Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Geeky brewery podcast, year nine issue one. Joining me, your host, Mr. Ryan Parrish today is Mr. Keith Lingfield.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Hello, folks.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Ms. Lee Price. Hello, Mr. Sam Edwards.
[00:00:12] Speaker C: Hello.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We had to strap Lee down to put the superhero mask on him. Known for his utter distaste of the, what is it? Marvel and DC and all superheroes in general.
Yeah, we thought we'd have a party mass vibe. See how long these last. Not very long is the answer. They're already sweating. But yeah. Welcome back. How are we all? All good?
[00:00:34] Speaker C: Yeah, very well, thanks.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Keith is silent just mostly because I can't see anything at the moment.
I don't know how Superman does it if he has to take his glasses off to be Superman.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: So I thought he was protesting the new James Gunn trailer.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Why would I protest a great trailer for a proper Superman that's not gray and maudlin and Zack Snydering.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: But he's cross eyed in one second of the trailer.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Who cares?
[00:01:01] Speaker C: Who cares?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: I'll fix it in post. It's all good.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yes, thank you for joining us for year nine issue one. Today we'll be talking about the sad passing of a certain Mr. David lynch and looking at his film and creative works. We'll be looking at what's coming up in 2025 across movies, games, comics and TV, plus our regular one geek thing. But we shall join you all shortly.
Unfortunately, in January we lost one of your trifecta of David's, Keith, which is Mr. Bowie, Mr. Byrne and Mr. Lynch are your top three Davids of all time. So David lynch, the amazing filmmaker, visual artist, musician, weather reporter and actor, unfortunately passed away on January 16, 2025, just four days short of his 79th birthday. Birthday, I believe.
Oscar winner, I think a Canary award, lifetime achievement Venice Film Festival, multiple accurades across his care.
Known as a very visionary and esoteric kind of filmmaker. And I'm not his greatest fan yet. I haven't watched most of his stuff. So I'm going to hand over to you, Keith on this part and I think you and Lee are probably the best people to speak about it. Unless you just want me to talk about June 1984 for about three hours, which I could probably do as long.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: As it's all Good. About June 84.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Trick Stewart with a pug in the middle of a battle scene. What? What other way could you celebrate the world?
[00:02:50] Speaker D: Sting in his underpants.
[00:02:51] Speaker C: Sting, visionary in the Trinity.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: But yeah, over to you, Keith.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I kind of stumbled across David's first work, Eraserhead when it was just shown randomly late night on some terrestrial TV channel. And once I fell into his hallucinogenic dream world, I was hooked from then on. Really. So I probably saw it far too young because Eraserhead was made in 77. So I probably saw that round about the early 80s, either just before or just after Elephant man had come out, which was kind of his. His big hit, breakthrough hit.
And he just. I just sold into the whole thing. So his first film was Black and White. Elephant man, of course, was Black and White.
And then he kind of went on from there to produce some of the greatest films. Narrowly missed out directing Return of the Jedi, which would have been an interesting project.
Made the definitive version for me of June that's been committed to celluloid. As others that have not actually made it that far, but at least David.
And obviously that's kind of legendary in the fact that there was like a six hour cut or whatever it is.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Before, which has never been released. Which really is me, because I think it skips so much in that movie.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah. But I think because it was the first version of June I ever saw.
Just the. The way it's done. It is a kind of fever dream of a film.
You know. The Villeneuve version that's come much later is probably more.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: So it's more book.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: In line with the. With the book. Although it misses out the Space Guild and whatever it is. And David's version of the Space Guild is phenomenal. It's one of those iconic visual moments of that particular film. Love it. Music by Toto Absolutely fantastic. Of course.
And then kind of went on to do other things like Wild at Heart.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Blue Velvet was a quick mention on Elephant Man. Weirdly, that film was made. Produced by Mel Brooks.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Was kept secret for many years because nobody thought they'd take it seriously. I thought it's gonna be a comedy film if Mel Brooks. His name was on the poster.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: John Hurt in the lead role. Phenomenal movie. If people haven't seen it. It's an incredible piece of work.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: A youngish Anthony Hopkins as well. Probably one of his career defining roles.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think kind of got nominated for a few awards. Probably didn't win as many as it perhaps was due in its time.
Then kind of hit big with Blue Velvet with a standout performance from Dennis Hopper, which is still one of the most disturbing screen villains ever committed to celluloid. I think, because that man is, well freaky.
And, you know, started Karl McLaughlin's career off obviously with June, then through Blue Velvet. Obviously then on to Dale Cooper, the universe's greatest FBI agent.
But yeah, I mean the kind of. I think in Britain, particularly Twin Peaks, was the thing that brought David lynch to the masses. A TV series that kind of shook up what syndicated TV could be. Bizarrely, in Europe and Britain, particularly before the series hit, they released a video which was self contained and revealed a killer.
So that came out before, and I saw that before it hit terrestrial TV when it was on BBC2.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: So didn't that cut out most of the series but have like the first.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Episode, it was, it was a truncated version of the kind of first episode in the last episode really, which was. It was a bizarre piece of tv. It's a shame I haven't got the dvd, VHS of it anymore. It's just a real thing because most people go, they did what? And it's kind of legendary. Yeah. First series, obviously phenomenal. Second series, I think fell a little bit into the soapy aspects of it, but still fantastic. And then however, many years later, 20 odd years later, to come back with Twin Peaks the Return and particularly I think episode eight, which I think at the time I declared the greatest moment of television in history.
1 A light is still a haunting image. Got a light. Incredible. Didn't make an awful lot of films really, considering the length of his career. Not a hugely prolific filmmaker, but he was a hugely prolific artist.
Art was his passion.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Massive break after things like Mulholland Drive.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Firewall with me and that stuff. And then he said dipped his phone to TV and then went over to music.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean he did comic strip, one of the greatest comic strips of all time called the Angriest Dog in the World, which is basically just the same panel repeated with dialogue with this kind of angry, growly dog. Did some animation, Dumbland, if people get to see that, that's really good. It's in his art style.
And then just did lots of art. There's a couple of documentaries that he's had over the years and I think it's definitely worth watching to see how David's brain worked. Obviously lots of musical collaborations, Sparkle Horse, all kinds of stuff like that. Had an album out last year, I think was the last thing he did. And then he kind of got me through Covid as well with his daily reports of the weather in California. And I don't know how this became. One of my favorite things of COVID was he basically would pick up a job with 10 balls in ping pong balls and numbers written on and swirl his hand around and pick One out and you tried to guess what it was he was going to pick every day. And it was the most glorious moment when you got it right and you were like, yes, got it right. It was spectacular. But yeah, I'm gonna miss him greatly. He's one of those kind of just crazy. He was like the mad uncle that I never had and I absolutely adored him.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: He did a hell of a lot of cameos towards.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, he plays John Ford in the Fableman, Steven Spielberg's absolutely great piece. Obviously he appeared as the FBI chief in Twin Peaks as well with his hearing aid, which is phenomenal. Phenomenal appearance. David Bowie, of course, appearing in that as well, which was great.
Yeah. But I mean, even the Straight Story, which is his most kind of straight story about a true story about a guy who rode to find his brother on a John Deere lawnmower. Not like a British lawnmower. Americans have big lawns, so it's the one that you can drive on. Beautiful story about a guy just, you know, reconnecting with his. His brother, which, you know, is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking and not what you would expect from. From David Lynch.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I remember watching the trailer for that and I'm just like, this sounds like the weirdest concept ever for a kind of just a documentary style movie of just watching a guy in a lawnmower drive across the U.S. but it's just. Yeah, as I said, it's got such a wonderful eye, I think.
And yeah, I think lynching as a term is known quite well in films.
It's regardless of what project he's worked on, you could feel that bleed through of any kind of that lynching.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: I mean, I think his version of America is the version that I have in my head, that slightly weird, possibly scary America. And you get that in particularly in Wild at Heart, which is one of my favorite films, one of my favorite love stories as well. Yeah. And the Straight Story. Again, that kind of sense of Americana that he brings to. To pretty much anything he does. Even, you know, Lost Highway. More Holden Drive. There's a sense of this lost America that seeps through all of his work. But it is hallucinogenic, dreamlike. And I think, you know, the term Lynchian really is applied to a lot of things that don't really get what David lynch was doing. It's a very peculiar, very particular style.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I've seen people, especially now with the current state of America selling like window stickers that you can put on the window inside the house with. Directed by David.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we've, we've, we've. We've tripped over into the, into the red room.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
[00:10:51] Speaker D: I do like that sort of like you say, in his sort of version of Americana, like, I think what Twin Peaks has presented to the world is now basically what people think of the Pacific Northwest. It's just this sort of.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: It's him and Stephen King, basically.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: Well, that's, that's Maine.
[00:11:06] Speaker D: That's the other side.
So Stephen King's defined Maine. David lynch has defined the Pacific Northwest. And you know, it's the sort of idea of like it's all just forests and rain and then there's like just everyone's kind of a bit weird and possibly alternate dimensions going on.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: And the slightly haunting music as well.
[00:11:22] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: So because like, I mean, collaborated for many, many years with Angelo Badalamenti, who we lost a few years back as well. But just the sound of his films as well as a crazy string, the female voices, Judy Cruise and stuff like that that he's, he's worked with in the past.
[00:11:39] Speaker D: And it's like there's like at least three games I can think of that like so heavily inspired by Twin Peaks. Because you've got Silent Hill.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:11:47] Speaker D: And even with that, like talking about the music, there's like a piece of music very early on in the first Silent Hill, you're in the diner and it's basically just a rip off of the Twin Peaks theme. It's got that sort of bass line that comes through the very distinctive bass line. Obviously, basically all of Remedy's work is just Sam Lake is just like, I want to be David lynch but for games.
And that's why I like Sam Lake. And then you've got Deadly Premonition, which is just like. Which I think Fox sued the developers initially because it was too much like Twin Peaks. And eventually they were like, you need to change the look of the FBI agent. You need to like, he's not just.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Eating cherry pie and chocolate.
[00:12:27] Speaker D: Cherry.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Cherry pie and coffee for the entire game.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, when it comes to Twin Peaks though, as well, we do have to credit Mark Frost as the co. Creator of Twin Peaks as well, because there's a lot of what he did that's in. In the Twin Peaks world. But I think visually and orally. Yeah, it's kind of, you know, kind of David's vision and stuff. And I think they kind of leaned back from it a little bit in the second season. But yeah, came back to it in a. In style when they came to Twin Peaks of Return.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: I was gonna say I do want to touch a little bit on June because he famously kind of divorced himself of the project after messed around by studios. Yeah, because it's like we never got his vision on screen because they're basically. It's kind of almost similar to the way that Villeneuve's done it. Which is the first film or the first part of Dune is pretty much real time. Then there is a massive kind of montage scene and then we get to the final battle in the Dune version and we miss out on so much story and so much character development. And Villeneuve's done similar. I would say there's a big time skip between part one and part two where a lot, again, the character development disappears out of that movie. I mean, they're both equal. I think they're both good in their own respective rights.
But I feel like there's a. Somewhere there's a six hour version of Dune which I would love to see, which is just David Lynch's full vision put on screen. Imagine. There's like you said, he works really close with Karl McLaughlin across quite a lot of projects. So I would love to see that kind of.
There was kind of like. It was like he was his apprentice and study to a certain extent. I'm surprised that Col McLaughlin has never gone into more directing and things like that.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: You probably saw how much of a.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: Hard job it was.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not gonna bother.
Yeah. I mean, I think it's nice to have it as a kind of like this lost artifact that we'll never see.
And I think what we got, I still, I still love it. I still love the 84 version of Dune. It's, it's, it's a wonderful curio in terms of cinema. And I think around that time as well, we had a lot of these films that were directed by people that didn't capture its audience. Blade Runner was another one around the same time a few years before, where studio interference kind of didn't. Yeah. Help the final product. But I have a lot of love for the voiceover in the original Blade Runner and I have a lot of love for kind of, you know, the 84 dune toto music. Come on, Come on. Hans Zimmer. Sorry, mate. Toto. Every time I think I do want.
[00:15:02] Speaker D: To sort of pick up on something you said earlier about how you first saw Eraserhead, which was like just sort of on late night terrestrial tv. I think that is like the best way to experience something like that because that just like the Just the sort of very kind of weird, kind of claustrophobic nature of that film does kind of suit that sort of like, what the hell am I watching? It's like 2am and this.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: I think it helped as well, seeing it on like a CRT television. That kind of the dark room, flickery light, kind of like not knowing whether it should be in color because I only had a black and white TV at that point because I had a.
