Cosmic Circle Ep. 38: Blue Beetle Movie Discussion (Spoilers)

Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence> Speaker 1 00:00:16 Welcome to the Cosmic Circle, the official podcast for the cosmic circus.com. I'm Ila Ruby, and this is episode 30 something. I've lost count, but I, AMM DB will tell you the true episode number. I'm very excited to talk with you all today. Um, we are going back to our roots, I think the last podcast, or last couple podcasts ago. We talked about Secret Invasion, we talked about Barbie, and today we're gonna talk about a superhero or a comic book movie, the Blue Beetle. I'm joined by two of my very favorite people as special guests, Anthony and Vic. Speaker 2 00:00:52 Howdy, howdy. Or should I say when I started this Speaker 3 00:00:58 <laugh> Ooh, I'm gonna say Bueno. There you go. It's what am Speaker 2 00:01:02 <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:01:02 It's very late for Vic. We are spread across time zones across the entire world, but we love you guys all so much that we're, we're here to talk. Speaker 3 00:01:10 Nothing gonna stop The power of Family. Speaker 1 00:01:13 <laugh> family is our superpower, but we'll get into that. Um, so there are going to be spoilers in case you, you know, couldn't figure it out or haven't listened to another podcast. So cover your ears with some very blue headphones, um, and hop on in. All right guys, so I'm going to ask your initial impressions. What did you think of the movie, the Blue Beetle? Speaker 2 00:01:38 I'll go first. I mean, obviously I've been very excited about this movie for a while and, uh, Speaker 1 00:01:43 It's been years at this point, right? Speaker 2 00:01:45 Essentially. I mean, really, I, I apologize in advance. I will get emotional recording. This just the topic alone. It's making me tear up right now. But just from the get go guys, remember, this movie was initially gonna be straight to streaming. Speaker 1 00:02:04 It was gonna be on HBO Max, right? Speaker 2 00:02:07 Yep. And I remember fist pumping the air the moment they said, this is going to theaters, you know, I'm like, yep, finally. And, um, last summer, last fall, I completely threw myself into comics for a good four months. And, and I, blue Beetle was like something that I just spent about three weeks straight reading. So finally seeing Jaime on the big screen was just incredible. I was so happy. Um, I do have some, you know, genuine criticisms about how generic it is. It's similar to other origin stories. And I was left very, very unimpressed with the villains, both Victoria Cord and Care packs. Oh. Which, which I'll get into later and, and my written review as well. But there's a lot to unpack. But as far as the general, you know, like when I walked out of there, I was left very wowed. Uh, the suit looked amazing in pretty much every single scene. Speaker 2 00:03:04 I, the only C G I complaints I had was like that King's Crossing type moment with his dad. That looked bad. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It looked bad. Sorry. But apart from that, the movie looked incredible. Um, it hit the essence of what was most important, which is family and how they all blend together. I don't think a single person was either under or Misutilized. And, you know, you're talking about a handful of folks, grandma, mom, sister, dad, uncle. That's five people right there. That, that's not necessarily easy. I mean, the first Shazam movie did a great job and I think it had seven. You know, if you want to include the what, all five kids and the parents. So DC has a pretty good, in my impression, rolling when it comes to this aspect, which is family. And for them to do it, the Latino family to do it so well was the best thing that could happen to me this year. Speaker 3 00:04:02 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:04:02 How about you, Vic? Speaker 3 00:04:04 Well, it's weird for me 'cause I didn't care about Al. Like, I think I, my first time with Al was in Batman, the Brave and the Bold, the animation cartoon. I think that from like 50, 15 years ago, <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:04:20 Yep. Speaker 3 00:04:21 And that's such a, such a long time. And it was a great character there. Or like, I don't know if they imply, I don't know if they improvise some lines, uh, of him there, but I read that inspiration of Blue Beat, uh, the one in the Brave and the Bold was like from the comics from the eighties about teenagers. Like it was some weird comic book series. I don't remember its name, but it's not important. Was Speaker 1 00:04:53 It Teen? Was it Teen Titans? Because I know I had also read that there was a lot of borrowing from Teen Titans. Speaker 3 00:04:58 Yeah. Maybe just Teen Titans, but I think it was some, something similar, similar to Riverdale. Speaker 1 00:05:04 Oh, okay. Speaker 3 00:05:06 Archie Comics. Yeah, something similar to that. And the next time that I was like, happened to get familiar with Bobbit was in Injustice Two. Such a great mo, such a great game, such a great story. And Bobbit was a very important part of it. It was essential to the story in some, in some way at least. And I recently decided to replay it before, before the movie. And it was a really good decision because I started to notice some more things, uh, about him connecting the thing, things from the trailer to the things from the game, from the Vault series and from the comic books. And I was kinda hyped, even though I'm not a Latino, uh, I don't have a Latino heritage or, and all that. At least none that I know of. Um, but today I, so two movies, my favorite to see movie of recent few of past few years, the Flash. Speaker 3 00:06:05 And after it I watched The Blue Bit because it was a crazy day and I really enjoyed Blue Bit, even though that I walked out of The Flash and I was still hide about this movie. So, so yeah, I loved Blue Bit. Like I would give it seven, eight out of 10. Like not if you ask me when I walked straight out of the screening. Room seven out, eight out of 10 right now it's about around seven and a half. Alright. Yeah, it's good. I had some problems with it. I still have some problems with it, but they are not major problems. Like with Shazam Fury Of The Guts, for example. But yeah. But still a really good movie. And I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised that it was meant to go straight to streaming. Like you can see it. Speaker 1 00:06:57 I think that, um, that Anthony, your point that like, you were so happy when, you know, you read that it went, it made the jump, right? It was gonna be streaming and then they changed it in pre-production to theatrical. I think, um, I think at that moment, like just maybe the world realized that there was something special there. 'cause that isn't a decision that's usually made. Right. You know, movies are usually shuttered onto streaming because they don't think have on the way around have Yeah. This big box Office straw. Um, and I'll, so I love superheroes. I love comics. That's why I write for the site. Um, and I didn't really know anything about Blue Be at all. And that was kind of my first, um, I guess introduction to, to the character, you know, hearing that, oh, there he is gonna get this big splashy release. Speaker 1 00:07:44 And I thought that was cool. Um, and the rest of the information I had kind of learned from our site, from reading the articles from you, from Lizzie, from um, from Alex, from everyone else Yeah. And Vin. Um, and then we got those shots of, um, of the suit, the practical suit. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I remember. Yeah. Right. And it was like, it, there were just Jared shots. Yep. And like, uh, JLo's Head was, um, you know, popping out of this. Just these were like, the suit looked amazing. Right. And I think at that moment I'm like, I was really excited for the movie. Um, and then we got that first trailer and that was just perfect. That conveyed, you know, so much. So then I was really excited about Blue Bele. Like I, the opportunity to host this podcast came up. Speaker 1 00:08:33 I jumped and I, I claimed it because, you know, I was so excited about the trailers. I thought this movie is gonna be special. Um, and that's a very long way of, of saying that, that like, blue Bele totally met my expectations. I was, I loved it. Um, I bawled during, you know, the sequences with, um, with his father. I just like, I just was crying and crying like I thought that was so amazing and so emotional. Um, just, I thought it was a fantastic movie. It was very entertaining. It was a great, and I'm not, it wasn't really coming of age story. No. But it was, no, Speaker 2 00:09:11 It just, uh, an acceptance. Yeah. Acceptance. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:09:14 Exactly. It was, you know, kind of stepping into this new world. You know, he kind of, um, the, the whole movie was kind of about him earning his powers and like his family, you know, was part of that. He had that and that was a big strength of him before he, you know, earned his, the use of these other scare powers. And I just really enjoyed it. And I'm so excited that, you know, we're, we're talking about it today. Speaker 2 00:09:40 It's funny you mentioned the trailers. 'cause the trailers really didn't do much. Neither one of them did much for me. Really? No, it, I really, what carried it was just the sole fact of what I knew about the movie and what, and, and essentially that that suit was just like the first thing that sealed the deal. And I'm like, oh, thank God we're not going fully c g I this time practic as much as practical. I Prec c g I. But man, that suit looks good. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and it's funny 'cause the, the, the shot they got of that was when they were filming that scene where he lands on the car, which leads me into one of the first things that I noticed was Carlos Pon, which mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Mr. Perez made a very good point of writing out about a while back that he was gonna be on it. So it was one of those And Speaker 1 00:10:22 He's a Puerto Rican icon? Speaker 2 00:10:24 Yeah, well he's a telenovela icon. Like this was like, if you think of like tv, like a TV actor that's always been around, this is the guy, he's always the handsome, wealthy guy who plays the lead, who the main character falls in love with. And how do I know, I used to watch them, namely, I'll tell you one right now, DME ate. And it's funny because who else is that Pan? CES Rodriguez, if you watch, uh, the Umbrella Academy, she is Sloan the one that falls in love with Loser? Yeah. So those two used to be in a show together and it was, and you know, just in standard telenovela affair, it's wild. You know, she get hits by a car, loses her memory, gives a baby away, she goes through cosmetic surgery. But to gets back to the point, it is like Carlos, you've seen Carlos, you grow up with him and it's just like a blink and you miss it. But when you know it's him, it was just such a given. And it was so funny 'cause it was just so brief. Like, dude, my car, Speaker 1 00:11:18 My bad, the Bentley, right? I, I was looking at the I M D B credits and it's like he's, he's credited as Bentley owner, but you know, if, if you knew, you knew. And he's like, and actually that's crossed over to mainstream. Um, yes. Like if you see his face, you know who he is. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like regular people on the street. Speaker 2 00:11:34 Yep. So that, that was like, they, they're seeing the suit and that and then when it, seeing it pay off now into the movie was neat. Speaker 1 00:11:44 Well, that I could, I think that kind of leads into the rest of the cast too, because, you know, the rest of the cast is all pretty, um, iconic and special as far as, as far as, you know, his family goes, they've all mm-hmm. Very well known, um, actors and actresses, Speaker 2 00:11:59 I'd say minus the sister that plays Milagro. Yeah, that's that's true. But I mean, you've gotta have some leniency. I mean, of course, like a sibling wouldn't be as well-known compared to, you know, both his parents at p Carillo. I've seen her and a couple things. She's been around for a bit. The father, Damian Za, one of my favorites. He's an Acapulco on Apple TV plus absolutely wonderful. He plays a similar character there, like a father figure who knows best and wants to do best for his son. And, and seeing him do that same thing as Alberto was awesome. Uh, and then, you know, Rudy played by super famous Mexican American actor, comedian George Lopez. Yeah. And anyone around my age is gonna remember one thing. And that's hearing Mr. Speaker 3 00:12:45 Electric, Speaker 2 00:12:45 No, not quite right. Not quite. That's a couple years younger than me. No, it's hearing this one song because you fell asleep on the couch and the George Lopez show is on the screen. If you didn't live with that then I just don't know. I guess you just didn't have a childhood or something. But, uh, then well then I didn't, well I'm so sorry. But, uh, lastly, and, and this was the one that I was like, okay, I didn't see this one coming was Nana. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I'm actually not familiar with her, but my God, great job. Speaker 1 00:13:17 She was amazing. Speaker 2 00:13:19 Oh my God. <laugh>, I, I said, the moment I walked out of the movie, one of the first things I said in one of the other servers and I had like five people, I, so I said, raise your hand if you want a prequel series about Nana and her revolutionary days. And like, a bunch of people were like, I wanna know. I wanna know, know. Speaker 1 00:13:36 Yeah. <laugh>. So yeah, that was just perfect. You know, the casting just the right, uh, there's so much there to, to, to talk about. She was, you know, one of my absolute favorite characters. And I like that you mentioned actually the George Lopez show, because I didn't see it in late nights. I saw the George Lopez Show live. So it was <laugh> Speaker 2 00:13:54 What, you've never told me this. Speaker 1 00:13:57 I'm older than you guys. So I, I like watched it on TV as it was airing. Um, and I will make this comment, it was a little bit strange seeing George Lopez with the goatee. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I was not used to that. That was, you know, different but, you know. Yep. That was his character. So I really enjoyed that. Speaker 3 00:14:16 Well it's really weird for me 'cause I'm not American and I'm not even that familiar with those things. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, it's kind of funny. I wonder if I can find them somewhere, watch them. Speaker 2 00:14:26 Oh yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:14:27 You definitely can. Speaker 2 00:14:29 It's a standard comedy show, you know, like what you would see. It's Speaker 1 00:14:31 A sitcom. Speaker 2 00:14:32 Yeah. It's just a regular sitcom. But it was very popular. I mean, it was one of the first, you know what's funny, guess who was actually behind that? That show getting produced? You'll never guess. You'll never guess. Greg Speaker 3 00:14:41 Ante Speaker 2 00:14:42 <laugh> Sandra Bullock. Oh, Speaker 1 00:14:44 Oh, wow. Yeah, I believe that he Speaker 2 00:14:46 Could, she actually went and talked to the president of a B C and was like, we need to get Latino representation. And then got basically got that green light to get that show going. Speaker 1 00:14:54 You know? That's what that so Speaker 3 00:14:55 So she was a Betty Wise responsible but for Latinos? Speaker 2 00:15:00 Yes. She's responsible for his career, essentially. She gave him that big break that really skyrocketed. All but's granted, I mean his comedy is still popular. I mean, I listened to it growing up. It was relevant. Speaker 3 00:15:13 I see that his show is still on Lopez versus Lopez. Speaker 2 00:15:17 It's a new one that he is doing with his real life daughter, uh, as the other lead. Speaker 3 00:15:22 So I see that George Lopez a really popular icon. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:15:27 He's extremely popular. He's the most popular Mexican comedian ever. Like every Mexican knows him. Especially every Mexican American. Speaker 1 00:15:36 I wanna, and I wanna say everyone in America would like recognize him. Speaker 2 00:15:39 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People know him. Speaker 3 00:15:43 Okay, so I, so I'm excused. Speaker 1 00:15:45 You're totally excused, you know? Yeah, of Speaker 2 00:15:47 Course. I don't expect you to know. Speaker 1 00:15:49 For, for the listeners Vic is in, in Europe, do is it okay if we say where or would you prefer? Speaker 3 00:15:54 Yeah, not a problem. He's Speaker 1 00:15:55 In Poland, so I, I can see that that might not have crossed the, the Ocean coming Speaker 3 00:16:01 In some baby <laugh> Speaker 1 00:16:05 Real quick. I wanna say that though, that I thought that Sandra Bullock producing thing was very interesting and it kind of reminds me of Lucille Ball and Star Trek because the only reason that, that's exactly Speaker 2 00:16:13 What I was thinking. Speaker 1 00:16:14 Yep. I think that's such a, like a, a cool thing. Speaker 2 00:16:17 It's awesome. Look at that. Women looking out for minorities. Who would've thought <laugh>? Speaker 1 00:16:21 Yeah. Do you, okay guys, so we talked about this in the pre-show. Um, and I, I, I can't tell if if Vic is ready and your rankings for the DC movies this year. So I'm gonna get this out up front. And Vic, you're on the spot. 