Noah

Weird, weir. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, Noah did this for us? Did he? He can die for us? Said, what did Noah really do in this case?

He just did it for himself? Well, no, he did it for God. God told him what to do, right, It's a situation between him and God and any altruism beyond that is bullshit. Well, and as I like to say, at the end of the day, if you hear God, you're probably the only one hearing God. So if it's God or it's your own head, by I prove to me it's one or the other.

My friends, because Noah, I can't. No, I need you to build me an arc bry who is this? And God? God? Popcorn?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, if you can't tell on this episode of the Culture Cast, I am still your host, Christashio, much to the chagrin of probably someone, I am joined by my two good friends all the way from Dark Destinations in Midnight viewing Father Alone, Biblical quote, and all the way from the Projection booth, renowned biblical scholar Mike White, renowned atheists. Yes, I'm gonna go get drunk and naked and maybe have sex with one of my three boys. Wo wow. Well, if you don't know what we're talking about, you're about to find out, because on this episode we're continuing our look at epics with twenty fourteen's Darren Aronofski directed No One, No One. What did he say?

He's going to destroy the world? My father said that one day, if Man continued in his ways, the Creator would annihilate this world. Can I not be averted? He speaks to you. You must trust that he speaks in a way that you can understand.

My sole water death by water nice on your life. A great thought is coming. We build a vessel to survive the floor, to build an arc. Man them, what do you want? You don't know?

You're king. There isn't anything for you here. I have made up my back and you stand alone and defy me. I'm not allowed to wind upon it begins. When they come, there will be desperate and there will be many try I see how hard this was for you.

Remember Noah, he choose you for a reason, since he ended everything they can use. So if you can't tell what the film is about by the title, well, what other Noah do you know? I guess it's the question how many Noah's do you know? I know too, I know two, and they are both in the same family. Very popular, Nate.

If I were going to have another kid, I'd probably name him Jacob tab Or. I can't remember the line from Raising Arizona, but yeah, I actually know too. Noah's in the wild amazing. Have either of them built an arc? Not that I'm aware of, but they might have flooded their pants at one point.

Yeah. If you don't know what this movie is about, it is the biblical retelling of Noah's It's inspired by the story of Noah's Ark, but also the before and after of the arc, so it's not just build arc. Movie over, there's a lot going on in the movie, and there's a lot to talk about. The film does star Russell Crowe as the titular Noah, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins shows up for a moment or two. About three.

Actually, I think technically we're counting Odin right, yeah, Odin right, Yeah, I mean he has magical powers whatever that means. Father Blah, I'm gonna kick it to you first. What did you think of Noah a movie I more or less asked you to watch. Yeah, and a movie I thought I had seen. Oh god, what's worse realizing you hadn't, or realizing that, or realizing you thought you had.

I don't know. I was convinced I had. And then it started and there were rock monsters and it was a monster. Yeah. It took my words right out of my mouth.

The whole first part of the movie felt like Lord of the Rings and or Marvel Flick and or a like the original. Remember when Oliver Stone turned in his draft of Conan the Barbarian, he said it like After the Fall of Man. So it felt like that, like a bit, but like Bokshi's Wizards. This the story could have taken place in the post apocalypse the way it was being told, and I was totally into it. I thought wow, because he had a budget of one hundred and twenty I love Darren Aronovski, if I haven't made that clear yet, I adored him as a filmmaker.

So and this one just didn't appeal to me at the time when it came out. That's why I didn't see it. But my god, he's he got like one hundred and twenty five million dollar budget to make a fucking Noah movie, and he does so by turning it into this weirdo fable kind of thing. And I was so down with this movie right until the flood, and then I did not fucking give a shit one minute past that. He tax on this sort of the Isaac story, this sort of sacrifice of Isaac onto the tail end of the Noah story, in order to like re emphasize that Noah has been portrayed like as this benevolent savior of humanity all through history, but he's also kind of a genocidal madman in that he lets everybody die and is in his firm about that.

So I think he was trying to get it a show, like, a more human, like, a more immediate version of it, but we had just seen it and it was fucking horrible. So the whole storm and drang and melodrama of the end just killed me. Man, Like, I was really into what he was doing, and there are still there's still wonderful moments throughout the entire film, and I like how daring it is, and I like a lot of the just his weirdo sort of visual digressions where you know he'll just show the passage of time by by showing a river winding its way, you know, through the world and the life that's growing around. I love all of that. Like I said, I think it's a really daring movie, but it's so hideously uneven and there's no moral.

There's the crazy thing about the moral quandary at the end about him doing God's will and sacrificing this one human after everything that had just happened, is that Noah is he's absolutely certain that it's God speaking to him. I'm sorry, who's that, dad? I don't remember his Oh, I'm sorry. The Creator is away? Yeahweh?

He just for him, No, just creator. They never say yeahweh or anything like that. He's so certain and the audiences as well, that that's the Creator speaking to him and he's following that path, so that it should have been potentially should have just been. Like is he insane from the beginning? I don't know, is it not?

I know, because he backloads all of the actual human drama into the end when it's part of the fucking awesome monsters smashing the fuck out of the descendants of Cane sequences. That's that's what I thought of the movie. B you, Mike, you're a fan of daring Aronofsky. It's funny. I echo so much.

I mean I probably shouldn't even be here because everything the Father alone just said. I'm like, yep, one percent totally agree. Yes, yes, and yeah the movie it's so uneven and so strange. I mean the way that it starts off, I'm just like, what's happening with this font choice that you're doing? What is going on with this like Papyrus?

I mean it's so it's not Papyrus actually, but yes, it is so close to it and has that same color too. I'm just like, yeah, it is. That is not a good thing. Yeah, in the Rock Monsters, which look a lot like the Transformers to me, so every time they would come around, I'm just like waiting for Optimus Prime to show up. Yeah, and those little flashes of you know, Caine killing Abel and the snake and the of a not avocota avocado homogranit, you know, all of those things.

I'm just like, all right, yeah, this is interesting. And I know Aaronovsky makes me feel like a lot when I watch his movies, Like I almost had a panic attack watching Black Swan, Like I love what he can do with a camera. I love what he did with Pie. Strangely enough, I love what he did with Rick Cream for a Dream. Strangely enough, I don't watch all of his movies, even though I know he's super talented and is somebody that I find very interesting.

So I haven't seen Mother. I did see The Fountain, saw that theatrically, and this reminded me so much of the Fountain it was not even funny how much it reminded me of that. I still haven't seen The Wrestler, even which I know a lot of people love that. And I still haven't seen The Whale. So I guess I'm with him up to those first three movies.

I'm onlyst sitting like half of his filmography, I think, But every time I do, I just enjoy what he's up to. And even in a movie like this where I'm like, wow, I don't know if I like this or not, but I'm it's appropriate, Russell Crow, I am entertained. Thank you very much for asking, So, Chris, So I saw Pie in college. They showed it to us or something. I do not remember why.