[00:15:37] Speaker D: Sort of similar experience. Except I deliberately watched Eraserhead because obviously. Obviously everyone raved about it. And I was like. And it's obviously David Lynch's sort of one of his early things, but I watched it on a dvd on a sort of slightly more modern tv. Not quite. I don't think. I think was still a CRT at this point, but. And yeah, just that sort of watching it late at night and being like, I don't know what this is about. What is happening.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Pretty much a body horror film. Yeah, to a certain extent.
[00:16:04] Speaker D: Completely.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: It goes really into the macabre and it almost touches, which is what he revisits in the Elephant man. That kind of if P.T. barnum era of going to watch bearded ladies and like, dwarfs and things like that. The cinema, I think it captures that spectacle element of American culture which doesn't really get bought up much. That kind of. In the late. Well, in the Victorian era, that kind of where America was all about spectacle and going to see things that you wouldn't see elsewhere. And that. That kind of. The freak show, that kind of thing. I think that's where Link really pulls from quite a lot, especially in his early work. And it's something that he pulls from consistently across his films, but in different ways. As we get more and more developed and his style gets more and more developed. It goes from a direct kind of representation all the way through to Twin Peaks, the Return, where I still look into that macabre side of Americana, but in a much more subtle way, I think goes back to more like the kind of Red Terror, that kind of era. I feel like the Twin Peaks Return is a bit of a riff on that and maybe a little bit of a response to a certain person who's now president again.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of that kind of fear of the nuclear power kind of stuff in the Return things as well, which is kind of interesting. But I'm just curious because, Sam, you're kind of our resident cinephile and when you said in the kind of group chat, I've not really seen any David lynch movies. I'm just wondering, is there a reason why you've just not dipped your toe in his creative pool?
[00:17:40] Speaker C: I don't think so. I have seen several of his films, but not for a very, very long time. So I've seen Elephant Man, I've seen Dune, I've seen Mulholland Drive and I remember enjoying all of them. But I don't know, for whatever reason it's just not kind of crossed my path that much. But it is. I do need to go back and watch the rest of his stuff because, yeah, he's. He's so influential and respected among filmmakers as well. Like you see bits of his influence all over the place. Like I can't remember if you. I don't know if you remember. A while back, one of my one geek things was very, very childish animated series on Netflix called the Dragon Prince.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: That had what I believe is an almost shot for shot tribute to a scene in Twin Peaks. Just randomly in the middle. Someone had a dream where there was a lady stroking a piece of wood and a little gremlin thing.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: I was half an expecting a dragon wrapped in plastic.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: So yeah, it's. Yeah, I say I do need to go back and watch more because, yeah, I think seeing the outpouring of love from everyone in the film world for him since he passed away and obviously beforehand as well, but particularly now and just like the range of people who coming out and saying how big a fan of him they were.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Do we all think he's the kind of one of those directors. Directors a bit like Spielberg. He's very well known for influence. So I can imagine people like.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: Lost.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: His Head, Yama Del Toro. Probably somebody's highly influenced by David lynch and you can see that in the kind of his representation and the films like that. I think he's kind of Villeneuve, I think probably takes quite a lot of influence from. I think you probably would have sat back and watched Dune back in the day just as a reference material, I think.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: I think he was probably a little esoteric for a lot of people though, in terms of cinema in the kind of sense of popcorn, blockbustery type things. I don't think. I don't think any of his films are ever a kind of big box office hits. But I think that if I just think, if it just seems to be. If you were one of those people that just stumbled into one of his films at some point without really knowing what was going on, it just hooked you in.
[00:20:10] Speaker D: That was my experience with Mulholland Drive.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:13] Speaker D: Just. And I honestly, I think that's the one I've seen probably the most out of his stuff because I've watched it a few times. Just be like, I need to figure out what this is, you know. And like obviously all you're talking about, the Americana and even like the spectacle, because it's about Hollywood. It's, you know, it's a bit sort of, you know, the way people are treated in Hollywood and the different Personas people end up putting on in.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: It's like the substance. I could have imagined that being a David lynch film 10 years ago.
[00:20:38] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: That's very much on the kind of beat of what I could imagine him doing.
[00:20:43] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: I was thinking you said about three Davids. I'm thinking now you've talked about the substance and the rest of it. I've got to throw another one in because there's David Cronenberg as well.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Which is another kind of like a similar kind of director at the same time. So I think probably maybe a few years before David lynch hit the scene, David Cronenberg was doing things like Shivers and Rabid and all the rest of it. But yeah, I think it's a nice that you haven't got. It's not got a massive over of films to watch so it's gonna be quite easy to catch up. I would be interested to see what you think of things like Lost highway, which is one of my favorites. Wild at Heart and Lost highway, two of my kind of favorite ones because they are the most of this kind of like weird America that I like and I used to. I love the fact that the end of the Wild at Heart VHS had the Chris Isaacs music video, but directed by David Lynch. Beautiful piece. The great, great piece of music. And then David Lynch's ability, much like James Gunn, to pick just the right song for the right moment from across kind of American history. I mean on the day died I was posting a lot of songs that I remember from his film. So stuff like that last by Etta James, obviously the Julie Cruz stuff, some other bits and pieces. But he was another one that just knew how to kind of accentuate a moment and make a moment feel a certain way by just using the right piece of music.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: He was a bit of a Modern Day Renaissance 1. So he was also a musician himself. Do you think that helped? Especially because he knows he was an artist. So color, composition, etc, musician, author. So I can imagine he approached things from more angles than your standard director would do. Direct, usually just directs, but having like knowledge of Music, having larger visual and art, etc.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: I think. I think at his heart he was. He was an artist. Yeah. And filmmaking was just one of those ways of him being able to express himself rather than being a director. Director. Somebody who wanted to direct. I think it's just one of those things that he did in order to express himself. And, you know, he pretty much did it without exception, brilliantly. Even like his last kind of major film, Inland Empire, didn't Receive the Love was probably worth.
I still think it stands as a. As a, you know, a definite David lynch movie.
[00:23:01] Speaker D: And I think I've seen the sort of rabbits stuff from In An Empire reference quite a bit, but not really any other part of it. Just. Just parts.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: I think just before we recorded, somebody was saying, you just recently watched what did Jack Do?
[00:23:15] Speaker C: That was me watched it about this.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Morning because that was. That's like a 15 minute short that was on Netflix a few years back, I think. Yeah. What did you think of that?
[00:23:22] Speaker C: I loved it. I did see that when it first came out as well. But yeah, it's very. It's wonderfully daft.
Yeah.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: So to kind of wrap it up, what would you say is a good entry point and what would you say is your favourite piece of lynch work?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Let me go last.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: So, Lee, kick us off.
[00:23:45] Speaker D: I think like, Mulholland Drum's probably my favorite just because again, I watched it so much and I think as an entry point, I mean, like, for most people it's probably Twin Peaks and I think it sort of has a lot of that influence and stuff. And I think because there's so much stuff that's probably like, oh, that's where that comes from. That you probably might pick up on. So I think that's a good place to start.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: From what I can remember of them, I'd probably go. Mulholland Drive is my favorite one as well. And just because I enjoyed it this morning, I'm gonna say, what did Jack do? It's the entry one. Because it's a nice, easy 15 minutes.
[00:24:22] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:24:23] Speaker C: Surreal madness to bring you into it.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: I'm gonna go with favorite piece. Work is actually the Elephant man. So I think that's where his black and white work. Beautiful. Every single shot is like a painting in that film. And said, such strong performances. John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins. Couldn't really imagine a better piece of work to see those two actors at their best in. It's a beautiful piece. I think not June, surprisingly, but yeah. But I would say entry piece is probably Twin Peaks and it's one of those where you probably got to commit for four or five episodes and ease yourself in and get. Get the weirdness embedded early, so you know it's going to get weirder, weirder later on.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Keith, I think I'd agree with pretty much all of you that said, Twin Peaks is the kind of entry point for the weirdness of David lynch, particularly in that first season, which builds to some of the greatest moments in television that I've ever seen. Kind of the reveals that come and the kind of like genuine visceral reaction you had to what was happening in that show, you know, back in the 90s when I was watching that on TV, you just insane.
Even though he's only got a very small number of films to pick from, it's very difficult to choose.
I would give a very good honorable mention to Lost highway, which is a phenomenal piece of hallucinogenic filmmaking. Balthazar Getty. Lots of other people love it, but if I had to pick one, I'm going to go with the one that I fell in love with when I first saw it. And that was Wild at Heart, which is Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, as two of the great scream lovers of all time. William Defoe knocking it out of the park as a. As a villain of the piece. It's.
[00:26:12] Speaker D: Did he just, like, find the most manic actors? He could find them all in one.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Film, but there's just something about.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: He basically probably rang up a certain white powder dealer in America, went, who are your top three clients? Let's get them in and just put the camera in front of you.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: It's just beautiful. It's. The music is fantastic, the performances are incredible and it is just such a.
It just seeped into my consciousness and soul from the first time I watched it. I absolutely adore it. So if you get a chance to watch it.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: So it's a good, good Cage movie.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: It's up there with his best work. Yeah, absolutely. As Sailor. It's a phenomenal role. I mean, he is just Nick Cage, but David lynch manages to capture it in such a way that he doesn't run off with the entire film.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not like his appearance on Was it Wogan?
[00:27:09] Speaker B: It's Nearly there. But somehow lynch managed to just channel it just right. Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Sorry to see you go, David. Thank you. I suppose it's the best way to wrap it up.
Lots and lots of interesting stuff coming up in 2025.
So I'll kick off because I picked up some TV series and I've tried to pick up TV series that are new but from established franchises, but not sequels, which is a weird category, which works kind of weirdly, but my first one was going to be Alien Earth, so this is due to start to very soonish, I think.
So basically, Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Oliphant. Ridley's involved, unfortunately. Keith, if you can hold back. I know.
But, yeah, basically the plot is mysterious. Space vessel crash, slash in the verse. Young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make the discovery that puts them face to face with the planet's greatest theft any minute. Basically every single Alien plot from Alien to now.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's Noah Hawley, who I'm a big fan of because he did Legion and did Fargo.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: The kind of positioning of aliens on Earth before the encounter with Ripley. The timing all seems a little out for me, but as long as it doesn't mention engineers or black goo, I'm on board the moment they introduce that. Or there's a cameo from Ridley Scott. I'm like, nah, check.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: So do you think Alien's in a bit of a Renaissance period post the Prometheus stuff? And Romulus is kind of like a soft reboot to a certain extent. So Romulus felt like a greatest hits of the Alien franchise. It was. We'll put all the stuff that everybody loves from Alien and Aliens into a new film.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: And then ignore everything else. Sweep it from one side.
[00:29:17] Speaker C: Didn't quite ignore everything else.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Ignored a fair bit, to be fair.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: But, yeah, yeah, kind of went down the route of like, yeah, do people really like Aliens? Yeah, we need these hybrid things. I mean, if we talk about a certain film later on, I'll have similar comments. But, yeah, I mean, Romulus was fine. I didn't think it was Set the world on Fire. But then I've seen the originals. I've seen the originals when it came round. So obviously my view is skewed by the fact I've been through it all before. But I think if I was 21 and I'd walked into Alien, Romulus, not having experienced the Alien universe before, I'd have gone, yeah, this kicks ass. And I love it. So I think.
I mean, I have faith in Noah Hawley, so I think it'll be good, particularly if he leans into his slightly weird aesthetic and kind of, like, is a bit odd.
So. So fingers crossed that it'll be good. It'll be on Disney plus as well.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: So Timothy Oliphant as well, Hate man as a dude. Really good sporting character and not really Touched much on Sydney Chandler. Just having a quick look at her credits and don't worry, Darling was the only thing I've seen her in.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: I know I've not seen that yet.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Still a fantastic film. Need to watch that.
Yeah. Pistol chemistry and then. Yeah, that's about it. So don't worry, Darling's probably her biggest film that she's done recently.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: But will she be able to fulfill a role that isn't just a variation on Ripley?
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that. That's my concern is that seems to be the kind of stock heroin is. The. The problem with Alien.
We had it in, what was it? Covenant. Not Covenant. Prometheus, which was all kick ass scientist lady and that was. Yeah, didn't really work that one.
But yeah. So that's my first TV pick. It does look really good, to be fair, from the trailer. I've enjoyed the trailer. It looks alieny and it looks closer to the original two films rather than.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they explain away the whole idea of like. Yeah, nobody remembers that aliens came to Earth all these years ago and that's why.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Have you not seen Alien versus Predator, Keith? They haven't. They have an entire temple in Antarctica.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: True, true enough. Alien versus Predator 2 Requiem and Predator 2 as well.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: There was the alien skull in the back of Predator, but that doesn't really care. It doesn't really have a dead Alien's definitely on earth in the 80s.
Next one, not very much around it.
