Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves | Star Wars Celebration | Poundshop Cosplay

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to year seven, episode three of the Geeky premiere podcast. Joining me, your host, Mr. Ryan Parrish. Today is Miss Keith Linfield. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Hello, everybody. [00:00:09] Speaker A: Mr. Lee Price. [00:00:10] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:10] Speaker A: Mr. Sam Edwards. [00:00:12] Speaker D: Hello. [00:00:12] Speaker A: And Mr. Matt lovell. [00:00:13] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:14] Speaker A: How the devil are we all? You all okay? [00:00:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Good. [00:00:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Good. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Cool. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:00:19] Speaker A: Today on the show, we will be talking about Star Wars celebration dungeons and Dragons honor amongst Thieves, which is in cinema. US at the time of recording still should hopefully be on at the time that you're watching this. And we'll be having our pound drop cosplay off. But for now, roll credits. Many, many years and you bowl getting in the way. We've finally got a good Dungeons and Dragons movie. Probably quite high phrase to start off. [00:01:04] Speaker C: With, but anyway, so John Francis, better than Uve Bowl. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:08] Speaker A: Nuay bowl is a damning with faint phrase. So. Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Written by jonathan goldstein, john francis daley and michael giulio. You may know John Francis Daley from Freaks and Geeks, which was the eponymous one series launched the career of 90% of Hollywood comedy scene. Now, Jed Apatow, Paul Feige, I think it was back in the day. And he's also in Bones, you'll probably see him in that. But starring in the film is Chris Byne, Michelle Rodriguez, Renie, jean Page, justice Smith, sophia Lilly, hugh Grant and quite a lot of others. So everybody, I think, apart from unfortunately, Matt has seen it. So we'll try and be as spoiler free as possible. Not going to happen. But what was our thoughts? Sam, do you want to kick us off with your thoughts? [00:01:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I thought it was brilliant. Yeah, good fun. It sort of feels like a good kind of rollicking adventure film. It doesn't really matter if you're not familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons universe, but if you are, there's lots of little Easter eggs and nods to it in there as well. Yeah, I think it's really well done. [00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Lee, I think you had a very succinct sentence on your Twitter feed, probably. [00:02:22] Speaker C: But I don't remember what it was. But ultimately it is just a DND campaign in movie form. I'm not super well versed in the actual universe of DND because if most of the campaigns I've played have been in homebrew worlds or other worlds and things like that but what I recognized was the tropes of a campaign and some of the things that players do and some of the contrivances that come up for players and just the fact that it's all seeded through there. I appreciated it anyway when I watched it. But then I looked at a reddit thread which was on one of the D D subreddits and people were pointing out all the little details and it made me appreciate it even more because I was like, oh, yeah, it does do that. It does do that, yeah. [00:03:10] Speaker A: How about yourself? Keith, what were your thoughts? [00:03:12] Speaker B: I thought it was hugely entertaining. Exactly what you want a film of that to do. It kind of reminded me a lot of 80s sword and sorcery films, but with more humor. Kind of like things like Dragon Slayer and stuff like that, which I kind of really enjoyed. And I thought it worked really well casting Chris Pine as a bard. It kind of worked with his kind of slightly, I want to say, Cockshaw. Is that the way he kind of plays his characters? He's got that kind of twinkly James T. Kirk kind of thing. And I think it worked perfectly for the character, for bard. It worked brilliantly. [00:03:48] Speaker C: On that note, the bit that I really liked, that sort of cemented him as a bard was when they're sort of resting on the beach and he sort of lies down in, like, the sexy pose, and I was just like, that is such a Bard move. [00:04:01] Speaker A: And I think they made the decision of choosing not like the traditional fighter class, they, like, mixed it up a bit. So you had a bard, you had a barbarian, you had a sorcerer rather than a wizard, and Druid. Druid rather than your standard kind of fighter wizard, et cetera. Classes. There was not very many magic missiles I thought got thrown around or nobody cast fireball. I think anybody cast fireball. [00:04:25] Speaker C: But, I mean, on that note, there are, in fact, a ton of different spells in there. When they came up, I was like, oh, that's that thing like the Resilience Fear shows up and Bigby's Hand shows up, that sort of thing. [00:04:39] Speaker B: I did quite like the way they name checked lots of places as well. Just like mentioning places. [00:04:43] Speaker A: I think they name checked every single place in the first three minutes. [00:04:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like it goes from Ice, Windale, Balder's Gate, Never, Winter, so it's. [00:04:54] Speaker A: Kind of like I've only ever really played the RPGs, not really played D D properly, but it's kind of like there was enough in there for the game fans as well. I think there's quite a lot of interesting little ones. And I think the best thing about it is they didn't go super serious and they kept it to a kind of everybody knows D D is a bit of fun. Everybody's just embracing the character. And it was kind of like I was half expecting a meta moment where they'd maybe just take the people out and you just see, like, Chris Pride and Michelle Rodriguez sat around a table. Because they could have possibly done that. [00:05:27] Speaker B: If they'd have done that, I'd have hated it. Would you? Yeah, because it would have just ruined. [00:05:31] Speaker C: The whole I think the fact that it feels like an adaptation of someone's campaign is what makes it so good. And I think pulling it out would you? [00:05:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they would have done that. That would have shown them being trying to be clever and not taking the source material as this is just good source material and just doing it. [00:05:47] Speaker C: Yeah, because I think that's one of the things that you've got all those elements of what a campaign would do and what players would do already in there. But they do a lot of it very subtly in a way that a lot of players would kind of pick up on it, but maybe more general audiences wouldn't. I think by kind of making it too over, it might put off the more general audiences, I think. [00:06:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree. They would obviously do a similar thing in The Lego Movie, but I think they can get away with that because everyone's played with Lego at some point and what they're doing with it. But, yeah, I think if they'd done that here, it would have alienated. [00:06:22] Speaker C: I think one of the best examples is a joke about intelligence in the movie. But it works on one level as a sort of like, oh, everyone's not very smart. But then you realize that it also works on a stat level as well, because when you actually look up those classes, none of them are intelligence based. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I think my favorite bit is Denver Child. He's an actual character in the game, apparently. And it was like, but this makes no sense. But then you read up and it's like, no, he was an actual character and he was just a very fat whatever he was. And it really worked in the scene that they played him off in. [00:06:59] Speaker C: I think one of the things that I really liked was that there are definitely moments in it where you're just like, oh, they roll the natural one. Yeah, it's like the bit where you get this really intricate sort of puzzle set up and you get this whole explanation of, like, oh, you have to do things in this order and solve it in this specific way. And then one character just steps on the wrong thing and just it all falls apart. And I'm like, that's a character rolling a natural one. And I love it. [00:07:28] Speaker A: What do we think about the casting? So Chris Pine, I think, embodies a bard quite well. Michelle Rodriguez played a barbarian with a bit of heart. Justice Smith as Simon probably the weakest one out of the group, I felt. [00:07:44] Speaker B: I don't know. I think that's endemic of that particular type of character. It's always the one who kind of seems to be it's always the character that's always struggling most with their abilities. [00:07:56] Speaker C: And there's an interesting meta joke with him in general, because he's got low self esteem, which means he's got low charisma. That's why his magic's bad, because they cast with charisma. [00:08:08] Speaker A: There's a sorcerer and not a wizard. And Sophia Lily, I haven't really seen her in anything else. [00:08:16] Speaker B: She was in it parts one and two. And then there was a Netflix show that she was in. That was really good. That got canned after one season, which was a shame. [00:08:24] Speaker C: But I thought she was Netflix show. [00:08:26] Speaker B: Yeah, but I thought she was really great as that kind of character. I mean, I think the only problem with that was it was a little bit close to the Vox Machina kind. [00:08:36] Speaker C: Of look that they'd like her. Especially, like if you put an extra key. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a bit of but then she turns into an, you know, that's cool. [00:08:47] Speaker A: I think the standout casting for me, though, is Hugh Grant. Because who else can play a rogue rather than Hugh Grant? He is like the ultimate rogue. And it's like even when he's being bad, he's still funny. [00:08:58] Speaker C: He was great just because you could tell he was reveling in the fact that he was playing the bad guy. He was just like having a blast with it was just like, I'm going to walk on set and just eat the scenery and just have a great time. [00:09:11] Speaker B: He just went, I did Paddington Two and I'm going to do that again. [00:09:14] Speaker A: It felt very much Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham, as a parallel, which was, I'm just going to go and I'm going to go. [00:09:26] Speaker B: I don't think he was quite as outrageous as that. I think he played it as you would expect that type of character to be without being overtly. Kind of like nudge, nudge. Look at me being kind of what's. [00:09:39] Speaker A: It I think he just fully embraced the role. I think he was really just enjoying being here. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Anyway. Is it chloe Coleman? [00:09:47] Speaker C: Was Kira the witch? [00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Didn't have an awful lot to do. No scream a lot. I was quite surprised at how little Reggie was in it because in the marketing campaign, it seemed like he was going to be part of the group all the way through. So I was kind of expecting that. Kind of know the dungeon dragons. You got your cavalier type character, whatever it is. [00:10:07] Speaker A: But he was the ultimate NPC. He was a paladin NPC, which occasionally joined the group. [00:10:13] Speaker C: The vibe I got from him is that he was this important NPC that the DM had put there and everyone just was like, oh, you should come with us. But it's just like, no, I don't want him to come. So that's why he just walks off without an explanation. [00:10:26] Speaker A: The bit where he walks off and he just goes in a straight line. And apparently that was like, is he going to go over the rock? [00:10:31] Speaker B: Is he going to go around it? [00:10:32] Speaker A: And no, that was unscripted. He just like carried on in a straight line. It was like, this is what an NPC would do in the game. Oh, no, I need to be over here now. [00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:41] Speaker B: It reminded me of kind of like it had that 80s sensibility when it comes to kind of treating this kind of material with like, actually, we're just going to have fun with it and treat it like it should be. And I don't think it was too 21st century of like, oh, yeah, we've got to make it appeal to we've got to be cool and edgy. And whatever it was, I thought it just had a great deal of fun. I'd seen Shazam Fury of the Gods a few weeks before, thoroughly enjoyed that again because it was another movie that just went, we're having a ball. We don't care. We don't need to be edgy and gritty like Batman and Superman. It's like, we're just going to have fun. We're superhero heroes. What the heck? Whereas with this, it was like, we're a bunch of dudes battling dragons. [00:11:20] Speaker C: Well, that's the whole thing, is this is why it feels like a DND campaign. Because while obviously you can take a lot of what's going on with DND seriously while you're playing it, ultimately you're sitting around a table, like joking around with your friends. And that vibe comes across really well in the film. So I think on that aspect, they nailed it. And I think that's why it works so well in terms of what you're saying. The 80s things, they weren't really taking it that seriously. [00:11:50] Speaker A: If you think of the previous adaptation. So there was a TV series, the cartoon TV series in the 80s, which there is a little bit of a homage to. [00:11:58] Speaker B: I think it's more than just a. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Homage, but that was probably the last good D and D franchise before this. [00:12:08] Speaker B: DC did a few forgotten Realms comics that were pretty good. And that's mostly where my knowledge of Dungeons and Dragons comes play. I'm not a player of the game, but I kind of like the comics and I like the ideas of the realms and the kind of characters that were in there. So there's been other good stuff, I think just in film and television, there hasn't been an awful lot. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think film wise there was the trilogy of movies which were straight to TV or straight to video, I think, and they were middlingly successful. But with Hasbro purchasing Wizards of the coast, it's instantly well Hasbro tried to turn every single thing they got into a movie. They turned Battleship into a movie, for God's sake. There was obviously going to be some DND movie coming as soon as they did that purchase. But I think they found a sympathetic writer, director and cast with this who actually kind of it's had enough money that it was probably not an amazing budget, but it's had enough spent on it that it came across very well done. [00:13:10] Speaker B: I think I came out of it and I think I messaged you lot and said, I'd be quite happy to have a sequel, but not necessarily with this cast. I'd be quite happy to have just another Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a whole different cast. [00:13:22] Speaker C: No, I think what they could do. [00:13:24] Speaker A: Is like, bring them back as no, no. [00:13:27] Speaker C: I was thinking it's the same cast, but they play in different characters. It's a second campaign that'd be that. [00:13:35] Speaker A: I'll just reference them again. It's like another campaign. [00:13:38] Speaker B: Have you ever seen the TV show called Miracle Workers with Daniel Radcliffe? They did the similar thing where each season it was the same cast, but they had different totally different episodes. The first one was they worked for God. The second one, they were kind of in the Middle Ages. And then the next one, it was the Wild West. [00:13:55] Speaker C: I'm thinking of sort of like when you've got critical role. They're on the third campaign and it's the same cast in each campaign, but they're all doing different characters. [00:14:03] Speaker A: I was thinking of He Who Should Not Be Named but Dollhouse. That kind of the main character resets every time. Different role, different kind of thing. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah. But yeah, I'd watch a second d d movie. Yeah. [00:14:14] Speaker A: And I think it's probably going to do better on streaming because we were lucky enough to go to an unlimited city world screen, and it was a secret screen. It was about a month before release. And it was just a kind of it was a very mixed reaction from the audience. I think most people were like, yeah, this is really good. And then some people just walked out, and some people walked out about an hour in, which we found quite shocking because it's like, you're two thirds for the movie now. Just stay till the end. [00:14:39] Speaker B: I couldn't understand why people, anybody would have walked out of that movie. [00:14:43] Speaker D: No, you always get that with those unlimited screenings. But you sort of think if you're going to something like that, you need to expect that. You need to be happy with it, whatever it is, and be prepared to give it a go. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:56] Speaker A: Just a shame, really, because I found it a really fun movie. And it's one of those that's going to become like a Sunday afternoon staple, I think. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:15:05] Speaker A: It's going to be one of those that you'll pop up quite often and you just watch it again and again and again. Each time you'll probably notice little things. And if you're a proper DND player, you'll notice every single little tiny reference as we go along. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Well, I'm hoping that they do a decent physical release where they do a commentary that literally points out every single reference and just highlights it. I'd love actually for them to do a physical release. That was like one of those deluxe packages that came with, like a map of the world and a little encyclopedia with all the characters. [00:15:39] Speaker A: That'd be cool. Special mention as well to Lorn Bals score, I think worked perfectly for the film. Wasn't overly loud, wasn't interruptive, but it worked very nice and seamlessly for a campaign. I wonder how many other people's campaigns that score is going to turn up in the future. Yeah, really recommended. Worth a shot. Best D and D film so far in the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, star wars has came home to the UK for Star Wars Celebration, which was held this month, last month, depending on when you're watching this, and kind of quite a few big reveals. So if you don't know what Star Wars celebration is, it happens every other year now on average. And it just rotates different places around the world. So it's usually one in the US. One in Europe, one somewhere in Asia, and then back around again and again and again. But quite a lot of stuff came out, including an Indiana Jones trailer. [00:16:35] Speaker C: Got to put it somewhere. [00:16:39] Speaker A: Lucasfilm, but we saw quite a lot of stuff. So there was the Ashoka trailer, there was Star Wars movies announced including the Return of Rey. There was Star Wars vision season two being announced. There was skeleton crew, which they dropped the trailer for and think that's, oh, and they announced bad batches back for one more final season as well. Yeah, so quite a lot went on. Let's get it out of the way because I know you're going to want to rant about this in the next five minutes. Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny. [00:17:12] Speaker B: I'm parking that because I'm going to come back to that later in the show. [00:17:16] Speaker A: A movie that Harrison Ford is actually interested in doing. [00:17:20] Speaker B: It's been a while. [00:17:22] Speaker A: Had to get through three of the franchise movies first. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Save my thoughts on that's. [00:17:26] Speaker C: Weird seeing Harrison Ford happy. [00:17:31] Speaker A: So, okay, that's Star Wars vision season two. Interesting mix, including Ardman animation this time. [00:17:39] Speaker C: That is the one thing in the entire show that I was excited about. I mean, I've said before, I'm sort of indifferent to Star Wars. There's definitely some Star Wars stuff that looks interesting, but I just never get around to watching it. But that Aardman episode of Star Wars visions, I am going to be right there just because I've always been a massive fan of Ardman. And as soon as I heard it that Ardman were doing something for it, I was like, is it just like a stop motion thing that they're doing in the Star Wars universe? And then I watched the trailer for vision season two and I saw obviously which bit was theirs and went, oh no, they just let Ardman do Ardman in Star Wars. So I'm there. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Imagine those two as droids, just like a cheese version. [00:18:34] Speaker B: My favorite bit in that whole thing is at the end where the wookie just pulls the arm off the Star Wars. [00:18:41] Speaker C: I just like that. I did see someone make a joke about like, oh, is it just going to be Wallace and Gromit just turning up in the Star Wars universe? And I just got this mental image of Wallace just like being shocked by lightsabers and just bumbling around and I was just like, I would watch that version as well. [00:18:59] Speaker B: I mean, they did do. Thanks to YouTube, I managed to spend the entire Easter Bank holiday, six, 7 hours a day watching the live stream, which they did on YouTube, which was brilliant because I didn't feel too bad about not going to the actual event. And they had the panel, they had the full panel for Star Wars visions on. So they did have some people from Ardman actually talking about the creation and they are taking it seriously. It's in the style of Star Wars. Obviously, the visions things are out of the kind of like canonical thing. But they've referenced so many there's so many people at Ardman just went, we love Star Wars. So even from the haircuts and the silhouettes of the haircuts, obviously referencing other things, if you look at the trailer and you look at the hair of the kind of lead two female characters, you'd recognize what the silhouette is and they've just gone and they've put everything they could put into it as Star Wars fans. Yeah. [00:19:51] Speaker A: So we've got Dennis Lawson coming back. [00:19:53] Speaker B: As Wedge, which is probably the real Wedge. [00:19:55] Speaker A: Long time since he was properly in Angelica Houston's popping up in one of the Star Wars visions as well. So quite an interesting cast. But if you go through some of them, they've used quite a mix of studios because the first one felt very Japan heavy. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Previous season was all Japanese studios. This season they've put it across the world. So the other one for me that I'm really looking forward to is Cartoon Saloon doing an animated film for Star Wars that looked pretty amazing as well. That was in the trailer. [00:20:21] Speaker A: So I think they used a couple of Spanish studios as well. [00:20:23] Speaker B: El Gu. There's some Mexican. Mexican, yeah, the Mexican one's interesting because it's kind of CGI, but 3D stop motion. So the other one that looks very stop motiony look really interesting. [00:20:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I've looked at the list of countries and I think there's like Mexico and Chile I think is another one, I think. So Spanish speaking countries, but some Korean. [00:20:42] Speaker A: As well, rather than just being heavy. So interesting to have that mix. It's kind of like Robot, I think. [00:20:48] Speaker B: As well isn't one of the studios. [00:20:50] Speaker A: But I always think it's a little bit like Disney's kind of clap back to love death and robots. It's their way of kind of interpreting a franchise that they have something on, but allowing animators to go and make their own individual story and allowing them to create something using a franchise. [00:21:09] Speaker C: I saw a comment which described the first season as being the Animatrix second season is Love, Death and robots. [00:21:15] Speaker A: That makes more sense. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks great. I've never really understood people going, I've got Star Wars fatigue, or whatever it is. It's like no just ten year old me is going, no, just keep throwing it. I'm quite happy to keep taking it. So I'm fully on board for another season. [00:21:33] Speaker A: So moving on to the other news that was announced. So Bad Batch season three final season probably going to be the coder to Clone Wars david Cloney's kind of magnum opus from the start to the finish with that one. Season two's just finished in the UK. It was quite a pivoting. [00:21:50] Speaker B: It's very traumatic. Yes. If you have any love for the members of the Bad Batch beware. [00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah, because when they turned up in the Clone Wars the first time, I was not a fan. I have really grown to like them over the last two seasons. [00:22:02] Speaker B: I think it's all down to the character of Omega and just how she's developed and brought the clones with her in terms know their individuality. So it's been a great season. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Any of you watched Bad Batch? [00:22:21] Speaker E: Well, interesting about Omega, because she was like the worst bit I found about the first series of Bad Batch, so I will keep going with it. [00:22:31] Speaker B: I think it's similar in a way to Ezra in Rebels, and I think they do this weird thing with Star Wars shows and Resistance. It's a little bit the same where they have this kind of childlike character who's a bit annoying to start with, but then halfway in the seasons, it pivots from being this kind of like slap comedy kind of like childish thing, to then go, no, this is serious and there's lots of things going on. So, again, she comes a long way. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Between the two seasons as well. So I think there's kind of like that always helps. That was, again, the problem with Rebels. When Ezra was brought in season one, it was just the annoying kid. [00:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, she's definitely the audience. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Patsy. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Our presence in there, because you feel like what she feels when things happen in the series. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Let's move on to the big one, dave Filoni's, favourite character in the entire universe. Ahsoka, so she's come back. Lars Mickelson speaking, famous Grand Adolf. [00:23:32] Speaker B: He voiced the character in Rebels, which. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Was fantastic to hear because I think he did a fantastic job in Rebels. I actually started rewatching Rebels, which I'll come on to a bit later, but I think Rebels has now become a must watch before the season comes out because we've got a lot of sabine, you've got hera. Who is Mary Elizabeth wife? [00:23:53] Speaker B: Well. Ramona flowers. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Yes, Ramona Flowers is in as hera chopper's back. Everybody loves Chopper. Everyone's favorite murder droid after HK 47, but yeah, so this was kind of the big trailer drop for it. Rosario Dawson back as ahsoka, Mandalorian's slowly coming to an end at the moment over here on British TV. We've got one and more episode at the time of recording. [00:24:17] Speaker B: Yes. [00:24:19] Speaker A: And it's interesting to see how that's going to go forward because that's? Well, yeah, a little couple of tidbits dropped out about that, which is the Mandalorian can mean many things. I think they mentioned in one of the panels. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Yes. It's not the din joinsco. No, it's called the Mandalorian, which could mean anything. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Yes, I know Pedro Pascal's not been very happy about not having much screen FaceTime and there's been a couple of fallouts on set, so maybe that's had an influence in that decision. But a very interesting point where we are in the Mandalorian at the moment. Won't spoil too much, but you looking. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Forward to ahsoka, yes, more Star Wars. Just like chopper. I think as long as we get loads of really sarky chopper kind of getting annoyed at everybody, that'd be cool. Although when they revealed the toy that they're putting out and I was like, It's 90 quid, I can't justify this. But, yeah, it looks great. The live action cast is really coming together, I think, in terms of what they've done with it. It's a shame the voice actors don't get to kind of reprise their roles for the major parts. Although yeah, it looks great, though. It looks Star Wars. [00:25:35] Speaker A: So did any rewatch the Clone Wars back in the day when it first came out? I think it came a bit of required viewing for the prequels as well. [00:25:42] Speaker B: 15 years now since Clone Wars came out. The series. I think the film was a couple. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Of years before because film was between. [00:25:49] Speaker B: One and two, between Clone Wars and Sith. Yes. [00:25:55] Speaker E: Again, started watching. So I watched the animated Clone Wars, which I absolutely love, and then I started watching the other Clone Wars series, then got like three series in. But the problem I have is unless I'm really committed, I get distracted. [00:26:13] Speaker A: I think the issue with the Clone Wars series, when it was originally released, it was Anthology. And if you're used to a linear. [00:26:20] Speaker B: Storyline, yeah, it's kind of out of order. Things happen all over the place. [00:26:24] Speaker A: But I think there's a guide on the Star Wars. [00:26:27] Speaker B: There is a chronological guide, chronological running. [00:26:30] Speaker A: Order, which probably might be worth rewatching in that one because then it makes a lot more sense. Suppose if you like four or five, which is where Clone Wars originally was pitched to be very hard to keep. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Good. It'd be a pretty strong willed four or five. There was some serious stuff happened in that show. [00:26:49] Speaker A: Yeah. The umbrella arc, probably. Yeah, it was a little bit dark for kids. Also got confirmation. The Acolyte, not really much information apart from a couple of cast announcements and the High Republic. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:04] Speaker A: So Acolyte, is that pre or post? Again. [00:27:09] Speaker B: I think the acolyte is pre. I've got confused now because they expanded the world. They added the kind of next going further back and further forwards. Yeah. [00:27:19] Speaker A: Because now the High Republic sits between the Old Republic and the New Republic, which was kind of like. The peak of Jedi, there's been quite a lot of material done that in comic book form and novel and audiobook form at the moment. It was kind of their big kind of restructure on that end. [00:27:35] Speaker B: I think it was one of the big panels that they didn't show on the YouTube thing. So a lot of that I've just read online. [00:27:41] Speaker A: And the other announcement was skeleton crew. [00:27:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I kind of like the idea of that because again, it's another kids based thing, and people have described it as the Goonies meet Star Wars. I'm like, yeah, I've signed me up. I'm quite happy with that. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Well, I think they've probably looked at the success of something like star Trek, Prodigy, and the Jedi Academy stuff, and they've done and they've kind of like, well, we can do another kids focused kind of show. What's his face? Jude. [00:28:08] Speaker B: Jude Law. Yeah, yeah. [00:28:09] Speaker A: It's the main guy in that one. [00:28:11] Speaker B: I'm quite happy for there to be a wealth of Star Wars content for all ages because I think it's a thing that it should be available to kind of kids and adults. And if they kind of went, oh, we're just going to turn Star Wars into an adult show, then I'd be a bit bored of it, and I think I'd be tired of it. But because it's got that breadth of content, I'm quite happy to watch the cartoons and watch the live action shows. [00:28:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, we also had three live action movies announced. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah, this is where I get a. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Little bit coming back. They've announced the directors. So you've got James Mangold, who was quite an interesting pick, dave Filoni, who's now cut his teeth on the Mandalorian book of Boba FET and done in a fly action. [00:28:53] Speaker B: I think Mangold's doing the indie movie. Yes. [00:28:56] Speaker A: And then charmin Abed. Chinoy is doing the other one. [00:28:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Not really heard of him. [00:29:01] Speaker B: My only problem with the films is that I remember a previous Star Wars celebration where they announced a Patty Jenkins rogue squadron, a Ryan Johnson trilogy, and all the rest of it. So the TV shows I can see happening because they've showed us that and they showed us that content announcing the movies, I'm kind of like, wait until I actually see them. Yeah, because it's all well and good announcing them. [00:29:30] Speaker A: Well, I think after the issues with the final movie yeah. Episode nine just kind of killed all of for Star Wars movies for quite a lot of people for some time, unfortunately. [00:29:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:47] Speaker E: But I've always thought the films were the weakest part of Star Wars as like a multimedia thing. I mean, I thought Rogue One, Empire Strikes Back, et cetera. Like, very strong. But I think largely the films always just seemed the weakest for me. So I'm kind of glad there is that emphasis on other media, really. [00:30:11] Speaker A: It's a fun universe to play around in. You've got magical space wizards, you've got bounty hunters, you've got lawless areas, you've got big planets. [00:30:20] Speaker B: I think the big issue they had was that they tried to finish the saga without George, which was a big mistake because I liked Rogue One was brilliant. That's second only to kind of Empire in terms of I can rewatch that all the time. I really liked Solo. I thought Solo was great, kind of heist movie. I was grinning from ear to ear through the entirety of that movie, but I think the actual seven, eight and just they didn't really know what they were doing. And whereas it worked for George, where he went, oh, I've done Star Wars, I don't know what I'm doing. But yeah. Let's make Darth Vader luke's. Dad. Yeah, that sounds good. Where he kind of made it up on the fly as he went through those three. It didn't kind of work for them. And because they didn't have an idea I liked what Rian Johnson did with Last Jedi. I really thought, Star Wars is going somewhere here. And then they just rolled everything back with JJ. On Rise of Skywalker. [00:31:12] Speaker A: It didn't need George Lucas back. What it needed was somebody to own all three films. [00:31:18] Speaker C: Yeah, because it could have been JJ. [00:31:20] Speaker A: It could have been Rhian Johnson, it could have been anybody. [00:31:22] Speaker C: As Beth said, that isn't that the central problem? It's okay, George Lucas making stuff up as he goes along because he knew what he was doing with the first one. So he can kind of follow on from that and follow up on those ideas he had. But switching the writer director midway through and then switching back again isn't going to create a coherent vision. [00:31:41] Speaker A: And that was the problem because Rhian Johnson could have done the next film and he could have taken it somewhere else interesting. [00:31:47] Speaker C: I did think that The Last Jedi did do some interesting stuff, like always, I don't understand this sort of hatred towards it that exists online. Because one of the things that it does is the whole, like, anyone can be a Jedi. It's not about the Families, it's not about the Skywalkers and the Palpatines and all this sort of stuff. And then the fact that they just walked all that back on the last one, it's like, well, no, that was an interesting idea. You can explore that, do something with it. [00:32:22] Speaker E: Sorry, I would deviate a little bit, but I think even in that film you can pinpoint there is that one moment where it could have gone in a whole different, really interesting trajectory, where Rey and Kylo do their own thing and just go against absolutely everything. [00:32:36] Speaker A: I was expecting the Grey Jedi to come in, which is kind of Jedi who deal with their emotions, and they're not Sith, they're not Jedi. [00:32:44] Speaker C: It's a thing as well, because the first of that trilogy is just they made A New Hope again, and having Last Jedi come in and kind of throw out all the conventions and go, no, we're not doing any of that anymore, is where it could have gone somewhere interesting. [00:32:58] Speaker B: I think its big problem was it couldn't juggle the multi character stuff. And I think the most interesting thing they fumbled the ball on entirely was the character of Finn, who would have made that his journey from being a Stormtrooper to being a Jedi. And that would have been really interesting. [00:33:15] Speaker A: For the Chinese audiences because they were pandering, unfortunately. That's terrible to say, but he was obviously made as minimal as possible, so if his scenes weren't in the film, there'd be no impact. [00:33:28] Speaker C: And of course, now no one seems to hate Star Wars more than John. [00:33:34] Speaker A: Bayeger, is completely disassociated and hates what happened to his character because they gave him a really interesting character arc and throw it away. I mean, the whole thing with Kelly Marie Tran and the