Jerna van Vooren
Hello, puppies and kittens, and welcome to State of Z Nation. Today we’re doing the film Sharknado as promised in the last episode, and to start off, I have a guest. She is the writer of the short story “Tiddies” and “The Empath”, and her most notorious work is the article “Everyone is Beautiful and No One Is Horny” on the website Blood Knife. And since they are also the former host of Kittysneezes’ first podcast. It’s only fitting to have them on here as well. It’s RS Benedict.
R.S. Benedict
Hello.
Jerna van Vooren
Hello.
R.S. Benedict
Hello. I hadn’t podcasted in a while. I feel like just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
You might hear my cat screaming in the background.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s fine. It’s fine. No podcast without R.S. Benedict is complete without Harley screaming.
R.S. Benedict
He’s currently sniffing my microphone. He’s he’s here. He is just waiting to get up to mischief.
Jerna van Vooren
So before I go talk about Sharknado, I want to ask: Do you have any? Have you ever seen an asylum film before? Or
R.S. Benedict
I think so. I’m pretty sure I saw Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus many years ago. Yeah, I think that was an asylum film.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, yeah, but like Sharknado is probably the most the most popular franchise at this moment. It’s like six films long, and those are the main titles.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, it’s a rich canon, really.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, rich tapestry, and well, some of the characters of this shows the nation appear in three and five. So I thought, what the hell? Let’s do this one as well. Yeah, but it’s like in the later movies. But like Sharknado was also like so successful, the asylum could actually manage to fund the nation to actually do TV shows as well.
R.S. Benedict
Huh?
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. So I’ve written down the plots of Sharknado. It’s basically a massive tornado that sucked up sharks, hit the coast of LA. Our hero is Finn, a man whose priority is to get his family to safety while avoiding all the sharks that are in his way. Which, yeah, that’s basically the plot. I I don’t know how else to like. I don’t know how else to like give like an overview because it’s like a very bare bones plots. I was also like thinking of, I don’t know, when I was watching Straknado, I was thinking of the Steven Spielberg film War of the Worlds, because that’s also like Tom Cruise, and it is also is also a divorced father who is trying to get his family from point A to point B. I think it’s a very standard story. I think, I think that’s the problem with Sharknado. It’s like a very standard story.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, yeah. It’s it’s tricky because on the one hand, you know, I do love trash. I absolutely love trash. This one just felt a little like it kind of left me cold. I was a little excited to, in the hopes of trying to like, you know, chew into this absolute madness, and I, I, I felt like, you know, because I love Hello Mary Lou prom night too. I love Boy Camp. I enjoyed Birdemic for what it was, which I think this movie has a lot in common with, and I feel like there’s something those movies have, which is a lack of cynicism. That like this is a very cynical movie in a lot of ways. You know, for for whatever Birdemic shock and terror is, it is 100 cynical. The man making it thought like I’m a fucking genius. This is the greatest movie ever made. Like he really thought he was doing something and saying something with that one.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, like I was also thinking about the room that’s like the most everyone’s go-to example. For so bad, it’s good film, but with the shark, with with the asylum, there’s like a it’s cynicism. It’s basically very cynical here.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, and to an extent, I can I can kind of get that too because trauma pictures also has a kind of cynicism. They’re not under the impression that they’re making good movies, either, but there is a real fun to their movies. Like Frankenhooker legitimately rules, it’s a really good movie. The Toxic Avengers, absolute garbage, and it’s fucking great. It’s super fun. You know, there’s a real like playfulness to it that felt like felt like it was a little bit missing here,
Jerna van Vooren
yeah.
R.S. Benedict
And and I know it’s not exactly a hot take to say like Sharknado’s not a good movie, because obviously you know this film franchise has a ton of fans, or people get excited about being in
R.S. Benedict
it, knowing
R.S. Benedict
full well that it’s bad. Like no one is under the illusion that this is cinema, but I felt like there’s something special and really magical about a a great a bad movie that isn’t as special about this one. I mean, there are fun bits. There were bits about it that were kind of fun, but it felt like a little less a little less of the weird, naive sincerity that works, like the room, which is a perfect example. Which again, a movie that’s insane and seems like it was made by a space alien, but like this truly was a passion project. Like Tommy Weisso really poured his heart into the room.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, it’s like no one poured
R.S. Benedict
their heart into Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
No, no, like it misses the it misses like the artistic vision that those films have. I can’t articulate it any way. Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
yeah, you’re right. Like they they do have a vision. Like the room had a vision, and Birdemic had a vision, you know. They really thought this is my movie. This is this. I’m making something here. I think the the Birdemic guy really thought he was making like the birds. You know, there are lots and lots of tributes to the birds, and he had this message about global warming. He was like a staunch, you know, environmental activist. There’s tons of stuff in there about how global warming is is causing the birdemic and the end. I needed to watch this that movie with a friend who’s into birding who could recognize the the particular bird calls in order to understand what the fuck was going on in the last scene. But what happens is there’s like a bunch of angry birds that show up, and then these other birds also that look like animated gifs from an old GeoCities page from like ’98 show up and swirl around it, and it’s confusing. But my friend said, “Oh, those are dove calls. So it’s a bunch of doves show up and like chase away the bad birds, because there’s this whole thing where you know their characters keep showing up wearing shirts that say “Imagine Peace. So that’s what happened. Like they imagined peace, and they gave peace a chance, and a bunch of you know white doves showed up and kind of saved the day. It’s like, well, he really thought it was this beautiful, symbolic, magical, realist ending made on a budget of like $20, and and you know and a sandwich, and like that’s kind of what’s magical about this. And this one, I I don’t expect anyone felt like they were you know this is our magic thing, or
Jerna van Vooren
yeah,
R.S. Benedict
we’re we’re or even like an Ed Wood thing, like yeah, this is silly, but I’m really amped up to tell this crazy story. Let’s have fun.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, like with the asylum, basically churns these films out, like, and I and I imagine they like shoot darts at like potential titles, like okay, which is going to make the most money, and I guess it landed on like Shark and Tornado. Let’s combine it together. Yeah, like most of
R.S. Benedict
their most their productions are very clearly based on other movies. Like they have Transmorfers, they have Atlantic Rim. It’s sort of things that are designed to trick your grandma into buying
R.S. Benedict
the
R.S. Benedict
disc accidentally, because you go transmurfers. That’s that thing my grandson likes, right? You know, she’s she’ll buy it for you, and you’re like, oh, thanks, grandma, because you you don’t want to tell her she fucked up because she’s grandma, she means well. You just go like, oh, thanks, grandma, you tried. Like that was kind of their business model until they somehow stumbled upon the formula of shark and or octopus monsters attacking people. For some reason, that’s kind of what got people to watch it. That was their original content. Although, as as original, you could call that. This movie’s oddly like it structurally it follows Birdemic really really closely in that half of this is a road movie and like act for act you know how the how the group gets together how they stop how there’s even a scene where they try to rescue people from a bus from the bad animals that appears in shark or that appears in Birdemic too. It’s very strange how much like they used to go from ripping off Transformers and stuff, and now they’re ripping off Birdemic, and that’s what this is, which is so strange. It’s a choice.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I was thinking more like I don’t know, like Hollywood classic Hollywood archetypes. Like Finn feels like the very that’s the main character called Finn with
R.S. Benedict
Taha. Okay, I I did notice something kind of clever. There’s this there’s something that doesn’t matter that much. There’s an opening scene where they’re in a big boat that’s quote 20 miles off the coast of Mexico unquote, which is Mexico’s very large. 20 miles off the coast of Mexico is a span on either side of it that’s like at least 1000 miles.
