Ninjas and Practical FX

Hey guys, it's Greg Nicotero from The Walking Dead. This is Movie Meltdown. It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised.

Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million. Kilowatts of power. provide more cooling in the containment chambers. To your stations, we. Have a movie meltdown. Cowabunga!

What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Christian. And we're coming to you live via digital recording from Fandom Fest. So Christian, how's your day been?

It's been a day at A wonderful Phantom Fest 2015. We're currently watching Dr. Eugene from Walking Dead playing Duck Hunt. And we were watching some kid get mowed down on this blow up thing with a spinny deal on it. Called Meltdown.

I don't know. We're standing here. One of them is like a bouncy castle with an arm ready to take out goofy kids like this one that. May have just gotten laid out. And then the little arcade set up over here where Dr.

Eugene, fake Dr. Eugene from Walking Dead has decided to wander over and play Duck Hunt. Which is pretty entertaining. It's pretty entertaining that he's been going at it for a while now. It's not like he did a couple and wandered off.

He's been here for like 10 minutes. Maybe he's like a Duck Hunt pro. Hardcore fanatic. Yeah. So it's been pretty interesting watching that.

And then we had a Kevin Nash from WWE fame over there talking to that other dude. Just hanging out. No big deal. Just hanging out. He's just people.

They're just like us. They put their pants on one leg at a time. That's not how I do it. Anyway, so if nothing else, let's kick things off with Geek Activities. Have you seen anything lately?

Actually, I just watched Cake last night. I heard someone's take on cake the other day. Did it take the cake? It seems interesting. I feel like I'm still trying to process it.

It seems kind of heavy. It's heavy. The ending had this whole little bit more uplifting resolution. I don't want to give any spoilers because I know you're probably going to check it out. This seems really superficial.

But it was really nice seeing Jennifer Aniston in a less than attractive role. Like, she looked.... She looked the part that she was playing. That's pretty much what we were discussing the other day. I was like, you know, it's one of those I always kind of want to write off Jennifer Aniston.

Like. Her goofy romantic comedies, which is another to sidetrack here. I do not understand how they kept giving them to her because. I don't know that any of them made money either. Like most of those weird big budget romantic comedy kind of standard rom-com bullshit.

Like none of them really did that well at the theater. Like she for as much money as she made on TV, like theatrically, she never really pulled in a ton of money. Maybe that was just to supplement her income so that she could. Tax write-off. Yeah.

Something. Because, I mean, I've just now come to terms with the fact that I don't feel like I have to hide that I love cheesy, bullshit rom-coms. I love them. Jennifer Aniston. All right, you don't have to, but it might be recommended.

Jennifer Aniston... Any of the ones that she was in, never really cared for. Again, most of them I haven't seen. And the only time she's good in stuff is usually when she's, like, a secondary character. Sure.

Like, any of the ones that she was lead in, I either never watched them because the trailers looked so bad, or what I. Saw of them, I'm like, wow, this is just a bad movie. Like, she might be all right in it, I guess, doing her standard traditional thing. But, yeah, it's just not a good movie. So I don't know if that's all they were giving her were those big, dumb, big-budget scripts.

But, like. Well, and it seems really strange. I mean, I guess it's just... You know, every star kind of goes through their... Like, they have their heyday.

And, you know, they're the big name. And so she's in Friends. And she's Rachel from Friends. But I feel like it was almost a misstep in her career to be in all of these movies because you don't see her as anything but Rachel. Pretty much.

But every time she'd turn in a weird indie film performance that was good, you'd be like, oh, yeah, she can. Like, every time I watch one, I'm like, oh, yeah, she is actually a decent actress. Like, she just. doesn't get to do it much in these big, dumb rom-coms. And that's what I appreciated about Cake. I mean, maybe she has done something in the past few years, but I can't really think of much.

Again, not a lead, not her traditional rom-com, the Life of Crime. It's the one that Jennifer Prediger, her husband, I think it's her husband, husband or boyfriend, directed it. And she has a really bit, actually, she's almost completely cut out if you watch it. But I watched it just because she talks so much about it. And then I also remembered, oh, yeah, this is the one that is basically, it's the same writer that wrote Jackie Brown.

So it's the same characters. Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro and Jackie Brown, these are them, but it's prequel-like, so it's years before, and it's played by two other awesome actors in this version. But it's a good story. It is a solid, well-written screenplay.

That director does a great job with it, and everybody's performance is good, including Jennifer Aniston is the spoiled housewife that gets kidnapped. And so, yes, she can play that because she brings a little bit of spoiled Rachel to the table. And then it goes a little deeper and you're like, oh, yeah, she can act. I kind of forget. She's actually a decent actress.

If you give her something with some meat on it, she can actually do it. Sure. And, you know, with Cake, I actually I started it and I had to watch it in two settings because. it wasn't that it was too heavy, you know, I mean, it is heavy and it's, you know, kind of depressing and it's going through, you know, a traumatic, it's going, you know, this woman has a traumatic experience and, um, you know, she's just dealing with the aftermath of it. She's dealing with chronic pain, not only physically, but emotionally and things are, things are going on. And so, okay.

Yeah. It's, it's kind of dark and sad, but I was just kind of like, I don't know. I just kind of wasn't in the mood for it. So then I had to go back and finish it. And I didn't have to rewatch it because it.

It stuck with you. It stuck with me enough. But it wasn't like, oh my gosh, this is so sad. I'm going to go bawl my eyes out. But I mean, I feel like she turned in a pretty solid performance.

You know, of course, she's an attorney. I mean, a former attorney in L.A. So, of course, she's still playing... a somewhat spoiled... Yeah. You know.

That's not the worst casting. Affluent, you know. It's then just giving her something good to do with. Sure. So, I don't know.

I feel like it was good. It was worth a watch. Will I watch it again? Probably not. But I'm glad that I watched it because I feel like it was...

It was a good... It was a decent movie. And again, like you were saying, it reminded me that Jennifer Aniston can act in something other than, you know. Dumb comedies. Dumb comedies.

Again, it's one of those, like, I think she doesn't have that much, but then I go back and, like, the good girl. She's really good in that. Like, she is just, again, it was just such an indie movie and such a weird, like, pretty early performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. And, like, it's just such a great little indie movie that you're like, man, she probably got nothing for doing this. And she did it just because it was a great screenplay.

Yeah. And even, like, she's the one. I really love she's the one. She's, like, well. Like, she's not even a third-end character.

Like, she's, like, four or five in on that cast. Total supporting role. And, like, has some decent scenes. Like, kind of, you know, it's well-written dialogue. And she, again, proves she can do something with that.

So, it's one of those that kind of, yeah, I always, at knee-jerk reaction, write her off. It's like, eh, whatever. Nobody liked Picture Perfect. But then you go back and look. And I'm like, oh, yeah, she actually did a lot of other good, usually all the indie stuff.

And, like, she can do decent stuff. She just needs to do. More of it. I actually made the mistake of not too long ago going back and watching Picture Perfect because I was like, I think I liked this. I don't remember.

Uh-huh. And I'm not very good with turning off movies when they're bad. Why is the General Lee coming our direction? Because we're lucky. It's heading right for us.

Yeehaw. I'm always curious when I see the General Lee. My dad's. There it is. There we go.

One of my dad's friends has a General Lee. Nice. I'm always curious. Woohoo! That's a heck of an exit.

But anyway, I. Tried to go back and watch Picture Perfect and didn't shut it off and immediately regretted my decision as soon as it was over. Wasted moments of my life. Yeah. It was so bad.

So bad. Even, you know, being the rom-com lover that I am, I do have my limits. I'm also distracted by the fact that I think Dr. Eugene is finally. Oh, he wandered off, yeah.

Yeah. He wandered off a minute ago. He's broken the record of the duck hunt and made his way to probably one of our finest establishments on 4th Street. Or he just got really upset that that dog kept laughing at him. Damn you!

Stupid dog, I'm out of here! So much anger was directed at him in my childhood. Yeah. There was many a controller got thrown. That gun.

You gotta be surprised they worked after the abuse that probably most kids put them through. Sure. You cheated! Stupid controller! Shut up!

Shut up laughing! Yep. This is most of our childhood. Have you been to the theater lately? It's possible.

I went one time or so. A couple. I've been wanting to go see Trainwreck. I can't decide. I've heard such mixed reviews.

