PATHAAN (India, 2023)

WE'RE BACK and we're starting HUGE with Bollywood mass entertainer PATHAAN, directed by Siddharth Anand and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. JAI HIND! PATHAAN Trailer

During the Winter holidays we finished ANDOR, started THE LAST OF US, puzzled over BECKMAN, visited CHINATOWN, drank in GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE and unearthed PSYCHO GOREMAN...

Meanwhile in TrailerTown:
HEAD RUSH (2022) Trailer | Cuong Seven Vietnamese action thriller
THE WEAPON
THE COVENANT
"Ride On" (2023) (龙马精神) | Official Trailer 2 (English Subs)

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Transcript

[speaker]: 0:58

Good-X, a private terror group that are planning on massive attack. Or on the target in there. Hmm, Season 2, what a twist! So are you in? Or are you out? I don't believe in capital punishment, but for talking to the citizens. Ja-hin. Wow! The guy is a... You're on a fighting without fighting. Shoot it. Always try to face kick. Gosh this. They said it would never happen and yet here we go. We've made it. It's season two. How is it different? We'll find out. Welcome back, hopefully, or generally two. Dodge this action movies unleashed it's season two, episode one, and we are starting with a big boy, literally and figuratively. The Indian mass entertainer Patan. It's taken over the world and India right now and it feels like the absolute perfect movie to kick off season two with joining me as ever from across the tiny bit of water to where I am sitting, which is Amsterdam and where he is sitting, which is South London, it's my good friend Matthew Heighton. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, and hello. That's his classic catchphrase that he uses at the beginning of every episode. New list list. It's very exciting to be back, Matthew. We had a little break there, people would describe as Christmas, New Year and most importantly, Simon's birthday. Did you get up to anything fun? For Christmas in the year. And Simon's birthday. And Simon's birthday. Not for Simon's birthday, root. Because you have one of those really fun birthdays that falls right in the, the no-go zone of, yeah. But now, I had a lovely time. Very chill. Nothing to report, mate. Great to hear. Absolutely. I was curious. Thank you, yes, I was in the Netherlands there for Christmas. It's been much like this movie, quite the jet setting month plus for old times. I was in the Netherlands. I went to Budapest for New Year's, which is very nice. Then I went to a bloody India for two weeks, which I'm sure I will mention an almost annoying amount during this particular episode of the podcast, because now obviously, like someone who's just done a gap year, I know everything about the place. Right. I'm like, for good to. I like for good to. And I'm not going to say anything. You're going to an or offensive based on my two weeks there. And then came back here and then spoiler alert. Matt knows this, but the listeners don't. I was in London last week. And guess what happened when I was in London? Matthew. Um, you went to Big Ben. close. You decided to join the stock trade boys and a city guy working atop a tower? Really close actually. I visited one of London's other major tourist attractions and landmarks. Matthew Heighton. The View Cinema. The View Cinema in West, Hampstead Slash, Finchley Road. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very exciting because we went to see this together in real life. And that will become so much clearer later on in the podcast. Before we do that, though, have we, have we seen things in the, uh, interim in the, let's call it the Christmas holidays, if you will? I finally finished and or you will be delighted to hear. Oh, God. So, yeah, I've blown my ears out with his reaction. Um, sorry about that. Um, did you enjoy it? Yeah, I thought it was great, actually. Um, I'm superfan, but this was Star Wars for adults in it. I think that's how you would sum it up. It's like HBO Star Wars. So succession in Star Wars, that sort of hydra armor. Yeah, really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed everything about it. It's good. Recommendigate to people. So yes, I devoured that nice and nice and quick-o, and I'm looking for, well, I say I'm looking for something to fill its gap. I'm actually looking for time to catch up on watching the last of us. is actually one. I was going to say that is the thing go straight into a Pedro classic. Scarly so good at it. I'd say it's been my absolute saying of this year. I was going to talk about it anyway, but the less of us is just so perfect. It actually upsets me. I know you only wish one episode and the at the time of recording we only have three episodes, but F-3 emotionally destroyed me. Oh my god. salty face from watching something. Wow. It's really gotten them a skin. Yeah, as you say, I've only seen the first episode and as a fan and I've played through the first video game, so I'm quite familiar with it and a big fan of it and did very much enjoy episode one as a kind of let's set all of this up for all the nerds who played the video game, but also just everyone watching HBO. I think they did a great job with that. You were seeing films? Yes. I have seen some films. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time. I haven't watched loads of movies due to my international spy universe jet setting as mentioned before, but I did mention one that I think I feel like I want to mention it on the pod and I think I'm going to make a YouTube video about it. It's a movie from a few years ago called Beckman that I discovered through I'm just, he's not announcing it publicly. I'm using it. I'm using it as just to remember what I've watched. It's great. Come the end of the year will be very useful. So this movie basically is, I would sign it up as a Christian John Wick. It's, there's so much about it that I could get into. It's only available on a streaming platform called Pure Flicks, which sounds like it could be porn. but it's actually, and it's like Netflix, but it's entirely Christian movies. It's absolutely incredible. I can't wait to dig more into it. Anyway, the ghost started the company, also starts in the movie. The sort of, the summation of it is, it's better than it has any right to be. Yeah. It's, there's a lot of like God, and there's a lot of moralizing in it. has got some quite good action in it. Okay. Yeah. I'm certainly not recommending anyone watch it, but it's just such a curiosity that I had to give it a look and time permitting, I'm going to get into it in a bit more depth in a YouTube video because I don't know what I feel like people outside of the US have probably never heard of Pureflex and just the idea that a purely Christian movie Netflix exists alone. Of course it does. Of course it exists. Does feel like a self-park creation? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I think that's the only movie that I've watched that I remember from the Christmas period, but there are undoubtedly others. Have I, did you see anything that we need to hear about? I've been watching a lot actually. I've had time to have been watching all sorts of, been watching a lot of 70's films because I just finished Tarantino's book. So I'm having heard his opinions on it. I'm going to met a lot of old stuff seen a long time ago, I miss the rewatch China Town, for example, which you know what, does it do much for me? Really? Yeah, I love it, but it's fine. I just really do it. That was a movie I watched during my university time as part of a film studies course. And remember having to watch quite a lot of things that were a bit tough to get through, you know, like battleship, attacking or really old things. And China Town was like, Oh, this is, you know, enjoyable and quite modern given everything. Yeah. I love a neo-noir, but I don't know why. I think it always, it comes with such a weight of everyone saying how amazing it is. Sure. And I always get them go, it's good. It's good. Fine. Thank you. It's amazing. The filmmaking is incredible. And the, you know, I love that the story isn't spoon-fetched. Do you know what the more I think about it? It is crazy. I said, it's a great film. So I think this podcast is so great for retrospectively enjoying things more than you thought. I feel like we're going to revisit this later. Yeah. Yeah. So the other two, I guess, of note for this podcast is I watched Gunpowder Milk Shake. Finally. Oh, yeah. Which, do you know what? Never seen it. It just went on Netflix. So I thought, yes, girl, I'll give it a look. And yeah, enjoyed it. It's very much comes out of that. definitely done something to the action genre in the same way the born series did, where I think it is so of a style that not necessarily was new is definitely made like the whole slick action genre become that. I think Gump out of milkshake falls into that category. But yeah, it's just some really, really good bits in it, really good bits and the way it's shot is absolutely beautiful. There's missing in that film that is bad. It is good to do. I remember when it came out thinking, mm, and it kind of looked like a cross between a Zack Snyder movie and the Harley Quinn movie. And then the reviews weren't so great. And I was like, I think I'll skip it. It feels like it was going to be all you made. I think, yeah, I think like there's something there. And I don't think it fully hits what it needed. I think the film and the ways put together is beautiful. I think maybe they just, the characters and the story didn't push it up. But it's definitely like an absolute, I've got a couple of hours, I'm gonna sit down and watch some time, I'm not seeing. It's worth it, it's worth just putting on for that. So yeah. Yeah. And then my absolute discovery this year, I film that I think I'm gonna probably watch once or twice a year forever now. Wow. I found a film on Shudder called Psycho-Gorman. I've seen that. I've seen that. I have seen that. Yes. I love it. That is so up your alley. I've never seen it. It's basically the way I describe it would be something like, if Power Rangers was for adults with a sort of 80s, not East Wishmaster vibe, that sort of straight to VHS video. But everything about this, like the people who played it together, the director, you did a film called The Void, if I remember right, and I loved The Void. a lot of people don't like it. I really like the sort of thing that this, it very much feels like he's got all his passions from his childhood and hooked them up to a battery and it just starts to finish either as beaming just an absolute smile on my face. It 100% does exactly what it says on the tin, like you think? What's the trailer? I think I know the sort of I were going for here and then it exactly delivers that. Plus it's actually got one really good fight scene in it that was choreographed by like quite well-known people. If you grew up in the 80s, you will love it. Is the answer, I think? The Power Rangers with blood. But like, the script and the performance is the kid in it, the main kid in it. She is so, so good in that role. It just blew me away. So like, the film is funny on its own, but the script in the performance is just elevated to another level. I'm like, yeah, I generally would say it is worth a shitter free subscription, if nothing else. If you're not a should a subscriber, just do a month's trial just to watch that and a few other things because yeah, it's up there now in my year. What a random discovery. Yeah. A couple of you didn't discuss that whenever I watched it because I'm feel like this is textbook height in that movie. Yeah. It's great. But there, I'd say that is my rep up. All right, Matt, enough looking back. How about we look forward in the form of some trailers? Yeah. Let's do it. We've got a few here and I, you know, it's the beginning of a new season. I want to remind everyone what we're about. So we've got foreign stuff. We've got straight to video, arguably, Drek. We've got big budget things and we've got Jackie Chan. Let's hit them up. First of all, a movie called Headrosh, which is from Vietnam. And it's, the reason this has popped up is because the trailer popped up recently because it supposedly had a digital release. But I think that might have been US only. at the end of 2022. Turns out this movie is actually from 2017. Really? Yeah. Okay. So when you did the link of Looking Forward, were you meant to look at me? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, but it's the first time I guess you could see it in legit. I don't know if you can watch it in Europe actually. I did some, I didn't have a lot of time. I was googling before this. I couldn't find a streaming link for it. streaming on any services in Europe. So I will dig a bit more at the beginning of the trailer. There is a man who has a terminal injury and then a scientist says, I'm going to reconnect the arteries from this body to this body. Then I'm going to remove the head and attach it to this body and I was like, I'm 100% in. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it. I was like, fair in it. I love a haunted body story. Yes, it's exactly that, isn't it? It's a guy whose head goes on another body, but like the body has other ideas. I hear her body. I said that. Yeah, it looks man. I love it. It looks like the sort of film you'd get around the sort of after Universal Soldier came out. Yes. It's very much that sort of vibe. But again, it looks like it's got some good stuff in it. I would definitely watch it. Yeah. If I see it on something, I would absolutely go, yeah, I'm putting it on. I'm making it my brand new head attached to a new year's body mission to track this down so we can watch it. It's got guys running across rooftops. It's got a lot of fighting and exploding. I'm on board. That's all I'm going to say about head rush. And if you have seen it or you know where it's streaming, I will check the old VPNs to see if it's streaming in the US. And then let's have a look at it. Next up, the post-Christmas period I would say is possibly a bit of a dry patch for trailers and stuff. Don't know. It feels like of a dumping ground often for movies, isn't it? It's tough. You get through the first few weeks