Monday Movie Minute: IT Chapter 2, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase
IT, BRITTANY, NANCY DREW
A full Monday Movie Minute this week with parent movie reviews for IT Chapter 2, Brittany Runs a Marathon, and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (a hidden family gem!). All on the No-Guilt Fangirls podcast weekly movie review episode.
Monday Movie Minute: IT Chapter 2, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase
Happy Monday everyone! We gotta discuss what happened at the box office this weekend. Hey, anything to make Monday a little better!
Thanks for joining the No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast Monday Movie Minute for September 9, 2019.
Topics this week (including parent movie reviews- you gotta know if these are safe for kids, right?! Right!)
- IT Chapter 2 Parent Movie Review
- Brittany Runs a Marathon (LOVED IT, runner friends!)
- Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase
Also: Overcomer review from my friend Lolalambchops
Where You Can Find The No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast
Scary clowns make me want to run- and so did Brittany’s story. Know what’s great to listen to when you’re running? Yup, Podcasts.
I’d love it if you’d subscribe, review and throw some of those 5-stars up there! Help other fangirls like YOU find the podcast- it’s no fun fangirling on your own, amirite?
There are always movies to review coming to theaters so there’s always something to talk about.
Speaking of: we’ve got a No-Guilt Fangirls Facebook group too. We’re cool, and if you’re cool with being cool, then come hang out with the cool kids!
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Transcript For Monday Movie Minute: #ITChapter2, #BrittanyRunsAMarathon, #NancyDrew
*Please note: this is unedited and transcribed by AI- so it’s not perfect. But, hopefully, it is helpful for those that prefer or have a need to read rather than listen. – Patty
Patty Holliday 0:04
Welcome to the no guilt fan girls podcast. Where liking what you like is never a bad thing. Here’s your host and head fan girl in charge. Patty holliday. Hey, y’all Welcome to the no guilt fan girls podcast. I’m Patty holliday, your headband girl in charge. And this is the Monday movie minute for September 9. A quick note for subscribers who may have noticed there was no fan girl podcast on Thursday, you didn’t miss anything. I just didn’t put one out. I planned on sharing the Agents of SHIELD bankrolling. But well, I just didn’t. A strange thing happened last week, guys, I, I kind of took like a week vacation from, from everything from work. I never do that. I never do that. Even when I’m on vacation. I feel like I’m always working. Part of that is just, that’s what social media is. For me. It’s part of my life. It’s hard for me to like completely let it go and to shut it down. And last week, last week, I did that. And I, if I sound like I’m proud or if I’m bragging, it’s because I am so proud of myself for doing that. It’s probably the first time in like, I don’t know, three years, three years that I have allowed myself to just kind of sit back and not do anything. Unless I wanted to. And it was nice. I won’t lie. It was nice. And I needed it. I definitely needed it. So yeah, so you didn’t miss it.
That is going to be coming out this Thursday. I promise it’s edited. It’s ready to go. So that’s coming out on Thursday. So be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it. If you’re not an Agents of SHIELD fan, or if you don’t know what it is, you’ll want to tune in because we kind of explain what’s up with this. Why you might want to catch up with everything before this final season. That’s coming next summer. It’s gonna be awesome. It’s gonna be awesome. We just love agents of shield around here. All right, well, I’m back. Like I said, Let’s talk Monday, movie minute today. Every Monday, we chat about the movies that came out what we saw last week what’s happening at the box office. I’ve been pretty light on movies lately, because I was doing a lot of traveling. But again, with that nice little break I gave myself I got some movies in So hey, we got something to talk about. I saw two movies in the theater and one at home on the couch. Actually, actually, like when I’m doing like the math here. I saw a total of three at home on the couch. But two of them kind of tie into the one that I saw in the theater. So I don’t know, it’s I’m not sure that it counts accounts, right? Yeah, I guess Okay, so we’re going to make it count. As always, let’s talk about the box office first and see what made some moves and what is happening there. No big surprise. Chapter Two came in at $91 million. And it was definitely the box office winter Angel has fallen which is not getting good reviews. And I did not make it to the theater yet to see that one. That one came in at number two. Good boys is it number three, The Lion King is still there at number four.
