Can You Ever Forgive Me? & Bear Gryyls: You vs Wild

Forgive Me

Sidey:  some

Reegs: welcome to Baghdad's film review each week, we promised to try and entertain you for a little over an hour and who knows this week, we might even deliver. Once again, we bring to you all the wittiest, funniest and cleverest talents available anywhere in the world today. But enough about me, let's introduce the rest of the dads.

As usual. We have Sidey a man of many parts, some of which he'll be using tonight. We have another stalwart of the show, even now getting ready to water our stalls, Dan. And finally we have Howie a man who was so ugly at birth. His incubator had tinted windows. Now, if you're keeping score, you'll want to know that the winner of last week's pod was Dan with a fantastic 72 points, which I believe is a new high score.

Isn't it

Sidey: Yeah. Sounds like

Howie: Pretty good. It's well done.

Reegs: done.

Dan: I'm lost.

Reegs: and let's get on with the non-scripted part.

Sidey: Yeah,

Reegs: you guys. All right.

Howie: Yeah. Well, you've been watching loser apart from me.

Reegs: what have I been watching? I've been watching blood and bone, which is not the name of my sex tape. It's

Howie: She'll cookbook,

Reegs: Michael J. White DTV movie. Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. it's like. The most sort of common DTV thing where it's like an ex prison, ex-convict is fighting in an underground fighting tournament.

but the,

Sidey: he, so originally

Reegs: but it's cool.

Howie: turn off at any point,

Reegs: No, he doesn't, but it's absolutely brilliant. It's brilliantly.

Dan: somebody that looked like Jean-Claude

Reegs: They couldn't even afford the looky likey. Oh yeah. So recommend that highly brilliant.

Howie: Co I've got hooked on a, I've watched all four of them, called the liberator on Netflix. So it's, it's, it's a series. It's a war thing that's been linked to veteran's day. And it's done with kind of, you know, rotoscoping. Yeah. It's like a card it's rotoscoping, but. Upper level that Netflix have done.

And it's based on the true story of a platoon or squadron, whatever called the Thunderbirds, which made its way in 500 days straight fighting from Pellegrino. And they were the ones that liberated, the concentration camps in Germany. And it's really fucking good. But they're made up. They're made up.

Reegs: it comes out the swimming

Howie: Yeah,

they've got this, they got this knob. Who's not doing anything in space. Who's just basically walking around in the Bullock. He's doing jerk-off timing. Absolutely.

Dan: you recommend that one with your kids. I looked at it and I

Howie: worth it. It's really cleverly done. The rotor. Scott scoping was done a few years back with a couple of films and one, I think you might've done in your earlier views.

Is there,

Dan: to the uneducated that don't know what is Roper scoping.

Reegs: rotoscoping.

It's like coloring in

Howie: basically.

Reegs: it's animation on top of the image. have you seen a scanner darkly?

Howie: the one I was thinking of?

Reegs: it's a Phillip K Dick adaptation with, Keanu Reeves. It's a really good one. It was one. I was going to bring up in the,

Howie: But they've taken this rotoscoping scoping up a notch and it's, it works really well.

Yeah. They've well, no, they've used Crayola,

Reegs: it's doing it live.

Howie: loads of improv, the, The backgrounds are all kind of, it's almost like green screen with real actors in actual uniforms and stuff. So it's a bit linked, quite nicely to sort of 1917 that we reviewed as well. But it's true story about the Thunderbird squadron who are made up of Mexicans, Cowboys. Yeah. Puppets. This is

Reegs: PO faced English guy driving a pink car.

Howie: This does sound like your

Dan: Yeah, it sounds sounds decent.

I did say it just thought, well, maybe that's one for later, but you'll

Howie: But it's worth looking into because the bloke who is the chief, I think he's called Felix sparks. He's the, the, the major at the end of it, he goes from, start to finish basically nearly all bar. One of his troops die.

Dan: spoiler. Wait. anyway, I've been watching another one. you probably seen it.

It's called designated survivor.

Reegs: Somebody at work. He used to bang on about this all the time.

Apparently it's ridiculous, but it's got the amazing,

Sidey: 24. Yeah.

Dan: So he's kind of like 24, which I never got into. I haven't seen a lot of his stuff. Other, other than films,

Sidey: We can only do it while he's sober, which hasn't happened very often.

Dan: it's

Reegs: episode have like an enormous cliffhanger at the end? A bit like prison break

Dan: Yeah. So it's just like that. They, as designated survivor, he's the only one left alive when terrorists block the Capitol. and it's all the stuff that kind of happens and it's, it's dead easy to watch, you know, it's one of those things, 45 minutes, less than that actually. Cause they got, you know, credits and things.

So you just so easy to watch another one and you're going to bed late when late. Oh, just one more. It's

Reegs: term they use for when like the president's killed isn't it.

And that you have to end the vice-president and you're like the

Sidey: yeah. It's the one you become the defacto. Yeah. It's what happened in Battlestar Galactica. Yes. Yeah,

Dan: Yeah. Probably, you know, along that same

Sidey: well, definitely, exactly. we watched, we were on a bit of an old school tip, so we did raise a lot of stock. Skip temple of doom, went for last crusade and we're currently. Oh, battling our way through a kingdom of the crystal skull, which the motto is sort of enjoy.

Dan: she enjoying it?

Howie: Yeah, my kids did. They just

Sidey: I don't. I have to pre-warn her, that, those bits, I'm not going to let her watch, especially as we tend to watch them in the evening.

No, well, that, that could be anything crystal skull, but no, the, I don't know, to watch the face melting Nazis or the

Howie: he fucking take all the joy

Sidey: I know. I know. So. Yeah. And I actually turned it off. We were watching it tonight and I turned off because it was just loads of like corpses and stuff. And Christmas guy was like, we don't need this for bad note that got canned.

I finished finally finished glow series three, which I really enjoyed. And it's really disappointing because they've canceled it. So the ending of series three is really good ending for the end of a series to be picked up, but not as a finale to the whole thing. So that was disappointing. It's this point that has been canceled, but it was a very good show.

I'll do some kind of review at some point, right?

Reegs: we've got last week's top five to complete, which was memorable movie. Politicians have got a couple of nominations. Mel on Twitter volunteered Morgan Freeman who played Barrack Obama in deep impact. He didn't but, yeah. he was also the vice president in Olympus has fallen, which is,

Sidey: it's amazing

Reegs: about,

Howie: That's what those films are a guilty pleasure.

Reegs: Yeah. I might nominate, cause I've only seen the first

Dan: Jared Butler. Yeah. Yeah, no, he's, I've seen him both from

Howie: They, the, the one, there was like a whole load of them all at once. And there was another one with Channing Tatum, which goes down as one of the, one of the most violent films. There's so many dead people in it. It's unbelievable. It turns into like commando where he's just machine gun and there's like a body count.

Sidey: Kind of tight reminded me of watching a 22 jump street.

Reegs: Oh, that's really funny.

Dan: Is it

Howie: Yes. Yeah, it is. It

Dan: I didn't watch over

Reegs: No, they're, they're much better than you would think. Honestly, they really

Howie: when they're trying to make each other sick in the toilet.

Dan: I wanted it to be good, but I didn't hear good things from it, so I stayed away, but

Reegs: No, it's that was my

Howie: second one. Isn't

Dan: may, I may check that out before next week's

Howie: They're both on prime.

Reegs: are hilarious. All right. we also have Matt Taylor nominated. I don't know that this necessarily counts, but I love the nomination. It's Montgomery barista from baristas.

Howie: Oh yes.

Reegs: a politician at the end? It's none of the

Howie: None of the above. He, he wins, but doesn't win.

Reegs: I would quite like to make that the nomination, because I think that's really good.

Dan: clever one. Yeah.

Reegs: So there you go. Matt Tila, Montgomery Brewster baristas, millions completes our top five memorable movie politicians.

Sidey: And while we chat about today,

Reegs: But it's Dunn's nominations,

Sidey: top five.

Dan: Of books, film, books, books,

Reegs: book, films

Dan: movies, that turned into films. And for the movie, it is, will you ever forgive me?

Sidey: Yeah, kind of. And,

Howie: maybe, maybe.

Reegs: forgive me?

Dan: where are you?

Sidey: and we watched some kids' stuff too.

Dan: And we watched some kids stuff too, that I'm not going to say. Don't remember that?

Howie: pretended to the throne, pretender to the throne.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: top five book movies,

Dan: book movies, movies that are books, books that became movies. should I kick his off?

Sidey: Let's do it.

Dan: I'm going to go for an absolute classic of the genre and it's one of those. That was a fantastic book.

Sidey: Shitville okay. Wonderful.

Howie: genius?

Dan: Graham Greene. He wrote the book caused pinky and we've heard it all before.

Howie: but clarify it was the 2010 film, not the 19.

52 film. Yeah.

Dan: we've Dickie Attenborough. This one. whereas.

Reegs: one was no good night.

Dan: And the 2010 one was less, less strong. We felt, eh, on a previous pod, but I tell you what Graham green is a fantastic, author as well.

And he's done some brilliant books. I'm not sure how many got made into, films. I think there was one called the quiet American that was. Made, but with a different title.

Howie: you're allowed American.

Dan: yeah, that's him. but that was one of many, I think we're going to have tonight.