thing you can ask a season. So like this week course, specifically that end of January being of February is when you'll start seeing all the late Oscar tips going into the cinema. Like here in the UK today, the whale came out finally, which has everyone's been talking about for so long and knock at the cabins out, not an Oscar film, but you get in all that sort of push for early season. But yeah, things that want to get a little looking, speaking of which I'm not nominated for an Oscar for Na 2 Na 2. I'm definitely gonna play in a sound from R R now. Not so, not flamenco my brother. Do you know? Na 2 Na 2. What is not to? Still so excited about the journey. And everything everyone wants, smashing it at the Golden Globes. Our top two movies of last year. So you heard it here first. No one else is. We're really on to it. No one else latched on. Come on, give me your next trailer. Okay, sometimes this podcast is about big budget cinema smashers and sometimes it is about things that go straight to video streaming. and occasionally I just like to put one of these trailers in for a movie there is absolutely no chance we'll watch. To remind us that these movies is being cranked out. This one is called The Weapon. Matt, do you have any recollection of what happens in this trailer? Yeah, I can. Why took away from this trailer is this trailer feels like if SNL doing action film, it felt a parody of itself. And it's crazy because this is a Lionsgate film. some stars attached to it, like, Cuban and Juniors in it, isn't it? The Oscar winner Cuban and Juniors. Yeah. Are you so like, they've got some heat, but the way they put that trailer together felt like it was, it was a spoof. And the way that some of the characters look and spoke, I was like, is this real? But yeah, it's a, it's a, you know, I'm, you know, lots of people worked very hard on it, but I can say with my hand on my heart, I will not be watching this one. It's, it's a sort of film. imagine your mum's new boyfriend would ruin your Netflix algorithm over. Okay, we need to have a quick conversation about my mum, but other than that, yes, absolutely on the money. Let's move on. Now Guy Richie has had quite a interesting last few years, I would say. He's had that Operation Fortune movie that was meant to come out last year. I think it sort of trickled out at the end of last year with no fanfare, which doesn't speak volumes for it. Then before that wrath of man was that that was guy Richie and the steth. I thought that was okay actually. Then they had the gentlemen which I felt like a parody. I didn't mind me. But yeah, it just feels like someone else tried to do a go Richie film. But I had to quite I quite enjoyed it. I think they just think the characters felt like they don't exist today. in real life. Yeah. It felt like no one talks like this guy, Richie, and you're a man in your 40s or 50s and you're just making up slang. Yeah. If you'd say that sort of the era of like lock stock and snatch, I think like if he'd gone like 2001 or whatever, I think it would have felt more bedded, but yeah, it just felt the off-bike. I enjoyed it. Or if we were both 20 years younger, we would have just eaten it up like we did lock stock and snatch. there's some great cases there. I did think it bit hand something. I mean, Hugh Grant's having a whale of the time, clearly. He's just like, okay, I've discovered something new here in acting my acting career. And I'm ready to ride this horse into the sunset. Let's do it. Great. He is great. So anyway, Guy Richie has got another movie coming out who knows when this was made called The Covenant, which looks like a serious Guy Richie movie, which is it does look My thought is just like, can Guy Richie do serious stuff, no tongue in cheek, and quite a sort of delicate subject of like a soldier and a translator and Middle East politics? That kind of thing. It's going to be interesting. Go Richie has certain, he coined a certain style which came up in that sort of 2000s pre-Edgarite, something about what Gaurage he was doing was completely unique. And I think that's translated into most of his films. I think it would be the worst style for this type of films. So it's interesting to see him almost remove himself, certainly from the trailer, remove his style to make sure the story is serviced. And I think it could be a brilliant one for him. When it started, the trailer was like, oh, this story feels like it's 20 years too late. wisdom stuff was I thought, oh, actually, this could be really interesting human story. So it's really, it's really prick my ears up. I am really stupid. Maybe is that as well? Maybe is him kind of trying to not reinvent but offer another string to his bow like no one in this is speaking in any weird made up slang. Don't worry about it. We'll see. I'm curious. I am curious. And like he is, when he's, when he's good, he's such a good filmmaker. think it does like action packed as much as a war movie can. I don't know if we it's like, oh, I'm excited about this quite serious action, but he can't, he can't shoot action in a enjoyable and visceral way, even in like the Sherlock Holmes movies. There's some really interesting, like technically interesting stuff in those definitely give in and watch regardless. Yeah. We're going to end on one that I think is going to split the crowd. It's the best trailer. It's, this is, it's so hard to approach new Jackie Chan movies, but he's got one coming this year called ride on, ride on, ride on. It. In which he plays a stunt man slash horse trainer. This is as far as I can glean from this teaser and the trailer. And if I remember rightly from a previous teaser trailer, a younger man is attempting to woo his daughter. I'm not sure how any of this ties into it being a sort of Jackie Chan action comedy also, more action in this. And there's a few little chan flourishes plus a few bits of action involving a horse, which if John Wick 3 taught us anything is something to be excited about. I think this looks like a Jackie Chan passion project because it's got two things he absolutely loves and what's the Miss horse horse. The two things are Jackie Chan like when you look He was a stuntman, so he's got a real passion for the stunt industry and what stunt people do. True. But also, he's got a real love for sort of bussake and self comedy, that sort of physical slapstick. I think this is probably going to marry up to his big passions. And I think, if nothing else, that's probably what got him on this project. It's basically about a stuntman, you know, who also is going to have some real, you can already see like some real comic beats from a small world. The way I shot, I hope that styles throughout the film. We hope they haven't cut that for the beats of a trailer. I really hope it's good. I really do. It's time for a good Jackie Chan movie. It really made me smile all the way, Tony. He's getting on a bit now, you know? And we're still like, come on, Jackie Chan. I want you to be flipping about and kicking everyone's ass. Like, we're unforgiving as an audience. I'm speaking about myself, mainly. But I think it's great. I