Mos Eisley Happy Hour - The Phantom Menace

0:18 Unknown Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to The Mos Eisley Happy Hour.

0:24 Adam Uh, my name is Adam, and anyone else want to offer their names, or are we all gonna remain incognito?

0:30 Unknown It looks like we have Wesley Sith over there.

0:33 Unknown That's me.

0:34 Adam And we also have with us Lee. Hello. And hooded and ready as ever, Chris. Hello.

0:43 Adam And uh, yes, this is going to be, uh, this is the first episode, obviously, of a new podcast where, uh, we've had the bright idea of a bunch of white men in their 30s to 40s talking about Star Wars, because no one's ever done that.

0:59 Unknown Oh. Shock. Horror. And uh, in fact, in fact, you know, I've done my research, I think we might be the only Star Wars podcast. So, you know, it's great to be trailblazing in these circumstances.

1:50 Unknown It's a bit niche, to be fair. I did think that when you suggested it, but I thought, well, you know.

1:54 Adam Well, you know.

1:55 Chris We're original, if nothing else.

1:57 Adam And maybe a couple of people out there who might want to listen. Who knows?

2:01 Adam Um, but, uh, yes, and today's today we are starting, we're gonna run through the Star Wars movies in in universe chronology. So, we are starting here at Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. And for that, we can only apologize.

2:19 Adam I will also I will also add up front, obviously, this is going to be filled with spoilers, because we're gonna assume that you've seen a movie that is going to be 22 years old this year, and also you're listening to a Star Wars podcast, so I kind of assume, we're gonna kind of assume you know the film.

2:37 Adam Uh, we will also.

2:38 Chris Is it possible to spoil it any more than it did itself?

2:41 Adam That's very true. And and on and on that note, I would like to advise people that they probably will be some bad language in this, if anything, just because of the quality of the film. But who knows, that is that is not to be, uh, we we shall not go into this with a downward slope, but we will certainly say that things can only get better.

3:43 Adam So.

3:45 Adam Gentlemen, we are gathered here. Does, um, so, in terms of, uh, viewing, obviously, we've all watched the we've all watched The Phantom Menace in preparation for this, but.

3:57 Adam Uh, gentlemen, any other business that you might want to have been watching?

4:01 Adam Uh, Chris, have you seen anything?

4:04 Chris Yes, so we decided to watch the the Lego Star Wars Christmas Holiday Special, I think it was called.

4:13 Chris Um, because I thought, I'll show my kids something Star Wars, we still can't quite watch all the films fully and they get a bit annoyed when I skip parts.

4:23 Chris Um, but they did actually really quite enjoy the, uh, this Holiday Special.

4:28 Chris And, and I must say, watching, seeing them watch it and laughing at parts, I think probably helped me enjoy it a lot more than other people may have done.

4:37 Chris Um, it definitely seemed to be aimed at them and it was just kind of, it was nice to see it was, you know, an anthology with a wrap around of all of the Star Wars, uh, movies combined.

4:49 Chris And, yeah, it was just a bit of fun, really, with a, a sort of holiday Christmas idea.

4:56 Adam So it's not just a Lego adaptation of the Holiday, the the the infamous Holiday Special.

5:02 Chris I've never actually seen that and I will be watching it in preparation for one of these.

5:07 Adam I think I think We will be covering that, I think. Yes. As it's.

5:12 Chris I've I've heard that it's available on YouTube.

5:16 Unknown Yeah.

5:17 Adam I've heard that that annoys George Lucas, which I think is a good enough reason to watch it.

5:22 Chris Yes.

5:24 Chris But yeah, so I don't know. I'm not sure what the story from that was. Um, but yeah. Yeah, I thought they did okay with this.

5:30 Chris It was just fun.

5:31 Adam So did it did any has anyone else caught up with this?

5:33 Unknown Yeah, I did.

5:34 Adam I think.

5:35 Unknown I remember.

5:36 Adam Oh, and and and from a non-parent, sorry,.

5:41 Chris Yeah.

5:41 Unknown So I say I've not seen it yet.

5:43 Adam Ah.

5:44 Adam So, uh, but from a non-parental view, Lee, how did it how did it go down with you?

5:49 Lee Uh, I found it disappointing, I've got to be honest.

5:52 Lee Um, again, I think that's the thing, it's, it obviously is aimed at kids. I knew it was going to be aimed at kids. Um, but from like, you know, the Lego movies and stuff, are generally really good and they've got enough humor in them.

6:03 Lee That I I'd love them to piece it. I hoped it was going to be more of that, but it wasn't.

6:07 Chris See, I think I think if you went in with that expectation, I could completely understand disappointment.

6:12 Chris When it started, in my head, I was just thinking silly, silly, silly, but it grew on me.

6:18 Chris And especially as I say, seeing the kids laugh and enjoy parts of it.

6:22 Chris And yeah.

6:23 Chris But I think as well, my general impression of holiday specials are, they're not top quality content.

6:31 Chris They are generally a bit thin and, you know, but they're just a bit of fun.

6:35 Lee Yeah.

6:35 Chris Um, it probably helped that we'd watched Phantom Menace. Um, again, I skipped a few bits, but we did manage to watch most of it.

6:41 Chris Um, this was a couple of weeks ago, so, um, after that, I say the Holiday Special was pretty good.

6:45 Chris And.

6:46 Lee Yeah.

6:47 Chris Just to yeah, just to, obviously, I have suggested that I'm not a huge fan of Phantom Menace, but actually, that's not completely true, which we will get into.

6:52 Chris There are there are parts of it that I like.

6:57 Adam Fair doos.

6:58 Adam So, Wes, have you have you been watching anything?

7:02 Adam Star Wars related or.

