Episode 1: Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980)

Weir in. Hello everyone, I'm welcome to the Chasing Chevy Podcast, a podcast where we chase down Chevy Chase and ask him questions and he doesn't respond. No, that's not what we're doing on the show. We're gonna be talking about the films of Chevy Chase that we are contending are his vehicle films. No, not the movies where he's in cars, but the movies where he is the star.

I am joined by not well, who am I? Who am I? You ask? This is not ranking on bass. I am the host of the Culture Cast, Chris Stashue, and I'm joined by my two good friends all the way from the projection booth.

You have heard him when we talked about foul play on Mark Begley's Wake Up Heavy. Who's also here, Mike White, What a weird introduction? Yes, yes it is, yeah, no sense? Yeah? And also Mark Begley from Wake Up Heavy is here stamps with animals?

Yes, I believe we do. And on this episode of the Chasing Chevy Podcast, we're kicking it off by taking a look at a film that everybody remembers and it's and remembers so fondly and oh don't you remember the first time you watched Oh Heavenly Dog. I sure don't nep. That's right. On this episode, we're kicking off our show with a look at nineteen eighties fantasy comedy film comedy question mark Oh Heavenly Dog.

It's not a talking cat. There's no question marking there, it's just oh exclaimed, haven't lived? Oh? I know. I did the line reading intentionally incorrect, hoping one of you would come to it's not there's no marks, And now I've fell into your trap.

You made the classic thunder. How folly is you? That's right. The film is directed by Joe Camp, written by Rod Browning and Joe Camp, and its stars Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour and Everybody's favorite dog from the eighties and seventies. I guess at least, Mike, I know, Mike, you're a fan of the the Benji films, and Chevy Chase plays character named Benjamin, who is a private detective who is hired for a job that is not what it seems, only to be murdered and comes back to life as a dog that that happens to keep running into Jane Seymour, at least before he dies, but after he dies, he becomes attached to the hip by Jane Seymour's author character, who is now investigating the murder of chevy Chase and the and that chevy Chase was hired to protect, who turns out to be a parlem budding parliamentarian's girl.

For it, there will be spoilers this movie, however. It's from nineteen eighty so it's been a while, and it's also on YouTube if you want to watch it in its entirety, which may be the easiest place to find this movie, because this is not a movie that is easy to find on top of everything else. So Mark, I'll kick it to you. First first time watching this movie? What did you think?

When was the first time? If it wasn't this, No, it was, it was, And I was wondering before watching it. I'm like, wait a minute, did I watch this? I was looking at the pictures on IMDb and it sort of looked familiar. Some of the Jane Seymour shots were ringing a bell and sat down to watch it last night and I was like, nope, I've never seen this.

So it was a first time watch and possibly last time watch. Oh I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I was hoping. Unfortunately, you seem really disappointed that you didn't like it, like I see. Yeah, yeah, you seem a little disappointed that you didn't enjoy it. I was, Yeah, I don't know.

Something about his inner monologue the whole time just did not work for me. Oh, I think it's pretty obvious what's wrong with the inner monologue. But I'm sure we'll get to it. Mike, what about you? What did you think of?

Oh, Heavenly Dog? This is not my first time seeing this. I grew up on the Benchi movies. So the first Benching movie came out when I was two years old, and so Benji has pretty much been a part of my life since I was growing up. So I think I remember.

I think they showed this to us in school. I mean it feels like they wheeled in not the projector, but like the VCR, because I remember we watched some weird shit when I was in elementary school, like Escape from Which Mountain and Return to Which Mountain? And I want to say, even though there are a few expletives in this, I mean this was the nineteen seventies, we were okay, you know, having shit in our PG or G did movie and this one I think is a PG, right all those years ago, so because it's pretty adult for that was one of the things that took me by surprise. I was like, Oh, this isn't like a Binge movie right right, they're playing to an older audience here, but you that was and had tits in it, like it's yeah, I mean Jaws was PG.

I mean this this fits as a PG. And yeah, this is before Reagan took office, so I guess we're still okay without having the Nanny State. So yeah, I I don't know how many times I've watched this, but watching it again yesterday for the show, I was just like, oh, yeah, all of this is very familiar to me. I think I remembered even who the murderer was. But this is the Omar Shariff appearance that I grew up with.

Even more than top Secret. This was the the first time I think I saw Jane Seymour, even before I saw her as Domino in Live and Let Die and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman. I mean, this was it for me. This was a big deal. Movie came out I guess when I was eight years old, and yeah, I remember watching it quite a bit and Benji just being a major celeb back then, and I didn't realize like this whole thing of Joe Camp being the Benji director but also working on some other things as well.

But and then even his son is now in the Benji business. There was a twenty eighteen Benji film that his son directed, Brandon, And I mean, obviously it's not the same Benji. I think even the Benji that was in the first Benji film in nineteen seventy four isn't the same Benji as this. But yeah, and I for some reason, I always had it in my head like, oh, well, Benji is a French star Benji and Jean and uh, he was a huge phenomenon in France. No, that's not the case.

He's instead, he's what He's got two trainers in one of them. He's just got this huge mustache, big fat guy. Where's a captain's hat around and these crazy red pants and just yeah, to watch the background on Benji, because there was a TV special made around both this and the he did a Marine Land special as well, So watching that hosted by Adam Rich, who I still dislike to this, I don't know what it was about Adam Rich. Maybe it was his haircut, I don't know, but yeah, that was a little turd on eight is enough. It was a little turret.

He kind of reminds me of like a Cousin Oliver type of kid, which is like, get this guy out of here. Wasn't even on Battlestar Galactica. So that we're changing this from the Chevy Chase cast to the eye Adam Rich. Isn't ironic that Adam Rich's final role was in Dicky Roberts Former Child Star. That's a real that's real.

It is real. I can't remember if I ever saw that movie, but I think about it. Hey, any any movie that is considered David Spade vehicle can only be one of two things bad or really bad. Well, I do like some Joe Dirt, at least the original, not the deer tay you mean, So, I guess we kinda we didn't see we jumped the gun a little bit. But if you listen to our foul play episode over on Mark show Wake Up Heavy, you probably have a better idea of us as as Chevy Chase fans are where we come in at it.

But I would say the three of us consider ourselves fans of chevy Chase, right, all from maybe different angles or approaches or things that got us into chevy Chase. Mike, would this be the thing the first? Like chevy Chase, this us had been the first chevy Chase thing you ever saw, right? I mean I might have seen foul Play before this, but yeah, this was probably the one that really got me in there. I mean, I remember watching a little SNL in the mid seventies, but it was probably later seventies, probably like around the time of foul Play, So I don't even know if he was still on SNL at that time.

What about you, Mark? It would have been because of SNL, even though I didn't really watch it. It was such a phenomenon that a lot of kids, you know, got wrapped up and stuff like Coneheads and land Shark and King Tut and all that stuff that just permeated popular cultures. So I know that I was into all of these guys and wanted to see the movies that they were in, and this one just passed me by. But chevy Chase is the one person that I have had a signed picture of I wrote to him.

I don't know how or where I sent my request, but I think I did him and Steve Martin and a couple of those other Saturday Night Live guys, and I'm pretty sure he's the only one that or his assistant sent me a signed headshot of Chivvy Chase. Wow. No, I think it ended up. I think it was in that Saturday Night Live book. I don't know if you remember this mic, but for my show Cambridge and was Sean, it did an episode on my Saturday Live Obsession and I had I had a book when I was a kid, and I've been trying to track it down for years and finally found it online on the Internet archive and my made a PDF of it for me, and then I ended up buying it on eBay anyway, but I think I had it stored in that book, and that book is long the one I had as a kid is long gone.

