How Did This Get Made? - Dracula 2000

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

This week the HDTGM Discord has Jason, June and Paul breaking down the Gerard Butler gothic-horror film, Dracula 2000 (or is it Drah-cool-ya?). The crew discusses the religious symbolism, old timey bo...oby traps, the incredible performance of Jennifer Esposito, and why references of the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru, will be important to understand from here on out. If you'd like a say in never having a movie like this covered again on the podcast, join the HDTGM discord! discord.gg/hdtgm Check out HDTGM on tour at hdtgm.com for tickets and more info! For more Matinee Monday content, visit Paul's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulScheerFollow Paul on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/Paul’s Discord: https://discord.gg/paulscheerCheck out Paul and Rob Huebel live on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/friendzone) every Thursday 8-10pm ESTSubscribe to The Deep Dive with Jessica St. Clair and June Diane Raphael here: listen.earwolf.com/deepdiveSubscribe to Unspooled with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson here: listen.earwolf.com/unspooledCheck out The Jane Club over at www.janeclub.comCheck out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hdtgmWhere to Find Jason, June & Paul:@PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter@Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on TwitterJason is Not on Twitter

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's show is sponsored by the Virgin Megastore, when Draculia wants songs that don't suck. He goes to Virgin. We saw Dracula 2000, so you know what that means. Now it's time for how to discriminate Gotta have a good time, celebrate some failure Not just be a hater Cause you know you wonder how to discriminate
Starting point is 00:00:19 Let's all win the mediocrity of subpar art Perhaps we'll find the answer to the question How did this get made? Hello people of Earth, and welcome to How Did This Get Made. I am Paul Shearer, and today we are talking about Dracula 2000, a film that you all picked. That's right, you voted for this film out of a list of ten films on the Discord. We had no say, we had no option, we gave it all to you.
Starting point is 00:00:47 We wanted to see how you would do if you could best our amazing producer, Errol Halley, who picks all of our films. And you know what, you brought some heat, you gave us a Gerard Butler film that came out and you guessed it, 2000. And what do you need to know? Dracula, he's in New Orleans, it's 2000. Vitamin C is in it, the singer. Alright, let's break it down and introduce my two co-hosts.
Starting point is 00:01:12 Please welcome Jason Manzuchus and June Diane Rayfield. How are you both? Well, now I know who to blame. I didn't know they made us watch this. So that seems like punishment. They have been begging to pick a movie, begging to pick a movie. And this is what they chose. This is it.
Starting point is 00:01:32 Old school Jerry Butler action. By the way, Jerry Butler is Dracula. We love Gerard Butler on the show. And this does not look like the Gerard Butler that I know and love. I mean, this is like... Can I just say something? I did not know it was Gerard Butler until about 45 seconds ago. Wait. Whoa!
Starting point is 00:01:55 Whoa! And there were many points where I thought, God, he looks a lot like Gerard Butler. And then I thought, I wonder who that guy is. And then I thought, wow, I wonder if that guy and Gerard Butler were coming up at the same time and then Gerard Butler took off. In fact, they were. I had so many... I mean, I was very much so with Gerard Butler watching this movie,
Starting point is 00:02:16 but was also like, who that's not is Gerard Butler. Like, I... Wow. The physique. Yes, very different. He is like... The bone structure. Just his body's like...
Starting point is 00:02:28 Very lean and live. The skeleton structure. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. He looks like Pilates bod. Yeah. He looks a little bit like James Franco meets like the cover of a romance novel. Like the character that...
Starting point is 00:02:41 Yeah. Yeah, like... He looks like... I feel like they modeled him after the dream in The Sandman. In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Oh. Like, I feel like they have him looking exactly like Dream, which is very weird and interesting. But I thought he looks great. And this is...
Starting point is 00:02:59 He looks great. I'm assuming, right? This is before 300. Is that right? Yes. This is 2000. This is before 300. He was actually doing a play on Broadway.
Starting point is 00:03:08 Oh, wow. It took him a break to come shoot this life-changing movie. This movie that was going to change everything. I feel like 300 really broke Gerard Butler. Huge. But also broke him in a way that made us feel like he's meant to be this big, beefy, muscular... That's the body type. I am so fascinated.
Starting point is 00:03:28 And I have to say, after watching this, I'm like, not only does Gerard's... Does Gerard Butler... Does Gerard Butler... How do you think Gerard's Butler... That's the T-shirt. Gerard's Butler. That's the T-shirt. Gerard's Butler.
Starting point is 00:03:42 It's his Alfred. He's like, I'm home, Alfred. I really was like, oh, it can't be him because of course it's his... I find him to be a bigger presence on screen always. Yes. Well, and that's one of the things that I wrote is I was like, they're giving him nothing. They're giving him nothing to do, barely any lines. And the true disservice to him and everybody else who's a vampire is the fake vampire teeth
Starting point is 00:04:07 who are making the lines they do have sound weird. Okay. Well, I mean... I've got so much to say about those teeth. The teeth. The teeth. I have a lot to say about the teeth. I will also say that this movie starts off in a place that's very hard for me, which
Starting point is 00:04:21 is a place I like to call accent confusion. There are so many accents coming in in that first speaking scene. I mean, we don't need this prologue of a ship at sea, but we have it. But then once people start speaking, I'm like, Christopher Plummer, you're doing something. Jennifer Esposito, you're doing something. Johnny Lee Miller, you're doing something. And I'm like, my brain can handle it. Gerard Plummer's doing something.
Starting point is 00:04:44 Oh, yeah. But Mary in New Orleans is doing... None of their accents. I saw True Tatiana Massani for a while. What? Yep. Tatiana Massani from the year 2000? I know.
Starting point is 00:04:57 You know, so much was going on. She wasn't born then. No, but I mean, like, I couldn't... Nobody's accents made sense to where we were meeting them also. No. You know? So you're like, here we are in London, Christopher Plummer. In fact, has a...
Starting point is 00:05:15 Whatever, is Van Helsing German or Austrian or what is Van Helsing? I thought Austrian. I don't know. But not like British. No, but he's doing a weird accent. He's doing like a German-Austrian accent. Everyone... It's also so British at points.
Starting point is 00:05:30 Yes. Yes. It's kind of like the accent work in my favorite accent film. Oh, House of Gucci, baby. House of Gucci. Oh, my, my, my, my, my. Howdy-o. House of Gucci.
Starting point is 00:05:42 I mean, House of Gucci. This is like House of Gucci level accent work because it's like, I'm in, I'm out. What is happening? I also just... The movie is confusing straight up because we start with Christopher Plummer working at this antiquities firm that seems like, wow, this, how are they making money? It is really what I wanted to get into. Listen, well, I'll tell you, you know, I worked at an antique shop in the Upper East Side for
Starting point is 00:06:09 a year. So I do have... There's big money in antiques. Yeah, really? And he says, we're turning a profit, aren't we? You know, like, yeah, they're trading in a lot of great stuff. I mean, what are they trading in? Because Johnny Lee Miller is like bringing him a crossbow.
Starting point is 00:06:24 All sorts of curiosities though, Paul, like all sorts of curiosities. And if it's not related to Van Helsing's previous work as a monster hunter, then I guess it gets sold at auction. But the safe, the state of the art safe that he has, the vault is a true catacomb. Like the building is, you know, yes, it's made out of stone and it's in this, and I don't know what that real building is in London, but it's a beautiful building. It's a stone building. There's a lot of cool visual stuff that is real, you know, inside of this that I enjoyed.