reaction to her character and how she got completely sidelined in the third movie because it was just a reaction of, oh, the Internet doesn't like her as a character, so we'll just give her something to do on the side. I'll just stay home and do but. [00:33:59] Speaker C: This is why you shouldn't be pandering to the nerds online who just hate everything because you took all this interesting stuff and you just threw it out because someone threw a tantrum that Ray is a nobody. Well, why isn't she a scotty, stop it. Just roll with it. Not everything needs to be connected. Not everything needs to be on the Wiki. [00:34:20] Speaker B: I did feel that Star Wars as a whole felt stronger at this celebration. I think they'd kind of learnt some lessons over the past few years and have looked at what they've had success wise with the other mediums that they've got. [00:34:33] Speaker A: I think with Mandalorian, you've had Fallen Order, which was a fantastic game and we've got the follow up coming to that one, jello, Survivor, and that looks again, fantastic. That made good gains. We had squadrons which was mildly successful once. It was a brilliantly successful game. I think if they've gone more into. [00:34:53] Speaker C: The VR, but I think on the game front, that's also EA learning some lessons from like Battlefront Two and the legal trouble they got into over Battlefront Two and its microtransactions and then just let Respawn just do a single player Star Wars game. The thing that everyone was screaming at them to make and oh, look, it was a massive success and everyone loves it who saw that coming. [00:35:14] Speaker A: And then you've got Mandalorian and Andor, which has done really good games and you've got spin offs. So I think there was rumors that I think what's his face uncle, what's his face oppa from Kim's convenience. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Yeah, if they do the kind of spin off that they were going to do with possibly let's have Mr. Kim in space, that'd be cool. And he's such a massive geek as well. It'd be brilliant. [00:35:45] Speaker A: And I think I loved the little cameo that we had in the mandalorian this season, which ties back to rebels. That's what I'm going to say. [00:35:52] Speaker E: Just the one thing I would absolutely love in Star Wars is creature comforts. But in. [00:36:04] Speaker B: You heard it here. Ardman. You do. Creature. Comfort. Star wars. And you've got about a few months to do it for us. That is brilliant. [00:36:12] Speaker C: Couple of porgs talking about the heat. [00:36:15] Speaker B: Worrying about whether they're going to eaten by Chewbacca. [00:36:18] Speaker A: Anyway. [00:36:18] Speaker B: Enough. [00:36:18] Speaker A: Star Wars, Indiana Jones. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Just park that. Save it, save it. [00:36:30] Speaker A: It is time for the return of a long forgotten geeky premier feature of the past. It is pound shop cosplay. And we have a special judge for this episode. Introducing the king of Cosplay. [00:36:44] Speaker C: Yes. Hello, my wonderful, wonderful subjects. I am the King of Cosplay and I will be judging this contest. Thank you for having me on the show. [00:37:00] Speaker A: King of Cosplay, who would you like to go first? [00:37:06] Speaker C: It is a difficult choice. Matt, I choose you. [00:37:13] Speaker A: I choose you. [00:37:17] Speaker E: So, do I have to give a clue? [00:37:19] Speaker A: Tell us what you purchased and what was your expenditure? [00:37:24] Speaker E: So my expenditure was zero pounds and zero pence. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Do you want to give us a clue as what the character could possibly be or what franchise or what? [00:37:37] Speaker E: Without making it too obvious, it's a long running series and this character had a running joke where they would die quite frequently. [00:37:53] Speaker C: Okay, interesting. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Are we ready? Go forth. [00:38:00] Speaker C: Go change. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Oh, I like that as a catchphrase. [00:38:04] Speaker C: Go change. Come on, hurry up. [00:38:10] Speaker B: He's took his shoes off. That's worrying about that. We've got to make sure we don't look at the screen, because you can see just behind this. [00:38:22] Speaker A: Any thoughts on what this character could possibly be? [00:38:25] Speaker B: Well, if it's not Kenny, I don't. [00:38:28] Speaker D: Know what he's going to be. That was my first thought. [00:38:31] Speaker B: It's not cosplay I've just put my anorac on. [00:38:37] Speaker A: I'm trying to think of any other series where a character dies quite frequently and comes back misfits. Robert Sheen. Yes, that would be a good show. [00:38:49] Speaker B: Dr who, he could have regenerated. He dies a lot. [00:38:53] Speaker A: I think it's going to be david Tennant is going to be the next doctor. Every other doctor going forward. Now, you'll just pop back up. [00:38:59] Speaker B: Just everyone. Definitely need a different camera angle on that. [00:39:13] Speaker D: Well. [00:39:16] Speaker E: If it was orange, it come across better. [00:39:19] Speaker C: Yes. [00:39:21] Speaker B: I love the idea. If we look different, it would produce a viv. [00:39:26] Speaker A: Is going to get a picture, Joyce? [00:39:28] Speaker B: Yes. That's entertaining. [00:39:33] Speaker A: You look like you're ready for the slopes of Colorado anyway. [00:39:40] Speaker B: Can you do the voice? [00:39:47] Speaker C: No, it's disappointing. [00:39:56] Speaker A: Well done. [00:39:57] Speaker C: Well, that was certainly interesting. I'm curious about the others. While Matt is changing, I think we should speak to our next contestant. [00:40:12] Speaker B: I'm not looking at you. [00:40:15] Speaker C: Why not? Keith, is there a problem with my appearance? Do you have a problem with the King of Cosplay? Just for that, you are going to go next. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Okay. Are we waiting for Matt to come. [00:40:31] Speaker C: Back, or should I just no, just keep going. [00:40:34] Speaker B: So, okay. I spent seven pounds. [00:40:37] Speaker A: You went for the full budget. [00:40:38] Speaker B: I went for the full budget, yeah. I kind of overspent because I didn't need as much for the one thing as I thought I might. And my costume consists of free cardboard boxes from the Pound Shop, some knee pads for gardening is that just outside of the cosplay? Some weed crescent fabric. [00:40:59] Speaker A: We've gone back to Charlie Dimit's favorite. [00:41:01] Speaker B: And a lot of duct tape. [00:41:06] Speaker A: Any clues? [00:41:08] Speaker B: No, not a one. Well, the duct tape was the biggest purchase. Quite expensive in the pound shop. I was shocked because most things in the Pound Shop aren't a pound anymore. [00:41:21] Speaker A: No, it's a fib. [00:41:22] Speaker C: Well, you should go change. Go and change right now. [00:41:30] Speaker D: I remember seeing the knee pads when I was looking at my stuff. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Any ideas? What do you think Keith's going to be coming? As the cardboard boxes have thrown me off a little bit, I'm thinking maybe Optimus Prime. [00:41:45] Speaker E: So I was thinking Transformer, but then I kind of wonder how long would that take to them put on? [00:41:54] Speaker D: Could be here a while. [00:41:55] Speaker A: He's going to transform ten minutes. [00:41:59] Speaker E: And if he doesn't transform into a lorry as well, then. [00:42:05] Speaker A: King of Cosplay. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:07] Speaker A: Full budget has been expended versus Matt at zero pounds and zero pence. [00:42:11] Speaker C: Yes. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Has that changed your opinion on what level of cosplay you're expecting here? A little bit. [00:42:18] Speaker C: I appreciate those who know the value of things and are able to spend what they have and make good use of their funds. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:29] Speaker A: I mean, there is a cost of living crisis in the kingdom at the moment. [00:42:31] Speaker C: Oh, who cares about that? It only affects the paws. I don't care. [00:42:37] Speaker E: The povos also, what I would say is surely respect the resourcefulness and the creativity of using what I have. [00:42:48] Speaker B: Are you ready? [00:42:49] Speaker C: That's one way of looking at things. [00:42:51] Speaker A: Sam, any guesses before he comes around? [00:42:54] Speaker D: I don't know. Black noir from the boys and the duct tape. [00:43:05] Speaker B: Excellent. [00:43:06] Speaker D: Fantastic. [00:43:08] Speaker A: That is worthy of a celebration. [00:43:12] Speaker C: Well. [00:43:15] Speaker A: Your grogu sees have got a lot older very quickly. [00:43:18] Speaker C: Yes. That's one problem I noticed with it is that is not a baby yoda. That is quite an older yoda. [00:43:29] Speaker B: It was a long, long time ago. [00:43:31] Speaker A: In a galaxy far, far away. [00:43:34] Speaker C: He's grown up, and yet the Mandalorian himself has not aged. Although we can tell, I suppose, with the helmet, I guess. Very impressive. Very impressive. If you choose to do that, that is fine. It doesn't earn you extra points to stay in costume. Sam, what do you have to what are you bringing to the table? [00:44:08] Speaker D: So what on? I spent five pounds 50. But part of that was on something that I didn't actually end up using in the end. So four pounds 50 has gone into costume. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Interesting. Wasteful. Wasteful. I see. [00:44:22] Speaker D: I've kept it a future costume. [00:44:25] Speaker C: Okay. [00:44:26] Speaker D: And I had a yoga mat and some elastic and not sure what you'd call them. [00:44:35] Speaker B: Like wire cable tied. [00:44:37] Speaker C: Yes, I know. Well, my servants know of this sort. [00:44:40] Speaker A: Of thing, but use very much downstairs in the dungeons. [00:44:44] Speaker C: Yes. [00:44:46] Speaker B: Okay. [00:44:47] Speaker C: Go change. [00:44:52] Speaker A: I absolutely love that. [00:44:53] Speaker C: That's so good. [00:44:56] Speaker A: Which was the way that you did. [00:44:57] Speaker C: It, Keith. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Over bank holiday weekend. It's amazing. [00:45:05] Speaker A: He was always afraid to take his helmet off. Then he would have had to have gone and bathed in the minds of Mandalor. [00:45:10] Speaker B: I can't take the helmet off now. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Well. [00:45:18] Speaker A: Any thoughts on what Sam was going oh. [00:45:24] Speaker E: Incredible. [00:45:25] Speaker C: Very interesting. [00:45:26] Speaker A: Clicker. [00:45:28] Speaker E: Yes. [00:45:30] Speaker A: That is an incredible mask. [00:45:32] Speaker C: And just as I was about to make a comment about if he takes the mask off, then he just becomes Joel. So it is quite appropriate that we went in that direction. Very impressive. [00:45:43] Speaker B: I can only see if I do this. [00:45:48] Speaker C: Well. Three very interesting cosplays. I am pleased with the offerings that have been brought to me today. [00:46:02] Speaker A: Unfortunately, like the Highlander, there can only be one. [00:46:05] Speaker C: There can indeed only be one. And everyone else, unfortunately, does need to be executed. [00:46:12] Speaker B: I'm quite glad I'm wearing best. [00:46:15] Speaker C: That won't help. But looking at all three of you not that Matt is in costume anymore, I think I do have to award this to Keith. That mandalorian costume is superb. Well done, Sir Keith. [00:46:37] Speaker B: You can come and collect your prize. [00:46:40] Speaker A: If I can ever get out of this. I don't know how the mandalorians do. [00:46:44] Speaker B: It, you know, because visually, it's difficult to see anything. [00:46:47] Speaker A: For your efforts, Keith, you have won a 40th anniversary pop up pirate ETB extraterrestrial. Oh, my God. Hang on. [00:47:01] Speaker C: That is these two got beef in the past. Would you need to have him put in the dungeon if there's trouble with your royal prize? Because I will have him put in the dungeon. Execution is optional. [00:47:24] Speaker A: And the King has also decreed there is a treat before execution for all players. [00:47:31] Speaker C: I am, if nothing else, if merciful. [00:47:36] Speaker A: Well done, all. [00:47:38] Speaker C: And that is the end of the Pound Shop cosplay for this week. Thank you for having me. I am returning to my chambers. [00:47:55] Speaker A: Time for One Geek Thing, our Episodic review and what we've been up to and what we're interested in since the last time that we had a podcast. Matt, what's been your one geek thing the last few weeks? [00:48:10] Speaker E: So, recently, I went to go and see the Pixies play at the Forum in Birmingham. So the Forum in Birmingham is someone who isn't local. It's the old one, so it's a very sticky to the floor, gritty fire hazard of a rock venue. [00:48:27] Speaker A: So it was the Carling Academy at my era, and then it was the O Two Academy before that moved to where the Dome Two is. [00:48:35] Speaker B: I mean, you're going to go even further back to Hummingbird. [00:48:39] Speaker A: But the floor has always been that sticky, I think. [00:48:42] Speaker E: Yeah. And it was the first time I saw the Pixies and I've loved them forever. And honestly, they were incredible because they were proper old school in the sense of they just played song after song. Their set list was about 40 songs long, and they would mix it up, where they'd mix up the intros, that kind of thing. So you wouldn't really know what song was coming until they properly got into it. But live, they were incredible. So they played a lot of classics. They opened with, like, Wave of Mutilation and then they did a sort of like surfer version of it. A bit later, they did Caribou, did Vamos, they did so many good ones. And then they closed the set. They did the obvious one. Where is my mind? But it was absolutely fantastic. [00:49:43] Speaker A: That's been remixed and replayed and slowed down by so many different people. Now it's kind of become its own kind of cultural thing in itself. Was it in a John Lewis advert? I think possibly one of the Christmas adverts, yeah. [00:49:59] Speaker E: And it was really interesting watching them live, because especially like when they went from song to song to song, mixing them all together, because actually, the Pixies has quite a range in terms of genre. They can go from obviously they're very pivotal to starting sort of the indie rock craze in the early 90s, but they also did, like, surfer rock. They were influenced a bit by Spanish traditional, sort of like folk. And yeah, it was just incredible. There was a bit where in the Institute that they had, like a they had to stop for about ten minutes impromptu because there was an audio issue. And then because of that, they then played another few songs, like they were just properly there for the fans there for and you could tell, despite doing it for what, about 40, 40 years now? [00:50:59] Speaker B: Not quite. They formed in 80, 86. Because this is where I feel my age is. I saw them probably late 80s, early ninety s at the Hummingbird in that same venue, which we're talking like nearly 30 years ago, it's going to say. [00:51:16] Speaker A: If they formed in 86, that's still 37 years. [00:51:20] Speaker B: It just seems bizarre that I saw them a lot longer ago. [00:51:26] Speaker E: It was just that they just absolutely loved it. You could just tell. So, yeah, that was my one geek thing. I would thoroughly recommend seeing them when they come back. And yeah, it was all just brilliant. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Awesome. Sam, how about yourself? What was your geek thing? [00:51:42] Speaker D: I went to see a film called The Wife and Her House Husband, which is not in and all of itself a very geeky film. It was very good, but it was a micro budget independent film by a director called Marcus Marco. And what's sort of interesting about it is the way he released it. So it had a quite limited run in cinema in London first, but then he brought it to the Mockingbird in Birmingham and it was basically released as a one pound cinema thing. So all the tickets were a pound. And it was the feature film plus short that he'd also made that's on YouTube called Two Men Meet Five Times, I believe. And yeah, I just think it's interesting the way it was released. It's a nice way of getting people to go to the cinema to see independent films, but won't get a huge audience necessarily, otherwise. [00:52:52] Speaker A: It's one of the problems of modern cinema is it's so expensive now for a family to get out to the cinema. I think it's probably coming up to nearly 100 pounds now. If you're buying tickets plus food, plus drinks, sitting down, taking four or five people, it's not a cheap experience anymore, like it used to be many years ago. And that's because that's the only way cinemas can survive it's, because they don't make anything off the ticket. Pretty much, yeah. [00:53:17] Speaker C: I mean, that's like something I noticed with the last two films I've seen, like my local cinema, relatively cheap, apart from Dungeons and Dragons and Mario, which were eleven quid each. [00:53:29] Speaker A: And if you think that's, what if you're taking a family of four, you're 40, 50 pounds out of pocket before you even start going and sitting down, and then you want to get sweets, popcorn, ice cream, drinks. [00:53:42] Speaker E: To be fair, though, what I will say is the cinnamon, you have the unlimited card, that kind of thing. [00:53:49] Speaker A: OG and have limitless, I think. [00:53:51] Speaker E: Yeah, they used to be I think when they were first a thing, they weren't really worth it. But actually now, because obviously you can see movies largely for free, you get discounts on the food and if it's like a new release or like a 40 X, it's only like a couple of extra quid. So you can sort of buy the card and you can go once or twice and you've kind of made the money back and a bit more. So I think that there are some things where it's know, cost wise, but. [00:54:23] Speaker A: I think it's kind of I'm an unlimited member. Sam you're an unlimited member. You'll notice the same faces when you go for screenings, usually, and it'll be the same kind of 2030 people you'll see quite often in reception. Keith, I know you've got a very reasonably priced cinema quite close to you. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah, we got the independent reel, which is six, seven pound a ticket, which is quite good. Obviously, the screens are a lot smaller, but I have three, my phone network is three, so they give away Cineworld tickets at the weekend for three pounds. So if you go on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it's only three quid. [00:54:59] Speaker A: I think meerkat moves is still rumbling on on the Tuesday. [00:55:02] Speaker C: Yeah, mine is an Empire cinema, but I think they might have an equivalent to it. I just haven't really looked into it something I probably should look into, especially because this month has, like, everything I want to see because Renfield's out soon. [00:55:19] Speaker A: Renfield drops. [00:55:20] Speaker B: Yes. [00:55:20] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:55:21] Speaker B: As we're recording. Yeah. [00:55:23] Speaker A: Mario's out, of course. [00:55:24] Speaker C: Yeah. I've seen T d and Mario, and then it's Renfield next. So it's just like I probably should. [00:55:29] Speaker B: Look into we seem to be it's a good year for cinema, I think, this year. There's a lot of good stuff coming up. [00:55:34] Speaker A: And I think it's got to that stage now where people are not as frightened to go back. It's just the price needs to come back to something reasonable. It's that kind of thing of I don't want to have to do an hour's worth of research about what discount to apply for before turning up, which is why I have an unlimited card. But if you're a family of four, I can imagine it's not sensible just to have to spend hours of researching what's the cheapest way to go and watch a film? [00:56:00] Speaker D: I mean, the film I saw very much. Not a film that you'd be making. [00:56:06] Speaker A: But could we got Mockingbird and we've got the Mac, which are and you've got The Electric, which do quite a lot of independent programs. And The Electric is especially known for showing older films, I think, and stuff that you wouldn't have seen in the cinema for many, many moons, like Return of the Jedi maybe, which is having a wide release this year as it's its 40th birthday. But yeah. So the Mockingbird especially. [00:56:32] Speaker D: Yeah. I think that film has finished its running, The Mockingbird, but I'd imagine he's going to carry on doing similar sort of things. If you get a chance to see it, I'd definitely recommend it. [00:56:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:42] Speaker A: I think there is a cinema for a pound website. I'll pop it in the description. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Yeah. We're coming up to the point where Flatpak Festival runs across Birmingham, so there's a good chance a lot of these kind of, like, less blockbuster movies will be screened across the Midlands as part of the Flatpass Festival, so they're usually well priced for what you get as well. So I think we're coming up to it. It's usually time, so people look out. [00:57:07] Speaker A: They usually have the Indian Film Festival. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Yeah. They do stuff for the kids and stuff as well. [00:57:12] Speaker D: So. [00:57:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Look out for Flatpak Festival. [00:57:15] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. I will pop the link. Well, we'll pop the trailer to the film. Probably find a nice green band trailer, maybe. Lee, how about yourself? What geek think have you been up to? [00:57:26] Speaker C: So I've managed to get round to playing something that I've been meaning to play for a while, and it's now become, like, one of my favorite games. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Ever, which is Simpsons Hit and Run. [00:57:37] Speaker C: No, it's a game called Danganronpa. It's a Japanese mystery visual novel thing. And it's basically like it's a bunch of high school students who've been sort of locked up in a school and the only way they can escape is by killing each other. But every time someone turns up dead, you have to figure out who did. [00:57:58] Speaker B: It. [00:58:00] Speaker C: Because otherwise because if the person who did it is found out, they are punished, basically well executed, but if they're not found out, they can be set free and everyone else gets executed. It's an interesting premise and it's like a mystery murder mystery thing, basically, that you just had. [00:58:22] Speaker A: And it's I think I picked it up from a humble bundle, like ages ago. [00:58:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I had it. I've had it sitting in my Steam library. But the reason I started playing it is because I was reviewing a different thing for work, which is basically also like an anime murder mystery thing where you've got a bunch of people trapped in an enclosed space, some of them are murderers, and you've got to figure out who. And while playing that game, I was just like, I know that people reading this review are going to be like, so how does it compare to Danganronpo? Because I know that it's like the sort of big one in that genre. I was kind of like, I've got it in my Steam library, I should also play that. And then the problem was it made the game I was reviewing worse in comparison. [00:59:06] Speaker A: So I've never been brave enough to play it because it looked like a Japanese visual novel. [00:59:10] Speaker C: It basically is. [00:59:11] Speaker A: And all Japanese visual novels on Steam are in two categories and we all. [00:59:15] Speaker B: Know what the main category is. [00:59:17] Speaker A: You don't want to be searched. [00:59:18] Speaker C: Playdoh. It's not one of those, thankfully. It is very much just like very stylish. It's sort of one of those things where it's full of constant twists and turns. And what I really like about it is every time you go into the class trial side of things, there's three phases to it. You've got like ordinary school life where you're just kind of wandering around the school and sort of chatting with all the other students and stuff. And there's sort of like a persona style social link in there where you can sort of spend time with different people and it earns you special skills and the trials and all this sort of stuff. The second phase is like the investigation phase after a body's found. So you've got to go around gathering all the evidence and then you have the class trial where you'll go in with like, oh, it's 100% this person. And then all the evidence will get passed around and new things will come up and you find out it's someone completely unexpected and it's a wild ride every single time. And it's all like the way the trials are played out is like they'll. Use mechanics. Like you've got to shoot someone's statement which shows upon screen, and you've got to shoot it with a truth bullet and it's completely ludicrous and over the top. But it works for this whole thing and it keeps you guessing. I've really gotten into it to the point where as soon as I finished it, I immediately bought the other two games in the series. [01:00:49] Speaker A: Definitely going to be a replay of them. [01:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. That's probably on steep. It's probably on every gaming console now. [01:00:57] Speaker C: I'm not sure. I think there might be like a sort of remastered version on the switch in PS Four, but they're all available on Steam. [01:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely available on PC, at least. Why is Dial of Destiny the best trailer of the. [01:01:15] Speaker B: I've got this all planned. I was going to say you would think my one geek thing was the announcement of a Scott Pilgrim anime featuring the cast of the Edgar Wright film. But that was until I saw the trade out for Indiana Jones Dial of Destiny, which I watched about 40 times that evening. [01:01:34] Speaker C: I'm slightly disappointed when that anime was announced that I shared Edgar Wright's tweet instead of the story I wrote. Just to be like just a flex. That that's my job now. [01:01:45] Speaker B: But I saw the trailer as part of Star Wars celebration. I think it was released on the Friday of the event. And apart from a bit of dodgy CGI in the New York sequence where they're riding horses, I was like, yeah, this looks like Harrison Ford is going. I'm having a blast. I had a good time doing Shrinking. I am going to come back, do Indie, the character of my career. And I was like, yeah, I'm fully on. I didn't have a bigger problem with Crystal Skull as a lot of other people. But that whole Rolling Stones into the indie march, I was like, yeah, roll on this movie because I cannot wait because it looked fantastic. And the whole idea of perhaps there's a bit of Indy does time travel and we get younger indie because that de aging. I don't know where they do it on other shows where they get it so blatantly wrong. But the ILM guys can do a bang up job because both him and Mickelson looked phenomenal. And it just looked amazing. And I was like, yeah, I'm totally on board for this. It looks amazing. [01:02:49] Speaker A: I just wondered where Sheila Burth was. The entire trailer. [01:02:53] Speaker E: Have to spoil it the best character in the series. [01:02:56] Speaker C: I might. [01:02:58] Speaker B: He's off on a motorcycle somewhere else and the motorcycle will transform into something else. And he's doing a whole different thing. [01:03:06] Speaker C: He's just off yelling on a green screen. [01:03:09] Speaker A: I thought he'd been put in a fridge. [01:03:14] Speaker C: Well, the safest place you can be. [01:03:15] Speaker B: The Dial of Destiny has been used to send him forward in time to meet Megan Fox and do a whole different franchise. There we go. But yeah, I'm just like, we got Nazis, we got adventure, we've got Toby Jones, we've got I still need to watch this trailer. I was like, okay, we're using the Rolling Stones for music. I was thinking, okay, where are we going to get but the way they go from the Rolling Stones into indie, you just go, this genius. I had literally goosebumps when I watched that trailer. I was so excited. I was like, this is just amazing. [01:03:49] Speaker D: Music transition works far better than it. [01:03:51] Speaker B: Had any I was like, where did this come from? And as a