Half in the Bag Episode 161: Shazam!

half in the bag what the [ __ ] is Shazam Lala another day pretending to fix a VCR Oh how does he use this telephone how does he expect to play this night Court - hey I wasn't that tape the entire reason we're here we've literally had that tape since 2011 and I just smashed it hey Jay you know last episode a lot of people were asking about that red spot on your shirt what gives oh it's actually a really funny story baby backs will become yours forget David Ayer forget Zack Snyder leave it to the guy who made lights out and Annabel creation to rejuvenate the DC Cinematic Universe Shazam is possibly the worst looking corniest lamest superhero ever it's literally magic that this movie turned out to be one of the better superhero movies of the last ten years or is it witchcraft [Music] dad break whoa so Jay what did you think of Shazam Shazam is so [ __ ] corny and I mean that in the best possible way this is the first movie at a very very long time to capture that Sam Raimi corny but still sincere tone that we haven't really seen since the spider-man movies well me personally I loved it you're sitting there watching this movie and someone might say well they're just ripping off a Marvel formula but as I was watching it I was like this isn't it has that feel of a Marvel movie but not really it's almost its own unique movie pulled from both cinematic universes because there's the war of the DC and the Marvel I get that Marvel movies are like a cake where the cake part is the movie taking itself seriously and there's a nice icing on top of humor sure and Shazam is kind of inverted where there's an icing on top of the seriousness of what's happening but the the bulk of the movie is a light-hearted comedy sir and an adventure film basically yeah it's it's kind of like what you were complaining about with Aquaman basically everything you were complaining about that that movie was missing is exactly what is in this movie which is that that relatability and that personal connection I'm gonna keep mentioning Sam Raimi spider-man movies because that's what this reminded me of the most specifically in the constantly cutting to reaction shots of random normal people there's there's like the worst extras ever in the spider-man movies and it's great and this movie has that too or there'll be something exciting happening and then we just see how real people are responding and reacting and then the fine finale the movie doesn't take place in some sort of magical underwater fantasy world with hundreds of thousands of CGI creatures it takes place in a like winter carnival and it's perfect it's like they spent all DC and Warner Brothers they spent all their money on all the CGI crabs and Aquaman and they're like we only got some pocket change left for you David Sandberg go make your little movie it's kind of what's happening down the street we just film there it's a part of the it's a Warner Brothers movie it's a part of the DC Cinematic Universe if that's still a thing but it feels lower budget that a lot of the more recent ones and it and this goes along with the director to which we can get into but it has this sort of like raggedy outsider feel to it where it's not trying to be the grandest thing ever yeah okay why are you talking it's it's a movie where a little kid gets magically sent to a cave and a wizard grants some super powers the premise is ridiculous but instead of taking that premise seriously and like wrapping around a changing his costume glad they never changed his costume his costume looks ridiculous and corny the whole way through and that works well at some point he didn't go you know what I'm gonna use mushrooms and powers to make my costume more badass no that cape he has it looks like like grandma's drape so it's so awesome yeah how they left it the whole time and I mean like you you they did run around the this underground magical cavern world the mines of moria from Lord of the Rings yeah and they just had the door thing and they had to put a little production in there that's for the trailer what stops fine because it's the use sparingly yeah well David F Sandberg is a very I think he's a very competent nuts and bolts kind of director and he did a great job with this film but we should also credit the screenwriter this is a really clever funny script and I think those in concert working together made a great movie because um there's there's a lot of really well executed humor in this and I guess I didn't expect that so much from the guy who made Annabelle creation well there is an element of you could tell from certain scenes in this movie much like the Sam Raimi spider-man movies again you can tell like hey this guy has a background in horror there's a sequence this movie has its equivalent of the Doc Ock hospital scene from spider-man 2 and that's when we say the movie doesn't take itself seriously we should say the story is taken seriously it's like the whole movie is joke no it's just very light-hearted and and has that kind of fun adventurers tone but it's serious when it needs to be and it treats the villains as a real threat [Music] yes on the subject of spider-man one right of similar similar themes and and I think that's why this worked as well as Sam Raimi's original spider-man was because it is a superhero movie it's about being a hero and not about I have to stop the bad guy no stopping the bad guys part of a superhero movie and in the