Le Jouet / The Toy

Wait, wait, Lukewarm, Lukewarm takes. I don't know. Does anybody my age care about Richard Pryor in twenty twenty four. That's the question that rolls through my mind as I sat and watched the remake of The Toy, Because, boy, at one point in American comedy history, somebody said, Richard Pryor's a big deal and he needs to be the lead in this movie directed by Dick Donner, of all people, Richard Donner, Dick to his friends, it's to say I don't get Richard Pryor's appeal. Is not the point I will say to kind of bury the lead right here.

Boy, this is not going to be like the last couple episodes we've done on Francis Webber, where I can advocate for watching both. Let's just get out in front of that one. Uh. On this episode of the Culture Cast, I am still your host Christashi, much to the chagrin of many, and I'm joined by the man who puts the Mike White in Mike White, May the projection boots Mike White. You got a lot of hair on your upper lip there, little lady.

And all the way from Wake Up Heavy, not talking about horror movies on this show, he's talking about the Toy and Lejuette with us wake up Heavy's Mark Begley, Eric bought a black Man And yes, if you do not know what we're talking about, we're talking about nineteen seventy six is Leguette and the remake from nineteen eighty two, The Toy. Richard Pryor is out of work and out of luck, but all that's about to change when he becomes the toy. What a pair Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleeson in a Riot is comedy The Toy. The films are both effectively similar in the setup. One has Pierre Richard being bought by a rich child.

One has Richard Pryor being bought by a rich child. One rich child's father is Jackie Gleeson, the other one is Michelle Bouquette plays Pierre Rumball Koschett, who is the Jackie Gleeson analog in the original, and the film is about a down on his luck journalist who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, who gets bought by a rich child to be his quote toy unquote, and the machinations and comedic stylings continue from there, Mike, I always give you the up ortunity to speak first on these episodes in terms of why and what and who. So tell me a little bit about your thoughts on the toy first time you saw it, Why we're doing this one, if there was a reason other than it has a remake, which was your answer last time.

That's pretty much it, Chrisy answer answer every single time. Yeah, I think it's fair this time because now it feels like less of a Oh. I picked this one specifically because, yeah, like I said, this might be the worst thing we've one of these might be the worst thing we've seen in this month. Well spoiler alert. The one that was the best out of all of these was the one that we didn't watch, which was the New Toy from twenty twenty two.

That one's actually really super good. I like that even better than the seventy six version. But it was very interesting going back and looking at this nineteen eighty two version because I can't even tell you how many times I saw this movie. It was. I might have seen it at the theater because I would have been ten years old when this came out, but I definitely saw it on cable a lot.

When I was growing up, so I but I haven't seen it in probably thirty years, so it's pretty on the event. But the original, the seventy six. I again had a good time with this, not nearly as good of a time as I've had with other ones. This is a little bit more serious ebber at times, and even a serious Pierre Richard. But I was really happy to see Michelle Bukay because I just saw him in a film mel por Tea I believe it's pronounced.

It's a Belgian horror film that stars well barely stars, but Warson Wells is in it, and he he brings a lot of creepy energy with him in that movie, and I think he even brings creepy energy with him in this movie. I was convinced. As I was watching this, I was like, was he in Salo one hundred and twenty Days of Sodom? But no, he just looks like one of the creepy guys from that He's he almost has a lazy eye, not quite, but yeah, I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say about these movies. All Right, Begley, I interrupted your watch earlier when you were watching it, so now I get to ask you, what are your thoughts on a Leguette and the Toy?

Well, first time watch for the original obviously, well not obviously, I guess, but first time watched for that I saw, I know, I saw the toy in the theater, and I think I think it was mainly because of Richard Pryor. We were somewhat of a prior household because of his films with Gene Wilder that were played on TV a lot. And so I was thirteen, and I can't imagine that somebody dragged me to it or whatever. I'm sure I specifically asked to go see it, because it's you know, young kid and toy and merged prior all the combination. And in my brain, I remember being somewhat disappointed with the film, even as a thirteen year old, without really you know, a lot of cinematic background or thing, just kind of finding it silly and not all that interesting.

But I think, like Mike probably caught it on cable, one of those it just gets repeated over and over and over again, and so I must have seen it at least three or four more times as a as a younger teenager, because I remember some things very very specifically on rewatch, and yeah, it's it's kind of a dud. And I definitely prefer the original and the charm of the original and the charm of the lead and that much more than the remake. But you know, it wasn't a bad couple of watches, how about you, Chris? Yeah, I first time for both again, and I want to say this just you know again right here. I've never watched a single bit of Richard Pryor's stand up before watching this.

When I when I was done watching this, I went and watched some of his stand up and look, his stand up's amazing. Obviously that is that there. There is no question that the man was a genius when it came to stand up comedy. However, in terms of it translating into this role, I don't think it works. I think that he comes off he comes off more disinterested than Pierre Richard does.

But Pierre Richard somehow is more endearing in his disinterest because he eventually comes around. And I think what's funny is the American remake has to change the entire ending of the film, because it would have made no sense if they had. I would love to have seen them try to get there, because the way I interpret the end of the French one, correct me if I'm wrong, he straight up leaves his dad and is like, yeah, I just want to be with this guy who has nothing because he actually loves me like a parent. And there is no character arc for the father in the original. He doesn't get a story arc the way that Jackie Gleeson does.

And I think what's interesting is that seems to almost be the point of the Night film is to get Jackie Gleeson's character to become a better father, when the original didn't give a shit about that. That wasn't the point at all. Actually, the movie doesn't even interest itself in that question. It makes it very clear at the end that's that's not even the point of this movie. And I appreciate that the original is a much more mature story and a lot less of a by the book's story.

The way the American one ends, well, I can go hang out with him every now and then, like, no, this is so weird. It's it doesn't even work the way that they try to get there, And that's because I think that the story the French movie is telling is a serious story about a child who is being neglected, and Pierre Richard sees that it's not that Richard Pryor and the remake doesn't see it. I just don't think he gives a fuck, because that's kind of the energy he's giving, is that this just a job for him and Pierre Richard. By the end of the French One, I'm like, yeah, that kid should go with him. That dad is a real asshole, and Pierre Richard clearly loves this child.

And as the weird of a thing as that is, children get adopted all the time, and kids are put up for adoption all the time, and if he's emancipating himself from his own father, I mean, okay, So it's just a weird concept that the original I think embraces more and has less of a problem getting on board with. And the American one, obviously, because it is a remake of the original, it has the benefit of the original existing, which we've talked about before, and I just don't think that the American one does enough to justify its existence. And frankly, what it does do is it dumbs down the concept and kind of makes it for kids more so than the original is the original is not for kids, the remake. I mean, if you guys were twelve to fifteen, perfect age to see this kind of movie, Like it's it's Richard Pryor, but he's not saying the stuff that he says in his stand up, that's for sure.

I mean one of the ways he opens the stand ups is because I sucked a dick before. Like, there's none of that here. It's very newtered, which is weird to be, like like George Carlin being in this movie, Like what the what the fuck? Like this is so antithetical to the way that they conduct themselves in every other i mean state of what they do professionally. So it just the American one just seems like a weird take on the French one that's already a weird concept.

I didn't dislike either. I think there's one that's clearly superior, But unfortunately, I think the superiority of one is so apparent and obvious that I can't advocate in a lot of ways checking out the American one because it doesn't offer very much. I'd like to look at just the French one for a little bit off, all right, because this is, yes, please, it's interesting because the First off, this was Weber's directorial debut, right, so you know, first time he's like, Luckily he wasn't like other people where it's like, oh, you're ruining my movies, but my screenplays when you're direct these sayings. But he was like, I think I can do this, and so he did it. And I thought he did a very capable job.

I thought that every but he was directed very well. I thought the shots were selected well. There were some very interesting things that he's doing in here. But for me, like, yes, there's the father and son stuff, and that is definitely a part of this movie, but for me, it's much more the telling part of this movie for me is the Native American in the toy store. The Native American in the toy store, a human being who just hangs out in a toy store.

It sounds like he lives there. Wow, I think, so yeah. And when Pierrajard comes in here to do a story on the toy store and he's got his you know, his photographer buddy and all this kind of stuff, and it comes in, he's just like, oh, I'm with you, and he starts to speak English to him, and you always like, oh, yeah, we're we're together. I'm you know, Americans are bad basically like you know, I'm your friend here. And then he comes back later on dress as a fucking cowboy as his his toy.

