The Flop House - The Flop House: Episode #61 - Surrogates
Episode Date: June 5, 20100:00 - 0:32 - Introduction and theme0:33 - 34:34 - Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry, when we take you out in our discussion of Surrogates.34:35 - 37:20 - Final judgments38:21 - 45:55 - The Flo...p House Movie Mailbag.45:56 - 51:40- The sad bastards recommend.51:41 - 54:25 - Goodbyes, theme, and outtakes.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I am Robot and so is everyone else.
In this episode we discuss the Bruce house, I'm Dan McCoy.
I'm Stuart Wellington.
I'm Elliot Kaylen.
Holy shit, all three of us.
Back together again.
In the same room.
Reunited and it feels... Eh. Yeah, I'm just us. Back together again. In the same room. Reunited and it feels.
Yeah, I mean, it was okay.
Yeah, yeah.
This is becoming an all-too-rare occurrence, guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, in a word, yes, but in a longer word, no.
Actually, I guess that's a shorter word.
No, you know, we're busy people.
No, it travels a lot.
I travel a lot.
I'm just saying. We're not on that travel blog.
Yeah, my travel blog, what places would have looked like
when dinosaurs were there?
I take photos of farm places, and then I draw in dinosaurs
in marker over the photos and show what it would look like
if there were dinosaurs there.
Okay, I like that.
Why marker, why is marker in medium?
I did's just what happened to have on hand.
Okay, sure.
You should use charcoal.
Charcoal?
It makes it look more old-timey.
Like when dinosaurs were around.
Like the 19th century you're saying,
when dinosaurs were around?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, these like gloss finish photographs.
I think it'd be hard to.
Yeah, the charcoal wouldn't really stick to it.
I mean, the marker smears, that's the other problem.
So it looks like if a dinosaur was like walking past like a greasy window. Yeah, or an action scene shot by Ridley Scott.
Yes. Take that, Ridley. So director of the upcoming monopoly, the movie.
So we watched a movie tonight. We did at that. It was called another notch in our belts.
Surrogates or
Surrogates how I learned to stop worrying and love the surrogates.
This is the uh
The second movie that we watch the plot house that involves a
World where people have avatars that they spend much of their time, or in
this case all of their time.
Well, what was the first one?
Gamer.
Oh, I didn't see that.
Oh, you were there for that one?
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
Can we summarize that?
Well, except we recorded an entire podcast about it.
Well, the difference.
Oh, okay, and how would I download that?
You would go to floppophousepodcast.com, www.flophousepodcast.com
If you iTunes user,
Well, if you just put in...
There's an RSS fee that you can find on the
aforementioned flophousepodcast.com site.
You also, if you type in the flophouse on Google,
this podcast page is the first thing that comes up.
Or you can type the flophouse into iTunes itself and
you can click subscribe.
Where would I type it into?
In the search box.
Oh, search, search.
In the search box.
Yeah, I feel like an idiot saying.
I'm typing it into a Word document.
I can't find it.
It's not spent any more time explaining
either gamer or podcast.
Well, I'll just say to remind people
the difference in gamer what,
inserting its people have
robots that they control remotely and that the robots take the place
control
yeah, but I mean they remote control is not a verb it's a noun control remotely is
any who the uh... in this one you have a robot and the robot takes your
place normal life in gamer
that's not a horrible thing
like a robot a doppelganger comes in and steals it.
In gamer, it was normal people who as a job
allowed their bodies to be controlled remotely
by other people for violent or perverse purposes.
Yeah, or if you were in the case of Jard Butler,
you're I guess in prison
and as part of your punishment, you get thrown into the game and why was he in
prison
actually don't know i don't remember over game or so but surrogates on the other
it posits a world where
doctor jay professor james cronwell has invented a way to control robots with
your brain okay and
according to the movie what the nation according to the movie the world ninety
five percent of humanity
uses robots now in their entire daily lives
and stay at home and lying that all the money comes from the manufacturer these robots
or the by the robots yeah well that's what i'm saying like
i mean the there must be a huge amounts of uh...
of production costs in in building these high-tech robots
so the fact that 95% of humanity can
somehow afford these robots seems kind of.
Now Dan, can I just point out that 20 years ago, if you said that everybody was going to
be walking around with a little personal telephone that they could talk to each other with,
20 years ago it was said mad.
20 years ago it was 1990 and cell phones existed.
Yeah, but only like Zach Morris had him.
And he could stop time. Yeah, he was lizard.
I mean, sheer...
The proto-mancer, I believe, is the thing.
You know, sheer like tangible physical size of the objects on that side.
I mean, this seems to be equated more to like a high-end car.
Yeah, although we see there are different levels of robot, some are crappier than others.
Not really, just the one.
Well, the army ones look a little bit less luxurious yet.
And there's that one lady that looks like she's just wearing rubber gloves,
and those were her robot hands.
Yes, but it's...
The movie implies that outright states that it's out right states that ninety five
percent of humanity would rather lying a room all day instead of going outside
and also
that doing so would end racism and most crime
yeah i'm not really sure uh... how it ends crime i mean later on we see that uh...
you know that there's some sort of domestic abuse going on and uh... this
someone at robot central is surveilling this and remotely shuts off the
robot but we're told that that is
uh... new technology that they that they can do that
so i'm not sure why like having a show robots running around keeps uh... crime
violent crime down because it seems like
they would just be beating on each other as soon as they realize that there's no
like
moral reason why they shouldn't
Like that that baseball video game or robots right or you know like you're your grand theft auto
Whatever like it seemed like that would be what would happen like and your anarchy would be loosed upon the world
Also, it's they're all it's like I have a surrogate robot that stands in for me and and you know
So I can put like I can control my life.
