been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I'm joined by Luke Combs, award-winning country music artist and one of the most authentic voices in music today. The guy that says he's always going to be there and that will do anything to be there is the only guy that's not there. No matter what, I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children. I dread the conversation with my son. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello. Hello. Hey. How's it going? Oh, man, I was just fighting for my life just a second ago. Fighting for your life? Why? Yeah, all just me in the toilet. Oh, one of those situations. Doing what we do. Welcome back. It's a brand new episode. This is Laugh With Me, a podcast with Jeremy Odom. I'm your host. Hey, it's J.O. And this is one of my favorite episodes that we do every single year here at Laugh With Me. We get the movie expert. The man who watches more movies than Robert Ebert himself. Is Ebert alive still? Johnny, will you look that up? because then we all do if uh if he's dead but this man watches more movies than anybody else that i know in fact he does watch every movie that is nominated for best picture at the academy award so who else would we talk to when we're looking at best picture of the year and who is going to win at the Oscars. It is two-time guest of the year nominee Grant Pearson on Laugh With Me. You ready then? I am ready. Am I coming through good? Oh yeah, you sound great. Good. Yeah. Better than Eric sounds most of the time, right? Yeah, Eric sounds like he's in the bottom of a lake most of the time. Which, depending on what he's saying, that's where I want to put him. So I don't know. We need to save this for the show. Oh, this is it. We're recording now. Oh, good. Stuck it, Eric. Suck it, Eric. I think the last time you were on the show, it was our 100th episode. Yes. With Dez. Yes. And that was a super fun segment. Apparently, I mean, Dez stole the year, I think, kind of, with his two appearances. He had a good time. Good, good, good, good. Yeah, we certainly got to. I know he's like a super busy guy now, but we got to get him. We got to get him back on at some point. You have no idea how busy he is anymore. Oh, I can tell. He's got the show choir. He's got jazz band. He's got regular band. He's got honor choir. And now he is starring as Professor Plum in Clue, which will open at the end of April, beginning of May at the Des Moines Young Artist Theater here in Des Moines. Everyone should come. Oh, that's legit. Wow. Professor Plum. Yes. Wow. So did he do it? I mean, can you give us a spoiler? Did he in Clue? It's, you know, he did it with the. Did he do it? I have not read the script yet. I can't give any spoilers out, but he was kind of bummed. He was hoping for the role of Dead Body. Dead Body would be a good one. Yeah, he was really hoping for that, but then they're like, well, we're going to give you a bigger part that people will remember, and it's like, okay, I guess so. How does a guy, I mean, did he just move around too much? How does a guy fail at not getting Dead Body? well it's yeah i think he's he's uh he's definitely got some energy going on so you know he's he breathes and stuff you know all those types of things but i think they liked him for dead body but they loved him for professor plum uh his uh his audition though i can tell you about his audition he did one dramatic reading which you know dramatic who cares about that stuff and then uh have you seen the hot rod movie i've seen it so stanberg and let me just tell you i watched it for the first time last year yeah after he recommended it yes i did yes i did did you enjoy it yes i did it's hilarious yeah uh you know the the too legit to quit scene yep yeah that was his monologue oh that's amazing okay yeah yeah he went up there and so yeah that that's uh that's what happened there nobody else is doing that stuff like he's not rolling in there against his peers and they're doing to that that kind of monologue yeah it's uh he he definitely um stole the show with that one uh you know they're they immediately were like this is great and here's the funny part he had no idea that that was referencing an MC Hammer song oh that's even better yeah like I had to play him the song just like a couple weeks ago I'm like you do realize that this is referencing this and he's like what he just thought it was a scene from a movie yeah he just thought it was funny oh that's great yeah and now it's even funnier now that he knows that it's a song and that's where it's coming from. But yeah, he had no idea. That's awesome. Well, that's what Des is at. What have you been up to? I've been driving Des around to places. I've been working. I got a new job this year. Very nice. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm very excited about it. It seems to be going well so far. I bought a Super Nintendo because I got a new job and I'm like, I'm going to splurge on something and I decided the Super Nintendo was it. Okay, so what games did you get? Super Mario World, because it's the best game that's ever been made. That's true. Spider-Man and the X-Men Arcade's Revenge. Whoa, classic. Sim City. Perfect. And then Uni Racers. I'm not familiar with that one. So it's like unicycle racers? Yeah, except there's no people. It's just the unicycles, and they go through crazy courses. Yeah, so those are what I got. I'm excited to get through all of them. Yeah. Have you beaten Super Mario World before? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Numerous times. All right. But I will go back and I will play that game over and over again. I love it. I think it is one of the best games that's ever been made. It introduced so many different things. Just, yeah, it's fantastic. That's awesome. I saw Roller Coaster Tycoon at the store yesterday it got my blood pumping I'm like I haven't played that I couldn't even tell you the last time I thought about Roller Coaster Tycoon oh yeah it does and I will do some Roller Coaster Tycoon stuff here and there oh I love that we'll see yeah there's a lot of those types of video games out there if you didn't know there's a lot of theme park building games there was a period where probably once a week for I don't know how many years I would search up like grocery store tycoon supermarket tycoon to see if anybody had built an awesome like game where you build a grocery store because I'm a nerd and they did not there is a game but it sucks it's not quite what I was looking for I'm looking for like Road Coaster Tycoon I'm building a grocery store SimCity something similar to that And it's just child's play. So I did not get what I wanted. You should get with somebody and make it. Well, that's a great idea. Be the next video game developer out there because you don't have enough going on. I'm doing nothing around here. We're doing nothing around here. Well, sweet. Yeah, so good stuff, obviously. I mean, it goes without saying, you've also been watching many, many movies. I have been. I definitely have watched a few movies here and there. Safe to say, all 10 pictures that are nominated for Best Picture in the 98th Annual Academy Awards, you had seen? Yes, I have. And that's probably just a fraction of the films that you've seen in total of the year, I'm assuming. Yeah. Last year, I watched somewhere around 220 movies. Wow, that's nearly a movie a day. Yeah, I was on top of things last year. Well, I guess there's days, because I know you do the days where it's a movie marathon, and that's not just the days where you do the bad movies. You do a movie marathon with your family. I know you guys will knock some out. So it's not like you're watching a movie every day. Sometimes you'll knock out three, four in a day. Yes. Yeah, that'll happen where there's days where there'll be definitely more than one that happen. Yeah. Okay. Well, if you, I mean, without talking about the films quite yet, would you say 2025 was a banner year for motion pictures? you know there was there were a lot of movies that i enjoyed like there's there's the three and a half star rating on letterbox that i use a lot and to me that that is something that i would watch again is when it's at three and a half stars uh and i give a lot of things three and a half stars and i give more four stars than i think sometimes but um but yeah it's uh it's one of those things where i just um yeah i think that there was a lot of good rewatchable movies last year well go ahead and plug your letterboxd too all right yeah uh letterboxd you can find me by this vacuum by this vacuum that's where you'll get it and uh yeah you'll see all 240 some films from last year and years prior. Yeah, there was let's see, I'm at 2,437 films logged on Letterboxd. That's quite the collection, and that's the thing. Now that you've built this kind of resume, I mean, people if they really want to know your thoughts of a movie or rating of a