Episode 13: Three Amigos (1986)

Weirding Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Chris Tashu from the Culture Cast and one third of the representatives from weirding Way Media. I'm joined by my two good friends all the way from the Projection Booth, the movie podcast on the Internet that if you're not listening to it, you sho should be Mike White. Chris will you kiss me on the Veranda? Mm?

I hope so, and also joining us all the way from Wake Up Heavy. It's a movie podcast about horror movies. So if you're not checking it out, what the fuck are you doing with yourself? Mark Begley like. These guys a quote from the movie and just a general statement.

You know, I thought for sure you're gonna take the Pletora line, so that's why I went to the veranda one. But okay, I was thinking of Farley, but I don't think I can pull that one off. And I because I rarely get to do the intros, I'm going to give y'all something that you're not expecting, all for each other and all for one. That's what I'm gonna leave it at. We are the three Amigos.

I would say at this point, I'm I think Mark Begley is probably the little Netty Niederlander of the group. So Mike's the heart. I'm okay with that, and. He's got the best voice through Mike. Would you prefer to be Steve Martin or Chevy Chase because I know which one I fall toward.

I would much rather be Steve Martin because I feel like chevy Chase has no character in this whole movie. Yeah, I sidelined in this one, which is which is the biggest shame, because he's who I would be. But boy, he just kind of makes faces and drops taco meat at one point. Yes, it's it's funny, just the way he stands there. And looks, you know, he's got that look, as they would say from Fletch.

Yeah, if you're if you're not aware about what we're talking about, just by the plethora of quotes we've already thrown out there, we are gonna be talking about. Nineteen eighty six is Western comedy film directed by every directed by What's gonna have to come up at some point during this episode. It came out last time, Well it's. Coming out this time because there's a very famous story associated with it. With this movie, we're gonna be talking about Three Amigo's directed by John landis written by Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, and Randy Newman.

Yes, the bug singing to singing Randy Newman, and that's what we're gonna be talking about in this episode of the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast. So the film was, like I said, directed by John land As, written by Steve Martin, Loaurne Michaels, and Randy Newman. It stars the aforementioned Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin short as the titular Three Amigos. It also stars Alfonso Arau, who did a lot of more important things than this movie in his life. He sure did.

I watched one of them this year not even realizing it, like Water for Chocolate, which is a really good movie that he directed that his ex wife wrote. Also Tony Plana and Patrese Marquez. The film is essentially well, it's either bugs life with human beings or its tropic thunder in a Western movie, or trying to think there was something else that this reminded me of. Just sitting there, I was like, oh my god, it's like all these other movies, but the first one you have three Silent era actors who mistakenly think that they're being asked to go to Santa Poco in Mexico to put on a show for El Woppo. Except it turns out El Woppo is a bandoleero I don't know, a I don't know what you would call them, like a bandido bandido who is threatening the town.

And the three Amigos get themselves into quite a situation thinking that it's not real, but it is, and hilarity ensues. Possibly Joe Montange is here, John Lovetz is here, and even Phil Hartman is here for a cup of coffee in this movie. So I'm gonna kick it to you first, Mike, when did you see Three Amigos first? Was this your first time? If it wasn't, when did you see it?

And what did you think now watching it for our little Chevy Chase podcast where we may not even talk about him that much on this episode. I saw this. That must have been back in December of eighty six or January of eighty seven. Yeah, movies stuck around at theaters a lot longer back then. Probably was there till who know it's March or something.

I remember not really caring for it back then and watching it again this time still kind of don't really care for it right now, there are some good moments to it. I'm excited to talk about the quote unquote lost version of the film because I think that they did themselves a disservice with some of the cuts that they made to this movie. But yeah, I feel like it gets close, but it really misses the mark, and I think some of the non characterization of our three leads really is a detriment to it. They really should have bulked up those characters and given them a little bit more and more character, but more traits to them so that we can actually tell the three of them apart, how about you? Mark?

Very similar. I saw this in the theater as well, and it was the third Chevy Chase movie I saw in the theater in a row, which I believe I've mentioned so the last three that we've done European Vacation, Spies Like Us, and this one. Three Great Choices. This was the third strike, and I Chevy would not get me back in the theater until he teamed up with John Carpenter and I believe that's the reason I saw that movie, which we'll eventually get to a ways down the road. I didn't care for it that much either.

I was done going to see his films in the theater. At that point. I was a Steve Martin fan as well, because of the his appearances on Saturay Live, the whole king tut thing I had. We had the Wild and Crazy Guy album, which is amazing. Yes, it's one of the best jokes ever in it.

The cat joke is probably like top ten jokes of all time. Well, you talk about when when she's like a cat, I get the kitty litter. No, I'm talking about I went home with this girl and she showed me her pussy, Like I'm talking about her cat. You sick people. I won't.

I won't give away the punch. People should track it down. Yeah, but I enjoyed it way more than I expected. When I watched it this time again came on TV. This is like the third one of these that has been on playing on cable, and my wife's like, oh, are you going to be watching this one?

And I'm like, yes, so I don't want to watch it now And saw maybe twenty minute minutes of it that day and felt the same when I was watching it then. But when I watched it the whole way through this time, I was like, Okay, this is one of the better ones for me. And even the direction. Comparing this to the last movie, which was also John Landis, and how that one seems so flat and uninspired, there was a bit more going on in this one as far as his direction, the stunt work, the which I know he's you know, big on because he used to do that prior to directing, and the confidence. It just it just seemed a little bit more like his older stuff.

Not quite Blues Brothers, but more effort. Maybe I don't know. I don't know what the difference was, but it was more interesting. And I know that I laughed way more in this one than God the last three or four that we've watched. So maybe besides Fletch.

How many laughs did you have? Would you say? It was a pleo? I marked it down here somewhere now pleth them to start telling my lols. So similarly to Fletch, this is a movie I saw during the late nineties early two thousands on DiveX.

I remember my folks buying a whole stack of devex is from Circuit City because they were going out and we would just watch all of them. I think the funniest thing is my life in the last six months has been crazy, so I've been kind of sidelined in Texas. I wasn't expecting to share this experience of rewatching this movie for the first time in like twenty years with my folks ACKed me up. When we sat down, my dad, after ten minutes into the movie, goes, I've never seen this movie before and it's fucking stupid. And I'm like and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, you have seen this movie before, actually multiple times, because we have all watched it together as a family.

Goes, I don't believe you. And I was like, well, I don't think you liked it either. That didn't change with his viewing in this movie. I will say, I don't remember much about this movie. What I do remember or a couple specific things, and this is gonna date me.

I remember downloading the My Little Buttercup version of the song that they sing, which is unequivocally one of the best parts of the entire movie. I remember having that on my computer and I would listen to it on my iPod once I got my eye once I ended up getting an iPod because I loved the song. I have the entire song memorized just I again, because I must have either watched this movie a lot or listened to it a lot. The other couple songs in the movie maybe not so much, but my little Buttercup sequence has stuck with me my entire life since I watched this movie for the first time. So rewatching it now as a as a as a serious film admirer and critic, an analyst, or whatever the fuck we call ourselves other than podcasters, which now has become a dirty term.

I think it is a movie that and to your point, Mike, it is a movie that by the end of it, I was like, man, what are there like ninety minutes of this movie on the cutting room floor somewhere? Yes, yes, there are. There are released at least a half an hour, at. Least a half an hour. Yeah, and and again like you know, you know, cowards, you release the Snyder cut, release the Lands cut of Three Amigos, you fucking cowards.

I mean, look, I don't know if that would fix the movies problems, but it would definitely help with what y'all have both alluded to, which is the setup for this movie. I really enjoy I think the setup for this movie is a pretty good one. Three silent movie stars who misinterpret what they are needing to, you know, go and do entertainers versus outlaws, just like bugs life, just like Tropic Thunder. I enjoyed the meta ness of that idea. However, I don't think that this movie taps into that because it's being written by three people who for the most part, are known for different kinds of comedy, not tapping into that kind of not leaning into the metainess of it all.

And I'm not saying this movie needed to be meta. There are moments of it, but fran Drescher was in this movie, was being the key phrase. I think she's still in there for about five seconds, has no lines whatsoever. Right, it's just when they're walking through the studio, right, you get that. I think, so, now, that's that's one of the persona.

I don't think. Yeah, I don't think they show them walking through at all. Okay, you just see the drawing of it's you see the mill holster, right, that's it. Okay, that also stuck with me from the movie the Steve Martin doing the look up here, look up that whole I was when we started watching the movie, I started reciting it and the subtitles weren't even on, and I was like, what is going on here? Uh So there's a lot of this movie that we not we but I did not see the first time I saw it any more than y'all did the first time y'all saw it, especially given when y'all saw it.

So it's it's one of those movies where you know, I unfortunately this does have to come up for a serious reason, not because we're just like, haha, shovel some more dirt on John Landis's grave. But this is a movie that was directly affected by what John Landis did on the Twilight Zone movie. I mean it is the studio did not give him final cut and he got into a massive fight with Chevy Chase on set, into a fistfight because Chevy Chase took it upon himself to make a joke about it. That's, you know, make a joke about what John Landis did in his track record with safety with actors. But I overall enjoyed it.