Starting point is 00:07:01 But when they open up this safe, they go into an old school medieval Game of Thrones style dungeon where it's like, skulls are out, like, and like things are being kept on shelves. And it's like, at this point, Van Helsing could have just cleaned up, put some nice security in like a security even seems to be antiquated, like just old school spikes. It's easily beaten. It's easily. I mean, like there's a diehard level Nakatomi Plaza, like we're in, you know, just like hacking the computer and then it's over.
Starting point is 00:07:36 We're like, it's so easy for what is. Omar Epps. Yeah, to me, it seems to me like this group is not like super sophisticated. They seem like they're just trying to come in and rob the place. They literally have a recreation of Van Helsing's eye, which is like, I found them to be pretty sophisticated so much so that I was like, who is behind this exactly? I think Omar Epps and Omar and Jennifer Esposito, you know, because she's the one that's saying there's something if there's no, you don't have a vault of they don't
Starting point is 00:08:09 know. That's the thing they don't know. I'm just trying to understand they Jennifer Esposito and Omar Epps are they they own a private plane? It seems a private jet. Yeah. Or they get one. Yeah, they're they're like a team.
Starting point is 00:08:26 They're like Ocean's Eleven. I guess they're like Ocean's Eleven. I'm just like, what's interesting about them to me is that they already must have so much money as just an organization of criminals. Well, but they already must have so much money that they have a private plane that they've embedded her in this that they got all these people on the payroll to open up a safe where they don't know what's going to be there. That's my issue.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Jennifer Esposito, if you are a master safe cracker, she's like, I my gut tells me they got something good in here. Like that's it. You wouldn't mount this whole operation without knowing what you were stealing. You would never you would never go to these lengths on a hunch. You know what I mean? Literally, I should hope they have antiquities. They have things that they could steal that are worth a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:09:18 Now I kind of want there to be an Ocean's Eleven sequel. Oh, I wrote that down. We need to we're what they're we're what they're stealing is Dracula. Well, they get everybody around and it's like that that snappy music. And then Clooney is like, OK, we know that Dracula is underneath the wind hotel in Casino in Vegas. We're going to go in. We're going to soak it in blood and we're going to wake Dracula.
Starting point is 00:09:42 Oh, and by the way. The way that they pronounce Dracula, Dracula, they they are able to run off with what looks like an incredibly heavy coffin so quickly that Van Helsing, when he realizes that his shit being broken into doesn't even give chase. But it seems like they're in a sewer tunnel with a giant ass coffin. There was no car. There was they would have gotten Max a hundred feet from where they were, you know, before he was like, oh, hey, stop.
Starting point is 00:10:14 I believe it's broad daylight when they get in there. And they also exit through a hole in the wall. They have no idea where it's going. They did that with their plan. They're just improvising. Again, if I were them, I would just take whatever honestly, I would sell that private jet and I would put that money in it in a, you know, high yielding kind of IRA or something by the way.
Starting point is 00:10:35 IRA. A rock. Oh, OK. Just a good one. You should definitely do a rock. Why are we doing this? You know, how did this get financed? How did this get invested?
Starting point is 00:10:46 I will say this, what I really love about the robbery scene is the constant justifications like they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll definitely put skulls up to freak us out. Yeah, don't you get it? Don't you get it? This is just to scare us away. What? No. We're in 2000 people.
Starting point is 00:11:05 By the way, shocking throughout how much people, and I guess maybe this is just the thing is like in horror movies, how much people are willing to justify true warning signs as just absolutely normal. Major red flags. Omar Epps is doing backflips here to explain why they should be taking a coffin that's ingesting blood. We're here for money, Marcus. The skulls are to scare us.
Starting point is 00:11:29 The crosses, the coffin, all of it. It's a grand spanking mind fuck to scare off these. If you make a killing, why hide it in a safe? When you can hide in a coffin. This looks like an old wood box to you guys. The holy grail, the golden fleece, the crown fucking jewels, whatever it is, it's inside. Any dachshund shade, you get your gear and you get this thing open. I am not touching that fucking coffin when I get paid.
Starting point is 00:11:59 Get it open. I mean, that seemed to me as like, I don't follow this leader. I don't believe in this. Like they are delusional. I don't think they are good thieves. I feel like... Let me ask you this. They seem to think they're robbing, obviously, a wealthy antiquities dealer who has a vault,
Starting point is 00:12:17 a vault probably full of riches. Okay, got it. Do they know or do they not know that his name is Van Helsing? Because Dracula does exist here in this world. Yes, do know. And if they do know that, is nobody from the Jennifer Esposito Omar Epps and even Johnny Lee Miller, frankly, even though he's not part of the robbers, he's still in Van Helsing's employing.
Starting point is 00:12:44 Nobody is ever like, hey, are you related to Van Helsing, of the Van Helsing's Van Helsing? It makes... Well, another question, not to get back to their financial situation, but if I have developed or have the ability to get the technology to copy someone's retina and their hand prints. That's minority report-level stuff, like a movie that came out that's like future technology. That's fine if they know the Hope Diamonds behind there. But what I cannot wrap my mind around is just they have this... I mean, how much do you think that eyeball cost?
Starting point is 00:13:21 That eyeball alone. The fuel. I did think it was fuel for the plane. I did think it was cool, the eyeball, the close-up on the eyeball turning into the lock undoing on the vault. There was some cool visuals in there, and I liked all that stuff, but I agree with you 100%. They must have invested tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into
Starting point is 00:13:44 the pre-work for a robbery. They did not know what it would yield, frankly. Okay, here's another thing I just want to put out there about these robbers. It seems like it's quit in time when they pull off their first, you know, because it's like, oh, I'm leaving for the day, goodbye, door closes, you know, so let's say it's five or six o'clock, give or take, you know, in that zone. You know? Yeah, I guess it's not broad daylight.
Starting point is 00:14:08 You're right. It's the end of day. It's the end of business. It's the end of business. The end of business. And it's London, so it's gloomy and gray. Exactly. That's very true.
Starting point is 00:14:17 Here's my thought. Here's my thought. Perfect Robbie weather. Perfect Jack weather. And so here's my thought. They run down that sewer tunnel and they're like, okay, well, here's a manhole cover. And then, so in the middle of early evening, rush hour traffic, they're popping open a manhole cover and then lifting easily a 300 pound, like 200 pound.
Starting point is 00:14:43 I was going to say 500 pounds. Yeah. It's like, it's a steel. It has a corpse in it and it's, it is made of the heaviest metal. And like lead, it feels like, so they're just pushing that up. Again, get me a camera on this team. A bunch of their guys have been killed and that's the other thing. They don't react at all.
Starting point is 00:15:04 Two of their cohorts have been killed by antique booby traps. Yes. These guys are getting full blown speared with like, you know, and everybody's just like, whoa. Okay. Come on. We got to get this thing out of here. They move so quickly past their dead teammates that I was like, there is, I feel like the
Starting point is 00:15:26 movie's problem is, the movie's problem is it's not sure who the movie's about. You know, like if this movie was smart, it would have been about, it would have been Ocean's 11. It would have been about the robbers and they're, they've got a tip, they've got a lead, they're going to rob this place. And then when they get there, uh-oh, it's Dracula. Or heard the movie could have just been about Mary Von Helsing, which I thought was interesting. I was like, oh, that's, that's sort of a new way into Dracula.
Starting point is 00:15:57 Like someone who has part Dracula blood, like, or that was fascinating, or. It could have been about the guy that he hired to make all those contraptions like, all right, so I do need a coffin that, you know, that the crucifix is going to turn pop open. I do need, I do need like a lot of leeches. I need a helmet. Well, I think all that happened like a hundred years ago. Okay. So that's old technology.
