Blank Check with Griffin & David - I Love You to Death
Episode Date: December 3, 2023Mamma mia! We’ve got-a some-a sleepy pasta for-a you to taste-a this-a week! In our latest, much-awaited installment of PORCH CLASSICS, we’re handing the reins to Producer Ben, who has chosen to s...potlight a forgotten comedy about “the world’s horniest pizza man who cannot die.” Lawrence Kasdan’s I LOVE YOU TO DEATH is a feast of bizarre performances (Italian-face Kevin Kline, Serb-face Joan Plowright, Stoner-face William Hurt) and tonal miscalculations. All this to say - it’s a very FUN movie to talk about. This episode is sponsored by: Uncommon Goods (uncommongoods.com/check) MONSTER by Hirokazu Kore-eda (wellgousa.com) AuraFrames.com (CODE: CHECK) Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram! Buy some real nerdy merch at shopblankcheckpod.myshopify.com or at teepublic.com/stores/blank-check
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Discussion (0)
when someone shoot you in the head and make it your podcast.
Hey, Pepino!
David is throwing a baseball cap as if it is pizza dough,
spinning it over his head.
Ben, can we try a second take of that?
And I don't think you should feel any need to be bashful on the accent.
Okay, so you're saying you're Kevin Kline.
It's 1990.
Someone asked you
to play an Italian-American.
Go full Luigi on it.
Want someone to shoot you
in the head
and make it your podcast.
One of the many things
I find fascinating
about this movie
is I would say
Kevin Kline,
amongst all living actors,
is at the absolute
top-tier indiction. Right right when i think about kevin
klein i'm like that guy speaks clearly that guy fucking enunciates he hits syllables you're like
that is a classically trained man yeah and then him trying to do a silly accent on top of that
you cannot stop hearing the pizza box guy caricature voice fighting against his sort
of like mid-atlantic play to the back of the house i would agree yes he wants to be shakespearean but
also pizza man he looks like he's having fun he looks like something all right the man is no
question having fun he's having a blast he's having a blast he's having a good time i think everyone
in this movie is kind of having fun.
Yeah.
Looking down, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.
Yeah, everyone's having fun.
Yep, yep.
I mean, they're going for it.
People are going for it.
What is this?
What are we doing here?
What is going on?
What's happening?
Yes.
Well, guys, hello.
Welcome to Blank Check with Griffin and David.
That's Griffin.
That's David.
And who's this?
It's me, Ben Hosley, the producer.
Producer Ben.
Producer Ben.
Ben-ducer.
Yeah.
Produer Ben.
Yeah.
Oh, the nicknames are back.
Poet Laureate.
Yeah.
I'm not looking at the list.
The Tiebreaker.
Birthday Benny.
Dirt Bike Benny.
Wishful Benny.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Commish.
The Commish.
The Fiddler.
Is that what we called it? The Futzer. The Futzer. The Futzer. Yeah. Yeah. The commish. The commish. What do we call it? The fiddler? Is that what we called it?
The futzer?
The futzer.
The futzer.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
These are just some of the many nicknames.
Fuckmaster.
We've kind of really abandoned this.
Not Professor Christie.
Which is okay.
Close personal friend of Dan Lewis.
Of course.
The voice of reason.
Yes.
Which I don't think is true anymore.
At this point, who is?
I don't know.
Retired to different titles
over the course of different
years.
Marie is not the voice of reason.
No, she isn't.
Tracer, Ben Kenobi,
Ben Knight Shyamalan.
Come on, Kylo Ben.
Kylo Ben, Ben's to eat.
Ely Ben's with a dollar sign.
There's no way
you're going to be able
to get to the deep cut.
No, no.
Or the back half of this
because we've barely...
I'm not going to get order right, but I'm just the back half of this i'm not gonna get order right
but i'm just gonna throw them out there ben 19 the fennel maker yeah uh robo haas yeah mr ben
credible uh hasaka of of the jersey of the ditch a ditch of the jersey ditch of the jersey uh beetle
vape juice sure which i mean lauren bobert has taken that one away from you many people have made that joke that is a
good point lauren bobert fucking big dogged you on that title i i have no comment we might have
to relitigate remember that what's that she thought she could do that because of the writer's
strike that's my take she's like that late night wouldn't be able to make jokes yeah no one's gonna
call me on this because there's no late like this is late night fodder and they're all on strike.
So I'm going to go get fondled at Beetlejuice.
Yeah, she gave a handjob and smoked a vape at a touring production of Beetlejuice the
musical.
She is Beetlevapejuice now.
She is officially Beetlevapejuice.
Yeah.
It's just so funny that she was kicked out for vaping and was like, I didn't vape.
And they were like, we have the footage.
Not only did you vape, but there's so much other stuff.
You were rubbing dicks and he was grabbing titties.
What are you talking about?
The vaping is now immaterial.
Yes.
Okay.
Anyway, do you have any more?
Warhaz?
Yeah.
Christopher Nolan.
Ben Hosley met Sally? I mean, okay, okay yes but i was trying to prompt you on nolan
uh producer bane yes uh brooks brooks is fuck uh it's not i'll do benny thing no although
that'd be pretty good what is it uh as ben is benglish benglish of course Because I defended Spanglish Eat Drink Ben Hosley
Nancy Meyers did you do that one
Michael Mann
Michael Mann is
Fuck
There's so much more to do though
Tell me which movie
2009 crime film set in Chicago
Public enemies
This is actually kind of turned into
The box office. Jonathan Demme. Oh, this is fun. This is actually kind of turned into like a game.
Yeah, now it's from the box office game.
Jonathan Demme. The movie just got re-released. Stop making Ben's.
Yes, okay. With a Z. That's the joke
there. Yeah. George
Miller. George Miller would
be...
Is it Ben Pig is his kitty? Correct.
We've changed from Haas Pig in the City.
Yeah, that's much better.
Did we do... Gina Prince Bythewood
Uh
Would be
Uh
The Secret Life
Of Ben's
But that's the one with the C
Yeah correct
Okay
Uh
Zemeckis
Zemeckis would be
Oh
I don't know
I don't even remember us
Picking this
Really
Uh
Give me
Give me the movie
Back to the Future Part 3
Ben to the Future Part
Ben to the Haasley Part 3 Bent to the Future Part 3
Bent to the Hosley Part 3
That seems made up to me
Yeah, I think we forgot that one
Musker and Clements
Musker and Clements would be
Their first film
Their first film
The Great Mouse Fart Detective
Right
Yeah
Elaine May
We forgot that title
Fart Detective
That's riffing off of
Elaine May would be...
Hilariously, I am currently wearing the nickname shirt.
Oh, wow.
Yes.
Okay.
Elaine May would be the fucking...
What?
It's the heartbreak kid.
It's the Haas break kid, apparently.
I don't know.
For Singleton, we did Ben's and the Haas.
What?
That's the one with the C.
This is sort of like when the nicknames, right?
Like, my hand, I'm gesturing sort of like a slow decline.
It's a pretty fast decline, I think.
And there's plenty more, because we did recently sort of have to rapid fire come up with a bunch.
Yeah, that was a good episode.
It's like Benscape from New Haas.
Yeah, funny.
Bronco Haasley, that's actually good. That's actually incredible. For a champion. I think that was a good episode. It's like Benscape from New Haas. Yeah, funny. Bronco Hosley, that's actually good.
That's actually incredible.
For Campion.
I think that was a great and powerful suggestion.
Yeah, good.
For Raimi, that was obvious.
All that Haas for Spasi.
Yeah, two Zs.
Haas 9000 for Kubrick.
Funny.
Bone Sound Daddy for Selick.
Selick, funny.
B2 Ben Spotting for Boyle.
I bet we could swing back around
on that one I think
maybe send the Icarus to
check out what happened with Icarus
and then
Scumbum Jr.
for Keaton
that's pretty good
but then who did we do
after Buster Keaton we did
Park Chan-wook we didn't figure that one out
oh god what about Fincher we didn't figure that one out. Oh, God.
What about Fincher?
We haven't figured that one out.
Let's get into the episode.
You don't like us completely derailing your episode with this fucking nonsense?
I got a pitch.
Yeah?
Seven.
Seven for Fincher.
Seven.
That's fine by me. And the b is uppercase and backwards seven
okay anyway uh for anyone who's still listening to the episode two people two people um
this is blank check sympathy for mr fuckmaster It's a podcast about movies. And directors.
Wow, I never do this.
And I've heard it so many times.
You know, people think it's easy.
They think.
Everyone thinks they could do it themselves
if they were given the chance.
This podcast is about directors.
Mr. Vengeance.
Oh, yeah.
For Park Channel.
For Mr. Vengeance.
That's good.
Great, we're all fucking caught up.
Well, we have to do Fincher, but okay. I had seven! Oh, seven. There we go. For Mr. Benjins. That's good. Great. We're all fucking caught up. Well, we have to do Fincher, but okay.
I had seven.
Oh, seven.
There we go.
Perfect.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
It's never been more perfect than Jason.
Go ahead.
This is a podcast about directors who have mass success,
issued a series of blank checks to make whatever kind of passion products they want.
Sometimes they clear and sometimes they bounce, baby.
And this is a special one-off episode,
a palate cleanser, if you will.
It's a Ben's Choice episode.
Now, occasionally on the show,
our glorious hosts hand the reins over to me
to choose a film.
We had, look, end of the year,
couple new releases coming out we had to cover,
and our next miniseries,
which we will have announced
at this point is barbara strice and babs baby babs baby is a short one so it felt weird to start it
and then interrupt it almost immediately we're doing this and then we got some right new releases
right we had basically one open slot that had been driving us mad for a long time trying to
figure out what to put in here and i think we should we should get into a little bit of the backstory there was a little bit of a power struggle here in deciding the ben's
choice is that fair to say that's fair i suppose so ben in confidence ben was throwing out a lot
of ideas i have many ideas but also in confidence ben threw out to you and to i i would say not in
confidence okay go just finish your sentence and then I'll.
No, it wasn't confessional.
Much like the way this movie opens.
Yes.
Ben confessing he's too horny.
I'm such a horny boy.
Bye-bye.
Pizza.
Yes.
In confidence.
Ben said to each of us,
you know what I've been thinking could maybe make a Ben's choice,
a good Ben's choice. And to each of us, he pitched a movie've been thinking could maybe make a Ben's choice, a good Ben's choice.
And to each of us,
he pitched a movie
that he knew
that we liked,
we loved,
is sort of a pet cause for us,
a recent film
that, fingers crossed,
is a franchise starter.
Paw Patrol.
Not Paw Patrol.
Well, that's on your long list.
Yeah.
Okay, well,
you pitched Dungeons & Dragons
Honor Among Thieves,
the great the great
film of 2020 which you very much want to boost which i want to boost and would love to talk
about and also but i want ben's enthusiasm on mike yeah uh but you pitched that to me at marie's
wedding griffin was there he may not have been paying attention though no i know i remember him
pitching it to me but then like a month later ben says me, you know what I also think could make a good Ben's choice?
Mrs. Harris goes to Paris.
That's true.
And I'm like, I want to fucking give that movie full blank check shine.
Because these are both films that I now own.
I like these movies.
And watch.
Not regularly because I'm not like someone who, you know, I've revisited both of them a couple of times.
Both of these movies need sequels.
They do.
And could use our support.
Well, Dungeons & Dragons has got to get a sequel, right?
It's in the tweener state financially.
My guess would be no.
It's right on the cusp.
Although, in this Hollywood,
crazier things have happened, I suppose.
Because it's fun.
And I like that movie a lot.
Yeah, and Mrs. Harris went to Paris.
And that is true.
She could go several other places if given the chance.
Yes, sure.
So there's this kind of tug of war going on.
Suburbs of Paris, other parts of France.
Of both of us trying to sway you towards one or the other.
And then David one day comes in and says,
you know what?
I've been thinking about it.
We've been getting this all wrong.
We've been putting our thumbs on the scale.
This is not the spirit of the Ben's choice.
The spirit of the Ben's choice
is him pulling out something we would never think of.
I was like, Ben chooses.
Yes.
Ben's choice.
Because you were kind of doing the,
what do you guys think?
Like, this, that, what should we do?
You were throwing it to the group, and I said, that's Like this, that, like what should we do? You know, you were, you were,
you've thrown it to the group.
And I said, that's not the spirit of this.
That's not the spirit.
You choose.
And you sit, you know, so I said this to you.
I said like Ben's choice, sit down.
And you were like, all right, well, let me think.
And this is often the state of the Ben's choice
is he pitches a couple movies that feel like safe picks.
I like the Simpsons movie.
Yeah.
I like, I like, uh, don't look back. Sure. That's come up many times. I like Don't Look Back.
Right.
Which would be fun.
Right.
And we go,
Ben, what's the real Ben's pick?
And then it's like
he closes his eyes,
he goes into another space,
and he pulls a title
you never could predict
out of the ether.
And that title happened to be...
Well, you gave us three options.
No, but he didn't really.
No.
Because this was the first thing
he said and we were like,
what? He gave us this one and two buffer options he said like i would also do my cousin vinny and what was the third one i can't even remember it doesn't matter it was all i was
hearing at that point was like it didn't matter the thing was i was like ben you know you're
supposed to choose it's ben's choice yes so what do you want and i was partly saying like look if
it's one of these two movies just pick one sure but i was also like it's ben's choice. Yes. So what do you want? And I was partly saying like, look, if it's one of these two movies, just pick one.
Sure.
But I was also like,
it's Ben's choice.
And you sit down and
get our voices out of your ears.
And you just said,
I love you to death.
And I was like,
what?
Right.
And Griffin was like,
what?
But I also was like,
of course.
