Welcome to another RDB reviews with Ryan Balkwill,
author of RDB reviews.wordpress.com
Ryan writes film review blogs and we've been talking
about a lot of streaming recommendations from Ryan
a lot of Netflix Amazon Prime and Disney +
last week we spoke about the Mandalorian specifically,
which is a Disney + exclusive release
and we're going to talk about some of Ryan's other
recommendations or interests now
so Ryan, what have you got for us?
Well, what I watched this weekend was, finally I watched
Bombshell.
Bombshell?
Yes, starring
Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron & Margot Robbie.
Wonderful. I remember seeing this
on the side of a bus, this is a movie?
Yeah. Is it good Ryan?
Well yeah because
uh we decided we're going from
sky Store. Okay so you've rented it from
Sky store? Yeah, to buy and also keep as well
Wonderful, so you've downloaded it
essentially from Sky store? Yeah. cool.
Using my mum's bank account. Well long as
someone's that is in the family
Yeah, so that's how you've got it so can you give
me a plot summary Ryan, what is the film about?
Ah, right, you know the Harvey weinstein scandal?
Couple of years ago, well this is focus on Roger Ailes
The president of Fox News.
So basically this film is about
the story of these three women
and the downfall of Fox News
It is a film about Roger Ailes and Fox News
having their comeuppance. Yes
Basically these three women are like exposing,
It's like the downfall or Fox News. Wonderful
Good.
I've been hearing about Roger Ailes, these three women.
Are they? Can I ask about the three women are they
journalists? Or do they work. Yes. for Fox News?
what's their story? Well yes they work for Fox News
I think one of them is, probably you.
One of them is like left and alreayd filed suit
the other one is currently working there
and the other one is like a new intern,
just came up the ladder.
And over the course of the movie I suppose
the three of them meet each other and realize that they
all have grievance with the Fox corporation,
Fox News Corporation
That's what I was gonna say
the only criticism about this one,
it's the fact of they didn't get, they don't like
have any screen time together that much
but only brief ones, just for like a conversation, or chat,
either just, probably might have seen in the trailer
with all three of them, in the erm, elevator.
So is the trailer perhaps misleading then?
maybe it makes it look like they're best friends,
but they actually don't meet each other that often
or have that much communication between
three of them.
Yeah. Yeah that's what I thought
There's a thing out there called "honest trailers,"
it shows you what a realistic version of the film would be.
Its biographical? or it's it's real world,
it's it's based on real event. It's based on true events.
Yea. A lot of films say, I mean basically anything is
based on real events but this is based on an actual
lawsuit being taken against Fox News and Roger Ailes
himself? Yes. Correct.
What is the nature of the suit? You mention that one of
them has taken a suit out.
Is it a sexual harassment issue? Um Yeah
oh yeah and some of the bits in the film
are like very creepy and more, like
just unimaginable happend.
Thank god i'm not working for this creep.
Absolutely yeah he sounds like a creep.
I've heard about Roger Ailes, befor this interview
and nothing I've heard sounds great
and again I think it's really important that films put the
viewer in that position because I think
a lot of the issue with the me too movement
is convincing people to take an interest
if they think "oh it's always been happening"
and what's the big deal,
but if you can actually dramatize it,
if you can put it in a film and show people what it's like
to have to work for and take orders from someone
who is harassing you sexually or
otherwise it's probably good that it's
creepy because it's a creepy thing to
deal with. Oh yeah and also very damaging.
Yeah and again this is why people who don't speak out
is because it can upset their career
Befor the me too movement you had all of
these gag orders where the likes of
Harvey Weinstein could pay ridiculous amounts of
money to buy someone's silence
and if you agree to that then you're complicit
in the whole thing so, yeah it's it's not easy.
Yeah, but I will say this. The good stuff is, the script
is very well written, yeah and I'll feel like the 3 main
girls, which I just mentioned
did an incredible job with their roles.
Excellent yeah it sounds like a really good cast
and I can imagine that the actors were interested to
get involved because of the subject. We've been
talking quite seriously about this but it's
a fun watch is it? It's enjoyable?
Yeah definitely enjoyable for now, when it's,
we all sit at home and just threat for our humanity,
to, pretty much watch anything really
Anything will do.
I was watching Mandalorian Ryan last night
I watched the first three episodes. Yeah
I think it's brilliant, like you say I think he's very cool.
Oh yeah, played the bloke who erm,
was the cowboy in erm Kingsman 2.
Is that the actor who plays the Mandalorian?
Yeah I know him from
Narcos, good actor Pedro, I forget his last name
This, you acquired this from Sky store. Yes. Is that the
only place to see it?
