Ant-Man and the Wasp

[00:00:02] From the Bramble Jam Podcast Network Studios, it's Marvel Mondays with Brandon and Ryan. It's Marvel Mondays. With Brandon and Ryan. I'm off because of the delay. Marvel Mondays with Brandon and Ryan. It's Marvel Mondays with Brandon and Ryan. That's Marvel Mondays. Brandon and Ryan. That's it. Yes. Welcome everybody. Casey, sit it down.

[00:00:31] Man, what else can we do to alienate Deck The Hallmark listeners? They're already mad at us about the way home. You know, what else can we do around here? I mean, you could argue that there probably someone out there is mad that we kick off the week with Marvel. With Marvel Mondays. Hey, Deck The Hallmark. What are we doing on Mondays? It's a bold choice. It's a bold choice. Hi, everybody. It's great to be here today. Marvel Monday. We're back. And better and better than ever? Wow. That's what many are saying. I didn't want to be the one to break that. But yeah, we are better than ever from what I understand.

[00:01:00] Better than ever. Was it last? We weren't off. We were back last week. No, we were off last week. Memorial Day was last Monday. Was it? Yeah, ma'am. Okay. We took that whole week off. Yeah, that's right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, it was two weeks ago. It was an early Memorial Day. It was a late Memorial Day, May 30th. I'm all out of sorts. It was an early Memorial Day, May 25th. May 31st, we were back. Yeah, we were back. We were back. We did Infinity War. Infinity War. Infinity War. That's right.

[00:01:30] We're all out of sorts, but it's great to be here. Rye Guy, how are you? And what do you have prepared for us today? Oh, man, I was hoping that you would zig and zag here. I don't know if I have a time. I am a little nervous. I don't know if I should bring this up because by the time this airs, this will have already happened. Oh, fascinating. Did you see Tori Kelly sing the national anthem? I did. I thought she crushed it. She was great. That's what I'm here to talk about.

[00:01:58] I thought she played it by and large by the numbers and then gave a little flair and I thought it was excellent. A little extra sauce. Yeah, but you have not heard from Tori or her reps. No, no. However, okay, this works out perfectly. So right before the anthem, after game one of the NBA finals, go New York, go New York, go. They have since won the NBA title by the time of this airing. Wow. In three. They've won it in three. They've won it in three. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

[00:02:27] Really a controversial. Wouldn't that be two? This is coming out before game three. I want to be very clear. So you're calling. Three's tonight. I'm calling my shot. They're 2-0. They won the second one in San Antonio. Wow. And they're going to the garden and they're going up. Three-O's. What were you saying? Calling my shot. Wow. Like that spineless commissioner, Adam Silver, another controversial call. I got to be honest. I already am on pins and needles about the game in the garden just watching. I want full sound. I might put earbuds in because I just want to hear it.

[00:02:56] It just is going to be electric. They got in. Anyway, honestly, even that ties into what I'm about to say. Go ahead. So right before even game in theory, because there will be a game four breaking news, no matter what. There's going to be a game four of the NBA finals. It's too much money to not. Yeah. Yeah. So right before she sang the anthem last week, she dropped a link for on Instagram. New York residents sign up here or New York adjacent.

[00:03:23] And what she did in LA a couple of weeks ago, she's now doing in New York the day before her concert in the garden this coming Thursday, where she's going to have a very intimate listening party for her album, which comes out on Friday. Right. God loves me most. What is it called? God must really love me. God must really love me. Yeah. That was close. Yeah. And so I signed up. I got very lucky. I was on my phone while it happened. You know, I signed up immediately. And the first 35 people who are SVP apparently locked in, get invited.

[00:03:53] You were within the first 35? I don't know this. I don't know. See, that's why I didn't want to talk about this. I was about to say. I don't know. 35. Oh, my goodness. I don't know. I feel like I'm not exaggerating. I did this within two minutes of this. There's no way he's in the first 35. Two minutes? That's a long time. Well, I'm saying two minutes. No, no, no. I hit it immediately. Two minutes from soup to nuts to have to put in the information. Soup to nuts. Soup to nuts. Two minutes. Wait. So you saw it right when she posted it? Exactly when. Exactly when.

[00:04:23] I clicked it and then you had the next one. Man. How did you lucky? So we're saying there's a chance here. I got, you know, when it's not her actually DMing me, but when she DMed me. She slid me a DM. Yeah. Like, you know, I clicked it immediately and then everyone had to fill out the same form that I had to fill out. My one regret is I have an email that exactly matches my Instagram handle and I have an email that doesn't. And I was like, oh, maybe just to make sure I don't confuse them, I should use the email that matches the handle.

[00:04:52] And that cost me 10 valuable seconds. But at this point right now, I do not know whether or not I'm getting this. But if it happens, Alyssa and I, this is the night. So this would be really cool. It'd be on a Wednesday. Intimate viewing party. Listening to her new album. She'll play a few songs. Yeah, I've heard of both ways. This is big. Yeah. Thursday concert at MSG. Friday, the album comes out. Wow. This would be nuts. But I'm going to be like, I'm like, I'm really going to be disappointed.