I just think because have not seen Requiem for a Dream, for a whole host of reasons. I've never just been more or less never gotten around to it. I'm not put off by the subject material at all, but it's never gotten around to it. Black Swan, I have seen the Fountain, I have seen Mother, I have not seen in the Whale. I just I don't know, just didn't sound like something I had really any kind of interest in.

And same with this movie initially. But Father Malone, you kind of made the point here that they gave Darren Aronofsky one hundred and twenty million dollars to make this movie. That was why we're watching this movie, because like, why Darren Aronofsky, Like why Darren Aronofski making this movie. It's just looking at the other things he had worked on up until this point. The Fountain is the biggest in terms of budget, scope and scale, and then they have this and this is I mean, we're talking about it this month because it's an epic and it is a fucking proper epic film.

I mean, in every sense of the word. It shares a lot in common with the kinds of movies that were being made by filmmakers in the forties that were biblical tales being retold it. That's what this is. However, there's a reason we don't make these types of movies anymore because the idea of all you could do with them then is not all you could do with them now. And Darren Aronovsky and Ari Handel know that, which is why, to your point, Father Malone, there's a half an hour tacked on where all of a sudden we're having introspective character moments, and it's like, why wasn't this just throughout?

Why did you put it all at the end and literally slow your movie to a crawl, And it feels like there's another movie tacked on to the end of your movie. This could have been a two part movie. Frankly, the flood happens and then you know, oh Noah, part two coming next, Like you could have seen that, because it really feels like two distinct movies. The moment of what happens, then there's still an hour left in the goddamn movie. So yeah, I think I echo, you know initially what y'all are saying.

It's very uneven, But in terms of seeing something unlike pretty much anything else I've really ever seen, boy, it checks a lot of boxes. Just in that first ten minutes the Rock I thought I was watching the wrong movie when the Rock Monsters showed up voiced by Francis Weber's own Nick Nolty. Yes, yes, monstero okay, and then Margolis as well in there too, Yeah that tour, Yeah boy, and uh Kevin Durand as well. And I think Frank Langella is the voice of the one that initially helps them. But I think for me, the interesting part is a this is a movie where I actually really liked Russell Crowe in it a lot.

And I'm not the biggest Russell Crowe fan. I'm not. I don't go out of my way to see things that he's in, But the things I've seen him in recently, I really enjoyed The Pope's Exorcist a lot more fun that it had any right to be a big dumb exorcist movie featuring Russell Crowe that I think is fun and he's fun in it, and I think that this movie has some moments of fun. I think this movie takes itself deadly serious obviously. I think that's the Darren Aronofsky of it all.

I'm not sure that there's a way to make a fun high seas Noah Adventure, because the story of Noah is not It's not that it's not a fun story. But at the end of the day, there's a scene in the movie that captures what this is really about, where Noah's sitting there listening to all the people dying outside the boat. That's what this story is about. That is ultimately what the Noah story is about. Is deciding that the whole world deserves to die and you're going to save the animals.

That is the story. At the center of the Noah's story is a man making that decision to doom the world to death. And like you said, father alone, is it all in the name of God? I like that Darren Aronofsky doesn't give us the voice of God at any point because it would have been joker. Right.

You don't ever hear him talking to him. I mean, you get those signs and things, you get like the water droplet that forms into the flower, and you get, you know, the signs that he's seeing in his head, these whole dreams of the bloody earth that he's walking on. I mean, it's very it's more Ezekiel and more Isaiah. But this whole idea of the prophets and stuff, and I think that Noah was considered a prophet, and not in the way that Islam considers prophets. But he's one of their major guys as well, like Noah, Adam, of course Moses.

They're all like the prophets, you know. And of course Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, He's the end of the prophets. But yeah, he's important in all these religions. And I really yes, he did a major thing by helping reset the whole world for God or sorry, the creator. But the story is like this long, and even if you go to the Book of Enoch, it doesn't give you that much more.

I mean, it's a short story that he forms into this whole thing. And what's nice is that, as the atheists, I'm not tied to any of this stuff. So I'm like, Okay, if you tell me that there's little magic things in the ground, sure, I don't care. I'm not tied to this. I don't care if it's apocryphal, go right ahead, do whatever you rock monster crawl around.

Okay, that's great. I forgot that Seth even existed. I know Cain, I know Abel, but I forgot all about Seth. At least I didn't forget about Dreh or the hilariously named Tubalcane, which well, every time they said Ham, I'm just like, oh, Ham, Pam Sham, come along. You know, it's just like calling your kid Ham.

Is just so funny to me. You know. The thing about the rock monsters, you know, I agree with you, Mike. They initially reminded me of Transformers, and that is most likely because they have so many limbs. Yeah.

I realized that they have so many limbs because actual seraphim in the Bible have six wings, so their wings have become their arms. It's wonder It's a wonderful design innovation. Along with the fact that we encounter animals that no longer exist on it. Oh yeah, I kept waiting for the unicorn to show up and for them to be like, yeah, or that's what Ray is, Ray Wise, that's in this because Winstone he's the one who he's the one who betrayed Indiana Jones in the fourth movie multiple times. Remember that Tom Indeed, Yeah, yeah, you don't know him.

Damn. I thought that was closer. But when Ray Winstone is there chowing down on animals in the arc as a stoleway. I'm just like, where is it? Oh, I mean look over and there's like a one horn there and a horse head and it's oh yeah, that's a shred.

Honestly, Like for me, Ray Winstone is the highlight of the He's just he is. They were like, hey, Ray, you want to come on set just chew the scenery? Okay? Yeah, Like all right, I like Ray Winstone for me. I saw for some for the first time and that departed and I thought that he was.

I mean, he's he in a lot of ways as a highlight in that movie full of other fantastic actors, but he here, he looks proper biblical. Something about his face. I mean everybody looks proper biblical, but Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone look proper biblical in this movie. And Ray Winstone is just he's painting with very broad strokes, as it were. Ray Winstone.

I this is how old I am. I first encountered him because PBS was rerunning a series from the BBC called Robin Sherwood. Oh wow, he played Will Scarlett in it. I think it was his first role. He's your Yeah, yeah, you're irretrievably young in it.

So I've been watching him the whole time, so I'm always excited when he shows up because he's going to be the best thing in any scene he is in, and certainly here, Like I love Mike. We talk a lot about how in movies they if they would just give us a map once in a while, oh so helpful that the opening scene where we get to see the cities of cane spread across the earth was so fucking fantastic, and I thought, Wow, what a great set of villains they're setting up here. Again it feels very false, doom, very cone in the Barbarian So I'm waiting. Basically, the movie is setting itself up to be this biblical epic with a climax of this giant fight, and I don't have any problem with continuing the story afterwards.

