RV

We wait. Oh so, Richard, Before before we turned the recorder on, you were telling us about how much you actively dislike Robin Williams and how you are really disappointed to have to be on. This episode with us. Untrue. If you guys could see what you can't, the video medium is not nearly as funny as the audio medium.

At the moment, Richard's face was pretty confounded. No, Richard, I think you were kind of excited to be on this episode with us talking about totally Robin Williams' take on Vacation one hundred. I mean, I'm there's always going to be a level of curiosity and engagement when it comes to Robin Williams. I mean, he's it's like he's not Jerry Lewis, but he's he's so extreme in who he is that there's always a level of Okay, what version of this actor am I going to get in this particular movie, especially especially when he started doing weird, unexpected stuff. I'm not sure if this is the weirdest and most unexpected, but you know.

No, the movie we watched last week was probably in that in the realm of forty year old man with a ten year old brain Yeah, if you didn't, if you didn't listen to that episode of the Culture Cast, go check that one out. But on this episode of the Culture Cast, I am still your host, Chris Stashue, much to the chagrin of at least two people out there in the world, and I'm joined by my two good friends all the way from Richard adams paranormal bookshelf. His name is in the fucking show's title, Your Friend of Mine, Richard Adam. I hate you, Dad, I hate you. I hate you.

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. And this is Richard Adam's one man performance of him and his son interacting with each other on a daily basis, And he puts the Mike White and Mike White march your friend and Mine, Mike White. Maybe we can feed Carl to the raccoon. Oh boy, if you're tuning in, you know what we're talking about. But on this episode of the Culture Cast, we're talking about two thousand and six is Robin William's vehicle Ye no pun intended or all pun intended r V, also known as Runaway Vacation, which just not as good of a title.

R V also known as r V DASH, Runaway vacation or runaway vacation. Okay, god, what's what happened to that little girl? He used to go daddy's home watch TV in separate rooms and we I am each other with Gender's ready? That's changed things. On April twenty eight.

Moms, some idiot just parked this oar V outside our house. Oh my god, it's dad. You're in. I'm adopted to spend some quality time. Yeah, boyfriend, Yeah, actually I'm engaged.

I'm likely with the family making out. I got him in the review, Mira Ble, I don't know what Dailly's doing, HARV? Does anybody at the bag? Which I guess is probably like the title for the movie in China or a place where the two letters of r V are not synonymous with a giant motor home. But yeah, this is still Mike White March, and we are talking about r V.

So The film is directed by, of all people, Perry Sodenfeld, written by Jeff Rodkey, starring Robin Williams as Bob Munroe, a father whose children hates him because he likes to make money and he likes to provide for his family. And boy, wasn't that a trope for like thirty fucking years. Your dad works too hard and provides too much for your family, You should fucking hate him. And so on top of hating him, because he makes a lot of money for his family and they live in a house that nobody in this day and age could afford for the price they were affording it, they go on an RV road trip under the auspices of canceling their Hawaii trip, but it is in fact because he has a work meeting in Boulder that they have to go to.

This is contrived. It's vacation in anything button name. There's no National lampoons connected to it. But if you are expecting it to be a road trip movie in the vein of vacation, that is what you get. So Mike White, I'm gonna kick it to you first.

I know, because if you listened to the last episode, we had never seen any of these movies. You had picked them, neither one of us had seen them. What did you think of r V? I surprisingly didn't hate it. If anything, I actually laughed few times.

So there's a few moments where I was just like, Wow, I can see why people didn't like this, But I was surprised what the hell's going on. I was picking bad Robin Williams films and I have yet to get a truly awful Robin Williams movie. So I was disappointed by this movie because I actually kind of enjoyed it. What about you HadAM You're You're you were? You were invited and just showed up, which I mean again, I always appreciate it.

I'll tell you every time you're on here, if you just show up and I invite you, and you. Know I'm an easy date. Folks at listening at home, Here's how it works. I just randomly get invitations on my calendar. There's the name of a movie, a date, and a time.

Professor Stashue has told me that's when the midterm is and what it means is I need to watch that movie and be prepared to discuss on that date. And I just without even thinking, because thinking we'll get in my way when it comes to invitations from Chris, So I just get yep, yep, yep, yep. I don't even look at the date. I'm just like, it'll I'll know it when it's gonna happen, and I'll do it. I will do as told for sure.

It is a good sub and that's right. I think myself as a power bottom when it comes to the culture cast. Nice. Wow, all right, no noted. This movie put me in a terrible mood.

Oh my god, this is a reprehensible movie. It's not poorly made, it's ill conceived, and it is, uh borderline hideous. I hated it, really, holy stit? Wait are you fucking with me? Are you serious?

No? And by the way, I'm all for tropes, and I'm all for contrivances if they're done correctly. This is a mess, and it's a and it's a foul, unpleasant mess. It's it's it's a mess that makes you feel bad. All right, you have the reaction I wanted to so.

I you think Mike is disappointed that he feels robbed? Here I do? I do? Yeah, envy me. This is like one of those zombie movies where the living envy the dead.

Who am walking with dead? Or the dead you envy my horrible experience of watching this movie. I mean, this was nominated for two Golden Raspberries and one for worse Excuse for Family Entertainment, and I was like, yeah, I'm primed and ready for this, but here I am just like, yeah, give me more, christ and Chenna with give me more. Jeff Daniels, this is great. Well, I had no idea what I was getting into.

I mean either, which is the best way to watch it, By the way, best way to watch maybe anything is just like I vaguely recall there was a movie called RV starring Robin Williams. Great, I hit play and here we are here two hours later, here we are. Exactly, yeah, which I totally agree. I never saw a trailer. I saw the poster and yeah, I had no idea what this movie is going to be about.

I had no idea who was in it other than Robin Williams. And the only thing I knew was that Sonefeld directed it. That was it. In a while that Barry sonfelped directed this movie. Not really, He's directed some really awful shit.

Yeah, I don't. But that's the thing, like I guess I don't necessarily associate him with directing bad things, because I mean, the thing Men in Black two, Yeah, but he did Men in Black one, and he did Adam's Family one and Adam's Family. Two, and he did Wild Wild West. Yeah, and. Again I will I will defend Wild Wild West.

I enjoy that movie. It's not a good movie, but it's entertaining. It's interesting. Like they don't make movies like that anymore. Well, bad movies and bad movies, aren't that extraordinarily like bizarre?

Like we just talked about Captain Berrick a brave new world, right, I think like Middle of the Road movie Wild Wild West is not a great movie, but it's a fucking wild movie. Kenneth Brown on a wheelchair, Will Smith and Kevin Klein and drag at one point mm at Walsh like I've already made you more excited to sit down and talk about it than you probably would have expected just by those things alone. Well, it's maybe we should have checked out Nine Lives from twenty sixteen, the film ware Kevin Spacey is a cat. Yeah, we should have We Yeah, movies that nobody wants to hear anyone talk about month Nine Lives, the movie that came out the year Kevin Spacey got accused of sexual assault. Barry Sonenfeld has made some great movies and some terrible movies.

What's fun about a guy like Barry Sonenfeld, who, by the way, wrote a very entertaining autobiographical memoir called Barry Sonenfeld Call Your Mother, which I read a couple of years ago. Totally loved it. He's a very you know, he's an extreme guy, and he applies his extremism in his aesthetic to various things, to various results. That's the fun of walk a human being approach various material. So yeah, there will always be something to talk about with Barry Sonenfeld.

