We watched a couple of chess movies. "Fresh" (1994) is a film about a teenager who takes lessons he learned from the chess board to help him survive the streets of NYC. He's always 3 or 4 steps ahead. John Leguizamo's "Critical Thinking" (2020) tells a true story about a high school chess team from Miami win chess tournaments. The direction, cast and tight screenplay help it go beyond a schmalzy feel-good story.
Next, what a weekend with "The Lost Weekend" (1945) and "Rachel Getting Married" (2008)
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
We watched a couple of chess movies. "Fresh" (1994) is a film about a teenager who takes lessons he learned from the chess board to help him survive the streets of NYC. He's always 3 or 4 steps ahead. John Leguizamo's "Critical Thinking" (2020) tells a true story about a high school chess team from Miami win chess tournaments. The direction, cast and tight screenplay help it go beyond a schmalzy feel-good story.
Next, what a weekend with "The Lost Weekend" (1945) and "Rachel Getting Married" (2008)
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
1, 2... Welcome to Two for the Road, movies with Matt and Adam. I'm Matt. And I'm Adam. We are a movie pairing podcast. Every now and then we'll pick a theme, recommend a movie to the other guy he has not seen based on the theme. Watch and discuss. And we have a 25 year age difference, so we bring a different set of films to the show. And sometimes we watch a couple of pretty weird chess movies. Yeah. Yeah. That's the theme this week, chess. Yeah? We're trying to watch movies that we haven't seen, or at least one of us hasn't seen, right? And so, like, Searching for Bobby Fischer was out. Yep. What are some of the great chess movies that we ignored? Well, I mean, The Seventh Seal, but you would hate that. Bergman. Fair. I was trying to think of more, but, you know, I couldn't. I thought there was a lot of them, but I don't think there is. Yeah, I feel like, in my mind, there's like a million chess movies, and they all star John Malkovich somehow. I just feel like he should be in them. Yeah, I also could not think of a lot that we were missing. Maybe we've hit them all. Yeah. But it's interesting, because I do find that, like, I think both of these movies did this pretty well. I think, kind of contrary to what you might think, I think chess is a pretty cinematic game. I think it translates well on screen. Oh, it's great. I mean, they're not showing the board all that much, but they're showing people moving really quickly, hitting their clocks and stuff like that. Gotta have that clock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotta have the clock. So, I thought so. I mean, I thought they were both kind of interesting. Yeah, I thought the actual chess itself was exciting. Right. Yeah, yeah. In the second movie, they even do a little bit more explanation, which I liked. In the first one, it's sort of like, it's this other movie, and then there's some chess in it. Yeah. Well, chess has a big part of it. They don't play chess that much. But the thinking, the thinking of chess, which Samuel Jackson says to his son, this is what you gotta do in chess, and he takes it as real life. It's what you gotta do in life, yeah. So, that takes us to our first movie. Our first movie is 1994's Fresh. Yes. YAKEN? YAKEN? Director? Writer? This dude made this, he made Remember the Titans Right I mean just remember the Titans alone, he's got a comfortable house Yeah He's got a pool Yeah You know, he's fine Yeah Remember the Titans? A movie I have never fully seen I've never seen it I've, I've, as a, as a, uh So when I was teaching high school That movie had just come out on like DVD or whatever So the students were like, oh, you know, it's like Those end of days where like all your tests are finished But you still have to sit here for an hour every day So we'll put in Remember the Titans So like I've been around it being shown But I've never, I wasn't watching it I was doing something else I have never, I don't know why It's supposed to be good Yeah, it's supposed to be, I've just never seen it What else does this guy do? He did something else just recently Yeah He's just done like a handful of things Oh, he did The Heart of the Fall Yeah Screenplay for that Which is a remake, I think From the 70s, I think But yeah, none of the, I don't None of the other ones that he's made I have never seen Yeah, but like we said, he's, he's fine Yeah I will take issue a little bit Well, I don't know I don't know how you want to get into this The dialogue in this movie Grated on my nerves a little bit Well, one character really grated on my nerves And I know he was supposed to But it's also like, come on No one actually talks like that Right, right, yeah Because I think, you know, I think they were using I mean, the lead is a guy named Sean Nelson Who's still working today And he's working a lot But he was amazing in this Yes, he was He hardly said anything But when he said it He said it You believe that he was that dude You believe that he was fresh And then I thought, I was like, oh, who was this guy? And then you look through his craps I'm like, God, he wasn't in anything He's in stuff He's in stuff, but I've never seen any of him He's in like an episode of this, an episode of that I think he had like a two or three episode run on Law & Order He's working Yeah, he definitely is working He's got a pool Also Giancarlo Esposito and Samuel Jackson Both in it Yeah How was Spike Lee not attached to this? Were those two guys in there? Right, right I figured it'd be a requirement But to get back to Nelson He was wonderful But most of the other kids They weren't real actors, I don't think They all sucked They did They sucked As opposed to the second movie Where I thought the kids were pretty good Right, but they're probably 35 Yeah, yeah They're probably 35-year-old people from the UK Right, right They're all Brits They're probably all Brits So you can't trust anything anymore But yeah, there was one Yeah, the dialogue left It was too much Yeah Matt, when you ask me what I do I bust