Half in the Bag Episode 154: Halloween (2018)

half in the bag I once tried to push an elderly woman down the stairs well Jay looks like it's another day for you and me and paradise why are you holding a clipboard my visions been getting a little fuzzier since I've been drinking more each day did you change your hairstyle hey Mike sorry I'm late what I tried to go to Dunkin Donuts but they changed their name to just Dunkin so there was a line out the door of people wearing swimsuits and sex perverts need to go to Larry's locally sourced hipster doughnuts instead oh is that the place where they use reclaimed sawdust instead of flour yeah great I love their doughnuts that keep me regular hey who the [ __ ] is this I don't know I thought it was you get the [ __ ] out of my chair oh Jesus Christ this is madness it's about time you guys notice me I'm Tim Tim magar ball from lightning fast corporate Tim but our last boss was named Tim he flew through the roof of our VCR repair shop and then ripped off her idea for a movie review show well I'm a different Tim are you telling me there's more than one Tim well if you're from lightning fast corporate you must be here to help us fix this VCR let me give you the only tool you're gonna need spear no I'm actually here to do a performance review of our three last remaining VCR repair shops there's the one here Milwaukee another one in New York and another one in London wow I didn't realize we had repair shops in such major cities well those other two are actually just cities in West Virginia ma'am nevertheless I'm here to observe your performance and see how well you utilize your time so just do what you normally do and pretend I'm not here let's see now this uh this client mr. Plunkett you've been repairing his VCR for how many weeks now weeks oh well actually it's been about seven years roughly a hundred and fifty three to 154 episodes mmm-hmm J I don't know if I could work with this guy staring at us my work you mean drink sleep and talk about movies yes exactly well we're gonna have to at least look like we're fixing the VCR at least until he leaves yeah sir sometimes when J and I work on a VCR we like to talk about a new movie you know it helps us relax and kind of focus on the job that's not a problem is it just do what you normally do pretend I'm not here well time to get started as you can see this VCR needs a lot of work okay have you seen the new Halloween I pray every night that he would escape hey Belle did you do that for so I can kill him Halloween is the sequel to Halloween but not the sequel to Halloween technically it's Halloween too but ignores the events of Halloween - and Halloween - it's the first Halloween film to bring back Jamie Lee Curtis except for Halloween - Halloween 7 and Halloween 8 but finally the series is brought back John Carpenter in some capacity for the first time except for Halloween - and Halloween 3 it's also the first Halloween film to ignore the previous films in the franchise's timeline except for Halloween 3 Halloween 4 which ignores Halloween 3 Halloween 7 which ignores Halloween 3 Halloween for Halloween 5 at Halloween 6 aside from all that it's a totally fresh and new start for the Halloween franchise only you could have written that yeah Mike how did you think of Halloween well I thought Allah ween was a very well made crowd-pleaser in a unique experience we saw a fully crowded theater which usually we don't usually there's 4 or 5 people that that usually smell that are food that and or elderly elderly yeah elderly plagued this planet it's the or or or large large members of our society eating popcorn and farting in their sweatpants I didn't hear any of them listen no it was a crowded theater so everything it was a great experience to watch a spooky movie at night in a crowded theatre and a mostly respectful theater and so a good theater-going experience so when I say a crowd-pleaser movie everyone seemed to be having a good time watching this i I thought it was spotty I thought it was effective in certain areas yeah effective is the best word for it because there's large swaths of the movie that really worked for me I think it starts strong and it ends strong and there's some kind of walking narrative stuff like kind of halfway through there's a plot twist that is kind of terrible and exists only to get a character from one place to another so the ending of the movie can happen and that's like the worst part about the movie but what it does that I think none of the almost none of the other Halloween sequels did is that Michael Myers feels like menacing and scary again because he's completely unpredictable and he has no motive they've eliminated Halloween - he's not related to Laurie Strode I don't want to spoil anything but there's a kill early on where you're like oh okay this is he's intense again and he has no kind of focus as far as what he's trying to do he just keeps moving and killing which I really liked well should we say spoilers yeah I guess our initial thoughts are it's pretty good especially with a crowd I mean this isn't like you know [ __ ] the usual suspects it's another Halloween sequel yeah yeah yeah it's one of the best Halloween sequels but that's like the faintest praise possible if the Halloween franchise is lame I think I yes exactly I sit there and I look at a movie like this not sadly not from my own