Movie RX
Dr. Benjamin prescribes movies that help and heal through his own experiences or the experiences of others.
Movie RX
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) ft. Jen
Why is Spider-Man so good at being a hero? Dr. Benjamin and Movie RX Producer Jen swing into the deeper parts of Peter Parker's path to being a SUPERhero in this week's episode of Movie RX. Are Peter Parker and Flash Thompson really just two sides of one coin? Was Dr. Connors crazy from the start? Who's the most New York of these New Yorkers? Download! Listen! Find Out!
Join the Facebook Page!
Follow on Instagram and TikTok!
Like and Subscribe on YouTube!
Also, Check out the Merch!
Hello and welcome to MovieRx, where I prescribe entertainment, one movie at a time. I am your host, dr Benjamin, the doctor, in the same way as Dr Connors is a doctor, a little scaly and prickly at times, but deep down, I love science.
Speaker 1:That's fair, especially the prickly sometimes.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You're welcome the prickly sometimes. Thank you, you're welcome. Uh, as you can hear, today I invited on uh the movie rx producer jen to. We're gonna be talking about mostly, mostly one aspect of of the film, but, uh, we're gonna look at a side of the amazing spider-man. I'm pretty excited about this one this is my surprise face. I don't know if anybody knows it or not, but Spider-Man's my favorite.
Speaker 1:Especially this Spider-Man. He's up there.
Speaker 2:Of the live action ones. Yes, yes, yeah. Starting with the basic movie info, this is a Columbia Pictures production released in 2012,. Uh, directed by Mark Webb Webb.
Speaker 2:Uh but, uh, so, uh, something that you'll notice about Mark Webb is that, uh, it's, it's not a real popular name that's brought up as far as you know, somebody directing a movie or anything like that. That's because he hasn't really done a whole lot. He's done mostly well, he's done a lot. He's done a lot of music videos for, like, my Chemical Romance and some other popular artists, but he did direct an Office episode Manager and Salesman.
Speaker 1:I think I know which one that is episode manager and salesman. I think I know which one that is. Yeah, it's in season six, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm assuming that's the one where michael and jim fight over who's going to be the manager and it's going to be the salesman yes, I believe so, other than that there haven't been a ton of movie credits under this guy's belt.
Speaker 2:But it's kind of hard to believe when you look at some of the stuff that, uh, some of the other stuff with this movie, it's, it's pretty incredible. Stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Reese Evans, Uh, but I mean, that's. That's about as close as I'm going to get it. His name in Welsh is I, I. I really couldn't even begin to say it, but I do know that one F comes off as a V in Welsh. If it were two Fs, then it would sound more like an FV, something like that.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'll just believe you.
Speaker 2:So the IMDB description on this one. After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of a mysterious reptilian foe.
Speaker 1:Okay, I feel like that's fairly accurate. So I guess this is a suck it, Jamie.
Speaker 2:Maybe the only thing that sucks is that I don't really feel like that.
Speaker 2:There's a whole lot of mystery surrounding the the lizard well, at first, of course, because they have to figure out who it is, but then they also have to figure out how to stop him right so maybe that's some of the mystery that they're but we know like there's nothing mysterious about it to the, to the audience but to the characters maybe, I don't know, we'll see so initial impression impressions on this movie in the more technical facets I suppose. I I mean really I loved this movie when it came out. I went to see it in the movie theater. Uh, really spoke to me as a Spider-Man comic fan because it at the time it felt like the most uh accurate comic type representation on the screen.
Speaker 1:That's where we disagree a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, no, not, not characters and stuff, just the feel like the feel of a comic book and you know the way that the story arcs work with in comic books.