stupid dope moves That's all I do I got the juice, man I got those stupid moves I couldn't even understand half of what he was saying I don't watch any movies without the subtitles on Good idea I usually find them and then add them later So I should probably download them before I give you these movies to watch I was having trouble What did he just say? Stupid dope moves Especially that scene where he's talking to Giancarlo Esposito Yeah I understood that But he was saying some other stuff I go, what did he just say? He's just saying he's got the juice, man It didn't make any sense to me It seemed like this dude This dude, Boaz? I'm not sure how to say his name It seemed like he It's like he was like I mean, apparently he grew up in New York But it seemed like he was writing it Like someone from Iowa thinks people in New York talk like Is what it came across as Yeah, I think we're supposed to believe that that's the way they really talk Yeah, it was very Anyway, in that character, Chucky was just like I think we're supposed to recoil in terror when he gets shot But I was like, I wish they would have showed it Like when Sofia Coppola died in Godfather 3 Rapturous applause Alright, so let's get into the movie So as we said, the movie opens up with our young He's not a hero No He's a survivor Yeah And you can tell he's not a hero because So like In movies or TV, if you want to make a character unlikable The easiest thing you can do is have them harm an animal Right And everyone's like, oh, fuck that person I think the second one is slapping a woman Right, right So there's no animal This kid does both So there you go Yeah, he's not likable I mean, he's not a hero But he's always the smartest person in the room Right Even though he's a kid Right, right He's way ahead of the chess He's three moves ahead of everybody Pretty much, yeah And so we open up on him He's running drugs You get a real quick understanding of his personality The dynamic he has with everyone else in the quote-unquote hood Yeah As you said, he's smarter than them He's talking back to them He clearly has status Right Despite being late for school Right And his home life is pretty much awful Okay, is it? Not really, but he's different from everybody else Well, I mean, I would say his home life is It seems like he has a loving aunt Right But she's just got like, what was it, 17, 18 kids living there? Right, right There's a... And he walks in and everybody just ignores him Yeah, I don't... His home life is not horrible He's got food, he's got clothes He has a loving aunt His mother, is she living there or just shows up once in a while? Unclear Yeah And his father, Samuel Jackson, lives somewhere else Well, I think the problem with his home life is that All his siblings are content to just sit on the couch and look at the TV Right And he's like, he wants to bust those stupid dough moves Yeah Like, Chucky's talking about it, he's actually doing it He's actually doing it And he's out there making money He's not spending it He's saving every dime he makes He's got a future Where the others probably will end up the same, what they're doing now But he's just, he wants out Yeah, and he's earning money and he's not talking about it Right There's some point in the movie where someone's like, Come on, man, we know you're making money Where is it, you know? Yeah, he doesn't have new sneakers He doesn't have any of that shit that most of the other guys in that situation They'd be showing their, what my drug dealer friends used to call, showing their ass You know, you don't buy four or five cars And think that people aren't gonna know what you're doing Right You know So, he's smart, he's highly intelligent And he just wants out Yeah, and he's like, respected by all the drug dealers Right Yeah, for being a kid He's like their guy Yeah, so we kind of see, like So, he's working for a bunch of different He's like working for different drug dealers Yeah, one's selling heroin, one's selling crackers Coke Coke The cocoa Yeah And, you know, just he's He doesn't love it, but he pays the bills Right And he's kind of got a crush on this girl And then, like, the moment where things sort of change Is at that basketball game, right? Right So, the basketball game, this kid, Curtis Yeah Also a little kid, but he's got moves He's got this killer crossover Yeah He's got a crazy jump shot It's a playground basketball game Yeah So, they're going against guys that are like, what? Maybe like high school or older, high school kids Yeah, maybe a little older So, how old is Fresh? Let's start there Twelve? Eleven? Nine? Twelve, I think twelve I have no idea Okay, twelve I think twelve Yeah, he and his boys, they're hanging out That's kind of that age, you know They're just hanging out, maybe looking at girls, maybe not Yeah Or they don't want anybody to know they're looking at girls Because they're at that age, you know It's an age of secret boners So, he's twelve Let's say these other guys on the court are maybe eighteen, nineteen, right? Like, that's kind of the vibe That's what I thought they were supposed to be Like Yeah, and this one kid just He's the best player on the court Curtis, he's schooling him And, you know, one of the older guys is getting pissed off And he fouls him That's what guy Fresh works for Uh-huh He's his protector Yeah Dang, what does this dude think? Yeah, so he's getting pissed off He's getting showed up by this kid And he knows it Is it Corky? Corky Smokey? No, it's not Smokey Dang, what is that guy's name? Yeah, I don't know He was pretty good He was good I remember looking and being like Oh, he wasn't really in anything else So James? Reggie? I don't know Dang This is when we do it on the fly Yeah Figure it out Jake Jake, okay Jake His name is Jake So, Jake gets all pissed off And there's this great scene I was watching this and I'm like, uh-oh Yeah You know, because Because Curse is like He gets fouled And they're like, come on And Curse is like, no man, it's your ball Let's go Let's play, because I know I'm going to beat you Right And they do, right? He beats him, shoots it over him Embarrasses