Top 5 Underrated Movies (w/ Jean-Pierre Boudreaux)

Eli (00:01.803)
Hello and welcome to the Establishing Shot, podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am your host Eli Price and we have JP Boudreaux joining us again this week as our guest. He was on, yeah, you're back.

Jean-Pierre (00:17.651)
Wow, can't believe a whole week has gone by before when we did this last.

Eli (00:23.073)
Totally, definitely a whole week has gone by. We got the same shirts on and everything for this second recording. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, JP is joining me. He was on last week with me for the Lost World Jurassic Park. We had a really good discussion. I actually really enjoyed that discussion of that movie that I didn't like that much.

Jean-Pierre (00:25.838)
Yeah.

It's his favorite shirt, you know?

Eli (00:50.423)
And, but yeah, the discussion of it was really fun. So, go check that out that episode. I think you'll really enjoy it and, kind of working off of that, you know, obviously we're, we're not doing another Spielberg movie this week. This is one of our supplemental episodes and JP's done a lot of movie drafts with me. And so I was thinking, let's, let's take a little, let's do a little, little, I don't know.

Jean-Pierre (01:19.214)
some little celebratory instead of competitive, you I don't have to worry about your biased fans voting for you in the polls again.

Eli (01:19.841)
find the word. Yeah, yeah, something, something where we're just kind of like working voting for just me. My mom does always vote for me. So shout out.

Jean-Pierre (01:32.8)
I have yet to see a single poll where you don't win. Between... Okay. I don't pay close enough attention apparently.

Eli (01:36.151)
I've lost a few. I've definitely lost a few. But yeah, shout out to my mom who always votes for me. Even if she probably hasn't seen any of the movies on my list.

Jean-Pierre (01:50.734)
She looks at your list and she's like, that's nice, dear.

Eli (01:53.821)
Yeah. So that's your problem. You don't have your mom getting on Facebook and voting for you.

Jean-Pierre (01:58.934)
You know, my mom, lowkey, I know she's not gonna watch this, but I can say lowkey, my mom is like my biggest hater, to be honest.

I can't tell you how many times I've shared an opinion about a movie and she's just like, well, especially if it's a negative opinion about a movie, she'll she'll like, write in the comment, like, I just completely disagree with you. I'm like, okay. My friends think it's actually hilarious. Every now and then they'll hit up the group chat with a screenshot of her latest troll and...

Eli (02:14.785)
Yeah.

Eli (02:18.564)
Ha

Eli (02:22.818)
That's great

Jean-Pierre (02:30.242)
They're like, dude, your mom is your biggest hater when it comes to your opinions. I'm like, yeah, apparently so. So she'd probably vote for you too, honestly.

Eli (02:30.935)
Ugh.

Eli (02:35.095)
Well, that's great. Well, well, I hope so. you know, that would mean your mom has great taste. so, but along the, along the lines of, having dissenting opinions, I figured since JP really liked, The Lost World, whereas most people were more mixed to negative on it.

I thought it would be fun to talk about our favorite underrated movies or not necessarily favorite but some of our top underrated movies movies these are we didn't really have any clear and cut criteria for this other than it I guess needs to be a movie that Generally people are more negative on That we think the movie is better than those people do that we're generally positive on so

Jean-Pierre (03:27.157)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (03:35.327)
Yeah, we'll just go back and forth, I guess, and kind of share what movies we picked. I know for my list, personally, these aren't necessarily the ones I like the most, but I just try to kind of pick a variety between my five that I put on my list to kind of get some different feels, different movie feels. And it looks like you kind of did a similar thing with yours.

Jean-Pierre (04:02.05)
I mean, I will say my five picks and one of my honorable mentions are movies that I literally have rated like five out of five stars. Like they're literally some of my favorite movies. And my two other honorable mentions are ones that like are just like more like guilty pleasures, but yeah.

Eli (04:12.107)
Okay.

Eli (04:19.445)
Yeah, sure. Yeah. My list isn't like, I don't have any of mine as like five star movies, but they're all like movies that I'm positive on. Like, so that for me, that means like three and a half stars or above. So I have, I have some three and a half star movies. I have some four star and four and one four and a half star movie on my list. So, that's kind of the approach I took. but, yeah, I'll

Jean-Pierre (04:41.271)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:49.385)
I kick things off. The one that I do have rated the highest, which I have as a four and a half star movie, is The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky. Now, Aronofsky is one of those directors that I feel like his movies are kind of like love it or hate it, because he makes a choice and goes for it. I have a movie that I like of his

Jean-Pierre (04:50.862)
Let's go, let's do it.

Jean-Pierre (05:11.234)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (05:19.147)
that is more, more hated than this movie, which is his movie, Noah, that I actually like, think is really fun and good and interesting. but I've talked about that before, on the podcast. I've done, I think I picked it in the director's flops draft that we, that I did, in the past. And so I was like, let me pick a different Aronofsky movie that

has generally bad ratings. So I was surprised though when I was looking at it, the audience ratings for this aren't quite as bad as I thought they were. Like it has a 74 % audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and the Letterbox score is actually three and a half. So it's actually pretty good. I like it a good bit more than that still, but three and a half stars on Letterbox isn't bad. But the meta scores of 51 and the thermometer is 53.

Jean-Pierre (05:52.526)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (06:19.691)
The critics did not go for this movie. and, I just think it's really interesting and good. And, you know, you have, it's the thing with Aaron of ski is like, he, to me, he has these like big ideas and he just like, he doesn't like hold back on.

Jean-Pierre (06:20.428)
Yeah.

Eli (06:47.871)
So the fountain is Hugh Jackman in these three different timelines spanning over a thousand years. They're like three parallel stories where he's dealing with like kind of similar themes in different time periods. One is like more present and one is like this future where he's like on this floating thing there's this like tree of life imagery he's floating in space through space.

Jean-Pierre (06:48.152)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (07:17.665)
Then there's one like in more medieval times and he's kind of like a knight. And I don't really know like how to explain this movie or why I like it. But I just really loved all the choices that. Aronofsky made. I thought they were like interesting and looked really interesting and. I don't I can't even say that I fully understand the movie to be honest, but I kind of like that. don't quite.

Jean-Pierre (07:47.403)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (07:47.911)
can't quite grasp it because that means like I can watch it a few more times and not like feel like I don't know I just sometimes I like a good movie where I'm like I've got to watch that again so I can maybe understand it a little bit better so I don't know that that's that was my first pick it was I don't know Aaron of ski he's just one of those controversial directors love him or hate him

I felt like he would be a good one to include on this list.

Jean-Pierre (08:20.59)
Yeah, I have not seen The Fountain, although it's one of those movies that like I've always seen like the poster on Netflix or something and it's like kind of intrigued me. I've always thought about maybe giving it a watch. As far as Aronofsky, mean, obviously, you know, you have Black Swan, which I still have yet to see, which I know is like people be like, take, give me your, take your Cinephile card away. You know, maybe you should do a Aronofsky series, you know, but.

Eli (08:30.881)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (08:40.448)
has a blind spot for me too.