Starting point is 00:16:21 I think that's all old school. All right. Wow. Yeah. So it's going to be heavier. And the, and the switch underneath it. And because also the booby traps seemed like they were like rusty spikes from a hundred years ago.
Starting point is 00:16:33 Do you think those booby traps, like, do you think they're tested? Like, you know, when you leave a car at some, a friend's house and then like you ask them to go start it every, you know, once a week. So it doesn't, I don't know. Do you think they do dry runs? Yeah. Like just cause, just cause if those booby traps hadn't been used for hundreds of years, like, wow.
Starting point is 00:16:53 Well, and I will say this and now I'm going to amend what I said. All those booby traps were old, but there is also a modern security system, like a computer based security system. And at some point, somebody would have had to have installed all that. You could have gone in there and cleaned up the skulls. I mean, by the way. Paul, you and I just had a conversation not to talk about, you know, I've, I know I've gotten into a lot of trouble on this podcast with what I've said about locksmiths.
Starting point is 00:17:24 But I did want to say, you know, just talking about security systems, because I actually, one of the ways they get in to the antiquities firm is one of the, one of the robbers says he's part of security and is checking on the security system. Well, and also, uh, they throw a Pokemon ball at one of the things, like whatever technology that is that Omar Epps throws an exploding ball at that guy's face, like that seems like it's just a stun thing, but I've never seen that technology, sell it to the military and live the rest of your lives in peace alive. They don't, they don't want that.
Starting point is 00:18:02 They love the juice. They could have been in there. They've never been in there. Anyway, what I was going to say is all you and I just went over last night, something that I had completely forgotten, which is a gentleman who installed our security system. This is way back when at an old department of ours was incredibly creepy. We did go over that, Jason. We did.
Starting point is 00:18:22 We turned it over. And I was like, God, you got what you just did, or at the time, no, it was like, we'd never talked about it. This event that happened where this man said something so fucking strange to me while we were both in the house and we were walking around showing him like where we needed to protect ourselves, and he was like straight up serial killer, straight up. Okay. And then we proceeded to pay him to install all of our alarms, but I mean, once they're
Starting point is 00:18:49 in your house, you've already, you have to see, you got to roll the dice, not an oral contract. You can, you can go to someone else. Well, he's already in. He's already in. We already invited the vampire. That's basically the wrong one in. That's the cold open to one of these movies.
Starting point is 00:19:04 It's like, okay, you know, he says something creepy and then you're like, we're still going to use you. And then. Yeah. I just feel like a consumer of security systems. You have no recourse with this, you know, with like the people who are installing. It's like, I have to assume at some point I have to take a leap of faith here. Cut to Jerry Orbox walking around surveying your bodies being like, I don't know what
Starting point is 00:19:26 happened. And the rest of the law and order episode happens. We've already poked holes in the idea that thieves shouldn't go off of a gut check of wealth, but their plan then is, let's take this giant ass coffin that we can't figure out how to open to the Cayman Islands, which is off the coast of Cuba, you know, near Jamaica. They're coming from the UK and they land in a swamp in New Orleans, which if you try to put all of that together, it seemingly makes no sense. Well, remember Dracula ties the pilot to his chair and I believe makes him take him to
Starting point is 00:20:10 New Orleans. And the only reason why he wants to go to New Orleans is because he feels. He can sense the blood of Mary is Van Helsing's daughter who passed some of Dracula's blood on to Mary. Christopher Plummer is Mary's father. He has Dracula's blood. Right. So now Dracula can sense.
Starting point is 00:20:29 I believe this is the movie's logic can sense Mary's presence in the world because they are dreaming about her. Right. They see each other. They see each other like in dreams like Kylo Ren, like Ray and Kylo Ren, I never said. I didn't even put that. Whoa. Are you saying, OK, so here's what I just didn't like quite pick up on before he's awakened
Starting point is 00:20:50 by the robbers, Dracula, Dracula, does she have any sense of him or no? She's dreaming about him. A lot. Before he wakes up. Yes. Over her whole life. She says, yeah. Because like her roommate's like, you're yelling again.
Starting point is 00:21:04 But it's getting worse. Yeah. I think it's getting worse. Maybe. Wait. Who is Vitamin C? You keep saying that. Vitamin C is Lucy Westerman.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I mean, I'm sorry. Who is Vitamin C? Oh, sorry. Good question. So Vitamin C was like, and I don't want to use this term derogatorily, but a one hit wonder. Like had a very popular song and I'm trying to remember the name of it. It was, it was graduation.
Starting point is 00:21:29 Here. Take a listen to that. This is how it feels. As we go on, we remember all the times we had together. Who was Vitamin C in the movie? Lucy Westerman. The roommate. The roommate.
Starting point is 00:22:05 Who works at Virgin Megastore and is in front of her own rack of CDs. So she. Oh, is that right? Oh, that's right. Okay. So she created that graduation song. Yes. The singer of it.
Starting point is 00:22:16 Singing in it? Yeah. Okay. Her name was Vitamin C. And she was the singer. And she had. As we go on. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Got it. Yeah. I mean, she released a lot of, a lot of albums. I mean, there's a lot of tracks. I should say. Huh. She was great. I thought she was great.
Starting point is 00:22:32 I thought she was great. I didn't know. And I gotta say, I'm going to say, I think I've said this before. I absolutely love Jennifer Esposito. I wrote it down. MVP in these movies, but she's great. She is in so many of our terrible, terrible movies and is so good. Always so fucking good.
Starting point is 00:22:48 What is so good about her too is like, I feel like she gets it. Like she gets the movie that she's in. And there's a moment where she, at the end of the movie where she is a crossbow and she literally takes like a pose with it. Like a chick, chick and like, like a sexy, like I'm now I'm going to kill you pose, but she like can revel in all those moments and play. Awesome. Awesome.
Starting point is 00:23:12 All right. Like I feel like she gets. She's having fun. She gets what's happening. She gets what the, what movie she's in. And the scary vampire to me. A bunch of people do in this movie. I'm not, you know, nothing, but I think she's doing vitamin C too.
Starting point is 00:23:24 They're doing, they're really, they're and Jerry, Jerry Ryan, right? Yeah, Jerry Ryan's great. Yeah. Jerry Ryan gets killed. It's just so good. I mean, she's just perfect. Jerry Ryan does say one thing that I took some offense to, which is when she's attacking Johnny Lee Miller, she goes, you ever want to do it with a TV star?
Starting point is 00:23:48 And I was like, well, you're not really a TV star. You're, you're a local news reporter. I mean, like let's not elevate our, let's not elevate your position. Commentary. You don't think there was commentary on her role as a, as a TV star? You don't think that was a metadata? Oh, I think this is before that maybe, but maybe I'm wrong. I think Voyager is after this.
Starting point is 00:24:05 Oh, okay. But, but I'll say this. Can we just listen to her do her news report? That is like some of the most unprofessional reporting like she's like swamp of death, flight of death. And she's like, and, and the way that she describes five bodies, like it overcrowded the morgue, really five bodies. You got to take it to a town hall.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Like this is New Orleans. I imagine people are dying. Like what? We just, we just saw Lance Henriksen and John Claude Van Damme rack up quite a lot of bodies. Yeah. No one was filling up a county courthouse. By the way, I wanted them to bump into Lance Henriksen when they ran through that cemetery.