him And in that scene If you watch it You can see Jake runs off real quick In kind of like this violent manner But the camera is not focusing on that It doesn't follow him And then you're like I saw that and I was like, uh-oh And then sure enough He comes back blasting And shoots the kid Yeah, shoots the kid right in the chest Right And then shoots the girl that Fresh likes Yeah, and she's coming over to talk to Fresh So she gets astray And then he's yelling like If anyone says anything, I'm going to kill all of you Yeah And for some reason he leaves Fresh alone Fresh is just standing right there He's just like He respects Fresh, I guess Yeah, he's not going to say anything He's been picked up by the cops a couple times Yeah So he gets picked up again And of course, he doesn't say anything He just says, I don't know what happened I just heard the shots and then went over there Yeah But that's when you know he's like Alright That's when he takes his father's advice Or his chest's advice That you can't You cannot be attached to any of your players Your queen None of them You gotta be able to sacrifice them all to win So that's what he does He comes up with a plan But the one thing he's attached to is his sister His older sister Yeah, for some reason he's got this like He's very protective of her She's a junkie And she's mixed up with Giancarlo Esposito Who he doesn't like Great And other dudes Other dudes he doesn't like They're all assholes And she's also not an amazing person No She's a junkie Yeah So he hatches this plan to Sort of get everyone turned against each other Yeah, he plays everybody against each other And that's what I said He's three moves, three or four moves ahead of everybody But in the process Some pawns have to go, right? Yeah Chucky's death is a surprise But it's also like Relief for us For the viewer Yeah Rapturous applause No, like When Chucky gets killed It's kind of a silly way, right? He has a gun and he drops it in her car Grabs it, accidentally shoots a tire out And the car lowers onto his hand So he's stuck Right, he can't get out And the guys that are shooting at him Just walk up to him and shoot him Yeah Because he and Fresh are involved in carrying some drugs Right Yeah That's why And it was all planned I mean, it wasn't planned for him to get killed, I don't think But once that happened Fresh said, okay Sacrifice a pawn Well, yeah, because he tells Chucky He's like, drop the bags and run And Chucky's like, no And then Fresh just runs He kind of turns his back He's like, nah Nah, you're fine I'm probably better off That's when you knew that That Fresh was dead serious Yeah He's just fine with letting his friend get killed Which is cold He was stone cold And then when he takes out his dog Yeah, what was the point of that? Well, Chucky took care of it So once he was gone, there was nobody to take care of it Here's an idea, Fresh Bring your dog home to all your siblings They'd probably be really happy They might quit watching TV for a minute And now your family has a dog And the dog has a home Come on, Fresh The way he did it Yeah That was I'm glad I didn't show this to Gloria Oh my God He hung the dog and then shot it So at least it wasn't suffering that long I guess he was just hanging it to hold it still I didn't get the double murder aspect of it But it just showed you how cold he is I mean, first Chucky, then his dog This guy means business He's getting out Yeah He's a chess player You know, his dad He's taught him how to do this And he's using it in real life And then, I mean, the rest of the movie It's sort of like I don't remember everyone's names It's gonna be hard to describe what happened But basically he makes it so that People are thinking that they're getting double-crossed The guy Jake He kind of sets him up That he was coming after his boss Corky And so Jake and his boy get beat with a chain And then killed That was a lovely scene And then also So then Giancarlo goes after James So he's basically using everyone as pawns For lack of a better term To kind of do his dirty work And they're all doing it Because they're all sort of They all kind of They don't see the whole board They don't, no They only see a couple squares in front of them or whatever And then it all works out At the very end He's got drugs planted in Giancarlo Esposito's place The cops show up Who he called Plus a gun Plus a gun And even his sister is like No, no, no What's going on? And the cops are like Come on, we're taking this guy in And that's it No, that's not it And the last scene We get He's playing chess with his dad And we just get this He just looks up at him He's just got tears On his face And then our last shot Is Samuel L. Jackson With this look of like No? Yeah He has this look of like Kind of I don't know What's going on? Yeah, is he confused? Is he Does he feel like Shame for his parenting? Does he feel Concerned? Does he feel Like I thought I taught you to be a man And now you're crying It's a look that You're like, huh There's a lot behind it And I guess that's why he's a great actor But there's a lot there Yeah, you don't know what You don't know what he's thinking At that moment That's a beautiful ending Because, you know He doesn't know what Fresh has done He has no idea Yeah And we're left wondering Not only what is Samuel L. Jackson thinking But what is Fresh thinking? Right Is he crying from regret? Or is it kind of just like Just emotional Like outburst Yeah, relief Yeah, relief I don't know We're left To ponder You know, the future of Fresh and his father And his relationship I don't think Fresh is going into insurance No, no I get the feeling that Fresh is Got a life of crime ahead of him Well, didn't he make a deal with the cops? What'd he say? You know, to put in witness protection or something Oh, okay All right I thought he made a deal And said, I want out I want my sister out I don't want to be in I don't want to be in, you know, some ghetto Right, right, right So then maybe the look is Maybe those tears are like I'll never play chess with my dad again Right, he just realized I mean, he's gotta