Guest host Andy Peth fills in for John Rush and is joined by Luke Cashman and Ashley Carter for a candid, emotionally charged hour that tackles grief, leadership, politics, and persuasion in the age of social media. The conversation begins with a thoughtful discussion surrounding Erica Kirk and the intense public scrutiny she has faced following the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. Is there a “right” way to grieve when the entire world is watching? And how much grace should the public extend to someone thrust into leadership during unimaginable loss? The hour
SPEAKER 05 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 05 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 16 :
Get a job done. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 10 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 14 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 07 :
Actually, it’s Andy Pate. Party of choice. And I’m Andy Pate filling in for John Rush. Once again, here we are, hour number two. I am joined by Ashley Card. Her. Yes, and Luke Cashman. And Luke. And Luke. Buddy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’m kind of out of it. It’s not a Friday.
SPEAKER 07 :
I need you to wake up here. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you ready?
SPEAKER 07 :
Are you waking up? Let’s see. Because I need you alert.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it sounds like you’ve got a question for me. I do. It’s personal. Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Are you ready for a movie? Yes, I am ready for a movie!
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes! Yes!
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. Yes. Ashley, I hope you’re taking notes. This is how it’s supposed to be done.
SPEAKER 13 :
I have written it down, yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. You wrote it down. Oh, she recorded it. Very good. Oh, she’s just going to play Luke’s answer one more time. I got it. That’s okay. Don’t feel bad. Okay, folks. That rectangular sponge is back for more hijinks in the Spongebob movie, Search for Squarepants.
SPEAKER 06 :
This Christmas… is coming to theaters.
SPEAKER 16 :
I’m ready! Let’s go!
SPEAKER 06 :
And they’re about to go… Ouch! Watch where you’re going! Sorry. Wait, no! Where they’ve never… Arrgh! Ahoy! Gone before. The underworld! It’s not for the faint of heart!
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
My lucky brick.
SPEAKER 04 :
Detrin’s taken SpongeBob to the deepest, most dangerous part of the sea.
SPEAKER 06 :
The Underworld.
SPEAKER 04 :
Under where?
SPEAKER 06 :
Under where? The SpongeBob Movie Search for SquarePants.
SPEAKER 16 :
Destiny is squeezing my buns. Do you feel it?
SPEAKER 06 :
Nothing.
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But don’t let me slow you down. All right, Luke. This is everything you have ever wanted. Now, Luke, I want to ask you something. When you go to your art houses and see your art flicks and wear your… Right, right. What do you wear, the little beanie, or what do you wear?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I wear, like, the little French hat, the turtleneck sweater with the padded elbows. A beret, yes, thank you.
SPEAKER 07 :
A beret, a beret. And do you smoke one of those really long cigarettes?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, tobacco cigarette. I hand roll it.
SPEAKER 1 :
You hand roll it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Brew my own beer as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re sure that’s tobacco, right? You’re sure that’s tobacco.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure. A little funny smelling for tobacco.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, gotcha. Okay. Well, when you go to those art houses, do you see a lot of SpongeBob stuff? I mean, do they do SpongeBob Day?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’ll tell you this. I’ll tell you this once. Square Pants, that’s pretty avant-garde, if you ask me. It is. It’s a little out there.
SPEAKER 07 :
Pretty arty. I think he’s very forward-thinking. A star as a character? We’re getting a little edgy. I think he’s setting a lot of fashion trends. That’s what I think. Okay, let’s jump in here. SpongeBob, played by Tom Kenny, by the way, just hit a milestone. This is very important. I want you guys to catch up. He’s finally 30 clams tall. He has been waiting. Come on. You’ve seen kids. They put the notches next to the door and they measure themselves. Well, he’s finally 30 clams tall. You know what this means? Now he’s a big guy. And so he can go around being a big guy. And that’s his friends calling him. Hey, you look different, man. Wow. Just saw him yesterday.
SPEAKER 1 :
You’re a big guy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. And his whole life is going to change. It’s fun in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. And that’s what they call his city where he lives. That’s a good name for a town, Bikini Bottom. What do you think?
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, it’s from Bikini Atoll where they dropped the nuclear bombs. That’s where that comes from, which is why all the fish people can talk is because they’re irradiated with nuclear waste.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think it’s really cool. And by the way, I don’t like it when guys wear those things.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, not very fashionable.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it doesn’t work for me. Okay, well, this means, and here’s the big news, SpongeBob can go on the roller coaster that’s only for taller people. Oh, boy! yes yes okay well so spongebob and his buddy patrick they go to a theme park where they have the scary roller coaster in front of them but a spongebob watches it he gets less and less and less excited as he’s watching uh the experiences people are having on this roller coaster and this starts to change his mind guess what spongebob is a coward who knew oh Oh, my goodness. Well, now SpongeBob must prove his bravery to Mr. Krabs, who is voiced by Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown does a lot of cartoon voicing, and he is just wonderful. Lex Luthor.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah, I know. I know who Clancy Brown is. I also know who Tom Kenny is, just not for SpongeBob.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, well, there you go. Okay, and the only way is to track down the Flying Dutchman and become a swashbuckling pirate. You know, that’s the ghost ship. You’ve got to get him on the ghost ship.
SPEAKER 13 :
I want to point it out. Andy is explaining everything to me because I admitted to never have seen SpongeBob before. So Andy is literally explaining everything to me personally.
