Half in the Bag episode 91: Ant-Man

half in the back get out of my car and into my dreams god this job is so boring it's putting me to sleep faster than Bill Cosby hey did you hear Bill Cosby was recently spotted at an AAA meeting really I didn't know Bill Cosby was an alcoholic oh no it was a meeting for a mature anesthesiologist hey did you know Bill Cosby used to do ads for puddin pops well now pops is putting it in them hey did you know Bill Cosby kept all of his sweaters from The Cosby Show really those sweaters always seem so hot and stuffy to me yeah he'd let the ladies wear them hoping they'd pass out hey Jay how do Bill Cosby's dates spell jell-o how je l hey you know what Bill Cosby's wife's nickname for him is what's that serial rapists hey speaking of falling asleep and getting raped have you seen Ant Man yep well I believe now we should talk about ant-man ant-man is the latest Marvel movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Marvel films it stars Paul Rudd as ant-man a Marvel superhero ripped right from the pages of a Marvel comic book in the Marvel film ant-man is hired by a former ant-man to break into a building to steal a bad ant-man suit which will most definitely not eventually be worn by an evil businessman original director Edgar Wright left the project when Marvel wanted to stifle his creativity and create connections within the film to the Marvel Cinematic Universe he was replaced by Peyton Reed who ironically directed a film called yes-man Mike what did you think of marvels ant-man ant-man was very very good yes that's that's my only description of this I was I would call a good manufactured fun does that seem appropriate yeah Paul Rudd is is Paul Rudd he's not full-on paul rudd no a lot of surprisingly a lot of the the paul rudd like quips and and witty remarks kind of fell flat the actual fun part of the movie was the visual effects and the little miniature him running around like a full tiny man and a little fight and the train set toys and and all that although there was a lot lots of inventiveness ingenuity cleverness it felt like kind of a Pixar II movie um and then the plot was pretty pretty standard fare I see the plot is one of the things I like the most about it which I went into this movie not giving a [ __ ] about ant-man not excited about man man the only interest I had was the Edgar Wright connection I was like oh I'm curious what you know I have a feeling that most of what's left of the plot was his idea because it's a little more clever than a typical like Marvel yes man to writer so that's unfortunate Marvel told that go right he was Edgar wrong but yeah I saw the trailer and in the trailer you see evil ant-man suit and so I was thinking especially during the first part of the movie is like well first of all the villain is the most ham-fisted and boring villain ever but I saw the trailer and it's like okay it's gonna be like the Iron Man thing again or it's at the end he has to fight evil Ant Man but the movie isn't I mean that's a part of the movie but it's not really about that it's more of a heist movie it subverts the typical you know we have to save the city or we have to hit save the world like there's an element of that but it's not about the big battle at the end that's just a portion of the movie and thankfully that n battle at the end is actually really creative and fun it's usually the worst part of these movies but I really enjoyed that because they they treated it with a lot of levity which you should do with a movie about a man that shrinks and controls ants yes the the heist stuff was fun the the little plot with the father/daughter relationship paralleling with Mike Michael let's say Michael Keaton what's his name Michael Douglas Michael Douglas and his daughter and this is a little ham-fisted little plot II a little movie but that's what it is it's a movie and yeah the bad guy like they didn't take it too seriously and then they addressed like you know why don't you just get the [ __ ] Avengers just to smash this building into a Mariah he's has been that so they they bring that up or people always bring that up with every solo movie now or it's like why don't they bring the Avengers in because if they did and there wouldn't be a movie right you just kind of have to accept that you have to accept that Nate a logical reason why they shouldn't made sense and then the fun little cameo from Captain America's best friend Falcon the Falcon I don't forget his name uh oh yeah is that the stuff Edgar Wright didn't one the movie like I'm assuming that the more connection yeah he had kind of his idea of what the movie should be and uh saying not gonna have them now now this suit has power you have to learn how to control it that's our motivation Paul Rudd and they want to stop crazy businessmen from selling a bunch of Yellow Jacket suits to Hydra and then they'll use them to take over the world yeah not just stop him but they want to sneak into the facility and steal it because he in the past is very competent thief yeah I'm speaking on a big term that's sure but what I like to like