"You told poor Love, that you'd never set it free. Now the time has come, for you to try it again babe. Unlock your love, cause i'm coming in, Allrounda".
"I want more joy out in the world. I want people to feel good about the things they like, as opposed to feeling attacked all the time."
Movies with Mikey is a series on the YouTube channel FilmJoy by ex-Gearbox Software developer Mikey Neumann and his editor Thaddeus. The series is known for its goofy optimism (courtesy of Mikey's For Happiness outlook), and flashy style thanks to Thaddeus' mastery of Adobe After Effects.
Mikey's philosophy is to celebrate the positive aspects of movies and to analyze the themes and character arcs, trying to say something new about each movie he covers. He also co-created with Thaddeus a separate series under the FilmJoy brand called Deep Dive, where he, Zoe Wells, Elisa Melendez, and fellow Gearbox employee Sam Winkler watch movies that have been panned critically and commercially, and they must find the positive aspects of them.
In 2017, Movies With Mikey was nominated for an Emmy Award.
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Movies with Mikey has made videos about:
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- Adaptation.
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
- Amélie
- Arrival
- Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War
- Big Trouble in Little China
- Blade Runner 2049
- The Cabin in the Woods
- Creed
- The Dark Knight
- Demolition Man
- The Emperor's New Groove
- The Fifth Element
- The Force Awakens
- The Fountain
- Galaxy Quest
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- The entire Harry Potter film series.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
- Hot Fuzz
- Hugo
- Inception and Ambiguous Endings
- Interstellar
- The Iron Giant
- Jarhead
- John Wick
- John Wick: Chapter 2
- Ladyhawke
- Last Action Hero
- The Last Jedi
- Logan
- The Long Kiss Goodnight
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- How to make a Shared Universe using the example of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Monster Factory
- Moon
- Pearl Harbor
- Princess Mononoke
- Road to Perdition
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
- The Rocketeer
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
- Serenity
- How to make a perfect Sequel
- Shaun of the Dead
- The Force from the Star Wars movies
- How we see Star Wars
- Stranger Things
- Sunshine
- Why Thor: Ragnarok is the perfect reboot
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Secret Ofthe Ooze
- Wonder Woman (2017)
- The World's End
- Zodiac
Deep Dive has made videos about:
Tropes:
- Applicability: During his analysis on John Wick, Mikey notes the Word of God analogy where "If John and Viggo are the gods of New York, Winston is the Titan" and extends it to compare John's complicated, yet epic Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the criminal underworld as several gods and titans clashing on Mount Olympus away from the mortal realm, with several of John's allies and enemies in his quest being analogous to Greek gods or titans. Mikey notes how it likely wasn't intended to line up that far but finds it fascinating how much it actually does.
- Author Avatar: In his video about Thanos, and the attendant trauma that follows him and his quest for universal balance, Mikey says Peter Quill is this for director James Gunn as a vehicle for coming to grips with the shlock jock he used to be, and continues the metaphor in Guardians 2.
- Big Heroic Run: One section of "The Story of Mission Impossible" explores Tom Cruise's frequency to do this in his many films, detailing the sheer amount of commitment he puts into his running as a microcosm of the dedication he puts in making movies.
- Breather Episode: Mikey considers Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be one to the entire Harry Potter film series, as it allowed the heavily-burdened teenage characters moments to be normal teenagers like they were in a John Hughes-esque romcom (as well as gave the audience all the Fanservice they could cram in) before the Grand Finale. He finds the fact that it manages to pull this off while continuing to actually lead up to said finale and escalate the already-extreme tension nothing short of miraculous.
- Characters and Casting: He explores a multiple Casting tropes in his ''The Batman Question'' video.
- Ability over Appearance: The whole point of the video is to push to see what creativity can be given to Batman as a character when we stop being so dedicated to making Batman a white, cis male.
- Colorblind Casting: Throughout the video, Mikey advocates for Janelle Monáe, Kumail Nanjiani, Viola Davis and Idris Elba as cool ideas for who could play Batman. Interestingly enough, Monáe announced that she would rather play The Joker, which Mikey fully supports.
- Cross-Cast Role. As well as the above-mentioned Janelle Monáe and Viola Davis, Mikey also advocates for Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep for Batman as well.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Mikey's on screen persona.Mikey: (talking about Wonder Woman) We're going to talk about how this movie has...the fetchness. Wait, hold on a second. (talking to his "creative team") Did we or did we not have a whole meeting about how we're not going to use the word "fetchness"?!
- Couch Gag: A title card containing a humorous statement appears between the title cards for the series and episode title.
- Creative Closing Credits: Mikey ad-libs silly jokes based on Patrons' names while the credits roll.
