Hey There, Sleepyhead! | PWN Call #9

Hello.

Oh shoot, I put ice in my mouth and realized I needed to talk. This is the phone call. Our semi-regular— I don't know how often these come out.

Every 2 weeks.

Every biweekly, our biweekly podcast where we talk to our friends about what's going on in their lives and what they've encountered. I'm your host, Paul, the official host of, of the phone call. The new host I am the host now. With me, as always, is, is Josh.

Hey, I have been here on all the episodes. That's right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And joining us today, it's also Wes, the henchman dad himself. Welcome.

He was waiting for it too. He was like, you said Wes. He's like, no, finish it. We're not doing it like this.

There's an official form you have to follow.

Always.

But I did not follow it, actually, because my name's not actually up there. It's just Wes. Wes tonight. Just plain Wes. West Coast Wes.

Not Father of the Hengens. Not this time.

No.

Things change, and so must

I. I like it. I like it. Transform.

So unfortunately, we did expect our very frequent guest, Nate, on tonight, but he couldn't make it. But that's okay. He's not the host anymore. I am.

And see, uh, yeah, we're, we're giving our friend a hard time. Um, but yes, Nate's unable to, to join us this time. It's just the 3 amigos, um, which I'm sure we've made that joke before, but with a different 3. But anyways, the 2 of which are the same.

Sometimes you have to, you have to replace an amigo.

Yeah, there you go. Uh, sometimes the 3

Musketeers Usually Chevy Chase is the one.

Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true. If there was, if there was one to be changed, I guess it would be Chevy Chase. That's a good point.

You're not gonna, you're not gonna split up Steve Martin, Martin Short.

No, no, they're friends.

Chevy Chase doesn't get along with people. He's hysterical. He doesn't get along with people.

That's true.

Oh man.

Yeah.

And, uh, and we'll leave it up to the listener the discretion of the listener as to who is who. I'm just saying, I think I'd be Martin Short because I am a small guy. That's all.

I was going to say, I think both Wes and I are pretty tall, so we're going to compete for the other 2.

Anyways, yes. Welcome to another phone call. We're going to be chatting it up, just the 3 of us as friends here this evening or whatever time it is. Because this is a podcast, you can listen to this on your own time. You might have just woken up. Hey there, sleepyhead. Welcome to another phone call.

That's usually how I listen. So there you go. Thank you. I appreciate it. Reaching us out, reaching out to us early risers.

It's going to be like a week before I listen to this, and it's going to be right when I wake up. I'm like, hey,

yeah, I guess it is. It's me. Oh man. Well, Wes, it has been the longest since Since you— what's that?

It's been—

it's what?

It's been—

okay. Oh,

it has been an undisclosed amount of time since we talked to you, Wes, and longer for me because I'm— I am host of 2 programs on the, on the Backlog, uh, channel, and, um, but not the one that you're normally on.

True, that's true. Um, Yeah, I'm not sure where to go with that, but I mean, you say that it's been a long time since you've talked to me. I mean, like, it's literally been— Well, I mean, we talk all the time. How many messages did you send to me today? How many reactions did I give you?

For people, like, I wake up and I work from home. I don't wake up particularly early, and I start messaging Wes, who's 2 hours behind me, and he starts replying to me instantly. It's like, dude.

You just, uh, you just text him, hey there, sleepyhead. Please don't. And see what happens.

Please

don't.

That's a very specific GIF to reply.

I'm just saying that might be, unless there's something better that comes up during this call, that might be the title of the episode. Just throwing it out there.

Wow. Wow. This is the worst time to make a reappearance. Okay. But anyway, I've been great. I'm awesome. I think the last time I was on was in like August, July. I don't even remember when you guys started doing this, to be perfectly honest. I think it was Pwn Call 4. So like July or August, I think. Yeah. Something like that. I don't know. Nice. I'm tired.

It feels— I just got back from a trip.

So. I'm tired. My voice is gone at this point. It was a great trip. We were celebrating my wife's birthday, so we went hiking up a mountain. And I'm really tired. We went up to like 8,000 feet and I'm like, I think we're good now. I think this is great. I don't think we need to go any further. So we went back down. Then we, what did we do? We ate burgers and it was fun. It was fun. We actually got to be without the kids for a little while. So that was nice.

Nice.

Just for one night. But, you know, every, every second counts when you can have peace and quiet. We got back to the hotel and it was like 2 solid hours. You know, she was working on like her book because she's been writing her book for, I don't know, a freaking decade at this point. And then someday we'll be done, I hear. So she's sitting there and then I'm just like sitting on the phone. It's like 2 hours go by and it's like completely silent. It's like, wow, I don't remember this at all. This is so weird.

Well, it's been good.

It's been good. So then it's October, so, you know, into full fall Halloween stuff at school, and I'm going to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. So a little bit nervous about that. I don't like taking kids out to field trips because I'm like, what could go wrong? I'm sure much could go wrong. Last year we got lost in the corn maze for like 30 minutes. So who knows? We'll figure it out. But that's me. What about you?

Oh man, I need to play more D&D. This maze is like— we're used to them.

Labyrinths.

Yeah, but Josh, how have you been?

I am doing well. It has been quite a few weeks. That didn't come out the right way. That's not how I intended it to. There's just been a lot going on. Me and my family, we're doing well, but You know, just, just other people at church just going through some trials, things like that, um, over the past couple weeks. And, uh, my wife is actually currently out of town because her grandpa got a pacemaker put in. And her aunt who lives with her grandparents, um, you know, she was kind of taking care of them because her grandma's not very mobile. So her grandpa kind of does a lot around the house, but now he's got the pacemaker that, you know, he just had the surgery to get it put in. So.

Yeah.

Taking care of him. And then she has her own surgery that she just got done. So my wife flew down to help him out for the week. So I'm single dadding it up, if that makes any sense. So yeah, there's just been a lot between all those different things, which has been, you know, generally good. Like there's nothing, nothing to complain about. It's just been busy. And, uh, yeah, yeah, the days go by quickly. So, uh, but, but we're doing well. Like, all things considered, things are good.

Yeah.

Yes, sir. Have you been?

So I, uh, I've been doing really— doing pretty well. I, like, uh, I very annoyingly, um, people, people don't know this, but I'm extremely young. I'm like 23. And So I did a great big

bushy beard,

right? I'm like Steve Martin. I went, I went gray, you know, at 12. And

yeah,

it's— no, I did the very old man thing of hurting my back a few weeks ago. And it's, it's just, it's, it's, it's really just annoying. But the thing I have to consider these days is like, I play bass at the church. And, um, basses are heavy. And so like, like, for the— I, I have missed the last 3 weeks and it's been one of those things like, man, I really want to go, but that's an hour drive there to sit in a plastic chair and, and then stand up a lot and, you know, strap the very heavy bass to me. Probably not a good idea. Yeah. So, um, I'm— I feel like I'm Nearly all the way there, all the way better. Um, okay. And so I should be back next week, hopefully. Um, but very much, very much missed that. And, uh, um, I'm— I— there— we only have 2 bass guys, and so, like, you know, the, the other ones had to, had to, had to fill in a lot.

Gotcha.

So, you know, it'd help with that, right? Just a couple knickknacks. That probably helped just a little bit. You'd be like superhuman up there. You should do that.