Yeah, and the cowboy and the Indian looks, so just pointed in him just like I thought you said he were with me. And that relationship is almost the exact same relationship that I'm seeing when it comes to Richard and the newspaper. Richard and his coworkers, especially the guy that I was just talking about with like the silver hair, and like they are getting fired like crazy. The one guy gets fired because his hands are sweaty. It's really for me all about labor and the relationship between people that want to work.

Like he's desperate to find a job. Franzau Perin is desperate to get a job and get in there, and he keeps being like, oh, no, you can't have a job here. You have to shave, you know, No, you can't do this. Okay, yeah, you can finally have a job. And I was surprised he actually got the job and he's doing all this stuff and then it's like no, no, now you're going to work directly for the big boss of the paper, who will come in and chick somebody's hand and fire them for having a sweaty palm, or just or in that people shave their beards.

He's like such a micromanager of all this stuff, completely clueless. I think another very telling scene is when he's trying to This is Michelle Kay as Pierre Rambo cochett cochet Cochette, when he's trying to speak to the two guys that are working at his property, and he just keeps confusing them and mixing them up, and he has no idea who he's fucking. Doesn't your daughter have in Ngina? Nope? And then he just goes just the fucking bushes aren't straight by.

He just becomes so frustrated. He just reverts to being a dickhead and just fucks right off. So it's like, great, you've got the child's story, and you know that's interesting, you've got the father and all that. But for me, it's much more interesting when it's like, here's this party of hoity toity people and we're going to disrupt this party, and it's interesting. There's an analog for that in The Donner Toy, but so different and much more racially charged, and we'll talk about that.

I'm sure talk about it, but yeah, I really like that it's much more about you know, like basically they created this paper, this newspaper called the Toy to you know, take this guy down and talk about unfair labor practices and how everybody is his toy. I thought that was a great metaphor for everything. And that's where I'm at with this seventy what was it seventy six version, right, yeah, yeah, So it's telling multiple stories all at one time, and I really enjoyed that there is some subtlety to the French one that the American one sorely lacks, which is exactly what you've gotten to, which is the idea of the story is this kid sees the way his dad treats people and decides that he's going to emulate his father to the point of I'm going to buy this human being, and then his father should be seeing that's a problem, and in the French one he doesn't.

And that's the point is that people that are like that will continue to be like that, no matter how many times the judge tell them to stop. They will continue to be repugnant pieces of shit all the way down. And that's what I appreciate about the original one. It's serious story. I mean, yes, there are funny moments, and I would say it's a comedic film, but it really is the way that power imbalances affect relationships between people, and when the power imbalance is so large, people can feel enabled to treat people like objects or toys, if you want to boil it down to something childlike.

But the movie could have been called The Object and it would have been the same thing. It's just what happens when people stop being people to you and they're just another thing you can exploit. And the American one gives no shits about that whatsoever. The American one is like, well, my god, Richard Pryor, so let's make it do funny things. It's like, you do know that the original movie is not really that funny, right, Oh okay, well we'll try to make it funny.

Like it's the American one's trying so hard to be a comedy and the French one is trying its hardest to not be funny. Frankly, like it has more heart than the America one does. The American ones just kind of a Richard Pryor vehicle in the way like the Three of Us do a Chevy Chase vehicle movie like the same thing. It's like, Oh, who's the big guy at the times, Richard Pryor, what's he gonna do? I don't know, put him in this movie.

Now people show up because it's Richard Pryor. Yeah, where was he in his career at this point? Because I know he had already oh yeah, lit himself on fire. So before we get into Richard Pryor though, real quick. The other very telling scene for me in Le Duette is when the father is basically showing his son how he should be.

And it's right towards the end of the movie, like by the time the father should know better. He's going to that house and going in with his son going I'm gonna buy your house three hundred million. Well, and the guy's like, uh, can we think about it? Can we? Nope?

You have thirty seconds, you know, Can we have till five o'clock? Nope. It's one time offer. And it's basically like, this is how you treat people's son. This is when you have money, this is what you can do, and it just is it's chilling that this is nineteen seventy six and it's way worse today, you know.

Yeah, it's the divide between the rich and the boar in all three of these movies, because I do want to talk a little bit about the new toy towards the end, but they are all really I mean, you can we can talk about that with the Richard Pryor woman too, the economic disparity, and I think the economic disparity gets bigger as these films go on, because yeah, Richard, Well, Richard also fucks up because he goes in and basically gets his wife fired because he thinks that he's going to get this brand new job. They're like, oh, yeah, we're going to sign a contract here within a few days. He's like, oh, that's great, and then he goes to his wife's work and takes his coke bottle, shakes it up, and sprays it under what he thinks is her boss's face.

No, it's another guy. Regardless, I think she would have been fired. But he's like, I'm the big baller, I'm the bread winner here, han, y'all like you're not going to work anymore because I'm the man. And then he gets turned into a toy. I guess I thought that scene at the house was a flashback.

I thought that was it. I think so, but not that it matters. It's still it illustrates what his dad does. I got a little confused at the beginning. I think I turned away for a second when the when he first shows up at that factory where they're having the lunch, and this is when, uh is it princois Yeah, parent gets introduced to his new boss.

And yeah, when you're watching these movies, you could either say parent or Pignon. It's one of the two guys, because they're almost always parent opinion. Yeah, the table thing, and which is analogous to what they do in the American but yeah, please feel free? Yeah, well is it the same? Does he pull the table towards them?

Because I'm like, why is everybody what happened to their Why are they missed? Why are their meals misplaced? And I thought he had maybe taken somebody's seat or something. Then I was like, oh, it was probably the same thing. It is, But that idea of like pulling a table toward you instead of scooting your chair, you know, was sort of a perfect little encapsulation of this guy and those types of guys, and the thing with the house, I was just like, oh, this is this is really gross.

And the same with the uh his right hand man in both films, where he asks him to disrobe and of course, uh yeah he does because you know it's just that bad out there. Yeah, Mark, you are one hundred percent correct. I believe that's him telling Pierre how they got the beautiful house and then they flash back to that. So I apologize for it does happen late in the film, but I thought it was like literally the third act pretty much well. And that scene is crazy to me because there is nothing like that in the American one.

They never and that's the thing. That's the thing like the French one really goes out of its way to paint the father the miss elbow Quet character as like he's not there's no chance for him to change. That's not what this story is. And I like that that ultimately is part of the point that the movie is making, is that sometimes people aren't going to change, and you have to know when to be done yourself and go, Okay, I'm not changing this person. So if you're not going to change, I'll remove myself from the situation, and that's a very mature conversation to be having, especially about a child character.

Again, because he's got to be what in the in the American one, in the French one, he's probably the same age, like seven or eight, maybe nine or ten, like yeah, nine or ten, I think, yeah, he's a pretty young kid. So in the French one like it. I find it interesting that he's able to pick up on what the reality is because the plot is giving him that autonomy to go, okay, I can make that choice, and when given the opportunity at the end of the movie, he does. But you actually see throughout the movie him and Pierre Richard are forming a genuine relationship, and that's Pierre Richard doesn't take any shit from him. And I'm not saying that Richard Pryor in the remake does, but Pierre Richard has a firmer hand than Richard Pryor does in the movie.

I think that contributes to the character because, again, in a real world where these real things would be happening, if this guy is being put through the ringer like this, he is going to get upset. He is not going to want to have to deal with it, and he's going to find a way to make the situation livable for him. And one of those things is again pointing out the fact that the person that you're idolizing is a fucking asshole, because that's I mean, that's what peer Reshard effectively does. He's like, your dad's a dick, and we're gonna we'll point it out to everybody. And again it's not that there's not that in the American one.

It's just that French one, I think gets there, gets to the point, and lives in the point a little bit more comfortably than the American one has any interest in doing. Yeah, So, like you were saying, Mark, there's that whole scene of him pulling the table towards him, and in the French version, they all just adjust and at that point, Pierre Richard is a parent, is working for this guy. It's just basically one of the first times I think he's seeing this guy and seeing his behavior and everybody just adjusts to him. That In the Donner one, Richard Pryor pulls the table back and starts this whole fight between the two of them right off the bat, And even though like you're saying, Chris that Pierre Richard takes a much firmer hand with the child.