think this is going to be a surprise one thing. it, like come out and just gonna have a little charm and a lot of heart and it's gonna be great. I am crossing everything. I would be delighted for another super fun action comedy with JC. Jesus Christ. John Cleese. Oh, I'll tell you, talking about the, there's another Christian streamer. I'm back to pure Flix. Matthew. Yes. Are you ready? I am. I'm finally going to say this and it's actually going to be true. Are you ready to walk into the cinema, sit down next to each other, and watch a movie on the big screen for the first time in over a year since we've been doing this podcast. I am ready Simon. Well guess what Matthew? Yeah. I don't know if you remember this, I suspect maybe you do. I checked in with us while we were in the cinema at a few little during the movie. So please join Matthew and I as we head into our feature presentation. And now, I will teach you a presentation. Tosh this. exciting. I should have done this earlier. I'm in the actual cinema with actual Matthew Heighton. Here he is. Hello, actually Matthew Heighton. We are about to watch a pattern in the cinema. That's really here. Just what it sort of proved that we are both in the same room for the first time ever watching a movie. Yeah the ambient noise will be lovely on this. So you can get a real atmosphere of the cinema right here. Yeah. in the quiet bit before we came into the actual cinema. Anyway, we'll report back after the movie, A Exited Man. I'm very excited. Very excited. Yes. Well, I love about that is you did guess since of the ambience, but you also look forward to where you have to buy the rights to the songs that was on the trailer at the beginning. It's an absolutely copyright nightmare. And as I said, during that recording, we should have done it in the quiet bit before we went in, but I was so excited that we were in the cinema together. We'll pop back in and revisit throughout the movie. That was us sitting down to watch Patan at the View Cinema Finchley Road, Northwest London, Matthew. Where do we start with Patan? Oh boy. This is a marathon. This film is so long. So necessarily long. So two things just start off the better this. This is a fine film. It's a really fun film, riddled with things I hate and also I think what didn't help is The audience from that film was so terrible But so terrible someone had brought there You got very young children, haven't they and they were set behind us. I tried my best. I had at times What was very this is not about the film but just about our cinema going experience is I Go to the cinema on my own a lot. So when things like that happen I the one throwing those glances behind. But what was delightful was that at every time, and there was something that would normally really annoy me, you acted out exactly how I felt in those moments. Like I saw you just looking around, like and being like, and I was like, oh, good, it's not just me. I generally think I don't believe in capital punishment but talking of this sort of thing. It is. Well, yeah. And I think maybe that speaks to why this movie was so loud because it has to drown out the, like just the families that have gone to see it. And we should start at the beginning. This is an Indian Hindi mass entertainer, a masala movie, if you will. It's a close to three hour running time. It's actually 240, but I think we both think it feels longer. And it marks the return of Indian mega star Shahrukh Khan. who hasn't made a movie in four or five years, and has had quite a run of it, publicly it seems in the meantime. Don't want to delve into any of the politics of that sort of thing, but he's back and he's 57 years old and he is back with a bang in this movie. He's a spy and he's kicking everyone's ass. This, to pick up from me saying that it was one of the worst audience ever, it was also simultaneously one of the best audiences I've ever seen a film with. They like, like you say, it's a massive, huge Indian action film and obviously that brought in a lot of British Asians and they have obviously grown up with this guy which is we're going to get to this one. The most mind blowing thanks about this is Khan is what did we say 57 years old he says in the film he's been doing for 30 years. So obviously for like me and Simon who are quite new to sort of you know all these massive sort of Asian and Bollywood and Indian action films. The people in that cinema, it was beautiful. There's the world, like Simon says, massive families who obviously come in to see this because they've had this for 30 years. It's sort of the culmination of something we've completely missed. Well, he's not done a lot of action before, though. This, he's not known for action. So him turning into this sort of absolutely shredded hero is, well, it's a commitment to a role, isn't it? You've got to, whoever trains these guys up, I mean, I would love to. because he's got a few years on us and he looks incredible. Yeah, but I mean, this was the other side of it. Like a annoying audience members aside, when the film got going, everyone got into the film, it is nice to be an in- audience where you can all really feel like people's reactions. And this film is ridiculous, insane in every way. Well, there's no other way to describe it. But people know that. They know it's ridiculous. And like, so when something happens, the whole audience pebbles it and it's like laughter or ooze and ours and just, just like really looking over it. And even like the actors and the script play to sort of a little wink at camera and stuff like that. And that is genuine joy. There were some lovely moments where something would happen and you would just like, look over at me and I would look over at you. And we'd both be like, I know, I know. This is great. It is what it is. For that, this film is great. I mean, and it is, it's just like this nothing, nothing would ever get off the table for this film. Like if someone said, oh, and at one point they get miniaturized and put into someone's body. You'd be like, yeah, that wouldn't, that wouldn't be like, checks out the question thing, yeah. Like, there's nothing you can do this film. To clarify, that doesn't happen in the movie. That doesn't happen. But that is the level of things you could probably go away with, and they'd still try and make this a grounded action film. That is true. everything that is joyful about this is just, it's the hate they wrote the script. And then they added bits on to make the script longer. Well, I guess the movie has to be long enough for them to have an interval, right? So the nature of these mass entertainers are such that it needs to follow the sort of roller coaster diagram of, you know, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, interval. Something has or in the case of this, a big twist slash reveal where you're like, ah, I can't believe that happened. I can't believe the one thing I was sure was going to happen delivered at the exact time I hoped it would. So yeah, almost the whole of the first half of the movie is a flashback. It's, if you've seen war, which we talked about back last