This Seats Taken
This podcast is all about movies! Here my reviews, with some input from other movie enthusiasts , on all new movies. Weekly episodes that review the newest movies in theaters. I also review a throwback movie along with each episode that is picked by my guest. And every once in a while there will be bonus episodes of just older classic movies and just movie, tv, and pop culture updates. Let me be your movie guy.
This Seats Taken
Blink Twice and Jackpot!
Can Sigourney Weaver's entry into the Star Wars universe redefine iconic roles in Hollywood? Join me, Robert Miranda, as I bring you the latest buzz with some surprising twists in our Hollywood Updates segment. From Gwyneth Paltrow's quirky return to acting with a ping-pong twist to Nikki Glaser's upcoming stint as the Golden Globes host in 2025, there’s plenty to discuss. I also cover James Spader's return as Ultron, the much-anticipated remake of "La Bamba," and an intriguing casting choice involving NFL star Travis Kelsey in an action comedy. Plus, get the scoop on a fresh Jurassic World trilogy that's sure to leave fans roaring!
Shift gears with my reviews of two contrasting films: Zoe Kravitz’s intense thriller "Blink Twice," featuring a tech billionaire and a cocktail waitress dealing with dark themes of trauma and abuse, and Amazon Prime's "Jackpot," a light-hearted, futuristic comedy with big names like John Cena, Awkwafina, and Simu Liu. With powerful performances from Channing Tatum in "Blink Twice" and a fun, escapist vibe in "Jackpot," there’s something for every movie lover. Wrapping up, I share some exciting updates about my Instagram movie reviews and TikTok content, hinting at a special upcoming episode featuring a favorite co-star to chat about "Beetlejuice." Don't miss out on this loaded episode!
https://msha.ke/thisseatstaken
excuse me, is anybody sitting here? Sorry, this is taken, sorry. Welcome to a brand new episode of this. He's taken, where I'm your host, robert miranda, and today I got a solo edition of the podcast. Today there is no new guests, but I'm still going to be going over two new movies with us as well. We're going to be trying a new segment on this podcast where I give you Hollywood updates. So for this episode, I'm going to be talking about the new Channing Tatum movie that just dropped a couple weekends ago called Blink Twice. And for the second one, instead of doing a throwback, I'm also going to be doing a new movie, but it's on Amazon Prime streaming right now. We're going to be doing Jackpot as well. So it's going to be a shorter episode, since it's just me, but I'm going to be trying something new right now by giving you a new segment called Hollywood Updates. The first one Sigourney Weaver confirms that she will be making her Star Wars debut in the Mandalorian and Grogu movie.
Speaker 1:Weaver is best known for sci-fi movies such as ghostbusters, avatar and the alien franchise. She revealed revealed to deadline that she is currently working on the mandalorian and grogu, stating she got to quote meet grogu for the first time the other day. Not much more details on their story or or her character, but the new star wars film is set to release may 22, 2026. Up next we got. Gwyneth paltrow is joining Timothee Chalamet in Josh Safdie's ping pong movie called Marty Supreme. The original film follows the career of an exceptional American table tennis player, made by A24 Company. This will be Paltrow's first film since 2019. Avengers Endgame. A release date has not been announced yet.
Speaker 1:Next, nikki Glaser is set to host the 2025 Golden Globes. This will be the 82nd Golden Globe Awards show. Glaser is most as popular stand-up comedian, podcaster, actor, writer and producer. She most recently went viral in the Netflix 2024's Roast Tom Brady. Despite the last two awards show hosts, joe Coy and Gerald Carmichael, receiving negative reviews on their performance, glaser has expressed their excitement in the Hollywood Reporter saying, quote I am absolutely thrilled to be hosting the Golden Globes. It is one of my favorite nights of television and I get a front row seat. The Golden Globes is not only a huge night for TV and film, but also for comedy. You can watch the Golden Globes on January 5th 2025. Next, james Spader has confirmed to reprise his role as Ultron in the upcoming Marvel series starring Vision. Last time Spader played Ultron was in Avengers Age of Ultron. The unofficial title show is set to release in early 2026.
Speaker 1:Next, richie Valens is headed back to the big screen. Mucha Mas Media and Sony Pictures have teamed up to develop a remake of the Golden Globe nominated 1987 film La Bamba, based on the life of the rock and roll legend Luis Valdez. The writer and director of the original film is on board as an executive producer. Details of casting or release date have not been released yet. Up next, if you haven't heard already, universal is in the midst of developing another trilogy based on the franchise Jurassic World. Universal Pictures released the title for the first of the trilogy in late August Jurassic World Rebirth. They also released the first plot details for the seventh entry in the series. The new Jurassic World movie quote sees an intrepid team racing to secure DNA samples from one from three of the most colossal creatures across land, sea and air. According to the synopsis released on the first look images, scarlett Johansson, mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are set to star in the movie. You can expect to see Jurassic World 4 in theaters July 2025.
