Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 0:00

Don't do longer. All right, here we go. Hey, I'm Reggie Ponder the Real Critic, and this is the Real Critics Network. Hanya Woods is my co-host. How are you? How are you? How are you?

Kathia Woods: 0:15

I am fantastic now that I'm back home and, out of, airport Chronicles.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 0:21

I got a couple of things that I want to touch base with quickly. We not gonna stay on these things for a long time, so you gonna have to be like, hit it and quit it. The first thing. That's good. The first thing I wanna touch on is that you told us in the prior episode about Happy Gilmore too, and I haven't seen the movie yet. Have you seen it?

Kathia Woods: 0:40

Yes, I have.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 0:42

All right. I know we can't talk about it yet, right?'cause they're still in embargo, correct?

Kathia Woods: 0:45

No, no, no. We can talk about it. It's out today, on Netflix.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 0:49

Is out today.

Kathia Woods: 0:50

Yep.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 0:50

Okay. When we get to the movie segment, I want to talk about it but the reason I want to bring it up is that Adam Sandler seems like just a fun, fun guy. Now, I might be wrong because sometimes you meet these people and they are not as fun as they seem. In fact, he might be really, really serious because he'd be about his money. I just need you to tell me just a little something, something about Adam Sandler.

Kathia Woods: 1:17

We bonded over sports. We bonded over sports.'cause I asked him in the interview right as you saw me schwartzen in it, and people were like, oh, is it hot? I'm like, it's a Pope Catholic. Stop asking them questions. It's been a hot summer and we were outside in the golf club. Yes, it's the, was it hot? Duh. Anyhow, so he. So I asked him, I said, now how? Why as a, because I know he's a sports guy, right? I says, as a diehard New Yorker, what's with the Boston Bruins? I said, I know there's some people in your family. You meet a circle where well, what's happening sir? Because I know he goes to the Knicks games and he said that, because of they moved to New Hampshire and that the Boston guys that he grew up around, that he just seemed like the type of guy that had that type of anger and was very serious about sports. That he figured that he would just be, he had to be a Boston Brewers. But he said, me, Adam, I'm a New York guy across the board. He goes, I'm a diehard Rangers fan, right? He goes, now, he's like, do you live in? I said, no, I moved. He goes, but you brought the teams with you. I said, absolutely. I said, oh no, I said we just said, especially eels, like that flyers. I go, yeah, absolutely. And then, so that was our chat and that's when I knew that, I got him. But he was lovely. And the fact that, before we rolled, he was like are how are you? He asked me about me and Christopher McDaniels, who plays scooter. Mcgruder is equally like loving. Like I love interviews like that. I love justice. Where that talent is like, let's have a good day instead of like, and you're like, oh God,

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 3:06

I love that too. And so I'm gonna recount, which I've told you this before, but I've had a couple of situations and I won't mention the names here'cause where the interview was terrible. And that the person really, really, really didn't want to be there. I'm not trying to to be put some love on Philadelphia people, but seriously, your guy, Coleman Domingo is just absolutely lovely. Absolutely lovely because he, in my opinion, took attention or paid attention to every person who came into the room and had a discussion with him. He did not blow them off or try to do it in a short form, and I really, really appreciated that versus somebody else, blah, blah, blah that I was trying to talk to. And they were like, no I don't really want to do this. I, and you could tell they didn't want to do it. So the answers. The questions were short, they weren't engaging. And sometimes that might be on me'cause sometimes it is on you. I

Kathia Woods: 4:21

don't think it's you. I mean I have two names.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 4:25

Oh, you gonna spell a t?

Kathia Woods: 4:27

I'm not gonna give the names, but I have two names that own the do not resuscitate list. And people are always shocked when I mention the one because this person has this persona of being bubbly and I was like, I'm good if I never interview them again. I'm so okay. Not everybody is for everybody and not everybody mixes with everybody. And I have just come to the conclusion that me and this person, we have run the course. We did what we could and we kept a pushing because. It just is what it is. And again, we all know people that get on this app and on the social medias and be screaming black excellence, but don't really make time for black journalists and black outlet. But oh, and the whole team be white. I say the whole team be white. I mean everybody like, but for sure that the person that even gets the water ain't black.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 5:25

So what I'd like for you to do is to just shout out one of your other than I'm sorry, other than Adam who came. Lovely. Say someone else that you like.

Kathia Woods: 5:40

You said one of my favorite people, Coleman Domingo, who I just adore, who's just adore. I recently had a good one with Sam Rockwell and Craig Ferguson. We had, when I tell you. We had ourselves a good time with the bad guys too. We were kiking at Upper Storm. When I tell you I laughed so hard, oh my God. It was like I, Craig Ferguson lived up to everything. That I, excuse me, Greg Robinson. Sorry. He lived up to everything that I thought he was in my head better. And Sam Rockwell rockstar. Absolutely. Absolutely. I gave him, like at the end I said, sir, and congratulations on your work and the white lotus outstanding. He said, thank you.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 6:30

Well, you and I are always having a issue about Chicago and Philly, but now I think that you can't really root for Philly anymore because you're not a Philadelphia person. Oh,

Kathia Woods: 6:44

no, no, no. The only team I cheer for in Atlanta are the Braves. Everybody else came with me, including, I think it's, I think it's sacrilegious very tiresome when trying 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 6:58

I think it's, I'm in to be going to Atlanta, taking this Philadelphia garb with you and putting it on and walking around Philadelphia pride. I just don't think that's the way it should rock. However, the reason I mention our beef between Chicago and Philadelphia. Is because I did not know that you spoke with one of the great comedians from Chicago, which his name is Craig Robinson. So I'm just saying if you had a great interview with him, that's because that Midwestern charm, that Chicago love that. Hey Craig, what's going on? I'm really glad that you got to experience how Chicago, how we do it.