I think the parts of the movie that I enjoyed might not have been the parts of the movie I enjoyed the first or second or third time I watched it as a kid, or however many times I saw it as a kid. But I will tell you it was nice to see Brian Thompson. It was nice to see Alfonso Arau playing I think the best part of the movie at this point and the I think the part of the movie that suffers the most is the characterization of the three main actors who that needs to be gotten out of the way in the first thirty minutes of the movie and they're just like, never mind, we're just gonna They're just going and they're gonna be singing and dancing the whole way. And there's nothing wrong with that in theory, but the movie is so kind of the movie is so kind of all over the place tonally, and then definitely at the pace that the movie takes, the movie slows down in these parts were we're supposed to understand the characters and it's like we know nothing about them.

And to both of y'all's points already, the person who has sidelined the most, if not almost forgotten entirely in this movie is chevy Chase. I think I counted. I think it's like four scenes that chevy Chase really does anything in. And look, I don't think that's a surprise given who wrote the script, but it is surprising to me, given that chevy Chase at the time in eighty six still kind of a big deal, clearly losing fans with Mark Begley. But and I don't blame you.

Like if I had seen this movie in theaters after the last two movies, which I enjoyed European Vacation a lot more than y'all did, I understand why this movie did the way that it did then, because yeah, it's kind of a failure, but it almost succeeds in spite of how many things are kind of stacked against it. The landis of it all, the cutting of the movie by the studio. I think it's a fun movie. I laughed a couple times, not a plethora of times, but definitely a couple times. So I don't know, I'm excited to talk with you all about it, but it's definitely a movie that I remember watching a lot, but watching it now, I'm like, you know, I might come back to it every now and then, or watch some of the scenes on YouTube.

But there's also a lot of this movie that's just I'm like, why did you cut this and leave this in the movie? That's that's this, that's this kind of movie where now that we have access to everything else subsequent to the release of the movie, it's kind of hard to not critique the movie based on the decisions they did and did not make. So yeah, I mean, that's that's where That's where I'm initially at with Three Amigos. So let's can we can we can? I ask the question I've been so curious with y'all about when I started watching this movie, given the history of the movie, which has a pretty long history, especially with the casting, is this the best cast that we could have gotten for this movie?

Because the names that were being bandied about at the time may have actually worked better. Look, the characterizations may not have changed, but there were names being I mean, this was originally a thing for like John Belushi and John Candy, dan Ackroyd was involved for a moment, Like there were a lot of people whose names were being bandied about. Is are these three Martin Short, Chevy Chase and Steve Martin, Are they the best people to have this role? And I guess last thing I'll say before I asked the question, I think it is the best Martin Short thing I've seen all year, which ain't fucking hard. All those goddamn remakes of those French movies.

Mike did not help. I was like, I was having flashbacks. I was like, not Martin Short again. No, No, I didn't think that this project had been around for that long. The script that I read was from July of eighty five, and I thought that was pretty contemporary.

I didn't think this was one of those Spies like Us things where it had been kicking around for a while, so I was unaware of the other potential cast members. I really this is interesting because we've seen how far Steve Martin and Martin Short have come at just their friendship and just the working relationship that they have. I mean, the whole only murders and the building thing. But then they even go out on tour together. They're inseparable at this time.

Yeah, and you get you know, there were so many things like I think Martin Short, even though it was a semi offensive stereotype, but his role as the wedding planner and father of the bride was pretty darn memorable. That's pretty much what I remember from that movie. And you know, we've seen Martin and Martin short, Martin and Martin. They should just build themselves as Martin and Martin really as a. Couch do martus Steve Martin short except tall Martin short and Martin.

But they should, you know, like they have worked together many times. But I want to say that this might have been the start of the relationship. And I think Ned Niederlander is the most developed character possibly in the entire movie. I think that maybe al Guapo's second to him, but Ned is the only amigo who really has a personality, because I think Steve Martin's character has. He's kind of venal, He's full of himself, which again I think that would have been better for Chevy Chase because of Chase's reputation, Yes, and just being the guy who's like, listen, I'm the actor.

These two are nothing, and I'm the one who wants this and wants that. And I mean just the way that Steve Martin delivers the what is it not? What does he say to Flugelman? Not on your life? Or something like that.

It's like, Yeah, that doesn't make sense for Well, especially because we are just meeting these characters right now. We've only ever seen them singing a song beforehand, so this being their introduction, We're like, why is he even saying that? Why would he even come in and do that to his boss? We don't know what's motivating him. So that's where I'm coming from with this.

How about you, Mark Well? I yeah, Chris, I think you're referencing the same material that I read where this was a script from or this was an idea from nineteen eighty mentions it in a Playboy interview from nineteen eighty and at that point he was huge, was, you know, the biggest stand up comedian, selling out stadiums and you know, stuff like that, and his connection to the Blues Brothers because he opened for them at the I don't know if it was the Hollywood one of the la venues that they played that they also sold out, and it feels like Hollywood Ball might have been yeah, and then but yeah, anyway, the connection that they had probably inspired that casting choice of them being the other two.

I don't know. It's like thinking of John Belushi, in was It the last film where he was supposed to have a part as well. He was supposed to be the other spy and I couldn't. I couldn't see that. And I don't see him as either of these roles either, because they're all they're all vain and vapid and dumb, and I don't see him playing that part.

Dan Ackroyd could, although he seems to like to write himself as a genius, but that's true, which I. Just just experienced him as a genius. Though he is a genius. His family were ghost hunters and he loves aliens. Okay, he is a genius certified.

I mean, he can plays dumb as the jerk, but that's a different type of dumb. His dan Ackroyd's best role as Dragnet period like for me because it taps into dan Ackroyd something that I've never seen from him. But yeah, I couldn't see dan Akrod in this movie at all. The the Steve Martin stuff sort of comes from his stand up where he plays this really vain, self important guy. He kind of took on that role, like, you know, while I'm the biggest stand up comedian and that album that I mentioned earlier, he does that kind of stuff.

He talks that way about himself, and you know, with his actions kind of shows the reverse of that. Or maybe this guy isn't so smart, so I kind of bought that from him. Chevy, though that does ring more true. Maybe that's a little too on the nose though, for Chevy Chase to play that kind of guy, because even in that cast interview that's in the stuff that you sent or put in the drop box, he can't help he can't help himself, like, you know, what's the best part of this movie or something like that, and he's like me, and you know, then pass plays it off as a joke, and it's like, is that really a joke though, or what's the success of this you know, what can you basic success of this movie? On whatever the line was that the interviewer asked, and he he can't not do it, he can't not hype himself up.

And then he also says at the end of that interview, you know, I usually when we're done with these things, I think they're horrible, and it takes other people to tell me that they're not. And that sort of sums him up for me, Like he sort of self sabotages everything that he does, and he doesn't get a chance to do that in this because he has so little to do. And I was sort of grateful for that in a way, like, oh, well, yeah, we're not going to have much to talk about because he does nothing. And his best line gets cut from the movie too. I thought the one little bit at the end of all those extras where they ask him, Dusty, are you ready and he's putting on his belt and he just hasn't exasperated no, And I was like, that was a perfect delivery of that one line.

But even that got cut, so it wasn't much to begin with, but it still got cut. Yeah, well, Dusty in that script, in those deleted scenes, he's very into his hair and very vain, so it's like play him is vein then, you know. I think that's why he's not ready, is because he's worried about his hair. And there's the whole thing. At one point, El Guapo and his men bury them up to their necks and then they're gonna pour honey on them and then release the fiery ants that are gonna eat their flesh, and he's just like, no, no, I don't want any of this honey on my hair.

And he's just like super upset about having the honey anywhere near his hair. And I was like, yeah, there you go. There's something at least like he's the vein one, he's the one that takes forever to get ready or something like that. But yeah, we just lose all of those things. Why not just have a scene where Chevy Chase gets his hat shot off and that's enough.

He's like, you messed up my hair like anything, anything at all. And I forgot the the other movie that reminded me of this movie, and it was the one I turned around when I was watching this with my dad and I said, this is just Galaxy Quest, isn't it. And that's the real one, because it's like, that's theep remise of this movie. In a nutshell, Galaxy Quest is a much better movie, and so is Tropic thunder for that matter. To hear John Landis complain that they quote ripped him off, all right, John, sure, whatever, It's not hard to rip off a movie that doesn't do anything very well, because those movies Tropic Thunder, Bugs Life, and Galaxy Quest all do this better.

Because this just feels like it's an idea coming a little too early for people to appreciate it, and they don't take it far enough with because again, for a comparative, the Ben Stiller character in Tropic Thunder is if they had made that movie in the eighties and it had been more like this, that would have been the Chevy Chase character, the washed up actor who can't make a hit anymore. Like that's never been Tom Cruise. Like I get that, that is Ben Stiller portraying Tom Cruise in that movie, but he's more akin to like a Chevy Chase in Tropic Thunder. Like, look at all these terrible movies you've made, but at one point you were making great movies like and and Yeah. For me, you know again, because this is the Chasing Chevy podcast and not the short Martin and Tall Martin podcast, I can't help but feel like Chevy Chase might as well have not even been in this damn movie because there are I mean, there are what two scenes that he really gets The thing with the bottle of water, which is a great physical comedy scene, don't get me wrong, I mean it is one of the funnier bits in the movie.

