Steve: [00:00:00] Warning, 30 Screams or Less may contain spoilers about movies that have recently been released. If you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it, come back and enjoy the show. Or, if you don’t want to waste your time watching the movie and rather have two random horror dudes, watch it for you. We got you covered as well.
Steve: Welcome everyone to 30 Screams or Less, where we review horror movies in less than 30 minutes, so you don’t have to.
Today’s movie, we’re gonna be reviewing. It’s called The Menu. And this movie can be found on H B O Max. [00:01:00] It’s directed by Mark Myeloid, written by Seth Reese and Will Tracy. Starring Ralph Fiennes, the new scream, queen Anna Taylor. Joy, Anya Taylor. Joy, my apologies. One day, I’ll get that name right. Nicholas Holt and John Leguizamo. Is he making a comeback now because he was in, Violent Night and now he’s in this?
Corey: The world needs more John Leguizamo.
Steve: Yeah. I mean, my favorite movie of all time is The Pest.
Corey: Your standards are pretty fucking low.
Steve: Yeah. What you don’t like, head of the board with, Carrot Top.
Corey: Nah, man. No, I’m not a, I’m not into it and I’ve also, I mean, that came out when I was like fucking 12 years old.
Steve: Oh, yeah. So that dates me, I do like that. And Polly Shore, he’s one of my favorites. Okay. We’re already getting off topic. This is a horror podcast and we’re talking classic comedies. What the fuck is wrong with us? Okay, so John ligo.
Corey: me, Mario.
Steve: It’s me, Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi. Everyone. Oh, here we go. Okay. Jesus. Good
Corey: shut it.
Steve: Everyone shut this. Fucking podcast off [00:02:00] already. Alright. Gonna get back on track cuz we were worried this whole podcast was gonna be off track because we started making notes and we’re like trying to find anything bad and we were struggling.
But first, you can watch this movie on H B O Max, for a measly 69.99 a month with an ad every two minutes. So pretty affordable, pretty good. Yeah, actually recently they upped the rate because of The Last of Us, the series coming out. So I see what they did there. So The Menu, it’s about a bunch of rich people traveling to a remote island to eat an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish meal with some shocking surprises. That’s the synopsis of this movie and that synopsis does not do this movie any justice whatsoever. We seriously could go on for 60 minutes about this thing, but per usual, we’d like to keep it on the 30. So with that in mind, take it away, Corey.
Corey: You and I briefly talked about this earlier before we started recording that The Menu is easily probably one of the. Best movies that came out in 2022. It completely flew under the radar. Somehow it completely bombed [00:03:00] in theaters. I mean, I can understand why. The Menu and the synopsis of the movie really doesn’t, make you wanna watch it, I guess.
Steve: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It doesn’t make you wanna watch it. With a, description like that, a synopsis like that you think it’s some sort of Miramax bullshit? Like some artsy farty film where okay, people are gonna go to like a, you know, a lavish restaurant and things are gonna happen and there’s gonna be some sort of drama.
No, no. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, this movie bombed at the box office, but you know what else bombed at the box office? Fight Club and Donny Darko and all these amazing movies bombed at the box office because probably bad promotion, like advertising was bad. Bad, description of how the movie is.
So, like these movies though, they bomb at the box office doesn’t mean they’re bad by any means and in the case of The Menu, in our opinion, we both come to this conclusion. This movie is not bad at all.
Corey: No, I mean it amazes me that it bombed as hard as it did. Again, we’re gonna talk about the music. The music was absolutely [00:04:00] incredible. Whoever the composer was for this movie deserves the fucking award because after the movie ended, I just wanted to listen to the music again and I do have the vinyl pre-ordered, so hopefully someday soon, I’ll have that in hand and I will get to listen to it on repeat.
Steve: It’s funny too because literally after you finished watching the movie, you were like, oh, I wish there was like a score for this thing on vinyl and wasn’t it like, announced a half hour later?
Corey: Yeah, Waxworks announced it like a half hour later, so
Steve: timing cuz you love collecting, vinyls. I would love to collect ’em to you. I have no way of playing them though. I mean, we talked about this. I have the speakers, I just don’t have the set up. When I get my own house, I’ll have a nice vinyl set up and I could listen to music on it, but right now don’t really have the space for it.
Corey: Yeah, and I mean, for some reason, I know we talked about this before, Disney movies. I’m a big fan of Disney movies and horror movies just have the best music to me. It’s just soothing and scary at the same time, you know?
Steve: Absolutely. I mean, hey, one of my favorite Disney songs of all time is Arabian Knights from Alladin. So, great [00:05:00] scores, Great music all over. But in this case, yes, The Menu’s score was fantastic. What I loved about this movie, like, actually, you know what, let’s go back real quick about how this technically is a bomb.