I just like Amy Schumer. I like Amy Schumer. I know she's big right now and that's the thing. I have mixed feelings on how I feel like Trainwreck is going to be, but I still want to see it. As awesome as Amy Schumer is, I hear it's more Judd Apatow, less Amy Schumer.

Oh, yeah. At least in the style of what you end up with and the screenplay and the comedy overall. It's not the Amy Schumer show, which is what everybody really wants in a movie. But at this point, you might as well just watch the Amy Schumer show and get your fix. This is going to drive me crazy.

It's why I remember when it was the last thing. I saw in the theater. Jurassic Park? That was it. All right.

Jurassic World. Jurassic World it is. We have a winner. And your thoughts on Yoshi. Oh, wait.

We're thinking of that shirt we saw earlier with Chris Pratt surrounded by three Yoshis. That was on, like, a gray shirt. Yeah. They really needed to, like, give you some color options. It's a little too light for me.

It's not white, but it's cream color. And I just feel like it's just going to look really bad before too long. Being someone who frequents horror conventions, you know, you usually want nothing but black t-shirts. But I also am a fan of gray. I like to branch out with my gray t-shirts.

But cream color, that's a little too light for me. Yeah, it's too much. Too much. But yeah, I saw Jurassic World. I'm sure it's been discussed in.

Not at great length. I don't know. What were your thoughts? Because I've talked to people who love it, and I've talked to people who were just kind. Of like, yay.

I'm curious to know, with the people who loved it, what was the age group? It depends. I talked to somebody the other day that was like early 20s, but then I was listening to a show, and they were. Like late 30s and loved it. So I guess it's like kind of hit and miss.

Yeah. I found just from the people that I've talked to and, you know, the groups that I kind of tend to hang with, mostly people at work, if they have any loyalties to the first movie, they're going to absolutely hate this last one. Depending on how you look at it. Even as a standalone, it was pretty awful. It was pretty bad.

There were parts of it that... I mean... Chris Pratt's a golden boy right now. He is, but he proves you still have to have something to do to really come off good because he coasts on the fact that he's still looking pretty hot these days. He's slimmed it down and he looks good and he's just a really likable guy.

He is. But it's not like Guardians of the Galaxy, he's got a lot to deliver there. That screenplay is so much fun. His dialogue is so much fun and so well delivered by him, whereas. Jurassic World, he has nothing to say.

He has nothing to go on. And I wouldn't even say that he phoned it in because, I mean, he didn't have to make any effort because he wasn't given anything. The dialogue in that entire movie is awful. Like, it's delivered poorly by every character. It's pretty predictable, which a lot would say that, you know, the first Jurassic Park was somewhat predictable enough.

I feel like that first one still holds up. I really think it does. I think it's wonderful. I mean, not all of the dialogue was perfect. I mean, some of it was pretty cheesy, but it's a great movie.

But it was tongue-in-cheek kind of thing. It knew it was playing with how cheesy it was being that first time around. Jurassic World? Oh, my gosh. Would I group it in with the second and third Jurassic Parks?

Probably not. They have a lot of issues. I definitely liked it more than... It's been a long time since I've seen the other two. I feel like I liked it and had more fun with it than the latter two.

Yeah, the latter two, I think I've intentionally put them out of my head. People have had to remind me what happened in them. Except the last 15 minutes of the second one, which I'm pretty sure is the only reason Spielberg came back. Sure. Because he's like, well, I kind of want to make a Godzilla movie, but people will probably give me shit if I make a Godzilla movie.

Right. So how about I just turn my movie into a Godzilla movie? Right. So that's the only part that has any... It's sad that any original feel to it when really it's just ripping off Godzilla movies.

But the whole. First three-fourths is just rehash of the same movie, only done not as well. But I feel like there's scenes that. Are almost hitting the exact same beats from the movie right before it. So I feel like that second one is too familiar until you get to that move into the city portion.

Right. With Jurassic World. You know, when you're. Watching an action movie, there are certain action movies that, I mean, for instance, I don't know, any of the diehard movies. Epic, classic action films.

Right. But there's a lot of things that you can overlook for the sake of a cheesy action movie. Because Jurassic World isn't necessarily categorized as an action movie or I wouldn't think of it as totally an action movie. in that same vein as, like, you know, die hard or whatever, there were a lot of things that it was like, you just were totally careless with this, weren't you? I mean, that is so not, I mean, yeah, you're talking dinosaurs and, you know, dinosaurs that are coming back and they're being engineered and all this stuff. So, yeah, I mean, you've accepted that.

But, I mean, it's just little things that, I mean, the whole, like, I don't know. This is just a nitpicky thing with me, but I guess because I wasn't approaching it from the standpoint of it being a total action movie, when they go in and find the jeeps that are sitting there, all I could think was, those things wouldn't start because that gasoline is bad. Gasoline goes bad after just a few years, and you cannot run an engine on it. It started right up. Yeah.

It started right up. But, like, I mean, you know... things you can't overlook like I said but I don't know it just really bothered me and then they have the whole like plot holes and then they introduce things that they never address again like the whole divorce thing with the kids and and what the heck like what are you doing. I feel like the I feel like the action aspect is the part where it worked for me like I feel like in the end I enjoyed the big dumb fun that was dinosaurs running around And the one thing they did that was a big, in this case, kind of improvement for the kind of dumb fun it was trying to be, was they way upped that body count. Like, it is just insanity. Like, compared to, like, that first one, there's hardly anybody.

On the island. A couple of people will die. You know, it's like, there's some people get injured, so a couple of people die. And then they escape. Like, it is just mass hysteria and people dying.

In Jurassic World. And nobody's exempt from that. They really just sort of dial up the chaos. And they're just like, let's have fun with this. Want to attack a bunch of kids with pterodactyls?

All right, let's go. Like, they just kind of don't care. They sacrifice all of that to just the fun of the insanity and chaos that it becomes when everything is let loose. That kind of works for me. I did really enjoy that last scene.

I mean, the culminating scene. It feels kind of like the last. And that's the thing. It was funny. I heard somebody say this the very next day after I saw it.

They were like, because I'd kind of made my comment that Chris Pratt has nothing to do. I really like Bryce Dallas Howard. Nothing to do. She's for such a strong actress. Oh, my gosh.

She really likes. It hurt me watching her. It really did. She's so good and doesn't have anything to do in this. But I was like, the next day somebody came up and was like, you know, it's pretty sad when the most character development in the movie is from a velociraptor.

Blue is awesome. Like, by the end, Blue has a story arc. I was like, that's, on the one hand, kind of impressive because not only is he a dinosaur, but he's a CG thing. Like, he's not even physically there. But you do start to like him.

You start to see some sort of, like, personality to him. And, like, it is pretty interesting that they put that much time and effort into a dinosaur when their human characters really have little personality. No. I mean, they're just not given much to work with at all. But, yeah, I like Blue.

Blue is kind of, like, Blue and just General Havoc is what saved the movie for me. I still ended up liking it. I still think it's fun. I have been saying that a lot lately, too. But, yeah, I feel like it's not great because of that, you know, that screenplay setup and character development.

But the one thing I heard. That somebody else mentioned, I went, all right, this is kind of interesting and I feel like I want to rewatch it because of this. They were discussing how interesting it is and how the one thing where it feels like maybe the director is self-aware and put a lot of thought into this is how much he's playing with revisiting that. Like the fact that they go back to the old park, the fact that they bring in all that. So they're almost like making this social commentary on like, okay, this is how messed up the world was in the 90s.

Look where we are today. Now look how much insanity and, you know, just bloodbath that this is all going to become. Okay. This was a bad idea to begin with and we're just going to capitalize on it. And you know, like it.

Just, there's a little of that. I think there's some truth to it. Like I do think that he, the director is at least aware that it's not, cause that's the thing you were talking about earlier, being a standalone, like watching it. I'm like, it's not a standalone. Like it is a true sequel, but, Maybe even skip over the other two, which I guess they still kind of count them as canon.

I think you're. Supposed to just forget that the other two happened. It's like the only thing they comment on is the first movie. So this really is sort of a straight sequel, just revisiting it years later and then kind of commenting on... how ridiculous these ideas were, and then how much more ridiculous as a society we are now when not only are we recreating dinosaurs, but we're going to genetically engineer an even more deadly, vicious, giant dinosaur. That whole thing, one of my friends was pointing all of this out too.

