EP 138: The Uprising, Kill Jackie, Youth

Reel Talk with Honey & Jonathan Ross

Jonathan and Honey Ross review three new releases, starting with a heavily criticized historical drama about the 1381 Peasants' Revolt. They

Key takeaways

• The Uprising (directed by Paul Greengrass) is panned for messy action, confusing accents, and a tonal shift that feels like 'Horrible Histories' tacked onto a grim drama.
• Kill Jackie on Prime Video features Catherine Zeta-Jones using her Welsh accent, but the show suffers from a clichéd premise, weak character development, and unearned emotional beats.

Main topics

• Film and TV reviews
• Historical accuracy vs. entertainment

Notable quotes

"It's Bourne meets Robin Hood, it's Andrew Garfield as Bourne in Hood."

Conclusion

The episode serves as a sharp critique of poorly executed historical a

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:03) Welcome to Real Talk, I'm Honey Ross. Speaker 1 (0:05) And hello, I'm Jonathan Ross and this is our podcast where the two of us chat about the films and TV that we've been watching, mainly new releases and we give you our opinions. How's your week been, hun? Speaker 2 (0:14) Oh, honestly, so stressful, but this is a welcome respite. Oh Speaker 1 (0:21) good, I know you've had so much going on because you're working on like, you've got a couple of side hustles going on. Yeah. more for love than for money. And you've also, you're trying to get your house sorted out. And I know the other day we had a phone call and you've been let down. This is, most people will be able to associate with this, an electrician who was meant to be there hasn't turned up and some deliveries that were meant to be there hadn't turned up. And it sounds chaotic. Speaker 2 (0:40) Yeah, just moving house is not, it's not a laugh. Yeah, it's not. But within two weeks, this will all be a distant memory. And... There will be good things. And also this weekend, I'm very excited because I've got Tully's, the launch of my haunted house room, which I'm so excited about. Well, we should Speaker 1 (0:57) see if we can put some pictures of that up here so people can see it on the Instagram account we have. So people who's been following that part of your life can see what you achieved. Speaker 2 (1:05) Yeah, I'll definitely put it out on my Instagram and maybe we collab with Real Talk so everyone can see. But I'm boring right now. Tell me, how are you? Because you've been very busy. Speaker 1 (1:14) Well, I've been super busy working. I'm filming lots of different things at the moment. And I did, I spoke to Matthew Vaughan yesterday, you know, the friend of ours who's the movie director. I was talking about something else. Yes, Speaker 2 (1:23) we Speaker 1 (1:23) love Speaker 2 (1:23) Matthew. Speaker 1 (1:24) Because I'm doing something with Sylvester Stallone next week. And I know Matthew is a big Stallone fan. And I had a few spare tickets. I said, do you want to come to this thing I'm doing with Sly? And he's away. He's in LA. And he started chatting to me about lots of things. And then I mentioned, I said, I was in the studio doing the masked singer. I said, I'm working, so I'm doing this. And I mild, I didn't complain so much. I said, I'm exhausted. I'm doing so much work at the moment. He said, you should count yourself lucky at your age that you're still being employed. And I thought, well, that's not the sympathy I expected. But then again, why would I go to Matthew Vaughan for sympathy? But Speaker 2 (1:54) also, that's how I feel when I go to you for sympathy. So now I'm glad in small doses you've had a taste of what that feels like. Speaker 1 (2:01) But anyway, this morning then, I got up early because I had to go and have a flu jab and a COVID jab. I went along with your lovely mother and we were informed as well because I'm, as you know, 65. Your mum is 10 years younger than me. You can do the maths yourself. And we were informed that we now get, anyone who's over 55, you get a slightly stronger flu jab. Speaker 2 (2:21) Oh, no, but it's already very potent. It already makes you feel like... trash after you've had it. Speaker 1 (2:27) We're in the oldest section now of the doctor's clinic and so we go and get an extra strong one. So I feel fine. But anyway, I was feeling a bit tired so I came in this morning, whizzed down to the office so I could get ready to do this for you and then I had some good news. Speaker 2 (2:40) So Speaker 1 (2:40) I'll tell you what happened to me. Remember the day I called you? I think it was actually two days ago and I was heading back from a screening. I'd