What happened with Leon the Professional is that Luc was absolutely a pedo and the script was originally intended to be semi-autobiographic about his marriage his a young girl. Jean Reno, the lead actor, refused to play the film for romantic and played it as a father/daughter relationship. He refused to film a sex scene that was in the script. There are still a few scenes in the movie where Natalies characters talks about how much she is love with Leon and calls themselves lovers. If you watch Reno in this scenes, his face reads less of romantic interest and more of parental confusion. He has taken unofficial custody of a child and the child has developed a crush on him. He performs like he doesn't know how to handle or approach the situation as he has never taken care of a child before. Leon kind of had a production similar to Groundhog Day where the Director and lead Actor had polar opposite interpretations of the script. One saw a pedophilic-romance and the other saw a hitman becoming a father finding something to fight for in life. The final product is a combination of the two. Ultimately, even though I fully recognize the deeply disturbing inspiration for the script, whenever I see the film I see the father daughter relationship, and any romance between them is less a romance and more a student crushing on their teacher. I think the film is a masterpiece. Luc should also probably be in jail.
@@almightycinder that's an interesting interpretation. I guess it could work that way but it always felt more to me like he just was fully inexperienced in looking after a child.
That's crazy. In the video Adum pointed out the guy said Natalie Portman thought this was the best script she ever read in response to her parents not wanting her to be in it. I hope that was rewritten before she got it or her parents took it out.
My film professor did the casting for Valerian! He primarily did small-scale indie productions in France, and received much notoriety for such. He would always rant mid-lecture abput Valarian, and how he was continually pushed aside by the producers. Apparently he wasn't much informed about the scale of the production until he signed on. So there's your answer as to why the casting is so abysmal. He also mentioned that when meeting Rihanna, she was nothing special. I wouldnt expect her to be, but its funny he deliberately mentioned it. EDIT: He was not casting director, but rather a casting assistant. However, I believe- based on his stories, that he had a farily large input rather than just an advisor-type position. He spoke as if it was him alone. So I wonder if he may have been the initial casting director, before gradually shifted away from the project. This is my speculation but I believe it to be true.
That's crazy! Since the movie was technically independently produced, do you know which producers he would be talking about? Was he referring to Luc Besson?
@Aaron J I'm not sure! So sorry I don't kown definitely but my best judgement is that yes, Luc's input was irritating to him. I say this because he had MANY opportunities to mention something like: "the Director was a visionary, helpful and accepting," etc., but he never said anything of the sort lol.
My theory on why DeHaan was the lead of Valerian is that Besson wanted a Young DiCaprio style of actor to get people in the sits. He wanted a Titanic. He wanted A TWINK But Timothee Chalamet was just starting. It was somehow too late and too early. (Somehow i'm glad DeHaan is in Oppenheimer? Like he is not a GREAT actor but everyone deserves a chance. Look at Emile Hirsch in Once upon a time in Hollywood
it was horrible. 2 hours straight insisting to evoke the same feelings over and over again and the jokes were very bad and shoe-horned most of the time. they're lucky adum didn't watch it because he'd easily give it a 5/10.
I’m making a bet, and correct me if I’m wrong when Superman Legacy comes out, the Snyder fans are gonna be in the same camp as the Suicide Squad (2016) and TASM fans where this next one comes out and they just slowly disappear and switch sides anonymously. “THEY CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!”
the two leads in valerian are extremely on brand for white girl twitter/tumblr in like 2013-2014 so that’s probably what everyone thought they were nailing making the movie
Star Wars actually could’ve been a Valerian. George Lucas originally wanted to make a movie based on the old Flash Gordon serials but couldn’t get the rights.
I mean, it probably still would have been a success if it had been a Flash Gordon movie. Flash Gordon was still very well known and popular in the 70s, and is still a recognisable name today.
Here's the full quote from the Wikipedia article Adam was referencing about Luc Besson, pretty creepy: "Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 31 and she was 15. They married in late 1992 when Le Besco, 16, was pregnant with their daughter Shanna, who was born on 3 January 1993. Le Besco later claimed that their relationship inspired Besson's film Léon (1994), where the plot involved the emotional relationship between an adult man and a 12-year-old girl. Their marriage ended in 1997, when Besson became involved with actress Milla Jovovich during the filming of The Fifth Element (1997). He married the 21-year-old Jovovich on 14 December 1997, when he was 38."
The Guardians films do mean a lot to me on a personal level, I saw the first film when I was very little and it’s been nice to have a consistent trilogy that’s been a ton of fun, and I’ll forever cherish them.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a funny, emotional, and extraordinary last installment to my favorite superhero team (also had one of the best theater experiences ever with loads of people, a slushy/Rocket figure, and two amazing friends in an IMAX theater). Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets could’ve been cool, but it’s bodies down by video gamey look, horrendous acting (especially Dane DeHaan), and feels like a mixture of other films. The questions were interesting to hear as usual. This is one of my favorite episodes. Thanks, Sard boys! Edit: I added in my thoughts on Valerian.
It's not the same entertaining way that happens like "The Fifth Element" with the many experienced actors leading things, it was just really dull because the leads were ackward and dull. It only picks up near the end when we believe these aliens attacking were bad, only to find their home was collateral damage in a war, having had time to let their anger subside and just want a new planet, but the conflict comes when the officer who's actions caused that was a little bit perturbed by the potential of being branded with a war crime.
The Luc Besson story is a stark reminder that before the internet and digital communication brought the world together and let us essentially set global standards on behaviours, what was and was not acceptable was very much determined by committee of the community. Which means if no one said anything or didn't question these things (for whatever reason - he's important, he's rich, he has power etc.) any perverse indulgence would generally be overlooked, downplayed, or buried. Especially since there was so little empowerment for victims and causes before the 'me too' movement.
