Scream 7 and The Long Walk - Talking Pondo

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the movie Scream 7 to watch and Clif gives Marty the movie The Long Walk to watch. 

First up is Scream 7, which brings Neve Campbell back as Sidney Prescott for another showdown with Ghostface. Clif questions the film's writing, predictable twists and increasingly over-the-top kills, while Marty argues that the franchise still knows how to reinvent itself, balancing nostalgia with a few fresh ideas. It's one of the liveliest debates the show's had in a while.

Then it's on to The Long Walk, where the conversation shifts from masked killers to psychological endurance. Clif and Marty discuss how the adaptation captures the hopeless tension of King's story, the emotional toll of the competition and why sometimes the scariest horror movie doesn't need monsters at all.

They also cover listener mail, AI deepfakes, safe rooms with questionable design choices and the age-old question of whether horror fans are willing to forgive absolutely anything if Ghostface is holding the knife.

Transcript

Clif 0:01
Ray and his father are both killed the same way in this movie. They're executed by the major. Which uh I I didn't realize until wait a minute.

Marty 0:09
Wait a minute. A second to watch. Luke Skywalker killed Ray? That's right. The implications. That's hilarious.

Clif 0:27
I need a little milk.

Marty 0:48
A long walk to, now with two winners, will not be seen this week, so we may bring you the following AI Deep Fake.

Clif 0:56
Now with two winners.

Marty 1:00
That's where I thought they were going for a second, you know? Yeah. But I want to be true to the book. But we are back. It's talking Pondo. I want to call it a solo episode, but it's really a no-guest episode. It's a no-guest episode. Pondo on our own oh. I'm Marty, as always.

Clif 1:18
I'm Cliff.

Marty 1:19
And it's always so weird to introduce yourself. You know, on the Victory the podcast, it got to the point where Kevin Connolly is like, we don't have to introduce ourselves every week, guys. The people tuning in know who we are, but the other's like, what? It feels normal. It feels kind of normal. It's it is, you know, and our guest today is no one. It's just hey, woo, no one. But what movies are we watching? Some of you probably already know because we announced them a long time ago, but that's right.

Clif 1:48
Today we are watching The Long Walk and Scream 7. You gave me Scream 7, I gave you The Long Walk.

Marty 1:56
That's right. And we've watched them. Well, I did watch them today. Well, I watched I did watch both of them today. I watched part of Scream 7 today. So I guess that is technically correct. Okay. We you know, we try to watch the movies sometime earlier in the week, process them, and then do the pod on them. But then you come on the pod and you go, what movies are we watching today? And it's like, but we already watched it's like listener mail and viewer mail because they don't watch this.

Clif 2:25
Maybe it would be more accurate to say what movies are we talking about today? Right.

Marty 2:29
But that's a perfect segue to listener mail. Hooray! We've got a piece of snail mail. Shut the hell up today. And it says, looking forward to talking to you about Strange Brew and Rosencrantz and Gilderstein are dead. It's Andrew from the Two Vague podcast, drops me a uh postcard talking about next week's episode. Episode 420, and we're talking about beer. So that's gonna be a fun, jam-packed one next week. But his postcard is for his new uh I think this is a graphic novel of sorts or a compilation of people's works called Nerd Emergencies and Other Misunderstandings. It's probably still happening on Kickstarter right now. Link in the show notes, if I remember. And if I don't, kick me and I will put them in there.

Clif 3:18
So anyway, next week.

Marty 3:22
Yeah. So next week is going to be the long awaited for us, but you, the listener, have never heard about it. The talking Shakespeare, talking Hamlet, talking bard, something or another. I think it's talking Hamlet, maybe where it's Strange Brew and Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are dead, a mashup uh recommended to us by none other than Drew Kalenkeck himself. That's right. And he'll be on the episode with us, along with Ben and Andrew from the Two Vague Pod. That's right. Because as you remember, Cookie is a stupid call name. So we couldn't wait to have him back on the show. And so this should be a fun crossover event. He was like, Hey, are you gonna do Strange Brew? And I'm like, hey, now that you mention it, somebody else wants to do that. He wants to do this other movie, and then crossover heaven is created. So that will be next week for episode 420.

Clif 4:19
Hey Cookie. Hey Cookie. Cookie, you got a stupid name, Cookie.

Marty 4:25
Check it out as soon as you're done listening.

Clif 4:27
It's my favorite cold opening we've ever done. All right. So um any any any more mail or anything?

Marty 4:36
No, that was just the one I saved for cool for this one. Um keep those letters coming, guys. Yes, yes.

Clif 4:43
Contact us, hit us up in the show notes. There's a uh send us fan mail thing.

Marty 4:47
You can yeah, you can send us a a a sound bite of yourself now. That's right. Yes, if you're crazy enough to do it, we might be crazy. Yeah, put it on the podcast.

Clif 4:57
Yeah. You want to be you want to you want to be the rant at the end of the show as as as as our voices fade out, you know? Hit us up on the show notes.

Marty 5:07
Well, we were gonna do the uh how to there's an idea for a documentary we had at one point, how to how not to make a movie for six thousand dollars. And the end credits were gonna be all the shitty Netflix reviews of our old movies or something. That's right. I forgot all about that. That's hilarious. Oh wow. Okay, so what are we starting with today? Um, let's do Scream 7. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:34
Are they both horror films today?

Marty 5:37
Because Long Walks Dystopian, but it's definitely horrific. It's horrific, but I wouldn't call it straight horror, but I would call it shelved in sci-fi like a Mad Max, but it's scarier than that. But we'll get into that in a second.

Clif 5:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. Fine. Yeah. I mean, I I yeah, I have thoughts on that. Yeah. So but scream scream seven, let's do it. Scream seven.

Marty 6:00
Uh what what are you all expecting? It's part seven, guys. What is what is Scream 7?

Clif 6:07
Scream seven, 2026 rated R 1 hour and 54 minutes. Expecting Oscar Caliber part sevens, for God's sake. When a new ghost face killer merges in the town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life, her darkest feels are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Written and directed by Kevin Williamson, stars Nev Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May. Let me get you that sweet storyline. Here we go. When a new ghost face killer emerges in the town where Sidney's Prescott has built a new life, her darkest feels are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. It's the same thing. I almost feel like you might want to vet these things ahead of time. No, it's better. That way, like the surprise thing.

Marty 6:43
That's a good gimmick. Yeah, it's a good bit.

Clif 6:46
So, okay, so yeah. Let's let's let's let's dive in.

Marty 6:53
Uh okay, we'll start at the beginning. I think that guy in the beginning who went to the mocker house with his girlfriend, I think he's ultimately happy he was killed in the mocker house. Don't you think that's what he would have wanted, that guy. And you know, to go to the end of the movie, I feel like, yeah, that's what she would have wanted too, to be killed by Sidney Prescott. So I think everybody had a happy ending because that's what they wanted.

Clif 7:22
I'm two minutes and 25 seconds into this movie, and it looks like they've turned Sydney's parent parents' house into a tourist attraction, and now they're following some influencers, and we're gonna see them murdered. Yeah. I had the heaviest fucking sigh. I was just like, oh, I feel like this movie's gonna be heavy lifting. Well, at least they kill those two real quick, you know. Sure, but that second kill is so fucking bad. I'm gonna swing from the chandelier like right onto the and trap peas. I'm I'm just if it had been like scary movie, the new scary movie, she would have done like a backflip and then landed on her stomach and then, you know, because it was goldberg device. It's fucking unbelievably bad. I mean, it's just whoo.

Marty 8:03
But you gotta admit that that particular ghost face is really brutal. Then he burns her alive and shit. This one's a little more gory. It's we live in a post-terrifier world, I think, is why it's a little more gross. But everything is gross now, as I have pointed out before.

Clif 8:20
My problem with this, I think, is that uh the movie is so meta at this point, you can't have stupider oblivious characters. And you made these two people, one of whom is a massive, massive fan of the fucking whole franchise. And he's like, that's where Sydney killed blah blah blah, and that's the bathroom where she hid and this and that. Like the dude knows all about this stuff, but he's just gonna walk up to a statue ghost face to be like, oh, look, it's motion so it why do we have to write the characters so fucking stupid?