Interesting. Blade Runner 2099, which possibly might be coming out this year. They finished shooting it in Prague last year in December. It was originally supposed to be filmed in Ireland and I think the writer strike made it move to Prague for some strange reason. There was lots of arguments about that.
[00:32:14] Speaker D: Probably cheaper.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: But Michelle Yeoh's in it. It's quite interesting and it's just set 50 years after the Villeneuve movie is the only bit of plot that we've had dropped so far. But it either is coming winter this year or possibly next year. But does it need revisiting? Do you think the Villeneuve film was enough to close the unanswered questions from the first film?
[00:32:44] Speaker C: Yeah, the Villeneuve film I loved. Yeah. Thought that was one of the best sort of reboot type sequel things we've had recently.
I don't know. It's. It's a world I'd be happy to return to.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: I think it's going to be quite interesting which look they have because it's that, as I said, that 50 year break. So if you read the book and what was in a lot in the first film is the Earth's dying at this point especially. And as we revisited with the Villeneuve movie. So should the Earth be kind of almost dead at this point and what they're going to do with that or is it filming it in Prague means it's probably going to be kind of lush, foresty kind of atmosphere is what I'm assuming. Or they're just going to go gritty, industrial.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: Prague is.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: Fairly modern city.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Northern Ireland was what I was thinking of. So they're doing it in Belfast or they're doing it in the nice bit of countryside or what. What bit are they doing it? You would. Wouldn't normally go to Ireland unless you wanted a bit of green and forest in your films.
Yeah. So just.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: Unless they just really wanted the grotty parts of Belfast.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: I just thought it was quite an interesting pick. Michelle Yeoh, Section 31's not being great for her latest film, but she's done some really fantastic stuff with everything everywhere all at once.
Looks to be an interesting film series if it does. If and when it does come out as well.
Keith is a big fan of the original film. Do you feel like he needs a revisit in the TV series?
[00:34:15] Speaker B: I don't think he needs it. I think if it's done well. I mean, I wasn't particularly. I didn't have particular high hopes for the 2049 at that point.
Big Ryan Gosling fan.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Jared Leto as well.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: Yeah, let's not talk about him. But I thought that that worked really well in terms of the. In world universe and how they were sympathetic to what had actually happened in the previous film and did something more with it. A 50 year time jump. Again, I'm not quite sure I'd like it to keep a consistency within world universe than our world because obviously like we're past the time that the original Blade Runner was set. Yeah. And you know, we. They talked about, you know, off planet maybe I'd like to see some off planet stuff perhaps. You know, obviously that's why replicants were partially created was to deal with the harsh environments that humans couldn't do on. On other worlds. And that was part of why Batty was like, you know.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they were more terraform, weren't they?
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Basically conquer worlds so it could work.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: I mean, there's been a lot of good comics, there's been a lot of good novelizations, there's been game adaptations and various other bits and pieces. So again, the Proof's in the pudding. I'll watch it. I think if it's visually interesting, it's very funny.
[00:35:37] Speaker D: You mentioned good novelizations considering it started out as a novel.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Philip K. Dick novel is very much worth reading if you haven't already.
[00:35:45] Speaker D: I actually kind of prefer the book to the film. So.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: Yeah, the book's on a different level, I think entirely.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Oh, definitely. Yeah, yeah.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: They're not really the same thing in. In a sense it was one of those ones it's inspired more inspired by than in a straight adaptation.
But I mean, you know, I don't think we've seen any electronic sheep yet in the universe.
[00:36:07] Speaker D: Maybe that's the question they're going to finally answer. New Android stream of electric sheep.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, hopefully it comes out this year. Be interested to see what comes up and my final pick because it's picking up on a craze that's kind of almost gone away to a certain extent. It's not where the peak it was in the pandemic. But Among Us is having a TV series.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Animated series.
[00:36:29] Speaker D: Yeah, the Animated series.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: But the reason I picked it is because of the cast and I really do like.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: The cast is amazing.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: The cast is amazing. So as blue Dan Stevens, great start.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: I mean, okay.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: As white Patton Oswald.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: As black Livhuton As Lime Wayne Knight, Just wait.
As yellow Deborah Wilson. Cyan is Kimiko Glenn Brown is Phil Lamar, Green is Elijah Wood. Purple is Ashley Johnson. Red is Randall park and orange is Yvette Nicole Brown.
I mean that's a cast and a half. Yeah.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Is this live action?
[00:37:16] Speaker D: They're fully the bean shaped crewmates from the game.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Seattle probably leaned into a live action version with that cast, but I, I think quite good.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: I mean, depends how they're going to play this. Is it just going to be one round of Among Us that they're playing for the entire length of the series or is it going to be redoing the crew every time?
[00:37:37] Speaker C: Is it going to be lots of watching them trying to connect the red.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Wire to the red wire, see who pops out of event?
[00:37:43] Speaker D: Yeah, it's like honestly, like I've seen like I think some of the early teaser trailers and stuff that they did for it and I'm just like, I think they've kind of nailed the kind of goofiness of Among Us from what I've seen of it. And yeah, honestly, I do kind of want to see it. Just, I'm just curious as to how they're gonna do it.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: I'M just curious about how they got those actors.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: I mean, at the moment you said Dan Stevens, that kind of made sense because there's just some. Something about Dan Stevens just going, what's the most ridiculous project I can do next?
[00:38:16] Speaker D: And to be fair, Ashley Johnson makes perfect sense because she is just a massive nerd. Anyway.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's fantastic cast. I kind of weirdly looking forward to it.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: I think it could be the breakout hit of the ones that you. I can certainly see it in the kind of, like Rick and Morty, solar opposites kind of genre that you kind of kind of watch it. And hopefully they'll do kind of stuff that spins out. Because what I liked about, like, solar Opposites is the whole kind of, like, Silver Cops and the Wall kind of other things that are going on. So if they could do something that kind of spins off into stuff that is in the Among Us universe. Because I think otherwise it will get a bit boring. Yeah.
Because there's not really much too Among Us in terms of plot. Really.
[00:39:03] Speaker D: You're the traitor. Okay. Yeah.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Well, to be honest, I'd rather watch.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: It than who's the first one who's gonna get spaced?
[00:39:11] Speaker B: I mean, it's gonna be Elijah Wood, innit? I mean, if you cast Elijah Wood, he's first.
Sorry, El.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: It's gotta be you.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: I was thinking Wade Knight.
He's gonna have the most annoying voice out of the entire film.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: He's gotta stay till the very end.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: Depends if he plays him like Newman. That would be amazing. It's Newman in space.
[00:39:34] Speaker D: Also, just be funny if, like, if he's the character that sort of looks like he's gonna die in every episode and then he doesn't. And like you said, he lasts till the very end.
Cool.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: But that was my three picks. So went Sci Fi, Alien Earth, Blade Runner 2099, possibly in 2025, and Among Us.
So, Lee, over to you. You picked some games for us.
[00:39:55] Speaker D: Yes. So the first one I'm gonna pick. I'm not sure if this will already be out by the time this episode releases, but I had to pick it like a Dragon pirate. Yakuza in Hawaii, which is the latest yak, is a game of which they're releasing about four or five a year at this point because Sega makes a lot of money.
But the concept of this one is just so. Goro Majima, fan, favorite character. He wears an eyepatch. What if we made him a pirate? And that's the entire concept for the game.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Is it still based around Hawaii, like.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: The last game, it's based in Hawaii, just like Infinite wealth was. And. And it's so bizarre because it's modern Hawaii. But he is very much a 16th century pirate, so exactly like what you'd think. You know, the hat, the coat and everything. And he's on a 16th century galleon, but all the other pirates in the area are also on 16th century Galleons. There is like a Tortuga analog in there with a place, it's called Madlantis, which is honestly probably one of the more Yakuza names that they could have come up with for a Tortuga analog. And it's just like all I've seen of it is just. This is just. RGG Studio has just been allowed to just go completely off the wall. And it's almost like they looked at Ubisoft releasing Skull and Bones last year, because, yes, they did release it last year and everyone forgot about it.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Wasn't that like their big AAA title? They've spent so much money on so.
[00:41:29] Speaker D: Many years, and they were legally obligated to release it because of a deal they made with the Singaporean government of something.
And then no one bought it. It faded into obscurity. And then a year later, here comes Sega just going, what if we did a Yakuza game? That's basically that, but we're gonna just kick your ass at doing that.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: So Infinite wealth was weird enough with the Pokemon battling system that they just decided to put in there. Well, the Animal Crossing.
[00:41:56] Speaker D: Yeah, the Pokemon battling came in in Yakuza. Like a dragon, because I've been playing that one and like that's also got a Mario Kart in it as well.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:05] Speaker D: And then Infinite wealth introduced the Animal Crossing. I think they're just gradually grafting every other franchise onto Yakuza at this point. And it's just great. But it really does just feel like the entire concept of this game was just like Majima has an eye patch. Now he's a pirate because he's got amnesia. So it does seem like the story of it is literally like, well, I've got an eye patch because the.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Like a Dracon was supposed to be. Sorry. Infinite wealth is the kind of handover, isn't it, between can't remember the other guy's name.
[00:42:35] Speaker D: So you've got like. So obviously you have Kiryu as like the main protagonist. And he.
His last sort of main game was Yakuza 6. He got like a side story with the man who erased his name. But Yakuza, like a dragon was where they brought Ichiban in, and it was entirely his story. They brought Kiyu back in For Infinite wealth as sort of like he's part of the party. But it does feel like this is the point where we've already had one game with Ichiban, but now this is the official handover.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is very much part of the. They're doing, like, the Gaiden games now. Because the man who Erased his name was that. Yeah. And now it's like, here's just a goofy side story where Majima is a pirate. This one does not look like they're going to be serious with it at all. It's going to be canon, because it's all canon. But, like, it does feel very much just like. What has Majima been up to this entire time? Oh, he's been a pirate, all right, cool.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: So I don't know if he's going to let Majima's hand over to it.
[00:43:28] Speaker B: Because it's funny you mentioned this game because I've. I've never played any of the. Any of the other games in this series because I've got, like, I cannot afford to spend the time that I'm gonna obviously end up playing these games for. But you mentioned that title. I'm like. I saw the poster for this, and I'm sort. I've seen it quite recently, and I've gone, yeah, I'm gonna. This. This Pirates. I'm gonna have to play this one. There's just something about it and the logo type that they've used with the kind of like.
[00:43:53] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: And the In Hawaii bits. Just small underneath and stuff. And it's. There's nothing to the poster. It's just the picture with the hat and the eyepatch. And it's just something about it that's just made me go, yeah, I'm gonna need to play that one, aren't I?
[00:44:05] Speaker A: Do you think Sega just went. Sea of Thieves is still doing reasonably well. One Piece is really popular at the moment. Let's just make our own anime pirate adventure.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: We're all suckers for a pirate game, really, aren't we? Because I think the last. Well, probably the last and only Assassin's Creed game I played to any extent was Black Flag, and that was just because it was like pirates so.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: Well, that was just sea shanties, the game. There was some assassination and loke driving it around, but mostly it was just sea shanties that even played that game.
[00:44:32] Speaker D: Speaking of Assassin's Creed, there is a new Assassin's Creed coming out this year, Shadows, which is the one that everyone's been wanting for so long, which is.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: The one everybody already hates.
[00:44:42] Speaker D: Yeah, it's the one set in feudal Japan. And you are playing as two protagonists in this one. There is Yasuke, who is basically on a real.
Possibly samurai. The history is kind of. The historical records are a bit all over the place of what exactly his role was to Nobunaga. But, yeah, he's. He's like kind of an African who was kind of brought over as a slave with the European visitors to Japan. And then Nobunaga was fascinated by this dark man and appointed him to his, like, just entourage, possibly as a samurai. And so this one is sort of like, no, he very much is a samurai to Nobunaga. And the second character, I can never remember her name because it's a very weird one, but she's basically more like.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: The ninja, stealthy ninja.
[00:45:31] Speaker D: So she's sort of. From what we've heard, she plays more like exactly what you'd expect an Assassin's Creed protagonist to play. Like.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: So it's a bit like Syndicate. I think they did that with the Fry Twins, because you had Evie and I think it was Jacob. Jacob was more the brawler kind of character, and Evie was more the stealthy kind of one. So they brought that back.
[00:45:49] Speaker D: Yeah. And so I find it interesting that they finally done the one that everyone's been asking for and everyone's just kind of kind of like, meh. On it.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: Do you think? Because Ubisoft's in absolute freefall at the moment, their stock price has. I think it's more than halved since last year.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Outlaws didn't perform the priority game. Just, yeah, went.
[00:46:09] Speaker D: I think the problem with Ubisoft is that they've kind of fell into that formula so much that now everyone's just kind of sick of it. And that's why. Yeah, they're failing. So, like, my problem, Far Cry 3.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Was the first one of those kind of games. That's got to be, what, 15 years almost.
