Madame Web | Embracer Implosion | Oscar Predictions | Geek Events in 2024

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to year eight of the Geeky Romney podcast. That's just a depressing number, isn't it? I'll digitally put one in afterwards. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Little bit of conviction. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Eight. [00:00:16] Speaker C: If you can find. If you can find, like the worst, like, premade word art level thing, that would be the best, I think. Yeah. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Year eight. We're back. So joining me today is your host, Mr. Ryan Parrish. Is Mr. Matt Lovell. Hello. Is Mr. Sam David Edwards. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Mr. Lee Price. [00:00:35] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:35] Speaker A: And of course, Mr. Keith Bleedfield. [00:00:37] Speaker D: Hi. [00:00:39] Speaker A: How are we all? We all good? All ready to ready. [00:00:42] Speaker C: Room to go. [00:00:42] Speaker A: Year eight, issue one again. [00:00:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:46] Speaker A: Well, we've got the highlight of Madame Webb to talk about in the review. We'll be talking about BaFTA winners and the Oscar predictions that we have for 2024. We have one geek thing of what we've all been up to over the last couple of months, since Christmas. And we also will be talking about Embracer group and their implosion, which will be a fun subject to discuss. But we'll see you after this, you Madden Web is a Sony Spider verse movie, but not the same spider verse that's in the comic book movie. In the animated movies, it's in the same movie world as Venom and Morbius. [00:01:48] Speaker B: I've seen some places referring to it as the Sony Pictures universe of Marvel characters or spunk. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Maybe spoo. Sony Pictures omniverse. There we go. Yeah, but, yeah, so just come out. Released by Cumberburg, produced by Columbia Pictures, Debona Ventura Pictures, in association with Marvel. I'm assuming Marvel might want to not associate themselves with this anymore. [00:02:18] Speaker B: And TSG Entertainment, whether they like it or not. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Yes. So it's basically starring Dakota Johnson, Sidney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, Isabel Maced, Tahir Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott. It's basically introducing the character of Madame Webb from the comics in a slightly different format, I would say, than the comic form. Keith, do you want to give us the comic history of Madame Webb as a character? [00:02:41] Speaker D: Well, I'm having to check my notes on this. So originally, the comic character of Madame Webb, Cassandra Webb, appeared in Spiderman, amazing Spiderman number 210, which it was in November 1980, was created by Denny O'Neill and John Romoto, Jr. Who's still currently doing amazing Spider man. At the moment. She's a character who originally appeared as a precognitive mutant, and she's also had telekinetic powers and other bits and pieces. And she's kind of connected to the kind of wider, kind of Webby verse thing that Spiderman's now got and has developed over the years that it's all these interconnected Spider y people kind of thing that's happening. So she kind of just helped him out. She was an elderly lady who kind of basically sat in the middle of a. [00:03:31] Speaker A: So I think she's got my Cynthia gravis in the comic books. Which basically means she can't walk and she can't. [00:03:36] Speaker D: Yeah, so she can't move. So she's kind of stuck in this place. Visually, she's very good. She usually has kind of like a mask over her eyes. Visually, if you looked at her, she's a little bit like blind justice in kind of that kind of the iconography of what the character looked like. But this movie version, from what I've read in the previews, kind of just jettisons all of that for some kind of rando in an ambulance who hangs out with Peter Parker's father. [00:04:04] Speaker A: So I'm not quite sure what they're. [00:04:06] Speaker D: Trying to do with that. [00:04:07] Speaker A: Well, I think we mentioned right now, spoilers, complete spoilers. Because we are going to probably rip this film apart a little bit. [00:04:16] Speaker D: Well, you've all been to see it. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Yes. [00:04:18] Speaker D: As I'm currently refusing to give Sony money and encouraging them to keep making these terrible films. Although the upside of this one is it doesn't star Jared leto. So that's one plus point for it. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Yes, well, it's currently running at a 13% score on Rotten Tomatoes. [00:04:33] Speaker B: That's gone down since I last. [00:04:36] Speaker A: It was 16% the last time we chip, but now it's down to 13%. You spent an hour after the film talking about how bad the film was. It's that bad. [00:04:48] Speaker B: It takes a lot for me to think that a film is bad. There's normally something in there that I can latch onto and say, I enjoyed that part. This was awful. [00:04:59] Speaker A: It was the writing team who've done Mats's armor and Bert Sharpless wrote the script for this one. [00:05:06] Speaker B: Their last. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Previous titles are Dracula, untold, the last Witch Hunter, gods of Egypt, and then Morbius. [00:05:16] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a bit of a track record, isn't it? [00:05:19] Speaker A: It's a declining track record, which I didn't think was actually possible. The bigger the film they get, the worse their writing apparently happens. I think what they had was 10 minutes of actual plot. And then they decided to make that a two and a half hour movie. [00:05:32] Speaker B: Sounds about right. [00:05:33] Speaker D: Is it actually that long? [00:05:35] Speaker A: It's about 2 hours 20, I think. 116 minutes. So just show her 2 hours actually. [00:05:42] Speaker E: Although that 16 minutes is probably just, they do a bit where basically they flash back the start of the film. So the first 16 minutes of the film, they then redo the entire. Redo the entire first 16 minutes in a flashback halfway through the film. [00:05:59] Speaker D: Because the question I've got is, what I'd heard is they basically stripped out a lot of the connection to the wider Sony Spiderverse. So obviously there's some insinuation about the existence of, potential existence of Spiderman because this is set in the early 2000. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, so it's set in 2003. I'll quickly run through the plot. So basically it starts in 1973 actually, doesn't it? So it starts in 1973 in deepest, darkest Peru. There are no marmalade sandwiches, unfortunately. It starts in deepest, darkest Peru with Madame Webb's mother exploring the jungle to find this spider that can fix lots of things. It's like this magical spider that can cure the world of all its ills. [00:06:44] Speaker B: Got peptides in its venom? [00:06:45] Speaker A: Yes, it's got peptides in its venom. And there's also these spooky, but they're in this part of the jungle which is quite spooky because apparently there's this tribe who have like superhuman strength and can climb trees and have venomous fingers. [00:06:58] Speaker B: But part of the mythology is they get all these powers from spiders but she doesn't believe that they exist at all. [00:07:03] Speaker A: She writes them in a Notebook, which we'll come back to later. So she hires a bodyguard because it's in a dangerous part of Peru for her and her two other researcher friends. We have a scene at a waterfall, which is basically her just saying, oh, I found a spider web. And then the guy who's their bodyguard is like, oh, I'm almost bankrupt. We need to find this spider clanger. And then she just turns up with the spider 30 seconds later with no explanation. She just comes back with a jar with the spider in going where I found the spider and then Mr. Bodyguard guy then shoots the other two scientists, tries to wrestle the spider. Oh, she's heavily pregnant as well. She's about eight and a half months pregnant. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. So he wrestles a spider and accidentally shoots her. And then the spider, people take shocked pregnant lady, put her in this magical pool, inject her with the spider venom, she dies. And then baby Cassandra Webb starts. And then we have a 30 year time jump to 2003. [00:08:08] Speaker D: Is the bodyguard Ezekiel? [00:08:10] Speaker A: He is Ezekiel. [00:08:13] Speaker D: Why would a heavily pregnant lady be stuck out in the middle of the deepest, darkest peruvian jungle at this point? [00:08:20] Speaker A: We come back, we have the same 60 minutes of for Judah later on. So we find out Ezekiel now has lots of money and power, but he doesn't explain where any of it's from. He just is rich and powerful now. [00:08:34] Speaker B: And has spider powers because he's still got the spider 30 years later, alive in a tank. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And then basically, he's tormented at night by dreams of three spider ladies coming to kill him and throw him out of a building. And then the entire plot is he wants to kill these three girls before they become spider people while they're teenagers. [00:09:00] Speaker B: And Madame Webb tries to save them. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Yes, but she can't do anything except control things with her mind, sort of. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Sometimes see bits into the future. [00:09:10] Speaker D: Does she actually use the moniker Madame Webb? No, she's called Madame Webb. [00:09:15] Speaker A: She's just Cassandra Webb. [00:09:17] Speaker D: But is the name used at any point in our entire film? [00:09:20] Speaker B: Not even at the end. [00:09:21] Speaker D: Okay, so there's no, like, I'm going to take on the Persona of the. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Madame Webb sunglasses at the end of the movie, and she's in a wheelchair for nowhere. Again, they don't really explain that very well. She just falls off a building with a big s, then she can't see anymore. [00:09:40] Speaker D: So this is just genuinely bad, even if you strip out the kind of superhero elements. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Well, if you took away that opening scene and just started in 2003, New York, and then had that as the clashback, it would have been so much of a better movie because you didn't know who Zekel was, you didn't know who zoo was hunting the girls, you didn't know his motivations. It could have been a great thing of, oh, he actually killed your mother 30 years ago. That's why things have happened. No, they're just entire exposition for the first 60 minutes ruins the rest of. [00:10:08] Speaker B: The movie, and then you spend the rest of the movie watching the characters discover things that we all already knew ages ago. Yeah. [00:10:17] Speaker A: So it takes any impetus out of the movie. There's two good highlights in the movie. One is Adam Scott, who actually turned up to act unlike the rest of. [00:10:26] Speaker B: The cast, playing Ben Parker. [00:10:31] Speaker A: His name is Ben Parker, and he's a paramedic, and he's about to become an uncle. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's got a date with someone, but he hasn't said who it is, but he's very excited for it. He thinks she may be the one. Yes, but, yeah. [00:10:46] Speaker A: So that's another subplot of him, then. Well, it's not even really a subplot. It's just she goes to a baby shower and then weird stuff happens. And then she promotes Pepsi for about 30 seconds. [00:10:56] Speaker B: It's an excuse to crowbar as much about Peter Parker as you can without mentioning Peter Parker into the film to try and connect it to everything else. They play the world's dullest game in the baby shower of guess what the baby's name is going to be without any clues or anything. So it's literally just a room full of people calling names out. And Emma Roberts sat in the middle going, what's my baby going to be? My brother in law is Ben Parker. [00:11:25] Speaker E: What's my baby's. [00:11:28] Speaker A: No, no, there's a worst bit before that, which is tell me a good story about your mother. And then Madame Webb or Cassie Webb puts in a blank piece of paper because she has no stories about her mother, and then tells this heavily pregnant lady about how her mother died in childbirth in the jungle. [00:11:43] Speaker B: That was quite funny, to be fair. That was quite the closest they came to deliberate humour. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. But I think apart from Adam Scott, maybe the girls, I think the girls probably malign those a little bit. So Sydney Sweeney, Isabella Merced and what's face brain's gone dead. Celeste O'Connor. So those three girls, they try and do a little bit of yay, girls doing it for assholes. [00:12:12] Speaker B: They were fine. [00:12:13] Speaker A: They were fine. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Acting wise, they did as well as they could have done with the material they were given. [00:12:17] Speaker A: I think Dakota Johnson has one emotion for the entire movie, which is disinterest. [00:12:24] Speaker B: Bordering on mild irritation. To be having to be out of bed, basically. Yeah. [00:12:29] Speaker A: She has no emotional impact in the nothing. It's like if you've seen any of the social media going around from the Madame Webb press junkets, she's exactly the same as that in the film. I think she's more energized in the press stuff than she is actually in the movie. And what's his face, Tahirahim. I think every single one of his lines seem to have been overdubbed afterwards. So again, there is zero emotion in his dialogue. It's just like, oh, I have paid a lot of money to get this technology for you from the NSA. [00:13:03] Speaker B: And everything he said was so poorly written. It was just the most ham fisted villain dialogue. At one point he says something along the lines of, you're lucky for not having known when you woke up this morning that today was going to be the last day of your life. [00:13:25] Speaker E: Well, controversially, I would say I think he was one of the only ones who read the script, went this is going to be garbage. Let's have some fun. Because I think he was chewing the scenery quite a lot. Yeah, in a good way. [00:13:36] Speaker B: He was. [00:13:37] Speaker E: Even to the supervillain falling to the death going, no, it was all very. [00:13:44] Speaker A: It was very ham. [00:13:45] Speaker E: It was very ham. [00:13:46] Speaker A: I think he tried for the Rickman in Prince of thieves but failed miserably. This is the problem. It's like you need to be a good actor to be able to pull off big Ham. [00:13:55] Speaker B: And he didn't. [00:13:56] Speaker E: No, I think it was all just very interesting because everything was a choice. And throughout the entire movie, I was just sitting there going, this was a choice. There's obviously a lot of material they could draw from and they most deliberately avoided everything they possibly could to make it good. And even with the whole, like, the superpowers not really being and the whole costume side of things not really being a focus of the movie, I don't think it's necessarily bad if executed properly, but it just wasn't. So the vast majority of the film, as you said, just didn't really need to happen. [00:14:39] Speaker A: Well, a lot of the press posters, I think, had the three girls in the different spider women or Spider Girl costumes and they're in two dream sequences in the whole film and that's it. They never actually get their powers. Nothing like that. It is purely just, we'll have a dream sequence where we'll murder Ezekiel. [00:14:58] Speaker D: Is there any explanation as to why Ezekiel wears a suit that looks like a Spiderman? [00:15:03] Speaker B: No. [00:15:03] Speaker A: And he's in and out that suit every 30 seconds. One scene he's in the suit, next scene he's out the suit, in, out. There's no explanation. [00:15:09] Speaker D: Because that's the thing. You think, why would Spiderman base his suit around that look? How does he even know? Does his parents have it at the end of Madame Webb and it's hanging up in the closet and he finds it later on. That's cool, but I need to make it red and blue. [00:15:25] Speaker A: They try and make an attempt of making them look spidery suited with the peruvian tribe, which just doesn't work because you see it on screen for about 30 seconds. And I know Sam has major issues with the cinematography as well. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Oh, it was incredibly disorienting. They kept spinning the camera around as if they were sort of trying to make it difficult to work out if someone stood on the floor or the ceiling or what. But it just meant that's not how you want to be viewing anything. It's not exciting or dynamic. It just makes you feel dizzy. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad that we didn't see it in 40 x, put it that way. [00:16:03] Speaker D: It seems like a waste of characters because Ezekiel Sims is quite an interesting character in the comic books because he appeared kind of the early two thousand s in a run. And visually he looks really cool. He's an old guy with white hair and he's unexplained spider powers. And he takes on a kind of mentory role for Peter for a while. And then they introduce. It gets a little bit ridiculous as it expands into this kind of wider mystical element of spider powers. It kind of goes beyond the kind of radioactive spider bite and into this kind of whole mystical thing which I imagine that's what the peruvian jungle bits alluding to. And Cassandra Weber's a character is very interesting and, well, she's played or used quite well in a couple of the animated tv series. Like, she kind of is the crux of pushing Peter towards a particular quest or whatever it is. It just seems like a squandered effort. And I just think that it just appears to me to be a kind of like, in order to retain our Spider man license we just have to make a film of some description connected to the spider characters in order to keep our license. And I can't understand how a studio like Sony can. Are happy to churn this out as a live action film coming not long after the Morbius film, which didn't get good reviews but then put out into the spider verse and across the spider Verse, which seemed to understand the characters and the multi universal things. So it's like, well, surely if you've got that going on. And they have alluded to the fact that across the Spider Verse does connect with other movies because you had Donald Glover appear in a live action segment in across the Spider Verse. So why not have the fact that Cassandra and her girls are in another part of the Spider Verse and it does all connect and they are part of that growing universe because we've established there are thousands upon thousands of spider people. [00:17:55] Speaker A: Well, as you mentioned earlier, there was lots of reshoots. What they were supposed to do was incorporate this into the Adam Garfield Spiderman universe. Okay, so it was supposed to form part of that one. Sorry, Andrew Garfield, not Adam Garfield. So it was going to do that and then now they've decided to make it Tom Holland's Spiderman which is why they then moved it to 2003 and then aged up the baby. So it's appropriate for, like, when he comes into the MCU. But everything was bad, I think, apart from the soundtrack. I mean, we got Britney Spears toxic. It finished on the cranberries. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Mystique. [00:18:35] Speaker E: Mystique. [00:18:35] Speaker A: Mystique was in there. So the picks of, like, pop from. [00:18:38] Speaker C: The 2003 era appreciated that. [00:18:42] Speaker A: But one pivotal scene plays out to Britney Spears toxic. But it's actually, like, indeterminate. [00:18:50] Speaker D: But it's not so bad. [00:18:51] Speaker B: It's good. [00:18:52] Speaker D: It's just so bad. It's bad. [00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah. One question, because you obviously know the character from the comics better than me. Does she have powers where she can sort of semi project her existence off into three different places at once? [00:19:09] Speaker D: Not strictly. [00:19:12] Speaker B: That was an interesting part of the film. [00:19:15] Speaker A: That sequence lasted 30 seconds of her doing, like, this astral projection bit, being able to pick people up at the same time whilst stood in front of Ezekiel, and he's just like there going, yeah, I'll give her 5 minutes. And then he just decides to punch her, and then it finishes. [00:19:30] Speaker D: I mean, she has telepathic abilities and stuff as well, so she could potentially communicate with people telepathically and do stuff like that. But again, in the comics, she's a mutant, and I guess whether they even address that in the thing, it's all just down to being born from a spider bite. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah, she was born whilst her mom was being injected with Reddin, basically. That's it. [00:19:57] Speaker D: So is it like, they watched the last of us and went, oh, we like that plot thread that if you get born at the same time as your mother dies and something weird's happened, you get all these weird abilities? [00:20:09] Speaker A: Our friend Phil pretty much nailed it, and he said they could have done something like edge of tomorrow with this, and that would have been amazing. They could have had him live through the moment she dies, resets back, something like that. And that's like checking out the multiple futures of what's going on. And they tried to do it. It's just so ham fisted the way they do it just doesn't have any impact whatsoever. [00:20:30] Speaker D: Does it descend into a CGI fight of some description at the. No, no. [00:20:35] Speaker A: Well, there's a little bit of CGI, but it's not even, I wouldn't even call it an action movie. There were action set pieces, which are just like, there's one pivotal scene where Emma Roberts is about to give birth to Peter. They're in a car Adam's got driving her to the hospital. They get surrounded by six cars just on the street corner randomly, and it's like you could tell the set was about this size. They got no budget. They blew up one car with a. [00:21:04] Speaker B: Grenade that he presumably carried there, because I don't think his suit particularly had pockets, despite the fact that he had superpowers that he was intending to use. [00:21:12] Speaker A: But one grenade, no more. [00:21:14] Speaker E: Just. [00:21:16] Speaker D: You've got to be careful with grenades, haven't you? Really? [00:21:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, to wrap this up. Matt, would you ever watch this film again? [00:21:24] Speaker E: No. [00:21:25] Speaker A: Sam, would you ever watch this film again? [00:21:27] Speaker B: Not willingly. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Keith, are you ever going to watch this movie? [00:21:32] Speaker D: I might just do it when it turns up on Netflix. I've still got Mobius in my queue, just out of curiosity, to see how bad it is. So I might, at some point, when I haven't got to pay and I've not got anything else to do, possibly watch it. But I'm not rushing out to see it at the cinema. [00:21:49] Speaker A: I think it's that bad of a film. It's not even good. Bad enough to be like something like the room. It's just. It will be shelved quietly into the annals of these are bad films. [00:21:59] Speaker D: You mean there won't be a time where people are going to a screening with grenades and throwing one grenade or anything? Because you've set that up. Are there any moments like that? Can they have a baby shower? Does anything happen in the baby shower that everybody can? [00:22:12] Speaker A: Even if you think about, like, the flash, which is an awfully bad movie, it has the baby seed, which made it, like, so bad. It's good. This doesn't have anything. It's just bad. [00:22:22] Speaker D: I don't know. You've set up moments that you can. At the peruvian jungle bit. Everybody could throw spiders at the screen. [00:22:28] Speaker B: There is a bit where we could release pigeons. [00:22:30] Speaker D: Yeah. I think with a bit of time and effort, we could create a cult version of this movie where it's just about throwing stuff at the screen, I. [00:22:41] Speaker A: Think we need to film Lee's live reaction to this movie. We strap him to a chair and make him watch Madam web and just record his response. [00:22:52] Speaker D: That's like torture. That's not good. [00:22:56] Speaker C: It's just like the seeding clockwork orange would leave. [00:23:00] Speaker D: So this is definitely not a recommend. [00:23:02] Speaker C: No. [00:23:03] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:23:03] Speaker A: I would pay people not to see this. I'm hoping they do the meme thing again and get Sony to re release it on a second run. And nobody turns up to watch it again because it's not been out that long. It's been out, what, a week and a half? [00:23:16] Speaker B: It came out on Valentine's Day for no particular reason. Yeah. [00:23:19] Speaker A: But since our screen was one of the small screens and about those 1415 people in there. [00:23:26] Speaker D: So it's the kind of film, if you were taking somebody to it on Valentine's Day, it meant you were breaking up. Yeah. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Or you were hoping for 50 shades of Gray sequel in there. [00:23:39] Speaker D: See, this doesn't bode well for the upcoming Craven the Hunter movie. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Then if it's the same writing team for Craven, I would avoid as much as human. [00:23:47] Speaker D: I think this one's going for the more kind of like violent r rated. This is, I think, their attempt at doing something like Deadpool where it's all blood and gore and whatnot. Although they might cut it back, they might trim it to a PG 13 rating at some point. But from the trailer of that, which they did release, I think they released the trailer for Craven before they released the Madden web trailer. Even though it's going to release this later. [00:24:11] Speaker A: They knew they had a stinker, I think. But yeah, my entire highlight of the whole experience was the June true trailer. So we'll leave it there. [00:24:24] Speaker C: The Embracer group, whether or not you've heard of it, it's basically a big, effectively game investment company publisher thing. Over the past few years, they've basically been buying up huge chunks of the industry, effectively. If America has Microsoft and Asia has Tencent, Europe has embracer, and that's pretty, basically all these companies are just swallowing up everything else. But more recently, obviously, last year, we had a lot of issues with layoffs within the games industry. Like I think at least 10,000 people lost their jobs across the games industry, which has continued into this year, unfortunately. But at the, pretty much at the heart of all this, you have Embracer group, who are one of the big ones doing a lot of these layoffs. 