115: Blade II with Roxana Hadadi

0:23 Welcome to Podcasts Like It's the 2000s, the podcast where we talk about the films of the aughts here from our perch in 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Phyllis Goh.

0:30 I'm your other host, Emily St. James, and a fun fact about me is that as dangerous as this podcast is to other podcasters, I am this dangerous to this podcast. I am a new species, and I am here to raise hell and break things.

0:47 It's still going. It's still going.

0:49 It could go on for a really long time.

0:51 My mouth opens like a vagina, and.

0:54 I am ready. I mean, guys, we're going to talk about the, I mean, with us today, more importantly. To continue our miniseries on Guillermo del Toro's 2000s films is TV critic and vulture, Roxana Haddadi. We're talking Blade II today.

1:08 Yeah.

1:11 So first I want to ask, Roxana, macro thoughts on Guillermo del Toro. Are you a fan? Are you... I feel like your mileage may vary. I could be wrong. Yeah.

1:24 In general, I like Guillermo very much.

1:28 Sure.

1:29 I respect him. I like how the movies look. I want to go to his house full of stuff. You want to see the elephant man's bones? Yeah, I just want to hang out. I think he'd be a good hang. I also think, and this is like, I think the modern take on Guillermo or whatever, so I'm not saying anything new, I don't think. But I think my man is too interested in the monsters these days. He's too sympathetic.

1:55 I don't want the beautiful, heroic monsters all the time. I want some monsters who are going to really fuck shit up and want to fuck shit up. And I think he's lost that element increasingly. So that's why I'm excited that we're talking about this. Because as Emily brought up, sometimes a monster is just going to feed on other monsters and do bad shit. And that's fun.

2:18 I think his, his inability to get in the mountains of madness made kind.

2:22 Of broke him.

2:23 Yeah.

2:23 Cause that's like a movie that needs to have monstrous monsters.

2:28 Yes.

2:28 You cannot tell that story without, because they have to be beyond comprehension. So like it's I think that what he is, what he is has done is sort of backed himself into a corner where like the monsters are either so far behind beyond comprehension that They're scary in a way that is existential. Or they're cute little guys.

2:50 They're just adorable little guys.

2:52 Yeah.

2:54 It also makes me wonder about his Hobbit movies too. Right? In terms of not just what we didn't get, but also that's around the moment when you start to feel like he's... grappling with this like how binary how evil are things allowed to be and obviously the lord of the rings is like you know one of the ultimate good versus evil things and yeah i mean in the mouth of madness which i guess he's just flat out given up on right like it seems as though that's just never happening i.

3:32 Think so it's just the budget that would be required yeah and this kind of star he could get attached would have a lot of veto power over the script and stuff and like For all of the reasons, adapting Lovecraft opens cans of worms. One of them is that properly adapting Lovecraft requires a large budget for a story that is inherently off-putting. Because it's like, you are a little worm, and a big worm might come and smush you.

4:02 There's also... Sort of like the racism.

4:07 Of Lovecraft Well there's actually He didn't seem like a good guy from what I've.

4:11 Read I think And that's obviously Baked in a way But I think that the thing is like You could do an adaptation Of that book in particular That would like Allow you to Do interviews about how Lovecraft Was a terrible person And then have the movie itself be like You know whatever But It's, yeah, I think it's, but yes, when I refer to the cans of worms, I was, that he's a bad person. Yeah, bad person.

4:46 Highly influential.

4:48 I'm married to H.P. Lovecraft.

4:49 This is the time to reveal that.

4:51 You're like, excuse me, actually.

4:52 This is where I have to make this announcement.

4:56 Well, because this movie feels like, in a lot of ways, him... figuring out to some degree how to do a studio movie.

5:07 You know, this feels like when there is a promising indie director who gets like railroaded into a studio movie and gets it kind of taken away from them or whatever. And then they were like, I get one more shot at this. I have to make a hit. This is, this is like one of the prime examples of that. I don't like love this movie, but this is very clearly a talented filmmaker being like, I got to make a fucking hit. So I'm just going to like, turn every screw.

5:33 Totally and also just like it's it's a hard r right like back back in the day where like we didn't really do that right don't do that anymore but but back then it was like he was new line cinema god bless him was just like let's get this cool guy to do something um you immediately know you're in the hands of a visionary like a person who has aesthetics and understands how to execute it um it it is very sort of i didn't realize so i haven't watched this film in a really long time i don't think i've watched this film since like around the time it came out quite honestly i loved it back then to be clear but it's just one of those movies that like when i when i have an a gear mo itch i want to scratch this is not

6:25 the one i go to.

6:26 Wait which which is it then.

6:30 I mean, it's a good question. I really love Crimson Peak. Okay, yeah. Which I know is very different. No, that's fine. It's obviously a very different animal. Sure. Yeah, I think that like... And Pan's Labyrinth, I guess, would also be another one which I'm excited to talk about. But yes, Emily, please.

6:52 This might be a conversation for next week as Pan... No, next week as Hellboy. Two weeks from now, when we talk Pan's Although there's a lot of this in Hellboy, too. I think part of what is afflicting Guillermo right now is that his whole thing is perhaps humans and the systems we create are the real monsters. Of course. And all of reality makes you go, yes, Ant. Like, he has never quite developed the Ant, which is fine. And to his credit, that he can tell stories in this, like, the monster is sort of an all-purpose outsider. Mm-hmm. but this kind of feels like one of his few movies where it is like about how the monsters are the true monsters, but he has to come up with a different kind of monster. Yeah. It is, it is like, yeah,

7:44 it's like, he's like, well, there are serial killers who kill other serial killers and that's, you know, important.

7:50 Oh my God.

7:51 Guillermo del Toro's Dexter. We need it.

7:54 Give it to me. We need it. I will say though, like, I'm assuming you guys have heard about, like, something that he's toying with doing next, whether or not it actually happens or not, but, like, Phantom of the Opera?

8:06 Oh, that's interesting, actually. I'm vaguely intrigued by that.

8:10 I'm vaguely intrigued by that, but to Emily's point, I'm not sure that it fixes the and part of this. Yeah, yeah.

8:17 I mean, I think, like, I feel like as I've grown older... Um, the Guillermo's that I returned to most are just when like, he's having a good time with his little guys. And by that, I mean like Pacific Rim and this obviously, like, I think I want some element of Guillermo just to go back to like having some fun.

8:40 I agree.

8:42 Consider that please.

8:43 I do think that, I mean, Frankenstein was disappointing for me.

8:47 Yeah.

8:48 Um it's got stuff in it that i didn't dislike but i also just went into it being like well he should crush this and in my humble opinion he just didn't um but it also feels like hopefully since it's been such a dream project of his for so long and that he got to do it that maybe now he's turned a page and that maybe there's a new who.

9:09 Knows a new creative juice yeah um.

9:13 I'm gonna give a Blade 2? I think he should.

9:17 Make Blade 4. That's what he should do next.

9:20 By the way, if he came back and was like, alright, Marvel, let's do Blade. Like, Mahershala, let's do this. And just like, but, you know. This film follows Blade, Emily. Played by Wesley Snipes. A human-vampire hybrid in his continuing effort to protect humans from vampires. Blade must join forces with an elite group of vampires to fight against mutant vampires. who planned a global genocide of both vampire and human races. Blade II opened on March 22, 2002 against Ice Age, a re-release of E.T., Showtime, Resident Evil, We Were Soldiers, and The Time Machine.

9:58 Hey. i think i've seen most of those.

10:02 Resident evil and blade 2 came out like the original resident evil and blade 2 came out on the same weekend.

10:08 I think resident evil came out a week or two earlier but it was like the same.

10:13 Box office of this week phil just like reads all the movies that were out in your and you.

10:17 In that well i mean i yeah it it did open against these movies they just.

10:21 Didn't because he's a liar sure how dare.

10:24 You um i just mean like these are the top five movies that were in the box office of this week of course um.

10:31 Was i was was this the first week of ice age.

10:35 I believe it was they came out in the same week i i loved ice age it's great Does the child like Ice Age?

10:44 We've never watched it. The child has seen Scrat and finds Scrat interesting. I remember watching that movie in theaters and there was a kid who is now about my kid's age who, when the mom dies in Ice Age, at the end of Ice Age, was like, now they can go find the mom. And that's how my child would be. She would be like, oh, you know what?

11:04 Now they're going to go find the mom. She understands death and also she thinks it can be defeated.

11:10 So. I mean, is she wrong?

11:15 No. No, she's not, actually.

11:18 She's, uh, yeah.

11:19 You can become a vampire or, you know, like a crazy, wackier vampire.

11:25 Yeah. And people are brought back from the dead. I mean, briefly. If they've died briefly. I mean, not extended periods of time. This is true. Yeah. Blade II went on to make $ 155 million on a $ 55 million budget. It's got a 52 score on Metacritic from critics, a 7.1 from audiences, a 3.3 average on Letterboxd. Roger Ebert gave this film three and a half stars out of four.

11:50 Awesome.

11:52 Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons. Art. It's great. It's great. still in his 30s the Mexican born director doesn't depend on computers to get him through a movie and impress the kids with fancy fight scenes he brings his creepy phobias along with him you can sense the difference between a movie that's a technical exercise Resident Evil and one steamed in the dread cauldrons of the filmmakers imagination yeah I mean sure it is interesting to me and Emily I'm curious if you have thoughts on it both of you obviously but Ebert seems to really like Guillermo del Toro seems to hit a vein for ebert in a way that a

12:36 lot of filmmakers that have been tagged with the you know uh style over substance stick if you will and i wonder if some of that has to do with the international component right that there's this like cultural component that kind.

