So an Orthodox Jew and drunken Scotsman walk into a bar… And have a deep conversation about Star Wars

Not the crossover we expected, but the crossover we needed

When I subbed to Critical Drinker, he had less than 5,000 subscribers -- and now he's been interviewed by friggin' Ben Shapiro. The internet is a crazy thing.

The duel of the fates alone puts Phantom above anything Disney put out.

Miss these types of conversations about star wars. Feels like a different era because we SW fans barely ever talk about this stuff anymore due to how over it is.

"Created by Geniuses and inherited by Morons". The Drinker nailed it. Two of my favorite You Tubers together. Good stuff!

Glad the Timothy Zahn stuff was mentioned. The Thrawn books would have made one of the best trilogies of all-time. I love his Star Wars books.

WOW I can't believe Ben met the Critical Drinker. Ben is so lucky.

This conversation needs to be a trilogy! Bring him back and nerd out some more

I agree with your guys view on Count Dooku on this one. Sir Christopher Lee once said "Everyone has to star in bad movies from time to time. The trick is to not be bad in them."

Solo over Phantom Menace is an absolutely insane take

Love the balance Critical Drinker brings to Ben’s reviews

I was kind of hoping that at the end, Ben would ask to discuss some other issues and Drinker would respond with “ ..actually that’s all I’ve got time for today. Go away now”

Ben you have really hit the Big Time. You were able to get _The Critical Drinker_ on your channel man! Good on you.

You know you've finally made a name for yourself when you do a video with the Critical Drinker. Congrats, Ben!

My Star Wars claim to fame… David Prowse (Darth Vader) had dinner at my folks house in Nottinghamshire back in 1997 and of course I joined them. The bloke was polite, honest and even retold us his side of the story, regarding the riff between him and George Lucas.

Anyway, that's all Ben has for today. Go away now.

It is so refreshing to finally hear someone else acknowledge that Count Dooku was actually a semi good character, sort of. I think Dooku was on the cusp of being a Jedi and a Sith, so he was actually the balance that could see the good and bad equally, which is why he realized what was happening in the Senate and tried to warn Obi Wan. Obi should have listened to him

cool to see The Critical Drinker out of character, love him just as much in and out of it. What a sound man

How is the PHANTOM MENACE THAT LOW? It’s incredibly underrated, Liam Neeson as Qui gon jinn is up there as one of the most interesting and intricate Jedi that’s been written in the series, it was so cool to see a maverick Jedi that saw the flaws within the Jedi council.

I'm so glad the Drinker has come up so far. He deserves it.

This just HAS to be a new series between these two. Super entertaining.

Make this duo happen more often!! Y’all had great conversational chemistry.

Showing Darth Revan at 15:22 was a big plus. The old republic era is a platinum mine of good star wars lore. They could start an entire saga's worth of series in that era using whats already been established.

I was an 11 yr old boy when Return Of The Jedi hit theatres in 1983… there was a line up for over 2 city blocks. Every kid I knew in my hood absolutely loved the Ewoks. Sometimes people forget that certain characters are there to help bridge the gap with the younger audiences. I’m willing to bet more kids from 10-15 in that time period in life loved and appreciated the ewoks. In 1983 you can also bet a massive chunk of the paying audience was us kids going with family (and we were repeat customers). I was so lucky to be alive and at that age of 11 in 1983. I’m 51 today and I still love and appreciate the ewoks and what they meant to me in my childhood.

Just for the scenes of Luke on the bridge with Vader and Palpatine, ROTJ has always been my favorite. "I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

You know you’ve made it as a commentator when Ben invites you on his show lol. I love TCD’s videos and I’m glad he’s doing so well!

It’s time we had a film written by The Critical Drinker and produced by Daily Wire.

Return of the Jedi's climax is unbeatable. Come on. The score that plays when Luke starts to get the upper hand over darth vader gives me chills.

would be cool if Ben showed up on Drinker after hours and hung out talking movies and current entertainment news

Reading the Zahn trilogy to your kids is such a huge win! The Rogue Squadron books are also great for a ton of fun Star Wars stories about the early days of the New Republic told from the perspective of a fighter squadron. Star Wars meets TG Maverick, it's a favorite of mine for sure.

