Half in the Bag Episode 133: Blade Runner 2049

half in the bag roll out the dogs out hey Mike did you hear about the fat disgusting hairy Hollywood slob that's been using his position to take advantage of women no which guy are you talking about all of them Wow Jay there must be something in the water out there in Hollywood thank goodness we live in Milwaukee where the only thing we have to worry about is Cryptosporidium it's a deep cut replicants are the future of the species in Blade Runner 2049 a dark force threatens Ponyville and the main six Twilight Sparkle Applejack Rainbow Dash Pinkie Pie Fluttershy and rarity embark on an unforgettable journey beyond exquisite eerie oh where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their home Mike what did you think of Blade Runner 2049 well Jay I thought this movie was stark beautiful epic visually stunning amazing intricate and boring we're talking about the new one not the original movie no we're talking about the new one I want to call it blade running time mm 49 minutes that's my joke of the day copyright me that's my joke of the day okay um blade running time mm 49 minutes Jay I rewatched the first blade runner' yesterday and I had seen it a long time ago but I don't really remember much I remember guy putting down a little origami and then I remember there was a guy with big glasses some sort of yellow room that will be road boring right and then you you were telling me that it's boring it's very very slow if anyone hasn't seen it's Colin and I did a review on it a few months ago yeah I have not even watched that review oh my god and I was not here when he taped it I was at home sleeping while trying to watch Blade Runner obviously running so I rewatched it under the pretense that it was going to be long and boring over three hours long and I watched the final cut which was released in 2007 had no voice over from Harrison Ford no happy ending and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can see the problem with it and I'll be very specific and very quick here okay the problem with it is that it's a beautifully done film noir sci-fi movie it's a no Dark City the best sci-fi film noir film oh I haven't seen that in [ __ ] forever it's and it's so intricate the the visual effects are beautiful the sets the the complexity of every shots the way it's photographed everything but the reason why it's boring is because nothing happens in the movie and you know what's going to happen the there is no mystery at all in this and also as and this is something us thinking about recently I didn't mention this in our review I had mentioned that my the biggest prom with that movie is the story I guess was what you're saying because yeah it's gorgeous I don't like Harrison Ford's character I don't think the romance works in it with him and Sean young I think it would've been a better movie if it focused on Rutger Hauer character he's the interesting one with an arc but what I was thinking about recently is yeah it's a it's a noir story it's a sci-fi detective noir but he doesn't do a whole lot of detective work in it right aside from though the one scene the infamous enhanced scene that goes on for 25 minutes that you got to take a nap during enhance yeah he finds the the lady who [ __ ] a snake and he murders her yes and then Rutger Hauer is like me and my posse of replicants want to talk to the big guy mr. Tyrell looked and we want to ask him if he can extend our lifespan and then when they find him he just says no [ __ ] your eyes and it's like then after that they're just gonna give up so so really I know there's no like if if they never if they wove in a little more mystery with what Rutger Hauer is trying to do but it's all it's all laid out yes it's a it's a noir mystery movie that's where everything is laid out on the table yeah so really it was beautiful all you gotta do is sit back and you taken the image taking the images and just sort of enjoy the the feel of the movie replicants are the future of the species which is why I was curious to see the new one because it's like I like the world of Blade Runner I just didn't like that specific story and I don't know I haven't seen other reviews of this I have no idea what the consensus is but I'm going to say it's one of the best sequels ever made because it takes the things that work in the original and expands on them in a way that makes them work better like talking about the fact that there's no real detective work in the first movie Ryan Gosling is a goddamn detective in this film he's investigating this situation and there are things that you discover as the story moves along and his character before we get into spoilers his character has a wonderful arc unlike Harrison Ford in the first movie yeah much more going on in this new way yes and you would mention it's thinking it was boring I don't know I I think it could be trimmed down a little bit but I wasn't maybe by like 15 20 minutes or something cuz yeah it's almost three hours but for the most part I was with it pretty much the whole way through yeah I thought I thought it was it could have used some trimming but then again that's that's the thing that's the world of Blade Runner it's the blaziken in the the atmosphere like I wish I don't know this is gonna be a discussion that's all over the place but speaking of like pacing of a secret if the the when Ryan Gosling goes to see Harrison Ford for the first time and he's wandering around and he's wandering around it's like okay I get the atmosphere now let's move it along yeah and I was also thinking how much more effective that sequence would have been if we didn't know Harrison Ford was in the movie but of course he's all he's in the trailers he's all over promotion for it wearing his his t-shirt and all the promotional stills for the film look so your grandpa that's his wardrobe is the t-shirts t-shirt with black stains on it yeah but it would have been such a satisfying moment if you know we didn't know necessarily who he was going to see or we didn't know Harrison Ford was in the movie so we're like is he gonna show up oh he did holy [ __ ] that would've been great you're waiting two hours to see Harrison Ford you're waiting an hour for the first any kind of action sequence so this movie's gonna bore the hell out of younger people well I'm curious how this movie's gonna