251. Mayday (2026)

[00:00:38] Welcome to SpyHards - A Spy Movie Podcast, I'm Agent Scott. And I'm Cam the Provocateur, dancing in the dark. I wish you'd stay there. I'm so lonely and tired from- You're getting closer to me, it's getting provocative. All this dancing, I'm not even sleeping because at night it's dark still and I'm still dancing. I wish you were a tiny dancer so I couldn't see you. Hold me closer, Scott, hold me closer. I never ever will. But do you know who I do hold close?

[00:01:08] Who's that? Everyone who listens and watches at home. Mmm, right, right. The best of us, truly, because we're the worst. Yeah. Hmm. But you know, we made a promise at the beginning of the year that we wanted to hear from you, your thoughts on the films that we're talking about. And we've recently spoke about the one and only Mission: Impossible – Fallout. We did indeed, a movie that was long awaited on the channel. And it's one of those, I felt like it's one of those movies that you're like,

[00:01:37] oh boy, here we go. Here we go. Like, there's a little bit of pressure on this one. You know, I don't feel the same pressure when we're looking at, I don't know, like this week's movie. It's like, oh, I don't really know what this is. I, you know, it's like, oh, kind of a surprise release in some ways. Okay, sure enough, rolling in. Something like Fallout though, people have strong opinions on it. And it's a movie that's fairly beloved. And so it's like, oh, oh dear. Like we have to live up to that hype. We have to, I have to land that halo jump.

[00:02:06] Right. Yes. We can't fail out. Fail out. I thought I was the pun guy. I was pretty good. That was pretty good. I'll give you your flowers there. And flowers are plenty. So firstly, I wanted to shout out a couple of comments over on our YouTube. And if you didn't know, there's video versions of this show nowadays. Not everyone wants to see our faces, but some people do.

[00:02:34] Yeah. I mean, they keep asking us to put on latex masks or to dance in the dark. That too. Turn off the lights. There's too much light. And they're dancing to the fire immediately, please. But they don't want a view to that kill. They don't. They do not. Now, it was actually just quite nice to see a couple of the friends of the show jump on over on our YouTube video for Mission Impossible Fallout. We had Griffin from over at FilmSpeak drop a comment just saying the boys unite.

[00:03:04] Right. And also, Paul from Heavy Spoilers popped along and watched the episode and said such a good laugh. This guy's had a great time listening. It was just nice to see that little YouTube community that we're growing over there too. Thanks lads for stopping by. And I'm glad you're all part of the SpyHards mission, including last week's guest, Sean Chandler as well. Yeah, exactly. Like has been consistently busy. One of the hardest working guys out there on YouTube.

[00:03:29] If you check out his channel or follow him on Instagram, it is just a barrage of lists, reviews of all the new releases, even looking at like months or sections of the year and ranking the movies that have come out in that period of time. There's a lot of stuff going on with Sean. Yeah, exactly. But Cam, did you get any correspondence? Yes, we had an email that came in from SpaceOdds1985 and he says,

[00:03:54] Dear Scott and or Cam, not here to dismiss the film. Fallout is a great film. And it is so, in my opinion, because it balances great action with great characters, two great villains, even if one of them is so snarly that you are surprised that he never twitches his mustache. So far, so good, SpaceOdds. So far, so good. And in the middle, there is Vanessa Carby, who just so recalls Vanessa Redgrave. You wonder if she's in fact related to the Redgraves as the literal shady go between. Compared to Bond at the

[00:04:22] time, Mission Impossible was easily trumping it on all fronts with its simplicity and engagement. The core characters, of course. And then you've got Julia, who does far more for the heartstrings than Madeline ever did. And let's not even get started on the brilliance that is Elsa, our Elsa, as Benji calls her. And of course, it's epic set pieces. I may criticize Fallout, but this is a bonafide spy action epic. Having said that, great stunts do not automatically equal greatness. And despite its brilliant pacing and fun,

[00:04:50] the area where Fallout falls out is in suspense. There isn't anything here as suspenseful as the Vienna Opera House or the Moroccan digital vault set pieces of Rogue Nation. And again, let's not even get started on Elsa in those scenes. Scott knows what I'm talking about. Wink emoji. Not to mention, following up a suspenseful set piece with a high-octane action chase is superb and seamless. The fact that it isn't on the knock list is utterly criminal. Not to mention, speaking of

[00:05:20] Mad Max Fury Road in the same breath as these films is criminal. Fury Road is an utter crock of fill in the blank. Very interesting tidbits from Cam regarding the uncredited famous writer who took a crack at the script. For some reason, I think it was Christopher Nolan. An Odyssey reference could also be a nod to Nolan, perhaps. Yes, I know it's grabbing at straws, but the idea of Craig being John Lark and dispatched in the first moment is a good one. Great stuff and a great film.

[00:05:46] You had me there until you dunked on Fury Road. You know what? You gotta get those jabs in, right? Apparently. What's that saying that Tommy Lee Jones said to Jim Carrey on the set of Batman? I can't sanction your buffoonery. I cannot sanction that buffoonery space odds. Fury Road is an absolute classic. It's better than Fallout and it's better than Rogue Nation. I would actually

[00:06:11] co-sign that myself, actually. Yeah. By all means, write back to us, buddy. We'll have that discourse, but I cannot stand for this slander. I cannot stand her. I will say, though, I have heard more polarizing takes or polarized takes on Fury Road than I ever have about Fallout, for example. I mean, it has no suspense, but it's a fantastic bullet for the two hours it's running. It is just

[00:06:39] a whiplash of a film. Fantastic. Anyway, this is not a Fury Road review, but space odds. Go on, Cam. Yeah, no, I'm very glad like space odds took a moment to really highlight Vanessa Kirby, who we mentioned in the episode and said how great she was. But really, she's fantastic. And he brought up the connections between her and Vanessa Redgrave and just how spot on she was. And I believe the dusty cobwebs of my memory that on the press tour for that movie, she was talking about how she studied

[00:07:07] Vanessa Redgrave's performance in the first Mission Impossible. I absolutely believe it. I do not think we gave the White Widow enough time in our Fallout review, looking back. I think she's truly phenomenal in the film. And I kind of wish we had more from her moving forward. I know we do get quite a bit of her in Dead Reckoning, but I feel like they never really topped that character off. Yeah, I think we'll talk a lot about her presence in Dead Reckoning and perhaps lack of presence when we get to Final Reckoning. But watch this space. And if you want to write an email to us, you want to join the likes of

[00:07:37] Space Lords, you want to get in a vocal fist fight with Cam and I about Fury Road, the best way to do that is to write an email to us, mail at spyhards.com. And you can send it right to us. And it always gets priority on the show. Emails come first. That's right. They always do. Yeah. Just like men in Japan. Wow. Oh, of course. Of course. I wasn't just like just pulling something out of my ass. I was referencing a Bond film. I was like, Scott's getting edgy. Holy smokes.

[00:08:05] It's a Bond film. I don't believe that. Okay. But speaking of something that was mentioned in Space Lords email, we do get a bunch of comments over on Twitter. And one thing I like to do now is instead of just asking for your thoughts, I ask for your three word reviews, just to make it a bit snappier and a bit funnier. And I mean, there's some great entries on there. I'm not going to list everyone. The one that jumped out to me the most comes from Tony Fontaine in Massachusetts and says,

[00:08:31] my three word review, sexy Rebecca Ferguson, which of course is the one I'm going to pick. I am not surprised you chose that. No, no, no, no. And if you can't hear that klaxon in the background, it's the Mayday alert that I've mentioned Rebecca Ferguson too much in this intro. So I guess that means we need to get to the film. Let's do it. Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds. He's you can't get away from the guy. Can you?

[00:09:01] I mean, he's ubiquitous these days. I was going to use the word ubiquitous, but now you've used it and now I can't use it. Thank you, Ken. Yeah, he is. He is everywhere. And I gotta say, just before we get into the film proper, I think the cup is starting to run over. Ryan Reynolds has a shtick and he has been exercising that shtick since the probably early 2000s. Maybe it

[00:09:30] was the mid 2000s when it started. Tying back into my youth and tying back into Friends and Ace Venture, I remember watching him on like Two Guys, A Girl, and A Pizza Place. Sure. Yeah. Way back. And he was still doing that sort of like, I'm handsome and funny. Yeah. I mean, well, I think of like the movie Van Wilder. Yeah. Which, you know, I remember watching way back in the day. Yeah. He had a number of those types of roles,

[00:09:55] but I remember there was a real sense of like, and it's funny that I remember this, but it's like, people really had a like feeling of like, why isn't this guy blowing up? Like, it was almost like he had, like, I remember the film nerds were on his side. They were like, you know, he's showing up in interesting small dramas at this point, like the nines, for example. And just like these films that really were not popular at all, but they'd be like, why is this guy not taking off? He's, you know,

[00:10:23] a scene stealer. He can do these dramatic roles. When is it going to happen for poor Ryan Reynolds? And then he exploded. He's one of the biggest stars now in Hollywood, you know, and now you'll like see reviews of something like Free Guy. And it's a lot of those same film nerds being like, why won't Ryan Reynolds go away? What did we do? Why did we get saddled to this man? Yeah. Well, and the fact that you're saying that about Free Guy, which is a film that came out like four years ago. Yeah. That's the one that jumps out because that one really rubbed people the

[00:10:53] wrong way. I think like Deadpool three kind of helped because they're like, because that's, that's Ryan Reynolds in the pocket and it's what you expect. And the character is kind of Ryan Reynolds ish anyway, but when he does anything else, you kind of want to see him stretch. And that's what I was hoping for here, which pivots me into the question, Cam, I think we should get to what are we talking about this week? We are talking about Mayday, the new Apple film starring Ryan

[00:11:22] Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh that just came out fairly recently actually on the platform. Yeah. We were sort of surprised by this one or I certainly was anyway. Yeah. I really wasn't that aware of it at all. We are a far cry from the days of these huge advertising campaigns for things like the gray man or heart of stone where they're like people, these mega movies are coming to your home. Now you need to watch them. Gal Gadot's jumping out of a plane or whatever. Look at it. Wow.

[00:11:52] Yeah. Like that is just not, uh, not so much the case. Uh, I actually became aware of it because of just, you know, people I follow logging it on, uh, Letterboxd and I kept seeing it pop up. And when you see it like three or four times, you're like, wait, what is this? Well, my, my wife Hannah watched it before I did because she just consumed media, like just randomly, it was recommended to her on Apple TV. And she was like, okay. And, and then I was like,

[00:12:20] I was watching to get, I was saying, telling her I was going to watch it. And she goes, oh yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, exactly. So it's just like one of those things that dropped. Uh, a lot of people watch it. It's the number one thing on Apple TV, at least in Canada, according to the stats I saw here. Is it number two in the UK? Okay. Um, well, I'm sure number one probably doesn't show over here. Number two, number one is Ted Lassner. Oh really? Oh, okay. Okay. Well, there you go. Um, but,

[00:12:48] uh, although it might've been number one movie, I don't remember what the, uh, the stats were. I don't think we need to get into that. I don't think we do either, but the point is it's being watched a lot. And, uh, it was again, a real case of, oh, we better, you know, maybe watch this because I looked up what it was, saw enough little notes in the Letterboxd synopsis where I was like, wait, what is this? He's a KGB agent. Hold on. Pulls, you know, I pulled up the Wikipedia and

[00:13:14] I'm going through it. I'm like, okay, uh, Scott, this thing is going to be irrelevant in about, you know, a month. So let's get it done. Five seconds after this comes out, which is probably too late anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's a weird, there's a weird thing about these films. And we spoke about this a little bit when we spoke about Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan ghost war. It's giving it its proper title. Um, these things have a real, like very brief burn of popularity and they disappear.