Okay, so we're going to create a bigger, scarier, crazier dinosaur. Even the guy who is running all of this has no idea what is going on with this dinosaur. And then they're just like, oh, we use DNA from this, this, and this. But we have no idea what it does. You know what I mean?

That all sounds pretty legit, actually. It sounds like something our government would play. Let's try this out. But it wasn't government funded is the thing. It wasn't government.

But again, as a way to turn this into a weapon for the military. Which is kind of how the plot goes. It is until it doesn't anymore. All of a sudden it's just done. Cause lots of people die.

Yes. There's lots of dead. Um, but I don't know. It's just, uh, it was hard for me. It was a hard pill for me to swallow.

Like a lot of it was, it was. I don't know. I think I didn't have giant expectations going in, so the fact that it delivered, at least on the fun dinosaur attacking people aspect, I was okay with, and I was like, I kind of was afraid there was going to be, you know, not a ton of character development, so I just went in expecting. That and was hoping to have fun, and I did have fun. I liked it.

I don't love it. I think it's got a lot of problems, but I like it just because of the general dinosaur attack fun that They seemed like that's more what they were interested in doing. Yeah. I mean, that was pretty fun. It is.

The pterodactyls just taking people out was pretty great. And then the poor babysitter. I mean, the poor, poor babysitter. They just played with her until that big old thing came up and chomped her. What are you going to do?

I don't know. It was pretty fun. But, yeah. Yeah. If I'm going to go watch one of those dinosaur movies again, it's probably going to be the first one.

Yeah. I mean, again, that's the classic one of the bunch that I still feel like holds up. As a movie. But when it comes up, you know, pops up on streaming, am I going to watch Jurassic World again? Yeah, I'll definitely watch it again.

I want to re-watch it for the other aspect there. And just because I want to see more dinosaur attack fun. I don't know. I mean, I. It may come across the screen again, but I don't know that I'll sneak it out.

Oh, one advantage I was going to say, another advantage, obviously, that the first one has over Jurassic World is Jeff Goldblum. I mean, you know. Many people out there have a thing for Jeff Goldblum. I don't know what it is. He's a weirdo, but it's Jeff Goldblum.

I mean, you know. Jurassic World? You get B.D. Wong, what more do you want? But, yeah, I don't know.

I wasn't super thrilled with Jurassic World, but. You know. Well, I don't know what you're going to do. Dinosaur attack fun. Do we want to go wander around this and see if anybody's getting attacked by any CG creatures?

Yeah, that probably might not be a bad idea. All right. See if, you know, Blue's around to kind of keep everybody in check. Yeah. All right.

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And now let's talk with director, producer, screenwriter, and special effects creator, Robert Kurtzman. Alright, so are you originally Crestline, Ohio? Yeah, I grew up in Crestline, yeah. Looking, just trying to figure out where it was placed, it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere to have ended up in Hollywood. So did you plan, like when you were a kid, were you already interested in movies and thinking that far ahead?

No, it was more into art. I wanted to get out of high school, go to art school, which I did. I went to Columbus College of Art and Design for a year. before I decided to drop out and move to Hollywood. We do a lot of art shows. I deal with a lot of artists.

It's funny how much I respond to self-taught artists and how much going to school for art seems like a very strange idea to me. I mean, you can get some basics, but I feel like so many artists kind of bring their own thing to it. So it seems like you found the same thing. Yeah, and I mean, this is 30 years ago, and there wasn't a lot of schools available for teaching art. What do you call it?

Makeup effects. Yeah. Now there's plenty of them. I mean, I did go to a makeup course when I moved to L.A. I took a 12-week makeup course.

Most of it was beauty makeup and very little effects stuff. So I kind of... Once I got out of that, I ended up working around town, different shops, and learning from the artists that I came up in the business with. Yeah. So early on, I guess, was it like Night of the Creeps was the first one?

No. Actually, I started working on the. Empire Pictures movies at the time Charlie banned and so it was like Troll. That's an even better lineup there. Troll was my first film that I had to work on.

Is this before he started going to Europe for everything? No, we ended up going there. Romania? Yeah, I went over there on From Beyond. Yeah.

You know, so yeah, he had that studio over there for a while. Yeah. Well then, I don't know, that was one of those just kind of hitting some of those early ones. I mean, Night of the Creeps has become very iconic for horror fans. I guess, what was that shoot like and then As far as doing effects, I guess you were in charge of space slugs?

Yeah, I mean, Dave Miller was the key guy on the show. Prior to that, I was working with John Buechler on those films over there, The Troll and The Eliminators and Terror Vision and all that, and got the chance to work with Dave and the whole thing with that and Fred Decker, which Fred's a great guy. Oh, yeah, we've talked to him. He's awesome. Fred, you know, we ended up playing the frat guys in the movie because it made sense that we had access to ourselves to make the effects on to.

Do the heads and everything. You're going to be there all day anyway. And we were the right age. So Fred's like, yeah, you guys play to help get a jump on everything. It won't be wasting time trying to cast these parts.

Yeah. And so we all got to be in the movie, which was awesome. Yeah, Fred's an awesome guy. And seems very laid back about it, but kind of knows what he wants and what he was going for on all that stuff. And then another, like Evil Dead 2 is so iconic at this point.

That seems like. That first one, well, that one with the more budget to work with, so they did bigger effects and stuff, what? I guess what did they try to do that was taking it up a few notches from that first one? Well, just the overall amount of effects and, of course, the crazier creatures. Yeah.

And, you know, it was a little more wacky and there was a lot more stuff. So, yeah, it was like they were working with a bigger budget, Sam and Rob and Bruce. And so they kind of pulled all the stops out, which was fun for us because it was so much stuff to do. It was fun. There were a few others I was just kind of going to throw out and see if there were weird stories or something that went along with it, like Misery.

Were you there for the leg effect? Yeah, yeah. Because that's the money shot in Misery. Yeah. We did the leg effects and then also did the, I sculpted the broken leg appliances that James Caan wears after the car accident.

And then he heals, of course, and then she breaks it again. Of course. But yeah, we did that and we got to work with Kathy Bates and she was awesome and She's a big horror fan and actually stayed with Sam Raimi when they first moved to L.A., so there's some old stories there. It was kind of fun. Hanging out with Kathy Bates.

Then, like, Nightmare 5, is that the first time you got to work with Robert Englund? No, I did Nightmare 3 for Mark Sjostrom doing effects. You know, Kevin Yeager was doing the Freddy makeup, and then Um, and then after that I did, uh, um, nine, seven, six evil with Robert. I was the onset guy applying all the makeup. So, um, and then, you know, after years and years after that, we've always managed to kind of work together.

You've gotten very used to his face now and he curses at you as you keep putting more appliances on his face. Stop talking so I can glue this down. No, it's not. He's a great guy and awesome in the makeup. Yeah.

So, I always loved people under the stairs. I can only assume that had some sort, I mean, just that set alone. So I don't know what, as far as how many different things you had to deal with and how many different like stunts and weird effects to work in there. Yeah. It was mainly the people under their makeups, uh, every day.

And, uh, of course we had the, the Ving Rhames body we had to make. So Ving had to come up to the studio and we had to cast him, you know, laying in that upside down position, which was a little weird, but, uh, uh, Once again, working with Wes over the years was a great learning experience as well. Yeah, you've worked with him and for him, and I guess he's become some sort of mentor. In several capacities, I would assume. Getting into a different direction than working on Pulp Fiction, so is that away from the horror a little bit, but then sort of building those.

Friendships that you're going to use later. Yeah, there wasn't a tremendous amount of stuff, but, you know, it was integral to the movie, you know. Same with Reservoir Dogs. It was really just blood and the ear gag. Tons of blood.

And then same thing on Pulp, but, you know, there's some really good sequences. Like the syringe? The syringe and the. Marvin's head. Yeah, Marvin's head exploding in the car.

So, you know, and there was a few other things that we did that... You know, we're used almost as ratings, sacrifices, you know. So at the end of the movie when he's gutting the guys with the samurai and things. You know, so. Yeah, that's extra good stuff worked in there.

