Reagan Movie Review. Is it A Snorefest? #ReaganMovie #DennisQuaid #moviereview #biopic #documentary

got a chance to see Reagan with Dennis Quaid and Penelope andne Miller let's talk about it right now welcome back to the channel everyone thank you so much for spending time with me as we rant about movies comic books and television shows as well as the occasional board game my name is Frank zenka I am your host I'm an award-winning screenwriter novelist and comic book writer as well as a filmmaker and getting back to work on a reality show so happy to finally getting back on Set uh but remember to give me that like give me that thumbs up if you can and uh if you like what you see here uh please consider subscribing I am trying to grow the channel out so ringing that Bell does uh does great things for me uh also uh I also am a board game designer and I hooked up with the artist that does a lot of Marvel and DC covers uh and uh his name is Mark Spears and we're doing a card game based on the classic monsters where you're playing as the monsters it's lots of fun and easy to learn and we're going to be launching that in October uh for Thanksgiving and you can check out the link in description below and that uh will take you there to Kickstarter I think we just about hit 400 people today that have signed up for a notification for when we launch in October so go ahead and join that again it's that Kickstarter link down there all right so let's jump into Reagan uh I am a child of the80s uh you know the late 70s early 80s and uh yes I did see Star Wars in the theater uh all of them actually uh so yeah I uh that is my time period I was uh I graduated high school in the 80s uh' 887 to be ex and so this was all of this time period that is in this film uh I could relate to because I was there I mean I wasn't there you know standing next to anybody that was in the movie but I was there watching the news seeing all this unfold and uh I did not know a lot of what I saw tonight uh I did not know the the background of Ray uh outside of him being an actor um so I learned quite a bit tonight and I think it it followed a book called the Crusader I think that it had to follow most of History because the family was also involved in it and I can't see them allowing any really big deviation uh I do agree that it kind of like most biopics will take a certain point in someone's life and just kind of expound on it where this was here's him as a kid here's him as you know as an actor here's him you know talking about communism here's him as the president here's him you know trying to be a president you know all that stuff you know here's him being shot uh which I do remember uh that information coming across we didn't have cell phones of course back then so we had radios uh and of course televisions and that was it so there was no social media that you can get information on uh of course nowadays you you can't trust the news anyway uh when Trump got shot the last thing we heard was that he fell so you know it's uh you know it's amazing but you know back in the day we really did trust the news outlets a lot more than we do today they were a lot less biased everything because everybody went to school for reporting and being journalists and it was uh you know a very high Acumen to be a journalist so everything for the most part was not on bias they were reporting the facts only uh which that's not the case now now we have certain Outlets that are fall on this side and we find certain Outlets that fall on the other side and you really can't trust anything that's why I watch the internet at least there are people on the internet that uh are not uh paid sponsors of one side or the other I remember all this stuff being reported uh and you know the Berlin Wall falling I live through all of that you know was there going to be a nuclear war the cold war with Russia was very intense at that time and uh I think there was even more tension than than there is now and I would see I would definitely say that there are tensions with Russia that are heating up at this point uh so it'll be interesting to see you know what happens uh you know with Russia after this but the the cast did a very good job this was directed by Shawn Macnamara he does a lot of lowbudget stuff uh he did you know the King's Daughter uh with Pierce Bren and things of that fact this was this movie only cost uh $25 million so this was not a high budget film they did a lot with a little I wouldn't say a 25 million is a little as long as somebody actually knows how to use it for those that don't like Disney could never have made this movie ever uh but yeah so this guy uh knows how to St do stuff on a budget I know that they did a lot of stuff in studio when you're when you're shooting in a stage right and you have a window that looks outside I've I've done this many times uh where you're creating an environment and then there's an exterior en environment like when I when I worked for Showtime specifically you know we had a lot of stuff that's that had balconies or porches or whatever uh you know especially on the LW where we had houses that had windows and then you have to have this matte painting or whatever else outside that makes it looks like a street or whatever else out in the distance which is normally you know out of focus but here and you're going to know what I'm seeing I'm saying once you see the film when you're uh looking in the Oval Office you're looking outside and a lot of it is blown out like they they overlit the exterior I don't know if they did that to hide things or whatever uh but you can definitely tell that they over they they blew it out for whatever reason as far as lighting was concerned it was kind a little distracting but anyway so that's the director side and then they brought in the writer from uh Space Cowboys so those are the two pieces uh that came together to make this