Ep 44 - The NeverEnding Story 3 (1994)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: The Neverending Story 3. Return to Fantasia. Escape Fantasia. Who knows? It's 1994. Just like the whimsical idea of a song that goes on and on or having life everlasting, eventually the devastating reality of a story without end crashes down on Bastion like the fists of a bully, not only causing physical damage, but mentally bruising the core memory of the once respected title, the Never Ending Story. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to R Rating, the show where I get together with a couple of my friends, we take a movie franchise, break it down by movie, give them an overall score, and throw them on the board to see how they do compared to other movie franchises. I'm joined this week, as always, by Will and by Brian. Will, how are you doing today? [00:00:56] Speaker A: Happy it's over. [00:00:57] Speaker B: Fantastic. And Brian, how are you doing? [00:01:01] Speaker C: I'm good. I'm good. Today. I'm good. And like Will, I'm glad that we're ending the Never Ending Story. And I would like to start off with saying to you guys, screw you for making me watch this. This is so horrible. This was every bit as bad as number two. And if you'd like to hear our reviews about number two, be sure to check out the previous previous video. This Never Ending Story 3 was an abomination from start to finish. I do have some things in this film that I did kind of enjoy, but this was even a step down from the second. [00:01:35] Speaker B: I'm gonna fight you on that one. Actually, I liked this one significantly more than 2. It is not good. It is not good. But I at least had fun with parts of this. There was no joy to be had in the entire second one. Were parts of this are like, oh, that's kind of clever. Even if the parts were just like Jack Black or like, how did they get Kiss from a Rose in here? Where was the budget for this? Little things. But at least there was something. There was no joy in number two. Spoiler alert for the preview you're gonna watch or the review you're gonna watch, but there's at least something here that's not good, but there's something. [00:02:10] Speaker C: There are those little tidbits, some of the musical renditions, which. I hate musicals myself. I'm not a fan. I. I just never watch any musicals that I' enjoyed, and I've watched a lot of them trying to find one that breaks the mold. But this one has a bunch of musical stuff in it out of nowhere. I don't know why. Some of the songs were interesting. I will say, at best, are you the highlight for me was Jack. [00:02:38] Speaker B: Wait, when you talk about the musicals, are you talking about, like, him singing? [00:02:41] Speaker A: Weren't you Born to Be Wild Run? I thought you'd be right into that. [00:02:47] Speaker C: I. I just. I don't know. I just don't like musicals. And the music in this didn't do it for me. I was just more interested in how they acquired the rights to some of these songs for their movie. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:02:55] Speaker C: Seemed like a lot. [00:02:57] Speaker B: It really felt like they spent all of their budget on the songs and not on the actors, the set designs, the special effects. Like, in that regard, sure, everything is a step down, but, like, I don't know, something about the. The nasties, the bullies, and him in the real world, I found more compelling than anything in the second movie. [00:03:14] Speaker C: I agree with that. That was. That was the. The point for me was now I think Jack Black has played maybe two different roles in his entire life. And it's kind of nice to know that way back in the 90s, he was still playing himself in this, which is okay. I enjoy that role. Jack Black makes me laugh. I don't think he's a great actor or anything like that. I'm not going to give him super praise, but I enjoy his stuff and I enjoyed his scenes in this. It was. It was a cool character. And I liked the. The flip at the end where he's kind of a nerd. It was just kind of enjoyable to see that. So I did like Jack Black and the nasties. That might have been, like, the only thing in the movie I liked. [00:03:56] Speaker B: I didn't say this was a good movie. I didn't say there was a lot here. It's just. There was nothing in the last one. [00:04:02] Speaker C: And there were things in two that were really bad, like the set design, the cinematography, the lighting, the acting, and all those got worse in this. I don't know. Will, what did you. What's. What's your take? [00:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah, we haven't heard from Will yet. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Yo. You both raise great points. It's like, what's worse? Like burning your hand on the stove or burning your hand on the furnace? You know, it still hurts either way. It's just like maybe you held on to one longer than the other, and that's. These movies. Okay. It just depends on your mood. [00:04:41] Speaker C: Yeah, we shouldn't watch them at all. [00:04:43] Speaker A: It. [00:04:43] Speaker B: It might be that we went from never in a story one to two, and the disappointment was so huge. And then we went from two with no expectations to this, and we're like, oh, it's still A turd, but it's kind of shiny. Like. Okay, [00:04:58] Speaker A: I think you guys are bringing up a point. I didn't really consider this because I'm not really thinking about these movies as much as possible. I don't know why the storyline in 3 made more sense and the. And the through line made more sense. You know, this kid who is getting going into a new family, he always wanted a sister. It doesn't turn out the way he wants it to. He's getting bullied in a new place. He has to deal with it. And now the bullies are taking over and he has to figure everything out. It all kind of made sense. The second one, he can't wish for the life of him, he has no idea. He has zero imagination. Neither of them have imagination. But the second one is so much based on. You can wish for anything. You want to make anything happen, and he just doesn't. He was just such a stick in the mud of uselessness in the second one. And the story, the writing didn't actually make any sense, whereas this one doesn't make sense. But at least it follows through on it. Like, at least there is some sort of plot where I feel like the second one didn't have at all. [00:06:09] Speaker B: I don't know. I think if this one had stayed as far away from the fantasy elements as possible, it actually would have gone even up another point or two. Like, I. I didn't. I will give it props that it didn't just have the exact same characters in it as you see in the last movies. Like, it wasn't. How do this. Like in Never Ending Story, you get the rock Biter and then you have to see the rock Biter in the second one and where he goes. And in this one you have rock people, but they're not the Rock Biter. There are new characters. You have the tree characters. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Supposed to be the rock Biters. [00:06:39] Speaker C: They're supposed to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:06:41] Speaker A: He's riding the trike. He's got his baby, but he's like human size. No, he's not. [00:06:48] Speaker C: Well, they got the sizes all screwed [00:06:50] Speaker A: up because sizes are all over the map. [00:06:52] Speaker C: The scientist and the witch were way smaller in this one than in number one. Yeah. And then the rock biter wasn't as big. His car was different. And the claymation shots of him riding his tricycle around looked so horrible. Like, yeah, the rock fighter people were just a disaster. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah, they were bad. They were bad. And so was the electric that everything was bad. The tree was so bad. [00:07:15] Speaker B: The tree Was annoying. Oh, God, I hated his character. And the, like, all of it was just awful. [00:07:20] Speaker C: Kept coming up like Groucho marks. What was up with that tree character? He was terrible. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Every tree joke you can think of, just throw it in. No matter if it has any impact on the story at all, just cut to it, throw in a tree joke, and then leave to the next scene. [00:07:37] Speaker B: Leave. Sorry. [00:07:41] Speaker C: Even the fact their jokes. [00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Even the fact that in the Fantasia they're making real world references like, oh, you're lucky. Let's go to Vegas. Like, this kid's strong. He's the next Schwarzenegger. I'm like, fuck right off. I'm sorry. No. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's so bad because the more I think about these movies, the more I hate myself for watching them. I don't know what it is because they just make so little sense. [00:08:14] Speaker B: The. [00:08:15] Speaker A: The character choices are horrible. Bastion throughout is horrible in this movie. He's so bad. He's like, oh, I'm just gonna creepily talk to my sister about the Orin and the never ending story and like, corner her in her bedroom. Like. Yeah. [00:08:31] Speaker C: It kept feeling like they were building up for chemistry between the two and then they went home with brother sister. [00:08:36] Speaker A: And I was like, I've seen a [00:08:38] Speaker B: lot of movies with brothers and stepsisters. I think they're definitely leaning towards. [00:08:43] Speaker C: Yeah, it was. It was. It was no good. [00:08:45] Speaker A: It was so bad. Like everything between them. And then he's like hiding this rock child under a blanket and making sure nobody sees him. And then he just leaves him at home. Leaves the or out in the open. Just has zero. There's a zero logic to any choices in this movie. It just. It's so bad. It's so bad. [00:09:07] Speaker B: I. I had going along with the zero logic. I had to rewind at one point when the bullies first go into their, like, cave in the middle of a parking structure. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:09:17] Speaker B: It's just like they move a dumpster and all of a sudden they've got this like, sweet little layer and I'm just like, wait a second. How do buildings work again? [00:09:24] Speaker A: Like, what. [00:09:27] Speaker B: Where is this? How does that. What is going. Never mind. In this movie, that is not even the thing that makes the least amount of sense. We're good. Just keep going with it. Yeah. [00:09:34] Speaker A: And so, okay, as far as I know. Here's. Here's what I know. Here's the little research I did. Never ending story based off the book. It tells about the first half of the book. It was great. Everybody loves it. And we will always cherish it and we'll pass it down for generations because it is a worthy film and I have the background to prove it. The Neverending Story 2. I couldn't tell you if it goes along with the book. I think there's wishing happening in the book, so I think it somewhat tells the second part of the book. Badly butchers it tears the pages up and tries to stick them back together with spit and sticks. And then the third one is completely on its own. It. It has nothing to do with the books. It has very little to do with the previous movies. It just has the character names and just does whatever the hell it wants. That's all I know. I didn't want to research anything aside from that. Oh. Oh. Except for all three movies, all of the real world scenes were shot in Canada. For all three movies, they were all shot in Vancouver. So thank you, Canada, for putting this towards us and making this a possibility. I've never been so ashamed. [00:10:53] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe we don't brag about this one. [00:10:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I would keep that out of your corner. I'm just. [00:10:59] Speaker A: I'm just happy that Canadians were employed to make something, even though it was the. This horseshit. [00:11:04] Speaker C: Yeah, we're in Canada for this one. That's right. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Because America's never made a bad movie. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Well, yeah. And this is. And this was Germany. Right? So Germany had one hit and then they went, oh, [00:11:20] Speaker C: I can't wait for the day that I bump into Jack Black on the street and I'm gonna shout out, I loved you in the Never Ending Story 3. My favorite thing is that when you meet famous people, you should always reference their most obscure film. And this is going to be the one I hold in my pocket for the day I bump into Jack Black. Probably never happened, but I do this for every actor I ever see and can think about it. I go, what's the worst film they've ever been in? This has got to be his, right? [00:11:50] Speaker B: It's got to be up there. [00:11:51] Speaker C: That being said, I kind of think that Slap was his name. Slap. [00:11:56] Speaker B: I have no idea. [00:11:57] Speaker A: One of the nasties. [00:11:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, the nasties. I think it was Slap. Whatever. He kind of stole the show. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:12:04] Speaker C: In this film for me, he definitely was the only highlight in it. And I'm not saying it was good by any means, but it was the best part of this film. [00:12:15] Speaker B: So apparently Jack Black, one of the few things I did look into this because I was so confused when I saw him, signed up for this because of how much he loved the first movie and was so disappointed in this, he refused to discuss it in interviews for years after the fact. Now, whether he'll talk to you on the street about it now? Probably. I think he's probably over it now. He seems like he's over pretty much everything. [00:12:37] Speaker A: He's doing pretty good now. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But there was a long time where he's just like, nope, next question. Moving on. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Rightly so. [00:12:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I don't blame him. [00:12:48] Speaker A: I don't disagree. Jack Black was kind of the highlight of the movie. [00:12:51] Speaker B: He. [00:12:52] Speaker A: I mean, was he a believable bully? The writing says no. The acting says so. So the eyebrow says absolutely. [00:13:00] Speaker B: The universe. [00:13:03] Speaker C: That was an amazing unibrow. [00:13:06] Speaker A: That's what I'm gonna say. [00:13:07] Speaker C: I loved you and your unibrow in the Never Ending Story 3. [00:13:11] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. But again, compared to everything else, like he, Sean. He Sean compared to everybody else. So, you know, good job, Jack Black. You somehow didn't tarnish your name doing this. [00:13:25] Speaker C: Yeah. I really hated all the other characters, though. Even more so than number two. Yeah. Falkor in this was even worse. Like I said in. [00:13:35] Speaker B: This is a totally different design. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:37] Speaker C: In the previous video, I said it looked like they use the same animatronics, but the guy was missing an arm and couldn't control him. And in this one, the guy was trying to use his foot with, like, a trash bag painted white. This thing looked horrible, sounded horrible. It didn't make any sense. The scenes that it was in or how they used it or why. I mean, none of it really made any sense. And then the other characters that, at least the previous movie took the look of some of our favorite characters, like Rock Biter, and then gave them new voiceovers and stuff, and then changed the way their characters acted. But at least they looked pretty similar to the same. And Falkor kind of looked the same in the second movie. In this one, they. They just revamped them completely and everything was out of scale, out of size. Looked wrong, looked weird, sounded weird. And then, of course, just the. The movie's writing and dialogue was just that much worse than the second one. [00:14:31] Speaker A: It was bad. The other thing, I thought, to me, Felcore felt like Falkor. Here they go. Felcor felt to me like Chris Pratt in Jurassic World for whatever one we left off on, where he just gave up and didn't care anymore. And so he's just saying whatever the hell he wanted to. He's like, oh, my back hurts from carrying this franchise for so Long. This is my. This is my favorite part of the story when it ends. Like, it's just, like, so horrible. The lines this guy was given to say for this puppet was just so bad that I almost thought it was funny, but it was just so disgraceful to the original that I just couldn't. I couldn't even enjoy it. It was brutal. It was brutal. [00:15:21] Speaker B: Now, these kind of blended together for you a little bit. Was Falcor in this one where, like, I can't land? Oh, no. I have to have, like, more landing space before I can, like, yeah, yeah. Where did that come from? Like, when. When have we ever seen Falcor not be able to land on a dime? But, like, okay, sure. It didn't add anything to the movie, so. All right. Yeah, I. I feel like there's got to be something in here that I. I just. There has to be a positive, because, [00:15:47] Speaker A: like, you said it already, kids from a Rose Meatloaf. Those are the positives. That was it, pretty much. [00:15:58] Speaker C: They tried to make some humor with the two parents. Like, the. The mother shouting for them to come downstairs. It became more awkward and uncomfortable enough, but they were trying for some humor there. Okay. Get better writing. The. The brother sister dynamic was so uncomfortable to watch the whole time, and she [00:16:20] Speaker B: just, like, flips on a dime, just like, I've always wanted a brother. And it's like, what? [00:16:24] Speaker A: What? [00:16:25] Speaker B: What? [00:16:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:26] Speaker C: And she runs up to the stepdad, and she's like, daddy. And I'm like, what? You don't do that in real life? [00:16:32] Speaker B: No, no. [00:16:33] Speaker C: It takes years of therapy and forced manipulation to get that kid to, like, you, let alone replace her own father with you. That's just ridiculous. [00:16:45] Speaker B: Yeah. No, everything about her felt so weird. Like, and even the other mother who's like, oh, did your mom finally get you some plastic? Like, can we go shopping now? And it's just like, who talks like that? [00:16:56] Speaker A: Like, what do we. [00:16:57] Speaker B: Like, oh, you're absolutely allowed to get. Like, now you can get your parents in debt. Ooh, let's go shopping. It's like getting everything for free handed to her. It's just like, this is the dumbest. Whatever. [00:17:08] Speaker C: Somebody said, yo, homie in the film. And I was like, is that from the 90s? Really? Like, man, I'm getting old. Like, yo, homie. Wow. [00:17:19] Speaker B: This movie started it. So there you go. [00:17:21] Speaker A: The other. The other thing is, is this was her film, right? Like, her character was the only one that really had an arc. It was late. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Nicole or Natalie or whatever. [00:17:31] Speaker A: It was late to the game. Where she's like, oh, I knew this would happen. It was never going to work. My parents divorced. All parents are going to get divorced. And then I, I did want a brother. And then she comes around and helps him and whatnot. Like, it's her story, but it's so backlogged by just complete garbage and Bastion in full useless form throughout that it's just like, there's zero impact. It's just, I can't, I can't. I don't even. [00:18:01] Speaker B: I, I. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Words. I don't. I can't, I say. Now. When I was watching it, I wrote, I think it's worse than Home Alone 4. But maybe it isn't. It's hard to know. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Now, you alluded to something in the second movie, which is his dad. And so I do want to go back and touch on that because I'm assuming where you're going with that is the fact that his dad read the Neverending Story, was a part of the Never Ending Story, knew that his son was missing for a couple of days [00:18:35] Speaker A: with the orange. [00:18:36] Speaker B: And then in this book, he's like, the Never Ending Story. What's that? And just like again, just like, like every one of these movies, like, they have to start from complete scratch, but they're legally obligated to use the same character names or something. It's like, yeah, kids in the other [00:18:49] Speaker C: movies aren't doing anything. [00:18:51] Speaker B: Why not hire them again? [00:18:52] Speaker A: I know. [00:18:53] Speaker C: Why does Mr. Bookstore Owner, whose name I can't remember now, work in the school library? And why does he continue to carry the Never Ending Story with him? [00:19:01] Speaker A: Convenience. [00:19:02] Speaker B: He always needs to be in the story and he always needs to try and convince this kid to read the book by, like, by not times. [00:19:10] Speaker C: Is he going to say, don't push the red button to this kid and any work. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Just once more, Just once more letting [00:19:16] Speaker A: anybody read this book again. But it's. Along with all the books on the bookshelf. [00:19:22] Speaker B: Well, don't forget about how he hid it in the first one. By putting it under one envelope right through this book. [00:19:27] Speaker A: That was different a little bit because the first one, he did want him to read it. [00:19:31] Speaker B: Sure. [00:19:32] Speaker A: In this one, I don't know. [00:19:35] Speaker C: I think he wanted to take it from the library is all he wanted. [00:19:41] Speaker A: Earth was. Earth was about to end in this one. Right. Like in the others, Earth really wasn't in peril. Aside from just, you know, boredom, lack of imagination, which, hello, welcome to our world. But in this one, the world was actually in peril. He threw spaghetti on his wife's face at some point, like, they were all turning nasty. The world was going insane. Obviously, you have to. You have to put a lock on this book eventually, dude, because it's not going. Every time. It gets substantially worse for way less important topics of learning, like, what the hell? [00:20:22] Speaker B: Yeah. We went from the nothingness to the emptiness to the nastiness. I'm just like, okay, stop. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And so my favorite line in lines in the movie are the kids, like, looking through his telescope, waiting for his friends to come. Because he obviously has no idea how to find anybody or do anything in the movies. He just sits and waits for things [00:20:43] Speaker C: to happen to him. [00:20:44] Speaker A: So he's sitting and looking at his telescope and he's all miffed that his wishes didn't work or something stupid. And then his dad comes in like, dude, what's going on? Like, you okay? And he's like, I'm not talking to you. [00:20:55] Speaker C: I'll go away. [00:20:56] Speaker A: I'm a kid. And then he's like, his dad's like, okay, I'm leaving. And then he. He's like, dad, everything sucks, okay? And his dad looks at him, okay. Smiles and walks away. [00:21:14] Speaker B: That's parenting. What the hell was that? [00:21:18] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:21:20] Speaker A: okay. Oh, it's so bad. It was so bad. [00:21:23] Speaker B: You know what my favorite line is? Unfortunately, in the second movie, not in this one, but we skipped it. And I want to go back for like, one brief second. [00:21:30] Speaker A: Please do. [00:21:31] Speaker B: When they're talking about, like, oh, and he's gonna get chased by the speed of darkness, which is faster than the speed of light. And I was like, hang on. [00:21:40] Speaker A: My. [00:21:40] Speaker C: My kid did the same thing. He's like, wait a minute. That doesn't make any sense. That's right. [00:21:46] Speaker B: It doesn't mean a thing. [00:21:47] Speaker C: 11 year old catches them off, you know? [00:21:51] Speaker B: Oh, so good. Anyways, sorry, we're talking about the third movie, but I had to bring that up. [00:21:55] Speaker A: Oh, it's good. It's great. It's so good. Yeah. I don't know. Oh, also, why is there television in Fantasia? [00:22:05] Speaker C: Yeah, why is the rock biter baby watching tv? What was up with that? [00:22:09] Speaker B: Because he's got bad parents too. It's fine. [00:22:13] Speaker A: But Fantasia is everything about storytelling and books and imagination and creativity which is dying. They're just sitting, watching television. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Well, that's how they know about Vegas and Arnold Schwarzenegger. [00:22:26] Speaker C: This was showcasing true bad parenting. And even the rock biters like to let the babysitter watch the kid for them once in a while. [00:22:34] Speaker A: It's so bad. And like, it, it, it's like they went out of their way to make the Rock Biter family a bad 90s sitcom like the Dinosaurs. You know, we watch that garbage. It's like. It's like shot for shot remake of that. [00:22:52] Speaker B: Isn't it before dinosaurs, though? Oh, 94. [00:22:57] Speaker C: Dan said Power Rangers in the previous movie, and you say Dinosaurs in this movie. This. I had those same thoughts for both of them. We're all on the same page with this. The movie's trash. Jack Black, even though not good, was the highlight of the film. None of it makes any sense. The question is, was this one point worse or one point better than Never Ending Story two For me, and I don't know if I'm jumping the gun here, but I'm ready to give my score. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Go for it. [00:23:26] Speaker C: For me, this movie was the exact same as the previous movie as far as the score was. I believe I gave it a 22, except I think it earned a point because of Jack Black and how he was portrayed. But it lost a point in every other thing, which was done that much worse than its predecessors, which already did a terrible job. So this is another do not watch this film. I think that we start collectively trying to implement the Mandala effect on this and say that this was never a franchise and that the Never Ending Story is just one movie. [00:24:06] Speaker B: There is not much going on in this movie that's very good. Most of it is bad, most of it is worse. And yet somehow, maybe because it took place in the real world, you had actual bullies chasing an actual kid. Something about it resonated a little bit more with me. I don't love Jack Black, but I do like him. And seeing him as a young actor, as the youngest actor I've ever seen him, I believe was fun for me. The weird little moments where you have, like, actual songs, it didn't raise the bar at all. But at the same time, it was just that interesting. Like, oh, what? What? How did they get Kiss From a Rose? This came out right before Batman did, so right before that song got crazy popular. So that's probably how they could afford it. Regardless, I. For whatever reason, and I think most of it is the fact that it takes place in the real world, I did enjoy this more than the second one. It's still not great. It is still just a slightly Polish turd. This is a 26 for me. Agreed with Brian. Do not watch this. This is not worth your time. Maybe for like two minutes. To see Jack Black and be like, oh, and be. Move on. That's it. [00:25:09] Speaker A: Nope, it's not worth two minutes. [00:25:12] Speaker B: I, I would. You know what? I could watch a trailer if you're curious there. [00:25:16] Speaker A: I guess, I guess 30 second trailer. Okay. Well, I mean, I think these guys rated. Hi. The beauty of the first one is the in depth themes that I believe children can latch onto and, and learn from amazingly put it through together. This fantastical world used great puppetry, great voice acting, things like that, and told a really fun story that, and then they upped it with like some zany 80s music and, and it was really kind of out of the, out of the norm. It wasn't your everyday typical kids movie. And I think that was all to its benefit. The second one kind of at least followed a similar structure without a story, but tried to put themes of emptiness and lack of, you know, creativity. This kid couldn't even wish himself out of a paper bag. But at least there was something tangible of like, oh, there is something to learn here. The third one just gave us straight garbage. It's like, how do we go from these really deep and meaningful themes and messagings and learning to oh, you've got school bullies. It's just such a downgrade to me that I couldn't rate this higher than the second one that at least tried to stay somewhat, somewhat chronologically, somewhat on the same page. Page of a book as the first one. This one just took its own way through everything else in the garbage. Literally revamped the puppets, changed their characters, erased memories of characters. It just did everything wrong. So wrong that I had to rate it lower. I gave this a 13 out of 100. Don't even bother. Don't even bother. [00:27:19] Speaker B: So my one thought on that is I don't disagree. And