And then that also, I mean, I guess, what is it coming in contact with Quentin that early on? And then especially when you kind of gave him a story to then turn into a movie. So that was from where From Better Sold On came from. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, you know, it's kind of the lore, but yeah, Quentin had...

He was trying to get Reservoir off the ground, and at that time I hired him to write the script for Dusk. And so it kind of was like, okay, well, that's fine. Can you do the effects on Reservoir when it goes? And then, you know, it just chain-reacted from there. KMB's been doing his movies ever since, and so it's been a long relationship there.

It's great. Yeah, we just talked to Monty Hellman recently. And he was originally supposed to be the Reservoir Dogs director back when he was just trying to sell it as a screenplay. And hearing how his, you know, trying to figure out how different his would have been from what Quentin ended up with. So then I guess, what was the situation where you're like, I've got this story, I've got this idea of like action and horror kind of mixed together and trying to hand it off to him?

Was he... interested in initially, or how did it come about? Yeah, no, he read the short story, you know, the treatment I did, and was very interested, and he instantly, you know, keyed into the elements, which was, it was a height, kind of a, you know, guys on the lamb heist thing, kind of a getaway meets, you know, vampires thing, so he instantly, you know, zeroed in on that, and really had fun with, obviously, with the dialogue. Oh, yeah. So, It does take that hard turn. Was that always in your original treatment, the fact that midway in it just becomes.

An entire new movie? Yeah, pretty much. In his screenplay, it's extended a little bit more because in the treatment, they're on the road and boom, they're at the Titty Twister. And then the hotel sequence got put in to beef up the opening half of the movie. But the weird part about it was that structure also... inhibited us getting the movie made for 10 years so.

I think it confused people like now there's that you know tarantino fan base and horror families but i think like regular people going in are just like completely caught off guard especially when it hit like it seemed like that that when it opened it was really hard to market. And everybody turned the script down for years and years even after quentin had success yeah reservoir and pulp and uh they would just you know read it and go i don't know not to mention you have the chet pussy speech so and that was like. What the hell the whole reason he wrote the screenplay wait can i make him oh yeah i can make him say. All these that's fine. Well then again another iconic one and back with wes scream i mean is that all knife work for you i mean it's mostly just kind of knife tricks and lots of blood.

We had uh drew's body at the opening and then her you know got a boyfriend in the swimming pool and Yeah, and then there's the bullet stuff and the knife gags. And all that. All the stuff at the end, yeah. I mean, the first film was a little less, you know, gory than the rest of them. Yeah.

You know, it got a little crazier with slit throats and everything after that, but. By the end, though, they're soaked in blood. That whole party scene, everybody's soaked in blood. But, I mean, now it's funny how different that movie is, and I always feel like it's sort of that, like, watershed in horror. It's like. made that self-referential thing happen and made things very meta and self-aware.

Did it feel like it was something different at the time, or was it just another slasher that Wes was doing? You know, to be honest, we read the script and weren't sure. We were like, okay, this is kind of... For us, it was kind of riffing on everything that we grew up on, so we weren't sure how it was going to work, you know? I was like, well, I've kind of seen this before, but, you know, the way they handled it and the way Wes handled it and Kevin, of course, you know, they... they pulled it off and it was something new and different for a new generation of people.

So definitely. Yeah. It's even, yeah, that writing is just very different. And now you see everybody else, including him trying to replicate. It over and over again.

But yeah, at the time it was just so different than what we'd seen in horror before. Uh, again, a hard left turn. I just saw bad boys too. That seems like there's gotta be a story. No, it was just, I mean, we were just brought on to handle all the body effects and stuff.

And, um and shot that in florida of course in miami and uh it was hot as hell uh but it was fun i was down there doing all the um the stunt work when they were the bodies were coming out of the vans so we had them on like um these you know pneumatic drawers that would come in and out as they're driving around in the van um and then wrecking it of course and running over the head and it flopping out and all that. Just a few car crashes in that movie. And that was pretty funny because that that uh The head gag when they run over the head was just a simple gag. Mike Deke, who worked at K & B at the time, me and him were down there, and it was literally a pull it on a string deal, a wire hook to the head, and it was a timing thing.

Worked a first take. It was weird. Thank God it did, because Michael would have been, you know. That was my other thing. Working for a pretty infamous director at this point, I don't know.

How was he? That was still, I mean, it was kind of midway in the run. He was certainly the big name at the time, but. I don't know. There's so many stories now.

How is he to work on his set? He's intense, of course. But it's amazing because he really moves his set. He comes in and it's like, camera here, camera there, 50 cameras, and boom. What was amazing and great on that show to watch a crew of that size having to motivate like a move from one location to another on the same day.

Like one day we'd be shooting one section of car wreck, you know, and stunts. And then within a half an hour they're moving the entire thing. five blocks away to shoot the train sequence. And they were just running and gunning, and it was amazing to watch because it's not boring at all on a Michael Bay film. That's got to be weird for you, too, coming from sitting in a cabin or a room somewhere doing blood effects to now being out on a highway and helicopter shots and stunt work and cars crashing. That's the fun part, though.

I love action movies, so I love watching that stuff. That's amazing. Then just another newer one, It Follows, has gotten such a great response and is another one of those that's sort of redefining the genre. So I don't know, what did they bring you guys in to do? We came in, we had a couple of gags in the movie, but mainly it was just.

A look of the dead or, you know, the entities, you know. And it wasn't a huge, complicated film. It was a really small film that we were lucky enough to get involved with. You know, it was a little independent thing. And we liked the script. and I thought it was something new and different, so.

You, over the years, worked your way into directing. Do you take to directing? Is it something you enjoy doing the same as the effects, or is it, what's the process like for you? No, I love directing, and so it's probably, it's my favorite thing to do, obviously, but. My first love is the effects.

You know, and I, you know, as I, it's, I'll find a project and then it'll take years to get it off the ground. So in between, I still do this because I like to be creative and be on a film set and work with directors and creative people. Yeah, that's what I was looking at the list. There's so many projects going. How much overlap do you have or what kind of schedule?

How tight is that schedule of working from one project to the next? It depends. Sometimes there's nothing going on for months. And then suddenly you're doing four projects at the same time. Luckily, I have a great crew that works with us, and we have to juggle it.

The worst is when you have set work going at the same time. And then you're juggling from one location. If it shoots, one's out of state, one's in state. Well, and then are you back in Ohio? Yeah.

I thought you set up a production company based out of Ohio now. Yeah, my studio's in Ohio now. So that's, I mean, that's, are you working to get most of the work based out of there? Because I know it's so hard running an entertainment show 2,000 miles from Hollywood, let alone your own studio and effects company. So how much is it you're trying to do everything based directly out of there or bringing stuff in?

No, we build everything there and then we go to wherever the shoot is. So like when we did Tusk, we built everything there and then shot North Carolina. um we've built stuff and then shot in louisiana or shot in new mexico and uh even india we've built stuff and gone to india but um it's uh it's not you know it's a little different now because so many productions are shooting in uh states to have tax incentive packages that's that's. The game now where do we put it right we just got one past year so you might be back here soon. And ohio's been you know uh last few years has been building there so yeah that's. That's good Nothing else.

You've got so many things in the works. What is the next thing you want to tell people about? Well, we just did a really fun movie with Robert Englund in it as well. It's called Funhouse Massacre. So if you get a chance, there's a couple little things they put up online.

Actually, it's funny. It's my daughter has a bit part in it, and she's running down an alley and gets hit in the head with a severed head, and it. Knocks her out. And they said, heads up, you know. And so that's out on the Internet right now.

And I thought it just came out yesterday. I was, like, texting her going, check it out, you're getting hit in the head over. And over again. That's what I was wondering was, again, starting when you did, I mean, the effects going back far enough, like, you know, 70s and before was all just kind of theatrical more or less, just vamped up a little bit. Yeah.

In this last from the eighties, it takes on a whole new art form and becomes, and then working into the digital age in the two thousands, you've kind of seen it go through all of these, how much has it affected you, I guess, career wise. And then what's your take on it personally, as far as the art, both of them being kind of an art form, as much as we want to talk bad about CG being right. Practical effects lovers, you know, there's a. Place for it. I mean, there is, I feel like, uh, you know, I, I like a good mix of, of practical and digital, but, um, you know, as much practical as you can get away with.