The story continues afterwards, but the moral dilemma, it should be over at that point. If anything, why the movie is so frustrating to me is that's the most important scene, the most affecting scene. The scene where everyone is screaming and drowning outside is the actual thrust of the story to me, Like, how do they go on every day, You're going to be hearing those voices right every day. Rhetically, everyone you ever knew or you know like that to me is enough. And if there's any filmmaker who could dramatize that for us, I think it would be Airovsky.

But instead he just sort of takes us into yet a different Bible tale at the end. It's really I almost sit insulting. It's not insulting, and because I know I'm coming down hard on this movie because I want the movie to be better, and because ultimately I'm going to recommend people watch this movie. It's worth fucking seeing for all of this crazy shit that he's it's a fucking insane movie. Like I haven't seen a movie made like this in a long time.

This movie came out ten years ago, sure, sure it did. Like this doesn't feel like the kind of thing that should have come out ten years ago, because and again with the name Aronofsky attachment like this, there are parts of this movie that feel like it could have been directed by Roland Emeric. Oh yeah, in terms of what it is, in terms of what you would expect from this story. You have the story of Noah and the world flooding and yeah, that's a fucking Roland embric thing, right there, Moonfall, all those kinds of again, these big human disaster stories, and I don't know, Darren Aronofsky. It feels like the parts of the movie that he should have excelled at he doesn't, But the parts of the movie that anybody could have excelled at he did.

But it's like anybody can in twenty fourteen month say, anybody can make us a convincing CGI boat with a bunch of people inside and all that, but with one hundred and twenty million dollar budget in Paramount Pictures behind it, Yeah, I think you can. It's odd to me this is for all the things it doesn't feel like. There are parts of this movie that feel very antithetical to what I would have expected from a Darren Aronofsky movie. But yet there are parts that I would not pick anybody else but him to have done. Certain parts of it.

It's just they're so disparate. It's like, why try to pair It's oil and water. No matter how hard you mix, you can get it to a mulcify, but it'll eventually come back apart because they just can't stand to be together. I mean, yeah, what you're saying about this feeling like a Roland Embrick film. It reminds me a lot of twenty twelve with that arc or the underground arc in the Impact, which was not roll number.

I don't blame it was Mimi Leader letter. But yeah, in what you said earlier, Father Malone, just this whole thing of be feeling so post apocalyptic. It feels like Eli from Book of Eli is just going to be walking through one of these scenes at some point. It would fit with this world, you know, And it's so I mean, I like what they're doing with this world. I like that.

I keep having to remind myself, Oh this is you know, is it antidiluvian? Is after the flight or group before the before the Okay, so it's all antidiluvian stuff where it's like Donovan says in the song, Yeah, it's just like the whole thing, Yeah, Atlantis, that whole whole thing. Yeah, like that dingo dongo thing that's there that they are killing. But then Noah doesn't eat meat apparently, because he's just burning that thing at the end. I guess he's making an offering of it to the creator.

And I forget about these things, like how they just keep making all these offerings and things. I'm like, oh, what would they Oh okay, all right, I'm getting it. But yeah, I would like to have seen that regrowth. I guess at the end if rather than just what they do. It feels like a big wet fart at the end of this movie, which is not good.

And when you built this up so much into that, like you said, this month is all about epics, you build it into this epic and then it just peters out. All right, you know we're not going to kill the baby, all right, here we are. I'm like, all right, what happened? You know? Did you have a really good burst and second act and then you just forgot to write the third act?

It was just not good. Though. I will again, and I feel like a broken record on here. I will again agree with Father Malone. He would recommend this movie.

I would say people, if you haven't seen it, check it out. It's interesting. Yeah, it's good, it's it's bad, it's interesting. You haven't seen anything else like it, that's for sure. For all the role in emeric comparisons, his movies don't have this level of kind of awareness.

Because there is this there is an awareness that this movie has about what it is trying to do. Whether or not it's imminently successful at that, I think is another conversation. But it knows that this is not, you know, BC. It is a Biblical story. So there are kind of not kid gloves, but kind of kid gloves being used to bury the story along because there are some things that this is just not going to do because it is based off of Bible stories and the challenge that they had for themselves of things like what do these clothes look like?

You know? When they first started walking around, I was just like, you know, thinking of BC, it's should they be dressed like cave men? What would they be? Rare? And then it's well, how many years have passed?

I mean, and that's a bad question to ask Christian just related the Bible, like how many years have passed? Oh? Only a thousand? It's like, wait, no, isn't Methuselah like a thousand years old? But he yeah anyway, and Noah himself is six hundred oh yeah.

And then apparently once the flood happens, everybody loses that whole long life cycle. I don't know why but anyway, Yeah, it just I don't or where I was going with this, but it just yeah, so I'll stop talking. That shit was so pre flood baby, all that living for one thousands of year, That's what it was. Yeah, it was the whole thing with the outfits, the clothes that they're wearing, and how they had to come up with this whole thing. What types of houses do they live in?

What types of shelters? And I think it was brilliant to set this whole thing well, to shoot this whole thing, let's say, in Iceland, where this is it. This is what Iceland looks like. They modified a lot of it, of course, you know in the far distance and when you get the cities and all those kind of things. But this whole idea of this rough hewn plane where you get like the green mountain coming up and everything that you can tell that it's more like moss rather than actual grass because they still it hasn't even happened yet the grass grows on some of these surfaces.

It is so smart because this is such a rough hewn world. It fits with this free flood time. Well, what's interesting is you both have already alluded to it. They don't tell you when it's set. Now, there's a moment, there's a shot where you see what look like skyscrapers in the distance, and I think you already alluded to it, Father bloone.

I kind of don't see when this is set as a point of even contention. It's set whenever, right, And I think that that ultimately is what Aradofsky is trying to get across, which is this story is a timeless story. And be careful for the flood, right, because I mean again, Christians believe that there will maybe not a flood, but the second or third who was counting destruction will come and happen, and that will happen to all of us. I mean again for the Christian belief system. Well, you know, God promised not to do it by flood again, and so right, okay, or shit out of luck if we built all those boats again.

Yeah, that was a bad move which they did at the Roland Emeric twenty twelve of you see, they were not listening to God. Roland Emeric is godless, yes exactly. Yeah. Sorry, there's a little thing that I just want to share because it's so stupid. But every time I think about the word Methuselah.

First off of think of Robert Heinlein with Methuslas's children. But I used to work at a cable company, right, and we would air all those local commercials that you see. Sometimes we would make the commercials. Other times we were sent to commercials, and we were sent one for I believe it was Bill Sure, a hsu R E. Bill Sure Oldsmobile, and they had a whole thing up.

They had a whole jingle that they had where it was like something something happened, and that it didn't because it wasn't for sure. And they had this and I'm like, wait, what this happened? But then it didn't because it wasn't for sure. So they had a line in there where it was like Methuselam lived to a thousand years and then it didn't because it wasn't for sure. And I'm like, what the fuck?

