Lived It

Main: Zack Snyder is at it again

Episode Summary

Zack Snyder’s zombie heist epic ‘Army of the Dead’, and Alexei and Gen strategise how they’d nab the cash without being eaten alive. (Hint: it involves a lot of...peace talking). Plus our favourite heist films, character actors, and more Las Vegas love.

Episode Notes

Diners, tell us what role you’d play in a heist at @netflixanz on Instagram and Twitter, or tag #thebigfilmbuffet.

Episode Transcription

Alexei Toliopoulos:

If only they got me in there, I could have made it a smoother trip.

Gen Fricker:

If they had simply just asked the zombies. Can we take this money?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You could have sorted this out in lickety-split, Zachary or Zack. I don't know if I should call you Zack, but I'll call you both.

Gen Fricker:

Very familiar.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Very familiar.

Gen Fricker:

Very familiar with Mr. Snyder.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Well, I'm on the team now. I'm supposedly on the team of this zombie execution squad.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Roll the dice and make it nice. You're listening to The Big Film Buffet. I am one of your hosts, Alexei Toliopoulos and sitting across from me is your other host, Genevieve Fricker.

Gen Fricker:

Snake Eyes, baby.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, we're rolling Snake Eyes on the pod and I'm holding an ace in my sleeve because on this podcast, we give you the recommendations for what you should be watching on Netflix this weekend. And this weekend, we're going to Vegas, baby. What are we talking about?

Gen Fricker:

We're talking about Zack Snyder's new film, Army of the Dead.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And it is a big one, baby.

Speaker 1:

You ready to play?

Speaker 2:

There's $200 million in the vault beneath the Strip. You have a 32 hour window to get it out. Find the safe. This should be a simple in and out.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Army of the Dead, of course, is the latest film from auteur visionary filmmaker, Zack Snyder, and someone in this room is absolutely frothing to talk about this movie.

Gen Fricker:

It's me.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I got a feeling-

Gen Fricker:

It's me. I couldn't even wait. I couldn't even wait for you to finish the god damn sentence. It's me, Gen Fricker. I'm excited about this film.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You're standing up.

Gen Fricker:

I'm throwing stuff around.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The stuff is everywhere right now.

Gen Fricker:

Stuff's everywhere. Yes. I'm so excited about this film, Army of the Dead. As soon as I saw the trailer, I knew I would be the number one fan of this movie. And you know why?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think you really are.

Gen Fricker:

Zombie tiger.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah.

Gen Fricker:

Have we seen it done before? Not like this.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Not this way ever.

Gen Fricker:

I don't think I've seen a film like this before.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that's what is so exciting about this film. I love genre hybridity.

Gen Fricker:

Yes.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Hybrids of genres, mix and match genres coming together and finding something new. And I think that's really what Zack Snyder has done here with Army of the Dead.

Gen Fricker:

100%. If I could give you the elevator pitch for this movie, it is Ocean's Eleven, but with zombies. Basically a crack team of criminals, mercenaries are sent into a now a zombie infested Las Vegas to retrieve enumerable riches from a bank vault for a wealthy, but mysterious Japanese owner. And it stars Dave Bautista. So you know you're going to have a good time. Tig Notaro as a wise cracking helicopter maintenance pilot lady.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Well, it's a monster cast. It's that thing that heist movies do so well, which is we're assembling a crack team of experts. And you can cast so many fun, interesting people in those roles. One of my favourite character actors is in this movie, Garret Dillahunt, who plays kind of like someone who's on the inside with the person that's hired them all. And he's in there kind of like not double crossing, but he's spying on them a little bit. He's reporting to the boss.

Gen Fricker:

He's a sneaky person.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

He's sneaking around.

Gen Fricker:

He's a double agent, maybe.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. And I love that kind of role for him, but I think that's the exciting thing about this film is the heist film is something that we all recognise. The heist film is basically a plot that remains unchanged throughout history. You get a team of experts together. There's something that they want to get from within a vault or something that they can't get to, where they need each skill and each personality to perfectly intertwine for them to get that item, to be dropped in and get it, and then go.

Gen Fricker:

Heist movies are my favourite genre of movie.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

What do you love about them so much?

