The Godzilla Show! | SVU

0:05 On a stormy night in 1954, on the rocky shores of Odo Island off the coast of Japan, a creature of unimaginable size emerged from the sea and let out a terrible, unforgettable roar. It's Ishiro Honda's Godzilla, which went on to spawn more than 30 films featuring the monster. I'm Matt Singer.

0:29 And I'm Jordan Hoffman. With more movies, more series, more stuff going straight to streaming than ever before, it felt like the right time for a podcast that keeps track of it all. And that podcast is FilmSpotting SVU. This week is our special Godzilla show. Now we have a guest, special guest Aaron Neuwirth of the Two Black Guys Talk Godzilla podcast. Tells us where to find the best Godzilla movies available to stream. Plus, we've got this week's new to VOD and streaming titles. Plus, a game, a new game, not as good as last week's Natalie Portman Toe to Toe, but maybe it will be, who knows?

1:10 We'll try, we'll try. I like that you took the bait for the Godzilla roar that was so clearly being set up there by the script. But then you sounded like a wounded mothra, really. I don't know what that was.

1:23 Sam's got the audio cue. He can slip in the actual roar 25 times this week.

1:29 You should slip it in and then play yours again back to back for maximum comedic effect.

1:35 There you go.

1:35 And it's all coming up. Where, Matt? On FilmSpotting.com.

1:49 Welcome to Film Spotting SVU. I'm Jordan Hoffman. Later in the show, we got a listener streaming request for a whimsical but still informative documentary. Interesting request. We're also going to have to address a very truly sad week in the world of film fandom, television fandom, science fiction fandom.

2:11 We lost both Walter Koenig and Patrick Stewart like days apart. It's an out of control week. And also a game hosted by you, Matt.

2:22 Yes, I have a game where we played Portman toe-to-toe too many times in a row. So I've got a new game planned. And our guest is going to be playing against you, Jordan, I think.

2:33 I like this.

2:33 So you're going to be defending your crown. Let's welcome in our guest. The first ever guest in the history of Film Spotting SVU. I don't think we... I'm trying to remember if we ever even had a guest on the original Film Spotting SVU. I don't think we did.

2:49 We are breaking.

2:50 So this is... This is an incredible honor. I mean, this is the honor of honors. L.A.-based critic Aaron Neuwirth is with us. I'll be out now with Aaron in a podcast, but more relevant to the show, co-host of the Two Black Guys Talk Godzilla podcast. Aaron, thank you so much for being the first and potentially, if this doesn't go well, last ever guest in the history of FilmSpotting SVU. How are you doing this morning?

3:20 I'm doing quite well. Like Godzilla, I hope to leave a mark, hopefully, in one of those good ways where things get destroyed, but everyone's still like, well, he got the other guy out of the way, so I guess he's cool.

3:31 What did you make of Jordan's Godzilla yell, his roar?

3:36 It needs to, like, so Godzilla, in onomatopoeia form, it's, of course, Skryonk. That's the way to do it. So you need a little more Skryonk in there, but I'm not good at it either. It's worse than my Chewbacca. So as much as I like Godzilla, I cannot replicate him.

3:53 Okay.

3:54 Honored to be here, honestly, as the first guest. First and potentially last.

4:00 Yes.

4:00 I'll keep myself on my– that's going.

4:01 To keep me on my toes throughout this conversation.

4:04 That's right. No pressure. But I just want the stakes to be, you know, like a good Godzilla movie. We've got to establish the stakes right off the bat. And we are talking about Godzilla this week because we have a new Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus Zero, coming to theaters tomorrow. But of course, we are the film spotting streaming video unit.

4:23 So we're not going to talk about that film. Instead, we've brought Aaron in to kind of help us to be our kind of guide and our expert about Godzilla on the world and in the world of streaming. So Aaron's going to recommend some titles, some Godzilla movies that are all available on streaming. And Jordan and I have done a little prep too. We watched some Godzilla movies as well that we'll throw out there. And I'd be interested to hear Aaron's thoughts about them. Uh, but I mean, maybe you can tell us first of all, Aaron, about your podcast, a little about it and why, why a whole podcast for you about Godzilla?

5:00 Well, two black guys talk. Godzilla is a show that we started back in March, 2025. So it's a, It's still somewhat in its infancy, but the idea is it's exactly what it sounds like. It's who black guys saw Godzilla. Myself and my friend and fellow film critic Terrence Johnson, basically Terrence saw Godzilla Minus One and was a huge fan of it. He's seen the original and he's seen some of the legendary ones, but he hasn't seen any other Godzilla films. Knowing that I'm a huge Godzilla fan, I'm a huge Godzilla fan, we call him Godzilla Curious.

5:33 He called me up. and asked if I wanted to possibly do a podcast about Godzilla. And I said yes, and we came back for it. And so basically every week, either I'll go over to his house or he'll come to my house, we'll watch a Godzilla film in chronological order, and we'll watch the movie, then we'll record a show afterwards.

5:50 So we release bi-weekly because we're very busy, so we have a lot banked, which is nice. The fun thing is that the Godzilla fandom, compared to other fandoms out there, certainly some in the comic book area, are... The Godzilla fandom, by comparison, is very friendly and welcoming. So, like, once we started the show and we put it out there, we were immediately, like, grasped by other, like, podcasts and, like, toy collectors and Godzilla fans in general. Like, you know, we put it on all the socials and everything. And people were like, check this new show out and everything. So, you know, we've amassed, you know, not the biggest following, but we've certainly amassed enough of a following to, like,

6:23 be comfortable with where we are right now, where we've done. We'll be at LA Comic Con. By the time the show comes out, we'll have been at LA Comic Con this past week with a panel.

6:31 Wow.

6:32 We've actually we've won a couple podcast awards, which I didn't even know was much of a thing until we got nominated for podcast awards. So it's it's been a real ride. It's been a lot of fun. We're almost through the initial run of Godzilla films. Like I said, there's over 30 of them. We've done about 27 of them so far. But we got some fun plans for how to keep this thing going beyond just watching all the movies in one initial go through.

6:56 So it's a good time.

6:58 Will you consider an occasional Gamera film? That is the real question.

7:02 So we do have a sneaky Gamera podcast. So we have seasons because Godzilla has eras. There's the Showa era and the Heisei era. So in between the seasons, we've been doing Gamera films.

7:13 Oh, amazing.

7:14 We did the first one. There's a trilogy from the 90s that's very well regarded, and then there's still one left that we play to do. So we did, in fact, cover some Gamera.

7:24 Well, Gamera, and Matt, I don't think I've ever told you this, because why would you? Gamera is the nickname.

7:30 For our car.

7:37 Because it is a Toyota, which is Japanese. But also it's a Camry and Camry kind of sounds like camera. So I don't know. We got our first car during the pandemic because we never had a car before because we lived in New York City and you didn't need a car up until the pandemic. We got the cheapest car we could find, which was then we later we weren't allowed to test drive it because of COVID restrictions.

8:04 And it was like against the wall in the used car dealership. And then we took it home at night. And then the next day we saw, oh, there's a big dent on the left side, which we didn't see because it was on the other side. We went back to the dealer like, hey, there's this big dent. He's like, oh, yeah, sorry about that. You know, there was but it was the only car we could afford. We were happy to get it. It was the only car in New York City.

8:25 And the guy's like, here, here, here. As a make good, you'll get free oil changes for life if you go to my guy and sent us a note. So anyway, camera is the name of our car. Camry camera.

8:41 Gamera, okay, Gamera, got it. Like, I mean, Gamera has famous dents, right? Gamera has dents and crevices and things.

8:50 He's also a friend to all children, so let's just say he took one for the team. Oh, Jordan hates children, actually.

8:55 No, no, I love all humanity and all children and all space.

8:58 He hates children's movies, I believe. No, no, I love children's movies.

9:02 I love Coyote vs.

9:03 Acme.

9:04 It's my favorite movie of the year.

9:05 That's a serious courtroom thriller.

9:06 What are we talking about here?

9:07 That's modern Grisham subset.

9:12 I think we should get into... I'm sure we'll have more questions as we go. But Aaron, do you have your first stream?

9:18 I have a little intro.

9:21 Everybody stand back. Stand back. Clear out.

9:25 In case there's somebody listening who's never heard of Godzilla, which I don't think is true. But last week you wrote the intro and I wrote it this week.

9:33 He is.

9:35 Both a metaphor for the absurd, inhumane aspects of modern destructive warfare, and he is also a cheapo schlock guy in a rubber suit knocking over miniature cardboard buildings. Sometimes he is the protector of people, and other times he is not. He is Gojira, a portmanteau of Gorira, Gorilla in Japanese, and Kujira, which means way in Japanese, but in English he is known as Godzilla. And Godzilla and his pals, which include King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, Gigan, and others, somehow became one of Japan's top cultural exports to the delight of many and the bafflement of others. Why these movies are accepted in the august halls of the Criterion Collection, but other B-pictures have not been, is something I cannot

10:27 explain except for other than tradition. Somehow, also King Kong is involved, but not Gamera, he's from a different studio. There are approximately 7,000 Godzilla movies, some of them of which are better than others, but all of which are best watched... on a Saturday afternoon at your grandmother's house when everyone else is busy and you are left alone in the living room. You never exactly see the beginning of the movie and you are pulled away before the end.

10:51 Most Godzilla movies involve a lady scientist or a lady journalist and at least one American whose acting is horrible. There is no sound more terrifying on Earth than Godzilla's roar, which was famously recorded by rubbing a rubber glove coated in resin across the strings of a bass. and then slowed down. These are the only facts I know about Godzilla, which is why I'm thrilled that Aaron Neuwirth is here today to school us all.

11:28 Can you fact check that for any, any notable errors in there?

11:31 That's, that's 97% accurate.

11:34 That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Sam, I'm just going to ask you to insert when he describes the God, the Godzilla roar, please again, insert Jordan doing it right there.

11:45 Jordan from the billboard. Thank you so much.

11:47 Thank you so much. Okay. Well, with all of that out of the way, Aaron, do you have your first recommendation for us? I mean, you are the expert. I mean, certainly, you know, Jordan described, I guess, watching Godzilla films at his grandmother's house or something. But, I mean, I'm definitely not an expert. I have seen a bunch of them throughout the years. I love the original one. But I'm definitely looking. There are a lot of them. And so guidance would be appreciated. And so that's why we brought you in. So kick us off here. What's your first recommendation?

12:18 streaming recommendation for godzilla so i'll.

12:22 Note uh this this week with us in the in the show notes i suppose i wrote an article for a first showing.net a few years back called stomping through godzilla history where to begin and what to watch so it's actually a full-on guide as far as like what if what kind of godzilla film you're looking for you have like i have multiple examples for each like area or whatnot but as far as for the purpose of this show you know i i whether or not you guys have the original in mind or the latest one in mind, I feel like those are fairly, for me, were fairly obvious. Like if you're watching, if you want to watch 1954's Godzilla, go for it. It's a classic. It's, you know, it has meaning to it. Obviously it's actually

12:55 about something for the most part where the other ones are less so. And obviously Godzilla minus one was a big hit. If you're listening to this podcast, you've probably seen the original and the latest Godzilla movies. So with that out of the way, I want to choose ones that are, I think very good entry points as far as if you just wanted to watch a good example of a Godzilla film in its kind of general sense, let alone some ones that are just kind of fun or wacky. So the first one we went with is 1966's Invasion of Astro Monster.

13:24 Yes!

13:26 Yes! This is the one I told Matt Singer to watch.

13:29 There you go.

13:30 Now, I have seen 3% of all the Godzilla movies. Nevertheless, I'm going to say this is the best Godzilla movie.

13:37 Wow. I place it.

13:39 Very high in my rankings of Godzilla films. Outside of the more serious ones, quote-unquote, this one sits very... Especially doing this podcast, it's ascended even higher for me. Because it's such a fun movie. It's directed by Yoshiro Honda, who directed the original Godzilla film. He directs a good portion of the Showa-era Godzilla films. And this one is pure fun. The basic plot of this movie is insane.

14:05 There are aliens called the Zillions with an X that arrive on Earth, and they make a proposal. Hey, we have this Monster Zero that's terrorizing our planet. Can we borrow your monsters, Godzilla and Rodan, and in exchange for that, we will give you the cure for cancer. Okay.

14:24 Sounds like a good deal. I'll be honest.

14:26 You're taking the monsters away from us for a while, even though they've kind of settled down and aren't attacking us all the time? Fine. And we get cancer cured and returned?

14:35 Great.

14:35 They do this. We're holding off on the cure, I guess, until later on. It's not an even exchange. It's like, we'll take the monsters first, then we'll see what happens later. They take the monsters to the planet X, where they come from. And upon arrival, Monster Zero is in fact King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah being the three-headed flying electric dragon.

