In this episode of the Never Seen It podcast, we revisit the 2012 film Chronicle and its bold reimagining of the superhero genre through a found-footage lens. They explore themes of teenage power, identity, and the allure—and danger—of unchecked abilities. Along the way, we examine Josh Trank’s directorial rise, the film’s mysterious alien crystal, and how its originality set it apart amid superhero fatigue. While noting its flaws, the hosts reflect on why Chronicle still resonates in today’s cinematic landscape.
In this episode of the Never Seen It podcast, the hosts delve into the 2012 film Chronicle, exploring its unique take on the superhero genre through a found footage lens. They discuss character development, the impact of power on individuals, and the film's unexpected success. The conversation also touches on the director Josh Trank's journey and the mysterious alien object that grants the characters their powers, drawing parallels to classic superhero tropes and the evolution of cinematic storytelling. In this conversation, the hosts delve into the film 'Chronicle,' exploring its themes of teenage power, identity, and the unique found footage style. They discuss the mysterious alien crystal that grants powers, the grounded connections between characters, and the evolution of superhero storytelling. The conversation also touches on the concept of superhero fatigue, character development, and the film's impact on the genre. Through their reflections, the hosts highlight the film's flaws while appreciating its originality and relevance in today's cinematic landscape.
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Takeaways
Chapters
00:00Introduction to Chronicle and the Podcast
00:05NEWCHAPTER
01:22Choosing Chronicle: A Unique Superhero Perspective
03:50Chronicle's Timeliness and Cultural Impact
05:06Initial Impressions and Reactions to Chronicle
08:05Character Development and Themes of Power
11:27Josh Trank's Direction and Career Trajectory
15:03Box Office Success and Industry Context
16:37The Possibility of a Sequel and Creative Control
20:48Max Landis and Hollywood Dynamics
23:32The Legacy of Chronicle and Its Director
26:26Character Dynamics and Philosophical Undertones
29:26Found Footage Technique: Pros and Cons
34:37Teenage Tropes and Storytelling
35:46The Mysterious Alien Object and Its Implications
39:08Superhero Mythology and Modern Storytelling
43:43Final Thoughts and Movie Reception
51:19Movie Review and Character Development
53:19Final Thoughts and Ratings
55:02Themes of Identity and Authenticity
58:29The Impact of Cringe Culture
01:02:42Lessons from Teenage Experiences
01:05:04Parental Guidance and Self-Worth
01:06:01The Role of Powers in Teen Life
01:11:13Marketing and Legacy of Found Footage Films
Welcome to the Never Seen It Podcast.
Daily P called The Never Seen It That's worth listening to.
And tonight, we have a Mr. Daily Dares, aka.
Philippino.gio, aka.
Alex Ko with the Bon M coming in hot.
Mr. Donnie Appleseed, a.ka.
Donnie Guzman.
And then me, Mr. Ghost Nerdy 88.
Aka Justin Holden.
And there's me.
Boots Too Big.
I almost forgot my own damn user handle.
Boots Too big, aka.
Adrian Delatore.
And tonight we're discussing.
And by the way, we're also streaming live right now. nobody's watching, but that's okay.
We're streaming anyway, just for the heck of it.
We are discussing the 2012 film Chronicle
Was it an accident, Andrew?
Andrew?
Directed by Josh Trank.
And oh, you got it on the DVD, the DVDVD.
Nice.
You got the DVD.
Three high school students make an incredible discovery
leading to their develop. developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding.
As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage
their lives start to spin out of control,
and their darker sides begin to take over.
So, Justin, you chose this movie.
Tell us, why did you choose this movie?
I chose this movie because in the heat
of all the superhero stuff coming out, like
Superman and Fantastic Four and things like that, I feel like
these, most of these actors that were in these movies have
been in superhero movies, like Michael B. Jordan
and even our main actor, which his name, his name escapes
me right now, but the actor Dean Dean?
Yeah, he's in like other super superhero
films and sci-fi adventures and things like that.
Dane Dal.
I forgot scene, too..
He was an incredible Spider-Man or the Amazing Spider-Man 2.
What did he playing in that?
The Goblin.
It was the Goblin.
He was the.
Really?
Yes.
You know what?
I didn't see Amazing Spider-Man 2 because I saw the first.
Amazing Spider-Man.
I didn't really care for it, so.
You're like, I'm good.
Yeah, I'm good.
Exactly
Okay, so he was he was, wow, the Willem Dafoe character in that one?
Did he pull it off?
Did he do a good job?
No, I want to hear about this.
I mean, it's
definitely not as memorable of a role.
Willoe?
As Will Defoe.
Will of Doe stole the show.
Somewhat of a podcaster myself.
No.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
But yeah, no, I feel like the Chronicle is
also one of those movies that, although it was relatively
successful in the theater, it also seems like
this one also fell under the radar for some people as well.
I think it's a really good movie that at least
it's been a long time since I last watched it, and I
thought it was like really good for its time during a
point in time where, you know, a lot of found footage movies were
kind of like all the hype and it was still kind of steamrolling Hollywood for a little bit.
It was kind of a unique take on found footage style movies.
So, you know, a superhero take was definitely interesting.
I never got a chance to see it in theaters.
I don't know why.
I felt like I would have went and saw this in 2012 especially
But I watched it on DVD.
I think, I don't even know.
I don't remember like how I ended up watching it, but
I did somehow, some way, and I fell in love with it.
I was like, wow, this is actually really neat movie with
a, you know, kind of a unique storyline.
So that's pretty much my reason for choosing.
I feel like you guys would have got a little kick out of it.
Yeah, you know, I have to say, I was thinking about this
This movie could come out now,
and I actually think it would be a bigger success in 2025 than in 2012.
Because, like you said, it's it's sort of a deconstruction
of the superhero genre, and it's sort of done in a way that's very unique
very original, I think.
And it would be refreshing in 2025.
In a way, this movie was almost ahead of its time, you know,
because we sort of have gone through this phase of superhero
fatigue in the last 10 years, basically.
And now I think we're at a point where
it's of it's starting to creep back up the part popularity of superhero movies.
I think Superman and even the Fantastic Four movie,
which I have not seen, have sort of helped reinvigorate the genre in a way.
Right?
So great choice all around, honestly.
I really enjoyed it.
I'd never seen it before.
I remember seeing the trailer
and I remember thinking, you know, this looks like an interesting movie.
And for whatever reason, I didn't end up watching watching it.
But yeah, I really enjoyed it, but I want to start with you guys.
Who hasn't seen it here, by the way?
So it was me and who else hadn't seen it?
Donnie?
So let's start with with you.
So, yeah, what did you think overall after watching it?
Yeah, I was actually really excited to see it because Justin
actually mentioned it to me a few months ago.
So perfect, but it was on my list to watch.
And so I was glad to see that it was one of the movies that we were going to talk about
But I liked it.
I liked it was just different like you had mentioned.
I didn't even know who directed it.
I was just looking it up.
You You had mentioned his name.
Was it Josh Chen?
Yeah, it was Josh Tree.
Yep.
So he also did Fantastic Four.
I didn't know that in 2015.
That's right.
Speaking of that, yeah, exactly.
The 2015 version we have Michael B. Jordan
in Fantastic Four.
Yeah.
Who is he play in that one?
Is he Johnny Fire or Johnny Storm or what's his name?
Johnny Fire.
Johnny Johnny Fire.
Yeah, I don't even know he plays in that.
Barney Five.
Johnny Johnny Fire is a bootleg version.
So, from what I've
read, not to get too much on a side tangent, but wasn't that movie made because
Sony is required to make a fantastic movie every like five
years or 10 years or eight years or something to keep the IP rights or whatever?
Well, that's a requirement for like all the
licensed out for Marvel.
Anything that's licensed from Marvel, like the X-Men,
Spider-Man, that's why they're like, with the Spider-Man movies, they have to turn out something.
Yeah.
Like Especially the Spider-Man
mainstay, the actual Spider-Man with Peter Parker has to be churn out pretty so often
I think it's every 10 years with Fantastic because it was 2005, the original.