year mass entertainer action cinema. It's by the same director and it shares a lot of those beats. We call those blockbuster Simon. Okay. You're trying to scramble for the terms. Well, these take place in the spy universe, which means that some characters overlap a little bit. And I can't tell how much of the spy universe was planned in advance or retrofitted and then personally, I think I preferred war. It sort of made more sense or the action was ludicrous, but not as ludicrous. I don't know what it was, but I did enjoy this, but I think what early on in the movie, I went, okay, this is the level we're at with this. Like, like, classic Indian actioner, the reveal, the slowmo, the theme. He kicks everyone's ass. Yeah, the abs. Oh my goodness. So much wind in his long hair. And then he slides down the blade of a helicopter and then pilots that helicopter out of a cave through like a vent or something and I was like, ah, okay, okay, this is where we are. Prior to that, I was like, okay, okay. And then it was like, oh no, all bets are off, man. all bets are off and then just continued to be like more bets are off. If you didn't think it could get any more ridiculous, I don't have you, do you know what you're dealing with? It just keeps, keeps getting more ridiculous. This is the thing that I, um, I struggled to, um, sort of put the two together because those massive ridiculous, and again, you can't stress how ridiculous sometimes those set in sort of one-on-one actual action sort of classic guide fights guy. Some of their choreography was incredible. Yeah. So the incredible and the blows felt like they landed so many times. Yeah, they're like crunchy. They're right here. But like when they allowed themselves to just do like we're going to have a fight scene here, they're incredible. But it was almost like you sort of in the tape you're to somewhere else or something. And I think that's not ruining it for me, because there's no way I would classify this as a bad film. I really enjoyed this film. I'll go in now. It's a three-star film for me. Yeah, I definitely know Rigrets' watch, but it didn't do anything for me. And I think the reason was, there was so much good stuff in there, just swamped with a necessary dialogue, an exposition, and sequences that didn't need to be in there. It actually made me go, you've got so much good stuff like every performance in this I loved. So like sometimes really funny sometimes really many things sometimes really heartfelt but it's just general. So you've got Sharu Khan he's the star of this movie he's the marquee name then you've also got a Deepika Padakone hope of pronounce that right as the another agent slash figure who has innumerable costume changes and R&B music video and just basically smolders throughout. Then you've got John Abram, who is another Indian star as the bad guy who has one of the best bad guy names in action movie history. Jim. He's just called Jim. That's it. And there's plenty of quipping in this movie. But no one quips Oh, Jim, it's just a really rubbish name for a bad guy. It's just someone's dad's name. Jim, again, I was thinking about this because I thought that, but then I still about it from when we watch other films from Indian stuff, especially RRO, you can remember that is a very colloquial British name. And we know already that the empire and stuff is obviously the internet scissors we've set before. So to have a name like that on a bad day, he might actually make it more sinister for the audience that it was made for. I don't know, but that's the only way I can justify that. I mean, his real name is John Abraham, which is not exactly a traditional Indian name. So is that, that could be a stage name though. So yeah, I didn't know. That was the only way I could justify that name. Yeah. Otherwise, it is one of the best jokes there's ever been for. There's a lot we don't know about Indian names, but I think in terms of the name of baddie Jim is real. It's a real big hitter. about it. He's an ex agent that switched sides and he wants to destroy India because India didn't negotiate with terrorists and terrorists killed his wife and unborn child. And now he's mad and now he's going to make them pay figuratively and literally by sort of now making them the plot sound actually quite good there. When you watch it, it feels quite convoluted. This was again, so this is where I think this film became the biggest disservice in this film was to the character of Jim, because they did give him a set up for really, really driven back story, something that really drives his hatred and a real good reason for him to that abandoned him and ultimately cost him everything. But they used it in a flashback and then it never became a part of his character again, really. Like every now and then it was thrown to, but everything about his behavior, everything about his motivations and the way he conducts himself, it was just like a TikTok star, who was really hard. There are a few bits where he does a video call and he's just like really swarve on it, isn't he? Yeah, he's just such a good looking man. He's a good looking man. And he does play that, he does lean into that, the role of very smug, baddie quite well, I think. Yeah. He doesn't sort of get the slight winks that SRK gets. He gets to play super hard, but also, and you know, this movie shifts tonally quite aggressively at times, but he gets to play like a little sort of like, ooh, a self-effacing and oh my goodness, ooh, we're having a bit of banter in a gunfight. sometimes where John Abraham just kind of is that sort of like, I'm a little bit cheeky on the video call before I kill everyone. Arch baddie. Again, like I just wish they had come back and had all that emotion bubble back to the surface especially in the end so conflict. But yeah, they didn't. Yeah. It's a movie that starts in the present. It then goes back to filling everyone's backstory and I thought it started in the past, so that was three years earlier than it went then it went to the present then it went back two years. Okay quite possible. I thought it started with SRK's introduction but maybe there's actually a bit before that that I forgot that happened. No, because starts with the villain, the general right. Oh that's right. This isn't a spoiler because this is how it starts. The who you think is going to be the villain of the film Yeah, basically, a country goes back on a treaty, which means it opens up the possibility of this general to essentially start a war. He's very mad, basically. It's a real, it is a real, I've forgotten how you describe it. It's like a, yeah, some sort of bit of law that means cashmere is independent or something. I think I'm probably getting it slightly wrong, but they say they've think he's from Pakistan, the general is mad, yeah. Gives him license to openly essentially be a terrorist. Right. Again, talking about counting to disservice, they set him up as a really like great idea. So he comes in as they instantly seem one, they establish that he's terminally ill. Right. And he's only got a three years left and his whole thing is that's enough