It's it's it's kind of Richard Pryor taking a firmer hand with Jackie Gleeson just to set them up as antagonist and protagonist right off the bat. I mean that's really early in the film. It's almost maybe the first time that those two characters see each other, and you have to yuck it up by putting Richard Pryor and drag and having warned Beatty try to tell not Warren Beatty, ned Beatty, try to cover up your mustache and all this stuff, and it's just it's real bad, real tedious. It's tedious. It's very hi.

Him throwing the fried chicken and the back and forth with the table and the is yeah, it had multiple times. Yeah, the humor in the remake is so much more ham fisted than the original, and like Chris, like you've mentioned, the original really isn't all that funny. There's a little bit of that slap sticky stuff with Richard, but I kept expecting it to go more because you know, the French love Jerry Lewis, so I'm thinking, oh, this is going to get silly, and it doesn't if people don't have heard me say it enough. And you know that's one of my least favorite forms of comedy is slapstick. But nothing in this bothered me.

And I don't know that I've seen that guy in anything before, so he was a pleasant surprise. I really like that actor. And I'm going to watch some of the other ones that you guys have up because I know he's in like most of them. Yeah, he's in a lot of them. He's in The Man with the Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe.

He plays the role that Tom Hanks would take over. And you know what, in comparison to those two movies, these two couldn't be any more different. Like The Man with One Red Shoe and The Man with One Black Shoe, those movies are pretty much the same. These two movies very different. And I don't know if it's like I'm not gonna say it's harshly Dick Donner, but I just Donner's direction doesn't add anything.

There's nothing here that it's workman like. I mean, if anything, I think Carol Sobieski's script might be kind of the issue. But just looking at all the things that she's written like. She's a pretty well known screenwriter, so this is not in a lot of ways like this is kind of atypical for her in terms of quality. I think the issue is they tried to make the French movie into just a comedy.

They tried to force the issue, and I don't think it works that way with this at least, Like the best thing about The Man with One Black Shoe and the Man with One Red Shoe is that the American one was staying true to the French one, and in staying true to it, Yes, does it kind of maybe not make a case for itself because it is a remake, Sure, but it follows along closely enough and makes a couple changes that are necessary for it to be more approachable for an American audience, but effectively the same movie. Why they didn't do that here is kind of beyond me, other than just because oh, it's Richard Pryor, so it's got to be a comedy, which in and of itself is flawed reasoning. I mean, he could be in a dramatic film.

That's not a requirement that you have to have Richard Pryor on screen being funny. That's just the expectation, I can call it. Yeah, well, that's the thing about Richard Pryor. You just said blue color. Richard Pryor's best roles are the non comedy things.

I agree. I mean, if some call it loving. He shows up in a little bit hit, He's good in Audios Amigo. There's a little bit of comedy, but not a ton our wash I would say, is like pure comedy role, and he's really good in that. Pret Lightning.

He's pretty good in Slightning like some comedy, but it's not Yeah, you know, that's not the main focus of that for sure. It's amazing though to think that, like I was just looking up, like how many movies he was in. They were trying to make Richard Pryor happen hard So like just between nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty three he was in I think seven or eight movies altogether, just yeah, and some of these, like Holy Moses, he's barely in and God would trust I think he's barely in. But then you get like ster Crazy, Busting Loose, some kind of Hero the Toy, Superman three. He's like major player in all of those, and ster Crazy is one of the ones.

So we saw a lot and enjoyed that silver streak. And yeah, you know, it's kind of interesting because Gene Wilder, that's who I saw in this Pierre Rashard. I'm like, oh my god, he's like the French Gean Wilder or vice versa. Not that he acts that way, just it's really basically just the hair and the look. But man, that would have been a good option for the American one would have been Jean Wilder.

Jesus, he could have really stood up. I mean the way he treats Charlie in Lewonka and the Chocolate Factory, like that level of sternness at the end. You could see that coming out of his mouth. In the Toy Richard Pryor never gets there. He gets there with Jackie Gleeson, if he gets there with anyone, and then again it's like, not the same movie, don't really care Like that Jackie Gleeson character does not need to be redeemed.

He's kind of irredeemable. He's so rich. That's the point. Well, I mean that also, having Jean Wilder would have avoided the painful racial politics of the remake. Its well, wait, when buying an African American person has worse worse tones to it than a white person buying a white person.

Really, I mean luckily they are aware of it. Like when they're giving him money for him to be the toy, there's a Confederate flag over his shoulder. There's the scene it happens an hour into the French version where they're having the party and he and the kid are playing cowboys and Indians and stuff, and meanwhile you've got the protesters outside. That's an hour and a half into the Donner film, and that is a guy who's running for reelection and the Grand Wizard of the KKK is there as well. We've got that was black face jokes.

Holy shit, I mean it's the comedic Dane Mauve of the film as they would say, it's yeah. I mean it's like they crafted a bunch of scenarios that they were like, this would be funny if the toy was black. That's what it just feels like. And it's like, I guess it's not that it's not funny, it's just it's not funny, and like it doesn't serve a place in this movie either. It comes out of such left field.

And again to your point, Mike. I mean they injected this themselves into the movie intentionally. This was not there in the original, so you're to blame for making that choice. Yeah, and it's like the climax of the movie effectively, like yeah, yeah, so tone deaf. Even in Fucking Good Lord in eighty two, it was totally deaf in that Jackie Gleason's character's name is us, you know, yeah, Like I don't know if we ever get what his name stands for, but it's just us.

And this was also that weird time where Jackie Gleason was making the comeback, like Jackie Gleason had been with us since what the Ford, you know, fifties for Honeymooners. I'm not sure what else he had, Yeah, I guess he was doing a lot of movies in the fifties as well, made that huge splash with the Honeymooners. And then also there was a lot of there's the Jackie Gleeson Show. I used to actually watch that on PBS on like Sunday nights. There were things like you know, Brekling for Heavyweight.

He's doing all this great stuff and then you know, eventually it comes to like Skidoo, which is horrible how to commit marriage? You know, like it goes a little astray for a while, but then boom smoking in the band. It happens nineteen seventy seven, and he is just on fire again and it just becomes holy shit. And you can imagine, and I know the posters for this said like Jackie Glusen something something, you know, Richard Pryor wants to buy Richard Pryor. I mean it is like, oh my god, Jackie Gleeson and Richard Pryor, can you imagine what a comedy this is going to be bringing these two powerhouses together.

It basically Jackie Gleeson is playing beautfor te justice through this entire thing. He's just an asshole likes to swear just to get a rise out of the audience. I guess we're supposed to find all of his swears to be funny, but the poor guy barely has a character, and yeah, I found his when he is on screen. I'm just like, get away from this guy. I don't even care for this person at all.

It's very telling when the tagline on the poster is when Jackie Gleeson told his son he could have any prison he wanted. He picked the most outrageous gift of all Richard Pryor. To your point, it's like they're not They're acknowledging on the poster one hundred percent you and they know why you're coming to this movie, and they don't make good on that at all. Like if this were the only thing you'd ever seen of Richard Pryor's which for me, for the most part pretty much was, I would sit afterwards and go, so he's popular, like he's a popular comedian, because this doesn't do what he does any justice. And frankly, it feels like taking someone like Eddie Murphy and putting him in a kid's movie.

Now, look that ended up working because I think Eddie Murphy is a little bit more malleable than Richard Pryor. But not being malleable as a comedian is not a bad thing. Some stand up comedians just aren't made to be actors. I mean, I can think of plenty of stand up comedians that are well known for being stand up comedians, not for their film roles. Like I mentioned George Carlin, I mean George Carlin's and what you know, Bill and Ted, But I mean, yeah, but like those are bit parts he's not the main character or the second lead of the movie Pryor.

I mean, again, from what it sounds like, it may even be a different issue, which is he's better at being dramatic that he is comedic in terms of outside of the stage roles, which is an even weirder issue. But at the same time, like you alluded to, they're trying their hardest to turn Richard Pryor into it. I don't know, like Richard the big time screen Richard Pryor, which just wasn't clearly going to happen well his roles were. I mean, a lot of those movies are pretty darn good. Like I said, though, I think I don't know if they ever really found the perfect vehicle.

I think to your point from earlier, Mark, I think like Silver Streak and uh One, I might banking on the other while they're stir crazy stir crazy. It feels like those were the ones that really used his comedy for the best. I would have been curious because he was originally because he co wrote or wrote part of Blazing Saddles and was supposed to be sheer art. But also Richard Pryor was kind of his own worst enemy. He was unreliable, well as far as I know.