about this is the details of it's not just we need to break in and stop him it's like they actually have a plan yeah it's a little more clever it reminded me a lot of The Rocketeer Timothy Dalton's movie star character who was a secret Nazi and then they had the Nazi film reels of all the rocketeers like taking over the world with their rocket yeah it had a bit of an 80s feel to it where it wasn't taking itself too seriously it was embracing the fantastical elements which a lot of the modern marvel movies are more like trying to keep them grounded but still have fun with it this one didn't seem to care about being realistic at all which I appreciated and you had mentioned some of the relationship stuff feeling a little forced I agree and especially like right in the middle of the movie they're like let's get all of her character arcs out of the way in like these three scenes one after the other and it's like why haven't you ever told me why mom died and then so Michael Douglas just says here's why your mom died and she says why didn't you tell me that and I was thinking the same thing why did he never tell her before because it creates a dramatic scene in the movie I guess well it's like I don't know it's like baking a cake the movies a cake you have to have the flour and the salt and sugar and sure but I wish it all felt a little more organic and not just we got to put this scene in here now I guess that's what it was it was a cake that you eat and it needed all the ingredients of a cake there's different levels of tastiness of cakes that's true that's true as like a like a slightly above mid tier cake I don't know did they ever explain why he wore a helmet something about you keep you from going crazy yeah to keep your your molecules in place so you don't turn into a crazy man like the bad guy who is a crazy man before he wears the suit so that doesn't really make more sense see when I saw the helmet and Paul Rudd has to go to open it up I thought and I gave the movie too much credit I thought he needed to use it to breathe because there's an episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9 where they discover a anomaly in space that will if you pass through it it'll shrink down your molecules and chief O'Brien lieutenant Jadzia Dax and dr. Julian Bashir get into a little tiny shuttlecraft well it's not tiny then it's a regular size it's a runabout and they pass through the thing and they shrink and they shrink to about this big and they fly around inside the Defiant it's really it's a really great episode it's pointless but they're like we got to get out of the ship and and fix something and then the doctors like no no you can't because when you breathe outside of the ship the MA the oxygen molecules are too large for your blood to assimilate them so you'll suffocate to death so I thought and you wanted that kind of science and ant-man hey did you know mommy can I keep her as directed by Fred ole and Ray who did alienate her there's a scene it's actually done twice in the movie where there's a little montage of Michael Pena painted explaining this the the backstory of this heist that he's leading up to and it's like a he's explaining it but we're seeing flashbacks where the characters are talking but it's his voice coming out of them and it's like whoosh shop like one of those cheapo romantic comedies that they dumped into theaters every February and it's a little unfortunate like the action scenes when they just turn all the footage over to the CGI artists and they make the camera whip around and they make it all fun is a very sharp contrast from the look of the rest of the movie you try to hide your suit from me now it's gonna blow up in your face and destroy everyone you care about I like the ant-man costume out here Michael Douglas was a little blah and it's yes I'd like to see Michael Douglas again I can't realize that I saw him in something and the production design the the the laboratory stuff was cool but I didn't like Michael Douglas's house it looked like the Brumder mansion yeah it just went into the Brumder mansion and filmed like they went into like a grandma's house yeah and it was so so small and I thought he should have had a more vast estates later it it seemed like he should have been more wealthy and have a bigger house and a much more cool-looking secret lair laboratory type thing but I think that kind of played into the then the one thing I did like about the movie was the the underdog kind of element like Oh Paul Rudd's the underdog his life keeps [ __ ] on him and he nobody likes him I think that's why it reminded me of an 80s movie too is like those classic tropes of write down on his luck guy he at one point he has a job at Baskin Robbins he gets fired from and his bosses Neil hamburger Neil hamburger and ironically the kid wants to order a hamburger at the ice-cream place I don't know if that was intentional or not but it was great Neil hamburger is great yeah there's only one little C it is great yeah and the underdog element and then I guess Michael Douglas is kind of the underdog of his realm um well