Sidey: yeah. 10 commandments. popular work of fiction. the Bible, I don't know who wrote that one.

Reegs: Wasn't it?

Sidey: I thought it was a collaboration.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Genesis had a hand in it.

Reegs: Phil Collins.

Howie: Yeah,

Sidey: And, I'm guessing it was, it must've been when Peter Gabriel was in it. Cause it is quite Prague. Yeah. So that was definitely worth a mention, I thought.

Reegs: that's a good one.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. with two minor exceptions, I've limited these to movies where I've also read the books. one that I thought of straight away was the Martian, which is Andy King's novel.

That was turned into a.

Dan: brother.

Reegs: Yes, Stephen's brother. Yeah. Tending to, a film with a murder theme. And, I really liked the fact that they, they did a really good job of making the science feel real, which is a big part of the book. And, or at least real enough in most of it that you don't have to struggle with the suspension of disbelief that you do in many Saifai movies.

You also got the self-deprecating humor, but still also highlighting the kind of massive isolation that you would get being stranded alone on Mars. I think even though the book was clearly written with a screenplay in mind and you feel that when you're reading it, I did also think that there's only so much you can do with internal monologues and rationing of potatoes.

but they did manage to make a really good movie out of a very good

Howie: Yeah, I enjoyed it,

Dan: which isn't easy to do.

Is it, I mean, how many times have been balled up where you've had a brilliant book and the film is just

Howie: Well, it's the pressure. It's the pressure to condense a 600 page book to two hours. Isn't it? I mean, they just, they omit or they change. So it kind of, unless you've got yourself a really tight story that doesn't need that editing is going to

Sidey: I know there are authors who are clearly up for having all their works, put on the big

Dan: well.

That's what I was just thinking, as Rick said, the other thing is when the author actually writes the book, whether he thinking of the big screen to it as well,

Sidey: you've got others.

Who are very protective in absolutely no way. I'm thinking, catching them

Reegs: Capturing the rye is the one, isn't it really where they've wanted to make a movie of that for you? Yes, but

Sidey: I'm torn because I love the book. We always quote one particular bad. but you just think with the film editor, justice, probably

Dan: They have made a film about the man

Reegs: Yes. They have about Salinger. Yeah.

Dan: was okay. Actually, I watched that, a few months

Howie: but he's, he's a state have it that they will not allow.

Reegs: Yeah. Because he was very anti yeah. So what aspect,

Howie: going along with kind of what Dan was saying, a disappointing movie of, a book that I really enjoyed, world Wars at, by max Brooks. the adaptation is the one that he's seeing the trailers for, of.

the walls of, I think it's Israel in the, in the film, the walls of Israel being stormed by the bodies. And I, I do quite the films. All right. I'll give it to you. And I there's bits of it that are quite good. It's very tense in places, but there's lots again. We've just said there's lots missing from the

Reegs: they fundamentally, they changed it so much from what the book is about and how things unfold in the Berkeley.

It's like, why, why change it so much and still call it world Wars. Ed, just make it a generic zombie movie, because there is still an amazing book, still an amazing movie to be made out of world Wars ed, probably a mini.

Howie: Yeah, it does. You're right. I shouldn't thought that it would suit a mini series because there's so many different global battles in the book.

The ones that I quite like,

Reegs: the way that it unfolds really slowly.

Howie: Oh, yeah. Well, it's a pandemic from China. The, the, the most effected countries, the U S because they don't believe in South Korea. but there's lots of geographic battles and there's lots of little ones that could be expanded upon. I quite like the fact that New Zealand survives cause the Mary's go fucking nuts and form an art that the Merry army defeat them.

There's all little stories and, and, and the zombies are basically living on the sea bed because that's the only place that they can survive

Reegs: they walk across oceans, basically. Don't need it. Yeah.

Howie: Or they, or people go into the mountains to freeze because the zombies freeze, but they, millions dive the normal humans. the film does have, like you say, the, as some scenes, particularly tense, like on the plane and stuff like that.

But again, it's the emissions, like you said, and the fact that perhaps, perhaps that's where the fault lies in that there's too much. At pressure to turn it into a film. When in fact in many series would saying that miniseries would suffice, but saying that a mini series is what a lot of things are now getting put into because of the nature of no cinema,

Sidey: Hmm. Hmm.

Dan: I've just got so many air, to be honest, I might have to do two or three at once after this rounds, but, the godfather, Mario Puzo, have you ever read the book?

Reegs: haven't. No,

Dan: is absolutely amazing. You know, so. Francis for a copy, obviously taking these, he elevated it again into an Oscar winning film and then became the first sequel ever to become an Oscar winning film as well.

it's just, you know, a dark really it's absorbing is everything, the book and the film. Do each other justice on this occasion? I think it's a really, really solid solid tire with that one. the other book that I've never read a bad book really from him and he's had a fuse, John Le Carre, so I could rattle off, you know, the Taylor Panama tinker tailor soldier

Howie: Have you seen the film for tinker tailor soldier? Yeah. It's awesome.

Dan: with Gary Oldman and also the, the. Series, which is one of the best series I've ever seen with Alec Guinness. as. George smiley the guy that plays a tinker tailor. and then dispo came in from the cold as well with, Richard Burton, you know, it was Chile. so there's some absolute crackers in that genre as well.

I know we talked about it with the spies and everything before, but these are books that I'll read again in the films that are I'll watch again.

  Sidey: this is a book that I think we studied at a school raised,

Howie: joy of sex.

Sidey: to kill a Mockingbird actually.

Reegs: Oh

Dan: Oh, I've got that Harper

Sidey: Which is an absolute belter and the film.

Reegs: Peck is

Sidey: Yeah. Zack is Finch is absolutely brilliant. And that, for me, the real highlight of it is the courtroom scene, with the examination of, I forget the girl's name, but it's clear that she's been put up to, to lie effectively.

It's really palpitating. It's fucking brilliant. Done. I haven't, it it's just. But into my memory is just so fucking good. The performance by Gregory Peck. absolutely fantastic. And sometimes when you study something, when you have to read it and go over it and write about it, it kind of takes the joy out of it.

But not with this one, it still holds up. I could pick up the book and read it again and just get as much out of it as we did all those years ago. fantastic.

Reegs: Nice.  I've got American psycho. the Berkey is not necessarily something you enjoy because it's so incredibly unpleasant at points. But it is interesting. The movie is in some way, a sharper articulation of the  points of Bret Easton, Ellis is novel. and whilst some of the sort of intended ambiguity is kind of lost in, in the movie, the comedic tone that the director adds to it all.

you know, that sort of specific commentary on a type of man that exists, which adds to the parody of greed and ruthlessness and narcissism that there was in the, in wall street in the eighties really works. so yeah, I think that was a really interesting if very unpleasant novel turned into a very funny black humid movie that really worked.

And I didn't think it could.

Howie: Yeah. The Phil Collins, sister studio.

Sidey: I do enjoy his musical sort of commentary throughout the film.

Reegs: Or you get that in the Burke. It's like verbatim

Dan: I'd seen Christian bale and actually looked at him while he was a kid, you know, you saw in an empire, his sauna and things like that. But when I wasn't sure what to make of him in, in the film, American psycho, because he just seemed like. I don't know at the beginning, I wasn't sure he was, I would believe what he was going to go on and do in everything.

But, by the end of the film, I was just such a huge fan of what he'd done with

Howie: I love the business card scene.

Reegs: Yes. And that is funny in the book, but it's really funny in the movie. And that's one really good example of where they've captured the spirit of things. The business card scene is

Howie: the obsession with embossed, slightly sunken text or something,

Reegs: like how his whole life, it just sinks when he sees how good the other guy's card is.

yeah.

Howie: Okay. I'm going to go for, a comic book and a gateway drug to manga, which is a carer and that's cat Shiro, automo. where, if any of you haven't seen it, it's set in Neo Tokyo. It's one of my favorite manga films. I love. from the comic book graphics to the film as obviously like for like, cause it's pretty much just copied over, is so atmospheric it's so dystopian it's I think, well, it's the blade runner for comics.

It's it's really, really tense. The scenes of the motorbike chases. It's basically set around. the concept of a nuclear blast being within a person who's got, it's kind of a weird it's like manga is cross magical human type. I don't know if any of you seen it,

Reegs: seen the, I've seen the anime to, but I haven't

Howie: and I think in linked to that, it's just given an honorable mention to ghost in the shell as well.

So the, the anime from the animation comic, but also the scholar Hanson. Yeah, version, which I really enjoyed. I know it got slated by loads of

Reegs: did too. Actually,

Howie: for, for, for casting her in a role that should be of someone of, I don't know, Japanese, ethnic ethnicity,

Reegs: have cast a real robot. problem with that

Howie: but, really enjoyed the film and yeah, those two that's, that's my kind of comic book reads adaptation to film

Dan: ever read a book called the body by Stephen King.

Reegs: stand by me. Yeah, it's a, it's a Richard Batman book. Isn't

Dan: It is. Yeah. I think it was one of his pseudonym, names.

the. You know, the coming of age movie, I love more than any other. I think when I was growing up, it was just a fantastic, fantastic film.

Sidey: I haven't read it. I haven't seen it.

