In Theaters Now – IT: Chapter 2

Hello, dear listeners. Welcome to Movie Mastery. It is the podcast where we see the movies that you recommend. And this time around, it isn't in theaters now. And we went to see the poll winner on the website, It Chapter 2, which barely lost to Satanic Panic, which to anyone who is sad that that didn't win because of our System Mastery podcast with RPG thing, it has nothing to do with RPGs and it's just a satanic cult movie. Ah, well, that's good to listen to. But seriously, though, you really need to start curating this monthly list to not let people send us to good movies as an act of mercy. It's not.

We got to stop. No, I curate it to send us to anything that would be interesting to talk about. That's fair. That is fair. So that over there was Jeff. I'm John. If this is the first time. I have grapes. Then great. You may want to go back and listen to our it chapter one review as well. Did we do that? I didn't remember that we did that. Yes, we did. Okay. We reviewed the first chapter and now we're out and about reviewing the second one. We will, of course, get into the full spoiler review in a bit. But first, I want to just say.

I've seen this movie twice now. I can't believe you did that because the middle of this movie drags. This movie is basically three hours long and I have seen it twice. Yeah. I'm also going to say it doesn't really hold up to multiple viewings. Like the first time I saw it, I got out and I was like, oh, that was fun because I like horror movies and I wanted to see the end of, you know, the whole thing. And it's a big tentpole, one of these things. Yeah. It's got more budget to it and better stuff. I mean, the original It from way back in the day TV movie is one of my formative love of horror films. Fair enough. Yeah. Well, it's, you know, Tim Curry at his finest. So yeah. Second finest. Third finest.

Which two are you going to do higher than this? Rocky Horror and Congo, I think, are going to be my two. Oh, see, I'm going with Clue. Oh, Clue, I guess the fourth highest then. Ooh, baby. No, I'm putting this above Congo. No, because Congo's great. He's the only good part of Congo. The two things above his IT performance are Clue and Red Alert 2. Spags! It's this and Legend.

Legend is the movie. It's so fucking boring. It is. You keep thinking, oh my god, Tim Curry plays the devil in that? Tom Cruise is a young kid? And then you're like, oh my god, this fucking sucks. It's so slow. Yeah, it's like the first Friday the 13th movie where you're like, a young Kevin Bacon? This will be amazing. And then it's just garbage all around. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so yeah, I've seen it twice. It drags the second time because once you already know everything that's in there...

You start picking apart things that shouldn't be there. And they're only there because either they're things that people would be pissed off about if you left them out from the book or from the TV movie. Well, John, I haven't read the book since I was 10, and I haven't seen the TV movie since it was on TV. So you're going to have to help me out a lot on things that are not canon or new to the story or whatever. I mean, a lot of things they put in because they were more canon than what was in the TV movie. And let me ask you a real important question, because this is...

might be a spoiler for like the first five minutes of the film. Oh, no, I was going to mention this as well, just as a... Is that in the book? Yes, it is, actually. The thing, the beginning of this movie is straight up a ten minute sequence of gay bashing that has no... The only connection it has is you briefly see the clown at the end of it, and the characters, every character involved in it never show up again. Not true, but the... I mean, the main thing is you don't get in the book the full, like...

description of everything, but it is a thing that occurs. It's essentially supposed to be part of the, this town is horrible and shitty because of the clown. And so... Yeah, you don't get that. That being the first thing that happens is like, oh, Pennywise is back and he's affecting people because this happens. Yeah, it needed a before and not just an after. Because all it is is just there's two gay dudes at a town fair and then one of them gets beat to death in front of the other one. The end. Well, the kid who originally starts shit, you can see he's got like a bunch of sores and everything around his mouth and it's supposed to be this...

like, look of corruption. Oh, well, it came up looking like that teenager had a lot of acne. And he was just a piece of shit. So that's kind of where I was coming from. I don't know. That's an important thing to mention at the very beginning of this movie. It is a very violent scene that, I mean, it's not like the movie is anti-queer. It just shows that happened. No, it just kills one person out of one queer relationship and then one person out of an uninformed queer relationship that I don't think was canon. Which means that it goes through and it's just like, oh, you know what? Anyone who dies, let's have a gay guy sad about that.

Let's make sure that happens over and over again because queer death is the saddest death. That does happen. You can't tell me that. I mean, yeah, technically Eddie's not gay, but no. I'm just saying. Okay. So yeah, there you go. Content warning for anyone who was going to go see this and was listening to this first. That does happen in the beginning. At the very beginning, yeah. Alright, I'm going to go ahead and play some music. We're going to get into the full spoiler review because I think both of us have plenty to say about this film. Yes. So we'll be right back with a full review of It, Chapter 2.

They were asking if you were around. All right. It's time to get right into this. Okay. I probably should have said this before the spoiler, the music went off, but there's a point in the middle of this movie where you realize what the structure of it is. And you're like, oh my God, there's like four more. There's four more of these 10 minute vignettes. This is going to go on forever. What's happening? See, and for me, the first time watching it, when that was happening, I was like, oh great. Cause I want to watch each one of these there. But if you watch it again, you're like, just for the sake of pacing, you could really cut out or condense a lot of stuff. This movie needed a lot of trim. Yeah.

Where's that scene where they run a train on Bev? Everyone talks about that and it's not like anyone's ever going to do that or want to acknowledge that it exists. Actually, it'd be pretty great if someone made This Ain't It XXX. This Ain't It and it's just that scene. That's all it is. And then once it's done, it just pans over and you've got someone dressed as a clown just jerking off in the corner. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. I also like that This Ain't It makes a pretty fun sentence as opposed to every other shitty porn movie. This Ain't It, Chief.

All right. I'm sorry. Why don't you lead now? Go ahead. So, yeah, we've got the scene that we mentioned at the start. And I mean, we did talk about it before, but it is one of those things that is very controversial. You know, I've seen it come up several times in discussions of this about, you know, did we really need to see that? Is that something we want in there? And I don't think it's necessary, especially when you've already got a lot of like.

gay panic stuff from the bullies in this. It would have helped a little bit if there were more people in the movie that were clearly affected by the corruption besides just these assholes and I guess Bowers. Yeah, that's the one thing I'll say about the TV movie is you get a lot more driven home about like, oh yeah, one time I was being like assaulted by Bowers and there was an old man across the street and he just watched and I thought he was going to help and then he just went inside. Like they really drive home, there's something fucked up about this town. Yeah, that doesn't happen otherwise in this movie.

At any other time, they almost exclusively interact with children for the rest of the film. And any time they talk to them, their parents will show up and be like, oh, is everything okay? And not like, get the fuck away from my kid! It's almost like they kind of forgot that, and they just left these two very violent characters, or I guess this is a group. And then Bowers makes for another very violent character, and then that's it. So it's like, oh, the clown's back in time, which means the psychopaths are extra psychopathy. Yeah, I think a lot of it really is.

I feel like they just sort of went, oh, this is for people that have already seen and enjoyed the TV movie and the book, so you don't need us to tell you. But if you're coming at it, it's why I like having you there, because if you don't have that fresh in your mind as a thing, you're like, what the fuck is this? Well, I mean, I knew it was going to happen because I also read a bunch of people's trigger warnings on Twitter. Oh, yeah. But like I said, I didn't need it. It wouldn't hurt the movie to have that scene be significantly more implied. Yeah.

And like I said, I think in the book, it's basically they just say that this happened. Yeah. But it was in the book also a, yeah, they beat up this guy because he was gay. Yeah. Like apparently they're like, well, okay, no one's ever going to film the train on Bev scene because that's, people don't need to see that. That's gross. But you know what? This extended 10 minute queer bashing scene, that we got to leave. That's cinema verite. Yeah. It's not the best choice. I'll go ahead and say that. It does lead to our first shot of the fucking clown, I guess. Yeah. Which makes it more.

explicit that the clown kills him in this because in the book it's more like this was just their influence and they beat him up and threw him off the bridge and he died. In this one he survives the fall off the bridge even though he's very badly hurt and then Pennywise picks him up and eats him. Just like chomps right into his chest. I'm not sure if I like it more or less. I mean probably more in the movie. I'm going to say this movie is a little less inventive with the Pennywise stuff than the previous one. I'm sure it's because they had to condense more story into this.

