iTunes Exclusive Episode Walking With The Enemy

The following is a sooner orgator production.
Greetings, members of the Empire.
If you are currently hearing my voice, there's a couple of things going on.
Number one, it means you subscribed to the crowd of house podcasts on iTunes.
And being the executive producer of said shell, I greatly appreciate that.
It also means it's time for another.
It also means it's time for another.
And in this particular episode, of course, we are going to be reviewing a film.
But before we get into that, let's talk about the other people in the room.
First of all, joining me, as he tends to do from time to time, is the official fact
checker of this show.
He is a man who I learned a little something about after seeing this film.
And we're probably going to talk about that a little bit.
You know him is fun, don't go, but his mom and name him, don't follow him and I call him
Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
Thanks for having me.
I know I'm soldiering me.
But you're for the Empire.
You're your little mother, but you're making a work, okay?
Well, you know, we're here for the Empire, instead of saying also joining us on this
particular.
At you.
It's a sloucher is a man who I respect for many, many, many reasons, but one of those
reasons is that he is a veteran and that's going to kind of come up in the movie we're
going to view today.
Brenda the show, Dave Scott is here.
Thank you.
Hello.
Welcome, sir.
And I wear my not too uniform, only inside the house.
There you go.
That's important.
That's important.
We got to take our buddies.
That's good.
All I integrate a marketing RPFFs love them.
They do so much great stuff for us and we're never going to be able to repay them
like ever, never, ever.
The movie we're going to talk about today is called Walking with the Enemy, directed by
first time director Mark Schmidt.
Basically, it's one of those true story with some of the names changed kind of a thing.
Take space during World War II in Hungary, where Ella Cohen played by Jonas Armstrong.
It's a guy who's a Jew, he'd say that I don't like saying it that way.
He's of the Jewish faith because he's just saying it that way, it just sounds, I don't
know, and I know it's not offensive, but it sounds offensive to me.
He is dealing with Hungary during the time where Russia and Germany are basically fighting
to control it.
And he winds up going home from the town he has a job in in the capital.
Goes home to his village, his father is a rabbi to protect his family because the Nazis
are moving in.
He ends up being put into a labor camp that due to some circumstances, he escapes from
Tom's home, finds it his family is gone, and he doesn't know what's happened to him,
he's going to turn the way down, and through some more circumstances he goes back to the
capital city, which is already under its own struggle.
And the leader of the country, Regent Horthy played by Ben Kingsley, is dealing with his
own part of this story, but then Ella finds out that his fellow members of the Judaic
faith are being rounded up basically, and nobody knows where they're going.
Or his family.
No, we said his family disappeared, he's trying to find them, and through the course
of it, due to some unfortunate circumstances or fortunate depending on your view, the love
of his life, Hannah, who's really in his hand, actually, is almost assaulted by two SS soldiers,
Ella kills them, and they end up using their uniforms in kind of a scheme to free some
of their Jewish brethren that are being taken off to places.
It's kind of a combination of Schindler's list and the Underground Railroad, I guess you
could say.
And they pose an act as SS soldiers.
Correct.
Correct.
At that time, when Hungary is at a huge crossroads, they're stuck between Russia and
Germany at the time.
Right.
They have the choice of allowing up with Russia or keeping their ally with Germany.
And they're trying to get a lot of their Jewish brethren into Switzerland, where they're
protected by Ella has a job of getting Swiss passports for these gentlemen and ladies.
The film for me, the only way I can sum it up for the way for what I saw, it was like
a war movie from the forties with modern technology.
And it just, it doesn't translate well for me, because it was like the story was getting
away from the actors, because the story itself was a beautiful story.
And the story itself is beautifully told in my personal opinion.
But I just think things get lost in translation.
It was shot on red cameras, which are a very expensive high definition camera.
So the look that maybe they were going for isn't to me, the look they achieved.
And Dave, I'm going to go to you on this question.