So it made 38 million, give or take at the theater with a budget of 35 million. So in the movie industry, that’s actually considered a bomb because it’s such a low return on their investment. People will probably be like, well they made $3 million, but still not enough. However, this movie, I can almost guarantee he’s gonna make its money back and streaming because it’s blowing up on social media at the moment.
Corey: It is and the fact that like it, has a stack cast. The cast is pretty, pretty large. And we were talking about before, Anya Taylor Joy she’s gonna be a star in this genre. She’s been in a few films so far. I can’t remember really off the top of my head, which, but
Steve: Well, she was actually in Split.
Corey: Oh yeah. Okay.
Steve: Yep. She was in Split, which obviously we know. Fantastic. She was also in, uh, what was the other one? It was like, it was the combination. Oh, Mr. Glass. She was also in One Night In Soho, which I loved as well. Did you see [00:06:00] that one?
Corey: I did not watch that. That was the Netflix one. Right.
Steve: I think it’s on H B O Max as well.
Corey: Okay.
Steve: Yeah, I would I go, Oh, that’s right. She was in the Witch, so yeah. She’s kind of like your new scream queen.
Corey: Yeah, she guys would do more stuff like this. Maybe. I hope she does skits into like slashers and stuff too. Speaking of actors and stuff, this Ralph Fiennes guy, did you know that he plays Voldemort and Harry Potter?
Steve: I did not know that. I feel like such an asshole for not knowing that. I don’t know why, like I should have known that. I feel like that’s something I should have known. But I’m also not a massive Harry Potter guy. I
just, I don’t know,
Corey: Why are we friends?
Steve: I don’t know why we’re friends. I don’t know. I should literally be just written off entirely. My girlfriend’s written me off already. We broke up, I guess a second ago when I told her that I don’t like Harry Potter. Kind of sucks. Not happy about it, but I, I guess, I guess they deserve it.
Corey: Yeah. You deserve everything that comes to you for that bullshit.
Steve: Yeah, I know. I deserve it, I guess I’ll just, be left alone to my devices and go and hang out in a cave and, uh, fuck myself.
Corey: Fuck yourself and watch [00:07:00] all the Harry Potter movies, and then maybe we’ll allow you to come back.
Steve: Yeah
Corey: So while you’re off fucking yourself, these people are going to a fancy island, this restaurant here, to have a meal that is going to cost them, was it, I believe it was like $1,200 a plate or something. And they have no idea what they’re gonna be eating.
Steve: Pish Posh chump change. I’ve spent that kind of money before on meals.
Corey: Yeah.
Steve: Okay. That’s not true. That’s not true. That’s not true at all. I like think the most I’ve ever spent on a friggin fancy meal was like $300.
Corey: 300, was that in Vegas?
Steve: It was probably in Vegas. You know, it was a fancy steak, some rare wine and sides, sides, sides. Kind of like in Wolf of Wall Street, you spend $20,000 on sides.
Corey: I’m not fucking going anywhere.
Steve: Fucking, I’m not leaving. I’m not fucking leaving. Ah. So good.
Corey: Classic Leo.
Steve: Yeah, classic Leo, that movie. Oh God. Yeah. A little bit long, but overall fantastic, fantastic movie, but, 1250 a plate apparently that’s fine with them. No problem. Yeah, they go to a remote [00:08:00] island, they go for like this fancy meal and you think it’s gonna be some sort of weird artsy fartsy movie and that’s probably why people didn’t know what the hell they were getting into.
I mean, you look at the cover and it looks like just a bunch of people about to eat fucking dinner. You don’t know whether it’s like a vampire type movie or some sort of weird artistic movie or anything. And I think that’s what was happening there was a lot of misconception about this movie and what it would be and how to market it and all this stuff.
Because I don’t think they wanted to give too much away because so much started happening. This movie constantly built tension upon tension upon like throughout the whole thing. Unreal. I was watching it and I was completely honed into that movie. We didn’t even need to take notes. In my opinion. I could just go off and start talking about this movie and rave about it nonstop.
Corey: Yeah, we probably didn’t need to do this at all but it. It is what it is. You gotta kind of try and keep it on the rails.
Steve: Yeah, and it’s not even a script. It’s not like we’re talking about things verbatim. It’s literally just making sure that we’re on track here, not, we’re not going off the rails [00:09:00] talking about The Pest or Wolf of Wall Street. All of this already happened. Fuck, whatever. It is what it is.
Corey: Hey, hey, guess what?
Steve: What.
Corey: This is the first episode where there’s no dead kids.
