Episode 46; 2020: LOCKED DOWN (+ Q&A)

We all know what a s***show that year was, with not all that many classic movies to discuss, so what better time to answer some listeners questions!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello everyone, welcome back to Milestone Movies. This is episode 46, and it's an odd one this time because we're dealing with a year which we all know was just unlike any other in kind of living memory, really, uh, 2020. So, you know, for a lot of people, 2020 was a brilliant year that was, you know, no work and just lounging around in the sun and you know, doing up the house or whatever. For others it was hideous, it was hell. There were people dying of this horrible disease. Um, and for people like myself, kind of had to carry on as normal. The industry I was in was, you know, classed as one of the we were classes key workers, we're basically in the supply chain. Um, so I still had to go in every day. In fact, I was doing longer days, I was doing 12-hour days for you know, six months, I think, um, and it was it was manic. But obviously the big upshot is that theatres closed, you know, cinemas closed from March, uh, and then uh was shut pretty much through into the summer. Some reopened, then there was another lockdown. I mean, I've lost track of how how often they were stopping and starting. Obviously, film companies were you know, things were getting delayed, stuff was held back, they didn't want to release them in the you know, environment where people wouldn't go to the cinema even when they were allowed to, because people were too s scared of going into to theatres uh with other people. Completely understandable. I can remember, you know, going myself, but you know, people are coughing in the back row, you're like, I'm not keen on this, you know. So, yeah, it's an odd one, and it's very odd to be able to sort of talk about the year of movies because there was so little hours, you know. Most of the time I discuss, you know, I gloss over sometimes sort of 50, 60 films from each year, um, and that's a list that I've sort of, you know, a short list that I've whittled down, there's tons, but you know, this time I've got you know half of one side of paper, and it's a few, and some of them are sort of straight to video, straight to streaming, whatever. But yeah, so it's gonna be a very, very tricky episode, and it would be a very short episode, the shortest one we've ever done. But as you know, I've been toying with the idea of doing a bit of a Q ⁇ A session as we get to the end of the podcast. Um so put that out on the socials, and a few of you have sent in uh some questions. Thanks very much. Uh I've got a few of them to go through as well, so we'll we'll you know, pad the episode out a little bit, but um I'll probably mention a couple of bits in there uh which might come as hopefully a pleasant surprise. Basically a mistake I've been making since the beginning of the podcast. I'll reiterate that in a minute, but it's uh something I hadn't really realised until one of the questions came through and it made me think, oh yeah, they're right, damn. Um but we'll move on to that in a moment. So, yeah, I mean, it's tricky to even do a sort of top five of what was successful this year because it just basically the way it's reported is just so all over the place. Like everything was, you know, no one knew what was going on from one day to the next, no one knew, you know, whether anything was ever going to happen again, whether by the time cinemas were allowed to reopen, whether there'd be any film companies left, or if they'd all gone bust, you know. Um obviously the big sort of upshot of it was that everyone was staying at home and so streaming was sort of you know massive. Disney Plus launched over here during COVID, uh, probably Christmas of 2020, I think that started. Um we've discussed in previous episodes how the streaming revolution was kind of already with us. There was you know big name stars, big name directors were putting their films to Netflix and whatnot already, uh, and it's just really sort of galvanized it. So films that should have got a cinema release were going sort of straight to streaming, um, and likewise things that had actually managed to get a release were then also going straight to streaming quite quickly, uh, which led to lots of film companies and actors and all sorts falling out. I remember Scarlett Your Hansen when Black Widow came out, uh, and then went to streaming within you know a few weeks while it was probably still playing in the theatre. Um she took on Bridget that and I think fell out with the studio over it. Um and things like that did lead to um basically uh an agreement being made about you know the theatrical windows, uh how long from a film coming out until it could be released to streaming. Um and that you'll see that model now. You know, some things, if they're a Disney film, for instance, they could come on Disney Plus pretty quickly. I'm surprised uh Send Help, which I only saw in the cinema, I'm guessing uh six weeks, two months ago, is already you'd watch on Disney Plus, you know, free on there for anyone to watch. Um whereas other stuff that came out at the same sort of time might go on to um video on demand, so you could buy it for you know a tenner off of Amazon Prime or something, uh uh, but it won't be on their sort of list of stuff to watch for free uh for quite some time. So yeah, it's it's always been a tricky one. I know there used to be the the video rental window, you know, so something could come out in the cinema, six months later it would come out and you could rent it from the video shop, but you couldn't necessarily buy it for another few months, and then it would be, you know, usually two, three years before stuff would come on tally. Um and yeah, it's very, very different now. It's all changed. Um some for the better, you know, we get to see a lot more stuff, I suppose. Um those that don't like spending out to go to the cinema or going out, and you know, there was there's always the argument you hear about oh people I've got to pay for babysitters and to you know park in town or all the extra expense, and you know it is an expensive trip quite often for it, you know, going to the cinema, and I can understand it, but yeah, it did have a it eventually uh sort of settled down into what we all sort of know as the way we consume films now. But yeah, it was very, very different back in 2020, certainly. Um so I mean the other thing was that several film companies, because it was just so difficult to keep track of what was out, what wasn't, you know, what was performing, where it was open, where it wasn't, some film companies just completely stopped reporting their box office numbers, so you weren't even