90's Nostalgia Tour, MOTS 5th Anniversary, and Tetris (2023) Review

MOTS 210
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Stephen: Hello and welcome to Movies on the Side. This is Steven Robles and this is Nate Baranowski, and you are listening to movies on the side in its fifth year of existence. Happy anniversary, Nate. I forget the exact date, but it has been five years since we're doing this podcast. Can you believe it? Does it feel like five years

Nate: to you in some ways?

Yes it has, but in other ways, five years seems like a long time, and I'm proud of us for doing this podcast for that long. It feels like in podcast years, that's like 50 years,

Stephen: at least 50 years times 10. April 17th, 2018 was our very first episode. The circle. It was our first movie. Mm. Probably a terrible movie to start out with, but five years we've been doing this show.

And so we want to let you know, listeners, whether you're listening to us for the first time or you've been listening all five years. Hey, Cecily, we wanna tell you we're gonna try something different. We are, we are going to change up, uh, just a little bit of how we do mots and so you might see some seasons appear in your podcast player.

I'm gonna go, I'm gonna retroactively go back and rearrange our episodes, but we're gonna try and do things a little different going forward because, um, We've heard a lot of positive feedback about our bonus episodes. This is not a sales pitch, so don't you don't, don't skip as, I'm not trying to say you should sign up at patreon.com/movies on the side or directly an Apple podcast to get a bonus episode when they release a new episode.

Cause that's the best content. I'm just, I'm not saying that. What are you saying, Steven? What I'm saying is people really enjoy our bonus episodes where Nate and I literally shuck and jive about anything. And if you listen to our early, early episodes, we did Shuck and Jive for like 20 minutes before we ever talked about a

Nate: movie.

You get one more shuck and jive and then you can't use the phrase anymore. I

Stephen: can't say it anymore. I told I understand. That was your last one. I won't say it again. I won't say it again. That's what we used to do and then some people were like, you know, you advertise, you review this movie, but you don't really talk about it until like 30 minutes in.

You're like, that's a good point. We call ourselves a movie podcast, so we flipped it around. Mm-hmm. That's when we created bonus episodes. This is a, his historiography of mots right here, and then we jump right into the movie. We try to be very straight laced. We give it a rating. Mm-hmm. And that's what we did for a long time.

We

Nate: used to do top fives at the end, the top

Stephen: fives of our movie reviews. I'd be down for bringing that back. I think that'd be a great thing. People love the top fives, but we want to have some of that kind of, well, what do you call it, uh, spontaneity that, uh, I know you want it. I, I can't say it. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, you said, I can't say it again.

Nate: We have tried our best to not meander in our topics and go down rabbit holes in our regular episode, but great. We have heard from our listeners and our listeners say, Hey, we come for the rabbit holes, right? And every once in a while you guys say something good about the movie. And by the way, we are not movie aficionados.

We're just normal guys who love movies. No, no, no, no, no. We

Stephen: are, we are movie aficionados. We are, we're not like film. Experts, like we're not filmography. Yeah. I just,

Nate: he just took

Stephen: my phrase, AFIC. No. Aficionado is someone that loves the thing. If you're in aficionado, we're not movie files. We're not movie.

Thank you. Cinema files. We're not, we're not chil

Nate: chil. We're not, we're not sy buns, sy files. Right.

Stephen: We just love movies. We love movies,

Nate: and so our episode name movies on the side has always been right about how we just talk to each other about random things, and the movies happen to be the side dish. So we are returning in this newest season to really making the movies a jumping off point.

That's right. To. All sorts of random discussion for, so for those who want a review, we're still gonna do it, but we are going to be a little bit less linear. Mm. And you may be thinking to yourself right now, I never thought you guys were linear. You have always rambled a lot and true but accurate lock in because things are about to get a little more meandering and we hope you enjoy the next current season.

What season are we in now? I

Stephen: think we'll make it five. I mean, it's the fifth year. Love it. I'll figure out how to rejigger the, the episodes. This, this will be season five. Yeah. I didn't say the thing again. I said rejigger. Yeah, that's a different word. I love it. Anyway, so we'll, we'll have a movie that we kind of center around in an episode, but we're gonna talk about other stuff.

And so this week we go, we're going to tangentially review the Tetris movie, which is an Apple TV plus original, just came out this year. You can stream it on Apple tv. Plus it is based on a true story, which is kind of exciting with Tarn. Eggerton really liking that guy. I really like that guy. And a lot of stuff he does.

