SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Gal Godot. I sit in the theater and I watch this film. What am I doing do I find anything redeeming about it?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

You're listening to the O Brother Podcast. Real Brothers, Real Talk. Welcome to the O Brother Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Smith. Why sig me as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. How's it going tonight, Dan? It's going good, man. We are back. Nip in the air. Oh, you're getting a nip in the air up north, eh? Little bit. All right. It's that time of year. It's uh what, mid-September at this point. So not feeling that nip down here, I can tell you that. I know. That is not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Try to send it your way, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I'm hoping that we get some relief this this year in the fall, but it's been pretty brutal. It wasn't, you know, we got a pretty good stretch last year, and we would get, you know, some recurrences of some cooler days, and certainly in the evenings, but you know, down here in Florida, it uh yeah, it's still pretty scorching. So let's get right into it, Mike. We're going to um we'll talk about the Emmys maybe at the end, you know, a little uh Emmys just took place last night, so we might talk a little bit about that at the end. But um just you know, I didn't watch it, but I certainly you know saw the headlines and some of the updates on social media and whatnot. But we're gonna talk about this film, The Runner, which is streaming currently on Prime. We've done other movies on Prime before. And this one came out September 2nd, so it's been out a couple of weeks as of this recording. And, you know, there's so many different things that I want to talk about with this one. And uh because, you know, here's a little uh callback to San Diego, Mike. This is a Jim Lee-inspired designed Wonder Woman Funko pop. It actually glows in the dark. Nice, and I happen to have it here in the office, but um this stars, of course, Gal Godot. And this is, you know, again, I want to be respectful, but it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And and I knew watching it, I'm like five minutes in, I'm like, oh, he's gonna be hating life, and we gotta get through it. Now, the upside is it was only an hour and 25 minutes long, but that was an hour and 25 minutes too long. Yeah. So and it seemed longer than that. It did. And the one of the, I think the last couple of reviews we've done, we have talked about like The Last House was another streaming film we recently did that was on Netflix, and we're like, decent premise, you know, started out good and then just went off a cliff. Right. This one never got going. Yeah, I mean, it went off the cliff so fast. But it was similar in that somewhat of an intriguing premise. So set up the basic premise here, which isn't that complicated.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, basically, a woman who's out jogging gets a phone call, is told that her son is being she's a lawyer, her son is being held hostage, and she has to go commit a murder of the witness against his client. And that's basically the story. So it sounds like it might have something there, but my God, this now message to streamers if you're gonna go direct to streaming, stop making shit because this wasted my time. And I was angry watching it when I wasn't falling asleep from boredom.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yes, I would agree. It got very dull. And yeah, this is one of the challenges with the streaming era, right? Is that we don't have again, we we are always quick to say box office doesn't always tell the story, right? The whole story. In this case, it would have been nice to have a little bit of a guideline as to what was happening in the in the theaters, but you actually didn't really need that because we also talk about the ratings. We're always given the IMD MetaScore, uh, IMDB MetaScore. We're talking about Rotten Tomatoes, and then this is by far rotten. And also Across the board. One thing I hate with the streaming is everything that comes out is number one for a couple of days, maybe a week, and then it just jump jumps off a cliff.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

And that's kind of where my message is just is aimed at. Don't promote this thing when you know it is garbage. And it's not like we had a ton of movies to pick from, because Spider-Man, which I have the poster behind me, my cranium blocking it. But you know, Spider-Man's been number one at the box office for six weeks. And as you alluded to, because there's been nothing challenging it. And finally, you know, uh something beat it, practical magic too, which I yeah, good for that. I saw the first one.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