Steve: Let’s go finally. No dead kids. Oh God. But I feel like a lot of these movies we’ve been reviewing, there’s gotta be something tying ’em all together. But I think in this place, we actually broke that tradition.
Corey: We finally did it. We’re normal after all.
Steve: Yeah, I know this is like the, Halloween three of our podcast.
Corey: What, like Season of the Witch Halloween three.
Steve: Yeah.
Corey: Ugh,
Steve: But no, it’s good. we’re raving about this whole fucking movie. We’re not raving about Season of the Witch, but you get what I’m saying, completely different. All the other movies we’re talking about dead kids, apparently. This one, Nope. None of that. No. No sex scenes either.
Corey: You’re.
Steve: No sex. Yep. No sex scenes, no shower scenes, no dead kids. Just this movie was pure tension all the way through. And it just kept building and building and I think that’s where, horror is great [00:10:00] because this is technically a horror movie or like a suspense movie, but I feel a thriller. Thrillers and horrors tend to go really hand in hand because it’s like scaring you. Getting that heart going and you’re really in it.
Corey: It never really lets up either. The first, I don’t even really know as far as time goes, but the beginning of the movie, you kind of feel like it’s normal, like they’re just at some fancy restaurant. Having a nice meal and then.
Steve: did. I found myself like as I’m watching this movie, and you know what? We went into this movie not knowing anything. I didn’t see a trailer, my girlfriend didn’t see a trailer. We saw that Anya Taylor Joy was in it and we’re like, fuck it, why not? Let’s go check it out. And I haven’t done that in so long where I just go into a movie completely blind, not even seeing a single trailer, not reading anything about it.
And I was completely surprised at how much I love this movie the whole time. With that tension, I felt my heart racing, wondering what the hell’s gonna happen next. I had ideas of what was gonna happen next, but it was crazy to see it actually happen.
Corey: Yeah, I mean, things slowly unfolded [00:11:00] and then, so one of my favorite things about the movie was each course, the way each course was, I guess you could say, presented how, before course one, it showed like that screen it tells you what’s in each course. You know what I mean?
Steve: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And then,
Corey: it just looks like really nice and then Chef serves the meal.
Steve: Yeah, and it’s set up like each scene. It didn’t necessarily need to carry over all the way through because it could be like, this is the next scene. This fucking bullshit happens, and then this is the next scene and this bullshit happens. But this whole movie carried all the way through, and I loved that the chef, played by Ralph Fiennes, would always clap his hand to get everyone’s attention and everyone would just stop.
And he would have to tell these stories based on these meals. And they were ridiculous meals. My favorite was the, uh, the breadless. Bread plate, which is like all the ingredients that people would have to eat. And that pissed off a lot of people in that scene.
Corey: Mine would have to be the mess. And the mess is probably the part where shit hits the fan
Steve: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. That’s where it starts really going into overdrive.
Corey: You see them lay the tarp [00:12:00] down and then they put those fancy centerpieces around the edge of the tarp. And then he has one of his chefs come out and he sh tells the story and then fucking gun in the mouth. Blew brains everywhere.
Steve: Yep. And the funny thing about this, yeah, funny thing about that. That’s what, hilarious. Hilarious. Oh God. Okay. So the funny thing is Nicholas Holt, we’ve seen him in everything I remember seeing him back in the like in About A Boy and he was in Mad Max Fury Road and now he’s in like that new movie with Nicholas Cage. That’s alluding me at the moment. Renfield, I think.
Corey: The
Vampire one. Yeah.
Steve: Yeah, he’s in the Vampire one with Nicholas Cage and I think it’s called Renfield.
Corey: X-Men too. Don’t forget X-Men.
Steve: Oh yeah, that’s right. He was in X-Men. I forgot about that.
He’s in like fucking everything now. So the guy’s presenting the mess and the chef is saying how this Sous chef. He wants to be like Ralph Fiennes’s character, and he’s never gonna reach that level and he’s not happy with his life and all this.
And, the sous chef, he acknowledges that, he’s not as good, he’s not gonna be anywhere as [00:13:00] good as, the head chef. And so there’s that tarp on the ground, that plastic tarp, and they put like all this fancy stuff. And then they announced that the dish is called the mess, and that sous chef, blows his brains out.
And the crazy thing is Nicholas Holt’s character, he’s watching and he’s not even fazed. He’s like, I see the beauty behind it, and he’s like super excited to eat the meal, and he’s like, this is brilliant. And everyone else is freaking out. He’s so excited just to be there and watch this lunacy happen.
Everyone’s freaking out. And in my opinion, a lot of the times, Tyler, which is played by Nicholas Hoult. Tyler was stealing the show at how absurd he was.