film and because I didn't see any of the actors that were producers so they were definitely brought in after but Dennis Quaid did an amazing job uh and penelli I would even say Penelope and Miller did a better job at n as Nancy Reagan than he did as uh as Ronald Reagan and like I didn't know that he was married before I thought Nancy was his first wife so that was news to me uh but anything that happened in the 60s and be and earlier I didn't know anything about so he of course was an actor and he had a act he he always with with actresses apparently so he had an actress wife named Jame Wyman uh who he grew apart from she became more and more famous and he became less and less famous to the point where she you know just didn't want him anymore uh but at that time while they were get you know separating he met Nancy because also I didn't know this Reagan was the vice president and later the president of sag which is the Screen Actor Guild and that's where he came really in contact with Communism to the point where he made it his goal in life to destroy communism really amazing I didn't know anything about that either so you know he ended up doing a favor for for Nancy and then they ended up having a relationship that extended all the way to his death so he was with her forever and even back in the day they always had a very very tight Bond uh and this movie really develops that Bond I would say so they did a really good job with that uh so this movie does play a little bit more like a documentary than a biopic uh because again it doesn't really it's not really cinematic where they followed a piece of his life and they really delved into it it it just it was just pieces pieces Parts pieces Parts pieces parts so if that bothers you then you're not going to like the film if you prefer watching all of the elements kind of go into and progress to the point where he's president and Beyond then you will like it and and I I did I did like seeing all those pieces build up uh but again a lot of people aren't going to like it where you know basically extends from 1914 all the way into uh you know the 2000s so you know they tell like basically 80 years of story but at one time the Communists uh includ Russia was trying to push into America and they were doing this by trying to control Hollywood they were trying to get all the unions together so that they can control all the unions and if that happen then they would be able to control all the working force which very smart because of obviously they are the working class party you know so they uh that if they control A working class then the government can just swoop in and that would be the end of that so it was very interesting but anyway he ended up fighting literally physically fighting with the head of that communist uh uh Union and uh it was pretty interesting to the point where it it doesn't exist today I don't think it existed shortly thereafter but anyway so we got to see that I also did not realize that he lost his primary uh you know election so he was he he originally ran and he lost the primary and I think against Ford and then Gerald Ford ended up going on to uh to become president so then he ran again uh and he ended up winning and then we had the whole Iran Contra thing going on uh which that was a mess back in the day I remember that too where he was possibly going to get impeached he wanted to get uh the people out of our hostages out of Iran and uh he was basically willing to do anything uh to to do that but you know Congress was not with him so he had to basically backo it uh but anyway he he was one of the few presidents said hey look I screwed up you know you can blame me if you want and then it all kind of disappeared you know he basically apologized whether he was he had to know about it but I don't know if he was the one pulling all the strings he probably just said you guys go off and do it I don't want no know nothing and that was the extent of that uh also John Voit in this film was amazing and because this film is told from the point of view of the Russians and I thought that was very very interesting so we got to see the because again this is all about communism and the destruction of Communism over the two terms of of Reagan that's really the basis of the film is the Communist uh the communism destruction and instead of them coming into America he ends up fighting them on their side basically pushing them out of everything because they were taking over Cuba at the time and everything to that effect uh and even though you know Cupid R you know Missile Crisis where even Kennedy was involved in that so it was a constant progression from the 60s all the way into the cold war of the80s but uh the uh the progression of the people that were ruling because Robert Davi who is not Russian looked amazing as I forgot what character he was playing but he looked amazing uh as one of the Russian leaders and they and also the daging that they did here looked a lot better than anything they ever did in Indiana Jones for a lot less money so I don't know I think it was just some touch-ups on the faces because remember they had to be a lot younger like when Penelope Anne Miller and Dennis quaade who are probably in their 70s now uh looked how to look like they were in at least their 30s so I think they did a really good job with that uh just they just did like I said just did touch-ups instead of doing full CGI which would not have worked uh and even with John Voit where they put some kind of a beard on him and they colored it it was obvious that it was colored but at Le but I think it worked to a degree because we see him like in his 80s later on where he's kind of walking a little Hunchback and stuff like that and the basis of the the the voice over for that or the the storytelling is that after the Berlin Wall went down after G Gorbachev uh he and gorbach were at odds with one