Kathia Woods: 7:50

I just wanna say this since we're having a thing, I need people, since we're having our Philadelphia sports conversation. Craig is amazing, but I need people to leave QB one alone. Leave who alone? Jalen hurts alone. And I'm just like the vitriol, you would've thought he was Doc Prescott. I said what I said as cowboy fans. It just is crazy, but it is just, but hey, in the words of QB one, keep the main thing the main thing. And I cannot wait for him to really tap dance up in that. And Saquon too. Let's get it. When I tell you last season was so much fun that, oh,

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 8:31

I can't hear you. I'm sorry. Look, I

Kathia Woods: 8:33

know because it's, I know it's rough because it's been a minute of Chicago. I, since your Bears did anything worth talking about?

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 8:39

I can hardly you, but I do want, the stadium

Kathia Woods: 8:41

is legendary, but the playing inside the stadium has not been legendary.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 8:45

I do want to. Mention one other person that I have the utmost respect for on, on a serious note as it relates to talking to the press. I will not be in Toronto this year, unfortunately.

Kathia Woods: 9:02

Oh,

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 9:03

and yeah, I don't think I'm gonna make it. No, but my last time

Kathia Woods: 9:07

we're not getting it. We're not getting part two of the outfits.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 9:11

My last time in Toronto, I was standing outside trying to get an interview and they had 67 outlets and I was probably 61.

Kathia Woods: 9:25

Oh.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 9:26

And by time this person got to, to me, they pulled him off the red carpet to go in and do what they do, talk to, introduce their film and talk to this person. Said, I will be back. Don't worry, we waited about an hour.'cause they had to go in, do all the stuff that they needed to do and this person came back nice. And when they came back, they spoke to everybody who was left. I felt I'll always tip my head hat to that person. And that was Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller went and talked to everybody and he took his time. He wasn't being rushed by his publicist. I think that, and there were other people who did not come back in that same movie.

Kathia Woods: 10:18

I will say this. And Ben still isn't happy Gilmore too, by the way. I think there are certain people that just makes it endures you. That just endures you. And will make you really go out of their way for this person. But I'm just like, I don't like, again, you and I have seen it live in 4K. These people whoop black people, black people, and then we see them when we go, you are phony at in a$3 bill. We see you, sir. Or they'll st. Excuse me. They'll stand in line for a mainstream or white owned outlet right now. I always say, let's do the math entertainment tonight, whatever. These shows are 30 minutes, which means after you take out the commercial, it's 20 minutes and they have a opportunity to put on, junior Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence or whatever you have there. And then there's you, Joe Smith, right? Who do you think is getting left on the cutting room for, and especially with the budget cuts, right? Which before you at least make the digital segment. You are not making the mainstream anymore. It is crazy to me how you don't, understand that, even here in Atlanta, like for the real Housewives of Beverly Hills, not Beverly Hills of Atlanta. Like they ushered them to go speak to entertainment tonight. And I, and the publicist happened to be white and I said, ma'am, you are in Atlanta, a hella black city with black media here. For you to take away these women and to speak to, especially the newer housewives where people didn't know who they were. I said to speak to these mainstream outlet is very disrespectful when you have a black publicist. That's the lead on this, that's tacky. And she looked at me and I was like I said, what I said is, because to me it's it's very like. There's certain spaces, but again, these people will stand there and wait through in 3000 degrees to go speak. And also, we know, right? We have colleagues that work at mainstream outlets. You and I both do and we know that. And I have one who's a producer, right? Spent, I'm not gonna say who she's, but she spent, she works for a major outlet, spent like four hours at the Image Awards, right? Out of all that video, four hours at the Image Awards. Again, that show where she's a producer on is a half an hour show. So you take the commercials out, it's 20 minutes, three people out of four hours made the new psych, made the show. Because although they mean something to us, to them, first of all, they didn't know where half these people are. You'll make it like if you, Carrie Washington, Jamie Fox Denzel Washington. If you like David Banner, you not know who that is. Not gonna make it. And it is just, there are certain people that we will love and we're like, oh, this person's on this hit TV show. They don't care. They don't even, again, these segments used to make it onto the YouTube channel, but all that staffing, all the editors for that are being cut left and right. They just canceled e-news after to 32 years on the air. So I'm just like some of these people, and I'm not saying that to be shady. Some of these CD celebrities may wanna rethink how they approach media because it's getting tight out here.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 14:00

It is. And that's why I like to not only talk about the challenges, but also talk about those who meet the moment.

Kathia Woods: 14:10

Oh, absolutely.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 14:11

And I have found a few people who have met the moment Blair Underwood was one for me. Halle Berry was one for me.