enjoyment perspective but from a did they do everything correctly like they should the Rob Zombie ones blah and the best review the Rob Zombie ones so yeah you have you have a 40-year old franchise that's basically successful from the first film except for the fourth film which was the first soft reboot of one of my favorite ones is Halloween for Halloween for is okay but yeah that is that is that the first soft reboot in movie history I it might be because it's basically a remake of the first movie but it's not it's not technically a remake one of the interesting ideas in the movie which wasn't totally developed or sort of like kind of just teased was how a person copes with tragedy yeah and how like that's the doctor was talking about it you either go crazy and become super reclusive or you become like violent or you know the brain can go in all different ways and it was like the good side in the bad side Laurie Strode and how does Michael what what motivates Michael Myers you know there was a kernel of the movie and I liked that but the kids said something like oh what happened 40 years ago some guy stabbed five people yeah like in this day and age you know and they're obviously alluding to like mass shootings that happen at hiding yeah they don't get too crass about it but clearly that's the point is like there's a lot of [ __ ] horrible things that happen every week now yes and so the five people getting stabbed in 1978 this seems like like a fluffy kitten yes so that I'm glad they addressed that and then so they though the filmmakers took this and said what do we do what how do we translate Michael Myers forty years into the future well hey butchers more people they keep it very simple they keep it a little more simpler it's following that trend of like the force awakens and like Jurassic world in which I was worried about when I saw the first trailers I was like oh they're just gonna force awakens' it and now Laurie Strode is the new doctor Loomis but they kind of don't they do more interesting things with her character and the third act is almost like an inverse of everything from the first movie it's taking the I mean Halloween kind of started the whole kind of final girl trope that every movie every slasher movie in the 80s ripped off and this is sort of turning on its head where at the end of the movie she's stalking Michael which is it's kind of neat well yeah it worked like the original movie like that movie works as its own movie without sequels now you do this it works as an idea of like oh the the final girl is now the one doing the stalking that works as an idea we don't need any sequels to this even though it'll probably be more but that it works as a nice kind of bookends to it does yeah we're done now we didn't even need this movie but we have it and it's pretty good and now we need to be done it's a nice closure he really is and I and I know what you mean like there's they they show the closet and and Laurie Strode is busting into the closet they should have had her breaking into it that have been awesome yeah but the the idea is the same is that she she thinks Michaels hiding in the closet and she's coming after him yeah and then there were a couple other little moments that I thought were cute the girl sitting in the classroom in the far corner seat you know and then the shuts out it's yeah Jenna obviously the inverse when Laurie is thrown off the balcony and then she's gone yeah yeah yeah a lot of it's subtle enough where if you haven't seen the first movie it's not gonna be like oh is this a reference like it's not distracting it's not the last 35 minutes of Rob Zombie's Halloween where it's recreated the exact same movie but the movies halfway over so we had to do it and twice the time but yeah the the the nod to the first movie was you know her in the classroom she looks out she sees Laurie Strode it works as a nod to the first one but it also works somatically with what they're doing with the the flip so a little more to it there [Music] let's write down something how do you think he hears us talking about Halloween instead of working on the VCR well I told him we like to talk about movies while we would work on them but I mean he can physically see us oh yeah you got the up at r5 somewhere of the r5 indicator yes right here it's a it's it's it's blinked out and yeah yeah we're good we'll get those on order soon but but in the meantime we can repair the the is that the tape head this thing that spins I don't know what's a tape head cuz magnetic particles on the tape oh my god [Applause] let's talk about the original Halloween and all the gut bursting hilarious character moments to the the tone of dread and terror are you saying that in comparison to this movie which had some inappropriate comedy there's the one kid the girls babysitting the the little black kid the breakout star of the film that kid is hilarious great little there's a couple like once Michael Mayer shows up like that kid should not be saying things that the audience is laughing at what they do or he's like [ __ ] this or something okay you blew it you blew that moment you took it too far you go up there and Dave whatever and I think there was maybe almost like cuz I know David Gordon Green does a lot of like improv in his movies I think they probably like realize that kid was funny on set or like kept pushing it yeah