[00:05:21] But the next tie in, I'm a little worried if it happens on Wednesday because that's the game four. Game four at the garden. I feel like traffic, I mean, depending on where it is. You're going to be in it. Yeah. I mean, so I'm hoping it's like in like Brooklyn or something. Like, you know, but. Let me ask you this. If you do get to go to the listening party. I'm going to bring up the wedding for sure. You've got to bring up the wedding. Have the reel ready to go. Be like, hey, did you happen to see this? See this one? Yeah.

[00:05:50] And then also, like, also, I don't know how it's going to work, but imagine it's like we're going track by track and she's asking for feedback. I'd be like, yeah, this one would sound great at a wedding. At a wedding. Coincidentally. A fall wedding. Yeah. Maybe Thursdays. It's, you know, a very standard choice. Well, listen, she's playing a big concert on a Thursday. That's right. She's used to. She'd understand. She's used to it. I mean, it's the garden. You can take it whatever day you can get it. She's used to it. So I'm very nervous.

[00:06:19] Not as nervous as I am about Dan hearing my hot take here in a few minutes. Wow. I'm sorry that you're nervous. Good segue. We're talking about Ant-Man and the Wasp. Ant-Man and the Wasp. Big movie. Infinity War. Half of the population just turned to dust. Where do we turn to? Hank, Pym, and the gang. That's right.

[00:06:45] Before that, and this came out only, Bran, I think you'll confirm in a second, only a few months after. Yeah, man. This came out to everybody July 6th of 2018. A week earlier, if you're at the El Capitan theater. Ooh, El Capitan. They dissed the Dolby? Dissed the Dolby. For this one, yes. The Dolby. Well, I mean, it's Ant-Man and the Wasp. We're going to El Capitan. We're going to El Capitan. And it went a little something like this.

[00:07:12] We opened to a flashback to the day that, back in the day, when Hank and his wife, Janet Van Dyne, were the original Ant-Man and the Wasp. And things were going great until Janet gets trapped in the quantum realm. What? Turns out, not an ideal vacation. So fast forward to after the event of the Civil War, not that Civil War.

[00:07:40] Scott is nearing the end of his house arrest. He's trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his nose clean. Hank and Hope briefly open a tunnel to the quantum realm, which somehow causes Scott to have a vision of Janet as a little girl playing hide and seek with somebody. And instead of questioning any of this, everybody says, that's proof Janet is alive. That's proof.

[00:08:10] Hope and Hank kidnap Scott, replacing him with a giant ant wearing his ankle monitor so that the police will be none the wiser. The trio sets out to rescue Janet. But first, they need a special part from a shady businessman named Sonny Burch. And Sonny immediately realizes that there's money to be made, so naturally, I'm going to betray you. And it's going to lead to a fight with a mysterious masked woman named Ghost, who steals

[00:08:39] Hank's entire portable laboratory. Trying to get the lab back, they visit Hank's old partner, Bill Foster, who explains that Ghost is actually Ava Starr, who is the daughter of another former colleague whose experiment was very wrong. And now Ava is constantly phasing in and out of existence, which is painful, if you can believe it. For all of us, really. So what is her plan?

[00:09:06] Her plan is to steal Janet's quantum realm energy to save herself, even if it means killing Janet in the process. Meanwhile, Janet starts sending messages to the quantum realm through Scott, providing them with the directions that they need. She warns them that they only have a couple of hours before the quantum realm decides to strain them for another couple hundred years. So you're going to want to do this right now. So things get a little complicated. Sonny learns where they are.

[00:09:35] The FBI arrests Hank and Hope. Ava steals the lab. It's a lot, but also not anything. Eventually, Scott helps everybody escape. They recover the lab. Hank ventures into the quantum realm to rescue Janet. He finds her alive, looking, I got to be honest with you, fantastic, given the circumstances. Looking great.

[00:10:00] What follows is a giant chase, or should I say a small chase, then a giant chase, then a small chase, then a giant chase. A lot of size changing is what I'm trying to say. While Scott and Hope deal with Sonny and Ghost, Hank successfully brings Janet home. And rather than her being upset about the whole Ava situation, she ends up using some of her quantum powers to stabilize Ava. It's going to be an ongoing situation. Ongoing situation, for sure. I'm going to help right now. Ava's important.

[00:10:30] In the end, Scott finally completes his house arrest. Sonny gets arrested. Ava and Bill go into hiding. Everybody seems happy. That's the end of the movie, right? It's happy. It was fun. There's no way a mid-credit scene could be this monumental, right? It's just not. Wrong, Dan. It's a happy-go-lucky-fun-everybody-wins movie. No, because we get a mid-credit scene where Scott heads back into the quantum realm, and he's collecting some more energy for Ava.

