September 14, 2023 on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “The Nun II” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”

Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about “the laugh-riot, feel good movie of 2023,” The Nun II, directed by Michael Chaves and starring Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Storm Reid, and Anna Popplewell. Given that the film was not a comedy, one can presume that it failed as a horror movie, and in dubious fashion, too. Schulz also confesses to a bit of Conjuring fatigue (“What are we? Nine films in?”) thanks to its precise placement within that shared universe (“It’s the sequel to a prequel to a prequel to a prequel. . . we’re going backwards here. Conceivably, it will be, like, the invention of God within fifty years”). And, once again, we have a horror film that won’t or can’t abide by the rules it has set down, so a big plot point (the demonic nature of the Satanic nun) leaves Schulz with a mighty big fit of head-scratching. As for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, written, directed, and starring Nia Vardalos, with John Corbett, Louis Mandylor, Elena Kampouris, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone, Lainie Kazan, and Andrea Martin playing the non-Vardalos roles, Schulz is somewhat miffed that the wedding in this latest iteration involves peripheral characters, which gives Vardalos the scantest of reasons around which she can hang My Big Fat Greek Wedding as a title. Given that Costas “Gus” Portokalos, Toula’s father, played by Michael Constantine in the first two films, has passed away, what was stopping her from making My Big Fat Greek Funeral? Perhaps the prospect of diminishing box-office returns: The first film, released in 2002, made $368.7 million back against its $5 million budget — the acme of a runaway success; whereas the second returned $90.6 million against its $18 million budget — not a runaway success, granted; more of a briskly-walking success. Thus far, the third film has done $15.6 million worth of box office. It will probably earn more, eventually; but in this era of diminished expectations, filmmakers have much greater pressure on them not to ape the zeitgeist with diminished returns — which we’re to understand as “Don’t harsh your audience’s mellow, man.” As for what’s opening this weekend, Jim Capobianco’s The Inventor is a stop-motion animated biographical film about Leonardo da Vinci. Schulz thought the visuals compelling and the array of vocal talent (Stephen Fry, Marion Cotillard, Daisy Ridley, and Matt Berry) impressive. Our three radioheads were under the mistaken-yet-understandable understanding that Berry was portraying da Vinci, and not Fry — actually, Berry, so very funny in What We Do in the Shadows, is playing Pope Leo X, so the comedic pomposity Berry’s voice promises will be emanating from a papal authority. Fry, who sounds like every British citizen who stepped out of the subways after the Blitz, looks like a better fit, at least in print. Then there’s Sean Olson’s coming-of-age comedy Camp Hideout, which, going by Levora’s impressions, sounds like Meatballs without the balls. Pitra points out that the film is being pitched as “family-friendly,” which means “a film without fun” to a viewer of a certain age. (No pompous papal authorities in this one.) And the prospect of the forthcoming A Haunting in Venice, a supernatural mystery film produced, directed by, and starring Kenneth Branagh, and the third film in which Branagh portrays Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, Schulz is excited while Levora swears that he will not give (Sir) Branagh any of his money based on his treatment of Emma Thompson (whom Branagh cheated on with Helena Bonham-Carter. “If there’s anything [Levora] can do,” Pitra says, “it’s hold a grudge.”) See y’all at the movies, homies!. . . “The Nun II” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”