No, there's erm, also don't forget there's.
it's on Sky store but, you could also get it from iTunes
and Amazon Prime. Which you had to like either
buy it or rent it.
So you've got options there. If you want to see this film
And see if you can find it.
So Ryan, we've talked Bombshell,
which is a recent movie, can you remind me
who it's starring?
Margo Robbie, Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron.
Wonderful. What else would you like to talk about today
Ryan? Ah right. My first one, I think we'll talk about
WWE: Money In The Bank 2020
Okay so we haven't talked wrestling in these
interviews yet but as I've said before
Ryan posts are lot about wrestling
like Royal Rumble. There are special events
that you can buy on DVD
and you've just mentioned Money in the Bank
so is that a wrestlers name? Or is that an event?
Yes, I think that is, started this tradition
as in the WWE since um, 2009,
which they decided "oh well, take most of our
signature matches" and decided "let's just make them
into a pay-per-views.
Hell in a Cell, Money in the Bank
Battleground, TLC, which
I noticed one Ryan is called lockdown,
that's quite appropriate.
Yea that's TNA, which is actually perfect
for this situation we're in now.
SO erm,. back to your subject.
This years Money in the bank
started since last Decade 2010
and it's presented a huge amount of winners
who went, go on to have great success,
which I could basically go on forever,
but that means we'll lose subject.
And that you've written about it on
rdbreviews.wordpress.com
so if anyone wants to get into this in detail
about Money in the Bank pay-per-view
wrestling event er. Which is. Plenty of ref -
Sorry what were you saying
I was just going to say Ryan that you've written so
many posts about wrestling over the years
that there's a lot if you don't know anything about
wrestling, rdbreview.wordpress.com is a good place to
start because Ryan explains World Wrestling
Entertainment? Does that stand for? Correct.
You got it nail right on the head there.
That was a guess, I'm glad.
I used to watch the WWF, which was World
Wrestling Federation back in the late 80s
early 90s and then the World Wildlife Federation
sued them so they had to change their name.
So it's still [Vince] McMahonI think.
Yes indeed and i've been watching it since 2002.
So you've been following it for a long time
that's great. Yea
and um. Erm I was gonna ask Ryan, is this old stuff?
Sorry, are these things that have happened
before lockdown? I assume wrestling. Well.
isn't happening right now.
Well yea, they've been doing it since, before lock down
for like years, dating back to 1985
Talking about GLOW, in some previous interviews,
which was set in the mid 80s onwards
and wrestling had been a huge
thing since then.
For me wrestling is always like a 1980s thing,
its home is the 80s
Fast forwrd to wrestling now, had to cope with
wrestling into the arenas everywhere.
How do you mean?
As in like, now we are all in lock down,
and with all like sports events, like football
and big venues and like music concerts
and everything else, that's all canceled
so they've, WWE decided "no we just take advantage
of this and make money off of it"
Just keep continuing with our show
with our weekly shows in empty arenas.
So are they filming wrestling still
but without an audience?
Yes, which is weird.
Do they still have the commentators Ryan?
Yes, commentators the wrestlers, they all there
it would be weird not to have the chanting and the boo
and all the jeering, so I must be like really quiet.
I'll admit it must be weird but I'm glad that
they're still wrestling. Yeah and I'm glad they probably
got another place to work
instead of just sitting at home and doing nothing.
And have you recently posted then, about
Money in the Bank Ryan?
Yes I did post that and I posted with the old ones as well
so you've recently posted about
older wrestling events and the more recent
things we're talking about now.
So if you go on Ryan's WordPress blog
RDB reviews you'll see wrestling posts
near the top. Yeah and also,
lets get on the topic of this one
the first match, which it was, of course
a four-way tag team title match
with John Morrison and The Miz versus
The Usos, for like the god knows how many times
we've had them and the New Day
and the newly Unfortunate Sons.
newly Unfortunate Sons,
Unfortunate Sons, are a tag team are they?
Yes. I don't know how but it's happened
I've not heard of any of these wrestlers Ryan.
They're all brand new
and A New Day, retained their tag belts
Braun Strowman beat Bray Wyatt for the
Universal championship
in a weird but entertaining match.
Ryan how often do you watch wrestling?
Erm, not, normally, because like I said like
years ago it's a balancing act
for me to go from like, either wrestling,
Netflix, Amazon Prime, normal telly
& Disney +
Cuz as I keep saying Ryan watches everything
which makes him a great film reviewer
cuz he's got his fingers in many pies
but it does mean juggling as well,
so you've got decide what you can watch
and what you've got time to watch, yeah.