Jerna van Vooren
Oh God!
R.S. Benedict
You know Mexico’s fucking big. You need to like name a city. You got to be like 20 miles off the coast of blah blah blah. 20 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula. 20 miles off of something. You can’t just be like off of Mexico. That’s very. That’s a very large country. It’s a significant landmass with a lot of coastline. But anyway, That there’s this
Jerna van Vooren
yeah there was
R.S. Benedict
opening on the boat where they’re talking about shark fin soup, which I don’t think they eat that in Mexico much, which kind of implies that the sharknado is like karmic retribution for for our human arrogance. But the captain was named Santiago off of that novel, *The Old Man in the Sea* by Hemingway, which is startling to have that literary allusion in *Sharknado*
Jerna van Vooren
I, I, I had another reference. I’ve noticed that Bass, the Finn’s friend was, they always referenced to him as Tasmanian, and I thought, is that the reference to the Tasmanian devil, like him being a warworld, and then maybe it’s like,
R.S. Benedict
oh, that could be. I think that’s possible.
R.S. Benedict
But
R.S. Benedict
I, I don’t think it’s that far fetched. I mean, maybe they were trying to grasp at something really heavy here.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
I will know. I the guy who plays like the the fat old drunk at the bar. I kept trying to figure out who is that guy. That is Kevin McAllister’s dad from Home Alone, actor named John Hurt, who is was genuinely a respect character actor for many decades.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I mean that’s also something like the what the Assam does like take like respected character actors. I think there’s like one with oh I’m blanking on his name. Can you still hear me? Sorry.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, I can hear you.
R.S. Benedict
Okay.
Jerna van Vooren
Okay, sorry. Just went to Windows, but like it had the what was his name? I forgot the actor’s name, but he was burnt from tremors in it in an asylum film.
R.S. Benedict
Rules. I fucking love
R.S. Benedict
Dreamers. That’s great.
R.S. Benedict
I I remember Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus was advertised because it starred, I think Debbie Gibson, who was this 1980s teen idol pop singer who performed in a lot of malls. I think.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, and I think like there was, hang on, I I should have taken notes, but a guy called Vernon Wells in a Mad Max ripoff, which I thought was kind of funny when I found out he was also in the second Mad Max.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, let’s see. I oh you took notes. I also took notes. Let’s see what are some of my notes say. PS1 cutscene level CGI. Why the gunfight plan, my guy? Is he paying for shark fins in cash? There is not enough room on that boat for 20,000 sharks or just 20,000 shark fins. Bullet point. Lots of close-ups of skinny women’s butts. Oh yeah, was that the dude in Michael Clayton? It was not the dude in Michael Clayton. Bullet point: $4 pretty cheap for a beer in California. Let’s see.
Jerna van Vooren
I I also wrote something about lots of sexual harassment, which like ogling at women’s bodies and. It was kind of uncomfortable to watch, but I think it’s like that kind of, I don’t know, like a standard Hollywood type of feel. I don’t know, like
R.S. Benedict
well, that is
R.S. Benedict
very much like low budget exploitation flick stuff. In that it it is sort of like, look, we can’t give you special effects that look good. We can’t give you big stars. We can’t give you good writing, but we can give you titties and ass and an occasional blood.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but they kind of lead to
R.S. Benedict
bikini girls and ass. Oh, what else did I write? Bullet point. Timu jaws. Bullet point. Boss does not creep on significantly younger waitress, unrealistic sequel to Twister quote question mark Twister, which is another movie that sucks that I absolutely love. I fucking love Twister. It’s awful and it’s great.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I I also love a good awful movie, but this was just bad, like boring and bad. And I’ve seen it like it’s kind of funny. This is not the first time I’ve seen this film. Actually, I’ve seen it like a few times, but like I saw it in my early 20s, and with my family at New Year’s, a bit of the second one as well, and we laughed at it because it was obviously bad. But now you realize it’s like it’s capitalizing on so bad it’s good films. Like, is
R.S. Benedict
this trash or slop? I guess.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
Like I love trash, but is this slop or could this be trash. Is this borderline trash? There’s something that’s kind of interesting
R.S. Benedict
about the cinema. This
R.S. Benedict
is
Jerna van Vooren
this attendee film, sir. And it is
R.S. Benedict
kind of interesting in some ways, in that it’s very much like a time capsule of the last gasp of the early 2000s, in some ways, in that you do have like very kind of sexualized oogling camera work. Before we sort of decided to stop doing that completely and just like surgically remove all sexuality from movies, and instead put it into internet pornography, the the incredible heavy eye makeup, which now is like kind of, I guess now it’s kind of Republican makeup, but like the super super super heavy eyeliner on all the girls. Tara Reid in this was is kind of interesting seeing her because she was one of those early 2000s like actresses that were really more famous for her tabloid antics, you know, like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears when she was going through her thing. Like she was one of those girls who was more famous for being a fucking train wreck in the media than she was for acting. So just seeing her again, I’m like, oh god, it’s fucking Tara Reade. That’s crazy, and she was absolutely cast purely because I think of her tabloid reputation. She-that’s what she’s more famous for now.