Dan: yeah,

Reegs: It's very,

Dan: this, this is, this goes on and on every time we mentioned it, I just feel a little more like you've got to, you gotta, it's all there to have. Yeah, no, it's it's to enjoy.

another one because I've got so many, I'm going to run through another one. Moby Dick. By him and Melville. which obviously is, one of the great American novels.

Reegs: It's a hard read though. I've got it at home and I have started it a few times, but it's quite a hard book to read.

Dan: read. I don't think it's something that you go back and read over and over again.

But Gregory Peck in the, in the movie, again, bit of a loving for Gregory tonight. he was brilliant as the, you know, I have unbalanced and crazy, while, you know, awesome roses in it with it.

Reegs: Yeah. He played

Dan: out as well. Yeah. but this, this is, this is a brilliant film as well as, a fantastic book.

Sidey: It's a Jonathan Picard's favorite book as well. Yep.

Dan: Jean-Luc Picard being

Sidey: Install check it. He's constantly reading it.

Dan: His name I forget is Patrick Stewart. Yeah. Cause he was a Huddersfield town supporter and he used to sit behind me in the stands when I was, when I was up

Reegs: get up number seven

Dan: Yeah, no, I was already off. I was already off. I was already on the bench though,

Sidey: got falling off from homies one. I've got another graphic novel, which is infinity war. This is blow by LFL, but it's, for me, it's just behind how the dark is the best Marvel film end game was the payoff. But for me, it's also up to the max in infinity war. The graphic novels are fat.

They are very different because it was just kind of unfilmable like that. but I really, I take an example of just a brilliant adaptation, something that. It didn't sort of think it would ever come to light and be as good as it was. yeah. So it was,

Howie: Does it go a bit, the next set of stories? It's kind of these guardians or something as well,

Reegs: Well, the next one is the eternal well after

Howie: your terminals.

Sidey: I've read the book and I, I think it's going to be Nash, but my cousin's doing the VFX. So hopefully it won't be,

Reegs: And will that cousin want to come on the pod and talk

Sidey: them. Yes.

Howie: Can you have one of those Lycra suits where the ball's on and can you send it

Reegs: I've got one.

Howie: You've got one

Reegs: Yeah, actual ball sacks. well, I'll round out the, graphic novel things. Cause I've got obviously watch men.

I've definitely counting it because time magazine famously included it in their list of the hundred best novels all time. watch men is an Epic ensemble superhero movie, which

Sidey: forever. I was hoping you were going to talk about the TV series, not the movie

Reegs: No I'm talking about the movie, cause I really loved the movie. It takes place in an alternate, 1985, where Superman proxy, dr.

Manhattan is given super powers in a lab accident, making him so powerful. He essentially single handedly wins the Vietnam war, which in turn makes Nixon so popular. He's still president. amongst many other things. Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero archetype before that was even a thing. it's also about justice, vigilantism accountability, powerlessness, and finding meaning in the face of that.

It has a really dense, novel like structure and a very passionate fan base. And for this reason was viewed for a long time is completely, you know, being completely unfilmable. I really think that this is a perfect marriage of a producer and source material that Zack Snyder's kind of fetish.

It's stick. style is, is a real perfect accompaniment for the story. you've got that amazing opening credits, montage, you know, where it works over the sort of alternate history through the goofy costumes, villains, the bright blue dot Manhattan shaking hands with. JFK the comedian on the grassy Knoll, the recreation of that famous end of war pick.

But this time it's two picture, but it's, it's two lesbians kissing and then it's all set against Bob Dylan's times, era changing and yes. It changes the ending in a way that at least as far as the movie is concerned and arguably for the graphic novel, as well, as better than the original in that it makes more sense

Dan: head shaking going

Reegs: against doc Manhattan.

he's a human with the powers of a God who's fundamentally

Dan: be tutting soon.

Reegs: in humanity.

Howie: Have you read the other stories? Like the

Sidey: Yeah, I have. Yeah. None of them are very good

Howie: where they basically, the comedians pay to do the dirty work you're like kills Marylin Monroe and

Sidey: So there's those which the pre-qual ones.

And then there's the after one, which

Reegs: after Watchman.

Sidey: is not great. I can't, I'm like a sucker for it because you just want it to be as good and they never are. but yeah, this not worth your time. But they're not at the same

Dan: comic book was brilliant

Reegs: The copy. Burkey's brilliant. The film, I think is. I don't know that you can make a better version of the story than he did.

Sidey: as it was

Reegs: no, the ending is better for the reasons I just said. it makes much more sense for the world to unite around Manhattan that we know is capable of doing those things than it does for an alien to come kind of a DSX McEnroe to come out of nowhere.

which I think people's reaction wouldn't be to all band together. It would actually reinforce the paranoia. and segregation. So I think that I prefer the moody ending. I think it makes more sense. yeah. Brilliant movie.

Howie: I'm going to go to Matilda, Roald, Dahl. and frankly, the entire film is stolen by lb Ferriss, Agatha trench bull, the horrible headmistress, and, it's incredibly dark. It's really dark filming.

Dan: it talks about, well doll, you've got the witches as well, which is a fantastic

Reegs: the new one, the Anne

Dan: No,

Sidey: He's got a lot of shit for,

Reegs: which washing?

Sidey: no,

Reegs: Oh no, she's

Sidey: I was body. It was body disfigurement. Yeah.

Dan: They changed the book for no real reason. The book was, which is we'll always wear gloves.

And, bald. Yeah, that w that was, which they've now chopped fingers off this one for S for no

Sidey: there's been a lot of people with, disfigurements or just disabled. so they've come out. Yeah. So yeah, Pam is saying, you're just reinforcing this kind of stigma, that, that sort of thing is abnormal and frightening for kids and stuff. And that it's just, you should be,

Reegs: And that's not in the,

Howie: No, it's not in the book.

Reegs: it's just because they've got really horrible, long nails or

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was nothing to do with them. Not having fingers. It was just something they've added in and not really thought through. So, but Matilda.

Howie: Yeah. It's basically child abuse, dark story. She, her parents had her parents, Danny DeVito thingy. Pohlman Ron Perlman. I tell you what, when he got that fist out, that really big one hand of his and he put it up. Yeah. And he put it up to Vito's ass, horrific,

Reegs: got quite good soundtrack as well, or is that no, I think I'm thinking of the musical actually.

 Howie: I remember that there was an evil man called Magnus who was

Reegs: name, you named your son after him.

Howie: I am a son after him.

but yeah, there's a, and then at the end, DeVito just signs a bit of paper of goes as the adoption

Dan: her away. Disney. Yeah.

Howie: shipped. Parents, you have a go love. Yeah. Ms. Hall, miss Holly, miss Holly. But my kids like that film, it's kind of magical as well. Well, it is magical, but, Pam Ferris is brilliant as mrs.

Trench where she is fucking horrible.

Dan: Well, I think he had the BFG done as well into a movie. Didn't he?

Reegs: think that was a Spielberg. Yeah, but I've not seen it. I've seen the car

Howie: It's good. It's good.

Dan: you up for me.

Reegs: Yeah. That's why I had,

Dan: but I went to the cinema to see it.

Howie: cartoon. Yeah. The one that's from like,

Dan: Oh, that's brilliant.

Reegs: With David, Jason, I think is a,

Howie: Yeah. Yeah. And they, they, that's another one that they've changed the ending because the ending the giants.

Reegs: and then they blamed or doc Manhattan. Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

Howie: Or they built a pit and they put the giants at the bottom of a pit in the book and people would occasionally fall in and get eaten. And it was,

Dan: there for the film

Howie: yeah, they just basically deported them to Scotland, I think in the film.

Reegs: the best place for him,

Dan: Well, I'm going to run for another couple, including this absolute classic Milos Forman.

He did the abduct tation of Ken Casey's novel one flew over the Cuckoo's nest.

Sidey: I've never been able to go back and watch that again.

I have to say just. She's so fucking annoying.

Dan: read the book.

Reegs: monster nurse

Dan: It's up there in my top 10 books.

Reegs: quite different.

They're quite different because the book is told virtually exclusively from the perspective of the chief. and obviously the film is centered around an amazing performance from Jack Nicholson.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Make was his name, Mick McCarthy or T or something like that. Make Murphy. Perfect. Make Murphy. That's Jack. Nick was a bit is, is a brilliant, brilliant book. And, and a fantastic film again. I've got one bridge over the river. Kwai.

Howie: it wasn't the spaghetti junction off.

Dan: No, it was the bridge, the

Sidey: There was the best one,

Reegs: fight club. Even Chuck Paula, Nick said the ending of fight club in the movie is better than the ending he wrote.

Dan: Right. Okay. Well, there you go. and another wise guy, one good fellas.

Sidey: Yeah. We just shout out over my list there, but anyway, a couple of sporty ones for you then field of dreams,

Howie: yes. Yeah.

Sidey: was called shooter show.

I don't know who the author was. I should have written down, but, I didn't have read it. So that's why it was called shoeless Joe and a Friday night lights for bringing up our favorites.

Dan: came bullshit. Somebody actually penned. That

Sidey: Yes, it does the whole, it's the Trinity of book, TV and film. So you can really immerse yourself in that world.

Howie: Radio series as well.

Sidey: Oh, that's a good shot. Yeah.

Reegs: special shout out for ready player one, the book was absolute garbage and

Howie: Oh, I love that.