necessarily getting a true reflection of what was successful and what wasn't because you know they weren't they were keeping it close to their chest, you know, much as they do with the sort of streaming numbers, a lot of them. So the only place that was not operating as normal, but certainly different restrictions all around the world, and and bizarrely, because you know, COVID kind of started in the Far East, uh was Japan, China. The restrictions there weren't the same, you know, people could go to the theatres, they could um go and see films. So consequently, three of the top five films that were released this year, uh the biggest box office worldwide were Japanese and Chinese films because they were still reporting numbers, they were still having people go and putting bums on seats and paying for stuff while over here, you know, cinemas were shut for months at a time. So your biggest film, um, and I didn't even realise that this franchise had been going this long because uh my daughter had got a little bit into it a few years later. Uh Demon Slayer, I'm gonna try and pronounce this, Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugantrain. Um I think it'd been a sort of a manga series, uh anime series before. This was, I think, the first film of it, and it took five hundred and seven million dollars uh worldwide, but obviously a lot of that would have been in in Japan. Um it's obviously massive. That's a franchise that's still going. I know that when this the films get released now, they do come out over here as well. Um it's huge, I mean, merch everywhere and all that sort of thing. It's a difficult to escape that. My daughter's got a huge collection of um Pops and a character whose name escapes me, who's got a kind of a bamboo read in her mouth, like a weird gimp mask thing, but odd. But people really seem to like it. Um second biggest film, one called The 800, which is apparently a Chinese war drama. No, me neither. Um, and the third was a Chinese uh anthology film called My People My Homeland. So, yeah, all of those just far outperformed everything else because they were the only things that people could go and see, and in their native territories they did so well that they actually took a hell of a lot more than uh any sort of uh Western release, I suppose. Uh what did do quite well over here, and was the fourth one, uh, is Bad Boys for Life. So that's obviously the third of the Will Smith Martin Lawrence uh Buddy Cop movies. Um that did very well because, well mostly because it was released in January, so you know the lockdown was end of March. Alright, people started getting a bit sketchy about stuff in the middle of March, early March, but it had January, February, it was you know, that would probably have been its full release window anyway. You know, it was very successful. A lot of people weren't see it. It was the first one in years, wasn't it? A long time since Bad Boys 2. And you know, it would have been you know pretty high up in the in in any usual year, in a sort of end-of-year list, it would have been fairly high up, but because there was very little released after it, those two months of making money ended up keeping it way on top, you know. So it was a little bit again skewed, slanted to the way it walked out. Um and the number five film was Tenet, which was Christopher Nolan's film, and he was very adamant that he was releasing stuff as soon as he could. As soon as any cinemas were open, he was releasing that. Um and he was very passionate about getting people back into the cinema. Um obviously a lot of people were saying he was going to sort of lose out on it, the way that there's no chance that it can make its money back, but he wanted to give it a go, he wouldn't release it to this um streaming services or anything like that. Um fair play to him, you know. Uh it's not one I've seen. I've seen most Christopher Nolan films, I've not seen that. Looking forward to the Odyssey this year. Should be good. Um but yeah, so that's kind of you know, it's the year that the very first time that China overtook North America in terms of box office in terms of films because there was just no way of America being able to compete when stuff wasn't getting released. So, yeah, interesting, but an odd kind of metric, I suppose, to be able to uh to judge anything against. So, yeah, so I've got a small list of stuff to go through in terms of the films that were released this year and sort of notable ones. Um probably my favourite out of everything that did come out in the cinema uh would be Bill and Ted Face the Music. So I did a whole Bill and Ted episode uh back for Bogus Journey, I suppose it was, was it in 1990? Possibly even Excellent Adventure. Uh E seven. Can't remember which episode it was now, but um, you know, I'm a big fan of Bill and Ted, and I thought that Face to Music had some brilliant stuff in it. Um and it was certainly quite an early trip back to the cinema. I remember it was between the sort of lockdowns, I think, that that came out, and uh yeah, I was there day one for that. Um it was great, you know, and it did it was odd because it didn't feel like the cinema used to feel with so many restrictions, it was masks and everything, and yeah, so it wasn't the same, but it was just nice to be back after so long, and you know, not being able to go to the cinema. It was very, very cool. Uh, yeah, Birds of Prey, which is another one of the DC sort of half attempts at doing an ongoing story, but not quite managing it. So sort of a spin-off from Suicide Squad, but not quite. Um, obviously Margot Robbie's uh Harley Quinn is the the focus of this one. Um and Ewan McGregor's quite a good villain, isn't it, as well? Memory serves. You had the first Sonic um live action animation blend type film. Uh everyone will remember the controversy when the first trailers came out where Sonic just looked completely wrong. So they re-well, he went back and redid all the effects, um, and it came out pretty well. And it's a pretty funny film. Jim Carey's excellent in it, you know, very commercial sort of film for him these days, but he's come back for the two sequels as well. Um James Marsden doing what he does, acting alongside uh animated characters, as he often does. But uh yeah, it was all good fun. Uh the Willoughby's, I'm pretty sure that went straight to streaming. It was a Netflix animation that the kids absolutely loved, you know, watched it on repeat virtually when that came out. And it's very odd. It's a very dark animation about a family, basically some kids. The parents don't like them, so you know, they're all virtually trying to kill each other and they're put into foster care, and it's very odd, it's just a very odd film. They've all got moustaches and stuff like this, and um it's a crazy