Rockonsin(Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chawba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who does his own stunts, Pete Chawba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Great to have you with me.

We got a great show tonight.

We're gonna talk about, I got one word that's gonna describe probably the first half hour of this show.

And it is a topic we need to talk more about.

It is an American pastime.

It is one of our favorite foods.

I'm talking about, of course, the hamburger.

You can't get better than

that.

It is National Conrad, National Hamburger Day.

This is not regional.

This is not just something we're...

Practitioning here on Washington Street in downtown Green Bay.

This is all over people are celebrating the hamburger today We're gonna talk about hamburgers and we have a hamburger related question of the night, which is coming up Lots of stuff going on We can take this off my list We've got I did not time my gelato very well.

I got here

Well, a few minutes early because we had a lot of recording to do and I thought I'd have a nice half hour to enjoy my gelato.

So would it be weird?

Like, could we push the show just about 20 minutes and let me finish my gelato?

Is that an option?

I don't think that's an option.

All right.

So last night we had some technical issues and I want to dwell on them, but I could have wolfed down gelato and people would not have been as likely to hear me slurping.

Yeah.

I mean, that's true.

Really fun show.

Great that you guys are here tonight.

Our pal Matt Miller is going to be here at 6.35 to talk about last weekend's mammoth box office take.

The movies are back.

It appears at least Hollywood for the time being is back.

I know there's production issues going on in the state of California, which affects all of us.

But for now, we appear to be coming out of that post or that pandemic slump.

when people weren't going to theaters and production was halted.

It feels like, and it seems like everything is catching up finally and people are going to movies again.

The really big, great, well done movies are finally hitting the theaters.

Not that there haven't been a few in the last few years, but this last weekend, so far from last weekend, we are up 30% from where we were last year at this point in May, Memorial Day weekend.

And Lilo and Stitch and Mission Impossible 8, the final, reckoning, crushed records for a four-day weekend, a two-film combined take.

They beat Barbenheimer, they beat The Last.

I think the biggest take at the box office for all the movies combined was $314 million in 2013.

There was like a Star Trek and Fast and Furious and one other movie.

Hangover

3, I think.

And this past weekend, they took in like $342 million.

And they're setting records to overseas as well.

So very exciting.

It's good that movies are back.

People are going back to movies.

I just love it.

We're going to talk about all of that with Matt Miller.

He is Milwaukee based film critic and he writes a column at A Man About Film.

You can follow him there.

Matt is always fun to talk to.

We're also going to break down Mission Impossible and what we thought.

And Matt saw, I think he saw The Accountant 2.

And he saw another one I didn't see.

Oh, Final Destination Bloodlines, which has got really good reviews.

It's still in theaters.

It came in third place last weekend at the box office.

So Matt saw that film.

We'll talk about all this with Matt.

He's always fun to talk to.

And then this is a really cool thing too.

In hour number two at 720, Dennis Graham is gonna be here.

He is the founder and producer of Rock-Conson.

This is a garage band contest for kids ages like seventh grade to 12th grade.

There are 10 finalists.

They're gonna perform at Summerfest and we're gonna talk about it with Dennis We're gonna find out more about the competition.

It just sounds like so much fun that we talked to him briefly on bar ban Friday night about a month ago Terry Barb brought him on for a few minutes But tonight we get a little more time with Dennis and we'll find out about his operation and everything that is cooking at Rock Hanson great name, too How do you like that name Conrad?

I absolutely love it.

I couldn't do better.

What are you gonna music Wisconsin?

melodies

of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin lyrics.

None of it works.

He crushed it.

And it just works out, you know?

So that's great.

So Dennis will be here at 720, Matt at 635.

By the way, Mission Impossible, the final reckoning, they showed a quick close up.

I think I mentioned last night, there's like a 30 minute recap in the movie.

It's told in a narrative.

It's not just highlights of other movies or like last week on such and such.

It's done through the narrative and it's really well done.

But I will say, if I found a flaw in the movie, it was just that I couldn't wait for the actual part eight to get going.

And once it does, it's great.

And even the lead up is great, especially if you haven't seen the other Mission Impossible's.

But there is a quick flash of Ethan Hunt in his history.

and his driver's license appears on screen and says, Ethan Hunt, Madison, Wisconsin.

How about that?

I got way, way more excited about that than I should have.

Like everybody's from somewhere.

It's a fictional character, but it was still cool to see Madison, Wisconsin on there.

So that was just a fun thing to see during the film.

And when are you gonna see it, Conrad?

You really have no excuses.

I'm definitely going.

This weekend, I'd say, probably.

Okay,

yeah.

All right, good to know.

We also have to read a text.

I'm gonna try to find this from Eliza.

She was a guest on the show last Thursday, and she sent us in this nice text.

And last night, we were so packed and playing catch-up, we did not, we weren't able to, I wasn't able to read it on the air, because it's kind of a longer text.

Where

is that?

Is that in the chat, the nightlight chat?

Yeah, I can send it to you.

Please do.

Eliza was a fun guest and a great member, new addition to the team here in

Northeastern, the Northeastern Wisconsin chapter of Civic Media.

So here's that text.

She says, Hey Pete, it's your new Australian bestie, Eliza, calling in from Green Bay.

I want to change my answer that I've told you.

Wait, what was her answer?

What was the question?

It was a

pre-recorded show.

I think it was about musicals, maybe or not musicals, films produced or made in Australia.

Yes, perfect.

Okay.