Jerna van Vooren
You’ll be happy to know she’s in every Sharknado film from here or now. For her,
R.S. Benedict
honestly, I’m glad she’s working.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. Oh yeah, about the-I wanted to say this about the special effects, because I, when I started this film, I noticed some differences with other viewing experiences of this film I had. Apparently, it’s the 10th anniversary edition on Tubi.
R.S. Benedict
That’s great.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
God bless Tubi.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but originally they filmed it in 4K.
R.S. Benedict
They filmed it in 4K.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but like they they filmed it with 4K cameras, and now they. Yeah, that was
R.S. Benedict
kind of high tech then. 2009. That’s kind of a big deal. They fucking used a much low. David Lynch used a fucking lower resolution, whatever that fucking digital movie was. God damn it!
Jerna van Vooren
Oh god, I wanted to say Milholland Drive. It’s not Inland Empire. Inland Empire.
R.S. Benedict
Yes, Inland Empire was not 4K. I’m pretty sure.
Jerna van Vooren
But the funny part is
R.S. Benedict
that’s incredible.
Jerna van Vooren
But the funny part is they had to like redo all the effects because it was like converted to like ADD at the time. Like right, was it 720 or
R.S. Benedict
yeah, yeah, probably
Jerna van Vooren
- But they had to like redo all the special effects. And when the 10th anniversary came out, they also like show it on screen. So
R.S. Benedict
that’s beautiful. That that’s beautiful. Let’s see. Okay, so it would be easy to like hate on this movie and go. But I’m trying to like. I feel like it would be more fun to try to examine the richness of it and what people find compelling in it. So I’m going through my notes. I’ve got. Does this film have allusions to the Fukushima nuclear disasters in Japan during during the tidal waves, perhaps because there’s a lot of like tsunamis washing up dangerous things from the ocean that kill people. What else do I have? Oh, I noticed that this movie takes place in California, and there are extensive discussions of driving routes that they spend most of the time in a car hitting bad traffic and trying to figure out what driving routes they might take to get better traffic. That is very accurate to the experience of California. That is 90% of your time in California is spent doing specifically that. So this is gritty realism in the Sharknado film,
Jerna van Vooren
well, I also made a note here. Like, what was it? Oh yeah, production wanted to keep it serious, not comedic. Like, I think more like straight faced, I guess. But there are also like quips and one-liners. Like, I think more like a normal Hollywood action film is what I think they meant because I’ve seen the second I’ve seen the second one and they go more they go in a more comedic route.
R.S. Benedict
Because one thing I was watching about this one of my bullet points in my in my notes was MCU levels of CG usage, which you know so much of this movie is computer generated sharks and and water and stuff and I thought well that’s kind of what MCU movies look like equipping undercutting the seriousness of everything little quips it is very Joss Whedon so in some ways this film was very like innovative in that it was kind of the MCU before the MCU, just on a very very small budget.
Jerna van Vooren
I think Sharknado came out in 2013, while The Avengers came out in 2012. So
R.S. Benedict
let me let me see. When did the first Thor come out? Thor, it looks like was 2011. Really, just 2011? Huh. Okay. How about yeah? The Avengers was. It says I’m looking at IMDb. It says that’s 2012, but I feel like Thor was kind of part of it and still part of that kind of you know that universe, the whole sort of vibe they were going for, and when
Jerna van Vooren
we
R.S. Benedict
and Sharknado was
R.S. Benedict
really 2013, huh? Because it felt like 2009. Why did I write that it was 2009?
R.S. Benedict
Maybe the that was the effects. What did what was 2009? Did I just hallucinate while watching Sharknado? That’s entirely possible.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I mean,
R.S. Benedict
huh?
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, so maybe it’s just kind of like almost this mirror universe. This like here’s the low budget MCU because it follows a heck of a whole lot of the story beats and a lot of it’s like, oh that thing you’re familiar with how how about we add this other thing you’re familiar with you know you you know what tornado movies are you know what shark movies are we’ll put them together which is very much sort of MCU like look look here’s the two different types of keys that we’re jangling together, we’re putting them all together and jangling them for three hours. Enjoy it. Buy the Funko Pops. Fuck you.
Jerna van Vooren
Funny, I love that. There are actually Funko Pops of Sharp Needle.
R.S. Benedict
Of course, there are.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, like this was the Assam’s like biggest hit at the times.
R.S. Benedict
Oh yeah, yeah, and I remember the How did this get made? Podcast. It’s this comedy podcast that I kind of like about bad movies. I think a couple of them like have watched the Sharknado movies and were very interested in it. And I think one of them, the hosts, might have been able to be in a small bit part in one of the movies and was fucking psyched.
Jerna van Vooren
I should listen to that episode. No, the I think I’ve listened to their the snowman episode, which was hilarious.
R.S. Benedict
Oh, that’s a good one.
Jerna van Vooren
I remember their episode more than I remember that film.
R.S. Benedict
Why did I feel another thing that that makes this feel like an early 2000s time machine is I remember there’s a bit where they’re watching the news on a portable television, yeah, and not a smartphone. That was so odd.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, what was that? When did smartphones come out? Because I feel like
R.S. Benedict
I think it was 2006.
Jerna van Vooren
So yeah.
R.S. Benedict
Okay. The shut up. I don’t. Want to know what AI says? What does Wikipedia say? The first iPhone was unveiled at MacWorld 2007 and released later that year.
R.S. Benedict
Yes.
R.S. Benedict
So they would have had smartphones. I yeah. Yeah. By then. So watching the little like portable TV with a with a itty bitty antenna on it was kind of delightful.