Gen Fricker:

I love that everyone has a specific role, like with the Ocean's movies. I love that you can always expect complications. They're always usually really stylish for the most part, there's tension, but there's not too much. There's a really clear outcome. So you know who you're rooting for. I always have so much fun watching a heist film. And then for this film, you're throwing in zombies and I love a zombie film.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes, you've nailed exactly what a heist film does well. It's a familiar plot where we have the setup where we know how the plan should unfold and then we inevitably see how it goes wrong. And I think the way that heist films can remain interesting is exactly what this film does so well, which is then by going, it's a heist meets something else. We've got some classics like A Fish Called Wanda, which is a heist film in a slapstick comedy. You've got something like Widows, which is a really cool heist film kind of in a political thriller. And then you've got-

Gen Fricker:

Point Break, which is a heist film, but with surface.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. And then Don't Breathe from a few years ago, that I really like, which is heist film in a horror movie and almost like a haunted house kind of vibe. Here, we've got heist film meets zombie horror.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. And under the eye of Zack Snyder, it's just fun, slashy, schlocky fun. It's just because it's set in Vegas. We spoke a little bit on the last episode about why we love films set in Vegas. Why Vegas as a setting is a character in itself. But because we know all those tropes of Vegas, the big casinos with the floors of endless pokies, the show girls, you've got the magicians, the Siegfried & Roy tigers.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Exactly. You even got in the opening sequence of this film, which is scored to, I believe it's a Richard Cheese cover of Viva Las Vegas.

Gen Fricker:

Which again, as soon as I saw that, I was like, "I know I'm going to love this movie."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

When I saw it, I was like, "Oh, this is Gen on a plate right now."

Gen Fricker:

Richard Cheese is my King.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. Richard Cheese. Who is he, for people that don't know?

Gen Fricker:

He's just a guy who does very cheesy lounge covers of classic songs. Like Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And it's kind of like the song that you'd hear in a late-night lounge in Vegas. So it kind of like syncs so harmoniously coming together to create like, what I believe is probably Zack Snyder's absolute uniquely greatest strength that other people want to imitate, which is creating really evocative, exciting opening title sequences. And this one was seeing like a camera rove through Vegas as it succumbs to a zombie apocalypse. And here, we've got all of the things that we love. We got Richard Cheese playing, but you've got like Liberace, basically there, a construct of Liberace getting gobbled up by a zombie.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You've got the showgirls, you've got chips falling out everywhere. And it's so exciting. And I think that this is why I really liked this film as well is Zack Snyder is a director who is very big and bold and has made exclusively big and bold epic movies. And this is the one I've enjoyed the most in the last few years because he does something really interesting with the tone here where he finds all these little variances in tone, whether it be moments that are really overtly satirical, almost satirising what zombie movies do. Because zombie movies are always about something that's not just zombies, it's about what people are doing, what the world is like now. So he's over saturating that and I think that's very fun. And then there's mostly supreme action movie stuff.

Gen Fricker:

He's the King of an action sequence. When I think about Zack Snyder, I think about 300 where the guy's-

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I always think about 300.

Gen Fricker:

... kicked into the pit. He is so stylized in the way that he approaches violence, for better or for worse. Some people are not a fan of it, some people are. I, for one, am because I love graphic novels. For me, what he brings to the screen is a sense of storytelling through movement.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah and visual. Frame storytelling too.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. So for me, I love it. It's what I loved about Watchmen as well. The characters are so big, but some of the best moments are these small moments in between each character. I don't know, I'm realising through this podcast, I have like very teen boy taste.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You do. You do. But that's why we love you, Gen. That's why we love you.

Gen Fricker:

What I love about Army of the Dead, it's taking two really strong visual traditions of the zombie movie and the Vegas movie. Vegas movie is glossy, it's fake teeth, it's glowing, it's big and-

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's excess.