Hey, we like we like our Disney right? overcome or which is kind of a faith based movie, I’m actually surprised to see that it’s as high as it is. But it’s coming in at five. So that’s kind of interesting. I had a friend that saw this movie earlier this week. And I will actually link her review in the notes if you’d like to go and read it to decide if it’s something that you and your family would would like to watch yourselves. Number six is fast and furious presents hubs and shop. Seven is the peanut butter Falcon eight is scary stories to tell the dark nine ready or not. 10 is Dora and the last City of Gold which makes me happy that door is still hanging in there because I really did like that movie. All right, um, so movies I watched, we’re going to talk about chapter two. And I also watched it the 1990 version, as well as it chapter one this week. So I have thoughts on how this new chapter plays in. We’re also going to talk about Brittany runs a marathon and wrapping it up with the Nancy Drew and the hidden staircase. That’s the one of the ones I saw while I was sitting on my couch. Sophia whitelist is in this one. She’s also in it chapter one in chapter two as young Beverly. So it kind of just worked it tied in well together. And that’s kind of kind of how I ended up watching that movie. But first, let’s talk about it chapter two.
Okay, this is picking up where chapter one left off. And that means that the losers club answers the call, they come back to fulfill their pledge return to dairy main, because the evil of it has returned. This is 27 years after the experiences in it chapter one. And you know the losers they are far from losers anymore, they actually have all gone on to achieve some different levels of success. Not so much in their personal lives, but definitely in their, in their in their work. And they all seem to have money and things seem to be looking well for them on that level. Now, they don’t remember a lot from dairy. But they do where you reconvene and the memory start coming back to them once they’re back in that dairy bubble. And penny wise the clown is back. It’s terrorizing the town. And they had promised that if this should happen, they would come back and do something about it. Before I get into chapter two, though, I want to talk a little bit about how I went into this movie, I did sit down and I watched the 1990 version of it. And then also the 2017 version of it chapter one, kind of in preparation, it’s been a while since I’ve seen either one of these movies.
So I wanted to just refresh myself and make sure I interested things that might have factored in to how I felt about this movie, when I saw it in the theater. I don’t know maybe if I’d gone in fresh, I might have felt differently, because the biggest thing you’ve got to remember is that all of these versions are really long movies. So that’s a lot of it. A lot of it a lot of penny wise, a lot of of trauma and stress and strain and craziness and jump scares. And I think when you come when you do watch all of that in in kind of a small, you know, period of time, I think it actually kind of loses something I know there’s talks of a super cut coming out for it where it would be chapter one and chapter two basically together. So it’s one mega movie. And that’s going to appeal to seven people. It’s going to appeal to some people. But I will say I wonder if that factored into how I was feeling by the time I walked into chapter two. Because I didn’t I didn’t love it. I didn’t love chapter two as much as I enjoyed the 1990 version, as well as the 2017 version. And I know everyone that seen that 1990 version. You either love it or you hate it like the acting was cheesy and stuff. But there’s something to it. There’s something to that movie that still appeals and I will still watch that one.
And I and I still enjoyed it. So yeah, so anyway, I go into see chapter two, I can’t say that it’s as good as chapter one was, but I do think it’s going to be my mega successful. I think people are going to rush to see this one. If you didn’t see already this weekend, you’re going to want to go see it if you are a fan of these kinds of movies. Absolutely. It’s a horror film. Absolutely. There’s all kinds of horrors discussed in this movie. But you probably know that otherwise you wouldn’t be considering seeing it anyway. Right? What I loved about this movie so much was actually the casting of these adult actors. The young actors are back. There’s some flashback scenes, and all of them are back and they’re fantastic. They’re absolutely fantastic. But I really enjoyed these adult versions. I mean, did you guys realize that the Old Spice guy is Mike Hamlin.
Yes, like the guy who’s on a horse. That is he’s he’s Mike Hamlin, and he, he does a fantastic job. And I knew that going in and the whole time I was watching him. I was trying to see hints of that character, that Old Spice guy and it’s not there like he’s that good of an actress like he made said something so iconic. That I was actually looking for it wasn’t there? No, it wasn’t there at all. I thought. I thought it was great. I thought it was great in this role. Jessica Chastain is also an issue. She’s wonderful. She’s really good Beverly. She screams a whole lot. Screams a whole lot. But you know what, girl? I’d be screaming to right? If penny wise the clown was coming after me and I had to deal with all those traumas. I would Yeah, scream away scream away.
But who kind of steals the show and he’s getting a lot of the buzz is Bill Hader. Bill Hader is the standout he plays Richie you know the kid comic turned adult funny guy. And, and he’s pretty great in this role, guys, he’s He’s really good. I would see Bill Hader in anything and everything please. Actually, I will see Bill Hader and Finn wolf hard in everything because Finn, he’s he’s rapidly becoming one of the stars that I am obsessed to see what he does in the future. I can’t wait to be talking about him 1520 years from now, and what he’s doing because he’s that good, too. So anyway, casting was great. That’s the that’s the best thing I can say about this penny wise. Holy cow, penny wise is terrifying. And Bill scars guard. If you guys have seen the first you know it chapter when you know what he can do with this role, what he did with this role, it continues.