'cause you had very strong feelings. So there was, there was Shazam, there was Flash, um, the Flash Speaker 2 00:16:46 And now Blue, Speaker 3 00:16:46 Blue Bele and there will be Acumen. But I can rank Acumen already 'cause I know it's gonna be what it's gonna be. Okay. So just remember it's my least favorite. Not the best. 'cause I think that in some ways Blue Bele is better than the Flash. But I gonna say that Flash is on the podium. It's the first place Speaker 1 00:17:09 Number, Speaker 3 00:17:10 Number one. And then, Speaker 1 00:17:12 Okay, so Flash Flash is on the top. Flash is number one. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:17:15 I love this movie with all my heart. I re-watched it about, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna check it quickly on my phone. Speaker 2 00:17:22 He watched it this morning before he went to go see Blue Beetle. I know, Speaker 1 00:17:25 I Speaker 3 00:17:25 Saw that little group chat. I was, I had a blue beetle screening at noon, but I was stuck in traffic. Traffic. So I moved it, uh, at the areas possible screening that was in three hours. And the flash was in like 20, 25 minutes <laugh>. So I decided I'll go watch the Flash and then I go Makes sense. And watch the political Yeah. Because it was tomorrow when, when we record this, tomorrow is the last screening of the Flash before it goes on H b o Max. So, okay. I watched The Flash in total counting today 28 times. It's Yeah. 28 times. Speaker 1 00:18:00 Wow. Speaker 3 00:18:02 Yeah. I don't have a life. Sorry. Okay. Speaker 1 00:18:05 No, that's amazing. Yeah, it's like basically every day. Speaker 3 00:18:09 Yeah. Yeah. If you think about it. Yeah. So Blue Bele is number two. Shazam is number three. And Aquaman is number four. <laugh>. Yeah. I have to say it. Speaker 2 00:18:18 Blue Beetle Flash. Shazam. Aquaman. I can already tell you the same. Speaker 3 00:18:23 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:18:24 I, I'm not interested in Welcom man in any capacity. Never have been. I don't care. I could not care anything. Speaker 3 00:18:30 Ahman is kind of suck. Speaker 1 00:18:32 Okay. I so disagree with you guys on so many levels. I loved the first A just Speaker 3 00:18:37 Don't tell Meza I'm excited about. Don't tell me Shazam is the first. Don't tell me. Oh Speaker 1 00:18:40 My God, I'm from Philly. Shazam is like negative three. 'cause that like, movie made me so angry in so many ways. But we don't need to get into that <laugh>. I'm, we already Speaker 3 00:18:51 Did we we get into that in our, in our Chazen podcast. Speaker 1 00:18:55 Exactly. We two miles ago did. So, uh, blue Beetle is my number one. Um, I'm gonna reserve number two 'cause I think it might be Aquaman. I don't know. We'll see. And then I, I don't know, flash and, and Shazam are tied for, for the <laugh> number three and four. I'm sorry. Speaker 2 00:19:20 He is never gonna talk to you after this podcast. Speaker 1 00:19:23 I know. Our friendship is over. Speaker 2 00:19:24 Oh, he's long enough y'all. He's long enough. <laugh> Speaker 3 00:19:28 This guy. You guys can't, this guy is looking at you and he's really angry right now. We have to say sorry to him. Love. Speaker 1 00:19:34 I love the Flash, the character. This movie just like, wasn't it for me? I love the Flash TV show. I Speaker 3 00:19:40 Watched the old say story <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:19:42 I'm sorry. You're excused. You, you guys can see this, but Vic is holding up a Funko flash right now to the camera. Yep. Um, so we, we are all giving, you know, I'm, I'm giving my penance to the, the Funko Flash. Speaker 3 00:19:59 Good <laugh>. Just be aware. Don't say anything bad about the Flash. 'cause I'm gonna bring my big injustice to flash figure <laugh> Speaker 4 00:20:08 <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:20:09 Our, our, our fungos need to have a battle. And I'm saying this, I'm looking at all my little Marvel Funko. Most of them are Spider-Man. All right. So sorry Lizzie, if you're listening, we're going back to moving Speaker 3 00:20:22 Others. Were having fun. Speaker 1 00:20:24 I know. And you listeners especially that one person in Pittsburgh who's listened to us like 50 times per episode. Hi, welcome. Into our, our conversation <laugh>. Speaker 4 00:20:37 Oh yeah. We're recording a podcast. I almost forgot. Speaker 2 00:20:48 I can't breathe. I can't Speaker 1 00:20:49 Breathe. I can't breathe. <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:20:53 Oh, that was too funny. That was too funny. Okay, I'm so sorry. Lizzie, Speaker 1 00:20:58 All guys. So we have totally talked about this, but I wanna get down into specifics of what was your favorite part of, um, of Blue Bele? If you have one. I have to pick Speaker 2 00:21:07 One Speaker 1 00:21:07 This. Okay. You can, you can pick top three. Okay. Speaker 2 00:21:11 Yes. Okay. Okay. One of them is, there were three separate moments, but like, it's just like one thing is the fact that Hymen did video game references when he was fighting. I don't know if anybody caught it, but there was more than just the final fantasy one. The other big one was Board of Combat. Get over here. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then the last one, although I wouldn't consider it video games, but eh, whatever Dragon Ball's Z. 'cause he went Ka G da and I'm like, yep. Yep. That's totally channeling Goku. Yep. That's a hundred percent Dragon Ball's ear right there. Love that. Speaker 1 00:21:46 Over 9,000. Speaker 2 00:21:48 So that's one exactly his off off the levels. Um, two, uh, I, I screamed literally in, in laughter when there was that scene when there were infiltrating court industries. And he uses El Chaplin to get the jamer and everything. And he's like all relaxed and chilling in the truck. Well, y'all, the one song that plays is Selenas Beatty BombBomb. There's video that exists somewhere on this planet of me, Brian in diapers dancing to this song. So it means a lot to me. I mean, I've heard this song so many times. I've danced to it at so many quinceaneras I couldn't even tell you. So that one hit really hard. And then I'd say probably my favorite <laugh>, and I think this is gonna be like across the board for like, anyone that's seen this in this movie, it's Nana when she decided to show up with the glin gun, I'm sorry, but that shit was hilarious, you know? And she goes, get behind me mijo. And then what'd she do? What's, what does she yell? Just down with the imperialist? Which, um, speaking of, I don't, I don't know if anybody really caught, I know Alex did, 'cause I talked to him about it already. But there was a very interesting statue outside of court industries. It was Speaker 1 00:23:02 Columbus, right? Speaker 2 00:23:03 It is Christopher Columbus. Yeah. The original colonizer. Yep. Yeah. So it was nice to see like that parallel, because obviously Victoria is a beacon of imperial imperialism democracy. Sure. And, uh, Speaker 1 00:23:20 Military industrial complex. <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:23:22 Okay. Speaker 3 00:23:22 She's just a female Christopher Columbus in modern times. Speaker 2 00:23:26 Uh, essentially for the movie Capitalism in a sense, Speaker 3 00:23:29 For the story of the Speaker 2 00:23:30 Movie, like, hey, like we're gonna put Columbus right out front, just so if you don't get it, you were gonna get it. So yeah. Tho those were my top three. I Speaker 3 00:23:40 Had a PTs I have 13 more watching, watching this. I had, yeah. From my master thesis. 