Yeah.

Yeah, that would be a good one.

Jean-Pierre (08:49.74)
which if you do that, definitely want to be on the episode about Mother. That's actually a movie that as weird and disturbing as it can be, actually really liked for a lot of different reasons. I think it really, but Noah, I have that movie rated as two stars. I think for me, it's just hard to remove my, you know.

Eli (08:54.391)
Mmm.

Eli (09:02.412)
Yeah.

Eli (09:06.423)
you

Yeah, and a lot of people do. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (09:15.906)
biblical knowledge and theology from watching a movie like that. But one thing I can say about Aronofsky is he is very vocal about his personal beliefs and it comes through in all of his work, know, especially being very, really big on environmentalism and really big on his atheistic worldview as well, which I guess is pretty clear when you watch the stuff that he does. So.

Eli (09:18.443)
Sure. Yeah.

Eli (09:33.611)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (09:42.306)
Yeah, I don't necessarily have a need to add to that one, but...

Eli (09:47.957)
Yeah, Well, which one do you want to share first? Because as you can see, I'm going out of order from what I have on the list.

Jean-Pierre (09:50.86)
Well, the one that I have to... Right, right, right. Well, the one that I have to start with, just because it is a movie that's so important to me personally.

I gotta go with the secret life of Walter Mitty now I will say I as much as I do think this movie is underrated because it is It when it came out it was a commercial Flop and it was also a critical failure. Like I just checked the Rotten Tomatoes for Even right now. I mean we're talking

Eli (10:03.648)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (10:21.294)
11 years later, it's a 52 % critical score. Now, I will say the audience score is at 71%. So, and as I talk to more people and I mention this movie, I've actually met quite a few people that are like, yeah, I actually really like that movie. Man, this movie is, I think I watched a really good video essay recently from Cinemastix about Walter Mitty, about how the people

the critics just didn't get it and I think a lot of people who watch it especially when this movie came out I mean I was in my senior year of high school I think like like in between semesters maybe like in between like the fall the the fall in the spring when I was graduating so I think it was just a really impactful time in my life to watch a movie like this and just

Eli (11:03.094)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (11:13.121)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (11:14.848)
I just identify so closely with Walter Mitty and just the person that he is, the things that he has to deal with. And just the overall message of the movie of like, just, hey, like get out there and experience life, take risks, you know? And I think a lot of people like this movie makes them want to like become like a travel documentary. It's so beautifully shot. my gosh. The cinematography and the colors. Yo, yeah. yeah. And I think that

Eli (11:29.207)
Mm, yeah.

Eli (11:37.803)
Yeah, yeah. And a lot of really fun sequences. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (11:44.842)
basically the video essay was like I think the trailers relied really heavily on the on fantastical sequences of his daydreaming and they they kind of and like people were expecting that and I think that's why it flops because they thought it was gonna be more fantasy when the message of the movie is that like

Eli (11:54.23)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (12:05.982)
is Walter because like about halfway through the movie he goes from daydreaming to like things that he would have daydreamed about become his reality and so it's really just a message about like stop daydreaming and actually go like do something you know like like make the daydreams a reality in a way and so yeah it's just a fact you know i just recently

Eli (12:13.824)
Right.

Eli (12:20.343)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (12:32.114)
I had like a movie night with someone and was like and I was able to show it to them for the first time Kind of as a way of like hey if you want to understand me really well we should watch this movie and it was nice being able to kind of introduce it to someone who never seen it and like Kind of see it through their eyes in a way so but I and the ending makes me tear up every time like I literally like almost was sobbing in the theater when I first saw it and Every subsequent we watch I still tear up at the end winner You know, there's the reveal

that the cover image of the edition of Life magazine and print is him, like getting the recognition. he basically gets the recognition he deserves finally, which I really love.

Eli (13:17.976)
Yeah, yeah that this movie is kind of special for me and my wife too I'm like 95 % sure. This is the first movie we watched together When we were dating My wife really was like She loved it and was it was one of those movies. She was like obsessed with like rewatching. She's like a rewatcher I'm not as much a rewatcher

Jean-Pierre (13:27.95)
That's so sweet.

Eli (13:44.297)
as she like she is but so she was like she really wanted me to watch this movie with her. And yeah, it's yeah, so that it's special in that way. And then like, I think something that when you were talking, I realized like, this is something that we say to each other all the time. That's that kind of comes from that movie is like, one of us will like space out for a second. And then like, look back at

you know, the other and, like if, if Robin, my wife, if she like spaces out and then like, catch her eye right after I usually say, where'd you go? You know, cause that's kind of what Walter Mitty, he like goes places in his mind.

Jean-Pierre (14:26.702)
That's a little bit better than going Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom, which also, just shout out to what's his face from Parks and Rec, whose name is escaping me right now, Adam, can't remember his last name, but he is...

Eli (14:31.946)
Yeah.

Eli (14:47.159)
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Jean-Pierre (14:51.578)
So good at playing like the a hole character that he plays in this movie But also has arguably one of the fakest beards I've ever seen in my entire life Like it's like a shade too dark. It's so obviously just like glued on it's kind of distracting actually but

Eli (14:52.727)
You

Eli (14:56.242)
Yeah,

Eli (15:01.687)
Yes.

Eli (15:06.591)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (15:10.382)
But yeah, it's great. It's great. If anyone listening to this has not seen it, you've got to watch it. And it's like good for the whole family. So if you've got kids or whatever, know, it's, there's, yeah, it's great message. There's like nothing at all bad in it. It's just, it's good time.

Eli (15:12.213)
Yeah, no, I agree. It's a fun movie. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, heartwarming. Yeah.

Eli (15:27.029)
Yeah. No, I like that pick. yeah, I guess, I'll go back to my high school days for this next one. and, I'm gonna, I'm kind of packaging two movies together with this one. and that would be paranormal activity and then also skipping two and go into paranormal activity three. I, I remember.

going with a friend to see Paranormal Activity in theaters like on its opening weekend with a full theater and that was just like such a great experience because have you ever seen these movies have you ever seen the Paranormal Activity?

Jean-Pierre (16:11.502)
I've seen one and two, I think.

Eli (16:14.877)
Okay, so yeah, the first one, it was like one of the first like found footage movies that I watched. I think I saw, I don't think I had seen Blair Witch Project before.

Jean-Pierre (16:27.374)
I think you could easily argue it was the most popular since Blair Witch and I think it reinvigorated the found footage genre, especially in horror.

Eli (16:37.023)
It did. It did. Yeah. And so, I just, I just have a fond memory of that experience in the theater. and then, and we liked it so much that I remember I went back with that friend for at least the second one and we might've even gone and saw paranormal activity three together. I can't remember if, I can't remember when that came out. but yeah, these, these movies don't have like,

Fantastic ratings. The first one has an okay critic rating as far as like its tomometer and the Metascore 68 is okay, but Yeah, that's the Rotten Tomatoes the tomometer

Jean-Pierre (17:13.678)
So, thermometer, is that?

Jean-Pierre (17:19.927)
thought it was the tomato meter.