14,000 people have been laid off since last year. And the CEO Lars Wingforce has said that there will be more to come and that layoffs are something everybody needs to get through because apparently some of the people he let go of his pr team based on the fact that he's openly saying everyone needs to just get over it. And also what matters is shareholder value. Nothing else matters. I'm just like, this should go through PR, but you've clearly stacked. [00:26:01] Speaker A: So just to remind me, embrace Group started off as nordic games and then they bought THQ, was it? [00:26:08] Speaker C: Yes, they bought the sort of remnants of THQ. So when that went under, they bought up like THQ name and a bunch of the franchises. And since then they've been buying up a whole bunch of other stuff. I can't remember all the stuff that they bought. [00:26:21] Speaker A: So I know they bought deep silver. [00:26:23] Speaker C: They bought deep silver. They bought Squeanix Montreal. It was Crystal Dynamics. Well, idos Montreal, which was all from Square Enix, and Gearbox was bought by them. And there's a few other things. [00:26:44] Speaker A: We're talking some big franchises, there's some. [00:26:46] Speaker C: Big names, and also there's a lot of stuff that they bought, which is a lot of very dormant stuff that's just kind of sitting around. Like, obviously, the big one that a lot of people were talking about is the fact they bought the time splitters license and reformed free radical design. Well, they've now closed free radical design and canceled time splitters as part of the 29 games that are currently being canceled. Volition has also been closed down by them. Saints row. [00:27:16] Speaker A: They've been around a long time, aren't they? 30 plus years. I think volition have been running. [00:27:20] Speaker C: So obviously a lot of this is going on, and it sort of raised questions of like, why is this sort of suddenly happened? Why they sort of emerged out of seemingly nowhere, bought everything, and then just immediately collapsed in and on themselves. Basically, the whole thing is just an investment racket. So they apparently were aiming to get an investment from a big. Yeah, well, initially they didn't say who it was that the deal fell through with, but the Verge did find out that it was the Savvy games group, which is connected to the Saudi Public Investment fund, and apparently it was something like $2 billion or something they were hoping to get from them. And it was like the reason they bought everything was to build up their portfolio. So it was worth 2 billion, but they hadn't secured the deal and it collapsed, basically. [00:28:21] Speaker A: So basically they went around and bought every independent studio they could get their hands on, just so there was enough shareholder value to get a big payout, like a VC company. [00:28:32] Speaker C: But because of the way that the games industry has gone over the past couple of years, and because of just sort of the general investment environment. So over the past couple of years, game sales have fallen from the peak that they were at, and also due to things like the cost of living crisis, interest rates around the world have shot up, which of course reduces investment and all that. So what you've got is embracer are now saddled with tons of debt and they're getting less money in. Well, I say they're getting less money in. Within his whole thing about maximizing shareholder value, he did say, oh, we've had record revenue or something like that. And it's like, well, if you publish. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Some of these games, you might get. [00:29:12] Speaker C: Some more but this is the problem. But it's interesting that everyone's kind of focusing on embracer so much because it's. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Not just embracer who have been on a massive buying spree, is it? [00:29:28] Speaker C: Yeah, as I mentioned, you've got Microsoft and you've got Tencent, like two of the big ones. And in fact Microsoft have shown that they're probably just as bad as this because recently, obviously with the Activision acquisition, they laid off. I can't remember how many people, but it was a lot from Activision. [00:29:48] Speaker A: From what I've heard. It was mostly back office stuff for Activision. [00:29:53] Speaker C: But of course this is a big part of why I opposed that whole deal in general because, well, this is going to happen because you're going to get the duplicate jobs on the back end and everyone's going to get fired and it's still bad regardless. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of community managers unfortunately lost their jobs, which is quite bad when you. [00:30:13] Speaker C: But it also included like one of the co founders of Blizzard I think was let go. And it's, you know, this is. If this is what the acquisition was going to do, then what was the point of. Yeah, but obviously you've got a lot of other companies making layoffs. Similarly because of stupid reasons that they've, like Sony have done a bunch of layoffs and that's because they've overinvested in VR, which PSVR two costs as much as a PS five. And I think the numbers for the PSVR on the PS four, I think the sort of rate of adoption is like in the single digits compared to number of people who own a PS four versus VR. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Do you think they would have learnt from Microsoft with Connect because they had two bytes of that charity? So they tried it with the original X. Well, it was the 360, the connect game. [00:31:12] Speaker C: There was the 360. [00:31:14] Speaker D: They had two different versions of Connect. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Yes, they did the 360 and then they released the Xbox one with Connect, with connection. [00:31:20] Speaker C: But the thing is, at the time that connect was going on, Sony were also jumping on the like, oh, we need to do the wi because they did the move controllers which have been turned into what is used for the PSVR. PSVR. But also you've got like EA and Sega have also had a lot of layoffs. I know that creative assembly saw a lot of layoffs and I know Epic also did a lot of layoffs as well. And I don't really know why, considering that they're making fortnite money. [00:31:52] Speaker A: I think the problem is they've invested so heavily into the Epic Game store and they're doing the free game every single week and that must be hemorrhaging money for them, especially with the twelve month exclusivity deals. And everybody's just gone back to Steam because it's the only store that actually. [00:32:09] Speaker C: Cares about its customers. [00:32:10] Speaker A: And though Valve aren't the best company in the world and they've had their own problems, please release episode three. It's the best interface. Everybody left Steam. So I think Ubisoft went away and built their own launcher. EA pulled out and built their own. [00:32:26] Speaker C: Launcher, which they've now gone back on. [00:32:29] Speaker A: And everybody's gone back to Valve and gone back to Steam because hanging on. [00:32:34] Speaker C: They'Re desperately hanging on to their own launcher despite the fact that no one's using. [00:32:38] Speaker A: But I think far Cry six was on Steam, so I think most of the stuff are on. It just basically opens their launcher on the side of it. You thought you got rid of this. [00:32:46] Speaker C: Pile of crap, but I think it's kind of interesting because it speaks to a wider problem. Like I said, we've seen revenue decline within the games industry, but what's interesting about that is when you actually look into it, you can kind of see that all this overinvestment that companies were doing was just incredibly stupid. And I would like to play a game of who's smarter than a CEO? Which is so the reason why we've seen game revenues fall is because in 2020, game revenues skyrocketed. Something happened, something might have happened. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Something happened. [00:33:25] Speaker C: And then in 2022, they fell back down. And if you look at the, if you skip 2000 and 22,021, 2022 and 2023 are up from 2019. So it's still a steady growth, but you got these two spikes now. See if you can guess what happened. [00:33:41] Speaker A: I know what happened. Animal Crossing and doom release, they were the two biggest games and everybody just went wild for doom and Animal Crossing. [00:33:51] Speaker C: Say Animal Crossing, but that actually is, I think we all know it's Covid. Everyone was stuck indoors and then you see the game revenues just spike because everyone's bored, everyone's stuck. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Now people can go out and enjoy the world. [00:34:15] Speaker C: And I remember seeing so many companies, like, speaking breathlessly about, oh, look at the record sales we're making this year. Even at the time, I was like, yeah, because of COVID everyone's stuck indoors. As soon as lockdowns are lifted, it's going to go back to where it was. And it's astounding that not a single company seems to have adopted that same thinking. They just went, oh, record sales. Let's invest, invest, invest. Put loads of money. Just spend, spend. Like, take out all the loans in the world. And now it's effectively all crashed around them and it's the workers who have to suffer for it. And this is like, it kind of speaks to a wider problem of how capitalism is bad, basically because they've canceled. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Some fairly big games because I believe there was doing a Deus X sequel that got binned and people really still like that franchise. Weirdly, even though it's been a long while since that came out. You mentioned time splitters, three or four or whatever number was got cancelled. [00:35:17] Speaker C: It's basically a new one. [00:35:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:19] Speaker A: And then a load of other stuff. So Saints Row is pretty much dead as a franchise now. So again, not the greatest seller of all time, but it did good numbers. [00:35:27] Speaker C: I mean, the most recent one didn't. But then again, considering the direction they. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Took it, well, they rebooted it and got rid of all the fun stuff. The whole point of Saint's Row is it's GTA, but with the training wheels off and all the wacky stuff put in. [00:35:40] Speaker C: Well, I think they kind of, with this one, they also kind of, I think they hired writers who didn't know what comedy was based on. [00:35:49] Speaker A: What I've seen, maybe they wrote the script to. [00:35:56] Speaker C: But, yeah, I think we've got this going on and embrace is like just kind of a symptom of this wider problem of just too many executives are running things from a perspective of, like, we need to make short term gains every quarter regardless of anything else. [00:36:14] Speaker A: It's not just the gaming industry, is it? It's a global. [00:36:19] Speaker D: It just seems like every CEO in existence has just gone, I need to accumulate wealth at whatever cost. Because you look at what happened is happening at the moment with the lunatic that's running Warner Bros. And you think, what are you like? You know, I'm almost on verge of just going, I'm just going to boycott all of your content because you're stripping stuff away from platforms because you don't want anybody to see it. There's no physical media releases. [00:36:48] Speaker C: I'm so annoyed about the coyote versus acme. Yeah, I really want to see that movie. [00:36:54] Speaker A: It was finished, it was ready. [00:36:56] Speaker D: It's all done and dusted. And I think it cost them 50 million to make. And then when they said, okay, I will entertain offers if anybody wants to buy it from us. And then they went, yeah, but the minimum we'll take is 120. No other places are just going, we're not even going to do that because. [00:37:13] Speaker A: They canceled the Batgirl movie. They've lost a lot of their old cartoon archive. Yeah, it's been like a massive bonfire on Warner Brothers. [00:37:22] Speaker D: Yeah, they're just doing weird things. And Embracer is really weird as well because they recently acquired, I think it was two years ago, Dark Horse Media, which is kind of an offshoot from the comics side, which is kind of like art books. So they put out all the kind of Zelda encyclopedias. They've done the art of Cyberpunk 2027. They've done art books for kind of avatar. They put out the collected editions for Hellboy and stuff. Stranger things. They've got lots of big licenses going out through dark horse. And you think, well, what's going to happen to all of that? Will that have an impact on that arm of. [00:37:59] Speaker C: There's a few other, I think, non gaming things they bought as, remember, I think it's Asmondi, which I think is the board game company. I think they bought the Lord of the Rings license somewhere along the way as well. So they've been buying up everything. [00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:17] Speaker D: Is that why that kind of disappeared from the Warhammer? Kind of, yeah. [00:38:21] Speaker A: But even then, Warhammer 40K, they're having their own issues as well at the. [00:38:25] Speaker C: Moment with their games workshop are still doing better than our entire fishing industry. [00:38:32] Speaker A: But yeah, I think they've just rereleased the classic Warhammer 40K set again. And there was a big controversy around that because it was basically, I mean. [00:38:42] Speaker C: They'Re also doing the power wash collaboration. [00:38:46] Speaker E: Yeah, but they're also rereleasing old Warhammer fantasy after doing Age of Sigma, which. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Is basically, there was a hard reboot, wasn't there? [00:38:59] Speaker E: Yeah, but it was basically 40k gameplay in the old fantasy setting. But then they also just, in all the canon just basically killed everything. Did a whole Disney with Star wars thing and then they went, oh, actually nobody liked that. So let's bring back old fantasy Warhammer. [00:39:20] Speaker D: These ceos just don't seem to be learning any lessons from kind of like what they're doing. Well, why continue to pursue that route when the audiences and everybody else is going, no, this is a bad move. This is know, and getting rid of all those developers is not good for the industry at all. [00:39:38] Speaker C: The thing that I've noticed is that we don't see this coming from japanese companies that much because all the layoffs at Sega happened in America and in Europe. But what's interesting is that Japan, just as a culture, doesn't really like layoffs and yet all the japanese games that have been coming out over the past couple of years, high reviews, high sales, everyone. There's top quality. Like recently someone brought up the fact that the Final Fantasy Seven rebirth team is the exact same team as Final Fantasy seven remake. Like, no one's been moved elsewhere. It's just that continuation. Currently the reviews have just come out. It's 93% on consistency and quality is. [00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what. [00:40:19] Speaker D: And they're not rush releasing it either. They're not going, oh, it's been like four years. They're not crunching those. [00:40:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:26] Speaker A: But I think if there's any silver lining from this, it might get some fantastic indie games. [00:40:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we are seeing a shift from the start of the year. We've seen quite a few sort of surprise hits that have come from places that people just did not expect. Like Palworld was like a big one. You had hell divers two has been massive. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say that's taken over everything. [00:40:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I did not expect that to happen. When I saw all the trailers and stuff in the state of plays and stuff, I thought, well, the original hell divers wasn't that big. It's going to get like a niche audience, but I don't see why Sony are investing so much money in this. And then suddenly it just exploded. [00:41:06] Speaker A: I think they picked up a lot of people who wanted like ODSt from Halo because that's basically what the game is to a certain extent. It's like, here's halo odst without the license, but you drop from a spaceship and then blow stuff up. [00:41:18] Speaker D: Your recent game of the week, that Pacific drive, I've just seen everybody just going, oh my God, this is just like I expected to go, it's okay, I might play it for a bit and everybody's gone. I'm so invested in my car. It's like, if anything ever happens to that, I'm really upset. [00:41:33] Speaker C: So initially when I first saw the trailers for it, I saw, oh, it's kind of like a horror game kind of thing, but you're in a car. That seems interesting thing. I'm interested. A few weeks ago, they sort of revealed that it had a lot of roguelike elements, a lot of survival elements, and immediately went, oh. And then I got a review code for it and I've been playing through it for the past week and a half or so and I was like, this is really good. By the time that this goes out, my review will also be out. And in that review I state that there are effectively three elements. There's driving, there's roguelike, there's survival. And at least two of those elements I view cynically. And yet somehow I end up really like, but we're seeing a lot of shift in this. We've also got, like, last year we. [00:42:20] Speaker A: Had Balderscape freak on studios, tiny little studio compared to. [00:42:25] Speaker C: And we're seeing a lot of talk from these successful studios that's calling out what's going on with the AA space, what's going on with the ceos? Because Larry and recently accepted a dice award where they basically just went, layoffs are bad for the industry in their acceptance speech. And basically, just like everyone else is doing things badly, we're doing things right. They're in a position to be that confident in that copy better. [00:42:47] Speaker A: If I look at the biggest, latest aaa flop, we've just got to look at Suicide Squad, kill the Justice League, which come from a very well renowned studio with Rocksteady, who did three fantastic Arkham Asylum games. And then this license is just, well. [00:43:03] Speaker C: This is the thing. Like, ceos are like, oh, we've got to invest in live services. We've got to invest in doing things this way and doing things this way. All people wanted was Rocksteady to make another Arkham style game. That's all they wanted. And if Suicide Squad had been more like Arkham and been more faithful to the characters, because I've heard a lot of things about how the characters are not faithful at all, I'm sure Keith got some opinions on that. [00:43:27] Speaker A: There's a lot of chatter because it's Kevin Conroy's laughed over Batman, and they. [00:43:31] Speaker D: Do not do good by that. [00:43:34] Speaker B: Not at all. [00:43:35] Speaker C: But, yeah, it's been a massive flop. Like, its player count has dwindled. And even then, even at its best, it hasn't solved very well. [00:43:43] Speaker D: And it had problems on release as well. [00:43:45] Speaker B: Straight away, the problems with, well, some. [00:43:47] Speaker A: People just logged on it that were 100% completion, even though they hadn't even touched the game. So they got the end sequence, the. [00:43:55] Speaker C: Launch glitch that basically you launch the game and you've beaten it, which is always good. It's just like when the game basically tells you, like, don't even bother. [00:44:05] Speaker A: I think they were just trying. Somebody at the dev squad was just like, let's just save everybody the faith. Are you done? [00:44:11] Speaker B: Good? [00:44:12] Speaker C: And I do feel sorry for the actual developers because they have to sort of put up with all this and. [00:44:16] Speaker A: They have to, well, I'm assuming it's going to have an impact on. [00:44:21] Speaker C: I mean, we already brought up the CEO of Warner Brothers, and we can see this kind of, it's going to happen. [00:44:28] Speaker D: I just think that until they financially are impacted to a certain extent, they won't pay any attention to what needs. [00:44:39] Speaker A: To be done is anything like a live service game that would have been thought of four years ago. And any changes now are going to take at least two to three years in the industry. Because the nature of game development now, it's not a year one release. It's a full development cycle over four to five years. [00:44:55] Speaker D: Well, the whole thing with the Warner brothers is like, God damn you. It's like, I want to boycott your stuff, but June 2 is out next week. [00:45:02] Speaker A: Okay, see this, June is over. [00:45:04] Speaker B: We're good. [00:45:05] Speaker D: Because I don't want to encourage them by going, I'm going to support you as a company when you are trashing creatives left, right and center, regardless of the quality of the material they're making, they have put heart and soul into make it. And we as an audience should have the opportunity to decide for ourselves whether we want to play it or watch it. And we should at least be given that choice. Not told we made this stuff, but we just can't be bothered to show it yet. So we're taking it away and you can't have it again. [00:45:34] Speaker C: Birdie versus acme thing, I hadn't heard of it until it got cancelled. And as soon as I heard of it, I was like, this is the greatest crime. I need to see this movie immediately. [00:45:44] Speaker A: So to wrap it up, do you think we're at the kind of end of the layoffs, or do you think there's much more to come? [00:45:49] Speaker C: We're probably going to see a few more coming over the coming months, especially because we're still not at the end of the financial year. So we're going to see companies just doing like, last minute ones to just make their shareholders happy right at the end of the financial year. But I think we are going to long term see a bit of a shift, I think, just off the back of things like Larry and the hell diver studio, because that's another CEO who's just being blunt as hell. And it's so refreshing. We've also got the fact that you've got remedy, who, even though Alan Mike two hasn't been hugely profitable, they're seeing it long term and they're like, it will be profitable within a couple of months. So we're happy with it. So I think if we start seeing more of that going on, we'll start seeing a bit of a shift, especially if more things like Suicide Squad start failing and big companies start realizing, oh, we can't keep operating like this because everyone's going to that stuff over there. [00:46:40] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure Call of Duty 655 and f one. Or what was the Premier League, whatever football game that is, that'll still be out anyway for those kind of audiences. [00:46:51] Speaker C: I think it's EA Sports FC or whatever it is now. Yeah, because they don't have the FIFA. [00:47:00] Speaker F: Geek week. [00:47:08] Speaker G: I am Stacey. I'm the host of Stacey's pop culture parlor podcast and the co host of never seen. Why am I having to think about the stace and Barry in the morning and podcasts in a half shell? I do too many podcasts because I am a podcast heart. [00:47:24] Speaker F: What do you do in real life? [00:47:27] Speaker G: In real life I am a engagement and communications lead for Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust general charity or BCHC charity for short because that is too long. So I spend a lot of time getting NHS staff to spend charitable funds and then bang on about them at everybody. [00:47:47] Speaker F: What got you into being a geek? [00:47:51] Speaker G: I think I've always been a geek. Some of my earliest memories are of me either buried in nerdy books or parked in front of the tv for cartoons. But I think it really kicked into like twelveth gear when I met my then boyfriend, now husband back in 2005 and he threw some comics at me and then I just got absolutely hooked and became a massive nerd. Started listening to podcasts and started podcasting myself because I love talking about nerdy waffle. I almost swore then because I forgot to check whether I was allowed to or not. [00:48:25] Speaker F: What is your favorite geek franchise? [00:48:30] Speaker G: If anybody's seen the visual of where I'm currently sitting, which is directly in front of a massive ninja turtle shrine, then you will already know. But if you're hearing this audially then yeah, it's teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am a massive turtles. Didn't try not to swear for very long. Absolutely love them. The only tattoo I have is a turtle's tattoo and yeah, I'm a bit bananas for them. Delightful little Shelly boys. [00:49:02] Speaker F: What streaming show are you binge watching? [00:49:06] Speaker G: Oh, well, I actually just finished binge watching a big old rewatch of Bob's Burgers, which is like one of my favorite shows ever. It is brilliant. I mean, if you haven't heard of it by now, I'd be a little bit worried about your general life. But if you haven't, it's about a family of people who run a burger restaurant. It's really, really funny and it's got H John Benjamin in it who is class and I love him. He's got one of the best voices ever. [00:49:34] Speaker F: If there is one film or tv show you would tell someone to watch, what would it be? [00:49:44] Speaker G: Severance. I am obsessed with severance. It's an Apple tv show that came out, I think it was either last year or the year before, starring Adam Scott and Britt Lewer. And it is Sci-Fi and a little bit thrillery and a bit psychological. Who are what's going on, lads? And it is so magnificent. Absolutely tremendous. Can't say enough good things about it. Absolutely livid that all the strikes last year have delayed season two for like a good year. But the anticipation for season two is ludicrous in our house. I am very much looking forward to that. [00:50:23] Speaker F: What is your snack of choice? [00:50:26] Speaker G: Snack of choice is always going to be cool. Original Doritos. And I am on record on the BBC as saying that in an episode of Horizons, so you can fact check that it is a true fact about me. [00:50:41] Speaker F: What is one game you reckon you can beat a geeky rummy team at? [00:50:48] Speaker G: Have you ever played tetrasphere, which is Tetris, but on a globe I have a lot and I'm quite good at it, actually. I'm bad at regular games, but I'm quite good at things that are like Tetris Buster movie puzzle bubbly. So yeah, one of those sorts of things. I've got the top score on Buster move in NQ 64 in Birmingham, or I did, as last time I went, probably not anymore. And yes, I did put my name in as ass. Just in case anybody was wondering, who. [00:51:22] Speaker F: Would you like to interview for your podcast? You have not interviewed yet. [00:51:29] Speaker G: I would love to get Ben Schwartz on the show. I'm a huge fan of his comedy, his improv, many of his acting things. I say many because I haven't seen all of them. Love his voice work, obviously does Sonic the hedgehog and everything. And I just think he'd be a really laid back and fun dude to talk to, which would make me feel comfortable because I'm terrified of talking to strangers. [00:51:53] Speaker F: Where can we find you online? [00:51:57] Speaker G: I am pretty much everywhere. At Stacey's parlor. Stacey with an e parlor with a u for american listeners. And you can email me at Stacy'spala [email protected] Goodbye. Thank you for having me. [00:52:15] Speaker B: The Baftas were awarded recently, so we're going to have a little look through who won, who didn't win and what our predictions are for what that might mean for the Oscars. So I suppose if we maybe go through the big categories, first of all. So shall we start off with best film, the really big one? So best film at the BafTas was won by Oppenheimer. What do we think, keith off? [00:52:50] Speaker D: I can see why they gave it an award. I don't think it was the best film in that