[00:10:58] And just as he's ready to head home, they're counting down. Three, two. Radio silence. And then we see that Hank, Hope, and Janet have all turned to dust thanks to our old pal, Thanos. Scott is trapped in the quantum realm. And that, my friends, was Ant-Man and the Wasp. It's the Ant-Man. We did it. And the Wasp. All right. Let's take a break.

[00:11:28] We'll come back. We'll break this movie down here on Deck the Hallmark. You ever hear that little stinger in your dreams, Dan? I don't, but it sounds like you do. No, I don't. Oh, okay. A lot. Okay. Wow. Great. I'm going to be honest. All right. Let's share our thoughts here, everybody, on this movie. We're going to start with a hot take.

[00:11:56] So we'll share exactly how you felt about this movie. Ryguy teased a hot, hot take. So I'm going to kick it over to you first, Ryguy. I mean, I suppose that the take itself isn't that hot. I think it will be hot to Dan that I like this movie a lot more than he does because he seemingly thinks that it's really, really, really bad. I don't think this movie is really, really, really bad. I want to be very clear. I don't think this movie. I'll wrap back around to that in a second. I will say it's an interesting choice. We talked a little bit about this at the end of Infinity War.

[00:12:27] It's an interesting choice to put two films in between Infinity War and Endgame. At the time, I really don't remember, like I said last time, anyone being too bummed about it. It really shows how hot the MCU was. But it's nothing they would ever do now. They wouldn't even if they wanted to now. They don't have the luxury to do it. People would riot.

[00:12:50] And what is interesting about this film and borderline confusing is they've already told us that the MCU doesn't release linearly. Linearly. Is that right? Linearly. Linearly. Linearly. Linearly. I've heard it. Linearly. I've heard it both ways, to be fair. Wow. I mean, now that you said it, I have two. Yeah. Linearly. Linearly. Linearly. Linearly. But there is nothing. Linearly.

[00:13:20] Get off the shit, Linearly. Sorry, back to you. There's nothing at the start of this film that's like, hey, just so you know, this happens before Infinity War. And again, this came out two months after Infinity War. So in retrospect, it's a bit of an odd decision and the most jarring kind of out of order swap they'll do. It's also just nuts in thinking about this. I'll talk more about this in a minute. That Ant-Man will wind up after this with three standalone films.

[00:13:47] And for example, The Hulk and Black Widow only combined for two at this point in the MCU. We haven't even gotten to the Black Widow movie. Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, like, you know. So to my point from the top, I saw this movie in theaters. I saw it only once. And I thought now what I thought then was that it's a charming little film. I also think where I saw it made a big difference. There used to be about 10 minutes down the road. El Capitan. The El Capitan. The El Capitan.

[00:14:18] Yeah. There was this charming little dump of a theater. Had not changed since the late 80s or early 90s. They were like, they had like dead stock, like Pepsi popcorn bags. And it was like the perfect setting to see a movie like this. That although I'm telling you I really like, and you might be surprised at how high I have it in my rankings, isn't important. The movie's not important to the MCU until the very last 30 seconds, which happened after the first bit of credits. And it really isn't important to life in general. Okay.

[00:14:45] As long as you'll say those two things then and not go crazy with your ranking, I don't know what I have to be upset about. Okay, good. All right. Well, I mean, I think this would have been a much better, didn't exist at the time, Disney plus series than it would have been a film, but it's a very breezy film. And I do like that the events of civil war really matter here. It's cool that that was kind of injected as a main plot point. I had completely forgotten about this film as villain to the point where this villain is a part of Thunderbolts and I didn't remember who she was.

[00:15:14] We did the same thing we're watching together. I was like, does she ever come back? And Brand's like Thunderbolts. I looked it up. Apparently she's a principal character. Apparently she's returning to doomsday too. Cool. Yeah. But like, I can remember being in the theater the two times I saw Thunderbolts in theaters going, I've seen every one of these films and like to think I'm a pretty educated MCU fan. And I, so I haven't thought about this movie since. Yeah, exactly. This is all leaning towards back half of the catalog. Right guy. Yes.

[00:15:43] Everything you've said is, is a back half ranking. Yeah. I'll have to pull up letterbox here in a second. My last point, Scott and Pina, always a fun dynamic. We'll talk about this when we get there, when we get to quantum mania, but Ant-Man is critical to the events of both civil war and especially end game. That's what this post-credit scene sets up. But he really is for as much as Scott Lang is a fun character. And for as much as I assume we all love Paul Rudd and think that like, and clearly this

[00:16:11] character is very popular in these films were very popular. That's why they made three of them. Um, he's a device for end game, a very funny and clever device, but a device. So the fact that after these two Ant-Man movies and all, all, but admitting that he is a cog that is essential to make end game work so that the story can make sense. The fact that a couple of years from now, he is going to be a face-to-face with our hypothetical

[00:16:40] new big bad and they'd make the decisions that they make is baffling. And I can't wait to talk about it. Um, but as for this film, as I kill time, cause I should have already had letterboxed up, I enjoy it on its face and I'm seeing power ballad tonight. Yes. I don't need that ad right now. And I have Ant-Man and the Wasp 12th overall out of 20, out of 20, we're 21. How is it in relation to Ant-Man? Yeah. It's one ahead of Ant-Man. It's one ahead of Ant-Man.

