Willow / The Waiting Room of a Strip Club (Guest: Shannon Corbeil)

Join us with guest Actor/Writer/Director Shannon Corbeil as we journey through her choice "Willow" (1987 Dir. Ron Howard) Starring: Val Kilmer, Warwick Davis, and Joanne Whalley. We break down this sword & sorcery film filled with characters the likes of "MadMartigan," "Finn Rozelle," "Burglecut," "Skullmaaaaann," and more. 

Plot: A young farmer is chosen to undertake a perilous journey in order to protect a special baby from an evil queen.

1hr 51mins

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

We're sound checking right now, so let's see how you did with you turning up your game. Talk as a normal person. This is the best I can do. Talk like yourself, not like a normal person. If I'm not putting on a voice, which I normally do for the podcast, this is how I sound.

You normally sound like More energetic and chipper. A cross between the Noid from the Domino's commercials. That was maybe the funniest thing you could have said. The noid.

The Noid? Paul? The energy of the Noid, the coolness of the 7 up spot, and the reckless devil may care attitude of Chester Chief. Actually, that's pretty pretty on point, I think. I think that's Paul in a nutshell. Just an amalgam of different advertisements.

We're playing. We're on the journey. Welcome in everybody to the review review. It's review review time. I'm Paul.

My name is Ben. And we have a 3rd party with us today. Shannon Corbet is here. Hi, Shannon. Hi.

Hello. Oh, Corbet. Corbet. Like sorbet. Yeah.

Like sorbet. Got it. Okay. I've I've known that for a while now. I've had to tell.

Shannon is a is a writer, actor, producer veteran, and, we've known each other for a little bit, and we've worked together creatively with, the 1448 Theater Festival. Oh, right. Yeah. Shannon has been an actor and a writer, And it was there where someone pulled your pulled your play and was like, by Shannon Corbel. And I was like, no.

It's Corbet. And Got them. Like sorbet Yep. Like sorbet. With the right hand uppercut.

Yeah. Bang. I like that. Shannon, tell these people out here who you are. Hi, everyone.

My name is Shannon. You did a pretty good job. I mean, you you already started out with what I normally go to. You know, I'm an actor and a writer. My official bio has my military history.

Pronounced my name correctly, which you did. I I put that on my, you know, I put that on my website now, my social medias and stuff. Really? I mean, that makes sense. For a few reasons.

One Makes sense. I do want people to get it right. Sure. You know? But also, I hope it helps them kind of remember a little bit.

You know? Like I think it does. Sorbet. The ironic thing is I don't like sorbet. Okay.

Not any variety? Or maybe I haven't had sorbet. I just haven't found the sorbet that I would like it. And it could be because usually when people are offering it to me so I'm also vegan. So people will be like, yeah.

We're having this decadent incredible ice cream, and we do have this, like, frozen fruit water for you. I'm like, no. No. We pulled we pulled this out of the garbage if you want it. Yeah.

This isn't as good as our I also want the chocolate chip cookie dough. Oh, sure. Sure. On that note, Baskin Robbins in the summer does a wonderful watermelon sorbet. Is this episode?

Excited about it. I'm excited to recommend it. This episode brought to you by Baskin Robbins? No. We can't do that.

You know we can't do that. Is it brought to us by Raskett Bobbins? Maybe. I'll think about it. Rasket Bobbins.

Yeah. Sherry Bobbins. Rasket Bobbins. What would that be the title of? Rasket Bobbins, the autobiography of A Hobbit?

Oh, that's a that's a murder. Actually That's 100% a murder. Actually, you know what's so funny? I have this in my notes. Okay.

I'm jumping ahead. No. Do it. Hold on. Go for it.

Because we're gonna talk about hold on. No. Wait. Go for it. We're gonna talk about the film Willow later.

Yes. Right. That. Yes. And one of the things that I loved so much is that the Nelwins kept using the word bobbin for baby or little kids.

Like, oh, look at those bobbin. Look at this little bobbin. And I was like, oh, shit. I'm gonna use that. That's one of the things that I did about the movie is, like, one of one of the, like, kind of approachable details.

It's, like, little touches of language that were different. Yeah. Like peck. Didn't overdo it. Sure.

Yeah. Mhmm. And then look at the synchronicity. We didn't even try we didn't even plan this, this Raskin Robbins. Yep.

Can I be Stuart Townsend? Sure. Does somebody wanna be Sting and then the other guy? Synchronicity. The police.

I'm going deep. It's already down really bad on my end. I'll be whoever you want me to be, but I don't get the reference. I'd like to be Kevin Pollock. And the weird thing about me is, like, if if you're the police, like, don't don't you wanna be Sting?

Oh, yes. Wouldn't you say sting? Yes. I'm a weird guy. We know that.

Shannon, do you have anything that you'd like to plug that you're, like, currently working on or upcoming or gonna be working on again? Anything like that? I am about to release a short film that I created last year, on my YouTube. It's called Chair Force Revenge. It's a military it's probably less a short film and more of a a sketch.

But anyway, you can find me on Instagram at shannoncorbate. That's also my YouTube channel. That's my threads. I wanna, like, dig into the concept of your film, but also, like, the title is good enough where I'm just, like, I'm interested. Which is very Yeah.

It's very intriguing. So I really like the film. It makes me laugh. That's good. It made our military community audience laugh.

I'm always interested in what civilians think of it, because it's very inside baseball, inside jokes with branch rivalry. All vault, inside jokes with branch rivalry. All the branches lose, and all the branches win. You're air force. Right?

Yeah. I was air force. It's about an air force chick who looks exactly like me, who's sick of Coincidentally. Made fun of for being, you know, in the Air Force. I mean, called Chair Force.

So she's getting her revenge. Yeah. I just remember my papa was my my grandfather, who I call papa, was in Korea, and he always would bad mouth air force because he was in the marines. Yeah. And he had to sleep he was like, I have to sleep on the floor.

I have to sleep out on the ground, and pilots are all up in the hotels. Yeah. With our chocolate fountains and our golf courses and stuff. And and then they wanna hate on us, and it's like It's because they ain't us in your case. Yeah.

Work smarter, not harder, maybe? Yes. Because they ain't. Yes. I have a question, though.

Yes. Paul, how are you? God bless you. I did it. I finally did it.

I'm fine. My back's weird. My root canal's done. That was really nice to get out of the way. Man, I've been having to delve into, like, all sorts of things for, like, role research, which has been great because I don't audition that much, But, like, I'm also one of those people that goes really deep inside baseball term that I like to use, Shannon, that you just use with this kind of stuff.

So that's been, like, very all consuming the last several days. You're going method. You've been going method for a role. I am not a method actor. He's been talking to Jared Leto.

He's, like, I guess I have to mail people dead rats. This explains the dead rat that I got. I'm sure you said for this podcast. I'm normally pretty good at yesanding, but when someone's, like, oh, you're a method actor, I'm like, no. No, I am not.

Yeah. And we're done with that. Yeah. That's not a thread we're gonna find. Not yes ending it.

Should have, but here we are. Shannon, how are you? Yeah. I'm leaving you to last. Oh, wow.

Great. Yeah. Thank you thank you for asking. I'm doing well. Excellent.

I'm on the recovery end of a low you know, knowing no one but these 2 guys can see me with my hand. I'm making like a It's a wave. A wave, like a roller coaster. It's very even. And I was showing, like, the low dip, which is what I would, describe as my emotional state the past few days.

But it's but it's I'm on the up now. And it's, like, not that the roller coaster itself, not that the ride seemed even, but your motion was very even. Thank you. It's pretty predictable. It's cyclical.

It's it's moon cyclical pretty pretty consistently. We could dive deeper into that. I can only imagine. Deep into that. It's it's moon cyclical pretty pretty consistently.

We could dive deeper into that. I can always imagine. Deep into that if if you guys want to. All of us. Yeah.

All the time. Yeah. And I know it's not funny or anything. I was just very impressed with the up and down motion you made. I was, like, fascinated.

That was really well. Left hand. It's nice. Yeah. Wow.

Thanks. And you're right handed? I am. It's sad how legitimately impressed I was for her. That's so sad.

Okay. It doesn't take a lot to impress Paul. So don't get too high on your horse. So I like that song. For the past year, I've been taking ballet classes at my local community college.

That's amazing. I feel both like Joel McHale from the show community, but also like a child doing ballet. Like, I wear a leotard and a little skirt and tights and stuff. And I have the skills of a child, and it feels so precious. That's great.

And I love it so much, and it's so dumb. I have to imagine that the the journey of ballet is just the way that it is portrayed in the Simpsons when Bart has to take ballet. He hates it. He cannot stand it. And suddenly, he's moving and expressing and feels very free and loves it.

We had to take ballet and, my theater training. I was like Really? Yeah. Well, we had to take dance. And so ballet was the was the foundation, and then we built up.

I've been loving it. I'm adding tap this semester. Oh, nice. Tap is hard. Yeah.

I've never ever done it, but I got tap shoes for Christmas. Very cool. And that's amazing. I used to try to tap when I was a kid. Yeah.

But, like, I just don't have that rhythm. Let's see if I do. Let's see if the hand wins. Have you ever I'm just just gonna say I have a tap. Have you ever drummed?

Mm-mm. Because I I hear that that's a similar a lot of people who can drum can tap. That makes sense. A lot of people can tap can drum. I used to be able to do the drum line from Beat It, and I almost guarantee you I couldn't do it.

Ben, how are you? I can't do the drum line from Beat It. So you're shitty. You're filthy. You feel as shitty as me.

How am I? That's a great question. I'm doing okay. I had a good decent weekend. And today, at least, the day of this recording, it's been a very Seattle esque day here in Los Angeles.

Yeah. And I It's picked up my spirits. Love it so much. I do too. I walked to yoga and walked home in the pouring rain and was just so happy.

I love it. Where are you from originally? I'm from here. Okay. Yeah.

In Pinmore Park, California. Got it. Okay. Yeah. I somebody asked me today when I was I bought weed.

And they were like, what do you think of the weather? And I was like, fucking love it. How are you? And they were just like, ugh. Do you remember back when you had to buy weed from some guy in his apartment and have to have, like, an awkward conversation for, like, 10 minutes?

Okay. They made a TV show about that. They did? It's called High Maintenance. High Maintenance.

Oh, shit. With Ben what's his name? It's great. I never saw that. It's a guy made it on his own and then adapted it for an HBO show.

Oh, shit. It's real he's the weed deliverer. Oh, yeah. It's like all the clients. I had someone like that.

I'm gonna bleep it out. His name's Tom. But he had come over and, like, he fucking cast a spell on you. Like, just went on and on. It was, like, Portlandia when they're like, where's the chicken from?

And he, like, you it's from here. This was the pH level in the soil. These are the flavors you're and I miss that guy. Because now I go to the dispensary and they're like, you want sativa or you want indica or you wanna get fucked? It's like, get fucked, I guess.

I'm like, good. You were gonna anyway. Yeah. Dispensaries kind of feel like a like like the waiting room of a strip club. No.

Like, there's a weird vibe in there. You know what I mean? Are there There's a waiting room? No. There's not.

That's what I mean. Like, that it feels like a waiting room of a strip club. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was confused by that. The combination I went to strip club. Combination, waiting room, strip club.

Combination. Okay. I see. I see it. The vibes of a waiting room and the vibes of a strip club, and they've come I hate that how accurate that is.

That's what it feels like, especially when there's, like, a security guard and then You feel you don't wanna touch anything. Yeah. You just wanna look at the ceiling. Oh, Sativa, cash. Is my phone locations off?

I'll have the Muggleitani, large. No soup for you. I feel like mushrooms are the new weed. You guys have been they already have to go to the guy. You have gotta know someone Yeah.

Who's growing them. Some guy named Angus. Completely legal in Oregon. It's my understanding. Or maybe it's Washington.

I don't know. But recreational. People are mac microdosing mushrooms. Right? Yeah.

I believe so. That's the thing. And this has me curious. Yeah. It's fun.

I've never microdosed. I've only macrodosed. I Yeah. I've macrodosed, and I had the best time. And so then I was like, I'm gonna share this with someone.

Awesome. And I love doing that. And then I had the worst time because she abandoned me. Oh, no. She's like, oh, it's kicking in, and she put headphones on and wrapped herself in a blanket and crawled under a table.