movie, this makes sense, because you've seen them. You've seen them all. Yeah, I really need to start writing good reviews about them, because usually I just write a one-line joke about it, and that's about it. So I need to start actually reviewing them. And so that way, if I go back and I'm like, why did I give this three and a half stars, then I can actually remember. But instead, I just don't even know. I just give it the worst reviews. Like I saw the Iron Lung. Have you heard of Iron Lung? Yeah. yeah uh have you seen it no i have not uh it's in my opinion it's how a girl becomes a woman uh is what the movie is about uh there is so much blood just non-stop blood i mean it's ridiculous there's one person in the movie and there's enough blood for everyone in the world i love it's how a girl becomes a woman there is just so much that's uh yeah i mean that that's everything you need to know right there that's everything i need to know i'll go back in 10 years and look at that review and be like i remember this great film so but yeah no uh but yeah there was a lot of great movies that came out last year and If we're going to talk Academy Awards, I think that we can get through this. I have some ideas. I have some thoughts. I have some feelings. Very nice. Well, the Academy Awards, the 98th annual, is happening March 15th in L.A. with host Conant O'Brien. And as always, we come to you to know about your thoughts on the best of the best of Hollywood this year. So let's start with best pictures, man. Let's run through it. Okay. Well, I'm going to do, so I tried to rank them out of the 10 movies that are nominated. I ranked them. So I figured we could go from the bottom up. Perfect. So number 10, and here's the thing is all these movies, actually this year, I really liked all the movies that came out this year. Usually there's a couple of ones that are nominated for best picture that I, that I'm just like, how did that even happen? This year I enjoyed all the movies, but at number 10, I have to put train dreams. Okay. I don't know if anybody has actually watched it. It is available on Netflix. It has Joel Edgerton in it. He does fantastic. When we get to Best Actor, we'll talk about him a little bit. But overall, the movie, just in comparison to the other ones up there, did not hit me. So Train Dreams, you said it's on Netflix. Is that a Netflix movie? Did Netflix make that movie? Yeah, I think so. and they released it in theaters for like two days so that it would be eligible for academy awards what are your thoughts on that on netflix doing that yeah i like to see movies in the theater um like uh frankenstein is on this list i would have loved to have seen that one in the theater i think that would have been fantastic i think the only chance i'm going to get to do that is if it shows at an appropriate time during like oscar week at the movie theater right uh but in order to watch it in this case i had to go to netflix okay yeah i'm um if there's a movie i really really want to see uh certainly the theater is the way to do it um otherwise most movies i watch just from the comfort of my own home but yeah but i get it that they're made to be seen in the theater well something like train dreams i think is fine on netflix it's not a big massive spectacle you know it's a movie about just it's a it's a simple story kind of but it just it's it's a drama about loss and other things and it just it it was fine on netflix okay all right moving in yes i'm moving into number nine uh we're going with the secret agent which is nominated for best international feature it's from brazil um I think it's just one of those movies that I did get a chance to see that in the theater, and it just didn't pull me in. I liked a lot of parts of it. The main actor for the movie, Wagner Mora, I don't know if that's pronounced correctly or not. He did a great job, but it just didn't pull me in. So once again, unfortunately, a foreign language feature falls to the bottom of my list. So that's probably one of those movies where you're like, the best part of it was probably the popcorn. Yes. The theater that I went to watch it at has excellent popcorn. Shout out to Fleur Cinema here in Des Moines. They have great popcorn. They do anything special with it? They pop it and put some butter on it. Okay. That's all I know is that it's better than the massive chain popcorn. Do you go with whatever butter they already put in it, or you add butter? Nope. They do it just right there. Okay. Hey, shout out to Floor Drive. All right. Number eight. Number eight, we're going Frankenstein. Like I said, I would have liked to have seen this on the big screen. I think it might have pulled itself higher if I did, but as it was watching on Netflix, it was okay. um it didn't like i said i i wish i could have seen it in full spectacle because there's a lot that happened in the movie uh just it just was harder to watch on a smaller screen than uh than going to the theater so a big shout out to everyone that's in that cast there i think they did a fantastic job um they didn't get um the casting uh nomination because it was very I mean, there was a lot of good casts out there, but I think it should have got a casting nomination. So that one was probably one of those deals where the ensemble together was more of a star than any one individual role. Yes, in my opinion, yes. I know that Jacob Ellardy got nominated for supporting actor for the movie, which he did a good job, but I think it was just altogether well-rounded cast. That guy's on fire. Oh, yeah. Yeah, to be him these days would be... He can't lose right now. You know, that'll catch up to him. But right now, boy, he can't do any wrong. No, I'm waiting for something to happen where he ends up like, you know, being, you know, I don't know. I don't want to come. No, I don't want to wish anything on him. I hope he continues to have a successful career. We'll just leave it at that. We'll just leave it at that, yeah. I love how you were trying to think of something terrible to happen to him. But then you're like, wait a minute. No, no, I don't want anything to happen to him. He already starred in a bunch of Kissing Booth movies. So that's going to be, I've never seen them, but I have no desire to. So I'll just say he's worked his way up. Yeah, good for him. Good for him. Number seven. Number seven goes to my biggest surprise on here is F1. uh f1 was the crowd pleaser it's the top gun uh it's you know that movie that really just it was a good movie i didn't think it'd be nominated for best picture but it was i'm kind of happy about that just because i like to see something big that people actually saw get nominated i don't think it has a chance to win anything but it is something that I've recommended to people and they have enjoyed. I definitely think that that is the surprise of the nominations. So I saw F1 in theaters. Yeah. Incredible. That's the way to watch it. I think I told you to see it in theaters, didn't I? Yes, you did. And so we made a – my son, Braden, so we went and made a point to go see it in theaters. It was incredible. just watched it again on streaming last week. And I don't know. It's just what a fun movie. Like, just a fun movie. Exactly. It's not going to go down into history as one of the best movies that's ever been made. But it's one of those movies that you can pop in, you can put on, and it's enjoyable. It's not a bad movie by any means. So Brayden declared Brad Pitt the greatest actor that's ever been. Brad Pitt is a fantastic actor he doesn't get the accolades that he should he stars in a lot of these types of movies where it's you know the crowd pleaser type of movie or sometimes he's in a darker movie that is hard to judge an acting role off of you know he does a lot of different things but I don't know if he's the greatest actor but I think I think your son is on to something yeah he's been He's been really into a Brad Pitt kick right now. But here's going to be the surprising one. Here's Hattie's favorite actor of all time. This is who she thinks is the best in the business. It is Glenn Powell. Glenn Powell is one of those guys that I wish made better movies. He couldn't agree more. He's very likable. He does a good job when he's in there. I just watched How to Make a Killing. that he's in. And, I mean, it was okay. Would I watch it again? Maybe. Was it something that I'm going to remember at the end of the year? I don't think so. I mean, I think it's going to get lost in history. So we just watched The Running Man last night. Yeah. And another fun movie. Absolutely. Brayden read the book. He had actually just finished the book literally minutes before we watched the movie. We were kind of waiting on him to finish the book. And what kind of pressure is that He was sitting in the living room We were staring at him to finish the book so that we could watch a movie But yeah no he finishes the book We watched