But I still have to ride the subway or ride a car.
You know, I still have to drive a car.
Drive a car.
No, but that's the thing is like.
You put a saddle on it.
But we see it, but we see the movie that the surrogates are super strong.
They can jump really far.
Why would they still go through the motions of commuting when you could just have your
surrogate run to work or something like that?
That seems more exciting.
I don't know.
They don't really cover, maybe they're able to put their brains on an autopilot or something
or...
Maybe.
And you don't see the surrogates like reading books or anything?
No, that's true.
They do watch a lot of TV.
I assume. We don't see that either.
Yeah.
But anyway, we're told in the very beginning that this is now the new standard,
but there are preserves where humans who refuse to use robots live,
and they somehow are like...
Like an autonomous.
Yeah, autonomous like extra legal territorial zones.
There's the main one we see in the movie is right in the middle of Boston and
the as soon as you pass through their gates it's like you know mad max where everyone has a shotgun and they
lose reservation is built on top of a dump like it is just piles of rubble and
refuse and waste and a nice garden yeah and, and you get once you get further in
I guess that they're that outside stuff is just scare away the surrogates
Yeah, I don't like going there. That's a yeah the metalytic hellscape the middle like colonial
Williamsburg or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah
Colony it was pointing stickball
They had hoops that run it out. It's known we're hitting hoops with sticks to get them to move
that that's just a slippery slope to robots though
his hoops yeah and though those guys are led by
character called the prophet who is vingraims with lots of dreadlocks
really inventive and then it named creative creative character
the prophet yeah and the guys who don't believe in robots
a car all car that are called dread. Even though none of them have dreadlocks,
except for Vingrains. Yeah, this is dreadlock wig.
There's Vingrains. I don't know if our listeners are aware. The actor does not have
super long dreadlocks. He's a clean cut sort of fellow. Yeah. Yeah,
family man. Only occasionally do his dogs go crazy and kill
landscapers. Yeah. What happened once? But uh, into this, into this incredibly well-conceived
world walks a cop Bruce Willis. Sure. Who used to chip on his shoulder. He's got a, he's
got a microchip on his shoulder. Cause he also uses a surrogate. He doesn't like his microchip because it's
related to a problem with his son.
No, it didn't, but sure.
Because that's what the kids are called. I think we made a lot of headway on this one.
Microchips off the old block.
That's I mean, that sounds like a like a Disney movie about a robot boy like
1978 the kids name chip
yeah
Russell
Kurt Russell plays the dad and the robot and Don Notch plays the crazy inventor
and Dean Jones is the suspicious neighbor
mm-hmm that kids are robot oh also he turns into a dog sometimes
yep
uh he's like a dog sometimes you know
he's like a trans morpher
yeah and it's called the computer war women's clothing when no one was around
the story of a cross dressing teen super genius
uh... disney is the uh... i don't know if they made me or the start of the news
Bruce will is they may remind me of a bruce will smoothie disney is the kid
which i guess
where he he visits himself as a kid or himself as a kid comes to visit him
but let's do this like this i can
but the thing is also like i guess they called it that because
they wanted to differentiate from charlie chaplain's the kid like
listen a movie with this title came out 80 years ago
We better call it makes put some possessiveness on this yeah, cuz you'd go into that go the local picture house
And say excuse me one for the kids sir. I'm gonna be disappointed when they wanted Disney's the kid
Yeah, I never I wanted to differentiate from people's children
It just says the kid on the matinee like how did my son get in a movie?
Oh, Jesus, the kid.
That would have actually been a better business plan
for Disney because people would be brushing in,
you know, like paying,
because people are,
because people are idiots, yeah.
And when they see the kid written on a marquee,
they assume it was speaking to them directly.
Anyway, Bruce Willis uses surrogate. His surrogate looks like-
I felt when I saw a throw mama from the train.
It's like I will not-
He said sir.
No, thank you.
No marquee, stop telling me these things.
I wore a refuse.
Yeah.
And I did listen when it told me to not tell mom that the babysitter had died.
Sure.
But that was because in your case, the babysitter had not died.
Yeah, it would have been a lie.
So.
Yeah, it wouldn't knew what I had done last summer.
Yeah, I wouldn't saw a scream.
I mean, come on.
Oh, warfs.
Okay, so what I'm lying on that is correct.
Thanks, joke fact checker.
I was waiting. Now I will laugh. Now that I know that you you could have seen screen the year before I know what you do last summer.
So surrogates.
Bruce Willis is his surrogate is just him but like Tanner and airbrush and he has a shitty to pay part of my life.
But Bruce Willis is.
I'm a wigs do you think they went through for this one?
What, in the planning stages?
I assume they design artists working for months.
Yeah, I like them.
More fake looking.
Mark Crash McCreary was doing sketches.
What the wigs would look like.
He has problem with his wife, because his wife refuses
to do anything not in her surrogate body.
And it stems from the fact-the-fac-
i think you guys know it's talking about the
oh boy
uh... well going vacation is the main example we get this
but uh... it seems to stem from the fact that they had a
son who died in some sort of unspecified accident
and
their marriage is a little bit
and her face got a little scarred. Yeah, in whatever accident it was so she's
Retreating into robot yes
Just like ordinary people it's like ordinary people but with robots ordinary robots
Yeah, anyway, so Bruce Willis is investigating the death of the son of the man who invented surrogates.
Wasn't that a doctor James Cromwell?
He was.
Okay.