Reegs: even worse. yeah, T dreadful, adaptation, is one. I haven't actually read. it's but I really love the premise it's.

the screenwriter, Charlie Koufman was assigned to write a screenplay based on the orchid thief. but he realized he couldn't really do it. So out of writer's block, he added himself into the story and made the movie about his struggle of adapting the book. It's got Nick cage in it twice cause he plays it himself in his twin brother.

It's got metal Streep. Your favorite.

Sidey: Yeah. I actually like this.

Reegs: It's really funny. yeah, it's clever, clever stuff.

 Howie: I was going to go for the drastic park one and two Michael Crighton. Two specifically is a better book because obviously got into the swing of what he wants to write and it's incredibly gory. And unfortunately the film is going to

Sidey: as well,

Howie: day as gash.

Cause the second one is truly gruesome in places where the, the book. Yeah, because I think it's in to where they're hunting. The T-Rex. And the T-Rex catches the one of them. And basically in significant detail talks of a T-Rex kind of crushes the guy's leg, but not enough to kill him, takes him to the desk.

And they, the young, Ling's not the Jedi's. the, the young lady, the young T-Rex is, use him as practice for killing. And it talks about in great detail, how he's like basically being pulled apart. And bits of him have been notched near has been knocked off.

Reegs: The only Michael Crighton book I've read, is fair, was turned into a really bad movie, but it's a very good book.

Howie: he's written a few cause he's, he's written almost like historical studies. I think he's more, the one I read is quite a short one in his early days called the death eaters. And it's all like the, kind of the, it's the kind of the legend behind bear Wolf all those it's worth going. It's it's almost like a historical document where there.

With a story to it, but yeah, again, really gruesome and very scientific and facts-based it's got quite a few of those.

Sidey: what fax machine?

Howie: Yeah. Faxes loads. It's really weird. And donkeys

Dan: Facts for sure why I've got the Maltese Falcon

Reegs: yeah, of

Dan: Hammett, which brilliant book again. Fantastic. Kestrel for a nave, which was case. Yeah. which was,

Reegs: you're a big fan on

Dan: Ken

Sidey: yeah, the shower was staying in it. Yeah.

Dan: the big sleep by Raymond Chandler as well, which was brilliant. Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart in those,

Howie: I got told off for saying that word.

Sidey: Thank

Howie: Yeah. So I've started a game with my kids. That's got me into significant trouble with the life. So do you remember Dick and Dom? Yeah. Bogey. So what I do is I won the window down cause I obviously I still have a mechanism or window to have a button. Oh, when the window down the middle of town and just shout bogeys as loud as I can at people and Magnus thinks it's fucking hilarious.

Yeah, it is. And he was in the tunnel and he shouted Bogut and Ali really fell into the fucking roads. But you got to remember that Joseph has no context for what this is, but putting it back on her, right. Radio, shut up, shut up the same power, same dads.

Sidey: is a boys

Howie: Yeah. And apparently they were going through town and a lady walked past the car, man.

Just, just stuck his whole head out the window. Oh, God lady just looked at Joe, just

Dan: so

Howie: Fucking hell. This woman was like, what? Looking at Joe, like she's the most offensive person on earth. Brilliant game. Try it. Try it

Sidey: Play a version of it at work. Yes. Can

Dan: Would you say how loudly you can say it without

Sidey: Cause no one thinks you're actually saying they're like, I couldn't, it couldn't have been that. Yeah. I didn't

Dan: just hear that. I think it's your go, but I'm going to take one more. Cause I've got the, the girl with the dragon tattoo.

Sidey: Yeah,

Dan: is that there's a trilogy there.

Sidey: one I've not read or seen.

Reegs: I've watched the movie based on your recommendation and it was very good.

Dan: The fill the, book, sorry. I listened to, I listened to him all on an audio book. I had a long drive going up to Germany and came back in. So it was that it was during or while back.

and it kept me entertained the whole way through I, it was a fight. The, the guy who did. The audio book as well, obviously an actor. And he did all the different voices to

Howie: Rolf Harris,

Dan: have nothing to do with him.

Howie: The films now, I think, am I getting this right? There are Scandi ones and there's there's

Sidey: Tanya Craig's

Howie: yeah. So the Scandi one is re I think I've watched it.

I must've watched both of them then.

Sidey: they

Dan: don't come anywhere near the,

Howie: I love

Reegs: I heard the, the American, the remake is better than the Scandinavian. That's what I heard. I haven't seen them,

Dan: The Italian quake one was without Cape and there's an order to see them.

I've never quite saw the films in the order

Howie: the actress who plays the main character, obviously. Yeah.

Reegs: with the dragon tattoo,

Howie: Yeah. That's the one I think in the Scandi version, she's quality, but who's plays the, in the international version.

Sidey: Judy Dench,

Howie: Oh, is it,

Dan: judy dentures is the tattooed hacker.

 Sidey: let's go for a couple on a similar theme, which is blade runner and total recall.

Howie: I think I've never thought of them as books. Cause that must be quite a hard one. So

Sidey: Dick

Reegs: Phillip K

Howie: Yeah. Is that what I enjoyed?

Sidey: Androids dream of electric sheep, and we can remember it for your wholesale.

Howie: Oh, so, all right.

Reegs: And then of course there was a scanner darkly, the adjustment Bureau, and he's got some fantastic books.

Sidey: films.

Reegs: Richard Matheson's novel. I am legend has the dubious distinction of being adopted four times in four, very different adaptations. None of which are very good.

Dan: I was about to say

Reegs: Starship troopers is a really interesting example because the film was intentionally designed as the sort of polar opposite of the book in terms of message, characterization and themes.

it's a satire of militarism and the cold war in the dehumanization of the enemy.

Sidey: Did anyone get that at the time that I think when it first came out, I versus dumb action film.

Reegs: well, I don't know.

Sidey: What's the on trailers on it. It's really good.

Reegs: it's a really good movie. Apparently. So the movie started as an unrelated script called bug hunt before the studio acquired the rights to Robert, a hind Linds, novel, and the director, Paul Verhoeven was disgusted by the jingoism and fascism in the book.

And so had the script rewritten on bug hunt to deepen the satire and sort of take the piss out of all of the, elements of the book that he, he railed against. So it's an interesting example.

Howie: I think. Stimulated the, the brain just a second ago. Stephen King. Did he do running, man? I think he actually said he.

Reegs: yeah, there was another Richard

Howie: Yep, yep.

Reegs: in the fall short stories with.

Sidey: It's

Howie: Yeah. and the other one I was gonna mention was, Christ, one of the bleakest films ever. Cormac McCarthy.

Reegs: Yeah. And the book is even more of a chuckle Fest

Howie: Bloody hell it is. There's way more cannibalism if I could get any

Reegs: eat a baby

Howie: Yeah, yeah. On a spit.

Dan: that book

Sidey: spring lamb. Yeah.

Howie: it's a bleak, the books, Blake films, even Bleaker.

Reegs: Yeah. No, the books work. The book is more bleak, but, yeah,

Howie: what's even worse is it's filmed in new Orleans just after the hurricane. Yeah, fuck.

Reegs: He also did no country for old men, but I haven't read the book of any

Howie: no, I've yeah, I've only seen, Oh, I'd be interested to know if the book just ends. It does. Okay.

Dan: Well, I've got the heart of darkness, Joseph Conrad.

Reegs: I thought about this. So you're going to apocalypse now. Yeah.

Dan: I love that film. Do you not love that film?

Reegs: Yes. Yeah. I loved

Dan: from the beginning, you know, when the bombs are dropping it, this is the end, you know, it's, it's got Yaz in it.

Oliver stone is just kind of grabbed you there and putting you in. Obviously this is, a, a voice Francis Ford copper in it. and he's, got. The Belgian Congo, and all this kind of ivory trading is going on. Kurtz has gone down the river and it is a crazy, crazy dark film, Saigon fucking Saigon, and he just that's the opening line, isn't it.

And he just slaps a Mesquite. Oh. And then it goes into all this crazy mission that going down the river

Reegs: hammered for the scene when he's in the Martin sheen got absolutely rat asked and they just filmed him for the scene in the middle where I think he's in.

Hanaway may be and

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: just trashing a hotel room. That's actually him. And then, what's his name? Brando turned up like seven stone overweight or something, which is why he's shot in the

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: that. And he basically, he was just refused to say the lines in the script. So he ad-libbed everything.

Martin sheen is adlibbing it back to him. I mean, he's just. Fucking Nutter to get away with

Dan: nothing like making it a big, big Marlin. It's just like, yeah, whatever

Reegs: I'll just do this

Dan: on the walk fun. I'm pretty cruisy from here on out.

I've been there, done it.

Sidey: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank redemption.

Howie: Christ is that

Sidey: Christ wasn't in it, but it's really good,

Howie: Christ wasn't in it. Fucking hell it just avoids everything today. He does that one big fucking seller in the Bible and then

Sidey: I haven't, I must admit I haven't read the book, but I have seen the film there always a right

Howie: It's not bad. It's just, do you think it might go to DVD or

Sidey: it's one of those sleeper hits. Wasn't it. There, no one went to see it and then it just went. Yeah. Nuclear when, word of mouth got out about it. And it's one of those that if I'm flicking around and you know, it's on it before I could sit and watch it, nobody actually love it.

Dan: you can come in at any

Sidey: Yeah, I'll just, I'll just watch this back to this bit.

