Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Middle of Culture is what happens when two siblings with too many opinions and not enough chill dive headfirst into movies, music, video games, and whatever else is rotting our brains this week. It’s part pop culture podcast, part sibling rivalry, and fully unfiltered. Expect passionate arguments, niche references, unsolicited rankings, and the occasional moment of unexpected insight. If you’ve ever wanted to eavesdrop on the kind of argument you’d hear at the family dinner table—only with better audio—this is your show.
Eden
00:00
This guy made Happy Feet? This guy made Babe 2? They got Babe 2 guy to make this movie? What? There we go, my Tibetan uh meditation gongs. It's all good. Don't worry about it. Anyway. Welcome back to the Middle of Culture. I'm one of your hosts, Eden.
Peter
00:30
And I am your other host, Peter.
Eden
00:32
Peter. It is mid-April. The weather here has been buckwild, just like windy and rainy every day. How are things out there for you all?
Peter
00:42
You know, today it's fifty something and it was pretty chilly. It's gonna drop down to forty one on Friday as a high. We're supposed to maybe get some snow Thursday and Friday, but I don't know. I'll be in Austin, Texas, so who knows? Snow. Um Yes. And but I'm sure it will all be melted very quickly. It's been equally weird and like it cannot make up its mind.
Eden
01:07
Yeah, that's absolutely the case out here. I did I I I felt like being uh brave this morning And I rode my bike to the grocery store instead of driving because it's a thing I've been thinking about doing. I've got that huge ass ox bike. It's got all that cargo space. So I was like. Let's do the shopping list isn't that big. I should be able to fit this all in the bike. Uh it was cool. It was quite windy though. It was quite windy today. And then I looked on my IAP and I was like, oh gusts of up to 35 miles an hour. No wonder it was windy.
Peter
01:41
That'll do it. Oh, Iowa. What are you gonna do? Anyway, uh what you been up to? Um, you know, not a whole lot, like I say. Just it's been busy at work. I I only work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week. And then I've got to drive down to Salt Lake Wednesday night, crash in a hotel there, fly early morning Thursday to Austin, fly back from Austin Friday night, drive home then Um yeah, it's gonna be a a a busy couple of days. I'm going down for Intuitive Connect. So intuitive surgical robot systems. They're the ones who make the robots that uh we we all use. They're doing a little, I don't know, it's like a multi-day thing, but I guess some urology stuff is happening Thursday and Friday. I was invited to go by our Da Vinci rep. And I thought to myself, I don't ever do these things when they ask me if I want to go. And they're paying for it all, so maybe I should go. I mean, if they're gonna pay for it, why not? Yeah, so you know, just getting ready to work a few days and travel a few days and uh then recover from that, but other than that. What you been up to, other than the crazy weather and riding your bike?
Eden
03:01
I mean, that's it. Work's been really rough lately. Like I have my work has really been a series of highs and lows, and I'm in a low I'm in a low spot right now Because now, as I've complained so often in this podcast, there is an upcoming deadline when Title II uh is supposed to be in effect for all academic materials and not just public websites. And so I have been going around for 18 months around this ding dang university doing trainings, doing orientations, doing one-on-one consultations. Feeling like we're in a pretty good position. I've done a lot of this work. The last two weeks has been a series of people being like, I never heard anything about this. What is this crap? Why do I have to deal with this? And it's like I personally know you've received three separate emails from the provost, who is the boss of you. So maybe you should read your boss's emails. And the biggest thing that it has taught me. I don't know if this is true also in uh in your world, um, where there are like a lot of staff people who do a lot of the clerical and background work, a lot of the admin work, and then there are doctors who are doing the the the doctoring part, right? Mm-hmm. Do you still have to answer your fucking emails? Is there still an expectation that you like read and answer the emails that you receive? Yeah, totally. Well apparently that's not how it works in academia because these faculty members see fit to ignore all of the emails they receive for 18 months and now they're freaking out about it. And you're like We've been you we've been telling you about this for a year and a half. Why are you why is this my problem now that you feel like you're not getting support or information? When I personally have emailed you, I know your dean has emailed you, I know the provost has emailed you, I know the accessibility task force has emailed you. You've gotten at least a dozen communiques about this in the last year and a half, but now it's my problem? That you're an idiot and don't read your emails? If I was as bad as faculty are about reading and paying attention to my email I would be fired. I don't know how they get away with it. I genuinely don't know how they get away with it. It is a large component of your job. You should have to do it.
Peter
05:16
Yeah. Anyway. I can't disagree with you.
Eden
05:19
What have you been checking out, Peter?
Peter
05:21
You know, not a lot these this last week or two. Um, and part of it is just, like I say, things have been busy at work. A few things though worth mentioning. I'm almost done with Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Six. I will say our uh our little short that I pulled about uh our conversation about Dungeon Crawler Quarl. Uh Here's the thing. People have strong feelings about Dungeon Crawler Carl. And mostly it would appear that they're big fans. And so there were a number of people who were possibly offended. at the fact that you were questioning if Dungeon Dweller Carl was Who me? And I would yes. And I would like to say people Just chill out.
Eden
06:07
Here's the thing, listeners. Just because you acted that way, I am going to never read a dungeon crawler, Carl. I'm gonna treat it the way I do Titan I'm gonna treat it the way I do the film Titanic. Where there was such an outsized cultural love for it that I said, I will never see this film. And I have stuck true to that for 39, 29 years, however many, however long it's been, 97, 29 years. I have never seen Titanic. I will never see Titanic. So listeners, let me tell you, I have never read a Dungeon Crawler Carl I will never read a dungeon crawler Carl. You've sealed that for me.
Peter
06:42
Here's here's what I'll say. I don't know how much it was actual listeners to the podcast versus people on uh on on social media particularly it was the tick tock commenters but i'm gonna follow up with this you know what your life will be equally fulfilled If you don't ever read Dungeon Crawler and Carl. Now I say this, I am enjoying it. I am going to finish book six. I'm going to read book seven. I look forward to book eight. But I read, I I, you know, if you go in and you do a quick, if you just type in dungeon crawler car, you're gonna have a bunch of YouTube videos popping up with people like I'm a fest! And they're like holding all the books and this kind of stuff.