Eli (17:23.191)
I it's a thermometer, isn't it? I don't know. Now your head's like, now I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. Let's see.

Jean-Pierre (17:25.55)
Hey, forget it.

I have never referred to that, but maybe that's the technical term.

Eli (17:33.175)
Yeah, tomato meter, you're right. But I like saying tomometer better. I'm going to say tomometer because that's much better than tomato meter. Anyways, but yeah, I mean, this, the first one has a 2.9 on letterbox, a 57 audience score.

Jean-Pierre (17:37.366)
I like, I like scimitometer. Yeah.

Eli (18:02.495)
And I think it's just one of those things where you're going to get like a really mixed bag of reception for horror movies like this. and it's, lot of it is just tied to your experience, with your viewing experience. I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was interesting and the jumps, the jump scares are good. There there's like a final image that like thinking about it, like right now it gives me like kind of chills.

Which is kind of what you want out of a good horror movie For a final image that sticks with you And so I don't know and then three was just kind of like a different take on it. It was Yeah, it was a little bit more story to it a Little bit there's a little bit more going on in three I Don't know it just kind of two was kind of a step down from one, but I think three kind of took

the ideas of the first one and kind of like rounded them out more to me. And there's not really anything profound to take away I think from these movies. But they're just really to me they're just really well constructed horror experiences. And that sometimes that's all you need. That's all you're really looking for. So yeah I like those movies. I think they're a bit underrated.

Jean-Pierre (19:23.853)
Yeah.

Eli (19:30.583)
I people maybe... I don't know why... I don't know. I don't know why you want to watch a horror movie if you're just... if you're not gonna like just kind of watch it for what it is. But anyways, that's that was that's my next one.

Jean-Pierre (19:46.54)
Yeah, I think we rented the first one on like letterbox, or not letterbox, letterbox, Redbox. One night.

Eli (19:55.381)
Redbox, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (19:58.118)
And I think I might have been right around Halloween, honestly. Because I think at the time, my family, was looking back, it's like really cringe that we used to do this. like me, mostly me and my mom, kind of my sister, brother a little bit, we literally would leave church Wednesday night and then get home and watch Ghost Hunters. And eventually we got to a point where we, yeah, we eventually got to a point where we stopped because my mom.

Eli (20:21.399)
Dude I loved some ghost hunters when I was

Jean-Pierre (20:27.694)
was just like, she started feeling kind of convicted about that, you know? And I think that's probably for the best, to be honest. Now I feel like if I went back and watched it, I'd probably cringe pretty hard. kind of around that same time, yeah, I remember watching the first one and definitely really freaked me out for sure, especially the part that always gets me is that roar on one of the nights.

Eli (20:42.753)
Yeah.

Eli (20:48.555)
Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (20:48.654)
kind of like, it's kind of like the climax of the movie, like really freaked me out as a kid. Well, I mean, yeah, it's like the demon roars in the middle of the night and wakes everybody up and really freaked me out at the time, which I would also, I also would have been in high school. But yeah, I mean, I can definitely respect.

Eli (20:53.815)
There's just like guttural sound, yeah.

Eli (20:59.851)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (21:10.314)
like their redevisalization of the found footage genre and also like the reason why and also like because it it was six i think the first movie was like i want to say it was like either 30 45 maybe 60 grand and the fact that it made like millions and millions of dollars like that's why even to this day like studios try and force these like really really like low budget cheesy horror movies whether found footage or otherwise which this is the funny thing

Eli (21:13.899)
Yeah.

Eli (21:25.238)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (21:40.288)
horror fans. Okay, I'm just gonna go a little tangent here because we said earlier in the previous episode that they're a bit pretentious. They also like this they they fall for it every single time. The studios will make these these cheesy little horror movies that they know are not good and they'll still make a bunch of money because people will go see them regardless even if it's gonna be even if it's like pretty obvious gonna be bad.

Eli (21:58.326)
Yeah.

Eli (22:01.973)
Yeah. Horror fans are the most dedicated. It doesn't matter what the critic ratings are. Horror fans are just going to go see whatever horror movie is out, which mad respect for that, I think.

Jean-Pierre (22:17.006)
That's fair.

Yeah, yeah, I can do that. Okay, so my number two pick, which I kind of briefly foreshadowed, this movie was a movie that I believe...

either came out the same weekend of Jurassic Park or like a week or two before Jurassic Park. Also from 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic in my opinion probably arguably I think one of his best roles outside of like maybe like the Terminator or something like that but I think 1993 is the last action hero is a phenomenal movie and very ahead of its time as well it's like

Kind of sorta a parody of like action movie tropes. Have you ever seen it at all?

Eli (23:07.424)
I haven't seen it now.

Jean-Pierre (23:08.93)
Yeah, so the brief plot is basically like there's this kid kind of from a rough house, he's got like a single mom, and his favorite place to hang out is the movie theater. This old kind of dingy movie theater, this old man runs it, and he like literally will skip school to go there. It's a safe place. And he gets this, the old man gives him this ticket from, supposedly belonged to like Harry Houdini, I think. And essentially he, I forget exactly how, but he ends up getting sucked into

the movie that he's watching, is this movie, it's like John Slater for the character Arnold Schwarzenegger plays. And so then he's inside of like an action movie universe with all these weird things that happen. some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best like one liners and everything, I love like, cause they're honestly, they're making fun of one liners and action movies. One of my favorite parts is like, there's like a scene where this old guy kind of dies.

Eli (23:58.486)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (24:09.814)
fourth cousin or whatever he's like you killed my favorite fourth cousin twice removed big mistake you know it's just like it's really goofy but then and then but then later on they they both get sucked into the real world and then the main villain from the series who is not called Jack the Ripper but something like that it's not like the Jack the Ripper but the character has a similar name

Eli (24:34.935)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (24:36.756)
He gets pulled in he also follows them into the real world as long as someone else and I don't really go too much more into the plot because it's a lot but But it's great for instance. One of the things is because in this universe Arnold Schwarzenegger He's like in the movie playing. He's like he's like inside the movie universe playing a character I can't remember if it's in the movie universe or in the real world they They go to a video store and they have a poster

Like a stand-up poster for Terminator 2 Judgment Day and it's Stallone as the Terminator instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's like really funny. But yeah, it just makes fun of lot of tropes in action movies and Honestly, I think if it had not come out around the same time as Jurassic Park, it'd probably be a lot more

Eli (25:10.764)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (25:15.576)
That's fun.

Jean-Pierre (25:26.292)
fondly remembered because it did bomb obviously. But and I think that when you when you look into it most people agree that that's probably the biggest reason why because it came out right around the time Jurassic Park came out which obviously became a juggernaut of a franchise.

Eli (25:41.269)
Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Yeah, sounds like a fun movie. It's also, I saw it's directed by McTiernan, who directed Die Hard. So kind of making fun of his own genre.

Jean-Pierre (25:46.37)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (25:50.338)
John McChern, yeah. Die Hard. So the action sequences are great. Yeah, yeah, honestly, yeah, the action sequences are great. And like I said, Arnold is great as...

