Rod, Karen, Aaron and LJ discuss listener feedback, entertainment, The Equalizer 3, Ray Fisher calls out Geoff Johns, Y: The Last Man fails to find new home, Matrix sequels canceled, Idris considered for James Bond, Mission Impossible sequels delayed, Bobby Kotick don’t give a fuck, Xbox buys Activision, Sony buys Bungie, IRS to require facetime to pay taxes, EA announces 3 new Star Wars games, PS5 will auto-upload captures, Mortal Kombat sequel in the works, iPhones contactless payments, Nintendo Switch has outsold the Wii, cheating Guitar Hero player, Amazon Prime raising prices, GTA 6 may be in the works, Terry Crews in Walking Dead, Madame Web movie, Sony has to cut PS5 sales forecast, John Wick spinoff starring Halle Berry, Tesla Karaoke, Roland Emmerich hating on Disney and Steam Deck is big.
The Nerd Off: (Protected Content)
Hey Rod & Karen. Rod, I thought about what you said on these directors being up in arms over Comic Book Movies. Samuel L. Jackson talked about this on The View. Long story short, he basically broke it down to how filmmaking isn’t as a mystery anymore. He also said, folks just ain’t watching their shit anymore. Up until now, I didn’t think of it in those terms but it makes a lot of sense.
A lot of the disdain of these films, comes from a very white perspective. Filmmakers I’ve respected for a very long time, who make a fortune off the backs of space, galaxies far far away & Xenomorphs, pretty much aren’t about that life anymore. Which, it’s their right, but the hypocracy is too much. Even from critics, who could make an explanation for the nonsense from Jupiter Ascending but can’t make sense of Spider-Man: No way Home’s story. Like Roland Emmerich has no room to talk, who was the subject of discussion on the last episode of Nerd Off. Buddy’s been making a fortune off bullshit since the first Universal Soldier, but wants to talk about how the industry is catered to brands.
To be honest, everything in Hollywood is brand-adjacent, if we’re being honest. It didn’t start with the MCU, Star Wars, DC, Legos, Dune, Bond, etc. As prolific as they are, you have to go back to the very beginning of the industry. A lot of what we watch, for better or worse, is an update from prior shit, improving on things that directors & stars of today were limited by, with set pieces & technology.
It’s ratner convenient a lot of these directors are shitting on material that doesn’t feature people that don’t look like them. I mean, I love Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, Fincher & to a lesser extent Emmerich (y’all have my blessing to see Moonfall, it’s dumb fun). Let’s be real, a lot of the stuff they’ve directed, have been adapted. Minority Report, Godfather, Taxi Driver, Seven & Gone Girl was adapted from someone or something, so, to be, what makes them different from the things Disney has done with the MCU. Shit, Nolan white-as-ranch Oppenheimer was adapted from somebody. Shit is existentialism to them, because they can’t deal with a changing paradigm in cinema. Then again, every decade, cinema changes. You have to change to stat relevant, fresh, spry. Spielberg did West Side Story & it didn’t matter. Shit came out a week before No Way Home & was smoked to irrelevance. It might’ve been different, haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t say.
Remember when a top actor being a name in a movie mattered? That doesn’t matter like it used to, because you have to promote that shit different now. People used to go in droves to see the latest Tom Cruise film. Today? If it ain’t Mission Impossible (or the first Jack Reacher to a lesser extent), people don’t give a damn. It’s not Cruise’s fault, the industry changed. Edge of Tomorrow (based on All You Need is Kill, an old manga) was a fucking banger, but that shit lost to Shailene Woodley’s Faults in our Stars at the box office. Shit was no. 1, while CruiseDAWG was at number 3, that weekend. That was nearly eight years ago, btw. It is what it is. The marketplace is different, it’s more diverse & stuff you could get away with, back in the day, you can’t now. These old heads can get mad all they want. Same for high & mighty critics being mad. You want more creativity, you better make sure it hits like Inception or A Quiet Place. “Different” doesn’t sell like people think it does (Ask the people behind mid as hell Reminiscence). Then again, these niggas gonna be mad till the grave, so whatever. Y’all have a good one. Congrats on Game Theory, Rod. First episode was amazing. To many more, my dude.
Hello Rod, Karen and esteemed guest(s),
Good entertainment continues to flow, and if nothing else, streaming services can in large part be thanked for that.
Funimation is giving me Demon Slayer, the final arc on Attack on Titan, and my new favorite, Ranking of Kings.
Disney+ gave me season 2.5 of The Mandalorian (aka, the last three episodes of The Book of Boba Fett), and everyone’s favorite child has been reunited with his Daddy. In addition, I know that Moon Knight is going to be hitting come March.
Amazon Prime gave me The Legend of Vox Machina and The Wheel of Time. I am trying to get into Reacher as I await the return of Jack Ryan, The Boys and Invincible. Prime also gave The Expanse the opportunity to tell its tale, for which I am most grateful.
Apple TV gave me season 2 of Ted Lasso and Central Park. I still remain surprised that there are quite a few good shows on Apple TV; The After Party with Tiffany Haddish and Truth Be Told with Octavia Spencer among them.
I have high hopes for the cinematic universe because Dr. Strange comes out this year. I will risk being in the presence of the Rona idiots for this, as I did with Spider-Man. Batman will need reviews of a lifetime to get me to take that risk, as I can only imagine the theater being overrun with Zach Snyder dude-bro acolytes.
Now on to what’s wrong in accessing entertainment: Does anyone have a subscription to ComiXology? What the hell are the people running that app doing? If possible, they have made it worse than the mess that used to be the DC app was. SMDH.