Eden
07:20
Um I know it's very popular with book talk folks.
Peter
07:23
But I don't get it. Like, I don't get it. It's there.
Eden
07:28
It's low-hanging fruit, even when it's fun. I say that with I say that not in a judgmental way It's clearly it's clearly very accessible. It's clearly very fun for people. So it's kind of low-hanging fruit. You don't this is not requiring a lot of um like cognitive and and critical thinking in order to really delve into the work And that's great. I there's a reason I read light novels. They're fluffy. I don't have to think about it.
Peter
07:53
Right.
Eden
07:53
And that's what this is. This is why this is light walk light novels for white people.
Peter
08:00
I feel about Dungeon Crawler Carl, it falls into the exact same category for me as the Dresden Files, in that I have read the Dresden Files. I look forward to reading the newest one that came out a few months ago. I haven't gotten around to it But but once they're done, I don't go back and think about them. This is like this is popcorn, you know, like and and again, there's a place for that. But it's I I yeah, it's interesting.
Eden
08:27
I will really enjoy them, but I don't quite get them. I hope Carl's not as big of a misogynist as Harry Dresden is. Uh no. I know the Dresden Files have gotten a lot better about that. You know, those the Jim Butcher was uh that was a long time ago when those books started. That was a long series. But I tried reading those first ones and I was like, wow, I don't I don't like this this Harry Dressing guy. He's a misogynist. I don't need to read this. I'm good.
Peter
08:51
Here's what I would say uh about that very briefly as an aside. I do think that Jim Butcher has become at least somewhat aware of that because there are many situations in which Harry Dresden's s his his self-supposed chivalry Which is kind of, you know, thinly veiled misogyny, gets him into some deep, deep shit. Sure. And so I do appreciate at least that there's that aspect of it. But anyway, I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. That's it's continuing. It is fun. I I am a little baffled at how strong people tend to feel. about these books, at least in some of the online discourse you can find, because I feel like they are fun but disposable.
Eden
09:36
Sure.
Peter
09:38
Couple TV things. We my wife and I, and I don't think we had finished this. I'm trying to think time-wise, so if we already talked about this, I apologize. But we finished season two of A Man on the Inside. Did we talk about that last time? I don't think so. I don't think I've ever heard of this. Okay. A man on the inside is uh is a reason to pay for one month of Netflix and binge watch both seasons. Okay. A man on the inside is a delight. Okay. Ted Dancing is wonderful.
Eden
10:08
I know what this show is. We've never talked about it. It's the one where he like goes undercover in like an old folks' home in the first season. I don't know what this I didn't know there was a second season.
Peter
10:16
Yes, so second season came out just a little bit ago. Season one, he goes undercover into an old folks home number season two, he goes undercover at uh a a college. As like a as like a professor or something? As a professor. Because he was a professor of engineering. That was his that's what he did. He goes in as like a Uh he's helping fill in and in the engineering thing. And it's all because there's a billionaire is going to donate a bunch of money. But then some there's threats about compromising information, and he's trying to figure out who's leaking this stuff, so he goes undercover. And it's fun because he, you know, in the first season. His wife had recently passed away, um, and I and she had Alzheimer's dementia at the end. And so it's particularly poignant as he's in the old folks' home. And he's interacting with people who end up while he's there, they're getting moved to the memory care side of of the facility. Sure. But he's also kind of coming to terms with m that. having lost his wife. In this one, he's now been kind of helping out the the private investigator enough that he kind of fancies himself a bit of a private investigator. and is more kind of involved in trying to come up with with ways to help. But he goes in undercover and meets this kind of flighty, free-spirited music teacher who's played by Mary Steenbergen. Um, those who don't know, Mary Steenbergen and Ted Danson have been married for many a year.
Eden
11:44
I was gonna say his IRL wife.
Peter
11:46
Correct. So the interplay between the two of them as they They fall for each other hard and fast, but they come from very different philosophies. We have this again very free-spirited uh music, you know, arts teacher, and then we have an engineer And it's it's a lot of fun. And it was great. I highly recommend it. My wife and I made ourselves not watch more than one a day until we got to the very like the end and we were like, sorry, we just have to finish because we're just having so much fun. Great, great show. Highly recommended. Very, very good. Nice. Series 21 of Taskmaster. has started.
Eden
12:25
Is this the one with Kamal Nangiani?
Peter
12:27
This is the one with Camille Nangiani.
Eden
12:29
The only thing I know about it is I have a friend who's watching it and was like They are slobbering all over Kamal. Like even more than they were over Jason Mansukas. They're like, oh my god, it's like a real Hollywood man And it's like he was his biggest claim to flame is he was a third lister in a failed MCU movie, guys.
Peter
12:47
He's not that big of a deal. It's funny because I do appreciate at least at one point somebody says something about oh I saw you in that Eternals movie and he looks at him he goes, fuck you, you did not. Hey, I saw that, Camal.
Eden
13:02
It wasn't good, but I saw it.
Peter
13:04
So did I think that's a good one.
Eden
13:05
Here's the thing. 20% of a good movie in there because Chloe Zhao does have masterful ability to frame shots of nature and the 20% of that movie that is beautiful nature shots where there's somebody in a terrible costume maybe in it as well, those are good. It's the other 80% of the movie that's a problem.
