Elektra (The One Jennifer Garner Was Contractually Obligated To Make)

This week on The Worst Movie Podcast, Ade and Aaron tackle Elektra (2005), the Jennifer Garner spin-off that earned 11% on Rotten Tomatoes and pulled $57 million against a $43 million budget — the lowest gross for any Marvel adaptation since Howard the Duck. The guys debate whether you can twist your own neck off, whether this counts as a Christmas movie, and the awesomeness of Bob Sapp's hit(?) single, Sapp Time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to the worst movie podcast. I'm Ade.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

And I'm Aaron, and this is a podcast where we watch the worst movies ever made in the hopes of finding a hidden gem.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Enjoy. So what have you been watching lately?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

I last night I just started the Spider Noir show on Prime Nicolas Cage. Yeah. I didn't get through the first episode yet because I watched it after I watched this movie that we're doing today, so I fell asleep.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I wasn't so far.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

I'm confused. I think that Nicolas Cage is a very strange casting choice, and I didn't get far enough into the show to be like, oh, it'll work. So I'm not sure yet. Yeah. Doesn't it seem weird to have Nick Cage as Spider-Man? Well, he was in the Spider-Verse one.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Isn't that isn't this a spin-off of that? Like the Noir Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

With actually Nicolas Cage seems strange.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Uh yeah, I don't know anything about the show other than I I saw like a little like screenshot and blurb about it. And I think I'd heard that they were making it, and I was like, oh, I'd I should at least check out the trailer or something. So I don't know. I mean he's not in it's it's a noir show. It's not like he's in costume. Like, does he have powers?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, like he's He's swinging around. He's like Yeah. Uh he has like a suit like with the mask and the like the goggles and the Fedora hat and everything. And he it's like a he's like a di it's a detective version of Spider-Man, but he's like swinging around and fighting crime.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

But also detecting, I guess. So yeah. I don't know. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Uh yeah, I feel like I commend them for trying this direction. I feel like my interest It's something new. Yeah, yeah, it's something new. But for some reason my interest is not very high. I mean, I should at least try the pilot. Um yeah, I just I think in general I have a tough time committing to new TV shows because so much is crap and I don't know. I've I have a long queue of movies to watch, and I like the idea of just watching a movie and it's done. I don't have to like now commit to ten hours of my life to watch this series. Yeah, to see if it'll pay off. Fair. What have you been watching? Uh I've got two movies on my list. One, I don't know that I really recommend it, but I watched Apex, the Charlize Theron movie on Netflix. And have you heard of it? Never heard of it. Okay. No. She is out in the Australian wilderness doing this hike or whatever, and she runs across uh Taryn Edgerton, and he plays essentially a bad guy who like hunts her. I mean, this is all on the trailer, so it's not really a spoiler. But I just wanted to mention it because he he does a really good job in it. He plays like a really good villain. Also, he uses a bow and arrow, like uh a uh a crossbow.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

And I was like this is the sequel to Robin Hood, the Robin Hood sequel. He's just hunting people for sport in Australia now. He's gone bad. Yeah. Um Sheriff ran him out of town.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah. It's like a three-star out of five-star movie. Like it's it's fine. It's like a good airplane movie sort of thing. Like if you're looking for something to to do on a Friday afternoon or a Friday night, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I think I did see a trailer for that that looked interesting.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah. I mean, yeah, like I said, it's it's it's kind of mid, but uh not a not a bad watch. Um but the movie that I've seen recently that really stuck with me is called Lurker. It came out last year in theaters, but it's now on HBO. Uh, it's about a guy who runs into a musician. He's is like working in a clothing store. The musician comes to the clothing store to buy stuff, and like they start chatting, and the musician's like, Yeah, why don't you come over to the house and like help out with some stuff? And he like kind of joins his entourage. Um and the the guy pretending like he doesn't really know who the musician is, but it's like his favorite musician, and after their relationship over time. Have you have you heard of this movie? Uh it's it's really it gets like really uh creepy and edge of your seat, like almost horror movie-esque, but it's definitely not a horror movie. Um of just like oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? And the ending. Like, I really want to talk to somebody about the ending because I don't know, I thought it was brilliant brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

But it's on HBO. Yeah, really good movie. Okay, I'll add it to my list.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I don't know any of the actors, they're all like young actors that I'm sure our uh our Gen Z audience is familiar with, but not me. Yeah. It seems like perfectly cast, though. They're all really like really fit the part well and really well acted.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah. Speaking of perfectly cast, shall we get to our movie today?