Marty 8:48
So we're glad when they're fucking dead. It's cathartic. This fucking asshole's dead. That's how I see it.

Clif 9:05
So these people are they know all about the stab murders, but when she comes out of the bathroom of in the stab house and can't find her boyfriend, I'm supposed to believe she just goes looking for him. No fear, no apprehension. Why? You know, I mean she's like a babe, where are you? Babe, you know, dad? Dad.

Marty 9:22
Oh yeah, they're our first two. Dad you already know what's gonna happen. And you're just waiting for it.

Clif 9:29
I mean, uh and I get it, it's part of the format of Scream, right? You gotta have the first kill to set to set the movie up. That's how the that's how scream works. But it just feels like this one is just it's they're not even fucking trying. Like it just seems so it seems so kind of try hard. Um I don't know. I the the first two or three are great. I really like them, but they're they this is just it's it's almost like a cash grab. It feels like such a cash grab.

Marty 9:56
Well, once you get to parts three through seven, they're kind of equal quality in a way. You know, there's variances of oh, this one might be a little better or this one's a little messier, but you know, I'm just like, it's part seven. I know it's gonna be dumb, but for it to be even as good as it is was quite a a surprise for me. It's it's the first time Kevin Williamson is back to the franchise after the first two. And to me, it feels the closest to the first two since the first two. I I I I I guess I mean because you don't have as it's trying to be scary again in ways. It's not trying to be quite as campy as it goes, you know, well as three, four, five, and six. While they do have some creepy moments, they're kind of delved back into the comedic aspects of it a little bit. One of the things I like here is uh we're going back to the basics again. You know, we don't have Dewey anymore, so now we have the Joel McHale character because it makes sense that Sydney would be with a cop, somebody that can help protect her and stuff, and he's got all the hit points of death.

Clif 11:04
Joel fucking McHale, man.

Marty 11:05
I mean, I thought he was good in the movie.

Clif 11:08
All I could see was his Marmy's fucking smile and talk soup, and it was just like, I thought that for a minute or so. I would have preferred somebody else that that at least sold some physicality and seemed like somebody was going to be dangerous. That's who Sydney would marry. Sydney would marry somebody who's gonna have her back. And I did, I'll say this. I did like like when shit started to pop off and the two of them were working together. It was obvious that they were in concert, they were a team, uh, you know, and that type of shit. That was really cool. I thought that was good writing, but at the same time, uh, I just didn't by his physicality, I just didn't think he's a good fit for the for the role. Um it just didn't, it didn't sell for me, you know. And I just felt with this movie. I like all these kind of bad choices throughout the film. Like, again, the the her falling from that height onto that knife, and I'm just supposed to believe that whoever the killer is is just fine. She's a 125-pound girl falling from a 20-foot height.

Marty 12:04
But that's just about these movies, and it's part of what Kevin Williamson has put in from the beginning. You can't decipher which ghost face is doing the killings, and they do this on purpose. It's almost like when you're in that ghost face costume, you can do shit that's like a cartoon for some reason. You can, you know, it's like, wait a minute, she couldn't have stabbed Dewey in part five. Remember, they were trying to say it was Amber that lifted him up. It's like, well, how does that even work? How is she picking up David Arcade?

Clif 12:33
Well, and that's that's why I feel like the first two are much more grounded in it in a sort of a reality where at least when Ghostface is running around, or what I like when Sydney kicks Ghostface in the face, he goes down, gets back up, that type of thing, and there's some struggle and some fight. But and there's a physical reality to it, right? Stu gets cut and he's starting to bleed out, all this type of shit. And then this one, they've turned Ghostface into, like you said, kind of like Jason, where we don't because we because we don't know who Ghostface is, which ghostface killer is doing it, we we don't know that they're injured. It could have been that one. You know, I just think it's that way. It's a r it's a rough sale.

Marty 13:09
It's impossible to determine in any of the sequel, any of the entries, who is actually ghost faced at almost any given time on a purpose.

Clif 13:17
I get it, but at this point in the movies, it feels like it's an excuse for them to basically injure Ghost Faced and say he's not injured because we don't know which killer it was. Yeah, you either like the formula or you don't at this point. I don't know what else to say on that. I don't have a problem with the formula. I just again I just think it's some it's just it I I the some of the choices really aggravated me. It didn't feel like it was a serious movie. Um and yeah, we got the Joel McHale Officer Doofy replacement, and you know, walking into the garage just to go, hey, the walls are up and walk back up so you can just introduce the set, which later on you're gonna use. It's kind of like it just you can see this movie coming from a mile away. You know what I mean? No, it's supposed to it's supposed to give me, it's supposed to trick me. It I'm supposed to not see it coming.

Marty 14:04
Well, it it does that too. It does tell you exactly what's happening, but constantly makes you think, well, maybe it's this person doing it until it's not, until you get to the end. Did you guess who the killer was?

Clif 14:17
And was I had pit I had the girl from Pitch Perfect being the killer right from the first fucking moment I saw her. Yeah, I I thought it could have been anybody up until I had Ethan Embry as the killer the first moment I saw him. I was like, oh, it's the dude from Oh, it's TB the bass player from fucking from uh that thing you do. He's the killer. Like it was just I don't know why. I just this movie was like it was like um like looking at a house that's built with nothing but glass. Like you could just see right through it. You know what I mean?

Marty 14:43
No, it wasn't like that for me. I didn't I didn't know any of that stuff. Uh and so the other thing about they don't have uh Randy anymore, because it was kind of a mistake probably to kill him in part two because you kind of that character going forward, and now you have now you have the the ability to do uh his uh what are they his nephew, niece, and nephew.

Clif 15:05
Yeah.

Marty 15:06
And they're his relative, so they're kind of filling in the Randy part now. So now we have a Dewey uh and a Randy going forward. So it makes the formula work a little bit better, I thought. Because with without those, it's like, oh yeah, you're you're missing a little something. And it was important to Sark the Kill Dewey because it makes that movie more impactful. But then, you know, it's like they kept saying, Sid, you should have been in New York. It wasn't right without you, you know, even though I still enjoyed that one a little bit too. Uh one of the things I most enjoyed about this one is Scream 5 and 6 felt like they were kind of reactions to things like the Star Wars sequel trilogy and how to do the legacy sequel and the replacements of the old characters, and a lot of satire on that. And that's why I thought those were very strong. And now with this one, we're another generation removed from that. So, this is one of the first movies that I've seen where the millennials are old and the Gen Zs are like, you're the old fuckers, and then the Gen X are like, Oh my god, we're like the real old fuckers over here, you know, you're past your prime. But the cool thing is they're all intermingling together. There's no passing the baton, there's no, I'm gonna focus just on this group and push these out the door. It was kind of an ensemble of the different age groups. So I appreciated that a bit. Because it it's like, oh, that's cool. I haven't really seen that in a movie yet.

Clif 16:35
Okay. Um I I enjoyed Stu being AI. I I thought it was a smooth, fun move to bring him back. Um, and I enjoy seeing Lillard back in the in in the sh the franchise. It was a fun way to put him back in. It was a fun way to put him back in, um, which I thought I thought that was really, really, really good. Um, Grace McKinnah. Uh, I don't know why that I I don't I don't I just Oh, she didn't last long, right? Yeah, I didn't I don't enjoy her acting, so I was clapping this here go.

Marty 17:02
Um another gross killing where I'm like, I like the intensity of the kills, but they do get a little too gross for me. But I like the kind of ooh, like the quickness or the the way it's shot and edited kind of has that that punch, you know, for that I enjoy from these type of movies.

Clif 17:19
Why would you create a safe room with an exit? With an obvious exit, like it's just it's again dumb, man. Poor at writing and hand waving and this that's why because he because he wants to put the two of them in the walls and have the knife go through it. He's like, I had this idea, so I've gotta write it into the script. And I I feel like that's a lot of what this movie was with Kevin saying, I've got these ideas, I'm gonna put them all together to the script. I agree with you. I I I do like the um I do like the generations be kind of being together. I do like seeing her family sort of work together. Um, you know, I I I I wish somebody else other than Michaela played it just because of the physicality. I feel like she would have married an actual like, I don't know.