And just I spent the next, like, 6 hours in in an abandonment cycle. It got pretty dark. On that note, we're gonna transition. So Do you hear it? Okay.

And now, I Shannons like touching her earphones. We really should. It doesn't play in the in the I know. It's such a bummer. Such a great little song.

I know. On the note of what we were just talking about, there is a movie on Netflix called Have a Nice Trip, a journey with psychedelics. I haven't watched it in a while, but that movie I think sets people up really well for that experience. Especially a big piece of it is, like, have a fantastic attitude when you're going in. And You have to be in a good mindset.

That's a really big piece of In your life. Yep. Yeah. What else am I watching? I on the note of role research and shit like that, a book that we talked about on our last episode, I reread and rewatched.

The movie is from 1993. It's called the dark half. It's a George Romero movie. It stars Amy Madigan, whoop whoop, Michael Rooker from, about a previous episode as well, days of thunder, and Timothy Hutton. It's a solid little, like, nineties, like, 5 to $10,000,000, something like that.

Like, horror movie the makeup effects are fantastic. There's some good performances. Some of it doesn't hold up super well. Whatever. Like, that's independent horror movies from the nineties, though.

Like, what you get what you get. Sure. There there was, like, studio distribution. It was solid. It's better than a lot of the stuff out there.

But if you're in the mood for great makeup effects, something that's just, like, a little left of center. And if you're a person who is interested in, like, the writer's journey, especially when you kind of separate one personality from another or what have you, It's a fun examination of that. And the book is great too. Stephen King, as we talked about. Ben, Travis, and I, Lee Shannon, I don't know about you.

I wanna know what you're watching, but we were like, we all like fucking Stephen King. Whatever. Fine. Nothing to be embarrassed about. What are you watching, Shannon?

I am watching I'm an actor, so I'm SAG AFTRA. So I've been watching the nominated films in preparation to be a responsible voter. Love it. Happened to notice a certain someone named Jessica Martin. Oh, yes.

Oppenheimer. That was Jessica Aaron Martin. Jessica Aaron Martin? Yeah. Thank you.

Oh, she was guest on this program. She was. Oh, man. She was fantastic in that role as well. Yeah.

She's she's fantastic. Oh, what a winky dink. Last night, I did take a break to watch self reliance. Oh, Jake Johnson? Jake Johnson's new film.

Interested. I flipping love his brain. I'd love to have him on his own. He did. He wrote it.

Did he direct it? I think he did. I think he did. I think it was his debut. Yeah.

So he wrote it and directed. I loved his pandemic film, ride the eagle as well. And I just love what he's in. And, I mean, with this one, I was watching it, and I'm like, my writer brain was just so in awe. Like, what what would I come up with for it?

You know, just the concept is very fun, and then how do you fill out the feature film with it? And I just adored it. I adored him. He plays, you know, the character that he always plays, which is just a Delightful. A delightful, vulnerable, honest person.

I mean, he's so good at New Girl. I mean, everyone's good at New Girl, but He's so good. He has so much charisma, and he's funny, and he's weird. And His vulnerability and honesty, like, his stream of consciousness, the way that he he communicates I give you a cookie, give me a cookie. He You give me cookie.

I give you you know, the first time like, the first movies that I saw him in actually turned me off to him because Oh. Jurassic World Okay. And The Mummy, the Tom Cruise Mummy. Oh, how funny. I haven't seen that.

Never could finish. Don't worry about it. But those were, like, the first time I really, like, saw him. Oh, funny. And then when my roommates who lived here at the time were watching New Girl, I was like, I don't think I wanna watch that.

And they're like, why not? I'm like, I don't know. I'm not sure I like that guy. And then I came back around. I'm surprised you didn't see him in safety not guaranteed first because of the Well, I did see that, but I didn't see that till after, I think.

Okay. Okay. Okay. But I also auditioned for that movie, I think. Oh, woah.

Speaking of self reliance Yes. Is has anyone seen Hard Target? Is it like that, like, where people, like, are like, we're gonna hunt you, but we're gonna pay you. And if you survive, you get to keep the mind what something like that? Yeah.

The concept is it's a game show. You have to survive for 30 days. People are hunting you. They can't kill you if you're, quote, within striking distance of another human being. Oh, that's like the game you play with your friends called I think it's called, like, assassin.

Or it's like played it. Oh, like a it's like a kid's game where you can kill somebody by, like, looking at them going, like, you're dead, but they can't be around anybody else. Nobody can see you. This was taken to literal Yeah. Literal killing.

So so for 30 days, you know, his character has to find someone to be within striking distance at all times. You know? I do wanna watch that. Yeah. And people just don't wanna be around him, I assume.

So it gets difficult. Or, you know, he he's like, you know, I don't wanna give away awesome. This is in the trailer as well. You know? He forces his friend to sleep with him in the same bed.

He wakes up without him because his friend had to go to the bathroom. He's freaking out, like, and busting down the door and stuff, and his friend's like, this isn't okay. Little clingy. Yeah. It's a very the details are very funny and sweet, and I loved it.

Okay. Ben. I just mainlined season 5 of Fargo. I just went through it pretty hard. I love that show.

I love Noah Hawley. I think that the whole concept of the show was brilliant. I think that he came up with it. I don't know if you know the the history of that show, but he came up with this and then, like, pitched it to the Coen Brothers, and they fucking loved it so much that they produce it. It's so great.

All the tie ins to all sorts of Coen stuff. All sorts of shit. Yeah. And that every season it's an anthology series, and so, like, every season hits similar tropes. And this season is fucking great.

I think season 2 is still my favorite season, but this season is really I don't wanna give anything away, but it's it's less, like, complex than other seasons. It's more like a streamlined narrative, and there's not, like, a c e or c d e plotline going on. Like, it's pretty tied to one major conflict. But Juno Temple and Jon Hamm are just phenomenal. And I I love Jon Hamm, and I've never disliked him more.

Like, I love his performance in this, but he's Oh, yeah. Yeah. But it he is so unlikable. So and I feel like that's hard. He's such a jolly charismatic dude.

We talked about this with a different Val Kilmer movie with Dick Atherton. Oh, yeah. He is such a fun he's the great asshole. Great asshole. Greatest assholes.

Jon Hamm's a great asshole. And that's, like, that's can be a really hard thing to do. That's a hard place to live and exist. Oh, yeah. Trigger warnings to that series because Really?

Yeah. It deals with a lot of Stuff. Yeah. Spousal abuse and The only trigger warning I need, I always have to go to the website, like, does the dog die? I need to know when animals are killed and how.

Is there a cat for camouflage? I don't care that it spoils it. I mean, that's my I I wanna go see the new Argyle, the Matthew Vaughn. Yeah. Yeah.

With the CG cat. If that cat gets hurt, I'm gonna be pissed. It's a CG cat. They won't even hurt the CG cat. But that's what I mean don't hurt the CG cat.

Has anyone seen the adventures of Milo and Otis? None none of those animals died in the movie. Oh my god. How dare you? And on that note, we should bring up this.

Shannon's like, oh, I didn't hear that this was a recurring joke. I should go. Let's get to facts. The most horrifying movie ever made. Let's get to the facts.

Let's do it. Paul, if you could. Archaeology is the search for facts. Oh, hey. It's me, Paul.

We watched Willow. This was a Lucasfilm limited and Imagine Entertainment film. It is from 1988. There is parental guidance that's been suggested by the what are they called? MPAA?

Let's say that. It is 2 hours and 6 minutes long. This is a $35,000,000 movie. Adjusted that is 90,100,000. Opening weekend was May 20th, 88.

It made $8,300,000. In the US, that's 21,400,000. The final gross worldwide was 57.3. That's 147,600,000 adjusted. Multipliers from the eighties nineties, like, whack me out.

Because it's one of those things where it's like, oh, yeah. You could improve on your 4th weekend compared to what you did in your 1st weekend. No problem. I think they expected more from this movie. I think George Lucas expected it to to We're gonna get into that.

Okay. No. Please finish your thought, though. No. No.

Just that I think that especially from the opening weekend, I feel like they expected it to hit a little bit harder. Yeah. I I don't think you're the only one. Yeah. You're not alone.

Other releases this weekend, Ricky and Pete from Australia. Don't know it. Put another Rick on the barbie. That's that's bad. I'm trying to think of a Simpsons line from that episode and I can't.

They're gonna boot me for it. Either way, The Weeknd top 5, this film, Friday 13th, 7, The New Blood. That one was Jason versus Carrie, if anyone. If you say so. Carrie from the movie Carrie.

Same idea. Oh. Different name, but same idea. Like prom Carrie? Yes.

Yes. Got it. Prom Carrie. Right? Not a good movie.

Kinda just wanna read the plot of it. Give me the log line, Paul. Jason versus Cameron. She was the victim in that film. Oh, she was.

She really was. Okay. And then she faces off against Freddie. Damn. Girl has some bad luck.

Truly. Colors that, is a Dennis Hopper film starring Sean Penn. I like that movie. Beetlejuice in its 8th week is still in the top five. Beetlejuice.

And Shakedown. Beetlejuice. Starting Sam Elliott, Miho. Beetlejuice. You know it.

The top five films this year domestically were Who Framed Roger Rabbit, an unquestionable masterpiece. I love it. Coming to America, an unquestionable masterpiece. Have you seen have you seen these movies? Yes.

And I was so traumatized by what happened to that poor little shoe Mhmm. That I haven't seen Oh, man. Who framed our jar It's a disturbing scene. Since 19 88. That movie does Do you also go look up I hope the shoe doesn't die before movies.

The shoe better live. That movie is that movie is so fucking good. Yeah. Good Morning, Vietnam. Big, unquestioned, pretty fun movie.

And Crocodile on day 2. The fever was on, man. I am I'm getting the boot. Ben's I am gonna get the boot. Oh.

Ben's mad. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Other films from 88, Moonstruck, Scrooged, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, The Dream Master, my favorite Nightmare on Elm Street.

That's right. Oh my god. I'm sick. I'm jumping ahead. I'm cutting you off the land before time.

Oh, man. Another traumatizing like, they made some can we say the f word? Were they Fuck yeah. They made some fucked up films for kids. Oh, yeah.

Majorly traumatizing. Mhmm. I mean, Lion King, like when Mufasa dies. We grew up with different shit. Just so messed up.

I have no idea how old you are. Oh, Ben and I, anyway, grew up with different shit. Well, wait, no. I was I'm certain I was in my fifties. I'm certain that I'm older than both of you.

You're certain of it. Yes. Oh, I might take my real age, and then I gotta cut it out. Paul's in his late sixties. We can't.

Thank you. And I'm correct. Don't know. Shannon's in her late seventies. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Oliver and Company, Big Top Pee Wee Poltergeist 3, Vice Versa, Bloodsport, and a movie called Assault of the Killer Bimbos.

Why do I know that? Because I watched the end of Siskill and Ebert episodes just to see the ratings, and it was like, 2 thumbs down for attack of the killer bimbos. Don't let the title fool you. How does the title fool me into wanting to see it? I don't know.

I don't know. No idea. I don't appreciate I'm jumping ahead again. You guys okay. So they they've made this beautiful document.

Like, they these these guys put their heart and soul. These guys put work into this podcast. You tell them. That'll make them listen to it more. Shame them.

And so we've got a document here guiding us. You know? This isn't just This is the first part. This isn't just willy nilly thrown together. Okay?

Oh, later. Later, though. Yeah. Later. Yeah.

Don't But I'm ruining it by, like, ignoring the document, jumping ahead to just what excites me the most. And I can see that Syskel and Ebert gave Willow 2 thumbs down, and now I hear that they also gave assault of the killer bimbos 2 thumbs up. They're giving me a little bit of the same rating as a I do think something called assault of the killer bimbosers. I do I do I do wanna say that I think the thumbs up, thumbs down rating system lacks a little bit of nuance. But I went I went and looked.

So this weekend, I did my research too, and I read one of the reviews. And I was like, first of all, how dare you? And I think Is this gonna be a rough episode? Maybe. We'll find out.

Oh. Like, I think right now on the star rating, it's got 2, if that's Oh, interesting. I'll look that up. Wait. Well, okay.

Well, the Letterboxd average is 3.4 out of 5, which is solid. Yeah. You can follow me. I'm at paulaxbadley. And I'm Run BMC.