Great.

Dan: I'm just going to watch him.

Sidey: Two hours of God,

Dan: just going to watch him shuffle around the yard, dropping little bits of rock.

See if I can see it this time.

Sidey: There's a fair amount of skepticism, whether that. Tunnel would have gotten undiscovered after all that time. But anyway, it's still good. Fun.

Reegs: you're telling me it's not based on a

Sidey: true story. Jaws is

Reegs: based on a true

Dan: Peter Bleckley. Isn't it. Bletchley is that his name? Peter. Blackley the guy that wrote yours.

Sidey: Hang on. Page telling sound effect. Yes.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: And it was based on a real shock. That had a vendetta

Howie: So I figured it's, I think,

Dan: And then, and then he's little shocked when a, to carry the

Reegs: add the psychic link.

Sidey: let's just rattle through a load. Cause we've been going for ages, got a LA confidential James Ellroy out of sight, which I would like to talk a bit more about Elmore.

Leonard fucking love that film. Oprah we're out there now. Yeah.

Dan: Hi.

Sidey: then.

Reegs: Oh, of course. Yeah,

Sidey: of course. Dela Cruz is play for us to Villa, right? That one. and also all the Bourne films.

Howie: ask me don't. Yeah, thank you. Which, which very, very differently from the book, the film and the books are two very different things.

Dan: I R D difficult to read, literally Trainspotting and Irvin Welsh, which is a, you know, it's written in that Scottish pattern.

Reegs: I actually had to get a Scottish person to read a part part of it to me. So I could like get my eye in

Howie: I bet that wasn't patronizing. Could you read this please? A Scottish person, this doesn't appear to be in the Queen's English,

Dan: Jackie Brown, which is Tarantino's third film based on rum punch by Elmore Leonard. Breakfast at Tiffany's,

Sidey: Yup.

 Dan: silence of the lambs.

Sidey: Yeah.

 Dan: and I'm kind of getting to the end of what this list is. the wonder boys was another one as well. That was the Michael Douglas film.

Do you see that film? Oh, really nice film. Michael Douglas, plays a, a writer who can't finishes his next novel. and he's got, like a teaching job at a school and he just goes around and he's smoking dope and he's not really doing much. He's just cruising through. it's very. Kind of slow burning film, but there's always enough to keep you interested in, in the story.

and the girl that used to be married to Tom cruise,

Howie: Nicole Kidman,

Dan: other one K E she's in Israel.

Reegs: yeah, a couple of rattles through Hunter since fair and loading in Las Vegas, which is absolutely brilliant. misery Stephen King, at the shining, he could have had a number of Stephen King ones. there was don't look now, which is a fantastic 1973 horror film directed by Nicholas Roeg starring.

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, you play a couple of his daughter drowns and there's also a creepy midget. I don't know if you're, you're not supposed to say midget. Are you

Sidey: pork, I think is the correct term.

Reegs: They're creepy

Sidey: more,

Reegs: Probably got the wrong things, but,

Sidey: it's okay. Because you so short, you can say that without

Howie: creepy Dinklage.

Reegs: that's true battle Royale, which I have read the book of is very good.

And what's really good about that. Is that in the book, the program. it's got this outrageous premise where it posits the notion of a fascist Japanese state that forces students to fight to the death in something called the program. In the book, the program is a tool to further or authoritarian control by sowing fear and distrust in a generation of children.

And in the movie, it's a revenge mechanism by an adult, Japan, which is increasing the hysterical over a youth that fears it cannot control. So, you know, that.

Dan: poetic license

Reegs: well, it's more updated, I think for, you know, cause the book was written in 1996 and the film was made a few years later and it, the modern Japanese concern is around the fact that the country's youth is increasingly outnumbered by its seniors.

And that is reflected in the themes of the film. the, the one, one last one, a cock and bull story. which is a Michael

Sidey: Winterbottom

Reegs: Tristin Shandy. It's got Steve Coogan. I haven't actually read it. My wife has, and she's explained it it's written in like the late, mid, mid to late 18th century, but it sounds like a real man to work at fiction.

And the movie is about them trying to make the movie of, the life and times of trust in Shandy. It's really funny. I I'm led to believe it's not particularly like the book. Betty's very like the book in spirit. so we're really good. One,

Sidey: I've

Dan: written down there in red Sherlock.

Sidey: Yeah. And also on that generic theme, Lord of the rings and high Potter, the end, the end. Out of that extensive, discussion of the history of cinema, we need to. Somehow we'll get down to our top four rigs. Do you want to lead the charge?

Reegs: It's really hard. It's really hard. also this choice is hard. I'll probably go for American psycho just because, it was a very difficult film to adapt and I think she did an amazing adaptation.

Sidey: very difficult way.

Yeah.

Howie: just be that close.

Sidey: I think it was that difficult.

Dan: Tougher.

Howie: I'll go for one that I haven't mentioned so far so well done. Me and the man in the high castle series, one only is being associated with that book.

Reegs: that's another Phillip K Dick one, isn't it? Yes. Yeah.

Dan: Okay. lot of good choices, lot of great books, but the one I would put in one flew over the Cuckoo's nest King Casey fantastic book

Sidey: to kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee. Cause it's what I have actually read and seen the film. Nice. Boom.

Right. We watched a film. Dan, that title one more time.

Dan: Can you ever forgive me?

Howie: No.

Sidey: Was that any good?

Dan: Can you ever forgive me? Whoa, let me give a, a bit of preamble before we break into all the,

Howie: executions,

Dan: the executions of the delivery. Now, it's based on a true story where set in 1991, where a out of work or sort of down on a

Sidey: a struggling writer

Dan: called Lee Israel is drinking.

Sidey: at

Dan: 3:30 AM. This is sets the scene from the first kind of moment.

Howie: she in the library?

Reegs: No.

Dan: She's at a job she was

Sidey: I didn't know what her chop was

Dan: was doing a night shift doing copy or

Reegs: edit. It was editing or copywriting or something.

Dan: And she's drinking.

Sidey: She wasn't hugely enthusiastic about this role.

Dan: not enthusiastic. Yeah. So she's, she's drunk at half three in the morning. there is some snidey comment from a couple of the

Howie: we're not allowed to drink here.

Dan: Yeah. I hope that it wasn't my mom or something like that.

And she goes, y'all not into next week is humming. So straight away we get a strong feeling of this woman within a few seconds. The scene is set. She is a hard. Drinking woman. Who's not taking shit from no one I not particularly nice. So she loses a job fairly quickly in the first few scenes and then needs to make money and for different kind of, situation, she comes about writing a book on funny Bryson or someone like that.

Isn't it. and in researching this book, she finds a letter. Which has been signed by one of these kind of favorite Dorothy Park or, or some famous author. and she takes it into a shop

Reegs: No, it's Bryce. She discovers a letter written by Bryce, a typewritten letter by Fanny Brice in

Dan: by Fanny Brice in a book that she's researching for her book, which our publisher later tells her nobody is ever going to want to buy a book on Fanny Brice.

Nobody's interested.

Howie: whoever that is.

Dan: So basically Lee Israel takes it upon herself to forge letters with a little more, interest than the boring one that she found.

Sidey: Well, she takes that one to the, to the bookshop and the ladies she's dead impressed by it, but she does say, well, the content of it is, is fairly mundane.

You know, if, if yeah, so I'll give you an, a boast, but she's also a bit of a fan of her as well. Cause she actually, she also out,

Howie: we missed

Reegs: her to look at her story. She's also a

Howie: she's so down and out and doesn't have any cash that she takes. A first of all, she takes a letter that's sent to her personally to the it's a letter. I forgot. Yeah, it, was it something like, it was something like that. Yeah. And because, and the, the bookstore owner specifically goes, Oh, it's so it's got it's personalized or something.

It's got something about it. That's just a normal letter that really raises the value. And then she finds, she goes and brings the letter from, she finds the letter from Fanny thing. Yeah.

Dan: money from this. And all of a sudden she's penning letters and forging no coward's name and forging

Sidey: well she was really down on her luck. Booze. And again, she bumps into, they weren't really acquaintances where they just, they just happen to Matt. They'd met at a party

Howie: she remembered him

Sidey: He Grant's character

Howie: him from pissing in a cupboard,

Sidey: Jack ham hock.

Reegs: Jack Hall,

Sidey: who was quite a, it was basically with nail.

Howie: yes. That's what I thought

Dan: yeah,

Howie: a nicer with now, a nicer with now.

Sidey: but.

Dan: Yeah, it w it wasn't. I think there was a little more too  no, I think that he had,

Sidey: drugs.

Dan: yeah, yeah, probably. Yeah,

Howie: homosexual tendencies,

Dan: but he did, he did remind me of, you know, Richard, he grants performance when he came in and I told him about this film and.

Without going down the plot too much. I thought the performances, both of these guys got, nominations for Oscars. So Melissa McCarthy, who plays Lee Israel and Richard Grant who plays Jack hock, both had star turns in this for me. I, I, I heard that actually, Chris O'Dowd was

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: first in line to play Jack hock,

Reegs: and Julian Moore

Sidey: and Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell as well.

Reegs: Sam Rockwell for Jack, but Julianne Moore for Lee Israel, which would have been a very different interpretation.