Now this might be like an apocryphal thing, but I believe the story was. I mean, the guy did set himself on fire freebasing, so I think there's a little bit of truth to this that he's kind of dependent on drugs a lot and like just wasn't reliable coming on setting things. So I can see why they were like, yeah, no, we're gonna cast Cleveland Little instead, Thank you very much, Richard, because the insurance would be off the charts with you, because nobody trusts you. And I think he finally got over that quite a bit. But yeah, just some of the roles that he was taking, I was like, you know, like again like some kind of hero was kind of fun.

I watched oh what was the one? Watched another one recently of his, and I was just like, ah, this is just all over the place with tone because it's like he's a funny guy. He wants to do funny things. It's like him with that wonder wheel or whatever it is in this movie where he's just like how you know, it's like, okay, well, I guess this is a funny scene, and how he's like, oh, you're gonna give it a proper burial and all these things. I'm like, I guess these are funny lines, but they just weren't hitting at all.

And seeing him dress up in a Spider Man costume and stuff, I'm like, all right, well that's nice and humiliating. But you know, like the even that scene where it's like Pierre Richard seems so much more humiliated when they push him into the room with all of those other people, when he's wearing the snoopy pajamas and stuff, and the wife, the new wife is like, look in my husband, you know what he bought for his son. So different in tone to me than when Teresa Ganzveel as Fancy Baits does the same thing, But it just doesn't land the same. And I think it Pierre Richard has a little more meekness to him in no way, And I don't know if it's getting more of his story. I mean, the first part of the film of the original, you know, it's all on him.

You're I don't think at the time, you know, you would be prepared for what comes when he's at the toy store. You know, this seems like it's a labor thing. It's a work thing. You know, I don't know what was going on in France at the time. Maybe there was labor shortage.

I always think of the Tenant Route that's kind of around the same time. And there was stuff going on in that movie that, you know, government and strikes and things like that, and I'll post so stuff. Yeah, and so you get more of that, and and his his whole interaction with the guy from the bank. You know that he's trying to whine and dine to give him right for it, yes, yeah, and then he's starting to write the check and I'm thinking, wait a minute, before the banker even said anything, I'm like, you're writing a check and he's like, what are you doing? Or are you writing a check?

It's gonna bounce, you know, but you get you know, there was none of that. It's it's very limited in the in the remake where you know Prior is down on his luck and looking for work, but it just doesn't have the same social vibe at all. And so him him getting in the original Pierre Shard getting knocked down just for whatever reasons, seem to have more weight to me, like like he's really we've seen him take it on the Chin a couple of times already, and you don't really get that with Richard Pryor. You just get, oh, he can't find work. It's really bad out there.

And you know, maybe the scene with ned Baty is a little humiliating their their interview, but it's not set up as strongly that he's just constantly being knocked down, either by others or by his own kind of silly mistakes. Chris and I were talking a lot on the Dinner for Idiots episode or Dinner for Schmuck Slash the Dinner Game, which maybe by the time this goes up, I think it should be over at patreon dot com slash culture cast, and you can hear us talk about two other Francis Eber films. But we were talking a lot about how dumb do you play the character? I don't see parent the the Pierre Richard character in this one. I don't see him as dumb.

I really don't see him as dumb at all. But then you look at Richard Pryor and again starts off with him, you know, playing games with his friends, and just like how broke they are. He finds out that his brother brother in law is going to sell the house and all this played by an uncredited Tony Burton in a such a Sight Jesus class led by a very fay Man at the front. I'm like, oh God, of course, but then he's actually it was, it was. And I love Tony Burton, But to see Richard Pryor driving around or riding around on his bicycle with his headphones on and constantly like causing chaos, I mean, he is an idiot in that section of the film, a clue, completely cluse, doesn't know that any of this stuff is going on.

And then later on like right afterwards, like when he's not doing that whole sequence, he's not stupid. And but yet at the same time that these are both newspaper men. I'm not saying that because Richard Pryor is African American that he shouldn't be working out on a newspaper. But it doesn't feel like he talks about working at a newspaper very much like when he goes into interview with that baby, I'm just like, Okay, what is this job? It feels like he wants he's desperate for anything, you know, even he's going to be a maid and stuff, And I'm just like, no, no, you stick to your guns.

It should be like I'll write copy for the local flyer, or I'll do this, or I'll do that. But instead of to he just feels like I need a job. I don't care what job it is. Maybe it'll be a newspaper and I'm like, no, no, you're a newspaper man. You should have ink for blood kind of thing, like show me that you are that person and that maybe you stick to your guns so much.

Maybe you're so hard headed that you won't look for other jobs and you only want to work at a newspaper because that's your passion. Yeah, it's it well, and I think that the journalism of it all gets lost in the American one. Very yeah, pretty much at the big I don't know why they even have him be a journalist, just have him work at the toy store so they can pay it off at the end. By not paying it off at all, like they miss so much with the social commentary and the remake, it could have just been gone, I mean it. He when his wife and the protesters show up in the remake, he takes he gets them out immediately.

There's no real tension there because he's like, I'm going to take care of it, so go. That didn't need to be in there. You know. He could have figured out who these people were that were showing up at this party on his own and set out to destroy it. His backstory dot doesn't lend to the movie in the way that Richard Perenz does in the original at all.

It could have been excited. And this movie's nine minutes longer, so I mean, if you want to add up the time that the stuff at the beginning with his wife and I did like the name of her group or whatever, the clan watch and I was like, oh, that's going to come into play later. But that and the protest and and everything else didn't really need to be there. It could have just been I need you know, my house is going to be sold. I need money.

I've got a job, but it's not enough. I'm might get a second job at this toy store Morkan Knights or something. And that's what I don't like about the American One is, like you you mentioned Mark there is the American one has nothing to say, and that's because it's literally not interested in saying anything. I mean, there's that scene between Richard Pryor and the child actor who plays Eric Bates in the the US remake, Scott Schwartz Master Bates. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Well, and if you know where he ended up in films, that's kind of a whole other term. Yeah, like Christmas Story, Jesus Christ. Yeah, playing blick if you know what I mean. He's like, it's a flick something for sure. I haven't seen much more of his work, especially it's more adult fair so Scotty's X rated Adventure.

Yeah, it's like him and that kid from uh fright Night? Yeah, yeah, cool Brewster. Yeah. Yeah. But there in that scene, Richard Pryor is asking him like why, like why did you why?

And he's like, because I wanted a friend. There's none of that in the French one, like he's doing it because he's trying to prove a point to his father. In the American one, it's like you've undercut the entire possible social commentary of the movie in this one scene by having the kid just go I just was lonely and wanted a friend. Like did we think Americans in eighty two were too stupid for some social commentary to be injected into their movie? Because it's been vacuumed out of this movie completely.

I mean, there's a moment where Richard Pryor's about to spank Scott Schwartz, which like comes out of nowhere, and then he doesn't do it, and there's nothing like that in the original one, because that's not the point of the movie. It's so weird to me that they just missed the point completely because again I think they thought, well, we've got Richard Pryor, so it has to be funny. But Richard Pryor is an observational comedian. He is literally I mean he made the use of the N word and art form in a lot of ways. I mean, some of his titles of his albums are literally another word and then the N word.

Like very few people if anyone can get away with that, I don't think anybody could get away with that now, and I mean then it was pretty controversial even But just by the way he conducts himself, Richard Pryor understands his place in the world and what he can do to do better. Possibly. I mean you've already alluded to the fact that he was obviously troubled by his own demons, but he is a comedian who his ability to be observational but also smart about the comedy is why he was so successful and why so many people talked about him being like literally the comedian. Plenty of comedians I'm sure looked up to and still look up to. But it feels like a missed opportunity to direct this into a comedy slant when it isn't really comedic even to begin with, and that they try to force the movie into this box is so strange to me because like at the end with the clan, like this doesn't serve anybody.

This isn't serving any plots. It's not serving the main story, that's for sure. The scene in the remake has nothing to do with the overall movie the scene in the original. It is part and parcel with what's going on in the original movie. These rich people are completely fucking awful and don't want anything fun or different around them, and that's what you see in the original and the remake.