[00:13:44] All these streaming films have, I remember people talking about online about like avatar has no cultural relevancy, which is a completely stupid argument because it absolutely does. There's an avatar land in Disney world. Like there, it, it, it, it is a thing. It is an entity. It makes people go to the cinema. They're also building an avatar section in Disneyland, California right now. So yeah, there you go. I've no interest in going to it personally, but I like the world of Pandora anyway.

[00:14:10] So that's a false argument in my book, but you try and tell me about some of these, like, like what's the heart of stone universe about what's Citadel about? Hmm. Yeah. I don't know. Completely gone. And I'm just talking to spy things like go even further. All these like franchises they've built just seem to disappear very quickly. Or like they have this one film that everyone talks about for a week. It's number one on the Netflix charts and then it's just gone. Yeah.

[00:14:37] And, and then there, well, there's an inverse reaction as well, because then we like to jump on them as quick as we can just to try and stay relevant because we're just scratching for relevancy. Also new spy films. It's also kind of exciting just to talk about new spy films. Yeah. Yeah. Like what are they doing with the franchise? There's not a lot going on at the moment. What's happening with spy movies? I guess it's this. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. But what I noticed is often in the downloads and in the reception, like we'll put, uh, what

[00:15:02] was one we did recently? Well, uh, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan ghost war didn't do that well on release. The video is not done that well on YouTube, but over time it just gets more clicks than everything else. I don't know why I can't explain it. Um, back in action. Something we did at the beginning of like last year, I think, or maybe it was the beginning of this year. It's such a forgettable film. I forgot when we reviewed it. Yeah. For those that don't remember, that's the,

[00:15:28] uh, Jamie Foxx Cameron Diaz one. Well, let's, let's give it a little bit more than it should have. It's Jamie Foxx fine, but it's Cameron Diaz return to cinema. Yeah. Like it should have been something big. You could have probably put that in theaters. It wouldn't have done very well, but you could have done that. Yeah. Terrible numbers on release, social media interactions, pointless on anything I posted, but the episode did well over time. People just click on it.

[00:15:55] They just have seen the film and they understand it more than they know, like the silences, which is, I think a much better spy film, a much more fun film to just sit down and watch. But people just consume media like that. Now they just have it on with their phone and the kids running around and the radio playing and making dinner at the same time as folding laundry. Uh, maybe, so maybe you catch a fifth of the film. Yeah. Yeah. You're, yeah, you're never going to

[00:16:21] get like a, uh, explosion of relevance the way that something like the Odyssey is or, um, the new Spider-Man film, but these movies are quietly consumed. No one really talks about them, but a lot of people have watched them so that, you know, on our end, a podcast episode bearing that title shows up in a feed. They're like, I did watch that while I was talking to my friend in Germany. On FaceTime. On FaceTime. Whilst doing a Sudoku. Yeah.

[00:16:51] And, uh, and mowing the lawn. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They had two, they had two phones out at the same time and mowing the lawn. It was creating bad AI art. Yeah. Yeah. Chad Chippity was burning away in the background making terrible AI art. Um, yeah. Uh, so, okay, let's get into Mayday. If you've never heard of Mayday, I wouldn't blame you because there was no publicity for the thing. But here's your synopsis. Mayday, a friendship with major red flags.

[00:17:20] Oh, you know what? That's kind of cute. It is. I, I, a tagline that cute should have been on a poster somewhere, but it's Netflix. So it never will. Well, it's not Netflix. It's Apple here. Oh, it's Apple. I don't know what... No, no, you're right. It's Apple. It's Apple. It's Apple. Yeah. When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance of survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent. Hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's... I've got a few, uh, eccentric exes.

[00:17:51] It's definitely that, you know, buddy, uh, kind of in danger and on the run kind of movie. We've seen it. Um, Midnight Run, I think it's... Pretty much a touch point for this movie, but there's been many like it over the years. Can I, can I give you my, uh, alternate title for the film now, just at the beginning of the review? Okay. I was really proud of it. If I was writing an article for, like, the time... You've built it up way too much. You have built it up so much that it has to kill. I do that every time. It's fine. Because if it flops, it's even funnier. Sure.

[00:18:20] Right. Here it is. Bottom Gun. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Oh, boy. I was so proud of that one. I was like, that's a zinger. That's, that's, that's, that's going on the Letterboxd review. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, hopefully my jokes for the rest of this episode are better than that one. Right. Probably should have gone Bottom of the Barrel Gun. That doesn't quite work as much either.

[00:18:47] I suppose so, but it's like, Bottom of the Barrel, I think, just stands out as meaning something more. Thanks, Cam. You're welcome. You used to be my buddy cop on, on the run. You used to be my former KGB agent. That's a bit wacky. Now you just, now you're just the other guy. I will not be your wingman. You will not be my wingman, especially on that mission. No, you know, the acutency synopsis. But as we said, and I think it's interesting just to talk about, like, there really was no publicity for this. This is just one of those

[00:19:17] things that was just dropped. I didn't even see, like, because nowadays, you know, back in the day in the 90s or the noughties before the internet was everywhere, you learn a lot about films just from watching it in television. Like, there'd be adverts and, like, maybe on the news show, there'd be an interview with someone about upcoming films or whatever. Or there'd be a quick film, like, this week on films or whatever. They would tell you what's coming up at the cinema. There's none of that now. You only really find out about stuff on, like, social media. Yeah.

[00:19:46] Which, or also, people, like, doing videos in, like, YouTube form and they go viral or whatever. I haven't seen any press for this film. I don't think I've seen it. I didn't see it. Didn't even see a trailer for this film. I mean... This is all I know. I, uh, well, in doing the research for just as many behind-the-scenes details as I could find on this movie, I was searching for interviews and there's really not much. There's, like,

[00:20:13] one video with Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds. Uh, just kind of, like, one of those more, like, kind of funny kind of interviews where they answer some questions, but it's pretty lightweight stuff. Uh, and then there's a few with the directorial duo. Um, but most of them are just kind of these short YouTube videos. It's not like they are blanketing the press. And I think I only had, like, one page of hits on Google search. Uh, and then the next page was just, like, another movie called Mayday from a few years ago that

[00:20:42] pressed for that started popping up. Mm-hmm. Well, it's a real, uh, it's a real runner situation, isn't it? It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Gal Gadot film, for those that don't know, yeah. And also the Alan Richardson film that came out at the same time. Oh, what was that one? The Runner. Oh, was that the, there was another movie called The Runner with him? They came out within a week of each other. Oh, boy. Like, I didn't watch either of these movies. Uh, I'm not going to. I have no opinion. I don't care. Like, get

[00:21:08] mad online if you want. I don't care. I saw the Gadot one got really, like, savaged on Letterboxd, but I'm like, I just don't care about these types of movies. And also, like, I think people just take pleasure in, in, in sticking it to Gal Gadot. Like, I'm not going to get into the politics. I don't care. And I, and I don't, I'm not going to get into the, the gender of it all. I don't care. Yeah. But like, I don't know, man. Is

[00:21:33] it that bad? I don't know. I don't know. Like, people are rating it like one star. Now, The Room by Tommy Wiseau is one star. Sure. If this has a good middle, like, middle beginning and end, is confidently shot, is cut at an okay pace, it's, it can't be a one star film. No. And it's like, you know, I see a lot of targeting, oh, she's a terrible actress, terrible actress. There's a lot of action stars that are very popular who are not,

[00:22:03] great thespians. So it's like, yeah. I think Schwarzenegger did just well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Chuck Norris, you know, we've covered them. We've covered them. He could throw a roundhouse kick like nobody else, but could he, could he, could he bring some pathos? Absolutely not. No, no. And or, you know, Vin Diesel. Well, up and down, up and down. Don't dismiss our family like that. That's Zander Cage, man. Put some respect on it. He's extreme.

[00:22:30] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get into Mayday. Obviously, neither Cam nor I had heard of it, but can you give us some background? Send out an alert, Cam. What does Mayday mean? Well, well, well. So this is the latest film from John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein. They're a directing, writing, and producing duo that have been together for a little while working in Hollywood. Let's start with John Francis Daly. He was born in Illinois, started

[00:22:57] out as a young stage actor in the play Tommy, the Who musical. Okay. And then, yeah, then began to work his way into TV in the late 90s. He was a regular on Freaks and Geeks, the Judd Apatow series. He was on Boston Public, and he appeared in the show, The Geena Davis Show, which was a short-lived sitcom that only ran one season starring Geena Davis. But four episodes

[00:23:25] of that series were written by New York-born, Harvard-educated lawyer-cum-screenwriter Jonathan Goldstein, who had been working in TV in the late 90s. And so that's where the two guys crossed paths. And it was basically like the equivalent of just two young guys in their 20s being like, hey, man, we have a lot in common. You should look at some of the things I've made. Look at some of the things I've made. And they really hit it off. They would have made a podcast if they'd met now.

[00:23:52] Totally. Yes, exactly. Exactly. But, you know, we should... Are we saying that if we got back in time, me and you would have been filmmakers? Is that what I just implied? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think I could have done it. Well, there you go. Scott, put that out there, folks. You judge for yourself. Those who can't podcast. That's right. That's right. We'd be like, we would have hit the room before the room.

[00:24:18] Yeah. So Daly just continues on acting. He's in like the Gwyneth Paltrow comedy, View from the Top, the Airline Steward film. Well, he's in Bones, right? He's like one of the leads in Bones. He's in Bones. He's in, in 2005, the movie Waiting, where he meets a young man named Ryan Reynolds. And so that starts that relationship there. Now, Goldstein, in his part, he's just working

[00:24:46] in TV. So he's doing shows like Good Morning Miami, The New Adventures of Old Christine, the short-lived William Shatner comedy, Shit My Dad Says. I watched that. Did you really? I never saw it. It wasn't funny. I was really hoping it was funny. It's kind of like when Patrick Stewart did that Seth McFarlane comedy. I watched a few episodes and I thought, I was really hoping this would be funny. And it's just, yeah. Don't watch your heroes do something other than what you're used to. It doesn't work.