I think Matt Fagerholm (From a text he sent to Rob & Doug Walker) described Valrian best when he said; _"Imagine if someone adapted the Legend of Zelda cartoon, from the Super Mario Super Show, into a live-action film"_ . And it's fitting that a video game is mentioned since the film operates on the same kind of logic. Whenever the main plot starts to kick it, it gets distracted by a side quest. Characters are introduced and are forgotten about (Like that Space Pirate who vows revenge on Valerian, but is never mentioned again in the plot) or that self-indulgent Rihanna dance which was Besson trying to recreate The Fifth Element. Granted, Fifth Element is a love-it-or-hate-it flick, but at least the plot has a natural progression to where we have to go (That Fhloston Paradise setpieces converges the subplots to this one location where our McGuffin is). Here, it wastes a lot of time on inconsequential stuff, mainly to feed into fan service for the director. Not to mention, the casting was better in Fifth Element, with everyone suiting their part; Bruce Willis as the jaded action lead, Ian Holm as the clumsy yet smart monk, Milla Jovovich as Leelo etc. Valerian on the other hand picked the wrong actors for the leads. Dane DeHaan came off like Spicoli trying to act tough, even though he's got the figure of Teenage Dex from Space Ace. And Cara Delevingne? Has this lassie ever done a good performance? I get the feeling that Besson was not only trying to recapture the magic of Fifth Element but also one of his previous comic book adaptations; The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Both it and Valerian suffer from trying to pack too much into their films, though Adele only tries to adapt two story arcs instead of multiple ones. Besson has this problem of not being able to separate his love for the source and not realising what has to go and stay (Which also happened to John Carter; another science fiction adaptation that came out too late). Adele also knew who its audience was. By keeping its theatrical release in France, it didn't spread itself thin, knowing that the comic's native country is where people will recognise the property. I don't think Valerian is known to places like America or China; two countries that had studios who backed money into this project, so he has misplaced confidence that it was going to be a hit. Given how ye were talking about Besson's career and personal life, it doesn't surprise me that his work has declined as of late. Considering one of the actresses from Valarian accused him of rape, as well as former employees of EuropaCorp & Cité du Cinéma (A production company and studio Luc founded) have accused him of sexual misconduct, you can see why it was the final nail in his coffin of ever doing anything big again. In the age of MeToo, I'm surprised he managed to be acquitted in the courts.
Besson is out of touch from Hollywood. Based on those transporters movies he produced with shitty editing. And i remembed how he trashed CBM during his Valerian during its promotion. Like, gee you thought Dane DeHaan would be a Great lead compared to Bruce Willis?
Adam referencing the I AM A SURGON meme stemming from the Good Doctor staring Freddy Highmore who stared in Arthur and the Invisibles directed by Luc Besson, director of Valerian. There are probably more elaborate degrees of separation with the beginning episode quote but this one was just way too coincidental to note bring up.
They did do Warlock kind of a disservice; in the comic the Infinity Gauntlet comic Adam is the reason Thanos doesn’t win. He’s the single reason that literally any of the Marvel characters, including characters that are effectively gods in the Marvel universe even have a slim fighting chance against the mad titan. Warlock is the single person who outwits him and is able to take the gauntlet back and make things right. All that being said, I’m ok with him being a goofball. It works fine for the movie itself.
31:48 As someone whose twitter feed sometimes digs up these weird people who are obsessed with Snyder, I can tell you this is far from the truth. Often times these people will say stuff like "Superman was boring until Snyder made Man of Steel. Snyder made me love and care about Superman." And though now most people can agree how garbage 2016's Suicide Squad was, these people will sing its praises and advocate for the "Ayer cut" simply because the James Gunn Suicide Squad represents the different direction and era DC went after Snyder. Literally only because Suicide Squad 2016 is technically in the Snyderverse. They have to ACT like 2016 was the good movie and Gunn's was the bad one. With these people, it's LITERALLY just about Snyder. It's incredibly bizarre. They even turned on Henry Cavil when he showed up in Black Adam, saying how he "betrayed" Zack Snyder. So yeah, these weird Snyder fans aren't your typical man baby comic geeks. It's often proven that these people don't read or care about comics lol. It's literally ALL about Snyder to them.
They don’t care about DC unless it’s done by Snyder, or about Snyder unless he’s doing DC. And they are so rabid and delusional about that very specific Venn diagram. For them to zero in on these versions of characters and seemingly little of the other incarnations is bizarre, and to only care about Snyder in relation to those films and even circle his new projects back to “Snyderverse” is disrespectful to him as a filmmaker, whatever you think of him.
I was very impressed by Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I found its predecessors to be the best of the MCU already (I'm not really into the MCU in general). It was actually shocking how much of its own thing this movie was allowed to be. Most of Disney's output has felt pretty cowardly lately in making any sort of thematic point or even committing to its own emotional arc because it'd be more important to shave off any edges that could bother someone. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 manages to be a PG-13 Disney-produced franchise movie which seems to have an almost grindhouse style to it. It's expectedly filled with jokes and every character is pretty ridiculous but they're all treated with actual empathy and that sentiment isn't constantly undercut by jokes. I've watched Amores Perros so I thought I'd survive the animal experiments in a PG-13 Disney-produced franchise movie but it really hit me hard. Combine that with the thematic core of the horrible apathy that comes from when you consider some beings as lesser which, of course got my vegan heart, but also goes full circle as the Guardians of the Galaxy are a group of people who were outcasts.
I liked Guardians 3 and when it hit, it _really_ hit, but man, I felt that some scenes can go on for way too long, and I think the Rocket flashbacks could have been integrated more seamlessly with the present narrative.
When Valerian came out on DVD and digital I rented it THREE TIMES because I either fell asleep or got too drunk to finish it... I still to this day have not finished the movie and regret wasting my money
something I really appreciate about the Guardians trilogy is that it seems like everybody has a different answer for which one is their favorite. I've heard lots of people say the first one is the best, lots of people say the second one is best, lots of people say the third one is best. I think that's the sign of a great trilogy is when you can have a real compelling conversation about which one is the best instead of the answer just being unanimous among fans. IMO, Vol 2 and Vol 3 are about on par. Vol 3 has more emotional highs but Vol 2 is just a structurally better movie with less contrivances. Vol 1 is great and establishes the characters super well, but is the least remarkable IMHO.
Ralph did good in this episode, really glad that he put forth his points which shaped a lot of the discussion. Maybe the other guys gave him some encouragement behind the scenes. Keep Ralph on the podcast.
