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The Grey NATO – 361 – Film Club Vol. 13

Published on Thu, 22 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

Synopsis

James and Jason deliver their annual Film Club episode, presenting ten movie recommendations between them. Jason's picks span from 1984 to 2017, including "This Is Spinal Tap," "Idiocracy," "The Lives of Others," "The American," and "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable." James selects "Rounders," "Mission Impossible" (1996), "Ocean's Eleven," "Prey," and the recent Netflix release "The Rip." They discuss the staying power of these films and their various genres, from mockumentaries to heist films to action thrillers.

The hosts also touch on practical matters, including updates about merchandise availability in their Printful shop and the restocking of 20mm NATO straps for supporter kits. Jason shares his experience with his Land Defender needing brake repairs, while James discusses his coffee setup upgrade with a bottomless portafilter. The episode demonstrates their ongoing commitment to bringing quality film recommendations to listeners while maintaining the show's conversational, accessible tone.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacy Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 361, and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you're listening and would like to consider supporting the show, please visit thegrayNATO.com for more details. My name is James Stacy and I'm joined as ever by my pal and co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how we doin'? I'm kinda cold actually. It's uh
Jason Heaton it's been really, really cold here. Um I was out walking walking Ruby this morning and it's you know Fahrenheit minus something. And uh yeah, it's um it's uh we're in the depths of winter, and I guess it's only supposed to get colder. So yeah, but uh you know, holding my own here. Um, you know, just uh last week when you asked me this question, we kind of got into some things that that stirred things up a bit on the slack and I you know we we I I'm not going to apologize for it, but I also feel like, you know, we've we've dropped a bit of a bombshell on our poor moderators who have been. moderators, our incredible moderators. And and just thanks to everybody or you know most of you for for keeping things civil and and and uh kind of tolerant um with uh with all of that that happened last week and um you know I appreciate all the kind of private and public comments that people made to me in the meantime. So um that's great. Um so we appreciate that. Um but uh yeah um how are you doing up there in uh in Canada? It sounds like it's cold there too. And you you sent me a photo. You got dumped with snow. Dude, we'
James Stacy ve been hit with a bunch of snow in Toronto. And don't get me wrong, I I think there's actually places a little bit further out that got more. So um my condolences, of course. But it was one of those days like that. There was one day, thankfully it was like relatively light snow in terms of its weight. It was very airy, powdery sort of stuff. But I shoveled three or four like I spent two hours of my work day shoveling just to keep up with it. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's it's cold. I don't have aby Ru to to walk. Iok the garbage out this morning and was just very disappointed in how cold it was. You know, I I I think this has uh become almost uh a a a trite uh cliche for the show, but uh this is that time of year where you just I'm I'm already thinking about the cottage. I'm going, well, maybe it'll be in early spring. Maybe it'll be, you know, maybe by the time I get back from Watches and Wonders that that weekend or or or that sort of thing will be ready to roll uh to to start enjoying a little bit. of the warmer weather But I'm I'm just, you know, I'm not built that well for the winter. Um I should make a better effort to like go out and enjoy it. Yeah. Um, but I find, you know, I I start work, you know, six, six thirty in the morning, and by the time I'm done and finished dinner, it's 8. Yeah. 8:30. Um, and I just like it's one thing to be out in the cold when it's nice and sunny. That's that's quite enjoyable. Maybe you go for a little walk or or you throw some skis on or snowshoes or whatever. I'm not that far from a spot called Jefferson Forest. Yeah. But unless I unless I, you know, took part of the day off or something, I'm just not sure it would work out uh currently. Yeah. Yeah. It's been uh it's been cold here, so I've been inside reading a lot of books. Uh I finished nuclear war. We had a couple of really good chats on uh that's Annie Jacobson's nuclear war uh scenario. We had a couple good chats about that on the Slack, uh so check that out if you're keen. Really enjoyed it. I mean, as much as you can enjoy a book about, you know, kind of the end of the world. I think you grow up, or at least I grew up, you know, understanding the concept of mutually assured destruction and that this paints a much more complete picture, which is terrifying. Yeah. Um and then yeah, I moved right on to the getaway, uh which I I'm looking forward to reading. That's Anthony Jesselnik's uh book of the month for January of this year. Yeah. Uh so that one should be good. Doesn't look like it'll take me too long to get through it. And then Sarah and I've been watching season two of the night manager. Have you gotten into that at all? I haven't. Yeah, I forgot about that
Jason Heaton . No, I I've got to get into that. I've I've gosh, it's been how many years? It's been it is it ten is ten years, five years? I don't know. I'm not sure. It's a long
James Stacy time since the last season, yeah. But uh we're part way in, three episodes in, something like that. I'm I'm enjoying it. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I like it to the same extent as the first season, and and you can kind of feel if you're sensitive to these things, you can kind of feel where maybe the budget's a little bit less this season. Yeah. Uh there's there's some K-mer moves, there's some special effects, that sort of thing that aren't aren't quite what we got used to in the in that first season. But despite that, I am really happy to have it back. I'm happy to have more uh Jonathan Pine in my life and uh and I like the the um you know sort of setting I don't want to give anything away that would be a bummer but the setting is is it's a different part of the world than the first season. Yeah. And uh I'm enjoying it
Jason Heaton . It's been uh it's been pretty good. Yeah, I can't wait. Yeah, that sounds like a good way to spend a cold few nights on my end. This is switching gears, uh, I guess literally and figuratively. Um I was driving last week, I guess it was, uh, in the Defender, and um stepped on the brakes and the pedal went right to the floor and um barely uh you know, was able to kind of coast to a stop, had to hit a few pumps to kind of get the pressure back up and and get some some bite on the brakes. And so um I brought it over to kind of my kind of eccentric, quirky creative mechanic who's not too far from here and barely made it there without rear ending a few people and uh turns out it had a snapped brake line and was uh kind of losing fluid. Sabotage. And yeah, exactly. Right. Somebody sawed through the brake line. Um no, the caliper bolt had gone missing, and the the caliper came loose and and snapped the brake line. And uh so it was only running on rear brakes, on rear drums, you know, for this big heavy vehicle. And um, because it's kind of a dual circuit system. And so it's in the shop. I ordered a bunch of parts, and you know, rather than just kind of fix that one thing, the the mechanic, uh, my mechanic tony suggested that um we just redo all the brakes so it's getting you know all four corners new new everything basically new drums in the back new calipers new brake hoses new master cylinder. Um so it won't be cheap, but it was it's it's been due for it. Um the brakes have never been terribly good on that uh vehicle. So um I'm actually you know, I car repairs are something that I think a lot of people kind of fear and and gnash their teeth over and whatever. But for me, I don't um do have to do it often. I kind of do my own maintenance on the defender and a few fixes. I put a new alternator in this past summer, et cetera. But you know, big stuff like this, I'm I it's almost like Christmas. I almost get excited to get it back because it I think in this case it'll be such a noticeable difference that um I I kind of can't wait to to get it back later this week. So anyway that's the that's the news on the vehicle front here.
