March 10, 2025
'Mickey 17' Movie Review
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Hit print and repeat it's time to review Bong Joon Ho’s newest film, 'Mickey 17'!
On the menu: Robert Pattison's voices and performances, differences and similarities to Parasite, humanity’s fragility, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette’s roles as space dictators, and much more!
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(1:02) - Initial Thoughts
(9:07) - Too Much? Not Enough?
(10:37) - Performances
(18:29) - Robert Pattinson as Mickey
(21:00) - The Cloning, Would You?
(22:50) - The Creepers
(25:36) - Final Thoughts
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'Mickey 17' directed and written by Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette.
This transcript is generated automatically. Accuracy may vary.
0:00
This is the skin of an expendable Bella.
I'm Noah and that's Derek.
We got freshly printed bodies so we could talk about Mickey 17.
There really are no vampires in this, but it is Robert Pattinson.
0:18
You don't know that they could be a planet of vampires.
Spoiler Spoiler.
I'm quite excited to talk about this one.
This one was probably my most anticipated movie.
I mean it it it was a a journey to get it released when it was supposed to be released, but we're here now.
0:34
We've seen it before we get into our thoughts and review of Mickey 17, make sure you're following us.
Make sure you're subscribing.
Make sure you're leaving comments.
Make sure you're just, you know, interacting with us and doing all those fun little things.
Throw some stars our way.
We got Patreon discord down below.
Just scroll a little bit while you're still listening or watching our pretty faces.
0:52
It's all right there.
All right, yeah.
And of course, spoiler alert, alert alert.
Do you want to, do you want to print a new body to say that again?
Yeah, yeah.
I haven't done this spoiler alert in a while.
I think that's what threw me off.
Anywho.
You took it.
Let us officially take a bite of Mickey 17, written and directed by Bong Joon Ho.
1:13
To escape a debt collector, Mickey Barnes volunteers his life, his life, his life, etcetera to make the expedition to a planet called the Niflheim as an expendable.
When he's accidentally reprinted before he's actually dead, a question of morals comes into play as a megalomaniacal leader brings them closer and closer to war with the planets inhabitants.
1:35
Right?
So what did you think?
General thoughts.
OK, I think that Bong is really showing like 2 distinct sides of their directing and writing.
You have like the parasite and the memories of a murderers and all of that here.
1:55
And then you have like Mickey 17 Host.
You have these movies over here where like there's a lot of like things.
Each scene you can like really dissect and like there's meaning and everything.
And then you have Mickey 17 which is like I think more accessible to everybody.
2:11
I really enjoyed it.
I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was because I was laughing that this whole movie performance is fantastic.
I had a great time.
I think it is what you think it would be, and there's no like, questioning what the meanings are behind this movie.
I did go into it thinking that there was going to be a parasite like twist or reveal at some point and there really wasn't.
2:33
I agree that it felt more like a linear story.
It painted the picture fully.
We knew what we were thinking about the entire time and I think it left me with a lot to think about.
It is totally a commentary on what our country is currently going through and made me quite angry, yeah.
2:53
I think that's the thing there was multiple times.
So our our viewing experience was really interesting.
We we went to one of those 4 DX whatever things where the seats move.
I recommend it.
It's a fun time.
We were the only people in the theater, fine, but the synchronization between the seats and the air blowing at you and the things poking you in the back was off.
3:17
So we felt it before the action.
So we're like, OK, that person's going to get shot.
OK, there's an explosion coming.
So it was a very weird experience.
It didn't ruin it for me, it just made it more funny.
Like I think if the movie was more serious, I would have been a little more irritated.
3:35
But I was like, whatever, this is like deranged as it is, why not?
There was a third of the seats in the front row that would just start vibrating for no reason, and we were watching them just shake.
And I was worried that they might explode at some point, but luckily they didn't.
3:52
Yeah, I think our viewing experience was definitely the most interactive I've ever been to and I do think it made it more fun it it's a definitely a new way to feel the motions of the movie.