Speaker 2:I suppose, Cinematography was excellent, largely leaning on lighting. Lighting is what made the cinematography in this movie, and again that kind of comes back to Mark Webb I don't know how the man is is so knowledgeable in lighting. Uh, I mean, I might have to look at some of the, my chemical romance stuff to see you know how the, how the music videos work and stuff like that. But the lighting is really what does it? Music, uh, the music music. James Horner did a great job with this movie and I really loved that. Spider-man finally had a fanfare. Every other superhero in all of history has had a fanfare of some kind and Spider-Man just always had that goofy ass song.
Speaker 1:See and I didn't even think about that until you pointed it out that this is the only one where he has his own fanfare.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know when those horns come in, you know, and just I mean it's just great, great stuff. But of course that's James Horner, that's just what he does, acting everything from Dennis Leary's Captain Stacy down to Max Charles, the little boy playing Peter in the beginning of the movie. Great, they all did great. This one was the movie that made me aware of Andrew Garfield. Honestly, I'm kind of bummed that we don't see more of him, because he does a pretty good job.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you he is way too cool to be Spider-Man.
Speaker 2:No, he's not too cool to be spider-man. No, he's not too cool to be spider-man if you say so is. That is that the the gist of your, of your general feelings on the movie I, I, I love these movies.
Speaker 1:I do wish that there were more of them, but I think that, yeah, I just think he's too cool to be spider-man like maybe spider-man down the down the road a little while, where he's more like confident in himself, but starting out I think he's way too cool.
Speaker 2:And normally this is about when I'd go into the characters, but we've kind of already started talking about one of them. I have something about that. In the first point of interest, he's a new Spider-Man. If there's one thing that really made everything very, very, very clear, it was in no Way Home. The newest one, with Tom Holland. It shows that these are all very, very separate Spider-Men. Their universes are all very different. Tom Holland didn't even have an Uncle Ben, so they're going to be different from each other in a lot of different ways. But the reason I liked this one was because it kind of showed a more modern nerd. Because it kind of showed a more modern nerd Nerds the way that they are, that they were in you know 2012, 20, you know 2002. They were very different from the 1962 nerds.
Speaker 1:I think it is becoming more acceptable to be a nerd, or maybe that's just the people that we surround ourselves with because we're giant nerds.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's not even that, it's just that the culture of nerddom has has changed quite a bit. I remember feeling kind of out of place because I felt like a more like a more traditional nerd, but like the kids that would skateboard in the hallways and, and you know, take off running down hallways even though they were, you know, being screamed at by teachers to stop, and you know lots of them smoked weed and and you know stuff like that. So it was like all of these, all of these various different things that just kind of you know that I noticed as being more of a nerd thing when I was in high school. Uh it, it just felt closer to that than the original Spider-Man type back in 1962. So it just I liked how they kind of modernized the way that a nerd would be today, because he was still pretty socially inept, you know he.
Speaker 1:Mostly just with girls.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, pretty much Well, and he didn't talk a whole lot with boys About. The only time he talked with boys was Flash, and that wasn't ever any fun, I don't know. He just felt a lot more modern to me and I really appreciated that. But despite the differences between the kind of nerd that Spider-Man was in 62 versus the newer version, he embodies a theme in this movie that spider-man fans I think could all really appreciate and really love, and that's that he's a hero, with or without the bite. I mean that goes, that goes right into, you know, the next talking point, the underdog hero. They gave us a scene specifically to show us just what kind of human being Peter Parker was.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know, he wasn't Spider-Man, he was just a kid. He walks out into the you know some kind of courtyard or something like that, where Flash is.
Speaker 1:Bean Flash.
Speaker 2:He's got a kid inclined face first into a plate of food, uh, dunking his face into the, into the kid's lunch, and flashes, uh, he's. He's yelling at Peter to take a picture. Well, he won't take the picture and keeps telling him to put him down and flash refuses to do so. And then that's, when he put him down, eugene and everybody's just like, oh shit, you know. And then, of course, flash throws the underclassman that he's dunking into his lunch, throws him off to the side.
Speaker 1:And Peter, like automatically, like first thing, tries to go and see if that other kid was okay. He wasn't worried about himself or his well-being, he was worried about the kids.