another but on the same page where they wanted to deescalate nuclear weapons that was that was their whole thing and they both agreed on that but Gorbachev for some reason was pressuring Reagan to discontinue the Star Wars program and not the Star Wars on my shirt the Star Wars program that was supposed to basically put a shield around uh the United States for missile attack and it really didn't put a a physically shield around it but if a missile was coming in it would hit a counter missile that would would destroy that in the air so there was no Fallout that was the whole basis for the Star Wars system and for some reason Gorbachev wanted that dismantled uh Reagan walked away from the table and said no and because it's very suspect that we're going to deescalate we have a defensive system and you want that dismantled that just leaves us vulnerable to you you know launching whatever you have and I I guess I guess it was because they didn't want them to have a defensive thing and them deescalate I I guess I can see gorbage stuff because I'll fire at you you destroy my missiles you fire at me I have have nothing now all your missiles are hitting me so I I guess I can kind of see it now what what he was doing uh unless he said yes I want that technology too uh and then uh we would both have the ability of destroying each other's nuclear weapons that it would be useless but he came out and basically said um you know a nuclear war nobody would win and we should fight it so I thought that was very interesting and I think that's being even quoted today but it's uh it was pretty exciting and especially when I'm seeing some of the uh I heard some of the speeches that are probably word for word for what really happened that day and they were very effective speeches that did not attack uh his opponents as far as you know in when he was running for president there was never attacks he he kept talking about you know hope and what we were going to do and you know the the the working class and all these things and I found that you know you know pretty amazing and you can see a lot of if you go see the movie you're going to see a lot of parallels to what's going on today you know the assassination attempt uh the whole thing with Russia going on there's just a a just a few things that that are you know parallel to what's happening right now and it's uh it's very very interesting uh and also there was the uh the whole uh they they had was it wasn't Vietnam was it the I forgot what they were protesting but the colleges were protesting at that time as well and during his administration so we have the whole thing with you know the Gaza thing today he called in a national C though he's like no we're not going to let the students control us we can't let them decide what uh laws they are going to follow and what they're not so I'm calling in the National Guard which was pretty interesting because one of the guys there from Berkeley uh ended up like he was like a hippie I don't know how many hippies there were in the 80s but uh he I guess I didn't I didn't grow up in California I guess they were still there in California but he was he camped out in his yard and uh years later oh that's when he was governor so when he was go that's right I forgot that he was governor so probably was like Vietnam at the time because that was like the' 70s 69 70s which is the year I was born 69 uh so that's probably what they were they were probably uh you know protesting the Vietnam War uh the guy counted out in his yard and then he years later when he was president he ended up hiring the guy as his speech writer which is very interesting too it was a lot of really good pieces I really liked here uh I didn't find it boring but some people might uh because I was very into it uh seeing all these little pieces and how this was all going to come about um and I didn't realize he had Alzheimer's either that he he died with Alzheimer's very interesting and she outlived him by 10 years pretty crazy anyway I've gone too long on this already but thank you guys so much for watching I I recommend the film if you are a fan of History uh if you're not then you might find this boring uh I like the Rotten Tomato score right now is like 27% for critics but 97% for audience score so there's a huge huge gap uh the the uh critics abs absolutely hated the film but the audience is absolutely loving it again it's probably hitting an audience that was looking for this kind of film anyway uh but I'm going to give it an eight out of 10 I liked it I thought the actors did a good job I I do realize that the story is all over the place and you may not like it for that I do realize too that people might find it boring there's a lot of things that is going to be very very subjective here um and again so it they only had 25 milon to work with it didn't look like a huge Blockbuster film it just didn't it did look like it was sparing on its on its budget for sure all right well thank you guys so much for watching I greatly appreciate it uh remember too to give me that like give me that thumbs up if you can and if you can subscribe please do ring that Bell dingding and also remember to look at the link below for the kickstarter link from myth Lords the classic monsters card game where you can play as the classic monsters it only takes about 10 minutes to learn it's not very long to learn I was teaching it continuously at one of the cons and uh yeah you're you're buying additional monsters you're putting uh weapons and vehicles on them Etc you're fighting over like the mummy's tomb and other locations it's pretty fun anyway and the artwork you're just going to love as well if you're into that kind of thing all right well anyway uh check out the link in the description below for Kickstarter and I will see you guys on the next episode check out some my other videos as well and thanks again for watching all right