 This episode is brought to you by LFS Logistics. Your product, our priority. If you're on my YouTube channel, you can find the details and links in the description below the video, or just head on over to www.LFSLogistics.us. Welcome to the Adam Does Movies podcast, episode four, I believe. We're just burning through these folks. We have a fun one today. I have a couple of topics I'm going to go over. First thing we're going to do, talk about what I've been watching so far the last week or so. Then we're going to jump into the main topic, which is top five disappointing movie trilogies, films that were on the precipice of greatness. Number one and number two had it right. And then the third one comes out, completely ruins everything going forward. That's the main bulk of this conversation. Then I'm going to jump into some questions from social media, Instagram, Facebook, things of that nature. And finally, we're going to wrap up with what's going on next week on the podcast. Let's strap in and get going. First thing, speaking of strapping in, I saw FastX, the 10th film in the Fast and the Furious saga as they refer to it. This is part one of a three-part new trilogy. This franchise is so incredibly stupid. Someone said it in the YouTube comments. Actually, several people have said it. It's the Nickelback of movie franchises. A lot of people love them. Some are ashamed, but they make a lot of money and they're going to keep going. Now, I myself enjoy a good amount of the Nickelback collection. I celebrate its history. Fast and the Furious, I'm a lot more love hate on. I really don't ever need to see these films, but when they come out, I go. Sometimes I'm impressed. I'm captivated by all the shenanigans going on. And other times, I just think, why? Why is this still a thing? How is Vin Diesel even an actor anymore? He's terrible in these films. He's basically just carved out a stone and they just drop him into a car and let him loose for a while. But people love them. I have a full review up on the channel. If you want to watch that spoiler, I thought it was okay. But again, I think it's the job of a critic not to just give you your thought. I'm not just here to say, oh, this movie sucked. I hated it. Avoid it. No. People have different preferences, personal tastes. Clearly, there is a giant market for Fast and the Furious. They're essentially now Bollywood movies. It's supposed to be lavish and extreme. And I'm okay with that. I actually really enjoy those types of films that are larger than life over the top spectacles. The problem I have with them is I have no one to connect to in these movies. The drama is so artificial. Everything's very superficial. And when a movie's over two hours, I just, my brain is on the ground and I have nothing left to give. But I give you my thoughts and then I also say, hey, listen, if you like these movies, compare it to the last couple. It's awesome. Fast nine, I thought was a huge step down, but fast eight, fast seven, there's some good stuff in those. And 10 just takes it even more extreme. So I can't imagine anyone that doesn't like, let me rephrase, I can't imagine if you hated fast nine, you're going to go into 10 and just love it. On the other hand, I can't imagine if you liked all nine of them, you're going to hate this movie, you're going to love fast X. Other things I'm watching right now, I actually put down a bunch of notes so that I could keep focus. The great, it's a Hulu exclusive, I believe, Elle Fanning, Nicholas Holt. It's really funny, very clever writing, great performances all around. It follows Catherine the Great in this fictitious version of her life, rising to power in Russia. Season three has been a mixed bag. We're not finished with it, no spoilers here. It's taking some interesting directions that I hope they can sustain in the long run, unless they plan on closing shop early. I don't see this going much more than four seasons with the current trajectory they have, but who knows? I'm fearful for the future of this property, but I will say season one and two are stellar and three hasn't been bad, it's just been a step down. Also, I've been kind of going through the memory vault with the family. We watched Dumb and Dumber a couple weeks back, absolutely hilarious still. It has aged a little on me as I've gotten older. Some of the gross out parts are actually far grosser than I remember. I also think we were watching a like an unrated version or an extended cut because there was definitely scenes I had never seen before and I just thought, man these scenes suck. Why is there an extended section with Harry and Lloyd in that hot tub talking about their past misadventures that's going on far too long? Pacing was definitely off with the unrated, you know, extended cut, but Dumb and Dumber is still a classic, absolutely hilarious. A gem that most people didn't see or completely forgot about is Mel Gibson, Jody Foster, James Garner in Maverick, not to be confused with Top Gun Maverick. This one came out around 1995, 94, don't quote me. It's a Western comedy action flick, poker, shooting people, backstabbing. It's absolutely awesome. It has everything you could look for and more. My kids liked it a lot. Lindsay really liked it. My wife, I think it's a fantastic movie. It truly is. If you haven't seen it and you're in for a laugh, watch Maverick. I don't know where you can find it to be honest. I think we watched it on Amazon Prime. Probably had to pony a couple bucks for the movie. I might have bought it because it's probably eight bucks on Prime. Last movie I watched, my daughter's really getting into South Park. She's 