[00:46:24] Speaker D: Yeah. And just like the way that all of it's kind of. We're not going to vary this thing at all for that length of time. I think just. It's just a shame because, like, last year they did release the new Prince of Persia game, which is not that following that formula, but it unfortunately got caught in that sort of. Oh, it's a Ubisoft game.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:45] Speaker D: I'm not interested in that. Despite the fact that it's a very solid Metroidvania and. And I recommend everyone play it. But, you know, it's so. It's interesting. I think the How Shadows does is going to probably be a break or make or break moment for Ubisoft, I think, because I think the wolves are.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Circling already, I think.
[00:47:04] Speaker D: Yeah. I think if it does well, it could kind of keep them, help them sort of pick up a bit. But if it. If it fails, that's it. That's Ubisoft done, I think.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:13] Speaker D: Especially because, again, it's the one everyone was asking for for so long.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: Thanks, everyone.
[00:47:21] Speaker D: The next one, I've actually kind of grouped three together because Microsoft remembered that they bought out all the studios in the world and are actually releasing some games.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: It's only taken them five years.
[00:47:31] Speaker D: Yeah. So within the first half of this year, they are releasing three games. And this is like right off the back of Indiana Jones as well, which was released in December. Yeah. So we've got Avowed, we've got south of Midnight, and we got Doom, the Dark Ages. So Avowed is the new Obsidian RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. And that's basically all I know about it.
[00:47:52] Speaker A: I'm hoping this is going to be so good. I love Obsidian games. I think pretty much the original team are still there and like, Bioware where they got.
[00:48:00] Speaker D: I know that, like, I did look it up earlier, the director is one of the sort of narrative leads on Pillars of Eternity. So it's clearly like, I think Josh Sawyer, who's been like, kind of one of the key people. I don't think he's working on it. I think he's done like, things like pentiment and stuff he's been working on, but, like, a lot of the other key people are still on it. So, you know, I've never played a Pillars of Eternity, but, you know, the Dark Ages is continuing. Like, what was going on with the 2016 game and with Eternal. So basically just like, you're the Doom guy. Go kill some demons and just have a great time with it, but in.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: A medieval setting this time.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:41] Speaker D: This one's basically like, okay, we're gonna do Hexen now. What we did to do, we're gonna do to Hexen.
So we're gonna set it in like a medieval fantasy world.
And you can ride a dragon, you can ride a mech, because they just put like a. Like a steampunk style mech in there, I think, and it's massive. And I think the director, like, when asked, like, are there going to be like multiplayer modes in this one they were like, no, because we wanted to spend time giving the players a mech and a dragon and we couldn't make that work in multiplayer. So we would rather do the dragon and the mech, quite frankly. And I was just like, I respect.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: Fair.
[00:49:20] Speaker D: But my hope, my hope with that one is that like my. I had a real problem with Doom Eternal because they kind of over complicated the gameplay with that one. Lots of like, oh, this enemy's weak to this thing and this enemy's weak to this weapon and this. It's like, I just want to like shoot everything. Can you just let me do that? And I hope that Dark Ages kind of rolls that back and just goes, all right, cool, we'll give you doom 2016, but now you can ride a dragon. Because like the best part of Eternal was the bit where it's just like a character tells Doomgar, you can't punch a hole through Mars. And then immediately you get an objective that says, punch a hole, punch a hole through Mars.
And I want more of that from doing the Dark Ages, quite frankly. And then Seth of the Midnight is the third one they're releasing and that's sort of, that's from Compulsion who made we happy Few.
The problem with that game was that like, it had a really cool premise, really cool art style, but no one was interested in the actual game itself, which is like a roguelike kind of thing, and did not deliver on the narrative promise of all the trailers. So the Midnight thankfully looks like it's sort of taking the cool concept in all the trailers and it's actually a single player narrative experience. It's sort of set in like Louisiana bayous, very sort of voodoo influenced. It's got a very sort of stop motion look to it as well, which I know that some Capital G gamers are going to be like, well, the frame rate's terrible and like, yes, it's a stop motion thing.
So yeah, like all three of those do kind of look interesting. It's actually, it is nice to see that Microsoft have remembered that they can release some games once in a while. Yeah.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: Even if all that investment's finally paying off.
[00:50:59] Speaker D: Even if like slowly they're turning into Sega in the 2000s and slowly, like as all of these games, I believe are releasing on PS5.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:08] Speaker D: So. And then the last sort of confirmed release date that I want to talk about is Atom Fall. So this is Rebellion doing Fallout in the uk and it looks very interesting.
[00:51:22] Speaker A: Because there's a mod that got released, I think it was last year, early last year, which was Fallout London, which was massively successful. Good Old Games basically released it as like, almost a full title. There's a free Mod for Fallout 4.
[00:51:35] Speaker D: And this. This is basically the English countryside more than London, because there's lots of sort of pastoral towns and all this sort of stuff with robots and stuff just walking around. And obviously it's got that kind of post nuclear war kind of vibe to it.
And it's like, I'm kind of fascinated by just like, just Rebellion being like, we'll do that, we'll do Fallout. But because we're a British company, we'll do. We'll do it in brutal.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: We'll do the proper stiff upper lip and a cup of tea.
[00:52:05] Speaker B: It'd be nice to have Rebellion get a big hit out of, outside of the kind of Sniper Elite game, because they kind of got close a few times in the past and never really capitalized.
[00:52:16] Speaker D: I think this one's gotten a lot of attention just because it's like, oh, it's. It's. What if Fallout was in the English countryside because they did a rogue trooper.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: Game, which is fairly decent, to be fair. Didn't really get much press attention at all.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: Massacre Quartz Zone. Massacre. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think there was a new Sniper Elite game last year, wasn't it?
[00:52:36] Speaker D: Yeah, it just came out.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: I've seen. I've seen. I've seen some promos for Atomfall, and I must admit, I do kind of think, yeah, this looks good.
[00:52:43] Speaker A: Yeah, there's no kingdom come. Deliverance 2's just dropped as well because everybody's complaining about the English accents in that. Because the Americans can't understand somebody from Dorset, apparently.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:53] Speaker D: But, yeah, they sort of last. Sort of big things I want to talk about because there's two big possible events that are coming this year. There is GTA 6, possibly, which take two have still says fall to 2025, insisted is still fall.
And obviously that one's just gonna like, hit the industry like a. Just smack to the face, quite frankly. Because, like, I already know all the hurried release dates.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Moving away.
[00:53:19] Speaker D: There'S a lot of talk going on that, like, a lot of companies are just like, all right, they need to release. They need to announce a release date.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Because we can avoid it.
[00:53:26] Speaker D: We want to avoid that release date.
And so, yeah, like, it's going to be interesting to see how well that does. I think, like, it's going to really kind of.
I would be. Obviously it's going to be big, but I think They've spent so much money on it that, like, it might be, again, another kind of make or break moment for the entire industry is like, because we've seen, like, this could be the new ET basically budgets, like, exploding so much. Like, if this one doesn't make its money back, then I think we're going to start seeing some things being caught back.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: I think the thing is it will make its money back, but I don't think it's going to be that. The game changer. I mean, I know a lot of people got very excited when they released that trailer. I was just thinking, really, it's. I think we've been stuck in a rut with GTA for a long time. I haven't cared.
[00:54:13] Speaker D: I haven't cared about Rockstar Games. From the moment that Niko's cousin kept asking him to go bowling. The moment that happened, I just immediately went, I never want to play a Rockstar game in my life again. That's how much that annoyed me. And I haven't.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: I did own Rockstar Table tennis on the Xbox 360, which is actually a really good game. But yeah, I was gonna say. I think the problem is they've spent so much time on GTA Online and that's where they've just milked it as the cash carrot has been for so long.
What are they gonna do? Because I'm assuming they're doing GTA Online 2 as part of GTA 6 release. So are they gonna retain that audience or do you think they're gonna go somewhere else?
[00:54:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how that works.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: Yeah, there's like the whole thing which happened with World of Warcraft. When they messed up, everybody went, well, go play Final Fantasy xiv and bye. And they've not recovered that audience since? I don't think so. That that could be a big issue for them.
[00:55:12] Speaker D: But the other big event this year is the Switch 2, which is almost certainly going to be releasing because we're going to find out more about that in April and not got a Zelda launch title. Weirdly not that we know of.
[00:55:25] Speaker A: True.
[00:55:26] Speaker D: Because all we know is there's going to be a Mario Kart. And they basically said, anything else about it? Wait until April and then we'll tell you what's actually happening.
But I kind of have faith that that's going to actually do well and that's going to.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: I noticed they released that teaser trailer two weeks, two months and two days specifically before the actual launch.
They're going heavy on the two I.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: Think they got a bit forced into that release as well, though.
[00:55:53] Speaker D: Yeah. Because everything was going.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Literally everything was going, we're going to spoil it and they kind of. We got to do something.
[00:55:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: I think they would have just been so clear with putting the number two at the end just to avoid another Wii U situation. And like, this is definitely a different console.
[00:56:06] Speaker D: And I think because in that trailer as well, they were showing off so much of just like, okay, here's the old one, now this is the new one.
So, you know, this is the new one.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: But they have. It's been revealed that the patent for the mouse has come out. So they're definitely going to be mouse controllers. Yeah.
[00:56:22] Speaker D: Because that in the trailer you see them sort of drifting around. Although people did make jokes about how like, oh, already the controllers are drifting.
But yeah, like, I mean, like, I'm certain that's going to have like a pretty decent launch library. Because the way Nintendo have been releasing games has been just every other company needs to learn from how Nintendo has been doing things because pretty much ever since the Switch 1 launched, it's been every month and a half, first party game.
[00:56:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:52] Speaker D: And I think they're going to carry this on, especially because we know that they've been holding games back from release.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: And that's.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: The other thing, is that everything's backwards compatible as well. So your entire Switch library does carry over onto the Switch 2.
[00:57:05] Speaker B: I believe it's mostly backwards compatible. There's going to be certain things because there's different sensors and stuff that aren't in the.
[00:57:15] Speaker D: I think the reason they've done that is it's probably going to be a situation like the PS5, where the PS5. Sony released a list of PS4 games that won't run on the PS5. But if you look at that list, if you've heard of any of these games, good luck.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: You know, maybe like arms or something like that.
[00:57:33] Speaker D: I think the only thing that's really probably going to be problematic. I've seen people bring up Ring Fit adventure because of like how the leg strap works and I think the size of the. The Joy Cons and then labo stuff.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:45] Speaker D: Just because that relies on the size of the Switch specifically to fit things in. And I think those are probably the things we're looking at.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: You just thought they could have technically got around that by making for certain games the old Joy Cons compatible because they're only literally just sensors.
[00:58:02] Speaker D: They are. And therefore Ring Fit probably does work.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: But it's probably just, you Need a Switch and a Switch, basically. Yeah.
[00:58:08] Speaker D: They were just like the original Joy Cons. If nothing else.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: I just. I just like Nintendo to do something new. Really. I'm kind of like, I'd like to see a new franchise from Nintendo because it just seems to me that if the Switch 2, it's another Mario game, it's another Zelda, it's another whatever it is. And I'm like, sure with all games, I'm thinking we need. No, I didn't.
[00:58:30] Speaker D: Well, there you go.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: But then I did buy Zelda and I bought the Zelda Hyrule.
That's why they keep doing this Luigi's Mansion 4 or whatever it is. Although I would go a bundle on a remake of Be Happy we get Mario Kart 9.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: You know how long it's been since Mario Kart 8 came out?
[00:58:52] Speaker B: I'd like, because I didn't get Wind because Wind Waker HD was on the Wii U, so I never got that. So I would go bundle on an HD remake of.
[00:59:00] Speaker D: If they. If they do Wind Waker and Twilight Princess like everyone's been saying they should.
[00:59:04] Speaker A: That's what they did for the Cube, wasn't it? Because they re released Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time as a bonus. If you bought the special edition of what was Wind Waker at the time? I think it was.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got that.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: So I might do that if there is a new Zelda game.
They do usually launch a Zelda game with each console release, so I wouldn't be surprised if they do.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: I would like it to be something like Wind Waker and not.
Whatever it is, Breath of the Wild. I kind of. There was something about that cell shaded Zelda look in Wind Waker that I want them to revisit because I loved that. I thought it was just. It was.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: It was brilliant. Well, now they've done Link's Awakening and the actual Zelda Zelda game, which they should have called the Adventures of Link just for the fun of that.
Just confuse everybody else forever. But yeah, so maybe they'll move on to like that cel shaded return because they did a lot of that stuff with four swords, didn't they? Which they kept that kind of cel shaded cuteness over that side.