Marty 18:03
Do you mean physically badass cop? You you mean the girl that gets disemboweled while she's swinging? Yes. Okay.

Clif 18:13
Yeah, because she was out of the movie pretty quick. So yeah. Yeah, I was I was okay. She was on Mad Men for years and wild, crazy.

Marty 18:23
Uh one of those weird uh writing choices, and they kind of have to force it in, is like that house at the end, it has as many monitors as freaking rollerball. Right? She's going from room to room, and here's another monitor of all the AI stuff. And it was kind of neat where they go through all that, but I'm just thinking this is like fucking rollerball where he's got the TV in every room showing the same shit. It's a callback to that classic episode there.

Clif 18:49
Uh one of the main Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was gonna say there's a nice little Jurassic Park moment in the kitchen. You know, very it's a very uh, you know, the two kids in the being running from the Velociraptors type of thing, which I thought was kind of fun.

Marty 19:07
One of the main contentions this movie has online is I loved it until the ending. I thought the reveal was weak. And I'm thinking, that fucked up the whole movie for you when you knew what it was right away. And then on my rewatch, I'm thinking, well, it's the only way that even kind of makes sense because we know Stu ain't fucking back. And apparently in the test screening, there was a post-credit sequence where Stu was watching the news or something, but the audiences were like, nah. And I thought about I'm like, yeah, that would kind of disrupt what the whole point of the movie was. It was somebody using her past to get to her, and of course, a deranged fan. It makes sense. Uh the the uh Randy aggregate, she kind of nailed it when they were in the bar. Like it's somebody who's obsessed with Sid from 30 years ago when she was killing a ghost face every year. And like, why have you gone soft and disappeared as the uh crazy logic? Because you know, you don't need a whole lot of ex a reason why you're doing it, you're just fucking crazy. We've seen that happen in so many of these movies, and it was fun to see Ethan Embry in a role that I almost didn't recognize him in.

Clif 20:18
Yeah, it was a pleasure to see him in the role. I I I I'm a fan of his work anyway, so it was it was uh it's always fun to see anybody from that thing you do. It's like with like seeing um uh Jimmy show up in in Super Slash. We're like, oh nice, cool. You know, you're still working. I like that. You know, that's fun.

Marty 20:35
It's like I like seeing Gail Weathers show up and run over that lame ghost face halfway through the movie, and she comes out, tells the cops to fuck off, and I'm like, yep, that's Gail Weathers. More hit points than anybody in the fucking franchise of Scream. She doesn't do a whole lot in the movie, but what she does is it's very human. She got fucked up in part six, she almost died in that one. And so to show her come back in this one and have the nerve damage, and it's like it adds more of the uh human element to it, like when they get to where she finally has the interview with Sid after 30 years. And if you've lived with these movies since they've come out, and if they've had any kind of meaning to your life, it's like you've aged with the characters, and you've if you're still here, you've survived with the characters, and it makes me think of the older movies and older parts of my life of people who aren't here anymore. And so when they go into some of the more dramatic parts of the movie, like the whole why I named you Tatum and stuff, I don't know, it gets an emotional response out of me because I have more of a attachment emotionally to the series overall. But I do understand there's a lot of goofy shit and there's some bad writing choices, but I'm just kind of giggling.

Clif 21:49
I think it's I mean, I I think if you're a if you're a fan of the series, the nostalgia will get you and you'll enjoy it. But I mean, I think you're having to overlook a lot of bad choices to enjoy it. Like in the case. And make up a lot of excuses, like, well, you know, it's this and that, so on. And I get it. You know, I mean, well, what we do with not I guess, I mean, we tend to do that with the things we like, and that I do it with with with series I like, you know, and and so on, where I'm like, well, you know, that I make excuses. That wasn't too bad, so on and so forth. And there are movies that I fucking really like that people hate, and whatever. Well, it has it. I like it, so that's it.

Marty 22:27
And enough of the swings that are different choices for a slasher movie were enough to where I'm like, I expect a lot of the tropes to happen, but at least they're doing some stuff that I haven't really seen before, and I always appreciate that. If you can throw three or four different things into this genre that I haven't seen, then it's gonna rise it above some of the ones that are just doing complete cookie cutter. And it made more money than any other Scream movie, so apparently audiences responded. That's because Sydney comes back. That's why that's why people came back. She came back to the franchise, so that's why. Why do they hate it just for the ending? Are they mad because Melissa didn't come back? I know a lot of people have made it political.

Clif 23:07
I I don't know. I I think I don't think it's for me, it was just not a very good movie, not a very good version of Scream. So I I I I would have been annoyed with the ending too. I don't think it to me it was pretty obvious who the killers were, right? Like you, oh, we go to the place where you know we have where so-and-so was kept and it's a crazy house, and then this really nice guy helps us out. That's the killer.

Marty 23:29
Bam. Telling you, but it's also telling you, well, maybe not. But it's not telling you maybe not enough for you. But for me, it's constantly deceiving me. Because I know how these movies like to make it real obvious, but then pull the rug out from under you, but then you go, well, of course it was Billy Loomis. And to go back to Loomis again, I kind of wish Halloween was part of the discussion this spooky season, because that's the one that goes between the scream and the psycho for the whole slasher phenomenon. We'll get to that in another day. But there are some shots straight out of Halloween in this movie with the uh ghost face mask blending in and out of the background, right? I've immediately thought of like, oh, that's that Michael Myers shot.

Clif 24:10
That's a Michael Myers shot. Yep. It's the the about 10 minutes of this movie at the end is just straight up Ed Wood Eat Your Heart Out, Girl on Girl Violence. And I mean, it's like a wonderful part too. I wonder who that's for.

Marty 24:24
I don't need to see her face fall off, but I appreciate the action. Like her daughter kind of becomes the new Gail Weathers at slash Sydney in a way. It'll be interesting to see what they do moving forward.

Clif 24:35
You can see that they're setting the daughter up to sort of take Sydney's place to a certain extent, or at least to have some sort of uh oh god, a scream eight at this point. Oh, it's happening because this one made more money than any of the others. I I I I just I don't understand why. Other than the fact that again, that Sydney was out of the series and that she comes back and the fans want to show that they like Sydney being in it more than Melissa, and then there you go, right?

Marty 25:00
Um, and of course the whole Janet Lee Jen uh Jamie Lee Curtis thing, there's that too.

Clif 25:06
At one point uh Ghostface takes a meat mallet to the fucking head and just gets back up. And I'm just like this is my problem. These are either people or they aren't.

Marty 25:21
I don't know what's reinforced under that mask. It is part seven, you know. Maybe they've got a little more body armor. He did get fucking shot and he had the bulletproof vest. So but of course the movie doesn't show you any of that.

Clif 25:34
That's all conjecture. That's yeah, it's all conjecture. That's what that's what I'm that's what I'm struggling with. It's like, you know, well, maybe you did, maybe who knows? I don't know. The movie's not gonna tell me. Uh, as far as a part seven, you know, I've seen worse part sevens.

Marty 25:48
They've completely diverged at this point.

Clif 25:51
They're still trying to be the same storyline here. I don't think I've seen a bunch of part sevens. Um, if I had to guess, I'd say the best part seven I've ever seen, just right off the top of my head, would probably Star Trek Generations. I think that's number seven. Certainly is first contact. Yeah. Um, that's a pretty good seventh installment of a franchise. In comparison, in comparison to that, this is pretty low the total pole, in my opinion.

Marty 26:20
I like this one in the generations. Uh, I like to compare this to H2O, whereas that's the seventh Halloween where Jamie Lee Curtis comes back after 20 years. And I think that was Kevin Williamson also. That's a pretty decent part seven that a lot of people fucking hate that I still enjoy. Uh, Friday the 13th, part seven is the New Blood where he fights the basically Carrie, the telekinetic girl. It's the first pain hotter. It's kind of where they start to jump the shark, but there's a little fun to be had.