7:04 Unknown Yeah, no, I, uh, last year when we first got Disney Plus, I watched the first three episodes of Mandalorian.

7:11 Unknown And then I I saw spoilers were on the horizon. So when the the last episode aired, we watched the rest of one and two all in one go.

7:20 Adam Ah.

7:21 Unknown So.

7:22 Unknown That was good.

7:23 Adam I think I think some that is definitely my intention is to try and, uh, I want to try and catch up with The Mandalorian because the the spoilers are spoilt. But I enjoyed what I've what I've seen anyway, so I, you know, I will not purposely play the spoilers.

7:37 Unknown Yeah, that's brilliant.

7:37 Adam But, but yeah.

7:41 Adam And, um.

7:43 Adam But more to the point, because then technically we might gently slip a Mandalorian in between, uh, Return of the Jedi and, uh, uh, the, uh, Force Awakens. Yes.

7:58 Adam So, there we go.

7:58 Adam And Mr. Lee, have you been, uh, viewing anything?

8:04 Lee Uh, yeah, so Star Wars related, uh, yeah, I saw the Holiday Special, um, and I didn't see the first season of Mandalorian as it was released.

8:12 Lee Uh, on Disney last year.

8:14 Lee And this year, yeah, I waited until it was finished.

8:17 Lee Um, but yeah, people were getting very excited on social media, uh, about the final episode.

8:23 Lee So, I literally the day after, I'd realised I had to smash through the entire season in one go, uh, so that nothing got spoiled.

8:29 Unknown Yeah.

8:29 Unknown Oh, what a day though.

8:31 Lee Just sit there for right.

8:32 Lee 8 hours and just watch that.

8:34 Lee It was absolutely brilliant.

8:35 Lee I loved it.

8:36 Unknown Well, we still had half of Series 1, so, you know, numb bums all around.

8:42 Lee Yeah.

8:44 Unknown And the Christmas nuts out.

8:47 Adam Oh.

8:48 Adam Save them for a special occasion.

8:51 Adam The Mandalorian.

8:53 Lee Yeah, it's I think it's just I I mean, it's gone to Disney, which I think is brilliant and I think they've done good things with the series as we'll get into later. Um, but yeah, like what they've done with The Mandalorian, it's brilliant.

9:04 Lee It is, I would say it's more adult than Star Wars. Um, so it is aimed at us.

9:11 Lee You know, obviously, the films when they come out were more aimed at possibly a younger audience and we've sort of grown up with it.

9:16 Lee Uh, but The Mandalorian definitely.

9:18 Unknown The Mandalorian fits in with the Empire sort of train.

9:22 Unknown You know what I mean?

9:24 Unknown That kind of thing, and it then it gets a bit Muppety, doesn't it?

9:27 Unknown But, yeah, after the next thing.

9:28 Unknown So.

9:28 Lee Yeah.

9:30 Adam Because I think there's a I think the certainly like like you say, The Star Wars and Empire and then you get to Return of the Jedi where you get the Ewoks.

9:37 Adam And you kind of get the impression that at that point.

9:40 Adam They've realized that this is popular with children.

9:44 Lee Yeah.

9:45 Chris Right.

9:46 Adam So they've thought, well, what should we do to put in stuff that's popular for children?

9:51 Adam No, just continue what you're doing, you plank, because that's popular with children.

9:56 Adam Yeah, clearly.

9:57 Adam But never mind.

9:58 Adam Um, but yeah, no, I I get the I get the same thing. I think The Mandalorian is not it's it's good in so much as it's it's sort of grittier, if anything.

10:06 Adam But it hasn't got into they did a spin-off of Doctor Who called Torchwood and that was just basically, oh, we can swear and show bums. And what's the fucking point?

10:18 Unknown Yeah.

10:19 Adam You know, if you're still shit, it's, you know.

10:26 Adam Um, but there we go.

10:29 Adam Um, well, I think, um, obviously, we, uh, we're gonna we're gonna tackle this mountain as we, uh, as we go.

10:38 Adam Um, so I've I had a look because I just thought I wanted to I wanted to get the feeling of, um, the Phantom Menace and try and remember in terms of where the world was.

10:55 Adam Because although The Phantom Menace feels like it probably, in my brain, it's probably 10 years old.

11:02 Adam That's roughly where I was.

11:05 Unknown Yeah, yeah.

11:06 Adam But but actually, it's 22 years ago this year.

11:12 Adam It's actually, I think it's now.

11:15 Adam The Phantom Menace is now the age, sorry, we're now at the age that The Phantom Menace was compared to the first Star Wars, A New Hope.

11:24 Chris That is a bit worrying.

11:26 Adam Age species, in age sort of, you know, in the time frame of it.

11:32 Adam Um, so this came out in 1999, and I don't know if people want to try and imagine in their heads like the, uh, the scroll as it goes up the the screen with the.

11:45 Adam Um, but, uh, yeah.

11:46 Adam Tony Blair was still Prime Minister, Bill Clinton was the American President.

11:51 Adam Uh, there was in the US, there was the Columbine massacre.

11:55 Adam Uh, Bill Gates' fortune surpassed 100 billion dollars.

12:00 Adam Um, Clinton was acquitted of his impeachment.

12:04 Adam Um, and a, uh, bloke called George W. Bush had announced that he was going to run for the presidency.

12:11 Chris It's funny how that was the worst thing of the time compared to now, it's like, well, that was a a lovely walk in the park.

12:17 Adam Exactly.

12:19 Adam You know, this.

12:20 Adam This.

12:20 Adam Space.

12:22 Unknown Here today.

12:22 Adam Yeah.

12:23 Adam This all feels quite, you know.