But I think that whether our our seats were shaking or not, I think I still would have enjoyed the movie.
4:12
Yeah, yeah.
So this is based off of a book from 2020 to Mickey 7, which I think it's interesting that they added 10 more Mickeys.
I'm not sure if there was just like movie reason why or whatever, but this is a very much, this is about Trump, this is about colonization, this is about immigration, this is about authoritarianism.
4:32
It's all of that and it doesn't shy away from it, and it's very forceful in it, which I've appreciated.
It's an interesting line between like, when is like satire not satire anymore?
When it's like should I be worried or laughing because this is too real?
4:48
Well, I, if you think about it, the, the Mickey 7 came out in 2022 and to me that makes it feel like it was a thought on what was not necessarily expecting that what was from 2016 to 2020 was going to happen again.
5:06
So, you know, upon, if you're reflecting on the past, it makes it feel satirical, but when you're living in it, it makes it feel real and raw.
I think that's why it affected me so much is that I feel like we're all very much in a raw state right now.
And so to see our mistakes put out on screen as we're living them, it, it makes me feel angry and ashamed and sad.
5:30
And also, you know, they, they hurt the, the animals.
Yeah, they did hurt the creatures.
Yeah.
It was an interesting way of storytelling of like, there's a lot of narration which you typically see in foreign films.
And in this one it was, I think what, midway through the film we got like the title card almost.
5:49
It was like Mickey 17, you know?
So it was a very interesting journey of this movie of going from like the introduction to like the actual movie part and then getting to the climax to Gandy.
It felt like he was telling the story.
Granted, I haven't read the book, but it felt like he was telling the story as you are a person reading the book, right?
6:09
So you start off in one period of time, then you flashback, we go through it, then we kind of learn the origin of this multiple technology and the person who created it and the person who abused it.
Then we come back into the present.
So like when you're reading a book, you often learn the history of something in the middle of the book.
6:27
And so that's what that felt like to me while watching this.
And I enjoyed that.
I think that they did a good well, he did a good job of kind of, for lack of a better term, sort of info dumping things in places that made sense, and also that we needed to help learn about the world a little.
6:46
More Do you think it was too much?
Do you think there was too many things?
Because I, I almost feel like the cloning, the whole crux of the movie is that he's getting reprinted.
He's a 3D.
It's like a 3D meat printer that prints a new Mickey every time.
Do you feel like that was lost a little bit for the benefit of all the other themes that they were doing, or did it work well?
7:10
To me it wasn't.
I didn't.
I don't want to make that sound like I was leading you.
No, no, no.
But I I don't think it was that they were too many themes.
Personally, I thought they were too many beats in the movie.
I think that it could have ended like 15 minutes earlier.
7:25
There was just like one too many hurdles for us to go through because again, we're living this experience and watching it and it it felt like almost torturous after a while of like, come on, just get there.
Get me to the place where I can get breathe a little bit again.
7:42
Not to mention of being punched in the back by my seat.
What did you think?
Yeah, I mean, I, I wanted a little more of that, like cloning, because I do think there was some really interesting conversations being presented and shown in this, especially when it became multiples, when there were 17 and 18 in the same area.
7:59
I thought that was really interesting.
And I liked liked the commentary on what they were showing on, you know, immigration slash colonization of another alien world.
So I really liked those.
I don't know, maybe I'm just bitter and like I just like hate a lot of the stuff that's happening in the news and it just makes you feel so frustrated that like I almost wish again, it's effective because it is this way.
8:22
I wish like Mark Ruffalo wasn't really just like a carbon copy of the asshole that is currently leaving the country.
So it's like, it just made it so annoying where I was like, I don't how many more of these are we going to get?
Like I see him enough.
8:39
It's effective, but that's my own bias of being like I'm I'm done.
Yeah, and just for my own personal feelings, like, as you know, I've stepped away really from checking the news a lot and get I get very frustrated and very upset by watching the news.
And so this was like sitting through two hours and 15 minutes of the person I've been trying to avoid for the last couple of months.