film. But check it out, it is fun. Um, but it might take a couple of viewings to think, oh yeah, actually no, I get where they're coming from with this because uh it is so strange. But um Ricky Gervais' voice is a cat in it, he's kind of the narrator for the film, and he doesn't really try and act in any other sort of sense other than just being it's Ricky Gervais, but he's a cat, you know, it's it's like that. But yeah, it's it's an odd one, but give it a go. Uh the new mutant, so this is the Mutants, Mutants, uh, is the last gasp of Fox's X-Men um films, really. Uh it was something even before COVID, this was something that was delayed and delayed, and I think it was like a couple of years before it actually came out, or certainly a good long time before it was actually finally released. Uh it's basically about a new set of mutants. They're not they're not the young X-Men as such, they're it's based on comics, but I don't know how accurate it is. Just a new group of mutants that have come through. Uh, it's all set in a kind of a ps sanitarium if I can remember rightly. Um I didn't watch it for a long time, I didn't watch it in the cinema, it never really appealed. The alarm bells were going, you know, the amount it had been delayed, and uh we're gonna eventually watch it, yeah. It's it's not great. Um and obviously this has come now after the Disney buyout of Fox, so you know they're starting anew with the X-Men and keeping them into the uh Marvel Cinematic Universe and uh doing great things with that. So most of which remain to be seen. We shall see it as very soon in Doomsday, I believe, most of the uh bulk of that. Having been teasing a few other things like uh the Marvels and obviously Depot Wolverine, so that'll be good. Uh what else is there? Trial of the Chicago 7. So this is an Aaron Saulkin film, uh, who people know I love from things like The West Wing, Studio 60 Newsroom, and all that sort of stuff on telly. It's obviously moved into movies as well, and this was one about the infamous trial of the Chicago 7. They were Vietnam protesters, basically, um, and follows that through. So it's quite a worthy film, it's quite a uh hardgoing, I suppose, in a sense. It's not a sort of fun yakfest or anything like that, but uh well worth it. It's Sasha Baron Cohen playing very much against type in in that one. Um a straight to video film, which is uh a very, very good fun one, is Tremors Shrieker Island, which is actually the seventh Tremors film, Tremors being one of my all-time favourites, but um this is the seventh, so the sixth straight to video one really, um, but is a lot of fun. It's basically sort of set in uh in the tropics, uh, brings uh obviously Burt Gummer, who's still the stallwater of the series, and uh this one's got John Heder, who used to be uh Napoleon Dynamite. Uh very much sort of uh chucking himself into the fun in both feet there. Really good. Uh you had uh another version of Rolled Doll's The Witches, this time made by Robert Zemekis, um with Anne Hathaway. Uh oh, a great one. Oh, I was gonna grab the DVD to read the back of it. Um hang on, I'm gonna hit pause and go and grab it because it's well worth it. Bear with me. Okay, I'm back. Sorry about that. So, yeah, basically, a bit of background on this one. You know, I'm pretty into my films, I'll keep pretty much up to date with everything that's coming out. Uh, read movie magazines, obviously now, movie news websites, all that sort of stuff. So it's not very often that stuff will sort of creep up on me and I'm not aware of it at all. Um, but 2020, I was in the supermarket, I was, you know, give it a glance over there, sort of what are now declining DVD sort of sections. Some places don't even have them anymore. Um, and I want to say I was in Asda, uh, and there was this film staring out at me, fat man, 'tis the season to get even. Uh, and there's a very grizzled looking man on the front dressed as Santa Claus, so he thought, hang on, I recognise him. Flip it over, right? So stop me when you think is the point that I decided I was buying this film I'd never heard of, okay? This is the description on the back. To save his declining business, Chris Kringle, Mel Gibson, also known as Santa Claus, is forced into a partnership with the US military. I'm gone. Take my money, take my money. Making matters worse, Chris gets locked into a deadly battle of wits against a highly skilled assassin, Walton Goggins, uh, hired by a precocious twelve-year-old after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. Uh it's a 15 strong language, bloody violence. Uh I mean, honestly, I could I was straight there. Never heard of it, and I brought it home and watched it, and it's now one of my go-to Christmas films. It's mental, it's absolutely bonkers. Uh, and it's just Mel Gibson just really having fun ever since Expendables 3. Uh, he's just been having so much fun just being the anti-Mel Gibson almost, and it's just awesome. Walton Goggins obviously just makes every film he's in that little bit better anyway. Um I remember him from Justified, but he was obviously um big in things like Fallout Now. Uh was he no, it wasn't Deadwood, was he? Uh I can't come all this, but yeah, stuff that sort of really made his name as just being this quirky guy. He's great in things like uh Righteous Gemstones and uh Vice Principals and stuff as well. But yeah, it was just a crazy film, and it's yeah, I've never really just seen it picked a film up and thought, oh maybe I'll look into what that is. I just looked up straight to the till. I'm buying it. Here's my tenor. It's awesome. But yeah, Fat Man, check it out, it's a great Christmas film. Uh, alongside uh Christmas Chronicles 2. So mentioned the first Christmas Chronicles, Chris Columbus, um a lot of Chris's in that sentence, um, who made the first one there straight to Netflix films with um Kurt Russell as Santa. Um yeah, just great fun. Again, every every year now. We watched that several times over the Christmas period. Uh just a really good sort of family film. Um Wonder Woman 1984, another one I remember sort of, you know, the first Wonder Woman was great. Galgado is also awesome in this one. Pedro Pascal, just on the verge of being in every other film, was made sort of since um as a kind of a miscast. I think he's Maxwell Lord in that, which uh not very much like the the character in the comics, but um Cheetah's in there as well by Christine Wigg I think does that one. So yeah, it's just not as memorable, doesn't work on quite the same level as the first Wonder Woman. Obviously, that was the one that was set in World War II, this was the one that um is uh set in 1980s, and obviously they go big on the sort of disco and uh all that sort of stuff on there as well. But yeah, I mean it's a pity that we