"The Mandalorian and Grogu" is the Best (and Worst) of Modern Star Wars

[00:00:09] Hello and welcome to Meet Your Double Feature. My name is Thomas, joined as always by my brother Frank. Frank, how's it going? Oh man, I'm so excited. We're talking about Phantom Menace today. This is a good one. We haven't gotten to this one yet. You see Qui-Gon Jinn. He's Irish, I think. Well, that's also wrong. You should know that. I think you got the wrong program. We are talking about a Star Wars movie, but it's from like 20 years later.

[00:00:37] We're looking at this weekend's past release of Star Wars, The Mandalorian and Grogu. I'm not familiar. I'm not familiar with that title. All right. Well, boring conversation anyway. I don't get it. Yes. Just the whole episode, just sandbagging the idea of knowing what the movie is.

[00:01:02] Yeah, we're switching things up. Normally, you know, long-time fans know we mostly talk about older, somewhat more obscure movies on our show. But every now and again, we like to chime in on the discourse, you know? See what people are watching right now. And since we have talked about Star Wars a lot on the show, we are known prequels apologists. There's nothing to apologize for, first of all. Prequels. Aficionados. I don't know what. Our goodists. Our goodists. Yeah.

[00:01:30] So I thought people might be curious what we thought of the newest Star Wars film. I feel like I hadn't seen this until recently, but it makes sense. It's the first theatrical release from the Star Wars franchise since 2019. Quite a while. Yeah. You know, I saw some online discourse, mostly like people on Reddit, I guess. It's opening weekend, so we don't know yet. But people are predicting that this movie was going to bomb. And I'm like, there's no freaking way this movie is going to bomb.

[00:01:59] It is the first Star Wars movie in a while. I saw on the news the other day that there was people like camped out overnight to see this movie. Well, also, it's good timing. It's like the first big summer movie release. I mean, it's not really in competition with anything. There hasn't been anything to go see at the theater in a couple months. Like, that's a big deal. Oh, yeah. I'm sure it'll do great. I think so, too. And I mean, I saw this like in a packed theater.

[00:02:29] And this was a crowd pleaser. This just hit like every beat you need to. Like, there was a bunch of people with like, they were there with their kids or, you know, whatever. And it was appealing to everybody. So, I feel like this movie is going to be a big success. I think the early critic reviews are not super high, but not bad either. Yeah. And Star Wars really hasn't had, I mean, aside from the original three films,

[00:02:57] I don't think any Star Wars movie has had good critical reviews because they've all been like mixed to bad. So, it's not like the bar is that high anyway. Yeah, I think from what I saw, this one has pretty high audience scores, though. Like, the critic reviews are not bad. They're in like the 60% range, but the audience scores was like 88% or something. Interesting. Which, honestly, I mean, I guess to get into it, I actually liked this movie, which was surprising to me. Interesting.

[00:03:27] And I knew, I just knew, I was sitting there watching it. And I'm like, I like this, but I know Thomas is going to hate it. So. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, I could say off the bat. I thought, I thought I was going to hate the whole thing. I thought the first half had nothing. And. That was the part I liked the most was the first half. That's crazy. Okay. I thought the movie is both.

[00:03:52] My like headline review is that Mando and Grogu is basically the best and worst of Disney era Star Wars. Like there are parts of this that were some of the most like boring, repetitive nonsense that I've seen in a movie in ages. But then there was elements towards like the second half where I was like, this is like oddly ambitious for a modern tentpole action movie. And I'm surprised both things exist in the same film. Okay. Okay.

[00:04:18] I think I know what you're referring to in the second half, but let's, let's stick to the, let's stick to the first half. What was your, what were your thoughts? You were, you were hating on this. So I guess for clarity, just for people listening, I'd say we can mostly do a non-spoiler ish review because a lot of my thoughts on the film are kind of broad. And then maybe like at the end, we can get into more specific spoilers if we want. But our perspective coming in, I think Frank for you as well.

[00:04:47] We're not like super fans of this particular segment of Star Wars. I only saw the first season of the original Mandalorian show. Um, did you see anything past there? I saw the first two seasons, uh, but not the third one. Yeah. Okay. So both of us not fully caught up on the series. That might be the case for people listening as well. Um, I'll say off the bat, you don't need to have seen the entire Mandalorian TV show to see the movie. I would even go as far as to say that watching the movie spoils almost nothing about the TV show.

[00:05:16] So like you really could go back afterwards if you're interested in the character. Um, it's basically just a trope that anyone would be familiar with that. It's like, I don't know, crotchety old man takes care of small baby. You don't really need to know much. How often? Bring up some other examples of crotchety old man takes care of small baby.

[00:05:40] Um, well, the, I think the one, this isn't something I've seen, but I know a lot of people compared it to an old Japanese film series called Lone Wolf and Cub, which is about a samurai taking care of like a adopted child that he found. Oh, that's basically the same gimmick. Like it's, yeah, it's not the first time. Like I think I've seen it as like a plot thread in other stories. Um, it's just a trope that makes sense on paper.

[00:06:05] It's just like when he first finds Groku in the original TV show, he doesn't want to raise a tiny alien baby. But then by the time this movie starts, you could tell that they're closer and that they're kind of just like a team at this point. That's what, yeah, I, I, that's what I thought was fun from the kind of opening action sequence of the movie. Like I understood the audience appeal of the movie right away with the dynamic between these two characters.

[00:06:32] You have like Mandalorian doing all of the action for the most part. And then almost anytime Grogu is the focus, it's like, he's like the comedic relief, you know, like there were definitely times where I was kind of laughing out loud in the theater. I thought it was really funny at the beginning when he's like knocking on his helmet. That was good. That was good. I do like, I know this has been talked about a lot with the show itself. I like that Grogu as often as possible is an actual puppet. Yes.

[00:06:59] That helped so much in terms of like endearing him to the audience. Like a lot of Jim Henson-esque vibes. Much like the original Yoda. The original Yoda was like a Jim Henson puppet. Yeah. Obviously they use some like visual effects enhancements with Grogu throughout the movie. But for the most part, it's like, yeah, that's a tangible little character. And I think that works.

[00:07:27] I don't think the movie would have worked nearly as well. Or the show, I guess. Because I think it's the same thing for the show. If he was a VFX character. Like the second that first VFX character shows up that Steve Bloom is the voice of. Which I don't know his name. I think he's... I just called him Steve Bloom the whole time. Yeah. I'm sure he had a name. Which I... Quick aside, I'm just super happy that Steve Bloom is getting such a spotlight in a big feature like this.