She said of course looking for a LeBrandi is a classic any Australian born up after 1980 will know it and love it But there's something that your listeners need to know about and that is an Aussie series on Amazon video called deadlock and It is this kind of half tongue-in-cheek murder mystery set in this tiny town at the bottom of Australia in rural Tasmania.

Oh, I love that And if you've seen top of the lake if you've seen top of the lake set

If you've seen I guess top of the lake is show if you've seen top of the lake set in New Zealand It's kind of making fun of that and the whole kind of Scandinavian small-town mystery genre I love this and I think it's one of the best series ever made They just wrapped filming season two so you can watch this and love it and know that there's more coming Which we know is a good feeling.

Thanks to you both.

She's thanking you Conrad.

Do we thank her?

I think we did

thank you Eliza for texting

in

or it's at a voice note, so

Is that what it was?

Because I didn't

know where we got it.

Maybe it was

on

the voicemail.

So what is this show called, Deadlock?

I'm going to have to check that out.

I didn't know that other show she was talking about either.

There is another show with Thomas Jane set in Australia.

It's a murder mystery.

And I'll have to find out the name of that too and ask Eliza if she's seen that.

But this sounds like a pretty cool show.

I love the title too, Deadlock.

Thank you, Eliza, again.

All right, I think we need to get to our question of the night.

What do you think, Conrad?

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Oh, ladies and gentlemen, in honor of National Hamburger Day, not regional, what are your favorite burger toppings?

What are you putting on your burgers, folks?

We've got a whole summer of burger eating ahead of us.

I go burgers over brats.

I can have like one brat, and then I'm like, okay, that was good.

I like the brat.

I don't have to have multiple brats over the summer.

So I tend to go burger.

I like burgers more too, because you can get more protein out of the burger.

Is that true?

Well, it depends what kind of ground beef you use, because if you use like, I use like 93.7.

Oh, that's the sirloin.

Yeah, that's that's that's the good stuff.

That is a good stuff But the burgers are less juicy, but maybe that's good.

Maybe you don't like a juicy burger,

you know, actually that's true because I made burgers out of that a couple weeks ago and it was it was good wasn't as juicy and then I went to Festival and I got a gourmet burger, which it's probably 80 20.

Okay.

My pan was just filled

That is what I think restaurants, I think they use the 80-20 because of the fat and the Greek, or the juices.

I find a happy medium.

I go with ground chuck, 85% lean.

But when I was a kid, man, I don't know where this was, but it was like, you could buy less than 80-20, it was like 60-40 or something like that.

I don't remember exactly what it was, but I always, even as a kid, I'm like, I'm steering clear of that.

But I do like the ground chuck.

Anyway,

That's neither here nor there.

In honor of National Hamburger Day, what are your favorite burger toppings?

That is tonight's nightlight question of the night.

Let us know.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

Or you can also text us on the app.

Very easy to use.

Hope you have it.

If you don't, you should.

And if you're watching on the stream, you can send your stream comment, too, through YouTube, Facebook, what else, Con?

Twix.

X. Twix.

WGBW website.

WSS website.

There's all kinds of way to nightlight And if you're there give us a like or follow if you're so inclined we always like We like

it

definitely.

Yeah, love a thumbs up.

So I don't know.

What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna you go first tonight

You know, it comes down to what type of burger is my favorite?

It's a mushroom Swiss.

I love I love sauteed mushrooms on it What do I get but on top of that is still lettuce tomato

Some onions and then you got to top it off with some mayo

Yeah, you put mayo on them on the

yeah

mushroom of Swiss

is

that the typical topping

I I don't think so, but I like I like that's what I add to all my burgers is that but if it's not a mushroom Swiss all The same ones I said those will be on my yeah, I love mushrooms on it though

Here's the here's my alright.

Here's what I'm working with

My favorite burger I've ever had is at a place called Super Dog in Chicago.

It's a drive-in.

They're still there.

They've been around for decades.

And it's the car hop.

You know, you hit the buzzer, they come out and they take your order.

And they have something called a super cheesy.

And they have that real green relish, great cheese, grilled onions.

And I'm one of those guys.

I know we have a text from our pal Rich Tolerico, who is not a fan of raw onions.

But I like both.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for raw.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for grilled.

But the super cheesy at Super Dog is great.

Dottie Dumpling's dowry has phenomenal hamburgers.

And I think it was ranked number one in the state by our friends at Up North News.

Christina Laurie said they sell, was it 100,000 burgers a year?

They only have like 19 tables at Dotties and they sell 100,000 hamburgers a year.

That's incredible, but they have a great combo too.

I'm gonna go jalapeno, bacon, blue cheese, and occasionally there's this kind of like New Orleans or Southern jam they put on this burger at a place called the Railhouse in Marinette.

You turn me off with the blue cheese, but the other ingredients sound really good.

Well, I don't need the blue, I like the blue cheese, but I don't always get it.

It just depends what, but I do like jalapenos on a burger.

That jam sounds amazing.

Oh, it's so good.

It's just not right.

All right, so there you go.

Share with us, folks, your favorite toppings, if you would.

We have a phone call counter, right?

We can get this in

before the break, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ollie from the Northwoods.

Ollie, how are you?

Hi,

I'm fine.

We got

about 45 seconds.

I'm just letting you know.

Oh,

you need big hands for this one.

You gotta have a big burger, lettuce, tomato, onions, bacon, and extra, extra pickles.

Ooh, the pickles are nice.

That's a great touch.

And that's your favorite.

Is that what you do all the time, Dotty?