14. That's around the time I was watching South Park. I felt like, yeah, she's mature enough to handle the immaturity of this show. And she loves it. I then informed her there was actually a movie, South Park, Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Of course, a phallic reference right there in the title. These guys are great. Matt and Trey are hilarious. She didn't know there was a movie and she was already around season four or five. I believe the movie takes place chronologically between seasons two and three. Again, don't quote me, but it is very early. I was actually amazed how early in the show's run they bopped a movie out. It took Simpsons like 14 seasons to do that. South Park, Bigger, Longer, Uncut is the gold standard. It's not just a funny comedy. It's also a brilliant musical. And I believe one of the songs, Blame Canada, was up for an Oscar, which is just hilarious. And I do remember Matt and Trey going to the award ceremony. I think they were dressed in wedding gowns. I don't know. Those guys are classic. They're clowns. Bigger, Longer, Uncut though. A solid hour and a half, hour 45 movie. It flies by. Great songs, great jokes, awesome callbacks to the show. You can't beat it. That's about it for what I'm watching. What's coming up on the horizon? Not looking great. We have the live action Little Mermaid, which I'll be going to Thursday, Stag. My family has no interest in going to this film. I don't have any interest. I do not like these Disney live action movies. So yeah, I'm going in with a chip on my shoulder. Could it surprise me? Probably not. I've seen enough of these to know the playbook now. They're going to basically repurpose the animated classic into live action. It'll have muddy looking effects, half ass performances, although I will say Halle Bailey. She looks stunning. She sounds amazing. I think she will do a great job. I just don't care. I just don't care. It's one thing, and this doesn't happen often in Hollywood because why? It's one thing when they do it wrong the first time, and they make a movie that nobody cared for, but it had a good concept. Then yes, absolutely. Try again. Remake it. The problem is, those movies typically don't do that well, so Hollywood's not going to take a chance. What they end up doing is looking at something that did very well in Disney's case, all of their movies from the past, and then they just take them and put a different coat of paint on. But almost every time, Miss what made the first one so good, which was the lovely animation, the great facial expressions, the performances, which are almost all completely lost when you translate from 2D to live action and 3D. Flounder looks horrific. He's nightmare fuel. All the critters, all the sea creatures are given this quasi-national geographic lifelike look. It doesn't translate well. We want to see the expression on the faces, so when you have this 99% real-looking fish moving his eyes around, it's creepy. I don't know. I'm going to that. Actually, that's going to be the topic for next week's podcast, so make sure to subscribe on whatever platform you're using. We're going to be talking about the love-hate relationship I have with Disney and a lot of other people. It should be a spicy conversation. And speaking of spicy conversations, let's jump in to the main topic. Top 5 movie trilogies ruined. The title's a little sloppy. It makes it sound like the movie trilogies were great and then they were ruined with like the fourth or fifth. I don't really know how to word this correctly. Top 5 almost great trilogies, I guess, would maybe be more apt, but we'll see what I end up titling this on the different platforms going forward. But you know what I mean now. These are not in any order. There are five of them. In the number five spot, again, not in order. This very well could be the number one biggest disappointment. It probably is, but we'll start here. And I'm just going to lead in with a song. I'm talking Terminator. Three. James Cameron's not happy with where this went. I can tell you that right now. July 2nd, 2003 was the release date on this bad boy. Director of Breakdown and Surrogates was responsible for this. Let's bring up the IMDb page so we can give you a full breakdown of what we have here. Directed by Jonathan Masto, who, the aforementioned director of those films, they said, a machine from a post-apocalyptic future travels back in time to protect a man and a woman from an advanced robotic assassin to ensure they both survive a nuclear attack. You would be right to think that that was the plot of Terminator 2, Judgment Day, because it is. It's the same movie, but done far, far, far worse. No more T1000. Instead, we have a TX. And in fact, Arnold's character, the T800, I don't think is even that anymore, is like a T850. He's upgraded. He's modified. Arnold's back, of course, reprising his role for the third time. Who's not back is Edward Furlong. He was very deep in alcohol abuse, I believe, or substance abuse, one or the other. He was not available. It's been a rocky road for him. I think he's since maybe recovered from it. It's a shame. I know that. But Nick Stahl is John Connor in this film. The TX, Christina Loken, Smoke Show of an actress. I don't recall her being in anything else except for the Blood Rain franchise. Those were rough. Claire Danes plays Kate Brewster. And no, we do not have Sarah Connor back. She is killed off screen via leukemia, as we all imagined she would go. The titular, not the titular character, that's Arnold. But you know, the main star from the first two films, unceremoniously killed off, this is the thing I