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Happy Saturday to all you wonderful folks, and welcome to the many new people who’ve joined Saturday Matinee recently. I’m glad you’re here.
Despite the fact that there’s a $250 million Disney blockbuster in theaters, this feels like a bit of a quiet week. We’re all waiting eagerly for “The Odyssey,” which comes out July 17. Advance tickets have been on sale for an entire year, with IMAX 70mm showings selling out. A new Christopher Nolan movie is always an event, but this one feels especially epic.
Alonso and I are seeing “The Odyssey” on Monday morning at the AMC Universal CityWalk — Nolan’s preferred IMAX theater — and we’ll have a quick social reaction later that day. Then our full review will be up at 9am Pacific time Wednesday once the embargo lifts, so keep an eye out for all of that.
Are you excited about THE ODYSSEY?
As for this week, here’s what we reviewed on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. Come hang out with us in between World Cup games.
MOANA (2026). If you’ve seen “Moana,” you’ve seen “Moana.” The original animated film only came out a decade ago, and it’s been less than two years since “Moana 2” was in theaters. How can we miss you if you don’t go away? Nevertheless, here is yet another Disney live-action remake. Appealing newcomer Catherine Laga’aia takes over the title role, and of course Dwayne Johnson returns as the shapeshifting demigod Maui. His desire to play this part again, while he still can, feels like it’s driving this expedited timeline. A lot of the visual magic is lost in translation, but the Lin-Manuel Miranda songs remain the star. In theaters.
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975). It’s the latest in our Was It Great or Were You 8? series. This is one of my absolute favorite things we do, where we revisit movies we loved from our childhood to see how they hold up today. This time, it was Alonso’s turn (his movies are in the 1975-76 range), and he chose this John Huston action epic, based on the Rudyard Kipling story. Sean Connery and Michael Caine star as ex-British military men who con their way into ruling an isolated land. I had not even heard of this movie, much less seen it, I’m embarrassed to say. But that’s part of the fun of this exercise. Be on the lookout next month for when it’s my turn to choose again. I’ve got a good one planned.
MOVIE NEWS LIVE! We’ve been on a roll lately with our movie news livestreams, which is great because there’s been so much to talk about. This week’s discussion included early reactions to “The Odyssey,” Emmy nominations, the sequel to “Young Washington,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest “Ali G” movie, remembering Louise Lasser and more. (Alonso kindly took time away from watching the Spain-Belgium World Cup match to go live with me.) Join us at our channel on Fridays at Noon Pacific.
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If you’re a member of our Patreon, you still have time to vote in July’s Off the Menu poll. Every month, Alonso curates a selection of films connected by a theme: a recently departed actor’s work, the season, a holiday, etc. With “The Odyssey” coming, we wanted to go back and review an early film from Christopher Nolan that we’ve never discussed together. We’ve done everything from “Inception” on, either at What the Flick?! or our current channel. Currently, “Memento” (2000) is in the lead, but “Insomnia” (2002) has a chance. (I’m totally surprised by these results, by the way. I thought “The Dark Knight” would be more popular.)
This is another of my favorite things we do — it’s always fun to see what our folks pick. So if you haven’t voted yet, you’ve still got about a day. And if you’d like to know more about the perks we offer at various levels, check out the Membership tab.
That’ll do it for me this week. I’m volunteering at another Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy event this morning, which is a beautiful way to start the weekend. I highly recommend getting out there and enjoying the sunshine, too.
Thanks so much for sharing some of your time with me, especially if you’re traveling this summer. If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, I hope you’ll pass it along, and if someone passed it along to you, I hope you’ll subscribe. Saturday Matinee is always free. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.