Kathia Woods: 14:20

Blair is wonderful. I'm so glad you brought up Blair Underwood. Like he is, love him. And I do wanna say I'm not mad at any, some cel like Blair Underwood will be engaging, ask you about you, that type of stuff, right? I have David Allen Greer will, you'll key, key with, and I have no problem with celebrities that are like, girl, I've been here for four hours, or I just flew in from the West coast and this is about to be four hours. I just want to get through these questions and keep it pushing. I'm fine with that. I don't think that makes you a bad person. Everybody approaches things. You don't know what's going on. Some people might have had a bad day. We're not talking about them folks.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 15:05

Nope. We're

Kathia Woods: 15:06

talking about the folks that really be on here telling y'all a yarn, a lie. But again, like Reggie said, it's for every one of those folks. There are people that, I've had wonderful experiences with Lupita, Nyon o other people have had not so great ones, right? But I also go in with understanding that she wants to keep it business. If she wants to open that door to be a little bit more lighthearted then we, that's okay. But I have no problem being like Ka Woods outlet and let's get to the business.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 15:39

All right, so I wanna move on to our next topic in our segment. What's on my mind? And that is I have been, because I'm getting at that age where I need to really see where my money is. I have working a lot on financial planning. I don't want to tell people how to do their financial planning. I don't want to tell people where, who they should get, what company they should use and all of that other type of stuff. But what I do wanna say is that I have three things that I wanna put out there. I know you'll speak to these three things as well. The first is that you should start your financial planning early. Yes sir. As early as you can, because a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. What that means is when you put away a dollar today, in the long run, it will compound and it will make you money. It will, you will have money there. My second thing is for people who think you cannot save hogwash, you can cut some corners somewhere, even when you are work, living paycheck to paycheck. And one of the best ways to do that is to. Have something taken outta your check where you forget it. If you can't do it a hundred dollars a check, can't do the$50 a check, do the$20 a check. You will be happy for it later on down the road. And then third, if you have children and you plan for them to go to college, a 5 29 plan is a phenomenal way to help pay for their college. Everybody's not going to college, so that's not what I'm saying. I'm not here trying to say everybody needs to go to college. I'm saying if you plan for your child to go to college, a 5 29 plan is something to do. We have to start talking to our people about finances, and we should do it early as opposed to late. My last thought about this is most times. A referral is the best way to get to your financial planner most times. I'm not saying all the time, but most times because that means that the person they're working with, they must be doing a decent job by that person. If you're working with somebody, that's my spiel. I'm gonna stop there and I'm gonna let my real financial person who actually worked in this area give you a few tips as well.

Kathia Woods: 18:21

I agree. Reggie. I always say as we talk to our kids about sex, we talk to our kids about drugs. We don't talk to them about money, and then we're surprised that they're horrible with it. We don't talk to them about the importance of building responsible credit. We don't talk to them about savings. We don't. When we were kids, we had a passbook savings account. Remember that little one, you were so excited to go to the bank. You put your birthday money in there your allowance, right? Or once you had a little bit of money accumulated, you would go with your mom and you would fill out the withdrawal form or the deposit form, right? And you'd go, or you'd take your piggy bank, right? And you did have the little pass key and you get stuff out and that would get deposited. The point that I'm making is we used to have these things that introduced us into banking and understanding savings. And just not, I don't think they do passport savings anymore, but there are things that you can do. You can do a regular statement savings account. I know my daughter had a debit card. Not a debit card. A-A-A-T-M card. Where I would put stuff in there and then when she turned 16, we converted that into a checking account that I am still on her checking account. Which is a whole nother thing.'Cause I'm somehow still her personal banker, but just doing stuff like that. Getting a debit card. A little secured credit card when they go to college. Now wait for it. We are not talking about one with$10,000 the platinum, putting them on the platinum card. We're talking about like our$500 limit. Just something, to build credit because when they, at some point you wanna stop co-signing for the apartment. I'm just saying. So it's just. It's little things like that, when they are getting their first job getting, signing up for the 401k, four three B, whatever the thing is, especially when the company matches. So that's free money. So I think we need to get out of this thing that what Reggie is trying to say, and what I'm trying to say is in simple words, that investing for the future is rich people's thing. And I also ask on the other part that we don't do, which drives me crazy, me personally, is your employers. I'm gonna score it on the limit and say 80% pay money. For you to be able to call if you are not sure and ask questions about what these different funds are that are eligible for you to put into your retirement account. These people's job is, you might even be entitled to getting a free financial plan for you and your wife where you don't have to pay for it. That's part of your retirement package or your employee assistant package, whatever that falls under. A lot of us don't take advantage of these things, and then you find out you've been at the company, God forbid, 10 years. You're like, wait a minute. How long we've had that? We done had this since you started working here. So it's just important that we take advantage of these resources. And again we don't have to overcomplicate it. Nobody's telling you to go buy a bunch of Bitcoin, but use that number every year. If your four oh one call and just be like, Hey, I just wanna make sure that I'm in the right things for me. This is some of my goals are, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's really important. And and as a couple, God forbid people are dropping fast. When somebody dies, it ain't the time to find out where the money resides.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 21:54