9:00
So I, I, I understand how you're feeling there.
I also think, and I think that they needed to go in either direction.
The Teemo, Steven Yoon's character maybe in the book played a bigger part, but like, to me that felt like it either needed more of him or he didn't need to be there at all.
9:18
I'm very curious.
I want to read the book.
I don't know how close this follows the book at all.
I don't even know if some of these characters are in there.
But it did seem like Stephen Young's character was from the book, and they had him in there to make sure the character was from the book.
And it was kind of interesting, but I was like, I forgot about you like almost midway through.
9:39
And then he came back and I was like, wait, what?
It was his character was interesting.
It was almost there just to be there.
And I was like, I wanted more, but I could do without it.
I just wish a little bit more finesse with some of it, with some of the themes and the stuff it was tackling because it was a little jarring.
9:57
And like, you know, we have Robert Paddington being completely like deranged in this movie and goofy and like doing all these ups and downs and performances.
And then you have like these heavy subjects that are happening.
So it's almost like, OK, there's a lot like happening here.
10:13
I liked it, but it was almost too much.
But I wonder, though, if Robert Pattinson didn't bring those moments of levity as the Mickey's, if it would have been far too heavy overall.
You know, if it's feeling heavy to you now, if he wasn't giving us that, then damn, it would have been a total like, you know, message being beat over your head.
10:37
Right.
I mean, and again, I think that's like, I guess echoing the point that I was trying to make of like there's two distinct like bongs that are happening here where it's like now we have the Mickey 17 and the Parasite.
And I don't want people like that are fans of Parasite to be disappointed in this movie because I think director should be able to do different genres and experiment a little.
10:58
I personally like Parasite a little more, but I think this was a fun time.
I would watch this one again over Parasite.
I think with with Bong Joon Ho's work, granted I've only seen three of his films, right?
So I've seen Parasite, I've seen what's the one where the alien comes in post post and I now I've seen Mickey 17 and I think the through line.
11:19
Have you seen Snowpiercer?
Oh yeah, we watch Snowpiercer, Yes, And this fits into my point perfectly.
All four of these films, at the base of it, is about they're about the fragility of humanity.
Classism and all that.
Right.
And so it's showing how kind of just messed up for just humans are messed up, right?
11:40
And a lot of them are really shitty and will take advantage of those who they deem as less than them, right.
And so at the base of Mickey 17, he is truly, and if you think about the definition, expendable, right?
He But even if he couldn't be reprinted, it would still be these two maniacs taking advantage of all of these people on the ship.
12:04
Speaking of the two maniacs, Tonicola and Mark Ruffalo, one I I loved.
I need to fight figure out who did this at design and production and everything because I loved everything about it.
I felt like the ship was lived in.
It felt alive and everything.
But I particularly loved what they did with those two because any color you see in this movie is them.
12:26
But their performances and their characterizations of these amplified and huge in your face and forceful.
Did you like their performances?
Absolutely.
I think that.
So there's something that that just sticks out with me with Tony Colette, who is just phenomenal and anything that she's in.
12:46
Still snubbed for hereditary but it's fine but.
But this woman, one of the things I think about most is when in her performance in The Sixth Sense, which was phenomenal, nominated for an Academy Award for it.
Should have won again.
Should have won.
Again, even in this film, she has what I'm calling nail acting because, and I mean her nails were longer in this one than in The Sixth Sense, but like her fingers, they just have these talons on them the entire time.
13:12
And her portrayal of this person who is obviously representing the upper crust white supremacy of our nation, who is living in a place where people are literally being put in cages and all she can think about are fancy sauces for food, right?
13:30
And she's willing to kill anything for sauces.
And so it's literally just white supremacy, right?
And so her portrayal of that and having to root that down into someone who truly believes that, I mean, Toni Collette, I think, nailed it.
13:46
Yeah I love I agree 100% I think her nails were amazing, I think her characterizations, everything.
My favorite moment of hers is with a rug where she where Mickey is like dying from testing this like meatless grown in a lab meet.
