Heartwarming / Half in the Bag

• Mike and Jay's generally optimistic hopes for the future of cinema despite having to sit through Transformers: Dark of the Moon with uninterested kids in the audience:
  Mike: Yes this is horribly stupid... but if the film had a really compelling story regardless of Twitter, Facebook or whatever the kid was doing, he probably would've stopped and watched it. So there is still hope if you can make a movie with a compelling story and characters... As long as one scene leads to the next and I'm curious about what's happening. It's human curiosity and that's what engages you, it's the core of a story... No matter what excitement you put on screen "What going to happen next?" is all that matters.
• While they didn't exactly fall head over heels in love with Pacific Rim they have a strange energy when they discuss what they liked about it. It's a very child-like level of excitement and they do bring up all the bits they and nods they found in it.
  • They have a similar attitude towards Godzilla vs. Kong. They point out all the glaring flaws in terms of story and characters, but also throw their hands in the air to admit that they, just like literally everyone else, understand that the main purpose for its existence is right in the title and enjoyed the ride. Mike specifically contrasts his reactions to this film and the aforementioned Transformers films, pointing out that he genuinely liked it in spite of being arguably just as dumb as a Michael Bay film to a degree.
• For the review of The Last Stand and A Haunted House, Mike cracks up over Jay's description of the Seltzer and Friedberg parody movies. For someone whose screen persona is often a dour Deadpan Snarker, it's wonderful to see him give a wholehearted laugh.
• It may just be the physical exhaustion of filming an episode at four in the morning shining through, but Mike looks almost in tears at the beginning of Episode 100 when he says that he loved The Force Awakens and that it was everything he had hoped it would be. It's especially heartwarming considering how long Mike had spent feeling that Star Wars was forever ruined and would never recover after the prequels. However, this doubles as Harsher in Hindsight considering he later reverted back to his bleak view of the franchise's future upon seeing The Last Jedi and feeling that it killed most, if not all of the magic of Star Wars.
• Jay proposing a toast to the late Harold Ramis during the Ghostbusters (2016) review.
• Jay expected Leslie Jones to be the stereotype she appeared to be in the trailer, but was pleasantly shocked to be the funniest, most grounded character in the film.
• Mike and Jay pointing out that it isn't Wonder Woman that girls should be looking up to as a role model, but Patty Jenkins, the Real Life female film director who successfully made the first critically acclaimed female superhero movie in cinema history.
• When talking about Black Panther, after subtly mocking some of the more hyperbolic positive reactions to the movie by listing them out at the start (..."It will be seen as the moment when everything changed"), they get a little more serious and are actually positive about seeing increased diversity and representation in mainstream movies (even if it's at the expense of Paul Rudd "... I'm sick of your face"). As reviewers they conclude that, for all it's positive messages, it's still important to maintain perspective about big budget movies that are ultimately "designed to sell toys".
• Jay and Mike pointing out the sleaziness of the Annabelle: Creation contest was enough to disturb director David F. Sandberg, who wasn't aware of the terms of the contest himself. While it's doubtful Sandberg can do anything about the situation, it at least evoked a My God, What Have I Done? reaction from him, indicating he genuinely thought the contest was helping indie filmmakers.
  • The two are also genuinely respectful and fair towards Sandberg, most likely because they respect him as a fellow Youtube filmmaker who had managed to be rewarded the opportunity to make theatrical films. The fact that the guy is a fan of them probably helped. Not to mention even after Jay gave Sandberg's first film Lights Out (2016) a negative review, Sandberg was a good sport about it. Jay was also quick to apologize for putting on his Caustic Critic attitude when he failed to realize he was talking to the film's director himself.
  • There was also Chris Stuckmann showing up in the comments, clarifying his involvement on the review front of the matter, revealing that he'd been a fan of them for years as well. Considering the guys made a very blatant Take That! to his review of The Emoji Movie and included him in the list of "fishy" reviewers in the same video, him being respectful and polite and stating that he "loved these guys" is rather nice.
  • When discussing Comic Con trailers, they make sure to point out that in spite of what they think of his movies, they clarify that they indeed think Sandberg is a nice guy and SHAZAM! (2019) is most likely the only one they are genuinely looking forward to out of all the films previewed. And sure enough, when the movie came out, they had nothing but very nice things to say about it.
• They think that The Last Jedi is a mess, but applaud Rian Johnson for getting writer/director duties on a major project like Star Wars. Jay also says that he liked the Rose Tico character, which is heartwarming in hindsight considering the hate that both the character and the actress received afterwards to the point where Kelly Marie Tran was harassed off of Instagram.
• Mike and Jay talking about Pink Flamingos during their review of That's My Boy is meant to be a simple Take That! against Adam Sandler, but ends up being one of the most heartwarming descriptions of the film and John Waters' career one could ever hope for.
  Jay: John Waters' movies are filled with fucking freaks and weirdos and people who are not Adam Sandler but you can tell there's a love for these people, even if they're doing weird things, there's still this level of appreciation that they're sort of being themselves.
• A few from Mike and Jay's 2017 film recap:
  • They both agree that it's odd seeing Aubrey Plaza playing a wild party girl in movies, and that it's nice to see her play a character closer to her actual personality in Ingrid Goes West.
  • Mike is very complimentary towards Bria Vinaite, the actress who plays the mother in The Florida Project, declaring that she deserves every award she could get for her role.
• Mike absolutely gushing about Annihilation (2018) and genuinely wondering why nobody is hyped about this movie with a female-centric cast of scientists and soldiers in an intelligent sci-fi thriller.
• Giving a Shout-Out to Brian Butterfield when mentioning Peter Serafinowicz's role in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). "Just because we can".
• From the Money Plane review, while listing off the many bad things going on in the world, one of the things Jay mentions is that no one remembered his birthday. Mike then says that he remembered, before running off to the back of the shop and coming back with a large birthday cake. Though the cake gets blown up before they have a chance to eat it, it was still an incredibly sweet gesture.
• Rich and Jay give Bill & Ted Face the Music many passes for its many shortcomings because they admit it's a very welcome hour and a half of silly wholesomeness, which they feel is especially needed in 2020.
• Mike and Jay Pet the Dog and admit that while they love Sacha Baron Cohen and the Borat films, they do genuinely feel bad about all the people Cohen had tricked into revealing their prejudices. While they admit some of these people can genuinely be horrible, they bring up for instance how the misogynistic frat boys Borat encounter in the first film have probably grown as people but have to live with the embarrassment of being pranked by Borat and having said awful sexist things on camera for the rest of their lives. They even point out how the infamous Rudy Giuliani bit, even though they admit to not liking Giuliani, was very likely a subject of Manipulative Editing.
• The ten year anniversary video. George Lucas finally confronts Mike and Jay for driving him to sell Star Wars to Disney. Instead of more goofy shenanigans (mostly), Mike and Jay sit George down and have a friendly chat with him about his loss of relevance. To cheer him up, Mike and Jay invite George onto Best of the Worst and they all have a blast laughing at The Man Who Saves the World aka Turkish Star Wars.
• In their review of Knock at the Cabin, Jay and Mike take a moment to praise M Night Shyamalan as an experienced director who knows how to competently direct a movie, especially in comparison to some of the terrible directors they've covered in the past.

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