Permanent Derail

Hi, I'm Patricia Quinn, and you're luckily listening to Movie Meltdown. Michael Rainey was ill the day. The earth stood still But he told us where we stand. And Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear Claude Rains was the invisible man. Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong.

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. It's showtime, folks. Enjoy the show. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million.

Kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown, I'm Brian. And joining me today is... I'm Paul. And I'm Gina.

I was gonna roll right. Into it with you because in my mind you're still here, but. For people at home and out there in the world, it's been a long time, actually. So I thought if nothing else, that would give us. A good excuse to be like, hey, what have you watched in the last three years or whatever?

It has not been that long. Kind of. I can check. They're still uploaded. So I can check dates.

That's it. It was pre-COVID. No, because I think we did one over the phone. Well, that was still, that was the beginning of COVID. Because that was during the lockdown.

I only did four of those episodes because I still don't really like doing it that way. And we tried that because everyone was supposed to stay away from each other. But then I think we did one after that. That said, I. Don't think that really anyone cares what we think anyway.

I mean, they will care about these fabulous conversations we're about to have. I hope so. How long has it been since we derailed one of your podcasts? Right, that's really what it's about. So, now we can say.

We sort of live for derailing. I don't know that there is a rail when I come here. I'm like a train that is. I feel like you come into it and you have a program and an idea and a path. Sometimes.

And we totally, you know. Like, I don't know. We destroyed that. We find our own thing along the way. Okay.

It doesn't necessarily make sense to anyone else, or maybe even us. But I think I remember this part where I can say, we're coming to you live via digital recording from Blue Jay Way. Have you changed your name? Or are we still... Let's say no.

We're keeping that. We still have a lot of Blue Jays. All right, then. So there you go. Now we have Hawks.

They're slowly being dispatched by Hawks. Hawks are... pretty plentiful i don't know if where you live at home if you're looking around and going like oh are they coming to get me because i saw one on the top of a telephone pole kind of area yesterday i think it was more of a street light but it was sizable it was just like yeah that might carry off a small child at this point yeah. They started with our rabbits it's wonderful it's a wonderful comeback story really i mean it's like rocky you know yeah but with raptors giant birds oh but here's. A weird thing so we also have mockingbirds which are pretty good at mimicking things but the blue jays will also mimic the hawks sometimes. And then a murder of crows will chase it.

Away oh yeah we call them putin like putin was the hawk and ukraine were the crows because it was real weird when that all started. Yeah so anyway the man stands alone See? Derailed. The planet, not the movie. The Birds is a fine film.

I'm a fan of it. Let's start from there and roll on through this mess. So, that having been said, it's been a while, so we can say, hey, have you seen any movies lately? And we should have tons of stuff to distract ourselves with until this is done. There's a few.

There's a few. But, the problem is, I don't know that I'll be able to recall those except for only the most very recent ones so it's really like this is why. There's a big black hole. A magical app that tells you i specifically updated mine before i left because my brain is swiss cheese at this point so i know i won't remember what i watched like last week i'll probably be okay current week But the week before already starts to get iffy. So now for this show purposes, put an app on the phone so that I can only keep track.

It's just a running list. So I can scroll back and be like, oh yeah, I watched that. That my brain is already very organized. Even if I just kept a note about what we watched, it would be more helpful. However, do you want to hear about what we watched most recently?

Sure. Well, okay. So not totally most recently, but second most recently. The Man from UNCLE. Oh.

All right. The not TV series. No. The remake. The movie.

That may or may not have... Does this one have that Superman dude in it? Yeah. Or is that just Mission Impossible? I can't keep the two.

Is he in that? He's in the last Mission Impossible 2. Oh, he's so generic. Not 2, but also. Part of my problem is, and I'll say this because this is what I said the minute we started it.

It's from like 2015. I feel like I watched it as the sad thing, but I don't really remember anything. It wasn't bad. I don't know. And that was mine.

I was like, it's fine. But it's also kind of forgettable. The Guy Ritchie effect was actually, you know... Good, and it was a much better film than the King Arthur. For those of you who have been listening a really long time, you heard us do an entire episode of that.

It was so bad. Yeah, that's the reason you watched that. So the two guys that are in that are so incredibly generic. That it's like, it's the dark haired guy and the blonde haired guy. See, I don't even remember who the other one was.

I was like, I think that builds one. Who was the other? So the other was, and Paul didn't know this whole backstory, which was why I brought up the backstory. Because I said, well, they'd have to reboot this entire thing now. Because it's the guy that was like.

Named. The guy with the hair. You know, the guy with the thing. I didn't realize he was that tall. Armie Hammer.

And I do remember that because his family. Oh, so actually both of them now. Yeah. Because Armie Hammer, you definitely don't want anything to do with. You definitely, that's a.

But I keep hearing stories about Cavill. That's kind of on. The fence as well. Didn't he play Jesus? No, that's.

Who am I thinking of? John. Krasinski? No. But he does have a beard now.

You also may remember me as the person. Who always misremembers who's in a movie. We recently just had a discussion on a recent episode about trying to discuss a movie with your mother. You are officially the mom of every episode. Because I'm like, it's a guy with the hair and the legs.

She's not really that old, but somehow she immediately got mom brain like really quick. No, I just, everybody is so generic that it's hard to remember who's who unless they are like that. Okay, so that reminds me I had a dream. It was totally crazy. Wait a minute.

But yeah, so that has Armie Hammer who threatened to eat a woman. Which is such a bomb way to say it. Was she tender and tasty? Because, I mean, who can fight that? I think she was a snack.

This is the thing that I didn't get when you and I talked about this. How long ago has it been since he potentially ate someone? Well, he didn't eat anybody. He was not an eater. There was no E.T.

He wasn't convicted of eating anybody. But he was definitely very creepy dude. He's a creepy dude. Was he really looking for the right person? I don't know that he was full on cannibalism, but he was definitely a misogynistic asshole.

I don't even know the story. So you say that he was basically blackballed. Well, it's just kind of gross and a creeper. That's creeper. I agree.

To put it in perspective, I did see that last murder on the Orient Express sequel movie. Which they totally count. And the thing is, it's Good. It's a really good movie. But if you watch the trailer, he's not in it.

You don't know it. Murder on the Orient Express or Murder on the Nile? Part two, Nile times. Because Murder on the Orient Express was awesome. They're both good.

But that's the thing. But it was hush-hush about him being in it. It hit right before they were about to release that movie. And they were like, oh shit, he's a major character in this movie. And we've invested millions making this movie.

We still have to put it out. So it's happened within the last year. In the last year and a half, two years. So this is kind of the weird thing. So were both of those franchises ruined because wasn't Johnny Depp in Murder on the Orient Express?

Yeah, which even at the time. Like right around at the time. Which I think I've said this before when I watched it. So spoilers if you didn't watch it. But basically, it's okay what happens.

Because he's not in it much. If that tells you what's going on. It's a murder kind of movie. That they had these two same. But I almost felt, because at that point we knew Johnny Depp was kind of an asshole.

It was before the whole trial. Right. But we already all knew he was an asshole. So like when what happens happens, you're like, ha ha, take that Johnny Depp. And it was okay.

But it was a little too fresh with the cavil and or army hammer. No, the army hammer. All of the above. They're all creepy. He has this really incredibly troubled family story anyway, historically.

Which one? The hammers? The hammers. Yeah. So there was like, his grandfather had this huge, and I think his...

His grandfather was Art Armand Hammer. You know, from the baking powder company? No, who had this amazing art. Collection that toured the country. I don't know if it toured the world.

I mean, I'm in Kentucky Gallery. I remember seeing it here. In the, like, early 80s. I mean, it was like Renoir and, you know, just these amazing painters. Doesn't everyone have those?

I mean, just an incredible art collection. Anyway, he comes from a very moneyed family. Troubled moneyed family. And then he had this lovely wife and like two kids, right? How'd those kids turn out?

I don't know. They're still young. He ate them all. They're not eating anybody. They might be eaties and not eaters.

So it's interesting that those two really cool kind of ideas of, you know, you can take this and make it an interesting, you know, sequels and that kind of thing sort of get screwed up by these. Two just egos. They thought they could be misogynistic. I would say that the movie itself was... It was okay.

It was well done. It was a well done movie. I mean, there were. I mean, it looked good. There were some moments in the script where you're like, that was an awful large leap.

But aside from that, I mean, stylistically. It was pretty cool. I think we have the perspective of being from an age where we didn't grow up with a man from Uncle, but we grew up watching... reruns of like that, Hawaii Five-0, Chips, like stupid stuff where you were like, okay, so I'll give it that. I'll make the leap. But if you didn't grow up around that, you'd be like, this is the most stupid thing I've ever seen.

The coolest thing about it are like the costumes and the cars and the setting, you know? Yes, yes. The suits, the dresses. Yeah. Yeah, the cars.

So it was beautiful in that sense, but I think it was pretty much a terrible, terrible movie. But it was fun enough that I would have been like, I'd watch a sequel. I don't see. Because sometimes I just like dogs. I mean, I've seen terrible movies.

It wasn't terrible. That's the thing. I remember it being somewhat competent, but I mean, he is, he's been doing this a while. He should be a competent director, but it wasn't fantastic. No, and I don't, how much was he involved?

I feel like it was like a Guy Ritchie supervised film. Well, and that's the thing. Where they were like, we'll take your effects and your style. That's all of his stuff. only worse and worse. That's what I was trying to look up.

I was like, he's gotten to be not only all over the map, but also so much of his stuff is just watered down now. At least he used to have a signature style, whereas now I'm like, you know, from the director of Aladdin. No. Live action Aladdin. Is that out yet?

As of 2019. No. Come on, Grandma. Get it together. Why would I watch any Aladdin?

So one of the other movies that we recently watched was The Menu. Oh. I had someone bring it up lately. I have not seen it, so I guess don't totally spoil it. But at the same time, my question to them was, so I will pose it to you, is there anything going on in the movie that I don't feel like I already know is going on in the trailer?

Because I watched the trailer and would be like, well... I kind of feel like I know what's happening in this movie. No, it's well done. It's just an hour and. A half longer.

Wait a minute. I don't know. The trailer that I watched gave me no information really about how everything played out. I mean, I didn't feel like I knew what was going to happen. Okay.