[01:00:01] Speaker D: But yeah, so those are sort of the big ones. But I do have like some very sort of rapid fire things that are coming up within. Like this is all basically within the first half of the year. Civ 7 is probably going to be out by the time this episode comes Out. Yep. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a civ game, except now it's like three ages. So I think you change leader in your change. So that's the one thing.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Excel 7.
[01:00:22] Speaker D: Yeah, we've got a game called Date Everything, which is a visual novel where you can. All your dating candidates are household objects. It's very strange, it's very silly. And they seem to have gotten basically every voice actor of note because all of them are just like, oh, hell yeah, I want to be involved in this weird thing. You've got The Tomb Raider 4 to 6 remasters sort of following on from last year where they did one to three. They're doing Last Revelation Chronicles and the complete version of angel of Darkness. Finally coming to the release. We've got Lost Records, which is the new don't Nod games for the people who made Life Is Strange. So kind of it's more of that sort of style of game. A group of teens who had a band found something supernatural as teens and now as adults they're going back to it. So it's kind of a bit like it in a way.
Monster Hunter Wild, Big new Monster Hunter game.
[01:01:15] Speaker A: I honestly don't know how NPCs are crying about that. How ridiculous the requirements are for it.
[01:01:22] Speaker D: We have the new two point game. This time it's a museum instead of a university or a hospital.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: They finally moved away from Bullfrog.
[01:01:30] Speaker D: We got Split Fiction, which is the new game from the developers of It Takes Two. So it's another sort of co op, narrative driven game where there's probably going to be like 400 different gameplay styles for you to mess around with.
[01:01:41] Speaker A: Many arguments because of that game.
[01:01:45] Speaker D: We've got Wonder Stop, which is the new game from the designer behind the Stanley Parable. And this is basically on the surface it's a cozy game where you run a tea shop, but there's clearly like some weird horror elements going on in there and I'm very curious as to what's going on with that one. Tales of the Shire Animal Crossing. But you're Hobbits Hundred Line Academy. New game from the Danganronpa team, which once again, let's throw a bunch of teens into a situation where they're all probably gonna kill each other.
So once again, Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves. So I think this is like the first Fatal Fury game in like a million years.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: So is that Crossing over with Garou? Mark of the Walls.
[01:02:26] Speaker D: It's the same series.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Slightly.
[01:02:29] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. I think that's Classified as a Fatal Fury. But yeah, it seems to be like we're getting like a classic fighting game every year. And that's. It's Fatal Fury's turn this year after Tekken and Street Fighter. Claire Obscure Expedition 33, which is like.
[01:02:46] Speaker A: I really love the trailer for this one.
[01:02:47] Speaker D: Yeah, this one looks really good. It's a really interesting premise turn based rpg, but it's sort of set in this sort of fantasy world where I can't remember what they called the. The person doing it, but like they paint a number and everyone of that age dies that year.
[01:03:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the. I think it's called the Artist. And they basically. It's stopping them, isn't it?
[01:03:09] Speaker D: And so the expedition that they're going on is to try and stop her from doing this. And that looks really interesting. And then one sort of special mention I want to give. This does not have a confirmed release date yet, but the Promise mascot agency is very much on my radar and it is the goofiest game possible. It's from the people who did Paradise Killer, but you play as like a former Yakuza who is running a mascot agency. So like all the mascot suits that you see in like Japanese cities and stuff like that, except they're not people in suits, they're just, that's. They're just creatures that look like that. And the voice cast is absurd because the former Yakuza, they've literally got the guy who plays Kiyu in Yakuza to voice him. They've also got the director of Deadly Premonition and a former president of PlayStation to do voices. It's bizarre and I'm looking forward to that last night, whatever nonsense that is. There we go.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:04:08] Speaker C: Cool.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: I think we take a little break and then we'll be back with the second half.
Welcome back. We've looked at the delights of TV and gaming. So over to you, Sam, for your abbreviated list of films for 2025.
[01:04:25] Speaker C: I did have a very long list. I've kind of broken the list down into four very broad categories. So I'm going to run through each category and then pick one to talk about from each one. So first one is superhero films.
So I think by the time this comes out, Captain America, Brave New World will already be out. Then later in the year we've also got Thunderbolts, Superman. And the one that I'm going to select to talk about for this group is Fantastic Four First Steps, which the trailer has just come out this week.
And the cast is fantastic for this. So the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal.
Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman.
Ebon Moss Bacharach from the Bear as the Thing, who in the trailer does some cooking, which is great.
And Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch off of Stranger Things and a few other bits and pieces. He was in one of the emperors in Gladiator 2 last year as well.
And Ralph Einarson as Galactus, which is just going to be amazing.
[01:05:39] Speaker A: We've not heard his voice yet, but it's going to be amazing.
[01:05:42] Speaker C: He's got such a fantastic sort of tolerous voice. Sonorous even.
[01:05:48] Speaker D: I hope it stays with the Northern act accent.
[01:05:51] Speaker C: That would be great.
[01:05:52] Speaker A: If they can find your gigalactus just killed.
[01:05:55] Speaker C: If they can find an in universe way of explaining that away or just not explain it at all, I'd be happy either way.
[01:06:03] Speaker A: So, yeah, Fantastic Four. So I watched trailer. I actually really liked the look of the Thing as well because I think that's the. That's the one thing that always makes or breaks a Fantastic Four movie, I think is the design of the Thing. It's always been a bit of struggle with the Yevil Griffith movie. I think, as I said, It's 20 years old this year. 20 years, 25.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: 2005 was the end.
[01:06:26] Speaker A: So that's coming up to 20 years old.
Thing looked fine in those ones. Fant forstic.
Jamie Bell as the Thing.
[01:06:37] Speaker C: Jamie Bell, perfectly good actor as the Thing. Didn't really work as the Thing.
[01:06:42] Speaker A: Billy Elliot as the Thing.
[01:06:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: The evermost background, perfect voice for it. Nice deep sonorous Chicago style accent, I think.
[01:06:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:52] Speaker A: We got a bit of him outside of looking like the Thing as well in the trailer. Nice nod to Herbie cooking away.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: It wasn't a knob. He was.
[01:07:03] Speaker A: He was there.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Right there. I like the retro futurism of him. It was all kind of whirling gears and. And computer tape and stuff, which was kind of cool. Yeah.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: But I think he looked more like the comic book thing is what was coming around.
[01:07:16] Speaker B: The whole look is much more kind of in line with Jack Kirby's original kind of designs and stuff for even the suits that they were wearing and the design of like the Marvel 1 rocket and everything.
[01:07:27] Speaker A: I've seen a lot of complaints about him looking slightly phallic, but I think that kind of does look like he did in the comic book.
[01:07:34] Speaker B: Who looks slightly phallic, the Thing, because.
[01:07:37] Speaker A: He'S got the bit on top.
[01:07:41] Speaker C: Some people have eaten that.
[01:07:43] Speaker B: I never quite placed that. But yeah, no, I think it's the.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: Bit where he's got the hat On Accentuates. Accentuates the line a little bit.
[01:07:53] Speaker B: At least Galactus looks like Galactus. That's quite.
[01:07:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: When you see the shadow of his giant head coming over, that's all you need.
[01:08:00] Speaker C: Appropriately intimidating in scale and everything. Yeah.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: So I'm still trying to work out where this is gonna weirdly fit in the mcu. Is this off to one side or is it primed it.
[01:08:11] Speaker C: It's set in a different universe.
So it's. It's that kind of 60s aesthetic. But it's present day.
And then presumably, somehow multiverse shenanigans.
[01:08:24] Speaker B: In the comics, there was a series called Secret wars which was not the original Secret Wars. And I think because of the whole doom. Dr. Doom's a bigger thing. I don't think we'll see him in the actual Fantastic Four. But the whole idea is that all of the other universes collapse. We've had a little bit of this kind of. In low key. The TV series. Yeah. So what's going to happen, and I think that's how they're going to fold the X Men into the Marvel Universe as well, is that there's going to be what they call incursions where universes are being collapsed. I know. And the Fantastic Four will escape their universe. I imagine it'll be quite a tragic ending.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: That the world of the Fantastic Four will end and they'll get shunted into the Marvel Universe in some way and there'll be some shenanigans in the next two big Avengers movies. Yeah. And then we might get a bit of a universe reset. But it's a bit of a shame. Michael Giacchino again, killing it with the kind of music stuff. Teaching those certain other composers how to do it. Who shall remain nameless.
[01:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I really do love the Retro Boy. I think we should quickly touch on Superman as the trailer is dropped and it's James Gunn's first big flagship thing because Peace.
What's his face? John Cena.
[01:09:33] Speaker B: Peacemaker.
[01:09:33] Speaker A: Peacemaker. They've said he's canon to the new DC universe for the most part. Apart from the bit where the Justice League show.
[01:09:41] Speaker B: Everything's canon. Apart from the one bit that isn't.
[01:09:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. That kind of makes sense.
[01:09:45] Speaker A: But. Yeah, but I really like that trainer trailer. Crypto. Crypto's in.
[01:09:51] Speaker B: I'm in.
[01:09:51] Speaker C: You can't not like Crypto. He's just such a cute dog in his own right. Which is great.
[01:09:57] Speaker B: Which is great. If we get streaky in the Supergirl movie as well. Yeah. So we get all the super pets. Because that's all good.
[01:10:03] Speaker A: That. That's all James Gunn's doing. D.C. 4. He wants to make League of Super Pets the movie.
[01:10:08] Speaker B: And I'd be happy without the rock this time, Please. Thank you very much.
[01:10:13] Speaker C: But.
[01:10:14] Speaker A: Yeah. What do you think of the Superman?
[01:10:15] Speaker B: Hey, awesome. What Superman should be. Yeah.
[01:10:18] Speaker A: I'm assuming Lee's not seen any four of these trailers, so.
[01:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, although the casting of Henry Cavill was like, everybody wanted him to continue.
I think the problem with the previous Supermans is he had absolutely no idea what Superman was about.
[01:10:32] Speaker A: See, I did see a video where they suggested they should get Henry Cavill back into the DC universe, but as.
[01:10:38] Speaker B: Batman.
[01:10:40] Speaker A: Because I think he'd work as a great Batman, to be fair.
[01:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:10:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I don't know. I don't know how this is all working because everything's supposed to be all part of a canon thing. So we. They've just had the creature Commandos cartoon in America, which features Batman, but. And so I don't know how all of this folds together, but I don't really care. I just want. And then the fact they use the John Williams theme in there in a. In a. In a strange form, it's like, yeah, just do that. Same with Batman.
Elfman nailed it with the Batman theme. Just keep using that.
Williams nailed it with the Superman theme. Keep using that. You don't need to reinvent it. We don't need the Hans Zimmer version of this man of Steel theme.
But it ain't Superman.
[01:11:19] Speaker A: Any excuse to take a hit.
[01:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's the same as, like, James Bond, you know, we're how many ever years after James Bond? But that. That James Bond theme.
[01:11:29] Speaker A: What?
[01:11:29] Speaker B: You don't need to reinvent it. He could reuse it. Same with Godzilla, the Godzilla films that didn't use it. Bear McCready did a great job with Godzilla, King of the monsters. And he just went, yeah, that's the Godzilla theme. I'm having that. So it's good. I'm looking forward to a lot of these superhero movies this year. I think. I think we're in for a vintage year.
[01:11:46] Speaker C: Yeah. It should be more MCU films, fewer Sony trying to worm their way into the MCU films.
[01:11:55] Speaker A: I think Sony's officially killed off their villains universe.
[01:11:58] Speaker B: Come on. I mean, I would have loved to have seen a Jared Leto Dakota, what's her name, and an Aaron Taylor Johnson crossover movie. You know, that would have been the best thing. Kind of like Anti Avengers would have been amazing. You know, I was promised this. We should have had the crossover.
[01:12:18] Speaker D: It was.
[01:12:18] Speaker C: It was.
[01:12:19] Speaker A: I was half hoping they'd do it. Sorry, we all miss Craven the Hunter. Can you put it back on? So, yeah, they would do it.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: I just wanted it so you could have a moment with all of these are the characters. And then Tom Hardy comes in as a Venom and just goes, nope.
I mean, at least the Venom series. Although it's part of that universe.
[01:12:35] Speaker A: They had popcorny fun.
[01:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They had some element of amusement and fun, too.
[01:12:40] Speaker C: And Venom did have about two minutes in the MCU as well. Yes.
[01:12:47] Speaker B: That'S good.
[01:12:48] Speaker C: Okay, my next category, I've titled Animation Ish because I've grouped into it live action remakes of animated classics. So we have the bad guys. Two bad guys. One being very underrated Dreamworks film. Well worth a watch. Zootopia 2, sequel to the Disney film.
[01:13:10] Speaker D: Oh, boy. The furry is going to be pleased.