Speaker 1:And the last update I have for you guys Travis Kelsey is in talks with Lionsgate new action comedy called Loose Cannons. Yes, that's Travis Kelsey, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, also co-hosts the podcast New Heights. Chad Sikorski, who directed the John Wick series, is on board to produce. Production is a long way from starting as well, as Kelsey is going to be busy the next several months with football season approaching. Not much more details about the plot have been released, but Kelsey is also confirmed to appear in Adam Sandler's new sequel to Happy Gilmore, coming in 2025. And that is your Hollywood update for this segment. And that is your Hollywood update.
Speaker 1:Now I'm trying to make an easy transition into the first movie we're going to be talking about, because this is a controversial movie to talk about. It's in theaters right now, starting Saturdayatted to you. I'm talking about blink twice here. It's directed and written by zoe kravitz. This movie is being talked about by a lot of people, and for good and bad reasons. Obviously, I'm going to try to review this as a general audience member as well as a film buff who likes you the directorial side of things. So I'm going to start with that one first. This movie is about when tech billionaire Slater King meets a cocktail waitress, frida, at his fundraising gala. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, frida questions her reality. So I'm going to be reviewing this as a film buff.
Speaker 1:First I thought theatrically it was great. I thought the way they filmed it, the way they suspense, the way they start revealing plot points so subtly and like their pacing was a little bit great. For being zoe kravitz very first director debut, I thought she did very well. It was interesting. I could tell she was focused on keeping everything centered in the camera frame and then they had a very late title reveal blink twice. The title reveal in this movie was so quick and so subtle and so done brilliantly. I I was very shocked and it's a very small. I could tell this was filmed in covid because it's only one location that this movie is filmed on, um, and that was actually filmed in mexico. It's not really said where that island was located but for the sake of knowing where it was filmed I'm just going to be assuming it was mexico in the movie as well.
Speaker 1:The cast in this movie was very interesting. It's channing tatum, starring in it, who plays kind of the villain in this movie. He for him just coming out of the roles gambit, deadpool and wolverine. This is the first time I'm seeing him on the big screen and it was interesting to see him play such a different role. He plays like a thriller bad guy. It's someone. When I mean bad guy, I'm just gonna go out and flat and say that this movie is about men taking advantage of their power and thinking they can do whatever they want, and that includes raping some women. I'm just gonna say it. It's unfortunate and it's just really awkward. I don't know. I want to call awkward timing, because it's never right to talk about this kind of thing, but to see channing tatum in a role like this, it was very interesting and I thought he did very good. If he was coming out in another thriller sometime soon I would probably be a little bit excited just because he did so good in this role.
Speaker 1:In this other casting, his supporting cast. This is great. I just mentioned Frida, played by Naomi Aki, who did great in this movie. I was pretty stunned by her performance. She has such a realistic reaction to a lot of the the things that are being really revealed. I'm not going to release too much about the plot details, but I thought she did very well as a supporting cast member, as actually the lead I would call her too. She was a co-lead in this movie.
Speaker 1:Um, the costumes alone were very interesting. It's very easy, very relaxed. Nothing groundbreaking with the costumes in this movie, but the settings in this movie was very interesting too. Like I said, there's probably a total of 10 different rooms in this entire movie, but you see it throughout the whole course of the day, like they're nate, morning, night, evening. So it's the same setting but still a different time of the day. It makes it feel like a different kind of set.
Speaker 1:The other supporting cast movie in this movie didn't do nothing really great groundbreaking, wise. I nothing really made me stand them out to me, but the chemistry between channing and naomi was phenomenal. I thought they did very good together. I like seeing them on screen. It's just like channing tatum's character was like this, really powerful, but I thought she brought that same energy where she can really match it.
Speaker 1:And Zoe Kravitz, who's famous for her father, lenny Kravitz. She is an actress herself, so I'm sure she brought a lot of her experience into this movie and the fact that she wrote this movie was very, very interesting it's. So it's something I would never expect from her in a million years. But then again, like I said, this is her debut. So there's, I don't know why I had any expectations in the first place. Um, for this being her debut, I think this might be centered around the career of thriller movies. I hope she doesn't get typecast as a genre, because I really like to see what she can do. I thought she did great, uh, directing this movie for the first time. And yeah, I want to talk about the general audience movie because I think a lot of people can't separate the art from the artist kind of thing in this one. When the subject in this movie is so awkward and taboo to talk about, that people can't really appreciate it as a film.