Including the fact that his face is on the side of the RV all well. Which apparently he felt never got old. The number of shots that lingered on it, landed on it, grazed past it. They mentioned him by name multiple times in the movie. Well well not only that, but but but like because we all get the joke.

We've all we all live in a world where people drive RVs that are rented by individuals whose pictures are on the side, So of course that's going to resonate with us, like, oh, of course that wow, what a what a what a trenchant observation of modern life. The giant person skinned on the side of an art what what was the reference point for literally any joke in this movie. Were Madam, I love how pre fuddled you are? Oh my god, I love how much of an affront this was. I know, I love it.

I'm it mean more. This is funny as fuck, Richard. We're just sitting here watching you, just like I swear to fucking you know what, Richard, I feel like the real issue and this is maybe my issue with the movie. I think broadly, I think if we sat here between the three of us, we could write a funnier movie than this movie is. And and the problem is it's not that hard.

But I almost feel like this movie is hampered by the fact it came out in like two thousand and six. Can you imagine this movie had come out two years later in the year of the iPhone. Half of the jokes in this movie don't even exist. Like half of the jokes in this movie are taken out completely cause it's like, well, we're there's so much comedy that in the early two thousands was stagnated because like again, think about Seinfeld. How many of the jokes in that show were like I can't get hold of some on the phone, Like yes, for that is now the most modern of problems, Like there's so many things that are like what are we talking about on the Chevy Chase Podcast, Orange County.

You remember that movie, Mike, where it's like all you'd have to do is just call the school and be like, my fucking guidance counselor sent you the wrong transcript. The movie's over, bomb bomp bomb fun no no no no, Like it's the end of the movie. Like so much of comedy is contrived, But the problem with this movie is it's contrived and not funny. Like this movie's not funny. There are funny moments, but I think a lot of what this movie is doing is just ripping off much better movies almost the entire time.

And ripping off other things is not a bad thing. However, when you're doing something like this, which is the again, and Mike, I think you would agree, the most obvious like inspiration here is Vacation. First one, you wear. Your influences on your sleeve too much and you don't do enough. You know, in a lot of way, we haven't talked about it yet on the Chevy Chase Podcast, and we will talk about it.

That Vacation remake is what this movie should have been. And in a lot of ways, like the Vacation Remake is an R rated version of this movie. The Vacation remake isn't is the Griswold family in an RV going across the country to Wally World. This movie literally like and this movie is just a PG thirteen by the way, I believe a movie that just doesn't work very well because it's it's mining other things but not mining them in a successful way. That Vacation reboot is a lot more fun than it has any right to because it's so fucking mean.

It's like the meanest vacation movie out of all of them. And this movie is just not mean enough, I guess, or hey, they're not in like I don't know, like I think. I think. For me, the problem is the conceit of the movie just doesn't work. It should never have been about like we're going on a secret road trip to my job.

Like I'm sorry, I saw Jingle all the way in ninety nine, like this is the same thing. Stop with the Dad works too much trope, because that trope is fucking. Lazy even now then now always Well, I'm sorry. I kind of came in the middle of what Chris was saying because I had to go lock my dogs in a dark basement let's talk about mean Why do you talk about your children that way? I know I would not say the problem with this movie is that it's not mean enough.

There's there's something. Look, it goes back to my earlier statement, movies are shared. Movie language is based on tropes. Okay, it's based on one of two things, usually the successful application of tropes or the successful subversion of known tropes. That because tropes are what we all go into a movie with.

Okay, you can call them expectations. You know, it's like, oh, this is a romantic comedy. A romantic comedy has tropes. Therefore we have expectations. You know, if you're Nora Ephron, you execute those and you subvert them at the same time, and that makes a satisfying film going experience.

Okay, So now we have this. It's a family Ostensibly, you could call this a family comedy if you had to place it into a genre. Great, there is a there is a trope working against it for me, and that trope or approach is we're going to make most of the main cast unpleasant assholes. Wait, you think that the main cast in this movie you are unpleasant assholes? The wife and the two kids hate their father in such an aggressive, uncomprehensible way.

It's like, I'm unclear. We weren't satirizing, you know, the upper crust. It wasn't daddy, where's my Tiara? So that we could at least place it into it. It's just I hate you.

Well, but why why does the son hate him? Why does his daughter so aggressively hate him? And the movie never contextualizes any of this. It sort of makes assumptions, which is, well, she's a teenager, so she's a bit. Well, he's a thirty horny, thirteen year old who's a wigger.

You know. He's the white kid who's into rap in two thousand and six, and by the way, that was a fucking trope in nineteen ninety two. And so he's a shithead. And here's the problem. Your main actor is Robin Williams.

Okay, so now you've doubled the problem because he is someone who we come into a movie typically expecting to really like and enjoy. No, we always go in that is right. That. No, Robin Williams is an American eye. That was what we said last time.

Robin Williams is an American icon like Jimmy Stewart like you and Tom and Tom Hanks. So now you're really hampering yourself because it's like, well, we're going to have three characters on screen at their wits end of not liking Robin Williams. So we don't get what You're gonna have to give us a good reason why they don't like him. And Robin Williams is being fairly pleasant, so I'm not totally getting it. Yes, he's a little impatient, and he's kind of godkids, he's attached to work, but beyond that, he's still Robin Williams.

These people hate him, and so here's what's going on in subpar material. He's not as funny as he usually is, and under the relentless assault of three main characters telling the audience they hate him and that we're trained to q off of character, desire, motivation, and behavior, we begin to not like Robin Williams and we don't understand. So we're in trouble. We're like, OK, these people hate him, but we want to like him, but we're being told not to like him. Also, it's not his funniest movie.

Now we don't like any of them, and now we're not liking him nowhere to go will Arnett playing a very will Arnet style character where we don't like him. What are we left with as an audience? Who are we connecting to? Who are we rooting for? What are we hoping for in this movie?

They completely agree with all of that. I really wish that they had gone farther with so many things. You know, you're talking about the unlikability of things, and yeah, had he been had he been a little bit more Clark Griswold, where he's you know, sorry, can't stop, we have a timetable, you know, and like a real aggressive jerk when it comes to that kind of stuff like, oh there's a Saint Louis arch Oh can we stop? No and just keep on going, you know, Okay, right exactly. But but now here's the beautiful thing in American film.

In any film, iconography and celebrity iconography accounts for everything. Okay, Now, let's compare Robin Williams and what we know of him in his iconography to America especially and Chevy Chase. Oh yeah, Chevy J's you're totally totally prepared to enjoy not loving exactly exactly. Now, there's an actor who has a middle ground that they could have cast, except he wasn't quite famous enough yet, and he's the guy who they actually got to do the New Vacation movies ed Helms yep, and ed Helm's kind of actor could have been in this movie, and the movie itself would have been more successful because the family's skepticism about him is shared a bit by the audience. Now it's not such a discordant note.

And maybe now we can move forward a little bit. But I mean, you go like you can't get further apart in the way an audience wants to embrace an actor than Chevy Chase and Robin Williams. Well and the other thing that you know, I was talking about how I liked Kristen Chenna with and I liked Jeff Daniels, and I think we're not supposed to like them, and we're supposed to really feel for this family who are trying to avoid them, And I'm just like, I don't get it, Like there's so many better ways that you if you wanted them to be boorish pigs, if you wanted this to be you know, you mentioned the whole like well daddy kind of thing, Like maybe again, go more extreme and have these people have it be more than slobs versus the snobs kind of thing where it's like the other family who are in their roadster.