James Stacy Well that's a that can be a pain when those sorts of things happen. I'm glad that it didn't happen where you're going down you know, the steepest hill in your area. Oh my god. Uh or or something like that. Or or you know, I've I've had I've had people who, you know, park and then and you know, believe their vehicle to be ready to to not roll away uh in in the in that sort of scenario, which is great. Yeah. Uh for comedic effect, terrible in real life, of course. Uh but yeah, I'm glad that'll get sorted out. And and mechanically speaking, not an insane thing to get fixed. Which is nice. Right, right. All right. I think uh do we have any any uh sort of house news or anything like that to get into before we jump into some r
Jason Heaton isk check? Well, just a little bit. I uh I'll just mention that you know a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were we had run out of twenty millimeter straps, so uh for that to be a choice um for for new annual subscribers um to choose for their supporter kit, uh we only have twenty-two's in stock currently, but our supplier um obliged with a very quick turnaround and they are on route and should be here I think by probably by the time this episode goes live, maybe maybe later in the week. Um they're coming from overseas, of course, so could be early next week. But if you're an annual subscriber and waiting to order a 20 millimeter strap for your supporter kit, um, they will be back in stock soon. So just thought I'd mention that. Thanks for your pat
James Stacy ience. Oh, and the other thing I noticed that we've had a couple people mentioned in the Slack and I think I saw an email. Some of the products in the printful shop, so some some of the the merch items that we have uh kind of come in and out of availability and we don't seem to get any notice from printful about that. So it's regional. I think the example that I've seen a couple is folks that were waiting on the green uh stealth hat. Oh, yeah. And they were wondering why it hadn't come in. And when you went and checked, it was no longer available, but no one they didn't email, we didn't email. So I I would say if you're if you're if you ordered something and it's taken too long, you're not getting an update, please send us a quick email with an order number would be great. Yeah. Just for expediency. Yeah, we're we're kind of learning that that occasionally um things kind of come in and out of availability and there's not necessarily an email sent to say, oh, by the way, you have these six orders that are now not going to happen or won't for a while.. Yeah And uh and and then we feel bad because obviously people are waiting for a hat and some of these I think were placed with the hopes of getting them for Christmas. Mm-hmm. So uh uh our most sincere apology, of course, on that front. But if you're if you get into a scenario, uh don't think that patience is necessary. Like obviously give it enough time to show up. But if if you're past that event horizon, please let us know. Yeah
Jason Heaton , definitely. And I, you know, our apologies for that. Um printful's been great for the most part. Um it's been a really good system for us and they are very responsive when I write with issues. I mean they get back to me within a day and resolve things, you know, almost a hundred percent of the time to our satisfaction and I'm really appreciative of that. But the one area that they do fall down on is is that those sorts of communications. And we did have a case recently too where somebody ordered a cap and um they were expecting the one that as you would as advertised to them but, it came with a slightly different, it had like a distressed bill and a different closure in the back, and you know, just was wrong. And I wrote to Printful and they apologized and said they'll send out the correction soon. So yeah, as as James said, if you have any issues or you're waiting for something or something isn't quite right, let us know. Um, with the caveat that that we cannot do um returns or exchanges on just different sizes. So be sure to make sure you're ordering the right size because these are printed to order um as as you may as you uh order them. So we uh we we can't uh oblige that necessarily but I think if there's any errors or or delays do let us know.
James Stacy For sure. All right. How about uh a little bit of risk check. Weirdly I think we were on a
Jason Heaton Yeah, so um you know big surprise, I've started to think that maybe my wrist check shouldn't so much the watch, it should be the strap because I'm I'm kind of just rotating between the CWN one and the and the Pelagos FXD and today it's the FXD, but I put it on to um lately I've been um I've been understrapping. Um I don't know who uh coined that term, but it's you know I'm wearing a 20 millimeter strap and it's 22mm lug width on this. And uh on this watch it looks good. It looks good. I I normally don't like that look to see like a little spring bar pin kind of peeking from from behind. But with this watch I think it actually looks pretty cool. And I've got it on the 20 millimeter I don't remember what they called it but the uh the uh triple aught design titanium hardware uh NATO with this really great uh webbing um in in olive drab and it's uh it just looks perfect. It looks the part. Oh, you have the quant that that's the quantum. The quantum, yeah, yeah. You have that in green, eh? Yeah, yeah. Which that's good. It's
James Stacy really good. Yeah. It's it's it fits the watch really well. So yeah, well I,'ve uh I've got on something similar. I'm wearing my Pelgos 39 this week. I've had it on for a couple days. I'm gonna wear it, wear it through the week, like I said earlier in the year, trying to not kind of just frantically switch between watches, but like you, I'm kind of moving around between straps. I have really come to prefer the Pelgos 39 on its bracelet. Yeah. Um, but I have one complication with that as as part of my lifestyle, which is the bracelet is a bit sharp, the the clasp. Yeah. And I'm constantly picking up my son who's not old enough necessarily to sit up. So my my wrist is sliding behind his head. Yeah. And I just worry that I'll scratch him with it. Uh so I've been wearing it on straps. I have the postal uh canvas, which I really, really love, especially this time of year because I it doesn't have to get sweaty and that sort of thing. But then uh yesterday I just put it on a 20 mil NATO. So it's it's understrapped by a millimeter. I don't really notice it unless I go to look for it. I don't have a 21 mil NATO and I prefer, of course, our NATO. Yeah. The more cottony, less sort of plastic shiny sort of take on it. I know, I know that somewhere I have an Erica's in 21 millimeter that I ordered for this watch. And unless I accidentally gave it away, I can't find it. And I'm not typically one to lose stuff. Usually I have like a picture in my mind of where the thing is. Yeah. And I and I go find it. And twice I've been like, oh, maybe it's in that drawer. And I went to check it's not there. I did a full lap of the office. So if you happen to have been I whether I maybe I sold a watch and I left it on it or I gave it away at the the most recent New Hope uh hangout at Triumph Brewing. If you've got uh a 21 millimeter Eric's, please make sure you're using it because I'm gonna have to order a second one. Um I like that infinite adjustability. Yeah. Uh like where you're not using uh you know holes and pins. Um but yeah, this is uh a watch that I don't commonly wear on a NATO, probably because of the sizing. Uh but I absolutely adore it. This is so comfortable and so easy and so legible and the the bezel is great. Yeah, I mean yeah. What what what more is there to say? It's just talk about uh cliche for the show at this point. Yeah. Very very happy with this one. Uh have a cool trip with Tudor in uh in February that I'm looking forward to um and uh and I've been watching some of the stuff that they did with the car, which is a trip that I wasn't able to make uh work just because it would you had to leave very early January uh and then spend a couple days kind of waiting for paperwork uh in the Middle East before we could move on to where Dakar staged. And I I just had too much family stuff going on. It was right right those first couple days of this new year. Um, but yeah, it looks like they they had a great time. Zach Pina was there. They had a couple of the guys from Speed out, including James Pumphrey. Uh so looking forward to seeing what kind of content pops out uh from that. But yeah, I've been wearing this a ton. And uh and weirdly the uh uh I can't really get it out of my head. Um, but I I just I keep thinking