Episode 25: The Last Laugh (2019)

M weird weah m hm hm. M m. And what better way to show you the grounds of tom Sunshine than to have one of our residents give you a tour. Buddy ow Heart, you got old of me so I didn't recognize looked like a mummy. Buddy was my first client ever.

He was one of the funniest up in come. I booked him everywhere. I get the call from every comic stream. What happened? I became a podiatriss You gave up show business for feet?

Yep, you don't miss it? What why? God? Let me get you a few gigs. I retired fifty years ago.

What a great comeback story? Okay, hit it. Ten dollars. They won't make it to Glive there. We'll play Chicago in Vegas.

I got book you on the right show. He's making a comeback, Buddy Green. I decided to do it for the last no one's laugh before. Guy hasn't gotten laid since he made for all. And by the way, nice mullet, do.

You even have an actor? I never had it, and I got fifty years of jokes. My wife loved sex. Our favorite position was the missionary position. That's where she's in bed on her back and I'm in Africa.

By the time we get to New York City. You're gonna be a dot form. Have you heard from Carsons people yet? Not yet? I do two hosts.

Behind Bringschita Kansas City. I'm on tour. I knew you were a rock stock. Grandfather still got gamy. I'm just supposed to be thrilled that you found yourself at Aden.

Yes, yeah, yeah, Bunny, thanks, It's what I do. Whoa, oh, no. Question. I will buy pot for you. I will buy you a brick of Maori.

Whoopee. Hey, what's up? Listen up. You look like some pretty cool dudes. I'm just looking to score a little bit of Mary Jane Potter.

And stay in school. Hello everyone, and welcome to the final episode of the Chasing Chevy Podcast or the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast or whatever you want to call it. But you probably didn't call it your favorite podcast, because well, unless you're Chevy Chase and that it probably is your favorite podcast. I am one of your hosts, Christashy from the Culture Cast, and I'm joined by my two good friends all the way from Cambridge and with Sewan and Wake Up Heavy He's really done with chevy Chase's nonsense. Your friend and mine, Mark.

Begley, you left show business for feet and all the. Way from the projection booth, he gets into fights with Chevy Chase on Twitter. No he doesn't, because chevy Chase doesn't use Twitter, but he uses social media to some aspect to do weird things. Your friend of mine, all the way from the projection booth, Mike White. The correct term is pre dead.

Oh my god, I was so disappointed. Neither one of you quoted Chevy Chase saying do you still come? Which is the worst line I've had to hear Chevy Chase say. In the entirety of the run of this show that we have done, we have covered a lot of Chevy Chase film, and rightfully so, I think that this is a this is an apropos wait to end. But I also want to take full responsibility before we talk about this film that this film is my fault, like there have been several films that have been my fault that we watched.

I wanted to watch this movie because I felt like, again the title alone is rather apropos, But on this episode of the Chase and Chevy Chace podcast we are talking about twenty nineteen's Greg Pritkin directed Richard Dreyfus and Chevy Chase starring the aptlete titled The Last Laugh. So the film does star Richard Dreyfus and Chevy Chase as a comedian and manager who reunite to go on the road one last time. Folks why you'll find out while watching the film. Andy McDowell is there, Lewis Black is here, Kate mccouchee, and Chris Parnell dot paid. Greg Pritkin wrote the script and directed the film, and boy it showed.

I'm gonna ask let's just go with Mark first, for no reason other than because I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this movie. But Mark, this is the last time I get to ask you on this episode, what did you think of The Last Laugh? This was one of the ones I made a little checklist at the end here of all twenty five movies we watched. And my note for this one was ps as in pleasantly surprised that I didn't hate. It, genuinely shocked.

Mike White, what about you? You know what I am in that same camp? It was inoffensive most of the time. There were there's some lingering questions that I have that we'll get into as we go through here. But yeah, it wasn't as awful.

Apart from the soundtrack. It wasn't as awful as it could have been. The soundtrack sounded like something that Hallmark Channel and Lifetime would have said, Oh that's just way too Sacharin, get that out of here. Yeah it was. It was very reminiscent of a Lifetime and or Hallmark Channel movie Big Time, Who's the.

Gentleman Neil something that that directs all those kind of like Neil Breen. This is like a Neil Breen movie in some respects, Like this movie's kind of like a weird, whacked out vanity project that just happens to have Richard Treyfus and Chevy Chase. It's it's like, it's odd because there are parts of this movie when I watched it and I was like, oh, that's the kind of oddly touching. And then there are other parts of this movie that I'm like, our fucking tone death, and I mean tone deaf in a way that when something like this is tone deaf, it really to your guys' point, it feels very Hallmark or like and those Hallmark movies, I think for for those of us that they don't work because there are plenty of people that they work for, and that's why I don't want to really denigrate them.

But I think there's something to be said for things being written very flat, with no complexity, and just having the comfort being in the formulaic nature of what we're watching. That being kind of comforting. I don't necessarily want to watch the same movie over and over again, but I'm okay watching the same movie being presented a bunch of different ways, which is really what the Hallmark movies are because there's like each each one have a path of a specific thing that you know, get clowned on. When it's you know, a woman from a small town goes to the big city and meets a cop, you know, you have like a fucking mad lib for them point. There are parts of this movie that feel very reminiscent of that.

But again, this has a cast of people that I don't think people had blackmail on them or someone just really knew how to pay them well, like the I mean, and we'll get into the producers of this movie, you know, because you know there's some clownery there, but the movie at times is you see what it could have been? Is really I think for me, the thing about this movie is I see what this movie could have been because there are moments that are kind of genuine, but there are a lot of moments that just fall fucking flat and real flat, like flat on their face even And you know this movie is in an hour and forty eight minutes, boy, yeah it is thirty excuse me thirty right, well, it feels like it's two and a half hours.

By the time they get to Richard Kind there's still like forty minutes left in this movie. And I was like, why, what, what is even happening anymore? Like it's so we had to have the extended hallucination. Sequence, damn straight, which could have absolutely been cut and no one would have missed it. Nope, that's where your extra eight minutes came from, right.

Because nobody needed it to begin with Jesus H. Christ, It's yeah, it's it's totally all over the place. Is it the worst thing that we've watched? By what means? No?

Not to bury the lead, but no, it is, it is not. There is still I think funny money still probably for the three of us takes the cake. Yeah, this is just this for me again kind of feels like the last thing we talked about with Vegas vacation, where I'm like, I see what this could have been, and what it is is still not terrible, but it is a inconsistent mess that I mean does at times feel like kind of a waste of everybody's time, especially the audience is because what is Ae McDowell even doing in this one? What what's so said? Ray?

They're being sexy? That's what she do. I'll tell you this much. She was not at Woodstock unless she was eleven years old. And yeah, well didn't she say that?

Like she was twelve and that's when her parents like caught her trying to h hitchhike there or something. Yeah, I don't know, it's a different time. Yeah, it was a different time. We were light years ahead back then. Yeah, I don't know.

But she she was eleven years old, so I'm closer in age to her than Chevy Chase is. Yeah. Yeah, this is kind of one of those mad December things. In this I'm like a little. I mean, at their age at this point, who gives a shit.

But yeah, yeah, I'm like, is she playing older or what? I mean? Yeah, because Dreyfus is not, what is not as old as he's playing in the movie. No either, but whatever. No, I'm wondering how many age spots they've added to him.

Oh I don't know, man, those look pretty genuine. The one thing that I took away from this is this was a very unchevy like character that didn't seem like so many of them. It's like, well, once we got chevy Chase, let's chevy chasify it. And this could have been anybody. This could have been any too old farts, because neither one of these are playing what they were.

I mean, chevy Chase wasn't that an entertainment manager. Richard Dreyfuss was not a stand up comedian at any point in his career that I'm aware of, and so they didn't, you know, the lose it makes the loose black thing makes sense because he's a stand up an actual stand up comedian, But it could have been any two old guys. And there's no bumbling chevy Chase. There is no snide one one liners, you know, there's no what was his famous thing that we'd always do excuse you. There's no excuse you in this that's it.

They didn't chasify it up once they cast him. It seemed to me at least, which I was grateful for. Is he the best actor in the world. No, he's still the weakest link. I would go out on a lemon say that if I pitch this movie to you and you didn't know who was playing who, you would be convinced that Chevy Chase would be playing the comedian, right, Ryfus would be the manager.

And it's see that I mean that alone, Like I get what they were going for and they're playing against type. But this is not like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are gonna go on the fucking road and do eight of these movies, Like there's one of these Why aren't you just doing the obvious thing? Like what what? What are you benefiting from by going, Well, Dreyfus is gonna be the comedian. You'll see, we'll make it work.

And it's like what the fuck? No, Like it barely works. And it only barely works because Chevy Chase is told to just not be funny in this movie at all. There's like Chevy just don't do any We're not gonna have you doing anything remotely comedic. We're just gonna have you being.

Yeah, you're gonna be the straight man in this entire film, and you're gonna be like, where's the Mary Jane, where's the Devil's lettuce? Like, oh, my good Jesus Christ, what is this character that we've written for Chevy Chase? This should be the Richard Dreyfus character. This should be Richard dreyfs doing this, and Chevy Chase should be the one on stage. And then just give Andy McDowell's character to Chevy Chase as the comedian anyways, because it's not believable with Richard Dreyfus and Andy McDowell, because Richard Dreyfus looks like her grandfather.