@4:23 I remember the intro crawl on episode 3 said there was heros on both sides. That always made me look at the separatist differently than being just bad guys. And I always find it funny that they put Phantom menace so low. Yes I hate what they did with Jar jar and Anikin but I overlooked that but the coolest Jedi of the whole series Quigon jin was here with Obiwan. I thought that was the coolest combo and I wish that same appentice and student happend with Luke and Rey.

So awesome to see The Drinker have success. Well deserved mate! 😊

So nice to hear Ben have a conversation with virtually no politics involved. Great chat!

So AWESOME to see those 2 gentlemen coming together and exchanging views. Both very intelligent and both very good at presenting their thoughts. Awesome! Big cheers to/for that! Ps: Although I wish Ben would slow down a notch speaking... More rapid than machingun fire ;-)

I enjoyed watching this way too much. A brilliant exchange. Thanks so much for doing this one guys. Bravo.

I have to say it was really awesome to see my favorite political commentator and my favorite movie commentator ranking one of my favorite movie series. I hope you two do some more videos together in the future. This was great.

Ben please keep bringing the drinker on, this is so fucking awesome.

Wow, videos with Drinker and Shapiro is something I didn't know I needed before. More, please!

Rian Johnson: I'm going to destroy a franchise by subverting expectations Chris Chibnall: hold my Bud Light

Star Wars-1977. An epic film which started this whole thing. I was one of those 17-year-old boys who saw it in the theater. I have a lot of memories tied up in it. It will always be my #1 SW film.

"So bad TLJ took a while to sink in" that's very true. It was so bad I was in denial during the movie. I thought Luke was playing a false version of himself similar to how Yoda played a goofy swamp creature before dropping the act. Then the act never dropped. Then the movie was 90% over. What is this?

Rian has actually gone on record saying he hates star wars long before he ever became involved with it.

Very cool to see you hanging with The Critical Drinker Ben! Really enjoying these!

OMG - Critical Drinker and Ben on the same show! What an awesome clip! Is there more? ❤ you both!

When Darth Vader rose from the table in "Revenge of the Sith", people in the theatre stood and cheered. What a great sequence.

15:33 Excellent discussion but now I'm totally distracted. WTF is that in the window? Watching on my phone and it looks like someone just ended a camel. 😂

This is the unlikely collab we've all been waiting a very long time for. The IDW is strong!

The collaboration we needed and deserved. I hope they do more together.

TCD and Ben?! A perfect combo to unpack the Star Wars franchise in a nutshell. And they did it well. I hope we see more "supergroups" like this join up for discussions.

Honestly shocked they both didn’t have ROTS in top three but I understand why, and AOTC I agree had many many MANY issues but that final scene where Dooku fights both Anakin and Kenobi and then Yoda (who from what we see from the originals all the way to that point is frail and old) starts jumping all around acrobatically and with speed and Dooku being such a great duelist, man that scene for me holds AOTC up from the ashes and so does Maul in TPM

Love seeing these crossovers! Drinker is a fab guy who is open to talking to everyone and this was great fun.

The Critical Drinker is one of this generations best movie critics! Awesome for having him on Ben!

I have to rank phantom menace a bit higher simply because the lightsaber battle between Qui Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul in the Duel of fates was quite good. It was the first time we really ever saw some real fast paced sword fighting action. Between that and the cameo from Willow :) two moments that moved the entire film up a bit in rank.

The prequels are way better than people give them credit. All of the subterfuge and manipulations that go on in the background are well done while the hero’s are reacting to moves that in reality happened three steps ago. Also the tragic storyline of the Jedi going against their tenants of being piece keepers and becoming generals overnight without any internal conflict I think is quite telling on how people can react in society when put under enough pressure

My opinion when seeing this video appear: "You can't always get what you want But if you try sometime You'll find You get what you need" Love you two, what a great team up for a video. Get Ben over to Scotland sometime. He has to see oor great wee nation

Holy shit, Ben is a bigger Star Wars nerd than i realized. The moment he mentioned Thrawn, Mara Jade and her marrying Luke, that actually made me go "Oh fuck, he's deep lore!"

