- So I know there's real things going on in the world,
but why?
There are different parts of my hair
that are succeeding from the union right now.
It's what happens when I don't immediately put gel
in my hair.
Hi, I'm fine.
It's Thursday.
Also a sample from my hoodie didn't come out right.
I look like a budget Power Ranger.
Unless unlike me you like horizontal stripes,
in which case just send me money now.
Yeah, welcome to the Thursday show.
Hit that subscribe button, like button, all the good stuff,
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing that we're gonna talk
about today is Zack Snyder's "Justice League."
The Snyder cut.
After years of talks, speculation, hope,
and later excitement,
the Zack Snyder cut of "Justice League" has finally launched
on HBO Max.
All coming in at a whopping four hour two minute runtime.
The 2017 "Justice League,"
which came in at just under two hours,
had a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A movie that one critic described as,
"I'm not even sure it's an actual movie.
"It's a two-hour trailer with some okay visuals
"and some decent sound design."
And hey, like with every movie,
it ultimately comes down to you.
You're not gonna have the same opinion as me.
You're not gonna have the same opinion
as some critic or your friends.
So far, the Zack Snyder cut has
actually gotten good reviews.
As of filming, on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 78% critic score,
a 97% from fans.
How much of that is based off of
how much they actually like the movie compared to
how much they like it compared to what they had last time?
That remains to be seen.
But what I can do for you is as someone
that never watched the original "Justice League,"
my quickie review is I actually really like it.
And if you have the time, I recommend it.
At four hours it's gonna be kind of slow for some.
As someone that thanks to the pandemic has gone
on a crazy series binging spree,
it felt fantastically paced.
I kind of just treated it like I was watching a mini series
which Snyder actually splits the story into parts.
I personally didn't think things overstayed their welcome,
but there are gonna be people that have that problem.
I've seen criticisms like sometimes it feels
like there's overwhelming fan service moments.
But one of the biggest keys that people seem to be happy
about is that Cyborg gets an actual story,
which I mean after watching this version,
it would be criminal to cut him out.
Why?
But for me, I give it a thumbs up.
I give it the recommendation.
I'm not giving it a score.
I liked it, which I am aware, for some reason,
opinions on movies and video games are sometimes
more divisive than political stuff, which is crazy.
'Cause it's not like you do or you don't get healthcare
if you like the Snyder cut or not,
until Biden passes it next month.
Great job, liberals.
But in addition to all of that,
question number two is will all of this translate
into a win for HBO Max?
Part of the original reason it was thought to be unthinkable
that a Snyder cut would be released
in addition to it just not being a thing that happens is
that people knew it would cost just a crazy amount of money,
and reportedly it costs $70 million
just to make this version of the movie.
And as others have noted,
it sets up sequels that may never actually happen.
So unlike Disney Plus,
who's pumping out a steady stream of MCU content this year,
there's no real promise of new DC related content
on the horizon at least for HBO Max right now.
With some places like CNBC incredibly critical
of the timing, calling it a missed opportunity
that HBO didn't wait to release the film
with the June international and add to your launches.
But even with criticisms like that,
it's incredibly important to know
that ahead of the Snyder cut premiere,
we saw HBO Max boost it's subscriber projection
from 75 to 90 million subscribers by the end of 2025
to 120 to 150 million subscribers in that same timeframe.
And really, we won't know if this was a winning
or a losing move as far as the monetary aspect
for a few weeks, maybe a month.
When we get to see how many subscribers
they actually were able to onboard because of this movie,
what is their staying power like?
There are other movies like "Godzilla Vs. Kong" coming in
at the end of the month.
You have "Suicide Squad" and "Dune" later this year.
Yeah, ultimately we'll have to wait and see.
The question I'll have with this story,
if you watched the original "Justice League,"
are you giving the Snyder cut a chance?
If you skipped the one in 2017,
are you gonna watch this new one now like I did?
And also for those that watched it, what is your review?
Did you like it?
Was it underwhelming?
What?
Why?
Then in a different kind of entertainment,
it appears that celebrity boxing is still going strong.
Though in this specific instance,
it does not involve one of the Paul brothers,
but instead this time headlined by the,
depending on the group,
controversial creators.
One, TikToker Bryce Hall,
and two, Austin McBroom,
primarily known for the ACE Family here on YouTube.
These two had been kind of blah-blah-blah-ing online.
A lot of it felt really phony and fake to me,
but who knows?
It appeared a few days, oh, they're actually gonna fight.