Clif 26:50
And what's the uh I guess Star Wars seventh would be uh Force Awakens. Force Awakens, yeah. Oof.

Marty 26:58
You know part sevens. Okay, so we'll we'll see what they do with another installment of this. They never seem to stop. And at some point, probably a long time from now, four or five, and three, four, five, and six might rear their head on this program, but it'll be a bit. I just wanted to get to this one because I really liked more than anything the uh intensity of the kills. There were some stupid shit putting the guy's head on the tap and I I just yeah, I just but I liked like I thought the kills were pretty mediocre for the most part. The Joel McHale thing with the you know wrapping them up in plastic like he's in Lethal Weapon 2. Oh fuck, man, you know. It's like this motherfucker's tough. And it's like, yeah, he's got hit points because there's gotta be people that you can't kill in these movies, because the great thing about these is the storyline continues back in the 80s. You'd kill the survivor at the beginning of the next movie, and you lose all these possibilities of any kind of continuing storyline for the most part. But this one, you know, but it does make it contrived. But hey, James Bond was fucking disguising himself as an alligator at one point, so you know.

Clif 28:04
Yeah, but then they come out of that, and then it depends on the Bond, too, and it depends on the season, right? But there are way more at what I have 27 Bond movies, there are way more good ones than there are bad ones, right? But I think for this uh for the screen franchise, I can't say the same thing. I can't say the same thing. I think they start to drop off after three, man. Well, they do, yeah. And they do have they have they have their own moments. This had its moments. Uh I don't want to be uh you know so down on the film, it had its moments. There were things that I either laughed at or thought, you know, oh, but it took me a while. I could see things coming. I didn't jump as often as I called. It's a little long, uh, it's a little long. Um, so you know, I I'm shocked that that it made as much money as it has, and I'm still trying to figure out why. I'm still trying to figure that shit out why. But I'll say this production-wise, the look of it, um, you know, all the effects that they use, the way that they put that shit all looked great, you know. It just the story was just like, man. Well, it didn't work for me. All right. So what are you giving this one? Two. All right.

Marty 29:12
Two. I give it a um three and a half.

Clif 29:14
I'd I'd give it two and a half, but I, you know, as right there in the middle was something, but you know, I that starts to lean into like something I might we're watching, and this is not not something I'm probably gonna we watch.

Marty 29:23
Yeah, this is my favorite one since the first two. I still like three, four, five, six, but this one had enough emotional resonance with me where I'm just like, yeah, thank you, Kevin Williamson, for kind of reminding us what this was all about in the first place, at least what I thought. Not perfect movie, but three and a half for me.

Clif 29:42
It felt like an echo of the past. What it felt like, you know, like it like an echo. But that brings us to the long walk.

Marty 29:51
The long walk. Judy Greer, will you give somebody else a fucking chance? What is the long walk? Fern man back.

Clif 30:01
Fucking everything. Anyway, the long walk. 2025, Rated R, hour and 48.

Marty 30:05
Kevin Bacon.

Clif 30:06
A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as the long walk, in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot. Uh, directed by Francis Lawrence, written by J.T. Molner, Stephen King, stars Cooper Hoffman, David Johnson. Uh let's see here. Storyline from the highly anticipated adaptation of the Master Storyteller's Stephen King's first written novel, and Francis Lawrence, the visionary director of the Hunger Games franchise, comes the long That makes sense. An intense, chilling, and emotional thriller that challenges audience to confront a haunting question: how far could you go?

Marty 30:40
Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, this is uh from the Bachman books as we know them. It was published as Richard Bachman as a novel back in what the 70s?

Clif 30:53
Short story. It was a very small short story.

Marty 30:55
It was like a novella almost. It's not very long. It's expensive as shit if you can. Fuck yeah.

Clif 31:00
I wish I I dude, I wish I had my Stephen King collection from the 80s, man.

Marty 31:04
It's like, you know, we have such an interesting history with the Bachman books as they were combined. The Bachman books are four Stephen King novels that he wrote under a pseudonym early on in his career. There's some of the earliest books he wrote. This book he probably wrote in what late 60s, early 70s, something like that. Is that how old this one is?

Clif 31:23
I think this is 70, 71, maybe.

Marty 31:25
It's basically classic literature at this point, but around 85, because it was the height of Stephen King mania. He's cranking out a classic novel every year. His film adaptations are coming out left and right. So his publisher is like, we're gonna reprint those four books and call them the Bachman books and put them out as a as a full thing. And I remember seeing it at the grocery store, another fucking bestseller and shit. And so those four books were Rage, The Long Walk, Road Work, and The Running Man. It's interesting because we also got a remake of The Running Man just recently. So we got Walkin' and Running, same fucking book, same kind of dystopian future in a way, kind of. He's predicting reality TV shows and horrible game show trends of the future with this. He didn't he didn't know Survivor.

Clif 32:18
Definitely, definitely he's definitely predicting Survivor for sure with this. Like he's and he's all I mean, other than the fact that it's because it's television and you know there's liabilities in real life, nobody's gonna die. It's it's that, you know, I mean, because if you watch, if you remember the first before they really switched the format up, the first 20 seasons of Survivor, man, these people were losing 20 or 30 pounds and tapping out because they just couldn't, you know, mentally and physically keep up with being out there, you know. They're sleeping on the, you know, we like we talked about in Send Help, sleeping on the beach and getting eaten alive by sampleys and shit. And so yeah, he's definitely predicting that very early. That's a very good point.

Marty 32:59
It's yeah, I always thought it was interesting. I finally read all these four books about 20 years ago. It's out of print because Rage after Columbine, right? I guess that was when, because that's about school violence and hostages being taken. And that book is out of print. So the Bachman books, you can still find a copy of it, but it's kind of expensive. And a copy of Rage by itself, forget it. You can pay your mortgage, basically. Now, the interesting thing about Rage is when we were in high school, Cliff wrote Stephen King a letter asking him if we could adapt Rage into a short film. This was before the dollar movie Stephen King Film Festival and all that shit, because this is a long time ago. And you know what? He actually wrote Cliff back. You don't have the letter anymore, but I remember seeing the letter, and basically what did he tell you? Like the rights of his books are taken kind of when they're published, but thank you for writing to me, because a lot of people just go ahead and make the fucking thing, and then I gotta tell them cease and desist, something like that. So we've always had that weird attachment to that because we worked at the public access station, we had access to cameras, and we had some as much of a hellhole as our high school was, we did have some cool teachers that would let us shoot a small movie in one of our classrooms. I can only imagine what fucking where we would be right now if we had done that instead. And then Roadwork, the other book from the Bachman books about a guy who won't be moved out of his house, still my favorite novel from that one. My favorite Stephen King book altogether. But I remember reading The Long Walk and thinking, like everybody else thought this is one of those unfilmable movies, right? If somebody does finally make a movie out of it, it's gonna be fucking brutal.

Clif 34:47
Yeah, I felt like I felt like you could make it make the movie. I felt like it was one of the more approachable ones. You knew it would happen eventually because of the fact that it's it's it's not um like I didn't like Running Man is way bigger of a production than this film is because of all the futuristic sets and the shit that you have to build, right? And so I haven't seen that new one yet. Uh you know, which is one of the reasons that I I wrote him and asked about rage, because rage basically takes in you know all in one schoolroom, all with that type of thing. So it would end up being and the long walk and rage have a similarity in the fact that they that these kids all build a camaraderie amongst each other and it becomes the kids against the system, whatever that is.

Marty 35:27
Stephen King stuff.

Clif 35:28
It's classic Stephen King, and it's it's uh, you know, some some people claim that Long Walk has to do with his interpretation of Vietnam and things like that. You know, he said, you know, he's he's stated as saying, you know, I was 19 at the time, so it's quite possible, blah, blah, blah. But it's more just about turning off like the fact that for no reason. The world is kind of fucked and it's it's bleak as fuck, and and there's no hope and there's no way of getting out of it, right? Yeah. Um, which is the the saddest thing about this fucking movie is watching Pete realize that at the end and ask for the ask for the carbine, right? Where it's just like, uh seeing this on film, because when I read the book, it it fucked with me. That is a tough, that is a it's like reading um if you haven't ever read um The Road by Cormick McCarthy, that shit'll stick with you. Like you'll you'll think about that for weeks afterwards. And the brilliance of that book is the fact that he never names those characters. They're always called the man and the boy. Yet by the end of the book, you're so emotionally attached to those two that it it's it's just um unbelievable. And it's the same with the long walk. You get so emotionally attached to Ray and Pete and the rest of them, and watching them get picked off one by one, you know it's inevitable, but it's still so fucking painful to watch.

