The movie mom Nell Menno is back for part two of our watch list this summer. Got a whole
bunch of movies and I was talking to Nell before we went on the air. There's a plethora
of movies out there that opened during the summer that went on to be big, huge blockbusters
and all started with jaws, Steven Spielberg. That's right. By the way, if you have not
watched the documentary that's streaming about John Williams, the guy who wrote all the
music for Indiana Jones, for Star Wars, for all the Spielberg movies ET, watch that
because the moment where Steven Spielberg tells the story about hearing that, John's
theme for the first time is absolutely wonderful. It's a great movie.
Nobody knows that. And it became such a movie with parody. Everybody uses that in comedy
bits because it's so recognizable. By the way, it had a little interesting trivia
bit that little kid. Do you remember the kid with the fake fin? Remember him and his
brother there? Oh, sure. That kid with the fake fin is now the chief of police in
Martha's Vineyard. He's the real chief Brody. That's awesome. I'm sure that he's a lot
more effective than chief Brody. Yeah. Isn't that strange that would happen? Okay. Where
we left off last time, the superhero category of movies coming out this summer. Let's start
off with a real super the best superhero ever. I was growing up watching the adventures
of Superman on TV. And then he came to the movies and he's still flying highs. Talk about
Superman. I'm with you. He's my all-time favorite superhero. You cannot beat Superman. And
we got a new Superman this time named David Cornsweet. He's got the little curl on his forehead
that somehow no one realizes that he's really Clark Kent because he's got different hair.
And Rachel Brosnahan from Mrs. Maisel plays Lois Lane. And it looks very, very good. You
know what I'm excited about? Two things that I loved from the comics when I was growing
up about Superman are in this movie Crypto, the Super Dog. Yes. And the Fortress of Solitude
are both in this movie. And so I'm very, very excited about it. It looks really good.
People forget that Marlon Brando was in the original Superman movie. He played Jarrell.
He played Superman. And don't you remember he got paid some gigantic amount for one day
of work or two days of work? By the way, I always say with superhero movies, it's all about
the villain. And Nicholas Holt, who I think is just terrific, is going to be playing Lex
Luther. So looking forward to that. Yeah. Jean Hackman played him at one time in the
movies. That's right. The Fantastic Four. First steps. What's that about?
Well, I love the Fantastic Four. And what's been interesting to me about the Fantastic
Four, of course, from Marvel, is that they have now tried three times to make movies about
the Fantastic Four. And they've all been not just bad, catastrophically bad, just legendarily
bad. And so can they make a good Fantastic Four movie? Well, the busiest guy in the movies
this summer is Pedro Pascal, who is in three big movies opening up this summer. And we
can't get enough of Pedro Pascal. And I have to say, I think this looks good. They had
a little teaser for it after Thunderbolts. It's retro. It's set back in the era where
the Fantastic Four first began in the 1960s. I think that's interesting. Even Ross Moss
Backrack from the Bear is playing Ben Grimm. And so I'm excited about that. So I'm cautiously
optimistic. You know, we always joke in our family that we named our son Ben after the
thing from the Fantastic Four, whose real name is Ben Grimm. So my fingers across that
Fantastic Four, they're finally, after the fourth time, got it right. Now, do you know
the crazy story about the first version, the first movie of the Fantastic Four? No.
Well, the studio that had the rights to make the movie discovered that they were about
to run out. So they very quickly, in less than a week, put together a really bad movie
so that they could renew the rights. And it's legendarily terrible. And the only way
that you can ever see it is maybe you could find a bootleg copy at Comic Con. So you named
your son after a dud movie. I guess you could have named him Howard after Howard.
No, we named him after the comic book here. You couldn't name them Howard after Howard
the Duck, but I guess. No, yeah, that's right. That is the famous, famous, famous
best. And we get a bunch of movies that are based on books, which I always look forward
to. You know, Stephen King, as great as he is as a writer, he has also been behind some
of the greatest movies and not just the scary movies, like it, but in the shining, but
also, you know, like the Shawshank redemptive. And I think this movie, The Life of Chuck,
is going to be more than stand by me. And so I think this movie is going to be more
in that category. And it's about an ordinary man with a terminal illness, who becomes
suddenly famous as the world may be ending. And it's got a great cast, including, we're
just talking about Star Wars, Mark Hamill is in this, Karen Gillan from the Guardians
of the Galaxy, Chouel Edge of Four, from 12 years of play, Tom Hiddelsen, who I always
love. So with that one, I'm very, very intrigued by that one. And then Ed McBain has also written
a lot of books that have led to great movies. This one, they just showed it con. It got
a great reception. They surprised Star Denzel Washington by giving him their highest
award. It's called Highest to Lowest. And it looks very, it looks like a little bit
of a thriller, but it also looks like a drama. It made me think about Inside Man, which
Denzel Washington also made with Spike Lee. And that's one of my favorites. So I'm looking
for that one. The Thursday Murder Club sounds intriguing. Do you know about that series
of books? They're crazy popular. There's an international success. And the Thursday
Murder Club is the first one in the series. And it's about a group of people who live
in a assisted living home. They're all retired. And they end up solving a murder. And listen
to this cast. You cannot get better than this. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley,
and you don't know her name maybe, but you've seen her in a lot of movies, Celia Emry.