As the same man, as we said, who discovered the warp drive, taught a pig to her cheap,
and was married to Queen Elizabeth II.
Headed up the LA police department for a time in the forties yes and he
was uh... james koko's valet
when he went to uh... truma kopotes mansion
yeah in murder by death
he was also in he also played a nazi in uh...
the chief detective
what was it the president for time during a jack rinds ten year the c a
uh... maybe i don't remember
he was also a George
Bush. Oh, interesting. Any married into the Fisher clan the famous funeral
homeowners. Yeah, before getting dementia somehow. Yep, from using a netty
positive I recall. We hope you've enjoyed this James Cromwell. James Cromwell
this is your life. James Cromcast. And now on to all. Now on to Oliver Cromwell James Cromwell this is your life James Cromcast and now
on to now on to Oliver Cromwell former Lord Protectorate of England during the
Republic period and we'll talk about Thomas Cromwell so there's a murder
there's a murder somehow this someone has a has a weapon that can kill people
through their surrogates yes and it looks like a dustbuster, but it shoots out electricity
which goes through the surrogates optics or eyes as we would call them and kills
their eye blanks and kills them kills the user on the other end. It melts their
brain if I remember. Yeah. Unless my brain's been melted by the guys.
By, I don't know.
By like a weapon.
So kind of he might.
So kind of he might.
The literal it's a little white log to read this.
And I don't know how into how much detail we want to get into.
We could just skip to the end.
Yeah, I'll just skip to the solution.
Because I don't think there's like, there's just
a lot running around.
There's a lot of twistimups.
There's a lot of running around in twist that don't really fit together and it turns out of the end that James
Cromwell creator of surrogates now sees it as a plague on humanity. People have become addicted to it and so he's been
controlling the prophet who was actually a robot, spoiler alert. And now he has a plan to hook up the device that kills people
technically irony right kind of he has a he has a plan to hook up the device that
kills surrogates to this massive computer network that allows them to see and
control every surrogate in the world I guess some for some reason the FBI has
control of this and kill everyone in the world who uses a surrogate because as he says
the only way to cure the addiction is to kill the addict
which is technically not true
uh... not at all
and at the last minute you have been addicted to using a robot
that's true that's a good point might be qualitatively different
they do not kill people at rehab centers, but robots.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Yeah.
They kill the part of them that's fun.
Maybe they replace them with robots.
Maybe that's how the rehab center works.
It's like the steppered lives.
Holy shit, that makes a lot of sense.
Guys, let's write that screen for.
I don't think so.
You think they replace them with robots
that will better get in your life.
It's all the same.
It's all the same.
It's all the same.
It's all the same. It's all the same. It's all the same. It's all the same. It's all the same. robots that were better at getting a life fit. The robotning.
Yeah.
Um, and the,
and the,
the climax comes down to Bruce Willis making keystrokes
on a computer keyboard at the behest of a hand-cuffed fat man
who tells him what to do.
It's literally like, don't, don't, don't, to the console on the left. Okay, shift alt type in the password
You know red 253. Yeah, like there's that big moment where he's like hit inner and nothing happens and he's like oh wait a minute
Shift inner and you're like oh, thank God. Oh, that was it. That a close one of all the users almost yeah well he saves the users from time but then there's apparently
a second protocol of this which is just to switch switch off the robots
and this and uh... dismantle them
and apparently uh... James cromwell didn't think that was that was good enough
before he could have just switched off all the road
he might not have known that you could put up a firewall
in the network to shut people out of their robots.
It's a new technology.
It's a new technology.
Yeah, that's true.
So he puts up a wall of fire, which instantly
shoots boost people out of their robots.
The robots shut down.
The people are OK.
And then everybody walks outside in the days,
the way people do like after an atomic bomb blast, or like when someone has been transported to the future
and like is walking around like, what?
Giant metal birds.
Or if it's like the first snow that the world has seen in like 10,000 years.
Yeah.
But this dream are all wakes.
Yeah, exactly.
Thank you for the literary.
But then like, everybody is fine.
They seem to custom themselves to it.
Yeah, very quickly.
And they all looked okay.
Like, they didn't look that fucked up.
Like, I expected these people who lived all their life sitting in a chair.
Well, they could walk.
I mean, that was one.
Yeah, their muscles did not atrophy.
Well, they have to get up to use the can.
Yeah, they do get up to, yeah, go to the refrigerator and use the right refrigerator and I got a I got to imagine there's got to be the fridge get up
the sir get the goes to the refrigerator for you I well
I will I will see if Bruce Willis does use his sir get to pour him a glass of
vodka one point which is store point I was probably fed cover because as we know
from the billboards and ads that is the vodka of robots. So, start buying, FedCov, FedCov, and then you can bribe the robots that are going to take
over the world.
But yeah, everyone's got to become...
Let me use this currency then.
The whole thing is about like, you can use these beautiful robots to look beautiful all
the time.
But the people who walk out are just like normal people.
Like it's not like they're particularly even old.
They're like more mold people or anything.
Yeah.
But what's more, I think more to the point though, as you said, I think Stuart or maybe
it was only it, but that like if everyone's beautiful in this world that completely devalues
physical beauty anyway, I don't know.
I probably didn't see that.
People say that, but I actually don't know. I probably didn't say that.
People say that, but I actually don't know if that's totally true.
I mean, I feel like what will happen is that if everyone in the world was beautiful,
then people would just be here towards their particular physical preferences.
Like a real life.
Like a real life.