I mean they seem very very pleasant. Yeah, they sing songs and stuff. They're a little weird that way, but I mean also he's got a great voice. She's got an amazing voice. The kids are really good and like, yeah, the whole thing is just like yeah, pump it up, like give me more and yeah, give me more.

Of like the kid Josh Hutcherson should have been more like freakin' Jamie Kennedy from Malibu's Most Wanted or something like a complete spaz has no idea what's going on? You know, don't be hating that kind of thing. Like have you guys seen Soul Plane? Does It Better? Soul Plane does it Better?

There's a character in soul Play played by Ryan Pinkston who is the exact same version of this character but just toned way up, and Josh Huttererson's too again. Josh Hutcherson I think is too endearing unfortunately as an actor, just like Robin Williams, like it's kind of too bad because Josh Huttererson isn't just as endearing as Robin Williams. I feel, yeah, Josh. Isn't a kid that's in that vacation remake The little Kid. He is such a little shit that you just want to beat him with you know, the the rip off his arm and beat him with the wet end.

But with this kid, this kid, I'm like, Okay, yeah, he's a little confused, but he's not stupid. He's not you know, LIKEO, yeah, I'm gonna start writing written down my scroll so I can spit my lyrics at you, like something. I give him a character of some sort. He's a likable actor. Yeah, so therefore he is miscast what you need.

And again the timing doesn't quite work out, but you know, just ages and years and you put Polly Shore and then it's like, oh, yeah, that guy's a likable asshole. A right fox, there's a likable douchebag, So make him that guy. And then we're laughing at that guy's behavior, but we're not. There was something very sour about this and it went on way too long. If you want to start out with kids being that way a little bit great, but they can't be it can't be relentless and energized, just like I am not done busting your balls.

I'm just getting fucking started. It's like, I can't I'm not relaxed into a good mood here. I am not. I don't feel safe in the hands of the cast and the filmmaker to sit back and enjoy a good time. And Mike, you're so right.

Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenowith, who for a moment I thought was Amy Sedaris, come across as really nice people who are actually trying to help a guy who does not know what the fuck he is doing, right, and they have nothing but contempt for these people. Are we supposed to share? No, that's well, I think you're supposed to, but I don't. Well, even when the movie gets it gets really sour where it's almost like, wait, is the take of this movie that we're all supposed to be on the side of wealthier people and we don't like them because they have Southern accents? Yeah?

Righted Ted Turner wcw of at all. I don't take it seriously because of taut black veis like, oh. Nice Southern folks who live in their RV. Like, I don't get it. Yeah, who seemed like a really loving family.

And when they go when they said, like, they even set up a joke that they're like, oh, yeah, we're homeschooled. And I was like, oh, so they don't know anything, because I've met kids that are homeschooled and they're all a bunch of fucking idiots. But no, they're like, oh yeah, I got into Stanford or whatever, and I'm like, what, like, oh I skipped the grade. I was like, well, that's your mom that's teaching you, so I don't know. But then no, they end up being like gritty, aren't smart.

I was like, okay, yeah, like you have to play up these tropes or something, make them like super religious, weirdo asshole kind of thing, or like, you know, like Jeff Daniels could have turned into like a maga guy like that and could have really like been a you know, completely different type of asshole. But I'm just like, what the hell. Like, even when it comes to them like trying to empty out the sewage system and you get that guy, you get the other family that comes in there and they're trying to help them out, and again it's like, okay, well we're supposed to understand that these guys are stupid rednecks, but again, they're being super helpful and they're really trying their mess. That's why I said, That's why I say the movie is not mean enough.

Yeah, because and Richard, I guess I should have explained, like the Vacation movie is mean to the main character more, this movie is not mean enough. They're not put in like really harrowing situations where shit goes amiss, because that's not But that's not the way this movie's trying to bring the family together, is my point. Like you don't and you don't. You don't want to see bad things happen to Robin Williams. You just don't.

But it would bring him his family closer together, like in The Simpsons, like in the like in the Simpsons episode where sus Simpson's over an open fire, but it's the one where Homer gets covered in mud and they think that he's bigfoot and they go out into the woods together. Like again, you have a similar thing where Homer Simpson is a hard to hate, very easy to love dope, and that's the character that Robin Williams is trying to play in this movie. And at the same time, it's like, well, in that you have them really being put through the paces, and by the end of it they come together as a family and this they're not really put through the paces. But not only that, but the but the Simpsons don't look down on people.

The Simpsons aren't like, ooh, they're irritating, let's get away from them. Oh no, they're They're the irritating ones. They're the irritating lighting ones. I'd rather spend time with the with the what do they call the Gerek's or something. Gor Nikki's Yeah, you mean the Flanders's fla, I mean really.

Like yeah, but it's like but but I mean again, it's like, you know, the Simpsons thing is almost, you know, not quite the perfect match, because the Simpsons know they're not better than anyone, and so we can identify with them because they're not walking around you know again, Bart and Lisa aren't going I hate you, Dad, I literally hate you with every fiber of my being. Are we supposed to take that seriously or are we supposed to Look, we've got two choices. Either the kids are right so we hate Robin Williams, which is a tough one, or they're wrong, so we hate them for hating Robin Williams. It's it's I almost think that casting it was the major problem here, Like this did not have to be a Robin Williams movie at all.

No, no, yeah, it's it's strange and I was just rewatching it earlier and I had completely forgotten about that opening scene, the whole thing of him with the little version of Cassie and the very very little Josh Hutcherson, where it's just like, what does this even add to this movie? Is this, like here a blissful scene because she says something like Dad, I don't want to ever get married, blah blah blah, and it's like you never really see like why she's saying that, and you don't get that same attitude later on, like she's just absolutely fine being with you know. It's like she really finds the one guy in the Gornickee family attractive Evan, right, I think it is. Yeah, And it's like, okay, well that that has nothing to do with that opening scene.

That opening scene is completely wasted, and really it should have just started with them with her in the back of the car calling him an idiot while he's trying to find that her friend's place, her friend who then bores all that slime all over will Arnette And I'm like, oh, I can see Robin Williams being fired for that. But no, no problem, and I don't know why. Like I understand he has to go out to wherever, Colorado. There it is bolder to you know, do his his speech thing that he's doing to Ben and Jerry or whoever these guys are, Larry and Gary. But at the same time, like, why is he waiting to write the presentation and he's there up all night and then trying to he's rating it on a fucking BlackBerry and then trying to get the signal and everything.

I'm like, because why why did it have to be a secret from his family? I don't at all. I guess they were going to Hawaii and now they're not. He couldn't have he couldn't have just gone on his own and flown to Boulder like that was See. That's the thing for me that we haven't really talked about is why there's a weird cut at the beginning of the movie where it's like, oh, yeah, my family goes an RV trip everyre and Robin Williams like hmm, and.

That's like RV, Like whoa wait, what? Like it's that it is that abrupt. We don't get the Eugene Levy Chevy chase scene in this movie of I'm at the RV dealership with Barry Sonenfeld trying to sell me the RV, and we go and look at all the RVs, and you know, you have five minutes of Robin Williams mugging and doing practical comedy in the RV's where's that scene? Oh, I don't we needed it because there's literally just a hard cut to RV trip and then RV there's somebody with RV in the driveway. Like we don't work because it's a payoff with no setup.