But, um, the, you know, it's changed. I was lucky enough to get in the business in the eighties at the height of the boom where every, everybody wanted to do a monster movie. With creature effects and stuff. Yeah. And, uh, and then over the years, I mean, what, You know, once Jurassic came out, we thought we were doomed after Jurassic came out.

That's what I've heard. Everybody that works in the industry is like, oh, God. And then, you know, it did and it didn't. You know, it's kind of gone to that place and then now it's going back to a mix. Yeah.

But, I mean, as a filmmaker, I. Love having the ability to take advantage of digital techniques to make things. There's definitely a safety issue thing that is great about having CG. You don't have to have a guy drop off a skyscraper. You don't have to do certain stunt things digitally and kill someone doing it.

And bullet hits and stuff like that. I mean, you could do the old style, pull the button and blood rig off of someone's head or a squib on their head. And then if it doesn't go off timing-wise right, then you're wasting hours. And hours and hours of reset. Doing everything, yeah.

So there's a place for it. Sometimes those are the worst, I feel like. The simple, like, bullet effects or blood splatters, like, sometimes those are the worst CG. So that I'm almost leaning towards sticking with. But, I mean, you know, Walking Dead does it really well.

Well, you know, again, it. Feels like he does practical first and adds some kind of accents here and there with the CG. So, yeah, it's hard to tell with them because they kind of know how to do it right, but. So, yeah, I was just wondering how that went. But I think that's about it, unless you need to pass along any other stuff coming up?

No, we got some stuff coming up this fall, but I can't really talk about it right now. That's usually how that goes. Any website or anything you need to tell people. To go to? Yeah, if you want to check out our work, go to creaturecore.net, C-O-R-P-S dot net, and check out our reels, and we got some of our little behind-the-scenes videos and.

Stuff on there, so. All right, definitely. Thank you for talking to us, man. Thanks for having me. Step aside, Sinbad.

Watch out, Star Wars. Here comes the master of the flying guillotine, the ultimate action fantasy, a legend. He battled the warriors from beyond time with weaponry beyond imagination. See the monkey man. See the arena of death.

See the challenge of the inferno, the tornado of knives, the fighting magician with the 18-foot arms, and see the master of the flying guillotine, filmed in Super Cinevision from Seymour Bordy and Associates, rated R. This episode is brought to you by Crosley Turntables. Starting back in 1920, the Crosley company produced the first low-priced radio for the general public, and ever since, they've been working to provide innovative and affordable electronics. And that tradition continues today as. Crosley works to expand their product line, creating vintage-inspired electronics featuring the latest technologies, such as iPod decks, Bluetooth, and MP3 capabilities.

So to find out more about their turntables, just go to CrosleyRadio.com. There you'll find everything from the players themselves to replacement needles and even records. Again, that's CrosleyRadio.com, so head over there now and pick out which turntable you need. Alright, so we're back and now we're here with... Misty!

Misty has joined the festivities. How's it going, Misty? People keep wanting to talk to me. Like, a lot. That happens.

They keep wanting me to read their books, but get not one of them is a pop-up book? There really is an oversight on all of the authors in the world's part. Oh my god. Just saying. Do they not know their fan base, which is me?

Pop-up books. It's just you. It is just me. I'm okay with it. I mean, I like them a little bit, but even I don't buy them.

Me and Lance Henriksen. That's true. Lance Henriksen was pretty excited when you questioned him for not writing a pop-up book. I would read that shit if he wrote it. Why isn't there like an alien pop-up book?

There should be. Anything that involves chest bursters, why is there not. A pop-up book? With the mouth that comes out, that's like prime for a pop-up book. Just like the entire scene with John Hurt.

Why is that not a full page? Or the egg in the face burster bust out. Why is this not happening? Right now, kickstart. People, start writing in.

Just kickstart it. Send us your money. We will get it going. Or go buy sandwiches. We know like 400 artists that could do this kind of thing.

So let's get it going right now. I bought some stuff. You do like stuff. I bought some stuff. Supernatural blind box figures.

Did not get the one that I wanted. I bought five boxes. You got like three that you really wanted otherwise though. I mean Bobby's okay. I would have preferred to get Dean.

But I got Bobby Sam. Cass. That one chick whose name I forgot with the red hair. And what else did I get? The guy with the frying pan.

You know, the guy with the frying pan. Yeah, you know, the Asian guy. Oh, exactly. He was the prophet. I have not watched it since, like, season one.

Not the prophet Chuck, the other prophet. We saw Carrie Fisher wandering about. She is a tiny little old lady. She is very, I mean, we always kind of knew that, you know, especially compared to the rest of the cast, that everybody looked short next to Peter May, but. She's really not a tall woman.

She had shiny shoes. They were bedazzled. Yeah, she had glitter shoes. It was pretty awesome. I would hang out with Carrie.

She seems like she's got a hell of a lot of stories that I would enjoy hearing. We've seen a lot of people in costumes today. More than the typical convention that we normally go to. Again, I blame our town. I can't tell if that guy's in a costume or if that's just the way he dresses.

It's a lot of people. The guy in the white shirt. With the half suspender? That might.... I really don't know.

I really don't know. You play that game all day, too. Like, what do they do? Oh, see, that was one of those. They came through the main room, and I was like, I only saw them from, like, the waist up, and I was trying to figure out what their costume was.

And then they came around the corner, and they were holding a mop, and they were part of the janitorial staff. Nice. And I was like, that's not a costume. That's their uniform. Aw.

That sucks for them. They've got to clean up after these animals. A lot of people in outfits they should not have been wearing. I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but we've seen a lot more Superman and Wonder Woman costumes than I remember ever seeing. There's a good amount of Superman at least, yeah.

There's a couple Superman and Wonder Woman combos going around together. There's quite a few of those. Quite a lot of those are questionable too. There have been quite a few decent ones, but a lot of them I'm like, hmm. What's going on here?

How about Jokers? You like the Jokers? I am not happy with the Jokers because Is it that hard to put on white makeup? I think it takes layering, and not everybody understands that. Because one layer will wear off and fade really, really fast.

It's splotchy. It's extra splotchy. That's why it's like you almost have to do one and let it actually dry, and then go in for another coat. Because otherwise, you can kind of see through it. But not everybody comes to that conclusion.

I guess so. I don't get it. And now let's talk with actor and martial artist Ernie Rees Jr. So I guess usually I try to figure out how people got into the business or what their interests were as a kid, but I'm assuming you were kind of born into the business. Well, yes and no.

My dad. Has been a lifelong martial artist and had a martial arts school pretty much around the time that I was born. And so I was born into that. And, you know, we traveled all over the country and competed in martial arts tournaments and did martial arts demonstration and eventually led to Hollywood. But if it wasn't for my martial arts, I would have never made it into the entertainment business, films and television.

So I was born into the world of martial arts. I wasn't necessarily born in the world of you know entertainment but that's where it led me so. Yeah i'm sure he wanted you to do martial arts did he want you to get into the entertainment business your father uh. Yeah i mean i think everybody that did martial arts at least that i knew all across america if you started doing martial arts in the 60s and the 70s um you wanted to be like bruce lee and bruce lee set a blueprint uh being in movies and he was a filmmaker though. And he, you know, and he wrote and he directed and he choreographed fight scenes.

And that's what we did. We, you know, we choreographed fight scenes and we came up with skits and, and, you know, we all wanted to get to where Bruce Lee got. Uh, but he was a tremendous motivate, motivating factor for me in terms of as a young boy, the intensity in which I would train. I mean, I took it very seriously, um, and still do, but, um, It was because of people like that that people aspired to want to make it into films and television. And we, you know, at least myself, and I know my dad is a Bruce Lee fan too.

I'm like kind of a fanatic, but, you know, he was somebody that inspired everyone. I think that legacy still holds up. I think there are people still getting involved in martial arts and probably acting because of Bruce Lee. Oh, yeah. I mean, and he's a rare combination because he's not only a martial artist, and there are a lot of great martial artists and maybe even better martial artists than Bruce Lee, but the combination of that and being a filmmaker is a very kind of rare quality.

And, you know, when your friends are Steve McQueen and, you know, James Coburn, you know, people like that probably has an influence on you as well. You must be doing something right in the business at that point, so. Well, getting into movies, how did you get involved in The Last Dragon? You know, my manager at the time knew some Motown executives and introduced me to them. And they only.

