What if you could experience the onset of an alien invasion without leaving your seat? Join us on the latest Oh Brother Podcast episode as we review "A Quiet Place Day One," the thrilling prequel starring the incredible Lupita Nyong'o. Mike and I are buzzing with excitement over this new addition to the franchise, set a year before the original film. We dissect the masterful yet loud sound design and share some candid thoughts on the disruptive audience behavior we encountered. With director Michael Sarnoski at the helm, who previously wowed us with "Pig," and the return of Djimon Hounsou, this film promises to be a blockbuster. Plus, we dive into its impressive box office performance and bigger budget.
In our second chapter, we don't hold back on critiquing the film's connections to other sci-fi and horror classics. Comparing it to the likes of "Dune," "The Last of Us," "Alien," and even "The Lord of the Rings," we explore the similarities in creature design and narrative elements. We also delve into plot continuity issues, pacing, and the film's abrupt ending. Wrapping it all up, we recommend viewers might want to save their theater dollars and wait for streaming, despite Nyong'o's standout performance. Tune in to hear our latest insights on the cinematic world and what we think about upcoming titles like "Deadpool and Wolverine."
What if you could experience the onset of an alien invasion without leaving your seat? Join us on the latest Oh Brother Podcast episode as we review "A Quiet Place Day One," the thrilling prequel starring the incredible Lupita Nyong'o. Mike and I are buzzing with excitement over this new addition to the franchise, set a year before the original film. We dissect the masterful yet loud sound design and share some candid thoughts on the disruptive audience behavior we encountered. With director Michael Sarnoski at the helm, who previously wowed us with "Pig," and the return of Djimon Hounsou, this film promises to be a blockbuster. Plus, we dive into its impressive box office performance and bigger budget.
In our second chapter, we don't hold back on critiquing the film's connections to other sci-fi and horror classics. Comparing it to the likes of "Dune," "The Last of Us," "Alien," and even "The Lord of the Rings," we explore the similarities in creature design and narrative elements. We also delve into plot continuity issues, pacing, and the film's abrupt ending. Wrapping it all up, we recommend viewers might want to save their theater dollars and wait for streaming, despite Nyong'o's standout performance. Tune in to hear our latest insights on the cinematic world and what we think about upcoming titles like "Deadpool and Wolverine."
Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith, brothers from the same mother with different opinions on movies, tv, video games and more plus celebrity interviews. Get ready, get set it's time for the O'Brother Podcast.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast. I'm your host, dan Smithside me, as always, my brother from the same mother, mike Smith.
Speaker 2:
How's it going, Dan Be very quiet You're just back from the movies right, yeah, so we're going to do A Quiet Place Day 1. Now both fans of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place 2. Big fan. Big fan, I was excited for this maybe that volume is a little too high in the microphone mike. Uh, testing out some new equipment today and uh, blowing up my eardrums. Uh, you know, I've got sensitive ears, like the clackers or whatever they are, and this is the first show we've done since the okay, so for those that again are listening and not watching.
Speaker 2:
Mike is showing off his c Celtics shirt because, as of this recording, they recently became the champions of the NBA and 18th banner, and on and on. Okay, you can follow Mike on Instagram if you want some more Celtics updates. So, anyways, quiet Place day one. Now you know what was interesting. So this star is Lupita nuongo, right, and I, so the theater that I went to, first of all, the sound was unbelievable. It was like really, really loud, which and it wasn't imax, for this was no, no, in this theater, every time I go, I I'm like why do I go here? Because it's always dirty, it's never, it's so annoying. Is this the one where you eat dinner? Okay, folks, again, uh, they'll educate mike here. Mike, almost every theater now you go to, you can eat at.
Speaker 3:
Well, I know that, but but yeah there's a difference between where you can get a pizza and a theater where you're.
Speaker 2:
No, that's like that's almost every theater now you can do that, but anyways, not here, okay, so mike living, uh, somewhere in the frozen tunnel in here forever yeah so, but what was interesting is she does this little quick PSA. You know, this is a new thing with the movies. Now they've got the whole. You know, make silence your cell phones and all this stuff Right, which we appreciate Right, because it doesn't take much for us to get annoyed.