Also, the scene where chevy Chase refused to say a line that would have made his character quote seem like a moron unquote. I hate to tell you this, Chevy, but at least it would have made your character look like something other than nothing. And and I guess, you know, and that's the other thing. I guess the scene where they're where u El Wappo is kind of walking down the line of his men and he gets to Chevy Chase and he you know, who's in disguise as a bandido, And he's like, and you are Jose and you know, we're raping the horses and pillaging the women and trimming the hedges, like all of that is really funny. But then going and watching the deleted scenes, a lot of the deleted scenes are funnier than anything that's in the movie.

And it's like studio, wait a second. Most of the time when studios cut stuff out of movies, there's a point and a reason, and I tend to agree here, it's like, you robbed this movie of a substantial amount of characterization, especially for chevy Chase's character, who ends up being the one who sidelined because Ned Niederlander gets the whole you know, I'm assuming he's supposed to be like a Mickey Rooney type. You know, he's been like a child child star. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Little Neddy goes to war Neddy Nickers Knickers, Yeah, Little Netty Nickers. Yeah.

And then yeah, the Steve Martin character is the main character of the movie, like you know, except you know they do. I think one of the funniest bits in the entire movie undercuts him being the main character, right at the end, where he's like, and someday I'll come back, and she just goes why. I like that undercuts kind of the boisterousness of his character. But to speak, yeah, just more to the Chevy Chase of it all, because I don't think we're gonna be talking about Chevy Chase a whole lot beyond this, just because of the way his character is treated in this movie, per the script and then the final cut of the movie. I think for me, the biggest disappointment is that this is a Chevy Chase movie and he isn't in it, and he him being in it with those deleted scenes really would have helped, really would have helped.

And this movie is a breezy like ninety seven minutes. It's like, you know, it's like right, like it's one hundred and three minutes, so yeah, our forty three. So yeah, I think I don't know if I want more. I don't know if I want more. Though that I want, it's not that I want.

I want them to recut the movie and put certain things in and take certain things out. There's this movie that's like not needed at all. The there's a laning bush and the Invisible Swordsman, which literally makes no fucking sense even now that I'm watching this movie. Well, yeah, so when it comes to that stuff, I mean it just so they you know, they finally figure out that elk Wappo is for real, that he's not an actor, and they pretty much tuck their tails between their legs and they run off and then they come back, and that whole like runoff, come back it happens within seconds as opposed to like two cents. Yeah, it really should be them going off.

And there's more in the script too, where they go off and they like camp and they can see the fires from Santo Poco coming up and they're just like, oh, this isn't right, and they kind of have a change of heart at that moment they come back, but they don't have time to have a change of heart in this They just they do have the line, and again it's ned that's doing it, and just like, hey, I'm drawing a line. We need to, you know, do what's right, and this is our chance to do this stuff. That all takes place like right there, and then they come back to the family and they're like, hey, you know, can we get our stuff back? Basically, actually, I'm sorry, it goes Can we get our stuff back? And then they have the change of heart and then they go off and they have that scene where they're singing around the campfire and you have all the animals and things, and they they go, okay, go over the list again.

And Martin Short's like, okay, well, we're gonna have to see this singing bush and then fire our guns up in the air and then meet the Invisible Swordsman and he'll give us the passage to El Guappos. And it's like where did that come from? Right? Like, where did the list come from? Well, there's this whole thing where they're out riding and they come across this crazy old man who's at a crossroads, and they're like, well, which way do we go?

And then he's the one that gives them the instructions, but they cut that entire scene and from it makes no sense at all and form best best I can tell that is not the Sam Kinnison scene, because there's also a Sam Kinnison scene that got cut completely out, which wasn't in the script whatsoever. So yeah, you're just like, well, where is this? To your point, they didn't need that at all. They could have cut completely from them leaving San Foco to them arriving at El Guapos. Why is it a quest to find Alguappo's place, because there's no reason.

It's not like he is hidden by magic or something like that. Right, So suddenly suddenly introducing a singing bush and an invisible swordsman, You're like, where is this coming from? Like we've gone from reality to like fantasy land, and then we're back to reality again, and it's like, are you gonna have magic in this or not? You know what? The campfire scene is the second best campfire scene I've seen this year, behind Night Dreams.

Is campfire scene. No wall of voodoo in this movie, though I was hoping for a little bit more of that than a little less turtles saying goodbye to people and horses singing. Would like that scene. I like it. It's cute.

Yeah, it's right, but like, does three amigos need a cute see scene? Like I, I, that's what I wonder. And then you know, there's when we watch Fletch Lives, there will be a scene in Fletch Lives that that scene reminded me of in this movie. But the scene in Fletch Lives is better executed because it's like a forty five second scene, like if that like it's it doesn't drag on and drag on and drag on. And then we get the you know, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor of it all where they're like good night Dusty, good night, Lucky, good night ned like it's like good night Dusty when the turtle talks for whatever reason, like it it seems like to me the studio took all of the choices that were made and decided the safe choices are the right choices here.

And when yeah, when we've watched the deleted scenes for the movie, it's not like they're unite, you know, like them saying fuck over and over again. It's just characterizations of the characters that are so badly needed, because again, I love I talked about this earlier in the year, and I feel a little not bad now, but I think I maybe gave him too hard of a time Martin Short's comedic styling. When we talked about those Francis Weber films right earlier in the year, the ones that were being remade, that Martin Short apparently was just like, he's the comedic act of the century, Let's put him in all these movies. He is funnier in this movie than he wasn't anything else I've seen up into this year period.

He is the heart and soul of this movie, like we've already alluded to, and I was shocked by the end of this movie that I was like, Man, I really liked Martin Short in this movie over anybody else, over anyone else in the entire movie. And that shouldn't have been the case. Not because it's Martin Short, but it should have been. All three of these characters are so well characterized that I understand why they're friends, why they're together, why they should have each other's backs, why, I mean, there should have been a bigger brew haha. When Steve Martin just goes and gets them fired.

But there's I mean, there's not like it's it's such an there's so many odd choices in this movie that seem to directly undercut all of the possible good things that this movie could have been doing. And I'm just gonna reiterate because for me, I think it's actually it verges on Chris Tucker in fifth Element levels of obnoxiousness. The scene with the singing bush is just why, what? Who? Where?

And when? Like what what were they thinking? I mean, I know it's Randy Newman getting a chance to cameo in the movie, but it goes nowhere. They literally just go, oh, look the plane again, We'll just follow the plane instead, And it's like you could have just done that. You've already established that little Netty knows how to fly, They've already established the male plane with the little balls, like they've already established all that.

Why do we need to further complicate a movie that had no fantastical realism in it? Is the only word I would use. I would expect that from an Alfonso Arau film more than I would from a John Landis movie. Like literally like water from Chocolate has fantastical realism in it. And I want to point something out to y'all.

I'm just I just want to I just want to read something from the Internet's finest source of information, that being a Wikipedia. So I went and looked up Alfonso A. Row because it was his name sounds familiar. Oh that's right, I like I watched Like Water from Chocolate earlier this year. So on his Wikipedia page they talk about him being the son of a physician, he was born in Mexico City.

He directed all these movies. And then the second sentence on his Wikipedia and I'm shitting you not. I didn't change it. It's probably been like this for quite some time. The scent starts with, among a plethora of his roles in his career, I see you people on Wikipedia, and I know what you're doing.

It's beautiful. He's the best part of this movie other than Martin Short. Alfonso Arau is so good in this movie. Yes, his comedy chops are on point. Oh I was.

I was so pleasantly surprised, just the simple it's a sweater and then having it wrapped around his shoulders the next scene and just real, not over the top or anything, but the timing of his deliveries is just perfect. He's great. He is fantastic when it comes to the going back to the characterization and everything. You know, we talked a lot in the last episode that we did Spies Like Us about the Road movies and what it was like the relationship between Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and I got a lot of the Bob Hope ness of this whole situation, This whole they think that we are actual gunfighters when we're actually actors type of thing that feels like something that Bob Hope would get himself caught up in.

Having three characters I think works well because I you know, I'm always talking about the rules of three when it comes to comedy, and the whole thing with the canteens is exactly what I'm talking about. Where you have the few drips from Steve Martin, the dust the sand that actually comes out into Martin Schwort's mouth, and then Chevy Chase having a full canteen so much that he's gurgling and spitting with it and throws it out and there's still water coming out of it like that works really well. To have the ABC of it but I think that might be the only time where you really see that. I think that there would have been more of that had we had, like the more of the opening that was supposed to be there where you know, it opens in Santo Poco and we get to see the whole idea of you know, the bandito coming in and what really motivates them, because we don't get a whole lot of that in this version.

It's more like, you know, I can't remember the woman's name, is it Carman and Rodrigo going into town and trying to find the men and seeing the movie and then sending the telegram, and then once we cut to the amigos, we get to see the whole thing with them living in this house together. And that would have given us more opportunity for the one, two three and us of it to show us like, well, here's what Ned does when he gets up in the morning, and here's what you know Lucky does, and here's what Dusty does. And I love that whole thing too, where each of them is having an affair with the housekeeper and one goes up and was like, oh, last night was wonderful. Can we meet again? Yes, come by my room, at eleven thirty, okay, and then the next one.

