Between Screenings
Between Screenings is a film podcast hosted by Neil Jeram-Croft and Tom Percival — two critics who live for cinema and the conversations it sparks.
Each episode dives into what’s new on screens big and small — from festival discoveries and arthouse standouts to the biggest blockbusters and hidden gems. Expect honest reviews, spirited debates, insider perspectives from the festival circuit, and the kind of film chat that usually happens in the lobby, between screenings.
New episodes every fortnight. Join us, and keep the conversation going between screenings.
Between Screenings
Supergirl, Toy Story 5 and Jackass Best and Last Review, plus previews and Edinburgh Line Up
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Neil Jeram-Croft and Tom Percival review the latest films including Supergirl, Toy Story 5, Jackass, and upcoming releases. They analyze box office performance, storytelling choices, and industry trends, offering insights for film enthusiasts.
Hello and welcome back to Between Screenings for all your things, films and film festivals and just general fun chat with me and Tom. How are you, Tom? Very well. I'm very hot, Neil. How are you? Not as hot. I think you're gonna get another heat wave next week, and we are gonna keep a nice, nice, steady sort of 23, 24 degrees up here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're looking at th 20-30 degrees over the next few days, and I'm I'm not happy about it, I'll be honest. And it doesn't help that my flat has completely glass walls, essentially. So, you know, I'm very warm.
SPEAKER_02Yet another reason to come back up north, Tom, because next week we ain't getting above 25. And I I like 25 is perfect. 25 is all you need.
SPEAKER_0025 might be the perfect weather, but you know where's always perfect, Neil? The cinema screen. Yeah, well, I mean, the cinema screen. Thanks to air conditioning.
SPEAKER_02Thanks to air conditioning. Apparently in France they were flocking to the uh cinema during the heat wave for that sweet, sweet air con. Um and I headed there last I headed there um last week for Supergirl to get some sweet, sweet air con and some supergirl action. Um and since we've last spoken, I've also seen the mighty Toy Story in its fifth incarnation on the big screen.
SPEAKER_00Well, I haven't seen Toy Story, not through lack of trying, um, but I have been relatively busy at work, haven't got around to seeing Toy Story, I have seen Supergirl, and I have seen the equally mighty, you know, some would say it's on a pedestal up there with the Toy Story movies. Jackass, uh best and last, the fifth movie in the Jackass franchise.
SPEAKER_02Well, as we know, Quentin Tarantino ranked his top films of the 21st century so far, and Jackass was in the top three, I think.
SPEAKER_00I mean, The Man's Got Taste.
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly. The uh the original Jackass movie that is. Okay, so let's uh seeing as we've both seen it, let's get cracking with Supergirl. And I think um those of you who keep up with box office stuff will know that it hasn't done as well as uh it would have liked to have done at the box office. Um it's probably now going to struggle to be profitable in terms of during its theatrical run, unless it's got some very long legs. So um, yeah, what did you think, Tom? What was your impression when you came out of the cinema?
SPEAKER_00So I I was looking forward to this, or you know, relatively so. Like this is a movie made for me. I like superhero movies. Uh, I think Millie Alcock was great in House of the Dragon. I was looking forward to this. And uh just because it's the first non-James Gunn directed thing in the DCU, I think it was important for it to make the superhero landing. And I feel like it sort of lands with a thud, to be completely honest. I felt to me like uh director, is it Craig? Uh yes, Craig, Craig Gillespie. I'm not sure quite how firm James Gunn had a who produced this had a hand on the tiller, but it felt very much like he him doing a version of what a James Gunn movie would look like. You could see all the beats from stuff like Guardians, even to an extent, his Superman, without a firm understanding of what makes those those things work quite as well as they do. So, for example, there was plenty of, you know, Supergirl isn't quite as she's not as heroic as her cousin Superman, you know, she's a little bit of a rogue, she's partying with aliens, you know, she swears, all that classic stuff. Um, you know, there's needle drops, really, really quick, frantic action scenes. But it was all like it was done by someone who wasn't really up to doing it. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, no, I know I I I know what you mean. Sorry. Yeah, at times, like I think the visuals looked really, really muddy. Like I genuinely was turned to someone at one point during the screening and said, can you tell what's happening? Like, because I just didn't know. And I'm not normally the type of person who picks up on that, but I thought that it was just a real mess. I thought the blocking was bad. It just I it's just I didn't like much of the technical stuff on it, and I think as well, the script was pretty weak. Like, uh, and James Gunn has said no DCU films will go is is amazing. And I thought that this had a bad villain with a baffling uh motivation, and the only saving grace on it that stops it being an absolute turd, in my opinion, is Milially fantastic in this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would