137: Drive This 7 Inch Wooden Stake Through My Chicago Heart

It was brush side up, so it should be okay to brush my hair. You've lost your brush under the bed. It was scary. The monsters might have been using it. The dead hookers might have been brushing their hair.

That is where I keep the dead hooker in my hotel room. It's too fancy a hotel to have dead hookers. Damn it. They say that for Gary, Indiana. That's true, actually.

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To your stations, we have a movie meltdown. My dick looks like a corn dog. I got cake all over my ball. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian.

I am Misty. I'm Jay. And we are hanging around the hotel room this morning. We're back another week in Chicago here. Not really a week for us, but for you guys, it's another week in Chicago.

Long time in Chicago. Yeah. It'd be fine if I had this hotel room. The bathroom's clean. I kind of liked it. $ 180.

I didn't think I. Could pay for it. I can't pay for this one, but... Worth it? If you just lived in the hotel room for weeks on end.

Some people have that extravagant lifestyle. We aren't quite the high rollers here at Movie Mountain Town. We get the one-nighters. We're lucky to get the one-nighters with Dead Hookers. Anyway, so, Misty, I think when I woke up, I looked over, I think you were cuddling with your picture of Noah Hathaway.

I was looking at, I was noticing the fact that he messed up spelling the. He didn't really mess it up, he just crossed the wrong letter. He crossed his H instead of his T. I'm trying to figure out how to, I think this is a Treyu, but to me it looks like a Tuya. I'm not really sure.

Or a Stewie? If you were there last week, yeah, her autographed picture of Noah Hathaway from NeverEnding Story. It doesn't look like a treu. What the hell? That looks like an M-U-U-Y-S.

With a crossed M. He's a treu. He can spell however he wants. He's creating his own damn universe. He crosses his H instead of his T.

I want to start doing that. He crosses his M, too. Oh, Lord. But you wrote my name nice. On my shiny picture.

Noah is cool. So, we've been hanging around watching bad music videos most of the morning. Do you have your favorites you'd like to run down? I love the Lady Gaga song. The new one.

What's it called again? Judas. No, the new one. Not that one. Which one?

The dance one? Yeah. Yeah. The one with just all. Is it called Let's Dance?

No, not that one. Just Dance? No, that's an old one. It's like, I don't know. Edge of.

Edge of Glory. Edge of Glory. Glory, Midnight, Days of Glory. And then we made Brian and Natasha watch the Judas and. The Lady Gaga, Judas, and Judas Priest mashup, which is fucking phenomenal.

I don't care. It is frightening how well those two go together. We should look that shit up. The more I watched, I was like, ah, I can see those guys all hanging out together. Their music is kind of different, but, you know, I can see them all kind of hanging out together.

Totally. Lady Gaga hanging out with Rob. There were Lady Gagas at the show. Oh, yeah, yeah. I should go ask Norman Reedus if he's heard the mashup.

I bet he would like it. I had a dream last night that he died. I should go check on him. You should check on him. You should go back over there.

I was horrified. It was a very traumatizing dream. You should go up and tell him that you're good in. I'm just making sure you're okay. I had a dream that he died.

That won't frighten him at all. That won't get security called on me, not even a little bit. Not at all. So, any other morning wrap-ups? What was your favorite song that they bleeped out?

I was pissed. I don't remember the name of the band, but the song is Pumped Up Kicks. I forget what the name of the band is, but they fucking censored that. They censored out Guns and Bullets. Are you serious?

First of all, we were watching VH1, so you can't be shocked by this. They censored Sublime a long time ago, remember? Oh yeah, they censored half of that song. Yeah. They censored everything.

You couldn't say. Ah, shit, what was it? What did he say? Drugs? They censored that.

They censored Chrome 45. I told you, you have to censor that stuff, because if I heard them mention bullets and guns, I want to go shoot a lot of people. It makes me. Want to shoot people if they censor out guns and bullets. The safety and protection of society.

Dude, that's all bullshit, man. It is. All right, I play violent video games. And you stabbed somebody in the knee. No, somebody stabbed me.

In the knee and I cut some guy. That was different. You told me you stabbed somebody in the knee. No, Roy stabbed me in the knee with a linoleum knife. You told me you stabbed somebody in the knee while listening to Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses.

I cut a guy. I didn't stab him in the knee. Now you're changing your story. No, I'm not. Okay.

You're getting too many of my stories mixed up. I think you're getting your story mixed up. I know exactly which ones are which. No, I have a better memory than you. Anyways, wait a minute.

Please. I know I've got a bad memory. I just, I know which ones are which. But no, I carry around a fucking gun and I don't shoot anybody. You know?

Well, you're not listening to enough cheesy pop music. Apparently. You know? That's what you need to push her right over the edge. I guess.

All right. Any other morning cheeriness to pass along to people? I woke up way too damn early. I always wake up too damn early. I woke up even before your alarm.

I woke up at like Dude, that alarm, my alarm scared the shit out of me. It scared the crap out of me, too. The sad part was I was already up when you were alarm went off. Really? I was just sitting there going, what time is it?

I don't even know. Why is there no clock in here? Which there is, but it doesn't glow. If it doesn't glow in the dark, it's useless. Well, I can't see anyway.

Even if it did glow, I couldn't see anything. I woke up around like 6.30 this morning. I was mad. This bed was hella comfortable, though. I don't know why I woke up.

They are comfortable. I'm not used to that. I think it was throwing me off. I had a macchiato this morning. What the hell's that?

It's fancy-ass coffee. Apparently, it was pretty damn good. Like $ 5? It was a $ 4 fucking little cup of coffee is what it was. A $ 5 cup of coffee.

You're a sucker. Well, they didn't have regular gas station coffee. Yeah. I asked the lady. I was like, well, I know I don't like.

Espressos because they're just, I don't know, they taste like dirt. Yeah. They don't put enough sugar in half the shit. Yeah, you need more cappuccino in there. I asked her, I was like, what's the sugariest, most sweetest thing you've got on here?

And she was like, a cafe macchiato. And I was like, alright, I'll take one of those. Anything with mocha involved just means they dump chocolate syrup into it, so that's a good thing too. I know I don't like a cafe latte, although for some reason I keep getting them, I forget that I don't like them. Memories, see?

Yeah. But, uh. Yeah, that's what happened last year. I ended up getting coffee at the hotel, and it was the fancy high-end coffee because that's all they had down there. So what are you going to do?

Yeah. You can't doctor it up. I need to doctor my coffee up. So I need to know it's going to be sweet and creamy. You all were fancy and ended up here having coffee out.

Of, like, glasses. Yeah. Well, it wasn't another paper cup. I stole it yesterday for green tea. But why would you have that thing, which makes two cups of coffee, and give you one paper cup that would hold coffee?

No, they gave us two. That was it? Okay. Yeah, I had green tea yesterday. Still, though, why wouldn't they give you...

They should give you enough cups for options. Yeah. I mean, there was tea as well, so they should give you at least enough cups to cover all your options. Much like the towels. They always give you one short towel of what you need, too.

Like, guys, really? Come on. Just throw an extra one in there. You got a whole carton. Well, they give you three towels.

Three towels and a four-bed. Well, because we only had three people listed on. The feed here. They know better than that. I don't think they.

It's a convention. It's a convention. I don't think they put towels out according to who's staying in the room. I think they just throw out a certain number of towels. I guess.

But it's always one short of what you need. The laundry cart was right there. We could have gotten one. So it's not like it's any big deal. Well, we'll have to hit it on the way out.

You just stock up on towels. Housekeeping? What kind of hotel is this? All right, so with all our coffee talk, that was just the initial coffee we had, so we're going to have to go get some more coffee. So I think that's our next stop.

I don't like coffee. You can have hot chocolate or something, but the rest of us are going to go get caffeinated up, so we'll check back in with you later. Are you trying to figure out how to steal the television? No, I was looking to see if I had any. That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

Sometimes it looks like it does. Kids with a phone that gets you there. In the mood for hot coffee? When you are, nothing else will satisfy. Coffee has a flavor, an aroma, a deep down satisfying goodness all its own.

And our coffee has something extra, the care with which we brew and serve it. You'll enjoy the show more while you're enjoying steaming hot coffee. Come and get yours now. We'll take it. It started as a simple crime.

