The Sports Brewery Podcast
400: TSB Goes To The Movies - Challengers
(upbeat music) ♪ I'm not ♪ ♪ I think you're fair, I'm not ♪ ♪ Every time I think I'm loyal ♪ ♪ You call me, I'm a young ♪ ♪ Tettin' me like ♪ ♪ I'm a she-e-e-a ♪ ♪ This talk is your show to me ♪ ♪ It's you that you really need me ♪ ♪ She texting me like ♪ ♪ Like she deserves a response ♪ ♪ She got a hundred K followers, but 99 bought ♪ - Welcome to TSP Go To The Movies. I'm Alex at TSPPod. He's King at Jeromey. He's ski at TSP ski. Find those handles on Twitter. Join our discord if you would like. Sports, brewery, and discord. That's where we get our movie suggestions. Your movie's coming up in a couple of weeks. Also, you give us your list ideas for the sports podcast in there. You can talk ducks with us, it's a good time. Um, if you need an invitation to that, we can send you one. If you are already on Discord to search for sports, brewery. Same goes for YouTube. We do our sports podcast live on Twitch every week. Twitch.tv/abrog87, A-B-R-A-W-G-8-7. If you missed those, I post them on YouTube. So search for sports, brewery on there. You can find our episodes and segments and stuff from the sports podcast. I post them all there. Punch the bell, like and subscribe. Do all the things 'cause we're on all the things. It's at TSP ski and all of the things that he's on, at giramni, on the things that he's on, at TSP pod for the things that I'm on. We're also on Facebook, whatever. This week's movie is King's Movie. It is on prime video. It came out in 2024. It is called Challengers. It has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. What? Like, what? A 7.1 on IMDB and an 82 on Metacritic. What? What? This movie got nominated for Best Picture, musical or comedy at the Golden Globe Awards. Zendaya is quite a net of what falls in his category. Musical and comedy, it's neither of those. It's barely a movie in my eyes. Yeah, and also Zendaya got nominated for Best Actress. Speaking of which, Zendaya is the star of this movie. She plays Tashi Donaldson, Mike Faced plays Art Donaldson and Josh O'Connor plays Patrick Zweig. Those are really the only three people in the movie. So there's really no one else to mention. I mean, there are people who played characters in the movie, but they're the only ones who are really in it. This movie written by Justin Kuritskyz, this is his first movie that he wrote. He also went on to write the movie Queer, which stars Daniel Craig came out this year as well. That people have said is also really, really good. So I don't know, whatever. Well, if they're saying this movie is really, really good and they're saying that movie's really good. I'm guessing that movie's probably fucking dog shit. Yeah, I would imagine so as well. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, budget for this movie, 55 million in the box office it made 96. So this movie made. Does this feel like an A24 movie to you? 'Cause it's not. It's not. I just want to say, you guys are very mad at me for picking this. I thought this was a movie where Zendaya went up in a rocket ship as a teacher and never came back. I didn't know what this movie was about. I would have rather watched that. I would have rather watched the Challenger explosion on a replay for two hours in 15th. For a NASA movie, they're doing a lot of tennis back story. That's how the astronauts getting shaped, man, didn't you know? Yeah, it's like I could see these guys are in really good shape. So I guess they could be astronauts, I get it. But yeah, a lot of tennis talk going on. Yeah, right. The red clay, huh? What a choice. OK. All right. Roll on, girls. All right. Boy. So this movie, the reason we're reacting the way we're reacting is because, like you said, King, this movie was like a big deal. Like people who raved about this movie said it's like one of the best movies of the year, like the story of the ending. It's incredible, like blah, blah, blah. I mean, 88% of Rotten Tomatoes just doesn't, like, happen. No. So everybody said this movie was good. It's not. It's not good. You know, reviewers could say anything about this movie. And, you know, that's their choice, right? That's their preference. But if any reviewer said this had a fantastic ending, should probably just get shot and put in a ditch just so we don't have to deal with that person anymore. Because they are a pox on society, if they think it's that. This is probably the worst ending of any movie ever made. Such a-- Do you know that commercial where the guy's, like, balling off a me coach with their, like, sportsmanship, pass it on? That's kind of what the ending, like, that those are the vibes the ending anywhere. Yeah, but again, that commercial was maybe like a high school game or something, not a final of a shitty challenger when the guy realizes his opponent, who was his friend, fucked his wife. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The same night that he told his wife that he was going to retire from tennis, and she told him that she would leave him if he lost to the guy. I cannot stress enough how much I hate Zendaya in this movie. Like, like-- So she is the villain of this movie. She gets nominated for best actress for a reason. Like, she is really, really good in this movie. Like, Zendaya, like, I can't-- like, her character is incredibly unlikable. And that actually takes a lot for Zendaya because she is likable. Like, she's awesome. Like, in real life, like, in other things she's been in, she is awesome. She is the fucking worst. And in every scene she's in, I just-- I hate looking at her. I mean, maybe not every scene. Yeah, there's a couple scenes there. The couple scenes kind of scenes, if you know what I mean. But I'm saying, like, so to her credits, and I guess to this movie's credit, there is some redeemable thing there in the fact that she is a very unlikable, hateable character, and she did a really good job of that. But that said, the movie was not good. Like, the story itself was not good. And the way it was sort of put together-- 'cause I saw a lot of people saying, like, the editing of this movie was really good. And the way it was shot and put together-- There was the whole thing, the shit. I don't agree. I'm lying, it was in. The editing of, like, the tennis shots. I'm sorry. I feel like it was sports people just being like-- The ball going right at the camera. Is that what you're talking about? Yes, and there were some service in Bali things where I'm like, Zendaya hasn't moved six inches. No. Like, she's scattering the other, you know, the opponent. They're running for their lives over the last four years. They're running, Ragged. She's stationary. That's why-- That's why-- --she's Shawn Crockett, first base. Like, she ain't moving. That's why she tore ACL, is 'cause the first time she actually had to run-- The first time she had to move. She was shit. I said that it charged the net on the drop shot. Oh, a quick twitch muscle. Ah! Pop explode, yeah. God damn. So if you're listening to this movie, and you haven't seen this movie again, we're gonna, like, continue to go into a whole bunch of spoilers. But if you're not interested in watching the movie, which, good on you, I don't recommend it, it is about two best friends in their relationship to Zendaya, basically, and tennis, essentially. Their love triangle with all three of them, more or less. Yeah, kinda, yeah. So, yeah, no, go ahead. Was this the whole thing-- Was this thing just supposed to be edgy, and that's why people think it's good? I mean, yes, I mean-- And my, like, big brain theory is everyone saw-- The trailer is good. The trailer is, like, the trailer is good. But I think people saw the trailer and saw the scene with Zendaya and the guys on the side of the bed. The triple-kissed scene. The triple. But they didn't see how that ended up, like-- And they were like, shit, I was bamboozled. I let my little thing downstairs think about it. Yeah, I can't say it was bad now, but then you just saw two dudes kiss, which is fine. Yeah, but there was a lot of undertow. But again, it was Zendaya's character getting what she wanted, and that's sort of one of the first indicators that only she-- Very manipulative. She is a manipulative, like-- She's just a bitter fucking hag. It's what she is in this movie. She is. Last week, he called someone a floozy. This week, he called someone a hag. Holy cow. Holy cow. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Her whole character is based upon that she is just so bitter that she got hurt and can't compete. The only reason why she married the guy was because he was good at tennis. And she, like, vicariously lived through his career. Ski, did you watch this movie with your girlfriend? I did not. OK. I just want to know if she had a reaction. Through this movie on, and within five minutes, I was trying to watch it like at night in bed. I had to turn it off. I was like, I can't do this going to bed. I just will not be able to sleep. I'll just be stewing, raging. I had to turn it off. I had to watch it in the afternoon. You're welcome. It was two hours and, like, 15 minutes. Again. Why do I. Well, everything I pick is that I've never seen is some, like, two hour plus art arthouse bullshit. Like, I don't get it. I really wish you just would have picked, like, Wimbledon. We could have back-to-back Paul Bettany movies. If here's for anyone listening that hadn't watched this, and wants to watch a tennis, like, rom-com love movie, just go watch Wimbledon. Everything about that movie is better than this. It's just not edgy. What was the one with Andy Sandberg? It was, like, Becker versus Boris or something like that? Yeah. That was gone. That was a bad. It was