Guarding the Galaxy with Alexx Bollen (3xtC)
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude. There is nothing else. Life is an obscure oboe, plumbing a ride on the omnibus of art. In the misty corridors of time, and in those corridors, I see figures. Strange figures.
AP Strange:Welcome back my friends to the AP Strange Show. I'm your host AP Strange, and today's show is brought to you by the Orgo Corp Gene Splicing Kit For Kids. If you'd like to get your, son or daughter or, monster or whatever entity occupies your house that you have legal guardianship over, head start in mad science, this is a fine way to do it. Just go to orgocorp's website, and, they'll have a future full of abominations beyond comprehension. And, speaking of abominations beyond comprehension, that's that doesn't adequately describe the movie we're gonna talk about tonight, but it does contain some of those things.
AP Strange:We're talking about for our 3rd time's a charm, episode today, Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3. I think this is the first time I've done the 3rd movie where it was a volume, but, this will be fun. It's also the 32nd Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. So to to talk about this one, which, is is probably also one of the more recent ones that I've done. We did we did Ghostbusters.
AP Strange:That was that was more recent too. But, I want I wanted to get a a one of my favorite people to listen to talking about movies on for this one, because he is one half of the hosts of John and Alex hate stuff. He also has another podcast called Wizbiz, which he cohosts with, Eric Arneson and, formerly the host of the Alex cast, and that's Alex with 2 x's. By now, you might have guessed that I'm talking about, the original bad boy of podcasting, a wonderful writer and author and a funny guy, Alex with 2 x's, Bolan. Welcome to the show, Alex.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, hello. Thank you very much for the fine intro. Just a quick question. Sorry. I know the sponsor said it's all over.
Alexx Bollen:I've already made my child an abomination using CRISPR. Could we double that up with the Orgo Corp tech or these, like, these desperate things? Because I feel like that kind of quality product could overwrite CRISPR technology. Correct?
AP Strange:It could. Yeah. But some of these things are proprietary, and that can really pose some problems. So I would write to the Orgocorp help help desk. You know?
AP Strange:That that would probably be the best option for you.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. Ola over to the ladies' neighbors.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I'm I'm and and I I feel slightly slightly weird that I'm not an abomination without counting. I mean, if that you know? If I can have
AP Strange:it through. Maybe maybe think about, you as more of a mad scientist. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. I'm the one that that creates the abominations. Okay. That's fair. No.
Alexx Bollen:I like it. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. As long as something's overly against the nature of God involving me, we're we're all good.
AP Strange:Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Existential horror and Alex Bolen, you know, they just they just go right together.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah. Hand hand in hand. And no offense. I'm probably not talking about your god.
Alexx Bollen:Calm down out there. I'm definitely talking about your god.
AP Strange:Your
Alexx Bollen:face flying spaghetti monster.
AP Strange:Well, I thought of this movie, when I was thinking about inviting you on, and then, you were kind enough to invite me on your show before I got a chance to invite you on. So, because on John and Alex hate stuff at one point, you recommended this one, guardians of the galaxy volume 3 as one of your recommendations at the end of the show. And I I had the I had the spider sense that John would never really wanna do this movie on your show.
Alexx Bollen:Your spider sense was probably correct. Yeah. I could have talked him into it though, but I you're you're right.
AP Strange:Right. Right. Because, I kinda wanted to start this one with a little bit of chat just about the MCU in general, because I feel like Oh, yeah. In in film talk, when people are talking about movies more broadly, MCU is getting like a really bad rap these days. Yeah.
AP Strange:And I mean, some of it's accurate, I guess, but, I don't know. Do do you think where where do you stand with that? Where how what are your feelings about the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Alexx Bollen:So first first aid and all encompassing desperate like, I I wasted my life. Because when you said this was the 32nd movie, and there's been some since then, I think I've seen all of them. That's a lot of hours of my life I've done this. No. You know, here's the thing.
Alexx Bollen:Are Marvel movies nearly as good as they used to be? Absolutely not. I think it would be a hard argument to make that they are. I still I still there's not one that I wouldn't watch again. I think they're all good.
Alexx Bollen:Like, there's not a miss in the bunch. Like, Iron Man 2 kinda sucks. I mean, it's not it's not terrible. The the Eternals isn't great, but, like, it's still it's still pretty watchable. Like, they're all pretty good after our fashion.
Alexx Bollen:I haven't seen I don't even know if it's out yet. The one with David Harbour and the Winter Soldier and, whatever it's called. The the expendables of the MCU. Is that even out yet?
AP Strange:I don't think so.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, okay. Yeah. Alright. Cool. So I think I've seen every single one and no.
Alexx Bollen:I'm a fan. I think there's 2 things. 1, we're really burnt out on superheroes. We should've there should be another, like, superheroes kind of took over for pirates. I think we're in for something else, and we're overdue for it.
Alexx Bollen:So we've been in the superhero thing for almost 20 years without much like, there's a little bit of zombie overlap, but pretty much we've only had blockbuster superhero movies for a while. So people are really tired of it and people like making fun of the thing that's popular. So, like, you dunk on Marvel, but it's like when people would say like, oh, what do you hate about Marvel? It's like, oh, they're all the same, but it's like, yeah. But it's pretty good.
Alexx Bollen:Like, it's same. It's it's like it's like dunking out in McDonald's where it's like, it's good. Like, it's I mean, it's unhealthy. It's like, no one's arguing this is art. I think that's the problem a lot of people too.
Alexx Bollen:They're like, oh, it's just popcorn fucking movies. It's so stupid. Yeah. It's men in capes punching each other. Of course, it's stupid.
Alexx Bollen:It's fucking great.
AP Strange:Right.
Alexx Bollen:There's a tree. All these says, I am Groot. That's awesome. You you stuck up assholes. That shit's amazing.
AP Strange:Yeah. And I mean, I I think that gets to the heart of it really because people people are would just sneer at the comic book movie as as being, even considered on the same level as any any other kind of movie. And we're not even really considering it that way at all. I mean, you said it best for the tree. I mean I mean, to think that, imagine 30 years ago somebody telling you, oh, we're gonna have a movie with a raccoon in a tree.
AP Strange:What? A superhero movie in space. That's that has nothing to do with Earth really most of the time. And and 2 of the main characters are a raccoon in a tree, you know, a humanoid tree. Yeah.
AP Strange:You'd be like, no. You're nuts. That's that's not gonna work because and I try to explain this to to the kids these days. Not that I'm older. You know?
AP Strange:We're both we're both young.
Alexx Bollen:Cool guys in the late twenties. Yeah. Yeah. No. I hear you.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. But, but, you know, once upon a time, when you had a comic book movie, it was you you had to accept that it wasn't gonna be the comic book as a movie. It was gonna have some of the characters and they were gonna change things around. And, you you just accepted this is this is some Hollywood producer's idea of what my comic book heroes are like, you know? So, and then when, when Marvel started making these movies, it was, it was a game changer because you actually had Marvel people involved doing it, you know?
AP Strange:And, like, when the first Avengers movie was out, I remember the the scene with, Mark Ruffalo as as Bruce Banner saying, like, that's my that's my secret cap. I'm always angry and turning into the Hulk and feeling like this is the first time I've ever seen the Hulk in a movie. Really. You know, that's the real Hulk and that's it made me feel the way that comic books made me feel when I was younger and I was reading it on the panel and trying to picture those the the images moving. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. That movie, especially, that that because people forget now, especially kids that, like, grew up with these movies, how fucking amazing that was. That that one hero shot in the battle of New York where they do the spinning camera around all of them, like, doing, like, dramatic poses.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:People that grew up, like I I somehow in my late twenties, but also I remember the eighties. Just let's just deal with that. It's a quantum singularity thing. But, like, in the eighties, the idea that multiple superheroes could be in one movie was impossible. Let alone multiple movies leading into 1 and it's badass.
Alexx Bollen:Like, it's fucking that's another thing about the people dunking on them to you. Like, you just don't know how good you have it. Like, you weren't there. Exactly. You didn't see someone.
AP Strange:Saying is they're all spoiled. They're spoiled. Because, sometimes adding too many characters would ruin it. Like, I'm thinking of, like, Batman forever, and they tried to cram in as as many villains as they could. And, actually, that would be a good one to talk about someday.
AP Strange:Or no. Batman and Robin is the one I'm thinking of.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Batman Forever is the third one though to keep on Right. Keep on tar cart target, which that one does have too many villains because it's got 2 face and Riddler. Though the it's kind of amazing. I mean, it's it's dog shit, but it's like watching it in the now we know what superhero movies are, it's kind of amazing.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, you and John covered that one at one point. But I so listeners, go go seek that out. But,
Alexx Bollen:Wait. We did the one with the Riddler?
AP Strange:I think it didn't
Alexx Bollen:you do that? All the time. I I keep saying John can gaslight me into saying we've done movies that we've never done before. I have no memory of doing that, but I've been doing this for, like, 8 years. I thought you did all
AP Strange:the Batman movies at some point.
Alexx Bollen:We did all the we've done all of the Christopher Nolan ones. We did the Robert Pattinson one.
AP Strange:Oh, okay.
Alexx Bollen:I don't oh, we did no. We did the first of the Tim Burton ones. I don't think we did, but, also, like like, legitimately, you probably know my show better than I do. The second the second the edit's done and it's all that fake, I just I just turned my brain gets wiped. Just new movie goes in here.