14:54 That's one of my favorite kaiju characters in general. And there's a whole fight and all this business. But, uh-oh, the aliens are actually lying, and they didn't want to, in fact, give us the cure for cancer. They just wanted to remove Godzilla and Rodan. Therefore, they could take over the planet without any fuss, because now there's no monsters there. How do you solve a situation like that? Well, you have Nick, actor Nick Adams, and his Japanese counterpart, Akira Takarada, who are spacemen that just got back from missions.

15:26 And so they get involved in this whole situation. They are on the planet as well at the same time as Godzilla. And maybe they're able to help out in this whole thing. It's a lot of fun. The thing with Godzilla movies, especially the earlier ones, is Godzilla's not featured very much. You only get so much screen time with Godzilla. So if you're there for the fight specifically, they'll be there. They're going to climax with that. That's where you go. But you have to sit through a lot of other stuff to kind of get through the movies.

15:52 sometimes it's not as worthwhile as others. This one, what makes it work is the fact that the human plot is very fun. The Nick Adams, Akira Takarada stuff is very, like, they have fun, like, a fun chemistry together as these two, like, bachelor astronauts that, like, one of them falls to the level of one of the zillions, like, they.

16:13 Romance.

16:15 They have this sort of, like, the mystery of it all about whether or not these aliens are on the up and up or what, like, there's just a lot involving them that makes it an enjoyable, like, more than average enjoyable human story to go along with the ridiculous plot involving Godzilla and Rodan or whatnot. Plus, you do get Godzilla and Rodan and King Ghidorah all fighting multiple times throughout the movie. It just, it's, you know, if you're looking for, like, what an average, not an average, it's above average, but if you're looking for, like, what a Godzilla film can offer at its best when it comes to these sort of, monster mashups as opposed to like more, there's more serious ones. This is a, it's

16:49 a great example. It's very fun.

16:50 And the look of it, what, what, it was a 66 that it came out.

16:54 Yes.

16:54 It's so like modern and slick and like, you know, poppy. I mean, just like the scenes on earth when they're like at, at like the bar, you know, it just like has that mid-century modern look. The, they are all wearing cool sunglasses. They all look very hip, man. It's like the aliens and everything.

17:12 The clothes are great.

17:13 It just looks phenomenal.

17:14 Yeah.

17:15 And then, of course, there's.

17:17 Godzilla joins the who in that one scene, which is really nice.

17:21 He really looks like he should join the who. But then there's the big fight at the end, Aaron. I don't know if we want to. I mean, it's an old movie. We can give a little bit of a spoiler. It's when good fortune falls on Godzilla and he's happy. So he does a little dance. Yeah.

17:40 It's called the She Dance, S-H-I, and it's a famous dance from that time that was taken for the film to the chagrin of director Shiro Honda. He was not a fan of them doing this dance.

17:52 So this is like an actual dance move that was popular in Japan at the time, you're saying? That Godzilla then does in, oh, wow.

17:59 Well, you've seen the clip. It'd be like watching the Cloverfield Monster do the Macarena one.

18:07 Okay, all right. Now I'm officially intrigued.

18:11 Let me just tell– I'm so glad you brought this movie up because it's my favorite Godzilla movie. Not that I've seen too many. I'm like mad. I'm a novice. But X amount of years ago, my wife and I took our nephew, who was maybe 14, to the Museum of the Moving Image where we'd taken him before to go explore the stuff, to go look at the Bride of Frankenstein's hair and play around with the animation booth and whatnot. But they had a double feature of the original Godzilla. Which I think everybody liked, but it's a little dry. I mean, it's not action packed and it has serious themes. So it went over well. I think everybody gives it a B plus that was there, you know, between me, my wife and my nephew at the time.

18:54 And then there's a break and then you come back and you see Invasion of Astro Men. And this went over just gangbusters with the theater because it's very funny and It's kind of kitschy, but you're not laughing at it. You're really laughing with it. And when Godzilla did the dance at the end, which I knew was coming, but my nephew certainly didn't know, I've never... The audience, which was packed, just went bananas, just went apeshit. And my nephew to this day says, I've never been in a theater that was that chaotic. That was like the Muppet Theater.

19:30 Then.

19:31 than seeing this movie and it was uh he says the best movie going experience of my life which makes me proud all right um i don't know if it's changed since then you know now he's a he's a grown-up now but back in the day he said it was his favorite so uh it is uh really fun and looks gorgeous i mean i can't i can't praise the the design of it enough in addition to godzilla doing a wacky dance when something goes his way.

19:58 Okay so that's our first pick did you did we say where it is available right.

20:02 Now Yeah, you can find it on Criterion, HBO Max, Tubi, YouTube. It's pretty much all over the place. I've heard rumors that this is, like, as you mentioned, Jordan, in your 97% accurate intro, the Godzilla films, the Showa era specifically, which is like 14 films, that's all in the Criterion collection, like physical copies. I've heard that Invasion of the Master Monster is up for a 4K re-release. I've heard rumors of this, and I'd love to see it. That's for sure.

20:38 So jordan and i are going to get to our picks in a sec but we've mentioned aaron actually you've mentioned because you are the expert a few times the eras of godzilla which i am vaguely familiar with but again for someone who's not as familiar can we very briefly just kind of explain the eras of godzilla.

20:54 Sure so there are currently four eras which are all There's a more complicated way of explaining it, but they're essentially named after emperors of Japan during their span. So there's the Showa era, which is the initial film to 1954 that goes all the way to 1975. Then at that point, Toho took a break from making Godzilla films.

21:14 Then they returned in 1984 with the Heisei era. So the Showa era is 14 films, and they're all you know, you can say loosely connected in the same way like the 60s, 70s Bond films are loosely connected. Right. The Heisei era is a little different. They are all directly connected to each other. So each one is a direct sequel to the last one, which is a pretty cool way to do it. But that runs from 84 up to 95. At that point, USA got the rights and they made that Emmerich movie that we all.

21:40 That's the greatest Godzilla film of all that everyone agrees upon.

21:44 We all acknowledge they certainly stood in front of a camera and filmed the movie. And Toho was like, Never mind. And so they took those rights back and that became the Millennium Era, which goes from 99 to 2004. That era is all anthology films. So every entry in that film is a basically it's a sequel to the 54 film and then it does its own thing. And they rinse and repeat with one exception because there's a Mechagodzilla film that was very popular. And so they made a direct sequel to that film within that era. So that's the Millennium Era. Now we took another break. During around that time, America, the legendary got the rights again. I'll talk about that a little more later. So we have the Monsterverse films, the American films, which is the recent

22:27 American Godzilla films, which are much better received than the Emmerich film. But in Japan, we're currently in the Reva era, which started with Shin Godzilla and is currently going through with the Minus films that we're running. So we have four eras and they're all... distinct in their own way.

22:45 Got it. Got it.

22:46 Okay.

22:47 Perfect. That actually does explain it. And I think will be very helpful to idiots like me who are only passingly familiar. Maybe the best way to do this is Aaron is just for you to kind of give us all of your recommendations. And then if you haven't covered the ones that we have, then we'll chime in with those as well. But can you give us your, your second recommendation?

23:09 Sure. So this is where we want to get a little wacky to set things apart from other Godzilla films. This is still in the Showa era.

23:15 Godzilla dancing is not wacky. This is what we're going. Now we're getting wacky.

23:21 Oh, we're going to get wacky. This is 1971's Godzilla vs. Hedorah, a.k.a. the Smog Monster. That's the American title, the Smog Monster. But Godzilla vs. Hedorah. This is directed by Yoshimitsu Bano. Put a pin in that. I'm going to come back to him in a second. This is where Godzilla fights... basically, an alien inhabits toxic waste and becomes its own giant kaiju, a.k.a.

23:44 a smog monster of sorts. This movie is nuts. As I mentioned, it's directed by a different director, Yoshimitsu Bano, who, again, I'll get back because this is a fun story with him, but it's, if you want to talk, like, we just talked about Invasion of the Master of Monsters and how poppy and fun and colorful it is. This is very much a 70s movie as far as the atmosphere, the clothing, the music is very different than the Standard music, like most of the scores of the show air are Akira Ifukube, who did the classic Godzilla themes and everything, and you kind of hear those throughout the Godzilla franchise.

24:15 This is a.

24:16 Score by, yeah, exactly. This is a score by Richiro Manabe, who I think is more like a TV composer, but it's more like Bond-style music and very psychedelic 70s-type music. It reflects on the coloring and everything. the whole look of this film is very different from other Godzilla films where a lot of it's set at night, uh, for one thing. So they have like different kinds of battles.

24:41 The smog monsters, this disgusting creature that can like shape shift into different things. Uh, and it's constantly like, it's very, it's very, very much what a, what a, what a pile of trash fighting Godzilla look like. It's very slimy and sloppy and all kinds of things. It's, it has a different sort of tone. Like it, For Godzilla films outside the first one, there's not a lot of Godzilla films that are, like, about something. Like, the first one's obviously, you know, a metaphor for the nuclear age and what have you, where most of the Godzilla films after that are basically glorified wrestling matches that happen to involve giant monsters.

25:13 Right.

25:13 This one, it actually is trying to address, like, the garbage problem in Japan at that time, and around the world, environmentalism in general and what have you. It actually has that on its mind. I'm not going to say it's as nuanced as the 54 film, but it does, like, take that into consideration as to why is there this giant toxic sludge monster that Godzilla needs to fight?

25:34 Nothing man can do can stop the smog monster. Can Godzilla save the Earth from this mastodon of destruction?

25:47 But what I want to get to is Yoshimitsu Bano, the director of this. So he made this movie, and the producers, Tanaka, Tomoyuki Tanaka, he hated it. He hated it, the producers hated it, the movie itself wasn't a huge grocer by comparison to other Godzilla films, and Bano was fired. You're like, you're out. That's enough. He's been like a Toho guy for a while, and now he finally got to make his movie, and he got fired. That didn't stop him, however. As Toho kept going or whatnot, Bano was still around, he still admired Godzilla. He eventually, like later on, in like near the 2000s, he pitched an idea for Godzilla 3D to the max, which would have been like this 40-minute Godzilla short that would play in

26:25 IMAX theaters and be in 3D And it sounded amazing. It was going to be like a sequel to the Hedorah film he made. It would be like a short that would play in select IMAX theaters. Didn't eventually happen, but it was still something he tried to get going. But the other thing, Bado, he was able to eventually reach out to Legendary. And he was keen to negotiate the rights to get Legendary and Toho to come together and make the American Godzilla films. Without Yoshimitsu Bado, we would not have the current American Godzilla films that we do.

26:55 He is an executive producer on all of them, up to King of the Monster. He's still an executive producer, but he passed away in 2019. King of the Monster is the 2019 film with Kyle Chandler. That's the last film that he was alive for before he passed away, but he's still a credited producer on each of the Monsterverse films currently. He seemed like a really interesting guy. Um, so it's, uh, it's, it's fun to point him out.

27:17 Cause he made like one of the weirdest Godzilla films and also was responsible for the current continued wave of Godzilla films that we have.

27:23 Which have all done really well. I mean, those are pretty successful.

27:26 Yeah. It's a successful franchise for sure. Um, certainly more so than the Emmerich movie.

27:31 Sure. I was just looking up this, uh, this one that you recommended and, um, just the conflicting, uh, Harry Medved listed it on the 50 worst films of all time. Oh, But Roger Ebert, Matt Singer's personal friend, Roger Ebert, he called it his favorite Godzilla movie ever.

27:52 A man of discerning taste.

27:54 He's not a Godzilla fan. He doesn't even like the original Godzilla. Wow.

27:59 I tend to go with him. So I have not seen this one. Me neither. This is shot up to the top of my list. Is this on the Criterion channel as well?

28:06 This is also on Criterion and HBO, yes.

28:09 Great.

28:09 Great.

28:10 Excellent.

28:10 Very cool.

28:10 All right, so that is our second recommendation. What was the title of that one one more time? It was Godzilla vs.

28:15 Godzilla vs. Hedorah.

28:17 Hedorah. And which dance does he do in that one? Is that the hustle he does at the end of that one?

28:24 So it has not quite a James Bond opening credit scene, but kind of, where there's a lot of dancing girls going around while the credits are playing.

28:31 Oh, I thought you meant like Godzilla stomping with the bullet hole. That would be amazing.

28:36 It's Godzilla slinkily dancing in front of guns and stuff while Cher plays.

28:40 I don't know. I'm intrigued.

28:41 I'm intrigued.

28:43 Okay.

28:44 So that's our second pick. Do we have one more streaming Godzilla recommendation?

28:49 Yes.

28:50 This is one of my favorites that, that for a long time, you could not find this movie anywhere because so the show of films have always been like generally available in some form because they are in criteria made it a lot easier. But the nineties run the Hayse era. Those films got swallowed up once Sony got a hold of like some of the Godzilla films and but the Weinstein Company or Miramax got a hold of the other ones.