Speaker 3:
Oh no.
Speaker 2:
But she, they have her, do this little quick, psa and you know it doesn't work. It doesn't do anything. I mean if, if this would, if, if the theater was the film, the guy in the back chomping the popcorn would have been the first one to get swept up and ripped apart by one of these clackers, right, right at day one.
Speaker 3:
It's just I'm so, and the cell phones is what drives me crazy, is the light? Yeah, like a distraction. I don't want to go.
Speaker 2:
I don't, I don't want to pay too negative a picture because, all things considered, the the crowd was relatively tame and it wasn't a pack theater or anything like yeah, you went at a good time if you had gone to a later show yeah, I had a five o'clock show, so it was it was. It was a little more.
Speaker 3:
You know more cars in the parking lot than I anticipated really yeah well, it did a hundred million over the the weekend worldwide yeah, and maybe, maybe the receipts haven't caught up to what's online yet.
Speaker 2:
It's just shy of that. But okay, 100 million um a budget of like 67 million, way beyond what the original film's budget was right and it's also beat the originals in overall.
Speaker 3:
You know, first weekend opening okay, the opening weekend.
Speaker 2:
Okay, yes, because certainly not worldwide gross yet, but no, um, directed by michael sarnowski, who we talked about when we did a first look for this a while back, right, because we liked his work. Uh, his directorial debut with pig starring nicholas cage, yeah, and I don't know if you picked up on it, but alex wolf, who is in, uh, day one was in, was in pig, he was the other yeah, he was nicholas cage's co-star um joseph character was he in?
Speaker 2:
in. He was, um, uh, he was the nurse. Okay, that, uh, and, and you can set this up if you want, real briefly, but lapida nuongo, who we already mentioned. Joseph quinn plays a character named eric, who you can talk about. Alex wolf I just mentioned, and, uh, dijaman hunsu, who again we've mentioned, and that's really the only thread back to, uh, what would be the c?
Speaker 3:
part two right and you know what I? I was so curious. I went to imdb and looked him up and I looked at quiet place too, which is there, and it says under what character. A name says guy on Island.
Speaker 2:
Correct, he was on, he was an unnamed character, right it?
Speaker 3:
was a small part, and it's a. It's a relatively small part in this one too, but at least we got a name, Henry.
Speaker 2:
Right, and it's just enough to kind of, like I said, grounded in the quiet place universe, did it? You know well, I mean a familiar face to tie it back to. You know it was, it was cool to see him, but um so give us a quick synopsis, unless you want me to just read the imdb synopsis no, I'll, I'll do it.
Speaker 3:
Okay, for those who know quiet place, quiet place two yeah, you know those films. So this is a quiet place day one. This is the onset of the attack, which is not what I thought it was going to be. So, basically, that's all you need to know is this happens about a year before the events of a quiet place and it's set in new york and at the beginning a scroll comes up and says you know how many decibels, or whatever, yeah, and it's like people screaming constantly. As opposed to the first two, which were in rural areas.
Speaker 2:
Okay, wait back up a second, I don't think a year, because in the first one or in the second, in the sequel rather, the very opening is day one, right? That's really a parallel. Again, it's like the first 15 minutes maybe of the sequel, right.
Speaker 3:
I read the one year.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think it's a year Like after that and then when the first one starts, just A Quiet Place we're talking about from 2018. That is probably about a year removed from this. That would make sense.
Speaker 1:
I think, yeah, that fits.
Speaker 2:
Because, if you go back, I did a quick rewatch of both of them. Oh really yeah, and in fact I wrote it down. There was one.
Speaker 3:
Was that?
Speaker 2:
enjoyable it was. Um, was that enjoyable it was? It was a quiet place. Um. The original starts off. It says day 472 right, a quiet place. Two. After that opening sequence, which is day one, it's day 474. So that was. That picks up only a couple of days after he was killed, right? Spoiler alert if you didn't see the first. Yeah, um, so I just thought that was kind of interesting, because at first I thought, wait a minute, did they screw up the timeline? But that's the kind of stuff you have to like be on top of for continuity's sake, you know right, and that also tells you how fast these creatures rip through these towns so let's talk about the good, which was I like.