Speaker 3:Because if I
Alexx Bollen:remember all these things, I can't I can't exist.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Well, at any rate, what I was saying is, to get back to
Alexx Bollen:the point of what I was
Speaker 3:saying.
Alexx Bollen:The point. Sorry. Batman and
AP Strange:Robin. You had, mister Freeze and you had Poison Ivy, but you also were throwing in, Batgirl in that movie and Bob and and Bane. They tried to cram Bane in there too. And you you could see as a fan, like, no. No.
AP Strange:They're gonna ruin it. They tried to cram too many characters in. So yeah. I mean, it is frankly quite amazing to see each of the heroes you like from the comic books and Marvel, and then have them all converge in one movie and have each of them done right.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:Like, all all of them done justice to the characters that you actually are already familiar with. So, yeah. And I I remember at the time, a friend of mine took his kid to see the movie, and he didn't understand people cheering in their seats and and stuff like that. And he goes, I don't I mean, I just don't get it. He he goes, I I don't know why people like these movies so much.
AP Strange:And then he, in the same breath almost, said, well, I never really read the comic books. And I'm like, well, that's why you don't get it.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. You know? You know, it's kinda funny too. There's another aspect of the the modern MCU that I've been thinking about recently is that as the as the movies go on and it's harder to get the same actors for the same roles and you have to kinda start branching out and putting new things out, they're actually getting closer to the comics in that I don't know. He died and came back.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Sure. There's this guy now. It's like, I guess, we just got these 3rd string guys. I'm like, oh, we'll just talk about Spider Man off screen.
Alexx Bollen:You know, like, it's just a lot of, like, interweaving stuff starting to make less sense. And people like, oh, that that sucks. That's like, no. But that's what comic books are. They they restart fucking things all the time.
Alexx Bollen:DC's rebooted 6 times since the nineties. Like, that is comic books. And I think the kind of modern MCU, some of the stuff people are dunking on are like, no. That's just the way it works. Like, yeah.
Alexx Bollen:The popular comics got really popular and they're off doing that, but, like, now we need to make money. So it's like, I don't know. The Marvels? Sure. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Why not? The Eternals. Yeah. I guess we'll have Blade show up and then talk to some guy with a magic sword at the end of a random movie. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Sure.
AP Strange:Right. Right. Yeah. And it
Alexx Bollen:does it feels like printed.
AP Strange:Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it is a little crazy that we're at, we're we're at the 32nd movie that they've made and, it's still, it's still super entertaining as far as I'm concerned. And I think the guardians of the galaxy ones are uniquely entertaining. Like, as I already said earlier, yeah, it's it's it's amazing that they could take, a team where almost all the characters are aliens of some kind. You have one human character in the superhero team, who has barely any connection to earth really because he left earth when he was 8 years old.
AP Strange:But, but like, I think that's all really down to James Gunn as a director and writer for it. Yeah. And, like, I'm just so glad that that guy is given a huge budget to work with because
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. It's amazing. So background on me. I'm originally from New Jersey, the land of Troma, the the movie company. And I loved, Troma and Juliet, Sergeant Capucagon, NYPD, like, the later Troma.
Alexx Bollen:Well, I mean, there's much later Troma, but, like, there's this kind of Troma's heyday, and James Gunn was writing for them then. So when James Gunn started, like, when Slither came out and stuff, I'm like, oh, shit. The guy from trauma. So, like, I have, like, this, like, kind of parasocial thing with him that I, like, I really wish him well of, like, oh, that's my boy. You're you broke for that shitty company in New Jersey.
Alexx Bollen:Like, you were like, this is, like, this guy I'm rooting for, but he gets the emotionality so well. Because the other thing these movies do is if you ask someone before the first one who any of these characters are, I think 90% of people wouldn't know a single one.
AP Strange:Right.
Alexx Bollen:Like, maybe Star Lord?
AP Strange:Yeah. I think Star Lord had a little crossover in some other ones. But
Alexx Bollen:But even then, that's kind of a stretch. Like, I think I think the biggest character in all of these other than referencing Thanos, and that's only popular because of the movies, and Thanos was somewhat popular. Like, Adam Warlock is probably the biggest name in all of these. And Yeah. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:That's barely Adam Warlock.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And he's he doesn't show up until the third one. So
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. And he's not really the character we know. Like, in the comics, he's like this badass ultra entity that could, like, he could, like, eat the fucking infinity stones. And this is like, I don't know, just some some gold guy, you know.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, he's a baby. He's just a baby. Yeah. But yeah.
AP Strange:I mean, that's kinda what I mean is you have this whole it's the it's the Marvel Universe, but it's way out in the Marvel Universe. Like, this isn't connected to anything else. Yeah. That's a great place for James Gunn to exist and do No.
Alexx Bollen:It's great.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I'm really like, I'm not a huge, the DC movies have pretty much sucked universally other than one and a half of the Batman during the during the Nolan era. But I'm so excited for him to be taking over and being, like, the guy running the thing because, like, he gets comics, and he gets character in a way that's, like, very exciting for to for me. Like, this movie is like, this is my 3rd time seeing it. And, like, I still got choked up at the end. Like, it's still, like, emotionally evocative.
Alexx Bollen:And it's, like, it's crazy because it's emotionally evocative because it's, like, oh, the raccoon learned how to dance. And, like, I'm, like, literally, like, getting welded up. It's like, what the fuck? I get welded up because a CGR cartoon is dancing to fucking Florence the machine. This this James Gunn isn't fucking god at movie making.
AP Strange:Well, he is. And I think there's something to be said for his trauma background because, I mean, they're kind of universally considered trash cinema, you know.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. I mean, they all are.
AP Strange:Kind of the whole thing.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. The
AP Strange:whole deal with trauma. And, side note, if you ever told me years years ago that Lloyd Kaufman would appear in a movie that was made by Disney, sensei.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But
Alexx Bollen:Here's the pitch. Wait. Sorry. Just real quick. Here's the pitch.
Alexx Bollen:Alright. So in the future, it's you and I. We're talking. It's 1994. We're having a conversation.
Alexx Bollen:Alright. So here's what's gonna happen. Lloyd Kaufman is gonna be next to, the the wonder dog from Russia, Howard the Duck, and, and, one of one of the ravagers.
AP Strange:Right.
Alexx Bollen:And that's gonna be the side story in in like, that's impossible. Like, our brain wouldn't wrap around the the depth of that weirdness.
AP Strange:Right. It sounds like a fever dream.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. But the hell is a Cosmo. Cosmo is the name of the dog. Right?
AP Strange:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I wanna say Laika. That's the actual dog.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. So but but I I think what what that gets to is when you're making bad movies like that, there's, there's a lot of heart in it. It's it it it like, I feel like there's a you put a lot of yourself into it because Yeah. Because there's no boundaries, you know, you're kind of trying to be audacious and do whatever.
AP Strange:So they're as ridiculous as the movie is, you can actually kinda get get some of those sentimental moments that that might be harder to achieve if you were working within a rigorous structure, you know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Which is amazing that it yeah. This this happened because this should be a rigorous structure, but somehow James Gunn, I mean, he's charming, I guess. It's like, nah. I just got to do what I want.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Sure.
AP Strange:Well, sort of. Did you see, The Suicide Squad?
Alexx Bollen:I've seen both of them. I think I did both of those on the show, actually.
AP Strange:Oh, alright. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the Suicide Squad, I thought was great because he he just went really big and dumb with it. But it was Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I really liked it.
AP Strange:One. Right?
Alexx Bollen:I I love the fake the fake out beach storming scene, how we're not actually following the heroes in terms of the heroes are, like, on the other side of the island and in quotes heroes. That's it's such a brilliant book. But yeah. And him him being obsessed with hurting Nathan Fillion is chef's kiss, which happens in this movie. Like, just making this handsome, handsome man make an asset of himself on screen.
Alexx Bollen:He loves it, and I and I and I love him for
AP Strange:it. Yeah. It's good stuff. But, yeah, I mean, with all of that said, part of the story behind the scene with this movie was that James Gunn got fired in the middle of it.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, I forgot about that. You're right. Yeah. He he had posted, like, a decade ago, like, really, like, just edgelord jokes that obviously were jokes. And someone went, oh my god.
Alexx Bollen:No. He's, you know, he's he's he's anti woke. He's he's the worst person ever. And they find, oh, I totally fucking forgot about that.
AP Strange:But yeah. I mean, you're Disney hiring somebody from Trauma.
Alexx Bollen:Like Yeah. We didn't have anybody that could look into that maybe.
AP Strange:You know? I'm surprised. And then So I remember Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Sorry. Also, welcome to being on the 2 person with me. I just interrupt constantly. You know, you know how John feels. Those those those tweets were such early 2000 edgelord shit.
Alexx Bollen:Like like, just making, like, peter ass jokes and, like, just it's just edgelord shit, which if you were alive at the time or let's say, for instance, you were the host of a pop, somewhat popular podcast, maybe called the AlexCast and made a lot of those jokes, that just was the humor at the time. In context, it's I'm not saying I'm not defending the joke, but, like, I'm defending that that was there's there's there's no equivocation that that is a very specific kind of edgelordy joke. Right. And taking that out of context a decade later was fucking bananas of oh, yeah. No.