I still feel like I want to watch it, but as soon as I saw that first trailer, I was like, so it's all right there, right? So I'm hoping I'm wrong. I don't think so. I think you should watch it either way. Yeah, you never know what trailer.

Either way, you should watch it. Feels like it should have had Armie Hammer in it, right? I mean, it was called The Menu. Feels like that's the misstep there, is it should have been starring. But wait.

So let me go back to. My point about. Having to watch anything with Armie Hammer or Henry Cavill. I feel like they're two of the most generic looking men I've ever seen. I mean, that's part of my problem with him.

The blonde guy and the dark haired guy. I didn't know Armie Hammer was so tall. That was the thing. That's kind of the thing with both of them. They're forgettable in giant leading man roles sometimes.

There's nothing about them. There's nothing to them. To bring you in. They have no charisma. They have no charm.

And that was my issue. I mean, not that I haven't bitched about this a million times on this show, but that's my issue with Cavill as Superman. It was like, he doesn't make me even want to care about Superman. And I already don't really care about Superman as a character. Again, if I'm going to pick somebody...

Batman is dark and screwed up and like he's got something to latch on to and like at least there's some drama there where Superman as a character even in like comic books cartoons he's perfect he's a fucking god so I'm like why do I want to care about him The only thing that set it aside when I was a kid was Christopher Reeve. Christopher Reeve had so much charisma. Or did he? That I'm like, no, he did. Because I've watched him recently.

And I'm like, he's just so good. That I'm just like, you make me care about Superman. And I don't otherwise. Can I tell you what I think about that? Okay.

I think we had no superhero films when we were kids. That helps too. Except Superman. But. I mean, that at least changed it because now we have a million things to compare every superhero movie to.

But, I mean, I've gone back, not just the Superman, but I've watched him in several other things lately and Christopher Reeve was just fucking good. He was just way talented at bringing something else going on. Watch, and I brought it up so I won't go too far into it, but if you haven't seen or it's been a long time since you've seen Death Trap, he is so good in that. It is like so layered. It's been a long time.

And like subtle as to what, because it would be really easy to do that over the top in a couple of different ways. And he kind of knows where that line is and doesn't cross it ever. And makes like their relationship between all of the characters really good and interesting. Yeah. I would watch that again.

I mean, it's been forever. Yeah, that one is really interesting. And even like, again, I've watched other stuff lately that had him in it that I hadn't seen before. And I'm just like, he just kind of sucks you in as a leading man more so than. Henry Cavill, who does not, he don't care.

Cavill just doesn't bring anything to anything. I've seen him in things that he's tolerably in. Again, that Mission Impossible movie. He's good because he's kind of the dick and we all buy him as a dick. So like he's there to go head to head with our...

Ethan or whatever. Whatever that dude's name is. Top Gun. So he's there to fight Top Gun. And they legitimately beat each other's ass.

And he's good as this action star in this movie who's playing an asshole. Because we buy him as an asshole. Yeah. But as far as him being a character that you want to care about, no, I don't see that at all. Have you, speaking of, have you watched Top Gun Maverick since.

You brought it up. Since I brought it up specifically. Okay, that's another one that the trailer almost killed for me. Oh. Because I don't know that I cared about them making a sequel anyway.

And I watched the trailer in whatever I was seeing in the theater and I was like, it looks like they have gone and pieced together every scene from the first movie that people remember and talk about. Yeah. And done a new old man version of it. Uh-huh. I've already seen that movie.

Why do I need to see? Now granted, I've heard tons of people go on and on about how great this movie is. So eventually I guess I will. You know what, Brian? I just felt like it was a rehash and that's not the way people are treating it.

So I may be wrong. I assume I'm wrong. I completely agree with you. Well, I'll say this. If you were interested in my opinion, I'd say it is on par with The man from Uncle.

I was going to say, even if you say the original Top Gun, that's not saying much. I was going to say, I think it's better than the original Top Gun. Because when I watched Top Gun as a dumb kid, I was like, awesome, planes, woohoo. And I went back and revisited it even in the last 10 years. It hasn't been recently, but I watched it just because.

And I was like, this is just a big Harlequin romance novel that has side playing scenes. And then they come back and it's just a big sappy romance. Except Goose does. That's fine. Spoiler alert.

As long as you make Jennifer Connelly show up. Everybody loves Jennifer Connelly. And Meg Ryan. Not me. Meg Ryan's overrated.

I have old time performances of Meg Ryan that were okay. I did not go into her the way America seemed to love her. I have a segue. I have a segue. So last night, Jean fell asleep for this, but I started watching Armed and Dangerous with john candy.

John candy i can picture the vhs cover right in. Uh uh eugene levy eugene levy yeah and of course meg ryan is in it and several. Other notable people i don't think i even saw it i just remembered it from back in the day i would it it was let's say this it was not a good film. It was another tolerable film. I was watching it and I thought, well, I'm just going to keep watching it and I'm going to stay away because I want to see how it ends.

Even though I'd seen it before. See, even. And. Wait a minute, wait a minute. And I was so curious about the, you know, oddity that is Armed and Dangerous that I had to Google...

Some of the people in it. And, of course, I found out that Stacey Keech's dad, Stacey Keech Sr., plays the judge. The greater? Of the Keeches, you know. The greater Keech.

So, anyway. Or is he the lesser Keech? But there's some crazy, really weird stuff in that film. I mean, it's no, what's the name of that movie? It's Keech.

It's no Canadian bacon. Nothing but trouble. Nothing but trouble. Dan Aykroyd's Nothing But Trouble. These all fall into that category of 80s what the fuck.

There's just so much stuff that I watch now from that era that I watched a million times at the time and didn't notice anything. And now I just watch them and go. this is so 80s. And like not even in cheesy nostalgia 80s gimmicky things, just there's stuff that they do in movies that wouldn't happen. Absolutely. Or even the fact that as you named that, I was like, wow, this was a time when your starring roles would be John Candy and Eugene Levy.

Would that happen now? Where's your Henry Cavill? Where's your Armie Hammer? Neither of them are pretty boys. So it's like, even in a comedy, it seems like, I think it's interesting.

It would be hard to do something like that. It's sort of a, you know, it's, well, you're opening the time capsule to 1986. And you see all the cultural things relevant in 1986 or irrelevant in 1986. And in this case, you know, you can be in a traffic jam on a bridge and you can get in a semi and convince the guy that you need. To plow over....

Two dozen cars to get out of the traffic jam. And then he stopped. And then get away with it. I mean. To meet the police.

That is the 80s, right? I haven't watched this because I fell asleep. But then I would imagine at some point they like pass like a buxom girl in a like, you know, it's a car without the top. convertible at one point and then like honk or wave i mean. That would i mean i would hope so i paid good money for this ticket i want to see a buxom. Girl how is that not in that movie at one point john candy takes this huge gun and gives it to the truck driver in full view of all like the police At a huge crime scene and says, here, you can have it.

Okay, this is one I can't remember if I brought it up at the time. But I watched, because I didn't remember watching it really. I remember being on cable as a kid. Do you remember watching Cloak and Dagger? Yes.

I loved Cloak and Dagger. Have you watched it recently? No. Is it bad? I mean, it's a weird scenario because it becomes that you forget, like, Dabney Coleman's essentially a... fictional character potentially maybe sort of but also his dad but the bulk of the movie is a whole bunch of grown-ups trying to murder a child yeah they're all spies and they're trying to kill a small child firing guns at him right and left and i'm just like i don't know that we would make this now like Certainly not as a fun comedy that you'd bring the whole family to.

Right, yes. The modern child spy stuff is very... Cute. Or even, yeah, if you get to even like the 90s version, you get the Frankie Muniz is a spy, but I bet they weren't firing guns at him right and left. Like it becomes more of a wacky thing and he gets one over on him because he's smarter than the grown-ups.

They're all essentially remakes of Home Alone. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. But yeah, that was relatively serious at points.

And every few minutes somebody was firing a gun at this poor small child. And I was just like, wow, this is, again, a time when you could do that sort of stuff. What was the name of that kid? Henry Thomas. Henry Thomas, that's right.

He seems like a good guy. Even now when I see him, he's a legitimately good actor and is not messed up. Being the biggest child actor of his era, basically. That was that time where if you had a movie even right before E.T. or after and you needed a kid, you were trying to get him. You may not have because you couldn't afford him.

Was he the. Same kid that was in The Black Stallion? Does anybody remember that? No, that's a different kid. They kind of look the same, don't they?

He does look similar, though. He was the E.T. Kid. Thomas was in the... What was the movie where he...

Oh, Daryl. That was him? Well, there's the other kid, because there's two kids, right? There's the real kid, and then there's the fake Daryl robot kid. Those are two different kids, right?

Is he still in it? I'm picturing the Daryl kid, which is not Henry Thomas. But I think there's a human kid that's in there too that may or may not be Henry Thomas. Again, that's another one I remembered on cable. I could not tell you if I ever sat down and watched Daryl.

I just know of it more than anything as an 80s dork that I was. Let's see. It's not just Daryl. It's D. Period.

A. Good luck typing that. Typing. It's Daryl. I can't find it.

Oh, here it is. Michael McKean, Mary Beth Hurt. I think he's like the dad. I just didn't see it. Why should I act like I'm.

Shocked by anyone. Who's in it? I don't think you have a Henry Thomas in that. Nope. Barrett Oliver.

That's who I was thinking of. Not Henry Thomas. I remember the little dark haired kid that is Daryl and he is not Henry Thomas. That's all I remember really. But yeah, it was a different time and you could do a lot of weird stuff that would not end up in movies now.

I've got one that actually turned into two that I watched recently, almost knowing that we were going to sit down and talk. Uh-oh. Because, number one, I forgot these were a thing. Number two, I forgot who made them. And then number three, I was like, oh, you guys have to have an opinion on this.

I don't even know if you've seen the movies, but I think you'll have an opinion either way. I watched... The original and then the follow-up National Treasure movie. Oh, my gosh. Oh, wow.

Yeah. I had not seen them because I saw the trailer at the time and went, I've seen enough. This looks like a big, dumb movie. And then as I watched it, I was like, all right, this is what you embrace about these movies. It is a big, dumb movie, but it is an entertaining big, dumb movie.