[00:25:14] Yeah. Even when that came out, because it was based on, it was the, was it a podcast? I think it was a podcast. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And that, the kind of the zeitgeist for that particular podcast was very short-lived. And by the time the show hit the air, it was too late. I remember there being a lot of press about it. Because also, like, I think Bill Shatner had just come off of quite a successful run on the show linked to a show you just mentioned, which is Boston Legal. Yeah. Which was very good.

[00:25:43] Oh, no, no. I mentioned Boston Public. No, I know, but I think that spins up. Doesn't that spin off from that? I don't think so, no. Boston Legal is a spin-off. Is it? Wasn't that The Practice? Oh, maybe. Yeah, The Practice spawned Boston Legal. Okay. It was very confusing because there was two shows on the air, Boston Public, Boston Legal, and, you know. Yeah, but like, now there's like the whole, like, rescue universe where there's like five Chicago shows with every single emergency service. Yeah.

[00:26:11] They're going to have the nuns come in next time, like, Chicago nuns. Start kicking down doors. Chicago post office. Yeah. It's like, wow. They deliver. Okay. Every week. At 7-8 NBC. So, Daly and Goldstein start writing together. And they write a spec script called The $40,000 Man that is sort of a comedic take on The $6

[00:26:40] Million Man, the old Lee Major show. And this script immediately gets snapped up by the blacklist. It's extremely popular. New Line buys it. And Jim Carrey is attached to star in the film. And it just never happens. And they'd said that, like, it came really close. But it just never quite got across the line. But they collaborate on an episode of Bones. And then they write a movie called Horrible Bosses that does okay for them. Okay.

[00:27:10] Yeah. All right. That's a fun film. Yeah. And so that kind of opens the door for them. Then they write the incredible Burt Wonderstone, the magician comedy with Steve Carell. Actually, Jim Carrey was in that, I believe, as well. So Jim Carrey obviously was a fan of them and was willing to pop up in that film. The guy who does Sonic. Yeah. Okay. He's making a fortune off those movies. Oh. He's making bag. But I'm not using him as a tastemaker anymore. No. Definitely not now. Mr. Popper's Penguins was the signal of that.

[00:27:40] Mm-hmm. But these two write Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. They have a story credit on Horrible Bosses 2. And then the, well, two big chairs open up and they're given the opportunity to write and direct Vacation in 2015. The kind of reboot of the National Lampoon vacation films with Ed Helms and Christina Applegate that really did not connect with people at all. I was going to say, I've never heard of this.

[00:28:09] I did see it. You know, some of the vacation films are really good. The original Christmas Vacation is obviously very popular. But the Vacation reboot did not take off at all. So, and it was just not very good. Oh, I think I saw this actually. Yeah. It's that kind of movie. You're like, yeah, I think I saw that. I think I watched it on a plane one time. Yeah. It does seem like I would. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

[00:28:33] So then the duo joined many other writers in writing Spider-Man Homecoming. Mm-hmm. Although I was actually going through interviews with them, they were actually largely responsible for the scene in the car with Peter and Vulture. That's probably the highlight of the movie. Best scene of the film. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then they go on and they direct Game Night, a movie that's very popular. It's a fun film. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't write it, but they directed it. And that movie is kind of a sleeper hit, really takes off at home as well.

[00:29:03] Ironic with the theme of the movie. Exactly. Yes. Yes. And then gives them the opportunity to write and direct Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves, which a movie that I think had a lot of potential, it's okay. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah. I had this reaction. Maybe it's in your story in a minute. There has to be a Star Trek reference in this episode, of course. Rettler. Yeah. They're tagged to do the next Star Trek film.

[00:29:29] And when I heard that, I thought about Honor Among Thieves and I just thought, is this what we have to work with? Have you heard their take? Yeah. It's dark and subversive. They said it's very upbeat and optimistic. That's not what I've read. But they said it's about bad apples within Starfleet. That's what they've said. Which we've done time and time again. And that it's in real time.

[00:29:59] Okay. I'm just putting this out to the universe. No one's going to hear this. Few people are going to listen to this episode. If you're running a franchise or you're spearheading a franchise, let it be the franchise that it is. Stop being embarrassed of what you're making. I don't care if it's sci-fi. I don't care if it's fantasy. I don't care if it's Chicago PD. Just lean into the fact that you're making the thing that you're making.

[00:30:27] Stop being embarrassed by it. Just make a Star Trek show. Make a Star Trek film. I don't know, man. Strange New Worlds did one good season. They made Star Trek. And then they stopped making Star Trek all of a sudden. Started playing dress up pantomime like a bunch of theater geeks. It's just embarrassing. Just be honest. And if you don't want to write Star Trek or you don't want to write Game of Thrones, well, Dragon, House of the Dragon, stop writing it. Do something else.

[00:30:56] I mean, I guess, but I will say this much, and I'm going to judge the movie when it comes out, but they, in the interviews I've said, have said they want this to be like the TV show. Which TV show? Original. I think original series is what they're looking at. Yeah, full of bad intentions and people being bad and the Federation being bad. Known for it, if anything. There's a lot of... There's a couple of bad apples. There's quite a few. TOS is very much... TOS has a lot of bad Commodores. Okay.

[00:31:26] I can think of at least four. Of like almost 100 episodes. Sure. That's quite a few. That's less than 10%. Folks, hopefully there's a spy element to this movie because apparently it's going to be a battle at some point. I'm just sick of it. It's not just here. It's in all franchise film and television now. They're all just embarrassed of it. It's like this whole generation of writers are just like clamoring to get attached to IP to get their thing made.

[00:31:55] They'll just shove IP on it. Look at like Resident Evil that's coming out by the time this is out. Well, the director's being raked over the coals for the fact he's not made a Resident Evil film. He's just made a horror film and slapped Resident Evil on it to sell tickets to geeks like me who like Resident Evil. Just make a horror film. Don't involve Resident Evil if you don't want to involve Resident Evil characters, lore, plot, story, or game mechanics. I don't know, man. I haven't seen Resident Evil so I'm not going to judge it at all.

[00:32:21] No, but I've read reviews to know that it isn't to do with the games. It's not part of the world. I don't think there's any reviews yet. It's in part of it. Okay, so they've set it in Raccoon City which is the place where the games are basically born. But he has an iPhone so it's not set in Raccoon City because Raccoon City incident happened in 1996. So, I don't know. If you don't want to make a Resident Evil thing, don't make Resident Evil. I don't know. Okay. I don't know. I'm not like clip this if you want. I don't care.

[00:32:51] But I'm just sick of this whole embarrassment of IP. If you want to make IP stuff, go make it. But be proud of the fact that you're making it. And don't try and hide your own little story in an IP just to get it made. Wow. Wow. So passionate. Wow. Anyway, back to Mayday, I guess. Yeah. So, these two are also attached to movies on Mask, the 80s animated series, and Visionaries.

[00:33:18] Scott, you must have very strong opinions about those as well, about sticking to the fidelity of the original sources. So many opinions. What are your thoughts on the Visionaries? I have a vision for them, I have to tell you. It's a vision quest. A vision quest. Oh, the wrestling film. Yeah, I have less bought into that brand.

[00:33:45] But if they make a vision film or whatever, and make it about not whatever that show is, it'll just be another one of my examples. I could put a list on screen here, or I could put it in the show notes of the audio version of all the times these directors have come in, or screenwriters have come in, and just pissed on an IP because they wanted to get something made. Well, we'll see if Visionaries turns out. All I remember about those was that they were these action figures that had holograms on their chest.

[00:34:14] That's all I recall. You mean Teletubbies? No, no, no, no. It was like action figures. They were like, they were like kind of, it was almost like G.I. Joe style figures. I'm pulling your leg. I know. I know you are. But like, yeah, they were not popular as a kid. Like, I, they were pretty short-lived. I had one, I think, figure. I don't remember a show. There probably was one. But I want to see the press tour for that film where the filmmakers are being asked,

[00:34:39] like, were you, were you true to the integrity of Visionaries or whatever it's called? And they're like, yeah, we, we loved the show growing up. Or like, I didn't watch it growing up, but I've caught it since, and I really fell in love with the world. Like, fuck off. Yeah. Fuck off. I don't care. I don't care. Yeah, be like, we just like holograms. That's it. I just like men with things on their chests. Yeah. That was the appealing element. So, the way they came up with Mayday. Mayday, Scott. Mayday. Pivot.

[00:35:11] They came up with the idea for this movie while in post on Dungeons. And the idea was kind of, they were like, spitballing around, was a comedic take on the movie Misery. The Rob Reiner film with Kathy Bates and James Caan. And they thought that was kind of a fun idea to do something that was more comedic. Misery, great film. Stephen King adaptation. And then they thought, well, hold on. What if we attach the Cold War to that? And it kind of rolled from there.

[00:35:37] They were also very influenced by Top Gun Maverick, which had obviously been a huge hit. And they really liked the idea of kind of paying homage to these heroic, patriotic characters of the 80s. That was a big deal, obviously, in that time period. And they thought it would be fun to kind of examine those. So, you're saying the filmmakers like Top Gun? They do like Top Gun. Yes. I mean, given their age, yes, they love Top Gun. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was being silly. Yes, of course they love Top Gun. I don't think they're necessarily riffing off of anything here.

[00:36:06] Obviously, there's some loving plane shots. But otherwise, there's nothing really to do with Top Gun. Maybe the buddy story, I guess. I think, well, there's a whole kind of, I'll get to it in a second in the reviews. But there is definitely an examination of kind of the political leanings of those films in the 80s. I think, like, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. But the other thing with this movie was that I looked at with Top Gun Maverick.

[00:36:30] There's that side element, kind of in the climax, where Tom Cruise and Miles Teller got shot down. Do you remember that? Behind enemy lines. And it's very short. They're only down there for, like, three, four minutes. It's like five, ten minutes. They steal a plane, get back in the air, basically. That's all it is. Yeah. This feels like, what if that but expanded? What if there was no plane? Yeah, exactly. Like, what happens if, you know, Tom Cruise has to team up with, like, a KGB agent to get out?

[00:37:00] And every obstacle they saw and met was very easy to overcome. Well, well, I mean, it's incredibly easy. You just walk through. It's a comedy. It's a comedy. That's a drama. So, and they said that one of the visual reference points for the movie, one of the most prominent, was Munich. Which they said features a lot of crazy camera work. And that's what was definitely a big part of the influence on this film. I do have camera work noted as one of my likes about this film.

[00:37:30] They clearly had some inspiration. Like, there's, like, crazy shots, like a camera inside of a box when the guy opens it up and stuff. Like, a real weird spirally staircase shot that's quite cool. Yeah. They tried on that front, definitely. Yeah. And so, what had happened with Ryan Reynolds' attachment? He had taken a general meeting with them back when they did, right after they did Game Night. Because he was really a fan of that movie. And they were looking at a chance to work together. Sure.

[00:37:56] He obviously knew John Francis Daly from waiting. And it wasn't until now that they kind of found a project they could get together on. And, yeah, the budget for this movie was north of $100 million. Somewhere between $100 to $150. Really? Yeah. I mean, yeah. That's, like, all these, like, streaming action films. It's, like, they cost a fortune. Is it just, like, a pump and dump? Is that what this is?