The Candy Snatchers. For them, it was a new beginning. For her, it was the beginning of the end. Three losers who wanted to lead the good life. The Candy Snatchers.

They'd do anything to get there. The Candy Snatchers. They were after a fortune in diamonds. We cut off her ear. And they sent her father a piece of candy in a box.

Oh my God, no! The Candy Snatchers. They did things they couldn't even believe themselves. The Candy Snatchers. Bizarre.

Incredible. Almost unbelievable. The Candy Snatchers. This is the one they're talking about. Come with me and you'll be In a.

World of pure imagination, take a look and you'll see into your imagination. So at the convention this week, they had something that I thought was pretty great. They had a reunion of all the kids from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. A movie that I still think is amazing. And luckily, I had a chance to talk to several of the actors.

We'll see, we'll define, and I'm. Paris Tham, and I was Mike TV and Willy Wonka in The Chocolate Factory. Very cool. I guess just in general, I guess how did you get involved in the project? Did you know the scope of it when you went in to do like an audition?

How I got involved is I started acting when I was six. My parents were classical musicians, and my mom brought me to a commercial agent, and I booked the first commercial I went up for. I'd done a Broadway show before I booked this, so it was just sort of another audition. And no, I didn't really know where it was going to head. It didn't really start to grow into its current popularity until about 20 years ago.

At the time, it wasn't a big hit. And then what was, I guess, the shoot itself like? Were all the kids on set most of the time? And was that an interesting shoot with having that many kids around? Yeah.

It took me nine weeks to shoot my section. I think longer than that for Charlie, shorter than that for Augustus, that kind of thing. Was it fun to have the kids around? Yeah, definitely. I think that it was in Munich, Germany in 1970.

And yeah, it was more fun to have kids around. We were kids, so it's always nice to have the kids around. What was Gene like to work with? Very nice guy. Soft-spoken, cool, gentle, kind, good guy.

Very talented, obviously. Peter Ostrom, I played Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka in And the Chocolate Factory. I guess how did you end up getting involved? I lived in Cleveland, worked at the Cleveland Playhouse and the casting agency came from New York and knew the reputation of the Playhouse in Cleveland and I was asked if I wanted to audition. I was in the right place at the right time.

Most of the movie kind of falls on your shoulders. Was that a lot to deal with, being that young? I didn't realize it at that point. I had lots of help from Jack Albertson and Gene Wilder, so I didn't realize the heavy burden. Yeah.

You also spend a lot of time with Gene Wilder. What was that like? Gene was wonderful, both he and Jack, you know, very professional. You know, they were, you know, kind of my mentors in the film, so great people to work with. And then the set itself was kind of a big ordeal.

I mean, how was that, being a kid and running around that set? I was there for so long. The novelty of being in a film kind of wore off, you know. We were. Expected to work as adults and be professional and not.

Screw around, and we didn't. We had a job to do, and we did it, basically. Thank you very much. Thanks. My name is Julie Dawn Cole, and I played Veruca Saltz.

All right. You have a very specific type of character in the movie. I guess, what was it you were drawing from on that character? I suppose if you're saying specific, yes, I was a brat. That's the wrong way of putting it.

Yes, politely. I'm the definitive brat, I suppose. Veruca Salt was particularly mean and nasty. She was the original material girl. Whatever she wanted, I want it, and I want it now.

Um i guess what was your experience like on you know working on that set with all the. Kids and the crazy. Everything yeah my experience of being on the film was it was great fun to be in um little did any of us realize that we'd still be talking about it 40 years later but what an amazing film to be in with amazing scenery and great actors and and the company of the kids i mean we've always said we're kind of a bit like a strange family. Yeah years later still kind of what is it like you know this is the first time everybody's been together in how many. Years maybe about nearly eight or ten years or something yes nothing changes you know we all look a little bit more crinkly around the edges but you know we're still at heart probably the same people that we always were.

And then you're I guess your character sort of found a second life in the music business. How did that hit you the first time you heard about that? Because I still live in England, I hadn't heard of Veruca Salt, the band. When I did hear about it, I think in 97 or whenever I first did a convention, everybody. Kept coming up to me saying, what do you think about the band?

What do you think about the band? So eventually somebody gave me the CD. I think they're pretty good, but a shame I never got to hear them play. It is kind of weird, yeah, that you've moved into the other areas of pop culture now. Yes.

Yeah, and occasionally, you know, we still pop up in other shows. I mean, I know they did a kind of tribute, if you like, in Glee, which was quite incredible when I saw that. I'm a big Glee fan. So that was quite cool. Very cool.

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It's the end. Way down among Brazilians coffee beans grow by the billions so they've got to find those extra cups to fill they got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. Alright so we're back and this time we've decided to do a special edition of the caffeinated movie. Geek cappuccino my butt I still drink coffee The. Last fucking thing you need is another cup of coffee.

It's time for the Caffeinated Movie Geek. We decided to take it on the road while we're in Chicago and wanted to stop off here at Bleeding Heart Bakery. So I'm here with Vinny. Why, hello. And you are the co-owner.

I am the co-owner. I am the pop of the mom and pop here at Bleeding Heart Bakery. As usual with our Caffeinated Movie Geek segment, I usually go to someone to tell me. So I'll ask you, Vinny, what blend of coffee are we drinking this time? This is a fabulous blend called the Black and Tan from Altera Coffee, one of the local roasters here to the area.

They make this blend for us. It's pretty bold. It's pretty awesome. I like it a lot. Gets the caffeine fluids going.

Definitely. We've already had a little bit, but this one's much better, actually, than the random hotel coffee I had this morning. Oh, yeah. It's really fun to be able to work with someone who's as big into coffee as we are. When somebody can hear a shot being... pulled properly or not, it's pretty impressive.

And the coffee, you know, I was able to work with us because I've always had like heartburn sometimes from some coffee that's too acidic. And learning what that is and the differences and stuff was really cool. My wife thinks I'm a nerd, but when it comes to delicious coffee, they're really... You really have to put your foot down and be very nerdy about it. There's a lot of aspects to it, so much more than you realize when you just go order a cup.

Oh, it's a culture. Yeah, it's massive. It's amazing, and once you get into it, you try not to get too involved, but it just sucks you right in. Definitely. Coffee is not coffee.

There's good coffee, and there's not so good coffee. There's a wide array, which is kind of why I wanted to throw this in while we were here. It was like, let's, you know, we do our little coffee tie-in segment, so I thought we'd do that, and... Again, we came here last year and really liked what you guys were doing. Thanks.

Thank you. So I was going to give you an. Opportunity to tell people about what you do and your bakery and other aspects of the business. Well, this is the Bleeding Heart Bakery. It is what it is.

It's sustainable punk rock pastry. People always think, oh, punk rock, so is there like a giant record collection in there and there's all this cool stuff in the wall? Well, no. Actually, what we're about is kind of doing things against the grain. A lot of people have seen our business practices, you know, like paying your... dishwasher, a livable salary, things like that.

That's crazy. Providing benefits in a safe environment for people. I'm still looking for that. Wait a minute. Yeah, right?

There's so many people that have seen what we do and have thought, you guys are going to fail. You're not going to make any money. Really, it hasn't been about making money. This is Michelle's vision. I helped bring it to life.

It's really been about providing a world for us to live in. It was more about making enough money to get by and being happy about where we are and what we're doing and trying to bring that to the people that work here. And be proud of what they're doing. We donate a lot of proceeds and we work with a lot of non-profit organizations. We had to limit it to two a month so we could cycle them out because it was a couple of months where we donated more money than we made and It was getting a little bad when you can't pay your rent, you know.

It's nice to give some, but you've got to keep going or you benefit nobody. So when you walk in here, it's obviously there's an obvious punk rock aesthetic. But really, the decoration here has been just kind of like a shadow of Michelle and I's bedrooms growing up. There's some Faber band stuff. There's a lot of cool drawings.

A lot of things you see here, like these funky tables I made myself. The whisk lights that have become the signature for us is something I made myself as well. Those are awesome. Just kind of drooling and fooling around in the back in a little work room. And we really have just tried to break that stereotype of organic bakery.

Oh, it's organic. It's going to be like mint green walls, and it's going to be like this hippie granola place. Hippies. Yeah, no. Not here.