Sam Raimi film the the the theme was with great power comes great responsibility and that's the Spider Man bit right and then Peter Parker say yeah I'm gonna win I'm gonna win some money in this cage match what's your name kid the human spider human spider that's it that's the best you got yeah that sucks then when he sees a criminal running he doesn't do anything yeah that's when he realizes he's uh he's going down a darker path mm-hmm and the similar themes play out in Shazam when Shazam is he's literally trying to make money like a lightning show taking selfies with people he's like like someone in front of the the Chinese Theatre yeah out of the oven thetic it's superhero costume people because he's a kid so there's a little more more of an excuse there they they use his power to steal beer or go to a strip club and they're yeah did you do it a 14 15 year-old kid would do it mine's every possible concept out of that premise every joke you can have a joke in a good way not like not like predictable but every like little fish out of water kind of there's even a a little cute reference to big the movie big with Tom Hanks yeah so but over time the kid something name was Italy Billy Oh Billy Billy Peltzer Billy Zane Billy Barty's Billy Barty okay party yeah that was really partied that one of the one of the many little plot threads is that he's trying to find his real mom who he thought he just lost but she turns out to be horrible white trash then he realizes okay my foster family is better that's a real family yeah well that's all misfits but family is the key that that comes into play at the end it's all about family family and that's what's so powerful about it that's what's so powerful it's it's a much better film about family than Star Wars the last Jedi which is not about family what is the last Jedi about it's about it's about a woke lady with pink hair ramming a spaceship it's a Star Destroyer it's about a woke lady with pink hair teaching you that men are wrong about everything that's what Star was less Jette is about yeah no this is Minh I keep saying corny but I don't mean that in a bad way but all the stuff with him in the foster family it was very if I had a complaint it would be the the scenes between them him and all the foster kids felt a little stilted it reminded me of like I was thinking of like The Goonies or something to Ray have all these kids and there's the camaraderie between them but this just felt like little actors doing their own thing and Goonies if everyone was like talking over each other and it felt like real kids like movie kids right it didn't come natural yeah an issue is two storylines kind of converging at the end you have Billy and his foster brother who's crippled it was the knowledgeable superhero kid and at the end if he also then became a superhero that kind of would have like resolved that and that's what happened all the other foster kids becoming superheroes as well to kind of take the council seats at the end it sort of worked but in my cynical brain like turned on when when the movie first started because I was like wait a minute nobody could say finally with this film finally a hero for little white boys to look up to like nobody could say that about Shazam yeah there's two white kids and Zachary Levi as Shazam and then they go to the foster home and it's like the diversity house and it's like this little black girl a Japanese kid and like a fat Hispanic boy yeah I know they're all like framed up isn't a problem the fact that the the these kids are represented isn't a problem with the way it's executed is like they come into frame and like I'm here now yes yeah it was executed a little awkwardly yep and it didn't give those characters enough enough time yeah and and they're all kind of given a cork or a little story bead the one girls trying to get into college so the other the fat kid was severely under underrepresented in the storyline that's nothing he was the least fleshed out it's like he didn't like he didn't have that moment where he's gone the kids at school or making fun of me because I'm so fat yeah oh that's a mean you just take that yeah oh don't worry you could lose weight I've been trying I've been trying to lose weight nothing works the solution is coincidentally become friends with someone who turns out to be a superhero well yeah it's an arc it's a little arc he was kind of left on the wayside you have your kids and yeah but see it's like there's so much then to develop yeah couldn't really spend too much time on them but it all worked in the end well it's it's all at the service of the main story which is yeah the Billy Barty learning to to open his hearts to a family that's that's the arc of the of his story which is he's the protagonist so his advice to the older girl was about to go off to college is take care of numero uno yourself she's like oh I don't know if I want to leave this no don't worry about this family get out of here take care of yourself so this is a wonderful little arc somebody realizes there's strength in your family now you can't just do it alone it made the the payoff at the end more satisfying and it wasn't like okay now I've learned my superpowers now that bad guy is setting up a thing on the top of the Empire State Building that's going to shoot a laser and I have to go punch I have to go punch him over and over again yeah that was part of it but the bigger part was the supporting characters and