do because it's it's too early at the time of this recording to know what the box office is gonna be like but the original movie did not do well at the box office it grew following overtime and that's a very slow you know story with lots of themes about humanity and now we're 30 years removed from that and the movies that are big box-office hits now are so much dumber than what we're box office hits then if the original didn't do well I don't know about this one doing well but we'll see that part of me during this film like I'm sitting there and I'm just like you know I am I enjoyed the slow pace of it and my brain said to itself I'm so glad I'm watching this and I'm not watching Pacific Rim too I will not be watching that movie the first one is fine well this is a movie this blade our honor this feels like I mean this is Denis Villeneuve continues to be one of the best filmmakers were always first name I think so I'm sure someone there will be one random person in the comments that corrects me only one because that's how comment sections work somebody's a comment and then everybody sees that someone already made that comment so then the other people don't make that comment oh oh oh actually you're saying the opposite of what reality I'm sure you could verify this by watching an interview with him sure but yeah I don't know anyone who cares what the [ __ ] his name is pronounced he's great filmmaker I've loved - the other two films he's probably made more than two but he's made some enemy and the arrival yeah so as the khari oh well this is one of my concerns going into this movie is that the story of the first Blade Runner is pretty straightforward there's these four replicants you gotta track them down and then it got bogged down in re-edits and Ridley Scott gobbledygook of the ambiguity of his decade or replicants and this is a unicorn but the unicorn means and all this [ __ ] and I was worried that Denis Villeneuve could go two ways he could go abstract enemy area or he could do straightforward well told sci-fi story arrival area type of filmmaking and I was worried that it might double down on the ambiguous unicorn type [ __ ] from the first movie and he didn't do that in fact if anything I would say it maybe goes just a hint too much in the other direction ma'am I'm talkin thing you know vogue there's a couple parts throughout the movie when Ryan Gosling like he's thinking about something and we hear voiceover clips from earlier in the film so you remember it that happens a couple times there's like yeah you probably didn't need that that feels like trying to spell things out a little bit too much for the audience yeah no that's that's that's a minor complaint about the movie yeah other than not being a wholly original like the first Blade Runner movie was its own thing yeah here's our like it invented the massive sci-fi city scape yeah this didn't really do anything new it took the old and expanded upon it yes um I I would lean more towards soft reboot kind of yeah you don't have to have seen the original to to get into this yeah it's just like this even opens with the same text like this text explains what happened in 2019 2018 that the first one takes place and that's like oh and then 30 years later the same thing happened again yeah now then we have this bad guy the bad guy has a goal though other than just being the guy who made the robots before right um this bad guy has a goal he has got all the people working for him there's mystery of spoilers should we get into spoilers yes boilers ahead spoilers ahead I always told you here's [Laughter] there's mystery a baby born from a replicants born from a replicant is been established of Harrison Ford is or is not a replicant well that's that's the other thing is the ambiguity in the first movie is he a replicant or Xena Ridley Scott says he is and everybody else involved with the movie says Ridley Scott you're an idiot No so that's always been the ambiguity and I like that in this movie there's like one line that mentions that he might be he might not be but doesn't matter because it's not important to this story so they kind of brush across it where it's like if you think he's a replicant this movie will work if you don't it still works yeah but they don't say one way or the other which i think is the best way to handle it well after watching the final cut my assumption was that he was a replicant but that's Ridley Scott's intention yeah because he had a dream about a unicorn and then the mysterious man that works with him left the unicorn origami right is some sort of involvement and planting memories it to me him being a replicant ruins the whole movie though the whole time I kept thinking can two replicants make a baby or can or a human and a replicant make a baby if the idea is that replicants can reproduce amongst themselves and this whole underground resistance thing of replicants standing up to fight against their slave Atun said a word makes more sense because then they can they can band together they could form a resistance they could multiply and have children themselves they can evolve right which I think was the the the implication was that Rachael was sort of an evolved replicant could bear children yeah so you know all those you've got all those themes of humanity mortality life to Ryan Gosling's face well I know we obviously we made a joke video making fun of his lack of expression but in the context of the movie it works and then they there's no ambiguity here right off the bat he is a replicant there's some mystery later on that maybe isn't but it works for the first half of this movie as far as the way he performs it it doesn't work in the first movie when Harrison Ford is not supposed to be a replicant or you're supposed to think he's not a replicant and he still acts like a dull boring [ __ ] replicants are dull boring [ __ ] so that's the problem is the first Bladerunner is everybody kind of is so it's like you're losing that but this one really I feel like for the for me this movie feels like what other people got out of the original that I didn't is like in this movie it's like oh I see it now like I think this works so much better as far as yeah relaying that kind of theme of humanity and what it means to be a human and and it does expand more on the idea of replicants wanting to be treated like like humans