Top 10 of the 2020s

0:00 Welcome to twenty twenty five. We are just a few weeks away from the premiere of our sixth season, which begins on Monday, January thirteenth, But in the meantime, we had this special episode to hold you over the top ten of the twenty twenties as decided by you, the listener. We asked you to give us your mid decade top ten lists, and while they slightly surprised us, they did not disappoint. So let's find out which of your picks made the list.

0:54 Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us at a film buys once a decade New year'sctacular. I'm going to be your guide through this cavalcade of cinema greatness, but I can't do it alone, so I'm joined by our fearless leader and audio editing wizard, Jeff Double J Johnson. Andrew it is. You have no idea how relaxing it is to be in the passenger seat and not lead for a change, So thank you. I love this idea, I love that you brought it for the listeners, and I am happy to be a part of it. And our fellow Gusbert, a friend of the show and host of the surely you can't be serious podcast, Jason. This is our first time together, so I don't have a nickname for you. Cole.

1:35 Then I'm happy to be here, guys. I'm ready to talk some movies that I absolutely loved and maybe a couple that I didn't love so much. So it's a wild list. I think we're all pretty surprised but we got on here. But I'm excited to talk about it. So the reason we wanted to do this obviously wanted to do something fun for the New Year's but also the twenties have been an interesting time for movies. We kicked off the decade with a pandemic, We've seen a huge rise in streaming content, which has just changed the game. So I want to hear what do you guys thoughts about the decade, what's different, what do you like? What do you not like about it? I'll tell you what I don't like about it. You know, with COVID happening, we lost a lot of great theaters, a lot of a lot of just truly wonderful places to go get lost in the cinematic experience. One of my favorite theaters fell victim to this during COVID. It was a situation where they were doing anything they could to get people inside the theater. You know, they were replaying classics, they were you know, offering five dollars tickets for any showing, anytime, any day. And I was going all the time, you know, because I just, yeah, it's a great deal. But I also I just wanted to be at the movies. I wanted to be somewhere because that was a time where you couldn't be anywhere. So, you know, I definitely think the twenty twenty is off to a very very sad start for the state of film because we weren't getting a lot of movies made, and the ones we were getting out, the no one was going out to see them.

3:05 Yeah. Yeah, I think there's something to be said for even a bad movie in the theater is still a good time the way I view of it. You know, I love going to you played shitty arcade games for a while while you're waiting for your viewing to start. It's the stickiness, the uncomfortable seats or nowadays I guess I got those big recliners. But something about that's always special, even if the movie's not great, And that was something we really, really missed for a while there. Yeah, I mean COVID dropped a nuclear bomb on the movie industry in twenty twenty, and it destroyed the movie watching experience in twenty twenty, and it also destroyed the pipeline, and so it took a couple of years for movies to come out again. We were talking before we started recording that most of our movies are in twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, not twenty or twenty one even you know, it's just it's a crappy deal. And maybe streaming was already the genie out of the bottle, but it felt like COVID really ramped oup up. And I agree with there's something about corporate experience with other people watching a movie, laughing, cheering, There's something special about going to the theater.

4:10 Yeah, it's not going to make our list, but I always think back to twenty nineteen with Captain America lifting Thor's hammer, Like I remember, not that moment just because of what happened on screen, but because of the eruption of everybody around me, and like, moments like that are hard to get in your living room. But having said that, Jason, you mentioned streaming is on the rise, which is great. I personally am a big fan because I think it opens the opportunity for smaller, more intimate stories, which can make some really good movies. We've even got a couple on our lists here that were only released streaming. So what are you guys thoughts on the rise of Netflix and the like. Well, for me, it's tougher. It makes it tougher. I don't know, just the movie watching thing has changed because you used to watch TV. You'd watch trailers and that tell you what you wanted to see. Then you go to the theater and you'd see it. And now it's just there's so much content out there that it's tough to kind of figure out what the big movie is and what everybody is enjoying and other than just kind of having your friends tell you. But sometimes I end up getting lazy and I just watch Rearins and Cheers or something. You know. So I like it. It's convenient, but it's not as fun.

5:17 I appreciate the convenience, but I feel and I'm not trying to be Christopher Nolan here, but it does take away from the movie going experience for me. And you know, there's movies I'll go see where I want to be. I want to be in a crowd. I want to I want to hear everyone cheering or clapping at the same part that I'm cheering and clapping. That's fun. And then there's other times I just want to see it on the biggest, loudest screen possible, because sometimes that's how you need to see a movie and experience it, at least for the first time, you know. And we're in a situation now, like you know, any one of us, could you know, go to Amazon or you know, even walk into your local Best Buy and buy a eighty five inch TV that's four K and you can get the you can get this in a going experience without the people. And sometimes that's a good thing because, let's face it, a lot of people are rude, you know, and I'm not talking about just the people that are talking.

6:09 I'm talking about the people that are on their phones and you know, just just being obnoxious, well while you're trying to be in that movie going atmosphere. So I like that, you know. I like that we have streaming options. I like that some of the big streamers are doing their own original content. It makes it worth having them but I don't love it. Yeah, it's it's interesting, and I'm both excited and nervous about the future of it. You know, we've talked a little bit, you know, Jeff. You know, my Danny Boyle is one of my favorite directors, and the way he talks about filmmaking is this like punk, energetic young thing where everybody's trying to learn and grow. And so part of me hates to see the dying of these theaters.

6:52 But the other part of me thinks, you know, are we just getting old? Is films kind of adapt and learn this new medium and learn this new way of communicating, And you know, is that something we're gonna have to adapt or die? And so I don't know. But it's been an interesting year, and I think again, we've had a couple streaming only movies on this list that I was floored by. So I don't want to discount it. I'm eager to see what happens. Look, I'm all for the advancement of technology, but I think at its core, the cinema going experience. I don't know if that'll ever change. Like we tried, you know, remember it was a couple years ago they tried that quibi where you could watch new content on your phone. Yeah, that failed spectacularly because everyone thought, hey, today's generation doord atention span and they just want to watch ten minute shows and movies. No, we don't, we don't want that.

7:42 I think Steven Spielberg said it best a long time ago. Him and George Lucas had a conversation and they kind of predicted that the future of the cinema going experience is going to be like going to the opera or the ballet or the symphony. It's gonna cost you a lot of money, but it's gonna be like a premium service. It's gonna be like a high quality type of fair and it's not gonna be just like, you know, a group of fourteen year olds sneaking into an R rateed movie and talking throughout the whole thing. It's gonna be a different it's gonna be it. It will change. But you know, I'm one of the ones that like, hey, I'll pay forty bucks to go see a new movie if it means there's no cell phones in the building, you know, and there's no kids talking, I'm all for that. But to each of their.

8:23 Own, Yeah, fourteen year old Andrew is a little upset about the eady that I can't sneak in and watching our righted movie though, like that, that's that is a life changing experience, and enough it is. Yeah, all right, Well, so we're gonna get into like you said, we're gonna talk about the top ten. But we had so many submissions. We had fantastic lists. Movies that I forgot to mention popped up several that I haven't seen. I know, Jeff and Jason we've talked about like we none of us have seen every movie on this list. Is that correct? That's correct? Not me. So I loved all the responses. So what we did is we combined everybody's responses and every single time a name popped up on somebody's list, it got a point.