result, it sent me scurrying to Ebay to buy the last two volumes of the young Indiana Jones adventures, which I hadn't got on DVD and they're not available anywhere else. [01:04:03] Speaker C: I said, I still need to watch this trailer, especially because I love Indiana Jones. I think the love that a lot of people have for Star Wars, it's like, no, all my love is in the other Lucasfilm property. [01:04:18] Speaker B: There's no doubt I love Star Wars. But if I had to choose between Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, raiders of the Lost Ark would win hands down every time. Because those kind of pulp adventure movies. [01:04:30] Speaker C: There'S a direct line from my love of Indiana Jones into my love of Tomb Raider, which of course then led to my love of uncharted. It's just the genre. Throw anything like that at me. [01:04:41] Speaker A: Could you imagine like a Jedi fallen order game for Indiana Jones game? [01:04:46] Speaker B: We have got an Indiana Jones game coming. [01:04:48] Speaker A: No, it's not like that, though. [01:04:51] Speaker C: Is trying to remember who it is. It's the Wolfenstein guy's doing India Jones. That should be good, though. [01:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah, but I kind of like the idea of embracing Indy's getting on and the whole retirement thing and just the trailer just really worked where he hands. [01:05:12] Speaker A: The whiff and the hat over to Sheila. [01:05:14] Speaker B: No, he's not going to hand it to Phoebe Waller bridge either. That's not going to happen. Indy will end. If that's the end. I did like the pop up of. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Gimli in the trailer. [01:05:29] Speaker B: It's not gimli. John Rees Davis, but he's not gimli. He is now. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Gimli with affairs would be an amazing. [01:05:37] Speaker B: Well, I like the whole idea of Zorro. I can't remember the actor's name now, which appalls me. [01:05:47] Speaker A: The terrible. [01:05:50] Speaker B: Was in he was desperado as well. Antonio Banderas. Yeah. So he appears briefly and I was thinking, yeah, but oh, man, give me this movie now, please. It's like final indie. Yeah. I'm not buying all the toys. [01:06:06] Speaker C: You will. [01:06:07] Speaker A: We already know you will. [01:06:11] Speaker B: And what about you, Ryan? What's been your geek thing? [01:06:13] Speaker A: So I was going to say going to see Darren Hayes VIP show, which was for Viz special birthday last year. It was really, really good. But with the Ashoka trailer, I'm going to change my choice because I've had to now go and rewatch Rebels because it's been a couple of hot years since I've lasted. It ran from 2014 to 2018, so it's actually nine years old this year. The first series, which is like crazy, but if you've not watched it, it's an animated series. It kind of follows on from the Clone Wars a little bit. There's quite a bit of crossover. They got Delete, Dave Filoni, it was Dave Filoni's thing after The Clone Wars, and it was kind of sat 15 years after the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. So we get introduced to Ezra Bridger, played by Taylor Gray, and it's his character and it's his kind of finding that first kind of rebel cell and that's the kind of thing of where the rebellion starts from. And the whole theme is this is the spark that starts the rebellion off. But quite an interesting voice cast if you look back Freddie Prince Jr. As Canaan Jarris, which actually does a really good job. I mean, I was surprised when he was in Mass Effect Three that he was quite good in that as James. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Vega, he does a lot of good stuff. [01:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:26] Speaker B: He doesn't get the credit he deserves. [01:07:28] Speaker A: No, but it's because he was Fred, wasn't it? Everybody knows Sarah Michelle Lagella's husband and he's Freddie movies, but he's done some really great voice work after that. You've got Vanessa marker, you've got Steve bloom, you've got D radley breaker, who's now playing every single cloak. [01:07:49] Speaker C: Of course, you've got Steve Bloom and D Bradley Raker. [01:07:51] Speaker A: They're in everything but David Ayer, lou as Agent Callus, brilliant character in that. You get pop ups of Darth Vader, you get Tarkin Pop up in there. There's a really good bit with the of it fits in this era of Star Wars. It goes quite well alongside like the Mandalorian book of Boba FET. It kind of fits in this kind of thing on a rewatch. [01:08:17] Speaker B: It's the big introduction of Thrawn as well, which was kind of not canon because he appeared in what would have been Star Wars legends material. [01:08:26] Speaker A: He was in what was known as the expanded universe before it got rebranded as Disney to Star Wars Legends. But Lars Mickelson's, perfect for him, perfect characterization. If you watch the most recent episode, The Mandalorian, there's quite a few little funny Easter eggs in there as well. If you know the kind of history of like the X Wing versus Tie Fighter games, which is where Thrawn turned up in those kind of was just it's fun to rewatch, even though it ends on a bit of a damn. [01:08:53] Speaker B: Down but cool hero ship as well. Yeah. [01:08:56] Speaker D: Ghost. [01:08:57] Speaker A: Ghost is amazing. Chopper is my second favorite droid in the Star Wars franchise after HK 47, who is still the original meatbag murder drinker. Chopper comes a good second close. I think he's got the biggest death hole in any kind of Star Wars one. If somebody has gone through and carried every single time that chopper either kills or maims either a human or a Droid in it, and it comes to quite a big death toll. [01:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but he's not vicious with it. What a shame. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a fun watch to go through again. You've mentioned it starts off as a kid show and then it really leans into some kind of deep law later on and it gets kind of very emotional. And then I think of the show. [01:09:40] Speaker B: After which I completely forgot the name of it, resistance. [01:09:42] Speaker A: Resistance, which was just a pale imitation in comparison. Yeah, but it's kind of fun watching Bad Batch now because I'm assuming that might cross over at some point. There's possibility there with Rex as a character coming across into both. But yeah, if you've not watched, it's all on Disney Plus, any fan of the Clone Wars is going to watch it and love it. [01:10:04] Speaker B: If you like Star Wars, watch it. Yeah. [01:10:07] Speaker A: And if you're going to watch Ahsoka. [01:10:08] Speaker B: You pretty much need to watch it. [01:10:10] Speaker A: Because it's going to give you a lot of backstory. Join us on the Geeky Brummie podcast this issue. Lee, where can we find you online? [01:10:23] Speaker C: You can find me on YouTube at Bob the Pet ferret. Updates on the channel on Twitter at Bob the Pet ferret. And my personal Twitter is the cheap ferret. [01:10:32] Speaker A: And where can we find your articles which aren't the gaming roundup? [01:10:35] Speaker C: You can find a lot of my work now on Silicon Era and Gamerand. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:10:41] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:10:42] Speaker A: Sam, how about yourself? [01:10:43] Speaker C: Where can we find you online? [01:10:44] Speaker D: I'm on Instagram at SD. Edwards 89, I believe, and various other things I don't really use. [01:10:54] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:10:55] Speaker A: Matt, how about yourself on Instagram? [01:10:57] Speaker E: Matrictic underscore Matt on Twitter. Mr matt level. And that's mostly just liking and retweeting geeky bromy stuff. [01:11:07] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:11:08] Speaker A: Keith, how about yourself? [01:11:09] Speaker B: If you just search for Hardlock Hotel, it's probably me. [01:11:12] Speaker A: Unless it's got a doculate. [01:11:14] Speaker B: Unless it's Count Ducula. Yeah, that's the only other thing. But generally, mostly Wednesdays on the geeky brummie Twitter feed and website. Just letting you know what's out there in the world of comics. My personal favorite picks of the things that you should possibly be reading. So follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and you'll see that on a Wednesday subscribe to our website. [01:11:37] Speaker A: By the time this goes in, yeah, it will be. [01:11:39] Speaker B: There's a 50 50 chance headship in. [01:11:45] Speaker A: Somebody might have noticed his book being in the shop. So former Geeky Brummy member Mr. Philip Ellis has released his debut novel, which you can go and find in all good bookshops. It's a very fun read called Love and Other Scams under the name of PJ. Ellis we recommend. And you can find him on Twitter under Philip. [01:12:05] Speaker B: Underscore Ellis, I believe. Yeah, that's correct. It says so in the back of the book. [01:12:11] Speaker A: And you can find me at Ryan Parrish on Twitter. Mass Chef's on I'll probably be grumpy about it at some point. That's pretty much it. But you can find us all on Geeky Brummy, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Geekybremy.com Geeky Brummy on YouTube, where you're possibly watching this, or Podcasting streaming services, where you're possibly listening to this one. Um, but thank you. Don't forget to, like, subscribe, share, tell all your friends, and review and review us. And we shall see you again soon. But for now, goodbye, everybody. Bye.