even as you're saying I was like, oh, maybe I did rate this poorly because you're right. As a never ending story movie, this kind of fails hard. Like it kind of gets rid of all the fantasy elements of it. But the second movie felt like it was just throwing fantasy at you for no reason. There was no reason for the fantasy. It was just incoherently, oh, we need to make this fantastical. So look, dancing colors. Yeah, this one at least tried to make a story. Whether they did it properly, whether they did whatever. It felt like there was a, [00:27:54] Speaker A: I [00:27:54] Speaker B: don't know, a through line throughout this one. I just wasn't there in the second one for me. [00:27:59] Speaker A: I agree with you too. I, and I, I noted that too when you said it. It didn't even occur to me that at least this one's story of like the Nazis and bullying in school. Like, it was like a through line. It kept to. Whereas the first one is like I'm afraid of heights, but now there's a lack of creativity in Fantasia. And then there's like this woman randomly who represents emptiness and it just went all over the place. So you're not wrong. This one had a more solid story structure. I just don't feel like it's a never ending story story structure. [00:28:33] Speaker B: And you know what? I agree with you on that point. So, like, I'm with you. There's so hard. [00:28:38] Speaker A: It's so hard to rate it because of all of these weird things that we're thinking about why this movie's making me think it all. It hurts my heart and brain. [00:28:48] Speaker B: I don't want to think as an after school special about bullies. This was bad. But mildly watchable. As a never ending story movie. This fails hard because all of the fantasy sucked and I wanted it off screen as much as humanly possible. [00:29:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:02] Speaker B: So like 100. That's an interesting way of framing it. And you, when you frame it like that, I'm like, oh, you're right. Yeah, I did score it a little high for what it was. [00:29:09] Speaker A: But I mean, it is what it is. [00:29:11] Speaker B: It is still my story. [00:29:12] Speaker A: You overall enjoyed it more, so you might as well rate it higher. Absolutely. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Enjoy is a very strong term to be used here. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:29:20] Speaker C: Hated it less, maybe. [00:29:23] Speaker B: All right. And there is the final score. It is sitting right near the bottom. It is tied with the Home Alone franchise, which is a little bit fitting that both the kids franchises are right neck and neck there. Still above Highlander. Unfortunately, I don't think anything's going to top that one anytime soon. But what do you guys think about this? Does this feel. I mean, after the last two we've seen, I have to assume you're totally fine with this writing run. [00:29:48] Speaker A: You like this. [00:29:49] Speaker C: So I think it belongs a little closer to Highlander. The. The difference here is that Highlander is four or five movies, only one of them being any good. This is one good movie and two of them being really bad. So I think if this had three or four added on to its franchise, it would definitely be at or below Highlander, but it's just a average is math. It's going to bring it where it is. I think it's worse than the Home Alone franchise myself, but not much worse. So, yeah, it's, it's. It's a. [00:30:19] Speaker B: It's a ballpark, I think, as far as The Highlander goes. The first Neverending Story. We rated significantly higher than the first Highlander movie, and that is what's carrying it so hard. And as far as Home Alone goes, there are six Home Alone movies, and two of them we give a pretty good score to. Yeah, whereas the four after that tanked very, very hard. This one only had the one good movie, so I think that's kind of how that evens out. But. [00:30:42] Speaker C: So two out of six or one out of three, it's kind of the same. [00:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. [00:30:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I think. I think it's just the numbers game. That's how it. It plays out. Highlander had more movies that were just bad, and the first movie was a good idea that was only half executed. So it sits. [00:30:59] Speaker B: And that one is getting a remake. So we'll see how that one goes. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it'll bump it above the Never Ending Story. I doubt it, though. [00:31:08] Speaker B: All right. And that's our rating of the Neverending Story franchise. But what's yours? Leave a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you where our score is. Too high, too low. Let us know. We record this live over at Twitch tv, the Mongolie show on Thursday night. 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