Had about three weeks left of filming. And my dad and his demonstration team, the West Coast Demo team and myself were brought in. We performed for Barry Gordy. Onset of Seventh Heaven and they wrote me into the script and wrote my dad and the demonstration team and the fight scene, you know, in the nightclub, kind of all wrote that together based upon our demonstration and that was awesome. What was Berg like?

He was, I mean, he was really the one who was responsible for the starting of my career. I mean, I, you know, I can't say anything other than I'm lucky, you know? I mean, he found people like, you know, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross and Stevie. I mean, it goes on and on and on, you know? And so, you know, for him to...

Because they were... He was essentially responsible for The Last Dragon, which eventually rolled out into Motown, developing with Disney The Last Electric Knight. Sidekicks, that was a Motown... thing. So, um, I mean, he, he was really kind of, you know, the lucky break that you were looking for, you know, when you're training in San Jose, California, far away from Hollywood or movies or TV, and you're just in your dad's small little school, you know, training. So around the time you also end up in Red Sonja, how is.

That, uh, that was just, uh, auditions. I, that was one of the, I was one of the roles that I, the only, one of the only roles that I've ever, like, auditioned for and gotten, uh, and, uh, got to, you know, to, to work, I don't know, that was the time of my life, actually. Got to work with Dino De Laurentiis, and, you know, that's who I auditioned for multiple times, and flew, lived in Italy for, like, six months making that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, riding horses, and, like, You know, I mean, yeah. Surviving earthquakes together. I mean, like, it's pretty cool.

Richard Fleischer is a pretty epic director. How was he to work with? You know, he was amazing. I mean, you know, he is an epic director. And what was most cool about it for me is, like, the perfect, it's like it fit into, you know, the entire landscape of being, you know, 12 years old, basically, working with Richard Fleischer. on an epic movie with these epic sets that were, like, really epic sets.

A giant monster. I mean, you know, a water scene, you know. I mean, it was awesome. And, you know, Bridget Nielsen, you know, at 19. That was pretty epic, too.

To say the least. So, yeah, I guess at. That point, yeah, you're a that's something I was kind of wondering too, because you got pretty successful during that run and you're, you're still a kid. A lot of kid actors have problems. Were you tempted by all that life going on?

Oh, I mean, at that point I was, I was a little kid, you know, um, yeah, but that was, yeah, I mean, that was, that, that kind of, that was. Much kind of later for me. Um, you know, um, not, not, not, eight ten twelve years old you know but you know uh the the life of you know being an actor as a kid and working yeah that is a uh no one can understand what that's like until unless you've done that and there's only you know handfuls of people that have kind of lived that life and uh even less that have kind of survived it so you know i'm pretty lucky you know it definitely comes with its you know bumps and bruises and i definitely you know having grown up in hollywood have gone down every pathway you can possibly imagine.

But I'm thankful that I'm. Here and, you know, I've survived it and I feel good. And, you know, I've got a great family. And, you know, with all my current health challenges, you know, it's kind of things, everything in perspective. I really can't be anything more than just grateful.

Your sister seems pretty awesome. I was watching the videos of her kind of in your corner on this one. Oh, yeah. She's a martial artist. My dad raised her like he raised me as a martial artist.

So for her, anything that she can do, she's going to attack it with the martial arts spirit that my dad breeds. So, you know, it's really, like I said, there's nothing else other than for me. To be grateful. Definitely. I still eventually had to get to the Ninja Turtles thing.

You ended up in the first one doing stunt work. I guess at that point, were you familiar with the property? Because it's a weird concept at that point. Now we're so used to it. It was definitely a weird concept, but I was aware of it because of my younger brother.

And for me, working with Golden Harvest, was really like, I wasn't, I didn't even have to think twice about it. I was like, are you kidding me? Golden Harvest, that's Bruce Lee, that's Jackie Chan, that's Jet Li. And really, ultimately, Golden Harvest was the one that was responsible for pulling me out of the costume and writing in the character. That had nothing to do with the Ninja Turtle universe prior to the movies and prior to Golden Harvest.

So it was really that. And, you know, I mean, I remember very clearly getting the telephone call and, you know, they talked about who was you know producing the film and Jim Henson and Golden Harvest I mean you can't it doesn't matter I'm like absolutely I'm in 100% well. Then you're working in the suit that first time how hard was that to still be able to do what you know you've been doing your whole life but now you've got this giant suit on you. Yeah it was just kind of one more challenge you know what I mean I'm like okay but I'm like, all I kept thinking about. Was Bruce Lee.

And I'm like, you know, what would Bruce Lee do if he was an Ninja Turtle? Whatever Bruce Lee wants to do. Yeah, exactly. So I was just like, you know, keep it going. And I think that, you know, I think that was, you know, I'm proud of those fight scenes for what we were able to do.

It wasn't easy, you know. But when you make a movie with Golden Harvest and the legacy that belongs to them, you do whatever it takes to get it done. So definitely. And then there quickly after that surf ninjas, that was such a run of like the, we were the country as a whole was sort of like overrun. Like we were so obsessed with, you know, every movie and specifically for kids, like you had the, the sidekicks, you know, movie and then the TV show.

That you were on. And then, you know, the opposite order. Yeah. Yeah. And then we came after the show, which is weird.

That's not usually how it goes. Yeah, well, because they weren't two totally different things. The TV series that I had on ABC that was a Motown Disney production was the series created by Motown and Disney, and the sidekick's movie was Jonathan Rannan and Chuck Norris. So I always like to say that, you know, ours came first. They stole from you.

Sort of speak. But even all the other Ninja Turtles and your three ninjas and all that stuff hit at the same time. And it's just kind of wondering what the weird obsession was. At the time. And then to the point that it was becoming so mainstream that they worked Rob Schneider into it.

Yeah. So were you stuck with him every day? Yes. And it felt like it? No, it was.

Yeah, I mean, it was just. Honestly, that time period was just something, you know, unto itself. The Ninja Turtles, I mean, it went from, you know, the Ninja Turtles in the first one, then going into that, then going right into Surf Ninjas. And, yeah, it was like, I mean, I was growing up as well right with it. So by the time I, you know, got to work with Rob and having been a fan, you know, of Xerox Man and stuff like that, I was like, man, this is pretty cool.

At the time, he was pretty hot, so it was kind. Of a big deal. Making copies. And then, to jump. Ahead a little, but in the rundown, once again, huge personalities to work with there.

Dwayne is pretty impressive in his own right. Oh my god, yeah. Yeah, I've been super lucky. When it comes down to it, I've been super lucky. I've been able to do all these. you know, amazing things and got to work with some amazing people.

And Dwayne is one of them. He's a great guy. And it's my favorite fight scene that I've ever done. And I've been doing, you know, fight scenes for a pretty long time. So, yeah, it's pretty cool.

You know, Jackie Chan's One of Jackie Chan's stunt guys, Andy Chang, was second unit director. And, you know, he kind of brought that flair to it. And working with Pete Berg was awesome because Pete's just awesome. And, you know, Dwayne was just. Awesome, man.

I mean, it was just great. And that's, you know, probably my most proud piece of work that I've done as far as, like, fight scenes, pure fight scenes is concerned. Well, and then, again, I had to touch on Crystal Skull. As much as people have issues with it, that cemetery scene is one of my favorites in the whole movie. Like, I think that part's really cool.

That was, like, kind of the moment for me out of everything that I've ever done. When we were on set, and, like, award-winning set, like, you know, this was the real thing. Universal, wind-blowing, lightning. You know, I'm in the cemetery and Steven Spielberg's up there like, while the wind's blowing and giving me the thumbs up, you know. After some takes and like, that was like, I was like, wow, this is pretty much everything that I've ever dreamed of, you know.

That was he to work with. I mean, I'm assuming at that point he was pretty, pretty, uh, Set in his ways as a director. I mean, there was no riff on my part with working with Steven Spielberg. It was just the most amazing movie-making experience that I ever had, you know? We had choreographed that stuff.

I had the pleasure to actually do some choreography on a Steven Spielberg film. Like, that's pretty awesomeness. About as epic as you can get right there. Yeah, pretty much. And he's giving me the thumbs up, like I said.

It was just awesome, so... Um, but, uh, no, it was just, that was, that was a moment. And then of course, like Harrison Ford and all that, even, you know, Shia and like the whole thing was just like. Okay, this is cool. Like when I first got the phone call, never forget it.