You say yours again because I cut you off. At run BMC. And I'm at Shannon Corbay. How do I not follow you on Letterbox? Oh, on Letterbox?

I don't have a Letterbox. Oh, that's okay. I didn't know what we were plugging. I just got excited. You're good.

Well, what were you gonna say about thumbs up, thumbs down, nuance? You were gonna bring something up. I don't know. Okay. The major award wins and nominations, this film was nominated for best sound effects and best visual effects.

Is that at the Academy Awards? Correct. Okay. Benjamin, there are a bunch of fucking people that made this thing. Will you tell me about Sure.

Some, at least a couple. The director of this movie is Ron Howard. Have you heard of him? Whom? Have you heard of him?

Yeah. I've heard of him. Ron Howard. What's he doing? He was on the Andy Griffith Show.

Oh, yeah. Okay. And Happy Days? Yeah. I can't tell of your okay.

He had me. Yeah. You got me. Alright. Paul has listed night shift gung ho in the paper.

No one's heard of those. So I'm gonna bring up well, that's starring Michael Douglas? I'm gonna bring up Keaton. Wait. Michael Keaton?

Yes. Oh. I'm gonna bring up Apollo 13. Yeah. Alright.

Fine. Okay. 13 Lives, which I don't know if anyone saw that from last year. I haven't. Is actually really well done.

Okay. And speaking of race movies, Rush, I think is also like that Dougie. Writers, Bob Dolman, How to Eat Fried Worms, Far and Away, The Banger Sisters, George Lucas, a Star War. George Lucas, it was a story by George Lucas the dreamer. Let can we just talk?

George Lucas is really good at story I'm Bob Dylan. And let somebody else do the dialogue. Yeah. I can't I can't Like, Lawrence Kasdan or something. People give him such a hard time because people were so disappointed with the prequels.

But he's George Lucas. He's just he's just got he's this guy with a heart. Like, he's just got a dream in his heart. You know? I like that attitude.

And, like, like, 1,000,000,000 of dollars. He well, and he's got 1,000,000,000 of dollars now. But, like, he deserves I mean He has filled my life with so much joy and imagination, and just he has taken me from a time of dread to a galaxy. Galaxy far, far away. Like, he he just he wants to tell these stories about, like, just regular people who can become heroes.

And god I goddamn it. I love them for it. Documentary series. I think it's on Disney Plus. Which one?

ILM documentary. Yeah. I've I've seen so many of it. So It's so good. I have I have a hard time watching behind the scenes content of stuff that I'm really into because I feel so left out that it's it can be really painful.

Sure. So it's it's a balancing act for me. If if I got cast in Star Wars, I'd be so happy that I drop dead, and I'd never get to film Star Wars. I do love George Lucas, so I am here for you on that. Thank you.

I'm Bob Doleman, and I love Indiana Jones. Bob Dole. That's a bad Bob Dole. Bob Dole says his name in 3rd person. Bob Dole says that's it's none of it.

It's good. It's in 3rd person though. Yeah. Bob Dole likes Indiana Jones. Bob Bob Dole likes Indiana Jones.

Bob Dole will run for president. Bob Dole. I don't care. I didn't I didn't kill Bob Dole. Get off my wife.

Get off Bob Dole. Well, that's that's Ron Howard in this. These guys are sitting across. They're making, like, very intense eye contact because they do, whatever they're doing. I don't and I don't get it.

So I'm just kind of, like, my I'm ping ponging, like, my face back and forth watching them get into this. We do we do appreciate the, all the narration. The commentary. I appreciate attention more than anything else. Just in case anyone else is with me.

Let's get back to reading. Director of photography was Adrian Biddle, r I p. Yeah. Made aliens, the mummy, and the princess Bride. I'll appreciation for you putting aliens with the, dollar sign as an as the s instead of, like, an s.

Music, James Horner, r o p, Troy, A Beautiful Mind, Perfect Storm. Are we gonna come back to talking about the music? Absolutely. We're gonna talk about this whole movie. Okay.

Okay. Okay. We'll come back to all of it. Producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and George Lucas, Howard the Duck. Howard the Duck.

Good job, guys. You can blame me fully for this entire sheet. Anything you don't like, it was me. Casting in this, we have Warwick Davis. He plays Willow, Return of the Jedi, the Leprechaun sequels, and the Harry Potter series.

After he filmed Return of the Jedi. Mhmm. Yeah. He's just great. Val Kilmer's Madmartigan, Real Genius, Batman Forever, Top Gun, Maverick, and Top Gun.

We did Real Genius on this see on this show. If you haven't listened to that, go back and listen to real genius to hear about how we praise Val Kilmer. Great fucking movie. He's my favorite Batman. Come at me.

Wow. Hot take. Yeah. Ben loves doctor Chase Meridian. Oh, yeah.

This is almost anything on this planet. We're we're bringing up a we're always bringing up Batman forever. It happens a lot. Yeah. And I'll just drop it right here because I I always try to upset the guest and make them, like, try to be at a base level, but they're always looking at me like boiling.

I hate Batman forever. I hate it. Wow. I think Michael Mike Bowers said the same thing. He said it was the worst one.

I agreed. I ended up agreeing with him. It was weird, like, the very first thing that Batman says is like an insult to a doctor. Was it not just based on What? Keep going here.

Let's, Joanne Wally? Whaley. Whaley plays Sorsha, Kill Me Again, Navy Seals, Shattered. Shattered is a wild movie. Jean Marsh plays queen Bavmorda, return to Oz, frenzy, dark places.

It's funny. I didn't place her in return to Oz until I read this, and I was like, oh, yeah. That movie That was another trouble. That's another fucking rules. It's I haven't seen in a while.

Oh, man. It's really good. What what kind of nightmare? It's so fun. Speaking of mushrooms.

Yeah. That that movie is a wonder. She's also in this movie, she's fucking great. Oh, yeah. She's one of the really good performances in this movie.

Oh, man. Yeah. Billy Barty, RIP. Hi, Aldwin, masters of the universe, legend, tough guys. Pat Roach, RIP.

Kale, Indiana Jones, the original trilogy, Red Sonja, and Conan the Barbarian. Side note about him, he gets killed in the first movie in the plane. Like, he's spinning his fist at Indiana, and he's just like, fuck you, dude, and just shoots him. Yeah. He appears in every single film as a different character.

Yeah. It's pretty cool. Also including, I think, in Brownface. Wait. What?

In which one? In Temple of Doom. Oh, shit. Yeah. Probably.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly who he is. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, no. Gavin O'Hurley, r I p, Eric. Is that it? Eric.

I I think that's right. Never Say Never Again, Superman 3, The Descent 2. I love the first one of those. I've never seen the sequel. I haven't either.

I I really like the first one. I have to mention also Kevin Pollock, who's not listed on here. He is not listed. He's not listed for this movie? No.

He is. I just didn't wanna put that credit on the next page. I'm a big Kevin Pollock fan. I knew he would come up. Sometimes it's, like, I know these actors.

Shannon, would you mind telling us these fun facts? They're really fun. I wouldn't mind at all. Warwick Davis, who plays Willow, of course, was 17 years old when this was filmed. And as we've discussed, the movie was written specifically for him by George Lucas after they met on return of the Jedi.

That's awesome. If you told me he was 12 or 20 or 30 or 50, I would have probably believed you. Like, he's got this kinda timeless thing about him. Yeah. He does.

He does. Okay. Most of Val Kilmer's dialogue was improvised on the day. Had no idea. Yeah.

Me neither. I love this. I hope we go into a to a long conversation about Val Kilmer's comedic acting in this because I I love it so much. I love I think he's great. Incredible.

Yeah. He's hitting hard at hitting hard at this point too. I don't love her. She kicked me in the face. Yeah.

Fantastic. He he did so many that just his performance made it work. I love it. I also love that they fell in love on the set of this. So he's talked about, like, you know, in interviews how, you know, they do kissing scenes, and then he forget his lines.

You know? And he's like, I I don't think I ever got it right. We we just kept having them. Wow. Got a boner.

Take it. This is these kinds these ones hurt. So George Lucas had expectations this film would earn as much or more than ET the extraterrestrial. Its final worldwide gross of 57,300,000 didn't quite hit the mark of 792,100,000, but you gotta swing. You gotta swing.

Yeah. You do. Yeah. You absolutely do. It hurts me that there that anybody felt any type of disappointment with regards to Willow.

That's how I feel. Like, Steven Spielberg didn't like Hook. And I'm like, how could you Hook's also his lowest rated movie. I know. I know.

We like Hook on this show. We This is a house that respects Rupio. I love hook. Okay. I I love that fucking Glenn Close gets put in the boo box.

That's such a weird fun fact. I love that I didn't know it was Glenn Close until, like, last year. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. I love that, like, the, like, the, the thing we have to give the movie, like, the thing we have to surrender is, like, this works if you're imagining if you believe it hard enough.

Like, both of these movies have that same This era had a lot of that. A lot of that. And it just for me, it works in Hook partly because it's so radically fucking colorful and, like, excessive. And Ron Williams. Dude, nearsighted gynecologist.

Yeah. He has a better wig than this too. He has a good wig. Moving on. A 2 to 6 player board game was also released in 1988 by Tor Books.

I didn't know if this was a board game. I didn't know either. I'm curious about it. Love to find it. I would love to play.

And I read this and immediately checked out the first one from the library. A follow-up trilogy of novels was released that takes place 15 years after the events of this film, and they feature a Laura Dannen as the main protagonist. What the the Disney plus series was based on? I don't believe so. Oh, okay.

I've never watched it. Well, we're gonna take a quick break here. Woah. Woah. Woah.

Back up half a second. I'm so sorry. We had a surprise. More thing. Surprise, surprise.

If you would be so kind, what is the log line of this film? Pitch me. Okay. Something you guys have to know about me is that I I have, like, heart heart attacks every time I have to write a log line. Oh, no.

I I could, like, bring it the text messages of me panicking about. I would never get into an elevator and extemporaneously give a log line to someone because it is not my strong suit. But let's see what we could do. When a young farmer who dreams of being a sorcerer, discovers a baby in in the in the woods by his house, he embarks on a journey to return her to her people so that she can fulfill the prophecy of bringing down, the evil queen who threatens the, all creatures of good heart. I think if that were the back of a VHS jacket do you wanna read it?

Oh. It would be like if that that's an excellent VHS jacket back. It is. It's great. Yeah.

Thanks. Okay. Log line. A young farmer is chosen to undertake a perilous journey in order to protect a special baby from an evil queen. Some of that, like, a lot of the words were right just in different places or order, but the first three words were like, a young farmer.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Yeah. You know exactly who we're talking about Yep.

Who this movie's about. Well, now we have to take a break. We have to take a break because Raskin Bobbins, our local The terrifying murder puppet. I'm Raskin Bobbins. And I'm gonna haunt your fucking James.

Apparently, he's also from Australia. And he also has ice cream and sorbet, and, he's a baby. All 33 flavors. Yeah. 33 Illuminati.

Even though it's January, the special summer watermelon. It's so good. The little fake, like, candy seeds. Oh, we better go before Raskinbobins kill them. Yeah.

Stay awake. Drink that tea. We'll be right back. We'll be back. Hi.

It's Paul. The ad you're about to hear is from this episode's one time sponsor, Raskin Robbins Barbers, home of the Burgle Cut. We were well compensated and again we apologize for the content, but our contract says that we must play this once. Please don't hesitate to follow us on TikTok and Instagram at reviewxtupodcast. You can follow Ben on letterbox at run b m c.

You can follow myself on Letterboxd at Paul Aksbadley. And again, with all due respect, we apologize. Thanks. Stop doing don't eat that. Hello.

I'm Raskin' Bobbins. Owner proprietor Raskin' Bobbins Barbers in Hobbiton. Home of the Hobbiton Burger Cut. What the fuck is Hobbiton Burger Cut? It's when we save the top of your head and glues it onto the back like Burger Cut the flippity flop from floopsy floo.

Raskin' Babin's Babbas, I won't kill you probably. I was all for 33 flavors of ice cream and sorbet seasonally for your pleasure. Back to the program. Is it dead? I'm trying to Yeah.

No. It comes back. Yeah. It's harder as you get older. So, that I'm like slightly that makes me feel a little optimistic.