Well, not even the original.
We're not even talking about the 90s version, but whatever.
Yeah. 2005, 2015, with the Michael B.
Jordan Just Trank version in 2025 with
Signor Pedro Pascal, who everybody lives.
The rights have reverted back to Marvel because because because..
That makes sense.
Because Fox bought, or Disney bought Fox.
I don't even remember it.
Is there 2015?
Is that the one with Jessica Alba?
Is that the one that?
No, that was a 2005 version.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I don't think I remember.
There were two of those.
There were many, there was a.
Fantastic Four and then The Rise of the Silver Surfer with the same camera.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
And then the 2015 was Miles Teller, Kate Mara,
Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell.
When did the the second Fantastic Four come out with Jessica Alba?
I don't know.
Let me look that up.
yeah, I mean, they've been making them over and over for
the last 10 years, and it was that weird version in the 90s.
Yeah.
That one was like unreleased, too.
It was unreleased because they just had to make it just to make it just to keep the rights
at that time.
But, you know, we're talking about Chronicle.
Let's talk about Chronicle.
As much as I would like to talk about Vanandas before,
I want to save the time to talk about Chronicle because I really I did really enjoy it, but
Donnie, so you were so what was your perception of it?
Because I saw the trailer.
I saw that it was like a found footage type thing.
What was your perception before watching it?
Like, what'd you think you were getting yourself into with this one?
If I mean, I knew a little bit of what it was about,
but I wasn't sure what to expect.
It was really weird to see Michael B. Jordan that young.
You should see him in the wire.
Yeah.
But it was it was awesome. to, I thought the acting was really good in it.
Like, for the cast being so young, right?
I don't know.
I liked it.
I really, really liked it.
I don't remember it.
I don't remember ever seeing or hearing hearing about it or even knowing that he was releasing the theaters.
This was literally the first time I've heard about it was when Justin had mentioned it to me after we saw
What was that movie we saw?
The vampire movie?
The Siners also featuring Michael B. Jordan.
Yeah.
So we watched Siners and we were talking about Michael B. Jordan, and that's how the topic came up.
And he's like, oh, have you seen him in Chronicles?
And I was like, I've never even heard of that.
But no, I really, I really enjoyed it.
Michael B. Jordan is my favorite actor whose last name is Jordan
Yeah.
Not as big a fan of the basketball player, Michael Jordan.
I mean, Michael Jordan is obviously, you know, a influential goat.
He's the greatest of all time.
Both in his.
Fantastic Four,
you could tell this kid was going to go on to good stuff.
Like his acting in that show, and he was young, too.
He was like 13, 14, I think the time I
like, this was the first time I ever experienced like Michael B.
Jordan was in Chronicle, but the first time I actually
took him very seriously as an actor was when
Creed came around and I was like, I was like, okay, yeah,
this guy, this guy's going to be going places.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I liked him in the Black Panther movie.
My only issue with that was that he was barely in it.
Like, he was the main bad guy in that movie, but he was he wasn't in it as much as I would have liked.
But when I, he's like, I don't know, he has this like aura about him.
Like when when he's on screen, he has this like presence, you know?
And he had it in this movie too, which is I was like so pleasantly surprised to see him.
I was like, oh, okay.
They made the right choice casting Michael B. Jordan
before this movie.
He's not as typecasted as some actors are..
He's pretty much played, like you mentioned, Creed to the Siners.
Like, that's completely different characters.
Yeah, no, definitely.
And he has he has like this charm about him, too, you know?
Like he's he's going to only continue to get bigger and bigger roles.
Yeah, for sure.
He's
he'll be like his generations Denzel or something, I bet.
You know what I mean?
Because Denzel was amazing.
I could see him being like, you know, that level eventually.
But yeah, to answer your question, Alex.
So Rise of the Silver Surver came out in 07.
So
like, two years after.
Josh Trank version came out when?
Well, Josh Trank didn't do another.
Fantastic Four.
That't No,
But that one.
The 2015., yes.
So 25 So that was 2005, 2007, and then 2002.
Yeah.
Okay, so that was like a seven-year period.
Yeah, and the thing, so we can talk about it a little bit, because Josh Trank
directed, obviously, this movie and that one.
And he was kind of he was almost going to be like a rising
star director, but there was a lot of controversy that happened around the making of
Fantastic Four and his career career didn't really take off after that.
But Chronicle is such an original movie.
I'm kind of shocked that he didn't go on a bigger and better things because
this movie was just, I don't know.
It was so good.
It was so fun, you know?
You saw the potential of like what he was trying
to do with a directing style.
And just looking at...
So I remember when this movie came out and I remember the
buzz surrounding it.
They even took it to Comic-Con.
And wow.
I didn't know that that.
I remember.
That's crazy.
It was being touted as
the very first like sort of unique original
superhero genre film that didn't rely on like a pre-existing IP.
And that was like, I do feel like this
was Josh Trank's calling card to be able to get the gig to direct Fantastic Four
because it was shortly after he directed Fantastic Four.
Now, I do believe this showcased this a lot of his potential.
And
for it being his first film, yeah, it had huge potential.
But I also feel like, as would
a lot of these, what do you call it, say,
these grandiose visions for like IP that
are given to like these young directors.
I do feel like he felt
in that trap of like wanting to go
big and have his own vision because they gave him a lot of room to breathe and to try to create.
But then I heard, I can't remember where
I saw it, but I heard that turned into more of a horror film than
actual superhero movie
Yeah, I feel like there was some element to that at the very,
very end of the movie, like the last 15.
Yeah, so
Yeah, Fantastic Four, turned into more of a horror film, like, from what I hear
But this was like definitely genuinely like a..
Chronicle felt a lot like a superhero film, but more in a humanized way.
Like, I think I read your your review on Letterboxd,
Adrian, and you had like kind of like talked about like one of the downfalls was like, you wish they had like
on like exploration of his powers.
And I do feel like they did explore it.
I think they explored it a lot, in my opinion, but
I think they also really delved
into the humanizing situation of it all.
And I think that's what
he was trying to accomplish, because at that time,
Marvel and DC, they were putting out these movies that were
focusing on their superpowers or sort of focusing on their lore.
But they didn't
really...
I think that was one of the big criticism is that they
didn't focus on, especially like a character like Thor.
They didn't really humanize them as much as they could have in the first two films, which
they finally did with Ragnarok, you know?
Yeah.
They humanized them a bit, and a lot more, actually,
which was what they needed to going into, like endgame
and Infinity War
You know?
Yeah.
And it's interesting you bring that up because Thor so Thor came out 2011,
Captain America, the first Avenger, 2011.
The Avengers, 2012.
So this came out the same year
as the Avengers.
So I find that interesting.
I'm going to look it up, but I'm wondering, yeah, I'm what like the box office numbers were.
But you know what?
That's probably why it wasn't, like, it probably came out the wrong time.
It was probably overshadowed by it.
Yeah, probably.
A little bit.
But this movie getting into the budget stuff,
I believe was they had like 122 million dollars to work with to make this movie.
And then they ended up making $126 million worldwide.
Wow
That's pretty good.
So it's pretty good for, you know, a relatively unknown movie.
And I honestly, it seems like.
My relatively unknown director, mind you.
Yeah.
And that just kind of goes to show that like they were trying
to do something different unique in the midst of all this
stuff going on.
I think they just barely caught that peak moment
where they were able to get away just barely
to make something like this and be successful with it as well.
But like going back to what you guys were saying, like, you know, you know, you wish
there was like an expanded thing and I guess there
were talks of there being a sequel.
Unfortunately, they had a lot of, from what I was reading, they
had a lot of pushback from Fox, 20th
century Fox, and a lot of like different
writers tried to come onto the project and then ultimately
they just kind of canned the whole idea.
And I also, I think director Josh Trent didn't really want to
do a sequel anyway, unless it was like,
you know, his way, pretty much my way or the highway type of deal.
Yeah, but he didn't have the kind of capital to make
that kind of move, you know, like he wasn't a Spielberg.