No, but we were both like,
I was surprised,
but immediately it's like,
this makes perfect sense
well yeah it does make sense because it's it's it checks all the boxes when you compare it to
past uh ben's choices and that it's uh you know a sketch comedian vehicle uh-huh for tracy for
tracy it's a movie about an incredibly confident moron Which I feel like is a big
That is often
I never really thought of it that way
Like a violently confident moron
Action cinema's most confident moron
Steven Seagal
Has been represented in Ben's Choice
Yes
You have
You know
I love
You know
Men Who Knew Too Little
That's a very confident moron
Yes
I suppose Clifford
I wouldn't call Clifford a moron
He's kind of a genius.
Joe Dirt is similarly.
Yes, Joe Dirt.
Absolutely.
But the heart of a poet, Joe Dirt, of course.
Yeah.
And Fletch, well, he's not a moron.
No, Fletch is actually very smart and he's working overtime.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
But you just look at.
Guile, kind of a confident moron.
Oh, yeah.
You look at any poster for this movie from...
There's several floating around there
between, like, the VHS poster,
you know, the cover, the DVD, the theatrical poster.
All of this lineup of faces,
the cast of this movie,
the way they're styled,
and the expressions they're making,
all surrounding...
Usually there's a pizza somewhere
in the poster oh yeah it just feels like such a ben thing as you said to me the other day
this is just one of those movies i watched five times in one summer pretty much yeah it was because
it was on tv it was on comedy central yeah so right a few people since i've learned that you
wanted to do this have said i've said we're doing an episode i love you to death they've all been
like oh i love that movie hell yeah like why do you love that movie who are these not angry
name them put them on the wall of honor it's the opposite of a black list it's a green list
and i think it's always the same answer of like yeah that movie was on tv all the time sure yeah
um although one of my friends watched it during a Klein-a-thon. Okay. Which I was also intrigued to hear about.
Like, she was like, oh, no, during COVID, me and my roommate, we watched every fucking Klein movie.
Yeah.
And imagine this really pops in a Klein-a-thon.
Was that a first watch for them or was it a re-kline?
I think that was a first watch.
David, give me...
Was that a first watch for them or was it a re-kline?
David?
Sure you don't want me to talk over that.
David, was that a first watch for them or was it a recline?
Shall we recline?
And then they're both in Barka loungers.
Yes.
Going all the way back.
They don't even look at the movie.
Yeah.
Oh, I love you to death.
Even look at the movie?
Yeah.
Oh, I Love You to Death.
My joke to you at the moment you picked this movie was,
I just imagined the 90s basic cable meeting.
Yes.
Where they're like, all right, you know, who wants it?
Jurassic Park, bids like crazy, right?
And then like, it's hour eight, and they're like, I Love You to Death, and Comedy Central's like,
I'll give you 10 bucks.
And they're like, yep, that's fine, all right.
You know, like the pile of vhs's is down for
the last few right yes i mean look a lot of the movies you pick for ben's choices are films that
you saw many many times on tv rotation you talk about the porch classics and the vhs's but a lot
of these are these are being programmed on cable i mean I did see this on a porch. Okay. In Florida.
Wow.
This is a twist we didn't know was coming.
This is a grandma porch.
A grandma porch. But she didn't own it.
It was on TV. It was on TV.
Rocking chair? Did you like go
to see your grandma? Adirondack
chair. Oh, I love an Adirondack chair.
That's a recline. That's a recline.
Those things are at an angle.
And imagine the physical comedy Kevin could do
if you put him in one of those bad boys.
I'm just...
Did you get to your grandma's house and she was like,
do you want to watch a movie?
And you're like, why is your TV inside?
And she was like, oh, right.
Lugged it out to the porch.
No, my grandma,
they lived in a trailer park.
Oh.
So they had to,
had to.
And they had a, you know,
this screened in porch
where they did
most of their watching.
I mean,
Florida though,
it's hot.
Hot.
Yeah.
A hot TV.
Hot to the touch.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
That TV,
90s TV,
that thing's going.
It's warm. Black
remote control must have burned your thingies
if you tried to change channels. There's a ceiling fan
and they eventually got it closed
in. They got it air conditioned.
Remember how like the old
TVs, but though you put your hand near them
and it would start to fuzz? Yeah, like the static
noise. Oh, I love that. It'll make your
hair kind of stand out.
Give you a creamer. Yo, one time, or this is actually a thing I did many times,
is if you found a TV on the side of the road,
we would pick it up, drive it to the dump.
I didn't litter, but it was really cool to throw them.
Oh, yeah, just to smash them.
And watch them explode.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
My friend, I remember this very clearly,
got a new toilet once right
in his house and had to get rid of the old toilet and the plumber was like yeah just you know you
gotta smash it and then throw it away cool and he was like how do i smash it and the plumber's like
easy i'll tell you what you're gonna do is you're gonna lift it up and then you're gonna throw it
down he was like wait are you serious the plumber was like yeah that's what you gotta do and he was like it was most satisfied
smashing of my life smashed a toilet i just you know i didn't realize that it was that easy to
smash a toilet well they made a porcelain yeah i don't think it was an old toilet right it's
probably like if you sat hard enough could you smash with your ass well i i mean this is a
tangent i don't i mean that ben do you want to
talk about the movie at all the show twitter is barely usable at this point hours just on that
if we really want to dig into that oh man i just got a cursed email from good people at universal
okay trolls band together together critic screenings Some people have messaged us
That there's a new pop-up experience
For Trolls Band together
Oh, you guys gotta go
The word gotta
Definitely does not need to be deployed right now
I think we gotta
No, I think you have to
I think it's required
I think we must
What was I going to say?
Could you smash your toilet?
I think you would need to be remarkably heavy to do that.
I think it's, well, again, tweeting the show.
If you were high enough in the air and you came down.
That's got to hurt, though.
Yeah, you have to have a hard ass.
There was a point during the pandemic where I was really, you know, I was putting my toilet to work.
Oh, God. And I started really, you know, I was putting my toilet to work. Oh, God.
And I started noticing, like, creaking sounds.
Like, I never broke it, but it was like, I haven't gained weight.
I've, in fact, lost weight in lockdown.
I clearly am just shitting too hard.
Wow.
That this is starting to put strain on the thing.
The point is.
The point is.
There are certain types of movies.
I had this phenomenon
as a child.
I don't know if you felt
this way as well, Ben,
but I remember like
sometimes being on
my fourth watch
of some movie
that was just
constantly in rotation
on my favorite channels
and turning to my dad
and being like,
is this movie a classic?
Because they're airing it
on TV as if it's important.
Yes, sure. As if it's the Wizard of Oz and TV as if it's important. Yes.
As if it's the Wizard of Oz.
Yeah.
And they just know it's going to hit.
And he was just like, no, this is like no one really cared about this when it came out.
Like, I didn't understand the concept of what you're saying, David, of just like either
this movie came in a bundle.
Right.
With like four other movies that people wanted the rights for at that channel.
And they also had to take this fifth one or comedy center.
I think often,
especially in like the nineties would just be like,
give us the titles.
No one else wants.
Exactly.
We'll pay you nothing.
We need to fill space.
But the name of the network is comedy central.
And so comedy,
it was central to their central business to,
to,
to all of us.
This is the center of American comedy
is every film we position.
That's where you're going to see those kinds of movies.
So yes, absolutely.
A hundred percent.
I was like, well, I know who Tracy Ullman is
because I know that The Simpsons started on her show.
Yes.
So I knew that much.
Right.
And I just, yeah, assumed that this was just like
a fun i mean i also like dark like black you know comedies like this felt like a little movie about
murder yeah this felt like a little kind of you know like uh fucked up you know like a fucked up
movie look so i was excited by that. We've talked about this.
We've covered some films that fall into this category.
But this thing of like big studio, all-star ensemble,
pitch black comedies about crime and or murder.
Right.
That flop so hard.
Yeah.
And audiences respond by saying like, fuck you.
How dare you?
Why would you think I'd like that?
Right.
This movie did not do very well.
No.
It made $15 million.
That's more than I make.
Yeah, that's true.
And it was in 1990.
I didn't make any money in 1990.
I was an active drag on my family, actually.
I was losing money in 1990.
But, you know, they were feeding me peanut butter and jelly or whatever the hell.
This didn't look like it cost a lot.
No, but it's got a big cast.
And it's like Owen Roisman shot it.
Andy Coates cut it.
Because it's made by, at that time, still a major director.
We have a lot of careers to talk about in this episode.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I mean, but here's the thing.
Yeah.
Because we should just get into business at hand.
Yeah.
But just to sort of wrap up on our preface,
I mean, I think what works out with this movie is it has a lot of avenues for us to explore.
Ben, you do not have to, for one second,
defend your choice of I Love You to Death.
One of the great films, obviously.
Obviously.
Watching this movie,
it felt like trying to lead the the jfk investigation like from the
assassination where i'm just like all these threads here that i need to like follow in
different places like every two minutes something would happen on screen that would make me like
spiral off into right hold on hold on hold on you can't just bring that in and sometimes it's
textual within the film itself sometimes Sometimes it's thinking about, like,
what was this person doing at this point in their career?
How did this movie get made?
But just, I just gotta say that this was such a comfort to revisit.
Yeah.
I had not watched it in a long time.
Truly, I think I hadn't really revisited it
since the summer of like
i love you to death yeah and they don't make beautiful summer they don't make comedies like
this anymore they certainly they just really don't they straight up don't make movies like
it's like so broad that's a good question it's so um there's like something about it's like it's so
fucking simple i i just this movie is simple it's so fucking simple. I just. This movie is simple.
That's true.
It's so fucking simple and basic.
I like that it was just like, I like that it's just this very straightforward farce.
And it's not like.
Farce is the word.
And you could see this being adapted from a play on the West End.
Yeah, that's possible.
It almost makes more sense than it being adapted
from a real true crime story i know which is crazy too but like how much of this movie just
takes place basically in the bedroom with different characters like running in and running out and
doing different shit and a situation escalating in a very controlled way. Yes. Yeah. You're right about everything you're saying.
I'm just looking up current black comedies,
but, like, it's, you know,
I'm trying to find, like, recent examples, right?
But it's giving me things like Promising Young Woman,
which is barely a comedy.
Yes.
And obviously is, like, a movie that is
trying to make a very blunt, allegorical point.
The Coen brothers are the people who have been the best at doing this type of thing,
but they do it in a more elevated way and less commercially.
Not really doing it right now.
Right.
And we've talked about...
Clooney sort of tried to imitate them once.
It didn't really work.
We've talked about DeVito was one of the only guys who was able to make these movies work
with a mainstream public.
But then even by death to Smoochie, he got the full fuck you, how dare you treatment
and was scared off of making movies. This movie is like bullshit and i say that fondly yes
so like something like you know black klansman or promising young woman or summer who bought you
those are like what we're talking about allegorical films the political films you know something like
i mean lucky numbers which we've covered on the show a simple favor again it's like yes that movie
has like comic tone sort of but that's being presented more as a drama like it's like a
melodrama no what was the other one I was just thinking very bad things well that's from like
25 years ago no no I'm not talking present day I'm trying to think of this I mean the menu
that's what I was thinking the menu is closer but it has like a press machine to it
triangle you know what i guess this kind of does too in its cast and like you say like
crew but it doesn't really in its tone triangle of sadness it also feels like it feels like the
mixed nuts thing where they're like we're pitching this to the malls of america right they're not
like we're doing something really elevated and sophisticated
here this feels like everyone involved being like i just want to have fun and then they're building
that uh vehicle for fun around like incredibly dark shit yeah and then being surprised that
people don't go for it other than ben rediscovering it this is not a perfect comparison but cocaine bear obviously that was more of like an action horror comedy yeah it's
very violent and but that is kind of like this where it's like we've vaguely ripped something
from the headlines yeah which this is vaguely ripped from there you're right yeah and like
we've got a bunch of actors you know and a bunch of silly stuff is going to happen and you are not
going to take it seriously cocaine bear has more i more, I mean, it's got the unique thing
of the sort of post-modern pre-memification of the movie kind of thing.
And also, you didn't see Cocaine Bear, did you, Ben?
I did not.
My big hit on Cocaine Bear, a movie that I think drinks duck piss.
It's not very good.
Is that it's basically like a trauma movie
made by someone who's never watched a trauma movie.
Oh, that sucks.
Yeah.
There's just something off about that movie.
Yes.
Which sort of, and I don't think it's like the worst movie I've ever seen.
Yeah.
But I didn't like it.
And I was kind of like, this proves that this is hard to do.
I also think that movie is trying to like shock the audience into like, I can't believe they put this in a movie.
Whereas movies like Lucky Numbers, Very Bad Things, like Love You to Death, you know, whatever scale of like bad taste they're playing in.
They're also like, we believe we can frame these situations in a way that is guilt free comedy.
Right.
Where you're like the provisionality of the situation just leads to laughs.
We're not trying to challenge you. And are always like why am i laughing about this my
grandma could see any of those movies maybe not very bad things yeah that's the most extreme one
drowning mona drowning mona one night at mccool's yeah oh yeah ice harvest i'm thinking about movies
that are like all-star casts and murders involved and all the tone of that your
grandma's there in the mall seeing this movie and going like oh this is unbelievable how dare they
yeah but she's not that mad she's like oh with the ms sugar you know he had it coming
that dirty dog right so you know god bless a movie like i love you to death existing um but i think what's
also why it does partly exist because of the man who made it i'm i assume well this is the other
thing i want to say laurence larry kasdan laurence kasdan a director who certainly qualifies as a
blank check director what's his blank check i don't disagree with you what's his blank check is wider yeah
yeah yeah but um but like dream catcher is a fucking blank check but that has a king
like wider person being like i want to make a wider movie it's going to be long and expensive
and studios being like we don't okay i mean i think just costars a cosigner and wider in the
same way that king is for dream catcher yeah I'd say Silverado's a certain kind of blank check,
especially considering it's a dormant genre at that point.
Beyond that, Silverado's just like, you've made two hits now,
and you've written a bunch of them.
What do you want to do?