So yeah, I was a fan of his just because of Saturday A Live, and I was I'm a little bit older than you, Mike, but I never really watched it because it was on so late and it was kind of adult and you know, with cast things. Every once in a while, if my parents went out later, something that we had a babysitter, and so I mean he was only in the first season and maybe the first six or so episodes of the second season, so I probably didn't. And that was seventy five seventy six, so I would have been like six and seven years old, So I don't think I even saw him on Sora Alive until years later when you boil down his presence on Saturday Night Live. It is shocking how much of an impact he made with as little time as he was on the show.

But I think that speaks to Chevy Chase. I mean again, we've we talked on the foul Play episode a little bit about him and his whatever's Like, I mean again, like guy's never been accused of any of the really bad stuff in Hollywood, thankfully. I mean, I don't think we'd be doing an entire show about somebody who had like hundreds of allegations against them of any sort of really upsetting type. But it's just the usual, like just you know, creative and personality and ego things getting in the way. So you know, again we kind of already mentioned it, but like he made such an impact with such a little amount of time.

I mean, the first thing I saw him in was Fletch. That made it a huge impact on me personally. And it's not that I went and tracked down all the other movies he was in because of Fletch, but I just rewatched Fletch a lot. I just rewatched that one movie and then the sequel, so that was my entry point. And I watched Fletch on dives of all things, I remember owning it on DiveX, that in the sequel, and that being one of those DiveX movies that was actually purchased so that it could be rewatched over and over again, because that was the whole scam slash gimmick with those things was oh, pay us ten bucks and you can watch the thing you bought again.

Okay, I don't know, like in this day and age with all the stuff in people's houses that has to have subscriptions anyways, Like now it kind of makes sense. But then it was like, Okay, this is weird. I had never seen this, though I had seen it come up a couple times as like a thing that I was going to watch or should watch, or had thought about it. I know, we'd talked about it before, like it had come up like oh, Heavenly Dog a couple times, like we had just talked about it in passing, So it's weird to finally be watching it. Uh.

That being said, I kind of am in the middle, like I could see, Mike, why if you saw this at the right age, it would be not like something fun, but something that has like a level level of memorability to it, because there are some things that are mildly memorable. The dog parts, the parts in Heaven, I think are kind of interesting. Star Wars, Star Wars Heaven, Oh my yeah, that was hilarious. Yeah. When my wife and I were watching it, I was like, oh, look, this movie came out just a little bit around the time of Star Wars, didn't it.

I didn't even have to know that this movie came out in eighty When they make that Star Wars, everything was like, man, this was such a thing, but it I don't know. It's also weird to now be living in a time where like Star Wars is still a fucking thing, because in nineteen eighty I don't think if you would them like, oh, by the way, we're still burdened with Star Wars in twenty twenty three, Like yeah, right, you are so found I found the movie to have its charms, but Chevy Chase is ultimately the reason this movie doesn't work because all of that fucking narration is just like, dude, where is the effort? What are you doing? Like, uh, it's pretty bad. I'm a dog now?

Like what in it? Oh, it's weird, like there's it's obvious that he went back in and re recorded it, which is the case, but it just doesn't seem like his heart was in it in some of those line readings. Harry Harrison Ford in in Blade Runner. Yeah yeah, yeah, Harrison Ford and Blade Runner is like Shakespeare compared to this. Yeah, this is I mean this, this actively impedes my ability to enjoy the movie because it's like, Chevy, if I'm expected to take you as the dog at the moment, make it seem like it you're oh, I'm a dog now?

Yup? All right? What am I doing? Oh? I'm looking at something.

Okay, let me do the line reading. Oh no, watch out, don't hurt me. Like it's just like there's no emotion. It's like he read it the way it was written on the page and he wasn't watching the movie, which I know was that's how they did this. They synced it up with the movie, like he is watching the movie doing the line readings, and it's just like, man, we're I'm not saying it would have fixed anything or everything, but it would have fixed the latter two thirds of the movie not working or being funny or I having I don't know.

It's so weird how bad the line readings are. It really gets in the way of my ability to enjoy parts of I had no real problems with the line readings it. I don't know why they assumed that they could record the voice over first and then do the Benji parks, because you don't know exactly how that stuff is going to go. It's not like the animation where you can draw to the voice. The dog won't do things to the voice.

I mean, the stuff that Benji is doing here, I think is pretty dark, incredible. And then yeah, I was glad watching behind the scenes and seeing things like him getting kicked out of the hotel or the cartman building brittle down the fucking stairs. Yeah, but I'm like, oh, okay, so there's one trainer who's in the lobby calling. There's another trainer who's in this window up here, and there. It's really kind of schizophrenic because one's calling, so Benji looks over here.

The other one calls, so he looks up there and then back and forth. So he's like, you know, contemplating how he's going to get into this building and then looking up at her window, at the dead woman's window. It's like, oh, okay, well that's kind of cool. Before we get to the weird gay parts with Ellen ohs I love gay characters in the seventies and eighties. Man, It's like, it's like, you couldn't exist in real life, but hey, movies exist, thank god.

It's so weird, like his part just feels so abridged, and that he died off screen in someplace, got run over by a car. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, oh my god, why was this character that you just introduced during this one scene? Why did he come back?

Because he adds nothing to the narrative whatsoever other than saying, oh, it's the one with the porcelain bird. And I'm like, how do you even know who this woman is? Because I don't know when you died in comparison to the Chevy Chase character to Benjamin, so this is bizarre. So I don't mean to poke holes in this well thought out narrative or anything, but it was just a little odd for me, And it was almost as odd as her coming back Jane Seymour coming back as a cat at the very movie, and me just thinking this is not Ghostbuster. Yeah, these are not cats and dogs sleeping together.

This is this is a whole other thing. You ever see an elephant make love to a pop belly pig? Are you telling me that in this movie that they didn't think out the idea of inner species erotica? I think it's called slash fiction. Oh okay.

My daughter and I kind of looked at each other, like, how is this supposed to work? Well? I guess it would have been funnier if he had come back as a rat in terms of logistics. Yeah, yeah. I did want to point out also, is like, is this a Benji like origin story?

Because at the end of the movie, he goes, my friends call me Benji, and it's like, okay, so that's the dog's name that everybody knows. This dog actor by is Benji. So are we to believe that every Benji movie is now it's just Chevy Chase's Benji and that's why Benji can do human things is because it's a human soul trapped in Benji's by I'm just asking, as they say, I'm just asking questions. I mean, he says it in the end, like it's unnecessary for him to go on Benji at the end. It's like whoa movie.

Hold on a second, I thought it was first saying what do I call you? Do I call you bj? And he's like, no, because that sense from blowjob? I don't name anything known by that. Yeah, so maybe my real name is Benjamin.

And she's like, well, you don't seem like a Benjamin. How about a Benji? And I think he says no to that. Oh, he says, my friends used to call me Benji. Okay, Yeah, so that's what I'm saying, Like, is it a Benji origin story?

Like you're I don't think. I don't think they're trying to ret kon the entire Benji thing. Since the first one had come out like what six years prior to that, they'd already had like quite a few things in between. Uh yeah, I don't think we're supposed to consider every subsequent movie to be Chevy Chase inside of Benji. I mean, I like to I think is I don't know true, that's true.

I mean, what was that line about outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend, but inside of a dog it's way too dark to read. Yeah, you know, all all of the kind of the weird is Chevy all of that aside, Like I can I feel like, yes, the stuff with Chevy Chase is not great. But I think to your point, Mike, like obviously if you view this as a Benji move, I think the Benji stuff is fine. It's just this is a weird way to get to Benji solves a murder, right, because like, you could have done this any other way, any multitude of ways, including Benji just being your dog sidekick that helps you but doesn't isn't have a human soul in it, isn't speaking English while you're again like speaking English to other animals, and there's a there's an hierarchical Evan involved.