Starting point is 00:25:11 It's like perfect crossover here. What they, what they needed was one of those rifles that shoots arrows. They, so that they could shoot, you know, wooden stakes out of a rifle. That would have been amazing. So let me just ask. Okay. Not to jump to the end, but Mary Van Helsing is part human part vampire. So.
Starting point is 00:25:33 Because her dad. Right. Because her dad had the blood in him. Right. From the spear that went through Dracula and then into Van Helsing. So Christopher Plummer. I mean, I like that capturing again. Who's the man who events these traps?
Starting point is 00:25:48 That trap was pretty amazing. It was like, he's walking down an alley, but it was all mirrors. Then behind all the mirrors are guys with like, you know, pointy sticks. And, you know, I guess they're stakes, but they're not like that. Like the contraptions are great. But yeah. So I guess Van Helsing at one point with like a captured Dracula. Now it's time for me to go get laid, have a life.
Starting point is 00:26:09 And he does, but has it, but then disowns this daughter. Was this a cut scene that you saw? Now I need to go get laid. He's like, it's that his wife finds out and she leaves him. Okay. But why is his wife worried? Probably because Dracula is in the basement. His husband's a vampire?
Starting point is 00:26:29 Yeah. I mean, I don't think Christopher Plummer's a vampire. I think he's, um... Well, what is he? He looks young because for his age. But I think that's because he's in, he's injecting himself with Dracula's blood. He, remember he's taking the leeches that have been on. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:50 Oh, no, you're right. Okay. So I thought the leeches were sucking out his blood to make him not full vampire. That's what I thought. I thought he was using the leeches to suck vampire's blood out of Dracula. All right. Cause Dracula is covered with leeches. Then he's taking those leeches, sucking out the blood in a syringe, putting it into his
Starting point is 00:27:08 body to give him long life. Okay. So then, so then your theory would going back to what June said earlier is that he's down in that coffin quite a lot. If he's getting the leeches off the body, like... Every, I don't know. Like, you know, like, you know, like how often do you refill a prescription? Well, I mean, it looks like he had like four containers of leeches underneath that chest
Starting point is 00:27:29 set. He's got to call, he's got to call Rite Aid and be like, I need, I need another month of leeches. Your leeches are in. Please come to pick up your leeches. Dial zero for pharmacy. I guess I'm still confused about how he's able to take so much of that blood. Because I think it would be immortal.
Starting point is 00:27:46 Like you take enough that you, that he's able to live forever, but he doesn't actually become a vampire. Oh, I think what it is, is this. He shared blood with Draculia. He shared blood with him, but his daughter is of the blood, the true mix. Like, it's almost like somebody put a little bit of blood in his blood, but then when he passed his blood to her, she is made of that blood. So like...
Starting point is 00:28:14 I think they're getting benefits, but I, and maybe this is, people are probably screaming at their radios because we're getting... They're like, why am I listening to a podcast on my radio? Yeah, exactly. They're getting their Dracula. We're getting Dracula Lord mixed up because I don't know if it makes you a vampire if you just get some of Dracula's blood inside you. Don't you have to be bitten?
Starting point is 00:28:35 Yeah, of course. But that's why he's saying she's been born. No, because that's what makes you Dracula. Van Helsing is never bitten. She wasn't bitten. She was born. No, Van Helsing was never bitten either. But she, but the woman was, but Mary Van Helsing was bitten by Dracula.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Later. Later. And that's what makes her part Drac, part Helsing. This is our second Van Helsing. No, because he says before, the reason why he's looking for her is because she's the only one like him who was not bitten, but born. Van Helsing. Well, no, no, but he was born as Judas.
Starting point is 00:29:09 Surprise, surprise. He was born, yeah. He was born as Judas Iscariot and is somehow upon betraying Christ and hanging himself, he is reborn as an immortal. Can I ask a question about this? Yeah. That I don't. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:24 Okay. So the idea being in my remembrance of Catholic school and going to church and all this sort of stuff in June, I know that you have the, you know, a similar background of church. So let's see if we can put it together. My thought was that Judas betrays Jesus, feels so guilty about it that he kills himself. In this movie, it posits and then he's like, fuck that. Now I hate this guy. Like, like it takes away the remorse element of Judas.
Starting point is 00:29:56 So Judas like is wanting forgiveness. He feels so badly that that's why he commits suicide. But then he comes back on like, oh, I hate the Bible and I hate gold because it reminds me of Jesus who betrayed me. It feels like it's like, it's almost like Jesus did this. Yeah. No, I don't, no, no, I don't think it's the Jesus did this. I think that, I think that he is, he is, he is reborn to live in misery.
Starting point is 00:30:21 He's now suffering and he blames, he blames God and obviously Christ for his like eons of suffering. So basically like Jesus was like, so in the movie guys, what I'm saying is like, is the movie positing that God is watching over this is like, you fucked over my son for 20 pieces of silver. So you know what? You're going to become a motherfucking vampire like, and like it's like a vengeful God. Well, remember at the beginning of the movie, Johnny Lee Miller comes in and he says, you
Starting point is 00:30:53 know, yeah, he reads a thing that says, you know, the crown, blah, blah, blah, falling off the blah, blah, blah. And Christopher Plummer corrects him and says, actually it's halo. And I think what it's, I think what we're meant to believe maybe is that this is a little bit of a fallen angel story, you know. To my understanding, and I'm sure so many people are screaming at their radios. I mean, some people are looking at their phonograph player and they're going like, oh, they've tuned us in on AM 10, 10 wins where we air, where we silent.
Starting point is 00:31:24 If we can look at our audience right now, their heads are all cocking like that dog going like, where is that sound coming out of that megaphone on the top of that photograph? Yeah. I know you're listening to us on a wax cylinder. That's the shirt. I know. I made Victrola symbol. As far as I know for, and for all the families gathered around the radio right now, as far
Starting point is 00:31:45 as I know, this is a brand new kind of take on how Dracula became Dracula. Yes. Seems like it. Yeah. Because in the past, we've understood him as a warrior. In the past, I believe, I believe he's been Vlad the Impaler. Yes. That's who we understand to be modern day Dracula is.
Starting point is 00:32:05 So look, in Bram Stoker's novel, what happens is Johnny Knoxville kicks him so hard in the balls that he grows vampire teeth. Hey, it's me, Bam Stoker, kicked in the balls by Dracula, so in the novel, he used black magic to turn himself into a vampire. But he did it out of eternal love for his bride, who he'd meet again when she was reincarnated. Can I see? Yeah. But then, yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:44 Oh, so inside of the Dracula narrative, reincarnation exists. That's interesting as well. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of. But this movie is the first time I've ever experienced the idea that Dracula is Judas. Yes. Who is meant to, I guess meant to live for all eternity in regret for the actions he did by killing God's son.
Starting point is 00:33:07 It seems like if you come back as Dracula and you're just like, can control everything, you can make mist, do what you want, every person that you're attracted to is under your command. You can turn into a wolf. You can turn into bats. It's pretty rad. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great life.
Starting point is 00:33:22 You're sexy AF. It's a great life. You know, and it's also like very fluid sexually. Yes. Women, men, men-biting men, women-biting women, it's all, you know, it's, it's all happening. Are you, I'm curious, are you guys, Vampire, like, were you, did you read the Anne Rice books? Were you like when, or any of the kind of, because vampires have had multiple, just in
Starting point is 00:33:50 our lifetimes, multiple periods of incredible popularity. The only, only Vampire movie I've ever seen is Leslie Nielsen's Dreadful. Dracula dead and loving it. Of course. And that, you know, that is really where I began and ended, and nothing really tops it there as far as scary, fun, spooky, sexy. Um, I mean, yeah, I, I, I did enjoy the Twilight movie. We did it on the show.
