Half in the Bag: Ready Player One

half in the bag I can't stop watching movies [Music] hmmm this is trash I wonder when they'll make this into a movie this is the Oasis it's a place with the limits of reality are your own imagination people come to the Oasis for all the things they can do but they stay because of all the things they can be well Jay first of all I wanted to say it's really good we were able to solve your contract dispute for half in the back that's true Mike it would suck to have to replace me Jay Bowman with a low quality inferior replacement it sure would suck to have to do a review with someone like I don't know rich well it's time from ready player one the movie directed by Steven Spielberg that the huffington post says is delightful the grown ups harry potter what the that's what these are reviews from the book okay as one adventure leads expertly to the next the time time simply evaporates the Entertainment Weekly and I'm not sure what the reviews are of the movie we're still doing the voiceover yeah and I'm not sure what the reviews of the movie are I think it's doing well well Jay what did you think of ready player one it sure was a movie you know you know Mike as as part of the the stupid popcorn munching American populous it sure is nice to go and see a movie and you know everything that's going to happen from the first frame of the movie I can't say I hate it but it really it's it just felt like painting by the numbers it was a big pile of trash it was a trash fire you know of all the spectacle in the movie these amazing visual effects these elaborate action sequences and character designs and explosions and stuff the one thing that wowed me in the entire film was getting to hear Simon Pegg do an American accent hey you heard of me and made note of it I never heard it I could not have written ready player one if I had not grown up on a steady diet of Steven Spielberg movies everybody I think who dreams of making movies dreams of getting to work with rarely do I read the source material I read the book why for the okay I did you read this particular book you know what I had some downtime uh-huh and I picked it up and I'm like this isn't bad and I read it right oh my god I'm a grown man reading a ye a novel this is shameful so I put a slipcover over it that was pornography it's kind of so ashamed like like like really embarrassing disgusting pornography but it was like like like fecal Oh Vico porn yeah okay okay it was called the the glass toilet it was like a like a avant-garde sex novel less interesting well here's the thing I think that's why this movie gave me such a headache because the novel it's cute it's been called misogynistic and all sorts of horrible things because it's it's like because the because the boring male lead is the hero and not be not be far more interesting female he it's basically it's a very simplistic love story yeah and I'll tell you all the differences between the book of the movie from here on out but it says Willy Wonka Meets The Matrix I'll agree with the Willy Wonka part but the other half isn't the matrix this is actually almost ripped off wholesale and I'm it's I don't even know why I know this video game reference mom no no it's ripping off on a like a 20 year old Nickelodeon cartoon show a single episode of it whether in a video game and they have to find the magic keys that's the trouble with these online video games too many unqualified random players I know what you mean nobody put us as a clue except for that Kaos guy that guy's unstoppable and the big the big strong character who's really good there really a girl what you're chaos if you were game savvy you'd know that oh it's like it's just directly ripped off you guys I'm here and I aced the test dude that's great you got a hundred no I got me - oh solid eh - we're level 13 tecna's has five of the seven silver keys - warrantees king of the World Wide Web so Danny Phantom this is a series or if it's a series but the video game thing was just specifically a single episode oh wow okay hey guys we've got the seven silver keys to the apocalypse all we have to do was open the door and we win the game [Music] ernest cline you better lawyer up when was this written 2011 okay I'm pretty sure the show came first but I don't really know okay well I mean that like that's the that's the thing with this is like it's not wholly original yeah it like the idea of the Oasis it's just a bunch stuff crammed in there right and the movie went and took as it should yeah because you know I totally keep touching the book fucking crazy like any movie should or has to you can't you can't just literally translate the book on screen because it doesn't work yeah you have to have different beats you have to have these emotional moments you have to you have to like and it was very to adapt it you have to adapt it thank you rich um and but but the the movie went a little far and instead of adapting it like completely rearranged again making it more confusing than it needed to be really yeah because I was watching and I was like I don't know what's happening like a clever opening right was he Parsifal Wade watts leaves his the trailer park and he's climbing down the thing and then they have this camera move and they're showing like people inside their little trailers on their things doing stuff they have like a fat lady on a pole and her dinner Isis fantasy she's probably and then there's some guy