@@zeebooboo9663 To give context, I was responding to some commenters who said the podcast is better without Ralph when he wasn't there during episode 136
Leon seemed so obviously creepy but when I looked at reviews and audience score it had near universal praise. I was disheartened that it's regarded as a classic and that Besson is still taking up space in the industry. Thanks for putting this take out there because it honestly needs to become more widely known
It is creepy, but it is also a great movie, both can be true. The acting is phenomenal, the story and action are strong, the characters aren't boring at all, it's just well made, but also very fucking weird
@@MrThuggzBunney I am a bit emotional on this subject so I may be a bit hyperbolic but I would consider Leon to be Bessons most blatantly pedophilic movie and I don't think any good qualities can make up for that imo. If cuties was the best shot movie of the decade it should still be considered pedo fodder and shamed for it
@@benlandre9791 For sure but I don't think the morality is an aspect of the craft. In the same way that I don't think viewing religion as morally problematic means something like Scorsese's Silence or Last Temptation of Christ aren't well made films, or that being homophobic doesn't mean Moonlight is flawed. All three of these are wildly different and I don't think anyone here has any doubts about pedophilia being immoral and uniquely awful, but it's implicit or explicit presence in a film is simply another dimension of analysis orthogonal to craft
I never bought that creepy aspect of his character. To me he never saw Portman's character in that way. She was a daughter figure. The actor for Leon even confirms the character has no attraction for her
@Ben Landre I mean one of the most prolific and important films of all time is nazi propaganda from ww2. Sometimes good art is from bad, bad people. Little Joel has a great video on it with Justin Roland.
On the Zack Snyder discussion, I think his fans are drawn to his very particular brand of edgy nihilism. That would make him a good fit for an Injustice universe, but not for the main DC universe
Crazy that I've seen Valerian a couple of years ago and yet I cannot remeber a single thing about this movie... I couldn't even picture anything in my head while they were discussing the scenes It wasn't even a "so bad it's good" kinda movie for me, it was just lowkey 100% forgetable
Just to bring everything back full circle: the showrunner for the new Avatar show Albert Kim also produced the 2010 television series Nikita, an adaptation of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita. Jesus Christ
I meant to watch Valerian before this episode, but honestly it doesn’t feel like a loss that I didn’t. Might still try and watch it sometime and then relisten to this episode sometime.
I tried and it was so boring and aimless I couldn't get through it. It feels like one long videogame cutscene where you're not even the main character, you're just watching video game action with characters you don't care about
I don't really watch Sardonicast, but my friend told me they had a big discussion about Valerian, finally. We saw it when it came out and thought it was terrible, and for years I wanted a full length Ralph ripping it apart. And I remember you guys briefly talking about it in an early Sardonicast, so thank you, I've been waiting years to hear people, rightfully pick this movie apart.
They talked about it in the first episode during a discussion about alternate Sardonicast names, where one of them was "Alex, Ralph and Adam and the City of A Thousand Planets"
Fun fact- the 15 year old that luc besson fucked and later married is Maïwenn, who played the blue opera alien in the fifth element, and also starred and directed Jeanne du Barry, Johnny depp’s newest movie that was the premier film at Cannes
Idk if I watched a different movie, but the GotG3 was a 5 or 6 at best. I honestly started laughing when they killed off the rabbit and walrus because they straight stormtroopered them instead of hitting the raccoon shooting at them.🤣🤣 Easily could've made that backstory 10 mins. There's also a lot the movie that could've been cut out and nothing would change; 2 and half was way too long for little to nothing to happen. The comedy to drama was also a bit jarring at times.
8:15 watch any HBO original shows like True Detective, Oz (thats legit show) and other HBO Documentaries so now Discovery is part of autopsies and other HBO weird documentaries that you can get into. Even now "max" is part of a streaming service so now people hated that streaming logo which gone out of not using "HBOMax" so people are unware that they stick to WB Discovery's new tagline. Of course "Overweight" from TLC shows are part of WB.
I'm shocked Adam was feeling generous enough to give it a 2/10. The only enjoyable part was the first ten or so minutes. The stuff with the beach world and the pearl lizards was strange, but it at least made me curious to see what it was leading to. After that it was a death march, one of the most boring and obnoxious films I've seen in a while 💀
Looking forward to the recommendation discussion next episode. That movie is an ambitious mess and almost completely forgotten to time despite how ahead of its time it was.
It's as if Adum qualifies efficiency over the value of human effort. When AI starts writing movies, then the human imagination has become essentially purposeless, as we've given up the challenge to create stories by our own volition. Human achievement means nothing at that point. Is the endgame for humanity to just be mindless consumers to media that isn't derived from lived experiences? Why work for anything? Why live at all? Why not just let our dreams fall to the wayside and let the human race die because "AI can do everything so much better"? This extends to everything. He's so unbelievably short-sighted. And this is the guy who scoffs at the idea of "factory filmmaking". It's ridiculous.
exactly! so hypocritical, you can’t say you’re an advocate for cinema with purpose and a soul and still say that you want to watch movies written by ai and just submit to them in the future (especially terrible because of the writers strike going on right now)
I don't think I've personally seen a movie where the romantic leads had less chemistry on screen than in Valerian. Like when they do the usual "insulting each other because they love each other" kind of jokes, it's like no, these just feel like insults because these characters fucking hate each other. I don't know anything about Dane DeHaan, he might be an absolutely awesome dude, but in movies he always looks like a total creep and his attempts to act like a leading action man are horribly off-putting.
Thank you! God it's so good to see this movie get the criticism it deserves. Saw it with a friend when it came out. We thought it was terrible, and the leads and their chemistry is terrible. Both of them were miscast. You don't cast Dane Dehaan as a suave Indiana Jones type, which I think it's what they were going for? He's known to me for playing whiny bitchy characters (which he is good at playing) and it was just awful and off putting.
@@El-Duderino-His-Dudeness He always looks like he's like, a very malnourished creep in his roles. Like the guy could be absolutely awesome in real life, but his presence in movies is always best served to be a weird skeevy guy. Definitely not a dashing romantic lead.
@@farkasmactavish Thats not what im referring to. Im talking about his inability to comprehend the potential of the technology. As Adam pointed out, at some point in the future AI will be indistinguishable from human artists, its going to replace nearly every job.