We don't understand the importance of the trip. We don't understand why this or how this is a solution. We don't understand why it has to be a secret. In other words, the entire setup of the movie. And by the way, there will be people in the world who go, oh, come on, who cares?

Is a stupid comedy? No. For for this comedy to work, you, for any movie to work, you have to understand what the basic principles are. What does he want it. And by the way, it's unclear to me the degree to which he's invested in his job and the degree to which he's invested in his family.

He doesn't seem really invested in well. By the end of the movie, he literally leaves the job that he has for another one. So I would say he's not fucking invested in his job very much. You either need they breathed on him, and he went, oh, okay, I'll leave. You either need a movie where he's way too involved in his job and Arnold it's like a camel all the way right, And then the family is like, oh, we love this family, and we love and we have the potential to love Robin Williams if he just finally sees the light and understands that the family is more important than this.

But okay, but we get it. His family is worth it. He doesn't get it yet. We understand the journey we're on, the emotional character journey we're on. That's you could have done that but they didn't, or or he's just desperate to spend time with his family, so he so he risks everything, including his job, to spend time with his family who don't appreciate him.

And then now that's a harder road. But then we figure that one out too. This one, I don't know what it is that he wants, but boy is he burning a lot of calories doing a lot of weird, inexplicable shit that isn't very funny. And speaking of inexplicable shit, if I get one more toilet shit bathroomke gop out of this movie. I mean, what the fuck that scene went on for?

Wait? Every scene? Well, yeah, oop is okay? So oh, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of this bathroom.

I'm hoop is funny? Richard had him, don't you understand shit is funny? Ha HAA not an unending string of shit joke. I think you just described Andrew tyce Clay's entire career and on ending stream of shit jokes. No.

Well, and again like you have these, there's these discordant moments in the movie. So that these these poor people and I'm saying the poor people is in Kristin chennow with and Jeff Daniels make the mistake of inviting these assholes to their house for dinner, and Robin Williams at one point, Jeff Daniels and Christian Jennowith are sitting there and they're like, oh, we make a living and all the twenty five thousand dollars returning my stepdad. And then Jeff. Daniels goes and she makes sixty thousand dollars a year and she doesn't get a chance to answer because Robin Williams goes hooking right over. It's like, what the don't yeah, what.

Did you just fucking say to another adult in front of her, her husband and her family. This isn't that kind of movie, Like, that's a that's a completely discordant moment, because that that would have been the mom where Jef daniel stands a punches Robin Williams in the face and says, get out of here. Right, it's called my wife a whore? Like yeah, yeah, But here's the thing, if you picture Chevy Chase doing it, it totally works, right, that's my sake cooking. Someone would just sort of give him a side eye and they'd move right on.

And Daniels goes, funny, Yeah, well, I know, which is boy, don't ever do that. Don't ever have a terac for comment on a joke within the movie, for fuck sake, No, But but when Chevy Chase does something like that, we know it's for us. When Bill Murray does stuff in movies, we know it's for us. Right, he's making a joke to us in the theater that no one else on screen is even aware has happened. It's like they don't even hear it.

Like we are the ones that are privy to that, and like Robin Williams would be perfect for that because he can do those like under the breath things like he He does that somewhat in this movie later on. There's a few times where I was like, oh fuck, I got to turn on the subtitles because he's kind of talking under his breath and I was like, he's doing the Popeye thing, because Popeye when he did that role, it was perfect because he could just have that latter going and just completely like let it out and comment about the town and all the people. But nobody heard what the hell he was saying because he was singing it all under his breath, and we as the audience, are the ones hearing it. But yeah, instead, But it depends on the joke too, though, because we're not here to see Robin Williams be mean and make cutting remarks to people.

That's fine, that's not why we think he is funny in our life. We think other people Eddie Murphy, I mean, you can name it. There's a lot of comedians who can be assholely and be jerky. Nor MacDonald but like, look, oh yeah, ass bite. I mean that's what norma.

I mean. Can you imagine like a norm McDonald type in this movie? Like picture? Even John Candy would be better in this movie? Oh god, it is John Candy.

Here go hooking and you go, well, he's an idiot. You know he's gonna say what about Steve Martin? Would Steve Martin have worked in this? Oh no, I don't know. Gee, he was.

Cheaper by the dozen. That movie wasn't terrible. He can be mean. Steve can't be mean. Really, got to know.

That's you have to know what the character is like. It's like if Steve Martin, I think they I. Think he would have been mean in this movie if it had been Steve Martin, is my point. I think because it's Robin Williams, they don't know what to do with it, and so the moments that are mean don't work. It's almost like they it's almost like, because it's Robin Williams, you can't be mean and you can't be the endearing Robin Williams.

So they kind of just did a little bit of both to try to toe the line in both directions. It's like, what are you like walking? You're walking like this, You're walking like a penguin, Like you gotta walk straight into wonder should or the other because no likes this movie. If it's gonna be this, you gotta be really obvious with where you're going. Because again, what about We're the Millers.

Have you guys seen that movie? That's another RV movies, That's another RV movie, and you have it's a Jason Sudakis, who, by the way, plays one of the like he is now going to be known as one of the most endearing characters ever with Ted Lasso, but my god, he is. Yeah, he could play such a fucking asshole in the best like in Horrible Bosses one and two. He beats the shit out of Charlie Day in those movies, like he's like smacking the shit out of him and everything. He's great.

He would have been a better choice for this movie. And then We're the Millers. All those characters imminently unlikable, every single one of them. Will Poulter's in that goddamn movie, like, oh, en year old Will Poulter. And Will Poulter is such a better one of those characters, because again he's completely clueless that whole thing where it's like you're getting paid, you're.

Getting paid for this, yeah the meme, Yeah, exactly. And then even to go way further back to something like the long Long trailer, again, you have characters in that movie who are actually pretty unlikable, like in a lot of ways, but by the end of it, they are put so far through the ringer that you understand why they're like, oh my god, Like, while the world is falling in on us, we can redeem ourselves by being nice to each other and being there for each other. This movie doesn't even do that, Like, yeah, it's just it's not it's not an it's almost like the movie doesn't take a direction at all. And that is probably the biggest problem is it's almost I know you had like a like a body rejecting the transplant reaction, Richard, but I think for Mike and I it's almost just like I wish this movie was that bad because it's more just kind of like eh, like.

Because yeah, I'm I'm because look when you when you have a certain roster of talent, you know, Barry Sonefeld, But. I I thought you were talking about you, Richard, when you have this much talent and you're watching this. When we can us down, you're watching a movie. If Robin Williams was on top of the RV and he jumped forward, would the RV keep going backwards? No?

But Chris, I told you this story, right. I think I just told you that twenty five years ago, however long it was. I got a phone call when Mothman Prophecies the script was out in the world, and I got a call from my manager saying there's an actor out there who is very interested, like like seriously dead serious interested in playing the lead in this movie. And I said who is it? And they said Robin Williams.

But which was a fucking mind blowing thing when you told me, yes you have you did mention this right, crazy because then. You're like, whoa, because then you sort of like rewriting the whole move in your head. And I and my my feeling at that moment was Okay, we got a couple problems. One Robin Williams giant box office star. Okay, I mean just you know, missus Doubtfire had just been like very recent.