Speaker 2:Right, despite the fact that he I mean, there was no way that he didn't see Flash coming for him. So, even though the initial response for just about anybody is self-preservation, this giant motherfucker is coming after me. This giant motherfucker is coming after me, so I need to. I need to put an arm up or something to guard myself, even if I am going towards it. And he didn't nothing at all. He just went straight to go check on, check on that kid and caught a hell of a right hand from flash, knocked him on the ground, got kicked a couple times, but then then we we get a showing of why gwen has her very own spider spin-off. She comes in as the hero for peter parker standing up to flash telling him you know, divert his attention elsewhere and he needs to pay a little bit more attention to school.
Speaker 1:So okay, in the first Spider-Man trilogy could you imagine her bringing that home to captain Stacy?
Speaker 2:Probably wouldn't go over well.
Speaker 1:Guys like that, they they can definitely turn on the charm, even though they're you know but faces. Yeah, we'll call him that yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I think I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any sort of romantic involvement in this universe between those two. But he finds a hero in Gwen for him.
Speaker 1:What's your name? You don't know my name. Oh, I know your name. I'm trying to see if you know your name that's great and then she kind of after he says peter but doesn't say his last name, she kind of like keep going, keep going.
Speaker 2:it was just really good, um, and a really good way to introduce the two together and and just kind of show a little bit of chemistry between the characters in a very subtle way, I guess. But after all that, there's a little bit of stuff before Peter goes home and that is enter Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Now we're not really going to talk a whole lot about Aunt May, because Aunt May I kind of feel like in this movie she's very, very background.
Speaker 1:Until the end. Yeah, she's more background.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's okay. I mean it really is okay that Aunt May isn't the star or anything like that, because and you're not just saying that because you don't really care for the actress. You know, it's not even really that she will have her time to shine, and that's in the sequel. She is fantastic in the sequel, yes, and honestly, it's not even that I hate Sally Field. I just I couldn't look at the woman without getting pissed because of because of Mrs Doubtfire.
Speaker 1:I love that movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, sally Field made me hate Sally Field because of Mrs Doubtfire. Without talking too much about it, the sequel totally, totally revived her with me. She did so good in Amazing Spider-Man 2. Fantastic job. So that's really where she's going to shine is someday when I do that episode. So since she's really background, then that means that the focus really is more on Uncle Ben. As far as I'm concerned, martin Sheen is the best Uncle Ben since the original.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I can think of an Uncle Ben that I like more yeah, but I'm not. Your uncle Ben that I like more yeah, but I'm not your uncle Ben. That's true.
Speaker 2:And uncle Ben.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:But seriously there's so many parts about him that are really great. You would put down that you know May and and Ben had treated Peter like they, like he was their own and everything uh which that already kind of takes a special kind of person or whatever but he was supportive. He was hard when he needed to be, but he was also humble. Martin Sheen's version of Uncle Ben seems very much likely to be a very big part of the reason why Peter is such a hero before he becomes a superhero.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, like with how, with how upset he got with Peter when he found out that he humiliated flash. He just, yeah, the kid did you wrong, but you do you really want to treat someone like that?
Speaker 2:So he did something bad to you and you wanted to get him back. Revenge isn't a good reason to do that. It has to come from little bits of insight like that, and that's why Peter Parker is the way that he is. It doesn't strike me as normal that he would have gotten into fights or anything like that or humiliated somebody, but I'm guessing that when he was younger, that was probably something that he had gotten some lessons from uncle Ben about. Yeah, I don't know. I really. I really like Martin Sheen's uncle Ben. He does a great job.
Speaker 1:And like when Peter, when Peter tells him that he's a good dad, like the the joy and the the pride that he took in just hearing Peter say that.