So if that's all you want is a big, dumb, entertaining movie... They definitely follow through. It's a fun time if you don't want to think too much about it because your head will explode if you do. So I have such a hard time with those movies because I cannot watch. Cage?

Nicolas Cage. I figured that's one of the main reasons you would have something to think. Even if you didn't watch them. I can't. That's what's weird, because I'm so used to him as weirdo Nicolas Cage.

I love that. That's what I love. But there's times when he brings that to a movie that doesn't need weirdo Nicolas Cage. There are times when I'm like, what are you doing, man? This is not the right movie for this.

This was a weird one-off in the middle there, because he'd already gone down that road by this time. But he had started out weird. He could balance them out, I guess, because this is. A pretty regular... nicholas cage guy like it's surprising to see him that reigned in there's like one moment when he gets into crazy over the top nicholas cage in that first one and then there's a scene in the second one where he does a whole big crazy but again it's an act he's putting on to get attention and so he's doing a very over the top nicholas cage crazy kind of performance but he's doing it as the character pretending to do this bullshit so with the exception of that he's a very Down to Earth reigned in Nicolas Cage, which is a little unnerving to watch, really.

So I like to, you know I like to swap movie people. Oh, we've played this game. I'm going to play this game again. That's what I was afraid it would lead us to. I always, I'll just put this out there, I always like the idea of he and Tom Hanks swapping for like the Tom Hanks, you know, the.

Well, now he'd have to be in heavy, heavy makeup because Tom Hanks only does things where he's in like nine pounds of prosthetics. Right. Which Elvis was great, by the way. But, you know, like, what is the name of that movie? Oh, my God.

What is wrong? I sit down to do these things and it's like, I have a stroke. What thing are you talking about? Tom Hanks has made a billion movies. Give me a thing.

Forrest Gump. Sleep is sincere. You all know what I'm talking about. I don't have a clue. What is he doing in this movie?

The Tom Brown movie. Tom Brown. Oh, yes. Oh, the angels and demons. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

See, that's another one I didn't watch at the time. But if you watch that and then imagine like Nicolas Cage. I mean, they're both crazy. You definitely do it. I've probably said that before.

But that's like where my brain goes. It's not a stretch. I mean. Those two should just swap. Absolutely.

No, that's easy. That's easy. I think I'd like those movies better. Nicolas Cage in National Treasure and Tom Hanks in. See, you can't think of it either.

The. Movies about that thing that happened. Angels and Demons. The one before that. The prequel to Angels and Demons.

You know? Those Pride and Prejudice. Two movies are both like 2 a.m. Waffle House. Yeah, like.

You know, it's like... I know it's bad for me but it is 2am and that's what I thought going into National Treasure and if I don't have it I'm gonna have a hangover well I. Was like I'm not gonna think this is amazing but I still as the geek that I am I'm like I can't believe I haven't watched those yet so it's like let's just go ahead and get them off the plate here get them knocked out and then I can be like oh that thing I remember seeing that it's ridiculous and I agree it is ridiculous but it's yeah It's an entertaining ridiculous? More than I expected, because it was the first 10 minutes or so going in, I'm like, I guess I'm going to finish watching this. I don't normally turn stuff off.

I can actually remember the last name of Tom Hanks' character, but I can't remember the name of the movie. Langdon. It was Langdon. Why can I remember that, but not the name of the film? Oh, wow.

Jeez, that's just stupid. Just yell it out at home because you know it. You know you know it. You're wasting your time not saying it out loud so we'll hear you. Yeah.

Really, I should open the door and probably we can hear everyone say it. So if you were going to have like, do you think Vim Vendors should remake that or the other one? Who would you rather see remake National Treasure? Okay. Okay.

Werner Herzog, Urban Vendors. I mean, Werner Herzog just... Can we put Werner Herzog in it? Because we make him like a villain. He is amazing at being anything, really.

Maybe he's just telling you what goes on. I think that's a great idea. If you can put that together, you let me know. Except we make a German version of National Treasure. No, it's...

Carter Herzog in National Treasure remade it. By the way, this just in, the Da Vinci Code. Ah, thank you. How can we forget that? I don't know.

I didn't watch it. What do you want from me? I think I was mostly put off by Tom Hanks' haircut in those movies. It's weird. It's bad.

It's just really bad. It's almost. I mean, he's intended to. It's too long, but yet not long enough to really be long. It's mullet-y, but.

Not full on. It is the hair length associated with a professor who has just enough style, but not enough money to afford a good haircut. But he got to the point of tenure, so he really doesn't worry about anything anymore. Right, exactly. He's like, I don't.

Have to be presentable anymore. Midlife crisis tenure professor. That's what that look. Is. Yeah.

I've seen that. From the 90s, right? Because it was the 90s that that book came out. Late 90s? Da Vinci?

Da Vinci Code? I don't know. I don't read. It's this thing that you do where you sound out letters. No, no.

Sounds like a lot of trouble. No, thank you. But... Yeah, I was trying to think what else. I mean, I didn't know what else to do with those.

I was just like, they're just so crazy over the top with their concept that I'm like, if you think about it too much, your head will explode. Like, it's kind of fun. I'll give you that. I mean, I think it banks on how ridiculous it is because everything is, it's not like a one time thing. Every national monument has to get involved.

It's totally over the top. Yeah. And there's like classic lines like, we're going to steal the Constitution of the United States of America. It's a great example. Like it's just.

It's a great example of very good, cheap storytelling. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, there's an art to that, you know, like to be able to tell a story in two hours using as little information as possible, you know, in terms of details. I mean, you know, it's like there is an art to that.

As if the first one isn't crazy enough. By the time I got to the second one, wherein he breaks into the office of Queen Elizabeth, And the Oval Office within the span of a few days, essentially. And gets in both of them relatively easily, I might add. I don't remember that. He's just that smart.

That's the Book of Shadows for you. I think I might need to revisit that. You might need to revisit that. Yeah, I think that's a revisit. And see, that's the art.

At some point in the storytelling process, they convince you that he is the smartest guy in the room. I mean, that is a classic... You know, movie making, you know. He does. He does, like, know things that other people don't.

But it's also interesting that how quickly stuff changes now. It's funny that we were throwing out a bunch of, like, we can rewatch 80s stuff and it's just weird because, oh, look, it's the 80s. But how quickly in the modern era everything changes. Because since National Treasure and the second one came out, all of the technology is dated. And that is not that long ago.

Those were this century. And I'm still watching it going, everybody has flip phones. Still, that's 20 years. I know. He puts his little sidekick dude goes into the bathroom and puts all his computer stuff up.

And he's got a flip phone, a BlackBerry... an iPod, and like a Bluetooth earpiece. And I was just like, man, you are cutting edge in 2008 or whatever the hell this was. I like to imagine that if you're watching it and trying to consider it modern, they go back to older technology because it's harder to track. So they're using like all this old technology because it's not modern. Except it wasn't.

It might as well be semaphore. Yeah, I was watching something else, too. Okay, so that brings me to the whole thing about talking about Nicolas Cage and Francis Ford Coppola. All right. And...

Peggy Sue got married? No. I'm pretty sure that's a movie. Wait a minute. Like, that whole family.

You know what I mean? Anyway, what is it? Metropolis? Like, is one of his more recent ones? Because he's insane.

It's not out yet. Oh, Lord. Hang on. See, I've said this before, too. Coppola, like, went in reverse.

Like, the stuff he makes now is like what a weird artsy college kid would be making versus the masterpieces that he made when he was an artsy college kid. Like, he works in reverse as a career. He was trying to use, talking about new technology, volume, right? All right. He was trying to employ that on the new film that.

He's working on. Well, he was also changing the. the scenes essentially this was one or two ago he was doing like a he was basically playing dj with his movie he was this was a public well this was one a couple but i mean listen to this again tell me this is like not a weird dorky college kid idea we're gonna shoot a whole bunch of scenes some of them are gonna normally be like okay i'm gonna pick the best ones piece them together that's my movie throw out this crap that didn't work I'm going to shoot a whole bunch of variations of these scenes. Then I'm going to show up to the event when the audience is in the room, read the room, and then change the scenes as the movie continues to play out. I'm putting in the next scene that's going to come a different variation from maybe the last time I played this.

He was literally piecing in different scenes for every showing depending on how he felt the room would take it. He's like, oh, I'm going to use this longer cut. I'm going to use this one where they have this alternate line. Like, again, like it's a weird, crazy idea. Then I'm like, that's not something like an old master does.

Like this is something that some crazy stoned out college kid is like, dude, I'm going to get all my friends together and I'm going to change up the movie depending on the. Vibe in the room. My own movie. Yeah. That's, that is.

And I'm like, I'm not saying, again, it's super artsy. Like I give him credit. Like it is a, concept that is really interesting. Is it going to work? I don't know.

I wasn't in the room. But it's not what you would expect from like an old time... What people consider to be one of the greats. That's a weird movie. And yet those are really the only directors that could get away with it.

Well, again, it depends on what at that level. If you have nothing to lose, it doesn't matter. Or if you're going to a normal little showing of a weird artsy college kid. If you're in a situation where you're drawing... You know, hundreds of people at an opening.

Yeah, you can do that. You have things. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but yeah, I think it's just how many people you think are going to show up.

I guarantee somebody's doing it is equally a weird thing at an art installation somewhere tonight. One would hope. But there's 12 people in the room. He's not making these judgments or decisions in a vacuum. He's influenced.

And he speaks to younger directors. And he knows what's hip. Does he? He's with it. I think he's just drunk on his wine.

Twixt? Was it Twixt? I saw Twixt, I feel like. It is a weird movie. I think it's one of the ones after that.

I don't really know. Either way. It wasn't Tetro. What was after Tetro? Twixt.

Youth Without Youth was before that. I love those cameos. You know, they make a left and a right one. A left twist and a right twist. I got two rights.

You are going to get sucked up by a giant tube. Oh, I know what I was going to bring up. So somebody said something about. Who knows what I said. Well, it was about, you know, things holding up over time.

Because of the National Treasure conversation about technology. Not everything can be a masterpiece like National Treasure. Right, right. So we started re-watching the original Night Court. Oh, my God.

Yes. All right. We had talked about it besides the. Fact that there's a new. Because they're redoing it.

I just watched the first. I got through most of that first one, and then I was going to sleep. We haven't even seen the new one. We just started watching the old one, and we're delighted to. Discover that it just really lasts.