With Bryce Hall posting a photo
that appeared to be a $5 million contract.
And then it started coming out in part from Austin McBroom
that this is actually a much larger event.
With McBroom at one point framing it
as YouTubers versus TikTokers
And in fact, today we saw Live By Live post this
kind of a fight card.
There's two fighters that are to be determined,
but they kind of turned it into an interactive thing
where they're like, "you pick."
And while I only know some of these people,
and I'm not even sure that I would spend money on this,
I welcome it.
The first KSI Logan Paul fight was fantastic
because it was a bunch of people
that shouldn't be fighting fighting.
Comparatively, these guys not, you get it.
And at times, yeah, it was boring and sloppy,
but then other times it was really weird and sloppy
and kind of fun because of it.
Yeah, like looking at this list, I'm rootin' for one guy.
'Cause once again, I'm not dropping money.
And worst case scenario, we get some memes out of it.
Remember Nate Robinson?
I hate Jake Paul, and that was a great 72 hours.
Although I will say I have a feeling
if you do watch this card you're gonna get an appreciation
for the technique of Jake Paul.
Anyway, I love and hate this stuff.
Then I kind of have to start this story
with welcome to Utah.
Always remember those words
because my first time in Utah,
I went to a restaurant that had a bar.
I asked for a double and they said,
"Nope, can't do it.
"Welcome to Utah."
Things are just a little bit different here.
Which by the way,
the liquor laws are all over the place in Utah.
But the reason that we're talking about Utah today is
that Utah, which is a state
that considers porn a public health crisis,
is poised to potentially pass a bill
that will require all cell phones and tablets sold
in the state to come pre-installed
with filters that block porn.
And understand, like, this is almost across the finish line.
Earlier this month the GOP controlled
state legislature passed the bill.
It now sits on the desk of Republican governor Spencer Cox.
He has until next Thursday to decide
whether or not he is signing it.
And actually regarding that,
in an email to the AP his spokesperson said
that he will carefully consider this bill
during the bill signing period.
And as far as what others are saying,
you have supporters heralding the bill
as an answer to helping parents keep explicit content
away from their kids,
especially since screen time has really gone up
during the pandemic.
But on the other end, you have opponents saying
you've basically got the state mandating the filtering
of lawful content
which raises immediate first amendment flags.
Also there are concerns because yes,
adults would be able to turn the filter off.
However it's being argued that the way
that the bill is currently written could actually apply
to all devices activated in Utah,
raising the possibility
that it could require location tracking
to activate filters on the phones of anyone coming
into the state.
But then to make things even weirder,
and it makes you go, why is this even happening?
Even if Cox does sign this bill,
it would not immediately go into effect.
In fact, it is unclear when it would ever go into effect.
And that's because manufacturers
and retailers managed to convince lawmakers
to add a provision in this bill saying
that it will not go into effect
unless five other states enact similar laws.
Which is the weirdest thing to put in an actual law.
This is the legislative equivalent of your mom going,
"Would you jump off a bridge if your friends did?"
"No, but if five of them do."
And so it was just this weird, messy situation.
It's a ridiculous law in my opinion.
It's also, it feels like theater
because it's not actually going into effect.
It's a state law,
but it requires other states to jump on board.
It means well, but it's kind of weird,
and it's definitely different.
Welcome to Utah.
Yeah.
But from that because I gotta to pay some bills
and thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show,
Indiegogo.
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Then this is for anyone that ever asked me
or any other creator to add captions to their video,
one, I actually do,
but it's the resurface that takes several hours.
So it's not always there at launch,
but two, Google Chrome did a fantastic thing today.
If you have the newest version of Chrome
on your desktop or mobile, you go into settings,
you go into advance,
and there you will now see live captions.
From then on in your browser,
if there's a video or audio playing,
including here on YouTube,
captions will appear on your screen in this little box,
you can actually move it around to wherever is good for you.
So far from my experience, they're actually really good.
Even on my videos, though I talk really fast
like a jerk sometimes,
so that'll sometimes, you know, mess it up.
But it's great.
And if you're someone that has actually used this feature
because you had a pixel phone or a Samsung phone before,
it's essentially that,
but now just to a much wider audience.
So yeah, if you love captions or you
or someone you know is hearing impaired,
definitely tell them about this.
Then in good, but also at the same time maybe bad
because it's confusing news,
let's talk about the IRS.