You could have just had MGB somebody's dog that they keep with them like it, I don't know, like to get to this point, the witness to the murderer and well he could have been that gal's pet and doesn't see the murder but how you know, has to help Chevy. Maybe he just didn't want to be in the movie, you know, like, oh I only have to shoot a couple of days. Great, Oh yeah, well that's sit in the studio the rest of the time. Well yeah, because he had three movies that all came out in nineteen maybe because this came out what two weeks or two months? I think it was two weeks before Camby Shack And I wonder how it doesn't feel like a nineteen eighty movie to me.

It feels a little like it may have been shot a couple of years earlier or something. I don't know. Well, the shitty quality of the video does not help either. Oh yeah, that plus plus all the sets. When he first goes up to his office, I was like, man, that looks like a TV set.

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. I don't think they had a whole lot of money. Yeah. In the other Beni movies, is their narration?

Is there an inner monologue? No? Which makes it really painful because I tried to watch the first Benji movie again yesterday, and it's so Benji has a theme song. Charlie rich sings this theme song, and that theme song just keeps playing over and over and over again as you watch. I mean, Benji's adorable and he's watching him do all this stuff, and he goes around.

He visits like this family where it's this maid and these two kids, but then they also visits Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction, which I didn't realize that Benji had been on Petticoat Junction, and then he also there's like a few other people, and then it becomes like this whole kidnapping plot and stuff, and no, he doesn't say anything, and there's no v LEAs over narration, so you're just like bop like over and over and over again as you watch Benji just doing stuff, and I'm like, I can't take this anymore. I can't take the music, just over and over. And then I watched that making up thing that Benji worked thing, and at one point they start playing that song. I'm like, oh my god, I had flashbous.

So it sounds like you wanted the chevy Chase narration. You wanted Chevy Chase in those helps It helps, Yeah, it definitely does. And he adds a couple little things in there. I didn't mind this one nearly as much as you guys chuckles. I didn't.

Again, I don't think I disliked it. I just think it's weird for the star quality and caliber of chevy Chase, Like this is not This is not the time that I would have expected him to be phoning it in. I guess is more kind of my thinking, like maybe if this movie had come out, like because obviously know how much of research y'all did into movies where people get reincarnated as dogs. Oh yeah, but I'm a big body swap fan, so yeah, this might have been the origin. There's one in two thousand and three starring Gary Busey where he is quiggly, and it's like, I know that these kinds of movies have been coming out and that this kind of movie is popular.

So it's not like, oh, Chevy Chase is making this movie in two thousand and four and it's a lark. He's being asked to do this in nineteen eighty or seventy nine, So it's surprising that he's phoning it in only because this doesn't feel like the time to phone it in. If he was gonna phone it in, I would expect he would be phoning it in as he's part of the Gary Busey Dog Christian Movie, which is all of the it's like a Christian dog movie on top of everything else. At the end, the dog is chriscal Oz Rockins, yeah, and Oz Perkins is in that movie. Fucking fucking bizarre.

They just covered that on god Awful Movies and I had never heard of it before, and I was like, what is this a prequel to Quickly down Under? But no, I was like, no, it's a fucking Heavenly dog rip off. Yeah, but that's it was on Red Letter Media. That's I know about it. Uh, best of the Worst or something like that.

Oh, but that's just that's just my again feelings, just like immediate feelings on all this is like why was he phoning it in here? Because this is not like he he's a big star right now. This is the moment where his star power matters, and it's going to as we do this show, it's gonna peek at some point and then we're gonna have a very long and drawn out time of just like movies where we're like, Okay, they're still casting Chevy Chase because he's Chevy Chase, but that doesn't hold a lot of water anymore in terms of like drawing an audience in right now though not the case like this movie has made the way it is because of a movie like foul Play. No, Like, oh, he's a detective. He was a cop in that movie.

Like they're they're literally just looking at something like foul Play and going that was successful. How can we do that? And it's like, well, I get you tried, but man, like where was chevy Chase in all of this? Like why was his head not in it? That's that's what I wonder, because again, I don't think the plot and setup of the movie isn't interesting.

It's more interesting than it is. Just kind of wrote, Well, my thought as I was watching it for the hour and forty three minutes run time, was you left Saturday Night Live for this because that was always reading that book that I have and just you know, interviews that I've heard over the years and his kind of beef with John Belushi and how they were trying to be you know, the guy and this was a springboard to other things. And I don't think chevy Chase ever feels like he's getting the commendations that he should. And you know, he was like always listed as head writer or whatever on those early Sarah Live episodes and left pretty quickly from the show and to do movies, to be a movie starting that was the goal.

And I'm like, yeah, this is the second thing after foul Play, you know, right on the heels of of course Caddy Shack and seems like Old Times both come out the same year too. But I don't know. That's I missed a lot of the movie because that's all I kept thinking of, is this is why you left Center. It was to do this really bad narration for a dog movie. I don't know.

And that's the other thing that I was wondering while watching this movie. Would it have been better if it had been Because I'm not saying the movie is not funny. I mean again, I don't know how much of a comedy it ends up being, or in terms of being a film that tries to elicit some humorous reaction, I didn't find it to be that funny either, So I was actually wondering, like, why even cast someone like Chevy Chase, Like why not cast a different actor? And then I think the tone may have also been different. It's not that Jane seymour Is feels like she's in a different movie.

But it does feel like there are two, if not three movies kind of going on within this movie, because the tone of the Heaven parts is so comedic, and then when he's running around as the dog, nothing that he's doing is overtly comedic. But yet those monologues or you know, the narration is meant to add those comedic bits, but because they fail, so I guess obviously because again, like chevy Chase has just seemed so disinterested. It's like, well, I would like to just see this movie if it weren't a comedy, then like just make it more of like a thriller, like more of a foul play. I think the thing that I was most surprised by in Foul Play was how much of a noir movie it ended up being while still having those comedy bits.

I guess I was kind of assuming this movie was gonna be more of a noir movie, and it kind of wants to be at times, like it really is trying to be more of a detective movie than anything else. I think if it had been that, it might have worked better, even even with chevy Chase doing kind of is stilted delivery. If it had just not tried to be funny. They were like, don't be funny, like, just just do the foul play thing like be aloof that. That would work better.

I would have I would have thought it would have worked better for this movie at least because again it's kind of like foul play with a dog dog Resurrection egg. Oh, like you do explain to me how he runs into her my happenstance in Paris. I was really confused by all. I guess that's where the dog that's about to get hit by a garbage truck is. Why Paris though, why why she was in He ran into her previously in London and she said she was going to Paris?

Did she Okay, I'm thinking yes, but then like but leaving? But it also she says she works for Time magazine, And then it feels like she's going to see that the one really super ultra British actor Robert Morley is that the thing. Yeah, it feels like she's going to see him there, But at the same time, I think we see him back in London later on, I don't know think. And then also she drives but we don't see her car on the faery because we had the chunnel at this point, and that made it look like it's just a long country drive between Paris and London. I was like, where's the faery.

Well, they had to use the Elton John song enough times to my God that you mentioned that beingji thing, and I was thinking, Yeah, they played the hell out of those Elton John and that one Paul McCartney and Wing song. It's like, we paid for these things, We're gonna fucking use them the whole time. The gag when he goes to heaven and I'm trying to remember the name of the actor who's there to help him out, he just keeps using all of these acronyms, and I'm like, Okay, this was funny for like five seconds, and then it just keeps going on from there. And the thing though that I did like about Heaven, well, I like two things. I liked Horny Sally Kellerman, Yeah, the clerk with the Princess Leiah buns, so I guess we're doing even more Star Wars up here.

And then I loved having Lorenzo Music being the voiceover narrator of the loudspeaker system, which I thought was fantastic, which is ironic also because Lorenzo Music for so many years was the voice of Garfield before that thief Bill Murray came in and stole his valor. And well, now Chris Pratt is coming in and stealing everyone's valor because Chris Pratt is now the voice of Garfield. Chris Pratt voice Chris Pratt. Yes, just like he did with Mario. I hate mondays, Chris, thanks for that line reading You're higher Azana delicious.