12:55 Of works i think i think the critics always kind of dug guillermo um it helped that he had chronos and devil's backbone but also it helped that everything was so, um, handmade. Now, you know, Frankenstein, um, has CG elements, but you're like, that feels like he went into a computer, like reached his hands into a computer and like started playing with whatever was in AutoCAD. Um, but, uh, it, that's how they make special effects. They open up AutoCAD and they just like, that's how they do it.

13:32 Um, and literally with their hands like minority.

13:35 Yeah yeah it's but yeah he he has that that feeling and this movie feels hand crafted in a way that like this is the this is the era of people saying computer effects suck because they often sucked and if a movie had a lot of computer effects it got dinged for that and we uh you know a couple months after this ebert will ding spider-man for that very reason And we now have just sort of given in to the machines. And we're now fighting the AI.

14:06 And 20 years from now, we will be eaten by everything.

14:11 I do think, though, it is worth noting.

14:14 I want to be clear to our future AI overlords listening to this. Please make me very hot. That's all I ask.

14:21 You mean hotter. You're pretty hotter.

14:23 I want to be like 22 and kind of a dumb bitch. That's what I want.

14:27 Yeah.

14:28 Yeah. I do sometimes think, I mean, my partner and I talk about this all the time, it probably would be a lot easier to be dumb. Like, just to be perfectly honest. Ignorance is bliss. I don't want to think about the world. Like, if I could be early 20s, dumb, you know, better gravity on what's happening up top, like, that would be great.

14:49 I have, like, basically... no faith that we're going to invent artificial super intelligence anytime soon but if we do it's going to be so much smarter than me that i should just be a dumb girl who's really pretty.

15:00 All i want to do is go to the mall and the ai can run the world.

15:07 That sounds good yeah it does i mean it raises the the joey pants from the matrix.

15:14 Yeah situation into the matrix.

15:16 I don't want to be out maybe Plug me in.

15:18 I don't want that.

15:19 Just let me be an.

15:21 Idiot with my goop and whatever.

15:27 One of my very good friends is the man who runs my local coffee shop. And the other day he was worrying about AI. And I was like, you know... you make lattes i think that we are a ways away from the ai being able to make a latte as good as you and also if the ai takes over i don't care i'll be dead i will hopefully be killed quickly and painlessly but like i kind of can't i you know what i i just i'm much too sanguine about death which is what blade 2 is about.

15:56 It kind of is it a little bit is yeah.

16:00 I'm also brought it back I'm also in many ways a day walker because I do go outside during the day.

16:05 Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes.

16:08 Very true.

16:08 I do think that... So I... As I was watching this the other day, I was thinking about its take on vampires, right? And how.

16:22 Few.

16:23 We've had so many vampire movies and we will have many more, right? But very few of them deviate from... are kind of rigid ideas of what they're allowed to be. I think that I would actually argue both this and Blade I as well are kind of deconstructing the vampire stuff in an interesting way. And this in particular, the actual, like, as you mentioned, Emily, the mouths, this sort of this mouth fang situation that these vampires have Might be the last time I've been genuinely surprised by an aesthetic with vampires.

17:06 You know what I mean?

17:09 When was 30 Days of Night?

17:12 That's a couple years later.

17:12 Good question. That's a couple years later.

17:14 I feel like that was the last time that I was like.

17:16 That's a good call. This is spooky.

17:18 I don't like this.

17:19 I loved when they sparkled in Twilight. That's a different aesthetic.

17:26 She did love when they sparkled in Twilight. I mean, Twilight just bucks everything because it's like, and they could be out during the day because it's Seattle and there's no sun.

17:34 It's like, what are we doing? I mean, some of that stuff is in Interview with the Vampire. Like, some of that is throughout Rice's books.

17:41 I love Interview with the Vampire.

17:43 Yeah, and it just gets a little reworked in Twilight.

17:47 I'm reading Salem's Lot, the Stephen King book, and the introduction is by Joe Hill. Stephen King's son, so totally unfair.

17:57 Yeah. Completely objective.

17:59 But he has this argument that there are only four vampire books that have influenced how we think about vampires. And they are Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Twilight, and Salem's Lot. I think Salem's Lot is basically just Dracula in an American small town, so I think he's just trying to give his dad points where they don't exist.

18:21 He's putting himself in there.

18:22 Yeah.

18:22 To a certain extent, like it is like this strain of like monstrous romantic vampire that like gradually wears away. The monstrousness like is, um, uh, culminates in twilight. And this movie and like 30 days of night where are like saying, no, these are, these are meant to be monsters who like you. And that is like a strain of vampire. We increasingly have, have gotten away from now.

18:48 There are political reasons for this, which we can get into later, but, There is.

18:53 A kind of zombie-ish component to these vampires, and I would say to 30 Days of Night as well, where they're genuinely trying to scare you. They're trying to do something that feels visceral and different.

19:08 I think what happened is that a lot of what's scary about vampires gets supplanted by werewolves and zombies, who are more able to maul you or convert you into the dead or whatever.

19:23 My general feeling is that like 28 days later sort of like killed the vampire. Because I think like the rage virus and the ability to like spread that very quickly and like the need to feed and the undead quality. I feel like all of those things sort of subsumed what we wanted from like scary vampires. So then they became this very just like the sexualized other rather than like the outsider other which is also why I think like Eggers' Nosferatu sort of like broke some people's brains because he was doing both again in like an interesting kind of way even though.

20:08 I feel like that movie is doing for coppola's dracula again.

20:12 Oh totally yeah yeah yeah yeah my only thing about that is that like they did not make nosferatu hot which i appreciated like gary oldman is still meant to be hot in bram stoker's dracula like you know he is still meant to be human presenting.

20:28 I could not so i saw nosferatu at like a guild screening and i i genuinely couldn't unsee dr robotnik in yeah in Nosferatu. I was just like, this is silly. He's not scary. He's got a big mustache, a big coat. He's just like, what is this?

20:46 He's just sort of gross. You would, Emily? Good for you.

20:51 Any version?

20:52 He's got a lot of money. I have a lot of financial insecurity at the moment.

20:57 So... I get that.

20:59 He has his whole castle. I can just do whatever with it.

21:03 The thing I love about Eggers is also the thing that drives me nuts about him, which is that he correctly embeds you in the period aesthetic and the ideas of that period. And the vampire increasingly is how we talk about the ultra rich and the seduction that is having a lot of money. Someone who has a lot of money, um, um, loving you you just have to give up your humanity to be with them and how that like can be a very seductive or beautiful idea and Nosferatu is like yeah well in the 1800s it was like some big fat guy with like terrible teeth who wanted to come and like consume you whole yeah and um now too fat He's just tall.

21:51 He's big. He's a big guy.

21:53 He's a bulky guy.

21:54 He's a wide husband. One of my favorite terms. He's just a wide man.

21:58 I'm just thinking about my husband from my past life who was a real ogre.

22:03 He was short.

22:04 But yeah. It's happening. And the thing about that is now, you know, if you are extremely rich, you can just keep buying plastic surgery until you look vaguely presentable.

22:16 Sure.

22:17 And that was not the case in Nosferatu's day. And back when he was alive... Back in Nosferatu's day? Anyway, Blade 2 is also about this.

22:27 Here's the thing, though. To come back to your point, Roxanna, because I think it's very astute.

22:33 Apologies to Nosferatu, who is merely wide. I'm sorry to have insulted you. Sorry, Nosferatu.

22:37 I do think that.

22:39 that vampires became romanticized. They became sort of very sexualized and also a little bit laconic, like a little bit kind of just graceful and sort of theatrical in their own kind of outdated way. And then I think to your point, the 28 days later thing created this visceral thing with zombies that they can move fast. And like this group think, And I think that like 30 Days of Night and Blade II still had that juice or were trying for that kind of thing.

23:17 They walked the line, yeah.

23:18 And I think that watching Blade II the other day, I was just like, this has like propulsion and is really sort of obviously is action packed and it has all that sort of stuff. We just don't do that with vampires anymore. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, I'm okay with vampires being in a lane that's, you know, very sort of old-fashioned, I guess, is maybe the way to describe it. But watching this, I was like, fuck yeah. Vampires can be scary.

23:50 But I think to your point, what was also interesting about these movies was that they posited that there was this, like, whole international vampire society. And to go back to Emily's point about like vampires being like creepy, rich old people who were just trying to like fuck you and consume you. There was that element within these two movies, which I think we have a lot like Twilight has.

24:18 What are they?

24:18 The Voltari or whatever.

24:20 Yes.

24:20 But they're sort of just like arbiters of who gets to be a vampire there.

24:24 It's not scary.

24:25 Like this same sort of like vast international world. bureaucracy which is what the first two blades had i think in a really interesting way you know we're not talking about we're not talking about underworld because the vampires and underworld were also sort of similar to this yeah i think again we sort of like moved away from sorry we sort of moved away from that as well but yeah underworld was also sort of like cooking with these same we don't talk about underworld as a society.

24:59 You know what You know what thought I had the other day? Genuinely, I was like, next Halloween we should do Underworld and Resident Evil. These two horror franchises that had zillions. It would be six weeks of us talking about franchises. I think neither of us is really... I've seen a couple of Resident Evils and liked them.

25:18 There's only three Underworlds in the 2000s.

25:22 And then there's three Resident Evils. So you're pretty evenly trading on. Yeah. I.

25:28 don't think i knew that danny mcbride wrote the first two underworlds.

25:34 Are danny mcbride or another danny.