agree. Um, she is she's brilliant in it. I think she's really great as that character. Um, she really gives you a sense of of the character of Supergirl. Uh, I mean the dog's obviously great, but he's not in it long enough. Because spoiler alert, he's in a kind of coma for for most of it, so he's not getting to cause too much mischief. Um I there were things I liked about it, um, and there are things I I think it struggles with. I think Superman and Supergirl, I think both struggle with the fact that she can basically kick anyone's ass. Like, she's indestructible, she's got laser eyes, she can beat anyone up. So she's got, I don't know, a hundred baddies attacking her, but it doesn't matter because she can just like spin round in a circle shining laser eyes and they're all dead. Um, so it takes that that it's a problem with Superman as well. It kind of takes the jeopardy away. Like Batman is just a guy in a suit, so you know he can die. Spider-Man, yeah, he's got his spidey abilities and everything, but he's not like superhuman in the sense that he can't get crushed or can't get shot by a bullet. He still has the ability, you still can have some jeopardy in a Spider-Man fight. Um, but Superman, there's no jeopardy. Other than they're just randomly dragging kryptonite things in, and that was one of the bits that I didn't like. She gets hit again. This is spoilery, so if you don't want to spoilers, head somewhere else. She gets hit with kryptonite darts, which we then see sl start to sort of destroy her red blood cells in the worst bits of computer graphics, I think, in the in the film. Terrible. One of them stays stuck in her for ages. I'm just like, pull that one out, love. Like, hurry up and pull that one out. But then all of a sudden, she carries on fighting and basically beats the crap out of everyone with this kryptonite in her blood. And then after the fight, she kind of rises into the the sky and the the the yellow sun cures her of it all. Um, so that kind of annoyed me a bit. What's interesting is I went with my oldest daughter, Amelie, uh, to watch it. And she's not well versed in superhero lore, like she's not a big superhero movie fan, but she kind of was was interested in this one because it was Supergirl. Um, so felt like a superhero she could connect with. Um one of the first things she said to me when we were in the cinema was she she uh looked across at me and she went, Why is this Star Wars? Um because of those sort of alien environments, all the characters, it was like um we were at Moss Isley spaceport at the start. Yeah, so she immediately was just like that. This is weird. I thought this was Supergirl, this feels like Star Wars. So that and I, you know, I I get that. Um it is uh intergalactic set um superhero movie, so that's fine. Um I really liked the fact the stakes were low for the film. Uh for Supergirl, she's going to get the antidote to save her dog, and that's it. I like I can relate to that, but I I I'm not down with superhero films where they've got to save the universe or the entire world because I can't it's too abstract to be bothered about for some reason. Like, I need to save my dog, I'm there. I need to save the entire world. Meh, I don't care. Um, it's kind of this weird one. And I actually had this conversation with someone after I got out of the cinema, and then I went on uh IndieWire and there was a whole think piece basically saying exactly the same thing. That that was the best bit of Supergirl was that it kept the stakes um reasonable. So I liked that about it. The other girl looking for revenge, meh. So she was I didn't she wasn't she wasn't needed, uh she didn't need to be there. No. Just get her dog, just get you know, the dog could easily have been uh hurt without that girl being anything to do with the storyline. Um she was just kind of annoying and kind of got in the way a lot of the time. Um and the other interesting thing my daughter said when we came out was she'd much she it's not an origin story of Supergirl, but it also is an origin story of Supergirl because they randomly shoehorn in in flashbacks the origin story of Supergirl. And the interesting thing my daughter sort of said after we came out, she's like, I kind of would have just liked to have seen how she got on when she got to Earth. Like, I kind of would have just liked to have actually had that story, like that be the whole story, just an actual origin. And I know we don't do origin stories anymore because apparently that's not cool. We've got to drop these superheroes in midway through their journey, but we've not we've never had like we've had boat boatloads of Superman movies, we've had loads of Spider-Man movies, we don't want to see their origins again, but Supergirl, we've not seen her origin. She arrives as a teenager on Earth, having lived on a fragment of Krypton. Like she arrives not speaking any English, she speaks Kryptonian, and she has to kind of assimilate, and that's why she becomes kind of a bit of a rebel and a badass. My daughter was like, Well, that's I kind of would have liked to have seen that really.