And, uh, I dunno, I still, I feel like we didn't talk about this, but should we, I still wanna do the Rotten Tomatoes. Should we still do that? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, let's do it. I'm ready. What do you think critics gave Tetris? From 2023, I

Nate: think critics gave Tetris 82. Did you know? Is it 82?

Stephen: It is 82. See, this is a sign.

This is a's go sign that we are doing what we are should be doing. Yes, it is an 82 critic score. Audience scores a little higher, giving the audience score. Nate, 88. Are you kidding me, Nate? Left. You did not see this before

Nate: rain. No. You did not. I did not.

Stephen: Ah, I'm really excited now. That was a lot of fun. You, you nailed it.

You nailed the critic and the audience. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I'm like, I'm almost sweating. I'm breaking into sweat. Okay. This is amazing. So Tetris, it was a wonderful movie. It was about the literal video game, like how it was made apparently in Russia, like all this kind of stuff. But I want to talk about, you had a, you have excellent bullet points here.

I don't know if we can jump to those right now. Let's do it, but let's go. Our very first video game memories. Which this does trigger that, like very old video game nostalgia. Mm-hmm. And this is where we're gonna feel old, cause I think some of our listeners are probably younger than us, but what, what was your first video game system slash memory?

I

Nate: had an n e s very, very young in life. Yes. Actually my neighbor had one first, and by my neighbor, I mean the grandma who lived next door had an n e s for when her granddaughter came to visit. Cool Grandma. That's dedication for one. That's dedication right there. And I would go over there and play the original side scrolling Mario, whenever the granddaughter was in town visiting, I would go over there and be like, yeah, let's definitely hang out and play.

And then we got an n e s ourselves and early memories was original Mario and Duck Hunt. Yes. I don't exactly know how a gun was. Allowed in our home. We were kind of a a no guns allowed kind of home except Right, right. I guess cuz we were shooting ducks. It was fine. Duck hunt, uh, but duck hunt, putting that gun right up against the screen and dinging.

Yeah. That's all. And so those are my first memories of any video games whatsoever. That's very

Stephen: good. My first memory of a video game. Someone had, maybe it was an Atari or maybe it was an n e s, but they had an old Star Wars game. It was like one of the first Star Wars games. And I remember it was like a top down the speeder.

It was like Luke in the speeder, in the desert, and he was like going around. I don't, I don't remember the game exactly, but that, it just totally blew my mind. But my first video game system, like you was the n e s, the Nintendo Entertainment System, which Nintendo plays a big role in this movie, but. I still have it.

Actually. It's at my mom's house. Still works. Mind you, you could actually still play

Nate: it. That's good. Everyone, you had to blow in the cartridge. Figure out the amount of maybe spit. That was the perfect amount to come out in the blow as you were cleaning in. Zero. Zero. The amount it became. Superstitious in the point of like, no, no, you didn't do it right.

It's two quick blows. Right, right, right, right. And then like one long one. Yes. And then you put it in twice. Shove

Stephen: it in twice. Yeah. Chunk it down, check it down, check it out. Yeah. Press

Nate: the power, kind of toggle it up and down three times and you're ready to go. It was also a day where you could put hit reset.

You could put the cartridge into a game genie, which for us was like a big pink Yes. Weird thing that you could like jigger onto it. Yes, yes. All sorts of stuff in the way of playing

Stephen: video games. My first game that I owned that was mine was Super Mario Brothers three. It came with the system and many fond memories of that.

So anyway, that's the best

Nate: one, right? One, two, and three. Like three is the best one. Yes, for sure. Super

Stephen: Mario Brothers three is the best and the Mario movie. We need to review. Uh, very soon. I just wanna say that Nate, the live action one with Bob Hoskins. No, no, no, no, no. Not that Dustin Hoffman is Coopera.

No, that, that's terrible. That, that one Trauma. No,

Nate: not Dustin Hoffman. Um,

Stephen: it was, uh, hopper. Dennis Hoffman. Dennis Hopper. Yeah. Dennis Hopper. That's right. No, no, it wasn't Rain Man is Coupa. Yeah. No, no, the new cartoon. It's really good. The new animator. Oh yeah. Okay. Anyway. Yeah, we'll have to do that soon. So that's video games soon.

So Tetris, I remember playing Tetris. I don't remember what I played it on.

Nate: I felt like it was on a computer at some point in time. Like a gateway, like a Dell 90 Gateway eight. Probably had like, look still, dude, you're getting a Dell. Easy to buy. Easy

Stephen: to own, easy as Dell. I never had the original Game Boy.