They have announced
that they're moving the tax filing deadline
from April 15th to May 17,
with the exception of people filing federal taxes in Texas,
Oklahoma and Louisiana who have until June 15th
under a previous IRS announcement due to the winter storms.
And the reason they're doing this is purely
because of the kindness that is in their heart
for Americans that are suffering,
and there were complicated changes to the tax code
under the most recent stimulus package,
and the IRS reportedly has a crazy backlog.
We're talking nearly 24 million filings,
half of which are paper-based returns
that the agency has received but not processed
over the last two years.
All of this is happening
while their processing rates are even lower than last year.
And on top of all of that, like there wasn't already enough,
the IRS is overwhelmed
with trying to get the most recent round of stimulus checks
out to Americas, even though yes,
millions have still not received their checks
from last year's stimulus bills.
Also, as far as why I said this is gonna be confusing
for some, it's because this deadline moving,
this postponement, it only applies to federal returns
and payments, not state returns.
So if you live in one of the 42 States and DC
that collects income tax,
make sure you file by those state deadlines.
Then kind of great news if you hate robocalls,
and this because the Federal Communications Commission
issued a record $225 million fine
to two Texas-based telemarketing companies
for making one billion spoof robocalls back in 2019.
Or rather it issued that fine to two men
who used two fake company names in an attempt
to sell fraudulent short term health insurance plans.
So the FCC saying that one of the men made millions
of spoofed calls per day
and knowingly called consumers on the do not call list
as he believed that it was more profitable
to target these consumers.
And while yes, that is good news.
This is "The Philip DeFranco Show."
I gotta ruin it somehow.
That fine was only about calls that happened two years ago.
And according to the anti-spam app RoboKiller,
spam calls have actually increased 26% from last year,
which is also probably why we're now seeing the FCC saying
they're forming a robocall response team
made up of 51 employees
in an attempt to better crack down on increased robocalls.
Then let's talk about Cherokee County Sheriff's
spokesman Jay Baker who made waves yesterday
for saying that the man who confessed
to murdering eight people, including six Asian women.
- He was pretty much fed up
and kind of at the end of his rope
and yesterday was a really bad day for him.
- And yesterday we talked about how
that comment drew a lot of backlash.
And as we've seen many times before
when that spotlight is on you,
journalists and internet salutes start looking.
With them finding in this instance posts
from his Facebook page last year
where he promoted what people have called
racist anti-Asian T-shirts.
The T-shirts in question played off the Corona beer logo
with the text that reads
"COVID-19 imported virus from China."
And according to screenshots of the posts
that have now been made unavailable,
Baker shared images
and links encouraging people to go buy the shirts
in two separate posts.
Baker himself has not addressed the post,
but Sheriff Frank Reynolds
who's also friends with Baker on Facebook
told the Daily Beast that he wasn't familiar
with the photos, saying,
"I will have to contact him.
"But thank you for bringing that to my attention."
And what followed with all of this is you had people calling
for him to resign or be removed from the investigation
to determine whether or not this was a hate crime committed
against Asian Americans.
People also mocking Baker saying,
"I think Captain Jay Baker is going
"to have a really bad day."
So you had all of that happening there.
And then separately but still connected to this,
you had people angry about a different thing.
Many people and actually many Asian-American people angry
at Asian-American media firm 88 Rising.
This because yesterday in response to these killings,
they posted a yellow square to show support
for the Asian community.
And their idea here is seeming to be their take
on blackout Tuesday
when social media users posted black squares
during the Black Lives Matter protest last summer.
But instead here with yellow
which was a problem for a lot of people.
Yellow is stereotypically used
to represent Asian skin tones.
When used to reference Asian people,
it's often received as a slur.
Plus, in addition to the race side of this,
you had people saying,
we already knew that this wasn't a great idea
after the black squares.
While, yes, you got a lot of people showing solidarity,
one of the biggest things that came out
from the whole blackout movement were people saying,
"Don't do this.
"This is actually stopping the flow of information.
"Overwhelming hashtags and feeds.
"Let's use the space that we have online
"to promote something or to help one another."
But ultimately with this situation
we saw 88 Rising delete the post, apologizing,
adding they were not trying
to start a yellow square movement.
Though we understand how it was misinterpreted.
And ultimately with this,
and actually anything we talked about today,
I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below
because this is the end of the show.
As always if you like getting the news
and some perspective from me,
hit that like button, subscribe button, all the good stuff.
Also, if you're looking for more to watch,
I got you covered right here
or in those top links down below.
But with that said, of course as always,
my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you next time.