The last time I tried that, it went into a slap solo that just was not appropriate for Holy Holy Holy. But yeah, no, otherwise good. I'm gonna jump right in and, and, and say, I like— we very excitedly launched Readwall episode 1 this last week, and I'm very pumped about it. We're, uh, my wife Amy and I, uh, are, are hosting that. If y'all haven't seen it in this feed, look at the feed and, and take a listen. We're reading through Redwall, and I'm very excited because it's one of my favorite books, and, uh, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a lot of fun. And, you know, gather, gather the family around the radio like in the old days.

And, oh, man, I was going to say that brings back memories, but that makes me sound like I was alive in the '40s. But there were— I remember my dad intentionally, like, having us listen to— and funny enough, they were spooky stories, but sort of like Twilight Zone stuff. But the— oh my goodness, it's on the tip of my tongue.

Care Bears?

No. Yes. Yeah, that's what it is. Bouncing here and there and everywhere.

It's the gummy bears. But—

oh, you're right. The Inner Sanctum. That's what it was called. The Inner Sanctum, if you've ever heard of that.

Sounds familiar.

Yeah. Yeah. These old— yeah, kind of Twilight Zone stuff. But I mean, some of them were really creepy. The ones that Really freaked me out. So, um, yeah, there's some classics that we used to listen to just as a family.

When we went on road trips as, as a kid, uh, it was really gonna date me because, you know, we had a tape player in the car and, um, we would pick up, uh, we'd go to the library before we would leave and they would have all these tapes of old radio shows from the '40s and '50s and stuff. And so we'd pick out several of them to listen on the way. And that was a ton of fun. I remember one time we picked up War of the Worlds, the very famous one. It was awesome. It was really cool and intense. And you see right away why people thought this was real, because they told you it was. What?

Do

you think they would just lie on the radio like that?

Yeah, it's crazy. This is a documentary. Bum bum bum. Anyways, yeah, car rides were— we did actually record a couple. My dad recorded a couple VHS tapes to cassette tape for car rides. We did The Prince of Egypt and A Goofy Movie. Those are fun listening to.

But like, okay, audio-only Goofy Movie. Like, that's, that's got to be a lot of boings.

And yes, yes. There was. But then those things, I mean, I'd seen the movie so much, you know, it plays in your head.

Both of those. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. So

that's a great— that's cool. That's—

We did that. But also a lot of adventures. All right.

So, so how did, how did he record that on tape? Because I've told this story on the Discord, like, like my first, my first cassette of video game music was It was us like getting to a point in the game, hitting pause, and then hitting record on the tape deck and holding it up to the television and then pause on the game and just letting it run. And I made a whole, whole mixtape of video game music this way.

You know, I might, I might actually be misremembering. He might have burned it to a CD because there might have been a way that he had the output of a VHS player 'Cause I know, 'cause the movies were VHS,

right?

But he might have been able to make that digital, like just the audio out from the VCR, um, into, into something to record. So maybe it was a burned CD at that point. I know Avengers: The Odyssey were cassettes, but, but, uh, maybe those were CD by then.

That's cool though. That's great.

Yeah. Yeah, uh,

I forgot what the next thing is. I like— oh, that's right, I don't really pay attention. Like, um, I know, like, look, I just found out of my new duties as, as the official host,

uh,

right, 30 minutes ago. I, I was not— I'm, I'm woefully unprepared, dear listeners.

And we don't have a script to read off of.

That's right.

I was promised a script.

When, uh, when— yeah, when we took a look at the script and we were told no notes, I thought that means something different than than actually we have no notes to use. No, I'm just kidding. We shared some of the experiences over the past couple weeks, but we have other experiences to share with one another.

We played it, watched it, read it through. Now we're sharing XP with you. Critical hits, good stuff to declare.

That's right. So we have some experiences to share, but primarily it's one thing that we bring with us each phone call. And so I'm sorry, I'm going to have to pause because my daughter— I don't know if you can hear crying in the background.

Oh, now I can. But

okay.

The music drowned it out a little bit.

Yeah, well, and I muted.

So that's why we played the music so loud. I'm going

to pause the whole recording. For just a minute. I'm gonna go deal with this. I'll be right back. All right.

And that's all been all the stuff that I've been into for the last week, a couple of weeks. So, um, what about y'all?

Just floored by that. That was such a crazy list.

Amazing.

I can't even believe you're able to do that much.

Changed my life. Wes, what you got for us? What do you have to share?

Well, I guess since we're talking about movies primarily, the only thing I've actually done is go and see Street Fighter. I saw it.

Okay. Yeah.

What? Opening night? Well, Thursday. I guess Friday is opening night. So Thursday, you know, whatever. They don't even do midnight showings anymore. But, um, this movie was interesting.

Thanks, Batman.

Is it Batman's fault again?

Okay. It was a midnight, midnight act of violence.

Oh, that's right.

And, uh, I forgot which one that was. That was, uh,

That'd be the

Dark Knight Rises or something. It was either Dark Knight or Dark Knight Rises. I don't remember which one, but yeah, they pulled them earlier.

Gotcha.

They're like, yeah, let's not do that anymore.

Hmm.

Okay.

Interesting. Well, okay. Street Fighter. So this movie, it was, it was interesting. Um, I shouldn't like this movie at all because it basically does all the, all the same stuff that I criticize other movies for. That being, you know, Guardians of the Galaxy and He-Man and everything, by being like really, really super tongue-in-cheek and the jokes, the jokes were there. There were definitely jokes and everything. And it did not have a sincere aesthetic, but for some reason, for some reason I give Street Fighter a pass because

I mean,

not as—

it's Street Fighter. But yeah, like

aesthetically sincere. How about

that?

But no, for, yeah, just Street Fighter in my mind is just absolutely bonkers anyway. Like I've played. All the games growing up. I was even like on the hype train for Street Fighter IV back when I thought I could actually play fighting games. And then I met other people that could actually play fighting games and I realized very quickly, oh, there's no way.

Oh, did you have that moment of embarrassment like I did?

Many, many times. Yes. I lost to many, many people. That was the first time I saw like the, uh, the way of holding the crab hold on a controller where you like hold it like this.

Okay.

On like a PS2 controller. And my friend was doing this. I'm just like, what are you doing? He's like, this is how I hold my controller. I'm like, okay, that's not how I hold my controller. That, that's weird. But then all of a sudden he just like whips me like 10 times in a row and I realize, yep, I'm not good at this game. I'm never going to go pro with this game whatsoever. I'm very, very casual. But like, I don't know, in my mind, Street Fighter is just completely wacky and crazy and insane anyway. So like,

Yeah,

this fits perfectly. I will say there are things in the film that actually surprised me by how good they were. They have not advertised this in the trailers at all. So do you guys want like a mild spoiler? Just just just mild.

Yeah, sure.

In the presentation style.

I like it mild.

Exactly. That's weird. You're weird.

I like my spoilers like I like my coffee, milky and mild.

Gross. Anyway, uh, a decent chunk of the film is actually an anime. It's actually surprising. Um, there's actually,

yeah,

there's at least like 15 to 20 minutes where it's like just anime cutscenes. And I'm like, why can't I just watch this? This is actually amazing. This is an entire backstory that's like anime. Like it's an anime and it looks amazing and the animation is fantastic. And I, I don't know.

Okay.

Don't know why they haven't released this as like, you know, like a 30 to 40 minute prelude to the movie. They would probably just like make bank doing that. I don't know how they afforded it on like a, what is it, like an $80 million budget, I think? Paul, you know all the budgets for everything, right?

Really?

You know I look those up before I type things, right? Like, I don't keep these in my head.