Which is what, right. This movie shows Tetris. You know, that was the big deal was it was one of the first handheld games. I didn't have an original game, boy. I had a game. Did you ever own a Game Boy? A Game Boy Color? Game Boy Color. Oh, okay. Uh, for Pokemon. That is what I played with. I'm a Game Boy color.

Did you, did you have

Nate: a Game Boy, I never owned a Game Boy again. The, the neighbors on the other side of the house did own a Game Boy. And the Game Boy, we were able to, Eventually, yes. Get their aino of time for the N 64 and play that. And we were able to borrow their game. Boy, yes. Again, like contraband in our home.

But the Game Boy, definitely a lot of Pokemon. That was basically it. Yeah. Pokemon. But you know what? I never played on the Game Boy was any Zelda games. I know that was like a big thing on Game Boy. I never played a top-down Zel elbow. I didn't

Stephen: either. Wait, did you play Pokemon or Red? Yeah, red, I think. Do you remember?

Do you remember which character you chose? Which, which? Pokemon. I always

Nate: start with squirrel.

Stephen: Always. That's that's a solid start. You got squirrel. Is it Bor? Charmander. Borman. Charmander. I think I usually try charm. You always go

Nate: water. That's why I always did. What did you choose?

Stephen: I guess Charmander. I did the fire.

It seemed cool. He turns into like a, it's like

Nate: dragon thing. You know what? Choosing Charmander is like choosing the Red Power Ranger as your favorite. It's like, all right, yeah. Everyone okay is red

Stephen: first.

Nate: First of all, it's blue. The answer is blue.

Stephen: Power Ranger. Nothing. Right? I don't even, no one even, you don't even know who the Blue Power Ranger is.

What's the Blue Power Ranger's name? Do you know Billy B? No. See, you just said you had like a 50% chance of it being Billy, but No, I don't know. He, who

Nate: knows, he was, he was kind of a more, the Green Rangers,

Stephen: all that mattered. The green ranger then into the

Nate: white, blue blue. Because here's the thing, if you liked blue, then you could always be the blue one with, you're playing power rangers outside in the playground.

Like the blue one was always available cuz everyone wanted to be red and you jump in. Right? And I believe the blue could have like, was it like triceratops powers at some point?

Stephen: You don't even know. You don't even know what you're talking about. Nate,

Nate: wait, hold on a second. Which, which Ninja Turtle? Now that we're going, we're, oh my God. Basically doing a Myers Briggs over here.

Stephen: Why has no one made a personality test based on Ninja Turtle?

Nate: Nineties kids? Well,

Stephen: yes. You know what? Bu you know, Buzzfeed shut down. Buzzfeed is, uh, actually they're closing up shop.

They're shutter in the doors. Whoa. And that's where you would get all these tests of like, which ninja turtle are you? Apparently that's not, uh, unknown. It's not profitable, profitable. Not anymore

Nate: to find out what Disney Princess you

Stephen: are. Forgot what princess I came out to be. But anyway, the Ninja Turtles.

Ariel, do you think I'm Ariel?

Nate: Or you're Ariel? No, I'm, I took the test and I'm Ariel. Oh, you did?

Stephen: Okay. Yeah. Okay. I mean, Michelangelo was always the fun one. I feel like Michelangelo was who I went with.

Nate: I again, I went Leonardo, is that the, is that the blue again? Right. I mean all blues. Uh, yeah.

Stephen: Yeah. I think it's a blue.

I think you got a blue thing. Raphael was red, but Leonard was the leader. He was the leader. Yeah. Raphael was red. Donatello was purple turtles and a half shell turtle, power turtle powers and a half shell turtle power. Okay. Let's get, okay. Tetris. I remember playing a, a ton of Tetris. I forget where I played it.

I don't even know where I played it, but what I found interesting about this movie, cuz I didn't know the story behind it. Mm-hmm. This entire movie is like about licensing. And like, and who has the rights to things and it's, it's wild just to watch all of that, uh, play out. But Tarn Eton's character who runs what Bulletproof Games, I think is what his company was.

Yeah, that's it. He's trying to get rights to Tetris for handheld and then like all this ridiculousness ensues, but basically he has to fly to Moscow, which at the time their Tetris was developed, it was still like, The s s r, like Soviet, communist Russia.

Nate: Yeah. EOR was like the, the state organization that like handled all of their licensing.

Right, right.

Stephen: Basically like was the game basically was in power. Yeah. And so he has to tier Egg's character as to go there and negotiate for rights and basically risks his life. Every time he goes over there. But the payoff is if he is manages to get rights, he might become a millionaire and he'll have Nintendo on his side.