[00:38:24] Or are these, like, are these Netflix or streaming films just offering huge salaries to actors because they can't get, you know, percentages? That's definitely a part of it. They also have a lot of CG, and CG's expensive. Yeah, but there isn't that much. I guess you could say the flying scenes and, like, the ICBM chase and stuff. Like, there are bits. But I'd say 80% of this film is two guys in a room or in a car. Sure.

[00:38:54] Talking. Yeah. Which I haven't got a problem with. Yeah, yeah. I think there's more CG than we'd like to admit in this movie. Oh, there's a lot of, like, comped shots and stuff. Like, they might be in a car, but the background's completely changed and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I think it all just adds up. Yeah. Okay. And, frankly, the sad part is $100 million is actually pretty cheap nowadays. Sure. But, like, what was the Odyssey made for?

[00:39:25] $250, maybe? Okay. $300? So is the Odyssey two and a half times better than this film? Look, we know that something like the Odyssey is very special, and I definitely went on a rant, a la Scott with the Star Trek and Visionaries stuff earlier. Who would have known I'd come out as a defender of Visionaries? But, hey-ho, I've got your back, Visionaries fans, you Visionites.

[00:39:50] It's about how I just think it's completely inexcusable that, you know, obviously the Odyssey is made with very special circumstances. You know, the IMAX cameras. And special cameras. Yeah, exactly. Jonathan, I'm sorry, Christopher Nolan, who definitely knows this stuff, like, better than anybody, how to make something that looks incredible. But to me, if you tell me, okay, other movies look 50% as good as the Odyssey, I'm like, well, that sounds great. They don't. They don't look 50% as good as the Odyssey. No. No.

[00:40:20] So, I think that's sort of part of the shame. Yeah, I agree. So, that's sort of the behind the scenes because, you know, a movie like this, there's no box office, there's no, you know, residual kind of like, oh, this movie won an Oscar or anything like that. I was being nice, Scott. I was being nice. I actually haven't, like, I make the joke about, like, Bottom Gun and, like, some jokes at the start of this. I actually have some very nice things to say about this film. It is just not one.

[00:40:51] Yeah, let's get into it. Let's get into it. Here we are. You've made it through my rant. Congratulations. You might agree with me. You might disagree. And that's fine. But we're here. We're talking about Mayday. We're talking about Ryan Reynolds. We're talking about Kenneth Branagh. And we're talking about those two guys in Midgame Night. What did I think of Mayday, Cam? That's a good question. Hmm. You didn't ask, but I'll tell you anyway. And everyone listening wants to know. And the ones watching, maybe they do too.

[00:41:19] I found this to be an incredibly frustrating film. Hmm. It wants to be both a comedy and a tense drama. And at times when it's being a tense drama, I enjoy it. Because it's dealing with political themes. It's dealing with, well, other themes that we'll get into. It's dealing with parental issues. That usually speaks to me.

[00:41:49] It's dealing with identity crisis, which usually speaks to me. And this whole, like, man behind enemy lines trying to get out. That's a great little spy thing to just go from there. I like that sort of stuff. And then Ryan Reynolds opens his mouth. And it's like, oh, he's doing another joke. And another joke. Never sped dolls. And another joke. And another joke. Oh, look. The KGB are coming after this. That's a joke. That's another joke. Oh, look. There's some tension. That joke.

[00:42:20] Joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. And I get it. It's Ryan Reynolds. And Ryan Reynolds has a brand. And I'm not going to talk about the stuff happening in his private life. Whatever. That's fine. I just wish he had a different color than whatever Ryan Reynolds presents. Because I think he's probably a good actor if he gave himself time. And I've seen moments in his films. I look at, like, Deadpool. The first Deadpool. And there are actual moments of, like, drama.

[00:42:49] And he's actually quite good at doing that. And you might all be listening and going, well, this is a comedy, Scott. Yeah, but in this comedy, they try to tackle themes like accepting your gay daughter. Yeah. And not in, like, a, you know, college comedy kind of way. Like, in a real sincere way. And the other thing that really grates against it and actually, like, highlights the fact that Ryan Reynolds was absolutely the wrong person to cast in this film.

[00:43:17] Is having Kenneth Branagh there. The Kenneth Branagh. Henry V, Kenneth Branagh. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war as he charges into the castle. Kenneth Branagh. And he is absolutely acting in a completely different film to Ryan Reynolds. And I just sit there and I'm just watching this contrast as it just cognitively dissonances my brain.

[00:43:42] And I leave it going, this could have been actually something quite special if Ryan Reynolds hadn't done his thing with it. And that's where I sit with it. Yeah, I don't know that I disagree with you on that element of the movie at all. I saw one of the letterboxed reviews from, I can't remember which film critic it was, but basically said it would have been better with Chris Pine, who was in Dungeons and Dragons.

[00:44:12] Because Chris Pine doesn't do that. No, you look at him in like, what's that movie where they're living in like a paradise? Where it's like fake and they're controlling the women. Don't worry, darling. He's great in that. Yeah, he's great in lots of things. And I think like, Ryan Reynolds, when he's plugged into the right material, like say like a Deadpool film, which definitely knows how to use his persona, or he's like in a great supporting role.

[00:44:39] I think of like Adventureland, a movie I absolutely love and he's fantastic in. But like, this movie, it feels almost like insecurity. It feels like an actor who's like, scared of going too earnest. And it's like, oh, no, no, no, guys, guys, I'll be funny here. I'll just throw in a quip. Dick joke. Dick joke, quickly. I kept thinking of the movie Green Lantern for a specific reason, which in that film, it's very much an homage to Top Gun.

[00:45:08] The setup of the character, the way the film is conveying that character is very Top Gun. He played that role very earnest. There's like no quipping from him all through Green Lantern. That movie was a disaster. I think he's somewhat embarrassed by it. He's made fun of it a lot in the- Just look at Deadpool 1 and 2, where he comments on it both times. Yeah. And so it's like, I almost wonder like, is this an actor who had a bad experience doing it

[00:45:36] in some ways, similar type of role, a similar type of character and saying like, I want to give the audience what they want, which is my quippiness, which people have come to expect from me because give the people what they want. Maybe, maybe it is a little bit of that like actor insecurity. You know, I remember like Ebert would sometimes refer to that as like the comedian self-defense of like, they don't want to be sincere because they can toss off a joke. No, no, it's just a joke. Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

[00:46:05] Like, because then you can't fail. Someone can't say that emotional moment fell flat because they hit it with a joke immediately after and the audience then laughed. And that's what it feels like throughout this movie where, you know, you get a scene towards the end of the film. I'm already jumping ahead, but like where he's testifying, you know, and basically he's come home, he's a hero and he's asking for changes or acknowledgements of the government putting

[00:46:32] people in harm's way, working around asbestos because his father got cancer that way, working for the military. And it's like that moment is played very sincere. He's not making jokes. It's meaningful to the character and to his father who's behind him in that scene. And I'm like a little more of this Ryan Reynolds, like crank it up to that, you know, a little bit more of the film. But then even then he still like whips out that paper and does it as a joke. Yeah.

[00:47:01] Like, oh, and by the way, I've just caught this thing that might incriminate you all. I hate to lose it. Yeah. You know, a movie that I thought of a lot and I actually did enjoy Mayday. I was actually shocked that I actually mostly enjoyed this film. There's a lot of caveats I have. This is not, uh, this is not a home run. I have, I have more likes than dislikes, but the overall, like this is the overall thoughts and I left it just feeling frustrated by the thing we've just discussed. Yeah.

[00:47:30] And I, I'm so used to when we tackle these streaming spy films to feel so lazy. And I was like, right off the bat, I was like, wow, this movie actually looks pretty good. Yeah. Because most of these movies do not look good at all. And I think Apple has a little bit better reputation for making things that look a little more cinematic. Yeah. Um, but widow's Bay. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Very cinematic. Yeah. And they've made some films for major filmmakers that are incredible. You know, Irishman was that Netflix?

[00:48:00] Was that Apple? Sorry. That was Netflix. Apple made, um, killers of the flower moon, which looked great. It did. Yeah. So, um, I'm happy that they're a little more filmmaker friendly and I think like they let the filmmakers essentially make a movie that looks like a movie. Um, not like kind of streaming garbage, which a lot of movies do. Which is very easy to fall into. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you. It was really like the Kenneth Branagh element pulled me in and there was enough.

[00:48:28] Because this is a genre that's very tired, right? Like the buddies on the run kind of action. I've seen a billion of these. I felt like this one had enough interesting angles on it that I thought this is kind of something that has its own unique take. Does it all gel together? At times, no. There's definitely things that stick out and just don't quite work. But I enjoyed the movie because I didn't feel like I was sitting through the same thing for the billionth time, which is often the case with these things.

[00:48:55] So yeah, like I kind of walked away with kind of that lukewarm positive. But a lukewarm positive on a streaming spy action movie for me is kind of a plus. Practically a home run, isn't it? At that point. Yeah, it is. It is. And so yeah, that was kind of my big takeaway. And you know, I thought Kenneth Branagh was great. There's a lot of elements. And just like the directors, they may be coming to this after doing some big screen films like Dungeons and Dragons and Game Night.

[00:49:25] But it didn't feel like they were slumming. It didn't feel like they just approached us and said, eh, you know what? Who cares? Crank this one out. And we've seen that where major filmmakers make a Netflix film and you're like, okay, like what did you do? Well, just look at like, I mean, this is probably a bad example, but look at like Rodriguez doing Spy Kids Armageddon versus, you know, that's not a bad example. The early Spy Kids are like actually quite ingenious and the practical stuff is really good. And even some of the CG at the time was really good.

[00:49:54] And you look at like Armageddon, you're like, this is. Yeah. This is some phoned in bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. But I did want to raise just one thing you mentioned about Ryan Reynolds and the like the quippiness throughout because a movie I kept thinking about while I was watching this, a movie that I don't think would have impacted this movie given the releases. I think they would have been probably working concurrently through production. Project Hail Mary. A movie that people love with Ryan Gosling. Yeah. That is also something that's very sincere at its core in what it's trying to convey,

[00:50:23] but is quips throughout most of the movie. Like a lot of that movie is very, very quippy. Yeah. From Ryan Gosling. And that definitely clicked with audiences. I remember being a little bit annoyed by the quips and it felt a little like Marvel, like over reliance to me. Yeah. But it feels like that's kind of what they're doing here where it's like, let's tell a sincere kind of Cold War buddy action kind of film, adventure film, but fill it with quips the

[00:50:51] way that something like Project Hail Mary approached something that could be heady sci-fi. Let's make it light and bouncy. But I think like the results are a little different between the two films. I think the, I was thinking about this, but a different film. I was thinking of Children of Men. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Not, not a quippy film. No, no. But Clive Owen is making comments throughout the entire film. Yeah. And he usually just how exasperated he is for whatever he's having to do. Yeah.