a Mac and Roar's. I don't remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my god. So, yes. Let's see. Zendaya is a former tennis, like, prodigy. So she was going to Stanford. Stoneford. Stoneford. Stoneford. And she blew her knee out, had to retire. And so then she went on to coaching. And that's when she ended up, like, marrying art and, like, becoming his coach. And basically because she is power-hungry and needs to be able to boss people around and needs control over every single situation she's in. And so if somebody's going to take control away from her, she goes to the other person, essentially. That's how this movie goes on. And so, again, becomes the coach of art enters him in a small tournament called "Challengers." And in that tournament-- That's what they're called "Challenger Tournaments," yeah. Leading up to majors and stuff. It's for the high, low-ranked players to earn their way into better terms. To be able to qualify to play in the better tournaments. And art is a US Open title away from the Grand Slam, like a career at the Grand Slam. He's like six majors in his career. Which apparently is not good enough for Zendaya. Like, she's still like-- Because that's the thing in that scene. Like, as soon as he tells her he's retiring, she's out. And Patrick knew it. Like, Patrick said it to her, frankly. He was like, you need to-- As soon as he's done, like, you can see it in him. He's done. He wants to stop. And as soon as he stops-- He wants to eat a hamburger. Yeah, yeah, you're out. And he was absolutely right. Like, he knew her better than she knew her. And definitely better than Art Newer, which is wild. She did not want that kid they had together, for sure. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. I kept waiting to find out that it was, like, actually Patrick's kid. Because they showed us the Atlanta thing, right? Where, like, fuck, what a-- OK, what a piece of shit. Like, she literally-- she's sitting there having a drink. And like, Patrick, like, walks up, stares at her, walks in, looks at the ring. She's like, got a depressed look on her face. Yeah, it's his grandmother's ring. Yeah, she's dead now. And then she proceeds to fuck the guy. Like, you suck, dude. Like, you suck. You're the worst of the worst. This movie is not believable in the fact that, like I said, Art's a big deal. He's, you know, not quite better at an adult level. He's better than Andy Murray. He's got more majors than Andy Murray. They should-- you saw the picture of them. Like, the Andy Murray picture, then he was right behind him. Yeah, they had a Roddick there. Yeah, a Roddick. Yeah, Andy Roddick. That was Andy Roddick, yeah, man. Oh, oh, Andy Roddick. Andy Roddick, not Murray. Not a Roddick, no, but-- Roddick. I thought you were talking about the Atlanta scene, sorry. But I guess the whole-- he's so madly in love with her that he, like, sticks through it all. Is that the whole-- He seemed depressed every scene he was in. Oh, he wanted to, like, kill himself the whole movie. Like, even when he was, like, happy, he was-- I don't like-- I don't know the actor. I did not like him at all. Yeah, either. I didn't know the other actor either. Yeah. Didn't like him either. Zweeg. Yeah. Like, going into this movie, Zendaya is the likable person. Like, I expected to watch Zendaya and be like, oh, OK. Well, at least I'll feel good at part of this movie. No, no. If you're making Zendaya the bad guy, like, why am I watching your movie? Like, again, she did a great job. She did. Like, she really did. She's a great actress. She did really good in this movie. But fuck, I hated watching her. King, this is your movie. I want you to explain to us and the listeners. What is the meaning of this movie? What is the whole underlying tone of it? Like, especially with the ending. What is this movie trying to portray? What is it? Feminism, I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think because the movie makes everybody hate her. Yeah, but she's that powerful, though. I mean, no, I honestly. I don't know. I-- Especially the end, it's like, all right. That was the end. What does that mean? What does that wrap up on this story? You made a sit for two plus hours of this torrid love triangle, and what's the outcome? Yeah, so what is that supposed to tell us? Because the whole movie is-- it surrounds this match at the challengers of-- The finals of this-- Art against Patrick. They're going against each other. It's supposedly like everything rides on this match, which we find out like literally everything rides on the match, like his wedding or his marriage, like everything rides on it. His ability to get to the US open. Patrick, if he wins, then he can finally get a major and actually get some money. But every relationship thing was surrounding this match and showed that they do flashbacks and whatnot. So