leave Because whatever happens Giannacarlo Esposito's gonna have his Name out there, you know, to kill So, because he knows he got screwed by him But yeah, I just I love it when, you know, this kid is just Just so much smarter than everybody else And you hate kids Yeah, I don't really Well, I don't, yeah And I don't like kid actors generally But he was wonderful You specifically hate it when children are smarter Than they regularly would be in film and television Yeah But somehow this worked for you Yeah, but, yeah Well, I think it's all the metaphor of chess And stuff like that, you know Because there's no geniuses in his neighborhood These guys are not geniuses They do everything It's like when they're talking about chess, you know You send all your troops out there You know, and Sometimes you gotta play defense You know, and Sometimes that overwhelming power Which is how they rule They rule with fear, you know And all that, with guns and stuff He rules with the mind Yeah, was it See, I'm getting all my chess advice mixed up now Is it Samuel L. Jackson who says If my player is offensive, I'll be defensive If my player is defensive, I'll be offensive Right, he plays the player Not the board Right So, and usually black is on defense Because white has the first move Yeah So, but he says, you know, you don't play You play the player And that's what he did He played everybody You know, so I really like this movie It's good I mean Can I have more chess? I mean, for me, the best parts of this movie by far Were Fresh's interactions with Samuel L. Jackson Yeah And maybe if there was more of it I would not like it as much Because I was left wanting more Yeah But that was so interesting It's just like I mean Jungle Esposito aside Samuel L. Jackson is the only other actor in this movie Right, right As far as I'm concerned Except for Fresh So, I mean, having them play off each other was Definitely Something I wanted more of Yeah, because he's Here's this guy Very bright Samuel L. Jackson's character He's extremely bright But he's a loser Lives in a little trailer You know Drinks shitty beer Warm shitty beer Warm shitty beer You know Doesn't have a bathroom Or something, I don't know But yeah, it's like Here's this guy He's giving advice to his kid And his kid's already smarter than him You know But yeah, that was some good And I thought I'd seen this I'd never seen it before Oh, okay, that's good Yeah I don't know why I thought I saw it But I didn't remember any of it Maybe it was on your list Well, you not remembering doesn't mean anything Yeah, yeah It was 30 years ago I don't remember the answer I think it came out 30 years ago So, I don't know Yeah Maybe you saw it The next day you saw Pulp Fiction You're like, wait, what are you... Yeah, it's good to be here Who knows But But yeah, I was impressed with Just the The ballsy-ness of this movie To have this little kid Just be such a ruthless Killer Right He doesn't kill anyone But he definitely has blood on his hands Yeah, he was like 20 Montana Yeah, and he just And we're not meant to I think, you know, admire him No Or even, or like I don't know, like How are we supposed to feel about him? I don't know, you're kind of rooting for him You're rooting for him But, God, he's so... Yeah, I mean, you're kind of just Rooting for like the best possible outcome, I guess Yeah And I guess that was it But I don't know Like if If this movie ended with Fresh getting killed It would just be Like just another movie Just another hood movie, right? Yeah, yeah But No, he does prevail Anything else you want to mention, Matt? No, I think it's No, I think it's worth seeing I think it's interesting Like you say, the scenes with Samuel Jackson And What's his name? Sean Nelson Are fantastic, you know? But You know, don't It's not for everybody It's not for everybody, especially with a couple You know, the scenes with Chucky getting killed And the dog and that kind of stuff Yeah Alright, let's do some scores IMDb, we only have Oh, crap, I just clicked away from it I think it's something like 14,000 people For a 30-year-old movie Yeah It's pretty low Not a very popular film Despite it coming right in like the The ascent of Samuel L. Jackson Right You know what I mean? Yeah, and like Kind of hood movies There was a lot of them around at that time There was a lot Boys in the Hood, Men's Society, Juice Those are the three How was it? New Jack City? Yeah, that's the one I was thinking Yeah I'm gonna go Seven, four You went low Did I? Seven, five That's right, I think it's mid-sevens I think maybe you liked it a little bit more than I did Yeah, I would say maybe seven, two, seven, three But yeah, I'm surprised that it's gotten that much That much love I guess it's one of those movies that Like, by now, you really have to seek it out Right I mean, this is not streaming anywhere No What does it say? You can watch it on Paramount or something Oh, maybe it is streaming somewhere Watch it on Paramount with Prime Video I don't even know what Paramount is Well, apparently it's streaming everywhere So, I'm fine with Paramount, so what do I know? All right, and then Rotten Tomatoes Let's see, our Tomato Meter We have 41 reviews I'll go seven, eight Oh, you went low Really? Yeah, 88 Wow, critics Yeah And the audience, we have over 5,000 85? 