Alexx Bollen:Obviously, he's decade. He's yeah. No. He he he likes underage boys. He's like, no.
Alexx Bollen:That's, like, that's so obviously like a that's that that they could a really obvious that's like an aristocrats joke. Like, it's this is an obvious over the top joke.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, I mean, long story short, he got back in obviously and was able to do the movie.
Alexx Bollen:But it took a lot of time. Oh, god. I totally forgot about that. That was so dumb. I'm really annoyed now.
Alexx Bollen:That was so stupid. I just so I think about this a lot. Sorry. Very short sighted. So I used to host The Alex House as you know.
Alexx Bollen:And I recently had lost my host for that show that I had for episode 20 until now. So well over a decade. No. Wait. No.
Alexx Bollen:What the hell am I talking about? Like, 14 years I had the same host. And, I had to move it to somewhere else, and I moved it over and it cost money. And so the first 100 episodes have not been available for a while because I know I used language that I my current self wouldn't defend. And I don't feel like going through the first 100 episodes to try to figure out which ones are worth saving or whatever.
Alexx Bollen:I just happen to know there's some words that I wouldn't like wouldn't you know, back then they were acceptable. They're they're not now. They weren't good, but they were acceptable. Like, now that you moved them over, I'm like, I'm sure it doesn't stop on episode 100 in the kind of James Gunny thing of, like, what's sitting there? Like, what what horrible things do I say in episode 101 through 400 or whatever of that show, that I can get, you know, I can get canceled for?
Alexx Bollen:So, like, I'm in the back of my head. I'm like, do I just do I just not host it anywhere? Like, do I just pull it down? Is that is that the right thing to do? Do I spend 100 of hours listening to it to find the safe ones?
Alexx Bollen:Do I not care? Because no one gives a shit about that show and about James Gunn, so no one's ever gonna do it. But what happens if we get popular someday? So to go to my back catalog, I'd be like, you know, Alex, back when there was an argument whether, trans or the other word ending with a y was the acceptable term, you used the other term. Like, but but that year, there was literally the argument.
Alexx Bollen:Like, there are people on both sides that were both what we would call trans now. I don't know if fuck me.
Speaker 3:That's the
Alexx Bollen:one I just give because I don't know when that argument was. I'm like, oh god. This is bad. It's somewhere out there. So nobody wants to cancel it.
Alexx Bollen:Go back and listen to a 100 somewhat episodes of my show.
AP Strange:Yeah. There you go. The the road map to canceling, Alex.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I mean, fucking try it. I mean, the shit didn't go out there since I started podcasting in 2010. No one could stop me.
AP Strange:Right. That that's what makes you the original. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. The original the original, Bad Boy Podcasting AKA the Kalaika master AKA, what what are some other dumb bits I do? Shoehorning comesies into things? I think that's pretty much out.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. Something about cum gutters.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, Oh, yeah. Yeah. I forgot about cum gutters. Yeah. Hi, AP's audience.
Alexx Bollen:I'm sorry if you don't know who I am. This is this is a lot that I'm throwing out here. I kinda forget that I'm talking to more than one person because because he knows who I am and knows this nonsense. And if you don't know me, this is fucking weird, and I can only apologize.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, you know what? I can bleep a bunch of that out and
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely.
AP Strange:It'll be a mystery and then that'll be even more tantalizing. And they'll be like, what weird thing did he say?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I mean, I like a mystery, but also, you know, like, whatever. You know? What Yeah. What am I gonna try to do?
Alexx Bollen:Get him to listen to my show and be like, ugh. Now I understand the kind of nonsense he says. It's like, let's see. Whatever. What are you gonna do?
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Alexx Bollen:Got it. Yeah. Literally. It's Yeah. What's gonna happen?
AP Strange:So, I mean, the to to get back to the movie,
Alexx Bollen:the Wait. This is not sorry. Sorry. This is not because you haven't started the sentence, this doesn't count as interrupting. What are the other part threes have have you done?
Alexx Bollen:You so you said Superman 3?
AP Strange:I did Superman 3. I've done, Halloween 3, season of the witch.
Alexx Bollen:Fuck. Yeah.
AP Strange:I did well, I kinda did return of the Jedi. That was testing the waters for it. Okay. I've done King Kong versus Godzilla in 1963.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, hell yeah.
AP Strange:And Robocop 3.
Alexx Bollen:Is that the one with Nuke?
AP Strange:Yes. No. Wait. Nuke is the second one.
Alexx Bollen:Oh,
AP Strange:no. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:No.
AP Strange:No. No. No. No. No.
AP Strange:No. No. No. No. No RoboCop 3 is RoboCop with a jetpack and Japanese Android.
Alexx Bollen:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha.
AP Strange:Yep. Yep.
Alexx Bollen:I was just trying to so when you're pitching this
AP Strange:movie 3 d. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Jaws 3 d you did? Yes. Hell, yeah.
Speaker 3:When you're
Alexx Bollen:pitching this, I was trying to think of, like, and this is so this is literally a segue to going back to the movie. I do wanna kind of bring it up. Is I think as far as traditional sequels so basically saying Return of the King doesn't count because
AP Strange:it's Right.
Alexx Bollen:That's basically one story split into 3. Not you know, as far as traditional sequels are concerned, on on a pop level or maybe even deeper than pop, I think this might be the best part 3 of any series.
AP Strange:Interesting.
Alexx Bollen:Because I can't think of I mean, I do have a fondness for Godfather 3, but everybody else hates it. But, like, I can't think of another part 3 that I think is better than this one. That's why I was curious about your list of, like, if you would say one be like, oh, yep. No. My bad.
Alexx Bollen:That is a 100% better. But I can't can't think about better part 3 than this movie. I think this is really strong. I think this is stronger than on a filmic level, I think this is stronger than the first 2. On a the first 2, you just got to introduce so many cool characters and, like, obviously, you can't compare.
Alexx Bollen:But on a, like, now we just make get to make a movie with established characters. This
Speaker 3:is a
AP Strange:fucking strong film. Well, there is an argument to be made that it has the kind of finality of the third chapter of a
Alexx Bollen:trilogy. Yeah. But it wasn't written before the first one. It's kinda like my differentiation. You know?
Alexx Bollen:It's Yeah.
AP Strange:Okay. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:That's why I don't wanna count Return of the King because Return of the King's gonna win every single fucking time. It's, like, one of the best movies ever made.
AP Strange:Right.
Alexx Bollen:You can't but it's barely a part 3. It's just a it took us 3 movies to do this. You know?
AP Strange:Yeah. It was the culmination of of everything from The Hobbit on.
Alexx Bollen:Exactly. Yeah. But this is I mean, I bet you if we talked to James Gunn back in, you know, I don't know, 10 years ago or whatever when part 1 came out, I don't think he would have the vaguest clue what his outline for 3 would be. You know?
AP Strange:Yeah. I don't know. I was kinda reading up on it, and I didn't really make a note of it. But, yeah, no. I I suspect you're right.
AP Strange:I don't know that he knew how popular it
Alexx Bollen:would be or how well it would go over. So
Speaker 3:Yeah.
AP Strange:Probably wasn't thinking much beyond the first one at first.
Alexx Bollen:But he seems Yeah. That's why I love this. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. He's he seems to really personally identify with Rocket, and he's kinda said that in interviews like Rocket. Right?
Alexx Bollen:That makes sense. Yeah.
AP Strange:Emotionally tied to him. So, this movie really is about Rocket. This is this is Rocket's whole backstory. He spends the whole or most of the movie, 2 thirds of the movie, incapacitated. And that's the whole point is they're trying to save his life.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I mean, Robo Otter says it, basically. This is your story. You just didn't realize it. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I mean, that is kinda talking to the audience of, like because we do realize it over the course of it. Like, we think it's Quill, but Quill is just kind of a doofus that ends up winning. But, like, over the course of it, it's kinda like, yeah. It is rocket's the heart of the team.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. And he's the most closed off. So it's harder to unpack, like Quill wears his heart on his sleeve constantly. So you always really kinda know what's going on.
AP Strange:He obviously has issues from, you know, his mother dying when he was young and being removed from his home world. And then the second movie, you have him confronting his, his, his father. But you also have, I think the friction starting between him and Rocket in the second one. Yeah. And then in the third one, it's like, you know, Quill's drunk and yelling at him at the beginning of the movie for stealing his Zune.
AP Strange:Can we can we talk about that, a Zune?
Alexx Bollen:I would love to because I'm gonna tell you right now. I I was a bit like, I've always worked jobs where I can listen to music while doing it. You know? Fuck. I've made bad career choices.
Alexx Bollen:I had a Zune, and I still look back on it fondly. That that was a beautiful piece of machinery. It was aluminum. It it was a workhorse. All of its all of its, software was really elegant and easy to use.
Alexx Bollen:Its battery life was great. It was exponentially better than any iPad, except Microsoft sucks at everything other than making an OS that everybody it's foisted on everyone. So it stops supporting it. But fucking hey, dude. Zune was the shit, and good on them for using it.
Alexx Bollen:And I think I think connoisseurs I'm like the final of of m p 3 players. I like it. The sound was better at the Zune.
AP Strange:You're officially the only other person I've ever met that had a Zune because I had one as well. But, yeah, I I thought it was great.
Alexx Bollen:There was I kept mine for the longest time because I I don't know why, but in my head, I just had this thing where at some point, I'm gonna plug it back in and it's gonna start working again. Here's the thing. It did.