It's played in a completely different way that feels again like a contrived scene without a lick of comedy in it. Well, well so that whole thing, that whole dinner with the clan section or party with the clan, you know, because that's what they like to do. Ending with the golf cart stuff going on, and that this just makes no sense to me that the kid ends up in the pool. Jackie Gleeson ends up in the pool. Richard Pryor fishes the kid out and he's like, hey, I can't swim, and then he falls in and you see Jackie Gleason underwater just like call him like a dumb son of a bitch or something.

And then you have Prior going like what, I can't hear you, and you can hear them speaking to each other underwater, and then cut and it's like Jackie Gleason with the shotgun and Bridge Pryor walking in. But then it's like, oh no, I'm not gonna hurt you. You saved my life. And I was like, we're really you couldn't get out of that golf cart in the pool? What you saved his life?

Okay? And then it's like, well, here, let me tell you how to be better for your son. And it's interesting because that scene of the let me show you how to like talk to your son and cuddle your son and all that, they actually use that in the New Toy in the twenty twenty two toy. So they like took the best parts of the seventy six and the eighty two. Not to say that there were many good parts of the eighty to but took that all together for the twenty twenty two and rather than this whole thing of I want a job, you know, please give me a job, mister rich executive type of thing, it's basically there's a guy who and he's played by I'm trying to remember Jim Bell Deblues.

Most people will know him. He was in Amala. He's been at a ton of stuff. He's the actor, a little darker complexed. His family's from Morocco, and his right arm doesn't work, so he always keeps it in his pocket.

But his wife is pregnant and so he's trying to be better for the child yet to come, and then also seeing this stuff going on with the father and son, and he's really just like trying to help them out more than anything like it. Really, he doesn't start a newspaper, he doesn't do any of this kind of stuff. He's basically like, here, let me try to help you son and be a better person. And then here father, let me try to help you connect with your son to the point where he's like, there's a big soccer game on tonight, like you should come, you should be there, and like the guy has no idea how to cheer for teams or anything. He's just like totally clueless.

The father this is on how to work with anybody's and it's it's kind of a fascinating thing that they changed it around so much but made it a much better movie. I don't know which one I like better, the seventy six or the twenty twenty two, but both vastly superior than this eighty two version. Well, and what's crazy it sounds like, but the new one is they kind of give up the fact that the original ones idea isn't necessarily the best way of telling this story anymore, and it has to evolve with the times and the way times are. And that's the thing. I was sitting here thinking to myself, like, and you know, I think some of the best movies that we've watched put us in the position of the people in the movie, thinking to myself, how would I conduct myself if I was Pierre Richard in Lesuette.

I think I would conduct myself the exact same way that he does, which is, you know, trying to understand the situation that I'm in by understanding the situation that this kid is in and what I can do to kind of bridge the gap and do better. And he does do better, and in the original, the dad doesn't care. But in a new version of that movie, I find I would find it hard. I would find it hard to get the audience to that point, because that's it's not that it's not a good ending in the original, it's just it is a strange ending because the child does emancipate himself from the father and work to believe that he literally leaves his father to go be with Pierre Richard. And I mean, look, there's like a lot of stuff that goes into that that just, you know, again like legal things.

So in the original, like it just kind of hangs a lantern on it, and there's no scene past the hug with Pierre Richard and the kid. In the remake, there's no way they could do that again. They would have to kind of toe the line between the two. And I'm glad to hear that that's the case, because again, I don't dislike the idea in the American one of making the Father actually trying to do better and maybe amenable to doing better. I like that idea.

I think the French One doing what it does makes perfect sense for a French film coming out in seventy six in terms of like what it's trying to say and embrace. But the fact that the New One kind of does something even different, but it's essentially just remixing both of them together is smart. Now. The question I have is does the New One feature the Michael Jackson song that Jackson wrote for the Richard Pryor one that they didn't use that up until like a couple of years ago, was unheard completely came out on Thriller forty and you know what, not a bad song. I actually kind of wish he was in the movie.

It's very h we Are the World. Anything would be better, anything would be better than that song they chose for the opening of this. Yeah, it's very ben we Are the World. It's like a very nice Michael Jackson song. But you know, I mean, if you have Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleeson and Michael Jackson, I mean that's the thing.

The original toy successful. The American version also successful, I mean not critically, but financially made a lot of money. Was a financially successful film, which I think does speak to Richard Pryor as a comedian. At the time, he was bankable. He was bankable.

That's why he's in all those movies in that time period. Can I admit to being very very dense? Yeah? I didn't. I didn't take that away from that original ending.

I just thought he was kind of like, you know, what can I do? He likes me more? Yeah, I don't. I keep mixing up his name. It's uh, Pierre Chard, Pier Richard Jean Wilder, and that's not even his character's name, French gen Wilder, French Jean Wilder.

I was, yeah, I totally that flew right over my head. I was just like, oh, you know, sorry, dude. It rang to me like there was no redemption for the dad, like I knew there would be in the American version, one thing I remembered, you know, because it has to be that way, right, But I just took it. I just took it as more of a French type ending, like you know, what can I I do? He likes me more than he likes you.

I'm not even doing anything but being me. I didn't even really think of that next step of like he's basically saying, fuck you, dad, I'm living with him now. Well. And what's funny is like, as someone who I don't want kids of my own, but I have been around my friends and their kids, or my sister and her previous boyfriend had a kid, so many of them are like, we want to stay here and hang out with you because you're so much fun, and it's like, what am I doing. I'm not doing anything.

I'm just existing. No, I mean, I'm not doing anything intentionally to curry favor with you. I'm treating you the way I assume you want to be treated, which is I actually pay attention and I listen to you, and I don't just ignore you the way a lot of adults treat children. And I think that I see that more in the Peer Richard role than I do in the Richard Pryor role, because again, Pierre Richard is engaging with the child actor on his level, and it never feels like Richard Pryor is engaging with Eric Bates on his level. It's always like I'm trying to be the go between between you and your father, which is the point of the American film.

That's the point is that both of them come together in the end. But there's still a little place in his heart for Richard Bryer. I mean, whether or not Pierre Richard in the original is actually the child's father now obviously is beside the point. I mean again, I just think it goes there for me because again, he's like, you could go with him, or you could go with me, and the kid just fucking doesn't even think twice, he just zips out of there. But yeah, I guess it's I mean again, the ending is up to interpretation.

I completely agree with where you're going with it as well, because I mean again, at the end of the day, the intent of the two movies is so different that the endings are really different too, because you couldn't you couldn't do the originals ending with Richard pryor that that would be weird. Oh yeah, well, I think it would have been very appropriate to have a Michael Jackson song for that movie where you've got the older black man who sleeps with the younger white child. Wow, Wow, hot takes everybody. Mike White's got him worse a monkey though. Yeah, well, because that never comes up in any of these, which I'm glad for that we don't have to address, like you could be a perf.

Right, Well, the background checks on this, yeah, the bath scene and everything. I didn't remember the bath scene from the remake, so I was like, what's gonna happen here when I watched. I think I did this backwards too. I watched the original first yesterday and enjoyed it much more, so it would have been nice to end on that. But anyway, Yeah, I've been watching the American Ones.

First the way it's a since it's a French film, I thought, well, I don't know, they could get into their underwear at least, and I have this be really awkward, but you know they've got played for more of a laugh and as a goof on the you know, the snoody maid or whatever. Oh boy, that character the Nazi sympathizer in Yeah, that one was always it's true what they say about you people. Oh, it's tool, it's true. What the fuck you brown all over? Yeah?

Oh thanks, thanks reminding me about the worst part of the American One. Josh reminded me of what was the lady's name on Benson where she was as well. That was I kept thinking of the gal speaking of Chevy Chase in O Heavenly Dog up in heaven for some reason that I kept thinking of because she was Germanic too. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think she got into not to stuff. She's watching Hitler on her TV.

Yes, I was surprised though. I was surprised at how many things from the original showed up in the remake because I thought watching watching the original and not really remembering the the remake all that well. For one thing, I didn't think Richard Pryor was a journalist in in the remake, and you know, the car stuff, and just so many of the scenes are played they were just there. They end up being so weirdly different in the in the remake and not landing, I think because that connection is not being made like it is in the original, Like he's trying to figure out what's what's going on with this kid, you know, as a reporter, like what's the deal here in the original, and that that's missing from the remake.

Yeah, then having to break into the newspaper office and the remake, Yeah, that just that kind it goes nowhere and we're going to escape from the prison and there's going to be no consequences. They didn't take anybody's fingerprints or me got shot. Yes, oh my god, throwing firecrackers on a police station. The other thing. Sorry to keep harping on this, but the other thing I really liked about the twenty twenty two the new toy is also they address where is the mother, because they talk about that in the Doner one.