This is Ollie, and that's what we get at Ollie's burgers.

Awesome call.

Thank you so much, Ollie.

Have a great night.

Eat a burger to celebrate.

It sounds

good.

All right, my friend.

Thank you, Ollie.

All right, we're coming right back.

We're going to read your texts.

We got all kinds of stuff, folks.

You're here on a great night.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

This is Pete Schwabbe, your host for this evening's festivities.

What do you think about Ollie's burger?

That was good.

It's that, you know,

I

forgot

about Pickles.

What did I call her?

She corrected me.

Dotties.

I was talking about Dottie dumplings.

I already called Ollie Dottie.

Sorry,

Ollie.

So Pickles, I forgot.

That's essential on a burger.

Yeah,

Pickles are great.

Now you get Pickles.

There's Pickles in ketchup now, you know, they have

a flavor ketchup.

I don't need that.

That's overkill.

What about fried pickles?

You know what?

I tried fried pickles about two years ago, and I was surprised how much I liked

them.

They're so good.

There!

On our social media, we've been posting the question of the night, folks, on social media, and we get some great responses there.

Lisa Hale, host of Newisco Weekend, which you can catch here at the Civic Media Radio Network Saturdays and Sundays.

She has a great job hosting, by the way, and do you have a segment this weekend?

I do.

It's about kayaking in Wisconsin.

Oh, sweet.

Yeah.

Well, I do the classic movie pick of the week.

I got a great movie pick in honor of June dairy month.

It's dairy adjacent the movie Yeah, I see it as I say in the there aren't many great riveting films about milk or cheese So I had to kind of pivot a little bit, but I always try to hit the theme when I can't but Lisa says raw onion one or two pickle I Don't know if that's a typo, but I love when people use singular when it should be plural

Like, as kind of a stylistic way to talk.

And if you meant to do that, Lisa, I'd love that.

Raw onion, one or two pickle.

Oh, she's... Never mind.

She said slices.

Raw onion, one or two pickle slices only.

She's very specific.

Ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato.

And if I'm feeling sassy, guacamole instead of ketchup.

That's... You know what I think, runes a burger?

Sorry, Lisa, but mustard.

You know what I think, runes a burger?

This will be a hot take in controversy with ketchup.

Yeah, you know, I used to like ketchup growing up like a lot.

I don't even really use it anymore.

There's so much sugar in it anyways.

Right.

And without the sugar in it, it doesn't taste good.

Agreed.

So I went away from that and started using like a low-fat mayo or whatever.

Yeah, mayo's good.

My wife bought this water burger sauce.

Oh

my, that's pretty good.

That's

probably

just mayo and ketchup.

But I like like the two burger places I talked about Superdog in Chicago and Dottie Dumplings in Madison.

My two favorite burgers don't have ketchup.

They have like some hot peppers and some relish and grilled onions.

Good stuff.

Rich Tellerico says raw onion grilled should be banned.

Hashtag enough.

Wow.

All right.

That's such a funny hill to die on.

No grilled onions on burgers.

I said before, I like them both.

Just depends on my mood.

Thank you, Rich.

We should have Rich back on.

Oh, yeah.

Take a memo.

You got memos over there?

And you're not still out of memos.

I haven't given you a memo in months, dude.

I'm down to like,

you know,

30

post-it notes.

We can

send one.

We can get Rich on there.

Amanda Nimmer says, cheese, mayo, pickles, tomato.

OK.

No ketchup.

Notice

that.

No

ketchup.

Melissa K, this has to be the text for the night.

I'm circling this.

And Melissa gets the gold star for outrageous burger toppings.

Peanut butter, pineapple, and cilantro with a dash of sriracha.

I wonder if she's actually serious about that.

Or if that's a joke.

I could go cilantro and sriracha, but the pineapple and peanut butter, I think I'd vomit.

I've tried peanut butter on a burger.

Not as bad as you think.

All right.

Well, here's, this is funny because Lisa Hale commented on that and she said, Melissa, ew.

What ingredient do you think she was ewing?

I don't know all of them.

Not the one you think.

Yeah, maybe cilantro.

She says cilantro, that's the devil.

The peanut butter is not getting close to my burger or the pineapple.

I can live with cilantro.

I like cilantro.

Monica Hale says sauteed mushrooms, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, pickles, tomato.

And the ketchup and tomato, that's insanity.

That's a lot of red.

Thank you, Monica.

Sarah Jean says, extra pickles, the rest is optional, as long as I get those pickles.

I love that, that's fantastic.

So we got some texts here on the text line as well.

Jim from Brookfield says, Hi Pete, just got home from the theater after mission impossible.

When the driver's license scene came up, there was a noticeable reaction from the audience.

I heard a couple of cools.

That's Jim from Brookfield.

Yeah, it was kind of fun.

It's such a weird thing, but it was still kind of exciting to see that.

Conrad's mom checks in.

My favorite toppings are fried onions, mushrooms, pickle relish, and cheese.

I always remember that about your mom, that you guys both like the mushroom burger.

Conrad's dad says, trivia question tonight, name this iconic burger, two all beef patties, two all beef patty special sauce.

Conrad, I'm looking away.

You see, I'm not looking at the text.

I

can say this.

Two all beef patties, special sauce lettuce, cheese pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

That is the big Mac, Steve.

Best burger song of all time.

All right.

Thank you, buddy.

Barb from Waukesha says, the Elvis burger is delicious.

It sounds disgusting, but I love the sweetness of the peanut butter.