[01:13:14] Speaker A: We've had two furry movies so far.
[01:13:18] Speaker C: Elio, which is a new Pixar film about a kid who gets abducted by aliens. But they think that he's the leader of Earth and he kind of runs with it, which could be a lot of fun.
Live action how to Train youn Dragon, directed by Dean De Blar, who did the original. So that has a lot of promise, I think. And the one that I've picked as my one to talk about is the live action Lilo and Stitch, which the original was also directed by Dean Dublois.
This one is directed by Dean Fleischer Kemp, who did the very, very lovely Marcel the Shell with shoes on.
And I think Stitch is just a fantastic kind of anarchic character.
You can have a lot of fun with him in any environment. I think the teaser trailer they've released so far looks like they've done a decent job at kind of converting him into CGI without making him look unappealing in the same way that the Lion King. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:14:28] Speaker A: I just don't know what Disney's obsession is with remaking classic animated films. No, I would live action films prefer.
[01:14:36] Speaker C: For them to do more original ones. Yeah. But if they're going to do them, this looks like a fun one to do it with. And they've got quite a good cast playing some of the aliens as well. So I think Zach Galifianakis is Jumba and they've got Hannah Waddingham as the sort of lead counsellor. I can't remember what her actual name is, but yeah, looks like fun.
[01:15:06] Speaker A: And have they brought back the voice of the original?
[01:15:09] Speaker C: Yes. So I forget his name, but he was the co director of the original and yeah, he's. Even though he's not directing this time, he's back as the voice of Stitch as well.
[01:15:21] Speaker A: That makes it a little bit more reasonable.
[01:15:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it looks like fun and has potential to be quite entertaining.
So my next group is a fairly big one of sequels, franchises and remakes. So deep breath.
We have Jurassic World, Rebirth, Avatar Fire and Dash. Karate Kid Legends teaming up Ralph Macchiato and Jackie Chan.
Predator, Badlands, Wicked for Good, Ballerina, the John WICK Spin off 28 years later, Megan 2, Nobody 2, Tron 3, Freakier Friday remake of the Running man starring Glen Powell and then the big one, which I'll pick as my ones. Talk about Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning, which I know we have talked about on the podcast before, but the naming very loud. Well, yes, but that is going to be, I think, the big, big blockbuster this year.
Mission Impossible franchise is obviously huge.
They keep one upping themselves in terms of the stunts and what they can drag Tom Cruise through.
[01:16:41] Speaker A: Tom has said this is his farewell to the franchise. Now he's not doing any more. It's been like 30 years, I think since the first film.
[01:16:47] Speaker D: So I think at this point his knees have just gone.
[01:16:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[01:16:51] Speaker A: Well, it's like how do you up hanging off a plane or standing on the top of the Burj Khalifa or whatever he's done for the last few.
[01:16:59] Speaker C: Hanging off a plane while it's crashing into things. But it's from the trailer is how.
[01:17:03] Speaker A: You went up jumping off a mountain on a motorbike and.
[01:17:05] Speaker D: Yeah, like just because I think from what I've seen in the trailer, like he does look noticeably older at this point.
[01:17:13] Speaker B: Hopefully he'll kind of like put everything into this one and it will go out in big style. It's one of those franchises that I thought has stood the test of time over the years. We've had its ups and downs two and three particularly being kind of not as great, but once they hit that kind of rogue nation and all the rest of it and they kind of started spinning this longer form story, it's a bit of annoying that we don't have part two. Same with flipping Wicked. So if you score something part one, at least have the audacity to call the Next thing part 2. Whatever else. Mission Impossible, he couldn't have managed to.
[01:17:47] Speaker A: Do it, for God's sake.
[01:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but he started out with like part one and part two.
[01:17:50] Speaker A: Two.
[01:17:50] Speaker B: But they did hide the Fact that the first one was part one. But yeah, looking quite good. The Running Man's an interesting one because that's Edgar Wright and not based on the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, but based on the original novel, which should be quite interesting.
[01:18:03] Speaker A: Unlike the terrible Total Recall remake with Colin Firth.
[01:18:06] Speaker D: Yeah, I hear. All I heard about the Running man remake was Edgar Wright. And I'm like, well, I'm seeing that then.
[01:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so that should be good.
[01:18:13] Speaker C: Glen Powell as well is.
[01:18:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Blockbuster staple.
[01:18:21] Speaker B: And Jurassic World. I saw the poster, the trailer. I'm like, man, when will we not get the idea that just dinosaurs are cool enough?
We don't need mutated dinosaurs. That just like, you know, I've heard like they talk about the new ones are like, they're a cross between a predator and a dinosaur alien. I don't care.
[01:18:42] Speaker D: I saw an described it as being it's going to be the Tomb Raider of dinosaurs. And I'm like, I'll be the judge of that.
[01:18:51] Speaker A: When they said they were going back to the kind of pre island before all Anubar in the first movie, I thought, great, we're going back to just classic dinosaurs. No, it's all the weird shit. Don't need it. Just don't need it.
[01:19:03] Speaker C: I agree. And yeah, with the Jurassic World and the next Jurassic World. Dominion.
[01:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah, the one, the last one we just had.
[01:19:12] Speaker A: The last one was Dominion.
[01:19:13] Speaker B: The last one was Dominion.
[01:19:14] Speaker C: Well, the one in the middle, the second of the Jurassic World ones.
[01:19:17] Speaker B: Kingdom.
[01:19:18] Speaker C: Yes, thank you, Kingdom, whatever.
[01:19:20] Speaker B: Lost Kingdom, Lost Kingdom Come, who knows?
[01:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah, but the, I loved the kind of follow through of the mutations on that. So Jurassic World you have. It's basically a velociraptor crossed with a T. Rex.
Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom. It's that, but crossed with more velociraptor.
Basically.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: Dominion disappointed me in the fact that it was reuniting the cast of both franchises for Jurassic park when it was dinosaurs in the world. And then it went, yeah, but we can't really be arsed with that. And like there's that island and stuff and we like jungles and so we're just going to do it back in the jungle. So God damn it. The best moment in Joshua park history so far is that San Diego T. Rex. And I was like, this is it. I want to see T. Rexes eating all kinds of people and random dogs in pools and all the rest of it. And they've still not delivered on that. And then we're going back to the bloody island again. And it's like, God's sake, I'm sick.
[01:20:15] Speaker A: Of this audacity on the other islands. Not even on the Vegabus either.
[01:20:20] Speaker B: At least go. At least put it in the future and go. We're have dinosaurs in space. I mean, come on. We're at the point in the final cry with seven films in. We should at least be getting to the point where it's such and such inside. Leprechaun could do it. Jason could do it.
[01:20:34] Speaker A: It's got to be the 9th film as fast and the furious as proof gets a 9.
[01:20:39] Speaker B: Jurassic park dinosaurs in space.
[01:20:43] Speaker C: Do the crossover with Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise hanging off at two Fast.
[01:20:47] Speaker B: And Furious Tom Cruise Jurassic park crossover.
[01:20:50] Speaker A: But I wanted to quickly go back to the Karate Kid Legends because that's the finish off of Cobra Kai, which has been on Netflix, which is one of Fib's favorite series. Trader for that, I was gonna put it in the Rounder, but I was trying to keep away from stuff that's already been on for years. I think they just dropped the trailer for season six, part three, which is the final trailer.
[01:21:08] Speaker B: At least it went Part one, part two, part three.
[01:21:10] Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah, but that's wrapping up. And I think that's what's the kickoff for Ralph Macchio to be in Karate Kid Legends. Because that really annoyed me. The Jackie Chan Karate Kid, because he does kung fu karate. Just slightly annoying in that one. Just don't do karate. Do karate. But yeah. So I've kind of weirdly watched most of Cobra Kai due to the fact I've been in the room while viz been watching it. It's not been one of my three. All right. Yeah. Billy Zabka's now the hero. As. As was foretold in how. How I met your mother. It's fine.
But yeah, I think it's a. Looks cool, right?
[01:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:21:48] Speaker A: Decent trailer.
[01:21:48] Speaker B: But the. The other one that I'm still not 100 sold on is the how to train your dragon. Like you've got Gerard Butler re redoing Stoic the last. And I'm like, that animated trilogy is just perfect.
[01:22:03] Speaker A: I don't work on this. It's fine.
[01:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm kind of tempted to go and see it, but I'm gonna go. Yeah. If you're not infinitely better than the animated version, I'm just gonna think, what's the point of this?
[01:22:16] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm trusting in Dean Dublar to do a decent job.
[01:22:21] Speaker A: How are they gonna make Toothless more cute? That's the problem.
[01:22:24] Speaker B: But it's basically the same character Model random bigger eyes.
They've literally taken the one from the animated film and gone. We'll just stick him in live action. I'm a bit disappointed on your animation list. You hadn't got Lyca's latest movie.
[01:22:37] Speaker C: It occurred to me a second ago because I was sort of going through a list of stuff that was coming out and picking ones that meant something to me and I did miss that. Wildwood. Wildwood, yeah, yeah, yeah. That should absolutely be on there because that looks incredible as well.
[01:22:51] Speaker A: So what was the final category?
[01:22:53] Speaker C: Final category is relatively short one because it's the ones that I don't really know so much about, which is original films.
So got Mickey 17, which is coming out fairly soon.
[01:23:04] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[01:23:05] Speaker D: I am looking forward to that.
[01:23:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
Death of a Unicorn, which the trailers out at the moment and looks just utterly daft. Brilliant. Paul Wood. Fun. Yep, yep.
The Legend of Ochi, which just looks like a really kind of sweet kind of fantasy film. Russo brothers are involved in producing that.
And then one that's not too far away now, which I'm picking as my focus. One which is Sinners.
So this is Michael B. Jordan playing twins.
[01:23:42] Speaker B: Don't give away too much about this one.
[01:23:45] Speaker C: Okay?
[01:23:46] Speaker A: Is that all you need to know? Michael B. Jordan's playing twins?
[01:23:49] Speaker B: No, I've seen a few. I've seen a few people who have been a bit upset when people reveal what the premise of the movie has been.
[01:23:56] Speaker C: Okay. I will try not to.
[01:23:58] Speaker B: I won't try and avoid that particular word.
[01:24:01] Speaker C: I won't describe that I was going to. That I was sort of midway through. But yeah, so he's playing twins in the sort of American Deep South.
They have a run in with the forces of evil.
I'll try and keep it as vague.
[01:24:19] Speaker A: As that, but I've seen the trailer for it. Yeah, I think that's. That's enough to say.
[01:24:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. The trailer does give some stuff away. So if you want it to be a complete surprise, don't watch the trailer. But it just looks really cool from the trailer. Like the, the music, the just kind of atmosphere of it really has that kind of Americana like run into the devil on the crossroads kind of feel to it. Yeah, I really, really looking forward to that.
[01:24:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks great. I think it's one of those films. I think if you can go in as cold as possible. Yeah. Hopefully you'll be rewarded.
[01:24:57] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:24:57] Speaker B: With this one. Yeah.
[01:24:58] Speaker A: I was going to say quickly touch on Mickey17 because that's the next Bong Joon who movie Parasite of course was a global phenomenon. Everybody's been waiting for him to come up with something. I think he's chosen a great novel, which was Mickey 7 to base this off. And yeah, it feels very. If you've seen Moon, Duncan Jones film feels a similarish concept and style. But yeah, it looks really fun.
[01:25:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:25:22] Speaker A: And if you hate Twilight, you can see Robert Pattinson get killed many times, which is like an extra bonus tweet.
[01:25:29] Speaker D: Tweak for everyone until he doesn't. I like the. Just what interests me about it is it's once again it's. It's Robert Pattinson just going, I made all this Twilight money, I can do whatever I want now. So I'm going to take the weirdest things possible.
[01:25:42] Speaker A: He's done the Daniel Radcliffe.
[01:25:44] Speaker D: Exactly.
[01:25:45] Speaker A: But yeah, it looks really fun. It does look so much fun. And I really like the concept because again, bit of sci fi on screen as well. Don't really get enough of it nowadays.
[01:25:54] Speaker B: Outside superhero, particularly original sci fi.
[01:25:56] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I think, I think, yeah, it is getting a lot of buzz as well. So the hope, hopefully it'll do well so we get some original sci fi. Yeah, that sort of says we need more original sci fi.
[01:26:07] Speaker A: That's what I was hoping with the creator and that just didn't do as well as hoped. Even though it's an absolutely beautiful film and you should watch it, it's really good.
[01:26:15] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, that's my films.
[01:26:18] Speaker A: Over to yourself then, Keith with comics.
[01:26:20] Speaker B: Comics.
[01:26:21] Speaker A: So 2000 AD perennial title. We'll mention that now.