Ben, how much do you know about Larry Kasten's career?
I don't know very much.
So his first produced screenplay is The Empire Strikes Back.
That is correct?
Have you heard of it?
He is a guy who's like writing scripts.
That's episode, I want to say, four?
Five.
Five.
He is a guy who is like a hot screenwriter who hasn't gotten a project made yet, right?
Yeah.
And Lucas is like, I'm aware that I need to step back, let other people direct these Star Wars movies,
let other people write them,
and just sort of oversee them.
And he hires Lawrence Kasdan
to write The Empire Strikes Back.
A guy who's like,
I don't know sci-fi.
That's what he talks like.
He does talk like that.
He talks like that.
But remember,
Kasdan had already written another script.
Well, Lucas hires him
because he had written
Raiders of the Lost Ark,
which comes out after Empire,
but they had that script.
Spielberg discovered Kasdan.
Yeah, okay, so how did they discover him?
It's called Continental Divide,
and it was eventually directed by Michael Apte
and stars John Belushi.
Yes, yes.
Never seen it.
I haven't either,
but that was John Belushi trying to sell him
as a more straight-laced
romantic leading man right i think it's supposed to be fine he but he's he's like a comedy spec
writer right who then spielberg and lucas discover and are like we want you to write indiana jones
and star wars and he nails both of them yeah two scripts that are just jones the first one
holy shit yeah he's like he like, we have this content.
I mean, obviously that movie's also written by Philip Kaufman, right?
But in both cases, because Empire Strikes Back starts out as the couple, I'm forgetting their name.
The Brackets.
Lee Bracket is obviously the other credited writer.
In both cases, it was like ideas that were developed by Spielberg and Lucas.
They hire people to write them.
They're like, these scripts aren't working.
Here's this guy.
Yeah, they need help.
Right.
He's got this good spec script and he gets like full credit for saving both of those movies and
like contributing the things that everyone loves about them it is not his background he's like i
don't know genre stuff and he writes these two scripts where people are like well you could like
teach classes on these films this is the model that everyone's working off of in writing blockbuster
films this is the ideal in terms of like the balance of humor and story structure and drama and all of that.
So like he's now like the most valuable screenwriter in Hollywood, despite these two projects basically being outside of his wheelhouse.
He talks like this.
Yeah, he talks like that.
But that gives him the blank check to start making his own movies.
He's from Miami.
Body Heat comes out the same year as Raiders.
Body Heat.
Have you heard of Body Heat, Ben?
No.
You'd probably dig it.
It's a good movie.
Body Heat rules.
It's like a neo-noir with Kathleen Turner.
It comes out the same year as Raiders and Continental Divide.
Wow.
Looking at pictures of her in this.
He's.
Whew. Yeah. This is a movie it is a hot movie but even this is a pivot of like the the raiders empire guy
beyond that it's him being like hey i want to do like a steamy neo-noir that's essentially i mean
it's a remake of double identity like you know like, you know, an old-fashioned noir.
But they fuck in this movie. They really fuck. Rather than it being...
The sex is textual. Right.
All under the surface. And that's
not particularly
cool genre. No.
But he makes it cool. That movie's a huge hit.
He, you know, toddles
back over to fucking, you know,
California, to Northern California and writes Return of the Jedi.
Just farts it out.
You know, he is, considers himself kind of like the auteur of Han Solo.
Like, he's like, that's really my character.
Like, is, you know, like, whatever.
Because to jump ahead, he ultimately becomes the main creative force on the Solo movie.
Right.
Which is him being like, I'm reclaiming my boy oh uh you know i write the dialogue for him better than anyone blah blah blah
um do you think that he went into it thinking that you would have to keep keep it cold
freezing the coaxium yeah i mean i mean or maybe do you think he was like Luke Warren We should make it clear He's also the father
Of coaxium
His baby
But like I mean
He got the idea
Because in 1983
When he wrote
Return of the Jedi
He also wrote and directed
A film called
The Big Chill
Oh right
He'd written Body Heat first
And he was getting
A little sweaty
Can someone turn on
A fan in here
Still not working
I guess I have to write
The Big Chill
I wanna chill out
Have you seen
The Big Chill
I have
And it was something I watched with my parents Just like They loved to write The Big Chill. I want to chill out. Have you seen The Big Chill? I have,
and it was something I watched with my parents.
Just like they loved...
Seminal Baby Boomer.
Yeah, yeah.
The Boomer classic.
They love that movie.
It has a fantastic soundtrack.
Right, a famous soundtrack.
Just mopey white adults
listening to Motown,
and everyone's like,
finally a movie for us.
He's spoken to us.
He's captured the moment.
It's a good movie.
Yes, and also...
I'm pro-chill.
Here's the other thing with casting.
He always was putting together
unbelievable ensemble casts.
So the big chill has
William Hurt again,
much like Body Heat,
and it's got a lot of
other great actors.
Klein, Goldblum.
Kevin Kline,
who he's going to carry over.
Tom Berenger,
Mary Kay Place,
Meg Tilly,
Joe Buck Williams.
Kevin Costner,
a corpse in deleted scenes.
He's not in the film.
In deleted scenes,
I said.
We've never seen them.
I didn't say seen deleted scenes.
He's,
I've,
a lot of big chill nerds,
I think,
are like,
Did it ever happen?
Does he have to,
no, no,
they exist,
but like,
does he have to die for us to see this scene?
Oh, interesting.
Because the big chill,
I believe,
ended with this super long scene
where you finally see Costner.
Sure.
Like the,
it's sort of like the end
of the godfather yeah part two or whatever it's like and now we'll finally let you see the guy
at the end of talking about right where you finally see and kasdan was like i loved the
scene costner's good nip but like it's not the right completely fucking deflates the movie right
and so they just and that movie actually has a weirdly abrupt ending they didn't even put it on
like the criterion they've never let it out yeah and i think it's kind of kaz and being like i feel like it would be mean to
costner to do this or whatever but like i'd love to see it but this kazdan like develops really
strong relationships with movie stars a he's like discovering a lot of people at like the moment
they're about to pop and be those people just clearly they come back to him over and over again
they love working with him so he's just always assembling like absurd amounts of talent um so after but like notice he's he's
gotten this like lucasfilm sort of guarantor and then he's like great i'm off to the races making
the types of movies for grown-ups movies for grown-ups that i want i'm not trying to like
cash in on the fucking like the the
blockbuster shit i'm not picking up those rewrite jobs because he could at least not publicly he
could easily both i mean i had no idea both those are have you heard of them those are massive
films okay yeah they did all right yeah but no instead he does big heat and big chill and it's
like okay this guy is the finger on the pulse of 80s yuppies who are, you know, who we care about right now.
And he wants to make, like, adult character dialogue-driven dramedies
and then, like, go to sort of dead genres
like the noir, the western.
Right. So, right.
Next, he's like, I want to make a western.
He makes Silverado.
It stars Kevin Kline and Kevin Costner.
Danny Glover.
He casts Costner literally as an apology.
Costner's very hot in that movie.
That is the role that Costner credits with
making his entire career. But it's not a hit.
It's his first whiff.
It gets good reviews but doesn't do well
at the box office so it's kind of seen as
taking the shot. Is a good movie.
I've never liked it.
I think it's a lot of fun. I mean it it's pretty fun i watched it being like here we go
baby and then i was like oh this is okay and i should maybe i'll try it again sometime then he
makes the accidental tourist in 1988 which i have never seen me neither uh which we might you know
uh william hurt once again the big hurt kathleen turner from uh Body Heat Again Gina Davis wins an Oscar Gina Davis Gets her right as she's popping
Peaking
She's kind of a manic pixie dream girl prototype in that movie I think
And she wins an Oscar
So he's done
He's had a good 80s
Right?
We can all agree
Yeah
He starts out with three of the biggest blockbusters
The turn of the decade coming
Right
Yeah exactly
Three big blockbusters
Two big hits
Yeah
Two interesting
Two interesting...
Two interesting movies, one of which won an Oscar.
Yeah.
Right?
Like, doing okay.
Yeah.
He's forever, in my opinion,
he will forever be considered a screenwriter first.
Yes.
But he's a decent director.
He is.
And he's in that...
I mean, Levinson's very much a parallel to him at this time, you know?
Okay.
These guys who, yeah, start out as writers, kind of learn directing on their feet, but
like have a series of films where they're just like kind of connecting with the public
by and large.
And their whiffs are small scale enough that people kind of grant it to them.
Right.
Especially when they can always attract such big stars.
Right.
That it's like they're never going to have a really tough time getting their movies financed.
So why does he then take a script he did not write?
Yes.
About a pizza, a horny pizza man who doesn't get his comeuppance, I guess.
Sort of does, but.
Who cannot be killed.
An unkillable, horny Tacoma pizza man.
Let's make this clear.
A non-supernatural comedy about a horny pizza man who can't be killed.
That's based on a true story.
Based on a true story.
Yes, of sorts.
A sort of...
At least a woman was arrested for trying to kill her husband.
A hit gone wrong.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
I mean, the baseline of the true story is, Ben, you sent us the real news clipping yesterday.
Yeah. Because recently there was some article about how 57 years later they're still together.
They're still together.
They haven't split up.
They figured it out. This movie was right.
This movie was right.
The ending of this movie is correct.
He loved her to death.
But yeah.
He will. He still does. He's continuing to.
But it's based on
this true story
where this scorned woman
hired teens
to murder
her cheating husband.
When I think teen,
I think William Hurt
in 1990.
Hey, hey.
Sorry, carry on.
And they tried
five different times
and a lot of the ways
are portrayed in this movie.
Tried to hit him with a baseball bat.
Tried to blow up his car.
And then eventually they shot him twice.
Right.
And.
Neither one took.
And neither one took.
And it's because his wife had given him all of these sleeping pills,
which slowed down his heart and kept him alive.
So a lot of the elements of this real life story are in this script.
It's not an inherently funny story, but you can see how someone like running down the
hallway with a newspaper clip and goes like, this sounds like real life Bugs Bunny and
Daffy Duck, you know, or like Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner.
They keep on like doing these things to him
and he's surviving all of them.
Yeah, 100%.
And just, you know, yeah,
just picture someone in the room being like,
and the craziest part of all,
it's a real story!
And they're like passing around the newspaper
and like, you know.
And he lived so it's not dark.
They ended up together.
You have this sort of like uplift.
It's a love story with a weird twist, you know, whatever. But yes, I get that. uplift it's a weird twist you know whatever but
yes i get that but it's just odd that he directed correct and him directing it i think means he gets
a big cast like yes because it's larry caston everyone he wants like he gets top picks of
hollywood i'm noticing someone he didn't get oh an italian american actor that is true there is david what
scanning up and down
a jeweler i've got my jeweler's loop he's taking a time tv my my eye got very big in it you can
see like a cartoon not seeing any italians now when i was a young boy yeah and i watched this yeah i found
the performance to be um sort of noticeably a little big a little big yeah so i remember even
at the time being like is this the pizza box man come to life he's also bronzed yeah yeah he is
his hair too his they must have dyed his chest hair.
And it's not like he's a fair-haired man to begin with.
No, but he is like...
And he's...
He's a reedy Midwestern wasp.
Like, I think he actually, one of his parents is Catholic or whatever, and his dad is Jewish.
But he reads waspy.
And maybe it's that later in life he really got cast as a lot of like stuffy guys
but even look at how kasdan's used him up until this point you know yeah i mean he's charismatic
and italians are charismatic i love klein you can see him doing the calculation kasdan right
like i love klein i've worked with him twice this guy can do anything and then you combine that with
this is only coming a couple years after Fish Called Wanda,
which he wins the Oscar for.
And you go like,
if you have that guy playing this character
the way he played the character in Fish Called Wanda,
it probably works.
On paper, you can see that calculation, right?
You're like, that is the archetype
of what this guy should be like.
A sort of like charming, horny doofus. I assume you've seen a fish called one yes auto is that his character auto is his name uh he thought the london underground was a political movement one
of my favorite uh jokes an incredible performance it is an incredible kind of infamously one of the
only like pure comedic performances to win an oscar yep in what was sort of a surprise win but
it was like this thing is just so virtuosic and the guy is just such like different clans like
one of those actors where i'm like you're a craftsman you like understand how to act in such
like detail that is true yes that is true but he's also unbelievably hot in that movie yes like he's
all in black he's got the stash he is like stupidly handsome he's also unbelievably hot in that movie. Yes. Like, he's all in black. He's got the stache.
He is, like, stupidly handsome.
He's really, really good looking.
Yeah.
And in the 80s, he was pretty bulletproof on that front.
Yes.
Again, later he has become a man that Clickhole can do a parody of him saying,
my velvet's about the disappearance of his rare velvet's.
My favorite Clickhole joke of all time.
But, like, you know you know like in the 2000s
on it's like yeah he's cole porter he wears a cravat like that's his vibe but in the 80s it was
like he's a rascal yes you want to fuck like he's cool yeah i mean in the big chill he's kind of
nebbishy i guess sure because he's like sort of you know but he's still hot in it and silverado
like i mean like sophie's choice and uh when he did pirates of, you know, but he's still hot in it. And Silverado.
Like, I mean, like, Sophie's Choice and when he did Pirates of Penzance and stuff.
All that was playing on him being smoking. He's really good in Pirates of Penzance.
That was obviously his breakout.
He was part of the first ever class of Juilliard, Ben.
Yeah.
Group one, as they call it.
Yes.
He was a Juilliard guy.
He was a total hottie.
And he's playing an Italian guy in this movie.
And so I'm just Googling here for Italian-American war of the 90s.
Not seeing one.
Why did the Republic of Italy not declare war on our sovereign nation after seeing this film?
After this movie.
Like what international court would stop them?
Were they busy?
Hey, we declare war on you.
It's like, oh, why?
It's like, this movie.
You think you can slip this by us?
You do not display us with this sensitivity.