AP Strange:It did?
Alexx Bollen:I plugged it back in. It started working again, but the software was so jank and out of date that there was no way for me to get MP Threes onto it anymore. So I just used it. It's it's in app podcast downloader still worked. So I do it was just by podcast machine, which is perfect because the the battery lasts fucking forever.
Alexx Bollen:And then at some point, the software just stopped functioning on on on podcasts. So it's I just moved, like, I don't know, 4 months ago. But just before the move, that Zune still existed and was still if you plugged it in and charged it, that shit still held a charge and would play sounds, which is Wow. Yeah. Fuck yeah.
Alexx Bollen:God god bless you, Zune.
AP Strange:That's that's pretty amazing for a device in today's day and age because they're all just you know?
Alexx Bollen:Well, there's a whole Zune, like, dinosaur market, or at least there was a few years ago of, like, people, like, trading them and learning how to fix them and shit because there was, like it really is, like, almost like a vinyl thing. It's just like, no. You didn't know how good you had it. Like, this was the shit.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, well, this is really this is really enlightening and good to hear because like I said, I had one and I was the only person I knew that had one. And then people just made fun of Zunes forever. Yeah. Well Well, that's the Steve Jobs, I guess.
AP Strange:Steve Jobs did a a really good job of making the iPods seem like the coolest thing in the world. But
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. If I may if I may only more of your audience that I haven't already.
AP Strange:Yeah. Sure. Let's do that.
Alexx Bollen:Look. No one has iPods anymore. But I can tell you right now, if you're someone that looks down on someone for having a green text bubble, you are a brainwashed fucking idiot. Sorry. Oh, I do.
Alexx Bollen:You don't have an iPhone. Dude, just fucking suck suck cosmic dick. That is you brainwashed idiot. It's a goddamn text message. The only one that doesn't use that protocol is Apple.
Alexx Bollen:You you you you're holding back technology with your stupid, petty green green bubble thing. Anyway, that's my theory is on Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Yep.
AP Strange:Direct all your hate mail to alexbolen@alexbolen.com. Oh,
Alexx Bollen:please. Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm alexbolen at Blue Sky Social.
Alexx Bollen:Please, hate on me there.
AP Strange:Alex with 2 x's. That's that's how it's important.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. A l e x x b o l l e n. Feel free to cast all your hatred there and, you know, also, you know, support my creative works.
AP Strange:Yeah. We we can let them know how you feel about, tech monopolies
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, dear dear Alex, I'm one of these brainwashed idiots you just called out. You've you've convinced me.
Alexx Bollen:Otherwise, please let me support you, and then I'll direct you to my Amazon page. Five star reviews only.
AP Strange:So yeah. I mean so we got the basics of of of the, the plot right there. Rocket is injured right at the beginning. Somebody came to collect him, and he's badly injured. And when they try to resuscitate him, the proprietary technology in him tries to kill him.
AP Strange:There's a cross switch, and they need to be able to get around it. And this is what sets the whole movie in motion.
Alexx Bollen:Em, efficient efficient storytelling.
AP Strange:Yeah. It and it moves pretty quick. It's like right from the jump. But, the the Zune is important because in all of these movies, the music is important as as as Peter's tie to the world, the world that came from earth. And, it's funny because it seems universally agreed upon throughout the galaxy that earth music is the best.
AP Strange:Even the high evolutionary, who's the big bad in this movie later, is listening to, like, Mozart or something. And he's saying
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:They have the best music I've heard anywhere in the galaxy. You know?
Alexx Bollen:We gotta do something. Right?
AP Strange:But, I, I, I always thought it was fun, not only in these movies, but like in doctor strange and a couple of the other Marvel movies, how they played a lot of seventies tunes, just like seventies pop music, which made me think it was just because that's probably what the Marvel guys were listening to when they were creating these characters and making the comic books back in the seventies. You know? That's kinda where my mind went with it. But this one has a totally different soundtrack. Because of the zoom, you have now have fifties from the the eighties nineties and on.
AP Strange:So oh, how how did you think the the soundtrack update
Alexx Bollen:and the I I I loved it. Spacehog, great. Like, there's there's this whole soundtrack is just full of bangers. I think
AP Strange:In the meantime was was a great scene. Like, hearing that song, it it is like Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:And the, what's the the floating in space one was really good too?
AP Strange:Oh, was that the flaming lips?
Alexx Bollen:Yes. Is that yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I I don't actually know it off the top of my head, but I have a strong suspicion that James Gunn and I might be at least somewhat similar in age.
Alexx Bollen:Because a lot of his at least his nineties drops were exactly what I was listening to in the nineties. So I was just like, fuck yeah, dude. Like, I'm I'm I'm all this shit.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:And they're not the most, like, you search for nineties music and it'll come up on a list. Some of his seventies stuff is a little not not so very obvious, but, like, well known enough that if you're go if you just search seventies bangers, it's gonna show up on a list. So, like, Space Hog is not gonna like, if you're searching for nineties music, Space Hog is not gonna show up.
AP Strange:But everybody knows that song that listens to nineties music.
Alexx Bollen:Everybody like us who happens to be simultaneously in their late twenties and also definitely not remembers that song.
AP Strange:But Yes.
Alexx Bollen:Anybody anybody born after 90, they have no fucking idea what that is. They've never even that's never been to the radio.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And I I guess from what I was reading, he kinda needed to rush the soundtrack choices.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, really? Oh, kidding.
AP Strange:I had to job. Yeah. Right. Well, I think it had to do with, the firing and coming back in and then it's securing rights for songs. He had kinda had to go for, he he had to choose quickly.
AP Strange:So what he wanted to do.
Alexx Bollen:Also, just one real quick thing. Oh my god. James Gunn is so much fucking older than me. That dude's 58. Oh, wow.
Alexx Bollen:I I like, I legitimately thought he was under 50. He looks good
AP Strange:as shit. Since we're in our twenties.
Alexx Bollen:Wow. James Gunn, good job on you. I I just saw an interview with you the other day. 58 is that's absurd.
AP Strange:Yep.
Alexx Bollen:Wow. Yeah. Jealous.
AP Strange:And his brother is in this movie.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. His brother is in all of his movies. Yeah. He does the, he plays, Craglin. Yes.
Alexx Bollen:And he also he used to do the and I don't know if he still does, but he used to be the onset Rocket, at least in part 1. He was the guy walking around in the mocap to track where Rocket's gonna be.
AP Strange:He is in this one in some of the scenes. Oh, okay. Clearly, the one where he's dancing. He does that part.
Alexx Bollen:That makes a 100% sense. Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yep. What I thought was funny too is the woman that does the voice of Cosmo, the dog Yeah. Was in scene doing that tracking motion tracking as well for some
Speaker 3:of it.
AP Strange:Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's cool then. They had to use a CG dog for some of it and a real dog for other parts of it. But so, yeah, this movie has I mean, we might as well just say that because we're talking around it, but this movie has a dog with, telepathic powers, telekinetic powers that can talk.
AP Strange:That is basically a Russian dog that got sent into space, and attained powers through cosmic rays as is what I understand it after being abandoned by the Soviet Union Yeah. In their upper atmosphere.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. So it's it's loosely based on Laika, the space dog, the the first, in quotes, the first, animal to be in, a cheap orbit in space. Right. Which people who are around me in Portland, Oregon didn't recognize that as the name of a local studio, Laika Studios, which produced such hate great hits as Coraline and that movie with the 2 strings I don't remember the name of. Possibly the raisinets or whatever they were called.
Alexx Bollen:I moved here late. I don't know any of these things. Yeah. I just don't like it like it's like a claybation thing around here.
AP Strange:Yeah. I I mean, Cosmo is in the other movies, but she is pretty front and center in this one, at least at the beginning and at the end. You know, she she's a she's an important character. And,
Alexx Bollen:I have to work plays her. I'm sorry. Could you sorry. Could could you It
AP Strange:was a name? Oh, I'm sorry. It was a name I did not recognize, but
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. She's a no one. I mean, she's a no one. She she's not like, oh, it's played by and then you go, holy shit. That's her.
Alexx Bollen:No. It's somebody called Maria Bakalova
AP Strange:who Yes.
Alexx Bollen:She gained for yeah. Oh, she was in Borat? Yeah. Yeah. So she's just like a like a working actress.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, she's a I'm like, Dunkin' Donker. I just like I'd my my the reason I looked it up is I was expecting it was gonna be, like, it's James Gunn's wife because she's in, like, everything. I think she's in this movie somewhere.
AP Strange:Yeah. I think I saw that.
Alexx Bollen:Because his wife is the the lead, the lead female in, Peacemaker who he also show runs.
AP Strange:Okay.
Alexx Bollen:That blonde lady? I don't know if you ever saw saw the show.
AP Strange:No. No. Actually, I never I haven't gotten to that one yet. But I was gonna, everything I've heard about it is that it's pretty great, except for the people that didn't understand what the Beast Marit Maker character was supposed to be. They got mad about it.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. If you're not not, like like, soups dumb, it's really good. Right. Yeah. But, yeah, in in in the in the same way that people thought the Joker was that it was a cool antihero, like, that kind of thing of, like, if you don't understand that, like, that's that's not the guy we're rooting for, then, you know, the people that didn't understand that home that Homelander is the bad guy in The Boys.