SPEAKER 07 :
Luke is over here perspiring with excitement, just nodding his head. I am.
SPEAKER 13 :
I’m all up to date on the SpongeBob lore.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’ve seen every movie. Okay, here we go. Mark Hamill, he plays the famous ghost pirate, and he takes SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward, that’s one of their friends, on his ghostly crew. With a little luck and a lot of fear, they can become pirates, matey. But the Flying Dutchman, well, I got bad news. He has secret evil plans for SpongeBob. So can SpongeBob survive? Will SpongeBob ever be able to get on the roller coaster? Will SpongeBob grow to 31 clams tall? What do you think, Ashley?
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, first of all, I’m pretty sure SpongeBob is canonically like 42 years old, so I don’t think he should be growing. He’s been around for a while. That’s a little insane. But, I mean, it sounds like an interesting movie. I’ll give it that.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, here we go. Here we go. Folks, look, it’s kooky, kooky, kooky, crazy, crazy, crazy on purpose, okay? That is the genre. And some kids love it, some don’t. Here we go. What works in SpongeBob Search for SquarePants? Okay. First of all, you’ve got simplistic cartoonistry. Now, this makes it easier to follow for kids. Kids have a hard time following some of these crazy cartoonistry, overly CGI’d movies. And this is a problem I have with a lot of the Disney reenactments. I mean, it’s hard for kids.
SPEAKER 13 :
They’re severely overstimulating.
SPEAKER 07 :
They really are. Okay, it’s just like the show. So what they do is, this is dumbed down cartoonistry-wise like the TV show. And kids can follow it next. The scene showing the dangers of the roller coaster is genuinely funny. I had a lot of fun watching that, and I would watch it again. Next, there are numerous sight gags, like a brick falling down behind SpongeBob when he’s scared. Okay. Yes, we all get it. Kids don’t, but they still think it’s funny. Patrick and Squidward, they’re funny characters, too. They do a good job. Next, Mark Hamill. What can I say?
SPEAKER 03 :
I can’t believe they got Mark Hamill for a SpongeBob movie. That’s kind of crazy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Mark Hamill just does whatever he wants at this point.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s true. He kind of isn’t everything.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m just going to say it. Mark Hamill is, in my opinion, the best cartoon villain voice ever.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah, the Joker is iconic.
SPEAKER 07 :
He did the Joker from the cartoons. It’s so funny, you know, until the Dark Knight with, what’s his name? Heath Ledger. Yeah, Heath Ledger. May he rest in peace. Until the Dark Knight, I’d never seen the Joker done as well as Mark Hamill does it in the cartoon. He’s incredible. Well, he’s also excellent in this role, too. He plays a great villain in this movie, folks. He does a great job. Perfect voice for the part. Okay, what doesn’t work? In Spongebob’s search for Squarepants. Well, guys, I got bad news here. Far too few gags. They weren’t hitting. Okay. When you’re going to do a movie like this, which is just simple, stupid, simple, stupid, simple, stupid, simple, stupid. That’s fine if the gags hit. And they got to hit a lot. They don’t. They rarely hit. And when they do, they’re too checked out to care. You’re too checked out to care. Okay, it’s just kind of like, and I know maybe for kids, but you know what? Some of the humor is too adult for the kids. And so I’m kind of wondering, where’s the sweet spot here? Some of the humor is too adult for kids. And a lot of the humor that might be more for kids, adults are going to be checked out. And frankly, there’s nowhere in the middle.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, unfortunately, SpongeBob has been trying to find this middle ground of adult nostalgia for the people who grew up watching it and the new kids coming in, and they have not seemed to hit it.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, not really, and they didn’t hit it here. And by the way, it’s just not funny enough. Now, it does have a number of funny moments, and I did enjoy it, and I like the characters, but it needed to be funnier. Next, this looks and feels like an elongated TV episode. Now, that’s by design, since they don’t want to go beyond the purity of the characters and the plot. But it all feels too small for the big screen. The 3D effects, weak. Really awful. Just weak. Why even make the thing 3D, folks? If you’re not going to go for it, don’t make the thing 3D. It’s just not worth it. Next, honestly, unless you’re really into Spongebob, This is a boring movie. Flat out boring. There’s some funny, silly hijinks, but not enough. Too much just plain dumb and not enough hilarious. Okay? I mean, the movie, the original movie, Dumb and Dumber, was just plain dumb, but it was funny, guys. Okay? And they kept the laughs coming. Here, they just take too long to come next. Obviously, some references are too adult for kids. Just want to warn you, in case you’re thinking of bringing kids, because guess what? Christmas is a-comin’. Right. That’s why we’re doing a couple of movies today. And there are going to be kids who are going to want to go to this. I understand. There you go. They’re going to insist anyway. So go and have fun. It’s up to you if you care about the adult references. But for me, they just didn’t seem to fit. But that’s OK, because I guess they do fit in the SpongeBob world because SpongeBob has become that. It’s become adult references. you know potty humor if we want to call it that forced into a kid movie craziness does that make sense yeah i mean that’s the impression i get from my husband whenever he talks about spongebob yeah you know and enough luke offers counseling just so you know i do you know his rates are outrageous i know from 1500 an hour yeah it’s really ridiculous okay luke are you 30 clams high
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, maybe. I can ride all the roller coasters.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, well, there you go. Okay, well, Rotten Tomatoes gave the SpongeBob movie Search for SquarePants 84%. They loved it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. Big SpongeBob fans over there, Rotten Tomatoes.