9:05 This is how we ranked the movies. It worked out great. There were a couple of ties, so for ties I used Rotten Tomatoes. We combined the audience and critic score. The combined total was then used to break it down. This didn't happen super often, but it was very, very helpful, and I think what we got out of it was really interesting because I wouldn't have called some of these So we're about to get into our top ten movies of the decade. So before we do, let's step aside, let's take a little break, and we'll come back and we'll hit the real list. Welcome back. We're going to get into the top ten of the twenty twenties. I'm so excited to do this list with you guys. We got some really interesting ones, so let's jump right in.

9:55 At number ten, we have one of my favorite movies of honestly of the century, Everything Everywhere, All at Once, directed by the Daniels, released April eighth, twenty twenty two. This was weird, This was fun. It played with a multiverse concept, which is a thing that you know. I think Marvel maybe overplaying their hand, but this did it in such an interesting way, and it gave us such an interesting endpoint. I have watched this movie several times and I'm not sick of it at all. What are you guys thoughts here this one? I feel like you take something new away every time you do sit down and watch it.

10:35 I haven't seen this one. I have not seen this one. So, oh, Jason, I feel like I've letting the team down here. I'm sorry, No, sorry, obviously. The first time I'm upset about it. Like up to this point, it's I get it. I get it. You gotta see this movie. It's there's nothing like this movie I've ever seen out there. It's so interesting and weird and unique. You gotta give it some time. Jason, this film should be the next film you watch. Should be this film because it's so fantastical, it's got it's got our our beloved short round as an adult. He Who Kwan is in this and he's doing an incredible performance. Michelle Yeao Jamie Lee, Curtis Andrew doing one of the weirdest things I've ever seen, and she wins.

11:21 She wins the Oscar for it. If I if I'd recall. Yeah, this movie also is our first Best Picture winner from the Speaking of the Oscars. She and k kwon and this movie cleaned up and I think for good reason. It's it's really strange and it gives you a really like boring in I remember the first five minutes of this movie, I was like, what am I? What am I signing up for? I'm I don't have the energy for this. And by the end of it, I was like, more, give me more. This is, well, it doesn't. It doesn't bill itself as a multiverse movie. Yeah, so in a time where that's you know, that storyline is getting really long in the tooth with Marvel and we're kind of sick of it.

12:02 I you know, it was pleasantly surprised when I realize what I'm watching with everything everywhere all at once, and I love it for it. Yeah. It does it in a way that stays really grounded too. I think that is largely due to Michelle Yo and Stephanie Sue and Kie Kwan. They had to give these really emotionally grounded performances that like make you care about them and make you genuinely concerned to what happens, especially when the plot kind of makes it. I don't want to say pointless what happens, but it really highlights the absurdity of a multiversal concept and then brings it back down and just hits you right in the heart. So I love this movie. I recommend it to everybody.

12:44 I'm so glad it made the top ten and again it is our first Best picture winner on. The list and rightly so okay. All right, moving on to number nine, not to beat a dead horse on the multiverse concept. We have dead Pool and Wolverine. This is directed by Sean Levy. This is our newest film on the list, released in July twenty sixth, twenty twenty four. And I don't need to tell people what this movie was. I think everybody knows it at this point. But what are your guys' thoughts on Dead Pull and Wolverine. Probably the funniest comedy I watched over the past five years. And that shouldn't be what you say about a Marvel superhero movie, but it is what it is. I loved it for all the jokes and the gags and the Easter eggs, but that's what it is. It's junk food.

13:32 It's junk food for the MCU world. In my opinion, Yeah, this is what you go to the movies for, right This is the spectacle that you want to see on the big screen. It was fun. There's a lot of action, The special effects were amazing, the storytelling was incredible, and I laughed start to finish. So I thought it was I thought it was amazing. It made my top ten, so. For sure it would have made mine as well. It didn't. It got bumped. I think it was like number eleven or twelve for me. But it was a tough, tough road, but it's it is what a comic movie can be. I think comic book movies get a weird reputation nowadays, but they don't need to. Some of them are fun, some of them are dramatics, some of them are action packed, some of them are silly. That's what makes comics great.

14:20 So I love that Ryan Reynolds and Sean Levy have done such a good job of bringing that to bear in cinema because like some of the scenes from like Matthew mcfaden, he's an amazing dramatic actor. He's so funny in this movie. It doesn't even make sense, like what are we doing here? Like why are you hiring like a Shakespearean level actor to be this little asshole? It's so good. But yeah, it's I wouldn't call this great cinema. I don't think the Academy is going to be giving it any awards come next season, but it did what it set out to do very very well. Yeah, nice send off for Deadpool in my opinion.

15:01 Yeah, yeah, speaking of the Academy and what people like, let's move on to the number eight spot. With Dune Part one. This was October twenty second, twenty twenty one. The Dennis Villeneuve Timothy Shallomey again, I don't need to I don't need to sell you guys in this one. I feel like this is a phenomenon in this decade. Let me tell you something about Dune. For me, the bar, it wasn't that it was low. It was actually a trip hazard because it was laying on the floor after and I'm talking, I'm talking about after the what was it eighty four Jason David Lynch, Yeah, David Lynch that I got forty minutes into that I could I couldn't. I couldn't go forward. But this speaks volumes to that storyline because just based on the trailer that that Max put out, I couldn't wait to watch this All Star cast and it looked it looked awesome, It looked freaking awesome.

15:54 So not surprised to see this on a top ten list for the twenty twenties. I thought was incredible. What about you? I've resisted this one. I have not seen part one or part two. WHOA because of the nineteen eighty four movie. I can tell you listen, I endured the nineteen eighty four movie, or at least most most of it. And I can tell you, you know, you can go into this with safe passage. You're not gonna be disappointed. I strongly recommend you. Know, after you turn off Hulu where you watch everything everywhere all at once, you got to go over to Max and start Dune. But maybe start in the morning because you're probably gonna watch part two afterwards. Okay, you know, make it, make it, You're gonna have it.

16:41 You're gonna have yourself a doom day. I think, really, time is gonna shine very positively on Dennis's version of Doune. Yeah, because I was the same way. I didn't see it right out of the gate. I was bored, I was tired. I was like, I don't want to another Dune adaptation. I'm not here for it. And it got such rave reviews. It's like, fine, I'll give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did, because, yeah, man, it's good, it's real good, and it's a part one, you know. I think I love when a trilogy, or at least a story is set up knowing it's going to get a sequel, knowing it's gonna be able to tell a broader story, so you know, this doesn't culminate.

17:24 Fellowship is my favorite Lord of the Rings for a reason, like they knew what they were building too, And I think it's just a good start to a story. Is beautiful, and this does that. Well. I love it when studios commit to a big project like this, so you know it's not oh well, we'll throw it out there and see if it's a hit and then decide whether or not we're gonna do part two or not. This is a commitment by the studio. I love it. Yeah, going all in. We need more of that. Yeah, absolutely, all right, gentlemen, Well we're gonna take a brief break before we get back into our list. We're not getting younger, We're all our tastes are slowly aging. But filmmaking is not actors filmmakers, they're getting younger. Who would you say has had the best decade so far in twenty twenties And this could be actor, this could be filmmaker, this could be director, anybody. What are the newcomers that you're seeing, What are people that are having a resurgence, Who's having a good decade?