about the Ranger in thirty-six. Yeah, I know. It's a very weird for me to care. Yeah, I think about a thirty six millimeter field watch. You know what I mean? And yeah, other than that, uh what we're twenty days into dry January, so I am still dry, but I I have bought a watch. I'm not gonna say what it is just yet because I don't have it yet. Uh I should have it early February uh and we we can let the crowd, you know, we can let the the the greater TGN contingent decide if I've if it qualifies as a broken broken promise. A broken a broken in and out, a broken promise, uh, you know, to not to buy watches and and then not to buy watches that are similar to watches I already have or have had or not to rebuy watches. I kinda broke all those rules in one um but I am really excited for this watch. I sent you some pictures this morning. It's just just just happened in the last couple hours. Yeah. But I'm pretty pumped. But I should get it uh or sometime like early February. So we'll we'll figure that out and chat about it. But hey, how about we get into kind of one of the one of the bigger, more popular episodes of the year. of One the one of the few examples of us totally abandoning the uh the you know TGN superlatives for a film club. Yeah. We haven't done a film club in a little while. The last one we did was with uh our good buddy Tom Place last April. Um I have been thinking more about the film club because I think there are a lot of great movies. And then looking at today's list, there's a lot of movies that we just you know, we're thirteen volumes in. Yeah. I I think we've done now a hundred and nineteen before we add ten on. We're at one hundred and nineteen in the list. Wow, that's wild. And I think there's a lot that we haven't gotten to. So I think we could do more than one a year, but I think the other one needs to have a guest. Yeah. Good idea. So I think let's do one in the summer with a really great guest. Mm-hmm. And like w like we got very lucky with Tom. Uh it was awesome. Yeah. And uh and I think it would be fun. So m I think you can expect us to try and do two of these a year. Uh this one is just the we'll call it the hostful if you're if you're an old school uh podcast fan. And uh and beyond that, yeah, I think uh we've got we've got each five to pick and if you ever need to know what's already on the list. Uh don't skip out on Kyle Martin's letterbox for the full TGN Film Club. We can put that in the show notes as always. But a big shout out to Kyle for always helping us with that. And yeah, uh I I don't know. When when you haven't done one since April, uh the SubSec tells us we have a lot of new listeners. I guess we need some sort of explanation. These are not movies that we think are the greatest movies of all time or or movies that we contend that everybody will like. They're movies that we really like and enjoy watching. About that easy? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. All right. Well I'm rambling, so how about you
Jason Heaton uh you jump in with your first. Sure, yeah. I'm trying to think how to uh how to order these and I guess um I'm just gonna jump in with the way I've got them here. Um this is one that uh was such an oversight of mine because I'd heard so much about it for so many years and I hadn't watched it until two months ago for the first time. Oh Oh really? Okay. Yeah. It's called This Is Spinal Tap. I'm sure everybody knows this one. Um hopefully most people have seen this, and if not, you're in for a treat. Um uh directed by uh and and partially starring uh the late great Rob Reiner, rest in peace. Um it's uh it is a it's funny as I'm looking at my list I've got two faux documentaries on my list here. Uh one of my favorite genres of show or movies are like this behind the music or, you know, rockumentaries, kind of a you know, documentary about a rock band, whether they're on tour or you know, just about their background, and this is that. It's it's it's a it's a made-up band called Spinal Tap, which is um Yeah, we got we gotta get good. Let's let's read the read the the log line or the tagline or something. Yeah, I mean all it says here on IMDb is Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DeBerghi on what proves to be a fateful tour. I mean it's it's it's fantastic. It's it and it was made in 1984. So th this is kind of classic era. This is actually the era, I would say, you know, this was the rise of MTV and and kind of that time when a lot of these kind of real documentaries about rock bands were being made anyway. And and I just love the the kind of um earnestness and seriousness that that that is kind of portrayed here, you know, the the kind of the angst and the and the personal disputes and the kind of behind the scenes turmoil and and all of that that goes with this this movie. Um and you know, you're just kind of chuckling through the whole thing and it's it's just it's it's really a fantastic film
James Stacy . Um I mean, yeah, and for for people who are listening and who haven't seen this, and I'll be fair, I haven't seen this movie in 20 years. Yeah. But m maybe more like twenty-five. It was around the time I was getting into guitar. And uh it's it's so it's super funny, it's really well written. And and if you ever hear the like turn it up to 11 sort of meme, that's where that came from this. Yeah. Uh where the Marty is uh is uh interviewing one of the guys and he says all the numbers go up to eleven. And he goes, oh most amps only go up to ten. He goes, yeah. He goes, does that make it louder? Is it any louder? He goes, Well, it's one louder, isn't it? I just I love it. Uh it's a it's a it's an exceptional film, it's very silly. Um, but it does a good job of capturing rock documentaries in in a way that's like it pays respect to them, but at the same time it's picking picking at all of the silliness of of focusing on on people. For me, as and and and I remember watching it several and the the more you kind of watch it, the more you realize it's like a little bit of a commentary on like eh, you know, some people are just good at the one thing. Yeah. Yeah. Like be may maybe be maybe being on stage, being a rock star and then you have nothing to say necessarily off stage. Um always kind of felt like a bit of s a subtext to that one. But yeah, it's uh it's a this is great. This is the final tap is fantastic and excell
Jason Heaton ent Rob Reiner. Yeah, and I I I just think that just moving through life these days or or at any point since nineteen eighty four, you just uh you're always hearing references to this movie. Um it it's just kind of become part of our culture um as sort of a just a almost like a code word, you know, for for a number of things. And um I was like I said, I was almost embarrassed that I hadn't seen this movie because I I'd always heard it referred to so often. And so when I finally saw it, I I kind of got it. So yeah, definitely, if you haven't seen this movie, don't waste any time. Uh, check it
James Stacy out. For sure. Yeah, good pick to kick it off. Three of my five for today are ones I'm bearish weren't already in our list. And I'm gonna start with with a movie that I absolutely adore. I've seen it many, many times. And then I think I watch it, and then for the next 18 months, it kind of leaves my mind. Because I've seen this movie probably 10 times and it always feels new to me when I watch it. And it's from 1998. It's John Dahl's Rounders. And it's uh Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Maul, John Malkovich, you have uh John Toturo. It's an incredible cast, an amazing cast about um Matt Damon. Uh sorry, the tagline is a law student and his pal gamble for high stakes. That's so undersold. Um, but Matt Damon plays sort of a clean cut law student. Um, and he has uh uh a rough and tumble buddy played by Ed Norton who goes by Worm, and it's about them getting into all sorts of uh poker related mischief and crime and problems. Wow. Nineteen ninety-eight, this is one of the movies that kicked off the craze for Texas Hold'em. Mm. And I think it created a huge block of people who wanted to either be wanted to either be Worm or Mike McDermott or maybe wanted to vacillate between the two. You know, for me when this movie came out, I was only uh twelve, uh so I didn't get to it for another decade. But of course, by the time I got into it and was into university, uh maybe not a decade, maybe it was seven, eight years later, I was in university. You know, Texas Hold'em was all people played. And I'm not saying it's because of this movie, but the movie is well-timed to be part of that sort of world. Yeah. And it's a great movie. It's a really good movie. John Taturo's I mean, find me a bad performance from John Taturo. I don't think he can. Yeah. Uh but this is a this is a fantastic movie. I've never seen this movie and it's great. I I love a good gambling film. Oh, I I think you'll love this. John John Malkovich is is swinging for the fences. I have no clue where his accent's actually from, like where he where he figured that out. Uh but yeah, Rounders, Rounders is an absolute winner. I'm I'm a big fan of this one