'cause I had to wrote all about it. Oh yeah. Speaker 1 00:23:48 Oh Speaker 2 00:23:49 Yeah. So what was your favorite part, Vic? Speaker 3 00:23:51 Okay. I'm not gonna repeat what you said 'cause it's, it won't be fair. It's not fair because I want to have my free Okay. Number one, um, all out blah. Oh, my solo that, yeah. It's my, it's post credit scene, but it's really my favorite scene. Like right before we started recording, I was listening to it like, he did such a, such a great, he was listening before we Yeah. Number two. Yeah. Okay. Go. Speaker 1 00:24:17 Wait. Before we, you know, before we got onto this, like the recording on the podcast, there was like 20 minutes of talk about Spotify playlists and all on all of the music. And that's what Vic's talking about. Speaker 3 00:24:31 Yeah. We have to do this <laugh>. Uh, okay. So sin number two, it will be all since with Rudy, I love Rudy. Rudy is such a great character. I mean, he was meant to be a comic relief, but I feel like everybody knows a person similar to him that acts like this. Like he wasn't really down to earth character when you think about it. Like, he was really, he was right about everything He said, like, yes, everything he said can prove Speaker 2 00:25:05 Y'all. Did anybody catch the fact that in the beginning of the movie he says that they'll wipe your memory and then turns out the care pack's memory got wiped? Did anyone notice that? Because I was just like, he was right. The whole damn Speaker 1 00:25:17 Thing. I did notice that. Speaker 3 00:25:20 Yeah. It was really, really, really amazing actually. And number three, I'm gonna say the whole family scenes were there when they're speaking, speaking in Spanish, and especially the scenes with Father, I really, I really, really love crying at movies. I really love it. Like, every time I watch my favorite movies, I cry, I cry. I can cry even on simple scenes. Like it can be an epic scene or a sad scene, but I'm gonna cry and I love it. And I'm not ashamed of this. So yeah. So the family scenes are my favorite scenes in all this, in this movie. And I really think this, this movie did a better family mo family movement than Fast Furious did with through all of their saga fa saga with Speaker 2 00:26:10 Their universe. Speaker 3 00:26:11 Yeah. So I don't, those are my So what your favorite three favorite moments? Speaker 1 00:26:16 As we, as I was watching it, I totally thought of the Fast and the Furious and totally, um, like was waiting for just that little call out because I know there was a call out in Shazam to, um, fast and the Furious, and I just kept expecting it, um, for some reason. Um, so I had, I had a couple of favorites. So I want to mention that, you know, that body horror scene, you guys nailed it in how you described it earlier in our little chat, um, where the Scarab attaches to, um, to Jaime's Spine. And like he, he becomes one and he's like figuring out what, what is going on and his family is freaking out and, and all of that. And I thought that was just a really fun scene. And the chaos was really well done and really well telegraphed. So I really enjoyed that. Speaker 1 00:27:05 Um, so the second part was Nana's braids, Nana getting the, the Gaiting gun, like you said, and just all of that. I loved everything about Nana. I just thought that was so surprising, first of all, like, just, you know, how the character had been set up. Um, and we, we have this amazing backstory and I just thought that was, that was great. And also I really liked, um, I really liked the Layer when they're at the Cord Mansion and Jenny and, um, Jaime, you know, go down the stairs, the, the funky stairs with the scab and they discover, you know, this whole layer, right? There's the music, there's the suits, there's the Blue Neon. I thought that was so much fun. Um, and just a really cool reveal. So I really enjoyed that part. Okay. So I know we talked a little bit about some criticisms. Was there anything that, in the movie that didn't work for you that, um, was your kind of least favorite or that you would wish they had done better? And Vic I'll start with you. Speaker 3 00:28:07 Yeah, so basically Victoria Cord. I love Susan Sar Saron, but to me she felt like Julian Moore in Kingsman too, basically for me, it was the same character. She, she could, you could have just removed her from the movie and it would be the same. Like, I didn't care about her at all. Uh, another thing I think that I'm not a big fan of Origin Stories recently, like the last origin story that I really liked was, I don't know if it's good to say about it was Man of Steel. And it was 10 years ago, like after this. I didn't like the, this, the movies that show the origin stories of superheroes or villains, even Joker. I liked Tracker say, okay movie, good movie. But I didn't like the whole origin story around it. So, so yeah. So Bluebeat could have done it better for me, but I'm not gonna say it was a bad way to do that. Speaker 3 00:29:07 But I don't know, I just, I feel like I needed some, I needed something more from it. Like something more could have been explored. Like if you read the comics, uh, you remember that in comics, the Scar Up didn't listen to Jaime for at least for a very, very long time. Like, it took couple, I don't know if it was couple hundred issues before they started to, you know, to have this sym symbiosis. And yeah. So that was not, not that bad, but I can live with that. And the last thing, I think this movie was kinda too long at some points, and the whole final fight could have been removed or caught or it, and yeah. So yeah, so this movie is pretty good, but I still have some minor things that I don't like and one my one, one major thing that is the villain. Yeah. But, but we could have feel that it's, she's gonna not, she's not gonna be a good villain from the first Trialers. Like, yeah. Speaker 1 00:30:22 How about you Anthony? Speaker 2 00:30:24 I actually have a couple things I didn't like about the movie. And, and he already to touched upon it, like, namely the villain. Villain was very weak. Um, and, and this consensus I've seen with a bunch of friends that have seen the movie as well. I mean, I don't see a single person walk out there saying, yeah, the villain was great. And it's just almost unanimous that we don't like it, which is fair. Okay. You know, it was supposed to be Sharon Stone, it probably would've been a little bit different had they had her instead. Um, but you know, it didn't affect it so much that it killed me. So it's just more like, I wish they would've done better with it, but I'll take what I got. And, um, really my biggest thing about the movie I didn't like was the relationship between Jaime and Kada and Kada in general. Speaker 2 00:31:07 Because Kada, like, I understand she's a sentient AI that's also alien and, but man, there was like no personality when she spoke. I mean, those voices on TikTok that do voiceovers have more personality than she did, and they went out of the way to hire Becky G mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's like, Hey, let's grab Jim Carrey and have 'em phone it in. Why you're spending the money, get the products worse out. So I was very, very frustrated. Not just that, but they had very few interactions in the comics. I mean, she does a little more than what it was in the movie I was left lacking. 'cause that was one thing I really liked was seeing Jaime react to how she talks to him. You know, you think about that final thing she said to him when he's kissing Jenny, that happens a couple times in the comics where she's like, Hey, you know, this is happening, or, you know, you should check that out, blah, blah, blah. Speaker 2 00:32:06 Um, so when, when it, when it's all said and done, I really hope that they come up with some excuse and, you know, oh, okay, now that she's bonded with Jaime a little bit, now she actually has a little bit more leeway to talk with him or something. But for now, I just feel like all they did was say, Hey, Becky G is the voice, come for that. But then they didn't do anything with it. So why, um, and then the soundtrack for me was good, but not amazing. But I'm talking about, about the score. I'm not talking about the songs played in the movie, like just what was made for the movie. I, I like it, but this is the way I described it in my review. It reminds me of the lobby music when you're in Call of Duty waiting for a match to start <laugh>. And that's not what a movie theme should be for a superhero, but I think about it. Okay. He's alien or not, he, uh, it's alien technology. So of course it's gonna sound like all, you know, neo retro, futuristic, and he lives in a semi advanced city. So I can see why there'd be more technical stuff in there. So those are my biggest gaps with the movie, which in reality aren't that much. Speaker 1 00:33:21 Yeah, I think I agree with you guys, um, on those points, I think the, so Victor in particular, I really wanted to know, and I, again, this is, you know, you have a lot of actors, you are trying to fit so much story, so much, um, character growth in a limited amount of space. Um, even though, uh, like Vic mentioned, the movie was pretty long. It was like two hours and seven minutes in Speaker 2 00:33:42 27, 7 minutes. Speaker 1 00:33:43 Yeah. It, it, it was pretty long for, for I guess a movie. Um, I really wish we had known, um, we got hints of her relationship with her brother, we got hints of her relationship with Jenny. We got hints of her personality outside of just being this money grubbing capitalist, um, military industrialist lady. And I, I wanted to dig into those pieces of her because I think they made her like, and potentially make her really interesting. Um, and now presumably she's dead. Is anyone really dead in a comic book movie? We'll find out maybe. And we can talk about that later. Um, but I just wanted more of that. 