So I looked at the picture and it says the Elvis burgers topped off with fried bananas, peanut butter and bacon in honor of the late Elvis.

You know, with that

combination, you know what ruins that?

The meat.

Just put the cheese and bacon and, I guess, bacon's meat, but I don't think you need the burger there.

You know, I'd be curious to try it.

I'd try it just to say I tried it.

Yeah, I would too.

That's fine.

That's great.

Great text, folks.

Keep them coming.

That's our question of the night.

Is National Hamburger Day, ladies and gentlemen, what are your favorite burger toppings that are no right or wrong answers?

There are only your answers and we've got, but Melissa's okay.

Melissa's got the text of the night.

Peanut butter, pineapple and cilantro with a dash of sriracha.

Hot diggity dog.

All right, so we'll keep reading your texts as the show progresses.

Have you heard this taco commercial or this commercial for a quick trip yet?

What?

What?

Taco to go, taco to go.

They say it

80 times in 30 seconds.

It needs to stop.

I cannot, it's just the worst, even you.

I mean, let's be honest, Quicktrip has no bigger fan than Conrad Krieger.

Yeah,

that's accurate.

Yeah, you'll hate it.

You'll hate the commercial.

Like the establishment, hate the commercial.

Dave on the stream says, peanut butter and bacon is great.

Try it.

I will not be peer pressured, folks.

I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

All right, we'll finish some more texts when we come back.

Coming up next, folks, Matt Miller.

We're gonna talk Mission Impossible, the box office, and all things entertainment.

That's next on Nightlight.

After the news, it's Pete Schwabba on The Civic Media, our radio network.

I'm

Peach Walla.

Great to have you with me on this Wednesday night.

It feels like a Tuesday.

No, it actually feels like a Thursday.

I don't know.

Who cares?

PJ, on the stream, a lot of people coming out in defense of peanut butter.

What's going on in this country?

I know we're polarized, but peanut butter on a burger.

PJ says crunchy peanut butter all the way.

Now he's adding nuts to the equation.

PJ says, oh, mushroom, Swiss, yummy.

And then again, AJ Bombers turned me on to the peanut butter on a burger.

AJ Bombers,

where is it?

PJ, where is it?

Tell us where it is.

Actually, there's one in Milwaukee.

Okay.

And I remember they make boozy milkshakes.

Oh, they

put liquor in the milkshake?

And that was one of the worst gut rots I've ever had in my life.

Why?

Why do we have to put boot?

I mean,

something

should be said.

It was good.

It was good.

All right.

Better give you gut rot.

I still say, Super Dog in Chicago, daddy dumplings.

But, well, that's Matt.

Matt Miller's about to join us, folks.

He is a Milwaukee film critic, and you can follow him at A Man About Film on Blue Sky.

I think Matt's still on Facebook, too, but he does great work there.

Check him out, and he has his finger on the pulse of movies and Milwaukee and all things entertainment, and he joins us now on the phone.

Hey, Matt.

Hey, how are you doing?

Good.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well.

Putting up with the fact that the Indiana Pacers are probably going to the NBA finals.

But you know, I'm, I'm sitting with it.

I'm dealing with it.

Isn't that funny when your team like, you know, you know, I'm a lifelong Bulls fan and the Pacers were their nemesis.

And even when the Bulls were done with their runs, I still wanted the Pacers to lose.

Is that what you're dealing with here?

Just some kind of somewhat of cheer against.

I think what's frustrating to me is that I love the underdog.

I love rooting for small market teams, and the Pacers should be a team that I'm in love with.

They play the game in a fun, energetic, the right way.

They are a team that was created not around a superstar or a lot of money, but just very smart decisions and drafting.

I hate them.

I just think they're so chirpy.

They're so undeservedly chirpy.

And for nothing.

But now they're going to go to the finals and perhaps win because they've got luck on their side.

They've managed to come back in like three games when they're down 20.

So I don't know.

I'm dealing with it.

I'm emotionally processing it.

This is why therapists exist.

I think you're going to be fine.

This

is the biggest issue that I have to deal

with on a couch, you know.

Exactly.

Do you have a favorite burger topping, Matt?

A lot of people tonight are questioning the night as favorite burger toppings.

It's National Hamburger Day.

And people are coming out in droves saying peanut butter on a burger.

It scares me.

Yeah, that sounds like the Hawaiian pizza to me, where I'm like,

that

sounds like a bad idea.

And maybe it's delicious, but I just can't get past the mental idea of it.

I like onion strings on a burger.

Like a kind of like a Western barbecue burger situation.

If a menu has that on it, I'm almost guaranteed to order it.

Very well said.

Well done.

Where's a great burger place in Milwaukee?

Your burger place of choice.

Oh, that's a that's a very good question.

I don't know if I have a burger place that I love I do like merriment social a lot in Milwaukee Okay, I think they kind of they they kind of have an underrated burger Yeah, I that's probably my pick for like the best burger I know a lot of people go to bet for the diplomat I think they have a really good kind of like fancy burger that you know isn't

too fancy.

So yeah, I'd probably say those are the two I'm most intrigued by.

Nice.

I have not heard of either one.

I'll have to check them out.

Thank you.

So let's jump right in, Matt.

I've been excited to talk to you about this for a while now.

I've been talking about Mission Impossible, Ednausium.

I couldn't wait to see the final.

I have finally come to the grips.

Recently, I just love Tom Cruise.

Weirdness, whatever

he's done in the

past, the guy delivers.

