Half in the Bag episode 142: Annihilation

half in the bag hey Mike yeah I was thinking about what you were saying recently about doing some updates to the store yeah and I decided it's time to finally get rid of this super old computer get something you know a little more modern hmm that's a great idea so I can get rid of this then yeah I got the new computer in the back oh thank god I can't wait to see what this new computer looks like boy you really annihilated the old computer speaking of annihilation have you seen B'nai elation can you describe it full no start from the beginning annihilation is the new film from writer director Alex garland whose last film was ex machina you know one of the best science fiction films and forever annihilation isn't a reboot or remake and it's not based on a comic book it's based on a book but not a [ __ ] comic book it's slow intense and intelligent and doesn't treat its audience like idiots nobody went to see it Mike what episode of Star Trek didn't I elation remind you of for some strange reason I was thinking of the worst episode of Star Trek The Next Generation ever called masks asakha is waking those of you out there know it masks with Eric Stoltz plural where he [ __ ] his mom share in that movie right doesn't know what happens I know I thought that that was the dumbest thing ever that I said that because it really didn't I was just thinking about that during the movie no no that's a joke so you could show clips from masks is there absolutely no correlation well kind of the the the enterprise gets infected with a computer program of an ancient culture and it starts to slowly transform the enterprise into like Mayan ruins with like like trees and bricks and data becomes a like a like a God I was just chuckling to myself okay I'm gonna make that comparison just so outlandish so that's a joke that that five people will get yet your intro is beautiful because I thought of several things while watching this movie one I thought our society is doomed and and two I thought movies are doomed everyone has been saying this is the movie we need right now and they said that about the Ghostbusters 2016 remake they said that about Black Panther and Ghostbusters 2016 it's like isn't it great to see four women doing science and then pop all figs on the microphone he's like something about spam you have some serious knowledge to drop and something that Ghostbusters did so well females and stem together how often are we seeing that in media right now well I think the first question asks is how often do we see females in film and we don't go Ghostbusters in black panther are important films for if you're a little kid and you want to see a fun movie that has has you in it like that's it so I'm sitting back there and I'm watching this movie and I'm like oh wait this entire cast is women and that's one thing that everyone [ __ ] about is that there aren't any roles for women if you look at the top 120 films from 2010 to 2013 not one female leader co-lead that was stem here's a movie that has five women in it intelligent women there's nobody that's I'm getting to that there's no queef jokes Mike um without being showy about it or look at us we're doing a thing this is the first all-female movie like no one said anything like that no it's just a movie that has has five female leads two of them are minorities african-american one is lesbian and they're all well one is just a paramedic but the rest of them are scientists just a parent just a paramedic I know and so they're all strong women intelligent women and they're starring in a science fiction film there's no man in it and they don't do dumb things there there's not like the jokey stupid crap that you would feel like like should be put into this movie ya know they treated the characters like they were intelligent normal people and I was just like ah and then you have all this Oscar stuff with women the most important thing since sliced bread that no one in the whole [ __ ] world has talked about this movie and it's in it's smart and it's dark and it's not it's very like a horror movie it's like a David Lynch movie I was surprised that it was I thought it was completely Cronenberg yeah I thought I was gonna be more psy I mean it is sci-fi but it's definitely more sci-fi horror well it felt like a drew upon a lot of different other science fiction movies I mean so it's topic you've seen before something comes from space and it's unknown like the arrival yeah where what is this thing we've got to go investigate I go yeah actually that's a lot like a rival where they got to go in their ship and slowly learn what's happening yeah but this this was more like more horror driven more like like disease horror like yeah so it has like body horror stuff yeah I had a lot of a lot of strange elements and and and so yeah you've got people like like creaming in their pants over like silly comic book movies about like changing the world and then here quietly you have a science fiction horror drama that the studio has no faith in so they're dumping it on Netflix everywhere but the u.s. yeah and that's that's another thing too it's like well-reviewed so so this