I feel like the big attention of this movie is like, how much risk is too much risk for this payoff. Would you, Nate, have gone to Russia like as many times as he did at risk of getting arrested and thrown into a like no, who knows? Like went well?

Nate: No, I, no I wouldn't. I think that's, I think that's a single man's game.

And the fact that he has married with kids, a family in this movie is like, he's married with kids. Oh man, I, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, not

Stephen: for that. The movie, uh, which I guess the true story basically, like he risked everything. So like he would literally lose everything, right? If this deal fell through.

Like no more house, no more business, like zero money. I do love

Nate: the conviction of that. He played. Tetris and Tetris was around for a while. Right. The movie kind of shows it too, but it's had definitely been like in a lot of different consoles and like different stuff like Atari stuff before that. In arcades.

Yes. And the fact that he knew it was going to be such a hit. That's pretty cool.

Stephen: Poetry, art and math, all working in magical

Nate: synchronicity. I've had that feeling every once in a while about something in life that I know that if someone gave me a chance for a specific thing, I knew that it was going to work.

And there is something kind of maddening about. I know that if you take a chance on me, this is not like hyperbole. I know that this will work for you, but I can't prove it to you that it will, but I know it will. And I feel like that was the kind of feeling that Taran Eggerton had. It's like this, this will be the biggest game ever.

I know it, and I just need to like do it.

Stephen: I feel like that attitude though. Could, you could also take the path of like Wolf of Wall Street and just like totally go to jail because Oh yeah, for sure. Something didn't work. If

Nate: you're willing to do anything right, to like make it happen, then all of a sudden all of your means feel justified by what the ends will be.

Yeah, eventually, which is no good. Right. Exactly. Way to live your life. But it, it brings this question to my head. Yes. Take jail off the, off the table for a second. Uhhuh, if I told you, Steven, I can give you 2 million at the end of a job. Right. But you have to leave your family and let's say go to another country.

Sure. How long, what is the maximum that you say like you're gonna come home with $2 million? We'll take personal safety off the table. Right? How long are you willing to be away from your family For $2

Stephen: million. Nate, I feel like this is a pongy trap that you have set. In the middle of force.

Nate: I'm, I'm gonna throw out, I'm gonna throw out numbers just to kind of say, I was say you

Stephen: don't don't, I was gonna say a year.

I was just gonna say a year, like as you were saying it, I felt like a year, you felt a year is a very long time. Like that is a significant portion of a child's life to miss. Like that would

Nate: be terrible. What if I told you three? What if I told you three years? Can I convince you? Three years you come back with 2 million not to be taxed, 2 million to use three years?

No. Senior. Your family. I

Stephen: would counter and be like, can I do, can I do one year for a million? That's, oh, that would be my counter.

Nate: You can do one year for

Stephen: 750,000. I feel like any longer than a year, you're now missing multiples of every big event. Like, you're missing multiple birthdays, you're missing multiple, mm-hmm.

Holidays. Mm-hmm. I like, I don't think anything more than a year is worth it. And I also feel like, and,

Nate: and if I increase the money, that doesn't change the calculus. If I, if I said two years, 10 million.

Stephen: No, I mean, it would have to get into like the billions to maybe even move the needle. But even then, it's like I, I know for me personally, I could also work 24 7 for a year straight and probably make a good amount of money.

Right. And I could still be like home. And like my family can still like see that I exist. And so I feel like there's a, like, there's a threshold of how much the money is given to me versus like, I mean, I don't think I could earn a million dollars in a year. Mm-hmm. But I could probably earn enough where like if I wanted to make the sacrifice, I would make it personally here.

Right. Working at home. Right. Than like sitting else somewhere. But what about, what, what is for you? What's your number?

Nate: I feel like I'm kind of at the, because I've had a few offers in actually in my life. To work for like three months. Humble brag overseas. Oh, okay. Not like, no, I'm not like 2 million. No, you're,

Stephen: I know you're getting flown all around the world cuz you do fancy 3D art.

That's fine.

Nate: But if I like, I've been offered like, you know, would you be able to be here for four months? Wow. And you're making like what you would make in a year and a half, let's say, worth of monies. Hmm. So you start thinking like, oh, what? But I, I said no to all of

Stephen: them. Yeah, I was gonna say, considering we haven't had a four month break of this podcast ever.