'cause I think those, um, those moments that those moments of humanity are just the most interesting. Um, I agree with you on Kaita. Um, you know, it felt like she was just a computer. She was not actually with her own personality, even though there was all this emphasis on how she chose him, um, and specifically him to be, um, you know, to, to bond with. Speaker 1 00:34:49 And, you know, she had chosen Dan Gareth before the archeologist and she had, um, she did not choose head court, um, for whatever reason. So she's got this, um, mind of her own. And we didn't really see that, um, in those interactions. Um, and I think those were my main criticisms of it. Um, just like you guys. So now I wanna get into a little bit about the cultural references, um, because I know we talked about this a lot over dmm and like we had a huge list and, you know, there was a lot of cultural specificity in this movie and a lot of things that, um, seemed like they were very, you know, like important to, you know, the community. So I wanted to hopefully talk about them and talk about, you know, what you guys thought of them. And I'll start because I saw the, I wanna mention the VIX first because even if you're not, um, you know, you're not about heritage. Like, you see that and you realize like, you know, my, my family has an immigrant background and like, that was still a thing for our family. Like I, I know that like the little Vix pot, even though they didn't have the labels, is like gonna help people. Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 00:36:05 <affirmative> no Vapor rub is, uh, iconic. If you don't have it in your household, what are you doing? Mm-hmm. Speaker 1 00:36:10 <affirmative>. Speaker 2 00:36:11 And, um, although one of my, my good friends, uh, Joseph, he, he, he did make a reference that cracked me up. He's like, I give this movie a eight out of 10 and the only reason why I don't give it a full 10 is because it was missing two things. The left and the right chunk left. Speaker 1 00:36:26 Oh, <laugh>. And those are, those are slippers, right? Yeah. Speaker 2 00:36:29 The ones that you know, mom's Yeah. Has like homie Miss Alice, which of course he says it in jest, but I was like, yeah, you're right. We didn't see a single Chala, man, something's up. But then again, Jaime is a good kid and so is me. Lado. <laugh>. So there's no need for a chala. So I understand. But man, I sat there and I counted, and I think I got like 20 references. I don't know. But I have a long list <laugh>, some of them Speaker 1 00:36:52 Are, do we wanna go through the list? Speaker 2 00:36:54 Uh, some of them are worse, some aren't. I'll tell you the ones that really got me, the ones that are just like, holy crap, I can't believe they did that. So starting off from the very beginning of the movie, I know you guys aren't gonna know this at all, but it starts off with Ree and they're a, a humorist rap group. So like, think like Lil Dickie. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like they do rap music, hip hop, but it's humor. But they also speak on like things, they have another song where they strongly speak about a girl who goes to United States and comes back and acts like She's all white. It's great. But this song in particular is a party song. Like, you put this on, get people out on the dance floor. And Alex said, the moment it came on that his whole, the whole theater started singing the dang song, <laugh>, the whole, I was like, man, I should have only to Puerto Rico to sing this movie. Speaker 2 00:37:41 I was in there with like, maybe 12 people. It was quiet, but you know what, it's okay. And, uh, that really got me, I was just like, that's a way to start a movie and really opened up my eyes. And like I mentioned earlier, there's other songs that they put in Selena, but I, I jokingly said at one point I'm like, you know, it's not really a Mexican American movie if they don't have Elte, Vicente Fe Fernandez, he's like the Elvis Presley of Mexican music, like women soon over him. And, and, and you know, he sells out stadiums and everything. He recently passed away a few years ago and, but he is still an icon. He is still a legend. So then they put on one of his most famous songs of all time Ed Ray, like anyone that's ever been to a quinceanera or anything around Hispanic people, you've heard the song believe. Speaker 2 00:38:25 You may not know it, but you've heard the dang thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, on, on the topic of music, just because I've got a couple more that came to mind, Los Ponchos, I would, would equate them to like a really classic band from like the fifties. Like, uh, man, I'm trying to think of like a, like the ink spots almost. I mean I'm talking about like way back they did folk music. Yeah. It just popular. And uh, there were some other minor ones, but I don't really care about, I was just very happy with that final fight scene because they picked one of the most iconic hip hop groups of all time. And that's Cypress Hill <laugh> with, I Ain't Going Out like that. And I was just like, okay. It started off and I couldn't hear it too well. And I'm like, man, it sounds like they're playing Cypress Hill. Speaker 2 00:39:07 Oh, that's Cypress. Oh, let's go. And I was like, yeah, this is gonna be a great scene. Everything's gonna hit hard. Um, a another little thing I noticed is when they were in the house, like I think grandma was going through the channels and one of the programs that come, well, two of the programs that come on are hilarious 'cause they reference one and the other one is just a great memory. The first one, Maria Del Barrio, one of the most iconic tele novellas. I mean, that one is so, so popular. But Talia, who is a young girl from El Barrio, you know, the hood neighborhood a lot like, like a poor neighborhood. And she goes off and meets a rich man. And so when they went and they're like, Hey, he's just like Maria, but it's backwards, you know, he is the poor girl and she is the rich one <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:39:53 So that was really funny, seeing that stereotype turned a little bit and them changing the lyrics to the song, to his name <laugh>. That is the most Hispanic thing I've ever seen. Just the absolute tease. You, you can't not mess with somebody when they get their first girlfriend or boyfriend or when they get with somebody serious. Like it's, they, you can't be left alone. You just won't be. That's life with it. <laugh>. Um, so I was like, man, what all these filmmakers, all the creators, everybody that worked on this film put their heart into it. They did their homework. You know, I, I was so happy with, with the cultural references, the positive one. And there's some negative ones in there too, which I actually really wanna talk about. 'cause they drove a big part of the story. And it's when Kara Paks is having all his memories mm-hmm. Speaker 2 00:40:44 <affirmative>, the School of the Americas, very infamous, very disliked. Because all they did was they would grab and displace troubled use or just whoever they could get their hands on. Yes. And then they, I didn't wanna say it, but yeah. And then they would just, you know, beat 'em over the head with military ideology and turn them against their own countrymen. So for them to go that deep and put it on the screen was amazing and, and necessary, you know, how many people don't actually know about this? A lot of people are gonna be like, yeah, that's, that's not a real thing. They made that up. Oh, it's very real, very real. Like exactly. That whole scene was, was true based on Yeah. The Speaker 3 00:41:28 Whole, the whole movie was the big whole pile of, you know, showing people what hate speech is and fighting hate speech. And not only racial, but ethnical, gender inequalities. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really Speaker 2 00:41:43 Important talks about it because she says, you know, why, why wasn't I chosen to run the company? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Why? Because I'm a woman. Yeah. Um, Speaker 1 00:41:51 That's another discussion. She's just, you know, she's evil, but Yeah. Speaker 3 00:41:56 Yeah. And I'm very sad that Blue wasn't released like three or four months ago. 'cause I would've used it in my master thesis. Like Yeah, I Speaker 1 00:42:04 Would've Do you wanna Speaker 3 00:42:05 I would've used it. Like, uh, Speaker 2 00:42:09 And, and uh, the other reference were the ones on the television is when she was scrolling through is Sabado Ante, which is a literally, it means giant Saturday because it's a multi-format show. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that lasts about three and a half hours. I used to watch it every Saturday night with my grandma. Oh, you did too? Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And what got me is that they showed, um, what's the name of the guy with the trumpet? Uh, the name is blanking out on me right now. Speaker 1 00:42:32 Oh. Speaker 2 00:42:33 Oh man. I can find it really fast. I know I can, I know I can. Uh, come on. Come on El It's been so long. I haven't thought about El. So they, they have this one portion of the, of the show where they let people sing poorly for fun, <laugh>. And this dude's job is to come out there with a trumpet and he plays the moment and then go e and then he grabs you and pulls you off the stage. This was entertainment for me growing up at like, what, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old every weekend. So seeing that on a big TV screen from DC I'm like, wow, y'all went there. And then Rudy later on with his, uh, Jamer device El yeah, El Speaker 1 00:43:15 The, and also the post credit scene. Speaker 2 00:43:18 I didn't stick around for that one 'cause I knew what it was. And I'm not a big fan. But you know, the fact, just when Jenny's like, why you call El Chaplin? Well, when you make your own, you call whatever you want. And then when he actually jammed it, a neat thing is in that scene, in that security scene, there's actually another popular, uh, Latino or ex Mexican comedian, Felipe Za. He's the one with the long hair that comes in and makes the funny comment at the last moment, oh, he's a very funny comedian. He, he does very good jokes about, uh, Mexican American culture in general. And I was just like, that looks like Felipe Spar. And then he opens his mouth and I'm like, oh yeah, he's got the <inaudible> voice. Definitely him. So that, that whole thing was just great. Like, I didn't, I had no idea he was gonna be in this movie. Like Carlos Monon knew that one, but that was like a neat, like, Hey, whatcha doing here? Speaker 1 00:44:04 So it's, it's not even, I wouldn't even say they're cameos, they're just like wonderful nods to just, you know, the culture and, and history of things. Um, I do wanna talk too about, there were a couple of, um, DC Universe references and a couple of things and you know, Vic Will, I'll mention the Flash. 'cause I think they said Central City has the Flash. Yeah. Um, Speaker 3 00:44:25 I think it was the, the uncle who said, yeah, yeah, metropolitan has Superman and <inaudible> has a flash. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:44:32 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's a talk about Batman being a fascist, which was very funny. Did you Speaker 2 00:44:37 Guys also, there's a Lex Corp as well in palmed sitting at some point Speaker 1 00:44:43 And the Daily Planet too. I think that was one of the advertisements, you know, and the, the Oh, yeah, Speaker 2 00:44:47 Yeah, yeah, Speaker 1 00:44:48 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:44:48 Like on the television or something. Yeah. Now it was neat. Um, also another little minor reference for those fans of what we do in the Shadows. Harvey Guillen before, when he has that final, before Speaker 3 00:45:02 He's killed, Speaker 2 00:45:03 Before he has that final, you know, standoff inventory where he corrects her about his name. He almost calls himself Guillermo, which is his name in that show, <laugh>. But then he is like, wait, my name is Cruz, you know, but I was like, wait, Harvey <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:45:17 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Speaker 3 00:45:18 It's funny. Speaker 1 00:45:20 And this was the scientist for, for people who, yes. Um, Speaker 2 00:45:23 Dr. Sanchez, the one that she kept this naming repeatedly, which is a common thing. I, I can't say many times people I've heard people say, by the way, I can't pronounce that name, I'm gonna call you this instead. Yeah. Like, that was actually not me. No. I have a, I actually have a white name. My name's not even Anthony Flagg. Oh, I'm sorry To Brake Hearts. Uh, <laugh>. But it's, it's more like they intentionally do that because they don't want to try to attempt to say a name. I can't say that it's too hard. I'm gonna say this instead. And not just that she did another thing that I, I really like because I've seen it happen, is when she fires Hyman and Milagro, he tells, she's like, get outta here. Onlay with Speaker 1 00:46:01 An accent. I noticed that how Speaker 2 00:46:02 Many times I've actually heard, I've, I've seen a white person tell a Hispanic person, Onley amigo Onley, just rushing someone else because it's not moving fast. And I was like, chills, because I'm like, that is, yes. My God. These people went all the way past the skin. They know. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm telling y'all, when I walked out that movie, I was blown away with what they were able to like mark upon it. Speaker 3 00:46:24 Yeah. By the way, one scene that was really important in this, in this scenario was Go sit Jamie, Jaime. Yeah, that's what I said, Jamie. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Speaker 2 00:46:35 Exactly. So Speaker 3 00:46:36 It's like, from what I know, Elise, from what I studied, it's one of the most racist things you can do to a person like this. Like you, you mispronounce her or his name in a way, in you Americanize it. Yeah. I don't know if that's, Speaker 2 00:46:55 That's literally, that's exactly what it is. No, that's And Speaker 1 00:46:57 Intentionally doing it too. Speaker 3 00:46:59 Yeah. It's like a thing. Oh, Speaker 2 00:47:01 It's too hard for me. I, it's, it's too difficult. It's a, it's an what's a, uh, inconvenience for me. So I just refuse to acknowledge you with your given legal name because I can't take the time to learn how to pronounce something. I mean, look at you guys. You guys took a moment and practiced how to say it and you're saying this name perfectly fine. It ain't hard. Speaker 3 00:47:18 Yeah. Those Spanish lessons for the last year, Speaker 2 00:47:21 <foreign>. Yeah. You know, um, but, but the last thing about the Latino references was, and this is the one that is the most important to me of all. I'm gonna do it without crying. I'm gonna do it without crying. There's a scene. Speaker 1 00:47:34 It's okay. There are tears. Speaker 2 00:47:35 It might come out, but there's that we're here for you with, with Jaime. I think it was right after his dad dies, you know, and his dad dies in the worst way possible where he's sitting there helpless where he can't do anything parallel to like Superman, in my opinion. And, and beautiful. But, you know, the grandma says right now is not the time to cry. We will cry when there's time, but there's work to do. And, uh, but not just that. It was when she prayed for Jaime, the way she stood, the way he stood, what she did was exactly what my grandmother used to do with me. She used to stand with in front of me the exact same way before I'd go to school before I'd go on a flight or anything like that. And I was just like, man, I wish she was here. You know? But, uh, it just gave me a deeper appreciation that, that love for grandparents and everything it permeated into like the big screen, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it wasn't just like casual. Like she was important and what she meant. And Rudy, because remember, he freaks out when Rudy gets hurt, he knows who's important and, and he stayed with it the whole time. And he never once told him, go away, I don't need you. He knew the importance of family, and if it wasn't for them, he would've failed. Speaker 1 00:48:55 Absolutely. He Speaker 2 00:48:55 Was captured and