Starting point is 00:34:15 I liked them. Oh yeah, yeah, right. I was like, when did we watch them? Oh yeah, for the show. Apparently the interview with a Vampire series that's happening right now is pretty good. That's supposed to be incredible. I can't wait to see it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:25 So, I don't know. And I'm not a, I'm not a, I'm not a Vampire or, or really a horror fan. I'm not a Vampire. I was going to say a Vampire fan, but, um, but I've heard from multiple people that show is great. Here's where I was disappointed. I, I'm interested in the world and some of the themes, et cetera, I think are super interesting and the women and the sexuality, all of that.
Starting point is 00:34:44 I'm like, yeah, the men, the sort of homosexuality piece of it. It's all, I think it's a really cool world. I, I was so bummed that the teeth looked the way they did because I'm like, And made people sound bad. And made people sound bad, but it was also just like, okay, like this is, I honestly feel like if I went to the Halloween store right now, I could find something that was better and more visually interesting than what they were wearing in this. As teeth.
Starting point is 00:35:18 Yeah. In this film. Yeah. No, I agree. They were ridiculous. And because they were practical, they looked out of play, they looked like they were filling people's mouths. They were too white.
Starting point is 00:35:30 Their speech was all, yeah. But it's also like, did vampires evolve? Because in the cave or safe, whatever you want to call it, safe tomb, whatever it is, they find some skulls, which Omar Epps immediately destroys, which is just a gross, uh, you know, just a terrible way to just treat a dead body, but he, but all the vampire teeth were the front two teeth, almost like Bugs Bunny. Like they had different teeth. There were different ones in different places because they all had different species.
Starting point is 00:35:56 Okay. There's different species of vampires. I do know that from comics, you know. Some are like the Nosferatu, which got it, which is the front two. Some are like the fangs, traditional, like spread, uh, whatever the canines or whatever these are. Yeah. Um, anyway.
Starting point is 00:36:12 Uh, but yeah, no. And those, by the way, vampire skulls, you know how expensive, you know how valuable those would be? Come on. Honestly, run in there. Take those and run. And like. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:23 Absolutely. I mean, I kind of found these teeth to be besides the fact that I am pretty positive. Drar Butler isn't completely dubbed the entire film because clearly whatever they got with those teeth in what was not working or being sexy, like, I feel like it really was crowding his mouth. I found them to be, uh, that's a, that's a t-shirt crowded mouth. Uh, but like the, the idea of, like, I don't know, they felt really sharp and like they felt like they were doing the job right.
Starting point is 00:36:57 Like I, like it didn't, it felt like the teeth were there for the right reasons, not for show. But maybe you're wrong. Maybe you guys think, I mean, you guys don't like these teeth. I thought the teeth looked actually very like razor like, like, ooh, that would really cut into me. I felt like there was a lot of like slight, I don't know. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:37:13 I felt like, yeah. I'm, boy, I would have liked it if the teeth were, and maybe this goes against the kind of inherent, uh, sexiness of the movie or, or however you want to look at it. But I felt like to June's point, like kind of too white and too big. And I was like, oh, there's something that would make it scarier to me if his teeth were like sharp and yellow and looked like- Oh yeah. They're not yellow.
Starting point is 00:37:36 They're like crust white strips. Yeah. They, you know, like, and I get it. By sucking the blood out of the bad guys on the plane, he is, he goes from a withered husk of, of a man into youthful Gerard Butler. So I, I understand the, the reasoning, but it's just not as scary, but he remains then super sexy, which I think is what the movie wants. And by the way-
Starting point is 00:37:57 Because everywhere he goes, everybody's like, oh my God, look at this hunk. But that's Dracula's mind trickery. Like that's- Not always. Oh, really? Not always. I don't think he tricks Lucy in the Virgin Megastore. I think it's like, he's exuding this like-
Starting point is 00:38:10 You think he's, what is it called, glamoring? I think? I think that, yeah, he's put her under his spell. Under his spell? I think anyone who comes into contact, I think he's almost exuding it like, like a, like a bug zapper or like, you know, something like, it's like, it's out, like he can't, yeah. Oh, she's just like pretty with it. Like a bug zapper?
Starting point is 00:38:26 Like, you know, there's some energy- He's exuding it like a bug zapper? You know what? Like a citronella candle. That's what I would say. Citronella candles are better. He's exuding sexuality like a bug zapper. Man, you ever look at a bug zapper?
Starting point is 00:38:37 You know what it is? You're like, that's so hot. Well, if I'm a mosquito, I do. Cause I'm like, oh, I gotta get in there. I gotta get in there. Jennifer Esposito. You gotta get me in there, yeah. You're actually right, Paul.
Starting point is 00:38:47 It is like a bug zapper. It draws you in. It draws you in and you get zapped. That's it. The other thing about it though, too, was like, so did you understand what happened? And maybe this is a moment where Paul, you're not paying enough attention, but where our hero, Mary, goes to bite Johnny Lee Miller and then like she's tricking him to get the upper hand.
Starting point is 00:39:13 But then when they do the flashback, I got, okay, she's tricking him here. But then when they do the flashback to the scene that just happened two seconds before, I'm like, where did the blood come from? She bit her own lip. She bit her own lip. You see her do one of these with her little, with her new fangs. She bit her own lip. But wouldn't her lip be bleeding profusely at that point too?
Starting point is 00:39:37 Well, I think there is blood on her. Oh, God. There's blood on her and on him because that's, and that's why it looks like she did do it. Okay. Okay. It's a messy way to be, but I get it now. I get it. What I couldn't understand actually, and you might say, June, you weren't paying enough
Starting point is 00:39:53 attention, but I feel like a lot of the movie, we are instructed over and over and the rules are laid out on how these vampires can be killed. And we also know that Dracula cannot be killed, but the way that she kills him was that set up so he can be killed. He's pretty much hanging by the cross. In the sun. Oh, is that what it was? Well, I think he lights on fire because the sun comes up and starts hitting him.
Starting point is 00:40:25 Well, but I thought so. He's not killed by, by the, the, the wire she put around him when she jumps off. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think, no, I think it's twofold because if it's just sunlight, then her, then Christopher Palmer is a complete fucking idiot. Like just put him in sunlight. Right.
Starting point is 00:40:43 Like I think it had you created all that stuff in that room, put a fucking sunroof in there. Yeah. Well, I think the idea was he needed to be hung again because in this movie, the court snapped. That's what I think is right. Right. So he was saved. And he was on that neon cross is holding him.
Starting point is 00:41:03 I mean, because she did say we take the body back. She took the body back. The last movie. The ashes. The ashes, right? She's, she has the ashes. How did she collect the ashes? I mean, that was on a high up the building.
Starting point is 00:41:13 It's going around. It's ludicrous. It's New Orleans. But does the end of the movie, doesn't the end of the movie suggest that he's kind of back? A little bit. She's back. She's seeing him.
Starting point is 00:41:22 She's seeing him trapped in the coffin like always. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I don't believe he isn't dead. He can't be killed. He will somehow reconstitute in a sequel. Well, yes.