18:24 Well, I think that I think Pedro Pascal has had a pretty great decade. So he was in the Last of Us, which I thought was an amazing mini series, right, yeah, and then of course Mandalorian is maybe the greatest Star Wars thing to happen since the Empire strikes back, probably, So it's fantastic. And he's been you know, he's in Wonder Woman nineteen eighty four, which was terrible, but you know, it's a big movie, and he was I just saw him recently glad Eator Part two, So he's he's having a strong showing.

19:04 He's our new Read Richards, right, that's right. Yeah, that's a big swing for Marvel too. I mean again, being a comic lover, being Read Richards is you know, right right now, it's cool to be Iron Man right now, it's cool to be Captain America. But if you're comic lover, Read Richards is the man. Well, let's be honest too, Like casting Pedro Pascal for this definitely not what the comic book community expected, you know. I mean, we're really going against type here for Read Richards, especially in a world where we just got John Krasinski a couple of years ago and everyone's still filming at the mouth like wanting him. So I'm excited to see what first steps is gonna give us and in the story and more importly, in his performance.

19:49 Hell yeah, all right, Jeff, Who is your filmmaker, actor, actress? Who's your star of the decade? Who's up and coming? Who do you like? You gotta give it up to the lovely and very talented Florence Pugh. I mean she she hits us with Midsummer in twenty nineteen and kind of makes a name for herself, and then from twenty twenty on. Look at what she's done. She's worked with Christopher Nolan in an Academy Award blockbuster, She's part of the MCU. She's done some really critically well received films. You know, she's working with great directors and she's just she's electrifying on the screen. I love what I love what she's doing. I just can't wait to see what she's at next for us.

20:31 Great choice. She was definitely front of the list for me as well. But we talked about him briefly. I almost said, key, hey kwan, I love seeing a comeback. I'm a big Goonies fan, you know, you know, we're all big Indiana Jones fans. So I loved seeing him, but he got bumped. I'm gonna go give it to Jenna Ortega. That is not a bad choice. Ben, She's been in so much. She is the new horror queen. She's been in Scream, she was Wednesday, She's, she was in Studio six sixty six, fantastic comedy horror film with the Foo Fighters. I just left and right. You see her popping up in great horror films. She's and she seems to have fun and do a great job in every single one. I think she is making a real name for herself as an analyster.

21:18 Hey, she's awesome in X and she was a lot of fun in Beatlejuice Beetlejuice, which twenty four. I'm amazed it took this long for her to work with Tim Burton. It just seems like her wheelhouse. All right, Well, let's jump back into our list. All right, we got the number seven spot. Number seven for US is as you just mentioned with Florence Pugh is Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer released July twenty first, twenty twenty three. Damn near made a billion dollars. It was one hundred million dollar budget nearly just fell short of a billion in the box office. I'm sure it'll make it on the back end. Though. This was part of Barbon Higher weekend, which I think we all you you can't help but get excited for.

22:05 What are you guys thoughts on Oppenheimer. I was excited to see it. I was part of that whole Barbenheimer craziness. It was a lot of fun. And the fact that Christopher Nolan is doing this with little to no c G I still blows my every time I watch it. It just blows my mind. And you're not watching it for the test. You're watching it for these amazing performances from you know, guys like RDJ and Florence Pew. I mean, who isn't in this movie? Right? Yeah, that's Jason Jack Cutmore Scott right, Yeah, yeah. I love the story that Matt Damon told his wife.

22:45 He's like, you know, I'm gonna take a break for acting for a little while. I want to sit back for a while unless Christopher Nolan calls and Christopher's like, well, all right, back to it. Then. I thought this movie was fantastic as well. The fact that that it is you know, the history and the true story, and I mean about a man who had one of the greatest impacts in human history is is It's fascinating to watch. So yeah, it was. This is my number. I bumped this to number two. This is my number two overall. So I thought it was amazing. Which either way. By the way, I got a little nugget for you. Okay, all right, you know it. Do you know where Christopher Nolan first encountered the name Oppenheimer?

23:34 No, I have to assume it's for interstellar because I mean we're talking nuclear physics and whatnot. But I don't know when he So in nineteen eighty five, Sting had an album called The Dream of the Blue Turtles and there's a song on there called Russians and it mentions Oppenheimer's toy. And so that's the first time he had ever heard that name. I have been way for some kind of deep rabbit hole, deep dive or nugget. Clearly you get me serious style nugget. So thank you. I'm gonna scratch it off my big o card. I was waiting for it, and wow, that blows my mind. Blows my mind.

24:17 What do you got? Real quick? I gotta I gotta ask, would you guys say this is Killy Murphy's best performance when you look at his career? Yes, I don't know. I have a hard time with biopics and saying to anybody's best performance. They always feel a little bit. It sounds awful to say, But Oscar Baby and I love Killian Murphy. He's done some amazing work. You know, We've talked about my love for Danny Boyle, but he's got a long career of great stuff. This was amazing, but I don't know if I could call it his best interesting all right, I think nobody's surprised to find that one in the top ten. But let's move on to our number six spot. We're gonna have a little bit of a repeat here with Dune Part two again. We're talking Dennis Felaneuve March first, twenty twenty four.

25:06 I'm gonna go out on a limb, Jason, and guess you haven't seen this one. I have not, Jeff, what are your thoughts though? I will everything I said about Dune Part one, and then I'll add that, Oh, by the way, Florence p was in this, so just one more reason why I'm picking her. As you know, having the best twenty twenties. Zandania also pops up. She technically pops up in the first one, but she's really in this one. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, this one. Yeah. I mean the cast Okay, can we just talk about the cast alone. We got Josh Brolin, we got Dave Batista, we got Timothy Shalome, we got Rebecca Ferguson. I mean, it is just a lister after a lister, like quality after quality like this dude pulled together cast.

25:52 It's like, you can't make a bad movie. We've seen where directors get ensemble casts and they do make a bad movie. But Dennis is doing no such thing here, and with my man shallow May leading the pack, how do you not just love this, this two part story and want more? That's what I'll say. Yeah, I don't want to spoil anything. I mean, if you know the story, you know it. If you don't, just go see it. It's it's interesting, it's unique, it's I don't think, you know, going back to the story itself, you don't get Star Wars without Dune. It feels like now that's gone the other way around, as whereas you don't get Dune without Star Wars, and I think that's a really cool arms race of sci fi that they're playing.

26:37 You get another Sting connection too, by the way, all right, let's hear it. I mean you get Sting and you know Oppenheimer's the song, and then of course Sting was in the original nineteen eighty four Dune. So there you go. I've blocked that out of my memory. Dat. All right, well, let's move up to the number five spot. John, You've got another comic book film, you got another multiverse film. We got Spider Man No Way Home. Released December seventeenth, twenty twenty one. This is the first great film from the MCU post end Game as far as I'm concerned, and you are correct thrilled with how it turned out.

27:18 I went back and rewatched it recently. I was like, does it hold up as well as I thought it does? And it does. It's really good. What are you guys thoughts on this one? This one is a situation where again we're kind of over this whole multiverse storytelling. But man, if you're gonna do it, I mean, leave all the cards on the table. Bringing back not one, but two other Spider Man from the Columbia Tristars Sony days. I thought that took some real courage from Kevin Figi in the MCU to do this and kind of connect them. So it's an incredible story. It gave us everything that we wanted and and I agree with you, it's definitely the best post endgame MCU film we've had.