Right. I don't assume you know that

Nate: I'm right. Exactly. That's interesting. Yeah. I think. For the most part, I think I have a really young child. Right? And so it does feel like you would miss a lot. You miss a lot. A you miss a lot. I feel like I'm

Stephen: probably at six months you would be like, who are you when you came

Nate: back?

I think I'm at like six months maximum and it's gotta be a six month stint that produces half a million dollars. Like

Stephen: I could not work for several years. Or maybe ever again. Right. But

Nate: then, but then here's the problem. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't want to not work for several years. And I don't think you can really balance.

No, I'm gone for four months and then I'm super around because overall like eight months later I'd be excited to work again. Sure, sure. But it's not like I can, so I think for me, I think it's six months is my like magic. Like be away for that long. But even that would be, That would be tough. I mean, and I would need to have support from everyone in my life.

Like guess if one person, he's gonna be unanimous. If, if Steven Robles said to me, Nate, I don't think you should do it. I'd be like, yep, okay. You're right.

Stephen: Not Unanim. Yeah. Not do it. Yeah, no, that, that is true. You would, you would need unanimity because whoever doesn't give it, Is not gonna be happy with you at the end of that year or even the six months or

Nate: whatever.

So Right. It better be like across the board and it better be like, yeah, absolute. My wife better be like, over the moon this is happening. That sort of thing. Like kicking

Stephen: you out the door like she needs to be like packing the bag for you to go. Right, exactly. Just, yeah, exactly. But even, even like Terran, Eton in this movie, even as he is in Moscow in all these different times, I think all, all he missed quote unquote, was like one daughter's concert.

But even that felt like super monumental. Like that felt like there was

Nate: a big scene in this where she was like, I, you know, I wanted to make a better life for us or something. And she's like, I, we had a life. And that was just like the coldest, but truest. Like we didn't ask for this, which I think would be the same in my life if I was like, I want $2 million.

And then yeah, Jill would remind me, Hey, We are. We have it good. We don't need, we don't need this. Right, right, right, right. Which is, I think what's, yes, for sure. Hopefully you would remind me of that too. And I would not let you leave your family for three years.

Stephen: No. Yeah, same. Same. No, no, that that's too long.

Thanks. Yeah, thank you. I do wanna say the one character I love in this movie, Alexi, who actually. Plays the character who so good created Tetris. So good. So good. The fact like in U S S R, like Russia, like Soviet Russia, he couldn't have like graphical uh, images for the Tetris pieces, so he used parentheses shaped like the different blocks.

So good, brilliant. Um, I love that scene and the fact that Taran Erikson's character, I forget the guy's name in, in real life, uh, Hank Rogers right, is the one who actually eventually, he did get the licensing and all that, but he actually flies Alexi and his family to the States to then join him and finally like, gives him some credit because in Russia, Alexi would've received nothing for making this game.

Like did

Nate: you then do your research after this movie because I then looked down like they eventually Hank Rogers and Alexi go into business together. Yes. Running like the Tetris company, whatever. They end up buying the rights. Yes. From eor, like later on, like as soon as that period runs out and go on to.

There was like a loved all of that new like Tetris game that came out really recently. Like they are still making sweet Tetris

Stephen: things. It's like a whole dynasty now, which is amazing how one brilliant idea like that. And then also that like the business guys, the dad and the son who were always just like the sniffly thing, like they in real life also went bankrupt because of all like the dirty dealings.

They,

Nate: those two characters were maybe some of my favorite, like they were good characters. S sniffly. Characters, but their dynamic with each other was also like so good. Oh, yes, so good. Okay. But back to Teris for a second. Yes. One to 10. The game Tetris like, do you like it? Would you, like right now, after we record a new Tetris is on your computer, how long do you play it before you're like, that

Stephen: was good.

Probably like five minutes. Unless there was a group of friends or maybe my family is like, we're all trying to compete to see the highest scores. Yes, the top scores. You competi, you know, you need some top scores. Yes. Like, uh, Jordan downloaded like this iq, uh, app the other day. Mm-hmm. And so, like, I did it, my wife did it.

I don't wanna talk about the time. Me, you and Jacob did an IQ test. I want a redo, I wanna a rematch of that. I don't want, we're not talking about that. Mm-hmm. But I feel like if there was that kind of like friendly competition, which I think part of the movie, the geniuses, like the Game Boy. I love the sales pitch that Terren Eggerton makes in Nintendo.

It's like, if you want this game, boy to be popular for kids, ship it with Mario. If you want it to be popular for everyone of any age, give him Tetris. Gentlemen, if you wanna sell a couple hundred thousand game boys to little kids, back up some with Mario. But if you wanna sell millions of game boys.