Uh. Susan Kellerman is is billed as German clerk, which I I which, I'm sure. Yeah, the the bun thing speaking of Elvira, Susan Kellerman obviously she's She's fun in this movie. I was wondering if she would ever come back, but no, I kept hoping. She was just saying a worn dog.

I was like needed to finish their little Yeah, and I liked how she put him in a body that was going to like he had to get out of it by a certain time, so then we've got a ticking clock. But really it's because she wants him to come back up to heaven so they can stoop. Yeah, that was great. She likes the way he says bastard yes, it really turns it around. Yeah yeah, yeah, well, and like again, like I feel like, you know, obviously, if none of that had been in the movie, like what would have been I guess like the draw of this movie would have just been a Benji movie.

And I guess I'm sitting here thinking like why wasn't that enough? Because it had been enough up until this point. I mean, they took a pretty substantial break in between this movie and the next Benji movie. It was like seven years in between this movie and the next Benji movie. So well, it was all TV specials after that.

Because I said he did that Marine World one. I think there was like a phenomenon of Benji movie that was like a documentary. Yeah, there were he was still working, but just yeah, not theatrically. There was also a nineteen eighty three TV series called Benji, Zachs and the Alien Prints, which I never saw, but yeah, I think they picked back up with Benji The Hunted in eighty seven. To your point, So like again, like it's not like Benji wasn't popular, it's just why inject this weird fantasy angle because this was not a thing that's part of Benji's movies.

And not like there's some sort of Benji cannon. But the Benji movies are just dog movies. They're just movies with a dog. There's no supernatural angle or anything. So it just again, if you're gonna do it, fine, I just it just doesn't seem very well thought out.

And yeah, the whole thing with the acronyms is just like man who thought this was funny? Sitting around that writer's room, everybody chuckling, and it's like, man, that's not gonna translate really well on screen. You got it felt like a bad mel Brooks. Yeah, bit, it felt like a bad bit whoever. I came for a half, But the whole like kind of Star Wars parody angle of it.

When that he turned on that miniature lightsaber and that sound came on, my daughter was we were just looked at each other like, what the hell we're going there? I guess we're going there? Okay. Yeah, And not only does it go there, it goes there and like Chevy Chase acknowledges that it's a Star Wars thing, like that's the thing on top of everything else, because he's like he like reacts to it in a way that he knows what that is because he's seen Star Wars that that is the only way I can take that, and so that is it's so bizarre. But again, like just back to the idea of like Star Wars has been with us for so fucking long at this point, like where we are now.

But yeah, it's like, oh my god. Right, even in eighty they were having to contend with this fucking burgeoning pop culture mega lifth I mean now, I mean, now, it is what it is. But then it's like, Okay, Lightsabers, that's what everybody knows. It's more the noise than anything. I feel like it's not even the visuals of the lightsaber.

It's that noise that's so iconic that they just they haven't wiggled the thing around a couple of times. All right, well we've paid lucasfilm perfect. I wanted to see when what time of the year this was released because Empire was coming out this year. So that's true. Person, they were going off of a new hope you love Lightsabers and Empire strikes back, you'll love them and Benji and oh Heavenly dog No.

Another thing that was confusing to me was her immediate jump onto this story. Yeah yeah, and it sounds like she had been writing a book for a while, but then the story enters into it. That's what was confusing to me. I'm like, was she what was she researching prior to this because it seemed like she was doing something else and then this pops up, and now I'm writing a novel about a novel? Why would you write a novel about the I just was like, what do we are?

We just getting her into the I mean, she's a report, so can't it just be an article about this? Why is it a book? I don't know. It just seemed goofy to me. Yeah.

Yeah. And then the the Scotland Yard will not help her out because she wrote a book about Scotland Yard and was making fun of them. Yeah was that her book? I thought it was the Old British Guy's book. Oh yeah, I got confused.

I got confused by a lot of things. I kind of sorry, because he does come back. Yeah, I know, he holds up the book, so I assumed it was his, But maybe it was hers and he's her publisher or something. I don't know. I got lost a lot.

I'm just kind of zoned out after a while marking the galaxy that may that might be a recurring theme. As I'm looking at the list of Chevy Chase movies that we're doing, I'm like, yeah, this this might happen on occasion where I just kind of started looking at the ceiling and stuff, which will make for a really interesting podcast. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a raid series. This is like Richard all over again.

Man, I'm really not excited by the end of this marks and be like, I really wish I had enjoyed those movies earlyer. I know there's a lot of good stuff coming up too, so it's gonna be up and down. Well that's the thing though, Like in terms of this being a Chevy Chase movie, I think it really fails on because again, like to Hugh to his star power in seventy nine to eighty, this motherfucker's gotta be on screen. Keep him on screen. Well, what's part of his stick is physical comedy?

Oh yeah, It's like I don't It's like, it's like beyond me why they were doing this with him in eighty because again, yes, he is, you know, a pithy dickhead and that's the character. But they don't even know, how do you do that with a dog anyways? Like the dog the humans are responding to the dog. The Honestly, the way to do this movie would have been the dog talks and the humans could hear him, Like, wouldn't that have been check you can hear him or he's the only one that can hear him or something, Yeah, Like I don't know, like the idea that you have Chevy Chase and the first thing you do is kill him in like the first five minutes of the movie, and then he's not on screen and it's just like his voice from beyond the Grave.

And then he shows up twice in the movie and it takes me out of the movie completely. When it's all of a sudden Chevy Chase after an hour of it not being Chevy Chase, I was like, oh, Mike, wait, I forgot that you were in this movie, Like I genuinely don't even remember what you look like in this movie anymore. And then he shows up, you know, kind of once about two thirds of the way through the movie, and then right there at the end again I'm like, oh, right, chevy Chase is also in this movie. It would have been nice if he had been on screen. I'm not saying it would have fixed everything, but it should have been Chevy Chase as the detective and Jane Seymour as the voice of Benji, right Like.

I don't know if that would have a can But then you have the beautiful and talented Jane Seymour having to do the same bullshit that Chevy Chase is doing. I am a dog. Now, she might have been more committed to the line readings, though she might have been. She was. She did a pretty decent job there at the end when she was doing the line readings as a cat.

Yeah, it's true. The cat wasn't committed though. The cat just like I mean between the beans and everything, I know, right, Yeah, and she's allegedly having conversation like no, that cat. When cats are doing that, they're just thinking about that thing ethic. I don't want to say that they can't have multiple inner monologues, but I think that they really spend a lot of time and concentration on that.

You can't trained cats, folks, Clearly, they do whatever the fuck they please. Yeah, I think there are people that think that they're trained cats, But I think that cats have trained that. Oh that's true. That's true. In this household, it's their world and we're just living it exactly.

I know we kind of mentioned the Alan Sues character, but yeah, the last the last line of the film or last credit of the film, Yeah, exactly when you get that voiceover of them in the car when sus picks him up and man, he's like, oh hey, you know, it's like, oh, I was just reaching for the gear shift. I was like, really, what can I do? That's yeah, if his voice wasn't enough, apparently they have to have him go for Chevy Chase's Craig shaft. So and then yeah, he comes back and it's like what why? Yeah, I mean even if he had stayed human and he became the sidekick and okay with that right, Yeah, anything would have been better than making the guy who's on your poster the only like record.

I mean, Jane Seymore is recognizable, but Chevy Chase like face front and center and you're like, oh, but he's going to be the dog boy. I just want to know whose decision that was, because yeah, like any any of these auxiliary, secondary tertiary characters being animals would have been fine have Chevy Chase interacting with all animals the entire movie. Just don't make him an animal, because that just he could have had animal helpers, you know, a cat that was in the window of the apartment and getting his information while Jane Seymour is trying to get her information from the humans and him not being able to express that to her, you know, verbally. But they sort of attempted a few times with him finding clues, and the whole bit with finding that phone number in the like rolodex and stuff like that was pretty interesting.