[00:17:10] I like, I, I like, you know what the, wow. Yeah. That's the only surprise there for me. This is a, it's a, this is a breezy fun watch. I'll be honest. In my head, I was guessing out of 20, you had it at 13. Okay. So 12, but one ahead of Ant-Man. Okay. Unless we do this again, I can't fathom. I'll watch this movie many more times in my life. But if you, if you put it in front of me, I thought it was a fun, good time. And really my takeaways, as I kind of laid out there are more about what Ant-Man will be

[00:17:39] doing in the future and kind of how crazy all that is. It's crazy that everything you said was kind of like, I won't watch it again. It bubble, but like, what are the, can you read the eight movies you have lower than it now? Now I'm curious. You're not going to know. I was, you're not going to like that. I was hoping you're going to mask. You're, you're really specific. Just go ahead. I mean like now I'm curious. No, but you're going to be really mad at me about one of them in particular. Well, actually. If I promise I won't, will you read them? Okay. Sure. Well, I have, I have behind Ant-Man and the Wasp. I have Ant-Man. Yeah. I have Thor one. Yeah.

[00:18:09] That's Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange. Yep. We'll agree to disagree there. I, I, oh, I can't reveal one. So I'll skip over that. I'm a little ahead of you guys in terms of watch order. Um, I have dark world, incredible Hulk. Yeah. Yeah. Captain America one, your beloved Iron Man three. I have next to last. And I have guardians of the galaxy volume two last. Okay. I got you. Okay. Okay. And I, with Dr. Strange specifically, I appreciate the filmmaking. It's just, it's not. The biggest shocker to me is the, is Captain America one.

[00:18:39] I like, I love much lower on that film than most people. I love Dr. Strange, but I get that that is a polarizing movie. Captain America one being that low, that's, that was the biggest record scratch for me, but all in all. Yeah. I thought you were. Captain America one will end up a lot better than bottom three, just cause there's a lot of slop coming. Um, but, uh, but yeah. So, but again, like I, I would say, uh, and I know I'm taking up a lot of time here. I would say after my top eight shout out to my space, um, that there's, there's a cluster

[00:19:09] in the middle there, including Ant-Man and the last where all the movies are fine, but I'd probably get a similar review. I also think there's movies outside of the top eight are going to like give you a chocolate milk at lunch and be like, Hey, will you move me up? There's nothing that they can do. A hundred percent. It started as number nine is age of Ultrion. Uh, I will try to train me. I'll try and John train is a great, yeah, dude. I freaking love that dude. But yeah, starting with Ultron down below until we get kind of the bottom tier.

[00:19:37] They're all like, you know, here's where I will agree with you. Even though we don't have the same top eight, I also think there's a hard cut off at eight. I think the top eight movies are pretty unimpeachable as, as really great pieces of entertainment. And in some cases, even better than just great pieces of entertainment. My top eight, I'm like, I would watch all eight of those movies anytime they were on. But my top eight, we have, I think we have five of the same top black Panther, Iron Man,

[00:20:02] infinity war, Avengers, winter soldier, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man homecoming guardians of the galaxy. I think we have six of the top eight. I think actually the only places where we veer are Ragnarok and civil war. Yeah. And you took those, put those in and you took out Avengers and Dr. Strange. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So six, I mean, I'm bringing up your top eight. Probably pretty similar. So honestly, maybe we're doing pretty good so far. We're doing pretty good. Yeah. I, this movie is fine. I, I do.

[00:20:30] I wrestle with it as somebody who like infinity war. There's just, it's so, it's just, this is crazy. It's insane. It is insane to me. And I don't remember like feeling any sort of way about this to a right guy's point. Like he didn't remember much pushback. And that could speak to what Marvel was doing at that time and how people were just going to watch anything and be excited about it.

[00:20:59] But for what we're doing here, this movie is insane. That's correct. It's insane. I'm with you. It matters so like you, you can't even, it's so small, just like an ant that you can't see how little this movie matters. That's the problem. It is, it is fun. It is funny. This movie made me laugh a lot. Yeah. But boy, howdy, does it not matter?

[00:21:26] And that mid credit scene is insult to injury for me. Like I, it, I was so like, what are we doing here? We just lost half the population. The last movie that I just watched. And now we're having, now we're having fun, silly time with, with, with Ant-Man and the Wasp until the mid credit scene where we find out that he's going to be stuck in a quantum like, it's just crazy. It was crazy to me. And so that's tough.

[00:21:53] So I actually have this movie right below Ant-Man one. I have Ant-Man one above it. And I have those two movies though, pretty low. I have Ant-Man at 17, Ant-Man and the Wasp at 18. So that's where I'm at. Dano. If you take out the mid, the mid credit scene in this movie and you place this movie in the middle of July in a random summer and just call it an Ant-Man sequel, I think breezy fun are both fine adjectives for this movie.