Or a specific, like Stuart this is large breasts say or
really it's a big it sound like we both have large breasts as opposed to
find being attracted to women with breasts yeah well as opposed to no
breasts I didn't want to say anything guys but you know it's in bras yeah well I
can't really know what they're saying in here. They gotta go free.
Listen, I burned mine.
I brought it is.
And I have a hormone problem.
I have a hormone success.
Yes.
I'm going to be my soul that's half empty.
I think of myself as homo superior.
My mutant power is boobs.
Sure.
You'd be popular at the X-man, I would imagine.
Um, not if my own education was any, my actual school history was any indication, you
know.
Beauty go home, that's what I have to say to you, sir.
So it's to the more locks with you.
You know, you live in with Calisto underground till Storm becomes queen.
From that knife fight.
Yeah.
Oh man. x-man huh
anyway any who
uh... but the movie posits a world where
for some reason humans and humans who speak through robots cannot co-exist
no yeah
and one would
well because why not
as you kept playing out like uh...
they kept it like uh... the surrogates kept calling humans uh...
me back
yeah but it's human speaking through the surrogates like
that like that i mean i'm assuming i'm assuming that the
user is not like saying
they look at human and then the robot immediately
as me into a slur
but it's the movie didn't seem to understand that times itself, whether
characters were robots or whether they were people playing things. And like, you
could see the actors some would be super stiff and robotty and others were just acting
like no more.
Yeah, you would think that I'm clarified with all the extras that everybody in the movie,
like, guys, you're not actually robots. Like, you don't have to walk like Frankenstein,
you know, think the director of junefren mostat would have
would have told people who have been okay
you know you know it's a movie about robots but you're you are people so don't
act all robotly like to like talk like this you know
me like and try the mostat has made okay movie what else do you make well he made
breakdown which is which is an all right movie
be thriller uh... he made terminator three which is not great
but it's certainly better than terminator salvation robots not yeah yeah
yeah
made that uh... cyborgs made that submarine movie
the u-five u-five seven one
which I never saw that the one that is that the one that changed history to
say that america
found the in an in the machine and then cracked the code with with with
vant bongevovian it
yeah that is yes that is hootsford let me tell you that we could hire actors with
english accents and let's just say america did it
yeah it's like the movie where it like the french but like drop the atomic bomb
and he or she man nagasaki in and world war two uh... it's called uh... where it like the French but like drop the atomic bomb and Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
and World War II. It's called anola gay Perry and it stars Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno
and um... Come on, check Ecario, boom. We've got it made. All right, let's pitch this movie.
I mean, certainly he's made competent films in the past and this is not one
Yeah, do you think he just over complicated his direction to the actors where he's like okay?
You're a human controlling a robot so you should act like a robot body being controlled by a human
maybe obviously would make
Some people overthink their performance a lot. Yeah. And they like start turning all jerky and make it. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM B I think he was cast for his minimalist acting style perhaps. Maybe.
Who's the most real body major actor in Hollywood would we get?
It's he does see at this point, it's like he's putting as little energy as possible into
things as an experiment.
Yeah, it's like a joke on someone.
And he is like, I want to see a movie with Nicholas Cage and Bruce Willis, because it seemed
to be at opposite ends of the poll right now, where Bruce Willis is just like literally a glacier and Nicholas Cage is, you know, if there's
any way he can make something crazier and more extreme, he will do it.
And then we would be called crappy movie.
It'd be called twins too.
Now I'm imagining the movie we just watched but with Nicholas Cage in the starring role and
you know what? More exciting. I actually would have loved to but with Nicholas Cage in the starring role. And you know what?
More exciting.
I actually would have loved to have seen Nicholas Cage in a movie like this, where he can't
also because like Bruce Willis is a character who decides that society as it is has gone
crazy, but like he never really, he doesn't even come off as, across as like an angry cop.
Like he just comes off as like a sad tired guy
when Nicholas Cage, at least, like you could buy
this was a guy that, you know.
He was living on the edge.
Exactly, living on the edge.
You can't help yourself from falling.
The, um, I think you brought up the point
like an extra dialogue for Dan contributed by Stephen Tyler.
The, uh, you brought up the point that has cared to realize, like, realize that the society
is kind of on the edge or whatever, but, and I think the movie spends way too much time
trying to convince the viewer that this is like a severe issue.
Yeah, this is an important thing.
And we don't, like, why would we care?
This doesn't matter at all.
Like, this doesn't translate to our actual life.
Well, I mean, I think that we are supposed to just to some degree take this as like a
Metaphor for like our plugged in for what like Facebook internet
This is exactly but it's so extreme internet it goes so far
Were you calling out to your internet giving an internet showdown?
This is a podcast you're like what what internet internet? Okay. So you're the same way you would call out to say
juggalos. But this is such as an extreme like version of that.
Extreme version of that. Like as we were saying like no one's gonna give up on the idea of like
can you just do that every time? Every time, say, and say, it's a word extreme, yeah.
No one's going to give up on, you know, actually having
like physical sex with, I mean some people might, but like.
Well, but even if not 95% of the, but even if no one's going to give, like 95% of people
aren't going to give up on going outside and seeing the sun occasionally.
Yes. Take a juke.
Well, they still do that.
They still do that.
Delicious food.
Well, they might still do that.
I think too.
I mean, we see him.
Well, I don't know if you're staying in the industry.
If you're walking around in a robot body.
Why are you wearing my stuff there?
Yeah.
Okay.
Why are you walking around wearing a robot?
Why are you wearing a normal?
Beep-oop.
Okay. Guys, you wear normal human clothes?
Instead of armor?
I would wear like armor or like like a bunch of battle axes.
Aren't just go nude.
Or go nude.