The mystery itself isn't bad at all, right, As I say, like the noir aspects of this movie actually kind of work with the stuff with Omar Sharif. He's pretty I'm menacing in this movie. I mean, it's o marsh when he grabs that dog, when he grabs Angie bat of the arm, I am just that noise of a dog yelping just sets me on edge. Man. Yep, yep.

Same those few times where I'll like pick up one of my dog's tests and like my finger might go between a rib or something that she'll yelp, I'm just like, oh my god, I feel terrible. I feel awful. The god, yes, just think what the monologue is saying about you. Oh, this guy again called some choice words just like that. But you have to have like dick jokes in the movie quite a few times, because he has to like check out his own junk at one point and make several comments about it, which is odd because it's a female dog, isn't it.

Yeah? Oh boy, Well because this is like you mentioned, like, this isn't not ben Benjon, this is Benji Jon. This is Benjie's daughter, right, I think so? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's pretty great. You can go into on the Plex server, you can you know, go under the original Benji and see the dog actor but there's no picture unfortunately.

And then he click on that and shows you all the movies that that dog was in, and then you go back to Oh Heavenly Dog and it's a different dog actor than you go into those movies. I'm like, this is pretty great. The Deep Dive, the Benji rabbit hole. Yes, yes, luckily Benji didn't get me tooed. Yeah, so I heard there are a lot of legs that Benji tried to hump the original Benjie.

Yeah, it was the seventies. It was a different time. Yeah, come on, Benji defends himself live on podcast. Yeah. I can't wait for the Benji apology when he goes on to Mark barn that's want to apologize for my conduct with the voice of Chevy Chase.

Mind you yo, the dog opens its mouth and it's just the voice of Chevy Chase. I don't mind like dog or animal centric movies. I and I know that again that like that that you know, the old joke in Hollywood is still work with animals and don't work with kids. And you know, I am of the mindset for the most part that when kids are in movies, boy, they tend to be precocious little shits and get in the way and draw attention to themselves. But when animals are in movies, it seems like with this, it's like this is like the fucking centric focus of the movie.

Is the like it? Like a lot of times I go did the dog die? In a horror movie? Is is the common question? Or does the dog die?

But when it's like the dog and it's an animal centric movie, I don't have a problem with it. It's just they all feel unless there's like a supernatural or paranormal angle, they all are very like, same me. They all all most animal movies like of a of a certain ilk, and I mean, obviously we're living in a post air Bud world where Disney has driven the genre into the ground and then some. But I don't mind the idea of like an animal centric movie. I mean, Strays came out this year, which was actually a lot of fun.

I don't know if either one of you saw that, but like it was a fun mean, it's a fun comedy with dogs voiced by voiced by actors and guess what, they all put in a hell of a performance and it's an actually somewhat fun movie. It's just I was just thinking to myself, like, how do you fix this movie? And it's like I don't think he can without just like really doing something completely different from what this movie is, which is not the kind of fun lark that the movie is attempting to be. I don't know how much of a lark your movie can be. A Jane Seamer is just getting murdered in the final real It's like, unceremoniously on top of everything else.

It is strange when she gets murdered. It's it's even strange when he gets murdered and I'm just like, yeah, oh, he's got to get out of this somehow, because he's you know, in the apartment, finds the corpse, we have the killer with the knife coming at him, and I'm just like, well, how's he going to get out of this? He doesn't and I'm like, oh, oh, oh, yeah, I forgot he Yeah. I was surprised by I mean, I knew they happened, but it is still surprising to see him go. And then I'm like, well, how are they going to reconcile this at the end?

Is he going to get to come back through some loophole? And no, they went the other way and said, okay, she's going to come back as the wrong species. Yeah, is that part of the gag at the end? Like he's forever doomed to like now the woman that he loves is it? Can't like is that part?

I don't know? I don't know. They don't they like, don't hang a lantern on it. So I was like, is the movie being that clever or am I just giving it too much credit? Like because too much credit?

Right? You would feel like you would feel like the movie would have like mentioned at some point like in those like last couple of lines like, oh shit, we still can't you know, it would be weird if we did, so we can't, Like they don't even say that. And again, this is a movie where there are dog dick jokes, so they're not above making those jokes, right, Yeah, And he gets hot in the tub with her on two occasions at least that we see, or one's off screen, but it's implied that he jumps in earlier and then he's in there with her later. So yeah, he really is the best part of this movie. Jane Seymour, like you mentioned her and Levin Let Die, Mike like, she's she's great here, she's adorable.

She I don't know, she's I like her every time I've seen her in anything. I've not searched her out as an actress, but she's great here. She's she's great in wedding crashers, she is, which she is. She's amazing, She's great and live and let die. I mean, you know, we'll be covering that in the in the near future.

But she's she's fantastic. She she is just I think as cute as Goldiehn is kind of rambunctious in foul play, like she plays kind of she plays that boil to Chevy Chase that you would wish he would have been on screen to act against that. Yeah, it's like that's the problem here. It's like I kind of just wish this had been found play just with the two of them, with no dog angle at all. Like it really is two separate movies, And if it had been two separate movies, I think they both could have worked separated from this movie trying to like mash not disparate genres together, but two very disparate ideas.

I really would have been okay had we had more of them at the beginning, had they had a dinner date and just got to know each other a little bit more, and then had she made the connection. This really feels like Benjamin the guy went out with and got murdered accidentally and then known about his death and like made comments about his death because it was that a whole lot there. As far as what ties these two things together, It's like it all happens off screen. That was one of the confusing things for me, Like I expect her to figure this out, but how would she She bumped into him on the street one time, what literally one time, if they had had that dinner and maybe he even mentioned, you know, got this case this morning, I need to check out of whatever that gal's name was.

It gets murdered, and then, you know, then it would be odd that she keeps pumping into him in these spots where that gal is, where omarsh Reef is, where the Prime Minister to Be is, Then it would kind of unravel maybe in her head. And I mean she eventually figures it out, but it takes a lot longer to get there and is a little more far fetched than it could have been. Well, when when at the end of the movie, which she's like, now I want to introduce myself properly to you, and it's like, fuck, like you went to heaven and figured this shit out all off screen. Also, like everything has been told in an off screen mechanic in this movie, Like every mechanism to tell us the story we have been deprived of because the movie doesn't have the confidence to show it to us.

Until they do. They show us stuff weird things in heaven, but then they like refuse to go back to it. They're just like, all right, you I seen it once. That's good enough. Now you're gonna see Chevy Chase on all fours twice in this movie on Earth.

It's like this just is I don't know, like pick one or the other. You can't do both. And then at the end, yeah, Jane Seymour just okay, I guess she learns all of this off screen, just like Chevy Chase did. Okay, sure, yeah, I kind of wish we had more of the Heaven stuff, just to see the kind of the mechanics of it. I mean, that's like the most interesting part of a lot of movies where they do this, like at Defending Your Life or even for God's sakes, RIPD.

Like the office stuff and the politics and what's going on there is so much more interesting than the mystery and RIPD. And plus you get to see Mary oh god, I can't remember her name with these amazing go go boots in that movie. No, I assume that this was going to be a riff on Heaven Can Wait and or Here Comes Mister Jordan in a way, which I guess it's the same basic idea of beer, but it wasn't more of a you're we made a mistake, You're not supposed to be here thing it's like, this is what happens is you get re you know, it's a reser, resurrection. What's the word you come back? Yeah, resurrection, life after death, reincarnation, thank you, Yeah, I got it.