Corey: You’re right, I think a lot of it was too, as he was an aspiring chef and he looked up to this Rob Fines character. Like you said, he wanted to be like him. I feel like he was also kind of nervous to act indifferent towards the whole thing because he didn’t wanna spoil his learning experience.
Steve: Yeah. Which is funny because yeah, it’s a whole learning experience and getting to speak with that chef and [00:14:00] everything. Knowing though that everyone at that dinner will die later. So it’s almost like he’s. Not corrupted, but it’s almost like that cult-like mentality where you don’t care. You just want to be there.
You want to be in the presence of that chef and you’ll do whatever they say. And I think he’s in that kind of mentality. It doesn’t even matter. He’s so infatuated with that chef that he just wants to be there and be accepted by him and talk to him and learn from him, even though he’s gonna die later.
Corey: So did we ever find out why there was that group of bro. Flexing their dick size, the whole trium to try to get whatever they wanted from the waitress where they were trying to get bread that one time, and they were like, don’t you know who we are? Because I don’t remember finding out why they threw that quote out.
Steve: Well, I think we did. So the frigging ya bros hanging out at the table, like making those stupid demands saying, do you know who we are? The owner of the restaurant? Not Ralph Fine’s character. Or the chef, we’ll just call him the chef going forward. It’s not the chef’s character, it’s the investor, like the angel [00:15:00] investor of the restaurant.
And that angel investor owns I think a tech company those guys work for, and their money laundering. And they think they have all this power because the angel investor is their boss. So they think that oh, okay, we’re special here. We can do whatever. Cuz our boss owns the place and they’re making it seem like they’re more important than they really are, when really it’s the boss that owns it.
And they have no say in anything. They’re just employees.
Corey: Okay, so that’s why they were trying to flex a little bit.
Steve: Yeah. That’s why they’re flexing their dicks.
Corey: Chef had a little dirt on him.
Steve: Oh, he definitely did. Actually. He had dirt on everyone in the restaurant except for Anya Taylor Joy’s character who, which I thought was funny that she’s from Brockton, Massachusetts of all places.
Corey: Isn’t that close to you?
Steve: Yeah, it’s not too far from me. I’d say probably about an hour.
Maybe less give or take, but I thought it was such a random place. You know, you’d think, oh, Boston, Massachusetts, maybe New York, whatever. So she was a random person that went on the trip to the island because it was Tyler’s date.
[00:16:00] Tyler had a date initially, and she broke it off with him. So he decided to get the girlfriend experience from Anya Taylor Joy’s character, who is, you know, in the industry of the girlfriend experience. Now, she was a last minute addition, so they didn’t have any information on her. They had information on everyone else, which leads to the scene with the tortillas. I don’t know if you want to take over with that.
Corey: I’m honestly having a brain cramp right now on the tortillas,
Steve: Okay, I’ll continue. So with the tortilla scene, This is where he used a laser etched, device
Corey: right.
Steve: to create all these images on the tortillas. So the tortilla for the ya bros, I’ll say that I’ll call, I’m gonna call them ya bros, because they’re, I don’t know, they’re freaking dingle berries and they’re like, you know who we are.
But what the chef did was laser etched the financials for these guys, laundering money basically. Through I think, Swiss bank accounts, whatever, that kind of deal. And he was able to show those records on those tortillas. And then he’s also showing, other things that people did [00:17:00] wrong on these tortillas.
So Tyler’s was taking photos of the food when it was forbidden to take photos of the food. And then John Leguizamo character, the actor. He was printed. Paging Dr. Sunshine or whatever, that movie on the tortillas. So there was like a few things on the tortillas that were alluding to things that they’ve done wrong
Corey: The older couple wasn’t the older couple. The husbands was like him with another woman.
Steve: Yep and the funny thing is that other woman was, it was Anya Taylor, Joy’s character. So, that was a pure coincidence. I think. Just shit luck for that guy. But it was funny because, you know, they didn’t have anything on her and so they couldn’t print anything on the tortillas for her, but it kind of like connected all the bad stuff that everyone was doing that the chef hated and he was bringing it to their attention for his dish of Taco Tuesday, which, has now become basically a meme all over social media.
Corey: The whole movie’s a meme.
Steve: Yep. The whole movie’s a meme, between the Taco Tuesday and, what’s the saying that, the waitress gives,[00:18:00] you will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.
Corey: Oh yeah. She, she whispered that into one of ya bro’s. Ear
Steve: Yep. She in the ya bros ear. She whispered that into their ears, and I like, honestly incredible saying incredible. If you think about it, that just, that speaks volumes,
Corey: Yeah, that one, that one really resonated me after she said that
Steve: Yeah. It’s.
Corey: because that was also right after, I think after the mess.