Punk rock has played a big part in Michelle and I's life. The politics of punk rock sometimes get lost in music. People love the pretty music, and they realize that a lot of punk has come from different countries where it was inspired by different oppressive governments or things like that. I've been a drummer my whole life. I've been in several big bands in the underground punk scene.

I've been contributing to the punk rock scene through music and through being an activist. And now that we're here, we work with a lot of organizations like the Mercy Home Foundation, And, you know, there's a home for battered women, food shelters, so many different places that we work with that we really try to be the opposite of normal business. So that's what we are. You know, we source our ingredients from local farmers as much as we possibly can. We're completely organic because we wanted to provide, you know, not just delicious tasting food that my wife's, you know, culture and studied around the world, but also the best ingredients.

A lot of places you walk into, they'll charge you an arm and a leg for something that's made with garbage. It's like, why do you want to eat garbage? My children are here. My children exist here. They're going to eat this food.

I eat this food. And we definitely wanted to just raise the bar for what would be normal in the pastry world. It's definitely, especially in the punk rock scene, that DIY attitude. And you guys have definitely, what little I've seen, is taken that upon yourself and applied it towards us. I mean, that's really cool, too, that you've just built it up out of nothing and really stuck by your guns with what you're trying to do.

Yeah, a lot of people have tried to buy into Bleeding Heart over the years, trying to take us to the next, quote, unquote, next level. The next level. And it's really just people trying to exploit what we were doing, and we really had to fight against it. It's really tempting to say, okay, I've worked so hard, I deserve a payday. And, you know, just let it all go.

But I could never see the integrity of this place go to shambles like that. I mean, it really could be something that was marketed really easily if somebody got behind it with a lot of money and suddenly it would become like Hard Rock Cafe and, oh, we slap stuff up on the walls and we serve, you know, bakery goods. It goes so beyond that. We're connected with local shows, you know, bands, organizations that are actually doing things, putting together benefit shows like, you know, for people who pass away, band members are hardcore for the hungry, where you have to pay with food products to get in. And things like that really set us apart from everybody else.

And the misconception is that a lot of people walk in here, and it's usually the young punks who have granny jackets and patches, or the older punks who think that you judge your punkness by your record collection and vinyl. They really kind of come in here and don't really see what's going on and what's happening behind the scenes. It's not just It's not the aesthetic. It's not the aesthetic. There could be more bands and posters and stuff on the wall.

But there really isn't because this is just a reflection of the reality that is the life of Michelle and I. And this is who we are. We're not trying to be punk rock. This is who we are. When someone said, oh, wow, that was a great idea to do some punk thing that hasn't been done before.

I was like, we weren't trying to do a punk thing. I was just trying to make this place look cool. This is me making the place look cool. This is where I hang out 20 hours a day. Black is a color.

It can be used in decorating a storefront. You rarely get to go home, so you might as well make this your second home. It's funny that you say that because I have more of the things that I acquire. I meet artists and things. I get stuff made or autographed, and I collect these things.

I'm an avid collector. And I have more of them on display here. Than I do at home. Yeah, see, that's what happens. Because I'm almost never home.

Definitely. Oh, man. But, you know, it really is different here. This is a passion. My wife is super passionate about pastry.

And this is our life. We're not here to make money. We're not here to try and, like, survive in this industry by, you know, marketing ourselves and trying to take money from people. This is who we are. This is our home.

And when you come in here, you can see it. that you're stepping into a part of our lives. I was going to also let you kind of highlight some of the specifics or some of the, I guess, the more signature pieces you guys have here as far as types of baked goods. You know, it was funny because when we first started, Michelle hated two things. She hated muffins and she hated cupcakes. And now with this cupcake craze...

She's been forced to kind of accept it and make them, but she's kind of revolutionized a lot of the cupcakes. She started doing savory cupcakes before they were popular. And a lot of the things that we get noticed for are flavors we put in our cupcakes that come from other recipes like cakes or different pastries. Michelle's a trained pastry chef, so it kind of kills her a little bit to have to make cookies and brownies and cupcakes when she's used to making mousse cakes and tarts and things like that. But one of the things we've become famous for here is the s'mores brownie, which is just delicious.

Which I just got and I'm about ready to break into. It's amazing. And the cupcakes for sure, especially when we started doing the really odd flavors and recycle them every month. Another thing we've been really famous for, we don't have now our tarts, fresh fruit tarts and different tarts, which we will be having at our new place. Because Michelle just.

She couldn't keep up with the demand for them. And as much as we tried, our staff would never duplicate them properly. And then, last but not least, the cake ball. The cake ball was... I just tried, and it's amazing.

They are so addictive. You know, a lot of people try to copy them, and no one gets them just right. And they really are just leftover scraps from all the cakes that we sculpt and cut in the back. Wow. You know, we're very sustainable.

We try to reuse everything that we possibly can. And one day, Michelle just said, you know what, I have an idea for all this leftover cake. You know, some of it we would donate, some of it we would compost. And one day, we're like, She. Just thought cake balls.

And cake balls were born, and now they're a craze, and everyone wants to have them. And I can see why, because they're beautiful, they're colorful, they taste really good, and they're so hard to eat just one. Yeah. They are pretty damn impressive, I have to say. So all those things, and then definitely our cakes.

I accidentally got into making cakes one day. When we first opened this bakery, I was a trained chef. My idea was, yes, we're opening this bakery today, My role is going to have to be making soups and sandwiches and expanding that into the menu. And one day, you know, this is way before all the cake shows on TV. Which there are 40 or 50 now.

There's like 50 now. I think I lost count. And we were asked to make a cake that had a little figure on it, like a little fairy. And one of the girls who was Michelle's assistant made one. And I was just kind of joking, busting balls a little bit.

And I thought, wow, that's the best you can do. I could do better than that. I'm like, I've modeled Play-Doh. It's kind of similar. Yeah.

And then, you know, after a lot of joshing back and forth, it turned into a, well, let's see what you got. Put your money where your mouth is. I just sculpted it. It looked immaculate. And my wife looked at it and said, you know what?

You're doing that from now on. You're in charge of that. History you were like damn it why didn't i mess this up. But you know it's fun you know people ask me all the time how i got into it honestly making cakes the way i make cakes here these crazy elaborate 3d cakes and like competition cakes really utilizes everything i've learned throughout the years i'm really close to being a professional electrician, a professional plumber, or a professional carpenter. I've shown that here, building this place out of nothing.

But only in building these custom cakes do I get to utilize all those skills. And it is just so much fun. People see a cake and they're like, oh my God, I can't believe that's a cake. And at the same time, they're thinking, how the hell did you figure that out? And I'm like, well, that's the fun part.

That's the hard part, but it's also the fun part to sit down and just figure out how to make a dragon cake. with a long neck that's like three feet long and make it last and stay together and stuff. And it's really fun. And I think in the last few years, we've really exploited my layers of nerddom, if you will, and making some pretty elaborate cakes in the different genres of sci-fi horror and stuff. And now I'm in love. This is where it's at for me.

And I think one of the greatest decisions I've ever made in my life is to pursue making cakes. That's awesome. Well, in addition to all the cakes and the music tie-in, you also end up being kind of a big movie fan, too. Oh, gosh. Growing up, if it was good, it was on my shelf.

I hoard a lot of collectibles, statues, and action figures, not toys. Oh, yeah. We're geeks on this show, so it's okay. You're in good company. I think some of the skills I had that I'm using now came through back in the day when I was a painting little Ralph Partha miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons.

Oh, yeah. And I've been able to utilize those skills I acquired very well here. I would think, yeah, in the cakes that would come in handy. But no, this movie collection and exposure to all that stuff, that's what kind of separates me from everyone else because it's like if I make a cake and somebody sees it and they duplicate it, yeah, you can look at it and say, I can make that, I can figure that out. But it's that moment in time where somebody walks through the door and says, hey, I'm really into Doctor Who.

What can you make me? It's that point in time where you decide what to make, how to make it, that separates you from other people. And it's like if you walk in here and you want a cool cake and I say, what are you into? You tell me it's classic horror films like Freddy or Jason. What kind of cake is going to come out of my head?

The sky's the limit here. And I really hit genres for people. I would think most places, they wouldn't have an idea. If you want a Cthulhu cake, they're going to not know what you're talking about. Yeah.

