What We’ve Been Watching Episode 004

Full Episode Transcript
Reginald Titus Jr. and Casey G. Smith discuss recent movie trailers, documentaries, and TV series they've been watching, offering their insights and reactions to each piece of content.

Opening and The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Documentary
Reginald Titus Jr.: Welcome to "What We've Been Watching," an offshoot of Filmmaker Commentary, where your hosts Reginald Titus Jr. and Casey G. Smith let you know what we've been watching in the realm of movies, television, and even the internet. We hope you enjoy it. Here we go.
Casey G. Smith: Well, sir, what have you been watching? Just jump right into it.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, we're gonna get right to it today. So I have recently watched a documentary on Netflix called "Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers" to our brother Hillel.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, when did that drop?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Really? Really? It dropped within the last, as of this recording, within the last week or two. It's very, very recently.
Casey G. Smith: Is it a, is it like a whole documentary or is it like split up into episodes?
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's just one, one documentary, one single documentary. And it's very interesting. And me, I, I was introduced to the Chili Peppers, excuse me, in junior high. I want to say maybe, maybe even as early as sixth grade. But when I first heard um, "Give It Away, Give It Away."
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, give it away now.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, "Give It Away Now." When I, you know, first heard that and saw the music video, I was like, what is this? But it still, it still had a groove to it.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, that bass man, Flea.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Flea on the bass.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, he's legit.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And then of course, "Under the Bridge," which would come later. And after watching this documentary, I, I can have a greater appreciation. My brother-in-law told me that "Under the Bridge" is about like doing drugs. I didn't, I didn't realize that then. I was like, oh, and then watched the documentary. It, it, it starts off diving to the the early life of of Anthony Kiedis, right, the the lead singer of the Chili Peppers and and Flea, how they, how they connected like back in, we're talking like elementary school. They, they, they've known each other and been friends a long time. But there's also this third guy whose name was Hillel, Hillel Slovak, who was a friend of theirs also. Eventually, you know, they make their way into high school and Hillel is in a in a band, I forgot the name of the band. But anyway, they, it's just fascinating to watch. But it's the early, early days and they're they're they're they're highly influenced by different kinds of music but they they love, they love some funk. Like they they love funk.
Casey G. Smith: Absolutely.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Flea initially wanted to be a a trumpet player.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, he's playing trumpet now. Like he's like on stage like doing the thing. I think he was on Saturday Night Live recently or or one of the, you know, live shows.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. But that was his initial goal. He wanted to be a trumpet player. Like before he'd even touched the bass, he wanted to be a trumpet player.
Casey G. Smith: Wow. He's living out the dream right now.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And Anthony Kiedis, he, he wasn't a a lead singer. Like when these bands started, he wasn't a lead singer. He was just the, like they were they like to get in the trouble and do drugs and and kind of just cause anarchy.
Casey G. Smith: Rock stars.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, they're real rock stars.
Casey G. Smith: What attracted me to them at that time was it, it had hip hop. It had, and of course hip hop is based on, you know, funk and all the soul records and stuff like that. So I was like, there's like a little groove to it, and then the way he sings is not really singing. It's like, he's like kind of rapping in a way.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Interestingly enough, he when he, when he uh first hears "The Message" by um, Grandmaster.
Casey G. Smith: Is it Grand, Grandmaster Flash?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, and the Furious Five.
Casey G. Smith: I should know this. Sorry guys.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I should know it too.
Casey G. Smith: Sorry about that. "The Message," I mean, like straight up like positive, right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: But when he first heard it, it had a huge impact on him and he started, he started writing down lyrics. And in some early, early stuff they did because they weren't called the Red Hot Chili Peppers at first. There was another band called "What Is This" that was an offshoot of another band that had a different name. But they it kind of progressed and eventually like Anthony wasn't a part of the band. He initially started off as kind of their hype man in high school. He would go up and say a couple of things. And then finally at one show, they gave him a chance to like do a rap. And this is, this is early '80s.
Casey G. Smith: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And he gets on stage and he does this rap, but it, it, it goes well and some of their early music under the under the band, "What Is This," you could hear some of his raps early on. But he doesn't start singing.
Casey G. Smith: That's why I was attracted to it. I was like, there is something here.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, I'm putting that in my pocket. And and enlightening. So like, some of the stuff that he talks about, like, you know, especially like conspiracy theory stuff, I'm like, it's hidden in their music.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Mmm.
Casey G. Smith: And I'm like, oh, like "Californication" there's a lot of stuff in there.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh man, that's a that's a, that's a beautiful song. I I really like that one. Uh.
Casey G. Smith: A dope music video.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Space maybe the final frontier, made in a Hollywood basement.
Casey G. Smith: And then you see it like in the music video and then it like falls apart, it's like a set and it's like [sound effect] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, [sound effect]
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, man. My my favorite song by them is "Soul to Squeeze." It was on the the Coneheads soundtrack.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, Coneheads. Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I got a bad disease. [singing and sound effect]
Casey G. Smith: They got a lot of grooves.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Airplane. Yeah, but uh, "Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers" to our brother Hillel streaming on Netflix. Check it out.
Casey G. Smith: Hey man, sold. Okay, trailer. Is this the right name? "Brand New Day."
Reginald Titus Jr.: Spider-Man "Brand New Day?"

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Trailer
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Okay, okay, I want to make sure I you know, I had it right. My auto correct is crazy. So um, this was a couple weeks ago. So I don't remember it all the way. But with with this specific franchise with Spider-Man, every single time I'm like, I'm I'm in. I'm sold every single time. Uh that's one of the out of all the Marvel thing, I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna watch that. Um, can you explain a little bit more what happened because it fleets me what I've seen.
Reginald Titus Jr.: For sure. So in the in the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, initially we start off with Peter scrolling through his social media and he's and he's actually, he's watching a video of MJ and uh Ned both getting uh having having started at uh MIT.
Casey G. Smith: That's right. Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And and Ned's like, oh, you can't say MJ you're the happiest you've ever been. She's like,
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, she's like, you're right.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And Peter's looking at, scrolling through this and he's, he, he looks kind of, kind of sad and we watch him, it's a really cool camera. We watch him kind of pan out and he puts his mask on. We realize that he's actually upside down hanging from a a girder. He puts his mask on and then he kind of just freefalls and dives off this building. And then we get this inside perspective shot of him as his face inside the mask, kind of reminiscent of Iron Man. Uh and he and he proceeds to to swing through the city. Um, we see a couple of interactions with with him and and MJ but at this point, uh he, he's also referencing the letter that he's written to to explain that he's, that he had to basically give up his his previous life so bad things wouldn't happen and make everybody forget about Peter Parker, but that he's, he's also Spider-Man. And so it's this letter. And so we see him with some interactions throughout the trailer. We see a nice homage of different kinds of villains that are from different Spider-Man covers. We see Tarantula, we see Scorpion, who's a callback to Spider-Man: Homecoming. We get introduced to Scorpion in the post-credit scene of that when he's talking to the Vulture. Uh, we see a mystery character that seems to be kind of jumping between people's bodies. Uh, there's a lot of rumors that that potentially is Sadie Sink's character from from Stranger Things fame. A lot of people are are are a lot of people are assuming that she's playing Jean Grey in one of the introductions of the mutants into the MCU.
Casey G. Smith: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, we also see a great interaction with him and Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, where he's on the Punisher's vehicle.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And uh Frank literally shoots at him. Uh and then we see Spider-Man swing back through and kick through the windshield of Punisher's van, slapping him out of his seat. And uh Frank says, "Mother," and then Spidey webs his mouth and says, "Go home." Uh, we see other interactions, but there's a shot at the end that's reminiscent of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where we see Spider-Man jumping against a whole clan of of Hand Ninjas. They're all in red. And Spider-Man's up high and there's a lot of space underneath him. People are like, oh, that means that's a space for other characters to show up. We also see an interaction between Spider-Man and Bruce Banner.
Casey G. Smith: That's right. Yep.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And that's and that happens because Spider-Man finds himself waking up covered in webs hanging off of a building.