Thank you. That, like, I was just like, oh, man. But let me know. You ever come back? I've got my pipes on the ground.

Oh, no. Raskin' Bobbins. Raskin' Bobbins. I really want a Gandalf pipe. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Come and play with this guy. I feel like I'd enjoy it. I really support that idea. I think you should go for it.

I almost wanna steal it. We're back. If you couldn't tell. I assume we are. I'm looking at Ben like, we're back.

Right? We're back. Okay. From outer space. Yeah.

Poor Shannon has to, like, monitor the ping pong again. What? The bing bing bing bing bing? We can't do that. Should we put separating the guests on the other end and us no.

I should have just in that particular moment, I had no idea what was going on. Yeah. My fault, not yours. I think I can kind of imagine. And, yeah, it would be kinda yeah.

Like, whiplashy a little. No. It was fun. You say it's good. You say it's not our fault?

Definitely our fault. I don't know. Maybe it's my responsibility to know who Bob Dole? Bob Dole? Bob Dole.

Bob Dole. Bob Dole. Oh, man. We are that old. He ran for president in the nineties.

I figured it was a presidential thing. He lost to Clinton. Bob Dole will do this. Bob Dole will do that. They're just exchanging long protein strains according to the Simpsons.

Bill and Clinton. Clinton? So here we are. More Simpsons references. Let's rate this puppy.

Shannon, the most important thing, what is your experience with this film up until, you know, 90 days ago? I don't know the last time you watched it before your most recent one. Mhmm. But Yeah. I hadn't seen it in years going into this rewatch.

What was what was your first time you watched it, though? Oh, I watched this as a kid. Yeah. And, like, 5 out of 5, like, greatest thing? Yeah.

As a kid, I probably gave it 5 out of 5 disappearing pigs. Nice. Going into this weekend, I was like, let's be realistic, Shannon. You're a sophisticated filmmaker now. You know, it's probably only 4 out of 5 disappearing pigs.

But having watched it yesterday, I was like, no. 5 out of 5. Wow. Bold. I like it.

Okay. It is what it is. I be who I be. Mhmm. 5 out of 5.

And I'll tell you all the reasons why. We're we're gonna dig into this puppy, like, all the way through. So you're gonna hear I have notes. Quite an argument, and I'm sure both of us have no I hope you have more extensive notes. I tried to take, like, a small amount of notes for this episode.

I like it to be always gets a little nervous. I like it to be noted that I don't take notes. Right. He does not, and he does an excellent job. Takes way too long if I take notes too.

I do pause a lot. Oh, I didn't have to pause. I I paused and ran it back a couple times the first time. Oh, I just pause to go pee. But I'm I'm also I don't know how how many times you guys have seen this.

Well, let's get into it. Paul, first experience with this movie. I definitely saw this as a child. I almost for sure saw it at my aunt Loni's apartment because they rented it on the VHS, on the Magna box. In the in the big old clamshell?

Right. Yeah. And I remember really being pretty enthralled by it. It was one of those movies that I liked it as a kid. I didn't feel an urgency to go back to it, but I remember really liking it.

And watching it again in my I must have been in my forties, twenties, something. And thinking like, this is a pretty good sword and sorcery movie. So it went from, like, a 3 and a half tabby cats to a 3 tabby cats in that little genesis there. Ben, what was your first experience with the was this the first time for you again? No.

It wasn't the first time. I've but I hadn't see I didn't see this movie when I was a kid. I came to this movie probably when I was in college. Watched it with some friends. All your friends that were a little kid?

My old friend's little kid. I love kid. I probably would've given it 3 I was gonna say pigs, but you stole mine. She didn't steal it from me. She was just No.

She stole it. First for them. We didn't play cinephile. I'm gonna say 3 baby wigs. Okay.

Baby wigs? Yeah. That's a wig on the baby. Oh, it's gotta be a red wig. Right?

It's a wig. Okay. And Jess looked it up and saw that they applied it with syrup because the adhesive would not, like, would harm a baby's skin. Sure. Sure.

So they use syrup to apply this. So they could dissolve it with, like, warm water and baby shampoo or whatever? So, yeah, I watched it at a friend's house who wasn't a little kid, but the little kid who wears a wig. Ben is very obsessed with wigs. Especially, like It's a good I mean, her little curls.

They were twins. Right? Yeah. They were twins. Oh, they're adorable.

I thought it I was like, it's gotta be Bryce Dallas Howard. Right? His kids, but it was just a wig. She's so, yeah, that was my first experience. Should I talk about my most recent?

Yeah. So I I actually had watched this movie fairly recently. Mhmm. I watched it, I think, in 2021 or 2 when right before the series came out. I rewatched it to get ready for the series.

So it wasn't like a brand new rewatch for me. Mhmm. But I did in this most recent rewatch, I did appreciate it a lot more. Post series? I didn't finish it.

I I didn't finish the series, to be frank. I I I thought I kinda boring. What? Can I still be Paul? Sure.

If you're gonna be Frank. Yeah. Cool. I get it. But this time around, like, I had a lot of fun with it.

And I was thinking about why I didn't I was thinking about era and, like, for me, the movie that I think of is, like, Princess Bride is being the thing that like, that fantasy gap for me. I really enjoyed it this time, though, and I bumped up a half. So I went up to 3 and a half baby wigs. I think there's a lot of things that are obviously, like, versions of another thing. You know?

Like, clearly, George Lucas has read Lord of the Rings. You know? And, like We do comps. Yeah. So but, anyway happens.

That that's where I'm at. Paul? For me, it's 2 and a half tabby cats. Like, the the ones that the fell in love with? Correct.

Okay. Or the tabby cat that I have, he's a mustard tabby cat. If you're one of the 3 people that follow me on Instagram, you saw that my cat was fascinated by this movie. To the point that like the menu was just rolling, I went to the restroom, I went to a pee. I came back and kinda like meant to hit the back button, hit the start button, and the cat had been kind of going crazy for a little bit.

And he sat back in front of the fucking TV, so the movie rolled twice. And he absolutely loved it, which made me love it a little bit more. Ben, you mentioned a lot of comps. I like sword and sorcery movies. And I don't know how big that genre is.

There are a lot of movies in that genre though that are not as good as this movie. Yeah. And then are other movies that are Dungeons and Dragons from 2023, which is, like, something very specific. I thought of that a lot when I was watching this. So did I.

Or, like, The Northman. Or, like, I've mentioned, Flesh and Blood, the Paul Verhoeven film from way back. Yeah. I wrote that Tiraslin feels like a D and D night. Like, is this part of the campaign?

You know? Like the battle for Tyrus Lane. Yeah. Yeah. From this specific era, it's like I really like Lady Hawk with Matthew Broderick Yeah.

And Michelle Pfeiffer. But it's a solid, like, 2 and a half star movie. I was not as entertained as the cat, but I was, like, I was entertained. It's a fun, like, light movie. You wanna jump into the top of the movie and start talking through it?

Yeah. So Roger Ebert gave it 2.5 stars and said it didn't have a light heart. And I obviously disagree. With all due respect, rest in peace. I also think Peter Jackson likes this movie because I I I I saw a lot of, like, design elements that he borrowed.

I I said that, the Nelwins Holmes walked, so, you know, Bag End could run. It it feels like the Shire kind of. Yeah. Yeah. It's Dark dumb movie.

Shark the Ruby. Shark the Ruby. And now, our feature presentation. It it's a movie that is dark in terms of some of the themes or, like, physically in the movie. It's a little bit dark.

It's lit a little bit dark. I think it's supposed to be. And we touched on this when we talked about Land Before Time and some other things. There are things that came out specifically in the eighties that are, like, you better, like, strap in because, like, you're gonna have a rough fucking time. And this is one of those movies that actually isn't really a real super fucking rough time.

It's got a couple things but It's fun. It's an adventure. Mostly it's just kind of like a light little adventurous romp that isn't anything crazy new or crazy complicated. It just is. Yeah.

We could we could start at the beginning. You know, time of dread. Let's let's pour one out for Ethna, the midwife. Oh, yeah. What is the title card that comes up that says Oh, kill the babies.

It is a time of dread. The time of dread. Here, kill the babies. It is a time of dread. Like, how fucking cool is it?

In dark time. It sets you up. The movie is dark. The premise of the movie is all of the female babies will die. Killing babies.

Yes. To be fair, they were checking the arms of the babies. Not the genitals. Oh, I thought, like, something probably it was just any baby. I thought it was something about, like somebody said, like, is it a girl?

Well, yes. So they knew that a female that a girl gonna be the princess? Is that what Was gonna take down the evil queen. She was going to become a princess, but she wasn't actually of royal birth because they were looking at just any Is this just a prophecy? Female.

Yeah. And What is happening on with my house? Billy, get off my wing. Poor Shannon's, like, listened to the fall episode, and she's like, what the fuck is going on? We hadn't lost our minds.

I'm so sorry. We hadn't lost our minds by that point. It's mostly my fault. We've lost our minds now. But as you were saying, like, the midwife, I've she must be running for weeks because that baby is Well, she's quite a bit older.

And she went from woods to snow to Yeah. I mean She traverses every terrain. Yeah. She does. She was brave.

And she She was clever. The dogs in costumes are running after her. So some of them are rottweilers in costumes, and some of them are mechanical creatures. Oh, really? Probably the close ups are mechanical.

Are mechanical. Okay. And they trained 2 rottweilers, yeah, to be those those hell hounds. I thought those were good. I thought they did a good job adding, like, the rat tail and kinda being, like, oh, what exactly is this?

Did they design that? Oh, that's a good point. It was, Dennis Murren's, like, ILM ILM. I think. That was who was nominated anyway for this.

And it it is a nice little, like, world building touch where it's just, like, look at these rat dogs Yeah. That are vicious. These rats of unusual. R o u s s. Nothing feels Rodents.

Yeah. Too outlandish or too crazy other worldly. Like, it's pretty approachable. Just enough. And I love that she puts the baby on a little patch of dirt and, like, send it off, and she gets fucking gnarled.

And then and and then Laura Danon sees it. The baby is like, oh, shit. They show the baby's I have to say, the baby's acting on close ups Dude. I don't know who is, like, coaching the baby to look at things or, like, make those facial expressions, but they were so good. That's 3rd best actor.

Yeah. Like, her expression with every time with Madmartigan was so good. Her single eyebrow raise, you know, is perfection. Yeah. I was like, those were cute twins.

Yeah. I think the editing of this movie, especially how they edit that baby, like, that some of the editing is rough for me throughout the movie, but the way they edit in the baby and use the baby for levity Yeah. Is really effective. The inserts are great. I love that it had the freaking Star Wars swipes and stuff.

These it made me real I don't actually Star wipe. Know if that happens, if that was just a product of the time or if that's a product of Lucas. You know what I mean? Star wipe. It took me out a little bit where I was like, oh, it's got this hidden fortress Star Wars white thing that happens, and then I started thinking about that where I'm like in the rabbit hole of like, why is this in this Ron Howard movie if George Lucas is like story Purdue?

What's how much is he sprinkling on? What's Lucas' involved? I don't know. Yeah. Anyone who would have seen Willow before Star Wars, I don't know that we would have noticed the different wipes.

Mhmm. So but because they're so iconic with Star Wars I'll be frank. I again, I'll be frank if that's okay. You may. I didn't notice them.

Okay. Great. It had straight up the, like, side wipes. It had one that did the, you know, the going in on the I saw that one. Thing yet, like I remember that one.

Yeah. Yeah. They definitely grabbed me either way, but, like, Willow plucks the baby when the baby hits It's such a cute sequence when his kids find it, and they're like, she's so cute. Yeah. These kids are so cute.

Those little actors are adorable. The marriage between them is Oh my god. I love Kaya. So much. You're like I love that.

Rooting for them, their family. So we meet Willow. We meet Kaya. We meet their kids. They're a little farm, and we meet this fucking asshole, dude.

Bergl. Berglucut. Berglucut. What a name. Are incredible.

Yeah. I'd like to read off some of the names. Please do. Should I okay. Berglucut, Migosh.

Yeah. Is Migosh the Samwise? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

But not. Like Not as great. Samwise would never Sure. Yeah. Because be like, okay.

Well, good luck. I'm going home. Bro. I'm out. They got burritos.