[01:26:28] Speaker B: 2000 AD is on an absolute blinder at the moment. It's been great series after great series. So I think if you're not already a subscriber or reader of 2000 AD and the judge Dredd magazine, I think.
[01:26:39] Speaker A: There'S a new jumping point coming on soon, isn't there?
[01:26:41] Speaker B: There's usually one every so often. Anyway, we're currently in a room where they've got Hawk the Slayer is back in the kind of main book we will have the new Brinks and the Outs. And Judge Dredd is doing its latest follow on from one of the big stories that happened last year, which I won't give away. It's just been released as a graphic novel release which had a two page spread.
A moment you just went, oh my God, they've done that. It really took me back to the kind of like the old days of the kind of mega, epic Judge Dredd stories, you know, the Day the Law Died and all those kind of things. So I think 2008 for some reason at the moment just seems to be like banger after banger after banger.
It's really, really good at the moment. And they've brought back Rogue Trooper as well. And doing some great stuff with Rogue Trooper. Much more in the kind of the old school road Trooper. They're doing all their re releases of the various series in their graphic novels collection, which is really good. But the general comic industry itself is in a bit of a kind of turmoil. There's a lot of. There's a lot of.
[01:27:48] Speaker A: Because didn't stuff happening diamond go and die.
[01:27:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:27:51] Speaker B: Diamond distribution has changed, which could have massive implications, particularly with other stuff that's happening in the US in terms of like comic books across the world.
Whether we suddenly get to the point where the kind of weekly floppy comic will become a thing of the past because either will be tricky to get hold of them or the price will put people off completely. The idea that a weekly comic book now could cost you upwards of six pounds plus.
Marvel have been pushing a lot of their books to the kind of $4.99 $6 mark recently, which isn't good. But considering they are going to be doing their big push of the One World and the Doom this year. Obviously with the Fantastic Four movie coming out and all of the kind of hype surrounding Doomsday and the following Marvel movies, they're pushing Dr. Doom as the kind of big protagonist of a lot of their crossover titles in the next 12 months. They're also kind of relaunching things like Amazing Spider man with new number ones and stuff like that.
[01:28:55] Speaker A: DC is going to try and do the same with off the back of the new gun models.
[01:29:01] Speaker B: DCs are slightly outlier in terms of what they're doing with that. Obviously. Marvel are also pushing their Ultimate Universe, which has had pretty good success.
The Spider man, the Ultimate Spider man book has been doing very well for them. They've had the Ultimate X Men, which I haven't been a particular fan of. They've just started their Ultimate Wolverine run and they're bringing some other ultimate characters back into the fold. They've just done a kind of like after one year Ultimate Universe relook as well. So Marvel are kind of pursuing that as well. But the one world under Doom, so they're kind of big thing this year and we'll see how that goes.
I often find the kind of Doctor Doom stories to be a little bit hard to swallow really. They kind of never follow through. Doom's a bit of one of these Weird outlier characters who's not really a villain but not really a hero. So he kind of falls between two stools. The whole kind of stuff he did with T Hero. Yeah, the whole kind of stuff he did with Secret wars and becoming the kind of like God figure of the Marvel Universe that all kind of faded into oblivion after a while.
Dc, although they've got Superman and they've got all the kind of James Gunn stuff I think is not really aligning with that. Their big push at the moment is their absolute series. So we had Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman released last year.
[01:30:18] Speaker D: Absolute units.
[01:30:19] Speaker B: Absolute units.
[01:30:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:30:21] Speaker B: I've been buying Batman, which I'm really enjoying. The more I read of Superman, the more I think. I think I should check this out. In recent issues, they've just brought in their analog of Jimmy Olsen, which is in a completely different format to the kind of usual Superman's Pal kind of thing. And the Superman they've got in there is pretty, pretty strange and unusual. Wonder Woman looks pretty good as well, but they're going to hit Wave two this year where it will be the turn of other kind of perennials of the original kind of Justice League look. So that we've got a very weird looking Martian Manhunter. The Flash and Green Lantern will be joining the absolute universe Nathan Fillion looks.
[01:31:00] Speaker A: Like in the Superman.
[01:31:03] Speaker D: I love when you bring up obscure comic book characters like Martian Manhunter, because I'm just like, Keith, what is this?
[01:31:08] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a Martian from Mars. He can change. John Johns, he's one of the coolest characters in the, in the DC universe.
[01:31:16] Speaker A: Also played in the Supergirl series by local acting legend David Harwood.
[01:31:22] Speaker B: Yeah, brilliant. Absolutely. He did appear in the, in the Schneider verse version as a. In the kind of the recut one.
But he was in it, but you didn't know he was in it. So there's a whole thing about that which. Don't, don't worry about it. Also of great interest for me in the DC universe as well is last year they did a series called Zatanna Bring Down a House, which I loved, which was great. John Constantine made an appearance in there. For some reason, D.C. seemed to be leaning into the whole idea that everybody liked Satana. She's a magician who says things backwards and stuff happens. So she's getting a kind of solo series this year as well, which I'm kind of curious about, whether that be any good. They've just also brought back very recently and we'll be continuing to this year. Ramvi is writing A new. A New Gods series, which is Jack Kirby's fourth World Series from which people like Mr. Miracle and Orion and other characters like that come from, and Dark side as well, is part of that kind of fourth world stuff. So that's looking pretty good at the moment. So I'm kind of enjoying a lot of what DC are putting out. They're also expanding their compact line, which is manga sized collections priced at 8.99. And when you think you're getting a comic book for six quid, one issue, 28 pages, and you're getting the entirety of Batman, Hush or Watchmen or Wonder Woman, Earth One, I've heard they've been nine quid.
[01:32:48] Speaker A: I've heard they've been hugely popular.
[01:32:50] Speaker D: I love that whole tactic though, because like, clearly like manga is just eating western comics lunch at the moment. And so they just went, what if we just turned them into manga?
[01:33:00] Speaker A: Let's print it backwards.
[01:33:02] Speaker B: So they did pretty well with those. Yeah, they're releasing a few more this year as well over the course of the year. One of most interesting, I think, for most people and they should get, if they haven't already read it, is Darwin Cook's New Frontier, which is kind of like a throwback to the origins of superheroes and the origin of the Justice League.
Artwork by Darwin Cooke is phenomenal. He's no longer with us, unfortunately, but it's a beautiful looking book and everybody should grab a copy of that for 8.99, pop it in your pocket, no problem.
Mike Mignola is going to return to drawing as well.
No, this is interesting because he's doing a new universe. So he's moving away from the BPRD and Hellboy universe and he's creating a universe which is called I've got to read this out. Because the title of the book is Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from the Lands Unknown.
[01:34:01] Speaker A: Is that a segue band? Is it?
[01:34:04] Speaker B: Because I was never going to read it. So this is a new shared universe that he's doing and he's kicking off this series with a collaborator whose name I can't remember, but he's drawing it. And I think it starts. It's already started or will be starting quite relatively soon.
Ben Stenbeck is the guy he's doing this with. So it's a kind of fantasy centric Lands Unknown universe. So it's gonna be a whole new thing. Obviously Mignola back at the drawing board is a big thing for comics fans because he hasn't really done a lot. He's Obviously written a lot of stuff over recent years, but he's collaborated with a lot of other artists, so this could be a big hit this year. I think it will appear to fans of kind of Hellboy universe, which everybody should be big fans of anyway. And what I forgot about with dc got sidetracked by the other things is over recent years, DC have been publishing their more mature titles through what they call their black label.
And then in their infinite wisdom, they're going to ditch that and return to the Vertigo universe, which is great, because.
[01:35:10] Speaker A: Didn'T black label take over from Vertigo?
[01:35:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Black label. Well, I think they had a bit of a weird bit in the middle and then kind of settled on black label. And so now they're bringing the Vertigo line back, which whether that means things like Swamp Thing and Hellblazer, John Constantine, Hellblazer and other stuff ends up back in. That will be. So there's a lot of interesting people circling that and some announcements have been made.
[01:35:33] Speaker A: Well, I assume there's some press, which has probably put some ideas to one side, which we won't talk about this.
[01:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a whole kind of absolute shiitake mushroom store surrounding a certain person who has been leading a lot of the black label content in his own universe, which John Constantine has been part of. Sy Spurrier and Aaron Campbell have just finished another run of John Constantine Hellblazer, which was on that black label, which was phenomenal. And I recommend anybody reads the last two runs of John Constantine that Cysperia have done. Absolutely brilliant. First one was set in the uk, took a stick to British politics and the upper classes in the uk. The second run recently did exactly the same to the Americans, was fantastic. Ended with two of the best pages John Constantine has ever appeared in and leaves you wanting more. And I'm very upset that they've stopped doing it, but I understand why. And when I tweeted them about it, they went, yeah, you know, you can't keep going with these things forever. So, yeah, so Vertigo is coming back. I imagine there'll be more announcements this year as to what actually is going to be in the Vertigo family.
I'd like DC to use it to introduce new stuff, not just ripping characters back out of the DC universe and sticking in the Vertigo universe. And then at some point later on, like they did with New 52, and just shoved them all back in the normal comics universe. So it'll be interesting to see what they do with that. They've got a lot of competition now. When Vertigo first appeared, there wasn't an awful lot of competition, but people like Image are doing such great work now. A lot of kind of creator owned stuff is going out there. So I think D.C. have got a lot of work to do to recover, particularly considering the way they treated the people who were originally involved with Vertigo. Karen Berger, to name1. So DC have got a lot to do to kind of win back respect for the Vertigo name.
The other big thing that's happening this year as well is Ultimate. Not Ultimate, Invincible. Yes, is returning in a fashion. He starts on Amazon prime has already started on.
[01:37:48] Speaker C: That's already started, but first three episodes are out and I've watched them, but they're.
[01:37:54] Speaker B: Robert Kirkman and Ryan Oatley are reuniting to bring us in Invincible Universe with a series about Battle Beast, which I'm not sure if he's appeared in the cartoon as yet.
[01:38:09] Speaker C: He has. Maybe he's in season one.
[01:38:12] Speaker B: That's been a while now. So they're bringing him back with a comic series of his own, which should be quite interesting. So whether they do more with kind of the Invincible Universe would be quite interesting. Such a big show on Amazon, so it'd be interesting to see what they do with that.
So we'll see where they are. And another one of interest which I've been quite into IDW over the past few years is their Star Trek line, which has been doing some interesting things. They did a lot of stuff based in the original series, which was very interesting. And in the last couple of years they've been doing a series based in the TNG universe with Benjamin Sisko off on one ship doing something, Worf and his crew doing some stuff on another ship. And they're doing a big crossover this year called Law War. If you remember one of Data's infinite bloody duplicates.
[01:39:07] Speaker A: Law was the original Data's. Data's the.
[01:39:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, well, but. But there's a big crossover. They've been doing a lot of stuff between these stuff, these series. Last year I think last year we had the Day of Blood, which was a Klingon thing, which is pushing things forward. But I like a lot of what they're doing at IDW with Star Trek.
So it's a big kind of crossover, but it's going to be an interesting year for comics in general to see what happens. There's a lot of resurrections, a lot of things being pushed to the sidelines as certain creators are not particularly turning out to be as clean cut as we once imagined. But with diamond and the potential of comic prices Going through the roof over the next few months will be an interesting time for whether we will finally get to the point where comics will go away from that weekly.
[01:40:03] Speaker A: Is it with the rise of trades, do you think?
[01:40:05] Speaker B: I think trades have been pushing knocking on the door for a long time Image, particularly with their aggressive pricing of their. Usually their first volumes were really good. But it'll be an interesting year for comics really. We'll see how it goes.
Awesome.
[01:40:21] Speaker A: So hopefully there's some things in there that you'll like and want to look forward to next year. This year. This year. This year.
[01:40:28] Speaker B: 2025.
[01:40:34] Speaker A: Right. Time for our regular selection of what the geeky item we or thing or show or TV or film or whatever we've been looking at over the last.
Been a few months actually since our last show.
So I'm going to kick off with Sam.
[01:40:51] Speaker C: Okay. So I'm going to break personal tradition and talk about a game.
So one of my favorite games when I was younger has been re released last year and my laptop at the time could not play it. But I've over Christmas acquired a much better computer with no small amount of help from Ryan and can now play Age of Mythology Retold, which for anyone who doesn't know is basically like Age of Empires. But instead of kind of real civilizations it's.
It takes particular mythologies and so you can play as the Greeks, the Norse or the Egyptians, you can create human characters, but you also get myth units which are basically monsters from their respective mythologies as you advance through the ages, each time you have to pick a new God to worship and which God you worship dictates which monsters you can create, which God powers you can use.
And it has a resource called favorite as well as the usual wood and gold and food which each civilization kind of creates favour in a different way. So for the Greeks, for example, you have to build a temple and then set people to sit and worship at it.
