Sweet & Condensed: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Scorecard, The perfect movie length, what we added to our watchlist & an old podcast
We did it. We made it to Friday, friends. We are particularly excited on this Friday because from now until Thanksgiving, there is at least one banger hitting the big screen every single week (Civil War, Challengers, The Fall Guy, Furiosa, Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Beetle Juice 2! *catches breath*). We have our work cut out for us, but someone has to do it, and it’s our privilege to do it for you, the people 🫡 .
Here is what we have for you this week:
Concession Stand Scorecard: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Temp These Takes: Some like them long, some like them short. We talk movie length.
Watchlist Worthy: The world just can’t get enough Yorgos and Emma Stone. New Old Pod Drop: The Medium Project
This week’s movie - “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”
Letterboxd Description:
RISE TOGETHER OR FALL ALONE.
Following their explosive showdown, Godzilla and Kong must reunite against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own.
Best Watched With
Monsterverse megafans (hi, Sarah!), your kid brother, and that one friend who you would play hours of Rampage with at the arcade.
End credit thought
Unless you’ve been a diehard fan of the Monsterverse series from the beginning, we’re not sure GxK is worth the price of admission.
From zero-gravity, interdimensional fight sequences, to destroying some of the wonders of the world, the action never stops. Kong rules the screen and is the ultimate badass.
Brian Tyree Henry provides a few laughs, but not as much as an unhinged fight scene that uses an unlikely (but hilarious) weapon.
What is the perfect movie length?
Josh - For the most part, the perfect movie length is whatever is needed for the filmmaker to tell their story, to tell their truth. If it's 87 minutes, great. If it's 206 minutes, so be it! Filmmakers are taking the risk of sharing a story that will be criticized on every aspect, including run time. I think they should have the freedom to make short-, medium-, and long-length movies.
That being said, if Aaron Sorkin & David Fincher can make a perfect movie, The Social Network (2010), in 121 minutes, anything is possible with this run time.
Sarah - Perfect movie length: 88 minutes aka the run time of the cinematic masterpiece The Lion King (1994).
Kelly - The perfect length of a movie is like eating your favorite meal–satisfying but not overwhelming, leaving you craving more. Movies are just like everything else, not about the size but how it is ✨delivered✨.
Eric - I once read (on Twitter, a very trusted source [and no, we will never refer to it as X]), that in IMDB's top 250 films, only one of the top 10 is less than 2 hours long. For this section I decided to fact check that and it turns out, we can trust Twitter. In fact, 5 of the top 10 are right at or longer than 3 hours! So, with that in mind, in this essay I will.... just kidding.
I won't bore you with anything other than the facts. Great movies are LONG. Give me ALL the juice. I want 3+ hours every time. The only exception would be horror - a nice, cool 90 minutes hits just right when you are watching Drew Barrymore run away from Ghostface.
Final answer: anywhere between 90 - 240 minutes will do!
New Mexico Drew - I love a movie that hits or flirts with the two hour mark. The story has enough time to breathe but it doesn't drag. My copout would be to turn to my guy Roger Ebert for his famous quote - "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."
If it's a home watch and it's over two hours, I have to make peace with the gods and accept that I will be watching it in two parts because there is no way my wife is making it through the whole thing without falling asleep.
What’s your take? Hit Reply or leave a comment below and let us know!
Kinds of Kindness (2024) written & directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
While the plot of this movie is mostly being kept under wraps, the worthiness of this watch is not.
Emma Stone (La La Land, Crazy Stupid Love)
Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad, Game Night)
Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Platoon)
Margaret Qualley (Poor Things, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood),
Hong Chau (The Whale, The Menu)
Joe Alwyn (Boy Erased, The Favourite)
Mamoudou Athie (Black Box, Elemental)
Hunter Schafer (Euphoria, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)
This ensemble paired with this visionary director, and we see them as not one, not two, but three different characters in three different stories in one movie.
Yes of Yesses.
Letterboxd Description:
Tells three separate stories with the cast playing different characters in each.
You can watch the trailer here
-JP:)
Other movies written & directed by Yorgos Lanthimos:
Poor Things (2023)
🎧 Listen to Episodes on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
The Medium Project is a podcast that looks at different mediums adapted to the screen. Short stories, books, poems, comics, or even TV shows adapted to movies & vice versa.
Done with a medium amount of research and a large amount of passion. Discussed through conversation & categories.
Check out the episode Why the Medium Project?
Sarah and Josh discuss The Medium Project and why it had a longer gestation period than the African elephant (and what that, in turn, taught them about art and creativity). You don’t want to miss it!
🎧 Listen to this Episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Three Milk Media Podcasts:
🎙️ Living A Stream: Apple Podcasts and Spotify
🎙️ The Medium Project: Apple Podcasts and Spotify
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KINDS OF KINDNESS 😭