1:05:40 the 1986 documentary "heavy metal parking lot," about fans of the band Judas Priest tailgating before a concert, opens with fans introducing themselves. One couple is a 20 year old guy and his 13 year old girlfriend. No one in the documentary thinks it's weird
It's funny that Ralph mentioned the idea of conservatives hating Guardians 3 for no reason cause they already started that way before the movie came out. Nebula's tits weren't big enough on a poster and they threw a fit
"This film expresses the erroneous worldview towards the meta-wrongness often attributed to disestablishmentarism as applied to figments of expressions of idealistic piques of rage contained in imperialist fobbings." -Movie Bob's Sweaty Crevice
I'm guessing Gotg3's low metascore has to do with how relatively "R" rated it is to what the expectation is to a Marvel/James Gunn superhero movie. There's themes of animal cruelty and accepting your fate/death, which I assume doesn't really jive with a general audience of kids and parents. If there was a rating in between PG-13 and R, Gotg3 would be in that. It has PG-13 visuals mixed with R rated themes
Metascore isn't general audience tho, its professional critics. They wouldn't care about stuff like a PG-13 movie that has someone say fuck and animal cruelty, I'm guessing it's more what Ralph said about superhero fatigue just making people inherently like less (stupid reason tho ik) plus structure wise it can get pretty messy
The portrayal of the autism in the good doctor wasn't that inaccurate, as somebody who has mild autism and has a severely autistic brother I actually have some experience there. Kids in high school especially with their hormone problems act *EXACTLY* like that "I am a doctor" meme. Feels like Ralph is just saying its inaccurate because he thought it was funny while not really knowing anything about autism first hand
Yeah they came off as really stupid at that part, you can tell they either know nothing about autism or haven’t been around any people with autism, it’s accurate to people who have severe autism
Playing devil’s advocate here but I think by “inaccurate” they could mean that this form of severe autism is the most represented in almost all media about the topic, when it really doesn’t account for many, many autistic people. The idea that autistic people are completely incapable of socializing, act like children, but are still useful because they’re a savant at something is what I hear when they say it’s bad and inaccurate. And it’s not Freddie Highmore, he does great. It’s because almost every autistic character in Tv is written the same way
@@robertyeah2259 That's something I've always thought. But I'm not autistic so I didn't know if I was wrong in thinking that or not. Still an not sure.
Will be kinda interesting to see what they say about the final fantasy movie considering none of them have played much of any FF. if adam doesnt mention the reference to spirits within in life is strange im never watching these again lol
You nearly lost me when you bad-mouthed a guilty pleasure of mine (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets)...but then Alex suggested FF: Spirits Within? IT'S CHRISTMAS IN JUNE! I'll be here for the next one!
What happened with Leon the Professional is that Luc was absolutely a pedo and the script was originally intended to be semi-autobiographic about his marriage his a young girl. Jean Reno, the lead actor, refused to play the film for romantic and played it as a father/daughter relationship. He refused to film a sex scene that was in the script. There are still a few scenes in the movie where Natalies characters talks about how much she is love with Leon and calls themselves lovers. If you watch Reno in this scenes, his face reads less of romantic interest and more of parental confusion. He has taken unofficial custody of a child and the child has developed a crush on him. He performs like he doesn't know how to handle or approach the situation as he has never taken care of a child before.
Leon kind of had a production similar to Groundhog Day where the Director and lead Actor had polar opposite interpretations of the script. One saw a pedophilic-romance and the other saw a hitman becoming a father finding something to fight for in life. The final product is a combination of the two. Ultimately, even though I fully recognize the deeply disturbing inspiration for the script, whenever I see the film I see the father daughter relationship, and any romance between them is less a romance and more a student crushing on their teacher. I think the film is a masterpiece.
Luc should also probably be in jail.
I've always thought Besson plays it like Leon is autistic. He seems consistently uncomfortable and confused about most of the things Mathilde does.
@@almightycinder that's an interesting interpretation. I guess it could work that way but it always felt more to me like he just was fully inexperienced in looking after a child.
That's how I read the film too. Man, Reno saved the film more than I thought
Reno is based for refusing to play along with Besson's horrible CP wank fantasy
That's crazy. In the video Adum pointed out the guy said Natalie Portman thought this was the best script she ever read in response to her parents not wanting her to be in it. I hope that was rewritten before she got it or her parents took it out.
I like how Ralph’s Queens accent amplifies when he rants about a movie he hates.
As someone who’s Dad is from Queens, that is about par for the course.
New Yok...greatest city in dah world!
HEY HEY IM HATIN' OVAH HEEAARRRRR
@@anony-mousse8487 Ey! I'm talkin' here!!
Getta fuk addah hee!
Dr. Han and the city of a thousand surgeons
Apparently, the scene in The Good Doctor was made a meme in China a year or so back and it just reached everyone else now
截断喉咙以下的一切
Reminds me of something else that started in China and reached the rest of the world a year later.
My favorite quote from Valerian is "yeah i know, 2 hours with me, what a drag." Really summarises the experience of watching this movie
My film professor did the casting for Valerian! He primarily did small-scale indie productions in France, and received much notoriety for such.
He would always rant mid-lecture abput Valarian, and how he was continually pushed aside by the producers. Apparently he wasn't much informed about the scale of the production until he signed on. So there's your answer as to why the casting is so abysmal.
He also mentioned that when meeting Rihanna, she was nothing special. I wouldnt expect her to be, but its funny he deliberately mentioned it.
EDIT: He was not casting director, but rather a casting assistant. However, I believe- based on his stories, that he had a farily large input rather than just an advisor-type position. He spoke as if it was him alone. So I wonder if he may have been the initial casting director, before gradually shifted away from the project. This is my speculation but I believe it to be true.
That's crazy! Since the movie was technically independently produced, do you know which producers he would be talking about? Was he referring to Luc Besson?
Notoriety? Was he disliked, or do you mean fame/reputation?
Was he responsible for casting the lead actor?
@Cthulhu the Endless Sorry- I used confusing phrasing. I just meant that he was decently well known, liked, and well accomplished :)
@Aaron J I'm not sure! So sorry I don't kown definitely but my best judgement is that yes, Luc's input was irritating to him. I say this because he had MANY opportunities to mention something like: "the Director was a visionary, helpful and accepting," etc., but he never said anything of the sort lol.
My theory on why DeHaan was the lead of Valerian is that Besson wanted a Young DiCaprio style of actor to get people in the sits. He wanted a Titanic.
He wanted A TWINK
But Timothee Chalamet was just starting. It was somehow too late and too early.
(Somehow i'm glad DeHaan is in Oppenheimer? Like he is not a GREAT actor but everyone deserves a chance. Look at Emile Hirsch in Once upon a time in Hollywood
It’s crazy to think guardians hit out of the park with a near perfect trilogy. Honestly the best film series in the whole MCU
Not exactly a high bar.
it was horrible. 2 hours straight insisting to evoke the same feelings over and over again and the jokes were very bad and shoe-horned most of the time. they're lucky adum didn't watch it because he'd easily give it a 5/10.
I’m making a bet, and correct me if I’m wrong when Superman Legacy comes out, the Snyder fans are gonna be in the same camp as the Suicide Squad (2016) and TASM fans where this next one comes out and they just slowly disappear and switch sides anonymously.
“THEY CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!”
the two leads in valerian are extremely on brand for white girl twitter/tumblr in like 2013-2014 so that’s probably what everyone thought they were nailing making the movie
excuse me tumblr girlies were writing yaoi, not sci-fi
Star Wars actually could’ve been a Valerian. George Lucas originally wanted to make a movie based on the old Flash Gordon serials but couldn’t get the rights.
You should leave the word "actually, " out of that first sentence. Other than that, I completely agree
I mean, it probably still would have been a success if it had been a Flash Gordon movie. Flash Gordon was still very well known and popular in the 70s, and is still a recognisable name today.
Here's the full quote from the Wikipedia article Adam was referencing about Luc Besson, pretty creepy:
"Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 31 and she was 15. They married in late 1992 when Le Besco, 16, was pregnant with their daughter Shanna, who was born on 3 January 1993. Le Besco later claimed that their relationship inspired Besson's film Léon (1994), where the plot involved the emotional relationship between an adult man and a 12-year-old girl. Their marriage ended in 1997, when Besson became involved with actress Milla Jovovich during the filming of The Fifth Element (1997). He married the 21-year-old Jovovich on 14 December 1997, when he was 38."
The Guardians films do mean a lot to me on a personal level, I saw the first film when I was very little and it’s been nice to have a consistent trilogy that’s been a ton of fun, and I’ll forever cherish them.
After 3 finished, I came to realize how these films gave me the charms of Star Wars more than the entirety of that sequel trilogy released by Disney.
I highly recommend the Eidos game next. It's honestly even better than the movies
Idc that they're schlocky MCU blockbusters, they're MY schlocky MCU blockbusters and I love them lol
@@rickygforce4217Are they schlocky, though?
Ralph sounds really into this whole discussion and has a ton of energy
LOL is this usually not the case? genuine question
@@ThemedNumber02 there were a couple of episodes a few months ago where he seemed very uninvested
@@ThemedNumber02 I could just be imagining it but I feel like he’s been really checked out lately or he just sounds super uninterested
@@ahnmensch3115 Well considering his father died a few months ago, I don't blame him.
Valerian is a pretty valid film to be annoyed by also
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a funny, emotional, and extraordinary last installment to my favorite superhero team (also had one of the best theater experiences ever with loads of people, a slushy/Rocket figure, and two amazing friends in an IMAX theater). Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets could’ve been cool, but it’s bodies down by video gamey look, horrendous acting (especially Dane DeHaan), and feels like a mixture of other films. The questions were interesting to hear as usual. This is one of my favorite episodes. Thanks, Sard boys!
Edit: I added in my thoughts on Valerian.
It's not the same entertaining way that happens like "The Fifth Element" with the many experienced actors leading things, it was just really dull because the leads were ackward and dull. It only picks up near the end when we believe these aliens attacking were bad, only to find their home was collateral damage in a war, having had time to let their anger subside and just want a new planet, but the conflict comes when the officer who's actions caused that was a little bit perturbed by the potential of being branded with a war crime.
I recommend playing the Eidos game next, it's a lot better than the movies
@@motherplayer like, if that was established like 40 minutes earlier in the movie, probably would have been less clunky
@@walrusArmageddon No doubt right there.
The Luc Besson story is a stark reminder that before the internet and digital communication brought the world together and let us essentially set global standards on behaviours, what was and was not acceptable was very much determined by committee of the community. Which means if no one said anything or didn't question these things (for whatever reason - he's important, he's rich, he has power etc.) any perverse indulgence would generally be overlooked, downplayed, or buried. Especially since there was so little empowerment for victims and causes before the 'me too' movement.
Absolutely right
I think Matt Fagerholm (From a text he sent to Rob & Doug Walker) described Valrian best when he said; _"Imagine if someone adapted the Legend of Zelda cartoon, from the Super Mario Super Show, into a live-action film"_ .
And it's fitting that a video game is mentioned since the film operates on the same kind of logic. Whenever the main plot starts to kick it, it gets distracted by a side quest. Characters are introduced and are forgotten about (Like that Space Pirate who vows revenge on Valerian, but is never mentioned again in the plot) or that self-indulgent Rihanna dance which was Besson trying to recreate The Fifth Element.
Granted, Fifth Element is a love-it-or-hate-it flick, but at least the plot has a natural progression to where we have to go (That Fhloston Paradise setpieces converges the subplots to this one location where our McGuffin is). Here, it wastes a lot of time on inconsequential stuff, mainly to feed into fan service for the director. Not to mention, the casting was better in Fifth Element, with everyone suiting their part; Bruce Willis as the jaded action lead, Ian Holm as the clumsy yet smart monk, Milla Jovovich as Leelo etc. Valerian on the other hand picked the wrong actors for the leads. Dane DeHaan came off like Spicoli trying to act tough, even though he's got the figure of Teenage Dex from Space Ace. And Cara Delevingne? Has this lassie ever done a good performance?
I get the feeling that Besson was not only trying to recapture the magic of Fifth Element but also one of his previous comic book adaptations; The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec.
Both it and Valerian suffer from trying to pack too much into their films, though Adele only tries to adapt two story arcs instead of multiple ones. Besson has this problem of not being able to separate his love for the source and not realising what has to go and stay (Which also happened to John Carter; another science fiction adaptation that came out too late).
Adele also knew who its audience was. By keeping its theatrical release in France, it didn't spread itself thin, knowing that the comic's native country is where people will recognise the property.