he pushed it a little too far even though he is really funny and and I don't quite know how to feel about that and that's when I say when I have to use the two different sides of my brain the the one side is watching the audience around me kind of laugh and have fun yeah throwing a little comedy you have some gore you make Michael Myers scary you don't do anything too stupid it's like it's like you you you just play it right down the line and you get out with your pants intact and you're asked not on the fire Blum house knows what they're doing but the one thing that really irked me we cut to two cops sitting in their squad car two cops we haven't seen yet they're just waiting for they're patrolling there they're outside Laurie yeah struts house they have some kind of a name dialog about uh it's not a type of sandwich type of sandwich and you ate peanut butter and jelly and no I my lunch is a brownie a little five-year-old would have a brownie four and I said why is this it in the movie just have him sit there and go well what I think they're doing and and they do it with a lot of the characters in the movie is that like even the the minor minor characters they give him a couple little moments to of either levity or something to kind of flush them out just enough so that like when they die it has a little bit of an impact even though it's a minor character but don't have them so stupid thing that that part didn't work there's a part earlier in the movie when the Michael Myers is being transported oddly enough on Halloween night to a new facility is know what happened at the VA there was a night before well the night before technically but yeah right but the bus crashes and then there's like a dad and there's a little kid that are driving on the road at night and the little kids got like this weird raspy voice it's like a bizarre little character thing but he's talking about to be a dad he wants to be a dancer his dad's like I thought you like hunting with me like it's like I do like hunting but right now I want to focus on my dancing it's a very like weird David Gordon Green kind of minor comedy moment yeah I didn't know like I figured like the kid and it kind of happened the kid would like use his dancing skills do a pirouette and know my guys that's a completely different movie Wow I don't agree with this at all Jay I bet saying it works I'm saying that's what he's going for that that moment worked for me a little bit the the two cops the brewers were going for the world series but how did that work out okay I don't care what he's going for I mean like are we gonna watch a movie about this little kid and his dad I'm over that's the that's the thing is like it's a hunting episode from this you you you get like you understand the relationship between that father and kid and then this is what I was alluding to earlier before we got the spoilers Michael Myers snaps that little kids neck it's like oh he's killing kids now that's what I realized that the movie was gonna be a little more kind of brutal and straightforward and some of the sequels that's fine he didn't stab that baby though they knew how far to push it they know how far okay that's like 12 killing gay twelve-year-old but you can't kill a baby J I understand no I know I didn't get that two cops in the car talking about the stupid sandwich yeah how about two cops in the car and the older cop says you know my daughter was friends with the blond-haired girl who got stabbed you know she's just over at her house last week it's a shame what's going on in this town oh yeah well I mean me and my wife I think that I haven't kids yeah you better move out ahead and field son Michael Myers is back that's something okay we get a little information but not like I like sandwiches that are Vietnamese sandwiches but uh we I put peanut butter and jelly on hey I'm not defending that little bit of comedy I'm just saying I think that's what he was tried to do okay I get it I give a kid but but it it it weird ins the tone the humor in this that didn't work except for that little black kid but I think a lot of the the suspense sequences work oh yeah yeah yeah yes I'm just saying like it's like you're sitting in in a nice warm jacuzzi and someone just comes in and just dumps ice water on your head for a moment yeah and then goes away and then the jacuzzi gets warm again then they don't come back and dump place watering that that's not there's not enough of it in this to ruin them there's not enough to run the movie but there's those two bits that I think could three bits that I think could have been handled differently really and that's that's my only real problem with the movie I thought everything else was fine I thought the little team dance party was a little knowing that is fine it was nice to see an actual like Halloween dance like a high school dance in one of these movies well they're always about teen characters and they're never there never doing anything Halloweeny Michael Myers shows up and starts stabbing everybody good kind of fun but the the the [ __ ] boyfriend never got his comeuppance no like he kissed another girl and he threw her phone and jello what about that cheating guy let's it's it's random the Michael Myers killing is completely random that's true and and the and it did add a lot of those sequences I did not know what was gonna happen like like Michael