Half in the Bag Episode 75: Boyhood and Guardians of the Galaxy

half in the bag I don't know planet I'm on hello and welcome to half in the bag I'm Jake and I'm Jay and this week we saw two movies that were almost the same thing only similarity was that there were both movies but the first movie we saw was boyhood boiled boyhood which isn't accurate because he's only a boy from the first link our genetic games is if he called twerp after stealing a mysterious orb in the far reaches of outer space Peter quill a half-human half-alien is now the main target of a manhunt led by the villain known as Ronan the accuser to help fight Ronan and his team and save the galaxy from his power quill creates a team known as the boy hood to save the world Mike what did you think of boyhood well J before I get into how much boyhood sucked I just want to state that it's a it's pretty interesting how we watched a big-budget dumb summer popcorn movie and a small independent thought-provoking arthouse film and one sucked so bad it made the other one look look great it made boyhood made Gardens guardians of the galaxy Gardens of the galaxy I would watch that movie just a movie about people going across the universe and planting gardens stars Martha Stewart yeah I know guardians of the galaxy had a lot more emotion and heart and an indie art film seems and then boyhood dude no I I'm all seriousness um I this film felt like a betrayal of a friend because the trailer was really good and it was such an interesting concept as such a daring concept to try it's yeah the whole movie is a risk which I guess for anyone that doesn't know the idea is that this movie was shot over the course of was it 12 years 8 12 years 12 years chronicling the the the growth of this young boy into a high school student than a college you know off on his way to college and it's same actor all the same actors throughout the course of this entire thing but I guess considering that the whole movie was sort of a risk I would say it would pay off for Richard Linklater because this cute little kid grows up to be a [ __ ] pothead philosophizing Richard Linklater character yeah that's the interesting part of this is that what how the what the process was and making it do they have a complete script from beginning to end or did they sort of change the story as as life went on like oh this kid into this now and he looks like this and yeah he wants to be a photographer let's work that in and sort of let the story write itself or was it pre-written from the beginning if it was then why go through all this process of I mean it's a neat experiment I mean it was kind of cool because normally in kid growing up movies they use the same adult actor and they kind of like I haven't changed but here you see chained like you see this kid grow older before your eyes which is good to see and the other actors to Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette are in it too and they get older and that's neat in a way it was kind of like time traveling and I could watch an old movie from 12 years ago but the fact that this is just released now yeah it's weird that that the early scenes were shot 12 years ago and it wasn't released until now I mean but other than that the movie sucked it was like there were some I actually I wanted more melodrama really I wanted more over-the-top corny dramatic scenes to happen there were so many things that was like there's one part and I know someone else in the audience of the theater was thinking it too there were there were there's a cringeworthy scene where young Mason is hanging out with his high school friends he's like a freshman in high school no he's in eighth grade how can they they're hanging out with like juniors or something other heroes older kids yeah they're messing around with them with they're throwing a saw blade into like drywall yeah and and it's like the Hitchcock they're joking ways yeah and you set it up and and then the blades in the wall and they're messing around punching this board there's this little like Indian kid that they're making fun of the whole time he's holding the board oh yeah and the thought popped in my head is the kids going to punch him and he's going to fall back into the board and embed his skull on the saw and it's going to be a horrible accident that everyone's gonna have to deal with the trick and then senior sense yeah okay and someone else I heard go oh no yeah I thought something was going to happen I wasn't even expecting that kind of stuff from this movie but when that particular scene happen that's what it felt like there's anyone the mother is constantly are you drinking that we're seat belt wear your seat belt wear your seat belt are you drinking and driving no are you texting and driving don't do that and then he's looking at a picture of a pig on the phone like completely while he's complaining about cellphones yeah and I'm like oh they're gonna get an accident and the girl's gonna die and he's gonna have to go visit her in the hospital and say goodbye and he's going nope it just ends and then the next scene is I have to move my furniture into a dorm room yeah the the movie [ __ ] sucked my ears oh ha here's like watching paint dry here's what I will say I watching paint dries funner I was okay I'm assuming you are not a fan of Richard quit being an apologist for Linklater oh man I I like Richard Linklater not everything he's done but I like some of the things he's done I'll admit the only film of his I've seen was was in film school I I was forced to watch slacker and I watched it and I said this is a no Star Trek The Next Generation I don't like melodrama but I'll take melodrama over really bad corny acting and flat scenes yeah which is what this movie was filled with yeah well that's the risk - and you're talking about the little kid growing up to be an actor like I think you know he could have been much worse as he got to hold her so he's okay he's okay I'll give