The he makes a scary clown off the charts right off the charts terrifying. So if you’re not frightened by this version of penny wise, then seek some counseling. You’ve probably got bigger issues than I can help. But it was he’s he’s, I have no complaints about him at all. There’s also like an awesome cameo. I’m not going to tell you about that. Because I think it needs to be a little bit of a surprise. But it was it was a pretty great cameo in it. Now what I didn’t like about it chapter two. Just to be clear, I didn’t hate the movie. I can’t say I loved it. I will let it that I can’t say I loved it. I liked the movie. Okay, let’s put it that way. That was the level that I was at. Again, it might have been because I was kind of it it out and I was out of it. I was over it. I don’t know, by the time I went and saw this I’d seen a lot of it in a short period of time. Maybe that factored in. But But yeah, the movie was just it felt extremely long to me at this point. And I felt like every minute of it, it was slow in some places the pacing is is even To be honest, it’s pretty even. But there’s just like a whole section where the kids go in the adult kids have to go and find something that they hid from their past. And so they each one of them goes to do that. And you follow each one of them doing that separately, and it feels kind of disjointed, it doesn’t feel like it ties with the rest of the movie. So that was this, this big chunk of movie that was important and needed. But at the same time, it was slow and it was long, and I was ready for them all to get back together again.
Okay. Also the madness, menace manifestations that I can say this, the manifestations of it. were crazy and creepy. But there’s something I think that when we’re using so much CGI, we kind of lose what used to, I don’t know, I knew it was CGI, if that makes sense. I wasn’t completely scared because I knew that it was fake. I don’t know if I can explain that better. An example of something that still haunts me and still bothers me to this day is another Stephen King movie, remember the shining and where that woman who’s in the bathtub, like sits up out of the bathtub, and she’s all gross and nasty and everything. Like that still terrifies me to this day. And I feel like that’s because it was it was real, like it felt like it was real. And it felt like it was a real actor doing that, where all of this I know, is computer generated because of what these manifestations are doing. And so there was something there that was breaking through that wall for me and I wasn’t able to, you know, totally buy into it and be be scared of it. So, and there’s a lot of manifestations. There’s a whole lot of them.
Patty Holliday 12:50
So, I don’t know, I was a little bit more bored at times than I was worried when a new one came on screen. And I know that’s not what wanted to do I know it chapter two wanted you to be on the edge of your seat the entire time. And it just, it didn’t do that for me. Overall, I liked the movie enough, I felt it was a satisfying sequel to chapter one. If you are a fan of horror movies, you’re going to like this one. It’s definitely one of the top horror movies that I saw over the summer. So it’s it’s good. It’s good. The ending totally got me the ending totally got me. And again, I’m not going to you know spoil anything for anybody. But I was surprised after going through this very long movie. How at the end it it pulled me back in it. I had tears. I had some feelings. I had all this awesome stuff going on. So yeah, you know, it’s a satisfying conclusion. To the it story. There are some shades of things like stand by me, which is one of my all time favorite Stephen King novels adapted to movies ever. This nostalgia of reading Stephen King for the first time when I was a kid, because I was totally into his books. It was there. And and that was kind of wrapped up there at the very end. And and I appreciate it. A lot of it now parents, parents, parents, parents, if you have teens, like I have teens, then you know, they’re asking to see this movie. And I will tell you this, if they’ve seen it chapter one, they can see it chapter two.
Okay, so let’s start there. If you’ve already allowed them to see those kind of movies, or they’ve already seen that first one, then this is on par with the level of violence that you can expect. So there’s nothing really crazy or new there. I can say that they took a lot of things out of the book that I am very happy to see were removed from the book, and we didn’t see it on screen. It toned things down a little bit. And in that sense, I I personally would would let my 14 and 16 year olds go see this one. They want to they haven’t yet. But they’ve also seen it chapter one. So in general, do your kids need to see it? chapter two? No, they do not? Absolutely. There’s a lot of language in it. It’s, you know, blood and killers. And there, you know, the whole premise of it is that he’s preying on children. And, you know, I mean, it’s just it’s not something that any child really needs to get into or really needs to see. But again, if they’ve already seen the ones before, this isn’t that much of a difference. There isn’t an attack of members of the LGBT, LGBT BQ community, and as well as domestic violence situations between Beverly and her husband, and then some alluded to child abuse from Beverly, Beverly and her father, we don’t see a lot of that particular scenario happened on screen, but it’s alluded, it’s there, you pick up on it, a kid would pick up on it. so be warned that there are some of those very heavy real life horrors discussed in this movie. So, you know, again, can’t say that it’s family friendly, or kid-friendly. But, you know, if you want to know on what level it is, it’s very much on par with what you saw in the first it, okay.
All right. Next up, I watched Brittany runs a marathon.
This is probably my personal favorite movie of the year so far. And I am completely surprised at how much I love this movie. But it’s personal. And I think that’s why like, if you if you’re not a runner, and you go see this movie, you’re probably gonna be like, it was fine. But I don’t I don’t understand, like the big hang up. For me, I think it was the connection of what I saw in Brittany. And my own experience as a, quote unquote, non traditional runner, which is the polite term for being a fat or overweight runner. If you had conversation with non renderer friends or family, or the question, basically, why you’re running, why you’re doing this, you know, they ask you things like, what was your time when you’re not worrying about time you’re doing it for other reasons and other motivations, when they’re questioning why you’re turning down, going out the night before your big long run the next morning, like they don’t understand why you’re making these choices. If you’ve had those kind of discussions, if you’ve thought about running a marathon, if you’ve ever run a marathon, this is a movie that I think you’re going to find some truths to it and some some things that appeal to you there. It was really well written, definitely somebody who either was a runner or knows a runner.
Well put this together, because there was a lot of things where I was like, Yes, yes, that happens all the time. Like, it rings true, it rings true, at least in my experience, and how I entered the running community and became a runner myself. Yeah, I mean, I just made so many of my current friends through the running community that I could see that development as it happened with with Brittany as she started making these friendships and these connections. And then when she pushes them away, I was like, No girl, those are your people, you need them in your life. And and it’s it, like I said, just a lot of a lot of truth to this one. In some in some ways. The plot here is that Brittany is a 20, something almost 30 something, she does not have her life together at all. She’s very smart, very funny, but she’s floundering in pretty much all aspects of life. She’s not doing anything near what she planned to do with her life. As far as a career is concerned, she’s got a roommate that’s kind of toxic for her.
She is allowing her health to completely fall apart after a visit with her doctor where she actually goes in trying to score some Adderall, guys, because Brittany is not a good person, let’s just be clear, Brittany is not a good person. But she goes to try to do this. And her doctor basically lays out to her that she’s got some health issues that she needs to address. She’s scared enough that she does something else that’s very scary. She goes to a gym and discovers how expensive a gym membership is. And she’s broke as a joke. And she’s like, I can’t afford a gym. But the sidewalk. Yeah, that’s free, outside, outside is free. I’m going to go and try this. So she takes that terrifying first step out the door and makes herself run one block, one block turns into a mile turns into two miles and then a five K and she ends up you know, bonding with some fellow runners that she’s met in this running group. And long story short, they end up deciding that they want to run the New York City Marathon like that’s their big stretch goal. And it is a big stretch goal. And I think that’s also why Brittany runs a marathon appeal to me, because as somebody who has ever I’ve run one once once and I will never do it again. It absolutely is something that I have had to take very seriously and methodically and think this through and decide if I was going to do it. Where I didn’t have some renderer friends who are just like, I think I’ll run a marathon and they go do it. Like for them. It’s not as scary. It’s not as big of a thing. For Brittany, for me. It was terrifying. It was a it was a whole It was a whole thing. It was a whole thing. But it was also something that I’m really excited and really proud to say I did, right? So Brittany’s issues on this path to running her marathon are many. And I don’t know, I guess that’s why I felt like she was relatable, even if her issues didn’t mirror exactly mine. Like I’m not saying Brittany and I are mirror images of each other. I have not, I hope it’s terrible a person is Brittany is.