29:15 And for some reason, I can't quite remember, that got a little complicated in recent years as far as the rights for films from the Weinstein Company and Miramax. So while a majority of these films were available, one in particular just was really hard to find, and that's called Godzilla vs. Biollante. This is from 1989. It's directed by Kazuki Amori. This film has now been saying that it was the hardest to find for a while. Now it's one of the easiest because it was released on Criterion in its own release in a brand new, wonderful looking 4K.

29:47 As a person that's seen this film a number of times and watched the 4K transfer, it's like night and day watching this gorgeous new restored release. It was like one watching Night of the Living Dead on Criterion for the first time where it's like, You see Night of the Living Dead, then you're like, Criterion just made this cheap black and white picture look spectacular. Biollante, very similar.

30:06 It's an old Japanese print that never got much due as far as home releases go, but now you can see it very easily and it looks spectacular. What's great about this movie, and why I like it as much as I do, is it's another wacky plot, but it has a sort of a heart to it that's very interesting to think about. This is where Godzilla is... He's facing off against a giant plant monster. But not just any giant plant monster. It's one that is composed... It's a mutation of a rose, Godzilla's DNA, and human DNA that's all combined and become this like... And it has evolutionary phases. So it starts out looking like a rose creature that's kind of neat. And then it becomes this massive like... What if... Little Shop of Horrors had a

30:52 Godzilla stout and has to face off against you.

30:55 I've got to find a picture of this while you're looking.

30:59 When you find it, there's some gnarly pictures of Biollante out there.

31:02 Oh my. Oh yeah, I definitely see the Little Shop influence there.

31:08 Wow, okay.

31:09 And that's not by accident. The director was a fan of Little Shop before. It's like they did think about that in the process. Actually, in addition to that, there was a, like a children's contest to put together the idea for the next Godzilla film. That was partially used for the inspiration of the story, which always yields great results.

31:27 Absolutely.

31:28 It's a lot of fun, but it's one of the, by all odds, the.

31:33 Creature it's fighting.

31:45 It's one of the rare Godzilla villains where it's not necessarily a villain. Like, it's not there to destroy cities. It's more of just, it's this thing that was born in a lab and doesn't know what to do with itself. And so it's not like trying to invade anything or purposely destroy cities. It's just like, I exist. What do I do? And then Godzilla's like, We got to fight because you're causing problems. I don't know what to tell you. Like, that's the whole deal. So it has a lot of that kind of, I don't know, pathos that you rarely see with that kind of, you know, in the same way that like, I guess like Frankenstein or King Kong would have, where it's like, it's just this thing that exists that doesn't know why it exists.

32:22 A tragic monster, a tragic creature.

32:26 Much like all of us. That said, it's a pretty, Godzilla, you know, they're all up until minus zero, which is rated R. All of these ones are PG generally, but this is a pretty bloody Godzilla fight as far as the damage that Godzilla and Biollante take.

32:43 It's funny you mention that because I've never seen this one, but I just, like two or three days ago, I think Toho did take some flack because this one was kind of bloody and not for kids. So they made the next one a little extra goofy. Yes. Which was Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah from, I think, 1992. 91. 91, yeah, which I just watched, and I actually quite liked it.

33:11 It's a very fun one. I like that one a lot.

33:13 It has a different King Ghidorah origin story than Invasion of Astro Monster. It involves time travel and mutations and these little wacky kind of Fraggle Rock-esque puppets, and there's like several rounds of time travel where which I don't understand. They have to go back in time to take other people back in time. Why didn't they just go back in time? The first place? I don't know.

33:37 This is a whole, we, I think we spent like a 20 minutes on that in the podcast.

33:41 So I should tune into your podcast. I mean, the answer is they go back to 1991. Cause that's when they were in life making this movie. So that's how they had to go. But that movie, of course, has some of the worst American acting I've ever seen in my life. And there's a scene, Aaron, I'll set it up. You know what I'm going to say. There's the guy on the ship who witnesses something.

34:03 Yes, yep.

34:04 Do you want to tell Matt what he sees? I think it's okay to spoil this.

34:07 Yeah, there's a scene where there's two guys on a ship and someone sees something go by. It looks like a spaceship. And so he says something along the lines, is that a spaceship or something? And the guy's response is, something along the lines of like, I don't know, Major Spielberg? So it's the idea that Spielberg's dad, who was in World War II, I guess, witnessed something when he would go out to inspire his son to make E.T. based off of this.

34:34 It's a very funny moment. I think the line is like, that's something you'll tell your kids about, Sergeant Spielberg. Oh, God. Enemy plane, sir? Impossible.

34:47 No plane can fly that fast.

34:50 That looked to me like it was from another planet.

34:55 I have to agree, sir.

34:56 It did look like it.

34:57 Was from another planet, but.

35:00 Shall we report it, sir? What, that we're being invaded by little green men from outer space? Let's just keep it as our secret. You can tell your son about it when he's born, Major Spielberg. Sir, yes, sir!

35:16 I will, sir. It's so corny. And the acting is so bad. But it did make me cheer. So, yeah, that's another good one.

35:25 Is that your pick, Jordan?

35:26 No, no, that is not.

35:27 You just went on a Godzilla binge.

35:30 Okay. I went on a little binge. Okay.

35:32 So, Aaron, let's wrap up your then. This was your third pick. What's the title of this one one more time?

35:36 This is Godzilla vs. Biollante. And it's available on HBO as well as Apple and other VOD related places.

35:45 But not Criterion.

35:47 This one's not on Criterion.

35:48 Because it's not part of that package. It's not part of the Shoa Pack, yes.

35:51 Got it.

35:52 Biollante looks like he smells real bad. I'm just looking at him, and I'm going, I can smell that guy through the computer screen. All right.

35:58 Well, I have a quick question. So the movie that's coming out in theaters moments after this podcast debuts is Godzilla minus zero? Yes, zero. Okay, minus zero. Which is a sequel to Godzilla minus one.

36:15 Correct.

36:15 The numbers are going backwards. Aaron, explain this to me.

36:21 They're going forwards, technically. We once started at minus one, now we're at zero.

36:24 But it's minus, oh, so it's Godzilla negative one.

36:27 Exactly.

36:29 Oh.

36:31 His name isn't Godzilla Minus.

36:34 I don't know what it was. That's why I'm asking. The movie's called Godzilla Minus One, but you could also interpret it as.

36:39 The idea of Godzilla Minus One was it was, you know, it wasn't necessarily... Was it a prequel, I guess? Is it technically?

36:48 It's more of like an alternate version of Godzilla's origin. That's the way I look at it. It's set in post... It's set like 47, I believe. Obviously, 54 is when the original takes place. It's not about leading up to the 54 version, it's just more, here's a different take on the origin of Godzilla.

37:05 But the title kind of reflects, we're going back to the beginning or to the earliest days of the franchise in terms of setting.

37:11 It's that, and it's like, we're coming out of World War I at a deficit. Like, we're out, like, Japan's just suffered, you know, two A-bombings, they've lost the war, they're in a period, they're not even at, like, You know, status quo. They're behind.

37:24 They're minus one.

37:25 I see. And so Zero, which is, yes, a direct sequel, is more of, okay, now we're back at, like, you know, the start. I do agree.

37:33 That Godzilla minus Zero is a somewhat strange title, but I don't know what else you would call it. You wouldn't call it Godzilla minus two. I mean, then you are going backwards.

37:41 No, you'd call it Godzilla Zero, I think.

37:43 I'm more curious what the next one will be called. It's going to be plus one.

37:46 Godzilla plus one.

37:47 Now, have you seen the new one?

37:49 It's going to be Godzilla, but the L's will be like Roman numerals. Godzilla. I don't know how you pronounce it, but it's Godzilla and with two I's instead of LL.

37:59 Oh, yeah, yeah. Have you seen the new one, Aaron?

38:02 I have seen the new one three times already. Yeah, okay. So I had a work trip to go to New York. already lined up and the New York Film Festival was like, hey, what if we premiered the new Godzilla film? And I'm like, I guess I'm extending that work trip so I'm going to stay longer. Oh, nice. So I got a press pass.

38:17 I got to go to the world premiere of the, so they had a press screening and then they had the premiere so I'm like, well, I'm doing both of those. So I saw it twice there and then just literally two days ago they had the Hollywood premiere. So I saw it again back here on the West Coast.

38:31 What was the snooty pants New York Film Festival reaction in the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center? Did they respect Godzilla?

38:41 How dare they smirch Alice Tully Hall with these monsters?

38:46 So like I said, I saw it on a press screening and I saw certain, like Robert Daniels was there, Odie Henderson, you know, a lot of press screenings I don't normally get to interact with. And they had a really good time with it. It was a good audience for it. But yeah, the Alice Tully, so that was the press room, the Alice Tully experience at the Snooty New York Film Festival, they loved it. They were in there, like it was a good audience. And that, you know, that has a Dolby Atmos sound system in there. It sounds incredible.

39:09 So if you've seen it three times, it can't be that bad. I know you are a true Godzilla hardcore fan, but it sounds like you enjoy it. You recommend it.

39:17 It delivers the goods. If you liked Minus One, this one certainly is.

39:21 Minus One was awesome. I love Minus One.

39:23 The fact that it's like in this, even if I, you know, whether or not I like it more or less, even the fact that it's in the same like territory. that's great to begin with. You can even get to that, like that level. That's already like a great spot to be in. Excellent.

39:36 All right, Jordan, let's quickly, let's, you want to give our picks real quick? Yeah. Why don't you go first?

39:41 I have a suggestion and I really want to get Aaron's take on it. Cause it, to me now, again, there's a lot I hadn't seen. But there's one relatively new one that is just so strange and seems to be on an island, not Odo Island, but on an island, which is Shin Godzilla. Now, Shin Godzilla, as far as I know, Shin means, like, new, basically?

40:02 Yeah.

40:02 Yeah, new Godzilla.

40:04 Resurgence was the American title, I believe.

40:06 Yeah, yeah.

40:07 And it's very... It's so weird. This is, like, a weird procedural film. It's like a formalist... nightmare. It's so fast paced. There are 7 million characters in this movie and they keep introducing new characters. They all get like a lower third. Like, you know, he is the director of so-and-so in blah, blah, blah, prefecture. And then you never see that guy again. And it's just Lots of meetings.

40:36 It's like Aaron Sorkin times a million. It's just like all these meetings of like Godzilla's coming and just like people running around in hallways and taking phone calls. It's very, very serious. And it's just so strange the way it's edited. And then when the monsters do come, at first it's not Godzilla. It's some other monster. which I initially said, oh, this is meant to be representative of the tsunami that attacked that, I think it's the Fukushima plant, is the name of the plant?

41:04 Yes, correct.

41:05 The way that monster attacks it, I'm like, oh, that's commentary on that. And then Google, when I Googled it, it confirmed my suspicion. And then later when you do see Godzilla, it becomes... Like abstract expressionist art. The way the Godzilla roars and the way.

41:22 How did that roar sound again, Jordan?

41:24 Well, this one, something like that. And then the way it opens its mouth and the light beam comes out, it's beautiful. It's unlike any other Godzilla movie I've seen. It's unlike any other movie I've seen. I've never seen a movie quite like Shin Godzilla. Now, it also can be a little long and boring because it's a lot of people talking and running into meetings and running out of meetings and you're going, when the hell are they going to get to the fireworks factory? But when they get there, it really works. So in my memory, Shin Godzilla is like three hours long. It's probably not. It's a little over two.

41:59 It's on the longer side for Godzilla.

42:01 Okay, so it is long. And I remember sitting there going like, what is going on? I was lucky enough to see this in the theater. And I'm in awe of this film. I don't know that I want to see it again anytime soon because it is long and boring. But I'm in awe of certain parts of it. So I'm curious, Aaron, what your take on Shin Godzilla is.

42:21 This is a top three Godzilla film for me. I love Shin Godzilla. It's directed by Hideki Anno, who's partly responsible for some of the Attack on Titan anime series adaptations. You mentioned Sorkin. This is Godzilla meets Iannucci. That's the thing here. Yeah. Okay, good call.

42:42 The guy from Veep and whatnot.

42:44 Yeah, Veep.

