Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to another episode of movie deputy reviews. Before I jump right into this one, I want to apologize for not getting a review up yesterday. I've been dealing with a few health issues and some cardiac stuff that's kind of involved with all that. And so I do apologize. So instead of doing Friday Saturday episodes this weekend, I am doing Saturday Sunday. So you're gonna get one today and you're gonna get one tomorrow. So I normally take Sundays off, but I want to make up for not getting yesterday's up. So you will get that. Now, I am happy to announce that I'm going to be bringing you here a movie today that I've been talking about for a bit. I'm finally going to be talking about challengers now. I'm not talking about the space shuttle that exploded. I'm talking about the new movie with Zendaya about, oh, at least the trailers let you think it's about tennis. Now, you know me. No spoilers on that. But this definitely is not the movie that you would expect going into this movie. Just based on the trailers, it looks like a very competitive type trailer movie, and it looks like a little bit of a complicated romance situation just because the two guys and her, but it doesn't really lead into where the story really goes. Now, you may be thinking, okay, but I mean, what are you talking about with this one? Well, it's. I kind of came up with this right after I got done watching the movie is all's fair in love and love. Now, if you're not aware, tennis, the scoring is done in love. And then, of course, love in the traditional sense. This the story here that we deal with. We see Zendaya and we see these other two guys, and we see they're getting ready to participate in a bunch of these tournaments and stuff in order to get to the.
[00:01:44] The USTA, the United States Tennis association, and to kind of get to the US Open. That's. So that's. Or I think that's what it's called, the big prize in tennis or whatever that is. And in order to get there, I guess the top, like 100 people qualify every year. But then there's like an additional 20 something spots that you have to compete in order to qualify for. And that's kind of what we're seeing here. We're watching these kids from high school age on up into adulthood. And that part of the movie jumps around a little bit. It's kind of jumping back and forth from the future, back to their past, back to their youth, and then back to the future. Future and then back to the past.
[00:02:22] It is important to let people know on this that there are multiple scenes in this movie where I swear, either the GoPro is attached directly to the ball or to their heads. Because if you are at all sensitive to motion sickness, this is a movie to avoid. If I don't get motion sick and even I was almost feeling nauseous, there were, I'd say the theater is about 80% sold out when I went to this one. And within the first 30 minutes, I'd probably say ten to 20% of the audience got up and just left. It just was not the movie that they were thinking. It's not the movie that the trailer promises you. If you are a fan of Zendaya, then you are going to probably like this. If you are a fan of tennis, you will probably like this. But if you're not looking for a movie about specifically one or one of those subjects, you might be kind of disappointed. Because in this one, it's a lot more about a very complicated love triangle than it is about tennis. Because you see these two guys vying for Zendaya's attention, or obviously her character's name is not Zendaya. In this one, it is Tashi. Tashi. Tashi.
[00:03:42] Oh, no. My brain's gonna blank. Tashi Duncan. Sorry about that. But, and, but. So they're both like trying to vie for Tashi's attention, but it quickly becomes apparent that they, that these two boys have had a relationship. So, of course the Alphabet community is going to appreciate that, but not so much anybody else because it touches on that and she doesn't.
[00:04:07] Tashi kind of plays up and kind of like, gets things going more that, and then it just kind of becomes a game. And I'm not talking the game of tennis. I'm talking it's a game of relationship. She ends up with one of these guys, and yet she's still messing around with the other guy, but not in the typical type of manner.
[00:04:28] It's not about their relationship as much as it's about a control thing and. But who has the more control? Do they have it or does she have it? And, like, what? Where are the power dynamics in this relationship?
[00:04:41] Honestly, that part might take you by surprise. If, like I said, if you can deal with all the rest of that and want to come along on this journey, that's entirely up to you. But this one is just not.
[00:04:55] It's not what you would expect. And the language, if you are sensitive to strong language, I would definitely avoid this if you are sensitive to some very woke. The entire movie is not woke in the general sense, but there are a couple comments along the way and it's like, okay, that was intentional. There's no way that that was not intentional. And it's just kind of playing out like that. It's just, it's not difficult to follow, but you really have to pay attention because of the fact that it's like ten years before, 13 years ago, twelve years forward, six years back. It's not a consistent time frame, so you really have to pay attention. And in your brain you're like, okay, where am I jumping to? Forward or backward? And because it's like I said, this whole thing is about tennis, but that's not what the movie is about.
[00:05:50] I know that sounds really confusing. So if you're just looking for an upbeat sports movie of something that's self lifting and inspiring, this is not going to be the movie for you. If, like I said, if you're looking for something that is just aimed at college age kids, I mean, that's probably the target audience for something like this. And it's just, I don't know. It's just over the top on just about everything. Was it done well with what it is told?
[00:06:21] I don't know. Oh, somebody asked me what I personally thought when I walked out of the theater.
[00:06:26] And that's where it gets hard because I can separate my personal feelings from what I want to give it on the deputy scale. And sometimes that's really hard to do. But sometimes those initial reactions when people first ask me what I think about a movie are sometimes the most honest. And this one was just one of those ones. As he goes, so what did you think of challengers? And I went, it's horrible. That was first words out of my mouth. But I'm like, okay, that's from my personal perspective. That's not from deputy perspective. Looking at it just rating entirely on the deputy scale, it's, it really struggles. It's. It's a decent story. There are significant flaws. Like, if you're really paying attention to continuity things, there were numerous things. And I don't want to. I usually don't give away what a lot of those things are because then by the time you sit down and watch the movie, that's all you can focus on. And I can't help but notice these. It's like I just have one of those brains and I'm like, oh, that got my attention.
[00:07:30] But this is just one of those ones that it just does not live up to what we were promised in the. In the previews and in the trailers and everything like that for this. I'm just. I don't know what I was expecting, but this definitely was not it. So taking into account everything with the story on this, I am giving challengers just a 5.25 out of ten on the deputy scale. And honestly, I think that's being generous because the story is just. It's weak at best. And of course this is getting a guilty rating by far, recording this with my office door open, which I never really do. But before I get too much into that, you probably haven't heard me mention my babies for the last couple episodes. And nothing really is a whole lot unusual. Except we do have our new wheel from one fast cat. It's a little bit different than our old one, and there I think they're still trying to get adjusted to it, and I think so are we, because honestly, the new wheel is made makes a little bit more noise than what the old wheel did, but again, they're just having a ball with it. So if you've ever had cats and wanted to do that, be sure to check out one fast cat on that. But back to the movie.
[00:08:52] If you're just like I said, if you're looking for a feel good sports movie, this one is just not going to be it. But if you are a fan of complicated romance and you're just looking for a college age, semi woke ish, lgbtq, elemental, p type film, then this one is going to be right up your alley. If not, I hope that you have not seen this yet and that you can save your money on the tickets. Be sure. And no, I did not forget what today's date is either. So if you were coming on today actually expecting a Star wars movie, I debated about that. I really did. Because in the theaters, at least locally, they are replaying Phantom Menace as it's the 25th anniversary and of course with today being May 4, may the fourth be with you.
[00:09:46] I debated about coming on with some Star wars movies for today, but I have been promising challengers for a while, so that's the one I wanted to bring to you today. Be sure to come back tomorrow. And of course you know which buttons to push so you always get the latest and greatest from the movie deputy episodes. And until next time, I will talk to you soon. Bye.