I mean, it was relatively raunchy for its time. So I feel like the creepy stuff that Dan does is going to be equally, if not more so creepy now. So it's weird that he's the legacy character that still continues on in this new version. And now, at least from that first episode, he's very toned down. And I don't mean because of the times.

I think. he legitimately, because he is a good actor, he took it seriously and was like, it's been 30 years, this guy's been through a marriage, and he loses his wife. He's 70-something. Yeah, he's just in a different place. I don't know that that's going to continue on. Maybe they're going to realize, oh, now we need his wacky antics like he used to do.

Well, wait a minute. Because he had a softer side. But as a character, yeah, he definitely grew in the way that he re- approaches this character in the new way. And I think when I watched the very first few episodes of the original Dan wasn't such a creep. He was just kind of a classist snob.

And then they wrote him more into a lech. If we're crossing over into TV, that's back when they used to let TV find it. You would get four seasons in before you might hit your stride sometime. Which is why they changed the defense attorney, the woman, repeatedly. And the court clerk.

Like in the first seven episodes, all of those people changed. The other bailiff kept dying. Yeah. They had a pretty good excuse. Yeah.

You cast really old ladies, they're going to kick off. Oh, man. Some of them. That's great. But it was interesting because I remember thinking after watching it for years that Dan was a total lech.

But then I realized- Before that, he was like the snob kind of character. And then they turned him more into this misogynistic. Well, they found what was working. And they were just like, these cheap jokes are what people are responding to. But the cheap jokes were so dumb.

I liked him better when he was just like. And yet the latest episode where you meet his parents... Was his story, his backstory. His backstory? Yeah.

Was actually. touching yeah very good and you're. Like oh and that's what saved him because he would be 75 a creepy latch yeah and then there would be that one scene towards the end you'd be like oh wait no there's a little heart to him he's he's still kind of a good guy maybe. People aren't like i find it two-dimensional you know that. They wrote him into the latch instead of like this interesting like play of classism really is what it was and that was that backstory of he was trying. To what could be more classist than a a lech who is the assistant da here's the man who's at the top of the you know well the middle rung of the political letter working his way to the top i don't.

Know like that was interesting i like john larkin though he's good yeah he's always. Been good always been pretty classic. Anyway, sorry to divert into TV. I just had to say that. Because it was pretty cool.

But it is looking at the way things have changed in this last 30 to 40 years. Oh my gosh, yeah, because they would have episodes where it was like, they had these five beauty queens that were so dumb and they were like, oh, how did you know? Except for the girl from Denmark. Yeah. Obviously.

But what I was going to talk about when we were talking about what movies have you watched lately, it's amazing how many what we watch in our homes compared to the going out for a movie. And then what you're finding on like Amazon prime, like we were talking about vengeance. We watched vengeance BJ Novak. And that takes me to a whole other point of like, I don't know if I hate BJ Novak because he writes himself is so unlikable, but then I can sexually think of BJ Novak is this really smart guy. Who's incredibly talented and, And I don't know why I can't separate the two or I feel like the two have to go together.

Like in the movie Vengeance, he writes himself as a writer for the New Yorker. Of course he does. But, you know, I think what's interesting about this film, and you haven't seen it, right? I haven't seen it. Okay.

I had heard things about it that I want to see if you address. And if not, I will put them to you. So there are. He. Clearly writes himself as a shallow East Coast.

Intelligentsia. Intelligentsia douchebag. Which he does a lot. Well, yeah. I mean, yes.

I mean, even in the... He's basically reprising his character in The Office. If Ryan Howard had turned himself into something. As a grown-up, yeah. Yeah, which never would have happened.

Ryan Howard would never have grown up. But, yeah, so it's that premise. But, you know, he, wait a minute, I can't reveal too much. So, okay. So what are your questions about it?

So let me tell you what I think. Because of that, what he writes comes across as very intelligentsia, preachy, you know, this. Yes. Okay, go ahead. But then there's the switcheroo.

That's the only thing I heard about it was that the, The response that I heard, they didn't love it because they said he comes off as that, but also this is him out of his element. He leaves and goes to wherever, Texas or whatever. Fish out of water story. And fish out of water it up. But at the same time, the way that he writes the other characters and the way his character treats the other characters and the movie treats those characters is almost looking down on them.

It's almost. still kind of having a snobby attitude about the way that people from his non-intelligency world are. And it's supposed to be doing that on one level, but at the same time, it's still kind of doing it in a way that maybe he didn't intend to. No, I think when I, as I watched it, because he was doing this as like his perspective podcast, I feel like you were seeing his interpretation of those people. Right? So it's like.

Yeah, it's through the lens of a snob. It's totally through his lens. And yet, as part of the story, his editor calls him out on his bullshit and says, you're a snob. But a lot of the way that that stuff is presented, I don't feel like it was like a... And he even kind of addresses.

It in it. I don't feel it's like he was writing those people in a poor light. He was. writing those people through that character's interpretation of what he saw until he had his, like. It's a classic... It's worth seeing.

If you haven't seen it, it's worth it. It also adds an extra layer to it because he is writing and directing this, if I remember right. So then, are you... Like, again, you're. Adding a layer of, are you making these people that.

So that you can be above that as your character, but realize your character's wrong and see them for something better, but still not really because it's all filtered through you as the writer up the line who's kind of casting all of these is like a dumber version. See, I don't know. I don't think it's layers. I don't think it, I mean, that is, I don't know if it's an oversimplification or an overcomplication, of a concept that has been with movies and storytelling forever. You're seeing the world through the lens.

It's like Frank Capra doing It's a Wonderful Life. Well, if you watch that movie, you don't come out of it thinking... that all um you know All poor people are innocent and all rich people are douchebags. That's not the case. I mean, I know one that's a douchebag. Yeah, the important one.

And they should have SNL-ended that guy. Oh, man, I know. George! We were just talking about that. As an Italian-American, I'm like, I never knew that we were called garlic eaters.

I eat a lot of garlic. But you get my point. It's like you have to tell that story through a single lens. Just so that you can tell the story. I mean, if you had to say the story through every vantage, you know, every viewpoint, you're not telling a story.

You're telling multiple stories. I think you lose the conciseness. You have to keep that, right? But then he addresses that at one point and says, this is what people from where I'm from think of you, right? Yeah.

And then it's, I mean, you have to. You have to watch that. Then we have to talk about it. Because I was totally not into it. And I was like, BJ Novak, I like you, but I hate you.

And I just, you're smart. You're brilliant. After all this, I just want to watch It's a Wonderful Life. No, you just want to watch the Werner Herzog version. Oh, I would watch It's a Wonderful Life.

That would be great. I mean, can you get much, minus those last few minutes, can you get much darker than It's a Wonderful Life? Because it is a grim, grubby, tricky business. I love it. And that's why I love it.

I mean, I love it because it does not, like, it just sets you up and it gives you this hero that is so amazing. And just, you beat the hell out of him for this. And by the end, it really, minus those last few minutes- you're just like, he's kind of right. Like we've watched him not get to fulfill his dream over and over and over. And like, it kind of takes a toll on you.

Every single person can identify with George Bailey in that moment. It's hard. And that's why those last few minutes totally deliver the, you know, the heart tugs, you know, because it's like, oh, I mean, how are we still. Talking about this movie like this? Because it's that good.

It's that good. It really is that good. I love a lot of movies, probably more than I love It's a Wonderful Life, but if I had to pick one top movie. No, I mean, I have dumb things that I like. Oh, yeah.

There's stuff I watch a lot. Sit me down and ask me what I thought an incredible piece of American cinema is. It would be wonderful. I loved this movie so much as a teenager and 20-something that my sister bought me the script. I have it downstairs, in fact.

Well that was one of those i wasn't prepared for like i went in knowing oh it's one of those christmas movies they play every year and i hadn't watched it when i was really young and i watched it right at that point when i was becoming a movie geek and i was like all right well i should watch this it's classic cinema i should you know again take it off the list just like one more thing i need to watch and it like hit me like i was like good god this is not only a good movie, but this story is the kind of thing you don't normally see because it's brutally honest. You see him being driven crazy by this family that he didn't necessarily want, really. This is a great... It's rough. This is a great general topic of movies that sort of blew you away and reshaped your childhood because...

I never. Saw that as a child. I only saw It's a Wonderful Life after we got married. Because I made her watch it. I was at least younger than that.

I just thought it was a Christmas movie. Yeah, I wasn't that young, but I was. It's only a Christmas movie after the first hour of this cast. No, no, no. I mean, they would always show it at Christmas.

And I think my grandmother loved it, and I'm surprised that she never made me sit down and watch it, because she... put every book in front of me and you know, but I think she really liked it, but never, maybe it was that special to her. Maybe she was like, I can't deal with a kid watching this. She won't get it. It's just weird because it's like grouped in with a lot of other stuff at the time or that also stars Yumi Stewart and he's great in a lot of stuff, but it's rare that is that hardcore. Maybe it's the combo of him and Frank Capra, but there's plenty of other stuff at the time that I watch him in and I'm like, Oh, he's really good in this.

But it's not that type of movie. It just doesn't hit you the way that that does. So that, I don't know. There's something special about that story and the way that he addresses that. God damn, Uncle Billy.

Harsh story that I'm just like, God, it's just, it's a rough watch. And I love it, but it's a rough watch. It's a rough life. It is. That's the title.

Wonderful. Wonderful. When's that kick in? I haven't gotten to my last five minutes of the movie yet. But so that, you know, I say I didn't see it as a kid, but I did see the Saturday Night Live sketch and I was like, I knew the gist, but I didn't know, you know, but I was.

Like, that was great. It's classic cinema in like all, I mean, it checks all the boxes for me. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, it's like, it is my Citizen Kane. I love Citizen Kane.

I do, too. But I like It's a Wonderful Life better. Almost, yeah. It doesn't take itself as seriously as Citizen Kane. It's a very grounded movie compared to the giant spectacle that Citizen Kane is.

I don't know if there's. Really any sweet moments in Citizen Kane. Well, I mean, he's such a bastard. Even in the early times, he's already kind of a jerk. It's a tragedy.

Right, right, right. But I mean, you're always like, oh, George Bailey. But you're always, yeah, you're always siding. With him and the couple. And like, you want them to succeed.

