iTunes Exclusive Episode Bridge Of Spies

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
If you are hearing my voice currently the following conditions have been met.
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Welcome.
My name is Rob, I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
And the only thing I know about spying is what I see in movies and on like TMZ.
But I'm not alone for this particular edition are 144th one of these.
Joining me across the desk is he tends to do from time to time as my co-host and a man that knows quite a bit about the Cold War.
Because he was in the service at the tail end of it, he is Chad.
Welcome sir.
Indeed sir.
That wasn't an age joke that was an actual joke about your life.
I appreciate that.
Also joining us for this particular edition is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man that knows what cold is.
But maybe not war.
You may know him as fun, don't go, but his mom and name him Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford.
Welcome sir.
I've been where the day's high has been at 40 below zero.
I heard you're talking about the other night.
Yeah.
Don't figure.
Like I said, remember we are here to do these things.
It's a review something.
This is no exception.
Today we are reviewing the brand new film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by the Cohen Brothers.
Starring Tom Hanks.
It is called Bridge of Spies.
And basically it's based on the true story taking place in the late 50s of James B. Donovan.
An insurance lawyer who was tasked by the federal government to defend a Soviet spy who
has been captured by the name of Rudolph Abel played by Mark Rylandz.
And you think that the trial was pretty much it.
But it goes on to there into a complex story of keeping allies alive and perhaps even
exchanging one for another.
Before we get it.
Sure.
We have to thank Jen and Susan Jacobs and everybody.
It's Susan Jacobs and Disney for the right to this thing.
The pictures did this one absolutely agree.
We thank them so much for letting us see this.
There's such a nice people.
They really are.
But I think as far as the storyline goes, I've gone as deep as I want to go into it.
I think so.
Tom Hanks.
I'm going to say.
Yeah.
And Steven Spielberg.
What else are you going to say?
Let's start with Spielberg Chad and the script written by the Cohen's.
Not the first time they've worked together.
But more overtly this time I think than in the past.
Well, when you're dealing with a film of this nature and let's face it.
Spielberg has reached a point in his career where he is clearly going for a more character
driven dialogue driven film.
I mean, he's done this several times in the past.
But this seems to be the format that he's really decided to settle on.
He's kind of left the the Wisbank stuff in the rearview mirror.
He doesn't focus on that as much as he focuses on character drama.
Which is.
Films like that character driven scripts are a very very volatile thing.
Because when you rely this much on the script and on the dialogue and on the storytelling,
you really have to make sure it's out there correctly.
Right.
And the Cohen's.
The track record's pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what did you think?
As far as just.
We'll talk about the script first.
Okay.
Very well written.
I mean, it's it's it's a scenario that I wasn't as familiar with as I wish I had been.
I mean, you know, but I think that's common though.
Yeah.
I mean, people know the story.
It was it was brought up in high school, but it really wasn't talked about all that much.
Because I think it was one of those things that they kind of really not at every ever admit to being a participant in.
Right.
But you can't acknowledge the fact that it that it did happen.
It definitely happened.
And Spielberg has a way as does his cinematographer.
Yeah.
Yannus Kaminsky, who he's worked with.
Oh, gosh.
That may be the only guy he does work with.
So this is the guy that did.
She was less.
Yes.
Because there's definitely a visual comparison that can be made between the two.
Yeah.
Outside of the color versus black and white.
But yes.
And plus I went back and watched the other films in.
And their mutual catalogs.
Oh, with the course of the last couple of days.
I've just watched the terminal this morning.
That's me if you can.
And watch catch me if you can last night.
And Yannus was on both of those.
I didn't even think to put in private Ryan.
But I'm almost certain that Yannus was part of that as well.
See, it's it's house money.
You're betting with that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's a pretty safe bet.
Right.
That they have a visual style.
And you can definitely tell that Spielberg likes to do a lot of hand-hold camera work.
He likes to take it off the tripod and just run.
Where it.
Which in some cases is okay.
But other cases it can get a little wonky.
Yeah.
But here I think it works well.
Yeah.
On this script, don't get me wrong with this.
It was a very good movie.
I really enjoyed the movie, the plot and everything like that.
I mean, what do you say?
It's Spielberg.
Enough said on that.
But my issue was I thought it just had that slow motion.
Now, the way I put it best is in my written review at the clubhouse podcast.com.
That's our website.
I put on there.
This film is kind of like a car going 20 miles per hour
and a 35 mile per hour zone.
It's fine.
The thing is, it's just, it was slow for me.
The plot kept me interested.
I don't think it'd drag, but it was just too slow moving.
You know, it wasn't not an interesting.
Right.
I just thought the pace could have been a lot better on the film.
And I thought also on this that they spent too much time with
dealing with the trial with Abel than the rest of the big issues
of the negotiation, which I think they should put more of the film in that
unless of the trial they both are beginning.
See, normally in most cases I agree with you on pacing,
but I totally disagree with you here.
I think that you had to understand.
They spent a lot of time on the Abel thing for two reasons.