But Robin Williams wants to do something different than Good Morning Vietnam. He's looking to do different things. So so this movie feels like it. It was in that zone of Robin Williams going, I want to do a variety of things, and one of those things that I want to do one of those I'm the Beleaguered Dad movies. I want to try to do that thing.

And by the way, other actors have done it, Tom Hanks has done a variety of roles. It all comes down to how strong is your iconography and what will the audience accept. Tom Hanks has been able to transcend and do various things and the audience has accepted him. He's a little bit more of a a He's not as strong a flavor as Robin Williams. You know, you can't add fucking absynthe to every cocktail.

He's more like Jimmy Stewart. Yeah, and Robin Williams is more likely, I don't know who's Robin Williams like more like Bob Hope. You said Jerry Lewis, But like I mean, Bob Hope wasn't as forretic as Robin Williams. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I mean. But Jerry Lewis was frenetick though.

That's that's your strength and your weakness, that you are the one and only Robin Williams. Eddie Murphy has gone through the same thing. Funny that you mentioned that since the writer of this did Daddy Daycare right as well as Daddy Day Camp. And also wrote The Shaggy Dog. Yeah, well the remake of the show.

Well, but the remake of The Shaggy Dog with yet another actor who totally also could have been in this movie. Who ends Tom Allen? Yeah, Tim Allen totally could have been in this movie. One hun Yeah, oh, much better choice because people want to hate him. Right, So okay, but here's the devil.

The devil is you're a director or whoever, and you're trying to get a movie made. I don't know if this is the story behind this movie, but it could because you could apply it to so many Hollywood movies, especially of like the eighties and nineties and early two thousands. You've got it. You've got a script, people want this kind of movie, and then you have an actor who is not necessarily perfect casting but is a big box office star, and it gets the pressure to just say yes is enormous. And at a certain point people's schedules and a studio's checkbook and release schedule all converged.

And I don't know who it was, but everyone just sort of says, fucket, it's green, liit, Just fucking do it. Maybe it will work. And by the way, very soonderful. He didn't do a bad job directing this, Robin Williams didn't do a bad job acting in this. It's just not the right conceptual mix of ingredients.

You can take three ingredients that are delicious that do not belong together at all and come up with something disgusting. And for me, that's what this was, you know what? And you know again, to go back to another comparative in terms of movies coming out at the time, a year before this, Are We There Yet? Came out, which is another road trip movie, and that one and that one works better than this movie does. I actually remember going to the theaters and seeing Are We There Yet?

In the theaters and I rewatched it for this and it was pretty good because guess what, ice Cube is a dickhead in the movie. He's like an asshole dad. He's just like because that's and that's who he is, right, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. He's a stern dickhead annoid. Yeah, Like I like my face, is it a permanent annoyed state?

Like yeah, I just look constantly like annoyed. I have like ice Cube has resting bitch face. He does, and he looks annoyed, like on the the posteries like this, like he's annoyed on the poster. That's the fucking joke with the movie. It works perfectly in twenty one John Street, Oh yeah it happened.

Yeah you want that? You so you want him to be Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill's boss in that movie, these two idiots and this guy. You love it. The elements work, the casting slots. You know you were talking about the bathroom stuff, and there's even the bathroom scene where he's writing his proposal or whatever his speech.

I guess it is really disappointed me because again, Barry Sonefeld used to be the DP for the Cohen Brothers. So he starts off in the bathroom by going across the wall and it says ope Poe on the side. I'm like, yep, you did that in Raising Arizona, which I would much rather be watching than this. But then there's that scene where the little kid comes in and talks with Robin Williams and I was like, okay, well because he says something like I haven't slept in however many years or whatever, and I was just like, oh, well, that's kind of weird, Like maybe this kid is a spooky kid, like one of those weird little spooky kids. No, he just kind of goes on his way and he's very helpful later on, and I'm like, oh, okay, Like again it's like I want something behind your stuff here, like give me a little bit more again, turn it up.

You know. It's and I guess that's why I wasn't offended by this movie is just because it was so vanilla compared to other stuff that I was just like, oh, well that wasn't you know, you're talking about mixing ingredients. I was like, well, that wasn't a harsh taste. But basically it was kind of papal you know, nothing. When you have a roster of talent like myself.

Yes, that's how I am talking, and I'm referring to myself as a roster of talent. Yes, And you guys know this, You've lived through it innumerable times. But and you know not to be a dick about it. But when it's your job, and it's been your job for thirty years, and when all you do every day is try to solve shit like this, you don't turn it off when you watch a movie. And sometimes it means I come at a movie from an unfair perspective.

But all I'm doing is watching this and going, something's wrong here. Okay, I got to figure it out, and I got to solve it, right. That's how I'm a hunting dog. That's how I've been trained. That is what I do.

I can't help it. Something runs, I chase it. I watch a movie, I solve it. And this movie, like, I can never turn my brain off. So I'm watching this going, something smells wrong, what's wrong?

And I spend an hour and a half trying to fix it, and sometimes by the way, it fixes itself, and within five or ten minutes, I'm like, Okay, Okay, I get it. I see where they're going. All right, all right, shift gears take this in this movie bug the shit out of me from beginning to end, and I knew where it was gonna go. I'm like, well, what's gonna happen is they're gonna make friends with Jeff Daniels and that whole family. But when you don't set it up right, when that shit plays out, it's unearned.

Oh it is completely unearned. Oh yeah, why was Jeff Daniels? That would have been like, get the fuck away from me. You ask clowns like they were starting to them the whole time, and like the little that spooky little kid, like he's the one that notices that the hitchhiker guy has Robin Williams' computer and they're like, oh my god, we have to bring this back to him, this poor guy, and chasing them down, and then the way that they're just like, oh, ignore them, ignore them, oh, get off. At this exit, I was like, come on, dis give them something here.

I'm surprised. The thing that really hasn't irked all of us is the amount of poorly done blue and green screen in this movie, because when they're in that RV, oh my god, it is just clearly like a set that they are just all sitting in, and then there are those moments where Robin Williams is like on the front of the thing and you can like he's trying to pull the scene that I feel like was the cornerstone of the movie. Script they were like the funniest thing is when the RV gets caught on a peak and it has to tilt back and forth, like yes, the peak of physical comedy for anyone writing ah, but you have these scenes of that where it's like Robin Williams. It cuts to Robin Williams on the front of it clearly, cgi then you have a stunt man who's like ripped and jacked as fuck with like a wig on doing it, and then it's back to Robin Williams.

It's just it's poorly done and lazy, and that's supposed to be like the centerpiece of the movie, even on top of everything else. Like I can forgive it when they're just driving and you have a shot of like Robin Williams pretending to drive the RV and looking over at Cheryl Hines and talking to her. But that's like the set like one of the set pieces of the movie, and it just feels contrived. All of the movie feels contrived and not fun. And but again, for the most part, it's not abrasive or offensive enough for me to be like, eh, completely avoided.

It's just like, there's no other Robin Williams road trip movies. So if you want to watch a Robin Williams road trip movie, this is the one to watch. But most of them, guys, I'm carrying you. Don't let Chris know when I'm saying this, but don't ever watch this movie ever. I mean again, I don't necessarily disagree with you.

