Episode 41; 2015: TOMORROWLAND!

Here's another one of those movies that I love, but suspect that many people have decided they don't like without actually watching! I find it an endlessly entertaining, and, importantly, really optimistic story with some jaw-dropping visuals and awesome performances; give it a go- i reckon you'll love it too!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello everyone, welcome back to Milestone Movies. And if you're listening to this uh pretty much as it goes out, then happy Easter as well. Uh coming to you on Easter Monday, it's a bank holiday, which uh please excuse the sound of lawn mowers in the background. I think everybody's had the same idea, come out, it's a nice morning. I tried to wait for a little break in the noise so I could record this, but uh it looks like it's gonna be pretty relentless, and to be fair, probably what I'm gonna be doing as soon as I finish with you guys. So welcome to this, the podcast, where I talk about my first 50 years uh and the favourite my favourite films from those years. Uh I turned 50 last year, and this is my way of acknowledging it, I guess. But um I talk about the films of the year, and this year will be 2015. So this is our 41st episode, so you're welcome. Um 2015. So it's a year that, even though it's you know more than 10 years ago now in real time, that year still conjures up for me, sort of, you know, it sounds like the future, I guess, because of Back to the Future 2, well almost certainly because of Back to the Future 2, when they went into the far future, 30 years into the future, it was 2015, and it was the year that you know we were promised flying cars and hoverboards and um self-drying jackets and all of these great things that we never actually quite managed. We were kind of on the cusp of all of it when we got there, and uh we still kind of are now, you know, we're still you know struggling over electric cars and you know, digital everything, this, that, and the other. But you know, hey-ho, that was uh that was the futurist dream at the time. But um, yeah, it was a pretty good year for films again. It's um one of those this year that I'm gonna talk about, which uh not controversially, but probably not on a lot of people's lists, maybe. One of these films that perhaps people haven't given a chance to. Um, but we'll we'll move on to that in a moment. Um, in terms of the top five films of the year, you're very much talking franchises, so returning franchises, uh continuing franchises, and spin-offs as well. So your biggest film of the year was The Force Awakens. So this is obviously the return of the Star Wars films. This is the first one since George Lucas sold the company to Disney, so it's different people now taking control of Lucasfilm and he these are the sequels rather than the prequels that came before. So you've got your original Star Wars trilogy, these are the ones that are set after that. So episodes seven, eight, and nine. Uh so yeah, Force Awakens was this one. This was um JJ Abrams. It um, you know, brought back majority of the original casts, although, you know, this is controversial. He didn't sort of have them all together. So Mark Hamill's at the end, but he's not in the scenes with uh Leia and Han and Chewie and all that sort of thing, where all people really wanted was to see them that group together. Uh, but they're all in there, and you know, it's not a bad film, and it's it kept a bit like with the prequels, it kept the look of it, the aesthetic of the the films, um, and it felt like a Star Wars film, uh, even though it was, you know, essentially introducing new characters and new casts to it as well to continue it on. Uh, you had a pretty strong villain in Kylo Wren, uh Ray, who uh obviously continues the Skywalker line and stuff like that. So pretty good, and obviously this being the start of the sort of the Disney era of Star Wars, a lot of the stuff from these films is what has spun off into the Disney Plus series and spin-off movies and ongoing uh animated stuff as well. So, yeah, very much a big year for Star Wars fans, this one. Uh, your second biggest was Furious Seven, which is basically the seventh Fast and Furious film. Uh, this was the one where unfortunately during the making of it they lost Paul Walker, uh, who obviously had been you know the uh mainstay of all of the films, really, apart from Tokyo Drift. Uh so very much a two-hander with him and Vin Diesel all the way through. Uh he died, you know, off offset, but while they were making it in a car crash, um bit of a loss. They they um filmed a majority of his scenes, so they were able to, you know, salvage the majority of the film, and actually he does have a twin brother, and they used