She was fired because she wanted to wear a fat suit, to play the

Dan: Right. Okay. Yeah. And

Reegs: in general.

Dan: couldn't imagine either of those not being in the film

Reegs: Well, no, especially as, because I generally find Melissa McCarthy a bit Meir. she started in a number of not very good, and forgettable movies and our characters are frequently sort of noxious,

Dan: She's a comedian, a comedian.

Howie: Yeah. I have seen room one other. And I've mentioned to you before the film spy with her and Jason Statham. Oh, I laughed out loud. You're the first person. I, I didn't expect anything from that one and I proper laughed out loud because it's just ridiculous.

Reegs: I think bridesmaids is the only movie I've seen that I really liked her in.

Yeah. is amazing in this, she's multi-faceted she plays this  competetive and extremely vulnerable personality, whose only displays of affection are to her cat.

Dan: Very complex.

Reegs: got social awkwardness, and it, she gets really defensive about the people who are trying to help her in her life.

she's a very complicated,

Dan: and you write about a cat. It's the only thing that she really cared about.

Otherwise she's not a hugely. Nice character is she, she's kind of funny. And this whole film for me had lofts the way through it. It wasn't a serious draw and there was tension as well. I don't know how you felt, but certain points when she goes in to do a bit of a, you know, she's either she's selling the letters each time you think she's going to be caught, or it obviously ramps up a gear as well as the film goes on that she doesn't just want to get.

a forgery. She wants to be able to get the originals and

Reegs: before that she starts to sort of production line her, her forgery of letters. So she buys a tight writer that was the preferred type writer of Dorothy Parker and of Noel coward. And she starts churning out these letters and then finding different people to sell them to including, sort of unscrupulous.

A book dealer who's paid by her husband.

Dan: Pretty unsafe. Oh, is that by husband? Yeah, but they're all kind of unscrupulous when they, they, they even, you know, we're going to jump ahead, but there's that scene where he takes out the window, but then puts it back.

Sidey: Well, he knows it's a fake or if I'll fuck it. I just said it anyway. I brought it out. It's a flog. It makes them money.

Howie: but Melissa McCarthy's portrayal of her. As someone who's just given up caring before, before she almost gets a new lease of life from this forgery career. I mean the state of a flat with the cash everywhere.

Reegs: they do a tidying up

Howie: yeah. It's like a start.

Reegs: underneath this, like Mo festering moldy, cat shit

Howie: And flies everywhere. And that's why she's resorted to this criminal enterprise.

Is because she fucking has nothing

Dan: she, yeah. She, she really hated herself

Sidey: She's calm. She can't pay her bill. Can

Howie: Sharvette bowl cut, play rent. She's just got like $12 to her name is nothing. So that's why she resorts to this. It's at a desperation.

Dan: a corner where she didn't actually have to be in because she kind of brought it on herself.

In my opinion, she wasn't a particularly nice person. Nobody wanted to help

Sidey: Yeah, that's true. And also if like her agent's like pretty clear about it. No one wants to fucking read that book. So, you know, you're a writer pick another. You know, if you're writing autobiographies, just pick someone, someone wants to re you know, that you're interested in that also has a bit more appeal.

Dan: And, and this is one of the interesting bits for me because she was always writing about other people. And I think the publisher said, you need to write about yourself, which she was never brave enough to go. And, and do you know, she was always putting somebody else's life in front of the page. And, and really, if you think about towards the end of this film,

Howie: that

Dan: Actually sh what she's does is why about herself eventually, but to, to get her voice, she had to then first imitate all these other

Howie: Yeah, well, she, she needed to accept criticism of herself, not off because if someone criticized the work that she was doing for an autobiography, she saw it as a criticism of the person she was writing about not herself. So that was what the fear was that stunted her from going off to doing her own an original piece.

Yeah,

Reegs: She has absolutely no social skills. she's not interested in it, which I think I always find that like, sort of really enjoyable to watch someone who just doesn't give a shit what they say and who they say it to.

Dan: People jumping into my mind. Now, when you say that.

Reegs: And all this social norms that you know, you and I. Feel that we have to abide by on a daily

Dan: somebody just pose in two fingers up

Reegs: so she goes to this party early on. Yeah. at her publisher's house. And there's, an extremely arrogant author who turns out to be Tom Clancy. and she just walks through the party.

It's a bit of food has about six drinks steals, a loader toilet paper from the

Sidey: cup

Howie: How weird was that

Reegs: somebody else's jacket on the way out. whilst it's sort of. Really being horrible to the host.

Dan: Th this is a scene. I thought we would see Richard E. Grant come into the film actually, because he hadn't appeared then. And I was saying, Oh, wait, where's he going to be. But his character, as, as we pointed out is more of a down year locked skid row, kind of character who's bordering on homeless. We're not kind of sure where he is, but he's, you know, he's happy with, some.

Coke in his pocket and, you know, $20 to buy a few drinks. That's him. He's a happy man. He, he worries

Howie: and a bit of cock.

Dan: and, and a bit cocky as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: They, they sort of bond over their shared love of drinking effectively. It's quite sad. really, when

Dan: and, and, and laughing at kind of a system they both don't give a fuck about, and like poking it and teasing it and, and seeing how far they can

Sidey: with it. Their relationship certainly from a, from a friendship point of view, comes to a crashing halt when she's, he's, he's left in charge, he's left in charge of the cat.

and.

Dan: Don't go in my room. Don't check out my things. Don't smoke.

Sidey: cat. Isn't given the best of care.

Reegs: Well, he doesn't look after the apart. Well, no, the cat is fine. She, he abides by the instructions, which to crush up some of the pills in the food.

It's like the only thing that he definitely does do, but unfortunately the cat dies anyway. It's very, and it was so sad when she

Howie: came back

Reegs: her visit and he didn't think that was

Sidey: sad. Dead cat. Same was funny.

Dan: Ah, two

Howie: Did you not think that the case? I was wondering because when he mashed up the food with the pills and he didn't put the lid on while he didn't put the lid on the drugs properly, and I assumed us sort of saw that as a point to, to, Oh, is the cat going eat all the drugs and die.

Sidey: Have you ever tried to give a cat, a tablets? Fucking impossible. There's no way. Okay.

Howie: I had to give my a Labrador. I have to give him every six months, this pill, that's the size of when it's a big old bloody put like a chocolate button, it's like a bloody plate and you have to, one of us has to get him in a headlock. And I'm literally putting my hand down his throat, past his tongue, and there's poor.

Dog's looking at me and then dropping the pillar and then you have to like massage it down his throat. And it's like, this is heinous. And then I do it to the dog as well, not just Magnus.

Reegs: so yes. she, when with like, fannying about

Sidey: well, from, from, from the, the, the cat scenario, she is like, get out, you know, you.

Fucking been banging some guy in my, in my place. and then from then on,

Howie: business

Sidey: just had an arrangement because she is now the blacklisted from selling these things cause they're onto her. And it's now up to Jack to go and approach these

Dan: in crime, who's

Sidey: approached these different stores with,

Reegs: He's really found his niche. Hasn't he? He's very good at selling these forged letters.

Dan: He bowls into it. There's an, he's one of those people with natural confidence to go into any situation and

Howie: not give a shit,

Dan: give a shit and be very ahead of the game on all the kind of stuff I thought he was brilliant actually. And the soundtrack to this as well was really good.

I don't know if you. Cool on into any of the songs. It was very mellow

Reegs: really good use of a Paul Simon track the end of the movie was can't run.

But, which, is sort of over the scenes where they're trying to ask you to forgive her for these crimes that she's

Sidey: Oh, he's a local man as well for the setting too.

Reegs: Yes, the soundtrack was good. I also thought it, it looked really, it was very well staged and blocked. And, I liked the way that the external scenes of New York were very drab and dreary basically to reflect her personality.

She was like that in terms of our clouds, her hair and the city around them was as dreary as she was in terms of her depression and her,

Sidey: it reminds you of Manhattan. There's one shot of the bridge. I thought it was lifted exactly from Woody Allen's.

Reegs: Well, I actually, it's interesting. You should say that. Cause that this actually felt like a Woody Allen

Dan: was, yeah. Some of the shots definitely within the interiors and everything, they, they did feel like that. And the way they were cut, it was, it was a film that I felt that actually lacked a little bit of pace at some times.

And I was. Kept going enough food to film it wasn't boring for me, but there was definitely a couple of lows in it where I just fought is, is lost a, a scene here with some, but then either Melissa McCarthy or Richard Grant would come back into it and it instantly left again. And I just think the whole film, either one of those in this scene just kind of threw it right up.

And particularly when they were together on. On scene together. I thought they were the best parts of their film.

Reegs: Eventually the FBI do catch up with Jack selling these forged, letters where he's attempting to make a sale. And he cooperates with them, which results in Lee, Israel being served with court summons.

Dan: And he's also kind of stitches up a little bit more than just cooperates. I think he makes some money from her as well. Disney, the lost the selling of the lost. Yeah.

Reegs: she in court, she declared that she enjoyed creating the forgeries and she doesn't regret her actions,

Dan: It was, it, it was a crazy talk to give to the judge to try and get off the hook at this stage.

Yeah.

Reegs: but she kind of rescues it by saying that, she recognizes her crimes.

Weren't worth it because they didn't show her true worth as a writer. she gets five years probation, six months house arrest.