But again, it's a very low bar when there's nothing else out, and Spider-Man's been out for three months, you know, whatever it is. So so yeah, and and this is God, it's fascinating because when you just Galgadote. Okay, so let's just talk about she's the star here, and it was directed by Kevin McDonald, written by Mark Gibson. Galgadote, now your boy, Damien Lewis, also sadly stars in this as the caller, Michael. He's basically a voice until the end. Yeah, he's the caller, credited as the caller, and he's basically the one on the phone with her, giving the these cryptic commands that she has to follow only from him. She can't talk to anybody else but him. Right. And there's some other cast here, but we'll just stick with with those two at this point. And so, but I think about Galgadote, right? And so she, you know, beautiful A-list, a Hollywood actress, and she what I didn't know until actually, to be honest, fairly recently. I know you knew this, but I didn't know her affiliation with the Fast and Furious franchise because I've never seen those films. And she's been in four of them, and she's it looks like she's gonna make an appearance in the next one, the Fast Forever. You mean they're making another one? I know. It's the 11th and allegedly the final installment, at least in this series of those films. But honestly, I think it's a cash cow. It's a cash cow. They watch maybe the first three. But give them credit to be able to continue to do well enough to have 11 films in your franchise. That's saying something. So but it isn't until we really see her in Zack Snyder's Batman uh film, right? Was it Batman and Superman, whatever, whatever the name of that one was? Yeah, Batman versus Superman. And she was so appealing and so good in that that she ends up getting, you know, the Wonder Woman films. And so she's kind of rockets to this stratosphere level in Hollywood, commanding eight-figure salaries, household name, the whole bit. And then fast forward, this is that's about like 2017, Mike. So we're not even quite a decade removed from that time. Right. And she's in a very different place now in her career. And it's it's kind of bewildering to me, but I do speculate as to why that might be. Right. And what what do you like specifically? Well, I think it's a few things. Okay. I think she's no longer affiliated with the DCU. Right. And and, you know, some may say, well, James, and we would be the first to say, well, James Gunn came in and just destroyed everything, and she was ousted like Henry Cavill.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Which there is a connection there, rumored that, you know, she left, actually, because there was the story is that they actually gun and and Peter, what's his partner's name, Saffron? They they want they wanted to work with her and do a Wonder Woman 3. But the way that they they handled the Henry Cavill situation and and some others, when that takeover took place, she wasn't very fond of that, and she decided to leave. That that's the story anyway. So we'll we'll go with that. So I think there's that, right? You don't have the anchor of that uh, you know, say what you will about the recent installment of films, but it's a you know, successful franchise uh and universe. And also, I think more recently, and I haven't seen the film, you can probably comment on it, but her starring in what became a very controversial live-action remake of Snow White. Yeah, I had I haven't seen it. Okay, and it had all kinds of controversy surrounding it. And she's also been very outspoken politically. You know, she's Israeli, the whole thing with the Palestine, Palestinians, yeah, this whole thing, right? And so, and she even claimed initially that that had a lot to do with the box office failure that was Snow White. She then walked that back, right? As I'm sure her agents told her she needed to in the studios and everything. She walked that back and said, Well, there's a lot of contributing factors there. I think when you put all of that in a stew and mix it up, that's what you get. But here, but she's still commanding pretty significant salaries, and she's still a household name.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Right. I I think this exposed her acting ability dramatically.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

There's the last piece of the puzzle I didn't mention, which was that. And that has been something the critics have been talking about for quite some time now. And I would have to agree, in in this film in particular, I don't know that it was as prevalent to me in the DC films, because you know, that's kind of what you're getting over the top, everything's exaggerated, you know, whatever. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

And but character as Wonder Woman until me too that sequel that was oh god, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

1984 twig. Which we did a review on. Go back and watch that, folks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And this, you know, is uh a notch worse. Also, streamers, here's another suggestion. Don't name your film the exact same title as another film that's coming out at the same time. Pivot.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, but you can't necessarily control that. I hear you, but that's not necessarily something that's within their control, depending on the timing and whatever.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

And and I'm talking about this is called The Runner.