He wasn't a, you know,
directors who are big, like Spielberg's Scorsese,
who, you know, mind you, like, those guys can they're big swinging dicks.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
This guy only had like one or two movies under his belt and he kind of shot himself in the foot.
I would have just gone with it.
Just make a sequel, man.
Get that bag, make the movie, make it happen.
Who knows, you know, but it is what it is.
But that is interesting.
I was just reading about that.
There was going to be almost was going to be a chronicle 2.
And the fire department said, we're
not doing that because we have to go stop a fire right now.
Can you guys hear that?
Sorry.
I can hear it.
I was wondering where it's come from.
They're like, no, we don't we want original IP that
firefighters are the biggest cinephiles.
Low key, we don't even realize that, I think.
No, but seriously.
We're coming in for our backdraft episode.
Oh my God, yes.
We should totally do that.
Well, that's a shame, you know?
That's a shame because normally in the past when I'm
a movie is successful and the original director's like, no, I don't want to do it.
She was like, well, fuck you, we're going to hire somebody else.
And that's what they do, you know what I mean?
Sometimes it's not even that situation, but like Alien was
successful and then you had and then they had like, we'll hire Jamesius Cameron to do aliens.
You know what I mean?
Like, why did they just hire?
I' another director to do this one.
I don't know.
Well, I wonder if Josharek owns the rights to cross Chronicle.
You know, that might be the case.
You know, because it's one of those things where like,
yeah, they could have.
You know, they could have hired a new writer, a new
director, but if he owns the IP, which he probably did.
I would I would venture to say that's probably another
reason why they didn't do like try to force that, you know?
Yeah
Well, according to Wikipedia, he
been, he'd conceived the idea in high school and spent the following years generating.
Well, okay.
So, yeah.
So this was his baby, basically.
Mm.
And Kind of cool.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Because if it wasn't his IP, then the studio could say, well, you're
you're just a hired gun.
So we'll just hire another gun to take on our IP.
But that makes sense.
That's super like admirable, you know?
Like if you think about it, like for him to like write and direct and
you know, put out his, his first movie, well, well, I was looking at his letterbox.
There were a few, like, it probably was like small, like short films or something like that.
Or student films.
But
you know, for him to be able to like. get the
green light for something his..
But then again, here's the thing.
I feel like there was also this sort of pushback.
Like Justin was saying, like he is catching the peak of
Infinity War,
Avengers Infinity War, you know, they're like, so
there's this start of like, well, we want to have original IP now.
So that kind of might have made sense to, because I remember I
was talking to somebody at Comic-Con and
there was they were saying that I was telling them that at a time,
you know, during that era, studio execs
were going into comic book stores and just every
Wednesday buying all the new issues and trying
to find new IP for them to turn into movies.
That's so interesting
And like, yeah, we're talent scouting, but
like doing it at the story level.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah.
I was, I think it was when we were promoting one
of our shows, like Justin, I think Justin, you were with us.
Maybe we went to like that one shop.
It that really cool shop called Secret
Store.
It was.
So it was like Secret Lair or something like that.
Secret Lair, yeah.
Yeah.
And I was talking to the guy.
He's like, yeah, they're the studio execs come in because they're like right near the studios.
and they'll just go in there and buy up all the issues.
Number one issues are runs of like new IP that they've never heard of.
You could also just like hire comic book writers to like up with ideas and shit.
Right Exactly.
Exactly.
Just like thought.
Yeah.
I was, you know, they're lazy.
It's just laz.
Yeah.
What were you going to say, Donny?
Yeah.
I was just reading about the director.
I I guess that whole thing with Fantastic Four really messed him up
because he was he planned to do a Star
Wars project and then he ended up getting blacklisted from
a lot of projects after the whole Fantastic Four he went.
That's the thing about Hollywood, man.
Hollywood give it and Hollywood take it away.
Yeah, yeah, that was really fast, right?
Like super good with chronicle, and then..
Next movie plopped.
Yeah, I think the last movie you have to play the game.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I think the last movie he did I was reading Letterbox was Capone.
Yeah.
And that was in 2020.
Which was.
I don't think that movie did very well, did it?
Yeah, it's The Letterbox rating is a 2.3.
Oof.
I think that was like his attempt to come back, right?
Yeah, that's the Tom Hardy movie.
Yeah.
The Tom Hardy movie.
Yeah, yeah.
Never saw it.
And he how do you, how do you mess that?
Tom Hardy Capone's, like, how do you mess that up?
It's Tom Hardy.
He probably just.
That probably followed him like the whole backlash from Fantastic Four.
I bet you didn't get a, you know.
Yeah, I don't know.
I didn't broadcast, though, Matt.
Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Kevin McLaughlin,
like, yeah, how you, how do you mess that up?
Well, maybe you didn't mess it up.
It happens all the time.
Well, okay.
I guess there were some issues with, I
don't know, because it seems like some things came out.
I'm not exactly sure of the timeline, so correct me if I'm wrong if you know better.
But I guess Max Landis or someone, whatever
got into some trouble for like sexual
assault charges and things like that.
Yeah, there was a point in time where they got in hell of trouble.
So maybe like guilty by association, maybe.
It's possible.
I mean, Max Land is, yeah, he.
I don't want to get into it too much, but he did get into some,
yes, some hot water for certain behaviors, I guess.
And it's interesting because I think, I don't know if it's Max Landis or I don't know if it's.
Isn't it his dad who's like a famous director?
John Landis?
Isn't that his.
That's his dad, I believe.
Something like that, yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, yeah.
So.
it's always interesting to me.
I don't want to get on a fucking, I don't, what do you call it?
My high horse about this, but it's always like the people
who have like the foot in the door because they're related to the right people
who always like someh end up screwing it up the most.
It's like you had your foot in the door and you still
s the bed.
Excuse my French.
So I don't know, man.
It's a shame..
It's a shame is what it is because they could have made great movies together after this and
and now we'll never know..
Now we'll never know, unfortunately.
But anyways, not to get too much into all that, but yeah.
And I think that is his father.
John Landis is Max Landis's father.
And you guys know who John Landis is.
I mean, he's done everything from, well, I'm saying it like I know,
but I'm trying to look at Wikipedia in an Animal House, the Kentucky F movie
Blues Brothers.
Holy shit, an American Werewolf in London.
Trading places.
I love that movie.
Isn't he also like like the interviewer
for George Lucas at the beginning of
my Star Wars VHS?
I don't know.
That's a very esoteric reference.
I's Because like at the beginning of Star Wars
and New Hope, I believe he comes on and
talks a little bit about like Star Wars with George Lucas
in like a pre-movie, like video type of thing.
Yeah.
And then the movie starts playing.
But that's only on like VHS copies.
Yeah.
I love that you were able to bring that bit of information to the table because I I never would have known that.
That's amazing.
Thank you for that.
I wonder if you could find that on YouTube if they have that video on YouTube
I'll do some research with them.
We'll have a researching team. look into it.
Okay, so yeah, what else?
I really want.
So the other thing I want to talk about.
I liked that to borrow a term from wrestling, even though I don't watch wrestling.
To borrow a term, I like that the main character, Andrew
turns heel in the end.
Like, because this movie starts, like, they do what
teenage boys would do if they had powers.
They pull pranks, they fuck with people, they do
amazing talent show.
And then, but poor Andrew, he's constantly getting shit on in throughout this movie.
His dad is abusive.
His mom is dying and then does die.
And then like he gets bullied at school.
of course he was going to turn heel.
Like, are you kidding me?
Like, you give a kid like that powers?
Yeah, he's going to become the bad guy.
What did you guys think about that?
I thought that was such a good turn.
Just story-wise.
It's a typical superhero trope of like,
with great power comes great responsibility, right?
It's basically a reverse Spider-Man
you know?
So he basically gets all these powers.
That's a good point.
That's the interesting thing.
They have like each other characters.
It's a goblin story.
He went Goblin mode?
Yeah.
He went That's what he did.
No, so basically
he, like, all three of the characters have that choice, right?
They all make that choice.
You know, you see, what's his name?
Matt, the cousin?
Yeah, yeah, Matt played by.