Alexx Bollen:Right. Yeah. They're not gonna like that show.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. But yeah. I mean, that is, like, the the plus side of James kind of getting fired from this movie is that he wouldn't work for DC and made the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker and then came back and did this. So we got the best of both worlds with that.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. No, it's gonna be running all of DC, which is terrific.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had said before the show too, before we started recording, but normally I'm covering older movies as we've established in this conversation, and I'm talking about actors from a long time ago. So with this one, it's like, I I don't have as much to say about the cast except, and also there there's a lot of the same cast from the other movies. But Oh,
Alexx Bollen:yeah.
AP Strange:Chris Pratt, I think is likable. I guess a lot of people really don't like the guy, but I I find him funny, you know, and I think the the cast as an ensemble works really well together.
Alexx Bollen:Agree. The cast works really well together. And I was a big Chris Pratt guy, but, like, once he started to get handsome and started just desperately trying to be this generation's Harrison Ford, his personality started to get a little weird and, like, he wasn't as edgy or interesting. Like, his interviews back during, like, the parks and rec days, he's like a legitimately funny, kinda crass guy. But then he just kinda lean, like, kind of squeaky Christian not not not Dominican Christian, but, like, he's a he's a pretty hardcore Christian, which I know people, you know, aren't fond of.
Alexx Bollen:His pastor apparently is some kind of asshole that's, like, anti gay. That might not be a 100% true. Sorry. I shouldn't say that with such confidence. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Audience that don't doesn't know who I am. Honestly, knows who I am. You know, I just say say shit with confidence. But he I know he's a shitty pastor that people were dunking on. But, yeah, a lot of his a lot of his roles got
Speaker 3:a
Alexx Bollen:little, got a little look at me. I got a square jaw instead of, like, choosing interesting comedy roles, and I that I that gets on people's bad side.
AP Strange:Yeah. It's kinda funny because I watched the first Guardians of the Galaxy way before I ever got around to checking out Parks and Rec.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, wow.
AP Strange:So I saw it in reverse order and
Alexx Bollen:then Oh, that's interesting.
AP Strange:Yeah. I think Parks and Rec was like a pandemic binge for me. That was the first time I ever sat down and watched it. And then I'm like but his physical transformation is pretty wild.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:And then Marvel should just, you know, make that like, a, like, a diet and fitness plan, like, become a Marvel superhero because that seems to that's a that's a quite the transfer because he was, you know, that was part of the gag on Parks and Rec was that he was, like, out of shape. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah. Him and and and Kumail Manjiani for the Eternals is like they should just be like, here. This is how you do it.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Just show us show us how to get cut.
Alexx Bollen:And Yeah. I mean, basically, what you have to do is, have 1,000,000 of dollars at your expose at your disposal, not have a full time job and easy. What you do is you volunteer a live in chef and live in live in trainer, and then you just listen to them, and then you're shredded. Easy. That's Why does everybody do it?
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, it would be
Alexx Bollen:a short it would be a
AP Strange:short training video if that's the
Alexx Bollen:case. But, The the the new, additions to the cast, is I have no idea how to pronounce his name, but the guy that plays the high evolutionary is so fucking good in this. Like, that dude puts in a goddamn performance.
AP Strange:Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's he's up to the rafters with with the menace and the the the the drama of it.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. And the way he, like, turns, like, it just hit the speed that he turns is, like, fun. Like, when he's talking to Rocket where he realizes that Rocket figures out the you need to add phlebotomyces into your serum or the you know?
AP Strange:Right. You need
Alexx Bollen:to put the MacGuffin in the MacGuff cup. Like, where where he's like, where did you figure out you figured it out? And him, like, flipping out. He just has a really, like, really good, like, scary teacher yell about him.
AP Strange:Yeah. He's almost kinda, like, crazy unpredictable parent in a way where he's he's flipping out, but then you realize he's actually pleased. But but he's also annoyed. It seems like he's annoyed at Rocket for being able to figure out something he couldn't figure out.
Alexx Bollen:Which I'm I'm big on because, like, Marvel has a has a villain problem after Thanos of, like, what do you do? Right. And I'm not saying this guy can replace Thanos, but, like, that's a that's a good like, he there's this guy with a god complex and, like, he's, like, literally been alive for a really fucking long time. He's you can make an argument. He's technically god of a few planets.
Alexx Bollen:Like Yeah. He does it well. Like, that's like yeah. You got every right to be like this. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Not every right in a moral sense, but in a provable sense. You know? Like, I'm allowed to knock over the Legos I made. This motherfucker made planets of Legos. Like, who are we to stop them from stopping on them?
Alexx Bollen:You know?
AP Strange:Right. I mean, he's kind of Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of doctor doctor Moreau on a cosmic scale.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:If only there's a tiny one of him playing the piano.
AP Strange:They shoulda had that. That would have been great.
Alexx Bollen:It would be this this would I mean, I already love this movie, but this might be my favorite movie ever if there's just a tiny the the low evolutionary, and this is a tiny one of him playing an even even tinier, record player.
AP Strange:It's so obvious. Why
Alexx Bollen:I'm gonna I'm gonna quick make a time machine and go go talk to James Gunn right after you got that being fired. Bro, I got a pitch for you.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, because he's defeated at the end. Spoiler alert. I I don't really go in order with the plot. Just Oh, yeah.
AP Strange:What I do with each other. We just talk about the movie. But, it's not clear what happens to him really. I guess there was a cut scene where Drax carries him onto nowhere and he gets put in a jail cell, but you find out he's in a jail cell.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, really? Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. Because Rocket spares his life instead of killing him.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:But I mean, what young Rocket had actually ripped his face entirely off, which is, pretty brutal. That's something that that is, really shocked me when I saw it in the theater. It's like, wow. This is, dark and grotesque. And a lot you know, I was not really expecting to encounter the grotesqueery of of his experiments and and, you know, the Rockets friends, the other the other part of the lot that he kind of grew up with.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. So let me give you, like, backstory of my going to this. I'm having mental health issues as as as I as I admit to on every show I've ever been on. Not having a good week. And, like, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, fuck yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Like those first two movies, this is gonna be great. Old Alex is gonna get himself chewed up by going to the picture show. And I went to the movie theater, and I watched a young raccoon get tortured with his other friends constantly until they're murdered in front of us in front of the camera. I'm like, this was bad. That's what I say before about crying at the end.
Alexx Bollen:We're just like, oh, god. No. Oh, no. The gruff guy learned his lesson in his dancing. No.
Alexx Bollen:I can't do this. Oh, god. Man, this is leaving. Just, just Niagara Falls, Frankie Angel. Just I'm just weeping in the theater like a fucking idiot.
Alexx Bollen:I was like, this was such a bad fucking idea. I mean, it was a great idea. You know, you know, humans feel emotions or whatever, but, like, this was not what I showed up for. I was hoping for, like, The Marvels. Oh, look.
Alexx Bollen:A fun singing number. People are punching each other. Nope. Then I did not get that.
AP Strange:Stupid movie. They gave me feel feelings.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I know. Like, all of them. I was like happy and sad, mostly sad, name of my memoir.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, it's it's heavy. It's a heavy it's a heavy one. Yeah. And at the end of it, you do kinda get that band breaking up kind of thing too, where you're like, okay.
AP Strange:Well, where do we go from here? You know? And I actually the first time I watched it, I didn't stick around for all the cut or the, after credit scenes. And then in preparation for this, I watched them. But you kinda see, like, what the next phase of of the guardians is gonna look like.
AP Strange:So that's kinda cool. It continues Yeah. And Rocket becomes the new leader of of the Guardians, basically.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. The other the other the the emotional part is, like, Peter reconnecting with his grandpa.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:And they played that so well. When the grandpa looks up and he goes, Peter, and his voice kinda cracks, oh, Jesus Christ. Like, if you have any kind of, like, father issues, that's gonna that's gonna hit you right in the emotions.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. I mean, I kinda I kinda liked earlier in the movie, Mantis is trying to convince him to go see his grandfather or, like, at least think about him.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:What if what if your grandfather is still worried about you? You
Alexx Bollen:know? And he's
AP Strange:like Yeah. That's He's he's like, he's probably dead. Like, earth people die at, like, 50.
Alexx Bollen:I love that. I love the he he knows nothing about earthness of Peter Quill. It's really fun.
AP Strange:Yeah. And he's like, are you gonna die soon? And he's like, I'm not 50.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. That's another good performance in this too. It's, Pom Clementeep as as mantis. It's that kind of pure, like, innocent thing that she does is really hard to pull off. Like, that's actually, like that's some hard acting that she's doing even though it seems easy.
Alexx Bollen:Like, that, like, just raw childlike thing, and then also pulling off getting mad, but doing it in kind of a kid way. Yeah. Very impressive.
AP Strange:Yeah. And and what kinda what I was alluding to before with with the ensemble of it is the way they bounce off each other with with these these kinds of characters. It doesn't really get old for me. I I wish maybe the they could tone down the arguing a little bit. Because by the end of the movie, when there's still, like, Nebula and Mantis yelling at each other, it's just kinda like, alright.