Package him with Tetris. I think there was some truth to that. I feel like Tetris, especially at that time where there wasn't other games, like I feel like it could appeal to an adult and kid audience. You know, high school it had to, yeah,

Nate: it had to walk. So Candy Crush could soar candy at the end of it for everyone.

The fact that Candy Crush

Stephen: real back, I

Nate: just real back. Yeah. Yeah. Nintendo that made Dr. Mario, Dr. Mario is basically competitive. Tetris like Right, isn't like side by side. Tetris. You got the different color pills. You're stacking 'em, you're trying to deer viruses and pills. I'm just saying Nintendo Yeah.

Did something that wasn't Tetris, but it kind of used the same setup. Yeah. Right. I mean that's, that's, they slapped Mario onto it. At the end of it. No, that's like the slippery log. Where's that movie? That's Tetris two. Tetris two. Dr. Mario is basically the Tetris company now, and for the last 20 years has probably just been spending their time like cutting off the weeds of, yeah, off brand Tetris games that spring up on the app store.

You're like, Nope, you're Tetris. Nope. You're so many. You're Tetris with. Fruit.

Stephen: The story of Tetris for the last 25 years have probably just been like court cases, like Tetris, going with different companies to court, like this is Tetris. That's

Nate: Tetris. All right. Last Tetris question for you. Okay. Yeah. The shapes of Tetris.

Yeah. Do you have a favorite shape? Because I'm gonna start, I'm gonna tell you my favorite shape. Okay. Please. Yeah. Great. My favorite shape. Is the T, the t Tetra T. Yeah, the T's very good. The T can fit, uh, flat side down with a little nub coming up so it can fit on a nice flat floor, which right fits nicely with all your little S's and L's kind of around it, right?

Or, yes, you can kind of drop it down next to kind of a wonky edge and. Pop it in there on the side. The tea seems versatile. It's got the flat edge, it's got the like. And also if you had a little, a little nook, you're trying to fill a little cranny, you just pop that thing yest side down and all of a sudden you got a beautiful row.

So the tea is my favorite. Tetra is what they're called. I guess the tea. Tetra, no,

Stephen: I do think the T is the most superior shape, as you have said, but I will say there is no more. Satisfying piece. Mm-hmm. Yes. So then getting that single line, you like the vertical? Yes. Straight down where you can clear, it's the only shape where you could clear four rows simultaneously.

It's the only shape that can do that. So I will, I will admit T is superior as far as utility, but the straight line, It's very satisfying. Mm. Clearing four lines at a time. I'm just

Nate: saying it's very, it's very good. I mean, the, what you learn as a kid and what I learned as a kid, and I hope everyone learns at some point in time, is that just because you can clear a row now, oh, you should wait delayed gratification in order to wait for the vertical piece.

Even if you risk a little bit more risk, it filling up a little bit too high just for the satisfaction of those four rows. There's something there. That we all should learn, which is take risk. Build a tower of,

Stephen: uh, no, I really thought you were gonna nail this. I really thought you were gonna nail the landing on that.

Nope, I was. No, I I fell

Nate: off. No, no. I filled up and I lost

Stephen: the level. Yeah. Too many spaces in there delayed. It's a Swiss cheese delayed, delayed gratification. Mm-hmm. Allowing for a little risk. And you could reap the benefits. Anyway, I was gonna say that was gonna be a great TED Talk, but then you kind of fumbled the landing.

But anyway, Tetra talk, uh, and it was, it was still good. It was still, it was still good. Uh, we do have to talk about best mustache in a movie. I feel like this is an important topic. Now I have not, I need to look up some of these. I know Sam Elliot. Henry Caval. I mean, we all know Sam

Nate: Elliot's

Stephen: mustache. We know Sam Elliot, Henry Kale's mustache in Mission Impossible Fallout, which is an incredible mustache,

Nate: which has Justin Hoffman.

It has its detractors as well. That mustache, the Henry Caval mustache also calls divisive. The Superman VFX Blunder Well of Justice League.

Stephen: Well, that's not part of the judging. I mean, it just, you have to judge the mission of possible stash in, in a vacuum. Can I say that? I

Nate: feel like mustaches are back.

Are they back? Are they back? Are they back? Welcome. To movies on the side where we talk about fashion and trends. Now, what I'm saying here is that currently don't, male shorts are shorter than ever. Oh, but the mustaches, I think as long as you have the five o'clock shadow below it, I think the mustache is back.

May. Yeah, I think so. Not too long. Not too, not Sam Elliot, not Daniel Day Lewis in gangs in New York.