and normal people in a way that i thought like the ending that's it's i thought it was incredibly satisfying oh yeah yeah and I thought Harrison Ford gave a much better performance and he's given in decades I think he's better than he is in the first movie cuz I feel that humanity in him in this one and I didn't in the original what do you want I want to ask you some questions the ending the ending worked the landing worked very well and then you know you have the love element to I mean Ryan Gosling is in love with a hologram and they have a whole little story about that and then of course Harrison Ford and Rachel and so the like you said you the the love romance part in the first one didn't I did not work for me at all flat for you so this expands on that yeah expands on the villains and their plot expands on what it means to be a replicant and what the future of replicants are the first one is just like yeah we got a couple of strays to get them yeah you know you feel more for Rutger Hauer character yes you know he's like the Christ figure and he nailed through the hand and all this and and there's something going on there but it's never quite fully developed so it expands on the themes and it also expands on the running time it's in the running time but it also expands on the characters of the first movie I mean it's mainly just Harrison Ford but you do get to see him at an older it's not like Han Solo or he's just doing the same thing thirty years later yeah he's in a different place it reminded me of this is becoming a thing now when you revive a dead old franchise or an old where it becomes like a father/son situation because I was like Tron Legacy did that force awakens did that now this kind of does that turns out I guess we're in spoilers that turns out not to be a son but still it has that same kind of theme running through it what do you do what do you do we need a new Blade Runner it's Ryan Gosling we got to put Harrison Ford in the film yeah but it didn't feel like a compromised studio movie I mean this felt this felt like a film made by a real filmmaker that clearly loves the original blader on earth yes but it's it's one of those scenarios where you take a movie and like you said I didn't see the Total Recall reboot I did see the Robocop one about where you take a movie and you remake it but you do it better and I'm sure there'll be a lot of people that little blade wonders much better this is trash people people love that original blade or vice versa but if you really look at the original Blade Runner which I did like III didn't love it but I can see the flaws where it's like lacking and in lots lots of the mechanics that make a movie work yeah visually great but it's lacking in a lot of the mechanics and this just op the visuals even more because I now they could do anything right of course it's beautiful and is fascinating and interesting but they they enhanced all the parts that you're supposed to get emotion from yeah and they don't they didn't just do almost a beat for beat remake of the original I said I love them right off the bat we start out cuz like the opening in the first movie it's boom there's that city there's the the you know the the fire shooting up and this one it's like a ears like a desert wasteland where a guy is planting stuff you know you're here overall it's it's a movie you really need to be I'm talking about the new one it's a movie really need to be in the mood to watch because it's you love post-apocalyptic dour depressing stuff I do and only a certain time now I wouldn't call this dour and depressing though and that's kind of one of the things I liked about it well the ending yeah picked it up the whole movie though like that that universe that world is just gross and depressing and now it's a wonderful well that's what makes that's what makes the ending so satisfying though yeah there's a little spark of hope of yeah well that's that's I'll add I loved Ryan Gosling's arc in this movie where he starts out he's just he's just a replicant as far as he knows people kind of even people in the police department or like you know giving him [ __ ] for being a replicant like skinjob they're just completely looking down on him and then he discovers that he's special because he thinks he's a child born from a replicant and then he discovers he's not special but he still decides to you know help other people and yeah that was a nice little twist and it was a nice homecoming for Deckard what I just assumed would just get his head blown off but I think towards the end like I don't know the the the new we'll call her Rachel 3.0 was when Ryan Gosling is like drowning her and I'm just miserable I liked it I was fine with all that you know what then just as a location for a fight scene or an action scene it's not you know cuz people think of later on Earth's this big expansive city and it's like you can't even see anything there's just waves crashing and you don't see anything anything outside of that didn't take such a strong like confidence in the visuals of like what to show what not to show and it has well maybe one of my favorite scenes of the year which is replicant three-way such an interesting weird and like kind of simple effects it's I mean I mean it's not as probably wasn't simple to render but just like the idea of the two characters kind of being laid over each other like that yeah really like beautiful weird and different he's on your tail I'm coming with you towards the plan this movie should get like an Oscar Award for production design because there's that it's that that world that technology and that was part of it was there for three-way scene that feels so like perfectly integrated to where it feels like it's the real future yeah like his little like dude like it played a song every time you shut it on and off you see a graphic and he's like and there's like a 3d thing over there and you're like that's probably what things will look like and it just feels like so it would be like if someone in the in the 1970s was watching a movie where everyone had a little square thing that when when it rang yeah it would be like that's weird that's you know that makes sense in a way and so it felt so like streamlined and integrated all the the tech and well and it was nice to see a movie where the future is not just holographic screens touch screens everywhere