- Crossover:
- Did a two-part collaboration with fellow video essayist Patrick (H) Willems on "The Story of Mission Impossible", each providing intersecting commentary on the franchise as a whole.
- Also did a two-part collab with Dan Olson of Folding Ideas for Christmas in 2020. Mikey's video, "The Trial of Christmas Movies", breaks down and analyzes miscellaneous "Christmas movies" to deduce which is the most "Christmassy", while Dan's video, "Let's Argue About Christmas Movies", breaks down the nature of defining movies as "Christmassy" itself, further discussing the various cultural and social implications of the act.
- Damned by Faint Praise: His analysis of The Rise of Skywalker concludes that it's not as bad as people make it out to be, and is a fun, harmless action flick...But it also shows how Star Wars has lost all artistic integrity, and retroactively undoes the artistic integrity it once had, to the point where Mikey firmly takes back when he said Star Wars was important to our culture, and that he has no intention of covering the franchise ever again (alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
- His analysis of Space Jam: A New Legacy, despite tearing the film apart for its rabidly corporate nature, how it highlights how far Warner Bros. has fallen, and warped morals, similar to The Rise of Skywalker he says that the film is "fine" on its own and in general that
he finds the act of hating on media made for kids online to be "cynical".
- His analysis of Space Jam: A New Legacy, despite tearing the film apart for its rabidly corporate nature, how it highlights how far Warner Bros. has fallen, and warped morals, similar to The Rise of Skywalker he says that the film is "fine" on its own and in general that
- Deliberately Monochrome: Often done to clips of a film when Mikey is making an important point.
- Determinator: Get Off The Floor is about Mikey's attempt to continue the show while learning how to walk and talk again after his body essentially shut down for part of 2017. A lot of the earlier episodes, including ones on Moon, Amélie, and Creed, were him "giving [[himself]] Rudy speeches" to get himself to keep going with just life in general.
- Foregone Conclusion: His reviews of movies in the vein of "Does (X) Hold Up" answers the question by the sheer fact that the video exists: Yes, the movie holds up, and Mikey is going to take the next 15-20 minutes to tell you why and how it's still relevant. In deference to this obviousness, Mikey usually answers the question immediately in the video.
- For Happiness:
- Mikey's core philosophy, see the page quote. This leaks into his videos quite frequently.
- This also gets discussed in his Amélie video, where Mikey praises the title character for wanting to spread joy to her neighbors, love interest, and strangers alike.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- "Get Off the Floor" is the largest departure from the series' format by a wide margin, as rather than being a retrospective on a piece of media, it's a mini-autobiography of Mikey's experiences following his ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis, putting previous episodes of the series in this context.
- His review of Big Trouble in Little China is delivered entirely in crusty, posh British accent, and frequently meanders into Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. Because Mikey thought it would be hilarious.
- Guilty Pleasure: He views Batman & Robin as this, primarily due to its So Bad, It's Good quality.
- Outside of media, in the Amélie video Mikey admits he likes volunteering to eat burnt sausages.
- Hero Worship: He does not hold back when he talks about filmmakers that he admires. He goes out of his way to find out about people involved in productions and then heaps praise on them, from the costume designers in Wonder Woman (2017) to the absolutely bonkers way Alfonso Cuaron retooled the Harry Potter film series after stepping in unexpectedly.
- Innocent Bigot: Parodied in his Arrival video."Sorry to speak for those displaced in non-linear time. I need to check my understanding of linear time privilage. I'm sorry."
- Jerkass Realization: "Get Off the Floor" begins with Mikey contemplating his time at Gearbox, saying that while he has fond memories working there and helping create Borderlands, he acknowledges that he was a lot less pleasant than he would've liked to be, giving a sincere apology for everyone he mistreated during that time.
- Lemony Narrator: Mikey has a very idiosyncratic style of narration, frequently mumbling to himself about topics that come up in the video (dubbed "catawumpus") and describing the movies using the word choice of a college-educated film major but the tone of an excited child. This is part of the reason for his show's popularity.
- Mood Whiplash: Despite Mikey's goal for the series being to celebrate the sheer joy of films, his videos often end up driving into pretty emotional and sad territory by the end. Maybe the most extreme version is his video Get Off The Floor, where he tells an anecdote about how he thought he had psychic powers due to the Ativan he had to be put on in order to get a series of MRIs during his stay in the hospital. The rest of the video is about him trying to put his life back together after losing the ability to move, which resulted from his previously undiagnosed (or relatively benign) multiple sclerosis.
- The entirety of the review of The Iron Giant, coming as it did after a particularly horrific terror attack in Florida. The film ultimate ends with an impassion plea on the verge of tears to treat other people as human beings. This is after ten minutes of discussing the hilarity and awesomeness of Brad Bird's directorial and animation style.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He has this reaction when he uses a pun in his video on The Emperor's New Groove.