Peter
13:23
Yeah, it's it's a rough movie, but no, it is funny because the first team task, he and the two other people on his team are in in a room in the Taskmaster house. And they're having to run out one at a time and do something. And the first time he has to run out, the two who are in there, they turn to each other. It's like, oh my God, he's so famous. And So it was it was funny. There's only one set one episode so far, uh, but it was it was enjoyable. I'm I'm glad that Taskmaster is back. Um final thing I'll mention. We've had some big music weeks lately. Like big music weeks. Yeah. So You know, last week we had some some real bangers. Uh there is a new album from Nervosa called Slave Machine. Nervosa is an all-female thrash, kind of death thrash band from Brazil. Uh, they're awesome. I mean after the huge letdown for me that was Exodus's latest album, Goliath, it was good to a couple weeks later get hit with Slave Machine because this is this is some Vicious, vicious thrash metal. Okay. Um, real good, real good. And then this week, this week was just like, it was Now, here's what I will say. A little bit of context. A number of years ago, I think we talked about my favorite album of 2021 was Archspires Bleed the Future. Sure. And it surprised me because ArchSpire is so extreme that it's a little it's a little overwhelming to listen to an Archspire album, as I think I talked about previously. One of the things they do though very well is they recognize that their sonic assault. If you're gonna make it through thirty five to forty minutes of that, they've got to give you little breaks here and there. And so they very, very smartly will have moments where things slow down and they quiet down and you kind of feel like you can catch your breath. Uh and I think it's one of the things that makes them so effective and so listenable. It isn't a fatiguing experience because you are getting these little small rests throughout. Because I loved Bleed the Future so much last May when Archspire, so they had an incredible drummer, Spencer, Spencer Pruitt. He left the band. They did a whole big search to find a new drummer. They found a new drummer in Spencer Moore, who was the drummer for the technical death metal band in Ferry. And so they Spencer Moore joins the band and then last May they announced a Kickstarter. Their thing was, hey, we want to own this completely. We want to do this on our own. Let's, you know, help us do this. It got kickstarted. It's been, you know, it was very successful. They've been teasing this new album that's coming. They've dropped some uh singles. The singles were very good. Okay. And so on Friday The new Archspire album Too Fast to Die dropped. And I'll tell you what. In any year Where Mafuckin' Neurosis hadn't surprised dropped an album that is so incredibly good, I think that this would have been my album of the year. It is. Fantastic. Well, good for that. It is everything that I wanted from Bleed, a follow-up to Bleed the Future. It does not let off the intensity. It may even be in a few places a little bit faster, a little bit crazier. But again, very intelligent in that it is melodic. Um, you get these moments. Anyway, fantastic album. Nice. Couple other big ones that dropped this same week too. Interestingly, in Fury. Released an album on the same day. And Spencer Moore actually did do the drums for this album before he left to join Archspire. So it was the final In Fairy album with him. But it isn't as fast, it isn't quite as intense, but it is very good technical death metal if you're into that. And if you don't want technical death metal and you just want knuckle-dragging, bloody fist, brutal, straight up New York American death metal, then Immolation dropped their newest album, Descent. Immolation's been around since 1986. I mean, they're kind of one of the OGs of American thrash metal And they just continue to be very, very good. Their previous album, Acts of God, was the one that got me into them. It is awesome. Descent is Maybe as good. I don't know if it's better, but it definitely hangs. It's really great. Um, one other that I want to mention, because this one kind of came out of nowhere and surprised me. Uh Eden, have you ever listened to Master Boot Record? I don't think so. Master Boot Record is uh on the albums, usually kind of a solo artist. Uh he does how do I describe Master? Here's how I describe Master Boot Record. Take one part chiptunes, one part Bach organ toccottas. And then mix it all in with a metal sensibility, but all with kind of electronic keyboard chip tune sort of sounds. You have master boot record. Okay. Very prolific. Very a ton of albums. Not a single one of them is bad. I enjoy them all. Well Master Boot Record released um oh it's called reality. Shoot, I gotta look it up really fast because now I'm blanking on what the title of the album actually is. There we go. Real-time execution. So real-time execution is Master Boot Records first live album. Okay. So did a tour with a drummer and a guitarist. And recorded a bunch of different tracks. And it is really interesting. They are very obviously like they're all recognizable tracks that I've listened to. But there is a there's something different to them where you've got the actual drums and you've got this actual electro guitar mixed in with the synths and all that kind of stuff. It's great. Master Boot Record is just so fun. Master Boot Record is one of those artists that every time I listen to something, I think to myself, I should listen to this more often. I really, really should. There's a fun album that is a whole bunch of covers of old school video game. tracks as well. But yeah, Master Boot Record is a ton of fun and I highly recommend checking it out. And real-time execution is a fun place to start because it's a bunch of songs from different albums. But uh it definitely it has a very different a very different kind of sound to it because of the real instruments, not just the synthesized. That's cool. I think. I think that's everything that's worth mentioning. How about you?
Eden
20:08
What have you been checking out lately? Um, well, let's start with music since you ended with music. Um Peter, I'm scrobbling again.
Peter
20:17
No, every day you're scrolling.
Eden
20:19
Every day I'm scrablin'. Cause here's the thing I just wish that the internet was 2006 again. I liked 2006 internet better than 2026 internet for a lot of reasons. There are some things I don't like as much. I miss forums. Granted, Discord is in a lot of respects kind of like a forum. I'm back to torrenting things. I'm back to having my own thing, my own, you know, hard drive full of stuff at my house instead of streaming everything. But that means I got a end of the week top artists thing. That's incoherent. Take a look at this I just sent you, my top four artists of the week.
Peter
20:57
Okay, I'm excited. I'm excited.
Eden
20:59
What could it be? I just texted it to you. Uh let's see. Number four, Portishead. Who doesn't love Portis Head? You know who's great Portis Head? It's because I put on all of Portis Head's albums and listened to them. Number three, Rebecca Black. Salvation is always a killer. It's seven tracks of pure joy, one of the greatest EPs ever made. Salvation. Go listen to it. Uh second coming in second and I think only just because their songs are too ding dang long, neurosis. Because I've still listened to a lot of neurosis.
Peter
21:30
Plays not This is track played.