42:44 It's like, what if Selina Meyer had a deal with Godzilla? Or Peter Capaldi, who had a lot more swearing in that version. But the movie here, what you're describing as long and boring, if you're in on the joke, it's a very funny movie. It's a satire. Like, yes, obviously it's commenting on the 311 earthquake. That's what they refer to it. Yeah, the nuclear disaster that happened there. But the idea that you have constant boardroom meetings and constant, like, references to people who either have a title that's established or a few people have a title that just keeps getting longer and longer to the point where it's, like, taking up, like, three lines of text, it's very deliberately supposed to be funny. Where, like, you're seeing just bureaucracy

43:27 play out in how to solve a problem involving a giant, you know, an unstoppable problem. It's like, how do we deal with that? Let's get guys in suits in constant boardroom meetings and talk about it. There's a joke there that's very fun to watch. Now, yes, I can agree that when you're watching a Godzilla movie, even as one that recognizes that Godzilla's not going to be in the whole movie, you get a little antsy after a while being like, let's get to some Godzilla. So it's like, I get it. But yeah, there's a lot of fun to be had with just the general setup of boardroom.

43:59 And there'll be bigger and bigger boardroom. It'll be like a little room. It'll be like a big room. It'll be like a full size. It's doing that very deliberately and it's fun. But then once you do get to the Godzilla stuff, it's both incredible and kind of terrifying.

44:13 It's the most amazing sequences. Those violent sequences are shocking. And this is a very gutsy movie. It's like weird and strange. And there's never been a sequel to it. And I was reading that the guy who made it is like he doesn't want to make a sequel to it. It's a one and done. And it's very, very unique.

44:31 It's a very interesting film to watch. And you mentioned the sort of. their initial presence of Godzilla is different than where it, because it's one that evolves, and because it, so it's evolving throughout the thing in terms of different, like, forms of Godzilla, the end shot of this movie is one of the, like, most chilling endings I've seen for, let alone for a Godzilla movie, for, like, any ending movie as far as what the next step of Godzilla would have been. It's been a while since you've seen it, you might not remember it, but there's just this really creepy shot of, like, I don't want to reveal it, but there's a really creepy shot of what the implication is for the next step of what Godzilla would have

45:07 turned into if it kept going. Godzilla flosses in that one. Exactly.

45:22 Matt, have you seen Shin Godzilla?

45:24 You know, I didn't. And this is reminding me that I don't think I did. And I'm like, how did I miss Shin Godzilla? I don't know how, but I think I did. I'm going to have to watch it. It sounds great.

45:35 The Legendary one came out in 2014. This one came out a year after, and it was in, like, a fathom release at the time, right? So it was, like, only in a few theaters in America. It got a re-release last year because they did, like, a 4K restoration on it, so it was in theaters briefly again. And I think it, like, doubled the money it made in that fathom release from last year.

45:52 Yeah, that's when I saw it. I saw it last year.

45:54 Okay. So it certainly gained an audience, at least in America, over time. But it was a huge, it was a big, like, Both of this and Minus One were both big Japanese Oscar winners. They won a ton of awards, as much as you want to count the Japanese Oscars. I'm sure there's plenty of great films, but they're very much receptive to quality Godzilla films among the award space over there.

46:16 So that film is streaming on HBO Max. Can I get to my Godzilla recommendation here? So what I realized prepping for the episode as I was thinking about the ones that I've seen and the ones that are my favorites is that I think I did realize that my personal taste for Godzilla, while I can appreciate some of the sillier ones, I definitely like a scarier or a more serious Godzilla. I love the original Godzilla, like when that first came out on Criterion, I remember just I watched that one multiple times and all the extras. I just thought that was an incredible criterion disc. And I was a big fan of Godzilla minus one. And, and I think that's what I, you know, like for me, that's the God, that's the Godzilla that I like best,

47:02 like the fire breathing allegory of something, whatever it might be, I think is, is what I like. So I decided to pick something to watch that I hadn't seen before, but that based on doing some, a little research was like, this is one of the more serious, uh, Godzilla's. So the one that I watched that is available on Criterion and on HBO Max is 1984's The Return of Godzilla, which, correct me if I am wrong, Aaron, you are the expert, but kind of was designed as like a back-to-basics reboot, essentially.

47:33 You know, kind of almost like a legacy sequel. It's like we're going to take the, basically we're going to remember the original film and we're going to ignore the rest. You know, it's like the David Gordon Green Halloween. It's a sequel, but it's like only a sequel to the Dark, scary, original one. And it ignores all the other ones. Is that correct? Do I have this right?

47:53 Yeah, you're right. Or like any number of Terminator sequels. It's like, eh, that one didn't count.

47:58 That one didn't count. This is the real sequel. Exactly right. So in the film, Godzilla, spoiler alert, does return. And he's like hunting for nuclear energy because I guess that's what Godzilla eats.

48:11 And.

48:11 He goes to Japan looking for it and we get to watch him like romping around. And what happens is like on his way to Japan, he like obliterates a Soviet nuclear submarine, which kind of sparks all this tension. between the U.S. and the USSR. The Soviets blame the U.S. for the attack. And so even after Japan kind of steps in and clears the air and says, no, no, it's okay. That was actually Godzilla, which is an amazing, like, I love the idea that you could call a press conference and be like, relax, guys. It was Godzilla. And everyone's like, oh, okay, fair enough, fair enough. You know, like the undercurrent in this movie is like the 80s, you know, like the rise of like 80s Cold War paranoia, nuclear fears. You know, it's like. It felt very of

49:02 a piece watching it with like Watchmen and the day after. It's like 80s nuclear paranoia. And, you know, it's funny listening to Jordan talk about in like all the boardroom scenes in Shin Godzilla. One of my favorite scenes in this movie was actually like... they, it almost looks like they're sitting in like the war room from Dr. Strangelove a little bit. And it's like the prime minister of Japan.

49:27 And there's, you know, like the USSR's, I guess, emissaries or whatever ambassador or whatever. And there's the U S ambassador and, Jordan would like it because the actor who's playing the U.S. ambassador is absolutely horrible, just not a very good actor at all. And they're debating what to do, and both sides want to use nuclear weapons, and the Japanese prime minister gets to kind of be the voice of reason. And of course, again, it's echoing. and calling back to Japan's history with, you know, with nuclear terror.

50:04 And I think I just, it all really worked for me really well. And so I actually enjoyed the guys in suits sitting around scenes in this movie quite a bit. And there's some amazing practical effects in the film, the destruction of the various, you know, the scenes in Japan where Godzilla is rampaging. I thought, I just, it was making me think like, and maybe Aaron can answer this question.

50:28 Like who, like, are there films or documentaries or, things I could watch about the people who build the fake cities that they destroy, because what a fascinating job that must be to build.

50:41 Like- Whoa, whoa, whoa, fake cities?

50:43 The skyscrapers, oh yes, yeah. Yeah, the documentary footage of Godzilla rampaging. But I'm just like astounded by the artistry that goes into creating these model cities that then a guy in a giant rubber costume kind of stomps through.

51:00 I don't know.

51:00 Are there are there like books or films about like, you know, documentaries, featurettes about the artistry that goes into that?

51:09 I'd love to see it. There's not a lot of it's like the the recent really minus zero. Sorry, minus one has like a pretty good handle on showing a lot of behind the scenes footage. Shin Godzilla has like an hour feature on there that goes over that movie. And, like, those movies have more CGI. Right, more digital. There's more digital stuff going on there. The earlier ones, sadly, just, like, there's some features, but not a lot of, like, not as much as I'd love to see. Like, I'm sure, like, someday there will be some kind of comprehensive documentary that are really good, outside of the original Godzilla, which does have enough stuff. But I'd love to see some kind of comprehensive look that, like, goes over, you know, a

51:52 good swath of the films. Like, the same way that, like, what is it? Crystal like memories for Friday the 13th is like a good, like that just goes over like the whole franchise in its own way.

52:00 That's what I want. That's what I need.

52:02 It'd be great. It'd be great to see something like that as well.

52:04 Well, film spotting presents, we're going to executive produce this and we'll make it happen.

52:09 So that's my, that's my, uh, that was my pick, which I thoroughly enjoyed the return of Godzilla, uh, streaming on criteria and HBO max. Aaron, does that, I mean, do you, I mean, I hope you don't dislike that one. You, do you have any thoughts about the return of Godzilla?

52:23 Uh, I do think Odyssey is the best policy, and I will say it's not my favorite. I don't dislike it. I do think the story is pretty solid as far as if you're going to do an 84 Godzilla Cold War tension, it makes a lot of sense to go after. So yeah, that's a good way to put it. But my issue is more of just direction, just kind of the look of the film. I like that it has a heavy use of practical effects, especially when you're, you know, compared to the 60s and the 80s, you have a lot more. and things you could do that you couldn't do back then, right? So there's a lot of cool stuff involving more up-close shots of city destruction or what have you. There's just some things here and there that kind of.

53:01 I didn't think the Godzilla suit looked all that spectacular.

53:05 That's my other thing. So Biollante, which I mentioned is the next film in the franchise, that's the one that becomes the de facto suit for the rest of that era.

53:13 Yeah.

53:13 And it's a better looking Godzilla.

53:15 I did think Godzilla himself looked like he had seen better days. He looked like he was an old, like it was an old suit that they hadn't fully kind of updated or just, he just wasn't up with the times.

53:25 It's they, they make them and they just, sometimes they just look weird. Like Michael Myers masks, which is something you think would, you know, be pretty consistent. And yet there's 12 of those movies and none of them are the same. Uh, so it's like 14 of those movies. How many Halloweens are there? It doesn't matter.

53:42 Um, Too many is the correct answer.

53:45 There's a lot. But one fun thing that I'll add about Return of Godzilla. So famously, Godzilla 54, the American version is called Godzilla King of the Monsters. Right. Exclamation point. And that has scenes of Raymond Burr, Perry Mason himself, as journalist Steve Martin.

54:01 He's a wild and crazy guy.

54:04 So there are scenes of him going over the problem inserted into the movie. You'll have a scene of everybody in a newsroom you'll cut to Steve Martin over here being like, yes, that Godzilla is a problem, but we need to deal with it immediately. He hates these cats!

54:18 Yeah.

54:21 No, I don't have rhythm. Like, it was whatever.

54:23 Exactly.

54:26 But, and so that version, it inserts his scenes and then cuts a lot of, like, anything that's basically disparaging to America. It's a bad cut of the movie, which is what I think Ebert saw, not the original Godzilla. So I'd always be curious what he would have thought of the original one, but that's here to there. For Return of Godzilla, the American cut of it once again has Raymond Burr inserted back. Yeah, they brought him back as if it was like a nostalgia play.

54:47 A true legacy sequel. Exactly.

54:49 They brought him, they inserted, once again had a different American cut that inserted scenes of him back in this movie, you know, much older.

54:56 Right, it has a different title, right? What is the, the American version is called like Godzilla 1985, what is it?

55:04 So the, yeah, the Japanese version is just the return of Godzilla.

55:07 Right.

55:08 In America, it's either Godzilla 84 or, Or Godzilla 85.

55:12 Okay.

55:13 Why there's a discrepancy between the years, I'm not sure, because the movie was released in 84. It doesn't seem like there'd be much controversy about that, but regardless, they call it Godzilla 84 for short, is generally its name.

55:25 Now, your favorite fire-breathing monster is back, like you've never seen him before.

55:32 The legend is reborn in the all-new Godzilla 1985, starring Raymond Burr.

55:39 Godzilla.

55:40 Okay, so let's very quickly just run down all these titles we recommended, and then we'll get to our rec seg. So, Aaron had Invasion of the Astro Monster, which is on Criterion, HBO Max, Tubi, YouTube, VOD. Godzilla vs. Hedorah, a.k.a. Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster on Criterion, HBO Max, and VOD. And then Godzilla vs. its Biollante?

56:06 Yes.

56:06 I don't want to pronounce his name wrong.

56:09 No, no, no.

56:10 My respect to Biollante. I don't want him chomping on me with that smelly face of his. That one's on HBO Max and VOD.

56:17 And then....

56:19 Jordan had Shin Godzilla, HBO Max, and VOD. You also cited Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah on Criterion and HBO Max. And then finally, I mentioned the return of Godzilla on Criterion, HBO Max, and VOD.

56:33 That's a whole lot of Godzilla. Now, Aaron, on your podcast, are you also covering the monster films that don't have Godzilla in them? Like, I know, for example, there are Mothra movies that are just Mothra movies, and I believe Rodan and Some of the others are just doing their own thing, side quills, if you will.

56:51 What a perfect question, Jordan. Yes, we actually do, in fact, have other episodes devoted to some of the things that are concurrently going on in Toho. So, yes, we have an episode that's specifically Mothra, Rodan, and Varan the Unbelievable. We also have an episode focused on the trilogy of 90s Mothra films, the rebirth of Mothra trilogy. And just this very week, outside of Toho, because we're in the Millennium Era now, we released an episode covering Bong Joon-ho's The Host, a film called Big Man Japan, and then Cloverfield.

57:26 Oh, Big Man Japan. Yeah, I forgot about that movie. That movie's nuts.

57:29 So they're all three kaiju films that are not Toho-based, but are certainly like, what else is happening in this kind of kaiju world outside of Godzilla? So yeah, we do.

57:38 We have.