Jason Heaton . All right. Well, good one. All right. I'm just gonna keep moving forward here chronologically. Um since I started way back in nineteen eighty four, now I'm gonna move up to two thousand and six with uh with two m movies, the the first of which is yet another I don't know how you'd call this, uh social commentary sarcastic humor film, whatever you want. to call it Um, it's uh it's Idiocracy from from 2006. And it's a movie that I had heard a lot about for many people over the years and had only just watched it for the first time uh a couple of months ago. And um boy, it's it's hilarious. It's scary. Um and it's just uh yeah, it it it it there's just it's got a lot going for it. Um I'll read the summary here. Corporal Joe Bowers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top secret hibernation program, but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive. Um Good cast, Luke Wilson plays uh Corporal Joe Bowers. Um, and it's just it's spooky how much of this kind of stuff you you watch and you sort of cringe and say, Are we there yet? Is this is this where we're headed? It's um it's quite the social commentary and it's uh it it was directed and and co-written by Mike Judge. Um James, I know you're a fan of his and familiar with some of his movies. I have not seen Office Space, which I guess was his other more well-known film, but uh Oh you gotta see Office Space. Yeah, I'll need to see Office Space for sure. Um, now that I've seen this, I I really like what he's done. But uh yeah, it's it's crazy. I mean, uh Terry Cruz plays the president, who's who happens to be a former WWF wrestler. Um, you know, there's just some some kind of great um faces and names that you'll kind of recognize, you know, currently and looking back twenty years now, um they kind of pop up in here, you know, Dax Shepherd is in this, Maya Rudolph, and uh yeah, it's um it's it's a movie I think that has uh unlike, you know, a lot of kind of old, you know, movies from a while back that kind of try to predict the future, um, somehow this one aged really well and it and it seems yeah um strangely um strangely
James Stacy accurate in many ways, which is kind of spooky. Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of the Mike Judge thing, whether it's idiocracy or office space or even you know Silicon Valley, he's got something that's that allows him to see a a piece of the future, or or maybe he's able to complete the puzzle uh in in like a storyline and a c comedic sort of fashion. Uh but yeah, just uh uh I I remember seeing Idiocracy right around the time it came out because of my love of Office Space and Office Space remains I think a movie that's largely aged really well. Uh it's still I think for the most part very funny, um, which is remarkable given the era in which it came out. I'm you know, I remain a big Ron Levingston fan, uh, and that sort of thing. And yeah, I think you know, I love Luke Wilson, I love Terry Cruz, I think this movie's great, it's a little terrifying. Um, it's a little you know, it's a little bit of the the first few minutes of Wally, if you haven't seen that, by um Pixar, one of the Pixar films, where you're like, is this, yeah, is this how accurate is this kind of prediction of where we might be headed? And I think in 2006 it was comedy, and now there's elements of it that feel more like commentary. Yeah. Um on uh on on kind of realistic sort of you know, uh grandstanding and and social scenarios and that sort of thing. So yeah, it's it's great one. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. And it's great twofer with uh with um office space as well. Yeah, good, good idea. All right, two down. What's your second one? Yeah, two down. My second one that we're we're gonna we're gonna go with another one that I just can't believe we didn't do uh yet. And like I've I've gone back. I'll do it once more, live on tape. I'm gonna make sure this isn't on the list. Control F. M-I-S-S-I-O-N. Alright, it's not there. Mission Impossible, nineteen ninety six. I've I could have sworn this was in the first three or four uh of our of our film clubs. It's one of my favorites. It's it's way up there in terms of early Tom Cruise for me, and I I remain a massive Tom Cruise fan. Uh I think he does a lovely job. I think that obviously they've now done so many of these films. There's like seven of them. I just watched through all of them recently with my daughters who really enjoyed them. Uh, and the one for me that stands out in a stylistic fashion is the first one. It's much more don't get me wrong you, have the stunt, you have the huge train ending, you have the very famous CIA break-in dropping down from the ceiling. Yeah. But for me, 1996, this was still a spy movie. At its core, it's a lot of like people coming together in rooms in, you know, far-flung locations uh to talk about the plan that they're gonna do, or or, you know, maybe it's it's him lighting a match and a car pulling up and then talking to someone who he's pretending to be somebody else. There's some really great stuff in this movie. And I think what's remarkable is it's uh of the of the group, and and I don't want to be unfair because I think a lot of them have have some great ability, and I really enjoyed Brad Bird with Ghost Protocol. I really love the Chris McCorrey ones, the most recent three, especially Rogue Nation. Obviously, the second one was John Woo. So I don't want to say we're without other autors. John Woo has made some incredible movies in his era, but this is Brian De Palma. Yeah. Uh this is this is a genre film, a deep genre film taken on by a by a really incredible art,ful, dark, super capable sort of director. Um and and I just I just really like the way this movie's treated. I love the way it's shot. I think the majority of the dialogue is excellent. I think that the third act twist hits really well. Even years later, uh my daughters didn't see it coming. It's it's infinitely quotable. My daughters both like, you know, my team is dead. They're all dead. For me, uh you watch it and you go like, well, this is this became a template for the next bonds. Yeah. For and and not the not necessarily the browsing bonds, which of course that's a year earlier in ninety-five, but I think we we talked about this recently on a QA. The Daniel Craig Bonds owe something to this film. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Obviously, they've they've taken the stunt idea and made essentially that's the whole movie now. It's like riding a motorcycle off a giant mountain and then parachuting onto a plane or hanging onto the side of a by-wing or holding onto the side of like an AC-130 or whatever whatever it is that Tom decides he's got to do and and God bless him for it. Yeah. Uh he's a true movie star. He really is. And uh and and for me, this this early one feels like the the clay that so many movies started to use later on. Uh the board and stuff, like the number of times where he's just like on the phone and that's how they move the the they're they're tracing the number when you do you gotta keep him on the line for 30 seconds or whatever and and he's in the train station and slams the phone down. Uh, I just I think it's an incredible. It's an incredible movie. It's aged really well. It's still super watchable. The technology sucks, which I think is perfect. You know, you've got all this like weird custom tech that that uh Luther has made for them and you know I I just I I love all the characters. I think the the actors that are in it is are all are really fantastic. Again we're not we're not sticking on top of this. So the the tagline is uh an American agent under false suspicion of disloyalty must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization. That's kind of the storyline to every Mission Impossible. But yeah, Tom Cruise, John Voigt, Emmanuel Baret, Jean Renault, Ving Rames, uh Henry Cerny, who's been in so many of these Mission Possibles now. I just absolutely adore him. Um Kristen Scott Thomas is in this. That's never a bad sign.. Yeah Uh it's yeah, the cast is incredible. John Voigt. It just keeps going and it makes these careful references and it's shot like a spy film, but it's an action film. I I love it. I love this movie.