I'm not sure if they talk about in the Weber film, but in the Donner one, he's just like, oh, yeah, I had this crazy wife and I left her locked up in a sanatorium before I went into the strip club and saw this beautiful girl with big knockers and propellers on her boobs, and I'm just like, what the fuck. In the twenty twenty two, it starts at her funeral and there is damage to the child and to the husband because of the loss of the wife, and it just becomes this big deal that she's gone. So you don't have the two wive characters from the Veber and from the Donner so you don't have that relationship either, which is kind of interesting. So there is nobody to push him into a room and embarrass him.

There isn't that dinner time conversation, and yeah, you feel the loss. There's one part where the toy in the new one is just like, oh my god, look at all this stuff. Look at the view that you have, look at these beautiful statues that you have. You've got his room in that one, because it can be CG. It's wild.

He's just like, look at all this stuff you have. And the kid runs away and he's just like, I've got all this stuff, but I don't have my mom. And my dad tried so desperately to save her. He kept sending to her to all these clinics. I didn't get to see my mom when she died.

I'm just like, wow, that's really devastating. And I was just like this again, you're elevating this material so much. It was really really well done. And I liked the wife character, or the new wife, I should say, in the seventy seventy six version, but in the Donner version. Now, I love that actress, and I used to love whenever she would show up, especially on Johnny Carson.

But I was just like, okay, I'm not I'm never connecting with you, and I don't know if you're an ally or an enemy at any time. Kind of the same thing with Ned Baby, I'm like, are you an ally or an enemy? And then poor Wilfrid Hyde White, I'm like, I know you always played doddering old men, but are you actually doddering in this one because you're not doing anything other than like, yeah, yeah, oh that was your breakfast. I'm like, oh my god, that's like they're trying to starve Richard Pryor in the in his version more than anything. It's like, well that was you dinner.

Well now the kid's taking the place off of the table. Oh sorry, It's like you should be uh you know, oh my god, where the medlands? Where where's the food at? I need something? I just you know, Yeah, it's so tonally a mess with outside of the main characters, Like I mean, you have Ned Batty in this movie, and he is wasted, not wasted, I'm completely wasted.

And I mean even I mean we talked about the ending of the original where we have you know, this kind of touching moment. It I think it speaks volumes how the American film ends, where it's the gag is now he's gonna do this all the time, I guess, And it's like, first, first off, you're getting paid to be a glorified babysitter thousands of dollars. Please tell me how this is actually a problem for you, because I'm just gonna go out and lemon say this much. I've already alluded to the fact that, for whatever reason, kids seem to think that I'm hilarious. If somebody asked me to take care of their kids for thousands of dollars, yeah, I do it in a fucking heartbeat.

I would do it like or what am I a fucking moron? Like? Do I want a real job? Or do I want to get paid a lot of money and probably taken on trips by people for free because they expect me to take care of their kid and they don't care. Yeah, you know what, I don't know how bad this job really sounds like.

That's probably the big takeaway in twenty twenty four doing this job, You're just a nanny, bro, Like that's all you are. It's the toy. They could have recalled this movie The Male Nanny, and it probably would have played just as well, because again, he's not the kid's toy. There's never that scene in either movie that I was expecting where it's like the kid is literally just telling him to do embarrassing and like demeaning shit, And they never get there in either movie really, like that's not what it's about. And in my mind, it's like, why even call it that?

Then? Why is the poster Jackie Gleeson controlling Richard Pryor, Like that's not even this movie never even goes there. It never even attempts to get into the of that kind of commentary, and the original does, but the original still is not this child is controlling him. That's like he buys him, orders him around. He already does order him around quite a bit.

Yeah, but like again, i mean I'm pretty sure again, like if you're somebody's if you're a kid's nanny, like I'm pretty sure you're at their beck and call. Like that's my point. Like, ultimately he is just like a babysitter. But in the original he feels like more than a babysitter. And that's in the remakers, like he's just kind of like an in house nanny for this kid.

And then at the end of the movie they go, hey, yeah, yeah. Really, Like again, at the end of the movie, we are led to believe Richard Pryor, in a Looney Tunes esque moment, is running down the road. I mean it literally zooms in on a circle like Looney Tunes. It's like that's well, and that fast motion stuff that they do in the remake, and three or four times the sped up comedy him running all the water. That whole fishing scene was bizarre.

You know, talk about some things that are not from the original. That was one with the piranhas. I'm like, what is the fucking point of this? Just to run into ned baby by chance? Seems like it, Yeah, because that's where we get you know, he's fired somebody because they had sweaty hands.

They've got to bring that back and m yeah, because you don't really do you see that moment in the Donner version or no, just you know, he's just relaying it, which is weird because why not just say you've got fired for some reason exactly? You know. I guess they have to have the scene a little bit later where he's removing his pants in front of them now this time, which actually that is humiliating because in the original he's just doing it in the guy's office and because he was told to, but you know, ed baby has to do it in front of the kid and Richard Pryor, And I got to say that one hit a little bit harder than the scene in the comparable scene in the in the original. Well and again it's the original.

Again, there's lots of moments in the original that just when they show up in the American one, it's like, you know, this is is it going to work as well here, guys, because you just haven't set up the stakes the same way. The movie is not trying to do the same thing. So I get that you're trying to be true to the source material, but but why like, yeah, because we don't see the workings of the newspaper now in this like we do. You know, the first third of that film, the first act of that film is him at the newspaper trying to break into the newspaper and secure a job so that he can, you know, get his bank situations sorted out. And it's not you know, Richard Pryor doesn't go in for an interview for the paper.

It's it's to be a cleaning lady. Well, yeah, it's so strange at his house, which I found odd. I thought, oh, he's going to be a cleaning lady at the building, right, that's going to morph into him cleaning the toy store exactly. Yeah that made sense, Mark, Well yeah, yeah, that that toy store is scene is too. Like you mentioned Chris, with him playing with the stuff by himself.

He thinks by himself, why, Like it's so it's it's not funny. It's not funny. And Richard Pryor is not a prop comedian like you know how I know, but I watched that seed and he's not funny, Like you're just like, what what can we do to me? Richard Pryor? Funny?

Well, not this. That was one of the things I remember though, so I thought, oh, he's gonna do that in the original, but he doesn't. He knocks some mannequin's head off, but he's not goofing around and playing when Eric shows up. Thankfully they're named the same thing in both movies. He's just standing there and the kid is like, So that goes kind of Chris to your whole point about that's not why he's saying I want this guy.

He's doing it because they said I can have anything I want. And this is what my dad does. He buys people, He buys people off, lets them go for no reason or you know this, that and the other thing. Who cares if they're human beings? Well, and the American One also does this thing where they like they show them handing out the papers all over town.

It's like nobody would fucking care, Like, what is it? Shit? It's again like it all feels so contrived in the American One, to the detriment of the movies. I mean, the entire point of the movie is completely ignored. No, I just say that's because they haven't set up the newspaper as kind of the hub of this film like they did in the original.

Yeah. Yeah, the newspaper's a fully formed idea in the in the in the in the original and the remake, it's like it's just a building that they're in. Sometimes. I was so glad that in the in the twenty twenty two remake, I don't even know what the guy does, what the father does, there's no talk of newspaper. And I was so afraid that it was going to because the kid runs a YouTube channel, so it's like, oh fuck, it's gonna be all about fucking YouTube and social media and shit, and there is stuff about social media.

There's some footage that gets leaked, but it gets leaked by a bodyguard who after the Pignon character leaves, and the bodyguard gets fired because I think the Pignon character was playing the piano that only the wife could play, so they kick him out, and then there was like why didn't you stop him? So they fire the bodyguard, and then the bodyguard releases this footage and it becomes a viral thing. But it's Instagram, it's YouTube, it's all these different things, but it's not the sun and it's not the sun becoming this YouTube crusader or something. So it was just a moment of like, we are now humiliating this person in front of everybody, like how dare you become this guy's toy? And there was a scene where he was acting like a dog, so they're just like you're this guy's dog, and they're just making fun of him like crazy, he like lives in ignominy.

But then it happens to spark like how could this guy treat this other human being like that? And then then it becomes the labor stuff towards the end of the movie and I'm like, yes, this is again how you structure it. Whereas yeah, by the eighty two version, drop the newspaper. It really doesn't make any sense here, Like you're saying, yeah, taking it all over town. Who boy, we were really tired.