57:39 not to always talk, not to bring up Gamera again, but he, was he not Toho? Was it another, like the Pepsi versus Coke thing or what's the deal with Gamera?

57:47 Basically, although the nineties era of Gamera was in fact owned or co-owned at least by Toho. So they did like, they did, they were concurrently making, or actually those films all take place after the nineties Godzilla films. But yes, the Toho did have Gamera within their, their rights at that point for whatever reason.

58:05 But originally it was a separate company.

58:07 Yeah. Yeah.

58:08 And when did King Kong get involved? Now in the sort of Hollywood versions, there's King Kongs all over them. But what was the first time that Godzilla and King Kong, the great sort of Japanese-American meet when these two monsters got together?

58:23 That movie comes out in 63, and it's only the third Godzilla movie. You'd think that Godzilla had been around for a long time at that point. Like, oh, let's win against King Kong. Godzilla's 54. There's an immediate sequel in 55. Then Godzilla's basically put on ice. Literally, it's literally trapped on ice at the.

58:40 End of that movie.

58:43 For like 10 years because they make Mothra, they make Rodan, they make other monster movies. And then it's coming around to the 10th anniversary of Godzilla. And they're like, I guess we'll bring Godzilla back because there's a longer version of the story I won't get into. But basically, King Kong, they had the chance to do something with. It was going to be stop motion. Then they're like, we'll use a suit. It's easier. And they're like, well, who do we fight? Who do we have King Kong fight? I know Frankenstein. So they had this giant idea for a giant Frankenstein to fight King Kong, but then it got too complicated. So they ditched that. They said, let's just have Godzilla fight King Kong. So they made a Godzilla

59:17 versus King Kong.

59:20 That's what brought him back. And because of, we have King Kong to thank for all this nonsense.

59:24 That's great. It's only the third one, which is like weird to me. It's like, yeah, not much of a, a battle roster before he got to King Kong, but there it is. On a quick side note, the Frankenstein AD did not go away. There was, of course, Frankenstein versus Baragon, which happens in the 60s, and then That led to its sequel, War of the Gargantuas, which is another favorite of people like Nicolas Cage and Brad Pitt.

59:47 They all love the Gargantuas.

59:49 Well, clearly, if we allowed him, Jordan would continue to ask you questions about Godzilla and Gamera for the rest of time. Instead, I'm going to tune into the podcast. That's exactly the segue I was going to say. I was going to say, before we get to our rec segue, Aaron, remind people about your podcast. If they want even more...

1:00:09 Godzilla minutiae and recommendations.

1:00:12 Yes, please.

1:00:12 Tune into Two Black Guys Talk Godzilla, released on a bi-weekly basis. We're up to over three episodes at this point, so we're available on every where you can find podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, all that. Plus, we have on YouTube as well. You can watch us talk about Two Black Guys Talk Godzilla, starting with the second season. We divide the eras into seasons.

1:00:30 So the second season is where we started to do on-camera Godzilla episodes. So yeah, you can check it out.

1:00:36 Rawr!

1:00:39 Now, we are going to get to the Rex egg, but before we do that, and I'm not going to make a big thing of it because this is a sad week. For a lot of us, and especially for Jordan Hoffman, one of the world's biggest Star Trek fans. We love to poke fun at Jordan's Star Trek love, but we do it because we love Jordan and we love Star Trek. I mean, I am a big Star Trek fan. I always say I'm a big Star Trek fan by any measure except against Jordan, who would put me to shame. And we lost two greats in the world of Star Trek this week. Walter Koenig, of course, Chekhov, and the great Patrick Stewart. Captain Picard from The Next Generation.

1:01:18 And Jordan, in your position as a kind of official, professional Star Trek expert, and you did a long– for years you hosted Star Trek panels. You worked at the Star Trek– you met these people too.

1:01:32 I did, yeah.

1:01:33 We wanted to give you a minute to just say whatever you wanted to say here about these greats.

1:01:39 I'll keep it quick because we've got a long episode going already, but I will say I did hang out a little bit backstage green rooms on a bus once with Walter Koenig, a really, really, really nice guy, just a friendly affable man who enjoyed being around Star Trek fans, you know, just really liked it. Patrick Stewart, I didn't know as well. He was very, but always professional, professional and polite. I can't say that about everybody, but I can say that about him. And I will just say that because this episode is going long already, we're going to talk more about the work. of Pavel Chekhov and Captain Picard next week, which is news to both Matt and producer Sam. I have just made an executive decision

1:02:24 that we'll talk about them in some official capacity next week. These guys lived hundreds of years in the future from us, so we can wait another week to honor them. Okay. So with that, Matt, on our lengthy episode, what was today's reader email we got?

1:02:39 Well, not a reader. Nobody reads a podcast, but it's a listener.

1:02:42 No, that's right. And it's exciting because this guy's very famous. He produced The Sopranos, this guy.

1:02:49 That's right. We have a request from listener David Chase.

1:02:55 David Chase wrote to us.

1:02:56 He claims it's not that David Chase, but I'm skeptical. I think maybe just David doesn't want. The spotlight on him.

1:03:04 Yeah.

1:03:04 He doesn't want people to know.

1:03:05 All I know is that I looked in my inbox and I saw an email from David Chase. You got very excited.

1:03:10 Subject to my rec seg.

1:03:11 It's like rec seg. I'm like, oh, he wants to talk about his favorite episodes of The Sopranos as a streaming rec. But what was his email question to us?

1:03:20 Sure. Not that David Chase wrote to us and said, hi, everyone. I am a fan of the documentary or I am a fan of documentary films like Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams. and Sarah Dosa's Fire of Love that take the life and art or work of people who might otherwise be overlooked and bring it to the attention of viewers. Both films contain some stylized elements like animation or music or voiceover that situate the subjects in a broader context. I don't know if there are other deep dives or on a particular artwork or time or place that combined fact with some whimsy, but I'd be interested to see what's out there. So that is the brief this week. This is the listener request we have. Yeah, it's a good one. Jordan,

1:04:05 what do you have as a recommendation for David?

1:04:09 Well, I just wanted to say that when I got this email, I really liked it because this is sort of a sweet spot for my wife and I. We are big fans of Canopy, which has a huge library of books documentaries about artists and you know the word artist can mean visual art but all kinds of art and i sometimes joke if you did anything in the 20th century there will eventually be a documentary made about you i mean you can't you know you can just be somewhere and in fact my wife and i've done this we were at some thing and we saw an exhibit and it was uh the artist man ray and And my wife was like, I wonder if there's a documentary about Man Ray. And I'm like, I'm going to check right now. I'm like, oh yeah, we can watch

1:04:49 it tonight. It's like, I didn't know it, but like there is. Anybody who did anything. So there are a few that I really, really like. There's one on the artist Saul LeWitt I really like, which is just called Saul LeWitt. There's one on the artist Gerhard Richter, which is called Gerhard Richter Painting, which is, you can interpret that as both a verb and a noun. But the one that I'm picking is a movie that I hadn't seen since it came out. Watched it again last night, and it holds up. From 2013, called Cutie and the Boxer.

1:05:18 And Cutie and the Boxer was a hit at Sundance that did actually get nominated for Best Documentary in 2013. And funny, we're doing it on the Godzilla podcast because it is about two Japanese artists living in America, Ushio Shinohara and Noriko Shinohara, his wife. And Ushio Shinohara is actually still alive. He's like 93 or so right now.

1:05:45 But the movie was made when he was celebrating his 80th birthday and his wife was pregnant. probably around 58. She was significantly younger than he was. And he is a respected avant-garde abstract painter and sculptor, but the guy never made any money. And this movie is touching and loving, but it's about the curse of being an artist. Like this guy can't really do anything else. He really can't function.

1:06:17 He also has a bit of a drinking problem, but he's, Like all he can do is make his art and his wife who is an artist or would be an artist in his own right, in her own right, kind of put her career on hold to like take care of this guy. And it's a, there's a lot of not, I wouldn't want to say unspoken grudges. They're spoken grudges.

1:06:36 Like it comes out, it all comes out in this movie and it's in her art. She fought the kind of the, the ending is like, she's making her own exhibition, but his artwork is really interesting. He does, he kind of has two things that he does. You know, the title is Cutie and the Boxer. He will get these enormous canvases, get boxing gloves and affix, I don't know, the paints to them, to the boxing gloves, and then beat the shit out of the canvas. And you might say, well, anybody can do that. But when he's done, it looks a specific way. And they really are quite dazzling to look at. And these are sort of a spin on action paintings. And, of course, when he's done with it, he's covered in paint, and the colors he uses are

1:07:17 very interesting. And then the other thing is he's a dumpster diver, and he just goes around New York City and finds cardboard, which probably smells of dog urine, and then.

1:07:26 Probably smells like Biollante.

1:07:29 Probably smells like Biollante. And then makes these elaborate sculptures out of them, like these giant motorcycles out of cardboard he finds in the garbage, and they're amazing to look at, but Surprise, surprise. Nobody wants to buy them because who the hell wants that in their house, you know? So he's been broke for 40 years. The story begins when he's 40 and she was 19 and came to New York and they met and she came from a family of means. So he kind of like, oh yes, I'll take you under my wing. And she basically supported him up until she got pregnant and her family cut him off and they've been living in poverty ever since, but they're still committed to their art. So it's a sad story, but it's also inspiring because they don't give up. And

1:08:14 they also tell like it is to each other now that they're older. But the thing that really strikes me as one who lived in New York City for a long time, and I imagine if you live in any major city, they're like, if you live in a building with a lot of people and there could be like the wacky older couple on the top floor. And, you know, especially in New York, it's like, oh yeah, like they don't speak much English and they have heavy accents and they just seem like the nice old Japanese couple on the top floor. But when you investigate their lives, they just have this incredible life filled with all this artistic intent and then big fights. And a lot of– they videotape themselves over the years of them just like struggling

1:08:55 with their need to make art and their inability to to to get by and their troubles with alcohol and uh but then you see them like go into the store and they look like the nice happy couple from upstairs it's a really interesting uh like reflection of like you know what it is to live in a city and not really know your neighbors their apartment by the way is a disaster it is a and they're a They also have a studio that they rent. It's just like a fire hazard waiting to happen. It's like junk everywhere.

1:09:22 40 years of their artistic explosion all over the walls. And then they do have a dealer, a gallery dealer. And then somebody from the Guggenheim wants to buy some of their work. And then you meet this woman from the Guggenheim. And it's as if Aaron mentioned Veep before. It was like a Julia Louis-Dreyfus character came in. And you're like, oh, finally, they're going to make some money.

1:09:44 And she's like just such a character. And I don't mean that in a positive way. It's like you really want to smack her across the face and be like, stop being so condescending. You know, these are our characters that we've grown to love now. But it's tough. I mean, you kind of hate the guy because he's a dick to his wife. But it's fascinating to watch. Cutie in the Boxer is my recommendation for this film, for this topic.

1:10:04 I really like this movie. And you get to see the process of them making their work, too. And it's quite interesting. Okay.

1:10:10 So that film is currently probably the easiest way for most people to watch it will be on YouTube. It's free on YouTube with ads. That's how I watch it.

1:10:17 I just watched it on YouTube on Apple TV and it looked great. Great print. The reason why it's floating is that it's a Weinstein Company film. So who the hell knows what's going on with Weinstein Company films. But it's on YouTube. They do have some intrusive ads, but it's not too bad.

1:10:30 It's also on the Howdy channel. We talked about this maybe last week. Roku's... Howdy channel or network or who knows. If you subscribe to this thing that barely exists, it's also apparently on there. And you can, of course, also watch it on VOD. Aaron, do you want to give your recommendation next?

1:10:52 Sure. Happy to.

1:10:53 What do you have for us? Or for David Chase? Remember, David Chase is listening. I don't want no pressure here.

1:10:59 Wait, have any of you guys seen Cutie in the Box? Or Sam, did you see it when it was shot that year?

1:11:03 I saw it when it came out. I think it's a perfect, it's a great pick for this request.

1:11:09 It's also short. It's like 82 minutes.

1:11:11 My favorite kind of thing.

1:11:11 It's shorter than this podcast episode is going to be. That's for darn sure.

1:11:15 So yeah, a choice for the creator of Johnny Cakes. I was thinking I had a lot of choices on mine. I have to narrow down to one though. So I'm going to go. And so the idea is like a documentary that's, kind of sense of whimsy to it to go along with the artistry that's being expressed. So I'm going with 2024's Skywalker's A Love Story. Ah! Which is like performance art being brought to you by.

1:11:42 Ah, I think it's a perfect choice.