Speaker 2:It's a really good feeling for somebody to know that they're appreciated for something that they've put so much time into, that they've put so much effort and so much love. You know, when they put that much into a person and try to create something good to go out into the world, that takes a lot of hard work. And so, yeah, yeah, with with Peter telling, telling uncle Ben, you know you're a good dad, that was the reward that he was, that he was able to reap. Uh, something else that you'd kind of had something in here about was, um, it kind of shows a little bit of kind of a darker side of aunt May and uncle Ben not even really darker as much, as it is just not really all that wholesome how they buried all traces of Peter's parents.
Speaker 1:I don't know that it was, I don't know. I guess to me it was. I can kind of see them being the type of people that they don't know what to say.
Speaker 2:So they're going to go out of their way to not have to say anything, right? That's why I kind of had a hard time describing on like not totally wholesome, because it's it's not like they didn't do it to deceive Peter.
Speaker 1:Right, it didn't have a malicious intent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they. They did it because they were trying to save his feelings and they're both old. In a more modern age we might be a little bit more enlightened to think, you know. Well, maybe it's not better to hold that stuff back and you know, and just kind of face it and make it part of reality.
Speaker 1:But how do you tell a kid growing up hey, your dad was doing some sketchy shit Got him in your mom, you know, disappeared.
Speaker 2:Right, it is a hard subject but, like you said, hiding it is just going to make it worse in the long run.
Speaker 1:Well, because then he also felt like he couldn't really talk about it, because like in some way maybe he was saying that May and Uncle Ben weren't good enough.
Speaker 2:I don't even think it's that. I think that you remember when he went, when he found that bag, that I think that you remember when he went. When he found that bag it looked like he was. He was crawling into the ground underneath the house, you know. I mean it's like it was.
Speaker 1:It was pretty deep. There were a lot of things that were knocked over and it took a flood in the basement for him to find it.
Speaker 2:Right With it being stuffed that far away. It feels really intentional as a young man. Think about a high school aged boy who lives with his aunt and uncle because his parents are gone. If they took all of the stuff from their parents and stuffed it away to where it'll never be found, are they trying to keep it out of sight? Are they trying to keep it that they don't want to talk about it? And if that's the case, then you know he would feel less inclined to ask about it because well, obviously they don't want to go near it part of that could also be because of them.
Speaker 1:Um, like uncle ben was supposed to keep it safe, right, so maybe it was extremely hidden for that as well, but it definitely had something to do with, I think, them not knowing what to say, because Peter never talks about his parents.
Speaker 2:Right, but you see how that might give the message to Peter. We don't talk about this.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:I think that's probably a bigger reason that I think that things kind of come to the head that they do later on. I don't know, but either way, I mean Aunt May, uncle Ben, definitely a really good version of both of them. Whether they're hiding away parts of Peter's parents and all of that stuff or not, doesn't matter. Cooking bad meatloafs 37 years of bad meatloaf.
Speaker 1:And old bowling trophies on the table.
Speaker 2:The next point of interest I had was Dr Connors. It kind of has to be talked about that there's this tired trope that was very, very popular at the time that this movie came out. The villainous greater good trope trying to build a world without weakness and the next stage of human evolution thing. You know that it was. It was really, really overdone, especially in the 2010s. I mean, it's forgivable in this movie because it did come out in the middle of that craze or whatever, but still it just Okay.
Speaker 1:So which is worse Turning everybody into giant lizards, or snapping and getting rid of half of the population?
Speaker 2:There's so many plot holes in that. There are so so many plot holes in the snap I was just thinking the greater good thing, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you'd rather be a giant lizard.
Speaker 2:Maybe Because it would affect less of the galaxy.
Speaker 2:I suppose, and you know, I guess then there would be more food, I don't know. Whatever, I don't get it, but I guess I can forgive that. You know, good guy with or a bad guy with the, with the greater good in mind, thing being is that it was just really popular at the time. But one thing I will say about Dr Connors was it or was it not? When you're watching him talk to the interns, can you see that shadow of crazy, as he's talking about the?