[00:51:20] And because those comments are kind of almost closer to what I think people would say to themselves while they're doing something like it, like you do get tired at work and you do make jokes about how tired you are and that sort of stuff. And I feel like with Hail Mary, which I will say is one of my favorite films. Yeah. Of recent years. I, to me, back to Red Alert, it proved that you could do a science fiction film, make

[00:51:46] it look good, deal with a high concept thing and actually like get people won over with it. Mm-hmm. Like that. I mean, I need to adjust my chest. I'm going to do that whilst talking. But Hail Mary was a revelation. And it should be saying, look, you can do Star Trek on the big screen. There's your template. That's what you do. But like, I think with Hail Mary as well, was that smooth? I think it was. With Hail Mary as well, the comments were buried more in, firstly, he had to talk to himself. He was alone for a big portion of the film.

[00:52:17] Yeah. He wasn't, he wasn't like playing it for a laugh from his buddy or playing it for a laugh from the imaginary audience in front of the lens. It was just to keep yourself entertained. Mm-hmm. And I think we can all kind of understand that. Whereas like the Cappage Patch Kids stuff. Yeah. Was it necessary? There are so many moments in here that it feels more like it is, back to what you said, Ryan Reynolds feeling uncomfortable and anxious and making a joke.

[00:52:46] And that rubs me the wrong way. That feels more like the Marvel thing that we're all, I think, very fatigued on. Yeah. It is interesting to me that both Hail Mary and this are made by these directorial duos known for comedies. Both come from the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs franchise. It's Lord and Miller, who directed Hail Mary, made the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. These guys made the second. And so it's like interesting.

[00:53:11] They both come from these similarly comedic backgrounds, both tackling very well-worn types of stories here with Hail Mary and this, Mayday. Yeah. And bringing that kind of pop comic sensibility. One works better than the other, though. Oh, I completely agree. I completely agree. But yeah, I mean, I'm going to lead us into the likes, but I think my number one, I think it probably is everyone's number one if you've read some reviews. I haven't. It's Kenneth Branagh. A casting masterstroke.

[00:53:40] If there ever was an antidote to the virus that is Ryan Reynolds, it's Kenneth Branagh. I'm so glad he's in this film. And I almost want to spend more time with that character. Yeah. Like, that is an interesting, like, a person who has lost faith in his own country. But he's also determined to prove that Russia isn't all just the enemy that it's painted as. And that's another thing this film's trying to do is talk about, like, geopolitics in the sense of you're all force-fed something. You're all told to buy into something.

[00:54:10] It doesn't mean necessarily the thing you're bought into is correct. And I liked that. But again, that probably would have played better into the drama version of this film than it did the comedy version of this film. But whenever Kenneth Branagh is there delivering some actual dramatic performance, like, some of those scenes are, like, with his, the bit where his daughter's quite tender. I really like that. But even when, like, Ryan Reynolds is doing, like, somersaults on the screen to try and make you laugh, Kenneth Branagh will then come in with just a line. And you're like, oh, yeah, that's acting, isn't it? Yeah. It did.

[00:54:40] It's just incredible. No, I thought that he was very good. And, like, he's, Kenneth Branagh, and they said they, like, the idea was Reynolds they wanted because of past relationships and they just wanted to work with him. But they wanted an actor's actor. That was always the goal. It was not like a, oh, what about Kenneth Branagh? It was like a, we want, like, someone who is going to really be a different mix of energies, especially with this, like, you know, East meets West kind of thing.

[00:55:08] Like, they want very different types. And I think, like, Kenneth Branagh is brilliant. I actually wrote down, I think that was my first note, that that's the most interesting thing to me, the movie. Ryan Reynolds in, like, kind of a comedy action film? I don't know. We've seen it. Like, that's not a new thing. I've seen that, definitely. But Kenneth Branagh? That's odd. Like, that's not someone you think of as being in this type of movie. And, you know, bad wig and beard aside. Yeah.

[00:55:37] He is so much fun to see here. And, like, there is a, this movie is not going to have the cultural impact of something like Taken with Liam Neeson. But it's a similar kind of thing of, like, Kenneth Branagh in this type of movie feels like a novelty. And it's actually fun consistently through where this character is absurd. Like, he's really, like, you know, cranked up to 11 at times. This anachronistic Russian who is in love with Americana and Top, and he's got, like, a

[00:56:06] bootleg of Top Gun. And that's, like, that's his... Funny gag. Yeah. And that's, like, his, like, Rosetta Stone for America is Top Gun. And, I mean, there aren't that... I mean, and the Bruce Springsteen album. Like, he's too... This is what America is. And I kind of get it. And McDonald's. Which he's like, what is this McDonald's? Well, he didn't get to go to that until the end. He did at the end. Yeah. But, like, what was teaching him about America was the album in that film.

[00:56:35] And it's funny, like, that isn't the real experience of Americans. But the film is talking about that that is also not the real experience of Russians. That they're all being taught in the Navy. Or by American television. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, like, that appeal of kind of that pop culture. Which I think, like, the filmmakers themselves are clearly, you know, their careers are built around this love of pop culture. Yeah. And so it's, like, the way they kind of apply that to him. It's, on one hand, as I said, it's, like, cranked up to 11.

[00:57:04] Like, it's definitely a comedic character. Sure. But it's also something I think that they bring a lot of meaning to. That there's, like, a purity to it. It's not, like, a cynical, you know, I want to go to McDonald's and eat hamburgers. It's, like, there's this kind of, like, the sense of almost, like, freedom that he sees. That he could have by, you know, like, through this pop culture. This experience. Well, it's, like, the Sean Connery in Humphrey, October. Like, he's always dreamed of, like, was it Montana or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:33] And that feels quite pure. Like, in that sense of, like, when you're brought up in a state that is all about control. I'm sure there are bits of it that aren't. But that's, again, what I've been taught through years of experience in film and television and other media. There is a certain surveillance state within that country exists today. And it was certainly prevalent during the Cold War. And that idea of, like, just being able to ride a horse through the outback, like John Wayne did. Yeah. And just be completely free.

[00:58:02] It must be, you know, quite intoxicating. Exactly. Yeah. And I think, like, when you hear Kenneth Branagh's character talk about, I keep calling him Kenneth Branagh's character, Nikolai. When you hear Nikolai or Nick talk about his past. Like, the things he did for his country. You know, interrogating people, torturing. And that he just realized he'd been used by the system. And has all of these regrets. And wants to kind of capture something more idealistic or more positive.

[00:58:31] He makes this kind of absurd character work. And I kept thinking of the movie The Lives of Others. You know, a great film we tackled on this show. But you think of the protagonist of that movie. Who's, like, listening in on people. And realizes that, like, they are abusing their, you know, technology and their access to people's lives wrongly. And makes a stand. It's like, you could imagine that movie having an impact on these filmmakers.

[00:58:59] Because it almost feels like the Kenneth Branagh character, in some ways, is a comedic riff on that type of character. Oh, for sure. Like, they're definitely channeling some reality in this. And I imagine a lot of people that switch sides experience that fatigue with the state. And that was kind of what sold them in coming over. Like, yeah. The character's origin story makes complete sense. I mean, it should be a complete farce. Like, seeing Kenneth Branagh doing all that stunt stuff. Well, that's to be fair. His face was comped onto all of it. You could clearly tell.

[00:59:29] Yeah, it wasn't him. They made that very clear in the interviews. It's like, they said he's in his 60s. They don't want to, like, hurt this guy. And so it was stunt doubles. Yeah, the train fight sequence is very clearly. No, sorry, on the plane. When it's him and the baddie on the plane. It's both of them are just stunt doubles. And you can absolutely see the faces just mapped on. And that's fine. It is what it is. It's fine. I mean, they do the kind of John Wick-style choreography stuff early on.

[00:59:56] Like, in the tavern, for example, when he saves Ryan Reynolds the first time. It reminded me more of the Kingsmen. Sure, yeah, yeah. Where they're in the church. That sort of, like, really snappy, kind of, like, fighty stuff. Playful. Yeah. Not Argyle, the Kingsmen. No. No, no, no, no, no. Not Argyle. Don't take me back. Don't take me back. No, no, no, no, no. We will go back one day. But, yeah. No, so, like, I thought, like, they just kind of, like, had a good handle on that character.

[01:00:23] And when you're doing this kind of movie, you want the characters to be very distinct and stand out. Yeah. And I think, like, they did a good job creating a character that he holds the audience. You know, we never get annoyed with him. He has to because Ryan Reynolds does not. Well, that's in our eyes. But I feel like to a lot of people who are just tuning in to see Ryan Reynolds quip, this is probably giving them what they want. But it's, like, a well-worn persona they just know. It's comfort food. Whereas I think, like... It's McDonald's. Exactly.

[01:00:53] Well, yeah. Yeah, they're going in expecting that and wanting that and getting it. So, like, that's fine. But I think, like, the Kenneth Branagh performance feels, like, kind of unique and kind of special. And I think they will like that character coming out of the movie just as much. Well, that's the character you remember. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. What about you? Something else you liked? To me, the filmmaking. I was honestly kind of stunned at just visually off the bat, the imagination they were showing.

[01:01:23] And, you know, there are some... They are definitely sometimes... Well, the seams are showing sometimes with what they can do, for sure. But I would sit there and just be like, I don't see this level of effort. And you mentioned, like, the, you know, kind of the spinning staircase shot. Kind of a vertigo nod in some ways.

[01:01:44] But there's a whole sequence where it's them breaking through the floor of, you know, Nick's daughter's apartment. It's a spinning camera going around and around as they're smashing through the floor, cutting to a spinning staircase. And it's just, like, going back and forth. And it's like, this is really imaginative stuff. And I felt like that was consistent.

[01:02:08] It almost felt in some ways like the movie Panic Room, which, you know, was made many years ago. And David Fincher basically took kind of an exercise. You know, a suspense thriller that he's like, okay, I'm going to use this to see everything I can do with a CG camera. I want to, like, come up with creative loopy shots. And I want to try to make this thing feel, you know, alive moment to moment.

[01:02:32] And I felt like that's what they were doing here, where it's, like, kind of like, you know, the buddy action formula is something we've seen, you know, over and over again. The angles are a little different here, but it's the same kind of formula. But the amount of visual just let's play with this. Let's have the camera just, like, you know, bounce around all over the place. Let's have it inside a box. Let's have a whole scene where you see Ryan Reynolds acting opposite Kenneth Branagh, and we zoom out and see it's all in the mirror of someone watching them.

[01:03:00] Like, there's an ambition to what they're doing that is completely absent in most of these types of movies. And a lot of movies you see on the big screen as well when it comes to, like, big budget stuff. Yeah, I think it goes back to something you said earlier, which is it seems like, it does seem like, I can't speak to it being the reality, that Apple gives its filmmakers a little bit more leeway in doing what they want to do. Because I know for a fact, having spoken to enough people that have worked on Netflix productions,

[01:03:29] that they are far more controlling over style, over camera choice, all sorts of stuff. Yep. And so maybe Apple is a destination for these streaming films. I mean, most of the streaming shows I watch are on Apple. Yeah. There aren't many streaming shows I watch, but, you know, I do watch Ted Lasso. From time to time. Slow Horses is on there. Widow's Peak. Widow's Bass, sorry, is on there. I was thinking Twin Peaks. Because it's basically Twin Peaks riff.