This is an offensive stereotype.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
So you've got Kevin Kline.
Yes.
Okay, he's playing an Italian guy.
Yeah.
Now, Tracy Ullman is actually playing a...
Yugoslavian woman.
Right, she's like a Serbo-Croat or whatever, right?
Because that's what her mom is.
Right.
So you have two greats.
As is Joan Plowright.
Of course, neither of them are that.
I think Ullman has some Slavic...
She might.
Yeah, Joan Plowright probably.
I just want to get this out of the way,
and I'm going to get the order wrong,
but just the faces on the poster
and the names above the title for this movie are
Kevin Kline, Tracy Ullman, Joan Plowright,
River Phoenix, William Hurt, Keanu Reeves.
That feels like a Mad Libs cast
in a way that is astonishing
and is such a fascinating time capsule
of where all of those people's different careers are
at that time.
Not just that.
It's like River and Keanu are going to do My Own Private Idaho together the next year.
William Hurt.
Why the hell is he in this?
Well, it's a Larry Kasdan movie.
Larry Kasdan made this movie?
Yeah, Larry Kasdan made this movie.
Trace Elman, Polish descent.
Joan Plowright, of course, also had another name at that point.
You guys know what it was?
What?
The Lady Olivier.
Because, of course she
is lawrence olivier's wife what and you think she was like going home and lawrence was like
how are you doing my dear and she's like yeah well another day on the fucking you know let's
kill the pizza man movie you want to read these sides uh she's unbelievable in this movie to be
i think mvp i like she's fair i think i feel like
she's just someone i've seen so much it just like she's just solid but like she was a great
young british actor she most famous for a taste of honey uh you know like when she was young and
all that but like uh she became you know she would usually play like a stuffy lady who's like oh i
say you know like that was kind of her deal in the 80s and 90s yes i was gonna like sort of yeah when olivier dies she starts like being like
i will be mr wilson's wife in uh dennis the man well i'm realizing olivier had died a year before
this movie she probably made it in tribute to him he never got to see it it's the real tragedy the
real tragedy is olivier never got to it he's like sitting in his tragedy. The real tragedy is Olivier never got to attend
the premiere.
He's like sitting
in his armchair
like,
okay,
Larry,
let me throw on
Comedy Central for you.
Which number is it again?
Because she does
Enchanted April
the year after this.
Which she gets
an Oscar nomination for.
Which she probably
was seen as,
I think,
maybe the front runner
and loses,
of course,
to Marisa Tomei.
Marisa Tomei.
Marisa. But she's great in this movie. Yeah. frontrunner and loses, of course, to Marissa Tomei. Marissa Tomei.
But she's great in this movie.
Yeah.
Hurt and Reeves as stoned hitmen. They are the
MVPs. I mean, they might be the...
They're probably the most remembered characters.
They are incredible in this film,
and it is astonishing that you can say
the last 30 minutes,
William Hurt and Keanu reeves enter this
movie and they are on the exact same wavelength to think about where those two guys are in their
careers at this moment fundamentally different actors oh fundamentally different places yeah
in 1990 and you're like they come in and they are in lockstep they are somehow meeting right
in the middle so in sync it feels like keanu is being keanu right like parenthood but the best version of keanu at
this time we're like three three out of every five steps he takes are the wrong steps and then the
two right steps are people being like fuck we can't give up on him yet but he's good he gets it
it feels like william hurt just turned a dial in his brain yes and
synced up with him or whatever like that it magically just he's just like in the drift
together they're like piloting a jaeger together they are so good they are i was watching this
the first 15 minutes i'm like obviously this fits into the hosley canon, right? I get it. Horny dumb pizza man. It begins with pizza dough
spinning in the air
like that revolving
sandwiches tumbler.
It begins with him
in a confessional saying,
I can't stop
sticking my dick in people.
I fuck everyone.
How many times
have you committed adultery?
Today?
I don't know, seven?
Right.
And then as you said,
the opening credits
happen over like
flying pizza dough spinning. And then, as you said, the opening credits happen over, like, flying pizza dough, spinning,
and then there's, like, ten minutes...
Italy is already drafting the war legislation
at this point, right?
Like, ten minutes where he fucks Victoria Jackson,
Kevin Kline's real-life wife, Phoebe Cates,
and Heather Graham.
Heather Graham.
I didn't recognize the actress
who throws the hat at him out the window,
which is maybe my favorite gag of the movie
but then it becomes this extended like almost like death becomes her he won't stay dead bit
right yeah and i'm watching it and i'm like i'm kind of losing the total hansley thread on it
and then when hurt and reeves enter i'm like passed into law right right
right right this break out the the hammer and chisel because you can put this into marble
uh ben i'm assuming as a young boy how old you were are you in that that that's sweltering
florida summer i gotta be seven or eight.
Perfect.
Was it Hurt and Reeves who you were...
Right, right.
You were most rooting for.
Because on Comedy Central, you might...
Yes!
You weren't, like, pointing a plow right and being like,
did you know she was married to Laurence Olivier?
No.
No, you weren't pointing a...
I was pointing at Keanu's nose ring and being like,
everything about this...
I wish to look like this.
Yes, exactly.
I was like, mom, can I shave my head like that?
His haircut is so good.
It's so good.
It's very good.
Very good haircut.
He looks so hot.
Yeah.
And William Hurt looks like...
He's an unbelievably beautiful man.
William Hurt looks like he's part of the original writing staff of SNL.
William Hurt looks like one of the lone gunmen from The X-Files.
The raggedy one, to be clear.
But, like, as you're saying, Keanu is, like, he's doing the thing that he has been doing best at this point in time.
Like, he's working in a Bill and Ted parenthood vein, as you said.
Yeah, it's 1990.
Like, his first movie is what, like, River's Edge or Youngblood, which is like 86, right?
He's only been making movies for a couple years.
Right.
But he's already done Bill and Ted.
Sat on the shelf for a while, but comes out in 89.
Is that right?
89.
Yeah.
Parenthood is what, 87?
Is that right?
I can't remember.
Is Parenthood the same year as Bill and Ted, I think?
It might be.
You're right, 89.
Yeah.
So, yeah yeah you know
he's he's he's he's a baby he's brand new i mean he was born in 64 so he's what in this movie he's
26 years old you know i just think this is interestingly the performance where it's like
he's combining the like spacey keanu comedy type with just the right amount of the like river's edge edge but look
meanwhile William Hurt is an Oscar winner yes like and like leading man yeah like every movie he does
in the 80s is a leaning like it's like altered states body heat big chill Gorky Park kiss the
spider woman wins an Oscar right children of a lesser god broadcast another nomination yeah
accidental tours and a movie called a time of Destiny, which no one remembers, but he's
the lead of that too.
Like, that's his 80s.
He's not doing shit like this.
No.
Now, obviously, he knows Kazda.
Yes.
But even still, he's an obvious choice to cast in this role.
As you said in the real story, both of them are teenagers.
And he's like, what if one of the teenagers is William Hurd?
And he's like, what if one of the teenagers is William Hurt?
A guy who you don't think of for character comedy.
Yeah.
And he's always playing these kind of refined guys, you know?
Right.
But, yeah, he probably was just like, yeah, let me at it, right? Let me play.
I'll have fun.
Yeah.
He grew his hair out and he was looking for some way to use it he's
doing a william hurt-esque performance to me like where it's like you say like there's a lot of very
conscious choices yes this is a very committed performance yes he's not just like yeah fuck it
i'll you know i'll have long hair and be silly like that's easy there's an ebert quote that's
really good uh let's keep talking i'll pull this up is it on the wikipedia page i think so he calls
this movie an actor's dream he says william hurt could have walked through the role of the spaced out hitman
but takes the time to make the character believable and even in a bleary way complex
is that the quote yeah i kind of agree yeah god when he keeps trying to look at like walk around
joey and look at the, his back. Yeah.
After he shot him.
Yeah.
Just him looking at stuff is funny in this movie.
Yeah.
But they come in very late.
And it's also,
okay.
It's also hard to play drugged out and,
and it be without feeling like just like stupid.
Yeah.
And like obvious.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like it's really easy to just be like,
you're some teenager at a party who's pretending like he's really easy To just be like You're some teenager
At a party
Who's pretending
Like he's really stoned
Right
Yeah
But yeah
No opening
Kevin Kline
Spinning the pizza
Hitting on every woman
Devo
River Phoenix
A performance I would say
That feels like he is
Almost unaware
That he is in a comedy
He's playing like
Full sort of
River Phoenix
Earnest
Dramatic intensity which is kind
of what he did like i mean i love river phoenix and i love pretty much any movie he ever made i
mean you look at how few films he got to make yeah and the list of directors he worked with
right even if it wasn't always their best film and it it's pretty absurd. You know, Joe Dante, Rob Reiner, your favorite director.
Peter Weir.
Spielberg.
You know, Sidney Lumet.
Yeah.
Spielberg, obviously.
Richard Benjamin, who's a pretty big director back then.
Larry Kasdan, Gus Van Sant, Phil Alden Robinson.
Peter Bogdanovich.
Peter Bogdanovich.
Like, he's never uninteresting in a movie.
Every single one of those performances
is either good or at least, like,
you pay attention to it.
You know what I mean?
Like, if it's a smaller role or something.
He was like the Chalamet of that moment.
Yeah.
He's better than Chalamet.
Yeah.
Oh, he's definitely better than Chalamet.
I mean, I like Chalamet.
It's a similar position where it's like,
he's a heartthrob.
He's taken seriously as an actor.
He already has an Oscar nomination under his belt by the age of like 20.
And he's taking on a lot of roles where it's like him playing Junior to a major leading man of the moment.
In that way where it feels like studios used to sort of develop careers.
It's a thing they talk about in sort of the inverse
of it and once upon a time in hollywood of like we're gonna pair you up with a redford a ford
a poitier to sort of like establish you color of money style as like there's a baton being passed
here you're the next generation you will graduate to being one of these guys. Right. This is the oddest use of him in any movie that he made.
He's, you don't need him.
No.
Like, you've already got the stoned hitman, right?
Yes.
But he's good.
But he's good.
He's such a chiller in it.
Yeah.
And I like, I like.
He's kind of a sweetie pie.
He's a sweetie pie.
And he's also, it's like the way he's playing it,
I think it lends itself to
making it more believable that he is like really into tracy allman's character like adores tracy
allman he works at the pizza parlor he observes all the sort of wandering eye shit that klein
is doing which allman frames as like he likes to look at women women like to look at him
my joey would never do anything.
Right.
It's, you know, price to do a business.
He's such a good pizza man.
Yeah.
Right.
Everybody loves coming here. He's a great dad.
Right.
Again, this is set in Tacoma.
Yeah.
He loves delivering the pizzas himself and also doing pro bono handyman work.
Well, he owns the building.
So he's the landlord.
Right.
But he does it for other people's buildings.
Because she's always like,
you never fix anything in our building.
My mom has to fix everything.
Her mom is there, of course.
Nadja, played by Joan Plowright.
What else is, yeah, what else do we need to know?
There's the cops.
We meet them immediately.
James Gammon and Jack Keller, right?
Those guys are...
Two great characters.
Right.
Slabowski's landlord.
Jack Keller, everyone knows him as Slabowski's landlord.
Which makes a lot of sense that he retired and then went on to become a landlord.
But you must, come on, you know James Gammon.
Do I?
He's the coach in Major League.
Oh, yeah.
And he was born to be a baseball coach.
That guy should only play baseball coaches and like lawmen.
Like that's his trade.
Is he still alive,ames gammon i know um
no he lost gammon we lost both of them fairly recently he died gammon died in 2010 okay he was
70 years old yeah could have gotten you know 20 more years at gammon we should have uh keller just
you're right last year 22 died at the age of 75 but but devo which is the name of phoenix's character
yes is like getting really angry on behalf of Tracy Ullman
that she won't wake up and acknowledge it.
And as I said, in this first 10 minutes,
you see Klein on some side,
one side or the other of coitus
with three or four different women.
You see his tush, too.
You see his tush.
I mean, damn.
A real snack.
Butt corner?
Corner tush? No, butt corner. Should real snack. Butt corner? Corner tush?
No, butt corner.
Should we do a butt corner?
Oh, sure.
What do we think?
Good?
Very good.
Well-defined.
Well-defined.
He's looking good in his slacks.
Kevin Kline is in good shape at this point, I feel like, as well.
You know what I mean?
Like, he's just, he's a trim guy.
He's got a great head of hair yeah on his chest yeah and and no no makeup is implied to his skin at all i'm sure this is
natural right right yeah i mean yeah he he went completely method it looks like
they locked him in a glass box box on the beach yeah two weeks. Yes. And he emerged like this. Yeah.
His accent is not perfect,
unless there's a Tacoma Italian-American accent I'm unaware of.
Look, I am a huge fan of his work.
I think he's given many immaculate performances.
This is one where if I were Larry Kasdan,
I would maybe have said,
hey, let's maybe swing more Italian-American than fresh off the boat.
Um, yes.
Maybe have like 5% the inflections.
You should have hit it harder.
Yes, you should have gone 150% harder.
No, you know what I'm saying?
That like, this maybe works if you have like 10% of the residual accent.
Yeah. Not full Mario Brothers
I can't imagine that because this is so burned
In my brain
Also I guess the movie is so heightened
And it's not like anyone else is being normal
In it
So I guess that's the
But it does kind of feel like Larry is
Maybe Larry is just like yes we love it
Like more,
more.
Yeah.
This is crazy.
We're really good at casting.
That's a spicy meatball,
Kevin.
Um,
all right.
So yeah.
So he's a horny man.
He's fucking every young woman in town.
And it's just so confident that he will never be caught.
It's because his poor wife is housebound because she's constantly like
cooking dinner.
This seems to be her only job.
Yeah.
I got two kids.
Right.
Plowright does all the maintenance in the building.
He works.