[00:07:56] Because he's such an iconic voice actor. And he's been a part of so many like space properties before that that felt like very intentional casting to bring in Steve Bloom. I mean, he's the voice of Spike and Cowboy Bebop and Tom and Toonami. Yeah. But you're right that as soon as he comes on screen, I'm like this, I feel nothing. Like he walks in fully VFX alien character and he feels so separate from Mando and Grogu. Even though Grogu, like you said, has a ton of VFX supporting his movement.

[00:08:26] He just feels tangible in the space. And that is maybe one of the biggest things that Star Wars has reclaimed. Is that the audience kind of bullied them into using more practical effects to be more reminiscent of the original 70s films. Or 70s and 80s films. Because like Marvel today is so VFX heavy. That's like the other big Disney franchise. And they don't really do much to like wheel that back in. But the Star Wars movies a lot of times will use physical props, physical droids. And it definitely helps.

[00:08:56] I agree. I mean, like you said, there's a lot of complaints to be had about modern Star Wars and the Disney era of Star Wars. But I would say that's one of the, if you're going to point out the positives, that's one of them. That's one of them. Yeah, because, you know, I think they do it with their droids and a lot of their alien characters. And it just, you can tell. Like the audience might not always be able to articulate it.

[00:09:26] You know, even if you're just like general audiences that are like, I want my puppets back. Like, you know, but Grogu is a great example. It's like people love Grogu. And I just, I don't think it would have worked the same if he had just been like a fully VFX character. I think it would have taken people out of it. Grogu manages to like nail the most like emotional scene in the movie with a close up on his face. And I'm like, it's a puppet.

[00:09:51] It's like we're getting acting credit to a puppet because it works in context for what you're seeing. And like towards the end, he's like believably, I don't know. He emotes, which I think is just very impressive. Absolutely. I mean, I assume there's like some animatronics in his face as well. I think it's like some traditional puppeteering mixed with animatronics in order to get that effect. I thought they just hired a little green man. Yeah, Grogu's real. I saw him. He's at the red carpet for the movie.

[00:10:22] Yeah, actually, it's pretty cool. At the AMC I went to, at the Grove, they had like in the front area, they had like a little Grogu puppet robot thing walking around the lobby. And I was like, oh, that's pretty fun, actually. That's a cool little guy. He's actually here. He's Mr. Grogu. Yeah. I loved you in the film. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I feel like we've set the tone a little bit for like what the movie is, what the background is, like these characters.

[00:10:49] Probably the biggest success story of Disney era Star Wars, because while these are both rooted in existing lore, they're new characters that people liked enough to like build upon. So the movie is not as worn down by like referencing old Star Wars constantly. Like it's looped in with the old lore, but it's like a thing that Disney made that people like. And I can tell they're very proud of that. They're like, we got one. Well, it's just like I was thinking about this while I was watching the movie.

[00:11:17] Like if you took somebody that had only seen the original Star Wars movies back in the day and showed them this, it would be like, yeah, that makes sense that that's what Star Wars looks like. However many 40, 50 years on compared to their more recent films, which it's like, oh, this is just like they did the same thing again in a lot of ways with these. Like they brought back all the same characters and just told the same story in a different way.

[00:11:44] Like this is like, this captured, I think, what I like a lot about Star Wars. I said this to you, I don't know if I've said it on the show before, but Star Wars is, it's like, I'm like almost not embarrassed, but it's like I don't even want to admit that I like Star Wars sometimes because some people are so freaking weird about it. But like, yeah, it's like how do I say I like this without saying like this is my identity as a person? Exactly.

[00:12:13] I'm like, I just want to, I just want to like it the normal amount. But when I was watching this, I'm like, this encapsulates what I like about Star Wars in the sense that it can just be these space adventures, like isolated stories. I remember growing up, I've definitely told you this before, but I used to read like little Star Wars novels, like, and that's all they were. They were just like, you know, I was joking before, but it'd be like, here's Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan just going on an adventure to this random planet.

[00:12:43] And it's almost like what like Star Trek will do with their television series. And I know there's been Star Wars animated series that have been kind of running for a long time, but I don't think even those really captured like what the Mandalorian show and also this movie have done, where it's just like we're in this world, but we're just kind of going on little adventures. And that's what I liked about this movie. It was pretty small scale. It was small scale. I actually, moving a little bit more into what happens in the film,

[00:13:12] I had this impression throughout parts of it that this feels like it began as like a 40 minute episode script and then just got like bloated up to two hours. There's not a lot going on. It's a very relatively straightforward plot that Mando, by this point, after three and a half seasons of character development in his own show, is just working for what they call the New Republic, which is like what became of the rebellion after Darth Vader died.

[00:13:39] And he's just like headhunting, like ex-imperial officers who are still functioning as like criminal kingpins. And then the whole thing is just like one job, you know, like he gets a lead. He has to go talk to the Hutts, which I guess is our main like nostalgia polls that we bring in the Hutts. And then most of it just revolves around that one little mission. Like it doesn't really interweave too many other plots like a modern blockbuster often would. Which is what I appreciated about it.

[00:14:08] I may be wrong about this. I think I heard leading up to the movie that this was going to be season four of the show. And so I was kind of not sure if this was something where they had ideas for like multiple episodes of season four that they stitched together into one movie. Or if it is something like you said where they just kind of took maybe one part of what was going to be season four and then stretched that out.

[00:14:35] It feels like they took one episode's worth of plot and then interwove a season's worth of character development for Grogu. Which I don't know. I think again more so in the first half of the movie I found it that to be a detriment. Like the movie did not have a lot going on. Like let's let's look at the very beginning of the film because we don't want to go too heavy into spoilers right away. But like the film opens on a big action set piece on a snowy planet reminiscent of like Hoth in the original Star Wars films.

[00:15:02] And the pacing of that scene into Mando going back to like the New Republic base into him kicking off the main plot is paced very awkwardly. Like there's a bit where he gets back from the opening set piece. He lands. He goes to talk to Sigourney Weaver who's here just for some star power although she has nothing to say and no character to speak of. Well she's also like Steve Blum. I feel they wanted to bring in people that were part of other space you know aliens.

[00:15:32] They wanted that connection I think. They wanted the sci-fi connection. But I did find it odd that she has like nothing going on. She's just here as like to deliver plot information. She just says hi I'm Sigourney Weaver. She just says hi I'm Sigourney Weaver. She has really flat line reads. It's like she doesn't even want to be there. Very strange honestly. Like it made her look bad to bring her in in like a look who it is kind of role and then give her like no material to work with. Yeah.