find funnier than anything else. So Terminator Dark Fate comes out a few years back and people lose their shit because John Connor is killed off in the opening act of the movie. Edward Furlong as his, you know, 18 year old self, incredibly good deep fake technology going on with this. He's killed off and everybody loses their shit. Like you can't kill up John Connor. How dare you. Listen, we've had four or five movies with John Connor. John Connor sucks. He's not a cool character. Yeah, he leads the rebellion. Great. He's never been perceived as anything, but kind of annoying and lame. And he's been played by three or four different actors now. Four different actors have played John Connor. So there's no connection with this guy, but Sarah Connor on the other hand, Linda Hamill. I think it's Linda Hamill, not Linda Hamilton, right? Linda Hamill. Regardless, you know who I'm talking about. She was in the first two movies. She didn't change characters and she was a badass in both. I think it's Linda Hamilton. Let me look really quick. Linda Hamill. It's Linda Hamilton. Okay, Mark Hamill, Linda Hamill, Hamilton play. I'm all over. But they weren't upset when she was killed off in T3. I don't know why I was. I was really freaking annoyed. But regardless, this movie is a parody of itself. It truly is comical. At one point, Arnold's Terminator walks out and he thinks he's going to put on the cool shades or Ray Bands, but he puts on these star glasses. And that really is just a taste of what's to come. Making the villain a super hot model that inflates her boobs at one point early on. What the hell were they thinking? It's truly a testament to how Hollywood doesn't care that much about quality over just making money. James Cameron. Here, I got some fun facts for you. James Cameron did not want to direct. He didn't want to come back. Arnold was only going to return if his buddy Jim was directing again. Many years went by in between these movies begging Arnold to come back for a third. And eventually, James said to him, just take the money and run, dude. Get a big payday. Get in, get out. They're going to make this at some point regardless. You might as well be the one with your name on the check. Listen to this. I did some research for you. To reprise his iconic role as the titular cyborg, Arnold Schwarzenegger received an obscene amount of money and a host of crazy perks that would make Jack Nicholson jealous. Little shade of Jack, I guess for some reason. He received nearly 30 million to reprise the role, regardless of whether the movie was made or not. Oh my God. He also received 1.5 million for private jets, full three bedroom luxury suites, 24 seven limo service, a gym, and a bodyguard protection. And bodyguard protection, not a bodyguard. Okay. To top it all off, Schwarzenegger demanded a 20% cut of every single merchandising avenue from DVD to video game licensing, and he got it. So he made like an additional 50 bucks outside of the 30 million. I mean, yeah, he made a lot of money on this film. But at what cost? At what cost? And they continued to make these. They continued to try to reinvent, to reboot. You had Terminator Salvation, which was a futuristic post-apocalyptic version with Christian Bale now playing the character of John Connor. It wasn't very good. They rebooted again with Terminator Genesis. That one was even worse. And then they tried another soft reboot with Terminator Dark Fate, where basically it is the same plot, but now females, now strong female leads. I didn't mind this movie actually kind of enjoyed it, understanding that it is a crappy soft reboot again, understanding that it's not going to get anymore because it didn't do very well. And the only reason I did enjoy it was because at this point, I've lost all faith that they would ever make another good Terminator. And I just wanted a cool action film and I got one with it. And that's it. The only real saving grace for Terminator three, and it is a solid ending, by the way, with those nukes going off when they realize there is no stopping Judgment Day, it's just keeping John Connor and Kate alive. They're down in the bunker, watching the world blow up around them. Pretty intense. Solid ending to a very, very mediocre third outing. Next up on the shit list, this one hurts a lot actually. This probably would be my number one. I don't know why I put it here, but again, this is all over the place. Maybe it's just for excitement purposes. X-Men 3. X-3 is the next one on the list. X-Men colon the last stand. It really was, wasn't it? This movie's so bad that Brian Singer would eventually come back for the next movie and basically retcon X-Men 3 with Days of Future Past. At the end of Days of Future Past, the characters that died in X-3 and the events that took place no longer took place on the new timeline. Very impressive. And that movie is awesome. That's one of my favorites. X-Men 2, X-Men United, and X-Men Days of Future Past, favorite X-Men films, and there's some of my favorite superhero movies to date. Yeah. This movie was directed by Brett Ratner, who I believe did the Rush Hour series. He was kind of the guy you turn to when you need to get shit done quick. He did that terrible Hercules film. I think he only produced that. He also directed Red Dragon, which I actually quite enjoy. Red Dragon, is that a prequel to Silence of the Lambs? I can't remember, but I do remember enjoying it. He's cutting out the glass and he's putting it in people's eyes. It was creepy. Edward Norden's in it. Solid flick. Here's the synopsis for this one. The human government develops a cure for mutations, and Jean Grey