The combination i didn't think we needed, great one two combo.

I think Ben secretly wants a movie review channel or permanent component to his existing show. :) This was great!!

'What a pair of assholes'. A line from JAWS by Peter Benchley.

The Ewok thing wasn’t too bad…maybe because I saw it as a kid but they didn’t overdo it. It wasn’t like Jar Jar or anything…in your face the whole movie🙄

We benefit so much from these guys hanging out. Is the Drinker going to make a movie for the Daily Wire? Because that would be epic

This was so cool. Seeing BS chat with the CD/WJ and not really talk about politics at all. Glad CD get some recognition.

Unpopular opinion, but RotJ is the best of all the Star Wars movies. I'll chalk it up to me being 7 when that movie was released, and falling in love with it as a child, but the whole thing is amazing! The operation in Jabba's palace, the death of Yoda, leading up to the amazing finale with 3 separate battles going on: Luke vs. Vader, the battle on Endor, and the space battle - holy shit, to this day it makes my heart soar!. A New Hope was the most inventive and original of the films, and yes, I recognize Empire's more sophisticated take, but for me Jedi will always be the capstone closing episode that paid off every storyline! And the damn Ewoks were cute as hell and fierce warriors! The saddest moment in all three films was when a gliding Ewok got shot down and killed! For someone raised on Saturday morning cartoons, I didn't realize good guys could actually die, and that scene made me cry!

Omg I love the critical drinker. You guys should let him post official reviews on DW !

Fiction is a mirror of reality. I really appreciate you taking the time to discuss something light-hearted with a solid, grounded man that knows his stuff too. In a way, your still talking about everything wrong in our current world, while also giving us a quick escape from it. Phenomenally done and hope to see more some time with you and the Critical Drinker!

Ben is at his best nerding out about stuff he loves

The crazy thing is…the sequels could have worked with anything close to a coherent story. I still maintain that people would care about Finn, Rey, and Poe had they been used better. My fix for the sequels always has been: 1. To Ben’s point…don’t kill Han 2. Turn Rey dark in last Jedi and set her and Kylo up as the two Sith 3. Make Finn force sensitive and have Luke train him to go up against Kylo and Rey 4. Have Lando, Han, Leia, and Ahsoka lead the military against the First Order 5. Have Snoke be a second apprentice Palpatine was training because he foresaw the possibility of Luke turning Vader back. It’s really not hard to come up with a better story, and most of that you could do with The Force Awakens as is, just not killing Han.

It’s great that they got together. I think it could’ve been better if critical drinker had led the conversation. He could’ve done his Tanya and drinking jokes if he wanted, but even without those jokes, I think it would’ve been a more balanced conversation. Having Ben react to some of TCD’s jokes would’ve been priceless too.

The Phantom Menace still has the best lightsaber duel of all time with the Obi/Qui-Gon- Maul duel. Yes Jar Jar was annoying, but the Pod race was awesome. Re-watch it again, it had the best choregraph of any duel ever.

Love this! Note for Ben: these videos really do a lot to help show you are a down to earth guy who likes and enjoys what many of your viewers like and enjoy. Great collaboration here!

That was a really great interview. Good opinions being put forward, and 2 of my favourite KZfaq stars.

The weakness of the prequels wasn't George Lucas, it's that Lucas was deified by everyone there. When you watch behind the scenes clips and interviews from the Original Trilogy they talk about disagreeing with George and figuring out better versions of lines or better ways to do a scene, they are willing to have that conversation. When you watch the behind the scenes clips and interviews from the prequels everyone treats him like God. He can do no wrong and every idea he has is genius, they aren't willing to challenge him on anything. The best movies don't come from one creative person getting everything they want. They come from several creative people all giving each other feedback so the best possible work is done.

One of the worst things for me about Han's death is TFA was seeing Chewie's reaction to watching his oldest friend die. It was so heart-wrenching to watch.