Marty 36:47
That classic Stephen King storytelling and the fact that he hit the ground running with these early books and he has it in there.

Clif 36:54
It's like that's so good.

Marty 36:56
I mean, he's a fucking master storyteller. Yeah, and this is easily one of the best Stephen King adaptations, I think. I completely agree. I completely agree. I completely agree of the book. They change a few things to make it cinematic, but yet even the ending still has that same 70s bleak. Because that's what happens. He goes blind and he falls down.

Clif 37:18
In the book, he just keeps walking. Like even I remember in the I remember in the book, like the very end of the book, if I remember correctly, they're grabbing him and talking about you won, you won, and he's just pushing people away and just he's just walking. He just keeps fucking walking. He doesn't he's lost his fucking mind at that point. He's watched uh the only thing I can't remember is if it's Ray or Pete that makes it. I want to say it's Ray that makes it in the book, and they switched it.

Marty 37:45
Yeah, yeah. I think they did. I think my interpretation of the movie is they show you kind of what happens in the book, but from the third person.

Clif 37:55
Uh-huh.

Marty 37:55
And then it's like, oh, now he wins, but he still kills the general. And then I think it's in a Sopranos type way implied that he died too, just because you walk that long and you're just you're dead. Body broke down, or they killed him, or because the streets are all empty and shit. Yeah, like it's the same nihilistic ending, like the book.

Clif 38:19
Yeah, it seemed like in the book he was it was it was going to be him just continue, like he was just never gonna stop walking. Even if they got a hold of him and took him somewhere, he was still gonna keep walking until he was dead. You know, he'd lost his mind.

Marty 38:31
Gotta have good shoes, man. What kind of shoes would you wear? I saw some of those fuckers wearing like cons, and I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

Clif 38:38
Yeah, well, and Ray, even Ray wears, Ray wears like, he looks like they look like fucking kind of like dress shoes almost. Where it's like, dude, what are you doing? You gotta wear that. You know, and you it's if you're gonna wear a pair of sneakers, you gotta break them in a month or two ahead of time. You can't just buy a new pair. I think even in the book, that one of the one of the kids that shows up yeah, straps on and has a new pair of sneakers and he starts to get blisters and and his feet go bad on him, right?

Marty 39:02
Um it's like the one asshole kid. You you know he probably broke shows in.

Clif 39:07
You know, they did such a great job with him where he was like going, yeah. You know, he got he fucking got that kid so pissed off that the kid tried to swing on him and scraped his face on the pavement, and then he got shot and killed. And you know that's you could just don't fuck with him for the rest of the movie. For the rest of the movie, he's just like it just eats at him, and every time they call him a murderer, he's just he gets more worse and worse about it. And it's until finally he just has that psychotic break.

Marty 39:32
It's fuck so well done. I'm glad they waited until now to make this movie. The environment's right, we've had enough Maze Runner, Hunger Games stuff that's time for time for the young kids to see something a little bleak. It feels right, like we've talked about before, like the younger generations discovered Stephen King again, and and now when you're seeing adaptations of things that had never been done before and seeing it done so well, it's like, ah, this is in good hands here, you know.

Clif 40:00
Well, and and to be fair, when I heard JT Mulner was writing the script, way better than that. I like see, I I I again I like Strange Darling. So for me, when I saw that he was gonna write it, because I liked the way I liked the way he structured Strange Darling. Because it like we talked about in our podcast, if you tell that movie in order, it doesn't have the impact as telling it out of order, right? Um, so he was real smart in construct constructing his script, and so I was like, oh, cool. He'll and he's a a massive fucking Stephen King fan, so I was sure he'd be careful with the content of the credits.

Marty 40:34
I'm like, oh well, good job.

Clif 40:35
Yeah, he did a fantastic job. JT, if you're out there and you want to come on the podcast and talk about what a fantastic job you did, feel free. We'll hit you up.

Marty 40:42
Yeah. Uh one of the things I also appreciate it, and I think it's because the book is probably over 50 years old now, and so it's kind of gone into that classic literature to where they left all the old references from the book in the film. They didn't update shit. You get candid camera, you get the clementine. There's a couple other things that it's like, oh, that's a little old timey, but I appreciate that because it's closer to the source material, and that's how they would do with the classic books. You're showing me the old nihilistic 70s in a way, but in 26. So I liked that.

Clif 41:21
Like and subscribe. So yeah, I mean, I think all in all, Molner did a great job with the script. I really do. I mean, I think he he crushed it. Right. Uh who was the DP on Strange Darling? Uh, the DP, hang on just a second. Uh, I'd have to look that up for a while.

Marty 41:38
Right, because it was somebody unique. It was their first time.

Clif 41:42
Was it? I when it was so he's that's interesting.

Marty 41:45
But he was an actor, right? Right. I can't just can't think of the name right now. Well, that was Strange Darling, wasn't it? Strange Darling, yeah. Just to go back to the other Molner movie briefly.

Clif 41:54
Yeah. Yeah. Strange Darling, he he got uh Giovanna Rabisi to shoot.

Marty 41:58
Right. So he should have gotten Ethan Imbry to be the DP on the long walk. That's what I where I was going with that.

Clif 42:06
Joe Willems is who directed this and uh or sorry, who shot this. And um, he shot Finch. Uh oh, Hunger Games Catching Fire, Hard Candy. If you've seen Hard Candy. Oh. Um, so yes, he's he's a pretty good, pretty good cinematographer. He did a great job with this. It looks great. I love the look of the film. Um, I wanted to say, uh, you know, we talked about how dystopian it is and how where do where do you shelve it?

Marty 42:33
Yeah.

Clif 42:33
Yeah, where do you shelve it? Because I like the fact that it it doesn't show a lot of technology. And the technology that it shows looks like those uh pedometers that they give them to to tell how fast they're walking. Those don't look like you know, iPod, they don't look like current technology. And so is this in the 80s? Is this like a break in the 80s where suddenly Russia beat us and now we're rebuilding our our our country or or the countries have broken, you know, US is broken into two factions or whatever. I thought that found that part very fascinating because it it doesn't look like now.

Marty 43:07
And that's why I I say it's more true to the book in that respect, like it's showing the dystopian future that was written in the late 60s, which is why you have all those old references still intact. So it's I I love the fact that these early King books are becoming classic literature, and now the film adaptations are being respected a little more. Like they've made so many King movies throughout the years that now they really got an idea how to take his voice and put it on screen. That's a very good example of it.

Clif 43:39
No, that's that's a good call. Um Curly's d death in is early and it's very good. Graphic as fuck too, but yeah, they used to never show that in an RA.

Marty 43:55
And you know what else is graphic? Thank you, Jackass, the motion picture. For making it movie and you can go pooping now. Well, as if they had made this back in the day, that maybe would have been alluded to. And I know they're trying to put the grossness in, but can you imagine the remake of Misery? They probably would show Paul Sheldon drink his own urine at this point.

Clif 44:17
I think so. I think they'd everything gross now. I think they'd chop his foot off and then cauterize it with the blowtorch, like it is in the book, right? Like I will say this. I mean, it's uh how do you avoid how do you avoid it?

Marty 44:30
Yeah, you have to you have to have it.

Clif 44:31
Yeah.

Marty 44:32
They use it in a good way. Uh it's gross as shit, but it's shocking. And it's supposed to be because that way you go, this isn't just a nature walk, guys. This isn't a game where the gun's gonna say bang.

Clif 44:43
Right. You know, it's it's tough watching Pete and R Pete and Ray get close during that walk, man. You know there can only be one winner, and you almost want to tell them to stop fucking talking to each other, right? Like don't don't become friends, but but don't get to know each other. Holy shit.