Where Kane's just always kind of a power-driven jerk. And like, even as much as you wish things would turn out better for him, or you wish he'd come to terms with, hey, you're the one making your life suck, he's not going to learn that. He's going to be on his deathbed before he figures that out. There's no Zuzu's petals, you know? Yeah.

I mean, Rosebud. Rosebud. But it comes at a very late moment. Rosebud is not Zuzu's petals. Absolutely.

Well, here's the problem. He doesn't get his Clarence. Yeah. If Clarence showed up mid two-thirds of the way into Citizen Kane and went, hey, maybe you need to straighten up your bullshit life. And like we saw him kind of do more of like a Christmas Carol and be like, well, here's what could be and here's what you've done.

And that's why it's a tragedy because he never, he doesn't get to redeem himself. He never has salvation. There's no turnaround. It is just, he. Doesn't become aware in time to do anything.

And you know, and that is for the time that it was made, that was probably pretty revolutionary in terms of storytelling is like, this is, we're going back old school Shakespeare tragedy stuff here. Yeah, that was really good. And, you know, that's... When everything else was, hey, we just survived a world war. Yeah.

Let's not make a sad story. Or, I mean, Hollywood used to tell a lot of dark stories back in the day. But it was more film noir stuff. It was like crime dramas and like it wasn't super cerebral. Yeah, it wasn't a psychological.

You watched this guy screw himself over and like go down the wrong path for this woman. And then everybody loses in the end. But that's also that specific type of story where this was a much more fleshed out character piece and watching his entire life and learning about him and learning how he made all these terrible decisions and yet got rich and successful. But obviously that didn't fix things. So yeah, it's a different approach than the dark that they were doing at that time.

Speaking of, I kind of feel like the movie There Will Be Blood is a remake of Citizen Kane in a very Yeah, I mean, it's not the same. Much more visceral kind of way. Oh, wait, I thought, speaking of visceral, we did watch one other film. All right. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we did. Go ahead. Do I want to know? I don't know which one it was. Because I thought it was the other one.

Oh, no. It was the 21st century reboot of Rambo. From like, what, 2005? So 15, something like that. Not really reboot.

It was the one where he's overseas, right? He's running a boat. Not the one where he's back here. But the title is just Rambo. It's not Rambo colon First Blood.

Yeah, it's none of that. But it's basically, what, the fourth in the series. Which, as I remember, because we were doing the show. That's how long we've been doing it. I remember watching it and talking about it at the time.

I was sort of blown away by how not just the realisticness of the gore, which is god awful. Like two hours of people getting their arms blown. No, not two hours. Sorry, an hour. Hour and a half.

But at least it was like taking kind of a serious take on it. Whereas like two is like just a big dumb action movie, you know? And it was meant to, it was coming out of the Top Gun era. So it was like, yay America, let's go kill some people and blow shit up. And like, That's all it wanted to be.

3 is even more troubling, especially now. Talk about going back and looking at stuff. Let's not touch 3. I've only seen the first one, and then I like to imagine the first one combined with Predator. Because the first one isn't a big dumb action movie.

The first one is a character story. It all started as. Stallone's personal project. That's why that first one is so. Good.

And it's a good picture of that post-war thing. These guys not knowing what to do with themselves. And I feel like that fourth one, or whatever you want to call it, Rambo... It kept in. That same vein, but then it was like.

He went back to that character. Yeah. But. it became. So well over the top book see i don't know how over the top i think it's just one of those that like we usually don't want to see how horrifying these deaths really are i think some of those are like no this is probably what it would be like we were standing next to someone who got hit with one of those you're absolutely right they would be liquefied onto you and. It would be disgusting there's a scene where the uh you know the military is coming in and like basically shelling the village.

Yeah. Right. And you're, and you're seeing people, regular old people explode. Yeah. Like, Very, you know.

I mean, it's... Very graphically. The same reason that opening of Saving Private Ryan works. It's like, this is the story you don't want to know about. But this is what these guys went through.

That scene, for this movie in particular, I thought, okay, that's... I can buy that. I believe it. But then there was this scene at the end where he's mowing people down with this. 50 cal machine gun.

On the back of a Jeep. It's a little throwback to part two. And people are just getting ripped in half. I'm like, this is just for the sake of yore. That's a little shout out to the part two fans.

When they get to the scene with the actual arch bad guy, doesn't he get stabbed? And you're like, oh, he died a quiet stabbing death. And then suddenly... he also gets shot at. Oh, that's right, that's right. He rips him in two with this knife that would make Paul Hogan ashamed.

It's like, there's a queen! It goes into the sink. Anyway. And his guts spill out and he rolls down the hill. And even that, I would give the pass to.

But the whole. Machine gun the. Whole battle scene just weird things like that guy just got his head blown off literally like it becomes so clinical it's like watching a really like saw you know we're so clinical where you're like this is horrifically gory but it's so clinical in a way that it's like The only. Thing I can think of now when I think back, and again, this is a weird side effect of having done this dumb show forever, but I remember us talking about that fourth movie and being like, oh, that was cool and kind of trying to do a real thing in the middle of it. Plenty of gratuitous other bullshit along the way, but whatever.

It was trying to still be kind of grounded about where this character ended up and how miserable his whole life has been. But then they were working on another one after that. When he goes to his farm at the end. No, not the one they made. They didn't make one after that.

I didn't see the one. Okay, I didn't see that. I know Paul did because I think that's what we talked about on the phone a million years ago. I think we had both just watched that Rambo. Last Blood.

So we won't go to Last Blood. But the in-between that never happened, if you haven't heard about it, I have to tell you. Because I remember on the show going, okay, they're making another Rambo. They were going to take our Rambo character post that fourth movie. And put him in space?

Kind of. Really? He was going to fight a monster from outer space. It was basically Predator mixed with Rambo. No way.

They were going to take, he was going to be. So Predator. The original Predator was nothing but an opening of Commando and then they work in sci-fi. Oh, see, I thought Commando was an opening for Predator. Either way.

Either way. Basically, he's going to be John Rambo off on his own being sad and by himself and the government comes in and is like, hey we need your help you're rambo we need you to take care of this problem only this time the problem is some creature from space has showed up and he has to go track it down and kill it predator style wow really can you imagine that following that fourth movie because the one we get is ridiculous in its own weird way but that one's like not surprising like that's The kind of dumb follow-up action movie. I'm like, all right, well, I guess. Also, I'd like to point out, you know, who has that amount and, you know, predictably that amount of hair dye in the middle of, you know, Myanmar?

Like, he's got perfectly jet black hair and he's easily 60. If you know the right people, you can get whatever you want. Also, I'm like, what year is this happening? And Paul's like, well, you know. And he's like, I don't know.

Does it matter? 2009 or something. Don't worry about it. Yeah, it doesn't matter. But the acting was so horrible.

Like, everybody in that's bad. Except the people that got blown up. And didn't have to worry about it because they had some special effect. No, that was real. They were method.

They're pretty good. The one who themselves up for that. The child that had to please the general sexually did a great job. How did I miss that? I think I'm glad I haven't watched this in a long time.

Did that happen? They didn't show it. I blocked this out. They didn't show it. But they allude to it.

And he did a fantastic job of showing up on the porch. I just, yeah. It was bad. So we watched that and then. You know, we both get like crazy insomnia sometimes and I'll stay up and like binge watch insane things.

Then I have like these crazy nightmare movie dreams. I had one the other night and like, I don't know. It was weird. I couldn't sleep. There was a murder and then my friend was there.

Did you murder someone? No, my friend was like, let's get out of here. It was weird. Speaking of murder. Murder, have you watched the Glass Onion?

Oh, yeah. Knives Out. Yes, I brought it up recently only to talk about more of the spectacle because that's the part that I was kind of more amazed by is how... much attention it got in the real world but I brought that up but we didn't really dig into the movie so much so since you've seen it because nobody else had seen it so if you want to throw out a spoiler alert we can talk about it like for reals. So this isn't a spoiler alert but we can spoiler alert but honestly I think I kind of liked it more than the first. One for different reasons maybe I feel like the mystery of the first one is way more interesting and cool and takes a lot of weird turns that even though you should know what's going on by the beginning, you don't by the time you get to the end.

Whereas they don't worry about any of that. It's not even about a whodunit. It's just that guy seems like he probably murdered somebody. Hey, look, that guy murdered somebody. It's a chaotic, you know, foghorn leghorn as Poirot.

But that's why I loved it. I mean, he is so entertaining. Ed Norton's great as that character. And Janelle Monae and his accent are terrible as Southerners. Like, it's embarrassing.

It is like frog horn like horn. But then it just kind of becomes this like, once again, it's like, I don't have to think about this. It's just fun. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

And everybody's pretty solid. And there were some real lovely, playful moments. Yeah, it's smart. That's good. Brian Johnson is really smart.

Oh. I think he's just approaching this one very different. That is what I said last time. I think he's not worried about the mystery part of this one like he was the first time. It's just the fun part.

Well, it's just the, these people are rich assholes. Right. We're going to look at that aspect versus the whodunit because- rich people can do whatever the hell they want. That's the takeaway. This guy wants to kill people.

He can do it because he's got enough money and influence to do whatever the hell he wants. And like, so the only way that doesn't work is if you get a bunch of the same rich assholes together and then it cancels all that out and somebody can, you know, kill whoever. But I think that's more of the takeaway on this one, where the first one, they're also rich assholes, but it's still mostly a whodunit. And you're still watching them kind of screw each other over along the way. It was a moody whodunit.

Yeah. Like classic. With some awesome sweaters. Everybody loves... But I thought it was fun because of that.

Because it was just like a different take. And it was exactly what you're saying. It was just a bunch of rich ass girls. Well, I mean, you know, you couldn't deliver the same thing. No.

You would have to twist it. Which I'm glad he did. Because I feel like it would be really tempting to just be like, okay, give us more of that. Because people like. That first one.

Right. You're bringing that same guy back if he wasn't a really talented writer, director. Like, I feel like you would just be like, hey, let's do something like that again. Yeah. But he went 180 degrees.

That's a totally different approach to the movie. It's very admirable. I'm glad he did it. Much like the. Murder on the Nihilorian Express, it's that same...