AP Strange:Can you guys you're you're in mid peril. Can you wait until
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:We're yeah. Gotcha. We're we're like a little done at this point. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, I got it. Everybody's getting on everybody's nerves, but you got monsters closing in on you, so maybe maybe hold off on that for a minute. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:But they they changed the dynamic enough that it, like, works. I mean, that one, you're right. That is, like, a little, like, let's let's calm it down. But, like, I I the one of my favorite scenes in this is where he's you know, because Gamora's basically died and her past self is in this movie, which is, such comic book shit that I love that that's actually in a movie that costs, like, 100 of 1,000,000,000 of dollars. Like, that's so beautiful.
Alexx Bollen:But, Yeah.
AP Strange:And that he has to explain it briefly in the elevator.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. It makes no sense. It's so good. Yeah. He's talking to, that that red lady who's Rat Catcher 2 from, the Suicide Squad.
Alexx Bollen:That's the red lady in in, Orgo Corp. But I love when she goes, well, that doesn't sound like me. That sounds like her. And Chris Pratt, Star Warlord having the revelation of, like, do do I, like, do I low key wanna fuck Nebula? And they're, like, recognizing what he's doing.
Alexx Bollen:He's like, don't fucking look at me. Yeah. My dad ripped my eyes out. You can't compliment that, but it's such a it's such a fun, like, just switch of expectation for any other movie.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And and and I I mean, I love it how the you know, they're on an elevator and they're on their way to probably a gunfight to do that, you know, and they're doing this. This is what they're occupying their time with. And that seems to always be I think that stuff doesn't always work as well in the other Marvel movies as it does with the with the Guardians.
AP Strange:Like they're they're always the Guardians of the Galaxy are always distracted until the moment it's time to fight, and then they're good to go. You know? They're goofing off till the last possible second. So
Alexx Bollen:I think the other Marvel movies don't get that everybody can't be Tony Stark because everybody gets to be quippy in those movies. No one says anything that's meant to be funny other than, like, Chris Pratt. Like Yeah. He's the only one that is trying to be funny. Everybody else is funny by their just their behavior, like, accidentally.
Alexx Bollen:In other Marvel movies, it's just like everybody gets equipped and you're like, dude, calm fucking down. No not all not everybody has scriptwriters here. Like, you can't you can't have Loki being quippy, then Thor being quippy, then Tony Stark being quippy. And, like, oh, no. Look.
Alexx Bollen:Here's Captain America is now quippy. He can't be quippy. He's like a he's a 27 year old virgin. You can't you can't be quippy.
AP Strange:Boy scouts don't get to be quippy.
Alexx Bollen:Exactly. Yeah. You could be there. You could be stoic. You could be handsome.
Alexx Bollen:You could be heroic. You can you can you can be all of the good things, but you're not allowed to be quippy, sir.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they all have defined characters and limits to their characters. You know, some more than others. I mean, Drax's whole deal seems pretty shallow, but there's a lot going on with him.
AP Strange:You know? It's just like, and and and that's done really well. I I didn't write down the guy's name, but he's in a lot of other things now.
Alexx Bollen:Dave Bautista?
AP Strange:Dave Bautista. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:He's done, like, a lot of work in the last couple of years.
Alexx Bollen:K. No. He's he's doing great. Yeah. Ex professional wrestler.
Alexx Bollen:By far, at least to my money, the best transition for professional wrestler to actor that's ever happened by by a fucking mile. Like, he's really he's legitimately good at acting. Like Yeah. He only has a couple scenes in Blade Runner 2049, but he's, like, legit good.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:That scene with him where the realization is like, here's the thing. Like, you were never meant to be Drax the destroyer. You're meant to be Drax the dad. That's so good. Because that, like, his character arc of, like, he all he wants to do is kill Thanos.
Alexx Bollen:He sucks at it. Thanos gets killed off camera. He's got he's like this floating nowhere guy that's got nowhere to put his energy and, like, finding these kids is just yeah. I thought that was, like, a really beautiful little moment of what what it's what James Dunn James Dunn done done that's great is giving moments to characters that have nothing else to do like, Craglin with the arrow. The guy's got nothing to do in the movie, but they give him this arrow.
Alexx Bollen:It's all of a sudden, it's like, no. He seems really important to the movie. He's not. He's literally doesn't need to be there. It's just James Goodmon to give his brother money.
Alexx Bollen:But, like, I was emotionally invested in this man and his fucking whistle arrow.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. He's trying to carry on the yondu tradition. And the yondu actually shows up for, like, a brief vision vision. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah. Again, they're like, he just wants to give Michael Worker some money. But, like, yeah, the Batista thing is, like I mean, essentially, his character arc's over, and he still manages to give him emotional, you know, resonance in it. Same as Gamora.
Alexx Bollen:Like, her dying and coming back gives her, like, noobs zest to the show. Mhmm. Like, if she was just with Chris Pratt in this movie or just with Star Lord in this movie, it'd be boring as shit.
AP Strange:Oh, yeah. I would. Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, when when the other Gamora died and, was that an end game?
AP Strange:Or or
Alexx Bollen:One of the last 2. I I don't I I don't remember which one anything happens.
AP Strange:When she died, I remember thinking, like, oh, is she gonna come back, though? Are they gonna is that is that final? Is that for real? Yeah. Because you can never be sure.
AP Strange:But, yeah, we we basically got the alternate dimension or time lapsed version of her in this one. But, yeah, you're right. The the the arc of this and even the really silly ones like Cosmo the dog, Craglin tells her she's a bad dog at the beginning of the week for embarrassing him. And then he consistently refuses to Yeah. To take it back for the whole movie.
AP Strange:And then at the very end, he says she's a good dog, and she's very, she gets all excited. You you kinda feel great for her.
Alexx Bollen:No. That is that is a nice little, arc. The other, the other thing that we we should mention comic book wise, which is interesting, is that so Groot from the first one dies. Groot is dead. This is like his kid.
Alexx Bollen:I don't think with, like I don't think that's, like, enough attention is paid to that. They murdered 1 of the Guardians in the first movie. And then, like, basically, he came in some soil, and then his kid grew up. But, like, he doesn't remember anything. Like, he's Oh, he
AP Strange:sacrificed himself.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. But what I mean is
AP Strange:And I think I I think what happened was because I put some thought into this. Yeah. Though we were thinking about the same thing. He sacrificed himself in the first one by enveloping himself around the team and then being destroyed. And I think Rocket salvaged a piece of him and just put it in some dirt, and it just took root.
AP Strange:So I think it's still him because it's a piece of him that grew it. Because at at the beginning of this one, Groot gets destroyed, and it's just his head. And he's doing, like, a thing, like, from the movie, the thing, where it sprouts little lights, and it's just a walking head. And he's able to grow his body back really quickly, apparently. But,
Alexx Bollen:See, I took it as because, like, he's ill behaved and regrowing, I took it as, like, he's this is a full reset. That's his kid.
AP Strange:Yeah. Because he is, like, a baby in the second one.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:Baby Groot, and then he's, like, teenage Groot. And then, yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Yo. I took it as, like, full murder. Like, you took a cutting of a plant and made a new one. It's like it doesn't have the memory of the first plant. I mean, maybe he does.
Alexx Bollen:I don't know. We can be all spiritual and weird. Hey. If you say the word pray over water, the water changes its molecules.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, I I'm of the opinion that all plants and plantoids have a shared consciousness, so I don't I don't know.
Alexx Bollen:That's fine. Yeah. I'm into it.
AP Strange:Because, the other interesting thing about Groot is, of course, all he says is is I am Groot and Yeah. People that are close to him understand what he's talking about, even though he's only saying the same three words. So in this one, you have the Gamora that has no experience with Groot getting annoyed that he keeps just saying that. And then she begins to understand him by the end of the movie. Yeah.
AP Strange:And she's surprised to realize that. And and they don't really talk about the mechanics behind that, which I'm grateful for. I mean yeah.
Alexx Bollen:There's actually a throwaway line from, one of the other movies. I think it's one of the Thanos sea ones there. Endgame, whatever the heck it is. With the one where Thor is on the ship with the Guardians. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:And Thor understands Groot because he said, yes. I took some Groot in high school or something as a throwaway joke, which I hate that. Because Yeah. That means that it's not, like, some kind of psychic thing that you're, like, he's saying I am Groot and it's like kind of whatever impressing itself on your, like, consciousness. He's like that implies that it's like some kind of, like, intonality.
Alexx Bollen:Like, there's it it's an actual, like, a language that one could learn without being amongst the Groot. And that and I don't like that at all. I I like the Gamora thing. I'm close enough to you. Now I get it.
AP Strange:Yeah. But think of where Thor went to school, because he was learning magic, you know, in in Asgard. So, so I mean, there there is something to be said refer, like, a crossover between psychic abilities in a science sense and magical powers.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, okay. So Yeah.
AP Strange:Maybe maybe from the magical end of things, it would be like, I learned to talk to the trees. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Alright. No. I can take that. Or we could say, like, maybe Yggdrasil itself is just one giant Groot.
AP Strange:It could be. Yeah. Maybe Groot
Alexx Bollen:is the voice of the universe. Yeah. We all are Groot. That'd be so annoying. You get you find the end of the afterlife, and it's all you know, it's like, oh, the of Saint Peter Saint Peter, what what was the purpose of light?
Alexx Bollen:I am Groot. Oh, fuck me. Really? Alright.
AP Strange:We're doing this.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. Alright. Fine.
Alexx Bollen:What did Jesus say on the cross? He screamed up to the heavens. I am Groot. Oh, man. That's so we can't even put we can't put that in the book.