How did you feel?
With the feel of the film itself, the look of the film, though it was directed by first-time
director, Mark Schmidt.
For the most part, I thought the film was really well shot, well done, the actor seemed,
they seem to have that European look.
So the interesting thing was really well done.
I think they spent too much money on Ben Kingsley, then they did on the effects of the
film.
Well, I mean, you can tell it was a low budget film, because you really didn't see any
the kills.
And the one, and you and I talked about this, the one CGI scene in it.
Number one was unnecessary, and number two was horribly done.
I thought I was watching a video package at a Metallica concert, like that's how bad the
CGI.
It looked like a terrible episode of Smallville is what I had said it was the, the, what
is it the German officer pouring the rat poison into the deal, and then the smoke coming
out of the deal.
Why did we have to CGI in the sand?
Yeah.
And in the smoke.
Or the smoke.
Either one of them was like, I don't want to.
Yeah.
Don't mind what you feel about the little film.
I thought the, the look was okay, um, two new, I thought it seemed like you're
saying two new, I thought, um, I'll see you on this going in.
I saw the trailer, and I was really, there you go, really watching the trailer.
It looked like something pretty interesting, and, um, then it would be started, and
we're getting this a little bit, but it seemed to go okay at the beginning, and then
it just starts to lose track, which we'll get into a little bit later.
I will say this to be fair to the Empire.
If you remind review on the clubhousepodcast.com, which is our website, um, I, I have a
real high standard for movies at the old this now.
Shindler's list, I think, was one of the best movies I've ever made.
It's not gonna debate that, not gonna debate it.
That was done right.
The real deal, Berk, yeah, but it deserved everything it had.
I knew a girl, a lady named Katrina, who was a waitress when I was in 15 years old, Billings
Montana, the four bees blocking his restaurant, which is my first job as a best boy.
She was a Romanian concentration camp survivor, who survived doc out.
And she tried to help me out with some information to do as thing for school, no
as I say, that we're tried.
And I knew her niece, me and her niece went out a few times, met her dad, who was also
a survivor who had some experimental stuff done on him.
So I kind of have to have a higher standard due to her niece's horror stories, the real
life horror stories of these survivors.
Right.
But we'll get into the film and everything else a little bit later.
But I thought the look I thought was just too new, and like the, it was not real life killing
of war.
So I thought the acting was good, not great.
I appreciate that Ben Kingsley likes to do stuff that's off the beaten path, but sometimes
I just want to call him and go do your Ben Kingsley like you, you have an Oscar, you
know, you, you mean, because he, he gets a path with me, he always would have been
better in a different character.
Yeah, I mean, I just don't know that we needed that part of the story of what the, what
the leadership of the country was going, you almost could have narrated that.
Actually, that is one, one of the things that I actually loved about it was it was that
the, the German officer, and forgive me, I don't remember his name.
But he came in here, and he was shoving his finger in his, in, in, in the, we're talking
to score in scor, scorinzy, played by Bern Gorman.
Yes.
He was also in the dark side.
He was also in the dark side.
He was also in the dark side.
Yes.
Okay.
He shoving his finger in his face, Tom, Tom, you will do this, or he is German, I don't know
what accent that was, but, you know, you will do this, or, or, or, or it is a treason.
And, and it's like, you, you're, you're not, you're in the wrong country.
And he's, and he's one of those guys when you see him, you've, like, that dude's been
in everything I've ever seen.
This act of the guy, the actor, because he was in Pacific Rim, he's been on, it's always
in Philadelphia.
I'm like Kevin Bacon, part two, he's about there, but he's, he's one of, and the great
actor.
I just, to me, I didn't need that part of the story.
You could have, you know, like I said, you could have narrated that, or had that play
over the radio, or whatever, and I would have been fine.
I just, I kind of felt that he were trying to tell too much story, and as we talk about
on this show, I judge a film by how often I look at my watch, the pacing on this
was terrible.