Jason Heaton I hadn't realized it was 1996. I mean that was uh that's that's that's a long time ago now but it's uh thirty years and six sequels. Yeah yeah yeah and I
James Stacy I agree with you I think this was the best. Yeah, yeah, look, I think the fourth one's incredible. It's a better action movie. It's a there's a great plot line to the fourth one. And and I think I think it's interesting because if you watched this in 1996, you wouldn't have gone like, well, there'll be a point in Tom Cruise's life where this is all he does. Right. Right. Like he he was a huge star in ninety-six and that and he just keeps going and now he's like and and and he's just cranking out some of the most hardcore yeah. Action films in existence. It's just it's it's it's such a weird thing to see where these movies went. Yeah. And I have no problem with where they went, but I really love where they started. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good picture. So yeah, that's it. Mission Possible, the first one. A a weird omission after so many of these uh film clubs. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay, anot
Jason Heaton her one. Yeah, two thousand six again. Um, this is a movie I watched uh for the second time uh two nights ago. So it's fresh in my mind. And absolutely adore this movie, The Lives of Others. German film set in 1984, East Berlin. Uh the uh description is in 1984, East Berlin, an agent of the secret police Um I hadn't actually remembered all the details of this one when I pulled it up the other day. Um but I had just remembered the impact that it had on me when I first saw it probably back in 06. And um I have a sort of a an interest or a penchant for almost anything set during the Cold War. I just I find it such a fascinating period um you know before the wall came down and um you know the the East German Stasi the the kind of surveillance state um just has this this reputation and and there's something sort of ominous about it. Um and the the acting and the the actors that they chose are great. It's it's just I would almost say this is a perfect movie. It's just flawless. It's just the way it's filmed, the setting, the acting, the the script. It's just it takes turns that you you don't expect. Um it's uh I I don't know that there's just something about you know East Germany in the in the 80s that have this sort of grim gray um sort of miasma over it all. And and it's uh yeah, it's it's just superb. You know, it starts out w with this sort of the the arc of of kind of the main character, this guy who's the kind of uh main agent who's who's surveilling this um this intellectual, this writer, just it his his kind of development through the the film from someone very sinister to someone a little bit more sympathetic is is just uh it's just genius. And um it was directed by Florian Henkel von Donersmark. I the name is familiar. I um you know, again, German film, it's subtitled, so if you know just beware if you're if it's a movie you want to watch while you're doing something else or eating or whatever and you don't speak German, you know, just just keep that in mind. You might you might want to pick something else for that that time, but um it's uh yeah it's a good one. I I highly recommend uh checking this one out. Okay, yeah. I don't know this movie. Have you seen this
James Stacy one? No. No, I don't know it. I haven't seen it. I think you'd love it. Um I I think I recognize the name um but I'll I'll have to cue it up and get to it this week. That's uh that's glowing praise from you. Yeah, it's really, really good. Yeah. All right. So for my third, uh, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna jump in to go, we'll start going chronological now. Um as we went ninety-eight, ninety-six. We're now gonna go to two thousand and one with another one that I'm just blown away we didn't put on a list at any point. Yeah. Ocean's eleven. Yeah. Steven Soderbergh's absolute classic. Um Danny Ocean, a gangster, rounds up a gang of associates to stage a sophisticated and elaborate casino heist, which involves robbing three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously during a popular boxing event. There's a pretty good tagline. Uh I think that misses the majority of the charm. If you haven't for whatever reason seen this movie, uh I would say the most likely m my putting it in today's episode is just a reminder to watch it again. I'm gonna assume most people have seen it. But if you haven't, let me just walk you through the cast. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, uh Bernie Mack, um we have uh Elliot Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Kahn, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon. Yeah. It's it's uh it's a huge cast. It's an exceptionally fun movie that just becomes eminently more watchable the more time and and effort you spend to pay attention. Uh the dialogue's excellent. I think it's aged quite nicely for a movie that's, you know, uh, you know, twenty-five years old at this point. And I think that the sequels are all pretty good as well. Oceans Twelve is great, could also be on a a future film club. I was blown away when uh when I, you know, control F and and found that we didn't have uh Oceans Eleven in uh in a previous film club. This is a movie I really enjoy. Obviously, I I love a heist film. Uh this is a different sort of heist film in that it doesn't really end up in a shootout. Um there's not a bunch of uh bullets, you know, being cast down uh the you know, the main street of Las Vegas. It's a little bit more relaxed. It's kind of shot and feels a bit like something from the Rat Pack in the sixties, which I think is what they're kind of going for. Uh, Clooney's great, the dialogue's really fun. Um, the the cast is absolutely incredible, and I think that it's one of those movies where they really they really were purposeful in the sequels to continue character development. So people who who you might appreciate in the first film just kind of carry on uh from there. And uh like I said, I I love a heist film. Uh these ones are really fun. And if if if there's a a world in which somebody listening uh hasn't seen this, uh I'm really happy for you because it's an absolute blast
Jason Heaton . Yeah, you know, uh it's it feels like uh for one thing, I it shocks me that it was uh a quarter of a century ago that this one came out. But I the one thing is I you know it felt like this was one of those movies that um you know before this one movies were largely carried by one or two big actors. You know, it was like, oh, this one's starring George Clooney, or this one's a Brad Pitt film, or you know, two big actors or whatever. It felt like this one sort of became that movie that when you see it and you're like, how did they assemble this cast? That is a lot of big names. Like, and then it feels like we're getting more of those, or since this movie, we've just had a lot of these kind of ensemble big name casts. Um, it kind of feels like Oceans Eleven was kind of in the vanguard of that type of movie, you know. Um I'm sure there were some before this, but it just I just remember uh like seeing this movie and being like, how do they assemble these people? How do they pay their incredible salaries for a Brad Pitt and an Andy Garcia and a and a George Clooney and a Matt Damon, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Ye
James Stacy ah. Yeah. Crazy. I mean, like Matt Damon might have been cheaper. Yeah, right. Comparatively. You know what I mean? There's other movies that he's made that you could easily say all the same things about. If you haven't seen Logan Lucky, awesome. That that that's an absolute winner. Not everything is is necessarily the same tone. Obviously he did the informant and he did Contagion and he's done some sort of heavier, heavier films uh throughout uh that. And of course, we spoke at length last year about Black Bag, which is great. Same director, also a great cast. Uh, but just the this feels like one of those moments where everything kind of comes together and they have this amazing cast, and now I think so many of these people kind of were able to play off of the success of this film and the and and 12 after it uh moving forward. I mean, even if you go backwards in Soderbergh, out of sight is incredible, has aged amazingly. It's so much fun. Yeah, peak Clooney for me. Uh uh maybe the only time I'm I'm okay with a Jennifer Lopez in in a movie. She was never my favorite. She's amazing and out of sight. Yeah. These these are great ones, but you can kind of see in the movies before Ocean's Eleven, and then you get an Aaron Brokovich, which of course has Julia Roberts, and you kind of see him like putting the the chess pieces together to be able to make something like this movie, which which kind of stands on its own for quite a long time. So yeah, it's uh it's a fave of mine for sure. Another one of those ones I'm just you know we talked Mission Impossible. Another one I'm pumped to show uh to my daughters. I think they'll get a kick out of it for sure. Yeah