He chooses to like, he chooses to go,
like, I want us to be responsible.
I, like, wanted to do the right thing.
Even they even talk about how he used to want to be like, I don't know, like some
protector, like, policeman sort of type thing.
Yeah, he said he wanted to be like an altruist.
He wanted like something along the lines of a cup.
So he wanted to be a protector more than anything.
That was my favorite aspect about his character.
He was a pseudo
budding philosopher, you know?
Yeah.
And then Michael B. Jordan's character was like this kid
who was, he just wanted, like, to enjoy these powers
and utilize him for fun, but also,
like, he didn't really have any bad intentions.
He was like the middle guy.
He was in the middle ground whereas like, Matt was the
altruist and you could already see that, like, Andrew, is that his name?
Andrew?
Yeah.
He was...
Like, already. the seeds were planted
on his..
I even used that term in my notes.
Heel turn.
Even from the very beginning of the movie, the seat is fancy.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
It's written well.
Even.
He was talking about like with Michael B.
Jordan's character, like how how they were similar in a sense that they have like
deteriorating relationships with their parents.
Similar situations, but different.
was that when Michael B Jordan's character was saying in
the car in that scene in the car early on, that monologue.
He was talking about his parents.
Okay.
I was I was thinking about that.
So, and then like that whole thing, I saw that.
And you know what was interesting to me was like,
the ending almost goes full
on Akira, you know?
Tetsu versus T..
I need to watch that movie now.
I own it.
It's.
We're going to watch the show.
And like to touch on what Alex was
saying, well, if you look at like interviews and things like that,
Josh Trink has has mentioned that he's used
Akira as a very heavy reference and you can see it totally in this movie, big time.
Adrian doesn't know what we're talking about, but Adrian, you need to watch that movie because it's probably one of the greatest
of all time.
And that's the thing.
I have it on disc.
Remember those?
Disks?
I have it on disc I have yet to watch it.
And I'm, yeah, I'm going to watch it this weekend.
Let's do a show on that.
Let's do an episode on.
Let's do it.
Yeah, for sure.
Let's do a show on every movie.
This is our go now.
We're going to watch every movie ever made.
Akira is the perfect, like. companion
movie for Chronicle, I believe.
Well, I should.
There's it.
Okay.
Okay.
So I see what you're putting down.
Before we watch, before we do ourira
show, we'll do the Arnold Scott Pilgrim
show, and then we'll we'll do like aira.
Where is Arnold?
Where'd he go?
He's on vacation.
He's at Arnold.
He's having a one-man party
Hey, it all made sense in my brain.
I keep laughing at that clip every time I rewatch it.
What does it mean?
Good stuff.
But so I want to say, you know talking about the movie, obviously.
That's what we're here for.
What did you guys think about, like, the the
found footage angle was great.
It's fine.
Like, it worked.
But
I think if you took that aspect out of
it, this movie could have just worked normally.
Or do you think, or do you guys think it would have changed the story somehow?
I think it would be.
Because I think it would have worked.
I think it would have worked with. without it.
But what do you guys think?
I personally like the way that it was done.
I don't know.
It It felt more real.
Obviously
with all the stuff that was going on, you knew that it was not real,
but it felt it felt like you were actually like just one
of the boys like hanging out with them and you're discovering the powers with them.
Okay.
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
And the only reason I bring it up is because it felt like they were
really trying to justify it in the end when they were fighting in in the air and
they had all the camera phones like floating around them.
I was like, now you're fighting reasons to have to have the camera angles, but sorry, Alex.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, no, I think I think it worked all the way up until the end
Because like, for me, like, when you get to the ending and
he's in Tibet and he's like, Yeah.
So, somewhat along the line.
Yeah.
They had the line to have somebody.
Yeah.
Like, I feel somewhere along the line, somebody had to gather
all this footage.age and piece it together upon that hours of footage.
Yeah.
They should have that's how they got their footage, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, even then.
Yeah.
Even then, it was kind of like, like, Adrian
I was saying, there's hours, hours upon hours of footage that they would have
to like sift through in order to piece this.
And that's one thing that like really. really took me away from the, like believing the
I mean although it was at the very end, it and it worked until they did that.
I take it back, though, because when you think about people on
the internet, right, you think about people, there are people
that will dedicate hundreds of hours to something like
that because this is going to make a compilation on YouTube of
like every time John Ham says, what?
In the show of Mad Men, they're going to do a super cut of every sick and footage of
people with superpowers.
So I take it.
I guess, I guess.
I mean, they did a good job of building it with all the, you know, with the sound footage style.
I would have liked to have seen more of Matt's girlfriend character,
like filming stuff from her angle. and you could have
justified it more just with her like being in peril and also filming and
almost fucking dying.
I she almost does die when they when he.
Were they in Seattle, by the way?
Does he take him to the Space Needle?
Yeah..
Yeah, in Seattle..
Yeah, I was wondering about that.
I love that scene, by the way.
That was so good.
Like, that, that felt super immersive when he
was like flying him up to the roof of the space.
Immersive than that dumb scene in that final destination movie that came out the other day.
Oh, my God.
Were we talking about that on here?
I liked it.
Anyway..
Going back to like the whole POV stuff.
You're not allowed to like things I don't like, sorry, stupid.
Yeah, yeah, you fuck you, bitch.
Anyway, um
No, going back to, like the camera POVs and stuff.
All right, all, I'm going to admit, like, it's been a while since I
watched this movie, and, like, even to this day, even from the first
time I watched the movie, the scene where he's at the space needle
and he's flying and he's like, well, instead of like
throwing all of you off of the hundredth floor of this place, I'm
going to steal all your phones and recording devices and
put them around me.
Yeah, like I'm some fucking influencer.
I thought that was cool. hack socials.
I'm not going to lie.
That was corny for me.
Even back then was corny.
It was corny.
So I was say.
But what does it tell you that that's like, that's the only, to me
is the only bad thing about this movie.
Yeah.
That's it.
I think it could have gone bad, like the way they shot that stuff.
Yeah.
As old as it was, it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't as corny as I expected it to.
Yeah.
Well, there are points in time where the film
definitely feels like it's like about to crest
that like cringe portion, but then it like it
redeems itself in it itself with like really cool shit that it happens afterwards.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with Justin.
There's the parts that like that really felt cringe, like almost cringe.
Like, a lot of the buildup, right?
It seems so stereotypicallyical teenage drama
film, right?
Like, you have the stereotypical outsider kid
in Andrew, you have the kind of like cool kid shock, right?
And then you have the like the popular kid who's
like going to be like valedictorian kid, right?
And they somehow all, because they're all in
this like traumatic experienced together, they bond
And that just feels so like tropey to me, you know, like It definitely is teenage.
It was predictable, even though as different as it was, I would say it was still predictable.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you can rehash those sorts of tropes
and artypes and still tell an original story, which is what I think this movie did.
But I have to ask you about because I've been Oh, go ahead, go ahead.
But like I, I was saying that like what Justin says
it somehow is able to escape
that sort of, like, even though it feels like it's going to go cringe,
they're able to redeem itself by a like actually telling a good story.
Like, you're you're willing to forgive.
It's like that it's that kind of version of like suspending your disbelief, right?
Like,
it almost pushes you to like disbelieving
it, but then they are able to reel you into like this sort of like, okay, disbelief,
like, okay, I could disbelieve it for now, you know?
Right.
One thing I wanted to really talk about, I
saved myself from searching this because I wanted to discuss it with you guys.
What are your theories
on the mysterious alien
object thing, if it even is alien, that gives them their powers?
What are the running, are the leading theories on that?
I really have to know.
Justin, you're shaking your head.
I feel like you already probably have read about this at some point right now.
No, I'm actually, I have not read anything about it because I kind of wanted to discuss it too.
Well, good.
Honestly, I feel like it draws inspiration from
like Superman, obviously.
Um, Like a Kryptonite type deal.
But it's weird because if you look, if you really pay attention
to like what was happening in that moment, it's like
it had these like little strands of like,
like, you know, blood vessel type, you know, veiny things that were actually moving.