Probably the most literally the most macho action guy he's ever played because that's the point of his character But there's also a little bit towards the end where he's also playing himself as well So because yeah, they like ended by the movie premiere and whatever but yeah I definitely recommend it to the audience that you just want a good like action comedy with great action great comedy and Like I said really ahead of its time and just making fun of like a lot of different tropes of the action genre

Eli (26:30.825)
Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. yeah, I'll to, I'll put that on my list to check out sometime. okay. let's go with, I'm kind of doing mine all out of order from how I have them. So that's why I'm hesitating. I'm going to go ahead and do a more recent one and, I'm going to do, Noah Baumbach's movie white noise. Now this is a movie that

I want to say, yeah, it released on Netflix. It was like a straight to Netflix movie. They released in 2022, so it's kind of like coming out of the pandemic. And it stars Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Don Cheadle's in it as a big role too. And it's like this.

Eli (27:28.951)
It's hard for me to... it's hard to explain exactly what it is. It's like this kind of like dark... dark dramedy, I guess you could say. So, Bomback is someone who I really really enjoy his writing and his movies. You know, I think Marriage Story is like a masterpiece movie of a movie almost.

Jean-Pierre (27:41.71)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (27:56.725)
just love that movie. Francis Ha is really great. I enjoy when he like teams up with Wes Anderson and writes with him those movies like Fantastic Mr. Fox I think is just like so incredibly well written. But so I enjoy Noah Baumbach but this movie it went straight to Netflix and I think it didn't it wasn't like all that well received like it it only has a three on 3.0 on letterbox.

Jean-Pierre (28:18.072)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (28:27.027)
It has an okay Meta score and tomato meter at 66 and 63. But again, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 33. and a lot of people just really didn't like this movie and I kind of feel like it's because they maybe thought it was a different movie than it was trying to be. it's very much like a, it, it's very much

It's this weird movie where it's not taking itself too seriously, like touching on very serious things at the same time. It's very much like pandemic coded. Like there's a, there's something that's like breaking out. There's this quote unquote airborne toxic event that's happening that everyone's freaking out about.

Adam Driver's character is constantly wrestling with his mortality out loud. He's a professor of Hitler studies. It's very much like it's dealing with serious issues but in a very tongue-in-cheek, unserious way. But then you get these moments of like

Jean-Pierre (29:30.958)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (29:52.769)
vulnerability like especially between him and Greta Garwood's characters their husband and wife that are like really like vulnerable and kind of touching even there's a really great dynamic between him and the Don Cheadle character in the movie who's also a professor there's a really fun dynamic family dynamic between

Driver and Gerwig and then there are two kids in the movie a lot of fun like riffing. There's Even like really interesting shots that no bomb back isn't generally known for like doing interesting strange Like shots in his movie. It's more like more known for his writing, but this one has it I don't know. I just think it's actually really good and people just didn't like it and I think it's because

Jean-Pierre (30:39.054)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (30:48.809)
maybe they just didn't know what kind of movie they were watching. Cause it is a weird, it is a very strange tonally. I'll give you that. But yeah, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really fun and interesting movie. But did you ever see this?

Jean-Pierre (30:54.381)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (31:04.93)
Yeah, I-I-I def-

I didn't get around to it before I don't have Netflix currently. I'll probably get it back at some point. But it was definitely when I was on my list, I was interested in watching. It's just kind of like one of those things where it's like, you know, when it came time to like pick something to watch, I'm like, I don't know if I'm in the mood for something like that. But I definitely feel like the trailer was kind of like one of those things where it's like, I don't really know what this movie is about, you know? So I think that that probably didn't help things.

Eli (31:11.383)
Hmm.

Eli (31:24.012)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (31:33.395)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And that

Jean-Pierre (31:38.15)
It kind of gave me the vibe of like don't look up, you know, which was kind of disappointing overall

Eli (31:43.468)
yeah I think I think don't look up it so it's almost like the opposite of don't look up don't look up tries to act like it doesn't take itself too seriously but really it does and this movie is kind of the opposite it's like it's not it's it's acting like it takes itself too seriously but actually isn't if that makes sense

Jean-Pierre (31:57.09)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (32:12.265)
It's a weird line, but yeah.

Eli (32:18.837)
But yeah, I really enjoyed white noise. definitely I recommend checking it out, giving it a go, if it doesn't work for you. It's still interesting and it'll make you laugh at least I think there's some really funny lines in it.

Jean-Pierre (32:36.288)
Yeah, I'm trying to look up my next pick on Rotten Tomatoes here. Okay, here we go. Just so can look at what the score was. yeah, my next pick, also a commercial and critical failure. Although I love it with my entire heart. Battle Los Angeles.

Eli (32:46.155)
This one is pretty low.

Jean-Pierre (33:06.784)
I think there's just something about this movie to me that feels so gritty and grounded. It's like, in my opinion, I think it's really shot like very docu style. It's almost like, who did this one? Was it, I'm trying to look up the, Leland Leesman, Jonathan Leesman? The director.

Eli (33:16.375)
Hmm.

Eli (33:22.089)
Liebismen?

Eli (33:26.453)
Are you talking about the cinematographer or the director? Yeah, Jonathan Liebsman.

Jean-Pierre (33:32.246)
Yeah,

which I think I know the name, he's done a couple other kind of like big budget blockbuster stuff, nothing too amazing, but it almost feels like very like Paul Greengrassy, you know, if you've seen like his approach to like the Bourne films or like Captain Phillips or the Green Zone, I think he shoots in a very like gritty docu-style. And as far as alien invasion flicks go, it's like one of those movies where I'm like, I feel like if this happened in real life, it would be like this, because like there's an entire scene dedicated

Eli (33:46.999)
Hmm.

Jean-Pierre (34:04.064)
to them trying to figure out the best place to shoot the aliens to actually take them out so they don't waste other bullets. Although I will say for like a 200 million dollar movie the practical effects in that scene have always looked really cheap to me. whether like just the way the alien body looked. But I don't know there's just there's just something about this movie that I've always really really liked. I think also it's one of those movies where

Eli (34:31.82)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (34:34.824)
You know one of the classes I took in college was called film is our entertainment and we the first half of class was like what is film is entertainment and how entertainment is very subjective like what you find entertaining when I find in training is very different and so we had to write a paper about that and One of my three things was if I identify with the main character like it's your life Walter Mitty That was one of the things that really a finer change about movies. And then the other one was one of my other three was if

Eli (34:57.217)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (35:03.874)
movie ends and I'm asking myself what other stories are happening in this world, that's when I know it's a good movie. So Battle of Los Angeles is a movie for me where you kind of hear that other major cities have been hit as well and like remember from the very first time I watched it, it ends and I'm just like I wonder what else is happening in this universe. But I also I would also concede that

Eli (35:23.553)
Hmm, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (35:30.286)
I think the trailer for the movie could be argued to be better than the actual movie itself, but I personally love it. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. Five out of five stars. But I will say Rotten Tomatoes, just so everyone knows, critical score, 37%. Audience score is a shocking 48%.