Jason Heaton . All right. Well, I'm gonna follow that one up with All right. What have you got for the fourth? Yeah, I've got another Clooney film. Um, this one moving forward in my chronology to 2010, a movie that I enjoy watching over and over. It's kind of what I don't want to say it's like a Bond film because it doesn't it it's there's a little bit of bond to it, but it's it it's just this kind of quiet film that you can pick up and and just watch bits and pieces of and kind of enjoy, and it's The American, um, with George Clinton from twenty ten. And the the simple description of it at IMDB is An Assassin Hides Out in Italy for one last assignment. This is a really stylish film. It was directed by Anton Corbeen. He's a Dutch director who kind of made his name for a while as a photographer. He shot the cover for uh U2's The Joshua Tree album. Um, he just has this moodiness to it, this sort of melancholy darkness, I guess, or or is how I'd describe it, I guess, in my mind, to his photographs and and to his films. And you know, this is Clooney not being a typical Clooney. He's not witty. He's not um debonair. I mean I guess he is to a certain degree, but it's it's just it's a really quiet film. I mean there's there isn't a ton of dialogue in it. It's it's just i it's set in a very beautiful place. It's in kind of a rural part of Italy, kind of a small mountain town where he's kind of hiding out. Um there's some, you know, there's obviously some romantic intrigue. Um, there's kind of some technical part to it, you know, the sort of gear gadgety sort of aspect to it. Um really kind of film noir. It almost feels like there's some elements, uh there's like a foot chase through the city that feels a bit like uh the third man, you know, lots of long shadows and stone staircases and echoes and that sort of thing. And uh and there's there's some pretty great uh Omega Speedmaster um sightings in this movie as well. You know, Clooney being a longtime Omega Man um wears a Speedmaster and actually uses it uh in the film and gets a gets a close up or two. But uh yeah, I I I just I really love this movie. I I watched it not too long ago, uh, for maybe the second or third time and uh
James Stacy yeah, it's uh it's really a good one. Yeah, it this is a great one for sure. I we have to go back and do some research as to why it got so ignored. Mm-hmm. Like, don't get me wrong it's not like it has an incredible IMDB rating, but that never really slows me down. I'm sure I've listed movies today that have lower than a sixty-three or six point three out of ten. Um, like that's never I just think I I would have to go back and see how if it got heat checked by another movie in in right at the same time. And it could be that this one I think this is one of those sort of movies which maybe the trailer purports itself to be a little bit more action packed than the film is. Could be. Yeah. Because I think if you if you saw a little bit of the trailer or maybe or only a a a sample, you might think it's more in the vein of like a Ronin. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's really is more in the vein of like a third man. I I wouldn't compare the two films in many ways. I mean some of the way does that a shot feels like a a bit of a love letter, like you said. And there's certainly is violence and action in the film, but it's much more it's much more cerebral than an action film would be. Yeah. It's a little bit inside
Jason Heaton its own head the whole time. And you don't know it what's great about it is you you don't know who's who to suspect. Everybody's suspicious, I guess is how I'd put it. You know, you you don't know every character kind of has a look, you know, or or a something about them that you're you're just not sure if you can trust that person. And I think that's the whole point of the movie. He can't he doesn't trust anybody. Um and I love how it moves from you know the opening of it is set in this very cold, snowy, you know, cabin in Sweden and then moves to this this beautiful location in kind of sun drenched Italy. Um and it's uh yeah, it's great. I I think you're right. I think, you know, at the time um maybe people were expecting kind of a an action kind of cloney, you know shoot 'em up bit louder movie and I I just think it was a really kind of a quiet cerebral piece that people weren't weren't quite expecting and it that could be a bit of a letdown if you were showing up at the theater for something a little more uh yeah showy. But uh yeah, I I I really love this
James Stacy one. Yeah, cool. Great pick. Another good Clooney showing. Got a lot of a lot of Matt Damon, a lot of Clooney in this one. I I'm I'm okay with it. This is good. All right. So for my next one, four out of five, we're going to twenty twenty-two. I just recently watched the sequel to this film and uh and it reminded me how much I liked the one from 2022. This is a movie called Prey. It is a film from the world of the Predator, uh the the expanded universe of Predator, if you will. Yeah. I absolutely adore this movie. I've watched it a couple times. The tagline is Naru, a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly evolved predators to land on Earth. If you've never seen a predator film, please start with the first one. It's unbelievable. There's no there's no movie like it. It's every meme from an action film in an action film. It's one of the most influential pieces of American cinema out there, especially to that like nineteen eighties perspective of like action and big muscles and Schwarzenegger and all this kind of stuff. But at the same time, it's a great premise, and it's that these aliens uh known as predators, uh, and the the world expands greatly beyond what's presented in the first film. But from the the storyline of the first film, the aliens are, you know, they come to Earth and to pres conceivably to other planets to hunt for sport. And in this scenario, uh in the original one, the alien confronts a series of like special forces Roid heads. You know, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Duke, it's every bullet that you could find in the world these guys were carrying on them. It's a great ac.tion film This is quite a bit different in that it's you know pre-American West. You know, the greatest hunter at the time would have been the Comanche Nation, and the Predator comes for one of them and has to size them up. And the Predator has advanced technology and all these other things. This is done by Dan Trachtenberg. Um I I think that when when Dan's movies hit, they hit incredibly hard. If you haven't seen 10 Cloverfield Lane, it's unbelievable. That's another one I absolutely could have put on today's list. Uh, one of my favorite uh John Goodman uh roles, and then he just recently did uh Predator Badlands, which offers another entire look at a whole different world, a whole different Predator, etc. I really liked Prey. Uh, the entire movie is um done in subtitles in Comanche and uh Amber Mid Thunder, who plays the lead, the star, is absolutely amazing. This movie is patient. It is incredibly violent. It's really moody. It's really beautiful. And I and and I think especially if you grew up with other Predator movies, this is the the one that like switch almost switches genres. It's so good. Wow. I really, really like this one. It's a lot of fun. Uh it won a prime time Emmy. It uh was nominated for forty four other awards. Uh and if it matters, we're currently holding a seven point one on IMDB. It's it's a it's a really fun and and I think Track number just does a great job with it.