Like,
I think she says he works seven days a week,
14 hours a day.
And then yet somehow still finds time to go out and cruise.
Well,
part of him working that hard is him making quote unquote house calls.
You have to remember. Or of course deliveries. yeah yeah um but he uh yeah he i don't really know
how else to to sort of what else to say about this initial sort of beginning part of the movie it's
just he has uh been sleeping around for it seems like, a long time.
I mean, I guess we should say, like,
he also is very demanding of her when they're at home.
He's always kind of, like, you know,
just expecting to be waited on hand and foot.
Yeah, he's a real jerk.
He's kind of a jerk.
And I feel like she has this confidant in her mother
as well as Devo.
He's coming over and hanging out.
Devo is very nice.
He is very nice.
Her mom is kind of crazy.
Yes.
She's obsessed with tabloids.
Yes.
Right.
She's always telling stories.
What's the stabbing story?
27 times.
I love this being a movie where you like, you have, like, infamous quotes
that, like, ring around in your head.
Yeah.
Monopoly!
More of those, please.
Please leave me anymore.
Any line readings do you want to give us?
There's that kind of nice moment
where his son hurts his finger
when they're eating pizza
at the restaurant.
He puts his son's
finger in the glass and he's like, oh, better
or whatever. But then he pours
I could have a salt or sugar on it
as well and he puts it in his mouth.
Right, he does like a little thing.
And it's like
it's clear that moment is
just there because Kazdin or whoever is like we need to understand that there's some admiration. Yeah, and it's like and like you can it's clear that moment is just there because caston or
whoever is like we need to understand that there's some admiration yeah and he has like he plays like
patty cake with his daughter at one point before going out like you see that he is a good dad yeah
he's got some redeeming qualities he's a hard worker uh he's you know obsessed with the uh uh
the american dream yes now i will say for how much
this movie becomes about murder and in opposition to a lot of the other films we were talking about
in this sort of sub-genre that turn people off because they're like this thing has such a sour
tone uh kasdan directs this with the energy as if it were just any silly comedy like it was a comedy about like uh missing papers
uh right yeah yeah yes yeah well missing papers does sound pretty good
yeah i mean what happened to you ain't gonna find those papers where'd they go
um i don't i don't think this is a well-directed movie. I'm sorry, Lawrence. This is what I'm saying. As much as I think he's directed movies well.
Yes.
And I think...
And he's directed films with like kind of sour tones before.
But his comedies are very gentle.
Yeah.
So, okay.
The real question is, does he make a good movie?
I'm going to say this is a good movie.
Okay. I think it's... I think that's a... Does he make a good movie? I'm going to say this is a good movie.
Okay.
I think it's...
I think that's a...
Please respond. I think this film is entertaining.
Look at me.
I think this movie is sort of silly and star-laden enough
to kind of be like,
all right, yeah, all right.
It's absolutely an all right get in here.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like the club's pretty full and like klein shows up with his brown face and his dead pizza
boxes and i'm like this is the kind of movie where someone goes do you want some spaghetti and you go
yeah i'll have some yeah sure why not another bowl yeah this is another this is the second
bowl of pasta second bowl of pasta movie um post this it's it's grand canyon which
is his sort of trying to do big chill for the 90s his flop not maybe not flop but right disappointing
but also it's like big children i'm tackling race in america all these people during the la
crossover yeah have never seen seems cursed to me interesting it's definitely a little cursed
it's interesting he makes makes Wyatt Earp,
which is this, like,
long Tony biopic,
and then, like,
there's just, like,
the fucking Pizza Hut version
of it over with Tombstone.
That eats his lunch.
Just trashes it.
Right.
Just drowns it
in the garbage.
Exactly.
He makes French Kiss.
Which I know people
who love.
I've never seen.
I know people who fucking.
You should fucking watch French Kiss.
That's probably a movie you will adore. He does Mumford, which I've never seen. I know people who fucking. You should fucking watch French Kiss. That's probably a movie you will adore.
He does Mumford, which I've never seen.
Mumford is bananas.
You have told me very weird.
I mean, kind of intrigued to watch that one too.
Yeah, like unspeakably weird.
When Ben pitched this and we were like,
that has to be the answer,
I said, David, the only reason to question it.
Right, like, would we ever do Kasdan?
Right.
And then you said, maybe let's put Kasdan on the bracket because what's
funnier than if he wins, which is not
going to happen, having to do a second
episode on I Love You to Death.
Committing ourselves as if
it's like Alien 3 of like
it might need to be done a second time.
We're announcing this in advance.
I would be for it because then of course
I'm a big defender of Dreamcatcher.
I think that movie's basically good. A movie you went on the king cast to talk about right and then after that darling
companion I mean is back with Klein again but nobody defends that no an absolute piece of dog
shit the movie I've said before made me give up on my one week dream of being a film critic you're
a film critic for a second and I was assigned that movie and I was like I can't I can't so this is
kind of the beginning of him losing his edge yeah
because even if you defend some of the movies i just spoke up for none of them were really hits
no he remains a major director in terms of optics throughout the 90s but the movies aren't released
yes but he's never getting awards no he like you know he wrote the bodyguard yeah with you know
no i think he's the solo writer again so that's obviously a gigantic paycheck, you know, he wrote The Bodyguard with, you know... No, I think he's the solo writer.
So that's obviously a gigantic paycheck.
You know, obviously he wrote Star Wars Episode VII.
When J.J. Abrams comes on to Star Wars,
his first demand is,
you have to bring Kasdan back.
I'll do it if I can write with Kasdan.
And Kasdan had already been hired
to do the solo movie at that point.
So he takes a break from Solo to write Force Awakens.
And then by all accounts, I don't think I'm talking out of school here.
He is the primary reason Lord and Miller get fired from Solo.
Because he was like, they're not shooting my script.
They're doing all this improv.
We have to like reset it and they have to stick to the script.
Which you have seen how that movie turned
out good i mean it's cold that's one thing we can agree on the biggest chill possible exactly
so it's like was larry kaz never banished from hollywood no no i basically banished from directing
at a certain point you know a dream catcher in particular is the moment where they're like you
have to sit in the bench for a while you're not not in movie jail, but you're on the bench.
He went to movie probation at the very least.
He spent a night in the movie drunk tank.
More than a night.
But yeah, he's not gone.
And obviously his kids work in the business.
He has multiple successful kids, John and Jake.
And after Dreamcatcher, by the way, there's this period.
John plays one of the kids in this movie, right?
Yes.
And John writes solo with him later.
Right.
And Jake is the one who did the Jumanji sequels.
And Freaks and Geeks.
Yeah.
Yeah, a lot of stuff.
There is a period post-Dreamcatcher where he's kind of, like, kicked out of the directing club.
Where he starts taking, like, high-profile blockbuster screenwriting jobs again and there's
sort of this thing i remember like enoch cool reviewing scripts that he got hired to do
and being like studios you're sitting on a larry cast and script why aren't you making this that
he was like writing things that if not as good as raiders and uh empire strikes back were better
than the films of their ilk that were getting made at the time.
Like, he for a long time was developing,
not to direct, but just as a writer,
the Clash of the Titans movie
that ends up being the Leterrier movie 10 years later.
And I think he gets credit on that,
but his script is not in any way resemble
what made it to the screen.
And they'd just be like,
you got the guy who's the best version of doing this.
And even though it's been some time, he's still putting in pretty good work in this arena when it's for hire.
Anyway, he made a movie called I Love You to Death that's about the world's horniest pizza man.
Yes. And so could we, before we get back to the plot, I feel like we should do Tracy some justice.
Okay.
So Tracy's in this movie
tracy allman this is her first feature is right that's that's a great question i think it is
she's got such a strange filmography she's got a strange career it's kind of an it's kind of
incredible this is her first film yeah because we've talked about obviously she's no no it's not oh oh she's
done a few things i was looking at the wrong thing she's in jumping jack flash okay uh the
whoopee goldberg movie but not in a big role i don't think so maybe this is her first like
she's in that movie plenty the adaptation of the play with meryl streep kind of a forgotten movie
and she has like a small role in Give My Regards to Broad Street, the
Paul McCartney starring film.
Yes.
I feel like this is
her first movie
post the Tracy Ullman show, the
original Tracy Ullman show,
which was on Fox in the 80s.
Which is what Simpsons comes out of.
Correct. Have you heard of The Simpsons?
I have.
Okay, so that was a
sketch on the trace of nobody knows this nobody knows homer had a different voice you know all
very interesting but you know like you looked more lumpy everyone looked pretty lumpy in that one
julie cavner and dan castellanata were part of the ensemble cast of the tracy allman show right
yeah and there was sort of this like do any of you want to do voices for the simpsons thing and a couple of them were like no and those two were like yeah and tracy by all accounts hated
the simpsons yeah like did not like them there was one other cartoon segment that alternated
with the simpsons for the first season that was the one she liked that did not connect and when
the simpsons was popping she was like this fucking simpsons. But how did The Simpsons end up?
Was it like,
how did that get involved in her show?
Do you want the quickest version of this?
Greening had Life is Hell.
Yeah.
He was like a bit of a name, I guess.
Tracy, like,
basically Tracy, like,
explodes slowly over the course of the 80s in England, right?
Yeah.
From like pop star to like sketch comedian actor.
Some of her songs fucking are great.
I had never known about her music stuff.
I recommend listeners check it out.
She was sort of doing, like, in the 80s,
sort of retro-style girl group, 50s, 60s type stuff.
Yeah.
And then, yeah, then she's, like,
part of a couple sketch shows,
and then she's finally getting her own stuff
and her own specials.
And that's when she sort of catches
the attention of Hollywood,
and they're like, we gotta bring this person over and she they develop a sitcom for her that like isn't working her
producers or rather her husbands are producing partner and she's like i'm caught in this bad
like nbc sitcom where i'm like the wacky girl next door and they reach out to james l brooks
who's obviously like the best producer if you you know you know, in her position to go after. And he's like, it makes no sense to put you on a sitcom. It should be a variety show
because you can sing, you can play 20 characters, this and that. I'm going to put people around you
who are good. I'm going to this and that. And then was like, there should be cartoons. And he loved
Life is Hell, which is the Matt Groening strip, Groening strip, and asked Matt Groening to do Life as Hell
as a cartoon,
and he was like,
I don't want to give up
the rights to my strip.
Right, I don't want to sell those.
So he supposedly
drew The Simpsons
in five minutes
while, like,
waiting for the meeting.
Which are, like,
a caricature of his family.
And basically, they, like,
Brooks just liked him enough
that he was like,
sure, we can make this fun.
I mean, like,
but the pitch was just
five families.
And also, Fox, like,
basically would have put
anything on television. Yeah like basically would have put anything
on i would have put just a man poop they were so happy to have brooks on the show and brooks was
gonna put on whatever he liked and then he pitches them on but like the simpsons shorts
are not riotously funny i know venture but you also they have a weird energy to them that's
kind of cool yes yeah it's kind of cool that they turned into what they turned in i agree with you
but also you read about when the show was airing and people were like these shorts are fucking good
right like there was an excitement around them the rest of the show was not maintaining right
there was a reason it spun off yeah the show was like winning emmys but not getting huge ratings
yeah and hollywood was just like she it was very much like this woman is unbelievably talented
multifaceted we have to keep
on like trying her in different things and she turned down a lot of shit and was like very much
kind of like strategically in control of her career and with her husband as well like sort of
helping her um but yeah when she was making movies like especially at this point it's like
big swings i mean we've talked about she has her small part and I'll do anything.
She was cut out entirely of Death Becomes Her,
which she was sort of supposed to be the fourth lead in.
She's deleted from that movie entirely.
Obviously, she's hysterically funny in Robin Hood Men in Tights as Latrine.
She's incredible.
Of course, the family changed their name.
It used to be Shithouse.
One of my favorite jokes in that movie.
It's a good movie.
She's in that movie, Household Saints.
Peter Newman production.
Which I've never seen.
It's a good movie.
Bullets Over Broadway.
She did a couple of Woody Allen movies.
Small Time Crooks is the one she's really good in.
She's really funny in that.
Yeah.
Predator Porter.
I've never seen. No. It's weird that neither of us have seen
that you know i yeah i should see it yeah uh yeah she was just like it's kind of like she just
stopped i feel like after the mid 90s she's like no yeah and it's just like after that's like small
time crooks four years after that she does a dirty shame with john water it's more like it's like
if i want to work with someone interesting okay into the woods but apart from that it's like
what i do like this is the other thing by like the early 90s after fox cancels her show hbo is just
like we'll let you do whatever the true blank check they were like do a special do like 10
episodes every two years like she's one of the first real beneficiaries of HBO
just saying like, we'll pay you more to do less
and do it with more control.
And she's just like, great, I'm just in the HBO business.
Every couple of years, I do a special
or another season or this or that.
And then like after like 10 years of that,
she jumped over to Showtime,
did the same thing at Showtime for a couple of years
and then jumped back to HBO. But what a unique like like as a sketch comedian what a unique
arrangement to have yeah like that's really rare yeah for just a single person she just had like
complete autonomy yes tracy takes on yeah she's got seven emmys to watch it now take like tracy takes on there are a lot of
characters people would not be excited to see her play today absolutely it's a way to put it
absolutely yeah but i just like the the the filmmaking of it i guess i'll say yeah it's like
it's weird with to watch it now and be like this is fucking front-facing character videos yes like very much
it's so weird that like but and i'm not trying to even be like no no it was the first one no no
she's incredibly pioneering beyond that it's just like that was just not done back then yeah she's
like i'm gonna do sketch comedy but it's gonna be single camera no audience right these like filmed
sketches like
that's not how those things worked back then you know it had in living color or like snl or whatever
right like her bigger thing too with the hbo stuff was like i have 100 characters in my repertoire
i'm gonna like shrink this down to 20 and have characters reoccur yeah not in like a recurring
sketch way but in a like ongoing. Like, this is sketch comedy,
but I want to kind of have through lines
of what these characters are going through.