Number one, you had to understand the gravity of the situation
when the second half of the film starts.
Number two, it really gave you a deeper insight into who Donovan was.
So that when you get to the point where you start talking about
negotiations and things like that, you get to see him and action and see him
do what he does and see the dedication that he has to it.
I totally thought, especially for a film that's two and a half hours long,
I thought the pacing was a, was ahead of the curve.
I did too.
I never got bored.
I just, I wasn't bored.
I just thought this was too slow moving.
It's kind of weird to explain in hard to explain.
But if you've got that right, it's right.
Yeah, and exactly.
But one thing that I understand building the characters and everything
like that, it just, like, shinders list.
You knew it was long, but it didn't feel long.
This one was long, but just felt a little bit longer because I thought
it was too slow, paced on the thing.
Now I'm not expecting action, bang, bang, bang, bang.
You know, in, for instance, the scene where they're building the Berlin Wall
in that film.
Okay.
Because that is depicted.
Yeah, that is depicted in those scenes in Germany.
I thought this should have been more time there.
Because that was so interesting to see that happen.
And more of the life of the Berlin in stuff.
I think this should put more focus on that.
More of the Germany than the US at the beginning.
You know, I respect where you're coming from.
It's good.
It did not bore me.
I found it interesting.
I just thought, you know, kind of like that old grandpa in the road
in front of you kind of thing on this film.
And that's, but it was still good.
That's one that's so conflicted on this.
I just, I just totally disagreeing with you on that.
Yeah, which is fine.
I thought it was past very, very well, which leads us into performance.
You know, I, I said this and we saw the movie.
I saw this after the movie.
I said this a billion times.
You can give Tom Hanks a scene to act in with a mop.
And he will have such great chemistry with the mop that the mop will get
don't nominated for an Oscar.
He's just that good.
He has, he, he's like the universal actor.
He can have chemistry with anybody.
I mean, elevate their performance.
He just, he gets described as playing the every man character
and just about every role that he plays.
It was, it was still elevated that.
With Spielberg, it's like those dream do is like, you know,
I also put in my written review that, that, you know,
you got pippin' in Jordan.
You got Montana and Rice.
You got, this is like the dream duo in Hollywood when you think about it.
How can he get better with those two people working on a film?
I mean, the acting wasn't credible.
I got to give it to the guy who played Abel.
He was, I loved.
Mark Riley.
Yeah.
My, he was, he was very, very good.
He reminded me a lot of a little bit older Mark Strong.
I can see.
Who I'm a huge fan of.
And I thought he did, the two of them were great together.
The thing about Hanks and, and I put this in my written review at
www.theclaphousepodcast.com.
Which is our website?
That, the danger you take when you take on a real life person.
Someone who has existed before is that the person you're portraying,
the actor never really disappears into the character.
But Tom Hanks is the only example that I can give you that that doesn't bother me.
Yeah.
Like I saw Tom Hanks the whole time.
I never really saw James Donovan, but I didn't have to.
His performance was so strong that you could show me a picture of James Donovan.
I'm like, no, that's not him.
Because that, because he doesn't look like Tom.
Because Hanks has that ability to just imprint himself in your brain.
And that's who that character is.
Yeah.
And he does that here.
He has that like ability with that undertone of Don't mess with me.
Yeah.
That I think he walks that line very well in this film.
But I get without going too deep into it.
Because I think there's a lot of this story that I want people to experience on their own.
Yeah.
That, you know, he's there and he's the gentleman.
And, you know, we're here talking, but you understand by looking at me and how stern I am that this
is going to happen my way, whether you want it to or not.
And he does that in a non-threatening way.
That works so well.
Now that being said, my worry about these kind of films at this time of year is that,
okay, we've got this film with this blockbuster director and this multi Oscar winning actor.
We're just going to put them together and let them do a movie.
So the awards ceremonies will have something to talk about.
On a certain level, this film is that.
But it doesn't bother me because the film is that good.
Yeah.
It's not like, I don't think it takes anything.
It's not like Academy voters.
Now for two and a half hours.
It's, this is what this is.
And you're going to sit back and you're going to enjoy yourself for two and a half
hours and not worry about it being a lobby for the actor director or anyone in the
Caster crew.
I mean, playing so well from the reviews, everybody, let's just face it.
This is Oscar bait.
This film, even before people are know, this is going to be in an Oscar talk.
We garbage.
Well, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
And some will see it that way.
But for me, I was totally okay.
Yeah.
So I'm going to film if it had been released in February.
Like, it's not, it doesn't pander.
Like a lot of films of its ilk can do when you're trying to lobby for a
award recognition.
This film doesn't pander, which I loved about it.
Well, yeah.
It's not what they're saying.
Let's release it at the end of December.
And let's announce the little things to the credit.
With the for your consideration, where they're going to sound free movie and put
everybody listed.
So we'll get the Oscar.
And we don't want to mention any names.
Quentin Tarantino.
But it does happen.
Wow.
Tell me I'm lying.
Tell me I'm lying.
I can't.
This year, especially tell me I'm lying.
