Masters of the Universe (1987)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to Pugsley Crew Reviews, a podcast about films. All manner of films, be they good, bad or anything in between. We'll watch them and give you your honest opinions. Today we have returning guest co9000. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Hello. [00:00:22] Speaker B: And for the first time, Chasm. Hello. Hope you're both well. [00:00:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. How are you? [00:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah, not bad. Watched this film literally not long ago, so it's fresh in my memory. I'll probably still forget things because I'm terrible, but, yeah, I'm doing good. Doing good. How about you, Jazm? [00:00:47] Speaker C: Yeah, good, thank you. It's a fun one. It's. We did film podcasts kind of years and years ago, didn't we? [00:00:54] Speaker B: It's. Yeah. It's actually rather funny because this podcast, I didn't know what to name it when I made it, but then I remembered. Me, yourself, the watching artist and Ear Folds. I don't. I keep saying ear folds. I'm not English, I'm Welsh. Year fold. Yeah, like when you say it's been one year, that's how that's Welsh people say year, year. [00:01:22] Speaker C: There's another was. It's a bath. No, hold on. Was it bath or bath? [00:01:29] Speaker B: I vary. I vary. Sometimes I bath, sometimes I bath, but more often bath. Yeah, but me, you, and the two guys I just mentioned did Pugsley Crew Voos. So I took the name and just change it to Reviews. Because what we used to do for those on a way was we'd watch a film and do commentary while watching it. And then obviously we'd put that up and then say to people, you know, you have to get your own film. And then you can watch the film and listen to our commentary as we went along. Yep. And that was fun. And then I decided to do this podcast which are called Reviews because it's just a discussion about the film after the fact. [00:02:11] Speaker C: I want a film. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Speaking of nice segue, film that we are discussing is from the year 1987, and it is Masters of the Universe. For those unfamiliar with Masters of the Universe, it's He Man, he man and the Masters of the Universe. Except for the films just called Masters of the Universe. I don't know why. [00:02:40] Speaker A: I think it might have something to do with. They didn't go to Filmation for the rights to the cartoon to make this. They got the rights to the original comic that came just before the cartoon, I think. [00:02:55] Speaker C: Oh, the toys as well. Right in there. Yeah. [00:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:59] Speaker B: That's interesting. [00:03:01] Speaker C: Well, I know because. Oh, boy. Is this a Canon films production? I'm sure there's a lot we could get into there because this and Superman 4, same year, big franchise pictures, they put a lot of money. Well, they aimed to put a lot of money in Superman 4 and they did into this one, I'd say. And they were hoping these would be the big break for them. Right. But by the time this comes out, he man's kind of overtaken by like Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles are start to take off. Kind of a case where they struck while the iron wasn't that hot. Right. [00:03:36] Speaker A: It was going to have a 40 million budget originally. [00:03:40] Speaker B: 40 million originally. [00:03:42] Speaker A: But it got slashed to 22 million. And it was slashed to 22 million by basing most of it on Earth. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Just like very few places in Earth as well. But I was gonna say you mentioned Superman. One thing I found when I was listening to intro music when it starts up is the music sounds a lot. A lot like the Superman theme from the films, at least to me. [00:04:14] Speaker C: Yeah, no, no, no, it does to everyone. Don't worry. I mean, it's Bill Conti, the Rocky composer. A lot of John Williams, facetious, like, obviously this film is trying to be Star wars in many ways, including the score. But I love the score to this. Like, it is definitely prestigious of those. But it's like soaring, it's heroic. It's. Yeah. Like, it's definitely one of this film's best qualities. [00:04:38] Speaker A: I wrote down it was a cross of the Superman theme, Star wars and the works of Gustav Holst. It's quite funny that I'm not the only one that saw Star wars and Superman in it. [00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:54] Speaker B: The very first thing I thought was Superman. I was like, have I put the right film on? [00:04:59] Speaker C: The credits fly in in the like a space, like a starry sky, don't they? Superman did like, they know what they're doing. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Very rainbow. Yeah. [00:05:13] Speaker B: Basically, for those who are unfamiliar with this, I do always say, best watch the film before listening because spoilers do come up. Especially Curry's terrible for her, unlike me. And. And also it's better to have context to things because at least you know what we're talking about instead of going, oh, right, I'll have to watch that after the fact. It's just easier. But it's basically about a guy who's really powerful and then he has to fight Skeletor at the end. There you go, film done. [00:05:47] Speaker C: And they eat fried chicken at one point. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I did like, actually like the scene where they were actually. It's skipping a little bit further. I don't mind I did like the scene where they eat in ribs and Mandam's like, yeah, that's ribs of an. That's a meat on ribs. Ribs, basically. And they're like this. And Tina's like, this is a barbaric planet. [00:06:13] Speaker C: Light bit of family conflict over vegetarianism there. I don't know that that was on the bingo list for me personally or anyone, but it's. No, I. I mean, do we want to start with, like, our general thoughts, like, what we think of the film overall? Like what? That sound kind of. Sorry, it's your podcast. You're the host. [00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's fine. We usually keep that. We usually keep that to the end. So then we can give it a review, like a little rating as well. It's been a long, long time since I've watched He man, you know, since probably when I was very young. [00:06:50] Speaker C: The cartoon, though. [00:06:52] Speaker B: The cartoon. Yeah, right. [00:06:53] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:54] Speaker A: But I. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Two things at the start of the film that threw me off. Why are there Teemu Darth Vaders everywhere? And as it was very early in the film, he man comes across one and struggles to fight him off. And I'm thinking to myself, isn't he man meant to be extremely strong? Why is he struggling? And to get to that point later in the film when they fight non eternia, after everything have gone tits up, he's fighting with a lord of armor. Just sling him around. So why at the beginning of the film, is he like, oh, no, I can barely handle this one guy to, ah, I'm throwing 50 people off a bridge at once. [00:07:40] Speaker A: I can answer why there's loads of those black troopers. Well, when they got the contract to it, there was something in it about them not allowing you to show he man basically killing people. [00:07:55] Speaker C: That's right. Yeah. [00:07:56] Speaker A: They're supposed to be robots. So he can blow as many of them away as he wants because they're robots and robots don't matter. [00:08:04] Speaker B: It makes sense. It's kind of like, what was it? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series or hero turtles, as it was over here where the Foot Clan ASM just said were all robots, so it was fine to smash them up. [00:08:20] Speaker C: Well, is it correct? Because I think that was the initial mandate. And then I think Mattel was starting to panic, like, oh, no, toy sales are down. Okay, he man can kill now. But by that point it was too late, basically. Like, they'd already done most of the film anyway. [00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they got looser on it towards the end, but they didn't want to have like a Bloodbath. So they were kind of like, maybe you can effectively kill Skeletor, but we don't want him to be, you know, hacking people apart with a sword all the way through it. [00:08:53] Speaker C: Well, this is a film kids can watch, isn't there? So they do get that like they do drop shit at one point, as in the word not. Yeah, but like, you know, it is, it's, it's probably. It is a proper kids film in a lot of ways and in ways I do enjoy, I would say. [00:09:10] Speaker B: One thing I'll say is from my experience of films, does Skeletor actually die? Because I know this is an exact, a bad example, but in Star wars the emperor goes into a similar thing and dies and then he comes back alive again three films later. [00:09:28] Speaker A: Well, there was supposed to be a sequel to this. [00:09:30] Speaker B: Oh, was there? [00:09:31] Speaker A: And Skeletor was cast, so he was definitely coming back. [00:09:35] Speaker C: You know, when we were talking about spoilers, I wanted to joke about spoilers. We are going to spoil the post credits scene that doesn't actually get followed up on because it is a. My cousin, who's a bit older than me was telling me about that. Like that blew his mind. Like our film can do that because I guess not many did. I mean, Back to the Future one. This really is a joke that they actually followed up that ends with a possible sequel tease, doesn't it? But like, certainly post credit scenes were what they are now basically right in the post MCU world. [00:10:08] Speaker B: I didn't know this had a post credit scene. [00:10:11] Speaker A: The post credit wasn't on the cinema copy originally, but it was added by the time it went to VHS because it had done so well in cinema that they wanted to start going, there'll be a sequel. [00:10:24] Speaker C: Oh, because, well, the phase. This flopped at the box office, right? This wasn't. This didn't. [00:10:29] Speaker A: Oh, this did. [00:10:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Oh, so do you mean that we're back to the future? [00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, with Back to the future that. [00:10:36] Speaker C: Oh, sorry, sorry. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:38] Speaker C: Peds edit that out. Yeah, no, totally. It's. [00:10:42] Speaker B: Do you want me to enter or not? I don't know if that's a joke or not. [00:10:46] Speaker C: Do we want to give PEDs more work is what it comes out. So the answer is. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, no, [00:10:52] Speaker C: I, I understand. In this film, the, it was a very last minute addition. It was just like, quick, Frank, okay, get half the costume on, go in this vat of, I don't know, put pink fairy liquid in there, whatever. And then of course he comes, sort of submerges his head out, goes, I'LL be back and then goes back in. But, yeah, it's obviously not followed up on. They did want to. [00:11:14] Speaker A: But I'm kind of glad it didn't get the sequel because Dolph said he wouldn't return and it was some actor that was a surfer they were going to get, I don't think. No, Skeletor wasn't going to return. It was going to be another guy who was cast. And then a load of props from this film, props made for the sequel ended up being used on Jean Claude Van Dam, Cyborg, and the guy that was cast as Skeletor's contract just got moved across to being the main villain of Cyborg. [00:11:45] Speaker C: Oh, is Franklin Jeller the villain in Cyborg, really? [00:11:48] Speaker A: No, he was being replaced. He wouldn't do it. [00:11:52] Speaker C: Oh, sorry. I'm with you now. Who was gonna be scared of it? [00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah. If it had got made for a sequel, it would have been like, not the proper hero. Somebody else. Not the proper main villain, somebody else. So it would have been one of those shite sequels. [00:12:08] Speaker C: Well, like Teen Wolf 2 or something like that. [00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:12] Speaker C: I mean, a surfer. I mean, Dolph is likable in this film. It is an iconic look. A surfer probably could. Like. Not a lot is asked of he man in this. Right. And I think that acting wise, I think that was decision. [00:12:27] Speaker A: I do think they did a good decision with this to just have Dolph Lundgren as he man and never show him as Adam, because I don't think he pulled off like an Adam. [00:12:37] Speaker B: No. I think back in the day, I reckon more they would have probably done is. Is use two different actors. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. [00:12:44] Speaker B: And have one as Adam and one as he man. Like, I think the most recent thing I could think of that's done something like that because I haven't seen the newest Master Universe is the first Captain America film where they made what's his name, Chris something. That's Chris Hemsworth. The other guy who plays Captain America, Chris Evans. They somehow made him look really tiny and stuff. And then obviously when he had the super serum, it was his normal self. So, like, I don't think they would have been able to do that as well in 1987 as they did in, like, late 2000s or mid 2000s. [00:13:23] Speaker C: I think it's probably a fair shout to like, streamliner for a screenplay. I mean. I mean, one of the. This. This film is a little device from one series fan, but, yeah, like, the, like, I feel like the Prince Adam film would have been a bit tough to explain. In like a hundred minute film with quite a lot of crazy things going on. Because one of the other aspect I'm trying to remember if we see them this early on, I was a bit like. One of the things I love about this film is I love all the crazy armor. The crazy. Well, not the crazy sets. The crazy set, singular, because they only made one. But it's a really good one. And I love the crazy monster designs. But the reason I bring that up now is I understand because most of the monsters aren't from the series really. But I love that crazy old lady looking lizard with a big bob of white hair like Gary Oldman's Dracula. I love that crazy design. It's seeing those crazy monsters run about where it becomes a bit horror almost when, I mean that's jumping a bit ahead. Especially a lot to talk about with a certain actress that's in this. But yeah, I think the ways this isn't that faithful generally. Don't bother. Like, I've always found the he man fun. Like it's obviously very kitschy, very silly. I'm probably not gonna be a stickler for the details in the way a cartoon fan was. I don't mind when this takes liberties, but I do get it. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Main thing is, was it fun? Isn't it? Sometimes, yeah. [00:15:01] Speaker C: So, you know earlier when you said you discussed films that are good, bad and everything in between. This film is all of those three things simultaneously. I feel like [00:15:12] Speaker B: it doesn't make sense. It does make sense. [00:15:15] Speaker C: Maybe not to skip too far ahead, but I categorize this as a film I probably can't in good conscience call good. But I really want to. Yeah, that's not the worst place for a film to be. It's not the best. But I find a lot really fun about this. And this production is fascinating aesthetically. I mean, you're talking about the, like the fight scenes. Admittedly, the fight scenes aren't ever thrilling because of like particularly good choreography or editing or he man doing something very creative. But there's a lot of fun pyrotechnics. There's a lot of fun, like old school optical effects. The score is great. As we were saying. And this also has possibly the best movie prop in existence because it's what instigates the plot. Right. The absolute madness that is the Cosmic Key, which is such an incredible prop. Right. [00:16:08] Speaker B: It is cool. Also kind of weird. It's like, yeah, music makes the universe work or something. It's sadly, it's like, wait, what? [00:16:18] Speaker C: How would you. Because I Love the way the. The humans on Earth later are like, oh, it's from Japan. It's like this weird, simple. Because. How would you describe it? It's like this tube that, yeah, just makes the most incredible 80s synth sounds and there's a lot of. I love seeing mechanisms that have an internal logic that is impossible to understand. But it's like, oh, this bit goes out, this bit goes up and then it makes this noise and then it does like a Ghostbuster style optical effect above it. Every time that pins on the screen, I'm happy. [00:16:49] Speaker A: I mean it's part synthesizer but it's part light display as well. I mean the stuff that's in it, you could sort of build something like that now, but you couldn't have back then. But people do build replicas of it, don't they? Yeah, I've seen some amazing replicas, but apparently the real original ones I think they had about six of and they had to have prop masters on standby all the time because they were braking constantly. [00:17:18] Speaker C: Oh, that's very believable. There's more moving parts of that than a car, I would fully believe. There's just so much that could go wrong on that. [00:17:28] Speaker B: So quite a funny film in. In some regards because we're all about like the vegan little vegan vegetarianism, the Huber barbaric planet. Because obviously they really didn't animals then. You also have the car bit where. I can't remember his name now. I did have it written down. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Wildor. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah, that's the thing. Sometimes I'm not sure if they sing Gwildor or Wildor. I don't know, I'm sure they've said. I'm sure they say both at some point. [00:17:59] Speaker C: So he's like this really like hairy, orange bearded old man looking tiny puppet and he's basically meant to be. They couldn't do orko with 80 special effects. Right. So that's kind of their Orko stand in more or less in the cartoon. [00:18:16] Speaker B: But he comes along, he's like, oh, this car uses like bad emissions and stuff. I fix it so it doesn't do that anymore. And it's like quite a progressive film. [00:18:29] Speaker C: Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, because it's. I didn't even think of that. Admittedly there were a few times of this I thought, oh, that's convenient for the plot. [00:18:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it probably is convenient, like, but at the same time about convenience. But at the same time it's like they specifically comment about certain aspects being bad and how this is better and how eating meat is not good and barbaric and so on and so forth. [00:18:57] Speaker A: You do think there must have been a vegan like anti pollution person involved in the script writing or something because it is like. But then again, moral lessons are on brand for he man, aren't they? Because the old cartoon used to end in some form of moral at the end of Everett. [00:19:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess we're lucky it's not like an 80s film that's like, oh, capitalism is good and all the rest of it. That was certainly a capitalism is good decades or at least that was what was said. But I mean, Gwildor, basically, because this film kind of starts with probably what you'd expect from a he man film, right. You get a very obvious but beautiful matte painting of Castle Grayskull. You get the one set they had money to make. They use the hell out of it. But it's a great set, to be fair, even if there's obviously some emperor throne room there. But then it's kind of Gwildor mega genius can get that car going, as you say. And also made the Cosmic Key. That's after what is a very standard episode of like, you know, a big battle, all the rest of it. They then get transported to Earth with the Cosmic Key that. But Gwildil made. Was it that he made two of them and Skeletor has one? [00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I believe it's. [00:20:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:13] Speaker B: The one that Gwildor has is a prototype. [00:20:18] Speaker C: Right, Right. [00:20:19] Speaker B: No one knows that he still has and they wanted to get girl door and kill him so that he never makes another one. [00:20:27] Speaker C: Well, it's a big chase film, basically, isn't there, like that they pick any random planet to end up teleported to. And then of course it's a. Because as much as canon spent on this, they don't have money to not have a lot of it be on Earth. Just a very typical, not completely rural town. But like on the way there, right, like you see a few of the same streets quite a lot. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you do. [00:20:57] Speaker C: Because we've buried the lead here, but caught the Coxes in this film. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:05] Speaker C: And I know, yeah, I note this down. Her friend is named Monica. In like the first scene she's in, I was like, oh, what on earth? That's. That's eerie. But because I think this is after she was in the Bruce Springsteen video, basically, I did Dance in the Dark, that one. Yeah. And yeah, you get a very fairly pedestrian storyline with her and her boyfriend character who she might be leaving, might not it's for what it is. That stuff isn't like I think those actors are good. It is surprisingly sweet between them. It's not like there's another way. This film surprisingly hasn't aged this. It's not like he's a jerk but still gets the girl at the end. He does make strange decisions like quite a few characters in this film. But it is also the problem of well, I came to see he man. Why am I seeing like a fairly typical 80s teen drama taking up a lot of the runtime? [00:22:03] Speaker B: Right, yeah. [00:22:04] Speaker A: Did you click who he was? [00:22:06] Speaker B: You looked really familiar but I couldn't, couldn't think who he was. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Either of you Star Trek fans? [00:22:12] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Tom Paris from Star Trek Voyager. So it's Monica Geller and Tom Paris in a romance. [00:22:25] Speaker C: That's a nice. [00:22:30] Speaker B: Do I want to know like this is going to be like I'm skipping right to the end of the film now. They are. I've got quite a few notes actually about the film in general, but I'm going to skip right to the end sort of. In this film, Monica Cody Cox is, is, is leaving the town because her parents have died and she wants to go to New Jersey at the end of the film. They send them back in time. They don't just send them back to Earth, they send them back in time before the parents died so she could stop her from dying. Does that mean she's then gonna go through the whole drama of he man showing up again? [00:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that was weirdly time paradoxical. [00:23:15] Speaker C: Well, I think it might also be irresponsible in a very, you know, it's obviously she's having to live with that. It's strange because it's, I believe it's a private plane that the dad was piloted. It's very, some very strange decisions made there. But yeah, I, I, I don't know if I don't know how to feel about like a young character grieving over deceased parents and then, oh, it's all right. They, they get them rackets. Yeah, I do. [00:23:44] Speaker A: I think the parents should have stayed dead and I think it should have showed her building some form of life because I think it should have been to, to show people because I mean admittedly it's a kids film and you don't want to say that dead people are going to come back to life and things will always sort themselves out. You just got to wait for some magic people to arrive. You kind of want to say you have to adjust to your new norm. And you miss people and love them and remember them. But you've got to build a life. [00:24:14] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, she like, she starts to film. It's sort of. It's very Sarah Connor. The start of Terminator 1 in a lot of ways. Working a diner job she doesn't like and not really happy with her place in life. And like obviously on top of that huge bereavement and then like then she gets chased by horrible monster men around her school at night for a while with no other people there. Because this film can't get extras for the life of it in ways that are very distracting at times. Like she gets put through the rhythm quite a bit. This film does do all those cheat codes though, where it has such a big sense of adventure to it. The characters are all like. Because we haven't really mentioned like man at Arms and Teela are there. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Oh, I love man at Arms in this. [00:25:08] Speaker C: Yeah, he's fun, isn't it? She's fun. Like they don't have arcs per se. They more or less are just action figures, which is fitting really. But they're likable action figures. You get a sense of shared history with them. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:25:21] Speaker C: Birds. [00:25:22] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. What I was going to say is I did find one scene like I found a fair bit of it funny. But the one scene where they're in the music shop and there's a shooter happening and Teela comes from the room and it's like, I think. I think you need some help from a woman kind of thing and start shooting some of the weird stormtrooper cross with Darth Vader people. And she's like woman at arms. [00:25:47] Speaker C: I think the note I put for that was like 80s feminist icon alongside Ms. Pac Man. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Another scene that made me laugh is where they were trying to talk to the cow. [00:26:06] Speaker C: That's right. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's a behind the scenes stuff with the cow not cooperating on that, I believe. And that poor actor playing Gwilt having a bit of a time, I bet, working with a cow. Yeah, there's quite a lot of like grilled or comedy antics which I didn't hate. They're not my. It's like, oh, he turns up in like comical star sunglasses or whatever. Right. Or a couple of things I found quite gross in this. One of those was him getting food stuck on his beard. [00:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that was great. [00:26:42] Speaker C: I was like, it's that. And every time Courtney Cox was like hugged by he man and at one point unconsciously draped in his cloak. And just all that time I Was like, that's so much sweat. That is a very sweaty man with a very sweaty cape. And let's not get that on that poor woman. My goodness. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Again, I've mentioned a few times now, he man the show I hadn't watched for a long time. And one thing I was thinking about this is it's a lot more shooty than I remember he man being there is a lot of like guns, gun shootouts and stuff. Gun shootouts, Gun shootout. There a lot of shootout stuff. I don't remember he man being quite so shooty. Am I wrong? Like I said, been a long time since I watched it. [00:27:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's. That's right. Yeah, go on, girl. [00:27:39] Speaker A: I do think lasers existed in he man, but I don't think they were that prevalent. I think most of it was swords and axes and giant fists and ramming heads and stuff. [00:27:50] Speaker B: That's what I was thinking. [00:27:53] Speaker A: There was a like more modern he man cartoon there, wasn't there? That was all lasers and stuff. [00:27:58] Speaker B: I remember there being one in like the early. There's a more modern one which I haven't seen. But then there was like the other one that came out like early 2000s on like cartoon networks. I mean that was really good. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Before he had his face melted off, wasn't it? [00:28:18] Speaker C: Oh my God. [00:28:19] Speaker B: I can't remember exactly. I just remember enjoying it at the time. The thing is, with a lot of older cartoons, they really enjoyable. There's no real plot. And then the good thing about like not all, but some of the remakes is they do seem to have a plot. Like Thundercats, great show. But like the. The 2000 show was also really good because it had the plot. [00:28:49] Speaker C: Well, I mean a lot of those like a lot of these cartoons were made in very time, little money. Yeah, they had like a Toyota game. There's still a lot of memorable aesthetics, like aesthetically, conceptually. But yeah, like obviously episode to episode, you're probably not always going to get the. It is interesting what they did and didn't like. In some ways I'm surprised how much is from the cartoon in this. But you are right that and it's one of the things that probably doesn't help this film fight against the notion of being a Star wars rip off. Because they are stormtrooper shootouts basically, aren't they? He doesn't use the sword as much. And as I say, they can be fun. There's some great pyrotechnics. There's quite a bit of like, oh yeah, they blew that Fin up. I'm sure we'll get into this. Certainly. This is a very saggy second act in this film. And I think maybe back to back shootouts, especially when they're on earth, probably don't help that. [00:30:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:01] Speaker C: Written down because I put down, like, I did laugh derisively as much as I expected, but when they suddenly become flying, Sabuchio figures like the old. [00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. I know it's the 80s and stuff, but they looked awful. [00:30:18] Speaker C: Oh, I love it. It's. Oh, it's. It's proper kitschy camp. It's so fun. The effects generally, I think, are weirdly good in this for the time, for the most part. And again, I love the look of a lot of them, but, man, when they're flying Sabuchi, because just a lot is spent on that. And then you get. I've got Skeletor's parade float as well as. Yeah, slowly across on the road. Yeah. [00:30:45] Speaker B: I'm guessing for the time, Skeletor probably looked all right, but did anyone else find that Skeletor just looked weird? Because obviously he's meant to be a skull, but it didn't look like a skull. [00:30:55] Speaker A: I didn't like the eyes. I had to give him black contacts, Evil Dead style. [00:31:03] Speaker C: I'm trying to. I'm trying to think because I know the. The 1980s Dune film by David lynch, because the Fremen, they're meant to have blue eyes and. Dude. Right. And they like, they had blue contact lenses, but they were just horrible at the time. Like, contact lenses have got better over time, so they just had to like, edit in post. Blue glows on people's eyes. And then eventually another troubled film production, that one. But like. Like, the shots were like, oh, they haven't edited the blue eyes then. Because it was just horribly laborious and didn't have enough time. I don't know if by this film's release, if that was maybe more of an option, but honestly, we. I would probably agree with Skeletal is the best part of this film. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Like, that's actually what I was gonna say. It's kind of like a bit hammy and stuff, but also at the same time, it's like definitely the best. The best part of the film is any bit where Skeletor's chewing up the scene. [00:32:05] Speaker A: He's Shakespearean in places. [00:32:08] Speaker C: Exactly. He's a. He's a pompous buffoonist thespian. Which goes hand in hand with the kind of work Franklin Jeller did before it's said Bison in Street Fighter. It's Raoul Julia, like given ridiculous. A ridiculous God complex character. Like character with a God complex. Like recite some verses from the Bibles while floating in the air or whatever. And it's. I just taking it completely seriously. Like, well, like they know what they're. They're in, but like they're having. [00:32:39] Speaker B: That's a film I'm not a fan of. But Raul Julia is great in that. [00:32:43] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:32:45] Speaker B: And everyone remembers the appeal scene where there. That whole me it was a Tuesday. [00:32:52] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:32:53] Speaker A: I love that line. [00:32:55] Speaker C: But some of the lines skeletal says in this. I kind of like, oh my God. Like is. Is this still the same script? And apparently Langell, I helped punch those up a bit on sets. Possibly someone else. Because like, yeah, it was. [00:33:08] Speaker A: It was a condition he laid down attacking the role that he'd be allowed to mess with some lines to good [00:33:15] Speaker C: effect because there's some wonderfully written nonsense he says at the end. Like, God knows what he's going on about, but it's like surprisingly sophisticated in its phrase, that one. [00:33:27] Speaker A: He man. What is it? He man? Tell me, is the lemliness of good equal to the loneliness of evil or something? [00:33:34] Speaker C: I thought, wow, so good. [00:33:38] Speaker B: One of the. [00:33:38] Speaker C: So glad you said that. [00:33:40] Speaker B: One of the scenes with Skeletor I thought was great, right? It was a scene where he sent his militia out. Well, just like some mercenaries, as they said to take on he man and stuff to get him back and the key. But they've come back with their tails