28:03 Todate, Yeah, I haven't seen this one either. No, I'm just kidding. Just looks like that man. Oh no, no, this is what you go to movies to watch, right right. The bringing back Andrew Garfield and Toby mguire was really I agree with you, Jeff, it's really courageous because that doesn't work the whole movie shot, you know, and you bring back William Dafoe and he looks like he has an aged twenty minutes from two thousand and two Alfred same thing, yeah, right right, And it was just absolutely blow your socks off summer blockbuster fun. Yeah, it's it's amazing. In fact, the when we get to the to the speed round here, it'll make an appearance on my speed round list here.

28:56 I'll tell you one more thing for the For the eleven people that didn't see it, I'll tell you it has a great ending and gives us a new direction for Spider Man to take that we desperately needed after all the start tech and you know fan fare that they were doing with that. So yeah, I'm a big Spider Man fan from way back. You know, we've talked about Captain America more than once, but like as a kid, Spider Man was my jam and I think this is the kind of movie that Spider Man comics have always dabbled in the multiverse. He's running himself a lot. You know, we talked about it very briefly back and across the Spider Verse, but that isn't a movie you can just make. I think it would fall so flat at any other time in history.

29:40 I think you go back to the beginning of the MCU or pre Iron Man, this movie doesn't work. And I think if you make this ten years from now, it doesn't work. It just threaded the needle so perfectly on the fan service and the tying together of storylines and the finding its moments so perfectly that that worked in a way that had the emotional impact the comic books have for a lot of kids. That just doesn't normally translate well to screen. So yeah, I was blown away. I didn't expect it to be that good, and I was wrong. So I'm very, very happily pleasantly wrong. All right, So before we get into the final four, let's do some rapid fire questions about the decade. Now, I've given you guys these questions ahead of time. I don't anybody think you guys are wizards that just know these off the top of your head.

30:31 No. I needed some thought on this one. Yeah, me too. I came up with the questions long before I came up with the answers. I stressed myself out here. So let's do it. First question, we're gonna go rapid fire. We're gonna do Jeff, then Jason, then myself. Best action scene of the decade, Jeff, what do you got? The opening scene of No Time to Die? Bond is in action on foot, on motorcycle, and in the Aston Martin in the span of three or four minutes taking out the spectro assassin's It's everything you want in an opening for a James Bond film. Hell yeah, Daniel Craig is a machine. I love it all right, Jase, what do you got? Okay? For me? It was Spider Man, No Way Home? When you got the three Spider Man battling Electro and Sandman and Green Goblin, I think and just all three you're you're basically watching three Spider Man movies at the same time.

31:27 It was incredible. Yeah, we were all twelve years old watching that. I believe it doesn't matter how old you are. You watch that and you turned it into a twelve year old. It was perfect. When Andrew Garfield has an emotional moment where he wants to know if he did get Gwynn in time or get married Jane and times. Best part of that scene. I don't even love the amazing Spider Man movies, and that still got me like that. That was perfect. Andrew Garfield is a legend all right for me. I went with Tyler Rake aka Chris Hemsworth in Extraction. There is a long cut scene where he just beats his way through enemy after enemy. It's wild, it's intense, the endurance involved.

32:07 I love the filmmaking aspect of it. It's a movie made by stunt people, so you can tell it was made with love for stump people real quick. That's another WTF situation. Where's the franchise? Because that movie is awesome. I know we had a second, second one. I'm ready for our fourth, fifth one as soon as they get the third one done. Hell yeah, all right, gentlemen, we're coming off the holidays just now. We've had some really interesting additions to the holiday ouvra. So what is your favorite holiday movie? Jeff? A couple of years ago, Max put out eight Bit Christmas, all about a ten year old trying to get the ne e s and I say them, what else is it to say? This is this? This was my Christmas?

32:51 This was this was like my true story. That's perfect narrative. At the NPH two, I I let me some Neil Patrick Harris, so he's fantastic A right, Jason, I. Just watched this one not too long ago, maybe a couple of weeks ago. It's called carry On. To call it a holiday movie is a bit of a stretch. It's kind of like a die hard type of thing. So it's not a stretch to call it a holiday movie. We agree, exactly, we agree, that's exactly right, right right. A lot of action. Uh. It takes place at an airport, you know, on Christmas Day, I believe, and it's it's it's a lot of fun. So for me, carry on the.

33:32 Tarred Edgerson is I think the protagonist and that in the Villains Jason Bateman, to watch him take a scary turn. I love I love him as a villain. It doesn't you don't think it's gonna work, and then it works. Great. Jason Bateman is the best part of that movie. He is, he is, it shouldn't work, and then he just knocks it out of the park. Yeah, well, I'm gonna agree with you here, Jeff. I had eight Bit Christmas as well. Uh, that was a sleeper for me. I didn't see it coming. I just watched it on a and I was like, holy hell, this is like, this is a modern day Christmas story. It feels you know, retro and throwback, but also very relatable. And you know, with that being said, I literally, just like a few days ago, because we're recording a few days after Christmas, watched Last Christmas or Sorry That Christmas. It was. It was a fun animated film. I enjoyed it. There's been some good ones this year or this decade, but yeah, I gotta say eight That Christmas. That one's I feel like that one's gonna stick. That one's gonna last all right.

34:30 The next The next one the list is animated movie. Jeff, what do you got for your best animated movie? Well, you've already discussed it. I'm gonna go with Spider Man Across the Spider Verse. Me too, I mean enough said that movie kicked ass. It's it's really hard to talk for sure. This was a I added this one last minute, and I thought, you know what, this is gonna be an easy category for me. It wasn't. I really struggled. Where I landed was actually a movie. It was really straight streaming called Mitchell's Versus the Machines. I don't know if you've seen this film. It's so much fun. It is definitely more of a family film, a lot more childish action and humor, good heart, great cast, eminently quotable, which I think a lot of movies can be. So if you've never seen it, check it out. It's on Netflix, the Mitchell's Versus the Machines.

35:21 It won several awards for animation. It's fun. It's a little more cartoony than Spider Man, but absolutely worth your time. Next, we're gonna go with the best horror. Now, horror is not my genre, so this was a bit of a stretch for me, But Jason, how about yourself. A little bit of a stretch to call this a horror movie. But The Invisible Man from twenty twenty was pretty freaking amazing. The effects were incredible in that movie. Yeah. Yeah, basically it's a. Stalker movie, you know, Jason, I was telling. You it's like it's sleeping with the enemy with the Invisible Man. That's right, That's right, Yeah, that is That is a very accurate description I did until just now Jeff been nailed it all right.

36:06 Well, I have sort of two answers for this one, because the first one feels a little less sooteric and weird. If you guys are into stop motion, there's a film by the name of Mad God. It's very weird, made by Phil Tippett, who is you know, you might know him as I know him with a lot of the visual animation from Return of the Jedi Dress Park. He made a stop motion and an animated horror film. It's weird. I don't recommend it for everybody, but if you like weird stuff, if you're in a film, I recommend it. But a little more mainstream, I'm gonna go with Alien Romulus We've talked for years, Jeff about my love for Alien and Aliens. I can never let it go. And I was so nervous for this sequel. I was like, it's gonna suck. I was fully prepared for it to suck.

