#13. Shazam! and the Criterion Channel
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Shazam! tops the box office with $53 million — better than tracking but still the lowest DC opening ever, ahead of Pet Sematary at $25 million and Dumbo dropping 60% to $18 million — and Sonny, who gives it three stars, defends it as a small-scale superhero Big whose real subject is how the existence of gods gives ordinary people an example to live by, embodied in the disabled foster brother with his authenticated Superman slug teaching Billy Batson what the powers are for. JVL will have none of it, calling it a terrible movie from a terrible comic and arguing it fails its own internal logic: the wizard's magic supposedly seeks a pure heart and settles on "this slightly D-bag kid," when Diana Prince and Clark Kent were right there, and the other candidate it summons becomes the villain. He builds that into a broader indictment — DC importing the Marvel Family, Batmite and Hoppy the Marvel Rabbit into a cinematic universe that should have been a chance to leave its creative mistakes behind — and says he liked this less than Suicide Squad, which at least had Margot Robbie. Vic lands on a B, crediting Zachary Levi's charm from his Chuck days and the poignant foster-mother thread while flagging the muscle suits, Mark Strong's dud villain, and a Seven Deadly Sins subplot too intense for the family crowd. Sonny opens the show glowing about the Criterion Channel's launch that Monday — he grabbed the $90 charter rate, hooked his laptop to the TV, and dove into the Columbia noir series with Don Siegel's The Lineup — leading to talk of his favorite Criterion set (Brazil, with all three cuts) and Vic's Laserdisc Raging Bull. JVL reports Flash's travel-league line of three and two-thirds innings, no hits, four walks and eleven strikeouts against the best team in Northern Virginia, plus a plan he'd never tell the coach about pitching him later in games; Vic previews his Grand Cayman trip, rum-versus-tequila and the conch/scungilli question, and gushes about watching 1980's The Final Countdown with his son. They close on the Joker trailer, where JVL insists the Joker is the one character who can't work as an antihero, and recalls teaching brilliant high schoolers so morally relativistic they wouldn't concede he was even the villain of The Dark Knight.
From the show notes
#cdata-section -------------- In this latest episode, sponsored by DoorDash, the gang reviews Shazam! Â Sonny is loving the Criterion Channe...
Full transcript
?00:00:00♪ ♪
Guest00:00:01- Daily Bats, I choose you as a champion. ♪ ♪ Say my name so my powers will become yours.
?00:00:13♪ ♪
JVL00:00:14Shazam.
Guest00:00:16- Are you for real? - Say the key! ♪ ♪ Say my name.
?00:00:21♪ ♪ Shazam!
Vic00:00:26Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Sub Beacon, sponsored by DoorDash. I'm Victorino Matus, along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you the Sub Beacon is available on iTunes and Google Play. Just look at our podcasts and search for Sub Beacon. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? Sonny Bunch, what's going on with you this week?
Sonny00:01:08Guys, I had a very busy Monday, a very exciting Monday. What happened? Well, let me walk you through my day. I work hard. Very hard. Like all the rest of us here. I hear about all the hard lunches you guys have to do every single week. I work hard.
Vic00:01:23Where is this that you work hard?
Sonny00:01:24you know my various jobs it's not just here I figured I went home you know I gotta feed the kids I gotta get them to bed you know and you know 9 o'clock rolls around 9 o'clock on Monday and I'm getting excited I turn the TV on you know I get everything set up I actually had to buy a new cord for this for this thing because you know what was what was so exciting was the Criterion channels finally here came out on Monday wow and starting right at nine o'clock when i got home all the kids were at bed got my laptop hooked up to the tv watched some nice high def criterion channel uh movie programming they've got this great series on film noirs i watched uh the lineup an early don siegel film
JVL00:02:08very good is very entertaining new content from criterion or are they taking all the stuff that's
Sonny00:02:13on the discs and turning it into streaming that's what i assume well so they they have a lot it's not their whole catalog on disc uh they have like a rotating selection um but they also have they also have a series of uh programs so like the thing i've been watching right now it's called columbia noir and it's a it's a whole uh selection of columbia uh pictures from the 50s and 40s not
Vic00:02:35movies that take place in columbia from columbia from columbia the columbia of columbia but it's
Sonny00:02:40great it's uh it was really i spent my my whole monday night i was so excited streaming channel
JVL00:02:45where you pick what you want or is it like a cable channel where they are broadcasting and you just dip in on their time schedule?
Sonny00:02:51It's a streaming channel. It's like Netflix or whatever. Okay. You can pick what you want. How much is it a month?
JVL00:02:55It sounds fantastic. It's like nine or ten bucks a month.
Sonny00:02:58That's nothing. But I got in on the ground floor as a charter subscriber of the Criterion channel. I got in for $90 a year. That's a bargain rate. That's not available anymore. You can't get that anymore.
Vic00:03:12And you didn't tell us about it. Question.
Sonny00:03:14I was tweeting all about it.
JVL00:03:16What are you doing with your Criterion Blu-rays now? You're just going to give them away, right? Absolutely not. Those are locked up in the vault. But you could stream it right now.
Sonny00:03:24You just don't need them anymore. I'm going to keep buying. If I watch a movie, if I stream a movie that I like, I'm going to buy it on Blu-ray. Go buy the Blu-ray. I'm going to buy it on Blu-ray so I have it forever. What is your favorite?
JVL00:03:35Question. Yes. Favorite Criterion Edition movie. Which is different than your favorite movie that's on Criterion.
Sonny00:03:42Your favorite of all the packaged. You're going to say The Rock, aren't you? No, I actually don't have The Rock or Armageddon Unfortunately The two Michael Bay productions No, my favorite Criterion set Is the set of Brazil The Terry Gilliam movie So they actually put together a set that includes The Gilliam's Original cut The cut the studio wanted to have With like the happy ending And like a shorter theatrical cut Yes, exactly, that sort of happy ending and on top of that it has like a bunch of documentaries about the fight over the movie and you know this production design and all that it's really a wonderful wonderful set highly recommend it that is fantastic
JVL00:04:24so anyway Victorino what is your favorite Criterion movie
Vic00:04:27I remember my father had or at least your dad must have bought all the Criterion discs actually I bought it I bought this is back okay I was gonna talk about Laserdisc you know we had a Criterion collection did you have a Laserdisc player of course doctor's kid It was the Laserdisc Criterion Collection of Raging Bull And that was actually really good I don't remember I know there are other Criterion Collection ones But that's the one that stands out in my mind Criterion Collection, Raging Bull
Sonny00:04:55So Criterion was An early mover in the home video space As we all know and they were very big on Laserdisc And They put out just a lot of regular movies On Laserdisc So one that they put out on Laserdisc Ghostbusters really to the point i so i was actually kind of fascinated by this so i looked it up on ebay and people sell like bundles of like criterion laser discs or whatever you can get like five for 20 bucks and one of those bundles had a ghostbusters laser disc and i almost bought it just i almost bought it just for the like novelty of it but i didn't how much could you pick up a laser disc
JVL00:05:31player for on ebay right now i i so i i started looking around at this too because i was like if
Sonny00:05:36I have a LaserDisc. I need a LaserDisc player. They're not insanely expensive, but they're all super used. It's not like you can get replacement parts for them.