I don't think there's a reason to unless you want to see Robin Williams in it. Because there are better versions of this movie we've talked about, like several already that are not only better, much better, if not light years better, if not the gold standard of this genre, which is by the way, National Lampoon's Vacation. It's the gold standard of this And then you have other things, you know that you can kind of look at as kind of lesser things or riffs on it, like We're the Miller's or one that I really like, which is EU road Trip, like another road trip movie or road trip, another road trip movie like this one just happens to be set in RV, so it's almost like road trip movie with a niche where that's why we talk about long, long trailer and other things like that.

But this movie's it's just it's not funny enough or bad enough to warrant watching other than the fact that it has Robin Williams, which I almost feel like maybe the case with everything we watched this month, which is the Robin Williams of it all moves the needle up ten percent that it wouldn't otherwise. Are we I should ask what I'm on tonight? I know it's Mike White March, right, but is there a Robin Williams theme that's inferior to it? Is it like Robin Williams B sides? Or well?

I ask the The All Powerful Chat GTP that is going to replace you as a writer, Richard, and it gave me the list of the worst Robin Williams films, And personally I was offended because the first one that they chose was Popeye, and I said, yah, fuck that shit. I love Popeye. So I went with the rest of these, and this one was right up there at the top as far as being so poorly rated and people just hated it, so they they chat. GPT just does a a you know, just scans for rankings and says, okay, you're the you're the you know, zero Rotten Tomatoes whatever exactly. Yeah.

So actually I said, I want you to concantonate the ratings from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Well, give me the It's it's a that is a very very cool, smart approach because I mean again, it's it's like it's kind of like the mothmat prophecies thing. Robin Williams sort of, to his credit, tried to do other things that and did and did. Yeah. Sometimes Goodwill Hunting Society or Dead Poet Society.

That's another one, right, yeah, one hour photo, I mean. One hour photo. Yeah, that's the one that that I know again, people are kind of all over to death to smoochy. Oh fuck, it is fucking amazing. Yes, but here's but here's what's great about that.

When a guy has one hundred million dollars in the bank and knows that he's never ever going to outspend his good will and he never did, but he knew it. He's like, I have you know a hundred coins of goodwill. I can do ninety nine bad movies and the world will still basically have a good feeling about me. And so he spent it. He was brave in that way.

And I'll tell you I remember, I remember where I was the night he died. I was with Joe Dante. WHOA what a fucking flex that? What Alex? That is Joe Dante was directing an episode of Witches of East End, which is a show that I was on that that he He and Mick Garris both directed episodes and they came in because our director producer that year was Alan Arkish.

Nice friend of friend of father, friend of weirding Way Media, Alan. Totally sick Millan and friend of mine except for some reason, I think he secretly hates me. But maybe I just always think that, No, he doesn't secretly hate you. Yeah, we've talked to him, That's why he told us. He told us no secret.

Yeah. Okay. So I'm sitting on set. We're in Vancouver, we're directing something, and uh or he's directing and I'm just hanging out and anyway, the news comes across that Robin Williams is dead and there is just a palpable wave through the entire set, everyone down, from from crewe to cast to everyone just like and not everyone's worked with him, and not everyone knows him, but everyone is like, this is the end of something and we're never gonna have it again. And everyone felt it.

And that's that is who Robin Williams was. And I will never like, Look, yes, I hated this movie. Okay, who cares. Robin Williams was a unique talent and in like seminole, he had and he had the guts to go. I want to see what the far wall is on this.

I want to see how far I can take this and where I can go with it. And and that's what he that's what he did, and r V is possibly a part of that creative exploration. And I'll even I'll even say to to Barry Sonenfeld. And by the way, people, you're not dumb for hiring Barry Sonenfeld to do this movie. Now he's done family, offbeat family comedies like The Adams fucking Family.

Yeah, both of them, both of them very good movies. You're not out of your mind. So so yeah, I had a reaction to this. There's no such thing as a sure thing. But Barry Sonenfeld can direct comedy rather well.

But when you take when you take people who who are very specific flavors again and you mix them together, sometimes you come up with a great cocktail, but usually you come up with something that makes you vomit. So Richard, I'm curious then, because this is the only time you're on with us this month, and you've brought up Robin Williams. Now, what is your where do you come in at with Robin Williams? What's your Robin Williams flavor of choice? Like, what's my favorite Robin Williams.

I mean, I don't know necessarily favorite, but I mean I mean favorite movie or when you gravitate towards or a performance that you appreciate, I don't know, you don't run with it, however you'd like, you'd almost have. To remind me. I'm sure there's one out there that I'm forgetting. I respect much of what he does, but for me, Robin Williams is the guy wearing rainbow colored suspenders doing stand up in nineteen fucking seven seven. You would think there would have been a reference to Markham Mindy since they were going to Bolder of all places, even a shot of that sign like in the beginning credits.

Right, that's genius. I never even thought of that, Mike, that's genius. But here's what I'm going to add on to that and to what I just said. Unless I am vastly mistaken, there is no Robin Williams concert film that captured him in the moment he was lightning in a bottle. There's no Robin Williams Live on Broadway is the one that I resonate with, and I think that's pretty close.

What year was that, two thousand and two, So that's the problem. Well, there was one in eighty six, and one in eighty three and one in seventy eight. I don't want to see Eddie Murphy's concert film from twenty ten. I want to see fucking Delirious, and I want to see what was the other one? Raw.

Raw. It's like, at the moment, at the moment you need, you need a film record of Steve Martin at the Universal Amphitheater with the Blues Brothers opening. That is the moment, and we missed the Robin Williams moment. In terms of filmed entertainment, there were people who saw it live but we never we never got the nineteen seventy nine concert film. Nineteen seventy nine is too late, nineteen seventy six anyway, whatever that was who Robin Williams was to me growing up, it was like, Oh, it's this completely out of control magic guy.

Anyway. That's so it's tough for me. I mean, yeah, Goodwill Hunting, okay, whatever, Dead Poet Society, Sure, good Morning Vietnam, yep. But there is no movie that I watch over and over again to give me what I need from Robin Williams. So you're saying more like Robin Williams, you were more of the Robin Williams stand up as the comedian.

Yeah, yeah, because I don't know the movie. I think of Richard Pryor. You've got you certainly do have Live on Sunset, you know, and that you know that and Word's Crazy or what like. You've got moments of filmed entertainment that can you can time capsule it and show people and go, this is what I mean when I say Richard Pryor, This is what I mean when I say Eddie Murphy. And I don't think you have that for Robin william.

I'm surprised you're not picking something from the mid eighties, like the late eighties early nineties. But I get it if I I was. Hoping for Survivors Walter, you're driving like Fish out of Water with Diary. That was pretty good. Actually, yeah, I liked it, or like Fern Gully or toys.

Oh, come on, come on, what that that? No, no one is pointing at toys as a classic of anything Farry. That's the other bar. No one is. No one is doing anything with toys.

Yes, correct, I unabashedly love that movie. Unfortunately you want to badelor Love You to Kill? That's true. But I didn't see toys growing up and think it was. It's not nostalgia glasses with toys for me.

No one talks about no one. No one is talking about toys like well, and now now that we're looking back at Robin Williams, here is now forgotten gem. No, right, that's nice. What is the forgotten gem? I'm not sure he has one.