the the family and right in the middle of the third act he's still track him down his biological mother now that's like oh we're back to this like this is giving this character a little bit of depth and some interest we could cut out all the superhero stuff and it would be like a little coming-of-age story sure about a kid learning to open his heart to his foster family yeah no but that see that's what you're craving is that that development of all those characters in the foster family they they develop those parents real quick you know yeah and the first like five seconds really crazy where they back me do this thing okay got it got it got it got it got it these are really good people got it they're not the nasty foster parents Harry Potter or whatever they're they're good quality people and they really care and you wanted you wanted more scenes with him interacting with the other siblings they built up the college-bound girl the little black girl was fairly well developed because she had her little secret that she was keeping she wanted to hug everybody and he's like don't [ __ ] hug me yeah I'm not your real brother that's a little quirk got some quirks and the other kid didn't do so much with them they cut some scenes out well there was an indication that the the heavyset kid was gay oh yeah yeah there's that one line when they come out of the strip club he's like not my thing it's like like a facade though because it's like oh he gay has nothing to do with that easy let's just throw labels on everybody yeah yeah a little bit fulfilled your quota that'll satisfy the mob the Twitter mobs this is crazy what are your superpowers superpowers dude I don't even know how to pee in this thing Ju saw something recently that said mothers were angry that they took their children to this because they went home crying oh no somebody tweeted at us saying that the the marketing was misleading because it makes it look like fun goofy kids your superhero movie and then there's darker aspects to it and so there he was there was like the demons scared his kids I feel no sympathy for him remember this I get out in the real this this movie is a throwback to like the the 80s and 90s movies where like is thinking of like I mentioned Goonies but also like Return to Oz or you can make a kids movie that has dark stuff in it yeah and this movie isn't that dark I thought kind of dark at the opening and I thought it was going to be darker we get a cameo by John Glover who nobody has seen since gremlins - you're supposed to be getting the bugs out of the building right well I would call these some pretty goddamn major bugs wouldn't you huh he's the dad of the villain there's a pretty scary car accident especially if you're a kid that'd be pretty scary too the whole opening is pretty pretty violence dark and scary and I thought the idea was that the dad died was like that's a [ __ ] dark way to open your goofy comic book movie turns out he didn't die but then he died later in a much much more horrific way it's a proper setup for our villain he was horribly traumatized yeah by magic yeah no everything is set up like his motivation is clear like because that's another problem with a lot of comic book movies is you never care about the villain it's getting better in recent movies like Thanos of course but even like Michael Keaton and the spider-man homecoming movie some movies are getting better villains but there was that that period like the early-to-mid Marvel movies where you never cared about yeah any of the villains but now is a decent enough setup decent enough motivation well it mimics the Billie's plotline as well with family yeah being selfish and learning to let go it's fine the polar opposite of Shazam yeah personality-wise not the most interesting but the gimmick behind it he has demons that could come out mists and materialize do things they're in his body and then they they come out in in fart clouds and daemon monsters the the payoff of theirs they have to have all the demons out it feels like a video game like you have to accomplish this thing and get all the demons out of his body in order for him to become mortal again it's very silly but then the one demon that's still inside him is envied pays off wonderfully for a moment like I think what what post-credit scene aside which give no [ __ ] about I stop with the stock can we be done with those well I like that I wanted this movie to be separated from the D see universe because at first it was like the foster-care brother is like opens a drawer and you see all these comic books and newspapers and I was like Oh neat like is that a comic book and oh he likes comics like oh wait a minute Superman's real world real yes world what that's fine no I didn't like that I'm not fine because it makes Shazam less special the whole premise of the movie less special when there is literally a Superman out there unless this is the point when he was dead I don't know well it's not because he shows up at the end you're right it's a very that's definitely Henry Cavill - yeah it's definitely him I'll do it but don't show my face but let that make me even think about like it's like funny if they showed us facing it half a mustache because I'm a CG animators again they spend all their money on those those underwater creatures in Aquaman we don't have any money to digitally remove Koval's mustache this time it was Henry Cavill we barely had it the first time we did it when