him in sort of long shots and stuff like that at the end to kind of wrap up um his story, and then they obviously sort of reuse some unused footage and a little bit of CGI and stuff like that, um, which some people sort of took umbrage on, but I think it was a pretty good, pretty emotional ending. Um, if you know the um the bit at the end where basically him and um Dom go opposite sort of directions to carry on a different life. They they they managed to do it pretty well, I think, sort of wrap it up, and I think it was it was quite um, you know, it honoured him in quite a good way. I really like it. I think it's a very, very good one. Certainly up there with my favourite ones of the Fast and Furious. Um and another returning franchise this year was Jurassic World. So this is obviously sp spun off the original uh Jurassic Park trilogy. Uh, this is uh going on with a new cast, so this is obviously Chris Pratt, who's riding high from Guardians of the Galaxy and Lego movie and all these other films that we've sort of talked about recently. Um Bryce Dallas Howard as well. Uh essentially, this is you know, years later in real time, and they are gonna reopen the original Jurassic Park, so they're gonna open it and it's much more of a kind of resort, it's a much more of a um a Disneyland sort of thing, I guess, really, with rides and um you can actually go out in these sort of spheres into the actual dinosaur enclosures and stuff like that. Um but inevitably, even though they think they've got control of all these dinosaurs and they're genetically controlling them, um, it all goes to hell in a handbasket and in very fun, very graphic ways, uh the dinosaurs start picking people off. Um but it's good and it's a good cast that sets up the next um couple of films as well, um, eventually leading to Dominion where they uh they interact with the original uh cast from the first Jurassic Parks. But yeah, it's a very good fun film, Jurassic World. We like it a lot, and it did very, very well, as you might expect. Uh obviously that's still going on, so after this trilogy, there's uh another kind of set of films started uh last year with uh Rebirth, Jurassic World Rebirth, so uh long may it continue. And the fourth biggest was Age of Ultron. So this is obviously the wrap-up to phase two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Um trying to think if anything came after Age of Ultron in that um possibly did Ant Man come as part of that um phase? Can't remember, but anyway, this is the sort of Avengers team up from the from the phase two. Um very, very good, some brilliant stuff in it, and there's actually a lot of stuff that you don't realise is setting up things for later on. So there's a really good bit with Thor's Hammer, which is a little blinking-you miss it moment, but actually leads to kind of you know the best bit of um endgame years later as well. Uh, some very, very funny bits in there, it's sort of set. Uh the I mean the story is that Tony Stark is trying to protect the world. He won what he's seen when he went through the portal at the end of the previous Avengers film, uh, and all the way through what he went through post-traumatic stress disorder that he went through in Iron Man 3. It's kind of him going over the top to try and set up uh this armour around the world, and that actually becomes self-aware and becomes Ultron. Um, and yeah, comes the big bad, but it's a very, very cool film. Very, very, very cool. Um and minions was the fifth one. So that's obviously we talked briefly a couple of episodes back about the Despicable Me films and how Despicable Me 2 had really blown the minions into uh world domination basically. Uh so this is the this spin-off film. Um it's kind of a prequel. I think it's set in the 60s, if memory serves, um, with the minions basically trying to find a a leader, so basically trying to find someone who can order them about and tell them what to do, um, and it's their sort of search which eventually will lead them to Gru, the villain from uh from the Despicable Me films. Uh yeah, pretty good fun, not too bad at all. So other bits and bobs are around this year. Uh some of my favourites was Creed. So this is the Rocky spin-off, and again, go back to one of my very early episodes, 78, I think, is it the first Rocky came out? 76, even possibly. How early on yeah, 76, I think. Um, which was the first Rocky. This is continuing it all after the six original Rocky films. Uh, this is essentially a spin-off of Apollo Creed's son, uh, Michael B. Jordan, who's very, very good. Um, and he actually wants to you know start his own boxing career, and he for advice he goes to uh Rocky Balboa, obviously still played by Sylvester Stallone, um, and he becomes his