12:25 Adam I mean, I mean, obviously, we're speaking from the perspective of 2021, so everything's fixed, obviously.

12:31 Adam The 2nd of January, 2021.

12:33 Adam Covid doesn't exist anymore.

12:37 Adam The economy's fine.

12:38 Adam It's, yeah.

12:40 Adam So, you know, we can look back at it with 2020 hindsight. But, um, whereas in the UK, uh.

12:50 Adam Uh, TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered and that's still not solved.

12:56 Adam Um, far right fuckwit David Copeland nail bombed three pubs.

13:01 Adam Killing three and injuring 140 people.

13:05 Adam The UK introduced the minimum wage.

13:08 Adam Gary Glitter received his first prison sentence for possession of child porn.

13:13 Adam Um, the London Eye was installed and the Millennium Dome completed.

13:17 Adam And towards the end of the year, George Harrison survived a knife attack from an intruder in his own home.

13:24 Adam Um, the Euro became the default currency in the European Union, Boris Yeltsin resigned leaving a little known lad called Vladimir Putin as the acting Prime Minister.

13:32 Adam There was a coup d'état in Pakistan, the Kosovo war ended.

13:35 Adam Sega launched the Dreamcast and and it was also the launch of Napster.

13:39 Chris Oh God.

13:41 Adam Much to the.

13:42 Adam And but when you look back at that and you're like, fuck Napster, and it's just like, oh no, you know, electronic theft is is the be all and end all nowadays.

13:50 Adam That's why, you know.

13:52 Adam No bands make any money and suddenly Lars Ulrich doesn't look like such a cunt.

13:56 Adam Apart from he is.

13:58 Adam So.

14:00 Adam But I mean, weirdly enough, and there was this thing, uh, it came up on I listened to the Not for everyone podcast people.

14:09 Adam But it did come up on Not for everyone that there was something about 1999 being a a benchmark year in cinema.

14:16 Adam And like most years, there's some good stuff and there's some crap, so it's not really.

14:21 Adam You know.

14:22 Adam But, um, the weirdest one I found was Office Space, which I assumed was like 92.

14:28 Unknown Yeah, I thought it was older.

14:30 Adam I thought.

14:30 Adam I thought it was really earlier than that, but you've got Office Space, Cruel Intentions, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

14:35 Adam Uh, The Matrix, Existenz, The Mummy, the Brendan Fraser one, Notting Hill, Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me, Run Lola Run.

14:44 Adam South Park, Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Wild Wild West, Summer of Sam, American Pie, Blair Witch Project.

14:53 Adam Eyes Wide Shut, the remake of The Haunting, the remake of House on Haunted Hill, uh, Deep Blue Sea, Mystery Men, The Sixth Sense, Stigmata.

15:02 Adam American Beauty, Fight Club, The Straight Story, Boys Don't Cry, uh, Being John Malkovich, Sleepy Hollow, The World Is Not Enough, Toy Story 2.

15:08 Adam The Green Mile, Magnolia, Human Traffic, and probably best of all, Guesthouse Paradiso.

15:14 Lee That is quite a year.

15:16 Chris Not bad, yeah.

15:18 Adam It's that's what I mean, it's like it's perfectly half and half.

15:22 Adam I like the fact that you've got you've got the sort of like shoddy annoyance of American Pie, and then you've got all the credit lauded that you that went to American Beauty, but now no one's going to watch it, because it's Kevin Spacey lusting after someone underaged.

15:39 Adam Although I would argue that surely that's in the same sort of spirit as, you know, where they say, no, you should have disabled actors portraying disabled people. And you should have trans actors portraying trans people. They got a nonce in to portray a nonce. So that was very true to the community.

15:55 Unknown Yes.

15:55 Adam So that was lovely of them.

15:56 Adam I think.

15:58 Adam Possibly.

15:59 Adam Um, TV.

16:00 Adam You got the debut of The League of Gentlemen.

16:04 Adam Spaced, which obviously bears quite a lot quite a lot going on here with The Phantom Menace.

16:09 Adam Uh, Family Guy, Futurama.

16:12 Adam Uh, Rock Profile, Bang Bang It's Reeves and Mortimer, Smack the Pony, The Sopranos.

16:17 Adam Hippies, Spongebob Squarepants.

16:20 Adam DIY SOS, Loose Women, The Fucking Naked Chef, Charmed and Bad Girls.

16:27 Adam So, again, you know, a very mixed bag there, shall we say?

16:31 Adam Um, but, yeah.

16:33 Adam I was quite, it made me laugh that I realized, oh, yeah, Spaced came out and then it's the second series of Spaced that quite very much deals with the the the fallout of The Phantom Menace.

16:44 Adam So.

16:46 Adam Um, and then in music, the top singles, you've got Baby One More Time, No Scrubs, Pretty Fly For A White Guy.

16:55 Adam My Name Is, uh, M&M, Macy Gray with I Try, Lenny Kravitz' other hit, Fly Away.

17:02 Adam Uh, Believe, with Cher, uh, Genie In A Bottle, Rewind, when the crowd say Bow Selector.

17:08 Adam Mambo Number Five, Sing It Back.

17:11 Adam Mr. Wazo, with Flat Beat, so I'm assuming the advert was on at that point.

17:15 Adam Um, Praise You, National Express, The Divine Comedy.

17:19 Adam Um, and then I was looking at music and I suddenly realised, ah, this might be where a lot of us feel a much more, it'll take us back to that time.

17:28 Adam Um, there's Hours, David Bowie.

17:32 Adam Uh, which incidentally, first I didn't I didn't know this until I was looking this up today, first album to ever be released commercially as a download.

17:41 Chris Hmm.

17:42 Adam Like completely, and also was available two weeks before the physical version.