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Uh Reluctantly cast? Is that about it?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

That's the best casting when your lawyers lost the fight. Uh of course we're talking about Electra from 2005. Uh so this month, super summer. Quick aside, we've uh admittedly been a little slack in our schedule. Uh, and it's probably gonna get worse this summer. Uh so please forgive us.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

We missed some.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Please forgive us. Yeah, we kind of had a short May. Um, we might have a short uh June and July too, but hopefully we'll catch up.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

It's the busy time. Yeah. I know this is my crazy time of year.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Uh your pool cleaning business.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah.

unknown 6:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, I guess we probably won't catch up, but we'll uh we'll at least try to try to feed the feed the content machine uh as best we can this summer. But anyway, yeah, we're talking about Electra, starring Jennifer Gardner and 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, $43 million box office, or no, $43 million budget, $57 million box office. Uh you've of course heard of this movie and it's been on our list for a long time because Amanda really, really wanted us to watch it. Yeah, it was her top request. Yeah, what's what's the background on that? Did she watch it with you too?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah, she stayed up late last night to watch it with me. She has to work uh today, so she needed the sleep, but she decided Electra was worth it. So we watched it last night. It was fun watching it together. We we enjoy watching bad movies together.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Like had was it a favorite of hers when it first came out, or what what's the backstory?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

She said that she liked it when it came out. Uh she was probably like a teenager at the time, so maybe she was right there in the demographic. Yeah. But on Rewatch, I mean, neither one of us hated it. She still liked it for the reason she liked it then, and I guess, and I didn't hate it. It was it was bad. It was a bad movie for sure. But it's not our worst by any means.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Do you think your standards have changed in the last year since we've been doing this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Oh, yeah. My floor is much lower now for what I'll tolerate. Yeah. I will say though, it we started late and she championed uh she like powered through, and I was the one falling asleep at the end of the movie. Uh it dragged towards the end. The last act was pretty slow, but yeah, it was it was fine. It the plot is um almost nonsensical.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah, we'll get into that. Uh speaking of sleep, I should mention this this movie was responsible for giving me my best night of sleep all year.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Oh good.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

I started watching it last night and I was like midway through, I was like, I cannot finish it. So I actually finished it this morning, but like I went to bed early, early and like yeah, literally slept the longest that I've slept all year.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, I slept great last night too. And I would I did the same thing where I was like halfway through, and I was like, I think I might have to finish tomorrow. And she's like, but I can't watch with you tomorrow. So we had the we had to finish and cure for insomnia. It is well, I mean, the music in this is like a lullaby for the last like 20 minutes of the movie, and I'm like, I can't do this. You have to you guys are gonna have to fight or something because I'm falling asleep.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

It was so boring. Um, do you want to give a quick synopsis?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

I guess so. So um Electra, uh Jennifer Garner's reprising the role from Daredevil, contractually obligated uh to make this movie. And she is a contract killer. She was trained by the hand, which is a common like villain group in in the Daredevil universe, um in like martial arts and things like that. And she gets a contract to go kill two people, but the part of the contract stipulates she has to spend three days there in some Airbnb basically for three days before the the killing. And she uh realizes that her neighbors are the people that she's supposed to kill, and it's this man and his daughter that she's kind of like run into over the three days, and she decides not to kill them uh and then realizes that other assassins are gonna come to kill them because she failed, so she decides to protect them, and the rest of the movie is her trying to kind of figure out who they are and why she was sent to kill them and and protecting them from the other assassins that are after them now. Which sounds fine, I guess. Yeah. But when you find out who sent her on the contract and what what's really going on behind the scenes, it the plot falls apart.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

None of the plot makes sense. Like throughout the whole thing, I just felt like it's like none of these, none of the major characters, like it doesn't make sense what they do. And like we might get into it, but um, yeah, it was probably my the most annoying thing about the movie for me. Like this is this is the stupidest premise. That I mean it has to be one of the worst that we've had on the on the show. Like just the whole idea of plow wise, yeah. Yeah, plow wise. Um yeah, like she's this she's supposed to be the best assassin in the world. And like, what job are you gonna take where the the your client is like part of the requirement is you just chill at this house for a while? Like it I mean, you would just be like, no, this is stupid.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

And then like why you could do other work in that amount of time.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

And then why didn't she kill them?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Like it just why was she why did she bond with them immediately? She's a contract killer on a job.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah, like she doesn't even seem like she's like the only person she knows is her agent, and like she doesn't even seem friendly with him. And like yeah, I I don't know. It just the whole thing seems stupid, and then the whole switcheroo about the girl being the the one or whatever, and like them hiding I don't know. It was just nobody did matrix reference for this movie. Yeah, nobody did anything that made sense, so um right.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I guess it turns out that it was her her um like teacher that sent her on this mission to teach her about compassion and like empathy and things.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

But it seemed like she hadn't talked to him in decades or something. I I don't I don't know. Like, why does he care about you?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

And isn't that and he's he's gambling with their lives too that she might carry it out.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Like it was just one arrow pull away from killing them, and you're gonna be like, Well, I know you had a good heart, so I knew you wouldn't kill them. Like you're she's the worst the worst assassin in the world. She's killed plenty of people.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah. It didn't make sense. It was stupid. We kind of glossed over background. I guess we we we've alluded to several times, like sh Gardner only did this movie because she had to, and it seemed like she shit on it in the press like almost immediately.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