25:36 Mcbride different danny mcbride yeah i don't think it's this is a daniel flynn mcbride an american stuntman and screenwriter that's why my brain was a little melted there.

25:45 Right yeah it's not my wide husband.

25:47 Dan not your wife it's some other different different gentlemen.

25:52 What if we made a properly scary, seductive vampire movie with Danny McBride as the vampire in full Penny Powers mode.

26:00 First of all, I'd watch. Second of all, we all know about his Southern Vampire Hunters show that HBO passed on, right?

26:08 True, we don't. We don't know about that. Did they pass it because it was too true-bloody? Were they just like, we did Southern Vampires already?

26:15 Maybe, but who fucking cares, Phil? I'm still trying to see it. I still want it. hbo doesn't remember that hbo did true blood so it doesn't matter that's a good point uh the underworld movies are kind of crazy pretty weird and.

26:33 And quite successful i mean listen i i'm i'm down to talk underworld and resident evil with you i just.

26:40 Miss when the vampire aesthetic was like pvc and raves yes like that's really what i.

26:47 Meant like basically monochromatic.

26:50 Yeah hundred percent it's all kind of.

26:52 Like gunmetal blue and grays.

26:54 Yeah and there's always just like a princess vampire who's like i want something more from my life and you're like bless of course that would.

27:03 Be emily what if you were a vampire how many raves do you think you'd go to like.

27:08 A week a week that's the type of raves literally like 84 i would go to one every hour.

27:16 Of the night time the dance club rave whatever you want to call it in this movie I had a vague recollection I remember there being a rave and then I was like oh now I remember why they're like cutting each other open yeah.

27:31 There's so much oral sex happening like a lot they're.

27:34 Putting razor blades in their mouths and kissing each other this is fucking crazy.

27:39 But don't you feel like Guillermo watched the blood rave and was like I can improve.

27:43 Upon this I can do better yeah.

27:46 Hand me my beer.

27:47 Hold my beer. Yeah. It's a real like, wow, he went there. It's great. Yeah.

27:52 He really thought, what would these fucked up weirdos be doing? And then he showed us what those fucked up weirdos would be doing.

27:59 The thing, too, that also came to mind as I was watching this in a pretty big way was The Matrix. Oh, of course. Yes. This movie obviously is indebted to The Matrix in many ways. You mentioned the black PVC leather. You know what I mean? There's a lot of action sequences, the kung fu, all that sort of stuff. But also just... um, the slow motion Kung Fu, all of that is feeling very sort of indebted to it. The thing I was going to mention earlier though, is special effects in this movie are a little janky at times. There's a lot of moments where blade is moving around sort of vampire movements that are clearly not blade. Like there's, you know, there's that watery kind of vibe from the movement of

28:41 some people, but I mean, it just went to this, but, um, Yes, Emily, you look like you have something to say.

28:47 I'm just thinking about Blade.

28:48 Yeah, as you should. So Wesley Snipes is Blade in this movie. Wesley Snipes... I don't know when Wesley Snipes' tax issues became a problem for him. But it should be said that he was not always available each day of filming of this movie. What? So during 2002, Wesley starred in three other films... other than blade two and instead of waiting for wesley to become available the crew shot other actors stunt doubles various scenes that are shot over shoulder what have you um it is interesting to think about where wesley snipes was in 2002 in his career and he is in a lot of movies but they're not movies that i've ever heard of liberty stands still zigzag undisputed i've never heard of these before i

29:41 don't know what these movies are were all of.

29:43 These made in like budapest for 48 hours of time is when he starts really doing dvd like then it's direct to video basically for everything that he does after that right right.

29:55 So I'm starting to think that this is when the troubles have financially perhaps have, have, have come for him a little bit because it's like, what are we like? Yeah. Remember the art of war guys? Yeah.

30:08 He got hit with like a, he got hit with like an audit and he was like, you know what? I have to make some.

30:13 I gotta make some stuff.

30:16 Um, yeah, I have a really important question about blade and blade too.

30:20 Please, please. Yeah.

30:21 You can kiss one man. Do you kiss?

30:25 I mean, I know your answer.

30:27 Do you kiss Blade? Do you kiss Stephen Dorff? Or do you kiss Jared Nomek? You can only kiss one.

30:37 Also known as Luke Gross is the actor's name.

30:40 Hot bitch. Emily, what's your answer?

30:46 I mean, I was going to say Ron Perlman, but he's not an option.

30:49 No, he can be an option. He can be your option.

30:51 I just think you could climb that man like a tree.

30:56 He's definitely a wide man.

30:58 He's a wide husband.

30:59 He's a wide husband.

31:02 I think it would be Blade. He's very pretty. He's a very handsome man. And you know what? I think that he and I could go outside together.

31:12 Can I add one other gentleman to the mix here? Of course. Chris Christopherson. Still a snack.

31:17 Still had it.

31:19 He's 60-something in this movie, and he's shirtless at one point. I'm like, this guy's still fucking cut. Like, this guy looks great.

31:27 You're like, when the vampires had you hostage, were they making you do cardio?

31:31 What's happening? What's happening? Why do you look this good? You've been in a bloodbath for however long. Yeah. Chris Christopherson, who really looked great, basically, until the end.

31:43 So, Phil, that's your answer?

31:44 I think Chris Christopherson's my answer.

31:45 Yeah, Jared's my answer, obviously.

31:50 Jared is hot in this. I'm not going to lie. Jared's not the scariest name? No.

31:57 But I like, you know, Guillermo has his periods where he works with certain people over and over. He was then Evil Prince and Hellboy 2. So he had a little bit of a lane with Guillermo for a while.

32:10 And with Roman, obviously.

32:12 Yeah, but I do like the sort of structural... reveal obviously that he is like the castaway prince again all of all of guillermo's themes are here right they're all the ignored son like the question of inheritance like all of these things are present but yes i do like i do like the jared character very much should we talk about the vagina mouth okay okay.

32:42 The thing is, Jared does not sound like a scary name until you say it in the Romanian accent.

32:47 Right.

32:48 Until suddenly you're at like a really creepy industrial tiled blood bank. And they're calling.

32:54 I love the blood bank up top where I'm like, I don't think this meets medical protocols. I think this feels a little bit on the. Yeah, it's it's. I mean, this movie is so stylish from the jump.

33:07 Yeah. You immediately know it's a Guillermo. That specific shade of, like, sickly green is so, so affiliated with him in this time.

33:19 That I rewatched it. Yeah, exactly.

33:22 Moldy. Slimy. Just very gross. But as I was watching it, I was like, God, I wish I could have gone clubbing in Berlin, like, when that was a thing.

33:31 Back in the day, yeah.

33:32 Yeah.

33:33 I do think that... So. I think that Guillermo really knows he has something with the vagina mouth because he holds off on it for an hour. Right. Like you see people get bit, but it's all kind of obscured or it's from angles that you can't really see.

33:51 The, the opening, but not the full thing. Yeah.

33:54 Right. And you don't really know what the slit in their, their chin is. Once he shows it to you, then he like the last hour is just like, it's all vagina mouth all day long, which, you know, great. I am Jedid. I have a vagina mouth. Autopsy is when we really get a sense of the biology of what we're looking at here.

34:18 The autopsy A, grosses me out. I'm hard to gross out. And B, it's clear how much time Guillermo had spent just thinking about. What if there's just like a weird little mouth inside you? Yeah.

34:35 Yeah.

34:38 I think that he thought for a long time about what the bone would sound like. Like when they thwack it and they're like, heart's protected by this layer of bone. Guillermo definitely spent a really long time thinking about that. And again, I think maybe to go back to Ebert's point, that shit is so gnarly and was so clearly created by a team of people who were bringing Guillermo samples of blood and stuff like that.

35:02 Totally.

35:04 I sometimes think about Obviously, I think we should have no billionaires. Of course. If we were going to pick one person to be our one billionaire, I think it should be Guillermo. I think we should give him several billion dollars and he'll be like, I'm going to make vampires for real. And he'll be like, okay, why not?

35:25 We replaced the criminal justice system with a series of vampires who just... What? Exact vengeance.

35:32 Guillermo del Toro, please... become our one billionaire and just like you just use it to make monsters real and we're all like this sounds fine this is.

35:41 Good my god gear mount would literally open the portal for pacific rip he'd be like this is how i'm jump-starting the economy i'm bringing.

35:48 Great give us kaijus give us big robots do you.

35:52 Know how sad i was go ahead emily this is my policy proposal and if any if any democratic presidential candidates for 2028 are listening you may steal this We have one billionaire, but they have to spend all of that money to get back down under a billion in a year. So that's like, they could invest in whatever they want.

36:14 Okay.

36:15 So Guillermo tries to make vampires.

36:17 Yeah. Great.

36:18 You know, I would probably just be like, make myself a dumb bitch.

36:22 Right.

36:23 Yeah.

36:24 We're just always like, like trying to find.

36:27 Yeah.

36:28 Yeah.

36:28 That sounds right. All I was going to say about this kaiju potential is I remember when I read an interview with Charlie Hunnam where he was like, I didn't enjoy working on Pacific Rim because I didn't understand anything that was happening. And I thought to myself, A, you dumb bitch. And B, it's very simple what's happening, Charlie.

36:50 There are kaiju coming through a portal and you're fighting them in a giant robot. I don't understand anything. What you're not grasping.

37:00 About this.