Really, Like the movies came out. I think they're all rated exactly as they should be. Right, Oh, it's. Uh, it's gotta be U Club Paradise is a forgotten gem. Right, going you know, maybe movies and television, but I don't know.

I mean he was part of my childhood in a pretty big way. I couldn't tell you how many times I watch fucking flubber Man, like speaking of Jerry Lewis, Like I watched flubber a lot. Aladdin was a big part of my childhood, Like, oh, you. Know interesting, Yeah, I mean that Aladdin. I think about that.

There are so many there are so I think Aladdin. I think Aladdin is his. I think for people of a certain age, Robin Williams' role is either Missus doubt Fire or Aladdin, just like I think for people of a certain age, of a certain of a certain time, Tom Hanks's role is either Forrest Gump or Woody from Toy Story. Think about how many people. Just know, like don't even know who Tom Hanks is, but they know the voice of Woody.

They couldn't tell you, Like people grew up not knowing what Tom Hanks looked like, but they knew the voice of Woody. Like children grew growing up in the mid two thousands never saw Tom Hanks, but they saw Woody and they heard Woody, like they same with Robin Williams. Like they heard the. Voice of the Genie. Genie is a seminal Disney character, the same way Woody and Buzz.

Are look and you know, God forbid, I'm serious, God forbid. The day Tom Hanks dies, Oh God, the day the day he dies, there will it will be a big deal. It'll be a big deal, and there'll be ten things that people will talk about that you go, oh, of course, you know, there'll be Forrest Gump, but then they'll be big, and they'll be talking about Woody and they'll be Then there'll be seven others that you will go, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Well the forgotten one for him is Jove versus the Volcano. So next week on Culture Cast, is it wow?

For me? It is? Yeah. I don't know, I don't, I haven't. I haven't seen the movie.

Efter that's one of those welts in it. Susan. Susan was trying to get me to watch that one. I think Susan likes that one. Richard.

It's a really good film and the script is very well written, and I better watch. The acting is terrific. So is that John Patrick Shanley. I'm not sure who does that one? I know it's Tom Hanks, and I know it's Meg Ryan, and it's really super stylized, and I really appreciate that.

Well, it's funny. For a Tom Hanks Meg Ryan movie, it's probably always going to be uh Sianna. Which sucks. Yeah it is John Patrick Shanley. Yeah, but but the so so.

But but back to Chris's comment, meant weirdly, a guy like Robin Williams, it might require an animated film to represent that level of energy and creative. You know, it's not even a shotgun, it's a machine gun. It's a mini gun. Baby, nobody did it better than Robin Williams. Nobody did it better than Robin Willis.

Well well, but but but again, if like if you one hundred years from now, if you had to show someone something and say, I need you to understand what Robin Williams was at at the most percentage, Aladdin might be in. Well, that's what you were talking about on the last episode, Mike was and the reality was they just let him go and then they animated. It to him. Like that's pretty fucking wild, and knowing the animation process, like that's not how that works. Really like that you're making it harder on the animators and be like just animate to the way the guy is like what wait what like?

But that is exactly what happened, because the mannerisms of the man outweigh what they were coming in with, because he was again he's I don't know. I'm not saying Robin Williams could do no wrong. But Richard and Mike, you didn't mention if you remember where you were. I remember where I was when Robin Williams passed away. That's not a thing that comes with everybody in pop culture.

I remember where I was when Prince passed away. Remember where I was when David Bowie passed away. I remember where I was when Michael Jackson passed away. There aren't a. Lot of people that I'm like, I remember where I was when Maggie Smith passed away, or Alan Rickman like, I'm not saying I believe Maggie's Magie Smith.

Thought me that Maggie Smith is dead. I thought she passed away like last year, I am, I right, yes, yeah. She actually made the Oscars montage. There are a lot of people that did. Oh boy, I'm sorry to have to tell you that one return.

But President Kennedy's day. Well, Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith is the female abe of Goda. You're like, wait, she was still alive. She looked old when she was young, Yeah, when she was young.

Yeah. But but that's my point, Like Robin Williams isn't a class of people where similar to Tom Hanks, it's like we will I mean, part of the pandemic experience was us all finding how Tom Hanks had COVID, Like that was one of. The big things. Yeah, remember the worst moment that when he got it, it was like, oh, this shit just got real. Right, which is fucking wi real too fast?

It was like if he dies mm hmm this Yeah. And that's and it says a lot because I feel like Robin Williams for a lot of people of a certain age up into a certain age. I mean again, they're kids today that know who Robin, but I don't think that they know him the way that people maybe I think the oldest I would say is probably people in their mid twenties and and older probably know who Robin Williams is, like the person less the voice, Like I mean, maybe kids are seeing him in like dizzy Channel movies now but like, I don't know if kids know who Robin Williams is. He's it's been dead for over a decade now, Like you know, it's you know, pop culture moves fast and fortunately that's the reality of things.

But I think you know Robin Williams. I think maybe to your point, Richard, like in my because I didn't really answer it last week, if you had to ask me what I would point someone at for Robin Williams, it would be two thousand and twos Lab on Broadway. I heard that CD. So many times growing up. That was this.

I listened to that CD on repeat. It was stand ups. It was no, no, no, yeah, It's like yeah, it was like it was like film. Yeah, it was a it was a film. It's like on eighth it was yeah.

It was like it was like one of those hb It was like HBO did it like they did Carlin's Specials and stuff like yeah. Yeah. But that for me is like if I were to point someone at the Robin Williams thing, for me, it wouldn't be Aladdin or Missus Doubtfire. It would be to your point, I think Robin Williams got where he got because his ability to do free association, And I think any script that they gave him was like they're trading in his charisma and him his likability. But I don't think a lot of the things that we've watched or will watch this month or in general, other than probably Aladdin and a couple other things, really aid in his ability to do the fast free association thing like this is this is like Chevy Chase's thing was easy to write to.

He's a smug prick. Okay, write a smug prick. Robin Williams thing is he can do free association really well. And he's a really good comedian. Why is this guy in movies like this?

Like? What right? What the fuck is going on? But he tried and was successful in because he was so charismatic places. Yeah, he tried to be an actor.

He consciously said okay, but I can do things. And and then you read about his life and you're like, oh, he went to Juilliard, like he is a Shakespeare Yeah, so yeah. He was amazing in that Shakespeare the version of Hamlet that brought us it. Yes, yeah, you can't. You cannot fake improv free associate in Shakespearean language unless you know Shakespeare he did.

So. He was a classically trained actor with Christopher Reeve. They both they both went to Juilliard at the same time. There were classmates, and so it's the guy contained multitudes and did really interesting stuff. And so, like I said, none of this is against that, but it is always a fascinating question of movie iconography.

You can talk about. You know, one day we'll do Steve Martin. I don't know if you've already done, you know, Steve Martin retrospective. But there are movies that are very sort of successful Steve Martin movies, really unsuccessful Steve Martin movies, and then ones that are successful but you resent them. It's like, I'm not sure the Cluseau movies are terrible movies, and I don't know that he did a terrible job, but it's upsetting that he did it.

Would it be even more upsetting to you to learn that I saw those Pink Panther movies before I saw the real Pink Panther movies. No, but I get that. No, that's the point I'm made. Hey, there are gonna be people growing up thinking that Steve Martin is Inspector Cluseau, right, right, And there's something weird about that, and there's there's gonna be people growing up thinking that he's Sergeant Bilco. Well, and like I said, there's some people that there are people that grew up not knowing Tom Hanks as anything other than Woody and that's like it's Cora but I mean like but not.