It's a movie where people are putting that along across the pretense of not being robots
even though everyone's a robot. where people are putting that along across the pretense of not being robots even
though everyone's a robot. Do you and yeah that's the thing and do you think that
the reason is because if they tried to have a surrogate that was a non-standard
human body that it might break the budget. The user might have difficulty
interfacing with that like if they if they try to put somebody's surrogate instead of was a human it was like a car
I
Think they would have difficulty
Affording that for this movie, but that you make a good point because like in something like second life
People want to choose a lot of people choose like
Animal bodies, you know, yeah, whereas in this it's just like I guess I'll be a prettier looking person
You know and at one point we see that
Girl, or girl like all these like fucking cosplay people walking around like there should be elves
Although on the other hand like all were
Yeah, although on the other hand like the majority of people I think are not interested in looking like elves or monsters
But you would still have so
World where you can look like in a world where you can look like anything people I think are not interested in looking like elves or monsters. But you would still have so much.
In a world where you can look like anything.
In a world where you can look like anything.
More people would look like elves.
I guarantee it.
Sir, it's two.
Sir, it's two.
People look like elves sometimes.
In this one, the Elvening.
Well, but also like, as long not like an electric Boogelloo.
We're talking like Tolkien elves, right?
We're not talking about like Christmas.
No, not like Kebler elves.
I don't know, people were into that.
Oh, oh yeah.
I'm like, they call it cookie play.
Okay.
Terrible Japanese animation elves, that's what I was going to.
Oh, well like Pikachu's stuff.
People would look like narudos.
Basically, right?
Because I go to Comic-Cons.
When I go to Comic-Cons, there's a ton of narudos walking around.
And Stormtroopers.
It's all narudos and Stormtroopers.
Well, that's the other thing.
I wish they could have licensed like fictional characters from other movies
because if I could have a surrogate character maybe
I would have like Boba Fett like I don't know go around as like Mark Twain
I mean then you're just how whole book that's yeah you could walk around
dress like March 20 now Now, you're just be walking around me like the reports of my death were great
Be boob
Robo Choy
Mint Jula
Yeah, probably signature drink
You would you would treat you would treat surrogates as an elaborate prank
You got punked. I'm a surrogate
I'm not really much to it.
But like there's, I guess you can make the case it's a metaphor for like, are we're not
interacting with life when we spend so much time online, but...
Like, this...
Blind for the movies?
No, online computers.
Well...
That's all right, what?
You know, like a sandwich?
I'm not familiar with that. computers. Well, you know, like a sandwich. It's like if I wanted to say sandwich, but I
want to say really fast. I say sandwich. You could say that pretty quickly. It's not
as cool. I sound more like I'm like a kid on the street. You mean like an abandoned
orphan? Yeah, like a Newsy. I mean, I might have a home. I'm still a noosey. They're
all not abandoned. All right. What what what parent lets the kid be a noosey if they
have a home? Well, apparently encourages dancing and singing. Don't get yourself to it.
Hurst owns you. Oh, man. It just seems like they they want to convince us that this is
a really serious, you know, thing we need to think seriously about but it's a goofy idea if I yeah as long and also until they listen to this podcast in 30 years
When everyone's using surrogates, you know you're saying Dan. Well, this is a much smaller objection
But as long as we're like talking about like logical problems with this movie of which there were many like I still don't understand
why the the non-surrogate reservations,
which were still inside the borders of the US were not bound by the US law.
They could have peed these FBI investigations with impunity.
They had some kind of treaty between the reservations and the government, but it implies that the government
made it like, all right, everyone's
surrogates now. So we're going to do this surrogate thing and anyone who doesn't, you're
going to have to live on in your reserve. It doesn't make sense.
I get a sense of like a apology from like the surrogate world where they're like, well,
we sent an FBI agent in there in a surrogate body and they destroyed it. Well, we feel
kind of bad because we kind of pushed them out of our world because we all
have robot bodies.
It's almost like they're apologizing for the fact that they're weirdos that want to walk
around and robot bodies.
Yeah.
And they did a very poor job of establishing these people as like a religious organization,
which is the only way I can see that working like they follow in the profit but there's no uniformity of
of uh...
clothing or
talk or action or there's no ritual aspect any of it like
it just seems like a bunch of slabs are hanging around you know in a dump
native american reservations i mean like they have like their own like
police and forced men but also but the difference is
native americans have reservations that where they control it because
they used to control the entire american
people
people are just people octet out of being robots that there were still u.s. citizens
yeah
they should not have had me able to like just throw up their own government
anyway i that's that's what's going to work that's good on this unless that was
the matter for the regal for in which case they should have
had like
flesh bag casinos and things like that you know
duty free shops for me begs you know this movie kind of reminded me of uh...
uh... ledger let me think of uh... strange days
which is not an amazing movie but
better than that it's a better example of one of the things i think makes it
better is that spine academy Award winning director, right?
That movie also has kind of like wacky, has kind of like a wacky technology in it, but they don't allow that to be the entire
Focus of the movie. It's kind of like an additional element. Well, it's like that. It's that's like a different tool for
Making a murder mystery movie. And they don't try and like make you buy that
Everyone in the society is is jacked in as they say in such days like it's just it's a it's a drug that
Some people use but it's not the complete focus of this future world. Yeah, there's no moment where he's like
Everybody needs to not jack in
And jack off
needs to not jack in.
And jack off.
The low hanging fruit. The low hanging fruit there.
So that was that was not low hanging fruit.
That was rotting fruit on the ground that you picked up and shoved in your mouth.
You have a disease now.