36:48 I didn't go see it opening day because I was not ready to have my heart broken. And damn, it's a good movie. I'm telling you a movie that takes place in between the events of Alien and Aliens. Smart You're It's so brilliant, so brilliantly done, and man, the fear factor is there. I was gripping the armrest watching this one in the theater. I saw this in Imax and nothing like five foot xenomorphs screen across the screen to really put you on. Edge to a lot of fun in the movie theater. I think they kind of did some good stuff. They grabbed the fear of space that they had in the first Alien movie, combined with the you know, multiple aliens, you know you're in trouble, You're in a confined space type of thing that you get in two.

37:39 So yeah, it's it's that isolation and dread that it's hard to define, but when you nail it, you nail it, and I think they nailed it. I was so happily surprised on this one. Let's switch tones. What is the funniest movie you guys have seen this decade? I gotta be honest, A lot of the funniest things I've seen in movies are not in comedies. It's it's different genres that are just packing themselves full of comedy, which is a little disconcerting. But if I'm picking one, I'm gonna go just with the off the rails one, and it's Cocaine Bear. I was in the theater full of people laughing their asses off at Cocaine Bear, and it kind of started this subgenre. Now we're getting Cocaine Shark, and we're getting Cocaine this and that. So you know, I believe it's a radio his last film, and he's having a lot of fun in this one. So if you haven't seen Cocaine, I love it. You see it.

38:36 I love the premise of this one too, because it's like one of those things where it's like based on a true story with like a really big heavy wink and an asterisk. It's like we heard a funny story and then we just ran with it, so it's a really good time. It was silly, but yeah, great, great choice. So I think it was was that Elizabeth Banks that directed that one, I believe, so yep, Banks, Yeah, she's fantastic, So super happy about that, all right, jas. Well, So this was a little tricky because I think comedies kind of took it on the chin really hard from COVID. But I think the funniest movie I saw was Deadpool Versus Wolverine. But yeah, I'm gonna choose kind of an off the rails nostalgic choice because this movie kind of stepped up when nothing was in theaters, there was nothing new to be seen. I'm going to go with Bill and Ted face the music. M It wasn't the best Bill and Ted entry, but just the fact that it gave us something funny during a very depressing time.

39:40 I'm gonna mark myself down for that one. I love that choice. I wanted to include that somewhere on my list, and I couldn't find any place for it because, yeah, it doesn't really fit any good category, but I love it. It really does. It was very loving of the originals. It was very fun. Another Kid Cutty film as My Cleveland boy right there. But yeah, it's also got Samorrow Weaving, who I'm just a huge fan of. She should be in everything as far as I'm concerned. So it was a great movie. I'm really glad it came out. But yeah, it didn't. It didn't live up to the originals, but it was it was fun. I enjoyed it for sure. It was fun. It was fun. All right. Well, I'm gonna go for my favorite or funniest movie is Barbie. I'm surprised we haven't seen it on the list already. It was. It was really good.

40:26 It was really smart, but when you boil it down, it was funny as hell. I laughed out loud several times, Like there are still quotes in that movie. I say regularly because I just you know, when I when I found out the Patriarchy wasn't all about horses, I just kind of lost interest. Is one of the funniest things I've ever heard said out loud. Yeah, this is the movie that teaches us all that that work enough, right, you know. I'm glad that you mentioned this one, Andrew. It was actually number eight on my top ten. It was part of the Barbenheimer event. It had a really really profound message, I feel, but I was taking in that message, but I was also busy laughing a lot. Let's get into the film nerd business. What was the best score of the decade.

41:10 I got to give it up to Robbie Robertson and his score for Killers of the Flower Moon a whole lot going. It was nominated for the Academy Award. It did not win, but it should have. Yeah, daily double for me. I'm going with Jeff on that as well. That was a good choice. That was a strong contender for me. Actually where I landed, though I got a little bit weird with it. I went with Terrence Blanchard and Five Bloods. The score had this great seventies vibe with the horns, and they introduced some Marvin Gaye into it, and it really bought me into the story and made me care about these characters and kind of feel like the dichotomy of the time. So Spike Lee, even at his work, Spike Lee's a genius, and I think that the genius really came through in his use of a Blanchard's score into Five Bloods. I still think about it.

41:59 I don't even think about that. I think about that score pretty regularly. I just love that. Seventies Vive Cool. We got two more on the list before you get back into our top four. Next most disappointing. What's the biggest letdown you guys experienced this year? Jeff, it pains me to say I had to sit through the entirety of the Crow remake in twenty twenty four. I look, I really wanted to like it. I really had hopes for it. Had a good trailer, but man, was it a dumpster fire? Yeah? You really? If you really want me to lay into it, just listen to our back of the box office episode we did because I was not kind. Yeah, I can usually find things to love. That one's I'll keep my mouth shut on that one.

42:45 I love that it ended. All right. Well, let's let's move past negativity. We're starting twenty twenty five off on positivity. Let's Jason, what do you got? I hate to be the negative person here, But Indiana, Joe, the dial destiny I thought absolutely sucked. Sucked. I think they Jeff and I did a whole episode on this. I think they missed. They missed the tone. There's no fun. I think Harrison Ford looked old and decrepit. He was not heroic, and it was he had another character who kind of was the alpha in the story, and I didn't like that. So, I mean, as for as much as I disliked Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, they still had Indiana Jones doing Indiana Jones things, and for me, Dial the Destiny was just a complete swinging a mess.

43:36 Preach brother, coo h preach. I love Harrison Ford and I love Indiana Jones so much. I'm gonna say two good things about Dial of Destiny before I move on. The first of which is the opening scene, the opening World War two like throwback. I was really nervous about the d aging Harrison Ford. I think that worked great. I actually loved that opening scene. And two, it made Kingdom of the Crystal Skull look as bad, which is, hey, that's not nothing, you. Know, Hey, for the sake of positivity, we did get a pretty impressive John Williams score out of that one. Hey, there are things to like about the movie. There are scenes that are worthwhile. You could have salvaged a good movie out of it. They just unfortunately didn't. Yeah. Yep, all right, Well, my most depressing and this is one of those instances where I'm going to show how much younger I am than you two. I loved Space Jam growing up. I loved that movie. I watched it BA jillion times and unfortunately I had to sit through the travesty as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. That was Space Jam a new legacy. That was horrifying. It was. I was excited.

44:47 I was like, oh, I can get my kids interested in Space Jam. No, I'm not going to put them through that. That was so bad, I'll call Chod Protective Services on you right now. It was. I regret it. I regret it. I regret a lot of things about it. I great wasting two hours of my life on it. So that was that was the thing I was most excited about. And I was even going in with like, it's a kid's movie, I can forgive a lot. No, I was wow. So last one for our rapid fire a round. Who's the best newcomer who's coming up this decade? You want to see more out of Jeff. David Johnson And if you if the name does not sound familiar, he played Andy in Alien Romulus. Probably one of the best reasons to see Alien Romulus. This this guy has got a bright future ahead of him. He's just now hitting the silver screen and I'm looking forward to what he's got coming next.