yeah I like that the movie was just as much about the Michael Douglas character as it was Paul Rudd's get out of here did you think you could stop the future we are just a thing Manman I know wasn't my idea so apparently this movie ant-man was the lowest box office opening for Marvel movies since the Hulk which I assume was the last Hulk this the Edward Norton Hulk the second Hulk I don't know but yeah which isn't shocking to me I don't think it's like I I'm I'm anxiously awaiting that that first crack in the armor that first sign that this this I don't know why wait for this but this whole cinematic universe Empire will just collapse in under its own light it's certainly monetarily it wasn't Avengers 2 but for me creatively it was Avengers 2 or it's like I can see what's coming yeah I'm you know like going into the theater I didn't really want to see this movie if we didn't do a internet movie review show what did we do what if we weren't VCR repair men posing as videogame repairman's I wouldn't have probably even wanted to see this but after I saw it I enjoyed it well enough but and it wasn't like like you said overly obnoxious with like the the bad guy and all the stuff it was clever and fun and it was a good movie but I can see how it can this this stuff's gonna start to wear on people maybe I don't know yeah it I think I'm overestimating people I think the Parliament did enough different where it kept it feeling more fresh then yeah if this was a Thor 3 or something like that like I liked the ant-man character both him both Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas I liked the heist elements that brought a different angle to it so it did enough like maybe some life support these Marvel movies as far as creativity I wouldn't say life support but well not yet but if this feels like alright we're gonna try something different and you know as long as they keep sprinkling like a guardians of the galaxy or movie like this in like I think they're gonna they're gonna you know last quite a bit longer they have to they have to keep almost reinventing themselves and that's that's a risky thing to do when the formula works so well they'll have to take a real big hit in order to to kind of go okay we got a Reese tragedies this but this is the thing that's annoying to me slightly is the is kind of the arrogance and well we're making you know this movie and for sequels are planned and it's like I know they got a plan all the [ __ ] out they got to get all these actors in line they got to get all their schedules they got to get all this stuff but to say like ant-man 2 & 3 are already in production guardians of the galaxy 2 3 4 5 & 6 are already it's like well yeah when I first heard about like shortly after Ironman because that's the movie that kind of kicked us all off when they were first starting to talk about you know having this Cinematic Universe and connecting all these movies it's like that's ambitious and creative and kind of interesting but now it feels like overkill or like they're over stretching or it's it's more like it feels more core pretty like Leslie like where it's not really about you know making creative fun movies so much is like sustaining a brand you know it's but it is also about making creative fun movies because that's a branch of their their strategy it's like they're hiring the most creative smart talented people in the business to make creative smart movies yeah yeah but then you're looking like an Edgar Wright or it's like you're being too creative and you won't follow these specific guidelines so you got to go they have their they have their plan yeah and you know it could blow up in their face or it could just be super successful like Star Wars obviously they're planning the next two and then a bunch of spin-offs and and it's almost like movies like this with these recognizable brands and these these cinematic universes are almost guaranteed to make their money so I think at this point plus like you have to take into account the worldwide box office now - well that's more important than the u.s. box office exactly so it's like that in the past you know 20 30 years ago wasn't a big thing but now it is now everyone's connected everyone there's digital copies of movies you know send prints around movies could be everywhere all over the world at once and you could just make a [ __ ] ton of money and I think they go well this is going to cost what 200 million to make but they just laugh yeah they crap in their pants while they laugh because they know they're gonna make that in a week some something's got to give as long as they're fun like I mean it's it's tolerable but then you have something like the Terminator Genisys which was just a giant piece of [ __ ] it bombed in the US but worldwide it made money and I think they're actually going forward with the sequel to it there and it's horrible there are two sequels plan oh my god there are there's a third a second and a third and and that's the thing is like a movie like that was not well-received I don't know how much money it made but put it over in China and