And they they rightfully so, I think.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah. And then they like crammed this shoot like during her hiatus from alias, like between seasons, I guess. And it sounded like they didn't really have much time, and so that's part of why the movie is so bad.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah, it sounds like they had no time to shoot and no budget, and so they had to do the best they could. Yeah, I mean, uh at least that's what the director said. He he said he tried to make it something that people could connect with and whatever, but they didn't have the budget to make a big blockbuster or the time to shoot it.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yeah, I I mean the the script was the worst part of it. Like, I I guess I would excuse if the special effects were bad and all that, but um Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I mean, I would argue the acting was the second worst part of it.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Oh yeah, she seemed bored the whole time. And like, did she did she emote at all?

unknown 14:35

No.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Uh it was all eyebrows. Her eyebrows were doing a lot of work in this movie. And like her upper lip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

It was the lowest gross for any Marvel adaptation since Howard the Duck. Um and part of the legacy of this movie, unfortunately, is between this and Catwoman, uh, basically, uh so during that 2014 Sony hack, an email was surfaced from the Marvel CEO that was basically like this and Catwoman are evidence that female-led superhero movies don't work. So it was it was essentially like a decade plus before another one was greenlit.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

I mean, it was set up to fail, it seems like no budget, no time to shoot it. Yeah. And an act actress, a lead actress who wasn't interested and had no time herself to shoot it. Yeah. Didn't even want to be in it.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah. Also a very small sample size. It's not like it's not like they did dozens of them and none of them worked. But yeah, to your point.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, and if you can't make a decent movie with um Halle Berry, that's on you.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

It sounds like Yeah, and Catwoman, one of the fine actresses. Catwoman's also one of the best, uh I don't know, like has one of the richest stories in the Batman universe. Yeah. Like I don't know much about Electra. Same. Um, so like maybe maybe the story of Electra is kind of thin, but yeah, Catwoman should have succeeded.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, I agree. I was not into the Daredevil uh superhero storylines very much as a kid, so this wasn't on my radar that. I like I knew when it came out because superhero movies were just starting to get popular. Like Marvel was just building their their um Marvel Studios kind of juggernaut.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah, I watched the uh Daredevil TV show, at least the first few seasons of it. I haven't watched the current iteration of it, but I I I thought I thought that was solid, but yeah, I didn't really have much of an attachment to Daredevil.

unknown 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

I think I think Electra is actually similar to Catwoman in that um she's kind of villain and love interest. Like kind of bounces between good character, bad character, like good and evil. Yeah. Um morally gray. Yeah, similar to Catwoman. So I don't know. Yeah. Could be an interesting character. Um could have been. Could have been. Not in this movie though.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Um can I can I ask you a question? Nope. I'm gonna do it anyway. Where does this movie rank on your all-time favorite Christmas movie list?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Uh oh yeah, I didn't even think about this as a Christmas movie. Um, the bottom. Sure rather watch Jingle All the Way instead of this one.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Really? This is below Jingle All the Way for you?

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah, yeah, easily.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I mean they just spring it on you that this is Christmas in this movie, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh yeah, it kind of indicates it's even cold.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah. Yeah. Where is she? Where is she, where's that island that she's staying? I don't know. It seems like the it's like Maine or something, right? Right. It's like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Was this filmed in like uh Vancouver or something? It might have been like British Columbia or something, but yeah. It looked like fall, and then the uh the girl in the story is like, Oh, do you want to come to Christmas dinner? And she was like, What? Christmas dinner? And she's like, Yeah, today's Christmas. Yeah. Oh, it caught us all by surprise.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

And then there were lights on the house, so you know, she wasn't lying. There were? Yeah, there were Christmas lights, like yeah, colored lights around the little house that they were staying in. Yeah. I mean, I guess we've already talked about the plot. That I have some notes on like that whole saying, like, who is this girl? What like why is she breaking into the house? Like, is that her like it didn't even seem like that was her thing. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Well, she did it again, like she she broke into the house several times.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah. I did I did write my first note 20 minutes into watching the movie. And I was like, oh my god, I'm maybe I'm just so tired. Like, I'm not like my brain's not firing to like jot down things to say, but I was just like, I still don't know what this movie's about. Like, I know it took a long time to get started.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

They did the whole voiceover uh at the beginning to set up the thing, and at the end of it, they start into the movie, and I'm like, I still don't know what they're talking about. Yeah, like they said a lot of stuff that are just references to the comic books that I don't know what that means, and I'm lost still. So uh yeah, I was it was a very confusing movie for like 90% of it. Yeah, it's not until the end when you find out like why she it was even sent on this mission that you're like, okay, I guess I kind of get it, but it's still stupid.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah, yeah, it's stupid. And there there was no I I felt no emotional attachment to any anybody in in the movie. No, did you? No, no, yeah. I was like, anybody can die and I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

I was convinced the whole time that the dad was the villain somehow, and I was just waiting for her to kill him.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

There was no payoff, he did nothing. He was he disappeared for like the whole third act and then just like came in and kissed her or something, or did she kiss I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah, he was just the love interest, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

But it was yeah, it was barely that they kissed twice.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah. I don't know. It was uh pretty weak.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Do you think you can do it?