45:39 Fantastic. He was fantastic in that. Yeah, And I can't even I honestly can't think of him and anything else. Has he been anything else recently? Or was that really his only major credit? Like he had something something I'd never heard of in twenty twenty three, and then he's got a couple of things. He's a couple of irons in the fire for twenty twenty five. So the best is you have to come for this young man? Cool? All right, Jason? What do you got so for me? Uh? This guy appeared out of nowhere. He may have done a whole bunch of stuff that I'm just not familiar with, but he went from somebody I'd never heard of to somebody who may be the next great, big leading man. And I would say, Glenn Powell. Great, good choice, great choice.

46:21 I almost had him on my Best of the Decade. Yeah, he's he's he's having a stellar couple of years for sure. Yeah, he's fantastic, even though he's a Texas Longhorned fan. And I'm going an close sooner I'm choosing to look past that and just uh and and I've really appreciated the number one. He makes fun movies, and he's he's just a great leading man. He could be the next great one. Well let's let's not ignore the fact that he's also the guy that you call when you want to reinvigorate a franchise, because he's in Top Gun, Maverick, he's in Twisters, he's doing The Running Man with Edgar Wright, he's in post on that right now. This is the guy like, if you got if you've got to a stalled franchise, an action franchise, I don't care what the part is, just give Glenn Powell a part in it and it'll succeed.

47:09 You got that energy, all right? We see where Jason's head's at, all right. So I went a slightly different direction with my newcomer. I went with a director. I went with an Emerald Fennel. So she came onto the scene early this decade with Promising Young Woman, which is a phenomenal film, really fast, and I was not expecting that one. And then last year she came up with Saltburn, which is another one that I almost didn't see I'm so glad I snuck by. It's they're both amazing. I'm excited to see what she's going to do next because I feel like she's really going to take these stories that on the surface could just be absolute schlock and making them something really really interesting and something really really cool. So her name's Emerald Fennel.

47:56 Check her out. Whatever she's putting out next, I guarantee it's going to be amazing. All Right, we let's take a quick break before we come back. We're gonna drop into the final four of our top ten and this is where it gets really good. All Right, we are now in the home stretch where it really means business. We're gonna get into the final four of our top ten list. This next one, I'm really excited, was on this list. I was nervous it wasn't gonna make it. It made it high on my list, and that is Takiyashi Yamazaki's Godzilla minus one. And I tried to learn how to say this in Japanese. Turns out they actually just pronounce it like we do it, because you minus one. Yeah, they specifically say it like in the American pronunciation. So this movie was so good this movie was. Godzilla has been such a stalled franchise franchise for decades, and I think this reinvigorated it. It was so cool, so much fun.

48:54 Is the budget was ten million, and there's no confirmed number. I've heard as high ast fear, but the directors once said, you know you did this on fifteen million. They laughed and said, oh, we wish we had fifteen So the special effects and everything, we're incredible. This is also the highest return on investment of all the movies on any of our lists. It made one hundred and sixteen million on a ten million dollar budget, so that's really really impressive. What do you guys think of this one? Saw this one on on the big screen, and I gotta tell you it might be the best Godzilla film. And that's I know that's saying a lot with how many movies we've gotten this this franchise, but some of the most compelling storytelling you're going to see definitely in a Godzilla movie, if not any movie. And the fact that this is the movie before fifty four is Godzilla, it just makes it such a perfect story. I love this one, and to see it in black and white with the subtitles.

49:57 Perfect. It's just perfect. Okay, well, I guess I need to go watch this one. I'm not seeing this one. Wow, this one, this hits so hard. And what they did that I think so many other ones miss is It's a personal story. It's a human story. Godzilla is happening, but he's not the hero. He's not like the protagonists. It is about human beings on the ground dealing with stuff, and it lands so often. It does a cool way of balancing personal storylines and historical storylines of like, you know, Japanese pilots coming home from World War Two, you know, trying to deal with the aftermath of living in Japan post World War Two, but also in a way that's very relatable. It's so good, and I remember there was a moment I was watching it in the theater where there's a scene of tanks shooting at Godzilla, and the special effects are not good in this scene. They are like two thousand and two cut scene from a video game quality CGI. But the directors shows pick and chose their battles very well, so it doesn't detract from the filmmaking at all. You understand. Okay, they did this on a shoestring budget and they still told this amazing story and I'm still one hundred percent bought in, and that just really resonated with me. It's like, you could spend billions on great CGI from amazing places, but if your story sucks, it sucks. In this case,

51:27 they went, well, we don't have the budget, but if we tell a good story, it's okay that the CGI is gonna be lacking in places. And I think that that's so cool. This is time for me to forgive Matthew Broderick for the ninety eight version. Nope, nope, nope. That we can still hate Matthew Brodrick for that. We can. We can. We can take court with the the Emmericks and everyone else. That's that one's unforgivable. Matthew Brodrick didn't kill Godzilla. He killed a giant lizard. That's unreligated. Yeah, exactly. All right, Well we're gonna move in to the number three spot. I was so excited to see this place so highly. I thought this is gonna be one of those ones that dropped off and nobody cared about. But it was on so many lists. This is Alexander Paines The Holdovers. Starring Paul Giammotty. This came out October twenty seventh, twenty twenty three. It was on a budget of thirteen million and made forty five point six million.

52:22 Uh. It is so good. It is filmed in the style of a seventies film, both in the way it's shot, the way everybody's dressed, that the cameras used. It is a really interesting choice. And I remember seeing it thinking that's not gonna work. That's going to feel out of touch, and it doesn't. It's it hits, it hits hard, and Paul Jamoty's performance is great in it. Have you guys seen this one. Seen it and loved it. I'm actually happy not only to see it on the you know, on a list here, but the see it listed so highly. You know, if you if you're looking at the trend, that's that's that's hitting this this top ten list. Uh, it's definitely. You know, We've got a lot of a lot of popcorn movies, a lot of a lot of superhero fan fair type stuff.

53:08 So I feel like this movie kind of gives a little gives this this a little a little bit of gravitas. I always thought it would be difficult for Paul Giamatti to find a role better than what he did in Sideways, but he he does it. He does it big time here. It's fantastic film. You could call it a holiday movie, you could call it a Christmas movie, you could call it, call what you want. It's it's just fantastic. Yeah. I consider this for my holiday best of It doesn't feel like a holiday movie. Like there's a strong argument for it. I'm not going to be one to to, you know, tell anybody that a movie is not a holiday movie. But this feels like something else, you know, a lot of the way the Shane Black movies we've talked about. It's it takes place Christmas, and it benefits from its Christmas storyline.

53:50 But it's not that I haven't seen it, so I don't know. I don't know anything about it. So this one, I don't even know what it's about. So I don't mean to spoil the story for anybody. But what I will say about this is Alexander Payne captures the same energy he did in Sideways, which is to say that if I were to describe the plot to you or anything that happens in it, it's very boring. It's very mundane, it's uninteresting, but he tells it in such a way that really you can't look away and you can't refrain from seeing the emotional impacts of it's It's a very boring story told so well that it can't help but be great. All right, here's the number two spot. This one got so many votes, it was close to being our number one, but it is. Matt Reeves The Batman, released March fourth, twenty twenty two. This is another one that just absolutely performed despite all the Batman's we've had. It's two hundred million dollar budget, produced seven hundred and seventy two million dollar box office. We're probably getting a sequel. We've got, you know, a new villain lined up. We've got a whole new generation of Batman.