SPEAKER 07 :
I guess so. Folks, I can’t do it. I’m sorry. Here’s the thing. I’m going to give a split review on this. For SpongeBob fans, I’m going to give it three and a half stars out of five. Which is pretty good. That’s a good rating. Yeah, that’s pretty good. It’s a good, strong rating. For the rest of us bipeds, I’m going to give it one and a half stars. This is a hard watch. Luke, I’m sorry, but you would have a few fun moments and then be yawning a lot.
SPEAKER 03 :
As a diehard SpongeBob fan… You’d be rolling stuff to smoke. This depresses me greatly.
SPEAKER 13 :
You would be 30 clams high by the end of the movie.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, political three doesn’t say a thing. That’s good news, right? More religious, I’m going to give it a two just because, you know, a little too much adult stuff. And with the… Was I offended by it? No, I wasn’t. I didn’t care, okay? I just know that some people will, and I want to warn you about that. SpongeBob movie, search for SquarePants. Do I recommend going to this movie? Do you have a choice? I mean, if you know somebody who wants to go to it, Ashley, I think you’re going to be, you know, you’re going to be taken there in chains.
SPEAKER 13 :
I will be moving to the next theater over to watch Avatar.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, Avatar. Good luck. We’re going to be talking about that later in this hour, which I already reviewed it on Friday. Okay, let’s take a break, folks. And when we come back, I’ve got another movie, and this one’s for you, Ashley. Up next is Paul Leuenberger. Paul, he represents nine great insurance companies, so he can match your insurance needs with the best coverage. Call Paul at 303-662-0789.
SPEAKER 01 :
Even in the age of AI, looking for the right insurance can be a huge hassle. Paul Leuenberger has you covered without the hassle. He works with the best in the business. Hartford, Travelers, Safeco, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Allstate, AIG, Chubb, Pure, Berkeley, Grundy, Hagerty, and more. He’s local, independent, and licensed in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. and he’s expanding into more states soon. Paul’s mission is simple, to find the right coverage at the best value and to treat every client like family. So whether you’re shopping for home, auto, or something more unique, don’t shop online. Call Paul at 303-662-0789 today. That’s 303-662-0789. Paul Leuenberger, insurance made easy.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver’s Afternoon Rush. KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash. Man. And Ashley Cart. Her. And Ashley. Yes. You know, you haven’t been around that long. This is kind of personal for you, isn’t it? Do you like, you know, giving of yourself on air like this?
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, it’s kind of fun.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
Are you ready for a movie? I bought the ticket. I sat in the seat. I am ready for a movie. Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Ashley, Angel Studios. I like Angel Studios. They do some really good stuff. They tackle a classic biblical character in David.
SPEAKER 16 :
There’s a light in the distance. And if you listen, you’ll hear it calling your name. David! Come on! Let’s go! I’m just a shepherd. But deep down, I know I can take on the world! Ah!
SPEAKER 06 :
is a darkness over the land.
SPEAKER 04 :
Our enemies will strike once more. Imagine the biggest warrior you have ever seen. Okay.
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Now imagine somebody ate him.
SPEAKER 11 :
Remember when I told you God had big plans for you?
SPEAKER 06 :
You will serve us.
SPEAKER 13 :
They may have been bigger than even I thought.
SPEAKER 16 :
David, you saved us! No, it’s not about me.
SPEAKER 06 :
Who better to lead us into battle than David?
SPEAKER 12 :
I never asked for this.
SPEAKER 04 :
Do you really think one stone is enough to defeat my entire army? We have to get our family to safety.
SPEAKER 10 :
This is all my fault.
SPEAKER 16 :
The people are divided, David.
SPEAKER 01 :
I am trying to reunite us.
SPEAKER 10 :
David.
SPEAKER 16 :
David. David will rescue us. David. I can’t do this alone.
SPEAKER 10 :
I trust my shepherd to look after me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Where are you going? To bring our people home.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, Ashley, what do you think? Sound fun?
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, it sounds like a really good movie.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, here we go. Well, we begin with young David doing his favorite thing, caring for his sheep. But it’s more than leading them. He protects them, even against a dangerous beast. So you got action right from the start. I like that. But back home, a great prophet named Samuel has come to the home of David’s family and is looking for the one God has chosen as Israel’s new king. The current king, Saul, was also chosen by Samuel, but he has fallen out of favor with God. Now Samuel seeks a man after God’s own heart. Guess who that is?
SPEAKER 13 :
Gee, it couldn’t possibly be David, could it?