Jerna van Vooren
That’s a weird choice. I didn’t really think about that because, like, I don’t know. You ever watch like an old film and you’re like, “Oh yeah, that happens, or like we had to use we had to we had these things and like
R.S. Benedict
they’re hunting for a phone booth, things like that.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I
R.S. Benedict
love that shit. I love
Jerna van Vooren
- I I I watch the film Host, which is like a short film on Shutter. It’s an hour or so, and yeah,
R.S. Benedict
that was pretty good.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, and but I watched it like like 24 or 25, and they then they they and they did like the elbow notch when they met, and I was like, oh, that’s how quaint it! Look how quaint it is. Wait, that was five years ago.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, it’s great. That movie is really interesting in that it is this perfect time capsule that captures what it that moment. It’s not like an amazing movie, but it’s pretty clever and kind of cool that it was made the way it was and the time it was, and that it really did get that. Like, yeah, I remember the elbow bumps and the sheltering in place and the trying to socialize over over Zoom and all that stuff. That was kind of kind of a neat movie.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. Oh, also felt better film, especially at that budget. I assume, like I’ve on Wikipedia. Wikipedia says the budget of Sharknado is like 2 million, which yeah, I assume for all the effects, but I, but I just watched a film called Strawberry Mansion, which was made for $200,000, and it looked amazing and gorgeous. But then again, this is the asylum. It’s the movie Churn Out Factory, so. So it
R.S. Benedict
looks like Obsession that just came out was made with a budget of about a million, a little under, and it looks really fucking good. Granted, there’s not a lot of special effects going on, but still, still.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but this was also a very special effects-heavy film. But then again, yeah,
R.S. Benedict
yeah, you got to draw the sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, the
R.S. Benedict
multiple sharknados. There, I thought it was just one, but at the end, there’s like several sharknados.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, tornadoes with sharks in them. It’s not really like a. When I think of like Sharknado, I think of like a tornado shaped like a shark or something like that, like eats everything in its pad that it can.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, yeah.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s a bit disappoint. Well, it’s a bit disappointing, I guess. If it’s like, it it has that title going on for it, Sharknado. You hear it, and you’re like, “Ooh, a tornado filled with sharks, or something. That sounds like a goofy title. Let’s have a good time watching it.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah. Let’s see. Okay, let me try and try and find the see the beauty in Sharknado. All right, it was that Harry Knowles. That’s not a good thing. That that big dude they rescue from the bus. I I’m pretty sure that I was
Jerna van Vooren
like, no, it’s not Harry
R.S. Benedict
Knowles. No, the it’s not the ain’t it cool guy?
Jerna van Vooren
No, it’s not. I think it’s another guy, but he’s that guy. Then he looks like the. It looks like the person you want to have the least on your school bus.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, I’m shocked. How is not him? I thought that was just like a weird low budget celebrity camera. So who the fuck is that guy then? Why is he there?
Jerna van Vooren
I thought he was Robbie Wrist. I don’t know. Okay, okay, okay. He is like he provides he provided music for the him and the director are like they provided the music for the film, so I guess it’s like a
R.S. Benedict
oh okay
Jerna van Vooren
a funny cameo.
R.S. Benedict
I’m wondering if he wrote the end theme because the one thing I that I did find rather delightful about this movie was as the credits roll, they play a song about Sharknados. Yeah. Like the movie had its theme song, and you know what? Respect. I kind of like. I do miss that from like terrible 1990s movies. There was usually a really bad rap song by like MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice or something.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
And this one they went for it. You know what? All right, fair enough. That was okay. I I enjoyed that.
Jerna van Vooren
I I sometimes watch like two times movies and like having like a techno song at the end credits always pulls me back. Like, oh yeah, it was that time.
R.S. Benedict
Let’s see other things that I wrote in my notes. Oh, another surprisingly deep literary allusion. Is this a Moby Dick reference where Finn and Nova enter, you know, a shark’s mouth and have to be sort of cesarean sectioned out? That does happen in Moby Dick. A guy falls into a dead whale’s mouth and they got to like cut open its side to get him out of There are we revered because that honestly that’s that’s punching above its weight respect to that bullet point are they going to bomb the sharknado bullet point there are multiple sharknados question mark bullet point why is she wearing short shorts. If she’s ashamed of her scar, bullet point that the film ends with the word Finn, and then I wrote sigh in parentheses. Bullet point: Old dude pulled turban woman into the pool. Okay, so that scene where they’re like rescuing the people in the old folks’ home, I distinct. I found it distinctly notable that as they’re yelling, “Get out of the pool! It’s dangerous! An old guy very deliberately pulls lady into that pool. I want to know what’s going on there. What is what is happening?
Jerna van Vooren
My wife, she cannot swim. He is. It is
R.S. Benedict
deliberate. This is an attempted murder, and it’s not like referenced. Is what’s going on here? Is this like the rule of Jenny Pen going on in the background here? Like, what’s going on with this dude? This is a clear like attempted murder by Shark, and it’s never mentioned again. Maybe it’s mentioned in one of the sequels. I don’t know.
Jerna van Vooren
I don’t think it is like I assume like a set of scrolling, getting water, and then it’s falling into the water. It’s my take on it. There’s a lot of reactions. I notice where where they think confuse them. Like, okay, how much of that is like B roll? B roll. They just stitch together, so it’s like they’re reacting to something. Like, feel like it’s like in and out shots, you know.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, or maybe this guy just said like, “I’m gonna improvise. I’m gonna do something memorable. I’m gonna fuck with this. Let’s do it. Let’s throw it in. Said like, “Fuck it. Keep it in. Good enough. That was the best take we had.
Jerna van Vooren
Then she moved. She wouldn’t probably remember it afterwards. God, what else? Oh, bullet
R.S. Benedict
point. Is that supposed to be a New York accent? Bullet point. How old is the daughter? How old is Tara Reid? Bullet point. Divorced hero’s name is Finn. Question mark. Bullet point. Kinda love Tara Reid’s douchey new boyfriend. Okay, I legit did love that guy’s performance. He established with his outfit and his way of speaking immediately. Like this is the divorced man’s ex-wife’s new boyfriend, and we hate him. He knew he was making absolute trash, but he went like so hard on it. I kind of loved that guy. I
Jerna van Vooren
thought it was Billy Zane for a moment. Like every time I’m looking at it, it looks like Billy Zane.
R.S. Benedict
He was good. Like I mean, not good, good, but in that you know, very broad kind of ridiculous character instantly identifying. Here’s who he is. You’re going to enjoy getting rid of him because he’s the guy who fucks your wife. Like I, I thought he was great. He, he understood the assignment, as the kids used to say.
Jerna van Vooren
I wanted to like highlight that Finn and Tara Reid are constantly bickering throughout the film, so it’s like yeah, because it’s
R.S. Benedict
like Twister.
Jerna van Vooren
Oh, okay, okay. I I’ve not seen Twister. I should. Oh God, it’s
R.S. Benedict
really it’s terrible and it rocks. It’s just it. There is a scene in which like a very 1990s CGI cow is caught in a. Tornado, and it was like famous scene, and I feel like this is maybe a tribute to that scene. It is, it is an absolute trash movie. It’s complete nonsense, but it rocks. There’s like an evil meteorologist for some reason.