I think I heard it was like an $80 million budget and that they just really only needed to hit like $200 million to break even, basically, which actually isn't too bad. Granted, they're not making that right now. They're actually like losing a lot of money on this, unfortunately.

Oh, really? Oh, man.

But no, it was, it was really good. It was super over the top. It was super cheesy. They made so many references to the previous live action film. Um,

okay, nice.

I would say the biggest weakness of the film is the guy who plays Bison because he's terrible.

I was going to ask you about Bison.

He's just not imposing enough, but what they did instead was just kind of make him like weird beyond belief. And for some reason that worked for me because it's like, okay, maybe this is just like early Bison. Okay. And throughout the entire film, he's trying to like get power so that he can become ultra powerful and everything. So it's like, okay, as they move into the inevitable sequel that they have, maybe he has like, you know, a Super Shredder moment, like in Turtles 2. Where he just gets like super big and bulky and becomes like the Bison that you would like remember. Dude, the fights in this film are so good too. Like shockingly good. Like they really tried to make it look like the actors were actually doing something instead of just, you know, cutting between like different parts. Like it was so good. We didn't see, the only thing we didn't see is Zangief fighting like at all, which is a shame because Zangief is like one of the best characters in the entire, you know, franchise, in my opinion, you know, being the Kami Synthesizer I am.

But.

I will say the film was fantastic. The music was great, but there is something that happens at the end of this film that I think is probably killing it for a lot of people. I'm not going to say what it is, but the way it ends is very strange. It has a very strange ending. Okay. And I don't think it's going to work like they want it to. I think this is actually going to probably pull the plug on the franchise unless they get a lot of good word of mouth.

But interesting. Okay.

It was great. It's hilarious, honestly. And it felt like it was a movie from the '90s. Like it felt like a '90s film in that some of the jokes were a little bit, woo boy, I'm not sure you could get away with saying that on TV these days.

Right.

And it's just like, okay, it's, it's very— there, there, there's a couple things here. I'm like, hmm, I'm not sure I feel comfortable with that. I don't know. But okay, let's just move on. It earns its PG-13 rating.

Okay. I

was going to ask you about M. Bison because I heard a lot of people talk about that and just kind of disappointed in him. To me, it's like, I feel like they have to write him a different way because how do you follow Raul Julia?

Right. Yeah, sure.

Like, if you're trying to make him the same, then He's gonna fall flat because

I'm

sorry, Raul Julia is just amazing in that role. Yeah, and the whole the whole speech with Chun-Li in that film was just spectacular, and I watch it like every few months. Just just that

scene, which they reference directly actually. So you'll be very happy.

Oh nice!

Yes, nice. But in a there's a twist to it that's actually really interesting. But

Cool. I, I, I do want to see that. Uh, it, uh,

yeah,

I've, I've

heard— It's very bizarre. He's very bizarre. Like very bizarre, like eating escargot with the shells and everything. You just see him just chomping on it. It's like, oh, that's gross. It's like that. It's like the Denethor scene where he's just like chomping on those like tomatoes and everything. And it's just presented as really disgusting and they just make him like a really disgusting guy. And it's like,

okay, interesting.

I could go with this actually. It's, it's interesting.

I know you mentioned in our chat, not here, but the chick who plays Chun-Li— Oh, fantastic. It sounded like she did amazing.

Oh, yeah.

She— In the buildup, I was really impressed that she was very intentional. It's like, no, I'm going to bulk up my legs because this is Chun-Li. And I was like, yeah, good for you. Don't just You're an actress, like, look the part.

Do the acting. Yeah.

You're right. And in the preview, she looks great. She, uh, her scenes look awesome.

And surprisingly, like, she doesn't necessarily steal the show either. You would think that would be all centered around her, but it's really not. She still is a, she's one of the main 3 characters, but she's still kind of a side character to Ryu and Ken. And I thought that was, showed remarkable restraint not to just make her completely dominate everything. Like, she does have a lot of great scenes. And she's a great actress. Like, I, I think I said in the chat, like, oh my goodness, she is definitely gonna go places. Because if she's like treating this as seriously as she is, like, what could she do with an actual role? Like an actual acting—

An actual role, not, not one, not something like this. Um, I'm trying to see, have I seen her in anything? I don't think so.

I haven't seen her in anything actually.

Oh, she's been in 3 movies, so no, I have not.

Wow. Oh man,

this is her 3rd role. That's That's impressive.

Yeah.

You would never guess it. Like, she actually, I think, carries like the same kind of gravitas that, uh, the woman who plays the original Chun-Li, not Jackie Chan, but the woman who plays the original Chun-Li, uh, Ming-Na Wen. She's been in a ton of stuff. You know, she was Mulan.

Oh, sure.

She was in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show. Like, she has gravitas as an actress. And this girl pretty much matches that exactly, like, fantastically. So very impressive.

Yeah, I'm really happy to hear that it focuses on Ryu and Ken and doesn't do the, uh, the— well, the newer Mortal Kombat 1 thing where it's like, no, here's a random character you've never heard of that's going to be our star. It's like, please don't do that. I, I, I am one of those people who liked that movie, but it's still— it's like, guys, like We don't want to see this guy fight. We we want to see Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Liu Kang and all that. And

Johnny Cage.

And yeah, and Johnny Cage wasn't even in the first movie. It's like oh really? No way.

Oh, it's crazy.

The movie that if y'all haven't seen Mortal Kombat, I'm in a minority. I know a lot of people hate that movie, but just. If only for the last fight, it's worth watching. And I don't want to tell you who's in the last fight because it's— it— that is spoilers. But it's very cool.

Nice.

Nice. But yeah, I'm excited to see Street Fighter. Yeah, I think it's pretty good fun.

So you were talking about the ending and I'm just going to make one, you know, mild spoiler. All this— all this kind of thing here. I did hear the movie just ends. So I know that, um, this is what I really, really hope is not the ending, but it's so far-fetched. I don't think it is. So I'm just going to outright ask it. And if I need to just bleep this entire part out, then I can. But just for my own, um, to, for my own—

Your own peace of mind.

Yes. Yes. I'm going to ask it. It doesn't like pan out and, oh, this has all been in an arcade game. You know, thing like like you're just following characters in a video game. Ha! Come come back for next video game. Okay, cool.

It is played.

Just want to make sure.

So remarkably straight. Like you you actually think okay this they built this entire world around this idea and they're actually running with it. Like they committed to it. It is not a fake out.

Cool.

They don't do cool. They don't do the thing like in the new Spider-Man movie when Spider-Man is killed, right? Oh oh Josh I'm I'm sorry. And Miles Morales comes out.

of the

symbiote and, uh, Miles Morales goes, I'm Spider-Man now.

Thankfully, like they did with the PlayStation games. Okay, um, anyways, so what else? No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I don't know. I, I never played the second one. The first one's great. Okay, I just, I never played it.

I will say, definitely a PG-13 movie. Do not take kids to it.

Okay, no, that's, that's good to know. I, I have heard there were some gratuitous, um, Goodness. Yes. Uh, that there were some, some panning shots around women.

It doesn't last long, but you know. Okay. You know.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I've played Street Fighter before, so yeah, I do know because they, uh, they don't— there are some things that— I mean, it's not as bad as maybe some other series, but there are some characters it's just like, oh, okay. All right.

Yeah.

Um, anyways, anyways, so that— but that's good to know. That's good to know. I'm, I'm interested. I'm interested in it. I am kind of sad, uh, to see that it's not doing too well. Um, but your recommendation is certainly kind of like pushing me towards—

which is bizarre because I would not necessarily like a movie like this. But for that,

I

recommend—

our recommendation on Spider-Man did nothing for you, but Street Fighter you're gonna go to. All right, I see how it is.