He's a phenomenon, he's a spectacle, and I was very excited for Mission Impossible.

What did you think?

I like half of this movie quite a bit.

I think for the first half, it's a real Eat Your Veggies experience, where it's so much exposition.

and so many flashbacks and so many plot cul-de-sacs that either go unresolved or don't really add up to anything or just go in a circle.

And for the first half of the Mission Impossible movie, it's not a good movie.

And there's also not an action scene really in the first half of the final reckoning.

You're waiting for the movie to get some momentum and it just kind of gets stuck in the mud.

And then the back end of the movie happens.

He visits the submarine with the guy from Severance and from that point on the movie is incredible.

There's

two incredible set pieces in the end.

But yeah, it's got a great main portion dessert.

But if you can get through the very flavorless appetizer course that takes about an hour and a half to get through, you get a really good blockbuster.

Matt,

he's exaggerating, folks.

I agree with you.

And my biggest problem with the film, but I've come to grips with it, like, is that recap.

And like the opening credits don't start to like 30 minutes in.

But I feel like a lot of people are going to see that film that either haven't seen the other ones or can't remember.

Like when there's a franchise with eight films or the Star Wars, I can't remember what character is from what movie or what scene happened.

And I kind of am cutting them slack like not that they had to do it.

They could have not talked down to people, but Like you I live through it, but I agree if I have one criticism of the movie It's that first the recap or there or whatever you want to call it

Yeah, and I wonder how much of that first half kind of flashback flash

is, you know, the last movie dead reckoning did not do as well as they hoped.

It was not a successful movie.

It made a decent amount of money, but it didn't make anywhere near as much as it needed to.

And I think there was a concern and a fear with either the producers of the movie, like either the studio Paramount or with, you know, Christopher McCory and Tom Cruise that, you know,

If this is the final Mission Impossible movie, or at least the final Mission Impossible of this Tom Cruise era, you know, we want to make sure everybody's on board.

And they kind of overcorrected, I feel like.

I mean, you see so many flashbacks, and there's a lot of legacy sequel tie-in stuff that I don't really think adds much to the movie.

Mission Impossible 3 weirdly plays a significant role.

There's

a

tie-in with the original movie, with the John Voight character that does not work whatsoever.

And that stuff just kind of hangs on the movie and fags on the movie in a way that, you know, Mission Impossible, the signature image of the franchise, is Tom Cruise running.

It's about momentum.

It's about exciting, fun spy stuff.

And it's so weird that for their final movie, they're like, we have to take 90 minutes of this three hour long movie.

to recap a lot.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I agree with you there too, like the John Voight character and tying that to the Shea Wiggum, like totally unnecessary.

And maybe they touched on that in seven and I forgot about it, but very extraneous.

I don't think you needed that, but you know.

Overall, I would say I liked it.

But you know, the critics weren't, I thought this was gonna be a slam dunk kind of homage to Tom Cruise because I feel like the critics don't really hammer movies anymore like they used to.

So for this to get- They do not, that is true.

So for this to get what it got, I was like, geez, this is the film.

And not that it wasn't a bad, I think it got an 80, but you know, it's just magnificent.

what they are able to put on screen and what they do.

And for that, I tip my hat to them, but I totally agree with a lot of what you're saying.

Agreed.

And I think it's very smart on one level that, you know, it ends with its best stuff.

Those final two big set pieces, one on a submarine and obviously the big biplane stunt sequence, they're incredible.

They are some of the best set pieces you will see in a Hollywood picture this year and maybe most years.

It's just kind of a shame that it takes, that it's a really tough set to get to that point.

And I will say, I'm kind of, it's weird how floppy the first half feels too in terms of plotting and in terms of the edit of the movie.

There's moments in the first half that feel like...

They should really hit.

They should be really big crowd-pleasing moments.

The unmasking that happens in the first act of the movie feels like that should be a triumphant moment.

And it kind of just happens.

And a key character passes away in the first half of the movie.

And it's kind of cinnamon rolled and twisted inside of all of these weird plot mechanics that

end up making your brain more confused than invested in the moment.

And it's just kind of a shame.

And I wonder how much of that stuff is COVID.

They

filmed

a lot of this movie during COVID.

That's why the budget of this movie is a ridiculous.

They had several shutdowns because of COVID.

They paid their cast and crew during those shutdowns, which

was the right thing to do, but means that the movie needs to make a billion dollars worldwide to break even.

And I think it also results in some really weird writing situations where characters are sick and secluded for reasons that you're not really sure why.

And I think it's probably because they had to deal with COVID protocols.

My guest is Matt Miller.

You can follow him at A Man About Film.

He has a great sub-stack there.

He's a Milwaukee film critic, and we are talking about the Weekend Box Office and Mission Impossible.

Yeah, that's a great point, Matt.

And I think, too, they shot this when they shot seven, right?

Dead reckoning, like, weren't they shot at the same time, more or less?

They pretty much were shot back to back, I'm pretty

sure.

Yeah.

Because this was supposed to come out a lot sooner.

I think both of these Mission Impossible movies, I think we're supposed to come out

a year or two before now, and so we're getting them well after they were filmed.

That's interesting.

That could, I mean, explain some of the choppiness, but you'd think like two films, one doesn't need to be three hours.

Like if you can't tell the story and, you know, if you can't do two two-hour films, it might be overkill, you know.