37:01 I'm always amazed by how that attitude. Has become so prevalent. Among I think the general public. The Charlie Hunnam attitude. When it was not really present. When they were making Blade. And I genuinely think it's some element of. The MCU. Gets blamed for this the most. But it's the. God love his writing style. Which has trickled down into every single thing. I've ever fucking written. But Joss Whedon's thing. Like, oh, look at this thing. This thing. You don't need to take it too seriously because we're having fun here. And I think you get a movie like Pacific Rim or like this where everything is taken very like it's seriously within the context of it being silly and ridiculous.

37:42 Yeah.

37:43 And like the audience increasingly doesn't know what to do with that. The audience is increasingly like. how do I, how do I conceptualize of something where I'm not being told that it's okay to, to think it's dumb, you know?

37:57 Yeah. Yeah.

37:58 Yeah. I think like at its best played to, to me is a fast and the furious movie. And I say that with all affection for both properties. It's like, I think except the absurdity of what is going on and you can't think too much about it. And that's fine because everyone's having a good time and a fully realized world that you don't need to fully understand because To still accept.

38:22 Tangent. Should we add Buffy to Joe Hill's list? Because I do feel a lot of Buffy influence in this.

38:29 That's a really good point.

38:29 I mean, yes.

38:31 It's not a book, which is why he didn't put it on. It is obviously playing off the Dracula motifs. But it is like.

38:40 It definitely changed vampires.

38:42 The dusting effect, which they did just because they needed something cheap. Like that's all over this movie. And you're like, okay, interesting. Yeah.

38:52 And I think the concept of the soul, which like interview with the vampire is sort of like shaky on until you get into like later books. But this concept of like a demon takes over your body, but like your soul can still be retrieved.

39:07 Like that's fascinating.

39:08 I don't have any memory of that occurring.

39:10 I also think that not to put too fine a point on it, but like, and made that shit gay. In the best way. She really ran with the idea of like gender and sex and all that. Everything's up for grabs in a way that I don't think anyone really had done. And I would argue, I don't think anyone's really done since. same way um so the person that i that i want to bring up here and it you you you mentioned marvel a moment ago emily um david goyer is uh the person who uh wrote this screenplay uh wanted morbius to be the villain okay Yes.

39:50 Oh my God.

39:53 That's why, that's why the Herschella movie fell through. They were like, we need Morbius. And Sony was like, you can't have it.

40:00 That's why it fell through. That's why. Yeah. So he wanted to use Morbius. Marvel said they wanted to keep that character as a franchise of his own. And Lord knows we got our Morbius movie and it made $ 8 trillion.

40:10 I think it really worked out that they made that choice. That was a good call.

40:14 Do you think if i say it's morbin times seven or eight more times during this podcast sony will re-release it again because it's like well some lady somewhere obviously.

40:23 Obviously i so david goyer is one of those guys who like i'm looking at his filmography right now and it's like it ain't great um it's it it is and and but you know.

40:37 It has some bangers.

40:40 But he's adjacent to those bangers. He's not, like, in the thick of it, right?

40:44 Dark City is a banger.

40:46 Yeah. Dark City's a banger. You're right. You're right. Dark City's a banger. I never saw The Crow City of Angels, so I can't speak to that.

40:52 No.

40:53 Is that the furlong one? Which one is that one?

40:55 Is that the Kirsten Dunst one?

40:56 No, this is another one.

40:58 No, that's a different one. You're right.

41:00 The Kirsten Dunst one is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, so.

41:04 I mean, basically, he writes this... His best script, I guess, is Batman Begins. Just sole writing credit on that movie. Yeah. You know, that obviously gets him into The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises as well. But, you know.

41:19 The rest of it is not good.

41:21 No. The worst thing you can say about him is that he ultimately kills this franchise because Blade Trinity is really no good.

41:27 I would like to hang with him, though.

41:30 I'm sure he's fun.

41:30 I'd just, like, slam Monster Energy drinks and play Batman.

41:34 I'm sure that's exactly what's happening, yeah.

41:36 And talk about Foundation? Yeah. Oh, fuck.

41:39 You know what? David, hire me on Foundation.

41:43 You're like, actually, I take everything back.

41:44 I take everything back, yeah.

41:46 I would get to the foundations of Foundation.

41:48 He did write an episode of Guillermo's Cabinet of Curiosities.

41:52 Very good show.

41:53 Fun show.

41:54 Great show. He wrote an episode of that, The Autopsy.

41:56 Uh-huh.

41:59 I don't mean to say that, listen, he's very successful, and I'm really not sitting here saying that, like, that he's intrinsic. I think that his intentions are pure and fun. Like I don't really have a problem necessarily with like his aims per se. Like he's not, I think that obviously he, you know, he's sort of involved in the Snyder verse and I have my issues with the Snyder verse.

42:21 So like whatever, but I don't, I don't necessarily think that he's to blame for all of these things going sideways. Right. Like I don't think that jumper is necessarily a bad movie because of David Goyer's.

42:34 Script right there are other elements there are other elements of play with that particular piece of cinema.

42:40 Right yeah um yeah but it is just interesting that like this is when he kind of gets juice it's this it's the success of this movie which he which he leverages to get to write and direct the next blade movie which is no good particularly i do blame him for play trinity to be clear he's that's his entire he produced and wrote his money it's a good question let's see i think think so.

43:04 I i mean i yeah it cost 65 for giving us that version of ryan reynolds because that version of ryan reynolds is then we still live with the rest of ryan reynolds.

43:17 I just remember that parker posey stole that movie as is the case with hot bitch.

43:26 Talk about pvc yeah.

43:27 I mean i listen Maybe I should rewatch Blade Trinity because I'm looking at this. I'm like, right. RZA did the score.

43:34 No, I think Beale and Reynolds are absolutely terrible. Like the performances, like making Blade part of a new team was not the way to go. But sure. If you want to spend like 100 minutes of your day. But watching it recently after watching Blade 2 is just going to make you mad. So best of luck.

43:56 I do. I do. I want to talk for a second about... You mentioned the team. Because in this movie, Blade is forced to work with the Blood Pack.

44:03 And he doesn't like it.

44:04 He doesn't like the Blood Pack. Yeah. The Blood Packs, they're a bunch of stinkers. Yeah.

44:09 And they don't like him either.

44:14 I'm going to say... But can I just say... Yeah. Give me a team of weirdos that I'm going to watch get picked off one by one.

44:20 Just a team of weird freaks.

44:21 All day long. Give it to me. It's great. I loved it. Ron Perlman... As the leader of the Blood Pack, Rod Perlman obviously would go on to play the titular Hellboy. He would also... Is he in any other... I believe.

44:38 He's in Kronos.

44:40 Oh, is he?

44:40 Yes, he's in Kronos.

44:42 Okay, so they go back.

44:44 He's in Pacific Rim.

44:46 You're right, you're right. Isn't he in Frankenstein?

44:49 Does he narrate something in Frankenstein? i thought he had something to do.

44:54 With frankenstein maybe he's in frankenstein let's see i'm gonna look um i i love ron perlman i think he's great they seem like a match made in heaven like they just everything about that first of all the way that ron perlman looks makes sense that garen was like i need you in all of my things um it also makes me wonder if like It makes me think that Guillermo's probably a fan of like City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection as well. 100%.

45:22 He was absolutely watching the Beauty and the Beast show every week.

45:27 Yes.

45:28 Absolutely.

45:29 Yes. Well, it's Linda Hamilton. You know what?

45:32 Why doesn't Guillermo do new Beauty and the Beast?

45:36 Well, because Disney would be like, don't touch beauty and the beast. Yeah.

45:41 Beauty and the beast is public domain. You can do whatever the fuck you want with beauty.

45:45 It's true. It's true.

45:45 You can do a thing where beauty is the beast and the beast is the beauty.

45:49 If you want it. Interesting. Yeah. Um, so Tim Curry was considered to play, uh, Damascus. That's interesting. The, the, the sort of, I guess you'd say the big bad of this movie. Yeah.

46:01 He's the big bad.

46:02 He's the big bad, uh, great makeup. I mean, that really could have been anybody quite honestly. Yeah. That makeup. Um, but it's great. Guillermo loves a sort of slick, hairless, sort of fetus-looking wet thing. He really likes that.

46:22 Okay, here's all the times he's worked with Ron Perlman. Kronos, Lay 2, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, Pacific Rim, Nightmare Alley, and he did A Voice in Pinocchio, which made me laugh.

46:35 That's what I'm thinking of.

46:37 That makes sense. Have you seen Nightmare Alley?

46:41 We keep talking about how it feels like Guillermo's lost a little bit, but Nightmare Alley's one of my favorite movies.

46:48 I love Nightmare Alley.

46:49 And Pinocchio is, I think, quite good. It's really just that Frankenstein was kind of a lot. Yeah.

46:58 I mean, it should be said that Emerali was a financial disaster, but anyway. He's Bruno.

47:03 He's Bruno.

47:04 Oh, sure, he's Bruno. Of course he's Bruno.

47:07 We all have the Bruno Funko Pop.

47:09 Yeah, of course. Of course. Nick Fury was supposed to be in this movie as well, guys. Oh, yeah. That didn't happen. He was supposed to appear, but was ultimately, obviously, pulled. It's just, it's funny to me that. Goyer is like, just let me play with these toys. And that Marvel at least has the wherewithal to be like, I think there's more juice in this than being in the Blade sequel. It is interesting. I love the Blood Red New Line logo up top. The previously on Blade sequence is pretty amazing. I'm curious as to how many new blade people came to blade to having not seen the first blade, but I guess you just cover your ass and hope for the best.

48:02 I had never seen a blade movie before watching.

48:04 Oh really?

48:04 So I appreciated that. Like I knew, I know everything about blade just from cultural osmosis and being married to blade, but, um, yeah, that's just like my one joke. It's like, I'm married to this person. I would marry blade. I would.