55:02 It seems what are you guys thoughts? Well, first and foremost, I love this film. But am I the only one surprised that it was so high on this list? I personally, I was like, you know, when we were doing this a couple weeks ago, I was like, you know, it'd be nice if we could make the top ten. It probably won't, but you know, oh well, you know it'd probably make like nine eight like the number two overalls as chosen by the listeners. Definitely surprises me. Pattinson is a great Batman, a relatable Batman, realistic batman. I will say this about the Batmobile, and I know everyone has their favorite over the over the decades, but this is the meanest batmobile that we've ever seen on screen. I mean, I got it. I kind of got some chills when when it fires up, it's like a beast. It's scary. This this movie fantastic film.

55:55 Yeah, I mean this is again, this is what you go to the movies to see, right, Incredible story, awesome special effects. I love the fact that they sort of combined Batman eighty nine with the movie seven. Right. Yes, so they added real threat and like real menace to the storyline. Jack Nicholson's great, but you don't ever really fear fear him too much, you know what I mean. So, no, he's he's cartoony, he's cartoony. But this one is like the Riddler is, you know, scary and crazy and has real menace to him. So I thought it was vibes for sure. Yeah, I like this one. I think, you know, to your point, Jeff I was surprised to see this high in the list.

56:41 I think I may be experiencing a bit of Batman fatigue. You know, we just recently the other day talked about Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer and you know, all that fantastic performances in Batman Returns, and I feel like, that's more my my wheelhouse. I love it when it's a little bit silly, it's a little bit kitchy, it' a little bit cartoony, and it plays in that space. So I'm not gonna despair this movie anyway. It was fantastic. Matt Reeves is an amazing director, and I'm excited to see what they do with it. I think I might have just not been in the right space. I'm like, all right, we've seen dark and gritty, give me something else, you know. But hey, I'm happy to be proven wrong. Matt Reeves, you got you got a sequel in the works. Barry Coogan's that's weird. Let's see him as a joker.

57:25 That's That's one way of saying it's in the works. They just they just announced it's been pushed back an entire year again, so I think they're going to start I think they're gonna start filming it maybe in twenty twenty six, so you know, Pattinson's even Pattinson's even made the joke that he's hoping to get it done before he retires. I have I have mixed feelings because I'm like, I'm like everybody else, come on, but it's been it's been years. Let's get give us the next movie. But I have to respect James Gunn because he he's in charge now dc uh. And he's basically said, until the script is locked and we've got a a A good, a great script, we're not we're not moving forward.

58:09 I respect that, right, the amount of kind of movies we've gotten because they were just rushing it where the effects are awful or the script is clearly needs a couple of rewrites. Uh, you know what, I'd rather be patient. So I the fact that he's in charge, and I do trust James Gunn for the most part. And you know, again, I think Matt Reeves is a phenomenal director. I'm interested to see where it goes. We'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic. Good point, he all right, patience is the way to go. Yeah, for sure, Well that brings us down to it. We are down to our number one spot. But before we do, what do you think should have been on this list but isn't. What are your honorable mentions? What do you think? Are you upset to not see here?

58:55 I'm upset to not see my number one movie on my list. Andrew, you mentioned the filmmaker, you mentioned the actor, you mentioned the movie. I'm talking about Saltburn from twenty twenty three. This movie was just deliciously wicked. It has some of the most graphically shocking moments I've seen in a movie in the last ten twenty years. And to see a movie and I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but to see a situation where you're rooting for the villain. Yeah, that's the best way I can explain it. I you know what, I'm not gonna say another word because I just I don't want to spoil it for anyone. But man, this is I call this one I must watch it is.

59:41 It's one of those movies it's hard to describe without giving stuff away. Like I don't want to say anything because I feel like anything I say is gonna spoil it. But yeah, it's it's good. It's weird and it's new, and it's engaging, but it's good. I was told you need to see this what's and I said, what's it about? I can't tell you, you just need to watch it. I went in blind. I went in blind on this one, and it was just like picking my jaw up off the floor several times. Wow yeah, well said all right, Jason, what do you got. What's your honorable mention? Well, I've got a couple. I just want to throw these out there. I thought The fall Guy was terrific fun. I don't know if it's a top ten movie in the past five years, but sure was fun and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who hasn't seen it.

1:00:25 And people may roll their eyes, but I thought Avatar of the Way of Water was amazing as a sequel to a movie that I thought was amazing. People are just kind of used to the Blue people, and I just think that one kind of gets overlooked. But that was an incredible movie, I thought. But for me, my movie that should have been in the top ten that didn't make it is the Sound of Freedom. It's not a pleasant story and certainly not one that was a lot of fun, but it had an important message. I thought it was. I thought it was gripping and unsettling.

1:01:05 Yeah, I'll give you that. It was very unsettling. I think that it was surprising to me because I think it was packaged as this very political film. That's at least the way it was advertised. That's the way it was marketed. And then when I watched it, I was like, no, it's just it's just a good movie. Like it's like you said, it's unsettling. It's it's definitely intense, it's definitely hits hard, but it's not political. It's just this is this is a serious thing that serious people dealing with. I Jeff and I have talked about this in the past. I'm I'm a stickler when it comes to movies based on a true story about them staying true to this true story. So you know, I can I can get nitpicky there, but that's that's a whole other thing. But yeah, no, it was. It was a surprisingly good movie. I I probably wouldn't put Avatar or fall Guy high on my list, although I did enjoy Fall Guy. I was surprised he didn't pop up even once on our list. Nobody put that in there, which was a little surprising to me.

1:01:56 Sound of Freedom and Avatar both made somebody's list somewhere another. But yeah, Falky was actually surprisingly good. I think Ryan Gosling doesn't get enough credit for his humor and his community timing, because dude's funny. You know one other movie that I think just needs to be mentioned. It was disappointing for me and maybe others, but it was built up to be this great thing and we were all excited for it and it fell flat. Was when Michael Keaton came back as Batman and had the crossover. That was such a letdown. That could have been on the Biggest Letdowns list. That was wrong, right, I mean we were all frigging pumped.

1:02:37 I mean, Keaton back is Batman will sign us up? He's look, I look, I was excited about Keaton being back. I was definitely pumped up for this movie, and I got my money's worth. I don't care what you both say. I loved it. Thought that was fun movie. It was. It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. It's just not it wasn't Keaton, you know anyway? Yeah, all right, so I had I had one I was very confident about it. I was gonna say it, and then one occurred to me right before we started recording. So I'm gonna break my own rules here and give you two. The first of which is Poor Things, which was a very weird movie. It it's either gonna you're gonna love it, you're gonna hate it. They made some really interesting choices with it. If that hits for you, it's so fascinating and so funny and so great. If it doesn't hit for you, you're gonna be like, what the hell am I doing watching this? So it is. It is a very out there choice, but I love when a director makes some some bold choices. The other one that I'm gonna say, though, is American Fiction, which this is one of those ones that flew under the radar. I think it would have been huge if more people saw it.