Casey G. Smith: He's going through changes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: He is going through changes. And we noticed that like in we we we know that Spider-Man in this universe has uh mechanical web shooters, whereas Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man had organic.
Casey G. Smith: Came out of his wrist. Looked gross.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But we see, we see Peter like attempt to like shoot web out of his hands when he's falling.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, so maybe during his transition, he becomes a big spider.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And this is, well, there's there's two story lines potentially this could be pulling from. Number one is an actual story line, um where Spider-Man does become an actual like human spider. He actually mutates into a human spider. That happens in the late 2000s in the Avengers Disassembled story line. It also happened in the Spider-Man animated series. There's also another series uh called "Spider-Man: The Other" where he actually does metamorph and actually gains organic web shooters.
Casey G. Smith: Mmm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So yeah, they're they're pulling from some sources. But it, it looks like it's going to be fantastic. And it's directed by the same director of "Wonderman," one uh, Destin, something. I'm blanking on his name, but he directed "Wonderman" and also "Shang-Chi," same director.
Casey G. Smith: Okay, okay. We're in good hands.
Reginald Titus Jr.: We're in very good hands. Yeah, because "Wonderman," wonderful. Glad you enjoyed it. But yeah, Spider-Man: Brand New Day coming in the end of July or June?
Casey G. Smith: Oh, they're gonna kill it during the summertime.
Reginald Titus Jr.: They're gonna make some good money.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Wow. No, you explained that well. I didn't, the only thing I remember was them changing a little bit.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I may have seen it a time or two. May have played it a time or two.
Casey G. Smith: Paused it. What's that?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I saw I saw, I watched a couple of breakdowns. So there there's some YouTubers of mine that I like to follow and yeah, just break break it down.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. All right. What else have you been watching?

Music and Drama Documentaries: Paul McCartney's "Man on the Run," Euphoria, The Fallout, and Grave of the Fireflies
Reginald Titus Jr.: Also, I watched this on, this was from a couple weeks ago on Amazon Prime. I watched a documentary uh with the the the great Paul McCartney of Beatles fame called "Man on the Run." A play off of his uh his song "Band on the Run." And it's a it's a, if you're into the Beatles or Paul McCartney, wonderful little documentary that really fills in the space between when the Beatles broke up. Um, you know, the Beatles were the like the biggest thing in the world from a musical standpoint for like just 10 years. In just 10 years of of absolute dominance. But when so when they broke up, Paul took a lot of the blame for the for the breaking up. Well, I think,
Casey G. Smith: Because his relationship or?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, well, like some say that it was it was, you know, I always heard in the past that it was it was Yoko Ono. Like Yoko and and John Lennon like, oh, she broke up the Beatles. But in this like it kind of places a decent amount of the blame on on Paul. So Paul goes off and he's living, I mean, he is living on a farm in somewhere in in Europe. Like just very simple, simple life with his wife and he has, I think two daughters at this point. It's just very like just living off the land, a very different vibe and then he he eventually comes out with his like first album. I think it's called "McCartney." I think he records it like at partly at his home. Like in his little home. It's it's a different vibe anyway. Eventually, like that doesn't do well and there's all was it, was it any good by himself or was it just, you know, the fact that he was with the Beatles? And eventually he forms his own band, a band called Wings. And it kind of takes you through that that process what that what's that what that looks like. But he eventually has his own success with Wings. Wings has a couple of of of hits. "Band on the Run," um, "Live and Let Die," which is on one of the James Bond soundtracks in the '70s. Um, yeah, they got a couple of other ones. But it it's it's a nice little documentary and insight to to watching, you know, someone again, leave the the biggest bands of all time and then reinvent himself and start another another band. And his wife joining the band. And she was a photographer initially, but she joins the band and actually learns how to play keyboard and and actually sings uh sings some as well.
Casey G. Smith: Hey man, keep it in the family. Why not?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes sir. But yeah, so called "Man on the Run." That's on Amazon Prime.
Casey G. Smith: Rock and roll. Was it a series or was it like a feature film documentary?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Just like one doc, it's a feature doc.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. Um, I was there was a trailer, um called "Outcome." Um, starring Keanu Reeves. It's coming out April 10th on Apple. It's written and directed by Jonah Hill.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh.
Casey G. Smith: And Jonah Hill's pretty good, you know, with his directing. Remember we did uh was it '90s, um with the skateboarding kid?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: That one was good. Jonah Hill directed that one. That was pretty good. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: I forgot, I forgot he had directed that.
Casey G. Smith: And um, so he directed this one and Keanu is like this jerk, you know, actor that's kind of like trying to get asked for forgiveness and things and kind of dealing with uh substance abuse, kind of like to me it kind of feels like that usual timeline of, okay, I'm like on this road of redemption. Um, comes, I'll probably check it out though, you know, Jonah Hill. You're kind of in safe hands based on his previous work directing. And uh so, I I'll check it out. Um, nothing too crazy like jumped out at me. But just because of their work in the past, I'll be willing to check it out. But that comes out April 10th on Apple and that's called "Outcome."
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. I saw a trailer for the upcoming season of "Euphoria."
Casey G. Smith: How many seasons has it had?
Reginald Titus Jr.: This is the third, I want to say the third season of Euphoria. Maybe maybe the fourth. Let me double check here. But I don't know if you if you've watched any of Euphoria, but it is a wild ride of a show. Initially, it's dealing with a group of of students who are by and large in high school, but they all have their, you know, their own home life problems. And it's it's a very um modern show but the the the there's a lot of standout performances. Um obviously our our main character Rue,
Casey G. Smith: I always see like a picture of Zendaya crying or something whenever and like a purple shawl. She's always like depressed. I'm like, not gonna watch this.
Reginald Titus Jr.: She's a heavy drug addict. I mean, a heavy drug addict.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, okay, that's why she's always crying.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But it's so powerful when you see because at times she's trying to be in recovery and trying to hide it. Oh man, it's some powerful scene. She does some of her best acting in this show. It is absolutely amazing. So Zendaya, uh in the role of Rue, uh the young girl that plays her sister, I think her name is Star or something. Uh, but she's, she's very good. Colman Domingo, who plays like her her sponsor is great. Sydney Sweeney. This is where she breaks out. She is just fantastic. As just a high school girl trying to figure it out who who initially kind of gave it up too easy and then kind of a video was made of her and that kind of got spread around and so she's got this,
Casey G. Smith: Dangerous.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's like yearning for,
Casey G. Smith: You know what? That sounds like all the drama that happened in my high school because I think every high school was dealing with some form of drug addiction. Of course, there's always sex scandals. Um, and how do you recover from that? Um, just now, what do you do now when there's more technology to record it? Um, back in the day, you know, you just have VHS tapes and and word of mouth. But how is it differently with all this technology?
Reginald Titus Jr.: It absolutely, uh, comes out and comes into play in different ways. And you find just different like just all the actors are just incredible. You have Jacob uh Elordi, who won a Golden Globe or even maybe even a best best supporting actor for his his recent role in Frankenstein. But he, he plays like the the the jock, like the the guy at the school that, you know, he's tall, good-looking, you know, parents got some money. He's he's dating the hot girl in school who's who's best friends with Sydney Sweeney's character. It's all really well done. But it's it's it's it's wild. And then you have uh Rue's best friend who is who is trans, uh trans woman, but who is actively sleeping with with with men like in in hotels. And one of the characters' fathers, yeah, it, it gets it gets, that's tough. Yeah, it gets it gets dicey. And so it's it's stuff comes up. It's it's it deals with some heavy some heavy, heavy stuff, but it's all really well done. And part of it is is, I think, partly based on the director's like some of his actual life experiences. But it's very well done. And so anyway, this newest season is one of those things where it jumps ahead. Like they at the end of the last season they were all still in high school. Now this is they are out of high school a couple years later.
Casey G. Smith: Smart move. Kids be growing. They be looking like they're 30. Uh, I think Stranger Things is one of those examples of that. Like, hey man, what are we doing here, dog?
Reginald Titus Jr.: We're pulling our social security out here.
Casey G. Smith: We got like whole wives and babies and we're still in the 11th grade. We got mortgages out here. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, yeah, so this is the, yeah, this is the third season of Euphoria. Sorry, it took me so long trying to look things up.