R.S. Benedict
A
R.S. Benedict
guy who can like read tornadoes’ minds. It’s true trash, and it somehow it had a legitimate budget and was kind of a big hit, and it had actual actors in
Jerna van Vooren
- Yeah, like Philip Seymour Hoffman is in. Yes, I know that.
R.S. Benedict
Yes, Helen Hunt is in it. Fucking Bill Bixby’s in it. Like legitimate. What the dude who played Wesley in Princess Bride is in it as the evil meteorologist. Genuine legitimate talent in that film.
Jerna van Vooren
I remember seeing ads for Twister on television. So, God,
R.S. Benedict
that’s fucking great. It it’s it’s kind of like a divorced woman’s fantasy. This this movie is very much a divorced man’s fantasy, in a way. You know, these younger single women are all hitting on him, and he’s still hip and cool, and he’s still good at surfing. He’s totally still good at surfing, and he can totally save the, and his kids love him, and his ex wife still loves him, and they divorce not because he’s a jerk, but because you know he’s just too unselfish. He’s too heroic. Like that’s why his marriage failed because he’s too good a person. Yeah, like if if vlogging in your car was a thing back then, he would have done a lot of it probably. But Twister was like kind of a divorced woman’s fantasy, and that the entire thing is these two storm chasers-they’re trying to get a divorce, and the Bixby’s new wife or fiance is kind of annoying. And Helen Hunt like refuses to sign the divorce papers because, really, the thing that saves their marriage is like opening it up and becoming polyamorous with a tornado,
Jerna van Vooren
incredible. Oh, that sounds like fun.
R.S. Benedict
It’s it’s it is hot garbage and it rocks. And I kind of thought of that a little bit with this with this with this film. Let’s see my notes. Bullet point: very little NATO in this movie, bullet point. They keep calling it a hurricane. Oh,
Jerna van Vooren
NATO. Okay. Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
yeah. There’s more shark than NATO. There’s not a lot of NATO until the very end. Bullet point. Is Nova trans? She feels trans coded. Is this queer? Yeah. The waitress Nova. Let’s talk about her. I’ve. I don’t know I don’t know I feel like it I feel like it she’s you know Nova’s her new name it is very much a trans girl name she said she didn’t like who she used to be she doesn’t like who she used to be she keep people keep wanting to to look at her and she’s like feeling a little uncomfortable about her body, although she still wears super shorts. If you’re if you’re afraid of your if you’re afraid of your scar, why are you wearing the booty shorts? I don’t know.
Jerna van Vooren
And that scar, but I shouldn’t
Jerna van Vooren
honestly that. I mean,
R.S. Benedict
it’s not that bad at all. It’s not that. It is pretty sick.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, in the well, she is coming back in the third at least, and they call her, and they still call her Nova. So that’s a good thing because at the end she was like, at the end she was like, so I don’t know what your actual name is, and I’m not going to say it out of respect for her.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, we’re not going to dead name Nova and Sharknado here.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, yeah, but like accidental queer cinema.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah.
Jerna van Vooren
What else? Oh, speaking, I I I found out that the actor who played Bas was gay as well, so there is definitely queerness in it.
R.S. Benedict
Well, good for him.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. What else? I made I made a joke here. Is Finn is the only actor getting outacted by his own sort of plank, which sounds a bit cruel, but he’s a bit of a plank, I’d say. He he doesn’t really have a lot of charisma, in my opinion.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, I mean, I guess a lot of it is like that is the script. He’s supposed to be the stoic he man action. I guess you can’t get too silly with it.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
heroes in these movies are usually very, very kind of flat and one note because being like a a manly man, you can’t show too much range, you can’t show too much character, you can’t be too much. You know, maybe this film is a statement on masculinity and toxic masculinity. Men would rather face a short. Sharknado than go to family therapy.
Jerna van Vooren
Men would rather getting eaten by a shark than go to therapy.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, Eric Reed probably wanted to go to couples counseling, and he’s like, “No, I need to fight the Sharknado instead. It’s important.
Jerna van Vooren
Funnily enough, in the sequels, it is the Sharknado, but it’s the sharknados what makes them a couple again.
R.S. Benedict
Of course, but they’re like you can’t base your your entire relationship on a sharknado. I don’t know, man. That’s like a flimsy basis for for a relationship. Even Speed Two Cruise Control understood that.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, it’s only like Sarah Bullock and no Keanu Reeves.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, yeah. Because the point, the plot point was that Keanu Reeves’s character left because a relationship based entirely on high adrenaline and emergency situations is not a stable one. It’s definitely not because Keanu Reeves decided he had better things to do than to be in speed to cruise control, which was but on a Carnival cruise ship.
Jerna van Vooren
That was the first speed film I watched, and then oh no,
R.S. Benedict
no,
Jerna van Vooren
because I was like, oh god, oh god, this this film is awesome.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, the first one’s great. It’s terrifically fun.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
second one is insane. It’s bizarre. One thing that I noted about the second one is there’s this whole subplot where some of the passengers they’re making fun of them, but they’re like some sort of weight loss group that’s about all about eating fat, and at the in the movie they’re being portrayed as like completely insane, delusional people. Well, fucking, who’s laughing now?
Jerna van Vooren
I feel like Speed Two is much more fun film than I remember William the Fall in it. So oh,
R.S. Benedict
he’s great.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, or he’s got a bathtub
R.S. Benedict
full of leeches or something. I vaguely remember he’s got a bathtub full of leeches, just ’cause
Jerna van Vooren
I I only remember like the boat speeding at the coast, and that’s it.
R.S. Benedict
Right, vaguely remember that. That and and the Fat Busters group were like the most vindicated people of all time. They probably have they probably have positions in the Trump cabinet now. I mean, yes.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. Oh God. No, I’m I’m already flashing forward to the third Sharknado, where it’s like scene set in the White House, and Mark Cuban is a president in it.
R.S. Benedict
God, I do feel like we’re living in an asylum productions film. Like it, it that does feel like we’re kind of in one right now.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So something that I wanted to bring up as well is that there’s like lots of little ties to the navy. Not like in a. You brought on the examples of MCU films, but the MCU films receive a very lot of money from the Department of Defense.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah. Do you think the Department of Defense helped pay Sharknado? Do you think like the Air Force did a little bit, or not? Were they totally punk rock and getting like no support from the government? In which case, that is kind of cool. Like, gotta respect that.