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think I think you've that your daughter's nailed it because, like, like you say, we don't do origin stories anymore. They fell out of vogue, like we because people, you know, oh, we've seen uh Martha Wayne's pearls hit the floor enough times, which is true. But I like I I am into comic books and I could not tell you with 100% certainty what Supergirl's origin is. And when they showed us like her escaping, you know, on the city with her pair succumbing to kryptonite poisoning or whatever it was, I was like, this is really interesting because like if Clark is an immigrant, you know, like is um the story of an immigrant who came to our country and never knew his homeland, then Kara is an immigrant who comes and knows all about, you know, like what it was like back home and like how does she adapt to living on Earth? And like you say, she doesn't speak English. And I you can see like the seeds of a of an idea there. And you could still do crypto gets poisoned, you know, just make it bloody some Lex Luther mook. You know, I'm not saying you know you need to change everything, but I think they've based this on a really, really popular Supergirl comic, like a really critically acclaimed Supergirl comic. And I kind of feel that that's you can do stuff like this in comics because everyone who's buying a Supergirl book knows who Supergirl is, you know, whereas we as general audiences are like, well, who is she? Like, and I was, and I think as well, whenever we see her with David Corinsweat, I was, and I know it's her movie. I'm not saying, you know, I wanted more of him, but I love their dynamic. You know, I would have loved to have seen a little bit more of it. Like, does she have um, you know, is she has does she have a Clark Kent identity? Like, or is she just, you know, is she always supergirl? Like, how does that impact Clark's life? There's stuff to be explored that's far more interesting. How much did he want to learn from her?
SPEAKER_02Like, she's the she's an absolute direct connection back to the home he never knew. Like, she's his cousin. Like, she he would what's he gonna learn from her? How how does he set her up in um Metropolis? Like, what's that how how how does that all happen? How does he help her settle in? Like that, like you said, I think there's nothing wrong with this story that Supergirl told, but maybe that could have been Supergirl 2. Yeah. Uh yeah, like And then we could have we could have had an origin story because you because he shoehorned one in for basically half an hour's worth of the film's runtime anyway.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you're not wrong. Uh, what did you make of um Jason Momoa as Lobo, which is apparently a big deal.
SPEAKER_02I have no idea who Lobo is. Uh apparently you weren't allowed to look him in the eyes, but then everyone looked him in the eyes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um apparently he's a mortal, uh, and then he managed to get himself locked up somehow. Um he looked cool riding around on his bike, but I'm not a comic book geek and know nothing of the comic books, and I've never heard about that character before in my life, so didn't get excited about seeing him being Lobo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was exactly the same, and I know who Lobo is, I should say. And I was like, why would anyone care about Lobo? Yeah, I I think it's I do think it's a shame because like you went you mentioned it right at the top, but this is this is a bit of a box office turkey. Like it's it's currently done 74 mil on a budget of 170, 186. Again, double that for marketing. I chate, you know, it's this is nowhere near profitable. I think I read somewhere it's looking to lose 100 mil overall. And I feel like the blame is going to be put on Millie Alcock, or we're going to be told, well, people don't come out for superher for women-led superhero movies, which isn't true. Just people don't come out for crap ones. We, yeah, we have with there are, you know, there have been what more than 50, maybe even 50, 60 superhero movies since 20, you know, in the last like two decades. Uh, we are bored of this. Like this would have worked maybe back in 2011. Like people probably would have been, yeah, that's all right, you know. But now you can't do this anymore. People want something exceptional or better than this. And I feel like, as I say, they're gonna blame, they're gonna, the studio heads are gonna be like, people don't like women-led superhero movies. That's what it is.
SPEAKER_02And it's like Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna forget about Wonder Woman, which did quite well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, exactly. And it's gonna be, well, you know, like let's just do more Superman, uh, you know, let's do more Batman. Um yeah, that's disappointing. As uh because I say I'd love to see more of Millie in this role.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think we are gonna get to see more of her, but it will just be as a auxiliary character in Superman films. Um the idea for you, I don't think she'll get another standalone adventure. No. Sorry, Millie. Um, but yeah, I mean, feel free to check it out. It it certainly wasn't I it wasn't like a it wasn't like a two-star movie. I'd say it's like a three-star movie for me.
SPEAKER_00You know, like um I it's not terrible. Like I I was I was I sat through it and at the end I was like, probably it's between a two and a three. Um it's better than the flash. It's better than flash, yeah. It's definitely better than flash, I'll give you that. Uh and I saw some, you know, and I do feel like I should say as well, I do know some people who came out and said they really enjoyed it. Uh, you know, that they even thought it was better than Superman, but those people are wrong. So, you know.