Starting point is 00:41:33 Well, there were two direct to DVD sequels. What? Yeah. Yeah. There were, there were two. It was, uh, let's see. One of them called never fuck with an antiques deal or two. And I was like, you know, Dracula 2000 was followed by two direct to video sequels, Ascension
Starting point is 00:41:48 in 2003 and Legacy in 2005. Uh, same, uh, team co-wrote all three films and created a plot to a fourth film and discussed really seeing it theatrically, but no film has been produced. Um, now I say that, uh, because I also want to say that the people that are responsible for this film are, uh, Patrick, uh, Lucier, uh, and, uh, Joel Swanson. Now the movie is called West Craven Presents Dracula 2000. Does not seem that West Craven is involved in this in any way. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:42:25 This was a dimensions film, uh, Weinstein Brothers production. And this is the, this is the thing that I love about this. Clearly they made scream. So they have a relationship with West Craven and I'm sure they gave him a shitload of money to say, pop your name on this. Just to give us something because this is, uh, Scott Derrickson who, uh, you know, just did, uh, black phone. Uh, he.
Starting point is 00:42:48 Did you do Dr. Strange the first, the first one? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So he said that, uh, he got a call and they're like, Hey, I just bought this script called Dracula 2000. And he goes, Oh yeah, is it good? He goes, and Weinstein replies, no, it stinks.
Starting point is 00:43:03 And he goes, well, why did you buy it? And he goes, because it's called Dracula 2000. Wow. And that was, that was the, uh, and, and then Scott Derrickson said, I'm in. Uh, that was, and, and so he wrote it. Wow. And then Aaron Krueger rewrote it. And then these guys came on and, uh, and, and they, and then they took it home.
Starting point is 00:43:24 Uh, so I mean, it's just interesting that they just liked. Huh. 2000 title. Yeah. Like that title isn't even worth that much. Um, but here's what I'll say about his, the ending. So I guess what they're saying is he asks for forgiveness to God. So that is, I think how he could get killed.
Starting point is 00:43:46 If he asks for forgiveness, then he can be destroyed. Why does he do, why does he do it in this moment? I wonder, because I don't particularly, nothing happened at the end of the movie that made me feel as though I was watching Judas reckon with the now thousands of years of, of what he's done and feel as though he needs to make things right with God. Well, Molly was saying in the chat, like, so Judas betrays. Yeah, Judas betrays Jesus for silver.
Starting point is 00:44:16 But like, we don't ever get the sense that Dracula in this version is greedy or wrestling with like the greed that Judas wrestled with. So it's the, these things are so disconnected. Yeah. It felt to me like, wouldn't it be cool? Wouldn't it be cool if we made him Judas instead of it being this, this, you know, the traditional kind of Vlad the Impaler. What if we made, what if we went all the way back and made him,
Starting point is 00:44:48 when they cut to the Last Supper, I was like, wow. Oh, and they're cutting, and they're cutting to the Last Supper. They're cutting to the Last Supper. The way that you would do it at a high school play. Like when he is hanging on that tree, it's like red lights, lone tree. It was like, he's staring at Jesus up on the cross. It is a wild. Oh, it's nonsense.
Starting point is 00:45:10 Yeah, I mean, when I realized he's Judas, it was really quite a moment, you guys. What? At a moment. Judas Iscariot. The cross. The silver. All the things you came to despise.
Starting point is 00:45:29 It was my destiny to betray you. Because you needed me. Now, I drink the blood of your children. But I give them more than just eternal life. I give them what they crave most. All the pleasure you would deny them forever. That wasn't, and just to see Gerard Butler in that time. I mean, that's what I was like, this movie is going for,
Starting point is 00:46:13 but do we need any of this? They quote it, and Molly just put it in the chat as well, but the line that they quote is, blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, which is what you say on when you're eating and drinking communion. Yeah, exactly when you're getting communion, when you're receiving communion. Yes, but the idea is not that Jesus actually made them drink his blood.
Starting point is 00:46:41 It's that he turned. This is like actually a part of where the church splits is people who believe that they were drinking something that was the actual blood and body and eating the body of Christ and something that just was a standing for. Well, I know where I fall. Yeah, it's all blood, baby. All blood.
Starting point is 00:47:01 Gotta get that blood. Give me that blood. I want the real stuff. Give me that savior's blood. Oh, my God. By the way, what did you think the conversation was like? Virgin Megastore, we got a great tie in here. It wasn't actually more than anything about this time period.
Starting point is 00:47:20 It was actually so great to see it because I was like, oh, man, it was a return to see this basic layout of it. I was like, whoa. I remember like the Union Square. There was a Virgin in Union Square that you could go in there and listen to CDs because you could put on the headphones and play the album, just sit there. And I was like, I remember waiting for the stroke.
Starting point is 00:47:43 So much time. Oh, my God, it was such a scene. Do you think that they chose the Virgin Megastore because it's suggested virginity and that that's a big thing in vampire kind of world? You know what? I'm gonna say that. I think you're right because this movie is full of hidden Easter eggs.
Starting point is 00:48:02 The name of Van Helsing's antique business is Carfax Abbey, which is the name of the house that Dracula moves into. Carfax? Carfax is exactly that. Carfax. Wait, isn't that a Marcus Lomonas company? I don't think Carfax is. Oh, it's one of the other ones.
Starting point is 00:48:19 But maybe it's like, but Carfax, if you bring us an antique era, we'll tell you how much it costs. I don't look to go over all of Marcus Lomonas' companies. They should all really advertise on this podcast. Absolutely. By the way, he's asked to be on the show and we'd love to have him on the show. He's even figured it out.
Starting point is 00:48:34 He treats all of it. The metal letters hanging on the wall at the top of Mary's house are L-R-U-C-E, which, if you rearrange them, is still cruel. And when Dr. Seward says the line, I never drink coffee. There's a lot of Easter eggs here in this movie about going back to the roots of the original story. So there's a lot to unpack, but I do think that this movie feels like everyone was like, this is cool.
Starting point is 00:49:07 So much so that the title Dracula 2000, they were racing to get it out because they needed to come out in 2000. And they started too late. They started in the summer, so they only had a couple of months to get the whole thing done. But this movie, oddly, even though it's called Dracula 2000, Virgin Megastore is the only detail that really lines it up with, oh, this is an older movie.
Starting point is 00:49:31 A moment in time. Yeah, nothing else in it is dated. Yeah, there's no other product placement. But Virgin, the word Virgin, is constantly appearing because they're wearing t-shirts that say Virgin. It's very prominent in that regard. Yeah, she literally sleeps in her work shirt as a pajama shirt. It's not like she fell asleep in her work shirt.
Starting point is 00:49:56 She's like, well, it's so comfortable at work, I'll wear it at home. And then the Virgin, you know, Richard Branson's like, I love that. I love that kind of. Richard Branson didn't have like a bug zapper off with Dracula. Like they both get there and like, oh, you're sexy, well, you're sexy. And they high five and Branson walks. What's kind of crazy in this whole movie is that, like, even though the movie takes, the second half of the movie takes place
Starting point is 00:50:19 in incredibly crowded Mardi Gras New Orleans, the first half in London. And yet, and the murders are, they're racking up so many murders throughout, there is no law enforcement presence. That's something we saw in Hard Target. Well, not so many murders though, Jason. Most of those people do end up becoming vampires. That's true. That's true.
Starting point is 00:50:43 But where are the police who are like, where are the police who are like, where are all the bodies that we put in that place? That's true. Well, the morgue is so full. The morgue is full of bodies. These cops have, I mean, we saw it happen in Hard Target. There's a lot of, they're on strike again. The cops are on strike, I think.
Starting point is 00:51:00 The same strike. It ties the movie. It's the same strike. Also, nobody's reporting on the fact that local news superstar Jerry Ryan has gone missing and that her cameraman, he got chomped. She's still doing news. That's the thing. She's still showing up to her shifts.