Yeah, and I mean I've seen I've talked with the I've talked with two friends about this movie and Every time we talk about the movie We've come up with ways to shorten the beginning of the film of the ways to get rid of excess characters ways to tighten that first act and we're not screenwriters by any regard and I mean Christopher McCory is one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood and the fact that we're able to look at that script and be like there are

obvious nips and tucks to be made here, feels like something got kind of screwed up in the production a little bit in terms of there was a lot they were having to juggle.

And again, I can't blame them.

They were trying to film in unprecedented situations and they

were

doing the right things.

Absolutely.

It just kind of bleeds into the film.

Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like, I don't know, do you think there'll be another one, Matt?

At

some point 100% at some point a new mission impossible will come out.

I doubt it will be a Tom Cruise led mission impossible.

I think he has done

with the Ethan Hunt character.

I think he knows there's not really much else he can do on a stunt standpoint that would really impress people.

I wonder if this is a place where Tom Cruise has a real liking for people like Glenn Powell and obviously Greg Tarzan Davis who plays a character in this movie.

And they tried to hand the franchise over to Jeremy Renner 15 years ago.

The movie was so good with Tom Cruise that they had to eject on that plan.

Um, so, but there's definitely a few... I cannot imagine this is the last Mission Impossible movie.

As a matter of fact, I am almost guaranteeing that we will get 15 years down the line some sort of legacy sequel where an old man Tom Cruise...

is, you know, passing the baton off to maybe Glenn Powell or something like that.

But as of right now, I think they are very content to let this franchise sit for a moment and let Tom Cruise take a well-deserved victory lap on this incredible franchise.

Absolutely.

Matt Miller is here.

We're going to do a very short break.

We'll come back and talk about a record-breaking weekend at the box office.

It's Peach Wabba at Night Light on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

This is Night Light.

I am Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

It is a Wednesday night.

We are broadcasting statewide from beautiful downtown Green Bay on a rainy night.

But it's still beautiful.

You know why?

Because we're talking about movies and TV and comedy and music and all the things we love and that make life great.

And part of...

We're getting a little help tonight too from a very good friend of ours, Mr. Matt Miller, who is a Milwaukee based film critic.

And Matt, you got home safely.

You're on the stream.

We can see each other now.

It's a real conversation.

Awesome.

This

is much

better.

This is much

better.

So, all right, I'm trying to like, okay, so last weekend was record setting.

I think I read something that said the last time all the films in one weekend made that much money was 2013.

with it made like 314 million films this past weekend made like 346 or 341.

Is the box office back?

And if so, why is that?

Is that because of the pandemic?

We're finally starting to come out of that and the strikes or what do you attribute that to?

You know, it's funny because just a month or two ago, everyone was having panic attacks in the box.

The box office was doing really bad to start the year.

And now we've had a very strong past two months between a Minecraft movie and sinners, obviously becoming this massive hit.

Weirdly enough, the Marvel movies have not done that well.

They've done fine enough, but they've flopped by Marvel movie standards.

You had Final Destination becoming a gigantic smash hit.

And obviously this past weekend, you had Lilo's Stitch and Mission Impossible both performing really well.

And I think part of it is people like going to the movies.

You know,

people like seeing a movie on a big screen.

They like to get out of the house.

They want to see something in a special way.

That's part of it.

A part of it too is Hollywood starting to make, and I know it's funny in a weekend where one of the movies is a remake and one of the movies is a sequel, the eighth movie in a franchise.

But they're starting to dabble in different areas.

They're starting to try new things again.

You've got stuff like Minecraft and Sinners, Minecraft, a movie that is directed to a younger generation and not a retread.

It's

not,

you know, it's not a hand-me-down franchise.

It is something that speaks to younger kids.

Lilo and Stitch, yes, it's another live-action Disney remake.

But it is nostalgia for a new generation.

It's nostalgia for my generation and the Gen X and Gen Z and the millennial generation.

They're starting to realize that, you know, 80s nostalgia and kind of, you know, the old standbys culture has changed a little bit.

And I do think there's

a turn back against the sloppification of Hollywood.

The idea of these movies that exist just because stakeholders at the studio say they must exist.

You

know, Sanders is doing well because it's a really good movie and because it feels like something a director really wanted to make.

It had passion behind it.

A lot of the reason I've talked about this, Barbenheimer directed by, you know, a bunch of nobodies isn't a phenomenon.

Oppenheimer directed by Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig, two auteurs who really wanted to do something and say something with these topics, those are hits.

So yeah, so I think we're in this era now where people, you know,

A lot of, you know, name brand movies will still do well.

I'm sure Superman will do well and Fantastic Four and Jurassic World will do well.

But there is a craving for new things, for things that feel unique and different and feel like something we haven't seen before.

And again, I know that's very silly to say in a weekend where Lilo and Stitch Take Two made, you know, $150 million in America.

But at least that is a new sense of nostalgia on some level.

That is a new generation.

We're not just retreading the 70s and 80s one more time.

It's crazy that, uh... Yeah, and to your point about going to the theater.

You know one of the one of the complaints going back to Mission Impossible my dad had when we left or we weren't with a huge group on Sunday He said that plane scene went on too long and so did the water he loved it, but he said those should have been cut I'm like dad that is why people go.

I they're a little full of themselves

Wild opinion, I'm sorry to come out of Mission Impossible the final reckoning and be like the set pieces have to go Not

to go but to shorten them and I'm like first of all as if

filmmaker with a ton of juice that you can stand up and say, no, we're not cutting that down or we're not editing that because I have the power to keep it and we're keeping it.