Casey G. Smith: It's all good.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But yeah, it it it, it looks intense. Like there's some stuff going on in Mexico and and Rue is right back in the mix. Wow. It's a lot. I'm I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty excited to to see it.
Casey G. Smith: Euphoria.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Euphoria. Not for the faint of heart.
Casey G. Smith: When I looked at it, I was like, this looks depressing and um, but people have been telling me to watch it. Like, hey, you need to check it out. You need to check it out. So I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm not there yet.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, it's uh again, not not for the faint of heart.
Casey G. Smith: Speaking of I'm assuming this is on Max. Yes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Yeah, on HBO.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. Oh, is it back to HBO now?
Reginald Titus Jr.: It is. Yes, just HBO now.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. Oh, they all their trickery.
Reginald Titus Jr.: As it should be.
Casey G. Smith: Right. You're right. Home Box Office. Okay. Speaking of Home Box Office and speaking of high school, and speaking of depressing, there I watched a trailer called "The Fallout." This came out about four years ago. This is with uh Jenna Ortega. She's in high school and I think she's hiding in the restroom and you just hear gunshots going off. Like I don't know if it was like machine gun or if it was just like pow, pow, pow. Or I don't know if somebody has like committed suicide or if they're actively shooting at people. And so she's dealing with going through this trauma and losing someone. And so they they keep it vague enough to where they're not giving you, you know, who was shooting or in the trailer. But uh people are saying this is like one of her breakout performances uh at that time that uh put her on the map. But that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Did she have a best friend or another girl that she's with most of? I saw that trailer years ago. I didn't watch it, but I thought I thought it was a series but it's just just a movie?
Casey G. Smith: It might, you know what? I didn't write it down if it was a movie or a trailer, but it based on it looked like it might be a feature film. It's called "The Fallout." Um, it's on HBO. And um, yeah, I don't know why how that came on my timeline. I don't, you know, I don't know what, but I was like, okay, I'm gonna have to watch this.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's a movie. Yeah, came out in 2021.
Casey G. Smith: It's a movie. Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Um, yeah, so "The Fallout." Uh, look good. I think I think it won some stuff at uh some festivals. So it had some buzz. And uh, yeah, but but yeah, looks depressing.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. All right. I may have to circle back around to that. So also, again, sticking with HBO. Uh, there's this is a film, an animated film that I I had I had heard about years ago and and wanted to to see and it it's it's been popping up in a couple of places but it's called "Grave of the Fireflies." This is an animated film from back in 1988.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And I I just heard I heard it was kind of kind of sad and a little depressing. And yeah, it's it's all those things. But you're you're set in in Japan right around World War II. And you're you're dealing with a a young boy and his little his little, little sister. I mean the boy is say maybe, let's say, nine, 10 years old. His little sister is no more than a toddler. And he's he has a mom, his dad's off to war, but in their little village, they they get, they get bombed uh by military planes. I think US US planes and it it it devastates, it devastates their little village. And they're they're trying to get out of their home and get to the to the um, to the school, to the shelter. Uh, the mom ends up passing away basically and now this this this little boy is having to take care of his sister. It's just a, it's a sad story. It's it's it's it's it's a sad story, but the animation is quite beautiful, the performances are are really well done. But it's it's it's a heartfelt kind of slice of life story of just the the ravages of war and how it affects people in other places that just kind of it it pulls on your heartstring, but just also reminds us to just be empathetic when it comes to these things. Like the, you know, the the the the the the poverty, the loss, like what happens when when when young children lose their parents. And then them trying to stay with relatives and the relatives maybe aren't aren't ready or weren't prepared for that and, man, it's uh, yeah, it's tough. It's it's a heavy, it's a heavy piece. But it's called "Grave of the Fireflies."
Casey G. Smith: And that's on HBO. Okay. Is it like episodes or is it just a feature?
Reginald Titus Jr.: No, just yes, a movie. It's an animated movie. It's like almost in the uh, but very very well done animation, reminiscent almost of like Akira.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, okay. Yeah. That's a classic.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, but it's it's it's well done but it's it's it's a tear jerker. It's it's a sad one.

Diverse Film & TV: Talk to Me, Atlanta, Moonwalker, and Paradise
Casey G. Smith: Dang. Speaking of losing loved ones, there's a movie called "Talk to Me" on, it's a horror film, came out in 2022. Um, I watched it on Netflix, but Netflix UK.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: And here's a quick synopsis about it. When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits with an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill and high-stakes party game until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces. It's called "Talk to Me."
Reginald Titus Jr.: I'm sure that all ends well.
Casey G. Smith: It does. And uh, there's the uh, key art.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh.
Casey G. Smith: You might have seen, I remember seeing just the imagery from that when uh when that initially was coming out. Maybe I even saw the trailer. Yeah. Wow. "Talk to Me." So, uh, I played it. I'm watching it with the kids. It was like, "Hey, you wanna watch something?" I was like, this is probably not the good parenting moment. But like, whatever, you know, you used to have your your like scary movie Fridays. Yeah. So I was like, we were bringing it. We were bringing it back. So I was like, all right guys, you're gonna watch something scary? So let's watch something scary. Wait 'til they get a load of me. Yeah, so, we watched "Talk to Me." Never seen it. I've seen the trailers. Looks creepy. Um, at first, it's hard to pick up their accents. So, like, you listen to accents like, is this, you know, is this a British accent? It's like, no, because normally, when it's like British, you just see a bunch of buildings. It doesn't look appealing or anything. So.
Reginald Titus Jr.: American.
Casey G. Smith: And so, you see I'm still trying to place it but it's like the roads, it looks better. It looks like a better location. Like there's like um, green trees and things like that, which you usually don't see uh with the UK uh uh movies. Usually like kind of colder and more like.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Sure. The fog and all that.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, and usually like just buildings everywhere. Um, this is in Australia. And so, they have a a accent you're not used to hearing. You might hear like a like a stereotypical like Australian accent that's kind of played up a little bit. But just like regular everyday kids, high school kids, like talking is like, wow, this sounds like like hippish. Sounds like kind of like British. And then, uh, they have more like, uh, people of color, um, in their film because like, you know, the natives, Australians like it's like all mixed in and stuff like that. So he's like, oh, this is like an interesting interesting vibe.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Um, but anyhow, embalmed hand. So, the story is, you see this embalmed hand and they're playing this game. So, everybody, like, everybody's drinking going to these parties and stuff like that. And then the guy's like, "All right, bring it out, bring it out!" "All right!" and everybody has their phones. They got their phones and you sit in this chair. Um, and everybody circle around you like, "All right," and they bring out this embalmed hand. And then you got to touch the hand. Like like shake its hand. And then you have to say, "Talk to me!" And then the spirit, or whatever it is, talks to the person. And so, like, from, so it goes from two perspectives. So, you see the perspective of the person that touches the hand and what they're seeing. Then you cut back to the kids that are in the room because they don't see or hear what what's going on with that person. All they see through their phone is somebody acting crazy. Like, "Oh my gosh!" Or like, they start crying. But they getting a high off this. And so.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Adrenaline rush.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, it's like adrenaline rush. And so they're like, "Oh my God, that was amazing!" But there's like a cutoff period. The cutoff period is 60 seconds. So it was like, all right, there's a, there's a responsible person in there. He's like, hey, let's make sure that it's not going over this time. Let's, let's tie them to the chair. Um, and then also let's make sure that the the time limit we stick to that. So there's rules. But um, something I didn't expect is actually brilliant. And I'm like, oh man. I I I don't really like all horror films in general because it it becomes what? Horror porn, or what they used to call it?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Torture porn.
Casey G. Smith: Torture porn. It becomes that. And I'm not into that. Um, but I'm into smart smart horror because it it allows us and I wrote an article about this on the Substack, on the Filmmaker Commentary Substack. Just go to Substack, type in Filmmaker Commentary. Just about how horror allows us to like explore, you know, horrific things like in our safety of our homes. You know, you can explore it without, you know, going through that stuff. Um, you kind of kind of exercise it that way. But uh, it's it's it's it's done well. But my son was like, I shouldn't have watched that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I've made a terrible mistake.