him that the sisters worse the sisters not as good but I was I was okay with the first maybe this movie's three hours long I was okay with the first maybe two hours of it once he becomes a teenager and they dwell on that for way too much and it's this bad overwritten dialogue that over beds under it I would say the first part of the movie is is subdued and it felt more real it didn't feel like I'm writing dialogue about philosophy and life and [ __ ] man the first stuff in the movie I actually liked quite a bit and I was thinking about it because individual scenes it doesn't feel like a lot is going on it's it's just very sort of slice of life but when you look back on it like by the time you get to when he's a teenager and you're thinking back to the beginning of the movie a lot of [ __ ] has happened and that's kind of what life is like where it's there isn't any of those like Wonder Years type moments where you're like I learned so much of that summer you know or anything like that and I like that aspect to it and I was with the movie up until he became a little bit older and it was like the writing the the the sort of realistic nature of the way the movie was playing just started to go downhill and become more like film student writing Oh I I wish the reviews about Patricia Arquette she was the most compelling interesting character and seen the [ __ ] she's gone through mm-hmm just like kind of watching what happened to her and Ethan Hawke and those those two were interesting characters the kid was not know um but I think other than just like pinpointing saying like the dialogue was kind of flat and boring there there was no like you see see a movie called boyhood and there's numerous scenes of like like lesson learning and older male figures giving the kid advice especially the scene on the darkroom with the teacher and he's like you got to go out and you got to do this and you got a you got a stand out yeah you got to do the work you can't just be this like thing floating in the wind and that and then he's like I and that's kind of what he becomes yeah and then Ethan Hawke gives him advice at the end and he's like the girl left you because she wants someone that was better and it's like okay you know what there's this quote this like gray area this quasi advice that's given and then there's no real like hard change for the character he just kind of like falls into what he wants to become in his life there's no there's no hard change in life man sometimes there are there there can be and that's those are stories people tell called movies like when things happen yeah plots and plots things have to happen carrot you have to a character has to make a choice a hard choice a character has to you know get forced to deal with these challenges and it's like watching some kid decide whether or not he wants to learn photography in college it's not does not make an interesting movie I I'd be okay with the vague lack of a concrete story if the kid was more interesting sure or if the movie ended an hour earlier I would have liked it as the case of because I remember growing up and it was like it was never you never felt like things were happening to you and you're always thinking you're seeing things happen to the people around you mhm oh and it's so the kid was sort of a vessel for that we were seeing the mom changing grow you're seeing Ethan Hawke as the dad change and grow would have been okay with that it's really for me when the movie completely lost me was when he became a teenager and it seemed to be that more focusing on him as a character but his character was a boring unfocused [ __ ] that's where it really lost me and there were multiple scenes where it's like okay this is clearly a nameless movie and that's what it's trying to be and that's fine I guess it could be fine but there seems where it's like okay the movies wrapping up now and then another scene starts you're like oh and then that scene oh that seems almost over I guess the movies wrapping up now and then another scene starts and it gets to a point where he's going off to college they show him driving a truck by himself is the first time you've seen him in the whole movie completely by himself and it's like all right he's driving off to adulthood but then there's more things after that and it just kept going I'm okay with slow moving I'm okay with a movie that's focused more on the characters and then any sort of overarching story there's a great J I'm okay but well no I'm okay with these things but when your main character starts out kind of uninteresting and then grows to be completely unlikable then you got a problem or as like can we pan the camera over to somebody else when they're in that diner he goes with his new girlfriend of the diner I was like go focus on a different character turn this into slacker where it just goes through new character and then a different character but I just don't want to see this kid anymore don't worry about it rompers you don't want the bumpers life doesn't give you bumpers richard linklater dramas like laughable and the script was the script was very very very bad very stale the dialogue like if he wrote it then he's very out of touch with young people like because what it is was like the kids are saying like straight up bro I did welcome to this suck oh yeah one actually said true dad dad that's what I was thinking of a candy girls young deadly spray yeah true dad true that no God like don't do this to me I heard that it's like cheap drama the first half was like oh the fathers are raging alcoholic and he's like it's like he's pouring whiskey at the table is a camera drink your mother had an accident you know yeah it's like I don't know I'm shooting a dog on screen you know makes everybody sad pushing an old lady down the manipulative manipulative thank you but you don't I mean I was like okay I was interested enough you know struggling single mom and the dad who was kind of a grown-up