[00:22:22] I think the, the trappings of this movie make it a lot worse than that. I, I think this movie is hurt by not having really a true villain. I mean, I know that Walton Goggins is around and he's sunny. Birch is supposed to be our true villain. And then what's her name? Ghost. Ghost who is kind of a villain, but just trying to save herself. And Lawrence Fishburne is kind of a villain. And Randall Park is kind of a villain. This movie doesn't have a big bad in it.

[00:22:51] It is a very breezy, very forgettable movie to put it in perspective for you. Uh, after Avengers, there are 17 movies after Avengers before COVID. And the last of those is far from, uh, is far from home. Uh, the, the Spider-Man far from home. Right. And so that's right after a end game. Okay. And that would be, I think we would all agree all of those kinds of peak Marvel. There were better Marvel movies before then.

[00:23:17] There's some good ones after then, but those 17 movies are kind of like wheelhouse Marvel movies. The two lowest box office movies there by a country mile are Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. These movies are designed to be breezy, Paul Rudd, charming, inconsequential movies. So why is this movie in my bottom three? It's because this movie is supposed to be consequential.

[00:23:44] And that not only affects my standing with this movie, it also hurts infinity war for me. Like, and I'll get into that more later, but the idea that we even talked about a very specific instance where Ant-Man would come in handy during infinity war. And the idea that Ant-Man is alive and well during infinity war and is not given the courtesy

[00:24:11] of a phone call is just crazy. Like it's, I don't like, you can't expect, like it's an insult to the viewer for, for me to sit, you know, if you're eight years old and you're just enjoying this in a two hour vacuum, then great. But for me who just came off of infinity war is very excited. Look, Captain Marvel is going to come out and make $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office. And it's going to matter greatly in the grand scheme of things. And it's a prequel, right?

[00:24:41] This movie comes out after we just saw half of the world disappear. And we sat in silence in a movie theater with credits rolling as the big bad has won. This movie is an insult to my intelligence on that, in that regard. It just is. And I think you guys would both agree that it was a, just a huge mistake to make this movie matter as much as it did when it on its own.

[00:25:06] I think getting like Michelle Pfeiffer as the mom, like there's a lot of things here. The cast that you bring in Randall Park, Walton Goggins, Larry Fishburne, but Michelle Pfeiffer, like there's a lot here that can make this a really funny, fun time. But instead you're left with a movie that has some definite laughs in it and is easy breezy, but it has no ability to hold the weight that it's been asked to hold. And so if I look at this movie in a vacuum, I tend to agree with right guy.

[00:25:36] It is an easy breezy fun time that goes by very quickly, goes down easy. I would never watch it again, but I don't have anything bad to say about it on its surface. But if you look at it in the scheme of grand scheme of things and we're building to end game, this movie is kind of a travesty and it's not really, really, it's not poorly made. It just is so unfortunate that I'm, that I'm asked to just leave my brain at the door in the grand scheme of the MCU to watch this movie.

[00:26:04] And so that's tough for me. It doesn't pass muster in that regard. Whereas from a movie making standpoint, I think you could make an argument. It's as good, if not better than Ant-Man, but Ant-Man sits alone so perfectly that I have this one below Ant-Man, a movie that did not age as well for me as I remember it aging. I have this at 18 out of 20 right now, uh, behind Ant-Man ahead of Guardians 2, because duh. Uh, but yeah, that was, I found myself getting pretty angry at how insulting they are to

[00:26:33] the viewers here at this movie. Whereas would you agree with that though, Rye? Like totally. You know what's interesting though? I mostly based off of what you just said, granted, you know, these decisions are made for, you know, I'd have to look at what was in the theatrical window when Infinity War came out, but you could easily just swap these two movies. Infinity War could have come out in July and then this would probably be a lot more palatable for you. And you don't, and you don't, and you take out the, I would take out the, yeah. The mid credit scene is insulting. It's an insulting scene.

[00:27:01] The mid credit scene could have been a mid credit scene in Infinity War. Correct. Like, you know, like, you know, um, and like, you know, so I'd have to look at what was coming out in May and July of this year. If this movie takes out the mid credit scene and it comes out in September, I'm like thrilled that we have an oasis of summer blockbuster. That's just doesn't care about anything more than itself. The problem is that's not what this movie is doing. And I don't think that's Peyton Reed's fault. I don't think that's Paul Rudd's fault. I don't think that's anyone involved's fault.

[00:27:27] I think that it is the fault of the, the big head bosses at Marvel to look at things, as you would say, linearly and go, this movie should go here and it should matter. Right. And I think that sucks. Say it that way. Yeah. Thank you. All right. It's time for all the feels. That's where we're talking about what gave us feels. Right guy. Evangeline Lilly's first fight scene in this movie is a ton of fun. It's very classic Ant-Man one where, you know, human is going from big to small. To Brant's point from the recap, they do a lot of that with vehicles at the end of this movie. They do.