Hello. Hello. Well, that is our public service announcement for today. I felt that it was important because a lot of the things that I'm learning about finances, nobody told me. So if you know stuff. Share it. Share with your people. That doesn't mean that they, that if you are sharing it with them to say this is what you have to do, that's the wrong approach. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying just make people knowledgeable about the things you know about. So

Kathia Woods: 22:28

make an informed decision. Another thing too is, I'm gonna say this'cause I love,'cause I've been through this when I was assistant manager with a person comes in right with the CDs. With the stack of CDs. Because God bless our parents or our grandparents that used to get the paper and they get the paper from everywhere. I don't know if any of you have those relatives. I don't know if you did. Reggie. They saw a good CD rate at a bank in Milwaukee. And they would go by and you're like wait a minute. Do you live in, or your people live in Chicago and they got a CD with a bank out in California, and you're trying to wrap your head around, as you're cleaning out the house, you finding out all these different bonds and these different in CDs and now you are sitting at the bank and we gotta take two hours to call these different things and to sign this and to get an email sent to get the money cashed out so that it can go into the estate planning or pay for the funeral. Just talk to the parents, talk to the grandparents and say, listen, I can, we just put it all in one shoebox in one, one folder. Everything that you have the everything that you have whatever it is, because we don't wanna clean out the house and then ask ourselves, or God forbid the bank. He bought the CD and got sold out to somebody else, they never filed it. Listen again, we love our elders, but we've all heard stories or ourselves been there where you went through stuff and then you gotta conduct a CSI investigation to figure out like, who do you get in contact with the cash at the cd, which sometimes, believe it or not, I worked on something by the time we were done all of it together between the the mutual like CDs, bonds, like you name it, it was$50,000 because the elder just kept buying stuff in the thing and would send a cashier check for a thousand dollars here and just set it and forget it. And if you think about it, back in the day when you still had savings 20, 30 years and you're like, you're like, daddy, what were you doing?

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 24:33

God bless our people who. Worked hard. Yeah. To save. To save. Yeah.

Kathia Woods: 24:38

And needs to be admired. But just let'em know. Can we put it in one filing cabinet or in the safety deposit box? Or one? Just one place?

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 24:47

Or under one mattress. Or under one mattress. Just one mattress. Not, yes not two mattresses. Anyway, just

Kathia Woods: 24:54

one place.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 24:55

Let's move on to our movie segment and our first movie. I didn't see it, but I didn't know that Kaia Woods saw it. And that is Happy Gilmore too. So give us the scoop. Tell us what this one's about. And is this one worth checking out? Because I'm gonna say, I know that I would've had fun with Adam Sandler. I'm not sure that I would have fun with this movie. And the reason I'm saying that is it's so long after the fact that do I really wanna see a happy Gilmore two when Happy Gilmore One is a classic. Help me,

Kathia Woods: 25:36

I'm gonna say if again, you know how we talk about certain things on the right platform, I think for Netflix and Chill, this is perfect also because it is hilarious and as I like to say, Rome is burning and we need a little time out from Rome. We just do. We just need a little time out. Also, I don't think this is also the type, like if you have great school kids you can watch as a family. There's nothing horribly going on here that's gonna have you clutching your pearls. But here's the thing is to answer your question so we meet happy. A while after his, after he became a pressure golfer, he was doing really, really great and he's the toast of the town and he lost his wife. So he's a widower, right? And he falls, and when I tell you he falls, he falls woo all the way down, right? So he falls on hard times and he's now a father of four. He has boys and one girl. And this girl she wants to go and dance and, because he fell in hard times, his money ain't what it used to be, right? The math is not math in his favor. So he tries a comeback to raise the money so she can go on this ballet thing right now. The gang is almost all together. So of course we have scooter, mcgruder is back, Christopher McDaniel Julie Bowen, even though technically she dies, she comes back in, in flashbacks, right? And then you have the kids. Now that is some great cameos in this, right? John Daley is in there too. John Daley, the golfer, right? Ben Stiller is in it. So that's half the fun being able to look right. Also, Adam Sadler's daughter, Sonny is in this, she plays the daughter. Also you have, can I just tell you how much bad Bunny is in it? And he's hilarious, as we know from SNL and all of that. He has a very nice acting career going. Travis Kelsey, who is a huge fan, is in it for a little bit of the franchise. And Lavelle Crawford plays, if you remember, she plays Slim Peterson, who's the son of Happy's late mentor Chubbs, who was by the call weathers and they had a great part for Call Weathers, but unfortunately he passed away and they do a beautiful homage for the people that passed away from the first movie to now. So I think this is just key, key, like if you go in and you understand like Adam Sandler comedies and you're not looking for any deep meaning, you are just gonna laugh your head off and it's just a good roaring. Time, and again, I think it's very lovingly made. And again happy he's gone. Now Happy's gonna have to crawl out of this hole, and again, scooter mcgruder is back.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 28:34

For the golf fans, you got everybody out there actually. You got Nick Faldo, Ricky Fowler, Jim Fury you have Sergio Garcia, Brooks Kka Roy McElroy Colin more Risa whatever. Jack Nicholas. You got Corey Paven, you got Sheley Scheffler Jordan Speed. I mean, Lee Trevino, Bubba Watson for the golf fans, he got everybody out. And that, that is very impressive to me. But one of the names that you did not mention is Kim Whitley is in it. And I did not know that.