We made it to the town of Brie, and I'm out of here. You know? But it's okay, Migosha. You know, I understand. Yeah.

So those are those are Nelwyn names. Right? And then we get to, like, Bavmorta, Alora Danan. But the the names of the characters are mad Madmartigan? And that's not he's not, like, Mardigan who's crazy.

Full his name is Madmartigan. Yeah. There's no space. It's just space. Madmartigan.

That's madmartigan. Which I love. And then, of course, Fin Rizzell, the sorceress. That's who I named my dog after, and she's called Zel for short. So they're in their little what's the name of the village?

Oh, I don't know their village name. I just know they're they're Nelwyn. They're Nelwyn. And they find the baby, and they call the baby a A dikeini. Dikeini.

Yeah. Which I what I also love and I feel like we don't see very often is so many, forgive me for lack of a better term, but little little people Yeah. Being in a movie together where they're not playing like Yes. The heroes. Yeah.

You know? Heroes. Well, there were 250 of them. Getting so much of it was the largest casting call for Little People that had ever occurred. Yeah.

People under 4 feet. Yeah. And it's not I don't hate Return of the Jedi, and I don't hate the Ewoks. And so we just we saw Return of the Jedi in the theater. Yeah.

And it's it's nice to see folks that normally are in these, like, costumes or, like, Ward Davis was the leprechaun. Like like you were saying, like, these people get to play the heroes. And what a great job. Ward Davis does this movie. Oh, I mean Oh, he's darling.

And, like, I mean, I love the Lord of the Rings series, but, like, this is what the hobbits are described as being. Mhmm. Peter Jackson went through a lot of the magic of showing the hobbits to the regular sized people. You know what I mean? Like, there there is a place where you could cast little people as hobbits.

And I think that this obviously predates it by quite a bit, but I thought it was really cool to see that sort of diversity in casting. Mhmm. It gives them Oh, and the guy from Bad Santa is in this? Yes. He's, one of the warriors.

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think he has any lines. I think I don't think so. Tony I should look up his name.

Yeah. But he's he's fucking great in Bad Santa. And, like, all the warriors from this village are kind of introduced. There's a festival and a new kind of apprentice for the village leader is gonna be chosen. High Aldwyn.

Right. High Aldwyn. He's also, like, a sorcerer. Yes. Right.

And Willow's a magician, like, a street magician. Yeah. He wants to be. Right. And and, like, we are told very upfront, hey, magic is something if you believe hard enough that it is something.

And that is the key. Yeah. Like, I I don't think they ever explain, like, you have to say these specific words or do this specific thing or whatever. They just say act it hard enough and it'll until you want it. You know?

Like, Green Lantern. It isn't until he gets attention. The wand that he has to get the words right. Does he have to He does. For certain spells, and we use them to Yeah.

Rizelle Rizelle explains it. Okay. My fault. Yeah. Hey.

That's great. I missed that detail. He had to get it right. I I have one of them written down, you know, like, you know, when he's trying to do Tuatha, what's next? And she's like, loctoir.

That's the word that pleads for change. Oh, you're right. That's so cool. Yeah. I did just fully miss that detail.

I really did. Well, the ROUSs come storming into the castle or the village, I mean. The dog like, the dog type creatures. Yeah. The rodents of unusual size.

The hell hounds. And they've established this threat that these are what hunting They've been hunting Batman, the baby. And they start this, like they well, first, Willow doesn't get picked to be a sorcerer because he doesn't follow his Heart? His heart. Yeah.

He doesn't believe in himself. And so we've introduced the character's weakness, which is not believing that they're capable of doing something. That's a hero's journey. Yeah? Yeah.

Did you guys know the answer? I mean, if you if you'd seen the film recently, could you remember what the answer was with the high Aldwin's I thought I remembered correctly. Yeah. Which finger? We're in the same pocket.

Yeah. Here. Yeah. Great. Yeah.

I do like that there is this, like, hero's journey that essentially, like, leads to, like, you were always enough Yes. Which is like a fun, nice, little message. And it kinda gives me goosebumps, especially, for me at least, like, emotional goosebumps, especially when it comes between him and his family and his wife. Yes. Like, for them, he's always been enough.

The one that they've established. Yeah. Very clearly that, like, he's got, like, a happy stable home life with a wife and children and blah blah blah. And he's decided, I'm actively gonna take on this quest of keeping this baby away from this horrible woman, and taking her where she needs to go so she can save us all. And I I loved the tenderness.

You know, the high Aldwin gave Willow a choice. Do you have any love for this child? Mhmm. Yeah. And Willow's sweet, loving heart.

Well, first, they're just gonna go give it to a random person Yeah. Tikini. And because that's she should be with her I think their thought is, like, she should be with her people or something. I'm just what's his name? Burgle cut.

Burgle cut. Burgle cut. Is that the name of his haircut? This one is brought to you by Bad Cul De Sax. That's a Raskin Robbins if I've ever seen one.

Episode about that. It's called the Burbs. That's true. Yeah. You did.

Good point. Burble cut. Can I get the burble cut, please? Man, I don't know how he added more hair on. She's the only person who would ask for that too, which is cut the hair off the top and they add it to the back of your your hair.

So it's just The burgle cut. The burgle cut. It's a pretty it's pretty rough. He decides he's gonna leave the village with burgle cut And and the warriors. And he's given those acorns.

Yes. The magic acorns that will turn anything to stone. To stone. And as long as he it's, like, reiterated, like, believe hard enough. And we see that you will achieve.

Yeah. And the the leader of the village, like, picks up a rock and says follow the bird, and the bird, like, fucks off and goes somewhere else. Well, the bird goes back to the village, and he's like, ignore the bird. Follow the river. I think the jokes in this are pretty funny and silly.

The only times that it kinda starts to wear on me are the, Kevin Pollock, the little guys. Yep. Me too. Brownies. I I start calling them Mary and Pippen, but I think those are their comps.

Yeah. That's fair. I think it's mostly like the sound, like the The audio. The pitch. Yeah.

Me too. I agree. But anyway, they're on their quest, and they're out, and they're gonna go find someone to give this baby to. I did laugh when Willow was like, we have to stop. The baby's sick, and the bad coldest burgle cut is like, ah, shut up.

I got it. And she just pukes all over me. Oh, yeah. That got me. Yeah.

He gets For sure. He also gets shat on by a bird later. Both substances go in his mouth. He deserves it. He got that haircut.

I didn't think of it that way. I did not think of it that way. They're being hunted by the Nazgul? Essentially. Okay.

Essentially. An army of baddies. Yeah. And we come upon Madmartigan. Madmartigan.

In a crow's cage. Oh. And his teeth are disgusting. His teeth are great. He he brushes them.

We do find later that he uses something to clean them. Right? And they get cleaner and more beautiful through the movie. He brushes them in the, crow's cage. Yeah.

Before he gets the black root. He just wants water. Yeah. Right. They do a great job of introducing him where you're like, I don't know if I do trust this guy.

Yeah. He'll say anything. Yeah. And, like, the comps for me for that character, at least ultimately, are what if Aragorn was Han Solo? Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. Damn. I did not think of it that way. That's what it felt that's what it feels like to me.

And I feel like Valkylmer is really charismatic and really funny. Yeah. And then when he's in the action, he's really, like, fun to he's got great physicality. And we talk a lot about him in the episode we did of his It's the pegasus running up to you on the screen here. Real genius.

Especially in this, like, time frame where he was just he was just killing it. King of the world, man. Yeah. He's fucking great. I for me, performance wise, it's him, the queen, and I shit you not the baby.

I think that baby is so damn good. And I know that's a lot of that is editing. Well That baby's wonderful. So he's in the cage, and this is where they're at at impasse because, Burglucott wants to give the baby to this potentially murderer in a cage, and Willow is very protective. We're learning Willow has a really big heart and doesn't want to, like, just let go of this baby to just anybody.

And then the army passes by, and they're on their way to some sort of battle. Right? It's the good army, though. This is Yes. Arik's army who is Eric's.

Eric the Red is what I just kept thinking. That sure. That's a good comp. Yeah. You know.

Classic character Eric the Red. But Madmartigan in here are, like, they know each other, if nothing else. They're old acquaintances. They've fought with something. They're not enemies.

Right. This is where we learn that Mad Mardigan doesn't serve ideals. You know? So Eric's clearly signed up. He's, you know, he's he's a patriot.

Like, he's signed up for the army. He's gonna fight with one entity against this other entity. You know? And Kinda sounds like Oh, that, Martin. Know.

I like that about Matt. I do I feel like he does have ideals, especially or at least he finds ideals, especially in the opportunity to protect his child. I do like that he also, like, tells Eric or Eric says, like, you you don't commit yourself to any, like, man or country or whatever. And he's like, no. But I'm not a piece of shit.

Like, he seems to be guided by some sort of moral compass, although he will, like, fuck a dude's wife or whatever, apparently, which that's not great. But he they release Mad Morgan and give the baby to him. And Willow's like, I think that was I don't think we should have done that. Like, I got a funny feeling. And his friend's like, alright, dude.

I'm out. Enter the brownies. Riding on an eagle Riding on an eagle, carrying the baby, screaming in their French accents. I stole the baby. Yeah.

Why the French accent? I stole the baby from the stupid technique. I like so one of the things that I appreciated this time in particular was we're living in the world of pioneer on these effects. Yes. And they don't hold up.

You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. I appreciate The attempt? The attempt.

So you got a swing. I watched the behind the scenes today, and they're like, we used an effect called a blue screen. You know? Like, now we can all do that with our phones. Like Right.

Yeah. Screen does that for us. We don't even have to know how to use after effects or anything anymore. And they are probably rotoscoping them in when they're little, like, writing on them, like, they did used to do the lightsabers. So they're very clearly not there, but I don't know.

There's something there's something quaint about the effects. Created it. So I can't judge them. Like, you go make a hydra, you know, and not use your eyeball. That thing was really cool.

Gonna do it? That thing was cool. I wish I don't know how to say this. Well, choose your words very carefully. I know.

Right? I've already crossed some lines. So I just really enjoy sword and sorcery movies if they hit the right zone. And that was the thing, like, for me as Ben saying, there's certain things about this movie, similar eras or kinda similar effects or whatever. Army of darkness has worn very well on me and I forgive a lot of problems that movie has that I feel like I don't wanna give, like, the same rope to this movie.

Maybe because I didn't laugh as much or whatever it is, but we're talking about, like, rotoscoping and, like, doing making effects of, like, you know, people that are average size look like there's essentially almost microscopic or whatever. The c a scene of capture that similar that army of darkness maybe lifts a little from this as we've talked about things lifting from this movie. Right? Or this movie lifting from things. Where I guess, like, just like the little people essentially getting dispersed, from capturing Willow and his homie by, like, a fairy that's, like, copyright Disney's Tinkerbell showing up and being, like, don't.

And, like, a lot of these convenient things happen. Well, I think the brownies work there. Ser Sherlyndria. Right. I don't think I knew that before we got to that point.

I think one of the things is also brownies are a well known folklore. Yeah. Like, Irish folklore brownies, they're like tricksters, and I think that to me at least tuned me into go, oh, they they serve this fairy. That's where I came from. I just looking at the movie on its own without having a folklore background.

You thought it was like a deus ex machina or something? No. But it was just like when she shows up, I don't expect her necessarily to show up in the movie. I don't remember that being explained to me. And a lot of things just either feel like under or overdone, where it's like things seem too convenient or what have you.

Because they say that, the Brownies have been searching for Laura Danan for Sherlyn Drea to because she's trying to protect her. That's all said in the movie. Don't doubt it. Like I said, I've there are things that I paying attention. Have missed and will again, I was partially fascinated by the fact that my cat was so mesmerized by this movie.

I will say, for me, Princess Bride is, like, 4a half, maybe 4. Yeah. I was trying to see why this didn't hit that for me. And I think, ultimately, it's really simple. The structure in Princess Bride of the telling the story forgives so many things.

You immediately are opening yourself up to letting the fairy tale have easy fixes, have things that happen out of they can be whatever in this structure. And I think that for me is the one reason why I'm not at a a 4 or higher. Again, I've said this so many times, 3a half. High score for me. You could come up.

It's a high score. If the guys could say the same? I could say the same? We could say we'll say. Was it?