Steve: Yeah, I think it was after the mess. That’s when it really started getting crazy. Was after the mess or was it actually, no, I think it was before the mess.
Corey: Was it.
Steve: Yeah. Okay. So right before the mess, they’re introducing the Taco Tuesday, the fucking meme moment that’s happening. And that’s when she’s like, you will eat less than you can desire and more than you can deserve. Or, or, I’m sorry, I’m getting that backwards. You will eat more than you deserve and less than you desire. Or getting that whole thing mixed up. And that’s when she said, you will eat less than you desire and more than you [00:19:00] deserve. Oh my
Corey: I was like, it. Getting
Steve: took me. It’s written right there. I’m getting the whole thing missed. I’m leaving that in because people can hear my stupid lunacy of me trying to figure out what the hell is saying was when I’m making things way more difficult than my, myself, like, than I
Corey: I didn’t, I didn’t
Steve: literally right
Corey: down for my health dude. I did not write that down for my Health
Steve: I, you wrote it down for me because I’m a fucking hot mess. Express.
Corey: Apparently it took us fucking all day to record this fucking podcast.
Steve: Yep all day to record this single fucking line. I probably would’ve gone on for the you if you didn’t stop me or I didn’t read that. I probably would’ve gone on for the next half hour. No. What is it? Is it this? Is it that I don’t know. Is it this? I would’ve gone on that whole time.
Corey: Just fucking Daffy Duck over here.
Steve: Yeah, just ongoing, nonstop lunacy. But there was a lot of great quotes in this movie. So there was the other quote, what’s the chef said? What was it, Corey?
Corey: It wasn’t Cod you donkey, it was halibut.
Steve: Yeah.
Corey: That’s that’s Gordon. That’s some Gordon Ramsey shit.
Steve: Oh yeah, because he was like interrogating, the older couple and cuz the older [00:20:00] couple couldn’t name a single dish, even though they’ve been to that restaurant numerous times. And so this is when he was pointing out that people just don’t appreciate, what they have.
Corey: That’s another thing, man. Why do some of these people choose to come back to this fucking place? Some of them have been multiple times.
Steve: Yeah, I think maybe they’ve gone because it’s a bougie dinner because I don’t think everyone’s being killed every single time. I think this is one of those times where the chef was like, he was just fed up with serving people. And I think that’s what happened is like he was serving all these people and some of them have been there before and they just don’t give a shit.
They just, they see a fancy meal and they take it for granted. And he’s more than about that. He wants to serve people and have them enjoy the meal, but a lot of these people, they were just eating it and they’re not even really thinking about it. And I think that’s one thing that just drove him to insanity was that people. Just weren’t appreciating what’s being given to them.
Corey: I mean, I can see that, but I can also, I still don’t understand why people choose to come back because there’s no [00:21:00] way, some of this shit doesn’t happen every time.
Steve: Oh, no, I agree. Also, at $1,250 per plate, a six course meal, I don’t think I can afford that. This podcast doesn’t make enough money yet.
Corey: You hear that guys, you need to, uh, start sponsoring this podcast so we can go to the island and have some fucking meals.
Steve: Exactly. H B O max. We need your help. You know what, just, uh, throw us a few bucks our way. You know, I mean, we’re reviewing The Menu. It’s great. We’re bringing your numbers up.
Corey: You’re gonna make some of that money back. You lost on this piece of shit podcast.
Steve: Yeah. Well, we get a decent amount of listeners and, uh, who knows? Maybe they, they have no idea what The Menu is, and we’re just like, dude, dudette, you need to check this out. This is fucking great. This is an amazing movie you’re missing out. And who knows? Maybe we’ll get a few extra streams. Maybe they get a penny off it. Something.
Corey: So let’s get back here and talk about Tyler. How did the chef convince Tyler to hang himself?
Steve: Oh my God. This is interesting because Tyler, like we had discussed earlier, is that Tyler was so into this chef and [00:22:00] he wanted to talk to him. He like idolized him and the chef saw that as chef saw that Tyler was being ridiculous and picking out. The little things that was in the chef’s tea and all this.
And he decided to call Tyler up for what might be my favorite dish of the whole movie, which was Tyler’s bullshit and Tyler’s bullshit was Undercook Lamb, shallots, and a couple other things in a pot. And obviously the chef shit on it like crazy. He said it was like, you know, the worst thing he’s ever had.
Corey: Yeah, and he, for, he forced him to cook.
Steve: Yeah, he forced him to cook. Oh, okay. shallots, let’s get him some shallots. Everyone, and he is like, he’s really just laying into him. And he’s like, you think it’s done? And he’s like, yeah, it’s done. It’s done. And he had it. It was fucking raw, but the thing is, he then whispered into Tyler’s ear something.