1:11:44 In an interesting way. So I just thought I went to Man on Wire, but I'm like, well, everyone's seen Man on Wire. It's a fantastic documentary, but it's also very popular. So I'm like, well, what's something in that similar realm of performance art that has a sort of a side angle to it? And yeah, this film, it's these two roofers or rooftoppers who are people that are kind of extreme sports junkies that'll climb all the way to the top of various buildings and architecture and things like that for the sake of posing for pictures or whatnot on social media. And two of them, we have Angela Niccolo and Ivan Birkis, who are, they were both rooftopping separately only to kind of start collaborating and eventually

1:12:23 fall in love. So we kind of chart their journey, chart the process of what roof-topping is, see some of their exploits and what have you. And then the main plot involves their attempts to get to the top of a new skyscraper in Malaysia that's like 118 stories tall. Our mission became climbing the last super skyscraper on the planet.

1:12:45 Merdeka 118 will tower a staggering 2200 feet above Asia. This climb is more important than all the others. It's also the highest risk.

1:12:57 We watch the process of planning that, the drama that ensues because of the complications involved or whatnot. I've heard both, like, I like it. I've heard both sides as far as some people don't like it because they just think they're adrenaline junkies that can easily kill themselves. It's like, why do this? But like, and yeah, it is. But at the same time, there is an interesting, you know, in the realm of what modern art can be, and I am, I'm sure with the kind of guy that makes fun of movies where there's like a shot of like a pile of dirt. It's all, it's like, Oh, that's so interesting.

1:13:28 And a janitor comes by and says, no, that's just a pilot. It's like, I've seen that cliche like so many times. Not every film could be the square, which I like.

1:13:39 But let me.

1:13:40 Tell you every single time I go to a modern art museum or a gallery, I'm always like, I, when there's the woman behind like the desk typing, I'm always like, she looks so lifelike. It's almost like it's human every single time. And then like, uh, at the Guggenheim museum also, they have like these cool windows that are like shaped in odd shapes. And I always like go up to the, I'm like, this canvas is so lifelike. It's almost like the city is right outside. It makes my niece embarrassed.

1:14:10 It's great.

1:14:10 Anyway, continue.

1:14:11 I don't mean this for four year olds rolling their eyes. They want to get their lolly. Um, anyway, yeah, I, It's not just the novelty of doing this, but it's also the presentation, of course. And so you get these amazing drone shots of them, like, you know, ascending these entire buildings. And, of course, once they're on the top, you know, they're posing for cameras or whatnot. You just see the scale of this thing. I know it was a Netflix release, and it was in, I think it was a Sundance release. It was like a Sundance release.

1:14:40 That's where I saw it originally. But it was briefly released in IMAX theaters. And I can only imagine how breathtaking it would be, let alone vertigo-inducing, to watch a film like this where you're seeing these, you know, daredevils climb on very, you know, on nothing, basically, just, just sort of say, go get to the top of something.

1:14:55 And then seeing the kind of the drone camera scale back and show just like how ridiculous their stunts are. Uh, but no, I, I, I quite appreciated what the film tried to do as far as being more than just a, here's what roof topping is, but presented actual narrative involving these two people that fell in love doing this thing.

1:15:10 There was something to be said for the way, you know, modern art applies in this realm and what have you. So there's, there's a lot of worthwhile aspects. It came to mind fairly quickly because these two were recently in the news again.

1:15:22 Yes, they were.

1:15:23 Was it the Empire State Building? I think it was, yes. It was certainly in New York City.

1:15:29 It was one of the big buildings in New York. I saw the picture.

1:15:32 Yes, they were back in the news, yes. All right, so that's a great pick. So it's Skywalker's A Love Story. It's on Netflix. And I got to say, listening to Aaron describe it, I'm thinking to myself, maybe in the next Godzilla movie. Godzilla vs. Skywalkers, maybe?

1:15:49 Now, how did Lucas not sue them for this title?

1:15:52 That's a good question. But I guess... Confusion in the marketplace. Maybe singular Skywalker is his, but Skywalkers, plural is.

1:16:00 I can guarantee you a Disney lawyer.

1:16:02 They looked into it. They must have looked into it.

1:16:04 They looked at it. Because the confusion in the marketplace, you might think it's something to do with Star Wars.

1:16:07 I mean, when I was looking through films for Sundance, because I was doing Sundance virtually, and it had like a list of like, oh, Skywalk. Let me see what this is.

1:16:14 So you're proving Disney's case there. That's right. Confusion in the marketplace. That's good. But it worked in this case for everybody. You don't like Star Wars any less than you did before, and now you've seen a great new film. So everybody's happy.

1:16:25 All right. Matt Singer, what's your pick? I want to know. I was going to just get to that. First of all, I do want to say I love The Sopranos. I love Not Fade Away, one of the most underrated movies of the 21st century, in my opinion.

1:16:38 Wow.

1:16:38 Vinyl was a show.

1:16:40 Many Saints of Newark. I mean, that one kind of stunk, but that's okay. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect.

1:16:46 I didn't see it.

1:16:46 Nonetheless, my pick for David is a documentary, not about a painter, but I went with one about a photographer, a very gifted one who was basically unknown in her lifetime and until some photographs of hers were purchased basically at random by a historian who was at a community auction. He was working on a book. He needed photos of old Chicago for the book. This lot that had this photographer's work in it had the most photos, so he bought it for like $ 300, $ 400, something like that. And He got the photos and was astonished by the incredible photographs, just how beautiful and amazing they were. And so he started researching this woman. Her name was Vivian Meyer. Basically, I guess she had maybe shown her photographs a little

1:17:46 in her lifetime, but was basically unknown. And then as he was researching her, he discovered that, like, she had taken thousands of photographs. He had bought a couple hundred. There were thousands and thousands of them. And he got his hands on the rest of them, or most of them, I suppose. They were in like a storage locker. And he kind of uncovered this mystery of this incredible unknown photographer.

1:18:10 And the documentary about her is called Finding Vivian Mayer, or Mayer. I think it's pronounced Mayer. And it's about the guy who discovered these photos and his quest to learn more about her. And He goes around interviewing people who knew her. She worked in her lifetime mostly as a nanny, as a caregiver. But even the people that knew her kind of, you know, and knew that she took photographs all the time, they didn't really know much about her. She had this vaguely French accent. So a lot of people thought she was French. She was actually born in New York. Although, you know, like it's even that is kind of a mystery unto itself. And the film is kind of like a, cross between like a small scale detective story But it's also, it has all

1:18:56 of these amazing, her photography is amazing. And you get to see so much of it in the film. It's like you're walking through an amazing art gallery where there's a mystery. It's like this interesting blend of kind of styles of movie.

1:19:12 As she was photographing, she was seeing just how close you can come into somebody's space.

1:19:19 That tells me a lot about her.

1:19:21 She could generate this moment and then she's gone. And I don't know if you guys know the film, but I saw it when it came out and I thought it was great. And it was one of the ones that kind of popped to mind with this request. And I was able to rewatch it. It's available right now on Plex with ads. That's where I rewatched it. You can also watch it on AMC +. On Canopy, on Mubi.

1:19:48 So it's available in a bunch of different places. And I loved revisiting it. And I just love the Vivian Meyer's photography. And I guess the fact that it is made or co-directed by the guy who found all of her photographs. I suppose it's a little self-serving because he's kind of being like, look at this genius I found.

1:20:08 And would you like to buy her photographs?

1:20:10 Which I happen to have the rights to. But you know what? If it wasn't good, people wouldn't listen to it. I mean, it's an amazing movie. And it's also like, you know, I don't know. You always argue like, you know, who's the best blues guitar player there ever was. And it's like, it's some guy we've never heard of. It's somebody who never got in a recording studio. That's the best, you know? And it always makes me think with art, A lot of it is luck. You know, the best doesn't owe. I mean, it's you got to be good and you have to be lucky. It's both. And Vivian Meyer was somebody who was working at a time also when, you know, there was less interest in women artists. And and that's how how it still is. And also with

1:20:50 minority artists all over, they don't get the same shake. And a lot of great stuff is ignored. And it's something that I always think about whenever I, like, I always get on a bender about, like, Frank Zappa is truly the greatest electric.

1:21:02 Guitar player there ever was.

1:21:03 And he could do this. He could do this. He could do this. I'm like, no, it's probably some guy I never heard of because he never got in a recording studio. So, no, I want to see that movie again. That was, like, 2013. 2014, I think.

1:21:15 2014?

1:21:15 Yeah, so it's close to your, yes, it's around.

1:21:18 It was a golden era of documentaries about obscure artists.

1:21:21 Absolutely.

1:21:22 That's right.

1:21:23 Okay, so let's run through all of our recommendations for David. Jordan has Cutie and the Boxer. That was on YouTube TV with ads or VOD or Roku's Howdy, of course. Never forget. Aaron had Skywalker's A Love Story on Netflix. And I had Finding Vivian Meyer on Mubi, Plex, Canopy, AMC Plus or VOD.

1:21:43 Most whimsical of them all.

1:21:44 Yes, exactly. And for a running list of all the titles we recommend and review on FilmSpottingSVU, don't forget, you can go to Letterboxd and search for the list now streaming on Bazooka. You can find the link in the notes for this show. That's a running list of everything we recommend on the show. If you would like your own personalized streaming recommendation, you don't have to be the creator of The Sopranos. We'll do it for anybody. Send a note. Feedback at FilmSpottingSVU.com. Tell us the streaming services you use. Tell us the kind of movie you're looking for.

1:22:17 Sam has here in the notes, you know, it's perhaps Noirvember. So perhaps people are looking for noir-related requests. We could honor those. It's also Movember. We could do recommendations of movies with mustaches, prominent mustaches perhaps.

1:22:33 Who knows? How about mustaches in a noir?

1:22:35 That would be– That would really– we should really do that no matter what.

1:22:39 That was actually our first rec seg ever was please recommend a noir movie.

1:22:44 With a mustache in it?

1:22:46 No, no, no.

1:22:46 It was like a lesser known noir. And that's where I whipped out the original Roadhouse, a movie I love that very few people know about that has nothing to do with the Patrick Swayze Roadhouse. Just happens to have the name Roadhouse.

1:22:57 Okay.

1:22:57 So one more time, that email address.

1:23:00 I can't recommend that again.

1:23:01 Feedback.

1:23:02 Feedback at FilmSpotting.

1:23:04 FilmSpotting. Sfuh.com.

1:23:07 Feedback at philspottingsvu.com. I'm looking at it right now. Vince Gilligan just wrote to us. How about that? Oh, hello.

1:23:13 Wonderful.

1:23:13 Brian Fuller's in the chat now, I see.

1:23:17 See if you remember this little.

1:23:20 Ditty from a.

1:23:23 Streaming service we all love.

1:23:27 Bazooka. When you got a stream All right, we ready for our game? Sam, are you going to play the game too? Are we going to have a three-way game?

1:23:45 What are we doing?

1:23:46 Why not?

1:23:46 Let's try it.

1:23:48 If last week was any indication, I will not factor much into this contest, but we'll see.

1:23:53 It's going to be... Aaron is accustomed to making the game. It's a free-for-all. All right, here we go. Everyone ready? I'm ready. I'm going to explain it. I've got it all ready. Here we go.

1:24:04 Now, Matt, I'm a little concerned we actually didn't do your... Wreck, seg. We didn't actually do that. I don't know if you want to say, like, we overlooked the chance to actually yell.

1:24:13 Well, I didn't want to do it because we were being very serious for the passing of those two great men, so. All right.

1:24:18 All right.

1:24:18 Well, if you want to throw it in here.

1:24:19 No, it's all right. It doesn't have to be.

1:24:21 We can do a week without it.

1:24:22 We can do a week without it.

1:24:23 It's okay.

1:24:23 All right.

1:24:24 Here we go.

1:24:25 All right.

1:24:25 It's time for our game, and we're going to have a three-way this time. Jordan versus Aaron versus Producer Sam. This is going to be intense. I can't wait to see how this goes. Now, typically- Our game is related in some way to the main review on the show, but we didn't, first of all, we didn't do a main review and let's face it. If we did any kind of game about Godzilla, that would not be fair.

1:24:46 I think that would be also, I would probably not even know what to write. And that would be also very embarrassing. It would be a slaughter akin to Godzilla taking on Matthew Broderick in the American Godzilla from 1998.

1:25:00 But yeah.

1:25:01 Thinking about Godzilla in 1998 gave me an idea. That movie, of course, was directed by German blockbuster maven Roland Emmerich. So how about I ask you questions about Roland Emmerich movies based on information from his Letterboxd page? That's right. It's the return of Letterboxding, Roland with the punches edition.

1:25:23 Yes.

1:25:24 All right.

1:25:26 So if you know, I'm going to ask you, I've got seven questions. They're all information I gleaned from Letterboxd. I know it sounds like it's going to be impossible.

1:25:35 It is not.

1:25:36 You know the answer. You buzz in. If nobody knows, I have clues. We're just going to dive right in. So get ready with those vocal buzzers. Here we go.