like boxing and then you know so you get the whole you get the idea I mean like stuff like that details like that are visual details that a director would would ya put into a film or write for the screen that's not that's kind of stuff is and then book so I was like okay I get it they're gonna do some different stuff but like everything else radically different up until the last five minutes when it becomes like Spielberg schmaltz is like smear it across the screen like that's a peanut butter all over the screen and up until then I was I think I think re translating it back into movie for me just hurt my brain filled with the exposition they have a handle adjust awfully it was necessary yeah because the first like 25 percent of the book is Kim kind of explaining everything okay and there's almost no character interaction in almost the first quarter of the book but it's like okay you got it you got to translate it for example the race right yeah the race starts in and it's like okay it's a literal race and everyone's got cars uh-huh and it's a great little action set piece here's the thing or driving on this track and there's a literal gate and Godzilla's coming and she wrecks and then he's back to the Future car in the book he there's a whole thing that's cut out where he goes to school you have to go to public school they've always okay public schools in the oh you go to school in the computer yes okay because like the the Oasis set up free public school for everyone the holiday hid the first the first thing in a forest around his public school where it was disguised as a Dungeons and Dragons or some kind of video game talk like a skull Tunnel and so he goes in this cave and he has to play like this demon in a game of Atari joust and in the book Artemis has been there for like ten days trying to beat the guy in joust yeah and he comes in and does it on his first try and then basically the whole book they're all in separate places they live in separate states that Japanese brothers live in Japan they're not all conveniently in Cincinnati here know so many I mean like I can go on for hours about like yeah and he gets the he gets the the magic quarter they came here to watch the movie I'm sorry it's really hard to talk about the movie he he doesn't meet the girl Artemis yeah until the last like page of the book Oh like in real life yeah um and he's like and then that's sort of like the the end is he got the egg and he wins the thing but the girl is the real prize you know and that's kind of kind of its it's like a like a nerdy love story it becomes that right but it takes you know the whole booktube world bill basically and and set everything up well this is meant for like tweens I think I think it is do tweens give a shit if you make a reference to the old Atari game adventure I don't know I think there's I think there's a series of why a novels which is dystopian hunting movies you got your your a Hunger Games your maze runners and all those for some reason they're all in a post-apocalyptic world where teenagers have to run some kind of fucking race I don't know it's like a genre so this guy probably said I'm gonna get rich I'm gonna write a trashy book that's based on this and then what did Spielberg say what did what did this feel were glob on to when I've read ready player one it was the most amazing flash-forward and flashed back at the same time I suddenly saw a future that earned his client the writer of the book envisioned it wasn't that far away from what I think is going to happen someday how did he get involved in this tragic adult stuff you know what he you know his his his catch was I have to literally show up and direct about 11 minutes worth of live-action footage oh my god you're right and just other people can handle it I just see Janos Kaminsky sitting in front of like 25,000 computer monitors how do i light this you've got to tell me how to light the source-code sir I'm doing this explosion on a dinosaur photography French axis it's fine I have trouble envisioning a 20 year old in the year 2045 getting upset at somebody for not having seen the shining which was made 70 years before then that's like that's like the kids in the high school today you have to Casablanca yeah it's fuck man well if it was on Halliday's list of favorite things then you're supposed to one of the things the the shining scene which was a lot of fun that was I think that was the standout scene where it's like whoa a similar scene in the book is he one of the tests the one like the gate you passed through you have to complete a thing one of the things is he he becomes Matthew Broderick's character in wargames and it starts at the beginning of the movie okay and so like he has to go through the movie like as Matthew Broderick reciting all the lines of dialogue and it's like doing like you get 100 points for saying this line of dialogue wrong like line of dialogue and so he's going he goes is to go through the entire film okay and that's one of the that's why they did what any challenges yes okay I think so that's why the movies are in there and so yeah it's like you but really everyone should have memorized if you're if you're that far into this game you know all of his stuff and everyone is yeah 318 challenges tested for worthy trains revealing three hidden keys to three magic case [Music] and those with the skill to survive these straits [Music] which the end where the prize Oh waiters there are