child who matured himself to more interesting characters then the kid grows up to be a turd Oh have you been partying Oh Oh Jay would you recommend boyhood no you had to think about it I did have to think about it for a second because I honestly really liked a lot of the first half and I like the concept a lot oh sure I would I liked Patricia arcade I liked Ethan Hawke I liked those characters so I would imagine critics have given this good reviews because of the the concept the concept and the risk yeah that he took and maybe their respect for him as a filmmaker but to me it's like I finally liked the movie and I liked the movie maybe that's what the movie is going for because that really kind of sums up life when you're like is this over yet yeah so this is the most true life movie that's ever been made when you think about it that's true that's by the end of it you just want to die boyhood sucked so hard you the next movie we saw was car diems of the galaxy that's right J I look you don't I see I mean like folks who have lost stuff our homes our families and we're facing a threat that could destroy us all filmed over twelve years with the same cast James Gunn's guardians of the galaxy is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named star-lord who literally grows up on screen before our eyes well Jay what did you think of guardians of the galaxy do you think when when Disney was saying who should we get to direct our next big Marvel blockbuster they said I know let's get that guy who made that movie where Ellen Page rapes Rainn Wilson I think that's exactly that's exactly how the conversation went no I loved guardians of the galaxy I was very very entertained I was this movies had a lot of hype around it which i think is weird a mainstream hype because it's not a known property I know I guess it's a Marvel movie but people seem to be really excited about this I was looking forward to it not as a Marvel movie or a sci-fi adventure movie I was looking forward to it as James Gunn movie movie and despite the fact that it's a big-budget thing big Hollywood blockbuster thing it still feels very much like a James Gunn movie like a like a Sam Raimi or a Peter Jackson type he's he's transitioned into making a larger sort of more commercial movie and still retains some of his personality or jaw sweet or Joss Whedon Joss Whedon has something I want to bring up because there I was thinking like this reminds me a lot of Firefly mmm the star-lord character of the whole the ship and yeah and the wacky adventures and I was like wait a minute Joss Whedon also directed a Marvel film and Zoe Saldana is in this as a green lady she was in Star Trek there is a different green lady yeah but she was in green so Chris Pratt stars and guardians of the galaxy who of course is on Parks and Recreation and Parks and Rec was a good show and then it was a not-so-good show and then it became a great show I didn't ask you to talk about Parks and Rec we're talking about guardians as a galaxy you [ __ ] who else is in this movie Lloyd Kaufman is in this movie he has a very prominent role as a guy in background and that's another thing I like with James Gunn he's very loyal Lloyd Kaufman has been in every movie he's done from shitty low-budget [ __ ] to this a big Disney Marvel movie and I think that's great I was surprised by the Drax character because that was apparently played by a wrestler but whenever you cast a wrestler you're asking for trouble but I thought he did a great job I thought he was you certainly had the the most emotional backstory yeah and I thought he was really great did good comedic timing - yeah good Kamiya time without be acting overly comedic he played it very straight yeah no it's a perfect perfect performance I mean the character was he wasn't just a big dumb muscle guy he had the the twist with him was his race interpreted everything literally yes he didn't understand metaphors yeah that was fun in a wordplay kind of comedic way yeah Michael Rooker Michael Rooker was good in the movie he's a James Gunn staple I like Michael Rooker lon everybody all the James Gunn regulars showed up it's so weird to see a movie like this cuz I'm used to see in these low-budget movies that he makes with all these people and his friends in it and here's this giant movie with this huge canvas and all these characters and he still uses the same people that's pretty great Peter Serafinowicz showed up who he did not have a lot to do in this movie but now every time I see him I just think of Brian Butterfield cold wall we're just gonna cut you a clip of Brian Butterfield just because we can't just because we can press plug press who jug make double sure you'll call all the dust off put it back of your doesn't a player press play I'd wait Tutt minutes for the disc to be recognized but this movie has a lot of personality a lot of good characters that's really what drives it there's some flaws that I think we'll probably get into as far as some of the script stuff goes but what really carries it is these characters this group of Outlaws James Gunn likes weirdos and outsiders and that carries over into this movie I was a little worried why after second trailer because I think at some point in the movie Chris Pratt says like we're losers you know and I thought oh no it's gonna be this like underdog thing and it's going to go there it's a really subtle a lot of fun is that what they call it nowadays fun well movies haven't had it for a long time so I don't know if kids know what fun is anymore but I was thinking about that during this movie when it was rolling the credits are rolling I was like finally a [ __ ] comic book kid's movie where kids will actually want to buy action figures for it yeah I don't see kids rushing out to buy the Winter Soldier action figures no no everyone's gonna want a group though they call them the winter landfill soldier now but yeah I want a Groot action figure I want a little raccoon