Okay. Was it? I'll wear the brownies. This is how we're doing. The Ah, wear the brownies.

Also, like this movie is a lot of journey, which is fine, but it's a lot of journey. I feel like people are walking and talking It's Lord of the Rings. A lot and that's great, but when people are walking and talking a lot, I prefer something that I guess is like more sir Sorkin, like walking in a circle in an office, talking like, snappy nonsense. I think about like coffee or whatever as to where like things that sometimes, like, I've never been able to get through Game of Thrones because it does too much world building as to where, like, oh, and, like, you laugh, but it's like, I've never met a single person who loved the 2 last seasons and you may be an exception to that. But it's like The final three episodes were unforgivable.

I don't even have time to get into it. I can't watch an entire series and and then be set up for that. Can't do it. I will not invest the time. That's fair.

That that's because they ran out of material to adapt from. Well, and that's the thing is then why did they keep going? And I, like and I understand, like, George r r Martin has been saying for years, I'll finish the books. Please. He apparently said that again this year.

No doubt. 2023. I read those books and I watched the series. So All creatures of good heart need your help. Oh, that was good.

It's a call. That clarion call. It's the call to adventure. Yes. Spoken like that, I feel like that's what there are nonprofits in our world, you know, that you put that on their website.

You know? All creatures of good heart need your help. I love it. Yeah. And it's a great we now know what the actual mission is Mhmm.

For Willow. And I going back to your observation about how how Willow cast little people, like, you can see that it's not as easy for Warwick Davis to run as it is for Elijah Wood to run. Mhmm. You know? You can see how how much more frightening it would be to be a Nelwinn in this world where Daikini armies are at battle, Daikini sorcerers, like, these huge, literally They call them giants.

People. You know? Giants. I love that they call them giants just for a moment because Yeah. I feel like that puts us into the perspective of them for the first time.

It's so much more frightening. He's a farmer. You know? Like, it it never felt as frightening for Luke Skywalker to leave Tatooine. You know?

And it feels obvious he's an adult man. Like, and his family's dead. He's a pilot. You know? Like, I know that he's a farm boy, and he's young.

You know? He's 18. The difference between him setting off and Willow setting off, you can really see the Well, he also doesn't get off a choice because his, yeah, an uncle are burnt too much. Trying to put down Star Wars. Well done.

Luke was the first hero's journey person that came to mind. Sure. And You know, I I hear what you're saying too. And, like, this world is terrifying, and we learned that early on when they go out. And now, like, what I do like about this movie too is that it just keeps layering more fantastical elements in.

As we get, like, more of the brownies. Yeah. And to the opposite side of a coin, everybody's giant to them. Yeah. And they don't give a fuck.

That's true. Like, they just fucking go buck wild or whatever. And they're like magic and tricksters. And that's the thing is, like, they do their due diligence with a lot of things, like, in terms of, like, the love dust or whatever. How the Kevin Pollock falls in love with the cat.

Yeah. So we get to the bar. They're Yeah. And no one wants to give milk to a baby because like, mostly because it's being carried by a A peck. Right.

Which is a slur, I believe. Things like that again where I think people take those moments that are dark and maybe go, it's so fucking dark. And it's like, but that's also sometimes the world I mean, it's like a biker bar somewhere. Right? Right.

And it's it's just one of those things where I don't know. I don't find any of this movie unpalatable. And so as we were talking about, like, people giving thumbs down where I'm like, but why exactly? As I gave this a 2a half where I'm, like I know. Perfectly fine.

It's perfectly watchable. Yeah. But, like, why hate on it? I don't that I don't understand. And I I do think, like, the bar again was, like, terrifying.

Mhmm. Like, he goes into it to find help. And these people are just, like For a baby. For a baby. And they're, like, no thanks.

But we get to I love Kevin Pollock falling in love with the cat. Me too. That's great. But I but I love that we get back to Madmartigan. I love that the dust it's not love dust.

It's like the dust of broken hearts. That's what they call it. Nice. Yeah. The dust of broken hearts.

Yeah. Fine. I man. I wish I it's weird. I we all pick and choose, like, what details.

Sure. Right? And Dust of broken heart. And it's, like, so many things, like, depending on what it is will float over my head. Like, I won't lie.

I just love it that I don't know why I'm spending so much time on this. It's it's not love dust. It's gonna break your heart. It's gonna break someone's heart of broken heart. It is.

It's a more creative name in general. Yeah. Yeah. Love dust doesn't tell you really I mean, it tells you It's it's not love potion number 9. But love dust Right.

But broken heart leaves some room for interpretation. Mhmm. I like how mayhem. How me not knowing the details is, like, pissing people off. Well, Joel, you're too stoned all the time.

I'm not anymore as much. But also, like, it's, like, I paid attention to this movie. I promise you. It's just one of those things, like, some things I just missed. And I know nobody's pissed off at me, by the way.

I was just like I'm really mad at you. But I'm I'm mad Martin at you. And and that's the thing is, like, when Pucci's not on screen, I'm saying, where's Pucci? I always want to know what he's doing. And there he is dressed in drag.

And he's fucking killing it. Yeah. Who's Poochie? Val Kilmer. I've been doing some thinking, and I got some ideas to improve the show.

1, Poochie needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine. 2, whenever Pucci's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, where's Pucci? Yeah. Yeah. So there's a big kerfuffle, you know, with a runaway cart chase, and Madmartigan steps in to help save he meet yeah.

Because he meets what's her name? Sorsha. Sorsha. Yeah. Does she no.

She's not here yet. Yeah. She comes to the bar. She finally has, like, shown up as, like, Lunk, the husband of the woman that this camera was sleeping. We forgot to jump to the castle, the evil castle.

Oh, right. Yeah. She tells her, like, go find the baby and censor her daughter and the big old Yeah. Girl man. Your daughter's gonna betray you.

And Bav Morda's like, what? She'd never. Whoops. Whoopsie doo. The score had been mentioned.

Oh. This is where it starts to really hit a zone for me. Oh, man. Really works for me. I love It's delightful.

I love this. This is one of the few scores that can compare with John Williams. It is magical. It is magical. Yeah.

He hits that, like, that iron kind of swords and sorcery thing, like that iron banging, like, in his James Horner way. Yeah. But, like, so fucking well in this movie. God, the score's good. Good.

Every time I think of James Horner, I just think of The Mummy. Great score. It's a great score. The Mummy. Great movie.

We've mentioned some of my favorite. What is to film as, you know, anthem is to music? What is to film as anthem is to music? Yeah. Top Gun?

There well, I guess what I'm saying is, like, there are there are certain films that are, like, made for made for bisexual audiences. Like The Mummy. The Mummy Yeah. Princess Bride. The Mask of Zoro.

Willow, Mask of Zoro. Those movies fuck. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you're just, like, on on both ends.

I just oh, I was hot. All of you. I love all of you so much. Oh, great. Everyone's hot.

Gotta bone them. Mhmm. Especially you're hot. This is when Willow finally realized that you're a wizard, Ari, where he's, like, fucking around with the wand and, like, pops up onto the tree. Right?

Well, that's after they escape yeah. They escape the the chase. Yeah. The big old chase, which is actually really well shot. And I was thinking about music I was talking about.

Yeah. Yeah. Through that. And, like, Ron Howard, in most of his movies when you see chases, he shoots those really well. I think he does it really well in Rush.

I think I actually think the opening to Solo, that's a really well shot chase scene. I like that movie. I think that movie's alright. I like the movie too, and I wanna know what's going on with Qi'ra. So I think that movie's alright.

Like, I am probably the one person who's, like, Star Wars, meh. Like, that's in this group, and I know I'm gonna probably continue to get, like, absolutely destroyed by people, and I'm okay with that. But Solo but Solo was a fine movie. I think that is a fun little adventure movie. It's and it's fine.

It doesn't take itself too seriously. Too many Star Wars fans were, like, yeah, but I stopped stopped pretty much his name is fucking dumb. Oh, yeah. That is dumb. That is dumb.

That's a it's very specific. But Yeah. That's like that's like when Nick Fury, how he lost his eye. Didn't love that either. Well, there was a bunch of stuff in that in Solo that did that where it's like, this is how he got his gun.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we didn't need that. Yeah.

We're we're not children. Or are we? You're not children. I'm not sure. I'm calling you a little kid.

All my friends are anyway. But, yes, we get to the little campfire and uses the wand and he pops into the tree. I love that Madmartigan calls Alora Danon Styx. Yeah. What was that about exactly?

It's just so cute. He just calls her Styx. He starts to endear himself to the baby. Like Yeah. We see that he has that's what his mom gave.

See that he has heart, and he's not nest. But he is a roguish knave. Oh, yeah. Right. Rogue.

1 of the 2. I like the little black root piece too. Like, when Willow's like, what are you doing? Like, when they're bullshitting. Black root to a baby.

You know? Just like, my mother raised us on this. How dare you? You met Martigan fighting for his mom? Like and god knows what what that relationship upbringing is.

Matt Martigan, great wig. Oh, man. Oh, and dye? Like, dye and extent? Whatever it is.

He looks great. Yeah. He looks great. Great. Yeah.

He looks great. Yeah. So Give give me a man with braids and a dress that's pink and that's been turned into I watched this with my wife, Jessica Aaron Martin, and she great. Yeah. I don't know if you saw her in Oppenheimer, but She's great.

No big deal. I did see her in Oppenheimer. She was great. She's great. Yeah.

She's great. She's great. She was like, I can't believe he did this right after Top Gun, which I think Yeah. Which is I was like, oh, yeah. You're right, which is funny to think of.

He was he was just on that sharp incline. Yeah. He really was. Yeah. And remember, this is after Star Wars as well.

Yeah. So he's Oh, wait. You're talking Lucas. You're talking Kilmer. Yes.

I'll send my number. Kilmer. Wait. Kilmer? Star Wars?

Because so he's doing this after Star Wars was made Oh. And huge. And then he did Top Gun, and he's, like, yeah. The team the team that's making Oh, I see what you're saying. Star Wars.

Oh, got it. Okay. Join in on this Ron Howard. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No. No. For sure. It but also, like, it just it just interesting.

It's just a like, a different side of him that you wouldn't expect, I guess. Yeah. A different, like, trope of a character, a lot of the things. He's great. I mean, he's really he can play so many things.

My heart still breaks for Val Kilmer these right now because His documentary is what I I have so much love and respect for him. Same. And, I mean, we mentioned Top Gun Maverick. I love how they honored him in that. And that Tom wouldn't come back unless they did that.

Mhmm. He could have been so fucking big if he wanted to depending on what he wanted to sign, but he wanted to make shit that he cared about. We've talked about this very briefly. He made a movie called Thunderheart with Sam Shepard, and that movie fucking rules. And he made it in the early nineties, and it's about really important shit that's still important now.

And it's a thing that, like, not a lot of big actors at that time would make. And that was a person who, as we have said on this episode, took swings Yeah. That people would not take. And we're talking about the level of reverence and respect, and, like, I just wanna make sure I mention that. Yeah.

Just, like, Tombstone, The Saint. I kinda love Val Yeah. And as I've said, he's my favorite Batman. He's good in that movie. So He's delicious.

Finn, the the great animal sort she is a what at first. Right? A musk? Crab? She starts out I don't even know what kind of animal we have here.

Just looked it up. It was some sort of kind of Australian possum. Uh-huh. The animation they do on her mouth is pretty fucking good. Yeah.

Yeah. It's an absolute That's my favorite effect for some people of some kind. It's like an Australian possum of some kind. Okay. And then she becomes, then they get then they get caught.

Right? Yeah. By because Saoirse has been deployed and Yeah. She grabs them pretty pretty quick. And it seems like they think that Madmartigan gave him away or he did give him away because he got captured and then he They keep thinking this, and it's never him.

Yeah. Like, with the baby too, he was taking a pee. They just took her. He didn't just give her away. Yep.

But he turned his back on a baby. Oh, that's true. Kind of bobbin. He turned his back on Raskin bobbin. A little bobbin.

Which is crazy because my mom would be I think we'd all set a baby down to pee. My mom would be in the shower on the phone making some toast, and I would be, like, in the sink. I'm pretty like, while she was smoking a I'm pretty sure. You know what? Not on day 1.