unknown 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

There's another film with the guy that's played what's the character on he plays on Prime. Reacher, Jack Reacher. Oh, yeah. He's in a movie that just came out called Runner. So easily get you could get confused. Now, I don't know if that's as bad as this, probably is, but Mike going out on a limb. Yeah, just uh that's a shot in the dark.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, yeah. So it it's you know, and it bums me out, right? Because I do like her and I do, I did like her in Wonder Woman. And so it's kind of it's sort of not as sad as a dramatic word, but to see her in a film like this. Right, where she's the lead, she's in almost every frame. She is, and now, you know, some interesting bits about it is that much of it was filmed, you know, live, like one take because of the nature of it, right? And Kevin McDonald has primarily been a documentarian, and that's almost kind of how he shoots this. And you have a lot of the sets are live, unclosed streets. In fact, it's very obvious because there's certain scenes where you see people holding up their iPhones, filming her because they're like, hey, it's Gal Guitot. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

You know, and then there's other times where she cannot go five feet without stumbling into somebody or trying to steal somebody's phone. And he's talking to her the entire time. She's got these headphones on, he's hacked into her phone. Yet when it's convenient for the story, he suddenly isn't, you know, like he's telling her don't don't talk to that guy. Right. Don't run into that car. So we, you know, it hints that he's watching her as well, yet she jumps on the subway for about a half hour and he's nowhere to be found.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Well, you know what I love about it? First of all, this is very gimmicky. It's very gimmicky. Yeah. But here's what I hate is never an issue with the cellular service. I I know. I can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Like, that's so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

She's in and out of tunnels and oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

And another thing I hate about Mike, things like this is this is an old trope, but first of all, the time, the time she has remaining to get to those witness and kill him is, of course, the time remaining in the film. You know, again, it's sort of happening in real time. But what I hate is these films where they, you know, the villain, in this case Damian Lewis, the caller, the voice, whatever, what have you, somehow he has time and days before to plant the bag with the weapon she's supposed to use and a dumpster in some park in London. And then come on.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

They totally at the end cheat by showing all these little diversions that we didn't really pick up in real time. Explain that some more. Like, uh for instance, she wrote on a mirror in one of the subway cars, you know, held hostage, you know, save me or whatever. And we saw her run into that space, but the director totally cheats it and makes it like at the end, oh, we should have picked up on this. Like this was a foreshadowing of what was to come. This is some of the worst directing I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, it's pretty in storytelling. I mean, it just does not come together to work. And, you know, she, I will give her credit. I mean, she spent nine months training for this. She certainly got into amazing running shape. She was admittedly not a runner, and and she trained with this former Olympian for nine months, to the point where she went so uh she got so into this and it was so taxing that she ends up and you know something about broken feet, Mike. She broke both her feet by the end of the film. In fact, I think the last sequence they filmed, which had to do with the subway sequence, I believe, she she ended up ended up getting, you know, hurt.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

So, but there's there's one sequence on the subway where she kind of is pushed against the window, and it's the most horrific shot I've ever seen. It just looks stupid. I, you know, it's almost like her face is you know against the glass. Um for some reason that sticks out in my head.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

When she's in the subway car? When she's in the subway car. The tube, rather. Yeah. Yeah. The tube and like it was interesting because having been there, you know, there's there was she ran through some areas that I that I had been to, which was kind of wild. But, you know, they stayed true to things like that. Like her route was like GPS accurate and you know, those kind of things. Okay, fine, but it just doesn't work, man. And Damian Lewis, I mean, I guess originally that character was going to be American, and they went with this sort of more uh soft-spoken. What was with the you give him this weird long pinky nail that was supposed to be menacing? And yeah, like he he's Dr.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Evil all of a sudden. Right. Like, what's he doing in this film? What voice-wise, he shouldn't have put his voice in this film. He's too good an I know.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

He's too good an actor. Back up the money truck. I listen, no offense. You loved him ever since we saw him, and and uh um the Americans.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

No, no, no, no, no, not the Americans.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

No, the um Homeland, sorry. Homeland, that's right. I got I got fried here for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

You know, he was fantastic in that and went on to billions, which he was fantastic in that.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