SPEAKER 07 :
It might be David, exactly. But that’s going to have to wait. He’s just a kid. Even though David has been anointed, he’s only like, I don’t know, 10, 11, whatever. So David returns to his sheep, but soon he is sent to sing for Saul because Saul is going mad. True story, by the way, he was going mad. And can anyone soothe the king? Can David? Well, now David is part of Saul’s court, but has a great threat coming up, and that is the Philistines. In a cunning move, the Philistine king gets Saul to agree to avoid a war and solve their differences with a one-on-one battle between their two greatest warriors, okay? We’re just going to put out our… Why get everybody else killed? Put out our two greatest warriors, whoever wins… The other, you know, their side basically has the other side be your slaves.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I mean, solid conflict resolution.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think so. I think so. Okay, but word to the wise folks, when somebody makes that offer, they probably got somebody really huge on their team. Just saying. Okay, well, Saul hasn’t seen Goliath yet, so he agrees. When he does see Goliath, no way. Goliath is huge, huge, really huge. And by the way, biblically, he was huge. Who will fight the great giant? Well, only one agrees to, and that’s David, a scrawny boy. Okay. Well, we all know the story, but the sight is great to behold. With no sword or armor, David slings his rock and the rest is history. Now David is a hero and Saul keeps elevating him. David grows into a young man, leading in Saul’s court and on the battlefield. But Saul still doesn’t know David is the one Samuel anointed to replace him. Well, he finds out. And we know this. Of course, we know the story. When Saul learns, then David is on the run for his life. See, greatness in his life, it becomes hopelessness all of a sudden. He’s near death. And all who knew David, be it his friends, his family, they’re all at risk with him. Because Saul is obviously looking for any connection to find. A little bit of a detective kind of going on here, right? Yeah, a little bit. Any way I can find him, I’m going to find him. Well, they’re all at risk. But David trusts God, who is bigger than our fears. Can he become Israel’s shepherd? We find out in David. What do you think?
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, it definitely goes farther than I thought it did. From the trailers, I thought it probably just ended at Goliath, so it’s kind of cool that it goes a little bit farther than that.
SPEAKER 07 :
It goes a lot further. Okay, well, what works in David? First of all, incredible cartoonistry with beautiful scenes and detailed expressions for characters. I really was impressed by the look of this movie, especially there are several scenes, folks, where, I mean, it’s Pixar level. It’s really impressive stuff. uh here’s something that surprised me surprisingly good music with great voices and plenty of percussion so it moves along it’s fun it’s yeah you can you can dance to it and it let me let me just say this uh wicked 2 which i’m going to talk about later on in this hour didn’t have very good music at all and well it didn’t the first one had some great songs wicked 2 was pretty weak
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah. I mean, the second act of Wicked is historically the weakest one.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Well, it’s by design. I understand. But I’m just saying the music wasn’t that good. Did you ever see The Greatest Showman, either of you?
SPEAKER 03 :
No. I saw like half of it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. I’m not in love with the story, but the music, almost every song, catchy, catchy, catchy, catchy, catchy. Oh, yeah. david had surprisingly catchy songs through much of it i was really impressed by this i didn’t expect it i was impressed next you have a number of very cute moments with baby sheep and mice etc okay you gotta have that right for the kids all right next though it’s sanitized for kids it’s very sanitized this was generally pretty accurate for a two-hour film about david i mean that’s pretty solid you kind of have to sanitize the bible for kids a little bit well of course You know, there’s a lot of smiting going on there. Okay. I mean, when you’re dealing with evil, got to do a little bit of smiting. Yeah. And smiting is kind of rough stuff. Okay. It starts strong. Okay. The stone throw at Goliath is very impressive. So there’s some very impressive moments in David that stick out. Okay. What doesn’t work in David? Boring. Boring. And I’m sorry to say this, folks. I hate to say this. I’ve been looking forward to this movie. You know I love a good Christian movie. It means everything to me. But I was stunned at how slowly each scene developed. And it had the one thing that you never, ever, ever, ever, ever want to have for a kid’s movie. And you know what that is? Bored kids. Oh, yeah. Okay. Kids in the audience. And Corey went to it with me. They were starting to wander around. They were bored. They were listless. They were not into it. This was not watching Finding Nemo. This was not watching Cars. This was not watching any of these things. And they could have jazzed it up a lot. David had an exciting, fun life. And also, his life is such a tapestry. It would have been so easy to put a couple really funny characters into it and plug them in. It would have been so easy. But here’s the big thing, folks. Writing humor is incredibly hard.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
I know. I’ve written a lot of humor. Have you? Oh, yeah. Actually, I have. And it’s very hard to do. And for them to be able to do that, they needed to find some better writers. They needed to find some writers who could write humor and pep this thing up and then didn’t have it. Okay, next. Actually, I have that next. Too little humor and too much cuteness. OK, we don’t need a cute mouse or sheep every few minutes. OK, just tell the story and let the cuteness happen naturally. You know, a lot of times in these movies, the little animal, it happens naturally, but it’s cute. Right. But it’s natural. You don’t feel like it’s being shoved in because this is for kids. It’s a Bible story, but it’s for kids. I’m going to shove in cute little animals now.
SPEAKER 13 :
It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because I don’t think I’ve seen a single kid that gets obsessed with cute animals the same way like a teenage girl does. So if you want to put in cute animals, then make a teenage girl movie. If you don’t want cute animals, make a kid’s movie.