17:47 Adam So, once again, the fucker was ahead of the curve.

17:50 Adam So.

17:50 Chris Yeah.

17:51 Chris That was the only.

17:52 Adam He was the first significant person to die in 2016.

17:55 Adam You know, he beat all the rest of them.

17:58 Adam There's no.

17:59 Adam Point with everyone.

17:59 Adam Else was going.

18:00 Adam It was.

18:00 Adam Was it.

18:01 Chris Was it.

18:01 Adam Um.

18:02 Adam Then you've got significant other Limp Bizkit, Battle of Los Angeles, Rage Against The Machine.

18:06 Adam Nine Inch Nails The Fragile.

18:08 Adam Come on Die Young, Mogwai, Death In Vegas The Contino Sessions.

18:11 Adam Uh, Hot Water Music's No Division.

18:14 Lee Yes.

18:14 Adam Uh.

18:15 Adam California, Mr. Bungle, Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

18:19 Adam Slipknot's self-titled album, White Stripes' self-titled album.

18:23 Adam Moby's Play, which is famous for being for every single fucking song being licensed to an advert.

18:30 Lee Yeah.

18:31 Adam Um, Insane Clown Posse, the Amazing Jeckel Brothers.

18:35 Adam Uh, Supergrass's Supergrass album.

18:38 Unknown Nice.

18:38 Adam Which is the one with Pump It On The Stereo and Moving.

18:42 Adam Um, 2001, Dr. Dre, Issues, Korn.

18:46 Adam Fantomaz' self-titled debut, Atari Teenage Riot, 60-Second Wipe Out.

18:51 Adam Roots Manoeuvre, Brand New Second Hand, Ministry Dark Side of the Spoon.

18:54 Adam Opeth with Still Life.

18:57 Adam Dillinger Escape Plan with Calculating Infinity.

19:00 Unknown Nice.

19:00 Adam Six From Manson, How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys by The Altar.

19:04 Adam Midnight Vultures by Beck, Juxtaposed by Tricky, and it just gets worse by Anal Cunt.

19:12 Adam So, you know, there you go. I think we've got a good it gives you a fair summation of the times in which.

19:18 Adam We were we were first exposed to the Phantom penis.

19:23 Unknown I think there's yeah, something in there for everyone with that music collection, I think.

19:28 Adam Oh.

19:29 Adam Oh, I tell you what, I mean, that was the thing. I was I was I was looking through the albums and it was like, oh, you know, there's some cracking stuff in there and the singles, it was like, oh, so this is where it went wrong.

19:39 Unknown I was just saying when you're mentioning the singles at the beginning, I was like, I don't like any of those.

19:44 Unknown I mean, obviously, I mean.

19:46 Adam They're I'm only going on what was top selling.

19:49 Lee Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, of course.

19:50 Adam Rather because that was the thing, unfortunately, and again, I don't know whether the world has changed so much in that sense that you just had to put up with other people's stuff more.

19:59 Adam Nowadays you can just lock yourself in a bin and just happily, you know, listen to your own farts from here to eternity.

20:09 Adam But back then, all these things were unfortunately encroaching into our lives.

20:14 Lee Yeah.

20:14 Adam We were aware of of Britney and No Scrubs and.

20:19 Adam So No Scrubs is actually a pretty good fucking song.

20:21 Adam But that's another story.

20:22 Adam But yeah, so and then.

20:24 Adam Oh God.

20:25 Unknown Oh God.

20:27 Adam And, um.

20:28 Adam Yes.

20:29 Adam So.

20:30 Adam I think we've got to start on a JFK note.

20:33 Adam So, uh, Lee, how did you first encounter The Phantom Menace?

20:39 Lee So I remember when that you remember they re-released the VHSs in the gold and silver boxes and they had like a documentary thing, I believe was where I saw it.

20:50 Lee Um, and they were yeah, basically when they came out and they said, oh, the plan is they're gonna go back and do prequels, but they're not going to be out for another five years or ever.

20:59 Lee And I just remember thinking, that's a lifetime away.

21:04 Lee Um, but that's because I'd never sat through an hour and two hours and 15 minutes of The Phantom Menace at that point.

21:08 Lee Where time dilation becomes much more, uh, poignant.

21:13 Lee Um, but yeah, so I remember it coming out.

21:15 Lee I didn't go to like the midnight viewing or whatever, but I went opening week.

21:19 Lee Um, and I think, not to give too much away, I think when I left the cinema, I remember leaving it thinking, that was great, I really enjoyed it.

21:29 Lee But then I bought it as soon as it was released and realised it sat on the shelf for three months and I never even watched it.

21:36 Lee I think it was when I started to realise that I might have had slightly rose tinted glasses on.

21:42 Adam It definitely, I think it definitely did have that, it it had the right effect that Star Wars always has, which is you come out and you're really pumped up.

21:52 Adam No matter which one it is you've watched, it's only it's only picking over it in your head in the subsequent days, weeks, months, years, decades.

22:02 Adam That you really, you know, you you can really sort of you can really overdo the autopsy with these things, I think.

22:08 Adam Yeah.

22:09 Adam But, um.

22:10 Adam Yeah.

22:11 Adam Um.

22:12 Adam Uh, Chris, did you where were you first encountering it?

22:16 Adam Did you see it at the cinema or?

22:18 Chris Yeah.

22:18 Chris Yeah, we're somewhat similar to Lee, I remember it was 1992 and we'd gone to Florida and I I just recently really got into Star Wars just before that.

22:33 Chris Um, I was into it younger.

22:35 Chris But then it just really kicked off around that sort of time.

22:39 Chris And we went on the Star Tours ride and came out into the shop and I remember I was looking around at all the things.