[00:27:57] But they don't do a lot of it with people, which was a bummer. It was, I mean, maybe they thought that between, you know, Civil War and the first Ant-Man that they had just gone to that well too many times. Well, in their defense, who's in the vehicle? Ant-Man. People. People. So it's two birds, one stone. Thank you, Bran. Yeah. And that's why, you know, they're in the car driving it as it gets big and small. So. Yeah. I, you know what? I rescind.

[00:28:27] So I, it just, it gave me really good feels, Bran. I appreciate that. Um, I believe my feels from the first Ant-Man was Michael Pena and his telling of the story and the way that they do that. And dadgum it, they did it again. It works, baby. And this time he's on the truth serum. That bit is going on. Very funny. At the same time. And the truth serum bit is fantastic. And at the end of the movie where the guy who has been very, who was the person giving

[00:28:54] the truth serum, uh, is like, Hey, it's not true serum. At the end of it, he's on the truth serum. And he goes, wow, it is true serum. Great. A great little bow there. And all of that involves Michael Pena, who is just a delight. And, uh, it works for me every time they do it. So, uh, same for me double, uh, Dan. Yeah. The truth, the truth serum bit is really, really funny. I think, you know, well, I've been talking about how great Walton Goggins is for a long

[00:29:21] time since the Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson movie, Shanghai noon. I've been a legit talk about that movie. I've been a legit Walton Goggins fan in justify one of my favorite TV shows of all time. He is amazing. What a waste here. What a waste of Walton Goggins. I like baby Billy from righteous gemstones. Like this guy is one of the best character actors living. Like he's so good and he's so wasted in this movie. He's great for what he does though. And what did he do? Who cares? Everything he says.

[00:29:51] What did anybody do in this? Yeah. I just, I don't, I don't know. I, but, and I also love Randall Park. I think everything he says is really funny. I think he plays this perfectly and they don't waste him nearly as much in this movie, but truth serum bit. Great. Randall Park, ton of fun. A waste of Walton Goggins is kind of unforgivable for me. And that's kind of what they do here. So there's that. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to the way one of the weather. The Home of the Marvel here on Deck the Home Mark. Linearly.

[00:30:23] Hello everybody. Welcome back. We're talking about Ant-Man and the Wasp today. Don't you forget about that Wasp. Okay. It's time of the way what. So we're talking about what in this movie is going to what. I'll start with you, Ryan. Guy. Yeah. The firefighters who found Ghost. What did they do with that info? That they found a person that was see-through. Or, or what did S.H.I.E.L.D. do with the firefighters who found her? These are the real questions you got to ask. There you go. These are the questions. Absolutely. Yeah. That's good. And then, all right.

[00:30:52] And then I rewound this one. And so I could be wrong or maybe I'm missing something. As to our point here, these films aren't the most memorable in terms of like, you know, you know, other than maybe the truth serum bit and the retelling the tale thing. But Evangeline Lilly calls Michael Pena's character Ben in the van when he's talking about Pez. Nothing burger moment. Not played for laps or anything. Except Michael Pena's character's name is Lewis. So unless they've been doing a runner.

[00:31:22] That's weird. Where she calls him the wrong name that I haven't. That's weird. I rewound it. It sounds like she calls him Ben. It's a real stumper for me. And it made me say wait. Wait, wait. When is it? So it's when they're in the car together. Yeah. They're in a van. And I have here that they're talking about Pez. That's what I have written down here. Yeah. And she calls him Ben. That's what he's got written down. He's listening. Yeah.

[00:31:50] And his character's name, as I wrote down here and as the internet told me, is Lewis. It sure is. So that would be a weird thing to call someone named Lewis Ben. Look this up. It's not like a William. Why does Wasp call Lewis Ben an Ant-Man? It's not like a Bill Williams situation. Like Lewis and Ben, I don't believe go hand in hand. His name is Lewis. Yep. Why? This is good. Keep looking it up. Are you done? That's it for me, Bran. Those were all my wait wants. I do. Two.

[00:32:18] Oh, I have one that is split up into two and then just an overarching. So you have three. We just need to discuss it. It's really, I just, okay, here we go. When Ant-Man, Scott, is like telling them what he saw in that first dream. Right, guy? You remember this? Yeah. And they're like, what else did you see? What else did you see? He's like, I mean, all I saw was her playing hide and seek with a little girl. Yeah.

[00:32:47] Maybe that's important. Yeah. He wasn't going to tell them that. They like had to like pry it out of them. And then she follows it up with the fact that she hid in the same spot every time she played hide and go seek with her mom. And to the movie's credit, Scott goes, I don't think that you're understanding the point of the game, which was very funny. I mean, when my kids were young, they would hide in the same spot. Yeah. I just, I just, but you got to change it up.