Vic00:05:46So, Sonny, my sense is that this channel is basically like Turner Classic Movies, but refined or on steroids.
Sonny00:05:53Well, it's a bit like Filmstruck, which was the – there was a streaming channel that Warner put together in conjunction with the Criterion channel that was like the Warner archives plus the Criterion plus like a rotating selection of Criterion films all curated by some you know nerd up in New York who who does these things and Filmstruck went away when the Time Warner or the Time Warner AT&T merger happened you know Filmstruck was not a very popular service so it was not it was not part of the new regime which is all about commanding eyeballs they need they need more right a subplot of all this is that at&t is going to kill hbo uh at&t is like talking about at&t is talking about how like hbo needs to not be a niche product that appeals to 10 million people it needs to be a netflix-like product yeah they want command eyeballs 600 shows a year right right they want i mean no this is like not kidding no this is seriously what they want they want they don't they don't want to have like sunday night to be the hbo night they want monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday you know it's gonna it's gonna destroy the network so i'm glad we got we had these 20 years of
JVL00:07:02it was a good run a quick question yeah you may not know the answer to this but does uh the criterion channel stream in 4k i don't know i don't know because i'm if they do i'm gonna give
Sonny00:07:16them my 90 right now while we take the show uh i i would i i you will have to effort that or i can effort it while you're doing your weekend bed question yes it looked i i will say that it it it streams in 1080 it looked really good on my tv through my computer if i had a roku box i imagine it would look even better but i was i was you know i don't what would you say within your
JVL00:07:38blu-ray slash dvd collections what is the ratio of unopened to opened discs because i find that when i look back over my blu-ray collecting days that i like with books i would often aspirationally buy a disc i would just see it on sale on sale be like yes i totally wanted to see
Vic00:08:03this and i want to and yeah yeah take it and yeah uh the whole nine yards i would say i would say
Sonny00:08:08opened opened to unopened is probably 20 to 1 or something like that um watched to unwatched Watched to unwatched, but all of the unwatched ones are movies that I had seen before. Okay. I don't think I've ever bought a movie and been like, I really wanted to watch this and then not watched it. I don't think. I wouldn't want to say that 100%, but I'm pretty sure that that's the case. What's your ratio?
Vic00:08:38Oh, that's a good point. You know what? More important. What's your dad's ratio? Yeah, okay. Because your dad just buys everything he sees. He does. My father will walk into, like, the Target or the Walmart and say, hey, that looks like a good one, and pick it up. And then usually my mother has zero interest in watching it. And so there are, like, DVDs of, like, Steven Seagal movies that never made it to theater. And alongside, like, I look at the, he has this, you know, he has many, he has shelves, and then he has the revolving disc space. And you could turn it around and you could see a whole rose and it'll be like Inception, G.I. Joe, Brokeback Mountain, and then Kundan or something, you know, or Crouching Tiger, you know, and then some Steven Seagal movie. And it's insane. And I think I pointed this out before. This is where I also found he had sucker punch. He might have seen all these movies at least once. I don't think anything is unopened. I don't think anything is unopened. But there are movies that, you know, Sweeney Todd, really?
JVL00:09:36You know, I mean, why did you get that?
Vic00:09:39I don't know. It looked interesting. Broke back down. Johnny Depp. Right, right, right. Same thing, you know? But for me, I'd say there are a few DVDs I own that are unopened. They were gifts, though. If I bought it for myself, I'm going to tell you 100%. I opened it because I want to watch it. But there are a few that we might have received as a gift that I haven't watched. But maybe three at most.
Sonny00:10:01The Criterion Channel, not streaming in 4K yet, but they plan on adding 4K content. So I ought to just sign up now. I mean, I would say it depends on I mean, it depends on if you're interested in in I'm interested.
JVL00:10:14I just won't I won't actually get to watch it. This will be the streaming equivalent of Unwrapped Blu-ray.
Vic00:10:20I will go and subscribe.
JVL00:10:22So I know it's there. And any time I want to go stream from the criteria, I can you can do it, but you never do.
Sonny00:10:27I will say you never do, but it's there. I will say that the the number of criterion proper titles that are that are available at any given time are it's modest right now. It's only like 30 or 40 titles.
JVL00:10:40They're just starting up. No, no, no, no, no.
Sonny00:10:42And again, I think it's going to be like, it's not like you pay the money and you have access to every Criterion movie ever made. They're going to have like a rotating curated. Curation is very important these days.
JVL00:10:52But you don't want to give people, I mean, choice theory dictates that you don't want to paralyze people with too much choice.
Sonny00:10:57This is 100. So this is why I'm actually really into this noir series is because I've always been curious about noir, but I've never really had any idea where to start. I've like watched The Maltese Falcon and that's a long movie. And that's about it. And therefore it's terrible.
Vic00:11:12And therefore I didn't see it. But isn't Tony Blankley in The Maltese Falcon as a kid? He is actually.
Sonny00:11:18I think he's like six years old.
Vic00:11:19Yeah, he's a kid.
Sonny00:11:20Okay. Anyway, so that was my Monday. I don't know if anything else happened on Monday. Wow. You missed nothing.
Vic00:11:28I'm doing okay. I'll get to me in a second. But JVL, what about you? What's going on?
JVL00:11:32So I will give you the brief stat line from flash's emergence upon the travel league unleashed so the way travel baseball works is you go and you have double headers every every sunday and so you travel out and the teams play two let's play two boys uh the team that flash's team played last week is probably the best travel team in northern virginia the weekend prior to that he played against yes the weekend prior to this they rang up 42 runs in their two games which is a lot and so Flash went in and started against them and he threw three and two thirds innings gave up two runs one earned no hits four walks 11 strikeouts how many strikeouts does he have? It goes to 11 amazing good every that's every do the math yeah do the math he struck out all of the outs
Sonny00:12:36were strikeouts nobody was but he's very nolan ryan like lots of strikeouts lots of walks but he gets four walks that's a great that's a great ratio actually it's like right yeah that's what 1.25 whip something like that yeah that's a that's an awesome whip it was so good that when
JVL00:12:51he was pulled because he was pulled because of hard pitch count uh they don't let him throw more than 85 pitches in travel league i'm actually kind of surprised they let him go that high i was too i I thought it was going to be 70. And so when he was pulled, the opposing team's parents all clapped and cheered for him and said, great job out there, number two. Wow. It was great. And then his team gave up nine runs the next inning. Inning and a third.
Sonny00:13:16It was great. He's got to get that pitch count down so he can go longer into the game.
JVL00:13:19Well, no, but this is the problem, right? As a dominant strikeout pitcher, all of his at-bats are long at-bats. So the other team had a bunch of ground ball pitchers where they'd come in And kids would, on the first pitch or second pitch, hit grounder to short, pop fly up. Nobody was even putting that on ball against him. They just can't touch him because his velocity is so high. They couldn't catch up to him. And I think, actually, this is why his team gave up nine runs then immediately after because the problem— Frank, I don't mean to second-guess our coaching staff on the travel team, But I would not ever start Flash because you start him and then you bring in a kid who's throwing 15 miles an hour slower after him. A reliever. The other kids are going to be dialed in to just hit him like a pinball machine. I would always pitch the other kid. Flash should be the last three innings. Yes, I would pitch him the second three innings as opposed to the first three innings.