Yeah. There were a couple of movies that were listed on the IMDb as far as like oh, if you you know to continue looking down this like see also so they had things like Luke, which was a guy coming back, which oddly was written of the Book of that was written in seventy seven, and then it's not made until moving until ninety five, and it's Matthew Modine coming back. Chris already mentioned quickly, I don't know how this ties into a dog's purpose. After I saw some of the new stuff on that, I didn't want to see the movie. But it also they mentioned this movie from nineteen fifty one called You Never Can Tell where it's it's more about a dog that wins a million or doesn't win it gets a million dollars, is inherent inherits a million dollars and has to be taken care of by I don't know Peggy dow and Charles Drake, and I know Dick Powells in that movie too.

As soon as I saw that, Dick owls and I was like, okay, yeah, let's do this. But I guess he the dog is poisoned and comes back as Dick Powell. So it's like a reversal of O Heavenly Dog. Yeah, like I would like to see this. You have all the ones of people coming back as people as well?

Where right, it's the one where was it Chris Rock? Yeah? Yeah, well and he did a remake of Heaven Heaven Can Wait as well. Okay, yeah, yeah, so that's what I'm thinking of. But it's that one where he dies and is one where he's Denzel?

Is there a Chris Rock is Denzel movie? Or am I? I think you're mixing up Preacher's Wife with uh with Having Can Wait? Then they were out around the same time. Wait, what's the movie with Bob Hoskins and Critical Condition?

Wait? Is a racist with the Denzel's heart? Right? Right? Yeah?

Or is that just heart Beat? Heart Beat? Oh geez? Yeah? Do you remember when that came out?

No, not heart beats the let's not get into that. No, no, we'll save that one for a five hour Projection Booth special with Alan Arkish and Bernadette Wow. Yeah. Nice. See if Alan Kish wants to talk about that one, you might be able to get Andy Kaufman.

I mean, he is alive, so there is that there is that it's gott to track him down. Yes, I don't know. I'm just thinking about movies with dogs in him that are better than this one. Condition is the name of that movie from nineteen ninety. Yeah, which means it was way before that Chris Rock movie.

Because back in nineteen ninety Chris Rock was starring as the crackhead and I'm going to get you sucka Yeah, can I have one chicken wing or whatever? Fifty one rib was? Yeah? Yeah, Jesus Christ, how about how about a drink? Uh?

What is it? My cups cost more than Yeah? That's right, man, That's that's what this movie needed. Just Bernie Mack as the voice of the dog that was would have fixed it. That that would have fixed everything.

Anything. I don't I yeah, I don't think anything can fix this movie the way that it is, because it's just too disparate of things. But you know, if you want to do a movie where you've got Jane Seymour and Chevy Chase being pursued by a villainous omarsharief around London. I'm game for that. Uh.

And that's the other thing, you know, we're just thinking about this against foul Play. Foul Play takes place in San Francisco. They use the scenery and the setting rather well, this could have been fucking set anywhere. I know that it's in London, but the fact that it's in London seems kind of just you know, not anything that anybody really has anything to say about. It's just it's set in London, right, Okay, so what like there there are opportunities to do something with that as well, for easy comedy, and they don't even do that.

It's it's surprising when they couldn't even get the dog to London because of the health restrictions and stuff. So all the stuff with Benji is not shot in London. It's mostly like back lot or what they also shot in Paris and the US I imagined. So it's it's said at the end credits Montreal. I think they used a lot of the exteriors there because yeah, I want to say one and this is IMDb, so take over the grain of salt.

But it's said that none of it was filmed in the States, so even I guess even the sets and things were filmed elsewhere, probably either Montreal or London, which I found odd because I'm thinking, BINGI seems to be an all America thing, right, Why is why is this said in London? He's American? Yeah, Chase God, Yeah, it's just it's it's it like the moment you think about this movie two seconds longer than it wants to, it starts making like it starts being even more infuriating that that's what this is because they well, you have all these things, you'd spend all this time, and you do nothing with it, like nothing at all. It seems like it's one of those this is an existing script that you know, we didn't have Chevy Chase in mind, we maybe didn't even have Benji in mind, and they somehow get inserted in this whole thing.

It could have been a British first type of deal with a detective coming back, probably would have been more enjoyable with a you know, I can't think of a big British star at the time, you know, commedianly star who yeah doing the voice and anybody Yeah, I don't know. It seems like they're kind of wedged into this just because Benji's the thing and Chevy Chase is becoming a thing, so let's get those guys. But it's written by Joe Camp, who was the Beingji guy, so that probably isn't even right, but it feels that way well, Joe Camp and Rod Browning, which kind of lends to me what you're talking about as far as maybe this wasn't always that right, It hasn't right. Yeah, he hasn't been credited for anything in a long time, but he was, you know, breaking a lot of stuff in the seventies, including some Yeah, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which is one of the most bizarro things in the world to me.

One of these days, Chris, we should. I mean, it's like a thousand episodes, so we're not going to do a TV show, all right, We're not going to do a podcast on it. Yeah. Did it really go that long? Yeah, Man's it was.

Yeah, really it was five nights a week for a long time. Yeah. Oh, man, I didn't realize that. Yeah, I remember catching some of it when I was a kid. It came up and we talked about Prisoner and yeah, it's three hundred and twenty five episodes.

Okay, I'm sorry, but that's right. I mean, I mean three hundred and twenty five episodes is a lot, Like that's three Is that three times more than Barney Miller? I think so we're two times more than Barney Miller and that's still pretty lot. Yeah. Yeah, the Trippy Show, yes it is.

Yeah, there's there's nothing. Yeah, I don't the Joe Joe camp and Rod Browning, like I don't know, like maybe stick to to writing movies that are more Benji centric, I guess, or like don't don't make them. The other Benji movies are are less human centric than this, right, I'm assuming they're more focused on the dog, right like the dog? Okay, that I don't know, Like Chevy Chase and the dog are sidelined in their own movie, Like this is a Jane Seymour movie. Frankly, Like if if you were to ask me who is the star of this movie, I would say it's Jane Seymour, Like she needs to be the one on the poster.

Jevy Chase and the dog need to be kind of smaller on the poster than her. Has she been able to take this whole thing over? I would have been okay with that, because yeah, I think she does a great job. Yeah, which is unfortunate that her performance is in this movie, because yeah, it's just everything else is just so clearly meant to be like a Chevy Chase and Dog thing, and it's like, eh, you do know that this is like the least interesting part of them, to the point where chevy Chase claims, at least in his in his autobiography from the nineties, that he's never watched this movie. I mean, mind you, that was ninety one, ninety two when his I guess I understand why you've never watched this movie, but you also directly contributed to this movie not being good.

Like you, you contributed to the problematic quality of this movie. So it's I don't know, it's always weird when I when I read something like that and it's like, but you, like you actively contributed to that being a problem. So I kind of get why you didn't watch it, but also, like you, you are the reason this movie. You are part of the reason this movie was not successful. Yeah, doesn't surprise me, though hearing that doesn't sum me coming from him.

Yeah, he's the kind of guy that likes to shoot himself in his own foot. Yeah. Well, it's like he came out in the movie was, you know, in theaters, and said, don't go see this movie. It's a piece of shit at least. But yeah, he's doing press press conferences with Benji at the time.

Yeah he honestly, I'm sure he loved that. Well, yeah, miserable during that whole experience. Second to a dog. He's got the trainer in the back of the press conference who's given Benji hughes so that it can be like, well, what do you think, Benji? And then the guy gives a queu in Benji Bark's right on command.

It's like okay, you know, and like, yeah, Benji was probably out acting Chevy Chase at this point. What do you think about this mid level talent Chevy Chase? Benji got him? Oh, I can't believe he said that, ring to his face. Well he's sitting there in the same room.

I snap. Yeah, God boy, did they make reference to this movie and Strays By the way, I'm just thinking about that. I wish they I wish that this movie was half as funny as Strays is, and then then it might have had some redeeming quality. Is a movie worth returning to. I don't even know how you would watch this movie in twenty twenty three.