Even with Andy McDowell at the age that she's at in twenty nine, which is six years. Ago, some people are granny or granpy shaggers. You know, she might just be really into that. It could be her whole sexual sexual fetish is sleeping with old white men. There's a lot of that going around these days.

Oh yeah, as opposed to an old black man. George Wallace in here just complaining and giving bad news the whole time, not playing into his strengths as a comedian either. I think George Wallace as our comedian would have made a lot more sense, or even God Richard Kind. But yeah, Chevy, even if he were to play the stand up comedian, I don't think he ever really did stand up. I think his early days were more in the writing.

You know, he was part of a band. I think he was in a band with one or two of the guys from Steely Dan, right, and then he goes on to work for like The Lampoon, and then he's writing stuff for I don't know, a Spy or whatever the Lampoon, that magazine Attica was, so he wasn't doing stand up. Like. He has one quote unquote comedy album, and I love the review on AllMusic dot Com that says, a spectacularly unfunny comedy album the vinyl equivalent of National Lampoon's European Vacation. I thought you were gonna say it was just two words shit sand.

You can't write that. You can't write that, I mean. You know, Yes, Chevy Chase is not a comedian in the sense of the stand up variety. However, he has known for being funny in comedic films, unlike Richard Dreyfus, who I don't think anyone would go, you know, who's really funny these days, that Richard dreyfe that Dick Dreyfus is a funny guy, that Dick Dreyfus isn't even a fun guy to be around. Dreyfus and chevy Chase are both kind of notoriously curmudgeony.

We haven't talked about that with chevy Chase in quite some time, the kind of prickliness of chevy Chase, because we've focused on the movies, But chevy Chase is a notoriously prickly guy, even if his like new social media accounts are showing that he's like seemingly maybe just like mellowed out in his older age as opposed to his like middle old age. Richard Dreyfus, though, and chevy Chase kind of in twenty nineteen not known for being people you want to work with, and so the set in and of itself doesn't sound like a place I want to be. But why you're not leaning into their strengths when they're on screen is just bizarre to me to me as the audience who knows Dreyfus's career and Chase his career outside of the you know, in a vacuum.

Sure makes sense, these are just two actors. But you can't take all those other things away. You can't like that. I think that's a little unrealistic. So just weird on paper that this is the way you want to play it like, it's kind of odd.

So one of the things at the heart of the story is, so we've got oh gosh, what's the name of this actress? I really like her, Kate mccouchee. She's just so adorable and I've seen her on I follow her on Instagram. She's great at art as well as just being a very very talented person. First comediateally yes.

Well she's half of Garfunkel and Oates. She's a very talented musician as well. Super yeah, super talented lady. And so she is playing the daughter of Chevy Chase, who's this al heart granddaughter, sorry, granddaughter, thank you, And she's trying to basically get him into a home. And they go in to visit this place and Richard Dreyfust shows up in the sky pretending that things are awful there.

Eventually it's like, oh, hey, this is my old client. Because al Hart was a, like you said, a manager for comedians back in the day, and it feels like he didn't have a ton of clients, but definitely the Driver's character was one of his clients. And he quit right before his big break on the Ed Sullivan Show. Why did he quit? We never get that answer.

Okay, all right, That's what I kept wondering, Like I was waiting for a big revelation at the end of this to be like, even if he said something like I realized that this wasn't the life for me and I would rather spend more of my time rather than being out on the road taking care of people's feet and taking care of my family. Well, that's kind of what he does. He says, why did you quit? And he's like, quit what? And he s right there, well, he lists the things that he had instead and then said quit.

What it was? It was weirdly worded and written, and I'm like, wait, quit, oh, oh, okay, I mean you had to stop and think about it for a minute. What he was getting at, right, I didn't quit anything. I had all of this, So are. You are you saying that one of the writers of movie forty three may not have been a good writer for this movie.

I mean that Jesus, Mother of God, it's it falls flat and there's a there's a needle drop in the middle of that scene when he's saying that, there's a needle drop over him saying it's so weird. The movie feels like a film where the person who directed it and wrote it is the same person. Like, that's the way this movie feels, and there are movies like that, Like, there are a fair amount of movies that feel like this, and it's not a knock against them. It's just when you have overwhelming amounts of creative control and no one to push back and say, hey, maybe we need to make a change here. Maybe this kind of kind of has this weird vibe to it, where the soundtrack is weird and the script is weird and some of the dialogue doesn't work, and the editing is kind of I mean, it wasn't edited by Greg Pritticin, who claims he's never seen a music video though he's directed plenty of his words.

Apparently, they'll say this is supposed to be funny, right. Is it? Like just like the comedy in this film, Low Hanging Fruit of the Racial Variety. I will say this, my mom has lived in a residential facility for a number of years now, and they fucking nailed it. They nailed that part of it.

Everybody eating the buffet, the walker is all lined up in the back of a room perfect. I mean, I've seen that when my dad's memorial service was held there. The back wall was kept open for all of the wheelchairs and walkers and canes, and it was pretty I mean, there wasn't a George Wallace rolling around announcing every time somebody died. And they didn't all stand in the you know driveway when the well, they kind of do that because the ambulance does show up quite often there. And but yeah, that part of it they got right.

So I don't know if he had a dad and a r mom in a residential facility, but they nailed it. So Al gets the idea, I want to rekindle my career. I'm not ready for a retirement. I want to rekindle my career. And it's odd for a manager to want to rekindle their career because they manage they need a client.

So he Glombs onto Richard Dreyfuss is just like, hey, you were so funny. Let you know, let's go back out on the road. I can get us a spot on Fallon. What do you do? I mean, great, that's fantastic, So yes, let's do that.

Don't you remember how big Jimmy Fallon was in twenty nineteen. It was he still is he's It's. Really just the fact that he the host of the Tonight Show at the time. I mean, it really has nothing to do with him. Whoever the host would have been her keeping in in twenty nineteen, Jimmy Fallon wasn't selling.

Products that he made on his TV show. Correct. Notice how Stephen Colbert doesn't even make an appearance and they're on. The whole show. Yes, sEH, I noticed that too.

Yeah, well again it feels like calling in favors, but not to the right people, even when they're making a film. Frankly, so Dreyfus doesn't want to go out on the road because he's banging a lady at the care facility. But a lady who do we ever get a close up of her? It seems like she's ohs in the background, like out of focus to the point where I'm like, who is that actress? I can't even see her face?

No, yeah, he never knew. Okay, all right, I'm glad that it wasn't just like, oh, no, you forgot about the close up. You forgot about the scene where she has more than Oh hey, Richard Dreyfus, you know, come fuck me kind of buddy, Yeah, yeah, buddy, buddy. And then he said he who's that? When chevy Chay's asked, he goes nobody like, right, wow, guy, cool.

Yeah, And there is a very poignant scene. She passes away at one point and they kind of do a rug pull for us. It's this whole thing of George Wallace shows up and he always talks about who's fallen, who's dead, all this bad news. He's like this Herbinger kind of thing. And at one point he shows up and he's just like, oh, do you hear what happened to buddy?

So then we're like, oh, Buddy's dead. But then chevy Chase goes in and no, it's the room where those two slept together, slept in the having sex term and she's dead now, and Dreyfus hays this great little thing where he's like, oh, you know, I never told her I loved her because I didn't want to get attached to somebody. I've lost so many people in my life. I'm like, wow, that's a really nice scene, but then it's so quickly undercut because then it's like, all right, well, let's go back out on the road. And I know it would have been very boring for us as an audience to watch Richard Dreyfus doing the same act in every venue.

But if you're a comedian, you basically you're working on your act. And for Dreyfus, he's just out riffing every time he goes out. And I'm sorry, even if you are an observational comic a lah Jerry Seinfeld, you're not just literally coming up with things right on the spot and saying like, oh hey, what about this thing that I just saw two singles ago? And what about this complaint that I have. If you're a comedic genius, you are come on now, I guess, I guess it's more than Robin Williams style.

But I know Robin Williams even had an act. You know, you don't just go out and make shit up. I don't know. I know that had to be done for this movie, so we didn't just hear the same jokes over and over again. But man, oh man, I was like, I was chafing at that just because I'm a big fan of stand up comedy and to see them kind of not do it right, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, and so basically ninety percent of this movie becomes a road trip.

Yeah. I was thinkful though, that we didn't get extended bits. It's like a couple of jokes in each place, and sometimes not even that. We have people singing in movies that shouldn't be singing, or playing video games in movies where it's like someone just clicking a controller like we If you play video games, or I have ever seen a human being play video games, you know that's not how it's done. And if you've ever listened to five minutes of any amount of stand up comedy and I'm not even citing like who specifically to your point though, Mike, but like, given, if it's observational comedy, like this is nothing of what Dreyfus says is funny.