like oh Ryan Gosling was filling out paperwork on an actual piece of paper at one point I wanted to bring that up how they brought in cuz like Blade Runner obviously was in the 80s and and had certain limitations with technology yeah and so they integrated that into this to where it seemed like some that Blade Runner tech from 20 30 years ago is kind of still in use yeah like he's looking at what it's kind of a microfiche machine yeah when he's she's like I don't know if it was meant to be a digital microfiche but yeah same idea if something's making a physical clicking sound you know it's like older technology it sound quiet but yeah you're right it's not look you you spoke of the the choosing what to show and what not to show and that that was like really apparent in this because it's not it's not look it look at this visuals I keep thinking of Star Wars Episode two attacking the clones Anakin Skywalker has to chase the bad guy and so of course are gonna jump out the window and jump on speeders and we're here through all these Bend jump from one speed or the other and go through this Billy and look at this world we have isn't it amazing yeah this like the ending was a car sinking in the water are we getting punched in some kind of dusty room yeah and and and then the the aged dirty look of a lot of the attack the cars though his car specifically there's like rappers and [ __ ] laying around like food wrappers the police station is not like super technologically advanced at these big rooms it's just like dirty and gross and yeah that that lived in world look like the production design of this movie is just incredible and it's sort of weird like I want to praise it cuz I think this is a great movie but at the same time as we're talking about the lived-in world that all exists because of the original movie so it's like yeah yeah yeah if you were to take the old movie blow it up but not in a dumb way they did it you do not know what pain is good you will learn so it's a movie like yeah yeah you watch it's like the old one it's a it's a it's a comfy nightmare blanket it's what I have and this this I could see watching over three four days just kind of chilling and sort of those movies you have to plan your day around yes like Magnolia no one ever says I'm just gonna sit down and relax for 90 minutes and watch Magnolia and then everybody's just like screaming at each other for three hours I wish Gary Marshall was still alive to make pictures Garry Marshalls Blade Runner 2049 assist everyone in the restaurant and the Blade Runner comes in and he says can I get around the drinks for everybody it's Taco Tuesday what are you talking about I'd like to bring up Star Trek this movie stole the concept of the mobile emitter because the doctor character on Star Trek Voyager said Picard Robert Picardo yeah he's confined to the sick bay at first because there's hollow projectors in sick bay the emergency medical hologram and he's there just for emergency purposes but ends up becoming the doctor and then in later seasons they find a futuristic technology that's called his hollow emitter that he wears on his sleeve that allows them to trance to go on adventures outside of the sickbay okay that's that is exactly the same thing that's a Miss yes and and and then we discover later on that the Federation uses Holograms as slave labor mm-hmm to dig in mines and so there's all these Robert Picardo digging in probably dilithium mines okay I'm doing the awful work and so they bring up the idea of equal rights for Holograms eventually in Star Trek so our definition of what constitutes a person has continued to evolve now we're asking that you expand that definition once more to include our doctor what I'm trying to say is blade we're on our 2014 ein ripped off Star Trek Voyager and there's nothing more embarrassing than that replicants or the future but I can only thank so many I had the luck and he has the key so J which recommend Blade Runner blade running time 2049 I absolutely would as someone that isn't too keen on the original movie I thought this did everything that was in the original movie just a little bit better I thought it was a better story I don't say better visuals I mean it obviously is cuz it's a movie made now but it takes the ideas of the original the visuals of the original expands on I'm in a way where it doesn't feel like you're just seeing the same [ __ ] again I don't have the same like like there's a little couple Easter eggs in there the Atari logo oh yeah Alpana well that's in the world of Blade Runner that would continue probably so ya know all that stuff I thought was great and I just thought it was a more compelling engaging story than the first movie right because I was the biggest weakness of the original film is the actual story so you would recommend it to someone who was on the fence or didn't like the original Blade Runner outside of the visuals here comes here comes a check out this Blade Runner yes this one's better that's that's I I think I think it's better I don't know people will probably crucify me for that because people love that original love the original wall you want I'm not gonna criticize you for it but the people that do love it they sure love to criticize people that don't love it yeah I would recommend this film to two cinephiles sci-fi fans I like my sci-fi more hopeful and less less post-apocalyptic that's just not my thing but I can appreciate this movie for the the work of art that it is it's it is it is unique I really like this filmmaker yeah but there's a lot of people it's going to be boring - a lot of people like I sit there and I was like you know you you're given time to absorb the world yeah so Wow well I'm given the time to absorb the world I'm appreciating the work that has gone into every little detail share in this world and I think a lot of people take the amount of work and visual effects that are in movies now for granite was a Rick and Morty joke a lot of people take it for granted that there's going to be a effects on its effects yeah it sucked I was bored it sucked and then I move on I can imagine in millions of theaters all over the world there's gonna be that guy go suck who doesn't appreciate this kind of movie so I say tread lightly but I would recommend it to probably the majority of our audience [Music] so Jay when's your gay wedding