And they're in love with what they did because they should be because it was unbelievable.

That that is why you see those movies on a big screen.

So I don't disagree that it could have been a few minutes shorter, but I'm fine with it the way they did.

It was so much fun.

That's what I'd be cutting.

Cut the first part out like we talked about.

So

Hollywood is, I read this yesterday, I think it was a variety anticipating a $4.2 billion summer.

That was the other reason I wanted to ask you, is the box office back or are they back?

The movies are really good.

Like you said, you've got Sinners by Ryan Coogler, a guy who had the power to get the movie made that he wanted to get made and it was in wide release.

Most of those are franchise films, or Marvel, or a director like Christopher Nolan has the power to get them made.

I wish there were more of those guys, those auteurs, like you

say.

I mean, right now, I mean, the last time the box office grossed over $10 billion in America was 2019.

We

haven't

grossed that much since then.

This year is really steadily going in the right direction.

And it's moving right.

I don't know if we'll ever get to those kind of insane highs from the 2010s, just because like streaming was still kind of, you know,

not entirely in the mix back then.

There is still a crowd of people that doesn't go to the movies

as much as

they eat.

Frankly, it's a lot of older audiences.

I know a lot of people like to blame young people for, you know, being on TikTok and being on YouTube and Twitch and, you know, all those things.

But older audiences, if you look at the movies that don't perform the same way, it's older audiences that aren't showing up in the same numbers anymore.

Those kind of the movies for adults that used to help Bowie when a big rockbuster didn't do well, they're not.

that people aren't showing up for them anymore.

And part of it is, you know, streaming is here now.

But part of it is Hollywood stopped making those movies and trained older audiences out of going to the theaters.

Let's pick up there, Matt.

We got to do intermission here, but we'll be back.

We'll have Matt for a few more minutes after the news.

It's Peach Wabbit Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who likes pina coladas, but hates getting caught in the rain teach wabba

We are back ladies and gentlemen for act two great to have you with us We are talking about movies tonight, and we're gonna segue or pivot should I say to a very cool Rock contest

Our guest Dennis Graham at 720 is trying to find the best garage band ages 7 through 12 in Wisconsin.

It's called Rock-Honson.

That's coming up at 720.

Our question of the night is what are your favorite burger toppings?

It is National Hamburger Day and the text of the night so far I would have to say is from Civic Media's own Melissa Kay who said peanut butter, pineapple and cilantro with a dash of sriracha.

I don't know if that's real or if she's trying to get listeners to vomit, but either way, that's her answer.

And maybe she loves it.

Who am I to question Melissa?

She's fantastic.

And right now we have a few more minutes with our guest, Matt Miller, Milwaukee based film critic.

We're talking about the box office, the crushing box office this last weekend.

Matt, will that be the biggest weekend of the summer, do you think?

It'd be pretty tough to top that, right?

Yeah, that's going to be tough because you had the joint powers of Lilo and Stitch.

and Mission Impossible, plus Final Destination holding better than expected.

Plus, it was a long weekend.

And you know, Hollywood loves to add that bonus day and be like, ah, yes, big opening weekends when you add an opening day.

Of course, it's going to be a little bit bigger.

I do think Fantastic Four is going to do very well.

I think that is a Marvel movie that people are excited about.

It is the first time the Fantastic Four has been in the Disney MCU.

So I think that will do well.

I also think Jurassic World will do well

because

dinosaurs always do well.

I'll be interested to see how Superman does.

I don't think they've done a very good job of selling that movie to audiences thus far.

It it weirdly feels similar to the past Zack Snyder Superman movies in terms of the story, it seems to be telling with a brighter color palette, which is.

not a bad thing, but it's just, uh, I just don't think they're doing a good job of making a reason why this new Superman needs to exist.

But the big reason is that a lot of these movies are the only movies coming out those weekends.

Hollywood wants to get out of the way of a lot of these blockbusters.

There's not a lot of good counter-programming that, you know, gives you the kind of barbenheimer weekend or, you know,

the Dark Knight and Mamma Mia runs where those movies both made tons of money their opening weekends.

There's not that smart counter programming that there used to be.

That's why this weekend did well.

You had Lilo and Stitch for Families.

You had Mission Impossible for an older audience.

They just don't plan that way the same way anymore.

So I think that was probably the biggest weekend you'll see this summer But I think we have a lot of big weekends to come still so that's positive.

That's great Yeah, I think it's fantastic and I saw that I can't remember was barbenheimer was at a four-day weekend because this beat Bart this week of the two films Mission Impossible and Lilo and Stitch crushed the barbenheimer number and I think that was a four-day weekend too

I think that was just a three-day weekend.

If I remember,

that

was mid-July.

I think that was just July 20th around there, because that's the Christopher Nolan weekend.

He loves that kind of mid-July weekend.

So yeah, that was just a regular weekend, which the reason why this one was probably bigger was because there were other things to see.

Um, there were

other

movies in theaters that people wanted to check out this weekend like it sinners is still doing well you had Thunderbolt still drawing kind of an audience, you know, it's It's good to have a variety of things in theaters that people want to see and

Hollywood is starting to remember that, you know, you see the look at the summer.

They've got some romantic comedies.

They've got some dramas.

They've got some, you know, F1 is kind of like an adults action movie.

They've got franchise movies and horror movies and kids movies.

They are starting to remember that there are lots of audiences that you can please all at once if you

want to.