It's not comedic, and it sticks out like a sore thumb in a movie about comedians, ostensibly that the parts of the film where we're supposed to see the comedic genius of Richard dreyff is that it it bombs and fallon or Colbert would be ashamed to have him on their show doing that weird like I'm just gonna start insulting people act because you're not Don Rickles, who they mentioned, by the way, so we know that Don Rickles is a real person in this constructed world, though we have Lewis Black playing a character, so it begs the question, is there someone who's also just Lewis Black who looks like this character. It's never explained because again the movie doesn't care, but it opens that weird box of like mentioning real people again because he's an observational comedian.

So you almost wonder, like, why didn't they mention Seinfeld or other people doing that same thing, because they mentioned Ed Sullivan over and over over. Well, and they've got a very poor Ed Sullivan and impersonating, oh my. What the fuck was that about? Like we get it, the labor the fucking point, why don't you I do? Right?

But the so the sorry shit I lost? Oh, I mean, one of the very first shots in this movie that we have is going over that wall of comedians, and I don't know if they just sent a pa to go to you know, like the Hollywood but composter and just buy a bunch of headshots of comedians, or if they were calling in favors to get all of these headshots and sign and everything. I doubt that these are real signatures on these. But one thing why I had to look this guy up before we started talking tonight is that there's two comedy clubs that they go to, and both of them have pictures of other comedians in the background. And Ronnie Cheng Daily Shows, Ronnie Chang Shangshi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Megan Crazy Rich Asians.

Ronnie Chang shows up so prominently behind these characters that I'm just like, was Ronnie's manager involved in this? Because he is just so big but behind them both in like the one in Chicago and the previous place that they play, and I'm like, Wow, Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but Ronnie's just very very well represented in this movie. I didn't even notice the pictures. Okay, well, I was just kind of like, oh, who are these that are on the wall and. You put that in the IMDb trivia, Mike, Oh there we go.

Oh hey, nah, hey, they get a freebie from us Holy cap. Yeah. Well, I haven't read the trivia for this one. I'm sure it's filled with all kinds of very useful information. I was gonna say, boy, I'm sure that Netflix is glad that this film got three to four streams this year.

I suppose you're getting none, none streams in a long time since the middle. Go look at the IMDb page for this movie, because it's actually kind of perfect because I could have sworn I saw Doctor Oz and the audience the Wow Show. But if you go and look on the IMDb page that trailer the videos, it is a still shot of the audience, and I swear that's him. Wow. So to answer your question about the IMDb trivia, there is a couple piece of information that y'all might find interesting in the scene at the comedy club in Lubock, Texas, when you old woman peaches Davis the second throws the beer bottle a rubber prop at Richard Dreyfuss, making sure to note that a prop is made of rubber.

On the first take, the bottle struck Dreyfus squarely in the crotch exclamation point. The entire cast and crew, including Dreyfus, was laughing so hard it was several minutes before the shooting could resume. Oh that's great. I'm so happy, I know. And then the other piece of information is the four Paul Mazerski dedication was for friend of writer director Greg Prittickin.

The two of them used to eat breakfast at the Farmer's Market in Hollywood with a group of old comics, and Prittickin says, the stories these guys told inspired this movie. The end credits list some of the comics that were there saw that. Yeah. So last night, it was two o'clock in the morning, I couldn't get to sleep in this hotel room I was at, and I'm looking at articles about The Last Laugh, And there was an article that said, is The Last Laugh based on a true story? So I go there and I read the article and there's no mention of it being a true story.

They just talk about the movie itself. There's no like, was this based on a true story? And then there's a link to a Vulture article about was this space on a true story? I go there and it's even less informative and they don't talk. So I guess the true story true story quote unquote is the whole thing of the Paul Mazerski stuff in that he would hang out with these guys and they would tell these stories and that inspired the film.

But what the fuck? Man? Like, all all the stories that I read last night about this movie felt like they were just written from the press release or AI. I think it was too early for AI to write these, but like just felt like they were just picking up stuff from the Netflix press release. Laziest fucking journalism in the world.

Well, I mean, is it any lazier than the movie that we get, which has some really lazy comedy that feels like again low hanging fruit. They go to Tijuana and he's telling jokes that would get him thrown out of a comedy club in Tijuana by the people there, and he's like mean to the translation, it's just again like I'm I'm assuming because like you've alluded to and like I mentioned, like the like the true story of it all, like this was probably a story that was told at one of these breakfasts. I was like, oh man, this is this would make a great movie like this would be great in a movie. Like probably Reggy, Greggy, rite this movie. Write this movie for me.

When it was being told, I'm sure it was being told with a lot more panache and delivery than it gets in the film version, because a a kind of back and forth with a quote redneck unquote is about as funny as you would think it is. And it's not funny, it's just lazy. It's just lazy. And and the parts of this movie that don't work are the lazy parts. The parts of the movie that do work are the parts that feel more personal to Greg Pritticken than just I was sitting at a breakfast listening to these comedians talk about what they've done, like anybody could do that, Like that's not as that's not as big of a like insider thing as it used to be, and that everybody just goes on podcasts and talks about their like life experiences.

For a while there, everybody had a Steven Sagall story that they would tell on a podcast, Like you could go and find like a super cut of Tom Segura and all, and you know John Likeguizamo and all these people telling their Steven Sagall stories, and it's like, like there's no cachet to that anymore. But for a time there there was, like you used to have no way to hear those stories other than just you know, the effectively the Hollywood dirt sheets. Now it's like everybody can go talk about whatever the fuck, wherever the fuck they want, on someone else's show or their own show, and it almost undercuts the idea of like what Greg Pritticken is doing here trying to like, oh, these are great stories, Like yeah, I guess so, but they're not really that unique.

They kind of all feel very generic. So either you're not good at taking them down or they just weren't that interesting to begin with. Best Stephen Sagall's story for me is Steven Tobolowski where he talks about how Ugall didn't want to kill anyone in the movie The Glimmerman and that they he had to talk Stephen Segal into killing him in one of the opening scenes I think it is in the movie, and that he eventually comes back and says, no, no, I changed my mind. I really didn't. He can't be dead, even though like this guy gets blown away and uh so they had to have Tobo come back and do ad R to be like basically like I'm still here.

I'm oh my god, finish me off your bastards. Pretty much pretty much Steven Sagal, the same guy who said, and I quote, I won't be in the Expendables films because I don't like to work with funny people. M yep, that's that's what the issue is. Oh yeah, it's. Uh, you know, you know, and and to go to the Dreyfus and Chevy Chase and really Steven Sagal of it all like actors that take themselves so seriously all the time, man, Like, you know, no amount of making a movie, a buddy buddy comedian movie together is really going to wipe away the reality to like, these two dudes are really like playing like maybe ten percent of their normal annoying selves at the time.

But these two guys are insufferable in reality, and this movie is just like a dialed down version of it, And I kind of almost wish it had just been them dialed up to one hundred and just like being completely miserable assholes, like bad Grandpa style, just like I don't know, like there's a little bit of it you see there's moments of it, but it never it never gets there, because again, the movie's not interested in telling that story. The movie is interested in being kind of weirdly emotionally touching, or attempting to be I guess I don't know how successful it is, but it attempts that several times. I talk about one of those other moments where I'm just like, what the hell happened? Kind of thing.

So Chevy and Richard are driving down the road and at one point there's a cup car behind them, and so Chase takes all of Richard Dreifus's weed and throws it out the window, and it's this big thing. Yeah, like you mentioned Chevy, Chase's character is just like, oh my god, the devil let us, How are you doing this? A kind of thing. And so there's a montage They're down in fucking Texas, which is probably not the best place to try to buy weed at. They're down in Texas, and you can correct me on that one, Chris, down there.

Surrounded by legal states. I know, I can't buy pounds of weed in Texas. So in the movie, I get what the movie's getting at. But yeah, maybe twenty nineteen was bad, But yeah, it's not. It's not.

It's not the hellscape. This movie's making it out to me. Well, he's going around and he's trying to buy weed. He goes through these rednecks, They're just like what what the fuck? He goes to these teens, they're like, uh, about to probably berate him as these two cops are walking up, and he's like, oh, you kids, get away from here kind of thing.

He finally goes any knocks on at the window of a jazz bar and then it comes back with a whole thing of weed. Because his whole thing is like only jazz musicians smoke weed. He has a whole big bag of weed for Richard Dreyfus, and I'm just like, there's no way that that that's real weed. Like he should have gotten fooled by that, right, Isn't that? The funnier joke is that Richard Dreyfus goes to light up a slip and goes, oh, this is fucking oregano or something like that, Like yeah, like, but it's like Chevy Chase can't be the butt of the joke.

Huh. Interesting. I just thought it was very low hanging fruit to have him go and bother jazz musicians for weed. Oh well, yes, knocks on the fucking window and like just go into the club. Shit exactly that again, Like I don't like, come on maybe weed.

It's just like and and and you know, like there are moments where I'm like, yeah, this could have been funny if you had dialed it up a bit further, but you I don't know. It's like, was it that Jack Nicholson Morgan Freeman movie The bucket List? Fucking List? Yes, like old people going on adventures together, Like you gotta give it a little teeth, and if it's gonna be about comedians, you really got to give it some fucking teeth. And this movie, you know, it's pretty toothless, pardon the obvious, you know, comparison to old people in their old dents, because get it.