Is it really too 2 hours? See, I was not expecting that. I was thinking this was like a cool 90 minutes.

No, it's, it's just about 2 hours though, I think. Yeah, 2, 2 hours and 10 minutes, but it doesn't drag. It, it's very, very like action-packed. Like you don't even have room to breathe half the time.

Yeah, because it would— yeah, it was very difficult for me to try and find 2 and a half hours. I mean, with, you know, half an hour buffer at least on either side of that in order to see Spider-Man. That's But also, I should have. Apparently, it's coming back to theaters. I don't know. We'll see. But

probably with four minutes of new scenes at the end, right? Most likely.

We might never do something like that.

Well, if

they

do replace the post-credits scene in Spider-Man, I'd be okay with that because that was dumb.

That

was dumb. Yes.

But Josh, what's going on? What's what? What you been up to?

Yeah, brother. Um, I guess this is just gonna be a movie-centric. So you talked about Street Fighter. I watched a movie from 2022, so not new at all. Like I said, my wife is out of town and I took advantage of that by watching a movie that she would have absolutely no interest in seeing. As you do. Barbie movie. Barbie. Oh, goodness. No, she actually likes Barbie.

He's getting ready for Narnia. You know, he just had to know. Went through Greta Gerwig's entire catalog.

I am so proud of my kids. So my wife is actually reading the Narnia books. The Magician's Nephew to my kids right now.

After she had read all the other books to them, right? Not starting with that one, right?

No, she started with Magician's Nephew. 'Cause we're Christian. No, she started with Magician's Nephew.

Holy smokes.

'Cause that's— we have the whole thing.

Y'all don't have church discipline at your church? What's happening?

Yeah, take it up with my elders, I suppose. Anyways, all my kids saw the trailer. I showed it to them. And they were like, "What? What is this? Like this doesn't." Like they even noticed, like, why is Diggory being pulled around by Polly everywhere? Like this is, this is the opposite of what's in the book. Like that's the whole point.

Why are they playing Led Zeppelin? What's going on?

Well, yeah, I mean, no, like that was the big thing especially that stuck out to Oliver is he's like, "That's not Diggory." Like Diggory is like a look before you— or excuse me, a, uh, it's just like going forward guns blazing. Like, that's the whole— so much of the book is driven by his, his headstrongness. Um, and it— you get the opposite of that in the trailer. So anyways, that's neither here nor there. I'm not here to talk about Magician— how bad the new Magician's Nephew looks. Um, I'm here to talk about it, the 2022 movie. But we could. We could. That is so true. We could. Um,

never mind.

Gosh, yeah. I guess we could just talk movies for for quite a while since that's typically what we do. Talk to me is the name of this movie. I believe it was. It's not Australian, or it might. It's either Australian or from New Zealand. I don't know.

Maybe it's the same place. New Zealand. Pretty much the same thing.

Yeah, yeah. And they would got the same amount

of

criminals either way. Yikes. No, but it's a horror movie. That there's the, you know, the whole conceit is there is this ceramic hand that you use that these teenagers got a hold of. And so they bring it to parties. And if you shake the ceramic hands and you do this little ritual where you light a candle and you say— and you have to be strapped down in your chair because this thing will take over your body. And you basically, you say, talk to me. And then it's— you see a, a dead person and then you invite it in, and that's when it takes over your body. And you have this— you have this sense of euphoria while it's taking over your body, but it just does like weird things to you. And so all the other teenagers are, you know, recording on their phones and like, whoa, this is crazy. Your eyes go crazy and, you know, you say and do weird things like you're someone totally different, but you can only do it for 90 seconds. Because if you let it go on for more than 90 seconds, then the, the spirits are going to stay with you. So you only do it for so long. Uh, that's the whole conceit. You know, it's basically like another, another version of like a Ouija board or something like that. You know, the whole idea is you're calling out to the spirits. Oh, come. But in this one, like, you're intentionally like, oh, I want to see you. Okay, now you can go ahead and come in literally to my body and take me over for a little bit. So that is the conceit of the movie. And it's a horror movie. So things go downhill, you know, do they stick to all the rules? Of course not. There is a thin kind of a sense in which it kind of feels like an allegory for doing hard drugs because of the sense of euphoria that you have and because of some of the things that happen. A kid is introduced to it and, and things go very wrong after that. And so it's kind of like, oh, is this, is this, you know, an allegory for just doing drugs? But there is a part in the movie where, where a character specifically says like, it like has to apologize to another character because they thought that the kid was on drugs and like specifically says that there were no drugs in his system. So they kind of, they kind of knock that out, which is, which is good, I think. Anyways, it's a, it's a horror movie and that I I enjoyed just for the overall, you know, feel of it, kind of conceit of it. Like I said, kind of reminiscent of a Ouija board. But I do think it was somewhat original. It was pretty spooky. You know, you're seeing these dead people and seeing these things that happen. I will nitpick something real quick that does have to do— well, I don't want to give away the ending. However, I will say the very end of the movie, Kind of wraps up the movie pretty well.

Spider-Man dies.

But I think— yes. Yeah. Yeah. So he's the last person.

It's all an arcade game.

Right.

Oh, gosh. Well, it's something along those lines. Not, not along those lines, but something happens at the very, very end, you know, like a bit of a reveal, sort of, kind of. You're kind of led on to believe that this was the case and it kind of confirms it. At the end, but I think it actually takes away from the themes. And so I do want to talk about the themes for just a second, because as I, uh, I watched it 2 nights ago, the more that I think about it, the more that I actually like the movie. Um, because the theme— because I think it actually depicts, um, what— when we attempt to reach out to the demonic for one reason or another, um, I do actually think that, that this depicts it pretty accurately. So, um, I will say that things are not as they seem when, again, when you use his hand to, to see dead people and to talk to dead people and to allow dead people in your body. Things are not as they seem. I'll put it that way. And I think that is very— it actually depicts just the interaction that we have in the physical realm with the spiritual realm. Because, for instance, I don't— we've talked about it off and on on the podcast of just some of the, you know, some of the weirder conspiracy theory things. We talked about haunted cosmos and stuff like that. And the how, uh, how we are spiritual beings and how often here in the West we downplay that a lot. And I think this movie actually shows that we can, if we truly attempt to, we can reach out to other spiritual beings, demons. Mm-hmm. Um, if we, if we really try. And I think that demons take advantage of that and will lead you down a deceitful path. And this is a horror movie. Okay, I'm not saying that everything happens the way that in real life that it happens in this movie, but I do think it does give a very good picture of, yeah, you mess around with things like necromancy and witchcraft and something is going to happen. Perhaps you will get a taste of the power that you are seeking through these things, but it will also take your soul. You know, like it's not God tells us not to do those things for a reason. Right. You know, the spiritual power that we ought to go to is God himself, and we ought to submit ourselves to God and what he says. And instead, when we attempt to do things our own way for our own— for whatever reason, whether that is to reach out to the dead, whether that is to Yeah, seek power or prestige or something like that. Yeah, I do think that, that demons will answer. And, and then it's the whole like Mephistopheles thing of, sure, you might get a taste of what you're searching for, but it comes at a very high cost, at the cost of your soul. So.