What isn't fantastic, Mike, is the ratings here. So as I mentioned earlier, so the IMDB Metascore, which is a little high, is 28. That's high. Okay. The rotten tomatoes from the critics, 10%, one of the lowest we've ever quoted on the podcast, I believe. I think so. And the audience very generously giving it a 31%. Very generous. But it is rotten, make no mistake.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

So you know, you're supposed to be on the edge of your seat. And not once, not one single time in the 88 minutes this film runs was I feeling tense. No. Or I even, you know, the shoot there's a shootout at the end. And I don't want to ruin the ending, although you should never watch this film. Yes, I agree. But the you know, that whole thing was just silly.

unknown 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

This gives straight to back in the day, it was direct to VHS. You know, you knew it was horrible when it went direct to video. Now, streaming services are starting to become direct to video. Well, yeah, it's an addressing. Yeah. But when it comes to a movie, tell me a good movie we've seen that was exclusive to streaming.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Wow, that's a great question. I'd have to go back in the old brother archives and and look. I one doesn't come to mind, so that tells you. I can't think of one. Yeah, and again, you know, tr being sensitive to okay, you got a crew here, you got cast, you got like people working hard to try, but you cannot be making this film and watching the dailies and say we're nailing it. Like I just I don't believe that. Maybe maybe that is the case, though.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Maybe you know, you're you're uh you're blinded in some way by there is a box office total for this film, which I didn't think it was, I don't know where it came from. If they're like $200,000 exactly, like $220,000. That should have been a hint.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah, it should have been right. And that's it again with the streaming. We'll never know the numbers. We won't even know what she got paid for this. No.

unknown 20:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

But I can I you can be damn sure they didn't make their money back on it.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

And again, think of it like I'm Gal Godot, I sit in the theater and I watch this film. What am I doing do I find anything redeeming about it?

SPEAKER_00 20:44

I think, you know, maybe for them and for her in this case, it's the just the challenge that this presented, you know, which right physically.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

And again, for people who want to watch Gal Godot and a Leotard for 80 minutes, you know, have at it.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Leotard's a bit of a stretch, but you know, perhaps jogging. Sure, there you go. Yeah, but uh, you know, again, I'm a fan of Galgado. I I still am, uh, but it's like I'm rooting for her to get better. But I do think, as some of the things I mentioned at the top, and I'd love to have our listeners and viewers weigh in on the Galgadote mystery, I call it. It's just, you know, you hear that name, you know exactly immediately who you're talking about. Right. And, you know, but it and she'll still get people to to to to tune in at least. Uh they may not like it, but they're still showing up. And so it's just, I don't know, it's again, it's kind of baffling to me. She should be. I I sometimes I feel like it's just poor management. You know, you need proper management like Rocky, you know, and Mixon. Because uh it's a shame. But as we commented about her acting, I I have to expose it. I have to agree. I think perhaps you're right there. I I you know she could probably.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

And I think the answer is she can't carry a film alone. And Damian Lewis was only a voice for the most part in a ridiculous plot. He should have known better. He's a better actor than that. You know, and and when he watched it, he had to be like, good God, thank God that check cleared.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Mm-hmm. Right, right. I'm sure they they did fine, but do you really want to add this to your resume? Is this the one that you want to? And again, every actor, working actor has a stinker in there or two.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

But you know, Dan, there's a thing here that's going on that I've talked to you off air about where I think there's some tone-deafness on the executives because there was a movie that just came out, Acme. I I don't know, it's Coyote versus something.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