See, someone here is like, hey, I want a Cthulhu cake, and I'm Indian. I'm like, well, how about we make a Ganesh cake that's really Cthulhu, and I do this, and I do that, and I add this, and I add that. And the people are just like, oh, my God, that's amazing. That's awesome. And all of a sudden, I've put together.

This giant showpiece that definitely put in more time and labor than what was paid for. But for me, it's worth it because I get this eternal picture to keep forever. And the layers and layers of science fiction, old movies, whether it's even stuff like cartoons, James Bond. Oh, yeah. I mean, you name it.

Harry, Harryhausen. Oh, yeah, Ray Harryhausen. All that stuff just comes out of my head and it comes through into the things that I do. And that's one of the questions I get asked all the time. Where do you come up with this stuff?

I say, you know what? It's part of my life. I grew up around. Years of research. Yeah, years and years of research.

That's what I'm tapping into. And that's why I wish I was more involved with projects like this. Very cool. And, yeah, that's why we kind of wanted to tie it all in. I was like, you know, just based on what I saw, I was.

Like, I'm sure there's a movie geek in there somewhere. I've got to find this guy because it's got to be this guy. I was really shy for a long time. My wife was giving all the credit for all this cool stuff until finally Fangoria called. And they saw this amazing cake I made, or we made here, and they're like, we want to interview you.

And I thought, you know what? Like, wow, people are noticing and people are seeing it. I need to stop being shy and come out of the corner, the dark corner. And really, in the last, like, three years, I've been pushing it out. I've been getting a little recognition, and people have noticed that, really, in the city of Chicago.

Yeah. Without, you know, tooting my own horn and not blowing smoke up your butt there. I really am the best when it comes to not only the skill level of these cakes, but just the realm in which they go to. There's no boundaries, you know. I go there and back again, for sure.

Oh, on that note, we'll take a break here. When we come back, we'll have our movie discussion of the week here. Ooh, the movie. Oh, yeah, the big movie. So good.

We'll be back. Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we have to sacrifice a few hours a week to podcast about whatever you find important, but we think you're crazy asking us to write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each of us is a podcast about other podcasts.

A podcast about television. A podcast about films. A podcast about music. A podcast about books. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, The Podcast Podcast. The Podcast Podcast is your one-stop source for all the podcasts on the internet. Each week we have very special guests from some of the best shows on iTunes so that you can decide if you should check them out or keep on movin'. Find us at thepodcastpodcast.com or search for us in the iTunes store by looking for me, Fozzie Bear. That's F-O-Z-Z-I-E-B-A-R-E.

It's time for Sofa Theater. Welcome to Steakland, kid. Months passed in a blur of days and nights. We traveled east and west, but always north, away from death. We avoided the cities.

Mister said they were the worst, hit the hardest in the beginning. As people flocked together for safety, the plague marched through their locked gates and they became death traps. When Washington fell, it was over for America as we knew her. As government blew away, our great leaders ran for it, and hope was abandoned. We were on our own now.

Me and Mister. Traveling through a ruined land. Pockets of civilization survived. Towns locked down behind fences and guns, holding the night away. The cult spread like wildfire across the southern states, waiting for the Messiah.

But he never came. Death came in its stead. And it came with teeth. The world is a vampire Sent to drain Secret destroyers Hold you up to the flames And what do I get For my pain Betrayed desires Alright, so we're back with this week's Sofa Theater Feature, which is once again on the road. We've headed to Chicago, so we're still here at Bleeding Heart Bakery with Vinny, and we're going to discuss this week's movie.

This week's Sofa Theater Feature is Stakeland. The year is 2010. Director Jim Mickle. The plot, according to IMDb, and feel free to argue, because we argue with IMDb every week. Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed into an empty pit of economic and political disasters.

A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death-dealing rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely to Canada, the continent's new Eden. That's it. That kind of covers it a little bit. That covers it. For sure.

Yeah. So much more, though. More than that. So, that's the basics there. So, I guess, spoiler alert, because this is sort of a new movie for a lot of people, so we'll will probably ruin everything.

So yeah, just go watch it beforehand because if you're a horror fan, it's worth it. But where would you like to begin with this one? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, I didn't know this movie existed. It's obviously a year later.

I just didn't know. I know I live under a rock with my eyes closed in a cave. It wasn't just you because it did not get a lot of backing. I don't know what happened because I know we we talked to daniel harris like a year or so ago and she mentioned that she had been making it was really you know interested in you know it was a good project she was looking forward to it coming out and then like i didn't hear anything and then finally like one of our listeners was like hey have you guys seen this it's out and so i don't know where the premiere was i don't know where the marketing went but yeah it's it's a shame that it didn't get more. Yeah I was stunned.

Halfway through the movie, I thought, automatic, going on my shelf. And I've got to say, not many movies make it onto my shelf. I've started narrowing it down these days. So it's impressive. I don't know, what was your take on it?

Ah, jeez. I don't know. I mean, God, there's so much going on in this movie. I think, like, I'll... I like that they.

Didn't give too much backstory because a lot of movies kind of kill you with the backstory. Oh, yeah. You don't know where Mr. Scum is from. You don't know what training he's had.

All you know is he's a badass. It's like a situation that's just happening and you're watching it. Yeah. You don't necessarily need an explanation. No.

I can respect that and appreciate that. That's one of my favorite parts is that running thing of watching them read old newspapers. And you sort of see just the headlines of the world kind of falling apart. Yeah. Like you see.

You know, the city's falling apart, the government falling apart, but you. Just get those little glimpses here and there. They don't have to give you a big flashback. They don't have to get down for you. They don't have to be like, what happened, stupid?

15-minute montage, voiceover, explaining every little thing. It's just hints of it. And they throw you right into the shit. They do. Right immediately.

You're like, whoa. I love that little bit of narrating here and there, too, where he's kind of just talking about his experience. Like, it's just enough background. It really is. And I hate I'm very critical when it comes to movies.

It's funny because my brother and I always talk about if we would direct a movie, if we would make a. Movie, main characters should die. There should be no happy ending. There should be no stupid jokes. There should be no happy moment with a funny song where they have an innocent romp.

Before they realized where they were. There was none of that cheese. This one hits all those marks. Lactose-free. This movie was lactose-free.

Definitely. And they had parts in it where you were just like, whoa, I didn't see that coming. Geez, they really did that. Well, like you were saying, like right off the bat, you were like thrown in. Both of you were just, we were like that scene with.

Him and his family. That was pretty hardcore. Specifically when they go out in the barn and the baby. Yeah, the baby scene. Just him looking for it is really scary.

But at the same time, you get to that baby, and it's just like, oh, my God, that's horrible. It's disturbing. I love it when I'm disturbed. And you know what's funny? It's just reality.

There's nothing fantastical about it. I mean, other than it's, you know. But still, a situation is a very real situation, and it hits home if you have babies. And even if you don't, like, it's just, hey, look, this is happening. So you immediately get stunned at the beginning of the movie.

Guess what? It's like a car accident. There's an accident. You're watching it. You know grab onto your seat and get ready because it only gets better from here it i mean.

I mean it definitely sets the tone right off the bat i mean most movies most studio movies wouldn't even consider killing a child oh. No that goes against the demographic and such such sponsors. Let alone an infant and this one we're like two minutes in and it happened i'm just like oh wow you really know you're in for that kind of a movie when right off the bat they do that but Yeah, that scene's one of the most impressive in the whole movie. That scene to me just read right from the beginning and said class. The movie has class, and it's getting ready to be serious.

Definitely. And don't get me wrong, I like a little cheese in stuff. I'm a big fan. Of Dead Alive. Or things like that.

Army of Darkness kind of cheese. Yeah, you've got to love Bruce Campbell. But this is a whole separate animal. From the beginning, I was just locked in. It's very different.

I guess we can go into some of the characters, and what do you think of Mister... I thought Mr. Was pretty cool. That guy hasn't been in a lot of other stuff. The director did one other movie before this, and he's in that.

And other than that, I don't think he's got a lot of stuff. He's a good actor. For sure. He's a really good actor. He's good at just being very cold and pissed off.

But, I mean, I don't know what he would have to do if he has to be in a romantic comedy. I don't know what this guy's going to do. Yeah. One of the great things about it, too, is they didn't give a backstory on him at all. So you don't know who died.