Speaker 1:I think he has very, very good people skills. The whole you know mad scientist thing with what he was talking to them about, yes, you could see the glimpse of you know kind of crazy, but him himself I didn't see the like Uber crazy until, um, you kind of see his obsession Like once Peter gives him that formula you kind of start to see that shift where he gets extremely focused and a little crazier, and a little crazier because he gets closer and closer to his goal and he can see that light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 1:And I think once he saw that light at the end of the tunnel, that's when it really started going when it had the. You know they were running those tests on the computer with the mice.
Speaker 2:Oh, the, the simulator.
Speaker 1:Yes, once that simulator was talking about how it was successful. I think that's when it you know.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, Well, except I don't know, I still feel like. I still feel like, as I watched him talk to those interns when what are some ways that we can do that? And one kid raises his hand and says stem cells, and he says promising, but I'm thinking something a little more radical. Yeah, the whole speech that he gives them talking about you know, all of that stuff. I just I felt like there was, there was an intentional twinge of crazy built into that.
Speaker 1:Maybe we're just watching too much Big Bang because you see Sheldon Cooper and he's crazy. I didn't see that much crazy in him.
Speaker 2:See, I don't know, I guess maybe it's just me wanting to, wanting to put that craziness is just something that was a part of him, that the serum brought out more, you know, with the, with the change, or something.
Speaker 1:Right, well, yeah it was. We kind of talked about that a little bit with like how much of that do you think was him and how much of that do you think was the serum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, and I felt like that it was that maybe the serum had just brought out more of the crazy or brought it closer to the surface. I suppose.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:Because I felt like it was there in the beginning.
Speaker 1:I just gave him the benefit of the doubt, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I don't know. The next portion I have here I titled A Superhero, is Born because we already had the hero. Peter Parker was already a hero, but now he's a superhero. Breaks into a lab, into where the genetically altered spiders are, gets bit, finds his way out and then the metamorphosis starts. I really like the subway scene Spider-Sense. It was almost like Spider-Sense acts as an instant kung fu. Oh, somebody's coming at me. I'm not looking that direction. There's no way for me to know, but I'm still gonna kick his ass like I mean. It just it's so great, I love how it, how it just kind of works that way I prefer the peter tingle yeah, the peter tingle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know stop calling it the peter tingle it's gross, uh.
Speaker 2:But yeah, no, the the spider sense was really neat. I like how they, how they depicted it with the you know speed ramping on the videos and and you know closeups and uh, all that kind of stuff. I did like how you pointed out the old school three stooges slapsticks type comedy with the pole. He's just standing there holding the pole and turns around and whacks two guys in the face. You know, it's just, it is. It is very, uh, very three stooges good stuff. But that's all a part of a very big, large adjustment period to his, to his new powers. So far, I think, between comics, cartoons and movies, I don't know that there's ever been a bad way to show this part happening, except that it's very uncomfortable. They were all very clearly able to depict that this is not a comfortable thing for Peter, especially when he's trying to get ready in the morning and then he's defending himself against blinds with a with a toothbrush.
Speaker 1:The licking the fingers that night, like when he caught the fly and then licked his fingers. I was like I'm like that's a little extra.
Speaker 2:Okay, we get it spider-man well in in that whole thing. When he comes in, when he comes into the home, I'm, I'm insensitive, I'm, I'm hungry. And then he goes to the kitchen, just starts grabbing, grabbing stuff, gets the meatloaf. She asked if he thinks that Peter's been drinking and he's like I don't think that's what this is. It's like what do they think that he's high?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean to be fair. He did take frozen macaroni and cheese upstairs.
Speaker 2:Frozen Stouffer's macaroni and cheese. Not a sponsor, I mean. Well, I guess, unless you really want to get a hold of jen uh stouffers, if you want to, uh, if you want to sponsor anyway, uh, you know. And then he's got the the ben and jerry's ice cream.