the movie. It was a fun ride. It's just, I don't know. To your point, I wish he'd pick better projects for him. Like that, I don't know. Like I thought he was good in The Running Man. I have nothing against The Running Man. It's not Edgar Wright's best, but it's still something yeah it just Glenn Powell is so likable and charming in everything he does but the problem is that those movies are not great I mean he was in the Top Gun Maverick which is probably like his best movie incredible movie but then like Twisters Twisters was fine but yeah I mean it was fun but it's not a great film by any means. And then he's just kind of struggled since then, in my opinion. Yeah, the guy, he fell into that spot where he could get any project he wanted, and it seemed like he was just taking every project coming his way. Yes. He's been in a ton of stuff recently. I mean, he just kind of continues making movies, which is great, but just some selectivity for him would be fantastic. That would be fantastic. All right, number six. Number six goes to Sentimental Value. This is from Norway, and it is mostly in Norwegian, but they do speak in English here and there because they've got Elle Fanning in that, which I don't believe she speaks any Norwegian. But it's an acting movie is what it is. It's a drama. It's with these very strong performances from everybody involved. It's one of those movies that you watch for the acting. The story is fine. I have nothing wrong with the story. It's just the acting in it was incredible. And I didn't really even care about the story sometimes because I was just watching these amazing performances. Now, Norway, shout out Norway. They just absolutely manhandled the world at the Winter Olympics. Yeah. So now they're parlaying that into a movie for Best Picture. So they're on a roll right now. They are. I mean, it's up for Best Picture. It's up for Best International Feature. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if Norway can pull away with some things for the Oscars. And, yeah, I think that they might have a couple coming their way. Now, and to remind the audience, this isn't the list in which you're thinking they would place in the voting for this. This is you. You've watched the films and kind of how you've ranking them. Yes, this is how I'm ranking them. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Number five then goes to Begonia. Begonia. I'm not even going to pretend like I can pronounce the director's name. uh yorgos something something something something uh but he makes he makes great movies he makes great movies with emma stone in them uh i thought that um jesse plemmons put on uh just one of the greatest performances of the year unfortunately he did not get nominated for actor or supporting actor or uh anything he just kind of got pushed to the side uh but jesse Plemons is, I mean, it's Landry. Yeah, Landry. And that's the thing. His performance in Friday Night Lights and how people still attach him to that and love him. No different than Eric Chandler as coach, Eric Taylor, or is that Kyle Chandler? Kyle Chandler, coach Eric Taylor. I mean, they'll forever be those characters, and we love them because they were so good. and they've gone on to other projects and they've been amazing in those. Jesse Plemons deserves to be nominated every single year as long as he's still working. Yeah, no, he, I mean, we really saw the first time that he was going to do something cool was, in my opinion, in Breaking Bad. Yes, yes. He came out and was like, oh, that's a different character for you. and he's been great since then, but Begonia, watch for his performance. Everything about the movie is good. When it comes to the top five movies that I ranked, I had a hard time determining them because I actually really, really like all five of the top five. Now, I will say, though, I mean, it was a different role for Jesse Plemons in Breaking Bad, but he was no stranger to killing other people. He did that in Friday Night Lights. He took a life. There was no second season. What are you talking about? We're forgetting that ever happened. The second season was an interesting season for Friday Night Lights. They got cut off for the writer's strike. And then they came back and it was like, everything's great. And it's like, okay, I'm fine with that. Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's like everything was resolved in the downtime. We didn't have to watch it. Yep. Emma Stone just amazing in anything that she does I mean she's I've seen who did I see she was compared to they were like this is our generation's this actress who's the the actress that whenever she does any project she's nominated for an Academy Award or a Globe or is she Meryl Streep Meryl Streep. Yeah, she's our generation's Meryl Streep is what I saw. And I thought that was a pretty fair comparison. Yeah. She's, I mean, she gets out there. She does roles that are different. She challenges herself. Yeah, I think she does a great job. I mean, ever since she really broke onto the scene with, what, Superbad. Yeah, that's the thing. She'll do fun projects from time to time just to remind everybody that she has a sense of humor. She'll go do SNL and just absolutely crush. Oh, yeah, absolutely. All right. So moral of the story here is that Emma Stone deserves the nomination. Jesse Plemons deserves the nomination more. He didn't get it. It's very much a bummer. But these things happen, and hopefully they'll have something in the future. Oh, yeah. Which takes us to number four, which at the beginning of the year when this came out, immediately. It was amazing. Everybody loved it. We knew it was going to get nominated for a whole bunch of stuff, and that is Sinners. Yes, I knew you were going to say Sinners when you started that way. Yeah. Is it really the number four movie of the year? Is it the number one movie of the year? Like I said, I had a really hard time with these top five movies. Sinners, just immediately after I was done watching it, I wanted to watch it again. uh i wanted to own it i wanted to tell people to go see it which i didn't have to because i went to go see it anyway uh sinners was fantastic it deserves everything that it got uh as far as nominations and any awards it's won so far sinners just it like i said this could easily be the number one movie uh it's just the other three i decided to rank higher I don't have a good reason it just was one of those things where I was just like okay fine I'm going to throw darts at this one I thought Sinners was freaking fantastic and it's everything you just said it was but then again is it the best movie of the year I guess maybe yeah that's the thing it's such a great movie but there is that one scene with the music where they're going through history. Just that whole scene just was probably one of the best things that's ever been put to film. You know, not to disparage the rest of the movie by any means, but that one scene, just you're watching that and you're like, okay, this is amazing. The filmmaking part of it was just amazing. I don't know. I don't have another word for it. when uh when that other crew starts rolling up outside of the barn i that's i don't know it just the tension building it was the same time as the music and it's just like the tension built so high that yeah you just it was undeniable yeah so sinners uh makes it into the top four at number four but like i said could switch things around but moving on to number three that is hamnet Yes, it's nothing about somebody going fishing for pigs. It is a retelling of the story of how Hamlet came to be. And it sounds like it's super boring because it's Shakespeare stuff. I was not expecting a whole lot going into it because I am not a Shakespeare person. And in the long run, I made it into my top three movies of the year. Wow. Just because of the acting or you thought the story was just that captivating? the story was great. The acting was phenomenal. Um, you know, this isn't just a top three as far as Oscar movies. This is one of my favorite movies that came out for the year. Love it. So, uh, yeah, I highly suggest everyone to see him that, uh, even if you're like a Shakespeare, it's, it's not Shakespeare. It's, it's, it's loosely based on Shakespeare and It's, yeah, Jesse Buckley, and that is beyond amazing. And when we get to the awards section for actors and actresses, I will be bringing up her name again. I know a little bit of Shakespeare, primarily the Etus Brute. Yes, that's an important one. That's a good one. That's a good one. Definitely not this. No. it is one of those movies that is moving it is there's sad stuff there's funny stuff there's just a lot going on but uh the performances sell the movie uh and yeah there we go from chicago this is film spotting i'm adam kempenar and i'm josh larson i went to larson on film.com. Two stars for Josh Larson has the stale stifling air of a hospital waiting room. Yikes. Any ideas yet? Man, it sounds like I was having a bad day. I can tell you that. That was from our top 25 films of the century show in 2025. My number five film of the 21st century. You still don't know what it is, do you? I just don't want to guess incorrectly. Film Spotting, in-depth reviews of films, new and old, top five lists, movie marathons, and the occasional actor or director interview with a show archive that goes all the way back to 2005. Listen to Film Spotting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Friday. More about the show at filmspotting.net. Never let me go, Josh. Number five? In 2023, a story gripped the UK. evoking horror and disbelief. A nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level if the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search warrant. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of he said, she said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. I have done nothing except get pregnant by the f***ing bachelor. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I'm joined by Luke Combs, award-winning country music artist and one of the most authentic voices in music today. Luke opens up about success, self-doubt, mental health, and what it really takes to stay true to who you are when your life changes overnight. I hate fame. I hate the word celebrity. I hate those words that you make me uncomfortable. But I think when you get to a certain point, the fame or the success or the influence. It just accentuates and exacerbates the inherent person that you are. The guy that says he's always going to be there and that will do anything to be there is the only guy that's not there. I'm in Australia when Bo was born. My whole identity is that no matter what, I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children over my job. I dread the conversation with my son. What do you think you'd say? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, number two, we're going to get down the end here. Number two, this is a controversial pick to some degree, but for me it was Marty Supreme. Okay, why would you say that's controversial? There are people that absolutely do not like the movie out there. There are movie fans who just think that it was kind of boring and Timothee Chalamet playing Timothee Chalamet. I think that it was, I think that everything about it was great. Even Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank was good in it. It was a bizarre thing to see him on the screen acting, but, you know, it worked. he was kind of a giant asshole but you know that's what we're used to from him now people say he did a great job of playing himself yeah Josh Safdie the director he's a different cat with how he casts so this kind of makes sense of what you're saying yeah no he definitely does some interesting things with his casting I mean he did uncut gems when he cast Adam Sandler yeah that was perfect Adam Sandler once again got robbed of an Academy Award nomination I don't know if he would have won it but he should have been nominated that was such a fantastic movie one of the most stressful experiences of my life he's doing those he's doing incredible roles that are different for him and he's knocking them out of the park. Yes. And he's doing the work to try to build good graces with the Academy. I feel like he's still getting held down because he'll put out Happy Gilmore 2. Yes, but he also was in J. Kelly. I don't know if you saw J. Kelly this year. It's with George Clooney. Yes, very good movie. Very good movie and Adam Sandler does a great job in it. I don't know if he necessarily needed to be nominated for an Academy Award for this one, but it was good he got some looks at him from other people, other awards shows. Well, I mean, he's racking up trophies. He's just not getting the big dog. Yes. Which then takes us kind of coincidentally into the number one movie for me, which was One Battle After Another. Incredible movie. Incredible movie. And Paul Thomas Anderson, who has worked with Adam Sandler in the past, has never won an Academy Award. That's wild. This is probably his year. Yes. This is the movie of his career. As far as I'm concerned, this is, you know, I don't necessarily know if it is his best movie. But it's the one that really got out to the most amount of people. It had the box office behind it. And I think this will be his kind of like, hey, you've done a lot of good stuff. We're going to award you for this movie sort of thing going on. I think that is the one that is going to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. I'd agree with that. And it was the one I enjoyed the most, particularly of the movies listed here. but do you agree with the sentiment that, because you're talking about he's going to win best director for maybe like a career, best career award type deal. Yes. Do you agree with that? Because that does happen. I mean, do you think that that's fair? It happened with Scorsese. You know, it's one of those things where, you know, if we want to talk about director, let's look, do you want to move on? We can talk about director. Yeah, we're done with Best Picture. We can move on, Director. Yeah, so Director, I believe Paul Thomas Anderson will win for one battle after another. But honestly, any of them that were nominated would easily be a winner. Ryan Coogler for Sinners did an amazing job. Chloe Zhao for Hamnet. Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme. Joaquin Trier, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, for Sentimental Value. All of them did a fantastic job, and if any one of them won, I would not be sad. But I think that this is Paul Thomas Anderson. As far as it being a career one, yeah, I think that there is some of that going on. I mean, he's been doing this for 30 years now and hasn't won. He's made Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood. Did I say that? he's just made such amazing movies and he hasn't been able to pull in the top awards yet and I think this is his year to do that I think there's a little bit of hey you should have won for something so far but I think that he also deserves it for one battle after another so Paul Thomas Anderson he has a particular style about him I mean every single movie you just listed you watch that and you go okay it's a paul thomas anderson movie um ryan coogler i i don't know if he has like a specific style but i will say watching sinners there were moments of that movie where just the way it was constructed had my heart pumping and you know good movie but it had those moments now one battle after another great story begin to end twists and turns incredible acting just awesome it to me it was like okay i'm watching a paul thomas sanderson movie and that's not a bad thing it's just no that's what it was right um man it it just sucks that like sure he should have won for boogie nights you know i mean like there's better movies he's put out there and then ryan kugler who just crushes it with sinners is probably gonna lose yeah so he crushed it on sinners i mean his His career so far, he hasn't had a super long career with a lot of movies going on, but he did Creed, he did the two Black Panthers, Fruitvale Station to start off his career as a director there. And then he's done other things here and there, but with those, you look at what he has done with his movies. He's made movies that are successful, that people want to watch, and have just great stories behind them. You know, I know that, I think he's, is he working on the new X-Files, I think? Yeah, I think he is. Yeah, so, I mean, he's got ideas of what he wants to do. He really can pick what he wants to do at this point. and yeah, I think that if he were to win for Sinners, I would be just as happy as if Paul Thomas Anderson won for one battle after another. Now, Paul Thomas Anderson, I think he's friends with the Lonely Island guys. Yeah, he, yes, he is friends. He's, one of the things for Paul Thomas Anderson is that he's directed like a thousand videos for the band Hain. and Haim has done work with The Lonely Island before for some things. Okay. That's just one of those connections I don't think a lot of people would have known. All right. So Paul Thomas Anderson, likely winner, one battle after another for director. Yes, that's what I would go with. I got to ask you about original song because it probably going to be a slam dunk Although I Lied to You from Sinners pretty incredible Oh yeah Pretty incredible. It is. I mean, when you come to the original songs, you know, the Sinners song I Lied to You is fantastic. uh train dreams um from uh the movie train dreams and i'm completely blanking on the artist's name now it is train it's it's just a yeah train dreams from train dreams yeah i don't know who the artist yeah i believe it's nick cave uh that was a great song uh but golden yeah from k-pop demon hunters there's no way that that