trainer. Um and so, yeah, very much it sort of continues the the legacy of Rocky um through this and the the second Creed. So so far there's been three of these Creed films. Um Ryan Kugler did the first couple uh directed, uh who obviously then went on to Black Panther, and uh Michael B. Jordan, who's a star, actually did uh right and direct the third one. So yeah, but it's um very, very different film it gets to the third one. But the first one, uh First Creed, absolutely brilliant. It's one of those very rare uh instances where a sports film actually gets me, because I'm not into sport at all, but I can remember at the end of um at the end of this one, you know, when he uh is in that final fight, you know, literally almost jumping out of my seat and you know, yes, go on, that sort of thing, you know, which is very unlike me. Um but yeah, it does get under your skin, definitely. Uh I really like uh a couple of other films this year, Focus, which is uh Will Smith and Margot Robbie. So Margot Robbie, I think it was only last year, uh in 2014, uh, that she'd sort of broken through uh with Wolf of Wall Street, uh certainly only a couple years before. Um and this was her teaming up with uh Will Smith, and it's very much like I think I've discussed it before. So it's got a kind of Oceans 11 vibe, you know, it's about some con artists, um, but it's also uh if you're aware of the British film uh British TV series, the BBC series called Hustle, which has got that sort of con man vibe. Um it's a it's very much along the lines of there. It feels like it could be almost hustle the movie, you know. Um, but it's very cool, keeps you guessing, it's a lot of fun. The leads are very, very watchable, very charismatic, and uh yeah, it does keep you guessing all the way through. So I do recommend that one if you've not seen Focus, very good. Um and also The Martian, so been kind of talked about a little bit more recently because um it's based on a book by Andy Weir, and his other book um has just come out of the cinema, just struggling to think of the name of it. Um Project Hail Mary, so there we go. Uh literally came out in the cinema last week, and it's uh again it's it's kind of the same kind of thing. I mean, nothing they're not sequels or anything like that, but very much one man on his own against the odds sort of thing. Um and in this one, in The Martian, it's Matt Damon, he's part of uh Mission to Mars, um, and they the rest of his crew think he's died, so they leave him there, uh, and it's how he survives with just a few things that were left on his sort of pod, um, and then how he has to sort of survive. So it's not a monster movie or anything like that, it's it's almost like an Apollo 13 sort of thing. Um obviously there's a a bit of a um suspense of disbelief thing there, whether someone could actually survive by themselves on more on Mars. Um, but it's done in a pretty realistic way. And it's a Ridley Scott film. Um he gets a very good performance out of um Matt Damon, who's there literally on his own for the majority of the film. Uh, there is other characters back on Earth, sort of um his his rest of his team and the people back at NASA control. But uh yeah, it's a very, very surprisingly tense film for basically one guy on his own, so it's very, very good. Um so yeah, there's some of my favourites, but also notable films that are out this year. Uh you've got Bridge of Spies, which was a another Spielberg film uh with Tom Hanks. Uh this is also Rylance, and it's basically about a um exchange of spies, as the title might suggest. Um so people who've been sort of taking capture, um and it's got I can't remember if it's set in the Cold War, but it's basically around that sort of um that sort of time, and it's again very tense. Uh it's a Spielberg film, so there's some brilliant, brilliant performances, some really nice sort of visual flourishes in there. Very nice indeed. Uh you had Spectre, which was the next Bond film after um Skyfall, which had been the 50th anniversary one, had been an absolute massive success. Uh Spectre's slightly less um successful, I would say, in terms of its popularity. It's um sets up Christoph Waltz um as well essentially Blofelt um as the villain, and he's very much hang on, I'm just thinking now. Is he in Skyfall? No, he's not, is he? No, he is. This is the first one that he's in. Um he does continue into uh No Time to Die as well. Um but yeah, it's a little bit they sort of set him up as Blofelt, but there's a big reveal at the end, even though everybody kind of knew he was going to be Blofelt, and it didn't really m have any relevance to it when he just you know announces that he's earned Stavro Blofelt, even though he's not Bond's adopted brother, and yeah, it's kind of a little bit convoluted, really, in that one, but uh there's some fantastic stuff in there. I think Spectre's the one where at the beginning there's the um sequence set in uh the Mirtos uh Day of the Dead in Mexico, uh, and it's a really really cool it's essentially a tracking shot through this parade and then over the top of this building, and there's you know Daniel Craig is basically hopping between buildings and stuff like that. If you've seen the kind of behind-the-scenes making of it, you know that there is quite a bit of sort of in-camera trickery going on as well, but it's you know, it works ever so well, really, really, really good sequence. Um that's probably my biggest sort of takeaway from that film. Uh do beg pardon. Uh what else we got? We got Gem and the Holograms, which is a live-action version of the old 80s TV cartoon, uh, which was based on dolls, basically. They were kind of like Barbie dolls, but they were in bands, they were like battling bands and stuff like that. Very oddly, they um made a um live-action version of it, which doesn't really bear a lot of resemblance to that original sort of franchise, um, kind of a bit of a forgotten property as well, I would have thought. Um, and it starred a girl who was in the later series of Nashville, uh, whose name escapes me off the top of my head. But um, yeah, it's okay. It's you know, if you look at it on its own sort of merits and you watch it as its own sort of film, it's not too bad at all. Um, but yeah, it's kind of not really related to Gem and the holograms, which is odd. Um The Peanuts movie, so that was a sort of a new relaunch for Charlie Brown's Snoopy. I had a big last year when it was the 75th anniversary of that, I had a big sort of um deep dive back into Snoopy and Charlie Brown, and read a lot of the original sort of comic strips and all that that had been from the 50s and read all the sort of the history of all the um of Schultz and all that sort of stuff. So but this is one that my kids really loved. It it came out at a time when they were a few years old, uh, and it was a sort of perennial uh re-watch on the old DVD of that one. So that's good fun. It's a CGI one, but it's done almost in a hand-drawn sort of way, um which is pretty good. And I think it's a series now on Apple Apple TV Plus. Um whether that's related to this one or not, I'm not entirely sure. I don't have Apple, but um yeah, but it's a like I say it's a franchise we've got for 75 years, so it's uh you know perennially popular, definitely. Daddy's Home was a comedy with uh Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, uh about basically a guy who's married uh a divorced guy whose wife uh picks up with a new guy who's obviously better and better looking and stronger and more successful and all that sort of stuff, so it's about you know him trying to fit in with his kids' lives when they've got this new dad. Uh they also had a very fun sequel a couple years later, Daddy Time 2, where their father's come into it and uh Mark Wahlberg's dad is uh Mel Gibson, uh, who's very, very good in that, as he is in this whole sort of time of rebirth where he was uh cancelled and he's sort of coming back with you know he's not the leader man anymore, but he does some fantastic supporting roles and stuff like that, which is really good to see. Uh it was the first Kingsman film, so Matthew Vaughan's um new um I say new, obviously ten years old, but this was the first one, Kingsman the Secret Service, and it's basically about this young kid who's basically a little chav, and he gets recruited by this uh secret society to become a spy, essentially. Um and Eggsy, his name is, and he's played by Taryn Edgerton, who obviously this was his first film, plucked from obscurity for this one. Um soon became clear that he was pretty good talent, um, and he's gonna come up in discussions in some of the next uh few years' films as well because he's in one of my very favourites uh in a couple of years' time. But yeah, he he looks like came out of nowhere, and uh he's very, very watchable, very good. He's in a lot of stuff to this day. Um but yeah, Kingsman's very odd, it's a kind of a film of two halves. It's uh it starts off and it's about this Chav who has to train to be a spy, and there's some outlandish, you know, James Bondian sort of bits going on, um, which is a lot of fun. Him and um what's the guy's name? Colin Firth, uh playing very much against type as a sort of ruthless killer, um, but a good guy. Uh but then when it gets into the bit towards the end where you've got the bad guy who's Samuel L. Jackson, and he's basically like a weird sort of born-again teenager, and it goes into this very, very odd uh sort of technicolor musical sequence at the end, which is not amazing. And the sequel's kind of the same, you know, the Golden Circle. Uh it's set up in one sort of way, and then it ends in this mental Elton John sequence at the end, and it's it's odd, but yeah, no, uh for what they do, you know, Kingsman films are very, very watchable. Uh there's also a prequel, isn't there, that came out. Uh I can't remember the name of it, but uh yeah, it's set in sort of earlier times and it's sort of the um the origins of the Kingsman uh society. Uh we also had Chappie, which was the latest film from Neil Blumkamp, who we discussed with the District 9 episode. Uh this is one basically about a robot who's becoming uh he wants to be a human essentially. He's um it's very much got that South African feel about it that all of Blumkamp's films have, um, with Shelter Copley as well, who's his kind of lucky charm. Um, but that's again it wasn't not a lot of people were massively on board with it because it is kind of an odd film, but it's good fun. Uh, you've got Mad Max Fury Road, which is George Miller uh coming back to Mad Max, so the director of all the original uh ones with Milk Mel Gibson. This recast the role was Tom Hardy as Mad Max. Not a million percent sure whether it's supposed to be the same guy or not, or whether it's just someone who's got the same because I don't think he's got the same backstory, but it's very much about him and about Furiosa, who's the uh Charlie's Thron, is this sort of um concubine of the villain who's escaped and sort of making her own way in it, and they kidnap Max and they end up working together and stuff. But there's some absolutely mental car stuff in there, some really good stunts, some really good like out there vehicles, and it's all done for real. There's hardly any CGI in there. Um Nicholas Holtz or something in it as well. Uh so yeah, it's an odd film, as all the Mad Max's are really when you drill into them. Um, but uh it was a huge, huge success, a lot of people's film of the year, that one. Uh what else we got? Entourage. So that was the spin-off of the HBO series, which had always been very cinematic and a lot of you know big name cameos and all that sort of stuff. Basically, about a guy who makes it big, moves out to Hollywood, takes all his best mates with him as his sort of staff, um, and about their adventures in and out. The series is amazing, really, really good. I think it went for six or seven seasons on HBO. Um, the movie's less so, I guess because there wasn't really such a big step up from move uh from series to movie because the move the series had always felt very movie-like. Um but yeah, it's it's good, all the same cast in there. Very, very good. Uh, you had Inside Out, which was a uh big Pixar hit. Uh it's basically about the emotions inside a young uh preteen girl, um, and the emotions are these little characters that live in her head and you know set up all their sort of functions and all this sort of stuff. And it's very much to me, if you if you're a um a young kitty around the same age as me, you might remember in Nutty Comic, which was uh round about the Bino and the Dandy sort of era, uh there was a comic strip in there called the Numbskulls, which was very much the same. It was these little characters that lived in the guy's head and sort of controlled everything, and it's Kinda like that, but it goes pretty deep, Inside Out, you know, it's about emotions and the sequel that came out only a couple of years ago now, about two years ago, Inside Out 2, went a lot deeper, you know, that it's to do with the girl was maturing a lot more, she was sort of teenage, had a lot of different emotions, so these new characters kind of moved into their head and pushed the old ones out, and you know, she was losing all this sort of childlike innocence, I suppose, all that sort of stuff. So to take them together, these films are you know, they're pretty deep, they're pretty good um insight into uh they go quite psychological, I suppose, really. But um, yeah, and they look brilliant as well, they look awesome. Uh, really, really good. All these sort of coloured globes that are the thoughts and memories and stuff like that. Um yeah, very, very cool. Good watch. Uh Ted 2, obviously a sequel to Seth McFarland's Talking Teddy Bear movie. Um I like it a lot, uh, not quite as much as the original, and obviously that has now spun off, I think, as we discussed a couple of weeks back, into uh TV series with an animated prequel coming as well soon. Um we also had the latest but by no means the greatest Terminator sequel. This was Terminator Genesis, spelt G-E-N-I-S-Y-S, Genesis. Um again, it's a sort of idea of rebooting the whole thing, but not quite chucking away everything from the previous. But oh, imagine this is a sequel to the original, and yeah, you know, and again it was forgotten about the next time they did One Dark Fate. Um, yeah, it's kind of an offshoot, it has nothing really to do with uh the previous one salvation, it's another kind of timeline. We've still got Arnie in there, but he's sort of um growing old, but there is a really good sequence in which he goes back and sort of has a fight with his 1984 uh counterpart. Um obviously the CGI is pretty awesome in that. Um but yeah, it's you know, it's certainly no T2, do you know what I mean? It's uh it's just another Terminator film. Um you've got Ant-Man, which was oh there we go, I did uh mention that man, didn't I, after um uh Age of Ultron. So this is I believe still part of the second phase, not the beginning of the third. Um but I really, really like and always have done uh Paul Rudd. I think he's really, really fun. He obviously there's you know, he doesn't age somehow as well. He looks the same now as he did in you know Friends and in you know hot wet American Summer and all that sort of stuff. He just doesn't seem to age, um, but he's always fun, he's always great value. I mean I went to see him this year in the Anaconda sort of meta remake, uh and he's always really good in that, and he certainly fits in brilliantly with the um Marvel Cinematic Universe as well. Uh the making of Ant-Man was a little bit sort of convoluted and took a long while. It was basically pre the Marvel Cinematic Universe being a thing, um Edgar Wright, obviously from Hot Fires of Children of the Dead, uh, with Joe Cornish from the Adam and Joe show, had written and were ready to make uh an Ant-Man film. But obviously, when the MCU became a thing, they wanted to integrate it into that, and it didn't quite mesh with their their script. So they still get script credit on there, but um Peyton Reed and um Paul Rudd took over the sort of writing duties and um made a brilliant, brilliant um silk purse out of whatever the bits were, you know, because it is a very, very good film. Scott Lang and um uh Michael Douglas's character, Hank Pym, uh Evangeline Lilly's in there as hope as well, and they are really really really good characters and they mesh very well with the overall um the world of the MCU, uh, and which we've become integrated in more and more as it goes on. Um but yeah, it's a great it's one of my favourites, and man, I think really, really fun, fun film. Uh latest mission impossible, so you've got Rogue Nation, which is a fifth one. Um what's that most memorable for? Probably the sequence in the Kremlin, I think. Um with that one. Um yeah, they do sort of those middle sort of mission impossibles do sort of blend in together a little bit. I do need to sit down and re-watch them all in order, I think, because I do I know I like them all. Um but uh yeah, that was out this year. And then last and very much least, uh, is one of my all-time worst films of all time. Um and I have discussed this when we discussed the previous um Marvel misfires, but the Josh Trank version of Fantastic Four, uh, which as far as I'm aware is Fantastic Four in name only, has nothing to do with any of the characters that we know, uh the worst cast characters ever. I mean, all of the actors individually have done other stuff and they're fine, but you know, Miles Teller and Jamie Bell as the thing, uh, you know, and um Michael B. Jordan as as Johnny Storm. I mean you know, without even going down the uh colourblind casting route, it's just it's just not right for it. It's just wrong. Uh it's not a compelling story, uh it's badly made, it's just it's not even like dark as in Grim, it's just dark as in you can't really see what's going on. There's no reason for I don't know how it even got released. You know, when you think of the things that have sort of been held back from being released, and you think this got through, it's like unbelievably bad. Um please never watch it if you've not seen it. Don't even waste your time. It's dreadful. Um go back to the old Tim Story ones from uh the uh early 2000s with uh Jessica Albert and you and Gruffold, they're much more fun, um, and they are far more worthy films than this nonsense. But there we go. Um I've waffled on for so long. I just I don't even have that big a list this week. Right, we'll get through them and then we'll talk about. But the film I want to talk about um as my film of the year for this year, bearing in mind there's some pretty strong contenders for it as well, but it's one of those again where I think it doesn't get enough love. Um it's a film uh it's called Tomorrowland, A World Beyond. It's essentially based on um the Disney Parks, uh the