Patrick wins the first set, 6 to 2. And it coincides with Patrick dating her first and them actually connecting first and blah, blah, blah. And so then second set comes up and Art wins that one. That's Art winning Zendaya and getting married to her. She becomes his coach and blah, blah, blah. And they have a kid and all of these things. And then the third set, it's like, all right, coming down to it, it's right up to the end. And then he jumps into his arms and they hug. And Zendaya is like, oh, fuck yeah. What does-- Yeah. What does that mean? What does that mean? I don't know. What is-- Yeah, I-- Yeah, he was terrible. So the end-- so that happens. That means Patrick wins. Because Art jumped over the net. Yeah, that's a fault, yeah. Or maybe to go back to the beginning of what you said, did this feel like an A24 film? Maybe Art won. Maybe a serial art. Maybe society won is the overall message. I'm worried about society. If this is getting 88% on rotten tomatoes and stuff. I can't-- like, the first 40 minutes, I was like, OK. Yeah, I was in. I was in. Sure. I was not in it even from moving it. Yeah. You know. It just, as the movie went on, like, it just is-- But yeah, well before the hour mark, I was like, oh, I'm out. And I got an hour and 15 minutes left. God damn. And again, at least have the tennis and Wimbledon, the movie that was 20 years ago, was better than how they shot it in this as well. And that's what we talk about with sports movies every time. But the most thing that pissed me off was people saying how great the sports scenes were. And we all probably have a pretty low bar on what a good sports scene is in a movie, because they're hard. You know. Ashton Kutcher playing basketball. That's really probably not ever going to look great. Wilder Val Marama throwing a baseball in summertime. Exactly. Like, it's just not going to work. But for all the praise from critics, it's like-- like I said earlier, she's not moving. All we're doing is just showing her going, whoop. Did anyone hit a real tennis ball in this movie? Yeah, I was going to ask you guys that, because it did look CGI, right? It all seemed to themselves. All of it was CGI, yeah. Well, I don't know what all of it was, because it looked like some of the scenes with Art and Patrick. Like, I feel like they were actually playing tennis sometimes. But like, every time Zendaya hit a ball, like it looked like-- All CGI. It looked CGI, yeah. Which she didn't look bad. Like, she looked the part of a tennis player. But the tennis itself, like-- Zendaya, you don't want to blow-- Zendaya, you don't want to blow-- You don't want to blow. Or maybe like a month or two, maybe, you know. Yeah, Zendaya, if you don't want to blow out your ACL, maybe don't skip leg day, because her fucking legs are the thinnest legs. They're not athlete legs. It is funny, like, they showed the other tennis players that she was competing against. The German chick was built like a real tennis player. Actually tennis players, like they have sturdy lower body. They have to do squats and lunges a lot, because they use their legs all the time. Yeah, so. Yeah, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. I think the most likable thing in this movie was the molten chocolate cake at Applebee's, guys. What do you think? The grandma and the kid together was-- they got a nice version of it, because she's raising the child. Zendaya's mom or arts mom? That's arts mom, for sure. Arts mom. OK, I was going to say, like, there's no way that can be Zendaya's character's mom, because-- Well, they never showed-- they showed the dad at the party like when they were-- Yeah, that's right. That's right when they were younger, when she was at Stanford. Yeah. Yeah. [SINGING] Yeah. No. Is this movie only considered good just because of that underlying homoerotic tone throughout the entire movie, and that they showed penises? Is that what makes a good movie? If you show dick-- They show a lot of dick. I will say that. They just make it an art house movie, and therefore it's good. It was interesting, because it's one scene, and they just show like three or four dicks for like-- I mean, it's a locker room. So I guess there's going to be dicks, like, OK. But it didn't serve a purpose. You know, like, we hear about that all the time. You don't just bone it the entire time. We hear about that all the time in movies, where it's like if you're going to have nudity, don't make it gratuitous, right? That was the '80s, got away with it. That was-- Yeah, but again, we hear about that all the time, and it's sort of like, what was the purpose of showing the dicks? Was it-- like, it showed one character was insecure. But the character they showed who was insecure wasn't a character in the movie. Like, he wasn't one of the main people. So like, what was the point of that? Like, it was so-- it was while the dude-- it was while Patrick was on the phone looking at, like, tinderdicks. Yeah. See, like, the gratuitous nudity scene stuff. Like, it's-- what's her name? Alexandra Daddario. Daddario. Daddario, yeah. Wanted to do that scene in True Detective Season 1 with no shirt. And the director was like, I'm making art here, baby. Not a porn. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Great games, but-- Great scene, great scene. And he mixed it. She wore a shirt open. But, you know, it was up to your imagination. Yeah, that's what I said. I think it's like "Art House" now where it's like, she-- you could show if it's male nudity, it's not gratuitous like that. You know, because it's art and it goes against the norms. That's kind of how I feel like this entire movie was trying to be so edgy and so against the norms that they just made a shitty movie in the end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, like-- I was kind of excited to fire it up. I was, dude. It's got great reviews. I like Zendaya, too. As an act-- she's a good actress. Yeah, euphoria is a fun little watch. The Dunes? Yeah. She's attacking by "Don't Hate Senior News." Miss me on the sand movie. You don't like the sand words? I enjoy it. I enjoy the Dunes. I've actually never seen that. Speaking of us long movie, I'm surprised you haven't picked them yet. Denis Villanuev. Come on, bro. The guy directed "Saccario" to, man. You're great. No, I'm good. I'm good. Denis. Speaking of French. Is there any redeeming quality to this movie for you guys? Anything. Just even a small thing. Whoa, well, now they said small. I can't say anything, because I was going to say the dicks. Zendaya's acting was really good. She was really good, Ned. She was really good. Yeah. And you know what, I don't necessarily-- I think the guys acted fine as well. The Patrick character was pretty unlikable, too. But I thought they were fine. I thought art-- let's see. Mike faced who played art. I think he did a good job of portraying the guy who had sort of been worn down in the end. And you do sort of see the progression of getting worn down. They did-- when they showed him as doubles partners, when they were juniors, he had a little peppernastep, but he was still a fucking Debbie Downer, like kind of like mopey guy. Yeah. Because he had a friend who completely bulldozed him at every turn. And of course, he met a wife who-- That's her entire thing. That's her entire thing, is to bulldoze everybody she comes. Imagine, by the way, imagine how fucked up that kid's going to be, like the most manipulative, like-- How are you saying she, Mom, ever? If they were to split, he would take the daughter, for sure. You would think she'd stop fucking the guy trying to have him throw the match. And he's laying in bed with his daughter, you know, sleeping. Yeah. It's like, you see, one parent is actually parenting. The other one gives zero shits. Go with grandma, kind of thing. You know, like, I-- Because there was a couple scenes where she did that, like where she sort of snuck off and met with Patrick. The one, like, oddly enough, the one that pissed me off the most was when she basically got done telling him off. She was like, you're more-- you have a better shot with a gun in your mouth, I think. Yeah, that's she. That's the thing she said to him. But that was a one good line in this movie. Yeah, that's actually-- That's a hell of a line. But then she gets out of the car. They get out of the car, or whatever. He gives her his number, and she pockets it and walks away. Like, you just got done telling this dude how worthless he is, and then you keep his number. Like, why are you keeping his-- Wow. This is like the opposite of, like, feminism. How many times have you seen that, the bad boy that's, like, awful for the woman that she always calls back to, and he knows that he'll always have, like, that holdover? Yeah, that's what it is. I think about that, by the way. Like, with these things that I'm saying about this movie, I think about that. It's like, would I react the same way if Zendaya was a dude, and there were two female tennis players, who he was taking advantage of. You can't make that movie nowadays. Yeah, I don't know. All right, like, I probably would. I would probably think, yeah, this guy's a prick. I would react differently. Somebody needs to kick this dude's ass, is what I would say. And then usually I'm not going to send that about Zendaya, so-- Here's the thing. If that's the scenario in the movie, it's not a happy ending for the guy. The chick figures it out, like, oh, both the chicks that are into them figure out, like, oh, he's a piece of shit, and they both, like, cut ties and, you know, our friends kind of thing. But one of them is a piece of shit, too, though. So that's the thing. Electric is kind of a piece of shit. That's how this movie