The Acme, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Right, you know, with the John Cena Acme versus Coyote, I think it's right. Where it's wily coyote, a cartoon character.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, Will Will Forte, who we love.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Right. And you know, that didn't get released, and it was on the shelf, like we pointed out with Batgirl, which never got released. Right. And Michael Keaton was in it as Batman. So someone in their and um I gotta believe it's gun, said, hey, this isn't good enough to release, not even direct uh streaming. That's how bad it is. And so what do they do? They pull us out of the the there was like a write-in thing for the Acme movie because people wanted to see it, and it does 60 million.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah, well, I said on the last uh episode that we, you know, the review we did, hashtag release Batgirl. Like, let's see it. Let's get, you know, let's get some.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Because they they obviously are not good judges of what we want to see. Because if I see another movie like this on Prime, I'm gonna cancel.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yeah, let us be the the judge, right? And and and in fairness to the cast and crew who worked so hard on that film, I'm I'm assuming that you know that's the right thing to do. What do you it'd probably be at this point, the the whole mystery surrounding it would probably result in it uh making more money than it might have otherwise. And not to mention, as you said, Michael Keaton, come on. The the guy's a complete bankable star. Everybody loves him. You know, you met him, you know, you've sat and had drinks with him. I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

And and you know, that's the thing. I don't think he's gonna he didn't make Batman three and four because they were terrible. And Joel Schumacher drove that whole franchise off a cliff.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's posthumously slamming him.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

You know, that though that third movie, Batman Forever, and then Batman and Robin are god-awful movies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah, I don't know. It's funny you talk about the the the good old days of you know, walking down a corner video store you remember down there in Four Corners and I miss those days.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

And they should, you know, a film like this, maybe, you know, that would be something on me if I picked it off the shelf.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. Like, what what's different comparing that experience to, to, to this? You know, and and now I I recognize often you were behind those saloon doors looking at a certain section, but we won't go into that. That aside, you know, what can you compare this to that experience in terms of? I think I think you go down, you you Mike, you made the decision based on the cover. If it had a cover, you remember the one down the car? It was just in a blank case with the title. And you rolled the dice often time. You get home, and then it was probably word of mouth, I suppose, which is what is now the Rotten Tomato score, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And so And the beautiful thing is you could hit eject in five minutes, right? We both hung in for to review this film. You know, it's one of the curses of doing this.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Some of the ones that stick out, what are some of your memories? Like the ones when I think of that video store in the corner, uh, I Spit on Your Grave was one I remember seeing there. Yeah. And also Faces of Death was a big that was a big one. I remember, and this was, you know, dad was not the best influence in this regard because he'd be like, yeah, it's fine, Mary, you know, and I'd be watching this horrendous stuff that I would give me nightmares and I couldn't sleep.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

I remember you telling me what the what was going on, and I'm like, is that and we thought it was real at the time.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Yeah, exactly. Come to find out it was completely staged and yeah, it was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

But I But I think I think the business of making movies has become expensive. I think actors are overpaid, and I think the that's causing this ripple effect of less movies hitting theaters. Less and and you know, who wants to put in a hundred million dollars into Supergirl when it can't even make it?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

We don't need that even, Mike. Think about the unbelievable and to us very surprising year we got last year with the the Oscar nominated films. There was ten films that were all great in their own way. I don't think there was one that we disliked. Some more than others, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

We're back searching for you know so far. Even Spider-Man okay, held the box office, is is gonna be the number one domestic film, you know, uh money as far as making money. It's gonna be number one. And that wasn't that great. Yeah, it was good, but not great.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

It's so funny because this is reminding me. I want oh, here it is, Mike. I meant to bring this up on a previous episode and didn't get to it, and this is a perfect opportunity. I don't know if you saw this headline, but it was, you know, it came out on social media. And just for the record, you you back me up. I pretty I called this on the O'Brother podcast AMC to put smaller movies into theaters with new venture. And so it's no longer unusual for a hit movie to come from outside the Hollywood system with upstart player Angel Studios scoring with Sound of Freedom three years ago, or Taylor Swift going directly to AMC Theaters for her blockbuster Taylor Swift, the Errors tour movie. But then it goes on to say that AMC is launching this new venture to give a space for the smaller films, independent films.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Did I not put that out there? You know, you've asked me at times, you know, this, you know, we we watched a Steven Soderbergh film. I don't remember the name. Black back. The Black Back Black Back.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

And you asked me, would this make it in the theater? And I said, no. We liked the film.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