SPEAKER 07 :
Or or put puppies in it for me because I like puppies or do that. I do. OK. It just felt forced. OK. Putting these animals in there felt forced in the story. It didn’t seem to work too much music, believe it or not, especially in the middle. There were songs that we didn’t need that. There were times where it’s like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t drag this out with a song. Just say the point and move on. And I don’t mean that just because Andy is impatient. No, folks, it really was dragging down the story. There’s a reason kids were being lost. They were losing the kids in this movie. They weren’t holding them. And the reason is you were putting in songs, even some that were good. that you didn’t need. And you could have put like a song like that later for some other topic. Whole scenes were in there where we could have had just a reference, not a scene. They should have taken out several scenes. Yikes. Exactly. Look, you’re talking about King David. And by the way, they could have done a lot more. Obviously not Bathsheba. I get it. But you could have done so much more with King David than you did. OK, because his life was, you know, it doesn’t matter if you believe in, you know, if you follow the Judeo-Christian, it doesn’t matter. It was an incredible life.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, even historically, David’s life is incredible.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s like Moses, right? I mean, how do you not get impressed with it? It’s Gandhi, you know, wow, right? You don’t have to embellish in these ways and drag it out, and they did. Okay, next, super slow buildups to battles. I’m telling you what, Lord of the Rings actually built faster to battles, I think, than this movie.
SPEAKER 13 :
That is not good.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m exaggerating slightly there, but you know what I mean. In some of the Lord of the Rings movies, they’re starting to build up for the battle. A half hour later, it happens.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, yeah. I’m pretty sure two Lord of the Rings movies built up one battle.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, two towers?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Whoa. I mean, it was incredible. And you’d have 18 speeches and then have a movie. It was like watching a wrestling match, you know, where the guys do the speeches. Give me the microphone. And they speak for 80 minutes and then they fight for one.
SPEAKER 13 :
And you’re telling them to just please be quiet and get to the fight.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. Although some are good at it. Okay. Super slow buildups to battles, folks. It just took too long. It’s incredible. And this is the final point. It’s incredible. This is a story about the life of one of the most complex famous men in history, but it felt like just a few pieces dragged out endlessly. And next Wednesday, Ashley is going to be on with me, and it’s going to be the 31st of the year. Just so you know, folks, I’m going to be giving my best, my top 10 movies of the year, my worst 10, My top five for actresses, actors. Okay, but I always do my biggest disappointments and my biggest pleasant surprises. And there’ll be 10 of those. I can already tell you, this is in the top 10 biggest disappointments of the year.
SPEAKER 13 :
Which is really sad.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is really sad. I was looking forward to this. Okay, Rotten Tomatoes gave it 72%. That was rather nice. I’m not going to give it bad. I’m going to give it two stars out of five. And the two stars are for the look, which was incredible, the music, which was much better than I expected, and for a few good moments, and it was biblically accurate for the most part. Sanitized! I know, but that’s okay. It’s for kids, guys. Relax. I saw people online saying, there needs to be the killing. Oh, okay. Yeah, all right. You probably take your three-year-old to Halloween or whatever. The Passion of the Christ. Oh, gosh. The Passion of the Christ. I mean, come on.
SPEAKER 15 :
Easy, bud.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m giving it two stars. For me personally, it was a one-star movie. I was not impressed by this at all. I was very bored. I was really let down, and Corey went with me. She felt the same. She gave it one star for her, too. I’m giving it a two for general audiences. Political, three. Moral, religious, five. Obviously. I would expect that. Yeah, it had a wonderful message. Wonderfully done. And did I feel good because of it? Yes, I did. I was very impressed. Okay, when we come back, folks, I want to talk a little bit about, we got some blockbusters. This has not been the year. 2025 has not been the year of the successful blockbuster. No. What’s come out this year? You see, 2024 was an epically bad year. 2025 was supposed to pull Hollywood back out of it. But the blockbusters are having some problems that we’re going to talk about when we come back because it’s really interesting why. Up next is Dr. Scott Faulkner. Get a doctor who listens only to you, not big pharma, not big insurance, just you. For a total approach to your total health, call Dr. Scott at 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Call in to the KLZ studio line, 303-477-5600. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver’s Afternoon Rush. KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash. Man. And Ashley Carter. Okay, here we go. This has not been a good year for the blockbuster. No. Okay. And here’s the problem, folks. Hollywood really needed it. And the reason this is going to be important is you are seeing some theaters teetering. on the edge. They’re going to be struggling. They really needed Avatar 3 to come through, fire and ash.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the first two did so well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, the first two. Well, yeah, Avatar 1, just so you know, folks, globally did about $2.9 billion. Avatar 2, Waywater, did about $2.3 billion worldwide. But we’re going to be talking more about the domestic totals. Let me give you an example here. The Way of Water, which I felt was a better film. I thought it was much more focused. Fire and Ash was too spread around, too many side stories all over the place. It lost focus and it lost the audience. Boy, I saw people, you could tell, it was not working. As I called it, I said, Fire and Ash is basically a wonderful screensaver for three hours and 15 minutes. It keeps switching scenes, switching scenes, but the stories switch too much and you’re covering too many different stories with characters that most people don’t care about.