Wow. So every time that's what I think of, I should go out on YouTube and see if that commercials out there. I doubt it though. I mean, Methuselah was just looking for some berries. Oh yeah, not God, that guy likes this berries.

He's just upset. You give me some berries. I'll show I'll give you the power to create life. Here Hermione. Oh, let's talk Hermione.

She's terrible. Can I ask a question, though, Is there really been a time where she hasn't been the She's great in The Blame Ring? Is that it? Yes? Okay, because because I haven't really seen her in anything, I really like her in Emma Watson.

I think she always kind of has one setting, it would seem, and this is part of that singular setting. Yeah, she's trying real hard, Yeah, sir. She seems very nice. And I liked her as Hermione, and I liked her in The Bling Ring very very much. But she is horribly miscast here, and she's outclassed here.

She can't she as much effort as she's putting in. She can't get close to it. Just a look from Jennifer Connolly. Yeah, Jennifer Connolly is Oh, she's so good in this movie. I mean, Jennifer Connolly's great in everything.

Yeah, that's fantastic. You can read everything in her face. She requires no dialogue at all. No, and she is aging like fine wine, my friend. I mean, she was in sure.

She got her acting start in Once upon a Time in America, which we just talked about Mike. We tik him out on the soprano show that we do. And yeah, I can't think of a thing I've seen her in that it is not better for her being in it. I think that's almost everything that I've seen her in is better for her being in it, because yes, she, I mean her and Russell Crowe are great in this movie. Really, they have great chemistry.

Again, I don't think it's really put to good use because Russell Crow's character just cut. I don't understand what his character arc is. Ultimately, once they are on the boat, he becomes this unrepentant asshole. And fine, I mean I get that the story kind of necessitates it, but it never pays off. He just doesn't kill the kids at the end, and then he just goes and becomes a drunk, which I understand is part of the Noah story.

Noah's a known drinker of wine, so that's fine, but it just it kind of doesn't have a point that he's all of a sudden just like, well, I built this boat for my family, and I care about my family, and I've done all these things to make sure my family's safe. But now I want to make sure everybody's dead. It's like, Noah, what it's about doing? The creators will right, But that's the thing. Shouldn't everyone be on board?

Like the Creator so far hasn't steered them wrong. He built them a fucking boat. Everybody else died. Now he's telling Noah that the child has to die. Also, if they're doing really, if they were really that concerned about it, they outnumbered him, there was plenty of time they could have put him on that boat and set it adrift.

That that little Moonraker mini boat that they had for some reason built to go along with their regular boat, that he then blew up. That he blew up, and you know what, he came in and did that. And at that point I was so bored. I was just like, how about just burn the whole ship, Just burn the whole down. That twist ending Yeah, he was dreaming about being in the flood and everything himself.

And see, I mean god, that was so much the Marshes scene from Lord of the Rings or sorry, from the Two Towers, you know, with all the dead bodies under the water, and I'm just like, you know, oh, we needs it, you know well, And so that's I mean, that's the thing you kind of already you mentioned in flad Blow, the idea of there's a part of the movie where it just starts kind of to become boring. That is the shame of this movie is the first half is so entertaining and strange and its own thing, unlike a lot of things that I've seen, and then the second half of the movie, most of the time is spent inside of the arc, which is as uninteresting as it sounds. There's nothing exciting about the setting of the arc.

It is literally a giant log box that they are in with a bunch of CGI animals and that's all it is for forty five minutes, and then they go outside a couple times, but they don't do anything with the story after they're on the arc, and setting any of it. Spending an extended amount of time on the arc feels antithetical to this being an epic, because it's epics aren't stories about six people sitting in a fucking box for forty five minutes. And that's what this movie ends up becoming. Like why not just pat out the beginning of the movie and have it end with them on the boat? Oh, because you can't have the scene of Russell Crow sitting there listening till the people drown.

That's what it is. You can't get to those moments that Darren Aronofski clearly wanted to get to. Then maybe don't tell the Noah story or I don't know, tell it after they've gotten on the boat and it being like a crisis of faith. But don't pick neither, do both and not succeed at either because you only because you didn't really choose between one or the other. It's like you picked both and kind of failed at both and succeeded at nothing other than being weird, other than it being a weird ass movie.

I tell you what if the movie ended with the people screaming. If like, if you just cut to black there and as an audience, we just listen to the screaming and screaming and screaming, and then it says the end I'm fucking one movie. Yeah, oh totally, I'm I'm with you like that. That for me was a genuinely arresting moment in the movie that I thought to myself, this is the thing that they don't talk about in the source text. Is this thing here?

Because they don't let it go on for long enough. This wouldn't just be fucking five minutes of this. This wouldn't just be two seconds of people screaming. This would be people screaming for hours, days. Problem.

You imagine they would probably all be hanging onto the arc as much as I possibly could, probably trying to crawl up it and stuff. You'd probably have to be out there with poles pushing these people down. No, seriously, no, you're on bull duty. You're on bull duty, shim. It would be awful.

Yeah, Like, I never really got a size of the arc in my mind because it's behind those barriers so much of the time, I'm just like, well, how big is it? You know, I'm not to go into the hole, like the physics of how many how many cubits? All these animals and stuff, I don't care. Like it's a metaphor, Okay, I get it. We don't have to think about the fish, and we don't have to think about birds, and we don't have to think about insects.

Snakes, the snakes, Oh why do they have to be snakes? You know? And one thing, yeah, crawls on the ground. I love those. I love all those Bible story books where you get the two lions going up the arc and they're both male lions.

I mean, it's just not as good of a visual if they both don't have manes. You know that's true. They'll figure out which alll to stick it in eventually. Yeah, it's not Adam and Steve. Oh god, jes wow, yikes.

Yeah. I do like how they had to explain how the animals don't attack one another. There's just a magic powder that they put in the air makes all the animals go to sleep. Yeah, that's totally fine. Where yeah magic land with I agree all of that.

See, the thing is, you can't really front load the human part of the story into the beginning if you're going to have rock monsters. Right, he is. Once the rock monsters are on Noah's side, there's no question that they're doing the right thing. There's no question that Noah is sane and following the creator's directive, and that's what it needs to be. Right, They should be questioning it even after the fucking flood?

Are we doing the right thing here? Was it even God talking to you? That question is never broached, which feels like a missed opportunity. Yeah, yeah, it feels should be a time. Yeah, there should be a time at this point, because there's a time where a fucking forest grows and you're like, okay, literally out of nowhere.

Obviously he is talking with God. If this force is growing and doing all these things, okay, But yeah, maybe there's that moment way back early in the story where Jennifer Connell is like, what you heard from who? What are you talking about? But it was nice that there's no burning bush, that you don't hear the voice, that it is more through the visions, and I can only assume that he might see more than we actually see, or he just is really good at interpreting those visions, or maybe he's just to just in the head. I mean, I mean again, in this day and age, someone tells you they're talking to God, you'll know what we say to that person.