Casey G. Smith: I felt gross after watching that. I was like, sorry son. This was brilliant.
Reginald Titus Jr.: "Talk to Me." Where where did you stream that at?
Casey G. Smith: On Netflix. On Netflix. You may or may not have to have a VPN and make sure it's the UK one.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Thank you, sir. So on a lighter note, I went back and I I revisited all three seasons of "Atlanta."
Casey G. Smith: Wow. Yeah. Yes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Within this within this past week, I just Really? Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: That's like a whole other world going to Atlanta.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Hot diggity dog. It is it is just fantastic. It it still holds up and there was a couple of episodes I had missed. I mean, I think I think I hadn't seen all the first season.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So I went back and I I just watched the whole thing. I was like, this is really, really good. I'm in again, we we even covered, we were we were doing the podcast when when the last season came out. But man, to go back and rewatch it all and even to to see where these performances, performers and actors what they've gone on to do. Uh, yeah, it was just it was really it was really nice. And man, some just incredibly funny episodes and moments. It's great. The one where they are uh doing the parody of of Tyler Perry and and and Donald Glover is is playing that that uh Tyler Perry archetype. And when when Van, or Vanessa played by Zazie Beetz, throws the grits on him and he screams he goes, "I am fine. Grits do not affect me." I died laughing. His performances. Uh just it's amazing. Just and just to again, we're talking about the the black surrealism that happens in different episodes. And Brian Tyree Henry as Paper Boi and the situations that he gets put in.
Casey G. Smith: Paper Boi, Paper Boi.
Reginald Titus Jr.: The the the the come up and the rise but then the the the elements of of still being on the streets and whether it's being, you know, just betrayed by by his his his his his his his drug dealer or jumped by fans. Of course, the the episode where he was trying to get his haircut, it's still one of the funniest episodes of television I've ever seen.
Casey G. Smith: Fantastic.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, just yeah, Atlanta, if you haven't seen Atlanta.
Casey G. Smith: It's groundbreaking.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, streaming on Hulu and uh the Disney Hulu Bundle, but absolute gold.
Casey G. Smith: I was watching an interview with a comedian. I can't think of his name right now, but he was on a podcast uh Shannon Sharp's podcast. And he was talking about being on a Tyler Perry uh TV show. Shannon Sharp was like, "How was it on Tyler Perry thing?" Cuz, you know, he's going through some things right now. So nobody, you know, you kind of like gotta dance around, you know, the, you know, the things that's going on. He's like, "He's good, man. He's good." You know, we did a tape, he said, "We did a table reading and uh he was giving me notes." But he wasn't in the room. You know.
Reginald Titus Jr.: He said, "You could hear him." He was like, "You could hear him."
Casey G. Smith: That's exactly what they did. Yes, and so I was like, oh, that remind me of the things. So it was kind of ironic that you seen it uh again and that's the first episode you brought up was the Tyler Perry one.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Fantastic. Yeah, that left a mark. Cuz I automati I automatically thought about that uh Atlanta episode when he said, "Yeah, I he was giving me notes, you know, you can hear him but he wasn't there." I was like, oh, I think he gave too much information.
Casey G. Smith: I am everywhere.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes.
Casey G. Smith: That was so I was like, oh, that was real? What line is that from? Those things are real?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh man, I don't remember. We never remember. It's a horror film.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, that was "Matrix" because he was talking about the thing that went to his belly button.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh.
Casey G. Smith: You remember that? And he woke up. It was Agent Smith. They had put that tracking device through his belly button on the Matrix.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I it's been a while. Have we ever covered "The Matrix?"
Casey G. Smith: We haven't and we should.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I'm like, why haven't we? I know that's your jam.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. One of the top 10. Top 10.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Noted, noted. Yeah, he was in the car and they put the little thing and they took the bug out of his belly button. It was a tracking device. He said, "That thing is real!" They were tracking it.
Casey G. Smith: Anyhow, All right. Uh, was that you? That was you?
Reginald Titus Jr.: That was me.
Casey G. Smith: Who was that? Who's there?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Who's bad? I am fine. Speaking of who's bad, I watched like, I don't know who brought this up. "Moonwalker."
Casey G. Smith: Okay, okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It was like free on YouTube or something like that. But it I don't think it was like an official release. Uh, dude, it's been a while. It was Cam Newton. Cam Newton had brought it up because he said I was watching Michael Jackson. I didn't know who Michael Jackson was. But I had watched "Moonwalker" or or some movie he was in because the movie kind of like jumps from music videos to uh like his concerts. And then Cam Newton was like, "Who is this guy?" Cause people are crying and falling out and he's like just doing his thing. And uh Michael Jackson is just so like creative that I mean, he kind of was like a trendsetter.
Casey G. Smith: A tour de force.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Dude. I was like, man, this is brilliant. It's good.
Casey G. Smith: And then you get the when he does the speed demon one and he's got the the clay like the the stop motion animation character with like the with like the rabbit. Yeah. Yeah, they dance. Yeah. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. That one was good. Oh man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And then the then when they do "Bad," how it has he shrinks down into a little kid at the at the end. Yes. I haven't watched "Moonwalker" in a long time either. But yeah, there's some interesting elements.
Casey G. Smith: There was uh, what were some things that stood out? It was when uh what's what's the song when he comes into the club and he just he's got the white.
Reginald Titus Jr.: "Smooth Criminal."
Casey G. Smith: He like flips the coin. That's "Smooth Criminal," right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: "Smooth Criminal," 100%.
Casey G. Smith: Uh, there's like a breakdown. There's a breakdown in in the music video because this is a long music video. Oh, yeah, that's the extended version. Yeah, they're just snapping. It feels like they're just like contortion. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, what is it? Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. And then he's like and then he just like slams his foot like several times on the ground. He's like, I'm just nodding his head. I was like, what's going on? That is amazing. Then they just go right back into the song. The song starts again. But it gets dark during that part. It gets real dark. It's like this dark blue and it's like all a cappella. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: We used to have that on on VHS. We had that one on on VHS.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. "Moonwalker" is legit. So it was kind of cool to kind of go back in time and watch that. I was like, I want to get a better version because I don't think there's been like a Blu-ray release, an American Blu-ray release, I don't think. Um, but I want to introduce my kids to Michael Jackson. My oldest, he knows, but like they don't know, no. And so, I needed to like,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Show them the Motown 25 performance if they haven't seen it before with the Jacksons, and when Michael Moonwalks for the first time in front of the world. Just Motown 25, pull it up on YouTube. Yep.
Casey G. Smith: Yep.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But speaking of "Moonwalker," did you know there was a a video game back in the day?
Casey G. Smith: Sega.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes sir. Genesis. It was actually they actually, it was actually an arcade game, which I never I've never seen the actual arcade game. But I surely had the the the Sega Genesis version and being able to to beat up people while I'm doing Michael's kicks and, with magic on there. You eventually can turn, you get enough points or whatever, you can turn into the into the the robot at the end of "Moonwalker" and shoot missiles. I was like, wow. That thing couldn't have been cheap. And that and it didn't, I don't think it released in theaters. I think it was just direct to video.
Casey G. Smith: I don't even remember. I I remember seeing it because I think it was like an MTV thing or it was on regular television. Like we didn't rent it. It just came on it just came on regular television and it was like an event. Um, but man, uh uh Michael Jackson, he has creepy things in his in his in his visuals sometimes. And like just like that robot, that was kind of weird. Um, kind of creepy, you know, that was cool, he could turn into a car though. Like,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, he was like hiding in the alley then he just like creeps down. Like, he's always turning into things.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Transformation. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, he turned into a Jaguar, I think, one of one of his.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, and then that's uh in the in the black and white in the the the uh the alley car crash. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. So you can see it like, how is this acceptable? Like.
Reginald Titus Jr.: A lot of a lot of crotch grabs.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. So he turned into a panther at the end. That's what he turned into.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay, I said Jaguar. Yeah, panther. Black panther.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Well, I'm I'm glad uh, yeah, you had a chance to check that out. Oh, "Moonwalker."