Like they got close to it and it started like moving,
like pulling back to reveal more of the crystal.
And
then they all ended up developing telekinesis after that.
So I feel I feel like it is more
or less like a meteorite or something that that like hit the Earth
and it was this alien crystal type of thing,
which gave them the powers that they had.
However, it was something that obviously was
being covered up by, like, government in some shape or form.
I appreciate that they didn't
explain it, though.
Yeah.
I appreciate that they left it to your imagination on what it could be.
I appreciate that they didn't and have, they didn't go to the ET
route where the government has to get involved, and now you're on bikes running away
from government officials, the walkie-talkies that are later turned into
rifles or excuse me, rifles turned into walkie-talkies, but that's a whole other thing.
They did that, by the way, the 18 movie, they replaced the rifles with walkie-ties.
Did you guys know about that?
Is that widely known?
Yeah.
I can't believe they did that.
Like, it was 1982.
Like, Cops are going to have guns.
Oh, no, cops with guns.
But anyway, I did.
It's kids movies, God damn it.
Yeah.
We can't have kids
seen guns on the screen
from a very old movie that they'll I never even seen because kids these days they't watch movies.
They watch Mr. Beeast.
Were they holding the walking talkies like this?
Talking into them?
Come in.
Breaker, breaker.
Breaker.
Hey, every kid should watch that movie, though.
My son loved it.
Yeah.
I want to watch.
I just rewatch E.T. again.
Yeah.
What was it?
I was also
I was going to say, like, how do you, because I know the posing
the question was for everybody, but I also wanted to double up
on that and say, what do you guys think about like not
only like that crystal thing but what do you guys
think about when they revisit it and then they're like, yeah, I could still kind of feel it.
like I could still feel it under us.
I like that they had
this sort of grounded aspect of they could feel
each other and using their powers and the nose bleed and all that.
They didn't explain it.
They just showed it.
And you know, as a viewer, you're like, oh, that's
because of their powers, that's because of this mysterious alien object
There's a certain connection.
There's like a, I don't know, a
sub- atomic quantum loop
connection that they have with this, whatever it is that gave them their powers.
But they didn't, again, I appreciate that they didn't explain it.
Yeah.
I thought that aspect was really cool because they were connected still, you know?
I like that.
I kind of feel like it's the early precursor
to a lot of how like current day superhero
movies are like, well, we don't have to.
It's kind of unnecessary to do the origin story, right?
Yes.
You know what I mean?
Because like a lot, that's what they did with Fantastic Four.
In Fantastic Four, they didn't really retild the.
They slightly touched on it, but it was never really like this like heavy-handed
where almost the whole movie was about like the origin.
Same thing with Superman.
You like
you kind of expect that to happen, but they never do.
It just like throws you right into the action of you.
Because like it's these things.
It's a thing.
It's like trusting the
viewer to understand
that the origin is not necessary to
understand telling us a good story.
Like you could give them bits and pieces that like
fill in the details, but only because they help fill in the details
Like, I don't care that they got superpowers.
That's all that matters to me.
You know, that's all that matters to the story.
Like, it's cool.
They say for like interpretation, right?
It's like, it's good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean it helps helps the viewer be able to
expand the world on their own.
And I think that's
much more, there's much more value to that
than to like tell the story for like 45
minutes of like how, what happens and all that sort sort of stuff.
And they didn't do the other thing that origin stories
will often do, where it's like them making the suit and
the cape and the cow and suiting up and booting up and going on to the world in their their new form.
Like, no, they didn't do that.
They just, they stayed as teenagers.
Batman, the Christopher Nolan stuff.
And I thought that was kind of
unnecessary, really.
I know what Batman's about..
You know?
You don't know.
Powers, they still remained teenagers and they still had teenager problems.
His dad kept beating him up.
Obviously, he fought back this time and it was very satisfying, by the way, to see him kick his dad's ass
but he still has that and his
mom was still a problem with her death,
with her dying and then eventually actually dying.
Sorry, Justin, what were you going to say?
No, I was going to say, Andrew ends up having
a suit of some sort, and it's the hospital gown, which
which is also like
another resemblance of Akira as well.
Hold on.
The firef.
The first year's actually the fireman's..
It was the fireman.fight.
You're right.
But he was only using that as a cover for robbery.
I don't think was necessarily his.
When he did, I was like, what the heck heck is he doing?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I get that.
But I do feel like
that's in a way, his first time suiting
up because he's hiding his, he's trying to hide his identity.
And that's kind of like the whole thing with like superhero costumes, right?
They are trying to protect their identity
from people knowing who they really are.
Unfortunately
when he goes to try to mug those guys that are like, they understand that.
It's like, hold on, is that Andrew?
No.
The mask has backpack.
And he's wearing his backpack still.
Yeah. front of his backpack.
Exactly.
Was it just m or do you guys see a lot of like parallels with like stranger things?
Going back to that
that, you know, that thing that they found?
The bleeding nose, find a weird object?
I don't know.
For me, it reminded me a lot of stranger Things.
I could see that.
Obviously I see that kids in Stranger Things are a lot younger in the first season.
Now they're like full grown adults, but
There's They're in their 40s now.
Yeah.
Wait, didn't Stranger Things come out in 2014, the first season?
Or I crazy?
Yes, I don't know how old it was.
Well, the show is.
Or is.
Yeah.
Maybe it was more recent, but
yeah, I could see them taking it inspiration from this movie.
I could see this movie's inspiration from other things too, Mindy.
Like, not just, obviously, I haven't seen Akira, but like they,
like you said, the whole mysterious alien cave thing, that was very reminiscent of like
the Fortress of Solitude and Superman and stuff.
And here's the thing, though.
Like, I think like we've talked a lot in
the the world of cinema, there's
the conversation about superhero fatigue.
But I don't think it's really
superhero fatigue per se.
Super superhero cinema fatigue, right?
Yeah.
And it's not even their fault, that genre's fault.
It's more so like people just writing bad movies.
You know?
They''re not writing great movies.
And that's why everybody's getting tired of it
Overall, superhero fatigue doesn't exist.
It's. superheroes are a story.
They're a mythology, similar to like the
Roman and the Greek gods, you know, like, just
like the Bible, you know, there's these there's these characters that with like these super powers
doing amazing things, right, and they have their trials
and their tribulations.
But it's just like, it's Superman is like
the modern day, like Zeus, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's all it is.
And so like, how do you, we can't get tired.
I't I'm not tired of superheroes.
I'm tired of bad movies being made for.
I was just going to say that out of these characters.
Yeah, I was just going to say that.
I agree 100%.
I think it's great that this movie
superheroes, superheroes.
I can't talk to tonight.
Superhero movies kind of prove that, like, how your
analogy with the Roman and Greek gods, it kind of, and biblical stuff
proves that storytelling is like very inherent and like every
society throughout the whole world, like, you could go back a
thousand, 2,000 years and everyone,
in any part of the planet was telling stories, you know?
And I think that's, I don't know, there's something cool
about that to me, I guess, just as a writer, as a person who consumes stories.
And the other thing that I think this movie proved, by the way, was it found
footage doesn't just work with the horror genre.
It works.
It could work in almost any genre.
It worked in this genre.
Because you see it a lot mostly in the horror genre, but this wasn't really a horror movie, so
it proves that it works in other genres as well.
So I thought that aspect was pretty cool.
And yeah, and by the way, this movie was received really well when it came out.
I mean, even Roger Eber, who hated everything, gave it 3.5 out of four stars.
at Raw Tomatoes, that sits at around 85%.
Like, that's great.
They did something right with this movie.
And it's a shame that we didn't get a sequel.
You know what I mean?
What can you do?
So, yeah, I think we're about that time, fellas, if we want
to go around the room and get our final thoughts and social medias and anything else you guys are working on
Justin, why don't I start with you unless you had more to say, but let's go to you first.
No, I'll just, you know, wrap up my final thoughts in my review here.
Yeah, I love Chronicle.
I'm glad that I discovered it when I did.
I thought it was a good movie back then,
and I still think it's a really good movie now.