Stephen: Daniel Day Lewis. I'm looking at his mustache right now. It's not as like crisp, like as neat as I would, uh, yeah, but that characteristic

Nate: so is, so likely unhinged. I've never seen nro Gangs of New York. Oh, you have to.

Oh, he is. That's the problem. I've never seen it. He's gnarly. Okay. He's gnarly like his mustache.

Stephen: Okay, well, I see. So I saw a picture of this. You've seen Ted Lasso. Ted Lassos Got a good mustache. That's a good mustache. I need to see Sam Elliot one more time before I, you need, I will say Tara Eggerton in this movie has a very good mustache.

It's a very good must mustache.

Nate: I mean, Dustin Hoffman in Hook had a mustache that was so good that there starts a scene with the camera on the, on him combing his mustache. That's now, why is Tom much

Stephen: of a character? Why is Tom Sellek not in your list? That's my question. Yes.

Nate: I feel like Tom Sellek, well, I guess that's the same for Sam Elliot.

The mustache is part of the person, and I feel like they're just bringing it into the movie. It's like not a character choice. It's not, it's not. Not for

Stephen: them, just. I mean, Tom Sound is a good mouse. Actually, I wouldn't choose Tom Selleck even if he was in this list. I'll be honest, I think you have a good

Nate: list here.

It's fine. But it was at a time where I feel like we all had mustaches and by we, I mean people in the eighties.

Stephen: Okay, sure. I'm going to say not my two-year-old self. If I'm choosing subjectively

Nate: best movie mustache

Stephen: Go, Henry Kall, mission Impossible Fallout. I feel like that musta the, the fact that it caused such a VFX problem for Justice League.

Mm-hmm. Is proof that that mustache is unbeatable. Not even the likes of CG from the DC universe could cover that mustache. I feel like it. It's solid. Solid.

Nate: It's very good. It's very good. Do you bleed? I don't feel like I see the mustache used as used to enhance the look of a character versus it sometimes is shorthand for like, Evil character or like villainous character?

The mustache

Stephen: hook. I mean, a handlebar mustache is evil. Just inherently, I

Nate: think. Oh, okay. Just as a like full, I think layer. Think the guy from Mulan Rouge was that guy the The main owner guy. I mean he had a mustache. He Oh

Stephen: yeah. He had a mustache. Exactly. Yep. I'm thinking I'm

Nate: gonna go Sam Elliot. I think he's the king of mustaches mustache.

I think he was in Tombstone. Yeah, I think so. He's in every Western mean Like a Western, like a, yeah, he's in all of them. I think he has to be contractual. He's contractual, but I think it's either him or Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York. And I think I'm gonna go with Sam Elliot just because, but like I said before, that mustache is Sam Elliot.

Yeah. Have I ever have, has anyone seen Sam Elliot without a mustache? Does he have an upper

Stephen: lip? I don't think it's, I don't think that's possible. I don't think it's possible. I think he sh It's like the Santa Claus with Tim Allen. He shaves it grows back immediately.

Nate: Alright, I'll go with Daniel Day Lewis.

Daniel Day Lewis followed up by Ted

Stephen: Lasso. I'm gonna send you this picture of Henry Caval though and Mission Impossible. I mean this mustache is like thick three seeds, you know what I'm saying? The mustache

Nate: wasn't the star. It was him cocking his fists. That's a good mustache, man.

Stephen: See it? He just got the picture.

It's a good mustache. I'm just saying it's a good must is like mustache. He also has like the, You know, like the Tom Celek mustache, like goes up in the middle. Yeah. Henry Kall. Somehow he's got just like this, it's like straight, like a, like a chunk, like

Nate: Yeah. It's just, I don't know. You don't, people don't always get good growth.

Right in the middle there. The middle, the

Stephen: middle is the hard part. The middle is a tough place,

Nate: I do have to say. Yeah. I'm just saying maybe I'll grow a mustache. It's maybe in my life. Growing up my dad had a mustache.

Stephen: Yeah. So not, yeah. Now don't, I mean, so I feel like you've had beards with, with that included a mustache.

Yeah. But that's like,

Nate: that's the whole package. I feel like you can't just, so, you just wanna just, I've had, I mean, technically you have a mustache right now, but Yeah. When I look at you, Take your hand. Wait. Take your hand and cover the beard. How's that? Oh, that's good. That's good. We'll clip this right out for social media.

youtube.com. I

Stephen: think that's a good movies on the side. youtube.com/had movies on the side. Hold on. So you can see I'm covering my beard now. How does that look? It

Nate: looks pretty good. YouTube. This is not gonna make for good podcasting, but it's gonna make for a good little eighth, a good little video. Yeah.