R.S. Benedict
Sorry, cadets.
R.S. Benedict
I think the cadets do get, except for one kid. All of the young, like soldier, airmen, or whatever they’re called, do get fucked up by the Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but there was also like the the the retirement home at the end was also like veteran retirement home.
R.S. Benedict
That’s right. Finn is
Jerna van Vooren
always saying,
R.S. Benedict
“Semper for us. No more veterans. We have to protect them. In which case, there were a lot of women in that. In that, so it’s like a lot of an unusual number of female veterans, which is kind of cool. Very progressive.
Jerna van Vooren
Accidentally progressive.
R.S. Benedict
Accidentally woke movie again.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, accidentally woke, accidentally queer.
R.S. Benedict
If it if that’s true, then Ben Shapiro’s shitty company is going to have to make some kind of weird right wing Sharknado movie. Like they made like a weird right wing bluey knockoff.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
that somehow have. It’ll somehow have even worse production values. They’ll try to like go, you know, old school and try to create an actual Sharknado, but it’ll be wildly dangerous, and several people will get mangled.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
but you know, if they willingly worked for for Ben Shapiro. I’m kind of okay with that.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, and besides, they’re like mostly the people cast out of Hollywood, like for doing the bad stuff. Doing
R.S. Benedict
when when you’re too much of a piece of shit to work in Hollywood, that’s a lot. Like it takes a lot to get outcast from Hollywood by being too much abusive asshole. That’s wild.
Jerna van Vooren
That remind that reminds me of Tina. What’s her name? Tina Carano from The Mandalorian. Yeah. Getting cast out, and it was like for being transphobic. But now I’m wondering what else. Maybe there was something happening behind the scenes. I’m not familiar. Like maybe she
R.S. Benedict
just stuck to work with or something too. Yeah. Like maybe she’s missing lines and just like not being a team player too.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah. Because again, you’ll
R.S. Benedict
tolerate a lot of bullshit as long as you’re like professional and making Money too,
Jerna van Vooren
yeah. Jared from Subway makes a cameo in the second and the third film, and they had the decency to at least cut him out in the third film at one point for the. You
R.S. Benedict
know what? Credit, credit where credits do.
Jerna van Vooren
We we were talking about the buzzer driver being Like the most, the most unwanted person you want to have on a bus while Jared from Subway.
R.S. Benedict
Jared from Subway is more unwanted than that guy.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
Oh, bullet point. Timu Jaws bullet point. I recently watched Point Break and Red Gil.
Jerna van Vooren
Gil
R.S. Benedict
is that is that horror comic, that horror manga about like walking fish robots that are powered by farts.
Jerna van Vooren
Oh, Giu. All right, the Junji Ito manga.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, Junji Ito. I don’t know how it’s pronounced, Giu or Gill. I don’t. I don’t know.
Jerna van Vooren
I I don’t know either. I got a copy in my bookshelf, so I know what you mean.
R.S. Benedict
Yes. So the asylum
Jerna van Vooren
skew.
R.S. Benedict
The asylum skew. That’s funny. Asylum point break because it’s not homoerotic enough.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s kind of funny because I remember reading about the asylum, that they were actually like a production company that wanted to make legitimate films, but then at one point they made a War of the Worlds film that came around this the same time as the Spielberg version, and they were like, “Oh, okay, so we can make money off of that. So, which, yeah, I kind of have to hand it to them at least like financially.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, I mean they found they found a way to make money. Oh yeah, the source that was like not a good movie, but it was kind of kind of known for a hot minute. They’re I’m looking at their early 2000s movies, and there’s a lot of low budget horror, which understandable, you know. But it did look like they were kind of trying to make their own low budget horror that was kind of sincere for for whatever it is. Dead man.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
it’s snakes
Jerna van Vooren
on a tree. Yeah,
R.S. Benedict
yeah.
Jerna van Vooren
Well, it rhymes with plain, so I mean, it’s at least nakedly transparent in comparison to like, say, your Disney’s or your Warner Brothers or like, yeah. In terms of like filmmaking, they suck, but as a economic thing, I I got a hand to them.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, they found their niche. They’re they’re they’re making money. They are keeping the lights on. There are certainly worse things you can do to to make money. You know, like they they haven’t pivoted to being right wing assholes, so I’ll give them that. They’re they’re making good. Oh no, don’t tell me. Although they
Jerna van Vooren
start to although they started to use AI in their films, and I’m like, yeah, and I was like, and I was like genuinely a bit heartbroken, but it’s also like it’s the assign. It is the assigned. They would be
R.S. Benedict
doing that. Yeah, I would. I I wouldn’t expect it any other way. They’re the only ones that I won’t get mad at. You can’t be like, no, you’ve desecrated the artistic integrity of asteroid again.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s also something I’m also okay with to be like. I see, like a lot of AI movie posters, and I’m like, it’s stupid. It’s a dumping ground. What else can you expect?
R.S. Benedict
Yeah,
Jerna van Vooren
like
R.S. Benedict
it is at least. I I don’t love it. I don’t love it, but I’m
Jerna van Vooren
no, it’s not the. I’m
R.S. Benedict
gonna die on
R.S. Benedict
here.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I can do being dead.
R.S. Benedict
I would kind of hope that they might pull like a Blumhouse thing, where you know Blumhouse makes a lot of low budget horror garbage, but occasionally they’ll make like a legitimately really fucking good movie, and sometimes it’s a good horror movie like like Obsession, you know, legit like a really solid horror movie that has a point and has something to say, and sometimes they’ll make like a movie that’s not exactly horror, yeah, but is really good.
Jerna van Vooren
Well, that’s that’s the reason why I wanted to start this podcast because I watched the Z Nation and Black Summer series, and Black Summer is like, well, it’s not a film, but it’s ridiculously good. Like, it’s obviously low budget. It’s obviously filmed in Canada, but goddamn, it’s like one of the best zombie things I’ve ever seen on at least zombie TV shows.
R.S. Benedict
That’s good.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, and it’s my
R.S. Benedict
episode of it. I’m so sorry.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s fine. I mean, it’s it’s fine. Like, but again, this is what why I wanted to do this podcast to bring more awareness.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah,
Jerna van Vooren
I I think Z Nation. I mean, I’m going to talk about this show eventually, but it’s like what I would expect to be coming from the asylum, like entertaining at least. Like there’s at least an attempt there to make an actual TV show, even if it doesn’t work out.