On day 1, I'm not On day 1, I'm not taking my eyes off that baby. Door open. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Baby's right there. I can only imagine. But they're get they get caught, and they are in those cells, and the brownies follow them. And he's able to turn her This is this is when Manvarden gets hit by the dust of broken heart.

Oh, yeah. And Finrazzel turns into a raven? Yes. Oh my god. And that special effect is one that I repressed.

Oh, yeah. That one's so funny. I had to see it again. It freaks me out. There are there are some, like, when the, troll gets Yeah.

Killed Pretty upsetting. Or, like, turned into, like, that blob Yeah. And then he kicks the blob into into the water. That also is super disturbing. The feather and and fur, I think, disturbs me even more than the troll.

Yeah. Yeah. That that effect is almost too good. Like, especially considering how far we are removed from it. Yeah.

Like, that that effect is really good. They escape. They're in, like, the snowy mountains now. But, I mean, let's come back. We do need to go faster in our in our recap, but this is important.

Sure. Because Val Kilmer Madmartigan gets hit with the dust of Broken Heart, and he lays his eyes on Sorsha. Yeah. And so this is where he he beguiles she's finally getting love for the she's getting, like, terms of endearment, you know, words of affirmation for the first time in her life. I don't know.

Yeah. Right. Who knows what that relationship is with her mom? Seems not great. Yeah.

Like, I I I don't know from a modern feminist perspective on love how easily she's disarmed by Meg Mardigan, emotionally or physically, you know, considering she's like the strong warrior. But on the other hand, it's bad Mhmm. And he's coming on very strong. You know? I dwell in darkness.

Well, I think I think I do like that he it seems like she she hasn't ever received love. Right. She yeah. She's been she's been raised by this evil sorceress in a time of dread, and she is a warrior in the army of Nokmar. So, you know, when all of a sudden this person is is saying, I love you.

I do love that she's like a badass, like, general of this fucking army. I like that it's not only his tongue, his words that impress her or they end up selling her. It is his, like, prowess as a warrior and a killer watches him. That she's like, yeah. I like that.

I like him. At this point, she's kind of confused, and she's, like, not making decisions great, which allows them to escape. Yeah. And they Christmas vacation, sled the fuck away. Well, I was thinking the temple of doom raft down the Oh, yeah.

I do like this shot where he goes where we see Madmartigan being a badass where we see Madmartigan being a badass. And Willow's like, oh, wow. He can he is a fight. Yeah. And then the shot is warrior.

The shot of Vel'Kan were, like, trying to do the thing with the sword, and it, like, kinda fucks up and he falls down. Really funny. Yeah. I like that too. But, yeah, they slide they go sledding down the mountain.

His giant snowball thing is good. Yes. We've got 2 we've got 2 snow fight scenes. Gotta love them. I I love a snow fight.

Oh, yeah. I love oh, I have we haven't mentioned the fact that I love all of the locations. Yes. Mostly New Zealand and Wales, I guess. But a lot of it, New Zealand, I guess, as well.

But, yeah, I just love I just love things that are shot on location and, like, being in a physical environment, and it just looks great. And I love the the way that you can do fantasy. We talked about this on the fall, is by just, like, one scene they're in a a a jungle or a forest, and literally the next moment they're in snow. And that feels magical. It does.

Yes. And it just transports you to somewhere different. It does a good job with that. It really does. Like, when when he's tumbling down and is the snowball and smacks the house Yes.

And Sorsha and them find them, like, immediately, but they go from, like, that snowy area to almost like like, to, like, chasms and Yes. The second second snow battle, they're able to escape with the help of Eirik's army. They disarm Sorsha and take her hostage Mhmm. And go through the chasms to Tiraslene. She manages to escape, rejoins up with the army of Nokmar as mad Mardigan and Willow, prepare to, like, defend Tiraslin, which was supposed to be their safe space.

If we can just get a Loradana to Tiraslin, a good king and queen will raise her to And it's all destroyed. Her destiny. Then we get there. We've got elements of Tolkien here. We've got people frozen.

And, of course, it's been overrun by trolls Trolls. Which are really creepy. And Mad Marnagan finds his king of Gondor armor. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Again, they're, like, a very D and D knight. You know? They find the armory. He levels up his weaponry.

You know? He rolls really high to get that door closed in time Yes. As the armies flying in. They do a good job of just showing how truly capable he is. Like When he puts his mind to it.

Mhmm. Yeah. When he wants to succeed Yeah. Like, he's fucking Catamults himself into a wall. Yeah.

Yeah. He is a great warrior. He he, like, very quickly finds trap doors and lays booby traps and Oh, yeah. He's prepares ambushes. He's John McClainying the hell out of that.

He goes full Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. Home full Home Alone Kevin McHale. Hit them all hit them all, everybody. But, of course, it's not enough because It's an army.

It's it's 1 dikini, 1 nel win But at least a troll mutates into a giant 2 headed monster. Yes. With magic. So Yeah. This is where we see Willow screws up his spell again.

Pulls out his acorns. He, you know, turns drops 1, you know, so then he he's trying to use Shailin to his wand. And he fucks it up again. He he fucks fucks it up. So he's down to 1 acorn when we get to the end of the movie.

Yeah. That's his last one. Yeah. I think so. So he doesn't end up actually using any.

Really? He throws one at the witch and she catches it. It on Bavmorda and it's it looks like it's gonna starts to turn her hand to stone. But there's no, like, payoff with that thing, really. We don't see it effectively work.

Well, I think we do see it effectively work in that moment. I would I would argue that you do see But she's too powerful. We yeah. But he he but he succeeds at using it. It just doesn't Or he doesn't believe in it enough.

Or Well, she she's too powerful. No. I get that. But, yes, he doesn't successfully turn any of his enemies to stone. Sorsha and Madmartigan, that moment where it's just like, you know, it's gonna happen.

It's finally gonna happen. And, like, they kiss. And that's the thing, like, in sword and sorcery movies, like, there there has to be, like, that that payoff of, like, the those 2 parties, like, coming to some sort of, like, I love you, I respect you, whatever it is. And it's true. If you've ever been in a life and death situation with someone who's even, like, a little bit attractive, it is undeniable.

So then you put these 2 gorgeous people together. Right. Like, what do we expect them to do? Gotta bone them. I Gotta bone them.

They just they set it up, like, through the whole movie. Especially when I just really like it when, like, he uses all these words and she's like, well, I like this. And then it ultimately is the, like, but are you are you capable? And that's the thing that, like, she does kinda have to be sold on it, which I I like that. I will say so we're getting to the point where they're going back to they get the army and they're going back to the castle.

Right? So they're defeated. The troll gets turned into a creep creepy dragon, blah blah blah. They defeat the dragon. They but the army sex successfully takes Alora Danon and leaves on horseback.

She gets captured a lot. That baby gets captured and taken and moved and passed between parties all the time. I have to say, there are moments where the baby is very fake. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah.

Because the guy is not holding this infant's head. No. I know. At all. I know.

You just see, like, a still baby. And then there were times, I think it was in the sledding time, where I paused it, and it's it's the people on the on on the sled are just wearing a Warwick Davis and a Valkommer mask. Amazing. It looks really track that. It looks really I thought it was like I thought it looks it look.

It's terrifying. That's I did not track that at all. Well, this and so this is where, Willow is having a crisis and confidence. He thinks it's over. He's failed Alora Danon.

And it's Madmartigan who Builds him back up. Builds him. Can you ride? Let's ride. They're gonna go rescue Alora Danon.

In Mordor. Yeah. Because Kale Kale is the big bad guy. I feel like we haven't really talked about, because he's Skullman. Yeah.

Because it's just like he wears a skull Skullman. And that's come together. We were is that the the song of Washington? Skull man. There were a couple things, that I don't know enough about film history that happened in this battle that I've I wonder if they were done first here or where they were done first.

One of them was, you know, Madmartigan posturing with his sword and the bad guys fleeing in fear, and then he turns around and he sees things because there's a monster behind him. I'm pretty sure that's something from another movie, but who knows what? Pretty sure that's something from another movie, but who knows what? Yeah. I wonder who did it first.

Another one is, like, a creature screaming in the hero's face and the hero's face is screaming back. Oh. Oh, a creature. Yeah. There it's like I can see Also, it's a mummy, but, of course, this was before the mummy.

That is the first one that was in my head. I gotta stop pointing today. I'm pointing. It's a great moment, the mummy. It is.

Brennan Fraser, another another, like, great. Where do people just listening to this, and I think you are, just know that I love you so much, and I have so much fondness and affection for you. Cornish College of the Arts Just can't wait to meet you. Chosen son. Hope we get to work together.

Vernon Fraser. Or is it Charles Norris? Love you. One of them is the chosen son. It's both.

And I'm going to second everything Shannon said about how fucking amazing that person is. Well, I guess 3rd, because you you know my last in line. It was me. Wow. Comes off disingenuous that way.

That's the best. Wow. Yikes. And I I was genuine. I was too For once.

First time for everything. We were talking about the mummy. I fucking love the queen Mordor Morda. Bavmorda. Bavmorda.

It is wearing a mummy situation underneath her cloak. She is just she's Maleficent. Like, her her costume coming at it with the comps in this one. Her costume is just, like, straight Maleficent. It is very From the cartoon.

Not from the not from the Yeah. Yeah. That high the ominous turtle neck check there. Weird little, like Yeah. Crown slash The scary crown.

Yeah. The demon queen. The pig transformation. Pigs. All of you, pigs.

Pretty solid. Yeah. Because the evil queen, the big demonstration of her power is, in my opinion, is turning all these guys into pigs, like, at her whim. It was it was nothing. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Eric's army approaches Nokmar, you know, and doesn't even have the chance to attack or lay siege because all she has to do is with her words and power. And Fin Rizzelle uses tells tells Teaches Willow, yeah, to use the shelter charm to protect himself. And she he turns Fin Rizzelle into a goat.

And finally into herself. Right. A tiger. It's like a goat ostrich. Turtle in there.

A turtle. A turtle. Tortoise? A yeah. And, yeah, back to these, you know, special effects that that they were very proud of their metamorphosis effect, which they created Yeah.

To be able to do this. And There's I think one of the problem one of the connective tissue issue one of the connective tissue issues I have with this movie Do you need to see King Moistele? I do. Yeah. Okay.

Is just I feel like once the connection happens, once we get the the trail of Sorsha on her mom, her character kind of becomes sidelined. And, like, it doesn't become a bigger like, she should be the one she literally lived in this castle. Like, she should be leading this army. When they're talking about, like, how what are we gonna do? It's, like, well, why don't we talk to the person who fucking just came from there?

Yeah. She probably knows the back door. She probably knows everything we need to know about this place. Yeah. And that's one of my Jess was saying the same thing where I was, like, why why isn't her mom, like, why aren't they talking right now?

Like, why isn't there a bigger thing about this betrayal? And Mhmm. That so that that for me is, like, I feel like her character kinda gets a little A bit missing. Yeah. The the feminism flies up and dissipates.

Although, we do get 2 old ladies punching each other, which is pretty awesome. We do. We do. How often do you get that? That is pretty sweet.

Yeah. It's tough in those final battles to give everybody someone to fight. Yeah. And to give everyone their moment, You know? Because you have to have that classic final battle where you get the the big bads have to go down.

Yeah. And I agree that Sorcha doesn't really get Mhmm. Sorcha should have taken down Skol, man. Kale kills Eric. Mhmm.

And then Madmartigan goes crazy, cracks the skull mask. Yeah. No. He runs up the stairs. Right.

They they have, like, a little dance. Yeah. He finally does kill Kale. Yeah. But he's, like, he has to hit him with 2 swords?

Yeah. Well, he has another. He has that he has that, what are they called? Like a gauntlet. Yeah.

But that has, like, a blade on it that gets broken. And then he has another sword in the other arm. So he's he's rolling double fisting. This is like I think Val Kilmer is pretty solid with the sword, especially when he's just kinda displaying it and moving it. The sword fighting in this movie, and a lot of the fighting aside from the old days punching each other is like a little clunky.

I've I felt like even for the time. It's it just seems like such a massive undertaking when it's all said and done. Where it's just like for me, I really appreciate the swing so much. Like, I did not have a bad time watching the movie, but it's just, like, I could sit here and Yeah. Go over things that are, like, well, there's this and there's this and there's this, but that's no fun.