time to cause chaos. Yeah. So that's like a really beautiful in terms of like you plot wise, you've got a time limit. You know he's going to go to the present day and you know this guy is basically fighting his own clock to do terrible things. And he says he's going to make a deal with the devil or what does he say? Something about the devil describing and then it's like who is this devil? Jim. It's Jim. It's Jim. Don't worry, Jim. Yeah. And then it goes forwards and time. to S.I.K. and then it goes backwards in time to S.I.K.'s backstory. And it's incredible. And this is before you even get to the interval. Speaking of which Matthew, do you remember when we were in the cinema together and there was an interval? I do remember. I do remember. We've reached the interval and there's a real interval. I saw our twice with no interval. My bladder was primed for three hours with no breaks, but there's a natural interval. So I've had a little toilet break, even though I didn't really need one map. What a treat. You know what, you just gotta take them where you can get them, especially this could be the one of many intervals we don't know. It's true. We've hit the interval and nothing that needs to happen has happened. So far, everything has been a flashback as far as I can tell. Yeah. Okay, back to Matt and Simon in the studio. I can't believe I secured a different thing. Oh, yeah, we timed that really well. I think that really sums up about how confused we were at that point in the movie. So now a week later, I was trying to remember, even at the time we were having trouble piecing it together. By now, we've established this is a phone film, but it's very confusing. So let's focus on the positives Simon. Thank you. What did you like about this film? Well, like you touched on earlier, I think there's some very nice fight sequences in this movie and also like you touched on earlier. Most of those fight sequences start in a relatively grounded way and almost without fail, they all escalate to insanity by the end of it. So I think like my enjoyment curve of each action sequence was at the beginning, Oh, this is quite a cool idea. Or like, oh, this is fun. And then as it ratchet it up and ratchet it up, it would just get more ridiculous. It's like the difference between fast five and fast seven or eight, you know, five was like, we're kind of respecting like logic and physics and stuff. And then by, you know, whichever one they drive out of the burge califa window into another window. There's furious seven. Right. So. looked to that scene so much less week. Oh, because you put Mr. Blobby in it, of course. It is. It's a good thing. So I think that is that's a reasonable way to describe that. And of course, I mean, this movie also takes place in Dubai at one point. Of course it does because if you want to make a big flashy action movie, you have to go to Dubai and I'm sure Dubai are happy to for everyone to film. They're big flash action. Definitely went to Russia as well. They 100% were in Russia and not on a series of sound stages. I mean, I'll never. because they did do a thank you to Spain at the end and this is one of my favorite things that happened in the film. There's genuinely, they've obviously been cleared to film in Spain and so they've scripted into the whole film a bit where the 10s superior basically says, you know, most secret agents are going to mission it be a rack or a ran, but for you Spain, and they're cut to. And as soon as you get there, maybe track down this R&B singer, Slash, Pakistani intelligence agent, and other series of costume changes during this music video. This is what I'd love, though. This is what I'd love about Bollywood and Indian cinema. It has developed on such a different keel to West's cinema that obviously all this stuff is so traditional and so ingrained into the language of film that I love how like completely, completely just open-air about going, I'm just going to have a nice, most essentially a music video that takes on nothing from plot. And actually, when we started on this, they used to really annoy me. So what is the point in this? But now I'm growing to love them. They're quite nice, isn't it? They're really joyful, yeah. I think that's it. It's once you understand the language of this. And I think the only time we're going to bring it up in the whole podcast, when I was recently in India, in Mumbai, home of Bollywood, after I'd been there a while, Europe and America quite extensively, but I haven't been to Asia. So there was a lot of culture shock in innumerable ways. But after a while, and this probably applies to traveling anywhere where you have culture shock, you have to stop sort of trying to see things through the prism of like how you learned everything is and how you learned everything works. And just kind of go, that doesn't really apply here. So if I keep looking at stuff like that, I'm going to be frustrated, annoyed, or scared or whatever. And you just have to go, well, things work differently here. Let's work them out on that scale. And I think you can exactly apply that to movies like this that come out of Indian cinema where you're like, yeah, if you compare this to all the western movies they've watched, you're like, I don't understand why, why these things happen, why there's singing but it's like, well, it's just a, the whole approach is different and there's a rich history of it. It says, no, there's no fan worship in the West at all. But I mean, not to the same extent as this. Yes, people go and see a Tom Cruise movie, but the sort of, it's fan, but it's fanaticism. You know, you just need to read the comments on the trailers of these movies. It's, it's just a different level of excitement, you know. And I think once you go in with that thinking, This is a different movie going experience. Then you can kind of, and this is speaking personally, you've got to just kind of let go of those expectations and be like 100%. Let's go on this roller coaster. Don't know what to expect, and I'm ready for anything. It doesn't mean it's gonna, it doesn't mean it's a five star movie. Like you say, I do, I think this is a three star movie. I preferred war and I'd absolutely adored RR. But you know, it's nice to have that rich tapestry in the more movies we watch from this part of the world. narrow scene. We're not watching like, or Teryi indie movies, which I'm sure that's loads of an India. We're just watching these mass entertainer spectacles. This again is like the thing that I love. I really love this about, international cinema. Is every region has its own style to a degree, but a lot of that is getting stamped out due to, um, just, just a success of Hollywood, like Hollywood has honed filmmakers to such a degree, especially blockbusters. Like if you think about it, like in terms of ancho make him. Sediment didn't really get his boom to the post-war, you know. And the studio system also obviously went through his golden age and it's decline and stuff and all the B-movies became genre films of the 60s, these 50s and 60s all the sort of boom of the B-movie essentially. But it's not really so