And I think it's going to be terrific. I have so many friends who are huge fans of that
book series. And so with any luck, we will get not just this movie, but we'll get the
other books in the series as well. New characters, news stories, no sequels
here. This is original, right? That's right. Well, I've seen this first one already.
It's called Bad Shabbos. Shabbos, of course, is the Jewish Sabbath, which usually begins
with a Shabbat dinner on Friday night. And this particular family is having their Shabbat
dinner under a tremendous amount of pressure. I think that one of the highest pressure experiences
that any of us go through is bringing together the family of our loved one with our family
and hoping that they will not hate each other. And that's what's going on. And then things
go very, very badly. This is an extremely dark comedy. There's a dead body involved. And
I thought it was actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed it very much. So, yeah, Kyra Sedgwick plays
the mom in the family. And her son is bringing home his fiance. And for the first time, her
Wisconsin family, her Wisconsin Christian Catholic, I think, Catholic family is going to come
and meet these New York Jewish family. And it's about what happens then. And also the dead body
that everybody is trying to hide. You know, who steals the movie, though, is a method man from
the Wu-Tang clan. Oh, yeah, yeah. The dormant of the building. And he is absolutely fantastic.
This is the first crime movie or murder movie ever heard of that took place on Shabbos.
Okay. Usually it's a solemn thing. You like the candles. You say the blessings. You have the
blessings. One of the things that really made me laugh in the movie is that, you know, you have
these Midwesterners who are Catholic coming to their first Shabbat dinner. And everything that
starts to go wrong, the family just says, oh, it's part of our tradition. And they keep trying to
be polite and going along with it. And finally they go, wait, I don't think so. I think you're
making that up. I don't understand you. Yes, this is about a gay couple who are on vacation.
They are hoping to adopt a baby. And so they're very excited about the future. And then they get
mixed up with a dead body too. This seems to be a big theme this year because we already had the
trouble with Jessica, which is about a dinner party where there's a dead body. But yeah, this
is another dark comedy. How do you pronounce it as the not Phoenician scheme? I was saying that
right. You said it exactly right. The Phoenician scheme. Okay. I got to say right off the top.
I'm not really a West Anderson fan. I know he has his very, very passion fans, but I find his
movies kind of claustrophobic because they're really more about the settings and the props than
they are about the characters. But somehow he gets the biggest stars in the world and the world
to be in his movies. Everybody is in this movie. You've got Tom Hanks, Benicio Del Toro. That's
two-astor winners right there. Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cranston, Riz Ahmed, and Benedict
Cumberbatch among the large cast. It's a story about a very, very wealthy businessman who is very
unscrupulous and his daughter who's a nun that he wants to take over the business. It's about
the crazy adventures they have as he goes from one person to another to try and raise money for
his new project. I did not like it, so I'm telling you right now. Don't waste your time.
This is a hilarious idea and I'm very intrigued by it. So, did you watch the Ted Lasso series?
I know you don't know streaming, right? Well, I have streaming. I just never saw it. No.
All right. Well, I love the Ted Lasso series and Nick Muhammad from that series plus Orlando Bloom
and Bryce Dallas Howard. Of course, the daughter of Ron Howard and from the Jurassic Park movies.
They star as would-be actors and we all know that among the most annoying would-be actors are
the people who do improv, but what is a great job for people who do improv? They're approached by
police to go undercover because if you're a good at improv, then maybe you could kind of improv your
way through creating these fake characters and getting the confidence of the bad guys. So,
the trailer is very, very funny. So, I'm hoping that the movie is going to be just that good.
You know, I taped off the TCM. You mentioned Ron Howard's name, right? TCM. Yes.
Door-to-door maniac with Ronnie Howard and Johnny Cash. Yes, I know. Very unusual.
What a pairing and a crime movie. Door-to-door maniac. Yeah, I know. I said, I gotta watch this.
I think that's one of the movies that made him decide to go to the other side of the camera and be a director.
I don't know if I rewatched a lot of Colombo during the pandemic and I'd forgotten that Johnny Cash
played by the murderer. Yes, one of my favorite ones where he pushes his wife and a girl friend
or whatever out of an airplane. Yes, he does. And he parachutes down and the Colombo had
discovered, well, I have every Colombo on DVD. I've watched him over. I love Colombo.
Yeah, Johnny Cash is great in that role as a murderer. He is. He's absolutely terrific.
Although my favorites are when John Cash of Eddie's and, uh... Oh, the Conductive.
Yeah, Jack Cash of Eddie's one. Well, Jack Cash of Eddie's been on four of them.
I know. When he plays, I know. There's something about him that I think really brings out the best
in the piece. Yeah, he's okay. He's a great killer. Okay, the materialists.