between their legs. And one of them says to him, I think his name was like blade or Blades. He's like, let me have another go. He man skulls like, no, he's not. I'm not in the mood for giving vain this day or something like that. And then instead of killing the guy you asked, he killed the person next to him. And like, why the snake eye was quiet. Didn't say a word through the entire thing. The guy's like, give me another chance. And he's like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not in the vein of giving other chances. And then kills the guy next to him. And he's like, why? [00:34:32] Speaker C: Why Snake man? I was sad, Alex. I love those monsters. They're great. Such good designs. [00:34:39] Speaker B: I just come through with this. Like, it's like someone, I don't know, say you're in school and the person next to you mulls off a teacher that have the teacher punish Nelly. Punish you just for being me. Like, why? Why would you do this? Brilliant. [00:35:02] Speaker A: Another Good one. I thought Evelyn was good. [00:35:06] Speaker C: Yes, yes. She's like. What's her name in Flash Gordon? Right. Like there's an evil link kind of character in that. The 80 film. 1980 film. Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:35:23] Speaker A: It's. It's her eyes, though. She's got these bizarre blue shaded eyes and they're not contacts, they're her real eyes. And I'm sure she's also the woman that's in they Live. [00:35:35] Speaker C: Yes, that's right. Yeah. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah. But I think she's a heck of an actress. [00:35:41] Speaker C: Yeah. That was perfect, Carson on this, wasn't it? Like, she's. There's the woman with the eyes, basically. It's if you were like an ice queen to proper give your hero evil. And yeah, she does do some fun kind of. She does do some fun evil antics in this. And then she just kind of drives off. Drives off. At the end she's like, oh, is [00:36:03] Speaker B: this going to shit for Skeletor? [00:36:05] Speaker C: Let's get out of here. It reminded me of Lucille from Arrested Development just driving away while the sons are having a brawl in public. It was just like, oh, no, I'm not having this. [00:36:18] Speaker A: Off I go. [00:36:19] Speaker C: It's. I mean, good for her, but it's a bit like, oh, it's not very climactic end to her role in this. Admittedly, I did find it a bit frustrating and confusing because she does. We're talking about Courtney Cox's characters. Deceased parents. [00:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:37] Speaker C: And then evil Lyn does a bit where she's pretended to be one of them. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah, the mother. [00:36:43] Speaker C: And I think I was trying to understand Courteney Cox's character's actions in that scene because I was like, is she under a spell? Because this is. While there's. We haven't even mentioned Principal Strickland from Back to the Future being in this. But, like, he's with her boyfriend. And then she's like, wait, I think that's my dead mom outside. Then she just kind of walks out in a trance and is funny. And I'm sort of like, it is. Is there magic at play as to why she's thinking this is all correct? Because if not, I don't understand why she did that. Maybe it was more concerned about her boyfriend being at gunpoint. [00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe it was a whole. The naivety of youth where she's like, oh, my mother's back. And has explained why she's pretend. Pretend this plane have crashed. So it could be some sort of spell. It could be as simple as she wanted to believe her mother was still alive. [00:37:43] Speaker A: 50. 50. [00:37:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I think that's the generous reason, [00:37:52] Speaker B: because [00:37:52] Speaker C: it's just too inexplicable to me if it's just like, she just took that face value without any magic at play. And there's certain things like that where you're like, wait, is it this or that? You're definitely not meant to overthink this film. I do get it. [00:38:06] Speaker B: I'll give you an example of another time you shouldn't overthink this film is a scene where after the key gets taken off them because Courtney Cox gives the key to evil Lynn, they run out into the alleyway and they're like, oh, no. And the stormtrooper guy starts shooting at them and they just duck in the. In full view and somehow they just don't get shot once. They spend like 30 seconds, not that long. They spend like 5, 10 seconds shooting at them, but just like completely missing them while they bent over in the middle of the lane with no cover because there was things they could have hid behind, like the big massive bins that they had. They could have hid behind them, but they didn't. They just like crouched down in the middle of the. The alleyway and just, just, just didn't get. It doesn't make sense. [00:39:03] Speaker C: If you're gonna have stormtroopers, they have to have stormtroopers aim. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:08] Speaker B: And it just. They put in the open, though. They were just playing in the open, and it's like, doesn't make sense. Another thing that didn't make sense to me was, is he man in this beauty or bit. He comes flying up over the roof, up onto the roof, sees everyone there, including Skeletor on all his men. And then Courtney Cox runs to go, no, he man, it's a trap. And it's like, well, I think he would have fucking seen that. And then she ends up getting, like, zapped in the leg because she goes in the way. But at the end of the day, I don't think that was really necessary of her. She could just not done that. I don't know. Maybe I'm overthinking it. [00:39:49] Speaker C: It's. I mean, it's not a film you're going to praise for its plot, in which, fair enough, it is probably one of the things that can make it start to drag quite a bit because it, as we say, it is a chase film, basically. Right? [00:40:02] Speaker B: And, yeah, chase. [00:40:03] Speaker C: Quite easy for that. [00:40:04] Speaker B: The key, which is a pain in the ass, it's in one place and then they like, oh, let's lock onto that location. Oh, no, it's moved because he's taken it to a shop. Oh, no, they've gone to the shop, but they've left the shop and gone back and now the police officer have taken it back to the shop. [00:40:22] Speaker C: It's like a video game in that way, isn't it? Just like, are you chasing the fear? Then sometimes you want like a twist on it, like, oh, you get the fin early. But then, oh, it's. No, we don't just need that. But it is pretty much prevalent throughout this and, yeah, it's probably why it does sag a bit. Yeah, I mean, I do. I should have looked his name up. Principal Strickland from like. Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah. Because I think it's a good use of him in this and it's just so funny because it's like, oh, he's in front of a school. He's not a teacher or head teacher in this, but, like, first scene you see of him, he's in front of a high school. [00:40:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:00] Speaker C: And then at one he packs heat a lot in this because at one point he's just like, got a shotgun. Like Strickland in Back to the Future too, as well. It's just. [00:41:08] Speaker B: Yeah, but in this he actually shoots several things. [00:41:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:13] Speaker B: With a shotgun. [00:41:15] Speaker C: He's definitely like. His father's like a. I don't believe any of this, like, stick in the mud kind of guy. It gets weirdly real. As I say, he's at gunpoint with Courtney Cox's character's boyfriend and just refusing to take any of those. I think we do have too many scenes with him. Like, that is part of why the film drags in the middle for me, as fun as he is, it's. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't help. We obviously want to be on Eternia as much as we can, but there's only one set and, like, a bit in the desert somewhere they filmed. So most of it is going to be on Earth. [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah. One other thing I want to mention is, you know, we've been going for a while now. I'm not sure how much longer we're going to be going on for. There's a point in the film near the end where Skeletor has one of his minions whipping. [00:42:12] Speaker C: Oh, yes. [00:42:13] Speaker B: He man. Honestly, it looks like the person who's being traumatized the most is Skeletor. With his look on his face. It's like as if he's having flashbacks to it happening to him or something. He looks genuinely traumatized while it's happening. And I'm thinking, why is Skeletor being. Why is he looking so freaked out? [00:42:34] Speaker C: This is before he stressed as Shao Kahn, right? [00:42:37] Speaker B: Yes, Yes. I also thought Shao Kahn as well. Yeah. Combat for those wondering. Yeah, I'm like, why does he look so straught? Like, isn't this what he wants? [00:42:53] Speaker C: Well, he had. I wrote down he and he man. And, like, it might shock people to learn he man's not got a huge amount of characterization of this, but, like, it is a little bit of a Batman and Joker dynamic. I feel like. Not exactly, but it's like a. Like, skeletal. Really relishes the fact there is a he man. Like, he hates it, but he loves it at the same time. Yeah, Like, I really get that. And there's something there. Like, there's not a huge amount to grasp onto subtextually in this, which, again, fair enough. The T man. But that is kind of interesting. And I do think they're able to really play to that with Frank Langella just really going all in. And as Kerr was saying, rewriting the dialogue to be very memorable with him [00:43:46] Speaker A: in comparison to Skeletor not looking like he enjoys it. Evelyn looks like she's getting off on it. Yeah, like a BDSM Club thing. [00:43:59] Speaker C: I mean, Evelyn has to be a I love being evil kind of character, right? [00:44:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:44:04] Speaker C: My goodness. They go all in on that. And she must have had so much fun, that actress. [00:44:08] Speaker B: More than likely. So we've talked about the film a fair bit. There's probably more we could talk about, but we've gone on for a bit of about 45 minutes. What. What are your final thoughts on this film, then, guys? [00:44:27] Speaker C: We'll go first. Car. [00:44:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, sure. I absolutely love it. It's incredibly camp, but it's incredibly joyous. It's Dolph Lundgren's least favorite film he's been in. He didn't enjoy doing it, but yet he must have come to terms with it because he makes a cameo in the new one. [00:44:48] Speaker B: All right, cool. [00:44:50] Speaker C: As I understand, he goes up and down on there. I think somebody's like, oh, you know what? This is a bit of fun. Like, time helps, that kind of thing, right? [00:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah. But no, there's so many actors that I think put in a good performance in it, and I think it was limited by budget and things like that. But there's some great fights in it. There's some great effects. Meg Foster, that plays Evelyn's great. Frank Langelli is great. Courtney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeil as the young sort of Leads are pretty decent. There's nobody in it that I'd say is awful. I do like the music, even though it seems derivative of other stuff. I do feel like it could have some bits trimmed out of it to be more streamlined. But overall, I do really, really like it. I watched the modern one today. [00:45:53] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. [00:45:56] Speaker A: And I really enjoyed that. But, you know, if I had to go back and watch one again, this one every time, [00:46:04] Speaker B: that's surprising. [00:46:09] Speaker C: I'm glad one of us says because. Yeah. So Pence and I haven't seen the new one. You caught that in theaters. Did you go? [00:46:15] Speaker A: No, it's. It was really unsuccessful. After being in cinemas for, like, five weeks, it went on Amazon prime as a free film. If you've got prime, yeah, that's cool. [00:46:27] Speaker C: I don't think he Man's destined to ever be a blockbuster sensation. Like, people know he Man. They find it fun and kitschy. I don't know if people, like, $100 million at the box office are willing to commit to, like, seeing it or whatnot. I would like to see that new one. [00:46:45] Speaker A: It's worthwhile. [00:46:50] Speaker B: What's your thoughts on this end, Jasmo? [00:46:52] Speaker C: I think Kurt put that brilliantly. I more or less agree with all of that. I might be a bit harsher on the film, possibly, but I still had a lot of fun with it. I was able to make a lot of notes because there's a lot memorable. Even if some things are bad, they're kind of interesting. Or have me going, oh, canon films. Which is such a. You could do so many podcasts on canon films alone. They are such a fascinating, crazy production company of the 80s. Like, I've got, like, I've got Skeleton's orgasm face as a. No, I'm very sorry about that. There's definitely times where, like, again, he's relishing. There's like, oh. Oh, goodness, look at that crazy parade flow of his. It's. Yeah, my goodness. Or like, is it just other stuff as well? Like when they get transported back to Eternia? Like, remember that bit where it's like a half