It's like somebody left a message for me and was like, yeah, Indiana Jones is looking for you. I'm like, okay, that might've been the best phone message that I've ever received. In my life. Was Harrison up for much of the fighting at that point, or was it a lot of stunt doubles? No, he definitely took one of those shovels and beat my face in until that mask broke.

I was like, ow, that really hurt, and my nose was all swollen up. I was like, dude, it's Indiana Jones. I just got smacked in the face with a shovel by Indiana Jones. And I'm a cemetery warrior to boot. There's only so many people that have been hit in the face by Indiana Jones.

So that's a special club. And even less amount of people that have been killed by him with a blow dart. That's true. I think it's actually just me. See, that's impressive right there.

And you've got your GoFundMe campaign. I didn't know if you wanted to tell people about that. Yeah, my sister started a GoFundMe campaign on her own to kind of support you know, some of the challenges that we're going through in terms of just everything that comes along with having your kidneys fail. And, you know, I'm kind of on the trajectory to get a transplant. And, you know, it's just a lot to it.

But she started it and she's raised a tremendous amount of money in a short period of time. And it's really a lot of it due to, you know, my fans. So I want to thank everybody for having, you know, supported me after all these years. Films, television, and even my personal stuff. So I appreciate it.

Thank you. Well, you've been great. Here. I'm going to go donate to it right now, and I'm going to tell everybody else to do the same. So thank you for talking with us today, man.

Hey, Misty, do you have your earbuds strapped in? I do not. Well, that's probably because. You didn't go to tweakedaudio.com and get your tweaked audio earbuds because they're awesome. I don't like things in my ears.

You're the worst pitch person ever. I am. I have mine. They're awesome. They're the wood ones.

They're deluxe. Look at this shit. That's hardwood. That's pretty fancy. I guess if I were to shove any implement in my ear, it would be those.

We don't recommend you shove anything else in your ear. That's kind of why we were hooked up with Tweaked Audio. It's the only thing we recommend you shove in your ear for medical purposes, really. If you damage your eardrum, you're doing it wrong, and we take no responsibility. Stop when you hit pressure.

You should only use Tweaked Audio, and when you do, you go to their website, you go to pay for it, you put in your code MELTDOWN, you'll get a discount. And free shipping immediately. Is it better than 5% discount? Not that 5% discount that you were looking at in that catalog. The discount you will be getting from Tweaked Audio will be a hell of a lot better than the 5%.

It's a third off. You get a third off. Holy shit. If I had math, that would be awesome. And free shipping.

Fuckin' A. You can't beat that. And they're super fast. Not with a stick. I just went and got me some more, and it was like a day, and they were there.

They were like lightning fast. Like the lightning on that girl's boobs over there. Lightning move fast. Lightning move fast. You're welcome, Tweaked Audio.

You can put that on your envelopes. And you're welcome. Faster than a geek size to lightning boobs. You're welcome. They're not going to like me promoting their item, are they?

Actually, they have a pretty good sense of humor. Tweaked Audio is kind of awesome. Just go to tweakedaudio.com. When you check out, enter the discount code MELTDOWN. Then you'll get 33% off and free shipping.

Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. Alright, so Misty has just had her first interaction with Doug Jones. Misty, are you okay? There was cuddles involved.

He cradled my head to his body in like a fashion that I'm not sure if it was anybody else that I would be completely comfortable with. But because it was Doug Jones, it was delightful. That's what I'm saying. I mean, you saw the cuddling of my head that happened. Normally, you know, heartless bastard that I am, I should have a problem with that.

But it's Doug, so it's all okay. And you know how I am about people in general touching me, and it usually just never ends well. For those of you who are familiar with Misty, anti-social creature that she is, hugged by essentially a stranger. But it's, that's the thing, I don't think he's ever a stranger to anybody. That's true, Doug has maybe never met a stranger.

I don't think so either, I think he just, I think he loves all. He's never met someone who wasn't his friend. I mean, immediately, that girl that walked up, they were just kind of waiting there, and she was kind of standing there, like, waiting for her, and he was like, hi, come hug me. I know it was so strange, but so, like, I can't, you can't fight it. You can't fight the duck.

You just can't, and why would you want to? There's not really any reason. You just, you just embrace the embrace. Give yourself to Doug's bosom. He's a very, very skinny man.

There's not a lot of bosom there, but it's, it's, it's, it's comfortable. It's a good thing he's, Finn because he did make me pick him up last time I saw him. It's a good thing. He's all height but no weight to him, really. He's like five pounds.

One of my legs weighs more than he does. He may have bird bones, too. Yeah, he did get injured today, apparently, from what I heard. From hugging. He hugged someone in some crazy cosplay costume and it stabbed him in the face.

So, damn you cosplayers. You've injured our beloved Doug. How could you do that to us? It's just uncalled for. It was a helmet.

I was wondering if it was a Thor helmet, because they do have sharp points. Sword and magic helmet. Oh, man. Hey, this is Doug Jones from the Hellboy movies and the Silver Surfer and Pan's Labyrinth and Hocus Pocus, Falling Skies, and so much more. But today, you are listening to Movie Meltdown.

So, have you seen anything lately? I have. I've watched Top Gear. Aside from Top Gear. Just for you, I actually sat down and watched.

I got caught up on a TV series. I've watched the Scream TV series. I'm caught up. It's not done yet. I think I'm six episodes.

It's not a spoiler to say Bella Thorne's adorable. And she dies. You've ruined it now. Happens in the first episode. Happens in like the first ten minutes.

What a Drew Barrymore. I know, right? She is a Drew Barrymore of the series. Lame. I mean, I like it.

I mean, I've enjoyed it so far. I haven't got pissed off at it. So that's always a good thing. I've watched it up to this point because I, like most of our generation, I DVR'd it up until a certain point, you know. So I had like five episodes saved up.

I'm like, I'm going to watch the hell out of this shit. So I watched it. And you know, it's actually decent when you're like, all right, I watched them all. I'll watch the next episode. Sort of when it comes on.

I kind of like keeping up with them as they come out. That's too much work. I like binging that shit. It's the only way I can keep track of it though. I can keep on top of it.

I never have 12 spare hours to sit down and not do anything else. It's like an hour at a time. I can break it down. I can kind of fit it in there. I don't remember things.

I can't remember when things actually come on. It's like five weeks later. What do I have? It's like a surprise. It's like a treat.

That is true. I do lose track of like, what the hell was on on Thursday? I don't remember now. Sometimes I give up on shows because of that. So they have to be pretty good if I actually won't make a point to remember when they're coming on.

And then I watched a movie. Just last night. All right. I watched Let Us Pray. Let us as in?

Let us pray. Heads of lettuce. No, that would be stupid. What if it was about bunnies or something? No.

Damn it. You're ruining my review of this movie. There are no bunnies in this movie whatsoever. Would it be made better if there were bunnies? I don't know.

It actually wasn't that bad. I was kind of surprised. I mean, I'd actually heard some good things about it, and I watched the trailer, and it was pretty impressive. And again, it's like, it had nobody in it that I know. It's like some foreign-y, it's not like foreign-foreign.

They talk regular, or they have accents. The accents are so thick sometimes that I can't understand what the fuck they're saying. I don't know if it's Scottish-y, whatever. I could probably look it up, but that would involve getting my phone out, and that's just way too much work. I think the main star guy who actually might have a name, whose name I don't actually know, he is one of the guys from Game of Thrones, I think.

But if anybody out there actually watches that and might care, I don't know. There's a few people that watch that show. I don't. I've never watched Game of Thrones, and I have no real desire to, because I just don't care. But one of the guys from the show is in the movie, so yay.

Which one is this? I don't know. Oh, that show. I thought you were talking here. No, one of the guys from the show, Game of Thrones, is in the movie Let Us Pray.

P-R-E-Y. In case you get confused, there's like, pray. Hmm, alright, that's different. So what is the overall take on this movie? It's a night in the, what's this half-ass shitty looking police station?

I've never seen one. It's like some ghetto police station in the middle of wherever they are. And all these people are getting arrested, and they're there, and then there's a guy who shows up, and he's pretty much kind of there to make them atone for their sins and stuff like that. Alright. And there's just, everybody has their secrets and their things that they should not have done, and he gets them.