Yes, you've diagnoses schizophrenia. There's been a lot less profits in the world. Yeah, right, exactly. And that's where I wanted this movie to go. I wanted this movie to go more in that direction because it's a Darren Aronofsky movie.

If not really, the thing I was most surprised by is if not Aronofsky, then, who is going to have this conversation in this kind of movie because he feels like the one person uniquely suited to because he doesn't stray I mean for his biblical as this movie is. Mother is a just as biblical movie in terms of what it's talking about, if not more so. So Okay, like Everyone is the Fountain. What I love about Darren Aronofsky is he seems like a hard scientist who is absolutely obsessed with the mysticism of religion, yes, and the connections to be found there. Like I knew all about the Fibonacci sequence and the sort of golden ratio before I had never connected it to Judaism the way Aronofsky did, and he does it so it's seemingly effortlessly and that's what I love about it about him.

Like when this movie came out, I wasn't interested in seeing it because we were getting a glut of End of the World movies and I thought, I don't want to see an Aeronofsky take on a literal Bible story like I like his more esoteric takes on mysticism and spirituality and religion head on. I think again, like that it's this movie is ultimately frustrating because he takes the story on, gives us a biblical epic, which we haven't had a good one since what the fifties or the sixties, and turns the whole thing on its head, but then just kind of falters. I know, I'm just saying the same thing over and over again, but it's incredibly frustrating when someone can get this close to making something that can make a person potentially or reevaluate their relationship with God or religion or mysticism.

And I think because I was feeling that way for the first half of the movie or up until the flood. The only other film that I had ever experienced that with that was sort of overtly religious is Last Temptation of Christ, because it was people taking the material seriously and offering another take that hasn't been recorded, agitated to a seven hundred thousand times, which is what we usually get in these tales. Yeah. Yeah, even though it's relying on a lot of tropes, like fantasy tropes, and we keep eye and I think you Chris have talked about LTR a few times. There's a lot of things that remind me of that.

But yeah, he's telling a story. He's telling the story that we're all familiar with in a very different way. And I don't know, I know that there's a place for this kind of story being told this way in the world. It's just of all the people to do it, because, like you just alluded to, Father Alone with Last Temptation of Christ, watching that movie, it feels like a Scorsese movie. It does.

It has some of his marks all over it, and it's the kind of movie that I'm not surprised he got involved because he has always worked with people or worked on things that are about people's you know, religious involvement or feelings on religion. I mean him and pul Schrader, they've worked together several times, and I mean again, a lot of the stuff that pul Sshrader writes about is feelings on religion and organized religion. And then you come to this and it's I'm just going to tell the story the way it's been told, aside from a couple things that you may not have seen, right, what about this story was motivating you to tell it? Is ultimately the question that I have because if you're not asking the questions of who was Noah why was Noah doing what he was doing, which I think is the question that if anyone is approaching this story in this day and age, should be asking, like you said, father alone, why what is Noah's ultimate need and want and reasoning to do this?

And how does that affect the people in the world around him? How does that affect the world, and how does he affect the world. They're not really asking any of that here, and when they do ask it, it's so surface level that I'm like, well, don't even bother. Just give me a big budget end of the World biblical movie, because it kind of has a hard time towing the line and being successful at the introspectiveness when the other stuff is just kind of entertaining and weird. That's the thing, Like all the other stuff is fucking weird and entertaining, and this is what happens when you give Darren Aronofsky a big budget he kind of just does weird things with it.

There's a scene in the movie when they're on the boat and Russell Crow just goes, let me break it down for you. I'm gonna just read the Book of Genesis essentially, and he puts out the light on the boat. And then there's this great scene I think you've already mentioned it, Father Malone, where it shows the river and then shows the fish, and then it shows the fish turning into the creature on the land, and then the creature on the land turns into the mammal. It's like, man, this is a really well done scene. How much did this cost?

Were we just looking for a way to spend money? Because why are you putting this into your movie? Oh? Oh no, I disagree with that. Yes, please put that in The Boy.

I like it, But you're putting that into the movie in the space of actually having an interesting conversation about the character, is what I'm saying. I like it, but like, somebody else could have done this, Darren, You're not uniquely suited to this any more than anybody else's. Here's the thing, nobody was going to put an evolutionary sequence in the middle of a Bible film. Only Darren Aronofsky was going to do that. That's fair, that's fair.

It's funny the way you talk about this. I'm just like, well, this is kind of like Terrence Malick, but good. You know, when you're talking about like the evolutionary sequence, I'm just like, oh yeah, that's when they like cut to those that fucking dinosaur and Tree of Life or whatever that wants. I'm just like, I hinted that movie, but this he always entertains me, or at least keeps my interest, you know, or starts to keep my interest. I definitely agree that this movie Peter's out as it goes along.

I don't know if I got bored until like just the very end of it, but yeah, it's still it takes a lot. And then I was thinking too, with this whole anti Delivion time period, is this where those maniacs that like run the Christian history museums, like, is that where they get the whole like man writing dinosaurs and all that kind of worse shit. Yeah, that must be because it's prehistory. It's all up for grabs, you know. Wow, for the flood Baby, there were dinosaurs, wooly mammots.

That's how Darren Aronowski really should have gotten it. Is show Russell Crow riding on the back of a t rex and it was like ray Winstone, He's like petting the side of it. He's like, sorry, big boy, there's no room for you on the boat. It's yeah, it's yeah. I mean I would have enjoyed that, just a little dinosaur humor in your Noah movie.

It would have been up there with my unicorn joke. I think. Yeah, really, I still think I would like Conan the Barbarian too have had a cameo that would have been nice. Yeah, you're still right as far as your bloods. All these worlds are.

This world that they have feels very what is a Samaria? And like all those different lands that Conman in habits. I totally yeah, very Robert E. Howard here, Yeah, it doesn't feel like Earth, that's for sure, and good in a lot of ways. I'm kind of surprised that Aeronofsky didn't just take the budget and do the retelling of the arc on Mars or something something a little less on the nose, because that's I mean, again, I can't reinforce enough for me.

The reason I never watched this movie is because I don't have any sort of resonance with the Bible like these kinds of stories. So it's like, far be it from me to watch a fucking Noah's Arc story. But I mean, if everybody was doing it like this, Okay, I'm a little bit more on board because it's just kind of weird, but I want it to be weirder. Give me something not set on cause again we've kind of alluded to it. It's Earth.

Maybe who the fuck knows these people could be on God knows what I mean, it's I mean, we see Earth, so we know it's Earth. They pull a George Miller and they pull out so we can see the Earth covered in hurricanes. But it didn't have to be Earth. And you could have probably gotten around some of the problems of telling the story by not setting it in the times of the Bible and just talking about the choice being made to sacrifice an entire planet's worth of people because you think you're the only ones worth saving. Boy, that's some hubris right there, ain't it, folks.