It's just interesting.
And it's just, like, it's something that
sketch comedy always kind of feels like
it fluctuates where it's, like,
there's something new and inventive
and then it sort of falls out of favor.
But it was just, like,
it's really interesting to see
this kind of, like, straight, just character based comedy.
Yes.
Now, her movie career was weird because I think people couldn't figure out, like, can you have Tracy Ullman doing a character next in a movie next to people who are playing it, quote unquote, real?
Right. right because her characters were like well observed detailed nuanced enough that even if
she's like underneath a bunch of rubber doing a big voice like when you're watching her sketch
comedy you're like she plays it very real for sketch comedy yeah but then sometimes you put
her in a movie next to people and you'd be like one of these is a cartoon character now suddenly
she does not have that problem in this movie in this movie she comes off pretty restrained yeah
here's the thing about her in this movie she's movie she comes off pretty restrained yeah here's
the thing about her in this movie she's not funny but she's kind of barely it's a good performance
but it's like right she's mostly it's a kind of emotional it's mostly a dramatic shattered
performance like everyone else in this movie is so goofy john plowright is next to her right like
throwing bowling balls at the screen and And like, obviously, the movie is literally centered around her
discovering her husband's like
comical level of infidelity.
And being so broken up about it
that she's like, I gotta kill him.
But then everyone else around her
are the ones who are like, let's do it.
And she's like kind of burst out about it.
I feel like the thing that unfortunately rings true,
right, as this there's
this one line that sort of justifies
the murder
plot and because again it is
like it feels almost extreme or
jarring a little bit where you're like wow you guys
have really jumped to
extreme versus maybe I
don't know call him out on his infidelities
right. Don't
they say why don't you get divorced?
And she says, like, he'll never get divorced.
He's Catholic.
There's like one line about like...
I think it's like she, I won't let him be with another woman.
Right.
But the mom says something to the effect of like, you know, you know, Americans are always
just killing each other.
It's normal.
It's normal in this country to do that.
Yeah.
And I just felt like, yeah.
That's a wild moment because they do that. Yeah. And I just felt like, yeah.
That's a wild moment because they have that conversation
in a, like, trailer, right?
Where she finally commits to, like,
tracing him and being like,
let's do it, let's kill him.
And then the camera pulls out
and, like, there's this insane, like, wide shot,
like, slowly revealing of the trailer
underneath a bridge
with the whole New York City skyline. Well, that's because... Not New York City, the city skyline. with the whole new york city skyline
because not new york city the city skyline they have that conversation in bed and then the shot
you're thinking of is uh the grandma goes and talks to some oh yes i'm sorry the first uh hit
man she hires right yes it's some like i don't know some friend of hers' grandson who decides to do a favor.
He's the one with the mask.
Yeah, who wears the Abraham Lincoln mask
and tries to hit him with a bat.
Yeah, he tries to murder him via bat.
Yeah, which is, you know, cheaper than a gun,
which is what they say.
But harder.
But a lot harder.
Bat harder than gun?
To murder someone with?
Oh, harder to murder someone.
I was going to say, they're both similar.
If you hit someone with them. Both pretty hard.
You're not talking density of objects.
You're talking degree of difficulty. Yes.
Well, beyond that, like, killing someone with a gun,
I mean, sorry, with a bat,
yeah, you gotta hit them over and over again.
Yes, it's kind of gross. Up close.
Yeah, it would be hard to do it
far away.
Well, you throw it, then you have to run after
where it landed. Well, run after where it lands a bunch
have like a bouquet of bats yeah or you can kind of doll zm it you know like have stretchy arms
and kind of go bonk it's actually it's embarrassing he didn't think to doll zm his bats into arms
anything would go in this movie if it tried it out Man, imagine if Larry Cass did it on Street Fighter
I like those guys
They're crazy
They're wild
I'm thinking Kevin Kline for
Oh, there's no Italian character
Can Blanca be Italian?
Can Blanca make the pizza?
Blanca might be good
Blanca would be good
Imagine Street Fighter
Imagine Street Fighter cast only with the
Cast in all stars
You have Hurt as Guile
Yeah Hurt as Guile
We're gonna run into a problem by the way
Just like so quickly with this
So let's have our fun
And get out
I think I would put Costner as Guile So, let's have our fun and get out.
I think I would put Costner as Guile.
I think... I think Costner is a real Guile.
Then tell me who Hurt is, because we've got to cast him well.
Well, I'm running out of Americans, so I'll tell you that much on the Street Fighter cast.
Is Hurt playing Bison?
Actually, you know what?
You know what?
That wouldn't be so bad.
Now, of course, Bison is supposedly Ty or whatever,
but let's just set that aside.
You sub in one Spider-Woman guy for the other.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hurt has the gravitas there.
Sure, sure, sure.
Good, good.
Gene Davis is Cammy.
Eject!
Eject!
Okay, so moving right along in the plot, we'll just sort of say that the next sort of scenario
in which they try to kill joey is grant the the mom she tries to she's very handy yes she can
she can fix everything in the building she shows at one point her grandson how to solder yes uh she
tries to explode the car I don't exactly know how
She has a whole
She's like I put the fuse in the car
I expected you know
And it almost seems like
It's actually going to be not just Joey
But Tracy too
She's in the car
I'm going to drive with him today
No no no you don't want to
I can't remember why
It's a long scene There's a lot of scenes of klein not getting it including this one right right yeah
yeah well he's he's a self-obsessed guy and he's not the smartest let's say also this guy never
gets it but he can get it he can and does and gets it several times a day yeah clearly but yeah so he
witnesses this turns on the car, nothing happens.
Right.
Okay.
Yep.
Okay, so now they're running out of ideas.
What's the next thing to do?
Well, it's to feed him three bottles of sleeping pills.
Yep.
Three full bottles.
Thinking, okay, this will poison him.
Right.
This must...
They make a big sauce.
A big sauce. It's a big sauce a big it's a big which i think is
their first mistake very spicy too much sauce yeah they really needed to go down on the sauce
oh you're saying that the pills are diluted too much yeah i think so but they make they make this
giant pot of sleepy spaghetti to try to sleep from the death you're not wrong This movie I will say
Is a lot of fun to talk about
At this point
The movie is like you said
The first hour we're kind of
Not even an hour but 45 minutes
We're kind of moving around
At this point it's like we're in the house
And he's gotta go and he won't
Nothing will kill this guy
Once they're making the sleepy sauce
It's like,
okay,
he eats tons of it.
He loves it.
He's like,
best sauce you've ever made.
And then he's like,
my stomach hurts and I'm tired.
Right.
But he doesn't die.
Right.
He passes out in the plate of spaghetti,
which also causes this complication later
every time they shoot him
and they can't figure out if he's been hit.
Or if it's sauce. whether it's blood or sauce.
So then I
guess they bring in... It's just
really funny that he just won't fall asleep
there. Yeah. Like that he is just
somehow... He's like, I'm okay.
He has a steel stomach. He's just like
nothing will faze him. Right.
And at
this point, when does
River Phoenix enter?
Once he passes out... Right yeah river phoenix yeah yeah they call devo to come over um and finish up the job he uh uh john plowright
calls him and says like you really love my daughter right you'll do anything for her yeah he's like of
course and they're like come over here right now yeah yes comes over they hand him a gun finish the job they have the gun yes they have the gun
anyone at this point joan plowright should probably just shoot him in the head but she
doesn't want to i feel like she's probably like got a good shot yeah she's the oldest yeah yeah
the wisest so wise yeah uh and so river phoenix shoots him in the head but i guess i don't
know if it's that it's just the small caliber of the gun or if it's just he's a bad shot it
basically like grazes his ear he looks away well no it shows at the end the movie that there is a
bullet in his head i think that's the second shot am i wrong about no the second shot is in his head. But I think that's the second shot. Am I wrong about that? No, the second shot is in his heart. Oh, you're right. Yeah.
You're right. So yes, it does go like...
No, I have... Yes, I was
so confused by this. Yes. Because he mostly
has the ear wound. Right. But then, right, he
keeps saying later, like, I have a bullet
in my head. Right. Yeah. And he's bleeding
on the pillow underneath him. He is.
And I could not tell, right, where is
this bullet? Because the one side is all spaghetti
sauce. The second side, he has been hit.
Yeah.
The other side of his head in some way that is bleeding onto the bed.
I think it just went into his head, but it just, whatever.
It didn't work.
Lodge dick.
What's important is he's not dead.
He's not dead.
So, right, like, so, right, the first shot is botched by River.
Yes.
He then brings in Keanu and...
Right.
He goes to a bar where they hang out.
Wearing a Fu Manchu...
I mean, we just have to say it.
There is no other way to describe it.
And it's just not funny.
He wears a trench coat.
Yeah.
And a Fu Manchu mustache.
Trying to have a disguise.
No one is tricked at all by it.
No.
It's a funny image. And it's. No. It's a funny image.
And it's a bizarre.
It's a funny image.
And so, you know, in cinema sometimes, you know, there's memorable moments.
Okay.
And so here we are.
We're in some skeevy bar.
Our finest critic.
Cinema sometimes there's memorable moments.
We're in a skeevy bar, right?
Somewhere in Washington, Tacoma. You go to the back room and there's a pool table. And there's a man. We're in a skeevy bar, right? Somewhere in Washington, Tacoma.
You go to the back room and there's a pool table
and there's a man, he's kind of leaning.
You can't tell if he's asleep.
Is he asleep?
What's going on?
Is he playing pool?
And all of a sudden,
William Hurt lifts up,
then raises his sunglasses.
His cool sunglasses.
His little flip-up sunglasses.
An arm appears.
Whose arm is this?
Well, it's one Keanu Reeves.
A very handsome, young, 25-year-old Keanu Reeves.
With a fucking nose ring.
A nose ring.
He's got like a flock of seagulls, X2 haircut.
Well, it's even more than that.
It's like a failed buzz cut.
There's a slice of like Miss Razoring. I think it's more that he's maybe been to like a failed buzz cut. There's a slice of mis-razoring.
I think it's more that he's maybe been to a mental hospital or something.
Oh, that's also very possible.
Right, his hair has been growing in weird directions.
I think he was getting electric shock therapy.
Because he's got a clear patch that was shaved.
He definitely seems...
Great.
Yes, but also in another dimension.
They both do, I suppose.
Yeah.
They're both clearly using heroin.
What?
They talk, I mean, they are referred to as druggies.
Druggies.
In this film.
Yeah, I think they are right.
They are the 80s, 90s version of a drug user on screen,
which is just like, they just seem stoned.
They use drugs.
We're not going to talk about
right you know it's just like yeah they're druggies yeah they're from the wrong side of
the tracks yeah right they're low life they're desperate they're down they're weirdos yeah
yeah um but i mean it hurts it's pretty sweet that they found each other it is well i think
he refers to him as his cousin but that might might not be, you know, that might be like by blood.
It's sweet that they have each other.
Absolutely.
It's about 15 years older than Keanu, so that's like, they're an odd, you know, gap.
They can't be siblings.
They can't be parents on, yeah.
Don't you want to see a whole movie about these guys?
Yes, of course.
Don't you want to watch a whole series?
It's not even one of those things where you're like, no, no, no. Yes, of course. I wish there were a whole series of them. You know what I mean? It's not even one of those things
where you're like,
no, no, no.
Small doses.
Right.
They're effective
because there's not
that much of them.
No.
No.
They would be great together
for a whole movie.
I could watch as much
as they have.
If this movie had been
inexplicably a giant hit,
one, I would be like,
what the hell was going on
in America?
Well, of course,
then Italy and America
would be at war.
They would actually be at war.
Italy actually would have caught wind. But two, then then yeah they get spun off right absolutely get reeves
and hurt yeah it's like reeves it's like break doesn't happen like this happens instead yeah
he never makes matrix he never makes speed
gen x yes and then her is kind of like this burnt out hippie. Yeah. And they're just like degenerates out in America trying to make a buck or something.
They're offered $500 between them.
They were originally offered $200.
Right.
They end up getting paid $200.
Right.
That's their sort of nominal injury fee.
Right.
They don't get the full $500.
Yeah.
But they're going to get 500 bucks to murder a man
Cause River's thing is like 200
And he's like 500
This is murder
And he's like the guy's basically got one foot in the door already
Right right
I already shot him
You're just finishing the job
And then they instead pay him only $200
Because they did shoot him
But didn't kill him
Yes they're too cowardly.
Keanu is too cowardly to look.
Yeah.
Hurt shoots him in the chest but misses his heart.
Of course, we get the fun gag, which is they're trying to remember where your heart is.
Because we all know your heart is on one damn side of your body.
We're on the left side.
Another good gag is Keanu constantly forgetting
the name of the guy they're there to shoot.
Whenever they bring him up,
he's really confused who they're talking about.
The energy of this movie,
it's so heightened when Klein is awake.
Yes.
And then when he's out,
it becomes this weird trade-off
between their stone thing, which is funny.
Yes.
And Tracy Ullman is just like crying
right and joan plowright is like come on murder him already what are we doing here that's the
thing though yeah the closer klein gets to death the movie loses its comedic motor and then it's
just like sort of odd people talking to people just hanging out in a house right deciding to
murder someone which you know they're not gonna do you kind of know at this point you're like yeah
he's unkillable like yeah there is just no way this guy's just clearly got like too much
semen inside him and bullets just bounce off that's the reason why you know what i mean he's
just so fucking horny it's filled with semen yeah so the bullet can't get through that's
gotta be what it is yeah either that or i guess he's just inhaling pizza dough and it's making
like a force field it's both uh Right but you're just kind of like
Let me just like sit with these weird characters
And those two are very funny
And Omen is compelling
And obviously she can be very funny
She's very upset when she thinks
That he's finally been killed
But what were you going to say about her?