You obviously know something happened to him. Yeah, his family was. But they don't have to go into the, oh. You know, you killed my teacher, or, you know, you killed my kid, or you killed my wife, or any of that. I love Benji!

Replacing anybody or anything. Yeah, no, it's just, he's out, and he's staking the hell out of vampires. And he is a badass. He really is. He really is just, like, one of those guys you can't really hug, you know?

You really want to hang out with, though, because he's super cool. There's no nice moment with him. Like, even towards the end, even the most little touching moment of, I guess, the handoff is, you know, we'll get to the end, I guess, but. There's that little moment of. Him passing on the torch to the kid, and it's like, even then, it's detached.

He's gone. It's cold. And I'm just like, yeah, there's never a warm moment with him. Yeah, and that right there is very, very commendable. Like, the movie does not hit those, you know, specific formula chords that need to be hit that, you know, these big Hollywood movies seem to have to follow.

And right then and there is when you know that a movie gets separated from the herd. Definitely, definitely. What about Martin himself? I mean, I think for a young actor, it's amazing how much, again, most of this movie is sort of thrust upon him. He becomes kind of the main character, and I think he holds his own.

I think he ends up not being overly cheesy. He's not a whiny kid, really. He kind of steps up and does what needs to be done. Yeah, but you're watching him. You're watching him kind of grow and, you know.

You're like, at first, when you first see him, you're like, dude, this kid's going to die. There's no way. He's going to have Mr. Having to keep his ass alive constantly. I'm just glad they didn't have any, like, Justin Bieber hairdo.

Oh, yeah. I thought they would have brought in the teen demographic. Come on, man. Totally. They didn't target that demographic.

A lot of cool shows I've seen, specifically TV shows, series where you see that formula get run through over and over again. It's always a young actor that kind of kills it. Because he needs to be like a heartthrob, or he needs to appeal, you know, he needs to be twilight-y or whatever. And I'm glad that he didn't, he definitely contributed to the movie. I was pretty impressed, man.

Yeah, pretty impressed. I think the vampires in this thing were not at all romantic. No, no. I would be one of those. They're almost a cross between vampires and zombies.

Yeah, I mean, the whole thing felt kind of almost like a zombie. It's kind of the same thing I said about From Dusk Till Dawn. It's like, you can call those vampires, but it's a zombie movie. I mean, it plays like a zombie movie, and that's almost what this was. It was almost like a mixture of...

I guess jokingly, to work in, like, it had a very Zombieland feel to it, almost. As a structure. But in real life. And then I was like, the tone is more like, um, it's the one with, uh, shit. Ah, shit, now I've lost it.

Trying to think what the other, uh, it'll come to. I didn't write that one down. But see, I'm a big zombie buff. Yeah. I love zombies.

Got zombie line of cakes, zombie stuff all over the place. And I totally saw that connection, and I appreciate it, because it's like, there's no superpower, there's no, like, this, like, elegant, like, supreme being vampire existence. These are really, like, mindless people that, they have, like, this crazy strength and these abilities, obviously, but they're just, like, squealing wild animals. It is closer to, like, a 28 Days Later kind of monster, because. They're just animals.

It's a very believable virus, too. I mean, you're sitting back and you're going, yeah, that could happen. You know? That could really happen, not the. you know, blah. Not that that's not fun, too.

Oh, yeah, that's good. It all has its place. In a very different movie. This concept of vampire blew me away because it was different and it wasn't, but it was just so unique, you know? It kind of found a good medium.

It's like it plays on the basic structure of vampirism, but at the same time it finds a new way to do it, and it doesn't seem like something you've seen a hundred times over. But it doesn't go Twilight and throw the rules out the window. It still feels like it's rooted in the vampire mythos, but it's still sort of, you know, a realistic version, a more animalistic version. And I appreciate that there were no garlic bullets. Yeah.

Oh, man. But it was. It was the worst, if you could think of, the worst traits out of both vampires and zombies that you would not want to face. You know, I mean, you've got the. I don't know, just the fact that they come at you almost mindless like zombies.

They're animalistic. I mean, it's just, it's attack. And they hunt. Yeah. They, you know, they hunt you down.

They're preying on you. Yeah. It's pretty creepy. There wasn't any, you know, there's no banter with the vampire. Oh, I'm going to kill you now, but first I'm going to do this and that.

They were just, they were scary. Yeah. I love that. There's like, where they have to, they're not safe, you know? It's nighttime, it's nightfall, we have to set up camp.

Ever. We have to set up traps, like, so that we can get alerted to this. Exactly. And they kind of expect that they're going to come, and they expect that they have to deal with it. And there's never, like, this safe haven.

It's always like, if you can find a building, even then, like, you really have to be ready, because you never know. Yeah, I mean, in The Walking Dead, they kind of had that scenario, too. It felt like those moments in there where it's like, We set up camp, but we're still never really safe. At any given moment, something's going to break in. So, again, it's got that sort of zombie feel to it.

Yeah, and it doesn't give you that safe feeling like you were saying with certain movies where you're watching it and you're all tense for. The action, and then there's this, okay, we're safe. Okay, now I can just kind of calm down a little bit. There is no no it seemed like throughout this whole movie they were either getting by like. Just making it or dealing with some really screwed up.

Stuff like this horrible reality or not and then they were kind of making it again and then it was this horrible reality again there was no like peaceful time of like let's run through the forest because we found a car and. So there's none of that notes And there's never like a safe haven at all. Like in a lot of those, you end up also getting that like kind of night of the living dead where you wall yourself in and then you've got a place to fight them. Like they never, for more than a scene, stay in one place. They keep moving, which makes it equally like there's no safety to it.

They're always back in the car, back on the road, equally as exposed. Because they spend so much time fortifying like a car or a building. Like as night falls. Then they spend the night, but then they leave. And then they turn around and, yeah, and then they start all over the next night.

Yeah, that's so cool. I mean, that is just, like, exactly what I would picture from, like, post-apocalyptic adaption, survival. That's what, yeah, just the basic stuff, like chain-linking the car, and it's like, that stuff is kind of cool, and it's like, I haven't seen that before. That was kind of interesting. Usually they bolt that, and it's like a battering ram, supercar, and there was none of that.

Yeah, there was no. Finding, just happened to find a welder and some torches, and, you know, we're going to make some. it was very much like look I found a safe oh I could sleep in that for the night you know lock myself in get some sleep and then carry on it was pretty cool. Oh I guess some of the other characters um we've got like the the sister it's that again it took me I knew she was in this movie but it took me like a couple of scenes to go wait is that Kelly McGillis. Yeah like that. Was yeah that took me a while like I had not seen her and granted she'd stopped working for many years so it's weird to see her come back she was in I mean, her big movie was, like, Witness and Top Gun.

And then, like, after that, she did some straight-to-VHS stuff. And then she kind of just got out of it. And, again, for a while, I think she, like, owned a restaurant with her husband and was just, like, being a normal person. And then, I guess, now it's started coming back into the scene. And then I thought, all right, here comes the big religious, like, angle.

And then pleasantly surprised to see how her character developed and what kind of happened with it. Yeah. Yeah. Not expecting her to just blend into the nightmare. Well, again, talk about, like, not pulling any punches.

I mean, let's look at our introduction to her. Yeah, really. Like, that's a horrible, horrible scene. And once again, being put upon with a nun. And I was just like, it's taking all these conventions and just, like, completely destroying them.

And it's so cool. It's like, that's the reality. Like, when there's no authority, you know, people revert to being animals. And guess what? If you're in that scenario and you're in that environment...

You can. Expect, you know, rape, murder, stealing. The things that people try to ignore and bubble wrap their kids about and not really expose them to, those are realities. They really are. People forget how.

Close you are to these realities, even in the safe world that we live in, not necessarily on the set of a movie. And I think that that's what did it for me. This person really didn't, the director really didn't, like, sugarcoat anything, you know? Like, he went into this world and he's like, I'm all in. You know, these are the things that can happen, and let's cover as much effed up stuff as we possibly can.

I bet they do. I really connected with the character. I was really sad to see what happened there. With all of them, like even Danielle Harris, I mean, she gets worked in as a pretty sizable role, and this is one of the few times, yeah, she plays like she gets a chance to almost be kind of her age. Like, she's usually being shoved back as a, you know, she's played a high schooler into her 30s now, so it's like, She's kind of playing a normal woman, and.

