Apple TV’s Matchbox The Movie Is a Movie For No One, plus Slow-Burn Horror Movies | SVU

Matt Singer (0:05)

A Reunion of Childhood, Matchbox, Car-Loving Friends takes a Turn for the Implausible. Can't even say it.

Jordan Hoffman (0:12)

No, no, keep going. This is how it should be. This is how the opening should be. I demand you to keep going. Okay.

Matt Singer (0:20)

A Reunion of Childhood, Matchbox, Car-Loving Friends takes a Turn for the Implausible. When one of them turns out to be a super spy.

But their Matchbox Car-Driving skills are really put to the test when it's left up to them to save the world. It's somehow actually Matchbox The Movie. Now on Apple TV, I'm Matt Singer.

Jordan Hoffman (0:45)

And I'm Jordan Hoffman. With more movies, more series, more stuff going straight to streaming than ever before, it felt like the right time for a podcast that keeps track of it all. And that podcast is Filmspotting SVU. This week, we've got a review, God help us, of Matchbox The Movie. Plus some related streaming recommendations. Movies about childhood friends, movies about Matchboxes, movies about saving the world, movies that exist but shouldn't. We'll also tell you about this week's new VOD and streaming titles. And as always, a game.

Matt Singer (1:21)

It's all coming up vroom, vroom on Filmspotting SVU.

Welcome to Filmspotting SVU. I'm Matt Singer and we're gonna get to our Matchbox review in just a second, but we did wanna give an update because last week on the show, we reviewed a TV show. We reviewed Carrie on Prime Video. We had at that time watched three episodes each. And I would say generally we were pretty positive on the show. In the week that has passed since then, I have watched exactly zero more episodes, but Jordan, Jordan Hoffman, a completionist, a professional, maybe a little OCD where he can't let things lie unfinished, Jordan watched some more Carrie. Very briefly, what do you think? Was it worth it? Should I now go back and watch the rest?

Jordan Hoffman (2:23)

I watched the whole thing. I said, damn it, I want to see her kill her classmates at the prom. And damn it, that's what brought me here. So I continued with five more hours of Carrie, mostly actually like the kids do these days, pretty much all in one sitting. I think I did four of the five all at once.

And it goes like this.

At the end of the day, in conclusion, I am positive on the new Carrie series. Mike Flanagan's Carrie on Amazon Prime is good. However, it's not great, unfortunately. The first three episodes that we watched together, I thought were really strong. Episode four, even stronger. Episode five, crazy strong. Episode six, I'm loving it. I'm loving it. It's getting really good. Episode seven, I jotted it down. The 42-minute mark or whatever it was, dumb. It just, like Carrie has telekinesis and she's holding it all together, crashing down.

Matt Singer (3:27)

The bucket of pig's blood comes tumbling down.

Jordan Hoffman (3:30)

It got dumb.

Matt Singer (3:31)

Metaphorically speaking.

Jordan Hoffman (3:32)

And then the final episode, dumb.

And also made me a little bit annoyed retroactively. I'm like, because it doesn't really end. It's supposed to be a limited series. It's not. It's Carrie part one. It ends with like, and now the excitement begins. Like, F you, buddy. I'm here for Carrie. I wanted to kill.

Matt Singer (3:53)

We want to speak to you about the Castle Rock Initiative.

Jordan Hoffman (3:58)

Well, that is what it is. They're. They've made no. Now the secret's out. They're extending this into a Stephen King verse, which was which we kind of figured out from the first three episodes. But I will say this. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And it's mostly what we talked about last time. The lead performance is really good. The mom, she gets really deviant. There's a lot more of her at the office. She's working, if you recall, at like a Walmart type place. And there's a lot of really funny stuff that goes on there. And it's pretty great.

But then like the big ending, spoiler alert, they make it so that this wider universe, there's this like good versus evil. Maybe it's Dark Tower. I don't know.

There's this big, there's this angel and devil on Carrie's shoulder. And they make it so that the big ending, like she's, like literally the devil on her shoulder is like, let me take control. So it's like Carrie doesn't kill everybody. The evil force possesses her for a moment. And then when the evil force kind of gives her her consciousness back, Carrie's like, what have I done? It's like, come on, give me a break. And then the big reveal of like, oh, there's a Carrie King verse. It's Mike Flanagan's wife is like the big, you know, the big reveal. The woman, you only see her shot from behind an episode once. Like, who is it?