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, I forgot but that it just jogged my memory. I was like, Moonwalker was good.
Casey G. Smith: Nice.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, also I I finished the second season of "Paradise" on Hulu.
Casey G. Smith: Ooh. Have you seen any of Paradise?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Next that's on my queue list. That's like one of those things. Yeah. Must watch, right?
Casey G. Smiths: Pretty freaking good.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. and and yeah, there's there's more to come for sure. But just just intrigue upon intrigue, just more just layers of just stuff that's being revealed. Like, oh, okay. All right. We're on to the next.
Casey G. Smith: Interesting.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But yeah, very well done. Our man Sterling K. Brown, he he's just great in whatever he does, man. He can't do any wrong. And just I I I enjoy him in interviews. Just listening to him talk. He's just so at ease and uh just a a great and even James Marsden. I I've I've seen him. He's been he's been working quite a bit as well. He's obviously going to be in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film reprising the role of Cyclops in a comic book accurate outfit, which is cool. Uh, he he's in uh the show called your um, "Friends and Neighbors" along with Jon Hamm. Uh, he's in something else that recently he showed up. And there was a a movie that's on that was in theaters for a hot blip. Now it's on Hulu. I can't think of the name of it, but he's he's in that as well. But yeah, James Marsden is is putting in some work.
Casey G. Smith: Hey man, got to stay busy out here.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But Paradise, uh streaming on Hulu/Disney Plus bundle. Worth checking out.

Horror & Sci-Fi Trailers/Films: Countdown, Faces of Death, Kid Cudi documentary, Daredevil: Born Again
Casey G. Smith: So, going back to horror, but this time, so when we talked about "Talk to Me," that's rated R. Bad parenting. And then, um, "Countdown." There's a movie called "Countdown." It's PG-13. It came out in 2019. It's on Netflix. And this was probably like a week after we watched the "Talk to Me" one. It was like, "All right, do y'all wanna watch this?" And we, "Horror Friday again! Y'all wanna wanna watch?" And so, this is about, when a nurse downloads an app that claims to predict exactly when a person is going to die, it tells her she only has three days to live. With time ticking away and a figure haunting her, she must find a way to save her life before time runs out. And so, like, the movie opens up with people like, "Hey, man, have y'all seen about this app?" So, it kind of reminds me of "Talk to Me" a little bit. Uh, so it's uh, hey, have you download this app? So, all the kids downloaded this app. And it tells you, "Hey, when you're gonna die?" It says, "I got 80 years!" This one says, "I got 50 years!" And this one's like, "Three hours!"
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow. Oh. I was like, Final Destination kind of vibe.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yeah. And so, like, that's how it opens up. Um, my kids watched it. They they enjoyed it though. To me, it's kind of like cheesy a little bit, in comparison to "Talk to Me." So, "Talk to Me" is, in my opinion, like high-level filmmaking. No disrespect to anybody. It just feels like it's high-level filmmaking and they have something to say. Uh, "Countdown" feels more like, you know, we're doing this. It's kind of like, we're, the genre piece where we're just gonna giving you you know what you came here for, which is to see, you know, the ending of certain people. Um, but the kids loved it though. And so, they liked it more than "Talk to Me." Um, to me it felt cheesy, but I was like, they but they they really enjoyed it. So it was like, okay, it's entertaining, it's fun. At at the end, I asked the son, I said, you wanna download the new app? He's like, "Ah!"
Reginald Titus Jr.: I just got him a new phone.
Casey G. Smith: Nice. Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So, this is a a trailer that I saw in in the horror vein. It was called "Faces of Death."
Casey G. Smith: Ooh. You remember those those movies back in the day?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I've never seen any of them but I knew I knew of them.
Casey G. Smith: Dude, they were in Blockbuster. Yeah. And they were literally, so for those that that that aren't familiar, there were a series of of videos, movies, if you will, of this compilations of real people dying and it was a video series called "Faces of Death." Personally, I never watched any of the actual episodes, but I just it was just people caught on camera dying. Dude, it's a, people were talking about this.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Real different gruesome ways.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, kids were talking about that's how I like, I didn't want to watch it, you know, you know, kind of sensitive to certain things. So I was like, I can't see real people dying. That's like, that's that's come on.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's crossing the line.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. And in most of them are accidents. And so,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, that makes sense.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, I can't watch that. But you would hear about it from the other kids, like, "Guess what I watched! Man, his head exploded!" Okay, go ahead. Man. So there's a a film coming out. I saw the trailer for it. It's called "Faces of Death." And this is the premise. It says, "A woman employed as a website content moderator comes across a series of violent videos reproducing death scenes from a film."
Reginald Titus Jr.: Mmm.
Casey G. Smith: So you you again, you open up the the trailer opens up and it's this woman, yeah, she's watching content. She works for this website moderation moderating company. And they they're just, you know, scouring the web for different things that are just inappropriate. And so, when she comes across the scene of somebody getting killed, her supervisor says, "No, just, you know, you know, let let it's fine. You know, that's okay. Don't don't don't uh don't strike it. Don't don't mark it off." And so, but she keeps coming across more of it and so eventually she starts doing some more investigating and eventually she's kind of pulled in to where she's, you know, trying to uh, trying to stay alive herself.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Scary.
Casey G. Smith: It's kind of scary though, because like, this is a real job that people have and um, I can't remember what I was watching, but they were just kind of talking about the people that that's their job they have to do. But they start getting like PTSD and they start having like like problems mentally. Uh, for for bringing too much of that stuff in.
Reginald Titus Jr.: There is a, I think a, there's an unknown quantity as we are in this the information age and consuming so much data of what's what's what's healthy. I mean, we're already they're already having conversation amongst students in terms of how much screen time they they should or shouldn't have, but even adults also should have like limitations to be aware.
Casey G. Smith: This. Well, we're doing, you know, watching is like, it's helped me kind of figure out like, oh, where I'm kind of like, where my time is going to certain things. And so I was like, oh, man, you know, I didn't realize, you know, how much, you know, even if it's just trailers, you know, like how how much like watching it, I was like, okay, so this has helped me out a lot over the years. Just like, okay, where do I put the balance? Like, okay, cuz I know out of all the stuff that I watch a lot of it's uh YouTube. Yeah. And uh, so it it's been real enlightening cuz I cuz they're bringing they're taking we're watching this, but they're probably multiply that by 10.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, you think about being in high school. Again, nothing but time. I I I played so much video games in high school. Like I couldn't even imagine counting the amount of hours I put in to video games.
Casey G. Smith: I would agree.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But when I was in grad school, that helped. I had I had to manage my time just undergrad or grad? When you're in grad school? Grad school. Really? When I was it was during COVID in grad school. Like I had everything was everything was timed. Okay, if I had a reading article for class. Okay, I'll give myself 20 minutes to to pour in the reading this and give myself an hour to work on. type this out. Okay, if I'm gonna take a break, all right, I get a 15-minute break. I set my timer. And when it's up, all right, move on to the next thing. Everything was regimented. Even when I take breaks to watch TV. Okay, I've got X-Men. I can watch this for an hour. All right, so I want to have a conversation. Okay, great. You got 15 minutes. What's up? Everything was timed out.
Casey G. Smith: That's smart.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But even now when I play video games, I set a I I play in one-hour increments. I I set a one-hour timer. So I know how much I've played because video games are like a portal. They could suck away so much time. Before you know it, just hours have gone by. So I, I'm that's true. Regiment that. Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Now that's smart. I I um, yeah, I didn't do that. So I just had to lock away. I had to lock away the Xbox and stuff like that. I was just like, you know, I let the kids, you know, do their like YouTube stuff on there. But I know me and um, I'll just jump into that world and live there for a few weeks, you know.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, I I I understand. There are there are certain games again, when when the next GTA comes out, oh man, in November, right around the holidays, yeah. I'm gonna be in there.
Casey G. Smith: I just recently, so I never did play "San not San Andreas," what's the five, right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Uh, what was his name? That uh, oh, it's Grand Theft Auto V. But did it have like a subtitle?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I don't think it did.