22:47 Chris Um, and there was an attendant there started talking to me and he was quite excited and said, oh, you know, they're bringing out a new film.

22:53 Chris And I was just bowled over completely at that point, it was just like, I cannot wait.

22:57 Chris And yeah, like Lee said, it was like so far in the future.

23:01 Chris So I guess that was yeah, it was 1999 or seven years away.

23:05 Chris Um.

23:07 Chris But yeah, we did go, um, Romford Odeon.

23:11 Chris I think there was about 20 of us and we I think we went to the the midnight showing, um, and I.

23:19 Chris Like obviously so excited.

23:22 Chris I definitely enjoyed it.

23:24 Chris It's a spec spectacular, you know.

23:26 Chris It's spectacular.

23:28 Chris Um, but yeah, it's when you start to think through the details that something is lost.

23:36 Adam And, uh.

23:36 Adam Wes, if I remember it right.

23:37 Adam We went to the cinema together to see it, didn't we?

23:40 Unknown Yeah, we did.

23:41 Unknown And then we came out and we was in a car park, me, you and Dean, and there was a stick in the car park and it became our lightsaber.

23:48 Adam Yes.

23:49 Adam We were, that's how that's how pumped up we were is we were in the car park of Rainham Tesco's.

23:55 Unknown Yeah, that was it, yeah.

23:57 Adam Uh, swapping at each other with a load of branches.

24:01 Unknown Yeah.

24:03 Adam And, uh, yeah.

24:06 Adam So.

24:07 Adam So, again, I think we came out on a very on a very positive note and I think weirdly enough, I think the thing that was the realization for me was that I'd never.

24:16 Adam I I didn't buy them.

24:19 Adam As they were coming out.

24:21 Adam And it's similar to you, Lee, is I think it was that that same sort of thing is I was like, they came out and I wasn't in a hurry.

24:29 Adam Excuse me.

24:30 Adam Uh.

24:32 Adam Oh.

24:32 Adam My midichlorians, all on my hands.

24:34 Adam Sorry.

24:34 Adam Um, oh dear.

24:36 Adam But yeah, and it was again, it was just that thing of not being that much of a hurry to, uh, sort of pick it up again.

24:42 Unknown Yeah.

24:43 Adam Um.

24:44 Unknown I was the opposite.

24:45 Adam Yeah, I know.

24:46 Adam I think you were very.

24:47 Unknown As soon as it came out on video, I got it on video. As soon as it came out on DVD, I got it on DVD. Even to the point where we went to London and, uh, we went to Forbidden Planet and you bought me and Dean the double-edged lightsaber each.

24:56 Unknown And then we was in the garden, my mom and dad was there, and we was in the garden setting up obstacles and we had a tournament.

25:00 Unknown Do you remember?

25:01 Adam I did remember this.

25:03 Adam Yeah.

25:03 Adam Because I also I was also very proud.

25:07 Adam That you'd worked out the you'd placed, um, like Celotape within, because it was like the plastic extending lightsaber that you took out.

25:20 Unknown They were they were the product withdrawal ones, do you remember? The bloke we bought we bought them and the bloke was in Planet said, you shouldn't be selling them to you because these are on product withdrawal because the lights inside would melt the plastic.

25:28 Adam Oh, yes.

25:29 Adam That was it.

25:30 Chris Add realism.

25:33 Adam I wonder what happened to that man.

25:35 Adam I think he might be I think he might now be Jeff Bezos.

25:37 Unknown Yeah.

25:38 Unknown Yeah.

25:41 Adam But who knows?

25:43 Adam But yeah, no, I was and you'd you'd reinforce yours with tape as well, so that they wouldn't, because because, because strangely enough, when you give that to a fully grown man,

25:53 Adam and he starts flipping out the blades, suddenly they fly off in all fucking directions.

25:58 Unknown Not in my house.

25:59 Adam They're not designed for you.

26:02 Unknown No.

26:04 Adam Um.

26:04 Adam But, um.

26:05 Adam Yeah.

26:06 Adam And I think I think that was the key and probably the smartest thing about this film is by you end with Darth Maul.

26:13 Adam Essentially.

26:14 Adam So that's that's the thing you come out remembering.

26:16 Adam Um.

26:16 Adam So.

26:18 Adam So.

26:19 Adam I mean.

26:19 Adam Let's see.

26:20 Adam I mean.

26:20 Adam As a film, so we again, it's the weirdest thing.

26:24 Adam You're aiming at kids.

26:27 Adam So what do we start with a trading bargain?

26:30 Adam Because kids love that.

26:32 Unknown Space Brexit, isn't it?

26:34 Adam Yes.

26:34 Adam Exactly.

26:35 Adam You know.

26:36 Adam It's Space Brexit in which.

26:39 Adam What.

26:40 Adam I can only, I mean, I mean, again, there's there's there's a worrying trend in in certainly in The Phantom Menace, there is a worrying trend, in so much as you seem to have a bunch of Japanese frogs.

26:48 Unknown Hmm.

26:49 Unknown Yeah.

26:49 Adam Um, running the trade organization, then you have a Rastafarian frog, and then you've got the blue guy, Watto, who is racist but I'm not sure who to.

26:57 Unknown Yeah.

26:58 Adam It just seems to be most of Europe.

27:01 Adam But it's, yeah.

27:02 Adam So there's there's a few.

27:05 Adam Accents and things where you think.

27:06 Adam Hmm.

27:08 Adam This seems a bit off.

27:09 Unknown Questionable.

27:10 Chris Yeah.

27:10 Chris But so I thought like to compare them and I I'd try not to compare it too much, but I think they did quite well with the original films in making some unusual accents and languages that did you couldn't really tell what they were meant to be.