Speaker 2:
Again, I like the score. I don't think it was done by the same person, but I did. The music really adds to it. Yeah, and it kind of has to be a prominent character in the film because it's mostly silent, although we'll circle back around to the comments you made about that, which I agree with. Um and and also ilm just has outdone themselves with the portrayal of these creatures.
Speaker 3:
Whatever right, and we got wow, new creatures in this one, like this one gigantic creature. I mean, they were all basically the same size in the first two, but this one gives us a multitude of aliens right, right, right.
Speaker 2:
So the score, the, the, the creatures you know that the effects were were pretty solid and lapita nuongo, uh, I thought was really good, but that's about where it ends. For me, it and because I think for the, for the most part the pacing, you know the first two, it's like once it hits, it's non-stop. You're going, it's non-stop. I mean there are some quiet moments, but a lot of that, to be honest, was in the first two. You got what is it? Millicent simmons who plays the daughter, the abbott daughter?
Speaker 2:
she was a lot of it from her perspective, and so you, you know, but this was like the action, the action, and then all of a sudden it'd be like this romantic interlude I I didn't quite get, so it kind of it, just it was very jarring to me. Yeah, you know how it would just stop and just I don't know, this character development they were trying to do was just unnecessary and you know, we're both cat people.
Speaker 3:
But what was the purpose of the?
Speaker 2:
cat. Okay, the cat again, I the cat again. I'm glad you said it, he comes and goes. I'm glad you said it. Okay, I got two of my own, yeah, but that f***ing cat would have been dead in five minutes, like the first whimpering for kibble. And Mike, did you love the part when the cat donned the scuba suit and swam through the flooded subway? Not once.
Speaker 3:
No, but twice folks swam through the flooded subway.
Speaker 2:
Not once, no, but twice, folks, yeah the cat and also garfield movie, or what yeah, and they used like six different cats.
Speaker 3:
And if you're really a cat person and and you know, I my last cat I had for 23 years, you notice change you haven't had a relationship for that long with a woman. You're my longest relationship, but the cat would just go off and then you know, 10 minutes later she'd have it in the bag or it was just like meaningless.
Speaker 2:
Well, but it was also like a Sherpa at one point, leading the way through this.
Speaker 1:
It was just silly.
Speaker 3:
I don't. They broke a cardinal rule. I should wait for this, but I got to get it out.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 3:
The trailer has basically the final scene in it. The rule of thumb is you put something from the first five minutes in the trailer, because I was looking for this guy and there's also a poster for the movie with him holding the cat. And the cat in the poster actually has a COVID mask on, which would make sense to stop him from meowing.
Speaker 2:
Oh, a COVID mask Okay.
Speaker 3:
But that wasn't in the movie.
Speaker 2:
That's funny. I never even picked up on that, but the cat's name was Frodo, by the way. I don't know if you saw that, but now I just learned, before we got on air, that the Peter Luongo or Lupita Luongo I just said her name backwards she was had a big fear of cats before this film.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And there was some talk of maybe doing CGI and Shonosuke was like no, no, no, it's gotta be a real cat. This guy's work with pigs. You know he knows the animal world, but it was just, it was just it was a trope to the nth degree it was unnecessary. We didn't. And the cat was beautiful. Sweet love the cat. But right it was.
Speaker 2:
It was just so over the top take the cat out and it's 10 minutes shorter, literally right she's got to feed it under the waterfall, yeah and and the again, the whole theme to trope about the being quiet. There were so many noises and things going on in this one. I'm like it's like July 4th. Well, did you see the horde of people walking down like Madison Avenue?
Speaker 3:
They would have been torn up, which eventually they were. But you know right, she's going in the opposite direction. There's another ridiculous plot point, and it's not funny we both like pizza, we both love pizza. See you, I didn't even tell you and you knew what I was gonna say. She's on this mission to get a slice of pizza, so she's going in the now, granted it opens up. She's in hospice, yes, because she doesn't have long to live, so, okay, I can buy it.