Okay, materialists. What's intriguing about this one is if there was a surprise critically acclaimed
film last year called Past Lives from a first-time director and she did so well with that one
that they have given her a big Hollywood movie to direct. So I'm very intrigued by that.
Dakota Johnson plays a high-end matchmaker. She finds matches for wealthy,
powerful people. And then she meets who's the big star of the summer, Pedro Pascal.
And he's handsome and nice and wealthy, but she also has a handsome and nice but not wealthy
ex-boyfriend. And he enters into the conflict, the romantic triangle. Which one do you think she's
going to pick? You're asking me? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I know the movies. I don't know.
Okay, I'm guessing it's going to be the ex-boyfriend, but we'll see. We'll talk
after the movie comes out. Okay, I don't want to run out of time, but you've seen a couple of
big summer movies already. Why don't you talk about them? Well, I did see Mission Impossible,
which I thought was not quite as good as the last one, but the airplane scene where he's
falling out of the plane and climbing back in is absolutely nuts. And you can tell it's really him.
He doesn't do CGI. He does not do stunt performers. He does everything himself. The submarine,
sunken submarine, under the Arctic, unbelievable scene. So, you know, very exciting, very well done.
I said, I did not like the Phoenician scheme at all. And I haven't seen Bad Chabas, which I enjoyed
very much. I think maybe the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Elio from Pixar. I think that
looks that graphic. That was next on the list. Talk about that for a second. Yeah, that one
looks great. It's about a little boy who feels a little lost and alone. He feels like he does
never any friends. And he meets an alien kid who also feels lost and alone. It does never any
friends. And it's about what happens then. And I think that looks like a lot of fun. And then
I'm also looking forward to Bad Guys, too. I really loved the first bad guys. One of the best
animated films last few years with Sam Rockwell and Mark Marin and Aquafina. And that one looks
like it's going to be a blast. And did you see Lilo and Stitch? I did see Lilo and Stitch. And you
know what? I wasn't expecting much because I am like everybody else. I'm really over the idea
of the live action remakes of the Disney animated films. But to be honest with you, I'm not a huge
fan of the original Lilo and Stitch. And so I was open-minded to some of the changes and additions
they made. And it really won me over. I thought it was very good. And I particularly liked the
slight changes that they made to the ending. I thought it made it very even more heartwarming.
So yeah, I thought it was really well done. You know, uh, Member Barb and Hymer.
Would they? Okay. Well, I came up with, I came up with Cruz and Stitch.
If you had asked me to bat last week on which of those movies was going to lead the box office,
I never would have said Lilo and Stitch. I would have said no one can beat Tom Cruz. But who knew
that all the little kids were clamoring to go to Lilo and Stitch. And I think it's going to do very well.
One of the things that makes the Lilo and Stitch movies, both of them, the original and the remake,
so great is that they have these fantastic Elven songs on the soundtrack. So I love the idea that
they're going to be a lot of six-year-olds now going around singing Hunk of Hunk of Burn in Love.
You know, I think one of the things, and I can't swear by this, but I think one of the things
that benefited Lilo and Stitch is the short running time because they can get more showings in
than the Tom Cruz movies, almost three hours. I mean, they can't get as many showings in.
So I think that's right, but I think that it may be in more theaters to break to even it out.
I don't know, but you're right. That does make a difference. Although a lot of people have
complained that the original Lilo Stitch is like 84 minutes, and the new one is almost two hours.
No, it is that one. I didn't realize that. Yeah, that's a lot for little kids.
A lot for me. Yeah, so other karate kids, by the way, I saw that last night.
Yeah, yeah. And that karate kid legends, and that was really good. Although William Zabka,
who of course, from the original film, they say he's in it, but he's only in it, it's very end.
No. Ralph Machio is always going to be in my cousin, Vinnie. He'll always be that.
Forget the courage. Yeah, and he does not age. He just, just great. I know. He's got one of those
jeans in him that doesn't age him. Okay, we didn't get to all them, but here's what you can do.
All the movies we spoke about, you have the trailers at moviemom.com. So you can actually see
the trailers to all the movies you talked about. And the few we didn't get to at the end, you can see
and read about them. And what I want to do is to the end of the summer, have you back and see how
we did. Okay, if you asked me to invest in movies, I would never invest in Lilo and Stitch
in a million years. Super Mario Brothers. What's the one they just had out recently that Minecraft?
I would never invest in these movies. And that's why I do know who directed, you know, who directed
Minecraft is the people behind Napoleon Dynamite. So what is that? That's that quirkiness to us.
That's a Pedro for president, right? Yes, that's right. And Jemeroquai, Jemero dancing to
Jemeroquai. Thank you very much. The movie mom is Nell Manoe, go to moviemom.com. You
can see all the trailers to all the summer movies we talked about moviemom.com. If you missed it,
we're going to podcast this. She'll be up in the day or two, maybe even by the end of the day today.
And Nell, thank you very much. One of my favorites. I love how it's pleasure. Bye bye. Bye bye now. All right,
Nell Manoe the movie mom.