SPEAKER_02There were lots of it was fun. Um, I like I say, I think when you've got superheroes who are indestructible and all powerful, then it it's tricky to have any sort of jeopardy. Um, so you always have to introduce these weird kryptonite things to to to add any jeopardy in. But um yeah, I think it like you say, it had James Gunn's sort of hallmark all over it, and you wonder how much I've seen interviews with uh Craig Gillespie and saying, no, no, it's fully his film, and James was very hands-off, but um I ain't buying it.
SPEAKER_00One thing I do think is gonna be interesting is and it's on a slightly different skill. First of all, I mean like why Warner's put this much money into a supergirl movie. Like, I mean, it's baffling. Like, it doesn't need to be this expensive, but it's not uh but I will be interested to see, because obviously you always hear whenever something like this flops, superhero movies are over, we've got Spider-Man out at the end of this month. I'll be interested to see super uh it will break if Spider-Man if if it doesn't break a bill, will we say it's underperformed for a Spider-Man movie?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00I think we will.
SPEAKER_02I think it's Spider-Man does if Spider-Man does like 750, then that's an absolute shocker.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think you're right. And I think that's gonna be a little bit of a bellwether for how much are we over these movies now?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Because I mean Superman only did what 600 and something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, six six fifty, something like that. But it opened much stronger than this. It opened to what, 120 mil, I think, or something like that.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So um so talking about films that are doing well at the box office and will break a billion, uh, Toy Story 5 uh has been out for just over a week now and is currently sat, I think, at 320 uh million at the box office or something like that. Um no, sorry, that's that's just the international grosses. Uh it's currently at 606 million uh worldwide already. So racing, racing its way to being um a billion-dollar movie and the most successful Toy Story movie at the box office of all time. Um this for me is what Toy Story 4 should have been. Okay. So tech's been around for a while. So I'm not giving you any spoilers by saying that the the whole premise of the film is tech has entered the toys' lives and they are kind of having to deal with this existential threat to play um and imagination of young children. Um for me, this could easily have been Toy Story Four, uh, and it would have worked really, really well in place of the last one. Because I for me, Toy Story Four is definitely the weakest of the five films. Um it it kind of yeah, it was it I I enjoyed it and we we all know how much I love Four Key. Um but I feel like four was the weakest, and if you'd had this as four, you'd be like, oh okay, there I can see a reason to keep the franchise going because this is a slightly this is bringing it into the sort of more modern era. So so yeah, the the toys have to deal with Lillipad appearing, who is a uh tech toy aimed specifically at children, and she's got social media functions, and she's helping um she's helping what's the girl's aim?
SPEAKER_01Oh what's the young girl's aim?
SPEAKER_02Bonnie, that's it. That's a shocker for me. Uh she's helping Bonnie find a friend because Bonnie's struggling to make friends because she's still got an imagination and plays with the toys, and other kids just sort of turn their noses up and think, what on earth are you doing? Um so Lillipad comes in to save the day and helps her get friends straight away on uh one of the gaming sort of things she has. Uh but so Lily then uh Bonnie then goes to a sleepover thinking it's gonna be loads of fun, and she'll get to play with her friends, and they'll just sit there staring at their lily pads and don't really talk to each other, and Bonnie comes home a bit upset. Um, so it's stuff that a lot of parents deal with, um, and it deals it does it in a really, really lovely way. Jesse is the main protagonist in it this time. Uh she is the lead of the of the film, um, which is great. Buzz has some great cameo moments. There's an absolutely mad um, absolutely mad sequence with um some buzzes that have escaped their box in a shipping container. So a shipping container's crashed on a on a desert island with a load of buzzes in it, and that is is really bizarre, uh, but very fun. So I won't I won't say any more about that because that's sort of a a a little through line of the film. But no, I really enjoyed it. I it's lovely to be back with those characters again. Uh everyone knows every single one of the characters really well. It because it's kind of less of an ensemble piece and it is more just driven by Jesse. You get you get Woody and Buzz doing their thing, but um really it's Jesse's story, and the rest of the toys kind of take very much a back seat.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Um, which is why I still think Toy Story 3 was probably the greatest of all the Toy Stories, because I think it incorporated all the characters more because they all ended up in the nursery, um, and we had the peril with all of them, and it was more of a camaraderie film. Whereas uh I think four and five have have have focused more in on individual characters, but yeah, I mean this all this all race away to a billion at the box office, and um we'll probably end up with Toy Story Six.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure we're gonna get a uh a Toy Story Six, judging by I mean, yeah, but that box office is mad. I know it's been getting good reviews. Like I've not heard anyone except Clarice Lockery, friend of the. Podcast uh from The Independent who gave it two stars and said this franchise needs to end. Um, but I have heard very positive things from it. Um, I did will say, like, I think you're right about of course not having seen this. I think Toy Story 3 was the ending of that for this franchise for me. Like, I don't, I don't need to, I'm not, I'm not desperate to see this in the same way I was like that movie. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. Uh, one thing I do want to wonder I'm curious about is where it lands on Lillipad being a force for good versus because certainly in the poster she looks like the antagonist. Um I can't imagine as much freedom as Disney give Pixar. I can't imagine that Disney would make a movie these days which said iPads are evil because they've got Disney Plus subscriptions that they want to sell, you know, um they've got trailers on YouTube that they want kids to watch. Like, so I can't I imagine that it does it meet a compromise at the end that you know what, maybe there's room for technology and imagination.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Of course it does, of course it does. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Lily uh Lily redeems herself uh by the end of the of course.