That no one has an idea what is even said. It’s kind of like, the movie Lost in Translation with Bill Murray, where he whispers something [00:23:00] into, the girl’s Ear. And no one knows what he said. And that’s kind of like the same deal here. I even put subtitles on. We’ve already discussed how, I’m not really a fan of subtitles when it comes to movies. So we put it on and I wanted to see if it came up with something and it said inaudible whispering. I was like, come on. So mad cuz I want to know what he said because he said something that really set Tyler over the edge and Tyler unlived himself.
Corey: I wonder if he was just literally like, go kill yourself.
Steve: Yeah. Maybe something like you’ll never be nothing. You might as well kill yourself now before you can even deserve the last meal. Could have been something like that. We don’t know. But
Corey: So, so do you think that when, Anya Taylor joyous character was asking for a cheeseburger, do you think the cheeseburger was made of Tyler? Because I do.
Steve: It’s possible. Oh my God. Could you imagine? Because I know she saw Tyler hanging and so she was aware of that. But what if that was the last thing where He took Tyler meat and he [00:24:00] just served it to Anya Taylor Joy. That would be wild because that would be the last, fuck you from the chef, in regards to like his dishes and I think that would’ve been awesome. But none of us know because the movie did end like a fucking million bucks. But we’ll get to that.
Corey: He lets her go he makes Margot the cheeseburger and then he just lets her go. That was his kryptonite or something like, cuz all she wanted was a cheeseburger.
Steve: Yep. And actually we just ran out of time, but I don’t give a shit. We’re gonna keep talking about this. And you know what, if it goes over, sorry. This movie’s too good to stop talking about.
Corey: I agree, Steve.
Steve: This may be one of the podcasts where it’s like, okay, we’re going over, we just, we can’t stop raving about it.
And you know what I loved? What I absolutely loved about that scene was everything came full circle for the chef. It’s almost like he became a good guy at the end and hear me out on this because he started his career in. Cooking by working at a burger place, fast food place, whatever. And he would make burgers.
And then when you, [00:25:00] when she went into his bedroom, she saw that photo of him, in the newspaper working at the burger place and during the movie, the chef said that, he was complaining how people don’t appreciate what they get and in that he’s making food and he wants people to enjoy the food, and he’s lost that. He’s lost his passion for cooking food because people just take it and turn it into shit, and it’s like they don’t actually enjoy it. So now, Anya Taylor Joy, her character demands a cheeseburger saying she doesn’t like his food.
And she’s saying to him, you don’t cook with love, you cook with obsession. So Anya Taylor-Joy says she doesn’t like his food. She then says, you don’t cook with love, you cook with obsession.
And it really stuck out to the chef, and she’s like, I want something different. And he’s like, what would you like? She wants a cheeseburger. And he’s like, I’ll make you the best cheeseburger you’ve ever had, or make it seem like it’s the first cheeseburger you ever had. And then, he makes it as that supplementary meal for her.
And you can [00:26:00] tell how happy he was when he made that for her and how she actually enjoyed it. So that’s what he’s been wanting for ages was for people to actually enjoy his food again, but he was putting up this stuff that was like super bougie and people didn’t even give a shit. They didn’t care.
Corey: Yeah, he, when she started enjoying that cheeseburger and he smirked, that was pretty awesome. Like that little smile he gave. That was the first time in the movie and probably the only time in the movie that he’s happy.
Steve: Yeah, and I think that’s what he just wanted. He wanted to bring the joy back to cooking and he lost that joy. Because, like I said, people. Took it for granted was taking his food for granted and she was simply happy with him making something that started his career in the cooking industry was a simple cheeseburger, American cheese, french fries, the basics, and I that when he had that smirk, you can tell, it all kind of came full circle.
Corey: And he basically at that point too, forgives her for, because he had his own cabin off on the side of the property, off the side of the restaurant, which she breaks off and goes [00:27:00] into, and he finds out about it and forgives her for that.
Steve: Absolutely. Yeah, it’s because yeah, he was pissed off at her for breaking into his cabin, but after hearing that, he was just happy,
Corey: Yep. He, he was happy and then he decided to serve dessert.
Steve: Yeah, the best fucking dessert. Oh, the dessert. It reminded me something out of midsummer or mid somar, however you want to pronounce it, where at the end of mid Somar, you have that pyramid looking, building the guy’s in the bear suit, and he’s burning alive. This one, the final dish is dessert and he turns everyone into a fucking s’more.
Corey: Little party hats that he gave them. All that ended up being chocolate
Steve: The chocolate party has, I want a chocolate party hat. Where the fuck can I get one of those? Oh my God.