people who are insanely good at games and computers and there's no way this challenge would be going on for was it five years yes this this this puzzle would have been solved like the first day somebody would have figured out how to get the keys so the puzzle did not translate as hard to you and no no it's like go backwards everybody does that in a fucking racing game just to see what you can get away with oh really yeah the first thing you do is if you want to cheese the games you go you go backwards and you try and go through the finish line that way and to see if you can win this is literally the first thing somebody would have tried okay that's good to know nice to know you're gaming perspectives on this I don't know why this game is that important like everybody like the most important thing in the world is control of this game no no and his fortune the fortune I get okay I don't know why his game is still a thing people make new games it's not just a game it's it's like that's another thing that did translate well it's like it's basically your existence it's it's how you shop and go to school and live and interact with other people because the real world is so shitty and it's free that's James Howard I was sort of like a but never that creative okay but I oh I wanted once if they won the game they were gonna take control the Oasis and start charging and so make it thing for the elite the rich and the poor would even become like disenfranchised and couldn't access the Oasis and you know kind of corporatize it and so that was that was one of the goals or one of the risks of them winning at the end and also the giant enormous walkman what am i what am i one of my problems with this is a movie is the character is fucking useless missable it's it's got the this as a movie it's got the avatar problem for me we're avatar it was a fine movie but the main character is such a such a boring wet white rice motherfucker what it's just so blend the protagonist in avatar and the protagonist in this I get nothing out of the issues I'm I'm the white guy tag andis men I'm not gonna do anything and all of these more interesting characters around me they're gonna do all of this shit and I'm gonna get all of the credit but in the book he's more of a he's kind of a Mary Sue and and I laughed because it started to remind me of a Bill and Ted because as the character encountered a problem he basically said oh yeah three weeks ago I did this to set up so that I could have this thing ready for me and it reminded me of Bill and Ted we just got to remind ourselves to go back in time and leave the keys in the bush here oh my god oh that happens a lot yes it's very poor right in the movie he just doesn't do anything and someone else would do it for him but the movie Tran had to translate that look now he's on the thing in the chase a little but the cars like Spielberg II in corporate villain and though this is a corporate villain not exist in the book oh no he's in okay okay in fact there was one scene that that's pretty much the same it's when Sorrento is the bad guy yeah he he basically tries to bribe or by Wade and then he's like offering a money and blah blah blah and then at the end of the conversation waits like fuck you you know and he's like okay wait you know why you know my real name yeah and reading it I was like oh no and in the movie they spell it out before the scene happened you're talking to all of you now because our futures being threatened by people who will stop at nothing to win this contest no one talked about ty Sheridan a little which one is ty Sheridan the main character oh okay I'll take a nap he he no I he played Cyclops in in the new the new issue okay I feel bad for him isn't a hit Spielberg movie and you feel bad for well he I don't know what else he's been and he's probably been and some other things but he he he was hired when you hire a cyclops right yeah you get an actor with a very pronounced lips no jaw line right ty Sheridan has giant lips and he's very has very pronounced John nose and and he when you take his goggles off he's looks likes just some guy yeah and that's how you get that guy to play Cyclops cover his eyes up and then now he's in this movie and he's wearing a visor and it's got the things on the side he looks just like Cyclops have you ever heard of anyone being typecast for being the Cyclops typecast were just the guy with the mouth he's got that mouth we did that guy with the mouth gets a guy with the lips and the jaw and the nose we can't see his eyes cover his eyes up with something that's his new role I got some great exposure for me you gonna start a Spielberg film nobody's gonna see a face you're gonna go play mad even side of the movie you can look like a digital else your nose and lips are going places kid we're gonna get you a career in the lip balm industry lip balm ads your mouth is gonna be everywhere a kid doesn't movie needed like a Jesse Eisenberg and even a little bit of a little bit more charisma in the main role just a little bit more correct not necessarily him I'm just saying somebody Jesse Eisenberg is a charisma void why would you choose him as an example I'm just thinking nerdy kid okay okay maybe the social network films yeah yeah or the other one that's not Jesse Eisenberg and he's not in anything anymore who's the other one oh are you gonna have to be more specific something that give me a clue here is this is fucking man EJ what's