Starting point is 00:51:15 It would be amazing if she was broadcasting. If she did a standing piece on the street as a vampire, that would have been amazing. Well, by the way, I said I was upset when she said a TV star and Jason, you actually were right. Voyager ended in 2001, so she was a TV star. But I do think she was like, breaking news, you're dead. I would have been great.
Starting point is 00:51:34 I would have liked something like that. Let's play it to the character. Well, clearly we had opinions about this movie, but there were people out there that had different opinions and out time for second opinions. These are five star reviews pulled from Amazon. 62% of reviews are five stars. 60%?
Starting point is 00:52:09 Really? Yes. Well, no, I was going to say, I did find this movie to be very watchable. I think a large part of that was because of Jennifer Esposito and just wanting to watch her on screen. And also, I just think it's watchable. It's not very good, but I thought it went down pretty smoothly. I feel like people, and maybe this is just because of the world,
Starting point is 00:52:37 I think people are a lot more forgiving of horror movies. Yes. In terms of like, oh, maybe the plot doesn't add up or whatever, but it was fun or scary or thrilling or it had the, you know, whatever, you know, whatever people want from these movies that I think, if they get it a little bit, they're like, great, I loved it. But this is my issue with this movie on a base level. I think the performances are good.
Starting point is 00:53:00 I think there's some really fun ideas in here, but it's not scary. It's like the Minions, the new Minions movie Rise of Gru. Like the other Minions movies are funny. This one is like, oh, this is like the Minions. This is a comparison I was not expecting. We've only seen it about maybe a million times. I guess it feels adjacent to, like, the Minions Rise of Gru feels like, oh, yeah, this is trying, like, it's not even trying it.
Starting point is 00:53:25 It's like, oh, yeah, that's a comedy. Now I just feel like it's promoting the movie. Well, you have to understand, Jason, so Minions Rise of Gru is on our... So much. So much. In our car, on our Chrysler Pacific minivan. And, you know, the kids are watching it almost every time we get in the car. So from here on out, everything is going to be in relation to Minions Rise of Gru.
Starting point is 00:53:48 Like it's either like Minions Rise of Gru or not like Minions Rise of Gru. What I find about Minions are North Star now. What I find about Minions Rise of Gru is it truly is. It's the way to kill vampires is through showing the Minions Rise of Gru. But the thing that I think about when I listen to that movie every day is, it's not bad, but it's not funny. It's kind of has a plot, but nothing that I really care about. And what's the story?
Starting point is 00:54:15 Not much. And it's like, that's what this movie is like. There's no real scares. It's like no jump scares. The horror is like... I had a couple jump scares when he first popped out. A couple. The leech in the face.
Starting point is 00:54:26 The leech in the face. They're not... It's not a... It's not scary. It's more... Maybe it's more of a... I guess it's a monster-y, thriller-y movie than it is. No, I think it's a horror movie, but it's like...
Starting point is 00:54:36 I guess. It's light. It's light. It's light. To me, the thing that I... But I was most intrigued by in June, you didn't even get to really experience it the way I did, which is like going, is that Gerard Butler?
Starting point is 00:54:47 How is that Gerard Butler? That was the spookiest part. Talk about spooky season. I was like... Every time I came close to thinking it was Gerard Butler, I was then confident it wasn't. It was like he was edging us the entire movie. He was.
Starting point is 00:55:04 It was a crazy experience. Yeah. Yeah. It was... It's not... Yeah, it's tough. But I will say it is very slick to June's point of it going down smooth. Yes.
Starting point is 00:55:17 It's very slick and it's not like... They shot clearly during Mardi Gras. There's a ton of visual stimuli in the movie that is pretty good. Absolutely. It's well done in that regard. I couldn't make heads or tails of who am I rooting for? Whose story is this? Are we getting closer or further from the goal of any protagonist?
Starting point is 00:55:41 And I didn't know. There's a couple of very blunt exposition dumps that come very late in the movie. So even then, you spend the first 50 minutes of the movie being like, who is everybody and what is their relationship? I also love the idea that you're from their apartment, from Mary's apartment. Like, the idea that if you live in New Orleans, you automatically have Mardi Gras masks up. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:07 She had several in that bedroom. Well, you never know when it's going to happen. You've got to come run down. It's like an umbrella. If you live in London, you need it by the door. I mean, everybody who actually lives in New Orleans seems to just detest Mardi Gras. Oh, yeah. To be like, we've got to get out of town.
Starting point is 00:56:20 Or practice it in a totally different way than what tourists do there. Yes. Yeah. It's not there just to get fucked up. The thing I think about this movie, to your point about it being sick is, I like a movie like this where I watched it. I was like, oh, this is fun. And it's, you know, and they've got some weird stuff, but I enjoyed it.
Starting point is 00:56:37 And then when you leave it all falls apart. That to me is a trick that I'm like, oh, yeah, this doesn't really make sense if you think about it. But good editing and this director, it was a former editor edited all the screen movies, the first three. Like I think that there is a pacing to it. It's like, don't worry about it. Let's go.
Starting point is 00:56:54 Let's go. You're right. You know, it's like, you're right. They don't let you, nothing sticks or no scenes linger too long. Nothing sticks around long enough for you to start to poke holes in it. They're just like onto the next visual, overwhelming visual stimuli onto the next, you know, boom, boom, boom. I'm just sort of like trying to figure out the Judas piece.
Starting point is 00:57:13 And then all of a sudden he's like hanging off of the crucifix. I mean, I loved the part where there, Johnny Lee Miller and Mary Van Helsing find themselves in a, is it a church library? Where are they? And then he's got a giant Bible that he tries to threaten Dracula with. And then he uses the Bible like a gun where he opens it wide and it shoots pages out. Like a fire bullets. It's like, what?
Starting point is 00:57:40 Like the Bible? Like the pages of the Bible are bullets of fire to Dracula. I was like, well, how does Johnny, keep in mind, Johnny Lee Miller. He starts as the assistant antiquities dealer, the antiquities buyer. He's not a Van Helsing. He's not a monster hunter. He's not a monster guy. All of, maybe the movie should be from his point of view.
Starting point is 00:58:01 What the fuck is this world? I just stumbled into it, but it's not. He literally goes from, hey, this is a world with vampires and shits going down to like killing immediately. And then being like, now I'm just on this tear. Now I'm like, now I'm a fucking full on assassin. He doesn't seem to have any background of killing or anything. He also gets beat up savagely repeatedly and never has a mark on him.
Starting point is 00:58:27 Never has a limp, very strong Dracula, Gerard Butler, Omar Epps. Once he's a vampire, multiple vampires with full strength, toss him around like a rag doll. And he is fine. I mean, look, they toss Christopher Plummer around too. And he gets up a couple of times because it gets me. But you see, why is he running out of Dracula blood? Because he just shot himself up that night. He seems like he got on a plane the next day and he's like automatically super old.
Starting point is 00:58:56 I don't know how much he has to, I don't know what his habit is. Okay, that's smart. Okay, well, we'll check that. I don't know what his dosage is. I don't know what the doctor recommended. Which then goes down to the fact that he's down in there getting those leeches off him a lot. All right, so these are five star reviews. There's not many great ones, but they were kind of picked out here.
Starting point is 00:59:13 And I will read you this one from Rick. I forgot how awesome this movie was. It's a new take on Dracula. I only wish it wasn't called Dracula because I enjoyed the humor action and characters. Five stars. So your slam is you don't like that you like the Dracula movie, but don't like that it's called Dracula. Because, okay, all right, Mardi Gras party time. I don't know what it should be called like uninvited guests.