It was such a great time. And I love that each time they go up to her they grab her by the breasts. So I think it's a third one who grabs her by the breasts and it's and he goes, oh they're still warm for me or something like that. It's like, you know, oh, can we do it again? Yes?

Yeah, can I come by at three thirty? Yeah, let's make it four. It's like, so I like that whole like boom boom boom boom boom boom, and we get you know, one character, second character, third character. We get this this dichotomy between the three. I mean it's you know, obviously very three Stooges, very Marx Brothers, Sorry Zeppo, just this whole idea of like what are these three characters doing and how is it different?

And we only get in that one scene, which is a real shame to me. But we get a three. We get a triplicate of scenes of Kai Wolf going into the bar saying, you know, my friends will be coming. You'll know him when you see him. He shoots somebody and leaves.

Then the Migos come in. Do there again? I think the the one of the best parts of the movie. They're my little buttercup uh song and dance routine. And then you have Brian Thompson come in with Norbert Weisser and it's like, okay, so you've done this three times, so you like you just alluded to, you know, the comedic structure here, like what you should be doing.

You know already what it is that we're expecting from this kind of thing, and yeah, they just don't ever do it with the Amigos, And well, I guess they do it one other time. They do it where they where chevy Cha shoots the invisible Swordsman. Right right, Yeah, you get their three little chants that they do and that he's not into it and ends up shooting his gun in the wrong place. HI like that little special effect of the swordsman dropping into the dust. I thought that worked well.

And then Martin Short picking up the hand and dropping and I was like, that's a nice that's a nice effect. Yeah, but did the movie need any of that to get its point across is kind of where I came down on it, because not only that, but then we have the introduction of Kaiwol as the German pilot who knows who little Neddy Niederlander is. But that ultimately kind of feels like it goes nowhere. Also it doesn't. We never get the explanation, like it's weird in the script it's a Frenchman, and I don't know why there's a Frenchman that's selling weapons to El Guappo.

And then same thing now like at least with Germans. I was like, okay, well tie this somehow into you know, I'm trying to remember what year this is. It's just nice thing sixteen. So tie this into we want to keep America out of this new conflict, out of World War One when that starts, you know, do some something to tie Kaiser Wilhelm to Mexico. You know, and I know that there were you know, there is a German Mexican connection, but you know, like play that up somehow, give us something rather than these three random German dudes are here to give elg Woppole weapons or to sell Aguappo weapons.

I don't know if it's a gift or if it's a sale. But again, and then I'm sorry, I don't want to be like mister Cinema Sen's guy But where do all of the villagers get all those guns at the end of this movie, because they're running around shooting people like crazy. I'm like, that's like, you know, three or four dozen guns that these folks have, where did they get those from? Well, boy, now that you brought it up, the climax of this movie is that feels like a we don't know what to do because it's that it's that whole like, remember what we did in this and they're like, yeah, all right, so we'll get to see what they did in Amigos, Amigos, Amigos. But I like the reveal when El Wappa is down on the ground and he's dying and everybody comes out dressed like the Amigos.

I like that reveal. But that whole scene again, it just feels like Lorne Michael, Steve Martin, and Randy Newman were sitting in a room going, we've effectively backed ourselves into a corner here, what do we do? And yeah, it doesn't doesn't work for me because it logically makes no sense. And I'm not saying that this movie is dictated by logic. I mean again, this movie has a singing bush and an invisible Swordsman in it.

But the ending of the movie, the climax of the movie, as it were, is just it falls flat. I mean a lot of this movie just kind of falls flat. It's not as unfunny as Spies Like Us. I think Spies Like Us and especially Deal of the Century were like deeply unfunny movies. Especially Deal of the Century was like deeply unfunny film almost all the way down.

You know what's crazy. I couldn't even tell you a single thing about Deal of the Century right now if you ask me. I know it had Sigourney Weaver and Chevy Chase in it and Gregory Hines. Is that right? I could tell you a single thing about that movie at this point.

That's how kind of much of a dud it was. There are parts of this movie that have stuck with me forever, so at least there's that. But I think that the moments, there are moments in this movie, singular moments in this movie that work, But the script that surrounds the movie kind of collectively really fails. The three leads and I don't think, you know, I don't think having and you know, I can go through the list of people John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Robin Williams, Rick moranis, John Candy. Spielberg was involved at one point, Like, I don't think any of that would have saved this movie.

If the script had been the same, maybe we would have gotten a better cut of the movie, given that Steven Spielberg has never allegedly helped, you know, incur the on set disaster that cost the life of three people and scarred everybody permanently who worked on the movie for life. But I don't think any other combination of people would have helped. I think the issue with this movie ends up being it needed a couple more passes as a script, and I think they needed to actually make a cut of this movie that wasn't in reaction to John Landis's legal problems. Such a weird thing to do, Like we don't trust John Landis anymore, so we're gonna do a cut of the movie. Like why even let him direct?

Then? Why even like why even let him be involved? I mean, again, not to bemoan the John Landis of it all, but if the studio felt that way, why let him do anything? Why let him go and do any amount of anything for your studio if your response is going to be, we're gonna take a buzzsaw to an already tenuously working movie and essentially cut it out at the knees because you know, we've got a bone to pick with John Landis, which I'm not saying is an unfair or fair thing to be the case. It's just you hurt the movie more than the movie could have the movie.

You hurt the movie more than the movie could have ever hurt itself by undercutting how little characterization we're already getting from the lead characters, by just taking it away almost entirely. Well, at least with this one, John Landis didn't feel the need to throw in all of those cameos. You know, the only other your rector that he's got in here is Alfonso Arau, and he's perfect for the role. I mean, I can it's a yes exactly. I can't say enough good things about al Guappo.

He's just such a fun character and such a fun villain. And I have to say Hefe is pretty great as well, even though I don't know why his name is hefe since that means brass, But. Yeah as well, isn't that feels like the joke. I don't right, maybe I guess I don't know. Yeah, Tony Plana is great.

I mean again, him and Alfonso Arau share. I think that's the film's most famous scene, the plethora scene, like again, showing up in his Wikipedia showing up on Alfonso arouse Wikipedia page, like that would be my assumption that that's the scene that this movie is known for. Well. And Guapo has more motivation than any like the whole thing of him being sad that it's his fortieth birthday and that cafe is like being counsel to him, and eventually, like when they announce how old he is, he gives the little look and then it's like he's thirty three years old today, and it's like, yeah, that's something Like you guys have more chemistry and more more presence in this script and on screen than any of the amigos.

Oh, totally, I completely agree, And look, Tony Plana as an actor is great. I don't know. I mean again, I'm a little younger than y'all, so I don't know how much gaming y'all did in the nineties, But Grim Fandango was a point and click adventure game released by LucasArts in the nineties. That is I think the kind of height of nineties gaming storytelling. And he does the voice of the main character.

It's like a he's like a skeleton detective. It's it's I mean, it's it's. It's an amazing game and he does an amazing job. I mean, the game got remastered not five years ago, Like that's that's how well regarded the game is so getting to hear and see him in his voice in this movie, it's like, oh, okay, it's many Calavera from Grim Fandangle, but I almost feel like everybody but the Amigos kind of get characterization. Even the Carmen and Rodrigo character are more of character, and we don't spend a whole lot of time with them because unfortunately, Patrese Martinez is given the thankless of thankless roles in this movie, which is halfway through the movies He's just gonna be kidnapped.

Yeah, it was nice to see Rodrigo, though. I'm glad that he made it out of that whole weird money making scheme where he would take polaroids of lonely women on at gas stations and charge them for it. After he did that to Sarah Connor, I was a little like, hey, that's not really fair, kid, But that's the same actor, same actor, same actor. I was like, I know, you're yeah right. I was like, this guy's so familiar.

I have a question for you, Mike, regarding the script because I didn't read it. But where else does fran Dresher pop up? Because that seems like one of the things in mentioning the deleted and all that sort of stuff keeps coming up, like, oh, fran Dresher was supposed to be in this movie. Right, So Frank Pressure had been with them in the what was it called the Singing It's the same movie title as the Fake No, it's the same fake movie. That was the title of the movie inside of Singing in the Rain that they they talk about right right right, something about the cavalier singing Cavalier or something like that.

But yeah, so she was in that movie with them. They didn't like her very much. You know, there is that part in the deleted scenes where they're calling her cow but Flugelman is trying to make her into the next big thing, and I don't think you really get that. Again, Like there's even more to that whole scene where it starts off with Flugelman and talking about streamlining and that we're gonna streamline this, we're gonna streamline that, and he goes through all this stuff and then there's a line I don't think it made it to the DVD where he screams, your asses have been stream lined. It's like all about cost cutting stuff.

So he's got the hots for the fran Dresser character, and when they start to make fun of her, that's kind of the last draw for him. And when he kicks out the Amigos from their house, he actually gives the house to her character, And so when they go through, you know, when they come back and they're like, hey, you know, Butler guy James, I think I might be like, you know, you've been with us for so long, and then even little Neddy's like, oh, you know, we've been friends since I was a little boy basically, and he's just like, yeah, sorry, nothing I can do. And I think there's a little bit more friand Dresser in that sequence, and then that's it. She doesn't come back at all. Okay, she doesn't show up.