Epcot, the Futurism, the um Walt Disney was very much a futurist, you know. He thought that the world was going to be better in the future and technology would help us and you know unite us and bring us all out of the sort of post-war doldrums and all that. Uh, and again, you know, disappointingly it's not quite how it's gone down. Um but uh yeah, so it's basically it's a leaping off point from that to this story, uh, but it's very much about a again, a kind of secret society of people who uh are trying to sort of preserve the future um for all mankind, and it's you know it starts off with all good intentions, but because um the people running it are quite controlling, it becomes almost like they're the bad guys. Uh and so it falls to basically some well, as a kitty who was a very innocent sort of um inventor, very inventive kid, uh who invents a jet pack and tries to take it to the World's Fair that's at um Disneyland and meets these futurists and tries to sort of give them his invention. Uh, he ends up meeting this strange girl who, uh, spoilers, turns out is actually uh basically an android um from this secret society plus Ultra and is sort of given the keys to the kingdom and finds out you know what the future could be and comes back to real life and ends up becoming a sort of embittered old man, now played by George Clooney. Um so he's kind of a recluse, he's kind of locked away in his um his ivory tower, no ivory tower, he's his little shack, but all these sort of inventions that he's come with, and he's just trying to keep out of the public eye because he knows that he can't get back to you know this this world that he'd once glimpsed. Into this comes a teen played by Britt Robertson called Casey, um, and she discovers these pins, so it's basically like a Tomorrowland pin, um, which you can actually buy. I actually bought one in uh Disneyland Paris when I was over there. You can buy them, and they're basically if you touch it, you're sort of transported to this world and you get a glimpse of what uh they've got in store, and these are strategically sort of placed for people who they think have a chance of making this future happen, basically. Yeah, so it's it's a convoluted plot, but it's um it's a lot of fun. I mean the the director's uh director's Brad Byrd, who obviously came from Pixar, um Incredibles and stuff like that. He also did Mission Impossible, uh The Iron Giant as well, uh notably, one of my very, very favourites. Um and yeah, it's such a good he had such a passion for this um uh this project. He really wanted to make it. Uh, he actually turned down doing the new Star Wars, so the Force Awakens could have been a Brad Bird film. Um he actually turned that down to concentrate on doing Tomorrowland, and it's just I mean you watch it, it's just I mean the effects are absolutely flawless. It's not even just the you know, the far future stuff where you've got all rocket ships and all that, it all looks brilliant, but there's just very, very subtle effects. So when uh Casey sort of touches the pin, it sort of transports her instantly, and you know, obviously, you know, essentially the background around her changes from, you know, it starts with she's in a jail cell, um, she's transported to this sort of wheat field. Um, but the the effect of it, you know, there's no like jarring, oh, they've clearly sort of stopped the film, changed the background, set her up again. It's just it's flawless, it's like you know, backwards and forwards, and there's not a hair out of place, and it's just like it just you feel like you're transported into it with a with her, you know what I mean? Really just great, and it just looks like it must have cost billions of dollars to make this film. It probably was a very expensive film to make. Um, it wasn't really considered a success, I don't think, but I think it was caught up in that same sort of Disney negativity that I talked about with um John Carter. Um, you also had uh the Lone Ranger film where it was like these big, you know, they should have been some of the biggest films of the years that they were released, and they just already had adopt they'd sort of attracted this negative vibe and people couldn't be bothered. I guess they're quite hard to market as well. Uh, you know, the marketing for Tomorrowland just comes across as a sort of a I don't know, a kiddie sort of fantasy film, which I get that it it is, I suppose, as well, but you know, it's a lot deeper. I think the performances in it are brilliant. I I love Clooney anyway, I've always been a big fan of George Clooney, and it just works very, very well in this. Uh Brit Robertson as well. I was watching her in a lot of stuff around this sort of time on TV. She was in a