R.S. Benedict
So is it trash or is it slop?
Jerna van Vooren
Uh, it’s at least trash.
R.S. Benedict
Okay, because I fucking love trash.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s also on Tubi and free on YouTube as well.
R.S. Benedict
Oh, nice. Yeah, nice. At
Jerna van Vooren
least I’ve talked about a lot of it in the Kitty Sneezes Discord. So maybe you’ve seen, maybe you’ve read it.
R.S. Benedict
I think I’ve seen it. I haven’t seen. I’ve seen you talking about it, but I haven’t myself watched any of the show.
Jerna van Vooren
I think I think I was just wowed because it was something from the asylum that was actually pretty decent and entertaining. Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
Good for them.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. And I’m gonna make a hot take. I actually kind of like the second Sharknado. It was kind of Gremlins Two esque, I’d say. Okay.
Jerna van Vooren
Because it’s also like I’m going to flash forward here, but it also takes place in New York. Ah. But the opening, it’s basically it starts with Finn and Tara read on a plane, but it opens with like the plane, the the plane fin coming up from the clouds, like a like a shark fin coming out of the sea, and I’m like, okay, that’s
R.S. Benedict
that’s kind of fun,
Jerna van Vooren
yeah. And like Finn has like PTSD, and I and he thinks a shark is landing on the wing of the plane, and I’m wondering, hang on, isn’t this a reference to yeah? That’s why I throw a shadow that
R.S. Benedict
everyone loves. That just sounds kind of fun.
Jerna van Vooren
Cause it’s like, yeah, it’s like, okay, at least making some some effort. I appreciate.
R.S. Benedict
You know what? Good for them.
Jerna van Vooren
So anything else? Oh yeah, I failed
R.S. Benedict
in Jarnao. I’m afraid, so I can’t really weigh in on the sequels.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s fine. It’s gonna be the thing with this podcast is I invite a guest to talk about an episode, whether they have seen the show in its entirety or not. So that’s that’s the gist of this podcast, and that also includes all the Sharknados films, unfortunately, because
R.S. Benedict
unfortunately there’s like
Jerna van Vooren
unfortunately yeah, there’s like six of them. Wow, that’s a lot of Sharknados, and like there’s like maybe there’s going to be a seventh one this year, which apparently is a prequel. I don’t know how how they’re going to do that one. It’s it’s like that would be great, but I’ve already seen the I’ve already read on the plot. It’s basically Finn and Tara Reid in their teenage years, and I don’t know how that feels. Please tell me that the same
R.S. Benedict
actors. I really hope. I God, I hope so, that they’re going like wedding summer to style. They did because there. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that that um comedy. There’s this ensemble comedy that’s like had a lot of alt comedians and it was. At least in the 2010s, and it was a parody of a 1980s summer camp type coming of age movie, and it’s really really fun. And then like 10 years later, they released a series on Netflix that was a prequel. So all the actors playing these high school or or like child camp, summer camp people. They were well into their mid 30s in the first movie. By the second movie, which is a prequel, they are clearly in their mid 40s with great airlines, and it’s not remarked upon at all. And it rules. It’s just sounds. I love it.
Jerna van Vooren
That sounds like that sounds really funny. Like,
R.S. Benedict
it’s a. I’ve always
Jerna van Vooren
like thought that would be funny to have like, since like in those teenage series, they always like have like actors in their like 20s or 30s playing those roles and like have like elderly people play, elderly people play
R.S. Benedict
playing the parents.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s well, it’s basically that joke from Dirty Rock. How do you do, fellow kids? Okay, so what else? Maybe like a small thing, but I I looked up the Rotten Tomato score, which I’m I’m surprised is kind of high.
R.S. Benedict
Oh,
Jerna van Vooren
take a guess. Take a guess.
R.S. Benedict
I’m gonna say like 55%
Jerna van Vooren
Higher,
R.S. Benedict
what? It’s 78%
R.S. Benedict
Are you fucking kidding me?
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, like. Okay, I think I I assume it’s like people bought into this so bad it’s good kind of.
R.S. Benedict
I guess they enjoyed it. They enjoyed it. Ironically, yeah. Okay, so bad it’s good. It’s not. It’s not. It’s not so bad. It’s good. It’s just
Jerna van Vooren
this is also something about why we, you and I both know why Rotten Tomatoes hurt, but this was something else. So
R.S. Benedict
well, this is interesting. This got 78. Sharknado two got 61% and then there’s a really steep drop off. All the other ones are getting 30s, 14, or the Fourth Awakens. So I’m wondering what happened there. What drop off or or are the sequels actually better in that they’re worse? I don’t know. I don’t know.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, but there was something also that I found in the Rotten Tomatoes. So I was like skimming on the reviews of the top critics, and I found a review written by the AEV Club, and it was written by Audrey Peoples, and I was confused because the daughter in the film is played by Aubrey people, so I was like, “Is this the same person? But no, it’s like the article was I’ve looked at the article and was written by another person entirely. So
R.S. Benedict
okay, so I’m looking. I am looking at other movies that got 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. We’re seeing 1963’s HUD starring Paul Newman. We’re seeing 1984’s Starman by director John Carpenter starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. They put Shanghai noon. Well, okay, fair enough. Green, no, Screen Two is 1% better than Sharknado. Air Force One. You know what? I will argue that Air Force One is about as good as Sharknado. The Big Skowsky? Are you fucking kidding me? The Big Lebowski is as good as Sharknado as is Dances with Wolves, Gremlins,
Jerna van Vooren
which, funnily enough, also stars Sarah Reed’s The Big Lebowski.
R.S. Benedict
Burn after reading, and Dark City are 1% less than Dark City. Dark City.
Jerna van Vooren
Dark City. It’s
R.S. Benedict
got 77% The Virgin Suicides and Batman Returns and The Lost Boys, not as good as Sharknado. Oh
Jerna van Vooren
Jesus, my God! What a broken one!
R.S. Benedict
Not as oh brother, where art thou? Not as good. What
Jerna van Vooren
the fuck? Shark
R.S. Benedict
Tato! Jesus!
Jerna van Vooren
My God!
R.S. Benedict
Barbarian got. 76% Conan the Barbarian is not as good as Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Damn it! I I watched the pretty game. 97
R.S. Benedict
is not as good as Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Jesus
R.S. Benedict
Christ! What is this? What is happening?