cuboid playset where it's like half the pink Carl? [00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. [00:47:54] Speaker C: It's like the camera's too far out and it's showing that they didn't build all of it, but it's not that, like, it is just. It's a really cool. Strange choice. I'm like, oh, I love that. There's a lot of things like that. This was like, oh, they. They went to that effort or they did this or like it's, you know, I can understand someone saying it's not good, but there's a remarkable amount of like efforts and silly creativity in this. It's not a complete slam dunk, but aesthetically I love what it's doing. There's a great sense of adventure to it. I won't pretend it doesn't drag a bit. As Kerr said, it's. Gosh, that second act is pretty brutal at points. And yeah, like, it does get a bit exhaustive back to back firefights that have good pyrotechnics but not like great editing or such. But. And like, gosh, they needed more extras for this vid. Like, there's a bit where skeletons like people of eternity and then it cuts to like seven people in a sand dune, you know, and there's like weirdly few like, like where all the high schoolers kind of fit. Like, I know it's a bit later in the day, but you said there should still be some about it. But yeah, even with all that, I had a big silly smile on my face with those. [00:49:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I get, I get, I get that. It's. For me, it's like, it's like I enjoyed watching it, it was fun, but at the same time it's not a good film. [00:49:20] Speaker C: 5 stars. I agree. [00:49:23] Speaker B: It's like that though sometimes. Like there's been films that we've watched for the podcast where it's like, it's not a very good film. Realistically, we should give this a rating of 3. But we had so much fun. We can give it a seven or an eight. And it's just like, why do some films resonate with you in that way, even though, you know, technically speaking, they not great? [00:49:42] Speaker C: Well, I mean, this one, I really feel like this one punches above its way. Like I've incurred it so well. Like, there's just a lot of ways of that it is like it is the little engine that could basically like, you know, a canon films produced he man film should be much worse than this. I feel like, like, again, I can't probably contact the claim it's good overall, but it's got so many good or interesting or weird qualities and like on some level, admittedly I find it a bit upset and like, oh, I love this like aesthetic and there's only so many films that can look like this and they can't really look exactly like this anymore. [00:50:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:18] Speaker C: So I'm sometimes a bit sad where it's like, oh, it's like this limited resource And a lot of these don't have very good scripts or similar in some ways it's a shame on that. But again I. I'm so glad I finally watched those. So it's. It was a. Like I'd seen retrospectives on it but it was a first time watch, I'm guessing for both of you. Did you both grow up with of this? [00:50:38] Speaker A: I went and saw it in the cinema as a kid. [00:50:40] Speaker C: Oh my goodness. So definitely yes then. Wow. [00:50:44] Speaker B: I genuinely think this is one of those films where I was up really late and it was just on like S4C or something or ITV. But I was on the way. Who are listening from around the uk. That's basically the Welsh channel for. [00:51:00] Speaker C: It was adopted. Welsh was it? [00:51:01] Speaker B: It was not. I wouldn't have been able to understand a single word if it was. [00:51:09] Speaker A: Yeah, [00:51:12] Speaker B: I think that is going to be us. Would you like to give this film a rating, guys? [00:51:18] Speaker A: I'm going to give it a seven. I really, really like it. I know it's not like an all time classic so I can't go higher than 7 but it's enjoyable. [00:51:30] Speaker C: I'm going to give it Dolph Lundgren in the Criterion closet going, oh, this is one of my favorites. And then he picks out a copy. Not Masters of the Universe. He's a literal genius, by the way. Dolph Lang, like he's one of those people who's like, oh, big broad of a brain. Just like. No, no, he's. Look at his credentials. I mean that might be part of why he was a bit about this because it probably kind of undersells him a bit in a certain way as well. Yeah, we know the classic head heart rate in like head wise. I'm probably a bit mean on this in certain ways, but not that mean and heart wise. Yeah, I like seven. Seven out of ten is good. [00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that as well actually. Like I said, it's not exactly. Not exactly a great film in some ways. But like as was said, the good stuff in it is very good. Oh, I think that kind of elevates her a bit. And also it's just quite fun. Apart from the shootouts. Too many shootouts for he man film. Not enough sword. Stabby stabby. [00:52:34] Speaker C: More sabutio in films like just in general. Please fly in sabutio. [00:52:39] Speaker B: That would be great. [00:52:40] Speaker C: Like Prestige, like Fred Cinema and all the rest of it. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Brilliant. Right, that is going to be us then. I would like to thank you both for taking part. [00:52:54] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:52:55] Speaker A: Oh yeah, very Very welcome. Thanks for having me. Oh, one last thing. The guy that was Strickland in Back to the Future, that was, I can't remember his character name in this, but James Tolkien actually died in March this year. [00:53:09] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Just, you know, at the end of this. Rest in peace, Mr. Tolkien. Thanks for the films. I'm probably saying his name wrong light, but [00:53:20] Speaker C: I, I, he's up there with like Val Kilmer and the heat as people who can pack heat convincingly on screen. Like between this and Back to the Future Zoo. My God, that man can wield a shotgun. My goodness. [00:53:32] Speaker A: And I can't help but think of the Marty McFly line about. Or was it Doc Brown? It's one of them said, did that man ever have hair? [00:53:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I can't picture that. It's like when you see Steve Barton with black hair, it's like, wait, wait, that was physiologically possible. It's like, well, yeah, [00:53:51] Speaker B: yeah, right. That is going to be us then. Goodbye, everyone. We will catch you next time for another film. I have no idea what it is, but we'll pick one. Bye. [00:54:04] Speaker C: Bye, everyone. [00:54:13] Speaker B: Hurry. [00:54:14] Speaker C: Yes, yes. [00:54:15] Speaker B: Come on. [00:54:16] Speaker C: I don't like adventures.