a series called Life Unexpected, which was great. Uh, she was also in Under the Dome. Uh there was another one set in the 70s where her parents are like swingers and stuff like that. But she was kind of everywhere. She was in a scream film, she was doing all this stuff, and you know, she seemed like she was going to be on the cusp of um, you know, being a massive, massive star. And Tomorrowland, I think, was, you know, could well have been the one that sort of pro you know catapulted her into that. So, you know, she's basically the lead character in this um humongous big sort of Disney blockbuster. Um, but yeah, I haven't really seen quite so much of her in recent years. Not quite sure what she's up to these days, but uh if you're listening, Britt, give us a shout. Um I'd love to interview you. Uh that's likely, isn't it? Um but yeah, it's I think it's a really, really good film, and it is it's one of those I think is maligned by people who haven't actually seen it. Yeah, well, yeah, tomorrow, not for me. But give it a go because I think it's fantastic. I um managed to get my kids to sit down and watch it with me this week um in advance of doing this recording. Uh it's not one they'd seen, not one they'd heard of. Um it's not easy to get them to watch new stuff, to be perfectly honest with you. So I always have a kind of an agreement with them. We're like, look, we'll put it on for you know 10-15 minutes. If you really don't like it, we'll turn it off, you know. Um after the whole Teen Wolf uh um debacle from a few years ago. Um I think still treating the trauma for that one now. But um, yeah, so if they don't like it, I'll turn it off. And you know, we've got sort of half an hour in, and they were still both paying a lot of attention to it and sort of carried on for an hour and we watched it, and um yeah, they really liked it. Um and it is just one of those films I think people haven't given it a go, but I think they really should. Um in doing my little sort of little bit of research to um for the podcast, I didn't know that actually a prequel book was written down, uh, was written by the by the creators, by the writers and uh director of the film called Before Tomorrowland. So I've ordered that. Um that should be turned up um any day now, so I will um give that a go and report back to you on that one. But uh that sort of apparently is the origins of the um plus ultra organisation and all that sort of stuff. So quite looking forward to getting into that. Um but yeah, it's uh just really really good. It's quite a complex film, you know. The the people who've been involved in this organisation years before, and there's you know, secret um rooms at the top of the Eiffel Tower and all this sort of stuff, and yeah, it's just really really good fun. You can really get into it, you know what I mean? Um there's some excellent little sort of um bit parts in there, you know, who Lori's very good in there, Keegan Michael Key, and you know, it's almost like a men in black sort of style thing where there's other things going on, you know, in the world that we have never seen, and you know, all these sort of androids and stuff like that, and it's very just a lot of fun, it's just a really, really good, fun ride. It feels like you've been on a you know a thing butt ride almost when you come out of it. Um, but it's very hopeful, very positive film. Um, yeah, great one to watch with the family. But yeah, if you've never given Tomorrowland a go, please do. Um and thank you. So, as I say, it is Easter Monday here. I'm gonna uh go and cut the grass, then probably eat some chocolate and maybe watch a Bond film, because that is the law, I believe. Um so in the meantime, please watch lots of movies. Uh please feel free to get in touch with any questions. I think I'm gonna probably before we wrap up these um episodes, which we've you know, there are only ten left, including this one, um, I'm probably gonna do one where it's a bit of a question and answer special. So if you've got any questions, whether it's about movies that we've done in the past, um opinions on ones from that we haven't done yet, maybe, or suggestions, anything like that, ping us a question over um on the socials on the there's a little text button on the front page of the podcast app that you use uh to send me a text question, um, and I will do my best to uh include that in that episode. So not sure whether it's going to be the next episode or the one after, but uh we'll try and get that in before uh before we finish. Alright, so go away, eat some chocolate, come back again next week for more milestone movies. That'll be 2016, um, and look forward to speaking to you then. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.