- Non-Indicative Name: The show isn't as exclusively about movies as the show's name implies, with Mikey having done episodes talking about TV series (Stranger Things and Pushing Daisies), and even Monster Factory, a Youtube web series.
- Obsessed with Food: A reoccurring joke is Mikey using food similes only to get distracted by the food.Mikey: Shrek is like tacos. God, I really want a taco now.
- The Oner: Mikey loves a good oner, and spends a sizable amount of time in his review of Last Action Hero talking about how many completely ridiculous oners there are.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mikey's normally a very positive, excitable person, both in real life and in his videos. The few times he gets angry, then, are when he feels the message of whatever movie he's analyzing are important, as is the case with his The Iron Giant video (released in the wake of the Pulse shooting), his Hot Fuzz video (released in the 2017 climate of racially charged Police Brutality), and the Dumbo portion of his Lessons Animation Taught Us video (discussing the film's racism and Mood Dissonance).
- Orange/Blue Contrast: His video on Hugo discusses how the entire film's visual palette is based around this scheme, effectively a throwback to the classic monochrome films Hugo itself is a love letter to, just with the modern equivalent of black and white.
- A Rare Sentence: In "A Eulogy for Batman & Robin", in the final eulogy, Mikey says, "It was time to move on from Tim Burton to Joel Schumacher. That's a sentence that exists."
- Riddle for the Ages: He adores how Blade Runner 2049 handled the original Blade Runner's riddle of "Is Deckard a Replicant?", that is by completely ignoring it, because it doesn't matter.
- Running Gag: "BUT DID YOU KNOOOOW???" delivered by the same robotic voice and always accompanied by a picture of Bounty Hunter!Leia, placed whenever Mikey wants to share a fun fact or just because he wants to include it.
- Shout-Out: He makes a shout out to his friend, Lindsay Ellis in "How to Make a Shared Universe", referencing her ongoing desire to see a Dark Universe version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Ansel Elgort.
- Soft Reboot: He argues that Thor: Ragnarok is one to the Thor series.
- The original Chainsawsuit Original series was specifically devoted to reviewing 90's movies, starting with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). This premise was more or less abandoned, and now he reviews whatever movies he wants, though occasionally he brings up what the original premise was, such as when he goes back to look at a 90's movie.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Mikey gets into an argument with the music in "Why Thor: Ragnarok is the perfect reboot" for being first too scary and then too happy for the point he was making.
- Special Guest: His video on Amélie features Justin McElroy popping in to do his "impression" of the title character, and banter with Mikey.
- Take That!: In the ending segment to his video on The Dark Knight where he widely praises Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker, Mikey takes a somewhat lighthearted jab at Jack Nicholson for once expressing doubt of Ledger's potential at the character, and a decidedly less-lighthearted jab at Jared Leto for not only his lackluster performance of the character in Suicide Squad, but his infamous attempts at behind-the-scenes Method Acting.
- Values Resonance: He argues that Hot Fuzz is extremely relevant to today's modern political climate, with the big focus being the film's awesome representation of cops doing their jobs and serving as positively-contributing members to society, especially in relation to how media in general distorts the perception of police by glorifying violence.
- Villain Protagonist:
- His video on The Dark Knight is a lengthy discussion on how he considers The Joker to be just as much of a heroic protagonist (for a certain definition of one, anyway) as Batman himself.
- In one of his rare negative videos, he considers Thanos of Avengers: Infinity War to be one of these done poorly due to how it simultaneously plays him as a mad half-Omnicidal Maniac who treats his supposed loved ones with horrific cruelty, but also a sympathetic, even agreeable figure in his quest for genocide. Mikey finds his character horrendously cynical in how relatable the audience is supposed to find him, especially since it inadvertently implies that cruelty is a valid approach for love.
- Vindicated by History: Discussed as a major point in his "How We See Star Wars" two-parter, namely with how despite it currently being the gold standard everyone compares all future Star Wars films to, The Empire Strikes Back was extremely controversial at the time of release, with many debating the merits of its more unusual story structure, uncharacteristically darker tone, and lack of closure since the final part of the trilogy wasn't out yet. In other words, the exact same reaction people had to The Last Jedi.
- Also, he points out the inversion: people loved The Phantom Menace when it came out, and critics praised Jar Jar Binks.
- Wham Line: When discussing the power of nostalgia and how it can be used to manipulate audiences in his review of Blade Runner 2049, he plays a very abbreviated clip of the Duck Tales theme song, before asking the audience:Mikey: Did you oo-Woo-oo?