At one point they're like, I forget Richard Dreyfus makes some joke about dentrism, just like this is so tired. This was tired when Henny Youngman was telling it in the Porsche Belp and it's tired now in twenty nineteen. Don't they lift Henny Youngman joke in this movie? Isn't this the one with the because I know I just saw a movie the other day and I'm hoping it's this one with the Uh. Gave the guy six months live, couldn't pay his bill.

Doctor, give him another six months. Yeah, okay, all right, all. Right, Sry please take one. Yeah. I've heard that joke in good Fellas quite a few times.

Yeah. My wife says, take me someplace he's never been before. I said, try the kitchen. Yeah, good god, it's funny when Henny Youngman says it. It's not funny when Richard Dreyfuss it Krippendorf's tribes own Richard Dreyfus, the King of comedy, Richard dreyfe No God, what a fucking mess to cast a non comedic actor as a comedian and expect it's going to go any better than casting a non singing actor.

He can be very funny, can. Be funny when someone who's funny is writing for him. I never thought were a lot better, though. This is not that. Though we could have been, but it's not.

I mean, I never thought I would be defending Richard Dreyfus, which is also the title of my new new movie. I was about to say that very title for a film. Yes, well he was. Was he in Defending Your Life? I think he was right.

I mean, would it be better to just abbreviate it to Defending Dreyfus, Yes. Well, yeah, the Defending Dreyfus cast. No, we're not doing that. No, we're not doing that. I mean, though, I do want an opportunity to talk about that Steven Spielberg movie again with you, Mike, with John Goodman.

No, thank you, I'm good. I'd rather die. Yeah, I've done Mad Dog time on my own show. I don't really want to ever talk about it again. Yeah, I mean he was good, and things like stake Out we mentioned recently.

I wasn't a big fan like when he gets flustered. That's when I have a little bit of a problem with him. When he gets into things like Moon Over Parador or Gosh Down and Out in Beverly Hills. I think it's the most egregious one. I really do not remember.

Sorry, And it wasn't defending your Life. That's Albert Brooks. It's whose life is in any way, he had a period of time during the seventies where he just really could not be stopped. I mean, I love inserts I love well obviously, I love Jaws. I really enjoy Close Encounters of the Third Kin and the Goodbye Girl, the Big Fix.

I don't remember the competition, but like, I liked him so much in so many things. And then yeah, when he's bad, he's awful. But when he's got like you said, when he's got good writers writing for him, really really good, And there's things like mister Holland's Opus where I'm just like, okay, this is way too saccharine. Was not a movie for me, but it was definitely a movie that I could see Oscar voters loving. And it's got Alicia Witt in it, so there you go.

Yeah, well, and isn't Glenn Headley in there as well? It was sadly taken from us way too soon. Alicia Whitt, No, she is waiting, telling us to wait for her brea. She is such a talented person as well, Like finding out about her being on like real people when she was five years old and like reciting Shakespeare, I'm like, what the fuck she. Was even in the fucking Sopranos.

Remember the girl? She sure was? And I was like, isn't that Yeah? That sure is good. He is the quez had rak my brother and.

How can this be? Yeah, you know I've laughed more talking about this movie than I did while watching them. Yeah, it got a few chuckles out of me. The one win the very end of the. Morning, I know, because if you had a few, they probably stood out well.

The one that I actually remember is the end of the film when he's posing nude for Anna McDowell. He goes the majestic look upwards. That actually got to laugh on the annimal why it struck me as funny, like I'm sure that the rest of that don't look so great, chevy. But yeah, there were a lot of times where I was just like, no, this isn't too bad. This is funny, you know, and it's just it's inofensive like a like a good road movie should be.

Though, you know, there are things that just don't add up, like how how they're staying at all these very very very cheap hotels and when they make their way to Chicago, that's a really nice hotel. That threat I mean, are they doing that? Because Andy McDowell is. Now with that, you know, that was my first thought when they rolled up, I'm like, why are they staying at a really nice place. All of a sudden, Chevy Chase say that he has a lot of money he.

See in the movie. He says he does. So I'm like, why were they staying in these crappy places this whole time? You're like old men, and you're not like old men. You are old men.

You are old men. Like he's doing the same thing my mom does, where she's walking around with a ratty coat with the toggles missing and just looks like a fucking homeless person. And she's like, well I don't I'm going to Goodwill to look for new coats. I'm like, Mom, you can afford a new coat. Go to the fucking store.

They sell new ones at good Will. Yeah, hey, yeah, it's new for saving that for you. I know. Well then that's what I was thinking, is like, what are you doing to your your kids and your grandkids? By it?

Did he give five million dollars. To He should have given him a number. I mean that would said that was what I was waiting for, was a ridiculous number. I would have said, I have a million dollars in my bank account rather than I have five million dollars. Yes, It's like what so I'm going to bribe Lewis Black to let this old guy on the air and give a fair to middling performance.

It is not the Oh my god, this guy is so fucking funny. There was an old comedian that I listened to or watch on Instagram. He is hilarious. He is so really old guy, really old guy. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

I wish I guys na so funny, and I was kind of waiting for that. Like, these jokes in this movie are just not the funniest jokes that you could have. Karl Reiner and mel Brooks did it better. Jesus Christ, the thousand year old man. I mean, for fuck's sick, three thousand whatever it is.

I used to I have the CD downstairs, the one that they did in like the mid two thousand, Like that's that's how you do this. You're not even trying to do that. And they have the audacity to show mel Brooks in the opening of this movie. I love everything else, Like you're gonna do a movie about old comedians, You're gonna show the guy who was doing the old comedian bit before he got old and now he's super old. Brooks is still with us and Carl Reiner is still with us.

They're both still with us. Writers called Reiner. Gone're both still with us. Jesus Christ, I think. And this is uh Andy Huggins as the guy who we're talking about.

Andy Huggins Comedy is his channel on Instagram. So go go watch Andy Huggins Comedy. Speaking of comedy, I just looked at my Facebook memories. Guess what happened nine years ago today? We started the show?

Wouldn't that what we've been here this whole time? Good God? Now can you imagine doing this? We have done an episode every three months. Good?

Yeah, you you almost damn near killed Mark Beg. That was good? What happened nine years? This was Trump's first the win guys, Oh. Goodness, ninth Wow?

Yeah. Richard Dreyfus is is that funny? YEA had a real joke, a laugher, the slapper of all time. Yeah, the funniest joke perpetrated by Soli was here. Richard dreyf is probably a Trump supporter.

I would think, seems like he doesn't drivers is like trans surprise me hates Dreyfus hates trans people, which is fun. That's that's yeah, the whole thing of Oh I looked at Dreyfus, Trump and Julie Julie Louise Dreyfuss game up first, and she's not a fan. She's not a fan. Well that's that's good. I can all imagine.

Yeah, I mean, Dreyfus is a boomer, so you gotta wonder. Let's see, you know, he's after. Richard Dreyfus has been vocal, vocal critic of Donald Trump for years, previously calling him a quote intemperate, mean spirited, lying bully. Richard Dreyfus hasn't done anything popular since nineteen seventy. You've seen the last Yeah, we don't care, tony.

Nineteen was a long time ago, Richard, A long time. More recently, his public comments have focused on a wide range of political issues, including the state of American civics, education, and quote woke culture, which, yeah, I remember this. If we slove Richard. Now you're part of our camp. And yeah, you lived long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Oh, we're going to our listeners. Here, our listener, Richard Dreyfus has left the chat. I mean, look, it's one of those things where you if you like anything else, you don't have to share your beliefs with everybody, but if you do, don't be surprised when people don't necessarily agree with you. And that's just you know, the longer call clap back. Yeah, the longer we go on as a society, the more opportunities people have to do and say things that may come back to not age well, or they may find themselves in a position to say something that won't age well moving forward.

And that seems to be what happens here with Richard Dreyfus. And that's what's weird is when we started this podcast, I didn't think I would have come around to the idea that maybe chevy Chase he's kind of redeemed himself a little bit. But he seems to have maybe cut like his jokes maybe come around again, and now he's like mellowed out a little bit. Because I in preparation for us, you know, this being the last episode, I went and just like looked at his online presence and kind of seems a little defanged. Like chevy Chase seems maybe like he's just kind of settled into old age and you know, working the Christmas convention circuit and making the money one hundred and twenty dollars a head shot, baby, plus twenty dollars for the autograph like or photo op or god knows what.

He was like, you know what, fuck it awesome, make that money, make it and fucking make them for every goddamn dollar it's worth. And in relation to Christmas and Hallmark movies that we have mentioned, he has been in a handful of those. I mean, that's kind of what he's done since this, since this movie, which is just so weird to me because I think about him, like six years ago, wasn't that long? And I kind of vaguely remember when this came out, like it being pushed on Netflix, you know, when they opened up your app or whatever nude to Netflix the last laugh. I'm like, what the fuck is this?

You and a lot of other people. Which brings me to my little trivia thing because I for some reason sat through the credits and was gobsmacked when I saw co producer osgood Perkins, and I'm like, what where did this come from? How did this happen? I mean I know that, you know, he was an actor before and was in some comedies famously Quiggly with Everybody's favorite dog, Gary Busey. For some reason, I don't know, but I.