91 Wow, people liked it I'm surprised that people liked this movie this much Right I enjoyed it Like I said, I enjoyed it more than you did, I think Yeah, I mean, I found myself a little bit bored near the ending Like, I just kind of like, okay, just kind of get on with it Yeah, get it over with But Yeah, it might be ten minutes long, too long That's not that big of a deal Yeah I still think it's above a seven, so that's saying something All right, critics' consensus Well cast and sharply directed Fresh serves as an attention-getting calling card for writer-directed Boaz Yakin as well as a gripping urban drama Okay It's kind of interesting It's not an interesting consensus, I should say But that's it All right So we'll take a break and we'll come back with Critical Thinking Yes Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you He's at like a 10. This one he's maybe a 7. Sometimes he gets to 7.5. Oh yeah. Yeah and... Toulouse-Lautrec. Damn, what's the name of that movie? Moulin Rouge? Never seen it. Yes, he's so good at that. Is he? But he's a 10. Okay. He's a 10. He was in that Romeo and Juliet remake, wasn't he? Yeah. He's the guy who beefs with Romeo. Yeah. Like kills Mercutio. Anyway, we don't have to review our Shakespeare knowledge here. He directed this. Yes. And starred in it. Yes. Based on a true story of these kids in Miami. Miami Jackson High School? Like there's levels of Miami, as you and I both know. And this seemed like it was in like... It wasn't one of those outer rings of Miami. This is deep Miami. Yeah, this is Overton or something. I don't know. This is like... My dad always tells me this story. He used to do insurance adjusting. And he was driving into a part of Miami. And it was maybe dusk. And a cop pulls him over. He was like, Why are you here? And he explains why he's there. And he's like, Okay, you're gonna follow me out right now. And he's like, No, I have to go do this job. And the cop's like, You'll do it tomorrow morning. You're not doing it now. What are you doing? And my dad's like, I have a handgun under my seat. And the cop's like, That's fine. You're gonna follow me now. And so he did. And they left that neighborhood. But yeah, Miami has some rough spots. But we don't... We see it a little bit. I mean, with the drug dealing. But in this high school, it doesn't seem overly bad. Well, I mean, a kid got shot on the street. But I mean, in the school itself. Yeah. Well, that's a good point. I guess the drug dealers are not going to school anymore. They're all in the street. So that works out for them. Man, I really wanted to not like this movie. I mean, based on the poster, which looks cheesy as hell. Just, I was like, Oh my God. You recommend. I was like, It's a little special, written all over it. But I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked it probably more than I should have. I always say that I liked it more than I should have. But you're right. You kind of... Gloria and I watched this first. It was just because we could watch it on Netflix or Amazon or something. So, yeah. So let's watch this. I like John Lezegano. And we watched it. And it was good. And then I watched it again. And I think I liked it more the second time. Yeah. The chess involved. Really involved in this one. Yeah, and they kind of used the chess. And they... I like a movie like... Was it Rounders? You kind of get taught a little bit about poker. This one kind of teaches you about chess. So if you've never played the game before, you can get a kind of a sense of what it is and how it works a little bit. But yeah, I thought it was really... It was well-paced. It was interesting. Well-acted. Yeah, well-acted. I liked all of the characters. Like the kids. The kids were great, I thought. I wanted maybe more of the kids. I wish I could get to know them a little bit more. Well, my favorite scenes were in the classroom. Yeah. And we needed more of that. But, I mean, it was fine. But I loved the classroom. I loved Lezegano as a teacher. One day you... I'm going to pronounce his name right. How do you pronounce it? Leguizamo. Now you got me doing it. I want to... John Leguizamo. I'll just call him John. Yeah, just call him John. Johnny L. John Leguizamo. Leguizamo. Whatever. Me, me. We're not a pronunciation show. But yeah, the classroom scenes were good. Well, I am a little bit picky when I watch teachers on film. Apparently his classes are eight minutes long. Yeah, yeah. They all show up and all of a sudden the buzzer goes off. And his homework assignment is this is one word on the board. Look it up. Stuff like that. I'm like, ugh. You can't give him too much. Can you just make this a little bit more realistic? Why does it have to be so... Well, I could understand. Okay, this is an elective course. It's called critical thinking. Yes. It's all about chess. Yes. Okay. Is it during homeroom? You know? I don't know. Because how do kids end up in there when they... I couldn't figure it out. You know, because when I went to high school we went to homeroom first. Yes. You know? And then my buddy William Boone is probably just coming down from an acid trip. He's sleeping in front of me. Yeah. And Greg Bostick's behind me. But I'm watching these kids. They show up in this class. It's like, they just show up. Yeah. You know, I don't know. I'm not well versed in the scheduling decisions of the Miami-Dade public school system. Yeah, true. But it's possible that... Because I'm aware of some high school situations where they have their first class and it's an elective intentionally because it's like, maybe not everyone's going to show up. William Boone's still sleeping. And then you might go to your homeroom for announcements, anything important is handled there. And then you go on to the rest of your day. Okay. That's a good explanation. I just couldn't figure it out. Yeah, I don't know. Like I said... Because the class kept growing as the movie went. Yeah, and there's some people in the class, there's this girl who you think is going to have a stronger part in the rest of the movie. They just never go back to her. She's just not interested. She's just there. Yeah. He keeps asking her questions. I don't know. And she's getting kind of pissed off. Like, why do you keep asking me? He's funny with it, you know. But I love those scenes. I love the classrooms. And plus, you're learning chess as it goes. As far as how life is. Yeah. Definitely. Leguizamo interacting with the kids. Definitely all good stuff. Makes me think that Leguizamo could be a good high school teacher. Yeah. I bet he'd be fun. Yeah. He did play the character in a little bit of like a... A little bit too much of like a... Come on, guys! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm really trying here, you know. Which is fine, but it's like, I don't know. I wish he was a little bit... Like a little bit more of a dickhead to the students. In a playful way. Yeah, he was perfectly capable of it. Perfectly capable. Yeah. So I agree, you know. Yeah. So we meet the kids. We get pretty well established. Like everyone's little personality. Like we got our main dude. Cedric? Yes. He's got Samuel Jackson's clone as a father. Omar? Yeah, Michael Kenneth Williams. It's like, oh, we can't get Samuel Jackson for this movie. Who are we gonna get? Omar. Yeah. I mean, because they're kind of the same character. They're just kind of dickheads. Yeah. I'll teach you about chess. You're not learning anything. You know, you don't know shit. See, Samuel Jackson's character in Fresh was a dickhead in a way that like a tough coach is a dickhead. He was trying to teach his son. Yeah. No. It's like, no. I think in the first movie, I think, yeah, he's teaching his son, okay, we're playing chess, but this is real life. And it's almost, it also almost comes across as like, I want you to do better than me. Right. Omar in this movie is more like, I don't want you to do better than me. He's a dick. Yeah. He's like, I can't even believe that you think you could do better than me. Right. That pisses me off. I'm just gonna, I don't know what this dude does for work, but apparently he just drinks, sleeps and plays chess. Yeah. With himself. Not a bad life, but not good for parenting probably. No. Yeah, I didn't really like his character all that much. He didn't make sense to me. No. Because he was like way over the top, pissed off, and for reasons that were unclear, I know they say like, oh, his mother died, but like, I don't, like, okay. You lost your wife, so what? So he lost his mother. Right. And like, that's what he says at one point, you're not the only one who was crushed by this. Right. Also, you don't strike me as like some huge romantic anyway. No, no, no. And then, so while we're kind of nitpicking here, another thing that I did not, didn't quite fit was, is his name Cedric? Yeah, Cedric's girl. Yeah. Totally unnecessary. Right. Like, just, we don't need romance. Yeah, it was, you know, we don't need him, you know, up on the roof, camping out, and this girl comes up, I remember when we were kids, you know, if you ran away, this is where you came. Yeah. You know, we didn't need that. Like, I'd rather have more classroom scenes. Right. Or more scenes on the street with his boys. Uh-huh. Yep. You know, because that was interesting. Yep. Yeah, if you, to me, after I watched this movie, I totally forgot her. Yeah, exactly. She doesn't do anything. It's like, I mean, one of the greatest movies in my mind is Stand By Me. Yeah, it's a scene where, like, Corey Feldman's character was, like, talking to his girlfriend. And you're like, what the fuck? Yeah. It's like, no, I just want to see, I want to see the kids hanging out. It's all about him and the boys. You know. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. Totally unnecessary. Totally unnecessary. I mean, yeah, and it doesn't, like, move, but those, like, those flaws aside, like, the movie moves. There's, like, there's not, like, this, like, wasted or unnecessary buildup of, like, what's going to happen to the tournament. They get to the tournament, they kick ass. Right. They get to the next tournament, have a little bit of adversity, then they eventually kick ass. And so, I guess the only thing that I would maybe say could be, well, like, it's difficult for a movie like this to be based on a true story and, you know, they're not going to make this movie if they don't win the whole thing. Right. Right. They're not going to go to the nationals and come in 50th place. Oh, well. We tried. But they had fun trying. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. No, that's true. So, it is, like, predictable. But the way it's done, the way it all comes about is interesting. Yeah, the way you get around that is you make the characters likable, you show their interaction, so even if you know what's going to happen, you're still interested in, like, how the characters are going to react to these things, right? Yeah, and there's a really strong point in a couple of the matches. You don't need to win. Sometimes a tie is good. Yeah. Take the tie. You know, you don't always have to be the victor. You get a point for a tie in chess and that's important. And you've got to learn to take those when you can. Chess and soccer. Sometimes a tie is a win. Yeah. Yeah, and that's especially effective when that is being, kind of, that lesson is being learned through Ito, who is our hothead. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't he doesn't understand it. He's got to win every time. Right. Yeah, and then there is, like, this side drama of Ito being involved with, like, this drug dealer who killed that kid that we mentioned earlier. That was also, kind of, like, what? I guess it's maybe based on true the truth, but it just made it was just a diversion, I think. That's what it felt like. Well, it was like, okay, so, dropping out of school is more is, like, a better route in working for this like, drug dealer. Like, you're not even, like, you're not even at Fresh's level as far as, like, drug courier, you know? Like, you're just some some dude. Standing in front of a store selling packets of, you know,$20 cocaine or whatever it is. Yeah, it's like and it just and, like, you know, we get this he has a couple comments like, oh, I had to work all night da-da-da, this shift and then, like, he loses his job because he goes to chess tournament. Like, bro, get another job. Thank you. Maybe? Yeah. What year did this take place? 90s. It was in the 98? 