27:22 Chris And yet in this, yeah, they made them almost sound too real, too similar to actual languages.

27:28 Chris And it.

27:28 Chris Yeah, that lost yeah, it lost something in doing that.

27:32 Adam Because.

27:32 Adam I suppose it's also that thing, which Star Wars actually manages to avoid certainly in the expanded universe side of things, but there is there is I mean, there is an inherently sort of xenophobic streak in sci-fi, whereby.

27:48 Adam You know, planets, they're all the same.

27:53 Adam You don't get you know what I mean, you get like it'll be like, they're a proud and warlike race.

27:57 Adam It's like, well, who's doing the fucking accounts, then?

27:59 Lee Yeah.

27:59 Adam You know, they can't all be fucking up up for a punch up.

28:04 Adam Yeah.

28:04 Adam Because how do you run that?

28:07 Adam That's just doesn't make any fucking sense.

28:08 Chris Although I do think I do think the, um, Naboo.

28:10 Chris Nabooians, um, are meant to be peace-loving and yet they've all got hidden weapons inside their chairs.

28:15 Adam Yeah.

28:15 Adam In your throne.

28:19 Adam How fucking paranoid do you have to be?

28:22 Lee My question, the thing that got me was.

28:24 Adam Paranoid enough.

28:25 Adam Sorry.

28:26 Adam Go on.

28:28 Unknown Paranoid enough to have someone pretend to be you on the throne for 95% of the film.

28:34 Adam To be honest, if I could get someone to represent me on the throne, it'd be a fucking blessing, I'd get a lot more done.

28:39 Unknown I'm not sure I'd get Keira Knightley to represent me though on the bog.

28:44 Adam I I I.

28:46 Adam Well, I.

28:47 Adam Got.

28:47 Adam I didn't.

28:48 Chris I didn't realize that was Keira Knightley.

28:50 Adam Yeah.

28:51 Adam Apparently, at one point, her mum didn't know the difference.

28:55 Chris Oh, well, I don't feel too bad then.

28:57 Adam Because I was because I was trying to work it out, because.

29:00 Adam Again, I'm not sure when it's Keira Knightley and when it's Natalie Portman, and whether, you know, once Natalie Portman is a handmaiden is everything else with Keira Knightley.

29:11 Chris Yeah, I didn't think it was her after that at all until right at the end.

29:17 Unknown It's Keira Knightley when they meet the Gungans as well at the start.

29:21 Chris Yeah.

29:21 Chris Yeah.

29:22 Chris That's right.

29:23 Lee That's right.

29:24 Lee That's right.

29:24 Lee I was going to say that was going to be my question.

29:28 Lee You were saying about the Gungans and, you know, like, how, you know, The Naboo were supposed to be peace-loving and yet they're all hiding all these weapons.

29:34 Lee My biggest thing was the Gungans, who cannot breathe underwater.

29:38 Lee Admittedly, they can swim longer than, you know, than the Jedi could, but they can't breathe underwater.

29:42 Lee So why do they decide to build cities and live underwater?

29:45 Lee Where what was the benefit of that?

29:48 Adam Oh, fun.

29:49 Adam Crazy.

29:50 Adam People.

29:51 Adam For shits and giggles and also just to avoid the other lot who are clearly fucking paranoid.

29:59 Adam I mean, it'd be like, do you want to hang around this bunch.

30:00 Adam This jumpy bunch of fucking humans?

30:01 Adam No, let's go and live under the water, mate.

30:05 Adam It's less hassle.

30:07 Adam You know.

30:07 Adam But I think that because I didn't realise as well that apparently they they pitched they pitched down I don't I can't remember whether it's they pitched down Natalie Portman to sound like Keira Knightley or vice versa.

30:18 Chris Hmm.

30:20 Adam But that's why whenever she's the Queen, it always sounds a bit sort of stilted.

30:27 Adam Like a bad there will be no trade out there about.

30:32 Chris Although although that doesn't explain why Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson and everyone else also sound so bit stilted.

30:37 Adam Yeah.

30:38 Adam I think that might in fairness, I think and this and this is something that again.

30:42 Adam George Lucas, thank you for making Star Wars.

30:45 Adam Thank you for creating the universe and thank you for letting other people play in it.

30:49 Adam But I don't think that George Lucas is an actor's director, all the all the cast will always say that, like they go to George Lucas and he's like, just stand there and say it.

30:58 Unknown Yeah.

30:58 Adam Well, they say that, don't they?

31:00 Adam Yeah.

31:02 Adam I kind of need more than that.

31:03 Adam I actually, I tell you what, and this is something that the new films have kind of done, like the the the latest trilogy.

31:11 Adam Uh, the Disney trilogy, shall we refer to them, I suppose.

31:15 Adam Um, because obviously the original trilogy, the the cast are pretty much unknowns.

31:24 Adam And similarly, like Daisy Ridley wasn't a big star.

31:29 Adam I think like John Boyega done Attack the Block, but that was you know, that and a couple of other bits, but that they weren't like proper big names.

31:35 Adam Whereas when they did The Phantom Menace, it's packed with like people you know.

31:40 Chris Yeah, some of the best actors doing some of their worst performances.

31:46 Adam And I wonder if I wonder if that's the thing.

31:48 Adam You know, is it suddenly, you know, these people are being cut a drift and it's like, shit, I thought I was, you know.

31:56 Adam Because like, for example, Liam Neeson apparently signed up before he read the script.

31:59 Adam Just because he really likes Star Wars.

32:01 Adam And I can I can understand that.

32:03 Adam But I bet there were a few days when it was like.

32:05 Adam Shouldn't read this, shouldn't I?

32:07 Adam Fuck.