Was like, people by ages legally blood, Well, I know that's the easy one that you know. I'm going deep here with quiggly. Uh great name for you. It's not in it's it's not on his IMDb credits, and it's not on the film's IMDb credits, but it was in the in the film itself assumed there were like three co producers and he was one of them. Now, when that message, I thought it was Max Landis.

Oh no, I didn't see his name in there. Okay, because I thought you said a murderous nepo baby horror director. Oh okay, oh my god, Okay, I thought you said. For some reason, I thought it was the neo baby of a horror director, and I thought you said murderer in there. So yeah, so I was just like, Max fucking Landis one murderer action okay, yeah.

No, no, no. So I was like I had to figure out what was going on, Like, I know he has his production company now I'm assuming, but so I'm like, I need to find the connection here. And I was looking at the went back to look at the credits on IMDb for the last laugh. And it had, of course, you know, Netflix as the company, which I'm sure they didn't actually, you know, they probably just bought it. They just bought.

Yeah, but it was Paris Films. And I'm like, okay, well, what's this. And so when I clicked on them, their credits popped up and Osgood Perkins' first two films were on their list, and I'm like, oh, well, okay, So but I guess I don't know. I don't know how he got connected with them. I mean, obviously because of these two movies, and his second film was a Netflix film, So Paris Films, I don't know, was in tight with Netflix and somehow Osgood Perkins got connected with Paris Films and blah blah blah.

So weird. It was weird though, seeing his name on there. We're about to hear knock knock knock. Mark Begley, you figured out too much, you know too much. I mean, it's not even too any questions.

You dug too deep, dug too deep, Pepe style. Yeah, it doesn't seem like he was actually a part of the company. So I don't know, I don't know. Maybe he could have been like a it could have been like a like, you know, like a revenue sharing thing. Give us twenty dollars and you get five five thousand.

Plus an executive producer credit. Though, so I don't you know, the co producer is a little different. But maybe Osgood didn't want his name on the movie anymore and just ask him to take it off. IMDb also with it. So I mentioned the whole thing with Ronnie Chang, and I know that he and Jimmy O Yang worked together quite a few times.

And Jimmy O Yang is one of the four comedy consultants on this film, including Fred Stoller, who I like a lot, Chris Fleming I'm not familiar with, Alan Harvey, and then Jimmy o'yang and then comedy advisor to mister Dreyfus Ronnie Schell, who I think he was in like Gomer Pyle USMC back in the day. Aren't you familiar with Chris Fleming though? It's they're the comedian that opens for Richard Dreyfus in that bar that goes it's not worth in, just leave. Yeah, I've seen that guy's stuff too on Instagram, all right. Which, by the way, I hope that that's not a good representation of their comedy because this movie doesn't do it any justice because that scene is like.

Yeah, as if he used they them, Because you keep saying. That I don't know. The comedy in the movie seemed really specifically to be like homophobic. So I'm just like, oh, I don't know, so I don't want to step on anybody's toes. I no earthly idea.

Okay, I think he may be right on both parts, though I've seen some of their comedy and it's not reflected in the bit that they do in the in the frame. Well, I'm curious because I'm looking at this Alan Harvey and the only person that comes up is Alan Haby And I'm like, did you misspell his name in the credits or is this a different person? No, I don't know, rvy so strange. Yeah, anyway, Yeah, I don't see anybody. I don't see a comedian listed as Alan Harvey.

Oh maybe, oh oh, maybe known for Faddy and George from nineteen ev one. That doesn't seem right at All's let's not seem like a comedian. Wow, Okay, maybe they misspelled his name of the credits, just like how they misspelled Osgood Perkins's Max landness. I do see Alan Havy, American stand up comment comic who was also in Mad Men. So weird.

Yeah, I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind. No, just like, just like listening to the soundtrack of this movie for more than five fucking Jesus, Mother of God, there's okay, And I've got a I've got a wonder who the woman that Chevy Chase and Any McDowell just stand in front of for a really long time, talking really loudly while she's playing music. Is that just like a friend of Greg Prittikin. Is that his wife? Because it's so random, it's such a again, a thing where it's like this is a specific thing.

So do you know this person? Are you doing this person a favor? Like I'm not saying they're a bad musician, it's just watch very odd. Yes, yeah, why so weird. Yeah, And music plays a big part of this movie, with them singing in the car and yeah, going to see live musicians and then eventually jazz musicians.

Smoker heard Harvest. Moon more times than I care to you, oh boy. During one film, and then Dreyfus being like, you know what I'm going to add a song to the app and then comes out and like you said, Chevy Chase is now like Annie mcdoll's a really bad influence on him. In this movie. She gets some fucking high on weed a couple times, I think, and then get some high on shrooms when they're in Chicago, the part where the horse starts talking to them.

I'm just kidding. But then they go to the comedy club meet Richard Kind all of a sudden like I love Richard Kite as well. And then we're introduced to Dreyfus's is this his son or grandson son son? Okay? And then the granddaughter of Chevy Chase is back in this movie and they're just like, what are you doing?

You can't do this. And this is when we have the big revelation that Richard Dreyfus's character has cancer, pancreatic cancer though I don't even know if they say the sea word in this, but they say something like yeah, it's called pancreatic Okay. They say it's as serious. He says it's as serious as cancer. At one point I was like okay, and then they go pay yeah right yeah, So.

They're like, oh, this is horrible, how can you do this? And then again we have like some poignant moments of like the sun talking with Dreyfus and just like, listen, this is what I want to do, and like, well this is It's like there's a couple of moments in this movie that kind of save it a little bit. I'm just like, Okay, yeah, this really works for me. This is good stuff. And he goes out on stage and fucking Jase is just completely blasted on these mushrooms and ends up having this fantasy sequence.

And then of the fantasy sequence, I keep going what's real and what's not? Because when they kind of cut back to him the next morning after Andy McDowell has left him, and I guess they've had sex maybe, then it becomes like the whole what really happened that night because he ends up with Dreyfus's hat that he throws out to the audience I think during that song part, and I'm like, okay, where did the hat come from? Like? What what is real? Yeah?

This elined literally the hallucination scene. Is it's the gun his penis? Of course, yes, it's symbolism. As let's get Greg Pritticken on the line and he can tell. Us, I guess this guy that plays his son, plays Dreyfus's son is from sn L.

Yeah, Chris Parnell. Chris, but ummen, I've. Never seen him before in my life. What you didn't You didn't watch thirty Rock? WHOA?

No? I did not. I did not. Have you ever seen Rick and Morty? I have?

He plays the dad in Rick and Morty. Oh okay, all right. I mean I honestly the thing that always makes me think of Chris Parnell as he plays one of the the jerk store clerks in Jingle All the way that Arnold Schwarzenegger picks up and asks where is your Christmas Spirit? Oh wow, that's right, ladies and gentlemen to the movie. I love that movie.

I love that movie. But yeah, he goes, where's you Christmas Spirit? That's Chris Parnell because he asks him, Uh, don't you know that Turboman is the hottest souling Christmas toy ever? Duh, which is named Chris Parnell line that. I always think he's really serious in this movie though, like he's a funny.

Yeah he. Is a funny guy. Yeah, he really is a funny guy. You really are a funny guy. Yeah he is, though I'm telling you I'm not.

I wouldn't lie to you. But yeah, it's it's so strange because again they have funny people playing against type, but then they have they do know that funny people are funny because they have George Wallace sort of. Being funny kind uh kind of, He's the funniest person. Richard is the best. Yeah.

I was really worried when he said that Andy McDowell was a two knuckler. I was like, where we go this Richard Kind? Like you a freaky bastard, Richard Kind. I do love Richard Kine's look. He looks like a Disney Pixar character turned into real life.

I love him and I know he I mean he's been in a lot of Pixar stuff because he was in like he was in Bugs Life and Cars and Toy Story and Inside Out like he was in a ton of stuff. But yeah, he's he's got a great voice, great look, but he's also got a great but he could have been Fuck, it could have been Chevy Chase and Richard Kind. Fuck watch that movie. I mean I would have watched this movie anyways, because I don't he had cancer. Fuck, they doesn't even have to be fucking old.

He's fucking cancer. That So that's the thing that honestly robs this movie of any real like the the meaning of it being about old people's like Richard Dreyfus has cancer, So it's not really about them being old. It's about Richard Dreyfus having cancer, which anybody could have. Pancreatic cancer could be had by anybody. It's not even it it being had by an eighty year old.

Guys just kind of like, well that that kind of sucks. It checks out. Yeah, sorry, I don't know who you pissed off in anotherwise. Surprised it wasn't prostate, but like that's very easy to get over, whereas with pancreas, I mean you kind of fucked with some of that. I guess.

So yeah, I went and looked, and yes, it does seem the pancreatic cancer is not great. If you get it, it's like one of them, like, yeah, it's like liver, that's the worst. Yeah, you have to catch it like before it starts, otherwise you're fucked. Yeah, it sounds awful. I'm sure you guys caught that though.

Like the first time he smoked weed, it's like, Oh, this dude's got cancer right this and just up waiting for it to be revealed. I didn't catch it, honestly because I was just like, well, they're just trying to make him like a cool older guy. I didn't catch it as like the but when I when I rewatched it the third time, I was like, Okay. You watch this movie three times, Mike. I told you.

