Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] You know, sometimes being a movie critic is harder than it sounds. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Movie Deputy. Love Movie Deputy Reviews. I mean, I've been doing it almost 11 years. So welcome back and thank you for coming back to Movie Deputy Reviews. If this is your first visit, welcome. If you are a returning visit, of course, welcome to you as well. I love you all and I want to apologize. I have been around. I have been around for a couple of days. I've been dealing with some health stuff. A lot of people know that I found out this last summer that I have cancer and I also have some other chronic health conditions. And so some days it's a lot harder to get up and going than others. And I've really been struggling with some stuff for the last couple days. So I wanted to apologize. I did. With even with everything going on, I snuck out to the theater to see a movie that I had not seen yet and that I had never gotten a screener on. And it got my attention. Not necessarily for being a memorable or something that jogged my memory. It's not necessarily not memorable to something that didn't like jog my memory the way that it typically would. But this movie has been coming out and it's a musical about a pop star that I guess is supposed to be world renowned that I've never heard of. And you might not have heard of him either. His name is Robbie Williams. Now I've heard he's big in the uk, which is awesome. I mean for the people over there. But it's like he's. They're talking about this world renowned pop star and I looked at this, this guy up and okay, as I went through some of his songs and stuff on YouTube, I'm sitting there going, okay, you know, I've heard a couple of these, but I never put two and two together. Who the artist was and they weren't some of those songs that I just had to run out and check out and download and look, look up and favorite and all this other stuff. So I was just kind of going, who is this guy and why is he a monkey? So I hope you know a movie I'm talking about by now. Today we're talking about Better Man. And again, I wanted to apologize. Like I said, I've been off for a few days. I hope everybody's enjoying the new format of where everything's going live on YouTube a day before it's going live everywhere else. If you always want the late, get the first the latest and greatest from Moby Deputy reviews, make sure to go over and like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And also be sure and turn on those notifications that you don't miss a single episode when they go live. I was playing around today a little bit with the whole video thing because I'm really trying to teach myself how to do the whole video in video thing. I'm still trying to figure that out. I figured out how to add a video to the video after I record it, but I'm trying to do that as I'm going. So it's like more a reaction type video for trailers and things like that along with my reviews. So they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but this dog is still learning. So I refuse to give up. Now. I do want to say up front about Better man that if nothing else, this movie deserves acknowledgment for a very unconventional reason. This movie is probably going to end up on the top 100 of all time of the most uses of the F word in a movie. Now, that's not necessarily a claim to fame, but aside from the microphone and in everyday life, I tend to use the F word more like Monty Python. So that is a very common word in my own vocabulary. So I found that part of the movie just kind of slightly entertaining. But it was very distracting from what they were trying to do. It was both distracting and not distracting, as basically this movie is just over two hours long and it's basically a fever dream.
[00:03:34] You're wondering what I mean by that. I'm gonna be getting to that here in a second. But like I said, everybody's probably just going. Robbie Williams, who? I mean, when I went to see this at the theater, the screen that I went to had, I think 96 seats in it, and there were maybe 40, maybe 50 people. It's about half full. When I went in there. When the movie was done, there were six other people besides me still in the theater. So everybody else had kind of got up and left. Now, I had noticed some people like getting up and like walking out, but I hadn't paid attention to, like, how many people were leaving and then how many versus how many people were coming back from like bathroom drinks, drinks or running to the bar or whatever at the theater. Then, yes, the theater that I go to does have a bar as well as the concession stand and everything with that. Not that that really matters much, but I will say this movie was done by the same people who did the Greatest Showman, which is one of my top favorite movies. Of all time. It's easily top 10. And I just absolutely love that. I've seen Greatest Showman more times than I can count. I can sing along to all the songs. I know all the words. It's just an amazing story. A lot of people may disagree with some of the things in that story, but the movie the Greatest Showman is absolutely fantabulous. And I'm going to be posting that review up in the next couple days, so be sure to hang around for that. But in this one, it just. I. It feels more like Rocket man than like Greatest Showman. And I may be thinking, okay, Rocket man, that's an Elton John movie and that's a great movie. Yes, that one is great as well. But this one, it tries so hard to be that one that it doesn't quite.