All the Pennywise kills, except one, are just open mouth real wide to reveal rows of shark teeth, bite, cut away. Yeah. Honestly, though, I think my favorite thing in this, like the best scene in the movie, is the one where he kills that little girl that could have been completely taken out of the movie and it wouldn't have changed anything. Yeah, no, it was a great scene. It stood alone. It was fine by itself. Yeah, it was a... And I think that's going to be my first thing that I say about this movie that's sort of the big problem for me, is it feels like...

a lot of vignettes that get put together rather than a movie. That's very true. And, you know, the gay bashing scene is actually one of the two of these scenes where you get some Pennywise action outside of the context of the Losers Club. Yeah. Which you need, because you need the idea that this dude's stalking the town and not just six people. Yeah, I mean, at least on the first one, you got a lot more of, like, he kills Hockstetter. You hear all about the missing children, the children from the class. Yeah, you watch him chew. You watch him corrupt Bowers into killing his dad. All those things. In this movie, there's these two scenes they put in to kind of remind you that, by the way, the clown also... Oh, he's also doing stuff in town. He also does stuff in town, but otherwise, he's just going to show up while everyone else has little vision quests. Yeah, and I think...

because of the fact that everything had to be separate vignettes, you're like, oh, there's too many. Like, we can't really drive home the fact that it's this town that's getting fucked up by the clown. Yeah, it's impressive. You have to watch all six of the main characters have these little vignette quests, and then a bonus one for the seventh character who died at the start of the movie. Yeah. So there's seven of these things. But anyway, you know, that scene ends and we cut to... I mean, we get some narration from Mike Hanlon. Yeah. I do like the characterization of Mike in this. Yeah. Sometimes the characterization of Mike from, like, the show or the book, he's very...

like serious, like, oh, I was the lighthouse keeper and I was here to keep the records and whatever. But in this movie, he's like, no, I've had to stay in a cursed town with a horrible demon in it for 27 years. And I've gone crazy. Yeah, he is a little on edge, effectively. He lives above a library. It doesn't really say what he does exactly. Yeah, I mean, he is a librarian, but that doesn't come up in the movie. No, he just lives up there. And yeah, he seems to have gone a little bit crazy. He's well played, too. It's Isaiah Mustafa from the deodorant commercials. And he's great. He's really good.

So he does a fantastic job, but he's like, oh, well, it started. So, you know, he verifies that it started. And then he does the thing where he calls everyone. He's like, remember, we all agreed that we'd have to come back and kill it 27 years later. Hey, I got to call each and every one of you and give all of you a flashback or a little moment to see what you're doing now. And then you're going to come back and we're going to have to have another meeting where we all remember things that happened. And then you're going to need to go out into the town and remember things that happened. Yeah, it's just a bunch of remembering things. One question I have from this phone call part, because we go around and we see what everyone's become in life as well. Yeah. In the book.

does everyone become like Hollywood grade, fantastic wealthy? That's the thing. All of them that managed to leave Derry are like, oh yeah, we left and became amazingly successful. Okay. Because that seemed to be, when you don't have the context for that, like there's no reason for why that happened. It's just, I guess just because they got out, but that doesn't matter. A lot of people don't live in Derry and are dumb pieces of shit. Well, no, it's being in Derry and then leaving it. There's some implication that like, oh.

like, part of the whole forgetting thing was them becoming super famous and whatnot. So you can almost think, like, oh, yeah, like, it infected them with greatness so that they wouldn't come back. And that's the reason that Mike is all fucked up and poor and everything is like, oh, he never left town, so he just gets to be a dirtbag. Yeah, but everyone else is crazy wealthy. Because we start with Bill, who is the kind of... Who is Stephen King. Yeah, he's just Stephen King. They keep making fun of him for not being able to come up with endings for his books. Yeah. So he's just a Stephen King stand-in. I was kind of hoping that they'd be like, man, none of your books have good endings. Also, you did so much coke in the 80s that your nipples fell off.

I would have loved if they had at least alluded to, man, you can't do endings. Also, there's no way we're going to film that sex scene in this. They just said that when he was on set. Don't say anything else. Just that. Be like, you were real fucked up. The ending of this random movie you're making with your wife doesn't make any sense, Bill. What's up with this flying space turtle? How come Gamera saves the kids at the end of this? It's so weird. It comes out of nowhere. Oh, no, you have to read 12 of my other books to get this. Yeah, no one has.

But he's like, no, not everything needs to have a good, happy ending. The thing is, not everyone's pissed off because it's a happy ending. It's just a dumb ending. I'm sorry. I think, yeah, it's just a dumb ending. But he gets the phone call, and it immediately fucks him up for the day, and he's accidentally mean to his wife, which is good because his wife says, like, fuck you to him, which sets it up for him to be okay to cheat on her while he's gone. Don't even worry about it. It'll never be resolved. No. Bill.

Is a piece of shit. Is a piece of shit. Yeah, I mean, you kind of get this main character vibe from him because the first movie had a lot more of him than anyone else in it. Oh yeah, Bill's supposed to be like the leader of the Losers Club. Yeah, he's kind of the leader of the group. And you know, they've got James McAvoy playing him. And James McAvoy is already a strike in Bill is a Piece of Shit direction. I love James McAvoy. He's one of my favorite actors working these days, but it's because he imbues everyone he plays, even if it's Professor X, with some piece of shit. Oh yeah, God, his portrayal...

in Dark Phoenix of Professor X. You're like, God, you're a piece of shit. I hate you, Charles. Traditionally, Charles is basically Patrick Stewart. He's like, what if Santa shaved his beard and it was Patrick Stewart in there? That's normally Professor X. But he's like, what if Professor X was a slimy weirdo? What if he was just kind of a dirtbag?

And that, you're right, he does bring that energy to Bill. Yeah. Like, when he's having the argument with his wife, he's like, why can't you just be the woman I want you to be? I mean, in the movie. You're like, yeah, Bill, I think you also mean the other way. Well, he also spends a lot of time touching Bev for the moment he first sees her. Like, he keeps grabbing her by the arm, and when she almost falls, he, like, grabs her and hugs her for a good 30 seconds. He's like, you almost fell there. I mean, he's got like a Neil Breen romance structure to him.

Yeah, Bill. God damn it, Bill. Fuck Bill. That's where I'm coming from. It's a real piece of shit. I mean, at least when Bev is like, I'm going to kiss one of these guys here. He's like, oh, I'm getting out of a horrible, controlling, abusive marriage. And so she's like, I'm going to go find someone else. I'm like, that's okay. I get it. No, I understand where she's going. But with Bill, he's just like, oh, I left my wife, who I've been married to for eight years. And hey, what up? How you doing? He's just on vacation. She left her ring at the door. Yes. Because after her, it's time to go check in with Ben.

And Ben, we start in with a whole joke where you think he's still a fat guy because it's like a redheaded fat dude who's given a presentation about architecture. And then, nope, he's on a phone call Skyping in from his fabulous mansion that he lives in. Oh, no, it's trash. It's supposed to make him look super cool and dynamic, but it makes him look like that capricious, fake Richard Branson-esque CEO who... Oh, yeah, who's like, I can't show up, and also I'm going to do this meeting with my button-down shirt open slightly. Yeah, and then he's like, well, hang on, hang on, hang on. One pithy thing. And everyone goes, my God!

And you're just like, no, it's a lot more work than that to be a billionaire architect. You can't just be like, what if there were more windows? It's just like when we had to watch Fifty Shades Freed and she was like, could we publish more books? And they were like, my God, that's a genius idea. We'll sell more books.

Yeah. It doesn't sell. It just suggests that he's a billionaire architect, hot dude, and that's the end of it. I mean, honestly, what it sells is he's not a billionaire architect. He's a billionaire that owns an architecture firm. Yeah, there's that. And as soon as he turns off that little TV, everyone's going to be like, god damn that guy. Of course we're going to put more windows in. That's not an interesting insight. Yeah, the whole thing was like, hey, can we put more walls so we can get more retail space? And he's like, but then you'll close off the flow and this won't be inviting. It'll be a prison. And people want to escape from prison. You're like, yeah, no, it's just a building with some stores in it. No one's going to give a fuck. Well, there's no suggestion of what it is. He's like, I want this to be a meeting place, a gathering, a peaceful place for everyone to come together. And you

I want to say 30 story looks like either apartment building or a like building for various companies to be at. Yeah, this isn't going to be either of those things. I don't know what you're talking about. All right, sure. Fine. We'll build an open office Cinnabon in there. Thanks, buddy. No wall Cinnabon. We get to watch you make them.