action figure um a lot of fun some clever dialogue although I wasn't it wasn't as funny as I was expecting it I was the I was expecting a movie more comedic yeah 20 moments it maintained that that that balance at ghostbusters balance of serious villains and threats and and light-hearted comedy I was a little worried early on that the villain would be too generic villain but I think that kinda works considering how silly the main characters are it's a nice contrast the villain didn't need to be over-the-top I like the villain as played a hundred percent straight yeah and just I'm evil man who wants power and wants to destroy everything because that the flipside of that is the wacky you know underdog heroes and and them fighting against this supreme evil being and all this this force and power that he has it's works perfectly if we're gonna save the galaxy we're gonna have to do it together partners why would you want to save the galaxy cuz I'm one of the idiots who Oh I don't got that long a life spin anyway the neat thing about it is that it's a wholly created world yes and there's nothing that takes place on earth at all except for the very opening and so a lot of neat creative locations a lot of interesting awesome set pieces lots a good world building and moments like that little details lots of good background creatures there's classic sort of Star Trek where aliens are just people in with different colored faces I liked all that stuff nice thing is everybody has a backstory everybody has motivation and everybody you genuinely kind of care about there's a lot of I guess I was surprised with super with James Gunn's super how much emotion was in that there's a lot of emotional elements to it and I was surprised with this movie that there was so many emotional elements to yeah I would think you know it made sense after watching all of super but this is a different type of movie I wasn't expecting that and he does it again and he makes you really care for these characters but yeah there are emotional scenes and each character has their the backstory and their motivation that's really strong and and you use like you said you do feel a connection with them even even though the raccoon oh yeah it's tearing out here yeah it's one of the best characters in the movie yeah and they don't take the the emotional elements too far to where they don't corny the mo just sprinkled in just enough the movie is good at balancing it subverts a lot of expectations of these type of movies and then sometimes it kind of embraces those and there's a lot of moments where it's starting to get kind of emotional but then it pulls the rug out from under that and does something funny or sarcastic but then there's other moments where it plays that completely straight so you never know which way it's going to go yeah and that was something that I liked so much about super is the the kind of left turns it would take with the tonal shifts this movie that's moved out a little bit it's not as drastic as super but I would expect it to be very creative very high-energy very entertaining and it's weird as [ __ ] which is not very weird when you think about the fact that one of your main characters is a raccoon another is a big talking tree there's lots of goofy elements I was thinking of that John Carter movie where everyone has a goofy name a planet has a goofy name and I was worried that would get annoying after a while but you kind of keep up with it you know what's going I guess we're stuck together partners are you telling me the fate of 12 billion people and these criminals oh yeah one of my complaints would be the what sets the whole plot in motion is another every one of these Marvel movies has got the MacGuffin the orb or the cube or the sword or it's always like that one thing that's going to destroy the universe welcome to comic book I know I guess but every one of these movies has said I'm so tired of it whenever any of these movie starts explaining what the MacGuffin is supposed to do I just glit my eyes glaze over I'm like I don't care it's gonna destroy the universe they got to stop it that's that's more like they explained it out of a courtesy I did like that when they were explaining all this [ __ ] even the characters in the movie or getting bored right and then they reference that they say we don't need I didn't ask for a history lesson or something like that someone says that yeah and you know you've all super powerful MacGuffin and I was completely fine with the MacGuffin in this movie I was okay with it because I all the other material held it up yeah perfectly yeah I was I was more invested in how are they gonna break out of this prison yeah and that's all that's up that's for me yeah I was invested in these characters and seen them go to the specific situations they were in like they all end up in prison they have to break out of prison there's a little subversion of your expectations with that as far as them explaining like we got to do this then we got to do this then we got to do that and everything gets [ __ ] up immediately and that was great uh [ __ ] yeah yes I would recommend guarding the galaxy so would I go see it right away and go see a multiple time that's the best thing I can say about this movie is that I want to see it again very soon hey J do you think it's smart to sit here and talk about movies while I pipe dumps and tons of noxious chemicals and gases into this house oh I completely forgot about it actually it's everywhere and it smells like cancer should we investigate what's happening maybe we should do something about it till next time

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,079,757

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, half in the bag, plinkett, phantom menace review, review, guardians of the galaxy, boyhood, marvel, james gunn, richard linklater

Id: lampOM4AhAk

Length: 25min 43sec (1543 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 05 2014