And it's probably going to happen again.
Mm-hmm.
The one thing I wanted.
One thing that I really wanted is the look.
The look of that film.
Very strong.
That's a very strong vision.
It's a very strong vision.
And apparently, Kaminsky's first film with Spielberg was Schimmer.
He's done every film with, with Spielberg ever since.
So he's done Amastad.
Yes.
He's done the law of the world.
He did private riot.
He did.
In pistol skull.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Because I remember those scenes just hit me.
Well, he's going on the train and something happens at the wall.
You knew what you want to talk about.
Oh, yeah.
You had a Schimmer flashback.
Yo, you definitely have a Schimmer flashback.
It just like, it just like, this is reality.
And it was depicted well.
I mean, what else do you have to say?
I mean, strong performances.
You have Oscar winner Amy Ryan in this as well.
Who isn't in it a ton.
But she stands total.
Yes.
He does.
Playing his wife.
It's like she provides him with the emotional way that he kind of needs before he tips over.
It was both.
She was in both films that we screened.
I was going to mention that.
I thought that was going to be.
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's been a long day.
Yeah.
But I mean, is there anything we want to talk about before we get to the.
Before we get to the final analysis?
It's to me.
It was good to see a film that Spielberg has directed that that didn't have me looking at my watch because.
Agreed.
Yeah.
Warhorse and Lincoln were both kind of snorfests for me.
I like the way you feel about this film done.
Yeah.
It's how I felt about this last two.
I didn't feel that with this one.
Yeah.
Warhorse and Lincoln almost put me into a coma.
Lincoln was good, but it just had that.
It was there was way too much.
It was just talk talk talk.
Yeah.
Exactly.
It was the 20 mile per hour card and a 35 mile per hour zone.
More like a 10.
Well, yeah.
But still.
I did.
There was some incredible scenes.
Some heartfelt scenes.
We're at the end.
We're almost saying this.
He's on the train.
And it.
It just flashback hit.
And you know what I'm talking about.
But with little kids, it's all I'm going to say.
And it's just like the reality of it.
That was a very powerful thing.
And I think had to be said.
Yeah.
There was a ton of powerful scenes on this.
What I recommend this film.
Definitely.
Do I hit it?
No.
There was just that one thing.
And I got to admit.
My bar was so high on this film on expectations.
When you got that dream.
Oh no.
Agreed.
Yeah.
But still.
Overall.
We're getting it.
Yeah.
We'll ask you that for the analysis.
Alright.
Final analysis.
We don't give you letter grades.
We don't give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We don't give you stars numbers from one to ten.
Our audience whom we affectionately refer to as the empire is better than that.
What we do is we ask two questions.
Question number one says, would you see this film again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
If the answer is yes, then it's going to be how far are you willing to go to see it?
You're going to pay full price in the evening.
You're going to go to a twilight show.
You're going to go to a matinee.
You're going to go early morning on a weekend.
You're going to catch it in second run at the dollar theater.
You're going to leave your house to go get it from red box.
You're going to stream it on Netflix.
You're going to wait for it on cable.
Don.
Let's start with you.
Would you see this film again?
Oh, yeah.
I definitely would still easily recommend this film.
How far are you willing to go?
Just because of the car, the flow thing, which we talked about.
I'm going to say matinee on this one.
Yeah.
But you see this one again?
Absolutely.
How far are you willing to go?
I don't know.
Is this thing doing a premium format showing?
Do I?
Are they doing an eye max screening of it?
Or?
I don't think so.
Because I really don't think it's necessary.
We saw it in the Dolby atmosphere.
Yeah.
I don't really don't think it is.
It's the kind of thing that it is a perfect date night movie.
I think something that's really going to.
It's going to stimulate your mind and still entertain you.
So would you say twilight then go to dinner after?
Or would you say dinner then then full price?
I would go full price because I think the movie is good enough for it.
Okay.
I think it definitely deserves it.
I would see this film again.
I would pay full price.
I think it's good for an after dinner date night movie.
Not before.
It's just so good.
And it's the performances are so strong.
And after a couple of weeks after this film releases,
you're not going to want to be the person that's not around other people talking about it.
Because it's going to be a movie that people are going to be talking about for a long time coming.
And it gives her great conversation on the drive home.
That's one of the things that I always consider is that you can raise good talking points on the way home.
Let's hear that.
We got to thank Jenna again, Susan Jacobs and everybody at Susan Jacobs and corporate it.
And everybody does need for inviting us to this thing.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Everything you do for us.
Anything else?
That's it.
Let's do the plugs.
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I end.
I'm at chat in PG69.
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Email Don with details and how we can come to a live show for you.
We're getting ready to do one this coming weekend as we record this for Dallas video fest.
Come hang out with us then.
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Look at that and go, hey, maybe I want this madness at my point.
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I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com.
I am Chad at clubhousepodcast.com.
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And Joe's want me to enjoy this as well.
Yes, she did.
She did quite a bit.
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Clubhouse is closed.
Pretty Palmer, what's up.
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