AP Strange:Maybe the cross is Groot.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Or maybe maybe Groot crucified himself to himself.
AP Strange:He could have. We're developing a whole Groot cosmology here.
Alexx Bollen:I mean, it's fine. I'd I'd as I said, I was making fun of somebody's god earlier. Let's start worshiping Groot. I'm I'm on this.
AP Strange:What's the worst that could possibly happen? Take a look around. If we wanna start a Groot religion, I mean, there's literally never been a better time to us.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. As as as 2 Americans watching some really weird shit happen. Yeah. Fuck it. Let's just let's just worship Groot.
Alexx Bollen:It's it's totally fine. Everything's good. Just worship Groot until we invade Greenland inexplicably.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And start renaming bodies of water for some reason as Los Angeles burns to the ground. Yeah. Let's do that.
Alexx Bollen:The other fun, it's nobody's voice, but, like, just voice acting wise. I love that the kind of, the Bebop and Rocksteady kind of guards when they go to the kind of pyramid planet there. Like, that is just some, like, really sweet lady's voice in this, like, yolk, like, weird warthog monster, and it's just, like, it's, like, some nice sounding lady. Like, it's a good good casting. I enjoyed that.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, that's the kind of weirdness that I absolutely love. I'm just all for it. Like, it it it subverting your expectations even though everything's bizarre. Because when you have the the absurdity ramped up to the level that it is for this kind of movie, it's harder to do that.
AP Strange:But it still takes you by surprise when you hear hear that voice come out of that pig Yeah. Person who who was named War Pig, I think, which is also a nice touch.
Alexx Bollen:Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. War pig. Yeah. But there's apparently, there's Judy Greer who I somewhat know who that is.
AP Strange:That sounds very familiar.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Oh, and Tara Strong did a voice in this as a mainframe. Tara Strong is, famous for doing every single, lady voice from your childhood.
AP Strange:Oh. Yeah. I mean, I feel like there's a whole bunch of actors that you'd recognize that have very small parts in this.
Alexx Bollen:I don't know if you've ever looked at the IMDB for this. And I would I would like to, question this. The credits are, and I quote here, in credits order. Zoe Saldanha as Gamora is under, Beauty Ravager, Molly Ravager, Fitz Gibbonock, Blerp, and then Gamora. Like, 30 people down the list.
AP Strange:Well, because when she first arrives with the Ravagers, there's a bunch of Ravagers that jump out before she enters. So if they're doing it in order of appearance yeah.
Alexx Bollen:But it's cast in credits order. Oh. I guess maybe they did credits in order of appearance, but that seems I I just I feel like slewing around me, hoobed toe, and Orland the peddler probably shouldn't have credits above Zoe Saldana.
AP Strange:I would think that as well.
Alexx Bollen:No. No. I think it is, I think it is a order of appearance. They just didn't word it that way.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:And, honestly, I just said that because I wanted to read all the dumb names that was above her because it was fun.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, there's no shortage of dumb names in this movie.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. But, like, right here, Lloyd Hoffman apparently plays the character of Griddle Mop.
AP Strange:Griddle Mop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great name.
Alexx Bollen:Rhett Miller plays Bizer Mctokalok.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, if you're out in the galaxy, you really just need lots of z's and x's and, displaced w's in your name. It's always like you could let it go.
Alexx Bollen:Also, James Gunn apparently played Lamshank in this movie.
AP Strange:Yes. I saw that as well. That's a great little moment as far as abominations go. That was the one that Mantis goes to let out of the cage. And,
Alexx Bollen:Oh, was that it? Yeah.
AP Strange:She screams at what it and yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I didn't get I didn't get that deep into each of this list, but, yeah, there's some hilarious names on here. Yep. Yeah. There's Michael Koska played naked mole rat uncredited.
AP Strange:Griddle wasn't credited. Thing. Yeah. Alright. Well, Seth Green is in there as well as Howard the Duck.
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:Notice him saying anything. I think he just groans when they're having the argument about whether or not Cosmo is a good dog.
Alexx Bollen:He either says something in the movie or in the cut scenes because I remember hearing his voice.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Because I think he has a throwaway line in the first one too in a cut scene.
AP Strange:Yes. Yep. What are your thoughts on Howard the Duck? Do you think there should be an MCU Howard the Duck movie?
Alexx Bollen:I mean, you know, tactically, the first Howard the Duck is part of the MCU.
AP Strange:That's true. Because it's Lucasfilm, so it all comes full circle
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Howard the Duck. I I no. I think he would make an interesting you know, like, the DCEU has, like, their their, animated side has nothing to do with the actual features. Like, they don't interact.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I think an animated Howard the Duck would be fine or if they've got, like, an Elseworlds kind of thing. But, like, him actually legitimately being part of the MCU and having an hour and a half feature film within it, I I don't that you know, it doesn't that doesn't that doesn't track to me. But him and I, you know, directed Disney plus or whatever, like, you know, animated thing, that'd be fun. Yeah. I like Seth Green.
AP Strange:Did you ever read the Howard the Duck comics?
Alexx Bollen:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm just I
Alexx Bollen:actually like that original movie, to be honest.
AP Strange:Me too. Yeah. But I I've joked in previous episodes that the original Howard the Duck was just perfection, and that's why they haven't remade it. It's because, it it was just so good the first time that there's no reason to, which I'm only half joking about because I I it is a fun watch.
Alexx Bollen:I've never turned it off. Like, there's a lot of the MCU. As I was saying, we started this episode of me being an MCU defender. There is quite a few of, like, the mainline MCU films that I would rather watch Howard the Duck in front of.
AP Strange:Right.
Speaker 3:I'm just
Alexx Bollen:like, nah. I'm good. Like, I don't need to see Black Widow again. I'm alright.
AP Strange:Right.
Alexx Bollen:Iron Man 2, kinda Iron Man 3. Like, there's a bunch of them. They're like, man, I'm good. But, yeah, definitely watch Howard the Duck right now.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if there were 2 channels and one was playing Howard the Duck and one was playing any MCU movie, I mean, I think, the bigger thing for me would be holy shit, Howard Duck. Like, I haven't seen that in a while, but, maybe I need to revisit it because I
Alexx Bollen:I watched it at my local bar, like, last year, 2 years ago, that it was on whatever channel they they they left on it. But, you know, sports game and or whatever, and Howard the Duck came on. And I am a friend of the bartender, and they're like, oh, yeah. Let's turn on something else. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?
Alexx Bollen:Dude, this is Howard the Duck. And, like, I, like, made them leave it on and keep the volume up because Howard the Duck was on.
AP Strange:Well, I I'm sure they appreciated it.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Well, I'm you know, it's it's it's in one of the many ways I'm a cancer in the industry because I'm sure they lost money that night.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully, we haven't lost the any, any listeners with with, with this whole conversation.
Alexx Bollen:You know, as someone that's been ragingly mediocrely successful for since 2010, I gotta tell you, you'll probably break even.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Well, that that's kinda what I'm counting on. But, but, yeah, I mean, I wasn't sure I'm not sure if I really will cover much more MCU for the 3rd time to charm, but but if I had to cover 1, I'm glad it was this one because I I feel like this is a really good third movie.
Alexx Bollen:I would say,
AP Strange:best 32nd movie in a
Alexx Bollen:Oh, well, a 100%. Yeah. Yeah. As far as all the all the franchises have gone 32nd 32 movies, definitely the best one. I'm not saying you do it next episode or next year or who knows?
Alexx Bollen:I would say that Iron Man 3 is a genuinely interesting film. Okay. Because that's, Shane Black wrote and directed that.
AP Strange:Oh.
Alexx Bollen:Shane Black did kiss kiss bang bang. He was famous in predator. He did a punch up on that, but, like, he's an he's an interesting filmmaker, and, like, it's I don't know if it's good, but it's a lot more interesting than people gave it credit for because I think we're just in the the height of MCU. What's gonna happen next? Who who's the next big bad?
Alexx Bollen:And it was just weird. And and, yeah, it's it's an interesting movie. I
AP Strange:Yeah. I I saw I know I saw it when it came out, but I really don't remember much about it. So I guess I would have to revisit it. But
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not saying, like, the, like, the big, oh my god. You need to do it. But, like, you know, there's there's not a ton of franchises that are worth talking about that got the number 3. So if you start running out, you know, maybe think about, Iron Man 3.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, well, I'm super glad that you wanted to talk to me about this or at least were willing to. I could I could drag you into this, this conversation about about Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. I usually like to wind down towards the end of it talking about where it stands within the franchise, but I think we pretty well covered that already.
Alexx Bollen:Wait. Wait. Wait. Can I do this really quick?
AP Strange:Yeah. Wait. Hold on. I don't know what it
Alexx Bollen:is, but sure. Wait. Wait. MCU. Sorry.
Alexx Bollen:You may have to, like, edit minor.
AP Strange:Yeah. No problem.
Alexx Bollen:Okay. I'm gonna do it by phases. Alex's official list of the order of MCU movies. Phase 1 goes, Iron Man followed by the avengers, followed by Captain America, followed by Iron Man 2 followed by Thor followed by The Incredible Hulk. Phase 2 goes, Captain America the Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Age of Ultron, Ant Man, Iron Man 3, and Thor the Dark World tied for last phase 3.