[00:15:58] Yeah I feel like they filmed her scenes in like a day too because she's mostly in the same place. Exactly. So he goes in. He talks to her. She explains that they have a new job for him that involves going to meet with the Hutts. Not Jabba the Hutt because he dead. But other Hutts who are like trying to take over the Empire. And she tries to like sweeten the deal by being like I got you a new ship. And if you take on the job which I know you don't want to you can have the new ship.

[00:16:24] And so the following scene that conversation ends he's just gotten back to this planet he walks over to the ship. He just immediately boards that ship and goes and flies straight to where the Hutts are. And I'm like bro did you not have anything on your other ship that you needed? Do you have like a suitcase? Do you need to like eat lunch? Like it has such an odd pace to it that how did the Hutts even have time to find out he'd agreed and was on the way?

[00:16:46] Like I know you lose time in like the hyperspace travel but it comes across almost comical that he just immediately up and leaves. It feels like a video game character who's just like on to the next quest. Well actually I was thinking that too that this felt like a video game in a way. Well it felt like something you would do in the old Republic MMO. It's like here's your quest. You gotta go meet with the Hutts.

[00:17:14] There's gonna be some enemies along the way. But I didn't mind that actually because again that kind of tied into the things that I do like about Star Wars. About the things you can do in that world. In this universe with these characters. And I even liked the Hut connection because that didn't feel too fan service-y to me. I also thought it was hilarious that we had a big jacked like Hut slug guy.

[00:17:42] I was gonna say you don't think it's fan service-y. Like I'd like to know what demographic of the Star Wars audience is like can we please bring back the Hutts but can we make them tall and jacked and cool and handsome? Like who was holding out for like slug violence in these movies? It was kind of weird but that's what I appreciated about it. It wasn't. It was weird but it didn't.

[00:18:06] And that's almost why it didn't feel super fan service-y to me because you could almost see it as like in a front to like if you were a fan of Jabba or those Hut characters. It's like this is borderline like really stupid but I like that you went in this direction because I wouldn't have pictured a big slug guy in like an arena. So I appreciated it for that. But again, again I was watching it and I'm like man Thomas is gonna hate this.

[00:18:34] But I had just had a big smile on my face while I was watching these parts. Because I'm not, I'm worried it's coming across like I just don't like simple action premises. I do. I like stuff like that. The thing that was dragging down the entire first half of the movie for me was some pacing things. Like I said, that transition from the opening into the main plot with the Hutts feels like it's just missing some time elapsing in between. Kind of abrupt. I also really despise the dialogue in the entire film. Oh, I was gonna mention that too.

[00:19:03] Because it is very flat, very repetitive and kind of has that quality that people are catching on to now of like second screen dialogue where the characters have started to repeat information in a way that feels very unnatural. Because usual film logic would tell you if you've established something, it's established. Whereas now, I think the very first dialogue in the movie is this ex-imperial officer who's basically functioning as like,

[00:19:31] he's like racketeering and kind of trying to function as like a local area mob boss. And like the first thing he says to these people is, the empire has fallen, but you still are under my protection. I will protect you. And I was like, that just feels like a screenwriting sin. And we've just opened the movie. Like, why would you use the same word in two sentences in a row with no additional context? It's like, fix this. Like, it sounds so clunky. I agree.

[00:19:59] A lot of it felt like either a first draft or very much that second screen experience type dialogue. Especially with, I don't remember the character's name, but Jeremy Allen White's slug. Oh. Handsome slug man. A handsome slug man. Rota the hut. Rhoda, yeah. His dialogue was the most egregious. It was almost comical because he would say the same thing like three or four times in a row.

[00:20:27] And I'm like, what is this? Are you having a stroke? Like, why are you like, why do you keep? No, that's, again, that's my problem with the first part of the movie, which mostly focuses on Mando being sent to find Rhoda, who he's told has been kidnapped. But then discovering that Rhoda doesn't think he's being held against his will and is just a warrior princess in the arena. He's Xena. He's Xena, exactly. But again, there's dialogue from Rhoda where he, because he's the son. He's the actual son of Jabba the hut.

[00:20:56] And he says like, I'm nothing like my father, period. My father, Jabba. And I'm like, what is that? Why is that in here? That's not even second screen. That's just like oddly redundant language that movies usually stray. Any type of written word strays from that kind of repetition, like a book, theater, movie. No matter where it is, nobody would think that sounds good and would tell you explicitly not to do it. And this movie does it all over the place. Oh, I 100% agree.

[00:21:24] That was a complaint I had early on. I think it was very emphasized by his character. I also didn't think that his character had much of a characterization. It was just him like just spitting out exposition mostly and the same exposition over and over again. So I was like, who is this guy? He's told me repeatedly who he is and what he's doing here.

[00:21:51] But beyond that, he doesn't seem to have much of a personality or a character. And I think nobody does. There's no good foils in the movie for your two main characters, which I think was a strength of the original Mandalorian TV show, at least in the first season that I saw, was they often would pair him against more like interesting, like kind of energetic characters that would bounce off of his stoicism in an interesting way. Whereas here, the other characters in the story either had no specific qualities

[00:22:19] and were just talking about the plot or were like dull and boring. And I feel like that, again, is what made the first half of the movie feel like such a slog is I'm like, I don't care about Road to the Hut. But I would like to leave now. I'd like to leave the theater. I think I can still get my ticket validated. I'm going to go see Mortal Kombat 2. Oh, that one's worse. Let me tell you. Oh, bummer. So, yeah.

[00:22:45] I'm surprised that those elements for you did not also drag down the opening half of the movie. Because to me, it was distracting and annoying. It definitely did. And like I said, I think it reached a peak when his character got introduced. Because I was noticing it before that, but kind of giving it the benefit of the doubt up to a certain point. But when he started talking, I'm like, this is ridiculous.

[00:23:09] But the movie was still sort of moving at a pace that I found interesting and enjoyable. And as I said before, it just had this crowd-pleasing element to it. I think maybe seeing this in a theater full of people, because you may have mentioned before, like whether this is worth seeing in the theater or just waiting until it comes on streaming maybe. Yeah, we talked about that before we started rolling.

[00:23:39] That to me, it is sort of a question of... Because the second screen dialogue aspect. I was saying that to my wife. I was like, you don't have to do that in a movie theater. People have to pay attention. You're not supposed to be on your phone. But she was like, well, yeah, but most people are going to catch this on streaming. It's going to have a long tail as a Disney Plus release. So I guess that's why they felt obligated to do it anyway. Because that sort of dialogue has for the most part not infected theatrical first films. It's sort of like a Netflix syndrome.