Eden
21:33
This is tracks played, not time listened. And you and I both know those last two tracks of uh uh their newest album are a half an hour. So they're like 15 each. Oh totally. But I I found a new artist this week. A Chilean artist by the name of Javiera Mena. And she was my top listen of the week. Because she slaps, dog. She's really good. It's the one thing that made me like take longer than a two or three hour break from listening to Neurosis for the last two weeks. Uh she's really fun to listen to Uh she it's just kind of like club pop, dance pop, electro from Chile. Uh It's very fun to listen to. It's fun to it's fun to listen to music in Spanish again. It's one of those things where I realize I don't I'm not doing as much in Spanish as I wish I were, and so I'm just getting a little rusty. So I was like, I want to find a good Spanish artist to listen to. So I found Javiera Mena, and she's very good. And now I'm like, I need to find like a telenovela to put on in the background of my life. Just so that I'm hearing more Spanish and interacting with media in it more. I gotta find a book to read in Spanish. I'm I'm trying to, you know, get back to it. Get back to my roots, if you will. But Cavier Amina was very fun. I had a lot of time listening, and a lot of fun listening to her over the last couple weeks. Um let's see. Other things to mention. There are two very bad movies that I have watched with the bad movie bros. Um the first one was called Firecracker, which was designed to be like a showcase for this uh young and up like coming up like karate star young woman. And it was really just an excuse to have a hottie with a naughty body do a lot of karate with very little and or no clothes on. Sometimes she's running around tits out. Because her clothes got removed slowly but surely over the course of a five-minute action scene uh as she's fighting these two guys who are trying to kill her. Don't worry about it. It wasn't good. However If you want to watch a bad one, that's a pretty good bad movie, but you probably want to watch it with other people. It was not very good. It also had, I have to say. I'm gonna spoil something here, so if any of my friends uh are listening to this and don't want Firecracker spoiled because we didn't spoil it in the Discord where we were talking about it, skip ahead thirty seconds. It's got the most uh Buckwild incoherent sex scene I've uh seen in a movie in a hot minute where the antagonist, who is also the love interest for the protagonist, she doesn't know that he killed her sister, he's evil. Cuts all of the woman's clothes off with his weird knives. And then she cuts all of his clothes off with the weird knives And then they fuck. I have never like I have watched a fair amount of sex scenes in video calls with my friends. Never once have I wanted to cover my eyes during an on-screen sex scene while in a call with my friends or even in the room. It's even weirder when you're in the room with like 20 people and you're watching a sex scene. It's like, okay. Sure. That's not the weirdest. Here's it the a long way longtime listeners might know, I think I talked about this back a summer or two ago. Going to see Oppenheimer with my father-in-law. And having uh Florence Pugh's naked body grinding on Killian Murphy right in front of The rest of that room full of dudes with my father-in-law sitting right next to me was not fun. I didn't care for that
Peter
25:17
Yeah, that that that sounds uncomfortable.
Eden
25:19
But this was such a weird sex scene that afterwards we got into Discord with the other people and we were like, you all need to watch this. You need to see how buck wild this sex scene is. Uh, anyway, then last week we watched a movie with the best name for a bad movie you've ever heard: American Cyborg, Steel Warrior. I love it. It was not very good. It was like a weird post-apocalyptic movie, which, you know, a preview of coming attracts. Everyone knows what it is if they listen to the last episode. Weird post-apocalyptic movie. That's true. Uh it was like what if children of men had a budget of thirteen dollars and a very, very hunky man as the lead. Not that Clive Owen isn't hunky. Don't get it twisted. But he's like a rugged, unconventional hunky. The guy who plays the cyborg, the titular American Cyborg Steel Warrior, an American Cyborg Steel Warrior, very conventionally attractive. Looks like he should be a model, not a very good actor. So that's one thing Clive Owen has on him. He's in a much better movie because Children of Men is a good movie instead of a bad movie. But the plot is the same. Trying to save a baby, the last baby that's been born in 20 years or some shit I don't know. It's inco it was incoherent. Uh the bad guy looked like a leather daddy. If you had told me that it was Rob Halford playing the bad guy, I'd be like, heck yeah, gay a gay Tarte up Leather Daddy is the evil cyborg. Let's go. Uh anyway, it was fun to watch. Again, bad movie. Fun to watch. Um, yeah, and I think that's all I have to mention. I've been doing some reading. I'm like two-thirds, no, I'm not that is generous. I'm a third of the way through a very long Chinese web novel called Long awaited feelings or my feelings can wait. It's really good. It's about like This woman who dies and then is transported back in time at the time of her death to like six years earlier and so she has a chance to like Re like try to make her life not suck because her life was really bad before she died, and then she tried to make it not bad. Uh I'm really enjoying it, but it's very long. I think the EPUB It was one of those things where I I booted up the EPUB in my uh in my little e-reader, and it took 30 minutes for it to tell me how many pages there were. Like normally you you boot up a normal book and it's like, oh, you know, you're on page three out of four hundred and fifty or eight hundred or however long it is, depending on you know how long the book is. But it eventually tells you fairly quickly, within a few seconds. I think this thing I think this thing had it says it has 3,500 pages. Oh good lord. In a single EPUB. And you're like, why didn't why didn't you break it up? Why did she put it all in one? This is too big. No doubt. But it's re it goes down real easy. I read it when I go to bed so I don't look at the internet and doom scroll and I'm having a fun time with it.
Peter
28:20
Very nice.
Eden
28:21
Anyway, we should move on to the main event because I'm very curious to hear about what you think about this film. Uh again, listeners, uh longtime listeners will know after we watched Escape from New York and I loved it and Peter hated it. I was trying to decide, okay, if if John Carpenter is my favorite genre filmmaker, who is Peter's like guy like that? And so I threw out James Cameron. We decided it's definitely not James Cameron because you're not a big James Cameron fan, which I get. Me neither. Me neither. I get it. I am a sidebar. That Ubisoft Avatar game is on sale right now, and I'm like, do I want some Ubisoft map slop? And would that I think I own it? Would that be enough to make me go, should I watch Avatars 2 and 3? Because I just played a 40-hour Ubisoft map slot game? I what's gonna happen is I'm not gonna actually buy it because it is still like 30 bucks even on sale. Um I don't know.