I actually love phantom menace.

I have been waiting for this interview/treatise for so long! This is my cultural Frazier v. Ali Manila match.

I’m glad Ben likes Rogue One. Very underrated

That is a decent and amusing collaboration conversation, plus a reminder of the late, great Christopher Lee, not many of his calibre are left.

How TF did I miss this? Ben and Drinker need to do more together!

11:10 Drinker is so right. I remember getting home from the cinema with mixed fillings. I felt that it was kinda OK... But at the same time kinda horrible. I remember telling my friend "the more I think about it, the more I feel like I hate it. Deeply."

The Phantom Menace should be up as number 5, or even 4, for me. The most epic Jedi lightsaber battle between Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul and his double-bladed lightsaber, while the Duel of the Fates theme by John Williams is playing in the background, is simply iconic in my view.

Refreshing to see The Drinker again. This guy is amazing and because of him I became aware of *The Message* that has been infesting entertainment for a while. Ben and DW, you should consider collaborating more with him.

I love how when Ben was talking about going back to the time of darth bane, they casually slipped in a pic of Revan. To the person who made that edit choice: I see you & you're awesome!!!

This was a nice break from the world. Could use more of it! Thanks! 🙏 😊

My eyes! Isn't the internet a beautiful thing that these two titans of their respective fields can learn of each other and get together to discuss a topic. Incredible! ❤

Phantom Menace has been so underrated, it is much better than people give it credit for

I watched Attack of the Clones with mates after we all had a Dutch oven in the carpark beforehand. We were all stoned off our arses. Eventually, there was a climatic scene where Jago Fett gets decapitated, and little schoolkid age Bobba Fett lifts up the famous helmet and stares at it in wonder. The movie has like a full philharmonic orchestra playing at this point, trying to make it as profound as possible, and give maximum fan-service. Right as the kid is holding the helmet, my mate (stoned AF) asks _"is his head still in there?"_ I swear to god he whispered, or at least he meant to. But somehow, like 6 rows in every direction heard him, and turned around, and then burst out laughing.🤣 Still makes me chuckle to this day. Good times, good times.

Nice job only allowing your kids to experience the originals and the Zahn stuff, Ben. Good parenting, there. Drinker's totally right about the reaction to The Last Jedi, too. I remember walking out of the theater and puzzling over it. The critics had loved it, and I WANTED to love it, but it felt all wrong. My wife got there before I did. She looked over at me and asked, "is it just me, or was that really... disappointing?" I said yeah, it was, but I'm not sure I disliked it. A day went by, and I changed my take from, "I think I liked it," to, "I think it was okay." Fast forward a couple more days, and the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it, and a few days later just thinking about it in any way had me seething with anger. That's when all the emotions like betrayal and feeling absolutely insulted and, frankly, shocked disbelief that they had made this piece of garbage, really began to settle in.

Agreed completely. Do some of the Old Republic novels and stories with Darth Revan and Bane. Do the Timonthy Zane novels The other big thing you left out that destroyed the Last Jedi was the hyperspace jump destroying the ship. If you can do that, then have some robots hyperspace jump ships into the Death Star instead of having a massive battle.

I really really love these conversations. It gives us a bit of a breather from all the super controversial things we constantly meditate on. Drinker is very based