gone to see the uprising that we're going to talk about today. Oh yeah, we will. And Speaker 2 (2:49) I Speaker 1 (2:49) phoned Speaker 2 (2:49) you Speaker 1 (2:49) and that's when you were telling me about the electrician. You were waiting in and he hadn't turned up and it was all that. So anyway, I was in the back of a cab. I'd hopped in a cab from the centre of town to get back to my office. I couldn't get one using the phone app, so I just hailed one down that was coming past. And while I climbed into the taxi, there was quite a large sock on the seat next to me in the taxi. And it didn't look too dirty or anything, but it's a bit of an odd thing to find, so I climbed in. And the driver said to me, you know, are you all right? I said, yeah. I said, by the way, you have a sock in the back here. Someone's left a sock in. He went, a sock? A foot sock? I said, well, yeah, I don't really know any other kind, but yeah, it's a foot sock. And he said, oh, he said, well, it's better than some of the things I've Speaker 2 (3:24) had Speaker 1 (3:24) left in the cab. I said, I can imagine. I didn't need to imagine. He then told me some of the things that we left in his cab. Many of which were quite stomach churning. And I went, okay. And then, so I chatted for Speaker 2 (3:33) a bit. Speaker 1 (3:33) Can we have Speaker 2 (3:33) like one of them? Can you tell us? Or are they all too repulsive to share? Speaker 1 (3:37) It would be something that certain adults might use in the bedroom with each other. What? What? Like a sex toy? Involving the back door, not the front. Speaker 1 (3:46) In the back of a taxi. Whether or not he was being used in the taxi or just slipped out of a shopping bag, I don't know. Maybe someone had a hole in there. Fell out of Speaker 2 (3:52) your pocket. I hate it when it comes out of your coat lining. Yeah, Speaker 1 (3:55) they had a bag for life and he just slipped out. Anyway, so we were chatting about that and then he went, oh, really, sorry, are you going to pay with your phone or credit card? I said, I was going to use my phone. That's all I've got on me. He went, oh, no, my machine's down. It's been going all day. And he started complaining about that. And I went, well, look, when we get to my office, which is where I'm going, and my wallet's in there and I do have some cash in it so I can run in and get cash. It's not a problem. Then he's on the phone to the people trying to fix this thing all the way there and he said, I'm going to reboot you now. I went, okay. And he rebooted it. It didn't work. He said, oh, I've got to go to Acta this afternoon. So he was having a bad day. Speaker 2 (4:24) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:24) And so... I leapt up out of the car and I said, I'll just pop in and get it. So I ran in very quickly and he said, I'll go in the back and get that sock. I said, good for you. And that's crucial to the story because I then know he'd been in the back of the cab. I ran in, got the cash, came out, gave him the money. I knew I had my speakers in my ears still, so my headphones. So Speaker 2 (4:42) I Speaker 1 (4:42) went, there you go, off you go. And I gave him a nice tip. And then when I got inside, I reached in my coat pocket, didn't have my sunglasses. Speaker 2 (4:48) No. And Speaker 1 (4:49) I realised I'd taken them off in the back to talk to you because I wanted to put my reading glasses on to use the phone. And they're my favourite sunglasses. A, they were quite expensive. B, you know when you find a pair you actually like? Oh, Speaker 2 (4:59) God, yeah. It's red. It's special. Speaker 1 (5:00) Oh, Speaker 2 (5:00) no. Speaker 1 (5:00) And I ran out and I saw this cab driving off really quickly. And it was quite a way away. I wouldn't have called it. Didn't have any details because I hadn't held it using my phone. So I couldn't contact the driver. And I was really good. And then I thought, oh, hold on. He went in the back of the cab to get that sock. He must have seen my glasses there. Speaker 2 (5:16) Yeah. So Speaker 1 (5:16) I began to think, that guy, he kept my glasses. How annoying. He stole my glasses. And I was very angry. And since that moment, every time I saw a black cab, I would feel quite angry at taxi drivers, thinking, oh, and then I had to try and find some, and the glasses, those glasses, they don't make them anymore. And I was... Oh, Dad. It's a very small problem, I know. So this was going on. I was fairly furious. And then I came in this morning, and as I opened the office door, on the floor by the door were the glasses. Speaker 2 (5:42) I love, you'd