But um, but it was one of those moments where I was like, yep, we all have our issues, we all have our problems. We all have the things that we have to work out, you know, in our past that affects things. And it was a reminder to me this movie wasn’t mentor to me how much the running community helped me work through some some things that I went through, you know, years ago, when I first started. There’s a lot of emotional issues here. And this movie impact some talks about how you know, bad relationships can stop you from creating healthy ones. It also talks a lot about how society treats you differently when you’re heavy. Interestingly enough, we didn’t see a lot of that in the reading community, which was, which was nice. That was that was kind of like a safety place for her. But guys, it’s there to you know, the running community sometimes isn’t as accepting of overweight runners as well. And that’s something else we all have to deal with when you are not the average size runner. Right. So what I loved about this movie, though, is that is kind of all this heavy stuff. But it was put into a light comedy. That on the surface is just about running in a quest for health and weight loss, right but, but it’s deep that there’s some there’s some depth here. I don’t feel like this gives anything away. I don’t feel like because it’s guys, it’s literally in the title. But Brittany runs a marathon. Brittany actually runs for marathon. And when she ran her marathon, this is where the movie just completely grabbed hold of me. And and I and I’m not letting it go. My favorite scene is when she she shows up and the way they filmed it and the way that the you experience it through Brittany’s eyes felt very real to me very much like how I remember showing up and running my marathon. You have all kinds of levels of emotions happening before you start. And then as you’re running these miles, all those motions change and fluctuate and they mess with your head. At one point she is considering giving up. And spoiler alert, she doesn’t. But yeah, it was just it was it was a fantastic, very real way of looking at the running community and and the struggles that people have and doing this big scary thing and completing it. When society might have told you that that was a ridiculous idea for you to do right. Anyway. It’s It’s It’s really well written, well produced. Jillian Bell who plays Brittany is hilarious. I mean, she’s she’s so great. The whole cast is kind of wholesome and awesome. And, you know, even though Brittany’s a very messy girl, I still loved her. I still loved her. No, I did take my team daughter, she is 14. And in hindsight, as a parent movie review, I would say no, I would probably not have taken her to this one just yet.
But in our case, she’s she’s very mature. So we were able to have some discussions on the way home and it was, I don’t know, maybe it was a little blessing in disguise. But if you’re thinking of letting your kids go see it just know, there’s a lot of sexual innuendo, a lot of sexual jokes. There is one scene of an unmarried couple in bed together having sex it’s obvious they’re having sex you don’t don’t have any nudity. You’re not seeing naked body parts anywhere, but that’s what’s going on. So just be aware of that the sexual situations language and it’s all pretty much through the movie, tons of language tons. There’s also drug use, you also see how it does not work for her. The drug use the drinking the poor habits that she’s self sabotaging herself with you. It’s clear, like the message is clear that this is not working for Brittany in her life. So while that’s all there in the movie, it’s also not glorified in any way shape or form. So if you do decide to let your teens go see this night and I would definitely would not let anybody under the age of probably 14 it is rated R but you know, if you’re thinking what age Can they see this I’d say 14 enough is good, then just know that that nothing is glorified. It’s definitely some lessons learned. One of the biggest issues that she has is is self sabotage and self loathing of herself, and how that kind of like spiders out into all of her other relationships, and she causes harm to others by being the way she is and that was clear and even a teen is going to pick up on this Okay, anyway, I loved it loved the movie, thought it was fantastic on so many levels. Go see Brittany runs a marathon. It’s out in theaters on Thursday. The last movie I saw I was on the couch just looking for something kind of fluffy to watch in the background while I did some work
and I landed on Nancy Drew and the hidden staircase. This came out in March of 2019. And it was in the theaters very briefly. But guys, this is a really good movie. This is this was adorable if you are looking for something light and fun. If you read the Nancy Drew books as a kid, go and find this one I found it on HBO on demand on my cable service. I’m not sure where else it can be found right now. I haven’t done that much of the research but I give this one two thumbs up for being purely entertaining. And it was fun. It was fun. Nancy Drew the girl sleuth has an awesome 2019 level makeover. She’s skateboarding she’s tech savvy. She’s pretty quick with a comeback to authority figures but in a polite and can’t argue with that kind of way. I loved it. I love this update on the character and I hope we see more because I could see a potential series here. I have no idea if that’s in the workshop that that’s the plans and we child actors it’s hard because they grow up so quickly. Sophie Elias is perfectly cast in this and it was produced by Ellen to generous so I hope we see more of this coming out later.
But uh yeah rated PG parent movie review like kids see it it was it was fun. It was a it was a good who done it kind of thing. And I really enjoyed it really enjoyed it. And well, that’s that’s it for the Monday movie minute. This week. I ended up having two movies that were kind of long and needed a lot of lot of discussion to it. But uh, I hope you’ll see both of them. Now, don’t forget there is a new podcast episode coming on Thursday. That’s going to be the Agents of SHIELD show. And I do love me some agents. I cannot wait to see what that final season brings us. So excited for that. That’s not coming out till this summer. So if you haven’t watched any of the Agents of SHIELD, you got time you got time guys, and that’s why we’re going to talk about this on Thursday. Okay, now don’t forget, subscribe, throw those five star reviews up there. It helps other fan girls find the show. Always always appreciated by yours truly. And yeah, thanks for coming to the Monday movie minute today. Thanks for being growling with me on the no guilt fan girls podcast.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Patty Holliday is a parent movie reviewer, writer, and podcaster living in the Washington, DC area. Her goal is to bridge the gap between casual fandom and picky critic with parent movie and television reviews. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.