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Also, the the little girl has like superpowers of some kind.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

She's got like a chain that she can use, but it looks so stupid when she uses it. Yeah, that was definitely in my notes. Like her weapon of choice is the necklace that she swings at you and it like glows a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I was like, this is a she takes like little steps and like swings it in front of her, and it looks so dumb. It's so dumb. Rewatch that's I know. We rewatched her in the in the maze scene at the end. Yeah. Uh where she's fighting off all these snakes with it, and it was so funny.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah, like it's I mean, it's it's like a foot long. Maybe like one and a half feet, and like, yeah, how are you gonna hurt somebody with that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

It was uh dumb. Yeah, you could tell this movie was heavily inspired by the Matrix at times.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

They tried. I mean, there were some slow-mo shots that I was just like, oh, that looks stupid.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Um yeah, and there was the whole like I know kung fu training uh scene in the dojo. Uh do you remember that? What was that? It was her, it was Electra and the girl, and she had just realized that the girl has abilities, and she was basically like, show me, you know. Yeah, they were fighting. And they had and she was Morphe uh Electra was Morpheus, and they had like almost fight like shot for shot the same fight uh in the little dojo that they were in. Lots of wire wine. In this movie. Bad wire work. Do you think you could do one-handed chin-ups? Amanda and I talked about that. I think it's possible. I would think the part that I'm confused about is the balancing of it. Like you'd you'd have to really balance yourself a certain way to like get yourself pulling straight up, I think. But I think it's possible. I could not do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

I think the strength would be the biggest problem. I don't know. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yeah. Like I we taught we were talking. I I don't think either one of us has like hung as an adult, like supported our body weight by hanging. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

You haven't done a chin-up as an adult?

SPEAKER_00 22:48

I don't I guess I have, but not in a long time, like maybe 10 years. I don't know the last time I've done a chin-up.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yeah. I do them from time to time, but I I am embarrassed by how uh short amount of time I think I can hang from something. Like I have a uh a like chin-up bar. Um, but yeah, I can't hang that long. I mean, I d you know, any sort of yeah action movie where that they're like hanging from the edge of a whatever, I'd be like five seconds in.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I'm I'm like Yeah. I would have died ages ago.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, I'll be dead. Um other other feats, physical feats in this movie. Can you break your own neck like that? One of the villains, like like that kind of freaked me out a little bit. I'm like it was creepy. I if that's possible, I shouldn't turn my head as fast as I'm turning my head sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Uh I have actually had this uh discussion before. I don't think it's possible to break your own neck just by torquing your neck using your own muscles. You can hurt yourself for sure, though. Yeah. I don't think you can break your neck the way he twisted his head all the way around just using his neck muscles.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Do you think they had to practice that? Or like that was part of the thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

That's the first time he's tried that.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

That'd be really embarrassing if you if you try that, you're like, you'll find out who I am soon enough. And then you do that and you're like, oh shit, my neck really hurts. But I'm still alive.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

I just can't move now. Yeah, that was impressive. I don't think it's possible. Uh, it's also not possible to turn into smoke like that guy did.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah, why did they all turn into smoke when they died? I don't think that was explained. Everybody from the hand. I don't know. Maybe I should I haven't watched the Daredevil movie with Ben Affleck since probably it came out. So same. Maybe some of this stuff was explained. Maybe. Um the villains in this. Uh who which one of the villains would you most want their powers? Tattoo. Yeah, I had a lot of questions. How does how does the tat bird tattoo work?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Does he I think it just comes out of him and he wargs into it like brand and it flies around and there was a scene where the there was a painting of a bird on the wall, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Electra saw it and was like, oh shit, we gotta run. But is that like, can he warg into any picture of a bird, or is it just like that was just the bird that was on his tattoo and then it like implanted on the wall?

SPEAKER_00 25:28

I think that that was the bird from his tattoo because it flew back to his tattoo. So it can it can become things like flat 2D images of itself.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

And he's got he's got snakes and uh wolf. A wolf, spider.

unknown 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

I didn't get what the spider really did other than just hanging out under a bed and turning into yellow goo. Yeah. Uh yeah, that I mean he had the coolest powers. What were the other powers?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Uh well, there was the guy that was balancing the coin the whole time in the board boardroom. And then he didn't really do much. I was like, I was like, oh, what power is this? Like, this is gonna be cool. And then he didn't do anything. Yeah, but he just he just he just like uh karate felt later and like had a knife. Like there was no balancing at all. Yeah, there was a big guy. Yeah, the really big guy, which uh He was cool. Yeah. He was like uh invincible. Uh speaking of which, I've got a treat. Um, I was gonna ask you uh a question, but I'll just uh I've already kind of tipped my hand. The question was gonna be which actor from this movie has a hit single in Japan? And it's the big guy. Bob Sap? Bob Sap.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Isn't he a football player?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

He was. And he's like a martial artist or like some sort of fighter. Apparently he's really big in Japan. Actor and comedian. I just sent you a link of his hit single Sap Time. Which we definitely need to put this in the show notes because this is a treat. Do you want me to watch it right now? Uh if you'd like. We can we can cut we can cut this part while you while you watch. Once you watch, I'll go to the rat restroom. Okay. That is insane. Is that the best four minutes of your life?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