In a roundabout way. No spoilers involved. I didn't say, like. Leave it at that. No spoilers.

I mean, I think from the trailer, you pretty much get the basic concept. It is kind of horror, right? But it's not entirely. It's more like a slow build. Stuff starts happening.

You're like, what the hell's going on? And even at the end, you're like, what? Is that what just happened? Is this a perplexing movie? Am I going to be confused?

I don't know. I mean, I'm still thinking about it. I just watched it last night. Assuming nobody wants to hear about the Descendants. Go for it.

Somebody might want to hear about it. I just thought it. Was an interesting idea. It is funny that it's, I mean, there's no other way to do it than having it run by the Disney channel, but it's a Disney like live action and they're revisiting their own villains more or less. It's a book that some lady wrote that's like Isle of the Damned or something.

I don't know. It's a book that some lady wrote and it's basically, it's a side fan fiction-y kind of a version where like all of the, like the, the king and queen of whoever's reigning in this Disneyland take all the villains and put them on an island and then put like a magic barrier over it and they're like trapped on that island. So then it's like, you know. Seems like a horrible idea. Well, then it's.

Like 20 years go by and so now the villains all live there and all the bad characters, I guess, from the different, you know, worlds are stuck on there and they just carry on with their own little lives so they all have children now. So now it's the prince that takes over. Proper gladiator footwear. We need to It's a top for you to make. Gladiator guy walking by, and I'm pretty sure he's wearing the sandal version of Crocs.

You've seen a few that. You didn't approve of, footwear-wise. Yeah, don't be a gladiator wearing sandals, like flip-flop sandals or like Crocs. Gladiators did not wear Crocs. It's not period appropriate.

It's not at all. Anyways, children of villains. So then the children of the villains, like the prince that's coming up, he's just about to be crowned king and he decides like, well, the kids over there are innocent. They didn't do anything, so why are they trapped there? So he like deems... to let them come over and be part of their little fancy, wonderful Disney prep school kind of thing.

So they pick four kids to be the test group or the PR version of this plan. So it's the daughter of Maleficent, the daughter of the evil queen, the son of Jafar, and the son of Corella de Vil. I think I have heard of this now. Yeah, and they all go there. And basically Maleficent is trying to get them to steal the fairy godmother's wand.

So they can take over. It's an interesting plot, actually. I was impressed. They did a decent job on it. Again, in the early promos, they don't really mention it's a musical.

Is there a little shingin'? Well, again, I will give them credit. There is a really well-choreographed dance number in the beginning that I'm just like, from a technical standpoint, they did not half-ass it. It is a well-choreographed dance number. And then with like a ton of backup dancers.

And then like later there's a lot more like Disney princess singing songs kind of stuff. But again, they're all well written. Like it's Disney doesn't, you know, they got the money to put together a project. So musical or not. All the kids at the prep school, are they like the daughters and sons of like regular like Snow White?

Of like, yeah, there's like they're hanging out with... Mulan's daughter is there. The fairy godmother herself has a daughter. I remember seeing, I saw the dolls at Toys R Us. It's an interesting concept.

It's kind of fun. I was entertained by it. Was it fun for the whole family? Yeah, I suppose it was. That's always good.

And Dove Cameron's awesome. Who? Dove Cameron. She's Melissa's daughter. She's Mal.

She's their new star. She's going to be awesome. She, again, like all of them, she can sing and she's on her own TV show so she can act too. She's like that next wave that's going to break out. Dove Cameron.

Telling you now. No idea who that is. Just give it three, four years. Okay. Just telling you now.

I bought some art. I was pretty excited about that. $ 5 art is the best art there is. You are an art fan. I am when it's cheap. I like sketches.

But handmade. You like real art. I do. I don't like prints. I mean, prints are okay after a certain thing.

Fingerprints. No. Mm-hmm. But you know what I mean. I like sketches.

If somebody will do a little sketch, it's like $ 5. Yeah, I'll buy that shit. That's probably worth at least $ 10. Probably more than that. Because other people in there, they were selling stuff that was at least similar quality for at least twice as much, if not $ 20. $ 20, yeah.

There was a good amount of $ 20 ones in there. But for $ 5, I'm like, hell yeah, I'll buy four of them things. And they were good. They were actually... Again, I've seen some that I'm like, they're trying, but I wouldn't buy that.

I feel like my. Iffy artistic skills could. Do some of these. And then there are other ones that I'm like, no, they're good. They've actually trained themselves.

Probably so. But I keep walking by the booth and I'm like, alright, they filled in the spots with the ones I bought. Other people need to go buy more things so that they'll fill more spots in so I can have new. I think they were all sitting on the table, though. I think they had most of them.

There was a couple of them on the table that I saw. But I want more options. A lot of people have a book so you can put... I'm like, yeah. Yeah.

I'm excited about those. Like I said, I like cheap hand-done art. I don't actually do anything with it. I buy it and it just sits in an envelope somewhere. But I buy it and I'm excited about it.

You got that going. You need to get like a little hand-drawn gallery going at your house. I know. People here have been nice, but I wish they'd be just a little bit less talky. Yeah, I think that's just the case-by-case basis.

I think it's totally different. And that's what I was noticing in there. I was like, The artists seem way less talky than the authors. The authors are always like, hey. Want to read this book?

Hey, do you like to read? My favorite, that artist guy that like, he kind of half glanced up while he was drawing something. He was like, hey, he handed us a flyer while he was still drawing and immediately looked back down. Like he did not really make eye contact with us. He just saw there were people coming.

He continued drawing. He didn't interact with us at all other than an acknowledgement that we walked past, handed us the flyer while still drawing, continued on drawing. Didn't even look up after that. We just kept walking. I'm like, yeah, there's an artist.

He's in his own artist world right now doing his thing. I don't know. The author seemed like, I. Wrote that book. I'm done.

Now I want to talk. That's all I want to do. I don't talk to you. Everybody who walks by. I try not to make eye contact.

If at all possible. In most situations, it's for the best. Anything else? Jason Mewes is... hot mess bun he's got going on? His weird old lady bun that he had on top of his head.

I don't know what is up with him. And he was like super hyper. Very animated. Yes. He was very animated when talking on his cell phone.

Oh, always. He's reproduced. That's frightening. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know what to do with that either. I don't think anybody does. I saw a picture of him holding the child. Even the baby's like, what the fuck is going on? He's telling me you're not my dad.

Oh, God. What am I going to do with that? I've been walking around for a couple hours, so I think I've used up all my energy. All right. That about wraps it up here at Fandom Fest 2015.

We'd like to thank them for letting us be part of the show. Again, if you want to learn more about them, it is fandomfest.com. There's an elvishy Elvis. He's got old school Vegas Elvis costume on, giant hair, but with elf ears and pointy, pointy shoes. They are quite pointy.

Very strange. All right. On that note, let's get out of here. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time.

Same Geek Feed. Thanks for listening. Bye. Oh, baby, I'm going to teach you what love's all about tonight. Trust me, honey, everything's going to be all right.

Oh, yeah. Just do like I do. Put your arms around me. Kneel tight. Enjoy yourself, baby.

Don't fight. All you gotta do is just let yourself go. All you need is just a little rehearsal. The first thing. That He's gonna be just fine.

Just kiss me nice and easy Take your time Cause baby. I'm the only one here. In line All you gotta do. Is just Let yourself. Go Let yourself.

Go Let yourself go. Oh my god, why? What? What is wrong with people? Stop.

Stop making that weird squeaky chirpy dog bird. I don't know what the thing is, but they're walking around making a noise and they need to stop it. At first I thought it was like a squeak toy. I'm like, what the fuck is it? Is it some toy?

And then it was the girl in the booth, I guess. And then like there was more of them. They were everywhere. And then it was just random people. At first I thought it was like maybe like a specific cosplay thing because it was only girls in like cute little outfits or whatever.

Then it was just random people and I'm like What the hell? Is it some... It's got to be some device that they put in their mouth to make the sound. It can't be just like an inherently natural sound from anybody. It's unnatural regardless.

It is very unnatural. I do not like it. People, stop making weird chirpy noises. And unless you're Doug Jones, don't hug me. Except for my boyfriend.

Boyfriend's okay. Even he's pushing his luck. Sometimes. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.

Talk hard!