Just I mean
I feel like she has to be upset because again
The end of this movie needs to work.
Yeah.
Quote unquote.
Yeah.
Right.
Sure.
But also you're,
I was almost upset watching her.
Cause again,
man,
Owen Roisman and Andy Coates and James Horner.
Yeah.
That's the cinematographer,
editor and composer.
Those are like three of the greatest in their fields ever.
The editor of Lawrence of Arabia,
like the most famous cut of all time or in roseman it's
like fucking french connection exorcist network toots you know like the biggest movies these are
like the top level craftsmen in hollywood at this point in time and james horner he he's kind of
starting out but i mean he's he's no slouch no and uh anyway yeah it's just like i'm almost like
she she never says like this is the father of my children
I mean she says it earlier maybe but like
At that point maybe she should be like
Can we stop
But they're into deep
God is intervening like you know basically telling us not to do it
Once they've given him all the sleeping pills
She's into deep
I think their other thought is like
If he wakes up he will see what we tried to do to him.
Yeah.
And Plowright is just so bullheaded about like,
he must die.
Yeah.
She keeps on like talking Ullman out of her doubts.
For sure.
Right.
A moment I wanted to shout out to is when Joey wakes up
and he's like being introduced to Hurt and Keanu.
Yeah.
They're so bad at making up fake names
where he literally goes,
no, wait, wait.
Uh, Smith.
A very Ben joke.
Yeah.
You love searching for a name
and struggling to find it.
That is something you like in multiple movies.
I am now seeing these connections.
I have no idea.
Not objecting.
It is funny.
Can we, I want to say on my,
and we'll see how this resolves itself,
but the building our office is in,
there's like an inner building network
where people can like post updates about like,
oh, maintenance is happening here or whatever.
But also people post if they're like,
have a credenza to get rid of only asking for a hundred dollars and we got an email this morning saying
uh i have a bunch of battery operated light up wall mountable letters that spell out mason
they've been in my son's bedroom he's outgrown them i will give them away for free if anyone
wants that god is speaking to us so i emailed back and said yes we would like those letters They've been in my son's bedroom. He's outgrown them. I will give them away for free if anyone wants them.
God is speaking to us.
So I emailed back and said, yes, we would like those letters.
And the thought is that we will put them on our wall and then write, I want to say above it.
And it's going to always be funny.
It's always going to be funny.
I want to say Mason.
I want to say Mason.
Gurdon would fit right into this movie.
Put him somewhere. Yeah. One of the cops. I don't know. Yeah. He'd be good. He'd be funny. I want to say Mason. I want to say Mason. Gurdon would fit right into this movie. Put him somewhere.
Yeah.
One of the cops.
I don't know.
Yeah.
He'd be good.
He'd be great.
Maybe he could be Hurt.
You ever do that?
Did he ever do something like that?
No.
That'd be fun.
No.
I don't.
Him as like a weird stoner.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't think he's got the energy for it.
I didn't think William Hurt had the energy.
And then I fucking rented I Love You to Death on iTunes.
You just rented it?
You didn't buy it?
No, I bought it.
I bought it.
13 bucks.
Really?
Yeah, why not?
I never, yes, I never would have guessed that Hurt had this performance in him.
And there are, like, later career, like, he's obviously very funny in History of Violence.
Well, yes, he is.
But that's, like...
But that's, that's, that's the context of what he's doing.
15 years later, and he's also more menacing.
He's so good in that movie.
Joey, what the fuck?
How do you fuck that up?
He's so good in that movie.
I mean, obviously, William Hurt is notoriously
one of the most annoying people in the universe.
I don't know.
He's like a huge asshole.
A nightmare person.
Right, and his misbehavior has been,
he's no longer with us as well, obviously.
But his misbehavior has been documented
or talked about by co-stars.
And Kazan clearly was just,
he either could tolerate him or knew how to deal with him
or they had a longstanding relationship
so he could get interesting things out of him.
That really could work out.
I mean, this is the beginning of Hurt, like, kind of blowing it, right?
Like, again, it's kind of like Kaz,
and you look at Hurt's 80s,
and you're like, these are all huge movies.
And his 90s suck.
They're a disaster.
Right, and when he does History of Violence,
people are like, that's wild for him to, like,
show up in this small of a role.
And it's like, no, I mean, he was...
In this great of a character actor role.
He was available.
Yeah, and not only that,
he gets the surprise Oscar nomination and, like, does not build on it in any meaningful way no i mean he kept
making movies making movies but he did not have like a true late period resurgence in the way
that role maybe felt like it could be a reinvention because he's he shows up for like he's on five
minutes of history of violence ben have you seen history of Violence? I don't think I have. I think you'd like that movie.
You would love that movie.
It's a Cronenberg.
It's a real thermostat performance from Hertz.
He is crazy.
We shouldn't talk about it if you haven't seen it,
but he has a crazy performance.
Well, I was going to say about Hertz 90s
is he kind of got blarped.
He does get blarped.
He goes through the planet core.
A few people have gotten blarped harder.
Yeah, he's maybe the most blarped
although really everyone in lost in space i love your wife i mean like okay so like lost
if lost in space is like a black hole yeah like oldman escapes like oldman grazes by it and he's
fine yeah heather graham she kind of escapes i mean she gets a few more things after it. Everyone else got sucked in.
Yes.
Like Hurt,
Mimi Rogers,
Chabert,
Matt LeBlanc.
They're all in there.
Yeah.
Blarp.
Blarp.
Blarp, I mean.
Blarp has not,
has Blarp been in a film
since Lost in Space?
No, but I mean,
there's a lot,
I mean,
if you Google Blarp.
Blarp.
Blarp's one of those
open secret guys in Hollywood.
He did a Fireplace video.
That's all I'll say.
I did.
I hear he has a new podcast
on the gas network.
I don't even know what that is. I don't want to know.
Okay, so
anyway. He wakes up.
He's been shot multiple times. He's been poisoned.
He's fully made up like a zombie now.
They've given him blue skin
and rings around his eyes
and multiple bloody wounds.
He's been shot. He's been shot.
He's bleeding.
Right.
And he's like,
my head hurts,
my stomach hurts,
I don't know,
I feel a little weird. You need to feed these men.
Yes, right.
You need to give him some snacks.
He's just rude.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And,
well,
how does he eventually reveal?
Because there's the other,
they go to the bar.
There's the other criminal
who's getting arrested. Yeah, they go back to the bar. Who's other criminal who's getting arrested yeah they go
that's a character actor and he like spills on uh a fucking hurt and reeves to get
a lighter something and so right then they get tracy gets arrested right yeah the cops show up
right no something's they've been told it's been taken out and then like it's arrested klein comes out sleepwalking they're more confused like right and um there's
a great scene where we're like so no no other actors going really a large or big or allowed
in this movie right no klein's in his hospital big mir Miriam Margulies shows up. Again, no Italians are allowed.
But Miriam Margulies
can show up as his mom.
Yes.
Whose one parenting method
is slapping him across the face.
Beating the shit out of him.
Yes.
And she correctly is like,
what's the matter with you?
You know, you disrespected your wife.
I don't think she says it like that.
I think she does.
Very even-handed.
Oh, what's the matter with you?
But it's funny. I think she does. Very even-handed. Oh, what's the matter with you?
But it's funny.
She's very funny. She does not say what is the matter.
Just to clarify.
Even though he has just almost been-
What is the matter?
He's almost been murdered, and she's so mad at him.
Because Victoria Jackson comes to visit him in the hospital.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She does.
Yeah.
Victoria Jackson. What do we think of her
i mean look i used to be really i i always thought she was very funny on snl i would
always be happy when she showed up and she's funny on snl i guess yeah yeah she's got her
thing she's got the high voice thing i was i'm weird into that thing as a 90s snl kid
yeah what's she up to these days? She's kind of an early crank.
She's still doing it all.
Trump copied her.
She was there being crazy for years.
She's going on the fucking America First Network
and saying dogs should be illegal.
Whatever her
position is now.
They're trying to make pajamas gay
they are?
I think so I don't know
there ought to be a law
and that's why I'm still
blacklisted from Hollywood
that's the other thing
that's why I can't get work
it's been 20 years
who are we kidding here oh boy but she's
funny in this i mean she's playing i feel like she was often cast as the bimbo right
i'm not a bimbo stood in opposition to right uh you have the funny little montage of them all
going through bookings and taking their mug shots that's just like good little character comedy of
these like eight different like jamokes we've met over the course of this movie all having different
responses to being on the line now i don't think the real person went to jail she went to jail
she did and she served a few years in jail and got out years and they stayed together then they
stayed together but in this movie kevin
klein's like i don't want to press charges and i was saying to fork it i was like at that point i
don't think you can kind of be just like can we forget the whole like they've already like the
i'm actually not mad at her charges right like you can't go around hiring for higher killers and
i forgive them like the the snowballs rolling down the hill right yeah i think as someone who knows a
little bit about the law i'm pretty sure that yeah he can just kind of be like let's forget it yeah
you're like are you sure she's my wife but he's that was that's his argument i invoke let bygones
be bygones the judge is is like, duly invoked.
Remand this woman to, you know,
say one, two, three, pizza town.
Two, three, pizza town.
And so at the end, everyone's reunited.
William Hurt and Keanu are, you know,
very surprised that Joey has let them go.
Mm-hmm.
You know...
Keanu, I believe, says,
who's Joey?
Yeah.
And then walks into a door.
Yeah.
It's fucking funny.
I'll say, like,
this is where Keanu's performance is really good.
Yeah.
He sells walking into that door.
It is, like, a door that is closed.
He is facing forward.
The camera's following him from behind.
In setup, you're like, no one could be that stupid to walk into this door.
And you see it happening from a mile away.
And he doesn't.
You're like, I buy it.
It's believable.
The character he's built would do that.
It's true.
He plays such like people who are in another universe.
And you're like, yeah, that's what that person's like.
Giano should be funny again. I i mean i guess he did do he did the bill and ted sequel which was good
and he's good in it yeah um so he's definitely got it in him and he was really good in fucking
always maybe on maybe he's really good in that playing a version of himself but really funny in
it um he's obviously have you seen that movie ben Ben? No. Ali Wong, Randall Park,
rom-com,
and they were like
best friends,
and he realizes like,
I think I've actually
always been in love with her.
And she's like,
I am actually dating
someone right now.
And it's Keanu Reeves.
And it's Keanu Reeves
as Keanu Reeves.
Oh, fuck.
And he's got like
10 minutes of him
basically doing his version
of the like,
Neil Patrick Harris,
Harold and Kumar,
the worst version of
Keanu as arrogant movie star.
Oh, word. But he's great in it. Okay he's great okay i should it's at the very least worth watching those 10 minutes okay yeah he's got that
great clip from the matrix resurrections press tour yeah where someone's like trying to explain
nfts to him yes being like no no no man like it's gonna take off and he's just can't help but like laugh in their face yes i
watch it a lot it's really good he i mean look he's done some good comedy work in animation like
duke kaboom he's so fucking funny as someone who's now seen that performance many many times
incredibly he's really funny as duke um he's very funny in dc super pets as batman oh sure not a very large role he is live action but the
only good part of the third spongebob movie which otherwise is dog shit uh sure but yeah i haven't
seen that more live action comedy please i feel like oh he was supposed to be in the fucking
second aziz ansari movie to be permanently shut down He was the star of a comedy that Aziz was directing
with Keanu and Rogan.
Oh, interesting.
And it is now the second Aziz Ansari directorial project
that will never be finished.
Yeah, because, like, the stuff he has...
Oh, he's going to make a movie with Jonah Hill?
Is he?
I don't know.
That doesn't seem like it's in production.
Okay. So, really, it's just right now,'s like the john wick spinoff he's gonna pop in on that one
ballerina and he's making a constantine sequel that's all he's got going right now this is the
one constantine yeah i mean believe me i'm pro that oh pro as hell yeah yeah but uh but cool
what won't exactly be uh a light on deft on its feet like
comedy no although i mean be funny if that's what they went for yeah walks into doors as constantine
um ben final thoughts final thoughts well i'll say oh they get back together they get back together
they fuck in the jenner's closet yeah that's another good it's like she's harnessing his
horniness finally that's another good moment when she's sort's harnessing his horniness finally that's another good moment
when she's sort of
checking to see
if he died or not
with the shot
and he starts talking to her
and then he like
tries to fuck her
yeah
he just like points
and he's like
zonked out
he like can't
open his eyes
but he's still like
I'm down
this guy's unredeemably
horny
yeah he is so horny
irredeemably horny
so so horny
final thoughts
um 10 out of 10 normal movie Horny. Yeah. He is so irredeemably horny. So, so horny. Final thoughts.
Um,
10 out of 10 normal movie,
10 out of 10 normal movie.
Um,
no,
I just,
I have,
um,
sorry to be,
you know,
someone who's,
uh, you know,
uh,
into nostalgia,
but,
uh,
this is a real comfort movie
for me.
And it still holds up.
And
I had a lot of fun talking
about it.
David's doing the pose from the poster.
And
and
I'm gonna go get some pizza.
Oh. Where are you going to go?
That place around the corner.
Maybe bleep it out.
Maybe bleep it out, David.
You said it wrong, so it doesn't matter.
I didn't say it wrong.
I think I said it right, but bleep it.
Okay, maybe you said it right.
Yeah.
You should start saying wrong things.
You're going to our local pizza place, Papa John's.
I'm going to Joey's place.
I'm going to Ray's place. I'm going to
Ray's Pizza.
Right?
Yep.
That fucking,
that'll scatter them.
Yeah.
Okay,
one, two, three, two.
There's not any Ray's anymore.
Fewer.
Fewer and fewer these days.
The real life couple,
there's a picture
in this article
I sent to you
that I'll have Marie post.
They have
in their home
a bunch of clippings and movie
posters and merchandise from this movie yeah good for them that's funny that they love it own it
right yeah why not you just rarely hear of that usually you hear of like how dare they make this
movie about us we object this is a terrible stereotype they're doing.