It's way longer than it needs to be. That has to go in the show notes. Yeah. Such a gem. Is he still alive? Yep. Yep, he's still alive. 52 years old. Uh, that was one of the worst raps I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah, I did spend a lot of time on it, but I couldn't find even what year that was that it came out. Um so I don't know. I guess I said popular song, but I don't know how popular it was. It kind of it kind of seems like the sort of thing that you you pay somebody to like just like you have one day of shooting, and it's like a package they're like, we'll we'll help you make a song about you, kind of like the Rebecca Black situation.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

It seems so weird. Uh uh that might have been 2003. Bob sap sap time the movie.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah, there was a he yeah, I don't I don't I saw the reference of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

I don't I don't know if it was this, I don't know if it's related to this song, but yeah, or maybe he just says sap time a lot.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Yeah, that could just be his catchphrase.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Gotta love Bob Sap.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Um, by the way, she got so lucky with the tree to kill his character.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

I know it just fell on him. I was like, so that was completely coincidental.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, she's like he he like hits a tree so hard it like starts to come down, and then she's like running on top of it. And the whole time I'm like, what? Like she's not moving it, she's just like like why run on top on it. She's riding it. Yeah, why not just jump off? Like you're not doing anything, and all just for this shot where he walks uh right underneath it and is like kills himself. Yeah. Jumping around a little bit, but how did she win the fight at the end? I felt like she just got lucky there too, with that like her, like the nemesis guy. He's like vanishing and like he just kind of like walks into her side.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, and she was just a little bit faster, I guess. I it didn't even I don't know. I don't know, it didn't even seem like that to me. She was I mean, she seemed on on the edge of death.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah, he was kicking her ass like left and right effortlessly, and then he like kind of walks forward and her her hand just happens to be it wasn't like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yeah. It was all lucky. I don't know. I think they I think they were out of budget at that point and fucks to give. So they were like, I don't know, wrap it.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Uh bunch of random notes. A cartwheel's gotta be the worst way to dodge in a sword fight. She does that a few times. I'm like, that that just feels really slow. And yeah, you're actually making yourself bigger, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Yeah. Also, her superpower is like premonition, so she's just uh Madam Webb with knives. Yeah. Yeah. She's at least trained to do cool shit.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah. But she doesn't even seem to really use it in the fight, right? She like uses it to know that like the fight's coming. They're here. But like in the it's not like she's dodging his sword thrusts.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah, I think she can just see what will work, and so she just steers the fight to that, maybe. Like, didn't she see the tree falling on him? Or was that no, she didn't see that, but she saw other things. I don't know. It was stupid.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Uh have you ever been in one of those elevators where you pull the grate down? I feel like I see that a lot in movies.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Not down, but um I've been in the ones that have the metal doors that you pull open to the sides. Like that you they don't open automatically, they're like see-through metal freight doors.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Like you can see through the grate. Yeah, yeah. And you like pull it to the side, but not not like those uh like freight elevators where the thing lifts up. I haven't been in one of those, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah. I don't feel like doesn't it feel like we see that a lot of movies? Like that was in this, like that was how you got to that that bar, that pool hall.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Oh, really?

unknown 31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I want to be in one. Seems awesome. Isn't that what they rode down to the uh the mortuary and the godfather after Sonny got killed? They rode one of those elevators down. Hmm, sounds familiar. Look how they massacred my boy.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah.

unknown 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Yeah. I mean, I think they're usually freight, freight elevators. I just wonder, like if it's the your regular passenger elevator, do you have to do that?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

We just gotta get a job in a warehouse.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Uh do they have elevators in warehouses? I feel like most warehouses are just single story. Yeah, I got elevators.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

All elevat all warehouses have elevators. Look it up. I don't believe you.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

When's the last time you were in a w in a warehouse?

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Uh I mean I work above a warehouse. But you didn't know that. Uh you were you work at home mostly. Well, when I go to the when I go to the office, there's a warehouse.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

I didn't know that. I did not know that. So there's an elevator in in your warehouse? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's it's a m multi-story. If you're saying the warehouse is on the bottom, it's not like just a warehouse, it's a warehouse slash office building. I mean, they have multi-story warehouses.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

I'm sure they exist.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Um, in your warehouse for work, do they have one of those elevators?

SPEAKER_00 33:20

I mean, I haven't seen it, but they have they have regular elevators that I have seen.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

All right, you should go exploring Monday.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah. Well, I don't go in on Mondays, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Uh the kid was so annoying. She called the size salad tongs. I was like, you're just trolling her.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah. The kid as a character was annoying. However, I thought that the actress, uh, Kirsten was the best person, the best actor in the movie. I thought. Hmm. I thought the acting across the board was pretty much horrible.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

I agree with you there. I guess I just lump her in with that.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

I thought that she was the best. She had like a crying scene where she it seemed believable. Jennifer Garner's crying scene. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

I don't even remember her crying. When did she cry?