Starting point is 00:59:48 Like I don't know. Oh, uninvited guests. I like that. Although they did maintain the idea that he needed to be invited in to vitamin C's house. Oh, right. They did have that. Okay, that's good. I forgot about that.
Starting point is 01:00:01 And then this one is from Rachel. She writes, I'm taking a college English class on Dracula and we had to watch this for class. This is my favorite depiction of Dracula that I've seen so far. Really interesting movie to watch, especially if you've read the book. Five stars. Read Bram Stoker's novel for the first time for a better experience. So this person is saying this is the most accurate representation of Dracula. This is hashtag this person's Dracula.
Starting point is 01:00:28 And then Susie Herring writes, I like this movie too. A good vampire movie to watch because many of us wanted to be a vampire or dress like a vampire on Halloween. But I love vampires a lot. Five stars. Title, Vampire Bite. And then this is the one I wanted. I love the admission of like many of us wanted to be a vampire. Like people seeking out all the vampire movies just because they so badly want to be a vampire.
Starting point is 01:00:59 They just need it. And this one right here was one that I thought was really special. It should have been a five star review, but something terribly wrong from Cyber Ghost 13. This is a great movie. But I only rate it one star because it's not in the original aspect ratio. One star. How did they know that? So that whatever transfer or whatever version they watched.
Starting point is 01:01:24 Yep. And then this is a true one star review, which from Arlene, the title of the review is Should Never Have Ordered This. Written on January 2nd, 2021. I am a born again Christian. Oh boy. Not an appropriate movie. Period.
Starting point is 01:01:45 One star. That's it? Like what led to this person getting a renting and what? I'm also just like, don't watch it. It's called Dracula. Look, the other guy's issue of it being called Dracula 2000 would maybe like as a born again Christian, you might, oh, I guess because of the Judas. Maybe that's what it is.
Starting point is 01:02:03 I don't know. Maybe it's the Judas tie in. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they were okay watching a Dracula movie, but because it became a Judas. Yeah. Maybe because of the that it turned into a blasphemous story. Judas is too sexy.
Starting point is 01:02:16 I know we've already kind of talked about it, but would we recommend this movie? Would you recommend this movie? Or did the discord do a good job at picking us a good movie? I don't think so. Discord. I think you blew it. Not that I, you know, it was totally fine. You know, but it's, I think if it's up to you, if it's up to you, the discord and you
Starting point is 01:02:36 have the kind of power to make us watch literally anything, especially inside of this, the spookiest of seasons. This like this is, I would say pretty benign in terms of a, you know, it's fine. It's got some of our favorites in it, which I love. Love that. But it was it, it was it like, was I like, oh, I can't wait to talk about this. Not exactly. It was just kind of like, it was good.
Starting point is 01:02:59 You know, so it was fine. Some, some stuff, but nothing. I don't know. I think the, I think the, not racing to watch it. I challenge the discord. Raise your game discord. Come on. Discord do better.
Starting point is 01:03:09 You know, I was fine actually watching this movie and I thought this was a fine choice for us, but now that I know that this movie was nominated by the discord community. I'm like, oh, I'm a little disappointed in retrospect. Yeah. Like this is the best you got. Is this the best you got? Wow. That is a direct challenge from June to the discord.
Starting point is 01:03:31 I mean, you guys are, our discord is amazing. Cut to next, cut to next October and we're watching all of the human centipedes. I think that was on the list. As a matter of fact, I'll never do it. I think discord understands that we love Gerard Butler. Yes. And I think that, and you know, and Jennifer Esposito. Yes.
Starting point is 01:03:50 They delivered a package to us that in all, that makes sense. It checks all the boxes, but again, I feel like the discord is pandering to us. Oh, wow. By giving us Gerard Butler. Wow. We'll tell you Gerard Butler. Try to figure out our algorithm discord. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:07 Don't try and, don't try. You know what discord, have an identity of your own. Yeah. And it's like we're, you can't like put an equation together and try to come up with the answer to what we're going to like. Wow. I don't want to log on to YouTube to look at the discord and figure out what they're saying.
Starting point is 01:04:25 I mean, look. Is that how discord works? I mean, you kind of, I mean, you know, and I'll tell you this much. I was like, I'll tell you this much that there, the one that came in second place was a movie that Averill had shot down and I felt, oh, if that movie wins, if the second place movie wins, I'm going to have to do it to respect the discord. But I would have to go against Averill and her and, and I got to say she's got good instincts. She's never leads us astray.
Starting point is 01:04:48 As much as Detroit would like to tell us that she is by speaking to us. But, but there we go. And by the way, wait, what was the second place movie? I believe it was called Phantom of the Paradise, which I always think is, which is a movie that we actually have some connection to. It's a 1974 film and it's a rock musical comedy directed by Brian De Palma, which Averill said the problem with it is it's too in on its own joke. You know, but anyway, all that being said, head to our discord, get in there, you know,
Starting point is 01:05:26 mix it up, change the algorithm on us. And if you want, make sure you check us out on tour. We're going to be all around all around you right now. Indianapolis, Northfield, Ohio, Detroit, Chicago, common costume. And then in December, we're going to be in San Francisco the first weekend in December. But go to HDTGM.com to find out how to get tickets and what movies we are watching and all that good stuff. But so far, if this is Friday and you're listening to it, we are in Detroit tonight.
Starting point is 01:05:59 So come out and see us in Detroit. Can't wait. Bring your costumes. Come on. You know, like there's a lot of good inspiration in how did this get made movies? In how did this get made inside jokes? You can come in costume as anything else. But if you come in costume as something from our shared universe, boy, would that be fun.
Starting point is 01:06:18 I love it. All right. So anyone have anything that they want to plug or talk about? I mean, I'll shout out. Season six of Big Mouth is about to start in a couple of weeks. I'll mention that. Yeah. I have a bigger part this season, too.
Starting point is 01:06:30 Oh, nice. I tie into your character, as a matter of fact. Yeah, exactly. And then also Star Trek Prodigy, which is up right now. The new season just came out and it's fantastic. I'm very excited to check that out. Lower Dex is on Paramount Plus. So funny.
Starting point is 01:06:45 Because I'm part of Paramount Plus. I also plugged that I was on The Good Fight with Christine Bransky and Andre Brower. Whoa. And it was... That's like your favorite show. It is. So I was very excited to be on there. It was really fun.
Starting point is 01:06:56 Oh, that's so cool. Who defends a fetus? Very cool. Yeah. Very interesting. Who plays the fetus? We never meet. Oh.
Starting point is 01:07:05 Yeah, I only ask because I auditioned for it. Well, I don't want to get into it, but yeah. It was a lot of... It was Johnny Lee Miller. Johnny Lee Miller? A lot of politics that went into that, Jason. I'm sure. Do you anything?
Starting point is 01:07:17 Nope. All right. Well, let's do the deep dive. And a big thank you to our Discord for being so active, but a giant thank you to our producers. And I am talking about Cody Fisher, our brand new producer, Scott Sonny, Molly Reynolds, our engineer, Devin, and our publisher, July Diaz. You can check out all of our amazing merch. We got tons of it at tpublic.com slash stores slash HDTGM, but make sure you go to the head
Starting point is 01:07:44 of the spade store, not the ripoff stores on there. And we have a very special piece of Christmas merch coming. Stay tuned for the announcement about that. We'll send out a big mailer about that. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We will see you next week and continue to discuss this and so much more on last looks. So tune in next week to find out the next movie and hear your feedback about how we think that you messed us up.
Starting point is 01:08:06 Anyway, bye for now.

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