Kathia Woods: 29:11

She's in it. She has a smaller part. Nothing wrong with that, but she's in it because a, it's a win is a win. And again this movie is made with love and it's just about. Uplifting people and pouring into people and just having a good time. You know what I mean? The Sandman and again just I think some of the funniest parts are with John. I had no idea that John Dailey was as funny as he is. And he's really funny in this. Like he, wow, that's great. He doesn't take him. And I love the fact that he doesn't take himself too serious. Like he lives with Adam Handler when they relocate, as he had to downgrade to just regular living, so

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 29:53

you're saying this is a Netflix and Chill film and you're not trying to use a pun there with the Netflix because it is on Netflix.

Kathia Woods: 30:03

Yeah. Everybody grab your favorite part on the couch or the media room, wherever you watch your movies. Grab your snacks and popcorn and just hit play and lean in. It's gonna be a good rip roaring time.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 30:13

All right, excellent. There you have it. Katya is recommending that now we will move to our movie that we both saw, and this movie is, and you should, everybody, I think everybody's ready for it. And that is the fantastic four first steps and I'll kick it off and just say, what happens here is you got four astronauts. They travel in the space and lo and behold, something happens and they come back as super humans, and they have these abilities that now make them a team who we know as the Fantastic Four. They protect the world. They're there for us, and everybody loves the Fantastic Four because they are the first family of Marvel. Their latest challenge is to defeat a force. That wants to devour and destroy the world. And the only way that they can save the world is by giving up their son. And then when I say their son, Reed and Sue are Sue is pregnant and they're having a son and this evil entity wants their son. And if they do that, the evil entity is like, Hey I'm good. I won't come and destroy your world. But they're like, nah, we are not gonna do that. So they're ready to try to defeat this evil foe or dia trying. What's the like for this one? A couple of things. I think that this film is aptly titled First Steps. The first step is to reintroduce us to the first family of Marvel. And I think they do a really good job with that. They're not rewriting the history of these beloved characters, but rather they're resetting the universe with some new faces and some iconic some new faces who take the place of these, not take the place, but actually assume these iconic characters. So that's the first step. The second step is that you get to see this new group of beings actually in action. And you know, when we talk about superhero films, everybody wants to see some action, and there's a lot of action here. When the Silver Surfer comes down to announce that Earth is next on the chopping block, and the galactic is getting ready to come and do their thing, all bets are off and all bets are on whatever it is, time to get it on. And they have enough action in there for those who are seeking some action. The third step is to provide hope. And there's still hope in this film. You sitting there like, oh man, they can't lose. They can't lose. I hope they won't lose. And there's still some hope that fantastic for albeit outmatched that they might be able to pull this off. So you are rooting for them and you're rooting for them to save the world. And then the fourth step is to introduce these characters that you want to see again and again. And I think they did an excellent job of introducing these characters that you want to see, not from the superheroes to all the other characters that you're gonna see in the film. There were a few things that I didn't particularly care for and I can just list them really quickly. And there were three things. The first one is that there are gonna be some things that if you're new to this franchise, don't read the comic books. Just like all these superhero movies. Some of the things will go over your head, but it will not spoil the movie. It's fine. The other thing is that. You have to wait until an Avengers movie to see these people again. And I would prefer to just see another Fantastic Four movie to see where they are and that type of thing. I know how the MCU does it. It is what it is. And speaking of the way, the how the MCU does it, they also have two during the credit scenes, which I hate. I hate the fact that I have to watch all these names go past me, but they have two of those scenes, so at the end of the movie, just stay seated and wait for the two scenes so you can see what happens there. But I love the fact that the writers on this one focus on helping CDs beings as human beings as opposed to just these super humans that, that had these great abilities. I like that. And I think they focused a lot on that. And I was engaged. I liked their interaction. I think that the four of them worked together. And I think that when we started to talk about longevity, I think that they created something where you will, you want to follow these four people? That's my take.

Kathia Woods: 35:01

Okay. I too like this. I like this a lot. I really love the fact that it was less than th two hours, right? Because some of these movies, woo Child, you are like, we felt like it's a hostage situation. I love this approach. I love the nostalgia really works because they're still grappling with being these Fantastic four and what their mission is, which is for them to be goodwill ambassadors, right? And to be these guardians of earth. But at the thing that makes this movie so great is, excuse me, is not their superpower. The superpowers are really like a bonus. It's their bond to each other. It's a relationship between Sue and Reed, right? Even Johnny Storm, is not just some bubbling idiot, he has debts and the thing which, before I always felt they pictured him on the screen as being, sad about being in this big body, right? Whereas this one is more jovial and he's confident and he's willing to still live, right? He doesn't look it as as a burden. He embraces it, right? The love that they have for each other, because of course, only the four of them understand the circumstances that they found themselves in. I really love that they took, I feel like this movie did a better job of leaning into the humanity of these four people, that through a, through this event. Understand that they're not now changed. I love that, that Pedro Pascal, I really like him as Reed and that he took this nerdy approach. He's not trying to be cool, he's just a smart guy that can happen also to be Mr. Elastic. I love that. Vanessa Kirby is protective and, you know, the, she although loves reach, she doesn't automatically is willing to just go along for everything. She challenges him and at the same time you see the closeness between her and Johnny. And also the friendship between Johnny and thing. So I think those things are what make the movie more. I think it does a better job of showing the power of humanity against good versus evil than Superman does.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 37:19

