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I'm Sean Tremblay. I'm Amanda Dabbins. And this is the big picture, a conversation show about the King of all monsters. On today's show, we will be talking about what it feels like to see the first big movie of 2021, somebody even called it a blockbuster.
I'm talking about the monster movie showdown Godzilla vs Kong, which dropped this week on HBO Max, joining us to talk about Godzilla and Kong and to share his top five blockbusters as it's our pal, Shay Serrano, Shay, what up? What up, baby? You ready for this, man? I'm super ready.
I'm extremely very ready. Amanda, you are well known at the Ringer as our Godzilla historian, so this is a huge week for you. Are you ready for this? Yes, I like fun, stupid things.
This truly was a fun, stupid thing. So I want to ask you guys, before you sat down to watch this movie, this epic showdown, in your heart of hearts, who did you have? Were you a Godzilla person or a King Kong person? Amanda, I will start with you.
Well, Sean, Kong about to know one. So I was a King Kong person based exclusively on the trailer for this movie, which I have seen more than any other trailer in recent memory. I think that's a combination of the Sixers being on my television and my home too much, and getting the TV version of this and also just an optimized trailer for me personally in terms of really dumb, expositional jargon that I cling on to. And I think even though Godzilla is out there hurting people and we don't know why, I mean, that's the other reason that I think that I sided with Kong because he bows to no one and Godzilla's hurting people.
That is Dobbins energy, bearing to no one, I would agree. Shay, did the trailer for this film change your feelings about whether or not you were a Godzilla person or a King Kong person? There's nothing that could happen in my life that would make me stray away from King Kong's side of this argument. I just love, I love Kong.
I love a good gorilla in any movie. It doesn't matter what. Give me, give me Kongo, give me Rampage, give me whatever you want. Mighty Joe Young.
Yeah, sure. If there's a gorilla in the movie, I'm going to watch that movie and I was fucking pumped for this one. I don't even care. I don't care about the fight at all.
Like I just know that Godzilla is a way worse of a hang than King Kong is. And I don't want to, I don't want to like be with Godzilla. I want to be with Kong. Can I ask a follow up question here that was posed after my own screening last night?
Are you personally a Kong or a Godzilla? Oh, I'm a Kong. Okay. Especially with regard to this movie.
Kong is entirely overmatched. He knows that. He knows there's no way to defeat this undefeatable thing. The word God is literally in its name and you're just like a monkey from an island.
Like you're overmatched. But, but he don't, he don't back down. He fucking shows, he got an axe with blue energy and he's like, let's fucking go. I'm ready.
Yeah. Amanda, I suspect I know the answer to that question for you. But what are you? Yeah, some hard truths in my kitchen because I obviously do really like the water and also, you know, like to swim, like being near the ocean and just like retreating.
First of all, hearing that there's a mechanized version of you and going into a rage and attacking the fake version of you and then just soaking off to be alone again is pretty much a manic war. Like that's just, I just, I have to recognize that in myself. It's not what I want, but we have to be honest. Yeah.
I think unfortunately for me, I'm probably closest to mecha Godzilla, you know, robotic. I've been programmed. I'm probably being controlled by another human through a psionic link. It's unfortunate for me.
So, you know, this is a very stupid movie. It was pretty fun to watch and I was very grateful to have it. But as I was thinking about preparing for this and just thinking about Godzilla and King Kong as one does alone in their house at night, I was thinking about how Kong and Godzilla are important characters and actually the origins of those characters are meaningful. And they come from thoughtful origins.
And that doesn't really feel like where this film franchise, this pair of film franchises is right now. It's very much in the spectacle. It's a fun night out. But, you know, Kong started obviously as this like parable about colonialism and racism and man's desire to control foreign lands.
And Godzilla, of course, is this allegory about nuclear warfare and what happened to Japan and post World War II. And, you know, they're very purpose-bound films. And so it's interesting the way that kind of Kaiji movies and these giant gorilla movies have evolved over time to kind of like suck out all of the meaning and just become not even plot devices and not even devices for character, but just pure spectacle movies. So I thought that that was kind of fascinating.
I mean, I was hoping you could explain the entire plot of Godzilla versus Kong for listeners of this show. I would love to, especially since I did not see Skull Island or any of the other films in this iteration of, I guess, is this the Kong franchise, but then Godzilla is joining? I believe it's a true union. Like, I think it is truly because there have been two gods in movies and one Kong movie.
I'm sure you love Skull Island, right? Loved it. Loved it. So I learned very early on in this movie that in the last Godzilla installment, Godzilla saved the world somehow.
Is that correct? Yes. He destroyed all the other monsters. Right.
And Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler hopefully explained that to me in one of Kyle Chandler's two scenes in this movie. I love the Kiape. Dad, I'm telling you, there's something provoking them that we're not seeing here. Why Elder Godzilla Flash?
Intimidation just like there wasn't another Titan around. And podcast is filling your head in the garbage. You should be in school. I am just trying.
So Godzilla is a good guy. And then we also learned that King Kong is a misunderstood good guy and he is living on Skull Island, but in sort of a Truman show, Esque Habitat. And he is cared for there by Rebecca Hall, aka the Kong Whisper. We'll come back to that.
And her small friend, like an adopted child, essentially, I believe the child's name is Gia who has a special connection with King Kong that perhaps has something to do with her family and where she grew up and is she from, you know, again, didn't see the movie not cut up on that lore, but they have a nice bond and she has a little King Kong girl. And then Godzilla attacks a science industrial military complex in Florida and people and we don't know why we don't know why he's hurting people and we don't know why because he's a good person. And that causes some distress, you know, among the community in the world at large. And then really Bobby Brown.
We have like literally two more hours to go. Okay, no, no, but the premise is always the hardest part. And you didn't tell me I was gonna have to do this. Okay.
So Millie Bobby Brown is a teenager, really into this conspiracy theory podcast hosted by Brian and Henry Henry and she and Brian, Tyree Henry, think that something's up and the Godzilla wouldn't just attack this facility for no reason because he's a good guy. And so they're investigating why Godzilla attacked it. Meanwhile, David Beshear, who is the head of the fist, the company that was attacked is trying to quote build defenses against Godzilla, but he's really trying to get unchecked power in a bond villain sort of way. You can tell pretty quickly.
And so he comes up with this cockamomie scheme to recruit Alexander Scarsgard, who is quote a scientist in quote Philadelphia to help them lure King Kong to the center of the earth, which is where all of the Alpha Titans powers come from. Oh my God. Are you not reading? You're doing amazing job.
No, listen, Alpha Titan is another thing that Rebecca has to say in this movie and they'll get King Kong to lead them to the source of all the world's power, which will then animate the aforementioned mechanized Godzilla who will then defeat the real Godzilla, but then hijinks into that's pretty good. Shay, any open areas of interest there that you want to fill in? No, no, no, that's not at all what I understood from this movie. What did you think it was about?
All I knew was a giant lizard and a giant gorilla were going to fight and that's all I was like, I could have you could have cut out every single scene that didn't have them fighting. I don't need you to explain anything to me. I don't need you to come up with a way that these things exist or why they fight. All that I need to know is that CGI right now looks better than it has ever looked ever.
These things look real. They don't look like they used to look. They look like actual real things. They do like really neat camera tricks during the fight where it's shooting around and then zoom in like they're really trying to get focused on this thing that we're watching.
And that's all that I care about. I don't care about the rest of it. Cut it all out. Just give me those two incredible level of fur detail on King Kong this time around.
This CGI is pretty good. I don't know if I was totally blown away by it. I will say so there are obviously a number of good fun. There are a number of good like action sequences in the movie.
There's that opening Godzilla sequence that you talked about Amanda. There is a big sequence in Hollow Earth, which is the center of the earth that you talk about. There's a showdown in the sea and then there's a showdown at the end and when we got to the showdown at the end, I paused HBO Max to see how much time we had left and it was 31 minutes. And I was like, okay, this is why this movie exists.
We have a 31 minute fight sequence on our hands. And that stuff is good. I felt like it was satisfying. You fast forwarded through the absolute best one, which is when because Shay, I know that we're there for people fighting, but I do need a certain amount of black bus or garbage to make fun of around the fight in order to invest, which is how I remember everything about Hollow Earth and how it is.
I need for there to be an appropriately silly context for me to be able to cheer when King Kong just absolutely decks Godzilla on an aircraft carrier, which absolutely fucking happened. And I cheered. I just was like, yes, we did it. And I thought that that was like the best marriage of the CGI and like it was legible and also the stupidest and the best.
I have so many questions about the water physics involved in all of those sequences, how any of those vessels can support King Kong's weight and you know, and how things when he's climbing back out of the sea, where is the tidal wave, but whatever, it ruled. We did not ask a scientist to appear on this episode, nor did we ask a zoologist, so I don't know if we're going to get answers to any of those questions. So here's the big question, right? There's a such thing as a good bad movie and there's maybe such thing as a bad good movie, but is there like a bad, bad, good good movie?
Like, is there a new kind of movie that is everyone knows going in that this is not a work of art? Everyone knows this may not even be like in the top five of this kind of film. And yet there is this huge amount of anticipation because one, here's what we saw last night at the box office, a ton of people went to go see this movie, $10 million worth of humans went to go see this movie after a worldwide pandemic to the movie from your own HBO Max and frankly in my little corner of the universe, it seemed like every single person I knew was watching it. This seems like a genuine movie event, which is exciting.
It's exciting for this podcast. It's exciting for fans of God's willing King Kong like me. So is this a is there a level of self awareness about this movie experience or is it just that we've been starving for something? And so this is, you know, a buffet of content.
I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, there has to be a certain amount of like meme event to this. There's, I mean, there's the meme event of, you know, compost and all, which like maybe I'm just creating that myself, but I, the minute this trailer came out, there were jokes on the internet. Like it is, there's a self awareness and then a self evident, like stupidness to all of this that I think people are buying into.
And then also obviously it's like vaccines are on the rise in the country and movie theaters are opening. And so there's this like, oh, we can go to the movies again thing that like maybe explain some of the box office though. Like frankly, I was just surprised by that box office and then also like it's under TV at home. So it's really easy to watch and haven't had events like this.
So I think there's something about kind of the rarity of this moment in time for this movie. And then I do also think we've been starved for, starved for giant entertainment that like doesn't come with homework because so much of the superhero stuff to be quite honest, like let's just say it, say it like it is comes with like, okay, this connects to this and this is about this and now I have to Google it and we have to learn 4,000 things and Sean is going to send you like a 12 page outline about like the comic origins of XYZ. And like obviously these characters do have cinematic history origins. Like I don't care.
I haven't seen a single one of these movies. They punch each other on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean. I'm happy. Yeah, I think you specifically don't need it.
Like if you don't know anything about any of the, forget about the last three movies in this franchise, even the history of these characters, you just don't need it. It's meant to be legible, even though there's so much exposition that is trying to explain why we're here. Shae did this movie check the box as you you had on your sheet? Yeah, definitely.
Once they do it, once they have that fight in the ocean and you're like, all right, I'm in. I'm in for the rest. Like I did again, I just would watch any, anything with Kong in it. And then when they do those, you can go on like National Geographic website and they'll have a camera pointed at an Eagles nest and you can just watch it in real time for like, I would do that with Kong.
If there was a camera pointed in his habit all day long, it would just be open because he's just so sweet and so charming. And just when he starts beating on his chest, I'm happy. I'm excited. When he punched Godzilla, we're watching it.
We did this as like a family movie night. Normally we do Friday family movie night. We moved it up two days to have a special middle of the week, Wednesday family movie night. So we're watching it and my youngest son, eight year old baby, he's sitting on the couch with me and Larry me.
And when he punches when Kong punches Godzilla, he was just like, oh, yeah. Like literally screaming. And I was doing the exact same thing. Just the two of us, the other three, the twins and Larry me were like, whatever.
But we were having the best time just watching these things fight. So yes, it checked off. It checked off the box for me. I mean, were you moved by the fact that podcasters have taken the place of TV journalists, newspaper journalists as the animating force of stories and event movies in 2021?
They have not taken the place because some of the fake news chirons in this movie, like belong in the mama. Like I just, and they're also trying to explain some of the taint and mythology by like the five words on the bottom of CNN. The words on the bottom of CNN at this point, let alone this weird stuff. But listen, love Ryan Tyree Henry.
And I thought they did a great job of making fun of conspiracy podcasters and podcasters in general. I was delighted, honored to be in his company. He was a way better podcasters than the podcasters from the, when they read the Halloween movie. Oh, yeah.
And they died immediately. They all terrible at this. We need more. We need Brian, get somebody to get Brian.
You know, I was thinking about watching this when the podcasters show up, this like investigative conspiracy theory podcast is Rebecca Hall was also in, if I remember correctly, Frost Nixon. And I was like, yeah, she has been, she has been in movies with the two greatest investigators ever, ever, ever. Can we do a nitpick? Of course.
Go. So he was posting a podcast after each episode, right? Because really Bob and Brown is listening to it. I just a note to any future podcasting whistleblowers.
Um, perhaps don't give away all of your info and plans before you do it. I don't think in the real world, you would make it to save the day as Brian Tyree did. I just think you're blowing up your spot lightly. Were you concerned that maybe Godzilla was listening to the pod?
You know, and definitely listening. Um, speaking over to Becca Hall, this movie, like so many of you, these movies is downright loaded with gifted and widely celebrated performers asked to do stupid stuff. Um, this might be the best example of it that I've seen in the last 10 years. There are a number of very talented people here.
Rebecca Hall chief among them just, no disrespect to her. I don't know what she's doing in the movie. I don't know if she knows what movie she's in. Her line readings are hilarious.
Um, and she has asked to say the most weird stuff. You know, someone like Damien Bishir in this movie, I think he knows what movie he's in. He's like, this is a big old piece of ham and I'm going to chew on it for as many minutes as I can. And I think Rebecca Hall is trying to bring, I think her very elegant, classically trained sense of acting to God's will versus Kong, men, which I think of Rebecca's work here.
I think she did a fantastic job. They make her say the most ridiculous shit I made a list. I'm going to read this is just a limited selection of the things that Rebecca Hall is asked to say in this movie. Here we go.
Number one, there can't be two alpha titans. Oh, okay. There it is. Yes.
When it comes to Kong, what I say goes incredible. Incredible. The aforementioned Kong goes to no one here out of nowhere. Death charges.
No contest. Also, I have to seem to know exactly what a death charge was and it's like explaining it. Whatever. So let me tell you, I've seen every submarine movie and I still do not understand anything about submarines, how they work or the rules of engagement.
We'll come back to that. Here we go. This won't end until one of them submits. You know what?
That's just like, that's some good stakes and exposition, you know, work there. I like the movie in the context of an MMA fight. You know, like it's genuinely has rules and someone has to submit before this can be over. It's fantastic.
Okay. And then finally, just a great one from Hollow Earth, this is a power beyond understanding. Just okay. I don't understand it.
Shea. What do you think Rebecca Hall of Pradaver? Super proud. proud.
You need, listen, every good movie like this, because I think this is with regard to Monstrain movies, this is one that you can put back on. You need at least one actor in there who is a real actor who is doing real acting. And she's really, she's taking everything very seriously. All of the other people, Scarsgard, is basically winking after he says every single line.
Meanwhile, Ms. Hall is trying to get, you know, put this on her Oscar reel. She's really saying this stuff very sincerely. And I really appreciated that.
Okay, important question. 35 years from now when Rebecca Hall, who, you know, directed a film passing that we talked about earlier this year, is going to be in another film later this year, set for a big 2021, but 35 years from now when she's being honored with an honorary Oscar, and they're doing the clip reel. And they're like, here are all the great works that she's been a part of. Will God's love versus comedy featured in that clip reel.
It'd be the first one. Just the depth charges line that Amanda mentioned. That's all it's going to be. That's the whole clip.
Okay. So you mentioned Brian Tyrionry Henry. I think he also definitely knows what kind of movie he's in here. We get Millie Bobby Brown and Julian Dennison.
Coolnessy, Julian Dennison in another big American film you may people have seen. I like the other people will recognize him. I think he was also, was he a Deadpool 2? He's the main bad guy.
Why is that the second one you mentioned? Well, I mean, hopefully the other people, that's great stuff. Chandler. Chandler, I don't know.
Demi Bichir and Aesika Gonzalez as like the two worst people on Earth. That was an interesting choice. Incredible and fate for Aesika Gonzalez. I'm unreal.
It came out of nowhere. That's the only part of the movie that surprised me. When he just, oh no. Oh shit.
Oh, she's dead? She's dead? What? My favorite performance by far in this movie though is from that magic monkey ox that that she just mentioned that acts is elite.
Can Gorilla swing axis? Is that a thing? Yeah. My win day.
We're talking about real gorillas. Definitely. Movie gorillas. Absolutely.
In Kong Skull Island, he uses several weapons. Several. One of which is like a giant ship propeller attached to a chain that he swings around. He knows what he's doing.
He just swings an axe. I have a question for you guys. So far. I think some of the funniest and in some cases, most beautiful parts of this movie happen in the Hollow Earth section when they go to the center of the Earth to discover Kong's sort of native lands and where all the energy comes from, the Demi Bichir's character is after.
And there's all this architecture. There's a throne room. There's a throne. There is a giant statue of Kong or Kong's relatives who made that stuff.
Did Kong make like is Kong into Mason free? What? How did all that stuff come to be? The Kong family definitely made all of that.
You could tell. You could tell. He just understood it implicitly, which means it comes from him is my guess. Amanda, if you could book a one-way ticket to Hollow Earth, would you go?
No. This is, I will say that that is the part of the movie. I like your wife just kind of stop paying as much attention. No, I got my computer out and started doing some work in this outline, which was fine.
I could follow what was going on. But it did have that real like CGI throne room fight vibe that like every Blackbuster now just ends. It's like a poorly lit, totally fake room with a throne somewhere and like some evil character that you've never seen before also pops out. Like, I do feel like this happened at some point in Snyder Cut.
Maybe it wasn't a throne room, but I was like, okay, we're in this room. I thought about the bad rise of Skywalker ending. Like, oh, yeah, yeah, we're checking this box. I don't have to pay as much attention.
But you know, I thought the outside parts of Hollow Earth really interesting wildlife. Yeah, sure. Seems like they've been able to evolve without the terrors of the ozone layer being destroyed over time, you know, the greenhouse effect. They're living their best life there in Hollow Earth.
Why would you leave? Why wouldn't you just stay? I mean, some of those animals seem quite threatening at one point, calm on the sides, right? Like, he's like, he's suffocated by the weird, like flying Velociraptor dragon.
We've got you to say some extraordinary things on this pod so far, man. I'm really glad you're here. You think I can't hang, but I can hang. It's just what I choose to do.
What interests me? What's what? This is fun. It's stupid, but it's fun.
Who do you guys think was the winner of this movie? It's calm. Unquestionably. He's who they pin everything around.
He's the most interesting person. He has the best story arc of everybody. He dies like three times and I keep bringing him back. He just is so expressive in his face now.
He's a real, he's like an actual actor. I love it. He won for me. Amanda, who won for you?
Well, Kong and hopefully everyone can take off. Yes. Yes. Yes.
This is a movie that a lot of people are going to see. This feels like it's going to end up being one of the most widely seen movies of the last five years because of the way that's being distributed, which is fascinating. I got to say my absolute favorite part of this movie was when Kong popped his shoulder back in a joint. You can see that?
I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. That was a nice touch.
He looked like Derek Coleman out there. He was like, I just got to get back out there and get some boards. With a skyscraper, he pops it back into place. That part happens.
One of the parts that the baby didn't understand. What's he doing there? I was like, hold on. I'll tell you in a second because we're watching the fight.
Then afterward, I made him watch the scene from Best or the Best on YouTube where Tommy has the pop. Robert just showed the back. He's like, pop it. Pop it.
Tommy. I said, I didn't explain to him what was happening. I just made him watch another thing with a shoulder. He's like, all right, I'm going to bed.
This is fucking okay. I mean, have you ever popped your shoulder out of its joint? No, but Zach, my husband. That's all the time.
You know this. I need to have it on a golf course. It's terrifying. Yeah.
What happens sometimes with swimming? The way that he does it is he lies down on the ground and then pops it back in. So anytime it pops out now, I just yell like, get down. Get down.
Like an air raid. So this was a little close to home for me personally, but it was a nice color. That's wrong with Zach's shoulder. He's got King Kong energy.
Sometimes his sister has it too. They're fine. But we just have to be careful. We have to protect the Baron family.
We should. I didn't know that. Some people are ambidextrous. Some people can't keep their shoulders aligned.
It's tough. Guys, I do think that this is a true blue blockbuster. And so even though there is only 3,000 movie theaters and 5,000 movie theaters open for this film, I thought we should talk a little bit more broadly about blockbusters and just share our favorites. This is a classic monster movie version, but there are a lot of different types.
So I actually got to put together a top five. I also, as I often do, made some very important but very fake rules for our lists. I mean, are you on board with my rules at this point? I was.
You let me make one amendment, I guess, or addition, which I appreciated. That was very gracious of you. But yes, I'm used to receiving emails with a lot of instructions from you at this point. I'm just going to make everyone's life easier.
You make it sound like I'm like a guy from Ikea. You know, like I'm trying to create an environment where we can have a fun pod. That's all I'm doing. You know, just set some boundaries.
All right, I'm going to read the rules. So what is a blockbuster, at least for this list? Did your movie spend at least one weekend at number one atop the US box office? If so, you qualify.
Did your film earn at least $75 million at the US box office? If so, you qualify. Does your film have a reported $100 million budget? If so, you qualify?
No, not all of these films need a budget that high, but those of that number will automatically qualify. And finally, does your movie feature? A monster, a dinosaur, a burning building ship or train, a president in peril, a magical beast, a superhero, an aquatic creature terrorizing people, an international hostage crisis, a James Cameron director's credit, a high-speed vehicle or several, or a ticking time bomb on a bus or elsewhere, if so, you qualify. Shay, was this fun for you to make this list?
This is the most difficult thing I've ever done. Because as I was going through, my list just, it's 47 movies long. And I was like, fuck, I don't know where to stop. So I have a really long, it was very hard.
It's a really wide definition here. It could be any number of things. Every single movie. So I had a very personal decision in terms of what kind of movies I wanted to put here.
I don't have a lot of monster movies on my list. I don't have any superhero movies on my list. I didn't want to get into that. I was thinking almost entirely about personal movie going experiences, especially in the 90s, because we are all 90s babies to an extent.
And we spend a lot of time in movie theaters in the 90s. We love to talk about movies from the 90s. And there is a very specific brand. So at least for me, you'll hear a lot about that.
I assume that's true for both of you guys too. Yeah. Ultimately, it was too like the parameters you said makes it so that 700 movies are eligible. And that becomes too difficult to choose.
So I did the same thing you did. I said, well, which of these are the ones that I just remember being at the movies and being the most excited about before, during, and after? I tried to avoid 90s creep, but I couldn't help it. I think, you know, I am a child of 90s.
And there is a very specific type of 90s blockbuster that informs not just all the movies that came after, but also our brains. And I believe it or not was actually overwhelmed by the number of choices. So I tried to take a pretty narrow definition of blackbusters and anything that could be sorted into another genre, like James Bond movies, which I absolutely love, but didn't consider, even though I think they, for the most part, would meet the qualifications. It won't surprise anyone to learn their own superhero movies on my list, even though I really love Wonder Woman and I love Black Panther.
And I think those could have qualified, but they're a good version of a different type of movie to me. So I think, ultimately, the Blackbuster had to be able to stand on its own. That was one of the main definitions that I made, even though most of my picks are part of a franchise, or they have sequels. It's not that they do stand alone, but that it's not part of the extended universe.
And then they're all movies that I have like a deep personal connection to. Should we share our list? I'm surprised that nobody had any superhero movie. The closest I got to putting a superhero movie on there, even the closer than Avengers in game, which was great deal of fun, is I almost put, I almost put Joker on my list.
And I didn't enjoy this movie at all. I did it, but I remember specifically what it felt like before going to watch it, and then being like, I went to the theater and they had like a, they were like using the metal detectors to make sure nobody had guns. And I was sitting in there half the time, like, is somebody gonna shoot this up? Because that was a big thing like story that was happening.
And then afterward, I just felt walking feelings is incredible. And I just felt so icky and gross. I couldn't quite bring myself to put it on the list, but I don't have any superhero movies either. Well, I thought you put your finger on something there, though, which is that I think all of these movies create this intangible ephemeral sensation of we're all together at a moment, you know, we're experiencing something that is that feels profound, even if it is a little bit silly.
I think they also have to be fun. For me, there's a moment in each of these movies where people cheer. Well, I guess there's one exception, which we can talk about. But even there, I do think people sort of cheer, but the sense that you're having.
It's requiem for a dream, the one that you're talking about on your list. Yeah. Yeah. Like to Shae's point, Joker, which is a movie that I hate, like was obviously a phenomenon and was really successful in ticks all these boxes.
But like, did you enjoy it? I think there has to be a certain amount of like, we're going to the movies and it's we're like having fun and I'm not like super stressed out and I don't even have to worry about it. If I totally understand this, just like make stupid things happen and then I can leave. Yeah.
I mean, to that superhero question, the one superhero movie I had a sort of an honorable mention was Spider-Man 2, Sam Raimi's movie from O5 or O6. I feel like because that was before it felt like we were like all of movies had been encroached upon. Is that said down kiss? That's one.
That's the first one. The second one is Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus. Yeah.
But that's just a really, really good movie and it doesn't feel bound by all of this comic book movie convention stuff. It's just a great romance. It's a great adventure. It has as much in common with like Raiders of the Lost Ark as it does.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Game or whatever.
Okay. Let's go to our list. Shay, you have not shared your list with us as often your strategy here, which I appreciate. Why don't you start us off with number five?
All right. With number five. So this is like the hardest decision I had to make because I had at this point, I have seven that are on there that I really want to pick and I'm going to have to leave two of them off. Are we doing honorable mentions afterward?
Yeah. We can at least say that. Okay. All right.
Okay. Good. Good. Well, then let me start with number five.
The budget, 18 million dollars earns 125 million dollars. I need Mortal Kombat. I need the Mortal Kombat 90s. This is like, this is one of my all time favorite.
This is one of my fifth best ever movie theater experiences because I loved Mortal Kombat, the video game, growing up. I was so excited when the trailer for this movie came out or when I even heard that they were making this movie, the scene in there where they introduced Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Shang-Sung is the one who does it and he's like Scorpion and Sub-Zero, deadliest of enemies. But you know, whatever, they have to work under my power.
I fucking win nuts in the theater. It starts with the flames coming up and the guy screaming, Mortal Kombat. And I was just, I couldn't, you couldn't tell me nothing. You couldn't tell me this was the best day of my life when I was a teenager.
Goddamn, I love this movie. Shay, the best moment in my podcasting career is when I got to explain what a fatality was to Amanda about three months ago. And we have not instituted Amanda's fatalities on the show, but we're going to do it. I'm ready.
I mean, now that I know what it is, very excited by the idea. In three weeks, Shay, you get a new Mortal Kombat movie. You ready? We have been talking about it at the Serrano House for weeks.
When the trailer came out for that one, I gathered everyone around. Come watch this trailer with me. We turn it volume up super loud. I'm excited.
I am real, real excited for that one. I genuinely don't think the first Mortal Kombat movie is good, but I really admire your hopes. You're fucking crazy. It's an action.
It's the best video game movie that's ever been made. The true. The whole video game movie better. Yeah, that's a bit like saying, you know, he's the greatest.
Not like saying that. No, no, no, no. Okay. Amanda, what's your number five?
Independence Day, which is not what I'm talking about. That was talking. This is certainly on top five Will Smith movies for me, which was a podcast that we did. And I just I can't overstate the importance of 90s.
Will Smith to me and my movie going and my cultural like, I just the number one movie starts to amend adoptance in 1996. Also, I believe in our apocalypse films, which that was a podcast that we made during the height of the pandemic and probably should not listen to again, but it also should maybe go into a museum of our personal histories that no one ever wants to visit. This movie rules. I guess this is filling my disaster movie spot.
And also, I think ultimately my alien movie spot, because there are other alien movies I love. Armageddon is not on my list. And men are black or not on my list. And those are also two important 90s alien.
Well, one's alien and one's disaster slash alien, but Independence Day and the bullhorn speech to me. And that image of the laser coming down and completely destroying the White House, which like in 1996 had a different valence. I mean, I guess it had a different valence than it does now. I don't really know.
It has informed my understanding of the visual language of disaster movies and things going very wrong. So Independence Day, the laser when you're a kid and you see it. Because when you're a kid, the White House is like the most important place in the world. And you see it get blown up.
And you're like, Oh, shit. Anytime somebody mentions Independence Day, which I'm so happy you did, because this is an outstanding movie. My favorite character in the whole thing is the alien who's working on the ship who's doing the spaceship intake. And it's just they're just they're doing his like normal day job.
This poor fucking guy gets blown up by Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Tough day at the job for the intake guy. It also has a line when I rewatch they wrote down that it just they're using our own satellites against us, which I think has been repeated in every TV show and Black Quest or movie since then. But you need the satellites to be used against you in a in a Black Quest.
That's how you know things are really dire. I would in the future, I would greatly appreciate it if you all did it whole episode where you just pick out whatever the best line is like the most ridiculous line from a ridiculous movie. Because it's a great this is great. This is great content right here.
It's well time to the Godzilla vs Kong lines as well. Independence Day is the first time I can remember being in a theater in which everybody just burst into applause. I feel like people burst into applause like two or three times during this movie. Welcome to Earth, definitely punching the alien in the face.
I think I think the theater started levitating on opening night when I saw that movie. And certainly the Bill Pullman's Beach. People were like, what we need to do together is destroy aliens. We all need to kill alien.
We're going to leave this movie theater and kill some aliens. Great pick. My pick number five is a little movie called Speed. Yes.
Revisited this film last night of Jesus Christ. It's not an exciting movie. Just genuinely perfect elevator pitch movie. Right.
There's a bomb on a bus. You go under a certain speed. The bomb blows up. Here's what you got to do.
Keep the bus going. Also get people off the bus. Keanu Reeves at the height of his powers, at least in phase two of Keanu Reeves's powers. We're now in I think phase five of Keanu Reeves.
Also one thing that this movie does, I wouldn't say it's the first movie that did this a lot of movies like a Poseidon adventure or another before that. Did it but it lists incredibly gifted actors to say silly stuff just like God's Eleversus Kong. The villain in this movie is Dennis Hopper. The partner in this movie is Jeff Daniels.
And it ultimately introduces us to Sandra Bullock, major movie star. Incredibly fun movie intoxicating. Also so rewatchable. Is this the most rewatchable action movie?
It might be. It's up on the list for me. I love Speed. And also same thing.
I definitely saw this movie in theaters. My dad took me. I had an absolute blast. And I remember feeling like we're all at church together.
This is a truth. Okay. Let me get my fourth number four for me. Budget 150 million earns $1.6 billion.
I need it. I need it. This is this is my fourth favorite movie theater experience when Blue comes running around the corner. Oh wow.
Barking at barking at the and dominance Rex and the T Rex while they're fighting. She's joining the fight. I need I need Jurassic World. I gotta have it.
I gotta have I walked out of it. I walk out. That is a wild. So happy.
So happy. I love this movie. You're unbelievably good. You're you're in a very special zone right now.
You almost put Joker on your list. You've now added Mortal Kombat and Jurassic World. You are fearless. Let's go.
It felt so good watching this. Wait. I swear to God when she when Blue comes running around because you thought she was dead at that point because they had been in the fight earlier. You're like, Oh shit.
Fucking Blue. After all that she's gone. She's out of here. And then not only is she alive but she comes back to keep fighting the biggest meanest dinosaur we have ever seen ever again.
We were with this is like a family theater experience. We all went and we me and the baby especially because he loves dinosaurs. We are just in each other's arms screaming and yelling at the theater teary eyed when she comes. This is like the sexiest thing I've ever seen in my life was was doing showing up for the fight.
I mean, here we go. I gotta have it. This has got to be it. It's got me on my list.
I mean, this is tough because I know that was your number one. So yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing.
I don't remember anything about Jurassic World except that the Raptor is named Blue and Chris Pratt strikes up a friendship with her that ultimately allows him to save Jurassic World. Yes. That is a sign actually of a successful Black Panther to me. If I don't remember anything except like some brief one sentence motivation and then a lot of action happening like I think that works.
I remember having a good time at Jurassic World as well. Like it's not stayed with me. It's not my list. But I support you.
It came it came out of nowhere because Jurassic 2 was terrible. Jurassic Jurassic 3 I really enjoyed but I understood a lot of people did not like it. The franchise was in effect dead. Nobody was excited about it.
And then this movie shows up. Everybody on the internet is doing the Raptor training thing with the pictures It was great. It was a great, great time. It's a bold choice.
I'll say that. Thank you. Amanda, what's your number four? Bobby, can you help me out here with some music?
Yes. My number four is a little film released in 1986 about a man and his friend and some planes and the need for speed in his top gun. What a weird ass movie this is. I loved it so much.
I still love it. It is essentially the Iliad but with fighter planes and like a lot of grease and sweat and it makes no sense. I do not understand how fighter pilots or dog fighting work. I've watched this movie several times but I don't care.