category. [00:52:55] Speaker C: But you love Chris. [00:52:58] Speaker D: I think he's a mitigated genius. There was a lot more interesting films in that category. Overall, I thought Oppenheimer was okay. It wasn't great. And I have some objections over its other wins at baftas, but again, it's a british director. I can just see why they've voted the way they voted. Personally, I would have liked to have seen something like Anatomy of a four or poor things win just because they're more interesting films and are trying to do something a little bit more interesting with their subject matter and the way they present of. Yeah, I can see why it was. [00:53:40] Speaker B: But, yeah, I think I generally agree. I love Dockenheimer. I would say I'm probably a bigger fan of Christopher Nolan than you are, but I did think it was an incredibly well made film. I don't think it doesn't deserve it, put it that way. But I would have liked to have seen poor things win as well. And I suppose looking ahead to the oscars would probably have a similar kind of battle. So the nominees, if I just find them, sorry, it's in alphabetical order on here rather than big ones first. There we go. So nominees for the Oscar for best movie are american fiction, Anatomy of a Fool, Barbie, the holdovers, killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro Oppenheimer, Past lives, poor things, and the zone of interest. So I suppose the question is, does the BaFta win increase the already fairly high chances of Oppenheimer winning the Oscar, or is it likely to go to something else? [00:54:51] Speaker D: I always of the opinion that the Oscar voters will do something weird because the Baftafs have gone a different way quite recently, quite a lot. [00:55:03] Speaker C: As someone who follows the BAFTA game awards, that always drastically shifts from, like, Dice and Jeff Keeley's Winterfest. [00:55:12] Speaker D: Although it's kind of american history, Oppenheimer is a kind of big part of american history. It's still quite a contentious part of american history. But then saying that, I'm not so sure that the academy are going to go for anything else. There's a lot of good films in there. American fiction holdovers, Barbie, poor things, zone of interest, all those. So I'm not sure. I have an inkling they might go for something more american friendly. So at the moment, I'm a little bit, I think on my Oscar predictions, I have got Oppenheimer down as winning. [00:55:51] Speaker C: What I find interesting about the Oscars, though, is for years I kind of wrote a lot of it off because it seemed like they just always picked the same kind of three types of films for a while. But the past few years, they've kind of shifted a bit because you have stuff like parasite, you had stuff like everything everywhere all at once that kind of just feel like shape of water. [00:56:09] Speaker D: Nobody would have predicted. [00:56:11] Speaker C: They kind of came out of nowhere and it kind of just swerved off from what you'd expect. So I think it's difficult to kind of say where they. So that's why I think maybe Oppenheimer won't win because it feels too obvious. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think my prediction for this one is probably going to be poor things. It wouldn't at all surprise me if it's Oppenheimer, but I think, like you were saying, it's just quirky enough to sort of stand out without feeling like it's like a complete mean. [00:56:44] Speaker D: Deep down, I'd love it to be. [00:56:49] Speaker C: Like, I don't think it will be because I think they're probably going to be like, oh, well, it's too commercial or whatever. It's based on a toy, but I can see them. Like I said, I think something like poor things probably could take it. [00:57:01] Speaker B: I think the trouble with Barbie is they had so much backlash over not nominating it for actress or director. If they give it best film, it. [00:57:12] Speaker D: Would be a double slap in the. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Face, and it would feel like they're kind of capitulating to the backlash rather than awarding it for its merit. Right. [00:57:20] Speaker D: Yeah, but Oscars, that's the way they've operated over the last few years, there's been a backlash. So they've changed how they pivoted, how they vote in the next year, and then whatever happens, they're an unpredictable bunch. [00:57:35] Speaker C: Then they also do things know, we're going to move best actor so we can give it to Chadwick Boseman, and then we're going to give it to Anthony Hopkins, who's in bEt, and that's going to be the last award of the night. [00:57:47] Speaker B: Well, moving on to best actor, I suppose. So. Killian Murphy won, obviously, for Oppenheimer at the BAFTAs, which I think was quite a deserving win. I do like Killian Murphy. I think he's great. In everything. It's quite rare for him to play a leading role in a big film like that. So it's nice that he's sort of had the excuse to get the recognition that I think has been quite a long time coming. [00:58:14] Speaker C: I think we've also got an evidence of it being like the kind of, I say, british bias that the BAFTAs would have where we've kind of claimed the Irish as we've historically. [00:58:30] Speaker D: Mean. I wasn't won over by his performance in that. But again, it was another weird category because I don't know anybody who'd seen Coleman Domingo's Rustin. It was like, nobody's seen that movie. So it seemed a bit of a weird inclusion in there. And I didn't think the nominations in the category for the BAFTAs were that brilliant, really. There's some good performances there past lives. But again, Barry Keegan for Saltburn. Have you just nominated because of that? Just. Well, you did that for your art, so we're going to acknowledge it. I didn't think it was a great category in terms of the winners. I can see what, again, I can see it's a big bravado film, a big grandstanding performance of stuff. But I didn't think it was particularly subtle or nuanced in any way. He kind of just stood there looking off into the middle distance, often going, oh, my God, I'm a white man with multiple mistresses and my life is so bad. Just seemed a bit kind of. I didn't feel any particular emotional depth into a man who went on to say the classic quote of destroyer of worlds. I didn't feel that conflict of somebody who just went, wow, I've really screwed the world over now with this. It's like, what have I done? I didn't really get that from him. It kind of seemed as if he was running through 28 days later again. But I just seem to be very down. [01:00:03] Speaker B: I think the problem we're going to have with this segment is a lot of stuff is going to be talking about Oppenheimer. So for the Oscars, the nominations are, as you said, colin Domingo for Rustin, Killian Murphy again for Oppenheimer, Bradley Cooper for maestro, Paul Giometti for the holdovers, and Jeffrey Wright for american fiction. I suspect it's going to go Killian Murphy's way again, but I personally quite like to see it go to Jeffrey Ross. He was fantastic in american fiction. I wouldn't be upset if it went to Paul Giamatti either. [01:00:40] Speaker D: I could see the EU Academy going for Paul Giamatti. [01:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Holdovers, I think, seemed to sort of come from nowhere a bit, but was just a lovely sort of sweet, Christmassy film. [01:00:53] Speaker C: Does say a lot that I have not seen any of these. [01:00:57] Speaker B: Well, yeah. I think that's the one thing that might give Paul Gimati some trouble, is I don't think enough people went to see the holdover. I'm not sure I know many people, apart from sort of big film fans, who will go and see as much as they can who went to see it. Yeah. Best actress. We had Emma Stone win the BAftA for poor things, which I'm not upset by at all. I think that was very deserving. [01:01:30] Speaker D: Yeah. I think it was a shoe in, really, almost. And I think it'll be a shoe in at the Oscars as well. [01:01:36] Speaker C: I do still need to see that. I think I saw the trailers for it and was like, I don't know what this is, and it confuses me. But now I'm just like, no, but I probably should see it for that reason. [01:01:47] Speaker D: I think my only problem with that movie is we'll wait until we get to the best supporting actor category and then I will say why? I don't think there's a certain actor who shouldn't be nominated for that. But I think Emma Stone's got it all tied up for that. [01:02:00] Speaker B: I think so. Yeah. So just running through quickly, the other ones were Annette Benning for Niad, Lily Gladstone for killers of the Flower moon, Sandra Huller for Anatomy of a fool and Carrie Mulligan for Maestro. I still haven't seen Maestro. I couldn't tell you anything about Niad. Sandra Huller was great in Anatomy of a fool. I think she's probably the only one that might stand a vague chance. [01:02:27] Speaker D: Although. Although I could see the academy going with Lily Gladstone. [01:02:30] Speaker C: That's what I was going to say. I think it feels, you know, the optics of it are good for them, so I can see them kind of steering in that direction. [01:02:40] Speaker D: I don't imagine that that film will pick up any other oscars in any other category, really. [01:02:47] Speaker B: No, probably not. Okay, so supporting actor. The BaFTA went to Robert Downey Jr. For Oppenheimer. And then the Oscar nominations we have Dana Jr. Again, Sterling K. Brown for american fiction, Robert De Niro for killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo for poor things. [01:03:14] Speaker C: If they give that to Ryan Gosling, the backlash is going to be ferocious. [01:03:19] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm here for it, though. [01:03:24] Speaker D: I'm not Ryan Gosling's biggest fan. Although my favorite movies of him are as a plastic man and a robot. But I would love for him to get that. [01:03:34] Speaker B: This is the thing. I absolutely agree. He basically can't win it because the backlash would be so bad and it would be as if they were watching Barbie but not absorbing what Barbie's about. [01:03:49] Speaker D: Patriarchy. That's good, isn't it? We've got horses. So, yeah. [01:03:55] Speaker B: I do think, though, it's a shame because he wouldn't be an undeserving winner. [01:04:01] Speaker D: It's a great performance in a great film. [01:04:04] Speaker C: I haven't seen Barbie, but I've seen clips of him. And before then, I kind of had this sort of impression of Ryan Gosling being kind of a bit flat, a bit boring. Saw his performance in that and I was like, oh, no. He's like properly leaning into this and it's great. [01:04:18] Speaker D: I'm going to see the four guy now. Mark Ruffalo should not be in that category whatsoever because although his performance is fine, he was in the light. We cannot see Netflix tv series by Stephen Knight. And I've convinced myself, just, Mark, do not do accents. [01:04:38] Speaker C: You can't do them. [01:04:39] Speaker D: Just stick with your own voice. It's fine. [01:04:41] Speaker C: We'll let it go. [01:04:42] Speaker D: But don't do accents because you're not good at it. [01:04:46] Speaker B: I quite enjoyed his performance in poor things, but I would be surprised if he's winning this one. I do think this one's slightly more open. Again, it wouldn't surprise me if Robert Downey Jr. Wins it, but I wouldn't mind seeing it go to Sterling K. Brown as well. He wasn't american fiction. [01:05:04] Speaker D: I mean, the Oscars haven't really gone for that big, like something winning everything in a few years. So I'd be surprised if Oppenheimer did that clean sweep. I can see director, film, lead actor, I can see them getting that. But I think when we start to get to the other categories, I think go a little bit against them. [01:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Supporting actress. The BAftA went to divine Joy Randolph for the holdovers, which again, quite happy with. The other nominees for the Oscars are Emily Blunt for Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks for the Colour Purple, America Ferreira for Barbie and Jodie Foster for Niad. Plus divine. Joe Randolph again. [01:05:52] Speaker D: I think divine's got it. [01:05:54] Speaker B: I think. [01:05:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:05:58] Speaker B: I did quite like Danielle Brooks in the colour purple. [01:06:01] Speaker D: I like Daniel Brooks in everything she does. She's brilliant. [01:06:05] Speaker B: Part of me just wants her to win because it'll be a win for someone who was in peacemaker. [01:06:12] Speaker D: I'd just love to see her acceptance speech as well. That would be great. [01:06:16] Speaker B: Yes. Okay, so director, again, Christopher Nolan won for Oppenheimer at the BAFTAs, and then we said the Barbie song. Bit of a freudian slip term, I think. So if I can just find it on here. So he's obviously nominated again for the Oscar. Plus we have justine trier for Anatomy of the fall, Martin Scorsese for killers of the Flower moon, Jorgos Lanthimos for poor things, and Jonathan Glaser for the zone of interest. I wouldn't be surprised. Again, if this goes to Christopher Nolan. It feels like the academy are going to want to give him something at this point. [01:07:07] Speaker D: Yeah, we've seen the pictures of you, Christopher, with that giant IMAX camera over somebody's head. Yeah, it's proper. Interestingly, I was surprised that Jorges didn't get a nomination in the BAFTAs for best director, which is a bit alight. I couldn't quite see how they justified that, considering how well the film did in every other category that was there. I'd like it not to go Christopher Nolan just so that he doesn't become the most insufferable, pretentious filmmaker in history. Jorgis would be cool. Jonathan Glazer would be cool. [01:07:41] Speaker C: But the thing is, though, Christopher Nolan, he's like the big name. They've never given him an oscar before, have they? [01:07:47] Speaker B: No. [01:07:48] Speaker C: Yeah. So they've not given it. And it's a historical epic that he's done. So it's sort of like, oh, now it feels like time. [01:07:54] Speaker D: Maybe we should just give him one. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And we don't have to give him another one. We can stop then we can have. [01:08:00] Speaker D: Three years of him going, oh, am I going to do Bond? Am I not going to do bond? [01:08:07] Speaker B: Okay. Animated feature film. So we were saying before we recorded this one, might be quite an interesting one. So the BafTA went to the boy and the heron. The other nominees for the Oscars are elemental pneumonia, robot dreams and Spider man across the spider Verse. [01:08:24] Speaker C: It's kind of interesting that this is the first category where I've seen two films because I've seen the boy and the heron and I've seen pneumonia. [01:08:36] Speaker B: I'm really happy pneumonia is in there. I would be surprised if it wins, but great to see it being recognised. Elemental. I'm also quite happy is in there. Pixar are great. I think this deserved better than it did. I thought it was a very enjoyable film. I've never even heard of robot dreams. [01:09:04] Speaker D: It's not been released in the UK yet. Okay. I think it's coming up this week. Next week. It's a quirky kind of 2d animation. It looks sweet and charming and nothing. It would be a great film to see. I don't think it's quite Oscar winning material. [01:09:22] Speaker C: It feels like the sort of. We've put a left field one in there just to sort of show that we're aware that it's not just Disney and Ghibli. [01:09:30] Speaker D: Animators are artists. And yeah, we've got this. Nice. Really well done. I think it's a two horse race between boy and the heron and across the spiderverse. I'm just thinking, because of what the film signifies and where Miyazaki is in his career and the kind of history of the academy that they'll probably give it. I mean, it's a beautiful looking film. I didn't think it was his best work. I think it was a bit of a hodgepodge of kind of greatest hits elements of it, and didn't really hold together narratively as a whole. [01:10:04] Speaker C: The parakeets just as characters. But, yeah, it is kind of a bit all over the place. [01:10:10] Speaker D: I wouldn't be surprised if it went to that across the Spyverse. Yeah. [01:10:15] Speaker C: If it was me personally, I would give it to Namona, but it isn't winning. [01:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. It's going to be one of the two. I don't hugely mind either way. I do agree it's not Mayozaki's best film, but it was a lovely film. Across the Spider Verse was I said in the Christmas episode, it was one of my cinema highlights of last year. I'd be very happy if that wins. But it's the previous Spiderverse film. One. One. There's one more to go if they want to give it another one, and I'm sure that's going to be amazing as well. It's going to be an interesting one, but I suspect you're right and it's going to go to. [01:11:01] Speaker D: Heron. [01:11:04] Speaker B: So that brings us into some of the more technical ones. So we'll just very quickly run through some of these. So BAFTAs gave original score to Oppenheimer. Visual effects took poor. [01:11:23] Speaker C: Every time you say Oppenheimer, I want to see his reaction every single time. [01:11:29] Speaker B: Sorry. Well, let's go with visual effects for our next one. So that went to poor things for the BAFTA, but I don't believe it's been nominated. [01:11:40] Speaker D: No, it hasn't. Although Godzilla minus one has. [01:11:44] Speaker B: It has, yes. [01:11:45] Speaker C: So we know your choice, then. [01:11:48] Speaker D: Just because of the nature and of what they did with that film and the budget they had and the resources they had just to appreciate the artistry that went into that movie. I imagine it'll go to the creator. [01:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. The nominees are creator, Godzilla minus one. Guardians over the galaxy, Vol. Three, mission Impossible and Napoleon. Creator was all about the visual effects. That was the main reason for seeing the film in the end, I think. [01:12:16] Speaker D: Although if the Academy Awards people don't like horses, it could go to Napoleon. There's that. [01:12:24] Speaker B: There is that. Yeah. [01:12:25] Speaker C: That took me a second to understand what you were saying. [01:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Be very happy if it went to Godzilla as well. [01:12:33] Speaker D: But I'd be ecstatic if it went to Godzilla. And I would be all over their acceptance speech. [01:12:42] Speaker B: Writing. Adapted screenplay went in the BAFTAs to american fiction. Deservedly so. I think the other nominees are zone of interest. Poor things. Oppenheimer and Barbie for the Oscars. I'd be really happy for this. Played to american fiction again. I think it was a really well written film. And if it doesn't get best actor, I feel like this is, this was. [01:13:12] Speaker C: Another one where they had a bit of controversy. Goes, just Barbie being put there as an adapted screenplay is an OD one because technically it's based on a thing, but it is an original story. [01:13:27] Speaker D: It's an adapted property, but the story didn't exist elsewhere. It might have done some. Two kids somewhere. Oh, my children did this. I've adapted it to a film. Yeah. It'd be good for american fiction to win it. So that film gets some kind of acknowledgement. Who knows? Maybe it'll be somewhere else. [01:13:51] Speaker B: And then original screenplay. The BAFTA went to Anatomy of a fool, which has also been nominated for the Oscar alongside the holdovers, maestro, may december and past lives. [01:14:04] Speaker D: But to counterpoint Lee in that category, in the BAFTAs original screenplay, that's where Barbie won. So. [01:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:14:11] Speaker D: What do these Americans know about anything? [01:14:15] Speaker B: So what do we think with this one? Anatomy of a fall again, it was very well written. [01:14:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I think it probably will. [01:14:27] Speaker B: Yeah. The holdovers. I'd be very happy to see it win as well. Past lives could be in for a shot, too. [01:14:35] Speaker D: Yeah. I think past lives would be a good, worthy winner. I just don't think it will win. That's the only thing. I mean, it's a good film, and I think it's on Netflix now. So if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a watch. [01:14:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it's one of the few. I think that and maestro are the only ones I've not seen of the big best picture novels. And I think they're both on Netflix. Yeah. And then I think the final one, I just want to mention quickly, is the foreign film, which I suspect is definitely going to zone of interest, as it did in the BAFTA, and I suspect that's going to get sound as well. That was a horrible but incredible film. [01:15:21] Speaker D: Yeah. I don't know, because sound's gone through completely wrong films in the past few years at the Academy, so they've made some bizarre choices. So I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't go to zone of interest. But, yeah. [01:15:39] Speaker B: I think we'll wrap it up there. But, yeah, oscars are March 10, I believe. [01:15:45] Speaker D: Yeah. And don't have awards for casting guys. We need stunt team awards soon, please. [01:15:57] Speaker E: So it's the start of 2024 and we're in Birmingham. So I've put together a little bit of a shifty of what is coming up in Birmingham over the first part of the year with geeky events, conventions, things for your diary. I've kind of got a few little categories. So starting off with gaming and esports, we have the return of insomnia gaming festival. [01:16:26] Speaker B: This is. [01:16:26] Speaker E: I want to say it's like the 15th year or so. [01:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's usually over Easter weekend, isn't it? [01:16:32] Speaker E: Yeah. So it's coming to us at the 29 March, the 1 April. This is everything gaming. So it's basically one of the largest land festivals, I think, in Europe, actually. And it's over the years expanded to be gaming related as well. So lots of different expos, things to do, activities, as well as the core concept of LAN. One thing I'm really excited for is the return, the triumphant return of ESL one. Birmingham. The dota major ESL one. It first came to Birmingham in 2018 and it was one of the most successful two majors in history and still remains like that today. But then Covid gave it a massive kick in, so it's really good to see it coming back. So that's going to be at the NEC in April 22 April to the 20 eigth of April. And watch out on the geeky bromie channels because I will be gushing all over it. And another return is vs. Fighting twelve. So vs. Fighting again is one of the largest beat them up esports tournaments in Europe. And that's coming back to us in August, late August, early September at Millennium Point in Birmingham. A couple of things. So, convention wise, this is one that Keith might be interested in. We've got the Edgebaston Comic Con and toy fair. That's in 3 March at Edgebaster Stadium. We've also got the Birmingham Comic and Science fair on the 16 March, so next month is going to be quite good for comic and Sci-Fi nerds. We've also got the Return of Megacon, which is essentially a massive conglomerate of several smaller cons that have now all come together. That's your anime, gaming, manga, comics all rolled into one. We're also seeing the return of MCM Birmingham Comic Con, which is always a massive staple, I think, in the UK. Canada, really, I'd say outside of London, it's one of the biggest. And also the return of UK games Expo again in May. So end of May, start of June, UK games Expo. That's everything to do with board games, board games, card games, trading games, all sorts of things. And also really good for lots of gaming tournaments as well. [01:19:12] Speaker C: I fully intend to go to that 100%. [01:19:18] Speaker E: And it's. I just want to say it's probably one of the most influential that we've got in the UK at the moment. As far as that kind of convention goes. [01:19:32] Speaker A: It's a great one to see loads of new stuff coming up that you wouldn't pretty much think every single gaming cafe goes. So what games they're going to pick up for the next year? So it's good. I think they do a lot of previews as well of games coming up and play testing. [01:19:47] Speaker E: Play testing I think is the big one. [01:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:53] Speaker E: A couple of other anime cons. We've got the anime Con 15th, 16 June. [01:19:57] Speaker A: We've also tickets just gone on sale this week. At the time of recording, they have. [01:20:01] Speaker E: Just gone on sale. You're absolutely right. Gold star. We've also got the anime and gaming Con, which is third to the 4 August. And then lastly, to wrap up this section, another one for Keith. Collector mania 28 film and Comic Con happening at the NEC at the end of August, start of September. [01:20:26] Speaker A: Can I add another thing to the anime selection? [01:20:28] Speaker E: You absolutely can. [01:20:29] Speaker A: Which is the Birmingham Anime Film Festival, which is returning for 2024. Keep an eye on the website Baf UK. [01:20:35] Speaker E: You see, you jumped the shark then. Because my next section was film and culture. [01:20:41] Speaker A: It kind of does both. [01:20:43] Speaker E: Yeah, it kind of does. [01:20:45] Speaker B: There's no harm plugging it twice. [01:20:48] Speaker E: But can I just say as well, the inaugural festival was a major success. So overwhelmingly positive feedback from everyone sold out quite a lot in everything that was done. So, yeah, to add to that, we've also got some staples returns, things like Flatpat Film Festival. So lots of independent and interesting films happening across Birmingham in loads of independent venues. We've also got two city centre festivals which are quite close to my heart. That's the jury quarter festival happening in July. That's a lot of designer maker cultural, lots of music, lots of food, and then Cornmore Food Festival, which is again, a really good one for anyone who's a massive foodie and wants to know more about what Birmingham has to offer. And then, as you already said, fantastic Birmingham anime and film festival. [01:21:50] Speaker B: Yes. [01:21:50] Speaker A: So slightly different set up this year as well, so give you a bit. [01:21:54] Speaker D: Of a leak on news. [01:21:55] Speaker A: So we're swapping from just being over one week to three weekends. So it'll be probably the last two weekends of September, the first weekend of October, but we'll be running from Thursday to Sunday, both at the Mac and the Mockingbird cinema, plus some other venues to be announced. So keep reassealed and there'll be some satellite events coming up across the spring and summer as well. So, yeah, keep your eye on the Baff UK website and there'll be lots of information coming up there soon. [01:22:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:22:22] Speaker E: And for those of you who missed it, some of the satellite events were screenings in things like the botanical gardens, which was very, very popular as well. [01:22:31] Speaker B: It's my neighbour totoro, which was just the perfect venue for that. [01:22:34] Speaker C: It was brilliant. [01:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:22:36] Speaker E: So wholesome. Although it was the first time I watched through my neighbour Totoro and go, actually, it just ends very short. It just ends. And I'd never really clocked that before. [01:22:48] Speaker A: Well, mom