But, like, I think of Star Wars, the first lightsaber battle between Obi Wan and Darth Vader is not anything. Yeah. I hear what you're saying. I think, like, it could have been more attention to put onto that, especially now, I think, in our contemporary gaze of, like, The Witcher, these long, big shots of these actors who are actually, like, fucking killing it and sword fighting. So, yeah, I like it would have been that would have been great to have a little bit more focus on that, but I I don't know if that was because, like, I think of princess bride.

Of course, there is the sword fight Mhmm. Which is about sword fighting and how good you are at sword fighting. Mhmm. And that's cool. But the rest of it, not there's no focus on that.

Right? So I don't think so. Yeah. I didn't notice it as I was watching it. Well, so then That's not to say you're wrong.

It's just not something I noticed. Well, I'll say it for you. Paul, you're wrong. Look, I missed a lot of shit, so I may be wrong about lot of things. I just usually say Paul, you're wrong, but I needed to say you're wrong.

I just feel like there were a lot of movies that came out in the eighties that some of these Oh, sure. Action sequences were, I prefer the execution. Whether or not it's better, that's up to anybody's interpretation. I hear you're saying. Yeah.

But it's like I mentioned Ladyhawken. I don't wanna sit here and list a bunch of fucking movies. Well, that's what we usually do. I know. I'm gonna try to avoid that.

So the moment where Willow to me, I think a lot of people would say kinda completes his hero's journey when he transforms Finn. For me, it's when Finn Rizzo. Finn Rizzo. Thank you. Is it one word, Finn Rizzo?

It's two words. And if you're gonna shorten it, then she they shorten it to Rizzo. Interesting. Okay. So when Willow is faced with the queen, and it's really more just about him being confident, believing in himself, doing what he does.

And he was the magic the whole time, and it's like, it's kinda corny, but, like, I kinda like that payoff. It it shows that you've got these 2 sorcerers who are matched in their Mhmm. Great powers, and she's defeated by something that she hadn't thought of. She wasn't thinking of, like Street magic. Yeah.

Street magic. You know? Just below her. Yeah. She's she's too busy thinking about exiling this child to 13th night.

She's not thinking about, you know, disappearing pig ax. Right. Yeah. I think I I thought that was a really great callback to bring back Mhmm. That.

And, like, he's like, okay. I'm gonna clever thinking, like Mhmm. Yeah. You know, my my acorn didn't work. I don't even have Sherilyn Drea's wand in my hand.

Like, I can't defeat her with magic. Finrazel couldn't defeat her with magic. I have to use the only thing that I have. Yeah. I maybe like the payoff of the acorn more in a way now that you mentioned that because it actually even though he doesn't really get to use it and then you're expecting a payoff, but the payoff ends up being, like, what the payoff is.

Where it's like the magic wasn't out there the whole time audience. The magic was this person the whole time. Well, I So it carries like that it's weird. I I'm going very inside baseball with this. But I think that's kind of because I was I'm thinking of, like, other we're talking about Dungeons and Dragons on Honor Among Thieves.

Right. It's like the same thing. Trying to achieve this one magical thing is fine, and that's a great way to, like, keep the story propelling. But at the end of the day, let's use the thing that was tried and true that we know we can do. Yeah.

And that brings this belief into you. And I think Star Wars is a great comp. Right? Because that's no bigger than a womp rat. Luke knows he can shoot something that small.

He's done it his whole life. Mhmm. Having Obi Wan, like, tell him, like, use the force and takes the shield away. Mhmm. Right?

Because he's like, oh, wait. I can fucking do this. I know I can do this, and I think this is the same thing. And it's that fast thinking character of being, like, I'm I'm gonna do this thing. And and the fact that And it all works.

And it and we I believe that it would work because she's, like, she's too obsessed with magic to be, like, nobody knows more magic than me. Mhmm. Yeah. And this isn't magic. It's just sleight of hand.

I think it's great. Yeah. I have a question. The evil queen holds the wand up to the open roof where they're fighting. The lightning.

Yeah. Yeah. Is that what conducts the lightning into her? Is the wand? Or that she wants to use the wand?

Because it's almost like the lightning strikes her at random to a degree and that's part of the like, it's like too too many things feel like they happen at random in this movie where it's like, oh, okay. I think she's been calling on all these powers, and now we've got, like, a lot of conduits happening at once. Okay. So, you know, you've got this she's been summoning the power. She's been summoning the lightning.

She's holding the wand. She's full of rage. She's probably her powers are out of control now because Yeah. Of what's just happened. She's been defeat, you know.

So I think all of that Yeah. I was getting the idea that she was the lightning was gonna hit the baby. Like, that was Oh, in the end, that's what she was calling. Think of that Yeah. The 13th day.

So I think that's what the it was supposed to hit in that moment. Yeah. That's when she was supposed to have completed the ritual. That's why it was supposed to be that exact time. Yeah.

Okay. I did I did not get that, but the evil queen is defeated Mhmm. By a lightning bolt. She is she and Kahler both hoisted by their own petards Mhmm. Yes.

In this case. And everything is bright, and that's the thing that a lot of these own what? Petard. Petard. That's a you've never heard that phrase?

No. Hoisted by your own patard. I used to We talked about this in the fall episode. I used to think that it meant you got, like, lifted up, but what it means is you were basically blown up by your own bomb. You were defeated by your own device.

A patard was a was a explosive device. Shakespeare and Hamlet. So That's right. Just like at the end of Star Wars or a lot of these films or Lord of the Rings, like, everything is, like, brighter and people are happier and, like, you know, this is restored. This malevolent creature no longer exists to oppress this world.

Mhmm. Yeah. And we head back to Hobbiton. I don't remember what it's called. Mhmm.

And, again, I got the feels when he sees his wife. I know. And he says, Kaeya. Yeah. I think just like Lord of the Rings in this way where when you get that far away from something and you get to that much danger and your life is on the line, brings everything into perspective and, like, that home life that is, like, being so much.

Yeah. And it meant a lot to me, Vanessa. The movie has, like, a lot of good messages. A lot of the payoffs are are what they should be. Like, it's just it's a simple story told in a very fantastical way.

Yeah. And if that's what, you know, you're looking for, that's what you're gonna get in the end. Yeah. Well, here we are. Yeah.

I feel like I never I like to be careful when critiquing other works. Right. Because we're all doing this. We know how hard it is to write something. We know how something works on paper, and then you watch the edit, and you're like, this isn't working.

You know? Yeah. But I feel like what made this film so beloved was not present in the sequel. There was a sequel? Well, in the series series.

Sequel series. Yeah. I think that this that the creators of the series, I don't think they picked up on what I love about Willow. Mhmm. And, That's a bummer.

Yeah. There's, like, a lot of lovable things. That shouldn't be hard. For me, it just kinda was boring. And the tone was way off for me.

The tone was very this had a lot of child child family humor, silly things. You know, the brownie it's very Ewok type of, you know, humor. PG movie. And the series felt very teenage angsty. Yeah.

It's dark. And yeah. Yeah. I wish that they had consulted with me. I guess, I guess.

I wish that they consulted with me Do you wanna tell them if they're listening? Before they made it. Bob Iger. Bobby? Listen here, Bob Iger.

And I am available, you know, for future projects. Future Brendan Fraser. If she's busy. If Val Kilmer and Brendan Fraser are involved. You know, Val Kilmer wasn't able to be involved for his health, but they left it open.

They they I was trying to remember. Did they kill Madmart again? No. They didn't. Because they wanted if he was ever able, they were ready to be, like, as soon as you have a good day, we will create it for you.

You know? So Well, do we have any, last minute additions we wanna talk about in this video that we missed? I think I went over everything I would like to. Shanna, anything we missed? I think I did too.

I just this is one that that I just want to love. Mhmm. You know? And so you had said something earlier, Paul, about there are certain things you'll forgive from different thing. And that's how I feel going into this is I'm gonna forgive any little silly things that I'm like Yeah.

Oopsie. I'd maybe edit that out of our remember yesterday. I don't care because it has so much heart, and it just fills me with so much delight. I I agree. I I mean, I I had a delightful time watching it.

That's why it gets my 5 disappearing pics. Yeah. Let's get to that. We're still let's go to our has has anyone's ranking final ratings changed, Shannon, now that we've finished our discussions? My my rating is unchanged.

5 out of 5 disappearing picks. 5 out of 5 disappearing picks. Would you like to pick who would goes next? Paul, has do you have any change after this discussion, this ex examination? You both brought up a good a lot of good points.

And, also, like, I kind of, at times, felt like the odd man out a little bit because I'm sorry. And no, that's not in a bad way. But in a way where it's like if this is the type of movie that you like, if this if you want somebody to do some world building with and for you, and you just kinda want something that you can get lost in a little bit, and you're okay with still being a devil for the details. For me, it's a thing where it's like, this is the kind of thing I like. I played Dungeons and Dragons, like, I I like the Conan movies, I like Red Sonja, I like I like sword and sorcery stuff.

But I can't really go above the 2a half partly because like, I couldn't relate to the details apparently that I really probably should have related to, or maybe listened to, or what have you. Is this ran twice in my home? But also, I I agree with what Shannon said. This, it's a solid movie. It's well made.

You can tell the people that made it fucking really cared about it. And if I met either of you, and you hadn't seen this movie, I'd be like, have you seen Willow? This isn't a movie that I would tell people not to watch. Yeah. So it's one of those things where it's like, it doesn't quite climb into that, like, I'd watch it again or, like, recommend it randomly or whatever.

But if it's in your wheelhouse, like, make it a priority. Yeah. Very good. I can respect that. I can respect that.

I think I'm gonna stay at 3a half. I almost wiggled. Mhmm. I almost wiggled I almost wiggled up to a to a soft 4. You did a 3.75?

Yeah. I think I'm around I mean, we should She gave you the liberty 0.25 rule. Yeah. She's handed it to you. Handed it to me.

So, yeah, 3.7 75. Yeah. Again, loved it. I think it's delightful, and I might watch it again. Oh, yeah.

And I would recommend it. And I think, like, if you like Princess Bride and you haven't seen this movie, you should watch it. If you like Labyrinth and you haven't seen this movie, you should watch it. Yeah. Like, if somebody said I like Val Kilmer specifically.

You should watch it. Yeah. Like, oh, I'm just kidding. Said, I don't like Val Kilmer, I'd be like, are you fucking psycho? Yeah.

That's what I'm talking about. Willow. Yeah. And then come back and tell me that. And also never text me again because I don't like you.

You may not love the movie, but if you don't like him. So before we do our final wrap up, I just wanna mention that our bookend themes are by Jamie Henwood. And Jamie Henwood is a good friend of mine who recently lost his sweet cat, Charmer, after 18 years. Jamie, I've been there. I'm so sorry.

Yeah. We had a family member lose a family member. Yeah. So we just wanna say RIP to that beautiful boy. Yeah.

Yeah. 18 years. And it's like Yeah. You know, I know you're an animal lover. We're both animal lovers, and it's and I think it's just so hard because we want these creatures to live forever.

Oh, boy. Yeah. And, like, to them, we're crazy ethereal elves that live forever. That do their bidding. Yeah.

But, like, we are their whole lives. Couldn't be happier about it. We get these little so, anyway, I just wanna shout out to Jamie and and Sharma and say that we're thinking about thinking about you and, but let's, final plugs. Again, we're at review x two podcast on Instagram. I'm at Run BMC on it, Instagram.

Shannon At Shannon Corbay, c o r, b as in bravo, e I, l as in Lima. You can see why I have to tell people that it rhymes with sorbet. Yeah. But it looks like Corbeil. Corbeil.

It's French like the brownies. I have at Paul acts badly on Letterboxd, and our what are we watching theme was by Matthew Foskett. Thank you so much for tuning in. Join us next time. James Bond will return.

Yes. We will be back. Yes. Thank you so much for being here, Shannon. Ah, glory.

How did we not why didn't we do the whole episode like this? Oh. I could've done the Australian. No. This isn't brought to you by accents.

Not this one. Alright. That's not that's not my audition accent. Okay. Give her some time to work it.

You guys, this was so fun. Thank you so so much. You were wonderful. I I really was honored that you asked. Thank you.

Thrilled that I got to watch Willow again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

This is fun. Thanks. We're out. Thank you, Shannon. Bye.