[01:03:59] Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Apple is the destination. Unfortunately, though, it's a service that no one has. Well, Apple's the only streaming service to win a Best Picture Oscar. There you go. So, you know, with Coda. Which, it was the pandemic years. It was some odd years, but nonetheless. Sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously you've watched this, but do you often have Apple recurring, or do you just get it when you need something? I have it recurring.

[01:04:26] I've just always liked it in terms of a lot of the films they put out. And they don't have the heavy output of, you know, Amazon or Netflix. No, I think it's more bespoke, I think, than the Netflix or Amazon just throw shit at wall and see what sticks approach. Yeah. Yeah. I've just generally been pretty up on Apple, so I'm like, I don't mind paying for it. No. We get it free with our cable package, so that's why we have it. But yeah, I used to pay for it. So. Yeah.

[01:04:56] It's fine. One aspect, too, I thought of the filmmakers that they brought as well was that not all a comedy lands, because there's definitely some stuff that's not great, but there's like these weird flights of fancy that I would be like, this is actually genuinely funny. I thought Gorgo, the evil looking kid. Yeah. In that entire scene with that family they go to stay with. I mean, that kid was great casting and the way they're doing the jaws, the famous jaws

[01:05:22] shot with that kid and they play it up as this gag. I was like, you know what? They made this little set piece really funny because of that kid. Another one was actually when they are breaking in to steal the, was it the all tie, which they can use to use a satellite phone? The MacGuffin. Yes. The MacGuffin. But they break into the house of this, you know, official who has a escort over and then

[01:05:48] the family comes home and he's got to hide the escort because they are hiding in the closet when he comes home. Then the escort joins them in the closet and it's all done in silence. And then like the guy goes in to get a bottle of wine for his wife. Yes. And catches all three of them in the cupboard book. He can't give it up because he'd give up the fact that his sex worker is in there. Yes. So Ryan Reynolds just hands him a bottle of wine. He just takes it and closes the cupboard. Like that's silent comedy, Ryan Reynolds. Have you tried it?

[01:06:15] But let's give him some credit because he sells the hell out of that moment. The way that Ryan Reynolds like hands that bottle for it is really funny silent comedy. Yeah. It works. It just works. So I thought like when they came up with like an angle on the comedy, I think they're genuinely funny. It's when it's like, Ryan, be funny. Ryan, just give us some quips. Just give us a few different lines and we'll pick the best. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Cabbage Patch Kids. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:06:44] So like I thought that like when they kind of honed in on a comedic angle and at the same time, they're very comfortable as well with like a dramatic moment. You mentioned the scene with, you know, Nick's daughter played by Maria Bakalova, who's I think best known for the second Borat film. Oh, that's where I recognize her from. Right. Yeah. Yeah. She was also Cosmo the space dog in Guardians 3. I don't think I would have recognized her from that one. Thank you. Probably not. Probably not. But I did appreciate as someone who was a fan of Cosmo the space dog, the character,

[01:07:14] I thought she did a great job in that movie. Okay. Um, but, uh, you know, they are comfortable to just like hang back and let those two characters, Nick and his daughter have a scene together that is dramatic. Yeah. Um, and I liked that they played it in silence too, where you don't know what they said. Yeah. I didn't need to hear that. Yeah. No. I love you either way thing. We know that's what's being said. And so you just hear like Ryan Reynolds scrubbing dishes or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's him kind of observing it from afar.

[01:07:42] And again, that's a directorial choice they made that was interesting. Yeah. I bet there was in the script. I bet there was a whole thing and they're like, why don't we just pull back? Like, yeah. Well, they wrote it. So who knows what they, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fair. Um, I'm sure if you have any other comedy beats that work for me, I think you just named the best ones. Those are the main ones that I think genuinely delivered, but I just thought like even, you know, the two of them in the big missile truck at the end, it's the kind of thing where I've seen these types. You know what?

[01:08:10] This is actually a real complaint to mine, not against the movie, but, uh, car chases in comedies, I think can be absolutely brutal. I have seen them drag movies to a halt. I remember seeing the other guys, a movie that's actually pretty, you know, pretty funny. It is. The Farrell and Wahlberg comedy. Mm-hmm. And then it ends in this car chase that's just so prolonged and dull. And it's like, this isn't what makes this movie funny. And I thought like the energy and like, you know, that final climax scene of them in

[01:08:37] the big missile truck could have just dragged the movie to a halt where I'm like, I don't care. I don't care. But I actually thought they did a good job giving all of their action scenes energy. No, I agree. I think I actually quite liked the chase scene. That was my second like is I think there are some interesting action beats in here that are quite well put together. The, uh, the fight scene in the bar, I think looked pretty stylized and called a shot well, which helped, but like it could have been a very boring Superman comes in and beats up the bad guys type bar fight.

[01:09:05] And it looks better than it needed to be. The, um, the car chase was fun. The, uh, little escape from the black site into the parade. I quite liked that beat as well. Um, yeah, I mean, obviously it's neither Ryan nor Kenneth, but I don't need it to be. Yeah. Oh, I thought of another comedic moment that I thought worked really well that they staged, uh, which is when they're on the train with all the soldiers, which I thought was, we've seen that before, but a billion times, but one way. Yeah. It's when Ryan Reynolds is like, okay, let's jump.

[01:09:35] Um, three, two, and he would have jumped right into the tunnel. Uh, I thought that was staged very well on their part. That looked pretty good. And, um, I, I, uh, I, I, I, I, I was curious if, uh, Kenneth Branagh was pretending to be asleep until he got brought up or, or he just woke up at some point during the kerfuffle. I think he's a very alert. You think he's a very alert man? He's like top tier KGB, right? He never sleeps. He never really. Never. Never really sleeps. Uh, any more likes from you, Cam?

[01:10:05] Uh, no. I mean, Van Halen is always fun. I guess like the 80s soundtrack, it was like very obvious choices, but they're also the types of choices that would appeal to Nick. So they're in keeping with the theme of the film. Yeah. They, thematically they sit well. It's, I haven't got a problem with it. I, I'm less a fan of needle drops than I used to be, but it's just, it does the job here. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't have much else to say on the likes front.

[01:10:34] So why don't we take it over to dislikes? Let's do it. We interrupt this program to bring you a special report. Agents, where are you? Why do you hide? Follow that Patreon trail and make spy hearts your guide. That's right. From spy TV reviews covering the antics of George Smiley, Jack Bauer, and the slow horses to reviews of non-spy movies from your favorite spy actors.

[01:11:01] There's no more secrets over on our Patreon. But Cam, tell the listeners about this week's top secret broadcast. Well, Scott, Halloween is upon us and it's time to delve into some spooky movies on agents in the field. And for this week, we are taking a look at the 2007 anthology horror film Trick or Treat, directed by Michael Dougherty. Will this scare-a-thon prove to be a creep show or a sleep show?

[01:11:30] Tune in and find out. So deactivate ghost protocol and visit patreon.com slash spyhards to truly do things. Angel style. But before we close, Channel D, on with the spy jinx. Well, we've done Ryan Reynolds. I don't think I can go back to that well. He certainly goes back to the well one too many times. Although I like the shot of him inside the alcohol barrel. That was a good joke.

[01:11:58] A physical joke that he wasn't making. Yeah, exactly. And I think people who are detractors of his or don't enjoy his shtick are on the same page with us. They're going to watch this movie and go, yep, more of the same. And it'll annoy them. So, you know, if you're... I don't know why you'd be watching or listening to this without watching the movie. But if you haven't seen the movie yet, you know where you stand on Ryan Reynolds. This movie is not going to change your mind. It's perfectly like unoffensive fare if you're half watching it.

[01:12:27] But if you actually want to watch an interesting spy film and you are annoyed by Ryan Reynolds' shtick, yeah, it will get to you. Yeah. I just wanted to bring up... Because I talked about my biggest hang-up is actually more the tone. The sincerity moments are the best moments and the sort of comedy is what kind of pulls it away. Yeah. This film tries to take a stab at some big ideas.

[01:12:54] There's like the silencing of LGBTQ plus people in Russia at the time. There is, you know, just the oppression of that state. But there's also sort of the oppressive side of America and what the military industrial complex is doing to that country and probably continues to do in many ways. I just felt like it was playing lip service a lot of the time. And I felt like the film probably would have been better served if some of it hadn't been there.

[01:13:22] Like, I get having the daughter thing. But considering how quickly the daughter is dropped, I felt like that really didn't do anything. And do you get the sense she'll be okay for the rest of her life? Literally, one of my notes was she's ending up in a gulag for the rest of her life. Yeah, I didn't buy that happy ending on her. And he would not be happy eating a McDonald's with his daughter obviously sitting in a gulag. Yeah, yeah, I know. I agree. That was a choice.

[01:13:52] I think like there was a daughter character at some point and maybe she got killed. That's my pitch. And they changed it. And at some point the whole she's also gay thing came into it. Like, I haven't got a problem with the character being gay. I just think it gives you a nice scene. But does it do anything for the plot? Well, it's also like... I don't know if it's a dislike, but it's definitely a choice that I think is iffy. Which is this whole tribute to the 1980s.

[01:14:22] Because this movie is, in terms of its filmmaking, in terms of its comedy, in terms of a lot of its sort of angles on what it's doing, is very 2026. And the way they're handling her character is very 2026. Not the fact that she'd be accepted by her father or anything like that in terms of their relationship. Not that. More in the sense of like this positivity of, she'll be okay.

[01:14:47] It's like, I don't know if that's the case in 1987 in a country like Russia. I'm not even sure if that's the case now. Well, that's quite true. Exactly. Yeah. So it's like, there's this kind of false optimism that I think the movie sometimes wants to wear its 80s influences on its sleeve, but also not commit to the reality of the 1980s. Yeah. I think it's the detriment of the overall product. The fact that we're pointing out is fair because we review films, so we're nerdy enough to pick out on these things.

[01:15:17] But I think like if you're going to spend time talking about the ideals of Americana and then try and undercut it with reality, if you're going to talk about like the surveillance state and try and undercut it and say how like, how good the people of Russia can be, that's fine. But talk about it more. Give us more examples. Like they've really just sort of lip service all of these elements. And the biggest offender is the daughter.

[01:15:43] And I'm happy to have a daughter in the film, happy to have the daughter who is gay in the film. But that's a whole other film. Like, you know, about a former KGB agent whose daughter's gay. Okay. That is like the beginnings of a film. You obviously didn't develop it from there. I don't think it had a place in this one. Yeah. And it's like, you know, you have that scene where she reveals it to Ryan Reynolds. And I just, I have questions about how in 1987 his character would react. Yeah. That felt disingenuous to me.

