George Clooney made Top Gun but... in a boat?? The Boys In The Boat Movie Review 2024-02-21 02:07

this time on the real generation gap there are a lot of shortcomings that he has as a director on why he couldn't make this movie Stand Out any more than it could it's like poverty yeah there's some poverty really coming from them it's like what's the point did George cloney just make Top Gun but in a boat hi this is the real generation gap I'm BJ King and I'm Fred satelli and this is boys in the boat we're reviewing okay BJ Kang welcome to the show here and uh it's my assertion I want to know what you think did George Clooney just make Top Gun but in a boat like what do you mean by that exactly well first of all Top Gun was a Smash Hit And when I went to the theater the people just applauded and cried I mean Top Gun was such a Smash Hit for about a week or two right and this audience had the same reaction to this movie now in Top Gun Top Gun never lost you know and in this movie the guy's never lost to me it was just Top Gun but instead of a modern fighter plane in a 1936 shell you know rowing boat and going into the Olympics instead of actually into combat so I looked that and I smiled to myself and said okay hyper patriotic movie I love that we need that I'm I'm I'm really happy that that happened almost surprised that George coloney did something like that considering but uh to me it was Top Gun in a boat what do you think for a movie set in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression at the height of Nazi Germany rule uh over Nazi Germany Rule and in the middle of the Olympics uh a story about nine impoverished boys in a rowing boat trying to make their way to Glory it it didn't feel very glorious I definitely get that sense that there was something missing from the film to really top it off to bring it to the next level to sort of make it stand out from other sports movies because that that is what this is it it's a sports movie yeah that's true that's true one of the things that I struggled with was because I didn't have the kind of hardship that these these athletes had I never missed a meal in my life I I you know um it was hard for me to appreciate their angst the star of the show was abandoned at the age of 14 he lived in the junkyard he was dealing with starvation uh he he just lived in an absolutely horrific environment it was a very hopeless environment and I I couldn't identify with that because I don't have an experience like that his angst in the movie was very within him it it wasn't really from outside influences it wasn't like somebody was really beating them down he made the team right away you know it it was he didn't really struggle that way when I evaluated the way he acted the part and the way the part was written I chastised myself because there's no possible way I could identify with the character I just don't have you know a depression I I frankly I thought of my father because he was brought up during that time right yeah so it was his angst it wasn't well described in the movie yeah but but for me I I needed more I I needed CU he really had a problem he was a very unhappy guy and I could see how you would be since I don't have that experience I felt like the movie was lacking in explaining that or somehow bringing that out and maybe it's impossible to bring that out so I'm not really qualified to judge that quite as well as I'd like to be I I definitely know exactly how that feels um I came from a similar background as well I never really had to go through such a horrific struggle like that living uh growing up during the Great Depression he was in the movie he's living in a broken down car in a shanty town b a shanty town uh was basically like houses that they would make out of just spare boards just random pieces of trash because they were just that poor they couldn't even afford to live in like a really bad house they had to make up scrap houses but scenes like those there was only like four maybe three scenes where it shows that and then for the rest of the movie he spends his time in a university and I'm like okay well let's see more about what his university life is like and you don't really get to see that there's two scenes where he's in the lectured Hall I don't even think you really know what his major is and well you know that's I'm I'm sorry for interrupting but you're really right about that his whole goal in going to school and getting on the rowing team was so he could afford to be in the school to study engineering but they never showed any inclination for engineering he wasn't you know off to the side he was wasn't really doing his homework and figuring things out it was kind of like a fake reason exactly it it just feels like they sort of glazed or brushed over the fact that he grew up in the Great Depression that he was impoverished that he was going on this rowing team just to survive to make money it's like it's in the middle of extremely historical event than Great Depression and yet the story which relies on that historical period doesn't really play with it at all there's a sort of hesitance to explore that really that's why I think it was nothing but Top Gun in a boat you know there was so much that could have been done here and I mean I didn't want to see a 5H hour movie but it was pretty flat the movie was there was no real highs and lows it just was a pretty even keeled historic now we know that there was such a thing and it did happen I I like the fact that they mentioned Jesse Owens a couple times yeah because he was the real hero of that Olympics yeah you know so that without mentioning him it would have been a real travesty but I didn't think much of the movie I I I have to admit I was emotional whenever I see anybody overcoming hardship it really affects me and I'm patriotic so the fact that we won was was wonderful MH you know I think it I mean they had to be historically accurate they obviously couldn't have them lose a couple and then win a couple and you know rate down to the wire I think that for one thing rowing it's not a real drama thing you know it's a drag race yeah and they don't turn the boat in other words it's just start to finish I don't know how many minutes it actually is the idea that they were able to overcome a full boat length false start and and and come back because everybody in the Olympics they're all Olympic Champions they're all Legacy Champions so it wasn't like this happened at the college level and they really did it and they came back that would have been believable in the beginning but at the Olympic level the story