I told you. I I memorized the first hour of this movie, verbade him for you so I could recite it. I didn't do that because if I had, I would deserve to be locked up. Okay, Sam Neil in the mouth of madness, like, just. Let me out, let me start you off.

God, Paris Films we open. I want the I want the described audio of this film. Yes, please give that to me. That's what I want. Yeah, it's it's I think to y'all's point from from the beginning, it's not the worst thing we've watched.

I think funny Money is the low point of this show, and I think funny Money is honestly the low point of like not like podcasting in general. But it's one of the worst things I've watched Western Civilization. Maybe right when all is said and done, it will be the thing that caused us truly to have our downfalls. Funny money being made. It's the worst thing I've watched in fifty years.

Holy shit, Wow, I know I've seen worse. I mean, you know, before we started recording Image in Harmony Korean's name. So what you know not only have you seen worse, you know that worse exists. Yes, yes, worse is lurking out for me. Yeah, I want to mean to fucking mention Neil Breen or even you know.

Aha, you're so funny, Mike. You think everything, like fucking the Room is worse than this movie. The Room is not a movie. The Room is an art piece, really like a live action art I would say for me, the high point of this podcast might still be foul play. And that wasn't even for this podcast, Chris, so you can't count.

It gave me the idea to do this podcast. I can't say it's fletch because then it's like too obvious, and then it's like on the nose, and then everybody are we are. We getting into our lists and stuff? I think, yeah, I think Chris is doing a transition here, good good, good good. I guess my question is are we to that point?

Is there anything else we want to talk about? With the last I covered all my I didn't mean to get us into a transition spot, honest. The only thing I was thinking to comment on Otherwise, it's something that goes uncommented on in the movie, which is when they go to Tijuana, suddenly Richard Drevis's mustache has been dyed, and they never get back to it. They never say, like, what are you doing trying to make yourself look younger or something well mentioned. No, he asks for the mascara and then.

Oh, that's what he's doing with the mascara, Okay, but he never goes back to it again. He never does that. Why is Chevy Chase missing shoes? Because you've got to take your shoes off and feel the ground every once in a while. And right, that's what she says, Yeah, yeah, because she takes her shoes off at some point when they're walking or whatever.

And she's such a free from that's from another movie. She reminded me of Farah Faucet from Fucking the Man of the House. She's such a free spirit. She just makes art for a living. Yeah, well, she and her daughter really like to take off their shoes.

One actually shows up in Quentin Tarantino movies with no shoes on. Yeah, the other one really yes, Oh yeah. I like her. She's a good actress. What is that from those somebody somebody's on a plane and the guy takes shoes.

It's dude, when you get home, take your shoes off and make fists with your toes. Fist with your toes, and that's why he doesn't have shoes for the rest of the movie. All I gotta kill And this one's got feet smaller than my sisters. What a movie to cop from? It?

A cop from die Hard? Huh on a novel concept The Lord? Well, I mean that is a buddy cop movie of a different stripe. Reginald val Johnson is John McLean's good buddy. Yeah, I wish I could let me have Yeah, take that last in Unison and I'll just make that my ring tone, the two of you just going mmmmm at the same time.

Would I guess you know, if your Chevy Chase. Would anybody really believe that Andy McDowell is interested in you when you act the way that you do like, So it's it's hard, right. Where are they at that point? They're in the West, so I'm there in Kansas, I mean Oberland Park. She's from Overland Park, which is where like that's like south.

Not a lot of sex year old men there. I guess I don't know. I Chase a sexy old man. No, really, no. Sexy older woman.

Maybe he's yeah, tevy. Chase is just his energy in twenty nineteen is so weird compared to now. I'm glad he's I'm glad he's kind of aged gracefully into himself and he is no longer like this because he deserves to make more Christmas movies with Randy Quaid, which is his last credit by the way, is a Christmas film from last year, which also happens to star Randy Quaid, which cannot be a coincidence, No, it cannot. Well, yeah that you mentioned that. Mark this whole thing of him now being in all of these Christmas movies.

I can't remember, Like he did what Christmas in Vermont, yep East Done. Mission, which is a animated Christmas film, The. Christmas Letter in twenty twenty four. I would not be surprised if he's got another one coming up here. That because I was talking with well fellow person on the Weirdigway Network, Emily and Travia, and she's like, she watches all of these Christmas movies and talks about them on the Feminine Critique every single year.

And yeah, she was the one that was like, oh, Chevy Chase, Yeah, he's in a lot of Christmas movies. It's like, you gotta be kidding me, man. I mean, he's making a living now taking advantage of the thing that he's I guess kind of. I mean we talked about it on the Christmas Vacation episode and on the last episode. It's the thing he's known for now.

It's gonna be the thing that's shown in his in memoriam. It's gonna be him doing like that's. Gonna be him lighting up, yeah. Doing the fucking light thing from Christmas vccasion. And you know what, Like like I said, you know when I said it ten minutes ago, like good for you for making that money.

Like you know, if he not you, who who's gonna make it? And you know what, I'll be honest with you. If there was a convention in Omaha and Chevy Chase was there, I would go pay twenty dollars or whatever it is to meet him and get my pick with him because he's in my favorite movie, which again would be my high point of this show. But I've already talked about Fletch once, so it's almost like unfair because it Fletch is one of my favorite movies, so it's unfair to mention that it's my favorite thing we've talked about. I would almost rather focus on like something that I wasn't expecting was gonna be good, and I wouldn't say it's this, but this is not, again to y'all's point from before, not as bad as I thought, which if Mark is saying Funny Money is one of the worst things he's ever watched, like, that's a very low point for this show.

And I feel bad because that was another bonus episode, this one, at least I hope maybe redeemed that a little bit, you know, and you know, because I know the bonus episodes have kind of been all over the place, And by all over the place, I mean the last two were good with Vacation in the last Laugh, but y'all didn't seem to like Dirty Work that much. Or Orange County and Funny Money again one of the worst things we've ever seen. Yeah, I mean I I O shouldn't count. Yeah harly, Yeah, well's why I I shouldn't count a and Funny Money shouldn't count because it's out of sequence with what the show actually was supposed to be. It is a bonus.

Yeah, it is a Chevy Chase vehicle. And that was sort of my play to like, not even do this last one when I pitched that a couple months ago, because I was so done with this. We did a two thousand's film, and you know, why do a twenty ten film? But it's not It's definitely the worst movie we watched, but the worst of the of the vehicles in this timeframe up to ninety seven, which would include Vegas vacation if that's probably deal of the century? Yeah, yeah, dealing.

I don't even remember what fucking happened in that movie. Gregory Hines was in it? Is he in that one? Yeah, he's the one who asks like some sort of weird conversion to Christianity towards the end. Sigourney Weavers in there too.

Yeah, what a memorable film. Totally forgettable, totally forgettable. And don't love to talk about these things, like all of these movies are probably somebody's favorite movies. But that's that's that's what they say. Friend, Ryan Verrel has a production company named Someone's Favorite Productions.

On that theory alone, can we really believe someone's favorite movies? Deal of the Century? Yeah, I think somebody who grew up watching it william favorite film. It is not even mentioned in his autobiography. Yeah, yeah, So are we doing like our best and worst or most memorables.

The only thing I did I did a top five. I didn't do a bottom No, and then I did. Want because I think that's best suited for each of us, especially if Begley's coming to the table with his own stuff. Yeah yeah, I just did a top five. And then I did like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode here, I did a PS, you know, pleasantly surprised.

Then I didn't hate it was my other category and with and then funny money is the worst thing we want for this? Yeah, you know whatever, I can get my top five or we can get back. Let's each do our own thing, So go for it. Bagley. You can't prepared immediately, so since your August you may stop.

So for my top five, starting with number five, I put seems like Old Times for my fifth favorite, and this is based on For me. My top five is based on rewatchability, so things that I have rewatched prior to us recording or can see myself rewatching in the future. So it seems like Old Times was number five for me. Fletch was number four for me. It's not I'm not connected to it like you were, Chris.

I really didn't see it when I was younger, maybe once or twice. Number three is National Lampoon's Vacation, which I have seen multiple times and have no problem watching over and over again. Caddy Shack was number two. Falls in sand category basically is Vacation, and then National lampoons Christmas Vacation. I put at number one because I find that the most rewatchable and most enjoyable of the Chevy Chase films that we watch.

For this this list brought to you by Chevy Chase's Future Prospects. What's your favorite film Chevy of your career? Christmas Vacation obviously right, I love it. I mean to be fair, I think if I were to look back on the show, and think of the things we talked about. I think for me, you seemed to resonate with Christmas Vacation the most of the things we talked about, and it's a good one to resonate with.

I mean, I think it's one of the I mean, I don't. I'm curious, Mike, what do you have in terms of a list or thoughts or comments or ideas? Do you where does your brain go with the Chevy Chase cast as we bring this thing to a close, Because we haven't had a lot of these episodes, this is not a thing we've done a whole lot where we close out a show. So what did you want to bring to the table? Is your final thoughts for the best or worst?

Or resonate didn't and. Well you know what was their ps that their mark pretty solid? Or oh, pleasantly surprised, pleasantly surprised. I didn't. I forgot those.