comes home, that's all it needs to do. It's a nice wrap up. [01:22:53] Speaker C: So, side note, going back to the fighting tournament, I would like to raise a question. Why does it have Tekken seven and not eight? [01:23:02] Speaker E: It's a very good question. Sometimes it's purely because the gaming sort of rules haven't been that established around it. So things like Super Smash Bros, they had to abandon one of Super Smash Bros. I want to say, not melee, the one after that. [01:23:22] Speaker A: Ultimate. [01:23:23] Speaker E: Ultimate. [01:23:24] Speaker A: Ultimate's the last one. [01:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:26] Speaker C: So melee, brawl, brawl. And then you had smash, brawl. [01:23:30] Speaker E: Yeah, the wi u one. Purely because there was a trip mechanic, which would just put some unnecessary RNG in it, which just ruined everything. [01:23:36] Speaker C: Brawl. That's definitely brawl. [01:23:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:39] Speaker E: So it's a good question. I'd probably say it's probably because they haven't established tournament rules or because it's still quite new. [01:23:51] Speaker C: Just because I've been playing a lot of tekken eight. So I was just like, oh, I wonder if that's. [01:23:57] Speaker E: I've not really heard much about Tekken eight. [01:23:59] Speaker C: It's doing well in general. [01:24:00] Speaker E: Is it doing well? [01:24:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:03] Speaker A: I have issues with fighting games because I usually learn one character very well and then find it's the worst character to learn. Angry and online play is not designed for a man of my age. Now I'm like a granddad. [01:24:16] Speaker C: I'm determined to learn, I'm determined to get married. [01:24:20] Speaker E: But overall, it's really positive and this is not a definitive list. This is literally stuff that we know is coming up. There is so much other stuff in the pipeline and it's really good to see that actually, Birmingham's got, well, if. [01:24:38] Speaker A: You keep in line, our social media and our sister account, geeky goings on, would you say that's a good place to find out information, Matt? [01:24:45] Speaker E: I would say it's probably the definitive place to find out. Stuff happening around Birmingham and beyond as well. [01:24:54] Speaker B: And beyond? [01:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah, because the whole Midlands area, that's film festivals, events, special screenings, always some interesting stuff going on there. [01:25:04] Speaker E: So other than the obvious Boeing anime and film festival, which is going to be outstanding, any other events we're looking forward to? [01:25:12] Speaker A: So we've said UK games Expo Animecon. So we went down for their first year last year and it was great, to be honest. They had a really good. It was a really good vibe, really, really enjoyed it and some fantastic guests and I think they're building on it this year. They've just done their event in drumsheds, which was a couple of weekends ago, and that seems to have gone down really well, so they seem to be branching out well. That and MCM, which is always good. [01:25:37] Speaker C: Fun in terms of events, we're looking forward to one that you have not mentioned. So I'm only going to be doing two days of the UK Games expo because on the Sunday at the Symphony hall, there is a Final Fantasy concert. So I'm determined to go to that. [01:25:55] Speaker A: Also, across the spy diverse is doing a tour of live in concert along with the movie. I know you don't care about that one, but I think they haven't released the venues yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if they came to Birmingham or somewhere close by. [01:26:08] Speaker E: So we'll wrap up this segment, but stay tuned for Geeky Brownie because we will be covering several of these events. We'll also be doing various reviews, catch ups, what's ons on the website, on the social media channels, and yeah, it's looking to be quite a fun 2024. [01:26:28] Speaker A: It's time for our regular roundup of one geek thing. The one thing that we've all been up to or enjoying whilst we've been away from the previous episode to kick us off. Lee, you can start us off. What's been your one geek thing since we caught up last Christmas? [01:26:46] Speaker C: Oh, God. So obviously for this, I always bring up a game that I've been playing, but I worked out that since the start of the year, since games have been releasing this year, I've played at least one game from each week of this year. It is absurd. And I don't know how I pulled that off. Some are better than others. [01:27:02] Speaker E: So power world. [01:27:04] Speaker C: Power world is Tekken eight. There's Silent Hill, the short message, which is bad. Don't touch it. There's foam stars, which is okay. And the Tomb Raider remasters. And the Pacific drive. I talked a bit about Pacific Drive earlier in the show, so I'm not really going to go into that. Do you know what? I'm just going to talk about the Tomb Raider remasters. Because people who know me know that I love Tomb Raider. [01:27:27] Speaker A: How have they fixed the tank controls? [01:27:29] Speaker C: So it still has the tank controls, but it also has a new modern controls system, which is bad. Don't use it. [01:27:38] Speaker A: But the tank control system is bad. [01:27:40] Speaker C: Now, the tank control system is fine. It's designed for that game. And that's the problem with the modern controls, is that they're controls that are not designed for those games. [01:27:52] Speaker A: If anybody hasn't heard of tank controls, what are they? [01:27:54] Speaker C: So basically, tank controls are if you press up, it moves your character forward, press down, it moves them back, left and right, turn them. So it's like the movement of a tank. So that's how Lara moves. So if you're pressing left and right, she'll turn rather than. Or if you're pressing one of the shoulder buttons, then she'll sidestep, sort of thing. And it's designed because the whole game is built around like a grid based system. And this just makes the jumping easy to line up, to do it that way. But, yeah, I've been playing that. They've kind of overhauled the visuals completely. [01:28:30] Speaker A: Second question. Can you still lock the butler in the fridge? [01:28:32] Speaker C: Yes, you can. [01:28:33] Speaker A: That's the most important part. [01:28:34] Speaker C: And even better, you can get an achievement for it. It is one of the 269 trophies that they have put in this game because it's across all three games, plus their expansions. And this was the main reason I bought the remaster, is even though I've played the original three games, like, a ridiculous amount of times, and I still have the originals the one thing I've never been able to play was the expansions for those original three games. There's unfinished business for Tomb Raider one, Golden Mass for Tomb Raider two, and the lost artifact for Tomb Raider three. And they were all pc only. I owned the PlayStation version, so I never got to play them. And trying to play them on a modern pc, I was just like, it's going to be too much work to try and just get them functioning. So when I saw that the remasters were including those expansions, I was like, I need to get this. And it's been so good playing them because it's like playing a brand new Tomb Raider game in that sort of classic style. And it's so exciting for me because obviously with the series changing so much over the years, that classic style has kind of gone away. And it's so good to just play stuff that I don't know, in that style and just getting to explore something new. And I'm like, we need to do more of this crystal dynamics. Please just do more of this sort of style of Tomb Raider. [01:29:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I know you're a massive thing fan of game preservation and bringing old games to modern audiences. Do you think this is one of the better examples that we've seen? [01:30:01] Speaker C: Yes. So one of the things they've done, like I said, they've overhauled the visuals. So it's not like Super AA. It still very much looks like an older game. If anything, it looks kind of like it's from the PS two, but in HD. But you can switch to the original visuals at any time. And it is literally a button press. So I'm playing on PlayStation, if you press the options button, it just immediately switches it. And it's kind of bizarre. Like, I genuinely don't know how they've made it work. So it's literally just a button press and you can just keep pressing it and I'll switch between the two visual. [01:30:36] Speaker A: They did that with the halo Master chief collection where you could switch to original graphics or remastered. And I didn't realize the first 20 minutes I played that I was playing in the old clunky graphics. I haven't remastered anything on. [01:30:49] Speaker C: Well, I found this out because the options button is usually the start button. It's usually like pause. So I pressed it and I was like, well, this isn't pause because now everything's like cubes. But it's really good to sort of get these games back on modern systems because up until this point, I think they've only really been available on pc. Where they haven't worked brilliantly just because they're older games. And the control scheme was designed back in 1996 when no one had figured out what controls were yet. So it's got like, I think the original Tomb Raider uses the arrow keys to move Lara instead of WASD, which I think the remaster has changed to WASD. But it's just kind of good to actually have these original games so accessible. [01:31:42] Speaker A: It's quite interesting with the remastered thing, especially with Sony, because you've got a great example in Tomb Raider, and then you've got a terrible example in the Last of us, part two remastered, which is basically, this game's not even that old, but we're putting out again because we're going to get more money from the PS five audience. [01:31:57] Speaker E: Yeah, I think it's quite nice because, as you said, I've been playing it to death and it's just amazing. But it's that kind of thing of. Because they've used the original framework and it almost feels like how you imagined it was back in the day. And it was quite nice because you could see a lot of these games being remastered in this way. So even things like the old resident evils and that kind of thing, just with that, where it's got the gloss, it's got like a glossy film on it, but it's still, in all intents, purposes, the same game. Because they also, with this remaster, all of the original bugs still work. Like, there's loads of glitches and things you can still do. [01:32:48] Speaker C: But I know that there's even an achievement for performing the corner bug, which is basically like, if you sort of run up to a corner and you jump enough, Lara will sort of teleport up to a platform. It'll sort of get confused over where she's standing and just kind of go, well, this is the nearest platform and there are some med kits which are sort of inaccessible normally, but if you use the corner bug, you can get to them. And there's one of them that if you pick that up, you get an achievement for it. So they've not only kept all the glitches, but they're kind of proud of keeping all the glitches. Yeah. So it's been a lot of fun revisiting that. [01:33:27] Speaker A: Fired. And final question is the T Rex? [01:33:30] Speaker C: Yes, it is basically the original games, all three, first three games, as they were, just with a new visual. And like you said, while playing it with the modern graphics, I keep thinking, oh, they haven't changed it at all. And then I'll accidentally press options. I'm just like, oh, wait, no, the other. Because it does feel like this is what it looked like in the past. And then, oh, no, it isn't. It didn't look like that. [01:33:56] Speaker E: But switching back to the old graphics, especially in Tomb Raider one, there's sometimes I'm looking at things going, what am I looking at? I actually don't know what this room is. [01:34:05] Speaker A: The problem is you're looking at that on a twelve inch CRt back then and everything was smoothed out and now you're looking at it. What resolution. [01:34:13] Speaker B: You go. [01:34:17] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:34:17] Speaker A: Thank you, Matt. We'll go down the line. What's your one geek thing been? The last few weeks, I've gone down. [01:34:24] Speaker E: An evil dead rabbit hole. So I've watched Evil Dead one and two, and I've also been watching Ash versus the evil Dead, so I've seen it all before, but always intermittently. And then Ash versus the evil Dead. I watched the first series, really quite enjoyed it, and then never went back to it. So just randomly, I just had a real hankering to watch the evil Dead and then I just ended up binge watching all of it. Plus the 2013 reboot ish thing and then evil dead rise. So I'm just on a bit of an evil dead binge. [01:35:06] Speaker A: Evil Dead rise. [01:35:08] Speaker E: I really enjoyed evil Dead Rise. Maybe it's controversial, I don't know. I just thought it had the Sam Raimi sort of slapstick, but with some really good horror bits in it. [01:35:25] Speaker A: It was just fun to watch Keith's face twitch then. [01:35:27] Speaker E: Yeah, I know it's controversial, but I quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. [01:35:32] Speaker D: I liked the evil Dead Rise was weird because it was the opening that I thought was quite cool. That was great with the title reveal. And then it kind of just went downhill after that. And I thought, I know where we got to get to. But the journey to it was not that interesting. Whereas Ash versus evil Dead is gloriously brilliant throughout. And having Lee majors as Ash's spoilers father is the greatest bit of casting I've ever