Peter
29:19
I'm thinking about it. Now that you've mentioned it, it means I'm gonna play it. You should know when, but now it means I'm gonna install it and play it.
Eden
29:24
You should play Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.
Peter
29:27
They it when I play it, we're coming back around.
Eden
29:29
It has a it has a third person mode now Why they made you a big blue Navi and then only let you be in first person? What are you doing, guys? Let me play in third person. You're Ubisoft. Don't make me play in first person. This isn't far cry. This is Assassin's Creed. Let me sneak. Anyway, we decided it wasn't James Cameron, so then I said maybe it's George Miller, and you said you've only seen the first three uh Myad Max movies, and it would have been many years, correct?
Peter
29:59
Decades.
Eden
30:00
Since you were a kid, basically.
Peter
30:02
I don't think I've seen Beyond Thunderdome since Start to finish probably at some point when I was still living at home with our father who was a big Mad Max man.
Eden
30:13
Yeah, it was probably that uh TV, uh that VHS that we recorded off TV on our VCR. Totally. Uh anyway, so I was like, you've never seen Mad Max Fury Road. You need to see Mad Max Fury Road. So that is what we watched for this week, Peter. Tell me, Peter.
Peter
30:30
It is.
Eden
30:30
What did you think about Mad Max? Fury Road 2015 George Miller You know here's the thing we have watched for this podcast
Peter
30:42
a lot of movies that require one suspend their disbelief. Yeah. I'm a science fiction, I'm a fantasy fan. I have over the years gotten very good at suspending my disbelief. But But this movie asked too much of me. Really? This movie This movie wanted me to think that a a an an ill old man with bad hair who's got a dilapidated mind could and and is an obviously a a sexual assaulter could somehow convince a group of people to follow him and almost worship him in a cult-like fashion. Almost like he's a saint. To their deaths or detriment. Like that, that would never happen. There's no Oh shit.
Eden
31:33
So here's what's filmed in 2022, released in twenty twenty f or filmed in twenty twelve, released in twenty fifteen.
Peter
31:40
So here's what I'll say. This is an excellent oh yeah.
Eden
31:44
Oh yeah.
Peter
31:45
This is an excellent movie. This is an excellent movie with some of just the most striking visuals I have seen in A long time. But for at least the first third of this, it was really hard for me to watch. How come? Because of that. You really that's real.
Eden
32:03
Like you were like, I why does everyone following a Morton Jones?
Peter
32:07
No, no, I'm sitting here going, oh my God. I know this predates the hellscape in which we live. But it's like George Miller was like, hey, let me show you how stupid and gullible people can be. If they perceive that salvation is at the other end of this sewer canal that they are being asked to crawl through with their mouths wide open.
Eden
32:33
Do not become addicted to water, my friends
Peter
32:38
I just like it w honestly that but it was it was that first little bit with everything within Morton Joe that I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so hard to watch because on the one hand you're supposed to just be like Oh boy, look at this, this is crazy. And on the other hand, I'm like, oh boy, we're leaving this, living this every stinking day of our lives.
Eden
33:01
It's true.
Peter
33:02
So that part aside, honestly, and I will tell you, for the uh truly, that part hit me so hard. That for the first, again, about third, I was like, I don't like this movie. I'm gonna suffer through and struggle to the end of it, but I am not enjoying this. And then as it moves on and we get more into it and you know we get things going and it just becomes this just again, I've heard so many people say, you even I think mention it last time, just All-time action movies. Yeah. And then it becomes that, and I'm like, okay, yeah, I am totally on board. Um we we finally get the glimpses of of people in a horrible world still trying to be good to each other. I know I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but I have to say this now because this actually, and maybe I'm a sucker with a bleeding heart and that's fine. But like when and I'm blanking on his name right now, but Nicholas Holt's character when NUX, thank you. When he makes his his turn and and whatever whichever because they all have stupid names, whichever of Morton Joe's, you know, concubines, whatever, is talking to him and like gets down the that turn and seeing that, oh, look He there is still humanity in the in the Proud Boys. I mean excuse me, the war boys. They they you know, I was like Then I then I okay then I was in and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the movie. I mean and I know going back I'm sure that I would enjoy the whole thing because I enjoyed it so much as it progressed. Yeah But yeah, it was a little tough to watch at the start because just too many uncomfortable parallels to our reality. without the hope of us ripping off a certain someone's face and killing them as we ride the fury road.
Eden
34:58
Yeah. God though. It's
Peter
35:01
But tell me, what are your thoughts about this movie?
Eden
35:04
Here's the thing. I wanted you to watch it because I think everyone needs to see this movie, because it is unlike any action movie I've ever seen. Um it is I I was talking with my friend Nathan about it the other day, and we we decided, I think the way that we both decided to frame it, it's not my favorite action movie ever. But it may be a perfect action film. Like there is never a wasted frame. There is never a moment where you're like, oh, that scene didn't need to be there. Or that shot didn't even need to be there. Everything feels so deliberate, so carefully planned, and it looks like that. I've never seen a movie that looked like that before I saw Fury Road. Um, I actually, uh, since this is I I was talking with Cassie and I realized I think this is the movie that I have seen the most times as an adult. Because like when you're a kid, you watch a movie like a thousand times because you really love Star Wars, you really love Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. I think probably Gun to my head, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures, the movie I've seen the most times, but that's because I watched it a thousand times on VHS recorded off TV as a child. Because it's good. Um, but as an adult, for whatever reason, not because I've even actively wanted to watch it necessarily, but it's just like been a thing that I've been invited to or a friend was watching it and wanted people to come over. It's the movie I've seen the most times. So this time I was like, how do I make this a little fresh for me? Because this is a movie I've seen at least a dozen times. So I watched the black and chrome edition, which is the the black and white version of Mad Max Fury Road, which was Miller's original idea. He wanted the film to be in black and white And then the studio was like, Abso fucking lutly not, George. And so then he leaned really hard into the colors, and you saw like this is uh just a dynamic film when it comes to colors. But then go ahead.