Jason Heaton Oh that's great. I was totally unfamiliar with this. I'd heard of it, but I didn't know the the storyline or the era or anything like that. So I'll have to check that out. If uh it's one of those genres of movie that I have to kind of be in um uh be in a mood for, but uh, you know when, I am for a kind of an action sci-fi film, this sounds like a good good kind of riff on that. So
James Stacy cool. Yeah, and I mean this removes a lot of the the sci-fi part because it it is so long ago. Yeah. You know, I love that it presents that storyline where the predators have been coming to Earth for hundreds of years. Yeah, for their, you know, hunting rituals or whatever. It's and uh I I just think it's great. And especially if you are gonna watch Badlands, you should watch this one first. Mm-hmm because Badlands is much more essentially down the middle action film dialogue. It's in English. You know, presents a whole different side of of the the Predator nation or whatever, if you will. Uh, but this this one for me is is is the winner of the two. Cool. You'd probably love ten clover field lane. Mm. Yeah, I've heard of that one too, but I've never seen it. All right. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Cool. That's my fourth. Uh what have you got for your fifth and final. Alright, yeah. This is one I I'm surprised I haven't talked about before because it's it's a movie I recommend to people all the time and I've got a bit of a backstory to it um and how I kind of got introduced to it. But it it's called Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, and this is a movie that was from uh 2017, and uh I'll read the summary. The fake story of the art found beneath the depths of the ocean from a two thousand-year-old shipwreck, Damien Hurst and the crew recount the moments various discoveries are made, the myths and legends surrounding the find. I hesitated to even read that summary because I you know, indeed it is a spoof. It's a I don't even want to call it a spoof because it's not necessarily funny. Um it's it's a faux documentary. And um the reason I hesitate to say that up front is because I almost want people to watch this and then discover that on their own that it's actually not real. Um but the the way I got introduced to this was I was at one of the watch trade shows, you know, it was either SIHH or Basel World. I'm I want to say it was SIHH, but it was Ulise Narden. I don't know if they were at SAHH that year, but it was probably in twenty seventeen. And in their booth they had um these gorgeous coral, hard coral, kind of fossilized coral displays behind glass, um, with some of their watches in them, all around their booth. And it was a it was a spectacularly beautiful booth. Um and as it turns out, this wasn't necessarily real coral. It was these were sculptures by the artist Damien Hearst. Now, Damien Hurst is a controversial British artist who I think people might be most familiar with him because he had um encased like a great white shark carcass in formaldehyde. I think that was his most famous thing that he did and it was controversial. Um he actually created this film and he created all the art that that was in this booth. And I first learned about this and kind of started reading about it, and then I saw this movie. Um, and it was all about the discovery of these purported artifacts, these these coral-encrusted artifacts that were brought up from this old shipwreck. And the movie is, it's not a life aquatic, you know, Steve Zusou spoof, um, but it's along those lines in that it's a it's a fake documentary about um kind of along the lines of you know, the movies we like, like uh um Blue Water White Death, you know, it's this it's this team of of marine archaeologists that are off the coast of I can't remember where, you know, somewhere probably in the Indian Ocean that discover this old shipwreck and they are diving and they're bringing all this stuff up with, you know, um cranes and and and preserving it on the deck of the ship and then bringing it back and cleaning it up and interspersed with interviews with the crew. Um and then it culminates with this grand showing of of the the what they brought up, these artifacts um at a museum in Italy. And I believe the show in Italy was actually a real event and the and the movie culminates with this, so it it's kind of all revealed towards the end of the movie that it actually wasn't real and that Hearst created all of these pieces and they weren't brought up from the bottom of the ocean. Um and it you just have to see this movie. It's it's it's really, really good. Um I need to watch this again. It's been you know probably since the the year it came out, which was you know close to ten years ago now. But uh yeah, I I can't recommend this one enough. I I talk about it quite a bit. And actually, um the person with whom I watched it the first time, my former wife, um, was actually kind of annoyed um to to discover that it was not real. Um, I think, you know, uh some people, maybe others will feel that way. You know, you kind of watch this and you're kind of drawn in by this story, and then you realize that this is not real at all. Um, so maybe maybe I'll be curious to see what other people's reactions are, or if anyone's seen this, I'd love to hear about it. But uh yeah, great uh just a a really fun, great
James Stacy movie. Nice. Yeah, I've I I don't know this movie at all. So an another one from my list. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds uh sounds like uh a a trip, yeah. I can I can understand like getting to the end of of a faux documentary and then finding out none of it was real and being like I've been I've been duped. Yeah, my my emotions. Yeah, right. Yeah. Uh that's great. That's another good one. And I I love that it's in kind of a genre that we love. It should should add some context when I watch it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. My fifth and final is a quite a modern film. It's on Netflix right now. I believe it just came out on the sixteenth of January. I watched it this past weekend and really enjoyed it. It's called The Rip and its tagline or or log line is uh a group of Miami cops discovers a stash of millions in cash leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the huge seizure, making them question who they rely on. Uh so this is from Joe Carnahan, who uh you might know from let's see, Narc uh back in the day, smoke and Aces. Uh he's done a few uh kind of uh fun movies, and I I think that this one is very much a cast-led sort of cop drama, semi-action film. It's Matt Damon, it's Ben Affleck, uh Stephen Yun, who I adore, Tiana Taylor, who's having an incredible year. She is also in uh one battle after another, which is uh obviously gonna do very well in the awards. Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha K Calay,yle Chandler, Scott Adkins. It's got a good cast. It's um it's it it's sort of in some ways it it really feels like it's um like it's sort of referencing a lot of 90s cop, who can you trust? Who's the dirty cop? Who's how are we gonna get out of here? But at the same time, it it has sort of the the style of like a good Fouqua. Like it's not a training day, but it's definitely the sort of movie where if they couldn't have gotten maybe a Matt Damon or a Ben Affleck if or if those guys weren't interested, I believe they're uh producers and are getting a cut of Netflix, which is something Netflix never does, instead of just paying a rate for the film. Uh, you can fact check me on all that kind of stuff. But I I believe this is the sort of movie we might have seen a Kevin Spacey, uh, Samuel L J.ackson, uh Denzel Washington in X number of years ago. Um, you know, it it called back to me for for stuff from McTiernan, for stuff like uh the negotiator, if you remember that one. It just like there's a lot. It's a really solid sort of cop drama, most of which happens on one street. Most of it's in one house. And I really like Stephen Yun, obviously I'm on record, adore Matt, uh, Damon and Ben Affleck. Uh I wouldn't put it up there like with the town or or training day or something like that. But if you enjoyed um Den of Thieves, which was a previous uh film club pick, I think this is right in line. there And I'm largely putting it in uh to to stand on my soapbox. There's a thread on the slack over the weekend from people saying like movies weren't good anymore. Or like it peaked in the 90s and like don't get me wrong, the nineties are full of great movies. Some of my favorite movies are in there, or the seventies or the eighties. Like, there's every decade has great movies. I refuse to accept that there aren't incredible movies coming out right now, especially genre films. Yeah. It's just like this is not a movie that was gonna go to theaters and make a hundred and eighty million dollars its first weekend. There just isn't. Mm-hmm. And instead it went to Netflix and you can watch it. It's like it's ready for you on your couch. And I really enjoyed it. There's a couple moments of like absolute brilliance. Uh there's a scene between Matt Damon and uh and Stephen Yun out on the street that I think is excellent. Really well shot, really well written. Um, I think Ben's really good in this. I I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. More than I expected to. I thought it was going to be like two guys you love seeing a movie together since Goodwill Hunting. And uh and yeah, I'm I'm I'm pumped by this one as well. I enjoyed it. If you like a good cop action-y sort of movie um it it does it checks all those boxes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I do like that kind of movie. That's uh it's it's kind of a a a comfortable space, you know. It's kind of one of those those uh coming home kind of movies. I I yeah, I gotta check this one out. I've I've I've read a little bit about it and uh it's on my list. That's uh that's good one. And it's it's kinda fun to have a a current movie. You know, you mentioned um one battle after another and I was tempted to put that on the list and I thought eh, do I wanna do something so current? And and you did. So, you know, we can uh you've set the precedent here and I think uh that's good. So
James Stacy um yeah, I had trouble because there's a handful of movies that I I really, really liked from this year. Mm-hmm. Uh one battle after another, weapons, which I think I spoke about. I absolutely adore. Oh. Sinners was amazing. And I kind of just want we let's let's run that in the summer once we see the Oscars and and and can kind of add to the to the heat. I think these are movies that a lot of people have seen. You should see weapons if you like horror films. It's horror that I can handle, so it's not that scary. But it's really good. Like it's it's a really, really good movie. If you liked Parasite, I think you'll really like weapons. It's just one step scarier and one step more paranormal than than Parasite. But yeah, I mean there's been just some incredible movies this year. Sinners is just great. Yeah. Just great. And yeah, one battle I've I've only watched it twice so far and uh really, really enjoyed it. Um, I mean, Pete nobody does it like like Paul Thomas Anderson, so I'm sure that we'll get to uh get to those in a future film club, but that's all we've got uh for this one. Uh Jason, you picked uh a tempting chronological order here, 1984's This Is Spinal Tap, 2006's Idiocracy, 2006's The Lives of Others, 2010's The American, and finally 2017's Treasures of From the Wreck of the Unbelievable. And your pic
Jason Heaton ks were from 1996, Mission Impossible, 1998's Rounders from 2001, Oceans 11, Prey from 2022, and The Rip. There you go. All right.