Horrible.
It was, it was a snail's pace dragged too long, and it really did go on too long.
I, I think, I think the history channel, I, I said this, that, that, the history channel
could have did a better job with this film.
I agree.
Just sticking to, and that, that's what they do, they stick to the original story.
You already know what happened to a war war, too, with the concentration camps, we did
not this need to see it visually, okay?
We already knew what was going on.
And you do, and I guess this might be a minor spoiler alert, but you do find out what
what happens to his family, and I don't know that we needed to do.
Do you mean the, the, the, the, the, the, the Alex family, the, the rabbi and his wife and his
sister and brother?
Oh, we, yeah, we already, you could already, that should have been hung in suspense.
Yeah.
You, you didn't really have to tell me that because it didn't add anything to the story
itself.
Um, there's a nice little payoff at the end.
That's right.
There's a nice good, good moment at the end, um, but I, but again, like I said earlier,
and I said this in my written review, I think the story at some points got away from the
actors, that it was, there was, the story was so rich that the actors couldn't
keep up with it.
So there was a little bit of overacting going on in certain points.
Overly dramatic.
And it, which is that, that old timey, which is that old timey, war style film.
I mean, if you go back and watch stuff, tour a tour a tour of things like that, you, you
see that overacting because that was just the way it was done.
But this, this will be here.
Like I, I, I agreed one, that's Drake too long at the end at the beginning.
I thought it's two hours.
Five minutes long.
I thought it started great.
And I thought, you know, this is kind of decent then, it just started to drag and
then the over dramatic in, you know, too much drama, too much of the overplay, too much
of that.
And then one thing, steam me off on this, because I'd say I can take this personal.
Here are those horror stories real life of a survivor.
You do not eat comedy in this movie.
And see, I, I, I'm, I'm sorry, I guess I don't say that too much.
There was, one or two little side things of a happy family comedy's mind, but they added
a little too much comedy one, especially on the passport ending at the beginning.
And I, I guess I didn't see what you saw because I didn't see all that money.
I didn't see that much in it.
And, and maybe, and again, that's just different perception.
I heard like one or two good, like a little, little trouble money.
Little trouble money.
When they're checking the passports and that one scene in the right hand, and they, they
made it to be funny in half the audience laughed on that.
I don't, I don't know.
I don't know.
Whatever.
Yeah.
But I can't see it.
There's no way around.
I can't forgive it.
No, I can't see that.
I can't see that.
I can't see that.
I can't see that.
I can't see that.
You can't see it.
You can't see it.
What?
You can't see that.
You can't see it.
You can't see it.
But for me, this thing.
The scene you're talking about specifically, though, to me that was more nervous, laughter
in the theater.
Like, you, you saw the look on the face like we couldn't
add something different here.
Really.
And it's to me.
It wasn't that, it wasn't that whackity smack.
It was just kind of a thing?
for some kind. It was like, it was like, it was like a win or something.
That's fine. But when you're talking something life and death, where some people
is about to die, I didn't see what you saw. I'm going to bring it right back to where
we're allowed to have different opinions. No, absolutely. I'm just saying, like, look at
a movie like Star Wars. Okay. Star Wars, there's always, and I'm sorry, I will bring up Star
Wars, but I don't think the only one. Star Wars, Lucas said that he has to put in just a bit
of comedy to break up the mononic. Okay. You can't have nothing but sci-fi for two
hours. You have to have a vocational joke. And again, but I think that what you and I saw
is not what Don saw. And I think that's, but that's the brilliant song that I'm going to
talk about. But for you, what was comedy for me was more of, to me, that scene was showing
look. We're willing to do whatever it takes to get these people to safety. And you saw that
as comedy, whereas I saw it kind of as a, just kind of a quick breath before it gets worse.