She's kind of dealing with this pregnancy. Yeah, and that's the thing. She's pregnant in this universe. I mean, what worse way can you think of being in this situation than being pregnant, too? That is so cool, because all of a sudden it's like this horrible problem.

It's this beautiful thing, but at the same time everyone's thinking, oh, my God, when this baby comes here. What are we going to do? And it's just, there's so many. Layers of, like, problems that it's just, it's amazing, man. Whoever thought this screen could play out in the story was just brilliant.

Just brilliant. It never really leaves that either. Those horrible problems just continue from one scene to the next. We get each one of these little jams. They get out of.

If they get out of it, most of the time they lose. Someone in the process. Oh my god. That's so hard to deal with. Dropping vampires.

From a helicopter into the town safe haven. What a crazy situation. My God. It's at one point. Just like, you know, it's where you think they're actually kind of safe for a little bit.

You're like, hey, now we can rest. No time to rest. That one little mention of the back story of them sending a plane full of them into Washington, D.C., was it? And that's how they ended up shutting. Down the government was this terrorist group basically sent a plane full of zombies into the.

Capital, huh? It's like, what a world you created in this. Somebody's definitely thinking about this movie for a while. It was well thought out. When I saw the.

Vamp bombs, if you will, I thought that was just the most amazing thing. I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, what a bunch of assholes. What an asshole thing to do, man. Just middle of the night, chopper dropping vampires.

That's what I was thinking. I was like, You know, this world has fallen apart. Things couldn't get any worse. Oh, wait. Yes, they can.

Some asshole just dropped a vampire into our town. Yeah, you didn't talk about who's dropping him. Yeah, go into that guy. The crazy rebel. Yeah.

Unbelievable. This is for you, mister. Oh, yeah. We know who you are. You kill them that come back.

Them that serve. Us, them that God brought down to do his work. Leaving us to purify the blood of our fathers. And when that day comes, he will bring them back. Peace and purity will reign on the earth forever.

Amen. Amen. What do you have to say for yourself, sinner? Fuck you and fuck your God. That's the problem.

They couldn't go anywhere. It seemed like all the main roads were blocked by this brotherhood of just religious nuts. And that's crazy, man, because you hear the preaching over the radio that they catch, and it's like, we offer safe haven for all of our white brothers and people. And it's just like, wow. Once it sets in, you see who takes over.

If the vampires aren't enough, now you've got this to deal with. It's just unbelievable. Easy Aryan backwards cult. And sort of religious, too. It works in that early religious thing with her, and she sort.

Of loses her faith, almost. She kind of is the only constant within the religious thing. But then he comes in, and religion almost becomes the villain to it. That is what is destroying it. It's this fanaticism that.

He's using to his advantage to take over power at this point. You can see that stuff today. People take advantage of religion all the time for personal gains. And that's kind of like the ultimate, you know? That's one of the reasons why I like Dr.

Who so much. Not to get off the subject, but if you think of the Daleks and they're creating this superior race, it kind of relates to fascism and Hitler. And it's like something that exists here in our world, in our time, but it's taken to a complete extreme. And that's how that cult was. It was like they're super, they're way beyond Ned Flanders, super religious and Kind of.

Just doing what they want when they want to. But not far from being real. It's not out there. It can't happen. Like a compound of people who decided to take on this religion.

Well, they're able to patrol and kind of. take martial law of their area and they did yeah i mean those kind. Of groups are out there right now so you think if everything starts to fall apart if they're the ones that step up they're going to be the ones in power. Oh yeah if it really happened you can imagine texas really be in its own country and how about that they come into a town you know they that sound that they were in the first lockdown is that what they call it yeah and you know they get strip searched and they're like you know get out of the freaking car and all that stuff and bad does that suck? You've got nothing but yourself. You're coming into a town expecting help and you don't know what you're going to get.

They operate on their own set of rules. Or the Aryans or the Brotherhood when they stop that one car and they tell the guy to get out of the car and they kill him. I'm sure that guy was like, oh my god, people, civilization, thank god. And for nothing. He didn't even fight them.

They said get out and they shot him. It was for nothing. Wow. Can you imagine that? You're going through hell.

You probably survive at least a little bit of this nightmare. Yeah. You make it to civilization. The first human contact are these crazy nutjobs. And these hooded, like, upside-down cross little outfits of theirs.

Crazy. What a horrible, horrible experience. Oh, man. This movie, like, just never stops delivering. Yeah.

Just one thing after another. And that's what I was going to get to, I guess. Just, like... Talk about how much... And I get super spoiler alert.

But yeah, it's just how many people they take out. I mean, we lose pretty much the entire cast, so... And how much time they spend with them. It's not like it's one of those where they introduce somebody just to kill them off. Oh, no.

Because you spend, like, 20 minutes with half the. I mean, every time you meet somebody new, you spend a good amount of time with them, you get to know them, and then they're killed. You're like, doesn't it build up a group? You're like, yeah, okay, they're going to be safe. And they have roles, right?

Oh, no, now there's more of them. They should be safer. And that's what. I think is really interesting, is they also have this little makeshift family that they. become. And it really, like, there's even that one moment of kind of reflection there where it's just like, this is, you know, what I lost.

This is the family that I lost in the beginning, and now I have this slightly bigger family. And everybody does kind of have that role, and there's dad and mom and sister. I mean, it is. kind of nice but at the same time you know it's not going to go well like when he said that I was just like. Oh shit someone's about to flip a switch on the manure spreader that means. So many of your family are about to die because you can't have happiness in this movie and.

I was genuinely sad I couldn't I unfortunately couldn't watch the movie with my wife and she's a big movie buff with me and I was she said how was it and I said oh my god not only was it so good it was incredibly sad it was just so well like put together like i connected with these characters i like them and started dying left and right and not just kind of like you know you know oh they got me kind of way it's usually like oh my god that's so terrible like. Ruins the i mean as horrible as the tone already is you're just like oh it just took it down a level it's like that's right i'm old and i can't run as far as you can so i'm just gonna stop just gonna kill myself yep jesus christ it's terrible Or by the time they're, like, setting traps and, like, killing off your family just to mess with you, you know.

Yeah. By the end, it's just, oh, God, it's depressing. It is so bad. It is so bad. But so good.

So that was, I mean, that was going to be my, if I had any sort of complaint about it, I guess, is, like, I think it would almost be way too dark and depressing for some people. I mean, you've got to know what you're getting yourself. Into in this movie. It's a gritty, gritty film. Because that was, I mean, that was Missy's take on it.

She didn't like it and it was because it was just, the tone of it is so depressing and so horrific, you know? It's close to reality. And that was, that was by the end of it. I was like, I love everything that's going on. I think it's really well put together.

And I got to the end and I was like, I kind of want to go kill myself. You know, it's kind of like reading an H.P. Lovecraft story where you, you. It's not so much like a good guy, bad guy, or there's no obvious monster. It's kind of just dealing with the reality of bad things happening and you having no control over them happening.

And you're just doing the best you can to deal with them. Usually the hero in a story for Lovecraft ends up losing his mind at the end. There's no happy ending. And that's how I felt with this movie. How could you not in this world?

I mean, thinking about that, like the fact that how long has Mr. been doing this and how long is the kid going to be doing this? I'm like, how could you be sane? in a world like this, where everything is anarchy, and everyone you love is constantly being killed on a daily basis. If you're looking for a. Happy ending, or you're very lighthearted in your love of horror movies. Do not see this movie.

Do not watch it. This is not a fun movie for you. It would make you cry. It's a hard watch. That would make me cry.

And I'm a grown man, that's not it. No, it's a hard watch. So that was kind of my thing. But I think, especially in talking about it here, I think it is one of those that also you kind of gain a little respect for it the longer because when I first turned off I was like god that was depressing and I wasn't even sure how much I liked it and like by the next day I was like oh that was really well done and the more I thought about it afterwards I was like it was kind of amazing like what the world that they build and what they put together and the performances so yeah it's like with a little time I've even like grown to respect it a little more as a movie but it's a hard watch I watched. It maybe 12 hours ago you know and in those 12 hours I've gone from wow, that was really dark.

It was just so twisted. It was disturbing. To recommending it to my wife. And then now I'm sitting here working today and before we started this, I'm recommending it to everyone. It's a must see.