32:08 Adam But obviously, like, I mean, even you get like minor parts, like you've got, um, uh, what's his name, like Ralph Brown from Withnail and Stoke is, he's a pilot in it.

32:15 Adam And you've got and well, I mean, even like.

32:17 Adam I mean, obviously, she goes on to be bigger, but like Keira Knightley in a fairly minuscule role.

32:21 Adam That you don't even realize.

32:23 Chris Has she done Pirates?

32:24 Adam Uh.

32:25 Adam No, I don't think I don't think Pirates of the Caribbean had been done yet.

32:27 Unknown Pirates.

32:27 Unknown That hadn't been done yet.

32:28 Adam No.

32:29 Adam But I mean, it's but pretty much sort of, I mean, yeah, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, um, in fact, probably, I mean, even, well, Samuel L. Jackson.

32:37 Adam I mean, fucking hell, 1999, Samuel L. Jackson was like, I mean, he's still a huge name.

32:41 Adam And actually, a man who's done very all right for himself.

32:44 Adam Yeah.

32:45 Adam I'll have three, I'll have three Star Wars and a fuck ton of Avengers movies, please.

32:48 Adam And I shall just retire to my own private island made of gold.

32:54 Adam So.

32:55 Adam Kudos to Mr. Mr. Jackson, I think.

32:57 Lee Yeah, and let's not forget you're saying about the star-studded cast, I did I don't I can't remember if I spotted it before, or this was the first time.

33:03 Lee One of the pilots at the end, uh, when they go on that skirmish, uh, is Celia Imrie, who's Babs from Airport 9.

33:09 Adam Yes.

33:11 Adam Yeah, and from like.

33:12 Unknown No.

33:14 Adam Yeah, the Irish the Irish one who's also who's also in Pulp Fiction.

33:17 Adam She turns up in Pulp Fiction.

33:19 Adam Yeah.

33:20 Adam And again, yeah.

33:21 Adam There's there's like a lot of really fucking big names.

33:24 Adam Whereas I think that and I think maybe that's why a lot of people have gone and going.

33:28 Adam What's happening here?

33:29 Adam Because you went to see the original, directed by George Lucas.

33:33 Adam You didn't know what Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher really you didn't know what their performances were like.

33:38 Adam Whereas this, it's like.

33:40 Adam I've definitely seen Liam Neeson better than this.

33:42 Adam I've definitely seen Ewan McGregor better than this.

33:45 Adam And it's it's a pity because I think everyone's.

33:48 Adam I think everyone's coming at it from the right place, because I think everyone everyone's everyone's obviously leapt on it because well, it's Star Wars, so it's a license to print money, but also everyone's like, yeah, I want to be in fucking Star Wars.

33:59 Adam Of course I do.

34:00 Adam I mean, even down.

34:01 Adam To the fact that in like you've got things like when Daniel Craig turns up as a Stormtrooper in The Force Awakens and things like that.

34:07 Adam And yeah, that's like no one needed to know.

34:10 Adam And it doesn't matter a tall to the fucking plot.

34:14 Adam No.

34:15 Adam But it's just sort of like, yeah, can I be in Star Wars?

34:19 Adam Well, yeah.

34:19 Adam Be a Stormtrooper.

34:20 Adam You're all right.

34:21 Adam That's that's the level of love that the that these these bring out.

34:25 Adam I also think it's a very interesting fact that apparently Phantom Menace is the, um, made the has made the most money, or was like the best, had the biggest box office of any of the Star Wars films.

34:34 Adam Yeah.

34:35 Adam So.

34:35 Adam And I think it is that anticipation, but then I also think, ah, but then it dropped off, didn't it, where a few people where a few people were like, yeah, I won't see this on video.

34:44 Adam Yeah.

34:45 Chris But to try and bring a bit of balance to the force.

34:46 Chris Um.

34:46 Chris Like I I think what I like about it, overall, I think it is a fun film.

34:50 Chris And it is good entertainment, if it probably if it was a bit shorter.

34:55 Chris Um.

34:56 Chris But, you know, essentially, it does have some good ideas of the political intrigue potentially.

35:01 Chris It's a great idea.

35:02 Chris I did like the to see Emperor Palpatine and his story.

35:06 Chris Um.

35:07 Chris Pod racing was a fun segment, um, you've got the space battles.

35:10 Chris And and I did like and I think this helped watching it with my kids, the comedy aspect, it definitely worked.

35:16 Chris So they where I hated Jar Jar, they quite liked him and I realized, okay, he absolutely is owned at someone who just wants to see a bit of slapstick silliness.

35:24 Adam Yeah.

35:24 Adam I think I I remember.

35:25 Adam I think when I I certainly I think when when I saw it and I think sort of sort of me, Wes, Dean, I think Bust was with us as well and I think we we all initially were like, oh, Jar Jar's quite funny.

35:37 Adam And then it was like.

35:39 Adam He's he's he's staying in the fucking film, isn't he? You know, if he's, you know, it's like, you know, much in the same way as it's like, if it had been like a sort of creature cantinas.

35:47 Adam Yeah.

35:48 Chris Yeah.

35:49 Adam And even the Gungans, because they're all a bit like, you know, look, I can create a whole army in CGI.

35:54 Adam Doesn't mean you should.

35:55 Chris Yeah.

35:56 Lee I think it's funny, a whole army in CGI, did you notice there's two shots where you see him coming over a hill.

36:00 Lee And that was the default background on Windows XP in 1999, I'm pretty sure.

36:05 Adam Yeah.

36:05 Adam It looked exactly like that hill.

36:11 Adam There is something weird in this as well, which I did find, which was even when.

36:15 Adam And I don't know I'm not entirely sure where they filmed the the hill stuff.