SPEAKER 03 :
Ashley is going to fight you? That’s okay. Every muscle is tensing. You’ve got to lunge across the table.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, but it’s hard to fight numbers, okay? The way of water for opening weekend opened to $134 million domestically. Fire and Ash, which was built up, built up, built up for the last six months, opened to $89 million. That’s a 33% drop. OK, it’s it’s not the reviews for the first two were both well up into the 90s for this one. It was 68 percent. OK, so the reviewers didn’t look. It’s universal. Nobody loved the movie. There are people who liked it and there are people who didn’t. hated it then there is my wife who hated it more than any movie she saw this year she hated the movie with a passion that can that burns with the heat of a thousand suns and then there’s me who’s determined to go see it at least three more times while it’s in theaters that’s okay you do it have you seen fire nash yeah i saw it opening weekend
SPEAKER 03 :
I wonder how much of that opening box office numbers is from the sheer length of the movie. Because my friends were talking about it. Hey, you want to go watch the new Avatar movie? And they go, it’s like three hours.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s like three hours and 12 minutes long.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, but they were all three. And so, I mean, it’s 315. They were all three, but the other two simply did far better numbers. And The Way of Water was much closer to the first movie than this one was to The Way of Water, at least thus far. But by the way, you’ve got Christmas coming up, so it’s obviously going to sell well over Christmas. It’s going to go well over a billion in total sales. It’s an Avatar movie.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s guaranteed to go over a billion.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, obviously. But the first two went way over $2 billion globally. This is not going to hit $2 billion. I’ll say that right now. It’s not a good enough movie. And folks, when I tell you when I do these reviews, I do them from general audiences with every single. And we’ve talked about this before, Luke, with every single movie, you’ve got people who are the core audience who are going to like it no matter what. There are some stupid comedies that I am going to like no matter what. And I give them. One or two stars. I know this is a bad movie. I love it. OK, but I’m not reviewing it for me. I’m reviewing it for general audiences. Ashley loves Avatar Fire and Ash. Most people don’t. And it didn’t do that well. It’s just a big drop off from the previous ones.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, it’s a little obvious that it is not a super beloved one, because even James Cameron on the carpet, all he talks about is when they ask about four or five, and he’s like, well, this one’s got to perform well, so we’ll see if the numbers. Hollywood’s not really sure about Greenlight, which means they’re not confident in it.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, several months ago, he was talking four and five were a done deal. They were going to happen. After this came out and the opening numbers were being seen… He has changed his tune and four and five may not happen now because if they have any more drop, it’s going to drop below the line of being profitable. So here’s the thing. When I warn you, folks, I warn you for a reason, okay? This has been a hard year, and a lot of blockbusters have come out. Wicked for Good, okay? The first Wicked made $461 million domestically, just domestically. Okay, it was a monster hit. I warned everyone Wicked for Good isn’t very good, okay? And it isn’t very good. And let’s see here. It’s on pace to finish at $325 million domestically. That’s a 29% drop. from the first one and you got to keep in mind folks the main reason people go to the second one is why the first one yeah it’s loyalty to the first one that’s why they go to the second one but Ashley called it the fact is the story isn’t very good and you know that it’s it’s the third act of this of this play this musical and everybody knows it’s not nearly as good and it wasn’t and they stretched it out eternally for over two and a half hours
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, it’s I mean, it’s it’s never going to be that strong on on Broadway, on film, whatever, because it’s just it’s a retelling of The Wizard of Oz at that point. And no one wants to see that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it just wasn’t good. And this is this is a real problem. There were a lot of bombs this year. I think we got to keep in mind early in the year, of course, we had Snow White, which set new levels of bombery.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah, I wasn’t even here for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I forgot about that one. I forgot that that existed. Oh, that lost.
SPEAKER 07 :
So far removed. Yeah, that lost, my goodness, I think a couple hundred million. I mean, unbelievable sums. Well, I don’t know if they’ve actually tabulated it. Because here’s the thing, folks, just to give you round figures, let’s say a movie takes $100 million to make. Yeah. And let’s say it takes another $50 to market. Okay? Cool, $150 million. I’m not talking one of these huge movies. I’m talking a pretty big one, though, right? Does that mean you need to make $150 at the box office to pay for the movie? No, because Hollywood’s only taken down about half what they get from the box office, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. They’re pulling about, on a blockbuster, they’re pulling about 80 cents on the dollar at first, but they’re also paying taxes on it. And very quickly, after the first week or two, that drops down around 50%, 60%. Got some numbers. Exactly. So here’s the bottom line, folks. Hollywood has to make about twice what a movie costs to make and market. Right, and that’s the only way it’s considered a success, too. Right. For Avatar to make money, they’ve got to make about $1.6, $1.7 billion to break even on this. I think they’re going to get there. But the problem is, because of the trajectory of the three films, Cameron’s looking at a fourth one and saying, I don’t think so. It’s too bad, by the way, because I think the story for the fourth one would be better than the third. I would actually be excited by it because they go 10 years in the future and get some new characters.
SPEAKER 13 :
Six years in the future and it’s supposed to focus on the girl rather than… I thought it was 10. Last I heard it was… Either way. The last confirm I’ve heard it’s supposed to go six years and it’s supposed to focus on their daughter.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, yeah, the little one who was just born.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, no, no.
SPEAKER 07 :
oh you mean it’s focusing on the one that was immaculately in touch with the in touch with the uh planet yeah yeah kitty this new age fest yeah it’s supposed to focus on her by the way uh by the way it was the preachiest film of the year easily the preachiest film of the year these people who say man i don’t want to be a christian because i don’t want to have to go and listen to those sermons oh is avatar on There has not been a sermon in my lifetime. I don’t care if it was the biggest fire and brimstone sermon ever. There has not been a sermon in my lifetime that’s preacher than Avatar Fire and Ash. And another big problem with it is it’s the same story over and over. You know, what they’re doing is just replaying Dances with Wolves and doing it with CGI. That’s all it is. The white man comes along and, you know, the natives, it’s a different group of natives. Then they get some more natives in the second movie. Now some other natives come in in the third. And they fight against the white man. In my opinion, what they should have done with this movie is get the white man out of it. I like the fire people. I think they should have been the lone villains in this movie. I think I think the lady who runs them is really cool. Oh, yeah. And I think that would have been cool. Get the white people out of it, you know, and just do your CGI fun. Sharpen this thing down to about two hours and 20 minutes and you could have rocked. Personal opinion. OK, let’s look at some more. Captain America Brave New World.