Marty 44:59
The moments are what's important because they're what's all that they have left in in life. They've just make it to the next soldiers marched off to war, nobody's coming home, and you're dying for no reason. But you think you're dying for a reason. That's it's such a nom thing. And I love that that doesn't seem to be changed either.

Clif 45:17
There are these there are these great moments, much like in a war movie or or anything that's like where where there is a uh comrades in arms, there's always a very dark war. Yeah, there's always a very, very dark humor. Um, so you've got these moments of great levity that give you this lift and then they escape before you're you're dragged back down to the reality that these kids are gonna fucking die. Like these kids that you're laughing at and kind of liking that poor kid who's like, I'm gonna write a book. And they're like, You're gonna write a book, dude. If you make it, you're gonna be rich. What are you doing?

Marty 45:52
Yeah, you're not you're not making it through this.

Clif 45:54
You're not thinking through this. No, not at all. Um, but that there's also that moment where they're talking about Ray's mom, and uh, and Olsen's like, oh, she's beautiful, you know, like your mom is a beautiful lady, and they're all and he's like, Shut the fuck up about my mom, and they're all laughing and just ragging on him. Perfect, you know, just a perfect moment. Uh that fucking walk up the hill where you lose 10 or 12 of those kids. Yeah, they took that path on purpose.

Marty 46:22
Of course they did, but wow. It's it's funny because you know, I listened to that Brett Goldstein pod, and he does not like the Lord of the Rings movies too much, but he liked this movie a lot. What is the difference between a movie about walking and a movie about walking? Well, I think we know this one's a lot more intense. Way more intense. Way more intense.

Clif 46:44
There's a and the hobbins get to take little breaks along the way. They don't have to be able to do that. There are no, yeah, there are no breaks here. Yeah, and there, and there are no adventurous sword fights with orcs. I mean, you are on the trail with these poor kids, and it's and it begins to set in the more that you watch this movie, you know, because again, pow, and another one, and pow another one, and you're just like, fuck me.

Marty 47:04
And you're not gonna have that hopeful ending where he's all my wish is two winners. No, you know, but I wonder franchise, because it is open to where they could keep making these, and much like Survivor, the rules get weirder each time. And sure. I mean, oh my god. I hope not please don't fucking do that. You know, it does seem like it's you know, I don't know if we'll get as many as Children of the Corn movies, where are they up to like 10 of those now or some shit? But I was sitting there going, yeah, long walk too. Oh shit, man. It's like Saul or Final Destination, you know, where we can tweak it a little each time. Oh, now there are two survivors this time. I hope there knows with no way they're gonna do that. You know, if you do it, you can do it in a way that you could make it good, but you could also make it bad, right?

Clif 47:55
I just I can't I can't see it. It's a it's a one-off story. It needs to be a one-off story. No, it needs I I feel like the long walk needs to end after this, although in the book I don't think it does. Right.

Marty 48:08
Um 22 minutes in, then the title comes up. I thought I'd seen the title at the beginning, so it shocked me.

Clif 48:15
It's it's a really cool way to do it, right? To get you so deeply into the movie and then throw that title card at you is is I loved it. It's like what? I absolutely loved it.

Marty 48:25
With Fern Mayo and then 22 minutes.

Clif 48:28
All the kids, all the kids screaming fuck the long walk was one of my favorite moments. Olson's death is rough, man. Poor fucking Olson with the you know, I'm gonna chew this gum and this gum's me and this gum are gonna make it all the way through.

Marty 48:42
And you know, but you're right, it is a 70s nihilism of oh, Val, that's that old knowledge is illegal now. And how many times have we seen that in like mistied movies from the 70s? Sure.

Clif 48:54
Well, the thought thought police are coming for you because you you know, you you you know, you you you showed your kid jazz. What are you doing?

Marty 49:01
It's like jazz is out of control. Strand it in space, or the long the long chase where Lee Majors has the last gasoline fueled car and he's illegally driving to California where you can still use gas. There's all these weird 70s, you know. Yeah. But it has Chris Make piece in it of uh My Bodyguard fame.

Clif 49:21
And then it and then it moves into it moves into a much more violent one. Like, I mean, then you get you get in the 80s, you get Mad Max and shit like that. You know, you get these super violent dystopian.

Marty 49:31
And this feels like it goes alongside those, but it's definitely more horrific.

Clif 49:35
I agree. I agree. This was my second time seeing it. And and again, I I saw it yesterday, and I'll say this the first time I saw it in the theater, I I got out of the theater, walked into my car, and I kind of just sat there for like probably 10 minutes just letting it process because it was like yeah, it was so intense on a big screen and it was so well done, and the theater was packed and everybody was dead fucking quiet, except people who were crying. And I just remember thinking, God dang, that was a powerful piece of cinema I just witnessed. Just as far as just evoking emotion and showing you these kids kind of creating this esprit de corps, this camaraderie, while also watching them get shot one at a time. Yeah, you know, uh, it was a tough watch. Yeah, yeah.

Marty 50:27
And so early on to write something so gut-wrenching, like a precursor to the stand or these other books that he would do. Yeah. And also like Rage, like you were saying, the camaraderie in the amongst the survivors.

Clif 50:39
Yeah, he tends to do that with well, and that that he tends to do that with like he did that with Stand By Me, he did that with uh, you know, he did that with it. You know, he creates these little these kids that he takes these kids and he creates these little uh cliques or groups or clubs, these little you know, tribes that are all their own, you know. And you can see it when they're all screaming, you know, fuck the long walk. And they're all just laughing, you know, fuck the long walk. You know. Um poor art, his his death is just the fucking worst. Like, oh my god, dude. Yeah.

Marty 51:13
That's tough. And it does the like with like I was saying with the other movie, and also with Psycho, it does the, oh, it's telling you exactly what it's gonna do, but maybe it won't do that. You know, oh shit, they're gonna get shot. Oh shit, he's back, he's walking again. Okay, so it's these moments of where it it pulls the rubber band and it snaps it back, where you're like, you don't really know exactly what's gonna happen from moment to moment.

Clif 51:36
Well, you keep and you keep thinking that maybe that like surely they'll get to the end and there'll be some other resolution. Surely they're not gonna fucking shoot Pete or Ray. Surely that's not gonna happen. You know?

Marty 51:49
And all four Bachman books are kind of nihilistic 70s dark stories like that. Sure. All pressure against the man trying to fuck with me and we're gonna push back kind of thing.

Clif 52:04
What did you what did you think of the end?

Marty 52:06
Now, Thinner, on the other hand, is not.

Clif 52:09
No, no, that's a bit different. But like, what did you think of the end in the change? Did you did you have any problem with it?

Marty 52:14
I really liked it. I thought it honored the story of the book and it adapted it to film in a way that made sense, and it still had kind of the same conclusion. Ambiguous, but ultimately I think everybody died.

Clif 52:27
Yeah, yeah.

Marty 52:29
Yeah, whether they shot him after he shot the general or he just collapsed from exhaustion himself, or right. You've been walking for 200 miles. I've been walking my whole life.

Clif 52:39
Yeah, through and then I mean they walk, they end up walking with 300 and 340. There are some again, Molner's writing. He and I'm sure he'll say, I'm just adapting King's words and King's third writer here. We've made it cinematic. Yeah, he really isolates these speeches at the right times for these characters to happen in the right moments to really, really build some emotional ups and downs, right? And you just ride that with these kids in this book. I'm so happy that this movie came out as good as it did. This is early on as a teenager, this is one of my very favorite Stephen King books. And I again, I always thought somebody could make it, but at the same time, having seen other things that they'd done with King's work, I was like, they're gonna fuck that up too. Yeah, right. Yeah, you know, they're gonna mess this up. Um, but no, they didn't. I mean, and after misery, I thought it was especially once I saw Misery, I was like, well, maybe they can, because they changed Misery just enough so that it wasn't super gruesome. Again, no cutting off of the foot and the blowtorch, but hitting it with a friggin' sledgehammer is pretty damn gruesome in and of itself.