[00:24:07] Yeah, but I've seen it in... I remember one of the first instances where I thought it was really egregious, which I did see this movie on streaming, but it had a theatrical release first, was like the two most recent Mission Impossible movies. I was dumbfounded by the dialogue in those movies. I think those were probably worse than this with the way that they would repeat information over and over and over again, like you weren't paying any kind of attention. It was like an audio...

[00:24:35] You know how you can turn on audio description subtitles on your TV where it doesn't just tell you what's being said, but it'll say out loud what's happening visually? That's how the dialogue itself is now. Yeah, yeah. That's what I mean. It's upsetting. It's like we were saying with Sigourney Weaver. She basically just came on and said, hi, I'm Sigourney Weaver. They could have just called the movie Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda. And more people probably would have engaged with it. Like, oh, I know what that means. Exactly.

[00:25:04] That's the other part of this that is frustrating, is that in addition to dialogue being really repetitive, it's also stripped of any characterization. Almost nobody in this movie talks in a way that informs who that character is. You're talking about Road of the Hut. He just speaks in the most plain text, like literally this is my purpose in the story kind of dialogue. He doesn't have a quality to how he speaks that makes him sound like he's a hut or that he's from a different planet or that he had certain experiences.

[00:25:34] And our two main characters are defined by the fact that they don't really talk much between the two of them. It's a masked, mostly silent protagonist and a literal baby. And that would be offset by having characters who are interesting and more dynamic. And nobody in this movie is. They're all less dynamic than a literal gurgling baby. He also had his little buddies that were smaller than him and made funny noises. Those, I don't know what the race of people is called,

[00:26:04] but it's all the Babu Frick guys who were in... Is that really his name? In Rise of Skywalker, there's one of them and they call him Babu Frick. And he's very cute and he's also a puppet. And the best decision this movie made was what if we had four Babu Fricks? And I'm like, you know what? That feels so like studio note, like people like that guy, bring him back. But I don't care. That was great. Him hanging out, the baby Grogu hanging out with those four guys was where the movie completely turned a corner for me. And I was like, now I'm back. I've come back to my seat.

[00:26:34] I'm gonna stay. Mortal Kombat 2 wasn't that good. I'm back here now. Wasn't that good. It was a little gross. I'm gonna come sit back down. I was like, oh, okay. Four Babu Fricks. Now I can't believe that's his name. And Babu and Nabu and Jabu Frick are here. Yeah, it's interesting because I enjoyed the second half in isolation. Watching it in the theater though, the movie felt long.

[00:27:02] And being engaged by the first half, I felt myself sort of like my interest was waning by the second half. And that's where it really slowed down, which to me was sort of an interesting pacing choice. I don't know if other people watching it in the theater had the same experience, but it felt very high energy in the first half and then really slowed down for a significant portion of the second half. And watching it, I was engaged with it. I'm like, this is still good.

[00:27:31] But I kind of felt that like you want to check the time and be like, dang, how much more of this movie is there? The movie is overlong. It's like two hours and ten minutes. And again, feels like a 45-minute TV episode kind of. But to me, because I was so disengaged by the beginning, because it felt so empty. Like there's constantly things happening. There's a ton of action, very little in between. But only when we got to the second half and it basically became the Grogu movie for a while,

[00:28:00] did I feel like anything was happening on screen that I felt like compelled by or felt any emotion towards. So when that part kicked in, I was like, this is interesting. And again, a remarkable contrast to the like insecure dialogue and plotting of the first part of the movie. Because it does slow down. It's like, hey, what if Mando is largely out of commission and we have to follow a silent film protagonist in Baby Yoda while he navigates a jungle for a while?

[00:28:28] And I was shocked at how much they took their time with that scene. Because I think if you rush that sequence, it doesn't work at all. But also, why would they even try to make that happen in the first place? Yeah, that part of the movie felt like watching the opening act of WALL-E. Yep, I was going to say the same thing. It's just this silent character going on this little journey. Maybe it was like playing to the strengths that the filmmakers had because they were so bad at writing dialogue maybe.

[00:28:58] And this was, we didn't have to worry about dialogue. Yeah, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Like, I'm sick if we do the characters have to say things. We already gave him a mute guy and a baby. Maybe everybody goes deaf in the second half. I honestly think that those two, I think there was a third writer credited on the film too. There was. Yes. But Dave Filoni, for sure, has been a huge part of shaping the narrative of Star Wars ever. I think post-prequels, he's been a huge part.

[00:29:28] Like, he's been a part of it since the Clone Wars animated series. And I know people have very mixed opinions of what he's done, given how involved he's been. And Jon Favreau as well, to, I guess, different extent. I know he was a big part of the Mandalorian show. But I think they're almost similar to George Lucas in a way, in that they understand the world, but they're just not good at characters and dialogue

[00:29:56] and the more intricate pieces of storytelling. They're good at understanding the broad strokes and kind of what makes these things fun, but can't get into the... Like, the movie felt like it was afraid to have any emotion for most of it, which almost made it feel weird when... I guess we're getting a little into spoiler territory now because we're heading towards the end. Is this the point? Should we make this the cutoff for past this point

[00:30:26] maybe get into more spoilers, or did you have any general thoughts beyond that? It's hard to say. I mean... Sounds like you liked the movie a lot more than I did because you were more sold on the action set pieces throughout the first part. Not so much just the action set pieces, but it had a lot of little things that I liked. I thought the score was pretty great at certain points,

[00:30:54] and I know it was... I don't know how to pronounce his last name, or I don't remember what his last name is, but it's Ludwig, who is... He's, like, huge up-and-coming. He's done... He did Sinners. He's, like, got three Academy Awards already, I think, this guy. Yeah, it's Ludwig... Grandson? Or something? I don't know the exact pronunciation either, but people will know the name. They've seen it on a lot of recent stuff, like you said. Yeah, like, there's that part of the movie where he goes to... He goes to Blade Runner,

[00:31:24] and, like, Blade Runner City. Like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, this is where we are now. And the score leading into that was very interesting. Reminiscent. For sure reminiscent. I'm, like, visually, this looks like Blade Runner, and this music is kind of making it sound like that. But it was like Blade Runner Chicago, because it had, like, the L tracks above the street. And it even... The name of the place sounded like Chicago, too. So I was, like, this has to be intentional, right? Because they did, like,

[00:31:52] a French Connection-esque car chase, which, again, is, like, what a weird pull in the midst of everything else. That's also where flippin' Martin Scorsese shows up for no reason to do a voice cameo that's awful. I know, I know. I saw his name in, like, the opening credits. He's, like, one of the first, like, five names credited as, like, actors in the film. And I was like, what? Is Martin Scorsese a big part of this movie? But, yeah, that was weird. I don't remember the name, but it was something...