Eli (35:50.39)
Yeah.

Eli (35:54.559)
Yeah, and it has a 2.3 on letterbox, which is pretty low. So mad respect to you for like throwing the five stars on on it. You know, if you love it, you love it, you know?

Jean-Pierre (35:59.655)
I mean, yeah, even for letterbox, even that's pretty, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (36:09.102)
It's one of those movies where I have no issues, like I have nothing bad to say about it. I got it on Blu-ray, love it.

Eli (36:14.773)
Yeah. Yeah. No, you got, mean, you know, if you love a movie, like you can't let everyone else get you down just because they don't like it. You know, it's not, it's, it's, I'm making, I'm making a joke, but that actually is harder to do than, than it sounds like a lot of people really are. They'll change their opinion when they found out like, people don't like this. I guess I shouldn't like it.

Jean-Pierre (36:25.422)
You

Eli (36:44.233)
or, everyone loves this, I guess I should love it too. It's like, no, like if you love it, you love it. If you don't, you don't. Like you don't have to change your opinion. Cause now sometimes I do hear like takes on a movie that I didn't think was very good. And like, I'll hear a take on it. I'm like, well, you know, with that perspective, does, it does. Maybe I need to rewatch it now. And I think that's fine. But also like, Hey, if you like battle Los Angeles, like

Jean-Pierre (36:47.384)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (37:06.616)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (37:13.459)
stint like stand your ground like you don't have to bow to public opinion all right my letterboxed my next one i don't know why i said my letterbox my next one i guess because i have it open but my next pick is one that i feel like i couldn't do an underrated movies list without having a chamalong pick on it

So I put Shyamalan's The Visit on here. I think it's a really, really good horror movie. It's only got a 3.1 on Letterboxd. It's got a 55 meta score. Not a bad tomato meter, tomometer, whatever you want to say. It's 68. 52 audience score though, which isn't very good. Because it's not hard to get a high audience score on tomatoes.

Jean-Pierre (38:11.011)
Yeah.

Eli (38:11.623)
but i don't know one of the so shamalan at this point in his career was kind of like everyone just wanted to know the twist and this is a twist movie it has a quote unquote twist i have this theory about shamalan though because i really enjoyed people didn't really a lot of people didn't go for trap which came out this year too i really had a good time with trap i thought it was fun

Jean-Pierre (38:38.924)
You know, of my, I will say on that, one of my favorite film guys on TikTok that I follow gave it a four and a half stars, which was pretty shocking.

Eli (38:46.613)
Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it that much. Both Trap and The Visit are like three and a half stars for me, which to me, a three and a half star is like, I'm positive on this movie. I would recommend it. and yeah. yeah, I don't know what's so I have this theory about Shyamalan that he became known as like the twist guy. so like, you know, the sixth sense obviously was the reason for that.

And with the sixth sense, it's like a twist you don't see coming necessarily. But then you go back and you unravel the thread and it all makes sense. But most of Shyamalan's twists aren't like he's not trying to get you. In fact, I think with movies like The Visit and Trap even maybe to a certain degree, there's like a sense in which

he kind of like clues you into where you actually know what the twist is but you don't exactly know how it's going to play out and that's the fun it's not necessarily like the twist catching you off guard isn't necessarily the fun it's the anticipation of how is the twist going to play out because i think with the visit you can kind of see the twist or at least like be in the ballpark of what the twist is going to be

Jean-Pierre (39:55.266)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (40:03.896)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (40:14.179)
But then it's the anticipation and the fun of like finding out like ooh, what's gonna what I see this coming How is it gonna like play out in the story? What are they what is Shyamalan gonna do with it? And I think he knows that You know, there are interviews of him making trap where he was like, I was just having so much fun writing this And you just get the feeling that like yeah, he knows

Jean-Pierre (40:31.371)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (40:42.175)
exactly what he's doing and he knows that you're gonna kind of catch on to what he's doing but it's just the fun and the play of of all of that and I think The Visit is a great example of that and I think it's I think it's a bit underrated I think it's better than what those scores would say what would include you in on so

Jean-Pierre (40:57.846)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (41:02.56)
Yeah, I've not gotten around to seeing The Visit, but it's definitely one of ones I've wanted to. I also, yeah, I also missed Trap in theaters this year, but I will say with The Visit, know he literally personally financed it, which is kind of crazy. And I know with...

Eli (41:07.671)
It's got some good jump scares.

Eli (41:18.699)
Yeah. Yeah, pretty low budget too.

Jean-Pierre (41:21.87)
With Trap, I heard that they shot it in 35 millimeter film and also they shot it essentially in real time, like in sequence as much as possible. Yeah, I really wanted, I missed it in theaters, but I didn't want to see it. I'll probably get around to it eventually. I think with Shyamalan, you know, I've not seen more of his recent stuff, but with his previous films, I mean, of course, the sequence is great. I think The Village is pretty solid. But I think my favorite of his stuff, I think Unbreakable is,

Eli (41:29.056)
It looks great.

Eli (41:46.729)
Mm-hmm. I think so too.

Jean-Pierre (41:52.18)
Basically a perfect film. Breakable is great. I thoroughly thoroughly love Split. As you're talking about Yeah, I was gonna say this isn't one of my picks but I would say as far as like an underrated movie from him I loved class. I think a lot of people didn't get it

Eli (41:52.255)
Unbreakable is phenomenal. Yeah.

Eli (41:57.813)
Me too. And I think class is good too.

Jean-Pierre (42:09.46)
And I think that the whole thing about like the government organization secretly killing meta humans to keep people from knowing that meta humans exist is probably what the movie should have been more focused on. Cause that's like the most interesting part of that movie. But I really enjoyed glass. think a lot of people just didn't get it and were expecting like a, I think they were expecting like your typical big, like superhero, like CGI smash fight kind of movie, which I knew it was never going to be. And I thought it was great.

Eli (42:11.785)
It's yeah.

Eli (42:35.477)
Yeah, right. Yeah. I enjoyed class too. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (42:39.364)
I liked it a lot. And the ending was insane. The ending was insane. Also Sarah Paulson is so good in that movie.

Eli (42:48.181)
Yeah, there's several chamolins you could pick on this list. I considered glass, but I ended up going with the visit. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (42:51.405)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (42:56.462)
So my next pick, I'm gonna go with one of my favorite movies that I definitely haven't seen more recently, but definitely when I was younger. used to watch it pretty often.

Jean-Pierre (43:16.59)
I think this is probably one of Clive Owen's best performances, if not the one that, I mean, outside of like Children of Men, which is obviously a very well regarded movie. This is the movie that I think of when I think of him. I really love Anthony Fuqua's 2004 version of King Arthur. It kind of went for, was, mean, you it's one of those movies where like it was trying to be like this like gritty.

Eli (43:26.188)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (43:36.395)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (43:43.958)
you know, historical version of the character, even if the history is like not necessarily accurate. But yeah, I think it's a great like...