Marty 53:46
Well, it's like we were talking about Psycho last time around, like in 1960, that was really whoa. And in 1990, when I think that blue misery came out, that was like push one.

Clif 53:58
Yeah. Yeah, it was it was shocking. But but again, when you've read the book, you're like, oh, okay, I figured they'd change that because there's no way you could see. And like it, like we talked about, I think if they redid Misery Now, that's exactly what they'd do.

Marty 54:09
She'd take that foot right off and they don't water down the stuff. Like I never I never read Gerald's game, but that movie is fucking intense. Yeah. And they figured out a way to film that one as well. I think Marcy did the effects on that one. Did she? She's that super talented movie. And I'd never read that book, but that one was like, and it's it's another example of oh, they're not holding back in these king adaptations anymore. Well, and that's a Mike Flanagan movie, too. Oh, well, that makes sense because they've been with him after.

Clif 54:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that makes complete sense. Yeah. Yeah.

Marty 54:51
I never saw the second part of it. The the remake of it. I only watched the first part. And I thought it was okay. But I never watched part two because everybody said it was well, not everybody, but most people did. And I've always had an affinity for that mini-series. I thought that was pretty good. But you know, I never read that book either. I've read most of King's books, like almost half, but he keeps writing so much stuff I can't see. Yeah, he keeps writing so much stuff I can't keep up.

Clif 55:17
I after the mid to late 90s, I haven't really kept up much with it.

Marty 55:22
Yeah, that's where it gets spotty. I know his early stuff. I've read almost everything. Yeah, up to Pet Cemetery, pretty much.

Clif 55:29
I still think he's a great writer. I'm not not sure. Oh, you just I don't have the time to absorb everything. Exactly.

Marty 55:36
My old job, I used to just read books all the time. That's when I was going through King and Orger of the ones I hadn't read, and the Bachman books came up and I absorbed that whole thing.

Clif 55:46
Well, you were lucky enough to be able to get a hold of them. I guess you could probably get a hold of them on an e-reader at this point, but you're not getting a you know, or maybe a if there's a re-release.

Marty 55:55
Well, you can get the uh long walk by itself, you can get roadwork by itself, and you get the running man by itself. And I'm sure long walk and running man probably have movie covers on them now, and they're their own novels, but Rage is permanently out of print. But there were so many copies of it made. Even if you want to get one for like twenty or thirty bucks and a kind of a beater copy, you you can find it out there. Now, if you want a nice hardcover or one of those trade paperbacks in nice shape, you're probably talking 7500. I mean, we had a copy of Rage come in the store at paperback. I think I sent you a picture of it. That thing was fucking like a couple grand. I'm like, can we just take this thing to Maine and have Stephen King sign it and dare sell it? It'll pay for the plane ticket.

SPEAKER_01 56:47
You'd probably like, give me that. I'd be like, Stephen King is ripping up my copy of Rage. Awesome. It's worth even more now because it was ripped by him.

Clif 56:56
Oh, the irony of Stephen King getting angry and ripping up his own copy of rage. That's it's called irony, kid. Ripping up a copy of rage while you're in a rage. Thanks, Stephen King. Despite all my rage. He still just looks like Nicolas Cage. Uh, for a movie about people walking, man, it's super engrossing.

Clif 57:17
Yeah.

Clif 57:18
Like, I mean, it grabs you and it does not let you go. And you are, from the moment he hugs his mother goodbye, you just feel you you I I worry for that kid. Like the minute he lets go of his mom, I'm like, oh shit.

Marty 57:32
And it's nice that he isn't the one. Yes. That they do that nice little bait and switch at the end. They bait and switch you.

Clif 57:40
It's really well done though, because right up until the end, because everything's coming from Ray's perspective, right up until the end, you don't realize what he's doing.

Marty 57:48
And it's that perfect thing that horror and thrillers, when they're at their best, they're telling you exactly what's happening, but they're also going, well, maybe we won't do that. And this does that is a perfect example when suddenly Ray stops and you go, What? And dude doesn't notice that he stopped and it's too late. You've had your warnings. Yep. And you know, something good did come of The Force Awakens. Mark Hamill gets some other acting gigs. And that's true.

Clif 58:18
He was excellent in this, and he says it's the most evil thing he's ever played. Oh, yeah. Uh and he he he talked about that in some interviews. Yeah, and he was the fucking joker, so it for him it must have been a really um uh you know tough, tough thing to do, or at least, you know, a character to get lost in, right? Um Ray and his father are both killed the same way in this movie. They're executed by the major. Which uh I I didn't realize until wait a minute.

Marty 58:49
Wait a minute. A second to watch. Luke Skywalker killed Ray? That's right. Oh the implications, sir. That's wild, man. That's wild. That's hilarious. I'll be bringing my lightsaber back to me, kid. I need blue milk.

unknown 59:14
Wow.

Marty 59:16
Is that on purpose? We'll never know.

SPEAKER_01 59:21
Yeah, what's the other guy's name?

Clif 59:26
The other guy, uh, Ray and Pete. Ray and Pete.

Marty 59:28
Yeah. Pete. Pete Reynoso. I was gonna say if it's Ray and Park, it's like Ray Parker, and Ray Parker was Darth Maul, and it all comes fucking full circle. But that's another universe. It's not that easy, Marty. No, it never is. Uh but yeah, very 70s, very effective. Maybe not for everybody, because it's intense.

Clif 59:51
But I liked it. If you like Shawshank Redemption, if you like the Green Mile, this is right up your alley. This is the kind of king that you're gonna dig. It's the it's everything that trilogy wishes it was. Oh fuck yeah. All the people who are like, oh, the mist was great because of this and that. No, no, no, watch the long walk. This one.

Marty 1:00:08
It's this one. Yep.

Clif 1:00:11
I get it. He kills his family and himself just as the fucking army shows up and saves him.

Marty 1:00:17
Well, the moral of that movie is just wait a few minutes, things might get better.

Clif 1:00:22
Calm down, don't panic.

Marty 1:00:24
But this movie is you're coming to a good conclusion and it's it's happening one way or another. Like I like the one guy who uh actually gets the gun and takes one of them out before they get him. Yeah.

Clif 1:00:36
Not one of them, you know. Yeah. Yeah, always death is gruesome too. That and that's that's the thing I'll say. Like when we talk of when you talk, we talk about Scream 7, and I I agree that these are very different movies horror-wise, right? But the kills in the long walk are so much more shocking and graphic than the kills in the world. Scream seven isn't. But I meant as far as the emotional roller coaster of it, where it's like, oh, yeah, they hit differently because they do hit differently.

Marty 1:01:04
Scream seven's not a drama, even though it has dramatic aspects to it.

Clif 1:01:09
Right, right.

Marty 1:01:10
I just think the kills are just about Scream 7 was the Nev Campbell, Courtney Cox stuff and things like that. That's the stuff I really like the most. You know, there is a cartoony, the rest of it.

Clif 1:01:20
I'm just gonna ride on the roller coaster, really. I I I just mean like, you know, the the that's the difference of the impact of the kills, right? Like because it's not you really feel for those kids.

Marty 1:01:31
It's serious, but it's not serious. Because if Scream 7 was as serious as the long walk, it might be unbearable. It might not even be any fun at all.

Clif 1:01:40
That's true.

Marty 1:01:41
You're like, oof. But we'll find out in Scream 8 and the Long Walk 2.

Clif 1:01:46
Now there's two winners. Please don't do that, Hollywood. I know you love IP, Hollywood. I know you love property that already has a fan base, but Jesus Christ, take some chances.

Marty 1:01:57
And we'll see what they do with road work as a film. No way. Like the breathing method, right?

Clif 1:02:05
Can you I I guess I I really question the I I question the logic or and the wisdom of taking rage out of print over Columbine. Because we can see that taking it out of print hadn't didn't stop any other school shootings from happening.

Marty 1:02:23
Oh, exactly. And I also heard it was about some other shooting as well, but still, I mean it's it's it's not a blueprint.

Clif 1:02:30
It doesn't, I guess it's not a blueprint, it's not a how-to, it's not the anarchist cookbook. And and actually that what that move book does from what I remember reading, it is kind of talk about what these kids are going through and how they're dealing with shit, right?