Yeah, the timing of this is pretty good. One of the books I'm reading right now is Is one of the Ed and Lorraine Warren books, which I think I've mentioned before and warned people like, "Look, I know, I know there's a lot of y'all who don't like them. I understand. By all means, fill up the comments because that means you're coming to watch the show." So, but I I I think even if they even if they they exaggerate a lot and um uh. And maybe, maybe you're not completely straightforward, you know, forthcoming. Okay. A lot of their messaging is really, really good. And one of their constant refrains is, look, do not, like, don't, don't play with it. It starts off as a fun game. Don't, because you don't know what's on the other side. Yeah. And it's not what you think it is. The book I'm reading now is on the Smurl haunting, which was the subject of the last Conjuring movie. All the Conjuring movies are about the Warrens. And that's one of the first things they ask coming in. It's like, okay, any Ouija boards that y'all been playing with? Any séances? And you see that over and over again in what they're doing because they're trying to find out. It's like, where did you give them a way in? Mm-hmm. And One of their most famous things was the Annabelle doll and the story they tell about how Annabelle got that way. And if you ever look up pictures of the real Annabelle doll, she's a Raggedy Ann doll. Oh, okay. But these 2 roommate nurses, I can't remember if they found the doll or were given the doll, but it's just this old doll, and it started being just a little bit creepy. But the, the real problem started when they had a séance, and, um, and that's when they learned it's like, oh no, my name's Annabelle and I was a little young girl who died, and I just want— I just want to be part of a family. Can I be part of your family? And they go, yeah, don't do that. Don't have the séance because that wasn't Annabelle. That was somebody messing with you. And so that's where the real problem starts. And, um, and, and so like, uh, uh, that, that part of their messaging is, is, is really, really good because when we start playing with things that we don't know, uh, we don't understand where, you know, where the other side of it is coming from. Yeah. It's just, it's a recipe for disaster. And, um, you're You're playing with stuff that, that you probably don't want to.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and yeah, so that's, that's why I appreciated it is because I'm, I'm one, as I, I mean, it's been, it's been years at this point. And again, I've kind of talked off and on about it on the podcast because I think Nate's kind of right there with me. is that I'm not one to, to, uh, be all into, oh yeah, yeah, no, these certain rituals conjure up these certain things. Like, I, I'm at a place where I don't think, uh, a Ouija board in itself has any power, like, or is even necessarily particularly demonic. I think the act of attempting to use something like that to reach out— Yeah. Absolutely. I think there are parts of ourselves as humans, we interact with spiritual beings. Like, I pray. That is interacting with a divine being, a deity.

Exactly.

God himself. So, and like you said, Paul, like, it's, it's things that we don't understand. And so when we, when we attempt whatever it is that we do, whether, oh, we're following a ritual that's been passed down, you know, in these secret covens Like, okay, is there any legitimacy to that? Perhaps. But I think that demons take advantage of any time that we try and reach out. So no matter what you're doing that— and so I think, I think that is what this movie depicts well in a way that's not like overly cheesy. And also that because it is a horror movie, it does not end well, you know?

Right.

Again, the ending kind of notwithstanding, because I do think the ending kind of undermines it a little bit. But outside of the very end of the movie,

yeah, like yeah, the boards themselves—it's like you're looking at it's like most of these are mass produced in China or something out of a factory. And yeah, yeah, you don't hear a thing. It's like okay, this so this this crappy piece of. of plastic or wood or something. Sure, it has all this power. No, no, no.

Is particularly like cursed by Satan himself, you know? Like, no, no, not there.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it's— it is the same thing with kind of the ritual things. It's like, um, these like dark magic rituals— does that obligate some demon to come and do your bidding? Probably not. Is some demon going to look at that and go, yeah, I'll

show up?

Maybe. And that's a maybe that you don't want to play with.

Right, right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, I didn't think that anyone here on a phone call who'd be able to join us would have actually seen the movie, but I wanted to bring it up for that reason. Is like, yeah, I actually think, I think we all kind of dabble in not, not in those things.

Whoa. Hey,

not all of us play SMT games. Come on.

Yeah, right. Um, I think all of us, my goodness. Uh, I think all of us have that same, that same understanding that we're not all materialists, you know, like I would have been.

Oh yeah.

Quite a good portion of my life. Like actually recognize, no, there's spiritual forces that interact with us every day in certain ways. So,

you know, I started gathering books because I was going to do— I was going to do a book years ago. Kind of the idea of the book is kind of looking at horror films and what they're getting right, what they're getting wrong type type thing from, you know, from a theological point of view. Um, and I, I think— I still think that book would be worth writing, especially these days. But, you know, looking into it, like, there's actually like this really great Reformed tradition of really kind of digging into, uh, into this stuff. Okay. And, um, and, uh, in, in, in, in, you know, in talking about, um, uh, uh, what, what angels and demons are like and what the dangers are and what to avoid and, and how, how to deal with these, you know, these situations that, um, I, you know, I think in the modern day, especially in America, we, we, we lean so heavily as, you know, kind of pure materialists that we, we, even in the Reformed faith, we, we dismiss very, very often. And, um, I mean, that— I think that's one of the reasons that, you know, every time they actually put religion into a horror film, it's always, it's always the Catholics, uh, because they, they seem to be the ones that are actually taking it seriously. And, um, a, a lot of our, a lot of our Protestant churches, uh, don't, um, uh, or even if we, even if we do in our heads, it's not it's not something we bring up as part of our practice, that this is not something we should be constantly worried about or looking for or anything like that. But, I mean, look, I sure as heck have told the kids, it's like, look, if you're hanging out with your friends and somebody pulls out a Ouija board, you say no and walk away. Yeah. I don't even start down that road.

Yeah, yeah.

Same thing with video games and D&D and stuff.

Right, right. All that stuff. I don't want to belabor the point, but 2 quick thoughts just with this movie too. One is that there is a lot of language. So it is, you know, take that for what it's worth. Oh shoot. Oh, the other thing that I was going to say is, is like other horror movies, this is a critique for, for most horror movies, but it is, it is one of those movies that shows the, the darkness, the danger of— when I, when I say that, that this is— this gives some accurate depictions, it is completely devoid of grace. So God is not in this movie. And so that is not accurate to to human experience. Okay, like most horror movies, it's like oh you know these entities are gonna get you and and they do. And it's ultimately tragic because because it never even it never crosses anyone's mind to attempt to reach out to God. And so there is no grace in this movie. So. That is a that is a critique. It's not the full picture of again human experience, but that's how a lot of horror movies are.

So somebody in the brochacho din just brought up Malfoy, and it wasn't me. I'm so happy. Anyways, y'all, you know, if if you're wondering what we're talking about, then you know be a patron. You could join the conversation.

Really? You think that's what's gonna get him to join? That's Discussions about Malfoy. Oh yeah, yeah.

And I think I mentioned this, like, it may have been even the last phone call. This is one of the reasons I like The Conjuring films. I, you know, whatever you think about the Warrens, is that, is that faith is central to, to what the Warrens, what their message was. Um, and that is depicted in the movies. Okay.

Well, that's cool.

And so there has been, you know, there has— there has— there had been this big trend to kind of push religion out of the horror genre, which is weird because, like, it's central to that. Like, I mean, you know, back in The Exorcist, it was very clear this is a battle between angels and demons. angels being the good side, you know, right? And, uh, it— a lot of depictions became, uh, this is a battle between, uh, these, these evil forces and just us. I'm like, well, we're not really equipped to deal with that. Like, that's probably not a great idea, uh, just by ourselves.

Mm-hmm.