SPEAKER_00And but does it feel cynical? Does it feel like a cynical move or does it feel far more earned than No, it does.
SPEAKER_02It it no, it's fine. The way they do it, they get away with it. But I would like to have it would have been um it would have been very brave for them to just go, yeah, no, actually, she got rid of Lillipad completely and everything was way better. Um Yeah. I don't think they were gonna. I think the bits where the bits the the bits they have where where they sort of show the negatives of it are quite strong. Um because they sort of show like a sweeping, they show Bonnie playing with all of her toys and having all of her imagination and fun, and then they sort of do a pan across the the whole suburb, and you see in the windows just kids staring at screens, glowing screens. And the the scene where they go to a um where where she does go to this sleepover and everyone's just got their loop pads and the girls just sit there, she's so excited to finally go to a sleepover to get to play with other kids at a sleepover, and she's just so disappointed because they all just sit there staring at their screens, playing games that they could just be sat at home playing.
SPEAKER_00Home playing, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like my daughters have experience of this, like my my youngest Maisie, she used to hate going to sleepovers because she wanted to play, she wanted to just do silly games and stuff, and she'd get there, and then the other girls would just sit there on their tablets and play games, and it was like, well, what why why am I here? What's the point of this? What's the point of this? So I think I think the the redemption at the end is is done in a in a a good enough way for it not to feel like they're forgiving everything else that's come before it.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Alright, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Um I do want to go to the cinema to see this, and I've read quite a lot about it. Um how was Jackass Best and Last?
SPEAKER_00So I should begin by qualifying that this was my first Jackass movie.
SPEAKER_02That is an absolute shocker, Tom. You didn't do the research.
SPEAKER_00No, I didn't. I just went in.
SPEAKER_02Research.
SPEAKER_00I just went in blind. Uh and I will say I had an amazing time. Like, I genuinely do not think I've laughed like this in the cinema in forever. It is, um, I mean, it's jackass. Like, it's people falling off things, it's people, you know, like getting naked and running into cactuses, it's fucking people giving themselves concussions, it's it's jackass. The difference this time is that the jackass crew, I think, have are on average age 40 to 50 at this point. And uh certainly Johnny Knoxville, after the last one, uh, because you see his running with the bull from Jackass Forever, which hospitalized him and nearly killed him. Uh, and he is clearly no longer in a fit state to, you know, slam himself into walls anymore or be hit by giant hands or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02No, so from yeah, again, so from some of the reading I did, basically they can do whatever, they can kick him in the balls, they can hit him in the chest, they can do what they want, but he can't get another concussion.
