Longlegs: 0:26
Twisters: 3:25
The Movies & A Meal Podcast
Longlegs and Twisters
[music] Hi folks, welcome to episode of Movies and a Meal, a podcast where we talk about movies and other things while we eat. Keith here, this is going to be on Joan by Dan. Hey! But Brad has a week off for a well-deserved vacation. This week, two moves on the slate. I'll take a look at the Indian Horror movie Long Legs, and then the main course, The Action Spectacle Twisters, starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar Jones, and Anthony Ramos. So, to start us off this week, then, what is Long Legs all about? Summary, Curcy, IMDB, in pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree. I've never even heard of Long Legs until one of our favorite podcasts, Kelly Hagger, put in my radar because she knows horror. There might be no genre that's going stronger right now than indie horror as far as, not like box office, but the slate of quality movies. And this, I think, is the best one of the years so far. This is from director Oz Perkins, and if that certainly sounds familiar, it should. He is indeed the son of Psycho Star, Anthony Perkins, and is crafting a horror career of his own now, both as an actor and as a director of indie horror flicks. This time out, he perhaps wasn't helped by the A24 hype train. It's a powerhouse, and describing this as the scariest movie ever made raised the bar awfully high for this one. The impressive part is it almost entirely delivers. What is Long Legs all about? Well, it has a heavy debt to pay to silence the lambs, but if that's what inspires you, you're off to a good start. Our heroine here is Lee Harker, a young FBI agent with an eerie skill to predict when something truly awful is about to happen. That sounds preposterous, but played by Micah Monroe, an indie horror favorite ever since follows, now 10 years old, she gives it a real edge. Even if she does play up the heavy breathing a bit when she gets deeper into the mire here, the beauty is that she brings you along with her all the way. Perkins is already a master at building suspense, and laces it throughout this time with a black humor, which makes it all the more unsettling. It helps to know as little as possible going to this one. Harker is recruited by Special Agent Carver, played by Blair Underwood, started investigating the cold case of a series of possibly related family annihilations, where in a person named Long Legs has claimed a kind of responsibility through coded notes. If she dives deeper into research, it's revealed that Harker is strangely connected to these cases. So I'm going to do this a little differently, I'm going to go ahead and give you my rating, and then we'll produce some rotten tomatoes, and then we'll talk about some spoilery stuff. First, I will say, for an intricately constructed puzzle, with unrelenting tension and a bleak humor, I'll give Long Legs 3.5 stars. Okay, it's rotten tomatoes guessing time, so Keith. I know this is probably more popular with the critics and the overall fans. I will go 85 on the critics, and 75 on the famous. Okay, you're pretty close with the critics, it was 86%, and then the audience was 63%. Critics' consensus, saturated in disquieting mood while leveraging a nightmarishly gonzo performance by somebody that I won't leave you to reveal. Long Legs is a tannic horror that effectively instills panic. That sums it up, and I wanted to do this this way, because spoiler warning is in full effect now. Small Legs, turn away! Long Legs away now! Brad is here in spirit. Long Legs is played by Nicholas Cage. He never holds back, but this is one of his craziest performances. You know, Perkins can see here, and you go along with your horror fan, is that Long Legs introduces the spirit of the devil into households he tears apart. They're an accomplice, played by Alicia Witt, and they're both fantastic. I won't go so far as to tell you how it all ties back to Agent Harker, but it's a doozy of a fun twist. Agent Harker is the calm in this storm, and therefore the perfect foils with Long Legs, so if you'd like a great horror mis-reflect, just go see it. That's out of the way. Why don't we transition to Twisters, the sequel/reboot of the 1996, I don't know, action, adventure, disaster movie that starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. This one, like I said, doesn't, I'm a small spoiler, but for everyone who's like MCU, is it all connected, obsession kind of people? There isn't really a connection to this one, except it's set in the same place, and it has to deal with tornadoes. And there's little Easter egg hints throughout. But before I go on a little bit more about the movie and the cast and everything like that, I'm going to turn to Keith to do the summary. Somebody, Kirsty of IMDB, as always, a retired tornado chaser and meteorologist is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies. And that's how you write a summary that doesn't reveal anything. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, the first Twister, you know, I mean, the premise is very simple, and the second one is too. I mean, the Twisters are the bad guys, are the villains of this. And, you know, it kind of just allows, I don't know, the two main leads, Daisy Edgar Jones of many things. I think the movie we reviewed a couple years ago where the Crawdads sing. That was like maybe my first exposure, and she's done some other things since then. And, you know, Glen Powell, I mean, we've talked about it all the time. He's sneakily becoming, you know, maybe a patron state of the movies in a meal podcast. They're their rival storm chasers and you know, adventure ensues and everything like that. But this is what a blockbuster should be. This is what a summer blockbuster should be. It should be about spectacle. It should be about just like people with chemistry that are charismatic, that you want to watch. And, you know, after that, you just walk out of the theater and be like, "Oh, yeah, that was