Casey G. Smith: It didn't. Okay. I'm just now like playing through that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man, that one is, so I'm switching back and forth through the characters, Franklin. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm like taking a break. But like my kids are helping me with that. So they'll do like certain missions for me. Like, here you got to do this one. Cuz they're really into games and stuff like that.
Casey G. Smith: GTA V is, so I'm like manipulating the stock market to get money cuz I was like, I was like, back in the day, you can just put in a little code and get some money. But now you gotta do this stuff. So.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, even man, the game's been out over a decade now. Like when starting the game, you you probably could have gone in and watched some YouTube videos. So that when you when you, you know, when you when you make basically the the the company that's a parody of Facebook. Yeah, yeah. And you kind of like kind of sabotage there, there.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, yeah, that's right.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But if you, if you play it right, you can use the stock from that and and make money off of that whole situation.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yeah, I saw that. So I was just like, yeah, let's do that. This is cool. I like it. This is fun.
Reginald Titus Jr.: You can you can, yeah, you can get lost. So this next one coming up is It's got to be insane. Especially with all the AI stuff and like how things are interactive. I bet it's a game that can kind of like keep producing new stuff in real time.
Reginald Titus Jr.: There's I I I was before you before we started recording, I was watching a couple of videos just just on the development because it's been delayed a few times, but it's also this is the most expensive game ever.
Casey G. Smith: How much?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, estimates right now are maybe around two billion.
Casey G. Smith: What?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, the last the last one, GTA V, is the highest grossing piece of media of all time. We're talking 12 billion in revenue. Oh, so they're just rich. Um.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, so the expectations are super high. And here's the thing. When GTA V dropped within three days it made its first billion.
Casey G. Smith: That's nuts. I remember when that came out. And I was like, I guess I'll just have to wait.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, it's so there's there's talk that with when this one drops, and we'll we'll get back to films in just a moment. But when this one drops that it'll in order to kind of it'll it'll continue to evolve and breed and they'll they'll continue to add more content to it. Uh, but it's going to be, it's going to be big. And then some next-gen systems and they're they're they're they're making new new ways for I think like water to to move and flow and interact with that and even how you, yeah, just it's going to be massive.
Casey G. Smith: I'm I'm with it. Um, I'm getting lost in it. I was like, this is this is nuts, this is crazy. So, we're having a good time with it but I can only imagine like people just getting lost because uh, with Grand Theft um, didn't they have like the online feature where everybody was playing online, right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, that that's part of five. There's a whole online and which which is still active today. And we're talking again, like a 10 years ago. I want to say a decade in because I first played It was it was on the PS, it was on the PS4. No. I feel like I played it on my 360, but that's not right. It was on PS3. I think when I first played it was on PS3. But it it's it's had it's had a phenomenal run and it's been it's been ported over multiple times and it's uh, it's a hell of a game. Yeah, what can you say?
Casey G. Smith: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: There's so much you can do. Um, I watched. Did you watch the flag football with the uh NFL players playing against the uh flag the professional flag football players in America?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I did not.
Casey G. Smith: I think there was like a, I heard about it, but I didn't watch it. There was like a debate going on like, these, that's not real football. You know, the football, the NFL players can play against these guys. No problem. Man, the NFL play, it was two games. One, Tom Brady was the uh quarterback, um Jalen Hurts was a quarterback on one of them. Um, who's the other guys? It Sam Darnold, Sam Donald, Sam Darnold, I think that's his name. Um, and there's another quarterback. Um, well I mean, these guys are legit. You had um, who's the guy with the blonde hair, the wide receiver?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Odell Beckham.
Casey G. Smith: Odell Beckham was out there catching some rock stuff like that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I saw a highlight of him, of one of his catches. He was ESPN.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm. And to kind of put things in perspective, the build is different for like the NFL players, Grolk was out there.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Gronkowski.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, he was out there but he got hurt. Like he had caught a ball from Brady, touchdown. And then he like slipped like on the turf and like pulled his hamstring. He said, man, man, it's pocked.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But he he he was hurt fairly frequently it seems like. He's he's had a sheer of injuries.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, It was a um, but they you could see where he slipped. It was like a slip, like a little slope and like a couple people slip, I'm like, dang that like pulled his muscle. Um, but man, those guys are so agile, the flag football, they destroyed the NFL players.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man. Because the NFL players are so used to like hitting and stuff and like their build is different than the the flag football players.
Reginald Titus Jr.: These guys are made for speed and evasion.
Casey G. Smith: They have to be agile. So like they're moving their hips.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Like like soccer players. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: You know, so like maybe like a Tyreek Hill, people that are built like that can do it. But yeah, they destroyed it. So like the debate is no more a debate because it was like funny cuz it was like, all right guys, we play this football, y'all play that football. This is no longer a debate because NFL players want to be able to go um, uh win gold medals for football because the flag football's like going to be played in the Olympics. And so these guys are gonna represent um America and they I mean, they're good. But a lot of these most of those guys are under 6 foot. They're like 5'8", 5'9", 5'10", but they're good at what they do.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Slender.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, they're good at what they do. And also another technique that a lot of the NFL players, they don't know how to grab the flags. You know, when you're tackling. And so you can't hit somebody and grab the flag. So they're used to just hitting. And so, so they they probably they haven't trained. They haven't trained for it. Exactly. But when you think flag football, you think you just go out there and do it. But if you don't know the rules, the field is a little bit different. It's they kind of got embarrassed. And so, but it was still entertaining though. It was still entertaining to watch. Yeah, but uh, but with Gronk getting hurt and then uh Sam Darnold, like he was going for it because he guys are competitive. He like jumped like was trying to dive and like, people were like, am you a $100 million quarterback, you know, doing this flag football, you get hurt, you know, for for this next season coming up. They we're gonna have some problems.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, for real. For real. Well, where where'd you watch that?
Casey G. Smith: I just watched that on YouTube. They were yeah, playing that. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Nice. Nice. So yeah, so definitely entertaining though.
Casey G. Smith: Okay, okay. I watched a new trailer for "Masters of the Universe," aka He-Man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, how was it in comparison to the first one?
Casey G. Smith: This one was was staunchly set on Eternia. And so in it it starts off with if this blurred shot that comes into focus of of Adam, you know, in his pink shirt and and and slacks being being drugged into a prison. And as he's thrown into a prison, we see a whole bunch of other characters from the the the Motu, Masters of the Universe, universe. We see uh that guy right over there. I'm I'm pointing right now, uh, to Reginald to one of my figures of uh, Fisto. And also we see we see, we see Ram Man also. They're but they're all they're all in prison, right? Cuz Skeletor has taken over Eternia.
Reginald Titus Jr.: This makes me think of, I told you it made me think of "Ragnarok." Remember "Thor: Ragnarok" when they threw Thor into the the prison, then he meets little rock man. "Hello, I'm I'm so and so."
Casey G. Smith: Korg.
Reginald Titus Jr.: "Hello, I'm Korg." "Oh, and that's so and so." And he has like this joke. Anyhow, I'm sorry.
Casey G. Smith: No, no worries. That's that's uh, that's uh adapted from the the "Planet Hulk" story line. Nonetheless, uh, but yeah, so we we're introduced to more of Eternia and we we we, of course, we see we see Adam transforming into He-Man and what's that what that looks like with him on the sword and him saying that he's, though he had been trapped on Earth, that he never forgot about Eternia. He was been trying to get back back there. And we we we hear Jared Leto's Skeletor say a couple things and he's he's he's got this this more menacing kind of voice. He says he's not, he's not, you know, you you don't you fool you boom. He's not, he's not doing that. He's not doing the Alan Oppenheimer voice but he's got his own kind of menacing, menacing tone about him.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Little likes these little dark characters. I see.
Casey G. Smith: He does, he does. He does playing the villain. Uh, but it it looks good, man. Like they're, yeah, again Travis Knight is doing his thing and I I I I trust his vision for it because he's leaning in heavily to the to the uh, 1980s version of He-Man that many of us grew up with.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, what when when does it drop in?