Speaker 2:
She wants to have a piece of pizza from new york city before she goes well, and there's a story about her relationship with her father that they right it's high into that right. He was a piano player. They used to go get pizza together at this place, patty's or whatever it was yeah, patsy's, and I swore she was gonna start tickling the ivories yeah, and then did you see how cavalier at one point, because you know there's all this, the terror of first of all.
Speaker 2:
Why did it take everybody in the city so long to realize you gotta be quiet like there was? You know you'd be. I was 40 minutes into the film and there's a character, ah, you know, like okay, you didn't figure that out in the first 10 minutes right and henry's big scene.
Speaker 3:
My god, folks is trying to muffle this guy to the point where it was really weird, because I didn't think you could choke somebody in 0.5 seconds. But apparently you can't wait, you're talking about dijamon.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, right, well, I think he knocked him out, I think he like broke his neck by punching him or something. Oh, maybe that was it. That would make more sense, because he kind of, like you know, neck by punching him or something. Maybe that was it that would make more sense, because he kind of like, you know, yeah, he gave him a good rap, which right you know then, then, after he does it.
Speaker 2:
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, shut the f**k up right well, now we know when we see him a uh, marina guy, it should. Now it should go back and fix the imdb credit, say murderer he's a murder yeah yeah, right, so it kind of besmirched guy on island murderer, guy on island slash murderer, yeah, murderer number two. But um, it was. It was a shame, because those things do scare the shit out of me. I mean, they are seriously terrifying great creatures, creatures, it's aliens.
Speaker 3:
It is. You know what it is? It's an alien from Dune A sandworm. Yeah, when it opens up, it's a sandworm.
Speaker 2:
If it had sex with a clicker from the Last of Us. You put all of that together, of course. See, that's an interesting thing too, because it does have some very similar characteristics to the clickers in the last of us. Yeah, and I don't, and I think the last of us video game probably came before the first quiet place.
Speaker 3:
I don't know the the that's right, because it's basically the same story but it is.
Speaker 2:
It is unique enough for me, although, as you just mentioned, alien, it was starting to go a little too alien for me at one point with yeah, oh, here we go and they're, they're, uh, they're well right, the xenomorph. But it was this, um, the character, eric and the cat, he's like climbing up some scaffolding to go get her some medicine. He's on this pilgrimage with frodo again, right, him and bill baggins, for christ's sake, right, and they stumble on a, a clan of these creatures and there's like eggs, right, it looked like there was eggs. Like the guy.
Speaker 3:
I wasn't sure if they were dead aliens licking it right and then you know. But but then they rip it open together and they start eating, so I didn't know what the hell was going on. Yeah, is it an egg? Is it another alien? Do they? Are they cannibals?
Speaker 2:
here's another beef I have all right, which is I've got more brzezinski in some of the, the, the featurettes on the first two he talks about. You know how, as he was growing up, all of the sort of those types of films were always about these, these intelligent beings coming down from space to invade, which is why he kind of went in a different way. These were parasites that just evolved over time and then took over. Wait, which, in this, though, isn't it like a space attack, like what is that whole thing in the beginning?
Speaker 3:
The name of this movie should have been Quiet Place, New York, not quiet place day one, because he didn't tell us how, the where these came from. Great point, you know what are they we? I thought we were going to get the backstory of how they came to earth.
Speaker 2:
Instead, it just starts out like a quiet place, I think we're going to get another one, and if we do the only thing we we can do.
Speaker 3:
It's already listed. It's already listed Quiet Day 4.
Speaker 2:
But but is Krasinski going to direct?
Speaker 3:
No, the guy that directed this one, I didn't Sarnoski, sarnoski.
Speaker 2:
I didn't have any problem with the directing. I really didn't.
Speaker 3:
No, I didn't have any problem with you know, didn't have any problem with the directing?
Speaker 2:
I really didn't.