Peter
37:09
Yeah, it it is well I was just gonna say it there are some moments where, I mean, a as they're approaching the big sandstorm Look, we got some cool sandstorms in Dune, but they don't hold a candle to this one.
Eden
37:23
When it's that long scene where it sh where it like zooms out and the do you see the convoy like taking up less than a five percent of the screen and you just see this cloud of dust that's easily, you know, a mile tall. Just bearing down on them. Oh my god, that shot is incredible.
Peter
37:46
Yeah. And and then even when they go into it, just the colors and the lightning and we've got these little mini, like, you know, tornadoes and When that one uh car gets sucked up in and you see the you know the cars getting torn apart and exploding into flames the war boys flying off of it. The war boys flying into it. But then juxtapose that Because we get so much of that then when they're going through the swamp at night. And it's all these deep, deep blues and purples and things like that where it would be fascinating to watch watch it in black and white because for me the colors and the vibrancy of those colors again that's the thing is Dune, I think, is an amazing visual movie to watch, but the colors are very muted and kind of, I don't know if I'd say washed out, but intentionally, and again Well and that's Denny Villeneuve's paint.
Eden
38:49
He never has been. Any of his films you watch are like that. Like Arrival is the greyest movie you've ever seen.
Peter
38:55
Yeah. So so like I say, this was, I mean, that was where I think that actually that may have been the moment that changed my mind because that scene, like you said. when it zooms out is so visually stunning that I think at that point my brain just went, oh fuck yeah. Like I'm in. And then the rest of the movie I was like I was totally bought into it. The only here's the only thing that was sad. Because of how busy the week's been and stuff, this and the other, I had to watch this this morning while everybody was still asleep.
Eden
39:29
So you couldn't turn it too loud.
Peter
39:32
Well, so the nice little thing that the Apple TV does is an Apple TV, as soon as you pop in a pair of AirPods of any sort, the Apple TV goes, hey, do you want to use these? Okay. So I put in my AirPods Pro, activated the noise canceling so that I was locked in, and then at least again I couldn't feel it, but at least I could turn it way up for me there. And and get something of the su uh a a a f a a small slight facsimile of the effect had I been able to really boost the the sono system.
Eden
40:03
This is a I I it was very fun to watch this with a subwoofer today because I you know I have a a a nice subwoofer and sound uh bar. I don't have room to do like a five-one, so I I do a sound bar, that's what I got. But it's a really nice one and it sounds really good and boy was it shaking my guts watching this movie today. I bet it was. It was it's really good. Um, I would definitely like I don't think anyone should watch Black and Chrome as their first or even third second, third, or fourth viewing of that movie. I think you should watch it the way it is. But again, as a as a 12th viewing, Black and Chrome, I think, was really, really effective because it was it like they aren't they obviously remastered the movie. To make those blacks really black and those whites really white. So even though it's all in color or there's no color in it whatsoever, like it still has a dynamism and a contrast to it that's really, really striking. Yeah, it was I'm sure.
Peter
41:02
I'm sure.
Eden
41:03
Anyway, I'm gonna do a very quick recap of this film. Uh because if you haven't seen this yet, you should go see it. And if you uh No. Yeah You definitely should. This is a movie to watch. If you ain't seen this by today, this is a movie to watch. Uh this is a Mad Max movie. So Max is there. Max Rokotansky. What a last name. Uh is pursued and found by Morton Joe's war boys and taken to the Citadel. He tries to escape, he gets caught again In the meantime, Immorton Joe's lieutenant Imperator Furiosa is headed to the uh bullet farm and gas town. to trade food and water with the folks there for the aforementioned gas and bullets As she's going along, she just takes off the road. And the rest of the war party with her is like, hey, what's going on? And she's like, we gotta take a detour. Immortant Joe realizes something is afoot and he gets all of his war boys into their uh their pursuit vehicles and they go on an adventure to try to stop them. You eventually come to find out. Uh Furiosa is not just transporting water and mother's milk. Uh she's got all five of Morton Joe's wives slash concubines. Who have all escaped, who have chosen that the promise of escape is better than the reality of staying trapped with Immorton Joe. Uh Max is being used as a so-called blood bag for Nux, who is a very ill, dying apparently from cancer, war boy. But he's just yet basically being a blood transfusion to give Nux the the strength to go and be on this war party. Shenanigans ensue. Max gets himself caught up with the war rig after the aforementioned huge dust storm. Uh and he is able to sp a after a very tense few moments, is able to find an accord with Furiosa to go with her and the wives to the green place to help them escape, because they could use the help because they're being pursued by all of the Morton Joe's guys. Uh they they do so. Shenanigans again ensue some wild action sequences against a band of dudes who all their cars are covered in spikes. or a band of dudes who are all on motorcycles and jumping over everything. Uh they eventually make it, they get stuck in the swamp. When they're in the swamp, Immorton Joe sends one of his lieutenants, the so called Bullet Farmer To go try to hunt them down. Uh Max takes care. Max and Furiosa together take care of the bullet farmer. Uh And then they get on their way again out of the uh swamp. They get to what Furiosa has promised is the green place. Which it's they don't actually make it to the green place. It was that swamp. The place where Furiosa grew up, where she was c abducted from and has been longing to return for her entire life, doesn't exist anymore. She runs into the many mothers who are the only survivors of the green place, and they decide, okay, we're gonna load up all of these motorcycles, we're gonna leave the war rig behind, and we're gonna go out on the salt flats. We got enough, we should be able to go for 160 days. Do you want to come, Max? Max says, no, I'll go my own way. I that way lies only death. 160 days, and you're just gonna die out there But then and 'cause he's like hope is hope is an illusion. Hope is a stupid thing. Don't have any hope. Mm-hmm. And then something, a vision, a memory, whatever it is that's been happening in Max's brain. He keeps seeing a kid, and that kid keeps making him act in certain ways or have him have flashing visions. This is the kid from the first movie, if you remember Mad Max. It's not actually because that kid's like an adult now, but like conceptually, this is the child that dies in the first movie Mad Max. Um or maybe it's the kid from the Road Warrior. Who's to know? There's kids in all these movies. It's true. Thunderdome has a cajillion. Thunderdome has a cajillion. Anyway, it could be any of those kids. Anyway, the ghost of a kid basically is in Max's brain, and it gives him the idea, no. We go back and we take the Citadel because all their dudes is after us. So he goes, he chases down Furiosa and the brides and the many mothers, says, let's get in this Roarrig. Drive straight through them and go back and take the Citadel from them. Um along the way, I didn't mention this uh in Morton Joe's favorite wife. uh played by Rosie Huntington White Whitely. Uh the splendid Ang Harad, who is pregnant with his child, uh set basically gets knocked out of the vehicle. And So they leave her behind, she dies, her baby doesn't survive, which that makes Immorton Joe even more angry because all he cares about is having like a perfect viable heir because all of his kids are fucked up in weird ways. Uh, some of uh many of whom we meet during the course of this movie and or the prequel movie to come and or Mad Max the video game, if you play Mad Max the video game. Which it's a pretty good game. If you want to go play an avalanche open world map slot game, that's pretty good. Um Anyway, they decide to turn around and go straight through. They get pursued again. The wildest of all of our wild action sequences starts happening. It's Buck Wild.