Speaker 2:There was some kind of potato salad in there, and then I thought it was like a coleslaw or something yeah, something from some kind of deli somewhere and just carries it all upstairs without cooking any of it. Mm-hmm, so apparently becoming a superhero has a very high caloric demand. I'd imagine. Maybe not in the ridiculous way as the Flash, but I still don't feel like a breakfast sandwich would really power that. Much of it Just saying.
Speaker 1:That would be nice. I mean, it does put me to sleep every time I watch any of them.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I have a hard time with DC, especially DC movies.
Speaker 1:No, it like when he woke up the next morning he just like pulverized his freaking alarm clock and then went to squeeze the toothpaste and it shot up on the mirror. And then he just scooped it off the mirror, which was gross, but like he was just breaking stuff left and right, and I like how he just left the the sink spouting water and just threw a towel over it yeah, I would assume that he would know how to turn off the water, uh, and, and he probably did that.
Speaker 1:I suppose, I would hope he was half alive, like he's your typical teenager, waking up for school half dead to the world.
Speaker 2:Right. So, yeah, I mean, he gets, he goes to school and and he he ends up taking some of that stuff over to to Dr Connors and they work up a time for him to go and help him out. Well, that, unfortunately, is the same day that he chooses to beat the shit out of Flash. Basically, uncle Ben has to take time off of work to go to the school and so he has to switch shifts, and then that puts Peter in charge of getting Aunt May home. Well, he doesn't do that. He goes and does his thing with Dr Connors at the Oscorp building. So, yeah, he's supposed to pick up Aunt May. Ignores calls from Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben comes down on Peter real hard when he gets home, and Uncle Ben comes down hard on Peter because he's angry that Aunt May had to walk home. His wife just had to walk home at night by herself and Ben is pissed. He's allowed to be pissed. That's a really good reason to be angry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he said, your aunt, my wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's not happy about it, but when, when he's in the heat of his anger is not a good time to be, uh, to be doing that parenting Cause he, he really does come down hard on Peter and he just and he continues to cut into him, uh, with all kinds of like from every direction, just starts really ripping into him even after peter has already admitted that he that he screwed up. And ben keeps going at it like, just keeps going at him with, actually my. This is my favorite version of the great power, great responsibility thing.
Speaker 1:This is the best one because it revived it yeah, because you kind of get a little sick and tired of hearing the same. With great power comes great responsibility, like Like that was one thing that I hated when they redid Spider-Man movies was you got basically the first one was the same exact movie.
Speaker 2:Right, ben throws Peter's dad's words at Peter when Peter already clearly feels bad. You know it's like you, don't? You don't have to keep beating that horse man. But he said he believed that if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. That's what's at stake here, not choice, responsibility. Oh man, like Pete's pissed at that point. And he asks so where is he? Like Pete's pissed at that point, and he asks so where is he? If he was so great and mighty and moral and all of that stuff, why isn't he here to tell me these things? Ben gets pissed because that's his brother.
Speaker 2:And he says how dare you? And Peter, Peter, that's when Peter lets go of all of his anger and he says how dare I, how dare you, Like, really You're? You're taking my father's words and throwing them at me. I know I fucked up and you can't just leave it alone, you know. But the thing that follows after that is a very, very good demonstration of Uncle Ben attempting a something that parents could really learn something about, and that's rupture and repair.
Speaker 1:Are you bringing work into this?
Speaker 2:Maybe a little bit, but I think that when Peter left, he finally realized that he had fucked up, he had gone too far and he had pushed too hard and he had damaged his relationship with his nephew. It's kind of unfortunate because we don't really see the extent of it until the end of the movie, when uncle ben couldn't find peter, he had called his phone and left a voicemail. That was basically his attempt at that repair, and that's an important part. Whenever, whenever you realize that you've done that damage to a relationship, usually you can gain a little bit of that back and create an environment where it can grow even more. I'm sorry I fucked up. Your dad had nothing to do with this situation, but I brought him into it and you know that's. You're already dealing with some weird feelings about your dad right now. Anyway, and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to really bring all that shit up.