48:21 Blade's hot.

48:23 I just like, you know, it'd be really nice to know that I was safe from vampires and could also go out during the day with my husband. True.

48:31 You can go on a little date.

48:32 Yeah.

48:33 Go get lunch in a cafe.

48:36 So Wesley Snipes, not to sort of like breeze past Wesley Snipes, because I do think he fucking rules in this movie. He's an absolute badass. He's just so cool. He completely embodies his character in a way that I might argue, maybe more than almost anything he's ever done. This just feels so in his bones. Well, he's not spinning lots of things that I love to be clear demolition man being maybe at the top of that list, but I do think that he just fully understands this character, which is why it's such a bummer that the third one was such a dud and that the franchise just kind of ended because I think there's a lot more to be done with this. obviously marvel's struggled with this character right maher sally what probably three four years ago

49:29 something in that vicinity it.

49:32 Was right after he won for green book So it.

49:36 Was like 2019, 2018. That's that's 2018.

49:39 I mean, he won. He won in early 2019. Yeah.

49:43 And I think he said recently that he's been done with it for a year.

49:46 Yeah.

49:47 So it was like five years of whatever was going on.

49:50 I mean, listen, COVID's in there, but we'll put just we'll just say it's like.

49:55 It clearly ran into the buzzsaw of Marvel not knowing what it wanted to be anymore. And the thing of where Marvel was like, well, everything needs to be part of this universe, when Blade kind of just needs to be off doing his own thing for a while. And it seems like it seemed like Marvel might have been getting back to that, and now it looks like Doomsday is going to be the biggest movie of the year, so they're just going to double down. I mean.

50:22 There's nothing that makes me feel more disconnected from the world than Doomsday.

50:27 Yeah, the fact that Doomsday is... I was so sure I was going to be like, well, you know, it'll do well. It'll make a billion, but it'll be like an Avatar 3 style. It's disappointing despite making a huge amount, and it looks like the pre-sales make it look like it's going to be the biggest movie of the year, and I just don't get it.

50:44 Can I just say, not to get off on a tangent, but The rumors of the budget for that movie eclipse like a billion dollars.

50:57 I thought you were going to say how excited you were for Doomsday.

51:01 I am not excited for Doomsday. I will see it begrudgingly. But I agree with you, Emily. It's going to make a lot of money. but I don't think it's actually going to be profitable.

51:11 I mean, it will be profitable in the sense that it will briefly reignite the MCU as a thing that matters.

51:17 And the interest within it.

51:19 Yeah.

51:19 And it's also probably that and the second one, I don't remember the name of, they're going to be able to clean house house in a way that.

51:26 They can like it's called the doomsday it's just another d in front it's just.

51:30 Yeah and then the fact then the fact that they're immediately restarting everything with x-men in 2020 right like it's gonna work and i'm gonna be so mad about.

51:41 It i guess i guess i'm a little less on it yeah.

51:45 I just like yeah I was so sure it was going to be colossally, not a colossally unsuccessful, but unsuccessful in the sense where like a lot of money was not enough money. And that may be the case regardless of how much money it makes, but it does look like it's going to be one of the five biggest movies of all time. And that annoys me.

52:02 So there's a new Marvel and it's going to be nuts.

52:05 Yeah. Crazy.

52:07 I'm, I'm a little, I know what you're saying, Emily. And I, I don't, fully disagree with you by any means. I think that obviously it's pre-sales are very high, you know, whatnot. I think it's going to make a lot of money. I don't mean to suggest that it's not. I think there's going to be a lot of spin and there's going to be a lot of people, you know, touting it as more successful financially and culturally than it probably is because they have, because the machine needs this thing to work so desperately. Yes. that I just kind of wonder whether or not some of that bounces off people, but I could be wrong. I mean, I don't know.

52:46 I will say I like these characters.

52:47 I don't give a shit about, so.

52:49 I, I liked Spider-Man brand new day. Fine. It's my favorite of the Holland movies.

52:54 Really?

52:54 Yeah. I, I'm not a big fan of the, that series, despite liking him and liking Zendaya and liking all of that. Um, but I was not anticipating it becoming the biggest film of all time domestically. Like genuinely, I was like, I think people are kind of over superheroes and there's like a hardcore who's going to go to all of them.

53:12 And then they're super, Spider-Man and Batman will draw in more viewers because people love those characters. And then it'll be very project dependent. Superman can hit super girl. Well, not that sort of thing.

53:22 Yeah.

53:23 And, uh, no, no, it's literally just, um, uh, they're back.

53:26 And, uh, I do think, I mean, listen, Spider-Man brand new day, uh, made more money than I could ever possibly have thought it would. Yes. But also Spider-Man had been gone for six years. Yeah.

53:40 He went to another planet. We forgot about it.

53:42 So there was a little bit of like, people just wanted, were excited that Spider-Man was back. There's no one in Doomsday. If you put a gun to the head of most people on the street, they could name any of the characters that are in Doomsday.

53:54 Oh, they're excited for Captain American Thor.

53:56 They're excited for Robert Downey Jr.

53:58 Yeah.

53:59 Which I don't understand personally. But I do think that's what people are excited for, to have their favorite snarky little boy back.

54:06 Behind a mask with a bad Russian accent, not actually playing the cans.

54:11 Hey, man, no argument here. I think that movie could be punted into the sun and everything would be fine. But unfortunately, that's not where we live now. I'm saying all this. What if Blade shows up and kills.

54:24 This character, Doctor Doom?

54:27 You know, then I'm in.

54:28 Then I am in.

54:30 I agree with you, Emily, to your initial point.

54:32 What if the start of it is Doctor Doom shows up, Blade kills him, then the title comes up, it says Avengers Doom, so they cross out Avengers and write Blade. It's just a Blade movie?

54:43 Yeah, that sounds great.

54:44 I mean, I do think that you're absolutely right, Emily, that the reason that Marvel struggled sort of bringing Blade back was they didn't know how he fit into this universe. But at the same time, There's kind of an, I mean, I guess, uh, uh, fucking, um, Oh my God. What am I, why am I drawing a blank on Ryan Reynolds?

55:08 Fucking stupid.

55:09 Deadpool.

55:10 Deadpool and Wolverine was obviously a very successful movie, which to Marvel's credit, they found a way to bring Deadpool into their universe to some degree. I didn't meet him there. I don't need them at all, but I understand that they were successful in doing that.

55:26 Well, Deadpool knows he's in a cinematic universe, which helps.

55:28 He does. All this is to say that, like, you know, Blade's in that movie, technically. You know, Wesley Snipes is in that movie. But it all just feels like a weird potpourri of stuff. It doesn't really feel like it. It all feels very adjacent to the Marvel universe.

55:46 Right.

55:47 Right. I just think that Blade is ultimately too cool for all this shit.

55:51 I mean, it's very much that. I think also it comes down to the fact that they couldn't figure out a way to make a PG-13 Blade. Why even do that? There was no point in doing that. And I think that they were deathly afraid of launching new ideas. What was the last new idea?

56:09 I don't know.

56:10 Captain Marvel, I guess? I think all of it is like, these movies are in the mode of The audience goes and they're like, oh, hey, I know that character. They were introduced 18 years ago or whatever. And that's just the movie. But it's fine. I have my hot vampire prince who I can watch at home.

56:31 Captain Marvel is an adaptation of a 2010's motivational poster hanging in Sheryl Sandberg's office. Yeah, obviously.

56:38 I think that this movie also... This is 2002. Obviously, the Marvel Universe doesn't get launched in earnest until 08. You mentioned, Emily, obviously, Spider-Man at this point has come out.

56:55 It's just about to come out. It's May 2002.

57:00 Which changes the game in so many ways. This does feel like a bit of a vestige of a different time. Blade Trinity is PG-13. Which is.

57:10 Crazy.

57:11 Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's, that to me is like, you can see that the change of the guard has happened. Right. And they're not interested in ultimately what makes this movie special, which is it's not catering to kids. It's gory. It's doing weird shit. It's got Norman Reedus in it, obviously. Norman, Norman Reedus in this movie, when he popped up, I was like, this guy's just always been a dirt bag.

57:39 Mm-hmm.

57:40 That's just his, that's his lane. He's really good at it. No judgment. Watching Powerpuff Girls inexplicably a lot. His turn at the end, I was like, I completely buy this. Norman's crushing this turn. Yeah, it just, it's funny to me that it kind of took as long as it did for Norman Reedus to pop. Mm-hmm. right? Like, he's in big things in the late 90s, early 2000s, and then, you know, Walking Dead doesn't happen until the 2010s? Mm-hmm.

58:14 And now, like, obviously, he's richer than God and he can do whatever he wants.

58:17 Yeah, I mean, he does whatever he wants on that Walking Dead money. Yeah, I mean, we're discounting that, like, every boy in college had a Boondock Saints poster and every boy and me. So I do think that, like, Norman had his lane or whatever it was for a while. But yeah, I mean, like, This movie has, like, Donnie Yen is in this.

58:36 Yes.

58:36 Saying nothing, but just, like, being a badass.

58:38 He's there.

58:39 You know, he's there. Matt Schultz, who is in Fast and the Furious in the first one and then comes back in five, I think, is also here. Like, there are these, like, a couple of people, but overall, because so many people are unknown, at least to me when I'm watching this, it again has that sense of, like, oh, this is a new discovery, both because the story is so...