is kind of unbelievable May or may not be exactly true it may be exactly true but it's still kind of unbelievable I don't know I thought the Americans beating the Russian and ice hockey was much more exciting than this yeah exactly there in that story there's there feels like there's a real conflict going on I believe it's called Miracle on Ice I believe that's that that one right yeah yeah yeah had these guys hung out with the German rowers a day or two beforehand and maybe had a couple fist fights or something it would have been and once again this is a historically accurate thing I'm assuming much as I want to add drama I'm wrong to do that but at the same time as a movie pretty flat yeah uh I know that you said that you like when there's not big stars in the cast because it helps you to focus on the story more I definitely think that was a good decision by George Clooney I was not very familiar at all with any of the actors in this in this cast and I thought this is a perfect opportunity for George Clooney to just focus on the story focus on who the characters are f focus on their real lives and yet he didn't do much with them to bring anything out of these actors it's like yes I want to see what an actor that I an actor I'm not familiar with see what they can do when they're given a character but when the character they're given is not really a character at all there's nothing really coming from them it's like what's the point yeah there was no and know it was a shame to me that the rest of the rowers were really not very much mentioned yeah you know there could have been a lot more depth of the story if all eight of those guys had some backstory and when they were actually doing the rowing you know I like artistic editing yeah and if they would have done a thing like you know I some of these Western shootouts have it right like the good to Bad and the Ugly were the three of them are just it's his face his face his face so if you would have seen this guy rowing and that guy rowing and this guy rowing and that guy and the faces and the intensity of all those guys and then the guy who was the caller you know and his his story he had a little baby backstory but they never really elaborated on that either so I didn't have much of a personal investment in this movie it definitely was weird that they were spinning it as like these were all individual men who came from impoverished backgrounds looking to just survive but then they find a thirst for Glory by working together as a team and yet only three of them are really important and only one of them gets any sort of meaningful character development and it doesn't go very far at all I I think one of the only characters that really stood out to me in that movie was the the coach uh the coach really stood out to me because he's the one who really kind of goes through a a change or a a shift in perspective one of my favorite scenes is when he's going through all of their lockers and he finds all their boots and each one of them has a hole in them and he he begins to think that this is like to him it's just a sport to him it's just about winning but for them he realizes it's something more than that they came into this to survive and now he understands that he has to sell them what it means to win what it means to be a champion instead of someone just trying to survive because they're eight losers yeah you know they're not like the Princeton boys or the Yale boys or anything these are guys and his catharsis is wonderful he finally smiles yeah he he has every his whole career is on the line his his whole reputation and everything he's actually overcomes the most yeah you know and his wife was a wonderful character she's the the the quintessential good woman who believes in you to the very end I found that touching I found that very touching the other guy who was a sensational minor player in the story but minor but not minor was the boat builder uh I believe his name was uh George pook that that's his name he his scenes were one of the were one of my favorites out of all the parts in the movie I think those are some of the the best parts that were done the the the best because they were the most character developing I think for the main character uh Joe because when Joe's in the boat he's just rowing and it's really easy when you're just rowing to sort of just think I'm just rowing and this is just a sport I do but when he's talking with George as he's in charge of maintaining the boats like after the after the events and he oils them and he uh I don't know like Smooths out any sort of Nicks or uh bumps that they get he begins to understand that there's a lot of art like craftsmanship that there's a lot of care that's there's a lot there's a science that goes behind uh what makes these boats move in the water and that's when Joe finally begins to really appreciate the sport well also he makes a a physical connection with this thing he begins to have a love affair with the shell it's his shell it's not just the shell he's got many many hours of work on this thing and nobody belongs in it more than him and when he has so much angst that he says I don't I don't give a damn about this I'm I'm just GNA I'm out yeah I think the fact that he can't be in his boat is a major aspect in him returning to it yeah like this is like only only I belong in this seat and a lot of people have a physical connection a racing car or a very special musical instrument yeah where nobody can play this but me or nobody can drive this but me and nobody can understand the love affair I'm having with this thing I I I like that aspect a lot but that wasn't shown really you know what I mean like he he could have had one line in there where he said I can't let the boat down yeah I have to defend the boat you know it's like a Castle you know it's like I can't let the boat down I can't let my guys down I can't let the boat down you know when I was a little boy I was on a baseball team yeah and visiting my grandmother was a real special event for all all the kids in my family and they were going to go away for the weekend and do that and my f I said oh we're going to go to Grandmom's my dad said you can't I said why he goes you made a commitment to a team you're the catcher on this ball team you're going to be in that game you can't say you can't let those guys down they need you back there they depend on how would you like if wesy the shortstop wasn't there Peter Egan you know you're going to be there kid and I was like I want to go see grandom I was like yeah well you're a young man now you know you made a commitment