And so, uh, but, but I, I love the Warrens because, you know, there's, there's a lot a lot of ways they're on the wrong road and they're, they're getting stuff wrong, but they are, um, they're, they were on, uh, they were pointing in the right direction. And there's, there's just been, uh, been very few of those movies and stuff that, that is pointing in the right direction. Um, what one comes to mind to, to belabor the point and keep going. Did y'all see the movie Devil? It's about these people trapped in an elevator and—

Oh, isn't that M. Night Shyamalan? I did not know.

He wrote it. Yeah, he didn't direct that one, but yeah, he wrote it.

Gotcha.

Paul, do you really think I would go out of my way to see a movie like that?

No, no. Really, really good. Just kind of 2-set horror film. that I cannot remember if it's rated PG-13 or R, but, um, one of the line— the last line of the, the, the movie that doesn't really give anything away, uh, is, um—

It's a mild spoiler.

One, one of the characters who clearly did not die during it, and most of them did, but one of the characters who did not die, uh, said, you know, that, um, uh, essentially that, you know, like what he was always taught is to not despair that the devil is real, because if the devil is real, then God is too. That's, that's the, that's the feeling the movie leaves you with. Okay. And besides being a very solid, you know, very simple horror film that, that, that essentially just only takes place in the elevator, in the group, Outside the elevator who's trying to help, and that's it. And okay, and so it's a pretty good film for horror fans out there. It's definitely worth a watch.

Nice, nice. Yeah,

yeah,

to check it out. Awesome. Well, Paul, what what do you bring to the table? What experience do you want to share?

I I I shook my head when you said one because I'm going to bring up two things just very briefly, and then I'm going to talk about something. But one, one of them is one thing that, uh, that Wes brought to my attention, um, because I was gonna, uh, I was gonna buy some Doctor Who stuff. And, um, and he pointed out that there's, there's a set at Walmart right now that is, um, uh, all of, um, uh, the, uh—

I was gonna Google and try and remember.

The 9th through 12th Doctor.

It's the entire Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi run from 2005 to 2017.

Yeah, the whole run's on DVD for $40. And I was kind of looking, I was like, well, I don't know, I'd rather have the Blu-rays. But these were shot in standard definition. So having the Blu-rays get upscaled, but the original is in standard definition. So who Get the DVDs. It's fine. But they're forty bucks for you know for the whole set of that. And and so I got that. I got that the other day, and we we had watched for one episode.

For one episode.

No. Well, well, I we didn't even watch that episode from those. We are going to watch them all. But I thought, hey, it's October. I want to show the kids Blink, and the whole family was sufficiently creeped out, and it was like, oh, this is so this is such an incredible episode. Dutch angles and everything. Yeah. But the one thing that's been a Halloween tradition of mine that I keep trying to share with people, because people need to listen to this, is this EP called Pumpkin Patched. It is by a keyboardist and DJ called JK-47, and it's basically a remix of Vince Guaraldi's Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown soundtrack.

Oh, okay.

And it's amazing. That sounds

great.

And it used to be on Spotify. It looks like it has been pulled from Spotify, but it is on Bandcamp for like $5. And it's really, really good. And so we've been listening to that consistently every October several times for the last several years. And it's a lot of fun.

Nice.

Yeah.

So good stuff there. And but the thing I watched yesterday was You Can See Everything.

Oh,

yeah.

Spider-Man.

I did. Yeah. Funnily enough, yeah, at the end of You Can See Everything, Spider-Man dies and we learned that it was just a video game the whole time.

That's crazy, man.

But, um, this is a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes. And, uh, just as background for those— if the name's not clicking— she was the CEO of this company called Theranos. Mm-hmm. And there it was. It was a tech startup that, uh, their, their, their basic thing was that they invented this machine that could, that could do all All of your needed blood work with a single drop of blood, and so it like it was just going to basically replace the entire blood work industry to something that was you know very very easy and affordable. And Holmes is a very weird character. She like like like she did stuff like intentionally lowered her voice when she talked to be taken more seriously, and you know. Um, very much worked on presenting an image.

Yeah, did the turtleneck thing, like, right, like, uh, Steve Jobs. That's his name. Yeah,

and she got all of these, like, big-name people, like billionaires, investing in her. Like huge names. People who were on, you know, were, were secretaries for presidents and stuff were investing in her. And it didn't work. It, it never worked. And, um, uh, she, um, the whole thing, uh, you know, finally some whistleblowers came forward and like, hey, this— she's got— she didn't have anything. Like, they were, uh, they were, they were trying to show it off, and they would, they would like take the sample in the back and do traditional blood work and then bring those results like the Theranos machine had, had done it. And, um, She was ordered to pay like $450 million in restitution, which she'll never have, and serve like 11 years in prison. But her prison sentence was delayed a few months, I think specifically because she was pregnant and having a baby. Um, and so there was this— there was these few-month time period where, before she started in prison, it's— that's where this movie takes place. Um,

uh,

so Nathan Fielder from Nathan for You, which I just started watching, it's spectacular.

So good.

So I got access through A24, um, to, to essentially live with her and her boyfriend/husband for a time before she reported to prison. And then the movie kind of cleans up some stuff after she reports. And so he had like this crazy access to her and was able to ask all these questions. The the previews were like really intriguing because it's she talks and just the way she talks and the way she looks and the way she moves her head, you're like there's something off with this chick. There's something off. And so we went to go see it. It is three hours. It is worth every second of that three hours.

Wow.

It is. It went in directions that I was not expecting. But the whole the whole thing is how much do we believe her? How much is she being sincere? But then about about two-thirds way through the movie, once she reports to prison, the the the documentary changes. And, uh, and I'm not gonna tell you exactly what happens, but there's stuff— there's, there's twists in, in the story itself, but there's also twists in how they approach the making of the film that—

Okay.

Starts to really even have the filmmakers start questioning, you know, not, not only what do I believe, but how does my memory of what was said play into this? How do my biases play into this? How, how does the documentary process at all play into this? And it gets to the point at the end where I feel like Nathan Fielder even himself is starting to question like the— like, this is not a movie that's going to give you answers. It's going to get— it's going to give you some answers. Yeah. And then at the end, I think even he is wondering, how true those answers are? Or was it, you know, something, you know, something in his memory, in his biases that tilted him one way or another? And it was fascinating. Totally. And my wife and I, immediately after the movie, starting on the way home and continuing when we got home, we talked for 2 hours about this film. And she was coming to different conclusions than I was. About it, and and a lot of that is just the way Elizabeth is. And she's there's there's there's she's like real life uncanny valley.

Yeah.

Where it just no matter what what she's saying is you're the whole time you're like wait what does she mean by that and do I believe what she means or what she said or none of none of it at all and um. Uh, just the way everything kind of plays together. You can see in several parts of the movie, Nathan is just like looking at her like, wait, wait,

what?

Um, there's this fascinating scene in it, and, uh, and I won't tell you what happens in the scene, but in the scene Nathan shows her the who's on first bit. Abinacostillo, you know, the famous comedy bit, and they have a conversation about it. And both of us came to the same conclusion that I've seen in several reviews that I've watched on it: that we all we all focus on that scene. It's like this scene could be the key to everything and answer everything, or it might be an act. And we have no idea. Like, yeah, no idea.

Yeah.

Um, and so I definitely think it's worth watching, uh, just because it's— it— I mean, first of all, it's entertaining. Um, but just, you know, just to question that, uh, does, does any of this process of making a documentary or anything actually help us get to the truth? Or what's getting in the way of that? And how do we not get in the way of that? Um, and the, the— all the— these questions at the end are, are just— are really interesting.