Eli (43:47.797)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (43:54.912)
It's I mean for me it's like in the vein of like a gladiator or a Troy, know, just a great like kind of like, you know swords and sandals so to speak, you know film love great performances. I mean I will get I watched a really great video essay about this pretty recently about just his portrayal of King Arthur as like pretty pretty dedicated like Christian like actually in this version and like

he it's it's pretty obvious that he's like a character that his faith informs the way that he acts and like it makes him like it he's a very honorable man and he really cares for his knights which in this this version they're basically like

Jean-Pierre (44:45.422)
They're basically the sons of tribes that the Roman Empire has taken over. the sons are raised to become soldiers. And at a certain point when they've paid their debt, they're allowed to go home kind of thing. And just a great cast. I mean, you got Ray Winstone. You have Ray Stevenson.

Eli (44:50.135)
Hmm.

Eli (45:04.779)
Keira Knightley is in it. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (45:06.034)
Kira Knightley is as Gwenevere's in it. She's great She she kind of is like the catalyst for him changing some of his perspectives on certain things you also have Mads Mikkelsen in it as well as Tristan and he he's I remember when I was a kid and I watched this movie my dad was like I love this movie because I love Tristan and he because when he fights it's like poetry It's kind of interesting because he basically uses like Katana esque

Eli (45:19.969)
Yeah.

Mm.

Jean-Pierre (45:35.888)
sword which is really interesting and wears like very like samurai inspired armor even though no one at this time probably knew that Japan existed to be honest but yeah I don't know I love it man I think it's got some great battle sequences also a great villain in Stellan Skarsgård as almost like he's almost apathetic like he kind of like

Eli (45:45.099)
Hmm.

Jean-Pierre (46:01.792)
He's one of those characters that like he's leading his army to try and take over the I think if I remember correctly, he's like basically just trying to take back He's just trying to like conquer just for the sake of car. He's like a man who's bored. He has nothing better to do with his time right and I remember there's like a scene when he and Arthur first meet

after their interaction, he's like kind of impressed with Arthur's like the way he carries himself and his respectability and his honor. And he just has this moment as he walks away where he goes, finally, someone worth killing. know, so just a really great, you know, even though their fight is not like the most like it's, know, when they finally do face off, it's not like the most intense sword fight you've ever seen. Cause again, it is going for kind of a more gritty approach. But yeah, no, I just think I just

Eli (46:47.777)
Sure.

Jean-Pierre (46:53.396)
I don't know. I don't care what anyone says. I love this version of King Arthur personally. For the battle sequences alone, you know what mean?

Eli (46:59.736)
Yeah I haven't seen this one so yeah yeah I haven't seen this one but I'm intrigued for sure after hearing you talk about it and Fuqua really is a good director I was looking at his filmography he's got some good stuff training day the equalizer movies which are pretty well received but I haven't seen them I haven't seen any of them

Jean-Pierre (47:21.794)
which I've not seen three. I haven't seen three. Part one was phenomenal. thought Denzel, mean, of course Denzel's great, but he was really good. Part two was a little worse, but it was still pretty solid surprisingly.

Eli (47:30.806)
Yeah.

Eli (47:38.62)
From what I hear, the third one is a step back up from the second one, I guess. But I don't know. I'm not sure.

Jean-Pierre (47:43.33)
Nice.

I will say the second one was really funny because like...

Eli (47:49.045)
I don't think he directed the second one. think that's the thing. And he did direct the third one again. No, he did. He did. He did too. Sorry.

Jean-Pierre (47:51.478)
I don't, probably not. I was gonna say the second one is kind of funny because it ends up being like a 20 minute advertisement for Lyft because there's about 20 minutes of the movie of him picking up riders because he works for Lyft.

Eli (48:03.052)
the

Eli (48:08.823)
That's funny. Yeah, that's great. OK, so.

Eli (48:19.255)
I to wrap up my list of my main five, we'll do a like rapid fire honorable mentions I guess. But I can't do a list like of underrated movies without mentioning one of my favorite directors in Malick. I've kind of cheated and paired two movies together, but it'll make sense when you hear this. Both of these movies have a 3.3 on letterboxed.

and both of them have the same tomato meter and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. They have a 47 tomato meter and a 37 audience score. And the meta score is even really close, 58 and 53 for these. And that is his movies To the Wonder and Night of Cups. The thing with with Matt, so To the Wonder,

is it has stars Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams are the the two kind of main characters it's kind of a movie about falling in love and out of love i guess in a way Night of Cups is Christian Bale is the main character and then you kind of have this kind of like ensemble cast of his love interests

Jean-Pierre (49:42.882)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (49:44.661)
that are, know, I mean, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Frida Pinto, Imogen Poots. You kind of have like a, yeah, just a good little cast of women that go in and out of his life. This one is about a screenwriter that kind of has this empty life looking for something to fill in, avoid, I guess you could say.

Jean-Pierre (50:11.598)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (50:13.109)
Here's the thing about Terrence Malick. You can't go into his movies expecting like a great story because that's just not what he does. He doesn't do stories. He does like images and textures and atmosphere and that's like what if you if you want to enjoy a Terrence Malick movie you've got to go in just knowing that

with the mindset of like, I'm watching a movie that's trying to be a poem and not a prose story. And if you can kind of get in that mindset, you're going to enjoy a Malik movie a lot more. I think the problem with movies like To the Wonder and Night of Cups, I've read some criticisms of them and they're fair criticisms, but I still think they're just, I don't...

I just feel like there are criticisms where the person just isn't on the wavelength of what he's doing in the movie, which is just making a poem in cinematic form. I looked back at my reviews of those movies and to the wonder, I said that any movie that can make a Sonic drive-in look beautiful is a great movie.

There's a sequence with a sonic drive-in that just like you watch it you're like this looks so beautiful on screen and to do that with a sonic drive-in it's like okay we're working with a master you know we're we're watching a master at work

Jean-Pierre (51:47.202)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (51:55.266)
Yeah, I I love a good trip to Sonic, but it's not for the aesthetics, that's for sure.

Eli (51:59.923)
Well, if you ever happen to watch To The Wonder...

Jean-Pierre (52:02.676)
for the mozzarella sticks and the sonic blasts.

Eli (52:05.751)
NERDS OR NO NERDS

You ever get the nerds and the slushies? Yeah, I'm not about the nerds and slushies. That's weird to me. But yeah, the Sonic Blast. That's the way to go. But yeah, I'm not going to go too much more on the Malick stuff. guess if you can get on Malick's wavelength and watch his movies as poetry, then you'll like his movie more. That's really the whole point.

Jean-Pierre (52:11.912)
the slushies? No, I'm not a big slushy person.

Jean-Pierre (52:18.338)
Yeah.

Eli (52:39.871)
I think they're just beautiful movies to look at and see and they're interesting.

Jean-Pierre (52:46.616)
Well for my final official pick before we go into rapid fire honorable mentions, you know I spent all this time in the last episode talking about my love for monster movies so I had to throw at least one on here and I had to throw on what I would argue is the best shark movie of all time. think, I mean, I can respect the fact that Jaws is a masterpiece and suspense.

Eli (52:58.763)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (53:07.447)
You

Eli (53:14.337)
There he is right over my shoulder, if you're watching.