It's disgusting and it's your fault. Everyone hates it and they hate you. All right, so that's him. He gets the phone call. He's pretty simple. Then we do Bev. And Bev, I assume this is also in the book. Yes. It's almost definitely because she had an abusive father that she's moved on to an abusive husband. She is living straight up in mansion land. Oh, yeah. She's a famous fashion designer. That's good to hear because in the movie, the movie doesn't tell us that. In the movie, she's a rich wife.

No. There's never a suggestion that she has any kind of job at all. Oh, no, there is. There's one throwaway thing of, Rogan Marsh, my wife's closet is half of your stuff. Oh, okay. That's fair. That did happen. And I was thinking that that was like her and her husband's names and that he was the rich one. Because you never see her do any work. No. But then, I mean, what are we going to do? Join her as she goes to the office? I guess. I mean, in the TV movie, that's where she gets the call is the office. Right. Well, here we have to do this so we can have yet another brutal sexual assault. In this case, it's her husband whipping her with a belt and yelling about how she's a liar and stuff. Yeah. So, cheat straight.

Wax him in the head with several things. Yeah. And then runs away and leaves a ring at the door and is off. Yeah. Then we do Eddie, who is a insurance adjuster. Yeah. He's a risk analyst and he gets into a car crash once he gets called because he's so freaked out. His wife is a stand in for his mother. Yes. Yeah. She's still hypochondriac. She's got that. Overprotective. Overprotective and demanding. Yeah. And then Richie is a stand up comic and he throws up when he gets the news and then fucks up on stage because he's so messed up. Yeah. Richie is an interesting change because in the book, if I'm not wrong, he's a stand up. He's a DJ.

I can't remember from the book. He is stand-up in the TV movie, but it's been at least 10 years since I've read the book. Okay, because in the book, I'm pretty sure that he's a radio DJ, which is exactly, moving him to stand-up comic is the right move, because there's just not that many shock jocks left that anyone would give a shit about. I mean, when you said it in like, oh, this takes place in like 1986 or something, like, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Well, you mean the adult part takes place in like 1986 or something? Yes, for the book. Okay. Yeah, because this movie takes place in the modern day, like right now-ish. Yeah, because they basically just took the point where the book would take place in the movie, or in the adult part, move that to the kid part, move the adult part to now. Yes.

And when does tomorrow happen? Tomorrow never dies. You see, because when is now? The 80s are the 50s of now. So, yeah, that's everybody. And then Stan. Oh, Stan, right. Stan is just generically rich. His wife is asking if it's okay. We have no idea what he does in the movie. No, his wife just asked if they can take a trip to Buenos Aires, and he goes, yes, we can. And she goes, yay, we're going to Buenos Aires. Yeah, he's, you know, he just sort of looks like a nebbish little guy. He's doing a crossword, or not a crossword, a puzzle. He's doing a jigsaw puzzle. And then he gets the call, and he is the one who can't do it. Yeah, so he goes and kills himself in the bathtub, splitting open his wrists, which the...

juxtaposition of that and the whole making the promise with the cutting of the palm thing. It was very good. Yeah. I liked it as a well-shot scene. Again, this is just a lot of little vignettes. That one happened to be very well done. Yes. Yeah, it was perfectly fine. And then, you know, they all get together in that Chinese restaurant that had the same thing that happened in the, actually, I think in the movie they met the library, or in the TV movie, the library first. Only, I think, Bill meets someone there. Okay. Well, anyway, we get the Chinese restaurant scene. Yeah, which is...

I know that it's one of those iconic scenes that people be like, oh, where's the restaurant scene? But you really could have cut that entirely out. And it would have been like, oh, just have a meet. at the fucking, like, clubhouse that they go to after this. Yeah, because it's just a second meeting. And just have that be it. I mean, this one's like, wow, I can't believe how much I'm remembering about you guys. Anyway, let's go to this clubhouse. Wow, I can't believe how much I'm remembering about you guys. It's just, this keeps happening. The Chinese restaurant's fine. Everyone meets. They establish their old habits again right away, which is that Ben, despite being a hot billionaire now, can't bring himself to actually talk to Beverly. And Bill, on the other hand, immediately just sort of leans on a wall next door and is like, hey there, I'm married, let's fuck.

And meanwhile, Mike sits there doing nothing while Tozer makes fun of Eddie. Yeah. There you go. And making fun of Eddie is bad. He's just like, your mom's fat. Yeah, I know. My mom's fat. Well, she's really fat, though. So I want to make sure you know she's fat. Now, I don't want to say that this is a bad thing. Bill Hager is the best part of this movie by a country mile. Oh, yeah. He, I would say, honestly, emotes better and is like steals the scenes more. He just has.

a much better scene presence, which when you're talking about Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and you're like, man, you guys are way blander than fucking Bill Hader in this. Step your shit up. They both have a real case of main characteritis. Yeah. Where he gets to be a fun side character, and they've given him an interesting change, which unveils itself over the course of the movie, but is actually pretty apparent early on. Yeah. He's closeted gay now. Oh, yeah. He's been...

basically gay for Eddie since he was a kid. Yes. Although you don't see any of that in the last movie. They put it all into the vignettes in this movie where you're like, where anytime Eddie does something, it's near him and he's like, hey there. But in the previous movie, they just made fun of each other. This was, I don't think they had decided on this when they wrote the first film. But it's a great choice. Oh yeah. I mean, we never really get anything relationship-wise from Richie. I mean, no matter what source you're looking at, he doesn't get married, he doesn't have any sort of nonsense like that. But it colors a lot of his childhood personality.

He was going to either be queer or have ADHD or both. Yeah. And I believe it is both. Yes. So that was the way that they went. And I mean, believe me, that's because I led that life. Yeah. Except for the whole demon clown part. You know, except for that. You were close enough. I mean, you basically went and had adventures in the sewer, right? I did do that. Yeah. It was a storm drain. But yeah, basically, I'm a living, breathing Richie Tozier, except fuck man. Fuck Bill. Fuck man.

So yeah, they get together. Freaky stuff happens while they're remembering at the Chinese restaurant. All their fucking fortune cookies hatch like eggs into little monsters. So we get the scene after that where they're all like, all right, well, fuck this. We're all leaving. Actually, that scene had a question for me. There's a part where eventually they snap because of all these creepy monsters and blackboard burning oil and everything coming out of their food. And Mike grabs a chair and starts wailing away at the table. But then a waitress comes in and immediately everything's gone and everything's normal. And she's just like, what's going on? And then, just because I want to make sure we knew this, there was a...

check please line in this movie that wasn't even from Tozier doing it ironically. Oh, yes, it was. It was from Tozier. Oh, was it? Okay. He just goes, yeah, but it was like, ugh, don't fucking, no. Plus, here's the thing. I didn't think Pennywise worked in hallucinations. He does. Okay. He pretty much just makes you see things. All right. Unless he himself is actually physically present, usually. Okay, so it's just hallucination stuff. Yeah. I think it's weird that none of them thought, well, let's just leave this room, and instead they all kind of cowered up into walls. Yeah, that is one of the things where you're like, get the fuck out then. I'd be like, no, I'm good. You know what? I'm gonna go pay at the front desk.

Yo, there's a problem in that room over there you might want to take care of. Hey, your fortune cookies are full of baby fly monsters. So I'm going to, you know, why don't you cut me a deal? Are you getting a bad review? Can I get 50% offer for the baby fly cookies? Also, come on. What's up with this huge bowl of fortune cookies? Unwrapped fortune cookies. Who cares? It's a good set piece. All right. Then we go on to the next place that they go. Half of them are like, nope, fuck this. I'm leaving town. Basically, all of them say they're going to get the fuck out. And the only one that Mike can convince to at least hear him out is Bill. Yeah. And again, great fucking acting from Isaiah. He really sells that like.

desperate, crazed energy. Yeah, and I honestly feel like part of the reason that Bill was willing to stay is that one of the things that Mike has developed over the years because of his proximity to the bad kind of town is a stammer. Yeah. He has a stutter to what he's doing when he gets worked up about, like, what's going on and how to stop Pennywise. He has that same sort of thing. They don't say it, but I feel like that's actually part of the motivation for Bill to hear him out. It's like, oh, I understand this particular pain. I've kind of gotten over it, but I still revert to it in stress. Yeah. So they go to the library. Everyone else goes to an inn to get ready to leave. They go to a library. And Mike drugs Bill and then gives him a...