Nice. Yeah. And, and Nathan Fielder also, just on top of the story itself, Just seems like the perfect person to do this because of his previous work and his. I mean, he's a weird character, but just you have to question his sincerity of like how much of even him as a comedian is an act and how much is real, especially with one of the shows that he did. I love that you mentioned Nathan for You. I love Nathan for You. Um, it's hard to recommend because it does cross the line quite a bit. Okay, so, so mild, uh, recommendation. I will just say that I really enjoy it, so you can judge me for that. Um, but there's a show that he did called The Rehearsal that sounds like it does some similar things. Um, but it's not a real documentary, you know, like it's a show. Yeah. It was, it was put on and it, I mean, it has the air of some sort of sincerity to it, but also at the end of the day, it's like, okay, like you don't know how much of this is scripted and how much isn't. It's not like a real person who had a real, you know, has a real prison sentence. You know, it is, it is not a doc, even though it takes on some of the appearance of documentary. like it's okay to kind of lie to the camera in a mockumentary style, you know? Yeah. But for this movie, like, no, these are real people. So that it's just— it sounds bizarre in some of the best ways. And I'm very interested to see

it. And the movie— the movie doesn't shy away that there's a— there's a person that is in Very much involved in the process. That's not that's not part of the family or anything. She's she's coming from the outside.

Okay.

And and she shows up in the last third, and it's super interesting. But by the end of the movie, she asks Nathan directly, you like are are you being honest here? And uh. And I love that they put that in there because they could have, they could have edited that out easy. Like, you know, they had hundreds of hours of footage. They did not need to add that, you know, that 30-second scene. But Nathan struggles with the answer at the edit. Okay. And it's at the very, very, very beginning of the movie. It's one of the first things they, they, they do is Holmes had done an interview with this magazine, and they're reading the the article, and they're like, "Wait, no, I didn't say that. I wouldn't have said that." And and so and so they go back to to the to the they have some they they recorded some audio from these interviews, and they reviewed it, and it wasn't there. So they went back to the Reporter, and it's like, "Well, do you have? Do you have the audio for this?" And the reporter's like, "No, I don't. Like that, that part wasn't recorded. I put it in my notes, though. It's it's in my notes." Oh

gosh! And

I'll tell you, and I'll tell you up front: the movie never never figures out whether she said that or not. Okay. It's just, uh, but that's that's the whole theme of this.

Huh.

It's it's like. You know, you have two people that are remembering something that is not documented in stone. You know that that are looking at the same event and and remembering different things. And how how do you know who's right? How do you know what's what actually happened? So really interesting film. I'm yeah, I've it's. It's one that's sat with me since yesterday, and it probably will for a while still.

Yeah. Nice. Nice. Yeah, I'm interested. I do want to see that. I know it's not playing anywhere near me right now, or excuse me, it's not playing in my town. It is playing somewhat near me, but it's also 3 hours, so that makes it hard to see.

That's a big ask.

The funny thing, it's not showing in the town we're in. And so we had to, we had to drive to Bryan-College Station to see it. And, uh,

okay,

I told you all this, this is for the benefit of the podcast, but, uh, we, uh, GPS was routing us. That's what's leaving. GPS is, is routing us a different way there, probably because of some A&M event, you know, uh, but it was a way we didn't go. And I read a sign wrong and I turned the wrong way, and so it rerouted us through this neighborhood and stuff. And I didn't really think about it that much until we got to the point in the film where, uh, it shows that Elizabeth Holmes is being imprisoned in Bryan, Texas. And I was like, oh, dang, we're here. And it's like, I looked up— I looked up where this prison was on, uh, you know, when I got home, and we had driven 3 blocks away from Elizabeth Holmes on the way to watch this documentary. Wow. Which is just trippy. And, uh,

Oh,

wow. Amy found out later that— I don't know if she's— I didn't look, but I don't know if she's still currently there. But Ghislaine Maxwell was also there at that prison.

I

was like, oh, dang, we got all the crazy female criminal celebrities in our town.

Is that not in the documentary? Because I thought they had become friends or something like that. Or maybe it is just that they're held in the same— facility. Oh boy. I know. I thought they had some interaction. I, I could be misremembering though.

Do you have audio of that?

Right, right.

Yes.

I'll have to pull up the YouTube. No, no. Why do I trust those? Yeah,

there's a specific focus on, on that section of the movie that— and it wasn't that. Um,

okay,

that would, that would be crazy. But you know,

that's for the sequel.

Yeah, I heard that they do. And I mean, again, we can cut this if it is spoiler, but I don't think it is. It doesn't seem like it. I heard that they do recreate some of the scenes of interviewing her because they couldn't record in the prison.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's part of the things that they question.

Okay.

The validity of.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense.

And he does a wonderful— and I love this about this documentary because it shows you the process. Okay? It not only shows the recreation, but it shows the person who's recreating it reacting to the script. And she reads something, she's like, oh my goodness, she's admitting it here. And Nathan's like, Wait, no, I didn't get that impression. Read the line again. And Nathan's like thinking is going, wait, no, I think she said it like this. And so, okay, was Nathan's first remembering right or second remembering right?

Sure.

Because,

yeah,

because they're reading it different ways and, and they put that in there like, yeah, you know, they didn't just decide on a way, which is what normal documentary would do.

Document. Yes.

It's they would decide a way and they would recreate it. And, but no, he's showing the ambiguity of the whole process. And so that, yeah, the fact that he can't really, he can't record her is where all these questions start coming in of, you know, how do we actually depict the truth when we don't remember it perfectly and we have biases? Sure.

Yeah,

gotcha, gotcha. Well, I guess that's more mild spoilers. Maybe that should be the title of the episode. I don't know. Who knows?

No, no, the previous one was better. That'd be hilarious.

You like that?

Oh man. Uh, well, well, good times, guys. This, this call has already gone, um, quite long, but if there is anything else we want to kind of bring to the table, just kind of a quick I don't know, highlight or something like that. I guess I'll do a quick little flyby. I did find out of watching this movie Talk to Me, I did find someone on YouTube. His name is Thomas Thoroughgood, and he primarily talks about horror movies. And the one that he does kind of a breakdown of Talk to Me, I I thought was all right up until about halfway through, and then he started digging a bit more, and I'm like, oh, okay, this is pretty good. But then he ended the video with basically a gospel presentation, and I was like, oh hey, that's really cool. And so I watched some more of his videos, and he has one on The Witch that I thought was really good, also another one of my favorite horror movies. And he, he did—

that's another one, by the way, is like, do not miss

Yeah.

With stuff.

Exactly.

Don't talk to the goat.

Well, sure. But also, like, yeah, removing yourself from, you know, from the, from the, the church, basically, you know, going off on your own.

Yeah. There's a lot in that movie that, like, they, they set themselves up for that mess. Like, yeah, that family set themselves up.

Yeah. Which you don't— I feel like you don't really notice until repeated viewings, uh, because they do seem, you know, like good upstanding people. And, and to a certain extent, I mean, yeah, there's horrible things happen. And yeah, anyways, anyways, not here to necessarily talk about the movie, but he has a video on it that's very good. And it does a similar thing where at the end, if it's not a full gospel presentation, he at least lays out kind of the high points of, of the gospel. And I'm like, wow, this is— this is done really well. So he is a very outspoken Protestant Christian, and I appreciate it. And it's not like in every— you know, he doesn't weave everything in there, but it is very clear if you watch some of his videos. So I'll leave a link to him if you're interested in horror movie breakdowns. I think he does some other ones, but horror movie stuff was mostly what I saw, and I appreciated what he had to say. So throw that out there. Um, do you guys have anything else?