[00:32:21] It was like... It sounded... The name of the planet or city they went to sounded like Chicago. Yeah. And then it looked like it, too. It looked like dirty outer space Chicago. And I was like, I mean, honestly, yeah, pretty accurate. It's just weird. It's, like, strange. But, yeah, I guess to zoom out, I recognized early on what audiences would appreciate about this movie. I think it's gonna do very well

[00:32:49] with general audiences because it is not ambitious in a lot of ways. It is basically a kid's movie, I would say, honestly. Like... Yeah, oddly, it's PG-13. Yeah, but it felt PG. If that makes sense. It felt PG. I think PG-13 was sort of just an inherent quality because Mando just, like, shoots people dead like almost every scene. But it definitely felt like the goal was Grogu is a hit

[00:33:19] with moms and kids and just across the board. And so they wanted to tone down the somewhat, like... somewhat, like, sinister quality to the storytelling in the Mando TV show, which feels more like a grungy old Western, and instead make it, like, those characters but in a more, like, uplifting, you know, traditional Star Wars setting. Yeah. Yeah. And I suppose it would be easy

[00:33:47] to feel cynical about that, but I didn't mind it, weirdly. I was kind of okay with it. I don't know. That was my general feeling from it. And we can get more into spoilers towards the end because that's, I think, what shaped my overall experience with the movie. Yeah. Because the first and second halves do feel very segmented, in a way. Yeah. It's like the Mando movie ends and the Grogu movie starts. Yes. And it's basically, like, which one do you prefer? Yeah. There's literally a point in the movie where, like, narratively,

[00:34:16] it kind of comes to a halt. And I was like, oh, okay. It's like you were saying earlier. It's like he goes home. He's just like, you know... He does eventually go home and, you know, save and quit. And then he comes back the next morning. Yeah. So that is weird. I guess, okay. So we'll mark this in the chapters for the episode. So the next chapter will be spoilers and then we'll have another one at the end that is like general wrap up. So if you don't want to hear any major spoilers about Mandalorian and Grogu, I would say skip a chapter and we'll see you in a minute.

[00:34:46] Otherwise, I think, Frank, we can move into some more specific details. Sure. And honestly, there's not even that much to get into. I thought it was weird that Grogu died, you know? Like, I was like, well, it seems... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He died and then it came back as a zombie and he ate the Mandalorian. That was unfortunate. and then he shouted Mortal Kombat really loud and they were like, his first words! Shotgun's like taking a picture of Baby Grogu. He's just got a different surrogate dad

[00:35:15] and he's just like, I like him. He's green. Yeah. Yeah, the end. So... Okay, so yeah, let's reset a bit. So we were talking about, for people who've seen the movie or don't care about what happens in it, past a certain point, Mandalorian gets captured. Grogu has to travel with four little Babu Fricks to go save him because the narrative focus in the movie is that for three seasons of television,

[00:35:45] he's been a helpless child slowly learning how to like use the force and like survive in a harsh world. And this movie is supposed to be that point of like, his overprotective dad underestimates how much Grogu can do by himself. And so Grogu has a little mini adventure to go rescue his dad that has multiple pieces. Like he has to go to where Mandalorian is, which is a different planet, which I love because they get into the little guy's ship and it's just like the tiniest spaceship. Yeah, yeah.

[00:36:14] And then Mando gets hurt in the escape. He gets poisoned, which this, ultimate sin for me. They show you that he gets stabbed and there's a whole plot beat where Grogu heals the wound and is confused why his dad isn't better because they've already shown you in the TV show that he uses like force healing and it's because he's got poison in him. And the movie very clearly shows you that he's been poisoned, but they were so insecure about it that they added ADR hut dialogue that gets captioned on screen

[00:36:43] that says, you've been poisoned. Well, it's a video game, so, you know, it has to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Use an antidote or visit the shop. I found that very, very lame because that entire sequence that follows makes way more sense if kept to slightly more vague because the whole point is that Grogu doesn't understand. He's like, I closed the wound. Why didn't he get up? And then he has to learn from another character that Mando's been poisoned. But the audience, they were so concerned that his festering

[00:37:13] purple wound wasn't clear enough that they just shouted from off screen, also he's poisoned. That really bothered me. Sure, yeah. I mean, I think that ties into the fact that I was saying that this feels like a kid's movie. That also means that it's easier for kids to understand and dumb people. Yeah, but like, kids' movies, good kids' movies would do all of that visually.

[00:37:42] Like a 90s Disney movie, even a newer, like, I went and saw, like, The Wild Robot a couple years ago and that was really good. There's movies made for children that, if anything, take more advantage of film being a visual medium than modern movies for adults do. And again, it's because they're worried no one will look at the screen. But then also, in this case, they're like, what if we had 20 minutes where it's literally just Grogu trying to cure Mando of his poison and we actually, like, see time pass and there's, like, montage editing

[00:38:11] and it's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it was all very, generally speaking, the whole movie is visually pleasing outside of some parts. I didn't like the snowy setting of the opening scene of the film. That looked just very blue screen heavy, unappealing. but their fake Blade Runner Chicago City looked cool.

[00:38:41] I liked the lighting there. The city they're on, or the, I'm sorry, the planet they're on when they're in the jungle and stuff, a lot of that looked really good too. So, cinematography-wise, I thought the film had an interesting look to it and it did remind me of, like, watching the Mandalorian series how at the end of some episodes they would show, like, the concept art. I was kind of hoping they would do that in the credits of this movie and they didn't do it so I was a little disappointed about that. That would have been neat.