is going to lose uh k-pop demon hunters is going to end up with two Academy Awards on the night with that and then Best Animated Feature. Which will take down Zootopia 2, which is a big deal. It is a big deal. Zootopia 2 was huge, became, what, the highest grossing Disney film. Yeah. Huge movie, which, fun fact, Zootopia 2 is nominated, so it's a movie called Arco, and both of those movies have Andy Samberg in them. Really? From the Lonely Islands. I did not know he was in Arco. Okay. Yeah, so Andy Samberg is nominated twice this year for animated feature, and unfortunately will probably lose for both the movies he's in. But yeah, K-pop Demon Hunters, there's no way. That's a runaway favorite right there. If anything else were to win, it would be Zootopia 2, just because of the box office for it. But K-pop, I mean, I think it's still in the top 10 on Netflix. How did K-pop Demon Hunters not get nominated for best film? Uh, you know, that's a fantastic question. I think that it's probably just a little animated featured rarely gets nominated for best picture. They're kind of seen as two completely separate ideas. It's very rare for an animated one to make it into best picture. Yeah, but when one transcends and this one transcended. Yeah, I mean, I think what Beauty and the Beast made it in there back in the day. other than that. Toy Story? I don't even know if Toy Story did. But I do remember Beauty and the Beast. Because Beauty and the Beast, I think, won. It didn't win Best Picture, I don't think. Okay. Well, it was for sure nominated. Yeah. As far as Toy Story, I mean, if it didn't get nominated, yeah, you would think so. All right. Let's get to some of the Best Actor awards. What do you want to start with? Let's start with the actress. Jessie Buckley for Hamnet is going to get that one. There's no way she doesn't. Her performance in Hamnet was amazing. It was one of those things that doesn't happen for an actor very often to have that good of a performance in something. That's not to say anything less about the other people nominated. I think Rose Byrne did great in the movie, If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. She did fantastic in there, but Jesse Buckley is far and away going to be the winner in my book. I know you told me, If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. I need to watch it. Yes, it's got Rose Byrne, and it's got a very dark Conan O'Brien. I love it. It's kind of weird to see those two people play off each other and act off each other, because Conan O'Brien isn't really known for his acting roles. Very, very true. He's known for a lot of other things, but he does a good job. I'm not trying to say he doesn't. I think he does a great job in the movie, but it's not quite an Adam Sandler sort of comedy guy makes a great film. you're watching it and you're like why is Conan O'Brien's hair combed so weird is what happens in there it pulls you away from the movie a little bit when you see him I think the best of the he's not known for his acting that's for sure and one of the ways to describe it Kevin Nealon did it best he was on Conan's podcast recently and he said Conan you have done okay for yourself with what you have i thought that was a good uh way of explaining it yes yes and that's two guys that love conan o'brien like we're big fans of conan o'brien oh yeah yeah i i watched conan back when he was on after uh or at you know well 12 30 at night or whatever i i remember staying up and watching it and then being super tired for school the next day. But yeah, I've been with Conan for a long time, and it was just a little weird to see that. All right, well, that's Best Actress, Best Actor. It's stacked. It is stacked. Timothee Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan, Wagner Mora. This one I honestly had some hard time with. I don't know if it's Timothee Chalamet or Leo. So I'd be happy with either one of them. I lean a little bit more towards Leonardo DiCaprio, even though I think Timothee Chalamet will pull it out. But I would like to see Leo get another Oscar. I think that he did a great job in that movie. He pulled off some great comedic bits throughout the movie, which from Wolf of Wall Street, we know he can do some comedy stuff. He can be funny. And, you know, we know that from Catch Me If You Can. And it's just not a side of him, though, that he brings out a whole lot. You know, the Revenant's not really a laugh fest. But, you know, I think he showed a little bit more of his range in this movie that he deserves to get some recognition for. But like I said, there's a part of me that thinks Timothee Chalamet is going to take it. I would just would rather see Leo. Yeah, me too. I'm with you there. Michael B. Jordan and centers though, if he were to pull that off, I think that would be fantastic. And I think your dark horse candidate on that one is going to be Wagner more for the secret agent. I still feel like I'm pronouncing his name wrong, but hopefully that's it. But I think he might be kind of a, you know, one of those things that could slip in. I just don't know if enough of the members have seen it to really vote for it. Ethan Hawke not nominated for Black Phone, right? This is for Blue Moon. Blue Moon, yes. His other colorful object movie from the year that I have not seen. I can't really rate that one. I don't know where I can watch it right now. I don't know. I wasn't able to get to that one. Just making it clear, not Black Phone 2. Not Black Phone 2. which was a fine movie on its own. Don't get me wrong. Yes, it was. Leonardo DiCaprio, incredible one battle after another. And then to your point about the comedy, I think he's a classically trained actor that doesn't necessarily view comedy the same. Is that fair? I think that'd be fair. I think you see comedians do dramatic work and be so successful at it, And sometimes it's hard for a dramatic actor to do comedy and be successful at it. But when they are, it's like amazing. Yes. Like Naked Gun. Oh, yes. Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson. Yes. Just, I mean. Or Leslie Nielsen back in the old ones. Either one of them are. Yeah. Well, so O.J. Simpson. I mean, just guys from those films. Oh, that guy. He was killer in that movie. Hey. All right. Hey. All right. So best actor, you think it could be Timothee Chalamet. He might sneak it out, but Leo probably. Leo is who I would like to see. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Best supporting actress. Let's hit that one. Supporting actress. This one I have a lot of trouble with. I think Tiana Taylor from One Battle After Another is the favorite. I would love more than anything to see Amy Madigan win for weapons. Yes. I think it would be because just horror doesn't get the respect it deserves. And she did an amazing job in there. You know, and if she wins, I think it would be one of those things where they're like, yeah, well, we we fucked up with Tony Collette and Hereditary. So we're going to give this one to Amy Madigan. And that's fair. That's fair. So Amy Madigan was lights out and just downright scary in weapons. Yeah, she did fantastic. And so I would love to see her win. I just think Tiana is going to edge it out because one battle after another is going to be the big winner for the night. So I think that that's going to be where her play comes in is just being a part of this fantastic movie. Not that she did bad by any means. I just think that Amy Madigan had more to do with weapons success and everything that it did more than Tiana Taylor did for one battle after another. Very fair. Best supporting actor. I mean, to your point about one battle after another, two nominations in this category. Do you think that works against them? I think it does. I think that it's hard to pick which one of the two of them did better. For a lot of people, I think Sean Penn would be my pick out of the two of them. But with that being said, I think that Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value is going to pull this one off. Okay, wow. I was thinking maybe Sean Penn or Jacob Elardi from Frankenstein. But yeah, I could see that. Yeah, I think in a movie filled with just amazing performances, he tied the whole thing together and deserves the recognition for it. So that would be where I put everything is on Stellan Skarsgård. If it doesn't go to him, I would think Sean Penn might be the second one. But yeah, yeah, I think that this is sentimental values win for the night. Very nice. All right. Well, we did director. we did original song, we did animated film. Is there any other category that you're looking at and you're going, here's something I'm passionate about and these films are going to win? You know, I think that, I think Sinners is going to take home original screenplay. I think that's going to be one of its awards for the night. I think it's going to take up a bunch of the different technical awards. Adapted