Jean-Pierre (53:16.078)
But as far as monster movies go and shark related monster movies, this one I think might be better in my opinion. I'm gonna go with 1999's classic.

Summer Blockbuster Deep Blue Sea. This movie is incredible. I'm actually shocked. Okay. I'm a little shocked by all these people out there. I just looked this up on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm gonna be honest with you. These numbers are insane. 60 % critical score, which I think is pretty solid. I think the critics get it. It's a fun movie. It's a popcorn movie. The audience score based on over 250,000 ratings, 39.5%.

Eli (53:42.327)
you

Jean-Pierre (54:03.441)
I'm sorry, are you kidding me? Are you actually? Be so be for real be for real right now. That's insane

Eli (54:08.727)
2.82 on letterbox, which if you go below 3 on letterbox, it's not great.

Jean-Pierre (54:17.484)
That isn't so, I'm like, do people just not like fun? I'll tell you what, bro, a fun story about this is they have this one character in the movie, the kind of the main female scientist who...

is like kind of leading the research project. A lot of the things that occur, it's kind of her fault because you end up finding out she was like injecting the Mako sharks with like more than they were, higher dosage than they were supposed to. Cause like the whole thing is like, it's honestly, I wonder if it inspired the reboot of Pan of the Apes because they're also researching Alzheimer's and like they're using, they're experimenting on the sharks cause they found something in the Mako sharks that, that, that can.

for their research, but it makes the Mako sharks like three times bigger than normal and and also like a lot smarter and Essentially, you know they end up

causing havoc. It's kind of almost like the Velociraptors in like the first Jurassic Park movie, right? It's honestly that they end up acting like the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park where they they cause a bunch of havoc and this like underwater facility ends up kind of flooding and they have to survive. Well originally she survives the whole movie and when they showed it to test audiences, test audience was like they literally got so many comments were like you need to kill that B word. Like that's and so they

Eli (55:19.511)
doing shark things.

Jean-Pierre (55:46.712)
they they they reshot the ending which features her being killed and you honestly it's like yeah she freaking deserved it you know just because like she just is not she's a she's a she's a character you love to hate basically based on her actions so I look I don't know what's wrong with people

You know, I don't know. I don't know why it's at 39 % on Rotten Tomatoes and less than less than three stars on Letterboxd. Everyone can get over themselves. This movie is phenomenal. I have no notes. It's got one of the most iconic deaths of all time from Samuel Jackson. You want to talk about a twist. You said they're giving a big heroic speech about how we're going to we're going to make it out of here. We're going to get to the top. We're going to survive. And he's by this big open pit basically. And then all of sudden the shark

I thought it was well

Eli (57:02.711)
Well can't stand with you on this one because I still haven't seen it. And I'm pretty sure you took this in a draft if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, underwater draft. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (57:07.115)
I-I st-

I in the aquatic draft as well, because all my picks ended up being underwater monster movies basically. But yeah, no, think it's great. It's great. It's a phenomenal, you pop a bucket of popcorn, you turn off your brain, you just have a good time.

Eli (57:19.681)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (57:35.8)
He's got some legitimately great characters. mean, LL Cool J is in it as like the chef, like the cook. His character is hilarious and he's really great. And Thomas Jane is a really solid kind of, he's more of a man of action than a man of words, but he's really solid as a leading man for sure.

Eli (57:39.349)
I saw that.

Eli (58:01.495)
Well cool, I might eventually get around to checking that one out. Yeah, let's go through some honorable mentions. You want to run through yours and then I'll run through some of mine?

Jean-Pierre (58:18.578)
I a look at it. I just just scrolled down and saw some of yours. Okay. man, I have so many comments on two of those. So yeah, I have three. I'll run through real quick.

Eli (58:23.607)
Those are just my superhero ones.

Jean-Pierre (58:37.198)
So I have The Rundown, think from like 2003, 2004, one of The Rock's earliest films. And I would argue, I think it's like the perfect action comedy. The Rock, Sean William Scott, you have a phenomenal Christopher Walken as the of the main villain. Who's on the movie a whole, whole lot, but you know, it's Christopher Walken. He's going to have a great performance regardless. Rosario Dawson is also in it.

Eli (58:39.851)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (59:07.352)
The Rock is a of a fixer of sorts who's kind of indebted to this guy and he gets sent to Brazil to go track down the guy's son played by Sean William Scott and hilarity ensues including The Rock basically having become a one-man army by the end of the movie and it's great it's it's funny it's it's funny the action is great they don't make movies like this anymore I'll just say it that way

Next pick.

is movie that again is a bit of a nostalgia watch as I from when I was a kid. A movie that there's probably a better version of it out there in the world somewhere, but I've always really liked it. Even though it ruined Sean Connery's acting career. I love the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I think it's a great concept. I think it's got some really interesting scenes. think it's one of those movies where I'm like, feel like it could be good for a remake.

I think it could be really solid.

And then my final honorable mention I was gonna say is Mortal Kombat 1995 My hot take on that maybe not that hot of a take is I think it's better than the most recent reboot outside of the opening sequence with Where you kind of a little back story story on scorpion that whole opening scene was phenomenal Everything else that precedes it is pretty terrible I think not only is the story better in 1995's Mortal Kombat

Jean-Pierre (01:00:40.032)
the fights are way better like the actual action choreography you know they're filmed very differently they're not nearly as shaky and it's a lot more it's obviously all like 99 % practical effects because it was the mid 90s and it was a low budget movie based on a video game not it's like the new one was very CGI heavy so yeah that's a couple my honorable mentions

Eli (01:00:55.785)
Right. Yeah.

Eli (01:01:01.313)
Hmm.

Yeah, fun. I haven't seen two of those, but I have seen the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a long time ago, like high school or early college maybe. and I remember liking it fine. My taste is very different now than it was then. So I don't know if I would still like it, but, I did, I, I did, read Alan Moore's graphic novel that it's adapted from and not my favorite.

Jean-Pierre (01:01:23.532)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:01:31.948)
I'm sure it's not nearly as good.

Eli (01:01:33.747)
Not my favorite Alan Moore, to be honest. It's kind of all over the place. Like Watchmen is like a masterpiece of a graphic novel and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is way less like V for Vendetta is another Alan Moore that the graphic novel is really good. But yeah, a few of mine, I did like a little superheroes list.

So I have a couple of DC ones that I think are underrated in Man of Steel and Blue Beetle. I really enjoy Man of Steel. I don't know why it's hated so much, but I really enjoyed seeing Superman kind of wrestle with his Superman-ness in that movie. Blue Beetle, yeah, Blue Beetle I think was...

Jean-Pierre (01:02:24.696)
That's why people hate it.

Eli (01:02:29.752)
To me it was really fun. There's a really fun like family dynamic in the mood. Have you seen it? Did you enjoy it?

Jean-Pierre (01:02:35.919)
I've not seen Blue Beetle, but I did hear that a lot. Yeah, I want to.