Fucking vision quest of shit that happened to the Shakopee people. Yeah, here, look at this Native American trash can, and then you're gonna have a bunch of visions based on seeing it. Yeah. The... The way that they do that is sort of fine, I guess, if you want to have that be how you get that ritual of chewed. Yeah, I mean, the way they do it is that he watches a bunch of crazy imagery of Pennywise showing up as like a skeletal crow and then a skeletal wolf and so on. They're like, yeah, this is what freaked out the Native Americans back then. Yeah, and then when he finally comes out, he's like, the ritual of chewed. And you're like, oh, good, okay. I'm glad that we don't have to hear that. If you drink this root and look at this pot, then you come out of the other side going like, the ritual of chewed. No further explanation. No questions. It's fine. Did you see a turtle? Don't worry about it. Everything's fine.

Oh, well. Yeah, it was fine. I mean, ultimately Bill's like, all right, well, now I'm on board and I've seen it, so let's go back and convince the others. Yeah. Ben is awkwardly talking to Bev over there while Eddie comically has too much luggage for such a tiny man. Yeah, and we find out that Bev...

knew the circumstances of Stanley's death before his wife told them because she has visions ever since getting caught in the deadlights in the first movie where she was all floaty. She can now see possible deaths for everyone. Oh, yeah. She says, I've seen all of your deaths over and over all the time. Yeah. Every time she goes to sleep, she has a nightmare about how everyone's going to die, which is almost nightmares. It's been horrible given that she forgot everybody. Oh, yeah. She's like, oh, some random person I don't know dies. I keep having these visions where James McAvoy dies. It's weird, but I'm kind of okay with it because in the dream he's a little bit of a dirtbag.

Yeah, so they confront Bev, and she's like, yeah, no, ever since that confrontation with the clown, I've had these visions. If we don't stop him in this 27-year cycle, we will all die before he comes back again for the next one. So it's now or never, everyone. My whole thought is like, aren't you guys all in your 40s? That's actually a pretty regular lifespan.

If we don't kill him now, we'll die at 77. Well, they're saying they'll die before then. Oh, okay. So soon. Because the whole thing is supposed to be, well, the movie says it's like a weird infection from Pennywise. Stan is the first to succumb to it, but they would all slowly die after this. And then by the end of the movie, that gets taken apart because Stan's like, oh, no, I strategically took myself off the board. Fucking, I hate that.

bit that they added at the end where they're like, oh no, Stan was actually a hero. Fuck you. You mean that's that three minute speech at the end that he gets to give that is literally the speech from any given John Hughes movie? Yes. The important thing about losers is that losers stick together. You gotta be yourself. And if you find someone, stick with them. And let me just go through each one of you and tell you what your epilogue is. And that's why each one of us is a princess and a basket case and a mic.

And a mic. That's a hot mic you got there. But yeah, the movie now ends with a straight up John Hughes 80s movie speech. But anyway, I was really curious. What if they all were like, no, I'm fucking rich and powerful and I don't live in Derry, Maine, so it can't do anything. I'll stay here. Up yours, Mike. Do you think Pennywise would venture out of Derry to go kill them? I guess that's supposed to be the idea. The idea is not that he leaves, but that there's already part of him inside them. Oh, okay. So there's a big thing made out of...

the old movie and book where, as well, none of them are able to have a stable relationship, none of them have kids, like... Well, give it all of them marry their fucking parents. I mean, I feel like that'd be a good thing. Poor Eddie cycling through a bunch of mean hypochondriac fat women, like... Because that's what his mom was. I mean, I'm not judging. He's allowed to be into whatever he wants to be into, but sure, they're all in failed marriages with their parents. That's like, oh no, this keeps failing. Yeah, figure it out, dummy. Well, I mean, the only two that are in with their parents are really Eddie and Bev. Well, we don't know anything about Bill's parents because they didn't matter. I mean, they were around. All right. I feel like they're around in the same way that Finn Wolfhard's parents in Stranger Things are around. Dad's just falling asleep constantly. He's comically stupid looking. Yes.

Anyway, sorry about that. All right. Yeah, now they come back from the library and they all convince everyone, hey, we got to do this. They go to the clubhouse in the woods that we didn't see in the first movie. Yeah, you think that would have shown up during the whole ideals of summer in the first movie thing. They're like, hey, you remember all the time we spent here? All those good memories, all of those days, except for the specific ones that happened in the last movie. Yeah, a whole bunch of stuff that you think we would have mentioned to each other during the first movie last time happened. Like you think Richard would be like, hey, guys, did you know I got chased by a giant Paul Bunyan statue? And instead, he just doesn't feel like talking about that. Yeah.

This movie's got a bad case of horror movie. I don't want to talk about it. It is where, you know, you'd be like, all right, we're all here to kill a demon clown and we have to do a bunch of very specific stuff to do that. So let's go ahead and stay a policy at the beginning of total information. If a trash can comes to life and chases you, you got to tell someone else. You got to text somebody. If you see something, say something. They got to go back to this clubhouse where they I guess the big joke was that.

Stanley used to give everybody shower caps in here so that spiders wouldn't get their hair. Oh, because it's subterranean, by the way. It's not by clubhouse. It's a cave. Yeah, it's some old dugout thing that Ben managed to reinforce and is like, yeah, we hang out here now. By the way, I forgot to mention this in the first movie, but in addition to being an excellent poet and a fan of the new kids on the block, I also am some sort of a childhood architect. Oh, yeah. I love that he then says, oh, there's a whole camp for learning architecture that's going on. I'm like, so you did this before you knew anything about that. Man, I would love to see what 1989 architecture camp was.

That'd be great. That'd be like a bunch of rich kids who were like, yeah, you're all legacies. You're going to go to Harvard for something. Welcome to archery or to archery. You got to do some archery too. Welcome to architecture camp. Please spend the first three days ordering a butler around.

Because that's movie architecture, where you're super rich for it, as opposed to most architects who are like, you know, it's a job. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, they are told that they have to find their own tokens of the time when they were split up. Yeah. Which isn't true, considering that Ben's is the page from his yearbook that Beverly signed at the beginning before they were even ever together, whereas everyone else's is supposed to be from when they were split up.

but he still has a memory from when they were split up. It's fucking dumb. Well, I mean, also Bev's, in addition to being a little pack of cigarettes she had hidden is the Ben poem. Yes. So that one's directly connected to someone else. She's just not sure who. Yeah. The, the fact that they're like, Oh, you got to go get your tokens, but you have to do it alone. That's important. I was like, is it though? There's a couple of characters who we see, but we don't really know for sure. So what the token is. So when they bring them back, you're like, what's that? I didn't see that before. Mike Hanlon has some rock. It's the rock that hit.

fucking Bowers when they saved, the loser saved him from Bowers. Right. And I don't even remember what Eddie had because it didn't matter. It's his inhaler. Yeah, that's right. It didn't really matter in his vision or his vignette quest at all. He was just like, I don't know, because he went to the pharmacist to get an inhaler, I guess. But that wasn't the scary part. No. It was just a thing that happened to be near him at the time. Yeah, they couldn't quite tie everything into an actual object. But I guess, I mean, the Richie one is really good. Well, Richie's and Eddie's are both sort of like, this is the location that affected me. Well, sort of, but it's more than that with Richie. We also go through an order. Okay, Bill's as obvious, it's the fucking boat. Yeah, and when he finds that,

He also meets another little kid that ends up being sort of a stand-in for his little brother that he wants to save later on. Yes, and the kid, you know, he's like, oh, I don't hear voices out of the sewer. I hear voices out of the bathtub. Yeah. And so his is really easy and obvious. It kind of sets up the whole Bill arc in this movie, which is that he still blames himself for Georgie. Yes.

Bev has to go visit. Bev's is the stupid. No, maybe. I don't know. It's almost the stupidest. She goes to visit her dad's old apartment. Her father has died, which she apparently didn't know about. And there is an old woman there who is Pennywise. And so she sits down with the old woman for tea and looks around the house. She digs up a floorboard to get her old cigarettes and poem that she hid. Yeah, she's got the poem and cigarettes and whatever in a baseboard somewhere. Yeah, and the whole time the Pennywise old lady is kind of sneaking around in the background. It's actually really cool shots. But then at the end, the scary thing is that she runs out as like a giant witch. Giant naked witch. CGI.

Looks like a titty golem. Yeah, it really is. Like a tall golem that is tittied. Yeah. Be tittied golem. It's a big old titty golem. And I was so disappointed because when you see that scene in the trailers, it sort of ends and you see the back of the feet running towards her. And I was like...