screenplay, I think, goes to one battle after another. but yeah I think that Sinners ends up with a lot of technical awards and original screenplay will be its kind of big one for the night you know despite being nominated more than any other movie in history I don't think it takes home the big ones just just the screenplay now you are famously on the record as being completely against Suicide Squad being nominated and winning an Academy Award yes is there a movie this year that you're looking at and you go they kind of fall in that category like i don't know like maybe the smashing machine or uh jurassic world rebirth like are you seeing anything because these movies are nominated which yeah jurassic world rebirth i think it got what one thing for visual effects correct visual effects yeah here's the thing i'm a jurassic park fan I've seen all the movies. I own all the movies. I've seen them multiple times. Rebirth was better than the last two, but it was not a great movie. And to be nominated for an Academy Award seems a little bit far-fetched for it. That's one of those movies where it would be like Academy Award winner Jurassic World Rebirth would be a very interesting string of things to hear someone say. There was a time where I felt the same way about saying Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill, and I'm 100% on the other side of it now. I think he's an incredible actor. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. A nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level if the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. he became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search warrant. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of he said, she said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. I have done nothing except get pregnant by the f***ing bachelor! Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I'm joined by Luke Combs, award-winning country music artist and one of the most authentic voices in music today. Luke opens up about success, self-doubt, mental health, and what it really takes to stay true to who you are when your life changes overnight. I hate fame. I hate the word celebrity. I hate those words that you make me uncomfortable. But I think when you get to a certain point, the fame or the success or the influence, it just accentuates and exacerbates the inherent person that you are. The guy that says he's always going to be there and that will do anything to be there is the only guy that's not there. I'm in Australia when Bo was born. My whole identity is that no matter what, I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children over my job. I dread the conversation with my son. What do you think you'd say? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh yeah, absolutely. He's done well in the acting category for recent. Moneyball and Wolf of Wall Street, it's just one of those things where he comes out and does amazing things these days. There's a couple of other things he's done recently that aren't quite as great. There was the you people with Eddie Murphy. It was bad. It was bad. I was excited because I'm an Eddie Murphy fan. I love Jonah Hill now. I was like, this is going to be good. No, it's absolutely trash. Yeah, he – I don't know if it's his fault or not. I think it's a combination of everybody involved just kind of made this movie that – yeah. What was with his costume design? I mean, just his hair and what he wore, it was bad. Yeah. Yeah, you people definitely deserve some Razzies. I don't know if we want to go into Razzies or if we want to talk about a couple other things first. No, let's hit right into the Razzies. That's a perfect segue. The Razzies, as if people don't know, they're the worst of the worst of the year. and it's generally announced, what's it generally announced, the night before, two days before, something like that, the Academy Awards? Yeah, they submit their nominations, I think, the day after the Academy Award nominations and then they give out the awards the night before the Academy Awards. Very nice. And their website is absolutely trash. And the way I can explain this, I had it pulled up, their nominations, on their website and it's so bad that since we've started it's now, okay, I have found it again it's wild but it is the 46th annual Golden Raspberry nominations worst picture and I don't know, I don't think I've seen any of these movies, but I've heard a lot about one of them so and honestly for me a lot of these movies I have not seen which is surprising because I am famously love bad movies. But there are certain things like Snow White. I'm sorry, I'm not seeing Snow White. It's just not going to happen. Star Trek Section 31. I don't even know what that is. Well, my thing was I hadn't seen Section 1 through 30, so I was like, I'm not going to get caught up. Yeah. Hurry up tomorrow with The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega. I missed that one. So already three of the five worst picture nominees I haven't seen, and I'm okay with that. The Electric State with Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt was a mess. They made it. It has such potential. They made it. Yeah. And War of the Worlds 2025 with Ice Cube is honestly one of the worst things I've ever seen. I can't wait to watch it again, but it is one of those things that I can't believe that somebody put this together and thought it was a good idea. I know they sat on releasing it for a while, but it's Ice Cube reacting to computer screens for an hour and a half, and it's terrible. That movie, that's the one I've heard a lot about and the one I want to see the most and knowing it's going to be an absolute train wreck. Yeah, and it is. Definitely watch it with some other people or watch it with a lot of alcohol to just numb yourself during parts of it. But yeah, the War of the Worlds should win or lose or whatever you want to call it, every category it's in because it is by far my worst movie of the year is War of the Worlds. And worst actor Ice Cube is up for this, for War of the Worlds, and that makes a lot of sense. Yes. Jared Leto being nominated for Tron, is that just because the Razzie's hate Jared Leto? Well, I think it's because everybody hates Jared Leto, except for you. Except for me. I'm a big Jared Leto Joker truther. Yeah, Jared Leto for me has been... It's hard to even get into what I don't like about him. But the so Suicide Squad was incredible, was just a mess. I think it had the potential to be good. And then there was studio involvement and things just kind of fell apart. And he was not good in it as Joker. I am sorry. You know, that movie, it's like two different movies. So I totally get the studio being involved part because you could see it. I mean, the first half is one thing. And then the second half is a whole other movie. It's kind of odd in that way. Yeah, but I mean, you have Tron Ares that he was in, Haunted Mansion, the remake, Morbius, House of Gucci. He wasn't that that was, in my opinion, a mess. I mean, he's just had a bunch of bad movies in a row. Yeah, I can't do it with Jared Leto. And I think it's his ego that he has. He has a little bit of an ego issue, and I just can't do it with Jared Leto. So Brayden asked me, like, why does everybody hate Jared Leto? And I'm like, well, I think he's just different. He's just a different type of actor. Yeah. I don't like to sit here and hate on people for a long period of time, but Jared Leto will be the one that I can make an exception to. Very nice. I do have a problem with Dave Bautista being nominated because, and again, I didn't watch that movie in The Lost Lands, but he has turned into an okay actor. Yeah, he's not a bad actor. He was in, what, The Blade Runner with Jared Leto, and I believe that was him, right? I think so. Yeah, he was. I mean, Dave Bautista does a lot of good things. He's had a couple of questionable things here and there. Stuber wasn't necessarily a great career choice for him. But in Lost Lands, I did not see. I was tempted to watch it just because of how much of a bomb it was. Once again, one of those things that I do, but I just focused on watching something I don know better Yeah that a good good way to explain it um but yeah i think him being nominated is more the case of the quality of the movie than it is the quality of the acting yeah that's fair so like worst actress if i and i haven't watched either none of these movies okay but if i had to guess just based on razzy tradition like kind of how they go, I'm going to guess Rebel Wilson is going to win for Breidheart. I would think Rebel Wilson as well. She's she has an interesting career right now. And I think that they're going to play that as a part of their worst actress push. I would, you know, not that I want to see them win these awards, but Natalie Portman or Michelle Yeoh would be funny to see just because they've had such