[00:39:11] I wanted to see, because there were certain frames where I was like, I can see this as the concept art. You know, like, how they visualized it and then how they filmed it. So, I would have liked to have seen that. I would say that's maybe the one area where the movie met the task of being a film because, like, television is getting closer and closer to just looking like really long movies but there's qualities to filmmaking and, like, fan expectations that are a little different

[00:39:40] and a lot of this movie, I was like, this could have just been the show again but I would say visually it was polished enough and they did enough, like, higher budget, like, action scenes and locations that I was like, okay, no, this is a movie, it doesn't look like they filmed it on that big, ugly 360 green screen thing that they're always touting now. Which I think the Mandalorian TV show was one of the first major uses of that technology. It was. And I'm sure they're gonna come out and be like, oh no, we used that for, like, half the movie and then it'll look foolish but it didn't look

[00:40:09] like a theater backdrop like a lot of the Mando TV show does. It looked like a fully realized space that made good use of CG environments. So yeah, I would say the visual, definitely don't have any complaints. And, because this ties back in, what I liked about the whole sequence with Grogu and the little Babu Frick guys is that, like, Star Wars is a sci-fi property and the biggest advantage of science fiction is that you can create this boundless sense of, like,

[00:40:38] wonder for the audience. Like, anything could happen. You'll have known quantities, even something like Star Trek has, like, recurring aliens and locations and stuff. But there's that quality of, like, anything could happen here and I can't even imagine what's next. And Star Wars, for the most part, gets stuck repeating itself so often that that feeling goes away. You're like, how is this story going to somehow land us on Tatooine again? Like, it never changes. And so, even earlier in the same movie, when they just redo the Rancor bit,

[00:41:08] where the Hutts drop him through the floor and there's a big monster under the floor, I'm like, that's not interesting or even, like, awe-inspiring because as soon as he lands, I'm like, oh, they're doing the Rancor thing. And then their clever subversion is, no, we're doing the trash compactor scene. And it's like, okay. But then they also do the Rancor scene right after. And it's so, it feels like playing with the same small set of toys and you're just stuck in them. Whereas that whole scene with Grogu from a plot perspective created a sense of, like,

[00:41:38] engagement for me because I'm like, I genuinely don't know where this is going. I'm not sure how this gets resolved. But also from a filmmaking perspective was so impressive to me because as someone who watches a lot of movies, I still don't really know how they achieved those effects. Like, the combination of puppetry and animatronics and CG to make all of those Grogu's sequences work was, like, amazing to me because I genuinely couldn't easily place how they even achieved that. Yeah, absolutely. It looked great. It looked great. I do actually,

[00:42:07] I know somebody who worked on this movie, so. Was it Grogu? It was Grogu, yeah, I saw him at the movie theater. It's unfair to say you know Grogu and just didn't get mad at the premiere, but I'm sorry. We're good friends. Yeah. No, I totally agree, though. I mean, if I get the chance, maybe I'll reach out and ask them if they can give any insight on that because I think they worked in the visual effects department. But, yeah, it looked great and I think it would have been,

[00:42:37] I don't know, I didn't think they were going to do this. I didn't think, obviously, they were going to kill Mandalorian, but that was the story they were trying to tell. they, I mean, I think the Hutts even had dialogue towards him where like, you know, you're going to die someday and that little thing's going to live forever. Another great example of dialogue that comes out of nowhere to serve the plot. That Hutt drops his Hutt accent and just says in clear, plain English, this is what the story is about. And everyone's like, oh, okay, I was concerned. Yeah, that was weird

[00:43:07] that they just stopped speaking Huttese or whatever languages. It was fine for Rhoda to speak English because he was, you know, he moved away. He moved to a new country called Dirty Chicago. Space Chicago. Space Chicago, basically the same thing. But yeah, I agree that it felt like Mando dying would have kind of made sense, but also I think it was fine that instead it was more like, that was the

[00:43:37] part that made me sad, was that Grogu, he goes, he finds help, he gets an antidote for the poison and he gives it to him, but because he is small, he does not understand. He thought it didn't work because he didn't immediately get up and then he just nestles under Mando's arm and you zoom and hold on the face of a literal puppet and he gets more emotion out of the audience than any other part of the movie. And I'm like, that's crazy, that's so impressive to me. How is this the same movie that had that first 45 minutes of nothing?

[00:44:07] That's what's going to make this movie work for people though. I really think this movie, I don't think it'll have much of a, I don't know, I don't know if this movie itself will have much of a lasting cultural impact, but these characters already do. It is, I, tie in what I was saying earlier, some people are saying, probably rightfully so, that this movie waited too long to come out between when the show was at its peak of popularity, popularity, which is

[00:44:37] probably true, but I think this is almost going to just throw these characters back into the center of pop culture. It's just, like you said, Grogu, it just works too well. I wouldn't be surprised if they made another one, honestly, if this makes enough money, and that was almost certainly what they were thinking too, they're like, well we can't kill Mandalorian, if this makes a lot of money, we're going to make more of these, so. Well, they could have made Shao Kahn and Grogu as the next one, but they were too cowardly. Yeah, yeah, I would have

[00:45:11] I agree, we get a very status quo ending. Nothing changes, nothing big happens. That was another aspect of the storytelling that just felt like a dropped ball, was that, A, why is Mando a big idiot? Because he betrays the Hutts after spending the Why he's so dumb? He spends the first act being like, I know the criminal underworld, the Hutts, don't mess with the Hutts, and then betrays the Hutts, and then goes shocked Pikachu face when that backfires on him, with no real explanation. We understand morally he liked Rhoda and didn't want to send

[00:45:41] him back to be tortured, but he just has no contingency. He's like, I've betrayed the Hutts, I'm going home, I'm going to save and quit my game, nothing bad will happen, and then spends the whole third act being like, oh no, something bad happened. And it doesn't really interface with the New Republic plot very well, because they almost make it a thing, that they get mad at him too. They're like, hey, we're the good guys, but we have to network with these criminals in order to get our job done, and I honestly thought the

[00:46:10] beat would be, because he brings Rhoda back to where they are, and I thought that Sigourney Weaver and co were going to kidnap Rhoda from him. You know what I mean? Yes. And that would be how he gets sent back to the Hutt planet, was they were going to be like, Mando, this isn't about you, like, we have a system we're trying to rebuild, you know, from the days of the Empire, and it would give Sigourney Weaver just a simple, mildly villainous turn in the second act, but instead, she comes in, she's mad, and then just goes, ah,

[00:46:40] I can't stay mad at you, and then she rubs the head, ah. You, no face helmet looking. Just muttering under her breath, stupid Mando, no Jango Fett looking. Jango Fett. So that too, like, when they do that whole scene, and then he walks back to a ship, and Rhoda's just hanging out on the beach with Grogu, I was like, wait, what, he's here? Like, that's a plot detail, that's like letting the different, like, factions in this

[00:47:09] story kind of interact in a way that's more interesting, but they're like, nope, nothing will disrupt our A to B to C storytelling. Mando does a thing, he saves and quits, he comes back the next day and does something else, and that's it. Yeah, and that I think is where the translation of this going from a TV show to a movie, to a two hour plus movie, is almost like they were afraid to get into any kind of deeper level of storytelling. It's all

[00:47:39] extremely surface level, whereas if this had been a show, I think it would have been a fun season of television if it was just the same simple story, but you did kind of stretch it out and there was more twists and turns, and like, that could have been interesting too, but this was just the very boilerplate version of that. It was very stripped down, and it's a classic case where like, I'll complain that it's dumbing down too much for the audience, and then the movie will make $10 billion, and everyone who made those decisions will go, you're wrong, and I'll be like,