14:05
She's like, what are you doing?
She pulls the rug and she's like, this is a Turkish rug.
I'm like, this is her range.
She's so funny.
She can hit serious scenes so well.
Fantastic.
She just she.
Fully 100% commits to any role she's a given.
14:20
I think that's what really sold this movie to is that you had these actors that you've seen in very serious things or like in different genres and stuff and putting them all together.
These types of characters, specifically Mark Ruffalo and Tony Collette's characters, they could either seem corny or won't work if they don't fully commit and I have to give in to them.
14:42
They both really went all in on these characters.
Absolutely.
And I mean, if we think about Mark Ruffalo's character, he's the way he spoke was mimicking the asshole, right?
The way he clipped his words, the cadence that he spoke, the way the teeth, the way that this sort of rain is attached to the church and.
15:05
Corporate.
It's a company, right?
So, but those things were interchangeable, right?
And so it just, it was madding to watch, but I think a feat to perform.
And I think it's interesting.
Everybody had like, red hats or red shirts.
Come on.
It's an interesting thing to watch of like, this absurdity.
15:22
And it's like, are people going to get this if you don't get this?
Holy shit, come on.
But can we also like just be worried about space?
Let's be worried about space.
Because I, I almost like, you know, this stuff is happening here and everything like that.
And it's like, Oh my God, can we not do this out outside of our planet?
15:39
Like, yes, we're going to, we're destroying this planet in this movie.
The planets clearly destroy.
People want to leave.
We please, we need to stop this.
You know, where Noah and I live in New York, a state of emergency was declared by the governor because we had some fires that were out of control.
15:57
Here.
They're trying to figure out what started it, but it's like the country is literally burning.
Things are not OK.
And people just want to leave to go do it somewhere else.
Absolutely.
Well, if we can't do it here anymore, we'll just do it in space, right.
And you know, if let's take it down a notch with this movie, right?
16:13
They're going to this new planet and they're calling the inhabitants of this planet aliens.
But then who is it?
Nisha Nasha?
She says, no, we're the aliens, you fucking idiots.
And you know, it's, again, it's just repeating the history of America, right?
16:30
Coming to a country, massacring its inhabitants and then being like we did it.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of language that was obviously very purposely said there was.
I can't remember exactly what Mark Ruffalo says, but he says something of like the pure white planet of this.
16:46
And it's like the way that sentence was structured.
And it's like, you only want the pure race on this white planet.
It's like, yeah, we got it.
Yeah, we got it.
We, we even have a moment.
There's a character in here named Kai.
And so Kai is also invited to this dinner where Mickey is dying from this growth hormone that's put in this lab made meat.
17:07
And basically she's invited there because Mark Ruffalo is being like, hey, look, I'm going to have sex with you so we can make a baby because I think that you're perfection.
And she's like, like, wait, what is happening?
You only see me as a womb.
You see me as a uterus.
What did you think of the character of Kai?
17:25
Interesting I I think, you know, not much there.
The character played a purpose mostly for that particular dinner of them being like you guys were great friends.
Cool, just completely erasing like they know that they were more than friends, you know, Jennifer and Kai.
17:43
So I think they played the part well.
But what's interesting about this movie is almost everybody, even the the good guys will do things to benefit themselves when it when it comes down to it, they will do what they need to do, which I always appreciate about these types of movies this.
17:58
This sort of felt like a Steven Yoon character to me, where I wonder if in the source material there was more there because I had trouble and and you know, your point that you just made maybe kind of uncovered it for me.
But I was trying to figure out what her trajectory was here and is she helping Mickey?
18:16
Is she hindering Mickey?
At the end?
We see that she has kind of not a great relationship with Nasha, who's sort of risen in the ranks and almost has become a leader.
So I'm trying to figure that out still.
Like, I love hate maybe.
Yeah, she has a new girlfriend.
So.
18:32
Well, that's.
Good, and she still has her beautiful teas.
Which?
Is those are lovely.