SPEAKER_00 34:21

It was all eyebrows. Uh there's everything else happening on her face. Uh yeah, and then like you have like Terrence Stamp is in it. He played like her her master.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Yeah, stick.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, great actor, but had nothing really to do in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Do you do you feel speaking of which, so he played a blind man who he says, I can see more than any of you because I don't look like he's way better at karate than anybody else. And his his pool game, by the way, he's not gonna get a pool game with anybody because he he like walks up and does like one shot, gets every ball in because he's so masterful. What is it about that cliche of like, let's have a character that's blind? And like you don't have that with other senses. Like, is is that I mean, I guess that's mostly a Daredevil thing because Daredevil's blind, but it feels like a very common like let's have Star Wars has done it.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Who is blind in Star Wars? Well, it's from uh the one of the animated shows, but there is a character that loses his sight and sees through the force, I guess. Uh but yeah, like it's it's a common trope for sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

But you don't have like here's a deaf guy who's like the best producer on the planet, and like get get him to remix your song because he or like here's the chef that can't taste. Yeah. Like, why is it about blind like blind guys?

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I'm changing my alt pick to hear no uh hear no evil, see no evil, the Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder movie. It's compensating for uh sensory loss.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Oh, I don't know this. I don't I don't know this movie.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Oh, you don't? Gene Wilder is deaf and Richard Pryor is blind, and they team up together, they get in into all these hijinks and like they're on the run, there's criminals. Like it's it's a comedy, it's hilarious, but yeah, they have to try to help each other through every situation because one can see and one can hear. If you haven't seen it, it's hilarious and worth watching.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

We've already talked about Gene Wilder. Um you don't like Gene Wilder? No, I guess I guess it's not Gene. We uh we've mostly talked about um Martin Short Mel Brooks.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Oh, it's not a Mel Brooks, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Uh and I like Richard Pryor, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Um, let's see, what else from this movie? I I have so many plot things, I'm just like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

I mean, you could pick the plot apart all day. All day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Why did the agent guy stay behind? Uh that just bugged me.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Like yeah, I know. Why not just go with him? And then also we never got a conclusion to his story. He just, I mean, we assume he's dead, right? We didn't see him get killed.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Well, the the the guy in white, the like bad guy, like turns her, like basically cuts his head off, but it just Oh yeah, we did see him get his head cut off.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah. Um there was really no need for him to die.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

The does Electric carry her childhood house keys with her around all the time? Like she she opens her her house at the end with her house keys. And I was like, what's the one?

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Yeah, and it's like abandoned, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Like who keeps the keys to their old abandoned family home or and she's running away from like scene to scene, like you know, in the nick of time. So like each time she must be like, I I better bring my house keys with me from my childhood. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't been to this house in 20 years, but um I thought the bedsheet scene was like almost cool, like house enter the dragon-esque. Yeah. But there's so many scenes in this, I'm like, this should work, but it just doesn't, and I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Because it's like a it's poor imitations of better examples of what they were doing. Yeah. Uh the the bed sheet scene was almost unwatchable because it was so like flashing. It was like strobe lights going off, and it was like 40 really quick cuts in a row. And I'm like, I'm gonna have a seizure. I can't watch this. You have to look away. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty bad. Yeah, it's a cool idea. Yeah. Been done before.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

I mean, I I don't even mind if it was done before, if it if it was just done well.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Yeah. I don't know what this would be if it's cinematography, but it reminded me of like the like bad boys too, like the early 2000s with the really super high contrast, uh, quick cuts in the action scenes and stuff. Like it it was very nostalgic for me, which is I think maybe why I didn't hate it so much. Yeah. Uh, is that it felt like those early 2000s action movies still and had that kind of visual style. Uh and I also one of the things that I also liked about it is that this was like before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it was kind of allowed to be different a little bit. Like the the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are hands-down better movies, but like they're all so similar in style that you're like, is this Endgame or is this Infinity War or is this uh you know, whatever, Thor, whatever? Like they're all kind of the same, like bland color palette. The scores all kind of sound the same. They're all like kind of the same type of movie, and this like felt different than the other Marvel movies to me. Kind of in the way that like the early Hulk movies did too. Like it was before they kind of found their stride, and so it was like a little bit its own thing to me. Uh, so it felt kind of refreshing to see a Marvel movie that wasn't part of the formula that they found later, which is a small win for this movie. Yeah, I'm trying to think how to respond to that. Like it's not a good movie by any means, yeah. It is different than other Marvel movies. Like it's uh probably similar to Dare Daredevil. I don't remember that. I think I've seen it when it came out, but yeah, um, this is this is obviously a sequel to Daredevil or a spin-off, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Yeah, it it feels like it should work stylistically. I mean, if you if you wrote down what style they were going for, it feels like something that would resonate with me, but I I just don't know if the execution was just so poor that I was like, eh.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Yeah, I mean the script is just so bad and it didn't sound like they had anything to work with, so it didn't work at all. Yeah. Uh but it wasn't my least favorite movie that we've done.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Yeah, I'll concede that.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Uh it's a uh it's uh it's a three and a half out of five on the uh on your scale. On my scale.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