seen. [01:36:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:36:01] Speaker E: And I just love having Lucy Lawless in it, just being that sort of femme fatale side character. Just brilliant. It's just nice because Bruce Campbell's obviously, that's everything to him and you can see the passion in it and it's just. Yeah, it's just a bit of fun, really. [01:36:27] Speaker A: So what says the highlight and the low light of the franchise? [01:36:33] Speaker E: Good question. I would probably say Evil Dead two is my highlight, purely because it just carried on so much. And we have a lot to thank for the fact that Evil Dead two. Evil Dead one obviously happened, but everything was, like, super low budget. So Evil Dead two was kind of secured the future of what we've got now. [01:37:00] Speaker A: Low. [01:37:01] Speaker E: I would probably say the Evil Dead 2013 reboot, because Evil Dead rise, I think at least they tried to do something different, whereas, like, the reboot was. It kind of tried to be a bit too horror. Yeah, and I didn't really vibe with it. It was the least evil Dead out of the Evil Dead, if that makes sense. [01:37:25] Speaker A: Even though it's called Evil Dead? [01:37:26] Speaker E: Even though it's called Evil Dead. [01:37:29] Speaker A: Thank you, Sam. How about yourself? [01:37:32] Speaker B: So I'm going to cheat a little bit and use something that I watched towards the end of last year, but I've been sort of waiting to use it as my one geek thing since then. So I've watched the really rather brilliant blue eyes samurai on Netflix, which is an animated series set in feudal Japan, where at the time, basically, the idea is it's set in a period when the rulers of Japan basically outlawed white people and westerners from Japan. Anyone who was related to or was a white person was kind of demonized. And it focuses on samurai who has blue eyes because her father was a white man who'd come along and had sort of been in the country illegally trying to sell guns. It's incredibly well animated. It sort of takes a similar kind of painterly style that a lot of recent brilliant films have done. And just to give you an idea of the level of detail, there's a bit where they're in Kyoto, and they're walking through a castle, and I was watching it thinking, I know that place. That's Nijo Castle. I've been there. And the reason I recognized it wasn't because of the visuals. It was because I recognized the sound of the floorboards as they were walking over them. Because that Castle famously has floorboards that were designed to make a kind of curipping noise, like kind of crickets as you're walking over them. And I just thought, that is an incredible level of detail that I can look at that and think, yeah, no, I've definitely been there. Now that I've recognized it from the noise, I can recognize the corridor they're walking down as well. And it sort of extends to other things as well. So if she gets injured at any point, she will have the scars of that injury for the rest of the show. It's got a fantastic cast as well. So all the kind of big asian american actors. So there's Ming Na Wen, James Hong, what's his face? Guy from Star Trek. Really silly. Original silly. [01:40:10] Speaker A: Oh, George de Kai. [01:40:11] Speaker B: Thank you. Yes. George De Kai. Yeah. Should really remember George De Kai's name. He's in it and very recognizable voice. But yeah, very lovely character. And yeah, it's beautifully made. I can't recommend it enough. There was a little period where it didn't seem to have a huge audience to begin with, and it was sort of touch and go about whether it would be popular enough for a second season. But they have now confirmed it's been renewed. So, yeah, one to watch out for, Kenneth Branner as well, is in it and is an excellent, really horrible bad guy. So, yeah, if you haven't seen it, absolutely recommend it. It deserves to be sort of being held up as one of the big Netflix series, I think. [01:41:04] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you, Keith. How about yourself? [01:41:08] Speaker D: Right? There's a tremendous amount of good tv around at the moment, but I'm going to mention a show again that I've probably mentioned in the past before, and it's now running its second season on BBC. Over here, it was on HBO Max in America, it's finished, has now been cancelled, which has caused an absolute ferore amongst the fans. But I'm saying my one geeky thing this week is going to be our flag means death show, created by Ryan's obviously been on the boat in our flag means death. Too much room there for Ryan. So it's created by David Jenkins, stars Davis, Reese Darby, who you might remember from things like Voltron or Flight of the Concords, and also some director, some geezer. He's done a couple of Marvel movies, forgot his name. Tyker. [01:42:01] Speaker B: Tyker. [01:42:03] Speaker D: So they both play Blackbeard, the pirate and the gentleman pirate, Steve Bonnet. So a lot of it is actually historically accurate. Surprisingly amount of it is historically accurate. But basically it's the love story between Blackbeard and Steed Bonnet. And it's just beautiful. Every episode I watch, I just go, oh, my God, that was just amazing and fantastic and I love it. And I've bought some bootleg blu rays of it because there's never going to be a physical release of it. And there's a chance because HBO and Warner's and all the rest of it, who knows when it might be moved from the various digital platforms. So I thought, I am not missing having this. So I've bought some bootleg blu rays so I know I'll be able to watch it. Again, at some point further down the line. But every actor in it is just perfectly cast. The dialogue just flows so beautifully. Everybody just, it just seems so natural. You just kind of think, it's not a tv show. This is really happening right now. And I know a lot of people struggle with Taika Waititi, but he's fantastic as Blackbeard the pirate. His performance is phenomenal as an actor. He's doing brilliant work in here, and it carries a lot of that Taika Waititi sensibility. Even though he's kind of like an executive producer and he's created by David Jenkins. It carries a little bit that slightly quirky, weird, odd, uncomfortable, strange kind of thing that you get from a lot of his films, like boy or hunt. [01:43:33] Speaker A: For the wild people. [01:43:34] Speaker D: Hunt for the wild people. I recently saw his film next goal wins, which I loved. I really enjoyed that. I thought it was a great movie. But, yeah, there's just something about our flag means death that touches me so deeply emotionally that I'm just like, this. [01:43:51] Speaker B: Is just so beautiful. [01:43:52] Speaker D: And you're kind of almost drawn to tears every time. And they used Kate Bush's this woman's work in a recent episode, and I was like, you a. That is a song that tears me up every time. It was used in the Kevin Bacon movie. He said she said, I think, or she's having a baby. I think that was with the film. But it's a beautiful piece, but it's just amazing. And there's a lot of kind of mystical stuff in there as well, and fantasy and stuff. It's just phenomenal. So if you haven't watched it, it's on BBC at the moment. If you're elsewhere in the world, you might be able to get it through HBO Max, but I definitely recommend you watch it. It's just phenomenal bit of television. So back to you, Ryan. What's your one geek thing? [01:44:40] Speaker A: So I was going to say DS nine because I'm on a bit of a binge rewatch on Paramount plus, but I've changed my mind because I'm going to go with one of the greatest shows on modern television as well, which is on Disney plus over here in the UK. I think it's showtime in the States, which is the bear, which is. There is not enough superlatives in the world for the show. It is some of the greatest half an hours of tv that I've ever watched in my life. Just coming towards the end of season two. I know it's been out for a while, so we're catching us. Season one was a fantastic tour de force, but season two has upped it on every single level. Brought in some fantastic little guest spots in here, but every single character, I think the series pretty much gives them a little vignette after the first couple of episodes. So you get a full on proper backstory for each one of the characters that you got introduced to in season one. And some of the stories are just so beautiful. It's just fantastic to watch. The last one I watch, I'm going to call out the episode Fawkes, which I think deserves an Emmy on its own just for that episode. She takes the character cousin who's like the guy who was left running the restaurant when Kami, before Kami returns, and it's him working in a three star Michelin restaurant and learning how service works. Richie, sorry, Eben Moss Bakrak, who's now going to be the thing. I have real big hopes now for that Fantastic Four movie based on him playing that character because I think he's going to be absolutely fantastic as the thing. But if you have not watched the bear, there is no excuse. If you're in Disney plus, go and watch it now. It is some of the best acting and the best tv you will ever see. The Christmas Dinner episode as well is a fantastic one. And I think they just threw the entire guest star budget out there. You've got Jamie Curtis playing Carmen's mom. Absolute perfect casting on that. But yeah, it's just every single half an hour is a joy to watch and it's one of those films, the shows you want to savor. I'm assuming Matt and Sam, you watched it as well? [01:46:52] Speaker B: I've seen season one, but I haven't seen season two yet, so I'm inspired to get on that, which I have been meaning to for a while. [01:47:02] Speaker E: I've not. It's on my list and everyone keeps telling me to watch it. [01:47:07] Speaker A: So yeah, if you've ever worked in hospitality or retail or the service industry, there'll be some one of these characters that you all gel with. And the interplay between the characters as well is just absolutely fantastic. It deserves every single plot that it's getting at the minute. So our recommendations were Tomb Raider, remasters. [01:47:30] Speaker B: Evil Dead, blue eye summary. [01:47:32] Speaker A: Our flag means death and the bear. I'm sure I'll put links to that somewhere in either the description or on the geeky premier website. Thanks for joining us for Geeky premier for this issue. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you've enjoyed what we've shared with you this week. Don't forget like subscribe, share, do all the usual stuff from the Twitch rebits and we're on socials on Facebook, Instagram threads that we don't use. We should do Twitter, blue Sky and a few other social medias, but we'll get those out there and links will. [01:48:08] Speaker C: Be in the description. [01:48:09] Speaker A: Lee, where can we find you online? [01:48:11] Speaker C: You can find me on YouTube at Bob the pet Ferret, where I've got a couple of videos in the works, one of which is on the Tomb Raider remasters. Just a sort of quick one, just sort of giving my impressions on the expansions. And I'm not going to say what the other one is, but I did buy a conspiracy board for it. So you can also find me as a freelance writer, mostly working as writing for Silicon era, where you can see me posting various different things. Got my Pacific Drive review should be up by the time this episode is out. And you can also find me on Twitter at the cheap parrot as well. [01:48:51] Speaker A: Thank you, Sam. [01:48:53] Speaker C: Where can we find you online? [01:48:55] Speaker B: So you can find me on Instagram at SD Edwards 89 or on Twitter at Dragonsam 89. And as of this year, I'm also posting on the geeky primary website every Thursday, doing a roundup of the films that are coming out over the course of the next week. So it'll be just a little summary of what's coming up, reasons to get excited for each one of them, and a sort of pick of the week for which one I'm looking forward to the most awesome. [01:49:22] Speaker A: Matt, how about yourself? [01:49:23] Speaker E: You can find me on Instagram at Matchtick underscore Matt, you can also find me on Twitter at Mr. Mattlevel. [01:49:31] Speaker A: And Keith, how about yourself on the various socials? [01:49:34] Speaker D: You can just find me as hard luck hotel. If you look for hard hotel, it's bound to be me. Then on Wednesdays I do my comics pool list, which is the comics that I'm buying, and on the radar books, which are ones that I'm looking at or probably will buy on trade or digital at some point down the line. But I'm also going to take this opportunity to say, one of my students revealed this week that they listened to the show, so just wanted to say a big shout out to Gabby. Hi, Gabby. Thanks for listening. Everybody say hi, Gabby. [01:50:02] Speaker C: Hi, Gabby. [01:50:03] Speaker D: There you go, Gabby. And now I'll know whether you actually do listen. And so, Ryan, what about you? Where can we find you on the various socials? [01:50:13] Speaker A: You can find me on the twitters at Ryan Parrish but yep, as I mentioned, geeky rummy on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, YouTube. Of course, if you're watching this on podcasting services of your choice, if you're listening to this, please mention geekyrumy.com, where you can find a fantastic range of articles, including Keith's comic roundup, Sam's film roundup, and Lee's gaming roundup at the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, respectively, if I. [01:50:37] Speaker C: Don'T forget to upload it on one day and end up putting up at 09:00 p.m. [01:50:42] Speaker A: But yeah, we got some more fantastic articles coming soon. Don't forget about Baff coming up. So B-A-F-F-U-K. There'll be some more information coming out on that very shortly about schedule for 2024. But yeah, thank you very much for joining us, and we'll see you again soon. Bye.