98, okay. I think so, 96. It was around late 90s, I think. Okay, well, fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was the whole diversion the whole I guess that maybe it's based on his real life that he was doing that but in the end when we the very ending is we get to meet some of these guys They're all fat. Yeah, they're all fat. Every one of them is fat. Which is real, right? They're living on Miami food, I guess. I don't know. 26 years later, you know. He talks about that. He says, I showed everybody you don't have to deal drugs or or play football to get out of out of the hood. But we don't know what did he do? What are you doing, bro? Middle management at Holiday Inn? What exactly is your success story? Yeah. I also liked what I also liked was the mix of the races Okay. at the Nexus City or whatever, you know you know, he had these different kind of guys. Matt is the anti-Hitler. He loves race-mixing. Yeah. But I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, so let's break down the dudes. Yeah. So we talked about Cedric. Black dude. Yeah, black guy. A very I don't know the right way to phrase this. I'm just gonna say it. He's got a weird face. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I look at his face, I'm like are you 85? Or are you 12? Like, I can't tell. Corwin Tuggies is his name. Okay. Tuggles. Corwin Tuggles. Okay, tell me that's not a Brit. That's an undercover Brit for sure. I think he was born in New York. Okay. But like, and like his voice, I'm like do you have you been smoking Marlboro cigarettes since the 90s? Right. He has this like raspy voice that doesn't fit his face. And he's just like this really interesting he has an interesting image I guess is what I want to say. Yeah, he was he was born in Harlem. Okay. A far cry from the Shire. Yeah. The thing about this about the biography because I was looking up because I was interested how old are these actors? Yeah. And I know Gil was 18. Okay. So he was Oh, so he was legit a kid. He was legit 18. The other biographies they don't have for some reason they don't give them where they were born. Well, they write their own I think, right? So okay, let's go to Gil. So Gil is a like a white presenting but I think like he's a white but he's a white but he's a white but I think like a Latino. Yeah, he speaks Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. And he he was in red hair kind of, you know, Yeah. Yeah. He's a white looking Latino. Right. Yeah. And so he gets roped in because he's good but he left the team or left the class because he got punched in the face for stepping on some Cedric's Nike's. Okay. Now I figured it out because Corwin was 10 when he made his debut in a show called The Backyardians. We all got to start somewhere. Yeah. It's a check. Okay. So and this movie came out in 2020. Okay. So he's 26. Okay. Okay. Younger than what I was expecting. He looks younger than that. He does look but also he looks older than that. Yeah. Yeah. But he's he's working a lot. So good for him. Yeah. Same with Gil. Gil had a lot less to do but I loved his reactions to everything because he's kind of like the guy that doesn't really fit but he's trying to. I liked his character a lot. Yeah. He brings some good energy. Yeah. And a solid chess player. Yeah. Solid chess player. But yeah I like the scene where Cedric and Gil are they rekindle their or they kind of like crush their beef over some video game. Yeah. That was kind of cool. They're kind of like you're missing. Yeah. They're kind of like talking to us to each other a little bit which is it seemed authentic. And then our next one is I always get this. Ito. Okay. So we got Ito. We talked about him a little bit and he is the hood guy is quote unquote like he's he's dealing drugs. He's dealing drugs. Well first he's got a job where he works all night or late so he's a dude. He's trying to succeed. He's trying to get out but he's trying to make money and he's smart. Yeah. Like you can tell like those early classroom scenes he shows his brain even though he's half asleep or whatever. We kind of mentioned him already and then the other one is Rotele or something? Yeah. What do they call him? Ro? Yeah. Rotele. He's kind of a class clown. Yeah. Yeah. This is the dude in your crew who you're like man we're gonna go to that party but if anyone's gonna get us in a fight it's fucking Rotele. Yeah. This dude just won't shut up. Yeah. And so yeah he's and he does that he's you know he's bringing like a lot of God what's that guy Chris from The Sopranos? Yeah. That's who he reminded me of. He's like that same kind of energy of like Spider you know. Yeah. So he was good a bit boisterous over the top and then we even this other dude this guy from Cuba? Yeah. Shows up. Marcel. Yeah. Marcel. And Marcel's interesting because he's this like preppy. Yeah. He's like nerdy preppy refugee which is like a string of words that don't often go together and yeah so he kind of brought this like sort of like very measured and serious vibe and he's the best chess player of all of them. I mean teacher included right? Yeah. Well he carries the team. Yeah. And he becomes the leader of the team. And he becomes the leader of the tournament. And he becomes the overall champ. The overall US champ. And he's the one that makes the decision where he's playing the current champ and the champ says I'm going to go to the bathroom you should too. Yeah. I was like okay first of all does this just fly in this chess tournament? Is this not against the rules? Is this not collusion? Yeah. So they go to the bathroom and the guy's like listen we can just shake hands call to draw you know we're the champs Marcel says no because I need a full point Yeah if I don't beat you we don't win this guy's working on his own Yeah because that's how he plays he doesn't play on a team Right he just plays himself and he's won three years in a row Yeah I didn't totally understand the tournament structure when you're an individual when you're on a team like how that works but anyway Yeah And so Marcel does the good guy thing obviously he lets his time tick down because the guy comes back and he's like hey oh my clock didn't work can you fix it? Nope it's your clock and it's ticked a couple minutes off his clock going to the bathroom you know at least he's not 70 and he's in there forever but but then Marcel looks at him and looks at his boys and says okay puts his jacket back on and he lets his clock tick down to the exact same amount Love that and then he just hammers this guy letting the clock tick down is the biggest F you it's like I'm not giving you any excuse right why there's no excuse and that's