Like, It was fantastic cuz they’re all wearing like this vest of marshmallows, the chocolate party hat. And clearly and you know what they have is they have, uh, the bread crumps, I’m sorry, not bread. Crumps, the ginger, uh, bread. No. What is, what am
Corey: Graham
Steve: Graham crackers. [00:28:00] God damn graham crackers. I know. I’m thinking, I don’t know. I’m all over the place with fucking food. I love
Corey: Don’t you know what a fucking smore is? You old man
Steve: Clearly not, I don’t know what it is clearly, but. They put, graham cracker all over the floor and they make it like this bougie looking thing.
And the chef, because, he’s got the asbestos hands basically from years of holding hot plates and dishes and it doesn’t bother him. He reaches into the oven and grabs coal. He goes into the middle of the room where they put all sorts of flammable stuff, including, the fucking marshmallow vests and the chocolate hats, and he drops the coal and the place goes a be blaze.
Corey: Meanwhile, you have Margot who has since escaped and she stolen a boat and she’s sitting in the middle of the ocean eating her cheeseburger, watching the restaurant just go up in flames from a distance.
Steve: Yep. And I’m sure he was happy. He would’ve been happy with that because she took her burger to go. He was happy to see her enjoy it. And I’m sure if we saw her enjoying it from [00:29:00] afar, he would’ve been just as happy, even if it was fucking microwaved and heated up.
But this movie, what would you give it? 0-5
Corey: Oh, this is a five for me. Easy. It was original. It was like we talked about earlier, the music, the cast, the subject matter cuz I fucking love food. You like food, Steve?
Steve: I fucking love food. We’ve already established this. I love all sorts of food, especially fast food. Apparently, I eat a lot of that bullshit, but,
Corey: Yeah, this movie had it all. I was perfect.
Steve: This movie I thought was perfect. I’m giving it a five out of five as well, this is the first for us to say this is a perfect movie in our opinions, because the tension throughout the whole movie just kept building and building with an awesome payoff at the end.
And it was an original movie. I’ve never seen a story like this. The score was fantastic. The acting was fantastic. Everything about this movie, I loved when I saw it a second time, I loved it. I could watch it again and again and I would still love it. I don’t think this is a movie I would get sick of.
Corey: I agree with you. I’m gonna have to give it a couple more watches for sure. This’ll be on the top of my list as you [00:30:00] know. Favorite of all time.
Steve: Yeah. I know for certainty that this movie is. Arguably my favorite movie of 2022, and it’s a goddamn shame that this movie bombed and no one saw it until Twitter figured it out that this movie dropped on H B O Max and it’s incredible. I’m like, welcome to the Party pal. God, like, yeah, you know what?
And I don’t blame them because I think the marketing for this movie was just awful. They didn’t know how to market it because it was a thriller, it was a horror, it was like all these things and it’s hard to market a movie like that. So for this kind of movie to. Reach a wide audience. It’s not easy.
They probably had a bunch of competition too. So I think Barbarian maybe came out relatively around the same time, and I think it may have still been in theaters, which is a crazy horror movie in itself. And there were a few other movies, so I think it maybe just struggled a little bit.
Corey: Yeah, it just struggled cuz like you said, the marketing wasn’t really there for it. I think I told you earlier that I was invited to go see it in theaters when it first came out by my aunt and I had no interest in going to see it because I just thought it was a [00:31:00] movie about food.
Like, I didn’t know there was that additional element to it
Steve: Exactly.
Corey: up being fucking chef, killing, you know, it, it just, it was a lot different than I thought it was gonna be.
Steve: Exactly, and that’s kind of what I’m getting at is they didn’t know how to market this movie. Even you like you’re. a big movie Buff. You watch movies all the time, you review them on letterbox. We have this podcast where we review horror movies. You are a movie lover. For you to just be like, no, I think I’m good.
I don’t think I’m gonna watch it shows you loud and clear leaps and bounds that this movie was marketed so bad.
Corey: It was, and that’s definitely why it bombed. But people are catching onto it now.
Steve: And I’m glad they are. This is a movie that deserves to be watched, and I think it’s gonna go down as an instant classic, and people are gonna be talking about it for years because it’s just, it’s so unique and I loved it. I loved everything about it.
Corey: Yep. And now people get to pay out the ass to go watch it on H B O Max.
Steve: That’s on them. They wanted to sign up for H B O Max to pay for, Last of Us the series and they jacked up the [00:32:00] cost and that I don’t like, but I know why they did it. Hey, I think back in the day, H B O did the same thing for the Sopranos, so it happens.
Corey: Yeah, that was a long time ago.
Steve: Oh, I wanna.
Corey: I was getting DVDs from Netflix to watch that when they were still doing DVDs.
Steve: Oh my God, they still do, by the way.