I'll buy it for you so you can watch it. You have to see this movie. You have to witness the greatness. So yeah, as the time went by, I realized how many things were made well and how much I really appreciated how well the things were made. The storyline is amazing.

The scenes are spectacular. The effects are great. They're good enough. You know, except for the whole, like, slobbering. Blood type of kind of messy thing.

I think for as limited a budget as they were, you can hardly tell. Like, I mean, to me, it looks like a pretty well-financed movie. And there's moments where I'm like, okay, they're dealing with budget limitations. I noticed at the beginning there was a credit to Belladonna Productions. I wonder if that's Belladonna the porn star.

She has a production company. You take your money wherever you can get it. That's right, man. But you know, another thing I loved about this, which is something that really caught my attention with the old Doctor Who, is the creepy music. The score for this is outstanding.

The music is just like right on the moment for moods. There's enough of it. There's not too much. There's not too little. I love it when music fits the movie.

I think all of it was custom made. It was like a custom tailored suit for this movie. There was no cheesy... Rock and roll moments or anything like that. No power ballads.

No power ballads. There was a lot of creepy, like, just really cool. Just sort of mood setting, yeah. And it was just awesome. I loved it.

Very cool. Well, I remembered my other end of the spectrum there when I was trying to, I came up with, as I was watching, I was like, okay, it's kind of like a Zombieland setup with the tone of the road, which I don't know if you've seen the road, but it's, horribly depressing, it's just a father and son walking around this wasteland of, you know, the world has been destroyed, everyone's trying to kill you, there's people cannibalizing each other, so it is one of those, if you're familiar with The Road, it's that kind of tone, only done in more of an action, I mean, The Road is pretty slow-paced, and there's no vampires, it's just people kind of, you know, killing each other, whereas this has a lot more set pieces of action, and it's a lot more faster-paced, well, not even faster-paced, but There's more action worked into it.

It's more of a quicker-moving plot line, but the tone of it is equally as depressing as the road. Yeah, the plot is not constipated. It is just constant. The story unfolds at a very good pace, and there's just the right amount of action. In fact, sometimes you don't even get breathing room.

You're just like, no, they just went to sleep. How can more stuff be starting? My wife saw The Road, and she recommended it. Yeah, it's good. And she caught a vaccine one night, and it's on my to-do list.

I have a very big pile of some movies that I had to buy. that certain friends recommend or I saw in the previous work that. Are still shrink-wrapped. Yeah, I used to have that myself. And video games, too. There's a list so long that I'm still trying to get to.

The road is on there. I've heard good things about it. I mean, it's good, but it's that same thing. It's depressing. And from what I hear, people with kids have a problem.

Because it's a father and son dealing with this. So it's a lot of parenthood issues, too. Hey, man, it's like Finding Nemo. I'm looking forward to watching that with my son. It's an uplifting movie.

Uplifting. Father and son, take another world. Let's do it. Yeah. Damn Brotherhood shit-kickers.

Ten dead. We've got things under control now. We'll have this place up and running in no time. You sure you want to stick around for a while? We could use a couple of good men.

No. We're in the north. Stick to the back roads. They're the only way out of here. Brotherhood's a rest.

So I think that's most of my take. Any final words you guys have for Stakeland? That was the ending. I think we covered it pretty well. This movie's just done so well.

I can't begin to explain how much I appreciate how well it was made. And I very. Rarely recommend movies, and I think this movie gets one of the highest recommendations. I can't remember the last movie I saw that I felt this strongly about. And I can't believe you.

I can't believe that it's from a year ago. A lot of people haven't seen it. And nobody's heard about it. I thought it was one of the last minute Louies here. No.

And I was just. I can't believe this movie didn't shatter the movie scene and make this giant impact where it was banned or something. Maybe that's why. Because it didn't fall into the Hollywood categories. I think so.

And they just kind of like, you know what, they pushed it off. They're like, we don't want to promote this because... First of all, it's got killing babies in it. Yeah. It's depressing.

Who are we marketing it to? Yeah, it's too depressing. It was definitely made for people in the genre. For the super fans. That's the only ones that know about it now.

The same people that go to horror conventions. The same people that go to gaming conventions or whatever. That's what it was made for. There was no BS in it. I mean, that's the first time I heard about it was at a horror convention.

The only reason I then found out it was out was from fans of the, you know, the Movie Geek Underground, the shows and the internet websites. And I mean. It's that kind of group of people is what is, you know, kind of finding these movies and enjoying these movies. So it's good that they're still making them. Sometimes I'm amazed that they even get funding to do stuff that looks this good and is this well-made when there's nobody out there, like, throwing a lot of money at them.

It's a shame sometimes. I can't wait to see the next project of this director and writer. I kind of want to see where he goes. He's definitely a staple in my collection. Very good.

I can't wait to watch it with my five-year-old son. Hey, kid, sit down. Let me show you something. This is a good movie here. This is going to be great.

This is what to do in case of an apocalypse. The training manual. Turn off that Disney for a minute. I want to show you something. Well, I have a hard time with that now with my kids.

I love that my son is into Boomerang and all the old cartoons. He's into Doctor Who and a lot of cool things with me. But lately, you just can't fight the influence. The arm of Disney just cuts through. All of a sudden, he's into Kidz Bop because of commercials and stuff.

Oh, God. And I don't mind a lot of Disney Pixar stuff. We watch most of. The Pixar things. Pixar's a different category, yeah.

But the Disney, their channel, the shows with the sarcastic teenagers. Oh, my God. My daughter's in iCarly. Oh, iCarly. Yeah.

I can't say anything. I watch those shows. He watches them, though. I mean I sat down and watched Wizards of Waverly or something I like that show that stuff comes on it came on we all like that and I'm. Like oh crap let me find Spongebob or something for you and my son's like no that's Wizards of Waverly I want to watch that and I'm like what did you say to me boy take that back he.

Likes Selena Gomez she's cute come on he's got a crush on her you know he does Probably. He's only six. I remember setting in pretty early for me. You know, slow down. He just started using his pockets like a year ago, and I'm still not over it.

We're at the grocery store, and he's like, hey, can I have something from those quarter vending machines? I'm like, oh, you know what, sorry, son, I have no coins. He's like, oh, it's okay, I have some. Wait a minute. He's just in his pocket.

I'm like, oh, my God. At the same time, I'm having this moment with my son because he's. Like, going in his pocket. He's using his pocket in his pants. I didn't realize they were real pockets.

Then he pulls out a handful of change. First, I'm thinking, where the hell did you get that? Second time, I'm like, oh, it's my boy. Little pockets. Then he pulls out his driver's license.

Yeah, right? I need to borrow the car. What? Gotta go, Dad. I was changing your diaper yesterday.

What the heck's up with that? Damn it. But no, I let the kids watch a lot of the stuff. Not too far. He accidentally watched Hall-Raiser.

And he loved it. He wasn't creeped out by it. The first Hellraisers. That's the good, yeah. Once you get past three, it's all downhill.

So just stop them about two. I think Misty and I went on the quest for Hellraiser and watched. All of them. Oh, you poor bastards. I've only seen like the first couple.

I remember watching the third, half of the third one or something. The one with the CDs. Yeah. That's the one I couldn't finish watching. It's when it gets silly.

We went all the way up to it. Did it get good again though? Oh no, it didn't. No, it just went downhill from there. What was it?

Listen, what was the highest Hellraiser we watched? Was it like Hellraiser 8? Oh my gosh. It's 8 or 9 or something. It's 8 or 9.

It's ridiculous how many they went. It just got... I don't know where it went. Yeah, my wife just thought all that stuff was nerdy, but she definitely got into. Firefly with me.

Dr. Who now. Torchwood. The new Torchwood's really good. If you haven't seen it on Starz, way better than the first couple seasons.

But I watched Jordan Carpenter's The Thing with my son. Oh, God. I love that movie. For me, even as an adult, that movie still. creeps me out and still scares me it's really hard to watch at two in the morning when everyone else is asleep then he. Watched it he loved it it still holds up i mean even the special effects i mean some of those practical effects are how many years old and it's 81 or something i'm just like it looks as good as anything you could do today in fact it's better because now they would.

Just do cgi so. It's yeah it's amazing i miss the old like claymation stuff yeah You know, actually putting someone in a suit thing, like, that's so underrated. Yeah, it's going to be gone now. It's like, oh, no, CGI is the way to go. No, it isn't.