is a movie that has quietly been released has is is fairly smart it felt like a movie from like the 70s like a sci-fi movie from the 70s and and is intelligent is thought-provoking it's it kind of makes you think you watch it you know what's going on this they're no dumb tropes in it and then it's completely failed it with all the talk that this is the the time for women the uprising of women in Hollywood you know women don't get enough roles this you know women need positive role models and movies and they're like this is it on a [ __ ] silver platter and no one talked about it I found it surprising I think a part of it is when they say that they want these movies you know to have representation and equal you know equal screen time for everybody they're talking about the the like mass appeal movies and unfortunately the mass appeal movies are all dumb this movie if it had come out 20 years ago would be just fine it would be a theatrical release so that people would actually go see and enjoy but now it's like what is this I don't know what it is I don't care I'm gonna go see Black Panther for the fifth time and that's what I meant by that movies are dying yeah because like people people have been conditioned to dumb or obvious yeah where the the choices are becoming slimmer and slimmer and slimmer and and this is a good example of of where you've got a studio oh we've got this really good movie buy this this really great filmmaker who made a popular movie before yeah Oh watch it this this is gonna bore people like oh god oh god what do we do dump it on Netflix yeah and so very it's like this it's like it's like the the bottlenecking almost and soon it's just going to be Marvel's Avengers Avengers Avengers black panther - black panther - Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman three you know a cartoon movie a Pixar movie The Smurfs for you know and then it that's it those are going to be your only choices in theaters yeah and then everything else is going to be in some other platform and so I'm like watching this I'm like yeah I like this they're all the characters without me they're they're all well-defined without being like overwritten yeah you know where it's like this is the character that has this personality and it's like like really like knows about it Jennifer Jason Leigh feels like she's maybe taken too much prozac or something she's a little sleepy throughout this movie while she's dying cancer Oh spoilers I guess it doesn't matter because nobody saw this movie nobody will yeah yeah yeah sure her performance was interesting I'll say that it was off-putting at first like once you get to know what's going on whether it makes a little more sense but at the very beginning is like what is well this is a choice what is this this is an actor choice and I don't guess she was she was defeated yeah in life yeah no well that's the thing too is like I wasn't when I when I was the first time you see her I was like what is with this but I wasn't there wasn't that instant gratification where they immediately explain to you why that character is the way it is you gradually learn it and that's why we're satisfied yeah and like watching this movie it's not like okay here's what it's about it's not okay we've got to do the thing to stop the aliens you know of the alien invasion it's showing you in the beginning it's a meteorite that crashes towards Earth and then it creates this this bubble it's almost like the dome if you ever watch that TV series I haven't under the dome it's called um and so but but it's sort of like it's almost like a like a bubble like when you blow a bubble yeah there's like a weird rainbow II prismatic effect and then that's what's going on in there it's like kind of confusing scientifically so you have to kind of pay attention because it's like well there's a weird prism effect happening with DNA and cells and so they're kind of like duplicating and so it's like okay well that's that's happening but it's you know there's other things going on it's like I don't know I got a lot of like duality Natalie Portman plays a biology professor at John Hopkins so she's basically a doctor and she's talking about cell division cancer cells dividing yeah the beginning and so then there's the there's some that's what I thought was a David Lynch film because there's doppelgangers yeah and then she has an affair her husband is over here and and that she has an affair with a married man splitting cells apart and and so there's like like little themes of things going on there the two dear yes a pop up which which I thought and here's one of my theories was that the woman who got mauled by the bear she had a little story about how her daughter died of cancer mm-hmm and so she's like now I'm a different person so she just separated from her daughter and then she dies and then narrowly Portman sees these two deer in in the woods and one looks like a mother one looks like a daughter and then they run off so it's like they've been transformed transformative duality separation there's like like it's not just like here's what the movies about you you sit there and you you interpret kind of what you think