[00:05:15] It just gets lost in itself. And it shows this little kid who is so desperate for a connection with people. He's desperate for this connection with his dad, and he's desperate for even that connection with himself. He's trying to learn who he is. He's different from the other kids, and he's the last one picked for the teams. And he is close to his mom and his grandmother, but his dad basically has interest in performing. And so Robbie thinks, okay, if I want to be like my dad, I have to do this. And so he starts doing that. And he quickly develops this very in your face type attitude that makes a name for himself. It really does make a name for himself. And it quickly turns into something where he's either going to be famous or absolutely infamous. Now why. Why is that such a big deal? It's because he is so desperate to be on top that he quickly loses the way. It's like as soon as one door opens, he slams it back shut because of decisions that he's making in his life. So throughout the movie we see that he's either drunk or he's stoned, or he's just high and there's going cocaine and narcotics. And it deals with some other adult issues as well that are gonna be very triggering for a lot of people. There. There are a couple highlights in this movie.
[00:06:41] There's one with a member of All Saints or representing a person from all the group, All Saints. And you may not recognize that name either, but at least I recognize that one a little bit more than Robbie Williams, which I was kind of surprised on. And then there is something at the very end which, you know me, no spoilers, so I won't spoil anything. But it's just this story is truly about be careful what you wish for, because you can get everything you've ever wanted and still have nothing.
[00:07:13] Now you're like thinking, what?
[00:07:16] But that's really what. What this boils down to is once he gets to that point, he finally has everything he's ever wanted. He realizes that he has not nothing.
[00:07:25] And that's really a different take for a story such as this.
[00:07:30] It's. It's not difficult to watch, it's not painful to watch, but it's not enjoyable. I. There was a few people I've just randomly talked to at the theater, and one of the management at the theater said that, you know, out of this movie, I've heard this many people come out and say, yeah, this is a great movie. You should see this. Or, you know, you should really go see this one. This is really good. They said they haven't heard a single person saying that coming out of this movie. Even with all of the fanfare and all of the hoopla and everything else, there hasn't been a single bit of that. And then throughout the whole movie, you're wondering, what's with the monkey? And it never quite explains what the monkey. I mean, like, I think it was like $100 million that it cost for him to do the whole things with the face to where he is, this monkey. And there's. There's nudity. But a nude monkey, I mean, okay, a nude monkey isn't that unusual, but when a human is a nude monkey, that's. It's.
[00:08:31] If that sounds confusing to you, then yeah, you can kind of get the general gist of the story. You may be wondering where I ended up with score wise. And I think I already mentioned that this is a guilty movie as well. Very guilty.
[00:08:44] It's just, yeah, it lacks in both passion and performance.
[00:08:50] It there. Like I said, there's a few fun scenes, but it's just not enough to carry it. So score wise on the deputy scale, I was really struggling. I was like, right, honest. I just. With the movie deputy scale, I have a quarter point rating system. I have. It's like full points. Then I do like 0.25, 0.5, 0.75. And then the next point, just because whole numbers don't always capture the essence of a movie. And honestly, I was coming in right at a 2.75, maybe a 3, if I'm being generous on this one. And then I was stopping to think, okay, with a three, it's mean. It's okay. If you really must see this Wait till it comes out on DVD, Blu Ray, digital, etc. And A2 is painful, confusing.
[00:09:40] Now, there are definite parts of this movie, or the majority of this movie, that is somewhat confusing to the point of saying painful though it's close, just not quite. And so ultimately I am coming in at an even 3 out of 10 on the deputy scale. So if this is one that you really must see, save your money, wait till it comes out.
[00:10:05] I mean, rent it at home if you must, but I mean, the cost of movie tickets and everything like that, this one just.
[00:10:11] It's trying so hard to be something it's not. And you realize this is made about an actual person. I mean, Robbie Williams is a real person. He's a real pop star, world renowned is maybe stretching it a bit, but he is definitely well recognized within that small group of people. But was it enough to do this with or was this just too much with? Not enough.
[00:10:36] And that's ultimately where this kind of ends up is, like I said a little bit ago, it lacks in both passion and performance. So I hope that this is going to help you at least a little bit. As always, I can't wait to come back and talk to you again soon. Until later. Bye.