the 70s that, you know, the blockbuster really fires it stride. You know, George's often cited as the first blockbuster. And even then it's not an action film, it's just a blockbuster. And I think... action film finally. Yes, yeah. Films like this come from a blocbuster action film. They don't come from like a great gangster film, which has day a lot of action films come from in tradition of cinema. But like in terms of this, what it's lovely is Hollywood is probably the biggest market for cinema in the entire world. It's probably not a bigger market. Hollywood is huge, but it exports to the rest of the world. That's why it's so big. And it's kind of seen as the home of cinema. But with Bollywood it has just always been this titan of its own industry. Yeah, internally. Yeah, we've had stuff come over throughout all the indie booms that have been gone, especially the 90s and the VHS boom brought a lot of international cinema over. But only now we're starting to see more and more because it's streamers and stuff like that. They've become bigger and more householder, they were, I think, we're on the beginning of that boom. And I'm hoping that that affects the language of well, I hope that it just maintains that sort of that these mad films will always exist. I think they have to, right? Because I think there's still the audience for these films is, you know, 90% local, you know, but with the advent of streaming, suddenly more people get to see them. And you hope, as you say, that it doesn't sort of homogenize filmmaking such that movies from everywhere are all kind of the same thing. We are getting a bit of that. Like some of watch from like other countries out of the West. They do feel more in terms of style Americanities. And I think like that is just something that's naturally happening with anything like, you know, if a film wants to do well, it's got to have its own sort of identity, but to compete on a mass scale. And there's no denying the influence of Hollywood blockbusters on movies like War and Patan possible movies from fast and furious movies. It's kind of like a director's grab bag of like, oh, you know, I'd love that bit in Mission Impossible 2. I mean, clearly loves Mission Impossible 2. There's bits in war and this that are like shot for shot from Mission Impossible 2. I love Mission Impossible 2. Don't get me wrong, we're cute, John Woofant. So there's no denying that. Even his hair is kind of Tom Cruise Mission Impossible 2. Oh my God, it is. He has this. This movie was made for $28 million US dollars and is two hours 40 minutes long and features almost non-stop action scenes, whereas I don't know what the budget for a mission impossible to do was, but even 20 years ago, I suspect it was more than $28 million. Well, the new one, did we say this can be the most expensive action film or film ever created? So if you want to go back and listen about that, Tom Cruise flies off a cliff on a bike. Yeah. But this is the thing, I think now that we see more of these, I think because this is such a genre, like the Bollywood blockbuster is such a thing of its own genre, but now we're watching more and more and stopping well by the madness of it. So now I've seen RRR, which does all those insane things. but they do it so well. I think everything is held up against that for me personally, someone who's new to this sort of entire genre. And I am trying to watch more and more and I am trying to sort of widen my palate of this. And again, this is what I love. I'm stuck going, going, oh man, did you see what the guy did with that helicopter? And they're going, well, you could have done a little more caretaker development there. Yeah, that's fair. I think that's fair. But again, like, they're so enjoyable. Like I don't want to put anyone off watching this film because like, biggest screen possible. I do think with a loudest speak, you're going to lose a star to half a star if you wait till this is on Amazon Prime in April, you know, if you're in the right mood, just go see it in the cinema. It's gone interval. You can even get more snacks, go for a wee. There's an isolation. I'm going to say then Simon. I don't mean this much more, we can cover on the actual film. If we've come to our natural conclusion on this movie, which but we've given it a very kind of overarching vibe. But I wanna remember exactly how we felt at the end of the movie. If only there was a way we could do that. Yeah! Really long time, it's very loud. Very less of the levels. It's so loud. You're gonna have to go. We've existed the cinema, we're in the corridor and I just need a few words from Matthew because we exit the three and a half hour marathon that was baton. I think we went in there and it was genuine, it's no February. We're gonna have to let this sink in and all we can do is throw to Simon and Matt in the studio for hopefully some kind of insight. Good luck! I don't know if we've offered that much insight this time, but we've definitely, I'm enthusiastic and perspective, I would hope. I do think we have, I'm regretting, I don't look at that. This is probably the film that I've been down on more than anything. I don't wanna put people off because- True story actually, Matt, yeah, I feel like we've almost reversed roles. Hmm, season two, what a twist. It's just the length, it's really, it really. That's fair, that is fair. just had so much stuff that because it's so long, if it was so long, but I came out of it going, yeah, but you can't lose any of it. Like, I'd be all right, but because of much, you were like, I think it's shavered solid 40 minutes from that film. Yeah, you could get an hour and a half. The budget would go so much further. I'd love to know the logistics and the sort of politics of, well, we have, it has to be this long because it has to have more snacks in the cinema. But what about the discussion of, but if it was half an hour shorter, we could spend a bit more money on making some of the CGI look a bit better or like this could make a bit more sense. Or was this it was the CGI in this? Oh, did you not notice that was that one bit of CGI that one, one time when they were standing on that thing and then it turned into a video game for five minutes. Okay, I'm ready for it, Matthew. Say the words. Replay Simon. I'm trying to treat you like Alexa. Activating me like Alexa. Simon, play and you replay. mentioned it so far. I wrote down two things, so I'm just going to say two words and you might think they're a spoiler, but there's just no way. There's just no way. Even if I told you this happened, when you see it, you, I talked earlier about moments when Matt and I looked at each other in the cinema and this was, I would say my favourite one. You know what I'm going to say, Matthew, it's two words. Can you guess what the two words are? I've heard, say, flying men. Oh, okay, that was not the two words. My two words. Well, now I want to see your face when I say the two words. Ice skates. I thought I didn't know who told him it was gonna be. I didn't know which one it was gonna be. There's a scene in this, it's actually not one of my favorite action