becomes a darker, uncontrollable persona called the phoenix, who allies with Magneto, causing escalation into an all-out battle for the X-Men. Writer Simon Kinberg and Zac Pan are the ones responsible for this abomination. But this movie really had several directors and script rewrites. It's really an amalgamation of three or four different comics and movie scripts put together. You have the a cure storyline, which should have been a completely separate film. You have the dark phoenix, which should have been the only thing in this, which Brett Ratner said, I'm sorry, which Brian Singer said would have been the only thing in his version. Had he not left it to go do Superman, Fox did not want to wait for Snyder. Snyder, God, I'm screwing up. Brian Singer, Fox didn't want to wait for Brian Singer to finish Superman and come back to X-Men. So they greenlit this thing, fast forwarded it, quickly fast tracked it, and it was a huge mistake for all parties because we got a pretty mediocre Superman film and we got a really bad X-Men film. Stars in this, Patrick Stewart, Charles Xavier, there's just a cavalcade of amazing actors in this. Hugh Jackman, he's back as Logan, aka Wolverine, Halle Berry with a bigger role. She wasn't going to return, but once Brian Singer left, she had some beef with him and Ratner took over. She renegotiated her contract, got a bigger payday and got a much meatier character. In the previous two, she's kind of background. In the first one, she has an African dialect. She loses that in the sequel, and then in this third one, she gets a spicy new haircut, which is for some reason pointed out in the movie. It's very bizarre. I guess that's the character growth that they gave Halle Berry to get her to return. Kelsey Grammers in this, he's one of the newcomers as Beast, Hank McCoy. He is the highlight by far in this movie, and I read as a little bit of trivia that Kelsey Grammer actually auditioned for this role. He wanted to be in it, and he said it's the first time he's ever had to audition for a part in over 20 years, and I'm glad he did because he was great. Femke Janssen, back as Gene Gray, Ian McKellen, Sir Ian McKellen is Magneto. James Marsden barely in this as Scott Summers. He's another, I guess, innocent victim in this whole thing, but it's his own fault. He decided to also do Superman with Singer, which cut the amount of time he had available on this film in half, so they killed his ass off early on. Cyclops was never really done justice. He's always done dirty, and here is no exception. Rebecca Romain, the lovely Rebecca Romain, also had scheduling conflicts, so she was basically cured early on in the film and then kind of discarded for the rest of the movie. It sucks because Rebecca Romain had massive parts in both X-Men 1 and 2. And then you have Bobby, back, Sean Ashmore. There's just so many people. Elliott Page as Kitty Pride, previously Ellen Page when she worked on this movie. Yeah, there's too many characters. You have Angel in this. And I think what really hurts is just how discombobulated it is. The whole movie is, I think, an hour and 45. It's not even a two-hour film, which is so small of a timeframe when you're dealing with so many massive things. Angel's introduced. He cuts his wings off when the movie starts up. It's a flashback inside of a flashback because then we go to a de-aged Professor X in Magneto talking to a young Jean Grey. And it's so weird because Brian Singer set up the Dark Phoenix incredibly well in X2. She's getting these powers, something's awakening in her. She dies. She's going to be resurrected. But then for some reason they kind of retcon that and change that the Phoenix has been in her ever since she was young and it's being suppressed by Xavier and he knew about this. I didn't like any of that. It made them look incompetent. It made them look like the Jedi from the Star Wars prequels films. No. Now I will say if we didn't have X-Men 1 and 2, X3 on its own is a fun, fast, stupid action movie. There is a lot of action. Some of it's pretty damn good. It was a big budget too. I think it was over $200 million on this bad boy. Far more than the previous two entries. You can see some of it on screen. Some of it looks pretty rushed and half-assed and transitioning between some of these moments is just, it's like you're watching a sitcom. It goes so quickly. Let's see. I did write down a few more fun facts. Let's see what we have here. Brett Ratner was brought in after several directors and scripts fell through. Yeah, I already said that. Okay. So I'm kind of ahead of myself on this. Let's see. Alan Cummings. Okay. Alan Cummings as Nightcrawler didn't return. He was the highlight of X2. People were looking forward to him coming back. He did not. His absence was explained away in a video game. X-Men. The official game. I didn't play it. I did not play it. So that's X-Men 2 to X-Men 3, the complete butchering of a franchise that was supposed to be great. You could ignore X-Men 3 since days of... Well, you can't really. You could look at X-Men 3 like a horrible fever dream because days of future pass existed and fixed it. So in that respect, out of all the movies on this list, X3 probably goes down the smoothest. Although the next one on my list is going to be a little controversial for people. We have Spider-Man 3, 2007 Spider-Man 3 directed again for the third time by Sam Raimi. Now this is the first one on the list where the same director was involved in all three from the writing to the directing. Although it could be argued that Sam Raimi didn't do as much writing or directing in this one as he would have liked because