the beauty because that's exactly what you think of when that scene you go there's no excuse if I don't win it's because I wasn't good enough Yeah not because you let your clock mistakenly run down or no it's like when I beat you it's not because of the clock it's because I beat you yeah so that was a cool scene that was very cool and you know another thing I would say is we don't really get to see the Marcel character enough to really there's none of that like again if we're cutting out the girlfriend bullshit we need a little bit Marcel sort of like feeling at home with the guys fitting in you know like maybe they give him a joint for the first time that gets him to fit in yeah he's not a gangster he starts the little the language late in the movie you know look at Marcel doing the gangster thing you know yeah but he eventually fit in because he was the best they needed him yeah because Ido doesn't go to the he didn't go to the finals yeah the world I mean the US right yeah so like he is the astronaut who remained in the whatever it was like the the rocket while the other guys were on the moon right yeah he was important to get him there but he's not there right so there's that scene where like there's this crazy scene where this drug dealer walks in and he's like he's like you know he's yelling at Ido for something I can't remember what it was he just thought something was wrong something's weird there's like a weird vibe there's a weird vibe you know and the guy's sitting you know Ido's in a little restaurant where he stays and sells drugs or stands out in front of the place and sells drugs so he kind of confronts Ido Ido grabs this dude and like just slams his face he says you and your checker buddy it's just you mother he slams his face and then he runs out I thought he was gonna get shot right yeah you wonder okay I wonder how much that was true because generally when you do that to the guy the guy who runs the neighborhood you don't live right and he's no way out yeah because we saw this dude kill someone weeks before just a few weeks ago he killed a guy because the guy didn't speak English right right essentially basically bumped into somebody yeah you know so somehow Ido lived so I'm super thankful for that but yeah overall I would say this is definitely I mean it's a feel good movie we don't usually do those on the show well acted the movie moves I was never like I wasn't looking at my phone or anything like that wasn't too long no we could have had some changes no romance more of one of the other characters maybe more of the classroom but you know when I say something I'm like But yeah, when he was like the hit man and he was like, man, it was not his shining moment. Because you go into these things, you're like, I really like this person. I want to like everything they do. And then you see their work in other realms and you're like, let's see. The Merry Gentleman, 2008. Horrible. Don't watch it. It's horrible. Worst Christmas movie ever. But yes, I was worried that Leguizamo was going to mail in a turn, but he didn't. So I was happy about that. It did well. I think this movie could be watched by most people and enjoy it. Yeah, I mean, the last movie you watched, the guy did, remember the Titans? This is a movie you could, well, maybe not with the language, never mind. I was going to say you could put this in a class and have your class watch it, but maybe not. There is some language in this. It's not rated, which is odd. All right, Matt, you want to get some scores? Anything else you want to say about our critical thinking? No, I just said I've watched it twice. I liked it both times. Liked it better the second time. I don't know, maybe. Yeah, it's that feel-good movie that you go, oh, I liked it. And I think both of you and I are like that. We don't like these overly feel-good movies. We like to feel pain. That's a whole other conversation, but there was a moment where I think I was watching Elephant. And I was like, why do I watch these movies? I just feel bad. You got to feel something. I don't want to feel good. Sometimes bad is the only choice. All right, Matt, only 2,400 people checking in on IMDb. That's relatively new, right, 2020. 7? Oh, you went high. 6.5. It's definitely in the 7s. Maybe a low 7. Maybe a low 7. Maybe a 7 exactly. Maybe. I don't know. It's definitely not a 6.5. I think it's better than a 7. I think it's maybe like 7.3. I think it's near the Scarecrow. I do think so. Our rating system, yeah. All right, Tomato Meter, only 35 reviews, no audience score because of so few reviews. Yeah, I don't think anybody saw this in the theater. That's probably sure. Well, it did come out in 2020. Oh, yeah, that's true. Nobody saw anything in the theater that year. That's too bad. I'm going to go 7. 70. 94. The critics. Yeah. How many? I think it was 35 reviews. See? Yeah, the critics came in strong on this one. Yeah, I don't feel so bad for liking it. Yeah, so I mean, John Leguizamo's critical thinking is a strategic crowd pleaser. This may be a textbook case of an inspirational teacher underdog sports drama, but it sure handily delivers the feels. In the end, it's a bit of connect the inspirational dots movie. Fair. But that doesn't mean you won't be inspired. Yeah. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. So here we go. It's the remember the Titans of the next generation. Right. Now we have to watch that movie. God. That's a feel good movie, isn't it? I know. Oh, feelings. That's why I never saw it. I hate feel good movies. All right. So next show, we're going to do like What a Weekend. Yeah. What a Weekend. So the last weekend with Ray Moland. All right. And I'll have you watch Rachel gets married. Rachel's getting married, gets married. Well, we'll figure that out before we watch it. But it's Anne Hathaway movie. Yeah. All right. Let's get out of here. Peace. So Jane, what you do here in effect is count the boners. I am a revolution! I am a revolution! I'm sure that I agree with you 100%, I'm your police nurse, dear Lord. I'm in the kitchen. You in the kitchen. I'm not gonna take this anymore! It's fun!