SPEAKER_00No, he could no, it's and like he's getting smacked.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00He's getting smacked in the dick a lot. Like that that does happen a lot, you know, and he's getting electrocuted, but they show footage of, you know, like Steve-O, like, I mean, even like so, yeah, even Steve-O and, you know, these people, they're not getting knocked about in the same way they'd used, you know, they do in the clips. So the way it works is it's a clip show. It's it's a clip show mixed in with some new footage. And it's sort of like bits you've not seen from the TV show, bits you've seen for bits from the Jackass 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 movies. A loads of unseen stuff. As I say, I didn't stop laughing throughout it. Like, it's just, it's really, really childish. It's really, really like gross. It's exactly what you think it's gonna be. I watched it in a room full of Jackass fans who had, you know, who had were familiar with the other movies. They said it was great. Like, it's not on the same level as Jackass Forever. They think Jackass Forever is better. But they did say that it is oddly poignant if you grew up watching these sort of watching this group of friends make dicks of themselves for years. Like there is something quite poignant in them essentially saying, we've we're still gonna be friends forever, but we've sort of outgrown, you know, like running into cactuses. Uh, it isn't incredibly cinematic unless you count a man drinking a full bottle of surgical uh lexative and then wearing plastic pants and playing Twister with his friend, uh, cinematic. Um yep. Uh however, it has one of the best openings I think I've ever seen, ever. Like genuinely, like I they show you how they do it at the end, but essentially the Jackass crew move into the scene because the floor underneath them is moving like uh like a travelator, and they've they're moved being moved round by this travelator, and each of them is being thrown into something, you know, as the as it moves around. And then at the very end, when they say this is the last one, and we mean it this time, they ride the shopping trolley off a cliff, basically, as fireworks explode all around them. And it's it it was as even as someone who's not seen these films, like just quite a move, an oddly moving experience, considering literally 10 minutes earlier you'd seen Stevo pass a ping pong ball out of his ass. Like it's it's it's it's a strange experience. I had fun with it. I listen, it didn't cost a lot to make because they already owned, apparently already owned the footage. Think it cost about 10 million. I believe it's made 13 million.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and most of that, and my guess is most of that 10 million have gone to the guys.
SPEAKER_00Oh, 100%, yeah. Uh there there is one thing that like I I do because uh when I worked um in a previous life when I worked at Unilad, we'd write about the Jackass boys a lot, and obviously Bam Majera has had some issues around substance abuse and certainly uh the the death of one of his friends whose name is escaping me now, um, who was in the crew back in the day. Um, and they managed to involve Bam Majera in a really in quite an odd, again, an oddly touching way. And his parents were at the premiere, and even though he's not part of it, he's not the you know, he's he's in none of the new footage, he is still part of this movie. And again, people around me were very, very impressed by that. So, you know, I don't think this is gonna make any new jackass fans except me, apparently. Uh but you were already a jackass fan, just not a jackass movie fan. Yeah, that's true. That is true. So, you know, I had a great time with it. It's probably a three-star movie, but if you're if you like jackass, you're gonna like this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna go to the cinema to see it. Uh I I might, who knows? I might get out if it's if it hangs around for a couple of weeks, I might make it. But I'm perfectly happy to to watch it um on my big TV at home. So um, yeah, I think uh it is one I do want to see, but it's not one I'm I'm desperate to see on the biggest screen possible. Um I don't need to see diarrhea on the biggest screen I possibly can. You don't, you really don't. So what's what have we got coming up? I mean, I'm quite excited for the invite, which is out this week. Uh obviously, we're in kind of blockbuster season, so our sort of arty, independent, interesting films kind of take a back seat for a little while because they don't want to have to compete with Spider-Man and Minions. Um, but the invite's out um this weekend, and that does look good. Um, I mean, who who wouldn't want to spend some time with Ed Norton and Penelope Cruz, who's already been talked about for a best supporting actress Oscar for the film. So I am excited to go and see that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. I've gotten like already 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Uh I've heard from people who have seen it. I don't know if I can say what they've said because I'm not entirely sure on what their embargoes are, but I will say that they felt very positive about it, really enjoyed the film. I I am not a massive Ed Norton guy, but I think when you watch him in the trailer for this, I'm like, wow, he is really funny. Like he is, he's competing with Seth Rogan. Um Penelope Cruz also fantastic, like really, really impressive. So yeah, I mean, it can't be any worse than Olivia Wells' last movie, can it?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, I think she said the the last one kind of gave her, ended up sort of giving her the freedom to make this one in a in a weird way.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm very glad because don't worry, darling, it just wasn't it. Sorry, Olivia.
SPEAKER_02I despised it as much as you did, but yeah, it wasn't great. Um, and there's a couple of uh films that promate at the Manchester Film Festival coming out in the next couple of weeks as well. My father's island is being released by Curzon, not sure how wide that's gonna go. Um, and then the fantastic Italian film, The Last One for the Road, uh about it's kind of a buddy movie. Two old guys want to find somewhere they can have a last drink for the evening. Um, little buddy road movie as they travel around trying to find that last drink. So that is a great film. So if you can seek that out, that's out on the 10th of July. If you can seek that out, I would do. Uh also on the 10th of July's Rosebush Pruning, which I saw um in Berlin. So check back to the Berlin episode if you want to hear what I thought about that. Um but yeah, that's out on the 10th of July. On the same day as the live, both of those are out on the same day as the live action Moana. So don't go and see the new live action Moana, because why would you go and see either Rosebush pruning or The Last One for the Road? Or Evil Dead Burn, because that's out the same day as well. Although that's probably too scary for me.