Sony was there the entire time whispering sweet everythings into his ear. Have to have this. Have to have that. Put that in now. Remove this. Extend that. Make it a two-part movie. All of these things were said to him. Constantly as he was filming, he would say he was deeply unhappy with how the film turned out. And he hoped that the planned fourth film would have made up for it. X-Men 4 style. They actually had planned I believe four, five, and six. And according to Deadline, it was reported that Sony Pictures decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after director Sam Raimi pulled out of Spider-Man 4 because he felt he couldn't make its summer release date to keep the film's creative integrity. Yeah. This is a problem we see in movies and really in video games. These producers, these project managers, these companies, these higher-up studio execs have deadlines. They need to appeal to the investors. They need to keep that bottom dollar high. Which means sometimes fast-tracking movies that are in no way shape or form ready for prime time. X-Men 3 had that issue. And now we see it with Spider-Man 3. And unfortunately, it took a really good director down a peg with it. Of course, Sam Raimi would go on to do amazing movies afterwards. But yeah, this was tough. He did Doctor Strange 2 recently, which gets a lot of crap. I think that one's actually pretty solid. Not amazing by any means, but definitely not terrible and probably better than this movie. I will say this as well. Time has an ability to heal wounds. For me, Spider-Man 3 isn't as bad as I remember it. It's still a huge step down for two and a massive disappointment. But because now I know what to expect from this one, it's still watchable. It's still enjoyable. And there is some decent closure, at least in this one, with our three tight-knit friends looking off into the sunset. Pretty cliche, but it's Spider-Man. That's an okay ending. That's an alright ending. Let's look at the cast. There's a big cast here. We've got Toby McGuire as Spider-Man. We've got Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson. Tofer Grace as Venom. This is a sticking point for a lot of people, including myself. Tofer's not good here. And I like Tofer Grace, but not in this role. Thomas Hayden Church as Sandman, which was great casting. Rosemary Harris is back as Mary Parker. She's my favorite Aunt May. I love her. J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. The unreplaceable J. Jonah Jameson. It's just a good cast. You've got Elizabeth Banks in here again. Green Goblin's back. William DeFoe. Cliff Robertson makes a cameo for a flashback. A lot of, did I say Bryce Dales Howard? She was in here as Gwen Stacy as well. A blonde, Bryce Dales Howard. It's bizarre. It's very strange. And so is this movie. Here's some fun facts. All of the screams Kirsten Dunst had for this film were recycled from Spider-Man 2002 and Spider-Man 2004. Amazing. Amazing stuff. The plot synopsis for this film. A strange black entity from another world bonds with Peter Parker and causes inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge. It makes him emo basically. Emo Parker has become one of the greatest memes ever to reveal itself to the internet and the world. The Bully McGuire memes are gold. And if we didn't have Spider-Man 3, we wouldn't have those. So in a sense, Spider-Man 3 is a perfect film. This is another case of there's too much going on. Venom's storyline should have been the thing. That should have been the entire movie. But we have the Sandman stuff in here too. And that's really priority. Venom is introduced right away, kind of enhances itself on the suit, but then it's gone for a long portion of time while we focus on Sandman and build up that character. But then I don't know where Sandman disappears and now it's the Venom movie. I totally get why they wanted to split this into two. And they should have and I think you would have had a much better film. And maybe Tofer Grace is replaced. I don't know. I just don't see. I think it was more so the weird teeth that they gave him and he would pop out of the CG Venom. It looked bad. But overall, visually it is a solid movie. I'd say 80% of this movie is beautiful and it works really well. Especially the final fight where Spider-Man is banging those pipes together to get Venom out. Really cool. It holds up very well too. A lot better than that shitty new Venom movie in the sequel, Let There Be Garbage. Too many cooks in the kitchen here. Just another case of it. Let's see if I have any more notes about this one. Yeah. Well, here's a fun fact. The first shot of Sandman forming took roughly six months to create. And I know that tech that they were working on was like three years in the making. Six months for that Sandman Enter Sandman sequence with all those little pebbles forming the character. It does look fantastic. Movie, just a miss. And we wouldn't get a fourth one because of the bad blood between these two. They would reboot with the amazing Spider-Man only two years later, I think. Incredibly mediocre Amazing Spider-Man. All right, let's go. Speaking of mediocre, actually speaking of just downright awful, Blade Trinity. I don't like this movie. I only saw it once. Couldn't really tell you much about it because I hated it so much in theaters. I just swore it off. Came out in 2004. Blade, now a wanted man by the FBI, must join forces with the Night Stalkers to face his most challenging enemy yet. Dracula. Dracula's in this. How do you miss? He's going up against the big bad. Well, David S. Goyer directed and wrote, David S. Goyer does not have a good directing