[00:33:16] Change it up. She like, yes, there are, there are spots that your go-to spots. Yes. Yes. This is her go-to. I did it every time. Every time. Game's over quick. She's just playing seek. Yeah. That's just, that's just a game of seek. That's just a game of seek. And I do like, I just want to, the, the wait, what here is. Okay. So this movie is happening, right? Yeah.

[00:33:41] He is on house arrest, which is, I presume why he is not brought in on what is going on with Thanos. Yes. So we all in agreement there. He's on house arrest. That's how, you know, I hadn't even put that together, but probably that's as good of a leap as we could make. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This is my, this is my big one. I don't care about his legal goings-ons. But here's the thing. Dude, I can't.

[00:34:08] They break him out of house arrest for a significantly less important thing. They learned their lesson. No. I don't, I, the problem is, is I don't know the timeline here, right? But you know what happens before Thanos snaps. At the very least. Like, well, okay. So a couple of questions, I guess. Like how long is Infinity War? Like what is the span of time that the movie- Correct. I think it's a couple of days. It's a couple of days. Okay.

[00:34:37] So, so, so. It could happen after he was done with house arrest. It very, very well could. Probably did. Because they disappear when he's going into the quantum home after they have built a small version of the quantum thing in the back of a car. So I would assume that he was off of house arrest when the moment happened. And I think that's worse. I don't, I just don't know why.

[00:35:05] So this is, this is my, like. Like that- Do you have answers, Ryguy? No, I think. No. I want to be, this is the biggest weight. What may be of the MCU is. First of all, an Avengers on house arrest. The only way this makes sense is if this occurs before Infinity War. And the reason I'll tell you that is because during Infinity War, Cap has been welcomed back in to S.H.I.E.L.D. He's back in the building. They're working together.

[00:35:31] If you, if, if Captain America is back working and Scott, the Ant-Man is still on house arrest for helping Captain America, that is atrocious. That's really, really bad. But to further the point, if he, if this is, if this house arrest is happening during Infinity War, which I think is better, it's not good, but it's better.

[00:35:59] If he's off of house arrest and they didn't call him, what are we doing? Yeah. He could have gotten inside of that glove and it would have been done. What are we doing? If he is on house arrest, that's better because there's a reason. But they broke him out for nothing. They broke him out for like trying to get to the quantum realm, not even saving the universe, saving one person. Like this is the most insulting thing in the world.

[00:36:24] You didn't, they didn't even in Infinity War, they could have said something to like, we can't get ahold of Scott. We don't know where aim some line to give us the benefit of the doubt to go. We tried everybody and they don't do it. They don't do it. And if he's off of house arrest, it's worse. If he's off of house arrest, because then he's sitting there and he's available and they're not telling him. I just, it is, it was the whole movie. I only had one other way.

[00:36:52] Well, because that one was so incredibly big in my mind, I couldn't get over it. So at one point, apparently in Infinity War, Black Widow says that Hawkeye and Ant-Man both took deals with the government. And so that's, so they're on house arrest where everybody else, Captain America, Falcon, Black Widow, they went into hiding. Well, no, but, but no, because I'm trying to think, cause at the end of civil war, Ant-Man

[00:37:19] is one of the ones who's on in the bunk, the floating bunker. And so, right? He's with, yeah. Cause they all, cause Cap's team gets arrested. Yes. So at least they referenced it, man. They took deals so that they could be with their families basically. Yes. But yeah. But like, it doesn't, that isn't, what do you, they're on house arrest. I just, but yeah, exactly. I don't know. Are we, are we to assume that house arrest trumps end of universe?

[00:37:48] Like they, what are we doing? They're on house arrest. Well, we're two Avengers short. Excuse me. The universe is at stake. F your house arrest. I don't like, what is, what is this? Like we're to believe that this is that big of a deal. It's just, that's what, this is also why civil war to me is a waste of a move. Like, like this movie does a lot of harm to better movies. It does.

[00:38:13] Like this movie, I really should rethink my ranking of infinity war at three because of what happens in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Like, it's just not fair. I don't get it. Like you should, you guys should do better at crafting a plot. Like I do better. Do you have any, uh, any other words? One more weight. What, which is he is chasing Sonny Birch, uh, who has the lab, the mini lab and he's chasing him. Right. And they're going through the city and they're blah, blah, blah. And it's like a chase and Sonny Birch disappears.

[00:38:44] And Ant-Man's like, I don't know where he is. And he's like, maybe he's on the ferry. And he runs to the edge to look at the ferry. And it's like, Sonny Birch got on that ferry. He could have hid. He could have gone to the second deck. You know what Sonny Birch is doing on that ferry? He's right on the ledge, holding, holding the lab up to make sure that Scott can see it from the dock. Like why not? Yeah. All he had to do was hide on the, in the, in the boat somewhere and the movie's over. The bad guys win.

[00:39:11] And instead he's standing on the dock going, you need this right here. You need it. That was real bad. Oh, it's a lot of show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show, We're bigger than ants. That's right. Uh, ants for brick. I'm Elliot. My mom's a good, bad guy. Let's get to, let's get to what a Marvel, what a Marvel, uh, right guy? Yeah. So, uh, like I said, Evangeline Lilly really good here. You could argue that she gets more to do than Ant-Man at times in this film, which is fine.