That would be way more interesting if instead of a movie giant CGI thing, it was the old lady, but she was all fucked up. Yeah, you do see her shuffling around naked in the background as she's getting ready to make her transformation, I guess. It also does have a very good horror movie sequence, which is at the moment when she switches into the Pennywise voice, you hear the thumps of her running a long time before you see her arrive. That's well done shock. But the thing that comes out is stupid looking. The scene is so well done up to that point, and then you're like, oh, you went with a big dumb CGI thing, and it's just not a good payoff.

Yeah. There's a spot where the old lady snaps at her. Quit being so damn polite. Yeah. It's a well done snap. The whole thing is really good. And then it ends with a titty golem and it's not fantastic. Okay. Richie's is the one I really like and want to talk about. In his, he's playing Street Fighter 1 in an old arcade with some random kid. Yeah. And it is obvious that he has a crush on the kid. So when the kid gets up to leave, he's like, hey, you want to keep playing? And offers him a token. Yeah. Which becomes his token. Yeah. He's like, you know, you can stay here with me and keep playing. And the kid's like, hey, I'm almost into it. But then he realizes. He sees his cousin Bowers show up and he has to be like.

Oh, shit, I have to not be associated with this. I have to say face and face. You can tell he's obviously into it until that moment. And then he code switches into being an asshole so he doesn't get beat up by his weird cousin. Yeah. So he's like, oh, fuck you, queer. And then, you know, Richie gets run out of the building. Yeah.

And I mean, the only reason the right after that we get the Paul Bunyan thing is because people have been wanting that from the book forever. And they're like, great, here you go. Here's he's attacked by Paul Bunyan. He's attacked by a big fiberglass statue of Paul Bunyan. And it looks ridiculous. I mean, I guess it's something for Richie Tozer to do. Yeah, because in the first movie, the whole thing was, oh, it never bothered Richie. Like until it finally showed up for the group, he was just like, yeah, I never saw shit. Yeah. And then as an adult, he also was just kind of like.

Nah, nothing happened to me. So they needed something. They add a scene in this one at the Paul Bunyan statue where Pennywise is there and he's basically taunting him by being like, I know, you're C.E. Chris. So...

When the person gives him the flyer for, like, R.I.P. Richie Tozier, his death thing, that was the guy who got killed, the gay guy who got killed at the beginning of the movie who hands it to him. Oh, okay, he saw me now. It's all part of the whole, you're repressing the gay side of you. Right. And so the dead person who gives him that is the person from the beginning. Yes, that does add up. But yeah, Pennywise comes out and kind of threatens him a little bit and is like, oh, why don't you tell them? And, you know, honestly, Skarsgård does a really good job. I fucking love Skarsgård as it in this because... I feel like that needs a mention at some point. Yeah, he does such a great job of...

really committing to everything. Yeah. And in the Bev scene, we didn't mention this, the Bev scene, it shows that Pennywise was like this old lady's dad a long time ago and that we get a shot of him out of makeup putting the clown makeup on. Like basically the actual for real Pennywise that he took the shape of eventually was like, oh yeah, he was also a weird, fucked up, crazy clown guy. Yeah. And he's like cutting his face up to make the makeup. It's cool. It's a neat shot. And it's kind of weird to see Skarsgård doing the face and there's no CGI. There's nothing. It's just him slapping makeup on and going like, oh, I'm going to kill you at some point. Honestly, that's why.

the little vignette of the little girl he kills is so good. Oh yeah, because it's a lot of him talking and it's really smooth. Oh yeah, and it's because you see him not just attack someone, he's like, oh, a kid and I kill them. Like he actually manipulates them and like plays on their own insecurities where he's like, oh, I'm hiding because I didn't want you to see my face because everyone makes fun of me because the little girl has this big birthmark on her face. Yeah, and he's like, oh, I could just blow that away. He does such a good job in that scene too. And that...

That final, like, stopping between the count of two and three. Just sitting there drooling and he looks like a total creep. Yeah, it's really well done. Yeah. No, he's fantastic in this and there's not enough of him in this. Okay, so that's Tozier. Tozier gets the old token because he's going to use that. Ben already has his token, but he goes back to the school anyway to remember a time that Pennywise showed up as Bev to fuck with him. Yeah, a long time ago, Pennywise showed up as Bev the Ghost Rider to mess with his head at a film class. Yeah, because they also needed to include the Kiss Me Fat Boy line from the TV movie, which is why that is in there. Although, again...

Fucking Skarsgård's, nobody wants to kiss the fat boy. Yeah, he's got an amazing voice for that sort of thing. I'm kind of sad that they gave the Beep Beep Richie to Bev. Ugh. For no reason. No reason. It's just the middle of a room somewhere and she just goes, Beep Beep Richie, and that's it. Yeah, I was like, that wasn't even established in the first movie. In the first movie, the only one who says it is Pennywise during the Neibolt house thing. Oh, I thought that was in the library. In the TV movie, rather.

Oh, in the TV movie, I thought it was... In the TV movie, they say beep, beep, Ritchie a lot. Oh, that's right, because it's his catchphrase as a DJ or whatever it is. Well, it's what they would say to him to be like, yo, shut up, Ritchie. They'd say beep, beep. Oh, okay. But in this, they don't establish that that's a thing they say, and the only time you hear it in the first one is when he jumps out of a fucking coffin in the Neibolt house. Yeah, those callback things always take me right out of whatever I'm watching. I know they're cute and people expect them. Like, I was watching The New Dark Crystal yesterday, and there was an episode where Augro was talking to the scientist Skeksis, and she was like, you used to be friends. And Mark Hamill, who's doing scientist, is like, another time, another place. And you're like, come on, man. In the

This land was green and verdant before the crystal. He only says another time, another place, sadly. I would love Mark Hamill saying the whole beginning of that. I mean, I would just want Mark Hamill to say that to me. I would like Mark Hamill to just read me the script to the first Dark Crystal movie. He's so good at this. Anyway, we gotta go through. Yeah, he gets scared of the school again because he has this memory of this time where Bev, a fake demon Bev was mean to him. Which was good before she turned into Ghost Rider. Yeah.

But the whole idea of like, oh yeah, Pennywise just shows up. So specifically fuck with you is my favorite thing in this. Yeah, because he's just mean to him. He leans in for a kiss and she's like, ew, no. Why would I ever want to do anything with someone as fat and gross and terrible as you? And you're like...

Fuck, that's... It would have been more damaging to him if you had then left Pennywise than revealed that you were the clown. Yeah. Because then he would have just been like, oh, everything sucks and I can't go join the group again. Yes. So in his vision, he goes and he hides in his locker. His locker's huge on the inside because there's a full-size poster of a new kid on the block behind him. And they kept panning away and back to that poster over and over again in like the third pandemic. Oh, yeah. I thought the poster was going to be like, turn and look at him. I was really hoping that we got like a Wahlberg cameo or something. Oh, yeah. Get a Donnie Wahlberg shows up as Pennywise. Come on. For like a split second. Because they have a Donnie Wahlberg poster.

for this one shot. Ah, gotcha. That's me, Donnie Wahlberg. Bye! But no, they pan back and it's just Pennywise standing there and then he gets chased out of the school and that's the end of his one. Mike has to go and remember that time he was sitting in a hallway on a bike while his family burned alive. Yeah, I mean, his is mostly just a memory he has rather than an actual vignette. Yeah, because he already has his shit together. It's fine. Eddie goes to the pharmacy to pick up his token and then remembers the time he went to the basement of the pharmacy. This is really one where I feel like he would have mentioned this. And he's like, oh yeah, I saw my mom strapped to a thing and then the leper that...

I saw before was attacking her and at least that one I'm like that's fucked up because the whole vision is you couldn't save your mother except that his mother was fine oh no she died a few years later it was all a hallucination but yes but I'm saying as far as fucking a kid up being like what's the vision you had oh the thing I'm afraid of kills my mother is what I see like that's fucked up then as an adult he has to confront the leper that was down in the basement again only this time he straight up was like fuck you, and starts choking it out. This is the biggest take-you-out-of-the-movie moment in the movie, because right as he almost finishes choking the leopard to death, the leopard fires super barf at him. It's just black vomit liquid. And for some reason, the AM gold song Angel of the Morning starts playing for five seconds. That is, one of the other complaints about this is the movie has a problem of wanting humor to be injected into scenes a lot, which makes it so that several moments...

don't land the way they should because the movie tries to interject. And this is one of them. There are several other ones where even when the line from Bill Hader as Richie is good, you're like, oh, he's just like undercuts any tension there was by doing it. For some reason, it's Eddie scenes over and over again for me because there's this one where you get this brief snippet of Angel of the Morning, which both ends, starts and ends dramatically abruptly. Oh, it's like a three second clip. Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. And the barf scene both starts before the AM Gold starts playing and keeps going after it stops.