Eli (01:02:39.805)
should check it out. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun and even like the character development is good enough where like there's even like some touching moments in it. It reminded me of Shazam. Like it kind of surprised me and like I really enjoyed it and thought it was you know a lot of fun. So and then I have a couple of Marvel ones. I really

I really had a lot of fun with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Thor and Love and Thunder. People didn't go for either of those really. And here's what I like about them. Those movies are examples of like, they're a taste of what Marvel movies could be if they would just let really good, interesting directors just kind of do what they want with those movies.

I thought like the Remy, the most Remy parts of Multiverse of Madness were just like really fun. And I was like, I want to see like Remy unleashed on a Marvel movie. That would be really fun to me. And then Thor Love and Thunder, I felt like it was just kind of like really goofy and dumb. And I think it wasn't really trying to be anything other than that. And I was fine with that and just kind of it made me laugh a lot.

if people don't and then Christian Bale was just so fun as Gore. Now is it kind of like is it really disjointed and there's like two or three different movies happening in one movie? Yeah, kind of, but I don't know. I just had a lot of fun with it.

Jean-Pierre (01:04:08.514)
I think.

Jean-Pierre (01:04:23.182)
Yeah, well I gotta say I also love Manistee, I think it's a masterpiece. mean Henry Cavill will always be my Superman. I have not seen Blue Beetle, I wanted to. Multi-Versus-Mannus, you know, it wasn't my favorite, it was okay. I gave it like two and a half stars. But you, I think, I know we've talked about this before, but your love for Love and Thunder, it...

Eli (01:04:36.129)
the

Eli (01:04:44.503)
I don't love it. It's just, I think it was fun.

Jean-Pierre (01:04:46.734)
I cannot stand it. I hated that movie so much. And it's crazy because I love Ragnarok, right? Like I think Thor Ragnarok was amazing, but it was like, it was like, don't know what happened in between the two.

Eli (01:04:55.741)
Ragnarok is one of the best Marvel movies, I think.

Jean-Pierre (01:05:02.114)
But Taika Waititi like turned it up to 11 and it just did not work. even Chris, even like Chris Hensworth is like, if I come back for five, we're definitely gonna have to make, do a serious and different approach again. Cause I just, everything about that movie. The only thing, the only saving grace of that movie is Russell Crowe's silly little accent as...

Eli (01:05:05.238)
Yeah.

Eli (01:05:20.085)
I just liked the madness of it.

Eli (01:05:27.647)
Yeah, it's fun. See, I just see the whole movie in that light. Yeah. It's dumb and fun. And I just I don't know. I just think the whole movie is on that same register and.

Jean-Pierre (01:05:28.18)
Zeus. It's so funny. Hey, chill out, drink some wine, have a good time. You know, it just, it's so, that was the best part for sure.

Jean-Pierre (01:05:41.144)
They also wasted they wasted Christian Bale as gore firstly butchered his design his design of the comics Was incredible. I guess when you hire someone like Christian Bale, you want people to see his face I get that but they just made him like a dude instead of like this really disturbing creepy looking alien creature secondly Yeah, gore gore in the comics he like

Eli (01:05:53.28)
Yeah.

Eli (01:05:58.763)
Hmm. See, I don't know anything about the comic design.

Jean-Pierre (01:06:05.292)
kind of like in the face he's like a little Voldemort looking he doesn't have a nose and he's got like these like tendrils kind of thing it's he looks you should look up some pictures he's super sick super sick design i don't know why they wouldn't go with that other than the fact that Christian Bale didn't want to wear motion capture outfits but i'm like they could have had someone else act him out on stage and he could just come and do the voice anyway

Eli (01:06:19.137)
Christian Bell, yeah. That's why.

Eli (01:06:28.022)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:06:29.358)
But I think it was a waste of having him. As much as I love Christian Bale, as much as his performance was still acceptable, what a waste of having Christian Bale in your movie.

Eli (01:06:39.039)
Yeah, I would say like the way that the villain works into the movie. I think the way that the villain works into the movie is kind of disjointed and doesn't entirely work. But I just had a lot of fun with it. And the same way you had a lot of fun with Deep Blue Sea.

Jean-Pierre (01:06:43.128)
I think that movie's perfectly rated.

Jean-Pierre (01:06:58.742)
I mean, now people are wrong about the EPC.

Eli (01:07:01.045)
I did want to throw a couple more, cause I think a genre that is like full of underrated movies, depending on whoever's opinion is horror, people, well, before I say that, I did want to say Ad Astra is a movie that I wanted to put on, but then realized like that critically, it actually like did pretty good.

A lot of people didn't like it and it was a problem with the trailer. The trailer made it out to be something that the movie just isn't. And Ad Astra was like a five out of five star movie for me. I loved it. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:07:27.629)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:07:37.142)
I think that visually it was great, but I definitely didn't necessarily love it overall.

Eli (01:07:43.944)
Yeah, but I did want to shout out two horror movies that I think are really good and underrated skin and Mareen that came out last year Really enjoyed that one Just like atmosphere and Weirdness and creepiness Loved it and then a movie that there's actually a movie that just released it's like a

Jean-Pierre (01:07:56.449)
Okay.

Eli (01:08:11.255)
Rosemary's Baby prequel just released on Paramount Plus by this director, which I have not seen and cannot speak to, but I really enjoyed Natalie Erika James movie Relic from 2020. I just thought it was a really good horror movie about dealing with loss and loss of family members becoming old. Anyway.

Yeah, I think we can wrap it up. we've... I mean there's definitely more underrated movies. Like we're not even... I'm not even gonna get into The Last Jedi, but... I know. I love... I would love for the Star Wars Bros to come after me, because I would just laugh and move on with my life.

Jean-Pierre (01:08:44.376)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:08:53.919)
even mentioning its name is going to have the Star Wars bros coming out the woodwork.

Eli (01:09:10.784)
But yeah, that was a fun discussion. hope maybe some people will hear some of these and go check these movies out. know, I honestly just had a good time with it. And if people don't want to like it or don't want to watch it, I really don't care because I honestly don't care about Marvel at this point either. you know, if you don't want to watch new Marvel movies, then don't because

Jean-Pierre (01:09:17.037)
except for Thor Love and Thunder.

Jean-Pierre (01:09:26.318)
That's fine.

Eli (01:09:40.671)
I don't...

Jean-Pierre (01:09:40.685)
Yeah, think I'm on board for Daredevil Born Again, but if it's bad. I've always been more DC over Marvel anyway, I'm also very on the fence about I really hope the new Superman movie's gonna be good and some of the other stuff that James Gunn is doing. I believe it's possible. I love what he did with Guardians, but I don't know.

Eli (01:09:49.694)
I'm a DC guy.

Eli (01:10:04.875)
Yeah, I don't know. I'm wary of it, but I hope, I hope it's good because I really like the character. So, but, but yeah, that was fun. hope people will go see some of these underrated movies. Go check out our episode of the last lost world last week. next week we're going to be jumping into Spielberg's next movie and, Amistad.

So excited to jump into that. But yeah, that's all we have for this week. I have been Eli Price for JP Boudreaux. You've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next time.