Alexx Bollen:Civil War, best one, Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Infinity War, Endgame, Far From Home, Ant Man and the Wasp, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, the multiverse saga. These all are kind of shit. Spider Man No Way Home is good. Eternals is okay. Oh, Shang Chi is actually kind of alright.
Alexx Bollen:Black Widow was watchable. Multiverse of Madness had some fun stuff. Love and Thunder. What kind of forever might be the worst MCU movie still very watchable. Phase 5.
Alexx Bollen:Guardians of the Galaxy 3 followed by no. No. Deadpool, Wolverine, far and away the best ones. Galaxy 3, Ant Man of the Lost Continent, followed by the Marvels, and then 2 that aren't out yet. And then phase 6, none are out.
Alexx Bollen:So the Alex's definitive list of the things I just said. Feel free to cut all of that. I was kinda hoping to find the list all in one one row, and it didn't happen. But I started talking already, and it happened.
AP Strange:Okay. But so that was a list of all the movies? Is that what
Alexx Bollen:you're talking about? Of all the phases in a row, but I feel like there wasn't enough movies on that list.
AP Strange:No. There's definitely some missing.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Well, you know, fill those in. Those are all in, 15th through 21st place.
AP Strange:Okay.
Alexx Bollen:Just like a a AI my voice.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the other ones, sequels didn't thrill me as much. The other character, well yeah. The franchise is within the franchise, I guess.
AP Strange:So, I mean, I love I love the introduction of them and then then moving along to a different story. Yeah. Not as much, you know, like winter soldier wasn't as fun for me even though I liked that story in the comics.
Alexx Bollen:I I enjoyed that movie. I I I wouldn't, you know, it's it's not it's not my favorite, but I liked it
AP Strange:quite a bit. I think I was expecting too much out of out of the doctor strange sequel too. That was, yeah. It had fun moments, but it was I don't know. It was Sam Raimi.
AP Strange:I was hoping for more, I guess. And I wasn't thrilled about Scarlet Witch being kind of a villain still.
Alexx Bollen:To me, that movie reeked of he made a really interesting kind of almost r rated superhero movie, and the studio cut it down really bad. Just some of some of the way that it cut together, it just feels like they left, like, 45 minutes on the floor. Like, it just doesn't because I know Sam Raimi's movies pretty well and that the pacing of it doesn't feel right. It feels like there was something significant excised during during the making of it. It just doesn't it doesn't feel quite right.
Alexx Bollen:And maybe we'll never know. Hell, maybe we already know. I'm not somebody that, like, nerds out behind the scenes, but, like, something stinks about that. Like, something's studio got its fingers and it's stinky to that.
AP Strange:Yeah. I feel like it got rushed a bit.
Alexx Bollen:I mean, that might be it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But this
Alexx Bollen:year, when, when a black bulb blows his fucking brains out, good times.
AP Strange:Yeah. That was pretty
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I like that. A while. Yeah.
AP Strange:That was great. Yeah. Whereas, you know, stabbing the eyeball creature in the eye at the beginning.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah. That's a good shot there. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Again, I'm a I'm a fucking defender of the Marvel movies. There's there's there's no Marvel movie that could come on right now that I'll go, like, oh, fuck this thing. There's something that I'm like, yeah. I'm not in mood for, but, like, pretty much pretty much full out. All the whole 30 whatever of them.
AP Strange:Yeah. And I mean, to to bring it back kind of to what we were saying at the beginning, this isn't high cinema, folks. This isn't high art. This is nobody's claiming it is. If if you like these movies and appreciate them the way that Alex and I do, it's because we like big dumb comic book shit.
AP Strange:We like big dumb monsters, explosions, attractive people in tight uniforms, capes, people shooting beams out of their eyes. All of this stuff is good. Everything is great. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. So it's yeah. It's funny. It's like people that, like, I I know someone that hates the MCU but is a big James Bond fan. It's like, it's literally the same thing.
Alexx Bollen:It's the same fucking thing. But they're, like, no. No. This is sophisticated. And they're, like, alright.
Alexx Bollen:Whatever. That's fine. You you believe what you gotta believe. But I just I hate to break it to you, but James Bond is a fucking superhero movie.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And, I mean, I think, James Gunn understands that on a level that a lot of movie makers don't, where it's just like, this is what people are here for. I've given the people what they want, and that's that's wonderful. I really like that a lot.
Alexx Bollen:Really looking forward to the, the Superman he's putting out. Like, it's I'm not a huge Superman guy, but, like, that that that trailer looked interesting. Like, I'd I'm definitely gonna watch it, and I'm I'm really, really curious how this works out.
AP Strange:Yeah. And, I mean, given what I've seen from Guardians of the Galaxy and the Suicide Squad, in that trailer, you could see Hawkman. You could see the Guy Gardner, Green Lantern
Speaker 3:Yeah.
AP Strange:Krypto, the Superdog. You're just like, oh, they're bringing it all out. Like, all the characters are gonna be in it, which normally I'd be nervous about, but I trust this guy. So
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. No. No. Same. Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:I I I'm really, really curious. And, also, he's the first one that on screen did the the reason people believe that, Clark and Superman are different people. In that trailer, like, Clark doesn't look like Superman. Like, he I don't know the way they shoot it or, like, just the way his hair falls. It's like not that he doesn't look like him, but it's different enough that you're like, oh, it's just a matter of disbelief.
Alexx Bollen:In every other movie, it's like, motherfucker. Come on. It's it's him. It's obviously him. That shredded 6 foot 5 guy, that's obviously Superman.
AP Strange:Right. Well, I always kinda thought that until I revisited Superman 3 and looked at Christopher Reeve because he does a pretty good job of carrying himself really differently. It's not just the glasses. You know?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah.
AP Strange:So, I mean, because that's the joke always with him is just like, how do people not know? But, I I mean, Chris really Reeve did a pretty good job of disappearing into a phone booth and looking different when he came out. So, Yeah.
Alexx Bollen:Still, his face is so the same. One of my friends was telling me I've never been a
AP Strange:super young
Alexx Bollen:guy, but one of my friends was telling me that there's an in universe explanation that he, like, radiates some kind of super, mystic power not mystic. Mystic doesn't work with him, but, like, it's like, literally, he, like, puts out, like, a vibe that he looks different is the is the is the explanation. I don't fucking know. I don't I don't read those comics. I'm not a nerd.
Alexx Bollen:I'm a dweeb. I'm a dweeb. I'm not a nerd.
AP Strange:What does make what is making that distinction between those two terms make you?
Alexx Bollen:Like, literally nothing. I just I just haven't read much Superman, and I realized as I was saying that, I'm like, I don't even know if the guy that told me that is, like, a big Superman fan. That may have been just some drug conversation I had with my friend.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I I love Superman, so I'm I am looking forward to that. But, as far as other things to look forward to, what are you what are you up to these days? You you're doing Wizbiz still and Yeah.
AP Strange:Wizbiz with
Alexx Bollen:Alex and Eric, which is a podcast about, adventure time, and we try to talk about all the cult weird things that happened therein. Eric and I are both, weirdo magician types. And then, John and Alex hate stuff, where we talk about movies every week, or every other week. And we're doing so for, geez, 7, 8 years now. So, much much the back catalog.
Alexx Bollen:And, still writing stuff. You can find my writing, on Amazon. Alex, alexxb0 l l e n. Although it has nothing to do with what I talk about on most of my podcasts, it's kind of weird magical realism or somewhat emotionality type stuff. So probably not the best thing to plug, but fuck it, Anna.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. You're supposed to plug stuff, so therefore, I've done it. Plug. It's a
AP Strange:great thing to plug. Buy Alex's book. Books. Yeah. There's multiple up there.
AP Strange:It's a really, really good powerful writing. I I enjoyed it quite a bit. So I I think people Yeah. You're you're show well too.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. You're you're a normal audience of, like, you know, the kind of weird shit with, like, periphery. It's it's really liminal, weird, strange, just odd oddball shit. So, the the the AP Strange non, non movie audience would would resonate well, I believe.
AP Strange:Well yeah. Yeah. I mean, because we do the we do a mix of both. We get a lot of magic and a lot of strange and paranormal stuff, and we get the movie stuff too. And I think, you get the best of both worlds in in your writing.
AP Strange:So
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. I try.
AP Strange:If if you like magical realism, check out Alex's work because you won't be displayed. So, alright then. Well, I think that that about wraps it up for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and pretty much the whole Marvel Universe unless I decide to do another one someday because I can I can literally do whatever I want on this show?
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. And they're gonna be spinning out part threes till the fucking sun goes out, so you're you're gonna be fine.
AP Strange:Yeah. Exactly. And, once the actors decide not to do it anymore, they'll probably just put AI versions of them in there, and they'll make
Speaker 3:They'll want
Alexx Bollen:it on there.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Entire AI movies. And then then Ultron will become a reality and murder us all.
Alexx Bollen:But Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm looking forward to it. Just the the sweet bosom of death. As long as James Spader is the voice, I'm good.
AP Strange:Yeah. If James Spader's voice is the last thing I hear, I guess I guess I'm okay with it.
Alexx Bollen:Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:Alright. Well, thanks so much for coming on, Alex. This was, this was a lot of fun.
Alexx Bollen:Thank you very much for having me.
AP Strange:Yeah. Of course. I'll talk to you soon.
Alexx Bollen:Goodbye.