And it reminds me of the film festivals, like local film festivals. Here, Mike, you've been to the Enzyme Theater here down in Florida. Yep. Yeah. And I can remember them showing now, this is not small movies, it's not a good example, but you know, pulling out Kubrick or an Orson Wells film or something.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Correct. My friends in San Diego, it was the Ken Theater, which is gone because of COVID.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

And we've heard, didn't um Kevin Smith, your boy, bought up or saved one of his local theaters in Red Bank, New Jersey or something to, you know, because of it's kind of a dying thing, and um there's not a space for these small independent films.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yeah, he brought that up at Comic Con when he was watching, he was talking about Space Balls too, and he saw space balls in a theater that he now owns when he was a kid.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

You know, good on him, man. I mean, Love Clerks, one of the greatest films ever made. I love it. We should do, we should do uh a clerks episode at some point. We've never did, you know. I don't think we've I don't think we've done any Kevin Smith films. In fact, I'm saying it here right now, I'm throwing it out to you. We need to do like a dogma episode or chasing Amy or something. Yeah. There's a lot to choose from with Kevin Smith and a lot to talk about as you just kind of shared. So Maul rats. Yeah, so Mike, I don't know. To me, as disappointing as the film The Runner is and was to watch, I'm I'm I continue to be more baffled at the career trajectory that Gal Gadot, I think she finds herself in. Now, she's doing just fine. Right. But I wonder, you know, I wonder, and I said this to you before, I think, when I'm when I brought it up previously, is is this something uh uh an actor, an artist like her sits with? You know, is she home? I know a lot of them say they don't look at the reviews, they know if I I get it, I understand that. I I probably that's a that's a wise uh piece of advice, but I wonder at some point, you know, does it do you internalize it and is it hard to escape?

SPEAKER_01 32:13

She has like four kids, I think.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Yeah, I think so. So I think for her, it's probably time to you know spend with the family.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Well, she's a working mom, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:24

She's a working mom.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

So maybe maybe that's it. Maybe that's her priority. She's okay, I do a film, maybe it's good, maybe it isn't, but you know, is she choosing it just to get paid? I doubt it. I think she she's still in a position where she can pick and choose to a certain degree.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

And again, for for a minute, when we read what the premise was, we thought, yeah, hey, this might work. But my gosh, it just It just doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

It's awful. It just doesn't work. The ratings tell the story, and we're telling you the story. So as you heard from the jump, save your hour and a half, find something else on streaming, or you know, check out one of the numerous streaming shows that we've been uh praising here in the podcast, one of which just you know took home basically all the Emmys last night, which was Widow's Bay. Right. Which I stopped watching because of you.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

You never did finish it? I didn't finish it. Oh, yeah. And I was the one liking it. And and Matthew Reese not only won. Now, I don't see it as a comedy.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

I don't either. Okay, there's definitely fun, there's definitely humor in it for sure. It's a dark comedy, but to win over some of the others that were in that comedy category, yeah, that's a little BS. And then one of the categories, like every other nominee was the pit, and they lost to Widows Bay. Like, so clearly the jig was up at that point. But you were about to say that he made history by winning lead actor in two different series in the same night. Yeah, that was incredible. The Beast in Me and then Widows Bay. Now, the Beast in Me, I gave it a fair shake. It's not a good series. He's not good in it, and I'm a huge fan of Matthew Reese, The Americans, Widows Bay, you know, on and on. That one just doesn't work. So I was very disappointed, especially when I see some of the competition and some of the categories were like Slow Horses, which is on Apple, which is in a fantastic series. Did Beef win anything? I don't think Beef won anything, Mike. Wow. I don't think Beef won anything. It's kind of shocked, which is shocking. And I'm doing a rewatch on both of those seasons of Beef, and it's incredible. But uh yeah, Widows Bay is the winner last night, hands down. But yeah, you know, you get Gary Oldman and Slow Horses, come on. It's ridiculous. Right. So, and again, go back, folks. Mike and I have done a commentary for years now on the award shows and our feelings on that.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