Dan: Yeah, which for a writer is not bad at all, I guess. Is it, she's obviously committed 400 plus counts of fraud, forgery across, all these different bookshops and things that you've been blackballed then goes to write effectively this store.

Reegs: Yeah. So she writes her own memoirs. If you like the story of Lee Israel, she then has a chance encounter with Jack who, I mean, I assumed he was suffering from AIDS. he looks absolutely dreadful. he's pale and then, and sh but she asks permission of Jack to include him

Dan: And he's, he's really not keen.

Reegs: He's not keen, but he does give her, he

Howie: as long as she makes him 29 with good teeth.

Sidey: Yes.

Dan: Yeah, that's it. If you want it to be 29 with good skin and teeth and everything. And then as he walks, this is one of the lines made me laugh actually, as he walked away, out the bar and everything, she said, I just had a, at a real kind of strong urge to trip you up

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: he's hobbled off. He's like, you know, he's on his last legs.

He looks PI one for IO. and he just turns around and goes, you are a horrible cancer. That was, you know, the kind of thing you say to good friends, you know? So it was, it was nice that they seem to be able to make up

Sidey: budget for this $10 million. Seems it,

Dan: to get to Oscar nominations, cheers for the actors.

I think he got more, actually, I think you had a few nominations, maybe best adaptation from a book to a film and, and other kinds of things. 10 mil. That's not bad.

Sidey: checking. It made any money

Dan: reckon it probably did with the

Howie: a little bit

Reegs: Just about maybe

Sidey: yeah. 12.4. So not bad, not bad.

Reegs: I thought. the, so Lee Israel is clearly attracted to the bookseller, Anna who asks her to read her stories and, She holds back from getting in a relationship with her due to her fear of rejection.

and it's so tragic. There's a scene at the end of the sort of semi date that they go, where Anna goes in for a kiss and she kind of refuses her. she knows that she damages people, but she does want to feel love. It's this sort of brutal character moment that sums up Lee Israel's entire personality in a single scene.

Dan: no, I mean, she was a very complex character. and I thought as a side that Melissa McCall who is really hit the nail on the head and it's, I haven't been a huge fan of hers and I haven't seen many other films because.

The characters I've seen her play. Haven't really interested me that much, but this one did, I thought she, you know, I could see that. Yeah. There's no reason why she got an Oscar not there.

 Sidey: right after that, then rigs where you not entertained.

Reegs: So, this is kind of a solid seven out of 10 movie. For me, it's an unmissable performance from an actor. They didn't know she had it in her to be their skirt. It's a deeply empathetic look at loneliness. the movie itself is, is kind of many things at once.

This is sort of low stakes crime drama, or a buddy comedy, a period piece, and attribute to a woman who in her life and career did not feel loved. And I found it very touching. I have to say, I don't know whether there's too much of like empathy going on for the character that I could relate to her in quite a few ways.

But, yeah, it, it's, it's a lovely story. Brilliantly acted by Melissa McCarthy and, and, Richard, he grew up, but Melissa McCarthy is just astonishing in this. I didn't know she had it in her. if you like the sound of it, from what we've described, you're probably like the movie.

Sidey: Yeah. Hi

Howie: Genuinely can't I genuinely don't know whether I liked it or not. I appreciate it. The performances from both the leads, but I just don't know. I think I probably wasn't in the right mind watching it when mrs really appreciated it.

She said like exactly your sentiments. Melissa McCarthy's acting was tremendous throughout. I was just kinda like I was watching it. Then I went and got something to eat and then I came back and then I watched it and then I watched a bit when I was like, yeah, that's a little bit tense. So it's a bit nondescript for me, but I think I can see how people would like it.

Sidey: well,

Dan: this was on the radar. When I heard that Richard, he grant had got an Oscar nomination for me, I think late last year. and so it was always one of those films that I wanted to get around it and watch. I really enjoyed it. especially because of the performances of Melissa McCarthy, but for me, particularly Richardson grant, I just thought he was fantastic or he stole the scenes.

I thought he was really, really brilliant form. I wish he had won the Oscar. I think he deserves one. But the whole film altogether, there was parts of it. As I say, it lagged a little bit for me in areas and it really came when those two characters were on the screen. And for that alone, I would just say, yeah, go and check it out.

Sidey: this was a big miss for me. I'm afraid I found it boring and the characters were just so dry, not drab, but like negative, so much negativity that film, I just, there was no one to root for, for me. And then the story, the crime was so fucking low key.

I couldn't give a fuck. So I was just like, this is a fucking waste of my time. And, at first. Watching it, it was just a bit more now that I'm having sit and talk about it. I just realized that I really fucking disliked it intensely.

Dan: It's weird. It's weird. You should say that because there isn't anyone to root for in

Sidey: No, normally I would need someone or if they were, even if they were, even if they were worse, if they were even worse than you could at least enjoy how bad they were, but they were just like,

Reegs: Oh

Sidey: like moderately annoying.

And I get what you're saying about it. It's real life and it's touching, but she wasn't vulnerable. Not for me anyway. No, I'd rather if she, they delve more into that and she was real bastard and I pushed a kid in front of a car or something, fucking didn't like it. So, you know, it's just one of those,

Dan: when it

Sidey: it's just one of those things.

I just didn't, I didn't like it. it wasn't, you know, I get what you said and the performances were good. If that's the sort of thing that floats your boat for me, there needed to be aliens in it or sword fight or something just to up the ante a little bit. So, no, it's a no

Howie: me the best bit was when I was looking at this computer she was using, Oh, that looks like it's an IBM series one.

You know that that's I just, I feel really bad about it because

Sidey: no, it's fine. Embrace it. It's just, you don't have to like it. It's fine. Yeah.

Dan: Richard had gone. It's never going to come on now.

Sidey: Dan, you said you wanted to bash one out over some kids TV. what is it?

Dan: bear Grylls. It's the,

Sidey: you versus wild.

Dan: versus world. this

Howie: you versus the remote control batteries. I think there should be coats,

Dan: possibly that because it is an interactive, TV program you use with your remote control to make choices for bear Bandersnatch. But

Reegs: minus the cleverly constructed illusion of choice that was central to the thematic resonance of Charlie Brooker's masterpiece.

Dan: Exactly. the myth of the abandoned mine was the episode that I

Sidey: what was the method that was possibly haunted?

Dan: Yeah, I think so.

Sidey: Yeah.

Howie: I didn't go in the mind. I didn't think that was one of my choices. I'm keen to find out what that was.

Dan: You didn't go into

Sidey: Okay. We, we had to go back. No. Well, we had him killed once and then you had the, you got through and then it does say, do you want to go back and explore different?

Yeah,

Reegs: you have to at one point because you get forced, if you

Howie: No, no, there's a cheat rounder. If you watch it on the iPad, you just get your scenes

Dan: hasn't seen. Or familiar with this, basically bear Grylls has a series of decisions that he has to make and you get the choice or B I know bear knows his

Howie: I find a film I'd phoned up Ray Mears at a fucking phoned up a proper adventure. Someone who fucking knows what he's talking about, not some comms that is fucking promoting every cutting material that he sells on the internet. I saw some wonky trousers, a wonky jacket that he got fucking wet and then dried on a fire.

Bollix you did. He then got a fucking knife out that was branded fuck off. He then got a F I don't want to fucking branded knife. I want something that's come from a tribe in the Amazon that you have talked your way into getting Ray would have fucking done that. Ray would have met a kayak. He wouldn't have fucking gone for a swim.

He wouldn't have front roll or bat rolled or for fucking helicopter. He wouldn't have made a pithy remark about, Oh, I don't know whether it's not to fucking use this rope across the ravine.

Sidey: between like

Dan: chips and cake

Howie: Oh fuck. I need to live that fucking rope. That he said, Oh, let's just see if I was safe. It's a fucking new rope.

Your twat. This is Netflix. This is not some fucking risk. This bear Grylls is risk averse, but he makes things dangerous for no reason whatsoever. Fuck him. That's my review.

Reegs: are you entertained?

Howie: I fucking wasn't. My kids love it. And I'm devastated.

Sidey: It's a huge,

Howie: My kids love it.

Sidey: just

Dan: to give people often that, that, that just, just so I finished telling them what it's actually about. You're making the choices all the way through different adventures for, for bear. So in this particular instance, he's got to get from one side of the Hills where he's been dropped off to a pickup point, a

Sidey: We'll just drop. It could have just dropped him closer,

Howie: yeah, it could have just floated down into the quarry.

Sidey: right out of the gate, you've got a choice to make, which is, do I front flip out of the helicopter or backflip? So my daughter said, well, I think front flip, because if he goes out back, he'll get caught in the roads. And I said, could we do that?

Reegs: Well, I must've met, I. Every choice I made the first

Sidey: time

Reegs: it was to try and kill him. and sadly, I have to say, spoiler alert, you don't get to kill bear Grylls in this.

Sidey: yeah,

Howie: Does he shit himself when you eat the worm? Cause obviously I,

Reegs: he actually declined to eat it. He puts it in his mouth. And he, he looks like he's about swallow it and then he spits it back up and says, you should never eat worms because although it's okay to eat worms, they can have bad bacteria in them.

So you should lead the, let them dry for 24 hours or boil them in a stew.