It's on YouTube and its entirety, but it is not a I don't think it's ever been released by anybody. I do understand a Blu ray. Not there's no Blu ray of this movie. I don't think, not that, not again, not that I saw, so I could be wrong. There's the DVD, but it's like thirty bucks on Amazon, and I am not paying thirty dollars for this movie on Oh, I didn't realize this.

This was released as a three pack multiple times. It looks like yes, with once with Far from Home and Rusty the Great Rescue, and another one with Because of the Wind Dixie and also Far from Home. So they seem to like to repackage this and release it on DVD. Well and it you know, if you see it on Amazon, like the box are for the movie, it definitely smacks of this is a thing that you would find in the dollar bin at Walmart that they're trying to convince you is something that it's not, which is a movie that has Chevy chasing. It's like the DVD for Amazes and Monsters.

It's like it has Tom Hanks on the box ar, but he's in it for five minutes. If that like, And the boxar for this movie on Amazon looks the same. It's like chevy Chase and a dog looking at each other. It's like, neither one of these things are used very well in this movie. But hey, you like dogs or chevy Chase, you might accidentally be bought this by someone who loves you.

This will be the first title on our new boutique label, Guys, Here we Go. Oh my god, there it is. There, it is. Yeah, you're right where the media comes from. That's the physical media that we're relating this.

You imagine that if we just are releasing movies that we don't like. We really didn't like this movie, but we'd like the opportunity to re release it for you to see if other people like it more than us or dislike it just as much as we do. I do want to say that the version of Benji at Work that's out on YouTube looks way better than O Heavenly Dog, and it's out there in its entirety, and it's such a time capsule of here's what nineteen eighty looked like on television. Unfortunately there's no commercials to it. I kind of would have liked that.

But having Adam Rich actively narrating and participating in this and then seeing that crazy trainer with that amazing mustache, Yeah it's I found a lot of entertainment in that. So go watch that. I'll go back and watch it now. Yeah, Yeah, you'll have a good time, even though it's Adam Rich. Fuck that guy.

Yeah. I don't think if you watched this movie you would walk away saying Benji movies were successful and popular and Chevy Chase movies were successful and popular, because neither of those things are very well represented here. But to your point, like, clearly there are Benji movies that people did like because we got to this point three movies in that Benji and chevy Chase are being paired together, and chevy Chase was popular enough that they I mean, we're just about at the top here of the things we're gonna be talking about with Chevy Chase. So clearly there was a quality here that we just were not able to see translated into a movie written by these two people. But yeah, if I had watched this in eighty it would have been like, so, why are either of these things in this movie?

Like why is chevy Chase in this movie? Why is Benji in this movie? If I knew nothing about either, I would not think that they were the popular things going into the movie. Let's just put it that way. It is remarkable to look back and be like, Chevy Chase was a thing.

No, I'm just kidding that, Oh wow, Benji was a thing. Yeah, I would just be like, oh yeah, that was a really big thing for a long time. Yeah, yeah not. I mean again, we don't have that now, but we do have just like a glut of and cat movies that come out every year that are just on streaming. So I don't know how many Airbud movies there are at this point, but there are a lot, and almost all of them have been direct to video, so well it makes sense, man, I mean Airbud.

I don't remember. I think there's one film from Montreal that finally took the title. But Airbud was like the largest gross grossing Canadian movie for years and years. I believe it. I mean I believe it, like that was that was That movie was like a three million dollar movie and I think it made like thirty million dollars and then just like every fucking sequel that you can think of with air Buddies and snow Buddies and oh yeah, oh my god, I'm still waiting.

I'm still waiting. I've talked about it for years now. If I ever get the opportunity, I'm gonna make a movie where it chimp plays golf and it's just gonna be called Chimp Shot. Okay, I'm gonna do it one of these days. You know, that'll be our VT label.

Maybe get Matt LeBlanc to come back from when he played baseball with a chimpanzee and head and oh there was also m VP Most Valuable Primates. Oh that's what it is? Yeah, not ed, I guess it isn't. Okay, Okay, that's what yeah? God?

And be most Oh yeah no. I watched a whole series of those for an article I wrote all about like chimps and films, and just during this like one little window of time which was always like what what do we do? Like when there are weird trends like that? Like yeah, you know, you guys have talked about body swap movies on the culture cast. I know that, and like I said before, I love a good body swap movie, you know, and I watched all of those, like eighteen again.

Yeah, the father likes having like Vietnam style flash right, oh, dream a little dream dream. Yeah, but there was a different where it was adults. It was because it was the Fred Savage and Judge Judge reine Hold, Judged reine Hold. There was the Kirk Cameron and uh and then there yeah, and then of course there was the George Burns and The Kid. But it felt like there's one other around there, and it's just like all of these movies coming out within like a three year period was really bizarre, and I'm just like, why why that?

What was the what was the pop culture zeitgeist? Yeah? What was driving that? Was it just like going back and changing things from your past? I mean, were we living in a period of regret the springboard for all those Yeah, I believe.

And what was no those came before big Oh okay, sure, yeah, and that's no. No, it was kind of like well, even Bruce Willis did one. I think it was just called The Kid, but I think that was a little bit later. Oh yeah, it was like a Freaky Friday. I think I was the generations didn't understand each other, so they had to take each other's place.

Says there was a movie just recently where like a chick wakes up as her older self as Diane Keaton. And there's also that thirteen going on going on thirty? Yeah, yeah, Freaky Friday. I mean, isn't thirteen going on thirty Matthew Matthew Perry movie or no, what's the Matthew Perry movie? Because he was in one with Zach Evrot where he's where he like d ages it becomes Zach e These are like these are Yeah, isn't O Heavenly Dog a body swap movie?

Tech? It basically is, yeah, yeah, this might be the worst one, Begley, that I've seen in terms of the things that we've like watched together and or have seen. I don't know why I watched all of them. I don't know either. You really back when I was gung ho about doing all the background stuff and you were conditioned.

You were conditioned well by the projection booth is what it is. I think there was a Brian I'm too old for this. Ryan Reynolds swaps with Bateman Bateman, Jason Bateman. Yeah, yeah the Swaps. Isn't that movie just called the Swap?

I think yeah, I think you're right. Yeah yeah. Freaky Friday was that. Then there was the one with Vince Vaughan Freaky yeah, just freaky yeah, yeah. I like that one.

That was Yeah, that was a good one. That these movies come out like, yeah, it's weird. They come out like once every couple of years, but rarely is it just like oh Weekend A lot the late eighties were really that that time for like, hey there's a lot of really big personalities, let's pair them together. It was called The Change Up. That's the one I was thinking of change up with.

That's the one with Bateman and Bryan Reynolds is yeah, yeah, yes, as opposed to uh uh boor Judge Ryan Hold and this kid with that crazy statue over if you can only be me for one day? I like Dudley, was it? Dudley Moore? Dudley Moore? Yeah, god they more who thought that was?

I still Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron. What a pairing, What a pairing? If they could only know the future of those two people. Oh boy god. Yeah.

That the one with Sean Aston, it is yeah. I think I watched most of them with my daughter. I'm like, they're sam wise. It's the only yeah, the only thing I can enjoy out of this movie. Theis yeah, these did this movie.

I think is is part of that conversation. But I think I think we've clearly established that it is not. I wouldn't even say it's a lesser, it's just what is even the point? Like, I don't know, I wish, I wish this could have been. We're still waiting for one of those movies that we find where it's like, oh, everybody was wrong about this movie.

Nope, Yeah, that's what I was hoping. When I read the reviews, I'm like, oh, this is a stinker apparently. I mean, I will go to my graves still enjoying this movie. But you know, I'm glad that you guys weren't just like you're wrong for liking this. So that's cool.

I understand that. Yeah. Yeah, I have a lot of movies. Murder by Death is one of them that a lot of takes the task. That's wonderful.