I got 2 quick things since Paul said a couple things and he got, you know, a little ahead of himself there, but, um, I got one more. 2

things.

Nice.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Uh, number one, obviously, Josh, you have a very big decision to make about which movies you're going to be seeing next. You know, whether you see Street Fighter or whether you see Paul's stupid movie. I don't know. I can't remember the name,

but finally watched stupid Spider-Man. Come

on, but also Spider-Man, but also Godzilla Minus.

That's what I was about to say. In three weeks, three weeks, Godzilla Minus Zero is going to be coming out.

It's coming up

quick, and I'm about ready to buy my tickets this next week. So you know, everybody, Godzilla Minus Zero, please support it. It's going to be great. I've only heard good things from the early reviews. It's like the first true eleven out of ten film. From everything I've read. So

yeah,

I am actually looking for— I, I don't go in for IMAX, but I am looking for IMAX on this one.

Oh yeah,

I—

man,

I don't actually remember the last time I went to an IMAX film. I— it normally doesn't appeal to me, but this one I think I need to.

I saw a movie about the Titanic on IMAX before. That was really boring. I fell asleep. So, you know,

I saw The Dark Knight when it was re-released. In an IMAX theater, and that was super cool. That was the last time I went to an IMAX theater.

Right.

That was a while ago. Yeah. Yeah. But

anyway, number 2, number 2, everybody should try this. Josh, I took your recommendation. We went to Wendy's. Okay. Currently at Wendy's, they have what are called Boo Books right now, which gives you 5 Junior Frosties for the cost of $1. Yeah. I'm like, heck yes, I am going to be doing this. So I took my children. To Wendy's, we sat in the Wendy's parking lot and we listened to anybody. We listened to the Spotify playlist.

Yes. Because

they're like, okay, this is interesting.

I was rocking out to it.

I thought it was great.

But yeah, we were just listening to that ten-piece song in the car.

Yes.

Yeah. The

best one, of course, is the the what is it? The uh. The sunroom one. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. The break.

Oh, I do miss the sunroom. I remember the sunroom really well. That was great.

I love it. It was good.

Yes, we took your advice. We did it. We actually did the thing.

That's amazing.

We sat in the Wendy's parking lot, ate Frosties.

And that is amazing. That was just today. With your, uh, with your long hair too.

With my emo hair.

Yeah. It all, it all works out.

All over my eyes. It's like this the whole, whole time.

I will say I liked what AI did with the thumbnail as well when I told it that I was going to— that was my recommendation for the last phone call. I was like, I've never worn eyeliner before, but I might be able to pull it off.

Oh, goodness.

I love that even when you explain what I was doing in the last phone call image, I still don't see it.

Yeah, yeah, I, I, yeah, I basically like just use the color scheme because it's like, why would you not take that art style? That's what I was trying to communicate. But no, I didn't.

By the way, have y'all—

It took the Dick Tracy, uh, you know, hard thick lines for Nate. Yeah. Here we are talking about thumbnails.

Oh man.

Previous videos, who cares?

Have y'all seen the music video for, uh, Pumpkins' Tonight Tonight?

No.

Nope.

No, I haven't.

It is in that art style. And half of it is like this silent sci-fi movie that, you know, in the silent era style. It's one of the best. It's just one of the best videos I've seen. It's gorgeous. But that's not the one I was going to bring up. I was like—

Nope. Now you're done. Get your quota.

I've been telling people that my show of the year last year was Mobland, and then I remembered I actually watched it this year. So I guess it's my show of the year this year. But season 2 is coming out now and it's even better. And so if people like gangster shows, this one is pretty good. pretty awesome.

Nice.

And, uh, this is, uh, Irish crime family, uh, headed up by Pierce Brosnan. And, um, okay, he's amazing in it. And, uh, uh, just great, great plot and great characters and just great writing. Um, uh, Guy Ritchie directs a lot of the episodes.

Oh, nice.

Always up for Guy Ritchie stuff.

Yeah, that's cool.

So good stuff.

Nice. Nice. Well, before we sign off, I do just want to ask what we've been playing because, you know, we like to, to talk about video games sometimes too. And really, I didn't mention this at the start of the episode, which I should have, is that I, as soon as my wife left town, I started getting a sore throat. And I don't know if you can hear that I'm a little bit more nasally than normal. Um, I did end up getting sick and so haven't gotten around to as much stuff as I had planned to, but that's also why I've been watching movies because like sitting around, uh, anyways, uh, but what I've been playing, not nothing more than what I've usually been playing. I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei V, which is probably, you know, why I've got horror movies on the brain and summoning demons on the brain. Uh, and nanobotics. Yes. I love that connection. That's awesome. Um, but, uh, yeah, Wes, what have you been playing?

Literally nothing except Kingdom Hearts with my kids. We're just going straight through it. Like, we're now on Birth by Sleep, which is the PSP game that we're playing on the big screen. Um, really enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. We just, uh, just plugging away at it. We're going to be going through the entire series and then by the time we're done, number 4 is going to come out next year. So. That's pretty much what the plan is at this point.

Nice. That's cool. That's cool.

Paul's really excited about it. I know. He's like, he's like stoked.

He can't wait for that Kingdom Hearts Persona crossover.

Exactly.

I, I, I showed the kids, uh, Kingdom Hearts stuff and I was like, hey, does this look interesting to y'all? Uh, cause I, I, I want, I want to, I want to get them off Minecraft.

Okay. That's fair.

And they're like, oh, that looks interesting. I'm like, okay. And so I got the PS2 out, got it all hooked up again and all. And they played about 10 minutes, turned it off for Minecraft.

To be fair, your kids are probably a little bit older to be playing it, right? Because mine are like the perfect age right now, like 10 and under versus like anything over like 12. I don't know. Like, that's when I played it, but, you know, I'm just a weeb, so that makes sense.

Um, yeah, so, uh, I, I've been, I've been playing way too much Pathfinder Kingmaker still.

Okay.

Yeah. Way too much. That's the little thing on your Discord every single time. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm not going to get a response from Paul in like hours because this is what he's playing currently.

Finding paths and making kings, man. Oh man.

What is I'm at 81 hours into it.

Okay.

It's this— I mean, it's just— this game was made for me. I love it. I've— I'm in chapter 5 now of 7 and just chipping away at it and having a grand time.

Nice. Nice. Awesome. Well,

that concludes the video game portion of the entire podcast.

Yeah, and once again, time to land the plane.

Oh, that's true, that's true. Now you are truly one of the hosts. Um, yeah, no, this, this has been fun. Thank you guys for, for jumping on. Um, yeah, it's been, it's been a nice, uh, beefy phone call, but, uh, you know, we're running out of minutes here, and so, um, I don't even know. It's— no, this has been fun. It's been good conversation. Um, for you guys listening, watching, however you're tuning in, uh, listening in on our phone conversation here, um, you are welcome to join the conversation. You know, Discord, uh, email us, whatever you want to do. Find our, our contact information in the description or wherever you're seeing this and reach out. We'd love to hear from you.

Fax machine, MySpace. Yeah, yeah, LiveJournal, obviously.

Old-time radio show, you know, just record one of those and send it in through—

yeah,

cassette tape. I don't even know what I'm saying.

It's a great idea.

Anyways, anyways, um, yeah, take care and listen to this ad for Readwall. The end. I don't know how to end it.