Sonny00:14:18I hope the coach doesn't listen to this.
JVL00:14:19I think it's unlikely. Coaches don't like. Well, I would never say this to the coach. this is again this is not I'm not one of those parents
Sonny00:14:25you're just getting all mad dog on him
JVL00:14:27I'm not all mad I'm just sitting
Sonny00:14:28I'm just sitting out here as a fan
JVL00:14:31supporter of the team
Sonny00:14:32who were the Philly hosts who were dragging you
JVL00:14:34you know it's it was people who have joined WIP 610 WIP since my departure from Philly so I don't actually know who those are
Sonny00:14:45it would have been worse if it had been
JVL00:14:47like Angela Cataldi or one of the hosts that I love that would have been bad
Vic00:14:51question so like in basketball you know you hear about and i guess football to a lesser extent um coaches scouts from either college whatever they start showing up just to look at you know the the younger kids what is it like uh for baseball like when do scouts or college or i guess high school coaches obviously uh start showing up just to watch games or do they they start showing up in high school
JVL00:15:14but they don't show up to the high school games they show up to showcase games so what so okay so So you have all these levels. You have high school baseball, which is you play for Monsignor Donovan or John Paul the Great or Collingswood High. And then you have kids on their travel team. And then there are travel teams above that called showcase teams where they bring the best kids from these 15 travel teams together onto a showcase team. But the point of showcase teams is really it's an exhibition. so a showcase game is a game that is ultimately meaningless but it's just an excuse to put all the kids who are basically scoutable all the best players and see how they do so that the scouts it's like the senior senior bowl yeah kind of like that but then but they have a whole league which is essentially those the whole idea behind them is just to get the kids in front of scouts uh and yeah look i don't know where gonna sorry you'll have to edit that out i don't know where flash is gonna is gonna wind up but i can tell you this he's gonna do okay in high school yeah because man alive the girls he's gonna crush it in high school lovely this kid is ready to go
Vic00:16:30i'm so glad you're so ready to go you're saying it for him are you living vicariously through him
JVL00:16:36what's happening this is what it is you know like the vicarious sports experience that i'm having that most parents have is like, ah, living out my glory. For me, it's just like, yeah. Yep. He's going to be like Matthew McConaughey. Oh, my gosh. The Beach Bump? Faced and confused.
Vic00:16:50Much like Matthew McConaughey and the Beach Bump. Victorino, how are you? I am good. Are you packed? Have you already packed your suitcases? Oh, yeah. That's right. Well, as some of you might know, I am off next week going down to the Caribbean, going down to Grand Cayman to check off on my offshore accounts. Got to look at my offshore accounts. Got to catch that fish. Looking at my offshore accounts with Gene Hackman. Isn't that, what is it, the firm? The firm, right. Bendini Lambert and something. Bendini Lambert is the thing. No, so it's a long-awaited vacation. Looking forward to that. I'll be concerned about my RG diet. There could be some complications. Well, you'll be all fish down there, right? Oh, yes. So you'll be fine. Probably for me, I'll subsist mostly on rum and conch fritters. You're not going to drink while you're down there, are you?
Sonny00:17:37What are conch fritters? Okay, what are conch fritters? What are conch fritters?
JVL00:17:41How do you not know?
Sonny00:17:42Are those like hush puppies? Similar, except for they're made of conch. That's right. What's conch? Like the shell that you blow into when you're on the island with the children? Do you know where those shells come from?
Vic00:17:57The ocean? From animals that live inside. They live inside it, and it's a muscle. I mean, it's a shellfish. So the Italians, of course, as you know, remember what they call it? Like in Jersey? No. Skungeal. Oh, is that what skungeal is?
JVL00:18:13I always thought skungeal was...
Vic00:18:14No, I guess it wouldn't be squid.
JVL00:18:15I never really thought too hard about it. What do they call octopus?
Vic00:18:19I don't know. I don't know. But the skungeal, I could be corrected on this. I'm pretty sure that was conch. But anyway, you take the conch. Oofah. Skungeal. Skungeal is great. Anyway, so hush puppies. I love it. I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to eat a whole slice of pizza.
JVL00:18:35Are you going to drink rum while you're down there? Probably a lot. But I know there's a lot of molasses. It's not good for you.
Vic00:18:41I know it's not. You shouldn't have the rum. I'm going to limit. I'm going to limit.
Sonny00:18:44Only seven a day. Rum is like the worst of the liquors to drink because it's just sugar. It's very heavy. And you know what?
JVL00:18:52It's the best of the liquors.
Sonny00:18:54It's the worst of the liquors by far. Rum is the best of the liquors. Oh, 100%.
JVL00:18:58Give me a bottle of pussers.
Sonny00:19:00It's better than tequila, but that's about it. Tequila's trash.
Vic00:19:04I like rum, but I don't drink it because of the calorie reasons and the molasses. Okay, so question. Really? Question. It is April 11th. Yeah.
JVL00:19:15You are allowed 60 drinks a month. How many drinks have you had thus far in April?
Vic00:19:21I had a few last night. I wasn't supposed to. All right, let's say. Was that a foodie roundtable? What do you have? 55 for the month? Yeah, maybe. I don't know.
JVL00:19:29How long are you going to be in the Caribbean? Like five, six days, I think. Six days.
Vic00:19:33so you could have nearly nine drinks per day per day and still be within the limits of rj i feel much better now right yes i think so hey there you go and plus you can have those fruity cocktails and it's thank you you can have the fruity cocktails and it's not kind of like silly to have the fruity cocktails there you can get a pina colada there but the thing is even like my fantasy of drinking like this happened on uh on my honeymoon where because the hotel we were staying at British in the British Virgin Islands in Virgin Gorda a hurricane had previously been there and so the pool was damaged and so the place which no longer exists said we're really sorry about it so all the drinks at the hotel are on the house right and so because of the pool I said I don't go to the pool anyway I'm a beach guy so I said this is great it'll be like all the tropical drinks I want you know what that's like it's like drinking milkshakes all day
JVL00:20:22yeah it's it's not good but you're working it off when you're in your honeymoon i'm not even adding to that i was gonna make a joke and i won't okay so the other thing is that
Vic00:20:32so in between now and then and lent is almost over i have uh you know spending more family time the kids all know how to play hearts by the way which is great now this is very good perfect um and also uh i watched some interesting movies i watched with my son uh the other day the Final Countdown from 1980, and it stars Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen and Charles Durning and James Farantino and Catherine Ross. And it's about the – you would love it. This was like a fantasy for me at the time. I don't even remember it. It's silly, but it's great if you're a kid. If you're like 12 or 13, this is fantastic, or 11. It's the USS Carrier Nimitz is in the Pacific. They get sucked into a time warp, and suddenly it's December 6, 1941, And do they stop the attack? That's the movie. It's great for your kid. If you're an adult, you're like, okay, they don't explain the time. There's no explanation. They just go through a circle. Yeah, there's a battle between and it's real footage because they had no special effects. They use for on a few occasions are so hokey and awful, but they got they were allowed. They were allowed to film on the USS Nimitz. So you had F-14s and zeros, Japanese zeros and authentic real zeros. And so, you know, splash the zeros, Kirk Douglas says. You know, I mean, and it's fantastic. And Charles Durning plays a senator that was from 1941, and they have the F-14s fly over, you know. And he's like, you know, he was at U.S. markings, and he's flipping out. He's like, how come they've kept this a secret from us? And then when, like, he gets rescued by the, you know, the Nimitz after, like, the Japanese shoot up his yacht, he gets on board, and he's outraged. And one of the outrages is I cannot believe they named a carrier after Chester Nimitz, who's still serving. That's great stuff. It's all sorts of counterfactuals, all sorts of counterfactuals.
Sonny00:22:23So wait, so they stopped the attack. No, no, they want to know that they would have to not do it.
Vic00:22:29That's the dilemma. And there's a weird time loop thing where you meet the person like somebody got left behind in 1941 and then you see them in 1980. But it turns out they were there earlier. But, you know, it's like, you know how you get locked in this thing. So when did it keep on going? But I love, yeah, because the question is, had they done it, right? And there's a big debate over that. Had they, and Martin Sheen was all for it. But had they stopped it, what would have happened? Because the immediate effect is, oh, great, all these people are saved. But suppose the long-term effect is, oh, the United States decides not to go to war in Europe. You can't. Right, because Germany declared war on the United States. Because Germany then would have nuked us. Well, the next thing you know, it's man in the high castle, you know. so it's interesting
JVL00:23:12was this on Netflix where is this let them die
Vic00:23:14Amazon Amazon or Netflix it's either Amazon or Netflix and it's short it's short but there's no explanation of the time warp it just happens you don't need it
JVL00:23:23there was a famous Twitter not Twitter thread there was a famous Reddit thread do you guys remember this called Roman Legion versus Mobiles oh right yeah yeah yeah it was a Reddit thread that got bought by I think Warner Brothers they were going to turn it into a movie the idea was like an entire marine outpost just like gets plopped down in the middle of the Roman Empire and who would win. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love that stuff. It kills me that this movie never got made. Oh, yeah. I would have been so into that. It'll never happen. But man, that would have been great.
Vic00:23:51Well, go see the final countdown. For me, it brought the kid out of me. And I am kind of, as you know, like a hard...
Sonny00:23:58It's hard to get the childlike wonder back in Vic Madden.
Vic00:24:01I was going to say, Sonny, I am kind of like a kid trapped inside a man's body. Speaking of which, over the weekend, Shazam!
Sonny00:24:08I almost stepped on it.
Vic00:24:11I'm working on the spot, though. I was able to adjust it. Flew to the top of the spot of the box office with $53 million. Is that good? Let me get to that in a second. Followed by Pet Sematary with $25 million. And in third place, Dumbo with $18 million, which, by the way, is a 60% drop for Dumbo. Box office thoughts? Box office thoughts. Is Shazam good? as johnny ivy was asking is that a good number for shithead um yes it is better than warner
Sonny00:24:43brothers or anybody else was expecting it beat tracking by 25 30 something like that um it is not like marvel good it's not it's not dc good it's not even like like not aquaman normal dc good but it but it was this is also a relatively cheap movie they made it for 80 90 million bucks boy is it um uh and the the i assume the ad campaign was probably a bit cheaper too so i mean look this movie needs to make about 400 million dollars worldwide to break even and there they'll be at i don't know what 250 after is this the weakest dc opening
JVL00:25:18ever worse than suicide squad worse than aquaman worse than wonder woman yeah yeah well it's It's definitely Batman versus Superman. It's worse than all those. Yeah, sure, sure. Okay. So it was the lowest grossing DC opening ever. Yeah. Okay. Not good. But I had something I want to share with you guys. Yes, Jay. It turns out Pet Sematary isn't really a horror movie. It's a comedy with horror elements. So you should go see it. Oh, come on. You should just go see it, Vic. It is not scary. Don't worry.
Vic00:25:48It is not the same as us. Don't worry.
JVL00:25:50I saw it. It's fine. It's not the same as us. You didn't see Pet Sematary. You would never see that. You would never. You would never see that in a million years.
Sonny00:25:59Your jokes are not based on reality, and therefore they are not funny, JVL. No, I would say Shazam. So Shazam is obviously like a low opening by the standards, all of these standards that we mentioned. It's not a Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman opening. It's not even really an Ant-Man opening. It's less than that. It's less than that.
Vic00:26:20But is there an argument because the budget's lower?
Sonny00:26:22Yeah, but the budget's lower. I do not think that Warner Brothers is disappointed with this opening. I do not think that would be the case. Right.
Vic00:26:32And you saw Shazam JVL. I saw the Shazam.
JVL00:26:36Did anybody else see Shazam?
Vic00:26:38I saw Shazam. All three of us did. Sonny. There's nothing to say. Gene's still in jail. Shazam.
Sonny00:26:44I mean, that's really it. Sonny. Oh, yeah. A man trapped in a boy's body. I mean, are you kidding me? You can't do anything with that? How about a big boy review? Shazam! Exclamation point. Is the story of the good Captain Marvel.
Guest00:27:05Wow. What? What?
Sonny00:27:09There's more truth to that. Explaining this would take too long, and frankly, I don't know. But the rights issues, DC had a character called Captain Marvel that Marvel got very upset about and said, no, you can't do this, whatever. It doesn't matter. The point is, I'm just going to refer to this movie forever as the good Captain Marvel movie. Shazam is about a boy who is a foster child. He's trying to find his place in the world. He's trying to find his mother and figure out what happened to his childhood who is sent to live with a foster family that's super cute. It's comically diverse. And when he runs away from them after stopping some bullies from, you know, beating up his crippled foster brother, he gets sucked into some sort of shadow land. And he's given the powers of Shazam. So what is it? It's the strength of Hercules. Strength of Hercules. Notice that wisdom of Solomon stuff doesn't really manifest all that much, does it?
JVL00:28:17No, no. All right. So it's the speed of Mercury. Speed of Mercury. Zeus, something Zeus.
Sonny00:28:22Wisdom, no, Wisdom of Athena?
JVL00:28:24I don't know.
Sonny00:28:25And he gets it from Jimon Hounsou. Jimon Hounsou, who was also in Captain Marvel. Say my name! He was in both the bad and the good Captain Marvel movies. Great trivia. Yeah, he was playing the guy. He's at Cree.
JVL00:28:37That's funny. Yeah. I hadn't really thought of that.
Sonny00:28:39Yeah, yeah, yeah. The checks just keep on coming for Jimon. So, Shazam is basically superhero big. This is kind of the elevator pitch for it. superhero big uh the the adult superhero played by zachary levi is doing a whole childlike wonder whimsy thing there's even the piano oh my gosh he steps on a piano for a minute and is like uh for no reason whatsoever well he's in a toy store the fourth wall he's in a toy store that's that's fine in case there was anybody JVL you really seem to like this movie okay well you really
JVL00:29:14There was anybody in the audience who didn't know that this was superhero movie. Go ahead and take over. Let's study finish.