his fucking name Jason Bateman Michael Jackson Tom Waits the other the other nerdy kid actor who's gone now Gary Coleman only in the Ricky Schroder was in that movie with it wasn't even the mclovin movie right what is I don't know the guy the other guy the other nerdy guy it's fine Jay you're really slipping on your popcorn fences I am do you used to be right on the ball with everything Michael Cera Michael sirrah aegyo serum Michael Sierra's like 45 now I don't think I'd play a high schooler I know I know what you're saying yeah I know what you're saying rich more charismatic leader they picked him because of the lips nine nine ninety five percent of the film that's real-life action he's got his goggles on and the rest of the film institutional health so yes approximately 1% of the film is is just like him going like this it has a nice built an excuse for the uncanny valley you don't get the target effect because everyone's supposed to look like you're in a videos run yeah so it's fine I don't care about the digital off actually I was I was surprised that so much of it was gonna be CGI I would just assume like they were gonna do like Oh like the first five minutes he's like the avatar character that he chose and then when and I changed what I really look like but the actor could act I was really surprised but that was part of the Spielberg sign on bonus how long do I have to be on set each day five minutes mr. Spielberg get the shit wrapped up you get a good computer guy for the rest of it right what are the good ones it's you know it's funny it's the original Jurassic Park head I think eight minutes of CGI in it and that's famous as a CGI movie yeah and and this movie is is the polar opposite as eight minutes of live-action footage what Spielberg he's gone completely 180 degrees there's some drama when they get like captured by the corporation or their underground yeah all that stuff and then and then there's like 45 minutes of that battle scene and I started to get Man of Steel flashbacks where I was like oh I don't care what's happening anymore and then the last like 15 minutes is Spielberg schmaltz and and I think that's I think you know wow I'm at the end is is the famous saying and I think that's probably why this got a lot of good reviews get away from your computers kids and live in the real world the magical man and you're gonna have a magical moment but the magical man is he a ghost maybe oh yeah yeah right that that part might be a ghost now you get out of it now you get out of virtual world here's another magical man not a magical old man who's played by someone who's not that old Oh Sam poke yeah oh yeah the magical man who apparently was playing a robot AI for the last five years yes like he had nothing better to do at this time than to hang out the museum for his dead ex friend pretending to be a robot Butler that didn't make any sense that little reveal that the butler was simon pegg all along okay well I mean do you want me to do it yeah I want you to go go to what is what is how does this work and in a movie there is the Museum of the what's his name James Halliday there's the James Halliday Museum in the Oasis digital world it's kind of like the Jedi Archive temple yeah and all of us all of his memories start there every video footage of everything he's ever done and the curator of the museum is what you assume is an AI robot Butler an NPC an NPC a non-player character which knows this term see I learned that term in the book yeah no that's a common term a non-player character and and he's there all of the time for anybody who wants to come in and look at the the museum and at the end of the movie it's been a real guy this whole time yeah he just that's all he did for five years hung out that museum okay well give you some information Ogden tomorrow he he does indeed have an avatar yeah but it's it's an all-powerful 99th level wizard of course and he doesn't care about the Oasis anymore and he's kind of a an introvert he turned into one because his wife died and every year he has a big birthday party and which was the scene where there there's the nightclub yeah the spiracle nightclub where they're dancing yeah and that they go to that because they get a special invite from Auggie and Mauro himself okay cause they're in the top five slot okay and their famous avatars or um Oasis characters or whatever famous players famous players so he gives them a personal invite to his his huge party and so he's like this wizard and and the ioi guys do bust in and try to kill parsable um and so he like shoots lightning around the room and kills everybody and they escape okay okay so there is some like connection between simon Pegg's character having an oasis character yeah but it's it's definitely not a robotic Butler it's completely okay okay so that's some information save you some time I don't know what all this means it's just like it's just like a bunch of nonsense it's just like junk like jump in the air and it's it's it's taking up valuable brain cells no it's it's a it's a needlessly three-hour-long just diversion and you see it you kind of forget about Sam's need then you go home then you do your laundry help us save the Oasis well who's the audience 48 year old white guys all you're saying that only because of the references 48 year old white guys are gonna be like what's happening this is a nightmare okay yeah you're right about that who's our audience so maybe maybe 