track record. His writing is far better, but even he misses pretty hard. On one end, he has The Dark Knight. On the other end, he has Batman v Superman, Don of Justice. Yeah, it's a mixed bag with him. Wesley Snipes back his blade kind of only has 100 lines of dialogue and some of those lines are only one word each. Chris Christofferson's back is Whistler. Parker Posey shows up in this one. Ryan Reynolds is Hannibal King. Jessica Beale as Abigail Whistler. We have a tree. Well, we have a we have a quad group of heroes here. It should have just been Blade and Whistler, but we added two more characters into this. Another case of throwing a bunch of shit into the movie so that we can make further installments possibly spin off movies, which is I believe what they wanted to do. Dominic Purcell plays Drake, aka Dracula. Yeah, he goes by Drake. Jesus help me. I genuinely don't remember anything about this film outside of those reaper dogs that open their mouths. They unhinge them. Looks terrible. They're Chihuahuas and they're doing that. Guillermo del Toro didn't come back because he got his dream job to do Hellboy. Fair enough. I really wish he would have came back because Blade two is freaking awesome. Blade one is freaking awesome. Snipes was perfectly casted. Perfectly cast. I apologize. I get crap about that. Casted is not a word. Perfectly cast in the role. Let's look up some facts about this one. When Ryan Reynolds was asked what it was like working with Wesley Snipes on the film, Reynolds said sincerely, I never met Wesley Snipes. Not for a second. I only met Blade. According to Pat in Oswald, the production was so troubled due to studio interference and that Wesley Snipes appeared to have some sort of mental breakdown. He refused to speak to David S. Goyer and often would not come out of his trailer. He would only respond to the name Blade. And if he communicated with anyone, it would be via posted notes. Ryan Reynolds corroborated this while promoting the film, saying that Snipes would ignore the entire cast. But he once acknowledged Reynolds by saying, keep your mouth shut. You'll live longer. I mean that's gold. That's gold. I don't know. I wasn't there. If I was Wesley Snipes, I probably would have been really butthurt. It was his franchise. They neutered him. They gave him very little dialogue, far less screen time and they saddled him with two partners who really had all the limelight. It was clear that the studio wanted to move past Snipes and that sucks. And so I sympathize with Wesley on this one now as far as the only answering to Blade and the posted note responses. Yeah, that's douchey. I don't know what's going on there. Actors. Actors, right? He should have got a million dollars worth of jets. He should have got his own private swimming pool and workout area and body guard and whatever the Arnold Schwarzenegger package was, that should have been on Snipes as well. Let's give him the Schwarzenegger treatment. All right, in the number one spot, again, not necessarily number one, although kind of, Alien 3, 1992, directed by David Fincher, although he would not want you to know that and neither would I honestly because David Fincher is a phenomenal director. He's one of my favorites. He did seven. He did Fight Club. He did the game. Those three movies alone are enough to go damn impressive. But then he's got social network. He's got Panic Room. He's got Zodiac. We don't really talk about Benjamin Button, but it looks good. Damn it. It looks good. Girl with the dragon tattoo. He's made amazing movies and he had to start somewhere. And unfortunately, he started with easily the worst job of his career. He came from shooting movies or I'm sorry, he came from shooting music videos and here he is getting the 500th script rewrite on the fly on the day from the studios. Different notes about where Alien should go next. Complete turmoil going on over there. The plot, if you can call it one. Returning from LV 426, Ellen Ripley crash lands on the maximum security prison, I don't even know how to say this, Florena 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcome visitor. She's the sole survivor, which means everything from two was pointless. Alien 3 opens explaining that Hicks and Newt died on their way to this stupid prison planet. All the accomplishments out the window, those people you liked, gone. Disgusting. Let's talk about the cast. There's really none. It truly is just Sigourney Weaver in this thing, from what I recall. Oh yeah, and Charles S. Dutton or Duden, however you say it, Leonard, which, was he in? No, you know what? I was thinking he was in Panic Room, but that's not him. There's really no one else. It's just Sigourney Weaver. It's her show. A bunch of people die along the way in this prison planet. I guess Lance Henriksen is in this? That's something. I'm looking down the list and no one's really standing out. Let's look at the facts though. This is great. At one point, David Fincher was denied permission by the film's producers to shoot a crucial scene in the infirmary between Ripley and the Alien, where the latter menacingly closes in on Ripley. Against orders, Fincher grabs Sigourney Weaver, a camera, and shot the scene anyway. The scene not only appears in the final cut, but also featured prominently in the trailers, and many regard it as the movie's most iconic shot. The film's production process was so chaotic and its reception by fans and critics so unfavorable that it nearly ended David Fincher's career before he even got it to grow. But two things ended up saving Fincher from permanent movie jail. The first thing was Sigourney Weaver