Jerna van Vooren
Oh, what a! The
R.S. Benedict
devil’s wear. The devil wears Prada is not as good as Sharknado. The birdcage, 75% three less Sharknado. I’m just gonna keep scrolling down and seeing like incredible movies that got worse than Sharknado. Idiocrity, 74% I know it’s problematic, but I still like idiocracy.
Jerna van Vooren
I’ve not seen idiocracy.
R.S. Benedict
Ah, well, we’re living in it. Secretary 4%
Jerna van Vooren
Oh God,
R.S. Benedict
secretary. What an
Jerna van Vooren
absolute Kent swap site!
R.S. Benedict
Why, why? Forrest Gump 72. Okay, you know what? Fair enough. Fair enough. I will accept the Sharknado is better than Forrest Gump.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, I’ll give you that. Not as problematic, I I think.
R.S. Benedict
Yeah, yeah.
Jerna van Vooren
I haven’t seen Forrest Gump in a while, so. Oh God.
R.S. Benedict
Okay, this one I will fight. Beavis and ButtHead do America, 71% Fuck that. That that movie is better than Sharknado. God,
Jerna van Vooren
Man,
R.S. Benedict
Napoleon Dynamite not as good as Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
I’m going to look at how do you see like certified fresh movies, I guess. Oh, those are the the ones that are like the
R.S. Benedict
Dark Crystal, 1982, 70% eight points less than Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
What?
R.S. Benedict
That’s right. My cat is outraged.
Jerna van Vooren
I mean, they should be. I mean,
R.S. Benedict
the Dark Crystal.
Jerna van Vooren
The Dark
R.S. Benedict
Crystal. Batman, 1989, 70% Are you fucking kidding me? That is the Batman fucking rocks. It’s the perfect mixture of Gothic and camp. It’s amazing.
R.S. Benedict
It
R.S. Benedict
has a Prince song. It’s great. What Rotten Tomatoes? Rotten Tomatoes. Come on. Whoa.
Jerna van Vooren
I I was watching Pain and Gain last week, and I wanted to be. People always said that wanted to be a Coen Brothers film, but it seems like Sharknado is more like a Coen Brothers film, considering all the scores.
R.S. Benedict
Considering, yeah, apparently it’s better than several Coen Brothers films, according to the critics of RottenTomatoes.com. What a amazing!
Jerna van Vooren
What a fucking it’s over. That’s so
R.S. Benedict
cool. That’s incredible. Let me look. Okay, what what did what did a simple man get? rottentomos.com? What did you give a simple man? It’s just
Jerna van Vooren
- That’s not 2020. Jesus, how many simple men are there?
R.S. Benedict
Where? Why
R.S. Benedict
can’t I find what? Why can’t I find a simple man?
R.S. Benedict
I don’t know.
Jerna van Vooren
The most like you like
R.S. Benedict
yeah. There should be it should come up there, considering it’s the goddamn Coen Brothers.
R.S. Benedict
What the fuck? What is this website?
R.S. Benedict
Why isn’t this coming up? This is bizarre.
Jerna van Vooren
Or is it simple, man?
R.S. Benedict
I don’t
Jerna van Vooren
know. Hang on. Wait, what is this? How comes?
R.S. Benedict
Why? Yeah, I’m getting the same problem. Unless I’m misering the title and fucking this up.
Jerna van Vooren
Hang on, I’m looking at some Wikipedia. It is on there. Serious man. Okay.
R.S. Benedict
I fucked it up. Okay, you’re right.
Jerna van Vooren
No.
R.S. Benedict
Constantly, I’m spiritually. I’m an old person.
Jerna van Vooren
It’s fine. Okay, this one has an 89% on. Okay.
R.S. Benedict
Okay. Slightly better than rot. A a serious man. The Coen Brothers retelling of the story of Job, exactly 11 points better than Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, funnily enough, also 11 points less than 100%
R.S. Benedict
Yes.
Jerna van Vooren
What a shit show of a website!
R.S. Benedict
Those 11 points were critics who Cy Abelman fucked their wives too. That’s all I can say. It would have gotten, but Cy Abelman fucked each and every one of those critics’ wives.
R.S. Benedict
Okay, at least
Jerna van Vooren
at least the 68% from the audience score, which is also better because because Sharknado had a 35% So okay, okay, fair enough, fair enough. But 60 audience again, so
R.S. Benedict
yeah, so that means 32% of that audience got cucked by by Cyber from a serious man. That’s the only reason I can see why you’d give it less than a five star. God, I wish Cy Abelman was in more movies. I think it’s probably good that he’s just in the one. But I would watch the Cy Abelman cinematic universe. I would watch multiple sequels of Cy Abelman just just doing what he’s doing.
Jerna van Vooren
He would probably in Sharknado do Terra Reid and then still survive.
R.S. Benedict
Oh, he would. He would.
Jerna van Vooren
Okay. I don’t know. Do we have anything else to say? Because like
R.S. Benedict
I don’t. I think we’re talking about Cy Ableman, so it’s probably end it.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah. Let’s see. Well, this this is the point where I would ask guest, will you watch the remainder of Z Nation? But it’s not.
R.S. Benedict
I have watched absolutely zero episodes of Z Nation. I will probably not watch the remainder of it. I’m
Jerna van Vooren
good. It’s fine. It’s fine, as long as you listen to this podcast. I guess.
R.S. Benedict
Sure.
Jerna van Vooren
Anyway. All
R.S. Benedict
right. Uh.
Jerna van Vooren
So what else can I say? Well, yeah. This is it, I guess. Normally,
R.S. Benedict
about Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah.
R.S. Benedict
We said more than enough about Sharknado.
Jerna van Vooren
We’ve said more about Sharknado than Sharknado will ever do. Yeah. So normally this would have been released back to back with the pilot where we discuss the pilot episode of Sea Nation, but if it’s not there. It will be there next time. So, until the next state of Z Nation. All
R.S. Benedict
right.
Jerna van Vooren
Yeah, the French accents it because it’s a bit of a pun anyway.
R.S. Benedict
Okay. Oh, I get it now. All right.
Jerna van Vooren
State of Z Nation was hosted and recorded by Jerna van Vooren in association with KS Media LLC. The theme was composed by DokPetra. Jerna can be contacted on Blue Sky at nextmooregoscinny.bsky.social or on Instagram at Jernaceous. Support State of Z Nation and other fine projects at Patreon.Kittysneezes.com. This has been a Kittysneezes production.