Speaker 3:
No, I didn't have any problem with you know, acting was fine, although it was a bit odd with this guy shows up and he gloms on to yes uh, that's luongo eric, played by joseph quinn, right, and she's trying to like get rid of him and then, you know, all of a sudden, the tide turns and this is like one day and she's, you know, all of a sudden, their best buddies. It's just, there wasn't a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
It just was the continuity, the story wasn't smooth.
Speaker 2:
Well, so far it's not. It's certainly the third of the three, Definitely. You know I'm surprised it's already hit 100 million.
Speaker 3:
to be honest with me, too, and you know what I'm. I'm really interested in next week what's word of mouth gonna do, and god knows because the only hit other than inside out two, which was pretty much a guaranteed, the only other movie that's done well, and I've seen the Kong movie, dune II, kingdom of Planet of the Apes, fall, guy, furiosa all disappointing, all flopped at the box office.
Speaker 2:
The only thing that's going to, because you got Deadpool and Wolverine as of this recording right around the corner, like a few weeks out. That's crush the box office.
Speaker 3:
I hopefully I don't see any world where that isn't gonna be the case if that doesn't turn marvel on its head, I don't they need to fold up shop and go back to making disney films.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, this just you know. What was interesting too is I. I was very surprised. We do not say this very often on the podcast, but when when it ended, I was like holy right, it was early, it was quick, but it's an hour and 40 minutes, which is short by today's standards. Right, but it's like a few minutes longer than the sequel, I think.
Speaker 3:
So it's not the shortest of the three, but it felt really quick it did, and I think that's because so many story points didn't flow right and, like you said, if it wasn't for um the main actor, henry, there's no okay, this is just an alien movie yeah, I like that comment you made about like it would have been cool if they showed us some other locations.
Speaker 2:
Right, you know parallels. I like that, because I do, you know you. You do find yourself thinking about I always go back to the baseball field in the sequel. Right, they see, you know it, you. You do find yourself thinking about I always go back to the baseball field in the sequel Right, and they see, you know it's at the very beginning. And then, when he looks up and you see the thing. So now I kind of can connect the dots there.
Speaker 3:
And this was a little odd because they're in New York and there's these bulbs. Hey, I don't know if it was a holiday season or whatever, but the first indication is, you see, like the blue angels fly overhead and you know, but nobody's. You know it's New York, it's noisy, but then all of a sudden you know they attack and it's really intense, and then they just kind of let up.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, it's devastating when they, when they do attack though, like when they come in, like when it's a whole army of them, it's super intense and that would have been different from the other one, because we really in the first one we barely saw them until the very end.
Speaker 3:
Krasinski did pull the jaws, almost right, you know, kept it out of sight, and then all of a sudden, at the end, we see him and of course he surrenders to and that didn't bother me.
Speaker 2:
I I didn't think they were overshown in this, certainly more than we've seen, right, but it was still some nice directing shots with like using like fog and smoke and stuff to suggest. You know, there's the scene we mentioned in the subway where the cat puts on a scuba suit, you know, makes it out of there alive somehow. But that whole shot of the one, the one creature like stuck on the ceiling because they can't get in the water. We know that's right. They can't survive in the water.
Speaker 3:
And the big one the way it would walk was really intense. I mean, when the creatures were on the screen. That seemed to be the most energized this movie was yeah, great design.
Speaker 2:
Ilm did a fantastic job. I I really liked the creatures, but too short uh, the. I didn't understand, like you, I didn't understand, like you said, I didn't get this whole interplay between her and this other character. Eric, it just didn't why, if it was just her and the cat, maybe I could have done with that.
Speaker 3:
And I remember, does Disney still have the animal show out at the Animal Kingdom, which, well, there's a lot of like a live action animals and it's oh yeah with the cat and I can train cats to do pretty amazing things, but this is like, uh, you know, like for a blind person that uses a dog for her. That's what the cat represents is like a comfort creature or Like an emotional support animal.
Speaker 2:
Correct yeah.
Speaker 3:
And she named it, I forget. Like when she was in the store the clerk's like, hey, no cats.