a movie." That doesn't like, I'm not worried about, again, continuity or, you know, there's no cameo in the end where, you know, somebody's like, "Well, the tornadoes and the hurricanes are coming together. We need to stop." You know, just like, you know, Sharknado, whatever, crossover. It was fun. Glen Powell, this is the third movie this year he's been in, and they've all seemed to be either critically or financially successful from anyone but you with Sidney Sweeney. The movie that Keith and I reviewed a couple months ago, I guess now, or at least last month up with Hitman. He's a star. He's a movie star. It is yet to be written if he's going to offer the full-on depth of an actor because he's kind of just playing Glen Powell, which is a very charming, you know, person, likeable person. Even Hitman, when in the beginning when he attempts to be kind of a nerd and a loser, he drops that persona pretty quickly and even when he is doing it, we don't really believe it because he's Glen Powell. He's got some glasses on, but he's still Glen Powell. Yeah, I mean, it's in the trailer. I mean, the scene, like his movie star scene, basically, when he walks out of a house, it's raining. He's got his cowboy hat on and a white t-shirt and he's just like, full movie star, like Hollywood. You know, it's great. I enjoyed it two hours. Shout out to Anthony Ramos, who is a secondary guy, probably a third-grilled person in this movie. I agree with you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would say that Glen Powell kind of overshadowed Daisy Edgar Jones. She's a great actress. The main thing that I would say I prefer in the original was Helen Hunt. She just had a real kind of spirit to it. And I like the way her character is written. I'm just not sure that Daisy Edgar Jones had the...she didn't really dive into it with all the gusto I would have expected. That said, this is a thoroughly fun movie. And this is a big leap forward. I appreciate it. For Lee Isaac Chung, from Manari, and what he brought to this movie that was also in Manari, it was kind of missing in the first one. I would call it Empathy. There's still this...the goofy science here. You can't retain the tornado. All that that you go for. But there's also...you see more of the aftermath. We know what tornadoes do. But you see more...more rounded side of the storm chasers in this one. Along with the first movie, Twisters also...you have to pay off on the special effects. And I thought they did. I thought the tornadoes were pretty terrifying. And now they were pretty devastating. It's kind of like jaws, you know? They just kind of come out of nowhere. And they're like, you know, the tornado will take out people. And, you know, they just kind of disappear. And it's scary on that thing. I would only say...I agree with you about Daisy Edgar Jones. I wonder too if her character was just hampered because...without spoiling it too much. You know, in the beginning of the movie, she suffers a pretty traumatic incident. And that kind of colors the rest of her attitude in the...you know, and why... I think you mentioned in the summary that, you know, she's a retired storm chaser by then. You know, she gets kind of gun shy, but what happened in the beginning of the movie? So maybe that kind of dampened her spirit. But I think there's still some chemistry between her and Glen Pound. And the flirting, there's a good undercurrent of it. I know the knock, I think, jokingly with this movie, which I haven't seen a lot of knocks on it, is basically like they don't... I guess it's the smallest spoiler, but I mean, it's in the trailer. And if you've ever seen the movie... You should probably expect, you know, Daisy Edgar Jones' character and Glen Pound's character to get together. They don't get together at all. They don't even...they don't kiss, actually. It's a very chaste movie. It really is, but, you know, I like the way at the end how they played with the trope of... I don't spoil too much, but they play with the big romantic comedy trope at the end. And it's still...there was still no big kiss. You know, it was...it was weird. I'll also say, you know, I still appreciate movies that have, even if the science is goofy, that our heroes are not big, brawny. You know, I like those kind of heroes, too. But, you know, I know they're rebooting Jurassic Park, and they're going to do it with... Not, you know, Chris Pratt. I love Chris Pratt. But the guy they're going to have to be the lead. I can't remember who it is, but it's going to be a big, brawny guy who, you know, wrestles with dinosaurs, basically. That's not the kind of movie I want to see. It's why Jurassic Park's kind of gone downhill. This one, it keeps the spirit of the first twister in that these are, you know, storm chasers and scientists. And you get a...just like in the first one, you get a ragtag bunch who follows Glen Powell around. You know, Katie O'Brien and some others, they can tell you more, but they're a fun bunch. Brandon Pereira, who you might remember from "Nope" and also maybe Sasha Lane, who was, unfortunately, and probably one of our least favorite movies of all time. Hellboy, The Twilight King. Oh, that's right. Remake. But, no, no, I think too, it has to be like that, Keith, right? 