scenes because it's so CGI and ridiculous. But there's a bit where there's just an escalation in this scene that in a million years I would never have anticipated. And it's just one of those sort of Bollywood moments where you just go, I mean, Fel, it felt like it came out of a Simpson's McBain movie. It was absolutely insane. Absolutely insane. Absolutely insane. And by that point, you're just like, I mean, what can you put complain about when straight facedly this happens in the film? It's like, this is the movie. It is just just enjoy it. Anyway, yeah, that was extraordinary. It was either that or that for... novelty, sort of ridiculous, enthusiastic laughter, but the SRK's intro I'd thought was actually really enjoyable. And the beginning of the train scene where there is a cameo from somebody else in the spy universe. Great action scene that starts off great and escalates into a cut scene or a playable scene from one of the uncharted video games. Yeah, you could very easily edit that scene with triangle. It's circle appearing at times. Press circle to shoot chain gun. What was your horse, please, Matthew? I'm sorry if I already come. Now I'm going to have to cover it. But yeah, the for ridiculousness, just in the myths of an already insane set of finale sequences, they just take off and we can only describe as MCU style vulture wings. I have one of the most ridiculous chase ever, but in that chase, so the 10 chases gym in essentially Vulturesuits, they had one of my favorite shots I've seen in a film all year, which is just a really funny shot of a cow, and then they both fly by it. And it was so beautiful. I think that would, that shot is my actual replay. Oh, man. and just the way those two played off each other. That was really physically. Yeah, it conjured up very much feeling of how you would feel if it was honest or less a solo at the end of sort of then no ease run. It very much had even for somebody who doesn't have the history of these films, I got that feeling from it, which was lovely. Or like when a Marvel character does a really big thing from the comic books and all the audience go, Yeah, I am. I'm a person. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, those those would probably stand out. And then again, just the final, the actual final fight in a, in a, a shit sort of a wooden shack on the side of a cliff. There's some really good bits in that. Yeah. I would. I don't know if it warranted two hours for you minutes to get there. If Jim really wanted that thing to explode, just hold on to the timer and then go, well, you're going to have to fight me for it. Just explode it, mate. Big spoiler, but yeah, that was still make no sense when it happens. No, no, no, no. A lot of it doesn't make sense, but a lot of it is great. And also, I'm annoyed at myself for not having done this to an irritating degree throughout the episode because every time I mentioned Jim, I wanted to do this. He's got such a good theme tune and it plays every single time he comes in at the beginning. You're like, this is very cool. And then by the fifth time, you're like, I mean, it's Jim's theme and his Jim again and they're playing the theme and you can't hate it. It's so humble. It's great. It's great. I love it. I'm gonna stop playing it. Yeah, that is great. It is great. Yeah, again, just because I'm not normally down on films and I feel like I sound like I am. I just, I think I do say watch this film. It's especially like if you're like a singer opening yourself up to this whole move and sort of like a cinema. Absolutely. I think it's not the gateway if you want to start watching these crazy mass entertainers. Personally, I would, I think war is the better gateway. They're cut from the same cloth, and they're also part of the same universe, direct away the same guy. But I do think for me, war was the more enjoyable movie. None of this. If you liked war, you're gonna have a fun time with this. If you like war, you're also like... Five months. If you like Tom Cruise in MI2, haircuts and R&B singers, you'll love Patan. Now Matthew, before we wrap up, I've got one little surprise in the back. Before ever, yeah. Originally, I don't remember if you remember from when we were chatting about when this movie was coming out, I was going to go and see this movie here in Amsterdam with my friend and friend of the show, Emil. But it turned out that most of the screenings had Dutch subtitles. So it worked out that while I was in London, you and I got to see it. Which was an absolute dream come true, a dream come true for me. I think it was wonderful. However, Emil did go and see the movie and him and I have chatted about it a lot. He's of Indian action cinema roller coaster with us. And so I sent a mail a little message and I said, a meal. We're talking about Patan. Do you have anything you would love to add? Like send me a little voice note and I'll pop it into the podcast because I like to hear from you. I love to hear your thoughts and he is absolutely delivered Matthew. I think you're going to love this. This is what a meal sent me. Hey, let me go here. I don't have a ton of time to talk. Patan, moments matter, physics do not. Emotions drive the movie, and Lodge got left back there at the gas station. And I don't think it's coming back. Just like humanity, if you try to understand it, it will break you, embrace it, and you'll gain a friend. So long friends, Jai. Neil Stroker Boone, a absolutely smashing his cameo appearance in the podcast. Yeah, I can't, I can't just do a quick two minute on the phone now, Ken Ali. You're going to really have to step it up in future. The meal is like the Salman Khan, the tiger of this podcast with that, the way he just kicked in the doors, dropped an absolute bombshell and then left us to sweep up the pieces. I think he absolutely nailed it to to be first smashed it. He smashed it. Listen, we've got to go. actually long enough. Thank you, dear listener. Welcome to season two. If you've enjoyed the podcast, we have a Twitter. You can follow its dodge this pod. You can follow Matthew and I on all the socials, Instagram, Twitter, etc. All linked below. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please tweet about it, share it with a friend and here's a new feature that Buzzcast have added recently. If you're an absolute superfan, you can subscribe to this podcast with actual money. If you love it that much, if you've invented something and you just have too much money. You don't know what to do with it. And you're like, I'd like to love that podcast. You can, you can like give us like a coffee a month or a speedboat a month up to you. Anyway, that's linked to one or the other. Nothing in between. I don't want to cup the coffee. I want a speedboat a month. I don't know where I'll put that. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it in my speedboat. We will see you still fading out now. exciting year of action. Matthew, thanks very much for joining us. I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye, Jim. Bye. We don't have the copyright clearance. We'll just fade it out here. Bye! Bye.