Correct, cool I say finding time to watch Mandalorian
last night Ryan was quite novel for me
because I'm kept quite busy doing various jobs for
Level Best Art Cafe
but I love reading your reviews and
I loved getting ideas. I watched a bit of
code 8 which is a movie that features at
the very end of the trailer that we've
made for your videos and I would never
have known that film existed if I hadn't
have seen it on RDB reviews.
Oh yeah, that's erm, with the erm Amell Brothers.
Amell brothers? Okay.
Yeah.
Of course just quickly that's a science fiction movie
about a world where 4% of the population has
superpowers and there's a police state
with these wonderful done robot policemen,
they're very deadly
and it's kind of a cat and mouse between the
the supers and the police force it's a really interesting
looking film that I never knew existed
and I wouldn't have ever come across
if I hadn't have seen it on your review page.
Yeah. So thank you. Yeah but fortunate about that film,
which was really good, was because it lower budget
mm-hmm
But probably like paid by the Amell's
to actually do it with, with their own money and cash
I saw actually Ryan, that there was a short film
that they had put out in 2016, which is
on YouTube and it was a crowdfunded thing
they requested money to make their film
you know the way it's been made in 2019
I think this film came out last year, Code 8
we're talking about,
but it is really sweet because the the
makers crowdfunded I think their finances
and it's worked out for them. Yeah, excellent.
Right Ryan so we've talked Bombshell, wrestling
and a bit of Code 8, which is a film that Ryan
blogged about way back in March or April
or even earlier do you have anything
else in mind Ryan that you want to talk about today?
Erm, about um. I just started off my
Star Wars saga, um yesterday
and we are just. Me and my mum and Dell, we're
are like, half way through, watching of the Gentleman
The Gentleman? Yeah
with um. Colin Farrell and um.
Yea I got it here, hang on. Okay. Aha, The Gentleman
directed by Guy Ritchie.
mm, Yeah.
Remind me Ryan
did, when did this film come out?
Oh last year,
mm-hmm.
But probably, they should, probably,
mistakenly said that this was released this year.
Okay. Now I recall a Guy Ritchie film
coming out at the end of last year
would have been quite recent,
but I didn't know anything about it
so it's Colin Farrell is it?
Mm-hmm. Okay
Yeah. Colin Farrell, Matthew McConaughey
& Hugh Grant
It makes me think of the film Snatch,
where Guy Ritchie was fortunate enough to get Brad Pitt
to appear in it and a few other Americans
and he did this American/English crossover thing
so is this similar? Is it like American and English
or British culture clashing?
Well yea, bit like, it's definitely British.
Yeah, he's a British filmmaker so I'm guessing it's
made in the UK
but you've just listed like Matthew McConaughey,
you've listed some American actors names there
can you give a quick summary of the plot Ryan?
Um yep.
If, instead of, try not to swear
Um.
I can edit that out if you need to
I can even but a BLEEP over it
Well, there's an American expat,
expat, pardon me if say this wrong
No you carry on.
"Following American expat Mickey Pearson,
who built a highly profitable marijuana
empire in London. When word gets out that he's looking
to cash out of the business forever
it, snatches it, plots,
smoke, blackmail
in a
to steal it.
Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrel and Hugh Grant
Alright I only recognise those last 2 names.
"The gentleman follows American expat
Micky Pearson who built a high
profitable marijuana Empire in London
when word gets out that he's looking to
cash out of the business forever it
triggers plots schemes bribery and
blackmail in an attempt to steal his
domain out from under him
featuring all-star ensemble cast
including Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding,
Michelle Dockery, Jeremy strong, Eddie
Marsan, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant.
Thanks Ryan.
Are you a Guy Ritchie fan Ryan?
Um, not really no
Okay, did you like the Sherlock Holmes movies?
Erm, sadly no I didn't see the Sherlock Holmes movies.
mm-hmm, Okay, that's fine, cuz Guy Ritchie
has a reputation for being a bit gangster
or in his mind he is anyway.
This feels like, for him safe territory
and I imagine it's quite funny.
But you, you tell me
Ryan, is it a comedy first of all?
Yes it definitely comedy yea.
And did it make you laugh at least, 4 times?
Ah, about that is, we erm
just half way through this film at the moment
Okay so we haven't concluded the movie
so you don't know how quite how funny it is, yet.
You'll be writing about that one when you finish
watching it? Correct.
Brilliant so we'll get more of Ryan's insight into this
latest Guy Ritchie experiment
when he's finished watching it.
Okay.
Would you like to discuss that one on Thursday
if you've written about it by then?
Well yea pretty much yea.
That's what- That's the goal what we erm are heading
Alright thank you very much Ryan
and we look forward to chatting to you again
on Thursday. Yep,
thank you.