Speaker 1:It was kind of like the perfect storm.
Speaker 2:Right. Everything was just not right for that. But that is the repair. When you come back in, you admit you, you humble yourself enough to admit your wrongdoing, give your intentions on not repeating it. That was his intention. But of course, as we all know, what happens with Spider-Man movies the death of Uncle Ben, it's a really good thing that you are not in the Spider-Verse. Yeah, I'd pretty well be doomed, wouldn't I?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Although Isaiah totally is Miles Morales. I'm just saying hey.
Speaker 2:Hey, alice, I'm just saying hey, hey, the death of Uncle Ben. In this movie. Andrew Garfield did an excellent job with the scene. I can't say that anybody has ever done a bad job with the scene, but I think what's really big about this one is not really the actual event happening where Uncle Ben is killed. I mean, one important facet of it is that Ben was killed because he was doing exactly what he just got done, telling Peter he had an ability to help somebody and he intended to do so, and it got him killed.
Speaker 1:And it was the same thing that he basically got killed.
Speaker 2:Because, peter, instead of just being pathetic, yeah, the way that he empathizes and the way that he tells him, like you know, because Peter slams him up against the wall, up against the locker and he says it feels better, doesn't it? It kind of gives you a little bit of a like like a look into Flash that maybe he's the bully he is because of a similar event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to flash that.
Speaker 2:Maybe he's the bully he is because of a similar event, yeah, that he had gone through some kind of a trauma that had sent him off into that direction. So it's like flash and peter kind of represent two possible roads that lead away from that trauma. But it also shows that rage and revenge can take over your life, like you had written down, and peter very much does.
Speaker 1:Let all of that stuff take over yeah, instead of like he, he thinks that he is doing good for everybody, which I mean to some extent, yes, but he is only going after the people. That's the same description of the person he wants vengeance on, so he's really just self-serving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we learned that when he goes to dinner at Gwen's house he sits down at the table with Captain Stacy. They're talking about Spider-Man. He calls it a public service by helping the police and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Doing stuff the police can't do by helping the police and all of that stuff, doing stuff the police can't do.
Speaker 2:Well, captain Stacy clues him in on maybe we're not after the car thief, maybe we're after the guy who runs the drug ring that is paying people with drug money to. You know, it's like there's all kinds of different things that he didn't think about. That Captain Stacy is just kind of shoving right into his face right now and then presents Peter with the idea that his public service isn't so public and is very much self-serving. And that was really important, I think, for Peter to find out. After that whole scene where Peter kind of has to go outside of himself and kind of realize that he's not really being a superhero at that point, that he's just kind of being a dick, uh, to a large group of criminals that look the same, he jumps off the roof to go after dot Connors.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The rest of the movie was pretty much just a really a really good comic book movie.
Speaker 1:Um, somebody's been a bad lizard.
Speaker 2:Somebody's been a bad lizard. Somebody's been a bad lizard. Yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:That was pretty good every time I hear that I I just can lose it yeah, it's good stuff.
Speaker 2:This movie did a lot of really great things. Um, it was a reboot. That needed to happen because I think that the spider-man that had been presented before was just too out of touch for the youth that that would have been interested in Spider-Man at this point.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think, at least in my opinion, the first Spider-Man focused more on, like the love story, this one focuses more on him becoming that superhero his development as a superhero. Yeah, um, I mean, yes, obviously there is the love story in it, but it doesn't take over the movie yeah, good stuff, I love it I do love when, um, he tells gwen to get out of oscorp and she's like, oh, it's not, it's not done rendering the serum. And he's like, seriously, after everything, I just told you you're just gonna hang out there.
Speaker 2:He's like mother hubbard, yeah no, the the spider-Man quips and stuff like that in this were really good. Good, good Spider-Man humor. It just borderlines on that fine line between offensive and just really funny. It was good. I liked it. Now we've been at the conversation for a little while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we didn't get that far into the movie.
Speaker 2:And we didn't get very far into the movie. But I mean, the rest of the movie is pretty much a comic book.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and then, like Gwen's dad, on the roof.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The death of Captain Stacy.
Speaker 1:Well, and she gave him that serum and he's like, yeah, I get it. And then when Stacey says, you know, basically make sure he's, he's going to be okay, that's exactly what he did, he. He died protecting, protecting Peter.
Speaker 2:He sure did.
Speaker 1:And he did the meanest thing. I totally get it from a father standpoint. God damn, that was mean yeah it makes me sad anytime. Dennis leary dies he is a really good like he's a perfect new yorker yes, he is like that really good new york cop, or he's a five-star new yorker and and just absolutely perfect personally, I think he usually always plays an a-hole, but I mean well I mean did you ever see the song at the beginning of no Cure for Cancer?
Speaker 2:one of his. I've never seen that uh, no Cure for Cancer was one of his uh stand-up comedy routines.
Speaker 1:He had a song, oh, the one that you sing yes, I, I'm an asshole yeah. Yeah, I've definitely heard that part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he does a good job. He plays a really good asshole, especially in no Cure for Cancer. If you haven't seen it, if you're into standup comedy, check out Dennis Leary's no Cure for Cancer. And it is not politically correct in any way, shape or form, so just be warned. Um, and it is certainly not family friendly, but yeah. So I mean, now that we're, now that we're kind of down into the, into the bottom end of it, we're in, we're in active ingredient territory here. So, uh, what, what do you got for an active ingredient in this movie? Well, I, what do you got for an active ingredient in?
Speaker 1:this movie. Well, I guess, as cheesy as it is, honestly like you don't have to have superpowers to be a decent human being and stand up when you see something going wrong. I'm not saying, you know, put yourself in like actual danger if you know you can't do anything. What I'm saying is someone is getting bullied, someone is getting picked on. You see something pointed out and we're trying to be a good human, which I feel like it shouldn't be that hard of a thing to do, but it feels like you see less and less of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess, yeah, mine would be be a good human.
Speaker 2:That's pretty close to mine.
Speaker 1:Same wave.
Speaker 2:I'd chosen to help others when I can, but this movie really brought me to that conclusion that it isn't much of a choice, as much as it is a responsibility. I appreciated this movie because it took that tired old line with great power comes great responsibility and made it a real message for real people. Helping your fellow humans when you're, when you're able, uh, is not a choice, it's, it's a responsibility. With that in mind, uh, today's episode has a prescription attached. Uh, the very next time you see someone that needs help and you have the ability to help fulfill that responsibility I'm not saying to give someone your last $20 or anything like that If you're struggling, then you aren't really in a position to help others anyway. But if you can, you know, help the next person that you see that could definitely use it. And if you're one of those people that's struggling, don't give in to despair. Remember that you have value and reach out to those that know your value and ask them for help, and you know who those people are.
Speaker 1:And I guess, if I can add on, that you don't have to do anything more than just you see somebody having a rough day and just go up to them and say, hey, you're doing a good job. It can be as simple as that. Like to just change somebody's day.
Speaker 2:Or hey, you got nice hair.
Speaker 1:Compliments are absolutely free and so easy to give out are absolutely free and so easy to give out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be my prescription. The very next person you see that needs help to fulfill your responsibility. Be Spider-Man. Now, if you have a movie that's been medicine for you and you'd like to be on the show, you can email me at contact at movie-rxcom. You can also leave me a voicemail or text me at 402-519-5790. If anxiety keeps you from coming on, you can always write me a couple of paragraphs about a movie and I can read them on air. Remember, this movie is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease, and we'll see you at the next appointment. Thank you, you.