SPEAKER_00No, surely not, Neil.
SPEAKER_02Too scary for me. And we're gonna do our Odyssey preview uh in the next one. Um yeah, aren't we, Tom?
SPEAKER_00Yes, we certainly are. Uh, I am excited for the Odyssey, and not just because Christopher Nolan said that he wasn't gonna do influencer screenings uh of the movie. Yeah, I thought that he might have liked that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, they are foregoing influencer screenings. Nolan says, I don't need you, so fuck off.
SPEAKER_00Basically, yeah. I wonder how that went down for PR, I'll be honest. Like, I suppose at this point, what are they gonna do? He's Christopher Nolan.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Which I yeah, I do have a lot of respect for it. Uh, right, quickly before we finish, we'll keep it brief than we normally do today. Uh, Edinburgh International Film Festival, um, the world's longest continuously running film festival, uh, still has that accolade after it almost stopped running a couple of years ago. Um, they've just released their lineup. Um, their lineup comprises of world premiers for their competition. Um, so it must be a world premiere for their competition, but then they've also got some fantastic uh UK premiers uh and international premieres as part of the lineup as well. And it looks like a great lineup. Um if you're gonna be in Edinburgh for the fringe anyway, then pop along uh because it's the same uh it's on during the period of the fringe in Edinburgh. So if you're heading there for the fringe as well, uh head along to Edinburgh International Film Festival and check out some of the films there. If you're not going for the fringe and you just want to go for the film festival, then that's cool, but expect to pay a million pounds a night for accommodation because the fringe is on and it means it's expensive. Uh but if you live nearby, or you've got somewhere if you live nearby, you've got somewhere you can stay nearby. Uh visiting Edinburgh any time of year is lovely. Um, so I suggest you get along. They're opening with uh The Incomer, which is a fantastic Scottish film with Dominic Hall Gleason. Um, I saw it in Berlin and it is br it's great. I think I raved about it and said at the time, I bet you Edinburgh get this. Um came back from Berlin. It it's great. Um, their competition lineup looks looks brilliant, and there's some really interesting films in there. Um, Body Hackers looks really interesting. Um, they've got a load of short films if you like short films, and then they've got some absolute stinkers. Um no offense to you at all, Edinburgh. I would have programmed it as well. Um, but her private hell, the new Nicholas Wine-Reffin film, is a stinker. So if you want to go and be bored uh staring at neon hued loveliness for an hour and a half, uh 40 minutes, head along to the Edinburgh Film Festival. Uh uh, so yeah, I mean I would say that I would say go and check out anything in the lineup that isn't that personally. But they've got some amazing conversations, they've got in conversations with uh Kenneth Branagh, they've got Ewan McGregor, they've got Bruce Dern. Um so their sort of screen talk series is is fantastic. So um I can't go through the whole program um because it's it's pretty big, but it they've they've put together a really, really good program. Um and I think it's gonna be a great festival. So head up to Edinburgh in October. In October. Don't go in October either. No, no, don't go in October. Head up in August um for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Um and yeah, enjoy that celebration of cinema. And you watch Toys the Toy Story. Nope. Again, very different film. You watch train spotting multiple times because it must be an anniversary or something because they're playing it a lot.
SPEAKER_00It is the th it it genuinely is the 30th anniversary, and I do know that the crap the casting crew are gonna be there. And I think after Irvin Welsh is even DJing, uh so you know it's the full experience, the the full train spotting experience if you want it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so um I'm gonna try and go this year. I don't know if I'm gonna manage it, but my um my sister-in-law lives just outside Edinburgh, so I would stay with her because uh who can afford to stay in Edinburgh join the French. But um, yeah, I'm gonna try and get up for some of it if I can. Um if not, I'll be supporting from afar because like I said, it looks like a great lineup. And I know the guys uh who run it there really have a lot of passion and uh care for filmmakers and filmmaking and um the industry in general, so I'm sure it's gonna be super. Have you been to Eric? And then after that, we get Venice. Oh yeah. The star-studded ones begin then. The star-studdied ones. So it'll be interesting to see what Venice pulls out. What you were gonna ask me something then, Tom, quickly.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna ask if you'd been to Edinburgh before. Well, not Edinburgh, the city, obviously, the film festival.