Even more so, I appreciate it now more
than I think I did back then when I just thought, oh, it
was a really good movie you know, diving into it and analyzing
it just just a little bit more doing a little reading
on it and just kind of like figuring out the lore behind Chronicle
really made me appreciate this movie
a little bit more than I did.
You know, this movie definitely has its flaws.
There are some moments that are, you know,
just kind of borderline cringe where I'm like, okay.
But at the same time, I have to stop and realize it's
like, obviously this was written about teenagers in high school
Teenagers in high school are cringe.
I was very, very, very cringe at that time.
So, you know, I think they were just trying to capture that,
you know, what would happen if high school students,
you know, inherited superpowers and what would they do with it, you know?
And it's true.
I mean, what would a
immature high schools didn't do with superpowers
just fuck around with their, with their powers,
you know, that's totally what I would do.
And I also understand, like, the
whole villain side of the movie as well.
It's like, this kid was
just in a band situation from the very
start and it laid the path
of where he ended up, which is completely
going on a, you know, city destroying spree and
just eliminating anything and everything around him out of spite and anger.
And
you know, it's it's a typical villain story with a little bit of a twist.
And, you know, moving
into some of the CG stuff, surprisingly enough,
because I saw some behind the scenes of this movie and
there were a lot of like practical effects used, but there
was definitely a lot of green screen.
And you can see that it was a lot of green screen.
I feel like even for its time, and yeah, it is a
It's an older movie, but I
would say even in 2012, the green screen scenes could have been a little bit better.
They seemed a little floaty, sometimes the perspectives
seemed a little bit off, especially that scene with Andrew and
Steven on top of that building, just hanging out.
The perspectives of the green screen
scenery in the background versus on the
practical effects of the scene like in the foreground just
seemed a little bit off all the time, especially the scenes of them flying.
And I, you know, can suspend my beliefs for a little bit and
just go along with it.
But they're definitely noticeable.
The movie is definitely, definitely has a noticeable age to it now.
And I also wanted to go back to the whole camera thing about like,
I feel like the camera itself was a character,
you know, or it became a character.
And we, like, like you guys said earlier, like
we, the audience is that character, but we
are technically Andrew's, like
kind of kind of thing going on, if that makes any sense.
We're like his personal
captive audience through that Cameronans.
Like, literally, we're captive.
He won't let go.
He will won't let go of that camera at all costs.
So it's developed itself as a character or
as like a thing that he must have for the
entire direction.ation of the movie up until the very end.
Yeah, I could absolutely do without the Tibet scene, honestly.
If they
I like the Tibet scene.
If they dropped it completely, I would have been fine.
It would have made no difference.
So they would have got the point across.
I honestly would have rather preferred like, the
government found this fucking..
But, I mean, every F footage movie had like, oh, this footage was obtained, blah, blah, blah.
There's no
happy ending.
At least Matt had a happy ending.
I'm happy for him at least out of everybody.
But Rip Steve.
Rip Steve.
Yeah, which that was a weird scene too.
I thought that he kind of just, he got
Thanos out of the movie almost immediately in that scene I'm
like, okay, he didn't really have much more after that, I guess.
They just like, well, he's dead now.
He got hit by lightning, but we never got to see it.
I was disappointed in that part as well.
It was like Back to the Future 3.
You get struck by Lp.
Gone, baby gone.
Poor Steve.
Other than that, yeah, wonderful movie.
I think anybody who's never seen it before should definitely pick it up, rent it.
It's on HBO Max.
They have both versions on there.
Is it on HB Max?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's on HBO Max.
And it's on Disney Plus, which is cool too, because it's Fox property.
Anyway.
Yeah, so I have a question for you, Justin, real quick.
Uh- Do you know the difference between the director's
cut and the regular version?
I have no..
Okay.
I read I looked into this.
Because I watched the director's cut and that was that was the version I watched.
It was like an extra five minutes that developed
the characters a little bit more.
But I mean, five minutes is not that much.
So I think it was It seems like one
of those pushes to like come out with
another movie to sell.
I think that's what that was.
I was like, yeah, okay, you get an extra five minutes, but that extra minutes. the trank cut
doesn't give anything extra.
Yeah, that was the trank cut.
But no, I don't think I don't think it really, there
was any real difference to that.
But, yeah, so my final score, I'm
going to give it a four out of five.
I love this movie.
It may may not have aged well, but it's still a good movie,
and I don't care what any of you say.
Fuck you.
Anyway, you can find me, Ghost Nerd on the socials.
If you click the links in my bios of that,
you can follow me on everything else, including my
Shib' zombie personal page, but we'll stick to Ghost
Nerd 88 for the rest of my life.
Anyway.
Thank you.
That's me.
The ride of your life.
I'll be here all day.
I was going to say really quick, Matt was going to edit
all the footage together, but he couldn't pay for the Adobe subscription.
He just It was too expensive. $40 a month for prere Pro. Are you kidding me?
So
somebody else had to edit this movie.
It's $69.99 now.
$69.999.
You're crazy, Adobe.
Go home, Adobe.
You're drunk.
What are you doing?
I's going to pay $70 to edit.
Given bitchyol is free. full sweets back, you bitch.
Yeah.
Now, just guys, for those of you, you three
that are listening, maybe in our editors
just get Da Vinci resolve.
That's all you need, I promise you.
Anyway, not to get too much into
the weeds about that, but Donnie tells your final thoughts and where can people find you?
Yeah, I didn't do much research about the movie even after I watched it.
Honestly, I just, I didn't have the time
But I appreciated that it was
a found footage and it wasn't a horror, which you had mentioned, right?
There's not that many found footage non-horror films that are pretty good.
Project X is probably the only one I could think of off the
top of my head that did pretty well, or I thought it was pretty good, where
you're seeing it from like the party goers, like a party goer, like an angle, right?
If I remember correctly.
The first clow ref was found footage..
That was more of an alien.
That was horror.
That was horror.
No, I guess mix was really good.
That was that wasn't found footage.
I was just like a friend had a camera and he was just recording
this insane house party.
And that was a really good movie, too.
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah.
I'd like to see more, I mean, just not that many, right?
But I'd like to see more found footage.
I thought it worked well.
It was there was definitely some corny parts.
I think for me, a little heavy on the CGI,
but how else would you do a movie like that, right?
During this time, like, they had to definitely rely on that.
But I think overall it was still a good movie.
It was it was nice to see.
It was cool to see some of those actors, you know, like Michael B. Jordan so young
and still do a good job, right?
I don't know.
Overall, I liked it.
I'm going to give it a 3.5 and
definitely recommend people to check it out if you haven't.
Yeah, what else?
You can find me on social media, underscore Donnie Appleseed.
If you want to check out some of photography, I'm on
Instagram 125 photography, just all one word.
Nice.
That's it for me.
All right, Donnie.
Thank you for that, Alex.
Fin thoughts and where can people find you yet?
Y'all could find me at Daily Dares on Instagram
and go to the link there and find all those
other things that I'm involved with, including Collectible Galaxy on Depop.
And
for as far as my review goes, I
do feel that this movie is very much a cautionary tale
for like, that just.
Okay, so like we do get
into the weeds a little bit earlier in the show about how these,
it's kind of tropey, these teenage tropey things.
But I feel like the character Andrew.
It's like he has this
his journey,
it takes this like sort of,
it climbs to this sort of like this place where he's
like, okay, I'm getting somewhere where I'm like being respected.
And but it doesn't come, it comes at the cost of who
he really is, not for the
things that he is actually doing.
Like, his video his videography stuff could
have been the thing that actually made him who he was.
But he stumbles upon this sort of like superpower
and relies on something that like is like
not really of his own, to be honest.
It's like, it's kind of that the idea of like when people
like gravitate to you because of things
that they like that aren't really
yours, that's disingenuine, you know?
And that can really lead to some like, really harsh ideas identity issues
And when that facade falls
away and you're left with who you really are and
you don't acknowledge that whole thing to like actually
like work on that part of yourself, that's
when it becomes destructive and you kind of see that with his
character because he, you know, he actally kills his friend, you know?