should have ended, would have been them, during the match, both realizing that Zendaya is a massive piece of shit, and that they were better off just of them being friends and neither of them being with her. That's how it should have ended. Yeah. Pray for-- Pray for art, that poor man. You know what? I say that he's also, like, a millionaire, like, three-- Yeah, as she's riding his coattails to rich and fame. She's on a fucking billboard with him. How many times has Freddie adieu still on fucking billboards? How many times has these teenage, you know, wonderkins that flamed out that no one just-- you're not supposed to give a shit about them anymore? Yeah. Yeah, that was probably a pretty good indicator, huh? Like, looking back on-- What is Freddie adieu up to? Not on billboards. I know that. Safe statement. Yeah. Yes, that is probably one of the things we should have noticed early on, right, is when she was, like, the scene where she was looking over the advertisement for the Aston Martin, and she changed it to have both of them in it and talk about them as the-- Yeah. Even though he has won several championships and she has won zero, remember, she tore her ACL in college and never turned pro, so-- He was like 19. He was never actually a professional tennis player, but she's-- Which is acted like she is. That's the one weird thing. That goes against, like, pretty much her whole character. Her whole character should want to go pro-- I mean, female tennis players go pro, like, 14 and 15. They do. Yeah, exactly, like she wanted-- She didn't want to win enough if she didn't want to be a pro. That she wanted to go to Stanford? Like, why? Yeah. I agreed. That doesn't make sense at all. Yeah, if she's such a badass and so aggressive about tennis and it's her entire life, then why is she going to college? And so competitive, yeah, she should-- Yeah. Did you guys know that in 2017, Freddie adieu was on trial with the Portland Timbers, and then trial from-- Yeah, that's what it says. Oh, like-- They were trying him out. Yeah, I guess. OK. Like a court proceedings? Because we've heard about some-- We've heard about some Timbers court proceedings, and so-- Didn't offer him a contract. Then he went to play for the Las Vegas lights. Of the-- That's what I don't ask me. They click a button, man. The Las Vegas lights of the USL. Oh, all right. All right. Cashman Field. All right. Fancy. Freddie, they reward their mascots a llama. And they reward players with casino chips. Oh, sign me up for this team. What casino? What casino? It doesn't say the lights are owned by an investment group led by former major league baseball player, Joey Bats. Oh, yeah, Joey Vado? Yeah. Joe Batista. Batista. There you go. Wow, all right. Wow, cool. That's awesome. Way more interesting than this fucking movie. Yeah. Yeah. Again, it is weird, because we're all having a big reaction to this movie. I don't know that we have said that about other movies that we've watched. I think I've given a zero and some maybe halves. I hated this movie with my soul. I didn't just hate it. But again, the fact that the movie did that to you might say something about this movie. That's not. No. OK. That's the whole thing now to be edgy for edgy for just that purpose, like essentially piss people off. And it's not even-- I'm sure there's so many right-wing people that the male nudity and the man kissing and the underlying homo-rotic stuff is what pissed them off. That was-- honestly, that's probably the better part of this fucking movie is that. The Don's? Yes, the Don's. That's one of the best parts of this movie. One of the dicks looked like the St. Louis arch. I was going to say that. Where's it? I mean, that was perfect. That was the damn thing. It's a good dick. Where are the St. lunatic sounds? Where's Murphy? I just kept hearing country. I heard country grammar immediately. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're going down, down, baby. Uh-oh. I'll tell you what's poppin' tonight. [LAUGHTER] It reminds me of the workaholics episode. Like, damn, good dick, dude. [LAUGHTER] There's nothing wrong with telling your bro he's got a good dick, you know? It's all right. Bro support and bros, you know? [LAUGHTER] Oh man. Yeah. Again, can we even explain the sauna scene also? That was the first time like art, like, he kind of always threw jabs at him. But that was the first time he kind of told him his face, like, oh, you're kind of a nothing. I don't want you in my life. I don't like you. The fact that we were friends is a bummer to me, like, go away. Go away. I hate you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a preface out with be like, can you get your dick out of my face? Pretty much also, just-- Yeah, that is a little off-putting. Having a guy walk into the sauna nude, and then just sort of put his leg up over you. [LAUGHTER] Power move, right? Isn't it a power move? Is it, though, like, I don't know. Yeah, that's a power move. It's a power move. I might grab the fucking-- That's turning you into a bottom real quick. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, what's the play in that situation? Like, you're in a sauna. Somebody walks in and just throws their dick in front of you. Like, what's the play? Do you like-- do you flick it? Do you punch me in the nuts? Like, what do you do? Like, do you grab your towel and whip it? Like, I don't know. I think that's the play. The towel, yeah. But then, like, what happens after that? Then, you're in, like, a fist fight in the sauna, naked, with this other person. I don't know. I don't know. Anything goes in that scenario. [LAUGHTER] You take that hose with the cold water and just spray it right on his dick. Yeah. You can't come out now, can you? [LAUGHTER] Now, that's the power move right there. Look who's got a sitting here and get warm again. Let's-- you're going to come out and show that thing? Let's say you use that on my wife. [LAUGHTER] Oh, wait a minute. That's not as big a distance, I think it is. [LAUGHTER] All right, all right. We should think about grading this. Do you have anything else you would like to say, either of you? No. About this movie. Yeah, it's-- Yeah, made my point fairly clear here. I think we all came into this movie, like, sort of expecting it to be good. And like, sort of-- not necessarily expecting to like it, because I didn't know really what it was about. But the fact that everybody talked about how great it was, and it had all these really good reviews, which we knew about, like, that's all I've heard. All I've seen online is people talking about how great this movie is. Like, I think we sort of expected it to be good. And-- I thought it was going to be like Wimbledon rom-com like that. Like, a love triangle Wimbledon rom-com. Interesting, Kirsten Dunson Wimbledon is kind of like Sundaya. She's kind of a bitch, kind of aggro. But maybe that's something up with female tennis players? Is that what the movie industry is trying to tell us? I don't know. I don't know enough about Monica Celas to make a statement on that. You know, like-- I thought Jennifer Capriotti was America's sweetheart. Yeah, wasn't she nice? She was nice. Who-- Chris Fowler in this movie, right? Yeah. Chris Fowler was-- Big tennis guy, yeah, cool. Yeah, that was interesting. All right, so it's King's movie. King, you got to grade it first. What's it out of this week? I don't know. Five. Men in the majors play five sets. What will go it out for? Five sets. There you go. Perfect. Nice tie-in. Sundaya was good. The movie stunk 1.5. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, thank you for apologizing. I appreciate that. I take it in, I accept it, and I appreciate it. [LAUGHS] We hear you, and we see you. Ski, it sounds to me with your silence that you would like to go last. I will allow that. I'm going to give this movie a two. I feel that Sundaya was really good, and the fact that she made me hate her so much is a good thing for her. Because I think it showed how effective she was at playing this really shitty character. I didn't like anything else in this movie. And again, I did not like Sundaya in this movie. I thought she was really good in it, but I did not like her. Or this movie, so a two. All right, I guess I'm going to start the new precedent here. Do something wacky. I'm giving this a negative 0.5. I hated this movie so-- I hated this movie so much that I'm giving it negative points. This is going to hurt the next movie that I'm going to watch because-- This feels racist. This has got to be racist. And honestly, when I partially agree with you, Brog, I think even though I hated this Sundaya character, she was good at it. I just hated the writing and the character development so much and how it was all put together that it couldn't save it. Oh, the editing was not good. Everything about this movie was pissing me off. They tried to do it around the sets, like I said, like the three sets, and they tried to do the time around that when they were all getting to know each other and all that stuff. And it was just jumbled. Like, it really didn't make sense the way they did it. And-- It was over two hours. Yeah. It didn't have to be at all, yeah. It didn't need all the slow-mo fucking-- towards the end, slow-mo fucking-- Slow-mo shots and sweating. Yeah. Didn't need the Patrick Ewing out there in the fourth quarter on some of those shots, like Jesus. They did spend a good 10, 15 minutes of slow-motion sweating in this movie.
Braga, King, and Ski talk about Challengers. It took the world by storm in 2024, earning Golden Globe nominations for best actress (Zendaya) and best picture. But is the success a product of good marketing, or is it actually any good? Listen!