SPEAKER_02No, I've not been to the film festival before, so um I definitely do want to go there at some point, so maybe this will be the year. Um, it's over the summer holidays, though, so it's always hard because kids and all that business. Um so we'll see. We shall see. Have you seen anything at home, Tom? Any recent classics you've caught up on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I watched the legal I watched Legally Blonde the other day because uh the legally blonde prequel is out this week. In fact, no, it's out now because it's like already in the Amazon Prime top 10. Uh, I will say this, Legally Blonde remains a like it remains a banger. Uh L might be one of the least necessary things we've ever got, ever. But the girl playing L in it is really good. Like, and genuinely has the same likable, she's just as likable. I think the problem is Tom, what is this what what's the story of Legally Blonde? The story, well, this is the problem, right? So the problem is that the story of Legally Blonde is L's origin story, so you don't need an origin story on top of your origin story. But they do sort she has to go to she has to go to Seattle, and everyone there is like a moody goth and don't doesn't like her because she wears pink.
SPEAKER_02Is the L at the end of the TV series L the L at the start of the film Legally Blonde? My answer would be no, because she's already been through the the the the the journey, the story arc that the L in Legally Blonde goes through. So they can't be the same character.
SPEAKER_00The answer to that one, Neil, is don't think about it too much. Just inju just consume your product and move on.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I think that is if this had been like I don't know, Elle's niece, someone else pointed out, like it doesn't need to be period, just make it Elle's niece. And then you can have her in it. You can have Reese Witherspoon come back for cameos or something. But what I found it what I find interesting with the with the uh trailer for for Elle is it's like From the World of Legally Blonde. What is in L does that mean?
SPEAKER_00I think that means if this goes well, we'll make more.
SPEAKER_02From the world of legally blonde, like there's a world, is there?
SPEAKER_00So, you know, we could do a spin-off of the nail technician who uh yeah, we could do a spin-off on the uh UPS guy, you know. Yeah, yeah, you know, like these are the questions that people want to know. Uh we get an origin for uh for bruiser. Like again, I bet you'd wondered where he came from. Well, now I know.
SPEAKER_01He's a dog.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but she she gets given Bruiser as like an apology gift for moving to Seattle.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but they then move back to LA and she forgets everything she learnt in Seattle because she has to go for a fish out of water again when she goes to Harvard.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, basically.
SPEAKER_02But cynical uh nonsense is what I would say. I mean, I don't think I don't think the people who made Elle were thinking of me as their target audience anyway, so I don't think they really care.
SPEAKER_00Funnily enough, when I was at the Pink Carpet Red uh premiere the other day, they didn't go apologies to Neil when they came up on stage. They just went, we hope you enjoy this TV show we made.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, apologies, middle-aged for middle-aged men, that we've made this show about a uh young teenage girl moving to Seattle. We know it will have upset you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. It was it was very specific, but then you know, first fair, they did say it. How about how about you? Have you been educating your girls in anything uh in any of the classics?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if it was I'm trying to think if we've watched anything really recently, because there's been a lot of football on, so I've been watching that instead of uh films. We watched Father of the Bride with them, uh, and I forgot how how boring that film is.
SPEAKER_00I remember being shown that in like year three at school and thinking, is this supposed to be good? Nothing happens in it. No. How how it got a sequel?
SPEAKER_02Like nothing happens in it. Literally, his daughter gets married. His daughter comes home, says, Dad, I'm getting married. He's tangentially involved in planning the wedding, and then the wedding happens and the film ends. I was like, what?
SPEAKER_00We all we all had Steve Martin fever back in the day. You can we'll watch him do anything.
SPEAKER_02It was mad. I was like, that that nothing has happened in this film. Uh but it did then mean uh we got our daughters into starting watching Only Murders in the Building. So much better. I will now be re-watching Only Murders in the Building because they've they've now started watching that. So uh we can have Steve Steve Martin and Martin Short in that, great. Steve Martin and Martin Short in um Father of the Bride, not so good.
SPEAKER_00No. But you know, Selena Gilmes, she adds the spice they need.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I love uh Only Murders in the Building's great, so um so yeah, I think that's the only Yeah, I think that's the only film we've seen since uh like on demand, because I think everybody we've had people away or uh on going to parties and sleepovers and things.
SPEAKER_00So like you say, it's a busy sports time of year. There's been Wimbledon, there's been football, there's been other bits to distract us.
SPEAKER_02Other bits to distract us. But we've made it to the cinema a couple of times, uh, so we've done well.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02And next time we meet, I'm sure we'll have seen other things, and I'm sure we'll still be between screenings. Indeed. So catch us wherever you get your podcasts. Uh we will be talking more film chat next time. I'm sure it'll be just as in depth and fascinating as this conversation was. Uh uh, so we will see you then uh when we are between screenings. Bye. Bye.