lauded careers that they end up with that Sandra Bullock, Halle Berry, Razzie on their name. I think that would be fun to see. Although Ariana DeBose for Love Hurts. I did see Love Hurts and Love Hurts is also one of my least favorite movies of the last year. It was awful. I don't know how she was the romantic interest for Keith or Hey, Keith, a Kwan. Is that how you pronounce his name? Yeah, that's the movie on Netflix, right? Yeah. Well, no, it wasn't even on Netflix. It was in theaters. Oh, it was in theaters. Okay. Yeah, it might be on Netflix now, but it was in theaters for a couple of weeks on Valentine's Day, I believe. And it was, yeah, there was no chemistry between them, and it was just such a bizarre thing for her to be the love interest. I don't know. It was a mess of a movie. some of uh what what makes this great is some movie the grassies will bring up a movie i totally forgot even came out the worst supporting actress uh emma horvath is up for the strangers chapter two now i love the original the strangers great movie just all time and then they wanted to remake it and they go to strangers chapter one didn't watch it because i heard it was awful don't forget about pray at night being in there i did watch that and that was bad i did watch that yes the strangers doesn't really have a good track record of making good movies the first one is what it is it's it's you know has its place in horror classics and everything since then has been trashed as far as i can tell i have not watched any of the new strangers the chapter one two or three yeah three just came out yeah and apparently they're going to put them together into one long cut and it's like I don't think anybody asked for that you know nobody was wanting the Kill Bill Whole Bloody Affair version of the Strangers trilogy I do want to see that I do want to see the Kill Bill all together the four and a half hours of it oh yeah I saw that in theaters that was great I'm looking forward to seeing it yeah definitely pick it up when it comes out or stream somewhere or whatever I would recommend that to anyone except for the post credit thing that's like a fortnight thing or something that was bizarre and terrible so just don't watch that part because you'll be like what is this it almost ruins the movie yeah well one of my favorite nominations here is for worst screen combo and it's ice cube and his zoom camera for war of the worlds it's just him reacting terribly to things it's like oh somebody died and he's like oh and you're like He like rubs his chin and then takes his glasses off and puts them back on and then takes them off again and puts them back on. Here's, yeah, Ice Cube. I'm sorry, he's got a win for that one. I mean, and he's up against James Corden and Rihanna from Smurfs. I mean, that's, I mean, he's going up against some heavy hitters, but I'm sure Ice Cube's going to win. Yeah, and James Corden and Rihanna is, how do you get the two of them doing something together? Right. You have one of the best-selling, most streamed artists of all time, and then you have the guy who does carpool karaoke, and they're in a Smurfs movie together. Yes. And then they're up against The Weeknd and his colossal ego for Hurry Up Tomorrow. I mean, there's just, this category is incredible. It's always a great category to see what they do. Because it's never like, here's the two leads from In the Lost Lands. It's about an actor and something, usually. And something, yep. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I would say War of the Worlds is one of my least favorite movies that has probably ever been made. Definitely the worst movie of the year. Love Hurts was not good. Electric State was not good. Also, there's a movie that came out called Playdate. I don't know if anybody has seen that movie. It is an Amazon exclusive, I believe. I'm trying to find where it's out. But yeah, it's Kevin James and then Alan Richson. Alan Richson plays Jack Reacher on The Reacher Show. Oh, wild. and it has to do with these kids that are cloned at some point and i don't know it's this action movie sort of thing where kevin james is there to be the comedy side but he's not funny uh and alan richmond is crazy and he's supposed to be funny but he's not funny and then there's things blowing up and they beat up these kids and a lot of people die and you're just like oh this is kind of dark, but they're trying to play it off as funny. Which sometimes works. Sometimes that works. It does not work in this case. I do not recommend anybody watch this film even for just shits and giggles. Do not make play dates the destination for you. Go watch War of the Worlds instead. Yeah, that makes sense. And I am looking forward to seeing that one. Alright, well that's... You got anything else with the Razzies? I think if I was going to say, all right, here's the movie that was my worst that I watched, the one I enjoyed the least would be Megan 2.0. Megan 2.0. I will actually be one of the few people that says I like it better than the first. Really? I did not care for the first movie, and I went to the second one, and I think I enjoyed it more because it wasn't so hyped. okay that's fair and so i actually i actually enjoyed the second one more than the first one and this is going to lose me a lot of credibility but i do think that that it was i mean it was definitely a misfire don't get me wrong uh it shouldn't have been made the way it was made but it was to me better than the first yeah i did not like the first one uh went into it in my own personal hype machine thinking well they'll do it better they got a sequel they'll do it better and I don't know. I just couldn't do it. Yeah, it was still a mess, but it was what it is. Do we have some time to talk about movies that I did like from 2025 that did not get awards? 100%. Okay. Gotta start with Wake Up Dead Man, the third Knives Out movie. Oh, Knives Out. Okay. Are you into that? Are you into those movies? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And this one might have been the best of the three uh and it definitely should have got something for like original screenplay um if i were to have nominated it for best picture i would have taken out f1 and put in wake up dead man as kind of the crowd pleaser one yeah but it didn't get anything and that's kind of sad but uh the naked gun was the best comedy movie that came out last year oh just joke after joke after joke and jokes on jokes and it was just a classic like slapstick type comedy you don't see anymore it was so good no it was fantastic i don't think it necessarily deserves oscar nominations but i know it won like a critic's choice for best comedy movie or something like that and i'm i'm down with that i think it was uh yeah like i said best comedy movie of the year uh not that there was a lot to compete with, but it was there. Yeah, no, it was my favorite as well. Weapons to put in over Frankenstein for best movie. Thunderbolts, I think, was the best superhero movie of the year. Not that there was a lot of competition, but I think Thunderbolts did some great things. Is this thing on with Bradley Cooper directing it? Nobody went to go see this one. I enjoyed it. Bradley Cooper is good at movies. Minus Maestro, I did not care for Maestro. But is this thing on? Everybody involved with that. Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Bradley Cooper, a bunch of other people. It came together very well, in my opinion. That's the movie that I wanted to watch last night, and then instead I end up staring at Braden finishing The Running Man. In order to watch The Running Man. And then the last one that I'm going to bring up is the best action movie of the year that nobody saw. And that is a movie called Fight or Flight with Josh Hartnett. Okay. I've heard of it. It is insane. It is crank meets bullet train on a plane. It has so much violence in it and comedy. comedy and it's just to me it's it was the best action movie probably of the year um you know if you're not counting like one battle after another being more of a drama things like that but to me fight or flight is something that any person that likes just ridiculous action should watch uh it was better than nobody too it was better than most of the things that came out that just just somebody's name usually and then they go out and they somehow are the you know secret love hurts essentially is what i'm trying to make fun of here is that love hurts was terrible it's not that kind of movie it's it's actually enjoyable so uh yeah definitely find that i don't know if it's streaming anywhere but that'd be my recommendation now fight or flight sounds like it's right up my alley so i really do want to watch that now nobody too i enjoyed nobody too I didn't have any problem with Nobody 2, but Fight or Flight was definitely better. I'm with you on Naked Gun. I'm 100% with you on weapons. I thought weapons should have been nominated, and