And it's just a really well thought out game for someone like me who's a massive history and mythology nerd. I It was one of the things that kind of kept that interest alive for me when I was a teenager, which ultimately led to me picking the university degree that I did. And being in Birmingham, I literally wouldn't be here otherwise.
As I say, they've remastered it so it's much, much better graphics than it used to be. They've added some new options for the north civilization and I believe they're. They're planning on doing the Chinese as a completely new kind of set of.
[01:43:09] Speaker A: Also big alternate mythology that they can dive into there.
[01:43:13] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. So they've released a kind of teaser trailer for that and it looks great as well. And I'm really looking forward to sort of seeing it's. I'm aware that there is a lot of stuff to draw from, from Chinese mythology, but it isn't one that I know as well as the three they've already got. So I'm looking forward to kind of learning more about that.
Yeah.
[01:43:36] Speaker A: Keith, how about your one geek thing?
[01:43:39] Speaker B: My one geek thing is two geek things, but housed within one geek building, which is the Design Museum in London, which I took a trip to recently to see two exhibitions, the Worlds of Tim Burton and Barbie, which I highly recommend to any fans of either franchise.
[01:43:56] Speaker D: Hell of a combination.
[01:43:58] Speaker B: It was surprising, actually. The Tim Burton one is fantastic. Kind of covers his entire kind of career from childhood in suburban California through his various films, TV shows and whatnot.
Beautiful chance to see lots of original artwork and scripts, original maquettes and puppets from his animated films, including Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Maquettes from Mars Attacks, some stuff from Beetlejuice. Yeah. There's surprisingly a lack of anything from Planet of the Apes, Ed Wood, which I think might be down to studio finagling. There's the fish from Big Fish in there as well. But again, perhaps either because stuff isn't archived in the same way for various things, or some studios wouldn't release it. There's costumes from Wednesday, there's costumes from Alice in Wonderland, which again doesn't have a lot because most of it was cgi, which is not Tim Burton's best environment to work in.
And then there's a lot of his kind of personal artworks and other bits and pieces which aren't related to TV films or anything like that. But it's. If you have any interest in Tim Burton's work, definitely go and see. It is an incredible collection of art and curios, which is fantastic.
But then I also went to see the Barbie exhibition, which is on the same.
In the same room, down a different pair of flight of stairs. And to be honest, I was blown away by the Barbie exhibition because its presentation was phenomenal.
[01:45:36] Speaker D: Was it just an explosion of pink when you went in there?
[01:45:40] Speaker B: Kind of, yeah.
And it was just great. It was brilliantly curated.
A wonderful kind of guide through Barbie as a character and Barbie's significance outside of a toy and the cultural impact that Barbie has had over the past 50 odd years, which is quite good. Didn't focus an awful lot on the film, which I thought was quite nice because obviously that was a bit of a cultural moment, but it was really about the toy and how Barbie as a toy and its influence on young girls and older girls ultimately have changed a lot of things in the last 50 odd years. And it was just phenomenal. Beautifully presented. I did love the fact that they presented the dolls in a way that reminded me of, like, the Iron man suits did these things.
It was just a beautiful thing to say.
[01:46:34] Speaker A: But I'll be marked 25.
[01:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was great and I highly recommend it. So if you happen to be in London for the Tim Burton exhibition and you can go and get to see the Barbie one, I would highly recommend it. Regardless of your gender or whatever it is. It's a phenomenally great exhibition to see.
[01:46:52] Speaker A: Awesome.
Lee, how about yourself?
[01:46:55] Speaker D: Okay, so just like Sam did a game, I'm going to do a film. However, my film is based on a game, so I kind of feel the need to Talk about Sonic 3.
[01:47:05] Speaker A: Is it the blue rodent?
[01:47:06] Speaker D: It's the blue rodent.
So, yeah, I went to see Sonic 3 pretty much. Not quite on New Year's Eve, but very close to it. I think it was like the day before.
And did it feel weird to not.
[01:47:19] Speaker A: Be in a pandemic situation this time?
[01:47:21] Speaker D: Yeah, because if anyone doesn't know the lore, the last film I saw before the pandemic was Sonic 1. The first film I saw after the pandemic was Sonic 2.
This one was just, we're about to enter a new year, so now I'm going to see Sonic 3.
Honestly, like, they kind of. This one is actually really good. Like, the other ones have been kind of like, oh, they're sort of entertaining enough. This one's just really good.
[01:47:47] Speaker A: Got Keanu Reeves in it.
[01:47:48] Speaker D: It's got Keanu Reeves in it. Yeah. I mean, that is a factor in it. But, like, I think what's interesting is each movie they seem to have gotten less and less embarrassed that they're adapting Sonic the Hedgehog. And that's working in their favor because the first one was just like, here's Sonic and his human dad. And, like, it's mostly about James Marsden and, like, this thing's appeared in his life. And the second one was like, we're gonna have Sonic and Tails off in an adventure, but then also, we've got to have, like, the terrible wedding comedy, like, sitting alongside it that just sort of gets in the way. And this one's just like, all right, fine, we're just going to Adapt Sonic Adventure 2 and we're not going to do anything else.
[01:48:31] Speaker A: So James Martin's just sat there with his paycheck going, I'll do five minutes.
[01:48:34] Speaker B: He's fine, basically.
[01:48:35] Speaker D: Yeah, he's just. He's like there for like 10 minutes of the whole movie. And, like, he's got as much screen.
[01:48:40] Speaker A: Presence as did in X Men 3.
[01:48:42] Speaker D: Yeah, it's just like, it's. And it is just like a really good adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. I mean, for a start, obviously, all of Sonic Adventure 2 story is about Shadow the hedgehog, who of course is played by Keanu Reeves, who is just really good as Shadow.
He's got like the perfect voice for Shadow, which is that sort of very low, kind of miserable kind of sounding voice.
And that's just how Shadow sounds. And it. Keanu just works really well and it gets to a point where you just don't hear it as Keanu anymore.
But they also kind of took like the Maria storyline, sort of Shadows backstory from the game, and they actually kind of properly fleshed it out and made it genuinely kind of heartbreaking. Genuinely kind of heartbreaking. And. But also just. You've got like the. The main trio just off just goofing around for most of the movie. Idris Elba continues to just be a brilliant Knuckles. Like, he's just leaned in completely to Knuckles being this idiot and he's just like, there's a bit where they go into an old abandoned place and he's sort of like, oh, but what if there's ghosts there and they sort of reveal them watching a movie together and him being terrified and the movie they're watching is Casper from 1985.
And yeah, it's just such a ridiculous, fun film. And even just things like, all right, fine, we will use more music from the actual games. We will throw live and learn during the big climax. You know, we know you want that.
[01:50:19] Speaker A: And yeah, just how many more movies do we get before Sonic kisses the human girl?
[01:50:26] Speaker D: Well, the next one's probably going to be a cross between Sonic Heroes and Sonic CD based on this, the teaser at the end.
But I don't know if we're gonna get the Sonic 06 entering the canon of this, but yeah, it's. It was just such a fun film. Like, genuinely. Like, I've been. I've seen all of them just because I was like, I'm curious. It started as morbid curiosity and now it's like, no, I'm actually invested now.
[01:50:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:50:53] Speaker D: Also twice the Jim Carrey because he plays Robotnik and he plays Gerald Robotnik, who is Robotnik's grandfather. So it's Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey, but also Jim Carrey being more Jim Carrey being an elderly Jim Carrey.
[01:51:10] Speaker A: I just love that this is like his Franco's renaissance. I'm coming back into acting. Just play Doctor of Bog.
[01:51:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:51:17] Speaker B: It's ridiculous that we've got to a point where we go, we've got three Sonic films and we like them.
What is going on with the world?
[01:51:25] Speaker D: But. And that's the other thing. Like, Jim Carrey is just now fully Robotnik. Like, obviously in the first one he was just a mad scientist who was called Robotnik. And now he's got the suit and he's a lot fatter and he's shaped like an egg.
And I just think the fact that they've gotten less and less embarrassed of being the franchise they are. They're leaning into all of the fun of the original franchise and it's just. It's a great time.
[01:51:52] Speaker A: Sounds really good. Still not actually watched any of these.
I will go and watch them at some point. They'll probably be a nice trilogy box set now.
[01:52:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:52:02] Speaker A: Cool.
[01:52:03] Speaker D: Right.
[01:52:04] Speaker A: I think it's me, isn't it?
[01:52:05] Speaker B: It's you, yeah. What's yours?
[01:52:07] Speaker A: So I had a few days off work and I went to Bristol and I went to a lovely independent bookstore called Stanford's. So really recommend it if you are in Bristol. There's many, many bookstores being a university town, but this one's really nice. And I saw this book on the shelves and it reminded me of a series that all of us loved last year, which was Scavengers Reign. The art style was very similar, but this is a book by a guy called Owen D. Pomery, although he's.
[01:52:36] Speaker D: I will say that the COVID reminded me of Oxenfree more than anything else because it looks sort of like the Watchtower from Oxenfree.
[01:52:43] Speaker A: But. Yeah, so it's by a guy called Owen D. Pomery. He's a British illustrator. He's done lots of work for lots of newspapers. And this is his third graphic novel I think he's worked on. He's written it as well. But basically the concept of this is there's this humanity spread out across the universe, as per usual, but they're running out of the special material that allows them to do faster than light travel.
So they can still do faster than light travel, but this material, like, makes sure that they avoid obstacles and don't, like, blow into a sun Basically, so it's called the Hard Switch. So it's approaching the end of interstellar navigation being possible. So it's all about what's going to happen, who are people, where they're going to go, are they going to go and settle on a planet, are they going to stay out in the frontier, are they going to go back towards the core worlds or stuff like that. So it's set around that time. That's not really the purpose of this book, but I really, really enjoyed it. It's got that kind of scavenger's rainy feel to it. It's got that pulpit 70s kind of sci fi style and it's beautiful book. Really like the artwork style, really nicely colored, really good story. So I just wanted to recommend this to pick up and I'll pass it over to Keith. But yeah, it's just a really nice encapsulated story and it's open that they can do a sequel if Owen does choose to. But I just really love the style, the tone, the story is nice. I really do recommend it just as something to pick up.
So to recap, Sam, Age of Mythology.
[01:54:16] Speaker B: Retold Keith the Worlds of Tim Burton and Barbie exhibitions at the Design museum.
[01:54:22] Speaker A: Keith, Sonic Hedgehog 3 and for me, the Hard Switch.
Thank you for joining us on Geeky Brummy this issue as we kick off year nine.
If you do really like the work of David lynch, there is a David lynch retrospective going on on the Mockingbird at the moment. Possibly slightly too late to catch fire Walk With Me, but Mulholland Drive is on on the 1st of March if you want to go and watch that absolutely fantastic film. Really recommended by all of us, but yeah, and Mockingbird's always got some fantastic cult classic movies to pick up. Lee, where can we find you online?
[01:55:00] Speaker D: You can find me on Bob the pet ferret, on YouTube and on Blue Sky. Well, hopefully I should have my big Astrobot video almost done. I have like seven franchises left to cover.
[01:55:14] Speaker A: How many hours will this video be? Because it sounds like an encyclopedia of astro.
[01:55:18] Speaker D: Currently the estimated time is about seven hours.
It's going to be chapters so you can jump in and out of it. So it should be fine.
[01:55:27] Speaker A: But yeah, really looking forward to that one. Sir, how about yourself?
[01:55:30] Speaker C: You can Find me D. Edwards, 89 on Bluesky Threads Instagram.
[01:55:38] Speaker A: Awesome. Keith, how about yourself?
[01:55:41] Speaker B: You can find me at Hardlock Hotel, predominantly on bluesky and Instagram.
And I'll be returning very soon to the Geeky Bummy website with the comics roundups. It's been a quiet beginning to the year and I've been extremely busy, but I will be jumping back into that.
[01:55:57] Speaker A: Very soon and you can find me at Rand Parish on Bluesky because I don't really post that much to be fair, apart from stuff from Geeky Brummy. But as we've said, you can find Geeky Brummy eekybrummy on Instagram bluesky Facebook geekybrummy.com for all these amazing roundups of films, games and comics.
Another quick mention as well. Hi VIS Comic Con coming to Kings Heath in Birmingham in June 21st, the amazing Ollie McNamee, who you might remember from Geeky Rummy's past. He's popped up on a few episodes over the years, but he's it's his flagship comic convention first year. Looking really forward to it. Might be some interesting stuff coming up from us as well. There might be some Bath stuff. Bath will also be returning for 2025. We'll be saying more about that in the near future, but for now, thank you very much for watching or listening in your format of choice, but we shall see you again soon.
[01:56:54] Speaker D: Bye.