What did you think about Robert Pattinson's performance So.
I I was really trying to think and I I believe.
Pattinson.
Other than the boy and the Heron, this is the only other thing I've seen him in from Harry Potter and Twilight.
18:52
The Batman.
Oh yeah, the Batman he plays.
Batman.
Got me.
Part 2 is coming out soon well.
There you go.
Well, that's good.
He really brought an interesting fragility to this character and he he was a pushover in a sense, You know, he was willing to be an expendable to escape, escape the mistakes of his past.
19:12
But.
He didn't read everything, but yeah.
Of course.
And he kind of just put up with it.
You know, we're watching him on the outside be put out to pasture and he doesn't even know he's being put out to pasture.
You know, he's being, he's a lab rat.
And yet he's just going through it knowing because, OK, I'm just going to come back.
19:29
But there's an absurdity to that.
But also, it makes you think, where is this person in their life that they're willing to do this?
And I thought that Robert Pattinson found an interesting balance, especially between Mickey 17 and Mickey 18.
Yeah, I I liked that 17 was the person you could really root for in this movie, especially when it came to the creepers.
19:52
You needed that connection between somebody being able to, I don't know, link the good side of humanity with these creatures that are the habitants of this planet.
The accent grew on me.
It's like, OK, another Robert Pattinson accent that we can put in the the repertoire that he has. 18 was really annoying to me, but I think they were meant to be like something just wasn't right with that one.
20:15
And I I'm pretty sure.
Was that when the guy tripped and unplugged a little bit of it or was that prior?
That was prior OK.
Interesting.
I'm curious of why.
Well I guess he 17's voice over was talking about how some of the what's it called Nash's relationships with some of the Mickey's were different.
20:37
Like one was too clingy, 1 was XY and Z and stuff like that.
So I guess this one just went a little too extreme.
I get what happens when you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.
This is the ship of Theseus again, and I don't.
Know I'm.
Absolutely sick and tired of having, Oh yeah, this conversation.
20:53
Having one division flashback.
Well, so I guess the for me, the most interesting part of this movie, OK, we got the the typical, the things that we know we're going to get from this type of movie, specifically from this director.
I was really, I was leaning in with this cloning conversation and then the multiples and stuff like that.
21:14
I don't think we can handle something like that.
I don't, I think it would be obviously exploitative like this was given the opportunity.
Would you do this?
I think I'm too afraid of dying to die multiple times because.
21:30
Isn't that crazy?
Like you, you know, you get the memories of your other selves, right?
That's so.
It's so.
But if you think about it, they never right?
They never have the memory of dying the last time because it's always uploaded.
21:48
Their memories are uploaded before they die, so it's like they can still fear it even though they know it's coming.
And so everybody kept asking him, what does it feel like to die?
Is that an answer?
He doesn't really.
He doesn't have an answer because he almost doesn't know because he's always brought back right before.
22:05
So would you?
Maybe we all don't want to die, you know, we all don't want to end.
We want to make sure we do everything and that we possibly can.
So I think the, of course human side of me is like, if it was right and it wasn't hurting anybody and like I wasn't being like used in that way, probably, yeah.
22:25
But it's not going to work that way.
Like it would 100% be commercialized or the church would run it or something like that.
So it's like.
Or it'd only be for the billionaires, Right.
Right.
I did love the the running bit of every time he's being printed.
22:42
It was like an inkjet printer.
Oh yeah.
He would be like kind of like shot out in little spurts and brought back a little bit and like that was really.
Funny you go out back in a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, I loved it.
That was great.
So the creepers thoughts on these like oh water Buffalo wait or is it pill bug?
23:01
What are they called?
Like at the microscopic?
Oh yes.
Is that are they water?
Water cows.
They never.
Oh, they have a name that starts with AT anyway.
Cool, I was off.
But no, they're colloquially named something like a cow.
23:16
Or.
Whatever, I thought that it showed prejudice.
We land, we see a thing that's unlike us, something that we deem is disgusting and ugly and automatically think.
Kill it, right?