didn't get to see more Gabad Does as Wonder Woman. I think she's absolutely brilliant. I think they're really on a hide into nothing sort of when they recast that character. I don't think they'll uh they'll do quite as well as they did with her, really. So um but yeah, shame. It was a sh a brightly burning light, but didn't burn for very long, so shame. Um and also what else we got? Uh News of the World, which was uh Tom Hanks uh film. Uh he's basically a reporter um and he's trying to get a kid home uh who's homeless, basically, um an orphan. Uh and it's kind of set in the old west, but it's not a cowboy film as such, it's just around that sort of time. Um very worthy. Obviously, I say this on every episode, I think, but you know, Tom Hanks doesn't make bad films really, does he? Let's be honest. Um and then finally, really, for this is uh Soul, which it was uh Disney Pixar, and I think the first one to go straight to streaming, so um it would have got released, I guess, around Christmas time, but they actually put it on on Christmas Day uh Disney Plus, and I think that was actually what I got Disney Plus for. I know there was a lot of uh other stuff coming, but yeah, signed up to that so that I could uh watch that as a Christmas Day film. Uh and yeah, it's great, it's all around sort of jazz music. Um it's it's an unusual Pixar film, and it's not you know cutesy character, you know, animals or um, you know, toys come to life or bugs or monsters. It's uh a very human film, uh very human characters, uh but based around the you know the places that music takes you and stuff, so yeah, well worth a well worth the watch. But yeah, pro probably in a way one of the lesser sort of Pixar films, but um yeah, probably wasn't giving its fair shot because it didn't get a cinema release as well. So yeah, there we are. But that's kind of the extent of of the films for 2020. So it's a it's an odd year, you know, things picked up and got a bit more normal in 2021, uh, which we'll obviously talk about next week. Um but to to fill the rest of this episode, I thought it's a perfect time to do the little uh question and answer thing that I've been teasing. So there's a few uh that have come through on the text and on the social media, so thank you if you did uh submit a question. I've got some of the names of those that did them. Um so I'll read those out as we go. Um and yeah, let's just dive straight into it. So this is from English Teacher 24-7. Um the question is which movies would be in your top ten? Uh I don't know if I've ever given a sort of rundown as such. Um I've probably talked about them as we've gone through them. I think it's fair to say um mentioned Endgame in the last episode that that had gone sort of straight into my top five, and I think that is definitely true. Um Might I I can definitely do a top five, I can nail the top five down. What comes after that? So five to ten. It's probably you could move the positions around, but I'm thinking definitely in terms of the films. So I'm a number one all time, it's back to the future. And I include two and three with that as well, because I think I think of them as a as a single entity. But the first one, if I had to be, you know, pinned down and you know, they could only take one to the desert island or whatever, it would be the first one. Um my second favourite film of all time is Lethal Weapon 3, and again, absolutely love one, two, and four as well. But Lethal Weapon 3 I think is the most re-watchable, it's uh just got everything about it. I mean refer back to the individual episodes for these um films to for more detail, but certainly that's my feelings on it. Um number three is Tremors. You know, it's probably not wouldn't be in a lot of people's top choice, but a lot of people like it. Um I love it. I just I just love everything about it, every line, every little shot in it. I think it's perfect. Their reactor is awesome. Uh number four is Terminator 2. And I did struggle, that could have been higher, definitely. It's pretty much a perfect film, it's certainly a perfect sequel. Uh it's really not been topped by anything they've done since with that sort of franchise. Um and number five is Avengers Endgame. Um again for last week, much more detail. Uh, and in no particular order, the remainder of my top ten, uh Jurassic Park, obviously can't be bettered. Back in the cinema next week if anyone's interested as well. Uh Shawnee of the Dead, fantastic British film, probably the best British film ever made. Uh Basketball, which I just think is an absolutely mental comedy, and I really, really love it. Uh Star Trek First Contact, uh, which is absolute the pinnacle of uh of Star Trek for me. Uh Die Hard, obviously. And if you're not keeping count, let's chuck in Ghostbusters in there as well. And South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut. Now that's technically a top 12, but you know, the positions could move around, depending on you know which way the wind's blowing. But yeah, those are the ones that I would definitely definitely class as my top ten. So thank you for the question. Um what else we got? Uh, which decade had the best movies? That's from expat um on socials. Uh which decade had the best movies? I mean, my go-to answer, my my initial gut thought, I want to say the 80s. Um, but I'm aware that that's probably a lot of that is nostalgia. Um arguably not all of the films that we love from that time are that great. I mean, I watched in the cinema last week, they re-released Highlander, the first one. Now, obviously, you know, as you know, they're well into remaking that with uh Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe uh in the Christopher Lambert and uh Sean Connery roles. And you just think, you know, when you hear this, you think, oh, why are they why are they remaking stuff? Like just do something original, you know, the original film's perfect, you don't need to remake it. So then flash forward to the last week, went to see it in the cinema, you know, it's brilliant fun, and you do get that sort of nostalgia that washes over you, but there's a lot of points in it you're thinking, uh it's a bit ropey, it's a bit creaky. It's a hanger, that doesn't make any sense. That, you know, it's a bit style over substance, I suppose, really. Um, and you think actually maybe this could do with a bit of updating and a bit of remaking, and particularly the fact that you know it's very conclusive beginning, middle, and end film, uh, but then they spun off multiple sequels, multiple TV shows, uh animes, and all this sort of stuff. It's sort of almost like they should have left it a bit more open-ended to to give it a bit more scope, maybe. But yeah, so yeah, but I think it is the eighties. I think when you're looking at things