15 year old boys well they don't give a shit about the Iron Giant well they don't they'll save them cool robot you know okay I mean okay I'm talking about the attention span well maybe 15 year and the action like I mean I'm guessing that's our our demographic is so this is 14 to 16 year old boys maybe I don't know this is Spielberg trying to make a movie for a young audience but he's making a movie for a young audience from 1980 oh is that is that a young audience from 1980 wouldn't know what's happening they'd be like you know they want the Goonies like the most exciting thing in the Goonies was like they jumped onto a pirate ship [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Scot has kind of an interesting question who is this movie for I don't do it all yeah because the references there over the young kids heads they're like buckaroo banzai yeah the fuck is a fuckin buckaroo banzai reference in this book yeah it's a weird combination of lots of things and so that's why I think it's a little bit of a clusterfuck and and there's a fair amount of there's one fuck and there's a fair amount of shits yeah and so it's not for little kids you know and I'm curious about the rating it's probably pg-13 probably because of the violence so you get the one fuck right yeah yeah one fucking pg-13 and I'm glad they didn't include the part where a participle that probably would have made it are and I was wondering what the MPAA thought of all that blood from the shining that's a lot of blood you know they would excuse that because it's from a classic movie Mike you think so yeah I'm like yeah I think they would just see that as a reference I don't I don't think they have strict guidelines as far as far as I know it's just how they feel after they watch the damn movie okay I've heard explain that way once yeah mm-hmm it's not like a technican no it's a sort of like no okay I mean there's 20,000 gallons of human blood I guess it's fine but Kill Bill you got to turn that scene into black and white because that's real blood not nightmare blood not ghost blood I don't know I think what is it real really there it's it's a movie it's Quinn sir well corn syrup look where the MPAA you get out of here I don't like you your movies getting an X so we don't do xmo anyway we do now n c---seventeen movies n c---seventeen get out of my office I'm in control of this town you'll never work in this town again oh I think your rating systems fine you know because they're any kinda like infighting like we don't we don't like such and such a company we're gonna make it harder for them you're any more strict is there is their secret politics at play and a giant but I'm multi billion dollars that's what I'm saying my answer is problem Spielberg's got gallons of blood in this new phone it's fine it's a G as it is Sam Randy film cut it all out make it all green because I've decided greens the color your blood must be Ivan charge oh mrs. peel bag gives your blood would you need any more blood you make us all the money you mr. Spielberg mrs. Newberg you missed a spot on the wall in that scene you're computer technicians put in my blood should we cover ourselves and blood how much blood do you need spill versus us thank you gentlemen yeah goes to the elevator we did that just view but imported some young virgins in Africa so rich would recommend ready player one if I were gonna grade this on the two monitors skill for rotten tomatoes I would be over 50% but not enough to get a tomato okay it would still be a Squatch but it's over 50 yes my answer is I think a no yep stay away because I had Man of Steel flashbacks what the action scenes are just cluster fucks yeah and that's oh I mean like theoretically that would be okay in this context because you have all these avatars fighting each other and I would be okay with that but I think the story to me became convoluted yeah to where I was like I don't know what's going on I'd all these keys and gates and you're confusing me and and it might because I have a different perspective yeah but to me it was confusing and I lost track of it and I didn't care anymore yeah I just wanted it to end at a certain point I was just like come on let's go finish this off to be fair the kids next to us did shut up once the movie had finally started no they started I mean I was closer to them they started chatting today yeah okay they're facing the other way these things yes this plane looked like the details on the seat and then they were talking to each other and at one point one of them farted that was that was me J Balvin Oh J you and your your your chronic gas problem hasn't that your doctor solved that yet ah something reminded me of a David Lynch film and I just got so excited I've heard it you and your David Lynch films you and your weird obscure horror movies J [Music] [Music] yeah yeah so that was that was the movie that was the movie all right oh oh lightning-fast VCR repair this is Mike Oh Jay how are you okay you came to an agreement all right so you sign the contract awesome well we'll see you back on the show soon okay right get the fuck out of here cheap piece of shit replacement fucking hack Hey leave the shirt it's corporate property fucking prick you suck at reviewing movies too you know that right well I don't care I don't care about your little problems you can work at a fucking gas station for all I cared get the fuck out piece of shit time to log into the Oasis [Music]