I'll just say real quick. The only ones that pleasantly surprised me that I didn't hate were nothing but trouble, Vegas vacation and the last laugh. Yeah. I don't know if I would consider the last laugh as a pleasantly surprised I would consider Memoirs of an Invisible Man. I was pleasantly surprised by that one.

Yeah, same thing with you, as far as like, I was surprised that I didn't just absolutely despise nothing but trouble because I've heard nothing but horrible things about it. Yep, there were a lot of moments in Vegas Vacation where I did laugh quite a bit. Yeah, this was the first time that I'd seen pretty much a lot of these vacation movies. I think I've seen the original maybe all the way through once, So yeah, it was there were some of these it was just like, oh, okay, yeah, this wasn't bad. I find that Three Amigos was just so oddly cut, and like reading the script of that, I was like, oh, this could have been something really different.

The one thing that I just found interesting as we've been watching all of these movies is the people that he would work time and again with and just seeing so much Dan Eckwright amongst his filmography is so odd to me, especially when you think about all of those people that he worked with that Saturday Night Live and that he just burned all of those bridges, but not the one with mister Ackwright. That just seems so strange to me. Yeah, that's always that. For one thing, because he and John Belushi apparently did not care for each other. I think he was so jealous of John Belushi's success, right.

And also Bill Murray, you know who replaced him on the show, which was no fault of Bill Murray's. I mean, Chevy was leading, so why would he care who's replacing him? But yet he partnered up so often with dan Aykroyd, who was obviously very close to John Belushi, and Brian Doyle Murray, bill Murie's brother. So it's just weird that they those two show up so often in these Chevy Chase films. It strikes me as really strange.

It is, it is really strange, And yeah, to see, yeah that like Christmas Vacation, I was pleasantly surprised by. I guess I kind of see why so many people talk about that one so much. And despite all of these conversations, some of those movies that I watched when I was a kid time and time again, I still kind of like like things like Modern Problems, which is such an awful movie, but I still have a soft spot for it. Under the Rainbow, I have a soft spot for Oh Heavenly Dog, I still have a soft spot for But yeah, I think of all of these movies and we didn't even cover it on the show, follow Play was probably my favorite of all of that. Yeah, and that's still my favorite Chevy Chase movie.

And sound bar. Way too fucking high. Weight, way too high, Yeah, because it's just been kind of downhill with like little bumps every once in a while. I did a tails from the Crip podcast where the best thing is the first thing we watched. I know what that's like.

It's very frustrating. Can you never get that high back? Man? I'm chasing a dragon the old because that is. A Goldie hawn vehicle really, and really he's just too much to handle.

And I mean she's just so cute through that whole guys. She's amazing. Yeah, and you know, and it's a you know, Hitchcock riff and all that other stuff. It's just it's my favorite of his and always will be. Yeah.

Yeah, we started too high, set that bar, way too high with that one. And you know that for me, you mentioned seems like old times that it seems like old times come out first. I think I would have resonated with it more as opposed to like you were talking about Chris Chasing the Dragon, where I'm just like, man, they could it could have been so much better, and they really could have gotten to some more heights than what we see. But I don't know. It wasn't the worst thing in the world.

And Charles Groden is so good in that, and yeah, there's a lot of good bits. So that wasn't Harold Gould the judge in that one. I love him. So yeah, It's like sometimes these movies resonate despite Chezi Chevy's performance and presence. How about you, Chris, what are some of your highs and lows and pleasantly surprised moments?

So I've got five in no particular order, and I would go as and you know, we kind of had the show have these kind of like a couple movies and then a bonus, a couple movies and then a bonus. So I looked at the list and I was like, could I possibly pick one out of each thing? And so taking Fletch and Fletch Lives out of it, because those are the ones that would be completely unfair to mention because those are movies that I kind of have nostalgia glasses on for Fletch Libs even and again, it's not a terrible movie. I like it. Fletch is a good movie, but again it's it's a movie that I consider to be a favorite movie of mine.

So to take those out of it, I would say, in no particular order, seems like old Times. Is if I can't mention foul play motherfuckers, I'll mention it seems like old Times because it's you know, I mean, it's not that I don't like Caddyshack, but Chevy Chase is not part of Caddyshack. Like the best things in Caddyshack are not Chevy, and that will always be the case. I rewatched Caddyshack recently and I was like, man, I like a lot of this movie, but when Chevy Chase is on screen, it kind of isn't as much of what I want from that movie. So then, to continue further down the road, I actually agree with you, Mike Modern problems.

As whacked out as that fucking movie is. It's a whacked out, fucking movie, and I kind of like that. It's a whacked out fucking movie. And the trailers, the trailer for the movie is great. Chevy Chase has modern problem.

Well, and it really speaks to tw only twenty five with all the air traffic controllers working for free right now. I mean it's kind of prescient, right, you know. Right very ahead of its time. And then to continue further down the road, one might think, well, he's gonna go with European Vacation No. Three Amigos.

I actually really enjoyed us watching it. It was kind of a ray of sunshine at an otherwise very dark time. And because last year I was dealing with a lot and just looking back at the list of things Orange County, European Vacation and spies like us just ain't doing it for me. Fam as he would say, I did recently a Barnes and Noble pick up Three Amigos on vinyl. I now own a black and red splattered vinyl for Three Amigos, which includes all of the songs from the film.

So yes, you will be happy to know I picked it up for seven dollars. It was originally thirty five, along with the vinyl for Nikoya Scatzi because nobody's buying vinyl at Barnes and Noble. But then to bring it all the way towards the end. Nothing but Trouble was the thing I had covered on the Culture Cast back in the day, and I went and re listened to that episode. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did when I talked about it with y'all, and so for me, Nothing but Trouble makes the list.

And then once we're here at kind of the end, I mentioned Vegas Vacation because I'm actually glad that y'all enjoyed it. I think outside of Memoirs of an Invisible Man, it might be the best thing we watched in this kind of final moment of the show. And Vegas Vacation, I think in a lot of ways redeems the vacation films for me, because I don't think I like European vacation as much as I used to, and I think Vegas Vacation is kind of nearer to the top in terms of, like for me, being a vacation movie that kind of isn't as much of a letdown as I kind of think everyone thinks it is, and I know why, but at the same time it's not. I would agree with Mark. The worst thing we talked about one hundred percent is funny money.

I think funny money for me is in a special class of movies like the original Casino Royale, where when I think about rewatching them, I would rather do anything else, including go mo someone's lawn by hand for free in the heat, than watch Casino Royale or heaven forbid funny Money again, like just a real waste of time and kind and with funny money, just like a befuddling film that I just it must have been funnier for the Brits than for us. I mean it had to have been. And yeah, I think for me instead of you know, ps, it would be you know, it would probably be ts too sad. It's too sad. I can't mention foul play.

It's my favorite thing because it is, unfortunately, I think, the best thing, because it was so not what I was expecting. But at the same time, like everything that we saw kind of came from that in terms of like what chevy Chase kind of could have been and never really got back to. And there's another universe there where we're not talking about chevy Chase the comedian. We're talking about chevy Chase like the leading man in like a like a comedic Robert Redford or Warren Beatty kind of way, and not like a this guy ended up kind of souring every well up until he didn't, and then he turned it around and is like, I'm the Christmas guy now, and it's like, all right, well you found your niche and good that it took thirty years plus, but you did finally, and I hope you can ride that wave all the way as far as you can.

I would wonder if anyone has a oh, dear God, I don't want to will this into existence, but does anybody want to see Christmas Vacation two or three? I guess given that you know the reboot thing is not a thing, we just do that, right, Just do Christmas Vacation two. Chevy Chase is still alive, Randy Quaid's still alive, Beverly DiAngelo is still alive. Johnny Gileki, what's he doing? Big Bang Crew is no longer?

He doesn't even have to work. To be fair, they would it would be different, kids, Yeah, it would be Ed Helms. And what's your name? Who played the sister? I?

Oh no, no, no, no, Elizabeth Banks. Yeah, you go, that's right. Bring in a full circle. And have that be the movie. I mean, I don't know in the day and age where I can say confidently that they're making a Mummy for which is fucking wild, and they're making Gremlins three and possibly The Thing too.

Is it wild to think that a Christmas Vacation Too movie could come out before Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid and Beverly DiAngelo are too old to make that happen. Not really, I'd watch it. Yeah. So you know what I gather from this your lists is and everything and the discussion is that I have really good taste because I bought foul play to you motherfuckers. So that's correct.

Your chase has never been in question, Mark Begley, not fucking once in my life. There are people in my life that make good restaurants suggestions, and they're like one hundred for one hundred, Mark Begley, you make good movie suggestions, similar toly to Mike White. There's never a bad movies. Sometimes they're challenging, but you guys don't suggest bad movie and that is a fucking thing to stand with one no fun no no, no, it is not no no. I think really this shows just our bad taste of deciding to do an entire podcast dedicated to this Jerny.

We watched twenty five movies for Jesus has been going on for exactly two years. We started in November of twenty twenty three. That's right, that's right. The first episode didn't come out until April of twenty four. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, we gave ourselves a little bit of lead time.