We put all those papers out everywhere, and I'm like, yeah, who's gonna give a shit other than the people working at this place, and they probably know all this stuff anyway, right right, Yeah, yeah, the American one. I think, unfortunately, this is one of those times where we not we, but we as the people who made this movie, as American filmmakers, we missed the point of the original and dumbed it down. I mean, I actually, what's funny is when we did our Patreon episode on the Dinner Ducon's and Dinner for Schmucks, Man, this movie makes Dinner for Schmucks look like a fucking masterpiece. Oh yeah, in terms of the way it's interpreting the source material and doing something different with it. Because Dinner for Schmucks is nothing like the original the Dinner Game.

It's an and in a lot of ways, like this movie is nothing like the original either, But Dinner for Schmucks is how you actually do it right, which is show us something we haven't seen, expound more upon ideas that are hinted at in the original. I mean the original. They never even leave the apartment. We never see the titular dinner that they're talking about. The American one gives it to us and it actually is entertaining, like it's probably one of the better parts of the movie.

In this movie, they don't ever rise to the occasion that the French one does the American one. All we have is Richard pryor mugging for the camera and being this kid's friend. And then by the end of the movie, he is saddled with this kid for the rest of his life, is what it feels like. Pierre Richard. Yes, he kind of one armed hugs the kid at the end of the movie and kind of throws his hands into the air, But he made his case for why he's doing what he's doing, and it makes sense that the kid went with him.

Is he maybe a little flustered that it happened, Sure, but he has no one to blame but himself, Richard. I don't really understand why the kid likes Richard Pryor. At the end of the American One, Richard Pryor doesn't really ever resonate with the kid emotionally the way Pierre Rishard does in the original, and it's I don't know. It kind of undercuts any sort of emotional resonance that the movie as, which is we're watching someone transform the life of one person. In the American One, it's two.

But I don't need that other person transformed in the American One because it doesn't go anywhere. And that's I mean laser Focusing the original on the kid and the relationship between the kid and the toy I think is smart. And to your point, Mike, like the occupation of the dad and the American one is so fucking unimportant. Why who cares? Like who cares?

You don't do anything with it? So what oh? Because in the original that was a newspaper thing. That's why. Okay again, why are you paying lip service to a movie?

No Americans saw what I don't get. It's it's not like let the right one in and let me in two movies that you could see both of them, and a lot of people had. This is like no one in eighty two is seeing the original Francis Weber film. I don't I don't know why you're so close to the original when you don't have to, Like, it's unneeded, completely unneeded, And I think the movie would have benefited by them just going we have a guy who gets bought by a child of a rich asshole, and that's the setup, and go with that. Make something that feels uniquely American, not like they're trying to make this work in America the way the French film made it work in France.

And there is something weird about a black adult with a small white child just walking around there. It's just a bit, it's just bizarre, Like it's just it doesn't work. It doesn't work, prompts it prompts rich your daughner to call the police. Right, was not a camera on my mistake? Right, I was waiting for that.

I'm like, oh, that guy just walked on by. That's interesting. And then of course, right there was a nice comedy pause there because then he comes back. Yeah, no one. I didn't know this was a remake actually until being invited on this show.

I knew about the man with one red shoe And isn't there a Junie Wilder one about a red dress or something that's oming in red? Which is that a remake of a French film? I want to say, so I could be confusing it with them. It's funny because I get those two movies mixed up, probably because of the red and probably because of the slapsticky of it. But yeah, it's yeah.

I had no idea, speaking of Richard Pryor, I had no idea that Bruce Millions was a remake as well, and that was just eithered it it until recently. Yeah, great movie. Actually, I like Bruce's Millions quite a bit, mostly because probably John Candy. But the remake I thought was pretty good. At the original I thought was very good.

Another one of his films I saw in the theater and I think I just found out it was a remake a couple of weeks ago. It played on something and I looked it up by chance to see when it was released, and it's like, oh, another remake, okay, and here's the other thing. So just I'll just be out and open with this. I haven't seen enough of Donner's stuff, frankly, like I have never seen the Original's got a weird filmography, Yeah, he does looking at his philmography. Yeah, because we watched Lethal Weapon.

I had never seen that up until a couple of years ago. And you and I did that together, Mike, uh, conspiracy, didn't we? I don't think so. I think you talked to me about it. I did.

I don't know who the hell did I do leave the weapon with? Then I thought it was me and you are we always quote the second one back and diplomatic on that tanks. That ship's a lot. That is something, yes, yeah, but like looking at Donner's filmography, it's so bizarre, like it's it's literally all over the place, radio flying, lots of different stuff, conspiracy theory, timeline folks. I saw that in theaters.

I read the blocks, sixteen blocks. I really liked. That's his last movie technically. Yeah, Scrooge is interesting. I'm mad.

Radio Hawk thought was pretty good. I don't I haven't gone back to it from the Omen, the Omen, the Goonies and Lady Hawk, where it's just like whoa, hey, these are very much on cable all the time. Oh yeah, yeah. And obviously he was involved. I mean he was one of the names involved with the reboot of Tales or not reboot, but the initial run of Tales from the Crypt, and he directed couple episodes three and three Yeah, and then he directed one of the ones in that thing that they tried to do with Bill Sadler where it was like action Tales from the Crypt, which didn't work, and then they took that segment and repurposed it back into Tales from the Crypt.

And then he also produced the kid version of the show, The Game Show, and then the science version of Tales from the Crypt that ran for only one season. For versions of Science, oh as opposed to what I should have been Tales from the Lab, Guys Come On as opposed to Misfits of Science. One of my favorite TV shows. There's a there's an episode that has Paul Williams in it called Given the Given the Air, and it's I want to say, it's a movie where it's an episode where a woman is turned into a man or vice versa, and it's just like that's the twist, and it was like WHOA was like, what is this fucking shit? It was?

It ran in ninety seven. That episode was ah, maybe that no that There was a couple episodes directed by some weird people like Toby Hooper William Shatner, uh, Sean Aston and Russell mulcahy. So Donner has a weird filmography overall, it's kind of I mean, I wouldn't say he's like Zamechis, but I mean I think Zamechis was a little bit more consistent in quality, even if it's not high quality. Richard, Like we were talking about that recently, Mike was Zamechis just Maudlin boomer bullshit at this point, Oh my god, fortunate son in Forrest Gump is not on the nose. We swear he fucks god.

Yeah, this, I uh, I get it. I get why they remade it, but it feels so weird to me that this is a re like Okay, I don't know, it's not. I think the toy, the American remix is right now. I think it's the least successful thing we've watched this month by by far. I think it's like very far on rotten tomatoes.

Oh god, we have to get to those. I'm curious how those are going to be. I mean, on Wikipedia it says that the film was Pillar Reid by film critics. That's great. Yeah, I mean, like Jesus, I mean, I've heard them say it's panned, but Pillar read, my God like, yeah, Pillar read and philaid, yeah, good lord.

Yeah, well, I mean it's it deserves three percent. I think, I think it. It's not it's not funny. I mean, it's an uncomedic funny film after a few times. I laughed a few times in two hours, though, maybe I'm easy.

What's that in two hours? Though? I mean, there's that's a two hour movie. Man, it's only like fifteen and two hours. Why was it nine minut and it's longer than the original.

Yeah, yeah, it seems like there's less in it for all those jokes that the American filmed. I guess, right, I guess for the fishing scene and the police station scene. That probably out of the nine minutes eight minutes roll padding. Yeah, though, I would highly recommend that you guys shook out the New Toy from twenty twenty two. Lot.

I like that guy. I had to look up who you were talking about, and I'm like, oh, yeah, that guy, yeah, exactly as soon as you see him. And then that's interesting too, because you know he's he's brown, and and like there's that whole thing too, like he's part of the underclass, and so you get to see like all of the underclass. There's like a whole bunch of people. And it's not just because like other than like there are the people that are there with clan watch with Richard Pryor's wife, but like we don't really get to know them, but we really get to know some of these other characters, especially our main guy's wife, and you know, get to see her and there's this beautiful scene where he touches her stomach while she's sleeping and then the baby's hand push just back and it's just so lovely.