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,627,337

Rating: 4.8432045 out of 5

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, Ready Player One, Review

Id: _KkGRT_4its

Length: 35min 17sec (2117 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/LoneQuacker]

Rich watches Danny Phantom and plays it off to Mike like it was a show that aired when they were young. Rich is secretly the manchild character he plays on the nerd crew.

[u/Deserterdragon]

I think it's kind of ironic that they're wondering why teens would watch a film full of 80'S references on their YouTube Channel mostly full of 80'S movies and references which is very popular with under 25's. RPO is the latest in a long line of media placing 80's as the pinnacle of American culture.

[u/DanTheFireman]

I never read the book. There were definitely some plot points that I feel they could have spent more time on, especially the characters. Overall, the story did a decent job of making me care and the pop culture stuff was fun. It didn't blow me away, but it was mostly enjoyable.

[u/usaokay]

When hot Jay mentioned that Ready Player One (published in 2011) ripped off a Danny Phantom episode (aired in 2004), I thought the idea has already been done earlier with a Yu-Gi-Oh! episode, which aired in 2002. I even used that concept (+ pop-culture referencing) in my own comic series before RPO was published too.

The main difference with a virtual setting seen in Yu-Gi-Oh! is that RPO uses existing pop-culture brands to help set up its VR world.

Edit: Forgot to mention that Mike also talked that this isn't really an original idea as so many "virtual world and real world" stories existed for a while beyond just Danny Phantom and Yu-Gi-Oh!

and I haven't read the book yet, but all of the plot differences Mike discussed (longer build-up for romance, and Artemis and the Japanese kids living further away from each other) is understandable as to why this film is disliked by those wishing for a 1:1 adaptation.

[u/stealthamo]

Never expected a Danny Phantom reference in a RedLetterMedia video, but here we are.

[u/KelloPudgerro]

The isekai genre will now dominate both anime/manga and movies

[u/GoldenJoel]

Maaan, I really disagree about the book.

I listened to it on Audible, and I had a hard time finishing it because I was cringing too much. I don't think the book is really cute at all. Wade Watts is insufferable in the novel, which is why I'm looking forward to see how he's portrayed in the movie.

What was odd to me is how the book was the most interesting when Wade wasn't in the Oasis. The look of the stacks is a cool image, the Cyberpunk corporate arcology that Wade submitted himself to was creepy, and the shitty apartment Wade locks himself inside that has his huge expensive rig in was unsettling. All that stuff was neat. Everything inside the Oasis is bullshit. No one cares that much about the 80s... Even me, who loves Synthwave. If you wanna see what a real Oasis will look like, go on VRChat. It's all anime memes and knuckles.

[u/your-arsonist]

Man I love when it’s Rich on the show. Mike and Jay have good discussions but there’s something about the Mike+Rich combo that makes the show even more hilarious.

[u/BadMotherfucker2517]

"Time to log in to the Oasis"