I have a couple other quick notes. Uh what happened to the fire? Like the house set on fire and then like to kill all those ninjas and then it was gone.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

I don't know. I I don't remember. I may have dozed off.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Yeah, that was towards the end. Uh and then why was her dad so like hard on her about swimming? And like I don't know. And swimming didn't come up at all in the movie. Like there was no payoff. There's no like scene where she like swam to success.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Yeah, so well, she did swim. Well, yeah, she just went for a swim for exercise. Uh yeah, there was this scene where it's it's a there was lots of flashbacks to her past because her mother was killed and she carried all this rage around, and the whole movie is about letting go of that.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Uh so there's this flashback scene where she's just in the middle of this incredibly luxurious pool, indoor pool in like a stained glass room, uh-huh, and her dad is just yelling at her like push, push, push. Like she's just treading water in the pool, and her mom's like, She's just a kid. Yeah, she's just a kid. And I'm like, what is the scene? Why why are we seeing this? I guess it's just to like teach her to persevere, I guess. Yeah. But she also can be uh raised from the dead, so just give up and and give more and die and more of the story. Stick will come revive you later.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

And just give up and die. Do you wish do you wish your parents would have pushed you like that? No. Towards some physical feat? No. Like maybe you'd be Tiger Woods right now if you had uh I don't want to be Tiger Woods right now. Well, maybe Tiger Woods 10 years ago or 15 years ago, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

You see what becomes of those people though.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

No, Electra turned out okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Did she?

SPEAKER_01 43:28

She she lived a long, happy life, right? I'm sure. I'm sure she did. Yeah, wasn't wasn't that the end stick comes and says, I'm sure you'll be fine. Or like, I don't know. I always knew you there was some line of resolution. Yeah. It was all worth it in the end.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

It was a deeply unsatisfying movie to watch.

unknown 43:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Very little payoff. I did not like this movie. Uh but it was fine. It was fun. It was fun with Amanda. It's fun if the if you're in the right mood for it and and you're w willing to make fun of it.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

That's a lot of ifs. It's fun if you watch it with a significant other who's really into it, and if blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Well, I think that there's just a lot of stipulations that go into watching a shitty movie. Like you're choosing a sub uh like a worse form of entertainment.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Yeah, I need to think about this a little bit more, but my my initial reaction is like of the of the bad movies we've watched, there's like the bad, boring movies, and then they're bad. Like like this feels like a bad, boring movie that like there's nothing interesting about it to me. I'm just like, uh, it's a slog to get through. Yeah. Then there's like the vanilla ice movie where it's like, holy shit, what is happening on screen? How could it be this bad? And it's almost like it's interesting. I I mean it's terrible, but it's at least interesting to watch. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not saying that.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

I mean, uh, yeah, I guess it's all it evokes a reaction from you. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Yeah, I'd rather watch a bad movie like that than than this one where it's just like yeah, corporate slop, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Yeah, that's I think the difference. Something like Trolls 2 is not corporate slop. They weren't, yeah. They were trying to that was a passion project of some kind for somebody. And then this is like this is a legal obligation to make a spin-off to a movie that they had already done.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

I mean, to be to be fair, the vanilla ice movie was also corporate slop. Like that was just like But it's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

It's they weren't trying to make a serious, like mainstream huge movie.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Well, I mean, the the background was they were like, oh, Ice Cube did Boys in the Hood, and Boys in the Hood was really successful.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

So let's make let's yeah, but it was still like a vehicle for vanilla ice and not like we're gonna make a good movie that has vanilla ice in it. It was like, here's vanilla ice, here's just more of vanilla ice for the people that love him.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Uh kudos by the way, Jennifer Gardner. She was in the Deadpool and uh Wolverine movie movie and reprised her role as Electra.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Yeah, yeah. Which she was good in that. I liked her in that movie. I like that movie overall.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yeah, I like that movie over. I don't really remember her cameo in there.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Yeah, I mean, I think that that uh like obviously in those Deadpool movies they're allowed to like poke fun at themselves and stuff, which they do a lot of in that, which you know, there's some awareness in that that is refreshing. But yeah, it was not good in this in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Yeah, d I was trying to figure out I saw some comment uh some critic who said something about this ruining her career, and it does feel like she didn't really have a lot of leading film roles after this. This was at like the peak of her alias fame. But um, she also did a movie called Peppermint uh that bombed as well, where she played like a mother uh like on a revenge mission or something like that. I think it was a few years after this.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

13 Going on 30 was after this. Oh, it was Juno was after this. Okay. I think she does a lot of TV work. She was on Party Down. Yeah, but that was just like one episode.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

I mean, like, I feel like at the time of Electra, she was like A-list star.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

She was a big star.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Yeah. Um, the reviews I read though, like uh for the kind of the I didn't read a lot of reviews, but like this the general feeling or the general summary of the reviews was that uh critics at the time kind of praised her performance in this. They thought she wasn't working with much and she did the best that she could, which may be true. I didn't think she was very good. Like I wouldn't have praised praised her performance uh myself, but yeah. I I also don't think that she had anything really to work with in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Yeah. Well, what are your all pics? The Gene Wilder one.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