SPEAKER 13 :
Another one I forgot about. I was so disconnected from movies for six months.
SPEAKER 07 :
What did I lose, like 150? I mean, just some insane amount. Elio. Oh, my.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, man.
SPEAKER 07 :
Elio was so bad, Pixar’s in trouble. I mean, Pixar is reeling right now after a lot of these failures. And Elio was supposed to be a gay character, you know, and they had to obviously strip all that out because of Strange New World and Lightyear.
SPEAKER 16 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 07 :
Those came out in the same year and destroyed Disney, okay? And Disney was almost on the trading block, okay? It was incredible how much money they lost. And so they stripped it out of Elio, and Elio, nobody wanted to go to it. Here’s the bottom line, folks. This has been a year with blockbusters that aren’t going anywhere.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. It’s been a year of blockbusters that are trying to find footing again in a market that they actually have no idea what they desire.
SPEAKER 03 :
Tron Ares. Tron Ares. That was one of the biggest bombs of this year. I was really looking forward to that one too. 132 million dollar loss estimated.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that’s another one that’s probably going to be in my top five biggest disappointments of the year is Tron Ares. And I mean, folks, they’re losing unbelievable sums of money. The amount of money, if you took the top five losers of the year, you could fund a country. You really could. Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
You could almost forgive our national debt.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, it’s totally crazy. Not quite. No, I wish. But, you know, not quite. But I’m telling you what, folks, Hollywood right now is losing a ton of money. And here’s the biggest reason. Make better movies. I mean, seriously, they’re not making – these blockbusters are not that good. Wicked, the original one, I didn’t like, but I gave it a good review. Why? Because I felt it was excellent for the market.
SPEAKER 13 :
At the very least, they’re not good enough for the ticket prices.
SPEAKER 07 :
No.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, like, trying to buy a ticket at AMC is insane. Yeah. It was a matinee performance. A matinee showing of Avatar. That’s what I wanted to go see at 10 o’clock in the morning, and it was still $22 at AMC. It was $15 at a Cinemark. It is 3D.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was for the 3D. Cinemark’s $15? Yeah. I didn’t know that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Cinemark is so much cheaper than AMC.
SPEAKER 07 :
I was not aware. There you go. There you go. Well, folks, I think it’s going to be a hard year. They’d better turn it around next year. I am looking forward to it. I’m seeing a couple movies tomorrow. which I’m going to be reviewing this Friday. And by the way, our topic this Friday is going to be best comedies. So we’re going to have some fun with that.
SPEAKER 13 :
We need a good laugh.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, we need some laughs. God, we do. So your favorite comedies. So I’m going to want to hear about your favorite comedies of all time. Give us a call, 303-477-5600 this Friday. We’re going to have fun with that. But I’m telling you what, one that I’m looking forward to tomorrow is Anaconda.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jack Black.
SPEAKER 13 :
You were staring at me, and I’m like, I don’t have the answer. Why are you?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, I was just staring in general. I’m kind of sweeping the room. It’s Anaconda. I’m looking forward to that with Jack Black. Well, because he was so good in Jumanji.
SPEAKER 13 :
Jack Black’s funny. Didn’t the Minecraft movie do well this year, or did that not?
SPEAKER 07 :
It did very well.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it did very well.
SPEAKER 07 :
It was huge. It was an average movie. I don’t care. I predicted it was going to make big money. It did.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s Minecraft.
SPEAKER 07 :
Not a hard prediction, folks. I’m not claiming to be genius or anything. Folks, we’re hoping that Christmas has some good movies because if they don’t start having some good movies, I got news for you. We’re going to see some theaters closing.
SPEAKER 13 :
Unfortunately.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, let’s take a break. We’ll come back, talk a little politics, close out the hour. Up next is Geno’s Auto. Don’t take your car to a place your friend likes. Don’t do that. Take your car to a place everyone likes with great reviews at Geno’s Auto. Call Geno’s at 303-794-6700.
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SPEAKER 15 :
TJ here with KLZ Radio, and I’ve got Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial with us once again. Al, we are coming into a new year here now, and we’ve talked recently about getting a fresh look at our retirement accounts. So tell me what that means a little bit. What kind of stuff do you want folks to look at?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, a fresh look is not only looking at the past and seeing how you’re doing, but putting together what you would like to look like in the future, not just growth, but are things on track? Some other maybe non-financial things? Are there some other things that you have concerns about as you get closer to retirement?