First of all these exchanges are awesome. I really really love watching these collaboartions. I'm in the extremely small minority that would gladly trade Rogue One (which I simply couldn't actually finish rewatching even with a heavy handed fan edit) with Solo, and I put that below Force Awakens... Honestly I like that in Solo force wielders are vasically unheard of. My one pet peve (and which I think is reason enough for some to dismiss it) is how we get a supposedly secretive Sith not only talking to a peon, but actually showing off his ultra secret weapon. Reminds me of the movie A Man Called Sarge where the soldiers enter a hotel with a huge billboard that says Secret Mission. Why would someone of that calliber need to intimidate a trading partner, and why is it that the only way that he can is by doing like a gorilla and flexing with his supposedly covert ultra classified assasin weapon most people would probably know nothing about. It was cheap, lazy writing (but hey its Disney Star Wars, and when they are not insulting and indoctrinating their audience they simply dumb down the plot to make people disgusted with the franchise) But there are some STELLAR fanedits from the prequels. And yes Ill agree with the Last Jedi being far far worse than the second Ewok movie. I think nothing good can be said about it other than thankfully it ends. I seriously don't think its lack of talent, I agree what these dirtbags have is an absolute disdain for their audience, and their civilization. Plus demoralizing what they consider an enemy is part of the tactic. And I say this because the only reason Disney could become a massive flop factory and only care about hiding peoples gag reflex instead of correcting course is beacuse they are doing this deliberately. And they can only do it because they get their funding from something other than their audience. Its a propaganda arm for a bunch of really bad people with massively deep pockets.

this was great! Yall should collab again!

What a fantastic collaboration idea. Glad to see you two joining in on something like this!

6:35 I love those Timothy Zahn novels! What a great choice for a continuation of Star Wars, I hope Ben also reads the Jedi Academy series to them. Im still so upset that Disney didnt use those books as inspiration for the sequels instead of allowing the canon to spiral out of control.

Was a nice break.. you should do more one-on-ones with him.. thanks!

The reason they killed Han is because Harrison would not of returned otherwise. That is why Han was in carbonite at the end of Ep4 - he wanted out of the series. He got paid a lot to do ep6, so the only way he would of come back for 7 is if they killed him off. I was totally expecting it to happen. Ofc he ends up coming back in 9 but that is to honour Carrie.

Luke, tossing the light saber over his back was unforgivable. The millennium falcon just sitting in the desert with the "keys" in it well what can I say? I guess I can blame George for selling the franchise.

this is awesome, i hope both of them get back together and do this again. lots of respect for the drinker and ben.

In terms of the Disney Trilogy: 1. The Force Awakens -It’s a little derivative and basically follows all the major beats you see in A New Hope, but it’s still alright. Set up some interesting ideas. Having thought about it since watching, I would’ve made the attack on StarKiller Base a failure. It would’ve been an interesting twist for anyone who has seen A New Hope a million times and thought it was probably gonna be the same result. I liked the dynamic between Hux and Kylo because it was a twist on the dynamic between Sith Lord and a General. Hux was able to be a little more assertive in his stance because he had the backing of Snoke and Kylo was still relatively young. Boy, I hope they keep Hux as a competent, generally assertive leader who makes good decisions with no emotion… 2. The Last Jedi -Destruction of Luke’s character and the fact that parts of the movie were a complete waste of time aside, I liked that this was different. It didn’t blindly copy Empire Strikes Back. Favourite part was the killing of Snoke which I felt was gonna lead to Kylo Ren becoming the ‘leader of the Sith’ as it were. I also liked the idea that Rey didn’t have to come from anywhere or anyone in particular. The destruction of Luke’s character is a shit stain on the legacy of Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson and no amount of Star Wars content with original characters is gonna make me forgive this betrayal of the fan base. Fuck you Kathleen 3. Rise of Skywalker -I liked it better when Rey thought she came from no where, it’s a nice idea and message to send to viewers that it doesn’t matter where you come from, it’s all about what you do with what you have and you can still do amazing things. Nevermind, instead of that she’s Palpatines Granddaughter, and don’t get me started on him. I didn’t have an ounce of critical thought in my body when I watched these movies (which might explain my moderate assessment of TFA and TLJ) and even though I agree with the criticisms, I remember not hating the first two. While I didn’t hate this film when I watched it, even I rolled my eyes when Palpatine appeared. I don’t care if he’s a clone, or if the force brought him back, or what happened, the fact is, this was flat out lazy. Speaking of lazy writing, General Hux’s betrayal would have to be the most childish piece of writing I’ve ever seen in my life. I reckon that’s something a 7yr old would roll their eyes at. The pacing was awful as well.

Ironically, episodes 4, 5, and 6 are my top three spots. Than 3, 2, 1 are spots four-six. Than Rogue 1. There are more?