It's kind of... old-timey, let's get all these celebrities together, let's do a whole big whodunit, but he has a totally different vibe to his version. It's different than what the Kenneth Branagh version is trying to do at old-timey, where this is like, no, no, we're going to be as modern as possible, which that may be my favorite moment in the whole movie, is when they get to the island or wherever, and the extra little bonus appearance of Ethan Hawke, and... and hits them over that and they're like you're good you're good like no explanation just we're rich you're good you're good so now it's like that is a genius way to deal with this modern story which is happening in the middle of COVID and you know what nah you're good I'm like, don't over explain it.

I like it. I love that just way of throwing that out there and be like, all right, let's continue with our movie. There was no need to overcomplicate that at all. You know, so it's like, I know I always talk about this being one of my favorite movies of all times. Clue.

Clue was so funny and so good because the cast made it. You know, you knew it was going to be whodunit. Would you say it shaped your childhood in a way forever that... You are now, you would never be the same person. Between that, The Simpsons, and like in my modern world, The Office, like there's a quote from those three that reflects something in my life.

I can always dig up. So clue. My question will be, did you see it in the theater? Yes. And then what ending did you get?

Oh, gosh, I don't remember. Because that's the weird thing. People now don't realize when they played it in the theater back in 1985 a bajillion years ago, they shot three entirely different endings and you got one. Not Francis Ford Coppola style. This is perfect.

It was preset already. You only got one. It's perfect. He should have brought Coppola in and been like, okay, you check out the room and decide which ending you think they need to see. Wait, everybody wait so we can change reels.

Hold on. Go get some more popcorn. Hit the bathroom. We'll be back to finish up this movie. Actually, that's pretty brilliant.

See, that's it though. Brilliant. I think it didn't make that much of an impression when I saw it in the theater because the ending was the ending. But then once it hit cable, then you saw it and you were like. They give you all of the endings once it hits video and cable.

And it became even funnier and stranger. So do you remember which one you got? I don't. Sadly, I do. Which one did you get?

Maybe it's my brain. I'm sure we got the same one because there was like one movie theater here. Probably, yeah. I wonder how, like if they sent it to different cities or if it was different individual theaters, different times. I wonder how the breakdown on that is because I don't know of any movie that had ever done that before.

People from Louisville need the J. Edgar Hoover ending. Let's all get together and see. Let's make a checklist. Are you old?

Did you see in the theater? Are you old? And who was your murderer? I saw the final one on the reel, which is the sort of everyone version. So that's what I got as the ending the first time, which really is kind of the ending by the way they present it.

It is the final one in the three for roundabout version that you get now. Yeah. Yeah, that's such a great question. I mean, I can't believe I don't remember. I wonder how different it would feel if I got just one of the other two people that murdered.

Yeah. Because the other ones are just one person murder somebody. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I remember seeing it and I was like, oh, okay.

But then it was like really when it. came on cable that I sort of was like, what? I was thinking about that earlier because it's weird. I feel like that's one that didn't do well, period. I don't think it did well in theaters. No, but it became a thing.

I don't think it even did that great video-wise. I think it slowly, like by the time people caught it on cable, by the time kids after that, like that next wave of kids, I think are the ones that are more attached to it. I think it's like those Gen Y kids that are like the 90s kids. Yeah. That grew up with it and saw it way more often.

Well, wait a minute. So what year did that come out? 85, I'm thinking? No. Pretty sure.

Okay. Well, I don't know. I mean, it was a solid cult classic. Hang on. It became a cult classic.

85. 85. That's what I'm saying. I think it was those kids that caught it on cable later. I think all the kids that saw it in the theater were like, yeah, it's all right.

And they went on about their business. I think it was only those kids that watched it on repeat on cable a million times that made it the cult classic. So my friend, Kate, she was babysitting for somebody. We didn't have cable. I don't know if she had cable.

I got to go over and hang out while she was babysitting and we watched it on cable. And she and I were like, wait a minute. What? And then like we started, we got into like our Tim Curry phase because we had like moved on to like listening to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. So that had kind of entered our lives.

And then I had to babysit somewhere and we watched Cable and Clue was on again. And Kate and I started to like. We're going to warp these children's minds by making them watch Clue over and over. We remembered a few lines and then we would start to watch it anytime it was on and we were hanging out. And so then we became people who knew Clue backwards and forwards.

And that house, I think that's the whole thing. The house was cool. The house was cool. The whole mood. The individual things about it are almost cooler than the finished product.

Because when I go back and think about it, I'm like... I mean, it's an okay comedy. Oh, I still love it. There are moments that are genius in it. There are performances that are great.

But I'm like, it's almost the parts are greater than the sum of its movies. Well, I mean, I think as you become older, too, then you're like, oh, my God, Madeline Kahn. Madeline Kahn's always entertaining. There's so many. Leslie Ann Warren.

And you just start to go through the people that are in it. The one-liners. The many things that you love in the one-liners. The one-liners. I mean, there's just so many things.

Every single scene had a memorable moment where you're like, oh my God, Tim Curry delivered every single scene. He's the MVP, really. I mean, I guess it does center around him. But still, if you gave that to the wrong actor, he could not carry. Tim Curry is just amazing.

This is weird because this is what I was thinking of earlier today. And it stemmed, it led me to Rocky, but it was because they were running a bio thing on one of the bad cable channels about Meatloaf. And it's funny because I remember going into Rocky Horror Picture Show and knowing who all those people were. So it was like, I came to it a little later, still pretty young for me that it became sort of formidable, but To the point that those famous people were already famous. So in my mind, it was like, look, they got all these famous people together and they made this movie.

It was watching that today. I started piecing the timeline together. I'm like, they just happened to get, especially once you hit the American people, like all the core cast was there from, from, you know, the run in London when it was a play. But when they came to America, like Tim Curry was one of the British ones, but he wasn't a star. At all, even in England, really.

He was getting a weird cult following musically and whatever else he was doing. So he was in like a version of Oliver? Right? Like, from when we were kids? I think.

He's in a ton of stuff. Like, there's a ton of stuff that he was in. But it's, like, that thing, watching him, like, because I also, like, I knew who Meatloaf was when I saw that. Meatloaf, like, that out of hell hadn't happened yet. Right.

When he made Rocky Horror Picture Show. Like, I didn't realize that at the time. I was just like, oh, look, they got Meatloaf to be in this movie. I was like, they just happened to get Meatloaf right before he broke as the biggest thing in the world. And then you also got Susan Sarandon in this, who became...

Barry Boswick, who was that weird... Barry Boswick, I feel like, became a star because, like, he spiraled off of, and now he still kind of gets stuff because, look, it's Barry Boswick from Rocky Horror Picture Show. But Susan Sarandon, like, became a star. Yeah, she became a star. Yeah.

But, like, I remember being a kid, and. So, my mom was a single mom, so my mom had, like, interesting boyfriends, you know, like. That's a nice way of putting it. No, she didn't have many, and I didn't meet many. But the ones that I did meet made an impression, and the first one made the biggest impression on me.

Took me to see Airplane. Took me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. These are formative films. Totally formative. Introduced me to Roxy Music, Devo.

He got me a tape, and it was a Devo tape. And I was like, what is this? And he's like, it's Devo. Right? Like, he was this artist.

This will change your life. He was, like, super, super funky, interesting. Like, somehow I think I saw a Rocky Horror Picture Show with him. I think I got dragged there late one night with him on a date. I don't think there's any other option.

It had to be late one night. And then we had to watch a thing for school, and it was about George Washington. And it was, like, a three-night... I don't even know how... It was, like, a George Washington miniseries on, like, NBC.

And I'm sitting there watching it, and I'm like, I think that guy... was in Rocky Horror Picture Show. And it was Barry Boswick. George Washington is meatloaf. No, I mean, I'm like, that guy was in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yeah.

I mean, he had a pretty solid career, but I still don't know if anything ever. No, he was no Susan Tarantino. I still can't see him and I'd be like, asshole. Asshole. That's the problem is his career.

That followed him forever. She wasn't always a slut, but he will always be assholes. Oh, but yeah, that was just a weird thing that occurred to me earlier today as I was going back to the timeline. It was like the rest of them were already kind of preformed. But those like Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Meatloaf all like that was pre who they became.

Like they all became huge cult. figures at that point and like they just happened to get them all before they were stars that's kind of weird but. Then didn't Tim Curry have like a weird he made like I mean he had like Paradise Garage and like all those dumb. Songs I think he had a following that I thought It. Was around that time. Well, there's also like the play.

So a lot of them came into it as the play, but it was years later before they actually put the movie together. And then I think they were jumping on that bandwagon, like, especially as it became the Weird Midnight Cult. Then you work in the meatloaf thing. And by then he's a superstar. So like, look, we've got the superstar in our movie.

We're going to play the video. Like. Definitely by the time we saw it, it became part of the ritual. Meatloaf is a superstar! Maybe that's why the movie came to be.

Because suddenly people that were in it were suddenly famous. And they're like, oh. We have those people. Yeah. Let's put out this movie.

Or was it still awesome because you had all these great people in one room and that's why that still holds up today. Yeah. If you put a bunch of nobodies that didn't click right. If you put a bunch of Henry Cavill's and Armie Hammer's and make them do that, I'd love to see them in that. Yeah.

I don't know if it would be the cult classic that it is today. But they happen to have a lot of really cool people. I feel like I saw that movie at two very different times and that movie's history is In two very different times in my life. Because one, I was probably entirely too young. And the next time I was like seventh or eighth grade, you know.

And then it was like a whole different. No, that's about the right. That's a little early for some, but I feel like a lot of kids came into it at that age. Because it became a high school thing. You go hang out at the right.

But I had some older friends, right? But when I saw it, I was like. 5th grade, 6th grade. Yeah, that might be. A little young.

Yeah, but I mean, you don't know. But you're a weirdo, so it's fine. You attach yourself to it because it's the kind of stuff you get into. I know, but you don't know that it's weird. You're like, oh, that's a sketchy tune.

It's just a sweet transvestite. Before I saw it, that man looks good in lipstick. Sure. He's wearing a corset. Okay.

You know, you're a kid. It doesn't register as... Anything that's off, you're like, all right. I didn't see it until later. Like, I was a teenager.

Yeah, see, I remember it as a cult thing before I knew why it was a cult. Like, I remember a picture of it. This is weird flashbacks. Well, it was always the Vogue. But nationalized, the first thing I remember is there's a picture of it in one of the star logs that I probably still have in a box somewhere.