SPEAKER 15 :
Very cool. And what do you do for folks when they come in? And let’s say it’s a potential client that you’ve never seen before. Where do you start looking with a new account like that?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I have a pretty lengthy conversation where we dive into a timeline when they might like to retire and a few income things so we could get a handle on the amount of money they’re going to need to retire. What does that look like for you? Are you going to be traveling a lot? Are you going to be skiing? Are you going to be spending a lot of time at home? Because some people’s idea of retirement means they’re going to need $10,000, $12,000 a month. Other people, $4,000 or $5,000 is going to be very adequate depending on what kind of things they do in retirement.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s pretty great. Al Smith goes through a lot more than just numbers, folks. He’s about people and really wants to find out exactly what you want to do with your retirement. Al, how do people get in touch with you if they want to start that process?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you can reach me at the office, 303-744-1128. My cell is 303-875-4572. I reply to texts And if you’d like to hear about taxes as you get closer to retirement, there’s an event coming up January 10th at Arapahoe Community College. You got it, Al.
SPEAKER 15 :
And as always, you can reach Al from the klzradio.com website. Just go to klzradio.com slash money. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me, TJ.
SPEAKER 05 :
Listen online, klzradio.com. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Rush Reason. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m looking at these guys that are laughing. Trying to recover. And welcome back to Rush Reason. Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. I’m Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash and Ashley Carter. Okay, folks, let’s end on some happy notes about the Trump economy in 2025. Look, here’s the beauty of this. it is really starting to turn around but what’s beautiful is it’s setting up a 2026 that’s going to be epic i’m telling you folks 20 and i’ve been saying this the entire year 2026 is going to be a boom it is going to be an economic boom i’ve predicted the interest i’ve predicted uh roughly where inflation was going to be all year long the democrats were saying inflation was going to go through a roof i said nope john said nope And we even said why. Here are the reasons why. And I’m telling you, the fundamentals are in place for a boom in 2026. OK, this is written in town hall by Stephen Moore. I’m just going to read a couple of pieces from it. He says, I’ve been shocked that Americans are in such a grumpy mood as reflected in all the public opinion polls. What a paradox. At the same time, we have peace and prosperity, including more income, more wealth, more of almost everything that we want to buy. Yes, except for housing. Americans seem to think we have an affordability crisis. Now, we do, but the question is, which direction are we going? We’re coming out of it. In 2025, the median household income in the United States has risen to more than $86,000 a year, an all-time high. Every income group and ethnic group is richer today than ever before. Hispanics now have a median household income above $70,000, which would make them rich in most countries from which they came. This upward slope of living standards has been a norm throughout our history as a nation. But this past year has been one of the blockbusters with incomes rising almost twice as fast as inflation. The solar opposite of what happened under Biden. Income was rising well behind inflation rates. Income rose quite a bit, actually. And by the way, for those who say inflation needs to be reversed, you can’t do that, folks. Everywhere you look, Taco Bell, any job, People are making a lot more money because they had to under Biden just to survive. What are you going to do, cut all their pay? Okay, you can’t do that. You can’t have inflation reverse without cutting everybody’s pay across the board. You can’t do it. Wageflation.
SPEAKER 13 :
Doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, we’ll just do it. We’ll just wish it into existence. No, you can’t do that, folks. Okay, as he says, it hasn’t happened by accident. It happened because at the start of 2025, we had a regime change in Washington. In Donald Trump, we have a president whose common sense, economic, education, energy, environment, and financial policies have worked. And by the way, I want to underline the word energy. has been the biggest thing he’s done. He says he doesn’t agree with all the policies, but medium family income after inflation has risen by $1,250. Okay, after inflation. Incomes of the bottom 25% have risen after inflation. They were falling under Biden badly. People at the bottom were getting killed. This is not a rich getting rich, poor getting poorer story. It’s rising tide lifts all boats story. I’ll close here. The wealth of the average family in their 401k plans is up by an average of 21,000, reversing a more than 20,000 real decline under Joe Biden. As many as 1 million additional families will have access to higher performing schools thanks to Trump’s education savings accounts. No tax on tips and overtime starts January 1st. The federal budget deficit, a clear and present danger, was down by roughly 2.5% in 2025 and is already down by another $170 billion in the first two months of the next fiscal year. Okay. Our servicemen, servicewomen, you’re one of them, received a well-deserved $17.76 end-of-the-year bonus. Okay, it goes on and on and on, okay? Gun assaults were down by 21%. Aggravated assaults were down 10%. Sexual assaults down 10%. Carjackings were down 24% compared to levels under Biden. Illegal immigration is down 92% from the peak levels of Biden. The United States is producing more oil and gas than at any time in American history. Gas prices, which approached $5 a gallon under Biden, are down to $2.89 a gallon today. much lower in some places. All right, and finally, the swamp in Washington is finally being drained. Federal employment is down by nearly 300,000. We kicked nearly 300,000 bureaucrats to the curb.
SPEAKER 13 :
You won’t hear me complaining about that one. No.
SPEAKER 07 :
Folks, all I’m saying is this. I know it’s tough. I know it’s tough out there. I know affordability is a real issue that I think too many Republicans ignored. But the simple fact is it is turning around. It is turning around fast and it’s turning around the right way. Not with a bunch of government handouts, but with economic boom. And 2026 is going to be beautiful. Amen. Amen. Amen. That’s what I expect. I think you’re going to like it. You too, Luke.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’d love to see it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Even that girlfriend of yours is going to like.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’d love to see some good positive change. I’m waiting for it. Hoping it sticks around.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re going to see a lot of growth. You really are. And talented people like Luke are going to cash in because you’re a talented guy. You deserve it. Thank you. Okay. Folks, that’s it for our number two and our three. Jersey Joe is going to bring politics and humor. So until then, keep it right here on Rush to Reason, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy
