Episode 541: "Wicked," "Gladiator II," and "Blitz"

This week, we start things off at Shiz University, as Megan saw WICKED (2:22), the film adaptation of the stage musical, which is an adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire. Does Jon M. Chu's film hold up under scrutiny? And how are Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as, respectively, Elphaba and Glinda? Next, Dave joins Megan to talk about GLADIATOR II (6:18), Ridley Scott's sequel to Ridley Scott's (ha) GLADIATOR, starring Paul Mescal. Megan and Dave's opinions diverge, but they agree on one thing: Denzel Washington's performance is absolutely unreal (in the best way). Then Evan joins in for a lively discussion of Steve McQueen's BLITZ (28:01), starring Saoirse Ronan as a single mother who puts her son on a train to safety during the early days of the German Blitz campaign over England. But her son (Elliott Heffernan) has other ideas that lead to peril, again and again and again. There's a compelling racial element to the story, but otherwise all three of us had different views of the film's success or failure. Over on Patreon, we talk about the zany 1987 Japanese comedy A TAXING WOMAN.