Ben. Yeah, even little things like when all those birds show up, I'm just like, oh, this is like when they're hiding on weather top. So sorry, I was you want Proto and Sam to show up and be like, can we take your arc to Mourdor please? I mean, basically this is almost Middle Earth too. I mean, for all we know, there could be Mordor in this place.

Right again, I kind of want to see Darren Rodoski make a fun movie. Yeah, Like give him a Robert E. Howard character, go yeah, down, create a world for us, please, I definitely want to see that. Well, he his name was attached so many times to so many projects, especially after like when I mean Pie was a huge splash, and then when he did Recueen for a Dream, it was just, you know, people couldn't get over themselves about it, which I completely understand. I'm not saying anything against the man, but he had so many titles.

He was going to do a remake of Lone Wolf and he was going to make an American version of that. He was going to do and it might have turned out to be road to perdition in his hands, you don't know. And then he even was tagged to RoboCop, a remake of RoboCop. Can you imagine an Aronofsky robo Cop compared to that piece of shit that we ended up getting a few years ago, can you imagine? And he was also attached to and his script is out there and online if you want to check it out for Batman a year in year one.

That was an amazing script. Yes, we were to live in that universe where Aronofsky's movie is the one that sets the tone for all the Batman movies that or superhero movies that came for a decade after. Nope, we had to have Chris Nolan instead. Which in a world of Aeronofsky and Chris Nolan, I know which one I would take, because I know which one isn't as pretentious or the pretension is deserved is probably a better way of putting it, because I think as for as much as Darren Aronofsky may be seen as a pretentious filmmaker, I think for the most part it is he earns his highbrow a tour status. For me, yeah, no, I named the pretentious one.

I mean the pretentious one with Aarren's malick. But yes, I'm right there with you. I fucking tendant man. Oh my rist, holy o, movies are back. It's not too late to get that Batman Year one.

You know, if James, it would's very matt Reeves, you know, it would fit in with that world James gunn Is. You know, he said that they're doing an else World's over there at DC, so they sort of one off films like they've already got in the one off Joker they've got Matt Reeves Batman. They're gonna have the brave and the Bold Batman as the sort of their flagship Batman, Like I could have a Batman Year one, Darren Aronofsky. Yeah, I mean he was connected to what RoboCop, Like you already mentioned Batman, Wolverine. He was supposed to direct the second Wolverine movie would have been interesting.

I mean that super I think that point. Yeah, I think you're right fucked up. So he's not above doing a superhero movie, and we now know he can do a gigantic epic. Somebody throw a fucking superhero at him already. Yeah, I'm a weird one.

He could have made the Eternals good. Oh yeah. Well, the and the actual crazy thing is because again we're kind of talking about Aeronoski. Ernofsky is one of those directors that has a page on Wikipedia of unrealized projects. She just like del Toro does, just like a lot of filmmakers, because yeah, a lot of them make a splash with one or two movies in the late to mid nineties and then everybody just tries to get their ear for the next twenty years, is what it feels like.

Yeah, man. I'll tell you what though, the movies that Aeronofsky has made instead, you know, Black Swan's pretty good, which is yeah, well, I mean again, I mean it's pretty good. I mean is it as good as what his Batman movie could have been? I don't know, we don't live in that universe, but that would that's in that same time of what he would have been working on instead of Batman. So I almost wish she would do one of those one for them, one for me type of things where it's like, Okay, I'm gonna make this genre film in order to get funding for Mother, I'm going to do this in order to get funding for the Wrestler.

But that he actually can get Mother and the Wrestler and Noah and all of these other movies made, there's really a testament to his skill to be able to get that fundraising, go in and actually get these things out there, because these are kind of off the wall movies. But once people actually see them and get into them, all right, yeah, I'm sold. Right now Here in Las Vegas, we've just opened up the sphere. If you go to the Sphere in a non concert way, there is a film that plays in the entirety of that dome. That film was directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Wow. Of course it was go figure, right, and you know, we hit re Earth and you know, on a grand scale. I'll tell you what else Aernofsky was I to and I can't believe I forgot this. He was supposed to do a version of Theodore Rosa's Flicker, which is one of my most favorite books in the entire world. And if anybody within the sun of my voice wants a book recommendation, which I don't do very often, check that out because it's this amazing story of film obsession as well as subliminal images.

And there's this whole thing about this director named Max Castle and how he's been putting all of these images inside of his films, and I was just like, if anybody could pull it off, it would have been Aronofsky. That's another thing where I know Chris, we were just talking about the Sopranos podcast about mini series versus movies, types of things that one should have been like one solid season of this whole mystery that builds up, because a two hour movie just wouldn't do it justice. But Aeronofski Behind the Helm, he could have handled it. According to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge in the known universe, the script for Flicker was reviewed by Mike White of Cashier's Lucindamark, who said that, and I quote Roseas is misspelled on the cover page.

I like, how, Mike, you're quoted on the Wikipedia page or the movie. Very funny. They didn't know that. Yeah, and I wish I could find that script. Somebody gave me that Jim ol script, and one it was terrible, but two I can't find it anymore because I actually had some guy who's just harassing me, like can I get a copy?

I'm like, this is the way I felt before I had a copy, So I understand where you're coming from. But I can't fucking find it. So sorry. I know that Aronofsky's last film, The Whale, obviously a lot smaller in scope and scale than Noah, No big boats, big Man, but no big boats. Did either of y'all see The Whale?

No? No, it just looks like it was gonna make me cry, and I just didn't want to sit down for it. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I saw the Wrestler and I thought, this looks like the Wrestler for the morbidly obese. I'm gonna go back and watch The Wrestler again.

Yeah, I haven't seen it either, primarily for the reasons y'all alluded to, which is like, this sounds like not a great time, not like it's going to be a bad movie. But I don't necessarily want to subject myself to a movie that's going to be a real bummer. Man. Yeah, I don't. You know, looking back on Aeronovsky's movies, are any of his movies really super uplifting?

I think it's kind of half and half, right, I think, like The Fountain, pretty uplifting movie. I think at the end of this movie, I think, you know, it has a pretty uplifting is uplifting it can have message. I think has an uplifting ending. I know the character loses his mind, but that felt really earned, right, I agree? Yeah, Requiem for a Dream I can't speak to.

But I mean, I can't see Aeronofsky I guess making another movie like this anytime soon. But that's a shame because again, he seems to really not go into the world of big budget stuff very often. Maybe he'll do it again, one could hope, But I would like to see more things like this from him and less things that are the smaller character. I mean, this is a character study at the end of the day. I mean the title of the film is Noah, but I think the characters that he kind of gets lost in the epic grandiosity of it all.