Speaker 1:Now, this film, I can give a little plot detail here. It's about channing tatum, like, as I mentioned, is a powerful man, invites this girl he just met the night before to his private island and of course, she agrees to go with her friend. And then, when they get to this island, they start noticing weird things happening. They started to remember like someone's gone, missing, some people are missing items, some people are appearing the next morning with a black eye. It's just weird stuff is adding up and long story short.
Speaker 1:This movie really plays on a person's mental trauma health by stating, when someone's traumatized, your body or your mind does try to help you, protect you for that by blocking that part of your life out from your memory. So they really try to make the traumatic experience so they'll help them forget the next following day. But they also have this help from this kind of serum or perfume like they used every time they sprayed it on them. It would help them forget what happened the night before short-term memory loss. But what they're forgetting and traumatizing is that every single night at this island these group of men, powerful men, are raping these innocent girls and it's just, it's the play on like the upstate island. Uh, they make a couple references like that go along with the Cosby and Weinstein kind of accusations.
Speaker 1:It's, like I said, a taboo kind of topic in this movie. But did this need to be talked about? Did this need to be brought to light in this kind of way? We already have documentaries about it that I've seen. I don't.
Speaker 1:If this movie is about empowerment, kind of like surviving this thing and how to move on, I don't think this did a good job doing that. It was just interesting for them to take a play on this movie and actually interesting for them to get a green lit. This is the first, probably movie I've seen in theaters that had a warning label before the movie even started, saying hey, just a heads up. This might be triggering for some of the people who are offensive to this kind of things and that from my knowledge I believe that was only slapped on the movie two days before to release too. It's it's kind of interesting the studio would greenlit this as a way they did, especially because the original title for this movie, instead of blink twice, it was going to be pussy island. Very, very weird choice to name it that way, because it just didn't fit the vibe. I felt like, um, blink twice. It's not that much of a better title either, because I they just name dropped blink twice, like once in this whole movie and it wasn't very beginning. That didn't have nothing to do with anything, but it's interesting.
Speaker 1:Now I could see why this is triggering for a lot of people. I do not have a personal attachment to that subject, but as someone who doesn't have a personal attachment, I even found this very uncomfortable, like I was kind of squeegeeing in my seat a little bit saying why are we watching this? It was interesting, but channing chan's performance doing this was great, like he was supposed to be the guy you hated and for sure I did hate him in this kind of role. I mean I hated his character. I should say it was very interesting and very uncomfortable in some scenes. I wouldn't probably see this movie again. I definitely probably wouldn't recommend it to anybody, but I'm still not upset that I've seen it, though. When I went to the theaters there was legit only one person in the entire theater and that even that one person was a female and she kept getting up and leaving because I'm assuming she was just uncomfortable with some of the stuff they've seen on screen.
Speaker 1:Now. The pacing of this movie was great for the most part. It did take a little bit long for me to then get to the actual action of this movie, but once we got into it I was I was hooked, I was interested and, like I said, they're pacing for revealing some of the facts, though like unveiling some of the big plot points was very great. Now, with that being said, I probably would rate this maybe a six out of ten. Six out of ten it's being kind of fair too.
Speaker 1:I like the performance in this movie. It's just the subject that makes it hard for me to give this a higher rating. Um, like, I don't think we needed something like this right now. If you're trying to start up a conversation about the topic, I think it could have been done a little bit better than this, or even maybe just make it like a documentary kind of style, instead of making up an imaginary man who was like basically the combination of all these me too movements, uh, you know people that it's based on. It's just awkward. I would love to see an epstein movie made and see exactly what happened on there, but I kind of doubt.
Speaker 1:Stuff like this went down there, like memory loss, um, and raping. And the thing that got me most mad about this movie these women that they invited to this island. They all seemed into these men. Why do you have to feel that you would have to sexually assault them when, if you were just your charming self, like they, you know the girl that they presented themselves to be the girls probably, probably would have, you know, been more willing to do sleep with them instead of forcing them. It's a very taboo topic and I just don't. I did not feel comfortable watching this movie at all. But the directing in this movie was great. Channing Tatum's performance was awesome. It's just the story itself that I was uncomfortable with, so that's why I'm only giving it a 6 out of 10.
Speaker 1:But now I want to transfer into a little bit a completely different tone and going into an Amazon Prime movie original movie jackpot which just came out. This couple, which just came out the same weekend, I believe, as blink twice. I had the liberty of seeing this at home, which is a little more comfortable. This is definitely the kind of movie you want to watch at home at night when you come home. Just want to relax and put something on. Jackpot stars john cena and aquafina and simu lu, and it's about in the near future. A grand lottery has been newly established in california to catch and kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot.