59:03 Byzantine and the location is so alien because of Guillermo's production design. and because I barely know who any of these actors are. And those to me are all strengths. But yeah, Blade Trinity then is so different because you are bringing two very established people and Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds and you're doing a whole different thing. Whereas this very much is like, the gross gothic european version of what this franchise could be and then didn't really like go back to unfortunately.

59:38 Well it's it's crazy i think blake trinity comes out two years after this like it's not that long and it's a completely different fucking animal yeah yes it's it's pretty amazing to think of it just i mean it goes to as emily mentioned like the staggering success of spider-man and what that you know showed could be done i guess with effects and with all you know and obviously the amount of money it made that like no one the idea of an r-rated comic book movie after spider-man was just like not even a question it still isn't a fucking question basically I mean, Deadpool Wolverine is an R-rated movie, but because there's swearing in it.

1:00:19 Yeah, it's an R-rated movie for cursing. It's not an R-rated movie for vampire blowjobs in a club. That's not what it's rated R for.

1:00:27 If only it was.

1:00:29 If only.

1:00:31 Deadpool does say boobies. And that's part of why.

1:00:34 I got angry. He does say boobies a lot.

1:00:36 You're right.

1:00:37 I mean, it is just fascinating to kind of to watch this you mentioned sort of the the european component of this like it it did make me think a fair amount of uh of alien resurrection a movie that i ride for a little bit like i i don't a movie that again also killed the franchise and a lot pissed off a lot of people which is whatever but um and was written by josh whedon but i do think that that movie has that kind of like America, the Venn diagram of American and international sensibilities that this movie has, you know, Winona Ryder inexplicably having, you know, boxing mitts on drinking from a, you're just like, sure.

1:01:21 Like just stuff that Jean-Pierre Jeunet is like, you know, yeah. Directing via translator and just like, whatever. It just, this movie has that kind of intangibilities to it that makes it feel exciting and, outside the american box yeah but yeah i mean i i thought that like i would say that when we get to sort of end of second act top of third act and it starts just we're picking off people and we're sort of killing off various members of the blood pack it's fun it's fine it gets a little rushed and a little bit sort of like i'm not i'm not like shitting on it but like we kill off a lot of the blood pack in like five minutes which.

1:02:11 Rocks yeah i think that's fine actually because then you have more time for like the reveal of evil prince and then the norman reedus reveal and it becomes this like domino effect of all the things that have been hidden up until that point i mean what works for me is that the blood pack does get their asses wrecked. Like, and that's very, very satisfying after having the like ninja, them showing off their ninja skills in the beginning and sort of all of that. Like they've been training for two years. They've been training for two years because they were training to take out blade. Like all of that stuff I think is then very cathartic to have like this chaotic club scene battle blade to walk so that

1:02:58 John Wick could run like i think all of that.

1:03:01 Sure for sure works there's also when they show up in their ninja outfits it's very hellboy aesthetic.

1:03:06 Like 100 the masks the goggles all of that.

1:03:09 Stuff yeah i think like if i'm putting an ad on zip recruiter or like a fucking like guy to help me build my vampire boxes and stuff and zip recruiters like here's a man named scud i might not they're just like I don't know if I would. I might think twice. I might look for just like a nice guy named like Gary or Jared for that matter.

1:03:31 Oh, interesting. Interesting. It is interesting. Scud is wearing a shirt that says Bureau of Paranormal Research, which is a nod to Hellboy, which ultimately would be his next film. I do love how Guillermo cashes his blank checks. They are how we wish more filmmakers cashed their blank checks this.

1:03:54 Is Emily's make Guillermo the only billionaire ideology because there's so much care taken and everything about how this movie looks like I really I'm sure that he ran into like some issues but when I watch it there really isn't anything where I'm like oh that feels like Guillermo like cut a corner like everything feels very fully realized this is a world only of train stations and nightclubs that's it there's nothing else and you go from one to the other all the.

1:04:24 Time or it's a cobblestone alleyway in Berlin.

1:04:27 That's it if Guillermo like got got like a billion dollars like billions of dollars he would spend a billion dollars just like doing sleep no more That is both like experimental theater and a movie somehow. And it's like a movie you walk around in and there's vampires who are real. And you'd be like, this is great. I'm a vampire.

1:04:51 My Sleep No More story, we went twice. We might have gone three times. I think we went twice. And we got separated both times because they try to separate you from who you go with. And I remember that an hour later, I found my partner and I was like, I've just been wandering around in rooms full of keys and hair. What have you been doing? And one of the actors pulled him into a secret room that was fully dark and kissed him on his cheek and whispered for a long time in his ear about their missing child.

1:05:23 And that's the shit that Guillermo would be doing.

1:05:25 It would be Guillermo whispering in your ear.

1:05:30 I never, I never went to sleep no more. And I always, I'm a little like, I'm a little sad about that. I regret that I didn't. And also I know I would be like, and now I'm in another room of hair. Like that's what would happen to me.

1:05:43 That's what happened. I was just like, oh, more shoes. It was creepy. It was totally creepy. But like my partner would come back and he'd be like, oh, I joined up with this other group and we like hunted a witch. And I was like, okay.

1:05:57 Cool. Cool. I do, just for a quick second, want to just talk about the Guillermo's blank checks a little bit, because I do think it's interesting that, like, he... So Blade II's a success. He uses the clout from that to make Hellboy. Hellboy is pretty successful. Not, like, enormously successful, but it's successful enough. Then he makes Pan's Labyrinth, which becomes sort of, you know, critically beloved, does well at the box office, whatnot. He uses the clout of that to get Hellboy II made.

1:06:27 Yeah, he's like, I'm going to go back to that. I'm not done.

1:06:29 He's like, actually, I want to do Hellboy 2, but what if more Baroque? What if more confusing? That movie does fine. That's when he gets mired in Hobbit land. It's between 2008 and 2013 where he gets just, it's five years of like various production nonsense stuff that, you know, anyway, that'll go sideways. That's when he does Pacific Rim. And I do think it's interesting that, like, that's what he chooses to do. Like, it's another movie that is, like, successful enough, but, like, is not hugely successful by any means.

1:07:09 Crimson Peak straight up bombs. That movie does not do well. And he kind of, he licks his wounds and he makes Shape of Water and wins all the Oscars and uses the clout of that to do Nightmare Alley. Bombs? Which bombs. And then Pinocchio for Netflix, which there's no metric with which we can actually gauge the success or failure of that. The same with Frankenstein.

1:07:36 He does win another Oscar for it. And then Frankenstein, from what metrics we have suggested by its run in theaters, did quite well.

1:07:45 And also nominated for a fair amount of Oscars.

1:07:48 Won several design Oscars.

1:07:54 It's a fascinating career and I do think that like Obviously, I'm very excited to see what he does next. He's a guy that you're just like, you just don't know what he's going to do next. He also, the other thing that should be mentioned that I forgot to mention in that gap between fucking Hellboy 2 and Pacific Rim is The Strain. His FX show.

1:08:16 Yes, when he reuses the vampire sex genital mouth.

1:08:20 That was right after Pacific Rim.

1:08:22 But he writes the books in there.

1:08:26 He writes the books, right, and then it's three seasons?

1:08:28 Four seasons?

1:08:29 Who here has watched all four seasons of The Street? Nope.

1:08:32 I have not, but I've read all the books. I've read all the books.

1:08:36 Really?

1:08:36 Yeah, I've read all the books, too. I don't even, like, I don't know that I would say I liked it. I just, like, I watched all four seasons.

1:08:42 Emily, did you watch For Wide Husband, Corey Stoll?

1:08:46 I think I just liked how junky it was.

1:08:48 It's so, yeah. Like, it's amazing because it's the Guillermo aesthetic, but for, like, five dollars yeah yeah.

1:08:56 Yeah yeah 46 episodes.

1:08:59 I just like remember I just remember watching that and just being like yeah this is you know I I actually I won't say I like the first season but I thought it was pretty successful at the thing of like watching what the world fall apart in slow motion, which is a thing that TV has tried to do and always struggled with. And I think the strain is one of the more successful attempts. Um, but yeah, it is like, you know, uh, you get to the final book, like takes place in a fully apocalyptic, like wasteland. And on TV they were like, and now it's a little dark in Brooklyn.

1:09:35 Um, uh, you mean Toronto, but yeah. Um, but yeah, I think it's so funny that so Guillermo directs the pilot of The Strain and then directs a prologue for the top of season two premiere. And then he directs something, Emily, you would maybe know what the Luchador film is. Does that mean something to you? Sure. Sure.

1:09:59 Yeah, it sounds very familiar. I don't have like a strong emotional recall of every moment of the string.

1:10:05 No, I know. I'm just saying these are the only things that he directed of the show after the pilot. And the impression I get is, I mean, I watched, I think I watched the first season or at least a chunk of the first season. I had a real problem with Corey Stahl's hair piece. Oh my God, yes. I really just was just like, what are we doing?

1:10:22 uh it was it was kind of crazy but you know i like.

1:10:25 That was a period when i was ceasing to watch as much television as i had been because i was like extremely depressed and yet i kept up with the strain i would just be like what am i gonna throw on now oh the strain sounds.

1:10:38 Good more strain yeah yeah it was it was you know it obviously ran for a while on fx i'm sure that they were just like we want to be in the guillermo business and they i imagine it was relatively as you said i'm like relatively inexpensive to make so they just kept making it yeah But he's just he's one of those guys that just does weird shit and more power to him.