publicly and often angrily siding with Fincher against 20th Century Fox, telling journalists that the studio had made decisions that resulted in an impossible situation for the young director, and that he would have an excellent career if given further chances. And he did. Thank you, Sigourney. As always, thank you, Sigourney. The other thing that was producer Arnold Capulson knew that he didn't respect the management at Fox, and that was part of the process where he ultimately offered Fincher a new project a few years later. The project was 7, 1995. And its massive success reignited Fincher's career, making him one of the most respected directors of his time. 7 million had been spent on sets that were never used thanks to the ever-changing script, before filming had even started. With a deadline looming, whenever director David Fincher called writer Rex Pickett to discuss his process on the script, he would let the phone ring twice, hang up and call again so that Pickett knew it was Fincher and not the studio harassing him with more demands for changes. During filming, the script was still constantly being rewritten, with new versions faxed to the studio on a near daily basis. Cast and crew often filmed a scene and learned the next day that it had already been scrapped. What a fucking nightmare. First time director David Fincher disowned the film, stating in an interview with The Guardian, I had to work on it for two years, got fired off it three times, and I had to fight for every single thing. No one hated it more than me. To this day, no one hates it more than me. He cited constant studio interference during production and actually walked out when the studio rejected his initial cut and ordered extensive reshoots. He was not involved in the final cut, but his initial rough cut later became the basis of the assembly cut, a longer version released on DVD in 2003. He had never seen it. When he was asked about the assembly cut, he said, I have not watched. Amazing. I'm glad I put that as the number one because, wow, what a roller coaster that led to an inevitable, disappointing nightmare of a final product. Some people like Alien 3. I think most go for the assembly cut. I don't believe I've seen it. I should probably give it a shot, but I just fundamentally don't agree with the entire landscape of the movie. The concept didn't work for me, felt like another rehash, another retread. The reason Ridley didn't come back was because he wanted to go into the beginnings of the Alien, of the Xenomorph. Sound familiar? It should. He would get that wish later and do Prometheus and the much hated sequel, Alien Coven Shit, as I call it, Alien Covenant. Wow. Now, there are of course other movie trilogies that have come and gone that have been nightmares as well, but I think they started earlier. So these are trilogies that had two great ones and ended in complete failure. Of course, Alien didn't end. It would go on to make Alien Resurrection and a whole bunch more, but that initial run is what I'm talking about. And we have movies like Jurassic Park, of course, that have had several sequels, but I don't care for Lost World. I know some people really like that one. It was missing all the magic of the first. I applaud them for trying something new, but the darker lean, the dumb campy dialogue and awful characters did not work for me. So that one was already out of the running, and there's several like that where the sequel just doesn't live up to the standards of the first. I would say Austin Powers maybe could fall on this list because the first two are gold and gold member is not such. But I also don't think it's horrible by any means, and it's a comedy, so I'm more lenient with that kind of thing. There's more though. There's plenty more. Let me know in the comments if you're on YouTube, your least favorite trilogy and why, you know, movies that you love the first two, and then it just dropped the ball entirely by the third act. Give me it in the comment below or top five. I'd appreciate it if you're on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I think some of them have the ability to message. I know Spotify does. Maybe I'll put a poll or a questionnaire there, and you can give me your list. Otherwise come on over to Adam does movies on YouTube. Love to have you here as well, and you can partake at least in the messaging aspect. We're now going to jump to the final portion, which is fan questions. I asked them a few weeks ago via Instagram, Facebook, things of that nature, and people had some questions. I picked out a couple that kind of stuck out. Some personal, some movie related. So we have Shaka asking, did you ever play sports? I did. I actually was in sports year round for many years in middle school and high school. I can't say I was amazing at any of them. I was in baseball. I was in football. I was in basketball a couple years. I sucked at basketball, which is too bad, because I'm really tall and have gangly long features that would have really benefited me in the sport. Football, kind of dramatic with football. I was a wide receiver. I was actually really good at football. My dad raised us on football. He was big into it. He was the quarterback. We played and practiced constantly, but my coach did not like me, did not get along with him for whatever reason. I was always kind of like a respectful person. I don't, I don't, especially as a kid, I wasn't like a douchebag. So I don't really know what happened there. So I just didn't really get to play. There was a couple years where we moved to a different town and I did start in high school as a sophomore. I started