Imagine, like,
becoming new, like,
couple friends with them.
Getting invited over
for dinner.
And they're like,
I really like this movie.
And they go,
it's about us!
I shot him!
I shot him two times!
I couldn't tell
they make a movie about us!
Yeah, when you read
the quotes
Of the husband in this article
I can't help but just hear
Clines like reading
Do I forgive him?
Yes nothing happened to me
It's okay
Apparently he owns a small piece of the movie
So they get some money
They gave him a slice
Ben five comedy points
I don't know if he's getting tons of residuals,
but some, right?
He had a slice.
Anyway, this was fun.
Well, we got to play the box office game.
We got to play the box office game.
Do you guys have any final thoughts?
I give it five of these.
David is doing the thumb to middle finger.
I made a really good sauce
the night I watched this movie.
Coincidence?
You posted pictures.
Wait, what kind of sauce?
Isn't a la repiana, you know?
What's that?
Spicy tomato sauce.
It's like tomato, garlic, oregano, sleeping pills.
One bottle or two bottles.
To your taste. To taste. i think griffin you've
hit on something though with sleepy pasta sleepy pasta i really think that like what's the popular
sleeping pill uh uh you're talking uh not ambien amb Yeah. Ambien should start a whole new line of food products.
Pizza flavored Ambien.
This is my thing basically.
I'm like, we all know from creepy pasta, right?
Which spooks you out.
Yeah.
Keeps you up at night.
Yep.
Can we combine like pasta with ASMR?
Can we make pasta that puts you at ease?
Oh my God.
Sleepy pasta.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
I have my sleep podcast that I've been working on.
Sleepy podcast.
I start also offering sauce.
Yep.
Sleepy sauce.
Mm-hmm, sleepy sauce.
And you know, there's nothing better
than when you're trying to go to sleep
than a warm bowl of pasta.
Some ragout.
Yeah.
Ragout.
Okay, box office game
April 6th 1990
This movie opens to 74 million domestic
It's opening at number 6
To 4 million dollars
So it's not making our top 5
It's got 4 mil
It's gonna lag that out to 15
A robust 15
And then probably do some decent blockbuster business
one hopes, right?
It made at least an additional $25
being licensed to Comedy Central.
Yes.
Yeah.
The movie that's at number one
is a film I imagine, well, I know this
in fact, resonated greatly
with Mr. Ben Hosley.
Has it been a previous Ben's choice?
Or do we just know that it resonated?
I'm sure we will cover it on this podcast, probably on the Patreon.
Certainly on the Patreon.
One day.
It's the launch of a long-running, ongoing franchise that's had many stops and starts.
Based on a comic book.
1990.
Stops and starts.
Comic book yeah 1990 stops and starts comic book ben loves it ben do
you have any idea what this is 1990 based on a comic book this is a post batman yeah but was it was is he kind of like like kind of twisted it's a team oh it's a team it's a team
it's a 90s comic book team movie was it a recent book at the time of this film is this adapting
like new material yes okay it's a team you love it teenage mutant ninja turtles there you go
which is a damn franchise we will do one of these days but that movie kind of rocks oh that movie
uh it's got incredible sort of like set design i don't think this is even a radical take that's
like kind of the first movie to get right the like make the movie of the comic book
yeah don't run it through the hollywood development wheel and try to like rethink it
like make the movie that everyone wants to see put all the characters in it make them look the
way they looked in the drawings right um for ben's birthday i bought him a blu-ray of ninja
turtles with a scratch and sniff card uh cool stinko
vision stinko vision love that you've seen the new one right you gotta check it out yeah
unfortunately i've had some life stuff going i know but and i was unable to catch it while
it's probably on you can you can scale the mountain it's on top of peter plus that's right
so if you want to climb the mountain.
I just need to log in.
I'm sorry.
Wait.
You're not one of the... 50 to 100 subscribers?
I love Paramount+.
To be clear.
Mostly because I have Star Trek.
The worst UI.
Yeah.
I use it through Apple, actually, because I hate the UI so much.
Number two at the box office.
It's a smash hit comedy.
Probably such a gigantic success that it's hurting any comedy opening against it.
It's only in its third week.
It's not Wayne's World.
Bigger.
Bigger.
1990.
It's only in its third week.
It's gigantic.
Gigantic.
Is it like... Tell me about the star of this picture.
Two stars.
The man is an established romantic leading man.
The woman is, uh, this is her breakout role.
But she is an Oscar nominee who's done some good.
Oh, it's called Pretty Woman?
Yeah, it's a film by Gary Marshall
about this woman who's pretty.
Pretty Woman.
Pretty Woman.
Seen it, Ben?
Yeah.
Humongous hit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a big movie.
Yeah.
Pretty charming. Yeah. It's a big movie Yeah Pretty charming
Yeah
It's got some good stuff in it
Yeah
Number three at the box office
Now we are cooking
Okay
Insane that
I Love You to Death
Opened three places below
This film
Which is also debuting this week
Is also a broad comedy
Perhaps broader
Perhaps broader? It is the third film Also debuting this week is also a broad comedy, perhaps broader.
Perhaps broader?
It is the third film in a long-running comedy series in which its main character does something or goes someplace.
Is it in earnest?
Earnest.
What's he done now?
So the third one would be, the first one is Goes to Camp.
Yes.
I believe this is JD's favorite.
The second one is Saves Christmas.
If you tell me so, I don't fucking know.
The third one is not Scared Stupid.
JD's favorite one.
It's not Slam Dunk was direct-to-video,
Ernest Goes to Africa, Ernest Goes to Army.
What's the one I'm not thinking of?
It's JD's favorite.
I believe so. Yeah favorite i believe so yeah
i believe so and you're right that camp and then christmas are one and two
goes to jail earnest has gone to jail yes that is the best one that is the best one uh and not
only has he gone to jail but he has you know suplexed i love you to death talk about character
work i mean that's the one,
because he's got the dual role in that one,
where he plays the felon who looks like Ernest,
who switches place with him in jail,
and it's bravura work from Varney.
That's very good.
He's really good in it.
Have we talked about that as a franchise?
It's on the long list for the bracket, Ben.
I'll have you know.
We never maybe said this on mic
because there was this sort of
long-promised JD blank check episode
where we let JD cash in his blank check.
And what it was supposed to be
was on April 1st,
we were going to release an episode
on Ernest Goes to Jail
and act like it was the third episode
in our ongoing John Cherry miniseries.
Yes.
That was the bit. I can't remember why miniseries. Yes. That was the bit.
I can't remember why we didn't do it.
A couple different reasons.
Okay.
Kept on getting kicked.
It kept on getting kicked and it was officially canceled.
Yeah, it's officially canceled.
Yes.
Or is it?
But Ernest is on the bracket.
Sure, I guess.
Ernest goes to March Madness?
Number five.
Uh-huh.
Oh, no, sorry, number four, also new this week, Neo Noir Horror.
Neo Noir Horror, 90.
If you've heard of this movie, I will be stunned.
I don't know it myself.
It's called The Dark Creeping.
Honestly, a solid guess.
This film stars Lou Diamond Phillips and Michael T. Williamson.
It's directed by Robert Resnikov.
I can't remember why. Oh, because
this movie foiled me on fucking
box office game. It was a movie I
never had heard of. And now I've heard
of it once and I've already forgotten the title. What's it called?
The film was called The First Power.
Yes. Yes.
I don't really know much else.
I just know that I didn't know it.
Number five at the box office Is a
Thrilling
Action drama
Geopolitical
Based on a bestseller
Based on a bestseller
It's not Pelican Brief?
No
That wasn't a bad guess?
Nope, solid guess
Is it a Crichton? Nope okay but not that is it a creighton nope but is
it that kind of name yes but it's no nor neither creighton nor clancy nor grisham nor grisham oh
sorry it is clancy it is it's clancy i meant to say neither i meant to say grisham fucker
is it a jack ryan yes it's pat Patriot Games? No. It's Clear and Present Danger.
No.
It's neither of those.
Oh, it's Hunt for Red October?
The Hunt for Red October.
I always think that's early days.
But it's not.
It's 1990.
Starting off the decade with style.
A fantastic film.
Have you seen the Hunt for Red October?
I know the box.
Of course.
Well, it's red. Red as of course that I've like walked by
a million times
at Blockbuster
but I
I just
it didn't entice me
look if you have any thoughts
get them out here
because you're never
going to have another
opportunity to talk
about that movie
well I haven't seen it
so I guess
and you never will
I guess all I'll say is
could have been redder
sure
I Love You to Death
is number six
Driving Miss Daisy
Best Picture winner from last year
Is still honking away at number seven
Yep
Good
Look that's Hans Zimmer
Maybe he's good
Those Cynthia Hans Zimmer scores of the 80s
Opening at number eight
A huge bomb
Is John Waters' Cry Baby
Oh yeah
Good movie
Yeah Number nine is
something called opportunity knocks that's a that's a carvey it's a carvey that was a carvey
solo vehicle dana carvey yeah it's a donald petrie movie yeah con man yes uh i've never seen it it
feels like just feels like a Ben's Choice that never happened
It's only not a Ben's Choice
By the grace of God
The syndication deal struck out
Right
It ended up on the wrong channel
It should have been a Ben's Choice
Right it was on Spike TV for some reason
There's also another Dana solo movie called
Clean Slate where he's got like
Short term memory loss
I've never heard of these fucking
yeah I've at least seen
with Valerie Galino
I've seen this poster
yeah I remember my parents always telling me that they thought Opportunity
Knocks was good
but I never
convinced me to rent it
but I'd be like walking up and down
the comedy aisle looking for something and they'd go like Opportunity no it's pretty good people don't talk about it's pretty good
the film's original teaser trailer had carvey introducing it as the church lady that's how
yes like desperate they were that trailer is insane and then there were articles and the
reviews at the time were like we want to make this clear the church lady is not in this movie
um it's like that phantom of the opera poster poster starring Robert Englund where they have Freddy Krueger.
Right.
Being like, I endorse this movie, bitch.
See it in your dreams or at the multiplex, bitch.
Freddy is always funny.
Terrible bitch.
Bitch man, though.
More like a bitch man.
The thing about Opportunity Knocks, which I've not
seen, but makes the most sense,
is that Carvey's got the perfect
guy to act opposite. You know,
really easygoing guy. Really
great. Like, same generation.
A real match for him.
It's Outback Pall for him It's Robert Loja
It's just like bizarre
I knew it was a grumpy old man
Yeah I assume he's conning him or whatever
Number 10 Joe vs. The Volcano
That's the box office that week
So a lot of comedies that aren't going over
Yeah
Ernest Goes to Jail is going over best
But like I Love You to Death
Cry Baby,
Opportunity, Knox, Jovers,
these are all like weird comedies that aren't connected.
And you understand actually... Pretty Woman is connected.
You understand Pretty Woman getting dumped into this period
where you're like,
Gear's kind of a star in the decline,
Julie Roberts hasn't popped yet,
that premise, who's gonna go for that?
He falls in love with...
record scratch,
a sex worker with a heart of gold?
Like on paper, that movie maybe seems not that different from the other whole insane thing with that movie where they like completely reworked
what it was like you know yeah anyway also this insane thing they do where richard gear closed
the jewelry box and she didn't know when her response is real and that should be illegal that wasn't planned they didn't do that in rehearsals
okay so we gotta um post our episode uh on the building oh okay yeah um
any book of casper the friendly ghost happy to buy or to borrow for the upcoming weekend from Fatma.
Someone in our building wants to borrow a Casper.
Or buy, Griff.
I honestly feel so embarrassed that I don't own one.
I'll have you know though, Marie texted me last night to say,
I'm watching Casper, you were right.
Right about what?
Everything.
Truly everything.
And that's been our episode.
Please make sure to follow.
Yup.
I hope you're happy.
I am happy.
Make sure to tell your friends to follow the show.
Write a review.
Write a frigging ass review.
If you've never written a review, do it.
Because I told you to.
It helps the show, okay?
Remember to rate, bitch.
I want to thank, personally, Marie Barty for our social media.
As well as helping me to produce the show. Yeah. Having good taste.
Having good taste.
Casper.
I want to thank Alex Barron
and AJ McKeon
for editing
and for everything else
they do for the show.
True.
Big, big, big fans
of those two guys.
Keep being good friends.
Yeah.
And handsome men too.
Someone came to the fashion show and was like does everyone
work on your show is everyone is everyone who works on blank check a fucking hunk and the answer
is c damn who's that i'll take my answer off mike okay uh yeah thanks to uh pat uh, Patrick Reynolds and Joe Bowen for our artwork.
Uh, thanks to Lane Montgomery and the Great American Novel for our music.
I'm going to request that for, uh, the artwork for this, that, uh, Pat put your face on every
cast member rather than throwing David or I on any of them.
You should be all seven.
I agree.
Yeah.
Characters on the box.
And, you know,
make sure, Pat,
that when you do it,
you do it respectively.
Respectively or respectfully?
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Both.
Coming up next week,
we've got our episode
on Hayao Miyazaki's new movie,
The Boy and the Heron.
And then the week after
that we're gonna do bradley cooper's maestro david has seen it i have seen david loves it you love
i do love it yes i'm very excited do you have to like classical music no uh no it's not really no
it's not really crucial but you do like nos. That's well established on the history of this show.
Should I hire a ensemble to play in the room while we record the episode?
Yes.
Not even like a French horn?
Make a posting on the building's website.
Does anyone know where I could borrow?
Are there any orchestras in the building?
If anyone has one in the building, it would be silly not to use it.
At least ask if there's any in the building.
I don't know if I want to start a precedent of like, if it's in the building, we have to use it.
It's in the building.
I mean, David.
David.
Turn off.
Off now.
Right?
We're done, right?
Well, yeah.
And as always, Monopoly!