And I kind of would like to see Aeronosky just make a movie that doesn't necessarily lean on all of the character study stuff, just because, I mean, Batman Year one would have been something different. I don't know if what it would have been like that he's done, if it would have been like anything he's done, really, Chris, when we discussed Harley Davidson and The Marlborough Man, we suggested that a sequel is in order with Darren Aronofsky, with Don Johnson is still around, Mickey Rourke still are out. I'd like to see what he does with those guys. Yeah, yeah, I would be so down for that. Holy talk about a character study of a movie and do whatever he wanted.

If you wanted to make it a romp, make it a romp. You want to make it a character study, a deep dive into the psychees of these fucking lunatics, Do that too. Whatever you want to do, something like that would be fucking phenomenal from him. I'm just sitting over here losing my mind because at two hours, two minutes, I don't op it's Ham or Cheb or Chef or any of these guys. He's walking along this beach and I can see the background.

I'm like, that looks familiar. And then they do a reverse shot and I'm like, oh, I was just there a few months ago, so I'm having a little bit of a surreal moment here. Oh, you were in Iceland, right, I was in Iceland now, yeah, right where this guy's walking. It was fucking cold, man. But did you drink wine with Noah?

No? I did not. I would have liked to have gotten naked with Noah, naked with Noah on the beach, just chilling, just chilling, fucking face planted right down and yeah, hey, jappe, hide your eyes. Don't want to look at Dad being old, drunken naked. We're used to it by now.

Yeah. That snake skin though, huh, It's all about the sneak skin. Yeah, And I'd like how they go back to that that oh, that montage that you were talking about the evolutionary montage that turns into all the way up to Eden, and then you see the those golden beings that I like how he's representing Adam and Eve as these golden almost the angelic figures. And then when they touch the snake skin, you know, the spark happens. I'm like, ah, that's really nice.

And then that whole montage of because it's not just one montage, just like acts within it where it's all of the people killing each other and we see the bodies falling over and over again, just that staggered thing. Oh that's Those are the moments in this movie where I'm just like, this is why I would have bought a ticket, but I didn't. I'll have it like the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge or sort of wind basically making a DNA strand Saren Arenovski. I know I'm bagging on this movie just because it's it comes so close to genius, but like it's worth seeing, and all of these little details accumulate. They they make me want to watch this movie that I did not like.

Again, I wanted to mention something that's pretty gnarly that happens in this movie, and we haven't mentioned it. There's a moment where Logan Luhrman's ham goes into I guess a city and finds a girl that is crouch in this pit of dead bodies, and he's like, hey, storm has coming you Where we go one? We go all? And so he's like, hey, come with me back to the boat. She gets one of the worst death scenes I can think of it in quite a while.

She gets fuck So Noah sees his son, the girl's foot gets caught in a trapper an animal, and so instead of saving her, which would have, I guess probably caused both of them to die, Noah says, look, we're leaving her, let's go, and she gets fucking trampled to death, which is which I think is one of the worst ways to go because getting trampled by a bunch of antediluvian psychopaths with their fucking leather sandals on pretty fucking gnarly waiting go. It would suck at a cheap Trick concert as well, Yes, definitely, Yeah, or a Travis Scott concert for that matter. Yeah, it's I wasn't expecting some of the things that happened in this movie to happen in a Darren Aronofsky movie that death scene was one of them.

Was like, wow, okay, sure, because there's a I mean, and we do get a fight scene later in the movie that kind of just happens, and he literally just kind of happens, and then everybody just kind of forgets that it happens. Oh, we're good now, no worries, We're fine. You didn't try to get me killed or anything. Now, City and Fanta side. I mean, it's basically the Bible, you know, you go from one verse to another and just oh, how far have we passed?

Now? What's happening? Yeah? Well, I will say that. The other thing I really appreciate was a very very bearded, thin wit Rock at the beginning of the movie.

He's not in enough stuff that fin went Rock. I love that guy. Yeah, me too. I mean, he was in a bunch of American horror story stuff. But he's I don't know, got a great look to him.

He's from your neck of the woods, kid, he's from up in Massachusetts, is he really? Yeah? I was very nut. I was very apt to see Celebt born in here as well, and he I'm like, he's so familiar looking. What I know him?

From and I'm like Lord of the Rings. That's the only thing I really think I know him from. Martin zocis the New Zealand actor along with Russell Crowed, and I immediately thought, oh, did they shoot this in Australia because I'm just so and being in everything coming out of Australia and New Zealand. Yeah, well you got you got those two guys. Then you've got Methuselah being British and I'm trying to think of oh and then Emma Thompson of course being British and Shen is British as well.

Yeah. I think Jennifer Connelly might be the only American in this movie because he got i mean the King of Brits with Ray Winstone and just his thick act that which I love. Logan Luhrman, I think is the only other American in the movie. You might be Anadian? Yeah, we all know that God is American, so let's not pretend, sh right, how dare you?

Well? I mean we have Nick Nolty doing voices in this movie, so oh that's true. Well, yeah, I have spoken dock monster in any kind of movie. Yeah, like give me a cane. Children I'll smash them in the booth.

I really want to smoke a couple of cigarettes, and I'll do it. Do you think Nick looked into what rock monsters were like in real life to better prepare for the role, like he did for the zoo Keeper he or not the Zookeeper where he plays in a cement. Yeah, where he was like he learned how to play a bear. Oh yeah, some movie was like I I wanted to understand how bears verbalized, so I went researched bears to better verbalize like a bear. It's like, Nick Nolty, you are a gem sir.

Oh yes, yeah, but yeah, a rock the rock monster is a perfect vehicle for the voice of Nick Nolty. God. Anything else we want to talk about with Noah? A movie about the Arc? I like the shape of the arc.

Yeah, it's just a chest, that's all, and just some water tight to keep you safe exactly. Like, Yeah, that was nice that it was just a big old tube basically like it looked like a cracker box. All right, cool. I guess the one thing I'm surprised that nobody mentioned is what is what would that thing smell like? Boy?

Like a like a fucking zoo on wheels. Baby just got furnace in there. So it's like hot stale air, hot stale, stinky animal fight air. Oh I'd be living on that boat, that little the little getaway boat. Yeah.

Why wouldn't you sleep on the outside of the boat, Like, why wouldn't you sleep on top of the boat? Why would you sleep like this? That boat was going crazy. It was like the perfect storm type of thing going on air. Yeah, but at one point it wasn't storming anymore and they were still in the boat, is what I'm saying.

That's true. They were like, we don't want to go outside where it doesn't smell like giraffe asshole. So I mean, I mean you would have to feed them all. Well, it's because they were all asleep with magic powder. Yeah, those magic rocks were pretty great where it was just like all right, whatever you wanted it to do.

Basically, yeah, you stab a you stab an angel in the heart with it, you could shoot an angel on the heart with it. You make light. Yeah, I mean he went back to heavens, you know. Yeah, Well that's why all the rock monsters were like, well we'll just die then, Yeah, stoke, we get to go back to heaven. What do they care?