Casey G. Smith: This one drops, oh man, maybe, let's see. The "Masters of the Universe," "Masters of the Universe." "Masters of the Universe." Is dropping in. I'm stalling as I'm looking it up here.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: And I'm on IMDB and it's not giving me the actual. It drops in a couple of months. Either, oh, okay. April, I'm I'm I wanna say April but that's too soon. It can't be April. Let's ask Siri. Hey Siri, when does "Masters of the Universe" come out? "Masters of the Universe." May 15th.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, okay. That's around the corner. Going into the summer, so we'll know for sure going into the summer who's going to be winning between Masters of the Universe and you got Spider-Man coming out. This is going to be a good summer.
Casey G. Smith: Also Supergirl as well.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, did you see the trailer? I saw like a thumbnail, but I didn't see the trailer. I did. It's the second trailer for Supergirl.
Casey G. Smith: Is it promising? And is it the same universe with James Gunn?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, you you even see you even see uh Superman uh speaking to her via a video deal. So yeah, that's his cousin Kara is Supe's cousin. So yeah, and Krypton Krypton is firmly okay. Um, a part of the story line. So yeah, it's all it's all connected.
Casey G. Smith: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Does it does it
Casey G. Smith: I need more. Was it uh, what where are we going?
Reginald Titus Jr.: So is it, it's it's an it's an and it's it's an adaptation of a story line called "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow." And this is Kara celebrating her 21st birthday. But she's she's very much so comes across as she's still, you know, when when Krypton was destroyed, Clark was still a kid. But Kara was a teenager. And so she remembers the loss of losing her parents and her family and her her planet, her culture. Mhm. That is is fresh to her. She lived through that. And so she has this part of her that's kind of broken and so she has this kind of trying to drown her sorrows with almost like a depression kind of deal. And so she goes off to another planet where she can, either I'm assuming it's a planet with a red sun. So it kind of dampens her power so that she can, you know, be normal. Yeah, party it up. But from there, uh, we see in the trailer that some some ship lands and some guys some aliens come out of it and Krypto runs to bark at them and one of them shoots Krypto with some kind of poison. Oh. And now Kara, cuz she says that Krypto's like the only family she has left. And now Supergirl has to go on a mission and has a certain amount of time to find a cure to to save uh Krypto's life.
Casey G. Smith: Save the cat.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's right. And along the way she meets another young girl and they and they have a a common foe in mind. And of course we see Jason Momoa in the role he was born to play as one Lobo. Okay. Who I'm sure will be a scene stealer throughout.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. Yeah. Promising? Is it uh, is it exciting?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I'm gonna I'll watch it. I haven't seen the I haven't seen the trailer. So I gotta check the trailer out.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, I think it's gonna be solid. I'm I'm I'm looking forward to it. Is it gonna be a summer? Is a summer hit too?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. That's a that's a summer hit. We'll see who wins the battle.
Casey G. Smith: I think Spider-Man's gonna gonna take it all easy. I I think I think I think Masters of the Universe? 100%. Oh.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Spider-Man has this track record. That's true. Motu is Motu will speak from a nostalgic standpoint to Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: You're right. Because I based on just how I look at the consumer situation is um, I'm gonna rely on word of mouth when it comes to "Masters of the Universe" and "Supergirl." And based on what I heard about Superman, I didn't go to the theater. And um, so I'm gonna rely heavily on that if I'm gonna go to the theater to see that. Same thing with Motu. But with Spider-Man, I'm gonna just go blindly because It's got a track record. Yeah, and I'm already following, you know, Tom Holland. Tom Holland's he's a he's a great Spider-Man. Yeah. It's Marty McFly.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, he If they did a "Back to the Future" remake, I'd be like, please cast him.
Casey G. Smith: He's the guy. Yeah.

Concluding Thoughts and Outro
Reginald Titus Jr.: Speaking of other things that I've been watching, there's a show called "Shrinking" on Apple TV.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Harrison Ford, Jason Segel. I've I've mentioned it before on the show.
Casey G. Smith: That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, oh man, but it in the process of the show, as you get into later seasons, you you find out that Harrison Ford's character has Parkinson's.
Casey G. Smith: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And he's a, you know, the show's called "Shrinking" because he's a psychiatrist along with uh with uh Jason Segel's character and our girl uh, Jesse. She's a a tall sister, tall chocolate, chocolate sister.
Casey G. Smith: What's she playing in?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Jesse Williams, something Williams. But anyway, but she's she's she's really funny. And but anyway, but they're all they're all shrinks, they're all um, psychiatrist. Well, anyway, in in one of the episodes, Michael J. Fox shows up. He's not playing himself but he's playing someone with Parkinson's. Okay. And and so to see him and Harrison Ford interact and have a conversation. It's just uh it's I I love that he's able to to do that. And and to um kind of lean lean into his his his his his current life experience. Absolutely.
Casey G. Smith: Uh, 2019, there's a film called "Ready or Not." And starring Samara Weaving and Adam Brody. So, I know that name. Samara Weaving. Mhm. What did I know her from? I don't know. Uh, this is her face. But you can see her right there. Okay. So, this film is about Grace couldn't be happier after she marries the man of her dreams at his family's luxurious estate. There's just one catch. She must now hide from midnight until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down with guns, crossbows and other weapons. As Grace desperately tries to survive the night, she soon finds out she soon finds a way to turn the tables on her not so lovable relatives. This came out August of 2019, which kind of plays into like a a genre that people are kind of playing with uh Zazie Beetz. You know, we get you locked into a place and just everybody hunt you down. And you got like a time period to survive. But people are usually crooked and maybe when it becomes dawn is not really what you thought it was.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I guess you could call it uh, "Survive Till Morning."
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. What else we got? Uh, so oh, here's here's one I saw on Netflix. Another documentary just a feature documentary called "Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom."
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh.
Casey G. Smith: That one just dropped on Netflix this week.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, really?
Casey G. Smith: Yo.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Man. That's serious, huh?
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, this it was an eye-opening. So, Lamar Odom, former player of the Los Angeles Lakers, former NBA champion. This this is one of those documentaries where they're interviewing everything from his his his ex-wife, uh Courtney Kardashian. I think it was she was married to Courtney, no, is that right? Is it Courtney?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, one of the Kardashians. It was either Courtney or was it Chloe?
Casey G. Smith: Chloe.
Reginald Titus Jr.: No. I think it was I think it is Chloe. I mean, you know what, don't have me, don't have me lying. Let me let me.
Casey G. Smith: Lying on that lady.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, let me let me, uh, verify. I should have it now. Damn now. Here we go. To the he he got sucked into the Kardashian world with his uh, uh interesting world. Bless you. To be sucked into. But honestly, he he wanted that smoke. Yeah. When you when you watch the documentary, he he wanted that. And even the the the show they had, he wanted he wanted that. More so than let me make sure I get the the name of uh. Excuse me. Pardon me. Yeah, he actually wanted to experience being uh being a part of a part of that. And that part of that lifestyle. But of course drugs and the like all come into come into play. And man, it gets it gets it gets rough. It gets it gets bad. Like very, very bad to the point of he's disappearing. He is uh, and then and then he's being covered for by by his, I I have to get her name down because this is this is is killing me. Okay, here we go. Where is it's Chloe. Okay, yeah, Chloe. So Chloe Kardashian. But yeah, he's he's and she eventually is like, she's covering for him all the time. But he he he's gets hooked on on uh cocaine, maybe even a little bit of crack. Dang, dang. But yeah, but he's he's he's he is he is he is is is going in and goes from being like sixth man of the year with the Lakers to then out of the blue getting traded to Dallas. And that and he was already partying hard, but when he got traded to Dallas to the Mavs, he just really spiraled because he he thought he was like family with the Lakers. Playing with Kobe and Metta World Peace. Yeah. He was like on top of the world but that that that trade kind of crushed him. And he'd already had a previous yeah, he had a previous wife. We we meet her that he he married when he was in in New York. Uh, I had a a daughter and a son. And uh, uh he had his second child like passed away suddenly through like infant death syndrome. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just kind of out of the blue. But uh, but man, when you like get to the the kind of the highlight of the documentary when he basically O.D.'s and what he like they said he had like 12 strokes, eight heart attacks, something like that. Whoa. Like the fact that he's alive is and with no permanent deficit. It's a miracle. You remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It really is. Like how is this guy here still and functioning. But yeah, the uh "Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom" on Netflix. Super fascinating and and and worth worth uh worth a while watch.