[00:48:09] sort of, yes. Sort of, yeah. But it doesn't mean it's good, it means that it's like everything else, like, you oversimplify and you strip it away, and you slowly make your audience stupider and stupider, and less able to even parse what's happening on screen, and eventually Mando and Grogu 3 is just going to be like a green blob in the middle of the screen that just shouts, it's Grogu time, like over and over again. People are going to be like, it's great, I thought it was minimalist, and I'm just going to

[00:48:38] be not watching movies anymore, because it's a complaint that predates everything. Everyone thinks that things were better before, and they've gotten worse, but like movies have gotten stupider in an almost objective level. Yeah, I watched the first episode of the studio recently, and Bryan Cranston is playing like a big studio head honcho guy in that, and he has a line of dialogue where he's like, we make movies here,

[00:49:08] not films, and I was like, that's pretty apropos of something like this, because that's like, I was watching this movie, looking at it from like the marketing perspective behind it, and again, seeing it with a theater full of people, I'm like, this is hitting, this is working for all these people here, but for me, the thing that really brought me in to enjoying films and movies, if you want to look at that as two different things almost,

[00:49:38] like, was big budget studio films like this that were good, I mean, that like, and again, if you watch the studio, that's kind of what Seth Rogen's character is trying to do, he was like, I want to make movies that make money, that are good, but that are also like interesting and have artistic value, and that's a really difficult balance to strike, I don't know if we've talked about it on the show before, we've definitely talked about it in person, but like,

[00:50:09] I remember in film school even, they would emphasize like, entertainment is something intended to reinforce the ideas you already have, whereas art is something that's intended to challenge your perspective, and films are both of those things at the same time, and so it's a very difficult, like, balancing act, and stuff like this, I think with what you're saying, this went like, full on, like, we're just gonna, you know, full on circus, we're just gonna make the audience, like,

[00:50:38] give them a show type thing, yeah, I just think that there's a, the movies that you and I would point to as the ones that worked for us as base entertainment when we were younger, if you look at those same stories now, at least maintained a layer through which characters had dialogue that represented the kind of people they were, and even movies with stupid plots would have a kind of

[00:51:07] idiosyncratic quality to them because it was a little more in the hands of the individual creators, like the directors and the writers, there's just so much control over the final product now that makes it to theaters that all of the worst impulses are unrestrained. Someone can literally do the dumbest, most tedious nonsense where they're like, add the subtitle where he says he's poison, and you can't say no whereas before, you could just, I'm sure there's people working as, directors in the 80s who were just like, sorry Mr. Moneybags,

[00:51:37] like that's impossible, you know, like they just, just shoo them away, they'd be like, we can't add a new scene, that's not how movies work, and then they go, ah dang it, if only we could have added a new scene. So now it's just, I don't know, I just feel tired by some of these things because I know it's only going to get worse because these movies still continue to make money because it's, the fun parts are still fun, I just think that there's like a layer in the foundation that's missing. I will say, I absolutely hear what you're saying

[00:52:06] and I think it's, it's maybe just a case of we're already pretty far gone and that the, the floor is lower because you brought up Marvel before, also Disney and those movies, like, some of those that I've seen are so much worse than this just in terms of the basic plotting. This one at the very least felt like it had the narrative scripted out from the beginning. They knew all of the, the, like, how the story

[00:52:36] was going to play out. They just didn't get into making the characters interesting outside of, like, Grogu's cute, Mandalorian's cool, I guess, Jango Fett. It was just like, Bulba Fett. She's like, no, no, no, no, no. Jango Fett looking ass. I know, I know what we're doing here. At least we're doing here. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't think that's, that's more so an indictment of how bad

[00:53:06] other films have gotten that this one felt almost refreshing and that they probably had a finished script before they started filming, unlike other modern blockbusters that are just, like, kind of winging it as they go along. Yeah, and they, they mostly, they finished their VFX shots, you know, like, there wasn't aspects of the movie that looked, like, I guess there was something in, there was like a one shot release on Disney Plus for The Punisher and there was this clip going around that's like a stunt of like a guy falling

[00:53:35] that it's a stunt actor and they were trying to like mask his face with Jon Bernthal's face but the effect literally just wasn't done and it made it into the final cut of the show and so everyone's clowning on that because it looks insane and this didn't have that. I think it was a visually polished film and it definitely has a plot that like makes sense A to B. So yeah, maybe I am judging it too harshly relative to the, the ecosystem of tentpole action movies. Which is,

[00:54:05] is fair though. I'm not saying that you should dumb down your expectations. I'm just saying that I think that's maybe why I, I think I went in with almost no expectations. I was like, what if I just skipped to this movie and pretended like I'd seen it for the review? because I was like, this is, it took me a minute. I was just like, why would you do that? That's that. That wouldn't work. I just, I had, I didn't think

[00:54:35] it was going to be good at all and the fact that it somewhat exceeded those expectations that I had and had a level of consistency to it, a level of entertainment to it, there was enough that I could latch onto to appreciate that, that things, that again, I knew, I was like, I can't wait for Thomas to tell me everything he hates about this because, Oh no. Am I the negative one? Is that the rule?

[00:55:04] I just knew, I just knew, I'm like, he's going to tell me, like, He's going to tell me that I should feel bad and that I'm a bad man for liking it. No, no. I was looking forward to it though because I was just, I was ready for that opposite, not opposite perspective but different perspective that you were going to have because I knew it was going to be there because I recognized the faults with it but it just, it worked for me

[00:55:34] on more levels than I anticipated that it would. Yeah, which, and I will say, there's a lot of movies I like that are not good in the same way that something like this is not good and it really is just is it enough? Like, are there enough things about it that you find charming that you end up generally liking the movie? I mean, I'd say that applies to, I mean, the prequels. We talk about the prequels all the time. So flawed. So deeply flawed and yet, overall, I like them whereas this one honestly probably gets

[00:56:03] just as many things right and wrong as those and I just kind of soured on it while watching it so it really is just a matter of taste. It sounds like you came around a bit more by the end but I did come around a bit more by the end. Why don't we, let's say spoiler conversation done, let's move into just like a general wrap up because we did mention at the beginning possibly off air. Is this worth going to see in the theater? Is Mando Grogu a movie or is it like when they put the last episode of Stranger Things