Sonny00:29:20JVL's got things he wants to say. Go on. Go on. I want you to finish reviewing it. You have things you want to say here.
JVL00:29:27I'm just Waldorf and Statler-ing from here. I apologize for interrupting the big boy review.
Sonny00:29:33I enjoyed the film three stars.
JVL00:29:37Go ahead.
Sonny00:29:38You ruined it, JVL.
Vic00:29:41You ruined it. Listeners will know, by the way, this is real. This is not laughing matter. This is real.
Sonny00:29:46He wants to have his jokes, so he can have his jokes. Go on. Come on, joke man. Come on, joke man. Tell your jokes.
JVL00:29:52So glad I'm off next week. So John Pod texted me last night at like 1030. He says, you're not going to complain that they didn't have like the sword of Ragnarok from the comic books, are you? Is that a thing? No, it's not. It's John making fun of me. This is a terrible movie. And it's a terrible movie based on a terrible comic book, which has a terrible set of characters. And it's it just I this is the death march. This this is the slog of super. We are now firmly into the world of comic books, movies that are so bad that, like, even I can't get it up to want to see them. It's like two of them in a row now, like Captain Marvel, which, again, you know, I'm the monkey's paw. like hey i wish we had comic book movies and we haven't even gotten to hellboy yet and these are two and again i evolved even when i wasn't excited to see dr strange i was like well i'd have to see dr strange anyway because like it's it's part of the marvel cinematic universe blah blah blah and this is now two movies dr strange gets an a where i if i didn't have to see it for the show i would really just pass and god this movie is terrible and it's terrible all on its like even by its own merits right i mean victorino all right please don't if you come in here and say
Sonny00:31:15three stars no no say i you know i don't do the star system i do the letter grades you you you say it's terrible what was terrible about it explain don't just say explain provide proof
JVL00:31:26sir mr rotten tomatoes put you on the spot your thesis statement is not enough it does not make Sense by the standards of its own Internal logic okay Right so so the wizard Shazam is seeking A good person of Pure and noble heart to Be his champion And the only person his Powerful magic can find Is this slightly D-bag kid who Does not become Good until he has the powers Now you could Say maybe that like the powers are simply revealing his inner goodness but i don't know maybe the powers are actually what make him good do you know who who the magic spell should have revealed as being a noble person and true heart diana prince do you know who else they might have revealed clark kent the whole dc universe is full of characters who are actually good-hearted noble people who would do the right thing and instead it finds this d-bag 14 year old kid this doesn't make sense it doesn't nothing about this makes sense the other person pulled in to like you know to start the movie with to be the jean hansu shazam magic pulls in to test him is the guy who becomes the arch villain what sort of effed up magic is this well magic is always bad uh the sunny you because you reviewed the you you
Sonny00:32:49you reviewed this so my my take on this would be that the first off those aren't the only two people that are called in there's a whole scene where they talk about how hundreds of people were called
JVL00:32:59Do any of these people look like Phenomenon?
Sonny00:33:00They were all tempted by the seven deadly sins. Right. And we'll get to that in a second because the seven deadly sins are the weakest part of the film, I think. But the, yeah, okay, fine. That's fine. I, like, agree that the setup is basically silly. Fine. I'm sorry that the magic that turns the child into Superman is not quite logical enough for more discerning tastes. But here's what I find interesting about the film. Here's what I find interesting about the film, is that, again, within the world of the DC universe, which I have described in the past as essentially being concerned with the effect that gods have, the effect that the revealing that there are gods in the world walking among us have on the world, it works on that level, right? So the crippled kid who is obsessed with Batman and Superman has the Superman slug with a certificate of authenticity, you know, bounced off his chest and he's got the fake Batarang, right? And he's got, so he's like super into Batman and Superman. He's the one who has to teach Billy Batson how to use his powers for good. And the reason he does this is because he is in this world where superheroes are real and they provide an example for people to live by, right? And that example is what Billy Batson has to absorb. You know, he's in his own little world with his own little problems. And he is granted these powers. The powers don't make him good. The powers make him kind of a D-bag still. He's dancing on the rocky steps, shooting lightning up, getting, you know, busking for change. He's not a good person just because he has the powers. He has to be taught the lesson that you have to do good with the powers to be a good person. right but but none of this makes sense by the internal logic of the movie that the powers only go to the good person he only got the powers at the end because he was the last person the wizard could call none of this makes sense okay again i'm sorry that the movie where the child turns into the superman is not is not logical logically rigorous enough no it's not even it's it's not
Vic00:35:10dramatically rigorous enough nothing victory now okay um i'd say uh i had a lot of problems with this movie but the one saving grace of the movie is Zachary Levi I was a big fan of his in Chuck with Adam Baldwin and I think her name is Yvonne Strahovski or something like that there's always confusion between her and another actress there was an actress that was in the movie Swimfan and it's not her I had this conversation with Mike Goldfarb a few times and I would always mention Yvonne Strahovski and he would always go oh yeah she was great in Swimfan and I'm like she's not in swim fan it's totally unrelated um you're thinking about it was julia styles uh no no but another girl who i don't think made it after christensen there you go there we go wow i didn't even effort that yeah i just i'm pretty sure that's what it was excellent all right so but but he's very likable he's very charming so there uh there are funny moments with that and there's also some poignant moments also with the family and him looking for his mother it's kind of sad
Sonny00:36:04That said J-Pod emailed me And was like The problem with this movie Is that The kid is kind of a dick And then he turns And then he's like Whimsical and funny As Zachary Levi And that doesn't make any sense He's been He's been He's dour And he's I'm like of course he's dour He's a foster kid Who's been abandoned By his mother And So he's by nature Happier when he is So he gets these powers He's like Oh yeah this is cool This is better
JVL00:36:29Yeah
Vic00:36:30It reminded me of the at the end when there are multiple Shazams do they have different names? Oh, they come up with their own names, I think. Kid Marvel.
JVL00:36:43Mary Marvel. Mary Shazam.
Vic00:36:47That's right. That's the same one. Uncle Marvel. That's right. The old guy, right? Isn't there the old guy? The fat old guy? Yes, the fat old guy.
JVL00:36:54Uncle Daryl, right? I believe it is.
Vic00:36:57And there was Marvel and they can't use Marvel. So they don't use the word Marvel at all in this at all.
JVL00:37:02They don't. They dance. Captain Sparklefingers. Right.
Vic00:37:06So that is all faithful to the comics, is what you're saying at the end. Those particular bright colors. And it looks kind of sort of reminded me. It reminded me of, like, the Super Friends, Hanna-Barbera era of cartoons.
JVL00:37:22It should remind you of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Or that. Which is what it kind of looks like. This is the problem with Zachary Levi, actually. So Zachary Levi is good, I think. He's very terrible. Like, is a star who carries this movie in important ways. And then when they turn all of the kids, the kids are great, too. I really, really, especially the little girl, Darla. She's great. The girl plays Mary Marvel. I wrote her name down because I thought you would really dig her, Vic. She was interesting. Grace Fulton. She's really good. And then the kids turn into their superhero alter egos. And the actors playing their superhero alter egos are terrible. Including Adam Brody. What about Adam Brody?