like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future and the Goonies and Labyrinth and uh, you know, Diolethal Weapon, all of that sort of stuff, you know, it all does sort of come from the eighties. And I probably didn't see a lot of them as they came out, you know. I probably latched onto them a few years later. Um whether it was on TV, where it was going around people's houses, watch them on video, whatever. Um but yeah, I think obviously there's some brilliant stuff all through the nineties. It's probably obvious from listening to these podcasts all week on week that as time's gone on, you know, I've done a couple of episodes where I've just done sort of various uh titles because there's not any that I would necessarily pin down as being my favourite of the year. And I don't really get that with the 80s, you know. I mean, it w it was the other way around. It was so multiple movies that are sort of battling for supremacy, if you like, because they were all so good. So, but yeah, I'm gonna yeah, I'll stake it down. I'll say the eighties, definitely. Um I'll be interested to know if anyone else has a better better um um argument for that. I think probably films are better made now, you know. Um not just in terms of the visuals and the things they can do with computers and stuff, but I think people think more about continuity and and how things flow from from one scene to the next, which they probably didn't do back in the eighties. It was probably all just about fun and sort of the flashbang wallop sort of thing. So yeah, but yeah, I'm gonna go with the 80s, definitely. So yeah. Um question from Sue. Sue Denim, were there any films you missed out when doing the years on the podcast? Um I guess you're saying uh you know, is there any that I look back and think, oh, I missed that year, I could have been this film. I forgot to mention that one. I've I think I've been fairly sort of all-encompassing when I've compiled the list for them. If anything, I've probably missed out on the odd sort of foreign film or British film. Um I'd sort of probably waited more to the American film, which you know, is kind of what we all consume the most, I think, but I think often the British films haven't necessarily come up on the lists I've been looking at, and maybe will have gone by the wayside, and certainly this has been you know the odd foreign film. I don't know if I mentioned like La Hain, which is a brilliant French film. Um Tell No One is a fantastic one as well, Brotherhood of the Wolf. Um mostly French, but um yeah, blue is the warmest colour, it was absolutely fantastic. I saw that a couple years ago, and that did blow me away. Um so yeah, there's there's probably a few, but I think I've been fairly comprehensive in in what I've gone through. So yeah, I wouldn't really have too many regrets in that sort of sense. There was uh I did miss that one was it hunted through the wielder people a couple of episodes back, but it should have been uh in the one before. But uh hopefully you made amends for that one. Um what else? What were you are your favourite and least favourite cinemas that you visited? Okay, that's an interesting one. Um I don't have the name of the person who've put that one through. I do beg your pardon, I haven't written that down. Um favourite and least favourite cinemas. So least favourite, probably only going back a couple of years. I'd taken the kids to the Isle of Wight, and uh honestly, if anyone from that cinema's listening, no offences meant because the staff were lovely. Um I really liked what they were trying to do. So there's not many cinemas on the Isle of Wight, as far as I'm aware, that was the only one, um, because it's quite a small island. And it was a rainy day, so I had a look, and we went that we went to see Inside Out too, me and the kids. So we went along to that. Um and it's all hidden away in the high street, um, and you go in and it's all very old school, by which I mean hadn't really been updated very much in the sort of foyer, that sort of thing. But you know, they were they were making an effort, you know, there was the popcorn counter and you know, posters up and like a cinema should be. Um maybe the carpet's a little threadbare and stuff like that, and the paintwork could have done with a touch-up, but hey-ho. Um but when we went through into the theatre, it was quite busy, it was half term, it was school oldies, whatever. Rainy day, as I say, very noisy kids in there. The seats were I mean, you know, we all know the expression the fleep it, you know, the cinema like that, but yeah, the seats were falling to pieces, they were uncomfortable, there was you know, holes in them. Um the sound was appalling. I mean, like literally to the point where I don't think some of the channels were even working. So you'd have conversations with one person, you could hear them talking, and the other person on the screen, you couldn't hear anything. There was no music track, there was literally no music, it was just and my daughter said, Yeah, there was a notice on the door as we came through that the speakers aren't working or something. And it was just it was a fairly horrible cinema experience. So that certainly is the one that comes to mind in that one. I don't remember the name of the cinema itself. I've tried to blank it from my memory. Um, in terms of favourite cinemas, I'm another bit my first multiplex I went to. My uncle took me to the point in Milton Keynes, which I think was one of the first sort of multiplexes uh that we had over here. So this was for uh Living Daylight. So what was that, 87? I guess. Uh and I'd never seen anything as big as that, you know. So if you remember, it was a big sort of pyramid sort of structure. Um sort of laser light coming out of the top and all this sort of thing. Um for for um foreign listeners, uh Milton Keynes' uh British attempt in the sort of sixties and seventies and eighties to make a British uh Las Vegas and this is sort of like a manufactured town rather than someone that's just sort of sprung up naturally, and um yeah, I mean I haven't been back there for quite some time, but I'd imagine it's probably all pretty dated by now. But um later on, many many years later, and when I was sort of in my more formative years, I guess my sort of late teens, um, and certainly into the times when I was driving and stuff, then it would have been UCI and Paul, which was uh tensor in cinema, uh at Tower Park at Pool, which was um quite a long way from where I live, to be fair. I was, you know, a good sort of 15-20 miles away, but at every opportunity I was going there, um, especially once I was driving, you know, I was going there all the time to see everything that was out, and I'd just have so many of those sort of formative um cinema