36:22 Adam I'm kind of assuming it looks a bit like it could be Ireland.

36:26 Adam It might even be England, I don't know, but it looks sort of quite, for one of a better phrase, it looks a bit fucking ordinary.

36:31 Adam Yeah.

36:32 Adam And so.

36:33 Adam Immediately, especially when you've got a film, you've got a film on this scale and let's face it, there is no, you know, the the the money that is spent in this film is on show.

36:40 Adam There's no, you know, they haven't sort of they haven't wasted that on all the names, they've definitely, you know, everything's there.

36:47 Adam But as soon as they're just like all stood around a sort of little plastic shuttle that someone's cobbled together.

36:52 Adam And they're under a tree and it looks like they're in a field in Brentwood.

36:57 Adam Yeah.

36:58 Adam It fucked me, it suddenly looked really cheap.

37:01 Adam Yeah.

37:02 Adam And you and you just I don't know what it is, I think it's just there you know, Naboo's, uh, sort of surroundings, like all the forestry stuff.

37:07 Adam Maybe it's just a bit too England, so it was like it just felt it feels falls a bit flat after you've had like the Tunisian deserts and ice planes and.

37:13 Adam Yeah.

37:14 Adam Um.

37:15 Adam Well, I think.

37:16 Adam I think all in all, gentlemen.

37:18 Adam I think we've I think we've we've gone through that very well.

37:21 Adam And I'm glad to say that I think that we may have a series here, George.

37:26 Adam So, you know.

37:28 Adam Um, join join us again in two weeks time for Attack of the Clones.

37:32 Adam Um, and, uh, yeah.

37:34 Adam Other than that.

37:35 Adam Happy New Year, everyone, and good night to you all.

37:38 Adam Good night.

37:39 Unknown Good night.

37:40 Unknown May the Force be with you.

37:41 Adam Always.

37:42 Unknown Always.

37:43 Adam Yeah, always and every way.

37:45 Unknown Always.

37:46 Adam Uh, possibly Lee, I just heard mention Obi-Wan's bloody rat tail.

37:49 Adam Oh, yeah, because it gets cut off, doesn't it?

37:53 Adam He has to cut that off, because that proves that he's a Padawan.

37:55 Adam Yeah.

37:56 Chris Oh.

37:57 Adam I was.

37:57 Chris Where were we gonna do out of 10 as well?

37:59 Adam Oh, shit.

37:59 Adam Yeah, yeah, come back everyone, we haven't gone yet.

38:03 Adam Turn around, turn around.

38:05 Adam Get out the car.

38:06 Adam Turn them around.

38:06 Adam Turn them around.

38:08 Adam That's no moon, it's a Cocker.

38:12 Adam Right, we're gonna blow this thing and go home.

38:16 Adam Um, gentlemen, uh, Chris, your rating out of a 10 midichlorians, what is your rating of this?

38:20 Chris Oh, I'm gonna give it 6.5. I think they did a serious effort. You know, great production, um, it's got lightsabers and, yeah, it's a fun film.

38:28 Chris Just don't worry too much about the details.

38:33 Adam Lovely.

38:33 Adam Uh, Lee, your 10 out of 10 midichlorians.

38:36 Lee Uh, I'm gonna go with five. Uh-huh.

38:40 Lee Yeah, I say, again, it had it had some good parts.

38:43 Lee And if it'd been 45 minutes long, it would have been excellent.

38:46 Lee Um, and nothing else of any interest really takes place, you know, we discover Anakin for the first time and we found out that Palpatine's up to no good.

38:52 Lee And pretty much that's all we take away to the next movie.

38:55 Lee So, I think five out of 10, for a 2000 and 20 minutes, is fair.

39:01 Adam Fair doos.

39:01 Unknown Wesley.

39:02 Unknown I will give it a six, because you've got to start somewhere.

39:06 Unknown And with this film, it it shows you what things were like before the fall.

39:11 Unknown So, you know, you've got to start your journey somewhere.

39:14 Adam Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna join Lee sitting on an even five. I feel it brings balance to the force. Um, there for every for every bit that pees me off, there's a bit that excites me.

39:23 Adam For and you can't help but feel that everyone's giving a shit.

39:28 Adam Which is definitely half the battle, especially if you're working against blue screens.

39:32 Adam And also anyone is being expected to to stand next to Ian McDiarmid and not be acted off the fucking planet.

39:38 Adam So, yeah, I'm gonna go with a five with that.

39:39 Adam So I believe.

39:41 Adam Uh, in life after love.

39:43 Adam Uh, I believe that gives that that gives The Phantom Menace a very healthy 22.5 out of 40.

39:48 Adam So, we should at the moment, it's at the top of the leaderboard, but that's because there's no other fuckers on the leaderboard.

39:52 Adam So.

39:53 Adam We should continue, uh, and see what happens with Attack of the Clones.

39:56 Adam So.

39:57 Adam Much like the end of The Phantom Menace.

39:58 Adam Where if you continue to the end, there's a weak bit of the Imperial March and then you hear Darth Vader breathing over the end credits.

40:05 Adam We had a false ending there, so we'll say good night again.

40:09 Adam And, um, it's the first night.

40:11 Adam Yes.

40:12 Adam We're less organized than George.

40:14 Adam See, we should have recorded episode 4 first.

40:16 Adam Yeah.

40:16 Adam Oh, yeah.

40:18 Adam Yeah.

40:19 Adam We're.

40:19 Adam Fools.

40:20 Adam Full strength.

40:21 Adam Right.

40:22 Adam Well, good night everyone and thank you for listening.

40:24 Unknown Good night.

40:25 Unknown Good night.

40:26 Unknown May the Force be with you.