I totally agree with you. I think that the writing in this really makes us. Know these characters. I don't think they did a bad job in Superman. I just think you're right that they just did a better job here. I feel

Kathia Woods: 37:37

like the explanation though, I feel like with Superman, the explanation was better than the execution.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 37:43

Okay. I think part of that for me, with Superman, and I talked, we talked about this before, is I the Superman movie tried to introduce so many characters and I just think that that takes away from the depth that you can have with each of those characters. So all of a sudden you just see, here's a new character, here's a new character, here's a new character, here's a new character, and they don't have enough to. To enough meat on the bones for each of those characters. And that sometimes can work because they are trying to reset the DCU. But I think that that's exactly what they're trying to do with the MCU. They're trying to reset the MCU. They're saying, okay, we know that all those faces of all those people that you used to see, we're gonna change those people. You're not gonna see the same person playing Ironman. You're not gonna see the same person playing Fantastic Four. You're not gonna see that. And because we have to reset here as well. But what we're not gonna do is we're not gonna bring in all the characters from the MCU that we can and kind of stuff'em into this film. I think they were more linear here, and I think that that works.

Kathia Woods: 39:06

I also, like, they gave us a backstory to Silver Surfer who has appeared in numerous MCUs, and people are like what is this? We also gotta remember, you're, you are bringing in a whole group of people that never read the comic books. I thought this also was a beautiful homage to the original cartoon, the rollout, the comic book without being dated. I mean, this movie is, it is, I always say that, excuse me, filmmaking is a team sport, right? And we have to shout out, I and my review mentioned the set designer and the costume designer, because this movie does not work. If the set doesn't look doesn't put you in the mind frame that it's the 1960s the costuming from, if the, if we're supposed to be in the 1960s, but the superhero suits look like it's 2025, but now how are we supposed to lean in to this? I look is a part of this whole. Story setting. And I think you can use the Avengers movie to propel them from the 1960s into the current, but don't do it with this. I also,

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 40:10

lemme lemme say, lemme say this though. Go ahead. I love that you mentioned that. I did not mention that in my review. I think that the setting was so right. Just how they had the TV show, everything seemed dated, but the movie didn't feel dated. So you did feel like you were back in that time. But it was funny and surprisingly fresh. Surprisingly fresh. So I, I am excited that you mentioned the set design, the costume design, because I didn't so thanks for that.

Kathia Woods: 40:48

Absolutely because again, we are supposed to buy in that we're meeting this family. That is rippling. And also with this whole thing of good versus evil and them understanding that their superpower wait for it is not, the powers that they gain is their bond as a family. It's the strength when they work together and they lean in together, they can overcome everything. In terms of letting humanity know, our superpower is that we believe in it has to benefit all of us. Whereas the evil, the galactic dude, he's all about himself. And that's the difference, right? He may be physically whatever, stronger, but ultimately it's his ego that it's his downfall, right? So these are the things that I think were done. I, listen, I have been as critical of the MCU cranking out some stuff like it's nobody's business. Like it's some type of fast food network and just cashing in on the fan base and being like, we spent$200 million. We got Joe Blow to be in it. Just go pay for the ticket blindly. I feel like they're starting to get back to what made the MCU great, right? With Thunderbolt leaning in on the humor with this B list of anti-heroes. And with this leaning in with the nostalgia and I think understanding, if you build a good IT work, it has to start with a good story, right? I don't care what it is. If you start off with a good story. Wait for it and build around it. You will have a good, then everything else will take care of itself because again, you can have the greatest costumes and the greatest special effects. But baby, if death's story is like where you are scratching your head like, what in the world am I watching? None of it is worth it. And again, I think these guys were a good setting and I think you are. This movie's gonna make a lot of money this weekend.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 42:52

this was a fun movie.

Kathia Woods: 42:55

Again, less than two hours. And again, you can tell a story like that. I

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 42:59

really enjoyed it and I would go back and see it again. That's how much I liked this movie. I gave it three and a half out of four. It was good not good. It was better than good and I wanted to see these characters again. I absolutely want to see these actors who played these iconic characters again. And I think that it's a tribute to the writing. It's a tribute to how it was shot cinematically, it's a tribute to the acting, the whole package in this worked. So I am totally recommending that people go check this one out.