Matt, let's, oh, before we go any further, I want to say you got a great shout out.

on your sub-stack from another friend of ours, Rob Thomas, who gave you this great compliment saying nobody covers the Milwaukee Film Festival like Matt Miller.

That

was a great test.

That's

very sweet of

him.

There

are a lot of really good film writers.

My friend Eric Beltman writes some really good stuff as well.

Follow him on the various socials as well.

He watches even more Film Festival than me.

That's great.

And this year there was a lot of fun stuff to see.

But just to accept this Hosanna for yourself, that was a great thing.

You're

too kind.

You're too kind.

Matt, before we let you go, tell us about final destination bloodlines.

You mentioned it earlier, like it's got some serious legs.

It may have had another great weekend.

What are we missing if we haven't even seen any of the bloodlines?

Honestly, if you haven't seen any final destination movie before, that's fine.

The

franchise is

not very good.

It's a fun, hokey, horror comedy, arguably, franchise because it's never scary.

It's very violent, gross, bloody things happening to people.

For people who don't know, the Final Destination franchise is about people who survive a near-death experience and then death is like, no, no, no, I want to kill you.

And it's a slasher movie starring death as the villain, essentially.

It's a great

premise.

great Rube Goldberg ways of brutally killing these people.

And so you go to it.

It's kind of like I described it to someone as like live action, itchy and scratchy.

Nice.

It's kind of that tone and vibe where like

horrible, violent things are happening to people but it kind of doesn't matter and it's kind of just silly and gory and macabre and ridiculousness and I think Final Destination Bloodlines is kind of the peak of that form of what it's doing where the kills are so ridiculous and so tends to see how they're going to line all of these things up to

brutally murdered these poor people who've done nothing wrong other than live.

There's just enough tweaks to the formula to make it feel like a different movie, because not every final destination movie does that.

A lot of them are, frankly, extremely lazy.

And there's even just a little bit of actual character work in this new movie, too.

There's just a little bit of seasoning to it.

So I think it's the best in the franchise.

I had a lot of fun watching it.

I know the crowd that I watched it with was having a blast.

And in this era of very important, this movie is actually about an important topic, horror movies.

It's kind of fun to watch a horror movie that's just like, I don't know, man, death sucks, and it'll hurt you.

And I think that's why people were drawn to it.

It's a franchise, sure, but it's not connected really in any way, meaningful way.

And it's just a horror movie about, man, dying sucks.

Death is good.

And fate is cruel.

probably take a pass, but

I would not describe it as a peach wobble.

Okay.

Conn, go ahead, buddy.

Yeah, man, I saw this movie was marketed all over Instagram.

And I saw some behind the scenes stuff.

And I saw a certain scene with a lawnmower.

Was that

was that part in

there?

Oh, it very much is.

And that's maybe the second or third best kind of big set piece kill in the movie.

But it's just they've really kind of mastered in this movie the art form of like, we're going to get all these weird Rube Goldberg things going on in a scene.

And you don't know where things are going to break and what's going to end up killing Boo.

But you just know it's going to end real bad for somebody.

And it's just this

funny stress and release.

And I know I had a really good time with it.

It's not going to be for everybody, but if you are kind of a goofy horror movie fan, you can't do much better than Final Destination Bloodlines.

It's such a good, silly, gory time at the movies.

Matt, what did you think of the accountant too?

You mentioned you saw that earlier.

I saw it too.

I like the first one better.

I like the caper parts of the second one, but the brother stuff really kind of threw me.

Yeah, I was puzzled by Accountant 2.

It seems like it's trying to be a more fun movie than the first movie.

It's trying

to have

this kind of fun brother banter.

It's trying to be kind of have these comedic set piece moments.

But it is paced so sluggishly that the comedy should have some pop to it, should have some wit, and those scenes just take forever.

And for ostensibly an action movie, there's very little action in it, I found.

So I was kind of disappointed by it.

I kind of wanted it to be either the ridiculous sequel to a very straight-faced, ridiculous movie that the first accountant is.

And it kind of just ends up being this odd,

man's land of like, we tried to be goofier, but we didn't have the right tone.

Ben Affleck is weirdly thinking like, for some odd reason, he kind of has a British accent.

Yeah, I was going to

ask you about that.

It is.

He turns to his brother at the end.

He's like, what are your plans?

It's like, wait, you didn't have the accent in the first movie.

What is this?

Yeah, he's trying to do this like.

I mean, it's not the most, you know, progressive thing ever, but he's trying to do this like impression of somebody on the spectrum.

Yes.

But he, for some odd reason, translate this like stilted speech as like vaguely British.

Right.

And

you're just so confused.

I'm glad you said that.

I thought it was like, it was driving me crazy.

And there are a couple of scenes in that movie that made me angry.

The one of Bernthal in his underwear rehearsing his speech and then Ben Affleck with the line dance.

And it just, it was like really hard to watch at times.

And those

scenes are...

are supposed to be funny and

you

kind of laugh a little bit, but like it's gotta have a quicker wit to land

that

and those scenes just take forever.

Like line dancing is the funniest thing you'll ever see for two, three minutes at a time.

It's not that funny,

guys.

Even if you're wearing hokas.

Matt, one more question for you.

What the film centers, the more distance I have from it, the more I liked it.

And I'll probably see it again.

Will that, is that an Oscar film?

Will that get nominated?

I'm sure it will on the fringe stuff, effects maybe, but acting, script, directing.

What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, it's an interesting case because this is a new Oscars era where a movie like Get Out can get nominated, a movie like The Substance can get nominated.

Yeah,