But it was running down, like, cult movies or something. Like, it's giving you the reason that, like, this is why this is weird. And I just remember that shot, and that's the only thing I knew of it beforehand. And then after that, I remember, this is what's funny, there was a kid in... school that you had to get up and give some sort of like presentation to the class some sort of weird english class project where obviously the teacher had nothing else to do he was just like i don't know go up there and give a presentation and one of the guys got up the time warp and no he gave a presentation on why rocky horror was important and how it changed his life and like he which now when i think back i'm like that's so awesome but at the time i was like dork because I really didn't even know about the movie but that guy was a dork no offense I am one I can call him out but like he was such a dork that I was just like what the hell is this movie that this guy likes so it was a year or two later before I ever got to see it and then I went oh no this is fucking life changing like this is amazing so yeah when I was in the theater and saw it it was a whole different experience but watching this dork tell me about how it changed his life I was like pfft Lame.

Because, you know, you're a jerky high school kid. Of course that's what you're going to say. But what's funny is he must not have been that attached because it was only a few years later when I became a semi-regular, in the crowd at least, and I never saw that guy there. So he didn't stick with it. So you had to go to the Vogue.

Oh, I was there for a while. Every week when it played. Everybody was there. Like, I was that kind of a dork. Yeah, I was there.

Yeah. Well, and I knew. You were there? I was there in a couple of different waves. The floors were still sticky.

I don't know. It was a Vogue. I was there when I first saw it. I don't know, because we might have been there at the same time. Probably were.

I don't know. I was probably over it by the time you got there. I know. We probably were there, because I also knew people in the cast that second run. Like, the first wave was when I first saw it and just got into it because it was amazing.

It was like, again, you've never seen an interactive thing like that. Like, being a movie geek is one thing, but it's usually you sitting by yourself in your house at that time watching things on video. So... That was the first thing I'd ever seen that was that kind of immersive experience. So it was mind-blowing on that level.

But then like a year or so after, maybe a couple years after that, I then changed jobs and then half of the people I knew that I worked with were in the cast. So then I kept going because I knew half the people on stage at that point. So it was a weird mixture of both of those things. Those were weird after parties. I wasn't cool so I didn't go to the after.

I wasn't even cool enough to hang out in the parking lot afterwards. Like I watched the movie and went home. That kind of cool. That's what happens. Parking lot was a very important scene.

It was. I wish I was cool enough to be there. I have a hard time believing. I wasn't cool enough to be there. I was just there.

That you weren't cool enough to be there. I think that perhaps you just didn't like parties. You're probably smart enough. Well, I didn't and kind of don't even now. But I did not feel like I belonged there, which is weird because it was one of the few times when it was happening that that I did kind of feel like I belonged somewhere.

When it was in the moment and shit was going on, like, it was that. But when it stopped and everybody went to their cliques and hung out by their cars and, like, I didn't, like, suddenly it's just me, the dork, that came there by himself. Like, everybody else was friends and groups and cliques. I didn't have that. Even when I knew people in the cast, they then went and hung out with the cast and I went home because it was just me.

I'm still like that, so, if you want. Feel free. I don't really remember much of that. I mean, I remember, yeah, after the show and everybody would be in the parking lot. It would be this real mix of, you know.

It was clicky, though. I don't remember. Well, I see. I was just some. poor schmuck from indiana so i didn't know anybody so it didn't matter to me didn't care about what cliques people were in i just was there you know but uh yeah i don't recall that being. Anything yeah i just know it was the hangout but i wasn't hanging out there i'm.

Like that's where the cool kids go Well, I'm going home now. Yeah. Yeah. It was a different version of it. I still had a different experience than even the weirdos that found their experience there.

Yeah, I didn't have that either. But I like the movie. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely, I mean, say what you want about the movie, whether you liked it or not, it still changed the face of Western cinema.

World. Again, in ways I don't think people even realize. Like, I think it hit, and it also had, like, a weird crossover where I think because of the performance angle, it brought in all these weird, like, actor-y kids that, like, suddenly, yeah, like, suddenly it was a thing that you could cross over, and like, oh, this is what I'm doing, and that makes me. It wasn't Hello Dolly or the Music Man. But it also, like, it had you involved in something.

Oh, this is what I'm doing now. I'm in the cast of Rocky, whereas... You couldn't just go get in the cast of some play. But if you'll show up every week, you're in the cast for Rocky. If you'll start out moving the tank back and forth, you're in the cast.

Maybe somebody won't show up and you get to be Eddie next week. Good for you. Good for you. But, yeah, I think it gave you an insight, you know, a foot in the door of this thing in this little world that, like, if you wanted to be involved in it, it was possible. a pretty welcoming scene to let you do that stuff. So I think that changed people, I think, in that performance-y way, too, that, like, it gave the theater kids a place to go, and it gave the...

It was also a weird mixture. Definitely that group, that crowd that used to go there. It was such a weird mixture of subcultures at the time. It really was. But then it became like you get the popular kids then would want to show up because they were like, oh, I heard there's this thing with a musical that's got a transvestite, right?

So it became like this edgy thing to do. And then at that point, you were like, yeah, I'm out because the popular kids are here. The one that would always confuse me, there was also– I would always find a good pocket of, like, just rednecks that would show up. There was. There was always just rednecks.

And, like, I think it's just because they could yell out obscenities. Yeah. And, like, a lot of them were kind of homophobic, which at the time wasn't really a big deal. But, like, I think maybe it appealed to them for the wrong reasons. There was that group.

To me, even worse, there was the popular kids who were suddenly, like, you know treading on sacred ground of kids that were like oh this is weird i'm weird and then you know. You know there was the better option which is you know that gay kids could go there and it was open and welcome and like they didn't feel like a freak all of a sudden so like i think that was the good one but there was also over here like a bunch of rednecks that just wanted to call people. And throw things. At people to that point I think that they were probably in that group I mean They were probably also gay rednecks. Oh, I'm sure.

We're using it as an excuse. But even now they won't come to terms with that for a long time. Certainly not back in the 80s and or before. There's a lot of. Weird I mean, we are talking about Louisville, Kentucky in the 80s and 90s.

So, you know, there's definitely a lot of repression. I definitely wasn't there in the 90s. I definitely wasn't there. In I was there in the 90s. See, I was.

No, I wasn't there in the 90s. I definitely was. Well, it was the late 80s. I was there in the late 80s, yes. 88, probably.

Yeah, it would probably be my last. 89 might have been my last time there. And I'm not old. I arrived as they were. You just started way earlier.

I started way earlier. See, I started a little later than most people. And I lived, like, right, I mean, very close. So we'd just be like, oh, Caleb. So kids if you were interested in hearing three old people talk about 1988 you hit the jackpot we'd know the older.

Kids brothers and sisters and they'd be like what are you doing here. See I was older because I already had a job so I would ride home past my job and flip them off because I hated my job oh wait things haven't changed at all I still hate going to work I'd rather be at Rocky than going to work I still hate my job Well, that's your own fault. Your boss is a jerk. She is. She should fire me.

That was right. Yeah, that was right in the, you know, 15, 16, yeah, first job range. God, you're old. We are old. But it's interesting.

Well, it really wasn't that long ago. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. No, but I want to know. Okay, so we were talking about this and looking on at fun. Again.

And we had these great moments of going to these independently owned, movie theaters that. I don't know what you're talking about. That's a relic of the past. I know. I'm trying to bring it full circle so we don't sound like old people.

We are. So what do, you know, theater kids and.... Well, I mean, now you just set up your own YouTube channel and like you can do whatever the hell you want. Like there legitimately is no boundaries now. Like they can do and be whatever the hell they want.

Which I love. It still sucks to be a child. It still sucks. I'm not pretending like it's a golden era for anybody to be a kid. I'm just like, so we had that.

There's not the equivalent of that. And there won't be. That's long gone. We got like this weird, funny experience. Rocky Horror?

Yeah or just having a place like having or even just going to the theater like i know there's going tons of people that just does not go people. Collecting in one location yeah. I mean they are they people who still call themselves movie fans and yet maybe once a year we'll go to. The movie brian i haven't been to a movie and to a theater get up we were at like i samurai cop. I know you live here get out i know No, I mean, I still, it's easy to do because as much as I love the theater experience as an experience, there's plenty of times now when I'm like, is it streaming?

Can I just watch it? It's just a lot more convenient in a lot of ways. And that's part of the problem. We've progressed. But it also is like, it gives you the out that like, you're not sitting there focused on the movie.

You can pause it and go to the bathroom. You can eat your dinner while you're watching it. Like, there's a million distractions that you can do. But see, for me, that's perfect because I have a really hard time, right? Like, I have a very hard time.

The hell you say. Sitting and committing that much time and not talking and not, you know. Like, Paul and I watch a movie and I'm like, wait a minute. Wait, go back. Wait, why?

What is going, what? Yes. So no one wants to watch movies with you is what it says. Poor Paul is what we're taking away from this. I can do it if I'm in a theater, but it's like pulling teeth.

Like, I really have to make myself. Because. Because I will. Because, I mean, I'm severely ADHD. Well, they don't know that.

I have very, very bad ADHD. I really do. That explains a lot. Yeah, it does. And it's not an excuse.

Late diagnosis, too. Yeah, now I know it's wrong. You're a spectrum kid. We all know. Well, it's funny.

I see it all the time now. And I know tons of kids who legitimately are and are diagnosed that way. But I'm like, I just didn't get a time when I got to be there. There's something not normal about me and the way my brain processes things. But I don't even get a thing.

I'm just like, I miss my window. Oh, well. No. So getting diagnosed as ADHD and getting medication changed my world for the past year and a half. Yeah.

Yeah, because there is a diagnosis. There's nothing on the books for you and me, Brian. Yeah, we're just. There's nothing that explains what you. And I have.

We have a bad case of Airwolf. We just got to go back to the Rocky, I guess. You've been diagnosed with chips. Yeah, I wasn't a chips kid. Maybe BJ and the Bear for me.

You seem to have a slight infection. Of Love Boat. I was watching that before I left. 1988... Sounds like a long time ago.

It doesn't seem like it. It doesn't seem like a long time ago. And it is also not a long time ago. On one hand. But at the same time, we were just talking about a little while ago how much things have changed since 2008.