Dan: See you learn. I learned some stuff on this. I, I really enjoyed it with, watching it with my daughter she's eight and she was. Making the choices with me together. It got to the stage where we hadn't made a mistake in, you know, we were really we're going through the mine.

So we were really nervous about which decision to make, because we didn't want to be backed out. We'd done other ones before this. So we knew how the,

Howie: So what happened when you went in the mind? Because I didn't make that choice.

Sidey: you go, you go through an, basically you get to,

Dan: a shortcut if you play

Sidey: to, The junction. Yeah. And one's got draft and one doesn't add, he says

Reegs: I sat him down the non draft

Sidey: I said to my daughter, do you think you want to go down the one with the airflow go down data or the other ones you want to go to another one? Hi. Okay. Border. so eventually he passed away. He would have died cause he's, he's sort of seeing double and he's all, you know, there's no oxygen. but he, I think it doesn't die.

And so

Reegs: you back though. Doesn't

Sidey: he says, we got to go back. We've got to turn, turn back.

Reegs: eventually though, did you, did you make the right choice for that one? Because eventually he blows up a

Dan: blows up the fucking doors.

Reegs: But he's like rolling out all this

Sidey: Oh, we didn't do that one.

Reegs: right by it.

Sidey: Okay. So either one is fine then because we went, we went up the rope ladder.

Reegs: so lit torches. Cause he, he sets fire to his

Dan: Oh, right. Yeah, he does. Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: Okay.

Sidey: you're on.

Howie: Gotcha. So from what it sounds like my kids did it in record time. Cause I didn't see any of this. They

Sidey: first time we did it, it was really quick.

Howie: Oh, they, yeah. Cause they went, chain up the site, they went five dry clothes chain up the hillside, eat the bark, do the wire run and

Dan: did you

Sidey: the sheep.

Howie: we cloud. Did you climb inside the hot?

Sidey: Right. So if you don't do the fire, no, if you, yeah, basically if you don't do the fight, did you do that one?

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. If you go into the, into

Howie: Now, if you don't do the fire,

Sidey: if you don't do the fire

Howie: run don't you

Sidey: yeah. You run. And then he's looking around. He's like, Oh. And he looks up when there's a sheep on the Hill looking at him

Reegs: and then he has sex

Sidey: and he says, right, do we need to get that sheep?

Do we, Do we chase it or do we try and like coax it down and Amanda's like, coax it, cooks it. So it goes and gets it's pathetic. It's just like a little bit of grass and like puts it next to a wall. And then he's like edging round game. I was making a few noises and it shapes us like what? so then you have to then try and chase it.

So then you get a scene of him running around after shape, which eventually he does catch and. He ties his legs up and then just snuggles up to it and puts his coat over the two of them. And they have a little, okay.

Dan: looked asleep tea. I didn't see though it reminds, it reminds me of, when Leo DiCaprio slices open the horse and sleeps in that

Sidey: game. Oh, I thought his, is he going to butcher this thing and like skin it.

Dan: getting into a sheep. Oh no, I didn't see that bit

Sidey: He's he's cuddled up to it and he's stroking it on the head while he's

Dan: so I guess, depending on the choice

Howie: yeah. Missed all of that.

Dan: up different pathways

Reegs: at the very end, did you, make the choice between him staying in a travel lodge or a premiere?

Dan: we've we've gone up. Yeah. There's loads of these.

Howie: there's loads. My kids

Dan: this one.

Howie: love

Reegs: He explains them the choices in detail. before you choose then whilst you're contemplating your choice for 10 seconds, he explains it again. just after you've chosen. He does another voiceover talking while.

Dan: the word.

Reegs: Yeah. And then finally, when your decision has been made, he talks to you about his choice and gives you his opinion.

So that is all very long-winded and drawn out. I did go back through, but like I said, I was

Dan: another way to say it is clear

Howie: so the end it's the end, the same, whatever, in that he runs and jumps on the side of the land driver. Yeah. Yeah. The driver doesn't really intend to stop. So who the fuck is this?

Dan: Yeah, but I know eight year old watching it, she was getting carried away with the excitement of the clock ticking and having to make those choices, to, you know, work on, do a little bit of pressure in that scenario, then go for it. And then learning a little bit about.

Oh, I could do that. We'll never eat that. Or, you know, dry your worms for 24 hours, if you can eat them, you know? so there was, there were lots of positives for me in this. I really enjoyed it. I really we've known them all now. We've seen them all

Howie: Have you watched the, there's another version of this for adults, ed Stafford's one like the latest one where he's like bracing against people across China and

Sidey: the naked one

Howie: yeah. Naked and afraid guy. He's he's really good. He's apt. He's the one that properly.

Reegs: something I'd be interested in.

Howie: He's the one that properly. So he made his name by, in real life.

walking across the Amazon.

Reegs: Oh, I watched, that was brilliant. That

Howie: season. He, and he's a pro, he goes feral. and they dumped him on a desert Island. He goes there, it dumps him on a desert Island with no clothes, nothing, just some GoPros, some batteries and a blow up doll. And, and a first aid kit. And that's all he had.

Reegs: best episode of desert Island

Howie: Chile, it's literally about six episodes of him nearly dying before he finally finds a source of water.

Reegs: he finally dies

Dan: This is more of a kids, one, this bear growers one, you know,

Howie: No, but that, but that it's just worth watching the adult one because I've slagged this off because I'm just being high and mighty and a twats. My kids loved it, but. I, I do love the survivor stuff and the ed staff had one is really good. the whole series that he's got, he's got a new one on sky.

Yeah. And the illnesses that he P

Reegs: but showed me that.

And I really enjoyed

Howie: he always loses his teeth because they're all screens and he was bites into something. Okay. Coconut crab,

Reegs: I did have kind of two major issues. One is that, It re they really should have let you kill him. there should have been a scene where bear sees a cave for the human bones. And the question is, should I go in or literally do anything else? And everybody would have clicked to go in. and also it doesn't answer the fundamental question.

it doesn't let you find out how many bears would bear Grylls grill if bear Grylls could grill bears or how about real bears grilling grille bears. So that would be how many bears would grill bear grails. If bears could grill bear grills.

Sidey: That's true.

Dan: Well, I don't know if that's what they're going to address in the last series of it. It's it's something that they should look at. did you think it was, did you watch it with the kids? Yeah. Yeah. And what'd you think.

Sidey: Do you remember these in book form you used to get, sorry. It was like a throwback to it,

Dan: Steve Jackson or Peter Jackson

Reegs: you do the cheek where you like go to page 72 and you have a quick look like you died horribly. Like, well,

Howie: I'd never have made that choice.

Dan: dice on the bottom of the

Sidey: page?

Dan: on some of them as

Sidey: So it was a, it was sort of a nostalgic throwback to those. my daughter fucking loved us, a huge hair. My daughter absolutely loved these, which is. I think the idea like it's perfect for her to watch on TV. Cause she's a bit of a worse

Reegs: Rather than helicoptering over to remote

Sidey: I don't think the reality of, climbing up through mine shaft really would go down too well in real life, but watch on TV and do some exploring, by curiously was a hit and she's watched one of these every day since, and we watched it two or three years ago.

So, she loved it. Absolutely loved it. So yeah, success.

Howie: couldn't stop saying mineshaft in a German accent.

Dan: just gets a habit after a while it might in chat.

Howie: mine. Shaft.

Sidey: Rigs where you and your family.

Reegs: Well, I didn't watch it with a family. I suspect my oldest will really like this. I thought it was quite good. It was too long winded, really for me to invest in it. But, I did quite enjoy it, but you should be allowed to

Dan: 30 minutes.

Sidey: Yeah. Returns trends.

How long?

Reegs: back and redo the

Sidey: Yeah. So that's, that was, that was the time time-consuming wise. We did explore all the opportunity avenues

Reegs: You really should be allowed to kill bear though. I can't stress this enough

Howie: I'm not,

Sidey: a no for you.

Howie: I'm not fast. My kids though, really like it it's the concept, I think. but they, they got on board and like you said, Dan is for them and they really did like, it's a fair play.

Dan: I really enjoyed it.

Thought it was great. was entertained, I guess, with this, you've got the, they go back and do it again and take different paths and things. Eventually that's going to dry up a course and you would have done all the paths and it would have been done to death, but for the first few times, and there's enough of them to see. Yeah, really enjoyed it. Entertained, recommend this.

Sidey: Yeah, I was entertained by it. And so as my daughter, I think the tech needs a bit more finessing. Cause it's a bit, it's a bit slow and clunky probably a little bit, but, yeah, not going to, obviously not something that's gonna stand up to repeated viewings, hopefully. but we did enjoy it and yeah, it was a big hit.

Awesome. Another week. Another podcast done. I think regs. It's your turn to nominate. Yes. Have you got nominations for us? I do. Can you tell me them?

Reegs: I will.

Howie: Fuck it out.

Reegs: the top five is going to be the top five movies directed by women. The movie choice is laws and the real girl and the kids choices, the Epic adventures of morph.

Howie: Is there a specific episode?

Reegs: I will let you know, I'm not sure at this moment.

Sidey: Well, that's all going to be tremendously fun to at 40, that's it from us for another week. Please do continue to listen. And. More importantly, you subscribe, subscribing it as you carefully, listen, just subscribe, get the stats up. and all that remains is to say, Saudi is signing out. No goodbye. Dan's gone.