1:10:57 You know how Peter Jackson routinely threatens to go and like do a smaller movie in New Zealand. But like there is a thing where you're like, well, he would just lovely bones it because he's like got this whole crew of people he needs to keep employed. And like so if he went and actually made a small movie about like gender identity, which is the thing he's always talking about doing. it would probably just like, he's, he's probably lost the connection. Like, like Sam Raimi is kind of the one director who's been able to like go back into that mode. Guillermo has similarly threatened to sort of like finish his Spanish language trilogy of devil's backbone pants, labyrinth.

1:11:35 And then there's apparently a third one he wants to do. And I always kind of wonder if he could ever go back into that mode. It feels like shape of water effectively became that in many ways, but it, He had always sort of talked about doing another movie set during the Spanish Civil War that would have supernatural elements and all of this bullshit and foofering.

1:11:58 Well, there's, I mean, truthfully, and I'm not saying I necessarily want this version of it, but like there is a cheaper, smaller version of Nightmare Alley. Do you know what I mean? Like it didn't, it didn't need to be as expansive and expensive as it was. I loved it, but like, but all this is to say, Emily, I don't know the answer to that question. I I'm hoping that Frankenstein scratched a lot of itches for him and that maybe he can do something a little bit smaller.

1:12:23 I don't know if he, if, if that's something he longs for. Um, I also don't know that like he's completely unencumbered, right? Like I don't think that he's at a Peter Jackson level of success is what I'm kind of getting at.

1:12:35 He's not, but he.

1:12:36 Is still at that level of success.

1:12:39 In Lord of the fucking Rings.

1:12:41 I mean, yeah, but like his other stuff has mostly not been successful.

1:12:45 No. Robert Zemeckis keeps making things.

1:12:50 Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro are in similar places where they could get money to make basically most things they want, but it would be, it would be, there'd be like a hard cap on what it is. Nobody's going to give Peter Jackson Hobbit money again. You know, and like for as much as people shit talk those movies, they all made tremendous amounts of money.

1:13:10 No, no, no. They all made a ton of money. I'm trying to think of what was the one with the cities that move.

1:13:14 Oh, he didn't direct that. Which is one of the great films of all time.

1:13:19 You're missing out if you haven't watched Mortal Engines yet, Roxanna. Have you not met Shrike yet?

1:13:25 I can't do this with you two.

1:13:27 It's actually like I had fun. I had fun with it. But I think because it came out right in the heart of Marvel DC dominating everything and it was a throwback to late 2000s, early 2010s YA adaptations. And I just was like, yes.

1:13:45 More of this. I'm going to say one thing to you, Roxanna, which I think might possibly sell you on Mortal Engines, which is that Shrike, which is this character, is voiced by Stephen Lang.

1:13:58 I am like 80% sure that I saw this movie, but that in my brain, it became the same movie as was beautiful creatures. The YA with Emmy Russum.

1:14:11 Correct.

1:14:11 Yeah. In my mind, I think they became the same.

1:14:15 Interesting. They're not movie. Yes. Yeah.

1:14:17 I don't know why. Cause they're not.

1:14:21 The books, I think, similarly are in a similar level of success. It's not completely insane that.

1:14:28 You would bring these things together. What has Peter Jackson been doing? It's been eight years since.

1:14:33 The World War II movie. Documentaries about the Beatles.

1:14:35 Oh, yeah.

1:14:36 And World War I.

1:14:38 He's also threatening to finally make Tintin 2. That's his next... Oh, my God.

1:14:45 You know what, Peter... i love very much thank.

1:14:50 You so much it just seems like the hobbit broke him in a way that like yes i agree with that and i think that the way he would he would get back there is to make something small and kind of gross.

1:15:01 In new zealand just like i agree.

1:15:04 And like maybe the movie's not even good but i think it might just like reignite why he loves doing this or maybe he no longer loves doing it he's got more money than god you know.

1:15:13 But i do get the impression yes i think he also likes to make.

1:15:15 Things Emily, Peter Jackson has a billion dollars. What is he doing with it?

1:15:20 Oh, my God.

1:15:21 He is, like, he is literally just, like, gonna build, like, a weird little world you could, like, go to.

1:15:26 Yeah, he's gonna build a shrine.

1:15:27 Yeah, he's gonna just, yeah, he's gonna, like, buy one of the less populated islands in New Zealand, and he's gonna turn it into, like, an experiential theme park, and he's just gonna, like, everybody who works at Weta, he's gonna, like, have their... You'll, like, be able to go into a house and, like, Kate Winslet and Melanie Alinsky will be there in character as heavenly creatures except they're old and married now and didn't murder anyone like it's gonna be great and then he'll also probably like randomly solve world hunger or something like I could see.

1:16:01 Him also becoming John Hammond and trying to build creatures genetically.

1:16:06 Oh that's the thing is we're only giving billions of dollars to movie directors and they're all gonna be like I'm gonna make one monster real and you're like okay I.

1:16:16 Guess That's fine.

1:16:17 Spielberg's going to be like, we're going to find some aliens and I'm going to invite them here. And you're like, Steve, hold on, please.

1:16:23 Yes, please don't do that.

1:16:24 Actually, he already has billions of dollars and has yet to find any aliens. But if he was the only billionaire and we were like, you've got to spend it all.

1:16:32 Marty Scorsese is just building the world's largest cathedral. Yes. And I'm really happy for him.

1:16:37 Correct.

1:16:39 Or my partner and I joke about this all the time. Catholics and Muslims should join forces and do Butlerian Jihad. We should destroy... technology and the internet and i also think marty should use his 1 billion for that yeah yeah.

1:16:53 He would also he would also like preserve every.

1:16:56 Cinema literally every movie reel that has ever existed yeah yeah.

1:17:02 We would just like make a real babysitter's club and then like you could go be in it you could go like be in the babysitter's club you could be a little woman yeah yeah yeah and i am.

1:17:14 Emily, who is going to create the dumb bitch pipeline?

1:17:17 I mean, me.

1:17:19 But which billionaire, which movie director turned billionaire would create the dumb bitch pipeline?

1:17:26 Unfortunately, it's Sofia Coppola.

1:17:33 They're really existentially despairing. Things are happening to them. You just don't see it because they're so hot.

1:17:42 It's yeah. It's a, it is a facility you go to that turns you into a beautiful tongue pitch, but then every sixth day or so, they like show you a video of an animal suffering. Yeah.

1:17:53 They're like, look, you got these great new clothes, but also the price. Yeah.

1:18:00 Yeah. Um, so at the end of this movie, he kills everybody. Um, he, he slices Ron Perlman in half. It's great. Excellent. I mean, it's a great bit. Um, you know, uh, I I'll say that if this movie is lacking something, it does feel like blade and what's her face. Nisa is supposed to be something like a romantic situation. Like I get, you get the feeling that we're scenes cut where the two of them had something more.

1:18:30 And just ends in like a mutual respect situation.

1:18:34 It does. It ends with like a take me outside so I can die in the sun situation. Right. Yeah.

1:18:39 Um, Sure.

1:18:40 I mean, I thought her character was fine. The performance is, she's very pretty, but I don't know that she.

1:18:46 She's very pretty. She's just very dutiful.

1:18:49 Yeah. it's just kind of like whatever yeah yeah um and then at the very end Blade goes to London and he kills this guy uh Rush in a strip club um yeah it's this I would say that one of the sort of things that's great about Blade is it's kind of like stinker comedic sensibilities that it kind of plays with and I don't see it's not even Whedon-esque it's more kind of like gross out comedy beats that I think are sort of Deadpool-y I guess I hate to even say that but like do you know sort of what I'm getting at like both this movie and the previous one I mean the last scene of the first Blade is tremendous where he's in Russia.

1:19:36 Yeah it's fucking gross I guess it's sort of dead.

1:19:42 I don't know.

1:19:43 I mean, I guess for me, sometimes I think it's more just a little bit like it's not really like Sam Raimi, but I do think it's more comedy ish at like the concept of what's going on rather than like the slapsticky stuff that I think of Deadpool as. But I could just be responding negatively to Deadpool.

1:20:06 I think that the last shot of this movie is Rush getting a sword through his head and then it just goes straight to credits.

1:20:12 And it's like, I'm.

1:20:14 Here for it. But it is its own thing. And it's not surprising to me that Marvel in 2026 is like, I don't really know what this is like i.

1:20:26 Don't know marvel has gone so far just in like family friendliness and this like bloodless version of the apocalypse that they keep selling us over and over yeah yeah there was no way that it was going to be like mahershala beheading people which is only unfortunate but that's why i guess we have your mother your mother your mother.

1:20:44 Which I hear is great, which I'm excited to see in a few weeks. I'm here for it. And that Marvel paid for his training, which is great.

1:20:53 The appeal of, like, comic book universes is that they have all these little pockets where weird bullshit's happening. And when Marvel started, it was, you had Thor, who lived in some high fantasy universe, and you had the Guardians, who lived in wild sci-fi. And what sort of united them was this loosely Whedonesque tone of, That was never too overbearing. It was there all the time. And it was there to let you know, if you were a cool girl like me, that you could like still have a good time watching this movie because you were, you were cool to be watching it. And then that tone took over and like, I prefer Thor Ragnarok to Thor the dark world, but like you see the difference there and like how now Thor is just kind of in

1:21:39 that tone and that's all there is. and like that you know um the only one who kind of escaped it was was james gunn who just like that was he was already working in that tone all the time so then he could just be like these movies are about abuse survivors.

1:21:53 I mean i do think that it's part of the miracle if you will that is infinity war and end game which is that they were actually able to pay all that off tonally and all those things could coexist with one another in a way that felt so satisfying it's why i think this rush job of doomsday of forcing down our throats that like, you love the fantastic four.

1:22:17 It's like, I don't, I don't actually don't. Right.