experiences in that in that place. Uh, everything from you know back to the future two, I think, was probably the first one, so I reckon it probably opened around 89. Um uh Terminate 2 in there, Backdraft, Robinhood, Prince of Thieves, all these sort of ones there, and that was the time the nine started driving and going out and seeing stuff and you know, going on your first dates and all this sort of thing, Jurassic Park, and yeah, it's great, really, really good times. Um, and yeah, so the the town I live in now has got a you know a big cinema. Um has a bit of a history of sort of cinemas going right back in uh early early days, actually, it's quite interesting. But yeah, I don't quite get the same level of nostalgia that I had for UCI. And I know it's not that anymore. I think it's change hands to um view and uh possibly even change again in the meantime. Um but yeah, that that's definitely top of my list, certainly. Thank you. Um what else have we got there? Let's have a look. Um that one. Um oh, someone's asking about yeah, you when I started the pod, I was sort of teasing that I would have special guests on. Um, yeah, so this is Jenny Rater on that one, is asked the question. Yeah, it's something I did always plan to do, but it did fizzle out, I must admit. Um certainly coming to this end of the of the spectrum, you know, when only a couple episodes left now. It seems unlikely that I'm gonna get anyone on there now. It was it's entirely down to me. Um I record these podcasts as and when I can, you know, I sort of will be doing my notes and my little bit of research through the weekend, and when I get a kind of a window, because I'm you know I I'm a part-time dad, I work full-time, I've got other little side hustles and stuff like that as well. When I get a sort of hour or so to sit down and and put it all together, um I do it. So it's difficult to sort of plan that around anyone else as well. I guess that's uh the extent of it. I mean my kids actually have guessed on it a couple of times. That's as close as you've got, I suppose. But um, yeah, you know, who knows? What if would have been better maybe have a bit more backwards-forwards banter maybe with some mates and talk about stuff. Certainly, people who are sort of experts on the films that we wanted to discuss, it probably would have been good, certainly. But um, yeah, it's uh it didn't quite come out. I mean it's it very much evolved as it's gone on this one, hasn't it? So um what I intended it to be at the start, it's probably not what it's ended up as, but I've I've enjoyed it anyway, so that's the main thing. Um this is a question from uh from Nostalgia Pod. So I don't know if this is another podcast or if it's just their uh their Twitter handle or something, but uh what films pre-1975 do you like? So good question. I mean, it's the idea of this podcast was about my 50 years and everything from 1975 onwards, uh a point of which we'll make in a minute, um, on another question. But um yeah, so certainly there is stuff I like from earlier. Um I consider that my sort of you know, my years of cinema if you like, but there is definitely stuff. I mean, Butchcasting the Sundance Kid, what was that? 69, I think. Uh absolutely fantastic, one of the best Westerns ever made. Um the original Planet of the Apes, you know, and its sequels are you know through the late 60s, early 70s. I've talked about them when I did the Rise of the Planet of the Apes um episode. But yeah, definitely they're up there. Obviously, there's all the early bonds as well, you know, everything from Sean Connery to Roger Moore, all sort of um pre-my birth, certainly. Uh, and then a big one, you know, Hitchcock. So I had a probably well have talked about this before, I don't know. Uh I had uh I think it was a I think sinus infection or something, but anyway, I was it all, you know, I was off work, off school, whatever it was, uh, and just basically confined to bed for the weekend because I just felt so grim and out of it. And just had a little black and white portable telly in my room, and on BBC Two that weekend, it happened to be it was a Hitchcock season, I think it might have been, I don't know, hundredth anniversary or you know, his hundredth birthday or something. Um I can't remember the exact year that it would have been, but I was just all day every day. I couldn't, you know, be bothered to get it was in the day, I didn't even have a remote for this TV, so I would have had to get up and get out of bed and turn the tally over. Left it on all day on this channel and just absolutely soaked up classic Hitchcock, which I'd never really done before because a lot of black and white, you know, not my sort of stuff. But oh my god, amazing, you know, absolutely blew me away. And it was all the classics were on there as well, and it's you know led me back to picking up all the DVDs that I can. I think he did 50 films, and I think I got about 36, 38 of them so far on DVD. So I'm sort of collecting all of them every time I can get one, um, and working my way back through pretty much sort of chronologically. Some of those early ones are hard going, you know, The Ring, um, Champagne, Farmer's Wife are hard going, because they you know they are proper silent films with the you know crazy makeup and odd-looking people and stop starty sort of photography, but you know, what that guy did was just phenomenal, you know. He he came from these little independent films that no one was sort of really making back then, and he just kind of invented a genre and then obviously took it abroad and took it to the States and and just became the master of of suspense cinema, he really did, you know, and it absolutely is a title that was uh worthwhile. Obviously, North by Northwest is going to be my favourite, it's just such a great film, but I love um the first version of the 39 Steps, so I love um Psycho, obviously, as well. So, yeah, there was some brilliant, brilliant stuff in there. Um Strange on the Train is awesome as well. I've seen that in the cinema um a few years ago now. But yeah, yeah, so yeah, definitely there is stuff. You know, I'm not saying cinema started in 1975, but that's when I started, so yeah, that's how that was the uh the remit for my podcast, really. So there we go. Uh another question. Oh, this is a friend of the podcast, certainly, uh, Chris in Japan. So uh the little uh podcast theme sting that we've had for the last sort of ten or so episodes. Uh that was done by uh a good friend of mine, Chris, who lives in Japan. That's the uh Chris in Japan. Um and he has asked a question uh that I haven't really focused on. I haven't put the actual uh I haven't got my phone with me where the actual um message was, but essentially he's saying they haven't really discussed the film soundtracks, and there's a lot of the classic films, um you know, Star Wars Back to the Future, all that sort of thing, of absolutely classic soundtracks, but it's not really something I've ever mentioned uh on the pod. If that's the case, mate, I'm yeah, it's not intentional. I probably haven't focused on the on the music as much as I should have because it is such an integral part of a movie. You're absolutely right. I mean, um I know Chris is a real muso, he's big into his music, um, and yeah, I can understand that it's something that he would have sort of probably focused more on himself, but yeah, it's there is. I mean, this I've got a big soundtrack collection, it's kind of probably mirrors what I would class as my favourite films. I've then got the sort of you know, CDs and albums for for those as well. And yeah, they're they're great. I do I do have a little ritual if there is a sort of a re-release at the cinema, I will put the soundtrack on and drive around the car on the way to the cinema and play that, and particularly if he's like picking a mate up or whatever to take them to take him with you, you get it, you know, go and see a screen in the ghost buses, and you get up and you've got Ray Parker Jr. like blaring out of the car. I just love that sort of old school side of it as well. Um for scores, you know, particularly um well, I mean if you're talking song lyrical sort of songs, then I absolutely love all of the Bond sort of themes, uh, regardless of the fact that there was the rubbish uh Sam Smith one for the last film. Uh all for Spectre, that was actually, wasn't it? Uh which I completely disregard. But everything else, you know, it doesn't matter how cheesy, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jonesy sort of thing they are. I just think they're all absolute bangers, so I love the songs. But if you're talking scores, you know, you can't do far wrong with a John Williams, so Indiana Jones would be my um my favourite out of those. Uh obviously, yeah, I love Back to the Future, the Alan Sylvestry stuff. Uh Danny Elfman's Batman themes, great. I I probably can't consider them more in terms of the animated series, Batman the Animated Series, but you know, take some top in. And Lethal Weapon as well. So you had a collaboration between Michael Caiman, Nerrett Clapton, David Sanborn, and you know, the stuff they were doing on guitar and saxophone and that. It's it that's kind of the soundtrack that plays in my head whenever anything exciting is happening. Um, and another go-to for me, which I think is a brilliant, brilliant soundtrack, um, is Broken Arrow uh for the John Tirotell film uh with uh it was John Wu film. Uh it's absolutely brilliant. I absolutely love that sound.

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Doom doom doom doom boom boom.

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I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sing the whole thing, but yeah, it's really cool. It's been used on a lot of other trailers and ads and stuff like that as well, because it's just really, really good. But yeah, apologies if I have sort of neglected the uh sort of soundtrack side of it, then yeah, but uh yeah, it's I don't know, I don't know why it didn't really come up more. It should have done, definitely. Definitely, definitely. Um so yeah, last couple of questions, I suppose. Um two people really have sort of hit on the similar sort of thing. Um Doom Scroller 294. So he's pointed out, do I realise that obviously I've talked about this being a 50 episode podcast, so you know, start to finish, it's celebrating my 50th birthday. First one's gonna be in 1975, and I'm gonna go right to the end. We're the 50th one, right up to 2025 when we started it. Now, Doom Scroller 294 has pointed out that have I not realized that the 50th episode will be 2024. He's right, it is, you know, this is the 46th, we're in 2020, uh yeah, damn it, it will be. It will be 2024. So if I'm gonna do what I've said I was gonna do and go right up to 2025, it's gonna mean a 51st episode. I'm gonna have to go back on what I've been saying all the way along and do 51 episodes. Uh so hopefully that's good news for people. There's another another um half an hour of me rabbiting on for the most recent year. Um yeah, I didn't I didn't make that connection, I must admit. I've had a year to think about this, and uh yeah, that hadn't struck me. I mean, I did actually toy with the idea of when I knew 2020 was going to be quite a slim year whether to do 20 and 21 together. Um but uh that would have sort of I guess put us more in line with it. But hey yo, we'll go with it. We'll do a 51st episode. So there you go. Here you've heard it here first, there will be 51 episodes in this 50 episode podcast. So that's good. And then the next question, uh, just Ken um has asked, what comes next after 50? So uh 51, I guess we're gonna have to change that question too. What comes next? So I've got some ideas, I definitely do. Um, and I think I'm not quite ready to reveal what I'm gonna do next. I mean, some people might probably be able to work out what I was gonna do. One thing I will tease, I think what I will do after I've finished, you know, I've done my 2025 episode. I probably won't touch Wellstone movies for a little time, but I think it'd be very nice to actually come back and do some specials or you know, even just a review of the year annually, sort of thing. So, you know, the end of 2026. I'll have been off air for this one for six months. It might be good to come back and sort of review what's the best films of the year so far. And I think there's there's been an advantage of going over the oldest. years because like I said briefly earlier we're talking about the 80s films. You're not always seeing those films as they come out. So it's probably you you pick up on more stuff whether it's word of mouth or if it's you know catching it on a re-release or catch it on TV a couple of years later. So you know I might be talking about the films of nineteen eighty seven. Some of them I might not have seen until nineteen ninety two but you know they're still into my list of best films of nineteen eighty seven if that makes sense. So you know it's probably less scope if you're talking about the year that you're currently in or the year that's just gone. But I think that'd be quite nice to just come back and revisit it and do this sort of pod once a year. It'd be quite nice. And yeah the idea of little specials and stuff is quite good. Obviously the question just now from Nostalgia pod about you know films pre-1975 you know that might be a nice special the a sort of pre-history of milestone movies that might be quite a good little idea. So yeah I've definitely got an idea to keep doing that I do I do want to