he showed up in Shazam on set he had half a mustache because that's the new like hipster trend Oh doing it okay so they shot all of his scenes and they told all the cgi animators remove the hair part of his mustache and then they spent seventy million dollars doing that and then then the studio heads came back and go no no we want the full mustache and then they had to redo it again so they had to digitally put over a full mustache over the digitally removed half mustache okay and then after all that they looked at the footage and they said oh we didn't even have his head in frame someone got fired over that put what tripod malfunction mr. wood Superman's Hedison in frame nobody will notice nobody will notice it's the costume that they'll see don't you want to tilt the camera up mr. wood oh they tilt the camera up and Superman's going like this yeah that's actually Davidoff samberg's chiropractor he kind of looks a little like henry cavill if he covers his face look kids like why Superman covering his face like a vampire a lot of things can explain that ending Jay look James Wan blew all of our money on Aquaman [Music] your phone charge hell there's a little cameo by Annabel yeah yeah I'm sure everybody noticed that maybe they did but it's great that just like the reference too big it's not distracting sometimes when people try to put little in jokes or references it's like it's distracting if you don't know what it is and you're like what was the point of that a little bit but no they're in a little pawn shop Annabelle's just buried in the corner there ironically there's scenes in this movie that are much scarier than anything in Annabelle creation yeah and I I got I got superhero chills a couple times during the film yeah rarely happens well that's I have this in The Rocketeer yeah I think the the the world war ii trench scene and Wonder Woman there's those little moments where you want your superhero to feel like they're doing there's something heroic yeah and they're not just punching people through buildings there's one shot in this movie where they're flying around him and the villain and they're like punchiness they're flying through the sky and it looked like a shot right out of Man of Steel but it's just one shot and then it just cuts down to the the city street and Shazam just kind of goes I was like that then if that was an intentional like [ __ ] at Venice T there was an intentional slight wasn't ya there the little kid in his apartment building is playing with the Batman super handsome oh yeah I was like hitting them against each other and right outside Shazam hits a sad whatever that super villains name was and then he drops his toys and they fall in the ground I thought I thought I read it as a slight you know because this movie was a hundred million times better Superman and Man of Steel hey our superhero has personal stakes and is actually being heroic what what a novel concept in a superhero film and it's likable and is likable which is an important factor and the likability translates to the actor Zachary Levi who does a phenomenal job at playing a fourteen-year-old kid as a grown man have you seen him in anything else it was he on a TV show it's just funny you asked I feel out of the loop on exactly Levi I saw that well I saw the the Shazam trailer you know then many many many months went by and I've watched the show the marvelous miss Mazal and season - he's in season two okay and he plays a pretty big character in season two and I'm watching him like why do I know him from and I was like Shazam he plays Fandral in the Thor movies and then I found out later that he is Shazam oh okay sorry about your window hey welcome for not getting robbed oh hey stop I'm a superhero yeah you never doubt for a second you never think about the fact that he always like whenever you turn the Shazam I was still thinking to him as that little kid just because of his performance which was always my problem with bigs like it's a fine movie but I always felt like Tom Hanks was playing the character younger then the kid that he was supposed to be embodying right even when I saw that movie as a kid I was like why is he acting younger than the actual kid version of himself right so he acted like five-year-old yeah and and yeah Zachary Levi pulls it off perfectly where he's just got all those little mannerisms and just he's really good in it yeah and like we said they mind every possible comedic beat out of what you would do if you suddenly looked like an adult right the first thing that they think to do has grown up is go get beer yes and then I'd like to purchase some of the finest beer I mean just those hard cuts yeah comedy cuts great and then that dead center in the frame that's a perfect comedy framing yeah he comes out with the beer and then they start drinking it and I heard a mom because here you see the little kid drinking a beer and I was and they did that 20:19 and then the you know they spit it out and they say it tastes like puke or something yeah and then the mom goes oh good it's like oh good he's gonna start drinking and I was like okay you know my selfish grown-up humor version of me wants to see like them drunk Shazam one and the other kid throwing up in the toilet and kind of get a little darker but I was like okay that's good that's enough thanks my need for my garbage fast food yeah and then that's paid off later when he's like and I think of the one place to go there was