[01:16:12] Like the fact he was like, oh, if he told your dad, it would have been more like, oh, I can convert you. Because he was literally trying to sleep with her mere seconds before that. Yeah. There would have been just a negative response to that. Or you haven't met the right man yet. Sure. Or something like that. Like that sort of line that now doesn't fly. And maybe that is exactly the problem. That line wouldn't fly. So they can't use it. Yeah. Yeah. And just, yeah.

[01:16:42] It's like, I like the fact that they were bringing up the idea of like propaganda works both ways. Because the thing is like, the filmmakers are very clear. They love the movie Top Gun. But Top Gun famously had like recruitment stations set up at theaters. Yeah. You know, because people were so pumped up by that movie. And it's like, they were, you know, the government is using the movie Top Gun for its own ends. Right? And movies like that in that time period. It was that part, that time in America.

[01:17:09] And so like, the fact that they're kind of questioning it and, you know, having Ryan Reynolds not be aware. Be like, no, no. It's all Russia that has propaganda. We don't. And the way he kind of comes to realize like, oh, there's differences. There's positivities. He, you know, goes to those people's house and, you know, Kenneth Brown's like, well, you know, we need help. They're going to help us. That would happen in America, right? And Ryan Reynolds kind of, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

[01:17:36] But that's also disingenuous because like many people within an oppressed state like that would have been on the phone to the KGB almost immediately. I know. But it's like, I'll give the movie its conceit because it's just saying like, there's more nuances. Then what propaganda sells. And I appreciate that it goes. Just like Transformers. Just like Transformers. There's more than meets the eye. That's right. That's right. The more you know.

[01:18:01] You know, I like that the movie's at least saying we love these pumped up 80s movies. But the reality was that, you know, it's kind of like playing with it without. This is not a deep dive into these themes, but at least it's kind of just like introducing new elements or new kind of like examinations on these things without just being like more of the same. Sure. I appreciate the attempt. I just feel like it sometimes if you're going to do something, do it well. And I don't think I don't think anything was particularly well served here.

[01:18:32] Any of the messaging from LGBTQ plus, you know, issues to propaganda. I feel like it was all just lip service and in a different film, a better film, perhaps a more earnest film. It may have had better. They may have been better served. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. Like this definitely could have been delved into deeper. And I think that sometimes goes back to that thing we were talking about a little bit with Ryan Reynolds, too. Like these guys are primarily comedy guys.

[01:19:01] And how much do they want to dig into very heavy subject matter before they're going to return to, hey, guys, this is fun. Yeah. I mean, like it's that old streaming cycle of like you have to make them laugh every like 90 seconds or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I know like this won't be of interest to everyone listening, but for those watching, my chair seems to be faulty and I keep shrinking down. So I'm going from top gun to bottom gun right now. So I'm going to have to go back up to top gun. Well, I'll tell you something.

[01:19:30] My chair is actually faulty as well and often drops. It hasn't done it on camera yet, but it will at some point. So, you know. Yeah. The problem is I have to edit the video of this. So I'm going to keep adjusting my height. Or maybe I just let it stay. I've just felt it go down as I'm sitting here. This is ridiculous. Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. That's comedy, folks. Ryan Reynolds. Yeah. Awkward clapping. Yeah. Any more dislikes from New Can?

[01:19:59] Yeah. The CG sometimes in this movie is atrocious. And it's the kind of thing that like I'm just tired of it. Yeah. Because first off, if this movie is going to be this homage to the 80s, movies didn't look like this. There's a sense of complete broken reality when you are introducing some of the CG in this movie that just is so glaringly bad. I'll give an example. The parachute fall was awful. Yeah. I was really like, I actually had a note. What was worse?

[01:20:26] That parachute drop or the parachute drop in The Grey Man? Oh. Oh. What's the worst parachute drop? This or Moonraker? Oh, that one's real. No, I know. I was going to say like at least Moonraker did it for real. Like the problem is like you can clearly see it's not Jaws and Roger Moore. That's the problem. How dare you? I'm sorry, everyone. Just to let you know, it was not Richard Keel falling into that circus tent. Um, are this or The Grey Man? Excellent question. I think this looked better than The Grey Man.

[01:20:57] I think it did too. Um, it didn't have that Netflix filter on it. Uh, but they were both bad. Both really bad. Um, there's another shot later in the movie, um, where it's right near the end with the missile truck stuff, which I mean, the whole parade, the whole, uh, Mayday parade looks like a complete green screen screensaver. Um, but they're in that truck chase and then you get this point of view from the villain

[01:21:22] where it's him watching the, the truck, you know, in the distance and then come towards him and it's done in that similar one take CG covered, you know, approach that the, uh, the, um, parachute jump is done. And I'm like, this looks terrible. Like that's where I said up front. Like I appreciate their visual ambition, but the seams show at times. And there was even a moment off the top where I remember it showed the planes and I was like, man, those planes actually look really good.

[01:21:52] Like the, uh, the flying, it's not Top Gun Maverick, but the, the, the fight. And the planes, I'm like, this actually looks genuinely pretty good for a streaming film. And then there's a shot of a bird in the water and it's the most cartoon bird you can ever imagine. And they fly overhead and the bird gets all upset. The camera spins around and it's clear they want to do this kind of crazy 360 shot of the planes. But at the same time, I'm staring at a fake looking bird. Yeah.

[01:22:22] Trying to swallow a fish. Yeah. Like me trying to swallow this film. And if we're going to be ultra hard on Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull for the groundhogs, you know, the cartoon groundhogs at the start of the movie, I think it was the monkeys. It was more, uh, the monkeys bothered you more. They bothered me more. And then Shia LaBeouf swinging with them. I just like that. That just felt like a complete green screen activity. Well, but the groundhog kicks off the movie, right? In it's, you get like the paramount mountain turning into a pile of dirt and that fake

[01:22:51] groundhog coming up and people were so angry in 2008. Why in 2026 are we having fake birds that look like this? Because you can control that bird. I know. And you can do that crazy camera move, but it's like, I have to believe there's a way to shoot a bird, a CG bird that looks real. Or like do like a real bird, 90% of it. And then a CG bird when you do the flip or something. I don't know. I will just say one more dislike before we get to other notes. And that is, and it's indicative in the fact we haven't even mentioned him. And that is the villain.

[01:23:22] Yeah. Alexander Volkov played by Marcin Dorosinski. You'll know him best as the captain of the Vastopol from Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning 1 and 2. Yeah. Or Final Reckoning, depending if you, if you care about that. Yeah. That's all I know him from really. Sevastopol? Sevastopol. That's the name of the ship. Yes. Right. Yeah. A real, it's the script. It's not him. Yeah. He's trying to imbue some life into it. There's nothing there. It's not about the villain. It's about the two leads.

[01:23:52] Yeah. I mean, I thought that like he was very one note. It's the, I looked him up at a certain point because I'm like, this feels like the kind of role you'd want to give to an actor that pops a little more. Like the kind of the fun antagonist. But I saw him like, okay, well, yeah, I saw him in Mission Impossible, but like, he's not exactly leaping off the screen. I think his best moment is probably when he like strips down and climbs up that tree to get the boot with the dog tags. Which just felt like, it just reminds you of Putin. It was just me.

[01:24:22] He climbs a lot of trees, that man. Well, he rides like horses and like bear chested and stuff. I just felt like, is that a Russia thing? They're just like getting the kit off or the top half anyway. It's kind of that Zangief thing from Street Fighter. Sure. Yeah. It's exactly what Putin was thinking when he did that. He's like, I'm going to be Zangief. Okay. All right, buddy. Yeah. But like, that's his best moment. So that's the villain's best moment. I thought his fight scene with Kenneth Branagh. Yes. It's CG aided, but I actually liked the fight scene.

[01:24:52] I thought that was fun. Honestly, his death moment might have been my favorite Ryan Reynolds quip, where you see him get knocked out of the plane, bounce off the wing or whatever. And Ryan Reynolds goes, yeah, he survived. Yeah, that didn't make me laugh. Or whatever he said. No, he'll live. He'll live. Yeah, that made me laugh when he did it. And it made me laugh when you just did that there. So that's a good joke right there. Final notes. Firstly, SR-71, gorgeous plane. Love seeing the Blackbird.

[01:25:21] Whenever I see it, nice to see. Great stuff. I like the no way out moment where he's walking around in his whites. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which we had a long chat with Jack Carr about earlier this year about the shoes, which I thought was funny. I was trying to check out the shoes, but they were out the shot the whole time. Thank you, Jack Carr, for that. I will now look out for shoes when people were wearing their navy whites. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's just nice to see that outfit. What else have I got? You do one while I look.

[01:25:49] What did you think of the slow drink gag they went to twice of the, I'll think about this while I have a drink? I thought it was actually pretty funny when Kenneth Brawler did it. Yeah, the first time. I like it. Obviously, the payback, the callback later was fine. Yeah, it didn't really tickle me that much. But yeah, it was fine. Yeah. What did you think of the Assassin's backstory of how he got the name? My next note. Yeah, not very good. It didn't land. Of all the things, it could have been.

[01:26:17] That's like a, it was a really, oh, that did not pay off. Did you watch the mid-credits scene? No, I stopped this film immediately when it ended. Oh, well, it has a whole security video of the entire incident. Oh, okay. Is it funnier by watching that? I actually think visually it was funnier, yeah. Okay. It wasn't described very well. No, no. I actually think the visual was better. I mean, I'm not saying I was screaming with guffaws, but I thought it was like just a visual gag. It was pretty effective. The question I was going to ask is,

[01:26:46] do you have a naval pilot name or a pilot name? I had the same thing. Yeah, because you've got Assassin, you've got Boomer, you've got a few of them. Would it just be Provocateur? That's not a descriptor, though, is it? No, it's not. I don't actually have one. I actually want to hear what other people listening think our names are. Yeah, I think Baker would be mine, judging from the WhatsApp, SpyHards WhatsApp group,

[01:27:16] because yes, I do work in a bakery, so I've heard Canadian Baker thrown around a lot, but Canadian Baker's too long a call sign, so just Baker. So Baker. And Baker works also on phonetic radio, so that's fine. Yeah, okay. Baker's pretty good. Can we figure out mine? And every time we take off, I go, shake and bake. Taking it back to Talladega Nights. Oh, God. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Yours? God, I don't know.

[01:27:46] I don't know. It's when you're asked to think about your own personality, you tend to fail. I know. It's rough. Yeah, okay. I got it. I'll go. All right, I'll go. Visionary. Perfect. Perfect. I'm going to get it embroidered on a jacket right now. I think that that definitely works. It does. That's a good tieback. Thank you, Cam. Well done. Well done.

[01:28:15] Do you think the daughter is going to get sent to a Gulag? We all agreed yes. Last question. Big Macs. Yeah. What's your take? Never had one. What? Right? Yeah, I've never had a Big Mac. Why? I don't know. I always just got the... I actually really like the regular McDonald's hamburgers, and I like the chicken. So I would always get the chicken.