Peter
46:34
It is bonkers.
Eden
46:36
It's such a good body count through the roof. A whole lot of people die, but a whole lot of crazy things happen. They're able to kill Limorton Joe. And then uh Nux basically sacrifices himself to blow up a pass where so all of the other war boys and everything else is stuck and or blown up with him. And Max, the wives, the many mothers, the surviving many mothers, and Furiosa are able to make it through in Immorton Joe's weird car truck thing, which all the vehicles are weird car truck things. They make it. They go back. Furiosa is dying. Max is able to save her by uh both keeping like
Peter
47:18
Puncturing her chest cavity which is filling up with air so she can breathe more freely and then he uses he's releasing her tension pneumothorax that she's developing.
Eden
47:26
Yeah, that thing. Which seems bad because he just stabs her in the chest, but at least she can breathe again. Um, and then because he is a universal donor, as uh posited at the start of the film, gives her a blood transfusion and it allows her to survive. And then as they get back to the citadel, uh the war boys basically turn on the one of Morton Joe's kids who's still there. The uh the mother's milk women open the floodgates, they start raising the car back up into the citadel, and Max just disappears into the crowd, and the movie's over. Yep. Perfect setup for another one if you wanted it. Instead we got a prequel that's not nearly as good, but what are you gonna do?
Peter
48:08
Does have me interested to watch the prequel.
Eden
48:10
It's worth watching.
Peter
48:10
I'm not gonna make it a priority.
Eden
48:11
It's worth watching. I don't like it as much. I think it's kind of a mess. Uh and that's part of the biggest problem is it feels like and this is exactly what happened. He wrote the movie Furiosa to give to Charlie's throne to say, this is your character. Here's everything you need to know about her. I wrote a whole movie about her that I'd love to make, but they're not letting me make that. I'm making this. Here's everything you need to know about her. And then eventually he was able to try to turn that into a whole movie, but that means it's like kind of a mess. It's got like five chapters with like chapter interquals and everything of like chapter three. This is what happens next. And it just kind of there's some really cool action scenes, but my biggest complaint with it, 2015 to 2025 is a very big change in terms of how you make a movie. And in Mad Max Fury Road, it's almost entirely practical effects. Like I I was reading the Wikipedia page before we got on here, and it posited that 80 to 90% of those stunts were practical effects. The vast majority of them. Like, it was a miserable shoot. Everyone was in Namibia. It was a terrible time. No one was having a good time. But it's one of the greatest movies you've ever seen. Furiosa was largely shot on green screen and has a whole lot of CGI. So it feels different. It feels cheaper in a lot of ways. It doesn't have it doesn't have the embodied feel that it does. Because like when you're watching this movie and those boys are up on those little spindly things going back and forth with the countervoids. That's a dude. A dude is strapped to that thing actually swangling back and forth on a moving vehicle. They had they had an actual guitar player. playing an actual guitar on a huge rig that shot actual fire out of it. That's all practical They had to tell that guy, hey dog, don't hold it too high, because this is gonna shoot fire sometimes. So hold a little, hold it like this so you don't get fired. Like that's all practical I believe it. It's cool. I believe it. It looks amazing. Yeah. Anyway, other thoughts you had about this movie? I it was uh I was almost afraid. I was afraid to watch it again. I also put it off until this morning because I was like, I've seen this movie so many times Am I gonna find anything new in it or am I just gonna be like, yeah, it's a good movie, I've seen it a dozen times. But re-watching it, it just it is so tightly constructed, it's so perfectly paced. that I just had a delightful time. I sat there for two hours and I was like, God damn, George Miller makes a movie.
Peter
50:52
Yeah. No, it was here's the thing. To that where you were talking about No wasted time, no wasted scenes. You know, this is this is a two-hour movie. Yeah. It's not longer, but it's not shorter. No. But it moves a lot faster than a lot of two-hour movies. Yeah. Because it is something is always happening that matters. And and you can see that in its construction. And I think that that is one of the things that makes it such an effective movie. Um yeah, I I really liked it. Again, I I just think I'm in a little bit of a place, and part of it is, and we've talked about this a little bit. Sort of obliquely. But where the world is right now, I have a hard time with grim entertainment. Yeah, for sure. And and and so again, that it was a little tough starting off with this one. But again, it it is so well constructed and so just breathtaking to watch. and everything that you know I was able to get over that. So it's one of those where I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Eden
52:02
I think importantly, it ends on a on a moment of hope. Like things are really bad. But they survived?