But in a lot of ways, it's the same thing with Robin Williams. Like there are going to be people that grow up knowing very little about Robin Williams because at this point he's made nothing new and anything is going to have to have been twenty years old almost. Yeah, And that's that's the Disney point, is that the one thing you know that Disney is eternal. There will always be a child watching a Laddin for the first time, and. So it's like and there will always be people going to those theme parks to see the genie.

You know. So maybe that's not such a bad thing to be on you on your metaphorical tombstone, because that's accurate. You ain't never had a friend like me, baby. That's Robin Williams. I mean, he's saying that song.

That's I mean, frankly though, if you watch I think to a certain extent, now to a great extent, if you sit down night and watch the jerk that that is Steve Martin. Oh yeah, I think you can say that right. One hundred percent. Again though, is Steve Martin. I love the stand up, I think even more than some of the movie roles.

Love that stand up. But what and all we have from the stand up are weird like snippets. You know. I watched that two part documentary where you get it's like, oh they did there were cameras. Oh yeah, there are filmed, and then all the albums and stuff.

I mean, comedy isn't pretty, you know, let's get small, all of those albums, even those TV specials that he was doing in the old days where he gets completely blitzed out of his mind and jumps onto his. Uh uh uh. What the hell do they call those things with the big roller the steam steam roller? Steamroller? Yeah, and it's like friends don't let friends drive drunks on a steam roller?

Or where all the comedians are coming to him, you know, Steve, Steve, how about I try this? And he's just like, ah, not funny, you know, and it's like they'll mel Brooks and Woody Allen, I mean, all these guys. That was meta before I love was a thing. Yes, I have one more question because this person hasn't come up, but we've talked about someone that was in a movie with this person. And I'm curious because again, comedian of a certain time comparative to Billy Crystal and his film career, Robin Williams.

Because Billy Crystal another student of the stand up comedy. Right, oh yeah, I. Mean, yeah, look, you've got Crystals stand up was amazing, especially when he would do his old Brenner impersonation. Yeah. He's a great performer, and I think that the the movies that stand for him are When Harry Met Sally and Mabey City Slickers.

Yeah yeah, and then of course his small, small but very memorable role as Magic Max and Princess Bride, Yeah yeah. And supporting actor Yeah yeah. It is an incredible role in Spinal Tap too. Come on, Mime is money. Sure, and that's and you know, but that's the thing about I think all of these kind of eighties comedians, late seventies, early eighties comedians, some of them, I think they had people writing for them that understood their talents, and some of them didn't and and I you know, I think Robin Williams at the end of his career willed out more quality than not.

But I also think that Robin Williams like Tom Hanks, like Billy Crystal, like a whole lot, because again, Tom Hanks got a start, his start in comedy films, Like a lot of Tom Hanks's early work is comedic. Like it's weird for people to think that now, but one of my favorite Tom Hanks movies Dragnet, Like that's a great movie. It's a purely comedic film, like it is nothing about it is sappi Er saccherin the way a bunch of Tom Hanks's stuff becomes in the nineties. But you know, Robin. Williams again like Robin that, yeah, you can have it, but that's not what in my mind he's known.

But like Tom Hanks, you've got arranged because he is primarily an actor. But then you then you like, we can have this same conversation and perhaps in a future month will about Bill Murray where Bill Murray in the last whatever twenty thirty years, has done a lot of stuff that is like, oh, that's interesting to one degree or another, successful not successful, successful in a weird way partially whatever, but gun to your head time capsule, you're going with Ghostbusters from the Spipes. Ghost that is what Bill, That is who Bill Murray is. That is the essence, That is the pure, undistilled here is what this person is. Now they can now now that they're a billionaire, they can do whatever they want and experiment and go do fucking Hamlet if they want.

But if you want to know who Bill Murray is, you're gonna watch Ghostbusters or Stripes. That's it. Yeah, Yeah, I'm sure not going to sit down and watch that stupid loss and translation. Again, yikes, No one's going to do that. Well, there are certain some people that really think that movie Ropes the Moon.

Don't think it's anybody in this podcast episode for sure. There. Yeah, anything else we want to talk about with Runaway Vacation. Terrible title for a movie by any way, worse than RV somehow, just worse somehow. Richard final thoughts on RV.

I think you can skip it. Wow, there you go. What about you, Mike. I guess Richard's convinced me that it's just not very good at all. So yeah, I'm kind of right.

There with you. I think in a lot of ways. It's not a great movie. I think unfortunately there aren't any other road trip movies with Robin Williams. The closest I think Robin Williams comes in a movie that is similar to this, one that comes out at a similar time.

In my mind, if you want to watch something that I think has him playing kind of the beleaguered father character in a fun way, not a World's Greatest Dad way, which is really depressing. Old Dogs is like what this movie should have felt like. Old Dogs is a fun, weird movie that this movie kind of never gets to and Old Dogs comes out like three years after this. So this movie just made me think of other movies where Robin Williams is playing a beleaguered father and that one's way better than this. And so that's where I would push someone if they were saying, like, well, I want to watch this, But at the same time, this is the only road trip movie with Robin Williams.

So if that's a thing you want to see, this is where you have to go see it. It's not terrible, but it kind of squanders Robin Williams. So on that note, we'll take a break play some ads and play a TV spot for the next episode. From weirding Way Media, Cambridge and with Shawn as a podcast by two guys obsessions, passions and hobbies. Those two guys are.

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And meanwhile, the family's nanny that helped Veronica to care for her and Lucian's children, was found bludgeoned to death in the basement of their family Hope, I'm Militia and I'm Sierra, and this is twisted and uncorked. I'm not recommended by the Surgeon General for your humor to heal, pain and suffer. He's not certified by the AMA. If you want to be a clown, go join the circus. And four out of five doctors surveyed donor party of fifth.

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Robin Williams, You're TV folk. On your hatch Adams Strated PG thirteen starts Friday at Caesars Everywhere. That's right. On the next episode, we're going to be talking about License to Wed, a movie that has Robin Williams playing a man of the cloth, which is fucking horrifying. I just don't even the explanation behind it there.

You couldn't convince me it makes sense, but okay, And on that episode will be joined by our dear friend Ryan Verel of The Disconnected, and Mike will be joining us obviously as well, since it is still Mike White March. So until then, where can people find you when you're not slandering the good name of Robin Williams. Richard HadAM, You can find me on Richard HadAM Paranormal bookshelf. I do invite you. It's not what you expect.

It's certainly not like anything I've ever done anywhere else. Check it out. It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it's paranormal David Sedaris, it is storytelling, and I think you'll like it. Check it out. Whoa self comparatives?

Holy shit, Richard? WHOA? I got ten seconds to sell this motherfucker? Richard talk pretty one day? Yeah, Richard talking pretty to day?

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Please, because content creators, we do it out of a love for what we love, and you know, sometimes it's because we think we're David Sedaris. Apparently Richard had Wow. Is that the Lebanese salute? Yes it is, Richard. Thank you so much for joining us.

It was. This was fun, more fun even than our v possible. Always my pleasure to talk to you guys. It has been great. And Mike, thank you so much for picking the for picking the entertainment for this episode.

It was a good one. You're welcome, America And as always, we'll catch you on the next episode.