So I'm getting a well choked up about it. But this is really good. Well, we get to know the people in the newspaper and the first one two of them a lot better than we get to know any of Pryor's cohort. So yeah, and which helps you know, create a picture of that of the Pierre Reshard character in that huh so yeah, to see how he actually works with other people or talks with that Yeah, and just you know what what, Yeah, how he interacts with other people. He seems caring and concern.

It's Richard Pryor just playing himself, That's what it is. That's really right, like ultimately, like he's not playing a character, and that's the problem. Like the more I sit here and think about it, like why did people Why was it such a box office success because of Richard Pryor? But why has it been quote pilloried unquote because it's not a funny Richard Pryor thing. But you have to go watch it to find that out.

Like that's the thing, like on the face of it, like we've already alluded to like this is the right thing at the right time. These two actors, Jackie Gleeson and Richard Pryor, like should have been a good movie. People came out like it was. Check out Stir Crazy, Chris, you might like that one. Yeah, I want to see the stuff that he's good in.

Like, you know, I think between Stir Crazy and Silver Streak, I remember Stir Crazy being the one I enjoyed catching more off And what is that guy's name, the big big guy that died young. He was in he was in The Running Man and a couple other films. I think he was a wrestler or something. Oh for the tall bald guy who's in like the one, Yeah, yeah, boy, Yes, that's scary. Yeah, he's great.

Yeah, he sends Stir crazy and he looks like fat guy goes nutsoid, but I don't think he's the same dude. It is anyway, not to get too so tracked. I can't believe I just fucking dropped the fat guy goes nuts oid Erland van Litz, one of the Netherlands Nuts. Yeah, I think that's the yeah, yeah, yeah, Grosberger and Stir trying to remember what his final line was because I know the the ice skater guy or no was Harold's Zach I was here is sub zero? Now just play zero.

It's like it's almost as bad. It's almost as bad for for Dynamo in there, because he's like got the electrical stuff. It's as cheesy. Running Man has the worst Arnold one liners. It has some of the it has some of the worst, but it has some of the best.

It does have some of the best. Because what he says to Richard Dawson is still my favorite Schwarzenegger line. You about to leave some room for my fist because I'm good to ramat into your stomach and break your condamn schwine. I mean that's that right, there is p I mean and hell, and the way Schwarzeninger says hello, way too long, it is too for half an hour here before I finally get to the man, what's the punchline? Aren't to set it up?

Man? I like when he says hello, cute he ply to Richard Dawson though, that's pretty good. Oh you know why. There's why I can't remember Dynamo's deathline because he doesn't kill him. He shows mercy, so then they have to re edit it and then show that he killed him later on.

Remember, Oh, yeah, well he haven't seen that movie. I thought he had a bad line in that one to Yeah, well, I mean, I'm sure watch it again. I can't wait to watch the remake. I'll be there. I'll be there too to Hits streaming.

I mean it's going to be directed by Edgar Wright. So yeah, I just heard a podcast where these two assholes for talking right for like an hour and a half. Right, just the most insufferable fucking people I could imagine, man, man, and they were trying not to gate keep too. Can you imagine trying to do that with film stuff? God, talk about a losing fucking proposition.

We are the arbiters of taste. If you don't like what we say, get the fuck out. True you caught us so on that note, Bagley. Final thoughts on Lejuette and fatility. Check out the original.

It's charming about you, Mike White. Check out the original. It is charming. Check out the twenty twenty two version. It's also charming in a whole different way.

Yeah, I will, because I like that guy. Yeah, I'm going to check it out as well, the favorite parts of Amaie Lee. I'm going to check it out only because again, like I want to see a version of this done differently but done right, and this is this is not that for sure fortunately, But again, like I said, I did go out and watch other Richard Pryor stuff, so at least there's that. It did introduce me to Richard Pryor, who I had really not watched a lot of his stuff before. And yeah, he's fucking hilarious.

But his stand up's funny. I mean I would, I mean Richard's prior here and now really funny. Like all of his stand up's really great, So I see why. I don't get why it is the way that it is. But there is a version we can watch, and there's another version that I'm excited to check out.

Oh yeah, well, you know quick, isn't there? And oh yeah, that's right. There's an amazing bringing us back to our other podcast, one of the other podcasts that we do, the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast, there's an amazing SNL skit between Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase called word Association. You really need to watch. That is a classic.

Yes, it is a classic skinny thing with Chevy and Richard Pryor. Sounds pretty great. It's good. It's good that that episode itself is not all that good, but that particular skit is. It's shown on all the you know, best of right episodes when they do those.

Also, Richard Pryor's interpretation of the alphabet on the Electric Company if I remember, I think it's an electric company and that Sesame Street or something so good, so good. So on that note, we'll take a break, play some ads, and play a preview for the next culture Cast. Hi. I'm Susan and I'm Sharon, and we're the hosts of Eighties tv Ladies. Check us out wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and please like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

At Eighties tv Ladies, you can find interviews and exclusive behind the scenes content on all of your favorite eighties TV ladies. Eighties tv Ladies is the place to go. Please join us. Hi, this is HP from Noise Junkies and this is fallom Alone from Dark Destinations. Please join us as we examine one of the greatest sitcoms in television history.

Taxi on Night Mister Walters at Taxi Podcast, Mister Walters, Good evening, and welcome to Night Gallery. Thank you, Rod, and I want to welcome everyone to Midnight Viewing, where once a month we talk all about your follow up to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery. They say it's Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and it isn't really Rod Dule's Night Gallery. It's somebody else's. Oh we know, we talk about it a lot.

Your curators at Midnight Viewing are the Projection Boots, Mike White. What can happen to human beings when trust is wiped out by suspicion and culture casts? Chris Stashire small boy Incased in the Crystal Ball, and I'm Father Malone the kind of thing that usually infests nightmares. Join us monthly at Midnight Viewing The Night Gallery podcast at Weirdingwaymedia dot Com doesn't remotely belong to me. I have no proprietary interest in that at all.

These two men have been hired to find a missing arrest. One's a detective searching for clues, the others in accident waiting to happen. That's not put say it in Mexico Graduate because I just discovered something Martin Short and Danny Glover Starr in the new comedy from the writers of Twins and Kindergarten cop Pure Right. On the next Culture Cast, it'll be Mike and I once again, and we're gonna be joined by us speaking of the people who are talking about Edgar right, uh, will be joined by my dear friend Ryan Beryl, who I work on film Foundations with. We're gonna be joined by him to talk about pure Luck and Lachevre, which you know, I think it's another Pierre Richard thing, Right, Is this?

This is Pierre Rashard and Gerard Depardou? Is it not we we we wee? Isn't that what shuvar? I think it means that, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lefromage devre is goat cheese in French.

So it must be uh. Until then, where can people find you and the things that you work on? Mister Mark Pegley, You can find my shows Wait, Capey CambridgeMA Shan and the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast over on Weirdingway Media. About you Mike White dot com dot org saying also over there, the dot org, dot eed u, dot tv, all that stuff any any of those don't know, they won't work. Don't don't try that.

Just go to weird media dot com, where you can find all the stuff that I also work on, except for the one show that Chris and I do with our friend Richard HadAM, which is called Rankin on Bond, where we talk about James Bond films. That's available at both of our patreons. The one I remember the most is Patreon dot com slash projection booth head on over there and hero us talk about Bond. Otherwise, come on over to weirdinglyamedia dot com and hear everything else. How about you, Chris?

Yeah, No, same same bag, a different way of saying it. Weirdingwaymedia dot com. That's where my stuff is, other than you Ranking on Bond, which is on Patreon dot com slash culturecast or Patreon dot com, slash projection booth and yeah like, rate and review the show on iTunes regardless of where you get it. Give us a moment, head on over to iTunes, help us out, leave a review, good or bad, but every review helps us find our audience. So yeah, Mark, thank you so much for joining us.

This has been fun. Unfortunately, thanks for having me. Movie wasn't as great as I think we were all hoping it would be, but good conversation and we talked longer than both movies, so got a new I figured i'd enjoy the first, the original more original at all, so that's good. Yeah. Have you have you, guys read the trivia for Las Chevra not?

Yeah? Oh boy? The first trivia thing on here is pretty fucked up. Jeez. I hope it's real and not made up like so many of the trip I don't know, but I hope it's made up because it sounds awful.

Well, I guess we'll have to figure what that is guys, to investigate it. You might want to bring it up on your Jesus. I yeah, that is something. So if if you want to know what that thing is, folks, I guess you'll I guess you have to check out the next episode