And you know, but Dan, we're in September, right? Yeah. Do you see us January talking about 10 films as good as last year?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

I don't, but you know what? I do see us talking about very soon is our love of horror as we lean into Halloween Fest, which is right around the eye. For Halloween. I can smell it in the air. I can feel it. There's so much. This is going to be another difficult task for us, Mike. So for horror fans listening or watching, stay tuned. If you've not been following us up to now, every year Mike and I do we do a whole month at least dedicated to just the horror genre, and we try to mix it up. You know, we do a little classic, we do some new, we do things a little on the fringe of horror, you know, so forth. There's a lot, it's gonna be difficult to narrow it down this year, I think. I think, and you know, one thing we should do and uh is do a first look. We haven't, it's been out a bit now, is the trailer for uh Crystal, what is it, Crystal Lake? Uh or what is that the name of the series? The TV series about Frida 13th. Yeah. Yeah, about the Halloween series that's gonna be coming. You've got Resident Evil is coming out next week as of this record. And there's just a lot coming that I can't wait to lean into. So it's one of my favorite times of year. It's one of my favorite times of year on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

And uh, horror for me is probably third or fourth on my list of likes, but I'm rarely bored, you know, even the cheesiest of cheesy Halloween films will entertain me.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

And that's another thing, Mike. We usually, it's uh most years we uh put a spotlight on one of the Halloween films. And so, you know, I'd love to hear from people if they've got any recommendations in that regard. We talked about a couple that we might do this year. Um I can think of one now that might be timely based on the Spooky Empire's uh appearance list that I shared with you. So we might have to lean into that, and I might have to go because there are actually finally, once again, a lot of celebs from the Halloween franchise that are going to be at Spooky Empire in Orlando. You know, I think if we knew the lineup prior to Comic Con. We would not have gone to Comic Con. Yeah, we would have switched. Absolutely. I still don't want you to sh completely shut out the idea. I'm with you. I'm still paying the bills for Comic-Con, but I still owe you money. You've got room and board, like we can figure most of it out. And man, this I mean, it would really be a fun year so far. And there's lots of others that are going to be there as well. So, anyways, that's for another conversation. But any parting words, Mike, on The Runner or Gal God or any of the things.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Just if you have Prime and you come across the number one movie on streaming on Prime, don't be fooled. Don't, don't waste your time.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

No, and you look, you'll you'll listen to other podcasts, you'll hear other reviews, et cetera. They're gonna, they're gonna tow the company line. They're gonna, you know, they're gonna, we're gonna tell you, uh, we're gonna give you our opinion, which at the end of the day is all it is. And we're not gonna sugarcoat it. We're gonna tell you what we think, like it or not, and that that's it. So we want to give you kind of an honest take, and that's what this is. We I've, you know, there's no way we could come on here and say, oh, we love this film, and there's this and that and the other thing. It's just, it's just not possible. So if that's the kind of commentary that you're looking for, you've come to the right place. Make sure that you like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can listen to the podcasts on all major podcast platforms. Um, and engage with us. Drop us a comment on the videos. You know, reach out to us on Instagram at oh as a brother podcast. That's how you can find us on Instagram. Also, the YouTube channel, the handle on YouTube is at OBrother Podcast, all spelled out, just like you see it here on my lovely hoodie. Uh, but yeah, we appreciate the support and the engagement that we've been getting, and uh, we we would hope to hear from you as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Yeah, and if you're subscribed, tell a friend, get them on there. And then love.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

You know I'm thinking of Vidal Sassoon now for those of a certain age. And then she told two friends, and she told two friends, and so on. I actually this morning said Calgon, take me away. Now, that if that isn't dating myself, I don't know what is, thanks to our mom. But that's at least the 70. There you go, Mike. The Oh Brother Podcast review of the runner. That is gonna do it for another episode of the O Brother Podcast. I've been your host, Dan Smith. Alongside me, as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. And you know, we will see you next time. Bye, everyone.