1:25:46 I'm excited.

1:25:47 Question one.

1:25:48 Yes.

1:25:48 When you sort Roland Emmerich's filmography as a director by average letterboxed user rating, the bottom of the list, the film with the lowest average score... is also his most recent film. His most recent film as a director. Yes. Yes.

1:26:10 Aaron.

1:26:11 Would that be Moonfall?

1:26:13 That is correct. I didn't even have to give the clues.

1:26:16 It is Moonfall.

1:26:18 Very good. Aaron is on the board.

1:26:21 That's rated as lowest?

1:26:23 It's rated as lowest with an average score of 2.0. Okay.

1:26:27 I have to tell you where I saw Moonfall. It was at the, in Washington, D.C.

1:26:38 Sam, I think we might need the anecdote sound effect.

1:26:41 No, no, no. Don't worry.

1:26:42 No, this is funny. This is funny. At the, it's not in D.C. It's right outside of D.C. At the National Air and Space Museum Annex.

1:26:52 Yes.

1:26:53 The second Air and Space Museum.

1:26:54 Yes, I know what you're talking about. I've been there.

1:26:55 It's great.

1:26:55 It's like a giant airplane hangar full of airplanes and spaceships.

1:26:59 It's great. The Udzar, it's a name, it's a name, it's named after some benefactor who's Hungarian, so I can't pronounce his name. But it's Air and Space 2.

1:27:06 Yes.

1:27:06 And they have an IMAX screen there. And I went there, and at the time, a very good friend of mine who may be listening, Claire, shout out to Claire, who at the time was living in the area. She works for NASA, and she took a day off of work to be our private docent at the Air and Space Museum. She took a day off of work to work, basically.

1:27:22 To watch Moonfall with you? Well, no, that wasn't it. Then what? when we're done looking at all the air and space stuff and they have, you know, stuff from the Apollo caps.

1:27:31 Look over here.

1:27:31 There's air over there.

1:27:33 There's space space.

1:27:34 We're like, let's buy a ticket to see in IMAX. They have a true IMAX screen there. It's gorgeous. And it's like, what are we going to see? It's like, well, The only thing it's that we, you know, we missed, like there was a documentary that we would have loved to have seen, but like the timing didn't work. We're stuck with Moonfall.

1:27:50 Fine.

1:27:50 Let's go to see Moonfall. We go to see Moonfall. And it's like, I remember she was like, this is a disgrace to this museum.

1:27:58 It's like.

1:27:58 They should be embarrassed to be showing this. Like, she wasn't serious, but she was a little serious. Like, I am embarrassed that this is showing, besmirching the actual science in this museum.

1:28:08 That's what she said out loud. Then she turned quietly and whispered, they're on to us. The secret is out.

1:28:13 The hollow moon theory is real.

1:28:15 They've figured it out, finally.

1:28:21 I enjoyed every moment of Moonfall, but it is... unbearably stupid yes it is stupid in ways that few things are the moon falls okay yeah well Aaron is on the board with one point here we go.

1:28:32 Question number two on the flip side Roland Emmerich's highest average score for any of his 19 feature films as a director is a 3.5. Oh, you don't even want any more details, Jordan?

1:28:48 Go ahead.

1:28:48 I'm just going. It's Independence Day.

1:28:50 Incorrect.

1:28:51 What?

1:28:52 No.

1:28:53 Incorrect.

1:28:54 How could it not be? This is his best film. Producer Sam and Aaron, the remaining clues are just for you. All right. So his highest average score is a 3.5 for this 2000 historical war film. Did I hear a buzz? Aaron buzzed.

1:29:12 I was worried this would be the case. It would be, of course, The Patriot.

1:29:16 It is indeed The Patriot. That's because of the 5. His highest rated film.

1:29:22 Wow.

1:29:23 I mean, that is a dad movie.

1:29:24 Are there a lot of dads on Letterboxd? That's a dad, right?

1:29:26 I feel like Letterboxd is a younger audience, but maybe not.

1:29:31 Well, it's a dad movie, but it also has that Heath Ledger factor in there.

1:29:37 It's a twofer.

1:29:37 That probably is why. That's a great point. Okay, Aaron is now up two to nothing. Jordan, you rung in too early. You were too confident.

1:29:47 I'm shocked that anything could be better than Independence Day.

1:29:49 Did you see Independence Day with any famous scientists by any chance?

1:29:53 No.

1:29:54 Okay.

1:29:55 All right. Here we go. Question number three.

1:29:57 But the joy I felt.

1:29:59 Sorry. Yes.

1:30:00 Because I didn't know Brent Spiner was in Independence Day when I bought a ticket.

1:30:04 Okay. I think, Sam, it is appropriate now to use the Star Trek noise. It would be rude before.

1:30:10 When Brent Spiner showed up in Independence Day, my soul elevated. And then in Independence Day 2, a movie that's not that good, but does feature Brent Spiner's ass in it.

1:30:21 Wow.

1:30:22 Sure does. All right, so continue, Matt.

1:30:25 Okay, thank you so much. Okay, here we go. Question number three of Letterboxding, Rollin' with the Punches edition. Rollin' Emmerich. is not an actor, but he has an actor page on Letterboxd, which is mostly his participation in documentaries, including a 2026 French film that chronicles the ups and downs of this famous 1980s and 1990s film distributor, which is long out of business, but in its heyday, released such mega films as Universal Soldier, Basic Instinct and Terminator 2. Oh, it was a Jordan. Did I get a Jordan buzz?

1:31:08 Yeah, but.

1:31:09 Name the studio, the distributor, the company that made these movies. Karolko, right? That is correct. Karolko Pictures. Jordan is on the board. What's the name of that movie? It might be Caroco. It was a French. How do you say Caroco in French? I don't know.

1:31:29 En Francais, nobody knows. Le Caroco. Le Caroco.

1:31:33 Exactly. Caroco en rêve Hollywood. There you go.

1:31:37 Hollywood dream.

1:31:38 Caroco arrives in Hollywood.

1:31:41 I would like to see it.

1:31:41 All right.

1:31:42 A dream of Hollywood.

1:31:43 A dream of Hollywood.

1:31:45 Notable films. I'd be like to see that documentary.

1:31:48 Yes.

1:31:48 Okay. So the score is two to one. Aaron has two. Jordan has one. Sam, yet to score, but that's okay.

1:31:54 Okay, that's fine.

1:31:55 Still more questions to be answered. Okay. Now, for question four, I am going to give you the 10 top stars listed on the letterboxd page for this 2013 Roland Emmerich blockbuster, but I'm going to give them to you in reverse order, meaning the first person is like the lowest build of the bunch. And I'll get to the biggest stars last.

1:32:16 When you think you know the name of this movie, you buzz in and tell me the name. By the end, it should be pretty clear, but I'm going to start with the lesser known and the least obvious names. Here we go. Everyone understand? Mm-hmm. Here we go. Michael Murphy. Jimmy Simpson. Nicholas Wright. James Woods. Oh, Aaron.

1:32:42 Honestly, I'm very good at years, so that really... I already had it, but it's White House Down.

1:32:46 That is correct.

1:32:47 That's right, White House Down.

1:32:49 It is White House Down. The final two names were Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, so yes.

1:32:54 The better of the two White House Gets Invaded by Terrorists movies of that year compared to Olympus Has Fallen, but the worst performing one, and it's a shame because that's a fun movie.

1:33:03 It is a fun movie, kind of an underrated movie, one of the better Roland Emmerich movies, I dare say.

1:33:09 It's not a bad film. Not a bad film.

1:33:11 Okay, question five. Roland Emmerich receives story credit on three of his motion pictures. The highest rated of the three is The Day After Tomorrow, his 2012 global warming slash cooling disaster film. Next is Emmerich's Godzilla, which we have mentioned several times. The lowest rated of his films on which he receives a story credit is this sequel to, actually we just mentioned it, Independence Day. Who can name the subtitle of that sequel? Jordan.

1:33:50 I think it's Resurgence.

1:33:52 That is correct. Independence Day colon Resurgence. It's not Independence Day colon Brett Spiner's ass or anything like that. No.

1:34:02 No.

1:34:03 Brett Spiner has gotten more.

1:34:05 talk than Patrick.

1:34:06 Stewart on this show. I'm offended. He's also a great actor.

1:34:09 He's a great actor. This movie, which I watched again recently to double check because I interviewed Dean Devlin.

1:34:17 Oh, okay. It was for research. Okay, fair enough.

1:34:19 This movie is bad. It's bad, but it is not as bad as you remember. There are individual sequences that really sing. Really? Now, if the movie is two hours and 20 minutes, let's say there's 18 very, very good minutes in this movie. The rest of it is unbearable, but there are some good scenes in this movie. Worth renting if you've never seen it, but don't expect.

1:34:42 It is not worth renting. What are you talking about?

1:34:45 For free. Worth free renting.

1:34:47 On the subject of Godzilla, it does end with a kaiju battle, so I'm not against that.

1:34:51 Okay.

1:34:52 It's a bad movie, but there are some fun parts.

1:34:54 That's all I'm going to say. So the score now, Aaron 3, Jordan 2. It's still very close. Oh, it's exciting. It's exciting. We only have two questions left, though, so.

1:35:02 Okay.

1:35:03 Number six. Roland Emmerich has mostly only produced the films he directs, right? He doesn't produce a lot of other people's movies. But his Letterboxd producer page does include this notable exception. A 1999 sci-fi film that was viewed at the time as the deep impact to The Matrix's Armageddon. It's another movie about a virtual reality, only instead of Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss. Jordan. The 13th Floor?

1:35:41 That is correct, Jordan. The 13th Floor. Instead of Keanu and Carrie-Anne, it stars Craig Bierko and Gretchen Maul.

1:35:52 Gretchen Maul, yeah.

1:35:53 The 13th Floor.

1:35:54 Very good.

1:35:55 That one, I'm impressed. I'm impressed. I had more clues because I was skeptical that anyone would remember it.

1:36:02 Okay.

1:36:02 I remember the poster very well. It was a creepy poster.

1:36:05 It has a good poster. All right. It's tied three to three.

1:36:10 Sam should get the answer, and.

1:36:11 Then we're all screwed. Sam, I'm counting on you. This one is worth four points.

1:36:16 Here we go.

1:36:17 It's worth four points.

1:36:18 Just to be clear to the audience, Sam's microphone's been on the whole time.

1:36:22 The entire time, I promise you.

1:36:25 Okay, for all the marbles, here we go. Numbers. Oh, man, I can't believe I even did this. I forgot that this was the last one. Okay. This is interesting, actually. I am curious to see how this turns out. Okay, Roland Emmerich directed and had one of his first big hits with 1994's Stargate, a film that is both about space travel and ancient Egypt and how aliens hung out back there. Anyway, it launched a very arguably inexplicably long-running series of TV shows and films and so on.

1:37:00 Now.

1:37:02 I will allow you to go back and forth if anyone knows them, but you will get one point for each spinoff you can name. Every TV show, every film, if you can name any name, I will give you a point for it. If anyone is confident, they can go first. I will allow, we could flip a coin. Jordan, you know what?

1:37:25 I got them all.

1:37:26 Okay, wait, we'll only name one. Oh, we're going to go back and forth. You get a point for each correct one.

1:37:33 Oh, I see.

1:37:33 You see?

1:37:34 I'd like, yeah, Stargate SG-1.

1:37:36 Stargate SG-1. Okay, there's one. Aaron, do you have one?

1:37:40 Stargate Atlantis?

1:37:41 That is correct. Sam, Sam, do you have any? Do you want to weigh in here, Sam, for one point?

1:37:47 Uh, there was the, um, there was the Stargate spinoff series called, uh, the hollow man.

1:37:54 That's right.

1:37:54 Okay.

1:37:55 All right.

1:37:55 That's, that's good. Very good.

1:37:56 That's true.

1:37:57 Okay. Jordan, it's back to you. Can you name another spinoff of Stargate?

1:38:05 I believe there's one. There's an animated one that I think is just called Stargate universe.

1:38:12 That is correct. That is correct. That is another one. Aaron. Do you have one more Stargate? There are more.

1:38:18 Yeah, it's like, there's just one that's like the big, like Origins, right? Is that one?

1:38:24 I don't have that.

1:38:25 There's not a Stargate Origins?

1:38:26 I don't, I mean, I'll double check. I don't have that on my list here. I'm going to double check.

1:38:32 Hold on.

1:38:32 We're going to fact check it. Origins. Oh, it was a web series. Okay, I'll allow it.

1:38:38 Oh, very nice.

1:38:40 Stargate Origins, the web series.

1:38:42 Fair enough. That totally works.

1:38:43 That's fair.

1:38:43 All right, so it's two to two. There are still several more.

1:38:46 Jordan?

1:38:47 Um.