Oh so see that sort of makes sense to me to cut all that out because the studio executive room scene, to me was dragging, even though I like all three of those guys, and I just it reminded me so much of Burton Fink with Tony Schill, John Pallito, and Michael Lerner in a room together. I was like, I'm getting the same vibes from this, especially from John Levitts and Phil Hartman kind of doing those thirties you know, voices and stuff and yeah, which I love, you really love to do. Yeah, so Phil Hartman, Yeah. Phil Harmon's voice is so and you know what, I appreciate where you're coming from. Mark, But I actually like that scene because of Joe Montana, just like I vite in the scenery.

Yeah. Yeah, every time I hear his voice now, I can think of his fat Tony from The Simpsons. That's all I can think of. Take a look at his IMDb page. His his profile picture is pretty funny.

Had you seen Phil Hartman's Wikipedia profile on his on Wikipedia, the photo that they have of him, it makes him look like he's like a pimp. He's like he's like a private eye. I guess. He played a character named Chick Hazard private Eye in the late seventies, and he is, he is dappered up. He's got some, as the kids are saying today, some real drip going on.

Phil Hartman does. I mean, every time I see Phil Hartman and anything, I just get sad. I really do it. Just it makes me so sad. I watched So.

I Married an Axe Murderer a while back, but his whole tress scene is just amazing. And then you read at the injureds like a man. Right, because he should still be here with us, like you know, yeah, you know, it's it's a it's a shame because you know, John Lovens and Phil Hartman kind of do make an impression in that scene, even if even you know, even if kind of in the position you're in market it kind of drags on a little, but yeah, I. Mean, they make an impression, even in the shortened version that we get. And that's why I was thinking of, oh, man, this is reminding me of one of my favorite movies I need to watch again.

But which is you know, such a good thing to do when you're watching a movie like this. Well, it wasn't a matter of like I'd rather be watching it. It was just I'm getting Barton Fink vibes from this little this little one scene with these three studio execs in this room and the you know, the the sycophants that John Levitts and Phil Hartman are playing, like the John Polito character. But yeah, I just assumed that fran Dresher would keep popping up in the script for some reason, like for some reason she's in Santa Poco too are or she gets win that they're getting one hundred thousand pesos and she's going to try and get in on it. But if it's just stuff at the beginning, I kind of understand why it's not there.

It does kind of confuse things. When you see the billboard and you go that face really looks familiar, and. It's Steve Martin standing in front of it for like three minutes making noise. I hadn't If I hadn't read prior that she was supposed to have been in it, I don't know that I would have eventually made the connection, Oh that's Fran Dresher's face. I think I just would have sat there and combat picture of that person looks really familiar to me for some reason.

Right Anyway, Yeah, the. Other scene I mentioned the Sam Kinnison bit that was not in the script, and that was very much a free standing scene, so it kind of makes sense that it's gone. Apparently he plays some sort of crazy mountain man who's like covered in chicken feathers and blood and mud and he's got two hatchets in his hand, and they end up having to fight him and kill him, and then while he's dying, he has this very emotional death scene where he starts pulling out pictures of his family and starts talking about how he'll never see them again and suddenly makes you know, like makes this crazy mountain man into like a real human being and they end up feeling very guilty for killing him. Yeah, it made sense that they cut that because it really wouldn't have anything to anything.

But I love Sam Kinnison, so I probably would have been a big fan of that part. Of it me too. Yeah, well where they get the list from in this version. Right, Yeah, rather than the Man at. The Crossroads and you know, the Sam Kinnison stuff.

Again, having not known about that prior to watching it this time, I think it needed something like that, like again, because because we have the three amigos by the end of the movie just murdering people. Literally, Like we go from guys with fake guns riding around on horses, and one of my favorite shots in the movie is they have these They keep doing these close up shots as they're running, as they're kind of riding their horses around, and there's one where Martin shot is taking the gun and switching it between his hands, which is one of the greatest shots in the entire movie. But I think the stuff was Cam Cam Citizen. Am citizen Yes is evil brother. Probably what he decided to do after being a preacher would have been a sin, but I think it actually could have helped get the characters to the point where they're like, well, we've done it once now bon and like we're gonna we might have to do it again.

We feel bad about doing it here. But I mean, like literally they murder El Guappo like they by the end of the movie, the three Amigos are murdering people. These I mean, you know, saving the town. They're saying town. And murdering people.

I know they're saving the town, but they they get to the. Belberg Star, isn't uh without sin and this. That's that's not that's not what I'm getting at it's more when we see the character of Elguappo, we understand that he's a bandido. When we have the three Amigos and they start killing people, the movie doesn't do anything. It's just, yeah, it's just it's it's odd because up until that point in the movie, they have not shot and killed anyone, and then we have I believe it's Martin Short kills the first person in the movie.

He kills the German, which I think that whole scene is great where Kai Wolve's like you, it's a great need the lad and he's just like that that the that that the dead that he's like. But sen I real labous the trick shots and the cinematography and the camera work, and it's like, Okay, I like this because again it kind of feeds into what this movie is really about, like these three actors getting themselves in over their heads. But he fucking kills that guy, He's straight up murders. Him well, and Chimmy Chase won't even hit the one guy over the head. He's so hesitant to do any sort of violence.

So yeah, it should be a much bigger moment when they actually have to take a human life in the name of you know, their mission. Right, because they've never had to do it before. Yeah, I kind of expected something to intervene and take the German out, Like Martin Short wouldn't actually be the right to do it because he couldn't even hold the gun up, you know, and like pulls them to the ground when he tries to pick it up and not remember. A physical comedy. I love when he does.

He sells it, Yeah, he sells it for sure. Well, and I think about I think again to go back to some of these other kinds of movies that on land Is quote said ripped off Three Amigos unquote, even though John Landis didn't write the script for this movie Galaxy Quest. They are shooting at the other aliens and killing them, so again not really giving a choice. And bugs life, The bugs don't kill anybody. The bird ends up killing Hopper at the end.

And in Tropic Thunder, I don't think they kill anybody in Tropic Thunder either. I mean, the whole thing towards the end of the movie is that they have their guns have blanks, and like that's the whole thing. It's like the scene in this movie where they're doing the back and forth with the gun, like those guns have blanks and then they're like, oh my god, you shot me. They're using real bullets like there's in this movie. They don't.

They just have them killing people. And I was like, that's kind of a weird tonal shift that the movie just kind of goes, like you said, Mark, they're saving Santo Pocos. So it's okay, It's like these guys are actors and they're murdering people like in nineteen sixteen. This isn't like eighteen forty. I don't know.

I guess I'm I guess I'm struggling with the semantics of the term murder. Maybe they are killing people, they're not y replanning these things. I mean, Dusty throws that rock at the guy and he ends up falling off the building. It doesn't feel like a premeditated thing. It's almost an accident.

While it is an act. Yeah, it's a totally accidental that he hit him in the head and hard enough to knock him out. But I guess, so, I guess we're going with if you're being shot at, it's not murderer, Okay, I mean fair all right, If that's if that's where we're coming down on it in your own life killing, they're just killing people. But again, these guys, ostensibly, unless there's a Fatty Arbuckle situation going on here, they haven't killed anybody up unto this point in their lives. And I guess technically the first person to kill anyone in this movie is chevy Chase killing the Invisible Swordsman.

That's true, yes, and they're. Just by that point he's already he killed two people, so he really shouldn't hesitate to hit the guy in the head with the butt of his gut. Yes, now he should have a taste for blood, right, but. He definitely doesn't have a taste for Mexican food, because that might be the one thing that they make chevy Chase do in this movie more than we've seen in a while, which is the whole I guess what are we calling like the chevy Chase of it all, like the kind of like Pratt folly falling over himself, like you know, playing there's a scene where he's playing the guitar and he's just strumming it like a ding dong, like or the thing with the you know, he doesn't know how to fold the end of a tortilla up, so he's like, you got anything other than Mexican food?

That's what I expect from chevy Chase. However, I don't know the character of Dusty Bottoms well enough to understand that this is his characterization at all. He's just I'm just more or less in most of those scenes, I'm like, Oh, that's just chevy Chase doing the chevy Chase thing that I expect him to do. Anyways, Yeah, I'm a little These three actors in Los Angeles in nineteen sixteen are going to know about Mexican food. Yeah, oh yeah, I call it bullshit on that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and I almost wonder if chevy Chase, speaking of physical comedy, if he would have been better off in that whole contraption that they put Steve Martin in where he's like pulling the different counterweights and all that and getting up to the wheel and turning that thing so he can actually get the keys in that. I mean, that's very, very physical comedy, and of course Steve Martin does it beautifully, but I wonder, with chevy Chase having his specialty in physical comedy, if that would have been a smarter choice. I think it would have been. I mean, as much as I like the scene with Chevy Chase that we get where he's you know, and the raping of the horses and everything, you're running horses through the Vatican like that's you know, that's kind of what it reminded me of.

But I don't I don't see why Steve Martin couldn't have done that. I guess maybe because Steve Martin, with his white hair, would have been less obvious or more obvious than Chevy Chase is standing there is just a white guy among this crew of Like clearly they put out a call to all vaguely Hispanic looking actors in this movie. They're just like, everybody, come on down for three amigo's. We're filming out out in Arizona. Guys like, I'm just so glad that Fred Asparagus heard that call, and in the bartender in here, I would love to have had more of that little town and the bandidos from there, especially Fred Asparagus.