Casey G. Smith: One trailer. I haven't heard this name in a while, Zach Galifianakis. Hey. Digs into the world of gardening, interviewing curious kids and eccentric experts in a funny oddball celebration of the food we eat. The first episode's dropping April 22nd, 2026, and this is on Netflix.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So there was a there was a trajectory that a lot of comedians that especially once they get like big enough, they go from standup, they get a couple of hit movies. They they make some that are maybe a little more edgy, and then they go into this phase of like kid-friendly, becoming kid-friendly. Oh. You saw Eddie do it. We we've seen some with with Kevin Hart as well. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's something that happens like Howie Mandel, I think even to a certain degree uh kind of went went that route. But yeah, it's just something that you see happen amongst amongst different comedians. It's interesting. So yeah, it's now Zack's in this phase where he's doing some kid kid-friendly stuff. He's probably, I'm assuming, married and settled down. Maybe has kids of his own and that kind of impacts some of the content. And then maybe there'll be a comeback later on where they may.
Casey G. Smith: Very true because when you have kids, you start realizing like, what are they gonna watch? Cuz the stuff I've been acting in is terrible. You know, they can't watch my standup. They can't you know, you start realizing like, oh, the things I'm producing is uh having an effect on the world and other people's kids and okay, well, let me do this thing. Yeah. And it might just be like Eddie said, there's like cash grab. You some of these things were a cash grab. No more money grab. What else we got here? Oh, so I I I also I finished the the mini-series on Netflix called "His and Hers" with John Bernthal and Tessa Thompson.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I started that um, yeah, so like I I started that. That was months ago whenever that came out. Like it was like everybody was talking about it on social media. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I gotta watch this, but go back to it.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. It's absolutely worth it. My my mom had mentioned it to me at first and I started the first episode and I was like, oh, okay. It's okay. But then I I went back in and I finished it. You have to you have to get to the very end because there's a twist. You like, what? Oh, it's it's you think you know, you have no idea. Dad gum, they they got me. But I love I love I love being wrong. I'm like, I'm I'm okay with that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. But it's it's it's it's really good. Okay. So I was watching with my sister and got to like second episode, but she has a habit of watching ahead, you know, and I was like, oh, oh, that's that's yeah, when you're in tandem watching with somebody and they and they go ahead without you like, yeah, it kind of it gotta kill the buzz.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yeah. So I was like, with my wife, you know, we kind of have the things that we're watching. And we was like, yeah, and yeah, exactly. And understanding. Uh, so like, okay, so certain certain things that we watch together, it's it's together. Another thing that we watch alone and tell each other about. Um, but yeah, my sister has a habit of that. I'm like, oh, what the heck? Anyhow, um, so one of my last things is it's a trailer. It's uh about Kid Cudi. He he came out with a it was a documentary on his life. It came out in 2021. It's called "A Man Named Scott." Takes a look at how Kid Cudi's artistry and emotional openness liberated several hip hop artists, some of whom discuss their own complicated inner lives. Um, that's on Amazon. It came out 2021. Just a just one regular documentary about a musician. So I was like, oh man, I forgot about this. I was meaning to kind of come back and come and check that out. Like Kid Cudi is like one of those like kind of interesting artists that doesn't necessarily like fit in a box uh per se. Like, you know, he had his uh hit that came out called "Day and Night." It came out and it was like a kind of like an animated cross, like that that blew him up.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, yeah. At at night.
Casey G. Smith: So yeah, so so I'll check it out but it looks depressing. Like you look at the key art, the dude looks sad.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, nothing about it makes but you know, I'm you know, I don't know if I'm like a fan but I'm I'm definitely uh, I admire his uh artistry.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. All right. Um, one of my last ones I will mention is the return of Daredevil: Born Again.
Casey G. Smith: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Season 2.
Casey G. Smith: Oh. Did you watch the first season of Daredevil: Born Again?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I don't think so.
Casey G. Smith: Did you watch any of the Daredevil on Netflix?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I did. And they were good.
Casey G. Smith: All right. So, the first season of Daredevil: Born Again is very much so that of of kind of a deconstruction of of Matt Murdock. In the first season, he's not in the costume a whole lot just to be frank. He actually spoiler alert, stops being Daredevil for a little bit based upon something that happens in the first episode. But by the end, you know, he's getting back back back to it. So by the time the second season comes around, he's, he's he's back in it and the the landscape of New York has changed. Wilson Fisk is the mayor of New York and and exerting uh extreme power. Vigilantes are are, well, they're already outlawed before. But he has a task force that's specifically assigned to hunt down vigilantes. Wow. And Daredevil uh along with Karen Page, uh they've gone underground. And there's a number of people that that are operating underground. And so episode two and three, at the end of episode three has one of the has one of the coolest fight scenes I'd I'd seen in Daredevil before. Just yeah, very, very well done. And again, it's all MCU now. So we get a connected piece. I don't know if you watched Hawkeye from several years ago. But we get introduced to a character who calls himself the Swordsman. Uh, so that guy actually has shown up, he showed up in the first season of Born Again and he's now in the second season as well. So we get to see him put in put in a little bit of work as well. So they're introducing introducing different like street level characters. Plus according to the trailers, we're going to see Jessica Jones come back and make her her MCU uh official uh appearance in in season two of Daredevil: Born Again.
Casey G. Smith: Dang. How was the vibe like cuz it was on Netflix. That was that was such a cool time cuz you know, you had that you had Luke Cage on there. You said. I was like, man, they had a they had a lot going on and that that stuff was good. So how does it uh is on Disney, right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. And so how has that translated? Does it flow according to like what you've seen in Netflix and it's it's the same actors, the same performers. Everything. Okay. Yeah, so again I I went back and rewatched season one of Born Again and I appreciated it more because sometimes I have to have my expectations managed. Yeah. And uh, I've even gone back and watched uh season one and two of the original Daredevil, which is which is good. Is it following the same timeline?
Casey G. Smith: Uh, as far as the timeline, I I'd say maybe. Yeah. Because it's all the same characters. Like Bullseye, Bullseye is in it and he gets So all the stuff that has happened previously, it it's accounted for in these episodes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Okay. It really is. Like these these characters still have these relationships and they're still connected and all the same actors are back. The woman that plays Vanessa Kingpin's wife, she's there. The guy who played Bullseye or Poindexter, he's in it. Uh, they they're they're pretty much all there. Like they've brought back most of the cast and they're introducing new people as well. But it it's a little bit further in time when you when you start Born Again. It's gone ahead, I don't know, let's say a couple of years. Um, But yeah, again, season one, pretty good. But so far season two, yeah, season two is is been pretty, pretty awesome. Okay. But yeah, Daredevil: Born Again on Disney Plus. And this is it's it's going to grow because I I I saw recently some behind the scenes footage, as far as the defenders go. And there there there's a there's a reunion coming. Like, like I think Mike Colt is coming back and even uh Finn Jones. I think we're going to get Cage and Iron Fist back in the mix. But with like the MCU touch on them. So I think they'll be hopefully even better than they were at Netflix. Well, let's go, let's go. Yeah. That's all I got, bro. Uh, I want to mention one last thing. Okay. No, you know what? I'll save it for I'll save that for the next episode. We we've covered quite a bit. I I will save that for the next one.
Casey G. Smith: All right. Thank you guys for tuning in. That was "What We've Been Watching." That's right. What we've been watching. Episode 4. Um, and you can catch us where?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Facebook.com/filmmakercommentary. We're also on iTunes, SoundCloud and Spotify where you could please like and subscribe. We appreciate you listening. You can also find us on filmakercommentary.com where we have some wonderful articles by one Reginald Titus Jr. We're also on YouTube/filmmakercommentary. You can also find us on the gram @filmmakercommentary. He is @reginald_titus_jr, that's J R, on both Twitter and the gram. And I am @caseygsmith32 also on Twitter and the gram.
Casey G. Smith: Until next time. Peace.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Respect.