Vic00:38:01What's going on there?
JVL00:38:03TV, like, you know, basically fourth tier TV actors. And it's like, I would say the difference between in quality of presentation on screen between Zach Levi and the rest of the Marvel family when they're all standing around is
Vic00:38:17really, really jarring. I'm going to ask a question that I know I'm going to get made fun of, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Different actress from Mary Marvel.
JVL00:38:30No, no, no, no, no, no. So Grace Fulton, the young Mary Marvel, is actually quite good. That was not my question. Michelle Borth, who becomes the old Mary Marvel, not good.
Vic00:38:39No, my question is, how much of them is that they worked out or they got actors who were very muscular versus CGI versus padding? This is all muscle suit. The whole thing is a muscle suit.
Sonny00:38:49This is all George Michael muscle suit. I also thought that was kind of the joke, though. Yeah. I don't mind that at all.
Vic00:38:58What about Zachary Levi? Did he bulk up at all, or is it both? It's all suit.
Guest00:39:04I knew I was going to. I didn't know.
Sonny00:39:06I was wondering. He was on the most recent season of Marvelous Miss Maisel, and he did not look like that. Okay. Yes, he was. He was big, though. He's big. That's true. He's a big guy. He's great in the Marvelous Miss Maisel. He's like 6'2", or something. I mean, he's not a small person.
Vic00:39:18All right. Well, some people really bulk up for this. I mean, Christian Bale.
Sonny00:39:22I mean, he's not Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill didn't wear a suit. Right. I mean, you think about it. Henry Cavill was, like, actually throwing big rigs around. That's, like, how strong he was.
Vic00:39:32I remember the original Superman with Christopher Reeve in the 1970s, and there's always the behind-the-scenes footage of him working out, but it's 1970s weightlifting, which is a different standard. He's got, like, warmers on. Yeah, I mean, you know, he's thick, but it's not like there's no definition. He's just, you know, just lifting, benching a couple times. So I had concerns about that.
Sonny00:39:52My problem with this movie is Mark Strong, who I don't think works as a villain. don't think works as a villain and this is the second time they've tried to make him a villain in a in a low tier dc movie was the first time he was sinestro in green lantern yeah yeah it just doesn't he he is i like mark strong a lot love him love him in rock and roll i love him in zero dark 30 like anytime he pops up i'm happy to see him more or less love him in sherlock holmes he His best role. Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes. He just doesn't... It doesn't work. The superhero thing doesn't work for him. I don't know what it is exactly. Well, the character... This character doesn't work. The character's a bad character.
Vic00:40:32Is that a real character? Yeah.
JVL00:40:34Dr. Savannah's a real character. And... The caterpillar is a real thing. I was going to ask...
Vic00:40:38I don't understand the ending. I waited for that stinger. It made no sense to me. The talking caterpillar.
JVL00:40:44I could not force myself to stay in the theater for the stinger.
Vic00:40:47Is there one at the very, very end? There's one at the very, very end. What's the one at the very end?
Sonny00:40:51At the very, very end, the two, so Zachary Levi and his little kid marvel, I guess, are talking about, they're trying to figure out if he can communicate telepathically with fish.
Vic00:41:06Oh.
Sonny00:41:07And Zachary Levi's like, this is stupid. Why would anybody want to do that? And the kid's like, because, and he points to his shirt, he's got like an Aquaman shirt on. The whole thing's connected.
JVL00:41:15Oh, they're part of an expanded universe. I saw that clip.
Vic00:41:19They were using that in a commercial, and I said they didn't show it, and so I was confused about it. But what was the stinger with the caterpillar?
Sonny00:41:28Mark Strong is in prison, and he's writing all the magic symbols down to try and get back to the Hall of Wonders or whatever that place was. And he hears a voice telling him, we're going to have so much fun together. And it's like a robot voice coming out of a little caterpillar.
JVL00:41:45So what is that? that's a real i forget the name okay mr mind yeah mr mind and dr savannah they're they're a thing
Vic00:41:52together and then i'm surprised mr mind didn't just say it took me six months to get here
Sonny00:41:56because well that's because he's got an inch because he's way up there look i agree that shazam is kind of a weird and lame character the only version of shazam i've ever liked is the kingdom come shazam where he's been uh enslaved by lex luther is like mind controlled shazam into being billy bat like grown-up billy batson all the time and then he goes nuts and
JVL00:42:18starts killing people uh at the end of the the comic there are a couple interesting things happening here one of which is this is the first time dc has said it in a real city i was actually
Sonny00:42:29so i philadelphia so it's set in philadelphia at faucet central which is he is supposed to like captain mark shazam is is supposed to be in faucet city i believe so and the high school was called faucet central but it's in philadelphia so this is a legacy problem for dc which is that they
JVL00:42:47you know in 1939 decided to set everything in fictional cities metropolis and marvel when they started their superhero renaissance in 1966 or whatever it was um they chose to put it in the real world as things at the time that seemed like there was no difference at all but now that we live in a world of cinematic universes it's a really big you need that and i 61 61 i now wonder if there will be tremendous backlash if dc were to say you know what gotham and metropolis and central city and star city they're all dead we're just putting people in real cities and we're sorry about that i think they can keep gotham and metropolis i i don't think they should i think they should rip the bandaid off and just do it like putting you know what superman and uh and batman live in new york deal with it i i would just well don't they have to live in different cities uh i don't think they do actually um may i mean i i think you could do either one but i
Sonny00:43:54think they should rip the shouldn't they live on two cities across from a big lake they can just kind of take helicopter rides back and forth.
JVL00:44:01One should know it for Minneapolis and St. Paul. Yeah, Twin Cities. Twin Cities. That's where they should both be based. I can live with that.
Vic00:44:07Did you notice the ending to the end credit scene is like a ripoff of Spider-Man Homecomings when they do Blitzkrieg Pop at the end of that?
Sonny00:44:17You mean the credits animation? Yes. Yes, yes. It's a ripoff. It is a ripoff of that. And also kind of all of the, what do you call it, The 21 Jump Street movies and the Spider-Verse. Like, it's a thing now. I mean, look, the big problem with this movie is that it is extremely derivative of, it's basically a Marvel movie. It's a Marvel movie set in the Disney world. It's derivative of everything. It has nothing new or interesting. Being derivative is fine.
JVL00:44:46It's fine if you do it in new and interesting ways. I thought it was fun.
Sonny00:44:48I thought it was fun. I thought the action sequences were pleasingly, like, small and, like, low-key and personal and not big, you know, we-have-to-save-the-world stuff. I like that. The only thing I had an issue with was the seven deadly sins thing. Oh, right. You were mentioning this. So, I, like, is it just me or is that stuff a little bit intense for this movie that has been marketed at, like, families?
Vic00:45:19Definitely. There are aspects of it you think that is. I mean, there were a lot of kids in my theater.
JVL00:45:23Was Michael rooting for the Sins?
Vic00:45:25Yeah, I'm sure he liked Mark Strong. You know, he's like, oh, that guy's good. But it's weird. And, I mean, and Shazam does make a joke about lust, thinking that lust would be way hotter than that, you know? But, I mean, I guess. I mean, was that also a thing?