23:32
Meanwhile, there meaning no harm to humanity, there was something that I have a question about which maybe I missed if I didn't, or maybe because I believe there's a follow up to Mickey 7.
There's a second book.
Cool, Mickey 17 asks.
23:48
Why didn't you kill me and the like?
Mother of the Creeper says secret.
Right.
We never learned why, though.
Because it's a secret.
Which is like interesting.
Yeah, we never, we didn't figure that out.
24:04
I think they're very interesting.
And again from the outside when you do see them, you think that they're a lower level of intelligence, They don't really have sentience and stuff like that.
But as you get to see them a little more and them saving Mickey and stuff like that, you start to be like, oh, I'm getting over my prejudice a little bit.
24:23
And that's by the movie's design.
And when he ends up being able to communicate with them, it's not like one word sentences of like a primitive race, you know, it's like, oh, it's a secret, you know, I, I know what those words mean.
So I, I really appreciated these creatures of being cute and creepy at the same time.
24:41
Yeah.
I was getting nervous about what was going to happen to them.
Obviously, OK, this is a Segway, but it's to illustrate my point.
We watched the Oscar winning animated film Flow, which was so beautiful and so emotionally taxing because you're just watching this group of animals try and survive this dystopian world.
25:04
And so here I am watching this group of beings that in my mind kind of look like animals and I'm freaking out the entire time.
Is Ruffalo going to win?
Luckily, he didn't.
Right.
I did see some people that went to like special screenings or like have like a little higher press access.
25:22
They got like a little crate and it was like a stuffed creeper.
And I was like you, Warner Brothers.
How dare you forget my mailbox?
Yeah, and where is my creeper popcorn bucket, dude?
Something like that.
Give it to me, man.
All right.
So, final thoughts, right?
25:39
Yeah, final thoughts.
I enjoyed it.
I thought it was great.
I, you know, could do with a little more finesse on some of the like cloning stuff because that was like, I want him a little more of that.
But if if this movie isn't a contender in some of the award categories, I'd be very surprised.
26:00
Even if it's just set design, cinematography, Robert Pattinson, honestly, I think he did a fantastic job.
Yeah, I agree.
I give this four out of five Mickeys.
Personally, I just think because I was so stressed out the entire time, I can't give it 4 1/2 or five.
26:18
But I think it really touches on a lot of what we're going through.
It just made me feel that damn, we're doomed.
Yeah, it's like if you mix the Challengers and Snowpiercer and like Oak Chaw together, we get those.
26:38
That's exactly what I was thinking.
He was giving me ocha feeling.
But he that's also a that's his movie.
Add it to the repertoire.
See.
And like, I would put that movie in the Mickey 17 category, you know, So it's like, again.
And that Tilda Swinton character did give me Toni Collette feelings in this.
26:57
He knows what he's doing and you know what you can expect from his movies.
I just think it's like the way it's conveyed is always what's going to be the fun part to it.
And I, I don't think this movie is inferior compared to Parasite.
I think the stories are just different levels.
27:14
So yeah, just go in with an open mind.
If you're a fan of Parasite, don't hate on it because it's not Parasite.
It ain't what we're going to get.
I was a fan of Parasite, but yeah, and I, and I totally like this one too.
They feel very different and I think it's great for creators to flex their creativity and still be able to tell a story with a message, but just in a different way.
27:33
Would you if a if a Noah two printed, could you handle two of us?
I don't mean sexually.
That's not this kind of podcast, but like next week.
27:49
On a bite of no, I'm just kidding.
You don't have to answer that I'm joking.
I love you, but I don't think you would be able to handle 2 derricks.
No, I mean, I go, I would, I could.
28:05
I'd get used to it.
The question is, does the new Derek have my back problems or will they fix that?
No, I think it well because remember she popped a pimple and she's like that would get printed every time if you didn't pop it.
So I can't help you with the yard work.
28:21
Both Derek one and Derek 2 couldn't help you with the yard.
Work great.
Well, until next time, bye.