1:22:20 Right.

1:22:20 You know, it's, it's that kind of thing where you're just like, guys, this isn't, this isn't real. And, you know, just cause you got a bunch of movie stars back doesn't mean that I give a shit.

1:22:31 Just because Marvel didn't give them immediate, fully, every movie is an A-plus careers and they have to come back to you.

1:22:42 I did like Thunderbolts, but that was like a thing where it felt like if they had made another couple movies with that team before they were like, and now, or if their new Avengers movie was like, we start with these guys and then other characters start to kind of like, but it is, yeah, we are jumping to civilizational stakes right away. That just really kind of like bums me out. Cause what I liked about, what I liked about brand new day is that like, it was, the stakes were pretty small ultimately. Like, yeah, New York city almost gets ruined, but like, you know, it's just like.

1:23:16 It's always happening to New York.

1:23:17 Yeah.

1:23:17 Yeah. I do think, though, I tried to watch Thunderbolts when it first went up on Disney +, because I was like, I'm not seeing this in theaters, but I'll try to watch this. And I think I got 20 minutes into it. I was like, I just don't care. Then I watched Brand New Day, and I was like, all right, fucking Florence Pugh is really great in her scene.

1:23:34 I'm going to try this again. And then I got like 40 minutes into it. I was like, I don't care about these people. I also just don't think it's particularly well-directed either.

1:23:43 You just got to accept that it's about depression.

1:23:46 Oh, okay. So, yeah. That's a good place to start.

1:23:49 It is literally like, it is, what if Marvel made a Charlie Kaufman movie? And you're like, I don't know if I want to see that. Yeah. The end of that movie is, the third act of that movie is all Charlie Kaufman lifts. And I like it.

1:24:01 Maybe I should watch it. All right, I'll try again.

1:24:02 And also, you're like, I don't know if Marvel has the skill set for this.

1:24:06 Yeah, I don't think, and it's also one of those things where it's like, Now that those characters are subsumed into this universe, you're probably never going to get another Thunderbolts movie with that tone again either. So it's like, okay, you used the one idea and now we're out.

1:24:22 I gotta say, and we'll wrap this up, but I love X-Men. It's one of my favorite Marvel universes. I really like the first two X-Men movies who were directed by a person we shall not name.

1:24:38 Um, some guy, he died.

1:24:41 He totally died. Um, I kind of ride for days of future past. It's a mess, but there's like some interesting stuff in it. Um, but X-Men has always been one of my favorite universes and I, nothing against this cast per se. I mean, listen, I'm here for Adam driver and whatever weird shit they let him do in this X-Men movie. I'm sure it'll be fun. Um, you know and and indy never ready great but the whole thing feels so geared towards like gen z and gen alpha please watch our x-men movies um i'm just not sure i'm gonna be able to give a shit about this but i could be wrong there's you know i mean who knows.

1:25:24 Do you want to see but do you want to see the umpteenth movie with the cast of the originals like i am no i don't two of those with.

1:25:32 The But I just prefer a better director, someone that feels like they're going to do something exciting with this, as opposed to just a gun for hire that did a movie I've tried twice to watch. It's hard for me to get excited.

1:25:46 I will say the last half of Thunderbolts, I liked it fine. I watched it in a theater, so I was kind of forced to watch it. You were forced to stick with it, yeah. The second half of it, he does the team building thing better than than I think anybody really has since Whedon. And I think the Russos, obviously, those two Avengers movies are big hits, but I feel like they're coasting off a lot of the stuff that's already been established.

1:26:14 So is Wolverine not in this X-Men movie?

1:26:17 I mean, we don't know that he probably will be.

1:26:19 Yeah, I think it's another, like, he will be, but we don't know if it's Hugh or Hugh it is. Hugh it is.

1:26:26 Hugh or Hugh.

1:26:27 Yeah. I don't care. I'm not going to see it. I don't care about it. I have no interest whatsoever.

1:26:36 I think that's a fair assessment.

1:26:38 Apocalypse was the last thing. And then I was like, you know what?

1:26:42 I'm good.

1:26:44 Until they let me make the Taylor Swift Dazzler movie.

1:26:48 Oh, yeah?

1:26:48 Then there's no more. Yeah, X-Men is.

1:26:51 Speaking of Taylor, can we just talk for a quick second, Emily, about I think maybe her best performance thus far, which was in the sketch she did for SVU. Oh, my God.

1:26:59 Can I log off?

1:27:00 Can I go?

1:27:03 No, no. I genuinely thought that was awful.

1:27:05 Yeah, no, I thought it was... I'm not writing for it. Oh, okay.

1:27:08 I thought you were being sincere.

1:27:09 No, no, no. I think everything about the Emmys outside of the winner's I didn't watch any of it.

1:27:17 I am now disconnected from having to.

1:27:19 Care about all of that. I read Roxanna's Vulture. I agree with your assessments.

1:27:27 If they ever nominate me for an Emmy, Roxanna, please.

1:27:30 You mean when, not if.

1:27:31 Please just write about how pretty I am. Write up this.

1:27:35 This?

1:27:36 Hot dumb bitch.

1:27:37 This hot dumb bitch.

1:27:38 Was a high of the Emmy ceremony.

1:27:41 Unbelievable. Best nominee, this dumb bitch. So yeah, let's rate this movie. Zero to 99. I saw this in 02. I liked it. I was like, plus I definitely, I watched it at home. I didn't see it in theaters. Blade was just not one of my guys at the time. And I was just like, okay, sure. And I remember watching this. And again, I don't think it was the first Guillermo movie I had seen. but it's certainly solidified for me. Like, this is a fucking guy I need to keep watching and I'm excited to see what he does next. Probably back then I would have given it like a 79, something in that vicinity. Watching it the other day, I'm like an 85. I think this movie fucking rips. I think it's a lot of fun. There's

1:28:24 an argument to be made of whether or not Guillermo has been this carefree since. Like, there's a real kind of just playfulness and because like I think after this movie budgetary concerns come into play and you do feel like he's having a very good time but like there are pressures and there are things on this that he needs that he knows he needs to stick whereas this movie feels like he could do this with his eyes closed and he was happy just a blast and it's just it's really it's really breezy in that way. But Emily, what about you?

1:29:05 I'm not quite as high on this as you. I enjoyed it a lot. I had a lot of fun with it. It was, it was very engaging and fun to watch. I ultimately just could not quite get past. Like I just like, it felt like it was relentless in a way that was also a little bit long. And so I'm probably like, I was going to be mid sixties. I was going to say 66, but there's a moment where blade says, You don't know whom you are fucking with. And he uses whom properly. And for that, I am bumping this up to a 68.

1:29:38 Ooh. Whom?

1:29:41 Roxanna, where were you at O2? Where are you now?

1:29:45 I don't, I think I saw it in college. So I think it was, I think it was like a college cable watch.

1:29:52 Sure, sure, sure.

1:29:53 And then I think it was like a real watch sometime later than that. Um, this movie is flawless. I have no qualms. I think it's incredible. It genuinely is like one of my top three Guillermos. I think exactly because of what you said, Phil, I think there's like a lightness and a looseness to this that we like increasingly lose as he sort of becomes more like, let me consider the state of the man and the monster.

1:30:22 And like, I'm sort of, I don't know. I'm, I'm a little burnt out on that to a certain degree. So I'm going to give this like a 96.

1:30:29 I think, you know.

1:30:30 Like a really high, really high score. Um, cause I just think it's great. And I think to go back to our conversation about like, what was the last vampire thing you saw that genuinely did something like weird and wacky and unexpected. And I think it's the vagina mouth. So very high for me.

1:30:53 It's it's, it is, it stays with you. The first time I saw it.

1:30:56 I will say the worms and the strain. The vampire worms are pretty, are pretty memorable, especially because every bus depot or bus stop, bus depot, every bus stop in the country had that like worm going into somebody's eye, which everybody loved. It was the thing that we all talked about how much we loved seeing that.

1:31:17 The Strain, Emily's favorite television show of all time.

1:31:20 I love that we got through this whole episode without talking about the most infamous movie review of all time, which I'm not going to bring up. You can find on your own. Just Google Infamous Blade 2.

1:31:33 Next week, we are talking Hellboy. Roxanna, do you have Hellboy thoughts?

1:31:39 I enjoy Hellboy, but I think I enjoy Hellboy more because of its aesthetics than because of its story. I think Hellboy 2 is like the most Guillermo Guillermo has ever been.

1:31:51 It's so crazy.

1:31:54 Yeah.

1:31:57 I can't wait to talk about it. Yeah. I mean, Hellboy is just a thing that like, again, you know, rando indie comic that like, you know, 200 people worldwide really loved. And he was just like, I'm going to make this. It's like a guy with a, big red rock hand i don't know it's it's just one of those things you're just like what is this yeah um but i'm excited to talk about it um where can people read you see you right then are there any articles you want to plug perhaps.

1:32:30 I you know i don't think i have anything coming up that is like super exciting you can find me at vulture every so often you can hear me on npr You can find me on Twitter or Blue Sky. And, you know, that's about it. But if you have any lines on, like, a hot vampire prince, just send them.

1:32:49 Just shoot her a slip into her DMs with a little bit of a hot vampire prince.

1:32:54 Guillermo, Guillermo, we're going to give you billions. Make Roxanna a hot vampire prince. Just make that happen. And then, Sophia, you're next. I'm giving you a call.

1:33:05 You're number two on the list of billionaires. um roxy i thank you so so much thank you guys love having you on and uh thank you for taking the time thank you all right talk to you soon bye