And then he, you know, like
he could have saved his mom, but like he
went off and tried to get money to, like buy the medication.
Like, he could have been there to like give give
her the help she needed. instead of doing that.
Sorry, you know?
He should have just gone snuck in there., taking the medication and bounce, bro.
What are you doing?
Yeah, yeah.
He could have just lifted.
I don't understand
why he didn't just use his fucking to do that.
Yeah.
That's what I thought he he was going to do.
But it's it's it's, you know, that's.
Once again, he's trying to rely on.
He's he's very, that whole situation becomes a very confusing situation.
He doesn't know when to use his powers
his gifts, and then he doesn't, and then he uses them
at the wrong times by killing people, you know, left and right, you know?
And that's that whole cautionary tale that I'm talking about.
It's like, you have to
for
the things you do, you have to, it has to come from a genuine
place, from an authentic place, and that will
kind of like, even though it may lick you look cringe,
and I think that the whole idea of cringe
is such a stupid thing to like we we
we get all hung up on that sort of thing.
Everything's cringe nowadays.
Yeah, like we're cringe.
So what?
I'm realizing now.
I'm really realizing at my age age
who cares?
You know?
Who cares about?
85-year old can walk into a post office and yell racist slurs at the person behind the counter.
You can be cringe, and you're 40.s, guys.
Yeah, exactly.
And like, and who cares if you like, because
like, so a lot of cringe stuff that we do
it will be forgotten in like,
and it will be in Kat's country because all those people.
Especially by are by teenagers.
They're not going to remember any of this shit.
They're going to look back when they were teenagers to be like, I was cringe.
Exactly.
I was the dummy.
But and here's the thing.
Like what I've noticed too, it's like, it's like
the idea of cringe, it like
stops people from doing the things they want to do.
Yes.
It really does.
It limits.
The idea of cringe, they get so afraid of being cringe that like they stop.
And I think that's like, you know, you look at Andrew, he's afraid.
And he uses these powers that he's Yeah.
That's not him being himself.
He was like on that talent show thing that he was using these powers
to be like, hey, look at me, I'm cool.
Look at me.
But it never really..
I do love that nobody questioned them breaking the laws of physics in that scene, by the way.
But anyway, they't end it in the talent show.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you don't magicians, they don't have to remove your secrets.
Exactly.
That's true.
I think that was part of the reason like the movie worked well, though, too.
It's like they really thought about like, what were a teenager.
I think Justin mentioned it earlier, like, well, how would a teenager approachach this or what do they think?
And like their definition cringe is so much bigger to them versus like someone our age.
Absolutely.
Right.
Absolutely.
It's like, it's like the biggest thing in the world
Yeah.
So like, like that's the whole thing of judgment, like fear
of judgment from other people, but also judging ourselves for being cringe, right?
That's kind of like the thing that stops us.
And that's the story that's the lesson I got from this movie.
It's like, if you're genuely genuinely accepting of yourself
like, not that I won't say you won't
have those issues, but you'll be more aware
of like the choices you want to make.
And, you know, like, you look at that character,
Matt, he, like, they kind of made him feel bad for
bonding to be an altruist, right?
at the diner.
Not forbid a guy's still hobbies.
Yeah.
But he actually, he stayed true to himself, right?
He stayed true to himself what he wanted to do with his powers.
And that at the end of the day, saved
like everybody from even more harm that Andrew was going to cause.
Yeah, yeah He was quoting Albert Cam at 18 years old.
No teenager does that.
Like, bro, let him cook.
You know what I mean?
I knew a couple of people for me it was like a, it kind of got like.
It just made me think like if I was in that kid's shoes,
I probably would have done the same thing very much like when I watched Hostel and I was like, man, I totally would have died.
If I was that was me, like that would have been me.
Yeah.
Absolutely..
I mean, yeah, exactly.
When we when we're kids
we're making the worst choices, but that's how we are as kids, right?
That's how you.
As we get older, we should we shouldn't judge ourselves
for those choices.
We know, we should learn to like accept
those things and love ourselves for those things as as
embarrassing as they are, you know, as they were..
I if you say that, Alex, because it shows growthlinger apart.
A lot of people don't fucking grow up.
I've met people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and they're still little immature assholes.
Like, what is wrong with you?
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I'm serious.
Like, what is wrong?
Like, why, why are the old, a lot of the older generations, why are they still acting like fucking children
I don't it.
It's because they're embarrassed of like the judgment that they
might receive if they are actually themselves, if they are
actually authentically accepting and loving of themselves.
You know, like.
For those that I know that are like that, I feel like they're stuck.
Arrested Development?
Is that not what that's called?
kind of?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Literally, arrest Development.
Yeah.
But at the end of the day, like, I really enjoyed this movie.
I honestly didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did.
And, like...
Whoa!
There goes the Wizard of Oz that revealed behind the curtain.
Where's that...
You lost your background, champ.
I was like, what happened?
Fuck you, we ball.
Who's that naked guy back there?
That's my dad.
Oh, okay.
He's come to beat you up.
He's right?
Oh, no.
Anyway.
Anyways.
3.5 out of five for me.
Oh, Awesome.
Well, no, thank you, Alex for that.
I agree with everything you said.
I wish, and Donnie, I
don't know if you have this with with your son, but I wish that I could tell him
now, like, don't worry about, don't worry about what other people think about you.
Fuck him.
Yeah.
Fuck him.
I've had conversations like that or similar to that, but then I think about
why he's not getting it because he doesn't, he doesn't, he just doesn't get it.
You know, when somebody, when you're young and your parents try to tell you something,
you, you just got to live through experience before you understand what they're trying to tell you years down the line.
Like, now I'm like, oh, yeah, that's why my parents do that.
Okay, I get it.
Well, it's that whole thing that like they, like kids, when
we were kids, we valued our peers' opinion
And, rights the tough thing for
them to acknowledge and accept that like
their opinion doesn't matter, you know?
Yeah.
Like the only opinion that matters, it's not even our parents' opinion.
Like, their opinions of us shouldn't matter either.
Like, it's like the only opinion
that should matter is our own opinion about ourselves
Yeah.
It's hard to teach that to kids, but yeah, definitely if there's
a way to keep, you know, pounding that in their head and
they'll eventually get it a lot younger than me, hopefully.
Mr. Rogers, on the other hand, Mr. Rogers had it right.
Yeah, and on the other hand, like, kids do need to
face some amount of adversity throughout their life.
For sure.
Yeah, definitely..
Like, you can't. keep them in a bubble 100%.
Like, you just can't.
You have to let them. fuck them up for for Bill's parents at helicopter over to kids like that.
Oh, God, yeah.
That You have to let them kids up.
Yeah, exactly. exactly.
And obviously.
But I think it's, it's important, though, too, like, when it comes to, like, not
helicopering over your kids, but also just constantly
reminding them of who's opinion matters.
Their self-worth.
Yeah, for sure.
That's definitely important.
Which a lot of parents don't do, by the way.
Yeah.
And it shows.
Yeah, they do it opposite and they like, you know, they think they're
helping you, but later down the line, you know?
Yeah, that's that's a great point.
Well, but thank you.
I How did this turn into this?
I mean, this, you know, it's a movie about teenagers.
If I had powers as a teenager, even as an adult,
I would probably be seeking into all the good restaurants in town and just like fucking stealing food, all the best food.
All the best place, I just like flash, run into every restaurant and just, you know what I mean?
That's what I would be doing
And, you know, maybe a little, I don't know, maybe a couple bank robberies are in there.
Who knows?
We'll see.
And this economy,
you know, you have modern powers require modern solutions.
Right?
So anyway.
I love heist movies, by the way.
I can tell you tell movies.
Oh, yeah.
I love.
You've gone in 60 seconds, got me all. hype.
Ocean's 11.
I'm going to steal some cars.
Yeah.
The first Now You See Me was a good heist
movie, even though it wasn't really a he movie.
Wait, which one?
Now You See Me?
But Now You See Me.
Oh, yeah.
Is that.