you're up and boom you know it costs a penny to make you know makes a dollar relatively speaking here so I don't know it's it's interesting it's an interesting time that we're in with movies things have definitely changed yes and the little movie like ant-man I'm glad it's nice that Marvel is trying they they seem to be they seem to have a good business model with producing these movies yeah it's weird though to talk about movies and like the neon going to see a movie for fun and then talking to having to talk about the business model of the whole thing as opposed to just watching an entertaining movie it's a different thing than like like a movies are an art form but it's a little different than like a musician or you know a writer or something like that it is a big collection of talented people making something whether it's on the business financial end whether it's the computer animators the actors director writers creative people it's a big group and you know the the era of the singular vision director I think is done as far as big movies go it's in the grave Jay is definitely as far as Marvel movies you bring in someone like Edgar Wright who has a vision and then they say nope yeah you have to bring in someone that will do what you say I do think this is the best possible movie ant-man is the best possible way they could have followed up Avengers 2 with mmm because it's it's shorts it's lean it moves fast it has a very simple story and it's almost like back to basics after yes all the [ __ ] that was at Avengers 2 yeah that's a good point it's like that's kind of why I was not wanting to watch this a little fatigued even Iron Man 3 which was a good movie was a little too like effects-heavy in the end like all this Iron Man's flying out there I don't know was happening anymore and I didn't want to see a movie like that yeah that's why ant-man was was funner because it was scaled back no pun intended so Jay would recommend ant-man I would I wasn't too excited about the movie but I found it entertaining for what it was I I think I would also recommend it I like you was not very interested in ant-man but it was fun Paul Rudd wasn't as witty and I wasn't as funny as I was hoping but it still had humor and a lot of cool miniature action also one quick thing while I was watching it I thought about the fact that we were not watching it 3d and this was a movie I thought might be fun in 3d hmm because he's going he's in the bathtub and he's tiny and there's water on there he's going through the tubes and and I was like this this would be a good movie to see him through thee so I norm I normally I would never ever say that but because it was almost like all these like miniature toys from like yeah the perspective the angles they used for when he was small yeah we're good yeah there's a part where he runs through a party and people are dancing yeah there's a shoes stepping around him and stuff and I was like this would be neat to see in 3d so check it out well it's 9 o'clock it's time to close up shop yep another day wasted another dollar earned hey wait a minute we've been watching this video game repair shop for months now we haven't gotten paid yeah those [ __ ] are taking advantage of us I hope they [ __ ] die well that's a little harsh be careful what you wish for J wish for what that you [ __ ] die he means diets we hope that you diets yeah I'm looking at you jack you fat [ __ ] I hope you die yet well we're back from our game convention yeah we're gonna go see pixels I guess you guys could come with if you wanted [ __ ] no oh God oh um I got this okay yeah we'll go see pixels with you guys I love Adam Sandler films but on the way there can we stop by the bank you know so you guys could pay us for all the shifts that we've worked for you yeah yeah yeah yeah and let's go see pixels we would love to pay you might and he say that like a question I don't know it's very suspicious I don't think they have any intention to pay us but let's go watch pixels starring Adam Sandler and Friends there's nothing I can think of that I would love to do less

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 918,385

Keywords: Red Letter Media, Ant-Man (Work Of Fiction), Comedy (Theater Genre), Half in the Bag

Id: Jr_Rhx3B848

Length: 22min 1sec (1321 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/Sennin_BE]

Pixels hype confirmed.

[u/Critical_Lit]

I love the despondent, glazed look Jay immediately gets every time Mike starts talking about Star Track

[u/ATadVillainy]

DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING, YOU FUCKS.

Also: that Mike laugh at the Yes Man line was glorious.

[u/Wolfhoof]

I really love the star trek tie ins every episode now.

[u/ThePondererTK]

They are really diving into the sitcom stuff again, and I'm loving every bit of it.

[u/TomServoMST3K]

the snicker at that one Bill Cosby joke was great.

[u/teleekom]

rape jokes! love em'!

[u/Andorod]

They know the next HiTB is gonna be a big one and they're teasing us. Can't wait to see them tear Pixels apart.

[u/ComedicPause]

pretty sure Jack directed this movie.