fully built an entire backstory for the black... cab community being like you stole everyone i was i Speaker 1 (5:50) was sneering at black cabs as i drove past thinking you're not to be trusted and yet it was my own stupidity dad Speaker 2 (5:57) i mean you know what it's good to be humbled sometimes and also the happy ending is that you didn't lose the glasses were they prescription uh Speaker 1 (6:04) no they weren't prescription but they were gucci uh Speaker 2 (6:07) well might as well You Speaker 1 (6:09) know, Speaker 2 (6:09) I once lost Gucci prescription glasses and it was the worst day of my life. Speaker 1 (6:12) Oh, that's a double blow. It was a Speaker 2 (6:13) nightmare. It was a nightmare on earth, yeah. But anyway, we live and we learn and we love. Speaker 1 (6:19) We live and we learn and we love and I've got two sore arms from my two vaccinations, but I'm ready to go. What are we talking about today? Speaker 2 (6:24) Today we are talking about The Uprising. There's a lot of kind of interesting lore around this film that I'm very excited for us to get into. Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:33) But Speaker 2 (6:33) it is the new Andrew Garfield... Is it? It's... It's Greengrass. It's Paul Greengrass. It's Paul Speaker 1 (6:38) Greengrass, who, of course, has done lots of kind of interesting films. But Speaker 2 (6:42) most famously, Bourne. Speaker 1 (6:44) He wrote the script for the first Bourne, and then I think he directed the second one and wrote the script. Yeah, so I know maybe Doug Liman wrote the script for the first one. Anyway, he was involved in the Bourne films, absolutely. But then he was very famous for some of the other films, like, you know, Bloody Sunday was a good film, Green Zone. Captain Phillips was his as well, I think. Speaker 2 (7:01) Right. Speaker 1 (7:02) I'm not sure whether he directed or just wrote that. But anyway, you know, he's a quality filmmaker, you know, so you look forward to his stuff. Speaker 2 (7:10) One would think, yes. Yes. Speaker 1 (7:11) We are also Speaker 2 (7:12) talking about... Kill Jackie, which is Catherine Zeta-Jones. Speaker 1 (7:17) A new big series. Speaker 2 (7:18) Yeah, new big series. She's using her beautiful Welsh accent and you watch that. And then I watched some of the new Sharon Horgan HBO show, which is called A Youth, which is out right now and dropping weekly. And Speaker 1 (7:29) that's been getting great reviews, so I can't wait to hear what you say about that. All right, let's roll up our sleeves and dive in and let's get this out of the way. Let's wallow in the mud with some peasants back in the 14th century for the uprising. Speaker 2 (7:40) Heaven. you Speaker 2 (7:54) Up first is a film that is coming to cinemas this Friday. It is The Uprising. This has been an interesting one because it's about a famous historical, you know, moment in history, the... The Peasants' Uprising, I believe? Speaker 1 (8:09) Yeah, I mean, it's quite a famous chapter in history and it's way back in 1381. So, I mean, you know... The good old days. You know, you really... It's so different that I feel like, you know, you kind of need a crash course on what was going on in the world back then. This is slightly pre or around the time that the Enlightenment was spreading through Europe, so people were beginning to question... the divine right of kings. They were beginning to wonder why, you know, they had no freedom. The common man and woman, you know, they could be tithed to the land and they weren't allowed to leave and work on another farm. You know, they kind of belonged to the lords. Jesus. And they were taxed as well. And so this is the period when King Richard II first comes to the throne and the country was very poor because we were waging wars in various parts of Europe, which cost a fortune. It's just after the plague has swept through as well, so huge numbers of the population. had been wiped out. So people were suffering in that way, not only with the emotional loss, but also, you know, a lot of the workforce had gone. So just kind of tilling the fields and surviving was more of a challenge than it had been before. And because of the wars, the people surrounding the king decided they should raise taxes. And back then as well, they raised taxes in equal measure. So poor people paid the same amount as rich people. Speaker 2 (9:20) Yes. Speaker 1 (9:21) And so you have this kind of, you know, massive unfairness, which obviously I think they were, they were unaware of, although they would have been. semi-literate or not even literate population. They