It's the weirdest thing. It's almost like it was a mistake. It was a bad choice. I'll say that. And then the other one is he gets the line to Bowers after he stabs him. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Cut your fucking bullet, man. It's been like 30 years. Yeah. You're like, don't cheap it. You just got stabbed through the face and then stabbed him in the chest. Yeah. You don't stop to quip at him. I know. It was such a weird moment. At least in the opening scene of the film with the gay bashing scene, the guy getting beat up is like, I still hate your hair. He's like, but that's an act of defiance. That's not a quip.

So, yeah, I think that's everyone's tokens. Stanley Uris. Which they got the head thing we already said. But we do have to watch Tozer go sit in a synagogue and remember a time he was at a... That's later. That's when he was going to leave. Oh, all right. So, yeah, they get their tokens together, and that's when Bauer attacks. He stabs Eddie through the cheek into his mouth. We've also watched Bauer's escape from prison being driven around by zombie Hawkstetter. Yeah. It's all fine. He barely registers in this film at all. It's true. And the thing is, the guy playing him is good. Sure. Like, he plays a very...

convincing grown-up Bowers. Yes. But he is exceedingly spare in this film. He's in the movie for almost a minute. Yeah. But yeah, he shows up, stabs Eddie in the cheek, Eddie hides behind a shower curtain, pulls a knife out of his face, and stabs Bowers in the chest with it. Who then jumps out a window and takes the knife out of his own chest and just doesn't seem to give a shit. Well, yeah, because he's at least completely insane. Well, also because he's at least a little bit Pennywise-powered. He's all juiced up on that Pennywise. Yeah, that doesn't mean he's invincible because he's going to get taken out two scenes from now anyway. Yeah.

But yeah, they're like, oh my gosh, okay, well now we're all committed to doing this. Does everyone have their tokens? Great. Well, here's the deal. Everyone gets to look at this trash can that Mike has from these Native Americans. And as soon as they get together, fucking Bill sees a skateboard from the kid that he was talking to earlier. And it says, you're not going to be there for him either. Yeah. And he's like, well, fuck this. I have to go. I have to go be a big damn hero, guys. Excuse me. And they're like, no, let's not sit together. Excuse me, I'm the protagonist. I have to get to the fair and save this kid. But horror movie convention. Why don't we all sit together? No, that doesn't make any sense to me. Also, I'm going to ride my bike there. Because by the way, another thing, he gets his old bike back from fucking Stephen King in a cameo in this film.

Then he rides his bike all over town for the whole rest of the movie, even in situations where it would make very good sense, like this one, for him to drive to the fucking fair. Yep, but no. He rides there on his decrepit-ass old bike. Yeah, so he goes off to go try and save this kid, and he gets to the carnival. pretty much just in time to see the kid give his tickets to a guy and go into the funhouse. Yeah, go into the clown-themed funhouse, where he gets to the Hall of Mirrors. Yeah, the clown boppers, like the little swinging pendulum things, are all dressed as Pennywise from the TV movie, which is a nice little thing. Yeah, it was all very cute. And it ends in one of those Hall of Mirrors scenes where the Hall of Mirrors is way better than an actual one is in life. Which is fine, because it's being fucked with by Pennywise. It's Pennywise. It's just like, what's the Batman one that ends in the Hall of Mirrors?

It's not Dark Knight. It's the Killing Joke. Killing Joke has a big Hall of Mirrors scene in it where you're like, Batman, just look at the fucking ground. You're too smart to be falling for all this mirror nonsense. There's a key and peel bit about a serial killer in a Hall of Mirrors that is fantastic. I'm not going to say anything else. Just go watch it. It's wonderful. I'll say it out. So anyway, you're certainly right about Drax Them's Clowns. Oh, yeah. What if Terry's getting froggy?

So yeah, he tries to save this kid. Again, if you've seen any of the trailers, you've seen this. But he ends up getting caught on the other side of one of the, like, see-through glass things. And he just sort of has to watch as Pennywise... Pops a kid like a blood balloon. Like, straight up murders this kid. Yes. Okay. So then he leaves and he's getting on his bike to go tell everyone else. He's like, oh, my man pain or whatever. But meanwhile, Tozer was like, fuck this dude, I don't want to be involved if Bowers is involved. So he sneaks out to his car and tries to leave. That's when he gets over to the synagogue and has a memory of this time that Stan, essentially during his bar mitzvah, was like, hey, you know what?

Y'all want me to change who I am, but I'm not. I'm always a loser, and fuck you, I'm out. Yeah, basically, Stan Uris, besides strategically killing himself to take himself off the board in this movie, is just the source of speeches about how the Losers Club is great. He gets two of them, and they both are bad. Yep.

I mean, it's just not great. It's so weird because the first movie, I'll tell you what, I watched and loved the first movie. I've seen it twice. There was never a point where they were like, Loser's Club sticks together. It's really important, guys. Losers are so... Let me give you a speech about it. Yeah, I mean, sure they have the thing where they're like, we're blood brothers for life and we swear we're going to come back. But, I mean, at no point where they're like, that's because we're the Loser's Club and losers always kill the haunted clown. No, there wasn't a lot of monologuing in the first one. Yes, to this movie's detriment. So that...

basically reminds Richie of that happening. He's like, ah, shit, I gotta go back and do this. I gotta do it because they're counting on me and I'm part of the Losers Club and also stands dead and I feel bad about that. Yeah, so that all happens. They go to meet up at the library after Bill takes off and that's when Bowers attacks fucking... Oh, it's Mike. He comes after Mike with his knife and is about to kill him when Richie takes him out with a Native American tomahawk to the back of the head. Yep. And they have to go get together because they're like, oh, Bill...

fucked off to go try and save a kid. And then they call him and he's like, I've got to end this. He just killed the kid. I'm going alone. Fuck you. And they're like, all right, well, you're an idiot. We know where you're going. He's got protagonist disease. We got to go stop him before he does that. So they all show up at the Neibolt house and he's like, I can't let anyone else get killed because of me. And they're like, shut up, you idiot. God damn it, James McAvoy. Yeah, like we were saying, he does a great job of playing this character who is a real piece of shit. Yeah.

so they all they all get together they go down there uh we get uh stanley's head is a spider uh and which is a big reference to uh the thing there yeah yeah that's fair it even has the same line of you've got to be fucking kidding me yep which is the same thing they say when uh what's his nuts head turns into a crab thing in the thing yep uh and then while two people are fighting stanley urris's head the rest of them are watching a mirror where pennywise is carving henry into ben's name again or to ben's stomach again well you think it's henry because he starts with the h but then it's like here's to coming home. It's like a big, long fucking message. That's right. But then they solve that problem because they have the same fence stake from the first movie. They just smash the mirror and it goes away. Yes. And he's not cut because it's all illusions. And then they all get together and they still have to repel the Stanley head a little more. And then they're like, all right, well, fuck this. We have to go down into the catacombs, obviously. Yeah, we got to go to where we saw him the first time. And there's a deeper hole to go into that leads to his actual lair. Yeah, you can see where the meteor that he is struck the earth and then released the three lights that he actually is. Well, yeah, he...

I mean, he's an alien that's made out of three lights and sometimes French has to be a demon clown to hunt people. There you go. It's fine. He's some sort of cosmic demon that was banished from where he was. The Q continuum, obviously. Yeah, obviously. I mean, the Q that is a turtle banished the Q that is a clown. And he was weakened and then impacted the planet. So he was super fucked up for millions of years. I love this millions of years thing. I guess he had to have been in stasis the whole time or like going upstairs and being like, I'm going to scare these pronghorns. What the fuck?

No, for the most of it, he was just like, I'm almost dead. I'm gonna get you, you mountain lion. And it's why he only can come back every 27 years, because he's like, I don't have the energy. Yeah, maybe that's even a new thing. Maybe that cycle's been getting better and better over time. Yeah, who knows? Maybe the next time he comes back, it'll be 26 years. Oh, goodness. But yeah, they get down there, and there's this big, funny-looking impact set piece with these obsidian spikes, and they crawl out into the middle of it. Oh, right before they get a chance to do that, the titty golem shows up again. Yeah. Golem, the titty golem. They get a...

We get our mix on the line because she grabs Bev and drags her into the water. And instead of where before Pennywise said time to float, she says time to sink. You get it? And then everyone but Eddie jumps in to save her and they all come up and they don't mention what happened underwater. No. They just come right back up. They're like, all right, let's keep going. Anyway, good job. We did it. Let us speak on this matter no further. Much like how we never mentioned previously that we were attacked by statues of Paul Bunyan.

So yeah, they go down to this set piece, which is essentially the final crater resting home of Pennywise, and begin the Ritual of Jude. So the Ritual of Jude sucks. It's just light a little fire and then throw a bunch of stuff in a little bag and then chant from light into darkness. Yeah, from light to darkness a bunch of times. No one runs a train on anyone. And they manage to get the three little lights that is Pennywise into the little Native American trash can.

but it doesn't hold them because it turns out that this ritual is all just bullshit and the people who did it the first time all died. Yeah. And Mike just didn't say it because he was like, I thought if we all believed that we could make it work. It was funny because the way it failed was that a balloon came out of there and started inflating and they were like, push harder, push the balloon back in. I was like, fucking pop the balloon, you morons. What are you doing? I mean, yes. I mean, you're all carrying like machetes and tent stakes and shit. Just.

But no, they wait for the balloon to get the size of a hot air balloon. And then when it pops, it deafens everyone. Yeah. And then a giant Pennywise spider is there. Honestly, I was glad that they did the spider at all. And this is a great way to get the spider accomplished where it's Pennywise dryer that comes out. Oh, goodness. Now it's time for all of you to die. I missed you so much, you goof.

Yep. Kind of similar. A little similar. A little similar. So anyway, this giant spider chases them around. And then we need to have vignettes for everyone again. More vignettes for all. Because everyone gets chased into their own little thing. So we get a private vignette for Bill where he has to confront his guilt over Georgie. Which he does by drowning his own Georgie. And then drowning himself. Yes. And then also drowning his own old child self. And then he gets to come up out of the water. And he realizes, no, I was a good brother just because I lied about being sick. That one time when Georgie died doesn't mean I was bad or it was my fault. Yeah. So he gets that.

Eddie and Richie go find the three doors from the first movie of scary, not scary at all, and very scary. They're like, oh, he's fucking with us. It'll be the very scary at all. And this was the saddest thing. And it's just a pair of kid legs come running out at them. It's like clog dancing at them. And they're like, oh, shit. I'm like, what are legs going to do to you, you morons? Just push them out of the way and fucking leave.

Just knock him over. They're just legs. So like, all right, he isn't fucking with us. Let's go to not scary at all. And they open that. And Richie had originally made a joke about how he wished the true form of Pennywise was a little puppy like a Pomeranian. Yeah. So this is a Pomeranian. And then it gets all freaky and scary. It's a great scene. I'm going like, oh, I'm not, I'm not falling for that. You bitch. I'm not going in there. Yeah. And then it goes, and they, oh, it's still actually, he's a good boy. We're taking a lot of time to mug about this. Oh no, it's scary. Yeah. And then it turns into a weird little monster skeleton thing. And I closed the door and great.

And then Bev and Ben each get their own private hell. Yeah, Bev gets sent to a bathroom, and that's the scene that made this movie famous a year ago when they were filming it. They're like, one scene in this movie has the most fake blood that's ever been used in any movie ever. Yeah. And it's the scene where she gets stuck in a bathroom stall where a bunch...

While a bunch of people yell, belittling things at her. In the first movie, she got a bunch of trash water dumped on her while she was in a bathroom stall. So she's trapped in there while blood is rising. Yeah, so blood's bubbling up and her giant dad is yelling at her through the thing and a bunch of people were calling her a slut and stuff like that. Ben, meanwhile, is trapped in the clubhouse. And Pennywise shows up to visit. He's like, oh no, now you're definitely gonna die alone, you fat boy. Well, I mean, I liked it better because he's like, all those sit-ups, everything you tried to do and it doesn't matter, you'll still die alone. Yeah, no, it's a good scene. It's a neat scene. But then eventually the two of them...

can hear each other and the power of love means that one of them can pull the other one out of their spot they're fine yeah Bev manages to kick the door open on her bathroom which then leads to the clubhouse and they pull each other out yep so there you go they're fine and during all of this Mike was just hiding yeah and somewhere in there Ben told Bev that he wrote the poem and she was like oh I always knew even though I definitely didn't know yeah so then they all meet back up in the cave thing and uh it's gonna go try and kill mike and uh richie saves by throwing a rock at him and he's like hey fuck you asshole he's like yelling at him uh which is funny because he's like hey you're a dumb piece of shit i hate you and it's like oh i'm gonna fucking kill you even though yelling at him is what kills him yeah let's save that because that is definitely the saddest it's the bad change so yeah and it's a great little bit because he gets all like fuck you yippee-ki-yay mother and then he just like immediately goes under when the deadlights hit him and he's like this slack jawed like blank white eyes it's a cool looking shot like the spider clown's floating him off the ground with his open face mouth teeth and then the deadlights are behind him pulsing through the clown into him yeah it's a cool looking shot but it eventually ends with Eddie going like this thing beats monsters this thing beats monsters this thing beats monsters and throwing it at him yeah as long as I believe that this like gate stake is actually a thing that'll kill monsters it'll work and he does throw it right through his goddamn head so that's a thing yeah which you know sends Pennywise into kind of a paroxysm spasm and they're all like yay and Eddie turns around to see if Richie's okay but then he gets stabbed through the heart and starts to die yep

Uh, and they run around. They finally, Mike is like, Oh, the form, the shock of people were like, you have to abide by the laws of the form you inhabit. So if we make him vulnerable, by being small, we can kill him because he has to abide by those rules. Oh, yeah, if we make him small, we'll have to make him small enough that he could potentially be killed. And I'm like, Big Stuff dies all the time, guys. Did you know that elephants have lifespans? Yeah, but it's really hard to choke out an elephant. That's true. The other problem is, Shakopee said things that have to obey the natural laws of the form they're in. And I'm like, okay, well, clowns can't unhinge their faces and fly and turn into mummies. So no, you should probably find a different angle of attack. But yeah, because Eddie shared that he was able to kind of choke out the leper, they're like, oh, if we can make him...

get down to size then we can i don't know try and choke him out so this is how they do it they turn around and well first they're like oh we'll go back through the opening because it's small so if he wants to follow us he'll have to be small to get through there oh right but then he blocks them going through it they're like oh there's more than one way to make someone small yeah and then they're like we'll belittle him and so they just turn around and start bullying pennywise to death in what i have to say is the worst decision to change up how you kill Pennywise, they all just bully him like, you're just a fucking clown! Mimic! Was the one, the weird one. That was Ben yelling at him, you're a mimic! You're nothing! You're just a mimic! And I was like, what, did you play a lot of D&D? What are we doing? Oh, I mean, probably. Come on, he was a fat kid growing up. Of course he played D&D. Yeah, good point. But yeah, and Pennywise was like, oh no, oh, oh, I'm being insulted. I'm definitely not owned, he said, as he began to shrink into a portal. No, no, I'm not owned, I'm the eater of worlds! Yeah. And they just keep yelling at him that he's a clown and he sucks, and eventually he shrinks down to the point where he's like,

tiny baby deflated Pennywise. Uh-huh. Yeah, he's a little fat baby man. He's like, he basically starts crying. And they're like, well, we're just gonna reach right into your shirt and pull your heart out. And then I guess we all gotta put our hands on it to squish it. And then we all squish your heart together and that actually kills you. And I just love Pennywise's reaction to being defeated in the first movie and in this movie are both dumb as shit. Yeah, the first movie he just goes, fair. And then falls down a pit. And in this one he goes, you're all grown up. Look at you. All grown up. Rugrats. Rugrats.

Yeah, the wild thornberries. Yeah, the ending for Pennywise is just still not great. Yeah, they pull his heart out and squish it, and then he turns into dust, and the deadlights fly away. Yeah, they wink out. And then they're like, oh, I guess we should get out of here, and they have to drag Richie out because he's so sad that Eddie died. Yeah, well, this was, of course, a load-bearing boss, so the entire place begins to collapse, and again, Hayter doing the best job in this, he almost refuses to leave, and they have to drag him out because he wants to take Eddie and refuses to believe that he's dead. Yeah, and then we cut right to Mike calling...

Bill to be like, hey, we sure killed everybody. They go to the cliff to jump out. They go back to the place where they cliff dive because we have to have a scene where Richie just straight loses it and begins bawling. Yeah, he starts crying and everyone hugs him. So you're right, that happens. And then they're all like, oh, he would have hated this, cleaning ourselves in dirty water. And then Bev and Ben have their first kiss there, which fucking, again, James McAvoy's Bill looks overseas and he's like, all right, well, I guess I have to go home to my wife. Fucking wife. So yeah. And then now we get to the point where Mike calls.

Bill would just be like, hey man, I love you. Hey, did you get that letter that Stan wrote where it turns out that he's a hero and he killed himself not because he was afraid, but because he was like, oh, I couldn't go back. And if we aren't together and united, then we'd lose. So I have to kill myself because I'm not going to be able to go back. I took myself off the board. So I know you think it was suicide, but it was a strategic decision. I'm a hero. And I just wanted everyone to know that. And I'm like, goddammit, don't do that. Don't just retcon the character. The whole point of him was like, no, he was that terrified that he was like, I cannot deal with this. I can't.

go back to a place where a fucking evil painting sucked my face off. But yeah, we get to watch everybody have little moments of the show that they've gone back to their good lives. The last one is Mike being able to leave town successfully, but otherwise it's like, oh, Ben and Bev have a fucking yacht together. I really like that Richie goes to the bridge that was supposed to be like, oh, you carve your initials in here if you're in love with someone. And you can see that when he was a kid, he carved in R plus E and he goes and renews that carving. So you have this acceptance of like, yes, I am in love with him. You know, that's part of who I am.

Yeah, that was really good. And then, yeah, like I said, Mike finally is able to leave town. And Ben doesn't get shit because we already saw it. Yeah, Bill's like, oh, I get to write a book now. I figured out how to write endings, I guess. Do you see this? I'm writing part of a page from it on my laptop. Yeah. And it turned out I was Dean Kuntz all along. It turns out I would love if what he was writing on the laptop was like the Andromeda strain. You're like, oh, hey. We thought it was self-deprecating humor, but actually it was Stephen King just going, fuck you, Kuntz.

But yeah, it ends with a huge speech from Stanley. Delivered at post-mortem, of course, where he's just like, yeah, the important thing about losers is that losers stick together. And once you're a loser, you're always a loser. And the strength of being a loser is that the other losers will support you because you're a loser. And each time we check in with someone while this speech is going on, coincidentally, part of his speech had to do with that. It's like, oh, if you find someone like you that you care for, stick with them, as it shows Ben and Bev. And accept who you are, as it shows Richie. And learn the right endings, Dean Kutz.

Anyway, that's the end. And that is the end. So there you go. That is it, chapter two. Let's go ahead and get into our best and worst here. We've been talking for a while. I'll keep it simple. Jeff, give me your number one best scene in the movie. It would be the... Well, the problem is, it's probably Bill Hader renewing his... The carving? The carving. Or yelling at Pennywise near the end there. But the scene of him as a child trying to keep another potentially queer kid around.

by offering him the token and then being devastated when it turns out the kid is... Oh, yeah. I mean, it's heartbreaking to see that scene. That scene is amazing. And Bill Hader's not there. But you know what? Finn Wolfhard is young Richie Tozier, and he's amazing as well. Oh, yeah. Both of them are very good. So ultimately, I would say that scene, the arcade scene, is my favorite part of the film. And I would normally drop some pithy thing about how it's because they're playing Street Fighter. There's an old Mortal Kombat cabin in there and shit. But no, it's because that scene is devastating. Oh, yeah. So that's my best. Your best? I'm going to go ahead and take the little girl, because it's just a great showing of what Pennywise...

does how fucking sadistic he is. That shot, that scene should have been the entire trailer for this film. Oh, yeah. If it was just a 30 second trailer, it was just that scene finished beginning to end completely would have been the best trailer you could have done. Oh, yeah. I mean, you could leave that out of the movie and just have that be the, we're not going to show you anything that happens in the movie, but we'll show you this. And you're like, oh, yeah, that is a great proof of concept for I know what to do with Pennywise. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. So you're absolutely right.

Worst thing in the movie for you? It's going to be the pacing because this movie does this whole vignette structure twice. Oh, yeah. The fact that it's three hours long and they decide to do essentially three different versions of vignettes. Over and over and over again. It just really, despite the strong performances, this thing drags in the middle. Like I said to John right as we were leaving, I was like, I've been hearing that Bill Hader stole this movie. If he stole it, it's because he found it in a dumpster. It's because the directing is not great. The writing is good, but the pace and the editing is terrible. Yeah. So there you go. What about you?

Uh, worst thing in this movie for me... I mean, I honestly do want to also say that it's probably the bloatedness, the fact that they put so much in here and you didn't need to. They already committed to this whole idea of we're going to do one kid movie and one adult movie. But then they made the adult movie also half of a kid movie. All the kids are back for a lot of this thing, which is, man, the de-aging they had to do on these kids because they brought them back several years later. Like you can see the de-aging, especially on Fan Wolfhard. You're like, oh, you're like a foot taller than you were in the first movie. And they couldn't do anything about that.

It's true. I did really like the scene that showed his crush on young Eddie. Oh, the hammock scene is so good as well. Yeah, he's hogging the hammock, so Eddie just gets in there with him and then uses his socked foot to kick Tozier's glasses off and slap him in the face. Yeah. And Tozier's like, I'm mad, but I'm also kind of into it. I mean, and the thing was, Tozier's like, I'm not going to get out of here. You have to get in here with me. Yeah, it was so well done. Yeah. Like I said, there's so much that's good about this movie that the fact that they decided to just put a ton more into it, you're like...

I can't be on board for all three hours of this. You think, well, maybe split this into three movies or something, but then what's the second climax out of three that you would go in? And there really isn't one. The problem with it as a book is that the first quarter is fantastic, the last quarter is okay, and then the half in the middle is draggy as fuck. Oh, yeah. You can get away with it in a book for like, oh, we're doing some world building, we really want to do character study. It's a fucking 1,200-page book, so you know what you're getting into. Yeah, Stephen King sells his books by the pound, and there's no getting around it. He really is verbose for no reason in the middle of a lot of his books. But...

With this, you're like, yo, it's a movie. Y'all need to be concise. You could cut some shit out. Yeah, this could have gone through a lot of cuts. Way to go. So yeah, we're going to go ahead and each give this a rating 0 out of 5, which will give this a rating out of 10 total. Jeff? 3.5. Awesome. Yeah, so 3.5. Pacing is a real problem, but the performances are fantastic. John? I'm going to give it a 4. It's really good, but there's...

having watched it twice, I own it. Chapter one on Blu-ray is the only Blu-ray I own. And it is a movie that I've watched multiple times. I've watched, you know, all the special features and all the things about that. I absolutely adore it. But this is one of those ones where I'm like, I might watch it again, maybe. But after watching it twice, I'm like, I don't really feel the need to own it. It's, you know, I understand. I get it. Yeah. Well, you go. That's a seven and a half out of 10. Yeah. Respectable. It's good. Yeah. It's a good movie. It's got nothing on the first one, but it's a good closeout anyway. Yeah. I mean, I would say if you like horror, if you liked the series, go see it in theaters. And if you can watch the.

opening scene of this thing. Oh, yeah. Also, if, you know, you didn't have a problem holding your piss during Endgame, then great. Go watch this, too, because it's another three hours. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. So thank you so much for joining us. Of course, we will be doing this again in another couple of weeks. It'll be a different movie, right? Please. Yeah, we'll just be doing this again in another couple of weeks. Damn it. I said I didn't want to watch it again. Unfortunately, that's the new format. We have to watch it again. We just have to review it again. No, we have to watch it every time. God damn it. I should stop saying the loopholes out loud. Damn. You keep closing my loopholes. So, yeah, if you've got a suggestion for any movies to watch.

you want us to see something stupid and get our review of it, you can go ahead and let us know either on Twitter, we are at System Mastery on there, or you can go to our Discord, which is pinned on our Twitter account. Join us there. A lot of great people, great discussions going on for a ton of different things. And any suggestion you make, I'll go ahead and just add it right into the list. Yep. And, of course, you can also, for next month, go to the website, SystemMasteryPodcast.com. Don't forget to support us on Patreon, of course. I'm sorry. You can finish talking about what they can do on the website. My bad. You've got to go to the Movie Mastery tab and in theaters now, and that'll bring up the poll that you can vote on. And, of course, Patreon helps us do what we do. Patreon.com slash System Mastery supporting us.

Makes it so that we can keep watching weird, dumb movies for your enjoyment. But thank you so much for listening. Thank you for your support. We'll be back in another couple of weeks. And until then, you have a good one.