Kathia Woods: 43:40

I agree. I would totally watch this again. And just, I think it is, I really enjoyed it. Like I came out of there being like, I'm here for it. And again it is utterly like a good time,

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 43:57

There you have it. So we did two movies and we're gonna end on a little bit of a sad note what a lot of us said note, but I think that we can't. Be in the movie entertainment business without at least mentioning the ing of Malcolm, Jamal Warner. And I never met him, but I have a feeling that my Philly friend who's met, everybody has a story to tell us about. I met him when we talked about this. So Go ahead, Katia. I know you got No,

Kathia Woods: 44:29

It was more like a, it was 17 magazine. I was very young and you had your little, and now I know I'm dating myself. You had people doing like autograph signing and appearances, pre-internet. People used to come to the local malls or whatever, and he was lovely. And I think people misunderstand certain things. I gotta remember that not everybody is the sharpest knife in the tool shed on the internet. That I said, this hits different for Gen Xers. We literally the same age and he would've turned 55 in August. And I think when other people die, not that we don't care. And also I think this is again, when stuff happened that was geared towards our generation of moments, we remember right. When people said I watched The Cosby Show and reruns, and we're not saying that other people didn't enjoy it, the Cosby Show, but we watched it live. We watched it from the premiere to the last episode like he was a teenager. When we were a teenager. The wardrobe, the issues were relatable because we were literally going to it. When Theo went from high school to college, we made that same jump in real life. And also, I love his story arc where he went from being a goofy teenager. I remember the episode of Macbeth. I read Macbeth in 10th grade. For English. So all of that had really hone And I think people also have to remember, like for a lot of us, he was like our first crush or our first TV crush.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 45:53

That's right.

Kathia Woods: 45:54

I loved growing pains and I loved family ties, but I did not have a crush on Kirk Cameron or Michael J. Fox as great as they were. But I think and I loved Alex p Keaton. I thought he was hilarious. But when you bought, back then when you had 17 Magazine, which is something that I read a lot, and he was the only thing of color as far as a boy on those magazines when they talked about crushes, when you talked about your Tiger Beat or Team Beat, whatever the name is. Because write up was for us

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 46:24

right on.

Kathia Woods: 46:25

Write on was for us. But these mainstream magazines, he was the only boy. I think to us, it would feel like, God forbid, like some, one of the members of New Edition, because we grew up in New Edition from middle school all the way now to adulthood. So I think when you have millennials or other people, it's not saying that doesn't, but we saw it and we understood like we wanted to we recognized the fashion. Denise had on a Benetton sweater, if, Benetton sweaters were a grip back in the day, it was like$80 for Benetton. You know what I mean? That's still a little bit of a grip now for a sweater. So all of these things, you know, sitting there watching, I remember that episode with Denise and Chris St. John who played her boyfriend or friend. May he rest in peace watching videos on tv. We did that, right? That was literally our afternoon. Whether you watched BET or you watched MTV VH one or video on demand. All of these things hit home.'cause you're like, these guys were doing what I'm doing. And we also gotta remember the young man who later on went on to be God, what is it he went on to, to be on Martin, right? Who played his best friend Cockroach. Remember that? So you all had a friend and guys oh. I was writing my write up for Happy Gilmore too. I referenced this before he passed. I'm gonna get like teary eyed, one of the episodes, and I linked it in my Facebook, and you can look it up on YouTube, it's called The Prom, where Adam Sandler played one of Theo's friends and they had the crazy idea to do all this stuff, right? The caviar, they got the car caviar and they took their dates on the helicopter ride and the girls were heated because you know what happens with the helicopter ride? You got your hair, you got your crusade, your hair is going, the propeller. So they came back and they were heated and Adam Sandler that year played one of Theo's friends or played basketball with him. And then the prom episode. So I literally referenced that, Adam Sandler had been around from playing one of Theo's friends. Wow. And wow. So it's just a very, it, I think it hits us that, our generation, before when people died, it was a parents' generation or our older brother or whatever. Now it's hitting our age group and it really feels like a family member died.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 48:56

Yeah. I really understand that. And I loved Malcolm and Eddie, by the way. So moving from Cosby to Malcolm and Eddie, I thought that was a great show for me. And I just watched this young man, Malcolm Jamal Warner move from thing to thing, and it seemed like there was nothing that he couldn't do. When you think about Malcolm and Eddie, it was, it is, it was 1996 through 2000. So they did almost 90 episodes of that show, almost half of what he did with the Cosby Show, because the Cosby Show, he did 197. He did a lot. I do not remember the show, read Between the Lines with I don't remember that show. I don't remember seeing it. And Donna was talking to me about that particular show. And I was like, really? I don't remember that. And the other thing is that people didn't know about, A lot of people are learning more about him today because they didn't know about his music. They didn't know about his spoken word that he was a multi-talented person. But he was always that person who seemed to have his head on straight. I, in real life not the persona that you portrayed. I saw a clip one time of him and his mother being together, and it was the cutest piece just to see the rapport that they had with each other. And I know they were not hamming it up for the camera. That was who they were and who he was. So rip rest in peace, Malcolm Jamal Warner, and if you get a chance, check out some of his stuff. There's stuff out there to check out. The Cosby Show is playing places. I know people are showing some of the other things. And then the internet is blowing up with some beautiful pieces. I saw a wonderful piece he did about a spoken word piece that he did and thanking everybody who's putting out some of the wonderful work that he put out in the market.