Marty 1:02:42
So maybe the person said that they use that as their blueprint, but it's also like we've talked about before, and it's even like the reason they changed Scream 3, that was gonna be about Stu from jail masterminding the kids in school, but Columbine happened, so they scrapped that. Right. Um so it's like, yeah, uh do you bear responsibility when you put stuff out in the world? Or does it just make psychos more creative, like Billy Loomis says in the first scream? Or was that Billy's line? Or I've always subscribed more to what Wes Craven said is like, no, these are just reflections of the world. We wouldn't make this stuff if the world didn't already contain it. We're just showing it back to itself. And if people are gonna do things, they're gonna do them anyway. I'm not making them do the thing, and you can't blame art.

Clif 1:03:40
No, you can't blame art for it. No, then that's why I say I I question the logic of censoring it, you know, yeah of taking it out of print. I think you know, when you when you take it out of print, then you can't no longer have a discussion about it, and it may be a decent facet of of the problem to have a discussion about. And again, like you said with with Wes Craven, this shit's been around, I mean, there've been scary fucking stories for thousands of years. Of course.

Marty 1:04:03
And you can still get a copy of Rage. It's not that hard. It's really not even that expensive.

Clif 1:04:08
So well, that's good. I mean, it's good that it's out there. I just again I I I think it's weird. You know, it's like probably draws more attention to it, actually.

Marty 1:04:16
Yeah, that's true too. But he makes more money selling those other three books individually now.

Clif 1:04:23
What I would love to see is they've done uh what two from different seasons.

Marty 1:04:30
Uh let's see, we've got Shaw Shank, we have At Pupil, and we have Stand By Me. The only one that has not been done. That's the one I'd like to see done. I think might have been a Twilight Zone episode in the 80s when we were talking about that before. I I used to have all this shit memorized. I knew so much about Stephen King, but I don't know if that's a true fact anymore. But this it it feels like that would make more sense as a 30-minute adaptation than a movie.

Clif 1:04:59
Yeah, I uh that's I mean, I think you'd have to invent some stuff to kind of get it to that hour and a half. You know, uh you'd have to go a little bit further into her and and that type of thing.

Marty 1:05:12
Yeah, you're probably right. Road work could easily be a movie, but it's more akin to like a falling down type thing. They're gonna build like the railroad through the guy's house, and he's already dealt with so much change in his life. He's like, Yeah, fuck this. I'm arming myself and I'm not leaving this house, and I'm dropping mushrooms and blowing up the fucking construction workers, not the workers, but their their equipment and shit. You know, he's making a stand to keep the fucking house from being torn down.

Clif 1:05:42
Maybe Domain, the movie.

Marty 1:05:44
It'll be interesting to see if they tackle that one. But I really, really liked that one because it's different for King, but I really liked that one.

Clif 1:05:52
But anyway, I I have to say, for a Stephen King movie, this is probably I mean, I have to go through them and list. But this is easily top ten.

unknown 1:06:02
Yeah.

Clif 1:06:02
Probably top five. As far as book to movie, yeah. It's just really, really good. What do you think? I'm going to go four stars, honestly. I think it's fucking solid. It's a four. Yeah, it's definitely a four. I've watched it twice now, and I would easily watch it again. Yeah, it's it's way better than it had any right to be. I know. I couldn't believe it.

Marty 1:06:29
When I saw it in the theater, I was just like, holy short for the reasons you said, I thought it might be too bleak. It was actually very good.

Clif 1:06:38
Emotional impact, pacing. I mean, my God. Just kill and the acting is also fucking spectacular.

Marty 1:06:44
Those kids in that movie are awesome. And y'all like centers and weapons, don't sleep on this one. It goes right in with it. Yeah. You're going to look back at this time period in horror movies, and those are going to be like some of the standout ones. Yeah. I completely agree with you. I completely agree with you. That's a good call. So even though we had to watch four movies this week, yeah, we did, guys, for the show. We did it for you. It was some interesting feelings, definitely.

Clif 1:07:12
That was worth it. It was worth it. I um I really, really enjoyed the long walk. I really I thought it was just excellent. Scream 7 was a fun diversion. It's not something I'd watch again. But you know, like you said, it had its moments, it had fun things about it.

Marty 1:07:25
I just thought if you're marathoning them that fits.

Clif 1:07:27
Yeah, for me, the silliness and predictability kind of over overshadowed the things I liked about it.

Marty 1:07:33
But uh, what do we got next week? Love it so much. They're like old friends revisiting here. And I'm like, I survived still two, motherfuckers. Dewey might be gone, but we're still fucking here.

Clif 1:07:44
Oh, speaking of which, at the very end of it, right? Where like it's the very last part of the Scream 7, and Sydney says something like, um, where is it? Uh, she says, uh, past my prime, fuck you. And I feel like uh yeah, that was that was uh I started laughing hysterically.

Marty 1:08:08
Yeah, I did too because I thought about our interaction. Yeah, yeah. But the funny thing is, is you are four days older than Nev Campbell. I know. I know, I know. Nev Campbell, meet Cliff Campbell. Yes, that really happened, people. That did happen. It really happened. Okay, so uh what do we get next week? Next week. Uh next week is probably gonna be another guest episode for you listeners, but next time we do one of our no guest episodes, we'd like to announce the movies. So I've got a little bit of a coin toss for you here. Oh, okay. You can pick uh a new movie or newer movie like we've been doing, or you can have an older movie from me. Which one would you like?

Clif 1:08:54
Just did Psycho, and we just did uh Scream 7 was new. Uh I'll take a new one this time.

Marty 1:09:03
You're gonna go for the new one. Okay. So let me type something real quick here because I want to make sure I can edit this stuff, it's not a problem. But if I babble while I'm uh typing it, right, then it becomes then it becomes part of the podcast. And you see it's like content.

Clif 1:09:29
It's all planned this way.

Marty 1:09:32
Okay, but yeah, and I looked this up the other day and I taught myself it, but I want to still make sure. So we watched Green Book a few weeks ago. And I was like, okay, well then um let's dive into some more of these recent, you know, more dramatic movies that I haven't seen. And what better one to choose than another movie with m Mahershala Ali?

Clif 1:09:58
Maharsha Maharshala Ali, I believe.

Marty 1:10:01
Damn it, I probably didn't say it right. But got pretty close. I got pretty close. Okay, so your movie, our movie is Moonlight. Moonlight? Interesting. I did I remember that doing pretty well at the Oscars, but I haven't seen that. It's the one that won the year where they gave it to La La Land by accident, right?

Clif 1:10:20
Okay. Well, this movie that you're going to get.

Marty 1:10:26
Yeah.

Clif 1:10:27
No, no, he's a good actor. I'm I'm I'm I'm interested in that. Um the one I'm going to give you, I think, is uh yeah. So I'm trying to cover some of these movies that are that you've seen or that you haven't seen that are sort of in the zeitgeist, right? Yeah. Or that were very big type of movies. Okay. So I'm gonna give you the Martian. Oh, I haven't seen that. I know you haven't seen it. Well, the audience is on those two. So that way I figure about drinking your own urine, right? Yeah, this this will be the off this will be interesting. Talk about drinking your own urine. This is gonna be a two uh definitely different movies.

Marty 1:11:10
One is sci-fi and one is Martian. We're going to space, guys. Right?

Clif 1:11:17
Oh my god, no. Max Jinx put Max into space, Marty.

Clif 1:11:23
Mm-hmm.

Clif 1:11:24
Well, all right, that's gonna be an interesting combo there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that'll happen soon.

unknown 1:11:32
All right.

Clif 1:11:33
Well, folks, tune in for that. Oh shit. You want to get out of here on a quote? Mm-hmm.

Marty 1:11:41
Uh actually, that'll happen probably that episode should probably happen the week after the strange brew one, so you guys don't have to wait that long. Okay, so uh weeks. Yeah, here's a quote for you. We shouldn't we should not have left Tatum alone with Gen Z Billy Loomis.

Clif 1:12:00
Hey Olson, you want to go for a walk?