it's about this is all very interesting you remember that part in black panther when they fought on the run ah services so yeah i sat there and I was like just ingesting this and then it just got creepy as [ __ ] there's a good chunk towards the end I guess we're in spoilers [ __ ] it there's like it yeah like a 20 minute chunk where there's no dialogue it's all visual storytelling the soundtrack or enemy of I don't know if you've seen under the skin with Scarlett Johansson but yeah like these creepy sounds and then like the doppelganger which kind of resembles the alien at the end of under the skin it also reminded me of Doctor Doom from the Josh Trank Fantastic Four remember in that there's sort of like half-formed not a lot of detail on it yeah all that stuff was fantastic when they get to the lighthouse and it's it's it's really good like science the alien visuals that they haven't seen before yeah also in speaking of things I haven't seen before just the whole concept the idea that like all DNA under this dome is like the same like you can you can mix with like plants and different animals can mix and you end up with one of the scariest things I've seen in forever which is this weird bare human hybrid thing with like a like a skull face and when it opens its mouth instead of roaring it's like a human voice screaming it's like nightmares like it mimicked yeah the things mimic each other cuz there's a alligator attack at first and but but Natalie Portman opens up its mouth and she's like it has teeth like a shark and she they're like did a crossbreed with the shark no no species can't do that but lo and behold they have and so the bear thing is like yeah it's mimicking human voices and that that scene was was pretty horrifying that was great but the ending is so ambiguous and strange and and the the climax you mean not the end end not the end yet no the climax because then you have you have the guy in the the hazmat suit who's asking Natalie Portman questions later and he's like so was it was it a carbon-based life-form was it from space it was so great just every I don't know what did it want I don't know what was it trying to account I don't know like that was so great and and not in like a unsatisfying way to or you're like oh I want to know like it doesn't matter in the context of the story alright there's a little tease of the and then that may not have been natalie portman that left but you know well that that's I was curious cuz I thought I had read something before seeing the movie that there was like a conflict with the studio between like Alice garland director and his producer those two against one of the like finance ears from paramount that the movie was too slow to you know weird and different where he wanted him to do reshoots and changed some stuff so I was watching the movie kind of with our minds this is what happened this is what they do but I was watching the movie and those the framing device with Natalie Portman being interviewed by the guys in the hazmat suits I was like is this a reshoot cuz this feels like like we're helping the audience along yeah like you know she's gonna be okay and it kind of deflates a little bit but apparently the producer who was on Alex garland side he had final cut so this was the movie they intended to make which is a little surprising because yeah I thought the the framing device didn't really work for me because it's like yeah okay well we know she gets out but then there's kind of the twist at the end which I also thought would have been like it felt like a studio tacked on know like we gotta have a little twist at the ends like it felt kind of obvious yeah yeah so that was a negative sharks uptake like that not possible you can't cross great difference being so yeah interesting interesting movie and I'm wondering just I was talking briefly about the visuals and the sciency stuff just HR Giger kind of alien ask that when she goes down into the hole yeah that stuff and then just the weird tendrils and the sinewy kind of gross this on the walls there's they when they go to the first so odd yeah be specific to where it's not like yeah this is what an alien monster would make this this lighthouse look like right but it was just like well it like yeah like gross things you see in science or in human anatomy or whatever that just don't quite make sense yeah but it looks natural I get much an HR Giger but his stuff is very stylized yeah yeah I just went that dark cave II sure area under but that's that's what I like is that it it didn't feel like anything I've seen in a movie like this before and then early on when they go to the the first camp and they find the guy who would like the hole in his chest and he's just like splattered all over the wall it's like it's grotesque but it's also kind of like it looks like modern art or something yeah it's very or there are the people that are growing out of plants yeah the plants are taking shape of the humans that live there yeah they're in that farm but then you have the the crystalline glass things growing out of the sand because that's what sand is it's it's glass right and it's like it's just like oh I'm gonna take this