Who knows how many worms were in because of fruit?
Well, I mean, on that great note, I think that we need to move on.
Great note.
Wow, okay.
Great note.
What?
What do you say?
I don't know.
With those great notes.
We need to move on.
To final judgments.
Final judgments.
So guys, is this a good bad movie, a bad bad movie, or a movie that you kind of liked
in some way
Elliott? It's hard to I was thinking about this before we started recording that
it's like it's not bad enough that it's a bad bad movie but it's not good enough
to be a good bad movie like it was not there were some interesting moments in
it maybe and like I liked one of the stunt chase scenes uh...
where bruswells is robot is chasing somebody and just keeps getting the crap
kicked out of it
uh... there's something because i like the one where you just drove into a
robot and the robot is just collect on the windshield
but like
because this this the image of a robot that's missing an arm
and it has a gun in the other one is running after somebody is a great is
always great
but like it's not otherwise the movie is just kind of like,
not really terrible.
It's just kind of the plot is logically incompl...
You know, it's a logical and it isn't very exciting
and the climax is dumb.
And you know, it's not, it's somewhere in the middle
of those two poles, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm probably gonna say a bad, bad movie.
I mean, I kind of, I wanted it to be kind of goofier and sillier than actually was like
more like pseudo robot crap and or like a scene in I robot where a chimic bride is shooting
robots in slow motion with a shotgun, a small spoon, a cigar.
This movie does not feature that as I always imagine, chimic bride.
It's fair time. Mr. Gar, this movie does not feature that. As I always imagine, she would ride it again.
It's spare time.
So, I mean, there's a couple silly bits,
but there's nothing terrible enough to make this
like watchable movie.
It's a movie about a world where people use
super attractive robots of themselves everywhere
that has very little sense of humor.
When it's like, they could have done more ridiculous things
with the premise and had more fun with it. Yeah, I'm gonna say it's like they could have done more ridiculous things with the premise
and had more fun with it.
Yeah, I'm going to say it's a bad bad movie. It skirts good bad in the area for me of
trying to be a movie of ideas. Like I always think that's hilarious when a movie is not
good, but it's trying to make these philosophical points. But every point that this movie makes is so enane that that's kind of fun, but it's not enough to rescue it.
The point of it is that people shouldn't be robots.
Yeah.
So take that, take that to heart, guys.
Take that robot, people.
Everyone out there.
If there's anyone who...
Take that otaku's in a rowdy.
If there's anyone listening right now, who is a robot?
We're thinking of becoming a robot.
Yeah, don't do it.
Don't get inside that mech.
Well, being in a mech is different.
That's basically like piloting a ship of some kind,
you know, right?
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Yep.
So sounds of paper crinkling,
what's that?
Yeah, I'm on Furlin.
Ah, some sort of manifesto. No, no, it's the Flapphouse movie Melbag.
Letters. We get letters. We get lots and lots of letters.
Mailbag. He won't. Because I've deafened him.
Like at the end of event horizon with knitting me.
That's blinding.
Well, there was the same kind of, I made him pull out his own ear drums with his tiny
fingers.
So I've been actually saving these letters for a while for all of us to be here together.
So you'll hear a reference to a date in here that is a while back and that's why.
You are are July the
7th 1869 my dearest flop house the dogs alive we've been waiting to deliver
this letter for 50 years all right Joe Flaherty anyway this is from Eddie
last name with hell that says hey just watch the daily show from May 3rd and when
John asked Jonathan a egg egg I think it is the question did Al Capone ever
actually say eh see I instantly pictured Elliott's face oh that's very nice
discuss I don't know if there's much to discuss there no well obviously I've
had an effect on John.
Yeah.
Cause we talk about talking old timiness.
Yeah, you know, it's a fun voice to do.
Yeah.
The hepatitis C joke.
Yeah exactly.
Hepatitis C.
Sargato C.
Vitamin C.
Anything that ends in C, you know.
A, B, C. That's when we do around the office of work a lot. So.
Oh man, that's like a window into your fascinating Hollywood life. Oh yeah. My Hollywood life.
Hollywood being west. West 52nd Street. Yes. Hell's kitchen. Hollywood or Hollywood. Hollywood. if she if holly could well that was a holly would be post right the cool world slogan yeah that is also stuck in my
mind
yes for some reason long before I saw the film
pretty good well because it was in like those ads were in comic books when we
were kids yeah yeah and it had it had hollywoods
underwear peeking out from under her little short skirt.
And I feel like we're probably at the age that I don't remember.
Yeah, maybe either, um, guys, uh, it was just me who had a fixation on a cartoon.
Sure. Um, like, like Gabriel burned it in the
maybe. I mean, I'm not saying I've never masturbated to the laugh Olympics.
We all have, you know, wacky racers, mature.
That's, well, there's, it's, it's, it's intense is what I'm saying. Is it that like, uh, the stress levels are really high. at the end of the the the
the
the the the
the
the the
the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the the the the the the the the the p in the u.s.a. and uh... i haven't done my catchphrase in a long time it's from martin bero who says
that's right i'm not afraid to have my last name immortalized
mhm just like the company that makes the trinon it's brio you know my
this is filled bero like the uh... the panes
and says high fuloppers after a couple of years of enjoying the podcast i
thought i'd write apropos of nothing in particular
Thanks for inliving my subway trips with your widestisms. I also represent your devoted gay fan base
Did you know you had one? No?
Despite Dan's recent rapidly homophobic remarks about wanting to queer bash Taylor Lautner due to his slightly effeminate voice
When did that happen?