'Cause you're not fighting other people or dinosaurs or even a shark, like, I don't know, the mag or something like that. It's just wind and weather and, you know, Glen Powell can't punch a tornado. I appreciate that. And this is also like Civil War, a journalism movie in a part. There's a British journalist who goes along with them, who adds a lot of fun to it. And I appreciate all those little touches. You know, these action scenes are fantastic here. There's one that takes place at a rodeo. And there's a parallel to the first one, or the big finale, where that takes place, which I won't spoil at all. Back in May, I think there was a lot of people kind of writing the obituaries of movies. And they're probably closer to that than being farther from that. But we've had a real renaissance. I know people were basically just kind of wringing their hands after Mad Max for Yosa, kind of bombed. But we've had a strong summer since then. I mean, inside out, too, you know, Keith was talking about it. It's probably due to become the, what, the highest grossing and it made movie of all time. It will soon. It's going to pass frozen too. Yeah. You know, this movie, I haven't seen the box office. I think Keith might have it. I don't know if he doesn't. I think this is going to do real well. And then, you know, we're recording this on July 22nd. We're less than a week away from Deadpool Wolverine. And, you know, that's going to be probably the biggest movie of the year. If not... Yeah. If movies don't generally sell out here, you know, they rarely do. But Ben said the Thursday night show was basically sold out. There was... Initially, if you were trying to get an advanced ticket, there was only one Thursday night viewing. And that had already sold out. Now, since then, they've added a full complement of Thursday of shows. And they have an 8 a.m. showing. This is calling out the most showing of any movie this summer. Yeah. So, I'm not going to say movies are back, but movies aren't dead necessarily. And if you make them, you know, if you make it a true spectacle, you make it smart enough, you throw them at a comedy angle. This is a perfect formula. And, you know, we didn't. But if you have FOMACs, like we have, better, you have IMACs. I know it costs a lot to watch an IMACs movie, though. This one is one that is worth it. It's not rated G, but it's kind of as a family-friendly blockbuster movie as you're going to get. Yeah. So, unfortunately, some people do get killed because it's a storm and whatnot. But I could probably bring most of my niece and nephews who range from, you know, 16 to, like, I don't know, 8 or 10. And I wouldn't feel bad. I wouldn't feel like I'm exposing them to anything that's, like, too wild or too risque. I will say, the opener, because they throw you right into it. It's a little scary. It's a little scary. But that's the way it should be. I mean, you have to set the tone and why these storms, why people are scared. So, I think it's time for the ratings. I don't have anything more to say. All right. Well, you can go first. I'm going to give it a three and a half. Enjoy this movie. Watch this movie. I don't know if it's going to dominate the box office. I think it's going to be very successful, but it probably will be, unfortunately, eclipsed. A lot. Hopefully not totally by Deadpool and Wolverine next week. So, what about you, Keith? I will give it three, but, you know, like I say, affectionate three stars. I really like this movie. I give long legs, a little more of an edge, just because I like movies to be a little more challenging, but this one is pure fun. All right. You have the Rotten Tomatoes. Don't you? I do, and so you get to guess. Glen Powell, Daisy, Edgar Jones, you know, Lee Isaac Chung. It's a solid cast up. I'm going to go, like, 82 for the critics. Audience, I think people really enjoyed it. We went to an early showing, like, 5, 20 on a Friday. The big theater wasn't that big, but people liked it. I've heard people laugh and enjoy themselves, so I'm going to shoot, like, 91. You're very close on both. Critics were elected 78%. Audience almost dead on 92%, and critics' consensus. Summing a storm, a spectacle, and carried along by the gale force winds of Glen Powell's charisma, Twister's forecast is splendid with a high chance of thrills. Okay. That's kind of cheesy, but no. Sure. I mean, I guess you got to look into the weather stuff, so. Okay. All right. All right. So, you know, just to pre you for next week, Keith and I are going to see Deadpool reigns sometime this next week. But Brad is still on vacation, so we won't review it officially until Brad gets back, and I think we're going to have a guest star. I won't say who, because who knows. Well, speaking of Brad, though, I do have the box offer support. Right, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, tell me, tell me, is it number one? It is. Okay. Wapping. 74.6 million, which sets a new record for natural disaster flicks in week one. Okay. It's a very specific category, but, you know, you know. Now, number two and three, no surprise since it's summer. Splitable me is holding strong at 23.8 million for a total so far of 260 million. Okay. And as you hinted at, I think set out two is third, 12 million only this week, but 600 million domestic, 1.45, this is the record, 1.45 billion. It's going to cross that. The frozen two record, top-grossing anime film of all time. Okay. Okay. Long legs finish this fourth. It made 11 million this week, but 44.6 million in 10 days on a 60.6 million. On a $16.3 million budget. Sure. There you go. I mean, that's the thing about the horror movies. You can do them for cheap. And if they hit, then they are really, there's a great return on them. Mm-hmm. I think that's why, you know, your A24 is in. And I think more like Blumhouse. Blumhouse only makes hard. No, they really throw in any, they'll throw anything against the wall. They'll give it like $15 million. And if it becomes a, whatever, you know, if it becomes a hit, it makes 100 million. And then they're, they're dancing. That's why he's great. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm not really not snobby about horror, but when I see Blumhouse, I don't, you know, raise my nose, but I have to be more selective because you're right. They'll make anything. No. Maybe we should write something. I don't know. Exactly. So. Okay. All right. I think we should wrap it up. Keith, you got some plugs. Oh, yes. You can reach the movies in the meal. OG@gmail.com. Movies in the meal on Twitter. And do give us a listen on. I have radio, Apple, Apple podcast. We'll be on your podcast. Okay. So for this episode of Movies in the Meal, I'm Ben. Keith. Okay. See you. Bye. (upbeat music)