Speaker 2:
Well, she said it's a service cat. A service cat, that's the word. Yeah, which, there's, no such thing. But so, yeah, I was disappointed. I mean I'd give it like a C plus Maybe. Yeah, because you kind of like the creatures.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, there's not much dialogue. So you know the actors. That's tough on actors sometimes, so I appreciated that. Okay, like you said, the directing. I had no problem with his directing.
Speaker 1:
No.
Speaker 3:
But I had a huge problem with the story and Zero. There needs to be a day like Godzilla. There needs to be Quiet Place minus Zero.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 3:
Because we still don't know where these things came from.
Speaker 2:
I know it had that World War Z kind of vibe too going on with it. Yeah, with the crowds and yeah, yeah yeah, I'm surprised.
Speaker 3:
And the pizza thing, like you kind of yeah what?
Speaker 2:
why, again, it's just this whole, this emotional beat about her relationship with her father and I. I don't know, you know, cherishing the little things in life. Maybe was the message. I don't know.
Speaker 3:
And granted, even if I had a month to live and these creatures are all around me, I probably would have been a little more, you know, loose with my words or actions, but I just didn't feel that from the story. I thought it was a terrible story. It doesn't connect to the first two.
Speaker 2:
Like I said, quiet place, new york, yeah this is what happens when this happens in new york. I agree, there you go, you get a whole like uh, installment of different cities.
Speaker 3:
You could have a quiet place, tokyo if I place tokyo right right kong versus one of the creatures.
Speaker 2:
That'd be a good way to go. Yeah, why not in the monster verse? Yeah, yeah, well, it's disappointing. I was so, although I was skeptical, even just based on what we saw in the first look. But and, but. As soon as we're 15 minutes in, I'm like where are they going with the story? How is this going to satisfy?
Speaker 3:
And that's the big problem. That's the biggest problem is the story.
Speaker 2:
I liked. I did like the very ending beat, which is very sort of typical for how these have ended, but I did like the very last shot. I will have to say, you know, I thought that was cool, yeah. So now all I can do is anticipate the next one and hope it's better. I mean but then we run the risk of the things that we have liked about this just becoming silly Correct. I don't want to sell you the first two.
Speaker 3:
Right Because the first two, I think, were the best new horror films in a long time. They were just different.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, if the cat returns in the next one, I'm gonna have a serious problem.
Speaker 3:
well, according to the director, he's already pitching a sequel, but I don't want to see a sequel to this. And how long could it be anyway?
Speaker 2:
as disappointing as it is, I say you got a trilogy, just let it be.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I would say enough's enough, walk away at this point, which they don't often do, that with these franchises. Again, they squeeze the juice, all the juice, out of the lemon Furiosa, I mean the two movies.
Speaker 3:
So far there's three movies that I've really been excited about Ball Guy Totally disappointed.
Speaker 1:
This one.
Speaker 3:
Totally disappointed. Yeah, they screw up Deadpool. I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2:
I haven't been since I saw the Marley movie.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 3:
And that was a good one.
Speaker 2:
Prices are just and I kid you not, not, the popcorn was more than the beer.
Speaker 3:
wow and I didn't get any. I didn't. I, you know we were going back and forth, whether or not what we were like we always do, we, we debate and ultimately it was your decision and I watched it, I had seen it. Ouch, I wanted to say, dan, don't waste your money. I know 17, 17 bucks, I know for that. Yeah, and you probably got a reduced rate because it was below six, right under six it's cheaper.
Speaker 2:
Here they still have that anymore yeah yeah, well, there you go, folks, a quiet place day one. Um yeah, it just came out june 28th, so literally wait, wait till it's streaming or absolutely wait till it's stream. Do not spend your money to go see this in the theater.
Speaker 3:
You would be disappointed family of four.
Speaker 2:
Do not drop a c-note it would be a nice watch, do a do a marathon and watch them all together, or something like right. And there's the beauty you can start with this one and you can end with the sequel right, which? Is great, you know, emily blunt, come on, you got no complaints right all right, folks. That's going to do it for another episode of the oh brother podcast. Been your host, dan Smith. Alongside me is always my brother from the same mother, mike Smith, and we will see you next time.