I love that, I know. But you know, fake pinkies, fucking hot hot takes. Man, there was a I believe someone that we may be mutual friends with on Facebook had a hot take that Murdered by Death is better than Clues, So I don't think you're alone in liking Murder by Death. I agree with that statement. So I've seen Murder by Death probably dozens of times.

I've seen Clue once, but I enjoyed it when I saw it. But say, I didn't fall into that Clue camp of it's the best movie ever. I don't. I don't not see why you enjoy this movie, Mike. And if I had seen this movie at the right time, I probably would have.

I mean, I don't think it's purely nostalgia driven, given that we're watching it now and having a conversation about it now. But I get it, like I can understand because when I was watching with my wife, she was like, oh, I've seen parts of this before, and she had seen parts of it because she grew up in like a very dog centric household and like her mom and her would go to like dog shows together because they would show dogs, and so her mom would just put on movies with dogs for her apparently, and she was like, Oh, you'll like this movie. It has a dog in it, and my wife said she was bored by the first thirty minutes, which I understand given you know, again, the dog doesn't show up for thirty minutes, so you know, I get it.

But yeah, I think, and this is the other thing we really haven't mentioned. I think to round us out, did this movie have to be an hour and forty five minutes? That for me might be the biggest uffront is that what couldn't you get said in like an hour twenty five because that's really all you needed. You didn't need an additional thirty minutes here if you're not going to give us more. If it had been an hour and forty five minutes and there had been an eight solid half an hour of Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour, cool, why not make them a married couple and then it makes sense that the dog can come back.

She'd be like, oh, you've answered my prayers. And then she dies at the end, and then it makes sense because he's dead. No, just two minutes of Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour, what what? That's right? It would have made sense too, as far as having him being England, like, oh, I came over here for you, my love, because you're working for this magazine over here, and this is great, and I'm starting I can do my private investigations wherever.

Right, people are always going to need a dicko. I just wrote a better joke for this whole fucking movie. The gallery scene was like, I'm like, can we Yeah? You know that was a good fifteen minutes painful. Yeah, it could have been gone.

It's just shocking. It's shocking to me how long this movie is, because like it's ultimately like, like we mentioned all the way at the top, like is it a kid's movie? Is it a comedy? It's kind of weirdly all of these things. And I don't know about y'all, but we all know that, especially younger kids have a hey, the ability to pay attention to a two hour long movie, right, just kidding, that's not an easy it's not an easy ask.

I'm not trying to be, you know, derogatory towards kids. It's just I don't think any kid is gonna sit through an hour and forty lons Benji movie. Like there's a reason those other Benji movies probably open with Benji immediately running around and doing Benji things, and close with Benji doing Benji things like it's there's not Chevy Chasin. Elton John, like this just happens to be a Benji movie. But boy, Sir Elton John, if it had been a Benji movie, I think everybody who went to see it for Benji would have been a lot more satisfied than they probably were with this.

All the fans of Benji who were disappointed by this be at the time, I'm sure the message boards were totally lining up. Yes, we're not my Benji on the line. Now we've got Mike from Detroit. Tell us your thoughts on Benji. I don't like this movie because there's not enough Benji.

If I buy a ticket for a Benji movie, I want to see Benji right off the bat. Where's the Charlie Rich song? I like that music? Yeah, I agree onto our next color. Yeah, I'm not.

I'm not sure that this was the right movie to start this podcast off with, but I think it sets the tone for where we will probably end up with Chevy Chase, which is it's gonna be up and down man. Yeah, yeah, I've got two ups coming up, I believe. Yeah, that's right. So on the next episode of Blue Chasing, Chevy podcast. We're talking about one of the movies.

I guess, uh yeah, he's probably I don't know if he's known for, but it's definitely a way. Yeah, his involvement is much appreciated, and he ends up stealing the show. We're talking about yet another movie from nineteen eighty. You may have heard of it. It's called Caddy Shack.

Can you imagine we're doing an episode on Caddy Shack? Excited while Does this mean I finally get to watch a sequel? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah it's in there. It's in this time period that we're doing fifteen episodes from now.

Yeah, excellent. I can't wait. So, Chris, just so people kind of get where we're coming from here, you mentioned like star vehicles, but there's sort of a cut off point here, so we're going according to your list. We started with this and the last movie is on Biggest Vacation okay, and it was Cops and Robertson's all right, where's Vegas? Fake?

Oh? There it is? Yeah, okay, yes, and there's some we might get to ninety seven okay, And there are some other movies past that that are possible bonuses given that they're just they they kind of have some possible uh not, I don't know, relevancy, but they're kind of like throwbacks to certain things that we'll talk about while we're doing this, because, like Mark mentioned, we're going to have some pretty high ups. We're gonna be covered. I mean, we're gonna cover a lot of the We're covering all the big stuff, which I don't think for us as any surprise, but I think for at least the three of us, like we tend to not watch everything that is super duper popular because everybody else has already had these conversations about it.

But to Mark's point, yeah, we're gonna start in eighty with O Heavenly Dog, will end in ninety seven with Vegas Vacation and everything in between. For the most part, as long as Chevy Chase is the lead or ISP Build Top Build, we're gonna be covering those movies. So use your research brain to figure out what those are, because I'm not gonna mention twenty movies right now, boy. And so that means in three months we get to talk about Under the Rainbow. I know a movie I've still never seen me either, I'm kind of and it's one of the ones I'm excited about.

Actually, well, I grew up on that movie too, So Jemmy Chase was in your life very early on Mike early and often. Yes, yeah, yeah, I was surprised. I go through the list and I'm like, oh, yeah, I actually saw that one in the theater. I've never seen that one. This one I've seen a bunch, you know.

It's it's all over the place with him. Yeah, and again like you in the theater. It's it's one of those things where like these are some really big movies that have a lot of lasting power, especially like Vegas Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Caddy Shack, Caddy Shack. I consider that one of his most popular films, Caddy Shack. Everybody I know loves Caddy Shacks.

Yeah, I mean seriously, Yeah, if you bring up comedies, it's like Caddy Shack. Yeah, it's my age group for one thing. But it's you know, yeah, you want to I had a couple of stumbles maybe before, but then after Caddy Shack, it's like, oh, this guy's going to go somewhere. He had a stumple stumbles, he had some stumbles. This this this and the maybe the tunnel Vision and groove Tube or whatever.

But yeah, because sel play is solid, so yeah, oh yeah. So speaking of foul play, Begley, where can people find that discussion that we did and the things that you work on? You can find that at wakeuphavy dot com or Weirdingwaymedia dot com, amongst many other shows. And you can find me at Wake Up Heavy on social media Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, letterbox if you want to see when I'm watching link tree, et cetera. What about you, Benjifan number one, Mike White, I was just handed this brief that says that everything I can do, everything I do is available at Weirdingwaymedia dot com.

I am proud to be a member of this illustrious distribution and media group. Thank you. You will find your wife and daughter at exit thirty three. Okay, all right, we're supposed to read that? Yeah, sorry what I said?

How would happen if you read that second part of the air? Oh shit? Oh my goodness? And what about you, Chris? Well, when I'm not apparently holding Mike's family hostage, you can find me and my associated works over at FBI dot gov.

No, you can find them at Weirdingwaymedia dot com where I do a weekly movie podcast called The Culture Cast, and a whole raft of other monthly and biweekly things. But you know, there's other people's voices at Weirdingway Media too, like Susan Lambert HadAM who does Eighties TV Ladies. It's Emily and Travia and Christine make Peace who do the Feminine Critique, and Sierra Zorn and Alicia Watson who do Twisted and Uncorked. So yeah, three other podcasts that have, you know, more to say about more things than we do about Chevy Chase movies. Clearly because this episode is now over.

If you want to hear more of us, Weirdingwaymedia dot Com is where you can find those and this show. And yeah, we'll be coming back to you every month to bring more Chevy Chase centric content here on the Chasing Chevy podcast. We're fans of Chevy Chase and you're not