a wonderful callback that was some of those like the with humor you want it to be surprising and I was not expecting them to bring back the strip club so the fact that they do during the the high-stakes conclusion of the movie was perfect a beer and a strip club in a children's superhero film well that's again I feel like I'm the nineteen eighties that's what I say it is like kids acting like kids they they say [ __ ] a few times it's just like it last year where it's like it's it's refreshing to see things where it's not like all the edges are completely sanded off like not that this is an edgy movie but that's why they call him David Sandberg that was a quality quality joke and just see I'm pretty fast I'm fast superhero supposed to do kids want to see scary [ __ ] they want to see demons biting off people's heads you do in a way that isn't horribly violent and fits in a movie with this more lighthearted tone right Sam Raimi did it [ __ ] 20 years ago tons of filmmakers did it in the 80s through the 90s and then there was a period where everything just felt so sanitized and so it's nice to see people kind of reimbursing that there was plenty of kids in the theater we saw it that we're clapping it's okay for kids to clap in a movie it's adults knock that [ __ ] off but little kids that they get excited yay all right my hero did something exciting in heroic like fine and this is a very relatable film to kids because the kid becomes a superhero so there was a one lonely bearded man in our theater who came by himself and it's like well you don't have a friend to go with you either if you have a lady she either didn't want to go or you don't have a lady and you don't have children but you're a grown man that wants so much to Sam just stay home just stay home you can wait for it to come out in video stay at home and masturbate at least you don't have to suffer the indignity of going up to the ticket agent going one fish's a.m. that's true you can just see this little Autobot Mitrano no one's looking yeah it's like you're walking into a porno theater your shoulder right one Sam don't wear your Shazam t-shirt I wonder because this movie is it's not a kids movie but it certainly appeals to kids more than like a Batman V Superman or Man of Steel which are just like miserable nightmares but those movies do have their fans there's people that defend the Zack Snyder stuff and that sort of DC darker DC Cinematic Universe it's different than the Marvel movies because it's edgy like then they go see this movie and it's like cute shenanigans Shazam is a part of the DC Universe yeah not my Shazam no hash tag not my Shazam right right Shazam should be [ __ ] ripping people's heads off and smoking we drink that beer he should have chug the beer and then threw the bottle at some [ __ ] I I this is the kind of superhero movie I enjoy because it has all all hits all the right beats for a superhero movie and specifically one one good little sequence was the bus sequence when he's that's well that's was a important plot point the device was that he's he accidentally shoots lightning and blows a tire out of the bus and it's his fault that the bus is hanging off the cliff yeah and then there's Sony has to learn to actually be a hero yes Yeah right that's his first actual heroic moment other than the robbery scene which is more selfish kind of consequential he said it was funny that he was bulletproof and yet but but and and that's a good moment to you're talking about extras the characters because they're all falling from the bus and hitting the glasses that he drags out this dirty mattresses and then the guy is laying there on the glasses like no no and yeah they're not it's exciting and Heroica but still humorous without the humour detracting from the gravity of the situation right yeah yeah well balanced so Mike would you recommend Shazam absolutely bring your kids kids need to see some horrifying things every now and then they need to see demons biting people's heads off but ending up 10 and up 5 and below no take them to don't take your kids 5 and below to any [ __ ] movie keep them out of the theater cuz they're gonna drive me nuts yeah keep them down on your basement Oh Jay you were gonna tell me about that red stain on your shirt oh yeah add break

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,380,464

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, shazam, dc

Id: Xoi5hA86BmA

Length: 30min 34sec (1834 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Jay’s friend from twitter made this movie right?

[u/fallenmonk]

Jay's got red on him.

[u/Ermpersernd]

The kids at school are making fun of me 'cause I'm fat :(

[u/el_t0p0]

tfw bearded grown man who saw Shazam alone

Oof

[u/CELTICPRED]

It's a film about family

Saw it this weekend and loved it. Hope the box office can do well so we see get to see Levi vs The Rock. Sounds like a great charisma matchup on paper.

[u/Scorp-Ion]

"Shazam should be fucking ripping peoples heads off, and smoking. When he drank that beer, he should have chugged the beer and threw the bottle at some bitch's head!"

I loved this part, it really does read like a youtube comment.

[u/Davidellias]

the ad break joke made me laugh

[u/CowFos]

I liked the bit where Jay said that the fat kid was 'the least fleshed out'.

[u/keggerz1]

Did they film this with a new camera? The shadows look much deeper, but they look really separated from the background as well.