they said, well, let's rally and go get our boy. Mm-hmm. Because that's what family does. Speaker 1 00:49:03 The family was absolutely core to this and, you know, everyone's relationships. And I thought too, how interesting it was and how, um, lovely it was that both, um, both his dad and Rudy, um, you know, were very, um, like quick with their, their love and they were very outward with their love and, and emotion. And it wasn't a bad thing. It was just a very sweet and tender thing. You know, you, you care about, you know, your son and your nephew, you express that. And that was just beautiful. And I loved seeing that and seeing that expressed on the big screen. Speaker 2 00:49:40 It it was, it was just great because, you know, they touch upon the hardships that Mexican Americans really do go through, like talking about how Alberto was working three different jobs at any given time to make sure that they had everything they needed. That is true. And for a lot of people, they just don't even fathom. But I know people that get up in the morning and they'll go and cut grass, and then when that part of the day is over, they'll go and they'll be a busboy and do something else. And at the end of the night, they'll go busboy at a bar until it shuts down. Go sleep for six hours, rinse and repeat. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And guess what they don't do? They never complain. Yeah. And they show up with a smile and they work harder than anybody else, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it's, it is literally a cultural thing. Yeah. I really love, yeah. Speaker 3 00:50:26 I really love the scene from the beginning of the movie where he says, when this, when he and, uh, Jaime's mom, she says, we don't have money for it. It's not time for to talk about money. Like when he gives 20, 25% tip Yeah. Speaker 2 00:50:42 25% tip. And Yeah. And she's saying, you know, they need it more than we do. Like Yeah. Even though he's low on money, he's still looking out for someone because he knows I've been there, I've been through that. They need it. I'm trying to help. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:50:54 Today we don't worry about money. Speaker 1 00:50:56 Yep. Speaker 2 00:50:57 Yeah. No, that was beautiful. Speaker 1 00:51:01 Um, to shift a little bit, um, you know, we, we have to talk a little bit about the box office, um, and you know, we're nearing kind of the end of our conversation unfortunately. Um, you know, what are your, what are your thoughts on, you know, on, on the box office? Um, so we talked a little bit about in the pre-show about, you know, this wasn't a very high budget movie according to Hollywood Accounting, but maybe it was. Um, and the box office, I think was less than The Flash, which arguably had a lot more marketing. It had, um, you know, the stars were allowed to promote it. Um, there a lot of things went into it. What do you guys, what are your feelings? Speaker 2 00:51:43 I'm not one to count money, to be honest, and I've never done, so I do want this movie to succeed, but I think seeing how their reaction is for most people as they've been walking out in the cinema score is decent. People like the movie, I mean the, I'm gonna sound like a hypocrite. I don't really care about Rotten Tomatoes, but at least on the audience score, it's like 90 something, which is pretty credible. Like in general, people are enjoying this film. Like no one's coming out and saying, yeah, that was, you know, horrible. I can't believe I wasted, you know, two hours of my time. I understand a lot of it's paint by the numbers and it's just true, but ultimately it's still not a bad movie. Um, I just don't understand why we're so quick to doom a movie just because that first weekend it didn't blow up. Brian, I love you, Brian. Um, head writer of the Cosmic Circus mentioned, he goes, look at Elemental, that movie did not start off good and then ended up with 400 million. Yep. And I know this isn't a one-to-one comparison and there's so many other factors and things that make things different, but we're so quick to write it off and without realizing, you know what, it might not always be the dollars. Although I understand for executives, at the end of the day, that's exactly what matters to them. Speaker 2 00:53:00 At least James Gunn has said like five times by this point that maybe this movie's not part of the continuity or whatever, but Jaime is staying and he's gonna be incorporated into the universe. So at least it gives me some hope that this is what, this is in my head, the best scenario that can happen. National Cinema days this weekend, next Saturday, sorry, next Sunday, August 27th. Speaker 1 00:53:28 And if you're not, if you don't, yeah. If you don't know, that means tickets are $4 for Speaker 2 00:53:34 Any of that all day, all formats and everything. So I've already been putting that out there on my social media to tell people, Hey, go watch Blue Beetle on Sunday. It's gonna cost you four bucks, eight bucks if you go with two, do it. And maybe this won't be like a big spur. I mean, I can't imagine one day doing all that big of a difference. But what I think is this, maybe a few more people actually go see it. That word of mouth spreads and then there's your domino effect. And even if it's not like, oh, okay, this movie ended up making 250, it's gonna hit Max eventually. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and people are definitely gonna watch it then. And this is what most of the conversations are gonna sound like, and it's gonna be this, why didn't I watch this movie in the theaters, I can promise you most of the people that didn't see it and then go back and watch it on Max and they're gonna be like, oh, this was during the summer. This would've been a great time with the kids, or whatever. With that reaction, you know, hopefully they see that in saying, okay, once we get the DC Universe built up and looking decent, we'll Green Light a sequel or, or Hear Me Out Crazy Idea Booster Gold Blue Beetle movie. You can do it. Speaker 1 00:54:44 <laugh> Cast cast Speaker 2 00:54:45 Chris Pratt as Booster Gold. Million dollar billion dollars. He's, Speaker 3 00:54:50 He's, Speaker 1 00:54:50 He's too busy being Mario <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:54:53 Oh yeah. Right. Uh, Speaker 3 00:54:55 Yeah. Just don't make him the voice of Mario on Nintendo games. In Nintendo games. <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:55:02 So Vic, what do you think about the box office numbers? Because you were the one that was looking at the budgets. I didn't look at that earlier. Speaker 3 00:55:08 Yeah. I like numbers. <laugh>, I'm just gonna say this, but I think that I don't care about them. Like, just look at the speed race. Like this movie didn't make any money, but I love it. I love it. I know people who love it, but it didn't earn good money. It didn't, I think it was like, I'm gonna check it quickly, but Speaker 2 00:55:30 Over the weekend it was about 30 million if that's what you're looking up. It, it, yeah. Speaker 3 00:55:35 But I'm looking at speed price. His it's budget was 120 million and it earned 93. But I love the movie, so I don't care about the budget and the box office, like the amount of money the movie earned doesn't make it a good or bad. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, yeah. And what you said about the movie Hitting the Max, like the same thing happened with the Flash. It hit the H b O Max or Max in u s A and just became the number one, uh, movie. Or I don't, I think it was like two, three weeks straight. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> now. Yeah. So, yeah. So it doesn't matter how much movie cost or how much it earned. Yeah, I don't care about it. Yeah. But I think that now it's Blue Bit is now 43 millions worldwide. I think that it'll hit like 150, Speaker 2 00:56:33 Maybe 200. Wow. You're optimistic. I, I'm honestly, I, I hate to say it, but I'd be surprised if this movie does actually hit a hundred million dollars at the end of the day. Also, Speaker 3 00:56:40 I see that it didn't open on the worldwide markets. Like it only opened in, Speaker 2 00:56:46 In South America, Speaker 3 00:56:48 South America and Asia Pacific Speaker 2 00:56:50 And some of Europe. Yeah. So, which I, someone told me that their theater in Germany after five days is already taking it off. Speaker 1 00:56:56 Wow. Speaker 2 00:56:57 That is devastating to me. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:56:59 That's true. He, Speaker 2 00:56:59 He's like, I didn't get to watch it. Uh, it's coming off and I'm not gonna be able to make it in time. 