keep doing it in some way or some some sense of uh of pod him but yeah I I probably will not do something exactly the same as this future but I I've got some ideas but I'll maybe be ready to reveal that when we get to uh to the final episode but uh yeah so final question um from um one of our South American listeners uh halv halv Estherhouse uh have you got any advice for starting a podcast now why you'd ask me that I don't know because you'll listen to this it's an absolute shambles from start to finish but the main thing is that I just enjoy doing it and the only reason I did it is because I wanted it. I've been you know I'm not saying I'm an early adopter you know the podcast have been around for 15 20 years getting on now but um you know as an early adopter of them in terms of listening it was I think Kevin Smith was probably the first one I heard of this um smog cast that he was doing and then I started listening to um things that were spun off from radio shows so things like the Frank Skinner show and uh Dave Gorman and Rod Gilbert would do these radio shows on usually a Saturday morning and then drop them uh Best Bits as a podcast sort of thing got into them that way um and then yeah that spun off into things like the Empire film podcast which is you know probably the closest to to this one um and not about the comedy ones I mean my all-time favourite is Atletico Mints with Bob Mortimer um yeah just it does not get does not get any better than that really Adam Buxton obviously a big um uh big innovator in terms of the podcast and from the Adam and Joe shows and six music stuff and whatnot but yeah so ever since I've been listening to them I've always sort of wanted to do something and I've always kind of played I don't know done a podcast in my head if that makes sense or imagined myself to be doing one when I was sort of you know driving without anything to listen to or on a bus or something I'd just sort of be playing something over in my head or imagining I was interviewing people or whatever. But I guess there's two things sort of helped me back one is not having a hook or anything unique to say um which is why when it came to this sort of coming to 50 and wanting to celebrate being 50 I thought it's a perfect sort of vehicle to do it is to go back and talk about each of those years and you you know you can do it in that sense and you haven't necessarily got to sort of you know do it in the in your sort of ranking of any sort you've just got to sort of talk about each year separately. I quite like the idea of that and then the other thing that was holding me back is thinking it would be a lot more difficult to do or a lot more unachievable to do than it actually turned out being and when I did look into it um you know and obviously you you Google it and you get advice off uh other people's websites and how to do it and stuff like that and I've got to just say it's it was incredibly easy to start. It wasn't expensive to start I mean I bought a USB microphone off um Amazon this cost me 21 22 quid I think it was um but I think I think you'll agree you know it's pretty good sound quality on there I've occasionally noticed little things where I've had interference probably from a mobile phone or something uh in the background or interfering with the signal but very little you know in terms of the amount of episodes I've done so I've been really happy with that. I've got my daughter's laptop rather than my own because it's a little bit more updated but it's not an expensive bit of kit. It was just you know something we already had. And yeah I you use a a podcast um hosting app I've um this is an advert not not at all an advert but um you know I use one called BuzzSprout um and they recommend you use a recording facility which is another website called Audacity and it's just really easy it you could if you know your technical stuff you can do a lot more on it than what I do but basically just to literally hit record talk for however long stop it upload it it's as simple as that um you know you don't have to even put a different photo on the cover each week but I've enjoyed doing that um you know digging out my little bits of merch and whatnot and uh you know ones like this week's you'll probably have seen a little bit more of a like a little satirical fun thing maybe but um yeah it's just it's incredibly easy that the app that I used Buzzsprout I think I had like three months free so it was like you could try that and you had like two hours a month you could upload um and see how it goes and then obviously after that it goes on to you know a sort of paid subscription but again not a lot you know I'm talking you know we're in the UK I think I was like 19 pound or something after it's been converted from dollars and whatnot you know a month and for a hobby I think that's fine you know somebody else has a question actually about how come you don't charge I don't give enough sponsorship or whatever because it's just it's my hobby it's what I enjoy doing. I just I can't I I don't feel any pressure that I've got to perform in any particular way because I'm not charging anyone for it. If people want to listen to it that's amazing and I love that but you know I don't feel behooven to anyone to to sort of perform to a certain level I'm just doing what I want to do in terms of the sort of chats that I've had with myself in my head for all these years. It's just nice to have a little outlet for it. So yeah that's it my yeah my only advice is if you want to do a podcast do a podcast just think about what it is that you want to do and once you get into that subject it becomes just you know I mean I'm talking now I'm just looking at my timing out of for 50 minutes this is the episode that I thought was going to be the quickest of every one that we've done and I've probably the longest episode I've dropped so um yeah that's my advice really if you want to do it just do it it is really easy. Just do a bit of googling and yeah it'll be a lot easier than you think. And the main thing is sticking at it you know I think it's been great having this thing I wanted to do it 50 episodes 51 in a year because um it's given me that incentive to get down and do it every week regardless you know sort of thing. So yeah there we go. Alright well thank you for that um really do appreciate I mean I can't guarantee I'll do another QA episode um before we finish but if there is any questions please feel free to pop them over if I can't answer them on the pod I'll try and answer them personally. But thank you for listening. We'll go back to a bit more of a normal episode and a bit more of a normal year for 2021. So please join me this time next week for that one. And in the meantime keep watching those movies thanks very much bye bye