Gen Fricker:

It's excess, yes. And zombies are disgusting creatures that devour themselves. So it's just this perfect high, low trashy glossy mix, which I just think is so interesting to watch. And then, yeah, you're so right. He finds all these notes, this satirical note, it's really heightened.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And then also, there's a nice emotional core to this story as well because Dave Bautista, I think is an actor who's really coming into his own these days. He starts out as a wrestler, I knew him from then. I did like wrestling for a hot minute. I did like Batista because he is Greek. He's half Greek, half Filipino. He's got a Greek flag tattoo so I knew that he was Greek and I've always loved him. And I will sing his praises forever because I also think that we have not really had an actor like him in a very long time, maybe since Sylvester Stallone, who is someone who is a big muscle man who does macho action movies, but then is able to access this well of subtle, emotional acting as well.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, for sure.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And so I'm so freaking hyped to see him actually leading a movie, because he's always a scene stealing, supporting player. So it's cool to see him become a leading man in a film like this. I don't think you could really find anyone else that could nail this role as far as aesthetically goes. And also for the emotional resonance that we need for a character like this. And I think that relationship between him and the actress who plays his daughter, Ella Purnell, is really kind of sweetly found in this movie. And you do believe all those emotional modes between them. And this is really like a classic heist movie. It's a monster cast.

Gen Fricker:

It is. It's huge. And everyone in it has, again, much like the heist itself, everyone in it realises their role that they're playing within it. The best example of this is Tig Notaro.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, my gosh, we are Tig stans.

Gen Fricker:

We are Tig simps.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. We're Tig simps, okay.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. She is in this movie as Marianne Peters, who is the helicopter pilot. And she, I think, as an actor, knows exactly what her role is in this. She's not the big Dave Bautista, she's not the big lead, she's not the kind of sneaky one in the background. She's the wise cracking smart aleck.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

And that's why she's so perfect in this.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's so interesting you say that because I have it on good authority that Tig may actually not have known what her role in this was.

Gen Fricker:

What?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

She was a late addition to the cast. She was a replacement actor and she filmed all of her scenes by herself with an acting partner on green screens, on sets and stuff like that.

Gen Fricker:

So wait, so she's in these scenes with people?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. And they've placed her in after.

Gen Fricker:

That's nuts.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. I'm thrilled by it. And it's so convincing. You had no idea?

Gen Fricker:

I had no idea.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's kind of fascinating because I love Tig Notaro and she, in interviews, had said that she thought that she might've ended up being the lead of this movie and stuff, not knowing how it's turning out. But I think that Tig has that perfect dry energy that suits something like this. And I think it's movie star Tig as well.

Gen Fricker:

I've only ever seen her as a stand-up and I love her and playing these kind of smaller, more dry roles. The first time I saw her on TV was in the Sarah Silverman show. She played Officer Tig. She was in Transparent as one of the partners. And again, that's quite a small ensemble cast. It's very small emotional performances, but it's just good to see her hamming it up, smoking a cigar, kicking butt.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

There's a Tig Notaro bit where she tells that classic comedy thing that was like, "Oh, you know who you look like?" And she's like, "People always say, I look like Tom Cruise." And this is like Tig Notaro as Tom Cruise in this movie, being the pilot, like Maverick, like Top Gun. And just got me thinking, if Tig Notaro the can be placed into this movie, I want her to have a huge career being placed in Tom Cruise movies for the rest of my life.

Gen Fricker:

Like if they do a Tig Notaro edit of Mission: Impossible.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, my God. Just all Tig Notaro in all the Mission: Impossibles. I want to see Tig Notaro's face inches from a computer and a laser beam when she's being dangled from the ceiling. Oh, gosh. I would love to see her in anything. Even playing the guy from Born on the Fourth of July, the veteran in the wheelchair. Tom Cruise's most emotional performance where he truly did deserve to win an Oscar. He already got the nomination, he got beat out by Daniel Day-Lewis for My Left Foot. The only person who could ever beat him. That's all I'll say there. But I would love to see that emotional performance be put on with just Tig's dry comedy.

Gen Fricker:

Oh, my gosh.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I would love that.

Gen Fricker:

I would love to see Tig in Vanilla Sky.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I saw Vanilla Sky once when I was maybe 13 years old.

Gen Fricker:

I did not understand it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Had no idea. Never stopped thinking about it. I'll see you in another life when we're cats. That's from that movie. I don't know how I remembered it.

Gen Fricker:

I don't wish to revisit it unless Tig Notaro's in it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Tig Notaro subbed in for Tom Cruise. And that's the Tig Notaro haircut. You could do that this weekend if you listen to this podcast and you have the skills.

Gen Fricker:

A little bit of time on your hands, go for it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Come on. Go big, sub Tig.

Gen Fricker:

You know there is a Tom Cruise connection to this film.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

What's that?

Gen Fricker:

Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays the safecracker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Ludwig the safecracker, my other favourite character in this film.