1:38:49 Atlantis is the other one that I remember. Cause Bob Picardo was on that one.

1:39:00 Gosh, there are three like direct to DVD or direct to TV, TV films. And there's one unnamed TV show so far, I believe.

1:39:10 Stargate. No, I can't do it.

1:39:14 All right.

1:39:14 Aaron, if you can name one more, you win.

1:39:17 I only got one more of the tags. I was hoping it's Infinity, right?

1:39:21 That's right.

1:39:22 Stargate Infinity.

1:39:23 Stargate Infinity.

1:39:25 Aaron, you have won. Letterboxding rolling with the punches edition.

1:39:30 Wow.

1:39:32 Nobody knew the name of the Stargate films. They were Stargate, The Ark of Truth.

1:39:37 Of course.

1:39:39 The classic. Who could forget Stargate Continuum?

1:39:43 Yeah, yeah.

1:39:44 And last but certainly not least, my personal favorite. I've seen it many, many times. Stargate Children of the Gods. That was the other one. Well, Aaron, well done. You committed yourself with honor. You have defeated Jordan, the Games Master. That's pretty good. That was a very close game. That was exciting. Came right down to the end.

1:40:09 Because I'm producer, I can retroactively add myself saying, no, I'm good when you ask me if I want to play.

1:40:15 In this game.

1:40:15 Yeah, you can just bow out. Yeah, you bowed out, as I recall.

1:40:19 This means I get to replace Jordan one week on SVU, right?

1:40:22 Yes, you get to take the week off.

1:40:24 When Matchbox 2 comes out, we can.

1:40:28 I think I'm calling out sick that week as well.

1:40:32 Well, that was exciting. I got my ass kicked on Stargate, but that's cool. I can handle it. I like Stargate, but not enough, clearly. Okay, so what are the theatrical releases available to rent or buy this week? Well, I'm going to tell you. On Tuesday, November 2, Saoirse Ronan is a struggling primary... That's not how that's said. Saoirse... Ronan! Ronan.

1:40:57 Ronan!

1:40:59 Fine.

1:40:59 Saoirse Ronan is a struggling primary teacher in the dark comedy Bad Apples. I've never even heard of this movie, but it's available... To rent or buy.

1:41:09 It's good.

1:41:10 It's good.

1:41:10 Aaron's seen it.

1:41:11 Okay, great.

1:41:12 It hit TIFF last year, then just kind of got dumped into theaters this year. And I'm like, why? This is a good movie.

1:41:16 Fun title. I like the title.

1:41:18 Bad Apples, that's cute. Good title. Another one that's very exciting, John Wilson's The History of Concrete. Comedy, comedy, not quite as cringy as his friend Nathan Fielder's documentary. This one's a little more user-friendly. After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete. Very entertaining. Matt, you saw this, right?

1:41:42 Yeah, it's fun.

1:41:42 You loved it. It's fun.

1:41:44 It's good stuff. Okay, now, four hours long. Elon Musk. The documentary is called Musk from Alex Gibney, who, by the way, in the time it's taken for us to record this podcast, has produced three more documentaries.

1:41:57 That's right.

1:41:57 The guy's very, very prolific. Four hours on why we shouldn't trust Elon Musk. I haven't seen it. I don't know if I have the energy to see it.

1:42:05 By the end of the movie, you've got a Musk because you've been sitting in the theater for four hours.

1:42:10 Hey, he's zing-a-ding-ding. I'm not the world's biggest Elon Musk fan already. I already know that I don't like him. I don't know that I need to see this. But Aaron, Matt, have you seen Musk yet?

1:42:21 I saw it. I did see it.

1:42:22 You did?

1:42:22 Yes.

1:42:24 It's long.

1:42:25 It is long. I don't know that, I mean, it's, you know, there's some insightful stuff in there, some interesting things. I don't know that it needed to be quite so long.

1:42:34 I haven't seen it. And I'm in your camp, Jordan. I feel like I kind of think I get it. I don't know. Four hours is going to be like, you know what? I don't know about this guy.

1:42:40 Yeah.

1:42:40 Yeah.

1:42:41 Yeah.

1:42:41 But well, you know, I don't, I think it's nominated for an Oscar. I'll see it now. Also theater.

1:42:45 Oh, you know what?

1:42:46 I'm certainly not paying. I'm not going to rent by it. I'll wait till it's on HBO max or something.

1:42:50 When it's on bazooka.

1:42:50 When it's on bazooka.

1:42:51 That's right. Something else that's coming that maybe you want to jump on. Oh, this was a good one. Lance Oppenheim's prime time. which is about Chris Hansen, Robert Pattinson as the sleazeball tabloid producer, catcher of sexual predators. I thought this movie was terrific. Everybody's seen it, right? Aaron, Matt, you saw it.

1:43:13 I saw it. I didn't really love it, I'll be honest.

1:43:15 I was a little disappointed.

1:43:16 But I don't think an hour and 50 minutes into this podcast is the time to litigate that, but I got to say I was not overwhelmed by this one. I liked its sleaziness, yes.

1:43:28 I came for Pattinson, but I walked away being like, Skyler Guzando.

1:43:30 Very, very good.

1:43:31 He is the best part. I would agree with that. He was my favorite performance in the film by far, yes.

1:43:36 He's awesome. I really liked it. Also, Zack Kreger's Resident Evil, one of the best video game movies ever made.

1:43:42 What a picture.

1:43:43 Very funny. Austin Abrams, nice chap running around getting chased by dogs with spaghetti coming out of their mouths. Really, really, really good movie. And then finally... Mahershala Ali in Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother. I love this movie. This movie's terrific.

1:44:02 I need to catch up with it. I've heard nothing but great things about it. I haven't seen it yet. Do you want to summarize it in a sentence for the listeners?

1:44:08 Yeah, it's about a guy trying to find breast milk and he'll stop at nothing to get it for his baby. That's really what it's about.

1:44:15 That is what it's about.

1:44:17 The mother has passed, and the baby needs breast milk, and the guy can't find any, and suddenly it's problems. But it's also about a great many other things. I'll very quickly jump in. Now, these are theatrical releases that are streaming, so if you're already subscribed, you don't have to pay extra. Super Troopers 3 on Hulu, everybody finds those guys funny. Something called Carolina Caroline on Netflix. Lovers on the Run with Samara Weaving. and Kyle Gallner.

1:44:47 Good movie.

1:44:48 Good thriller.

1:44:48 And then, I haven't seen that one, but Eleanor Coppola, the late Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis, mother of Sophia, the making of Marie Antoinette. I guess she had her cameras rollin'. when they were at, you know, they actually shot that movie in Versailles. You know, you go to, sometimes you go to another country, you go to another city and you go to their big tourist attraction. You go, wow, what would it be like to shoot a movie here? Well, you can't shoot a movie there. You got to shut it down. It's the big source of their local economy.

1:45:16 The Coppola's made it happen. So I'd like to see the making of Marie Antoinette. The Uprising, Paul Greengrass's, and that's on Mubi, by the way, the making of Mary Antoinette. The Uprising with Andrew Garfield, Paul Greengrass film on Peacock. And then Gale Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which I hear was very funny. I didn't see it, but I heard a lot of people liked it. David Wayne, whom, you know, people love him from Wet Hot American Summer.

1:45:41 He's a film spotting favorite, David Wayne. Yeah, he's, yes, you love They Came Together. You love that film.

1:45:47 They Came Together, Wet Hot American Summer. I saw this. It is very funny. It is good.

1:45:51 Yeah. And Zoe Deutsch is in it.

1:45:53 Zoe Deutsch is in it. She's great.

1:45:55 We talked about her performance in Nouvelle Vague.

1:45:59 That's right. Yeah, she's good.

1:46:01 Matt, tell us what's coming directly to stream.

1:46:03 On November 4th, I think we might have mentioned this on our last episode. I know it's the movie we're most anticipating this fall on Netflix. A Dog's Perfect Christmas. With Dennis Quaid, Mary Steenburgen, Jennifer Tilly, and the voice of Thomas Hayden Church as Winstead, the wise basset hound. It's A Dog's Perfect Christmas on Netflix.

1:46:27 What is a perfect Christmas for a dog?

1:46:29 I don't know. That's a great question. I'm going to get my dog in here and we'll ask her and we'll see what she says.

1:46:33 I mean.

1:46:35 I don't know.

1:46:35 I guess the belly rubs are getting fed. Yeah.

1:46:37 I don't know how it's any different than any other good day for a dog, but I get that's the mystery. We have to find out by watching the movie, Jordan.

1:46:45 You know, it's a very moving scene in a movie.

1:46:47 I cannot wait to find out where this is going.

1:46:52 Sam's like, we should talk about this for five more minutes.

1:46:55 In Star Trek Generations. Wait, it is Star Trek. I was going to joke.

1:46:58 He's going to say something from Star Trek, and it is.

1:47:01 Go.

1:47:01 In Star Trek Generations, Patrick Stewart, the late Sir Patrick Stewart, he enters the Nexus, which is a projection of whatever your paradise is. And he goes into a Christmas morning. It's kind of like weird 19th century stuff. It's a little strange, but it's a very, very, very touching scene. And Patrick Stewart is the world's greatest actor that ever was.

1:47:25 And if you dismiss Star Trek Generations, don't. It's a masterpiece. And it's my favorite. It's a masterpiece. My favorite representation of Christmas is the scene in the Nexus in Star Trek Generations.

1:47:41 Suck on that. Miracle of 34th Street. That's right.

1:47:44 It's a wonderful life. Shows what you know. It's a wonderful nexus.

1:47:49 That's right.

1:47:50 Is there a dog in the nexus?

1:47:51 Did I miss that?

1:47:52 No.

1:47:53 No, he doesn't care about that part. It's just Star Trek. It's the nexus. I see. It is a nice scene, but I believe it's pronounced the nexus. All right. Streaming on November 6th. Lee Chang-dong's possible love and Lee Chang-dong, the director of burning and poetry and secret sunshine. And Jordan made an executive decision earlier that we're going to talk more about our, lost Star Trek luminaries on a future episode.

1:48:21 Yeah, we'll find a way.

1:48:22 I think I should make an executive decision and say we're going to review Possible Love on the next episode. No offense to A Dog's Perfect Christmas. We can get to it a little closer to the actual Christmas. But I think we should do Possible Love next week. What do you think, Jordan?

1:48:39 Great. I can't wait to see it. It's available to stream on November 6th. Great. But hopefully they'll give it to us earlier.

1:48:48 We'll see.

1:48:48 We'll figure it out.

1:48:51 In the meantime, until then, make sure you send your feedback to us, feedback at filmspottingsvu.com. Of course, you can also get your personalized listener recommendations that way. You can follow us on social media. I'm on Instagram and Letterboxd at superpulse.com. On Blue Sky, I'm Matt Singer. Jordan's Jay Hoffman. Aaron, thank you so much for joining us.

1:49:14 Yes, thank you, Aaron.

1:49:15 You were the first and perhaps not the last It Went So Well guest on Ghostbiting SVU. You won the game. You defeated Jordan. You taught us about Godzilla. It was a lot of fun. Plug away again. Tell us about the podcast and where people can find you.

1:49:32 For sure.

1:49:33 Yeah, thanks for having me. This has been a blast. I've been a fan of SVU since you and Allison were doing it back in the IFC days and everything. So it's been great to be on here. But yeah, I am a film critic. Everything I do can be found on my personal Substack page, thecodeofzeke.substack.com. I write film reviews for leadofentertainment.com. I do host the podcast Two Black Guys Talk Godzilla, which can be found everywhere you can find podcasts, including YouTube. I also co-host a show called Out Now with Aaron and Abe. My friend Abe and I discuss movies on a weekly basis with other film fanatics and film critics alike. And I'm on all the socials at Aaron's PS4. Okay.

1:50:11 What is your sub stack again?

1:50:13 The code is Zeek. Z-E-E-K dot com.

1:50:17 I thought you said Dakota Zeek. Like this was like an outlaw. Like a western. Get out of the saloon. Dakota Zeek is coming in. Run for the hill.

1:50:26 Dakota Zeek is coming.

1:50:28 There was Indiana Jones and there's Dakota City. That's right.

1:50:33 I love it. Well, Aaron, thank you so much. We will, at some point, I don't know if we're ever going to talk about Godzilla again to this extent, but we'll have to have you back sometime.

1:50:42 We'll find an excuse.

1:50:43 We'll find an excuse. Yes, exactly.

1:50:45 This is great.

1:50:45 Film Spotting SVU is produced by Sam Van Halgren. And of course, we are a part of the Film Spotting family of podcasts. You can find out more about us and our other shows at filmspotting.net. I am Matt Sanger.

1:50:59 And I'm Jordan Hoffman. And we'll see you next week.

1:51:09 After an hour and 57 minutes, you want to draw it out as much as possible.