Myers like he starts off and he grabs a hammer from just some random house and just butchers some lady in her kitchen yeah and trying to find his butcher knife he finds a switcher knife and then he just goes to the next house oh there's a baby's only only one shot - yeah which is great there's babysitter in this house I'm gonna kill her he's not going after Laurie he's not like looking in a phonebook like he did in Halloween for does he look in a phonebook I don't remember leave so I believe after he he steals the gas station attendants uniform he goes and looks in a phonebook well that's the lame I could be thinking of Back to the Future when Marty punch down doc they're very similar movies bought the fact that the movie keeps with oh he's looking again isn't he is it weird that we're just staring at him he's just staring at us what are you looking at you prick I fixed it ready to receive a tape yeah ready to receive a tape to play your favorite recorded television programs you know I think all we got to do is put the lid back on this and we're done oh yeah yeah oh you broke it sometimes we would break a tool and then we got to order a replacement which could take six day weeks it's not our fault not our fault it's just a hazard of the job yep [Music] speaking of michael myers killing being random as it was in the first movie there's absolutely no reason for him to lock on to the Laurie Strode and her friends it's just what happens because it's random and he's evil this movie does that which creates a bit of a problem and that Laurie Strode is like obsessed with he's come back he's come back for me and he's he didn't and he's not after her and you could develop that into something interesting because Laurie's kind of lost her mind the idea that like she's been obsessed with this for the last forty years and she means nothing to him they really could have developed that further but as it is it's just sort of glossed over in what I said is a dumb plot twist which is Laurie calls the new Loomis is this doctor guy that's obsessed with wanting to understand why Michael does what he does which I like that there's the podcasters at the beginning that are kind of the same everyone's trying to figure him out and there's nothing to figure out he's just a blank slate so we have this plot twist where the the doctor kills a cop he kills the sheriff stabs him in the neck stabs him in the neck because he wants to understand what it's like to be Michael Myers well no no no if he wanted to understand what was like to murder he would have done a long time ago yeah he stabs the cop out of necessity and then goes oh that's that's kind of what it's like yeah well yeah he puts on the mask for a moment and he puts Michael in the back seat of the car and he says like now we have to have you you know confronts Laurie Strode and so they drive to the strode house and then he gets killed immediately and that plot twist only existed to get to the end of them the climax of the movie because otherwise there's no reason for Michael to go after Laurie Strode yeah which is a bit of a problem it's a little clunky yeah I mean there's a part of me that kind of respects the idea that Michael Myers is just a mindless killing machine no I love that he's pure evil yeah but but there's also a part of me that misses plot because Michael Myers is just sort of like he's moved on the bus apparently he breaks loose and kills everybody to get off of the bus yeah but then I was wondering if the doctor was supposed to be partially responsible for what is riding on the bus like he wanted Michael to get out yeah possibly yeah he's doing this weird study because he's lost his mind - that makes sense but but Michael then gets steals the guy the the hunters car and ends up in Haddonfield I guess where he could drive anywhere he wants but then he stumbles around Haddonfield then yeah but by processes that are not his own ends up at the Laurie Strode house went really like theoretically he could just walk away and leave I guess if he sees a person he just wants to kill that person yes well then that's all he's doing he's going from house to house when they when they run into him before the the twist happens he's just walking around it crosses the line at children that bump into him in the street yeah but doesn't cross the line a different child mindless killing machine yeah he has some motivation enough to go get a hammer and replace it with a knife yeah does he just like killing people that are alone well I don't think it's even that he likes killing he just kills so that's the whole idea and that's that's why the first movie works as just a movie because it's like oh that's scary like just this stuffs happening completely at random which is why which is why all the sequels are so lame well yeah it's like we said a million times it wasn't done thing it's a simple concept it's the boogeyman right the boogeyman is real you don't need explanations it works in that context in this sure the boogeyman is still real but we have we now have an attached history and mental hospital and a doctor and podcasters and a crazy lady and in a bomb shelter and and it's like if Michael's sole goal was I got to get Laurie Strode because she's the one person I did not kill that night yeah that is my sole motivation I would have been okay fine that's I think they probably avoided that