It has Tom Cruise in the Navy. Just never one pre-req was it for a movie that I love. See also a few good men. I find the fighting scenes of everyone just like beautiful and it's outside and it's not CGI like hollow earth land.
Some great musical moments including the theme song which when I watched this my husband was out running errands and I just turned the TV up to 100. Just like 100 and just you know danger zone. You've lost that love and feeling. Top gun theme song blasting through the house.
It's a weird movie and definitely way too excited about the American military industrial complex which is a theme. I'm going to let you know in some of my other favorite blackbusters but I guess it caught me at the right time and I love this movie. I can't wait for top gun too. I realize like I will probably actually start crying when the theme song plays in the theater for top gun too.
It would just be a really emotional coming home moment for me and that's the way it should be. It's a good thing that your husband was gone when you watch this because he would have blown both of his shoulders out. I can't I mean I think in three months we're getting a top gun movie. I just can't believe it.
It's been it's how many years in the making is it? 35 years in the making? A lot a lot of years. Yeah.
Unbelievable. Okay great great pick total no brainer. This is good because aside from all of Shay's insane picks I think we can all agree that these are good movies. I have the best list so far.
My number four I feel like is when I became aware of blockbusters and it does not feature magical creatures it does not feature a bomb on a bus it does not feature a fighter jet. It just features a man on the run and I'm talking about the fugitive. Now I was 11 years old in the fugitive came out. I had no idea it was based on a TV show.
All I knew is that Indiana Jones and Han Solo was wrongly accused of murder and I was like this is fucked up. They're trying to get this guy for this crime. It's very emotional to watch the fugitive. You know I think back like what animates you when you're watching a movie and this is a perfect example of something where you're just like god damn it.
All these people are trying to screw over Han Solo. This ain't right. And like forget about understanding all the nature of the plot devices and big pharma being a big part of this story and it's just it's pure quality action movie making with a very simple to explain story at the center of it and again two tremendous actors at the height of their powers Harrison Ford and that really great. I'm like 43 but I'm still quite virile sweet spot and Tommy Lee Jones in an academy award-winning performance as US Marshall what is his name Gary?
He's fantastic hilarious in this movie similar movie where in the theater you could really just tell that everybody was their whole heart was with Dr. Kimbell you know they really just wanted him to get off. I'm really glad that you picked this because I almost did and then I was like is this too smart for my blockbuster list? And I think it's just because I didn't see it in theaters.
I think that's where our slight age difference just like I wasn't quite old enough. So this is probably like number one cable movie for me for at least like four years which is why I still I haven't seen it in full that many times and I'm still always very confused when the actual solution of like who did it and how and but it doesn't really matter. It's this movie rules. When the when the train hits the bus and Kimbell jumps that's movie magic right there.
That's cinema. I have a theory that nobody in Hollywood is better at hide and seek than Tommy Lee Jones. He has so many movies where he's chasing someone in this one. He's chasing someone in a in Men in Black, US Marshall's the hunted no country for Old Men, Jason Bourne like that's who you call when you need to find somebody who doesn't want to be found.
That's like that's a good pick. That's a good safe Sean Finnessy pick. Okay well wow me with your bold number three. Here's here's a number three and this is another reinvented movie franchise that came out of nowhere.
Fingers were crossed when the names that were attached to it got released. Please let this be good. I just want this to be good. Budget 35 million earns 173 million starring Michael B Jordan directed by Ryan Coogler.
Oh god yes. Fucking Creed. I got it. Creed has the second best music needle drop in any movie ever at the end of the movie right before the last round of the fight when they finally as Creed after he gives his big emotional like I don't want to be seen as a mistake speech and then Rocky responds.
He's beat to hell. He stands up and finally after an hour and a half of them teasing it Ryan Coogler drops the Rocky theme in there. I started crying. I was alone in the theater.
You can't not cry at that part. I went with my uncles two of my uncles old Mexican men. When this happens I looked down it's me it's Laramie my uncle his wife my uncle and the anise all of them in tears all of them I'm in tears. We're just fucking cheering.
It was it was it this is my third favorite ever movie theater experience I fucking win. I love this movie so much it's perfect it's literally a perfect movie. That's a legit good choice. It's incredible.
I'm kind of mad I don't have it on my list now. You know there was a big story about Coogler and Shaka King and Charles King in Hollywood Reporter this week and great piece about the work that they did to get you to the Black and Silent Big Screen and I did not realize this but I read Ryan Coogler declined his invitation to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016 and in a very frank ocean-esque move who also declined to participate in the whole Grammys. And I love the way that he talked about he was like I'm just not interested in saying like this is the best this deserves to win an award and obviously that's pretty much antithetical to what we're doing on this podcast but we're just having a good time. There's nothing official about what we're up to here but he really is able to bring like a level of sophistication and thoughtfulness to his movies without sacrificing exactly those kinds of moments that you're talking about Shay where you're just you're watching the movie and you're like this movie is in my blood right now.