I told her to remember that
It's painting a picture of that
was that in the government now that it's good together
does that in the extra after-show edition
and you do want to tell i glad the mention of your hook your band and hook as a anti-government militia
not i do not
if i if i was queer bashing taylor lotner i apologize i do not i remember
making fun of him for,
I didn't like his huge neck.
I may have said that,
right back.
I may have said that he was oddly effeminate
to be like one third of a conceptual love triangle.
I think you were way more queer bashing than that.
Yeah, you were pretty homophobic.
I don't.
I remember being a little,
we walked home that night.
Yeah, we were, I think we held hands because we were scared
Yeah, so we were frightened about what we had just found out about you
And because of course there's always an attraction between me and Stuart
Yeah, sparks a positive
We got sparks together and we listened to sparks the German pop duo
But I don't remember what you said but I'm sure I'm was something about like, you know, God or the sand or you know, sure
Yeah, that sounds like my two dads with Paul Reiser. Yeah, an abomination. That's it come. He was a but not for that reason
He was a he was the boring dad, right? Yeah, he was the straight-laced one
Yeah, and then the guy that no one remembers was the wrong. Yeah, we was an artist.
I mean, that makes a lot of sense though.
I mean, it would have been a really hard sale to make polarizer though.
Well, I was just waiting for the moment when he was going to sell his daughter to Whalen
Utani.
All right.
Well, this is more of this email, so.
That's a good aliens joke.
I just want to move along.
It was okay.
But for Reels, while I love Stewart's seductively dulcet tones and Elliot's impressive
store of pop culture, a few-yah.
Right at ya.
Dan with his trademark mournful size and rampant whole-fobious.
That's your new trademark.
We found your new hook.
Is my favorite flopper.
Does this kind of panorang guarantee my letter gets read on the podcast?
Yes.
I think writing a letter guarantees the read on the podcast.
This is what we're looking for in organic hook.
It can't be nowhere.
Dan is now the homophobic member of the group.
I do not want to be around.
You get to talk about family values and stuff.
I assumed I was going to get there just because I'm always talking about weaners and boobs
and such.
Well, he goes on to say, and here's the meat of the email.
Anywho, I thought I'd share a story about my efforts to get the word out about the flop house.
For months, I've been praising the show and trying to get friends and associates to listen.
I was covering for the receptionist at work one day and I wrote on a post-it,
listen to this with the website address. She initially
expressed enthusiasm and the post it remained on her computer monitor and remained and
remained for months and months. Now the glue on the post it has worn off and the sad little
piece of neon yellow paper lies on her desk. The podcast still ignored but she still hasn't
thrown it away yet. Nor has she listened to the show i think but the uh... posted is wearing her
down
i think i deserve some kind of no prize from efforts unless marble comis will
sue for copyright infringement
listen paul shafers already suing us we can afford another loss of
i'm you know i i think that this uh... secretary should be fired
for the leader desk
that's allowed this
who knows how much food is that is flying around there an equity should be fired from a cleaner desk. He's allowed this.
Who knows how much food is flying around there?
I think it's that the point where she no longer sees the writing on the note.
It's just a thing that exists.
No longer recognizes it as a message.
I mean, I think she probably has bigger issues.
She's probably got some stuff going on at home.
Some big problems maybe with the...
Surrogate. stuff going on at home, some big problems maybe with the- Sirigat.
She's dealing with the Sirigat mother over child.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Sirigat pregnancy.
I mean, if I know receptionist and I think I do,
she's probably so busy like back-sassing people
and making funny jokes on the phone
and listening in on people's conversations.
And painting her nails.
Painting her nails chewing gum.
Yeah, that she just doesn't have time to listen to the podcast.
Flip and flip into red book.
Yep.
I think that's, I think you're now moving into what people do at the beauticians.
Reading the latest issue of McCalls.
And the family circle.
Yeah, I mean, this is our favorite moment mode of promotion though, is leading out for people.
We call it as listen to this.
PAP, passive aggressive promotion.
Yeah, dance sports that.
We, I know, we have a lot of aggressive.
I like to go up to just random people on the street and share them.
We can hit them in the street and
With with a with a ring that says flop as well. So when they look in the mirror Yeah, it's all backwards on my hand. Yeah, wait with that work. Yeah, probably
All right, well, we've spent a little time on that and so we should
So we can get it in under the wire
We should talk about our recommendations and movies that we actually have seen recently and enjoyed.
Mm-hmm.
LA, do you have one for us?
I gotta go first on everything.
I can go. I saw...
I mean, I have one, but I got one.
Yee-ee. Is that how it's pronounced?
Oh, I wanna see this.
I wanted it too.
Um, I saw that on Memorial Day when I had three hours to sit down and watch a three-hour time.
Yeah, I mean, you... I mean, a lot of people would have spent that time remembering those who lost
their lives in the service of their country.
But yeah, we're watching a band of brothers marathon at least.
I mean, that's the way most people do that now.
Anyway, you're saying?
Well, I was going to maybe, you know, watch it in three installments because I'm lazy
and I can't commit but I liked it enough to watch all of it in that morning. Good story.
Well, there's not a lot to say about the movie because it's a really like a slice of
life drama about a family over like two or three months. I've heard it's very good.
But it's very good. It's very enjoyable. And also a three months. I've heard it's very good. But it's very good.
It's very enjoyable.
And also a bonus recommendation.
I watched a mystery team, which has the...
The Derek movie.
Yeah, it has the distinction of having former flop house guest co-host Will Heinz in it.
And a...
I was will in it.
Yeah, he's got a reasonably large scene at the beginning.
Martin, you know what I'm saying?