He's the best part of the movie. And when he talks, it's just his leg beer. Oh so good, fattenings, fattenings, Yeah, my little but a cup all of that he's so I mean, he's so good in this movie. And he yeah, he's in what three three scenes for four scenes because Carmen goes in and then we get the triplicate of scenes with the three of them. Yeah, he's great, Fattenings.

That's he really is, he really is. I think, like again, he's a standout in this movie. And again, my little Buttercups scene. It's my little buttercup scene is I think it for me is like the moment in the movie where I'm like this, if the movie could have maintained this level of comedy and kind of ridiculousness and fish out of waterness, I think there may have been something there because we get we really get to see the three of them interacting in a way that's meaningful. But yeah, the movie just doesn't really seem interested in It doesn't seem interested in establishing their relationship as characters.

It's more just like you know who they are. It's like dooey, because that's the other question, Like obviously Martin Short is supposed to be Mickey Rooney, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase are meant to be who, Like who are their fac similes or are their direct fact similies like Martin Short is so clearly Mickey Rooney, Like again, it's not just the height of it all, but it's the whole like characterization of him being a child actor and you know, and the Germans says, you know, I remember when you were little netty nickers. Like it's it's stuff like that that makes me think, like, okay, there was you know, there should have been more, Like you know, there's another great scene in the movie is when the three of them are in bed together right when they get to Santa Poke, im like, what are you gonna do with your share of the money, And again Martin Short, being the heart and soul of the movie, goes, I'm going to open up a home for orphaned children.

And then Steve Martin and Chevycha's going, oh yeah, we were We're gonna do that. First obviously I was like, where was that in the movie? Like that one scene is funnier than large swaths of this movie are, because it's just just having the three of them on screen together is not enough. Well, and I don't think that, you know, they don't realize how little money ten one hundred thousand pasos is, you know, it's maybe ten thousand dollars. You know, it's not that much, guys.

And that's the other thing that I like that they're so stupid that they don't know how much money one hundred thousand pesos is and they don't know the word infamous. So that's really what sets them up. All they say like, yes, so famous, he's. In famous, And I like, if you have the subtitles on it, boys in hyphen famous in the subtitles, and it's like, okay, this is this. Yeah, the movie, I don't know the movie when it hits its When it hits its notes correctly, I think is really it does really sing.

But so much of this movie just feels like what we got on the cutting room floor should have been in the movie, and the movie still, even with those things in, it is still kind of a mess because I think for large portions of this movie, it's also not funny. There are plenty of moments to laugh. I mean, the plethora scene, my little buttercup scene, there are some scenes between the scene with the water, you know, the canteens are funny. But there's a lot of this movie where it's just kind of ambling along and it's like Hey, we need to take a moment to have them sing out in the desert, and it's like, was this one Randy Newman was contractually obligated to write three songs for the movie, so we have to have them singing blue shadows on the trail Again.

I wanted to ask all the Randy Newman of it all, what do y'all think of the music the musical numbers in the movie, because it also is halfway a musical at least it has three musical numbers. Yeah, which fits for the type of movies that the Amigos themselves were probably making. And I think if we had had it, because we get the scene of the movie in the movie theater, I think them singing at the beginning was a mistake, Like had we had that be like, I know it's so typical, but like have them do their song number and then have somebody go all right, cut print and then realize that we're watching a movie. But yeah, before I forget, by the way, one hundred thousand Mexican pesos at least right now today they were recording this four nine hundred and seven US dollars, So I don't know about nineteen sixteen.

I don't imagine that the peso was incredibly strong in nineteen sixteen. But I just wanted to let you guys know. I mean, i'd take it still now. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean five thousand dollars is twenty bucks is twenty bucks. Twenty bucks is twenty Is there if there is a town in need right now in Mexico, the three Amigos of this podcast will be there, set up with our podcast with our microphone.

I never realized how funny the amigo salute is because. They do it once. No, they did it, Yeah, they did it at three at least. Yeah, but they don't do it at the very end, which is a weird thing. But when they do it the very first time, when they're sitting on the horses, you don't get the real thrust, the pelviric thrust, which really drives you insane, but you get them turning their head and coughing.

I didn't realize that it was like a hermia thing, right. Yeah. That's one of the few things I remember from my initial viewing of the film is the Three Amigos salute. Oh yeah, and they're dance, which. I don't think they would have been allowed to do in the movies back then, but I it was pre code.

It was pre code. It was it. I like the dance that the three of them do where they're kind of going around each other in a in a circle micod. My folks have some friends that live here and they won their they won their Halloween costume contest that they do with their friends this year, because the three of them dressed up as the three Amgo's and they did the dance and everything, and my parents are like, what is that from? And I was like, well, if I'm here long enough, you'll find out.

I love you know what I will say. I love their costumes. Can we just talk about their costumes for a moment, Like we talk about three great costume choices for them with the each hat kind of has a different level of embroidery on it to signify who is who, Like they have their little cravats and everything. Like, I love their costumes in this movie. I love the look of the movie, which I think, you know, obviously John Landis does have something to do with that, but I appreciate the movie and the way it looks.

I just wish, yeah, I just I don't know, I just wish there was more to it, because it just seems like so much of it is just not not where I want it to be as a movie. But I remember, I guess, enjoying it so much as a kid that I probably overlooked or just kind of zoned out during the parts of the movie that kind of drag on, which I would say the middle half, I mean, like the middle middle quarter of this movie, or I guess middle half of this movie is just kind of drags. Once we get too El Woppo's Hideout, that's when I think the movie kind of picks back up. But in between them leaving Santa Poco to go find El Guapo's hideout, and even a little bit before that, it's just like checking my watch, like let's get let's get to it, Like stop stop stalling with this stuff that really serves no purpose here.

But going back to your question as far as Brandy Newman, so Randy Newman these days, I think for a lot of people is kind of a joke, you know, the whole thing of like you know, doing all the toy story stuff and just being kind of this odd, frugl like looking guy and everything thing. But I frog like, yeah. I get it. I got it, good, good, I'm glad you get it. But like he loves La, Mike, how could you?

And that's the other thing. It's like him having a hit song like I Love La is the same kind of thing that like it kind of reminds me of like Hot Hot Hot by Buster Poindexter, where you go like, oh yeah, David Johansson is a real like force. He's an actual talent, and like Randy Newman is a real force, he is the real talent. Like I love his early stuff. I mean I love the whole Nielsen's Things Newman album, which is pretty cool that it's nineteen seventeen.

You've got Nilsen doing an entire album of Randy Newman songs, and Newman's on the album. When we talked about rag Time Forever Ago, that's all Randy Newman, which you would never know that that's you know, that's not that beat the type of Randy Newman thing that you've got. Yeah, I love the guy, and I I love that he's got this relationship with Steve Martin because he also did the Parenthood soundtrack as well. You know, it's just like he he's got a lot of talent, does a great songwriter, and I don't think that that necessarily shines in this film. But I was all for the three songs that they have in here.

I agree. I mean, as much as Will Sasso does a great Randy Newman. Now, that's pretty much all I think of. One comes up anymore, bug I like Bugs, I'm gonna melt down. I go records and go for tacos.

That's all I can think about. Randy Newman. Now is Will Sasso's impersonation of Randy Newman. Unfortunately to your point, Mark Like, I didn't know he looked like a frog though. Now I'm gonna have to.

Because it gets older, he gets more. Frog like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Amphibious Randy Newman. Yeah, he used to be a big deal. Oh yeah, well he was a big deal in the nineties.

I mean, you've got a friend in me. Jesus talk about talk about a song that is seered into the memory of many a person my age. I mean, good God, and you know, and not so much the Bugs life song, but definitely yeah, toys, I mean all the music and toy stories Randy Newman. It's not just you've got a friend in me. I mean there's like a couple of.

Randy Newman songs in that movie He's. And they did Monsters Inc. As well. Right, oh my god. Well, yeah, he's done all of the soundtracks for well, for Monsters films because he did Monsters University, even in some cars, you know, and then all of the toy stories.

It's like, okay, but it's great. You know, he probably made more money from You've Got a Friend in Me than Short People, I Love La and all of his filmography before. That, Short People, Short People a song that I heard for the first time in Penelope Spears's Little Rascals I love. I actually love Randy Newman's music for the most part, but when it comes to his stuff in movies, like it all kind of sounds the same, like he's I mean to your point about Ragtime Mike, Like that might be the one thing of his I've seen where I'm like, this is Randy Newman, right, everything else is like yeah, everything else really just has like you know, it's a piano thing with Randy Newman singing, and look, you can imagine Randy Newman singing my Little Buttercup instead of you know, Steve Martin and Martin short like you can hear what it would sound like if Randy Newman was singing it.

So I like Randy Newman in this I think other than him playing the singing bush, I think his songs add a little something to further reinforce like the time and the place of this movie, and like when this movie is taking place in kind of you know, nineteen sixteen, it nails, it nails those, It nails those kind of moments. I think rather well. But I don't think we needed three songs. I think we probably should have only stuck with the two. Yeah.