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,895,655

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, best of the worst, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, blade runner, blade runner 2049, ryan gosling, harrison ford

Id: O1Gqjjq1nic

Length: 29min 8sec (1748 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/gaatsplaat]

You want dystopian? Read the new Deadline article about why this movie "failed." Their answer is basically you can't make a movie based on a small sector of die-hard fans with little wide brand recognition and you can't market it without telling the whole fucking story.

So looks like we are into even more shitty marketing and movies that attempt to appeal to everybody instead of actual fans. I can only imagine what this movie would have been like if it had been made to appeal to everybody. It would have been complete shit. And due to the great marketing we would have known everything about the complete shit before we even saw the movie.

[u/Vlisa]

I'd like to bring up Star Trek.

https://i.imgur.com/RG0BS1U.gif

[u/EightBitAlex]

The Andy Signore joke right at the beginning jesus christ

[u/Arknell]

I loved Mike's silent howling panicked fury when Jay thought the first Pacific Rim was a really good flick.

[u/rocketsauce2112]

Cards on the table, I love the first Blade Runner. So while I can understand the criticisms Mike and Jay have for the film, I'm way more on board with the whole Blade Runner thing right from the start. Me personally, I'm super biased towards Blade Runner and I really rooted for this new film to succeed and I think it sucks eggs that it'll probably be a huge financial catastrophe.

So obviously I absolutely loved Blade Runner 2049 as well. I drove an hour each way to see it in IMAX, and it was so worth paying a premium to see it in that format. It was really everything I hoped it could and would and should be. I'm going to be the guy that the movie didn't feel that it was as long as 2 hours and 45 minutes (or 2 hours and 30 minutes minus credits). I didn't get bored at all. I was on board for the whole thing. Numerous times throughout the movie I was just staring, mouth agape, in awe at what I was seeing on the screen.

If you're on the fence, please go see this movie. See it in IMAX if you can. This is one of the best cinematic experiences I've ever had. Everybody involved in this production was at the top of their game.

Normally, I can find some kind of constructive criticism to give a movie, even a movie I really enjoy. This one has me stumped. I just felt such a profounds sense of relief that it exists, and that it was such a awesome experience to see it. Can't wait to revisit it. The only thing that bums me out is the whole financial disaster business, which doesn't surprise me. Just disappoints me. This is the kind of film that we need, and if the commercial failure of this film leads to a reluctance for studios to invest in projects of similar ambition and scale in the future, that will be a damn shame.

[u/thenewtransportedman]

Damn, Mike needs to watch Sicario & Prisoners. Great films!

[u/bobuk12]

This is my first time watching Half in the Bag and it’s exactly the type of reviews I have always searched for. Do they do a podcast or anything?

[u/Lifeinthevillage]

"Nothing happens" in the original blade runner in the same way that nothing happens in Ulysses or nothing happens in The Old Man and the Sea. The space in the movie is there so you can consider the themes it presents. If it was non-stop action movie you wouldn't get a chance to reflect on the huge topics, of what it means to be human, what matters about being human, what are you going to do if your moments are lost in time like tears in rain. If the film didn't give you that time to think we wouldn't be talking about it today.

[u/ericluster]

That fight scene at the end was fucking beautiful, the waves really complimented the whole scene.