And it has. It has. Technologically, it's a massively different. But at the same time, that also means we've changed a lot as a society. Things have massively changed, even just since the turn of the century.

So like it kind of it when when things didn't. I have to put this in perspective sometimes. It's like back in the Middle Ages when things changed at a snail's pace, like 20, 30 years wasn't a big deal. But now that rotation. Yeah.

I mean, you get to now and like. Every day, so much shit is changing. So much about our lives is changing. That makes the passage of time different. That is the hallmark of the 20th century.

All of the 20th century was like that. Well, in the 21st century, it has tripled the speed. The start of World War II, and we're using real battle is taking place. And 30 years later, we're on the freaking moon. I mean, that is a huge technological leap.

Were we really on the moon? Thanks to Kubrick we were. Stop, stop, stop it. Quit it. Back to our conspiracy theories.

Thank you, Nicolas Cage. Let's not go there. That's a different episode. But this isn't national treasure. Wait, I mean, so I have a phone that is...

A pandemic era phone, right? I feel so behind. Because you're old. Right. Grandma's always used those.

I have not replaced my phone since the start of the pandemic because I'm cheap. Yeah, that's mine and I just can't afford to use it. I'm just going to use it until it falls apart, which it is. But because it's actually lasted, then it's like. Suddenly, it's completely outdated, and it's not even that old of a phone comparatively.

I can't even upload the new thing because it's so old. I feel like I'm using a BlackBerry. Yeah, but three years have passed. When we met, we had T-Mobile phones, and to text one another, we had to go, call me, C-1-2-3-1. Yes, exactly.

You remembered how many times you had to hit the button to send the text message. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And that was like not that long ago in terms of like. But... Yes. Right. But my point is.

The point is that, you know, yes, technologically things change, but people really don't change all that much. I mean, there are. There is more that we have in common with 1988 than we have. Yes yes i think people's brains are the same dumb thing they've always been but it also changes the way it's interesting from the movie standpoint too because it does change the way you make and view movies because that didn't until the computer age none of that stuff changed like you can watch if you're in 1988 you can watch a movie from the 60s and you get it it's the same stuff they might have a you know, a telephone and they make a call, they might have a radio, they're watching TV, but nothing changed. You go back a little further, they still got phones, they still got the radio, like you can go all the way back to the dawn of cinema and it's not that different from your life.

But you hit the 80s and everything just, domino effect of changes that are like within like i said a couple of years you're looking back at this going oh why don't they just use their phone and call the cops right now like it changed things real world wise so that then you had to readjust your movies or they don't make any sense anymore so that's why yeah every horror movie now we have to have some reason that your cell phone doesn't work or they don't make any sense you're like why don't. You just call the cops serial. That's a fair point it does readjust everything even just movie wise. Do you think that and I'm legitimately asking this because I'm curious do you think that that's why there was the sudden rash of remakes like we have to remake this movie.

Because none of it works now No, I think they were just lazy. Yeah, okay. Like you're not going to remake The Wire because the technology has changed. But they will. It has nothing to do with technology, but give it a couple years and they'll do a remake.

They still make pagers. No reboot. There's no Wire reboot. I'm sorry. You say that.

So that was going, okay, so where we went. This entire tirade, right, started because we were talking about technology changing in film and Francis Ford Coppola and that current thing he's working on, not Metropolis. Yes. I love that movie. No, it's not Metropolis.

It's something like that. So he had started using the volume filming screen, you know, but I think what I read, I could be wrong, I don't know the man, but like that was not anything that he quite understood the. Are we talking about audio-wise or like aspect-wise? No, the visual aspect. So the big screen LEDs.

And so they're rebooting like how they're doing their special effects. And that's going to affect how the story changes and what's going to happen. But that technology has changed that quickly that you had green screens and then you had some genius that said, well, just take these giant LEDs. Why don't we just go stand in front of a TV? Yeah, just put a giant LED screen.

George Lucas is a good example of this, right? Well, that's it. That's his. That's ILM started that whole thing. Well, but the Star Wars story, you know, is a prime example of.

Well, the last 40 to 50 years is like starting with practical effects and miniatures. Right, right. And he, you know, he. He lost his way. He had a good story.

And then. When the technology changed, he realized, oh, I can make the movie that I wanted to make. Get too much freedom to. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, it's classic. I've said that about tons of directors. Right, right. But he's maybe the ultimate version. It's the classic story.

When he was the scrappy kid that had no money, you look at that first movie and it's amazing because he had to find a way. Necessity is the mother of invention. You can see it's not perfect. You can see that's a rubber mask on that guy in the bar. But who cares?

It's freaking awesome. And most of the other effects still look good. And even the cheap rubber mask stuff, they still had a good enough cinematographer and lighting. Let's make it dark in this bar. It's a bar.

It makes sense. As opposed to the prequels where it's like, let's have everything really fucking bright for no good reason. But am I wrong? In that tech called volume, isn't that the name of those giant screens? I feel like an idiot because I thought that.

That's what that is. I don't know I know of those screens yeah again because. Of the Mandalorian and they had the only one yeah the Mandalorian. The Mandalorian started with it and now. That started the whole yeah it changed.

So much that yeah we were just talking about it on an episode that like now it's affordable for small studios to just go buy. One of those and do whatever they want well and they're opening them in different like setting up different like volume studios. Or whatever yeah it is a technological revolution for media but I love whoever said anyone can do it why don't. You just put some big LED screens But no, green. I like green.

I like so much better. Mandalorian, that's their whole thing. It just changed where you, again, you're busy with the green screen thinking about, in the future I'm going to do this and we're going to put this in. As opposed to, just go stand over there and act. Yeah.

You're already there. You're in front of it. Yeah. The world's best like background in the car, like in the old scenes when they're driving, you know, like it's like that. Finally, we can get more of that.

And they're driving and they're just looking at their passenger the whole time. They're having a conversation. Because everybody drives moving their arms. Yeah, you move your arms back. You guys can see us at home moving our arms back and forth in a real fashion.

We go from the two to ten with one arm instead of keeping it. Anyway, yeah, I mean, it's pretty, like, technology has changed and those movies have changed. And even things like, oh, God, what was the movie we were talking about? Which one? Nicolas Cage.

Oh, National Treasure? National Treasure. Like, you do that and it's actually totally different. It's a dated reference now. Yeah.

Like, everything would look different. And it's dated. Yeah, that was Disney, wasn't it? That's the part earlier when I said I forgot who made it. I forgot it was, like, Disney released.

Like, not like it's an up-to-the-line, touchstone, old days kind of thing. No, it's a Disney. It says, Disney National Treasure. I was like, well, that makes sense why it's on this streaming channel. I forgot all about that part.

I went to look for a Simpsons episode. And it's on Disney. Don't question. Disney owns all. But wait a minute.

Disney bought Fox. Fox owns Simpsons. But did the Disney Simpsons ride. At.... Disneyland?

It's not at Disney. It's at the other one. Well, it won't be for long. Universal. Universal will have to change things.

They'll have to splash mountain that bitch. It's a terrible ride. It'll be gone and you'll. Not have speaking in. It's about a weed.

The Gully Jimsons. An obscure artist in London who... It's a roller coaster ride. Breaks into an apartment and paints a wall. So, yeah, I was thinking we should go back to Disney World.

You had never been. I know. I'd never been. Do you want to do the Star Wars thing? There's so much that we need to see.

I don't know. I just did Harry Potter over at Universal. Yeah. That's my thing. They don't own anything.

We've already done it. I know. A lot. That's a good one. It is good.

But the last time we went there, somebody got shot outside of our hotel room. That was weird. And somebody got shot at the flea market I was at a couple weeks ago. What? That happens all the time.

Oh, man. Standing there flipping through records and suddenly a wave of idiots comes running towards us. Wow. So, yeah, that was fun. Wow.

Oh, you were at the... Yeah. Yeah. I was there. Somebody shot somebody.

Not the exposition center, but the. Yeah. Yeah. Not the one downtown, but the one at the fairgrounds. So, once again, the takeaway is people get shot all the time.

In America. So you better hurry up and watch the movie you want to watch because you might be shot at any given moment. On a green screen or not. Yeah. Or watch an old movie.

Like It's a Wonderful Life. And it will change your life and make you realize how depressing everything is. And hopefully in the last five minutes it all turns around and your life's great. But most of the time, probably not. And then you get shot.

You have to strategically time a hug at the end. Yeah, yeah. Maybe your Zuzu will come along. If not, you'll just die like Kane. Nobody will give a shit.

There's your takeaway. Anything else to pass along? If I had a bell to ring, I'd ring it right now. No, no wings for you bastards. You get nothing and like it.

Rosebud. Otherwise, that about does it. We will try next time. Probably we'll drop these two weirdos into coming back. I'm so sorry.

Coming up with whatever the hell it is that we do when we get together. I like these episodes. I think it's called... permanent derail that's really i think. When you're just not on the rail you don't have to worry about derailing when you're hanging out off on the side with the rest of the train yard hobos like that's just where you live if you're listening to us you don't touch the third ring don't take this for a different way i like the idea that. There was a plan and we you know subverted Sure.

If I just started doing this, but I've been doing this a long damn time, so there are times when I know how to plan for the derailment. There are other times you can't fully plan for it, but there are times when you just know the derailment is coming, so you just go set up shop with the hobos next to the rail area and just. You put a penny on it and see what happens. Yeah. You just put your weenie on a stick and sit there and have a conversation around the fire while the train derails over there and you don't have to worry about it.

I think you're derailing Brian's closing statements. Nope. Nope. I want people to come away with this thinking, oh boy, those two people are rebels. No.

No. They're like this all the time. There's no rebelling. This is the status quo. Yeah.

This is a regular old Tuesday for these two. Yeah. All right. That was fun. But I enjoy these Tuesdays.

It's not really Tuesday, but you know what I'm saying. So I think we should return to this and go off the rails somewhere else down the line. Okay. But until then, otherwise that about does it. We will return next time.

Same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Every time a bell rings, a Brian gets a. Cup of coffee. Somebody explodes from a Rambo bullet.

There you go. Thank you. I needed the wrap up there. That was perfect. Oh my God.

This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Auditude 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! This program is a proud member of the Battleship Pretension Fleet.