I do think you should watch it, but uh the leader of the hand was played by Kerry Hiroyuki Takawa. He's uh passed away last year. Yeah, so did Terence Stamp. Uh oh, yeah. But he was in The Man in the High Castle, a TV series uh on Amazon that I I I really like that. I'm re- actually re-watching it right now. I didn't finish it, but I uh am starting over from the beginning again and kind of re-watching through it. Is that the one that's like, what if uh Japan had won the war? Yeah, like if the Axis had won the war, uh the West got split uh off and is under Japanese rule, and the east is under Germany. And uh it's like kind of following the underground resistance in the United States that's trying to fight back against him. Yeah. And it's set back in like the 60s or 50s or 60s. I think sixties. Because they're talking about Kennedy and stuff in it, I think. Or the space space stuff. I don't know. So yeah, it was uh it's a good show, uh interesting premise, good cast. And he's he's good in it. He plays like the leader in that's uh he's like the ambassador or something that's living in San Francisco at the time, and he uh is kind of sympathetic to some of the the resistance movement.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

He had nothing to do in Electra, like I I didn't understand his character. What a waste he just kind of sat there uh funneling his did he have like a necklace or something? I d I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

He was holding something, but all of his scenes were just like in a boardroom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

By the way, I didn't write this down, but I've read the one of the villains was the woman who like kisses people and I guess sucks the life out of you. Yeah, kissing death. Yeah, which she her name is Typhoid, um her character name, which I don't know, she just spends most of the movie like walking slowly and like things dying around her. And she like one of the boardroom guys looks at her and she just like kills him. I guess he dies. I mean, maybe he doesn't die, but I was like, that's pretty like this guy's in the board, he's like one of the board of the hand. Like, this has got to be a pretty high up guy. You can't just like kill him. I don't think like I don't know. Yeah, how do you get away with that? I don't know. Yeah, she's she type Mary He didn't even do anything to her.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

I know.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

I think it was just to establish her her power, and just how like badass and punk rock this band of this new generation of the hand.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

I mean, isn't she isn't that just rogue? Doesn't rogue already suck the life out of people from X-Men?

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Yeah. But like if she if you if she touches you, it's not like uh she doesn't like the she just like blew him a kiss or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

I don't know, like oh yeah, she didn't do anything physical, right? Yeah, because she she like full on kissed Electra and did it to her. But she doesn't even have to do that, she just she just wanted to kiss her, I guess. So hot. Yeah. Should have been the whole movie. All right, cut that. I don't want I don't want that in the episode.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

The porn parody. No, we're keeping that in. Uh my altpick is got is. I felt like the theme of female assassins is a movie that we saw in theaters. Yes. I know it's a stretch, but I I was gonna put it in a little bit of a revenge film, I guess. Yeah, yeah. I was gonna put it in my what I'm watching now, but I thought, hey, this actually kind of I could stretch this in the ulpick. Uh the alt pick for this was hard for me. Yeah. I did look through every like every actor's IMDB, and I was like, there's nothing on here that uh that really resonates with me.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

But like they there's a lot of good actors in this movie, but it's a mix of things of like outside of my wheelhouse, like Jennifer Garner's career. Like, I've seen 13 going on 30. I wouldn't be like, I love it. And then like with Terrence Stamp and and uh Tagawa, I'm like, I know these are good movies, but I haven't seen all of these. Like so it was hard to find something that I had seen that I also thought was really great.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Uh well, as as God is, at least at the time this recording is still in theaters, it's um uh low budget-ish movie, but it's it's very reminiscent of Kill Bill. It's about um two sisters who go on a revenge mission, very like stylized and uh just out of really well acted and well written and stories. Good soundtrack. Yeah, uh yeah. Story moves along really quickly. Definitely interesting, not not like not boring at all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

So very Tarantino-ish in like style.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

Yeah, but and a good example of something that like to what you said earlier, it there are a lot of scenes that nod to that, but it doesn't feel like it's trying to rip it off. It feels like it's I mean it and even the stuff that's reminiscent, it's like, oh, it's well done, so you enjoy it, or I enjoyed it on screen.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

So yeah, it definitely feels original despite obviously nodding and pulling from other other things.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

So I liked it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

I did too.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Um I think that's all we have about Electra. Uh thoughts, questions, hit us up at questions. Yep, the worst movie podcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

I gotta stop doing that.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

What interrupted me or what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Yeah, I did it last week too.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Oh I didn't notice. That's fine. Uh yeah, again, we may be back next week, maybe a couple weeks. Maybe, maybe we'll do what we want, you know. Yeah. It's summer.

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Uh I'm on I'm on break. I'm on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Maybe you are too. And maybe that's maybe that's why you're not listening.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

I know we have um one devoted listener who will be very upset if we don't have our weekly episodes.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

He got uh got a little mad that I uploaded on a Thursday. Thursday. Yeah. It's supposed to be Tuesday. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

I'm Ade. I'm Aaron. Thanks for listening to the Worst Movie Podcast.