Is that the Tom The Magician Tom Hanks?
Yeah, Speaking of magic, yeah, the magic with Jesse Eisenberg and I can't remember.
Isn't there a new one?
Or is is that the new one one?
There's like three new ones.
There's.
Well, there's a new one now, yes.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like the third of.
I saw the preview.
Yeah, yeah.
But those, yeah, you're right.
Those were pretty good.
Those were good.
Yeah.
And
on the note., of found footage and horror, paranormal
activity, those movies, I thought those were great, by the way.
They got a little dumb towards the end as most horror movies tend to do.
But they were still fun to watch.
And the first one was respect to like Blair Witch, right?
They're ultimately the way they did that, I remember in high school thinking that shit was real.
Until after I watched it.
That was really good.
The marketing team behind that was fucking
amazing.
I love the marketing.
That pulled me in.
Like when I when I first saw that that shit was real.
The first one costs like less than a million to make, and it made millions of dollars..
Yeah, that was so good.
It was so good.
Even the commercials was just like, you know, like footage
just, you know, stating in and out.
It was really good.
I loved it.
And then they dives off the deep end.
Yeah, there would stew the Book of Shadows.
Don't get me started as Blawood too.
I never even visited those.
I can't do it tonight..
It's a whole different for a movie, man.
It's a different movie.
That's it.
It's not even.
Is it even found footage at that point?
It's not.
No.
I didn't so.
That sucks.
Didn't they make a new a new one recently
Yes A Witch and I actually enjoyed it.
They did?
They good?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it wasn't a reboot or anything.
It was kind of like a continuation on with the found footage
style stuff, but I actually enjoyed it.
They also made it a video game too.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
What's it called?
I'll have to look that up after the show.
It's called Blair Witch, I think.
I think that's it.
Yeah, literally.
Blair Witch Trace.
Yeah.
Okay, guys well.
I remember now at Comic-Con, like,
right after the first, like the first Comic-Con, when
they started having them, there was this project that they're like, it's
kind of supposed to be like this scary movie thingy.
And then they revealed it to be the Blair Witch, which I
I thought it was kind of another genius marketing thing that they did.
Like that So it's kind of like cool
that like the Blair Witch has this legacy of like genius marketing.
The thing that people who are under the age of their 30 don't understand
is that when that movie came out, there was nothing else like it.
The marketing for that movie, the viality of the marketing,
the movie itself, the way it was presented, you can't do that nowadays in the end of the internet.
Back then, it was like the perfect time to do that sort of
viral marketing that made it blow up, you know?
Revolutionized back the week.
Yeah.
It created spawned the found footage genre, I think.
I looked up real quick. 5,000 budget
and then 250 million bucks office.
For Blair Witch?
That is wild, yeah.
Wow.
Damn.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
That's great.
But you know what sucks is that those actors couldn't get work after that, unfortunately.
They they
Yeah.
They were softly blacklisted because they
couldn't be taken seriously as actors.
Yeah.
Because, you know, well, that movie did as far as like
seeming so fucking real and authentic, you know, even though it was just a movie.
I think they
had a panel for the Blair Witch Project,
like the anniversary at Fantastic Fest a few years ago.
Oh, really?
Nice.
And they had the actors from that film film, the original
film, and they kind of talk about
their trials with the industry and how difficult it was.
And they went for some shit to make that movie behind you.
It wasn't an easy kickwalk for them.
They were actually out there in the woods, practically starving,
living in tents, and getting fucked around with by the directors and
stuff because they were trying to make it as real as possible
Which is is such bullshit.
Like, if you think about it, like those guys put us so much hard work and
they were acting in those films.
Why Why?
Come on.
Why give them so much shit and not method actors could do what they did.
Christian Bale, Daniel De Lewis, they couldn't do that.
They wouldn't do that. differentnt type of acting.
Anyway, all right, guys.
Well, yeah, my quick final thoughts, I'm going to read what I wrote for Letterbox,
but I also want to say just a couple of favorite moments from the movie.
Oh, yeah, I love the magic
magic act scene.
And I love this scene where they were up in the closs for the first time, and I was waiting.
I was waiting for a fucking plane to zip through it. and almost kill them.
And it happened, and I was so satisfied, even though I saw it coming.
That was such a great moment.
I love that moment so much.
But yeah, so what I wanted to say that I wrote on Letterbox was,
you know, what a fun but also sad movie.
I enjoyed the fun and games part where the three main characters,
just teenage boys, doing exactly what goofy tomfoolery you'd expect once they got their powers.
Pranking people and messing around.
Andrew Smith gets a short-l break, and Matt plays the
pseudo philosopher, and Steve's just the fun, charming guy in the group.
However
things then take a particular particularly dark turn.
Andrew puts his abusive dad in the hospital, spirals
into a full-on rampage through the city while Matt tries to stop him.
I do wish that they'd explored their powers more, and honestly,
the whole found foot ofjangle didn't add much for me, but the conflict between the three friends
could have been built up more, too.
Overall, it was a fun, yet tragic story that felt fresh and original.
And the superheroes a superhero saturated landscape, this one stands out.
And I gave four stars on Letterbox.
So yeah What?
There's four stars on Letterbox.
That's how much I enjoyed it.
And by the way, you can find me on online.
Letterbox 10 Boots Too Big
You can find find the show on all the socials.
We're everywhere, guys.
We're on X. We're on Blue Sky.
We're on threads.
We're on Instagram.
TikTok, YouTube.
We're doing it all, baby.
And you know what else, by the way, we should
start inviting more people to our Discord link.
Let's get people in there.
Let's start.
I'm going to start sharing that link
in in our show notes, you know?
We have a Discord.
I'm going to clear out first.
Yeah, what's that?
I'm going to clear it out first.
Well, the the general chat is fine.
That won't get us slandered in prison anytime soon.
But no, yeah, follow.
Hold on.
We're not posting anything that would landend us in prison.
Come on.
No, no.
Not in the open chat.
No.
No, I'm kidding.
Obviously.
Not at any chat.
Come on.
In any chat, yeah, there's no other chats to be found.
But yeah, Discord, get in there, guys.
Talk to us, yap with us.
It doesn't have to be about movies.
We'll talk about anything for days.
We all have various interests that we can chat about.
But yeah, follow us on us platforms, visit us andse podcastodcast.com,
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We'd love to hear from you.
Subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts from
If you like the show, please help us out by sharing it,
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Big thanks to Mr. Kyle Npp and a burn cycle for our intro music.
You can follow Kyle on Instagram at selfies
underscore food underscore and underscore pets.
Thanks for all, we didn't get the news a meter.
Damn it, Arnold.
We needed this news meter tonight.
What.
It's fine.
But yes, if we didn't get that, does anybody have any final
thoughts they'd like to leave us with?
That b me was delicious.
Mmm, boy.
You guys are always wearing cool.
You and Justin are always wearing cool shirts.
I need to get on the cool shirt train.
Get on the cool shirt.
This should be a segment.
What are you guys wearing tonight?
So I know I rece Snoopy and Garfield inside there are two walls.
What did you do it from?
Goodfellow from Target.
Same.
What are you What are you wearing adjusting?
What is that from?
That devil man.
This is, oh my God.
And I feel so bad for forgetting.
She was she was She did the graffiti
art with at the Homeworld Populist show.
She does designed this.
Janet.
Janet.
Janet.
Yeah, Janet.
Janet designed this.
Damn it, Jan. Damn it, Janet.
Damn it, Janet.
That's right.
I'm so sorry.
I hear.
I forgot.
That's all you doing.
That's cool.
That's what she goes by.
But She designed this shirt and I bought this at one of of her shows that she was at.
So, yeah.
Actually, I think it was Homeworld Populace I bought it at, so.
Really quick before we officially end.
A quick correction.
Our fan shout out, healing L Power is actually a he, so I just wanted to throw that out there.
He corrected me on Instagram, but he was cool with it, and he still likes all our stuff..
So, yeah, healing L Power, apologize, but there you go.
Be more like healing Lap power, guys.
Like all of our stuff
because we like that.
All right.