Kathia Woods: 51:11

And also he had a music career. He had a very strong acting career. His last regular role, I believe, was on the resident, and then he had an appearance on 9 1 1. As you guys know, I am a temple grad. Mr. Cosby spoke at my college graduation, spoke at my sister's college graduation, who was also a temple grad, and so is my daughter. We have four member. This family went through Tu. The Cosby Show was not just Mr. Cosby, there were other components there. And I know it's hard sometimes to try to resolute through that. But when I tell you also as somebody that grew up middle class, to see a middle class black family, that looked a lot and sounded a lot the vocab between the parents and the children and just for them having regular people problem. That didn't always involve trauma. And I think it's also for the people that didn't grow up, for them to be like, Hey, black people living well. That's not a, that's not a made up thing. There are black people who grew up like this, kids who grew up like this and just having regular people problems. You acted up and that's when to go to the, to the thing. And the parents got'em together. Denise, failing out of college, right? If you have siblings, a cousin, there's always one person that you're like, Ooh. You know what I mean? So I think all of these issues, what we loved, and also we have to remember Reggie, because again, this is generations growing up with reruns and streaming and, recording things. The Cosby Show for the, for a good while, I wanna say for three or four years was the number one show in America. That means people tuned in. Was it one year? One year. Okay. For one year. And then all the other times it was top 10. So it was the number one, these black folks, blackity black folks that came into the living room. I'm talking about people in the Midwest, people in these red states watched the Cosby Show.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 53:14

And I just wanna say I be, because I was on mute, is that I wa wasn't saying it was for one year. I think for multiple years it was the number one show.

Kathia Woods: 53:23

I thought so. Because here's the thing is we used to watch things as a nation and we used to have these things. And Reggie's a marketing guy so he can correct me if I'm wrong, when Nielsen's used to come up, used to be top 10, what was watched in white households and what was watched in black households. And a lot of that list didn't always overlap. And three things used to be on that list. Monday night football,'cause football unites us. 60 minutes'cause it's 60 Minutes. And The Cosby Show. The Cosby Show. We were watching this as a family and you gotta also remember back then Network TV was 20, like 22, 20 or 22 episodes, fresh episodes. So for this young man to come into our living room for these years and us watch him grow up and also the beautiful relationship that he had with his mother and also all the Cosby kids, like we ain't nobody crashed at, and nobody, I'm not saying that people didn't have their ups and downs, but nobody is in rehab or whatever is a testament to that show. But I just wanted to point out like when. People say that we didn't have certain things. This is why when people go, oh, we can't have black people on tv. I'm like, we used to have way more black people, dare I say, on TV, late seventies, eighties and nineties than we have now. And America tuned in good TV is good TV period. And it wouldn't be family manners. It wouldn't be half and half sister, sister, none of that. If the freaking Cosby show didn't show that America would tune in to see a show about this Blackety black family with these black kids. And Malcolm John Warner was one of'em. And on a side note told you I'm a TV head. Mr. Cosby's son in real life was sadly murdered. And Malcolm Jawan Warner. Had a friendship with Enni Cosby where, because he wanted to make sure that he played homage, he wanted to get an understanding of who he was because this character was built. He was the only boy in this family of girls around Enni, and he wanted to make sure that whatever he did was always highlighting him and a respectful and a lot of the challenges that Ennis had, he portrayed in, in, in Theo. So it's just, it's very bittersweet on this. But I'm so glad that you brought this up because I think all week I've been trying to figure out why is it that we're feeling this immense loss? Not to say that we don't care when other people died, because it really does feel this family, this young man that we grew up with that was so similar to us, it feels like a cousin died this week.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 56:25

It really does. So no doubt about it. Now, I wasn't gonna mention this, but. Because you are in music. I only know one song from Chuck Magone and I love that song. Whenever it plays, it is my song. But you are the music person, so I'm sure you probably know like 15 of songs.

Kathia Woods: 56:52

I think, okay, we gotta also understand, oddly enough, my husband and I were having dinner, whatever, lunch, whatever, and we've gone through VHS and we were on the yacht rock. And then it takes you down, excuse me, on the YouTube and it takes you down and Chuck me. Joanie's song came up, right? I think what we have to remember is there was this time right in the seventies, early eighties where you had the Herb Alberts, where there were mixing contemporary jazz with like pop. Disco, dare I say, where it was very common for a lot of these musicians to make this type of music. And I just remember if you watched like General Hospital and all these dance shows, you, they played Chuck Mancini's music and it just, it just, he makes you think of a time where music wasn't limited or if you were black, you were jazz, you did this. It just, good music is good music and that's what I think of. And he had an absolutely he had a career way after that and he still played jazz festivals and everything, but man I said to my husband, we are not watching anymore things'cause the way the world has been working. But it lived a good life, and that theme was hat, yeah. And that whole, yeah. Also something about these seventies artists that had, some swag.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 58:17

Well that's it. That's our show. Obviously as we close, I always ask you to tell us where people can find you and what's new that they can check out.

Kathia Woods: 58:28

Okay. You can read, you can find me at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Sacramento Observer, and couple social.com. You can read my interview on the tribute as well as my review. Fantastic. Four. And you can go to cuppa soul show.com and see my Finding in the Heat with Adam Sandler and Company. You know, whew. Child, it was hot. Why about you, Reggie? Where can the people find you?

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic: 58:54

You can find me my latest. Review on about the fantastic four first steps. Again, I already told you guys I liked it, but you can read it@indigo.com and you can check out it@bolo.org. That's it. That's our show. We did it for the week. Thank you so much, and you guys have a great time. We'll see you next time. We're out.

Kathia Woods: 59:20

Bye.