'cause I have work. Like, what do you do? What do you like, you want, Speaker 3 00:57:06 Is Speaker 2 00:57:06 It his fault? No. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, I mean, that puts you in a precarious position. It's like, well at this point is it the theaters that are giving it a moment to fail? But granted we didn't talk about the Big Elephant in the room is that there's, there's a damn strike going on right now where these actors can't even promote their own movie. Like this poor kid, it's his birthday, it's his first major film roll and he can't even say anything about it. It has to be his mom posting a picture of him. Like that is just devastating. It's been very, Speaker 1 00:57:32 It's a hard thing. Know. Speaker 2 00:57:33 Yeah. Like, you know, he's proud. Like, have you seen the video when they told him he was, he cried and then he called his mom and they're all crying and now I'm crying. You know, like, and, and they didn't get their chance. And I saw another one, uh, one of Bruno's friends where they took a picture of her, I think like on Times Square or something looking up because she can't do it. Like, this sucks, you know, and you have to play the game and, and hopefully the writers and actors get what they deserve. But I just, I feel so bad for them. I know they're proud. They can't tell anybody. Speaker 1 00:58:06 I wouldn't have shot it from the rooftops, but you know, they can't And Speaker 2 00:58:09 I'll do it for them. I have Speaker 1 00:58:10 Exactly. And I have, that's, I have it as Speaker 2 00:58:12 Best Speaker 3 00:58:12 Higher Stunt Doubles Speaker 1 00:58:14 <laugh>. That's where the Blue Beetle Battalion comes in. Right. That's where, where all these folks talking about it. That's where we come in and, you know, to echo what you guys said, I really want this to do well. 'cause I think, you know, it was just such a charming movie and I wanna see more of this universe. Um, which actually brings me back to our question. Do Speaker 2 00:58:33 We have time for one last thing? Yeah, I think I know what it, what I think I know what it's, I know what Speaker 1 00:58:38 Do Speaker 2 00:58:38 You wanna, can I say it? Yeah, sure. Okay. I'm just saying it. That was absolutely without a doubt. Jason Sudeikis, I've watched Ted Lasso five times over. I have watched s n L for 15 years. That was Jason. You can't convince me otherwise. Or if it was, it was a really good voice actor doing hiss likeness. You can't con I'm sorry, that was, that was Jason. Look at the photo. That was him. Speaker 3 00:58:59 Listen to the music. It was a Ted Lasso music. Ted Las definitely. Speaker 2 00:59:04 Yes. Speaker 1 00:59:04 So Ted Cord, if, if you guys, I don't know why you're listening to it if you haven't seen the Blue Beatle yet, but, um, again, huge boiler <laugh>. Um, their mid credited scene is this very grainy, um, video transmission of someone that you're gonna have to convince me otherwise that it's not Jason Ziki, um, saying, you know, I'm alive. Tell Jenny mm-hmm. Yep. Be continued. Basically. Speaker 3 00:59:32 Fun fact, it was the, this similar scene was supposed to be in the Flash and the original post credit scene for Double Bele was different, but I changed it <laugh>. Oh. So now the original scene post credit scene from the Flat where Ben Ale was supposed to call Barry help find us, help us. And I think it was, it was similar to this where it's the Barry's in the apartment and all the monitors turned on. Yeah. So now they imply they used it in the blue bit, which I think is nice. Really nice. Speaker 2 01:00:04 They're well done because they can always escape the fact if they don't ever get him or if they don't end up using him, they can always say, well, we didn't actually show you him, so it wasn't, Speaker 3 01:00:11 Or, or maybe he didn't want to do it because there was a strike. And if, if they showed his face well it wouldn't be good 'cause you know, oh, come on. Speaker 2 01:00:22 I say my list is reporting from a long time ago when she Yes. Speaker 3 01:00:25 I mean I'm cos Speaker 2 01:00:26 I'm just saying I remember that. I remember that. Of course. I don't ever forget it. I remember, Speaker 3 01:00:31 I'm not gonna argue. It was just a, Speaker 2 01:00:34 She gave me like a nudge, nudge, wink, wink. She goes, I'm about to post something that's gonna make you happy. And I just stayed quiet. I waited and then I saw it and I'm like, okay. Yeah. That's, that's mm-hmm. Merry Christmas, happy birthday, everything. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:00:46 Yeah. Yeah. I really hope they use him in to see in the future. 'cause you know, they are projects that, that are being written off or they were announced and they're not in works anymore. Yeah. Just like constantly we done with co done for a while. Speaker 1 01:01:03 Do you guys think, given what we know, given where it ended, given um, the other scabs, should there be a sequel and what do you Absolutely. So what do you think? Should it have? Speaker 2 01:01:13 Well, we gotta find Ted Cord. We gotta see what happened there. I wanna know about those other scare ups. I mean, I saw Red, green, blue and Yellow, purple and purple. Speaker 1 01:01:24 All the Power Rangers. No, pretty Speaker 2 01:01:26 Much <laugh>, but yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:01:30 I think that, I think it was Otto that said there, his plan for the villains were the black scar up and bring back that cord and the, what was it, the third one, image of the red on dmm. It was the another villain. Holy, holy. The shit. I forgot about it. Speaker 1 01:01:53 Oh, I you, yeah. Speaker 3 01:01:56 Yeah. But I think as a trilogy then, that's what we can expect. I mean, I don't think can will interfere in it. Interfere in it as much as he would in different projects. Like Blue Bit is a really solid movie. Like it has good reviews, good audience score, good critic score. So there's no need to, you know, to say this movie is bad. It had bad bugs office and all that. Every DC movie recently had a bad bugs office mm-hmm. Score. So yeah. So there's not an excuse anymore, not an argument, but I feel that as soon as we start with Superman, at least half of those movies will have a really decent box office score. Like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, you, you're bringing freaking Keanu Reeves to play John Constantine. This movie will earn a lot of money. Like it's still in works. They're bringing j Jim Hun Sue as, uh, the Papa Midnight back. So, uh, Peter Stormer. So those movies are gonna be really, really good and they're gonna earn a lot of money. So you can't use the excuse that Blue Beatle, the Flash didn't earn a lot of money. Of course Acumen won't earn a lot of money, but I don't want to talk about this movie anymore. I'm not gonna destroy this beautiful podcast about family. Speaker 2 01:03:24 Uh, one thing though is the director did sometime over this weekend and say he had always had in mind Jason Sudeikis t so yeah. Oh, Speaker 1 01:03:32 Perfect. Speaker 3 01:03:33 Course Speaker 2 01:03:34 Taking from the horse's mouth. So there you go. Speaker 3 01:03:36 He, he's good at playing Tets. Speaker 2 01:03:38 I was gonna say, yeah, Ted Lasso Ted Gordon. Speaker 1 01:03:41 I'm gonna choose to believe. And I think that's a good moment to, to end the podcast 'cause we're just at, at time. So thank you for listening. Uh, this has been the cosmic circle and we were chatting Blue Beetle. Um, I'm Ila Ruby, gentlemen, who are you? How did you get into my house and on my computer? Um, but really, how, how can we find your writing? Where can we, you know, learn more about you? Speaker 2 01:04:05 I'm Anthony Flagg and if you translate to Spanish, it's Antonio Manez. And that's where I came up with this name. I figured now would be just as good a time to ever bring it up. If you ever wanna find me on Twitter X, whatever the hell you wanna call it. Now it's at rodo underscore signing off. Buenos about this. How Speaker 3 01:04:24 About, yeah, Speaker 1 01:04:24 How about you? Speaker 3 01:04:25 Not just Vic Buenos, not just I'm Vic, uh, I was Vic or whatever. Yeah, <laugh>. You can find me at Eric on Twitter, X whatever. And there are some good DC stuff coming soon, some big things. So get ready Speaker 1 01:04:41 And you can, and you can find me on Twitter at T U L I or X, whatever it is, T u l I n writes. And you can find us [email protected]. Um, happy, happy listening, Speaker 2 01:04:54 Asima.