because that's basically what the sequel become how the original Halloween - which is like oh it's that's Michael Myers his sister John Carpenter pulled that out of his ass out of desperation but I mean at least that does introduce something to kind of develop because unlike in the fourth movie it's Laurie Strode woods daughter and they kind of keep developing that Jamie Jamie Lloyd yeah but yeah it's like they came up with the idea for the third act for this movie of like Oh Laurie Strode 'el she'll be stalking Michael and she'll have all these booby traps and you know guns and stuff and then they're like started writing the movie and then they got to like oh how do we get to the house like yeah yeah the doctor goes crazy Rossum in the back of a cop car oh it's crazy yeah which that house meant the third act of this movie I felt like I was watching home alone I don't get it a little kitten home alone he sets up all the traps I didn't see that formal oh it's like a Christmas classic you never saw it hold all old Oh you haven't even heard of it no oh have you ever heard of home alone - yeah lost in New York yeah yeah I've seen that it's waited for this night he's waiting for me we didn't really talk about the Lori's daughter and granddaughter I liked that the movie isn't just the Michael Myers and Laurie Strode show strong female second it's it's about family yeah yeah if only they had worked on the element of that was what I found the most interesting was when they talked about like that scene that dinner scene like that that really sold it oh yeah there's no movie it's like you showed Laurie Strode yeah I got bolts and locks and I got a castle and lights she's not like I was worried they would make her like badass gun-toting no she's [ __ ] crazy and she's ruined her life yes life of her daughter which has a ripple effect on her granddaughter and I like that generational stuff yes they're having a nice dinner and crazy grandma shows up yeah and she starts crying at the table and it really makes you feel like oh this is this is a real person with like some kind of mental illness mental problem and and it was like oh okay you know yeah I could see that it's not like hokey like Michael's coming back forty years later and I got shotguns like that's what I was but it was like she's damaged she's damaged and and and the doctor talking about how a traumatic event can shape someone's whole life I thought there would explode but no one wants to sit there and watch them explore that well that's the problem watch it guys head get stop there why don't watch Albert Einstein's head get stopped the theme definitely gets muddled at the end because it's like Judy Greer as Lori starts daughter is like kind of you know she was taken away when she was young and now she's saying like no mom the world is not an evil place like I'm not gonna you know follow your you're crazy advice so she's kind of going in the polar opposite direction of her mom and then the granddaughter is kind of right in the middle she's sort of like young Laurie Strode but then the whole theme of like kind of taking back your power from your trauma gets thrown out the window and at the end it's like Oh crazy gun-toting grandma was right we just need guns and we need to murder this man and set the house on fire there's my childhood shotgun yeah that I painted on with my sparkly morrow I guess everything can get solved with guns a little muddy with the themes lair camera well - III would say to wrap this up then J we talked about our our passing of the torch or passing of the the butcher knife which is of course a reference at the end of Halloween for little girl is the new Michael Myers and the mask which never develops no they [ __ ] that up it come on it's a great ending but they they don't like [ __ ] I don't know they they're all all three characters over the back of a truck they're running away from the burning house I thought we were gonna get a cameo from John Carpenter there I don't know why but when the truck pulls up and they're like can you help us no I was expecting him to be driving the truck that would have been fun just smoke smokey rolls down a ton of smoke comes out and it's a John Carpenter and Snoop Dogg no it's Busta Rhymes oh bus ride a profit posterize he's got the the web camera still filming the web show but they're in the back of the truck and then they're just kind of staring off into the space and a Jag goes down to the the granddaughter holding the knife with the blood on it but there's not really like indication that it had any effect on her is very a shot of the movie it was odd it was an odd moment to end oh there was a little moment before that when she's looking at the knife and she's making a decision I'm gonna go for this knife and I'm gonna stab Michael Myers and so it's almost like you know when uh when an animal or a dog taste blood for the first time then they got that yeah that instinct in them so I think that's what they were they were going for yeah well models there were gonna have a girl Michael Myers in the next film now won't happen but come with some lame excuse oh I'm like Michael Myers is too low too iconic well I noticed we didn't see him burning in the bottom stairwell of the house he was standing there for a moment then they cut and he's gone they're not gonna make the same mistake they made with Halloween too