DNA from the glass and just make this thing and I was like oh that's just it feels like a weird disease it's cancer basically cuz that's what the movie started its just do it it's think it's not trying to take over the world that's just what it is so it's a it's a biological entity that has invaded earth much like a cancer invades people because that's mentioned three times in the film Jennifer Jason Leigh has cancer the woman's daughter dies of cancer and an apartment is talking about cancer cells in her class yes and so basically it's like what if an alien cancer came to earth it's kind of like the happening just just not stupid it's not stupid well there is like a there's a wild animal attack in the happening - just a little bit well Mike you are known to be the biggest fan of Natalie Portman's acting what did you think of her in this film you know Jay at first I was like I can't I can dig this I think she's doing a pretty good job in this but then there were some lines where she said them and I was oh wait that should have been said differently like there's one like kind of like weighted question that she asked somebody and and it was like why did you do that now and I wanted to hear her say like why did you do that like like you know what I mean where it's like she turned into very natalie portman performance yeah and it wasn't like I was like mmm at first like when she had a couple of the scenes with Oscar Isaac and they're doing some stuff and she was like talking to him I think was when he came back from from war and she's grilling them in this part but then sort of like she didn't seem like she knew what movie she was in a very standard natalie portman perform it was a pretty standard now well we should point out though Natalie Portman was in the Star Wars prequels yes and Oscar Isaac is in the new Star Wars film Queen Amidala meet Poe damning and then we also have Tessa Thompson is in this who's in thor ragnarok and Natalie Portman was in the first two Thor films yes yes and Oscar Isaac aka Poe Dameron was in ex machina as was general Hawkes oh my god that's right I didn't think about that connection but we should point out that Oscar Isaac does 100 percent less dancing in this film than he did an ex machina [Music] there's no dancing and he looks like he's on drugs I mean that's what he's playing and Oscar Isaac is Oscar Isaac Jason Isaacs is with an S and he is on Star Trek discovered Jason Isaacs was on a TV show called awake which is what no one else in the theater was during this film it's destroying everything it's not destroyed it's making something new so Mike would you recommend annihilation it's probably out of theaters already oh absolutely I know it's on Netflix in other countries I think I'm like March 13th so I don't know if it'll be on us Netflix that early probably not that would be really weird well I mean that was the the controversy with this and it's it's multi-layered and it becomes confusing and Quentin makes your eyes cross now out of the confusion because here you had a movie and this is normally a movie we'd say oh thank god it's on Netflix I just want to watch this at home and so we will put in theaters yeah usually they dump movies that have blow scores on Netflix this one had a high score so they put it in theaters but it bombed in the theaters and so then they were gonna put it on Netflix in every country about the US and everybody over there said we want to see this in theater yeah and so it's a it's a big mess why why you'd think it would be the the invert because Americans are are dumb and so it's like that they only want to see the Avengers yeah and Mickey Mouse movies into theaters or whatever Sherlock no Americans want to see dumb junk yeah in the theaters and and then smarter people will sit home in like a wing chair with a brand beam and they watch they just movies they watch movies from 40 years ago and say well why are we not like this anymore but the rest of the world Europe and Asia everyone's smarter than us so they go to the Kino or or or the cinema yes and they watch this movie in fact if this played in in all European countries in this in the cinemas it would be like packed theaters of completely silent and respectful people that is brilliant what did you get from that film well as a reflection they'll talk with British accents even in G even in Germany and Italy they'll they all talk with British accent yeah and they said this was brilliant but for some reason they put it in theaters in the US and theatres in the US are only a place where people go to eat nachos and pizza in shame in the dark [Music] well it's time to start up this old monitor Oh it's booting command huh some kind of program running accessing CIA database do you wish to continue should we just delete this so we can put our own files on yeah okay okay now it's pouring [Music]

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,189,667

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, annihilation, alex garland, natalie portman, jennifer jason leigh, tessa thompson, oscar isaac, netflix

Id: UtePG4Pon_M

Length: 23min 24sec (1404 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018