[01:28:44] But the Big Mac has two burgers in it. Yeah, just never tried it. I mean, I really like the regular hamburgers. I just never upgraded. Sorry. Okay. I mean, there's a bit of time between reading, recording this, and putting the episode out. I think you should go have a Big Mac. I don't want to go. And if you do, here's a picture of Cam eating a Big Mac. He didn't go, everyone. File photo not found. You've got to put that up. No, I'm going to do an AI image of you eating a Big Mac now. Sure.

[01:29:14] But like Will Smith eating spaghetti, but like the first year, where it's like half morphed into your face. Right, right. Yeah, go for it. Yep, fine. Go for it. Is it just like a choice now at some point? You just decided that you're never going to have one? I mean, I haven't had McDonald's now in probably like, maybe like six or seven years. I don't run to it either. Like it's mostly airport food for me, but. Yeah, I just, I stopped eating anything to do with McDonald's long ago or most fast foods.

[01:29:44] But yeah, I don't know. It was just my general order would be, I would get the, the crispy chicken, I guess, or whatever they call it. Yeah, probably. With one regular hamburger and fries. that you are what they call a basic bitch. And I'm loving it. Da da da da da. We got it. Any, any other notes from you, Cam? I don't think there was anything major. I did appreciate like, they had a split diopter shot in this movie again. Yeah. The visual imagination that these guys,

[01:30:15] they were tireless. Tireless in like, trying to enliven this visually. And I appreciated it. It just felt weird in the sense of like, they chose that scene of all scenes to put the split diopter shot in. It wasn't like it was a particularly impactful moment. It was just like, oh, it's just a conversation between two Russian dudes. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate the effort, but oh, another, actually, I will say maybe my final note, a moment I really liked visually also was the road trip sequence of them driving through Russia where it's just the vehicle driving

[01:30:44] and then they keep switching out the backdrops to be different locations in Russia. Again, you know, it's, they're coming up with an idea. Does it look a little screensaver-ish? Sure. Sure. But I appreciated it. Yeah. I'll take it. I'll take it. But it is time for... The Knock List. The Knock List. The Knock List. The Knock List. The Knock List. The Knock List. You need to pick a side. The Knock List.

[01:31:13] The Need to See Official Classics of Spy Hearts. Is this making the list of the Need to See Spy Movies? Well, you're about to find out. Cam? No. No. No, I think when we're talking about all-time spy movies, this is, I think though, you know, I'm going to give this one like kind of the participation award to a degree. It's not a great award. I think this is the best streaming spy action film we've watched on the show. I think. Because I think we said like Gray Man was the best one.

[01:31:42] Which is pretty scary. Yeah, this is better than Gray Man. It is. So I think... I think this actually had a chance of being something memorable. Yeah. Had Ryan Reynolds not done what he did. This is the only one that kind of oozes into the positive for me. Like into that kind of like three star it's an enjoyable night to just sit and watch something brainless. I would actually kind of recommend this one. Which I would not do for

[01:32:11] I think anything else we've covered on this show that's like a streaming spy film that's, you know, kind of these like mainstream action films. There's been smaller films I would recommend. I agree. Yeah. I agree. I think that's fair. So, but in terms of a knock list, no. No. I don't... This movie will not have much of a life. I think, you know, check in a year from now and see how many people are talking about or watching Mayday. That's the million dollar question. And as for our first million dollar question the Noclus cab said no I will also say no.

[01:32:40] It puts the no in Noclus. It doesn't put the no in Noclus. It was fine. I think it could have been better and that's what frustrated me more. Yeah. That's the thing. It's like you watch any of these streaming films and you're like this could have been better. This is one where I go if they'd just I don't know changed up that lead character or found a different angle on this just a little bit they may have had something that was a legit like sleeper hit for them that people would talk about. Yeah. Like word of mouth built up and like oh you should have to check out Mayday. This will

[01:33:11] by the time this comes out I think unfortunately Mayday will have already fallen off the face of the earth. Yeah. And when I think of a movie like you know Midnight Run which this movie owes a lot to you know that movie did well in theaters but I think well enough but it was like a movie that really took off at home and people fell in love with that Charles Groh and Robert De Niro pairing. This is the kind of movie that had it been a little better might have had that home effect of people and culture is different now

[01:33:41] people don't go back to movies the same way they did back then but like I think like with these filmmakers the opportunity was there the potential might have been there this one doesn't connect fully though. Yeah. I agree. There you go folks that was our review of Apple's new spy movie Mayday. Yes. Yes. With your favorite movie star Ryan Reynolds of course. I just can't get enough of that quirky quippy dork. Are you

[01:34:09] going to be entertained though if he pops up in Avengers Doomsday or Secret Wars? I think because I know what Deadpool is. Yeah. Like that makes sense in the universe of Deadpool. I just wish he wasn't Deadpool and everything else. Right. Like you know they're going to pay off that Thor holding him scene from Wolverine and Deadpool. Right. Sure. Yeah. And I think you probably need someone to undercut the comedy a little bit or undercut the tension in Doomsday because it's going to be a lot of very serious Tony Stark talking or whatever he is. Yes. Yes. A lot of

[01:34:40] growling under an iron mask. Yeah. And weird accents that I'm not quite sure where they come from. They sound like Transylvania. Yeah. I'm not to have a Doomsday moment but I just is that like when you have like a heart palpitation or something like Oh I'm having a Doomsday moment. Latvian accent activating. Mr. Banner I've come to collect you. I'm the count now. I've become the count. One two three Doom

[01:35:12] No it's like I'm trying to imagine how this movie Doomsday doesn't end in a way that's basically a replica of Infinity War. It has to be they lose because the story of Doomsday and what it's becoming in the sequel next year is that they lose. Right. So it's like okay so we're doing the exact same thing again. Yeah. I imagine they kill a few more characters and they probably don't unkill them in the sequel which I would hope is the case. Yeah. Or maybe it just

[01:35:41] ends with like the merging of the different like not timelines but realities and so certain characters get knocked out new ones are brought in for the Secret Wars maybe. I don't know. Sure. I my interest is moderate but the film I'm looking forward to that day is Doom Part 3. Yeah. Yeah. I mean on the Barbenheimer scale I watched Barbie first and then Oppenheimer because I wanted like no I did the other way around sorry. I watched Oppenheimer first then Barbie

[01:36:10] because I wanted a palate cleanser. Right. I'm going to do this in quality stakes in my head. It's Doomsday during the day and Dune in the evening. I think that's the wise call. I'm not a huge Dune guy and Doomsday looks pretty well it looks like frankly looks like an AI mess when you watch like the trailers for it. So I got to be honest I'm really not invested in either film particularly even though I'll see them both for sure. Yeah. But yeah that was Mayday and that was your

[01:36:40] Doomsday moment everyone don't worry the heart palpitations will pass. They will they will and then we'll have the whatever the secret war version of that is. But speaking of change speaking of things anew you may have noticed on our social media on the graphic of the episode you're listening to right now that we've had a little bit of a look change. we wanted a way of streamlining how we create the artwork and the means by which we were doing it before

[01:37:09] just wasn't feasible moving forward with the amount of things that we're putting out from YouTube to social media all that sort of stuff. So we just wanted to sort of revamp the brand a little bit so we're working with a new designer there's details of his work in the show notes below Mike Overton great guy he's really been helping us find our theme find our look for the sixth year of SpyHards moving forward so Mike I want to thank you for what you've done so far I hope everyone's enjoying the new look at home and also I just want to take an aside to thank

[01:37:39] our designer who has been looking after this show for the last six years Hannah Hughes a big part of this show's history she designed the original artwork she designed the original look of the show she has been there since day one every single week custom making artworks for these shows now that won't be the same way going forward it will look slightly different but you know that was a lot of work that I think went unsung for a very long time so I just want to thank Hannah for all of her hard work

[01:38:08] so much iconic imagery for this podcast created over the years and one of the joys I would have every week would be to see how Hannah would interpret the latest movie we're going to be tackling because the thing is like I want you to just at home think about this for a second okay you're you know a graphic artist and we say we need some art for Goldfinger you're like okay got it like we know Goldfinger but Hannah was wrangling with some spy a lot of spy hard specials over the years where it's like we need art for

[01:38:38] tonight we raid Calais tonight we are today we tonight today we need art for like you know the lone wolf spy hunt you know these are not obvious things and so she really bent over backwards to create incredible stuff for us and moving forward the art will change but it's going to be recognizably spy hearts and so the fingerprint I think visually of what spy hearts has always been and will continue to be really is grounded in that work Hannah did

[01:39:07] right from the start and agreeing to that point and an important part of this change was keeping some of what came before if you look at the actual logo of the show it's still our silhouettes that Hannah designed all the way back in 2020 when this was a lockdown podcast with two guys across the world just wanted to hang out with each other there are elements that we have kept and there are touches if you really look that we have kept from that as a way of paying homage to all the work she's done and not only has she created the artworks but she's created the visual language

[01:39:37] for the show and also like a lot of the actual verbal language have come through things that we've discussed and created with her so we owe her a debt of gratitude so if you could all join me at home listening just if you want to do a little golf clap I appreciate it or just a little thank you in your head to Hannah we thank her she's the best yeah one of the well frankly the third creative voice of spy hearts and the one who doesn't get recognized yeah we make jokes about like some of the other people being on the show being like the third man or whatever Hannah was

[01:40:07] always in our corner from day one and we won't forget that yes 100% but all things must pass we move on Cam what's next week's mission so we just tackled a movie that's brand new it's time to flashback Scott and we are going back to the paranoid 1970s to have a look at the 1972 thriller the ground star conspiracy starring George Pappard and

[01:40:37] shot in my neck of the woods for once it's not set in London at least you won't have to get the old Rubertania wrong this time eh that's right I can get other things wrong indeed indeed well your mission folks should you choose to accept it is to join us next week as we take a look at the ground star conspiracy is it a conspiracy that will enjoy well we'll find out and we should note actually this movie is available on YouTube so you don't have to track it down anywhere and there's a version on YouTube that's

[01:41:07] a little bit shorter and it cuts off the credits at the front and the back but the entire film is there and I think that's the better quality one that's the one let's see how we get on thank you all for joining

[01:41:37] us here on spy hearts thank you for the last six hearts where you can get a plethora that's a word I like to say

[01:42:06] of bonus content and also you'll sleep better oh wow a sleep aid is that what we are now no no no sleep in pay money towards them to help them with their art

[01:42:36] if you want to do that if you want to be smug to your friends yeah you can trilogy leading into last stand and we've also

[01:43:06] done we haven't done yet but I think we're going to do days of future past at some point as well I'd like to do that because that that's one of my favorites yeah and I honestly like to almost do X-Men Origins Wolverine sure just for the revisit and just to see what Deadpool also looked like at one point exactly like go back to that origin story yeah so if the bonus episodes sing to you there's over a hundred bonus episodes on there or if the smugness sings to you either way come to sing a song

[01:43:51] but until next week cam I forgot to mention I was very disappointed in Mayday why because frankly it was not the Grace Jones biopic I thought I