[00:56:33] at your local cinema? I think it is. I think kind of with everything I've been talking about it works in the way that a traditional blockbuster should. It's a crowd pleaser. It works for people of all ages, you know. I was in a theater with people who brought their kids who, you know, they were probably fans of Star Wars and now were introducing their kids to it and people who were older who have been fans of it for a long time. And they were

[00:57:02] telling their kids like when I was a kid Jabba was not this handsome and then they were like what? This is looks maxing Jabba right here. This is yeah, this is Manosphere looks maxing Jabba just on so much steroids. Yeah, that's part of it. And I think as you mentioned too like from a budgetary perspective I don't think this was a relatively small scale story but visually I don't think would have been

[00:57:32] as bombastic had it just been a few episodes of the TV show. I think they were sort of able to condense their focus visually with this story and give it a grander sense of scale. So, I think yes in terms of it being I don't know if it's you know something you need to rush out and go see necessarily but I think it feels

[00:58:02] appropriate for it to be a theatrical release. Okay. I am 50-50 on it. I think it has problems that I often recognize as being like streaming era television issues like we said with the dialogue and the odd repetitions in it that almost feel like an affront when you're already at the movies like you're locked in you listened when he said that same information four seconds ago. So, when he says it again you're just like shut it like what do you think I'm doing

[00:58:31] in the interruption like there's a scene where there's no context around this so it's not like a spoiler but this guy's they're on a planet where like salt is valuable and so he's like come on in pick out any salt you like and then Mando walks into the room and then the scene transitions because they're in a new room and he goes pick whatever salt you like and I'm like you just said that you just told him to do that like all we need is the next line yeah yeah no that scene continues to be repetitive too there's like multiple instances where he

[00:59:01] keeps saying the same thing he keeps offering the salt and Mando's like I don't need any freaking salt man salty enough as it is through this movie or like at the beginning Sigourney Weaver gives all this exposition to Mando about the missing handsome hut and then he goes and talks to the other huts and they just immediately give him that same information just as flatly nothing in between they don't elaborate on anything other than like telling him exactly where he is again weird choices that are reminiscent

[00:59:31] of a TV show and are just a plague on entertainment right now and probably forever because nothing gets better but I would agree that the movie has a cinematic presentation that I don't like you said I don't think you're like missing out there's certain movies that almost feel like less impactful if you don't get a chance to see them in a theater like I really liked going to see like Project Hail Mary a couple months ago at the at the movies I was like this is fun and it has a sort of like grand scale quality that I think something might

[01:00:01] even be lost watching it like on screen at home you could watch this when it invariably hits Disney plus but if you're looking to go to the movies I don't think you would feel cheated at all from Mando and Grogu it's a film it's a it's a problematic film not problematic it's a troubled problematic the Manosphere Hutts the Manosphere Hutts really dragged me down for me just listens to Joe Rogan every day I don't understand but yeah

[01:00:30] it's still a film it's decent I was my opinion of it was saved by elements of the second half that I thought were a lot more interesting so I ended up with kind of a middling overall perception of it and I did as well but almost in the opposite direction you liked the first part well I was just on board for what it was presenting I was like okay this is just a silly kind of fun action oriented film

[01:01:01] and then I think as I said before I really appreciated the second half but then I started to feel the length of the movie and I was like oh man maybe this would have been better off as a TV show where I could take a break walk away go see Mortal Kombat save and quit save your progress yeah yeah okay yeah so it'll benefit from both I think there's aspects of it that are aided by watching it at the theater and then there's aspects that are watching it in the background while you you know browse your phone

[01:01:30] three months from now yeah yeah I guess that's that's it Mando and Grogu I thought it'd be funnier if I hated the movie more and I think in the first half I was like already like writing out like titles for this video in my head where I was gonna be like Mando I want my money back but instead I'm like that's fine maybe you see that's why they had to keep repeating things right this guy's already working on his episode titles we gotta keep telling him what's going on here this guy's over here thinking about

[01:02:00] thumbnails and then he's gonna miss it when he asked about the salt yeah you know he needs the salt I mean he doesn't need the salt I forgot he doesn't need the salt he doesn't want the salt but the guy won't stop asking about it anyway I think that's fine I think we're clear to wrap up Frank any any like parting thoughts about Mando Grogu would you go see a sequel oh man there it is his real perspective well I mean

[01:02:30] it's just it's like I said before Star Wars has just become such an exhausting thing to talk about because there has to be so many caveats about it and I honestly don't know what you do with a Star Wars movie you know unless you're gonna take it in a completely bold direction to boldly go where no one has gone before like what if we took a couple of characters and we put them

[01:02:59] on a five year mission yeah like that would be cool right explore new planets new civilizations give them different colored shirts yeah yeah you don't want to wear red though that's not a good look red shirt is bad yeah and then we have a guy come in and he's just like Mando we've got to go to the you know you keep saying you're not the impression guy I know that's why I keep doing it

[01:03:29] I always do impressions that are untested you know how people usually like rehearse material in that moment I was like can I do a Shatner and then it turned out no so I just talked that's what you were writing down in the movie theater while they were talking about the salt and the looks maxing you were like can I do a William Shatner impression that'll come up during this episode right just personal reflection do I need to get groceries again or do I have time you have to get those every week how often do I need groceries

[01:03:59] tell me I need salt damn come back Mando don't drop it in the drink I need that all right well in case we didn't already fade out off of that awesome punchline about the salt thank you for listening we'll be back stay tuned for our regular uploads on the meet your double feature podcast talking about

[01:04:30] blind movie reviews Frank and I will swap reviews about older more obscure films with actors you've heard of in movies you haven't so stay tuned for more and thanks for listening bye bye that's Frank season one bit he did a reference you see because it's like Star Wars referencing an old thing yeah did you see the part where the chessboard monsters from the falcons showed up I was going to say no I didn't see that actually but I did this was the

[01:05:00] one mental note I made they literally they bled what the heck is it called a womp rat a swamp rat remember what Luke Skywalker says oh he shot a womp rat yeah I wondered what the point of that shot was I had to think about it for a second I was like oh yep that's it no but this is all off air but the guys in the arena were like the monsters from the claymation chest hologram thing oh okay I didn't catch that yeah

[01:05:30] because you're not a big enough nerd yeah that's stupid I caught the womp rat thing though or swamp rat I don't know what it's actually called but swamp thing swamp thing swamping the city swamping space Chicago swamping the space Chicago the episode's gotta be done if it's still going please leave it's over go home sorry that's my new that's my new this is gonna be for season three just sorry sorry sorry for all of that sorry come back next time sorry I'm so sorry

[01:05:59] for everything that happened here today like and subscribe I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm gonna stop recording now okay we're done