James Stacy Ten fresh ones for our list. Yep. Let us know on the Slack what you think of our ten, what we should maybe consider for a future one. And if you have a great idea of a guest, and even if that really good idea is to have Tom on again. I would be okay with that, of course. Uh shout out Tom if you're uh if you're listening to this episode in in due course. Let us know. Uh we we'd love to uh to consider um may maybe it's a two-guest thing and we do, you know, yeah, 20 movies or something like that. There's been so many good ones lately. And and when you look back over the list, and now we're pushing almost 130 picks, and I still think we've left stuff off. So lots of lots of good stuff to watch on there. Just pick something you don't know this weekend and give it a try. I think you'll be I think you'll be happy with it. Except maybe pig. That was famously the one that I picked that tasty hated. I stand by it. I I watched it not that long ago, like in the last two years and and liked it. Well maybe you won't like the lives of others. Who knows? We'll see. It's possible. Hey, one of these days you'll you'll stir me wrong. We'll
Jason Heaton see. Yeah. Yeah. How about some final notes? Yeah, sure. Um I'll go first. I um I I realized that um I'd never really talked about this magazine. Um it comes uh you know I'm a member of the Explorers Club and and it as part of my membership I I get this quarterly, this magazine, the Explorer' Josurnal. Um but it is available to non-members as well as a annual subscription. It comes quarterly, so it's four issues a year, $60. And it's it's it's a really fantastic magazine. It's kind of a smaller footprint, smaller format, um, but you know, plenty of pages, beautiful photography, really a well-produced, great paper, great kind of embossed textured cover to it, um, if you're kind of more of a into the tactile element of print media, which you know is part of the fun. Um and there's just such great um stories, great writing, um from a lot from kind of expeditions that that different Explorers Club members are are are doing or have done. But also just uh they pull from you know just the world of exploration. This past uh issue that I just got a week or so ago had um some of the really high resolution imagery that was stitched together from the um expedition to discover endurance at the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean, the Wet L Sea. And it's just it's spectacular. And the the story kind of behind of how they kind of put all that together and the technology that they used um is is great. And there's some good interviews in there. It's really a worthwhile subscription in my mind. I think, you know, I subscribe to a few magazines and the kind of the common thread is they're they're just all really well produced. They're not, you know, weekly or monthlies. They tend to be kind of quarterly or you know biannual or something. And I just they're the kind you can just sink into and just kind of read and put by your bed and keep and come back to.o So yeah, the Explorer'urnals jo subscription at $60 uh for quarterly issues per year. So yeah, that
James Stacy 's mine. That's a great pick. You know, we we had uh we had a magazine subscription on our our gift list yeah. Uh for the end of last year. And I I think Explorer's Journal is a a great addition to that. 60 bucks for a magazine that you get at least a couple of a year. I mean, speaking as a guy who helps lead and and kind of bring Hodinky magazine to life, I d I don't think it's that much money once you know how these things are made. Yeah. If the paper feels okay, that's it's an expensive thing to put in your hand. Uh and yeah, I think that's uh that's a fascinating thing, especially with uh with that kind of scope of the of the stories. So good, good pick. All right. All right. Mine this week is actually just probably the best 30 bucks I've spent this year so far. Sarah was asking, you know, if there was an option for our espresso machine, which is now six years old, to not have a portafilter or like where the espresso actually comes out, to not have a sort of portafilter that had a bunch of plastic in it. Um just trying to limit plastic, more metal. We've we've already left all of the non stick stuff out of the house and that sort of thing. And I did a little I did only a bit of research. So if you're a coffee nerd, you're allowed to roll your eyes and jump to the end for the quote. That's fine. But if you're if you're like me and you you I use a uh you know three hundred dollar de longue machine that I bought six years ago and I thought would die after a year or two and then I'd buy something nice. Yeah, and it keeps cranking out decent coffee. Jason's had the coffee from it. It's just fine, in my opinion. I'm really happy with it. You you can put a uh a a good bean in it and get a good espresso out of it, and that's kind of all I want. But I was like, Yeah, you know, let's let's look into a different option, and if there's an option that might allow me to make better coffee along the way of moving removing the plastic. And so I did a little bit of research, found this idea of a bottomless portafilter, which is where you can actually see the formation of the shot on the underside of the of the portafilter. And I bought one of these that fit my DeLongi machine. The DeLongi one was out of stock and was four or five times the price for what appeared to be the exact same thing. Uh so I bought this and now I've been spending a little bit more time a little, bit more care in how I prepare the shot. And the coffee is I'd like I'm up another level. If I was at a B, eviously I'm I'm in an A minus or something like that. Yeah. Uh so I've been very happy with it. So if you if you happen to have a a kind of somewhat more basic or conventional home espresso machine and and you've been using like my the old one was six years old and so that means it's done you know thousands and thousands of shots yeah uh through that through that plastic funnel thing inside the like under the basket. Mm-hmm. This is something worth considering. Jason, I don't I assume like you have a proper machine, so I assume this is all kind of conventional, but it's not what comes with uh with the DeLongi. Yeah no, that',s interesting. I I was tr
Jason Heaton ying to figure out w what was different about this. And yeah, you're right. I mean this is uh I mean essentially you can adapt um a more affordable machine to kind of be a little more robust and and and sustainable, if you will, or or just uh more durable. Yeah, that
James Stacy 's great. Mm-hmm. I like that. Yeah. Tastes great. Uh so I'm super happy with it. Wasn't a fortune, which you can't say about most things that allow you to make better espresso. It is a cash hungry hobby. Um and and of course I've already now started to go down the rabbit hole of like better tamps and distributors and and these sorts of things and who knows, maybe we'll get there. Maybe maybe you know I I refuse, as I think I've said previously to stop using this machine just to buy a better one. Yeah. Um, when this machine gives up the ghosts I will spend on on a a a more thorough explanation or exploration of of espresso. But until then, this made a nice difference for very little money
Jason Heaton . Nice. Yeah, cool pick. All right. Well, long episode, but um, you know, these film club ones tend to do that and uh I think they're well worth the the time spent and uh last week was a quick one, so we owed a few minutes. No big deal. Yeah. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. Please chime into uh the Slack if you have your own film picks or if you have feedback on the ones we chose. And if you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, uh, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN sign NATO, please visit thegreynado.com. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
James Stacy And we leave you with this quote from the legendary Orson Wells who said, if you want a happy ending, that depends of, course, on where you stop your story.