Corey: Oh,
Steve: I was, uh, yeah, I was signed up for Netflix on DVDs, actually Blu-Rays. I upgraded the Blu-rays for a while and I stopped doing it because I had The Deer Hunter just hanging out in my room. I didn’t even have a chance to watch it, and it was just sitting there doing nothing.
I’m like, okay, I gotta get rid of the Blu-ray version, cuz it’s costing me an extra, like $10 a month or something stupid.
Corey: Joanne and I were like, the other day we were in the basement cleaning it out and like organizing a little bit and I found a Blu-ray copy of Netflix in those paper envelopes of um, what was it, super Eight?
Steve: Oh my God. Wow. How long have you had that fucker?
Corey: I don’t even know when that came out.
Steve: Are you still paying for that? Then if you still have it, maybe they, either A, charged you for the movie or B, you’re still paying on that.
Corey: Nah, it’s, no, they, [00:33:00] they forgot about me.
Steve: Yeah, you’re usually pretty good about canceling that shit anyways.
Corey: Came out in 2011, so I’ve had it for a while.
Steve: Oh my God. Yeah, that’s, uh, you’ve had it for our hot minute then,
Corey: So yeah, don’t listen to this Netflix.
Steve: Don’t worry about it. You know we’re talking about H B O Max. Maybe if you put out something good, we’ll review it. But there is one other thing I wanted to bring up because this is, uh, you and I had a very good laugh at this earlier, the director, Mark Myeloid.
Corey: Directed Ali G in the house.
Steve: Mark Myeloid directed Ali G in the house. Which is hysterical. Okay. So he is known for like, just directing
Corey: Whoa. He’s a lot of
Steve: Yeah. Entourage, Shameless, stuff like that. And then he puts out The Menu, which is a fucking masterpiece. I guess that’s what he’s mostly known for is TV shows on, premium channels.
Corey: He made looking at his imdb, he made so much shit.
Steve: Yeah, didn’t make a lot of good stuff. I mean, he made a few episodes of United States, of Tara, Entourage. Let’s see. Minority Report, which I’m sure that fucking ended real quick. Mini-series. [00:34:00] That’s, yeah. Okay. Shameless.
Corey: Miniseries cuz it got canceled
after one episode.
Steve: Oh, did it? Oh
Corey: Oh, I don’t know. I’m going by that.
Steve: I’m thinking it did Succession, which is, uh, you know, it’s been on for a hot minute, but it looks like this is really the only movie.
To his credit, all everything else is like tv movie or TV series.
Corey: Well Game of Thrones kind of counts, I guess.
Steve: Oh, yeah. Game of Thrones. Those freaking movie. Like those episodes? No they’re movies. They’re friggin an hour and a half long and some bullshit. But yeah, he directed Ali G in the house. Oh, okay. So there’s that movie, I’m sorry. So that movie, which I guess will count it, but Yeah, hasn’t had really much except for Ali G in
Corey: Hopefully after this one, he gets a little more traction as a director, a film director anyway.
Steve: I hope so too. Because he deserves it for this movie. This movie’s incredible. But. All right. We are over time, but this movie, five out of five Perfect score. Great movie. Can’t say anything bad about it. Honestly. I could talk about it for another half hour. I’m gonna [00:35:00] watch it again and shit.
I would love to do a revision episode. I don’t even care. Whatever.
Corey: Yeah, that’d be. Cool. Couple months down the line, do it again.
Steve: Yeah, like, a director’s cut type deal. Be like, we’re gonna do a longer version of this and we’ll talk about it for fucking two hours or
Corey: we’re gonna have to sell that episode on our Patreon though.
Steve: Oh yeah, we’ll get a Patreon and, uh, we’ll sell it and people will be like, oh, I really want to hear about this movie. But by that time, probably everyone’s watched a movie and, they don’t need to hear from us about it,
Corey: We’ll have to, we’ll, we’ll monetize it that way.
Steve: There we go. That’s how we can make our money. That’s how, we can build this podcast up a little bit or we get sponsorships from HBO O Max.
I don’t know, just putting it out there. All right, with that in mind, everyone, thank you so much for listening to 30 Screams Less. Be sure to check us out on social media. We’re on Twitter @ 30screamsorless YouTube youtube.com/30screamsorless. We’re on Facebook as well. facebook.com/30screamsorless. You can also check out our website, 30screamsorless.com [00:36:00] and if there’s anything you want us to see and review, be sure to mention us. Leave a comment or you can send us an email to 30screamsorless@gmail.com and let us know when the movie you wanna watch and where we can find.
But with that in mind, everyone, I’m Steve
Corey: And I’m Corey.
Steve: And thank you for listening to 30 Screams or Less.