the original Halloween to where him and Donald Pleasance get completely obliterated and then they both show up in the next movie Donald Pleasence just has like a tiny scar on his cheek he was incinerated we have been on film we have video evidence it was incinerated turn the gas line on like some franchises you just want to die yeah and and like when they have horrific failures and then it's like scrap it it's like when went like Christopher Reeve was always Superman you know yeah he was Superman forever and then Brandon Roe became Superman and that flopped yes let's try it again not now Superman is Henry Cavill for a little yeah now we're gonna get another Superman same look like a spider-man we never had a Spider Man before I mean well we did and crap stuff but not in a real movie right Tobey Maguire was a Spider Man and then there is successful they did multiple films and it was like yeah and then then it was a Andrew Garfield and then there was like a disaster and then now it's a kid now Tom Holland Tom Holland yeah and and so now it's no longer that iconic like yeah you're famous for this role there's no sort of longevity or or resonance it's just like this is the newest one yeah you know a couple years it'll be another new one after Superman for you better wait 25 years to start that [ __ ] up again yes and it's like with spider-man the amazing spider-man disaster and then it's like one week later I know they sold the spider-man rights over to Marvel or whatever but but it's like they can you can erase history yeah and start over like a year later now and no one remembers yeah it's like celebrity scandals number celebrity scandals and like the 80s and 90s people still think Richard Gere put a gerbil up his ass I could put a gerbil up your ass in 2018 by 2019 nobody's talking about it that's true it's kind of like I feel like they should be punished for their failures nearly two decades before starting over with the property because I'm not gonna forget anytime soon mmm but unfortunately the rest of the world does they just want to you can have a new spider-man every six months well that's why this movie is called just Halloween I recognize that title I'll go see that yeah is it related to the Rob Zombie why I don't know it's called Halloween I'll go see it even though the filmmakers are pretty respectful of the original 1978 film the from the like studio perspective of what the general audience is gonna think just call it Halloween they'll go see it yeah I mean so I don't know I don't know where my emotions are coming from on this particular topic I almost feel like like a duped consumer almost or on unrespected consumer even though you said they respected the original film they have it's well yeah you got a look at the different perspectives like that's from the perspective of the filmmakers they found people that actually care about the franchise which is good yes but then you have like the Rob Zombie ones which were just like Rob Zombie's hot right now have him make a Halloween movie he's completely wrong for the property but I haven't do it because people like his movies are a little sleazier but yeah I mean this yeah they've got this property let's revamp it let's make something new yeah make it palatable for all audiences great they did a good job with that but now we're gonna get sequels sadly circuitry would you recommend Halloween yeah okay I mean for a Halloween fun time that's not terribly stupid yes it's it's great because it's a it's a Halloween movie coming out in October the last few came out and like July yeah what are you doing this is the perfect movie to see it's it's a it's an effective Halloween movie yeah so good that's a good time in theater and I have to mention the score briefly oh yeah the John Carpenter they they I don't know how much they paid him but he came back finally to do a score and it's awesome yeah I like those a lot of new it's not just the same the st. main theme like they use it some what's ferry there's nice surprising there's lots of cool new atmospheric stuff things you've never heard in a Halloween movie before yeah no I love the the scores my favorite part of the movie that was what I was more excited about them the movie just because John Carpenter's kind of had a little revival the last few years with his music makes music with his kids which is kind of great John Carpenter's 60 year old children make music listen well guys that yeah I think I finished my evaluation well the VCR does look worse than it did when you guys first started yeah according to my calculations you guys have drank at least twenty seven thousand beers in over the past seven years mr. plinkus paid you about a hundred thousand dollars for something can easily buy for just five bucks at a thrift store that's true I'm afraid I'm gonna have to give you guys an official corporate reprimand oh no oh God cuz you guys are doing your job way too fast what that's right usually jumps like this take about ten years so sure when they're old and senile like a mr. plinkus [Laughter] we're just talking about you

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,566,430

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, Halloween, Halloween 2018, john carpenter, jamie lee curtis, judy greer, michael myers, macaulay culkin

Id: 90joZNE9oOA

Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018