I don't think Valerian is known to places like America or China; two countries that had studios who backed money into this project, so he has misplaced confidence that it was going to be a hit.
Given how ye were talking about Besson's career and personal life, it doesn't surprise me that his work has declined as of late. Considering one of the actresses from Valarian accused him of rape, as well as former employees of EuropaCorp & Cité du Cinéma (A production company and studio Luc founded) have accused him of sexual misconduct, you can see why it was the final nail in his coffin of ever doing anything big again. In the age of MeToo, I'm surprised he managed to be acquitted in the courts.
Besson is out of touch from Hollywood. Based on those transporters movies he produced with shitty editing. And i remembed how he trashed CBM during his Valerian during its promotion.
Like, gee you thought Dane DeHaan would be a Great lead compared to Bruce Willis?
Did they really just spend more time talking about Valerian than Eternal Sunshine?
They spent more time talking about Valerian than nearly every single movie they’ve ever talked about on the podcast lmao
Sometimes you get more content out of a bad movie than you do a great one.
@@Brandon-rb4sm a
Valerian is such an interesting shit show i can’t blame them
They spent half the time talking about the director.
One of the reasons why WGA is striking is not only better pay but protection from AI taking away writers jobs.
Talking about Clive Owen reminded me I need to finish “The Knick”, tremendous show
reminded me of Karl Pilkington
Adam referencing the I AM A SURGON meme stemming from the Good Doctor staring Freddy Highmore who stared in Arthur and the Invisibles directed by Luc Besson, director of Valerian. There are probably more elaborate degrees of separation with the beginning episode quote but this one was just way too coincidental to note bring up.
Ralph's Tuco reference was Tight! TIGHT, TIGHT!
Omg I cant believe this turned into a brief leon the proffesional discussion!
I learned a lot about Luc Besson today
intro impression really was incredible
They did do Warlock kind of a disservice; in the comic the Infinity Gauntlet comic Adam is the reason Thanos doesn’t win. He’s the single reason that literally any of the Marvel characters, including characters that are effectively gods in the Marvel universe even have a slim fighting chance against the mad titan. Warlock is the single person who outwits him and is able to take the gauntlet back and make things right.
All that being said, I’m ok with him being a goofball. It works fine for the movie itself.
This is the funniest and most fun Ralph ever 😂
That good doctor quote got me, So good 😂
31:48 As someone whose twitter feed sometimes digs up these weird people who are obsessed with Snyder, I can tell you this is far from the truth.
Often times these people will say stuff like "Superman was boring until Snyder made Man of Steel. Snyder made me love and care about Superman."
And though now most people can agree how garbage 2016's Suicide Squad was, these people will sing its praises and advocate for the "Ayer cut" simply because the James Gunn Suicide Squad represents the different direction and era DC went after Snyder. Literally only because Suicide Squad 2016 is technically in the Snyderverse. They have to ACT like 2016 was the good movie and Gunn's was the bad one.
With these people, it's LITERALLY just about Snyder. It's incredibly bizarre. They even turned on Henry Cavil when he showed up in Black Adam, saying how he "betrayed" Zack Snyder.
So yeah, these weird Snyder fans aren't your typical man baby comic geeks. It's often proven that these people don't read or care about comics lol. It's literally ALL about Snyder to them.
They don’t care about DC unless it’s done by Snyder, or about Snyder unless he’s doing DC. And they are so rabid and delusional about that very specific Venn diagram.
For them to zero in on these versions of characters and seemingly little of the other incarnations is bizarre, and to only care about Snyder in relation to those films and even circle his new projects back to “Snyderverse” is disrespectful to him as a filmmaker, whatever you think of him.
The funniest episodes will always be the ones where they just take a huge dump on a movie
The Good Doctor should be in the timestamps
I love the sardonicast and Jar double whammy
Never related more to a comment in my life
I don’t know if it counts technically but M*A*S*H is a fantastic show.
Love listening to y'all together guys, miss Ralph tho😢
I was very impressed by Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I found its predecessors to be the best of the MCU already (I'm not really into the MCU in general).
It was actually shocking how much of its own thing this movie was allowed to be. Most of Disney's output has felt pretty cowardly lately in making any sort of thematic point or even committing to its own emotional arc because it'd be more important to shave off any edges that could bother someone.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 manages to be a PG-13 Disney-produced franchise movie which seems to have an almost grindhouse style to it.
It's expectedly filled with jokes and every character is pretty ridiculous but they're all treated with actual empathy and that sentiment isn't constantly undercut by jokes.
I've watched Amores Perros so I thought I'd survive the animal experiments in a PG-13 Disney-produced franchise movie but it really hit me hard. Combine that with the thematic core of the horrible apathy that comes from when you consider some beings as lesser which, of course got my vegan heart, but also goes full circle as the Guardians of the Galaxy are a group of people who were outcasts.
I liked Guardians 3 and when it hit, it _really_ hit, but man, I felt that some scenes can go on for way too long, and I think the Rocket flashbacks could have been integrated more seamlessly with the present narrative.
you guys are living inside my walls, last week I both watched Guardians and re-watched Valerian
Adum, you're gonna love The Wire! Best show EVERRRRRRRRR
I would love to hear them discuss another French scifi classic, Immortel
When Valerian came out on DVD and digital I rented it THREE TIMES because I either fell asleep or got too drunk to finish it... I still to this day have not finished the movie and regret wasting my money
Does the Good Doctor have an episode where he raps?
House had a rap episode, Monk had a rap episode.
Somebody answer this question
What I’ve learned from the podcast episode is that they should watch the good doctor lol
something I really appreciate about the Guardians trilogy is that it seems like everybody has a different answer for which one is their favorite. I've heard lots of people say the first one is the best, lots of people say the second one is best, lots of people say the third one is best.
I think that's the sign of a great trilogy is when you can have a real compelling conversation about which one is the best instead of the answer just being unanimous among fans.
IMO, Vol 2 and Vol 3 are about on par. Vol 3 has more emotional highs but Vol 2 is just a structurally better movie with less contrivances. Vol 1 is great and establishes the characters super well, but is the least remarkable IMHO.
Another excellent episode. Thanks my dudes 🙏
Ralph did good in this episode, really glad that he put forth his points which shaped a lot of the discussion. Maybe the other guys gave him some encouragement behind the scenes. Keep Ralph on the podcast.