Peter
52:10
I mean, this is a world where everything's bad. It always has bad. And if you know anything about the Mad Max movies, you know that this world is really bad. Yeah. So So yeah, it it is it is it was great that I mean they come back and again Here here's the thing that gives me hope is Morton Joe, who everybody's worshiping, all of a sudden he dies and they realize he's just a guy. He's just a dude. And And and the populace immediately turns on him and and rips him apart. Yeah. So that gave me hope.
Eden
52:47
Yeah, and well, and that's like like it's hard. And like a lot of people don't make it, you know, Angar Had doesn't make it of the of the uh brides. A number of the many mothers do not make it. Only two of them survive.
Peter
53:00
Yeah, I think like Yes, I think say five out of the seven that are there don't make it.
Eden
53:04
Um and you know, especially the one who has the little like bag of seeds that she's been carrying for decades. But where do those seeds end up? They end up at a place that has water, has arable soil, has hydroponics that we see at one point in the film. So those seeds are gonna be able to be used now. And it is going to make like like it ends on a moment of hope because the like Immorton Joe's not there. And so we don't know, like there's kind of a vacuum and it leaves it extremely open to like we don't know what's gonna happen here, but there is a there there is a sliver of hope. You know, the bullet farmer, he's dead. The people leader, he's dead. Immortant Joe, he's dead. None of the dudes who are in charge are alive anymore. All of their best war boys are dead and gone. All that is left is like the weak, the infirm, the disabled, the like and the too young. Yeah, the children. And so maybe those people can band together and build a better future.
Peter
54:10
You know, the scene and and one of the scenes that and it's such a short one, but really stuck out at me is when you see the mothers who, you know, I mean, at one point we see them hooked up to basically pumping machines, making mothers milk But we see them at the end no longer hooked up to their machines, and they're the ones who open the water. And you kind of go, okay, okay, maybe these people have a chance.
Eden
54:39
Yeah. It's cool. It's a powerful film. It's really good. It just looks like a million bucks. I feel like to I I was skeptical of Tom Hardy as Max. I think that, yeah, like fuck Mel Gibson. And it all my homies hate Mel Gibson, but uh he's good in those bad Max movies. And so I was like, how do you replace him? Like, what who is Tom Hardy the guy? And then I remembered Tom Hardy melts into a role better than just about anyone of his generation. Like That's what he does. Like, you can't tell me who Tom Hardy is. I have no idea because he melts into the role unlike almost any other actor of his generation. And so he just melts into this. He is so taciturn, he never says anything, like he's so quiet, and like so understated in his movements, unless he needs to move big, and then he moves big Um I did one thing that I think is really interesting, I'm reading the Wikipedia page talking about the post prod, and this is something that one of the editors says. Something like fifty to sixty percent of the film is not actually running at twenty-four frames a second, which is the traditional frame rate. It'll be running below twenty-four frames because George, if he couldn't understand what was happening in the shot, would slow it down until you could. Or if it was too well understood, he'd shorten it or speed it back up. The manipulation of every shot in that movie is intense, which is what causes it to have that like kind of jerky motion sometimes. is because he's playing Lucy Goosey with the how many frames a second is in every single shot of that movie. And I feel like that really leans into the kind of like like the the the tension that the film builds and like the kind of feel of uh of anxiety, especially like that early scene when he's running through the citadel. And all the war boys are chasing after him is at a higher frame rate. And so it feels weird and jerky and cart uh again, almost like cartoonish in his in his actions and his movements. It's a heck of a film.
Peter
56:44
You know, it is. And here's the final thing I'll say. I was worried going into this because I've heard So much about this movie over so many years. Sure. And I was concerned that I would be disappointed. And I would just like to say that I am most definitely not.
Eden
57:09
I think that's great.
Peter
57:11
Yep. It defin it met I came away from it going, okay, I get it. I get why people say what they do about what the say about this movie what they say. Absolutely. It earned all of it.
Eden
57:23
So well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think this movie's great.
Peter
57:26
I did.
Eden
57:26
Um again, it's not my favorite action movie, but it is a perfect action movie It is two hours of perfect filmmaking. And then you're like, this guy made Happy Feet? This guy made Babe Two? They got Babe Two guy to make this movie? What?
Peter
57:42
Yep.
Eden
57:43
Anyway, we will be back in a oh, I talked about Hardy. Enough good cannot be said about Charleston. She owns the movie. Oh, she's incredible. She owns the movie. She's incredible. And honestly, that's one of the saddest parts about uh Furiosa. She's too old, so she can't play Furiosa. Anya Taylorjoy's good. She's fine. She's no Charlace Therone.
Peter
58:02
Yeah.
Eden
58:02
But anyway, that's that's worth mentioning.
Peter
58:04
She does an incredible job.
Eden
58:05
She's so good. All of the wives are good, the many mothers are good, the weird gross men are all really gross and weird. It's it's a cool movie. It's a very cool movie.
Peter
58:15
Well, and and I think that Nicholas Holt Does a great job of of making that turn where he's he's psycho until he realizes that it's all a sham. Yeah. And then you see that.
Eden
58:31
Well, and it takes it takes his own God saying mediocre to his face for him to be like, oh no.
Peter
58:37
Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. So just everybody does a great job all around and it is a pretty incredible movie. It's a good movie.
Eden
58:45
Do you know what one of my favorite uh uh little bits of trivia is? Im Morton Joe. Let's see, who plays a Morton Joe? It is Hugh Keysburn. Guess who? Well, he was in the first Mad Max movie. The main bad guy toe cutter. In Mad Max. It's him. Look at that. They brought him back for Fury Road. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty cool. It's cool. Anyway. We'll be back in two weeks uh with another episode. Uh you should all go watch Fury Road if you haven't. And if you have, watch it again.
Peter
59:20
It's true. It's worth it
Eden
59:22
All right.
Peter
59:24
That's my cue to end the podcast. Bye.