Do you, let me, let me ask you this question. Totally. In, in World War II, do you think that even
the, the Jews that were being, I'm saying, do it. It's okay. It's, it's, it's easy to say
because it's vernacular, but it's just weird for Jewish faith. The, the Jews that were being oppressed,
do you think that they did not have any moments, not a single moment of, of comedy and read the
Yeah, but there, there's certain times we should do that. And, and I've read that, I've read the
book. I've seen the movie. I've seen the one with Laurening room. I've seen it all on that. And in,
in those moments where there's comedy with a family together, trying to do something good. That's
fine. But when they're on the line, in a life or death situation, with a piece of paper, which
could be the death sentence as somebody, and you may comedy of it, that's not cool. But, but again,
I think what you saw as, your perception of it. And I agree with it, right. You're on,
sometimes, in, in, in, and, frankly, did it perfectly, where the family together, there are,
they have them in good time. Talk right into it, don't. Talk, trying to make the best of a situation of
that, of that, of that ill-cat could see that. And I told, like, rude with you, but I just think,
they did it at the wrong moments. Okay. Okay. This, this movie was obviously not well put together.
Oh, no, not at all. So, yeah. And I think, I think, the free of us can agree on that. But, again,
I just think that's a perception thing. What you perceived as a comedic bit, maybe we didn't. For me,
I, I perceived that particular scene as just that, this is going to be tough, but we're going
to try it anyway. I mean, there was nervous laughter. For me, it was nervous laughter in the theater,
because I was like, oh, this will not go well. You know, but, and for you, you saw it more as
slapsticky. And that's the beauty of the, the way we do these, and that's why they have to
take a snapshot. That's why they have the one critic at these screenings. Exactly. Exactly.
And I, and the way I saw it was just a break into mononic, just a break into depression,
and everybody sat around. So I didn't saw my score. Like, it just screamed. It was like,
tension breaker. I had to be exact. Oh, that's a great movie. And I thought they, they kind of made
the main hero and the main character kind of Supermanish. And, you know, it didn't really show
the horrors of war in this film too much. And when somebody gets shot, just sort of little little
of the spectra red, and that's it. And even when, you know, the effects were terrible. Yeah.
Yeah. I think it was weird that when somebody got shot, they looked like they were just sleeping.
There's hanging out there. And the main character, you know, gets up and he runs again after
you know, I will say the scene where we're rushing shows up. I thought that was, for what,
for what this film was, that was probably my favorite war sequence in the film. That was well done.
And I told Don, I said, we saw a World War II film last week. That was better than this.
I thought the railway man. The rail, we did, we already did it. Oh, it's good to go to on that one.
Check that out. I mean, that's probably one of my favorite films of the year so far. You know,
the book thief did it right. Even though there's comedy in there. Yeah. They did it right. That's the
movie I think you should check out. Wonderful, one of very underrated, very underrated film from
my share probably should have gotten more Oscars than it did. The little girl in that is incredible.
And there's comedy in there which I did enjoy that the death of right moments. Right. Right. So let's
get to the final analysis because our audience, we care more than other critics do about their audience.
And I'm going to say it. I'm not afraid to say it. Okay. Sure, I'm behind the microphone in a room
that you can't see me, but I'm still about afraid of it. We're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs
down. We're not going to give you numbers. We're not going to give you stars because everybody does that.
That's mundane. That's what people don't have imaginations do. We get a little deeper than that, my friend.
It's a two-pronged question. Question one is, would you see this film again? And if the answer is no,
then we're done here. But if the answer is yes, then the second question is, how would you see this again?
Would you pay to see it in the at a full price evening show? Would you pay for it at the Twilight
show? Would you do it at a matinee? Would you wait for it in the early morning show? Second run?
Would you wait for it on red box? Would you wait for it on cable? And worst case scenario?
Would you wait for it on broadcast television? Dave, I'm going to start with you. Did you?
Would you see this film again? That is, that's actually a really tough question because
it was bad yet the story was good. If you can pick the story out of it, it was really good.