Like I said, though, I think that that's what those Amigos movies would have been like. And I think that, you know, you made that that remark about casting goes out to all of the you know, vaguely Latino looking actors. I like that Steve Martin and Martin Short and Chevy Chase could not be less Latino, and that they're supposed to be playing these three wealthy landowners. I mean, it's basically supposed to be like three Zoros combined. Right, Oh yeah, pretty much.

But you know, Zoro used a soul. At least they're not in brown face in this movie. That's true here at least they weren't doing like the the accidents. We were planning on doing this entire episode. Ha Oh, that's Steve Martin.

He's so funny. He a funny guy. I like him a lot. I mean mine is just Speedy Gonzalez, which yeah, I thought some pretty much too. I believe has been canceled if not, if not eaten at this point, so.

I'm okay with Speedy Gonzales still being around. It was a pepul the pew that I always had problems with, that rapist s pepular pew. It wasn't the French accent, it was the whole being a sexual predatory. Yeah. He was like, oh, oh you think that Weinstein is bad?

Looks out for me. As you say in France, no means yes and yes means whatever I wanted to be. It's like, yeah, what is got well? Yeah, no, speedy like Speedy Gonzalez. I mean again, like, that's a lot of like the characterization of the Hispanic characters in this movie are a very a ya yay.

There's a lot of that in this movie. And I don't know, I guess for me, it's not that I'm offended or not. I was reading an article on you know, on just a cursory Google search of like what do other people think of this movie? And have other people sat down and reappraised it? And one of the things I read was like is it's a problematic movie.

And I'm like, ah, it's. Less than I was expecting. Yeah, oh, I say that it is a white savior movie. I will say it is a triple white savior movie. But they're also fucking morons, Like so that's where it kind of like that undercuts the white savior of it all.

But at the same time, I've said this before on other podcasts. In the narrative of Harry Potter, he's the fucking biggest idiot of them all. So yeah, you know, it's not like Luke Skywalker, who is kind of not an idiot. Like sometimes the white Saviors are dumb and prevail in the end, which I'm not sure actually helps anything. I think it might actually make it worse if it's like, oh, so these guys just fumble and bumble their way to success, Like the people of Santa Poco.

There were so many of them, they could have just pushed the Bandito's back on their own, like they didn't need the help of the amigos or the fusing around of the amigos, I guess. And if they had all those guns right exactly, they taught them how to do it by themselves as well as dozens of guns. Yeah, the the rape part of it, because there's implied rape that's going to happen, even though he says if she doesn't open her pedal to me, I'll kill her. So I'm like, oh boy, I do like that whole thing about do you know what foreplay is no? Well good?

Neither does Alguappo. I like that part. And there's a whole lot more for that actress in the script as well, and especially people talking about that actress, that character in the script because hefe has the hots for her and he's trying to basically be like, well, if you're going to be going with Carmen, does that mean that your other girlfriend is available? You know, you think I could maybe go out with her? And then El Guappo has to do this whole like, you know, would you wear my pants if I wasn't wearing them?

Would you eat my food if I wasn't eating? In like, well, going out with her is just as much sense as wearing my pants. You wouldn't want to do that, And it's like, okay, it's a strained metaphor, but oh okay, that's interesting. That would have been an interesting scene. But unfortunately that's not it.

Not in there. Who's at Lodia Ramos as her? Right? Yep, yeah, she's been a ton of stuff. I guess.

The other thing for me, and this is just a minor quibble. It definitely also feels like an HBO movie. Well that makes sense, right, I was surprised to see that. Actually, yeah, it feels like an HBO movie. And if you've seen HBO movies before, you know what we mean.

It definitely has. There's a little bit of that to this movie that you just can't get away from. But hey, the music by Elmer Bernstein's pretty great. I mean, I think the music by Elmer Bernstein is fantastic in this movie. Not surprising.

It's Elmer Bernstein, so. Well yeah, and he and Landa said been been working together for years. I can't remember if he did anything before Animal House, but that score for Animal House is pretty classic. Even just did The Spies Like Us with him, So yeah, it's it's interesting that they have this relationship over all these years and continues to work, you know, at least with this film. I don't know how much longer Bernstein's going to be alive for Landis to use.

Well, I don't think he. I don't think he used him in Coming to America because that was Niles Rogers, So a little bit of a change there, as one might say. Big change bag change. Yeah. I wondered why because I've seen Nails Rogers talking about coming to America before and I didn't realize that he worked for him.

But I'm like, oh, okay, had done that song. So Elmer Bernstein worked with John Landis again on Oscar Okay, and then beyond that, I'm not sure he worked with him again. And I'm curious because Bernstein, I want to say, wrote theme for Magnificent seven. So I'm surprised there wasn't a little Magnificent seven in there with this, because this is very Magnificent seven. They even say that in that interview, and then I like how they're like, shh, we don't want to get sued.

I'm like, come on, guys. But in John Landis's nineteen ninety eight film Susan's Plan, he works with Paul Bernstein, who is Elmer Bernstein's son. So a film I didn't even know existed and never heard of until right now. So yeah, yes, he does the god theme, the when the Cloud's part in the Blues Brothers and the light shines down on Jake. Elmmer Burnstein's great I mean, there are parts of this movie that work.

I don't know if I will revisit this movie anytime soon, if ever again, but rewatching it for this it definitely made me. It made me nostalgic for the things I remember enjoying. But it also pointed out and kind of reinforced to me, like if we're doing a chevy Chase podcast, which we are, this is I think the first time of the things that we've seen with Chevy Chase where he is really really really really really sideline. That is a disappointment to me because he he had the opportunity to really stand out in this movie, and it honestly feels like this is the beginning of him just going like I'm either gonna be the main character, I don't care and like, because you know, after this, we get some Caddyshack too, we get funny farm fletch libs, Christmas Vacation, so things that he's the lead in again, and you know, maybe he just doesn't like to share the screen with other people that are funnier as funny as him, because I don't know, Martin Short and Steve Martin, like we've already alluded to, still kicking it, still doing their things.

Still you know, murder you know, uh, what's it called, only murders in the building. Yeah, yeah, all of that. Like there's still cash and Hulu checks. They're working with Selena Gomez. I've seen what chevy Chase is up to.

He seems like he's doing all right. He went to the Louisville Slugger bat place and had a batmid. I don't know if you guys saw that on faces. Look stocking him on Instagram. It was just on Facebook or something I saw, and I was like, what is going on?

I wouldn't say I was disappointed more than I was surprised at how much he was sidelined, considering he gets top billing on the poster or on the else it's alphabetical order for the three stars, so top billing in the movie. Credits, but it should have been Steve Martin. You know it's a Steve Martin vehicle, so yeah. Which is weird that it's not more of a three person film. I wonder, if I love the movie, maybe you can speak to this, Mike.

Does it seem there's a disparity between the script and the finished film. I wonder if you know, maybe Landis had a beef. I mean, I know they had a beef, but maybe some of it ended up on the cutting room floor. It doesn't necessarily feel like it. It feels like it's pretty well distributed and that there's nothing specifically of Dusty that's on the cutting room floor.

And it takes me a minute to remember which characters which just because other than Ned, Lucky and Dusty go right. Similar. Yeah, and it's actually, I want to say, it's Lester. In the script, it's not Dusty, It's Lester. So yeah, I'm trying to remember what his last name is because there is a moment where the bottom to do thank you Dusty bottoms.

I prefer my bottoms clean, not dusty. Right though. It is interesting because there is a thing where when they go to the movie theater, it's you know, there's a close up of Nednederlander, a close up of Lester a close up of Lucky Day. So it's like Lester doesn't get a last name in the. Script, even more sidelined as a character.

Yeah, and that's like right in the first few pages of the script of course. So yeah, every time they talk about Carmen's father, it drives me a little crazy because they call him father Sanchez the whole way through, and I just kept thinking, is this a priest? How many times I've said father Malone around people and people go, you know, a priest. I'm like, oh God, let me explain this again. Yeah, well yeah, yeah.

I also felt a little bad for Carmen's sisters in here, because they look and dress so similarly to me that it's a hard I have a hard time. There were a couple of times where I was just like, oh, I guess all three of them are in love with Carmen, And I was like, wait, no, no, no, that's a different actress, different actress, different person, different character, Okay, because and that's something that they don't really play up on either, is the love affair between you know, each amigo gets the different sister. Basically, but the one that some one, yes, exactly which one's that. The one that Mark, the one that Martin Short is with. We don't even see her until the end of the movie.

Yeah, that's great though. Again, he's the you know, he's like the golden. Child, he's the heart of the fact that it's got. The best voice, he's got the most uh what is it, the the you know, the the orphan he's gonna take care of. Oh yeah, he's the only over the heart.

Yeah, but yeah, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, and Rick moranis like can you imagine that as the cast, just those three, what a strange I think Rick moranis as Ned Niederlander could have totally worked. If not worked, consider that worked better even Like I can't. See Belushi in any of the roles though. That's the thing that always kind of yeah, keep saying this about John Belushi being in these movies, and I don't see him in these movies at all. No, his energy was so specific, he was such a specific kind of comedy.

I don't see him playing a dummy. I just I don't know. Yeah, yeah, no, it would have been it would have been a very strange thing. And it was you know, we've talked about Randy Newman we've touched about Steve Martin, but we haven't talked about that. Bord Michaels was the third writer on here.