Sonny00:45:42There was also that great scene in the strip club where they pop into the strip club and pop out.
JVL00:45:46Do you know why that existed? So we could get our super woke character. To say, I did. We have a gay superhero outfit.
Guest00:45:54First gay superhero.
Vic00:45:55Because he says, suck it, Mike Pence. It's not really, thank you, thank you. It's not really my thing, is what he said. I caught that.
JVL00:46:03Yup, it's there. It would have been more super woke
Vic00:46:09had he grown up and become a female superhero. As a narrative. Sorry, do you want to bleep that? Did I bleep that? Okay, sorry.
JVL00:46:16As a narrative thing. That was Vic Madden. Vic had said, I would say, interesting, brave. it would be brave dc has a superman problem right and and superman is too powerful and the fact of superman robs all stories involving superman of any dramatic tension the the problem the only good superman villain is zod for this reason right yeah the the problem here is that superman is the single most valuable piece of intellectual property that dc owns and arguably Batman. Arguably Batman. I would say inarguably Batman. I think it's 1A, 1B. Okay. So they can't get rid of Superman. So what do they do? They just make another Superman,
Vic00:47:00which is what Captain Marvel is. Yes.
JVL00:47:02So if Superman is science Superman, Captain Marvel is magic Superman. And then they give you four other Supermans. Why? Why, why, why, why? Why do you take your narrative problems and multiply them? Right. I thought he would also lose his powers.
Vic00:47:21I thought he would lose his powers when, you know, the staff.
JVL00:47:25Yeah. No. I know. They're all, you know, he's invulnerable. He can do anything. I didn't quite understand.
Sonny00:47:31He punches so hard. So, wait. I didn't quite understand with the staff where they multiply into all the other Shazams. Yeah. I thought he would lose his powers. Does each of the Shazams have one facet of the powers? Is that what was going on? No.
JVL00:47:45I thought. In the comics. Hey. So, in the comic books, they all have the same powers, but they also have individual powers that are unique to them. Like, one of them can move things with his mind, and another one can control lightning beams. Who knows what they'll do with this? And it doesn't matter what they will... I hope we hear from Comic Book Guy again. He's so informative. And he knows a lot, obviously. Read all the comics. But it's, again, like, you are multiplying your problems. How does Marvel become more interesting? By having people with nonsense powers like Ant-Man. Like, what can Ant-Man actually do?
Vic00:48:23Almost nothing. Like, he can turn really big for about five minutes.
Sonny00:48:26He can go in Thanos' butt. Yeah, he can turn really big for five minutes, and then he falls asleep.
JVL00:48:31Like, you know, they overpower everything. And the problem with overpowering is that it robs your stories of dramatic tension. Right, because you're invincible.
Vic00:48:41Invincible.
JVL00:48:42I just hate it. And there's also the fact that DC is importing problems from the comic books into the movies instead of cleaning up problems. So DC has historically had a family problem, which is that if you go back in the comics, there was the Marvel family. There's a whole series called the Marvel family, which is Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Kid Marvel, Uncle Marvel, literally like 17 of them. There is literally a bunny called Hoppy the Marvel Rabbit, who is the super-powered Shazam version who sometimes comes in and helps. And then you had the Batman family of comics. This was a real thing. It's Batman and Robin and Batgirl and Huntress and Batmite, which is a thing. The Superman family, which is Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Crypto, the Superdog. And these things are such utter crap, and they are relics of really, really bad creative times in comic books. And instead of the people at Warner Brothers deciding that they're going to bury that stuff and make something new, they've decided they're going to start importing it into their cinematic universe. This is terrible. Yeah, they're bringing their problems in there. This is really, really bad. The cinematic universe is a chance to fix your problems and to only take the stuff that works and is good and to leave behind all the stuff that doesn't. You leave your creative mistakes behind you and make something new. And instead, with Captain Marvel, they've decided they're going to take their creative mistakes and bring them in with them along. And I just think that in the long term, this is bad and stupid and is going to help us care even less about the DC Cinematic Universe. There. I'm done. But three stars, Sonny, by all means. Three stars. Just like Widows. I believe you gave Widows three stars. Maybe three and a half. I think three and a half. Was Widows a half star better than Shazam?
Sonny00:50:25Well, according to Vic, it was worse. What was your grade?
JVL00:50:29I said beach bum worse than widows.
Vic00:50:32That was how it is in the quotes. You know, you can call that out.
JVL00:50:36Grade Shazam. I gave it a B. Oh, my God. Serious question. Serious question. Yeah. Give me a greater lesser sign Shazam Captain Marvel. Shazam greater sign Captain Marvel. Yeah, you just said that.
Sonny00:50:49Yeah. Vic. Good Captain Marvel better than bad Captain Marvel.
Vic00:50:53No, I like Captain Marvel better. I think she's great. I love her.
Sonny00:50:58Brie Larson. You just love that Nine Inch Nails t-shirt.
Vic00:51:01That's a great one. And she's in the show called The Unicorn Thing. The Unicorn, whatever it is. I want to watch that. That looks great.
Sonny00:51:08That looks like the worst thing that has ever been committed to streaming.
Vic00:51:13I might watch it. Really quickly, Sonny, you talked about Zod. You're talking about General Zod as being the best villain.
Sonny00:51:19Yeah, best Superman villain. Not Gorilla Grodd? I assume Gorilla Grodd will show up in Shazam at some point. We'll get him in our cyborg movie, our Flash movie, right? That Flash movie is never going to happen. Did you hear that Ezra Miller has demanded to rewrite it?
JVL00:51:39What? Was it not gay enough?
Sonny00:51:42What is his... The actor wants to rewrite the movie. That's always a good sign. He's going to rewrite it with Grant Morrison's help, I believe.
JVL00:51:53Oh, Grant Morrison. Well, that guy is really into streamlined narration. uh you know really stripped down makes a lot of sense who's doing middle and end who's directing
Sonny00:52:03flash is it a big name i don't know yeah yeah uh ezra miller grant morrison writing script did they finally get a director because they've no they've been they've been they've spent years they've been trying to get this off the ground since dawn of justice so like this is like we're
JVL00:52:16and they kept announcing like now we have our three finalists it was like steven spielberg is a finalist for this we're not sure if we're gonna go with him or not and like these things So there were transparent games they were playing with Variety and Deadline. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Vic00:52:30They clearly had some D-list director on the line who was hemming and hawing.
JVL00:52:34And so they instead leaked, we're in talks with Catherine Bigelow. It could happen.
Sonny00:52:41And then Paul W.S. Anderson found out that Ezra Miller wanted to rewrite it.
JVL00:52:44I was like, he was that close.
Vic00:52:46He was that close.
JVL00:52:49No, honestly, I like this even less than I liked Suicide Squad, which I thought was a pretty incompetent movie, but that had interesting things in it. Suicide Squad has a brilliant acting turn by Margot Robbie.
Sonny00:53:06Suicide Squad is the most incompetently put together major studio film in the last five years. I mean, it is.
JVL00:53:13No, well, close.