on the senior team, actually. And yeah, I did pretty well, but then we moved back and I was not played. So yeah, I have, I have a chip on my shoulder about football all these years later. Baseball, I was okay, but yeah, I played all the sports and well, all the major three sports that we did in Minnesota. And yeah, I don't look back on them as great times. I just kind of did them because I think it was expected of me. My kids are in sports, but it's really up to them. And we don't push it because we know they're not going to be major athletes in it. There's no, there's no natural talent there that goes beyond norm. Like, oh my God, if you practice, you're going to be a, you're going to be Michael Jordan. My daughter's in volleyball, my son is in basketball and they're happy playing them. We let them, we make them finish the season out because if you commit, we want them to keep the commitment. And it hasn't been a problem. Next question comes from Maynard. Do you ever plan on covering anime or foreign film? Uh, not to any substantial degree. I have done some. I did Dragon Ball Super Super Hero. That movie came out, I think it was this year still, maybe it was late last year. I liked it. I thought it was fun. And I've seen a lot of the Dragon Ball show. I also have done, I put some notes here. Memoirs of Murder. Reviewed that, really liked it. Pan's Labyrinth. I don't know if that's considered foreign or not. I mean, it's it's released in the States. I guess I don't know what's really classifying as foreign. Spirited Away. I also talked about that. The Studio Ghibli or Ghibli, not entirely sure how to pronounce it. I think it goes back and forth with people. I like a lot of those movies, Princess Mononoka, Mononoke, Coca-Cola. I don't remember the names of them, but I've seen them. The House Castle that moves, things like that. Kiki's Delivery Service. Don't remember the names, but I've seen them and I do enjoy them. So to answer your question, probably just here. Just just tepid reviews off and on. Jacoby 316. Favorite Quentin Tarantino movie. This is a good and bad for me because I adore Kill Bill. Kill Bill is the perfect marriage of Quentin bizarreness with anime, with kung fu movies of old. It all marries together. It all marinates in this beautiful stew that I absolutely eat up. Unfortunately, Kill Bill 2 exists, and I was hurt by that one. I was really hurt by that one. It was too much Tarantino. That last 30 minute black and white Superman monologue, followed by a nipple twist fatality to Kill Bill. Such a let down. I was expecting this epic sword fight on the beach since she spends the entire first movie getting a sword forged to Kill Bill. And it was such a let down. But Kill Bill 1? Oh my god, I love that movie. The action, the intensity, the Lucy Lou fight scene with the army of her men. Everything was cool. The style. She's wearing that yellow jumpsuit on the motorcycle. I love it. I love it. I like a lot of Quentin Tarantino movies though, but that one stands out. Michael underscore a underscore ss. So it's like Michael ass maybe, or maybe his middle name is a and his last name starts with an ass. I really don't know what's happening with it. I think he's just being clever with the swear word. Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson. So Wes Anderson did movies like Rushmore, Grand Budapest Hotel, Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenant Bombs. And then on the other hand you have Paul Thomas Anderson who did There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Inherent Vice I think. What else did he do? Magnolia. He did a licorice pizza I believe recently. I didn't see licorice pizza. I haven't seen a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson believe it or not. I really like There Will Be Blood though. There Will Be Blood is awesome. And I should say Wes Anderson. I really dig Rushmore. Royal Tenant Bombs is solid. Life Aquatic is very hidden miss for me. A lot of his movies are though, the quirkiness of them. It doesn't always work. And that's really what he is. He's quirky comedy with a very, very unique style to his stuff. Then you have Paul Thomas Anderson who's more, I'd say dark comedy really. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with Wes Anderson just because I like his style and how unique he is. I can't say I always like his stuff, but I do appreciate it. Although There Will Be Blood is probably my, on the list of these There Will Be Blood is my favorite. Then probably Rushmore. I need to rewatch Magnolia. I need to rewatch Magnolia. I've heard that one's amazing. Those are the questions I'm going with. There were more. Please submit more if you want. Usually I put out a post that says, Hey, give me questions for next week on the podcast and I will address the ones that I feel like. Next week, I already teased it, but we're going to be doing my love hate relationship with Disney stems back to when I was a wee little one watching the Lion King in theaters day fun. All the way up to today, watching the Lion King live action abortion that they put out. That thing was terrible. But that doesn't mean they're all bad. There's still some really good stuff coming out by Disney. Most of it doesn't do very well because they've now trained their audience to only see mega blockbusters off nostalgia. Remakes, reboots, rehashes, Requals. Nothing original seems to be lasting anymore and it's sad. And that will be a future topic as well. Nostalgia. Why we're so obsessed with it. So a couple fun topics coming up. I want to thank you for listening slash watching and I will see you next time. Take care.