[00:39:40] Um, I know you guys have a lot on your plates, but should we just review lost at some point? Dude, man, last Wednesdays, lost, lost Leonard release. Uh, I, uh, I don't, I don't hate that as an idea that we could also Gilmore the Mary and put it on feed. Um, yeah, I mean, I, I think that that would cause, that would be a really fun one because I, I am hard against that show for about a season and a half in the middle.

[00:40:07] Uh, and, and, and I, and I think it's kind of bad and I don't think it's their fault. I think they were, they were in limbo and they wanted an end date, but that show's amazing. I mean, I haven't watched it in probably a decade and a half. I love it. I've not watched it since the first time I watched it. Let's see. I've only got one view. Yeah. So I think I've done two, but I would be curious how I feel about it. The lost boys. That's gotta be something that's been done already. Right. Like the lost boys podcast, the lost boys specifically.

[00:40:34] I mean, there, there's definitely been many rewatch podcasts on it, but the lost boys. Okay. Thank God. They're, uh, uh, are they talking lost? It, the lost boys podcast. There's two of them. One is a podcast dedicated to watching loss. The other is Anthony Scaramucci and professor Scott Galloway joined forces to tackle the little discussed challenges. Young men are facing today in America. Anthony Scaramucci. Wow. What? Isn't he like, he's a, he was like that Italian fixer for, uh, in Chicago. Right. Yeah.

[00:41:03] The mooch. The dancing with the stars. I believe. Yeah. That's random. Okay. Keep it on. Let's keep it on the docket. Yeah. So can't name it. The lost boys, but man, man, you know, I, uh, I would, I would, I would, that was such a great name. Um, I want to marvel is they, once again, uh, I think it's probably the same one that I had for Ant-Man, which is like when they do the stuff like where Ant-Man rides the

[00:41:28] truck, like a scooter and stuff like what's practical, what's not like there's so much when, when he's big, uh, or then they're playing with different items and stuff, or when he's small and they have them going down the stairs, you know, when he, uh, when they have him be a kid and go into a school, like that's fun stuff. Like how much of this, how much is practical, how much is not? It's cool. It's fun. It's cool. Damn. Yeah.

[00:41:55] So I, um, this is what a Marvel and I, we know we've seen these movies before, but, and you please, I would love if Ryguy knows otherwise or can confirm this for me. I'm 99.9% sure that Scott Ant-Man in a end game says something to the effect of time is different in the quantum realm. And he was down there five years and it was like five hours. I'm like, I feel really great about him saying almost those exact things.

[00:42:25] I believe you're right. Yes. Why is Michelle Pfeiffer so old? Why is she so old? Well, he comes back five years. He was down there five years and I know Paul Rudd looks the same regardless, but in five years he said it was like, but he, he said it was like five hours there. So he only aged five hours. Why is Michelle Pfeiffer look 30 years older when she comes out of the quantum realm? It does seem like she aged at the same rate as her husband. Yes.

[00:42:55] And it doesn't make any sense. Maybe in different pockets of the quantum realm, it works in the opposite way. Oh, we are really doing it now. That's interesting. I got a good quantum realm pocket here, guys. You'd think that she'd get out of that. No, that'd be a bad one. You'd think she'd get out of that pocket pretty quick. But the damage was done. The damage was done. Yeah. Nothing we can do. A quick 50 right here. Bam. All right. We did it, everybody. Congratulations. That was really funny, Chris.

[00:43:25] How about we do this? Can I propose this next week? Captain Marvel. I've already watched it. Wow. We have. Wow. Look at you. And apparently it's pretty low on your ranks. Sick brag. Yeah. I guess I kind of gave that up. I realized after that there could only be one thing that was there. That's funny. Well, I'm looking forward to it. And then. The first real female superhero lead in the MCU. And Ryguy's going to prefer Ant-Man and the Wasp. I'll talk about. I mean, technically it's the Wasp. That's true.

[00:43:55] Don't hit on the Wasp. Oh, my gosh. Here we go. I'm excited. That's right. All right. We did it, everybody. Let's come back on next time. Okay? All right. All right. Come back on next time. Next time. We were doing this literally. So come on back. Until then, we were the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. Deck the Hallmark is a Bramble Jam podcast produced by Brandon Gray. And yeah, that Greenville, South Carolina. For more information on the show, you can go to DeckTheHallmark.com or follow us on the socials at DeckTheHallmark. Leave us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Help others find the show.

[00:44:22] And then help support the show financially by heading on over to the best corner of the internet with a Facebook group, ad-free podcasting, live video watch-alongs, movie chats, and so much more. All that is at BrambleJamPlus.com. You're about to hear some ads. That helped keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening. Or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi.

[00:44:52] But here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep. Here they are. Happy day.