It's the guys in suits works. I mean, you feel their presence in the room. You don't get from. A blue screen. You don't get a mask.

Even my daughter, she'll take old Godzilla over. CGI Godzilla. She doesn't like the new Godzilla movies. Just like the old Japanese ones or the bad American ones? She doesn't like the bad American ones.

She loves the old 60s Godzilla. Don't we all? That's where my love of. This is where my environmentalism came from. It's from watching Spectre Man.

Spectre Man? Yeah, I grew up on it too. If you go back and watch him, every episode is anti-pollution. the group that they're in they're like a pollution like policing group and everything every bad guy like every monster that Dr. Glory brings out usually gets involved with toxic waste somehow and that's how they grow up and I was like wow all these subliminal things just got like programmed into my brain and that's where. It all came from isn't that the one too because he can't stay he can't fight him for very long right because of the atmosphere no or is that Ultraman I'm getting Ultraman mixed up too it's funny he used to have to ask permission to become Spectreman You have to talk to this guy knows that to cheeseburgers And he would say oh, you know this monsters attacking such-and-such permission to turn the super-spec command They're like no you cannot turn in the spec command just yet.

You know you have to go and Investigate this and find out further and he's like but no my friends are in trouble No, we are we're in charge. So he'd be really frustrated. That was pretty cool. And then finally at the end, he's like, all right, come on, everyone's dying. And they're like, okay.

And they shoot the raid out, and he turns into Spectre Man. Very duty-oriented. Yeah. You have to follow protocol. That's right.

Nice. He's like, no, but I'm righteous. I'm like, no. It was amazing. And it's funny, I played that for my son, and he loved it for like a second.

And then the novelty wore off. He was like, no, put on the other stuff. So I could see the CGI appealing to kids and the younger crowd for sure, but Man, there's just no substitute for seeing the zipper in the rubber suit. The less they grew up with it, yeah, there's an appreciation that I don't know that kids get. I kind of want to instill them.

So, yeah, it's cool that your daughter is liking that better. We sat down and watched Jason and the Argonauts. We watched everything. Everything was old. We try to watch.

It had become kind of a Saturday morning thing just to try to get her into Saturday morning. Yeah. See, you don't have that anymore. You don't have that and you can't duplicate it. And I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine maybe a week or two ago about that.

And I think that the atmosphere that's missing is like the fact that your parents weren't at work, they were at home. You weren't at school, you were at home. Because they're at home, there's music playing in the kitchen because my mom's doing something. And there's like a whole giant atmosphere that's missing from the Saturday morning cartoon. Because it's not the same as saying, all right, I'm going to wake up Sunday morning and watch Crash Box with my son on HBO.

It's kind of cool, but it's not the same. Well, it's also, everything is available now. Like, when we were kids, you couldn't just go, like, you had to wait until Saturday morning and sit down and watch a cartoon. There was no, I missed it, I want to go back and watch it. There was no, I want to watch it right now.

And it's Thursday night. Also, you have to go pee. Yeah, there's no, kids can't even comprehend that now. Like, well, why wouldn't you just go on YouTube and watch it, you know? It's like, there's no way for kids to understand.

You couldn't get to them. I mean, stuff was out of print or never available. It's like, If you. Weren't there watching it, then you missed it. And all your friends talked about it.

I still appreciate that. I'm watching Doctor Who, and I'm talking about an episode every Friday night with someone who used to work here, and I'm. Like, man, did you see that last Friday? Wasn't that awesome? It was so amazing.

And they're like, oh, which episode is that? And I'm like, The one from Friday, like the last one. The new one. They're like, well, I've seen them all on YouTube. And I'm like, oh, man.

I'm like, you're lame. You're lame. I'm out of here. I'm taking my ball. I'm going home.

Oh, Lord. Well, with that, I guess we can try to take our ball and get the hell. Out of here. But we will let you put the plugs in here. Tell everybody where to find yourself and your operation and what all you guys have to offer.

The Bleeding Heart Bakery. You can find us on thebleedingheartbakery.com or check us out on Facebook, Bleeding Heart Bakery. Slash Facebook, whatever. Follow Michelle Garcia, Vinnie Garcia on Twitter or Facebook. Be on the lookout for really cool stuff.

We're opening a restaurant in like five days. We touched on this earlier. We actually found some really cool people, like-minded, who wanted to help us grow and not exploit us who happen to be connected to big money and big business and they know how to do, you know, they own a sports bar so they understand like systems and that kind of stuff. And yeah, we finally moved on to the big time. And it's really happening.

So in five days, look out. Bleeding Heart Bakery and Cafe at Chicago Avenue. I believe it's 1916 West Chicago Avenue. And this one is? This is 1955 West Belmont, which will still be here after we move.

Okay. But you won't see Vinny in the back making crazy cthulhu cakes anymore. I'll be on Chicago Avenue sitting in a fish tank right at the front, all glass room, making amazing cakes and classes and kicking butt all over town and saving the earth one cake at a time. Awesome. Very cool.

So, yeah, once again, if you're in Chicago, come find them. If not, make a trip over here and come find them. And if you just want to sit around and sip coffee and talk about cool stuff and how so much new stuff is lame, I'm more than. Open to that. It's good to have that option, isn't it?

Absolutely. That you offer that service. Come in and let Geeks Talk Movies with you. That's right. I usually get shunned for my nerddom and my geekness.

We embrace it here at the show. I embrace it. I embrace it. Come on down. Sounds good.

All right. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for coming by. It was pretty awesome. Thank you.

If you leave the theater, folks, please be careful. Don't let this happen to your car. Be sure to remove the speaker before you leave. If you should accidentally pull a speaker loose, please turn it in at our snack bar or box office. Thanks.

Don't be shy. Just let your feelings roll on by. Don't be shy. We'd like to hear from you. So give us a call at 502-365-5565.

Or you can email us at geeksatmoviemeltdown.com. And just stop by the website for our frequent updates. that's movie meltdown dot com on. By on by on by on by. It's part of your problem you know you haven't seen enough movies all of life's riddles are answered. In the movies and now on with the.

Show Alright, so we're back in the car. We're heading back home. We've gotten loaded up on coffee now. Made a few more stops. I think we're done with our weekend outing to Chicago.

We did have some feedback. I didn't know I was going to pass this along this day. I thought this was fun. Okay, here it was. Because it was sort of celebrity feedback.

After one of our little quotes from a couple weeks back. While we were at Fright Night, I took I remembered we made our Arsonite comment about Wings, and. One of the other show hosts says they follow Steven Weber, and says he's actually pretty cool, and puts out interesting tweets, and has a pretty good sense of humor. So I went ahead and sent. Him the quote that we had.

Which was basically, what I said was one of the funnier comments of the show, was I have no respect for anybody that was ever on. Wings, which I think you get credit for that, Steve. So, and then we were just kind of like, eh, we were just kidding. We were mostly knocking on the kid from the shiny. Which is, for good reason.

So, he actually messaged us back. He said, first of all, he said, I am certainly incentivized to get that respect. Which means, you know, kind of a smartass. I like that already. And followed it with, it's all good and not entirely wrong.

So, I like that it's self-deprecating. I kind of like this guy. So, Moral of the story is, Stephen Webber, kind of cool. Otherwise, I think that about wraps it up. So, did you have fun?

I did have fun, yes. It was quite an interesting trip. Alright, well, we will be back for more adventures in the future. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next week.

Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening. I am the dog stalker. I'm the dead walker. I'm good ass and you're bad ass.

I'm good, good, good at. Two shoes and I'm a. Slash your ass little bad ooler. All of you get out of my way Rock you vampires If you suck blood. Then you are gonna pay I used my blade to smash your face.

I will repair your slaughter with. A sea of holy water. Now who's laughing? Tell me, who's laughing now? I'll tell you who I'm laughing now.

I killed Nostradamus and I killed Vlad because. He made me mad and I. All of you get out of my way. Rock you vampires If you suck. Lord, then you are.

Gone I told you in my mind, and I feel your skin on my finger. I know nobody. Can take your heart, because happiness is wrong. I need to figure out how to get out of here and not head to Gary. That's just for the best in all circumstances.

This show is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by Brian Renfro, with opening music performed by The Empires. To help support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com for ways that you can contribute or advertise with us.