How do you, you look aach

Stephen: a mustache look. Is it too light? Well, I don't know. How thick does it get? Does it get like a little thicker?

Nate: Yeah, but it doesn't get any darker. Well, but that might be okay. I'm

Stephen: call Berry. I think you should try it. Okay. Try it. Grow the mustache. All right. Let's still rate this movie.

Let's still rate Tetris. Okay. On a scale of, uh, zero zero to five Tetra egos or what, whatever they are. Tetra noses, tetras zero five Tetras. I will, um, I'm gonna give this movie a solid four. I think it was a very good movie. Yes. I think it was a good story. I like the fact that it was a true story.

Eventually. I do wanna talk about our favorite True Story movies. I did a whole listing here. Yes, yes. Of like True Story movie. Yes, I'm ready. We just talk about that sometime, but, uh, yeah. I'm gonna give it four. Uh, te Tetra Tetra Dominoes. I forgot the name already again. Te Dominoes. Yeah, those, I'll give it a four.

What do you think? You know what

Nate: I'm going to give it. I'm gonna give it a four and a half. Oh, shoot. And here's why. Higher, here's why. Yeah. Higher movies that make me care about the characters. That's like 90% of the battle of a movie. And I cared about Hank Rogers. Yes. And I cared about those two guys from Nintendo.

Yeah. For whatever reason, I like those guys. I cared about the relationship between the bad son and the bad father. I cared about that. That guy at Eloy, the guy who works for the government, who like helps out Hank Rodgers. I was worried about Alexi's family. Yeah. Getting out of Russia. Yeah. And I was rooting for them and I was worried there are people I didn't care about that much, but Right, right, right.

If you make me care about the characters and give me enough suspense, yes. I don't know if that's just I've, there has been like a lack of it. Recently, but I felt like this felt important to me. Yeah. While watching it, and I cared about their safety now. Yeah. My one knock on it, my one knock on this movie mm-hmm.

Is that I do feel like the relationships with his wife and his daughter, while serving up a good moment at the end, felt like it didn't quite belong. In this movie, he has a moment where he's blackmailed and that's brushed under the rug.

Stephen: That is true. I wait for that to come back. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I thought that's a big deal.

It's

Nate: also a, it's also a scene where his wife is part of the company with him and either make her a part of the movie and there's like, she's doing stuff back home. Right. Or. Or like take it out of the movie, but I felt like maybe it's the editing or whatever, the family dynamics were interesting, but not enough to make sense in the movie, but too little to be like really impactful.

Like when he finally comes back and watched the, the concert. Sure. His, his daughter is nice. And she eventually becomes the CEO of the Tetris. So I understand like the connection there, right. It didn't quite land because I kept going like, these motivations don't quite make sense. Either she's in on this or he's not, or

Stephen: whatever.

Yeah, I get it. I will say though, that last scene where they're racing to the airport and like racing onto the plane less, they be captured by like the Russian police. That's good. It was pretty amazing, and the fact that they got on, not the very next flight out, but like the second flight out just to like throw 'em off.

That was pretty

Nate: good. A really, a real taste of what flight used to look like pre

Stephen: 2001. That is true. Well, listeners, let us know what you think of our, our, uh, modified format of mots. You can go on our Instagram, it's at movies on the side there. You could also watch this episode on YouTube, youtube.com/at movies on the side.

All right. As we always say, I played Tetris for five minutes. I still see falling blocks in my dreams. Do you know, that's

Nate: called the, the Tetris effect. That's called the Tetris Effect is when you close your eyes and you can still see the

Stephen: game happening. I'm gonna put what you said after the music and just slowly fade it out.

Nate: Welcome to season four of mots. It's actually season five, season four, part two, uh, season five. No, I'm cutting all that out. Welcome to season five of mots. We're happy to have you here. I don't have a quote pulled up right now, but I'm so excited you're with us today. Uh, and if you want to, um, I cannot believe this.

Give to the whales and or the otters. What are you talking about? And or be kind and gentle to those you love.

Creators and Guests

Nate Baranowski
Host
Nate Baranowski
Nate is a street painter, muralist, and fine artist based in South Bend, IN
Stephen Robles
Host
Stephen Robles
Originally from New York, lover of classical music, now turned video and podcast creator.
90's Nostalgia Tour, MOTS 5th Anniversary, and Tetris (2023) Review
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