it was not. But a movie you did not mention that was – I mean, it so much has a place in my heart that the movie poster is hanging on my wall right now. The movie Friendship. Paul Rudd. Friendship. Tim Robinson. I didn't forget about Friendship. friendship was great what a fun movie that was yeah um i know that so that's a that's an a24 movie right yes and a24 had kind of a interesting year at the box office uh they had death of a unicorn come out which underperformed i loved it but it definitely had its detractors I don't know if you saw that one it's on my list of movies I want to see Paul Rudd right Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega it's yeah that one I was like I really want to see that movie but it's not like urgent it didn't do well at the box office it's readily available on HBO Max I'm like well I'll just I'll hit it up when I hit it up um it's got will poulter in it now will poulter his i don't know what he's got but he his comic timing in that movie is spot on he is hilarious he knew the assignment from the beginning and got it um he was also in warfare which was an a24 movie that came out last year and he was fantastic in that as well uh will poulter is one of those guys that really is is putting together a nice resume and should have uh should have a good successful career as long as he makes movies that people see uh he's he's kind of in a glenn powell phase right now where he's making movies that people aren't watching but i think his movies are better than than glenn powell's movies well don't forget I mean, Hattie said that he's the greatest actor of our time right now, Glenn Powell. So he's up there. Yeah, he's up there. I would not disagree that Glenn Powell has got some ability and some charm, but I put Will Poulter above him. There you go. So sorry, Hattie. A24, though, like you were saying, interesting year. They did have, I mean, Smashing Machine didn't perform as well as they'd hoped. But, you know, it did do some things as far as like storytelling that people liked and The Rock showcase what he could do. You know, it's a little different than just straight up action. I don't know. I thought that was a movie that maybe it will be underrated a little bit. I didn't get a chance to see Smashing Machine. I have it on my list. I, you know, there is a Taylor Swift movie that came out this album release that came out the same weekend. So can you blame me? Well, yeah, you spent your time diving into the lyrics looking for Easter eggs, I'm sure. Yes. No, but I mean, they had, yeah, Death of a Unicorn and Warfare. They had The Legend of Ochi, which was kind of their family-friendly movie that bombed. Friendship did well. Yeah. I think Friendship was good. Bring Her Back was amazing. Well, I forgot about that one. What a crazy movie. Yeah. you know but then they had like editing Eddington which didn't do very well Smashing Machine didn't do what it was supposed to but then of course you end the movie or the end of the year with Marty Supreme which became their highest grossing movie so they made up for it at the end but for me yeah A24 kind of had a difficult year even with Marty Supreme the powerhouse that is because that movie Yes. You know, they're going to be getting hype from that movie all the way through probably April because of the Academy Awards. Yeah. Yeah. It'll it'll because right now it's sitting. I'm looking up the box office is sitting at ninety four million. So it'd be really nice to see that hit one hundred million just so that a twenty four finally has one. Yeah. I think that'll be the one. Yeah. So, yeah, that's. So, yeah, that's where where I'm at. Well, favorite movie of the year. All right. What would you say? Would you say One Battle After Another is your favorite movie of the year or just of the nominees? Or is there another movie that's probably your favorite of 2025? That is such a hard question because I did put One Battle After Another at number one on my rankings. I don't know if I have – I've watched The Naked Gun more than I have One Battle After Another. I don't know if that means anything. I could be naked gone then. Is This Thing On? Honestly, I loved. I thought that it was a fantastic film. Not getting nominated for me was kind of a slam to it because I think it deserved it. But Is This Thing On would definitely make it into my top movies of the year. Yeah, now you're making me really need to go watch that movie right away. Yeah, I mean, it's about stand-up comedy, but it's not. It's about relationships and stand-up comedy and all kinds of things. But Will Arnett is terrific in it. Laura Dern, she usually is terrific in anything she does, and she was there. Bradley Cooper was a supporting character and was great in it as well. Did you know he was in a movie once with Lady Gaga? Yeah, I've heard about that. Big-time movie. big time movie love that film yeah no it's good Bradley Cooper by the way I had to look this up because I wanted to make sure I was right in is this thing on his character's name is Balls Balls that's perfect yeah he doesn't he's not credited as anything else just Balls it's almost like he did it as a joke yeah Peyton Manning is in the movie really I don't know if you knew that yeah he acts in the movie he's actually an actor in the movie. Is his forehead credited as well? Oh, geez. Peyton Manning's forehead. That's a stuff of legend. Yeah, it's a good one. It is a good one. Peyton Manning. I'm just looking at a picture of him now. Just to be completely transparent, I have been jumping around on Wikipedia pages all over the place during this, but now I'm on Peyton Manning's And I had to scroll down for a little while before I hit the text because of the picture being there. You have to just scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. Is it funny yet? And scroll and scroll until you get past the picture of his forehead. It's a big forehead. And another note, you need to get yourself a producer to type all this stuff up. That's why I got Johnny. I got Johnny here just taking care of all this for me. Oh, no. I have papers laid out in front of me as well. Don't worry. I prepared for this one. There are certain things where I needed to look it up. I'm like, was his name Balls? I have to remember that. Well, Grant, you've done it again. The Academy Awards, you've laid out the favorites. You've seen all the movies. You're letterboxed. You can find it at Buy This Vacuum. Yes. What else you got to promote? I ask you every time at the end, what do you got to promote? And you never have anything. No, After Midnight got canceled. So I don't have that to promote anymore, which is kind of sad. So, yeah, let's bring back After Midnight. Can we do that? Yeah, I think we can. I think we can start a movement. Or do you think this is a good time to start plugging Stephen Colbert? He has this late night show. It's pretty good. I think it's going to catch on in the next couple of years. I think it might be bigger than the Tonight Show. You know, honestly, I think he's got a good couple of months ahead of him, and it's going to be big. Let's just say that. It's going to be big. Let's see. What other canceled things can I promote, sir? Stuff that's going to be canceled or that people don't like. That's what I'm here for. Affordable groceries. Let's see. What else has been canceled? Yeah. You got to get that game made. Yeah. Ain't that the truth? Ain't that the truth? That's full circle. Otherwise, yeah, it is. And a great place to end it besides me saying, hey, if you want to come to Des Moines, Iowa and watch Clue with my son as Professor Plum, you can do that. Yeah. And why wouldn't you? And when was the date? Was that April? End of April, beginning of May. End of April, beginning of May. And you can search that up on. I know I follow them on Facebook, so I see all the dates and everything on Facebook. It's the Des Moines Young Artists Theater. Very nice. All right. Well, Grant. I'll plug them. You did it again. Thank you, sir. You are the movie expert officially of Laugh With Me. And I got a feeling. I mean, we have plans, so I have a feeling we're going to hear from you very soon again on Laugh With Me. Yes. Yep. I've got to put some stuff together. I think that we've got some things. Very nice. All right. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the Case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? I've just been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all, I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I'm joined by Luke Combs, award-winning country music artist and one of the most authentic voices in music today. The guy that says he's always going to be there and that will do anything to be there is the only guy that's not there. No matter what, I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children. I dread the conversation with my son. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.