And he's very funny.
And the movie in general is pretty funny.
It's one of these independent comedies
where the screenplay is much sharper and smarter
and more interesting than a mainstream comedy would be.
But the direction is much more slack.
So it has the problem of seemingly a little slower and longer than
it should be, but it's still worth watching. Anyone else?
Hey, have I recommended Runaway yet? The Tom Selleck movie?
Yeah. No, you haven't recommended Runaway.
Well, watch and sir, it's reminded me that, you know, how much I love science fiction,
and when I think of science fiction, I think of runaway starring tom selic uh... where he is like a future cop and
he has a robot housekeeper and
the super criminal played by gene simmonds of the rock and roll band kiss not
the recently deceased actress gene simmonds no not her uh... it was the
action cberg deceased actress Jean Simmons. No, not her. It was the acting C. Berg either. No, it was
the actor. Not Professor C. Berg, discover of C. Bergium. Not Professor Zoy Berg, no,
so if you're wrong. Not the noise who ruins feats. It could have been the noise, it does
wear a mask. Okay, yeah. Is the mask have ears? Well, I mean, the noise mask has ears.
Yeah, it's the mask of years. Uh, well, I mean, the noise mask is here.
I mean, but I think that that's part of the mask.
I don't know. You should not watch that movie then because you're supposed to avoid the noise.
It ruined speeches.
I can't say one way or the other, but it's pretty awesome.
There's a bunch of little crappy robot, uh, robot spiders that kill people and, uh, the
bad guy
invents bullets, they can go around corners to shoot you
because it has your name or DNA or some shit on it.
And there's, it's probably one of the only times
where you'll find Kristie, or Kristie Lasexi.
Mm, so.
A little movie called For Richard or Por.
Oh, what?
Come stick.
You know, when with Tim Allen, were were in the witness protection program. Not no
They came omnis. So run away. Yeah, did you hear about the more Morgan's?
No, no, if you're looking for the more
men's, which is a
Muck breaking documentary now if you're not in the mood for runaway
I would I just watched the Pope of Greenwich Village. I would totally recommend that too, with Mickey Rorick and Eric Roberts, if only for Eric
Roberts, amazing, like, like New York accent.
In the tradition of recommending movies, I will now recommend the movie I wanted to
recommend. A couple of weeks ago, I saw for the first time the movie i wanted to recommend uh... couple weeks ago i saw
for the first time the movie died by darling
jenny is also known by the title fanatic
uh... which is in my opinion now the best of the
old actress old classic Hollywood actresses who play a crazy person
uh... when they're all sweet charlatan whatever exact and whatever have a
bejane and some of the movies but he davis all made after that i guess
like
in the in that vein
this is the one with uh... tolula bankhead i believe it is
and she is a what her
son
uh... has passed away
and her son's fiancee is coming to
kind of give her condolences and meet her for the first time and it turns
out that she is that tolula Bankhead is a complete religious fanatic who will
save her fiance's soul, even it means killing this woman.
And it all takes place on her, or almost all takes place on her estate where she basically
imprisons the woman and she has her like groundskeepers and housekeeper who are
in on this thing.
And it veers between being kind of farcical at times to being very creepy and violent
and scary.
And it's a hammer film, I think, when they were moving away from supernatural things for
a little bit more towards psychological horror.
But it was really good.
And there's a misfit song with the same title.
Yeah, yeah. Wow, Metallica covered it. Hmm. Well, I say the movie is even better than the song.
Wait, which one? Uh, either one. Okay. Wow. So robots, robots in disguise.
Yeah, actually not at all. No, everyone knew they were robots.
They're just assumed that they were robots.
Humans in disguise. As robots.
Yeah.
Less than meets the eye.
Yeah, that was the movie we watched to some of...
I never know how to finish these things. Well, I mean I my recommendation I apologize was not I should have gone first
It was not as energetic as I was a downer. Yeah, I don't know if it was a downer. I didn't recommend like cries and whispers or something
Like sort of makes me want to just you know give up on life and you know just let my speed into a robot
Just let your your robot
handle it yeah I'm gonna take care of this robot's gonna recommend movies from now on
beep boop I have a movie to recommend robots can't recommend robots every podcast Why not? It has a tour de force robot performance from robot Williams.
Okay, I'll recommend Bicentennial Man also starting robot Williams.
Not Jack?
Jack is never robot in it.
He's like, I don't like a robot.
No, he's an aging robot.
He's a human child with an accelerated aging disease
that does not exist.
Are we talking about the same movie?
I thought that's the one we're robbing,
this is a robot.
No, that's by Centennial Man.
Are you sure it's that?
And Mrs. Doubtfire.
You're thinking of what dreams may robot?
Or a robot on the Hudson.
I'm gonna have to check this out.
All right, well, while we talk about more robot-woyles
things, I'm gonna sign off.
And there's also robot drivers,
and Gryppin' Droid's tribe.
That's not the fuck you're talking about.
I've been Dan McCoy.
I'm Stuart Wellington.
I am still a league game.
I'm surprised he didn't robot that one up.
I was thinking about it.
I am El droid.
I remember from his that he sure he was grindin' on a girl, but they weren't wildin'.
Well, it's important that you may have that kind of clarification in your relationship.
I think every relationship has a different line there that has a different
definition of the line between wild and grime.
And also, and what constitutes the need to smell someone's dick?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I smell dance at one time.
And I don't need to know that.
It was a dare.
It was for drug free America?
Yeah, I had to smell dick so kids wouldn't do drugs.
Yeah, I had a smell stick so kids wouldn't do drugs.