to a team so those aspects are interesting to me and uh those are philosophical things that could have been expressed a little more the movie was just too flat for me you see and and like that story you just gave about your grandma it's like that that's a good movie we seen right there in of in of itself but it's like where where's that in this movie it's like if it's a what makes a great sports movie I think is that you have to remember that sports are played by humans it's a game humans love to play games and humans love to win but you have to focus on the aspect that these are humans playing and that there's a lot more going there's a lot more going on for them than just what happens on the court or for in this movie what goes on in the boat and that's not really explored what for you makes like a great sports movie oh my god there were so many but you're right overcoming o I'll tell you what really does and it was great in the second Rocky movie overcoming your own fear overcoming your own because ultimately it's you against you when you're out there right yeah nothing more than nothing more than boxing exemplifies that more than anything else but it's really you putting yourself to the limit to the absolute test we just reviewed the movie Ferrari and those guys getting into that car are they were ready to die there you know they wanted to really go all the way so when a guy has to go absolutely all the way that's what the Olympics is about you know you come out there and for that one three minutes on the ballots beam or the Rings or throwing that Javelin or whatever you're doing it's it's 10 years of training has to come all together for that one quintessential moment where you overcome injuries that you may have psychological damage that you may have doubts you may have have about yourself you overcome it all you perform and you do it yeah and that's what makes a great sports movie I I I believe the exact same thing and what I really love about Rocky one for example I it was really hard for me to not compare this to Rocky because what it is at its court is it's an underdog sports movie I thought to me what's the greatest Underdog sports movie in my opinion I thought Rocky I was like well what is it that makes Rocky so inspirational so moving and so authentic feeling even though it's not really it's it's not based on a on a true story like this one is closely as adapted is yeah we'll tell that to Chuck webner and and it's that like to me what sort of stands out is that the fighting in Rocky the big boxing match is only 20 minutes of I think an hour and a half movie The Other whole like 70% of the movie is he's going through the motions of his life and the Motions of his life is he's poor he's W there's so many shots of him where he's walking up these dingy stairs to his apartment where he's just sort of hanging out in his his dingy apartment or he's walking down these streets that are sort of don't look very safe there's hobos outside his apartment huddling around a fire in a garbage can he has a pretty hopeless life he has a pretty hopeless life but you really walk a mile in Rocky shoes and so when especially when he's training yeah exactly and they had the exciting music when he was training that became an iconic clastic piece of music you know this movie had no music it Fel it did feel very generic like it was very you know there was was almost a documentary it almost you know without the classic pitfalls of documentaries one more thing I wanted to highlight between why I another thing I want to highlight between like Rocky and this movie is that this is George Clooney's movie this he's the director of this movie he's adapting this from a book but I feel that there are a lot of shortcomings that he has as a director on why he couldn't make this movie Stand Out any more than it could he sort of just touches points it's like he's sort of just slapping on certain labels to the characters and thinking that that will go the mile to touch the audience it's like okay let's have some scenes of him being poor and people will get that he's poor let's have some uh scenes of him trying to let's have some scenes of him going to school to know for people to know that he's uh going to school to get a better job without really uh going into any of that and I feel like this is the at the end this is this is towards uh George after George Clooney's done a lot of movies and I feel like it's hard for him to really draw out that struggle to show to the audience when he's been successful for so long when V Stallone uh wrote the script for Rocky and then pitched it he he was living like Rocky he was dirt poor right so you think that uh Clooney trivialized these these foundational aspects it's like poverty yeah there was some poverty you know like a menu item right had some poverty had HS with his Dad he was abandoned as a kid check one check two check three now let's get him in the boat you know you're really right about that and that's good Insight if you want to make a movie you got to you got to draw from something within yourself yeah and to make a depression movie if you were lived he had a golden life I mean he you know sexiest man alive hit TV show right into the movies can do no wrong they patch they they box them up with other big movie stars right away yeah so there was all that kind of support so that's a really good Insight cool yeah I I think I am ready to give a rating if you are mhm okay uh personally for me me it was it was very cookie cutter it's hard for it not to be an inspirational story when it's based off of a true story that is inspiring right however it's not distinctive as an inspirational movie there's nothing really drawn out from it that's really remarkable at all and so I kind of just have to give it like a five out of 10 yeah I was thinking six yeah you know I was thinking six because I'm a I have more years of patriotism in me than you so I was happy to see the audience you know how they responded I was I was happy to see that heroic Feelgood winning movie yeah you know as opposed to one that has like a weird ending that you're not sure what happened here you're exactly sure everything that happened and everybody lived happily ever after so yeah five for you six for me yeah go ahead and give us the outro thanks for watching make sure to hit that subscribe button make sure to like and leave a comment did George Clooney basically just make Top Gun in a boat is he the sexy as man alive uh and make sure to hit that notification Bell to get notified whenever we uh release a new video thanks for watch watching