But yeah, we definitely recorded November of twenty twenty three. What a wild two years? What did we learn about ourselves in these two years? That Mark Begley, when push comes to shove doesn't want to fucking keep doing and that I didness, Yeah, it's true that you know, you know, And I think what we also learned is if you pair a bad Robin Williams movie up with bad Chevy Chase movies, you may cause Mark Begley to break completely permanently. And just yeah, I don't know bad comedies, man, there, I'm not sure that there's a worse thing than a.

Bad comedy, genuinely. Like it's it's hard to quantify if you're not And again, like I'm not saying people that don't watch a lot of movies don't get this I think people that don't watch a lot of movies have a higher or it's not a higher tolerance, but they just care less about watching bad things. But if you have to watch a lot of movies, you probably don't want to watch as many bad things because there are so many good things to watch. But a bad comedy is really unlike any other kind of bad movie, Like even bad action movies. You can kind of be like, okay, fine, there are some fun bits, But bad comedies, it's just it's not a subjective thing like objectively, some of the movies we watched were not funny, which means as a comedic film, to elicit laughter is the point.

You can't do that. That movie is a objective failure. And there were movies on this list that I didn't laugh but maybe once, and that is a not a successful comedy. If I only laugh like one fucking time, that's that's really bad. Yep, I agree comedies are the worst.

I don't think we would have pushed any one of us to our breaking point if we had talked about any other actor who didn't start primarily in comedic films. Genuinely, I think this would have happened if we had talked about anyone's filmography who's a comedic actor who did have a range of comedies that aren't considered broadly just good, you know. Yeah, I mean we've tosst names around. You know, you could go stick with the Saturday Live crowd and have the same kind of really hit in this Ackroyd, Murray, uh Belushi would be pretty easy to do. I think.

But Lucy's probably the one with the best track record, just because he died so young. Yeah, I mean, I mean he long to fuck anything up. He didn't get the opportunity to get rolling the dice. I mean there there's you know, Blues Brothers and I even like Continental Divide, and then you get Neighbors, you know, and like how many neighbors would have been in his filmography. They're none, I mean just that and that one is sort of fun in a weird way, so you know, I mean it's weird.

It's definitely weird. It's very weird. I haven't gone back to it since I saw it for the first time back in night And what was it? Oh God Jesus was that eighty one that he was in that? And I know, like also he was in Animal House in nineteen forty one.

But I wouldn't say that those are John Belushi movies, right. That's like that is literally like Levy. Chase forty one. Yeah, I fucking hate nineteen forty Yes, say they. Do not want to talk about nineteen forty one.

I know what God's name, Mark Bekery. He was in that a non comedic role. But he was in that Italia Shire movie, Oh Old Boy Boyfriends. Yeah, not again, not a starring role or anything. No.

And I think he had a small part in Going South, that one with Jack Nichols. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I you know, I I don't think this is a show that I'm not saying no one else should go do this, but it's it's hard to watch a lot of comedies without it being broken up by anything else because if they don't, like I said, if they don't work, they really don't work. And there are I mean, these other actors that you just mentioned, they do have other things. Chevy Chase really didn't have other things. There were no movies here that we didn't want.

He's not a good actor. Well he's any any of those other guys though that we talked mentioned? Could it are in I mean Bill Murray. I know you guys don't like the Wes Anderson films, but I mean they're not comedy. You know, He's not Oh they're not.

Yeah, they're not comedies. I can appreciate the Wes Anderson movies. That doesn't mean I. Have to like like right, no, but yeah, he didn't just stick to goofy comedy roles. I mean lost in translation.

Even take they take that movie, how you will? That movie resonated with people enough to get him a fucking Oscar notion. Or sat not Saint Vincent. That's that musician. I was something like that.

Yeah, I remember the one with Melissa McCarthy and that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if chevy Chase is a bad actor. I think chevy Chase just I think when chevy Chase, I think chevy Chase needed to have a very specific kind of person writing for him, and he could never really find that person but for once or twice and when they really I mean, look, Fletch is on this list. Fletch got mentioned a lot as something that's is good or something that's remembered fondly by the three of us on this show.

That would be one of the times I would say he had someone who knew how to write for him, but there were plenty of times where they didn't know how to write for him, but they would stumble into it chevy Chase style every now and then a good nugget or two in one of these movies. But the movies that we remember fondly are people who kind of get what chevy Chase is laying down and understand how to kind of remix it in their own way. That's again, like, you know, we're really I would say, we're really blessed now as a film watching society that there are so many more people writing, so many more people able to make things. That can imagine if chevy Chase in his prime existed now, there'd be so many fucking opportunities for him that he would never have had in you know, the times of O Heavenly Dog or Caddy Shack.

And now it's like you can you can be Eric Andre or Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim or Tom Green and your style of comedy will resonate with more people, and more people will find you and want to work with you, and your comedy will be your thing. You won't have to fit you into a specific box and it is kind of a shame like that chevy Chase never got to work with anybody like that. I mean, I would say like maybe his last best thing was community. Really was like, yeah, you know, Dan Harmon knew how to write for him, Like. But you know, from what I hear, he just pissed off everybody and he.

Was still dealing with his shit, like he hadn't gotten his shit together. He thankfully has now it's again. Chevy Chase kind of always feels like missed opportunities, like you just did this a little too late, or you were just a little this way too much as opposed to being this way, like sometimes guy can't get out of his own way and that what are you gonna do? Just do what you can, I guess in your own way. It's hard, you know.

He seems like he was kind I mean, it wasn't drugs and alcohol with chevy Chase. It's just kind of chevy Chase, which you. Know, chevy Chase main lining chevy Chase. Ye, but yeah, see he was definitely I mean even the last movie we talked about or whenever was a Man of the House. I think Man of the House came out the same weekend he got arrested for dui.

So it's like, yeah, he's he's been fighting demons for a long time, but I think the biggest demon is himself. Right, I mean yeah, I mean way no drugs and alcohol, Like, I don't want to chalk it all up to that, because like there was a fair amount of ego here, like ego. Yeah, the guy had his own show and then he tried to have his own show again in like twenty fifteen, there was like a failed pilot for the show just called Chevy where he played a character named Chase, which I'm either assuming is a fake show that never happened or a real thing that didn't get picked up that rightfully so didn't get picked up because those two things alone. Him playing a character named Chase in a show called Chevy is just too much in and of itself.

Who who was Randy Quay gonna be in it? Probably playing his next door neighbor? Good lord, good god, good night? What else? Guys?

Is there anything else we want to talk about? That seemed like the perfect good night? Yeah, good night? Good Okay, Well do we want to plug anything? Does it matter?

And we close the line. We put we put don't put a we don't put a sign in the window here. I mean, I guess we could tell people where to go they want to hear anything else, I'll tell you right where to fucking go. I'll tell you where to go. Bend what is it running?

You make five dollars the hard way? Yeah, bend over and I'll show you. Yeah, that's right. Bend over and touch your toes. I'm gonna show you where the wild Goose goes.

I mean, I think we should mention our collective shows over weirding wit media. Yeah, in the normal way. So thank you for joining us. If you've been listening to the Chevy Chase podcast, this has been a labor of love for the three of us. For like Mark mentioned, two years now, we either edit or produce the show, or we're obviously here doing the show collectively.

So it's not just it doesn't just exist out of a vacuum. There's a lot of work that goes into it, so thank you for joining us. Obviously, the final piece of work is listening to it, and boy, what a piece of work we are. So if you want to hear more of what we have to offer, Mike I'm going to kick you to you first, Where can people find the things that you work on? Everything that I work on, with the exception of one thing, is available over at Wadingnemedia dot com.

And that one thing is another thing that has a potential end date on it, and that is ranking on Bond where we talk about James Bond films. And yeah, we're coming into the end of that here with the Daniel Craig Era. By the time this comes out, we might be done. So check that out over on Chris's Patreon at Patreon dot com, slash cult your Cast and check it out on my patreon at Patreon dot com, slash Projection Booth and yeah, everything else weirding Way Media. How about you, Mark.

You can find my two shows Kambri Jemshawan and wickap Heavy over on Weirdingwaymedia dot com. How about you, Chris. Damn Mark Begley. I like it short and sweet and to the point. No, Like Mike said, Weirdingwaymedia dot com, as we can find all the things that I work on, including this show and the Culture Cast, which I try to do once a week either by myself or with someone else.

Though you know, hey, doing things by yourself is totally cool in this day and age. Yeah, Patreon, like Mike mentioned my patreon, Mike's Patreon, Richard Adams Patreon, Father Malone's Patreon. Mark doesn't have a Patreon, Mark, Mark knows better. Mark has an only fans. It's a very different value proposition that he's asking for over there.

And yeah, that's where you can go to interact with us, either on a financial basis or just you know, like the show on Spotify on Spotify, give us a review on iTunes. Even though this is the last episode, you never know what might happen if they make another. If Chevy Chase makes another big movie, I can guarantee the three of us will sit down and watch it. Given that we just mentioned. If Christmas Vacation three or technically technically three, but it would probably be two, were to come out, I guarantee the three of us would suit up one more time to wrangle the beast that is chevy Chase.

But you know, I think this has been fun. I've had a good time. Did we watch some bad movies? Yeah, but I think we had a good time in the process. Yeah, we learned a lot along the way.

Yeah, it was the friends we made along the way, honestly, you know, and yeah, thank you for listening, and there's no more episodes, so audios by YEP