1:03:48 It's a story about Jeffrey Wright. He's an author, a college educated author, a black author, who specifically is writing all these great books about what it's like to be black in America, and nobody's buying them, nobody cares, and so he, as a joke, writes this story of like stereotypical, over the top blackness, like everybody's a gangster or a rap artist, and it's just like terrible, and he means it as a goof, and everybody eats it up as this like Oscar bait and wants to make it into a movie. It's very insightful, but it's also very funny, and it's very silly, but very smart and real made. I'm shocked this movie didn't do better than it did. It blew me away when I saw it, So I highly recommend it to everybody's called American fiction strnging Jeffrey Wright, please go see it. So funny, such a good time, and and and again. I love a good humor where it can be both silly and absurdist and also very intelligent.

1:04:41 And this threads that needle perfectly well. You know, since everyone's just gonna Scott Hoffman all over this this and take take more than one pick. I'm gonna see I'm gonna sneak one pick more one last pick in here twenty twenty two's the Whale A twenty four is doing phenomenal work. They're the ones behind Civil War. But Brendan Fraser back in the spotlight for his performance in this film. It will move you. It will impact you. And if you haven't seen him in this movie, you're missing out. That's all I'll say. I mean, Jeff, I'm glad you said that, because I was weird that it didn't make the list. If A twenty four makes a movie, it's great. They really don't put out bad stuff, so they they. If we're gonna say a film studio is having the decade, it's a twenty four. They don't make bad films. But that brings us to our number one spot best film of the twenty twenties. And before I do one last thing, who's the better host? You or me?

1:05:44 We're having a nice moment here. Let's not ruin it. All right? That means our number one spot as a shock to probably none of us is top Gun Maverick this movie. I don't think we could have had enough hopes for it. It exceeded them. I was cautiously optimistic, and it blew me away. This is directed by Jojose Stiff Kaczynski. I at least May twenty seventh to twenty twenty two on one hundred and seventy million dollar budget. It made one and a half billion dollars with a b This is a sequel clearly to the nineteen eighty six classic and couldn't have done better. As far as I'm concerned, I'd never heard anybody say anything bad about this movie, So I want to hear what are you guys thoughts? How do you feel about this making the number one spot?

1:06:36 I tell Jeff, I'm like, if this is not in your number one or number two spot, then you're not doing the list right. It is clearly, it's clearly the most important movie of the past five years. Now it can be argued whether or not it was the best, but I would just say people loved it. They got their buds back to the movie theaters. Tom Cruise is great at his job, as we've said, and it was a blast to go back have Maverick Ice, Maan val Kilmer, you. Know, Oh having him back was so was so cool. So the computer generated voice, yeah, it was amazing. And Goose's son and all this stuff, and there's just tons of fun and he had danger Zone. It was everything that you want in a movie. And everybody saw it.

1:07:28 We had a moment and it it blew our socks off. Clutch. Yeah, you're right, Jason, you can debate whether it's the best movie of the decade, but you cannot debate that it saved the box office. It brought people back to the movies. And I feel like when Hollywood got together and said, we need something right now, or we're going to be extinct. Tom Cruise walked in the door and said, listen, you need Tom Cruise. You need Tom Cruise action, you need nostalgia. Hey, here's that new Glenn pal Let's get him over here, right. You need danger Zone. Miles Teller's hot right now, Miles telling. Miles Teller's in the gym, he's got he's got a six pack. Get him on get him on board. And let's not forget the smoke show that is Jennifer Conley aging like a fine wine that you cannot afford. Uh it's top shelf bottle.

1:08:19 Sorry, guys, this movie it checks all the boxes. When I heard it was getting made, I thought, Okay, just another legacy sequel, it'll be all right. You know, I'm thinking Ghostbusters after Life and that sort of thing where it's like, I'll watch it, it'll be fine whatever. Uh. Yeah, it just it absolutely blew the doors off. And Jason you I think you summed it up perfectly, and you said we all had a moment like everybody, you know, anybody who had had ever seen the original, anybody who had been alive through the eighties and nineties, Like when they watched that, they were like, oh shit, movies can still do that. Yeah, And so I'm so excited to see it. I think Top Gun had been around. It's such a staple. It was a really bold move to make a sequel. You know, you can you can risk boiling the original, you can risk making it a parody of itself. And they didn't. They honored it, and they found the emotional heart of it. Like I, you know, my son, he's about to turn three. I call him Goose.

1:09:24 You know, it started because I was calling him silly goose, and it's kind of elevated. But now like he'll be in the back of the car and I'll just yell, talk to me Goose when he's you know, he's getting worked up to this day. So like, this movie has and will have an impact on people. And to be able to do a sequel that did it justice. Yeah, it would have blown my mind if this wasn't at least Top three, let alone Top one. Yeah, it's the top gun. And I will say I want to point this out. You know, I mentioned we had some tie breakers, we had some close calls. This movie was far and away the number one. It wasn't close. Nothing came close to it. So if anybody's surprised to see us in the number one spot, maybe check your pulse. All right, Well, that about does it. I want to say again, Happy New Year to you guys. I'm so excited. We are halfway through the decade and I think that we are seeing some mool and exciting stuff in film, and I'm excited to hear you guys talk about it. I'm excited to talk about it with you guys. We would love to hear what you guys think, though, Let us know. Let us know what you guys think of the lists you've heard today.

1:10:29 What's on the list that you were surprised by? What do you want to see that we didn't talk about? Jason on a sure that you can't be serious? What can we expect to hear from you guys in the new year. We are diving into the year nineteen eighty five this year, which will be forty years ago, so we're going to be talking about the Goonies. We're going to be talking about Phil Collins no jacket required. We're going to talk about Brothers and Arms by Dire Straits this summer, We're going to talk about Rambo and Commando and compare those two actions in movies. And then what I think maybe our temple episode of the year, We're gonna compare Jimmy Buffett's Greatest Hits It Saw As You Know by Heart versus the greatest selling album of all time Eagles Greatest Hits Volume one.

1:11:15 Ooh, I I I was pushing our good friend Dayton to do a Jimmy Buffett episode for a while after he passed. I'm a big Jimmy Buffet fan, so I'm I'm gonna be excited for that one. Well, Jason, I I definitely want to thank you. Also, Andrew, I gotta thank you. It's it's nice to see someone else in the driver's seat for a change. We put out a survey a couple of weeks ago asking people what they wanted more of or what they wanted us to try, and no surprise here, but people wanted wanted more Andrew. You know, they wanted to hear you more on the regular show. So I hope you and I have had some conversation. I hope you're gonna be a lot more involved. What can we expect? Like what you know, if if there's one message you would you would give our listeners for the New year, what would it be?

1:12:07 Well, I gotta say, you know, we've talked about a lot of like great movies today, but the one that sticks out to me was everything everywhere, all at once. You know, I talked about my love for Key he Kwan and I think about Wayman. He said a line that I'll never forget. So for all of you in twenty twenty five, the. Only thing I do know, he said, we have to be kind. Please be kind, especially from when we don't know what's going on. What Andrew, I cannot thank you enough, And to all of you listening to the show, following us on social media, and subscribing to our Patreon, we thank you for listening.

1:12:56 On January thirteenth, we're back with a brand new season, feature more of our Star Trek theme series, Phaser Set the Stun, some exciting new limited series, and plenty more exclusive content on our Patreon. Happy New Year, everybody, we asked you to give us your mid decade. We asked you to give us Okay decade, Dick decade. We don't hate decade,