So yes and no, I would have to push it all the way to broadcast TV. Okay. Okay. So I can get a
commercial break in there. So I can get away from it for a second there and then get back into it.
So yeah, I would see it again. But like I said, I would really like to see this story play out
on like a history channel type movie. Okay. So, Don, would you see this film again?
No, it's a don. Don, don, don puts the kibash on it right away. I would rather watch them.
And I have said it. I've said it multiple times. Don's a tough critic.
You know, Don's not an easy critic to impress. I hear that.
You know, when he, I mean, I know when we had the Dallas Air National Film Festival,
we'd have filmmakers come up and he said, you know, this guy, this is one of my three favorite
films of the festival. I said, dude, that's not something you come here to come out of that
dude's mouth much. Like the railway man. I loved it. I recommend it. Yeah.
But this one, it's not even close. Don't waste your time. Because see the railway man instead of this.
Yeah, it was really hard to see, see the railway man last week and then see this this week. And
I'm, I'm, I'm on my drive over here thinking, okay, don't mash the two movies together.
We don't do that. Because they're all from hell. Why do we love a guy's at out? Like, they
are some of our best friends in the world. We're going to plug all that like for me.
I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
But it would be one of those
nothing else is on. And I'm like, oh, I remember this. I'll check this out for a little while if it's on cable.
So you're saying broadcast TV? Oh, no, I've, I'd watch it on like, uh, like,
stop your stars will show it. Stars in. You know, I'd watch it on pay cable, just, you know,
because I just don't like commercials in my movies. You know, I just don't, I just say,
I think, you know, watching police academy on local broadcast television when I was a kid
who ruined that for me. Well, that's a beauty. You get, you get to get up and go to the fridge,
get up beer, crack it up and go. Yeah, but I could also need this, but get through it. I can pause
live TV too. So I live in an engine. You can pause live television. See? I'm okay. I'm going to
pause. I guess I just still have the old TV where the, you know, three channels. It's too
cool. You have the vice grips that turn it on because you're broken and now. I'm like,
whole bench is called DVD. I did a digital video. My name is Carter. Mine did. Mine broke off very quickly.
So I mean, it's, it's hard. I mean, as much as I hate to say it,
because first of all, I love, you know, any time somebody wants to have a passion project. It's great.
I think I'd kind of rather read a book. I like to, if this is based on a story in a book,
I would like to read the book, maybe it might give me more insight. So not that I know this,
but did it come out in, in, in book form first? I don't have to look at, I know it's based on a true
story, but I don't know if it's based on a book or not or a screenplay. Okay, because that's, that's,
that's one of my problems. The movies will obliterate a book. Yeah. Okay. And I'm not a reader.
But, but I know they will obliterate. All right. Let's do the plugs. Visit our website,
www.theclubhousepodcast.com. You can find a written reviews for this film there. It's well.
Find out where we're going to be next. Like this, this show on Facebook, look up to Clubhouse podcast,
put the word podcast at the end or it's something completely different. Follow this show on Twitter
at Clubhouse Show. You can follow me on Twitter. At yes, that Rob Irvin that is spelled ERV. I
end. Dave Scott at Facebook for any or useless Star Wars information I can get to you. And I'm
fine. Don't go and you can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com. We love to do live shows
as your establishment, contact Don for that. My co-host is Chad Wamick. He is on Twitter at, yeah,
at a, I don't want to do it again. At Chad N. P. G. six nine. You can email him at Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.
You can email me. Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com. Our normal show is every Sunday night. It's
seven Easter and four Pacific. You're one stop shop for all things sports and entertainment.
Once again, thank you to our friends at Allied Integrated Marketing for giving us the opportunity
to see all kinds of stuff and then talk to you kids about it. So until next time that we talk
for Don, for Chad, for Dave, for the Empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed. Hi, Brittany Palmer.
The preceding was a sooner or later production.
Get a go! Get a go! Why? Because I have to.