Well why would they get rid of him in the first place?
@@zeebooboo9663 To give context, I was responding to some commenters who said the podcast is better without Ralph when he wasn't there during episode 136
Best intros in any podcast
Leon seemed so obviously creepy but when I looked at reviews and audience score it had near universal praise. I was disheartened that it's regarded as a classic and that Besson is still taking up space in the industry. Thanks for putting this take out there because it honestly needs to become more widely known
It is creepy, but it is also a great movie, both can be true. The acting is phenomenal, the story and action are strong, the characters aren't boring at all, it's just well made, but also very fucking weird
@@MrThuggzBunney I am a bit emotional on this subject so I may be a bit hyperbolic but I would consider Leon to be Bessons most blatantly pedophilic movie and I don't think any good qualities can make up for that imo. If cuties was the best shot movie of the decade it should still be considered pedo fodder and shamed for it
@@benlandre9791 For sure but I don't think the morality is an aspect of the craft. In the same way that I don't think viewing religion as morally problematic means something like Scorsese's Silence or Last Temptation of Christ aren't well made films, or that being homophobic doesn't mean Moonlight is flawed. All three of these are wildly different and I don't think anyone here has any doubts about pedophilia being immoral and uniquely awful, but it's implicit or explicit presence in a film is simply another dimension of analysis orthogonal to craft
I never bought that creepy aspect of his character. To me he never saw Portman's character in that way. She was a daughter figure. The actor for Leon even confirms the character has no attraction for her
@Ben Landre I mean one of the most prolific and important films of all time is nazi propaganda from ww2. Sometimes good art is from bad, bad people. Little Joel has a great video on it with Justin Roland.
6:23 yeah that pretty much sums up ralph in all these videos
Man as a person who watch all of woody Allen work, I was already aware he was a creep but did it because he was indeed, a great writer and filmmaker.
Valerian was a Tv show that was edited into a movie
Michael Scott where art thou
Childrens Hospital is the best hospital show
On the Zack Snyder discussion, I think his fans are drawn to his very particular brand of edgy nihilism. That would make him a good fit for an Injustice universe, but not for the main DC universe
Crazy that I've seen Valerian a couple of years ago and yet I cannot remeber a single thing about this movie... I couldn't even picture anything in my head while they were discussing the scenes
It wasn't even a "so bad it's good" kinda movie for me, it was just lowkey 100% forgetable
Literally. And I've seen it twice 😂 I can't name a single thing that happens or a single character's name
House was pretty good for a while but definitely dropped the ball the last few seasons, as is common
Just to bring everything back full circle: the showrunner for the new Avatar show Albert Kim also produced the 2010 television series Nikita, an adaptation of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita. Jesus Christ
that show, not great i can confirm
very run of the mill/average. dollhouse/alias/dark angel was better
I meant to watch Valerian before this episode, but honestly it doesn’t feel like a loss that I didn’t. Might still try and watch it sometime and then relisten to this episode sometime.
I tried and it was so boring and aimless I couldn't get through it. It feels like one long videogame cutscene where you're not even the main character, you're just watching video game action with characters you don't care about
I don't really watch Sardonicast, but my friend told me they had a big discussion about Valerian, finally. We saw it when it came out and thought it was terrible, and for years I wanted a full length Ralph ripping it apart. And I remember you guys briefly talking about it in an early Sardonicast, so thank you, I've been waiting years to hear people, rightfully pick this movie apart.
They talked about it in the first episode during a discussion about alternate Sardonicast names, where one of them was "Alex, Ralph and Adam and the City of A Thousand Planets"
Fun fact- the 15 year old that luc besson fucked and later married is Maïwenn, who played the blue opera alien in the fifth element, and also starred and directed Jeanne du Barry, Johnny depp’s newest movie that was the premier film at Cannes
Man f this world
Idk if I watched a different movie, but the GotG3 was a 5 or 6 at best. I honestly started laughing when they killed off the rabbit and walrus because they straight stormtroopered them instead of hitting the raccoon shooting at them.🤣🤣 Easily could've made that backstory 10 mins. There's also a lot the movie that could've been cut out and nothing would change; 2 and half was way too long for little to nothing to happen. The comedy to drama was also a bit jarring at times.
1:22:26 to be fair, it is implied that he mostly just wears her like a costume and that ninja stuff is all him.
8:15 watch any HBO original shows like True Detective, Oz (thats legit show) and other HBO Documentaries so now Discovery is part of autopsies and other HBO weird documentaries that you can get into. Even now "max" is part of a streaming service so now people hated that streaming logo which gone out of not using "HBOMax" so people are unware that they stick to WB Discovery's new tagline. Of course "Overweight" from TLC shows are part of WB.
The “pearl shitters” are literally just Nibbler from Futurama.
He was, in fact a surgeon
Alexander Desplat? More like Alexander Durr plant!
Got im
Shoutout to yms watch-along channel for helping watch valerian past the 30 minute mark, shit was so boring
I'm shocked Adam was feeling generous enough to give it a 2/10. The only enjoyable part was the first ten or so minutes. The stuff with the beach world and the pearl lizards was strange, but it at least made me curious to see what it was leading to. After that it was a death march, one of the most boring and obnoxious films I've seen in a while 💀
and the vision in her eye it says it all shes lost control
What’s worse, Valerian or Death To Smoochy?
Now I have even less hope for that last airbender netflix show, as if I had any before
The only good hospital show I can think of is The Knick
Looking forward to the recommendation discussion next episode. That movie is an ambitious mess and almost completely forgotten to time despite how ahead of its time it was.
It's as if Adum qualifies efficiency over the value of human effort. When AI starts writing movies, then the human imagination has become essentially purposeless, as we've given up the challenge to create stories by our own volition. Human achievement means nothing at that point. Is the endgame for humanity to just be mindless consumers to media that isn't derived from lived experiences? Why work for anything? Why live at all? Why not just let our dreams fall to the wayside and let the human race die because "AI can do everything so much better"? This extends to everything. He's so unbelievably short-sighted. And this is the guy who scoffs at the idea of "factory filmmaking". It's ridiculous.
exactly! so hypocritical, you can’t say you’re an advocate for cinema with purpose and a soul and still say that you want to watch movies written by ai and just submit to them in the future (especially terrible because of the writers strike going on right now)
You guys should talk about Leaving Las Vegas with Nic Cage
They should've Henry Cavill And Lea Seydoux for Valerian. The actual actors were goddamn fucking miscast.