Sonny00:53:14Just as a pure... Bottom five. As a pure, like, storytelling, as a pure piece of narrative storytelling, not like a... It's not supposed to be clever or, you know, complicated, or anything. It's pretty straightforward, and it's bad from start to finish. I agree with that, but
JVL00:53:29it has two really great performances on it. Margot Robey and Bayola Davis, who are both great in that movie. Margot Robey is great in that movie. Was Will Smith in that movie?
Sonny00:53:37He is okay. He's fine. Margot Robey is good in it, though I watched a bit of it again on TV, because it was on cable or something. That accent really goes in and out. She doesn't really commit to it. I'm fine with that. I realize that this is not why she was hired for the role.
JVL00:53:53She commits to the crazy, though. She does.
Vic00:53:55She really gets to the crazy.
Sonny00:53:57I like Margot Robbie a lot. She's great.
Vic00:54:00We don't have that much time left. But speaking of crazy, what about, could Joker save the day for DC then? You saw the trailer. We all saw the trailer. What do you guys think about that?
Sonny00:54:09I liked the trailer a lot. I mean, look. I did. I understand.
Vic00:54:12And I know our listener, Father Harrison, makes an argument against explaining evil. But it's still an interesting trailer. And I like Jimmy Durante singing that song.
Sonny00:54:21Here's what I like. the fact that Joaquin Phoenix is essentially one of our three or four most interesting actors. Yes. And the Joker is always an interesting character, even when he's played poorly or incorrectly by someone like Jared Leto. So I think it's a great I think it is a great concept. We'll see what I mean, we'll see if it's any good. The trailer was good. I thought the trailer was good. JVL. Is he the
JVL00:54:45hero? Anti-hero of
Sonny00:54:49this movie? Hard to say. Who knows?
JVL00:54:50I find it very difficult. I am okay with taking very interesting looks at superheroes. I've said this all along. I wish the superhero was merely a facade or a chassis that we could put any engine underneath it. There are very few characters that I think I would not be willing to take a ride with them playing either heel or face. The Joker is one of them, though. I do not know if you can do the Joker as anti-hero and have it be anything other than offensive. I think you can have him as – I mean, we haven't seen the movie, so it's hard to say. Sure.
Sonny00:55:30But the sense I got from that trailer was it's the story of a guy who goes nuts and starts killing people. And just because there are other crazy people wearing Joker masks, like outside the studio or whatever, doesn't make him a hero. Okay. I hope so.
Vic00:55:49There's a whole Norman Bates thing going on.
JVL00:55:51You could show me a movie where Bane is the antihero and I'm there for it. You could show me movies where Deadshot or even Harley Quinn are like the antihero that we're kind of rooting for the way everybody was kind of rooting for Hannibal Lecter. Not the Joker. I mean, the Joker is just evil.
Vic00:56:15Okay. Yeah.
JVL00:56:16Sonny, you mentioned before about...
Sonny00:56:17You know, the kids today think Keith Ledger is the hero of The Dark Knight. Have we talked about this? No. This is literally true. This is literally true.
JVL00:56:24Have I not told you? Have I told you this? I can't believe you're getting this wrong.
Sonny00:56:27I remember Matt complained to me about it.
JVL00:56:30So I taught a class on this up at the thing that Matt and I taught during the summer. And the kids in this class were all very smart high school kids, all going to super great colleges the following year. And they were so morally relativistic that they not only were they not willing to say that Batman was the hero of the Dark Knight, they simply would not say it. They also would not say that the Joker was the villain. Wow. And it just drove me insane. You were not able to convince them? Really, they were like, but maybe the Joker is only pushed to this because Batman is there. I mean, maybe the Joker wouldn't even be doing anything. And I just thought this is, you know, good luck, America.
Sonny00:57:18The future.
Vic00:57:19That's right. That's right. Okay, thank you. Sonny, you did mention before about Shazam being a busker. And I think that was the weirdest thing, that even if I were a teenage kid, like, how do I make money? I'm going to do more than busking. You know what I was going to do? I was going to use my super speed, and I could be the fastest delivery boy in the world. Speaking of delivery, long day at work, tough day at school, still stuck at the office. Treat yourself to the meal you deserve. on demand from your favorite restaurant restaurants come to you with door dash you love to uh excuse me door dash connects you to all of your favorite restaurants in your city ordering is easy just use the door dash app and choose what you want to eat and your dasher will bring it right to you wherever you are not only is that burger place you love on door dash already like five guys but over 310 000 other amazing restaurants are too door dash connects you with door-to-door delivery in over 3 300 cities and all 50 states across the united states and canada order from your local go-to's or choose from your favorite chains like chipotle wendy's chick-fil-a the cheesecake factory i'd get the factory meatloaf that's what i get uh don't worry about dinner let dinner come to you with doordash right now our listeners can get five dollars off their first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code SUBBEACON. That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app from the app store and enter promo code SUBBEACON. Again, that's promo code SUBBEACON for $5 off your first order from DoorDash. Corrections, additions. Okay. No, I don't have anything. How about spirit of the week? What are you guys drinking? Coffee. Coffee. Alright.
Sonny00:59:02Oh, I want to give a quick shout out to listener Kevin Pinball at Kevin Drives on Twitter who sent me this very nice black on black watch.
Vic00:59:12Whoa.
Sonny00:59:13And he says that this will keep time as well as JVL's beautiful white Seiko.
Vic00:59:19Look at JVL's face. What is that? Is there smoke coming out of your headphones? What is that? I'm cool. I'm cool, bro. Okay. That is all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments. Tweet us at Victorino Mattis at Sonny Bunch. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in SubBeacon under Podcasts. We're there. Leave a review. Tell your friends. Until next time.
JVL00:59:48I have a couple things I want to talk about. Okay, go for it. Okay. And really, Sonny, you can just sort of take off for this. It's really just me and Vic time.
Sonny00:59:56Uh-oh.
JVL00:59:56I was just cruising around on Instagram last night. Cruising where? I saw this and I wanted to bring it in
Vic01:00:03and show you that looks like a beautiful Emma Watson taken probably this year yeah sure let's go with that did you
JVL01:00:15get the trailer for Dora the Explorer oh for goodness sakes the live action Dora the Explorer
Vic01:00:21I know people are trying to I'm being trolled
JVL01:00:23Dora is now a high school student I saw the trailer kind of a smoke show and isn't that a problem well yeah i mean what is what is the point of
Vic01:00:37this version of dora this is dora the explorer stage three because stage one was the original cartoon right stage two was do you remember the new dora she was like new and improved she was a cool dora and so so because they knew tween dora yeah because they knew that a lot of girls would look at dora and say oh i outgrew that that's for babies right you i don't know if your your girls ever say stuff like, oh, that's for babies, right? So then there was the new one and her hair was long and she was doing this thing. And then now well, this is the high school one. So now you can follow
JVL01:01:08Dora all the way through. This is Dora Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider Dora, essentially. Yes, yes. That's right. Like short shorts and jiggly and the whole and I just thought to myself this is going to be the greatest Vic review ever when we do the Dora show.
Vic01:01:22No, no. I'm not going for that. I'm not going for that. Sonny?
Sonny01:01:26I'm sure it's fine.
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