They're like, we care not for the worries of man later nerds. We're out of here. God. It was nice to see too that they did the credits in such an interesting way. Yes, I still object to the font and the color and everything, but just that it's not scrolling credits, and that it was just all laid out like basically like an old school type of thing, but with three times as as many names on the screen as they used to do.

But I thought that was a nice little epicy touch. Yeah. I mean again, I think it checks the boxes for the epic. I just don't think it checks the boxes for an epic made by Darren Aronofsky, at least for me, at least for what I was kind of the esoterica. There was esoterica, but not enough of it, not enough for me to be like, this is a Darren Aronovski thing through and through.

So yeah, yeah, we'll see. Maybe he'll do a movie about Mohammed. There was already one called oh what was it called The Message and with Anthony Quinn right, yes, and I want to say it's all shot po V because you can't show Mohammed yeah, No, it's it's like Mohammed's cousin. Oh yeah, it's yeah, you can't show them. Which he does not appear in the film in the role of Mohammed, we will have his understudy no One god uh, Father Malone.

Final thoughts on Darren Aronofsky's Noah. During the flood, the arc is floating away and there's this outcropping of land that's sort of a peak where people are clinging to and the waves keep smashing against that rock and just smashing these people to pieces, and that image is going to hunt me for some time. But overall I thought the movie was kind of a drag and the third act, but overall you should probably check it out. By you, Mike White? Yeah didoh?

Like I said, everything Father Malone is saying tonight is spot on, and I completely agree. So yeah, I same message. Yeah. I enjoyed it. I watched it last night at two in the morning and finished it at four.

I was hoping only watch an hour of it, and I was kind of taken by the insanity that I sat and watched the whole thing all the way through. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, especially a movie about something that clearly I am in a similar company with the three of us in terms of believing whether or not this shit actually happened and whether or not it's just a allegorical tale. However, I enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

I wish there was more of the Aronofsky flourishes, but there are more than there would have been if someone else had done it. They're just you know, it's like anything else. It's like you said, father, bloh, two thirds of the way, three quarters of the way to something really special, but kind of falls short, which is unfortunate, but falls short in a way that some movies never even get to that point anyways, in terms of quality, in the level of which they operate. So and look, Anthony Hopkins getting destroyed by waves after eating a strawberry visual you won't get to see in anything else. So I promise you that.

Yeah, No, I enjoyed it, and I'm kind of in the same boat as y'all. No pun intendance. So on that note, we'll take a break and play a preview for the next culture Cast from weirding Way Media, Cambridge, and With Shawn is a podcast about two guys obsessions, passions, and hobbies. Those two guys are Mark Bigley, host of Wake Up Heavy, Recollections of Horror, and Ronald Zuriggian, host of the Skelevator YouTube channel. Each month, we talk about the toys, comics, movies, books, TV shows, and other cultural phenomena captured our imaginations and helped shape who we are today.

From Masters of the Universe to Saturday Night Live Star Wars, to Harry Houdini the Muppets to The Elephant Man. Ronnie and Mark dive deep into the recesses of their minds to pull out treasured memories of things lost but never forgotten. Join us on the first Tuesday of each month over at Weirdinwaymedia dot com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Join me Jamie Benning on the Filmermentaries podcast, particularly if you enjoy stories like designer Nilo Rhodis Jamiro convincing George Lucas to push him around to help gain the support of his crew on the Ailing Howard the duck Plam, The door opens, It's George. Everybody gas.

George makes a bee line to me, I'm literally back against the Wall. Well here puppeteer Tim Rose's emotional story behind that iconic Amber lac Bas shot in Return of the Jedi. I believe it or something to be proud of, but not to celebrate. How star was Editor Paul Hirsch tackled cutting so many successful films. The thing that I learned from work with the Palm is that tension depends on a clock.

You need to have the sense that time is running out. Maybe Oscar winning sound designer Mark Manginie's insightful chat about his work on Blade Runner twenty forty nine. Not a single sound from the original Blade Runner in the new film, A great deal of inspiration. That's the film Youmentary's podcast with me Jamie Benning, Hello, Twisted Humans. Do you find yourself wanting to know more about the latest murder, conspiracy, cult or haunting than this is the podcast for you.

In nineteen fifty two, there was a record high of UFOs reported fifteen hundred sightings. There has been evidence of human sacrifice, double worship, and it is haunted by more spirits than can be counted. A family of two adults and two kids reportedly saw a giant flying thing with glowing red eyes. And meanwhile, the family's nanny that helped Ronica to care for her and Lucian's children was found bludgeoned to death in the basement of their family Hope, I'm Alicia and I'm Sierra and this is twisted and uncorked yanks. Oh sieka, I know father at that never yes the cause, let the hurries finer your litter.

I think it was the Rent Bailey see that motion. I will live alright, Yeah, I didn't let a lot of the metal or oh I'm shurt do it? He would? That's right. Of the next culture gust, we're gonna be talking about apocalyp Do, speaking of movies made by cool people.

Some of the coolest people I've heard made of Avocalypto. And I'll be joined by disc connecteds Ryan Verral and the Texas Tech Universities Professor of Media and Comm's doctor David Pearl mutters. So until then, where can people find you and the things that you work on? Bottom below? Go over to Weirdingway Media.

You can hear my show Midnight Viewing. That's our show. Actually, we're all on Midnight Viewing and Dark Destinations of Radio drama, write and produce and night mister Walters, I'm just a co host on that one. That's a taxi podcast that HP does. What about you, Mike White, same thing, different shows, but yeah, all over at Wordolymedia dot com where you can hear all the stuff that we talk about, like the life and times of Captain Barney Miller, the Chevy Detective, yet another Columbo podcast, and a show that I've been doing for a couple of years called The Projection Booth.

So stop on Bywordowaymedia dot com for all that and more. How about you, Chris, same weording Way Media ashere you can find everything but Rinking on Bond, which can be found at your and my respective Patreonspatreon dot com, slash Culture Cast or slash Projection Booth. And yeah, that's a show where we talk about James Bond once a month with our friend Richard Adam father him alone joined us recently to talk Live and Let Die. That episode will be out soon next month after something like that. So yeah, we're chugging along with James Bond just at the beginning of Roger Moore's ten years.

So if that's the thing you're into, you know where to find it, like, rate and review this show on iTunes. Regardless of where you get it, most people find it on iTunes, and it would help us out if you leave us a review there on iTunes. Yeah, Father them alone, Mike White, thank you both so much for joining me this month. We sat down and watched a movie that none of us had seen, which is a big one, and then you know one that I don't think any of us would have seen otherwise even so, you know, no check in some boxes here, and you know you could do worse than Russell Crowe just being angry for two hours, so you know, yeah, and as always, we'll catch on the next episode to sta