Gen Fricker:

Great. Very charismatic performance. Matthias was in Valkyrie with Tom Cruise.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Already we got scenes of him and Tig together. We can just sub them into the movie.

Gen Fricker:

Just composite.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But I think that this is a cool character and there's some good interchange between him and Tig's character where they talk about some of that self-knowing heist stuff where they're like, "Well, he's the safecracker and I'm the pilot. We're the most valuable people in this mission. So we should get a bigger cut." I think that's so funny, such a good take on the heist film. And then he's an interesting character as well, because he's just delighted to be here. Him cracking the safe open is his idea of Nirvana. And he's going to reach it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

There's something that's really exciting about this movie. This is kind of being pitched as the start of a major franchise. And I really do think it is a very cool and unique property to be able to expand out of that way. And it has been announced that this actor, Matthias, his character is going to be the lead and he's going to be the director, producer and writer of a spinoff called Army of Thieves, which will show his life pre Army of the Dead, as a safecracker.

Gen Fricker:

Oh man, I'm so hyped for that.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Really, I'm hyped for that because I want to see how a supporting kind of comedy character in a film like this can be elevated to become the lead with emotional stakes in there. And it's something so interesting in the childlike glee that he brings into this performance that I do really want to see explored further.

Gen Fricker:

Yes. I like his character growth in it as well. He starts off being very scared by the zombies as we all would. In a way, he's the avatar for the audience.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Truly, that gets me thinking, how are we going to make it through this? What would you and I be doing if we were in this team?

Gen Fricker:

In the heist team? I'd be useless, frankly.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. I would love to be the guy-

Gen Fricker:

I'm a liability.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

... that waits with the car or something.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd be the one that's on the radio mic being like "Turn left." I'd be the map person.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, the cartographer, perhaps.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. The one that's like, "Turn left. Take a left. They're coming up on your right. Get into the van."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The eye in the sky. I think you would be amazing at that because I'm watching you right now in real time, you're sitting on a microphone. And so I'm living this right now.

Gen Fricker:

Do I know how to talk? Yes. Do I have a pair of eyes? Yes.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You're doing it.

Gen Fricker:

I feel like you'd be the charming con man. You'd be the one that gets at the front and is distracting people, so the security guys, the casino [crosstalk 00:16:44], whoever it is, with good, fun chat.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. The banter man.

Gen Fricker:

The banter man.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I actually would love that. Because in Ocean's Eleven, that's Bernie Mac. That's a little bit Matt Damon. I'm a hybrid of the two. Absolutely I am.

Gen Fricker:

100%.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

That's my personality. Uniquely about this movie, we've got two different types of zombos. We got the shamblers, which are your classic groaning zombies.

Gen Fricker:

Slow moving.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Slow moving moaners. They love to eat. They love to just feed upon the humans. And then you've got something new, which is unique to Army of the Dead. You've got the alphas, which are leaders. They're fast moving.

Gen Fricker:

Interpersonal relationships.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

They do have interpersonal relationships with each other and they feel like they are the leaders of this new tribe of zombies in there. I feel like I may be an expert in communications. I mean, honey, I dropped out of two communications degrees. So I learned a thing or two about people that are new to communicating.

Gen Fricker:

He's an observer.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm an observer, enormous talker and a squawker. I reckon I could go in and just be like, "Listen, buddies, we got to go in to get some money. Money doesn't mean squat to you guys. But it means a heck of a lot for us here in his team of mercenaries. Let me in, please and give me a safe passage. Please go and talk to all your friends out there. I promise you, you can eat one of my buddies here, gobble him up, but only until after I've come through there." And that will be my plan.

Gen Fricker:

It would take a lot of the central tension out of the movie, but I do see it for you.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

If only they got me in there, I could have made it a smoother trip.

Gen Fricker:

If they had simply just asked the zombies. Can we take this money?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Please, get a nice, chubby charming podcaster from Australia on the team. You could have sorted this out in lickety-split, Zachary or Zack. I don't know if I should call you Zack, but I'll call you both.

Gen Fricker:

Very familiar.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Very familiar.

Gen Fricker:

Very familiar with Mr. Snyder.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm on the team now. I'm supposedly on the team with this zombie execution squad.

Gen Fricker:

You know what? Maybe that's part of your communication skills, undoing people's boundaries.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. I think that's what I would be able to do with the zombies and it would work out better for them.

Gen Fricker:

So we were talking about our favourite characters, Dave Bautista's character, Tig Notaro's character, Matthias Schweighöfer's character, my favourite character, and I mentioned them at the top, zombie tiger.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, yeah. That zombie tiger is spectacular. It's so creepy looking, right?

Gen Fricker:

It's so creepy. I mean, is it a pet on set? I mean, it's a CGI tiger, but it seems real to me.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And it's based on the iconic Siegfried & Roy tiger. So it's a gorgeous white beast with black stripes and also half a face. So you can see that scary skull underneath it.

Gen Fricker:

Loves a little bit of a nap while all the zombie hordes are running along, but then will jump in when it's needed. Just as a concept, it's so fun.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's really cool. I think that this is a really cool flick. Obviously, it's one of the biggest movies of the year. It's so hotly anticipated. Snyder has really carved out this huge piece of popular culture. And I think this will really satisfy a lot of fans because it is quite different to the work that he's been doing recently. It's a lot of fun. It's also the first time in a while that not only has he tackled the zombie genre like he did with a fantastic remake of Dawn Of The Dead at the start of his career. It's the first time that he's done something that's not an adaptation in a long time. So you're really getting to see him play around and be really playful with things. He was the director of photography of this film himself. And he's got like one of the most magnificent eyes in like modern cinema in creating striking images. So this is going to satisfy a lot of different people. I am even surprised by how much I love this movie.

Gen Fricker:

Really?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. I really was really into this film.

Gen Fricker:

Why were you surprised by that? I think that it surprised me because it's two familiar genres, so I didn't expect to be surprised by anything really in it because I thought it was going to be like an entry into both rather than a fun entry that goes down both paths in satirising zombie movies and satirising heist movies as well, and also being fun along the way with lots of tonal variance. And so it really delivered on things I didn't even expect from this movie.

Gen Fricker:

I'm with you 100%. It sets up a really huge world, even just the opening sequence and where we kind of land at afterwards. There's already so much that's happened to these characters.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. Huge world building.

Gen Fricker:

World building on the scale of a Lord of the Rings, a Star Wars, if you will. I'm not saying it's at that level yet, but it's exciting to kind of dive into something that's got so much potential. It's really fun. If you love a zombie movie, you'll have a good time sitting at home, popping on something fun, not having to stress out too much and just watching something that looks great and clearly has an ensemble of people having a lot of fun in it. This is absolutely the movie for you.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And after you've watched Army of the Dead and you want a little more that is along that same path, Gen, what are your recommendations?

Gen Fricker:

If you like those shambling hordes of zombies keen to devour more delicious human flesh in the form of zombie movies... Does not work as a metaphor at all, but I strongly recommend, if you love Army of the Dead, Train to Busan.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Train to Busan is a Korean zombie movie, right?

Gen Fricker:

Train to Busan is the only zombie movie that's made me cry. It is a brilliant South Korean film about class, it's about family relationship and it is all set on a train that is basically slowly getting infested with zombies from the back to the front. It's brilliant. It is one of the best films I've ever seen. And it also has zombies.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

This is such a high recommendation. For me to you guys, what I'm going to recommend, I'm going to give you one heist movie, which is on Netflix. It's called Triple 9. It's an underrated film that I don't think many people have seen that I want to get more eyes on because it has a fantastic Kate Winslet performance when she plays a matriarch of a crime family. Very cool stuff. And then there's also a Australian zombie movie called Cargo, which has Martin Freeman kind of going cross country in Australian Outback while there's a zombie apocalypse going on.

Gen Fricker:

Shot in South Australia, I believe.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I believe so. And that is a really cool one to check out as well. Cargo. Martin Freeman Australian zombie movie. Well, Gen, thank you for chatting to me once again on the podcast.

Gen Fricker:

Thank you for being such a wonderful partner in crime. The crime? Getting to the heart of what's the best thing to watch on Netflix this weekend.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The perfect heist and thank you to all the diners at The Big Film Buffet this week. If you like what you're listening to, give us five stars on your podcast app of choice and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Gen Fricker:

This episode was hosted by Alexei Toliopoulos and me, Gen Fricker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Produced by Michael Sun and Anu Hasbold.

Gen Fricker:

Edited by Geoffrey O'Connor.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And executive produced by Tony Broderick and Melanie Mahony.