Speaker 1:Now this movie was directed by paul figg now, who's directed things like bridesmaids and the heats. He also created his shows like um freaks and geeks. Just knowing that you can kind of put together what kind of movie this is going to be. He's known for these great comedies, especially comedy starring women, I believe, and this movie was written by rob. Yes, go be excuse me, I know I said that wrong too, but this movie is fun. It is like the story itself isn't really groundbreaking or really really captivating. It's interesting but it's not really groundbreaking stuff. But what makes this movie great is the directing and the performance from john cena and aquafina. I know those are two big names in hollywood right now where people either really really love them or they really really hate them. I'm one on the side where I really love them. I love them both independently too, but together I think they were so funny to um bouncing off their improv a lot.
Speaker 1:Now this movie, like I said, it's aquafina coming into new town. She's trying to make a break in hollywood again by becoming an actress, but she accidentally gets a lottery ticket and she doesn't realize in the california if you win the lottery, everyone and their mom is going to be coming after you trying to kill you before sundown to get that money and it's a countdown, um. So the whole movie is her trying to run away from these people. Her quote fans trying to kill her. And it's when I see everybody and their mom I legit mean everybody and their mom, like even kids, teenagers, uh, I think nuns even try like coming after her to win her money. It's insane. And she hires john cena, who plays his character, noel, who would charge her 10 to keep her alive until sundown, and she has her hesitancy. She has a trust issues.
Speaker 1:But in long story short, I don't want to reveal too much about the details because I think everyone should go watch this movie and it works. The kind of the action of this movie was so freaking great. Um, there's about three or four different scenes where there's the big chase scenes. My only issue was that the first two chase scenes were great, but the third, final, third act didn't live up to the first two.
Speaker 1:I feel like, uh, it's also the villain of this movie is simu lu, who's best known for playing shang chi in the marvel series, who was also co-starred aquafina in that movie. I don't know what it is about simu lu, but he just has has not been the rising star. I think everyone thought he was going to be. Remember, I'm tired of seeing him be the side character when I do believe he has the acting chops to pull off main character vibes. I loved this movie. The humor was so good. The action was phenomenal. I cannot talk about this movie enough. I'm probably gonna go home and watch it again tonight. But john cena I love him and everything he's gonna do. He's just a man who knows how to use his entire body for comedic and professional uses. But he is such a good job taking down these men and also like being quit whipped with his improv as well. Alcofina I'm always gonna praise she's had like her voice. A lot of people hate her voice but I think she is one of the great voice actors and she's very fun.
Speaker 1:I heard paul feig. I listened to an interview with him and he took a lot of inspiration from the jackie chan movies. Stating jackie chan in his movies he never fought offensively. He never really was like you know when the guy who can beat up everybody. He was never that guy to go around and starting a fight. Every time you see his move fighting in any movie, any movie. It's always used defensively like he doesn't want to be the guy in the fight. But he does it so well and I think he took some of that and put it towards aquafina and she pulls it off amazingly in this movie. She does have a couple scenes, too, where she does kick a little bit ass and, like I said, it's only done defensively too. So he took that inspiration from him, which I thought that was amazing.
Speaker 1:And this movie was set in 2030, maybe about six years from now, and this movie is set a little bit realistically. I heard a lot of people talking that they could see something like this happening. I don't know how true that's going to be. It's kind of like the a little bit taken from the purge in this movie. I think this is a fun movie. The the directing was great. There's not a thing I would change about this movie. It's if you know, going in there, like I said, the director, paul Feig, directed the Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.
Speaker 1:Just knowing that you kind of know and expecting what to get, and I think you're gonna have a good time doing this movie, um, with that being said, I think I'm gonna give this movie a good, good 8 out of 10. I would definitely watch this movie. I'm definitely going to recommend this movie to anybody who just wants to have something to watch at the end of the night. That being said, that might be the shortest episode I've ever done. It's a very quick episode.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to come on here because I didn't have a guest, which is fine. Next week, I'm going to be kicking back things up with a beetlejuice beetlejuice, bringing back a co-star who asked me to come on for that movie. Um, I'm still doing movie reviews on my instagram too, so if you want to keep following me on instagram, that's great. Interact with me. I'll be comment to any one of my posts. Let me know what you're excited to see, and also keep an eye out for the tiktok too, because I have been posting clips and a little bit, uh, other stuff as well. But, with that being said, thank you for listening and stay tuned next week. We'll be seeing you soon.