The fleshy space station was giving Slither
Pearl Shitters is my band name.
I bet Luc Besson would love Cuties.
I'd bet my life on that fact
Every artist sees an inspiring piece of art and wishes they were the one that made it. For Luc Besson this is that piece of art
I don't think I've personally seen a movie where the romantic leads had less chemistry on screen than in Valerian. Like when they do the usual "insulting each other because they love each other" kind of jokes, it's like no, these just feel like insults because these characters fucking hate each other. I don't know anything about Dane DeHaan, he might be an absolutely awesome dude, but in movies he always looks like a total creep and his attempts to act like a leading action man are horribly off-putting.
Thank you! God it's so good to see this movie get the criticism it deserves. Saw it with a friend when it came out. We thought it was terrible, and the leads and their chemistry is terrible. Both of them were miscast. You don't cast Dane Dehaan as a suave Indiana Jones type, which I think it's what they were going for? He's known to me for playing whiny bitchy characters (which he is good at playing) and it was just awful and off putting.
@@El-Duderino-His-Dudeness He always looks like he's like, a very malnourished creep in his roles. Like the guy could be absolutely awesome in real life, but his presence in movies is always best served to be a weird skeevy guy. Definitely not a dashing romantic lead.
reminder. Dane Dehaan was cast as JAMES DEAN... ('Life' - 2015)
damn didn't even mention that valerian inspired star wars?
1:14:33 was in the comics you never know could've inspired mass effect.
If I could earn a dollar every time I hear Ralph confidently talk about a subject he knows nothing about I'd genuinely be rich
What are you talking about?
@@SkiBat64his bizarre take on AI
@@no_clueb.5606 😮😮😮😢 1:21:36
@@farkasmactavish Thats not what im referring to. Im talking about his inability to comprehend the potential of the technology. As Adam pointed out, at some point in the future AI will be indistinguishable from human artists, its going to replace nearly every job.
@@no_clueb.5606no benefit to it
I can say that i did actually avoid Valerian because of Dane Dehaan
57:28 “Herpie Handcock?” Don’t you mean Herbie?
1:05:40 the 1986 documentary "heavy metal parking lot," about fans of the band Judas Priest tailgating before a concert, opens with fans introducing themselves. One couple is a 20 year old guy and his 13 year old girlfriend. No one in the documentary thinks it's weird
1:27 I thought "The Good Doctor" is a pretty autistic theme even Freddie Highmore played fine as the young autistic doctor.
Ironically "Mül" is only one L removed from the german word for trash.
I think these guys would dig The Kingdom
Are you talking about the Lars von Trier one ?
It's funny that Ralph mentioned the idea of conservatives hating Guardians 3 for no reason cause they already started that way before the movie came out. Nebula's tits weren't big enough on a poster and they threw a fit
"This film expresses the erroneous worldview towards the meta-wrongness often attributed to disestablishmentarism as applied to figments of expressions of idealistic piques of rage contained in imperialist fobbings."
-Movie Bob's Sweaty Crevice
You mean Film Bobert
Cinema Blobert
That's a lot of words to say absolutely nothing.
I'm guessing Gotg3's low metascore has to do with how relatively "R" rated it is to what the expectation is to a Marvel/James Gunn superhero movie. There's themes of animal cruelty and accepting your fate/death, which I assume doesn't really jive with a general audience of kids and parents. If there was a rating in between PG-13 and R, Gotg3 would be in that. It has PG-13 visuals mixed with R rated themes
Metascore isn't general audience tho, its professional critics. They wouldn't care about stuff like a PG-13 movie that has someone say fuck and animal cruelty, I'm guessing it's more what Ralph said about superhero fatigue just making people inherently like less (stupid reason tho ik) plus structure wise it can get pretty messy
1:50:00 very true ai is going to change everything and we will need to adjust like yesterday
I feel like I have to be high every time I listen to one of these if I want to be on the same mental wavelength as Ralph lmao
The future artists are heading too is just being hired to fix the errors of AI….
I heard Gunn wanted them to kill off Gmaora in IW because he was planning on doing that in GOTG2 but didn't want them to bring her back
The portrayal of the autism in the good doctor wasn't that inaccurate, as somebody who has mild autism and has a severely autistic brother I actually have some experience there.
Kids in high school especially with their hormone problems act *EXACTLY* like that "I am a doctor" meme.
Feels like Ralph is just saying its inaccurate because he thought it was funny while not really knowing anything about autism first hand
Yeah they came off as really stupid at that part, you can tell they either know nothing about autism or haven’t been around any people with autism, it’s accurate to people who have severe autism
Playing devil’s advocate here but I think by “inaccurate” they could mean that this form of severe autism is the most represented in almost all media about the topic, when it really doesn’t account for many, many autistic people.
The idea that autistic people are completely incapable of socializing, act like children, but are still useful because they’re a savant at something is what I hear when they say it’s bad and inaccurate.
And it’s not Freddie Highmore, he does great. It’s because almost every autistic character in Tv is written the same way
@@robertyeah2259 That's something I've always thought. But I'm not autistic so I didn't know if I was wrong in thinking that or not. Still an not sure.
How does Drew Gooden not want to see AI movies, but YMS does, literally the factory movies/art concept in The Holy Mountain
I think he’s more interested to see how it will turn out, and how different it will be from most mainstream movies
I think he's interested to see if AI movies will ever stop feeling like factory produced
I laughed incredibly hard at the scene where rocket dodged the bullet and then (spoiler). God that was so fucking goofy I heard audible laughs.
Do we need scripts need to be written faster? Can't we slow down script development?
Will be kinda interesting to see what they say about the final fantasy movie considering none of them have played much of any FF.
if adam doesnt mention the reference to spirits within in life is strange im never watching these again lol
Best cop show is Southland, when it starts falling off it ends.
You nearly lost me when you bad-mouthed a guilty pleasure of mine (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets)...but then Alex suggested FF: Spirits Within? IT'S CHRISTMAS IN JUNE! I'll be here for the next one!
You a big Luc Besson fan?