Yeah, and he you know, before he had There to Night Live, he was a comedy writer. But it is interesting that he's one of the main three credited for this one. And a weird and a weird credit thing too. There's no and or Amberson between any of the names. It's just those three names just like on top of each other, which I found interesting.

Don't usually see that, yeah, or maybe you do. I don't know. I love that the script that I found has all these notes all over it, Like you know, it'll have like several servants pass including Katrina that may James the butler, and then they'll have like a little arrow and it says she works for the three Amigos in their mansion provided by their studio. Small role, and like, uh, they'll have like different things where it's like medium sized role, large role, small role, like for pretty much every character that they introduced into it. Why I guess this was I don't know who's script.

This was, like there's there are initials at the very beginning. Oh, they see on the very second page now it's just as c Abs one one. So I don't know who whose script this was, but I imagine it was somebody either a casting agent or you know, like is it even has like little you know, Father Sanchez, Carmen's father, late forties to early fifties, and then we go down to Rodrigo say co star and then fourteen year old son father Sanchez's nice featured role. So I imagined that this that's yeah, exactly like Mama Sanchez late forties, early fifties, nice featured role. Yeah, so interesting.

But hey, Steve Martin did his own lasso tricks. Yeah, of course, of course, super talented. Disney Land's own. Yes, Steve Martin is one of those actors who like he's still kicking it and not like alive, like he's kicking it, isn't like still doing good work, like and good for him, like, I don't know. He seems seems like a genuine guy.

Seems like a very unproblematic and I know I hate that word, as we all do, but like seems like a genuine guy. Seems like a very you know, down to earth dude. Check out the documentary on him that's on Apple TV right now. It's pretty interesting. He's got some issues, but they're I think he's spent a lifetime burying them.

It's a very interesting person. Yeah. All three of them, though, have that like triple threat kind of talent where you sort of hate them, like can you because they're all musical. They can all play instruments, I believe, and sing fairly well and act and do all this other stuff. I mean, I think Steve Martin's a painter as well, and.

Yeah, writes a ton has written books, is right? Screenplays? Yeah? Yeah, It's like, can you be bad at something? Please?

Right? Can I have some of that? Please? Well? Martin Short was in a couple of those fancays Weber movies and the critically acclaimed and I watched it last night with my folks, Jungle to Jungle Eli.

Oh good, Lord is right. They've all had duds. I mean, we're milling through one of those actors duds as we go through this podcast. So, but Martin Short actually ends up being kind of the best part of Jungle to Jungle, which I found amusing because he he plays a very like harried father of two character that's kind of neurotic in that movie. And I'm like, oh, this kind of works for Martin Short, So I don't know.

I'm coming around more on Martin Short. The more stuff of his I watch, And I almost feel kind of icky to say this, but some of his stuff that he's been doing is Jimmy glick recently is actually really funny. It is. Yeah, it's I want to see the really funny. If you want to see the funniest thing he has ever done in his life, check out the synchronized swimming bit from Saturday Not Live.

Well, I've seen it. I know what you're talking. Hey, you, I know you. I know you. The other one was do you remember Jackie Rogers Junior's one hundred thousand dollars jackpot wad?

That the one where it was like Pyramid but it was title Yeah it was. It was Christopher Guest as this Indian guy, and then Billy Crystal as uh Sammy Davis Junior, so their partners. And then you had Mary Gross as a very neurotic woman and she was partnered with Jim Belushi as Bob Keishan aka Captain Kangaroo, and they have they basically play game of Pyramid. It is so fricking funny. That's another fantastic skit.

And I don't know who Jackie Rogers is, so for Martin Short during Jackie Rogers Junior, I don't understand the reference, but he is amazing in that as well. But Ed Grimley, Ed Grimley was fucking amazing. I used to love Ed Grimley, especially on SCUTV. So good. Yeah, I have an Ed Grimley doll sitting on my shelf at home, that I say.

Or his slimy lawyer characters. Oh yeah, what was that guy's name? Ned? Was that Ned was his name? Yeah?

He was great with that smoking the SA and that whole thing that I found out that he was making. Wasn't he making fun of the costume designer for Saturday Night Live by doing that character? Like? I didn't say that? Why do you think I said that?

Did I say that? Oh? My god? So good? Yeah.

I think I'm coming around on Martin Short. But I also think that what I was exposed to earlier this year may not have helped my feelings on mister mister Short. It can be, it can be a lot, can be a lot, and that isn't that much of it in this There isn't that much of it. He does the little dance move a couple times in this, but not not a time. Oh yeah, yeah, I saw that at the Big Fiesta when he's basically doing the Ed Gribbley dance almost it doesn't have the hand up in front of his bed like you would do.

Yeah, anyway, it was Nathan Thurman. There we go. And that was another great one. It was the whole thing with the makmnt brothers, the Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest playing the two brothers that make faulty novelty items, and Nathan Thurman is their uh Nathan Furham sorry, is their lawyer and he's, uh, yeah, that was great. Well, you know you could get a this isn't Merton short, but the two guys where they're like you could get an unglazed dribbled glass, you get forty stitches in your neck, instant lossuit in your lip, instant lawsuit.

So good. Yeah. Yeah, this is definitely a step up from Pure Luck and what was the other one, Three Fugitives. Three Fugitives. It's it is a massive step up from those.

Yeah, but those movies came after this one. Yeah, check Innerspace, check out. Captain Ron is actually pretty funny. I've seen Captain Ron a long time. That the Kurt Russell Vehicle exactly.

Yeah, that's the prequel to Escape from New York. Oh okay, And like I said, Martin Short's good and Jungle to Jungle, I mean that that movie I think is broadly bizarre and strange and makes very little sense. But hey, you got Tim Allen, just Tim Allen at the height of his power, just going length. Just put me in things, as long as you don't send me back to jail for cocaine. I didn't never seen Clifford, but I've heard the clips I've seen have been pretty hysterical.

So maybe when we're done with the Chevy Chase cast will do the short Martin cast. Maybe Steve Martin cast I could probably do, though I don't know. I've never seen The Lonely Guy or LA Story. I've been always meaning too, so LA. Story is an interesting one.

LA Story is not dead Men Wear Plaid or Pennies. Of Cloud Yeah yeah, or Grand Canyon. That almost a follow up to The Big Chill. Anything else we plans just yet, I'll try to get through this. You know what they say twenty you know what they say.

By the end of twenty twenty five. We may not be allowed to do this anymore anyways, So it doesn't matter because we're. Just we're halfway through this whole filmography I think are not whole filmography. Sorry, but what we're planning on doing we are, right, God, Ha've. Only made promises for people on that one.

Mike. Yeah, actually we might be a little less then. I no, No, we're right about there. Okay, yeah, because there's twenty five on our list and we are at number fourteen right now. Yeah, so we don't have money.

We can start making plans right now, Begley, it's just twenty twenty six. Yeah, we'll be doing this until twenty Yeah, April twenty twenty six. So we got a little bit, we got a little bit of time left. And I don't know at what point unless we've already reached it, that we are going to have peaked. But there's a high possibility that the peak has already come and gone and we just don't realize he yet.

So Christmas vacation might be the peak. I don't know. I don't know. Fletch for me was kind of and always will be the peak of peaks. But Christmas vacation might be the secondary peak, as it were, but that's not what we're talking about.

On the next episode of the Chasing Chevy Chase Podcast, we're going to be talking about nineteen eighty eight's Funny Farm, a movie fish out of Water story, Folks, That's what it is. Get excited. Chevy Chase and his wife moved to a farm. Hilar funny farm. Oh dear, Yeah.

We do. Funny things happen. Funny things happen. Chevy Chase eats a lot of balls, you know what I mean? Yes, So until then, where can people find you and your collected works?

Mark Begley, You can find my two shows Wake Up Heavy and Camera Joe Machean over on Wordingwaymedia dot com or wherever you find your finer podcasts. Same question to you, mister Mike. Right. You can find all of the books that I've written over at Lulu dot com. So go over there and search for Mike White and you'll find all of the episodes of Cashers the Cinema that are available via Lulu and possibly Funky at cashws to Cinema collection.

You'll be able to find, Yeah, some of the other stuff that I've done Cinema Detours where it's all movie reviews, which inadvertently led to the podcast The Projection Booth, which some folks might have heard of and which is also available at Wordingwaymedia dot com. How about you, Chris, Wow, now I know why we're all here kind of in a way. Just think Mike, when you were writing those You're like, many moons from now, I'll be sitting and talking about three amigos with two of my amigos. You can find see you can find everything that I work on over at Wirdingwaymedia dot com, which is the network that Mike and I started together, and we had a good time inviting all of our friends, like our dear Mark Begley here to join us, to put out some great content, have a good time, give everybody a little bit of an audio diversion from the reality and the oppressive nature that is real life.

So if you want to check out some fun things to keep you occupied as the world spins out of control, Weirdingwaymedia dot com is where you can do it. And please like, revate, revate, like rate and review anything and everything you listen to, regardless of what it is, because that helps content Kit creators out. But you know, if you do it with us first, we'd really appreciate it. Like rate and review this show on iTunes, which is more than likely where you're getting it and listening to it. And yeah, the next time you hear the three of our voices, we'll be talking about nineteen eighty eights, Funny Farm.

Thankf